Ann Eliza Mitchell Whitaker was born in Prarie, Chickasaw County, Mississippi to John Tillary and Rebecca Huff Mitchell. The Mitchell family joined the Mormon Church and left their home in 1852 to join the Mormons in Utah. They traveled to St. Louis, MO., where Ann, along with her parents, three young brothers and other family members, boarded the steamship S.S. Saluda to travel up the Missouri River to reach the Mormon winter quarters of Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The S.S. Saluda reached Lexington, Missouri. The river was full of floating ice, and a sharp bend in the river made it difficult for steamships to pass in harsh weather. The Saluda sat in port for three days before the captain, impatient and eager to continue because of mounting costs, ordered the crew to crank up the boilers to full blast. The boilers were dry and they exploded, hurling passengers and crew into the water and onto the docks. Over 70 people were killed and over a hundred were wounded. Ann's three brothers were killed, and her father John Tillary lost both of his legs and died a few days later. She and her mother reached Council Bluffs, Iowa and joined a wagon train, reaching the Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1853.
Ann's mother Rebecca remarried a man named Arthur Walton, and the family moved to Richmond, Utah. There she met her future husband Leander Jefferson Whitaker, who took her back to his family farm in Willard, Utah, where they were married. A few years later they decided to set up their own homestead, and were the first settlers in Downey in the Marsh Valley, Idaho, where she lived the rest of her life.
The S.S. Saluda reached Lexington, Missouri. The river was full of floating ice, and a sharp bend in the river made it difficult for steamships to pass in harsh weather. The Saluda sat in port for three days before the captain, impatient and eager to continue because of mounting costs, ordered the crew to crank up the boilers to full blast. The boilers were dry and they exploded, hurling passengers and crew into the water and onto the docks. Over 70 people were killed and over a hundred were wounded. Ann's three brothers were killed, and her father John Tillary lost both of his legs and died a few days later. She and her mother reached Council Bluffs, Iowa and joined a wagon train, reaching the Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1853.
Ann's mother Rebecca remarried a man named Arthur Walton, and the family moved to Richmond, Utah. There she met her future husband Leander Jefferson Whitaker, who took her back to his family farm in Willard, Utah, where they were married. A few years later they decided to set up their own homestead, and were the first settlers in Downey in the Marsh Valley, Idaho, where she lived the rest of her life.
Ann Eliza Mitchell Whitaker was born in Prarie, Chickasaw County, Mississippi to John Tillary and Rebecca Huff Mitchell. The Mitchell family joined the Mormon Church and left their home in 1852 to join the Mormons in Utah. They traveled to St. Louis, MO., where Ann, along with her parents, three young brothers and other family members, boarded the steamship S.S. Saluda to travel up the Missouri River to reach the Mormon winter quarters of Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The S.S. Saluda reached Lexington, Missouri. The river was full of floating ice, and a sharp bend in the river made it difficult for steamships to pass in harsh weather. The Saluda sat in port for three days before the captain, impatient and eager to continue because of mounting costs, ordered the crew to crank up the boilers to full blast. The boilers were dry and they exploded, hurling passengers and crew into the water and onto the docks. Over 70 people were killed and over a hundred were wounded. Ann's three brothers were killed, and her father John Tillary lost both of his legs and died a few days later. She and her mother reached Council Bluffs, Iowa and joined a wagon train, reaching the Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1853.
Ann's mother Rebecca remarried a man named Arthur Walton, and the family moved to Richmond, Utah. There she met her future husband Leander Jefferson Whitaker, who took her back to his family farm in Willard, Utah, where they were married. A few years later they decided to set up their own homestead, and were the first settlers in Downey in the Marsh Valley, Idaho, where she lived the rest of her life.
The S.S. Saluda reached Lexington, Missouri. The river was full of floating ice, and a sharp bend in the river made it difficult for steamships to pass in harsh weather. The Saluda sat in port for three days before the captain, impatient and eager to continue because of mounting costs, ordered the crew to crank up the boilers to full blast. The boilers were dry and they exploded, hurling passengers and crew into the water and onto the docks. Over 70 people were killed and over a hundred were wounded. Ann's three brothers were killed, and her father John Tillary lost both of his legs and died a few days later. She and her mother reached Council Bluffs, Iowa and joined a wagon train, reaching the Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1853.
Ann's mother Rebecca remarried a man named Arthur Walton, and the family moved to Richmond, Utah. There she met her future husband Leander Jefferson Whitaker, who took her back to his family farm in Willard, Utah, where they were married. A few years later they decided to set up their own homestead, and were the first settlers in Downey in the Marsh Valley, Idaho, where she lived the rest of her life.
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