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Show 140 John Tanner and His Family The church needed experienced like John Joshua to raise and train oxen and to perform other tasks necessary in equipping less experienced emigrants who were on their way to Utah. John Joshua and his family came to Utah in the Isaac Allred company arriving October 2, 1851. to a settlement known as Kanesville. men Of the married children who accompanied John on the westward trek, were Sidney with six children, ranging in age from seventeen to six; Nathan with five children ranging from age eleven to a babe of four months; Louisa Maria Lyman with three children, ages twelve to two. John and Elizabeth's children numbered five, Seth Benjamin age twenty, Freeman Everton age eighteen, Joseph Smith age fifteen, David Dan age ten, and Sariah age eight. By counting the in-laws it made a party of twenty-seven Tanners who traveled to Zion in the summer of 1848 in the Richards-Lyman companies. Three of Elizabeth's sons were now large able-bodied men, cap able of rendering effective help on the westward trip. This was' especially fortunate as John, now nearing his seventieth birthday, was gradually failing in health and needed these strong, willing hands to assist. The trip West was much like that of most other companies, monotonous, fatiguing, frustrating, and seemingly endless. If the date of July 1 is used as the date of departure and October 19 as the date of arrival in the valley, there is an elapsed time of more than three and a half months a long time to be traveling in wagon over dusty roads with tired and worn-out oxen and horses. It is difficult to fully appreciate what hardships and privations a trip of this kind places upon everyone, particularly on women who are tend ing small children or perhaps giving birth to babies. - The splendid journal of Eliza Partridge Lyman, one of the who gave birth to a child while the pioneer company journeyed the Platte River gives an excellent account of the trek. This was along 2 an experience she would not have wished to repeat. Many children and some mothers died as a result of the harsh life. Even strong men succumbed to the long continuing ordeal. women Apparently there was only one death among the Tanner family the 1848 crossing of the plains. The use of the phrase "only one death" is not intended to minimize the sadness of the occasion, for it must have been a heartbreaking event for Sidney the father, and John the grandfather, as well as all the members of the company. on |
