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The strength of a pioneer woman!

In honor of Pioneer day, I wanted to write a tribute to my great, great, great grandmother, Hannah Heaton Thornton Jones. She was 29 years old when she left England and joined the Martin Handcart company to travel west. Her husband, Wardman Thornton had died several years before and Hannah made the journey with her three children, Wardman Thornton (age 9), Amanda Jane Thornton (age 5) and Sarah Ann Thornton (age 3). While on the journey, Mrs. Lizzie Barten was a companion to Hannah and her children. The Indians would raid the company and scare the women and children and take their food and valuables.
        When they were in Evenston, Wyoming, they were caught in a snowstorm, there wasn't very much brush or wood on the prairie to make a fire. When they ran out of provisions, they took the pelts of the animals they had killed and boiled or steeped these hides and thickened the broth with flour. When the order was given to throw away all extra clothing to lighten their loads, Hannah made pockets on the inside of the children’s and her own clothing and filled them with things they would need. Hannah also put this extra clothing on the children and herself, wearing several layers of clothing at a time. Hannah carried three smooth stones in her cart, she would heat these up in the fire at night and put them in their blankets to keep warm. The extra clothing and warm stones were a great help to them to keep from freezing when they were caught in a snow storm before they reached Salt Lake.  In Echo canyon, they were stranded without tools, food or shelter. They made beds of skins or whatever wraps thy had. Brigham Young sent out relief wagons to help them into Salt Lake City, they arrived there the last day of November 1856. Miraculously, Hannah and all three of her children survived the trek. When she arrived in Utah, she moved to Spanish Fork, Utah where she met and married George Washington Jones. They became the parents of 5 children, including my great, great grandfather, Charles Augustus Jones. 

I am so grateful for the courage, strength and determination of this remarkable woman, who like all the pioneers, sacrificed and endured so much to make the trek west. As M. Russell Ballard said; "We must be sure that the legacy of faith received from the pioneers who came before us is never lost. Let their heroic lives touch our hearts, and especially the hearts of our youth, so the fire of true testimony and unwavering love for the Lord and His church will blaze brightly within each one of us as it did in our faithful pioneers.”

Happy Pioneer Day!