John Griffiths Sr. (1810 - 1856) Profile

Individual

death-date-qualifier-death

John Griffiths, Sr.

birth-date-qualifier-birth

"Aged Pioneer Resident Dies at Heber City," Salt Lake Telegram

"Aged Pioneer Resident Dies at Heber City," Salt Lake Telegram, July 30, 1929.

"Aged Pioneer Resident Dies at Heber City," Salt Lake Telegram.

Clegg, Margaret Ann Griffiths, Autobiographical sketch

Clegg, Margaret Ann Griffiths, Autobiographical sketch.

We landed at Boston, U.S.A. and took the cars and came on to Florence, Iowa and camped there four weeks till our handcars were ready for us, then we started to cross the plains. It was the first day of Sept, and we arrived in Salt Lake the same year on the last day of November 1856, making it three months traveling. We were as happy a set of people as ever crossed the plains, till the snow caught us. We would sit around the camp fire and sing and were as happy as larks. 
Well after the snow caught us we had a pretty hard time. My father took sick and he had to ride in one of the wagons, that had provisions. One day he felt a little better and thought that he would try and walk, but he could not keep up as he had rheumatism so bad he could not walk, and he took hold of the rod at the end gate of the wagon to help him along and when the teamster saw him, he slashed his long whip around and struck father on the legs and he fell to the ground. He could not get up again, and that was the last wagon for the handcarts had gone on before. As I was pulling a handcart I did not know anything about it till we got into camp, and then I went back about three miles to him, but could not find him, so I went back and I was nearly wild. I thought the wolves might have him. 
But there was a company called the Independent Company led by Jesse Have[n] and they were camped in another direction from us, and my father saw their tracks and crawled on his knees all the way to their camp. He was so badly frozen when he got there, they did all they could for him. Two of the brethren brought him into our camp about eleven o'clock that night. He was never well after that. My sister Jane and I and two brothers, named John and Herbert, pulled the handcart till my brother John died (age 12 year old). That was 50 miles the other side of Devil's Gate. We camped there two weeks and all we had to eat was four ounces of flour a day. With having so little to eat and so cold, for the snow was so deep we could not go any further, was I think, the reason he died. He froze to death. At the end of two weeks the horses came running into camp with no riders and we thought they were Indians' horses, but they went back again and about two minutes after, they came back with riders. They were David Kimball and I think the other was Joseph Young. They told us there would be ten wagons come into camp in the morning, from Salt Lake, loaded with provisions. That was good news, but they did not wait until morning but came in that night. They called a meeting but it was too cold so we went to bed.
In the morning we had a little more flour and then moved from there to Devils Gate. (Before the provisions arrived, the company had used up all of their supplies and had rinsed the flour sacks and drank the water.) and camped there in some log houses for a week to recruit up a bid and then we left there and went to Independence Rock on the Sweet Water [Sweetwater] and camped there another week. We left our handcarts and came on with the teams that came from Salt Lake. I think there were about seventy wagons. 
With two and three span of horses and mules to each wagon, which we were pretty thankful for, all the sick and frozen rode in the wagons, while those that were well walked as long as they could, and then they all rode. I buried my brother Herbert, six years old at Independence Rock, frozen to death. 
My sister Jane lost the first joint of her big tow and I was terribly frozen up myself, I was laid up nine weeks in Salt Lake, because my feet had been so badly frozen. (After I was placed into the wagons and the frost left my feet, large bags of water formed at my heels.) My father died the next morning after we got in to Salt Lake. He was frozen to death, He was 47 years of age. 
He died the first day of December, After that we were pretty well scattered.
Source: http://cclegg.com/family/history/automargann.htm (accessed 21 March 2006)

Transcript for Clegg, Margaret Ann Griffiths, Autobiographical sketch

Clegg, Margaret Ann Griffiths, Autobiography [ca. 1907], 3-4

Clegg, Margaret Ann Griffiths, Autobiography [ca. 1907], 3-4.

my mother died in July 1853, and we left england in 
<may xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> 1856[.] i burried two brothers crossing the plains[.] one 50 miles the other side of devels [Devils] gate 12 years old[,] the other one at independence rock on the sweet water [Sweetwater] 6 years old[.] both frose to death, and my father was so badly frose that he died at 5 o clock in the morning after we arrived in salt lake[.] we arrived in salt lake sunday at noon. the last day of november 1856</may>

Transcript for Clegg, Margaret Ann Griffiths, Autobiography [ca. 1907], 3-4

Clegg, Margaret D. to Mr. Albert Jones Handcart Veterans Association

Clegg, Margaret D. to Mr. Albert Jones Handcart Veterans Association, August 25, 1913.

Clegg, Margaret D. to Mr. Albert Jones Handcart Veterans Association.

