Edward Robert Middlemass

Edward Robert Middlemass is sixth of eight children born to Edward Middlemas III of England and Abigail Keeler of Canada.

The family immigrated to America and joined the Seth M. Blair / Edward Stevenson Company to journey to the Salt Lake Valley with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, premature birth, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Cholera, a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water, infected many of the travelers. Abigail, Edward’s mother, passed away on June 24 and was buried on the plains of Nebraska, covered in her feather bed and blankets. Four days later, 7-year-old Edward crawled under the wagon and quietly passed away. His siblings Emma, and William died the same day. They are buried near Nemaha, Nebraska.

From a history of Abigail Middlemass: “Not long after Mother’s death they had camped one evening, the girls Anna and Abbie were busy getting supper. The little boys crawled under the wagon and lay down. A man came along and asked whose boys they were. The girls said “They belong to us.” “Well”, the man said, “they are dead.” And so they were. The same terrible disease took them and one of their teamsters also.”