Dear family and friends,
Since the William Ainscough history was finished in 2008, I have found some new information that helps us understand the period of time William was in Iowa. This history, even though it was completed in 2008, was intended to be an ongoing research project for me. Any new information and important insights I will add to this history and send to you the modified new version. In the future I would like to email a PDF file to you that you can open on your computer and print out, which will save the shipping costs of future additional information to so many people.
I have begun a website/blog about William Ainscough that I have posted some new pictures recently found. This new tool will allow us to communicate as a GROUP and share ideas, research and Ainscough family photos with each other. Here is the address: http://ainscough-william.blogspot.com/ and my email address for family history work is broadheadwe@gmail.com. Would you send me your email address so I can send you future updates? Now on to the new corrections.
In the history, there was very little known about William’s life between 1846 and 1852, shortly after leaving Nauvoo. Here is all we knew: ‘They crossed the (Mississippi) river and lived in Ferryville, Iowa for a short time.“ I read and re-read the different versions of William’s and Mary’s histories to try to find anything at all about this Iowa period. We knew nothing more than this short one sentence of information.
On a trip to Nebraska to see our daughter in the fall of 2008, we spent one full day in Winter Quarters, near modern day Omaha, Nebraska. Here we toured the Winter Quarters Visitors Center, and while looking at all the exhibits I saw a map on the wall that had the location of all the pioneer encampments in Iowa, across the Missouri river from Winter Quarters. It was here I found Ferryville, Iowa. The visitors center also had a room to research pioneer ancestors and had a full time professional historian. After our tour of the center, I spent the rest of my time talking to the historian as we tried to find anything they had about William Ainscough. Our last stop of the day was in Kanesville, Iowa which is where I found out that 90% of the pioneers from Nauvoo did not stay in Winter Quarters, but lived in these many encampments across the Missouri River in Iowa.
I found the following information in Winter Quarters and in Kanesville:
1. Location of Ferryville, Iowa. Ferryville was an ‘‘encampment/community‘‘ of some 90 such communities directly across the Missouri River from Winter Quarters housing some 90% of the saints who left Nauvoo. It was here that Nephi Ainscough, William’s son, was born January 17, 1847.
2. Location of Big Pigeon, Iowa. Many internet searches had failed me in finding Ferryville and Big Pigeon, Iowa (because they were only encampments), but thanks to the large map on the wall of the visitors center I found Big Pigeon as another of the 90 encampments. It is located next to the Big Pigeon River, south of Ferryville a few miles and close to Kanesville. It is here that Lucretia Charlotte was born the 6 May 1850.
3. Did William live in Winter Quarters? We drove on to Kanesville, Iowa which is where I found out from another historian at that site, that 9 out of 10 of pioneers from Nauvoo did not stay in Winter Quarters as most people think, but lived in these many encampments across the Missouri River in Iowa, next to the river up on the Bluffs. Only a very few of the Saints actually crossed the Missouri River to the Nebraska side and established Winter Quarters in 1846 before winter set in.
4. How far was Big Pigeon, William’s second home in Iowa, from Kanesville, the Church’s center on the east side of the Missouri River. Did William ever live their? Did William celebrate with the Saints the day that Brigham Young was sustained in the Kanesville Tabernacle as the new Prophet? Kanesville is just a few miles from Little Pigeon, and William and his family could have participated in the celebration at the newly built Kanesville Tabernacle. This tabernacle was built just for the intent to sustain Brigham Young after the death of Joseph Smith, a few years afterward.
5. Where is Council Bluffs? Council Bluffs is right next to the Missouri River on the east (Iowa) side, and is an outgrowth of the pioneer-day Kanesville. It began as an outpost, but later became a town where immigrants could buy wagons, oxen, food, and supplies of all kinds for the trek west. This is the place where William joined the Uriah Curtis Pioneer Company, with his wagon and two oxen. William departed 28 June 1852, and arrived in Salt Lake City 29 September 1852. About 365 individuals and 51 wagons began the journey from the outfitting post at Kanesville, Iowa (Council Bluffs) including William Ainscough (34), Mary Clark (34), Elizabeth (7), Lucretia Charlotte (2), Jane Ruth Wakefield (12), Lucinda Wakefield (14).
I hope this additional information will help us all understand this six years that William lived in Iowa. I will keep searching to find more information about William’s life.
I am sending you three new pages, the title page that corrects a mistake I made about my relationship to William Ainscough (one “great“ too many), and two new pages about the Iowa information. Will you remove the title page, and pages 19-20 from your copy of the history, and replace them with these new pages.
I am also sending you a CD. It contains the William Ainscough History in PDF format. This should be readable by all computers. With this file you can print out as many copies of this history as you would like for your children and grandchildren.
Thank you,
Wayne Broadhead
801-593-5182
webroadhead@gmail.com
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