Mary's Story
Birth: October 28th, 1859 | female | in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
Death: August 28th, 1862 | 2 years old | in Nebraska
Memorial: Stone 11 | left column | 19th name
Mary's parents are Samuel Statham and Mary Jane Williams, both from England.
When the Statham's came to America from Great Britain they traveled to Missouri. While in St. Louis, Mary Jane gave birth to their fourth child, a daughter they named Mary Elizabeth.
They continued on to Nebraska to join the Ansil P. Harmon Company to go to the Salt Lake Valley with other Saints they had traveled with from England. The company left Nebraska on August 1, 1862.
Sickness soon came upon the Saints, measles in particular, attacked the children.
Little 22 month old Mary Elizabeth came down with the measles and passed away. She is laid to rest on the Mormon Trail in Nebraska.
Journal from one of the Saints on the journey:
“We arrived in Salt Lake City on the 5th of October with emigrants. Some fifteen children had died on the plains from measles.”
Comment in a journal from the company:
“there was considerable sickness among us during the first four or five weeks after leaving the Missouri river, principally the measles, which unfortunately prevailed among the children, as we are informed, to a great extent, proving fatal to some ten or fifteen.”