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Show ( Utah ·Historic Records Survey, 1936 Federal Vfriterst ~ejects WPA Mabel Jarvis, St.&orge , Utah. Manomas· was only :four years of age when her parents and other family members became converts of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Cho/ch and commenced the long journey across the Great Plains to Utah. There were seventeen persons in the group from Mississippi who joined the Pioneers at Ft. Laramie in June of 1847. T hey had wintered a t Pueblo, along with many othe rs who later joined Captain Brown's detatchment of' the Batallion and came on to Ft. Laramie with them, ar riving June 16th., the fi rst seventeen having arrived on the lat. The entire group pushed forward on the 17th., hoping to overtake tha main caravan before it reached Utah. These facts are r ecorded in the Utah Chronology. The Gibsons were with this company of seventeen who winterad at Pueblo, which was then only a small trading post with a few l.og buildings. 'I'b.ere wera only a few other women than thos.e of the Gibson party in the settlement that winter .. Mr. Gibson had contracted mountain :tever (typhoid} which was their reas.on for this delay along the route .. Though not yet fiv:-e years of age, "Aunt Home"' recounts clearly the incidents. of that long cold winter. One event stands out prominently in her mind. There. were ass:emble:d at Pueblo along with the r ·ew Mormon :tioneera, q,ui te a number 'o:t traders and trappers who did a good bit of drinking and gambling. One night some of t hese men were gailbling in a building next to the cabin occupied by the Gibsons. An argument arose over the card game, and the Gibson children were terrified at the thought of what was going on so near them, as they could hear every ward of the. snarling, wwearing men. Suddenly there were. shots. One man was killed. And keen in her mind today is the Illl11llOry of that awful night, the loud shouting of the men and their guni''ire as they pursued the murderer, who wa.s l ater apprehended, shot to death and brought to camp for burial. Fa ther Gibson, bei ng a carpenter, :fashioned a coff'in from rough logs in which tha murderer was burried. Much suffering was endured during that long winter and IllllCh anguish lest something should happen and they might not get to the Valley, -2- |
