Question: What happened to David Frederick on the Mormon Battalion trek to Santa Fe in 1846?
Answer: David Frederick was born on 15 September 1801, in Mendon, Monroe, New York, the oldest son of Philip Frederick and Catherine Germon.
On 16 January 1825, David married Mary Evarts, and they had two children while living in Orleans County, New York. They then moved to Michigan, where Mary and her third child died in October 1837. On 12 August 1838, David married Martha Ingersoll in Monroe, Michigan. David and Martha had two children while living in Michigan.
It was in Michigan, about 1843 that David and Martha became members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. David and Martha decided to move to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Saints were gathering. While living there, Martha gave birth to her third child in April 1844, but Martha and the baby both died. David was ordained a Seventy and was endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on 29 January 1846.
After the Saints were forced out of Nauvoo, David made his way to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Here, in 1846 he became a member of the Mormon Battalion in Company A as a Private in Lieutenant Willis’s detachment. He marched with the Battalion from Council Bluffs to Santa Fe, New Mexico. During the trek, he contracted a cold and fever which settled in his right eye, which caused the lose of sight in that eye. David was dispatched with the Sick Detachment and sent to Fort Pueblo, Colorado. Here the members spent the winter of 1846/47. In the spring the Sick Detachment headed to the Salt Lake Valley. They arrived a few days after Brigham Young’s Vanguard Company in July 1847. The Battalion members were discharged there and did not have to go on to California.
David worked as a farmer in the Salt Lake Valley until 1852, at which time he decided to move on to San Bernardino, California. On 16 October 1853, David married Mary Ann Winner in San Bernardino. They had three children together.
After their third child was born in 1858, David and Mary decided to move back to Utah. They settled in Parowan, Utah, where Mary died 22 February 1859. David moved to Huntington, Utah, where he died 2 February 1888. He was buried in the Huntington City Cemetery on 9 February 1888.
Source: Excerpts from Article on David Frederick, FamilySearch.org; Sources listed on FamilySearch.org; FindAGrave.com
No Comments yet!