Ada Louisa Phippen Walker-- Grampa Giles' grandmother

Sally and I were exploring the other day and ran into a history written by Ada Louisa Phippen, who became Grampa Giles' grandmother. She was born in Nauvoo and tells the story of the family's conversion to the church and how they traveled across the plains to SLC. She makes a couple of mistakes in dates and place names, but she was at least 80 when she wrote it.

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Given by his daughter, Ada Louisa Phippen Mahoney Walker at Heber, Utah, Sept. 13, 1923 Isaac is the great great Grandfather of Arthur Phippen

My Grandfather Joseph Phippen was born in Massachusetts in 1762. His wife's name was Silva Paul. They moved from Vermont, where my father, Isaac, was born in 1792 in the town of Westminster, Winden County, the seventh child of a family of 13 children. He lived there as a boy working on a farm and going to school in the winter months where he secured a fair education. When he was about 25 years old, a cousin of his sent for him to come to Ohio and learned the carpenter trade. He went and learned and carpenter's and builder's trade. He also learned to make all kinds of furniture which came in very handy in later years. After he had been in Ohio some time when he met the girl that became my mother. Her name was Ada Stewart. She was one of the large family. My mother was born 19 July 1798 in a western county of the state of New York. Her father and family removed to the state of Ohio, in Clark Co. My father and mother were married 18 October 1818 in Ohio. They lived there some years and my mother had two children and they were doing well, but about that time my father's mother died and his father wanted him to come home and take charge of his farm, as his older brothers had married and left the state. So they removed to Vermont and lived there some years. My mother had two more children--three boys and a girl. After awhile my grandfather married again and things became unpleasant. So my father removed his family to Chatugua Co, New York, where they lived many years and became well fixed financially and enjoyed life. My brothers and sister grew up with the advantages of good schools and plenty to live on.

In 1833 they heard the Gospel and joined the Church of Jesus Christ, but did not move to any of the places where the Mormon people had settled. They were counseled to stay and keep a place for the missionaries to stayas they traveled through. So they stayed until 1839. Then my father sold everything and removed his family to Commerce, later called Nauvoo. My two oldest brothers and my sister were baptized soon after their parents. The name was soon changed to Nauvoo. They were all sick with the ague but my father and his oldest brother. So my father secured apiece of land near the city and built a house where they lived awhile. In 1841 my mother lost her young child; it was a great trial to them. Soon after my father got a lot in Nauvoo and built a good house where I was born in 1842.

Before I was very old the people not of our faith began to have trouble with the Mormons. They wanted to drive them from their homes as they had done so many times before. Things got worse and worse and when I was a year and 10 months old the Prophet and his brother Hyrum were martyred. I have heard my mother tell what a time of sorrow it was, and times were hard and many of the people were poor but they continued to work on the temple and finally got it finished so that many went through and were endowed and felt repaid for all their hardships.

In 1845 times were very bad in Nauvoo. They had to stand guard around the city and my brother was on guard and was shot accidently and died a few hours later. In 1846 we had to leave our homes with hundreds of others. There was much suffering among the people and many were sick. We had two wagons for our family and my brother's family. So we left everything, almost, and crossed the Mississippi River and came to Winterquarters where we stayed until after the Mormon Battalion boys had gone. Also after the first company had gone to Utah. In the summer of 1847 my father planted some corn and other vegetables and raised considerable stuff that helped us through the winter. In the summer of 1848 we crossed the Missouri River into the state of Iowa. My father secured a large farm where he raised a hundred bushels of corn that he sold to the gold seekers to get money to go to Utah. He also made wagons for people to cross the plains. My mother spun and made cloth for clothing and every effort was made to get fit out to cross the plains. With hard work and economy they got a good outfit together, but as there were some poor that had to be helped to cross the plains, my father had a widow and three children in one of his wagons.

On June 28, 1852, we were ready to start to Utah again. My father and mother left everything only that which they could put in the two wagons. Left their farm and never got one cent for it. Their house and nearly everything that was in them. Only a small stove and a chair for two, not even a table, but we had plenty of provisions and clothes and had no regrets for what we left. The only thought was to get to Zion, the valley of the Mormons. We had quite a time getting started. The cows decided they did not want to go to Utah but with much persuasion and some other things, we got to the Missouri River. There were hundreds of wagons waiting their turn to cross the river. I think we stayed two nights before we could cross as there was only one boat and two wagons with teams could cross at a time. Then there were all the loose stock to cross after Father had gotten all his things over. They with a hundred other wagons, traveled several miles to a large flat where we camped, and the companies were organized into fifties with a captain over each fifty families and a captain over each ten. Our company was the 12th and our captain was Harmon Cutler. Two other companies were organized at the same time; the 10th and the11th.

We traveled together for several hundred miles for mutual protection. We saw lots of buffalo and lots of Indian scares. If there were wood and grass, and water for the teams, our captain always camped over for Sunday and held meetings and we generally had meetings Thursday nights. There they sang the songs Zion and rejoiced to think they were going to the Valley. No one grumbled over their hardships. We went on and on and had dances. We stopped and dried buffalo meat and washed our clothes when we stopped for a day or two. The women would take their stoves out and wash the clothes and bake up a lot of bread and cakes. When we milked the cows, Mother would put the milk in the churn and when we camped at noon the butter would be churned and we ate the milk with our bread and mush. They never cooked at noon. That was a time to rest. When we got to a place called Ash Hollow the Indians stole all our horses. So the captain had to have oxen draw his carriage the rest of the way to the Valley. When we got to Independence Rock we had a wedding. Lots of the young folks went through the Devil's Gate. I wanted to go but Mother would not let me. She said I was too little.

Our captain was awful slow and some of the company got dissatisfied and said that the snow would catch us before we got to the Valley. So they divided the company and put my father in as Captain and we went along fine but had some snow in South Pass. We were all glad when we saw the valley of the Great Salt Lake. It surely looked beautiful to us. We beat the other part of the company 15 days.

Before we had been in the city a week my father bought a lot with a small house on it, in the 10th ward. And we were glad to have a roof over our heads once more. At the next spring conference, 1853, they laid the corner stone for the temple. Being a child I watched everything they did very carefully and never will forget the impression I had at the time. It made a mark that has never left me and never will while life lasts. I was 10 years old at the time.

In 1854 my father moved his family to Grantsville where we lived several years. The Indians were very troublesome for some years, so we lived in a fort all the time we lived in Grantsville. My father engaged in farming and stock raising, helping to build the fort walls, and standing guard at times when the Indians were worse. My mother was a fine nurse so she had plenty of calls. At other times she spun and made cloth for our clothes. She made a great deal of butter and cheese, made molasses out of beets, out of parsnips, and anything that had sugar in it.

In 1850 we moved back to Salt Lake City. We stayed there about two years. Then Father thought he had to have a place for his stock. So in1861 Father got land in Coalville, Summit County, and still we moved. We lived there some years. In 1867 the Indians became very bad in Summit County and we had to move into Coalville. We had been living one mile and a half from the settlement, and it was no longer safe for a few families to stay out so far. My parents moved back to Salt Lake City and lived in our old home, where they both died. My mother died on April 14, 1870, aged 72. My father died May 2, 1875, aged 86. They were buried in the City Cemetery in Salt Lake City.

This history was given to the Daughters of the Pioneers on Sept. 13, 1923. Extracted from Ancestry.com, from an entry by Sue Phippen Stewart.