Thursday, April 29, 2010

Susan Walton's children, Benjamin Chaplin 1830-1923, and Rosannah Virgin 1817-1885. Part 5.

(Continued from here.)

Susan’s son, Benjamin Chaplin Walton, married Mary Ellen MacGowan, a refined Quaker lady, of Salem, Iowa, in January of 1857. Mary Ellen died in Salem, Iowa in 1868.
Their children are:
Patalma Philadelphus (son), born 1858
Benjamin Chaplin, born 1862,
James, born 1864
Samuel, born 1866, died 1868.

Benjamin, and his motherless children, and his mother, Susan Walton, arrived in Woodruff, Utah in 1872. There, Benjamin homesteaded and raised his children, with the help of his half-sister, Rosannah (Virgin) Perrigrine Card, who came from “back East” to help him. She was known as Aunt Rose.

Rosannah Virgin [Susan Walton’s oldest daughter], one of the teenagers traveling from Mexico, Maine in 1845, was in the Nauvoo Temple, and did her own temple work, on January 20, 1846. Family records say she was married to Perrigrine Sessions, who is listed in family records as working as a carpenter on the temple in Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1847 he pioneered to Utah and was founder of the settlement of Sessions, Utah (now Bountiful). Divorced.

How many different ways are there to spell Rosannah Virgin, and Perrigrine Sessions? Check out New Family Search. It is amazing!

I haven’t found documentation of Rosannah and Perrigrine Sessions’ marriage, [other than the LofWH and NFS]. Rosannah is not listed with Perrigrine Sessions’ other wives, in various histories. However, their marriage seems plausible to me, because:

1) From Perrigrine Sessions’ history here, “… Father and I rented some land about twelve miles from the town [Nauvoo, then called the city of Joseph] on the Mississippi River…. On June 27, 1839, I left on my first mission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles in my native state of Maine. My company and I started without purse or script and traveled on foot most of the way. We arrived October 10, 1839. Here I labored with good results among my friends and relatives. I baptised many and planted the seed of the everlasting gospel in many hearts that I know will spring forth and bring fruit later on…. On April 23, 1840, I took leave of the saints of my native land and started for my home in the west.…”

2) Perrigrine Sessions is the Elder that Rosannah’s sister, Elizabeth Walton, received a blessing from, while confined to her bed for so many years. Posted here on this blog.

3) Family history in LofWH has Perrigrine Session working as a carpenter on the temple in Nauvoo.

4) When the Stephen Vestal and Elizabeth Walton Frazier family ultimately immigrated to Utah, between 1872-74, they first stayed at the Sessions Settlement, where in 1874, their 9th child, Lizzie Dell, was born.

About 1850 Rosannah married Alonzo Card [born 1818 – died 1854). They had a son, Charles Alonzo Card, who was born in Iowa about that time. In the 1856 Pleasant Ridge, Iowa census, Charles was six years old, living with his mother [widowed], and his grandmother Walton Houghton [widowed] and family.

Charles’ Uncle Harry [Arthur and Martha Walton’s son, William Harrison] freighted iron, needed to manufacture his threshing machines, between Chicago, Omaha, and Salt Lake City. Harry made five trips across the plains—one with oxen, and the others with mules. A son relates, “Father had eight to ten span of mules hitched to each outfit, which consisted of three, and sometimes four, heavy wagons chained together.”

Harry, his eldest son Charles Eugene, and his cousin Charles Card [Rosannah’s son], made the long and hazardous trips together. One of the worst experiences occurred when the two boys made the trip alone. On their way home Charles became ill somewhere east of Evanston, Wyoming and died on the plains. He was buried at Evanston. Charles had lived with his Grandmother Card.

These Waltons are incredible people. In the midst of her many losses, and a move across the nation, Rosannah helped her brother raise his three motherless boys, about 8, 10, and 14 years of age, when they got to Woodruff, Utah.

Someone needs to step forward and help fill in, and finish this tale. Why was Bramhall added to her name? Rosannah Virgin [daughter of Susan Walton] Sessions Card Bramhall. Best known as Aunt Rose.

Rose Bramhall
1817-1885

(To be continued.)
LofWH--Links of Walton History by Hattie Walton Heninger, 1981, pgs. 131-132, (Ref. letter of S. A. [presumably Samuel Augustine] Walton, Auburn, Wyoming, quoting his mother, who knew Charles.) The First 100 Years in Woodruff, Printed by Art City Publishing Co., Springville, Utah, 1972, pgs 461-462. NFS--New Family Search. Rosannah's gravestone in the Woodruff City Cemetery, from my cousin's website, where I borrowed it without permission, which I hope to eventually obtain.

3 comments:

  1. Today, while reading from "The First 100 Years in Woodruff," I found an answer to my question about Aunt Rose. On page one, while talking about the first Sunday School in Woodruff commencing in 1874, they named the teachers, "John Allen, Joseph Dean, Mrs. Rosanna Bramhall, Mrs. Jane Walton, Miss Sarah A. Cooper and Mrs. Annie Neville." Perhaps Rose was Mrs. Bramhall when she arrived in Woodruff from "back East."

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  2. It has been most interesting to read these 5 posts. How do you keep everything straight?

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  3. Well, I don't very well. You'll notice that I wrote that Susan Walton's gravestone is marked "Susan Frazier" in Part 1, here:

    http://ancestralties.blogspot.com/2010/04/13-frazier-line-susan-peabody-virgin.html

    That is wrong. I confused myself. Susan Walton is buried in the Woodruff Cemetery, among the Fraziers, and her gravestone is marked Susan Walton. She did have three marriages, that I learned of. The subsequent name changes, I hope to clearly explain in a later post.

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