Pioneer Day

It’s been a couple weeks, but our family decided to celebrate Pioneer Day this year. I am not really sure why but I just felt a pull to celebrate our pioneer ancestors. Plus, it’s not too hard to convince me to share about our ancestry!

We celebrated with a pioneer style breakfast (well, who am I kidding? It was a LOT nicer than probably anything the pioneers had but we made is rustic ;)). The day went mostly as normal. But we had a comfort food dinner and I shared about some of our pioneer heritage.

It was really neat because I am (obviously) more familiar with my side of the family than Mark’s but I discovered that we had yet another similar path on both of our sides.

I have always known that my third great grandfather, Thomas Poulson Cloward, was a part of the company that traveled with Brigham Young when the saints first entered the Salt Lake Valley. He left Winter Quarters, Nebraska on April 16, 1847. He traveled for 96 days in a wagon company across the plains. He was 23 years old. He married my great grandmother, Mary Page, just three weeks before leaving with Brigham Young. He was a cobbler (shoe maker) and made the first shoes in the valley.

The fun connection was that Mark also has an ancestor who was with Brigham Young’s Vanguard Company – John Brown, Mark’s fourth grand uncle. He and my grandfather were very similar in ages, John being 26 at the time of his travels. He was one of the chief scouts and hunters on the journey. At the end, he was sent ahead with Orson Pratt’s detachment and entered the valley and is said to have “swung the first scythe”.

Both men made the trip across the plains several times, guiding others along the paths they had helped make. I have a hard time believing that these two men never interacted. It is sweet to think that our family lines crossed paths generations before we came together.

I am grateful to share these stories with my children. These stories need to be told and shared and appreciated. I am grateful to come from so many men and women – pioneers in various ways – who led the way for others to follow.