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True Grit: The Elizabeth Cunningham Story

by

Dale W Adams1 After years of widowhood and a life of hardship, Elizabeth Nicholson Cunningham died on March 19, 1890 in American Fork, Utah. Except for her friends and relatives, her passing wasn’t noteworthy at the time. From an historical perspective, however, it’s clear she lived a remarkable life and exhibited substantial faith and grit. She and her family lived poor in Scotland and then nearly lost their lives in the handcart debacle of 1856, several days short of rescuers near South Pass in Wyoming. Although she left no written record of her experiences, and only her son George recorded a few memories about his family’s travails, other sources of information shed light on her life, the hardships she endured, and her immense inner strength.2 The clearest insight into Elizabeth’s personality is given in a cryptic statement by her son George in his autobiography: “My father was a miner by trade and being a man of weak constitution was badly adapted for such a laborious occupation. Consequently, this threw the management of affairs nearly entirely upon my mother, and to speak of her in [a] phrase, I cannot do it better than by saying she was a rustler in the greatest sense of the word.”3 Whether James’ weakness was caused by his basic disposition, or by health problems, Elizabeth was the foundation and matriarch of the family.

1 Thanks to Cunningham relatives, Dan and Karen Adams and Jacque Kingsford, for assistance

with this story. Michele Adams improved the English and presentation. 2 A short life sketch of Elizabeth is in International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Pioneer

Women of Faith and Fortitude, Vol. 1, p. 726. Unfortunately, there are several errors in this sketch, including Elizabeth and James’ death dates. 3 George Cunningham, p.1.

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Early Life Elizabeth’s father, Alexander Nicholson, was born in the small village of Dirleton, Scotland, located on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, about 15 miles northeast of Edinburgh. He may have moved to Elizabeth’s birthplace, Dysart, Scotland to work in the nearby coal mines. He met his wife Elizabeth Agnes Allen there. They were married on 15 March 1794. The couple may have had as many as 8 children, Including Elizabeth Agnes on 10 December 1807 and Margaret on 10 December 1811. To assist with family expenses, the two girls and their mother most likely worked long hours in the local textile mills, possibly weaving linen, starting when the girls were young. In about 1825 Elizabeth married John Nicol and they had a daughter, Agnes, who was born in Sinclairtown on 18 January 1827.4 Sometime later John apparently died.5 Elizabeth, then a single mother, may have moved back to Dysart with her family and earned a living working in the textile mills. Elizabeth began a new chapter in her life when she married James Cunningham on 15 February 1834. James’ family had lived in Dysart for several generations, and he, and likely most of his ancestors, worked in the coal industry. Over the next dozen years Elizabeth had seven more children, two of whom died young. During this time the family moved several times, probably because of employment opportunities for James. For a time they lived in Wellwood, a mining community located about a dozen miles north of Dysart. Later they lived in Dunfermline, an industrial center a dozen-or-so miles west of Dysart. Given the economic status of coal miners and textile mill workers it is unlikely the Cunninghams owned a home in any of the places they lived. They were likely lifelong tenants. Dysart In 2006 the community of Dysart was a northern burgh of Kirkcaldy, the largest town in the county of Fife, Scotland. Dysart is a

4 Sinclairtown was a small community on the west edge of Dysart.

5 A Cunningham relative, Jacque Kingsford, suggests John may have been a seaman and lost his

life at sea.

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small port on the Firth of Forth, located about midway between Edinburgh and Dundee. For more than a thousand years there was a lively sea trade between this port and Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and Holland. Coal and textiles were important parts of these exports. The most famous person born in Kirkcaldy was Adam Smith, the author of Wealth of Nations. He wrote his famous tome on capitalism there in the mid-1770s, not far from where the Cunninghams later lived. Coal Mining The list of members of the LDS branch in Dysart in the mid-1850s shows that most of the males who were seven years or older were coal miners. There are large coal deposits immediately west and north of Dysart and digging for coal in Scotland goes back to Roman times. The deposits are located in a belt that starts southwest of Glasgow and runs to northeast of Edinburgh. During the time James and his sons Robert and George worked the mines, there were probably 5 thousand coal miners in Fife, the county where Dysart is located. By the early 1900s this number had increased to nearly 18 thousand, despite increasing use of machinery in the industry. In most areas the coal occurs in two seams, sometimes only a couple of feet thick. A layer of iron ore, found under some seams of coal, was also mined. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the landscape of Fife was dotted with grim “coaltowns” that housed colliers and their families. The widespread availability of inexpensive coal fueled the development of Scottish industry and generated income from exports. In the Cunninghams’ time the economy of Scotland rested on three legs: coal mining, textiles, and making linoleum.

