Strangers for Ancestors #13: Manifest Destiny

And the Wilson family saga continues ….

In Strangers for Ancestors #11: The Missouri Mormon War, the Wilson family relocated from Tinney’s Grove / Far West, Missouri with Joseph Smith and the other 15,000+ Mormons to Illinois where they stole the land of the Sauk and Fox peoples to create Nauvoo in 1839/40. My great, great, great grandfather George Clinton Wilson, the second son of Bradley Barlow Wilson Sr. and Mary Gill was 39-years-old, married to my great, great, great grandmother Mary Elizabeth Kinney, and they had ten children ages 1 - 12 years:

Emily Wilson - born April 26, 1827 in St. Albans, Vermont
Louise Kinney Wilson - born April 10, 1828 in St. Albans, Vermont
Polly Wilson - born November 21, 1829 in Richland, Ohio
Martha Wilson - born March 25, 1832 in Richland, Ohio
Thomas Jefferson Wilson - born March 25, 1832 in Richland, Ohio
Aaron Clinton Wilson - born November 15, 1834 in Greene, Ohio
Nancy Jane Wilson - born July 7, 1835 in Perrysville, Ohio
Bradley Barlow Wilson Jr. - born May 1, 1837 in Marion, Ohio
Whitford Gill Wilson - born April 1, 1839 in Quincy, Illinois

George Clinton and Mary Elizabeth would go on to have three more children in Nauvoo:

Bushrod Washington Wilson - born November 4, 1840 in Nauvoo, Illinois
Aura Elizabeth Wilson - born in 1843 and died in 1844 in Nauvoo, Illinois
William Clinton Wilson - born October 21, 1846 in Nauvoo, Illinois

While in Nauvoo, five of the Wilson brothers were listed in "Petitions for the Masonic Lodge:

Name Petition Acceptance Age Occupation

Bradley Barlow Wilson 7/21/1842 12/1/1842 36 Farmer
Bushrod Washington Wilson 2/10/1843 3/16/1843
George Clinton Wilson 6/2/1842 6/16/1842 42 Carpenter
Lewis Dunbar Wilson 5/5/1842 5/19/1842 36 Carpenter
Whitford Gil Wilson 7/7/1842 8/5/1842 42 Blacksmith

Lewis Dunbar Wilson was one of the members of the High Council in Nauvoo who signed a circular announcing the intentions of the Mormons to exodus for the west. From the journal of Lewis Dunbar Wilson:

January 19, 1846
Nancy and myself received our sealing and annointing in the House of the Lord. I then worked for several weeks in the Temple and saw many of my brothers and sisters receive the same blessing.

At this juncture they have left the United States to set out West and claim the land in “a good place to make a crop, in some good valley in the neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains, where they will infringe upon no one, and be not likely to be infringed upon. Here we will make a resting place, until we can determine a place for a permanent location. … Should hostilities arise between the Government of the United States and any other power, in relation to the right of possessing the territory of Oregon, we are on hand to sustain the claim of the United State’s Government to that country. It is geographically ours; and of right, no foreign power should hold dominion there; and if our services are required to prevent it, those services will be cheerfully rendered according to our ability.”

What stands out to me, as it does with other religious endeavors, and I’m thinking primarily of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, is the incredible self-centeredness of believing themselves to be God’s chosen people and their lack of consideration for anything or anyone else other than themselves. They speak of themselves in such virtuous terms, all the while pillaging the land and destroying the lives of anyone who stands in their way. I know I’ve noted this before, however, this approach to faith really does seem to lie at the root of the generational violence and traumas that we are still living to this day - the complete antithesis of what these religions supposedly represent.

The Migration West

On February 4, 1846, the first group of Mormons crossed the Mississippi River and thus began their exodus from Nauvoo - “The City Beautiful.” Brigham Young, writing in a letter to James Emmet in Vermillion Fort, Missouri, stated, "In this company are the Twelve, the High Council, the old Trustees and the council of fifty with one or two exceptions, who have nearly all brought their families."

From Lewis Dunbar Wilson's journal:

"February 18, 1846, I started with my family of ten from Nauvoo for California, with five of them without a shoe to their name, or hardly a change of shirts to their backs, and with a borrowed wagon and team, and five bushel of parched corn-meal and 100 lbs. of flour and 25 lbs. of pork, with myself just out of a sick bed and my wife not much better. After a tedious journey of two or three months we reached Garden Grove (Iowa) where we are now."

