Muddy Creek Burials, Wyoming

On July 9, 1859 a company of handcarts departed for the plains from Florence, Nebraska. The group consisted primarily of converts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Their destination, Salt Lake City, was a gathering place for the Saints, a place they would call Zion.

Handcarts provided an economical way for the church to convey thousands of new members to the West. Most of them arrived in the New World impoverished and without the means to buy a team and wagon.

Fifty-seven handcarts among them carried 250 pounds of provisions each. Four people were assigned to each cart. In addition there were eight wagons to carry extra luggage. Seven “Captains of ten” took stewardship over a group. These men were usually more seasoned on the frontier than the newly arrived immigrants.  George Rowley was assigned captain over the entire company.

Handcart memorial at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City.

Being a God-fearing group, every day began and ended with prayer. The distance they traveled, nearly all while pulling handcarts, varied from zero to seven to twenty miles a day. As you can imagine, this led to sore feet and sick people. One of the wagons was designated as the “provisions wagon,” which carried the “invalids.”

As they wandered in a strange land they witnessed things they had never before seen. Buffalo roamed the prairies. Indians came into their camps. Wolves howled at night and at times stirred up trouble. As one lady put it after a night of lightning and rain: they had witnessed “a real American thunderstorm.”

In addition to the mind-boggling number of miles they put in, the terrain on which they walked was not easy. The wheels of their handcarts spun over sandy hills, slogged through mud and forded rivers. At times when they stopped to camp for the night there was neither water nor wood for a fire. They quickly learned to use an American novelty for fuel: the buffalo chip.

Two-rut trail at Muddy Creek.

As they traveled from east to west, they mostly followed the Oregon-California Trail until they parted ways near South Pass, Wyoming. For much of this journey they followed the Platte and Sweetwater Rivers. They watched for notable landmarks like Devil's Gate and Chimney Rock.

Along with sickness came death. There were no doctors or hospitals for the weary travelers. When the angel of death came, he often claimed more than one in the same family. Burial was a sad affair. After the grieving family was long gone, the lifeless corpse entombed in parched or frozen ground was often disinterred by wolves. Travelers along the route reported to having found skulls lying around and limbs protruding from the earth.

Martin Handcart Company---Bitter Creek, Wyoming, 1856.  (Courtesy Church Newsroom)

As the company of handcart pioneers of whom we speak traveled across what is today Nebraska and Wyoming, they became low on provisions. This was difficult for the group, and like similar stories found in scripture, they began to murmur. By August 22 when they arrived at the Green River in Wyoming, their provisions were completely exhausted. They resorted to killing one of their own oxen. —Two days later horsemen from Salt Lake arrived with provisions and the famished Saints were overcome with joy and shed many tears.

After a well deserved rest the group continued their journey in a southwesterly direction, crossing the Hams and Smiths forks. On August 28 they arrived at Fort Bridger where all the soldiers turned out “to see 250 persons pulling handcarts over a wild country of a thousand miles and all for a religion in which they have implicit faith and confidence.”⸺They ate dinner at “The Springs” and descended a very steep and rocky hill and camped at the foot of it beside the “little Muddy.”

On August 29, Thomas McIntyre recorded the following in his diary:

“At 7 a.m. we have a death in our camp. Anna Henysen [Hansen] aged 49. She had been sickly since she left home. We bury her on near to a creek near the south of the road. The Danish Saints attend to the rites of burial. We travel over hilly ground but good roads. [We] ford Bear River which is very high and camp about ¼ of a mile from the crossing. Traveled today 21 miles.”

Peaceful waters at Muddy Creek.

Fenced memorial for Catherine Bennett.

Ann came to America from Denmark with her husband, Mads Jensen, and five living children. In Denmark she would have been known as Ann Hansdatter. They arrived earlier that year on the ship “William Tapscott.” We know very little else about them.

Like many other pioneers, she died from “mountain fever,” which tends to be a catch-all phrase for any fever or disease you get in the mountains. It is the same illness that plagued Brigham Young when he arrived in Salt Lake twelve years earlier. Apparently Ann's family had it also because just five days later—just one day before arriving in the valley—her 13 year-old daughter, Maren, also died. The next day they were joined in death by, Karen, the 7 year-old daughter. Indeed, a very sad situation.

Headstone for Ann Hansdatter Jensen.

