Joseph Nephi Green

Joseph Nephi is the youngest of four children born to Thomas Green and Mary Ann Gibson, both born in England. After immigrating to America, the family joined the Wilford Woodruff Company in 1850 to travel 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, premature birth, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. When cholera (a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water) spread through the camp, many became ill. Among those were Joseph and his mother Mary Ann. On June 27, Mary Ann passed away and is buried along the Mormon Trail. A few days later on July 1, little 1-year-old Joseph Nephi died from the disease. He is buried along the Mormon Trail, 14 miles West of Salt Creek, Iowa.

Sophia L. Goodridge Hardy journal, 1850 June 7-October 14: “July 1. Joseph Green died this morning of cholera, age 19 months, making three in one family that have died within 5 days. Came up with our first fifty, found Brother Hall dead with cholera. Our camp felt afflicted and distressed.”