Samuel Coulson

Samuel Coulson was born 9 May 1840 in Lea Marston, a small community northeast of Birmingham, England. While working as a brewer in Birmingham, he joined the LDS church 24 Jan 1862. He married Elizabeth Cook several months later, who was not a member of the Mormon church. They had three children together, but when the eldest died 8 Jun 1867, Elizabeth was baptized just over a week later on 19 Jun. They boarded the ship Manhattan two days after on 21 Jun to come to Zion with the Saints.

Once arriving in the New York harbor the evening of 4 Jul 1867 during the Independence Day fireworks, Samuel and his family did not proceed west with the company of Saints, but remained in Williamsburg, which had a sizable Mormon population, and also had a booming brewing business. They remained there for at least 4 years, living at 107 S 6th Street in the municipal 13th Ward of Kings County. Three more sons were born: Christopher in 1867, Charles in 1869, and Alfred in 1871, but they lost their second-born son from Birmingham, Samuel Jr., to scarlet fever in 1868, and Charles and Alfred died as infants of cholera in 1870 and 1871 respectively. In a decade of marriage, Samuel and Elizabeth had six children, and only two lived; Francis survived from England, and Christopher survived from New York. The three who died in Williamsburg are buried in the Old Locust area of Cypress Hills cemetery.

It is interesting to note that Samuel and his family could have been classed as overland pioneers, but the time spent in New York excludes them. If they had proceeded with the Saints from the ship Manhattan, they would have arrived in Utah on the eve of the first General Conference to be held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Family tradition states the Coulsons came to Utah on the train, and it is recorded that Samuel received his ordinances in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on 26 Oct 1874.