Ann Sinclair and Robert Marshall

Quick note:

This is a time that keeping a "Book of Rememberance" has really truly helped.  My grandma, Ella Mae, had put together books of rememberance for each of her sons. I was going through my dad's and she had put a pedigree chart with small pictures of relatives of the McKinnon side. I was doing research on Ann and Robert Marshall and could not find ANY other pictures of them. On Memorial Day, my parents, Heather and I went to some cemteries that we hadn't been to before where our ancestors are buried. We went to the Bountiful one and searched for Ann and Robert Marshall, because we knew they were buried there. We couldn't find anything for them, so we went into the office to ask the caretaker where it was. As soon as I said the name, Robert Marshall, she showed me that all of the information they had on him was open on her desk. She was actually in the process of trying to find pictures and history of Robert and Ann and was not having any luck. The reason why she was researching them is because  Robert and Ann do NOT have a headstone and every year the Bountiful Cemetery puts out a book with histories of people that don't have headstones, and the proceeds of the book go toward getting these people headstones. So I emailed her the following history, along with the photos that my Grandma had put in my dad's book of rememberance. It is the only known photograph of Robert Marshall and the only 2 of Ann. Little did Grandma realize that 40 years after putting them in the book, I would be submitting some of the work she had done for her beloved husband's ancestors. I thought that was pretty neat.

Robert Marshall  and    Ann Sinclair

    1822-1865                               1825-1903



How we relate:

They are the parents of William Andrew Marshall,

Who is the father of Minnie Marshall McKinnon,

Who is the mother of Byron Eugene McKinnon,

Who is the father of Don McKinnon

Robert Marshall was born 22 January 1822, near Rumbling Bridge, Stirling, Scotland.  His parents were James Marshall and Isabella Bran Marshall.  Robert was baptized by Mormon missionaries into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on January 3, 1842 by Elder Rob Menzies, and confirmed by Edward Mensies.

            In 1849, Robert left his country of Scotland alone to join the call for saints to gather together. He boarded the ship The Zetland and departed from Liverpool, England on January 29, 1849. Orson Spencer was the church leader on that voyage tending to 358 LDS immigrants. The Zetland arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 2, 1849 and just 3 days later, the saints left New Orleans on the steamboat Iowa bound for St. Louis, Missouri.  During this time and at that part of the country, Cholera was common and spreading fast.  Soon after leaving New Orleans, cholera broke out among the passengers, and seven deaths occurred among the emigrants before the company arrived at their destination, three more died once they got there. 

              From St. Louis the Mormon emigrants continued the journey to Council Bluffs (Kanesville), Iowa,  arriving there on May 17, 1849 and joined the rest of the Mormon immigrants who would be heading west along with them.             Once arriving, Robert met Ann Sinclair Scott and her mother Ann Campbell Sinclair at Winter Quarters, Iowa.

  Ann Sinclair was born in Scotland on February 14, 1825. She had come with her mother and father to the USA in 1843. The Sinclair’s lived in New York for a few years and it was there Ann met and married a man named William Scott. Together Ann and William had one daughter named Mary Elizabeth.  Ann and her husband William, along with her parents joined a party of Mormons traveling west and spent the winter in one of the temporary tent villages known as Winter Quarters along the Missouri River during the harsh winter of 1848-1849.  Many Saints died that winter.  Ann and her mother, Ann, spent the winter nursing the sick. The hardships proved too much for William Scott and he left with a group of apostates and returned to the East and was never seen again.

Among the sick was Ann’s father, Daniel Sinclair. He had contracted the Cholera that was among the saints and died, leaving both Ann, her daughter, Mary, and her mother, Ann, alone to drive the wagon westward. 

The William S. Muir Company was getting ready to head westward when Ann’s mother. Ann. heard about Robert Marshall - a bachelor who had come alone to be with the saints and had no one to travel with. Ann (the mother) hired the young Robert Marshall to drive her oxen to the Salt Lake Valley, realizing it would be beneficial to both parties.                   

            The trek was difficult. Robert Marshall, Ann Sinclair and her mother along with the rest of the company suffered many hardships. Ann walked most of the way across the plains. She told of a time when they were so hungry, they boiled their leather shoe strings to try to derive some kind of nourishing soup from it. After the long trek across the plains and suffering many hardships, they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1849, with 2 yoke of oxen, and a covered wagon, which held all their earthly belongings in it.

            Soon after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Robert Marshall and Ann Sinclair Scott were married.  Admiration and love for each other could not help but grow, after all the troubles and trials they had passed through together while on the trail.  So it was no surprise when they were married in the following October 1849.  The wedding of Ann Sinclair Scott and Robert Marshall was the first marriage ceremony to be performed in Bountiful. They were sealed three years later, in the Endowment House, on the 11 August 1852.    

            They settled down in the Session’s Settlement (now West Bountiful, Davis County), Utah.  They had nine children. The children’s names in chronological order are: Mary Elizabeth Scott (from Ann’s first marriage), Robert (died when he was 5 yrs old), Daniel, James, Enoch (died at 1 yr of age), Wallace, William, Elijah and Robenia. 

             Robert Marshall worked hard at building up his homestead and raising his family – most of whom were boys.  Robert had 4 oxen and a good wagon. When they had settled in Bountiful, he immediately hauled logs from the canyon, built a house, granary, stables, sheds and corrals.  He proved to be a very good farmer and a hard worker. His wife Ann had followed in her mother’s footsteps and worked as a midwife and nurse. 

