Catherine's Story
Birth: December 10th, 1848 | female | in Mount Pisgah, Union, Iowa
Death: June 25th, 1850 | 1 year old | by the Platte River on the Mormon Trail in Nebraska
Memorial: Stone 1 | left column
Catherine was born to John Whitlock Radford and Rachael Leah Smith, both from Tennessee. Her parents met and were married in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the unfinished Nauvoo Temple. They joined an “unknown company” to travel with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley.
When cholera spread throughout the company, 2-year-old Catherine Elizabeth suffered from the illness and passed away on June 25. She is buried by the Platte River in Nebraska.
A journal records: “25 June, after cholera came to the company John and Rachael’s daughter Catherine passed away from the disease. It was so difficult to leave the tiny body buried beside the trail with hopes that the animals wouldn’t dig her up and ravage the body.”