Betsy Oades Player

Oades/Player/Smith/Hodkinson.

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Betsey was the fourth child and the fourth daughter born to William Oades and Elizabeth Sowersby on September 25, 1829 in Crowle, Lincolnshire, England.  Five more siblings were born after Betsey making nine children.  Her family met the "Mormon missionaries" and were converted to the truthfulness of their message.  Betsey was baptized on September 26, 1846.  Betsey sailed on the ship "Erin's Queen" on September 7, 1848 from Liverpool England, bound for New Orleans with 232 passengers, two or three not being Mormon.  The ship arrived on October 28, 1848 after 51 days at sea. A report of the voyage was reported in the Millennial Star.  "THIRTY-FIFTH COMPANY -- ...The people of Liverpool were astonished to see the order and regularity among them; for while large companies of emigrants upon other ships generally were conspicuous for their cursing and swearing, and were continually finding fault with each other, songs of praise and prayer were ascending up to heaven from the Erin's Queen.  While numbers of passengers who had crossed the ocean about the same time, died on board, not one of the Saints on the Erin's Queen was lost, and only a very little sickness prevailed among them. The officers and crew were kind and courteous to the passengers; but there were some complaints in regard to the provisions served out on board, the fare not being as good as that provided by law.

From New Orleans, passage was secured on a steamboat, with which the journey was continued up the river to St. Louis , Missouri, where the company arrived November 6th, 1848, well and in good spirits. All the Saints stopped at St. Louis for the winter, except four families who went up to Alton, Illinois. Nearly all got employment immediately after their arrival in St. Louis. (Millennial Star, Vol. X, page 281; Vo. XI, pages 7, 15, 54.)

Besty and her two sisters with whom she made the trip stayed in St. Louis  until they eventually joined a company to go to Zion.  Her parents never made the trip to America and she never saw them again.  Some important things happened to Betsy in St. Louis before the overland trip west.  Join us next week for the continuing saga.