Transcript

Transcript for Kennington, Annie Rebecca Seward, Reminiscences, in Pioneer Pathways [1998- ], 9:286

I was born August 22, 1841, in Newbury, Berkshire, England, the only child of George and Esther Sarah Frewin Seward. My pa, who was a wheelwright, died when I was but a wee one. My rich aunties, Gussie and Rebecca, cared for me while Mum was away as a governess. It was they who saw to it that I learned to play the piano and had fourteen consecutive years of schooling with one term spent "on the continent" in France.

When I was a young lady, Mum and I converted to the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter–day Saints, and the desire grew within us to gather in "Zion" with others of our faith. In 1863, after a long and weary sea voyage, we reached Halifax, Canada. From there we boarded a train to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Brigham Young, the great leader that he was, sent men with their teams and wagons back across the plains, some as far as the Missouri River, to help poor immigrants like ourselves come to Utah. One of them in the Rosel Hyde Company, William Henry Kennington, was a fine young man who insisted that Mum and I ride in his wagon. We departed Florence, Nebraska, on August 11, 1863, in a party of about three hundred. That trip across the plains was one we would never forget.

Quite a fright we had on the Green River in Wyoming when the current swerved the team and wagon, causing us to drift downstream. Though young Kennington swam for help, we were rescued before he was able to acquire it. Upon reaching the safety of the embankment, I remarked, "Will tried to get rid of me, but couldn't!"

We arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on October 13, 1863, and settled in Tooele, Utah, where the Kennington family lived.