Margret Ward Melling
submitted by: Cora Melling
by Cora Melling
Three Peaks Elementary Second Place
I decided that I would write about my Fourth Great-Grandma, Margret Ward Melling. Margret was born November 8, 1819 in Ashton, Lancashire, England. I don't know a lot about her as a child, but I do know that her parents were George Ward and Alice Brindle. She was married to a man named Joseph Melling on September 10, 1848 in Standish, Lancashire, England. They had 6 children. The oldest child. John died 2 days after birth. The other children were Susannah, Mary Alice, Joseph Jr., Margret, and Elizabeth.
About 4 years after Margret's marriage some missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints came and taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Margret believed and got baptized, and her children were baptized when they were old enough. Joseph wasn't sure and waited 8 years to get baptized. In 1863 after Joseph's baptism, Margret wanted to immigrate to America with the saints. They saved their money and bought tickets to sail to America.
The trip was hard, because the weather was bad. They had trouble with fog when they left England, and when the fog lifted they saw lots of icebergs in the waters. While they were on the ship there was a lot of sickness. There were two diseases on the ship, measles and cholera. Two days before they got to America, Margret's daughter Margret got cholera and died. Margret held her daughter in her arms for 2 whole days until they reached New York so that she wouldn't have to be buried at sea. They said that Margret slowly walked backwards as they hurried to their train because she was so sad to have to leave her lifeless daughter on the dock.
Margret talked about how on the train the people were jammed in the boxcars like cattle, as they traveled from New York to Detroit and then to Missouri. When they got to Missouri they ferried across the Missouri River into Nebraska where they started their journey on a wagon train. After a long trip to Utah, they were asked to travel to Cedar City, where they were welcomed. The Melling's first lived in a dugout big enough so that they could set up their looms. They were weavers in England and they had brought their looms with them. My Dad showed me a picture of where they used to live, right in front of my great grandma's house now.
The reason that I chose to write about Margret is because she is very strong. It would have been very hard to leave a beautiful place like England to go to a place you didn't know. It would also have been very hard to leave your child behind like she did at the docks. That is how I know she was very strong. Another reason that I admire her is that she is very faithful. She was willing to make big sacrifices for her family and her religion. I really like working on this essay, because I was able to learn about Margret's story and see some really cool pictures of my ancestors.