Isaac Selman and Margaret Giles
1808 -1863 1814-1884
How we relate:
Isaac and Margaret are the parents of
Charles Selman who is the father of
George Lleyellen Selman who is the father of
Veda Marine Selman Hampson who it the mother of
Nancy Hampson McKinnon
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Isaac Selman was born in England on August 11, 1808 to Charles Selman and Mary Perrin. He was the sixth out of eight children. Not much is known about his childhood.
In 1835 Isaac met a woman name Margaret Giles - sometimes referred to as "Mary." Margaret was born on September 18, 1814 in England to William Giles and Ann/Catherine Fray(Fry). She was the third child of 6 children.
Isaac and Margaret got married on Nov 4, 1835 in Gloucester, England. While living there, they had 5 children: Ann (b1836), Hannah (b1839), Joseph (b1841), Mary (b1844), and Charles (b1847). Sometime around the year 1849, the family moved to Glamorgan Wales. Here Isaac and Margaret had 3 more children: William (b 1849), Hyrum (b1851), and Mormon Vernon (b1856).
In 1835 Isaac met a woman name Margaret Giles - sometimes referred to as "Mary." Margaret was born on September 18, 1814 in England to William Giles and Ann/Catherine Fray(Fry). She was the third child of 6 children.
Isaac and Margaret got married on Nov 4, 1835 in Gloucester, England. While living there, they had 5 children: Ann (b1836), Hannah (b1839), Joseph (b1841), Mary (b1844), and Charles (b1847). Sometime around the year 1849, the family moved to Glamorgan Wales. Here Isaac and Margaret had 3 more children: William (b 1849), Hyrum (b1851), and Mormon Vernon (b1856).
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| Margaret and daughter Hannah |
After moving to Wales, they were introduced to Mormon missionaries in 1849. Margaret was baptized on July 8, 1849 and a bit later Isaac was baptized on July 21, 1849. The family remained in Wales for the next 15 years or so when they began to gradually relocate to Utah.
From 1850 to 1868, the Perpetual Emigration Fund (which originated in 1849), was the means of assisting many thousands of Saints to emigrate to Utah. The Selman family took part in this. In 1860, daughters Ann and Mary emigrated to Utah 1860, Ann marrying on board ship. Hannah went 1862.
In 1864, Isaac died at age 56. About 6 weeks after his father's death, son William John boarded a ship and crossed the Atlantic to the United States. In 1866 Margaret took her youngest son, Mormon Vernon, aged 10 at the time, and boarded the ship called the "Arkwright" in Liverpool and set sail for America. Charles was the last son to cross the ocean in 1868. Only two of Isaac and Margaret's children did not come to America - Joseph and Hyrum.
The "Arkwright" ship had two decks and left Liverpool on May 30, 1866. The ship carried 450 Mormons across the Atlantic ocean. After 37 days at sea, it arrived at its port in New York, USA.
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| Example of an Emigration ship |
Once they had arrived at New York, they stayed there for about two weeks until they met with members of the church that came to take the group on westward as far as Nebraska, where they would finish the trek to Utah. After traveling by train, they arrived in Nebraska, and the group stayed there and rested a few days, before leaving on the next leg of their journey.
August 2, 1866 a group of 400 people with 65 wagons joined together and started the journey to Utah in the Joseph Rawlins company. Margaret and Mormon's last name is listed as Salmon in the manifest.
Here is an excerpt of recollections written by a man named Robert Aveson who traveled in the same group as Margaret and Mormon:
There were some pleasant hours spent together, and also some sad scenes transpired during that long journey. It took years to obtain sufficient means to pay the way to the frontier, and especially so if there were many in the family, for the mechanic and laboring man had long hours and small wages in those days in old England and other parts of Europe. They lived economically to make the sacrifice. Often were they deprived of many comforts of life through their sacrifice, in order to accomplish the heart's desire— to gather to the land of Zion. One of the sad scenes on the journey was when death occurred on the way, and there were nine deaths on our company. In our days of affluence we have many advantages and blessings here which could not be obtained before immigrating; conditions for prosperity in this country were so far ahead of those obtainable in the land of our birth.
Well do I remember just before we started on that journey, Aug. 2, 1866, how we were called together to receive instructions pertaining to our travels, and sang the songs of Zion, then bowed in humble prayer to our Heavenly Father for the preservation of our live during our travels. At that time the Indians were troublesome. In regard to the rations on our journey: We had our weekly allowance, per head, of flour, bacon, rice, dried fruit, etc. Traveling in the open air made us hungry and we relished our food. The only thing that troubled me, being a growing lad, was that I wished the allowance could have been larger.
The company arrived in Utah in October of 1866. Margaret and Mormon met up with her children who had previously traveled. They ended up settling in Payson. Margaret got sealed to Isaac in 1870. Margaret moved in with her son William and his family and stayed there until her death on April 4, 1886.
Sources:
- Pioneers and prominent men of Utah (page 223 of 293)
- Aveson, Robert, "Ox-Team Pioneer Recalls Joys of Long Trek," in Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 22 July 1922
- "Emigrants and Trains," Semi-Weekly Telegraph, 5 July 1866, 3.
- Charles Selman obituary
- Payson cemetery
- Ancestry.com for census
