Friday, November 21, 2008

Thomas Bullock was a cool guy, but . . . . .

Thomas Bullock was a cool guy. He gets mentioned in the early history of the church often, and there are quite a few things we know in church history because he wrote it down. But, we are not related to him. I am guessing that they possibly knew each other since they were in many of the same places at the same time.

Our first Bullock ancestor to join the church was James Bullock. His wife was Mary Hill. They emigrated from Scotland to Canada and joined the church in 1840. They moved to Nauvoo in 1841. They had interesting things happen to them but didn't keep journals nearly as well as Thomas (maybe it's genetic and that's why we're not so good at it either--except for my mom and maybe Aunt Georgia).

Thomas and Mary came across the plains in 1848 bringing their family. At that time they had three children--Alexander Hill Bullock (known as Sandy--our Great-great Grandfather), Elizabeth, and Mary. Their oldest child, Thomas, died when he was just a few months old in 1837. They lost two another children, Janet (age 8) and Isabella (age 2 1/2), in 1847 while they were at Winter Quarters. Their last child, James Orson, was born in 1849 after they reached the Salt Lake Valley.

Besides taking their own children across the plains they took on the responsibility of bringing the six motherless children of their friend Orson Spencer, who was on a mission to England. They had two teams and wagons and Alexander who was ten at the time drove one and his father drove the other. Aurelia Spencer grew up to become the first Primary President. James Bullock died in 1850 and he is buried in the Salt Lake Cemetery.

There are no pictures of James, but here's one of Alexander:




I found all this information in the Kenneth Bullock Book A Genealogy of James Bullock and Mary Hill, Latter Day Saint Pioneers It's a big blue book that was published in 1964. There are some fun pictures (I am even in one--since I am the oldest cousin/grandchild. I think that everyone in the family (i.e. Harold and Lola and their kids) bought a copy. You can probably find one to look at in a family bookcase somewhere!


Here's a later picture of Alexander and his first wife Emily Caroline Harris:


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