Uncle Robert William Springall

When I wrote my mom's history for er, she related the story of her half-brother Bob and his experience with the Bay Bridge.  I guess for a few hours the bridge belonged to my uncle.  He was born April 12, 1914.  His father passed away in 1925, and Grandmother remarried Grandfather Wright. 

            Mom explained to me the “sickness” of Uncle Bob.  It turns out that this occurred shortly after the Bay Bridge was completed linking San Francisco and Oakland.  This bridge opened for traffic November 12, 1936. (Wikepedia)  the ceremony opening the bridge was attended by U.S. President Herbert Hoover, California Senator William G. McAdoo and California Governor Frank Merriam.

            It must have been shortly after this ceremony that this event took place.  Apparently Uncle Bob had been drinking considerably.  In this state he took to the Bay Bridge, stopping traffic, and charging them a toll to cross.  He was going to use the money he collected to purchase more alcohol.  I am not sure if the bridge was a toll bridge then as it is now.

            Uncle Bob got into trouble with the law.  He apparently had problems with alcohol most of his life.

            He would come home from California often in the summer and work for the sugar beet campaign.  He most often worked at the factory.

            Uncle Bob, mom’s brother who played the saxophone, died young as a result of his alcohol.  He died August 8, 1961.  He was 47 at the time of his death.  He had hepatitis and kidney problems.  His funeral was in Lincoln.  His body had been shipped by train from Oakland. 

           

Chapter 3 Note 1

            Mom explained to me the “sickness” of Uncle Bob.  It turns out that this occurred shortly after the Bay Bridge was completed linking San Francisco and Oakland.  This bridge opened for traffic November 12, 1936. (Wikepedia)  the ceremony opening the bridge was attended by U.S. President Herbert Hoover, California Senator William G. McAdoo and California Governor Frank Merriam.

            It must have been shortly after this ceremony that this event took place.  Apparently Uncle Bob had been drinking considerably.  In this state he took to the Bay Bridge, stopping traffic, and charging them a toll to cross.  He was going to use the money he collected to purchase more alcohol.  I am not sure if the bridge was a toll bridge then as it is now.

            Uncle Bob got into trouble with the law.  He apparently had problems with alcohol most of his life.

            He would come home from California often in the summer and work for the sugar beet campaign.  He most often worked at the factory.

            Uncle Bob, mom’s brother who played the saxophone, died young as a result of his alcohol.  He died August 8, 1961.  He was 47 at the time of his death.  He had hepatitis and kidney problems.  His funeral was in Lincoln.  His body had been shipped by train from Oakland. 

           

Biography of Isaac J. Wardle

I noticed that the church history website's history was different than the one in my possession.
http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/source/1,18016,4976-10402,00.html
 I requested an entire copy, and this was sent to me by Tyson Thorpe of the church history library.  I have transposed it her which appears to come from the Family History of Olive Palmer Parkinson.  It includes a biography from Junius Wardle, as well as a concluding paragraph, I presume from Olive.  And then the writing of Isaac.  This requires me to go back and change some things in the history I have been writing.  He gives more detail in his schooling, and is definite about being in the Martin group leaving Iowa City.  I have left the typographical errors.  I also copied and pasted the part on the Church History website rather than retyping this.

Biography of Isaac J. Wardle

            Isaac J. Wardle was born in the town of Ravenstone, Lestershire, [Leicestershire] England, June 14, 1835, Third son of John and Mary Kinston Wardle.  As a boy he attended the common school of his toun [town] and Sunday school of the “Church of England.”  At seven years of age he began to work in a rope factory and continued there until eleven years old.  Then he entered the coal mines and worked continual[l]y for ten years.  Sept 23, 1853 he was baptized in the church of Jesus Christ of Lat[t]er Day Saints by Elder Fredrick Smith and was A[o]rdained to the Aaronic Priesthood and acted as a teacher in the Whitwick branch of the Church.  He emegrated to Utah in 1856, leaving Liverpool May 25, 1856 on the sailing vessel “Horizon”, under Captain John Reed and Captain Edward Martin.  There were 856 emegrating Saints in the company.  They arrived safely in Boston after a voyage of five weeks.  Then proceeded by tail to Iowa City and arrived there July 8, 1856.  From Iowa City the terrible journey was made across the plains in Captain Martin’s Handcart Company.  Having no relatives in the company and being young strong man took in my handcart a sick young man by the name of Langley A. Bailey and pulled him 1130 miles to Pacific Springs Wyoming having been meet there by horse teams we left our handcarts and proceeded on to Salt Lake City by teams arriving there on the last day of November 1856.  It having taken us 6 months and 5 days to make the trip from Liverpool England to Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.  He remained in Salt Lake City until April 4, 1857 then moved to  West Jordan to work for Alexander Beckstead until March 1, 1859.

