For Forty Years the beloved pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of West Hoboken, NJ, and now pastor emeritus of that society, is a lineal descendent of James Egbert, who was born in 1695. His paternal ancestors were Germans, coming from Saxony or Hanover to this country several generations ago. Lewis Egbert, a member of his branch, served in the Revolutionary War. Dr. Egbert’s father, James Egbert, was the son of Enos Egbert and Sarah Lyon, both natives of New Jersey, and was born at Elizabeth, in this State, in 1801. He learned the trade of printer in the office of the Palladium of Liberty at Morristown, NJ, and, moving to New York, became partner of Mahlon Day, one of the earliest printers in that city and for many years the publisher of the weekly “Bank Notes List”. Mr. Day, with his wife and daughter, was lost at sea on the ill-fated ship, “Arctic.” James Egbert succeeded to the firms’ business, and for nearly fifty years conducted a large and successful printing establishment in New York on Pearl Street, opposite Frankfort. He finally retired, and died in West Hoboken, NJ, November 17,1881, having settled there about 1867. His father, Enos, was a blacksmith and iron founder, and also a native of Elizabeth. James Egbert married Joanna Jones Chidester, daughter of James and Peninah (Guerin) Chidester, all of whom were born in New Jersey. She died in 1866.Dr. Egbert was born in New York City on the 17th of October, 1826, and there received his education. He attended one of the public grammar schools and then taught for four years in the same institution. Afterward he continued his studies and also taught in the private school of Professor John Jason Owen, of New York, and in 1848, having received a thorough preparatory training there, entered New York University, then under the presidency of Theodore Frelinghuysen. He was graduated with honors in 1852, receiving the degree of B.A., and on March 4, 1889, the university conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in recognition of his eminence as a minister and of his learning and standing as a scholar. In 1852 Dr. Egbert began the study of theology at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. He was graduated from the institution in April, 1855 and licensed to preach by the Third Presbytery of New York on the 11th of the same month.
On June 13, 1855, he was ordained pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of West Hoboken, New Jersey and continued in that capacity for forty-two consecutive years, resigning June 13,1897. Soon afterward he was made pastor emeritus of the congregation. This church was organized June 12, 1850, with eight members, and the church edifice was dedicated June 25, 1851. For four years Rev. Charles Parker supplied the pulpit, and through his efforts, and with the aid of Rev. William Bradford, then editor of the New York “Evangelist”, the church building was erected. Dr. Egbert was their first settled pastor, and faithfully and diligently discharged the duties of the trust, gaining not only the love but the confidence and affection of the entire community as well as of his own parishioners. Form a very small congregation he built it up to a membership of over 435 and the Sunday school to 500 scholars, with a chapel in Jersey City of about 250 members. The society made a strong effort to retain him as their active pastor, but advancing years and the evident need of rest impelled him to resign, and the pastorate has since been under Rev. Charles Alexander Evans, a graduate of Princeton, class of 1884. As pastor emeritus, however, Dr. Egbert continues to exercise a broad and wholesome influence in the church.
He has twice been Moderator of the Presbytery of Jersey City, is a member of the Associate Alumni and of the Alumni Club of the Union Theological Seminary, and is known throughout the State and in other Presbyteries as a man of broad culture, of great learning, and of fine intellectual attainments. His sermons, many of which have been published, bear evidence of high literary skill as well as sound logic and doctrinal knowledge.
Dr. Egbert was married, August 1, 1855 to Harriet Louise Drew, daughter of George and Philinda Drew, of New York City. Their children are Annie Lake Egbert, a teacher in the New York public schools; James C. Egbert, Jr., professor of Latin in Columbia College, New York; Rev. George Drew Egbert, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Cornwall, New York; and Marion Dupuy Egbert, also a teacher in the New York public schools. Two other children died in infancy.
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New York Times, July 30, 1940
Rev. G.D. Egbert, 75, of Flushing Dies
Pastor of First Congregational Church was President of Queens Federation
Formerly a Moderator
Leader of Crusades on Vice
Had Served as Head of the Crime Prevention Society
The Rev. George Drew Egbert, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Flushing, Thirty-eighth Avenue and Browne Street, Flushing, Queens, died yesterday in the physicians Hospital, Jackson Heights, after an illness of several months. He was 75 years old. His home was at 38-20 Browne Street, Flushing.
