Coincidences with Family Roots

[Marc & Jamie Hansen are Garr & Bringhurst descendants, respectively]

Family Connection at LifeLine For Youth.

LifeLine For Youth became a haven for our family and a foundation for our son and daughter-in-law.

LifeLine For Youth in North Salt Lake was both a lifeline and a workplace for many of our family members over the years. It was a substance abuse, behavioral, and mental health center for teenage youth. Our son Marc worked there for about seven years. He met his wife Jamie at LifeLine. My wife Rosemary, known as ‘Mama Rose’, was a cook, serving up meals for about one hundred youth at a time. Our daughter Megan worked there for a few years, as did our son Chad, our grandson Porter, and our two nephews Nathan and Cole. Oh, did I mention that Jamie’s mom, Konnie Bringhurst Shirley, worked there as a receptionist? We enjoyed seeing her smiling face when we came into LifeLine.

Needless to say, LifeLine has been a family haven and a huge part of our life over the past 20 some odd years. One of LifeLine’s tag lines is ‘Putting families back together’. I won’t share details of our family’s treatment for privacy reasons, but LifeLine saved our family. This tag line has meaning both for our family as well as our combined ancestry, as you’ll read in this chapter.

Ancestors in the same Overland Pioneer Company

I discovered that the Garrs and Bringhursts traveled in the same group of pioneers across the plains.

A few years after Marc and Jamie were married, I was doing some family history and reading about the Latter-day Saints Pioneer Overland Company that my 3rd great-grandfather Fielding Garr was in. In 1847, he was a widower with eight children and a grand-daughter crossing the plains to the Rocky Mountains to be with the saints in the Salt Lake Valley. As I mentioned in the Introduction, Brigham Young organized the overland companies into groups, generally of 100, divided into 50s and then into families of 10. While I was reading the list of families in Fielding’s group, I read that William Bringhurst and his wife Ann were in Fielding’s group. The name Bringhurst caught my attention. I thought, where had I heard that before? And it dawned on me, Konnie Bringhurst, Jamie’s mom.

According to Alice May Cutler author of Fielding Garr, 1794-1855, and His Family: Early Mormon Pioneers on Antelope Island:

On Monday, June 21, 1847, after a Sabbath’s day rest, they crossed the Elkhorn River and moved on a few miles to the North Platte River. That same day the official list was given of the “Journeying Camp of Israel, North Platte River, 40 miles west of Winter Quarters.” The Fielding Garrs were listed in Jacob Gates Company of ten as follows: Fielding Garr, 53; Nancy Badger 24 (her daughter is not mentioned); Sarah A. Garr 8; Mary V. Garr 6; Benjamin F. Garr 4. Members of this same group of ten along with the Fielding Garr family and daughter, Nancy Badger, were the William Bringhurst including Mary Jane Dilworth, Carrington, Charles Crisman, Call, Jacob Gates, McDavis, Rebsey, and Willard Snow families.

– Alice Cutler

So, Fielding Garr’s family and William Bringhurst’s family were in the same group of ten families under the direction of Jacob Gates. Upon further research, I discovered that it was not Mary Jane Dilworth, but Ann Wollerton Dilworth who accompanied William Bringhurst. Ann was William’s wife and is listed in Jedidiah Grant/Willard Snow Overland Pioneer Company participant list.

The next chance I had, I asked Konnie about her pioneer ancestry and about William Bringhurst. She said, yes she was related to William. I asked some more questions and discovered Jamie’s direct line is Konnie Bringhurst, John Bringhurst, Gilbert Bringhurst, William Bringhurst, William Bringhurst, Samuel Bringhurst. So, yes, she is directly related to a William Bringhurst, but Samuel’s son William and grandson William. Wow so many Williams, it got a bit confusing.

I researched some more and found the Bringhurst connection to Jamie: the William that traveled with Fielding is Samuel’s younger brother. Samuel traveled in a different overland company (Edward Hunter/Joseph Horne Company) that arrived in the Salt Lake Valley just days before Fielding Garr and William Bringhurst did. Included in the Edward Hunter/Joseph Horne Company was John Taylor, a future president of the church. The Bringhurst family seemed to form a bond with John Taylor, and many moved to the part of the Salt Lake Valley known as Taylorsville, named after John Taylor. We’ll see in a subsequent chapter that my Comish ancestors also had connections with John Taylor.

Fielding Garr and family were originally in Brigham Young’s Vanguard Company

Son-in-Law Rodney Badger continues with Brigham Young while wife Nancy Badger (Garr) and Fielding Garr are assigned to a different company.

In July of 1846 when Brigham Young’s Company crossed the Missouri River, Fielding Garr was in Brigham Young’s company, which would be the first company the following spring to leave for the Salt Lake Valley. With Fielding were his children including his daughter Nancy Badger and son-in-law Rodney Badger. The following spring, however, it was decided that Rodney Badger would continue with Brigham Young while Nancy, Fielding and the rest of his family would be assigned to the Jedidiah Grant/Willard Snow Company. This also included Nancy’s one year old daughter Nancy Maria.