From about 1600 to almost 1800 “colliers” in Scotland were slaves in every sense of the word. They could not change employment without mine owners’ permission, the future labor of many children was sold to mine owners through “arling,” and large numbers of women and children worked without pay to help men fulfill their mining obligations. After this slavery was outlawed in 1799, colliers occupied about the same social class as the blacks in the

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U.S. after emancipation. Although this stigma had faded a bit by the time James and his sons labored in coal mines, the black coal dust on their hands and faces was still more than a cleanliness problem.

Coal mining was hard, dirty, and dangerous work. Water was a

problem in many of the mines and colliers suffered from dampness as well as dust. These unhealthy conditions may have contributed to at least some of James’ debilities. Some of the vertical mines required carrying coal by hand up ladders to reach the surface, a task often done by children. Young people were also employed in clawing coal from narrow seams. The coal mined around Dysart kindles slowly, leaves much ash, but produces a strong heat.

Because of the low wages and wretched working conditions in

the industry, workers periodically attempted to organize and to strike. The typical miner’s wage for a week was 18 shillings during the 1850s, which involved working 12 hours or more per day for at least 5 days. In US currency at the time, these wages amounted to about $1 a day for backbreaking work. The small wages paid to sons George and Robert plus the earnings of Elizabeth and her daughters may have boosted the family’s income to the equivalent of a modest $2 per working day.

On several occasions social pressure resulted in commissions

doing studies of the Scottish coal industry. One such commission in 1840 published short case studies of workers in the industry. An interview with one 11-year-old lad by the name of Thomas Duncan describes the harsh conditions endured by young colliers such as Robert and George Cunningham:

I open the air-doors for the putters: do so from six in the morning till six at night. Mother calls me up at five in the morning and gives me a piece of cake, which is all I get till I return: sometimes I eat it as I gang. There is plenty of water in the pit: the part I am in it comes up to my knees. I did go to school before I was taken down, and could read then; Mother has always worked below: but Father has run away these five years.

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He [Thomas] knows that twice 6 makes 12, and that 4 times 7 makes 20. Did read the Testament, in which Matthew says Christ was crucified: does not know what crucified means. Knows that he shall die, because many people do so in the East Houses. I [Thomas] get 3s. a week, and take it home to Mother; sometimes she licks me and sometimes she give me a bawbee, which I spend in scones or sweetier. (Arnot, p. 29)6

Elizabeth’s son, George, mentions he began working in the mines at the age of seven and his older brother Robert probably did likewise, beginning work only a few years after Thomas Duncan’s account.7 George goes on to say he labored in the mines for six years, often working 12 to 14 hours a day. Sometime the air was so foul where George worked that a lamp would not burn. Because boys were pressed into working in the mines at such young ages, they had extremely limited opportunities for formal education. George mentions he attended school occasionally from age five to seven. After that, his schooling likely was limited to a few evening and Sunday classes. With all of the effort the family members expended to earn a living, it is unlikely there was a lot of energy left after work to sit around the home fire studying. In late 1855 and early 1856 there was a major attempt to organize coal miners into unions, especially after the mine owners unilaterally reduced miners’ wages by 20 percent. A subsequent strike by most Scottish miners lasted for several months in the first half of 1856 before it collapsed and miners returned to work for lower wages. This turmoil likely stimulated the Cunningham’s decision to leave Scotland for America in the first half of 1856. The Textile Industry Although less important than coal mining, various types of textile manufacturing in and around Dysart were an important source of income, especially for women and girls. Elizabeth and her oldest

6 In the 1840s the slang term “bawbee” meant a Scottish half-penny, a tiny unit of currency.

7 George Cunningham, p.2.

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daughters, Agnes and Catherine, most likely worked in some parts of this industry. For many years spinning locally grown flax into linen on power looms was an important activity around Dysart. During the first half of the 1800s, however, the linen industry gradually declined and weavers turned to cotton, wool, and jute.8 The atmosphere in loom shops was usually unpleasant and often quite unhealthy. High moisture, unpleasant gases, long working hours, and poor ventilation endangered workers health. In addition to working in textile mills, girls and women also did knitting and specialty work at home. The facts that Elizabeth later made part of her living in Utah from needlework and sewing, and that Catherine was proficient in knitting woolen goods later in life, suggests they may have done similar piece work in Scotland, in addition to sometimes working in the mills.

