Shadrack ROUNDY Nauvoo Pioneer - First Brigham Young Company - July 1847
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Faith In Every Footstep Shadrack ROUNDY Nauvoo Pioneer - First Brigham Young Company - July 1847 My name is Shadrach Roundy. My forefathers on both my Mother and my Fathers sides had been in America for seven generations before I was born on July 1, 1789. [My father and grandfather served in the American Revolutionary War.] I was born in Rockingham, Windham Co., Vermont to Uriah and Lucretia Needham Roundy. When I was 25 I married Betsey Quimby. My wife Betsey and I moved to Spafford, New York. There we learned of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter- day Saints which had been founded April 6 1830 by Joseph Smith Jr. I road by horseback to talk with the Prophet Joseph Smith in Fayette, New York. We joined the Church and by 1833 my family had followed the Saints to Kirtland, Ohio. In Kirtland I helped the Saints build a Shadrach Roundy *Shadrach ROUNDY Born: 1 Jan 1789 Place: Rockingham, Windham, VT Married: 22 Jun 1814 Place: Rockingham, Windham, VT Spouse: Betsey QUIMBY Pioneer: 22 July 1847, First Pioneer Company with Brigham Young; Kirtland Temple east-President Missionary Company 1849; west-Shadrach Temple to the Lord. To make it a beautiful place Roundy Company 1850; and other the women donated their fine china and it was pioneer trips crushed and mixed in the stucco so the building would shine in the sun light. Many people Died: 4 July 1872 found fault with the Prophet Joseph Smith and Place: Salt Lake City, UT trouble soon drove us to Missouri. In Missouri we tried to live our religion in peace but our Grandparent neighbors became worried they would be out * 1847 Brigham Young first pioneer numbered because thousands of Mormons move in. The earlier settlers in Missouri didn’t know company By Courtlin Reasor gr. gr. gr. gr. granddaughter (with help from Lark Wood Reasor) 1999 Courtlin REASOR, Lark WOOD, Kirt D. WOOD, Laura PARKER, Charles PARKER, Almeda S. ROUNDY, Shadrach ROUNDY 1 Faith In Every Footstep Shadrack ROUNDY Nauvoo Pioneer - First Brigham Young Company - July 1847 our beliefs and didn’t want to be our neighbors. of the yard. William Law insisted I admit them. They began attacking our people and burning He said they were gentlemen merchants and I our homes and crops. On Oct 27, 1838 told them “if they where gentlemen they should Governor Lilburn Boggs passed an order to come at gentlemen’s hours.” exterminate or drive all the Mormons from the The hate for my religion began to state. Three days latter at Haun’s Mill a small increase in Illinois. On June 27, 1844 in Mormon community, 200 men attacked with Carthage, Illinois the Prophet Joseph Smith and guns and 17 Mormon men and boys were killed his brother Hyrum were shot to death. A mob of and 15 were wounded. I signed a pledge to help about 200 men with their faces painted black the poor Saints move to Illinois. Most people attacked them. We started to make plans to had only the clothes they were wearing and it leave the United States and find a place in the was winter many were sick and dieing. Rocky Mountains were we could live in peace. The citizens in Illinois tried to help and Because of the persecution on Feb 4, we soon found a place to build again. It was a 1846 the first group of our wagons crossed the swampy area along the Mississippi River. After river into Iowa. An ox kicked a hole in a boat the swamp was drained we began to build and and the boat sank. People held onto feather beds Nauvoo became our beautiful home in 1840. In and wagons while the cows and oxen swam to the early 1840’s Nauvoo became the biggest shore. Two weeks latter the river froze and city in Illinois. wagons crossed on the ice. In Nauvoo I had a lot to do. I supported I was a captain over 100 people on the my family by working as a merchant. I was trip across Iowa. It was a hard trip. The first called into the Presiding Bishopric of the night 9 babies where born. When the ice and Church with Vinson Knight and the Prophets snow melted the wagons got stuck in the mud. brother Samuel H. Smith. I was a member of We only traveled 2 or 3 miles a day. It took us the Nauvoo Legion. (In those days the cities 131 days to go 310 miles across Iowa. We had legions for