(8) Angela Dawn Keddington (Me)
(7) James Austin Gilbert (My Dad)
(6) Stanley Duane Gilbert & Sara Arlene Mifflin Gilbert – father & mother to James A. Gilbert
(5) Madie Barnes Mair – Mother to Duane Gilbert
(4) George Alexander Mair & Annie Barnes Mair – father & mother to Madie Barnes Mair
(3) Alexander Mair & Eliza Thompson Mair – father & mother to George Alexander Mair
(2) Mary Murdoch Mair & Allan Mair – mother & father to Alexander Mair
(1) Mary Murray Murdoch (a.k.a. Wee Granny) & John Murdoch –
mother & father to Mary Murdoch Mair.
We have a neat story about her that was posted in the church news back in 2001 when a memorial grave site was dedicated. For the sake of preserving family history details, I thought I should post a copy of it here on my blog:
SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — "Tell John I died with my face toward Zion."
These were the last words of a faithful pioneer known as "Wee Granny," 73, a slight Scottish woman whose long walk toward Zion with the ill-fated Martin Handcart Company ended near Chimney Rock, Neb.
Mary Murray Murdoch, known as "Wee Granny" to her posterity, had eight children, six of whom lived to maturity, and 72 grandchildren. A widow whose husband was killed in a mining accident, she joined the Church at age 67 in 1851.
She was called Wee Granny because of her small size — 4-feet-7 inches tall and weighing no more than 90 pounds.
We Granny's son, John Murdoch, and his wife, Anne Steele Murdock, had joined the Church earlier and were the first to cross the plains. They had been introduced to the gospel by Anne's brother, James Steele.
John and Ann Murdoch left Scotland and came to Utah in 1852, enduring a difficult journey in which their two small children died. As soon as they were settled, they saved money and sent it for Wee Granny to come to Utah.
On May 25, 1856, Wee Granny, in company with the James Steele family, sailed on the Horizon from Liverpool, England, to New York. They rode a train to the Midwest, where they joined the Martin Handcart Company at Iowa City on July 28 to begin the arduous cross-country trek. This group of 576 people, with 146 carts, seven wagons and 30 oxen, was poor and most of their passages were paid by the Perpetual Emigration Fund.
The pioneers averaged 13 miles a day between Iowa City and Florence (now Omaha), Neb. Beset with usual hills and gullies, sand patches and stream beds, the pioneers had an added hardship as the handcarts began breaking down. Constructed with uncured wood, the carts did not sustain the load. A shortage of water led to the immigrants drinking water in puddles. Food rationing began early. Wee Granny walked the entire distance.
The company rested at Florence, where, a few days earlier the fated Willie Handcart Company had debated whether they should cross the plains so late in the season. In Florence, the Martin company gathered additional food and repaired handcarts, which were now heavier than before. Because of the lateness in the season, they picked up their pace as they left Florence.
"As Mary Murdoch and her compatriots in the Martin company moved during mid- to late September across central Nebraska and into the increasingly barren, windy, and unforgiving environment of the west, the journey began to take an ever increasing toll on them,"
"The daily tedium of their labor turned into a significant struggle. . . . As she reached the last several days of her life, Wee Granny's exhaustion, weakness, and pain must have been overwhelming,"
Her frail body gave out on Oct. 2, about 10 miles east of Chimney Rock. She was attended at the time of her death by James Steele and his family.
For more information, see Internet site: murdochfamily.net
No comments:
Post a Comment