Annie Jane John

Annie John was the infant daughter and first child of Mary Wride and David John of Wales. The family sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to America and joined the Homer Duncan Company in 1861 to go to the Salt Lake Valley. When the company was 15 miles West of Devil's Gate in Wyoming Territory little Annie Jane passed away.

Her father's journal records: “She died in her mother’s arms at 8:30 A.M. She was 8 months and 5 days when she died....3 miles West of "Devil’s Gate," we travelled that day 12 miles, we met 800 soldiers returning from Utah who was called the "Camp Floyd" Soldiers. One Brother Turner made my child a coffin, it was strong about 3 inches thick, it was plain, not ornamented, for how could we make any display in our poverty in the wilderness. Elders Benjamin Evans, William Howells and David P. Thomas dug her grave. She was placed in her coffin in the afternoon and placed in the wagon with her parents overnight. She was buried at 7 A.M. on the side of a small hill, 600 yards east of a high rock and about the same distance South of the Sweet Water. This grave is about 15 miles West of Devil’s Gate, the river crosses between two high rocks nearly touching each other. This place is known as ‘Little Devil’s Gate.’ We placed her name at the head of her grave and heaped a pile of large stones on the grave to protect her body from wild beasts.”