Joining the LDS Church LDS missionaries first went to Scotland in 1839. From 1840 to 1855 they organized 70 branches, with one in Dysart. 9 The first person in the Dysart area to join the LDS Church was Mary McCourt, who was baptized on September 26, 1840 by Orson Pratt.10 Conversions gradually accelerated until a significant portion of the residents in the area became members. Elder William McLean baptized an additional four persons in the branch during 1841: Thomas Richardson, James Herd, Elizabeth Herd, and Margaret Herd. McLean baptized 14 more people in Dysart during 1842, including James and Elizabeth Cunningham, Elizabeth’s daughter Agnes Nicol Adamson, and four other members of the Adamson family. James and Henry Adamson were baptized on the same day, 2 May 1842. Elizabeth and her sister Margaret Adamson were also baptized on the same day two weeks later, 16 May 1842. Son George remembered that 20 to 30 families eventually joined the church in the community where the Cunninghams lived.

8 Murray, pp. 26-27.

9 V. Ben Bloxham and others, eds., p. 274.

10 Initially the Branch in the branch in the Dysart area was called Pathhead until about 1850 when

its name was changed to Dysart.

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Later, for a time, the Cunninghams were members of the nearby Dunfermline Branch. About the first of 1855 their memberships were transferred back to the Dysart Branch. James was ordained an elder on July 15, 1855, and his son Robert was ordained a priest on the same date, both by James L. Chalmers.

Until they left for Utah, the Cunningham home in Dysart was a

rest stop for missionaries. Son George mentions that on several occasions Elizabeth gave missionaries borrowed money that she had no easy way to repay. George goes on to quote his mother as saying that God would provide a way for her to repay the borrowed money. Apparently Elizabeth, with James’ support, was the spiritual leader in the family. Her faith was strong and she taught her children LDS principles. The lives of the Cunninghams and the Adamsons were intertwined, and the two families were the cornerstone of the LDS branch in Dysart. Elizabeth was especially close to her younger sister, Margaret who lived in the nearby community of Boreland. Margaret married Henry Adamson. In turn, Henry’s much younger brother, David Patterson Adamson, married Elizabeth’s first daughter Agnes Nicol. Henry and Margaret moved to Utah in the 1860s, eventually settling in Franklin, Idaho. In 1861 two of Henry’s sons, Alexander and Peter, migrated to American Fork.11 These nephews were especially solicitous of Elizabeth after she became a widow. Granddaughter, Mary Adams Andersen, recalled that Alex would visit Elizabeth virtually every Sunday and wind her clock. David and Agnes Adamson were the last of the clan to migrate, leaving Liverpool on June 29, 1883 on their way to American Fork. The Cunninghams considered Dysart their home, but they apparently moved around some, possibly seeking employment. In 1834 they were living in Wellwood, where son Robert was born. By 1838-40 the family returned to live in a small village called Boreland, located on the north edge of Dysart. Daughter Catherine and son George were born there. Sometime later they apparently moved again into Dysart proper where Elizabeth and Margaret were born in

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Alexander built a log cabin that made the news in 2006. The American Fork Citizen, January 19, 2006, reported that the cabin had been recently moved to Robinson Park in American Fork.

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1843 and 1846 respectively. As mentioned earlier, Church records show that the family must have moved subsequently to Dunfermline where they stayed until the latter part of 1854 when they moved back to Dysart. Dunfermline was then both a mining and textile milling center located some 15 miles west of Dysart.

The Trip to Utah Partly responding to the call to gather, and partly reacting to the declining economic opportunities in Dysart, the Cunninghams decided to migrate to the US in early 1856. The decision to migrate must have been a difficult one, especially for Elizabeth. It involved leaving their many friends and relatives, their culture, and the security that familiarity provides. Migrating and camping are similar challenges for women: they are expected to continue doing their regular family tending without the conveniences found at home. This explains why many women dislike camping and why many wives have reservations about migrating to a completely new and distant place. Elizabeth may have had a number of restless nights before she and James decided to cast their lot with the saints in the Great Basin. Whatever her initial misgivings, she never looked back or grumbled after they started their journey. While friends and relatives would later follow them, Elizabeth and her family were pioneers in initiating the LDS migration from Dysart. Elizabeth left behind her oldest daughter and son along with their families. She and the rest of her family made the trip without the support of any friends or relatives. Elizabeth and her family must have overlooked the obvious hazards of the journey and relied on faith that God would provide a way. The family sold their modest household effects, bade goodbye to their friends and relatives and took the train to Glasgow. Next, they endured a rough sea voyage and sea sickness on a steamship to Liverpool. There they joined more than 700 other LDS on the US sailing ship the Thornton. Like most others on the Thornton, the Cunninghams relied on the Perpetual Emigrating Fund (PEF) to finance most of their trip to Zion. They may have made a modest down payment for their voyage and likely paid their own rail and sea passage from Dysart to

