Betsey Oades and Charles Player - Journey to Zion

Oades/Player/Smith/Hodgkinson
Betsey Oades immigrated from England with her two sisters in the fall of 1847.  The company with whom she traveled docked in New Orleans and then took a steamboat up the Mississippi River to spend the winter of 1848 in St. Louis.  Betsey married George Robbins on the 9th of December 1848 in St. Louis, just one month after her arrival.  Reportedly, George had taught and baptized Betsey in England and was waiting for her in St. Louis when she arrived. Their wedding was a double wedding ceremony being performed by Nathaniel H. Felt who was the branch president in St. Louis at the time. The other couple married was Sarah, Betsey’s sister, who became the wife of John Webster of England.  

The dreaded disease of cholera made an unwanted visit to St. Louis that early winter. People were panicking from the quickness of death as the disease continued to invade the population of the city. From 1 January to 30 July in 1849, over 4,500 people died from cholera. Betsey's new husband, George, jumped out of bed one morning, started to dress and found himself having violent cramps. He died before night came. Betsey was a widow after only a short marriage.

Charles Player

At this time St. Louis was a gathering place of many displaced Mormons from Missouri and Illinois.  One of these displaced families was the Players, recently arrived from Nauvoo.  The Players had a 23 year old son, Charles, a stone cutter, born in London England, with whom Betsey became acquainted.  Within a year or so the Players moved back with the main body of the saints and settled in Ferryville, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, just north of Council Bluffs.  Betsy and Charles Player where married in Ferryville. Charles' father William (click this link), the new bishop of Ferryville performed the wedding, on 7 March 1850 .

Charles and Betsey began preparing, with all the saints in the region for the 1,032 mile trek west to the Rocky Mountains.  A daughter, Sarah Ann was born on November 25, 1850 in Council Bluffs.  Sarah was the first of 13 children born to Betsey and Charles.  Charles, Betsey and 1 1/2 year old Sarah started for the valley of the Great Salt Lake in late June or the first part of July in 1852.  They traveled with the James C. Snow Company of 1852.  Charles was 25 and Betsey 23 at the time and expecting their second child, a son, Charles Warner Jr., who was born August 7, 1852 near Watch Creek on the plains of Nebraska.   We are a descendant of Charles.   It is hard not to imagine that their journey would have been a difficult one with a new baby and a small child.    The Player family entered the Salt Lake Valley on October 9, 1852 and spent the rest of their mortal days there.  Betsy passed away at age 83 on 27 Oct. 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

This photo is thought to be of Betsy (with her daughter Laura) in front of the Player adobe home.

Art Shows: Spring and Winter 2014

The photos and posts from my art shows just take a long time to edit and post. I finally posted for the  most recent Winter 2014 Art Show as well as the Spring 2014 Art Show. You can see the full posts on our blog by clicking the links.

Winter 2014

Spring 2013

Ten Years???? Really???

I have been thinking about Robb and Marybeth digging out of their huge snow storm and thinking of the last time we were all in the snow together.  How about this lovely trip to the Cabin?  I can't believe it was 10 years ago,  10 1/2 grandchildren ago (although in my calculations - Paisley might have been a part of the party at that time), 4 weddings ago, and 3 missions ago.  Wanna do it again??

Snowshoeing Tibblefork

After snowshoeing at Mt. Rainier while in Washington last Christmas, we decided that we should embrace the winter season and make the most of the cold weather. Snowshoeing seemed like a close second behind summer hiking, so we've deemed it our new winter activity. We have been excited to take Wendy snowshoeing and chose to explore the area around Tibblefork Reservoir in American Fork Canyon for our first family outing. It was a gorgeous day, relatively warm in terms of Utah winters, and there was enough snow for us to do some good trekking along the trails. Wendy was mesmerized by the white surroundings and was such a trooper, as always. It was so much fun being out there with our little family in the quiet of the snowy mountains. We were pleasantly surprised when our solitude was broken by a group of cross country skiers coming down the trail who turned out to be none other than the Robertsons! It was such a fun surprise to see them on the trail. With that unexpected visit, our trip was pretty close to perfect. As much as we are loving this warm winter weather that Utah is experiencing lately, we won't be too disappointed when new snow falls so we can go on another adventure. 

Need a Programmer?

Hey have you been to Creme Sue Lei lately?  Click here to see what a beautiful job Rachel has done on making it beautiful, user friendly and easy to negotiate.  You can hire her to make your site beautiful too.  Just leave your request in the comments. 

Andersons

A few leftover Christmas pictures

 Christmas Eve

 Waiting to open PJ's on Christmas Eve

 Sledding at the kids school

  Hannah was not a fan of sledding

 Getting ready to race

 Close Race

Dress Up Party on New Years Eve

 

 Love to spend my mornings with these two.

Unexpected Surprise

 I got a call on Thursday morning from Greg McMurray (husband of Heather Hodgkinson McMurray) telling me that they had a few hours between their cruise being done and their flight back to Salt Lake City.  They wondered if they could pay us a visit.  Nothing could have made us happier.  Dad came home from work so that he would enjoy the company and the little brunch we had.  We took a walk up the street to where they were filming a movie.  Didn't get to see too much and we found out it was a horror movie.  They enjoyed the last little bit of lovely weather.  The favorite activity??? Picking tangerines.  What a darling family.

 LOVE THESE GIRLS SO MUCH!!!