**Megan Wilson, *Stains Series: Garden Grove*, quilling (paper craft) on paper, 12” x 12” unframed, 16.5” x 16.5” framed, 2021**

In the subsequent days the evacuation rapidly gained momentum, and on February 24, the river froze, expediting the Mormon exodus.

On July 13, 1846, Garden Grove, Iowa, four companies of men were called up to serve in the Mormon Battalion. Colonel Thomas Kane and Captain James Allen of the U.S. Army addressed the Saints at Mosquito Creek.

George Deliverance Wilson, a cousin to the seven Wilson brothers, joined the Battalion and was listed as a Private in Company E under Captain Daniel C. Davis. He later became ill at Santa Fe with the Willis Company. In Pueblo George Deliverance suffered intensely from hunger, cold, weariness and sickness.

**George Deliverance Wilson, date unknown**

From the Battalion Journal of of George Deliverance Wilson:

Monday, October 25, 1846
"This morning made an early move through an Indian town and now in sight of another. Hundreds of farms on the Hela River. At Sonora 100 Americans taken prisoner and 100 more in danger of being taken.

Tuesday, October 26, 1846
After all the wagons were up I sank exhausted at the thought of being ordered by the Capt. Davis to hurry down the hill about half or quarter of a mile and get out guns and napsacks and overtake the companies which had gone before ahead. This was unusually severe. My spirit was exceeding mournful. I stayed alone behind.

November 4, 1846
Our teams being nearly worn out. Our progress is very slow. Sergent Brazuer was put under guard by (Lieut.Col.) Cook (Cooke) for two days on the report of Adjt. Dykes. Agt. Dykes is by Cook turned to his standing as Lt. in D Company taking command as 1st Lt. He is officer of the Day. After a hard march the guard were at rest in the evening when the officer of the day came to quarters and two of the men refused to get up to parade and present arms or do him the Lawful honor. At which he took offence and put these men on four hours more extra duty and then reported to Cook so they were ordered to be bound. Each one having his hands tied together with a large Larryette rope tied short to a company waggon with their blanket and knap sacks on their backs. There they were obliged to march all day in the warm sun and then kept under guard and are not yet released...

The soldiers are on half rations on 9 oz. flour per day and work very hard pushing waggons on the road."

November 13, 1846
Pushing along back on half ration.

November 14, 1846
Hard pushing and heavy lifting up hills this day. Waggon full of sick."

November 15, 1846
This morning sergent Brazier refused to let me have full ration for three days until we could get into the settlement.

November 19, 1846
This day we start for the settlement. On the way Brother Green died and was buried in his blanket. This seems to produce no effect on the minds of the brethren so hardened in trial and sorrow.

January 5, 1847
On the road to Purbelow (Pueblo). Not being able to eat, my blood weak and my feet frozen and a back load to carry. At 4:00 I sunk down exhausted in the wilderness Prairie, the cold winds blowing and no man near but God was my friend and I lived through it. Traveled until late in the evening and found the camp by the sound of a gun. This was the nearest Death by cold and sickness and oppression and the narrowest escape of my life. My spirit was turned to praying for life and also like David to cursing my enemies, "That they might fall into the same pit they had digged for my soul. Even so, Amen!"

From the Journal of Lewis Dunbar Wilson, camped in Garden Grove, Iowa:

January 1, 1847
The foregoing is a very short account of our travels. We have belonged to the Church at this time about eleven years. Have passed through the Missouri wars of 1838, and from that we went to Illinois and stood the brunt of the hard times of Nauvoo from its rise to its downfall. Left Nauvoo with the first camp and came to Garden Grove and there was left without one day's provisions ahead. I went to work and made improvements and raised a crop sufficient to winter my family and then went back to Bonaparte (Van Buren County, Iowa) and with my empty hands labored to procure a load of bread stuff and helped W.W. Wilson to move up to Garden Grove, then gathered my crops and returned to Bonaparte and procured another load of provisions, and helped Brother D. W. Wilson to move up to the Grove. I also helped Brothers B. W. (Bushrod Washington) and W. W. Wilson (Whitford Gill) to build each of them a house where I received an injury by a log falling across my body, which laid me low for two weeks, so I was unable to labor. We are now at Garden Grove on this date of January 1, 1847, all enjoying good health, while a most severe snow storm is on hand. At 9 o'clock at night the snow storm is over and the weather has cleared but there is one foot of snow on the ground.