Hardships along the way

Surely Rodney Badger was concerned about his wife and young daughter as he headed west with Brigham Young. Alice Cutler says this about Rodney:

During most of their journeyings west, Fielding Garr’s son-in-law, Rodney Badger, was traveling in Brigham Young’s Pioneer Company. On July 3, 1847 they camped near the Green River. There Rodney Badger, with four other brethren, volunteered to return east to meet the next emigrating companies with information relative to their journey west. Rodney was anxious to be reunited with his wife. The brethren were instructed first to meet with Amasa Lyman, who with several brethren, had been sent to Pueblo, Colorado to assist members of the Mormon Battalion who had joined the Mississippi Saints there. They were to lead them to the valley. One of the five was instructed to return with Amasa Lyman and the Mississippi Saints to the valley. According to the Journal History, it was Rodney Badger who was selected. They brought the news that the Pueblo Company was within two days journey of the valley.

– Alice Cutler

So, Rodney was unable to see his wife when he went east. Instead he helped lead the Pueblo Company from the Mormon Battalion to the Salt Lake Valley.

While in the valley, Rodney helped build the fort in preparation for the other overland companies and his wife. Then, in late August of 1847, he headed east again along with Brigham Young and one hundred and eight men to assist the other companies. Alice Cutler says this of the reunion Rodney had with his wife:

Meanwhile, on the afternoon of September 8, 1847, Fielding Garr and his family arrived at a small branch of the Sweetwater River in Jacob Gate’s company of ten and Jedediah Grant’s company of one hundred. That very evening Brigham Young and his company arrived in their camp from the Salt Lake Valley. What a joyful reunion the Garr family must have had with Rodney Badger, and heard for the first time his description and views of the valley. With Brigham Young present there was such a sense of security that the Saints relaxed. They were anxious, too, to hear his counsel and news of the valley. As a result some of their stock was left unguarded. Much to their dismay, forty horses and mules were stolen.

– Alice Cutler

The Garr children had occasion to be cold, wet and hungry. As recorded in a Journal History referenced by Alice Cutler:

One night they had a tremendous shower and had to camp upon the prairie where they had neither wood nor water. Brother Gates wrote …”went to bed supperless and what was worse got up this morning breakfastless. Some crying hard among the children. We churned and drank the buttermilk. Father Garr burned his hen coop and made some thick milk. How they (the company) all made out is not my province to know but…..they managed and as generously as the circumstances would allow.” No doubt the company remembered from then on, as they traveled on that treeless prairie, to gather wood wherever they could find it.

Sometimes the Garrs had to camp on wet ground. Fielding’s daughter, Sarah, told one of her grandchildren that the ground was often so wet that “they had to lay logs down on the ground and then limbs down on top of that and then put their blankets down. They couldn’t all get into the tent so some of them got in the wagon on top of the storage that was there ready to come to the valley.

– Alice Cutler

I also have read that Father Garr, as Fielding was often referred to, was very kind to his children. When the young ones became tired or had stepped on briars, he would pull them up to his saddle and let them ride next to him until they were soothed.

How much did the Garrs and Bringhursts interact?

Consider ten families for three and a half months journeying across the plains of the mid-west to the Rocky Mountains!

I want to research this at another time as it is an open question I have. But just think of over three months traveling in a small group of ten families. Walking, riding, sharing campfires, sharing food, encountering the same storms, stepping on briars along the trail, wagon breakdowns and repairs, praying together, and having the same daily routine. Surely the Garrs and Bringhursts experienced much together and gained memories and wisdom that lasted a lifetime. You have to wonder how often they threw each other a proverbial lifeline.

Jedediah M. Grant/Willard Snow Company

Pioneers in this company discussed in this chapter.

Fielding Garr’s children

Abel Garr was a rescuer for the infamous Willie & Martin Handcart Companies. See Abel Weaver Garr – Handcart Company Rescuer on our Family Roots site.

Fielding Garr’s grand-daughter

For more details about Fielding & Paulina Garr see our Family Roots site:

• Children
• Posterity

The Hansen line from Fielding & Paulina Garr is:

• John Reed Clark Jamison & Caroline Garr
  • William Henry Jamison & Mary Arzella Jamison
    • William Reed Jamison & Maggie Comish Whitehead
      • Gene Arden Hansen & Lorraine Jamison

William Bringhurst’s brother Samuel Bringhurst is actually our grandchildren’s direct ancestor. Samuel arrived in the Salt Lake Valley just days before his brother William. Their parents were Joseph & Elizabeth Bringhurst.

For more details about the Joseph & Elizabeth Bringhurst Family see our Family Roots site:

• Children
• Posterity

The Bringhurst line from Joseph & Elizabeth Bringhurst is:

• Samuel Bringhurst, Sr & Elizabeth Beitler
  • William Augustus Bringhurst, Sr & Selinda Dolby Palmer
    • William Augustus Bringhurst, Jr & Martha Ann Grainger
      • Gilbert Bringhurst & Ruth Christensen
        • Jon Leroy Bringhurst & Patricia Darnell Jones

Sources

• Cutler, Alice May. Fielding Garr, 1794-1855, and His Family: Early Mormon Pioneers on Antelope Island. Utah State Historical Society, 1974, p. 47-48, 54, 55.
• Church History Department. “Jedediah M. Grant/Willard Snow Company.” Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/list?filterOrganizationUri=%2Forganization%2Fpioneer-company%2Fjedediah-m-grantwillard-snow-company-1847&subtype=pioneer-activity&lang=eng. Accessed 5 Nov. 2023.