Samuel Jackson, Mormon Pioneer
to Utah and Colorado
by
Donald
L.
Haynie, a great-grandson
"The
Word and Will of
the Lord concerning the Camp
of Israel in their journeyings to the West:
Let
all the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, and those who journey with them, be
organized
into
companies, with a covenant and promise to
keep all the
commandments and statutes of the Lord our God.
Let the
companies be organized with captains
of
hundreds,
captains
of
fifties,
and captains
of
tens,
with
a
president
and
his
two
counselors
at their head, under the
direction of
the
Twelve
Apostles.
And
this
shall
be
our covenant – that we
will
walk
in
all
the
ordinances of the Lord.
Let each company
provide themselves with all
the teams,
wagons, provisions,
clothing, and other necessaries
for the journey,
that
they
can.
When
the
companies are
organized let them go to with
their might."
--
Doctrine
&
Covenants
136:1-6
Samuel
Jackson
was
one
of
my
great-grandfathers
and,
therefore, a
great-great-great-grandfather
of my grandchildren.
I never knew him because he
died before I was born but I
have heard much about him
from my mother,
whose grandfather he
was,
and from others.
I have been impressed that he
was
a very patient and
kind man who
loved all of the Lord's
children.
He
was the bishop of the Manassa
Ward for many years during a time
when any
converts to
the
Church
migrated to
Manassa
from
many
other places throughout the
world.
My
grandfather,
Gervacius
Wayne
Rogers,
a
son-in-law
of
Samuel, once wrote a
biography of Samuel Jackson, and I want to
relate it here for my
grandchildren.
They should understand that
no editing has been
done,
and that the
narrative has
been left
as it was originally written.
"Notes
and facts relative to
our honorable father,
Samuel Jackson,
as
we
remember incidents
as
he
has
related to
us.
And matters of
history which it
has
been
a privilege to
hear.
Samuel Jackson was born July 13,
1844, in
Manchester, Lancashire,
England.
His
father was
Benjamin Jackson.
His
mother was
Ann
Grimshaw.
At
an early day,
Samuel's parents and most of
the
children
embraced the
Gospel
as
taught
by
the
early
missionaries of
The
Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
He
came
from
a
large
family.
James
Jackson
and
Elizabeth Jack son
were
his
grandparents on
the
Jackson side.
James
Hedge
and Martha Grimshaw were
grandparents on the mother's
side.
Benjamin
Jackson
and
Ann
Grimshaw,
his
parents,
were
born
in
Winslow,
Cheshire, England, but made
their home in
Manchester, where their
family of
nine children were born,
and
all
raised to
manhood and womanhood.
James,
the
oldest son,
lived and died in
England.
Ann,
the
second
child,
never
came
to
America, but lived and
died in
Manchester, England.
William, the
third child,
came to America; he
was
a baker and lived and
worked in America as
a
young man,
but went back to the old home
to
live and
die
in
Manchester, England.
Elizabeth and Martha both
joined the
Church
and
came
to
America
with
their
mother
and
the rest of
the family.
Both were most
competent witnesses of things
which happened to the rest of the family.
John was
already living in
Boston, Massachusetts,
when the mother, Ann Grimshaw
Jackson, and the
rest of
the
family
came over to America on
the
old-time sailing ship,
'Horizon.'
The younger children on
the vessel were Joseph,
Samuel and Nephi, The 'Horizon'
sailed from Liverpool,
England, on
May 25,
1856, with 856 souls
aboard.
These 856 people were led by
Captain Edward
Martin.
The
voyage
across
the
Atlantic
Ocean
took
about six
weeks
and
was
relatively peaceful and
uneventful.
They landed safely at Boston
about the
first of July
and 'loaded-
out'
for Florence, near Omaha, Nebraska, the terminus of the railroad, arriving there
July 8, 1856.
Some of the Jackson family
had wanted to
call on their brother, John
Jackson, who was
living in
Boston
at
the
time,
but
Samuel absolutely refused to
hunt
up
John
for
fear
he
would persuade the
family to
settle at Boston.
Samuel said he wanted to go to the valleys of the mountains, for which
he had left England.
The
family went on and did not
see John.
At
Florence, they were held up
to
await the making
of hand carts.
After a few
days, the journey was on.
Out
a
few
weeks, a
count
was
made showing seven
wagons
and 146 hand carts.