Survivors are a son, Professor Donald D. Egbert of Princeton University; two daughters, Mrs. Louise Egbert Sailer, wife of Dr. Randolph C. Sailer, an instructor in Yan Ching University, Peiping, China, and Miss Miriam Estelle Egbert, an executive in Greenwood School, Ruxton, MD; a brother, Professor James C. Egbert of Columbia University, and two sisters, the Misses Annie and Marion Egbert of Jackson Heights.
The Rev Dr. Thomas McKenzie, pastor emeritus of the Dutch Reformed Church of Flushing, will conduct a funeral service at 5 pm. tomorrow in the First Congregational Church of Flushing.
Foe of Gambling
Mr. Egbert was president of the Queens Federation of Churches and for many years chairman of the committee on licensure and ordination of the New York City Association of Congregational Churches. He also had served the latter organization as Moderator. He was best known, however, as president of the Society for the Prevention of Crime.For many years he maintained a policy of never announcing beforehand the topics of his sermons. He did not favor more than one sermon a Sunday, feeling no minister could do justice to two. He favored the use of motion pictures at evening services, and once invited golf players to an early-morning service all togged out even to golf clubs, which they left outside the church.
He had led crusades against vice and crime, particularly as head of the Society for the prevention of Crime. Among the objects of his attacks were the policy racket and other forms of gambling, and organized crime at the end of the prohibition era.
Occasionally he spoke out as a minister on other matters affecting his locality. In 1930 and 1931 he opposed granting a license for the construction of a swimming pool on a site adjoining the historic Quaker Meeting House on Northern Boulevard, near Main Street, Flushing. The house, built in 1694, is still used by members of the Flushing Religious Society of Friends, which group has existed in the community since the days when George Fox, early English Quaker preacher, stood beneath two oak trees and preached opposite Fox Lane.
Championed Society of Friends
When the Society of Friends retained Charles S. Colden, later County Judge, as their attorney to protest against a swimming pool so close to their place of worship, Mr. Egbert sympathized with them in published statements and interviews and declared a principle was at stake “that affects all churches.”This, he said, was a question as to the right of noisy amusement centers to establish themselves along side churches, particularly where liable to attract large Sunday crowds. The issue was settled by agreement of the pool operators to refrain from opening on Sundays until afternoon and not until the Sunday meeting of the Quakers was over.
Mr. Egbert’s outstanding fight was that against the prevalence of gambling, particularly through policy slips, in the spring of 1935. The New York County Grand Jury, after going over gambling exhibits and a list of fifty gambling places Mr. Egbert had submitted, petitioned Governor Lehman for a special prosecutor. Thomas E. Dewey was appointed.
Won Against Slot Machines
Early in his tenure of the office as president of the crime-prevention society, Mr. Egbert took part in a fight against slot machines. Governor Lehman sent him the pen with which he later signed the Anti-Slot-Machine Bill.He had lived in Flushing since February, 1911, having gone there from Norwalk, Conn., where he had been pastor of the First Congregational Church. His first pastorate was the Canterbury Presbyterian Church in Cornwall, New York. While there he took part in the no-license campaigns and opposed gambling. He continued reform agitation at Norwalk, where he was chairman of the ministers’ association. He served each of these churches for eleven years.
Mr. Egbert was born on May 6, 1865, in West Hoboken, New Jersey, the son of James C. Egbert ad the former Harriet Louise Drew. He was graduated in 1885 from Columbia University, where he attained Phi Beta Kappa honors, and later from Union Thological Seminary. On Oct. 22, 1891, he married Miss Kate Estelle Powers. Mrs. Egbert died on Dec. 18, 1938.
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Prof. James C. Egbert Lester Darling Egbert_____________________________________________
History of Joseph Egbert and His Descendents
(excerpts from)
by Francis Marion Egbert Jr.
This booklet was written by Francis Marion Egbert Jr. and published by L. M. Benton's printing business, BECO, along with their main business of an accounting firm of Benton, Egbert, and Company in Twin Falls, ID. Date of publication uncertain but it was sometime in the 1950's. The family still has the aluminum plates used to do the offset printing. Francis M. Egbert Jr. is the grandson of David Kinyon & Emma (Bone) Egbert.
