Born in Salmon County, Caroline Beard Tippetts Barney spent the first nine years of her life in Virginia. From Virginia, the family moved to Indiana where she joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1842.

At the age of 18 in 1844 she married Alva Lewis Tippetts, a missionary, laboring in Missouri and a year later Caroline and Alva, along with her parents, moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. The following year the family began their exodus to the Great Basin, a land the Mormons called Zion, and a region, which includes the Salt Lake Valley.

Traveling in President Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball's Company, they camped at Sugar Creek in Iowa for the winter, before moving on to Council Bluffs, Iowa in the spring. Across the Missouri River, they located in Winter Quarters. At this time Alva died leaving Caroline with two small children. Seven weeks later, she gave birth to her son, Joseph Harrison. Shortly thereafter, her two children died, leaving her with a young baby.

Two and a half years later, in Council Bluffs on April 27, 1849, she married Benjamin Franklin Barney. Together they prepared to leave for Utah to conquering the elements of the desert and the mountains. Using buffalo chips for firewood, their progress was limited to one hundred miles per week. Fording rivers, building roads and searching for forage made travel even slower. Living in a wagon for seven months this frontier lady gave birth to her second child. Along the trek, there was evidence of many lives that were lost through small pox. The passage was marked with graves, household goods, particularly bedding thrown away because of the disease.

After arriving in Utah in 1852, Benjamin Franklin Barney began practicing polygamy. He married Priscilla Shepherd in Brigham Young's Office in Salt Lake City on April 8, 1856 and Caroline Nielsen December 7, 1865. His second wife died Nov. 20, 1916 and the third wife died Oct. 28, 1933 at the age of 89.

She was the mother of twelve children – three by Tippetts and nine by Barney. The nine children of the second marriage are:
· Benjamin Kimball, b. Feb. 12, 1850 in Council Bluffs, Iowa; died while small and is buried in Spanish Fork.
· Laura Alice, b. Feb. 19, 1852 in Pottawattamie Creek County, Iowa; died while small and is buried in Provo.
· William Franklin, b. Sept. 3, 1854 at Old Palmyra Fort, near Spanish Fork; married Lovisa Losee; d. Feb. 4, 1924, buried in Lewisville, Idaho.
· Erastus James, b. Oct. 19, 1856 at Spanish Fork; married Mary Glen Aitken at Benjamin June 5, 1876; d. Aug. 29, 1926, buried in Spanish Fork.
· Wilber Joseph, b. Oct. 19, 1859 at Spanish Fork; d. March 1864, buried in Spanish Fork.
· Charles, b. July 14, 1861 at Springville, Utah; married Mattie Christensen Oct. 21, 1879 at Benjamin; married Zina Rose Brooks April 18, 1924 at Provo; died April 26, 1932, buried in Spanish Fork.
· Francis Marion, b. Sept 12, 1863 at Spanish Fork; married Rhoda Shepherd.
· Alma, b. April 6, 1865 at Spanish Fork, Utah; married Annie Davis.
· Ephraim, b. Jan. 30, 1869 at Spanish Fork; married Annie Solomon, d. May 6, 1932.

Nearly 80 years old, Caroline Beard Tippetts Barney died on September 26, 1905 and is buried in Spanish Fork. A woman who was left by her husband to rear her family by herself. In so doing she suffered many hardships. Often walking twelve miles to and back from town after washing all day just for three pounds of beans to keep her children from starving. She did all sorts of work, making quilts, knitting, spinning and carding yarn, washing and ironing.

Information compiled from a short sketch written by Margaret Barney Schwendeman and Mary C. Barney. Contributed by Betty Hartley, a direct descendent of Caroline Beard Tippetts Barney.
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Add by Kathy Carter 03-22-2012
This autobiography was recieved from a historian in New York, (not a family member)it was given to him with a bible by a couple who had no children to pass these items on to.
us66arizoriginally submitted this to Project Family History on 14 Sep 2009


On the trip to Utah they were in the company with Pres. Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. They left Nauvoo in the fall of 1846 and spent the winter at Sugar Creek, IA. They then went to Council Bluffs, IA where they crossed the river and wintered at winter Quarters. Alva died a week before their baby Joseph was born. Shortly later the two older children died. She stayed behind and 2 1/2 years later married Benjamin Franklin BARNEY in Council Bluffs, IA in 27 Apr 1849. It was with him that she came to Utah arriving in 1852. Her autobiography seems incomplete, but this is what it is. The family has no more. Here it is. "