Many of the people had fallen behind and
some of
them had
died
along the
way.
Later,
on
account of
early
and heavy snows, some of the
hand carts had to be abandoned.
On November 13,
1856,
Joseph Young and Abel Garr
arrived in
Salt Lake City and reported
the Martin Company was stranded in
the mountains by
the
heavy
snow.
President Brigham
Young
dispatched teams, men and
supplies, to help the beleagured Saints.
The Jackson family had two hand carts, one
manned by the two girls,
Elizabeth
and
Martha,
and
one
manned by
Joseph
and
Samuel.
The hand carts rolled along
very nicely until the
foot hills and the mountains
and the snow were encountered.
Although we have not been
told all the details, there was
some trouble encountered
while crossing the
Indian territories.
The mother, Ann Grimshaw Jackson, was
a small woman, not much more
than a hundred pounds and subject to heart trouble.
She took
it upon herself
to take
care of a son, Nephi,
who
was about nine years old.
The mother and son would start out
of a morning before the hand
carts would start.
She
was
lucky some times to
have
a
rough,
coarse biscuit for
lunch
for
her
and
her son.
After being on
the
trail
for
some
time,
the
company
would pass
them.
The
boy
would
get
hungry and
fretful
and
the
mother would get
so
sympathetic that she
would give him her part of
the biscuit and she would go on the rest of the day without anything at
all to
eat.
Many
times,
her
son
would get
so
tired the mother would
take him on
her back and would
carry him to rest him.
About sundown, when the
company would stop
to
camp for the night, the
girls, Elizabeth and Martha,
would walk and run back to
meet their mother and brother, not
sure of
finding them alive or,
possibly, lying beside the
trail all given out. However, they
always had good luck in
meeting her
and her son, trudging along.
While the girls were
away to meet the mother, the
boys
were busy
setting up
the
camp.
As
the
snow
was
usually
from one
to
two
feet
deep,
and they
had
no
shovels,
the
boys would dip the snow
out of the way with pie
plates, while preparing the
camp.
Their
fires
were
often
not
very
large
because of the scarcity of
fuel.
The girls later related that,
one
evening,
a poor, old man pulled
his hand cart into
camp
and fell over dead.
Before
being rescued from
the
snow
and
cold
by
the
relief party from Salt Lake
City, the family, along with all members of
the company, suffered many
privations.
Samuel has told us
that he would suck the
marrow from the
sun-parched bones of the
animal
carcasses he
found along the trail.
He
said they
also
burned the
hair off
raw
hides
and roasted the hide before
eating it. When the
rescue party arrived,
Samuel would pick up
the
corn slobbered from the
mouths of the
oxen
as
they
were being fed and
would parch this
corn
to
eat.
The
rescue
party
warned
the company, who were so
weak and hungry, to be very
careful and not eat too much
too quickly.
On
Sunday, November 30,
1856, what was left of the
company arrived in
Salt
Lake
City.
This
was
the
Martin
Handcart Company. Brigham
Young
and
the
authorities of
the
Church
were very
careful
to
place
the
immigrants in
settlements where
their
language was
spoken.
The
Jackson family
was
sent
to
Nephi,
Juab County, Utah.
Following are events in the
lives of
family members.
Nephi
Jackson,
the
baby
of
the
family,
located
with
the
family in Nephi, lived to
manhood there, married, made a
home,
and became one of the
staunch citizens of the
community.
In
the prime of
his
life, he
filled a mission
for the
Church back to his
native country
for
two
years.
After his mission, he
re turned to Nephi,
where
he lived and died and where he is
bur
ied.
Ann
Grimshaw Jackson, the mother,
made
her home in Nephi the rest of
her life.
In
those days,
widows and widowers were
counseled by the
Church
authorities to
remarry.
Ann
thought she was
a widow, so
she married
a man by the name of
Jenkins and life
was pleasant for both of
them.
She was
a woman of small
stature
and
was
troubled by
heart
weakness.
We
have
been told that,
one evening,
an acquaintance was
crossing a
narrow bridge over a mill
race; it
was
dark and he
heard splashing in the
water below.
When he investigated, he
found Ann
Grimshaw Jackson,
whom he
rescued.
While crossing the bridge,
she
had had a heart failure and
had fallen into the mill race.
