Elizabeth Jane Ricks (Shupe)

The Peter and Sarah Shupe family arrived in Rushville, Illinois 4 Nov 1843, after traveling 1,000 miles from Virginia. They had been baptized by Jedediah Grant and his brother, Joshua into the LDS Church. They had fifteen children, but two had died as children. For a time, Peter Shupe's family lived in the vicinity of Rushville, Brown County, Illinois. John and Martha settled in adjacent Adams county. Peter Shupe and his sons, Andrew and James, worked as blacksmiths and wagon makers. Some time around 1845, some of the Peter Shupe family moved to Nauvoo. Peter Shupe bought a lot on the southwest corner of Mulholland and Robison, four blocks directly east of the Nauvoo Temple. The property was listed under the name of his son, James. Peter and his sons worked on the Nauvoo Temple. Ultimately, Peter, James, and Andrew Jackson Shupe, all blacksmiths, were asked by Brigham Young to help build wagons for those leaving Nauvoo. The pamphlet handed out at the blacksmith shop, states, "Among the many blacksmiths and wagonmakers at Nauvoo during the closing period of Mormon occupancy were members of the Peter and Sarah Shupe family. Some of them had previously practiced their trades in the vicinity of Rushville, Illinois. By 1844, the parents and three sons had settled in the Nauvoo community, where they made wagons during the closing months of the Mormon preparations for the westward trek to the Great Basin. Two of the sons, Andrew J. and James W. Shupe, enlisted as blacksmiths in the Mormon Battalion at Council bluffs, Iowa, in July 1846, to participate in the Mexican War. "James reached Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1847 and Andrew in 1852, hauling their bellows, anvils, and other tools of their trade. They were pioneers of Ogden, Utah, where they and their descendants operated blacksmith and wagon shops for many years." Apparently, one of the descendants, James Shupe of Utah State University, later donated their equipment to the restored Nauvoo blacksmith shop. In the spring of 1846, Peter and Sarah and their children and grandchildren left Nauvoo and traveled to Iowa. It took them four months to get to Council Bluffs, due to the mud. The Shupe's first stop was in Farmington, Iowa, where John Whitstein and Martha stayed. The rest of the family reached Council Bluffs by the summer of 1846. James and Andrew signed up for the Mormon Battalion, as well as James' wife, who signed up to help with the cooking. Andrew's wife was left with four small children in a covered wagon. In the fall of 1846, sickness swept through Council Bluffs. Sarah, the mother, was the first to die on 13 September 1846. The next day, Peter, the father, died. They were buried in Glenwood Mills in the same unmarked grave. John had traveled to Council Bluffs to return some horses for which he was to be paid. When he arrived, the family was having the funeral for his parents, John helped to bury them. John then gathered his brothers and sisters together and determined to take them back to Farmington, Iowa where his wife and two daughters were. On the way, John took a very severe cold but tried to keep going. He died on the way. A man, Aaron Freeman Farr, found the children crying by the side of the trail and took clothing from his own wagon, and covered John, and they buried him by the side of the road. It was September or the first part of October, 1846, and John was only 27 years of age. The surviving children went on to Farmington, where they lived with Martha. Four of them died in the next three months--George, Benjamin, Nancy, and Susannah. Some records state Benjamin died 1 Jan 1847. If he did, he would probably been with the other children and died in Farmington. If he died 1 Jan 1846, he would have died in or around Nauvoo before Peter and Sarah went to Council Bluffs in the spring of 1846. Andrew Jackson Shupe and James Wright Shupe, and their wives and children all survived. Martha Ann, age 21, was left with her two daughters, Elizabeth Jane, 5, and Sarah Ann, 1. She had lost a son, George, in 1843/44. Martha remarried and went on to Utah, where her daughter, Elizabeth Jane, later married Thomas E. Ricks. This couple and family suffered greatly for their testimonies of the Gospel. Eight of their fifteen children died either as children or as young adults

Elizabeth Jane Shupe was born August 14, 1841, in Pleasant Valley, Wythe County, Virginia. She was the first child born to John Whetstein Shupe and Martha Ann Thomas. John was born March 14, 1819 in Grayson County, Virginia. He was the third child of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright. Elizabeth’s father came from a family of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, as well as farmers. On September 10, 1943, Peter Shupe and his family, with all of their worldly possessions, six dollars in cash, and a team of horses set out for Illinois. It isn’t clear if John and Martha Ann, with baby Elizabeth Jane, left at this time or not, but if they didn’t go with them, they soon followed. After much hardship, the family settled in the vicinity of Rushville, Brown County, Illinois. John and family settled in Adams County, a few miles west. The LDS missionaries found Peter and his wife there, and most of his family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some time during the year of 1845, the family moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. Peter and his sons were busy making wagons for families preparing to leave the city. John moved his family to Farmington, Iowa, one of the stopping places for the Saints between Nauvoo and Winter Quarters. Peter and Sarah and their unmarried children went on to Council Bluffs. In late August of 1846, John went to Council Bluffs to get a team to go back and bring his family to Council Bluffs, but he met the family just coming from the cemetery. Many of the Saints had contracted cholera, and both of John’s parents had died within a few hours of each other. They were buried in the same grave. John decided to take his five brothers and sisters back to Farmington with him instead of moving his family to Council Bluffs. He was only 27 at this time. However, on the way home, he became ill and died within a few days. Aaron Freeman Farr, traveling that way, found the family of children mourning the death of their elder brother. Mr. Farr took clothing from his own wagon, washed and dressed the body and buried it without a coffin, by the roadside. Mr. Farr took one boy, Peter, back to Council Bluffs with him, as he was ill. The other children continued on to Farmington, but three died that winter. John’s wife, Martha Ann Thomas, married Elijah Shaw at Kanesville on April 5, 1850. They traveled to Utah in the John Wood Company (1853), arriving on 23 July 1853. Six families formed an independent company at Kanesville and left from there early in the season. Some of the company were not Mormons, intending to proceed on from Salt Lake to California. There were nine wagons and eleven men in the company. Elizabeth Jane would have been eleven years of age when they emigrated to Utah, and her sister, Sarah Ann, would have been eight. Their little brother, George, had died as a baby. The family located the first winter in West Jordan near the carding mill. The following spring, they moved to Centerville. This was their home for the next five years. Elizabeth Jane Shupe met Thomas E. Ricks in 1956, when she was fourteen years of age, and Thomas was 27. He came to the house to ask her hand in marriage. She wasn’t very impressed. We have no knowledge of their courtship, but Elizabeth was sealed to Thomas on March 27, 1857, at age fifteen and a half, as his third wife in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tamar Loader was also sealed to Thomas E. Ricks as his second wife the same day. Centerville was their home until the fall of 1859, when they moved to Cache Valley. Elizabeth and Tamar shared the same house for a few years. They were pioneers who knew all the hardships of pioneer living. Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Willard, when she had been married four years and was nineteen years of age. Her second child, Martha Jane, had an illness soon after birth and was crippled and lost the use of her legs. Seven of Elizabeth’s children grew to manhood and womanhood, and five had children. In 1883, Elizabeth moved with her husband to Rexburg, Idaho to help settle that area. Their home was a one-room log home fifteen feet by eighteen feet, with a dirt roof and board floor. It stood on the lot occupied by the Madison County Court House. Later a lean-to was built, and Elizabeth cooked in there, so the house would stay cool in the summer. She cooked for many of the men working there, cooking for as many as twenty besides her own family. Before winter set in, Thomas built a new four-room frame house, with shingles on, for Elizabeth. It wasn’t as warm as the log cabin. In one small room at the back was a store and the post office. The children liked to trade eggs for candy. Elizabeth never had a picture taken when she was older. Her eyes were rather crossed, and she was sensitive of that. The only picture we have of her is one of her as a young girl, with her sister Sarah Ann. The hardships of pioneer life took their toil, and Elizabeth’s health failed. She only lived six years after going to Rexburg. She passed away July 1, 1889, at the age of 47 and was buried in the Rexburg cemetery.

