Rash's Surname Index


Notes for Samuel BRINGHURST

Samuel Bringhurst and wife joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly called Mormons), about the year 1845. They soon thereafter left Chester Co., Pa., and went to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they resided about a year, when they were driven away by a mob, with all the rest of the Latter Day Saints, from their homes and temple. They crossed the Mississippi river and went to the Rocky Mountains, taking their effects--farming implements, seeds, grain, provisions, bedding for themselves and family in one wagon, drawn by an ox team. While camping on the banks of the Missouri river in a tent, with the weather so cold as to freeze the river over, a son was born to them. After a long and tiresome journey they reached the Salt Lake Valley in September 1847. They at once set to work to prepare the soil to grow their crops and to build a fort for protection from the Indians. The land was very dry and barren, and ditches had to be dug so as to irrigate the land before any crops could be grown. The first year they succeeded in raising enough for seed, with a little to spare for food. Provisions were very scarce, and they lived mostly on roots and wild fowls. The second year after they had planted their crops, millions of crickets came and the prospect was that they would destroy everything, but the gulls flew in flocks from the lake every day and devoured the crickets, and thus a part of the crop was saved and the people delivered from starvation. Samuel Bringhurst, being a mechanic, spent most of his time in making grain cradles, stocking plows and repairing wagons. In the spring of 1850 he went two hundred miles south of Salt Lake City and established another colony, after which he returned to Salt Lake City and continued at his trade. As one of the first settlers of Salt Lake Valley he did a great deal to build up and improve the country, which in fifty-two years has increased in population to about 300,000.
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