Ninian Nelson-Immigration Story

By Faith All Things Are Fulfilled

Compiled by Leatrice Nelson Hunsaker

(Great Granddaughter of Ninian Nelson)

     In Ether 12:3 we read, "By faith all things are fulfilled.' That surely was true for the 457 Passengers on board the ship, The Constitution, who began their journey from Liverpool, England to the land of America on 24 June 1868,  They were a company of people who had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believing it was the True Church of Christ which had been restored upon the earth in this modern day.  On board that ship were 45 from Switzerland, Bavaria, Württemberg, and the Netherlands, and 412 were from the British Isles.  There were also a number of missionaries included in that group, returning from their missions:  Elders Joseph S. Horne and John Hoagland from the Swiss and German missions; Elders Harvey H. Cluff, C. P. Liston, Hyrum T. Spencer, and Nephi R. Fawcett from the British Mission.  Also Elder Hugentobler from the Switzerland Mission and Elder Van Stetter having served in the Netherlands Mission.  Elder Harvey H. Cluff was appointed president of the company with Elder Joseph S. Horne and C. P. Liston as has counselors.

     Ninian Nelson and his son Edward Nelson were among that group of people from Scotland who had joined that Church.  Ninian and his wife Christina were baptized in 1847.  It became their great desire and goal to come to America, which seemed to be the land of opportunity for them.  Things had not been going very well for them in Scotland.  They were not able to make that trip, however, until more than twenty years later, when Ninian and his oldest son Edward came to America in 1868 intending to prepare a place where they could soon bring the rest of the family.  Ninian left behind his wife and five children. 

     When and Edward got to Liverpool to board the ship, The Resolute, which they were scheduled to cross the ocean on, that ship was not in port.  There were two ships scheduled to bring the immigrants across the ocean at that time, The Emerald Isle and The Resolute.  They loaded The Emerald Isle and it left Liverpool on 20 June 1868.  The Resolute had not yet arrived in port.  The immigration officers went in search of another ship to carry the rest of the immigrants across the ocean.  The only ship they found was The Constitution, a ship that had been condemned and was considered to not be sea worthy.  They sought out the Captain of that ship, Captain Hatten and asked him if he would take his ship across the ocean one more time.  He hesitated at first about taking that old vessel on another ocean voyage.  Upon learning that the passengers would be Mormons, he no longer hesitated but agreed to cross the ocean one more time.  "You can't drown the Mormons!" he is reported to have said. 

     The passengers on board that ship soon learned that was indeed a brave statement.  That ship leaked so much that it was necessary to pump water out both day and night.  That was the last sailing vessel to carry a large group of Saints across the Atlantic Ocean.      

     Three days into their voyage they encountered a strong wind which caused the ship to sail faster across the ocean.  Captain Hatten said they were in the midst of a cyclone.  He said, "The fury of that storm somehow seemed to pass around us.  That was fortunate for us.  Our frail vessel could not have endured the full force of a cyclone."

     The ship was required to have a doctor on board.  Mr. Johnson was the doctor on board The Constitution.  His services were only called upon once during the entire voyage.  That was to see a child.  The mother of that child became alarmed when her son got sick and she desired the doctor to see her sick child.  Elder Cluff went to get the doctor and brought him to see the child.  Dr Johnson prescribed that the young boy be given one quart of beer and a pint of wine daily.  The doctor was unable to walk the deck along, so Elder Cluff helped him return to his room on the upper deck.  When Elder returned to the mother, he found the mother in tears.  He asked her, "Do you wish to follow the advice of the doctor?"  She said, "No!" "What would you like done for the child?" he asked.  "I desire the Elders to administer to my child."  Elder Cluff got the Elders and they administered to the child and the next morning the child was quite well.  The doctor entered a complaint to the ship's Captain because Mr. Cluff did not give that young boy one quart of beer and a pint of wine as he had prescribed.  He also complained because he was not called upon to visit the sick.  The Captain said to him, "Doctor, these people are Mormons and do not believe in doctors.  But, of course, the government compels us to have a doctor on board, hence, you are here, and unless Mr. Cluff requests your services you are not to go among the people."

     On Sunday 5 August 1868, late in the evening, after six weeks of rugged sailing, The Constitution arrived safely at Castle Gardens, New York, with 457 passengers on board four days ahead of The Emerald Isle, which was considered to be a good sea worthy vessel, which left Liverpool four days ahead of The Constitution.

     Elder Cluff is reported to have said this about that journey, "How can we feel grateful enough to our Heavenly Father for the blessings which He has so graciously bestowed upon the passengers of The Constitution?  Considering the kind of ship, the passengers crowed into a cave, as it were, and the leakage of the old tub, makes our preservation still more to be thankful for.  While it is true, we had some sickness, yet the perseverance of the Elders in watching their wards and looking after the health of the people, administering to the afflicted and giving comfort to the despondent and cheering up the downcast, we arrived in port at New York without losing a single passenger and without any contagion, four days ahead of The Emerald Isle which was considered a good sea worthy vessel.  Dr. Johnson was the most feeble person on board The Constitution.  He remained on his bed most of the time under the influence of opium."