On January 1, 1847, we have belonged to. the Church of Latter-day Saints, 10 years and 7 months and 8 days and have traveled at this time with our family 1200 miles and have lived one year of that time exposed to all kinds of storm without a house to shelter us in. First from Ohio to Missouri in which we lived three months without a house. Second from Missouri to Illinois in which we lived 2 months without a shelter, not so much as a tent of any kind to shelter us from the storms, which were many and very severe. Third, from Illinois to Garden Grove which was a dreadful, tedious journey of about two months without a house. We passed through more mud and rain than I have ever seen in the same length of time, in my life before.

February 12, 1847
On the twelfth day of February, Brother L.C. Littlefield left Garden Grove for Mount Pisgah. On the seventh day of February I was appointed Captain of ten in the organization of the Saints of Garden Grove. I organized a ten as follows: Lewis D. Wilson, Capt., W.W. Wilson 2, B.W. Wilson 3, George Carson 4, Wm. Carson 5, John Carson 6, Hugh McKiney 7, R.W. Withnell 8, Johnson Lake 9, and Nathaniel Worthin 10.

Nancy Ann Wilson was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, July 10, 1810. Samuel Wilson (child number eleven) was born July 19, 1851, at Potawottamie County, Iowa. (Nancy) Melissa Wilson was born February 22, 1847, at Garden Grove (Decatur County, Iowa) in the midst of our afflictions and distress, while we were fleeing out of the midst of civilization and wickedness, even Bablylon according to the commandment of God in our day. I say fleeing out of the midst of civilization or wickedness, because of the professed civilized world being arrayed against us on account of our religion, or the religion of Jesus Christ.

April 27, 1847
W. W. Wilson and B. W. Wilson started to the Bluff (Council Bluffs) from Garden Grove under very unfavorable circumstances, in consequence of their poverty and want of means. George Miles Wilson was born in Garden Grove, May 13, 1847 in the midst of our afflictions while still fleeing from the gentiles even Babylon.

Meanwhile, writing from Pueblo, George Deliverance Wilson concludes his Mormon Battalion Journal with the following:

April 6, 1847
After a long storm very pleasant this morning and I am glad to see although in a distant land another anniversary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am alone and have left society to celebrate this delightful morn. Seventeen years since six members composed the Church of then despised Mormons. Since then the lights and shades of persecution have rolled on their tempest main. The last few months have been those of the greatest persecution I have ever experienced and even now I can hardly bear persecution from brethren without being cast down and murmuring in my mind..."

Leaving Pueblo, George Deliverance traveled to the Salt Lake Valley where he arrived late in July. Mary J. Johnson Wilson writes about her grandfather,

July 1847
"He (George Deliverance Wilson) came to Utah and stayed awhile there and then went back to the States. He had no food to take with him only what flour he could tie up in an old shirt sleeve. He and two other men, one of them an invalid, who rode the only horse they had while he and the other man walked the whole distance. They depended on getting game on the road to live on and sometimes they went very short of food. When he got to civilization it was hard for him to get work as he had been out so long (with the Battalion) and his clothes and shoes were all worn out. He had nothing to buy more with until he could get work to earn something.

He went to a construction camp and asked for work. Someone there who heard him, said, "That tramp doesn't deserve work. If you gave him a chance, he wouldn't work. He wouldn't look like that if he would work.' However, the boss gave him a stick of timber and told him to make an ox (axe) handle, giving him one to look at to see how to do it. When he got it done and took it to the boss, he (the boss) told the man who said he wouldn't work, 'You needn't tell me a man that can do a job like that can't work'. He gave George Deliverance Wilson work and he stayed there until he had money enough to buy a team, harness and buggy and plenty to bring him back to Utah.

He told me many of his earlier experiences. At one time while the Pioneers were having trouble with the Indians he and another man were traveling with a wagon when the Indians came upon them and killed the other man. He escaped by hiding in the brush until he could get to the ridge which was not far away. He jumped down a high bank and dug a hole in the soft dirt with his jack knife large enough for him to hide in until the Indians had gone. The Indians took their teams, Wagons and load of flour. When he got home the folks had been worried sometime about what had become of him. When they left Bellview the family went to resettle Panguitch, broken up on account of the Indians.

