A Death in Echo Canyon

A Mormon Pioneer Wagon Train in Echo Canyon on a day without the rain but otherwise still seemingly miserable.
Likely after 1861 because of the telegraph poles.

No wonder Echo Canyon has always haunted me!

Early in my blogging life, I became friends with a great Mormon historian, Ardis Parshall. You can find her work at Keepapitchinin.org. She kindly corrected me when I told her that my family had a story that my 2nd Great Grandfather, Daniel Bartholemew Roman, had come across the plains in 1855 with a handcart at the age of four. You see, the handcart companies didn't start until 1856.

And I just discovered where that handcart story might have come from.

Daniel came from Piedmont, Italy with his widower father, David Charles Roman. Daniel's deceased mother was Jeanne Malan, of one of the first families to join the LDS Church in Italy. Daniel's father David, remarried in Utah to a widow who came with the Ellsworth Handcart Company in 1856, Suzanne Robert Rochon. She became widowed when her husband, Jean Michel Rochon, died in Echo Canyon on the 22nd of September, 1856, four days short of the Salt Lake Valley. An account of his tragic, though nameless, death is in the journal of William Butler, an Irishman, and Captain of the Second Hundred in the Ellsworth Company:

Upon arriving at Echo, Utah I became very sick and was forced to lie on the ground due to the pain in my stomach. After praying and resting a short time, I was able to continue on. As the company had gone on down the canyon, I was forced to travel alone, there being a terrible rainstorm raging and I was unable to see except when the lighting would flash. While traveling alone, I overtook an Italian and his little girl with their handcart. They also had been left behind to die. This man died before morning. I buried him the best I could, not having a shovel. I then traveled on, taking the little girl and her cart with me. During that day we overtook another man and his daughter by the name of Clark. They also had been left by the main company. I said to myself later, “Had it not been for Mr. Clark and his assistance I could not have continued on.” We overtook the main company the following day. Here we camped to bury our dead. Our provisions almost exhausted, we all cut down to one cup of flour a day.

If You're in Ogden on Memorial Day . . .

For myself and my kids, I wanted to post about some of the ancestor graves in the Ogden Cemetery. I went two years ago with some of my dad's cousins and met a few more there. As I had remembered correctly (though my wife still made me check the cemetery plot map online before we drove around), our Vaughans, and coincidentally, our Wheelwrights are on 10th Street, just to the East of the entrance on Ninth. For the big Thomas and Isabella Vaughan monument turn right down Tenth to the Vaughan marker on the left or East. You will see several other of Thomas and Isabella's family including the Burnetts who did a lot of family history.

The large marker for Thomas (1850-1894) and Isabella (1858-1919)

My Great Grandfather, George Robert Vaughn, born in England (1886-1951)

A Son of the Utah Pioneers

Finally, after checking and double-checking, I think I have the definitive list of my Mormon Pioneer Ancestors (those arriving in Utah between 1847-1869, including the few who didn't stay. . . .)

I have them all identified on my Ancestry.com "glvaughn" tree with the icon for the Mormon Pioneer Trail having lifted it from the Federal Register (OK, don't tell anybody at my work - but at least it's not for commercial trademark exploitation).

"For the Strength of the Hills" - The Malan/Roman Heritage

The story about my Great Grandmother's brother Gus Roman's tragedy with the motorcycle prompted me to go deeper in the family history archives with my ancestors of the French-Italian Piedmont. We did get a hymn (#35) from our people of the mountains. And Malan's Peak above Ogden, Utah, is named for one of my ancestral families.

Malan's Peak from Weber State University