Elizabeth Rowley Ransom

Cleveland, Idaho

Elizabeth Rowley Ransom
Written in 2002 by Wanda Andersen Jensen,
A Great Granddaughter

When my great grandmother, Elizabeth Rowley Ransom was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of eighteen she couldn’t possibly have imagined what the future held for her.

The next fifty-six years would certainly test her faith, strength, courage and compassion. She also would suffer hardships, disappointments, pain, danger, struggles to survive, and hard work. But she would also find happiness and love for a family as yet unknown.

Of course her future was unknown when she was eighteen and even the idea of immigration to America was probably not even thought of as that wouldn’t come to pass for thirteen years when Elizabeth was thirty-one.

Elizabeth became active in the branch at the church meetings and any activities that were held. I wonder if there was opposition in her family to her joining the church.

Elizabeth was the oldest of seven children born to William and Elizabeth Bowen Rowley.

I have very little information about William Rowley. He was born in Middleton, England in 1793 and married Elizabeth Bowen in 1822 at the age of 29. His youngest child was born in 1835 when he was forty-two. There is no known death date.

Elizabeth’s mother, also named Elizabeth (Bowen) was born in 1795 in England. She was twenty-seven when she married William Rowley. She was baptized in 1852 at the age of fifty-seven.

Elizabeth’s sister, Jane, born in 1829, was six years younger, and was baptized in 1850 at the age of twenty-one. From the record I have, Elizabeth, her mother, and her sister, Jane, were the only ones to join the church.

The family records are as follows:

Born Baptized Died
Parents:
William Rowley 1793
Elizabeth Bowen 1795 1852 1877

Children:
Elizabeth 1823 1841 1897
Henry 1824 1839
Caroline 1826
Jane 1829 1850 1917
John 1832
George 1833 1901 or 1902
William 1835 1855

From the birthplaces of the children it seems the family moved from one place to another quite often.

Sometime in the intervening years Elizabeth and Jane decided to join with other saints and emigrate to America and join saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. Thus starts a great adventure for these two sisters. Elizabeth was thirty-one and Jane was twenty-five. It must have been a little heart wrenching to leave their family and not know if they would ever see them again.

On February 22, 1854 the ship Windermere sailed from Liverpool, England with 477 converts on board. Among the converts were two sisters from Low Farm, Havely Bridgewood, England, Elizabeth and Jane Rowley.

I assume some of the converts were Scandinavian, if so there would be somewhat of a language barrier to deal with. Although I imagine the people would group together by the country they came from.

The Windermere was very crowded making it uncomfortable for the passengers and to make matters worse after leaving port, small pox broke out among the passengers. Forty people were afflicted. There were thirteen funerals, thirteen victims of the dreaded disease were buried at sea. There must have been a great fear on that crowded ship. In addition to those troubles the weather was very rough, which would certainly add to their anxiety. Sea sickness is not mentioned but almost always accompanies a sea voyage. Elizabeth and Jane were in the midst of this and probably knew some of the families affected by the events.

As if all these happenings weren’t enough, on March 17th, fire broke out under the galley. There was a great deal of excitement on board until the fire was extinguished. Were Elizabeth and Jane afraid? I imagine so, but I picture Elizabeth helping to calm others and reassuring them that everything would be all right and to put their faith in Heavenly Father and trust Him to protect them.

In reading some of the experiences in Elizabeth’s life, I’ve come to the conclusion that she was a very strong, courageous and compassionate woman. I imagine she was a great source of strength to her younger sister, Jane, and each was a comfort to the other.
On March 27th, thirty-three days after leaving England, supplies and provisions ran out and to make matters worse, the water also. From that day until April 23rd, their daily ration was one sea biscuit.

It was a hard and troublesome voyage these saints were enduring. However, during the eight weeks and four days at sea there were six marriages and six births. There were happy occasions, but there was sadness too. Among the saints there were ten deaths, so as was the custom, there were ten burials at sea. It would be impossible to comprehend the grief and sorrow that would cause.

In spite of all the problems of fire, sickness, short rations, rough weather and very crowded conditions the saints held their meetings and friendships were made. The saints had a common goal and a faith that all would be well. And Elizabeth and Jane would be a part of it all.

