Hay view from Castle

Hay view from Castle
Hay-on-Wye, Powys (formerly Breconshire), Wales. The "Town of Books" (and Vaughans!)

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Claiming the Legendary Teapot and Colander

There's a story circulating for some time now picked up by Stake Pioneer Trek websites about an elderly woman who walked all the way to Salt Lake City in 1856 with a teapot and colander tied to her apron strings. There was a strict weight limit for personal items in the handcarts. This woman found a way around that. Another woman in the first company carried a hat box, but she died along the way. These stories were recounted in the Ensign of July 2000. However, in the Ensign, the teapot is covered by ellipses.

With some pretty good circumstantial evidence, I am prepared to claim the woman with the teapot and colander as our ancestress, Elinor Jenkins Vaughan. I think I know who the lady with the hat box was too.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Picture of Elder Edmund Ellsworth from 1855

Maybe other history seekers have seen this, but I'm still an amateur and find it AMAZING! I've seen a lot of mission conference pictures. There are some from Brazil that have me in them. This has historical significance as this 1855 photo of British Missionaries includes the captains of four of the five experimental handcart companies of 1856. Three of the experiments came out pretty well. The last two, not so much. And those last two captains are all the more famous for that.