The Muddy Creek Campground was one of the most used on the Mormon and California Trails. Brigham Young's group camped here on July 9, 1847. They reported the camp had good water and plenty of grass.

It was also used as a stage stop and Pony Express station. In 1858, over 2,000 men with the U.S. Army camped here. The original Transcontinental Railroad came near here in 1869. It is estimated that 70,000 Mormon pioneers either came through or camped at the Muddy Creek Campground.

Muddy Creek, Wyoming.

Less than two weeks after the death of Ann Hansdatter Jensen, there was another death at Muddy Creek. Peter Andersen Fjeldsted, another Danish convert, passed away on September 9th. There is very little we know about him, including exactly how he died. Luckily for us, he was in the process of writing his history down in a “diary.” It was only three pages long and still not complete as he crossed the plains.

Born near Copenhagen in 1821, Peter was raised in the Lutheran faith. His family was so poor that by the age of fourteen he had to leave home and work at a factory where he “saw all the drunkenness and wild life and those who didn't believe in God.” After several years he returned home to support his mother after his father died in a drowning accident. In 1844 he married and had a child who died the same day.

Peter learned of the restored gospel in 1850 from missionary Erastus Snow. He and his brother, Christian Daniel Fjeldsted, believed the words of Elder Snow and were a strength to each other. His wife, however, did not believe and this drew a wedge between them that eventually pulled them apart. As he recorded in his diary: “My heart felt as if it were crushed between two stones.”

After his baptism he spent several years serving as a missionary for the church in Denmark. He presided over congregations as well as baptized new converts. He returned to his wife several times, but she would not budge. She stood staunchly in her Lutheran faith. He wrote in his diary: “I can see now that she won't believe in the Gospel, but she's in God's hands and I'll pray for her, that's all I can do.”

On April 1, 1859 he left Denmark for the last time aboard a ship for Liverpool. From there he would board another ship bound for America with hundreds of Saints. His diary ends while aboard this ship. We know that five months later he would die near Muddy Creek.

Peter had no living descendants. His brother, Christian, however, successfully made it to Utah and was blessed with a bountiful progeny. He was ordained as a President of the Seventy in 1884 and is buried in Logan, Utah.

Christian Daniel Fjeldsted, brother of Peter.

Almost exactly a year later would come the third and final known burial at Muddy Creek. Catherine Jones Bennett, a convert from Wales, died on September 26, 1860. What makes this interesting to me is that it was recorded in the diary of my great-great-great-great-grandfather, Joel Hills Johnson.

The Bennett family lived in a village near the border with England. Catherine's father, John Jones, had a dream where he saw two men bringing a book and preaching a new gospel. He told his dream to Catherine's husband, Benjamin Bennett, and they decided that when these men came they would follow them.

Several years later, in 1840, several members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles traveled to England as missionaries. Two of them, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, made a short trip into Wales to the town of Hawarden to preach the gospel. It was here that John Jones saw and recognized them as the men in his dream.

(L-R) Catherine Bennett, Benjamin Bennett, daughter Elizabeth Bennett.

Benjamin and Catherine, along with several family members, were baptized in 1841. After several more years in Wales, they were finally given the opportunity to come to America and join the other Saints in the mountains of Utah.

They sailed from Liverpool, England aboard a ship with 730 converts of the church. After arriving in New York City they took a train eastward, likely then to take a steam boat on the Missouri River to Florence, Nebraska. This was where the real work would begin. Then they traveled in a wagon train with the William Budge Company.

Joel Hills Johnson started his journey across the plains on August 5,1860. He traveled with two wagons, one carrying belongings for himself and the other with provisions and goods from one of the handcart companies. It is unclear when he began traveling with the William Budge Company, or if he traveled with them the entire time. I believe there were multiple trains traveling within general proximity of each other.

The pioneers traveled most of the same route traveled a year earlier by Ann Jensen and Peter Fjeldsted. Johnson writes of many of the same landmarks and encounters as did Thomas McIntyre in his diary, although in less detail.

The first and only mention of Catherine Bennett comes on his September 27 entry:

“Started before breakfast. Traveled about 8 or 9 miles to the Station on the muddy near Iron Springs where we camped for the balance of the day and night. At this place we buried Sister Bennett, an aged Saint from England, who died the day before.”⸺The next day they had no choice but to move on.