On January 20, 1848 a petition was signed by the Saints at Pottawattamie County, Iowa requesting the U.S. Government to establish a Tabernacle Post Office. Signing the petition along with Brigham Young and others were: Bushrod Washington Wilson, Henry Hardy Wilson, Bradley (Barlow) Wilson, Joseph Wilson, Cyrus Wilson, Charles Wilson, Ephraim Wilson, Lycurgus Wilson, David Wilson, Newton Wilson, Franklin Wilson, Hyrum Wilson, Charles H. Wilson and Guy Wilson.

**Megan Wilson, *Stains Series: Council Bluffs*, quilling (paper craft) on paper, 12” x 12” unframed, 16.5” x 16.5” framed, 2021**

From the journal of Lewis Dunbar Wilson:

January 13, 1850, Garden Grove, Iowa
Even at this date I find myself still at the Garden after spending three years in the most distressing circumstances that I ever met with. I was left without team or any means of cultivating the soil to any extent. Under those circumstances of poverty I was compelled to go among the gentiles to labor and earn all that we had to wear and part of what we ate. Because of our poverty I was unable to make any arrangements to make clothing until the winter of 1848 when we commenced to make clothing.

September 26, 1850
Lewis D. Wilson, Jr., and David Wilson were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lewis D. Wilson, Jr., was then ten years and five days old. David was eight years, three months and five days old. They were baptized and confirmed by their father.

May 13, 1851
I left Garden Grove for the Bluff, a distance of 160 miles. After a hard time of 27 days we reached the vicinity of Kanesville. We had to bridge some six or eight streams 30 to 40 feet across. We ferried two streams about a mile across. Endured more hard rainstorms than ever heard of in the same time since the flood. When we had been on the road 13 days we had a rainy day and after that it came nearly every night or every other night the hardest rain, thunder, and lightening that I ever saw until the 27th of June when the Saints fasted and prayed that the heavy rains would be stopped. After this we only had a light shower before the rain stopped.

I settled on the prairie east of the Mosquito Creek. Planted some corn and potatoes and commenced building a house. I worked on it until July 18th when I went out about twelve miles for some clafford timber and returned the next day about one o'clock and found my wife very sick. Having been confined while I was gone. She died about four o'clock in the afternoon and was buried on the 20th of July, 1851, on the hill above Kanesville. So, she, Nancy Wilson, departed this life at the age of 41 years having been the mother of eleven living children, nine of them on my hands differing in age from a few hours to twenty years old. And so Nancy Wilson wife of L.D. Wilson died having been in the Church 15 years, having become a member at the age of 26 years during which time she has attended every ordinance of the Gospel that has been offered in her day, and in fact all that I know anything about. She was baptized for the remission of her sins and had hands laid upon her for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and confirmed in the Church and has received blessings from time to time since.

At the temple at Nauvoo she received her washings and annointings even to become a queen and a priestess, after which time she attended to one other ordinance which was to wash the feet of her husband and annoint him to be her King and priest and Savior, that she might have claim on him at the resurrection.

Samuel Wilson was born near Kanesville, Iowa, July 18, 1851, about 6 o'clock in the morning about ten hours previous to the death of his mother, Nancy Wilson, who knew and died in triumph of faith in the Gospel of the Son of God, after having lived and obeyed all the laws and ordinances of the Church that had been given in her day. She died full in the faith of a glorious resurrection with the just and was buried on the Missouri Bluff just above Kanesville.

September 28, 1851
Lewis D. Wilson married Sarah Waldo, who was the daughter of Samuel and Orpha Waldo. Samuel was the son of Eligah and Elizabeth Waldo. Orpha Waldo was the daughter of Saperry and Sara Walker.

July 21, 1852
James Perry Wilson was born July 21, 1852, and died September 24, 1852. James Perry Wilson was the son of Sarah E. Wilson. He was born and died in Carterville, Pottawattamie County, Iowa."