She continued
to
live
in
Nephi and died there March 27,
1873,
and
is buried there.
Joseph Jackson, who had
shared the
arduous journey across the
plains, was
sleeping in the same bed as
Samuel when,
on
the morning of
December 6, 1856, he
was
found dead by
Samuel.
At age
sixteen,
when
changing from
boyhood
to
manhood,
the
recent hardships were
more
than he
could stand.
His
death brought a feeling of
gloom to the family of new
arrivals.
As
soon
as
the family could
arrange for a home in Nephi,
they made themselves
comfortable
in
the valleys of
the
mountains. Samuel was
now
the
oldest boy in
the
home
and
he
took
the
place of
the
father
as
much
as
possible.
As
ever,
he
was
always
busy and
worked
faithfully for
those
who
had
work
for
him
to
do.
He hauled blue
clay from the flats
with which to make adobes
for use in building houses in
Nephi.
If
some of
the old
houses still standing could
talk,
they
could tell some interesting
tales about how
Sam Jackson worked from early
to
late on
those old buildings.
Benjamin
Jackson,
the
father,
had
joined
the
Church
in
the early
days
when
the
Gospel
was
first
taught
in
England,
by Heber C. Kimball, George
A. Smith, Wilford
Woodruff
and others. He joined
the Church
and was
quite faithful
and, quite naturally, wanted
to
'gather
to Zion.'
Benjamin
was a carpenter
and
a large family
meant a
life of privation.
It was decided that he would
go to America where he could
possibly
have better luck
in procuring
the means to send
for his family.
In 1849, he went aboard
a
sailing
vessel
for
America
and
was
not
heard
from again
until
the
late
1860s.
In about
1870,
he came
riding
a mule
into
Nephi, Utah, hunting
his family.
It was as though
he had
been raised
from
the dead.
He told
the story of
his life while he had been away from
his family.
He had successfully crossed
the
ocean
but,
while
crossing
the
plains,
he
had
joined a group of
'Forty-Niners' on their
way
to California
to search for
gold.
He
never
wrote
to
his
family
in
England
or,
if
he did,
his
family
never
received
the
letters.
And
he
seemed
to be satisfied
to
live
without
his
family
for
many
years.
When the family arrived
in Utah
in 1856, they had him declared
legally dead, and
his wife was declared
a widow.
She married
a Brother Jenkins with
whom
she lived the remainder of her life. Benjamin
built a small house on the north side of Nephi,
married Old Lady Scoggins with
whom
he lived
for some time.
He turned
his mule out on the range;
it has been said
that he left the saddle
and
bridle
on the
mule, so that
it would
be ready
to ride
in the spring.
After
Samuel
married
in
1867, he built a lean-to
onto
his home and
Benjamin
made
this his home for a few years until
about
1880, when he moved
to Salt
Lake City to live with
his oldest daughter, Elizabeth
Kirkman.
It has been said that
he
lived
the
Gospel
very
faithfully
and
prepared
himself for his greater
blessings.
Benjamin
made
his home with
his daughter
until
he died
on
January
4,
1887.
His
body
was
buried
in Salt Lake City.
His children
were not satisfied
with their mother
being sealed
to Brother Jenkins so, on April
12, 1894, all
those who were members
of the Church, met in the Salt Lake Temple, had the
sealing
annulled, and had
their
parents sealed
to
each other, and
the children,
in turn, sealed
to the
parents.
Meanwhile,
Samuel
had become
accustomed
to his new surroundings in Utah,
in the
valleys
of the mountains
of America.
He was always
ready to do whatever
the authorities
of the Church asked him
to do.
He told
of one
incident
in his life which
strengthened his testimony.
It seems that Church authorities
from headquarters
in Salt Lake City, when visiting
the Saints in the southern
part of Utah, would ask certain
of the men in Nephi
to use their teams and conveyances
to transport
the authorities
to the furthermost
settlements.
Samuel
was always ready to leave his own
work
to help
in transporting
the Church
authorities.
He never
asked
to
be excused.
One
time
he was asked to go just at the time
his land was ready
to plant
molasses
cane.
He was severely chided
by his neighbors
for being
so liberal with his time.
He
told
them
he was going
anyway and that he would re turn in time to
plant
his crop and would
harvest
it sooner than they
would
be able
to
harvest
their
crops.
