On this date one hundred and fifty years ago, 20 December 1851,George Carson passed away. He was 57. At the time he was living at Cottonwood (now Union) about ten miles south of Salt Lake City. His family consisted of his wife Ann, sons William, John, David, George and Washington, and daughters Elizabeth and Mary Ann. There were twelve grandchildren, two of whom had been born during the trek west. Counting the sons- and daughters-in-law there were twenty four individuals in the family at Cottonwood.

Compared with the information we have for the trek west, the knowledge we have for the years spent in Cottonwood is meager.

Their living conditions in Cottonwood are a mystery. The family had arrived late in the year and may not have had time to construct housing that would comfortably accommodate all of them. It was not uncommon for the pioneers to spend the first winter in their wagons.

During the first years that the family spent in Garden Grove, Iowa, they, and others in the community, had contracted with several young men to precede them to the Valley to construct houses and plant crops. Since no mention is made in our family histories that houses and fields were waiting for them when they arrived, I assume that the contract was not fulfilled, and that the family lost the money they invested in the plan.

We do know that on Sunday, November 9th, George and Ann were re-baptized as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brigham Young had instituted the practice in August of 1847 when he and the Quorum of the Twelve were re-baptized in City Creek. After that, most pioneers who entered the Valley renewed their baptismal covenants as a sign of spiritual renewal and commitment. The day George and Ann were re-baptized was bitterly cold. It rained during the day and in the evening it snowed - the first snow storm of the winter season. It is likely that the ordinance was performed out-of-doors.

In November, the Deseret News published a list of letters at the post office which had not been claimed. Among them was a letter to the Carsons. When the next list was published in December, the letter had been picked up. It would be interesting to know who had written to them.

Elvira Carson, John’s wife, told her family that in November 1851, John became very ill and that "the burden of providing food and clothing for the family of four children fell on her. She managed by spinning and weaving cloth, gathering greens, boiling down beets for syrup on shares for the molasses."

It appears the George’s death was unexpected. Several others in the little settlement had died of cholera in December, so this may be the most probable cause of his death.

Arranging for a burial was a family matter in those times, perhaps assisted by the Relief Society, or the Bishop.

First, it was necessary to obtain a coffin. Very often it was made by a family member.

It was customary to wash the body of the deceased, and then all of the body orifices would have been filled with cotton. (My own great grand mother, Rachel Lloyd Carson, worried so much about the prospect of her mouth being filled with cotton after her death that she made the family promise that it would not be done - strange what is remembered from one generation to the next.)

The body was then dressed and placed in the coffin. Coins were placed on the eyes to keep the lids closed. The hands were folded across the body, and a Bible (a considerably larger and heavier book than we are used to seeing today) was placed over the hands.

The coffin rested on two chairs while friends and neighbors visited the family to express their condolences.

Family members would wear black bands around their hats, or on their arms as a sign of mourning. The deceased’s wife would wear "weeds," a black dress, for the rest of her life. Indeed, the portrait we have in the family of Ann Carson shows her dressed in black.

A funeral service consisting of speakers, hymns and prayer, would have been held in the home. The hymnal at this time contained numerous hymns suitable for funerals, some specifically written for the death of a husband or brother.

Several members of the community at Cottonwood had already been buried in a field donated by a local farmer. George Carson was buried among them. A few years later, his daughter-in-law, Corilla Egbert Carson, was buried in the same field.

After the funeral, it was customary to wash the interior of the house with carbolic acid. We cannot be sure that the Carsons even had a house at this time.

Years later, while the family was living in Cedar Valley, the Carson brothers wanted to move their father’s grave to the new cemetery in Fairfield. When they returned to Cottonwood, they discovered that the field where the pioneers of 1851 had been buried had been plowed over. The actual grave site was lost.

My first memory of a Carson Reunion is of a family gathering at the site of the pioneer cemetery in Fort Union. It would have been sometime in the early 1950's. I remember being told that the family had just rediscovered where George Carson had been buried. Years later, the family organization placed markers in the little cemetery for George Carson and Corilla Egbert Carson. Soon after, the cemetery was re-dedicated by Elder Boyd K. Packer. It is located on the west side of the L.D.S. ward house at 1535 East Creek Road (7830 South).

This is the last of my letters telling the story of our family’s trek west in 1851. It is difficult for me to leave them just before Christmas, alone in a new home "far away in the West," and mourning the death of the family patriarch. But this is not the first such winter for the family. They endured similar circumstances after the expulsion of the Saints from Missouri and also during the first winter at Garden Grove. Through each of these trials, the family remained true to their commitment to the Church and to one another.

We can be justifiably proud of them and grateful to them for their sacrifices in our behalf.

 

Part 16

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