{"id":6458,"date":"2017-06-30T17:00:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T21:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/?p=6458"},"modified":"2017-07-13T14:36:44","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T18:36:44","slug":"a-pioneeer-story-pioneer-days-part-8-laura-returns-to-ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/a-pioneeer-story-pioneer-days-part-8-laura-returns-to-ohio\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pioneer Story: Pioneer Days. Part 8, Laura Returns to Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By J. S. Fillmore (Library of Congress \u2013 Maps Division) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the time Laura and her children set out to return to Ohio for an extended stay there were three children (Willie, Nettie, and Henry).\u00a0 Henry, the youngest, had been born in Golden and was 19 months old when they set out.\u00a0 There was no railroad closer than the Missouri River so the little family group had to find a private conveyance to take them that far.\u00a0 A lawyer from Denver who was traveling across the plains had room to take them, and so it was arranged.\u00a0 Baby Henry had been taken ill shortly before their start but it was thought he would soon recover and the trip commenced as planned in mid-February 1864.\u00a0 Their previous experiences with the winters in that part of the country led them to think that leaving in this winter month should not be a problem in terms of weather.<\/p>\n

The travel must have been very uncomfortable for Laura (if not all the passengers) since she ended up in the middle of the wagon on a box with no support for her back and holding her sick child.\u00a0 The discomfort was increased as they traveled onward by the prevalence of fleas in all the stopping places, that especially seemed to like feasting on the children. \u00a0The map at the top shows the Golden City area in the far left red circle, and the approximate location of their destination, Mount Pleasant, on the far right in a red circle. \u00a0It is not clear from Laura\u2019s description how long this part of the trip took, but they finally reached the railway in Iowa after a number of days of traveling in the wagon. \u00a0She also did not report where they took the train from (possibly at Plattsmouth or maybe further south). \u00a0Taking the train, they headed to Mount Pleasant to spend a week with J.W.\u2019s sister before going on to Ohio.<\/p>\n

As was Laura\u2019s writing habit, she did not give the name of J.W.\u2019s sister, however I have done some researching and figured out who it was.\u00a0 I am intrigued that Laura often gave names to traveling companions or neighbors, but rarely or never named relatives beyond what the relation was.\u00a0 When I look back at the story of the flood at the farm in Iowa and the boat that was built, I realize that Laura did give some details in writing that story.\u00a0 She named J.W.\u2019s mother as Abigail \u2013 by saying that the boat was named after her \u2013 and the maker of the boat as Mr. L.P. Mills.\u00a0 She also said the visitors included J.W.\u2019s parents \u2013 later mother and stepfather \u2013 a sister and husband who must have been L.P. Mills, and that there were nine in the house.\u00a0 This makes me think there might have been a child and a second sister also in the visiting party.<\/p>\n

At any rate, I am fairly certain that the sister to be visited on this trip was Mary Booth Mills, married to Lewis P. Mills and living in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.\u00a0 Having arrived there, Laura reported only a day or two later, her child (Henry) \u201cwas taken very ill with pneumonia and for three weary weeks he suffered, the terrible disease baffling the skill of the best physician in town, and finally release came and he passed away.\u00a0 Then with aching hearts we laid him to rest in the beautiful cemetery at Mt. Pleasant<\/a> knowing that now we must pursue our journey without him.\u00a0 The thot of his father\u2019s grief when the sad news should reach him in his loneliness was an added sorrow, knowing how much he loved the dear child.\u00a0 And now with empty arms and sorrowful heart we continued our journey to the old Ohio home.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember when I first found little Henry\u2019s gravestone on findagrave.com, but I know I wondered about the location.\u00a0 I did not remember then having read Laura\u2019s description of his illness and death on the trip back to Ohio.\u00a0 I linked to the page above because I do not have permission to use the picture of the headstone yet.\u00a0 I have just requested permission to use it from the owner of the memorial and the picture.\u00a0 When I look at the site where Henry\u2019s stone is I can see that the Mills had also lost a young child just the year previous.<\/p>\n

Laura and the two children finally reached the old family home in Ohio in April she wrote, just two months after leaving Golden. \u00a0The part of the trip by wagon had clearly been swifter than the original trip with ox-drawn wagons. \u00a0It had been seven years since Laura had parted with her parents and other relatives, so she must have been glad to see them all again. \u00a0Since she and the children spent a relatively long visit in Ohio, I will leave them there for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By the time Laura and her children set out to return to Ohio for an extended stay there were three children (Willie, Nettie, and Henry).\u00a0 Henry, the youngest, had been born in Golden and was 19 months old when …<\/p>\n

A Pioneer Story: Pioneer Days. Part 8, Laura Returns to Ohio<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[362,369,371,353,289,370],"class_list":["post-6458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-booth-family","tag-colorado","tag-golden","tag-iowa","tag-laura-denman-booth","tag-mills-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6458"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6467,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458\/revisions\/6467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}