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| Ann Kirkman Howarth |
Ann Kirkman, my great-great-grandmother, was born in 1850 in Darcy Lever, England (near Manchester). Her family were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
At
that time, members of the Church, “Mormons,” were persecuted
throughout the world. Accordingly, many traveled to Utah or “Zion”
to live in peace with other Mormons. Ann Kirkman had a strong desire
to emigrate to Utah.
Her
mother, however, believed some of the rumors spread about that
settlement and did not want Ann to go. “When she first told her
mother she wanted to come, her mother told her she would cut her
throat before [she] would permit it and [Ann] was quite frightened
and couldn't sleep for many nights for fear her mother would carry
out her threats.”
Regardless
of her fear, Ann somehow gathered the funds needed to make the
voyage. Her mother, seeing that she was really determined to go, went
to the dock with her and gave her a shilling, which Ann kept until
her death.
At age
23, Ann courageously left her native home, alone. She sailed to the
United States aboard the Wyoming, a ship chartered for Mormon
emigrants, which left Liverpool on Wednesday, September 2, 1874. For
the first three or four days of the voyage, just about all of the
passengers were sick and ate very little. But by the time they
arrived in New York, on the 14th, most of them were in
good health. The next day, the company boarded a train in Jersey
City, arriving in Utah on September 23rd. Ann lived in
this new home until her death in 1927.
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Quoted
text is from "The Life of Ann Kirkman Howarth," a short biography written by her daughter, Sarah Jane Howarth Luke, available at http://sharing.ancestry.com/2735972?h=9453a3
Other
sources: mormonmigration.lib.by.edu (search for Ann Kirkman) - Includes descriptions of the ocean
voyage taken from letters and journals.