The Potawatomi, Omaha, and Ioway Peoples

The Wilson Family’s Migration to Utah

On June 8, 1853 George Clinton Wilson, Mary Elizabeth Kinney and their children, along with brothers Bradley Barlow Jr., and Lewis Dunbar, their wives and children departed from Six-Mile Grove Iowa / Nebraska with the Daniel A. Miller & John W. Cooley Company to migrate west to Salt Lake Valley by wagon train. The party included 70 wagons carrying 282 individuals. They arrived in the Valley September 9 - 17, 1853. George and Elizabeth Wilson are documented as having 12 people, two horses, 12 cattle, and three wagons with them.

From the Journal of Lewis Dunbar Wilson:

1853
In the days of our affliction while journeying from Nauvoo to the Great Salt Lake Valley, because of the wickedness and persecution of this Nineteenth Century in which we live, the Latter-day Saints were driven from the United States of America and caused them to seek a shelter in the valleys of the mountains and the holes of rocks and caves of the earth.

On the 6th of June we left the States for the valley of the Great Salt Lake in company with Daniel Miller and J. W. Cooley and Company. We traveled with them for four or five weeks but made such poor progress that G.C. Wilson (George Clinton) and B.B. Wilson (Bradley Barlow), two of my brothers, and myself left the crowd and went ahead, traveling about double the distance a day that we had been in the habit of traveling. We traveled this way for about several weeks without anything strange occurring, killing some game and enjoying ourselves first rate, being all well and making good progress on our journey. We saw no Indians for several weeks but came across some of the red men of the west who appeared very civil until we met a band of them who were moving. They passed the whole crowd very civilly until they came to J.C. Wilson with pony team, who had gone back for an antelope that some of the boys had killed. When they went to pass him and wife in the pony wagon, some of the Indians began cutting up capers, and seized the ponies and they jumped and slipped the neck yoke ring right off the tung and both got on one side of the tung and jerked my brother right off the front end of the wagon and run over him. His wife caught hold of one of the lines and held on to it until they ran thru rounds of a small sickle which gave boys an opportunity to catch them. But after all there was not much injury sustained. My brother was not hurt badly so we passed on for several days without any further molestation until we came up to a large crowd of them. They all formed in a line across the road and called us to a stand. We had to give them some sugar and coffee to get their consent to pass. They followed us shaking their blankets and whooping trying to scare our horses.

They followed us to camp, some hundred and fifty of them and we had to get supper for about fifty of them to get them to leave. While we were busy preparing supper, they stole all our spare (illegible). From that time we passed on quite well until we accomplished our journey. We reached the valley of the Great Salt Lake August 29th and found in general good health and prosperity with the exception of a little Indian fuss. We moved North to Ogden City where we are now and where we have enjoyed good health although there has been considerable sickness and death since we came to the valley to work and build so as to make us tolerable comfortable for the first winter. I then went to look up me a housekeeper and I married a Miss Nancy Ann Cosett who had been the wife of George Coulson. We were married on the 12th day of February, 1854.

Lavina Wilson was married to John Brown February 25, 1854 at which time and date we were all enjoying a reasonable share of good health and prosperity. (Lavina was the first born child to Lewis D. Wilson and Nancy Wagoner).

April 10, 1854, Nancy A. Cossett was sealed to Lewis D. Wilson in the Council House in Salt Lake for all eternity to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, to receive kingdoms, thrones, dominions, principalities and powers and Eternal lives.

***Stains Series: Ogden/ Ho-quip, quilling (paper craft) on paper, 12” x 12” unframed, 16.5” x 16.5” framed, 2021***

Three of the seven Wilson brothers (Lewis Dunbar, George Clinton and Bradley Barlow) settled with their families in an area west of Ogden, Utah, the land stolen from the Shoshone peoples and known as Ho-quip. In an act of erasure, the area came to be known as the Wilson Ward. Driving through Ogden today, travelers will observe the "Wilson Lane" exit which is clearly marked on the Interstate (1-15) and leads directly to West Weber.

Peter Skene Ogden passed through the area in 1826, representing the Hudson's Bay Company. He traded in this area for several years, near present-day North Ogden. John C. Fremont explored the Weber Valley in 1843 and made maps of the area. The Fremont reports encouraged readers to seek their fortunes in the western frontier. Miles Goodyear was a fur trapper who constructed a way station on the Weber River in 1845; in 1847 he sold it to the incoming Mormon settler-colonizers. James Brown purchased and changed the site's name to Brownsville (later changed to Ogden).

