Daughter of John Haines Read and Christianna Nickerson Gregory
Married Alexander Jamison, 12 Dec 1841, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Son - John Read Clark Jamison
Married James Graham, 9 Sep 1849, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Children - Christianna Rachel Graham, William Benona Graham
Married James McGowan, 7 December 1896, Bennington, Bear Lake, Idaho
Pioneer woman finally married her true love at age 75
By Twila Van Leer, Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, Nov. 11 1997
(Hannah T. Read Jamison McCowan fell in love with James McCowan when she was 20 and though they were separated, she never wavered in her love. She married James when she was 75. In between, she followed the fortunes of the LDS Church, being among those pioneers who sailed in the Brooklyn around the Cape of Good Hope to take part in the gathering to Utah Territory. Her own spelling is retained in this history, which she wrote late in her life.)
Hannah T. Read, daughter of John and Christianna Read, born in Burlington, N.J., on May 10, 1821. My father died when I was 11 years old, leaving my mother our family to support, but she being a midwife, the job wasn't hard. When I was 20, I had been keeping company with James McCowan for over a year and we were planning to marry, but my mother didn't care for James and she persuaded me to brake with him and marry a man of her choosing, Alexander Jamison. On December 12, 1841, we were married by a Baptist minister and to this union one son was born, his name being John Jamison.
It was hard for me to forget the love I had for James McCowan and when my son was a year old, I separated from Alexander Jamison and went back to live with my mother.
Now about this time, Joseph Smith and his followers were preaching Mormonism and attracted many people to hear their strange doctrine. Among them were me and my mother. We attended regularly the meetings held by the Mormon missionaries and became interested and later joined the Mormon Church.
Soon after this, a party of Mormons chartered a vessel to take them to California. The name of the ship was the "Brooklan," (Brooklyn) and on January 18, 1846, the ship left New York for California with me, my mother and my son as passengers.
Now the captain's wife had a young baby and my mother, being a doctor, took care of the mother and the baby, and I did the washing and ironing. This is how we paid for our passage. We were out at sea for three months before we saw land. Then we came to the Island of Juanfanders where Robinson Cruso was cast. This was in May and this is where we buried one of the sisters from the ship.
In July 1846 we arrived at the Sandwich Islands in Honolulu. We reached San Francisco on August 6, 1846, just six months after leaving New York. Mother and I remained in San Francisco for two years, then the summer of 1848 we went to Sacramento where the gold mines were first found. While there, we nursed a little girl, 12 years old, by the name of Mary Martha Donner, one of the survivors of the Donner party. Her feet had been badly frozen and she was unable to walk. The doctor came several times prepared to amputate her feet, but mother and I persuaded them to wait a little longer and see if they could save them. She finally got so she could get around on crutches.
In September when Brigham Young called the Mormons to leave San Francisco to come to Salt Lake and mother and I answered that call, we wanted very much to take the little Donner girl with us, but her only living relative, an uncle, didn't want her to go `live among the Mormons.'
On September 13, 1849, James Graham and I were married by President Brigham Young. Shortly after, James also married my mother. We had two beautiful children, Christianna and William.
In 1855, James was called to go labor as a missionary in the Sandwich Islands. He labored there for two years and in 1855 he boarded the ship `Bark Julia Ann' bound for San Francisco with 56 souls aboard. On October 3, 1857 the ship struck a reef and broke in two. All were saved but two women and three children. They were just 12 miles from Sicilly Island. They took fragments of the broken ship and made themselves a raft. On this raft they made their way to the island. After being taken from one island to another, they finally reached San Francisco on June 27, 1856, just eight months after starting for home.
On Dec. 27, 1857, James passed away, leaving me a widow with three children, ages 14, 7 and 5, mother and myself. I was left to support my three children, mother and myself until mother died March 22, 1874. I took up my mother's trade as that of a midwife. We were living in Millville, Utah, at that time. Christianna married Franklin E. Weaver and William married Margaret Hope Williams and they both moved to Bear Lake to make their home.