While
he
was away,
a
severe
rainstorm packed
the
ground
on
the
newly-planted seeds
of
his
neighbors, and their crops
were unsatisfactory.
He
re turned from his
trip
with the
Church authorities, prepared his ground, planted his
crop,
and harvested a bounteous and
good crop.
Samuel
also
helped
guard
the
stock
against
Indian
raids, helped build
ditches, roads,
etc.,
for
the betterment of the community,
and always without question or
argument.
In 1863, he was
called
to make a trip to Florence,
Nebraska,
to help
bring
groups
of
Saints
to
Utah.
He
followed
the
same trail which
he had
traveled
in
1856.
He was an ox team driver, being
assigned
two yoke of oxen and a wagon.
There were many other drivers
in the company
which
was directed
by a captain
on horseback.
He had
to be extremely
careful
on hilly ground,
to keep his wagon from
turning
over, and, when crossing
streams
of any size, he had
to wade
beside
the oxen and keep the lead oxen headed
upstream
to
prevent
their
being
washed
downstream.
He was gone
about
six
months
on
the
trail
to Florence
and
return.
After returning
from Florence, Samuel and others began making freighting
trips
to
the
mining
camps
in
Nevada.
He
made
a great
many friends
in Nevada who were interesting
to visit when he called
on
them
in
their
settlements.
He
usually
drove
a four-horse
team
with
two
wagons.
His
headquarters
in
Nevada was located
at Tuanna, a farming community.
He made freighting stops also at Panacea, Pinoch, Cherry Creek, Tonepah,
Eureka, Ely,
Wells,
and
Elko.
There
were
many
times
when
he
would
go as far north
as
Malad, Idaho, and
Brigham
City, Ogden, and Salt Lake City, Utah.
In the latter
place, he would
load up with general supplies, groceries
and dry goods.
He would
sometimes buy a
new wagon for
resale and would
trail
it back
to Nephi
for delivery.
In the other direction,
he would sometimes carry freight
to Las Vegas, Nevada.
During
most of the summer, he would
rest and
tend
to his farming
in Nephi.
Robbers
were
a constant
threat
to a freighter.
On one of his trips to Nevada,
he reached
a place where a robber
had
built a dummy
fort
on
the
side
of
a
hill,
equipped
with
what
appeared to be guns protruding
from
the sides.
Before Samuel came along the robber
had stopped a stage coach and, by ordering
what appeared
to be those
in
his fort to be ready,
was able
to rob the stage and
its passengers
of all their
valuables.
Samuel never carried
a
wallet.
He carried
the
large
amounts
of cash
he needed
in a burlap bag stored
with
other
bags
in the bed of his wagon.
He was never robbed.
On December
31, 1867, Samuel
Jackson was married
in the Endow ment
House
in
Salt
Lake
City,
to
Hannah
Maria
Jaques,
by
Heber
C.
Kimball.
To
this
couple were
born
Samuel,
Jr.,
William, Bernecia, Lafayette, and Mary Hannah.
On September
17, 1881, Samuel
was called
on a mission
by The Church
of
Jesus
Christ
of
Latter-day
Saints,
and
was
assigned to work
in Tennessee
and
Alabama.
When he left home, he leased his
freighting
equipment
to
friends
who
would
operate
his
business
while he was gone.
Soon, his
mules and horses got into a band of wild horses in
Nevada.
Those responsible for them could not
catch them.
When they wrote Samuel about the
situa tion, he
calmly replied that the mules
and horses should be left
with the
wild horses and that he would get
them back when he
returned from his
mission in
two
years.
In 1883, he hired several Indians to help
him retake his mules and horses.
They shot
the
lead
stallion,
scattered the
herd,
and
roped
his
mules and horses which were then returned to Nephi.
Also, after he
returned from his
mission in 1883,
the
authorities of the Church advised him to take a plural
wife.
He
was married in the Endowment House in
Salt Lake City
to
Martha Ann Jackson
(her maiden name), and to this union were born Vida,
Fannie,
and
Jessie,
three
lovely
daughters who
were
an
honor
to him and to the country.
Samuel
Jackson
was ordained
a High Priest
on December
2, 1885, and was
set
apart as second
counselor
to Bishop David K. Udall of the
Nephi Second
Ward, Juab Stake.