When this ship arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 23, 1854 there were seven cases of small pox. There were no new cases after the saints left New Orleans. However, on April 23rd, cholera broke out and was fatal to many. The sick were detained and the others went by steamer to St. Louis, Missouri, then to Kansas City, Missouri.

The cholera continued to be a problem until they left the campground on June 19th for Salt Lake City, traveling by covered wagon and walking, walking, walking.

During the voyage Elizabeth made friends with a Ransom family from Bexhill, England, also converts who were going to America. There were ten members of the Ransom family, listed as follows:

*John Ransom age 71 laborer
(Wife) *Charlotte Cramp Ransom age 65

*Thomas Ransom (widower) age 42 seaman

John Ransom age 44 laborer
(Wife) Caroline Ransom age 38

James Ransom age 26 laborer
(Wife) *Elizabeth (Clifton) Ransom age 24

(Sons of James and Elizabeth)
Thomas Ransom age 6
*Fredrick Ransom age 4
William Ransom age 1 ½

*Died after arriving in America but before reaching Utah.


There was a lot of sickness in this Ransom family. According to a later history by Thomas, the sickness came after arriving in St. Louis but before crossing the plains. His brother, William, had small pox and some had cholera. The Ransom family lost five of the original group of ten who left England for America just a few months earlier. John and his wife, Charlotte, their son, Thomas, daughter-in-law Elizabeth, and grandson, Fredrick, son of James and Elizabeth all perished.
We cannot begin to comprehend the sadness and pain these deaths caused the remaining family members. Now two brothers remained, John (and his wife Caroline) and James (with his two young sons Thomas and William). It would be a very sad and lonely family, who only months before had left England with such excitement, looking forward to joining the saints in Utah. In later years Thomas said, “Elizabeth and Jane had befriended them in their terrible troubles of sickness and death.” Elizabeth and Jane were two very kind, helpful and caring sisters.

Evidently Elizabeth and Jane escaped the illness that affected so many of the emigrants as they came from their homeland to America. I am assuming that Elizabeth and Jane traveled west either with the Ransom family or very near to them After leaving so many loved ones behind the saints had to move on. The journey, by covered wagon, from St. Louis to the Salt Lake Valley, would have its trials and hardships to add to their grief.

The record tells us after arriving in New Orleans on April 23, 1854, approximately two months after leaving England on February 22, and leaving New Orleans on June 19, 1854, they arrived in Salt Lake October 1, 1854.

Elizabeth and Jane helped this Ransom family, probably all the way to Utah. Two very kind, helpful and caring sisters.

An account given by Thomas in later years follows:
“After crossing the ocean and near the mouth of the Mississippi River, we were towed in as we were sea bound. It was some time after landing there before we started across the plains from Kansas, or St. Louis, Missouri. During that time five of our party died, some from cholera. It is little uncertain just where these deaths took place, some may have been as we camped up the river and some after arriving. I feel sure it was after we had started across the plains that my grandmother (Charlotte Cramp Ransom) died. Some of the company had small pox. I know my brother William did as he carried the scars of it all of his life. Those whom we left by the wayside were my grandfather John Ransom, Uncle Thomas, my mother Elizabeth and my brother Fredrick and last my dear grandmother Charlotte. I feel sure it was the strain of the trip and the advanced age of my grandmother that caused her death. The remaining five of us reached Salt Lake City in the fall of that same year. (1854)

My Uncle John and Aunt Caroline Ransom settled in Salt Lake City and were buried there. My brother William lived with Uncle John and Aunt Caroline until he married.”


At Kansas City the records show the Ransom family purchased two yoke of oxen, one yoke of cows and other provisions in preparation for the long trip to the Salt Lake Valley. On June 19th they left Kansas City with their covered wagons to cross the plains. The trials and hardships on the trail would be many.

Of course Elizabeth and Jane would be wearing long dresses and petticoats as all the women did, and a bonnet to keep the sun from burning their faces. Even so, their skin would get sunburned and dry, and what about a good shampoo?

