Son of Joseph Woolsey & Abagail Schaeffer

Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia
Volume 4

Woolsey, Thomas, a member of the Mormon Battalion, Company E, was born Nov. 3, 1805, in Pulaski County, Kentucky, a son of Joseph Woolsey and Abigail Shiffer. He was baptized in Illinois in 1834, by Cornelius P. Gott, came to Nauvoo about 1841, worked on the Temple there for seven years, came west with the other saints in February, 1846, enlisted in the Battalion at Mount Pisgah, and marched to Santa Fe in Company E. He was Sent from there towards Pueblo, but went only part of the way when he turned back alone and overtook the main command just as they were entering the one hundred mile desert; he continued to the Gila River, and was sent back with a detachment with mail from the brethren to Pueblo, from where he and John H. Tippets went in the dead of winter back to Winter Quarters, suffering untold hardships. They were finally taken prisoners by the Pawnee Indians and condemned to death, but were saved by the timely arrival of the chief. (Elder Woolsey was afterwards baptized in the Manti Temple for that chief). The Indians furnished the brethren with seven days' provisions, and they finally got to Winter Quarters; the next spring they came to the Valley, with the original Pioneers, and Bro. Woolsey built the first house in Salt Lake City (Old Fort), and plowed the first furrow in the Valley, bringing the plow from the Pawnee Indian Agency. He continued to California, and retured back to Winter Quarters, and came back in four years; pioneered several places in Utah, and died Jan. 5, 1897, in Wales, Utah. He was the father of 27 children.


Military Incription Utah Mexican War - Pioneer Placque. Low Granite with sandstone base