197. Find your pioneer heritage! Wayne's ancestors, and children who came alone on a ship.

Do you have Mormon pioneer heritage?

FamilySearch has created a simple sign-in tool that will allow you to discover your pioneer heritage. After you discover more about the pioneers in your history, take the time to read their trail stories, also found on this page. The past is an amazing storybook.

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Wayne's great great grandfather Phillip Kirk, had quite a history, and 3 of his children came 4 years before the parents had enough money to come also.  This tells their touching stories.

61. Wayne's great great grandfather, Phillip Kirk, "Burned in effigy"

Today, I want to tell the story of Wayne's great great grandfather, Phillip Kirk, and his wife Mary Ann Taylor.  

 Mary Ann was 17 years old when she married Philip Kirk, 20 years old. They had 10 children, four of whom died young. Early in the 1840’s, Mormon missionaries had been sent to England to tell the people there of a new religion in America.   In 1849 some traveling Elders found the Philip Kirk family in Arnold, Nottingham, England.  He was then a baker with a pastry shop.

    

     His conversion to the Latter Day Saint religion was the result of a dream.  He dreamed that as he was standing by his gate, he saw two men coming down the road toward him.  He then awoke.  Several days later he saw the two men of his dream coming down the road toward him as he stood by the gate.  They told him they had a message for him and he asked them into his home.  They were missionaries, and in due time Philip, his wife and family with the exception of the oldest son, John, were baptized into the church in 1849. From then on the Kirks were faithful members of the branch.  They also entertained many missionaries in their home.   

                                                                                            

 Many of their friends of the Church were emigrating to Utah, but they didn't have money to go to Utah.  The whole family worked hard and decided to send 3 of their children, who were able to set sail on the ship, “John J. Boyd” in 1862:  James, 18; Ann, 16; and Joseph, 10. Can you imagine sending 3 of your children with friends across the ocean to Utah, and not coming yourself until 4 years later?  Probably part of the reason they sent the children ahead was that after they were baptized, his friends and associates took young Joseph and tied a rope around him and threw him into the water to “give him a bath.”  The rope came off and there was a mad scramble to save the young boy.

                      Both their children, and Phillip's family came on a clipper ship.

  These children worked hard and sent money for the rest of the family to join them in Zion, while the parents saved what money they could also in England, and came 4 years later.  Before they left England, their associates made a dummy out of straw and pitch, tied it to a pole and burned Philip in Effigy.  On June 4, 1868, Philip, Mary Ann and daughters took passage on the packet ship, “John Bright”. This was the last year that sailing vessels would be used.  The more expensive steam ships would be used from then on, and the Church leaders were anxious for as many Saints as could to emigrate in 1868.                                                                                                     
     The Kirk family were 6 weeks on the sea on a very rough voyage.  Their ship left Liverpool, England  June 4, 1866 and landed in New York July 13, 1866. From New York they traveled by train to Laramie, Wyoming, where, on July 25th they began the journey across the plains to Salt Lake City.  In the company were 300 Saints, with 31 wagons, all under the leadership of Captain Joseph S. Rawlings.  He was one of those men that had been sent from Salt Lake City to help the saints on to the Valley.

      They traveled slowly in wagons along the well-worn dusty trail, making a circle of their wagons at night, while their cattle were guarded near by and arising at dawn to continue the tedious journey.  They finally arrived in the Valley on August 20, 1866.  No doubt members of their family were there to meet them, and take them on to Tooele to the home that had been prepared for them. The trip across the plains had prepared Mary Ann somewhat for the primitive ways of doing things in Utah.  It took her a little time to get used to the ways of the pioneer women, but this was her new home now, and she was very happy to be reunited with James, Ann and Joseph again, who were established in Tooele.  The people of Tooele welcomed them gladly and did all they could to make them feel that it was a good place to live.  The town of Tooele was quite a place by the time the Kirks arrived in 1866.  

    Joseph, who came with other saints when he was 10 years old with his older brother James, and sister Ann, tells that he had no schooling but was taught to read by his mother, using the Bible as a text-book.  Probably the other children were taught the same.  When Joseph was eight years old, he went to work in a brick factory, using a wheel-barrow to haul the bricks.  He was so small that he had to have straps placed over his shoulders to support the handles.  He walked two miles to work each morning and returned the same distance after ten hours of hard labor.  For this, he received one-half crown or approximately fifty cents per week.  As a boy, he recalled that he never had enough to eat; he said he was always hungry.

     When the three, James, 17, Ann, 15, (Wayne's great grandmother) and Joseph, 10, sailed on the ship they suffered all the privations of a long and dangerous trip.  They ran short of provisions and were limited to a small amount of food.  This was a real trial for the ten year old boy.  They had only sea crackers to eat and many times Joe would wake up at night and cry for something to eat. 

 A well-to-do young lady, Miss Ann Stevens, who was on board the same ship, took a great liking to James (then 17) and at one time gave him a piece of cake from the main deck.  James hid the cake under his pillow so he would have something for Joe if he happened to wake at night.  During the night Joe awoke and when James looked for the cake someone had stolen it.  It was homemade cake, and was a great delicacy for a homesick and hungry boy while crossing the ocean.  The three children arrived in New York where they stayed for three weeks.  One night James went for a walk and saw loads and loads of bread, the first he had seen since leaving home, but he did not have any money to buy bread.

     The three left New York and crossed the plains in the Joseph Horne Company, an immigrant train of fifty wagons.  They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 30, 1862.  Henry Green took all three so they wouldn’t have to be separated.   

     All of their children grew up to be very ambitious, honest, generous, compassionate and wonderful people.   Mary Ann was nearly 75 years old when she died in Tooele, May 6, 1895.  He was very lonesome after she died.  Philip lived on for 4 years, being cared for by his children, until February 15, 1899, when he passed away at the ripe old age of 82.  They are buried in the Tooele City Cemetery.