Crossing streams and rivers would be another challenge. Did they wade across, getting those long skirts wet? Were they able to ride in the wagon across the deeper rivers? The dust as they walked would keep those long skirts dirty. Washing clothes could only be done in the streams and rivers.

Then there were the meals, cooking over a camp fire, cleaning the kettles and dishes, and putting it all away. They prepared for the night by getting out the bedding, blankets, or whatever they had, and then took care of it in the morning before getting ready to start another long hard day. They must have hoped it didn’t rain and make the tracks muddy, to say nothing of everyone getting wet. Was there room for everyone to sleep in the covered wagons if it rained? Did some sleep under the wagon? Probably so.

How much easier the women would have had if they could have worn overalls or pants! Then of course there were rattlesnakes in some areas to worry about. It was probably easier to walk than to ride in the wagons without springs to cushion the bumps. It had to be hard to take care of the babies and small children day after day, week after week.

In spite of the heat and wind it was good it was during the summer months. It was also better by covered wagon than by handcart and winter snow as some of the saints were caught in two years later in 1856.

The last of September this group of emigrants reached the Salt Lake Valley after three months crossing the plains. How weary and tired they must have been and at the same time how happy to finally have arrived in the valley and be welcomed by those who came earlier.

We don’t read any more about Jane or Elizabeth so we do not know what they did, where they lived, or with whom, until the early winter of 1855.

A courtship had developed between Elizabeth and James Ransom and they were married at that time. James’ brother John and his wife, Caroline, took his two year old son, William, with them.

William lived with his uncle in Salt Lake City until he married. Thomas, who was now seven, lived with his father and Elizabeth. James was twenty-eight and Elizabeth was thirty-two. They settled in Salt Lake City for a time and their first son together, James Rowley Ransom, was born there on January 16, 1856.

As Johnson’s army approached Salt Lake, James and Elizabeth moved south to Lehi with other saints. James worked as a laborer on the James Ferguson farm. Elizabeth had a small baby and the young Thomas to care for. What were living conditions like in Lehi? Elizabeth, like other pioneer women, had many inconveniences. Each move was starting over, a new beginning. While they lived in Lehi they had two more sons: Joseph, born November 11, 1858 and Hyrum, born December 19, 1860.

James remembered going to camp Floyd with his father and watching the soldiers march through the south gate as they left the area.

By this time Elizabeth was busy taking care of her husband and young family. By the time Hyrum was born in 1860, she also had a two year old, a four year old, and Thomas, who at thirteen was probably a lot of help to her. In addition to providing clothing, bedding and food, Elizabeth probably raised a garden, and stored and dried food for the winter. During the years in Lehi she had given birth to two sons. This was no easy life for Elizabeth, but it was the life she had become accustomed to. I’m sure her husband and family brought her great joy and happiness.

At the October 1861 General Conference of the church, President Brigham Young called for 309 families to go to the junction of Santa Clara and Rio Virgin in Southern Utah. 748 people responded including James and Elizabeth.

Before leaving for southern Utah, James and Elizabeth went to the Endowment House and were sealed and had their family sealed to them on November 9, 1861.

James and Elizabeth packed their belongings into a covered wagon pulled by oxen and left their home in Lehi during November for Southern Utah. The trip was a grim reminder of the trek across the plains. However, this time it was winter, the ground was frozen and a very rough ride in the iron wheeled wagons. Also there was snow and cold to contend with. Thomas, who was 14 at the time, was a big help with the little ones, five year old James, two year old Joseph, and one year old Hyrum.

They arrived in Virgin City in December 1861 or early January 1862. The trip took four to six weeks. How hard it must have been with those little boys, especially the youngest.

The wagons would have to carry all their supplies, clothes, although not as many as we would take today. They would need bedding and food. Did they have a tent? I would imagine so. A stove, dishes, pots and pans, all for their new home when they arrived, also needed to be packed in the wagons. Imagine keeping warm as you rode, keeping a one year old warm and content, and once again fixing meals over a campfire. Prior experience across the plains would have come in handy there. As so many saints went south at President Young’s request, I imagine they traveled in groups. Elizabeth still had to contend with the long dress and petticoat, however on this trip they probably helped shield her against the cold.