John Proposes to Susie
“Nick” (John Nicholas Egbert) disliked being apprenticed to a harness-shoemaker, but stayed with it and worked diligently until he was eighteen. “Two long years yet,” he thought. Being convinced he knew what was necessary to learn the trade, and being deeply interested in Susie, he crystallized the “why’s” the “how’s” and the “wherefore’s into only one conclusion, and immediately decided to take sufficient tools which he thought rightly belonged to him, and work for himself.
Out on the “Ohio” Nick felt quite secure, and his hopes soared high as he thought of Susie downstream at Breckenridge awaiting him at night fall. He planned that very night to ask her – sweetest of all sweethearts to become his wife.
The wooden raft ladened with the precious tools floated along so smoothly his mind forthwith planning for the future and all things most dear, he forgot the swiftness of the mid-current, but was rudely reminded by the heavy swirl and rocking raft, to put toward shore. This he did so quickly the raft capsized, and half his earthly belongings went helter-skelter down stream, and the tools sank to the bottom! Righting the raft and balancing himself, although soaked to the skin, he felt lucky to be alive, then he had time to think! A mere coincidence, or was it the judgment of God?
As the raft left mid-stream and the worst danger past, Nick wondered what Susie would say. Nothing to offer her but his two good hands! Hands – were they entirely spotless? Had he not broken his contract, or rather his father’s contract with the old master harness-maker? What would he say to Susie? Well, he had ample time to think it over. The day wore on and the little raft was wafted silently down to Breckenridge.
Susie stood waiting, for it was not yet dark. The tense anxiety and fear which had persisted all afternoon left her countenance, as the small raft came to shore. Nick, summoning all his courage, told his experience simply, laying due stress on the great loss of the tools. Susie listened in wide-eyed silence as he told of his narrow escape, then with deep thankfulness in her heart that he was permitted to land safely and again be with her, she with a sly twinkle in her black Dutch eyes, said, “Well, Nick, I have not been thinking about the tools, I intend to marry you.”
Nick saw no need for further comment. He knew she was worth her weight in gold.
So John (Nick) Egbert whose parents were originally from Staten Island, New Jersey, and Susanna Kahn (pronounced Hahn) were married in Breckenridge, Kentucky, and lived to rear thirteen children four of which were born before 1815, before the parents decided to move to Indiana. The fifth little one, John Jr., was born on the way.
John was a good provider and soon became well located on a farm near Vincenness where they were blessed with seven more children. They were a prosperous and God-fearing family.
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Egbert, Joseph, one of the original Utah pioneers of 1847, was born March 10, 1818, in Sullivan County, Indiana, the son of John Egbert and Susannah Healm of Kentucky. He was raised as a farmer, and his parents, becoming converts to “Mormonism,” removed to Jackson County, Missouri. As a boy he became well-trained in all phases of farm life. He told not only of the golden harvest times, but of going to the nearby woods to gather hazel nuts. Joseph was baptized in May, 1833, by David W. Patten in Clay County, Missouri and soon after that the Saints were driven out of Jackson County. Later, the family settled at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, and after passing through nearly all the Missouri persecutions, they settled temporarily at Quincy, Illinois. Afterwards they became residents of Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, where Joseph married Mary C. Alllred, and in 1846 was ordained a Seventy and became a member of the 4th quorum of Seventy. During the exodus he went with his family to Winter Quarters, and in 1847 traveled to the Great Salt Lake Valley as one of the original pioneers under Pres. Brigham Young, entering the Valley in Orson Pratt’s advance company, July 22, 1847. He returned to Winter Quarters the same season, and came to the Valley a second time in 1850, bringing his family with him. After settling temporarily in South Cottonwood, Salt Lake County, he settled permanently at Kaysville, Davis County, in 1851, where he resided for many years and assisted in every way possible to build up that part of the county. Here he acted for many years as a Ward teacher, and also served his fellow-citizens as constable, pound-keeper, water-master, etc. For over twenty years he was the proprietor of a hotel at Kaysville. When a young man in Nauvoo he worked on the Nauvoo Temple until it was completed and received his endowments before starting for the West. On several occasions Bro. Egbert sent teams to the Missouri River after poor emigrants, and was as a rule liberal with his means when Church affairs were involved. Br. Egbert died May 24, 1898, at Ogden, Utah.