JOHN WHITSTEIN SHUPEMARTHA ANN THOMAS 1819-1846 1827- 1891 NAUVOO TEMPLE A history of John Whitstein Shupe and Martha Ann Thomas and their family of Wythe and Grayson Counties,Virginia. John Whitstein Shupe, Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright Shupe died Crossing the Plains. Martha Ann came to Utah. JOHN WHITSTEIN SHUPE By Dolores Montgomery Hunter John Whitstein Shupe was born March 14, 1819 in Grayson County, Virginia. He was the son of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright, who were also born in Grayson County, Virginia: Peter Shupe December 3 1792 and Sarah Wright March 15, 1793. Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright were married December 22, 1814 in Grayson County, Virginia. The family of John Whitstein Shupe were blacksmiths, wheelwrights as well as farmers as he was also. John Whitstein Shupe married in 1840 Martha Ann Thomas, most probably in Tennessee. Martha Ann Thomas was born November 20, 1827 in Jonesboro, Sullivan County, Tennessee, to Jacob Thomas and Elizabeth Miller. No exact date or place of this marriage has been found after extensive searching (1989). Many of the Tennessee records were destroyed during the Civil War. However, John Whitstein Shupe was enumerated on the 1840 U S Census of Sullivan County Tennessee, right next to Martha Ann's mother, Elizabeth Thomas and also near Ferguson Shupe, John Whitstein's uncle. It is possible that John was visiting with Ferguson Shupe, met Martha Ann Thomas, fell in love with and married her. This was often how these things came about. Sarah Wright Shupe was baptized in 1839 and her husband, Peter Shupe was baptized in 1841. December 15 1840 in Times & Seasons quoting from Jedediah Morgan Grant,' who filled several missions to the Southern states: "for the last 17 months I have been laboring in the following counties: viz; Surry , Stokes. Rockingham and Guilford in N.C. also in Grayson, Wythe, Smyth and Washingeon in southwestern Virginia." -2- January 2, 1843 page 63 Times & Seasons GEORGE M. TIBBS, clerk of the conference reporting the Little Nauvoo Branch in Withe County Virginia consisting of 31 members, one priest, one teacher and one deacon." NOTE: Little Nauvoo is the branch from which Andrew Jackson Shupe and wife were received in Nauvoo. Also George M. Tibbs married Peter and Sarah Shupe's daughter Catherine July 22 1839. This appears to be the place where the Shupes joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and were baptized. Peter was living in Wythe County in 1840. On the l0th of September 1843, John Whitstein' s parents, Peter and Sarah with their family left their home in Rich Valley, Virginia with all of their worldly possessions, including $6 in cash and a team of horses and set out for illinois. They traveled into Kentucky about 200 miles where Peter borrowed $100 from Grandmother Creager. They then traveled into Indiana and camped on the west side of New Albany. There Mr. Harding gave Peter the job of making 1,000 rails and he received $1,000 for his work and provisions, They left there after 3 days and went on to Greene County, Indiana. where they found Sarah's brother, William Wright. They stayed there about 2 weeks and then set out again, stopping next 16 miles west of Springfield, Illinois to replenish their stock of provisions. There they unloaded their wagons and gathered corn for a Mr. Broadwell for about 3 days, taking provisions for their work. Loading up their wagons again they made their way to Rushville in Schuyler County, Illinois -3- arriving on November 9, 1843, having now traveled 1,000 miles. Peter got a place from George Clark for the winter and in the spring he moved again to Brown County. There he rented a place from Mr. Keenfeet and remained 2 years. Records of Nauvoo Restoration Inc. indicate that Peter and Sarah Shupe, with their family lived in the vicinity of Rushville while in Brown County, Illinois, where Peter and his sons worked as Blacksmiths and wagon makers. John Whitstein and Martha Ann lived west of Brown County in Adams County, Illinois where their daughter Sarah Ann was born April 2 1845. Some time in 1845 both families moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois where Peter and his Sons were kept busy as Blacksmiths and wagon makers. This was done at the Webb Wagon and Blacksmiths Shop. This shop has now been restored by the Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. Brigham Young had arranged with local authorities for the Saints to leave Nauvoo in the spring of 1846. Because there were warrants for the arrest of Church leaders, some of the leaders left sooner. Rumors that federal troops would stop the Saints from leaving, made the rest of the Saints nervous and they began to prepare and plan to leave. The first Saints crossed the Mississippi River February 4, 1846. We do not know when John Whitstein and Martha Ann left. We do know they were still in Nauvoo February 6, 1846 as they went to the Nauvoo Temple for their endowments that day. We do know 4 they experienced the hardships and hazards of moving in February across the Mississippi River into Iowa with only their wagon to shelter them from the snow and cold, 20 degrees below zero at times. They had two small children to care for and protect. Peter and Sarah were also included in these faithful Saints who were called upon to endure so much. They, too, had small children. An artists conception of the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo February 1846 Reflecting upon the suffering endured at Sugar Creek Brigham Young recorded in his Journal these words: "The fact is worth of remembrance that several thousand persons left their homes in midwinter and exposed themselves without shelter, except that afforded by a scanty supply of tents and wagon covers , to a cold which effectually made an ice bridge over the Mississippi River which at Nauvoo is more than a mile broad. -5- John Whitstein stayed at Farmington, Iowa, with Martha Ann and their two daughters Elizabeth Jane and Sarah Ann. Peter and Sarah and their unmarried children went on farther west to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Later John went to Council Bluffs to return some horses for a Mr. Foy for which he was to be paid. When he arrived his family was just returning from the funeral of Peter and Sarah. Sarah died in the evening and Peter the following morning, September l4, 1846. They were both buried in the same grave. This was the first knowledge John Whitstein had of his parents' sickness and death. John had probably been looking forward to seeing his parents again. Their deaths would be a shock and a sorrow. However, it most certainly was a lifesaver for the young, grieving children. John determined that he would take the surviving children home with him to Farmington where he and Martha Ann could take care of then and make a home for them. While on the way east John took a very severe cold. He was extremely anxious to get the children back to his family in Farmington, so in spite of being very ill he concluded to continue on. John developed a fever and became much worse. He died a day or two later in September 1846. A man, Aaron Freeman Farr, found the children crying by the side of the trail because of the death of their older brother. Aaron Freeman Farr took clothing from his own wagon, clothed John -6- and buried him by the side of the road without even a coffin. John Whitstein was only 27 years old. Aaron Freeman Farr was chosen as one of Brigham Young's company of pioneers and traveled with the main body until the company reached Green River, when he and four other brethren were sent back to assist oncoming companies. He was surely assistance and a blessing to John Whitstein and the surviving children. The surviving children of Peter and Sarah went back to Farmington where they seem to have located the slab house where they had lived the previous Winter. Conditions could not have been very good for these young children as three of them died in less than three months, Martha Ann, of course, heard nothing of the death of John until after his burial. This was a sad and difficult time for Martha Ann. She herself was only 21 and she was left with two little girls to care for and be responsible for. Elizabeth Jane was only 5 and Sarah Ann just 1. It is not known just how she managed or what help she might have received. She did make her way from Farmington. Iowa. to Council Bluffs. This was a journey of about 250 miles for her under very trying times and conditions. Sarah Ann and Elizabeth Jane Shupe -8- It was at Council Bluffs that Martha Ann met and married Elijah Shaw April 6 1850. In 1853 they emigrated to Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City August 8. The first winter they lived in West Jordan and the following spring they moved to Centerville where they remained for five years. It was in 1859 when they arrived in North Ogden. Elijah Shaw became the owner of a large tract of land there and engaged in farming and fruit raising. Martha Ann's life was very Similar to so many of the women who were called upon to move into an area which was unsettled. It was necessary for her to provide food, clothing and make a home. Their first home was made of logs. One thing she was very proud of was her sheep. She took care of these, sheared, washed and corded the wool. With the help of a spinning wheel, she made lovely linsey material for her daughters and herself. She also made heavier material that looked like buckskin for her men and boys which lasted through much wear. Martha Ann was known for her generosity and a willingness to share with others. In a time when the goods of this world were scarce, she was often called upon to help others in need, be it Sickness, sorrow or sharing food from her kitchen. After a few years Elijah and Martha Ann were able to build a very lovely brick home which is still standing (1989). This was located in that part of North Ogden which became Pleasant View when the ward was divided. Martha Ann Thomas died November 21 1890 in Pleasant View, Utah. She was the mother of 12 children, 7 sons and 5 daughters. My thanks and gratitude and humble pride for the courageous, devoted lives of those this story is about. We love and respect them for what they have done. My thanks for the use of the story of Peter Shupe and his journey to Illinois as told by William Kendrick Shupe to James M. Shupe as referred to in Leslie Raty's "History of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright." Also his Records of Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. My thanks to all those who have researched and collected information on the Shupe and Thomas families over the years, some who are living and some deceased. If I begin giving names, I might miss someone. You will each know how you have made a contribution. My special thanks to the Shupe Family Organization for your full support and encouragement to me. My thanks to my husband, Clyde Hunter, whose efforts in research have benefited both Shupes and Thomases. Other sources I have given as they appeared in the history. NOTE: I felt it was impossible to write a history of John Whitstein Shupe without including Peter and Sarah as they so closely lived this part of their lives together. Dolores Montgomery Hunter, great granddaughter 1523 Lake St. Ogden, Utah 84401