I also moved to Bear Lake for a number of years and was blessed to bring hundreds of babies into the world. I would go when the mother took sick and stay until the baby was nine days old. My fee was $5. I would have to go in all kinds of weather. One winter I went seven miles from home on a hand sleigh because the snow was too deep to go any other way.
About this time, I had a cousin living in New Jersey. One day, James McCowan, my old sweetheart, met him on the street and inquired if I was still living. My cousin told him I was and that I was living in Bennington, Idaho, and that I was a widow and had been for some time.
He asked for my address and wrote to me and later came to see me. It seemed the spark of true love was still burning for each of us, for he joined the Mormon Church and in the fall of 1896, James McCowan and I were married after 55 years. We (were) married at the home of Joseph C. Rich on the shore of Bear Lake by Amos R. Wright.
(Hannah and James spent eight happy years together. She died Dec. 11, 1904, at the age of 83 and was buried in Bennington.)
Mormon Overland Travel, Ebenezer Brown Company (1848); Age at Departure: 27
Married Alexander Jamison, 12 Dec 1841, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Son - John Read Clark Jamison
Married James Graham, 9 Sep 1849, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Children - Christianna Rachel Graham, William Benona Graham
Married James McGowan, 7 December 1896, Bennington, Bear Lake, Idaho
Pioneer woman finally married her true love at age 75
By Twila Van Leer, Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, Nov. 11 1997
(Hannah T. Read Jamison McCowan fell in love with James McCowan when she was 20 and though they were separated, she never wavered in her love. She married James when she was 75. In between, she followed the fortunes of the LDS Church, being among those pioneers who sailed in the Brooklyn around the Cape of Good Hope to take part in the gathering to Utah Territory. Her own spelling is retained in this history, which she wrote late in her life.)
Hannah T. Read, daughter of John and Christianna Read, born in Burlington, N.J., on May 10, 1821. My father died when I was 11 years old, leaving my mother our family to support, but she being a midwife, the job wasn't hard. When I was 20, I had been keeping company with James McCowan for over a year and we were planning to marry, but my mother didn't care for James and she persuaded me to brake with him and marry a man of her choosing, Alexander Jamison. On December 12, 1841, we were married by a Baptist minister and to this union one son was born, his name being John Jamison.
It was hard for me to forget the love I had for James McCowan and when my son was a year old, I separated from Alexander Jamison and went back to live with my mother.
Now about this time, Joseph Smith and his followers were preaching Mormonism and attracted many people to hear their strange doctrine. Among them were me and my mother. We attended regularly the meetings held by the Mormon missionaries and became interested and later joined the Mormon Church.
Soon after this, a party of Mormons chartered a vessel to take them to California. The name of the ship was the "Brooklan," (Brooklyn) and on January 18, 1846, the ship left New York for California with me, my mother and my son as passengers.
Now the captain's wife had a young baby and my mother, being a doctor, took care of the mother and the baby, and I did the washing and ironing. This is how we paid for our passage. We were out at sea for three months before we saw land. Then we came to the Island of Juanfanders where Robinson Cruso was cast. This was in May and this is where we buried one of the sisters from the ship.
In July 1846 we arrived at the Sandwich Islands in Honolulu. We reached San Francisco on August 6, 1846, just six months after leaving New York. Mother and I remained in San Francisco for two years, then the summer of 1848 we went to Sacramento where the gold mines were first found. While there, we nursed a little girl, 12 years old, by the name of Mary Martha Donner, one of the survivors of the Donner party. Her feet had been badly frozen and she was unable to walk. The doctor came several times prepared to amputate her feet, but mother and I persuaded them to wait a little longer and see if they could save them. She finally got so she could get around on crutches.
In September when Brigham Young called the Mormons to leave San Francisco to come to Salt Lake and mother and I answered that call, we wanted very much to take the little Donner girl with us, but her only living relative, an uncle, didn't want her to go `live among the Mormons.'
