CAMPBELL, Catherine-[834] ^{1 2 3 4 5}

   Ancestral File Number: 17G5-MW.

   General Notes:

SUP-Pioneer Memorial Gallery Index Cards. Copied from Ancestry.com 4/26/2002

Name: Catherine Campbell
Spouse: John Steele
Pioneer: before 1869
Birth Date: 16 Nov 1816
Death Date: 15 Jun 1891
Birth Place: Strabane Tyrone, Ireland
Death Place: Parowan, Utah
Donor: Arthello M. Steele


Utah, Our Pioneer Heritage. Copied from Ancestry.com 4/26/2002
Our Pioneer Heritage
Volume 1
Women and Children of the Mormon Battalion
Catherine Steele

Catherine Campbell, daughter of Michael Campbell and Mary Knox, was born in Belfast, Ireland, November 16, 1816. She became the wife of John Steele, member of the Mormon Battalion, Company D. under Captain Nelson Higgins. From his journal we quote: "The 500 men having arrived at the Missouri River were organized into five companies under five captains. In all we had 513 menand 20 women who got the privilege to go along with their husbands. I also had my wife Catherine and my daughter, Mary, who was about five years old when we started from camp and from our old friends. I left all my earthly possessions with brother Louis Zabriskie, took one blanket apiece for me and my wife, a tin cup apiece, knife and fork apiece, and a spoon, and for the first time laid us down on the cold ground, one blanket under and one over us, and then I felt as though it was hard fare. We were both sick of ague and fever....Colonel Allen was a very kind man and felt for us in our situation, and he had the doctor wait constantly upon the sick, especially my wife. About the 28th of July the health of the company began to improve ... passed through several small towns, came through Jamestown on the 29th also through St. Joseph, also a town called Bloomington on Friday the 31st. August 1st we crossed the Missouri River and marched to our campgrounds in good order. There were 400 volunteers quartered there and 70 regular troops. We stayed there until the 15th, when we took our departure to join Gen. Kearney's army as fast as we could. He had gone on before with all the troops he could get at the time for Santa Fe. When we got our belts, guns, knapsacks, haversacks and canteens on we were harnessed like a mule.

"On September 2nd we traveled very fast for 16 miles and came up with a company of Missouri cavalry volunteers. Here water was scarce. Here in this desert we were ordered up at 4 o'clock in the morning with the promise we would eat breakfast soon, but we made 30 miles first. My mess consisted of myself, Levi Savage, Ezra Fatoute and Howard Thomas, also my wife and little daughter Mary.
"We soon went on through the great forest of cedar wood and came to San Miguel where ladies were on top of the house, and when they saw that I had women in my wagon they hastened down and sent their old father to invite us in. Then when the women got out of the wagon there was such a hugging as I had never seen before, as that was their manner of saluting. We didn't stay there long as I discovered skulking around the corrals a great number of men, and as my team was the last and I was alone, I must hasten on. It was well I did as I was told they were planning to steal my little girl ((Mary). After much travel we landed at Santa Fe October 12, 1846, where 250 brethren got there the day before us. The flag was flying, all went merry as a marriage bee....

"At this time our Adjutant, G. P. Dykes, had made out his returns for a division of the company as Col. P. St. George Cooke was to lead the Mormon Battalion to California, and the sick men and women were to go to Bent's Fort and join Captain Higgins detachment and as all the men who had their wives along were able-bodied, I found there was likely to be a separation of the men and their wives. So I went to find out if I could put my name down to go back and be with my wife, although I was not sick. I went to G. P. Dykes who told me to see Dr. Sanderson and he told me I couldn't. So I wentto see all the men who had wives and none of them would go. Finally I found John Hess." (It is recorded in the journals of John Hess and John Steele that these two men were responsible for getting permission from General Alexander W. Doniphan for the men to accompany their wives to Pueblo).

"On the morning of the 18th of October, 1846, we commenced our journey for Bent's Fort. We had 87 men, 20 women and many children and our destination was Pueblo on the Arkansas River under Captain James Brown and others. We built 18 or 20 houses, a blacksmith shop and a large corral. Later we also built a meeting-house. From November until May many companies joined us, many died and were buried. On May 24th the captain and company returned from Santa Fe and brought word to us to leave Pueblo, and on the 29th of July, 1847 we came into the Valley.

