Charlotte Carter Cornwall

Carter/Cornwall

I love this picture of Charlotte Carter Cornwall as a young mother.  Joseph Alexander, J. Spencer's father, is the one on the left, the oldest of Joseph and Charlotte's children.  Our dad - Kent  - says that he met Joseph Alexander.  We are a short distance in years and in love to our ancestors.

Last Friday our Family History Hero was Joseph Cornwall.  His wife was Charlotte Carter.  She was born on June 21, 1840 in Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire England.  I am not quite sure of her conversion story.  (More information to come soon - I found a lead today.)  I do know that she boarded the ship Manchester, on April 16, 1861 from Liverpool England at age 21 without any family to sail with the group of  379 saints heading to Zion.  On that ship was the handsome Joseph Cornwall from Ireland.  He was 31 years old.  They arrived in New York on May 14, 1861.  They then boarded a train to Florence Nebraska (Winter Quarters) where they were organized into companies prior to their departure across the plans to Salt Lake City.  Here is a quote from Joseph's daughter

"A team consisting of an ox and a cow were yoked together and hitched to an emigrant wagon containing their belonging and provisions for the journey.  Thus equipped they formed a part of the company under the leadership of Captain Ira Eldredge and left Florence.  They crossed the plains in seventy-five days and reached Salt Lake City, Sunday, September 17, 1861."

I found a journal that stated that the Eldredge party left on July 4, 1861.  Both the ship journey and the land journey all went very smoothly for Joseph and Charlotte.  Back to the history of Joseph Cornwall
"Father states that for the most part, those who were counted physically able walked the entire distance. . . . .  The courtship that began on shipboard ripened into marriage November 29, 1862, in the Endowment House, Salt Lake City.  Daniel H. Wells performed the ceremony."