“Everything was sold including a valuable estate, and I determined to lay it all upon the altar in an endeavor to aid my poorer friends in the church to emigrate also. In 1849, I bade farewell to home, country and friends, and with my six children set out for the far-off Zion. … I had paid the passage of forty persons across the ocean and up to Council Bluffs, and from there I provided for and paid the expenses of thirty-two to Salt Lake City.”
– Elizabeth Jones Lewis (1812-1895), Welsh convert and pioneer, quoted in The Witness of Women, by Janiece Johnson and Jennifer Reeder
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6 thoughts on ““I determined to lay it all upon the altar””
Oh my. I think I want to get to know her.
Just the other day a friend of mine was teaching, and mentioned a g-g-g-grandmother of his doing this. He said she made 4 (?) real estate fortunes in her lifetime, and gave them away every time, usually for emigration. She was from a different country though.
I have a similar story in my family lore; is there an online record of this so I can check the story?
Francis Webster, the “old man” who spoke in defense of the handcart pioneer experience, also paid for many others to travel west. Paying for others is why he pulled a handcart instead of traveling by wagon. The case has been made that he was able to stand and testify as he did because he went all in in his support so many years earlier; he felt hands pushing his cart because he had and did so much for others and their carts.
(BYU Studies May 2006)
Rachelle, I know of no database, either online or on paper, where this sort of thing has been compiled. You might try the Overland Travel database, though, in case a diary or some other record by your ancestors or someone they helped might have mentioned it.
I have an exchange of letters between Charles Desaules and Brigham Young. Desaules thought he was lending money to the wagonmaster to help other pioneers and tried to get his money back a few years later. He ended up canceling his claim — a little reluctantly, but he did. I think there must have been quite a bit of helping each other this way … which of course takes nothing from the generosity of any individual who did help. They were going to Zion, after all.
Oh my. I think I want to get to know her.
Just the other day a friend of mine was teaching, and mentioned a g-g-g-grandmother of his doing this. He said she made 4 (?) real estate fortunes in her lifetime, and gave them away every time, usually for emigration. She was from a different country though.
I have a similar story in my family lore; is there an online record of this so I can check the story?
Francis Webster, the “old man” who spoke in defense of the handcart pioneer experience, also paid for many others to travel west. Paying for others is why he pulled a handcart instead of traveling by wagon. The case has been made that he was able to stand and testify as he did because he went all in in his support so many years earlier; he felt hands pushing his cart because he had and did so much for others and their carts.
(BYU Studies May 2006)
Rachelle, I know of no database, either online or on paper, where this sort of thing has been compiled. You might try the Overland Travel database, though, in case a diary or some other record by your ancestors or someone they helped might have mentioned it.
I have an exchange of letters between Charles Desaules and Brigham Young. Desaules thought he was lending money to the wagonmaster to help other pioneers and tried to get his money back a few years later. He ended up canceling his claim — a little reluctantly, but he did. I think there must have been quite a bit of helping each other this way … which of course takes nothing from the generosity of any individual who did help. They were going to Zion, after all.
Thanks, Ardis.