There is one more connection that makes Catherine Bennett of interest to me. Her husband, Benjamin, completed the trip to Utah and eventually settled in what is now known as Holden, Utah. Catherine and Benjamin's daughter, Elizabeth, married John Kenney. John Kenney is my great-great-great-grandpa, I being related through John's second wife, Phebe Alden, these being the days of polygamy.

Memorial for Catherine Jones Bennett.

The Muddy Creek Burials are special in the sense that we know where they are. The vast majority of deaths along the Mormon Trail are lost to time. Often they were “buried on a hill.” But which hill that is, no one knows for sure.

But it should also be noted that, at least in the case of Catherine Bennett, and possibly with the other two, we only know of the general area. When Catherine's family finally learned of the general location where she was buried, they traveled there in the early 1990's and “found one grave that had been claimed last year, but not much else that looked like a grave.”

In 1862, Jens Weibye recorded in his journal “. . . there a short distance west on the north side of the road, was the grave of Peter A. Fjeldsted who died while crossing the plains in 1859.” This shows that his grave was marked at one time. Perhaps this is the grave the Bennett family found in the 1990's. There were no bodies exhumed, nor any Lidar scans. It is likely, in my opinion, that the grave marker for Peter Fjeldsted is in the correct spot, while the other two are just in the general area. All three markers are next to each other. 

Grave markers for Ann Jensen (left) and Peter Fjeldsted.

An expansive view of Muddy Creek, looking west.

The Muddy Creek Burials are half an hour drive from Evanston, Wyoming. From the exit off I-80 it is three miles on a well-maintained graveled road. Muddy Creek wasn't muddy at all when I visited the location. It's clear waters meandered lazily downstream.

The location still feels pretty isolated. I can picture snow on the ground and gusty wind with nothing to block it. I can imagine sore feet from walking hundreds of miles with no relief on the horizon.

Researching these burials has been a humbling experience. My ancestors traveled the exact same route as Catherine Bennett, Peter Fjeldsted and Ann Jensen. Although none of my ancestors died while crossing the plains, some perished at Winter Quarters while waiting to cross. These men and women sacrificed everything they had to find a place where they could worship in freedom without fear of violent mobs. They suffered far more than I will ever suffer so that I might have the liberty to worship. I will be eternally grateful for them. ♠

[Sources: Journal of Thomas McIntyre, Journal of Joel Hills Johnson, Find a Grave, numerous documents from Family Search, and historical marker at Muddy Creek.]

Salt Lake City Cemetery

Oh ye mountains high, where the clear blue sky 

Arches over the vales of the free. 

Where the pure breezes blow and the clear streamlets flow, 

How I've longed to your bosom to flee! 

O Zion! Dear Zion! land of the free! 

Now my own mountain home, unto three I have come; 

All my fond hopes are centered in thee.

—Oh Ye Mountains High, by Charles W. Penrose. Included in LDS Hymnal.
 

During July of 1847 the first Mormon wagon trains began rolling down Emigration Canyon of the Wasatch Mountains into the Salt Lake Valley. They had been driven from their homes by mobs in Illinois and Missouri and sought a refuge where they could worship in peace. 

These were hardy and faithful pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a religion formed just 15 years earlier by Joseph Smith, a man they revered as Prophet. The young man, Joseph, visited with angels and translated an ancient record that became known as the Book of Mormon. Thousands of converts from the eastern United States and Europe joined the young religion. 

Old church on the south side of the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Flanked by snow-capped mountains on their eastern edge, they began to build a city. They laid out streets, built small adobe or log homes, diverted water and planted crops. They also began construction of a magnificent temple. This would be a place where the Saints could gather and gain strength. This would be their Zion. 

But as sure as the sun comes up, it didn't take long before the first deaths occurred in the valley. On August 11, three-year old Milton Therlkill drowned in a pond that had been dammed along City Creek. In September, Caroline Grant died of cholera 75 miles east of Salt Lake on her trek west. Her body was brought to the valley for burial. Two weeks later Nancy O'Neil Rich, mother of Charles Rich, died of pneumonia. She is memorialized as the first white woman to die in the valley. They were buried in a field outside the new fort. 

A year later on September 27, 1848, the young daughter of George and Melisssa Wallace passed away. Instead of burying her down by the fort, her father chose to inter her body in a place more secluded on the east bench. The lot was owned by a relative, Daniel Wallace. A month later, an infant son of the Wallace's died and was buried next to his sister. Other people followed suit and soon there were several burials at this site in the foothills. 