On September 13, 1849, James Graham and I were married by President Brigham Young. Shortly after, James also married my mother. We had two beautiful children, Christianna and William.
In 1855, James was called to go labor as a missionary in the Sandwich Islands. He labored there for two years and in 1855 he boarded the ship `Bark Julia Ann' bound for San Francisco with 56 souls aboard. On October 3, 1857 the ship struck a reef and broke in two. All were saved but two women and three children. They were just 12 miles from Sicilly Island. They took fragments of the broken ship and made themselves a raft. On this raft they made their way to the island. After being taken from one island to another, they finally reached San Francisco on June 27, 1856, just eight months after starting for home.
On Dec. 27, 1857, James passed away, leaving me a widow with three children, ages 14, 7 and 5, mother and myself. I was left to support my three children, mother and myself until mother died March 22, 1874. I took up my mother's trade as that of a midwife. We were living in Millville, Utah, at that time. Christianna married Franklin E. Weaver and William married Margaret Hope Williams and they both moved to Bear Lake to make their home.
I also moved to Bear Lake for a number of years and was blessed to bring hundreds of babies into the world. I would go when the mother took sick and stay until the baby was nine days old. My fee was $5. I would have to go in all kinds of weather. One winter I went seven miles from home on a hand sleigh because the snow was too deep to go any other way.
About this time, I had a cousin living in New Jersey. One day, James McCowan, my old sweetheart, met him on the street and inquired if I was still living. My cousin told him I was and that I was living in Bennington, Idaho, and that I was a widow and had been for some time.
He asked for my address and wrote to me and later came to see me. It seemed the spark of true love was still burning for each of us, for he joined the Mormon Church and in the fall of 1896, James McCowan and I were married after 55 years. We (were) married at the home of Joseph C. Rich on the shore of Bear Lake by Amos R. Wright.
(Hannah and James spent eight happy years together. She died Dec. 11, 1904, at the age of 83 and was buried in Bennington.)
Mormon Overland Travel, Ebenezer Brown Company (1848); Age at Departure: 27
Daughter of John Haines Read and Christianna Nickerson Gregory
Married Alexander Jamison, 12 Dec 1841, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Son - John Read Clark Jamison
Married James Graham, 9 Sep 1849, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Children - Christianna Rachel Graham, William Benona Graham
Married James McGowan, 7 December 1896, Bennington, Bear Lake, Idaho
Pioneer woman finally married her true love at age 75
By Twila Van Leer, Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, Nov. 11 1997
(Hannah T. Read Jamison McCowan fell in love with James McCowan when she was 20 and though they were separated, she never wavered in her love. She married James when she was 75. In between, she followed the fortunes of the LDS Church, being among those pioneers who sailed in the Brooklyn around the Cape of Good Hope to take part in the gathering to Utah Territory. Her own spelling is retained in this history, which she wrote late in her life.)
Hannah T. Read, daughter of John and Christianna Read, born in Burlington, N.J., on May 10, 1821. My father died when I was 11 years old, leaving my mother our family to support, but she being a midwife, the job wasn't hard. When I was 20, I had been keeping company with James McCowan for over a year and we were planning to marry, but my mother didn't care for James and she persuaded me to brake with him and marry a man of her choosing, Alexander Jamison. On December 12, 1841, we were married by a Baptist minister and to this union one son was born, his name being John Jamison.
It was hard for me to forget the love I had for James McCowan and when my son was a year old, I separated from Alexander Jamison and went back to live with my mother.
Now about this time, Joseph Smith and his followers were preaching Mormonism and attracted many people to hear their strange doctrine. Among them were me and my mother. We attended regularly the meetings held by the Mormon missionaries and became interested and later joined the Mormon Church.
Soon after this, a party of Mormons chartered a vessel to take them to California. The name of the ship was the "Brooklan," (Brooklyn) and on January 18, 1846, the ship left New York for California with me, my mother and my son as passengers.
