James May & Martha Allen
(Parents
of Jude Allen May, Father of Nellie Amelia May, Mother of Wilson May
Grant,
Father of Nelada Marie Grant)
The
May family joined the church in England in 1848. In January 1852, they set sail
from Liverpool with a group of 333 Latter-day Saints. They arrived in New
Orleans two months later and were transferred to a steamboat to make their way
several hundred miles up the Mississippi River to St Louis, Missouri. There,
they transferred to the paddleboat Saluda for the journey up the Missouri River
to Council Bluffs, Nebraska.
At Brunswick, Missouri,
twenty-year-old James, along with his father and a friend, decided to take the
overland route to Council Bluffs. Further upstream, they heard that the Saluda
had exploded. The pilot and 26 others had lost their lives. This was the worst
steamboat disaster on the Missouri River. The Mays only suffered an injury to his
sister Harriet’s left foot, but they lost most of their possessions.
The May family arrived in Council
Bluffs, Iowa in the middle of June 1852. There, they became part of a cholera
epidemic. Five of the family of nine who had set out from England became
victims.
George
May – age 43
Emily
May – age 2
Elisabeth
May – age 21
William
May – age 6
Hannah
Hobson May – age 43
James was left as the head of the
family, and led his younger brothers and sister across the more than 1,000
miles to Salt Lake City.
Martha’s
parents joined the church in 1843 and she was baptized when she was 8 years
old. In 1852, when Martha was about 12, the Allen family was ready to begin the
journey to Utah. Before starting on their way, orders were given to the company
that no one person or group walking, stay far behind the wagon train. At one stretch of the journey berries were
plentiful, so Martha and some other children tried to gather some of them after
eating all they wanted. The wagons had
kept on going and the children were far behind.
Before they reached the wagons some Indians gave them a terrible
scare. Fortunately no one was hurt. When they caught up with the wagons they were
given a sound scolding and they promised to never lag behind again, which
promise they kept the rest of the journey.