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The Huntman’s Prowess Served to Advantage
Joseph having lived a frontier life, became a good marksman with the gun. He said, “It spoils a squirrel to shoot them in the body.” His aim being always in the eye, and it was said, “He never missed the mark.”
Joseph Egbert was chosen as one of the vanguard of the great migration into the wilderness under the leadership of Brigham Young. Orson Pratt was Captain of the first company of ten and Joseph Egbert was one of that first ten. He was appointed driver of Orson Pratt’s wagon, also the cook.
Orson Pratt, being astronomer for the company, figured the distance traveled each day, and the altitude of the country, they had to drive some distance ahead to avoid the noise, and kept to the high ridges. When the ground was level Brother Pratt would drive while Joseph would hunt.
There were days at a time when the company had no meat. At one such time, the regularly appointed huntsmen had had no success. Joseph suggested that Brother Pratt drive and he would see if he could help them. Brother Pratt accepted the suggestion, and Joseph left the wagon, his gun loaded. Following an old buffalo trail for a long distance he finally sensed that he was about to come upon a herd. He concealed himself, tense with excitement, aimed and shot a cow, then a calf. Instead of the herd’s running off, they circled around the dead animals.
It was getting late on that hot summer afternoon. Objects in the distance seemed to shimmer and tremble. Joseph was really frightened. He lay low and kept rubbing bits of sage on his hands to destroy the scent. An occasional breeze blew in the direction of the herd, and he knew to be seen was to be trampled to death. Tense and frightened, never daring to move a blade of grass he waited while the animals went round and round the dead cow and calf. He hesitated to kill more, for explicit instructions had been given to kill only that which was necessary. It seemed the animals had no thought of leaving so of necessity he aimed at and killed one of the leaders of the herd. After circling two or three times more they let out a terrifying bellow and loped off in an opposite direction.
Trembling from excitement he started back to camp for help but crawled on the ground a long distance before daring to get up and walk. As he moved cautiously along he saw a deer and killed it. Thinking he could carry a hind quarter of it but soon found he was too exhausted even for that added burden. He hung the meat in a tree, marking the place so the brethren from camp had no difficulty in finding it. Allthis meat was more than was needed for immediate use so President Young ordered a half day stop in order to jirk and care for it.
------------ Joseph is Asked by Authorities to Take Another Wife
Nothing had been discussed, polygamy had scarcely been thought of in connection with the Egbert household.
On arriving in the Valley in 1849, Joseph immediately moved his family to Cottonwood, where he began cutting and hewing the logs for a home.He was a carpenter by trade and made many pieces of furniture that were to go into that new home. He had made his wagon so convenient that they found no difficulty living in it the first year after their arrival, which gave them more of a chance to plan for their future.
They met the Warricks soon after their arrival in Cottonwood. The two women being about the same age had much in common and the families frequently visited.
Thomas Warrick, early in the spring of 1850 went to California hoping to find a fortune in gold, took sick and died before his dreams were realized, leaving the young widow to fare as best she could. She immediately turned to spinning and weaving as a livelihood. This she did well, and everyone was happy to give her their work.
One warm sunny day, early in the spring of 1852, Joseph and Mary Egbert took some wool to Sister Warrick to be made into thread and later woven into cloth. After visiting a while they said good-byes and started home. As they plodded slowly along mile after mile both seemed absorbed in their own thoughts. It was Mary who first broke the silence by asking Joseph what was keeping him so quiet, whereupon Joseph replied, “The authorities have suggested that I take another wife, and it was of that I was thinking,” Shocked, but as she later thought of it, not too surprised, for hadn’t others done that very thing! Again they rode in silence, to be broken again by Mary saying, “If such a thing must be, there is no one I would rather you marry than Louisa Warrick.” The two discussed the matter further, then Joseph turned his oxen around and proceeded to return to the Warrick home, whereupon he promptly told Louisa what had happened as they journeyed toward home and asked her in the presence of Mary to become his wife. She promised to give it consideration ane the Egberts once again started toward home.