Autobiography
I was born in East Virginia, Salvon Co., ( Salvon = Sullivan Co) in the year of 1826 on the 15th of January. I lived in Virginia nine years and then emigrated with my father and mother to Indiana in Clinton Co. and lived there nine years and there I joined the Mormon Church and was married to a man named Alva L. Tippittes who was a missionary preacher of the Mormon Church. Then I emigrated with my husband and folks to Illinois, Nauvoo, Hancock Co. We reached there in the year 1843 and lived there till the year 1846 and then we crossed the Mississippi River with President Young and Heber C. Kimball Company, and camped seven miles the other side of the Mississippi. Then we camped at a place called Sugar Creek. Here we stayed till spring (1847), and then we started for Council Bluffs. Then we crossed the Missouri River and located on a place called Winter Quarters and in the year 1847 crossed by at the east side and lived there till the year 1852. Then we came across the plains and come to the Rocky Mountains." " I was the daughter of Christian BEARD and Margaret Almenroad BEARD. I was married at the age of 22 years (to second husband). My (first) husband died leaving me with my two children. Seven weeks after I had a baby boy. My two children before my husbands death died and my only child left was a boy named Joseph TIPPITTES. After my husband had been dead about two and a half years I again married a man by the name of Benjamin BARNEY. I had nine children by him. I had twelve children altogether, ten sons and two daughters, but six lies buried now. My husband went in Polygamy and got two more women and left me alone to raise my children by my own handwork. I went through more hardships than tongue or lip describe. And many days I have walked twelve miles and washed on the washboard all day for three pounds of brand, and made pancakes to keep my children from starving. And always done any work of any kind I could get such as making quilts, knitting and spinning, or any honest work I could get to do. Uncle Lewis BARNEY gave me a little Indian baby girl, he seen the Indians killed some of their children because the white settlers wouldn't give them cattle or other things they wanted. And they were going to kill it, so Uncle Lewis gave them a yearling steer for her, and then his wife would not have her, so he said he would give her to me if I would take her. I had many mouths to feed but I took her anyway, and raised her as I would one of my own, learned her the white peoples ways, and how to work and be clean. She was a good girl and didn't give me much trouble. She grew to womanhood and married a white man by the name of Henery TAYLOR. She raised a very nice family before she died. Was good and kind to me, coming long ways to see me after she was married." " And now I am 77 years old and am still living, but am broken down with work's toil and life hardships of my life. My name Caroline Beard TIPPITTES, and when we were crossing the plains, we had to gather buffaloe's chips to burn. That's all we had for five hundred miles. We could just travel one hundred miles a week. When we were at Sugar Creek (Iowa) it snowed and rained most all the time we were there. And when we moved camp in the spring to get food for the cattle we could only move one mile a day. We had to double ox teams for there were no roads and the wagons cut down so that we could hardly move them at all. We could only move part of the wagons at a time." After leaving Nauvoo I lived in a wagon box for seven months. We had no tents, and I had to get out in the rain and snow and cook on a camp fire. When we were crossing the plains the cattle ran away with the wagons and tipped one over, but no one was hurt. We crossed the Horn River. We swam all the cattle across and drafted the wagons across on logs. We also come to a very large cave which was about eight or ten feet in it. It was just like a house. The sides were very smooth. The front was open. There was red sand all around the place. When we come to the cave many of the young people took lights and went in the cave as far as they dared and wrote their names on the sides of the cave with sticks and pen knives. There were many people who had passed before us and all the sides of the cave were covered with names. When the young people were in the cave the light got blowed out and they were scared and had to feel their way out. When we were crossing the plains I had to yoke up the cattle and take care of them. I had three small children and two of them had measles, which I had to care for. We then came to the Sweet Water River and there were two large rocks just large enough for a wagon to pass through. This was called the Devil's Gate. We were traveling along the Lapa River and we came to a large (rock) called the 'chimney' because it looked so much like a chimney. The folks danced every night. There were fiddles and the people would dance on the prairie grass barefooted. When we got to Council Bluffs the Governor called for Mormon volunteers. Five hundred had to go fight the Mexican War , and California, but when they got there they did not have to fight, but found men digging gold dust. They were going to kill the men if they didn't volunteer, but in three days five hundred had volunteered. The people who emigrated to California before we did had smallpox and as we passed all along the road were many graves, and we saw good feather beds and quilts throwed away on account of smallpox. The five hundred that were called to fight were called the Mormon Battalion. While we were crossing the Council Bluffs I lived in a wagon box. My second child was borned a baby boy."


This is unfinished , but was all that was found. Perhaps Caroline did not finish her story. She died 26 Sep. 1906 at Lake Shore, Utah County, UT. Additional information: Caroline knew both Joseph and Hyrum SMITH well. The morning they were murdered June 27 1844 , they passed her door when on the way to the Carthage Jail and spoke and tipped their hats. They told her that they did not know whether they would return or not and bade her goodby. In Nauvoo Caroline and Alva TIPPETTS lived next door to Heber KIMBALL.