Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Phillips Camp Biographies, Graham to Hayes

page 61

-LIF:: HI STOR:~ 0 F AL~F1\ H.ARDY Written by Alma Hardy -1935- _At the request of members of my family I herwi th pen a short sketch of my_ life, relatinB some instances r elated therewith. I was born in Leicester, Ene:l9. nd, October 30, 1852, a '30n of Thomas and Sarah Preston Buswell Hardy. My mother died when I was about 7 years old. Later my father married again, to Mary Adcock Sb.lll, mother of Hyrum Shill. My father was converted to ''Mormonism" when nbou t 20 yeB-rs of age, and about the same time my mother joined the church. Both my father and mother were members of the Branch Choir, my father being the conductor. My mother had an excellent soprano ~oice and many times I have fancied I could hear her voice as I used to when she waa slnging in the Choir. I have said that I received tbe name of "Alma" to spite my grandmother. So:>n after I was born one of my mother 's cronies who was also a member of the Branch Choir, went to visit my mother and during her visit she asked ''What are you going to name him?tt Mother said ttlVe have not thought of a name yet." The vi :1i tor sai.d "Why not name him Alma?" Nry grandmother, who was in attendance, spoke up saying nThat's a darn..ned Latter Day Saint name.'' !My grandmother was not a member of the church nor did she ever join whi.le living . However, I have done for her in the Temple, all that is in my ,power. She may think better of the name " Alma~t by this time. Vfuen my father came home from work, my mother told him of the visit she had had and the name suggested by the vlsitor. She also told him of the sarcastic reply tb.B.t Grandmother made about ".Alma being a damned Latter Day Salnt name ." Father replied "Then that will be his name." My mother died in 1859. In the spri.ng of 1862, when in my ninth year, I, with the family, left old England to emigrate to Utah. We set sail on the sailing vessel named "John J. Boyd" on Easter Sunday. The following Wednesday 1 we had occasion to bury in the sea, the youngest of the family, a little girl .by a second marriage. I We were six weeks and three days making the voyage from Liverpool to New York. At one time during the trip we had head winds and were driven back I f o where we ·were three days· before. I After arriving at Ne>;v York we traveled by train to St. Joe, where we ~ ook a boat and sailed up tl~ Missouri River to Winterquarters, or Florence, where we stayed six weeks awaiting the ox teams and wagons from Utah to take ~ s across the plains. It ~ as while staying at Florence that I saw an Am~rican llndian, also during our stay there my father was er1ployed by a widow woman to attend to the lawn and grounds of her estate. When the teams arrived we soon were on our journey to the Valleys of the Mountains. Our journey across the plains was not much varied - each day was about the same rcu tine. If the rivers and streams were not too deep, the teams pnd wagons forded them. Some large rivers were cros sed on Ferry Boats, the pxen were made ot swim, the wagons and passengers were taken over on the ¥erry Boats. It was at one of these large rivers, I think the PlatteRiver, that my father undertook to swim across, and when about in the middle of the ~tream, the current was so strong it carried him along distance down the stream, ahd he was finally rescued by one of the teamsters upon horse back • •