Rodolphus' Story
Birth: January 1st, 1833 | male | in New York
Death: June 25th, 1850 | 17 years old | in Iowa, buried two weeks west of the Missouri River
Memorial: Stone 1 | right column
Rodolphus Cravath is the first of four children born to Austin Cravath from Connecticut and Eliza Doty from New York. Rodolphus’ father, Austin, passed away in 1844, and Eliza married Alfred Brown in Nebraska. It was there that the family joined the Warren Foote Company to journey west with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Great Salt Lake Valley.
Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Within the beginning weeks of their journey, cholera (a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water) invaded the camp, causing many deaths among the Saints. Among the victims were 17-year-old Rodolphus, who passed away on June 25, and Alfred Brown who died a few days prior. Both are buried along the Mormon Trail in Iowa.