George Godfrey
George crossed the Atlantic on the ship Monarch of the Sea in 1861. He is identified as a "saltmaker" on the ship manifest. The Perpetual Emigrating Fund helped finance his journey. The 1900 federal census of Utah and his obituary confirm that he immigrated in 1861 but the earliest documentation proving his presence in Utah is an 1866 tithing report at the Salt Lake City 10th Ward. His name also appears in the records of the Utah Territorial Militia this same year. The 1867 Salt Lake City Directory identifies him as a "laborer" living in the 10th Ward. At the time of the 1870 census he was living in Newton, Cache County. Further research is needed to identify the name of the pioneer company with which he traveled.
In the book John Godfrey of Worcester, England: Ancestry and Posterity, it is stated that George family crossed the Atlantic on the ship Underwriter in 1861 in company with Charles Penrose (page 306). Penrose and his family crossed the Atlantic on the ship Underwriter in 1861, but George was not with them. According to a note on the Underwriter manifest, George was transferred. George then appeared on the manifest of the Monarch of the Sea and this is the ship with which he arrived at New York on 19 June 1861.
In Life Sketch of George Godfrey by Florence Godfrey Munson, portions of George's journal are quoted in the text. Those sections support the fact that George sailed on the Monarch of the Sea. He also stated that he was carried across the the Platt River on his back. One quote stated, "We were in the Captain Willie's Company. Martin [Benjamin] Bushman was head of the division." George then indicated that he and Martin remained in contact after arriving to Utah. Here in lies the challenge--a "Willie Company" did not exist in 1861. In some documents related to Martin Bushman, it was confirmed that he "returned to the Missouri river for emigrants who were too poor to provide their own transportation." (See Martin B. Bushman's obituary.) However, the documents do not indicate who Martin reported to or which companies he aided. It is possible that George's reference to a "Captain Willie" may have been "Captain Woolley," yet, there were two separate "Woolley" companies that traveled to Utah in 1861 and their dates of departure and arrival to the Salt Lake Valley overlap. More research is needed to determine the company with which George traveled.
