#52 Ancestors Week 51 -"Nice"

Keziah Miles Goodman Warner Maw

1834-1914

I remembered seeing a family who gave every one of the children Goodman for a middle name. Male and female. The prompt "Nice" led me to Goodman. A bit of a stretch, but it really paid off. I found out about the family and also took a detour into American history. They are my maternal ancestors. I wrote about my 1st cousin 5x removed Edward Maw here. Keziah Miles Goodman Warner (1834 - 1914) was his fourth wife. In succession, not as a polygamist! They were amongst the earliest Mormons who joined Brigham Young in settling Salt Lake City, Utah. 



Because the Church of Latter Day Saints keeps such good records, I was able to discover a lot about Miss Keziah and her journey from England to Utah. At age 20, she embarked on the ship "The Clara Wheeler" which left Liverpool November 27, 1854. Two days into the voyage she married her 1st husband William Anderson Warner (1826 -1863). There are wonderful accounts from many passengers aboard the Clara Wheeler here.  Apart from a measles outbreak killing 21 of the passengers, reports are that it was a relatively easy trip. Christmas Day they "enjoyed themselves on deck and finished the day with music." The ship arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 12, 1855. 

From New Orleans they set out on their land journey to Utah. The following was written by Keziah Miles Goodman Warner herself describing what she saw:

“I embarked with a large company of Saints on board the Golden State bound for Atchison, Kansas the outfitting point for the overland journey to Salt Lake. . . . We found many large camps of Saints scattered on the prairie near Atchison, outfitting for their journey across the plains. Far as the eye could reach in every direction were to be seen the tents of Israel with their vast herds of cattle grazing on the rolling prairie. The largest of these encampments was out about twelve miles from the river at what was known as ‘Mormon Grove.’["] . . .

”Our oxen were very wild and one day a friendly Indian in his brightly colored blanket stopped and the first team became frightened. It started a stampede and one little boy fell from a wagon and was killed. During our travels, many took sick and died, and had to be buried by the roadside. Many of our oxen also died and we were forced to leave many wagons behind.”

[“]President Brigham Young was expecting us, and he sent some men with provisions to meet us as our supplies were getting very low.”

📷-Karen Williams Thorne

Keziah Miles Goodman and her husband William Warner made it to the promised land where they had three sons and a daughter in 8 years, all with the middle name of Goodman. William Warner died  at the age of 36, making Keziah a widow at age 29. Eight months later she became the fourth wife of my 1st cousin 5 times removed, 55 year old Edward Maw, Jr. In Edward's three previous marriages his wives passed away very young. After the death of his third wife, Christiana Snell Maw (1831-1861)he set sail to Utah. He was the father of 11 surviving children by his three wives making a grand total of 15 children between the two. Edward and Keziah would have three sons (all with the middle name Goodman) and one daughter. 19 children in total. The photo on the right is of some of the blended family. From the left -
Job Goodman Warner, William Goodman Warner, Heber Goodman Warner, Margaret Ann "Maggie" Goodman Warner, and Alice Snell Maw.

This time period in American history fascinates me, the westward expansion (of white people). To place some of my distant ancestors with Brigham Young as Pioneers of the Mormon Church puts a face on it. I'm not sure if any of their progeny became polygamists, but I do wonder how genealogy sites like ancestry.com, etc. manage those statistics!

                          Brigham Young (seated near the middle) and an exploring party camped at the Colorado River in 1870.
                                                                         📷 credit: Charles Roscoe Savage