Pioneer babies

It was suppose to be a surprise but when Cheryl Taylor brought over the doll container with a snap on lid, my two oldest boys, Kevin and Tristan, saw what it was all about. Early in March, Cheryl Taylor asked me to help with the pioneer babies.  Each trek family would be made up of the youth from our ward and have a ma, pa and pioneer baby.  As a ma, I was asked to get a baby ready for each family.  Each baby would represent a real pioneer baby. Not all would die on the trek, but not all would live to make it.

Now my boys saw the collection on the living room floor.  Some dolls had ink drawn on them, others had fabric hands, one with a balloon air -filled tummy, most with music boxes that sang, cried and made noises.  I was glad to have the assignment because I wanted to make sure they looked like real pioneer babies.

After switching outfits and using bloomers as linen pants and using old shell buttons and sewing up suspenders, we had turned what was an ugly girl into a cute boy.  This was Otto. Tristan immediately picked him up and gave him a ride on his shoulders. Otto was his favorite. He hoped he got a “good baby.”  I decided right then that they would all end up being “good babies.”  No matter which pioneer baby my boys got in their pioneer family they would be happy because they would all be good. It was only March and we had until August.

At one of our trek meetings in April, Cheryl asked how the babies were coming along.  I told her they have shell buttons just like real pioneers and they look so real the lid can’t go on.  Jenny Nelson kept asking details about these babies.  “How big are they?  Are we carrying them?  Do they have blankets?”  She asked a lot. I reminded her the babies are for the youth to help with and we would have the youth carry them most of the way.  I thought she needed her own baby on the trek so she should get the story of twin boys!  Cindy had helped sew a lot of pioneer clothes, she was going as a ma and I hoped she would be happy with the way her baby was dressed. Claudia was another ma who reminded me she has 4 daughters and better get a girl because she didn’t know what to do with a baby boy.  I thought she should get a boy!  I knew some of these ma’s had lost babies of their own, and Melissa hadn’t.  She could have a pioneer baby that died on the trek.  She could handle that. The other ma’s said if each family has a baby, then the support family should have one too. With 8 trek families and one support family that made nine, but I knew I was using a story about twins and so I would need 10!  The other ma’s didn’t know about the twins and the other leaders didn’t know about the baby for the support family!  So everyone else thought I was preparing 9 babies.

I continued to shop for all the right babies. I made a quick run to the toy isle and baby clothes rack several times a week at the thrift stores.  I found some amazing items, more cute babies, a little felted hat, a hankie with a crocheted edge to fold into a bonnet, vests and shirts that could be adjusted to fit the dolls.  I removed cuffs on shirts, shortened the sleeves, and then sewed the cuffs back on.  One cute doll had bad hair, but when it was cut off it made a cute boy. I heard my boys say I was never outside during the summer because I “was always sewing pioneer baby clothes.” 

One with ink on her forehead needed to always wear the big lacey bonnet to cover her ink.  She was sleeping and her eyes were closed. She looked so much like Wendy’s baby Sarah. I couldn’t let this baby die or be named Sarah.  What if Wendy was the ma who would get her?  She would be Lucy.

             I still needed to shop for more, looking several times a week at thrift stores to find the right one.  At first I thought this assignment would be easy.  I had a lot of baby clothes to use from my own children. But I couldn’t have them looking like my babies, so I didn’t use my own.  

          During the last few weeks before trek, I had spent time with Claire sewing our bonnets and skirts together.  She told me she hoped to get a good baby. I hoped she did too.  She was nice and deserved it and never had a baby of her own. But I reminded her I was not choosing who got which baby. It would be decided by which scroll they pulled.

The day before we left on the trek I tied the leather bracelets to the babies. (That’s when I realized I only had 9! I hurried to get another doll ready.) We each wore a bracelet too that reminded us who we were representing. Each doll was named after a real pioneer baby who trekked with a handcart company just like we would be doing.  I had their stories rolled like a scroll and tied with twine.  I couldn’t be the one to assign the babies to the ma's, so I would hold the scrolls while the ma’s each pulled one.  The scrolls just had the beginning of their stories, later on the trek each family would be given an envelope with the rest of their story. And that’s when we would know which baby died on trek and which didn’t.

Finally the time had come, and each family would get their own baby. I had explained the care and respect expected of the babies.  Here we were in the same mountains, in the same dirt as the babies who these dolls represented.

