Pioneer Day Posting

Grandpa Jordan Jensen with Janae on her baptism day, 1990

Twenty years ago our family spoke in church during Sacrament Meeting. Our assigned topic was Pioneers. I'm not sure that the actual Sunday was on July 24th, but it was a Sunday prior to the 24th in July of 1991. Utah has a state holiday each July 24th to honor those pioneers who first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.

We had moved into our current home at the end of May and it is a bit of a custom to have new move-ins of an LDS ward speak so that other ward members might get to know them better. This particular time, the assignment came to the whole family so not only did Glen and I speak but so did Eric, Ryan, David, and Janae. Four year old Nathan was given a bye.

Today while in church and listening to a new to the ward young couple talk about what it means to be a "pioneer," I couldn't help remembering that Sunday all those years ago. I had helped to write up four talks plus my own. Each of those children told a story about one of their pioneer ancestors. Today when I got home I searched my file for those four talks. I could only find this one given by nine year old Janae.

My great, great, great, great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Jones was a very small person and she ran errands for the prophet Joseph Smith. Her mother was a good friend of his wife Emma, and they would dress Mary Elizabeth up as a little girl and give her a rag doll to carry in her arms even though she was a young lady.

When the prophet was in hiding or being watched by those that did not like him, she could pass by the guards without being noticed. This enabled her to deliver messages for the prophet. Sometimes she would pretend that she was driving the milk cows to the pasture to graze. When all was clear, she would go looking for the person the message was for. Other times she went skipping off with her rag doll through the streets of Nauvoo until she saw the person whom a message was for. She would then say, "Brother, I am ambushed." This was her password. The person would then know she had a message from the prophet. She was 16 years old when Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were murdered in Carthage Jail in 1844. She often told of how stunned the people were and how they could think of little else. When she came across the plains in 1850, she had a baby girl 3 days before reaching the Salt Lake Valley. She had married Job Pitcher Hall.

Mary Elizabeth's parents were neat, too. Her father, William Jones, was a stone mason and helped build the Nauvoo Temple. Her mother, Elizabeth Hughes Jones, was a charter member of the very first Relief Society.
-Janae Jensen, Mesa 76th Ward

I was unable to locate the boys' talks but I know I talked about how we can all be "pioneers" as we become one who goes ahead or becomes the first to do something. Today this makes me think of my daughter-in-laws Emelia and Nichelle who were brave enough to be the first in their families to do something different and I'm so glad that they did.

On this day I'm so grateful for many of my ancestors who were true pioneers.

-Nathanial Foote, who crossed the Atlantic ocean to Massachusetts colony in 1633 and then became one of the original "Ten Adventurers" who traveled up the Connecticut River and founded Wethersfield and eventually Hartford.

-Warren Foote, who lead a wagon train of 100 from Nebraska to the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1850.

-Issac Ricks, who came from England and settled in Virginia in 1660.

-Jonathan Ricks, who followed Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap and settled on Donaldson Creek in 1802.

-Job Pitcher Hall, husband of Mary Elizabeth, who joined the Mormon church in Maine then journeyed to Nauvoo in the early 1840's. He and his brother, Charles, accepted the call by Brigham Young in 1850 to open the Iron Mission in what is now southern Utah. He and Charles built the first log cabin in what is now Iron County.

-John Lloyd Roberts, whose family joined the Mormon Church in Wales. He journeyed across the Atlantic to New Orleans as an infant, surviving the cholera which killed his father and brother as they traveled by steamboat up the Mississippi. His mother, Gwen, struggled on with the remaining three children.

-Anders Olsson Nyborg, who also immigrated to Utah from Sweden and helped settle Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete County.

-Jordan Clay Jensen, pictured with Janae, who became the first in his family to gain a higher education, becoming an engineer and helping pioneer telecommunications with patents for equipment used on satellites used in space.

I also honor all the women who pioneered with these man and sometimes without them. Often times they were the true heroes.

There are many different ways to be a "pioneer."