Johnathan's Story
Birth: January 18th, 1847 | male | in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa
Death: ?? ??, 1850 | 3 years old | in Iowa along the Mormon Trail
Memorial: Stone 1 | right column | 69th name
Remembered at the Pioneer Children’s Memorial, This is the Place Heritage Park; Stone 1 (right side).
Jonathan Ford is the last of seven children born to Johnathan Ford and Rachael Robertson, both from Ohio. They were married in Indiana.
As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the family joined the Aaron Johnson Company to journey west to the Great Salt Lake Valley. The company departed Iowa on June 8. Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Many diseases came into the camp in the early weeks of the journey. Cholera (a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water) attacked many of the company, including Johnathan. He passed away and is buried along the Mormon Trail in Iowa.
Jacob Hamblin recorded: “28th travaild 9 miles past Ft Chiles[.] saw Lucinda the Mother of my Chidrin[.] She was the Same old Six pense [pence] as She said[.] Br Fora Fords Child died.”