Mary Ashton Wardle Obituary

Found this gem on family Search where it had been contributed by Iva Beckstead.  this lists place of death as West Jordan and age as 20.  She is buried in South Jordan Cemetery which is more likely location of death.  Also they have inflated her age slightly.  Mary's is the last obituary in this picture.

Died: On the 5th inst., at her residence in West Jordan Ward, in child-birth, Mary Ashton Wardle, wife of Isaac Wardle and daughter of William and Sarah Ann Ashton, aged 20 years.

Martin Handcart Pioneer: Mary Ashton, 5

Mary Ashton turned five on the trek.  She traveled with her parents, two older sisters and a younger sister. Their family was struck with tragedy as they were preparing to disembark from the Ship Horizon in Boston.  Mary's younger sister, Elizabeth passed away and her body left in Boston.  After they left Iowa City with their handcart all had to work hard as Mary's mother was pregnant.  She would deliver the baby close to Winter's Quarters, and pass away as a result.  This left her father, two older sisters and the new baby sister.  The baby, without her mother lived a couple of weeks before passing away.  The hardships for Mary were just beginning.  When the handcart company passed Fort Laramie, her father enlisted in the army, leaving the three girls in the care of others.  Betsy would have been the primary source of comfort. She was eleven.  However even Betsy would not survive.  She froze her feet at the last crossing of the Platte River, and passed away between Red Buttes and Martin's Cove.  This left Mary and her older sister, Sarah Ellen, who was seven, to care for each other.  They would suffer because of the cold. They were taken in by others.  After arriving in Salt Lake City Mary's was a difficult childhood.  She was expected to work hard for her keep.  She would marry young, an older handcart pioneer, Isaac Wardle, as his second wife.  She would bear a son, but die in childbirth.  From that son comes a large posterity who honor Mary for her sacrifice.

Only known picture of Mary Ashton

The Family of William Ashton

William Ashton and his wife Sarah Ann Barlow Ashton must have had some second thoughts as the approached the handcart trek.  Sarah Ann was pregnant with their sixth child.  Their other children were all girls.  Betsy the oldest, about eleven, the second Esther had passed away as an infant, then followed Sarah, Mary and Elizabeth.
Tragedy would strike the family again, while in Boston harbor, little Elizabeth would succumb to the measles.  This only allowed the family a few hours to grieve before they had to continue their journey. Their next leg was by wagon to the train station to  take them North to Albany where they would cross the Hudson River on the journey to Iowa.
This family's tragedy was not over.  Shortly after the pioneers had regrouped at Florence Nebraska and were traveling close to Winter Quarters, Sarah Ann would go into labor, and deliver another baby girl.  However she would pass away in child birth.  William was left with four girls, one of them a baby.  Of course wet nurses from the company would help tend the baby, keeping her alive for two weeks.  Baby Sarah Ann would be buried along the plains.
When the company reached Fort Laramie, rations were being reduced to minimal amounts of food.  There would be a struggle to get over the mountains and into Salt Lake.  William Ashton left the company at Fort Laramie, leaving his three daughters to the care of others.   He was able to use his signing bonus to support his girls, but he left them on the plains to carry on alone.
The oldest daughter, Betsy, must have felt a great responsibility.  When the company reached the last crossing of the Platte, near present day Casper Wyoming, Betsy froze her feet.  She would succumb afterwards, someplace between Red Buttes and Martin's Cove.  Her death was not recorded.  The two children Sarah, seven and Mary five were cared for by others, and they actually survived and made it to Salt Lake.  Mary is my great great grandmother.  She would die in child birth some years later, giving birth to her only son, William Haston Wardle.  However hers is a great posterity, as that son was the father of eleven.
For more details and a view of a picture entitled orphans depicting Mary and Sarah after Betsy's death.
http://www.tellmystorytoo.com/fine-arts/julie-rogers/orphans

Tell My Story Too; Jolene Allphin: stories of Mary Ashton, Isaac Wardle and Langley Bailey