            Robert had sent for his mother Isabella Bran Marshall who was still living in Scotland and had her come live with them for a while in Utah.  She was a large strong woman, and she worked in the fields with him, while Ann took care of the babies and the

housework.

            In 1857, the US President (James Buchanan) didin’t like that a Mormon leader was the Governor of Utah (Brigham Young.)  So he sought to end a supposed rebellion in the Utah territory that was going on by the Mormons. In May of 1857, he assembled troops of 2,500 to get ready to be sent to Utah, the leader was Albert Sidney Johnston.  The saints had heard of this army that was coming and due to the past experience with Johnston, they were that the large US military force had been sent to annihilate them. Many of the saints prepared to move south to Provo or further. Due to the threats that had been made by Johnston and what his soldiers were going to do to Utah and its villages, Brigham Young declared Martial Law in August of that year. He also sent word to the general in charge that they were ready to fight any attempted invasion.

            They rendered every house in Salt Lake City, ready to set fire to, if the army started to siege the city.  They left, leaving a few men behind to start the fires if it became necessary.  They didn’t want them to be able to profit off of anything the saints had worked so hard for, as they had in Nauvoo.

            During  this time, Robert Marshall had been preparing along with others.  They bought lumber, built large boxes, and put their wheat in them.  They hauled them off to the mountains and hid them in caves, ledges of rocks and any other place that would be a good hiding spot.

            Robert’s and Ann’s oldest daughter, Mary Scott Marshall, was 12 years old by this time, Daniel Sinclair was 6 years, and James was 3.  Mary took care of the boys, and went with the rest of the Latter Day Saint people to Provo while her parents stayed back and got provisions ready.

            The army was supposed to wait for permission from his superiors before entering Salt Lake City, but General Johnston was headstrong and ignored the fact that they had no permission many of the orders from his superiors and tried to go forward. Brigham Young had dispatched the Mormon militia called the Nauvoo Legion, and the men spent countless nights in the mountains trying to prevent the army from entering the valley. The army, after many fail attempts to enter in the valley due to weather conditions and lack of feed, headed to Fort Bridger  Wyoming to make camp for the winter.

            In the meantime, President Buchanan had been receiving criticism for launching an army without any investigation to see whether the Mormon’s really were rebelling. Mediators began to leave for Utah to stop the fighting which was to begin. By March of 1859, the Mormons had decided not to resist federal authority.  The president sent a non-Mormon man named Alfred Cumming  to replace Brigham Young as Governor. The Mormons liked Cummings and they got along well with him. Later that spring, the Johnston Army finally made its way into the Salt Lake Valley, but they marched right on through, neither side harming the other.  They continued on and made camp at Cedar Valley for some time.  

            The Marshall family gathered up the boxes of the wheat they had hid and sold it along with other produce to the Army.  So in the end, Johnston’s Army turned out to be a blessing, rather than annihilation to the Latter Day Saint people.

             Robert Marshall’s mother, Isabella Bran Marshall, and also the parents of William S. Muir, who owned the adjoining farm, would not go South with the rest of the migration to the South.  They stayed on the farms and raised large crops of potatoes and wheat, and sold them to the Army.

            During this time, the unfortunate event of the Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred.  As a result of the Massacre, there were several children who became orphans and were left with our church, and they were put in the care of Isabella Bran and the Muirs, and they took them back to their relatives in the East.

              Isabella Bran Marshall eventually went back to Scotland and nothing more is known of her. Robert and Ann again settled down on their farm and built a nice home and moved from the log house into it. It had 4 or 5 big rooms, and a full basement, where they could store fruit and vegetables.

            One day they all went to town, (Salt Lake City), when they were returning, about half way home, they saw a big smoke, and as they came closer, discovered it was their own home.  When they arrived home, all that was left was the rock foundation and ashes. Robert built another house, just like the first one, on the old rock foundation and still had the full basement for storage.  Before the home was fully completed, the cold weather set in and due to the weather and overexposure, Robert contracted Pneumonia and died on December 21, 1865. He was only 43 years of age when he died, so in 17 years, from the time he was married, he built up his homestead, raised a family, 8 living 3 had passed away.  He was always a good friend and neighbor, and lived an honorable life. 



Ann with her daughters Mary and Robenia

             Ann was left to raise the rest of her family alone. She had many struggles and tribulations and it was no small job trying to teach five boys in the way they should live. When the crops were harvested, every tenth pumpkin, every tenth sack of potatoes, etc. was set aside for tithing.

            Ann continued to work as a midwife. She always had a clean dress hung on a nail at the head of her bed that she could put on at a moment’s notice since most of the time she was called out in the night. She charged three dollars to attend to a mother and baby for ten days. One time, Ann was called to assist a mother that was about to give birth, she went outside to get into the buggy, but noticed there was no horse. When she inquired about that, the expectant father said “Never mind the horse, just get into the buggy!” When she was seated, he took the place of the horse and started on. Ann, having a keen sense of humor, noticed the buggy whip and when he would start to slow down, she didn’t hesitate to tap him with it.

            Ann never married again after the death of Robert and lived until 1903. She and Robert are buried in the Bountiful Cemetery, they have no headstone as of yet.

Sources:

·         History of Robert Marshall compiled by Robert Grant Marshall (grandson)

·         Millennial Star, Volume XI, pages 56, 155, 183,254.  Frontier Guardian, of May 2, 1849,   cont. 13:5 (Mar. 1892) ,P.234

·         Autobiography of Minnie Marshall McKinnon

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_War