William Washington Mail

William Washington Mail is the second of five siblings. His parents are Andrew Jackson Mail and Ann Eliza Johnson, both from Indiana. William’s father, Andrew, died in 1850. His mother, Ann, later married John M. Way.

When William was 16-year-old, he joined the Lewis Bronson Company to journey to the Salt Lake Valley with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is assumed that he was alone, as no other family members are listed on the Company’s roster. The Company began the trek on June 14.

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. After traveling for a month, William was killed by Indians. He is buried on the South side of Loup Fork in Nebraska.

From Company journals: “We had many a scare from the Indians and one morning William Mails, a boy of 16, went to find a horse that had strayed from camp. We hears his screams and the men rushed to the place but were just in time to see four buck Indians riding at full speed over the hill. The horse was gone and also the boy's coat and gun. The Indians had killed the boy with a tomahawk. The whole company was in an uproar. The people were very frightened. More guards were put to guard the camp, and we lived in fear for many days. The boy's body was taken on for several miles; a coffin was made of some of our wagon boxes and he was buried beside a little creek and some trees beside the trail.”