Ellen Mary Carter Bone

William Stockdale & Granddaughter
Ellen Mary Carter Bone

  Born: January 24, 1837 in Plymouth, England

  Died: November 12, 1915 in Kaysville, Utah

  Parents: Edwin J and Mary Ann Stockdale Carter

  Married: William Henry Bone on August, 10 1854                    in Kennford, England

  Children: Ellen Mary, Rhoda Jane, William James,   Francis, Emma, Thomas Henry, Alice, Clara,           Florence, Clarence, Annie, Richard Edwin

  Overland Travel Company: Milo Andrus 1861

  Relationship to Me: 3rd Great Grandmother             (Bone Branch)

Ellen Mary was the fourth of six children born to Edwin and Mary Ann. In 1842, when Ellen was about 4 years old, her father died unexpectedly in a mining accident leaving Mary Ann to care for their five children alone. (Ellen Mary had an older sister who was also named Ellen, but she died in infancy.) Her mother worked hard and made many sacrifices to care for her children and make sure that their needs were met. In 1845 Mary Ann married James Martin and the couple had a son that they named James. A few years later James Sr died and Mary Ann was left alone again, but this time her children were older and were able to help support the family. In 1851 the family was introduced to the gospel of the LDS Church, and soon after Mary Ann was baptized.

In 1856 Ellen met and married William Henry Bone. A few months after, the couple were baptized and confirmed in the LDS Church. A daughter, Ellen Mary, was born to them and soon after they set sail for America. They stopped first in New York, where two more children were born. Once they had saved enough money to continue on, the family pressed forward, traveling by train as far as Florence, Nebraska. Here, they purchased a wagon, oxen, and a handcart. They joined the Milo Andrus Company and began their journey to Zion. Ellen, her brother James, and her mother Mary Ann pushed the handcart, while William and the little girls alternated walking and riding in the wagon. Due to a debilitating childhood injury, William was only able to walk a short distance at a time.

The family arrived in Salt Lake City on September 12, 1861 and settled in Kaysville, where Ellen's two sisters, Jane and Mary Ann, were living. Eventually the couple homesteaded land in Layton and purchased a farm in Kaysville.

Like most pioneer women Ellen put forth a great deal of effort to see to it that her family was taken care of. The following is an excerpt from her life story written by her granddaughter Alberta Streeper:

"A fireplace was built in one end of the large living room where Ellen baked bread in a Dutch oven by heaping hot embers over and around it. She preserved potawatomi plums in molasses, gathered service berries (pronounced service), wild currants, greens, (lambs tongue), sego roots, and in the spring made a tonic of various herbs to cleanse the blood from winter. A small bag of asafetida was worn around the neck to ward off disease. All clothes were made by hand, tiny stitches made by her nimble fingers, a work of art, all were washed by hand on a washboard, a wooden frame around corrugated metal that stood in the tub, soap was rubbed onto the clothes and the clothes rubbed up and down on the corrugated metal.
Large ticks were made of denim and filled with straw or corn husks for mattresses. She tore inch wide strips of cloth from worn out clothing, sewed the ends together, wound them into one pound balls, had them woven into yard wide strips which she sewed together making a carpet for the floors. She, as nearly all pioneer women, was very industrious, making their homes as pleasant as their means and provisions could provide."

William Bone's Funeral
Ellen Mary Carter Bone is Seated

Ellen also kept beautiful flower gardens, and an orchard. There was a well in the yard which was open for use to anyone needing a drink. She kept a vegetable garden, even in her older years.

In November of 1915 Ellen fell ill with pneumonia and passed away in her home. She was buried next to William, who had passed 15 years before her.