In 1857 George Swindle, his wife Ann Reed and surviving son George migrated from Trimdon in County Durham, England to Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
Suzanne Swindle Johnston has given me permission to reproduce her biography of her great-grandfather George Swindle .
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| George Swindle Jr. (1848-1923) accompanied his parents on their migration |
George Swindle Jr. was born 30 October 1824 in Felling, Durham County,
England, to George Swindle Sr. and Elizabeth Miller. Felling is in the
northeast section of England.
It is known as the bleak coal-mining center, near Newcastle-On-The-Tyne, one
of the most important coal mining centers and shipping ports of England.
The house that George Swindle grew up in is a two story stone house, with a
slate roof. You enter the house through the kitchen, which is still equipped
with a dirt floor, so that in the winter, the sheep can be brought into the
house. There is a large wood-burning stove, which can also handle peat. A
hallway leads to a parlor which is the place where the family probably lived.
The room has a large fireplace, which is the only source of heat in the house,
except for the kitchen stove. Outside of the parlor are the stairs which lead
upstairs, where the bedrooms are located. They have wood floors. There is no
heat, nor any indoor plumbing. Each bedroom was probably equipped with a pitcher
of water and a basin. Today, that water typically freezes over in the winter.
This house is still standing, and is still lived in by a family. It is
reached through a very long unpaved road, that passes through many gates before
the end of the road, which is them. It is very remote. As they do today, they
probably traveled most places they were going on foot. The house is located
right next door to the church which is also a rock building. It is surrounded by
a burial ground, as are most English churches. This is marginal farming land.
The men in the family most likely worked in the mining industry, but they surely
had a small farm to supply the family with food, and raised a few animals for
the meat, milk, wool etc. They were probably quite self-sufficient, providing
for most of their own needs. The family living there today lives in almost the
same way as George Swindle and his family. We visited with them, and it was like
going into a time-warp. They lived without electricity, heat, or indoor plumbing
and the family had never been out to dinner.
George grew up in a family of three children, having a brother and a sister.
We can imagine the life he lived as a child and as a young man working in the
coal mines for a mere existence. He is listed as a coal miner in the 1851 census
and probably entered that occupation at a young age. By the time he was 15 he
had moved away from the Gateshead area, and by the time he reached adulthood he
and members of his family lived in County Durham.
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| Trimdon Grangle 40 years after George left |
George Swindle married Ann Hopper Reed 15 November 1848. They were married in
Trimdon, Durham. George and Ann had five children born in England. George, the
eldest son, was the only child to survive. His three brothers and sister had all
died in the first two years of life, of such things as Whooping Cough and
Teething.
As George’s parents got older, they were unable to support themselves, and
had to go to the poor house to live. They both died there in 1854, just a few
days apart, of cholera. George died first. His wife Elizabeth went to register
his death, came home and died of the same disease that day. Two years later, his
sister Mary died of consumption or tuberculosis following the birth of her
eighth child.
You can imagine the state of mind that George and his brother John were in
when they came in contact with the Mormons. Joseph Doxford, a Latter Day Saint
missionary converted George to Mormonism. He was baptized the 30th of August
1856; ordained a Priest 14 September 1856; and an Elder 21 December 1856. He
then labored a short time as a missionary. The realization of the truthfulness
of the Church and the testimonies received, along with the promise of a better
future made him have a burning desire to go to America and to Utah to join the
Saints in Zion. It was with this in mind that he with his wife and son left his
native land. His brother John and his family did not join the church, but had
the same desire to leave England. So, also in the month of March in 1857 John
and his family sailed for Melbourne, Australia, arriving there 140 days later.
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| George and Ann's route |
George and Ann sailed from Liverpool, England on Saturday, 28 March 1857, on
the ship George Washington with Captain Cummings in command. The records have
listed among the passengers George Swindle (31) his wife (32) and son George
(7). There were 8117 Saints aboard under the supervision of three missionaries,
James Park, Jessie Bigler Margin, and Charles P. Dana. Several people died on
the three week journey. They arrived in Boston 20 April 1857. From Boston, they
traveled by rail to Iowa City, where their missionary supervisor, Jessie Bigler
Martin, was placed in charge of the wagon company to cross the plains in the
early part of June.
George had paid $31 toward the purchase of a handcart in Liverpool. This
credit was forwarded to Iowa City, dated 6 May 1857. A copy of the receipt was
found in some of the family letters.
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| Mormon handcart pioneer statue on Temple Square honoring those who traveled across the plains to Utah |
"The ox train consisted of 192 souls, 34 wagons, 130 oxen, 7 cows and one
horse." From Iowa City they had nearly 300 miles to travel to Florence, Nebraska
They crossed the Missouri on a ferry and it was here that Apostle Taylor passed
them on his way from New York.
The great plains stretched endlessly ahead. This was a very frightening time
for the Saints, not only for those crossing the plains, but for those in Utah as
well. The President of the United States, James Buchanan, had decided the time
had come to assert federal authority over the Mormons. On 26 May 1857, he
ordered an army of 25------ men under Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston to march
against Utah. News was that they were coming to destroy the Saints and their
property.
