Don't Miss the Boat

Happy St. Patrick's Day

During March of 1990, I took my family to the Salt Lake City St. Patrick's Day parade and we were greeted with a lot of funny displays at the parade - like the white horse turned green, a huge float of a local Republican woman with tears flowing down, executives carrying their briefcases and the garbage can brigade.

It was one of the funniest displays they have ever done. I loved that parade but there is a forecast of rain tomorrow and I have no one to go with me.


Oh well, Happy St. Patrick's Day anyway!

Little bear is wearing a pair of my vase earrings.

A leprechaun hat - so tiny.

1939 World's Fair

 My parents' generation saw the 1939 New York World's Fair. I've never been to a World Fair but wouldn't it be grand.

From my mother's journal about their driving trip from Idaho to New York: In Wyoming there was a 1939 traffic jam. The roads in Idaho and Wyoming were still dirt and gravel back then.

She wrote: At Custer, South Dakota, we bought gas for $2.62, two quarts of oil for 60 cents, groceries and meat for 51 cents.

On August 12, 1939 we left at 6:15 AM.  Junior drove, our mileage was 38,325 miles.  It was the start of a concrete hiway!  Stopped at Plankton for 18 gallons of gas, and 2 quarts of oil $1.97.  We ran into a fog at Mt. Vernon, South Dakota at 7:45 AM.   


We pieced on cookies, bananas, and apple butter between La Crosse and Chicago, Illinois.  We rode down Michigan Boulevard to the Old Fair site, visited the beach.  Saw quite a sight:  they all looked like Jews.  Went to the Alder Planetarium, gaped at high buildings. When we hunted for lodgings, we got mixed up in the streets, sort of lost ourselves.  We finally found a hotel near the “Loop”. Two dollars a room; we took two rooms for $4.  

We spent three hours seeing Niagara Falls, spent 20 cents for pictures and post cards.  Lunch and groceries totaled 58 cents.  Mom got a hooked rug from Canada for $1.  We took pictures then crossed the Peace Bridge back to the United States at 1 PM, 35 miles per hour.    

My mother at the World's Fair

When we got to the ticket man, my dad said to the man, "all my kids are under 12". The ticket man took a good look at my mother sizing her up when her father said "we grow them big in Idaho." Mom was so embarrassed but the ticket man let them go through a children's prices.

 See through Dodge.

I couldn't resist, he just

looks so peaceful

and that is how

I want to feel 

this day.

Thomas Edwards Journey Continues 1854 - 1861

After spending 8 weeks on a sailing ship for America and losing one of their children to the measles onboard, they then took a steamship paddle boat from New Orleans to St. Louis.

On January 13, 1855, the day after their arrival in New Orleans, the Edwards family boarded the steamer Oceana (a side wheel paddle boat) heading up the Mississippi to St. Louis, Missouri, which was a distance of 1200 miles.   The fare was $3.50 for each adult and children were half fare. 

St. Louis on the Mississippi River

Thomas found work. It took him 6 years to save enough money for the trip west. When they made their way to Florence, Nebraska to join a wagon train, Thomas was 68 years old.


They joined an independent company leaving Florence, Nebraska on June 7, 1861. Among the names given from memory by Job Pingree in 1916 of this company were Thomas Edwards and family. Our company was a St. Louis Company of Saints mostly.  There were 33 wagons and 3 carriages.  No deaths occurred in our company while crossing the plains, but there was one birth and taking it all together, our trip was very pleasant.  No accident to speak of occurred and there was but little loss of cattle.  It was an ox tram although three of our rigs were drawn by horses. 
  They arrived in Salt Lake City on August 24, 1861 (it took almost 3 months walking and traveling by ox train to arrive at their destination.) 

From the Deseret News,  George D. Keaton, wrote the following  in April 4, 1868: 

Thomas Edwards of Ogden City was born in Wales in the month of January 1793, and is therefore in his 76^th year.  He has lately had a new set of double teeth growing in his head, not having lost the front ones.  He cut the new teeth about the same as children generally cut theirs, his gums swelling and being very painful during the period of dentation.  His hair still retains its natural color of jet black.  Brother Edwards came to America about 14 years ago and has been in Utah nearly seven years.  He is a man of regular habits of life.  He works regularly in his farm, has general good health and is the father of 10 children.  He walked from Ogden to this city last fall, a distance of 40 miles to attend General Conference.  He is a praying man, and tries to live the life of a saint.

Thomas lived to celebrate his 100th birthday while living at Liberty, Idaho with his daughter, Mary Edwards Hymas. He died on April 7, 1893 and is buried there while his wife who died in 1879 is buried in Ogden.

Can you believe it, I have centurions on both sides of my maternal grandparents.

Bless this Sabbath Day

Thomas Edwards Leaves Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

My 3rd great grandfather who had courage enough to leave his home in Wales, left for America in 1854. Actually, it saved his life because it took him from being a worker in the mines to becoming a farmer in Ogden, Utah.

Thomas Edwards

It took years to save enough money for this voyage. Thomas Edwards boarded a train for Liverpool, England, where they booked passage on on the Clara Wheeler. This ship was a three-decker ship with a square stern and a billet head at the bow. Captain J. F. Nelson reported that there were 422 Mormon passengers.  On Thursday, November 13, 1854, the Edwards family of seven boarded the Clara Wheeler. The next day the ship left dock and lay out in the River Mersey. It continued to lie in the River for the next two days and finally on Monday November 27, 1854, they set sail at 3 PM.  They had not been able to clear the Irish Channel because of the incessant head winds against the ship and extremely rough weather. 

Clara Wheeler

All of the passengers suffered considerably from seasickness.  They returned to port after three days. After taking on more provisions, they waited seven days for the wind to change.  On December 6, the saints held a fast and prayed that their voyage could continue. The next day on December 7, at 1 PM a tugboat retrieved them and pulled them past all of the docks. The Captain of the ship finally returned to the ship and they sailed onward and cleared the Irish Channel in three days.  

One child was thrown overboard and lost at sea. Soon after leaving port, measles broke out among the passengers (20 children and two adults died at sea).  It was very painful to watch. When the children died, they were sewn up in a bag and tossed into the ocean for burial. The journey was one of sickness and sorrow. Neither the president nor his counselors held meetings or gave instructions to cheer the passengers. Brother Franklin D. Richards said that every passenger would have three pounds of butter and two of cheese and when it was given out, the butter was 160 pounds short and the cheese was a quarter pound short for each adult. There were a total of 22 deaths, one birth and 8 marriages whilest on the ship. Upon arrival at New Orleans on January 12, 1855, one more child died. After finally setting sail, it had taken five weeks to get to New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States.

Elizabeth Lewis Edwards

This was only the start of their long journey.