     The Constitution was reloaded with cotton for the return trip to England.  On the third day out the ship went down but no lives were lost.  The crew were all rescued and most of the cargo was saved. 

     Leatrice says she is convinced that it was the combined faith of those emigrants and their diligent use of the power of humble prayer that engaged the Lord in helping them cross the turbulent waters of the Atlantic Ocean safely.

Sources:  Church Records, Constitution Ship Roster, Ship, Rail and Wagon to Zion.

Ninian Neilson-Life Story Part Four

Ninian Neilson

1821- 1889

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

John Nelson and family, William Morgan / Martha Nelson family, Andrew Patterson / Jane Neilson families immigrated about 1851-52. Finding work in St. Louis they prepared and came to Utah by wagon train.  Those were early years.  Arriving in Salt Lake ( not necessarily at the same time) they were all sent to southern Utah in what was called the Iron Mission.  It is a difficult story that is not well known.  Suffering deprivation and starvation they returned to Nephi, Utah and / or Utah County to winter through.  By 1857 the Iron Mission was done.  They produced a few tons of iron but could not sustain the endeavor.  Their experience at Shotts with both coal mining and iron smelter production was no doubt invaluable in Parawan and Cedar City.

Martha Nelson Morgan

William Morgan

John Neilson pioneered both Smithfield Utah and Logan, Utah with the same party in 1859.  William and Martha Morgan were in the original pioneers of Chicken Creek, now Levan, Utah, and Andrew and Jane Patterson were in the original party of settlers for Beaver, Utah.  By 1870 John Neilson was successful in Cache County, Utah with several business ventures including, lumbering,  a sawmill on the island in Logan, a milling business, and farming and freighting goods to the gold rush miners in Virginia City, Montana.  Arriving in 1868 it is likely that Ninian and Edward could obtain employment in one of Johns enterprises. They settled in Hyde Park, just north of Logan and near Smithfield.  To this resort they brought Christina and the others in 1870.

John Nelson

In 1873 Edward married Janet Blair Sneddon, born in Clackmannon, Scotland.  They were married and sealed in the Endownment House in Salt Lake City. 

Edward Neilson son of Ninian

Ellen Married Nels Christinsen, of Smithfield, an immigrant from Denmark. 

Nels and Ellen Christensen and Sam Nelson

In 1879 John Alfred Married Rosella Seamons of Hyde Park. 

John and Rosella Neilson

And in 1880 James Douglas married Margaret Ann Reid of Smithfield.  Her father came to Smithfield to be a cobbler in the United Order Store during the 1870s. When that failed it became a private business which has remained there the same business through this writing.  Smithfield Implement. 

Both John Alfred and James Douglas also worked in the leather shop, learning how to work leather and make shoes under the tutelage of James Reid.  Then James married Reid's daughter and.... that's another story.

First home of James Douglas and Margaret Ann Nelson.  It was located near Lorenzo, Idaho, just east of the railroad track.

Ninian and Christina spent a decade and more in Hyde Park watching their surviving children grow up and marry.  There is scant record of them.  They seem to be there but they are retiring people who never sought public attention and never make public records. They were strangers in a far country.  Could it be that they were old enough that they found the changes from Scotland to the wild west a bit of a challenge?  Did they miss the green of Scotland when facing the seasons of the arid west?  Did they feel lost in the dynamic changing culture of America so used to the crushing traditions in Scotland that so limited ones opportunities?  Were they still mourning the immense losses of their daughter's lives so far away?

In Scotland, the Nelsons would never have had the opportunity to be landowners.  From feudal time, only the Baronial families had held property.  For Ninian and Christina, having struggled so many years to pay their rents and live in miner's row houses on miner's wages and having seen their own children's live wasted on this system, it must have been something like becoming a titled nobleman when they bought their first property.  In 1882 they sold a piece of property which they had obtained in Clifton, Oneida, Idaho.  It's their first land transaction for which we have record.  There are other deeds and deed transfers in both Christina and Ninian's name. 

Some of these properties produced enough capital to have lived several years on the proceeds or purchase fine horses for breeding stock.  In 1886 Ninian filed on a homestead near Dayton, Oneida, Idaho and was granted the patent in 1892.  In 1890 Ninian became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Living in Dayton Ninian became a breeder of horses.  Something that area (Clifton and Dayton) became known for.  Ninian was raised around horses, used to operate the lifts and derricks at the mines in Scotland.  He had become a carter in Dunfermline.  He may have been a teamster on the Virginia City gold route, for his brother John.  And now he became a landed gentleman who bred and traded horses. Could it be that this pursuit of horses was the fulfillment of a dream?  No matter how you read the facts, to have gone from the slavery of coal mining to being a landed horse breeder in one lifetime is a story with a great deal of awe.

On the 29 December 1894 Christina Campbell Nelson passed away. Three and a half years later on 30 June 1898, Ninian Nelson died at the age of 76.  They are both buried in the Dayton Cemetery, Dayton (now Franklin), Idaho.

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