1856-02-15-John J. Boyd
A Compilation of General Voyage Notes
Source: Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p.812; Vol. XVIII, pp.170, 206; Morgenstjernen, Vol. II, p.383
On the sixteenth of February, 1856, the emigrants landed in New York, and after tarrying a few days at Castle Garden, the journey was continued on the twenty-first or twenty-second by rail via Dunkirk and Cleveland to Chicago…
Autobiographical Sketch of Mary Larsen Ahlstrom
Source: Ahlstrom, Mary Larsen. Autobiographical sketch (Ms 9923-CHL), pp. 1-2, 4.
We landed in New York the 16th of February 1856 and stayed in a large place, Castle Garden. The 21st of February, 1856 we left New York on a train for Dunkirk, Cleveland and Chicago…
Autobiography of Fredrick Julius Christiansen
Source: Christiansen, Fredrick Julius, [Autobiography], Our Pioneer Heritage comp. by Kate B. Carter, vol. 10 (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1967) pp. 132-133.
February 16th we went from New York to Castle Gardens where we remained until the 22nd when we went by railroad to Cleveland, Toledo and Chicago.
Autobiography of Patience Loader Archer
Source: Archer, Patience Loader [Autobiography], Our Pioneer Heritage comp. by Kate B. Carter, vol. 14 (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1971) pp. 260-261, 263.
We arrived in New York the latter part of February 1856, and then went to housekeeping; all that could, got positions. Maria and I did sewing in a cloak factory. Sarah and Jane went out as nurse girls. Father got work in gardens, thus we were preparing means to continue the journey to Utah. We expected to stay in New York for a year, but we received word to go to Iowa, and be prepared to leave with the handcart company in July. We left New York in June, 1856, for Iowa…
Autobiography of Peter Gottfredson
Source: Gottfredson, (Gotfredsen) Peter. Autobiography, pp. 6-9. (CHL)
When we landed in New York it was said the captain was not on the ship. It was thought he had got away on a fishing or trading boat. Several had met our ship a day or two before we landed.
Apostle John Taylor was at New York to look after the immigrants when they landed. He was very kind and attentive to them. We stayed there about a week. We learned that it was providential that we were so long on the sea, for when we got to New York the trains had been snowbound for a long time and could not run for several days after we landed and we would have been on expense. The ship company furnished the provisions as long as we were on board the ship. When we left New York the roads were yet in bad condition and we had to travel very very slow. I remember in places the men would walk beside the train. Most of the immigrants hadn't enough means to take them through to Utah, and had to remain in the States. Some stopped in Illinois, some in Missouri and others in Iowa.
Book of Remembrance of Marianne Sharp
Source: Sharp, Marianne Savage Clark, 1901-1990 Book of remembrance [ca. 1852-1981] This account was written by Charles R. Savage, [pp. 1-3].
The voyage was a long, tempestuous one, lasting from the 10th of December 1855 to the 27th of February 1856. Possibly no company of Saints experienced a more trying ordeal than those who crossed on the John J. Boyd. There was only one day's supply of water left when we landed in New York. We all [p.2] felt to thank God for our safe arrival.
Nearly all the company were housed in a large hall in Williamsburg, near New York. Elder John Taylor, who was there in New York publishing the Mormon, made arrangements as that each now could go out and shovel snow from the sidewalk in order to earn a few dollars; the cold was intense and the snow very deep. This movement proved a great help to the Saints; it enabled them to live and earn food for their families. Gradually as the spring approached they scattered round, some went west, some stayed in New York. The people were generally kind to the Mormons. Many of them found profitable employment, but all of them were hoping to go to the great basin; some got halfway and no further. Many dragged handcarts across the plains. I refer to those who crossed on the John J. Boyd.
Reminiscences of Patience Loader Rosa Archer
Source: Archer, Patience Loader. Reminiscences (Ms 6218-CHL), pp. 39-57.
Not [p.47] very long after this one morning my brother John came to our berth and said, "Come girls. Get up and go on deck and see land!" We did not believe him at first. We told him that he only wanted to make us get up as he had been up to the galley and cooked breakfast for us and we told him that we could not eat or drink anything as we were feeling sick. "Oh," he said, "come on deck and you will feel better when you see land." So after some persuading we dressed and went on deck and to our great joy we surely could see land. I will never forget the joyful feeling and how thankful I felt to think that we had spent our last night on the old ship. John J. Boyd was the name of the poor old ship. This was the last voyage she went. I ran downstairs to tell father and mother that surely land was in site and tonight we would land in New York. This was joyful news to them for we was all tired of our long sea voyage. Although we had made some very good friends with many of our Danish brothers and sisters, and Brother Charles Savage, he was such good cheerful company. He would sing to us so many of his good old songs to try to pass the time as cheerfully as we could for he was getting tired of the long and tedious journey. At last we landed all safe in Castle Garden, New York in February, 1856 about nine o'clock in the evening.