Jolene Allphin has compiled hundreds of stories of handcart pioneers.  The stories include the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies, Hunts and Hodgetts Wagon Companies, and of the Rescuers.  Some of the stories are available on line at "Tell My Story, Too" where they are accompanied by the artwork of Julie Rogers, such as the painting of Sarah and Mary above.
Among these stories are a few of our ancestors.  She tells the story of Isaac John Wardle.  Isaac tells the story of his conversion in 1853, of getting a better prospect to earn money to emigrate, of his journey by ship, of his pulling Langley Bailey in the handcart.  Leaving Florence he had on the handcart Langley Bailey, 100 pounds of flour, and tent and camp equipment for seven people with John Bailey to help pull.  He was blessed by Franklin Richards and Cyrus Wheelock that he would live to see "the valley".  Langley felt bad about his brother and Isaac having an extra burden, and tried to get away one day.  His mother found him and reminded him of the blessing.  Langley rode on the handcart until the met rescue wagons from Salt Lake, and then rode in a wagon all the way to the Valley.
The journey was difficult.  There was a sandy trail, and later a snow covered trail.  Many gave up according to  Isaac, and were buried by the wayside.  Isaac himself collapsed at one time and lay for some time. 
Isaac is also known for chopping down trees at Martin's Cove, just over a little hill.  Orrin Wardle wrote of this is his history of Isaac.  This knowledge helped to identify the location of Martin's Cove many years layer. 
Isaac would later marry Mary Ashton.  She was also a Martin Handcart Pioneer.  Isaac likely met her through his friend, Alex Beckstead, whose brother married Sarah Ashton.
Sarah Ashton's history is also included, and this includes a history of the Ashton family.  The Ashton's struggled with finding resources to emigrate.  The handcart plan made this possible.  William and Sarah Ann Barlow Ashton had five daughters, one having dyed in infancy in England.  Another, Elizabeth, would pass away on board the Ship Horizon while docked in Boston.  Tragedy would further stalk the family.  Sarah would die in childbirth, one day journey after Florence.  The new baby, their sixth Sarah Ann, would die 16 days later. 
William Ashton left the company at Fort Laramie, joining the military, Company G, an infantry unit.  At any rate, the three remaining girls were left in the care of others, perhaps with the Barlows.  Betsy too would also succumb and is buried on the plains.  The two remaining girls, Sarah and Mary arrived in Salt Lake and were taken in by different families.  This history documents: "At some point Mary and Sarah found a home with the Hartfield family in Farmington, Utah.  At the age of 12, Sarah was living with the Joseph Carlisle family and working for them as a domestic.  homas W. Beckstead when she was 15. ... Mary was possibly living with them in S. Jordan, as she later married Isaac Wardle who had lived with and worked for Thomas Beckstead's father, Alex Beckstead, Sr. ... Mary and Isaac had one son who they named William Ashton [Haston] Wardle;  perhaps after Mary's father.  Mary only lived four hours after her son was born. 
Another history in this book if that of Langley Allgood Bailey.  In this history is included the letter written by Langley Bailey to Isaac Wardle in 1916.  This letter includes a heartfelt thanks for the assistance Isaac rendered him on the handcart trail.

"A Flower Bloomed" to my Grandmother Mary Jane Ashton by Orrin D. Wardle

“ A Flower Bloomed”

To my Grandmother –

Mary Ashton Wardle

By Orrin D. Wardle

______________________________

The flowers bloomed

With colors bright

That verdant spring of fifty-six

 ‘Round Stockport town,

Down Cheshire way,

On hills,

In Vales,

In England’s realm.

The rains of March,

With fog and cold,

Had nourished growth

And brought the green

That dressed the hills

And filled the vales

Throughout the land

In

April,

May.

Beyond the town,

Brim full of glee,

Roamed

Little girls

In play

And search to see,

Enjoy,

The land’s display.

Four girls there were:

One

Our

Mary.

Who were those girls?

The Ashton Girls.

They’re William’s girls

And Sarah Ann’s;

Of yeoman stock who worked

In mills

To earn

Their bread

In poverty.

A NEW LIFE

Wilford Woodruff

And

Brigham Young

Years ‘fore

Had come

To that good land

To teach the plan,

The word of Christ,

Of Gospel lost,

To earth restored.

The parents heard;

The word they b’lived;

The Ashtons

Joined

The Church of Christ.

In forty-one,

They were baptized;

Then thought

Of Zi’n

Across the sea.

When

Mary came

In fifty-one

The thought held firm,

“We’d go there now

If

Funds we had.”

They

Labored

On Selves to sustain

While

Waiting long.

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 2

From fifty-one

To

Fifty-six,

She grew,

And played,

And learned,

And Worked

As little girls in England did

In age of

Queen Victoria.

She went to church

In cottage small.

