Chapter 7
Promised Land
from Family Stories …and How I Found Mine
by J. Michael Cleverley
In 1864, Joseph and Ann Shelton Howard led their family from a small cottage in Birmingham’s Aston district to Salt Lake City, the home of their Mormon community. It was a treacherous journey of over four and a half months and took two of their small daughters. They were only days away from the Salt Lake Valley, when Ann, herself, succumbed to the trials of their travel.
Today’s locations of the spots the Howard family knew: the Aston Parish Church where they wed; Thimble Mill Lane and Church Lane where they lived; and the canal they watched carrying goods back and forth through the bustling industrial city.
Mormon authority George Q Cannon oversaw the urgent fitting out and loading of the Hudson that was to carry the Howards’ party across the Atlantic. The ship arrived late from America and was 18 days late departing on its return sailing. The delay rippled through the entire journey, putting them in the Rocky Mountains above the Salt Lake Valley in October. In the meantime, Cannon was released from overseeing the British Mission and was soon himself traveling back to Utah. His coach stopped to greet Joseph and Ann’s wagon train the day she died.
The Hudson
The Howard family left their home in the beginning of June and did not reach the Salt Lake Valley until the middle of October, 4 1/2 months later.
(Click on the Maps to follow their journey)
A lighter took the Howards from the Hudson to Castle Garden immigration facility. (photograph taken at Fort Clinton Visitors Center)
As soon as Joseph, Ann, their children and the rest of the party processed through immigration, they proceeded up the Hudson River into the interior of America (photograph taken at Fort Clinton Visitors Center)
Wagons of the Hyde Company were waiting at Wyoming, Nebraska, when the Howards stepped off the river boat following a difficult trip through Missouri. (early photograph by Charles Savage)
The verdant spot where Wyoming, Nebraska, once stood alongside the Missouri