The church distributed free land to the Southern colonies. James and Elizabeth received their share but the amount is not known. Since James was a laborer he would not receive as much land as a farmer. I imagine Elizabeth was happy to finally settle down on their own land and get a home for her family. Life was not easy even then but our pioneer ancestors were very strong, tough people. We must remember also that it wasn’t all work as the saints had their church meetings and social gatherings.

Elizabeth and James had settled on the Virgin River so probably had all the water they needed for a garden. A garden usually fell to the wife to take care of from beginning to the end.

Cotton was grown in this area. There was no money so labor was exchanged for their needs such as food and clothing. Spinning and weaving of cotton and wool into thread, then into cloth, was done by the women.
This first year in Virgin City would be a busy one for Elizabeth and in addition to all the hardships that came with settling a new area, Elizabeth was expecting her fourth child.

On January 20, 1863, their son George was born, just a year after their arrival in Virgin City. Elizabeth’s work load increased. But they managed and adjusted to the hardships.

Tragedy struck when this youngest son, George, was two and a half years old. His father, James, was killed June 29, 1865 by a falling tree on Shirts Creek, six miles out of Cedar City. He was working in the timber peeling bark for drying leather used in the manufacturing of shoes.

Elizabeth and James had been married only ten and a half years. She was now a widow at the age of forty-two with four small sons to raise, the oldest being nine and a half. James had died too young at the age of thirty-eight.

Their son, James, later related some of his memories from the time they lived in Virgin City. He remembered going without shoes for four years. A man finally made him a pair in payment for some labor James did. He also remembered the bread they had. It was called broom bread, made from corn seed ground in a coffee grinder. It was very dark and not very tasty or good. When his brother George was born a neighbor brought some biscuits to them. James enjoyed a crust of the first white bread he had ever eaten. It was delicious to the taste to this seven year old boy.

Virgin City and Southern Utah was a very hard country to settle and after James died it would be almost impossible for Elizabeth to survive with her small boys. With such hardships and poverty we can understand how it was that shortly after losing James, Elizabeth took her little family of four and moved back north.

Thomas was now eighteen and stayed in southern Utah. It was very lonesome for him to have lost his father, Elizabeth and his little brothers he had grown to love.

Elizabeth and the boys settled in Salt Lake for a time living with John and Caroline Ransom. Her son James remembered herding cows along the Jordan River for a neighbor.

James was nine and a half when his father died so he was quite young, when they left southern Utah.

We have very little information about Elizabeth’s sister Jane. We know she married Thomas Read and lived in Hooper, Utah in the Ogden area. From the family group sheet we learn that their mother Elizabeth Bowen Rowley came to America and to Utah and took out her endowments in 1862.

Presumably she lived with or near her daughter Jane. She was 67 years of age.

We do not know the year but sometime later Elizabeth and her sons moved to Huntsville, Utah, east of Ogden. Perhaps she moved there due to the influence of her sister and mother.

I’m sure the boys worked to help the family survive. James tells in his life story that while living in Huntsville he hauled fire wood out of the canyon and sold it in Ogden. He also herded sheep for the McKay family and tended Thomas E. and David O. McKay for their mother. David O. McKay was later President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (1951-1970) Later he told James’ daughter that James was his “Guardian Angel”. He loved this son of Elizabeth and James.

We don’t have any record of visits between Elizabeth, Jane and their mother. But with them all in the Ogden area I’m sure they would some how manage to see each other, hard as it may have been.

It seems Elizabeth was destined to move, settle in and then move again. We don’t know the year but Elizabeth made another move, this time to Cache Valley, in the Lewiston area. In 1876 James homesteaded a place in Trenton, Utah. And in 1877 Jane sent a letter to Elizabeth that their Mother, Elizabeth Bowen Rowley had died. She was buried in Hooper, Utah. She was eighty-two years old and had lived in Utah fifteen years or more.

It is also said her son George came to Utah from England but I do not have more information about him.

In 1876 when James was twenty he homesteaded land in Trenton, Utah. His brother Joseph was eighteen, Hyrum sixteen, and George, the youngest, was thirteen. Their mother Elizabeth was fifty-three and this was probably the first time they were not all at home.