The Peter and Sarah Shupe family arrived in Rushville, Illinois 4 Nov 1843, after traveling 1,000 miles from Virginia. They had been baptized by Jedediah Grant and his brother, Joshua into the LDS Church. They had fifteen children, but two had died as children. For a time, Peter Shupe's family lived in the vicinity of Rushville, Brown County, Illinois. John and Martha settled in adjacent Adams county. Peter Shupe and his sons, Andrew and James, worked as blacksmiths and wagon makers. Some time around 1845, some of the Peter Shupe family moved to Nauvoo. Peter Shupe bought a lot on the southwest corner of Mulholland and Robison, four blocks directly east of the Nauvoo Temple. The property was listed under the name of his son, James. Peter and his sons worked on the Nauvoo Temple. Ultimately, Peter, James, and Andrew Jackson Shupe, all blacksmiths, were asked by Brigham Young to help build wagons for those leaving Nauvoo. The pamphlet handed out at the blacksmith shop, states, "Among the many blacksmiths and wagonmakers at Nauvoo during the closing period of Mormon occupancy were members of the Peter and Sarah Shupe family. Some of them had previously practiced their trades in the vicinity of Rushville, Illinois. By 1844, the parents and three sons had settled in the Nauvoo community, where they made wagons during the closing months of the Mormon preparations for the westward trek to the Great Basin. Two of the sons, Andrew J. and James W. Shupe, enlisted as blacksmiths in the Mormon Battalion at Council bluffs, Iowa, in July 1846, to participate in the Mexican War. "James reached Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1847 and Andrew in 1852, hauling their bellows, anvils, and other tools of their trade. They were pioneers of Ogden, Utah, where they and their descendants operated blacksmith and wagon shops for many years." Apparently, one of the descendants, James Shupe of Utah State University, later donated their equipment to the restored Nauvoo blacksmith shop. In the spring of 1846, Peter and Sarah and their children and grandchildren left Nauvoo and traveled to Iowa. It took them four months to get to Council Bluffs, due to the mud. The Shupe's first stop was in Farmington, Iowa, where John Whitstein and Martha stayed. The rest of the family reached Council Bluffs by the summer of 1846. James and Andrew signed up for the Mormon Battalion, as well as James' wife, who signed up to help with the cooking. Andrew's wife was left with four small children in a covered wagon. In the fall of 1846, sickness swept through Council Bluffs. Sarah, the mother, was the first to die on 13 September 1846. The next day, Peter, the father, died. They were buried in Glenwood Mills in the same unmarked grave. John had traveled to Council Bluffs to return some horses for which he was to be paid. When he arrived, the family was having the funeral for his parents, John helped to bury them. John then gathered his brothers and sisters together and determined to take them back to Farmington, Iowa where his wife and two daughters were. On the way, John took a very severe cold but tried to keep going. He died on the way. A man, Aaron Freeman Farr, found the children crying by the side of the trail and took clothing from his own wagon, and covered John, and they buried him by the side of the road. It was September or the first part of October, 1846, and John was only 27 years of age. The surviving children went on to Farmington, where they lived with Martha. Four of them died in the next three months--George, Benjamin, Nancy, and Susannah. Some records state Benjamin died 1 Jan 1847. If he did, he would probably been with the other children and died in Farmington. If he died 1 Jan 1846, he would have died in or around Nauvoo before Peter and Sarah went to Council Bluffs in the spring of 1846. Andrew Jackson Shupe and James Wright Shupe, and their wives and children all survived. Martha Ann, age 21, was left with her two daughters, Elizabeth Jane, 5, and Sarah Ann, 1. She had lost a son, George, in 1843/44. Martha remarried and went on to Utah, where her daughter, Elizabeth Jane, later married Thomas E. Ricks. This couple and family suffered greatly for their testimonies of the Gospel. Eight of their fifteen children died either as children or as young adults

Elizabeth Jane Shupe was born August 14, 1841, in Pleasant Valley, Wythe County, Virginia. She was the first child born to John Whetstein Shupe and Martha Ann Thomas. John was born March 14, 1819 in Grayson County, Virginia. He was the third child of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright. Elizabeth’s father came from a family of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, as well as farmers. On September 10, 1943, Peter Shupe and his family, with all of their worldly possessions, six dollars in cash, and a team of horses set out for Illinois. It isn’t clear if John and Martha Ann, with baby Elizabeth Jane, left at this time or not, but if they didn’t go with them, they soon followed. After much hardship, the family settled in the vicinity of Rushville, Brown County, Illinois. John and family settled in Adams County, a few miles west. The LDS missionaries found Peter and his wife there, and most of his family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some time during the year of 1845, the family moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. Peter and his sons were busy making wagons for families preparing to leave the city. John moved his family to Farmington, Iowa, one of the stopping places for the Saints between Nauvoo and Winter Quarters. Peter and Sarah and their unmarried children went on to Council Bluffs. In late August of 1846, John went to Council Bluffs to get a team to go back and bring his family to Council Bluffs, but he met the family just coming from the cemetery. Many of the Saints had contracted cholera, and both of John’s parents had died within a few hours of each other. They were buried in the same grave. John decided to take his five brothers and sisters back to Farmington with him instead of moving his family to Council Bluffs. He was only 27 at this time. However, on the way home, he became ill and died within a few days. Aaron Freeman Farr, traveling that way, found the family of children mourning the death of their elder brother. Mr. Farr took clothing from his own wagon, washed and dressed the body and buried it without a coffin, by the roadside. Mr. Farr took one boy, Peter, back to Council Bluffs with him, as he was ill. The other children continued on to Farmington, but three died that winter. John’s wife, Martha Ann Thomas, married Elijah Shaw at Kanesville on April 5, 1850. They traveled to Utah in the John Wood Company (1853), arriving on 23 July 1853. Six families formed an independent company at Kanesville and left from there early in the season. Some of the company were not Mormons, intending to proceed on from Salt Lake to California. There were nine wagons and eleven men in the company. Elizabeth Jane would have been eleven years of age when they emigrated to Utah, and her sister, Sarah Ann, would have been eight. Their little brother, George, had died as a baby. The family located the first winter in West Jordan near the carding mill. The following spring, they moved to Centerville. This was their home for the next five years. Elizabeth Jane Shupe met Thomas E. Ricks in 1956, when she was fourteen years of age, and Thomas was 27. He came to the house to ask her hand in marriage. She wasn’t very impressed. We have no knowledge of their courtship, but Elizabeth was sealed to Thomas on March 27, 1857, at age fifteen and a half, as his third wife in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tamar Loader was also sealed to Thomas E. Ricks as his second wife the same day. Centerville was their home until the fall of 1859, when they moved to Cache Valley. Elizabeth and Tamar shared the same house for a few years. They were pioneers who knew all the hardships of pioneer living. Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Willard, when she had been married four years and was nineteen years of age. Her second child, Martha Jane, had an illness soon after birth and was crippled and lost the use of her legs. Seven of Elizabeth’s children grew to manhood and womanhood, and five had children. In 1883, Elizabeth moved with her husband to Rexburg, Idaho to help settle that area. Their home was a one-room log home fifteen feet by eighteen feet, with a dirt roof and board floor. It stood on the lot occupied by the Madison County Court House. Later a lean-to was built, and Elizabeth cooked in there, so the house would stay cool in the summer. She cooked for many of the men working there, cooking for as many as twenty besides her own family. Before winter set in, Thomas built a new four-room frame house, with shingles on, for Elizabeth. It wasn’t as warm as the log cabin. In one small room at the back was a store and the post office. The children liked to trade eggs for candy. Elizabeth never had a picture taken when she was older. Her eyes were rather crossed, and she was sensitive of that. The only picture we have of her is one of her as a young girl, with her sister Sarah Ann. The hardships of pioneer life took their toil, and Elizabeth’s health failed. She only lived six years after going to Rexburg. She passed away July 1, 1889, at the age of 47 and was buried in the Rexburg cemetery.

