Ninian Neilson-Life Story Part Three

Ninian Neilson

1821- 1889

A History by Ray L Nelson
Pictures and documents added by Lois C. Berrett

After Ninian's departure the family does not appear on Woodhead street.  The records that follow show them on Newrow. Here in this house, on 3 December 1868 at 4:00 pm. young Catherine Neilson died. She was 21.  The cause of death is listed as gastric fever duration four weeks.  She was a factory worker in Dunfermline where they manufactured the finest fabrics in the British Empire.  Christina was alone to face this crisis without Ninian or Edward.  Brother Thomas Spowart is again listed on the death record as present, a neighbor and witness.  The holidays came and went, and it must have been a long long winter for Christina.

When spring came again so did death. On 26 April 1869, Christina Neilson, the youngest of these three sisters, died at 2:00 am. in the same little house on Newrow. The cause of death is listed as phthisis pulmonalis duration one year.  Christina had been working as a power loom operator.  Working is some dim shop filled with steam driven machines with no ventilation, breathing the chaff of flaxen threads, bleached and dyed.

Who knew?

And once again Brother Thomas Spowart is listed as neighbor and friend, there to witness the end and buoy up those who mourn.  These little glimpses after all this time tell us enough.  Here is an elder of the restoration going about the business of his calling.  Seeing to the needs of those he had been called to serve.

15 May 1869, the Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah printed the following in a column headed 

D I E D:

Neilson-- At Dunfermline, April 26, Christina Neilson aged 19 years. Her sister died on the 4th of Dec, 1868.  Br Nenney Neilson, the father, immigrated last year, and his wife wishes him to know that she and her helpless family need his immediate aid and advice.-- Deseret News please copy.

This is the means by which Ninian Neilson learned of the death of his two daughters after his departure from Scotland.

Two years after Ninian and Edward, Christina Campbell Neilson and her remaining children emigrated. No details remain of the year she passed in Dunfermline after her daughter's deaths. They sailed on the ship SS Manhattan, departing Liverpool, England on 13 July 1870. Karl G Maeser was presiding over the LDS immigrants on board. The ship arrived at New York on 26 July 1870 and the company continued the journey to Utah by special train arriving at Ogden 5 August 1870. She was accompanied on the voyage and special train by her children: Ellen age 18, John age 11 and James age 7.  These ages are of course not correct but that's what the record shows.

SS Manhattan

The Deseret News dated 5 August 1870 noted the arrival of this company as follows:

Arrived – The Company of immigrant Saints, who came by the SS Manhattan, arrived at Ogden at thirty five minutes past one this afternoon.  They started for Salt Lake switching at Kaysville to permit the train that leaves Salt Lake to pass. They will probably reach Salt Lake about five O'clock this afternoon.

So there it is preserved in the record.  We even know the hour of the day.  The image of Christina and her children stepping off the train and onto the boardwalk at Ogden Union Station to their reunion with Ninian and Edward is a powerful vision.  Who can say more?

To be continued next week