I wonder if Joseph went with James to Trenton. There is no indication in the family histories as to how Elizabeth supported her family. We know what James did in Huntsville that is all.

Two years after James moved to Trenton, Elizabeth and the rest of the family also moved to Trenton to live with James. Was the delay to give him time to build a cabin or house for them? Whatever the reason, the family didn’t go at the same time. This was one more move for Elizabeth. She had so many moves, so many houses to make into a home for her family, so many adjustments to different surroundings, to different people. I wonder if she enjoyed it.

Since leaving her home in England in 1854, twenty-two years earlier Elizabeth had lived in Salt Lake City, Lehi, Virgin City, Salt Lake City again, Huntsville, Lewiston and now Trenton. And she would make one more move to Cleveland, Idaho. That’s a lot of moves. I’m sure they were all accomplished using a horse drawn wagon and still the same inconveniences each time.

At one time there was a train stop near Trenton know as “Ransom” stop located on the Ransom land.

In the meantime, Thomas, the son of James and Elizabeth Clifton Ransom, who had lost his mother before crossing the plains and had gone with his father and step-mother Elizabeth, was still living in southern Utah. He had turned twenty-five in 1872, and married Mary Lovina Dodge, from the southern Utah area.

In 1878 James and Elizabeth Clifton’s son William, who had been raised in Salt Lake City by his Uncle John and Aunt Caroline Ransom married Permelia Almyra Dodge, sister to Thomas’ wife Mary.

In the eleven years in the homestead in Trenton all of Elizabeth’s sons married:
1879- James married Agnes Elizabeth Austin. James was twenty-three.
1882- Hyrum married Mary Louise Ames. Hyrum was twenty-two.
1883- Joseph married Mary Wheeler. Joseph was twenty-five.
1884- George married Hannah Elizabeth Ames. George was twenty-one. His mother at this time was sixty-one.

In 1887 another move for Elizabeth came about. Her sons James, Hyrum and George all moved to Cleveland, Idaho. Joseph stayed in Trenton and later moved to Lewiston, Utah permanently.

Elizabeth had her own home just south of James and Agnes, close to a spring and near her grandchildren. This was her last move. I doubt she had any more conveniences than at other homes. I hope the spring water was piped into her home. Still she would have no electricity, only lamps for light, no electric washer or drier—still the scrubbing board and clothes line. No electric iron, only the heavy iron heated on the cook stove. There was no water heater for washing dishes, clothes or bathing; the water had to be heated on the wood stove. She had to make her own laundry soap.

Her winter supply of food would have to be canned, dried, cured, and stored in a root cellar.

There were no conveniences as a bathroom; she had to bathe in a round tin tub, hand-filled and emptied, no daily newspaper, no cars with heaters and air conditioners. All traveling to church, to visit the family or to get food was all done by a horse and buggy. In the winter a sleigh with straw, quilts, and hot rocks would be used.

There was no furnace to heat the house on a freezing winter morning. In fact, a supply of wood would have to be brought, chopped and piled close by to be carried in daily.

On long winter nights she didn’t have such things as a radio, or television to keep her entertained. She only had a lamp for light and a limited amount of reading material.

Elizabeth endured hardships all her life. Elizabeth Rowley Ransom—convert, immigrant, pioneer, colonizer, mother, grandmother and a widow for thirty-two years.

This faithful, courageous, hardworking, devoted mother of four sons died at the age of seventy-four. She passed away February 16, 1897 in Cleveland, Idaho.

It was a long hard journey from England in 1854 to Cleveland in 1897. I am very proud of her, my great grandmother and have enjoyed getting to know her.



Information used in the story of Elizabeth Rowley Ransom is taken from Ransom Family History compiled by Verna Ransom Sederholm, daughter of James Rowley Ransom and made available to me by Joyce Rohalt Fowler, granddaughter of James Rowley Ransom, also used was information from the Goff/Ransom Family History provided by Almira Evans Richards, great, great-granddaughter of James and Elizabeth Clifton Ransom. (2002)