MY ARMS FLEW UP Jacob Hawn was one of the first settlers along Shoal Creek in northwestern Missouri. He built a mill and called the settlement Hawn’s Mill; it was about a day’s walk from the large Latter-day Saint center in Far West. Hawn was not a member of the...
MOTHER’S BACK Margery Smith was a 51-year-old widow from Dundee, Scotland, who was emigrating with five children, May (22), Jane (17), Mary (15), Betsey (13), and Alex(6); and a close friend of the family, Euphemia Mitchell (22). Margery’s oldest son,...
MORMON BOY (GEORGE CUNNINGHAM) “We are now in the desert, or wilderness, a wave-like country without woods, only a few trees,” wrote Peter Madsen, a Danish member of the Willie company, on August 17, 1856. It was George Cunningham’s 16th birthday and...
MINISTERING James G. Willie was diligent in caring for the Saints on the ship, who had many needs. “I believe there has never before been a company with so many old and young, halt, blind, and lame, from so many nations, that crossed the sea,” wrote Anna...
LOOKING FORWARD Sara Ann Oakey had early childhood memories that were not typical — walking up a gangplank to a large sailing ship, receiving a hard sea biscuit for her fourth birthday a week later, riding more than a thousand miles in a loaded handcart, and...
