Robert Walsh

Robert Walsh is the first of three children born to William Walsh and Alice Fish, both from England.

After joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they family had a desire to immigrate from England to America to journey west to the Great Salt Lake Valley. After sailing to America, the family joined the Edward Martin Handcart Company.

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, premature birth, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Cholera, a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water, infected many of the travelers. The journey was especially difficult for this handcart company who left late in the season. The Saints were plagued with freezing snowstorms and lack of food. Of the 576 pioneers in the Martin Handcart Company, 145 perished before reaching the Salt Lake Valley. Robert was among those who perished. He is buried by Wood River, Nebraska.

Robert’s mother recorded: “My eldest son Robert [Walsh] was never well after we started, and one night after we had camped my husband took one of our quilt s [quilts] and went quite a distance to sell it for something more desirable to eat. He did not recover his health on the journey and died on the way between Laramie and the Devils Gate. My grief at his interment is beyond expression, on account of the location and the certainty that his remains would be molested by wolves.”

Robert's father also passed away at Devils Gate and buried there.