JOHN WHITSTEIN SHUPEMARTHA ANN THOMAS 1819-1846 1827- 1891 NAUVOO TEMPLE A history of John Whitstein Shupe and Martha Ann Thomas and their family of Wythe and Grayson Counties,Virginia. John Whitstein Shupe, Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright Shupe died Crossing the Plains. Martha Ann came to Utah. JOHN WHITSTEIN SHUPE By Dolores Montgomery Hunter John Whitstein Shupe was born March 14, 1819 in Grayson County, Virginia. He was the son of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright, who were also born in Grayson County, Virginia: Peter Shupe December 3 1792 and Sarah Wright March 15, 1793. Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright were married December 22, 1814 in Grayson County, Virginia. The family of John Whitstein Shupe were blacksmiths, wheelwrights as well as farmers as he was also. John Whitstein Shupe married in 1840 Martha Ann Thomas, most probably in Tennessee. Martha Ann Thomas was born November 20, 1827 in Jonesboro, Sullivan County, Tennessee, to Jacob Thomas and Elizabeth Miller. No exact date or place of this marriage has been found after extensive searching (1989). Many of the Tennessee records were destroyed during the Civil War. However, John Whitstein Shupe was enumerated on the 1840 U S Census of Sullivan County Tennessee, right next to Martha Ann's mother, Elizabeth Thomas and also near Ferguson Shupe, John Whitstein's uncle. It is possible that John was visiting with Ferguson Shupe, met Martha Ann Thomas, fell in love with and married her. This was often how these things came about. Sarah Wright Shupe was baptized in 1839 and her husband, Peter Shupe was baptized in 1841. December 15 1840 in Times & Seasons quoting from Jedediah Morgan Grant,' who filled several missions to the Southern states: "for the last 17 months I have been laboring in the following counties: viz; Surry , Stokes. Rockingham and Guilford in N.C. also in Grayson, Wythe, Smyth and Washingeon in southwestern Virginia." -2- January 2, 1843 page 63 Times & Seasons GEORGE M. TIBBS, clerk of the conference reporting the Little Nauvoo Branch in Withe County Virginia consisting of 31 members, one priest, one teacher and one deacon." NOTE: Little Nauvoo is the branch from which Andrew Jackson Shupe and wife were received in Nauvoo. Also George M. Tibbs married Peter and Sarah Shupe's daughter Catherine July 22 1839. This appears to be the place where the Shupes joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and were baptized. Peter was living in Wythe County in 1840. On the l0th of September 1843, John Whitstein' s parents, Peter and Sarah with their family left their home in Rich Valley, Virginia with all of their worldly possessions, including $6 in cash and a team of horses and set out for illinois. They traveled into Kentucky about 200 miles where Peter borrowed $100 from Grandmother Creager. They then traveled into Indiana and camped on the west side of New Albany. There Mr. Harding gave Peter the job of making 1,000 rails and he received $1,000 for his work and provisions, They left there after 3 days and went on to Greene County, Indiana. where they found Sarah's brother, William Wright. They stayed there about 2 weeks and then set out again, stopping next 16 miles west of Springfield, Illinois to replenish their stock of provisions. There they unloaded their wagons and gathered corn for a Mr. Broadwell for about 3 days, taking provisions for their work. Loading up their wagons again they made their way to Rushville in Schuyler County, Illinois -3- arriving on November 9, 1843, having now traveled 1,000 miles. Peter got a place from George Clark for the winter and in the spring he moved again to Brown County. There he rented a place from Mr. Keenfeet and remained 2 years. Records of Nauvoo Restoration Inc. indicate that Peter and Sarah Shupe, with their family lived in the vicinity of Rushville while in Brown County, Illinois, where Peter and his sons worked as Blacksmiths and wagon makers. John Whitstein and Martha Ann lived west of Brown County in Adams County, Illinois where their daughter Sarah Ann was born April 2 1845. Some time in 1845 both families moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois where Peter and his Sons were kept busy as Blacksmiths and wagon makers. This was done at the Webb Wagon and Blacksmiths Shop. This shop has now been restored by the Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. Brigham Young had arranged with local authorities for the Saints to leave Nauvoo in the spring of 1846. Because there were warrants for the arrest of Church leaders, some of the leaders left sooner. Rumors that federal troops would stop the Saints from leaving, made the rest of the Saints nervous and they began to prepare and plan to leave. The first Saints crossed the Mississippi River February 4, 1846. We do not know when John Whitstein and Martha Ann left. We do know they were still in Nauvoo February 6, 1846 as they went to the Nauvoo Temple for their endowments that day. We do know 4 they experienced the hardships and hazards of moving in February across the Mississippi River into Iowa with only their wagon to shelter them from the snow and cold, 20 degrees below zero at times. They had two small children to care for and protect. Peter and Sarah were also included in these faithful Saints who were called upon to endure so much. They, too, had small children. An artists conception of the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo February 1846 Reflecting upon the suffering endured at Sugar Creek Brigham Young recorded in his Journal these words: "The fact is worth of remembrance that several thousand persons left their homes in midwinter and exposed themselves without shelter, except that afforded by a scanty supply of tents and wagon covers , to a cold which effectually made an ice bridge over the Mississippi River which at Nauvoo is more than a mile broad. -5- John Whitstein stayed at Farmington, Iowa, with Martha Ann and their two daughters Elizabeth Jane and Sarah Ann. Peter and Sarah and their unmarried children went on farther west to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Later John went to Council Bluffs to return some horses for a Mr. Foy for which he was to be paid. When he arrived his family was just returning from the funeral of Peter and Sarah. Sarah died in the evening and Peter the following morning, September l4, 1846. They were both buried in the same grave. This was the first knowledge John Whitstein had of his parents' sickness and death. John had probably been looking forward to seeing his parents again. Their deaths would be a shock and a sorrow. However, it most certainly was a lifesaver for the young, grieving children. John determined that he would take the surviving children home with him to Farmington where he and Martha Ann could take care of then and make a home for them. While on the way east John took a very severe cold. He was extremely anxious to get the children back to his family in Farmington, so in spite of being very ill he concluded to continue on. John developed a fever and became much worse. He died a day or two later in September 1846. A man, Aaron Freeman Farr, found the children crying by the side of the trail because of the death of their older brother. Aaron Freeman Farr took clothing from his own wagon, clothed John -6- and buried him by the side of the road without even a coffin. John Whitstein was only 27 years old. Aaron Freeman Farr was chosen as one of Brigham Young's company of pioneers and traveled with the main body until the company reached Green River, when he and four other brethren were sent back to assist oncoming companies. He was surely assistance and a blessing to John Whitstein and the surviving children. The surviving children of Peter and Sarah went back to Farmington where they seem to have located the slab house where they had lived the previous Winter. Conditions could not have been very good for these young children as three of them died in less than three months, Martha Ann, of course, heard nothing of the death of John until after his burial. This was a sad and difficult time for Martha Ann. She herself was only 21 and she was left with two little girls to care for and be responsible for. Elizabeth Jane was only 5 and Sarah Ann just 1. It is not known just how she managed or what help she might have received. She did make her way from Farmington. Iowa. to Council Bluffs. This was a journey of about 250 miles for her under very trying times and conditions. Sarah Ann and Elizabeth Jane Shupe -8- It was at Council Bluffs that Martha Ann met and married Elijah Shaw April 6 1850. In 1853 they emigrated to Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City August 8. The first winter they lived in West Jordan and the following spring they moved to Centerville where they remained for five years. It was in 1859 when they arrived in North Ogden. Elijah Shaw became the owner of a large tract of land there and engaged in farming and fruit raising. Martha Ann's life was very Similar to so many of the women who were called upon to move into an area which was unsettled. It was necessary for her to provide food, clothing and make a home. Their first home was made of logs. One thing she was very proud of was her sheep. She took care of these, sheared, washed and corded the wool. With the help of a spinning wheel, she made lovely linsey material for her daughters and herself. She also made heavier material that looked like buckskin for her men and boys which lasted through much wear. Martha Ann was known for her generosity and a willingness to share with others. In a time when the goods of this world were scarce, she was often called upon to help others in need, be it Sickness, sorrow or sharing food from her kitchen. After a few years Elijah and Martha Ann were able to build a very lovely brick home which is still standing (1989). This was located in that part of North Ogden which became Pleasant View when the ward was divided. Martha Ann Thomas died November 21 1890 in Pleasant View, Utah. She was the mother of 12 children, 7 sons and 5 daughters. My thanks and gratitude and humble pride for the courageous, devoted lives of those this story is about. We love and respect them for what they have done. My thanks for the use of the story of Peter Shupe and his journey to Illinois as told by William Kendrick Shupe to James M. Shupe as referred to in Leslie Raty's "History of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright." Also his Records of Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. My thanks to all those who have researched and collected information on the Shupe and Thomas families over the years, some who are living and some deceased. If I begin giving names, I might miss someone. You will each know how you have made a contribution. My special thanks to the Shupe Family Organization for your full support and encouragement to me. My thanks to my husband, Clyde Hunter, whose efforts in research have benefited both Shupes and Thomases. Other sources I have given as they appeared in the history. NOTE: I felt it was impossible to write a history of John Whitstein Shupe without including Peter and Sarah as they so closely lived this part of their lives together. Dolores Montgomery Hunter, great granddaughter 1523 Lake St. Ogden, Utah 84401

