Martha's Story
Birth: July 1st, 1852 | female | in Taylor Township, Appanoose, Iowa
Death: September ??, 1864 | 12 years old | in Nebraska on the Mormon Trail
Memorial: Stone 13 | left column
Martha Ann Wilson is the fourth 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 Wilson family traveled to Nebraska to join the William S. Warren Company. The company left for the Great Salt Lake Valley 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 traveling in Nebraska, Martha Ann and her two sisters came down with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (spread through the bite of an infected tick). Martha Ann, 14 years old, died and was buried along the Mormon Trail in Nebraska.