Exodus to Utah
The photo above is of George and Hannah probably shortly after
their marriage or before they set off across Iowa.
Hannah and George Migrate . . .
In August of 1843 James’
daughter Hannah Maria Newberry married Mormon
convert George Morris, who was barely off the boat from Hanley, Cheshire,
England
before he started looking for a wife. In his journal he tells about meeting a
young woman
on the boat going up the Mississippi from New Orleans. Just a few days
into the
journey he asked her to marry him. She agreed, but before the trip is
over, she
changed her mind and declined. He writes that about a year later she was back in
Nauvoo to ask him if the offer was still open. He declined. Weather this
was because
he already married to Hannah we don't know. George was not good at keeping to
a dated chronology in his journal.
According to some records Hannah and George were married in Nauvoo,
Illinois,
but there are also references to their being married in Clay County, Iowa which
was
still Indian Country at the time. Clay
County is in the Northwestern quadrant of Iowa.
The Newberry's actually live in Clay Co.
Missouri, but the information given says,
Iowa. The discrepancy in information is not solvable with the the records at
this
point.
George Morris was assigned at one point to preach to the Indians, but we
have
not as yet been able to determine where he went, and if he met Hannah while
preaching.
She was already a Mormon at the time that they met. There is one reference in
his
journal to a dream that he had which might indicate that he had contact with
Indians.
He talks about how they attacked him in the dream, according to the Historian at
the
LDS Historical Department in Salt Lake City. But he never mentions
where he was
assigned, and the LDS Church has no record in their Historical Department.
There is
one book that was seen by a family member in 1970 in Nauvoo that tells that he
served
a mission with the Indians. We have been unable to find this particular volume
in recent
years.
In his diary George does not tell where or how he met Hannah Maria.
There is nothing
about their courtship or meeting. He just says that she is an American
girl and then goes
on and tells about her parents and their names.
He also does not even mention her name
- he just refers to her as "my wife".
They were married
when she was 20 years old and
he was 26. Later in his journal he mentions her as Hannah.
The Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo by the mobs and all their land was sold
for
what they could get. In 1847 George Morris and
Hannah Maria were heading across
Iowa to Council Bluffs to ready themselves to go west to Salt Lake City.
In George’s
diary he tells of all the sickness and troubles they had on their way across
Iowa. He does
however make a point of telling about how someone was trying to harm Hannah.
“There is a foul plot brewing
aginst [sic] Hannah, and I must yet again move
her for fear of her
safety.”
At the time Hannah was a young mother with two little babies and a third on the
way.
George is not forthcoming about who would be so crass as to make evil attempts
on
Hannah. It is suspected that her ethnicity was part of the reason, but this is
not ever
confirmed.
When they left Nauvoo, they crossed
the Mississippi River with the rest of the contingent.
Historian and amateur archaeologist Mike Foley has done work in the past several
years mapping the route of the Mormons crossing the Mississippi River and found
that
the trail leads to Newberry land. Keokuk
Mike has doused these areas and found
remnants of old buildings and structures used to house the fleeing
Mormons. Also in
a letter to the family in Utah, an Iowa family member said that Brigham
Young camped
on a corner of the Newberry property.
The Mormons headed west to Grand Encampment
on their way out of mid-America.
George and Hannah stayed with her brothers in Argyle for a short time and then
they moved
on to Council Bluffs and stayed a while with Hannah's father James. George
was anxious
to get going, and set out on the journey with insufficient provisions.
When it was found that
he had done this he was re-assigned to the Pisgah Company. This group shared the
supplies
communally.
On to Utah
Connecticut / New
York / More Newberry's in New York /
Samuel Smith / Smith
Farm / Ohio /
Revolution / Iowa / Exodus
to Utah / Utah / Hannah's
Children / Hannah's Necklace /
Bibliography / Family Album / Jonathan
Newberry Bible /
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