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1 522 OUR l'IONEEn lIEI1ITACE THE :M ILLS FAMILY.:....1852 fohn and Elizabeth Hall Mills first JlI:ard the gospel through Elder John Taylor. They had seen the s~ck he:lled' by faith. Their daughter Elizabeth was left almost blind from a bad case of measles. Her sight was restored through the faith of her parents and the elders. The family made their home at Douglas, on the Isle of Man, which sits like a jewel in the Irish Sea-picturesque with its rolling mossy hills and beautiful flowers. After their baptism in the year 1851, the family left their native land and came to America on the ship R9dhest~r, as they were some of the first Latter-day Saint converts. The sea voyage was very rough and severe, causing them to drift off their right course, which hindered their progress. They were on this sailing vessel about twelve weeks. Accompanying John and Elizabeth were five children, two boys and three girls. Their first home in America was in Nauvoo, Illinois. John Mills was a skilled tin and copper craftsman who helped to build the Nauvoo Temple. One day the Prophet Joseph Smith and John Taylor came to the Mills home to discuss the design of the temple font, at which time Mr. Mills was told the purpose of the oxen, representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Mr. Mills molded the horns and the ears of the oxen and worked on the font until its completion. In 1844, after the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum had been assassinated, the Mills family left the ill-fated city and journeyed to Fort Madison. After a short stay at this city, they moved to Drakesville where John was engaged in making telegraph wires. The next move took the family to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they lived and worked for two years. The John Mills family sold their -home at Council Bluffs, bought two wagons, two yoke of oxen, and two yoke of cows, loaded the wagons with provisions, bedding and such furniture as they could and started their journey westward. Daughter Elizabeth, two sons, Thomas and John, and daughter Martha left in one company, while the parents and daughter Alice left in another. Thomas and John died en route. One was bitten by a rattlesnake and the other died of mountain fever. In the spring of 1852, the Saint Louis Freight Company of Fort Laramie and the Independent Company joined them, where they were organized into companies of fifty wagons with a captain in charge of each. Captain Wilkie was in charge of the company in which the Mills family traveled. They reached Great Salt Lake Valley in late summer of 1852, settling in what was known as the Seventh Ward, living in a log cabin rented from Thomas Quayle. Times were difficult for the family, and Mr. Mills in the company of several other men made plans to go to California where he thought to better their conditions, have his family follow him later or return to them after he had acquired means to make their condition more prosperous. Fate was against him when he died from an explosion of a powder magazine, whic~he was soldering, in about the year 1855 or 1856. After a year had passed, Mrs. Mills became the wife of George 'iV. Rowley, one of Johnston's Army men. After their marria~e they moved to Wasatch, where her new husband made a comtortable home for her and her unmarried children. Two sons viere born of this union, George and Daniel Rowley. Elizabeth Hall Mills Rowley died at age 96 years. Elizabeth Mills Oakden Whitaker was born March 7, 1839, at Douglas on the Isle of Man. Her parents, John and Elizabeth Hall Mills, were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and set sail for America in the year 1841. The family, after having lived first in Nauvoo, then Fort Madison, Drakesville and . Council Bluffs, made their way to Utah, arriving in the spring of 1852. Elizabeth, the eldest of the Mills children, was fourteen years of age when they reached the valley.