Search Tour Information Military Naisbitts Photographs Letters Mormon Trail Canada England
Below is the partial story of Catherine Hagell's journey on
the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City in 1865.
The original story was sent to me by Raymon Naisbitt of Bountiful, Utah,
in the early 1990s when I first started on this genealogical quest.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mormon Trail Information
1865 (age 16), Hagell (Naisbitt), Catherine
Mother of 8 Died, Left for
I, Catherine Hagell Naisbitt, was born in London,
England, March
28th, 1849, the second child of a family of eight. My parents' names were John
Hagell and Mary Eliza Lee. I was barely 13 years of age when my mother died, leaving
a family of eight children ranging in age from one week to 14 years. I being
the oldest girl naturally felt the loss most keenly. We had planned on
emigrating that year, but Mother's death prevented our starting on so perilous
a journey, especially with such a young baby. However, the following year,
Father sold out his business and we started on what we children thought was to
be a pleasure trip, but, alas, the first night aboard the ship proved to be
anything but pleasant. We begged Father to take us home, but his reply was
"We have no home, we are going to make one in Zion." Little did we realize the
hardships we would encounter before we reached there. Shortly after we set
sail, the baby, who was only one week old when Mother died, took suddenly sick
and died soon after wards. He was buried in the sea when he was just fourteen
months old. We all felt this loss very keenly, especially Father. The name of
the ship we sailed on was the Belle Wood. We set sail on the 29th day of April
1865, and were six weeks and three days on the ocean.
Financial Problems, Only One Could Continue
When we arrived in
I never will forget the homesick feeling I experienced when they bade me
good-bye. We were detained in Castle
Gardens ten days after
this, and I can assure you if it had been possible I would have gone back. I
did not know his address, however, so, heartsick and weary, I started with the
company, feeling that I was leaving all worthwhile behind me. When we arrived
at the frontier I found a letter from my uncle asking me to return to those
poor motherless children. I was overjoyed at the prospect, but it seems I was
destined to disappointment, for when I told the captain that I was going back
with the missionaries who were going East from Utah, he said, "No, my
girl, there is no going back in this Church." So once more I was headed
toward
Crossing the Plains/Food Shortages
Being young and able-bodied, I, with other children, was forced to walk nearly
all the way across the plains. We soon became footsore, weary and homesick,
thinking of those we had left behind, especially did I think of my father with
such a family of small children struggling to make a living in a strange land.
We buried many on the way. We were also delayed on the road, as the oxen which
we had been given were not broken. When we were about half way across the
plains we found ourselves nearly out of rations with a foot of snow covering
the ground. Our captain, Wm. W. Willis, told us to try to keep warm, if
possible, by lying in bed, for he had not a pound of flour in camp nor could he
see the trail, so that unless we had help from the Lord we would perish. We had
been living on 4 cups of flour, 1/4 lb. bacon and chip crackers,-that was a
week's rations-it kept us alive but we were always hungry. President Young had
heard of our predicament and sent a train with provisions to meet us, and much
to our joy they reached us about four o'clock p.m. of the day above mentioned.
They took on the sick and the old people, leaving a few provisions for those of
us who were more able, and moved on to
In a few more days another mule train arrived which picked up the married
people and the small children, So we young people had to wait until the third
train came and took us. We did not arrive in
Rest of Family Arrives, 1866
My father came out the following year with the children, and though it was only
a year since I left them, I hardly recognized them. They had not had such a
hard journey as I had, but it was hard enough, and they were so thin and worn
as to be almost unrecognizable. But their lives were spared and we rejoiced to
be together again. Father, being a baker by trade, commenced making meat pies,
taking them from 'house to house, disposing of them so rapidly that he decided
to open a shop, which he did, opposite the Salt Lake Theatre. This soon grew
into a flourishing business and there are perhaps some living who will remember
having tasted Hagell's celebrated meat pies.
2 On April 13, 1867, I was married to Henry W. Naisbitt, being his third wife; I, at that time was but 18 years of age. His first wife was a true Latter-day Saint and when on her death-bed, she called me to her and asked me to take care of her family, seven in number ranging from 7 months to 14 years, I felt that I was called upon to go through another case like that of my own mother. As I had no children of my own at the time, my love naturally went out to them, for I felt in a sense that they were my own. The baby, especially, seemed dear to me. However, she died six months later. Six weeks after her death, my first baby girl was born, an event which helped to reconcile us to the loss.
I have had eight children, six boys and two girls, all of whom are living except my oldest girl who died soon after her marriage, and my second boy who died when he was 15 months old. The family that I was left with from the death of my husband's first wife, are now grown and married. They have always shown me love and respect and they are almost as dear to me as my own. I lived with them for three years before their mother died and we were a happy family. Of course it was not always smooth sailing, but it was not harder, it seems, than it is in a good many present day families in which the principle of plural marriage does not enter.
Source: Our Pioneer Heritage
© Carter, Kate B., ed. 20 vols. Salt Lake City: International Society, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1958-1977. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Documents and images are exerpted by permission from the LDS Family History Suite CD ROM from Ancestry.
