Written by Anna Fordham Deakin
Contributed by her great-grand daughter, Nadine D Sharpe

I was born at Nauvoo, Illinois, May 21, 1844. My parents, Anna Bibbin Chaffee and Elijah Fordham were endowed in the Nauvoo Temple before I was born. They were sealed in the Prophets private office.

We left Nauvoo with the exodus of the saints and went to Iowa. Soon after we made preparations to come to Utah, but while crossing the plains food was provided for us by the men killing buffalo, also we would gather wild berries, and one day father found a wild honey beehive in a tree and there was honey enough to fill several buckets and a tub. We came with two wagons, three yoke of oxen and four cows. We landed November 23, 1850. The first winter we were in Utah we lived in the old fort. We had very hard times especially when the grasshoppers took our crops. Later on we moved south when Johnsons army came into Salt Lake City after the men had kept them east of Echo Canyon all winter. But the soldiers passed thru the City and camped on the West side of the Jordan River and did not molest anyone.

In 1861 my father was called to go to Dixie to build that part of Utah up. A company was organized to travel with Angus M. Cannon as captain and my father as chaplain. Father and I would start ahead of the train and throw rocks out of the road. An accident happened upon my father that bothered him the rest of his life. On this journey, while feeding, one of the cattle struck his arm, breaking it. Father, Erastus Snow, Jacob Gates and other prominent men laid out the town of St. George. In the winter there came down the Sana Clara River a great flood, carrying everything before it. The roads were so bad by washing, it was impossible to get to the mill and for three months we ground our wheat in a coffee mill, wearing it out.

In 1862 I came back to Salt Lake City. In 1863, March 7, I became the wife of John Pepper and while in the Endowment House Heber C. Kimball asked me if I was the little girl born on the Hill in Nauvoo. I replied that I was and when I told him I was marrying John Pepper he said jokingly, "Be sure and have plenty of little spices".

All we had when we started out in life to cook with was a sheet-iron camp kettle and a frying pan, but it was alright for we could work and build together and would appreciate what we had. Three months after our marriage my husband went as a teamster for Henry Lawrence across the plains to bring merchandise for the store which Henry owned. While on the way they lost some cattle and the captain went in search of them. He never returned and it was supposed the Indians killed him, for John Pepper was hunting one day and two indains chased him but he escaped them and took control of the train and brought it safely to the city. Mr. Lawrence gave him all the cooking outfit and what provisions remained.

The 1st of December we came to Wellsville to live and on Sept. 7, 1864 our first child, Anna Maria was born. Sept 15, 1866 Emily Ann was born. [In] 1865 April my husband went to Omaha Nebraska to take William B. Preston, William Budge and others that were going on a mission and had to be taken that far by team.
1867 April 10, my husband died of a stroke. He was a good, kind husband, a good provider. I said then I never would marry again but when I saw him in a vision he told me I should yet have a good, kind husband and he would find him for me. I told him that if I had not heard it from his own lips, I never should marry again. In 1868 May 8, William Price Deakin and I were sealed for time in the Endowment house in salt Lake City. To this union were born the following:

1869 Mar 1 Mary Jane
1871 Feb 19 John William
1873 Oct 4 Elijah James
1875 Sep 30 Sarah Minerva
1877 Apr 19 Robert Price
1879 Nov 24 Lillian Delila
1880 Sep 26 Lerene May
1883 Oct 18 Joseph Amos
1885 Oct 6 Charles Fremont
1888 Dec 7 Lottie Adelia