Samuel Badham

Question: Where did Samuel Badham settled after having served in the Mormon Battalion in 1846?

Answer: Samuel Badham was born 15 August 1815, in Much Cowarne, Herefordshire, England, to John Badham and Frances Hide Wood. Samuel married Mary Bishop on 10 October 1838, in Stanford Bishop, Herefordshire, England. They had two children before leaving England, but their oldest, a daughter, Charlotte, died at age five months, in 1841.

On 21 June 1840 Samuel became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and made the decision to immigrate to the United States to be with the Saints. After a long and tiresome trip, Samuel and his wife and one son, James (age one) reached America in 1843, and soon located in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. Here his wife, Mary, died on 9 June 1844, after the birth of her third child, Robert, who was born in March and died in April 1844.

On 20 May 1845, Samuel married Mary Doggett Richards. She was one of fourteen children of Augustus Richards and Frances Lee Doggett. Samuel and Mary had a son, Milvern, in February 1846. When the Saints were persecuted out of Nauvoo, Samuel moved on to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Here Samuel enlisted as a private in Company D of the U.S. Mormon Battalion and left on 16 July 1846. After walking hundreds of miles to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Samuel was in LT Willis’ sick detachment that traveled back from Santa Fe to winter in Pueblo, Colorado, arriving on 10 November 1846. He was in the group of Battalion members to enter the Salt Lake Valley 29 July 1847. A month later some members of the Battalion traveled back to Winter Quarters to re-unite with their families.

After Samuel made his way back to Winter Quarters, he found his baby son, Milvern, had died on 1 August 1846, while he was gone. Samuel decided not to return to the Salt Lake Valley, but settled in Mills County, Iowa. Mary was from Ohio, and not a member of the Church, and wanted to stay near her parents and other family members who had settled in Iowa. Her one brother, Silas Richards, joined the Church and immigrated to Utah.

Samuel and Mary had six more children: Frances, who became the wife of William Gaylord and died at Shenandoah, Iowa, leaving two children; Amazon Harrison; Violet, who became the wife of William James and died at Pleasant Hill, Missouri, January, 1877, leaving three children; Juan, who died at the age of two years; and Mary, who married Charles M. Wilson and died in western Nebraska, leaving two children.

Later when Samuel Badham died, on May 20, 1868, in Henderson, Mills, Iowa, his wild prairie farm had become a valuable piece of property, worth twenty-five dollars an acre, and he also possessed a thousand dollars’ worth of other property. All this had been accumulated by the time he was fifty-two years old. Samuel was buried in the Farm Creek Cemetery in Henderson, Mills, Iowa.

Since Samuel was a veteran of the Mexican war, his wife, Mary, received a pension until she died. Mary died April 2, 1898, at the age of seventy-six.

Sources: Sources on FamilySearch.org; FindAGrave.com