She’d listened

To the preachers

Tell

Of  Joseph Smith,

Moroni too

Who’d brought

The book

From days of old.

She’d talked with friends

‘Bout Jesus Christ,

And questions

Asked her parents dear,

Why

She

On earth had come

To live.

She’d

Come to b’lieve

What Mormons know!

While daddy

In the mills did work,

They saved

A pence,

A farthing here,

But

Realized

They’d never get cash funds enough

To pay

Their fare.

Their

Miracle

Did

Then occur!

The leaders

Told about a fund –

Perpetual

Immigration

Fund –

For

Worthy saints

of Ashton mold.

Why

Did they come?

We

Can surmise they thought

Some

Of a better life:

More free to be what they would be,

To have a job,

To own a home.

Or

Was it faith

In Zion

Mew?

They

Truly b’lived the Mormon book;

They

Wanted place among the Saints:

They

Pondered brief,

Then

Said,

“Let’s go!”

Meanwhile

The girls danced down the lanes

With skipping feet

And pumping hearts.

A hope

A new

Came to their house

As fresh new green bathed

All the land.

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 3

The flowers

Bloomed

That verdant spring

Of fifty-six

Excited girls chose

What to go

And

What to leave,

While

Green

The hills and vales

Become.

To gold

They gave but little thought.

The girls

More thought,

‘Mid grass and shade,

Of ships

And trains

And Indians,

Of buffalo

And

Desert lands.

Would they be

Safe?

With daddy,

Yes!

No fear;

He’d

Surely

Care for them.

Their souls

Were full of sheer delight:

We’re

Going

To-

America!”

Goodbye!

Goodbye!

The fond Farewells

To friends and home,

To relatives,

With tears

But firmed

In faith that they now had

In

Gospel true.

If friends they’d leave;

New friends they’d have.

If home was left;

If birthplace left;

New birth had come.

They’d

Leave the old;

They’d

Find the new.

For

They’d been

Taught.

Missionaries had taught and told

With certainty

How desert

Would, from rim to rim,

Be filled

And make

The roses bloom.

And

Thus

That May

Of fifty-six,

As flowers bloomed

‘Round Stockport town,

The Ashtons

Left their loved ones deer

To seek

New life

In Zion land.

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 4

At Liverpool,

They found

Their ship

Whose Master Reed in record wrote,

“A man and wife,

Each thirty-three,

And children

Four

By

P. E. Fund.”

“Horizon”

Ship for Boston bound,

Six hundred saints,

Two hundred more,

Were being led by Priesthood

Called to organize

And see them through.

Great storms

They had

With boisterous waves,

But sun

Came out

And girls played on,

Chased

‘Round the deck

And through the ropes

As Captain yelled

Then smiled and bore.

CAME SADNESS!

Elizabeth,

Her sister dear,

Her living doll,

Did die

At sea,

When

Only two,

And then

Was slipped beneath the waves,

To play

No more.

“Oh,

Father dear,

In Heav’n Above

Why

Took you her

In life so new?

A babe

In arms

Was all we knew.”

And

Anguish

Filled

The hearts of all.

The ship sailed on,

Five weeks passed by,

Until

They made the Boston port.

By train

They went,

Through settled lands,

To end of tracks:

I’wa city.

There

Wagons were

To haul them on.

With

Meager wealth,

Uncertainties,

But

Hope alive,

They fin’ly came to Council Bluffs,

The

Gath’ring

Point.

The plan was set.

They

All

Would walk a thousand miles

Across the plains

And through the hills.

Their meager wealth

And food supplies

In handcarts haul.

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 5

The handcart train,

With wheels

So frail

And box so small,

Set out

Too

Late;

The season spent,

Yet

Without choice,

They set out

West

Along the

Platte.

The men did

Pull;

The women

Pushed:

While children

Small

Did trudge along.

In sandy spots,

On stubborn hills,

Young men

Would help,

With shoulders

Push.

Yes,

He

Was there

Now twenty-one.

He’d crossed the sea,

Now

Walked the plains with Martin group,

Firth company:

An

Isaac

Strong

Of Wardle line.

Then

Mary

Small

Was only four.

Thus,

If he saw,

If her he knew,

She could have been

But nothing more than little girl

Upon the plains.

AND TRAGEDY!

They’d gone not far.

They yet

Were on Nebraska plain

When mother said,

“My time has come.”

Their

Hearts

Did

Break!

