Samuel's Story
Birth: September 8th, 1840 | unknown | in Hancock County, Illinois
Death: ?? ??, 1850 | 9 years old | on the Mormon Trail West
Memorial: Stone 17
Samuel Carter is the oldest of nine children born to John Harrison Carter Jr., and Elizabeth Runnels Sweat, both from Maine.
When the Carter family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they moved to Hancock County, Illinois. It was there that Samuel was born. In 1850, they joined the William Snow / Joseph Young Company to journey to the Great Salt Lake Valley. The Company departed on June 21, 1850 for Utah.
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. During the journey, 10-year-old Samuel passed away and is buried along the Mormon Trail.