The Peter and Sarah Shupe family arrived in Rushville, Illinois 4 Nov 1843, after traveling 1,000 miles from Virginia. They had been baptized by Jedediah Grant and his brother, Joshua into the LDS Church. They had fifteen children, but two had died as children. For a time, Peter Shupe's family lived in the vicinity of Rushville, Brown County, Illinois. John and Martha settled in adjacent Adams county. Peter Shupe and his sons, Andrew and James, worked as blacksmiths and wagon makers. Some time around 1845, some of the Peter Shupe family moved to Nauvoo. Peter Shupe bought a lot on the southwest corner of Mulholland and Robison, four blocks directly east of the Nauvoo Temple. The property was listed under the name of his son, James. Peter and his sons worked on the Nauvoo Temple. Ultimately, Peter, James, and Andrew Jackson Shupe, all blacksmiths, were asked by Brigham Young to help build wagons for those leaving Nauvoo. The pamphlet handed out at the blacksmith shop, states, "Among the many blacksmiths and wagonmakers at Nauvoo during the closing period of Mormon occupancy were members of the Peter and Sarah Shupe family. Some of them had previously practiced their trades in the vicinity of Rushville, Illinois. By 1844, the parents and three sons had settled in the Nauvoo community, where they made wagons during the closing months of the Mormon preparations for the westward trek to the Great Basin. Two of the sons, Andrew J. and James W. Shupe, enlisted as blacksmiths in the Mormon Battalion at Council bluffs, Iowa, in July 1846, to participate in the Mexican War. "James reached Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1847 and Andrew in 1852, hauling their bellows, anvils, and other tools of their trade. They were pioneers of Ogden, Utah, where they and their descendants operated blacksmith and wagon shops for many years." Apparently, one of the descendants, James Shupe of Utah State University, later donated their equipment to the restored Nauvoo blacksmith shop. In the spring of 1846, Peter and Sarah and their children and grandchildren left Nauvoo and traveled to Iowa. It took them four months to get to Council Bluffs, due to the mud. The Shupe's first stop was in Farmington, Iowa, where John Whitstein and Martha stayed. The rest of the family reached Council Bluffs by the summer of 1846. James and Andrew signed up for the Mormon Battalion, as well as James' wife, who signed up to help with the cooking. Andrew's wife was left with four small children in a covered wagon. In the fall of 1846, sickness swept through Council Bluffs. Sarah, the mother, was the first to die on 13 September 1846. The next day, Peter, the father, died. They were buried in Glenwood Mills in the same unmarked grave. John had traveled to Council Bluffs to return some horses for which he was to be paid. When he arrived, the family was having the funeral for his parents, John helped to bury them. John then gathered his brothers and sisters together and determined to take them back to Farmington, Iowa where his wife and two daughters were. On the way, John took a very severe cold but tried to keep going. He died on the way. A man, Aaron Freeman Farr, found the children crying by the side of the trail and took clothing from his own wagon, and covered John, and they buried him by the side of the road. It was September or the first part of October, 1846, and John was only 27 years of age. The surviving children went on to Farmington, where they lived with Martha. Four of them died in the next three months--George, Benjamin, Nancy, and Susannah. Some records state Benjamin died 1 Jan 1847. If he did, he would probably been with the other children and died in Farmington. If he died 1 Jan 1846, he would have died in or around Nauvoo before Peter and Sarah went to Council Bluffs in the spring of 1846. Andrew Jackson Shupe and James Wright Shupe, and their wives and children all survived. Martha Ann, age 21, was left with her two daughters, Elizabeth Jane, 5, and Sarah Ann, 1. She had lost a son, George, in 1843/44. Martha remarried and went on to Utah, where her daughter, Elizabeth Jane, later married Thomas E. Ricks. This couple and family suffered greatly for their testimonies of the Gospel. Eight of their fifteen children died either as children or as young adults

Elizabeth Jane Shupe was born August 14, 1841, in Pleasant Valley, Wythe County, Virginia. She was the first child born to John Whetstein Shupe and Martha Ann Thomas. John was born March 14, 1819 in Grayson County, Virginia. He was the third child of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright. Elizabeth’s father came from a family of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, as well as farmers. On September 10, 1943, Peter Shupe and his family, with all of their worldly possessions, six dollars in cash, and a team of horses set out for Illinois. It isn’t clear if John and Martha Ann, with baby Elizabeth Jane, left at this time or not, but if they didn’t go with them, they soon followed. After much hardship, the family settled in the vicinity of Rushville, Brown County, Illinois. John and family settled in Adams County, a few miles west. The LDS missionaries found Peter and his wife there, and most of his family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some time during the year of 1845, the family moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. Peter and his sons were busy making wagons for families preparing to leave the city. John moved his family to Farmington, Iowa, one of the stopping places for the Saints between Nauvoo and Winter Quarters. Peter and Sarah and their unmarried children went on to Council Bluffs. In late August of 1846, John went to Council Bluffs to get a team to go back and bring his family to Council Bluffs, but he met the family just coming from the cemetery. Many of the Saints had contracted cholera, and both of John’s parents had died within a few hours of each other. They were buried in the same grave. John decided to take his five brothers and sisters back to Farmington with him instead of moving his family to Council Bluffs. He was only 27 at this time. However, on the way home, he became ill and died within a few days. Aaron Freeman Farr, traveling that way, found the family of children mourning the death of their elder brother. Mr. Farr took clothing from his own wagon, washed and dressed the body and buried it without a coffin, by the roadside. Mr. Farr took one boy, Peter, back to Council Bluffs with him, as he was ill. The other children continued on to Farmington, but three died that winter. John’s wife, Martha Ann Thomas, married Elijah Shaw at Kanesville on April 5, 1850. They traveled to Utah in the John Wood Company (1853), arriving on 23 July 1853. Six families formed an independent company at Kanesville and left from there early in the season. Some of the company were not Mormons, intending to proceed on from Salt Lake to California. There were nine wagons and eleven men in the company. Elizabeth Jane would have been eleven years of age when they emigrated to Utah, and her sister, Sarah Ann, would have been eight. Their little brother, George, had died as a baby. The family located the first winter in West Jordan near the carding mill. The following spring, they moved to Centerville. This was their home for the next five years. Elizabeth Jane Shupe met Thomas E. Ricks in 1956, when she was fourteen years of age, and Thomas was 27. He came to the house to ask her hand in marriage. She wasn’t very impressed. We have no knowledge of their courtship, but Elizabeth was sealed to Thomas on March 27, 1857, at age fifteen and a half, as his third wife in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tamar Loader was also sealed to Thomas E. Ricks as his second wife the same day. Centerville was their home until the fall of 1859, when they moved to Cache Valley. Elizabeth and Tamar shared the same house for a few years. They were pioneers who knew all the hardships of pioneer living. Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Willard, when she had been married four years and was nineteen years of age. Her second child, Martha Jane, had an illness soon after birth and was crippled and lost the use of her legs. Seven of Elizabeth’s children grew to manhood and womanhood, and five had children. In 1883, Elizabeth moved with her husband to Rexburg, Idaho to help settle that area. Their home was a one-room log home fifteen feet by eighteen feet, with a dirt roof and board floor. It stood on the lot occupied by the Madison County Court House. Later a lean-to was built, and Elizabeth cooked in there, so the house would stay cool in the summer. She cooked for many of the men working there, cooking for as many as twenty besides her own family. Before winter set in, Thomas built a new four-room frame house, with shingles on, for Elizabeth. It wasn’t as warm as the log cabin. In one small room at the back was a store and the post office. The children liked to trade eggs for candy. Elizabeth never had a picture taken when she was older. Her eyes were rather crossed, and she was sensitive of that. The only picture we have of her is one of her as a young girl, with her sister Sarah Ann. The hardships of pioneer life took their toil, and Elizabeth’s health failed. She only lived six years after going to Rexburg. She passed away July 1, 1889, at the age of 47 and was buried in the Rexburg cemetery.

