Samuel Alonzo Whitney & Fanny Mariah Wall Whitney
Samuel Alonzo Whitney
&
Fanny Mariah Wall Whitney
Pioneers
Written by Roda Cowley Breinholt
granddaughter
Samuel Alonzo Whitney was born at Palmyra, Union County, Ohio on 10 November 1840. His father was Alonzo Wells Whitney; his mother Henrietta Keyes. His father was converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints by an uncle who was on a mission. His mother joined the church soon after. There was great excitement when this conversion became known, and ministers came from far and near to dissuade them, but to no avail. His father filled two missions in connection with Charles C. Rich.
Shortly after Samuel was born, his parents moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. Here his brother, Don Carlos, was born 27 July 1842, and here his father died of typhus fever on 12 February 1845.
On 13 September 1845, the people of Nauvoo were attacked by a mob who attempted to drive them from their homes. At this time three men, William Anderson, his son, and another man were killed. On September 17, the mob succeeded in their purpose. Though only five years old, Samuel remembered their being driven straight down the street on which they lived to the Mississippi River. They crossed on a ferry and were out of the Untied States territory.
He often related how the people were sick and destitute and starving, when there came an enormous flock of quail which were so tame that the women and children could pick them up without much effort. From the Mississippi River they went to Mt. Pisgah and then on the Missouri River and Winter Quarters. His mother walked all the way, carrying one or the other of her two sick children. At Winter Quarters, Don Carlos died 29 October 1846.
Sometime during 1846 his mother married the first Bishop of the church, Newel K. Whitney, who furnished a good team of oxen and a driver, Archie Hill, to take her to Utah. They arrived 19 September 1847 in Great Salt Lake in the second company of Pioneers to arrive in the valley. They lived in the Seventh Ward on what was known as Emigration Street. After the death of Bishop Whitney, his mother married Stephen Hales and moved to Kaysville, Utah.
Fanny Mariah Wall was born February 13, 1842, in Horsley, Gloucester, England. Her parents were William Wall and Sarah Sansom Wall, both of Horsley, England. Her father was a master mason or, as we call them today, a contractor and builder of homes and other buildings, also, an architect. Her mother was a very good cook for one of the prestigious families of their day.
Her parents must have been among the early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England, as she was baptized at the age of nine years by Already Clifford and confirmed by her father, William Wall.
This family consisted of nine children, three boys and six girls:
Joseph Laban Wall
Sarah Emily Wall — married William Michael Cowley
Fanny Mariah Wall — married Samuel Alonzo Whitney
Elizabeth Dorcus Wall
Francis George Wall
Celia Ann Wall
Emeron Wall
Rose Wall
Henrietta Wall
