1855-12-29-Emerald Isle

Latest revision as of 14:43, 20 January 2021

[edit] A Compilation of General Voyage Notes

Source: Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, page 792; Vol. XVIII, page 78.

On the twenty-ninth of December the Emerald Isle arrived at New York, and the emigrants were landed in Castle Garden, where some of them remained a few days, until they found houses to live in, and the brethren obtained employment. Some of the emigrants continued the journey to St. Louis and other parts of the West, and in due course of time most of them reached the valleys of the mountains.

[edit] The Story of a Life's Experience in Mormonism

Source:Stenhouse, Mrs. T. B. H. [Fanny], "Tell It All": The Story of a Life's Experience in Mormonism (Cincinnati, Ohio: Queen City Publishing, 1874) pp.173-80.

…The Mormon emigrants have always a captain and two counselors to every company. The captain on board the Emerald Isle—the vessel in which we came—was a returning Utah elder;—one of his counselors was also a returning elder, and my husband was the other. As soon as the [p.179] Mormon captain had come on shore, and had reported to the apostle in charge of the New York Saints, he left to visit his friends. The Utah counselor had a young lady in the company to whom he had become very much attached, and who afterward became one of his wives. I was not, therefore, surprised that, as soon as he could get his baggage, he also should disappear; but my husband—the other counselor—being encumbered with a wife and family, was obliged to remain, and the whole charge of seeing to the company devolved upon him.

We had, therefore, to remain in Castle Garden until the whole company of emigrants was provided for; and during all the next week I, with my four children, remained in that public place, sick and weary, and as destitute of bedding and covering as we had been on board ship. The weather was intensely cold, and, unaccustomed as we were to the severity of an American winter, we suffered not a little. The other unfortunate victims to faith were in the same condition, with the exception that they and something to sleep on at nights, while I had nothing but the bare boards for my bed since we left Liverpool;—all that I could gather together had been reserved for my babes. How we lived through that journey I know not, but I am certain that, could I have foreseen what we should have to endure, I would never have left England, whatever my refusal might have cost me.

I could not refrain from contrasting my life before and since I knew Mormonism. Before, I scarcely knew what suffering was, so little had I been called upon to endure; I never knew what it was to be without money, or to want for anything; but now I was in a strange land, in the depth of winter, without a home, without a pillow to rest my weary head upon, and with a future before me so dark that not a single ray of light gave to it the promise of hope. Could any slavery be more complete than mine? My fanaticism and zeal were all gone—I had nothing to sustain me. Certainly, I was still held by the fear that Mormonism, after all, might be of God, and that all this suffering might be necessary. . . [p.180]