During the few months that followed Joseph visited Louisa from time to time. It was on June 17, 1852 that they were married in the Endowment House. After a sacred, but auspicious marriage ceremony, Joseph took Louisa immediately to his home where Mary, the first wife together with her little family was waiting with all the cheer and comfort they could muster. Did she know heartache? Well, she appreciated Mary’s kindliness, and the cooperative spirit that existed, and gladly accepted it, not only for her own good and exaltation, but for her two small children Calysta and Thomas, who soon found welcome places equal to Mary’s three, John, Robert and Eliza. Peace and harmony continued in the Egbert home through the years that followed. Each woman and family shared alike in work and paly, poverty and riches,a nd after the children were grown the mothers died within a few months of each other.
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A Short Sketch of Joseph Egbert’s Three Wives
Mary Caroline AllredMary Caroline Allred was born at Bedford or Farmington, Marshall County, Tennessee, December 9, 1824, the daughter of Isaac and Mary Calvert Allred, and a great granddaughter of Lord Baltimore. The Allred family became interested in Mormonism while living in Memphis, Tennessee and decided to join the main body of the church. There were thirteen children in the family, Mary Caroline being the eighth child. Upon their arrival in Nauvoo they met the Egbert family and a close friendship developed. Joseph Egbert and Mary Caroline’s friendship soon turned into love and they were married December 6, 1840 in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois.
Louisa Taylor WarrickLouisa Taylor, daughter of Ester Traywick Taylor, was born October 3/1823, the sixth member of a family of thirteen children. Early in her teens Louisa heard the story of Mormonism and of Joseph Smith who had talked with an Angel. It was rumored that Mormon missionaries were in the country not far from where she lived, holding meetings and invited people to come. These meetings were sixteen miles away but some members of the Taylor family decided to attend. They wanted their father to go with them but he declined. After the mother and girls had gone, however, he followed them but left before the services were over. At the close od the meeting there were tables of food provided for those attending and the Taylor’s were invited to stay. Later the girls were converted to Mormonism and joined the church. The mother, Ester Traywick intended joining but died before doing so because of injuries sustained from a fall while riding a horse.
Louisa was baptized in September of 1840. Seven months later, April 4, 1841, she married Thomas Warrick. They began immediately to make plans to join the Saints, but the next we hear of them is about six years later on their arrival into the Salt Lake Valley in Captain James Brown’s company of Mississippians, July 29, 1847.
Louisa was an excellent spinner and weaver of wool yarns. She had learned this in her youth. Later when the culture of silkworms was mentioned she thought what a thrill it would be to watch the beautiful soft fabrics grow into dress patterns. A real adventure. She had found that finest of hobbies and went to work. Quoting from Jane Blood’s diary, “June 15, 1880, got silk worm eggs today, the mulberry trees are coming in leaf. January 15, 1881, we began to reel. In February we twisted silk. February 12, 1881, Sister Egbert and myself took our silk to Farmington to have it woven. March 18, 1881, I gave Sister Egbert a quilt I had made for helping me reel and twist the silk. Sister Egbert is beloved by all who know her.”
Anna Marie IversonAnna Marie Iverson was born August 18, 1847, in Christiania, Norway. The great cholera plague that devastated the European continent around the middle of the nineteenth century struck the Norwegian city of Christiania taking many lives among which was Anna’s father and mother, both dying the same day leaving little Anna Marie an orphan at seven.
As a young lady she taught school for two years and later went as a pastry cook on a steamer. By this time she had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Salt Lake Valley. Her brother, a Catholic minister, disapproved of her joining the church and as a result would have nothing to do with her.However, a short time before her death she and her brother commenced corresponding.
her desires were fulfilled and she emigrated to Ogden, Utah and soon after arriving operated a hotel there. It was here, that through a mutual friend, she met Joseph Egbert. They were married on March 20, 1884. Three children, Eva Luna, Joseph, and Elvida were born to this union.
They lived at Kaysville, Utah during their married life with the exception of one year which was spent in Ogden just prior to her husband’s death in May, 1898. She died on June 12, 1902 and was buried at Kaysville.
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In February, 1846, Joseph, with his wife, Mary, and two small children left Nauvoo with the earliest company of Saints to settle for a time at Winter Quarters, then on to Council Bluffs. Here Alvira and Josph Orson were born. Joseph Orson, a baby of a few months, died en route to the Salt Lake Valley and was buried near the Platte River. Two boys were born in Cottonwood. The other six were born in Kaysville, Utah. Six children grew to maturity.