Now the captain's wife had a young baby and my mother, being a doctor, took care of the mother and the baby, and I did the washing and ironing. This is how we paid for our passage. We were out at sea for three months before we saw land. Then we came to the Island of Juanfanders where Robinson Cruso was cast. This was in May and this is where we buried one of the sisters from the ship.
In July 1846 we arrived at the Sandwich Islands in Honolulu. We reached San Francisco on August 6, 1846, just six months after leaving New York. Mother and I remained in San Francisco for two years, then the summer of 1848 we went to Sacramento where the gold mines were first found. While there, we nursed a little girl, 12 years old, by the name of Mary Martha Donner, one of the survivors of the Donner party. Her feet had been badly frozen and she was unable to walk. The doctor came several times prepared to amputate her feet, but mother and I persuaded them to wait a little longer and see if they could save them. She finally got so she could get around on crutches.
In September when Brigham Young called the Mormons to leave San Francisco to come to Salt Lake and mother and I answered that call, we wanted very much to take the little Donner girl with us, but her only living relative, an uncle, didn't want her to go `live among the Mormons.'
On September 13, 1849, James Graham and I were married by President Brigham Young. Shortly after, James also married my mother. We had two beautiful children, Christianna and William.
In 1855, James was called to go labor as a missionary in the Sandwich Islands. He labored there for two years and in 1855 he boarded the ship `Bark Julia Ann' bound for San Francisco with 56 souls aboard. On October 3, 1857 the ship struck a reef and broke in two. All were saved but two women and three children. They were just 12 miles from Sicilly Island. They took fragments of the broken ship and made themselves a raft. On this raft they made their way to the island. After being taken from one island to another, they finally reached San Francisco on June 27, 1856, just eight months after starting for home.
On Dec. 27, 1857, James passed away, leaving me a widow with three children, ages 14, 7 and 5, mother and myself. I was left to support my three children, mother and myself until mother died March 22, 1874. I took up my mother's trade as that of a midwife. We were living in Millville, Utah, at that time. Christianna married Franklin E. Weaver and William married Margaret Hope Williams and they both moved to Bear Lake to make their home.
I also moved to Bear Lake for a number of years and was blessed to bring hundreds of babies into the world. I would go when the mother took sick and stay until the baby was nine days old. My fee was $5. I would have to go in all kinds of weather. One winter I went seven miles from home on a hand sleigh because the snow was too deep to go any other way.
About this time, I had a cousin living in New Jersey. One day, James McCowan, my old sweetheart, met him on the street and inquired if I was still living. My cousin told him I was and that I was living in Bennington, Idaho, and that I was a widow and had been for some time.
He asked for my address and wrote to me and later came to see me. It seemed the spark of true love was still burning for each of us, for he joined the Mormon Church and in the fall of 1896, James McCowan and I were married after 55 years. We (were) married at the home of Joseph C. Rich on the shore of Bear Lake by Amos R. Wright.
(Hannah and James spent eight happy years together. She died Dec. 11, 1904, at the age of 83 and was buried in Bennington.)
Mormon Overland Travel, Ebenezer Brown Company (1848); Age at Departure: 27
Married Alexander Jamison, 12 Dec 1841, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Son - John Read Clark Jamison
Married James Graham, 9 Sep 1849, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Children - Christianna Rachel Graham, William Benona Graham
Married James McGowan, 7 December 1896, Bennington, Bear Lake, Idaho
Pioneer woman finally married her true love at age 75
By Twila Van Leer, Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, Nov. 11 1997
(Hannah T. Read Jamison McCowan fell in love with James McCowan when she was 20 and though they were separated, she never wavered in her love. She married James when she was 75. In between, she followed the fortunes of the LDS Church, being among those pioneers who sailed in the Brooklyn around the Cape of Good Hope to take part in the gathering to Utah Territory. Her own spelling is retained in this history, which she wrote late in her life.)