            In company of Alexander Beckstead Jr. pioneered South Jordan.  On April 17, 1859 was married to Martha Ann Egbert.  In Sept 1860 went with ox team to Echo Canyon to me[e]t his Father, Mother and brother James Wardle.  In 1862 he again went and met his brother William and his wife and family.  In 1869 again went and met his brother Thomas and family.  September 23, 1867 was married to Mary Ann Ashton who died April 5, 1869.  On July 26, he was married to Sophia M. Myers.  In 1896 he was ordained an Elder by J.D. Long.  In 1873 was ordained a high priest April 24 by George B. Wallace.  In January 1879 went on a mission to England and was released to come home on account of sickness September 26, 1879.  On November 9, 1879 was appointed Superintendent of the South Jordan Sunday school.  Given to me, Olive Palmer Parkinson by Uncle Junius Wardle.

[Auto] Biography of Isaac John Wardle

Written by his own hand

            Isaac John Wardle was born June 14, 1835 at Ravenstone, Lestershire, [Leceistershire] England and was the third son of John and Mary Kinston Wardle.  I had four brothers and one sister.  I did not have the priveledge of attending much school as I was put to work at the age of seven years in a rope factory, at nine years went to work at the coal mines where I worked for ten years.  I moved to the town of Coalville with my family where I continued to work in the coal mines.

            During my early boyhood I attended the Sunday school of the Church of England.  In September 23, 1953 I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by Elder Fredrick Smith.  I was confirmed the next day by Elder Smith.  I was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood and acted as a teacher in the Whitwick branch of the Church.  I then moved to the town of Worsall, Staffordshire.  I stayed there until I had earned enough money to emmigrate to America, then I went back and stayed with my Father, Mother, Brothers and Sister until the spring 1856.  On the 19^th of May 1856 I bid my family good-bye and left for Liverpool to sail for America.  One May 26, 1856 I boarded the Sail Vessel “Horizon” under Captain John Reed and President Edward Martin and counselor Jessey Haven.  There were 856 on board of Emmigrating Saints.  We arrived safe in Boston Saturday at 10 A.M. after five (5) weeks sea voyage. After 2 days proceeded by train to Iowa City, arriving there July 8, 1856 and went on to Council Bluffs. I left Council Bluffs in "Captain Martin's" handcart company. Being a stron[g] man and having no relatives in the company I took a sick young man (eighteen years old) in my cart. His name was "Langl[e]y A. Bailey", besides the sick boy I had 100 lbs. flour, a tent, and camp equipment for seven persons which I pulled for 1130 miles to Pacific Springs, Wyoming. John Bailey helped me pull some of the way. We crossed the Missouri River at Florence, when we left Florence there were about 740 souls in our company. With Edward Martin as our Captain we did not have much difficuilty on the road except a few visits from the Indians until we encountered a sever[e] snow storm at Platt[e] Bridge this was early in October. Then our old men and women and some of the younger children began to give out and to get sick and many of them died which I helped bury, but we kept moving on a little every day in spite of the cold and hardships. At one time I became so weary and over come with cold that I fell down and was forced to lay there for some time. About this time one day while we were stopped for noon two men rode into our camp, they were "Joseph Young" and Ephraim Hanks who had come to tell us that men where coming to meet us with teams and wagons from Salt Lake City. We met the first team at Pacific Springs, Wyoming who had provisions for us with them. By this time our company was much smaller than when we left Council Bluffs, as so many had died some had stopped at different places along the way. We proceeded on to Salt Lake City with the teams leaving our handcarts behind. We arrived there Nov. 30, 1856 having taken us Six (6) months and five (5) days to come from Liverpool England to Salt Lake City U.S.A.