Deseret News

Immigration to Utah

"Immigration to Utah", Deseret News, October 15, 1856, Page 6.

Transcript for "Immigration to Utah," Deseret News, 15 October 1856, 254

Deseret News.

Fullmer, Jane Eleanor Griffiths, Autobiography [ca. 1928]

Fullmer, Jane Eleanor Griffiths, Autobiography [ca. 1928].

In march of 1856, Heber C. Kimball sent word to my father [John Griffiths], for him and his family to go to Salt Lake City, Utah. We got ready and left Liverpool on the 28th day of May, in the ship called the Horizon. We were eight weeks on the sea. I was very sick. The ship was under the command of Captain Reed. After we anchored in Boston harbor, we held a meeting . . . 
From Boston we went by rail to Florence, Iowa and camped there four weeks, until our hand carts were ready for us.
On the first day of September, we started to cross the plains. During the first part of our journey, we were as happy a set of people as ever crossed the plains. We would sit around the camp fire and sing. . . .
After the snow caught us, we suffered terrible and many died. Provisions were limited; we were rationed on four ounces of flour per day for adults and two ounces a day for children. Our meat consisted mainly of buffalo.
One morning when I awoke, my brother John, age 15 years, lay dead by my side. He died of starvation and cold. During that night 19 people died. They dug a trench and laid them in it. We had to leave them there and resume our journey. Two weeks later my brother Herbert, age six years, died the same way.
One morning my step-mother was baking some griddle cakes on the camp fire and one old lady looked so pitiful my step-mother handed her a cake before she had finished baking all of them. Shortly after she looked at the old lady, who had not moved, and found her to be dead, with the cake in her hand, she had not tasted it.
Two weeks before we arrived at Salt Lake City, President Young sent a company to meet us with wagons and provisions. They found us deep in snow and our provisions gone. When they came in sight we all stood up and hailed them with glad rejoicing.
When we arrived in Salt Lake my family consisted of my father, step-mother, sister Margret and myself. It was the last of November, making just three months on the road.
The hand cart company were taken to the assembly hall, the floor was covered with straw and there was a nice warm fire for us.
President Young asked the people to take and care for as many as they could. Bro. Samuel Mulliner took my father and step-mother to his home. My father died the next morning at five o'clock. I was so sick that they did not tell me about it for some weeks. My sister went with Bro. and sister Montague. She was very sick and her heels were badly frozen. Mr. and Mrs. Horne took me to their home, my toes were very badly frozen. I stayed with them for three weeks. . . . Bro. Mulliner came with a wheel-barrow, a quilt and a pillow and took me to his home where his wife cared for me. He hired a doctor but my feet seemed to get worse, then he changed Doctors and in three months my feet were healed, but I lost the first joint of three toes of each foot.
There were several young men of our company who had their feet amputated to save their lives. . . . When I was sixteen years old I married.

Transcript for Fullmer, Jane Eleanor Griffiths, Autobiography [ca. 1928]

Fullmer, Jane Griffiths, [Reminiscence], in Ella Campbell, An Early Pioneer History and Reminiscences, 1914, 3

Fullmer, Jane Griffiths, [Reminiscence], in Ella Campbell, An Early Pioneer History and Reminiscences, 1914, 3.

<xhtml:p xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">We have in our town one of the members of the ill-fated Martin’s hand-cart Company. Sister Jane Griffiths Fullmer was a member of the Martin’s Company that had such a terrible experience. She was only a child 8 years old, but she will never forget what she went through. Here are a few of the incidents as she remembers them. “We were six in family when we started, father, two brothers, my stepmother, a sister 16 years old and myself. It seems strange that more men and boys died than women and girls. My two brothers died on the way and my father the day after we arrived in Salt Lake. The night that my oldest brother died there were 19 deaths in camp. In the morning we would find their starved and frozen bodies right by the side of us; not knowing when they died until day light revealed the ghastly sight to us. I remember two women that died while sitting by me. My mother was cooking some cakes of bread for one of them. When she had passed one to her she acted so queer then tossed it in the fire and dropped over dead. I remember distinctly when that terrible snow storm came how dismayed the people were. We were in a pitiable condition before, but the snow made it look hopeless. My stepmother took my little brother six years old by the hand and myself and helped us along the best she could while sister and Father floundered through with the hand cart. How we did flounder through that snow, tumbling over sage brush and crying with the cold and hunger. Then, when we camped, they had to scrape a place to camp in and there was not much to make fires with. The rations of food became scarce. There were 4 ounces daily for an adult and 2 for a child and sometimes a little piece of meat. O I’ll never forget it, never! When we arrived in Salt Lake we were taken to the assembly room and the people were asked to take as many into their homes as they could take care of. My father and mother were taken to one place, my sister and I each to another. I did not see my father again, he died the next day. My mother was employed as a cook at the Townsend Hotel. I stayed three weeks at the place where I was taken, then Brother Mullener, the one who had taken Father into his home, heard that I was to be sent to the poor house in Provo and he said “Never as long as I have a home.” So he brought a wheel barrow with some quilts and pillows in and took me to his home where I stayed all winter, being in bed all the time. I did not stand on my feet until the 6th of March. I lost the first joint of six of my toes. My stepmother then carried me the 12 blocks to a man’s home who had been a friend of father’s. He said he would keep me. I went there on my 9th birthday. Mother would carry me as far as she could then put me down in the snow and we would cry a while and then go on.[”] </xhtml:p>

