Isaac Busenbark

Isaac Busenbark is the last of 12 children born to Isaac Busenbark and Abigail Manning, both from New York. His parents were married in 1824 in New York.

As member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the family joined the David Wood Company to journey 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. Both Isaac and his mother, Abigail, were infected by cholera (a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water). After being on the Mormon Trail in Florence, Nebraska for about two weeks, 6-month-old Isaac passed away. His bother died shortly thereafter. Both are buried in the old church cemetery at Winter Quarters.

Recorded in a history: “Abigail and little 6-month old Isaac were buried in the old church cemetery at Winter Quarters. Today there is a monument at the Winter Quarters memorial testifying to the fact that the young pioneer mother and her baby are buried somewhere in the cemetery in unmarked graves.”