"The government started its military expedition from the Missouri in small
contingents as rapidly as units became available. Baggage trains proceeded these
on the assumption that the slow moving oxen would advance less rapidly than
troops. Thus, by Autumn, food trains and marching units dotted a thousand miles
of western landscape."
The wild tales of the army following them was a terrifying experience to this
little band of pioneers who never in their wildest dreams envisioned real
frontier life, but who had a real purpose at heart and became strong willed,
undaunting men and women overnight with the firm belief God would protect them.
From biographies of others in this company, "We had singing and prayers every
night in our camp. As the journey lengthened many treasured articles, brought
from across the sea had to be discarded along the wayside and goods had to be
rationed. Each night someone had to stand guard with t he cattle. All went well
until we came to the Platte River bottom, where there were lots of buffalo. We
had problems with the cattle stampeding and runnning off. One morning when we
were yoking our oxen they stampeded, running over people, killing an old man, a
little boy, and injuring others. When the cattle's feet got tender we had to
throw them down and shoe them.
The Isreal Evans handcart company caught up with us. Sometimes they were
ahead of us and sometimes behind all the way to Salt Lake City."
The Evans and Christian Christiansen handcart companies were the last for two
years because of the problem with Johnston's Army and the Utah War. The next
group didn't come until 1859.
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| Handcart company (re-enactment) |
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| The first group of Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley through Emigration Canyon between 22 and 24 July 1847. |
On Saturday, September 12th, the Jessie B. Martin Company and the two
handcart companies arrived in Salt Lake City and fourteen days later the first
of the army supply wagons arrived at Green River and were stopped by the Mormon
Scouts at the marker bearing the letters "U.T.", Utah Territory.
There has been a letter found dated November 1858 written at Spanish Fork
from George to his brother John in which he talks about how their life has been.
All in all, he sends a good report. It is clear that he is very homesick for
family, and that he misses his brother. He mentions that he has 15 acres and has
raised some grain. In the 1860 Census of Utah, we find the family located in
Spring City, Sanpete County, where George is listed as a farmer of 200 acres. In
the 1870 Utah Census he is found in Fountain Green, and is even more prosperous.
While in Sanpete County, he and Ann had three additional children Elizabeth on
the 3rd of September 1858, David on the 14th of November 1860 and Charles Henry
born in 1864.
The following letter found in an old trunk was written by George to his
brother, John Swindle, living in Australia. It was never mailed nor was it
finished. It gives an interesting picture of the trip to Utah and life in
Spanish Fork.
Spanish Fork
November 25, 1858
Dear Brother and Sister; I take this opportune of writing
to give those few things to you. Hoping you are in good health and spirits as it
leaves me at present, which I thank my Heavenly Father.
Dear Brother and Sister, I thank the time long of have a
letter from you. I have had a letter from Margaret Temple the only letter I have
got from England, which told me you were sick and doing badly which I am sorry
to hear.
Dear brother, it makes me sad when I heard it. I know you
would have know one to care for you when your money is gone.
Dear brother, I long to have a letter from you. Write to
me and tell me your mind. I would if you could think about it to come to me. I
know you would never leave me again. We many times talk about you and your
little ones. I hear that Ana has been put to bed with twins.
Dear brother, you will want to know something about the
country and our journey. We came across the sea in twenty-one days. We land at
Boston, then from Boston to Iowa on the rail which was 1500 miles which we completed in a week. We stopped here a month getting fit out, our cattle and teams.
We started to cross the plains which was 1300 miles. We landed in the valley
September 15. We had a pleasant journey. If it were possible for you to come it
would help in your shortness of breath.
Dear brother and sister, you will want to know how I am
got on. I am doing very well. I have built two houses, 15 acres of land. I have
got a yoke of cattle, a good cow, 4 pigs and other things. I have raised 115
bushel of wheat and corn and potatoes and other things, much as w uld do me.
Dear brother, I am my own master. I can go to work when I
like and come home when I like. Dear brother, I am doing very well. Ann has been
put to bed, we have a daughter. She had a good time of it. She around a week
confined till did her own turn.
Dear brother, you will have heard many stories about the
Mormon s. We have had a little worry, but all is peace now. We expect that two
gold mines will start here in the strong only 300 miles from us, which will
make thousands to come here.
(not finished)
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| "Brigham's Shanties at Provo City" or, in other words, Fort Utah), illustrated in Harper's Weekly in 1858. |
Hundreds of converts were coming into Utah to seek a new life and by 1864
President Brigham Young was sending out scouts to locate good water sources and
land where the saints could live. It was at this time that thirty-two families
from the towns of Spanish Fork, Nephi, Fountain Green, Moroni, Ephraim and
Gunnison were asked to settle in Monroe, which was known as South Bend and
afterward as Alma (in honor of the Book of Mormon Prophet).