In 1849 a committee was selected and it was decided that this site in the foothills would become the permanent city cemetery. George Wallace was appointed sexton. All burials from that time forward were to be interred in the new cemetery. With exception of a few, many of the previous burials were exhumed and relocated to the new burial ground. 

Graves of Francis Armstrong and his family.

Nowadays the Salt Lake City Cemetery is mammoth in size and is one of the largest city-owned cemeteries in the United States. It covers 150 acres and has 9 ½ miles of roads. 

To an outsider, the Salt Lake Cemetery may seem average. But to anyone who has an inkling of the history of the Mormon Church, this cemetery is dense with prominent figures. From Apostles to Prophets, to poets and architects, this cemetery is a treasure trove. 

Until now, I had only been to the cemetery once. That was twenty years ago and I longed to return. On a recent trip to the city, my wife was kind enough to let me visit again. 

The cemetery is located in “The Avenues” of Salt Lake. It's a beautiful area with many old homes and a few steep roads. My father-in-law grew up here. It is a place where people of all faiths, or no faith, can take walks and enjoy the peace. 

I parked on the side of the road and began walking randomly toward the north. The first thing that struck me was how many burials were from the 1800's. A lot! I knew that all these people were pioneers, contributing to the cause in their own special way. 

It didn't take long to find the first familiar name: Truman O. Angell. Anyone who knows just a smidgen of Church History knows that Truman O. Angell was the architect of the Salt Lake Temple, which is probably the most historical structure in Utah. Born in Rhode Island, Angell joined the church at age 23. He quickly immersed himself in the work of the church by serving a mission and helping the construction of some early church buildings. He came west with the Saints, having buried three children along the way. He arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and Brigham Young appointed him as the church architect. It is interesting that during the construction of the temple, Young sent him to Europe to study the designs of buildings over there. Consequently, the Salt Lake Temple looks more like a European cathedral than any other temple. Additionally, Angell designed several other buildings and temples for the church. 

Truman O. Angell.

To understand Mormon culture is to understand the reverence that is paid to their leaders. The highest of those leaders is the President of the Church, also known as Prophet, Seer and Revelator. There have only been 17 of them since the founding of the church in 1830. The majority are buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. 

As I walked through the stone grave markers I came across several Prophets. The first was Wilford Woodruff, the fourth President of the church, serving until his death in 1898. He was noted for issuing “The Manifesto,” the document which ended plural marriage in the church. 

Grave of Wilford Woodruff, fourth President of the church.

I also passed by the graves of several members of the Smith family, including Joseph F. Smith, his son Joseph Fielding Smith, and a distant cousin, George Albert Smith. All of these are related, but not directly descended from church founder Joseph Smith. 

The tomb of George Albert reads: “He understood and disseminated the teachings of Christ and was uncommonly successful in putting them into practice. He was kindly, patient, wise, tolerant, and understanding. He went about doing good.” 

Graves of Joseph Fielding Smith and family.

George Albert Smith.

With great joy I came across the grave of Thomas S. Monson, sixteenth president of the church. Of all the familiar burials I encountered this day, his was the only one I had seen or met in person. He didn't pass away until 2018. As a friend of my wife's grandmother, he came to her husband's funeral and it was there that I shook his hand. He was a very personable man. 

Graves of Thomas Spencer Monson and wife, Frances.

Although the Prophet Brigham Young was buried separately in a location downtown, one of his plural wives, Harriett Amelia Folsom Young, is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. She died 33 years after her husband and bears a large tombstone over her grave. Tributes describe her as tall, queenly, intelligent, of a fair complexion, and an accomplished pianist and vocalist. 

Another wife of a a famous pioneer was Mary Garn, the wife of Lot Smith (no relation to Joseph). I don't know much about Mary, but Lot was a leader of the Militia and fought in battles against the Indians. He was killed by a Navajo near Tuba City, Arizona in 1892. 

Harriett Amelia Folsom Young, plural wife of Brigham Young.

Buried relatively close to each other are Apostles Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow. It is interesting how the path of these two men intertwined throughout the history of the church. Orson Pratt was the first to join the church. He was ordained an elder and served a mission where he met and taught Erastus Snow. Pratt became an apostle first, being one of the original twelve ordained under the hands of Joseph Smith. He was also a writer, historian, philosopher, and mathematician. In 1847 he used his math skills to design an “odometer” that would measure the distance traveled on the trek west, via the rotation of the wagon wheel. He and Erastus Snow were the first Mormons to enter the Salt Lake Valley, arriving three days ahead of the vanguard group. In 1860 they served a mission together in the Eastern States.

