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| SS Wyoming |
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| LDS Ship Records |
Returning missionaries who accompanied the party wrote the following to LDS Mission President Albert Carrington:
Dear Brother,
After bidding goodbye to all at Liverpool, we proceeded to see to the comfort and welfare of the Saints. We then called a meeting and effected the following organizations: Joseph R. Mathews was sustained as president of company; Henry Margetts, chaplain; Benjamin Brown, captain of the guard; and John M. Moody, Junior, clerk. We had an enjoyable time. We have done all in our power to make the Saints comfortable and happy, and I must say that the ship's officers and stewards have done all they could to assist us in this matter, and deserve great credit for their courtesy towards us. Queenstown, 10 a.m., May 22.
We have been visiting around among the Saints and find all feeling well, with the exception of a few who are seasick. The weather is fine, and the prospects are that we shall have a prosperous voyage. The elders are all feeling well. We shall hold meeting at 2 p.m., and anticipate having an enjoyable time.
Accept of our love, in which all the elders join, and ever praying for the welfare of Zion, we remain,
Your brethren in the gospel,
Joseph R. Mathews, president, John M. Moody, Junior, clerk
I find it interesting that of a company of 278, including 12 returning missionaries, Ben Brown was chosen to be one of four leaders of the group, and he was the only one among the leaders who was not a returning missionary.
According to the general voyage notes, the company reached New York City 1 June 1881. They were at sea less than 12 days.
The church was in constant negotiations with steamship lines as well as rail lines, negotiating fares for missionaries and immigrants, as well as streamlining the processing procedure at Castle Garden, New York's immigration port at the time.
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| Castle Garden is the round building in the lower left. |
When the ship docked, a New York City constable on
"Castle Garden duty" and agents from the Landing Department
transported the immigrants to the depot’s pier via tugboats and barges.
Immigrants were then marched into the castle for medical examinations.
Next, the immigrants were directed into the rotunda of
Castle Garden, which was furnished with wooden benches. At any one time as many
as 3,000 immigrants might be crowded in this area. Here the Registering
Department clerks, divided into english and foreign language desks, interviewed
the newcomers, recording their names, nationalities, old residences, and
destinations. After this was completed, the people were directed to the
railroad agents to purchase tickets.
There was no such thing as a non-stop trip via rail from the
east coast as a long journey required multiple transfers. I don't know what
would be worse, the 12-day ocean voyage or the 10-day trip on many different trains
to get to their final destination. At least the Mormon groups had the constant
aid of the returning missionaries to help and guide them all along the way.
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| Interior of an Emigrant Train Car |
The Brown family arrived in Salt Lake City 10 June 1881. Daughter Catherine wrote, "Home, friends, kindred, country, all were placed on the altar of sacrifice; nothing was withheld. Hence, Father sailed on the ship 'Wyoming'" from Liverpool and arrived in Salt Lake City June 10th, 1881, with Mother, eight children, Grandpa Knights, and a lonely dime in his pocket."
Although we don't know for sure exactly what happened to
them upon their immediate arrival, church historians write (here) "that
incoming emigrants were being temporarily housed at the Tithing Yard (located
at the northeast corner of South Temple and Main Street), where the Joseph
Smith Memorial Building now stands." The Tithing Yard was also a place for
new emigrants to be given instruction and temporary provisions. Some emigrants
found temporary shelter in the Emigrant House as well.
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| Deseret Store and Tithing Office Surrounded by the Tithing Yard |
Daughter Catherine wrote:
The Lord, however, was watching over His sheep and raised up friends to Father. The friends' hearts and doors were opened. We were received to their bosoms and they tenderly cared for us until Father secured employment. Then Father rented a small house in the 14th Ward that stood where the imposing Board of Trade building now stands.
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| The Brown family would have lived on 200 South between 100 and 200 West |
The 14th Ward was one of the original Salt Lake wards organized by Brigham Young. John Taylor, then president of the church, was a member of the 14th Ward as was Wilford Woodruff, president of the quorum of the 12, as well as apostles Orson Pratt and Franklin D. Richards.
I can only imagine for children and adults alike the entire experience would have been exhilarating, terrifying, and exhausting all at the same time.
Daughter Catherine wrote a poem commemorating the event:
LEST WE FORGET
In eighteen hundred and eight-one
To Great Salt Lake City, there did come,
A family by the name of Brown
Who for the Gospel left their home town,
There was our Father and dear Mother
Dear old Grandad and brother Arthur,
Kate - Benjamin - Lilly and Gertrude,
Ern - Frank - and dear Daisy in the brood.
Our Father knowing the Gospel true
To Zion determined to move,
And though friends and relations said "stay!"
He said "Good bye! I haste away."
When first to him the Gospel was brought,
Dear Mother some of her relatives sought
To convince Father he was wrong -
But she, converted, joined ere long.
Our Father in the leather trake
Had all the Gentry at his back
But when he joined the LDS,
His friends boycotted him - Alack!
He sailed away from England's shore
Nor looked we back there evermore,
The new world with its promised joys
Made all we left seem but alloys.
Arriving here on the tenth of June
Our hearts and voices in attune,
Our Father had with him ten cents
To pay our way, to pay the rent;
The sweet small voice within us spoke
Purest desires in us awoke,
To meet the Saints, in temples bend -
The anxious hours of kindred end.
Our Father and our Mother are gone
While we are left to travel on,
To do the work by them begun
To save fair daughters, save brave sons,
To weld the links that bind us to
The ones who lived as we now do,
That they with us may ever reign
When we behold our God again.
Dear loved ones! Let us ever work
With might and main, no duty shirk
That tends to round out better lives,
To make new friends, retain old ties,
That when life's scenes fade one by one
The new world show life's duties done,
May all life's ills - so keen is this,
Forgotten be in lands of bliss.
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