Horace's Story
Birth: January 1st, 1847 | male | in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois
Death: June 25th, 1850 | 3 years old | 17 miles beyond Salt Creek near the Platte River, Nebraska
Memorial: Stone 1 | right column
Horace Spafford is the sone of Horace Spafford from Vermont and Martha Stiles from Canada. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Spafford family joined the Warren Foote Company with a desire to pioneer west to the Great 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. Cholera (a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water) invaded many members of the company. Horace was among the victims, as well as his mother, sisters Rhoda and Minerva, and a brother Moroni. Horace's father (Horace), buried them all in one grave, wrapped in a feather bed and quilts, and placed large stones over the grave to keep wolves and other wild animals from disturbing the grave.