With Ruby growing up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico, we
return back again to Nauvoo in 1846 and the Browns.
Samuel and Lydia Brown were among the last group to leave
Nauvoo in 1846. They settled in Des Moines, Iowa, where a son David Brigham
Brown was born on January 21, 1847. There Samuel likely worked as a wheelwright
helping Saints preparing to go West. In 1849 they moved further west to a small
settlement called Council Point, Iowa, which is near Kanesville or Council
Bluff. In July 1852, the Browns and others in that area left for Zion in the
Allen Weeks Company. On the plains of Nebraska tragedy struck the Brown family.
Lydia died from cholera and was buried in small grave along the trail.[1]
David who was five years old at the time and walked the entire way across the
plains, told the following story years later, as related by his son Delbert:
“ Father [David Brigham Brown] did a lot of freighting
between Chuhuichupa and Dublan. He took me with him whenever possible. He used
to tell me stories as we rode along in the wagon and after we’d gone to bed at
night. … [T]he story which impressed me most was when his mother died while
they were crossing the plains when he was very small. He painted the picture so
vividly in my mind that I can see it yet. The newly made grave where they had
just put his mother. His sister Emily taking his hand saying, “Come on boys, we
must go now. Mama has gone to sleep,’ and seeing that long wagon train go down
the hill leaving his mother behind. He was five years old at this time, his
twin brothers were three.” [2]
Samuel and his family arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in
October 12, 1852, and were sent by Brigham Young to settle in Fillmore in
Millard County, Utah. In Fillmore David spent his youth in that tight knit pioneer community. He was Pony Express Rider for several months and worked as a
construction foreman for a smelter and a charcoal burner in a mining district.
In 1870 the family moved to Payson, Utah, where David became acquainted with
Cynthia Selena McClellan. Two years later they were married and moved to
Gentile Valley in Idaho. In 1882 David and Cynthia returned to Payson, Utah, to
care for his aged father Samuel. Samuel died that winter and in 1883 David and
Cynthia and their five children moved to Box Creek in Piute County in an area
in southern Utah known as Grass Valley. Cynthia had some family in that area.
[1]
[1] Irene Brown Martineau, “Samuel Webster
Brown 1801 & Lydia Maria Lathrop 1815,” undated history available at
familysearch.com under the entry for Samuel Brown (KWJX-SDP);
[2]
Delbert B. Brown, “David B. and Anna Helena
Rasmussen Brown,” unpublished and undated manuscript written by David Brigham
Brown’s son, 2.
[3]
Mary Elizabeth Rasmussen Christensen, “A Short
History of Peter Rasmussen,”(Undated) (available at
familysearch.com in the documents section for Peder Rasmussen KV5W-Z6H);
“Bishop Peter Rasmussen St. – History compiled for a YMYW Trek for the
Manassas, Colorado Stake” (Undated) (available
at familysearch.com in the documents section for Peder Rasmussen KV5W-Z6H);
[4]
Arrington, 206-207. See Allen and Leonard,
281-286, for a general overview of the immigration system.
[5] Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel 1947-1868, “John Riggs
Murdock,” https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneers/43282/john-riggs-murdock.
[6] A.H. Rasmussen, “All born in Svenborg Amt.” 1916 (available
at familysearch.com in the documents section for Ane Helena Andersen KWJ8-5S4);
Clara Johnson, “A Sketch of the Life of My
Grandmother Ane Helena Andersen Rasmussen,” (undated) (available
at familysearch.com in the documents section for Ane Helena Andersen KWJ8-5S4)
[7]
Ruby Spilsbury Brown, “David Brigham Brown,”
Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol 4, P 227 (available at Family Search. Org in stories
page of David Brigham Brown (KWCH-B3B); Ruby Spilsbury Brown, “I Am Just So
Wearied – the Story of Anna Helena Rasmussen Brown,” (unpublished manuscript
1936), 2.
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