George Washington Taggart
In Honorable Remembrance . . .
As an officer in the United States Army of the West in 1846-47, George Washington Taggart was a participant in the longest infantry march in history. At the beginning of his service our ancestor reflected on the momentous responsibility he had willingly taken up in a letter to his wife:
"I feel Fanny, as though I had made as great a sacrifice as I could well make, in that I have forsaken for the time being my possessions, my family and at the risk of life start for Mexico as a United States soldier with 500 of my brethren in order to show that the blood of my grandfathers who fought and bled in the Revolutionary War and the spirit of liberty and freedom still courses in the veins of some of their posterity that are called Mormons"
After a year-and-a-half of hardship, his duty done, GWT struggled home through winter snows to a joyous reunion with his wife and daughter. About GWT and his soldier compatriots has been said:
"The Mormon Battalion will be held in honorable remembrance to the latest generation; and I will prophesy that the children of those who have been in the army, in defense of their country, will grow up and bless their fathers for what they did at that time. And men and nations will rise up and bless the men who went in that Battalion." -Brigham Young
And here is his first hand account of Joseph Smith written at the same age that I am:
“He is a young looking man of his age, which is near thirty eight years [George was nearly twenty seven], and one of the finest looking men there is in the country. And he does not pretend to be a man without failings and follies. He is a man that you could not help liking as a man, setting aside the religious prejudice which the world has raised against him. He is one of the warmest patriots and friends to his country and laws that you ever heard speak on the subject. Neither is he puffed up with his greatness, as many suppose, but on the contrary is familiar with any decent man and is ready to talk upon any subject that any one wishes. And I assure you, it would make you wonder to hear him talk and see the information which comes out of his mouth and it is not in big words either but that which any one can understand.
"[C]oncerning public reports and stories that are abroad in the world concerning Joseph Smith and the Mormons, so called, as a people they are as false [as] the Devil or those that make such stories. I say this as a fact, knowing it to be so. Therefore, if you ever believed me to be one of truth, [I] am still the same.” Taggart Family Newsletter (Vol.IV, No.1, December 1983) 4-6. GWT Biography
Fanny Parks Taggart
She married George Washington Taggart July 12, 1845 at Nauvoo. She mothered George's little Eliza Ann During his absence of almost two years while he was helping to prepare for the trek of the Saints westward and serving in the Mormon Battalion. After his return she gave birth to their three children - Harriet Marie, George Henry and Charles Wallace. In 1852 she mothered their four small children in the company of her husband across the plains and mountains to the Salt Lake Valley.
Fanny ends her autobiography with an eye-witness testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith: "I often think of the many happy hours I have spent listening to the words of life that flowed from the lips of the Prophet. No one could help but like him for he was kind and good. I have heard him reprove men for their wrong doings and talk pretty sharp but it was always in such a good spirit that it appeared to me that no one could be offended. I have heard him talk a great many times and can bear testimony that I always felt benefited and I know he was a prophet of God and that the Lord called him in his own due time to lay the foundations of his latter day work." (Taggartfamily.org).
Elijah Allen was also a member of the Mormon Battalion and I love his memory dearly.
Elijah Allen, the eldest son of Andrew Lee Allen and Clarinda Knapp Allen, was born in the town of Burton, Cattaraugus Co., New York, February 7, 1826. The family became converts to the Latter-day Saint faith and moved from place to place with the Saints.
While Elijah was still in his teens he went out to find work. Failing to find employment he returned to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the family was then residing, and called on Brigham Young to ask for counsel. President Young told him to stop with him and go to work, which he did. He remained with President Young until the Church moved West, and then drove one of the teams to Winter Quarters. While at Winter Quarters, the government made a call for five hundred men and when President Young asked him if he would go with the Battalion, he said "Yes." President Young gave him a blessing and told him he would make the journey in safety and return again to his parents in good health.
Elijah marched as a Private in Company "B" to California. While enroute, he became seriously ill. One evening, as the company sat around the campfire deciding what to do next, Elijah heard the Captain of Company "B" make the remark that they were due at a certain place at a certain time and that Mr. Allen's sickness was the only thing that was holding them back. So, they decided to put him in the back of a wagon and travel with him anyway. Their plans were to start before daylight. During the night, as he did not feel well enough to make the trip and was afraid that the party would be compelled to stop on his account, he crawled out of the wagon and off into the sagebrush to die. As he lay there suffering he heard the wagons pulling out. The words of Brigham Young's blessing to him came to his mind, and he thought to himself, this is one time Brigham Young's prophecies would not be fulfilled. When all the wagons were out of sight, he crawled back to the campfire where he fell asleep. There he had a dream that the things that Brigham Young told him would come to pass.
As the hours went by, the doctor of the company decided that he had better look back into the wagon to see how the sick man was coming along. When he found Elijah missing, he was provoked: "That is just like that independent boy," but he ordered some of the men to turn back to find him. They found him lying asleep by the campfire. After scolding him severely, they placed him in the wagon and started on the return journey. By nightfall, he was feeling better and gradually regained his strength as the days went by. After reaching California, he was discharged along with other members of his camp on July 16, 1847.
Again he was taken ill, and after his recovery, he obtained employment at the San Gabriel Mission, where he worked until 1848. In February of that year, together with several other men, he started for the Great Salt Lake Valley with about 200 head of cattle that had been purchased for the church. After a difficult journey, he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in the latter part of May, 1848. He traded a sack of gold dust, which he had brought with him from California, for twenty acres in the heart of Salt Lake City. Later he traded that property for a larger piece of ground near Fort Douglas where he commenced farming.
Elijah married Eliza Ann Bickmore, sister of the man who had been his constant companion in the Mormon Battalion, May 2, 1852. They lived at Provo, where he was an active member of the Twenty-first Quorum of Seventies, then moved to Fort Herriman where he farmed for a living. He died there April 12, 1866 at the age of forty, leaving his wife with seven small children to rear.—Lenna Parkinson Allen and Susie Allen. Treasures of Pioneer History: Vol 4Stories of the Mormon Battalion Elijah Allen
I of course have several more ancestors that I could write about, but these are the ones that have been on my mind today. From them I have received great strength. Also from them I have gained my grandpa Blaine Stratford Taggart and my grandmother Susanna Allen Taggart. They are two of my best and dearest friends.
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