The baby died.

Their mother died!

Out on the plains,

Where winds did roar

And

Wild life ran,

They

Dug a grave,

A shallow trench,

And placed

Therein

The ones they loved

To wait Christ’s call.

Saints

Gathered round

Condolence grave,

“She’s now with God.”

And “You’ll make out.”

The handcarts rolled

And tears

Did stream down Mary’s cheeks

As on she trudged

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 6

“Oh

Mother dear,

Why

Did you die?

The plain’s so broad

The trail’s so long:

Who’ll

Wash our clothes

And meals prepare;

Who’ll

Keep us safe

With

Ev’ning prayer?”

FOLLOWED BY HEARTBREAK:

Then

William

Felt

His loneliness.

In tears,

distraught,

His reason broke.

A desp’rate man,

He fled

The train,

Went back

To home

Across the sea.

“Oh,

Father dear,

Why

Did you go?

The home

We seek’s still

Far away.

Who’ll

Pull our cart;

Who’ll

Build our fire:

Who’ll

Tell us right

When we’re not sure?”

“Who’ll take them in?”

“They’re three lone girls.”

“Who’ll pull their cart?”

Saints

Took them in –

Sarah

Betsy,

And Mary too

Were taken in.

Soon

Mountains rose before their view.

The days of fall

Rushed

Quickly past

And

Winter’s blast

Came

Far too soon to cloak the land

With

Cold

And

Snow.

At

Old South Pass

Their

Movement

Stopped:

Crude shelters built

Gave little help.

They’d left so late that

They’d left so late that

They now stalled in drifts of snow

On sagebrush hills.

“Be not afraid,”

Some bravely said,

“We,

Brigham know;

He’ll send us food.”

But days passed on

And food ran short:

First one,

Then more,

Succumbed to death.

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 7

The girls did watch

And shuddered

Hard

As shallow graves were gug about.

Unmarked,

The saints

Went

To their rest

As prayers

Went up,

“Lord,

Save us yet.”

THEN – ANOTHER LOST!

E’en

Betsy

Froze

Out on those hills.

She left but two:

Sarah Ellen was but seven

And Mary five;

Two girls

Alone

In winter cold

No

Flowers

Bloomed

Upon those hills,

And

Wintry blasts

Benumbed their hands;

But,

Deep

Within each little soul,

Each

Softly prayed,

“god, with us be.”

As Mary

Looked across the land,

Through drifting snow

With eyes near froze,

She saw out there

But

Gray of plains with gath’ring white

On hills of brown.

She looked about

And

Realized

The desert rose was far away,

For all she saw

Was

Barren land of sagebrush gray

And

Alkali.

The wagons

Came

That Brigham sent.

The little girls

Were

‘Mong the first

To taste

Of food

That nourished them.

Then

Saviors

Took them

To their goal.

Bedraggled

Girls

To Zion came,

Their parents

Gone,

Bewildered

Full.

What

Would they do?

Would they go?

Would e’er again

The

Flowers bloom

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 8

But saints

Are saints.

They’ll try

Do right.

So they did care

And

Took them in:

But life was harsh

Scant time for care;

They

Oft’ were used

Much more

Than loved.

Thus

Mary lone

Passed through the years

As sisters two

Went sep’rate ways.

No mother dear

To bless at night;

No father’s hug

To hold her

Safe.

The little girl

Still

Hoped and dreamed

“Til

By sixteen

She’d found a role as mother’s aid

In Isaac’s home

To care,

Not bear,

His children there.

Was this the man,

The Handsome youth,

On ship she’d seen

As little girl,

Who

Pushed their cart when help required?

He was the one

Of Wardle name

Their clothes,

Their beds,

The dishes too;

She  cared for them;

She cared for them;

She struggled on.

The garden corn

Oft’ felt her hoe

As dawn to dusk

She

Labored through.

From charity,

Affection came,

And turned to love –

To fill

The need of lonely girl

With

Saddened heart,

Who’s

Lived alone

With people ‘round

The place

To work

‘Came place

To wed.

For Isaac asked –

She heard him say –

“ You’ll

Mary me;

Then here

You’ll live as one of us,

Love

Al around.

She was

His wife,

His second wife,

By nuptials

Joined and fully blessed

Through

Pow’r of God

By joint consent. Sealed

At the Church Endowment House.

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 9

Fall colors passed.

The spring green came.

She found

Her place within their love.