Hannah T. Read, daughter of John and Christianna Read, born in Burlington, N.J., on May 10, 1821. My father died when I was 11 years old, leaving my mother our family to support, but she being a midwife, the job wasn't hard. When I was 20, I had been keeping company with James McCowan for over a year and we were planning to marry, but my mother didn't care for James and she persuaded me to brake with him and marry a man of her choosing, Alexander Jamison. On December 12, 1841, we were married by a Baptist minister and to this union one son was born, his name being John Jamison.
It was hard for me to forget the love I had for James McCowan and when my son was a year old, I separated from Alexander Jamison and went back to live with my mother.
Now about this time, Joseph Smith and his followers were preaching Mormonism and attracted many people to hear their strange doctrine. Among them were me and my mother. We attended regularly the meetings held by the Mormon missionaries and became interested and later joined the Mormon Church.
Soon after this, a party of Mormons chartered a vessel to take them to California. The name of the ship was the "Brooklan," (Brooklyn) and on January 18, 1846, the ship left New York for California with me, my mother and my son as passengers.
Now the captain's wife had a young baby and my mother, being a doctor, took care of the mother and the baby, and I did the washing and ironing. This is how we paid for our passage. We were out at sea for three months before we saw land. Then we came to the Island of Juanfanders where Robinson Cruso was cast. This was in May and this is where we buried one of the sisters from the ship.
In July 1846 we arrived at the Sandwich Islands in Honolulu. We reached San Francisco on August 6, 1846, just six months after leaving New York. Mother and I remained in San Francisco for two years, then the summer of 1848 we went to Sacramento where the gold mines were first found. While there, we nursed a little girl, 12 years old, by the name of Mary Martha Donner, one of the survivors of the Donner party. Her feet had been badly frozen and she was unable to walk. The doctor came several times prepared to amputate her feet, but mother and I persuaded them to wait a little longer and see if they could save them. She finally got so she could get around on crutches.
In September when Brigham Young called the Mormons to leave San Francisco to come to Salt Lake and mother and I answered that call, we wanted very much to take the little Donner girl with us, but her only living relative, an uncle, didn't want her to go `live among the Mormons.'
On September 13, 1849, James Graham and I were married by President Brigham Young. Shortly after, James also married my mother. We had two beautiful children, Christianna and William.
In 1855, James was called to go labor as a missionary in the Sandwich Islands. He labored there for two years and in 1855 he boarded the ship `Bark Julia Ann' bound for San Francisco with 56 souls aboard. On October 3, 1857 the ship struck a reef and broke in two. All were saved but two women and three children. They were just 12 miles from Sicilly Island. They took fragments of the broken ship and made themselves a raft. On this raft they made their way to the island. After being taken from one island to another, they finally reached San Francisco on June 27, 1856, just eight months after starting for home.
On Dec. 27, 1857, James passed away, leaving me a widow with three children, ages 14, 7 and 5, mother and myself. I was left to support my three children, mother and myself until mother died March 22, 1874. I took up my mother's trade as that of a midwife. We were living in Millville, Utah, at that time. Christianna married Franklin E. Weaver and William married Margaret Hope Williams and they both moved to Bear Lake to make their home.
I also moved to Bear Lake for a number of years and was blessed to bring hundreds of babies into the world. I would go when the mother took sick and stay until the baby was nine days old. My fee was $5. I would have to go in all kinds of weather. One winter I went seven miles from home on a hand sleigh because the snow was too deep to go any other way.
About this time, I had a cousin living in New Jersey. One day, James McCowan, my old sweetheart, met him on the street and inquired if I was still living. My cousin told him I was and that I was living in Bennington, Idaho, and that I was a widow and had been for some time.
He asked for my address and wrote to me and later came to see me. It seemed the spark of true love was still burning for each of us, for he joined the Mormon Church and in the fall of 1896, James McCowan and I were married after 55 years. We (were) married at the home of Joseph C. Rich on the shore of Bear Lake by Amos R. Wright.
(Hannah and James spent eight happy years together. She died Dec. 11, 1904, at the age of 83 and was buried in Bennington.)
Mormon Overland Travel, Ebenezer Brown Company (1848); Age at Departure: 27
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