Charles Samuel Twelves

Charles Samuel Twelves is the first of seven children born of Charles Twelves and Ann Elizabeth Henrietta Gunn, both from England. Charles and Ann were married in 1841 in England.

In 1856, Charles Samuel was 16 years old when the family immigrated to America on the ship “Horizon.. The family joined the Edward Martin Handcart Company of 1856 to journey with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley.

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. This handcart company, while anxious to reach the Valley, began the trek late in the season. Several Saints fell victim of snow, bitter temperatures, and lack of food. Charles Samuel was among those who were lost and buried on the plains near Natrona, Wyoming.

From his mother’s history: “Samuel S. Jones was also part of the company and traveling close to the Twelves. He gives an account of 14-year-old, Charles Samuel, Charles’ oldest son: “During the blizzard in the uplands, Charley Twelves, a fine young [man], was struggling to pull his cart – ‘staggering along with it,’. I saw him drop between the shafts and called to his father and mother. They hurried back to their son, but God had called him home. It was another heart-rendering test of faith and courage.

“All we could do for our loved Charley was to make a grave in the snow drift. His body wrapped in blankets, was laid in it [with seven others], and brush piled alone.