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Contact Sons of Utah Pioneers in Salt Lake for copies: 1.801.484.4441

THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR SONS OF UTAH PIONEERS

CONQUERORS OF THE WEST 
       Stalwart Mormon Pioneers    
 

 

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Compiled by Florence C. Youngberg   
Retail Price: Negotiable &  Sold as a set.  
Hard Cover 6 x 9  4 Vol. 728p each vol  
  ISBN 188810631X  
LC 98-72414 April 1999  Click Cover for full image

    Page 1  Page 1A   Page 2   Page 3   Page 4   Page 5 

  SEE EARLY SALT LAKE CITY DRAWINGS

 Compiler   Excerpt        See Pages for Google, Yahoo, MSN   Pages  1   2    3

Indexed. Biography/stories with photos, family information, and genealogies of 1500 men who settled throughout the West, beginning in early 1800s. This is the story of a people driven by an unquenchable need to find freedom. In wagons, handcarts, on horseback, and on foot they traveled mile after mile across the United States to a remote territory they only envisioned. Courage and determination drove these pioneers day after day, amidst incredible hardships, deprivations, deaths and, yes, even romance and happiness. This work is sponsored by the National Society for Sons Of Utah Pioneers.

COMPILER

Florence C. Youngberg, resident of Utah, is director of the Sons of Utah Pioneers Family Research Library. She also wrote Parley's Hollow: Gateway To The Great Salt Lake Valley. Visit the Sons of Utah Pioneers Library in Salt Lake City for more history and photos: 3301 East 2940 South. 
    Call 801 484-4441. Director of the library is historian Florence Youngberg, who will be glad to show you around and answer questions. She has produced a 16 page color booklet called Parley's Historic Nature Park with 31 photos.

EXCERPT

WILLIAM MEEKS

 

 

 

 

Born: 9 Jan 1815, Luce, Spencer, Indiana
Parents: Athe and Anna Vest Meeks
Died: 30 Nov 1877, St. George, Utah
Arrived in Valley: 1856, Captain Nicinger

Married: Elizabeth Rhodes
Date: 5 Oct 1837, Warrick, Indiana
Born: 23 Jan 1820, Boone, Indiana
Died: 29 Mar 1899

    At age 22, William married Betsy, who was 18. During 1840, William's uncle, Priddy Meeks, introduced the Meeks family to the LDS Church. Part of the family was converted, including William's family, William's grandmother Meeks, and a couple of other Meeks families. Most of these converts left Indiana in the spring of 1842 and joined the main body of saints in Nauvoo. William was one of the 300 men who volunteered to rescue Joseph Smith, who had been kidnapped on the pretense of legal proceedings.
    In February 1846, when the saints were forced out of Nauvoo, William went with the first group, the Pioneer Company, as a member of the police. He returned for his family in May 1846, and they left Nauvoo with the final wave of saints from the Poor Camp, those poor or ill people who were not adequately prepared to leave. They traveled to Winter Quarters and William continued as a policeman under Hosea Stout.
    In 1848 the saints had to leave Winter Quarters, so William moved his family to Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Iowa, because they, like others, were not yet prepared to go to the Salt Lake Valley. Finally in 1852, they crossed the plains under Captain William Mendenhall. They arrived in the valley on October 1, 1952.
    The Meeks family settled in Springville, and within a year, they moved to Salt Creek (Nephi). During this time, William was a U.S. Deputy Marshall. In February 1856, Brigham Young called William and his family to go to Fort Supply, Wyoming. They arrived in late spring of 1856. With the advancement of Johnston's army, the family relocated to Provo Valley (now Heber) for a time. William was involved with cattle ranching, and he and several others established the first lumber mill in the area.
    It is reported that William and his family moved to St. George in 1862, and on to Pine Valley near the end of the 1860s. In 1870, William went to the Paria area northeast of Kanab to work with the Indians. He died at the age of 63 as the result of an accident while riding his horse. His wife Betsy moved to Thurber (Bicknell) and lived with her daughter Melissa. She died at the age of 80, surviving her husband by 22 years.

Children:

HARVEY HENRY, b. 9 Apr 1838, Newtonville or Rockport, Spencer, Indiana. Md 25 Dec 1860, Sarah Catherine Dowdell. D.17 Oct 1914, Center Creek, Wasatch, Utah.
HENRY RHODES, b. 23 Mar 1840, Luce, Indiana. Md 4 Sep 1865, Almira Ann Meacham. D. 16 Feb 1821, Wind River, Wyoming.
MARY ELIZABETH, b. 11 Jun 1840, Nauvoo, Illinois. Md 3 Oct 1861, William Cummings. D. 23 May 1922, Kanosh, Millard, Utah.
WILLIAM, b. 18 Feb 1847, Winter Quarters, Iowa. Md 11 Nov 1872, Sarah Gardner. D. 28 Apr 1923, Bicknell, Wayne, Utah.
JOSEPH BRIGHAM, b. 8 Jan 1850, Winter Quarters, Iowa. Md Vilate Burgess. D. 6 Jan 1937.
MARY JANE, b. 20 Dec 1851, Council Bluffs, Iowa. Md 6 Mar 1867, James Pearce. D. 13 Oct 1941, Taylor, Navajo, Arizona.
MARY ELLEN, b. 16 Jan 1854, Council Bluffs, Iowa. D. Infant.
JOHN, b. 1855, Fort Supply, Wyoming. D. Infant.
MARY MELISSA, b. 20 Aug 1856, Fort Supply, Wyoming. Md 5 Apr 1876, Willard Snow. D. 6 May 1944, Filmore, Utah.
MARY LOUISE, b. 25 Aug 1859, Provo, Utah. Md 23 Mar 1877, James Gardner. D. 6 May 1944, Fillmore, Utah

Submitted by: Janell Nichols and Patricia Bracken

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