WILLDEN FAMILY--English Preacher and Mormon Pioneer

1852 Kanesville, Iowa

Sheffield, England Baptist Church

Missouri River Steamboat

1850's Sidewheeler

1851 Port of New Orleans, La

1850's Oceanic Sailing Vessel

On a hot August day in 1839, in the little market village of Sheffield, Yorkshire, in England, a Baptist Minister by the name of Charles William WILLDEN made a choice that would forever transform the lives of his English wife and their four small children. The 33 year-0ld ironworker from Anston, a small town down the road in Yorkshire, would on this day be baptized into the recently founded "Church of Christ", as the Mormon church was originally called. Having already made a previous social risk of leaving the Church of England to become a Minister of a Protestant Baptist Church, the decision to join the new "American" religion of the Mormons so soon after England had lost the Revolutionary War, must have also been an interesting time for the WILLDEN family. His wife Eleanor, not so easily convinced of the new theology, would remain a member of the Baptist Church for four more years before her baptism into her husband's faith. Charles and Eleanor WILLDEN are the 2nd great grandparents of Tonya WILLDEN MARTINI, on her father's side.

The WILLDEN family remained in England for the next ten years, until responding to the call of their Church for the "gathering of Zion" in the American western Territory of Utah. On October 25, 1849, Charles and Eleanor WILLDEN said goodbye to their England farm, and began the trek to the port at Liverpool, where they would board the ship to America. After sleeping for five nights on the dock in Liverpool, the WILLDEN family boarded and set sail on the ship "Zetland" on November 10, 1849, one family among 200 Mormon converts traveling together. The oceanic voyage would take six weeks before they arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, with less than a penny to their names, but over 100 pounds of oatmeal to eat and sell. Journals tell us that the ocean-trip was very cold, and the seven WILLDEN children were bathed in the salty sea water in barrels and tubs. The little ship averaged around 6 or 7 knots, and passengers began getting seasick from the very first day, a problem which caused unrest and altercations among the English and Irish immigrants onboard. A glimpse of how long and boring this journey could be is found in the journals, which recorded every time they spotted another "vessel"...and on some days noted only "no vessel in sight". There was at least one marriage, one death, several worship services, hymn singing, and as on all ships in the 1800's....plenty of prayers. There were rains and water in the hold of the ship which had to be pumped twice daily.
Eventually, the "Zetland" reached the mouth of the Mississippi River, and following the joyous prayers of thanks, and journey's end celebrations, ...the ship promptly got stuck on a sand bar for several days, until two tug boats brought it into the Port of New Orleans, at 9 p.m, on Christmas Eve. The WILLDEN family had arrived in America.
The Captain gave his crew a holiday on Christmas Day, and the families were not able transfer their belongings off the ship until the next day. Charles WILLDEN planned to take his family upriver to St. Louis, but found he did not have enough money to pay the fare, so he and his sons cut firewood and performed other odd jobs until they all boarded the steamer "Ben West" on December 29, 1849. Charles described the "Ben West" steamboat as "a miserable boat" with "no room to breathe", and "scarcely fit for passengers"...and it would get worse for the WILLDEN family. Fog and mist caused them to anchor for hours, and when under way, the Mississippi River was dangerous with fallen tree snags and driftwood damaging the side-paddle wheels of the boat. On January 4, 1850, little Maria WILLDEN, the less-than two years old daughter of Charles and Eleanor, died onboard the "Ben West". The boat anchored near Council Bend, Arkansas, and a burial service was held at a spot that today has been re-claimed by the Mississippi River and its many course changes. One week later, January 11, 1850, the saddened WILLDEN family arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, soon to face a long and difficult thousand-mile overland journey to the Utah Territory.
In St. Louis, once again Charles WILLDEN and his sons would have to work to make enough money to finance the next leg of the trip....another steamboat ride, this time on the already historic Missouri River that had carried Lewis and Clark and thousands of others... fur trappers, explorers, Indians, and settlers...toward the ever-expanding American West. The steamboat "Correy" left the dock in St. Louis on April 12, 1850, and after an uneventful journey along the wide Missouri River, even with its cottonwood tree snags threatening the little boat at every bend, the WILLDEN family arrived at Kanesville (now Council Bluffs), Iowa, on May 4, 1850.
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