JOHN WHITSTEIN SHUPEMARTHA ANN THOMAS 1819-1846 1827- 1891 NAUVOO TEMPLE A history of John Whitstein Shupe and Martha Ann Thomas and their family of Wythe and Grayson Counties,Virginia. John Whitstein Shupe, Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright Shupe died Crossing the Plains. Martha Ann came to Utah. JOHN WHITSTEIN SHUPE By Dolores Montgomery Hunter John Whitstein Shupe was born March 14, 1819 in Grayson County, Virginia. He was the son of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright, who were also born in Grayson County, Virginia: Peter Shupe December 3 1792 and Sarah Wright March 15, 1793. Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright were married December 22, 1814 in Grayson County, Virginia. The family of John Whitstein Shupe were blacksmiths, wheelwrights as well as farmers as he was also. John Whitstein Shupe married in 1840 Martha Ann Thomas, most probably in Tennessee. Martha Ann Thomas was born November 20, 1827 in Jonesboro, Sullivan County, Tennessee, to Jacob Thomas and Elizabeth Miller. No exact date or place of this marriage has been found after extensive searching (1989). Many of the Tennessee records were destroyed during the Civil War. However, John Whitstein Shupe was enumerated on the 1840 U S Census of Sullivan County Tennessee, right next to Martha Ann's mother, Elizabeth Thomas and also near Ferguson Shupe, John Whitstein's uncle. It is possible that John was visiting with Ferguson Shupe, met Martha Ann Thomas, fell in love with and married her. This was often how these things came about. Sarah Wright Shupe was baptized in 1839 and her husband, Peter Shupe was baptized in 1841. December 15 1840 in Times & Seasons quoting from Jedediah Morgan Grant,' who filled several missions to the Southern states: "for the last 17 months I have been laboring in the following counties: viz; Surry , Stokes. Rockingham and Guilford in N.C. also in Grayson, Wythe, Smyth and Washingeon in southwestern Virginia." -2- January 2, 1843 page 63 Times & Seasons GEORGE M. TIBBS, clerk of the conference reporting the Little Nauvoo Branch in Withe County Virginia consisting of 31 members, one priest, one teacher and one deacon." NOTE: Little Nauvoo is the branch from which Andrew Jackson Shupe and wife were received in Nauvoo. Also George M. Tibbs married Peter and Sarah Shupe's daughter Catherine July 22 1839. This appears to be the place where the Shupes joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and were baptized. Peter was living in Wythe County in 1840. On the l0th of September 1843, John Whitstein' s parents, Peter and Sarah with their family left their home in Rich Valley, Virginia with all of their worldly possessions, including $6 in cash and a team of horses and set out for illinois. They traveled into Kentucky about 200 miles where Peter borrowed $100 from Grandmother Creager. They then traveled into Indiana and camped on the west side of New Albany. There Mr. Harding gave Peter the job of making 1,000 rails and he received $1,000 for his work and provisions, They left there after 3 days and went on to Greene County, Indiana. where they found Sarah's brother, William Wright. They stayed there about 2 weeks and then set out again, stopping next 16 miles west of Springfield, Illinois to replenish their stock of provisions. There they unloaded their wagons and gathered corn for a Mr. Broadwell for about 3 days, taking provisions for their work. Loading up their wagons again they made their way to Rushville in Schuyler County, Illinois -3- arriving on November 9, 1843, having now traveled 1,000 miles. Peter got a place from George Clark for the winter and in the spring he moved again to Brown County. There he rented a place from Mr. Keenfeet and remained 2 years. Records of Nauvoo Restoration Inc. indicate that Peter and Sarah Shupe, with their family lived in the vicinity of Rushville while in Brown County, Illinois, where Peter and his sons worked as Blacksmiths and wagon makers. John Whitstein and Martha Ann lived west of Brown County in Adams County, Illinois where their daughter Sarah Ann was born April 2 1845. Some time in 1845 both families moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois where Peter and his Sons were kept busy as Blacksmiths and wagon makers. This was done at the Webb Wagon and Blacksmiths Shop. This shop has now been restored by the Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. Brigham Young had arranged with local authorities for the Saints to leave Nauvoo in the spring of 1846. Because there were warrants for the arrest of Church leaders, some of the leaders left sooner. Rumors that federal troops would stop the Saints from leaving, made the rest of the Saints nervous and they began to prepare and plan to leave. The first Saints crossed the Mississippi River February 4, 1846. We do not know when John Whitstein and Martha Ann left. We do know they were still in Nauvoo February 6, 1846 as they went to the Nauvoo Temple for their endowments that day. We do know 4 they experienced the hardships and hazards of moving in February across the Mississippi River into Iowa with only their wagon to shelter them from the snow and cold, 20 degrees below zero at times. They had two small children to care for and protect. Peter and Sarah were also included in these faithful Saints who were called upon to endure so much. They, too, had small children. An artists conception of the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo February 1846 Reflecting upon the suffering endured at Sugar Creek Brigham Young recorded in his Journal these words: "The fact is worth of remembrance that several thousand persons left their homes in midwinter and exposed themselves without shelter, except that afforded by a scanty supply of tents and wagon covers , to a cold which effectually made an ice bridge over the Mississippi River which at Nauvoo is more than a mile broad. -5- John Whitstein stayed at Farmington, Iowa, with Martha Ann and their two daughters Elizabeth Jane and Sarah Ann. Peter and Sarah and their unmarried children went on farther west to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Later John went to Council Bluffs to return some horses for a Mr. Foy for which he was to be paid. When he arrived his family was just returning from the funeral of Peter and Sarah. Sarah died in the evening and Peter the following morning, September l4, 1846. They were both buried in the same grave. This was the first knowledge John Whitstein had of his parents' sickness and death. John had probably been looking forward to seeing his parents again. Their deaths would be a shock and a sorrow. However, it most certainly was a lifesaver for the young, grieving children. John determined that he would take the surviving children home with him to Farmington where he and Martha Ann could take care of then and make a home for them. While on the way east John took a very severe cold. He was extremely anxious to get the children back to his family in Farmington, so in spite of being very ill he concluded to continue on. John developed a fever and became much worse. He died a day or two later in September 1846. A man, Aaron Freeman Farr, found the children crying by the side of the trail because of the death of their older brother. Aaron Freeman Farr took clothing from his own wagon, clothed John -6- and buried him by the side of the road without even a coffin. John Whitstein was only 27 years old. Aaron Freeman Farr was chosen as one of Brigham Young's company of pioneers and traveled with the main body until the company reached Green River, when he and four other brethren were sent back to assist oncoming companies. He was surely assistance and a blessing to John Whitstein and the surviving children. The surviving children of Peter and Sarah went back to Farmington where they seem to have located the slab house where they had lived the previous Winter. Conditions could not have been very good for these young children as three of them died in less than three months, Martha Ann, of course, heard nothing of the death of John until after his burial. This was a sad and difficult time for Martha Ann. She herself was only 21 and she was left with two little girls to care for and be responsible for. Elizabeth Jane was only 5 and Sarah Ann just 1. It is not known just how she managed or what help she might have received. She did make her way from Farmington. Iowa. to Council Bluffs. This was a journey of about 250 miles for her under very trying times and conditions. Sarah Ann and Elizabeth Jane Shupe -8- It was at Council Bluffs that Martha Ann met and married Elijah Shaw April 6 1850. In 1853 they emigrated to Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City August 8. The first winter they lived in West Jordan and the following spring they moved to Centerville where they remained for five years. It was in 1859 when they arrived in North Ogden. Elijah Shaw became the owner of a large tract of land there and engaged in farming and fruit raising. Martha Ann's life was very Similar to so many of the women who were called upon to move into an area which was unsettled. It was necessary for her to provide food, clothing and make a home. Their first home was made of logs. One thing she was very proud of was her sheep. She took care of these, sheared, washed and corded the wool. With the help of a spinning wheel, she made lovely linsey material for her daughters and herself. She also made heavier material that looked like buckskin for her men and boys which lasted through much wear. Martha Ann was known for her generosity and a willingness to share with others. In a time when the goods of this world were scarce, she was often called upon to help others in need, be it Sickness, sorrow or sharing food from her kitchen. After a few years Elijah and Martha Ann were able to build a very lovely brick home which is still standing (1989). This was located in that part of North Ogden which became Pleasant View when the ward was divided. Martha Ann Thomas died November 21 1890 in Pleasant View, Utah. She was the mother of 12 children, 7 sons and 5 daughters. My thanks and gratitude and humble pride for the courageous, devoted lives of those this story is about. We love and respect them for what they have done. My thanks for the use of the story of Peter Shupe and his journey to Illinois as told by William Kendrick Shupe to James M. Shupe as referred to in Leslie Raty's "History of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright." Also his Records of Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. My thanks to all those who have researched and collected information on the Shupe and Thomas families over the years, some who are living and some deceased. If I begin giving names, I might miss someone. You will each know how you have made a contribution. My special thanks to the Shupe Family Organization for your full support and encouragement to me. My thanks to my husband, Clyde Hunter, whose efforts in research have benefited both Shupes and Thomases. Other sources I have given as they appeared in the history. NOTE: I felt it was impossible to write a history of John Whitstein Shupe without including Peter and Sarah as they so closely lived this part of their lives together. Dolores Montgomery Hunter, great granddaughter 1523 Lake St. Ogden, Utah 84401

