James and Mary's
children who went west
Esther Newberry Beebe
b. June 7, 1829 married Edward O. Beebe son of Calvin Beebe and the two
of them went west to the gold fields of California in Lotus, El Dorado,
California where they became orchardists,
much like the Beebe families in New England had been.3 Edward
Beebe, was the son of Alpheus Cutler's right
hand man Calvin Beebe, who helped lead the Cutlerites.
Electa Louisa Newberry
b. April 4, 1827 started out on the trail west by herself in the company
of other
Mormon pioneers. She had been married to Robert Lee and had a
daughter with him whom she took to California.
She left Lee and later remarried. She was pregnant at the time of
her departure for the west, but married George
John Wixon, on the trail. They went to Placer Co. California and became
inn keepers. Their establishment was
called "Franklin House".4 John had the building
dismantled in his native Massachusetts and shipped in pieces
around Cape Horn to San Francisco. He then had it shipped overland
to Placer Co. where it was reassembled
and served until Electa's death as a hotel or boarding house. Wixon and
Electa divorced around 1860 and she
remarried a man named Horace Mansur. Wixon went back to
Massachusetts and died in the home of his first wife.
Wixon was descended from the Wampanoag tribe. His modern descendants
are affiliated with the tribe as elders
and chiefs.
James' other daughters Patty,
Sally Ann and Hannah Maria all went to Utah.
Hannah Maria b.
March 13, 1823 went to Utah with her husband George V.
Morris. Hannah and George
were my GGgrandparents. They were some of the first people in Salt
Lake Valley. In George's voluminous
journal he tells of many of the trials and much of the history of the LDS
Church. He became a convert in Hadley,
Cheshire England, and was brought to the U.S. on one of the many ships
commissioned by the LDS Church to
bring converts to America. He landed in New Orleans, and began to
immediately look for a wife. He propositioned
one woman on the barge going up the Mississippi River. She was
tempted, but chose to find someone else.
James met and married Hannah on his birthday Aug. 23, 1843. He was married
previously in England, but
she died in childbirth along with the baby.
When they left Nauvoo, it is interesting to note that Hannah's brothers
had an expansive farm on the prairie. Yet,
George and Hannah lived alone in make shift quarters or begging the
kindness of strangers for many months, not
far from her own kin. Harriet Newberry came to live and care
for them during an extended bout of illness, for a short
period of time, but was convinced by her older siblings to come away from
them. By this time Hannah's father was
already in the Council Bluffs area living at Winter Quarters. Being
the only married daughter in this time frame, it looks
as though there was a rift between the family some of which were
Brighamites, and the others Josephites.
George took other polygamous wives, only one of which was living at the
time of their marriage. He married
Maria Allen hours before her death, Harriett Newberry (above) after her
death in Iowa through sealing rites,
and Annie Matthews who lived and bore many children, most of whom died
before the age of five from various
plagues.
George was brought to trial on charges of polygamy, but exonerated as he
had not officially lived with Hannah for
eleven years after his marriage to Annie. His daughter Harriet took the
stand and gave evidence which saved him from
prison. There are several copies of George's journal in various
hands. Most have been donated to the LDS Archives.
Sally Ann b. June 19, 1821 married Calvin Pendleton after the death
of his first wife, in Council Bluffs. Sally Ann lived
in his household after her father brought them to SW Iowa. Pendleton
subsequently married Sally Ann and had other
polygamous wives when they moved to Utah. They went to Iron County,
Utah, where she was able to live close to
her sister Martha and her family. Pendleton was a gun maker (friend
and contemporary of Browning), and was also
a self trained physician who gathered herbs and plants from the wild.
Martha (Patty) b. August
20, 1832 went west with Sally Ann and Calvin Pendleton, and married
after they
reached Utah. She and her husband John Hyatt lived in Iron County,
near her sister Sally Ann. Neither were
known to correspond much with their siblings.
I would appreciate corresponding with anyone who reads about these two
sisters and who has more information.
In a letter from Utah, Hannah Maria wrote to her brother in Iowa asking
after the rest of the family. In it she tells
that she never hears from her sisters in the same state. [letter in
author's files.]
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