Remembering those that came before...

....and in the spirit of paying honor to my ancestors, let me introduce my great-grandmother, Amelia Jarvis Webb born Jan. 3, 1853, the fourth child of George Jarvis and Ann Prior Jarvis, pioneers of the first company to arrive in St. George on December 15, 1861. This is on my mom's side, whose mother was Sarah Ida (Badcock) Webb; this is her mother.

The family left Liverpool on March 18, 1857 on the ship "George Washington". There were 817 Mormon converts making the voyage. Soon after they reached Boston, Amelia came down with measles which delayed their going to Utah with the other Mormons, so her father put his money in a Boston bank and it was all lost in the year of the "great panic". Another start must be made to get the money to come to Utah. There was much opposition in the church at that time. The family lived near the famous Bunker Hill, and played on the grounds where the monument now stands.

In the spring of 1860, they left Massachusetts, going as far as St. Joseph, Missouri, by railroad. From there they took a boat up river, to Omaha, Nebraska, which was then a supply station for people coming west. Then they traveled to Florence, Nebraska where they stopped for their father to work for a while as a tent maker. They were able to cross the plains but the family had to walk. The children had no shoes on their feet. When they reached Salt Lake, they obtained land in the Sugar House district. When the call came for volunteers to go to St. George, this was one of the first families to volunteer to go. The Jarvis family was among the first to move onto their own lot.

Amelia was about 13 years old when she went to live in the "Big House" of Artemesia Snow; the first wife of Apostle Erastus Snow. Here she met William Badcock (Babcock) and when she was sixteen, they traveled to Salt Lake City, where they were married in the Endowment House. She had many trials and troubles during her married life, but she also had great faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which was a source of great comfort and happiness to her. (Thanks to Sheryl for compiling this history for all of us).