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Liverpool. The PEF probably paid the rest of their expenses. For a family of six this amounted to more than several hundred dollars. Apparently, PEF procedures at the time were for immigrants to sign a promissory note for these expenses as soon as they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.12 A search of PEF financial records failed to uncover the amount of debt the Cunningham family incurred for their trip.13 It appears that none of the members of the Willie or Martin handcart companies, including the Cunninghams, were asked to sign promissory notes. Understandably, LDS church leaders may have been too mortified by the suffering of these two handcart companies to ask for loan repayments from the survivors. The Thornton departed on May 4 and took a long six weeks to reach New York.14 The Cunninghams arrived in New York Harbor on June 14 and were allowed to leave the ship two days later on the 16th. Curiously, on the New York passenger list for the Thornton, James gives his occupation as shopkeeper, hinting he may have been too infirm to engage in mining for some time before leaving Dysart. James’ problematic health may have been an additional factor that prompted the Cunninghams to migrate. They may have hoped that the dry Utah climate would be beneficial, which it apparently was. James lived to the age of 77, far beyond average life expectancy at the time. A few days in New York, a steamboat to Albany, a train ride, another trip on a sailing ship on the Great Lakes, and still another train ride via Chicago landed the group at the end of the rail line in Iowa City, Iowa the latter part of June. The conditions along the way included traveling in shabby rail cars, sleeping in warehouses, and suffering a drenching rain in Iowa City without shelter. One wonders how women such as Elizabeth provided meals for their families, managed laundry and personal hygiene, found clean drinking water, nursed the ill, and dealt with grumbling. The hardships she endured

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It would have been difficult for church agents in the U.K. to accurately predict the travel expenses and have immigrants sign a promissory note before they left Liverpool. 13

See the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, “Financial Accounts 1849-1885,” Call # CR 376 2, LDS Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah. 14

New steamships were making the trip much faster, but the passage on these newer ships was more expensive than on the older sailing ships. Had the Cunninghams used steam rather than sail they would have avoided the severe weather around South Pass in Wyoming in late October.

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during her earlier life apparently stiffened her backbone sufficient to endure the harsh conditions of the trip.

The Handcarts The story of the travails and rescue of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies has been eloquently recounted by a number of authors (Bartholomew & Arington, Hafen & Hafen, Jones, Olsen. Stegner, Swinton & Groberg, and Turner). They tell the full story much better than can I. Suffice it to say that the Cunninghams participated in all of the challenges faced by the Willie Handcart Company after it left Iowa City on July 15. They most certainly found new muscles as they walked and pulled-pushed their handcart across Iowa to Florence, Nebraska, where they were re-supplied for the journey west. There they agonized over whether to remain in Florence because of the lateness of the season. Having few alternatives and relying on faith to see them through, the Cunninghams, and all of the other approximately 100 Scotts in their group decided to forge ahead. The trekkers encountered heat, dust, rain storms, buffalo, Indians, and the challenges of broken handcarts, setting up and tearing down tents, scrounging for fire wood, seeking drinking water, and increasing fatigue while they crossed Nebraska. Nonetheless, twenty years later son George recalled the pleasure he derived from hearing his sisters sing as they pushed and pulled their handcart (p. 5).

Although members of the company didn’t recognize it at the time, the clock on their very survival began ticking down mid-way through Nebraska, where many of their cattle and some of their oxen, used by accompanying wagons, were swept away in a stampede of buffalo, never to be recovered. This occurred during a severe thunderstorm on the night of September 3. The Company suffered in two ways from the stampede: it lost a substantial part of their food supply in the form of missing cattle, and the draft animal loss also slowed its travel. By the time the group reached Ft. Laramie on October 1 Company leaders recognized they lacked sufficient rations to reach