I forgot to mention that poor old Brother William Haley [Hailey] went on deck to the cook house and the wind blew his stove pipe hat overboard and when he came and told his poor old wife that he had lost his hat, she scolded him and said, "Now you can go the rest of the way without a hat for I will not let you have your new hat or you will lose that." So she tied a red handkerchief around his head. The [p.48] poor old man felt very bad about losing [his] hat. He said it cost him 12 schillings and 6 pence. I asked him how long he had worn it, and he said twelve years. I said, "Well, if I were you, Brother, I would not grieve about that old hat for I think it has done you good service. I think that has been a very cheap hat." Oh me, how angry he was with me. He seemed to think that I had no sympathy for him in his troubles and when we arrived at Castle Garden, his wife found an old half stove pipe hat and she gave it to the poor old man. He said it was too small for him but as she was the boss, she put it on his head and said, "You will have [to] wear that or none." I will never forget how the poor old man looked with that old hat just stuck on the top of his head. I felt sorry to see the poor old man go out in the street looking such a way. They had plenty of money but his wife said she would not go and buy him another hat and she was the captain. Her word was law.
In the morning President John Taylor and Brother Miles came to visit to make inquiry and found out who had money and who had not. Those that was able to go out and rent rooms for themselves had to do so and those that needed help had a place provided for them and provisions provided for them. My father and myself went to Williamsburg and rented three rooms. We bought a second hand cook stove, a table, and two or three chairs and we was soon comfortably settled for four months. We soon all got work. My father was a first class gardener and he very soon had more work than he could attend to, making and laying out flower gardens. He got good wages. My brother was a shoemaker and he also did well. Myself and sister Maria got work in the store on Grant Street making mantillas. We worked piece work and made good wages. My sisters Jane and Sarah got work taking care [p.49] of babies. So we all got work and did well. My brother Robert was ten years old. He went to school. We were going fine in Williamsburg. We were all working and expected to stay here until the next year, then we thought we would make enough money to buy an outfit to go to Utah but we were greatly surprised.
Sometime in May we received orders from Liverpool to be ready to start on a journey to leave New York the beginning of July and to go to Iowa to join the handcart company to cross the plains by handcart. This was a terrible great surprise to us all. At first for we felt we never could undertake to pull a handcart from Iowa to Salt Lake City and my poor mother, in delicate health. She had not walked a mile for years and we girls had never been use to outdoor work.
My brother-in-law John Jaques was in in [SIC] Liverpool in the office with Franklin D. Richards. From there we received orders to be ready to go that season by handcart to Utah. My poor mother felt so bad about it that she requested me to write to my brother-in-law, John Jaques as he was in the Liverpool office with Franklin D. Richards. Mother wished me to tell him that she did not think that she and her girls could ever undertake to go that long journey and pull a handcart from Iowa to Salt Lake City and to tell him also that she would want revelation from God before she could make up her mind to go that hard way to the valley. I wrote the letter and mailed it in due time. My brother-in-law received it and it appeared he did not like the contents of the letter.
One day I went to President John Taylor's office on business and he said, "Well, Sister Patience, when are you going to Utah?" I told him that we had come to the conclusion to stay in New York until the next year as we [p.50] was all working and we thought we could make enough money to buy a good outfit by the next year. He thought that was a very good plan. Then I told him my father had orders that came from the office in Liverpool from President F. [Franklin] D. Richards to get ready at once to leave New York and get out to Iowa camping ground to meet a company of Saints that would go by handcart to Salt Lake City and that arrangements was made for my father and his family to get our handcarts at Iowa and go with that company that expected to start on their journey sometime in July.
Brother Taylor was quite surprised when I told him. He seemed to feel sorry for us. He knew that my father had only we four girls to help him as Mother was a very delicate Mormon unable to take a journey by handcart across the plains I ask Br. Taylor if he would like to have his girls pull a handcart across the plains. He said no. But Patience I cannot say anything about the matter as you are under the council of President Richards you will have to go according to councils, but at the same time I don't think you will be able to go any further than Council Bluffs this season. You will be too late starting. Council Bluffs he said it two hundred and seventy five miles from Iowa City and when you get there you will find out how you feel if you can stand the journey or not but my opinion is that you will have to stay there until next spring and that is what we should have done it would have been the saving of hundreds of lives good men and women faithful members of the Church. I return back home after this conversation with President John Taylor told my father and mother that I had been talking with Br. Taylor about us go by handcart to Utah and told them all what he said that we was under the council of [p.51] Bro. F. D. Richards. My poor mother still held in the same mine she did not feel that she could ever undertake that long journey by handcarts and we girls all felt the same as Mother and as for myself, I think I felt the worst out of all the family. I could not see it right at all to want us to do such a humiliating thing to be I said harnessed up like cattle and pull a handcart loaded up with our bedding, cooking utensils, and our food and clothing and have to go through different towns to be looked at and made fun of as I knew we would be it was very hurtful to my feelings. Yes, I will say and to my pride in my young days such away of traveling was very humiliating to my feelings and I did not think it was necessary. Make people pull a hand cart when by waiting another year we could have bought good teams and wagon but we was still waiting for further orders from Liverpool before we made any move to leave New York. One day T. B. H. Stenhouse came from the president's office. He said you know that you name is in the Millennial Star. Br. Loader, you are thought to be apostatizing from the Church. It says father Loader had brought his family out of one part of Babylon this hurts my poor dear father's feelings very much. He said to mother, I cannot stand that to be accused of apostasy. I will show them better; Mother I am going to Utah. I will pull the handcart if I die on the road. We all know if our father said he would go that we would all have to go for he would never leave any of us in New York. Neither would we have been willing to be left there after our dear father and mother had gone away. So, when father gave the word we all agreed to go with him and we commenced to make ready for the journey. We all gave notice to quit our work on such a day and got ready to leave New York. On the 3rd of July, [p.52]1856 we left New York and arrived at Dunkirk.
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- Nathan Porter return from UK mission.
