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A WOMAN CALLED MARY Jessie Oldroyd Senior Division Second Place Personal Recollection England's soil felt warm and damp, ready for planting that April day 1862, when Mary's parents, the Jolleys, called the family together to say goodbye to their homeland. Tears and yearnings combined with smiles and excitement, as they embraced beloved relatives and friends, took one last look at their home and possessions, then turned their faces toward Zion. Mary, with her family. Father John, Mother Susan, two sisters and one brother, went first to Liverpool, England. There, on May 14, 1862. they boarded the ship, "William Tapescott." In a company of nine hundred people, they sailed away to America, the Promised Land, the place where they could live out their dreams of being true Latter-Day Saints of Jesus Christ. "How big is the ocean. Father? Will it take us long to get to America?" the children asked. Yes, it was a long way - and the trip seldom easy. Waves dashed high. Many people were ill. There was forty-two days on the Atlantic Ocean before reaching New York Harbor on the 25th day of June. What courage, faith, and hope these people had, going into the unknown. After leaving New York City, they journeyed up the Hudson River to Albany. From there they traveled the Erie Canal to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, where they crossed the chain bridge into Canada. Next, they traveled by rail to Windsor, Canada near Detroit. The train continued to Chicago and beyond until they boarded a River Boat headed down the Mississippi to a point where Mary and the tired family climbed onto another train. That took them across Iowa to the Missouri river and a steamer going to Nebraska, to Winter Quarters. In August, they joined with a company of people and fifty-two wagons, eighteen or nineteen persons to the wagon. Father drove an oxen team, the wagon loaded with equipment and supplies, to help pay his and the family's way. Ail children over the age of ten had to walk. Mary the eldest daughter, did her share by pulling and walking beside a handcart. The mother was not well, which was a great worry to the family Her condition and the difficulties of the journey had been to hard for her. Two days out of Winter Quarters, she gave birth to new son. She did not regain her strength, and on the evening of September 6, 1862, she passed away. Another life laid down for the Gospel's sake. She was buried at 18 |
