Mary Orgill

Mary Orgill is the fourth of thirteen children born to Joseph Orgill and her mother is Phoebe Croxall, both from England.

The Orgill family immigrated from England to America, sailing on the ship “Belle Wood.” After their arrival in America, they traveled to Nebraska and joined an unknown company to journey with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley.

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, premature birth, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. This is from her parent’s histories:

“A long, hard journey that must have been. The baby girl was only five months old, the two year old boy was very sickly and not able to walk much of the way, and there was another four year old boy. The mother carried the baby in her arms and the one boy on her back until the baby became very sick and they had to stop for a few days. They did all within their power to relieve the suffering of their little daughter. But they had no medicine to give her, so Father Orgill took his much loved violin and trudged all night to the nearest town to try and sell it in order to get some medicine. But all the storekeeper offered him was one yard of green silk. Tired as he was he came right back only to find that a grave was being prepared for his little Mary.”

Mary, five-months-old, is buried along the Mormon Trail in Nebraska.