In 1854 Joseph Egbert moved his families from Cottonwood to Kaysville to establish his home.
The town consisted of one dug out owned by John Crowshaw; a one room log house without a door or windows, belonging to Mrs. Wheeler; three one room log houses belonging to the Allred boys, brothers of Mary Egbert and a small adobe house owned by James Rowe.
Kaysville HomeHere Joseph built this story and a half adobe home; two large rooms down and three rooms upstairs.
People said it was foolish to build so large a house as the east winds they frequently had would blow it down, but he built well, and as soon as finances permitted, the home was changed to a full two story brick building. Joseph owned 200 acres of choice land and planted the first orchard of various kinds of fruit. He also planted the mulberry trees which were very beautiful as well as useful when they started raising silk worms.
Mary Caroline and Louisa Egbert worked and lived in harmony during their married life, and died a little over a year apart; Mary Caroline, April 29, 1880; Louisa, November 4/ 1881. Three years later, Joseph marred his third wife, Anna Marie Iverson. They continued to live in Kaysville until after the birth of their children. They ten moved to a small home in Ogden. It was here that he died in 1898.
James Marion Egbert and Helen Naegle’s married life was cut relatively short by the death of James just as they were establishing their home. Helen then acted as mother and father to three small sons and continued to build on the life the two begun for many years after the family was raised.
Ogden home
James Marion & Helan (Naegle) Egbert
Andrew and Mary Walker Egbert established their home in the farming community of Layton, Utah. He, like his father, was a carpenter by trace, but like his father, he too had a farm on which they lived and raised their family of three sons and seven daughters. During their early married years they hauled their drinking water one and one half miles. While doing this they started an orchard and some beautiful shade trees. On this homestead they passed away at eventide of their lives. Many of the large homes of Kaysville and Layton stand as a monument to his memory as a builder.
David Kinyon Egbert, a telegrapher by trade, married Emma Bone. He took messages from far and near, first at Woods Cross but was later transferred to Kaysville where he acted as telegraph operator, ticket and freight agent. Fifteen years he dispatched these duties with precision, but his little family was boys and he felt he should have land for them to work. He purchased one hundred and sixty acres near the Syracuse Junction now called Clearfield. Here he built a pond in the sand hills near the home and planted hardwood trees around it. In this he put black bass and sunfish. This move was but a pause of ten years. Their next move was to Oakley, Idaho and from there to Murtaugh where he built his sixth and last home. Here he and Emma died and were buried in the Twin Falls Cemetery. Their family consisted of thirteen children; ten boys and three girls.
George Washington Egbert, the youngest son of Louisa enamored with the possibilities of Cache Valley, homesteaded land adjoining the Strickland property. It was an uninviting prairie of sagebrush. The soil was clay with here and there spots of alkali and grease brush. But with him and Mary Ann, there was the spirit to achieve and bring beauty and culture into the barrenness of pioneer life. With their cherished wedding gifts about them and their will to acquire some of the things they had left behind in the Salt Lake Valley, they set out to build for the future. On this farm they lived, built a more adequate and comfortable home, helped build the community around them and raised their family of five children. But to accomplish this it took half a century of hard work. It was here at Fairview, Idaho that they passed away, three years apart. Corilla Egbert fell in love with the young Lockenvare, William White from Salt Lake City. She tells us she was really up a tree when she first met him. Her father was raising silk worms and she was perched on the limb of the mulberry tree picking leaves to feed the worms, when this young stockbroker called at the home. Her pretty face and winsome smile brought him back many times. They fell in love and were married in the Logan Temple. It was to Salt Lake he took her to live. Will was considered the best judge of cattle in the West. Corilla, a devoted mother to their family of five sons and one daughter is still (1950) living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Note: Corilla Egbert passed away February 24, 1956. -----------
John Alexander Egbert, Samuel Egbert,
Samuel Alexander Egbert and Robert C. Egbert
Arminta Elizabeth Bateman Egbert,
m. John Alexander Egbert, 3/ 9/ 1882
Seviah Cunningham Egbert,
m. Robert Cowan Egbert, 4/1/1846
The Coming of the Mormons
“This is the Place”
(pp. 88-91)When thirteen more men from the Mormon Battalion joined them, and also joined Samuel Brannan in his glowing picture of California, the Mormons were not swayed from their purpose. Brigham Young even turned a deaf ear to his brother, who pleaded with him to go to California and not to think of settling in “Such a barren, God-forsaken country as would be found in the Rocky Mountains.”
