giving a talk

I'm giving a talk tomorrow in church. I'm supposed to include the faith of our forefathers of the Revolution. I'm going to talk about John Adams. Go see my brother's commentary. I'm also supposed to include the faith of our fathers on the Pioneer Trek. So I'm going to use an ancestor of mine. Her name was Ruth Perkins Mathews. She was my Great Great Grandmother.

When Ruth was 18 years old, she sailed for America from Liverpool, England on the 21 June 1867 on the ship “Manhattan”. She was in a company of 480 Saints under the direction of Archibald Hill. Coming over on the boat many of the Saints were ill with cholera and Ruth told of her two young friends, Mary Ann Ellis and her sister, who cheered the sick with their sweet voices singing the Church hymns.

The company arrived in New York, July 4 then on to North Platte, a station on the Union Pacific, 391 miles from Omaha. From there they traveled by ox team in the company of Leonard C. Rice, leaving there August 8 and arriving in Salt Lake City on 5October 1867.

The trip across the dusty plains and Rocky Mountains was hot and tiresome. Although Ruth was far from her native land and family, she had courage, strength of character, and a strong desire to help others. In the same company was a Mrs. Dyer who had a young baby. Mrs. Dyer’s health was not very good because of the many hardships she had gone through. Ruth, seeing the need of help for the mother and child, carried the baby, Alfred Dyer, on her back part of the way across the plains. Upon Ruth’s arrival in Salt Lake City, she worked in private homes helping with housework.

Later, she married Joseph Davis Mathews in the Salt lake Endowment House. She had 16 children. Half of them lived to adulthood.



Have a fun Saturday...