Lavina's Story
Birth: November ??, 1861 | female | in Des Moines, Polk, Iowa
Death: October ??, 1864 | 2 years old | in Wyoming
Memorial: Stone 13 | left column
Lavina Wilson is the ninth of 14 children born to Wellington Paul Wilson from Vermont and Rebecca McBride of Ohio. After joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the family traveled to Nebraska and joined the William S. Warren Company to journal to Salt Lake City. The company left Nebraska on July 21, 1864.
Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. While in Wyoming, 3-year-old Lavina and her two sisters suffered from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (spread by a contaminated tick). Lavina and her two sisters died from the disease. She was buried along the Mormon Trail in Wyoming.