This area of stolen land, west of the Weber River, was purchased by the three Wilson brothers from Brown in 1853. The new community was named in honor of the three brothers. Here, George Clinton, Lewis Dunbar and Bradley Barlow Wilson farmed and constructed the first bridge across the Weber River. Prior to the Mormons, the area was visited by many trappers seeking beavers and muskrats along its streams.

In 1874 the Wilson School District was created in the eastern part of West Weber and a one-room adobe school house was constructed; George Clinton is listed as a School Teacher. Industries similar to those of other Utah pioneer communities were established in Wilson, but the producing and manufacturing of beet sugar became unusually important in the community.

On May 9, 1874, George Clinton Wilson, the second son of Bradley Wilson and Polly Gill, died at the age of 73 in Ogden, Weber County, Utah. Elizabeth Kinney Wilson, died on January 13, 1892, and she was buried in Hooper, Weber County, Utah.

The Shoshone Peoples

Manifest Destiny as defined in Wikipedia

Journalist John L. O'Sullivan was an influential advocate for Jacksonian democracy and a complex character, described by Julian Hawthorne as "always full of grand and world-embracing schemes". O'Sullivan wrote an article in 1839 that, while not using the term "manifest destiny", did predict a "divine destiny" for the United States based upon values such as equality, rights of conscience, and personal enfranchisement "to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man". This destiny was not explicitly territorial, but O'Sullivan predicted that the United States would be one of a "Union of many Republics" sharing those values.

Six years later, in 1845, O'Sullivan wrote another essay titled Annexation in the Democratic Review, in which he first used the phrase manifest destiny. In this article he urged the U.S. to annex the Republic of Texas, not only because Texas desired this, but because it was "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions". Overcoming Whig opposition, Democrats annexed Texas in 1845. O'Sullivan's first usage of the phrase "manifest destiny" attracted little attention.

O'Sullivan's second use of the phrase became extremely influential. On December 27, 1845, in his newspaper the New York Morning News, O'Sullivan addressed the ongoing boundary dispute with Britain. O'Sullivan argued that the United States had the right to claim "the whole of Oregon":

And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.

That is, O'Sullivan believed that Providence had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy ("the great experiment of liberty"). Because the British government would not spread democracy, thought O'Sullivan, British claims to the territory should be overruled. O'Sullivan believed that manifest destiny was a moral ideal (a "higher law") that superseded other considerations.

O'Sullivan's original conception of manifest destiny was not a call for territorial expansion by force. He believed that the expansion of the United States would happen without the direction of the U.S. government or the involvement of the military. After Americans immigrated to new regions, they would set up new democratic governments, and then seek admission to the United States, as Texas had done. In 1845, O'Sullivan predicted that California would follow this pattern next, and that even Canada would eventually request annexation as well. He was critical of the Mexican–American War in 1846, although he came to believe that the outcome would be beneficial to both countries.

Ironically, O'Sullivan's term became popular only after it was criticized by Whig opponents of the Polk administration. Whigs denounced manifest destiny, arguing, "that the designers and supporters of schemes of conquest, to be carried on by this government, are engaged in treason to our Constitution and Declaration of Rights, giving aid and comfort to the enemies of republicanism, in that they are advocating and preaching the doctrine of the right of conquest". On January 3, 1846, Representative Robert Winthrop ridiculed the concept in Congress, saying "I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the universal Yankee nation." Winthrop was the first in a long line of critics who suggested that advocates of manifest destiny were citing "Divine Providence" for justification of actions that were motivated by chauvinism and self-interest. Despite this criticism, expansionists embraced the phrase, which caught on so quickly that its origin was soon forgotten.

The Mid-Nineteenth Century and Manifest Destiny in Practice

To provide context for this era, the following are some events of the time:

1846

The United States declares war on Mexico.
American settlers in Sonoma, California, start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the California Republic.
The Oregon Treaty establishes the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The Donner Party, a wagon train of 87 settlers traveling to California, is stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains by the first of several snowstorms. By the time a relief party reaches the starving settlers three months later, only 48 survivors are left, many of whom have survived by cannibalism.
December 28 – Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.