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Salt Lake Valley. They had used 70 percent of their food supply but were only half way to the valley from Florence. Attempts to re-stock at the fort yielded little additional food. Reduced rations followed and the trekkers were forced to transfer more of their food supplies from wagons to handcarts because of failing draft animals. To make room for the precious sacks of flour on their carts, members in the company threw away clothing and bedding that later may have saved a number of their lives in the blizzard on the upper reaches of the Sweetwater River. The Oregon Trail from Ft. Laramie to South Pass is arduous. In some places it is sandy; in most places it moves uphill; travelers were forced to cross rivers a number of times; in all places there were shortages of firewood and fodder for the animals. A further problem was that the weather was growing colder and no one had winter clothing. By the time the company was within a couple days of South Pass they were essentially running on fumes and eating their last morsels. Between the fifth and sixth crossing of the Sweetwater a severe early blizzard engulfed the company. The storm, fatigue, hunger, and hypothermia ground them to a halt at about the sixth crossing, only a couple of days short of making it through South Pass, finding rescuers, warmer weather, and relative safety. Saving Betsy It was during this bitter weather that Elizabeth again displayed her strength and faith. In two brief paragraphs Kate Carter relates how Elizabeth left her 12-year-old, comatose daughter, Betsy, for dead along the trail during a ferocious snow storm. The ground was too frozen to dig a grave so Betsy was simply wrapped in a blanket and left by the side of the trail. The rest of the family struggled on in the blizzard to save their own lives. After getting her family settled at the campsite, Elizabeth felt inspired to walk back in the dark and bring Betsy’s body to camp. Some of the members of the company likely tried to discourage her from making the seemingly foolhardy trip to retrieve a corpse. Family tradition has it that Elizabeth’s family received a priesthood blessing in Scotland that all of the family would make it to Utah. That blessing and her strong faith that God would provide a way likely sustained her as she staggered down the trail. Miraculously, Elizabeth found Betsy undisturbed and lugged her body

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back to camp. There she put some warm water on the girl and saw her twitch. Heroic efforts eventually revived the girl. One wishes the author of this story had provided more details, such as where and when this event occurred. Since the Willie Company encounter its first snow storm and extremely cold weather on October 19 after leaving the fifth crossing of the Sweetwater, Betsy’s brush with death may have occurred someplace between the fifth and sixth crossings as the Company struggled to travel 16 miles before reaching another acceptable campsite. (Or, it may have occurred after rescuers arrived and the Company struggled over Rocky Ridge.) A family tradition is that James was so depleted that Elizabeth, Catherine, and George pulled him on the handcart during some of the most difficult days, such as the nineteenth. What did Elizabeth face during that awful day and night? She and her family likely had little to eat that morning when they awoke with a cold front moving in from the northwest. If Betsy didn’t die during the night, Elizabeth most certainly put the ailing Betsy on the cart until they later thought she was dead. Faltering James may then have taken Betsy’s place on the cart. About noon it began to snow, with a stiff wind blowing into their faces while they trudged steadily uphill. While the day drew on, the company began to string out with stragglers and the weakest falling to the rear. Elizabeth and her family struggled to cover the 16 miles and likely staggered into camp long after dark. She probably helped her children erect a tent and start a fire before she turned around and trudged down the trail several miles to recover Betsy’s body. One wonders how she mustered the strength and fortitude to accomplish what she did; it was likely due to a mixture of faith and grit. On to the Valley The whole Willie Company came within a whisker of perishing there on the windswept frigid upper reaches of the Sweetwater. On the morning of the twentieth the Cunninghams and their companions rose to find a foot of snow on the ground and an extremely low wind chill factor. A number of the members of the group died that night or the next couple of days. If heroic rescuers sent by Brigham Young

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from Utah hadn’t arrived with some supplies, and even more hope, on the twentieth, few of the company would have survived. With rescuers’ assistance, the Willie Company girded up their loins, stumbled over the awful Rocky Ridge and then moved on through South Pass. From the Pass to Fort Bridger, the survivors gradually abandoned their handcarts and climbed into an increasing number of rescuers’ wagons. In addition to those who died about the time of rescue, one or two additional people expired each day before their journey ended. They were a sorry looking lot when they finally pulled into Salt Lake City on November 9.15 They had lost 74 of their company since leaving Liverpool, a mortality rate of about one in six. Some of the survivors had frozen limbs, most were seriously malnourished, and all were without adequate clothing. By the law of averages, Elizabeth should have lost at least one member of her family on the trip, particularly her infirm husband. That she avoided a family death is a testament to her faith, strength, skill, and determination. Church leaders in Salt Lake rapidly parceled out the survivors among friends, relatives, and other church members to provide temporary housing. Nothing is recorded about the good Samaritans who sheltered the Cunninghams while they stayed in Salt Lake for about a month before they were transferred to Lake City (American Fork). The transfer was likely necessary to provide temporary shelter in Salt Lake for the even more numerous bedraggled survivors of the Martin Company who arrived in December. The American Fork Branch records in late November, 1856 show that Brigham Young asked -- perhaps told -- the branch members to supply 3 ½ tons of flour, teams, wagons, teamsters, and forage to help the Willie and Martin Companies.16 The next day John Mercer led a group that left to help the survivors. They were gone for three weeks before returning to American Fork. With them, they

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It is remarkable how quickly technology reduced the time needed to come to Utah. It took the Cunninghams six months to make the journey. Thirteen years later another of my great grandparents, Jens Jensen, made a longer trip from Denmark to Utah in only about a month, mostly by steam ship and train. 16

Arza Adams and his sons Joshua and Nathan donated 400 pounds of flour to the rescue. Nathan participated in the rescue effort as a teamster. American Fork Ward, “Historical Record 1851-1883, Call # LR 10636 22, LDS Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah.

