Joseph's Story
Birth: June 16th, 1840 | male | in Preston, Lancashire, England
Death: October ??, 1856 | 16 years old | in Wyoming on the Plains
Memorial: Stone 7 | right column
Joseph Parkinson is one of nine children born to John Parkinson and Ellen Smalley, both from England.
The family immigrated to America and were all healthy when they joined the Edward Martin Handcart Company of 1856 to travel 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, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. One day in October, 16-year-old Joseph, was pulling a cart into camp. That night, he died in the harness that he had been pulling the cart with. He is buried on the Mormon Trail in Wyoming.
After Joseph passed away, his mother and father and three other siblings passed away before they reached their journey’s end. The Parkinson family lost more members than any other family in the Martin Handcart Company. When the remaining children reached Salt Lake they were taken in by other families.