"On August 9, 1847 my wife speedily delivered a fine little girl who was named Young Elizabeth Steele, in honor of President Young and for my sister Elizabeth. The child grew rapidly and both mother and child did well. This was the first white child born in the Valley.

"On September 1st I finished an adobe house for my family. We went to work, put in grain and was about to harvest it when the first company came in and turned their cattle loose and devoured our crops. Many of the soldier boys were starving so a petition was sent to the High Council signed by some of the soldiers asking aid for the men of the Mormon Battalion and their families. President Young had told the people to be willing to divide their foodstuff. Said he, 'None of you could have come here had our Battalion not gone on ahead.' This petition occupied the attention of the council for sometime, then they began to make some kind of arrangements to sell off some wagons and purchase provisions, but on the 17th of November our army pay came in from the government ... Some cried, 'We cannot live here, away to California.' And the faith of many were shaken, but as the Lord always holds the balance of the power, now came the time the leaders had to call on the soldiers to stay by them. We were told God sent us here and here we are going to stay, come weal, come woe. This seemed to turn the tide of affairs in our favor but times looked dark and hunger stared us in the face every step until the 15th of July when we began to get some new wheat. Prosperity seemed at last to dawn permanently upon me. I was blessed in everything I put my hand to.... "
During these trying times and the years ahead Catherine stood loyally by the side of her husband sharing with him and their nine children the joys and sorrows that came their way. They made their first home in Toquerville, Washington County and then moved to Kanarra, Iron County, where Catherine passed away. —Mildred Christensen

Mary Steele, the little girl who accompanied her father and mother on the march of the Battalion was born December 23, 1840 in Belfast, Ireland. According to the diary of her husband, Joseph Fish, to whom she was married on the 22nd day of March, 1859, Amasa M. Lyman performed the ceremony. She was then eighteen years of age. He says:

We started out quite young, inexperienced and with little of this world's goods. My father gave me what he could; I used his things and worked with him as I had done before. My fortune now consisted of Mary, whom I valued quite highly, for she was a very smart and intelligent woman. My earthly belongings were one yoke of steers, a cow, and one Spanish mare which I traded off for sheep. With this start we went bravely to work. We lived with my father until I could get a small building roofed that my father had built for a granary. We then moved into it and commenced to keep house for ourselves. Our furniture was limited, and more was not easily obtained in this place. James H. Martineau moved north this spring and sold most of his household goods. I succeeded in purchasing from him a clock, looking glass, Book of Mormon, and a few other things which gave us a little start. As for cupboards, tables, and such things I made all we had. Few ever started out in life with so little, and few ever got along so well or enjoyed life better than we did."

Mary was the mother of six children, Mary Josephine, Frances Amelia, Delphina Catherine, Joseph Campbell, John Lazell and Jessie May. The family home was in Parowan, Utah, where Mary passed away.

Utah Since Statehood: Historical and Biographical. Volume I.
Chapter XXIV: Salt Lake City (copied from Ancestry.com 4/26/2002)
A Few First Things

The first white child born in the Great Salt Lake Valley was Elizabeth Steele, daughter of John Steele, a member of the Mormon battalion, and his wife Catherine C. Steele, the child's birth occurring on August 9, 1847, a short time after the arrival of the parents.


LDS Military Records 1840-47. Copied from Ancestry.com 4/26/2002
THE MORMON BATTALION
FAMILIES WHO ACCOMPANIED THE BATTALION

Mrs. Catherine Steele, wife of John Steele; daughter: Mary, also Elizabeth (born twelve days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley

   Events:

1. Alt. Birth, 16 Nov 1816, Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland.

2. Alt Seal to Parents, 21 Jan 1879.

3. Description. ⁶ Of Scotch Campbell family, refined and well educated.

Catherine married John STEELE, Jr-[835] [MRIN:286], son of John STEELE, Sr.-[2678] and Ann or Nancy KENNEDY-[2679], on 1 Jan 1840 in Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland. (John STEELE, Jr-[835] was born on 21 Mar 1821 in Holywood, Down, Ireland, died on 31 Dec 1903 in Kanarraville, Iron, Utah, USA and was buried on 2 Jan 1904 in Parowan, Iron, Utah, USA.)