Martha Ann Vickers

Martha Ann Vickers was the third of 11 children born to John Vickers and Ann Lacey, both from England. John and Ann were married in England.

The Vickers family immigrated to America and joined the Abraham Smoot Company with a desire to journey to the Great Salt Lake Valley with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Note: According to the Church History of Overland Trails, it says the family traveled with an “unknown company.”)

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. According to the history of John Vickers: “The trip across the plains was long and hard. Disease, weather and exposure took their toll on them. On the 29th of June, John and Ann’s beloved four-month old Martha Ann took sick suddenly and died. Martha Ann was laid to rest in a swampy grave some 20 miles east of Fort Kearney, Nebraska.”

The company records: “On the 30th we came to the Platte River. The mosquitoes troubled us very much. Brother Vickers’ child [Martha Ann] died the day before.”