She walked the lane,

His hand in hers,

Displayed

Her love

To Isaac dear.

One day

She knew

That she would have one of her own

To have his name.

Her joy was full

For now

She knew that Isaac’s true

She’d always be.

The winter blast’s

Ne’ver cooled

Their love.

No flowers bloomed

With colors bright,

But

Fields of white

Bespoke to her the purity

She’d

Give

Her child.

She

Sensed the joy

Her arms

Would hold.

Her eyes would spark

Then

Turn demure

As Isaac

Said.

“You’ll teach him well

His God

To love

Good works to do.”

She planned

The clothes for baby wear;

She thought

Of names

He well might bear.

He’d

Carry on the Ashton line

E’en though

He’d have a Wardle name.

Through passing months

She dreamed

And planned a life

That soon more full would be.

No more alone!

She’d hold him near –

Her blood -

Her child –

The

One

She’d

Rear.

The

Flowers

Bloomed

In April month of sixty-nine:

Bright buttercups

And

Indian paints.

The desert lands

And Mary’s heart

Came all a-glow.

THEN FINAL BLOW:

The baby lived;

The mother died!

When

At the gates of of happiness,

She left this world.

She’d

See no more the flowers bloom

When

Springtime

Came.

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 10

What

Was her thought

In final breath

As life did ebb,

What

Did she think?

“From toil I’ free!”

Or could it be,

“My happiness

Denied to me.”

Might

She

Have

Screamed in anguished mind

As life drained out?

“Oh,

Wicked death,

Thou

Me

Hast stung

Just when my dawn first breaks

With rays

Of happiness.”

Dear God above,

Why

Did she die before her time?

She’d just

Begun her life to live.

Hard times

And grief

She’d put behind.

Her joy’d just come.

Then

She was gone!

She

Lived no more.

Her child was here,

But she’d not raise the William

Named for father lost.

She’ll never have

Her joy in life.

We mortals

Cannot understand

Why

Took You her in early life.

She’d lived

Without,

Been numbed

With grief;

Then

Took you her

Of joy deprived.

We’ll never know

In

Mortal life;

Though

Faith we’ll have

With hope alive;

But,

If she knows –

I b’lieve she does –

She’s

Seen the line

Through William come.

Three girls,

Eight boys,

With

Ten full grown

Grandchildren

Come to live their lives

And many more

Will be

Her seed throughout

The generations

Yet.

Bishops,

Clerks, Patriarch,

Presidents some

And couns’lors too

Teacher,

Workers

In Priesthood groups

As well as in

Auxiliaries.

“A Flower Bloomed,” p. 11

Missionaries

Her seed became

To teach,

Expound the Gospel full

Within the States,

In land afar,

As faith

Most kept

With Mary’s b’lief.

They all

Trace back

Through William lone,

The only one

Born

To that girl.

Mary Ashton

Bore him alone

Then went her way

To dwell above.

She

Waits the day,

Not far away,

When

All who b’lieve

And

True obey

Will

Gather ‘round

With fam’lies dear

To taste

With her

Eternal life

If

She came back

And talked to us,

Might not

She say

About that day in sixty-nine?

“I’d lived my life;

I’d had my teast;

My son was born;”

“ I

Briefly

Came on earth to live

I

Hoped

And

Dreamed;

I suffered much;

But,

Ne’ver forget,

Although

I died

And quietly lie in death’s repose.

“My flower bloomed,

And

Through its seed

Spread o’er the land –

And will spread more.

Yes, yes:

Yes, Yes:

My flower bloomed

That

April day

In sixty-nine.”

A

Flower

Bloomed

.

.

.

_________________________________

Completed on September 4, 1979

_________________________________

Mary Ashton Wardle was born in Stock-port, Cheshire, England, on 13 Jul 1851. She came to America on the ship “Horizon” and crossed the plains with the Martin Handcart Company in 1856. Her son William was born 5 Apr 1869. Mary died in South Jordan, Utah on 5 Apr 1869.

Family Items in the DUP museum, Bannock County, Idaho Case

This blog is brought to us by my brother Charlie who visited the DUP Museum in Salt Lake.  I know they had their grand reopening this past weekend.

