Great times 4 Aunt Mary Polly Hansford Gilmore married Robert Gilmore, and they had 7 children.
They had both come from Kentucky, marrying in 1818, and then went with the tide of emigrants to Missouri. But Robert had a calling to become a Baptist Preacher. Being uneducated didn't stop him. Mary Polly Handsford was sister to my GGG grandmother Nancy Hansford Williams, on my mother's tree.
Robert GILMORE, a pioneer preacher in Lincoln County, was born in 1792, in the State of Virginia, and subsequently moved to the State of Kentucky, where, in 1818, he married Mary HANSFORD. In 1819 he immigrated to Missouri, and settled in St. Charles County, and settled in the neighborhood of Old Sulphur Lick Church. Not long after his settlement in Lincoln County he professed religion, and became a member of the Baptist demonination, having been baptized by the old pioneer, Bethuel RIGGS. He began preaching before 1830, but was not ordained until 1841. He was a most excellent man, had only a limited education, and was a real, old-fashioned preacher of the gospel. His labors in the ministry were confined chiefly to Lincoln and Montgomery Counties.
In the spring of 1849 he, with his family and many others from his adopted State, started across the plains for California. The cholera broke out among the emigrants, and many were made its victims. Elder GILMORE, his faithful wife and one son, were among the sufferers. He died at the head of Sweet Water, on the 25th of June, 1849.Source: History of Lincoln County, Missouri (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1888), pp. 479-480.
By the records available on their children, it looks like 2 sons (James 19 and Fountain 21) died with them on the Oregon Trail in Sweetwater, Wyoming in the cholera epidimic in 1849. The other children may not have been with them, as they lived longer lives.
There was an older daughter also on the trail, Lucinda Gilmore Stevens (1823-1910) wife of Adam Stevens. They made it to Oregon.
The following was derived from: http://hayesvillechurch.webs.com/oregontrail.htm
The family journey from Missouri to Oregon was documented and passed down by Lucinda Berilla (STEPHENS) HALBERT.
In April 1849 the wagon train headed west with 37 wagons and over 90 persons (an account received from Berilla F. DENNY of Riverton, Oregon). Phillip GLOVER was chosen Captain. Adam STEPHENS was made captain of the train on the Cow River, near Lawrence.
Adam's own outfit to cross the plains consisted of one wagon, four yoke of oxen, one horse (that he rode), a dog (his name was Collie), a colored man (Antony, who drove the wagon). Two oxen (named Ball & Ben). The milk cows were named Star & Gib. Before they started, Adam went to his sister, Mary SITTON's house and got a feather bed. Granddaughter, Lulu KING, later had possession of this bed.
Among those journeying the Oregon trail were Adam & Lucinda (GILMORE) STEPHENS and their two children. Adam's brother, William, and Lucinda's parents, Robert & Mary GILMORE,and siblings. The Gilmores divided with the train and headed toward California. Unfortunately, cholera broke out and Robert & Mary died and were buried somewhere near the head of the Sweet Water on June 25, 1849.
The STEPHENS family arrived in Salem via the Military Road in October of 1849. Adam's older brother, Sanford, who came to Oregon the year before in 1848, met them in the Waldo Hills near the Abiqua River. Their camp was about where the North Salem High School now stands. There were three painted houses in Salem at that that time and one store. Adam and Sanford went into partnership in general merchandise, their store being the second store in Salem.
So these became my cousins, a few times removed! I love looking at that family photo above.
Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week...because that photo is just what SS is all about!
What a fabulous family photo...and so great that the photographer included the house. Fascinating story, and yet another reminder of the illnesses that plagued our ancestors. Particularly love the name of the Old Sulfur Lick Church.
ReplyDeleteBetween fatal illnesses, Indians, and the arduous and long journey people in those wagon trains faced, it's a wonder anyone ever made it to their destination! Neat photograph. I like the way the photographer used symmetry in a casual manner and yes, as Molly mentioned, that he (or she?) used the house as a back drop. I chuckled at the wording in the excerpt about "Elder Gilmore and his faithful wife". How would it have been worded, I wonder, had she not been a faithful wife? :)
ReplyDeleteOh Gail, I had to laugh that you thought "faithful wife" wasn't her first name! I'm trying to figure out what is beside the man sitting enthroned on the little couch. Every time I enlarge the photo, it still just looks like a pile of cushions.
ReplyDeleteMolly - the names of those Baptist churches were really interesting, and unless you belong to them, you don't know that they formed a kind of group of churches. So I think there's a Stinking Creek Baptist here in North Carolina, when it was started elsewhere. Pretty hard to figure out if you're not a member!
Fascinating post. It makes the Oregon Trail journeys much more concrete for me.
ReplyDeleteMy son and his wife now live in Portland, OR and last year I read several accounts of the Oregon Trail migrants. It was a harrowing ordeal that really tested the resolve of these brave settlers. Over 2,000 miles and walking all the way, it was the oxen that provided the real power to get them across the plains and the mountains.
ReplyDeleteSusan- I agree, this gave me a new appreciation of all that these pioneers went through to get from Missouri to Oregon!
ReplyDeleteMike, you are so right about the distance and walking all the way...many blisters probably. And then they had to hunt for food, make fires and fix whatever they could find each night! No checking into a motel and eating a prepared meal in a restaurant. Amazing that they succeeded at all.
The cholera deaths of Robert and Mary Gilmore on the Sublette Cutoff at the banks of the Little Sandy are documented in several overland diaries. Three eye-witnesses copied a death date of July 18, 1849, directly from the grave markers. One son, age 20, had died of cholera two days earlier near South Pass, Wyoming (about 20 miles to the east) but his name was not recorded. Another son (name also unknown) was reported ill with cholera on the Little Sandy but it is unknown if he succumbed or survived as no other diary entries mention him.
ReplyDelete