THE LIFE OF ALICE FISH WALSH
Told by her grandson, Arlie Campbell, in the Jacob Strong Family reunion August
19, 1978 at the home of Elmer Strong.
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As has been announced, I am a grandson of Jacob Strong from his second marriage
to Alice Fish Walsh. There are only five of his grandchildren still alive:
Sybil who lives in Salt Lake, William who lives in Provo, Vernon who lives
in Idaho Falls, Mildred who lives in Riverside, Boxelder County, and I live
in Pleasant View, Weber County.
I'd like to confine my remarks largely to my grandmother who was the second
wife of Jacob Strong. I think I know more about her than probably any of you,
because she lived with us in the declining years of her life for over 20 years.
My mother took care of her until she died. She was born in 1829 in Lancashire,
England in a little town called Over Darwen. And according to the brief account,
which my mother wrote concerning her, she started to work in a mill when she
was nine years old. When she was sixteen years old, she joined the Church.
The young lady that interested her in Mormonism later apostatized but she
remained true. Now I know very little about that early part of her life. She
married William Walsh. He lived in a little town about seven miles away from
Over Darwen called Accrington I don't know how they met. I don't know anything
about the romance, but they were married in—if my figures are correct—1850.
At that time, you students of history will remember that England was in the
midst of the Industrial Revolution. And many things which were done in the
mills and the factories were done by hand. But when the Industrial Revolution
came to England machinery replaced a lot of that, and thousands of the people
were turned out of work. When the brethren, the Elders, went to England to
preach the Gospel—Heber C. Kimball Franklin D. Richards, George Q. Cannon,
I believe, and others--they received a hearty response and many hundreds of
people were converted to the Church. And in part, that was due to the fact
that many of these people who were out of work clamored to go to Zion where
they could receive no only their spiritual salvation, but in this new world
their temporal salvation... and many people came.
William Walsh and his wife Alice--her name was Alice Fish Walsh--they decided
to come to Zion. That was in the year of 1856. It took about a month for the
ships to sail from Liverpool to New York or Boston. Now the particular ship,
which they came on was called "The Horizon”--but it was late in
starting. Some of these delays were due to the inability to procure ships
and for other reasons. And this ship was late and it landed in Boston--1 haven't
the date--but anyway this ship encountered heavy weather. A very severe storm
came. Instead of crossing in a month, it took them six weeks. They landed
in Boston--William his wife Alice, and three small children: Robert who was
five years old, John who was four, and Sarah who was eight months of age.
They went by train from Boston to Iowa City: and if I understand it correctly,
many of those people traveled on flat boxcars. When they came to Iowa City
that was the farthest point that the railroad went which is in the east part
of me state of Iowa. And from there... first let me say this... I'm getting
ahead of my story. On the voyage across the ocean an epidemic of measles broke
out and their three children encountered measles. The two youngest ones survived
and recovered pretty well; but the oldest one, Robert, he recovered in part,
but he never was well after that. When they came to Iowa City--from there
on--they had to travel by handcart. It was 277 miles from Iowa City to Florence
which is now Omaha. It took them about a month to make that trip. When they
got to Florence, Nebraska it was getting fairly late. They joined what was
known as the Martin Handcart Company. There were 576 in that company and there
were horses, and cattle, and some wagons; but most of them had to push or
pull handcarts across the state of Iowa to Florence, Nebraska. This party
was headed by Brother Edward Martin. He was a missionary who was returning
from England. They were late starting. One reason was because they didn’t
have enough handcarts completed so there was a delay to secure handcarts.
But anyway, they started out to Fort Laramie they crossed the Platte River,
and eventually up to Independence Rock (I'm sure many of you know where that
is.) In the meantime, if you understand the geography of the country, they
were going uphill, approaching the Continental Divide and winter set in early.
As a result, many of them couldn't stand the cold. They didn't have enough
clothing or enough food and there were deaths on the way. But when they got
over to what is known as Devil's Gate...I asked Grandma once, I said, "Where
was it you were snowed in?" "At Devil's Gate." Now that was
about five miles west of Independence Rock where the Sweetwater River cuts
through the mountains and leaves a kind of gateway there. They were snowed
in there. In the meantime, their son, Robert, died somewhere along the way.
We don't know exactly where and it began to snow and the temperature dropped
to zero and their food supplies were running short and they went through a
terrible ordeal. And one night her husband William Walsh. Was required to
stand guard to protect their cattle from the Indians. The next morning they
found him frozen to death. Well, there was a large grave dug--eleven brethren
were buried in that grave because that many more had died that night.
In the meantime, Franklin D. Richards, who was returning from his mission
and Daniel Spencer and some others were hurrying on, by buggy, and wagon to
Salt Lake. When the word came to Brigham Young of the condition of these handcart
victims... there was another party ahead of them 15 or 20 miles known as the
Willey Handcart Company—they were close to the Continental Divide but
they were all in about the same circumstances. It was on October the 6th,
they were having General Conference, as soon as Brigham Young got that word,
he said, “We will omit the afternoon meeting. I want 60 men with wagons
and teams to be ready tomorrow to go to bring aid to those suffering handcart
victims." And as, to make a long story short, those brethren eventually
came and they found these people in a deplorable condition: cold for the lack
of clothing, and their food supplies were running short... I said to Grandma
once, (as I said she lived with us for 20 years as I was growing up) she said
to me, "When those brethren came, with a report that there would be some
to come and rescue us," she said, "I was sitting on the ground.
