Ancestors and Author's Notes by Zina Abbott

One reason I love writing for the Prairie Roses Collection series is that it is about wagon trains, and I have ancestors who crossed the country on wagon trains. All of my ancestors who came to the United States did so from northern Europe. All arrived between 1850 and the mid-1880s. Not all were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they journeyed in covered wagons along the Mormon Trail or came partway by rail. However, all of them had the Great Salt Lake Valley and surrounding regions as their destinations.

 

Although I do not write about my ancestors or focus on Mormons in my books, they were on the Great Plains from 1847 on, and many others came across them. I did throw in a few tidbits in some of my covered wagon books, and the latest was no exception. It started with my dedication:

 

This book is dedicated to my great-great grandparents, William England and Eliza Seamons England, two of my pioneer ancestors, both of whom were raised in England. They left Florence, Nebraska on July 1, 1861 and arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley on September 13, 1861 in the Joseph Horne and Homer Duncan wagon train company.

None of the written histories of this couple indicate they traveled on a down-and-back church train—one of the first operated under the direction of the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, from a recent lesson book made available by the International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, I learned that the first down-and-back church trains left Florence, Nebraska, on July 1, 1861. The last of twelve left on July 17, 1861, four days before the first major battle of the American Civil War. These trains were mostly filled by church members who were recent immigrants from many nations in Europe who arrived on three ships that sailed from England in the spring of 1861. Others, like my England ancestors, who had been in the United States longer (William four years, Eliza one year), or who traveled to Florence from the East that year, also joined these first trains.

Both Joseph Horne and Homer Duncan were among the first men called by the church to organize, outfit, and captain a down-and-back wagon train from Florence, Nebraska, to Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory in 1861.

 What prompted me to choose this particular couple for the dedication in Sue?

As a member of International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, I taught a lesson last year about down-and-back wagon trains. In all my years of learning about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to the best of my recollection, I had never heard of them. I decided to check the histories I have on file of my ancestors to see if any traveled in such a wagon train. None of them specifically stated they did. However, there were enough clues in the histories of William and Eliza Seamons to indicate they crossed the Great Plains in a down-and-back wagon train.

 

Laramie Plains in late June

For Sue, which is set in 1867-68, the group she travels with are able to journey part of the way on the Union Pacific Railroad. I set the story so they arrived in Laramie City in June 1868, which made it an end-of-track station. From there, they must travel the Overland Stage Route to Fort Bridger. Since there were seven people and four freight wagons, for safety, the leader wanted to travel with another wagon train. The only one the Laramie City station manager knew of was the Mormon Train—wagons and drivers from the Salt Lake Valley area who arrived several days earlier and waited for the new immigrants from Europe to arrive on the train. They had a head start over the group with which Sue traveled by almost two days.

And thus, the plot moves forward from there.

This from my author’s notes at the back of my book (Keep in mind, because of the way Amazon works Kindle Unlimited, many readers never see a book dedication unless they scroll back from the opening page to find it):

Between 1861 to 1866, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operated down-and-back wagon trains, which included food, to help church members complete the journey from eastern Nebraska to Great Salt Lake City, especially those who arrived impoverished because they had sold everything in Europe to migrate to the United States. Members from all over Utah Territory were called and tasked with driving church-owned wagons and livestock, along with necessary supplies, east along the Mormon Trail. Once these immigrants reached Florence, Nebraska—now a suburb of Omaha—they were connected with a church-operated wagon train for the balance of their journey. Not long after the Union Pacific Railroad laid its first forty miles of track from Omaha, Nebraska, west by the end of 1865, the down-and-back wagon trains ended. The church continued to assist immigrants who had joined the church to travel from the end-of-track stations to where they were requested to settle.

I extended the years the down-and-back church wagon trains were in operation for the purpose of my story.

 

 

Sue, Book 55 in the Prairie Roses Collection, is now available for sale as an ebook and with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. To find the book description and purchase options,

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