Source: http://heritage.uen.org/companies/Wcbdf96271df9e.htm
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This chart below lists the "Belle Wood" the ship Catherine and her family came to the United States on. The wagon train of Captain William Willis is also listed. This is the wagon train Catherine traveled with
to Salt Lake City.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
|
CATHERINE HAGELL family
left Liverpool England aboard
the
"Belle Wood" 29 April arrived |
|
Shown as HAGILL, the
family was booked to sail on the "Hudson"
3 June 1864, but owning to the
death of his
wife the journey was rearranged |
| HENRY was shown on the passenger list for the "Hudson", but not on the "Belle Wood" no sailing record found for HENRY 1847 or JOHN 1851-, |
|
CATHERINE in her life story says that on arrival in New York her father was in contact with his "rich" brother who lived in New Jersey. |
|
|
| Pioneer Company databases have the following HAGELL records |
| 1.) WILLIAM HYDE COMPANY, carried JOHN (47) and HENRY (16) departed Wyoming 9 August arrived Salt Lake City 26-30 October 1864 |
| 2.) WILLIAM S S WILLIS COMPANY, carried CATHERINE (16) departed Wyoming 12 August arrived Salt Lake City 15 November 1865 |
| 3.) THOMAS E RICKS COMPANY, carried JOHN (49) ELIZABETH (13) FANNY (11) MARTHA CHAMBERLANE (6) and ELLEN (3) |
| departed Wyoming 6 July arrived Salt Lake City 29 August 1866 |
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Captain William Willis / Wagon Master___________A Typical Ox Cart Enroute to Salt Lake City
Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868
Source of Trail Excerpt: "List
of Immigrants," Desert News, 19 Oct. 1864, 18. Read Trail Excerpt:
LIST OF IMMIGRANTS In Capt. Wm. Hyde's Train. Which left Wyoming Aug.—, 1864.
Ann and Pricilla Boyd, Henry Code, Daniel Clark and family, Elizabeth Denny, Ulrich Forrer and family, Erusla Korner, Susan Krebser. Jacob Wefenegger and family, Anna Steiner, Pius and Caroline Hirth, Doratha Schmidhause, Johanus Bosshard and family, Margaret Huber and family, Jacob Reiser, Johanes Meier, Heinich Bretscher and family, Barbara Knetcht, August and Louisa Kohler, Carl Schaal, Gottfried Lienhard, Anna Aberlye, Susan and Henrie Rebsamen, Elkee Jasper and family, Johan Zeoeifel, Saml. Wolfli [Wolfley], Habldus [Habidus] and Anna Faunenberger, Leopold and Anna H. Withlen [Wirthlin], Maria Rupp [Knapp or Ruopp], Catherine Sinnu and family, Lisetta Dolder, Rudolph Winklu and family, Eloza Ku[e]hni, Louis Bertrand, P.H. Dronbay and family, Louis Gerard and family, Michel Weyland and family, Ludwig Wolz, Elizabeth Jones and family, Elizabeth West, Ann M. Thom[p]son and family, Elizabeth Ruck, Joseph Howard and family, Wm. Archer and family, Wm, Norgeate, Wm. Moss and family, Ellen Kay, Chas. Cotterell, Robert Gale and family, Betsey Geeves, Mary A. Seaby, Hannah East, James Rapworth [Papworth] and family, George Coleman and family, William and Amelia Hall, Sarah Barber, John Arborne [Arbon] and family, Josiah Perren, Wm. Carpenter, Samuel Ridout and family, Geo. and Mary McKinley.Robert Smith and family, Wm. Bunce and family, Wm. And Isabella McNeal [Mc Neil], James and Maroni Smith, Andrew and Isabella Richardson,
Henry
and John Hagell ,
John Lines and family, Mary A. Bass [Voss] Phoebe Cockerhill, Anthony Haynes and family, John E. Ellis and family, Charlotte Hesman, Ann Turner, Emily Powell, Sarah Osborne and family, Elizabeth Jones, Mary Lowe, Caroline and John Kemp, Henry Adamson and family, Mary A. Ellis and family, James and Susan Ellis, William Richan, Alfred Ward and family, William Blake and family, Thomas Sayer and family, Mary and Emily Perkins, Mary A. and John H. George, Hannah Adams, Wm. Davis and family, Emma Hope, Mary A. Rawlings, Thomas Clifton and family, Diana Waller, Wm. D. Hobbs and family, Zillah M. Smith, Richard and Ann Hall, Amelia Brindle, Richard Russell and family, Oscar Workings [Wilkins], Henry Sutton and family, Wm. Lawrence, Thomas Thurgood and family, Henry Goodey and family, Mary A. Clark, Caroline Johnson, Wm. C. Spence, Sarah Burell, George Munford and family, Lucy Munford, Mary Ramsey and family, Wm. Dallemore [Dallimore], Euphenia Simpson, James Watson, John Sears and family, Mary Ann and John Barrett, Henry and Sarah Bridges, Louisa C. Cox, Alice Minchell, Sophia Warren, Mercy Symons, Maria Cook, Elizabeth J. Brown, Edward and Matilda A. Wherrett, Edward Southwick and family, Anna and Ellen Brown, Saml. Eslen [Nelsen], returning Missionary, John and Mary Ann Willis, Elizabeth Chittock, George and Joseph Willis, John and Mary Miller, John T. Gurber [Gerber], returning missionary.
Source: http://www.ancientfaces.com/research/story/404744
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This map below is taken from the wikimedia.org website. The Mormon Trail route is illustrated.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Search Tour Information Military Naisbitts Photographs Letters Mormon Trail Canada England