1847

Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the U.S. government.
Yerba Buena, California, is renamed San Francisco.
In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.
The United States issues its first postage stamps.
After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.
Charlotte Brontë publishes Jane Eyre under the pen name of Currer Bell in England.
The Great Famine continues in Ireland.

San Francisco harbor at Yerba Buena Cove in 1850 or 1851 — with Yerba Buena Island, and Berkeley Hills, in the background. Daguerrotype, from during the California Gold Rush. Unknown author [Library of Congress digital ID cph.3g07421]

1848

Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto (Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) in London.
The second abolition of slavery in France and its colonies initiated by Victor Schœlcher.
The Austrian army bombards Prague, and crushes a working-class revolt.
The 2-day women's rights convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York; "Bloomers" are introduced.
The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States that there is a gold rush in California.
Louisy Mathieu becomes the first black member to join the French Parliament, as a representative of Guadeloupe.
In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, the Boston Female Medical School opens.

1849

Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the United States' first woman doctor.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed, ending the Mexican–American War
Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins, with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay.
Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Gujrat – Forces of the British East India Company defeat those of the Sikh Empire in Punjab.
The United States Department of the Interior is established, incorporating the Census Office, General Land Office, Office of Indian Affairs and Patent and Trademark Office.
Zachary Taylor becomes the 12th president of the United States, but refuses to be sworn into office on a Sunday.
African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.

***Portrait of Harriet Tubman taken by Harvey Lindsley in Auburn, N.Y. between 1871 and 1876?, printed between 1895 and 1910 — Library of Congress, Washington DC.***

1850

The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's historical novel The Scarlet Letter is published in Boston, Massachusetts.
San Francisco is incorporated as a city in California.
The transportation of British convicts to Western Australia begins, as the transportation of British convicts to other parts of Australia is phased out, when the ship Scindian arrives in Fremantle, with 75 male prisoners.
The 1850 United States Census shows that 11.2% of the population classed as "Negro" are of mixed race.
Vice President Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th President of the United States upon the death of President Zachary Taylor, aged 65.
The Eusébio de Queirós Law is passed in the Brazilian Empire to abolish the international slave trade.
California is admitted as the 31st U.S. state.
Harriet Tubman becomes an official conductor of the Underground Railroad.
From this year until 1880, 144,000 East Indian laborers go to Trinidad and 39,000 to Jamaica.

1851

Great Flood of 1851: Extensive flooding sweeps across the Midwestern United States. The town of Des Moines is virtually washed away, and many rainfall records hold for 160 years.
Castle & Cooke, the predecessor of Dole Food Company, is founded in Hawaii.
The New York Times is founded in New York City.
Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick; or The Whale is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York, after being first published on October 18 in London, by Richard Bentley, in three volumes as The Whale.
The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal.
The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., burns.

1852

Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published in book form in Boston, Massachusetts.
Henry Wells and William Fargo create Wells Fargo & Company.
The Second Anglo-Burmese War begins.
Frederick Douglass delivers his famous speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", in Rochester, New York.
1852 United States presidential election: Democrat Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire defeats Whig Winfield Scott of Virginia.
Napoleon III becomes Emperor of the French.
Smith & Wesson is founded as a firearms manufacturer in the United States.
Mills College is founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in Benicia, California.

Image from Levi Strauss website [https://www.levistrauss.com/2020/02/06/levi-strauss-co-since-1850/]

1853

The clothing company Levi Strauss & Co. is founded in the United States.
The first passenger railway in India opens from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra, 22 miles (35 km).
The world's first public aquarium opens, at the London Zoo.
An outbreak of yellow fever kills 7,790 in New Orleans.
The Ottoman Empire begins war with Russia.
The United States buys approximately 77,000 square kilometres (30,000 sq mi) of land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.
Arthur de Gobineau begins publication of his An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines).

Sources

Illinois, Hancock County, Nauvoo Community Project, 1839-1846 (BYU Center for Family History and Genealogy)

United States Census, 1850

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Doctrine and Covenants 124

Brigham Young University, L. Tom Perry Special Collections / MSS 8000, Mormon Battalion Association records / Mormon Battalion Association records / Mormon Battalion Association biographies of original members, Box 53, Folder 19

Daniel A. Miller/John A. Cooley Company reports and record, 1853

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1846

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1847

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1848

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1849

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1850

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1851

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1852

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1853