President Brigham Young along with many of the other Brethern and Women came to welcome us and took us into their homes, fed and warmed us and gave us warm clean beds to rest our weary bodies.

I stayed in Salt Lake City till April 1857, then went to West Jordan to work for Alexander Beckstead untill March 1859.  In company with Alexander Jr. and my self we pioneered South Jordan.  Young Beckstead, my self and one other man dug six (6) miles of canal or ditch with pick and shovel, this being the first ditch carr[y]ing water out of the Jordan River for irrigation.  Purposes in the Salt Lake County.

On April 17 I married Martha Ann Egbert, grand daughter of Alexander Beckstead Sr.  In Sept 1860 I sent with ox-team to Echo Canyon to meet my father and mother and brother James Wardle.  In 1862 went and meet my brother William his wife and family.  Sept 23, 1867 I was married to Mary Ann Ashton who died April 5, 1869 at child birth.  On July, 1869 I was married to Sophia Myers.  In 1867 I was ordained an Elder by J.B. Long.  In 1873 I was ordained a Seventy by Joseph Young Sr.  I was ordained a High Priest April 24, 1897 by George B. Wallace.

I went on a mission to England in January 1879, was released to go home September 26, 1879 because of illness.  On November 9, 1879 I was appointed Suprintendant of the South Jordan Sunday School.  In 1900 I moved with my two wives and families to parker Idaho.

He and his three wives received their endowments at the Old Endowment House in Salt Lake City.  He Died October 31, 1917 at Heman Idaho in Fremont County at the age of Eighty-two years and four months.

If anyone else in the family has a history, or writing from Isaac, please let me know, so the history can be complete as possible.  My email is billywardle@sbcglobal.net

 

Church History Trail Excerpt for Isaac Wardle

I have noticed some differences between the trail excerpt for Isaac Wardle, and that which has been handed down to me as typed as he wrote it.  I previously posted the copy I have:
http://billywardlegen.blogspot.com/2011/08/isaac-wardless-history-in-his-words.html
Her is also the link to the Church website with the article copied in full:
http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/source/1,18016,4976-10402,00.html

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868

Source of Trail Excerpt:

Wardle, Isaac John, Autobiographical sketch [n.d.], [2].

Read Trail Excerpt:

We arrived safe in Boston Saturday at 10 A.M. after five (5) weeks sea voyage. After 2 days proceeded by train to Iowa City, arriving there July 8, 1856 and went on to Council Bluffs. I left Council Bluffs in "Captain Martin's" handcart company. Being a stron[g] man and having no relatives in the company I took a sick young man (eighteen years old) in my cart. His name was "Langl[e]y A. Bailey", besides the sick boy I had 100 lbs. flour, a tent, and camp equipment for seven persons which I pulled for 1130 miles to Pacific Springs, Wyoming. John Bailey helped me pull some of the way. We crossed the Missouri River at Florence. when we left Florence there were about 740 souls in our company. With Edward Martin as our Captain we did not have much difficuilty on the road except a few visits from the Indians until we encountered a sever[e] snow storm at Platt[e] Bridge this was early in October. Then our old men and women and some of the younger children began to give out and to get sick and many of them died which I helped bury, but we kept moving on a little every day in spite of the cold and hardships. At one time I became so weary and over come with cold that I fell down and was forced to lay there for some time. About this time one day while we were stopped for noon two men rode into our camp, they were "Joseph Young" and Ephraim Hanks who had come to tell us that men where coming to meet us with teams and wagons from Salt Lake City. We met the first team at Pacific Springs, Wyoming who had provisions for us with them. By this time our company was much smaller than when we left Council Bluffs, as so many had died some had stopped at different places along the way. We proceeded on to Salt Lake City with the teams leaving our handcarts behind. We arrived there Nov. 30, 1856 having taken us Six (6) months and five (5) days to come from Liverpool England to Salt Lake City U.S.A. President Brigham Young along with many of the other Brethern and Women came to welcome us and took us into their homes, fed and warmed us and gave us warm clean beds to rest our weary bodies.