Transcript for Fullmer, Jane Griffiths, [Reminiscence], in Ella Campbell, An Early Pioneer History and Reminiscences, 1914, 3

"Margaret A. Clegg's Statement," Wasatch Wave

"Margaret A. Clegg's Statement," Wasatch Wave, September 28, 1906.

We left Florence, Nebraska on the first day of September, 1856, as happy a lot of people as ever crossed the plains. Little did we realize on that bright September morning the hardships through which we were destined to pass or the suffering, sickness and death awaiting us ere we reached that long hoped for haven of rest among the saints in the valley of the mountains. It never occurred to my young mind, being but sixteen years of age, that we should experience ought but joy and happiness on our long pilgrimage to that promised land.



I shall never forget the last time we crossed the Platte River. I was the only female that drew a hand cart through the ice waters of the river at the last crossing. Captain Jesse Haven's Company of wagons that traveled with us most of the way, brought their teams and took most of the women and children across and also the feeble men, my father among them; for he was so affected with rheumatism that he could not walk. The next morning when we awoke the mountains were clad almost to their base with a white mantle of snow and the storms of winter were gathering and very cold. It almost seemed that we would perish. In fact, many of our company froze to death, my twelve year old brother among them, and we buried him there in the desolate wilderness fifty miles the other side of Devils Gate. We camped there for two weeks, our rations being four ounces of flour a day to each person.



Some teams from Salt Lake came to our rescue bringing with them flour, salt and other things; then we moved on from there to Devils Gate. After a few days of rest we came on to Independence Rock on the Sweetwater where we met more teams from Salt Lake. There we left our handcarts and all of the other things that were not actually needed and came on. All those that could walked, and those who could not walk rode in wagons.



At Independence Rock my other brother, six years old, died from cold and exposure and my only sister had her feet so badly frozen that she lost the two first joints of her big toes.



We reached the valley of Salt Lake on the 30th day of November, 1856, after two months of the most indescribable suffering and hardships, the worst we thought of any company of men, women and children was ever called upon to endure. My father, John Griffiths, was ill most of the way with rheumatism and died the next morning after reaching Salt Lake City, from the cold, exposure and privations of that terrible journey.

Transcript for "Margaret A. Clegg's Statement," Wasatch Wave, 28 September 1906, [4.]

"Margaret A. Clegg's Statement," Wasatch Wave.

Perpetual Emigrating Fund, Financial Accounts 1849-1886, Ledger B

Perpetual Emigrating Fund, Financial Accounts 1849-1886, Ledger B, Page 238.

Perpetual Emigrating Fund, Financial Accounts 1849-1886, Ledger B.

Salt Lake Tribune

Strong Men, Brave Women and Sturdy Children Crossed the Wilderness Afoot

Josiah Rogerson, "Strong Men, Brave Women and Sturdy Children Crossed the Wilderness Afoot", Salt Lake Tribune, January 4, 1914.

Transcript for Josiah Rogerson, "Strong Men, Brave Women and Sturdy Children Crossed the Wilderness Afoot," Salt Lake Tribune, 4 January 1914

Salt Lake Tribune.

Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days

Prophets of the Restoration

Global Histories

Revelations in Context

Women of Conviction

Joseph Smith Papers

Church Historian’s Press

More

Publications

Church History Museum

Historic Sites

Church History Library

Visit

Church History Catalog

Missionary Database

Pioneer Database

Treasures of the Collection

Pioneer Resources

Research

Church Historic Sites

Quick Links

Church History Biographical Database

/chd/landing

company-arrived

joined-company

with-pioneer-activity

Jane Eleanor Griffiths

Herbert Lorenzo Griffiths

Elizabeth Webb

Margaret Ann Griffiths

John Griffiths Jr.

pioneerCompanyReferenceIdValue

Default List Title

The Church History Biographical Database is a powerful research tool that contains biographical entries on over 100,000 early Latter-day Saints, such as pioneers who traveled to Utah and missionaries who served throughout the world from 1830-1940.

Name

Presided Over

Sources

Title

John Griffiths, Sr.

Birth Date

Death Date

Gender

Sources