Ann Fish Bell’s Trip to the Salt Lake Valley

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Ann’s husband came to Salt Lake City first while she remained in the Council Bluffs area with the seven children. This was common to send part of the family to get things set up so the rest of the family could have something to come to. When Ann did buy the wagons and livestock she needed, it was with hesitancy that the company captain considered taking her. He didn’t feel too comfortable taking a single woman with seven children. Part way into the journey she lost her cows. The company left telling her to come with the next company once she found her cows. Who did she cross the plains with?

a.                  Her and her seven children

b.                  A Government supply train for Johnston’s army

c.                   Non-members on their way to California

d.                  The Martin Handcart company

Yesterday’s answer:

A   The coming of the railroad in 1869

The railroad arrived in Utah in 1869 and opened the way for non-Mormons to readily arrive in the territory. It also helped Congress receive word faster of the events that were going on in the towns and cities. Anti-polygamy forces increased their efforts to stamp out the practice within the LDS church. Some Easterners though that, if the government would give the women of Utah the right to vote, they would have power to vote themselves out of the “bondage of plural marriage.”

Lesson Committee, Museum Memories-Daughters of Utah Pioneers, (Salt Lake City, Talon Printing, 2010), 2: 364-365.