Book Review: Church History; Scribo to Zundle

This is part of the trail excerpts available through the church history website.  In this bundle are many useful resources.  It includes discourses from Brigham Young, history of rescuers, newspaper articles, and remembrances written by Martin Handcart Company members.
The most useful I have found is an autobiographical sketch written by John William Southwell.  He was part of the Haven group, which was later combined into the Martin Handcart group at Florence.  He gives insight into why there was a division, as well as describes many of the happenings of this group.  AN interesting insight he gives is describing the actions of the young men, the day they were caught in a serious thunderstorm without their tents.  The eventually got them up, and had shelter over their heads.  However the were standing in two or three inches of mud, as they did not have floors.  The young men took knives and hatchets and chopped willows from a grove, and with these they were able to construct a floor of a fashion for the tents, and get they Saints out of the mud.

Brigham Young describes how his thoughts were with the Saints out on the plains.  He described how he couldn't get them off of his mind.  There is a report from Joseph Young, who came back as an express rider from the rescuers to report on the conditions of the companies.  These were the articles which I found most interesting.  I am adding quotes from this material to the history I am writing.

Of course the most important contribution for what I am writing is the excerpt from the history of Isaac Wardle.  The Church History site only includes those parts dealing with the handcart trek.

Book Review: ***^The Gathering of Zion

The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail is written by Wallace Stegner.  It was published in 1964 by University of Nebraska Press.  Wallace Stegner is a great story teller and writer, and the words he uses sometimes cannot be equalled.  I heard him quoted in 17 Miracles the movie.  He has a way of expressing himself that is very artistic.  However, I do not think he is a very good historian.  In the name of the story, he does not document his work, but just tells where what authors he referred to in each chapter.  It is very hard to track and verify, from a historical point of view.  Some of his history is wanting.  His telling the background of the church especially.  This is explained in his comments about bibliography and explanation that Fawn Brodie's work, "No Man Knows My History" is one of the works he deems "worthy of complete trust."  I tried to read that book, and could not get past the first few chapters, because Brodie was out for finding every lie about Joseph Smith and try to restate it is fact.  That is my opinion.  A book that relies on Fawn Brodie for any part of telling a story is lacking in my regard.  However, when he actually tells the story about the trail, and especially when he gets past an "attitude" that dominates the first part of the book, he does a better job of telling the story.  His chapters on the handcarts are classic.  He gives a description of the handcart pioneers which can bring you to tears.  I quote this in Isaac's history.

   In all its history, the American West never saw a more unlikely band of pioneers than the four hundred-odd who were camped on the bank of the Iowa River at Iowa City in early June, 1856.  They were not colorful—only improbable.  Looking for the brown and resolute and weather-seasoned among them, you would have seen instead starved cheeks, pale skins, bad teeth, thin chests, all the stigmata of unhealthy work and inadequate diet.  There were more women than men, more children under fifteen than either.  One in every ten was past fifty, the oldest a woman of seventy-eight; there were widows and widowers with six or seven children.  They looked more like the population of the poor farm on a picnic than like pioneers about to cross the plains.

   Most of them, until they were herded from the crowded immigrant ship and loaded into the cars and rushed to the end of the Rock Island Line and dumped here at the brink of the West, had never pitched a tent, slept on the ground, cooked outdoors, built a campfire.  They had not even the rudimentary skills that make frontiersmen.  But as it turned out, they had some of the stuff that makes heroes.

   Mainly Englishmen from the depressed collieries and mill towns… they were the casualties of the industrial revolution, life’s discards, to whom Mormonism had brought its irresistible double promise of a new start on earth and a guaranteed Hereafter.  They did not differ in any essential, unless perhaps in their greater poverty, from hundreds and thousand who had started for Zion before them.  But their intention was more brash—was so impudent it was almost sublime.  Propertyless, ill-equipped, untried and untrained, they were not only going to Zion, they were gong to walk there, nearly fourteen hundred miles, having their belongings on handcarts.  (Stegner , pp 221-2)

For studying the handcart pioneers, this book is a must.  Stegner has a way of writing which is very nice and so I would recommend this book.  However I would overlook some of his work with regards to background, and take it as his listening to the wrong sources, or deciding incorrectly who is the most neutral.

Movie Review: *****17 Miracles

I finally have gotten to see this movie which I have been intending to see for some time.  In fact went to the theater to see it in Loan, but it was not showing for repairs to the theater that day, and we were headed out of town the next day.  However Sheri got it for me for Christmas, and I have finally been able to watch it. 