The trail they were on had been traveled, but largely by scouts and trappers who had had only horses and mules with them. Horses and mules could go where wagons could not, and the Mormons had to devote much of their time to building a road.
It was not a road as we think of it. The Mormons might be following a streambed, and several drivers with ox or mule teams would be sent ahead to pull the biggest boulders out of the way. Men with axes might follow to cut trees, or to fill deep holes with stones. The Mormons did not ask or expect an easy ride, they wanted only to get their wagons through. Just the same, road-building alone was a vast enterprise.
They stopped at Fort Bridger, which they reached July 7, to repair wagons, shoe draft animals, and let weary beasts and men rest. Two days later they were rolling again, on into the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Near the head of a place called Echo Canyon, a canyon in the Western mountains is similar to a valley in the Eastern, Brigham Young came down with mountain fever. This is a serious disease caused by the bite of a small insect that lives in the mountains.
Those with him were greatly concerned. Mountain fever was a terrible illness that had brought death to many; only in comparatively recent years has a serum been discovered that will prevent it. However, Brigham Young was less concerned about himself than he was about the success of the Mormons as a whole.
He could not move, but there were those who could. Summoning Orson Pratt to his sickbed, Brigham Young asked him to take forty-two men and 28 wagons and, at all cost, to get through to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Winter was coming and, should there be no more men than those already in the Pioneer Company, the approaching winter was sure to be a desperate one. Crops must be planted, houses built, and everything possible done to meet nature on her own terms.
Orson Pratt was a young man. He was resourceful completely devoted to the Mormon cause, and he had an inexhaustible energy. The previous year the ill-fated Donner Party, who later had become marooned in the High Sierras and had had to resort to cannibalism just to stay alive, had come this way. Orson Pratt wanted, of possible, to find and follow the Donner Party’s trail.
Pratt’s task was not an easy one and he knew it. The group had already climbed part of the way into the Rockies, and no Mormon had ever encountered travel like this before. It was far different from the prairies or the gently rolling Eastern Mountains. Nothing in the travelers’ past experience would help solve the problems that now faced them.
Nevertheless, where old ways failed they invented new ones.
Comments from “Pioneers & Prominent Men of Utah”
In 1851, Joseph Egbert had a household of 2, real wealth of $250 and no personal wealth
In 1860, Joseph had a household of 16, real wealth of $1000 and $640 in personal wealth
In 1870, Joseph had a household of 5, real wealth of #1500 and $1000 in personal wealthJoseph Egbert said, “Our family was with the people who journeyed to the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon to celebrate the Pioneer Day, July 24, 1857, when the news came of the approach of Johnson’s Army.” (ref. “Heart Throbs of the West.” Carter, Kate, vol. 10)
Joseph was one of the original pioneers of 1847. He was raised as a farmer, and his parents, becoming converts to Mormonism, removed to Jackson Co, Missouri. Soon after that the Saints were driven out of Jackson County. After passing through nearly all the Missouri presecutions, they settled temporatily at Quincy, ILL, in Nauvoo. Joseph became a member of the 4th quorum of Seventy. During the exodus he went with his family to Winter Quarters and in 1847 traveled to the Great Salt Lake Valley as one of the original pioneers under President Brigham Young, entering the Valley in Orson Pratt’s advance company, July 22, 1847. He returned to Winter Quarters the same time in 1849, bringing his family with him. After settling temporarily in South Cottonwood, Salt Lake Co., he settled permanently at Daysville, Davis Co., in 1851, where he resided for many years and assisted in every way possible to build up that tpart of the country. Here he acted for many years as a Ward teacher,and also served his fellow-citizens as constable , poundkeeper, watermaster, etc. For over 20 years he was the proprietor of a hotel at Kaysville.When a young man in Nauvoo he worked on the Nauvoo Temple until it was completed and received his endowments before starting for the West. On several occasions Bro. Egbert sent teams to the Missouri River after poor emigrants, and was as a rule liberal with his means when church affairs were involved.