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likely brought the Cunningham family, and possibly other survivors, to settle in the community. Only a week later (December 28th) James and his son George were re-baptized in the frigid waters of American Fork Creek, near Arza Adams’ flour mill. The daughter Elizabeth waited for warmer weather and was re-baptized on April 12, 1857.17 The good Samaritans who helped the survivors of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies did so at a high price. The crops in most parts of Utah in 1856 were skimpy when draughts, grasshoppers, and crickets extracted their periodic tithes of the settlers. Locals literally tightened their belts several notches after feeding the large number of impoverished handcart survivors who were carried into Utah in the fall and winter of 1856.

American Fork There is no information on who sheltered and fed the Cunninghams once they arrived in Lake City (American Fork). Because there were six of them, some or all of the children may have lived separately from their parents for a time. Candidates for providing shelter for the family include John Mercer who likely brought them to the community, Brother Parsons who re-baptized James and his son, or a Scottish friend such as John McNeill who later re-baptized daughter Margaret Cunningham on November 22, 1857. Another possibility is that Arza Adams and his wife Sabina took in Catherine during the winter of ‘56-‘57. The 1860 Federal Census also shows that the daughter Elizabeth (Betsy) was then living with the William Kelly family. Perhaps William and his wife took Betsy in to help with their large family. Most likely, 16-year-old George ended up earning his keep with some other family in the community. The Cunningham’s health and strength gradually improved over the winter of 1856-57. Only three months after she arrived in American Fork, Catherine married Arza Adams on March 7, 1857,

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The record shows that Elizabeth Cunningham was baptized on this date, but it is not clear if this was the mother or daughter. Since Orpha Adams, a girl about Betsy’s age was baptized at the same time, one might guess it was Elizabeth the younger, rather than her mother who was baptized.

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becoming his fourth plural wife. On the same day Marillah Olney was also sealed to Arza as his third wife. Starting in later April, Arza and Catherine spent their honeymoon fulfilling a short mission call to Fort Supply, just south of Ft. Bridger, Wyoming. One wonders what flashbacks she had as they traveled in reverse part of the trail of tears her family had traveled only a few months earlier. Bishop Leonard Harrington most likely gave the Cunninghams a small parcel for a homestead soon after they arrived in town, and they probably built a log or adobe dwelling there during 1857-58. The 1/3 acre lot was located near what is now Main Street and First East in American Fork.18 In his book on the history of American Fork Shelley provides a map of the town in 1857 that shows the Cunningham lot inside the partially built fort. The 1860 Federal Census, however, shows that Elizabeth and James were then living without children in Pleasant Grove, where they may have resided for several years before returning to their home in American Fork. James apparently owned some property in what was then called Battle Creek. The 1860 Census records he had $150 worth of real estate, the value of a small lot and home, along with $250 worth of personal property. What James did in Pleasant Grove in unknown, but he might have been employed in digging irrigation canals or in some mining efforts. He is listed as a laborer in the 1860 census. In the 1870 Census James and Elizabeth were again in American Fork, and he reported his occupation was farming. Both of his sons, George and Robert, are also listed as farmers in this Census. They may have had a joint family farming venture, with the boys doing most of the heavy lifting. How much James contributed to the family’s sustenance after the family arrived in American Fork is unknown. His granddaughter, Mary Adams Andersen, relates that James “because of poor health had little to do with the keeping and caring for the family.” In his biography, son George describes going to work soon after he arrived in Utah, including taking a harrowing journey, mostly alone, to

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The lot is located in Block 17, Plat A, lot #4. The 1870 deed for the property can be found in Book U, page 414 in the Utah County property records.