The Peter and Sarah Shupe family arrived in Rushville, Illinois 4 Nov 1843, after traveling 1,000 miles from Virginia. They had been baptized by Jedediah Grant and his brother, Joshua into the LDS Church. They had fifteen children, but two had died as children. For a time, Peter Shupe's family lived in the vicinity of Rushville, Brown County, Illinois. John and Martha settled in adjacent Adams county. Peter Shupe and his sons, Andrew and James, worked as blacksmiths and wagon makers. Some time around 1845, some of the Peter Shupe family moved to Nauvoo. Peter Shupe bought a lot on the southwest corner of Mulholland and Robison, four blocks directly east of the Nauvoo Temple. The property was listed under the name of his son, James. Peter and his sons worked on the Nauvoo Temple. Ultimately, Peter, James, and Andrew Jackson Shupe, all blacksmiths, were asked by Brigham Young to help build wagons for those leaving Nauvoo. The pamphlet handed out at the blacksmith shop, states, "Among the many blacksmiths and wagonmakers at Nauvoo during the closing period of Mormon occupancy were members of the Peter and Sarah Shupe family. Some of them had previously practiced their trades in the vicinity of Rushville, Illinois. By 1844, the parents and three sons had settled in the Nauvoo community, where they made wagons during the closing months of the Mormon preparations for the westward trek to the Great Basin. Two of the sons, Andrew J. and James W. Shupe, enlisted as blacksmiths in the Mormon Battalion at Council bluffs, Iowa, in July 1846, to participate in the Mexican War. "James reached Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1847 and Andrew in 1852, hauling their bellows, anvils, and other tools of their trade. They were pioneers of Ogden, Utah, where they and their descendants operated blacksmith and wagon shops for many years." Apparently, one of the descendants, James Shupe of Utah State University, later donated their equipment to the restored Nauvoo blacksmith shop. In the spring of 1846, Peter and Sarah and their children and grandchildren left Nauvoo and traveled to Iowa. It took them four months to get to Council Bluffs, due to the mud. The Shupe's first stop was in Farmington, Iowa, where John Whitstein and Martha stayed. The rest of the family reached Council Bluffs by the summer of 1846. James and Andrew signed up for the Mormon Battalion, as well as James' wife, who signed up to help with the cooking. Andrew's wife was left with four small children in a covered wagon. In the fall of 1846, sickness swept through Council Bluffs. Sarah, the mother, was the first to die on 13 September 1846. The next day, Peter, the father, died. They were buried in Glenwood Mills in the same unmarked grave. John had traveled to Council Bluffs to return some horses for which he was to be paid. When he arrived, the family was having the funeral for his parents, John helped to bury them. John then gathered his brothers and sisters together and determined to take them back to Farmington, Iowa where his wife and two daughters were. On the way, John took a very severe cold but tried to keep going. He died on the way. A man, Aaron Freeman Farr, found the children crying by the side of the trail and took clothing from his own wagon, and covered John, and they buried him by the side of the road. It was September or the first part of October, 1846, and John was only 27 years of age. The surviving children went on to Farmington, where they lived with Martha. Four of them died in the next three months--George, Benjamin, Nancy, and Susannah. Some records state Benjamin died 1 Jan 1847. If he did, he would probably been with the other children and died in Farmington. If he died 1 Jan 1846, he would have died in or around Nauvoo before Peter and Sarah went to Council Bluffs in the spring of 1846. Andrew Jackson Shupe and James Wright Shupe, and their wives and children all survived. Martha Ann, age 21, was left with her two daughters, Elizabeth Jane, 5, and Sarah Ann, 1. She had lost a son, George, in 1843/44. Martha remarried and went on to Utah, where her daughter, Elizabeth Jane, later married Thomas E. Ricks. This couple and family suffered greatly for their testimonies of the Gospel. Eight of their fifteen children died either as children or as young adults

Elizabeth Jane Shupe was born August 14, 1841, in Pleasant Valley, Wythe County, Virginia. She was the first child born to John Whetstein Shupe and Martha Ann Thomas. John was born March 14, 1819 in Grayson County, Virginia. He was the third child of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright. Elizabeth’s father came from a family of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, as well as farmers. On September 10, 1943, Peter Shupe and his family, with all of their worldly possessions, six dollars in cash, and a team of horses set out for Illinois. It isn’t clear if John and Martha Ann, with baby Elizabeth Jane, left at this time or not, but if they didn’t go with them, they soon followed. After much hardship, the family settled in the vicinity of Rushville, Brown County, Illinois. John and family settled in Adams County, a few miles west. The LDS missionaries found Peter and his wife there, and most of his family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some time during the year of 1845, the family moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. Peter and his sons were busy making wagons for families preparing to leave the city. John moved his family to Farmington, Iowa, one of the stopping places for the Saints between Nauvoo and Winter Quarters. Peter and Sarah and their unmarried children went on to Council Bluffs. In late August of 1846, John went to Council Bluffs to get a team to go back and bring his family to Council Bluffs, but he met the family just coming from the cemetery. Many of the Saints had contracted cholera, and both of John’s parents had died within a few hours of each other. They were buried in the same grave. John decided to take his five brothers and sisters back to Farmington with him instead of moving his family to Council Bluffs. He was only 27 at this time. However, on the way home, he became ill and died within a few days. Aaron Freeman Farr, traveling that way, found the family of children mourning the death of their elder brother. Mr. Farr took clothing from his own wagon, washed and dressed the body and buried it without a coffin, by the roadside. Mr. Farr took one boy, Peter, back to Council Bluffs with him, as he was ill. The other children continued on to Farmington, but three died that winter. John’s wife, Martha Ann Thomas, married Elijah Shaw at Kanesville on April 5, 1850. They traveled to Utah in the John Wood Company (1853), arriving on 23 July 1853. Six families formed an independent company at Kanesville and left from there early in the season. Some of the company were not Mormons, intending to proceed on from Salt Lake to California. There were nine wagons and eleven men in the company. Elizabeth Jane would have been eleven years of age when they emigrated to Utah, and her sister, Sarah Ann, would have been eight. Their little brother, George, had died as a baby. The family located the first winter in West Jordan near the carding mill. The following spring, they moved to Centerville. This was their home for the next five years. Elizabeth Jane Shupe met Thomas E. Ricks in 1956, when she was fourteen years of age, and Thomas was 27. He came to the house to ask her hand in marriage. She wasn’t very impressed. We have no knowledge of their courtship, but Elizabeth was sealed to Thomas on March 27, 1857, at age fifteen and a half, as his third wife in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tamar Loader was also sealed to Thomas E. Ricks as his second wife the same day. Centerville was their home until the fall of 1859, when they moved to Cache Valley. Elizabeth and Tamar shared the same house for a few years. They were pioneers who knew all the hardships of pioneer living. Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Willard, when she had been married four years and was nineteen years of age. Her second child, Martha Jane, had an illness soon after birth and was crippled and lost the use of her legs. Seven of Elizabeth’s children grew to manhood and womanhood, and five had children. In 1883, Elizabeth moved with her husband to Rexburg, Idaho to help settle that area. Their home was a one-room log home fifteen feet by eighteen feet, with a dirt roof and board floor. It stood on the lot occupied by the Madison County Court House. Later a lean-to was built, and Elizabeth cooked in there, so the house would stay cool in the summer. She cooked for many of the men working there, cooking for as many as twenty besides her own family. Before winter set in, Thomas built a new four-room frame house, with shingles on, for Elizabeth. It wasn’t as warm as the log cabin. In one small room at the back was a store and the post office. The children liked to trade eggs for candy. Elizabeth never had a picture taken when she was older. Her eyes were rather crossed, and she was sensitive of that. The only picture we have of her is one of her as a young girl, with her sister Sarah Ann. The hardships of pioneer life took their toil, and Elizabeth’s health failed. She only lived six years after going to Rexburg. She passed away July 1, 1889, at the age of 47 and was buried in the Rexburg cemetery.