He served
in this calling
very faithfully
until he was honorably
released, when he left for Colorado in 1887.
In
1887,
the
laws
against polygamy were
becoming more
and more oppressive.
Men
with plural wives were hunted like
animals, and,
when found,
were treated worse than animals by the United States
marshalls
and
other
federal
officers.
Samuel
was
advised by
Church authorities to move to
Colorado where he
had friends
and
where
he
could
find
sanctuary.
He
went
to
Colorado alone in 1887
and was joined in
February, 1888, by
his
wife, Martha,
and their daughter, Vida.
They lived with Sister Morgan in Manassa where he was
working.
In July, 1888, his
son, William, arrived in
Colorado and helped locate a
home.
Their first venture was taking up a hundred and
sixty
acres of
sand hill
known today as the
Bell Sego
Quarter.
They dug a well deep
to
water,
and built
a
cabin.
They
did
not
live
there
very long,
having bought eighty acres
on
the
San Antone River.
On March
1, 1889, the rest of the family, having
sold all their land and
belongings
in Nephi, Utah, arrived
in Colorado so the family
could
all
be
together.
They
shipped
two
train
carloads of
household
goods, stock
horses, and
cattle.
He burned the
first
kiln
of brick made in the vicinity of Manassa,
Colorado,
built
a
house
on
his
ranch on
the
San
Antone River east of
Manassa and,
later, built
a fine residence in town.
His
first venture into the
sheep business was very
discouraging but,
with the
assistance of
his
sons,
he
persevered until the
Jackson flocks
became widely
known
for their superiority.
He
organized the
Jackson Investment Company of
which corporation he
was president and,
at
the time of
his
death,
he was
vice-president
of
the
Colonial
State
Bank
of
Manassa,
which position he had held for a number of years.
He
was
ordained
Bishop
of
the
Manassa
Ward
on
February
16,
1896
and held this
position until May
6, 1917,
when
he
was
released because of failing health.
As
a bishop, he
was
noted
for
his conscientious hard work and self-sacrifice.
He
was
especially kind to the poor, the
downcast, and the
disheartened.
Always seeking the
development and building-up of
the
community, honored
and
loved by
all,
he
died May
3,
1919,
at
St.
George,
Utah where
he
had gone hoping
to benefit his
health.
He
is
buried in the cemetery at Manassa, Colorado."
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Lest this
information
be lost to family members and other interested
parties,
I want
to add a note concerning
the trip made across the plains from Florence, Nebraska,
by Ann Grimshaw Jackson
and her family of young
children.
As has been
noted
elsewhere,
the Jackson family
had two hand carts, one pulled
and
pushed
by the two girls, Elizabeth
and Martha, who were 24 and 21
years old, respectively,
and one pulled
and
pushed
by
the
two
boys, Joseph
and Samuel,
who
were
16
and
12 years
old, respectively.
Another
boy, Nephi, was nine years old and he walked
with
his mother, often being
carried on her back.
All pioneer
companies crossing the plains experienced
many troubles
and privations.
The company
in which
the Jackson
family traveled, however, experienced
more suffering than most others.
The company
left Florence,
Nebraska,
in late summer
or early fall
of
1856, which
was
very late in the year to be undertaking
a
trip
of
such
length.
The
company,
known
by
the name of its captain
or leader, was the Martin
Handcart
Company. The company
traveled
about
15
to
25
miles
a
day, depending
on the terrain.
At the crossing
of the Platte River, they encountered
lumps of ice in the water, making
the crossing
very
uncomfortable.
By October,
1856, the company
had encountered
snow and bitter cold
in
the
highlands
of
Wyoming.
President
Brigham
Young called
for
volunteers
from Salt Lake City
to go to their rescue.
When
the rescue
party
met the company,
they did not have enough
wagons to carry all
the suffering
people, so the handcarts had
to be kept
moving.
On
November
3, they reached
the Sweetwater
River which was filled with chunks of floating
ice. Because
the pioneers
were so weak, three eighteen-year-old boys from
the
rescue
party,
C.
Allen
Huntington,
George
W.
Grant, and David P. Kimball, carried nearly every member
of the handcart company
across
the freezing
river.
When
Brigham
Young heard
of
these
heroic
acts,
he wept
like
a child.
By November
30, 1856, the handcart company reached Salt Lake
City.
2-15-89
(7-5-85)