Some Latter-day Saints have pioneer ancestors going back almost 200 years. Other Church members are themselves the pioneers in their families. In the weeks surrounding Pioneer Day July 24 — the annual celebration of the first wagon company entering the Salt Lake Valley — Church News staff members share stories of pioneers in their families, some from the 1800s and some from the 1900s. This is the first in the series.
Born May 11, 1848, in Manchester, England, Joseph Smith Barlow Sr. was named by his parents — James and Ann Crompton Barlow, early Latter-day Saint converts in the late 1830s — in honor of the martyred Prophet.
My second-great-grandfather lived a short life of 28 years full of hardships, beginning with the death of his father when he was just 14 months old.
Through the Church’s Perpetual Emigration Fund, 8-year-old Joseph left Liverpool, England, on May 25, 1856, sailing with his widowed mother, two older siblings and some 850 other passengers on the ship Horizon and bound for the Salt Lake Valley.
Landing in Boston, Massachusetts, the emigrants eventually arrived mid-July in Iowa City, Iowa, to work several weeks on handcarts as members of the newly formed Martin handcart company.
Well documented are the company’s travails and tragedies — from their late-summer departure to being caught in early winter blizzards on the plains of Wyoming and struggling to survive on daily rations of just ounces of flour. Equally well-documented are the company’s rescue and final journey into the Salt Lake Valley.
Young Joseph had suffered such severe frostbite to his feet and lower legs that a doctor in the valley twice recommended amputating both legs. His mother refused, instead applying raw potato poultices on his legs — a home remedy a friend suggested. More than a year later, young Joseph could sufficiently walk, although he remained rather sickly throughout life.
Beaten and robbed while working on the railroads as a young man, Joseph later married Amanda Morgan in late 1867, before dying on Aug. 28, 1876, in Fairfield, Utah, leaving his wife, three children and a fourth on the way.
These 300-plus words are insufficient to summarize his life or questions I would ask — how did he remain valiant? How did his faith and testimony sustain him? Could I have done the same? And how can I better reflect and honor his life and sacrifices?
