Pioneer travel at the time of Jackson/Wooley (couple 1)

[Dad's paternal grandfather's paternal Grandparents]
[V.O. Jackson > David Jackson > Jackson/Wooley]

My family tree is definitely two sided: At the 6th Generation, my dad's side of the family is entirely born in Great Britain.  On my mom's side at the same generation, the family is almost entirely in the South (Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina).  Of these 32 ancestors, they each have a story to tell, though some of the records are more available than others.  To be fair, I haven't done any handling of original source documents, but have gone to digitized sources (limited mostly to government records) and online books and family generations (limited mostly to people who have a descendant interested in genealogy).

I put together a map (see below), that starts with these 32 people's birth place and death place.  As I encounter additional information, I'll add waypoints to reflect the movements of my ancestors.    Where no substantial movement is noted between the birth and death locations, I planted a marker instead of a path line.  I figured that would bring a little attention to the lack of motion.


I'll begin on my Jackson side, marching through from paternal to maternal sides.  I'll start at the very top with (F,F,F,F,F+M) William Jackson and Ann Wooley.  Just to give a little context, for the first post, I'd like to describe a typical Mormon migration story.  After all, one of the defining parts of their life was the faith and their resulting movements from one country to another.  (Information gleaned from "LDS Emigration in 1853: The Keokuk Encampment and Outfitting Ten Wagon Trains for Utah," available here.  Also read "1853 Mormon Immigrants Who Camped in Keokuk", available here.)

The journey for William Jackson and Ann Wooley was typical for Mormon Pioneers.  They traveled from Liverpool England aboard the Falcon (a tall sailing ship) to New Orleans, which carried 324 passengers (departed 28 March 1853, arrived 18 May 1853).

Golconda, another tallship which brought other 1853 immigrants from Liverpool.

They then caught a steamer to St. Louis, and then to Keokuk.  Previous years immigrants cut their journey 300 miles shorter using the Missouri River to Kanesville (Council Bluffs), but the church and emigration agent that year decided to try a new outfitting/assembly place that year to a) stay on the Mississippi River which had more steamboat traffic for provisioning, and b) avoid the somewhat more precarious travel on the Missouri River.

1853 Camp at Keokuk, by Frederick Piercy, an April arrival, said the camp was atop a steep bluff by the river, “most picturesquely situated on top of a hill, surrounded by wood, and commanding a view of the country for miles around,” and had good drainage and plenty of wood and water.

Logistics
In England in 1852, the estimated cost for an adult to travel from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake City was twenty pounds. (A pound then equaled about five American dollars, so twenty pounds was worth about
$100 then, or $2,000 in year 2000 American dollars.)

As a new option, in October 1852, European Mission President Franklin D. Richards announced a £10 plan for British Saints. Essentially, it offered a half-price option, whereby costs were reduced to a minimum—more people per wagon and milk cows, less luggage allowed, and less food provided. The William G. Hartley: The Keokuk Encampment plan covered steerage and food on an Atlantic ship, Mississippi River steamer steerage fare and food, and a wagon, two yoke of oxen, and two milk cows per ten people, plus provisions for ten from Keokuk to Utah. To be £10 travelers meant the persons would not go as comfortably as earlier £20 passengers.  Traveler Maria Walker said that “most of them were too poor to buy a team all of their own. So, they put their money together and perhaps two families in one wagon with two yoke of cattle or three if they could. Some came in what was called the £10 company. . . . Of course they came on the cheapest way there was.” Historian Polly Aird has determined that “in 1853 more than 41 percent of the emigrants came through its (£10 companies) auspices,” which was “equal to the percent that came independently.”

This photo was taken about 1912 of a Pioneer Day re-enactment of the 1847 arrival by wagon train. Later, someone typed a caption on the front of the card. The image now is part of the Library of Congress archives, available for public use.

The logistics to buy and move to camp enough vehicles and animals were staggering; and, Haight (the church's travel agent) discovered, rising prices meant his funds were inadequate. He calculated than an outfit cost about $295—that is, $70 for a wagon, $150 for two yoke of oxen, $75 for two heifers, and $50 for provisions to cross Iowa—or about $6,000 in year 2000 dollars. How many people brought their own wagons is not known, but Elder Haight supplied at least 200 of the 350 outfits, at a cost then of about $60,000, or $1.2 million today.

Between late March and early July 1853, Church emigration agent Isaac C. Haight and his assistants blended together 2,548 Saints, 360 wagons, 1,440 oxen, and 720 milk cows to create ten wagon trains that rolled successfully some fourteen hundred overland miles to Utah by mid-October.

Coming up tomorrow: a retelling of some of the interesting family lore about William Jackson and Ann Wooley.