Mary Jane Sampson Lemmon

Mary Jane was one year old when her family lived at Shoal Creek, about four miles from Haun's Mill.  The family was at the mill at the time the Missouri mob murdered and ravaged.  After the night of horror Mary Jane's family fled to Iowa for refuge.

The Sampson family was living in Eastern Iowa near Nauvoo, Illinois when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred.

There is no record yet found of the Sampson family's trip west, but their experiences would not have varied much from those of other pioneers.

The Sampsons were either assigned or they chose to go to Provo where Mary Jane's older sister, Margaret and her husband, Ransford Colby, lived.

While in Provo, Mary Jane met John Lemmon.  They were married in 1852.  Mary Jane was only fifteen years old.  Their marriage was solemnized in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, by Heber C. Kimball, who was John's boyhood friend.

Mary Jane and John were called by Brigham Young to go to Fillmore in Millard County.  Their two oldest children were born there.  From Fillmore, Mary Jane and John moved their family to Meadow Creek, a few miles south of Fillmore, where their first daughter was born.  Two years later they moved to Spring City, Sanpete County, where a second daughter was born.

The Lemmons moved to Ephraim, where another baby girl was added to the family.  When the baby was but seven days old, Mary Jane passed away, at the young age of twenty-six years.  Her daughter Martha Jane wrote, "My mother's last thoughts were for her children and she requested my father take us girls to Provo to live with our grandparents, Isacc and Martha Sampson.  Because the baby was so young and the ways of transportation so hard, my father felt that it would be best to let Sister Allred care for her a short time.  So we left our baby sis ter in Ephraim, with Sister Allred and us girls went to Provo with my father.

Children:

William Smith, 27 December 1854

Peter Kimball, 26 May 1856

Martha Jane, 25 November 1858

Mary Ann, 1 March 1861

Elizabeth Jane, 12 August 1863

(Source: Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, Volume II F to L, International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, P. 1768)