Orson Pratt, one of the original twelve apostles ordained by Joseph Smith.

Erastus Snow.

Another Apostle buried in the Salt Lake Cemetery is George Q. Cannon. The Q stands for “Quayle” and even today in Utah you will occasionally find the same middle name, usually given in honor of George Q. He was one of the first missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands and became an apostle after the murder of Parley P. Pratt. 

In addition to church leaders, there were many headstones honoring those of lay members. One such person that stood out was Moses Deming, who died in 1871. It was obvious that a newer headstone had replaced the older one. His obituary in the Deseret News stated: “He embraced the gospel in Michigan, and has been in Utah about eighteen years. He died in full faith in the gospel and leaves a large family and a numerous circle of friends to deplore his death.” 

George Q. Cannon.

Moses Deming, an ordinary pioneer buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

But of all the graves I sought the most to find in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, it was that of my great-great-great-great-grandfather, John Workman. The only other time I came to this cemetery—20 or so years ago—I came across his grave, feeling lucky to find it out of the thousands. Back then it had the original headstone, falling apart and nearly illegible. Since then they have replaced it. 

John Workman was the first in his family to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were living in Overton County Tennessee when two Mormon Elders sought to lodge in their home. Never turning away a traveler in need of food and rest, they welcomed the Elders. John found the message taught by the Elders had struck a familiar chord. 

They were baptized and eventually moved to Nauvoo to join the Saints. There they were persecuted strongly by the mob and eventually his wife, Lydia, succumbed to the persecution and died. She was buried in the Nauvoo Cemetery. 

After being driven from Nauvoo by the mob, John Workman and his family migrated west to the Salt Lake Valley where he died just three years later.  His new headstone lists all 20 of his children! 

Graves of John Workman, Mary Chidester (great-granddaughter), Abram (grandson) and Julia (granddaughter-in-law) Workman.

Salt Lake Temple icon is a popular engraving on LDS headstones.

I continued to wander the cemetery. There was too much to take in and too little time. It was interesting to note that many of the modern headstones had engravings of the Salt Lake Temple, whose designer, Truman O. Angell, was buried just a short distance away. 

Not too far beyond the graves of Mormon pioneers there is a Jewish section. Technically, I believe, it is a different cemetery, named the B'nai Israel Cemetery. There were no fences and no signs to distinguish it from the grander Salt Lake City Cemetery. Here the headstones were marked with different symbolism, usually the Star of David or menorah. Gravestones tended to be placed closer together, similar to those I had seen in pictures of Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe. Writing on these markers came in English, Hebrew, and sometimes Arabic. 

It seems like the Jews make their mark just about everywhere, and Utah was no exception. The first Jewish families came to Salt Lake during the 1850's. They built buildings and contributed to the community. In 1869, Brigham Young offered them land for the purpose of constructing a cemetery. From 1917 to 1921, Simon Bamberger, a Jew, was Governor of Utah. He is buried in the B'nai Israel Cemetery. 

The B'Nai Israel Cemetery is located next to the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Headstone with various languages, including Arabic and Hebrew.

Like I stated earlier, the Salt Lake City Cemetery is huge. I could come back every day for a year and find something new each time. There are other Jewish sections, as well as a Catholic cemetery. An hour and a half was certainly not enough time to see all I wanted. 

Toward the end of my wanderings, I came across the large headstone of another familiar name: Charles W. Penrose. If you recall, at the beginning of this writing I included the first verse of his beloved hymn, Oh Ye Mountains High. Penrose was born in London and joined the church in 1850 at the age of eighteen. He was immediately called to serve a mission in England and it was there that he penned this hymn—before he even set foot in the Salt Lake Valley. He later emigrated to Utah and in 1904 was ordained an Apostle. 

As I left the cemetery, I envisioned it laid out like a giant quilt. It was a patchwork, with everyone faithful and diligent in their own little section, but when sewn together, helping to create something bigger than themselves. I was only able to identify a few of the bigger “patches.” I knew that this cemetery was full of smaller, anonymous patches who came to Zion and did their part, but would never be known but to a few of their own descendants. ♠

 

Grave of Charles W. Penrose.