As each ma pulled a scroll and unrolled it, they read the story of their pioneer baby.  Then they knew which one they got.  Claudia announced she got a boy! She was Tristan’s ma and their baby was Otto!  Cindy got Echo, who wore the beautiful bonnet made from the hankie. Jenny got the twins!  They were named Daniel and Isaac. Wendy got the lacey Lucy baby who looked like her own baby Sarah. Mary got a cute boy in wool overalls named Charles. (His mouth looked like Jordan's and he was also in her family!) Melissa got Flora, who I knew the rest of her story and she was one of the babies that would die before the trek was over. I got Alpha, he wore the cutest little hat. Claire got Margaret Ann Stewart.  I didn’t think anything was special about that one.  It was the last doll I hurried and finished when I realized I only had 9 and not 10 ready.  Later that first night on trek, Claire’s first three tents broke in the wind and she and her husband moved into our tent.  Claire was happy about her baby.  She told me she got her own. “ What?”, I asked.  She said, ”I got my own baby. Look at my bracelet.  I am Ann Stewart, who had a baby named Margaret Ann Stewart. Now look at my baby’s bracelet.  It’s Margaret Ann Stewart.”  It was her baby! I realized the Lord was in charge. He knew what was happening.  So many tender mercies were recognized that day.  I had worked hard at making the babies look right and didn’t know just how right they would all end up. 

Watching the families hold and tend the babies was fun.  For the most part, they were treated like they were real babies.

Preparation is how it turned out so well and that’s my story of preparing the babies for trek.

Congratulations! This is Flora Jacques and she is now part of your family! She was just one year old when her brother, Alpha, was born on the plains at Cutler park, Nebraska, on August 27, 1856.  She traveled with her  parents John and Zilpah, as well as her mother’s family, the Loaders.

       These two families had many great spiritual manifestations given to them by a merciful God during their travels with the Martin handcart Company.

       Her father was a great writer and biographer and among other things, has given us the hymn, ”Softly Beams the Sacred Dawning’ and “Oh, Say What is Truth.”

Please take good care of little Flora and make sure she is always held and watched for. She cannot be placed in the handcart alone.

Enjoy her and love her as one of your own.

Congratulations! This is Peter Kirkman and he is now part of your family!

Peter’s parents left England and boarded the “Horizon” in May of 1856 with their sons Robert (10), John (8), Joseph (6), Hyrum (4), and James (2). After 5 long weeks, the steamer “Huron” towed them into Boston Harbor on June 30, 1856.

They traveled to Iowa City, Iowa, by steam ship and rail, arriving July 8, 1856. Mary spent this day in her final stages of labor, to the accompaniment of a severe thunderstorm.

Elizabeth White said, “ When we completed our journey to Iowa City, we were informed they would have to walk four miles to our camping ground…The day was far advanced, and it was late in the evening before we arrived in camp. We all got very wet.” 15 year old George Cunningham described it this way, “I think that it is written somewhere that the devil is prince and power of the air. If so, he must have been in an awful rage.” The next day, Mary was delivered of her sixth son whom they named Peter.

Please take good care of little Peter and make sure he is always held and watched for. He cannot be placed in the handcart alone.

Enjoy him and love him as one of your own.

Congratulations! This is Sarah Ann Ashton and she is now part of your family!

Her family left from Liverpool, England. Sarah’s parents were William and Sarah Ann Barlow Ashton, both age 33.  Her sisters were Betsy, age 11, Sarah Ellen, age 7, and Mary, age 4 and Elizabeth, age 17 months. Elizabeth died as the “Horizon docked at Boston. Heartbroken, the family left by rail to Iowa City. Here they spent 3 weeks, finishing handcarts and tents. The Martin Company arrived at their major outfitting camp in Florence, Nebraska, on the 22^nd of August, and spent three days there gathering supplies and cattle and preparing to cross the 1,000 miles of plains and mountains between there and the Salt Lake Valley. Sarah’s family had successfully walked and pulled their handcart about 300 miles already.

On the 26^th of August, Sarah Ann was born. Her mother died in childbirth. Sarah’s father carried on, caring for his three motherless daughters.

Please take good care of little Sarah Ann and make sure she is always held and watched for. She cannot be placed in the handcart alone.