The brethren had fixed a kind of a tent—put up a pole and put some quilts
and wagon covers over it—and I was sitting under there, it was snowing,
I had a child on each knee, and when I saw those brethren come," she
said, "it was like angels from Heaven."
To make a long story short, eventually the brethren came and they were taken
into Salt Lake City. They were 325 miles from Salt Lake where they were snowed
in there at what we call Martin's Cove. My wife Gladys and I drove up there
a few years ago to see the place. It's about 65 miles directly north of the
city of Rawlings Wyoming--close to the geographical center of the state of
Wyoming.
Grandma said that when they arrived in Salt Lake, her feet were frozen and
when she took off her shoes, skin and flesh came off with her shoes. Brigham
Young got up and said, “I don't want these handcart victims to be put
in a place by themselves or in a building, I want the Bishops of the various
wards to come and take some of them into their homes and the sisters prepare
food for them (they were all hungry) and dress their wounds and take care
of them." And Jacob Strong was one who came--and as the story goes--I'm
not sure whether they were in a building or not--but as the story goes--his
first wife pointed out my grandmother and said, "I think we'll take that
one with the buck teeth." I never knew that Grandma had buck-teeth because
all the years that I knew her she had dentures.
Now I don't know exactly where Jacob Strong’s home was at that time
and I presume some of you people do. My mother in her brief sketch of the
life of Grandma Strong said she thought it was directly diagonally across
from the old 10th Ward meeting house--wherever that was. I don't know exactly
where it was. But anyway, a year later Jacob Strong married her. He already
had one family and my mother had nieces and nephews who were older than she
was. One of them was Sarah Elizabeth Strong who married Joe Alvord of West
Weber.
Well, as a result of that second marriage, there were three children born:
my mother was the oldest and her name was Lucinda Strong; and then there was
William
Jacob Strong (Uncle Will); and then there was Alma Ether Strong (Uncle
Alma) and I remember all of them very well. Now Alma's family has moved to
California and we've lost track of them—least I have—and I was
told that all his children have died, I don't know. They're all dead—now
all of them. Of Uncle Will's family, four of them are alive. There's Sybil,
Will, Vernon and Mildred.
My mother married Scott Campbell and they had three children--three boys--and
I'm the youngest and the remaining one. But after Grandma married Jacob Strong,
and their children grew up, eventually she broke up housekeeping and she went
to live with the various ones of their children. When Uncle Will died in nineteen
hundred and three, he was only forty years old. He left Aunt Emma with a family
of eight children--she couldn't very well take care of Grandma; Uncle John
Walsh, who was me little boy who crossed the plains, lived in Farmington,
and his wife was in poor health--and she couldn't very well take care of Grandma;
Aunt Sarah Swift lived at 928 East 4th South--and she couldn't very well take
care of her because she was a widow; so she came to live with us. And I can't
remember exactly when it was. Now Uncle Will died in nineteen hundred and
three...well, I think Grandma was starting to live with us around the turn
of the century... I don't know the exact time.
I want to tell you something about my Grandma and I'll make it brief. As I
say, she lived with us for over 20 years. Shortly after the turn of the century,
about nineteen hundred and four, my father bought a home--an old house there
in North Ogden--first house he owned. Mother went down and cleaned up the
place…he built a little addition on it...but outside of that adjoining
the living room there was a small room...I think it had been a pantry at one
time…but Mother put a bed in there and that was Grandma's bedroom. I
remember that distinctly. We lived there five years. Eventually Father had
obtained some little success in the fruit business and he built a fine home
up on the next street. This new home that he built at that time was one of
the finest homes in North Ogden. There were three upstairs rooms and my mother
fitted up a little room--a beautiful little room for Grandma to live in. But
because of her rheumatism, which she had all the years that I knew her, she
couldn't move around very much. And in spite of the fact that the house had
central heating, she couldn't keep warm. And I can remember her more than
once coming down and saying, "My feet are like chunks of ice."
I can remember a number of characteristics of her. She had a little rocking
chair that she sat in the large kitchen because it was warmer than the rest
of the house. And this lime rocking chair squeaked as she rocked back and
forth. She was hard of hearing. She couldn't hear the squeaks, but the rest
of us could. And when we three boys would come in the house and we'd be scuffling
or carrying on or making a noise, she would chastise us. And more than once
I've heard her say, (and this is an old English truism) "Children should
be seen and not heard!" But anyway, she was ambitious. In spite of the
rheumatism she insisted on helping my mother do the dishes—wipe the
dishes after every meal. And then she'd work with her hands. She would mend
socks; she would patch clothing; and she was always ambitious. She was clean.
She kept her body clean.
As she grew older--and she lived to be 94 years old--as she grew older she
had difficulty climbing up the stairs to the upstairs bedroom. So father fixed
up the first-level front room of their house. It's a nice house, and that
front room--we used to call the parlor--had big window looking out on the
street. He put a coal stove in that so she could stoke up that room as hot
as she wanted to. And those last years…and I don't know how many years
there were...at least 10 years, maybe more...that she lived in that front
room--she kept warm. And that was the most enjoyable part, I think of her
life. She died in that room eventually.
Since that time I have thought of a hundred questions I wish I had asked her:
about her life, about her early life, about crossing the plains, and various
other things. But when we're young we don't think about those things.
After she came here, her sister, who was living in England (evidently she
was the only one in the family who joined the Church) wrote her a letter and
tried to prevail upon her to return to England-mat's where she belonged. But
she wouldn't go. She said, "No, I have no regrets that I have come to
Zion.”