JOHN WHITSTEIN SHUPEMARTHA ANN THOMAS 1819-1846 1827- 1891 NAUVOO TEMPLE A history of John Whitstein Shupe and Martha Ann Thomas and their family of Wythe and Grayson Counties,Virginia. John Whitstein Shupe, Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright Shupe died Crossing the Plains. Martha Ann came to Utah. JOHN WHITSTEIN SHUPE By Dolores Montgomery Hunter John Whitstein Shupe was born March 14, 1819 in Grayson County, Virginia. He was the son of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright, who were also born in Grayson County, Virginia: Peter Shupe December 3 1792 and Sarah Wright March 15, 1793. Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright were married December 22, 1814 in Grayson County, Virginia. The family of John Whitstein Shupe were blacksmiths, wheelwrights as well as farmers as he was also. John Whitstein Shupe married in 1840 Martha Ann Thomas, most probably in Tennessee. Martha Ann Thomas was born November 20, 1827 in Jonesboro, Sullivan County, Tennessee, to Jacob Thomas and Elizabeth Miller. No exact date or place of this marriage has been found after extensive searching (1989). Many of the Tennessee records were destroyed during the Civil War. However, John Whitstein Shupe was enumerated on the 1840 U S Census of Sullivan County Tennessee, right next to Martha Ann's mother, Elizabeth Thomas and also near Ferguson Shupe, John Whitstein's uncle. It is possible that John was visiting with Ferguson Shupe, met Martha Ann Thomas, fell in love with and married her. This was often how these things came about. Sarah Wright Shupe was baptized in 1839 and her husband, Peter Shupe was baptized in 1841. December 15 1840 in Times & Seasons quoting from Jedediah Morgan Grant,' who filled several missions to the Southern states: "for the last 17 months I have been laboring in the following counties: viz; Surry , Stokes. Rockingham and Guilford in N.C. also in Grayson, Wythe, Smyth and Washingeon in southwestern Virginia." -2- January 2, 1843 page 63 Times & Seasons GEORGE M. TIBBS, clerk of the conference reporting the Little Nauvoo Branch in Withe County Virginia consisting of 31 members, one priest, one teacher and one deacon." NOTE: Little Nauvoo is the branch from which Andrew Jackson Shupe and wife were received in Nauvoo. Also George M. Tibbs married Peter and Sarah Shupe's daughter Catherine July 22 1839. This appears to be the place where the Shupes joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and were baptized. Peter was living in Wythe County in 1840. On the l0th of September 1843, John Whitstein' s parents, Peter and Sarah with their family left their home in Rich Valley, Virginia with all of their worldly possessions, including $6 in cash and a team of horses and set out for illinois. They traveled into Kentucky about 200 miles where Peter borrowed $100 from Grandmother Creager. They then traveled into Indiana and camped on the west side of New Albany. There Mr. Harding gave Peter the job of making 1,000 rails and he received $1,000 for his work and provisions, They left there after 3 days and went on to Greene County, Indiana. where they found Sarah's brother, William Wright. They stayed there about 2 weeks and then set out again, stopping next 16 miles west of Springfield, Illinois to replenish their stock of provisions. There they unloaded their wagons and gathered corn for a Mr. Broadwell for about 3 days, taking provisions for their work. Loading up their wagons again they made their way to Rushville in Schuyler County, Illinois -3- arriving on November 9, 1843, having now traveled 1,000 miles. Peter got a place from George Clark for the winter and in the spring he moved again to Brown County. There he rented a place from Mr. Keenfeet and remained 2 years. Records of Nauvoo Restoration Inc. indicate that Peter and Sarah Shupe, with their family lived in the vicinity of Rushville while in Brown County, Illinois, where Peter and his sons worked as Blacksmiths and wagon makers. John Whitstein and Martha Ann lived west of Brown County in Adams County, Illinois where their daughter Sarah Ann was born April 2 1845. Some time in 1845 both families moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois where Peter and his Sons were kept busy as Blacksmiths and wagon makers. This was done at the Webb Wagon and Blacksmiths Shop. This shop has now been restored by the Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. Brigham Young had arranged with local authorities for the Saints to leave Nauvoo in the spring of 1846. Because there were warrants for the arrest of Church leaders, some of the leaders left sooner. Rumors that federal troops would stop the Saints from leaving, made the rest of the Saints nervous and they began to prepare and plan to leave. The first Saints crossed the Mississippi River February 4, 1846. We do not know when John Whitstein and Martha Ann left. We do know they were still in Nauvoo February 6, 1846 as they went to the Nauvoo Temple for their endowments that day. We do know 4 they experienced the hardships and hazards of moving in February across the Mississippi River into Iowa with only their wagon to shelter them from the snow and cold, 20 degrees below zero at times. They had two small children to care for and protect. Peter and Sarah were also included in these faithful Saints who were called upon to endure so much. They, too, had small children. An artists conception of the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo February 1846 Reflecting upon the suffering endured at Sugar Creek Brigham Young recorded in his Journal these words: "The fact is worth of remembrance that several thousand persons left their homes in midwinter and exposed themselves without shelter, except that afforded by a scanty supply of tents and wagon covers , to a cold which effectually made an ice bridge over the Mississippi River which at Nauvoo is more than a mile broad. -5- John Whitstein stayed at Farmington, Iowa, with Martha Ann and their two daughters Elizabeth Jane and Sarah Ann. Peter and Sarah and their unmarried children went on farther west to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Later John went to Council Bluffs to return some horses for a Mr. Foy for which he was to be paid. When he arrived his family was just returning from the funeral of Peter and Sarah. Sarah died in the evening and Peter the following morning, September l4, 1846. They were both buried in the same grave. This was the first knowledge John Whitstein had of his parents' sickness and death. John had probably been looking forward to seeing his parents again. Their deaths would be a shock and a sorrow. However, it most certainly was a lifesaver for the young, grieving children. John determined that he would take the surviving children home with him to Farmington where he and Martha Ann could take care of then and make a home for them. While on the way east John took a very severe cold. He was extremely anxious to get the children back to his family in Farmington, so in spite of being very ill he concluded to continue on. John developed a fever and became much worse. He died a day or two later in September 1846. A man, Aaron Freeman Farr, found the children crying by the side of the trail because of the death of their older brother. Aaron Freeman Farr took clothing from his own wagon, clothed John -6- and buried him by the side of the road without even a coffin. John Whitstein was only 27 years old. Aaron Freeman Farr was chosen as one of Brigham Young's company of pioneers and traveled with the main body until the company reached Green River, when he and four other brethren were sent back to assist oncoming companies. He was surely assistance and a blessing to John Whitstein and the surviving children. The surviving children of Peter and Sarah went back to Farmington where they seem to have located the slab house where they had lived the previous Winter. Conditions could not have been very good for these young children as three of them died in less than three months, Martha Ann, of course, heard nothing of the death of John until after his burial. This was a sad and difficult time for Martha Ann. She herself was only 21 and she was left with two little girls to care for and be responsible for. Elizabeth Jane was only 5 and Sarah Ann just 1. It is not known just how she managed or what help she might have received. She did make her way from Farmington. Iowa. to Council Bluffs. This was a journey of about 250 miles for her under very trying times and conditions. Sarah Ann and Elizabeth Jane Shupe -8- It was at Council Bluffs that Martha Ann met and married Elijah Shaw April 6 1850. In 1853 they emigrated to Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City August 8. The first winter they lived in West Jordan and the following spring they moved to Centerville where they remained for five years. It was in 1859 when they arrived in North Ogden. Elijah Shaw became the owner of a large tract of land there and engaged in farming and fruit raising. Martha Ann's life was very Similar to so many of the women who were called upon to move into an area which was unsettled. It was necessary for her to provide food, clothing and make a home. Their first home was made of logs. One thing she was very proud of was her sheep. She took care of these, sheared, washed and corded the wool. With the help of a spinning wheel, she made lovely linsey material for her daughters and herself. She also made heavier material that looked like buckskin for her men and boys which lasted through much wear. Martha Ann was known for her generosity and a willingness to share with others. In a time when the goods of this world were scarce, she was often called upon to help others in need, be it Sickness, sorrow or sharing food from her kitchen. After a few years Elijah and Martha Ann were able to build a very lovely brick home which is still standing (1989). This was located in that part of North Ogden which became Pleasant View when the ward was divided. Martha Ann Thomas died November 21 1890 in Pleasant View, Utah. She was the mother of 12 children, 7 sons and 5 daughters. My thanks and gratitude and humble pride for the courageous, devoted lives of those this story is about. We love and respect them for what they have done. My thanks for the use of the story of Peter Shupe and his journey to Illinois as told by William Kendrick Shupe to James M. Shupe as referred to in Leslie Raty's "History of Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright." Also his Records of Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. My thanks to all those who have researched and collected information on the Shupe and Thomas families over the years, some who are living and some deceased. If I begin giving names, I might miss someone. You will each know how you have made a contribution. My special thanks to the Shupe Family Organization for your full support and encouragement to me. My thanks to my husband, Clyde Hunter, whose efforts in research have benefited both Shupes and Thomases. Other sources I have given as they appeared in the history. NOTE: I felt it was impossible to write a history of John Whitstein Shupe without including Peter and Sarah as they so closely lived this part of their lives together. Dolores Montgomery Hunter, great granddaughter 1523 Lake St. Ogden, Utah 84401