W. T. Allred presided over the settlement as the first Bishop or Presiding
Elder and Fred Olsen the second. The names of the families of the first company
were: W. T. Allred, Walter Barney, Richard Davis, Benjamin Davis, George
Swindle, John McPerson, Moses Gifford, George Robinson, Anthony Robinson, Andrew
Anderson, Walter Jones, David Griffith, John Knighten, George Moody, Samuel
Mackey, John Edmond, George Wilson, Henry Lamb, Niels Sorenson, Fred Olsen, John
W. Bohman, James Stephensen, Parley Allred, Thomas Hunt, Andrew Rasmussen,
Augustus Johnson, John Wilson, William Cordingly, Adolph Thompson, Niels
Toolgren, Bert Swain.
George Swindle moved his family from Spanish Fork to Richfield in September
1864. A son Charles was born there on 8 November 1864. The family then moved to
Alma which was ten miles south. "Early in 1865 the settlers built a fort
enclosing one block of the town survey. It was built of log houses on three
sides and a ten foot rock wall protected the fort on the other side. This fort
was built in nine days."
In July 1865, Indians attacked the settlement and a battle took place between
the mounted militia and the Indians. In 1867, on the advice of President Brigham
Young, every settlement in Sevier Valley was being evacuated due to the mounting
ferocity of the Indian attacks in the area. The mountains east of the valley
were the strong hold of Black Hawk and his allies who were determined to drive
the white invaders from the Indian hunting grounds.
"A troop of mounted militiamen led the long procession out of the settlement
of Richfield on a pleasant April day in 1867. Behind them followed a noisey herd
of cattle, sheep and pigs driven by an almost as noisy gang of shouting boys and
barking dogs.
A group of townsmen mounted on their horses were next in line to see that
none of the livestock got away from the boys and to round up the stock and drive
it to safety in case of Indian attack. Then came the wagons loaded with
everything the settlers could pile on. Women drove some of the teams because
their men wer needed for other duties in the caravan."
George Swindle took his family back to Spanish Fork. In 1868, he received a
letter from John Wilson, as follows::
Springville, Utah
March 10, 1868
Dear Brother:
In a letter I received today from Brother Olsen he states that he had written to
you desiring to notify the Alma brethren living in Spanish Fork of the privilege
we have of returning to Alma this summer but he was afraid you might not be home
and therefore desired to ascertain if the brethren had notice. The conditions
are, 30 men armed to meet and organize at Fort Gunnison in 14 days from date and
then go up the river and put in crops and build fort, no families to go and
little stock as possible. The brethren who want to go are to write to Bro. Olsen
and let him know as soon as possible. I expect you have received Bro. Olsen's
letter which will give you particulars. If convenient drop me a line to
Springville and tell me you have got the letter and how you feel.
With kind regards to your wife and family. I remain your
brother,
Yours truly,
John Wilson
History tells us that Fred Olsen, the former President of Alma and others
made an attempt to resettle the place but were attacked by Indians at North
Ridge between Salina and Richfield. One man was killed and a number wounded.
They had to turn back.
We are not certain that George was with this group, but because of a receipt
we have, one feels that he brought his family as far as Gunnison then went with
the Fred Olsen party. When the men were unsuccessful in going back to Alma he
returned to Gunnison. He stayed here and on 6 March 1869 bought a house and lot.
George Swindle Jr. married Mary Magdalena Witzig Diggleman on 4 March 1872,
in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. She was a native of Switzerland and
had been in Utah just a year. She had been living in Manti with relatives and
was on a visit to Gunnison when she met George Swindle and became his plural
wife. She had three children of a previous marriage, Mary, Lydia and Herman. Her
first husband was lost at sea.
George moved his families back to Alma where he built log houses and
homesteaded a farm. It is interesting to note that only eleven families of the
original thirty-two families returned. Four children were born to George and
Mary - Ann, Heber, Joseph and Ellen. George participated in many church
activities and was chairman of the building committee in the construction of the
old North Ward Church. He assisted in building the old canal from the Sevier
River. It was hard work and was done mainly with pick and shovel. He was
appointed Justice of the Peace 6 August 1877. He had a knowledge as well as an
intense interest in mining, which he had worked at for many of his younger
years. It was not surprising that he did some prospecting and was fortunate (not
financially) in locating many mines which have proven to be valuable. Among them
were the Deer Trail Mine and the Billy Boy Mine.
It was while he was on a mining expedition that he became ill and was brought
home. The illness was fatal and he died 28 June 1882. "He was a man of
charitable make-up and was kind and considerate of his families as far as he
could be."
OBITUARY: Obituary notice of George Swindle found in Deseret News (Serial 650
7, pt. 19F Utah) (S 18c News Vol. 31, page 438), Genealogical Society. In
Monroe, Sevier County, Utah, George Swindle died 28 June 1882. Born in Felling,
Durham, England, 30 October 1824, age 57 years, 7 months and 24 days. He leaves
a large family to mourn his loss. He was a good faithful Latter-Day Saint and
highly respected by all his associates and though his loss is deeply felt by
those he left behind, his example is left worthy for us to emulate.
More about the Swindell Surname