protecting the citizens kind of learned a lot about traveling and we helped each like the National guard today.) I was a other. Brigham Young had groups stop and lieutenant and then a captain of the Nauvoo plant crops and build some homes along the way police force. I helped build the Temple in so we could help those who would follow us Nauvoo. I also acted as a body guard for the later. We built small homes in a place we called Prophet Joseph Smith. Winter Quarters, it was near Omaha, Nebraska. One night Joseph knew he was in Some of my ten children had families of their danger. He asked me to pick a trusted friend to own, those that lived with Betsey and I spent guard the house because he was told there that year at Winter Quarters. I was Bishop of the would be a party coming by water to kidnap Winter Quarters 5th Ward. (A Ward is a unit of him. My friend Josiah Arnold guarded the the Church.) house while I walked along the Mississippi By spring of 1847 I had been asked by River bank not far from the house. I heard a Brigham Young (Young was the second leader noise and ran to the house. A group of men of the church) to be part of the first pioneer were pushing their way through the gate. I had group to travel across the Great Plains. I was a my hickory walking cane and held it with one leader over 50. We were chosen because of our hand on each end and pushed the group back out skills in clearing roads and find the best way to By Courtlin Reasor gr. gr. gr. gr. granddaughter (with help from Lark Wood Reasor) 1999 Courtlin REASOR, Lark WOOD, Kirt D. WOOD, Laura PARKER, Charles PARKER, Almeda S. ROUNDY, Shadrach ROUNDY 2 Faith In Every Footstep Shadrack ROUNDY Nauvoo Pioneer - First Brigham Young Company - July 1847 cross the rivers and the mountains. And our we crossed the continental divide. (The ability to build and plant in our new home. We continental divide is the place in the Rocky were to find the place in the Rocky Mountains Mountains where the water runs west to the were our people could live in peace. I was the Pacific Ocean and East to the Atlantic ocean.) oldest man to go. I turned 59 before the trip was June 26th we had traveled 61 days and gone 819 over. miles and were at a mountain pass 7,085 feet This first pioneer group was made up of above sea level. On the 27th we met a group of 143 men 3 women and 2 children. We had a Oregonians going East and gave them letters to boat and a cannon, 70 wagons and carriages, 93 take to our families in Winter Quarters. horses, 52 mules, 66 oxen, 19 cows, 17 dogs We got up between 4 and 5:30 in the and some chickens. morning had our breakfast, cooked our noon We began the journey Wednesday, April meal, and started traveling by 8. Some weeks 14, 1847 the last wagon left Winter Quarters at we only traveled 21 miles and other we traveled 2 p.m., and we traveled 19 miles that day. 100 miles. William Clayton tied a red clothe to a spoke of June 28th we met Jim Bridger traveling the wagon wheel. As it turned he counted and East. Jim Bridger was the fur trapper who had figured out how many miles we traveled. By found the Great Salt Lake and thought it was the May he had invented and built the first pacific ocean when he drank its salty water. It odometer. He called it the roadometer and it took us the next three days to get all our wagons counted the miles by its self. across the Green river. On Sunday July 4th we I bought baffalo meat from Indians on didn’t celebrate but we ate ice cream George A. April 18. On the 21st we gave tobacco, salt, Smith made it out of sugar and snow. On the 5th powder, and lead, same flour and other small we had our first glimpse of what is now Utah, articles to the Indians. On Monday the 26th at 3 “rising dimly out of the mist, far to the o’clock in the morning an alarm was sounded. southwest.” We only past two permanent places We were ready for action. Three of the guards on the trail they were Fort Laramie and Fort heard something moving in the grass and the Bridger. July 11th the night was cold and there horses near the spot were snorting, and we was 1/4 inch of ice on the water in the buckets found some Indians crawling up to the wagons. in the morning. We fired in their direction and six Indians ran July 12th some were very sick with off. We loaded the cannon but didn’t use it.