The movie is very good at telling its story.  I am not sure of the title, 17 miracles.  There were miracles a plenty on this trek, and to limit oneself to number is a disservice.  Of course the film maker may be thinking they are showing only 17, but a miracle to one is not to another, so the number is somewhat arbitrary.  I can think of many other miracles which were not included in the story.

I enjoyed the stories shown, some of which I was already familiar, and others I was not.  Brother Savage, as the narrator used words of many people, including Wallace Stegner, Frances Webster and Josiah Rogerson.  I am sure there were others I did not recognize.  The miracles with regards to food, the stranger giving jerky, and the pots filling with food, or finding food on the plains. 

I was confused at times with the switch from the Martin to the Willie Company.  This also threw the timeline off.  Bodil, who is shown passing away died, after the rescuers had reached the Willie Company, and after they had climbed Rocky Ridge.  However they showed the rescue of the Martin Company which was several days later, at Red Buttes.  I liked the bits about the Loader family who were with the Martin Company.  There is a story of the mother, pretending to fall one morning to get her girls up out of bed.  I would have like to have seen that story.  I also missed the Jacksons, whose husband died, but visited her in a dream telling her the rescuers were coming. 

As for my person connection, I must admit, the stork choked me up to the point I was in tears.  Not only for the people potrayed in the movie, but also for my own great-great-aunty Betsy Ashton, who froze her feet at last crossing, and passed away shortly after this.  Her two younger sisters survived the trip.  The youngest, Mary,  (still alive as two younger had earlier passed away during the trek) is my great-great grandmother.  I also watched those digging graves, as my great-great grandfather was also on the trek, and dug many graves.

My only objection to the movie is with regards the the written information at the end, which claimed that not many more on the the two treks passed away than with the regular pioneer trips.  Generally it is accepted that six percent of the pioneers passed away on the trips.  With regards to this journey, the number would be between 18 and 20 percent, or three times the normal death rate.  This rate is derived by adding the deaths for the two trips, 65 of the Willie Company and 135-150 of the Martin Company.  The total pioneers was 500 in the Wilie Company and 650 in the Martin Company.

Despite its problems with combining two stories, this movie for me receives the highest marks, and I will be viewing it over and over.

Book "California Saints", as it Pertains to my Family HIstory

California Saints was written for the 150 year anniversary of the Saints in California.  It was written by Richard O. Cowan and William E. Homer and published by Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 1996.  There are a few parts where the story told in this book, intersects with that of my family history, so wanted to mention these here.

In my family history, the first contact with California that I am aware of is William Ashton who served in the infantry from 1856-1861.  As part of his duties he marched from the Northern part of California to the Southern.  On another occasion he traveled from the Bay area south by steam boat.  He was discharged in 1861 from Benicia; and from there returned to England, from where he immigrated in his old age, and went to live with his one surviving daughter Sara Ashton Beckstead, and is buried in the Whitney Cemetery.  The book does not talk about this.  But it does provide insight into a couple other family history contacts with California.

  In the 1880s the Edmunds Tucker Act intensified persecution against the Saints, particularly those who were practicing polygamy.  Many Saints left their homes and fled to California, some as families and some as individuals.  Among those was Isaac Wardle, my great-great Grandfather.  Often wives and families suffered, being left without any means of support. 

WWII also brought an influx of Mormons to California, some of whom stayed.  My father was stationed on Treasure Island for over six months.  Among other things he said the mutual in Berkeley was like none he had ever seen.  He mentioned something in his writings I did not understand, having mother's day for someone.  I thought perhaps it was a general or admiral's wife, but this book answered the mystery for me.  "The servicemen brought wives, mothers and sweethearts to meet "mom and pop."  For three years the LDS military personnel at nearby Treasure Island honored Sister [Anna] Patton  on Mothers' Day with a special program.  Over the years Anna compiled more than twenty scrapbooks of correspondence from servicemen as they scattered throughout the world."

Of course family members have made California their permanent home.  I have lived here with my family since 1993.  However Uncle Orrin, Leo and Vernal all brought their families long before this.  I know Uncle Vernal lived in the Fresno area, Uncle Leo in the Bay area, working for the railroad during the war, and Uncle Orrin in Southern California.  We have all been part of the growth of the Mormon Church in California, where there are now (as of 1996) more than three quarter million members and 162 stakes.