William's Story
Birth: November 22nd, 1849 | male | in Third Lake, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Death: June 28th, 1855 | 5 years old | in Nebraska
Memorial: Stone 5 | left column | 2nd name
William’s parents were Edward Middlemas III of England and Abigail Keeler of Canada. The family included eight children who all made the journey to America.
The Middlemass’ came to America and with other Saints joined the Seth M. Blair / Edward Stevenson Company to journey to the Salt Lake Valley.
Along the journey cholera came and infected many Saints. Abigail and three of their children were infected, Edward, Emma and William.
First to pass away was Abigail on the 24th of June. She was buried on the plains of Nebraska in a grave without a coffin. They rolled her in her own feather bed and her own clean, warm blankets
All three children passed away the same day, the 28th of June.
Little 5 year old William Mark passed away, after he crawled under the wagon. He is buried near Nemaha, Nebraska with his siblings.
In a history of Abigail, it says:
“Not long after Mother’s death they had camped one evening, the girls Anna and Abbie were busy getting supper. The little boys crawled under the wagon and lay down. A man came along and asked whose boys they were. The girls said “They belong to us.” “Well”, the man said, “they are dead.” And so they were. The same terrible disease took them and one of the teamsters also.”