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southern Nevada when he was only 18. A major part of the burden of maintaining the household likely fell on Elizabeth’s broad shoulders. Mary Andersen, also provides a unique description of Elizabeth in her later years. “She was of large stature, (with) large blue eyes, and a woman of great faith and courage. She had a sweet smile and pleasant ways. She was also a popular midwife who did a lot of nursing, thinking nothing of walking almost to our neighboring towns each morning to care for new mothers and babies. She was also known for her skill with a needle, something she likely learned early in Scotland.” She was especially renowned for the men’s clothing she made. Elizabeth perhaps earned most of the family’s income through her needlework, nursing, and midwifery. After suffering severe pain for three years, James died on May 30, 1878,19 His obituary mentions he called his family together before he expired and exhorted them to stand firm in the gospel.20 Elizabeth continued to live in their home and supported herself. When her strength and health failed she moved in with her daughter Catherine who lived about a block north of the Cunningham residence. Elizabeth died without fanfare. She finally set aside her burdens and was laid to rest beside her husband in the American Fork Cemetery.

Elizabeth’s Children Two of Elizabeth’s sons, Joseph and Alexander, died as infants and are probably buried in the Dysart area. The rest of her children married and raised large families. Agnes Elizabeth’s first daughter, Agnes Nicol, was born on January 18, 1827 in Sinclairtown, Scotland. She married David Patterson Adamson on March 14, 1845, and they made their home in Boreland, Scotland. They were both active in the LDS Branch in Dysart. In 1883 the couple migrated to Utah where they lived in American Fork

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Might that pain and earlier infirmities been due to arthritis? 20

The obituary is in The Deseret News, Vol. 27, No. 17, June 5, 1878, p. 288.

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the remainder of their lives. Agnes had 11 children, and all but one of them reached adulthood. Agnes died on December 15, 1903 and David passed away on December 29, 1904. They were buried in the American Fork Cemetery. Robert Elizabeth’s oldest son, Robert was born on September 7, 1834 in Wellwood, Scotland. He married Ann Wilson on January 16, 1854. The couple remained in Scotland when most of the rest of his family left for Utah in 1856, possibly to save enough to finance part of their trip to America. They left for Utah on May 16, 1861 on the ship “Monarch of the Sea.” Illness took their young son, William, just before they landed in New York. Ann had nine children, seven of whom reached adulthood. One son, Thomas Deercreek, was born in Deercreek, Wyoming on the way to Utah. Stomach cancer took Robert’s life on January 24, 1899 and Ann passed away on January 19, 1906. They were buried in the American Fork Cemetery.21 Catherine Elizabeth’s second daughter, Catherine was born in Boreland, Scotland on August 17, 1838. She began to work in the textile industry at the age of ten and learned some textile skills she applied in Utah. Her youngest son, Daniel, remembered his mother being able to knit a pair of wool socks in a single day. With her mother and brother, Catherine supplied much of the muscle that pulled a handcart from Iowa to South Pass in Wyoming. She and her husband Arza Adams made their home on First East just north of First North in American Fork. She went on to have 11 children. Catherine passed away on December 12, 1912 and was buried in the American Fork Cemetery next to Arza and two of his other wives. George Of the Cunningham children, second son George left the largest mark on history. He was born August 17, 1840 in Boreland, Scotland. George was a major help to his mother in pulling the

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Thanks to Jacque Kingsford for information on Robert and his wife.

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handcart. On January 10, 1863 he married Mary Wrigley and she went on to have 13 children in American Fork. George became a dedicated public servant in the community. At various times he was alderman, mayor, member of the state legislature, justice of the peace, and a leader in forming the first free, public school in Utah. His autobiography demonstrates he read and appreciated poetry. When George died on March 15, 1913 American Fork City flew its flags at half mast in his honor for three days. He and his wife are buried in the American Fork Cemetery. Elizabeth (Betsy) Betsy was born in Dysart, Scotland on November 24, 1843.22 At the age of 12 she likely did a lot of handcart pushing across Nebraska and Wyoming before collapsing from hunger, hypothermia, and exhaustion in a blizzard just short of South Pass in Wyoming. She owed her miraculous rescue and revival to her indomitable mother. A year and a half after arriving in American Fork, at the age of 15, she became a plural wife of William Edward Kelly. They lived the remainder of their lives in American Fork and raised 10 of their 11 children to adulthood. William died on June 18, 1899, and Betsy followed him much later on October 12, 1924. Their remains are interred in the American Fork Cemetery. Margaret Elizabeth’s youngest child was born on April 15, 1846 in Dysart. Margaret migrated with her parents to Utah in 1856. She married John Binnall in 1863 and they lived in American Fork for a few years. John apparently inherited a farm from his father, Thomas, located in Douglas Township, Harrison County, Iowa. The couple moved there in about 1873 where they lived the rest of their lives. Margaret had ten children. John died on January 8, 1913 and Margaret passed away in June 1921. The couple and some of their children were buried in the Woodbine, Iowa Cemetery.

22

A short life sketch of Betsy can be found in International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, vol. 2, p. 1645.