Billy I went to the Utah Daughter of pioneer museum today to take a picture of Issac Wardle's sword. To my surprise there were also other items there from the family. One item was a bracelet of Mary Ashton Wardle and some socks that Annie Wardle made and a lace of Annie Wardle. I attached pictures for you. All the items were in the Bannock County display.
Charlie

 Of course Mary Ashton Wardle is Isaac's second wife.  Annie Sorenson Wardle is the wife of William Haston Wardle, who was Mary's and Isaac's only child as she passed away shortly after giving birth.

Martin Handcart Company: The Deaths of Elizabeth, Betsy, Baby Sarah and Sarah Ann Barlow Ashton; 1856 Martin Handcart Company

The Book, "Our Pioneer Heritage" published by Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in 1973 and compiled by Kate Carter, reports on the death of Betsey.  It includes a sentence about the death of Elizabeth Ashton.  "While at sea the youngest sister, Elizabeth Ann died and was buried near Cuba."  (volume 16 p.445) This is in conflict with the historical journal made of the voyage, which was kept by John Jaques, and published in 1978 as part of "Life History and Writings of John Jaques" put together by his granddaughter Stella Jaques Bell and published by Ricks College Press.  It reports that the Horizon traveled the northern route, close to Nova Scotia, not Cuba.  It records the death of Elizabeth in this fashion.  "Wed. 2: [July] Up at 4.  Remaining luggage taken to the R.R. depot b 9 a.m.  Left Boston for Albany about 11 1/2.  Child died before we left the ship, Brother Ashton's, about nine years old, about 9 a.m." (Bell, p 105) Again we know that this record is not completely accurate.  Elizabeth was listed as two years old on the ship roster.  However the circumstances of this loss are particularly devastating.  The family lost its youngest member, and did not have time or circumstance to provide a proper burial, or to adequately say goodbye.  On the journey west, often you left loved ones behind with no hope of seeing their grave site again.  The family only had a couple of hours after Elizabeth's death, to be at the train station.
These records both record the deaths of Betsy's mother, and new born baby sister.  "She lost her mother by death in child-birth near Florence, Nebraska.  The infant also died and was buried with his mother."  (DUP p 445)  According to the Bell history, Sarah Barlow Ashton did passed away at Cutler's Park, one day past Florence Nebraska shortly after child-birth.  However the baby lived for two weeks, before also passing away.  John Jaques apparently does not document this passing.  His own wife was also having a baby at this time.  Bell inserts the writings of Patience Rosza, John Jaques' sister-in-law who mentions the passing of Sarah Ashton.  "My sister got through her confinement quite well, but another poor Sister Ashton died there that night as soon as her child was born, leaving the new born babe and three children and her husband." (Bell p 129)  This was August 26.
John Jaques does record in the official history the death of the new born baby Sarah Ann Ashton. "Thurs. [September] 11: Started in the morning and traveled about 9 miles on a dry creek, though so dry as not to be running.  Here were the graves of two men and child, belonging to Col. A.W. Babbitt's wagons, killed on August 25th b the Cheyenne Indians.... Here we buried the infant of the late Sister Ashton who died of childbirth at Cutler's Park the night of August 26th."  (Bell p 135)  The summary of the deaths indicates the baby was "buried by Wilson baby and two teamsters of Colonel Babbitt, 9 miles west of Prairie Creek.
The DUP record says this about William Ashton dropping out of the company.  "In a few days her father became discouraged and left Betsey, her sisters, Sarah and Mary with the company, and returned to New York, later to England." (DUP p 445)
The record of John Jaques does not document William Ashton leaving the company.  However through the research of Donna Olsen, finding the enlistment records of William Ashton, we know he enlisted at Fort Laramie and served five years in the infantry.
The threee girls were left in the care of others of the handcart company.  "The company was good to these three little girls.  Betse with her sisters walked day after day.  They suffered greatly from food shortage and lack of warm clothes as the had planned to reach Utah before the cold and storms came in the fall." (DUP p 445)
The diary of John Jaques does not record anything after the last crossing of the Platte, and therefore does not document Betsey's death.  The DUP record documents it in this manner.  "Betsey was never to see Utah as she became ill from lack of food and while the company was camped by the North Platte River on the plains of Wyoming, she froze to death."  (DUP p 445) The handcart company was camped at Red Buttes, which was the last camp before leaving the North Platte River for over a week.  It was there that the rescuers found them, and got them moving again, towards wagons waiting at Devil's Gate.

Mary Ashton Wardle

Sarah Ashton Beckstead on left

Betsey's sisters Sarah and Mary survived the Journey.  Mary is my great-great grandmother.