Enjoy her and love her as one of your own.

Congratulations! This is Alfred Linforth

and he is now part of your family!

Alfred was 18 months old when he traveled with the Hunt Wagon Train. His father, James and mother, Mary, traveled with their children, frank, age 3, Edward, age 2 and little Alfred age 18 months.

President Richards purchased over 30 buffalo robes but many of them were discarded a few weeks later, as they needed to get rid of the extra weight to travel more quickly. They later needed those robes and other bedding desperately.

Please take good care of little Alfred and make sure he is always held and watched for. He cannot be placed in the handcart alone.

Enjoy him and love him as one of your own.

Congratulations! This is Mary Jane Barnes and she is now part of your family!

She was born on July 24, 1856 in Iowa shortly after her family arrived there. They had emigrated from England with Edward Martin’s group aboard the “Horizon.” At Iowa City they built their handcarts and sewed their tents. When Mary Jane was four days old, they began their trek toward Zion.

       Mary Jane was a true pioneer baby. On this day of her birth, in the Valley so far away, the Saints who would soon be their neighbors and friends were celebrating the arrival of the first pioneers with Brigham Young on July 24, 1847.

Please take good care of little Mary Jane and make sure she is always held and watched for. She cannot be placed in the handcart alone.

Enjoy her and love her as one of your own.

Congratulations! This is James Holley and he is now part of your family!

His father was a carpenter and was already a member of the Church when he went to board with the Ingram Family in Birmingham, England. It was here that he met and fell in love with Lucy Jane Ingram. They were married on May 10, 1852. James was 26 and Lucy was 16. A year later he baptized Lucy, over the protest of her parents. No doubt little Charles’ grandparents were equally unhappy when this little family, now with two children, Ann, age 3 and James, age 1, and another on the way, sailed from Liverpool for America on the ship “Enoch Train” in 1856.

Please take good care of little James and make sure he is always held and watched for. He cannot be placed in the handcart alone.

Enjoy him and love him as one of your own.

Congratulations! This is Ephramine Josephine Wickland and she is now part of your family!

Ephramine was born in 1855 in Denmark. She was one year old traveling with her parents, Oleo and Ella Jonsson. Her siblings, Christina, age 8 or 9, Jonas, age 5 or 6, and Sarah Jacobina, age 3. A baby brother, Jacob, was born on the Sweetwater on October 16, 1856, just three days before the company became stranded in a snowstorm.

Also traveling with the Wickland’s was 22 year old Helle Neilsdatter, who had previously lost her grandparents along the way. During the week previous to reaching Rock Creek, Helle had no doubt spent many sleepless nights in assisting with the new baby. Ephramine’s father wrapped Helle in a heavy buffalo robe and carried her to Rock Creek in the early morning hours of October 24^th. He then place his daughter, Christina, next to her for the night to try to warm Helle’s failing body. In the morning, Helle and Christina had to have their hair cut from the ice beneath them. Helle did not survive the night and was buried in the common grave at Rock Creek.

Please take good care of little Ephramine and make sure she is always held and watched for. She cannot be placed in the handcart alone.

Enjoy her and love her as one of your own.

Congratulations! This is Charles Alma Moulton and he is now part of your family!

Charles’ father was Thomas and his mother was Sarah Denton Moulton. After his mother read a pamphlet by Parley P. Pratt, “The voice of Warning,” she and Thomas joined the church. His mother secretly saved small amounts of money in a fruit jar until they had enough to come to America.

Charles was born on the ship to America in 1856.

Please take good care of little Charles and make sure he is always held and watched for. He cannot be placed in the handcart alone.

Enjoy him and love him as one of your own.

Congratulations! This is Alpha Loader Jacques and he is now part of your family! He was born on the plains at Cutler park, Nebraska, on August 27, 1856. He was with his sister, Flora, his parents John and Zilpah, as well as his mother’s family, the Loaders.

       These two families had many great spiritual manifestations given to them by a merciful God during their travels with the Martin handcart Company.

       His father was a great writer and biographer and among other things, has given us the hymn, ”Softly Beams the Sacred Dawning’ and “Oh, Say What is Truth.”

Please take good care of little Alpha and make sure he is always held and watched for. He cannot be placed in the handcart alone.

Enjoy him and love him as one of your own.