19

Summing Up Following family tradition, most of the Cunningham family and their kin clustered around Dysart, Scotland. After major portions of the extended family, along with many Scottish friends, moved to Utah they also clustered in American Fork, Utah.23 The Cunninghams were a family that helped, liked, and enjoyed each other. I remember hearing my Grandpa, Daniel Adams, say some of the most enjoyable times he had as a kid were visiting his grandma Cunningham, his uncle George, and the rest of the Cunningham clan. The cohesion of the family undoubtedly stemmed from Elizabeth’s nurturing. Moreover, a substantial number of people with American Fork/Scottish roots owe a debt of gratitude to Elizabeth for pioneering the trail to Utah Valley. Without her extraordinary efforts, many of us Cunningham kin might be mining coal in Scotland. Another of Elizabeth’s legacies is her children, grandchildren, and additional posterity. Her six children who lived to adulthood had 65 children, most of them growing to adulthood and having families. Six generations later Elizabeth’s progeny may number as many as 10 thousand. It would be interesting to know how many of us, if any, inherited her grit gene. The most important lesson that can be drawn from Elizabeth’s remarkable life is that some otherwise ordinary people can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Elizabeth surmounted losing her first husband and being a single mother. She overcame living in poverty and marrying a man who was only a modest provider. She got over losing two of her children. Despite the hardships along the way, Elizabeth never expressed any second thought about striking out with her family to relocate in a completely new environment. Her brush with death in Wyoming brought out the strongest elements of her character, rather than inducing depression. Elizabeth wasn’t the only humble woman who rose above herself in the handcart tragedy of 1856, but she is a sterling representative of that group.

23

In addition to the rest of the Cunningham family that followed Elizabeth and James to American Fork, several Adamson relatives, and friends such as James Crystal, Andrew Crystal, and David Hutchinson from the Dysart Branch later settled in American Fork..

20

James and Elizabeth Cunningham

Catherine, George, Margaret, and Elizabeth

Dysart, Scotland Cunningham Rocker

21

James and Elizabeth Agnes C. Adamson

Robert Catherine C. Adams

George Elizabeth C. Kelly

22

Sources of Information

Adams, Karen, “A Biography of Catherine Cunningham,” unpublished

paper presented at a meeting of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneer in American Fork, Utah, July 2006.

American Fork Ward, “Historical Record 1851-1883,” Call # LR 10636

22, LDS Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah. Andersen, Mary Adams, “A Life Sketch of Elizabeth Nicolson

Cunningham,” unpublished manuscript on file at the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, February 1991.

Arnot, R. Page, A History of The Scottish Miners From The Earliest

Times London: George Allen & Unwin, 1955. Bartholomew, Rebecca, and Leonard J. Arrington, Rescue of the

1856 Handcart Companies Provo: Brigham Young University, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, 1993.

Bloxhan, V. Ben and others eds., Truth Will Prevail Salt Lake City:

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1987. Carter, Kate, “Elizabeth Cunningham Kelly,” Heart Throbs of the

West, Vol. 1, p. 86. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Records of Members

Collections, Scotland, Dysart Branch,” LDS Church Historical Department, Call # CR 375 8, reel # 6328, Salt Lake City, Utah

Cunningham, George, “Autobiography,” dated, 29 March 1876, on file

in the LDS Church Historical Department, MS # 7322 2, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Hafen, LeRoy R., and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion: The Story of

a Unique Western Migration, 1856-1860 Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1960.

23

International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, .volumes1 & 2, Salt Lake City: International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1998

Jones, Daniel W., Forty Years among the Indians Salt Lake City:

Bookcraft, 1960. Murray, Norman, The Scottish Hand Loom Weavers 1790-1850: A

Social History Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1978. Olsen, Andrew D., The Price We Paid: The Extraordinary Story of

The Willie & Martin Handcart Pioneers Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006.

Port Authority of New York City, “Passenger List for the Sailing Ship

Thornton,” 16 June 1856, available on Ancestry.com, image 14 of 15.

Shelley, George F. Early History of American Fork: With Some

History of Later Day American Fork, Utah: American Fork City, 1993, second printing.

Stegner, Wallace B. The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon

Trail Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964. Swinton, Heidi and Lee Groberg, Sweetwater Rescue: The Willie and

Martin Handcart Story American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications Inc., 2006.

Turner, Lynne, Emigrating Journals of the Willie and Martin Handcart

Companies and the Hunt and Hodgett Wagon Trains N.P., 1996.

US Census for 1860 and 1870. Utah County Property Records, on file in the county clerks office,

Provo, Utah.