"Saints on the Seas: A Maritime History of Mormon Migration, 1830-1890," by Conway B. Sonne: Francom Family Genealogy

Home Search Search Print Print Login - User: anonymous Login Add Bookmark

"Saints on the Seas: A Maritime History of Mormon Migration, 1830-1890," by Conway B. Sonne

Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1983. Mentions the Francom Family.

On April 12, 1865, a small two-masted sailing craft set her canvas and moved slowly out of Algoa Bay from Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She was the 276-ton brig Mexicana, flying the British ensign and carrying forty-seven Latter-day Saints on a 67-day voyage to New York. The emigrants formed a well-organized company and conscientiously established strict rules of decorum, hygiene, worship, and study. Religious services and prayers were faithfully held. Guard duty was scheduled to discourage moral laxity, and a school for children was established. Yet, in spite of all sanitation measures, one problem was never solved--bedbugs. These pest tormented the Saints in their sleep, and one day school even had to be dismissed.

The tedium of ocean travel was broken on occasion. One day Captain William Sanderson and a mate caught two albatrosses and let them loose on deck, and the children were excited. Then there was a disciplinary matter, which presiding elder Minger G. Atwood recorded in his journal: "Samuel Francom was a very bad boy; we were obliged to tie him up to the ship's mast." The boy promised to be good and was released, but the next day Samuel was again tied up "because he would not obey." Apparently the Francom family were troublesome, for about two weeks later John Francom called Elder Adolphus H. Noon a liar and was likewise tied up for several hours. Then came a death. George Kershaw had been sick for some days and grew steadily worse. Although the elders anointed and administered to him, he died on June 6. Funeral services were held and the body, sewn into a shroud of canvas with a bag of sand at the feet, was consigned to the deep. He left a wife and six children. Twelve days later the Mexicana dropped anchor in New York harbor.

After the brig Mexicana landed her company of some 45 South African emigrants at New York in June 1865, the Saints traveled by rail to St. Joseph, arriving June 27. They then boarded the side-wheeler Colorado and continued up the Missouri to Wyoming, Nebraska, landing June 30 at that gathering place for their trek across the plains.

Sonne, Conway B. "Saints on the Seas: A Maritime History of Mormon Migration, 1830-1890". Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1983.

File name
File Size
ID	240
Linked to	Family: FRANCOM/HARDING (F896)

» Show All 1 2 3 4 5 ... 27» Next»