Pioneer Day

July 24 is a special day if you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It's Pioneer day, the day that the saints made it to their destination, the Salt Lake Valley. I cannot imagine the relief and happiness that they felt on this day. I wish we could have been in Utah for this celebration -they have parades, fireworks, festivals, BBQ's, the works.

I've been busy packing all day, but I've been busy thinking about my ancestors that were part of this movement. The people who sacrificed so much so I could have what I have now. I know this is a long, wordy post, but it's for my journal and for my mom, who of course, already knows these stories, but I thought it might make her day to see them posted on my blog.

My mom is a wonderful historian, she is the only living person in her immediate family left and does a wonderful job passing information on to us so we won't forget her heritage. In February she sent us all emails from a cousin of hers that had wrote some family histories. They included great stories and I wish I could post them all. (If you want to read more, I would love to send anyone these great stories!)

Since it's Pioneer Day I thought I would post some short excerpts about my Grandmother Jensen's mother, Ann Allan Paton Low. She was the mother of TEN children, the tenth being my grandmother.

Ann Allan Paton Low
1842 - 1905

Ann Alan Paton Low, daughter of James Paton and Jacobina Wills Osborne, was born October 19, 1842, in Dalkeith, which is a few miles southeast of Edinburgh, in Scotland. She was the second child of eight.

Her father was a clock maker by trade and soon after Ann was born the family moved to Kilmornock, Scotland.


Her parents embraced the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1843 and began preparations to come to America..


Annie, as Ann was called, did her part in helping with the family expenses. At the age of 5 she worked in a factory stirring the dye pots. She had to walk some distance and often had to leave home before it was light. Older girls and women would take the little one by the hand and help her along as she would be scarcely awake.

Even at that tender age she had to suffer the embarrassment of unthinking people who taunted her because she was a Mormon.


Before the Paton family could have their dream fulfilled in coming to Utah, James Paton, the husband and father, died in the year of 1853 of what was then called the “white plague” ; a disease which had already taken 6 of the children of this family.

With the money gone to pay for burial expenses, the wife again set out to work and save and prepare to emigrate, but through a dishonest act of an Elder the money was used for other purposes. With her “scotch” determination, Jacobina, again set out to reach her goal of bringing herself and two children to Zion.


On April 22, 1855, Ann, her mother Jacobina, and her brother James, with other saints, sailed from Liverpool on the sailing vessel Samuel Curling, landing in New York one month later. Israel Barlow was the leader of this Company with 58l souls on board. It was on this same ship that Sylvester Low sailed and thus began the acquaintance which culminated in marriage. From New York. they traveled to Pittsburgh by rail, thence by steamboat to St. Louis, Missouri. At Atchison, Kansas they were outfitted for the trek across the plains.

Ann, a girl of not yet thirteen, walked the entire distance of over one thousand miles. The hardships of the journey were vividly implanted in her mind. She saw the herds of buffalo that stampeded their cattle, was aware of the births and deaths in camp; was hungry, thirsty, many days her feet were blistered and her bones ached with weariness. Yet, they reached the Valley safely, October 24, 1855. The company was in charge of Milo Andrus.


After arriving in Salt Lake City, Ann, went to live in bountiful with some saints, there she worked for her board and shelter. When her mother would occasionally walk out to see her, Ann, would cry and beg pitifully, “Tak me hame Mither, tak me hame to Scotland.”

After her mother, Jacobina, married Bishop Christopher Williams, Ann, went to live with them. She remembered well the supper she had the first night she was home. It was thistles thickened with bran. There was plenty of it but best of all it was eaten at home.

Food was scarce then because of the “grasshoppers”, and many came to Bishop Williams (3rd Ward) for relief. It was Annie’s proud duty to take the small feather duster and dust round the bin and in the corners for a bit more flour. She often bore her testimony though she had given it all before—yet, there was always a little more for the next person. She grew into a winsome young woman and had many suitors from youths to gray haired men, but her mother had told the young, man who had befriended. them, Sylvester Low, while on their ocean voyage, that he could have Annie for his wife.

On the 28th of February in 1858, Sylvester Low and Ann Allan Paton were married by Pres. Brigham Young, Milo Andrus acting as witness. Ann's wedding dress was a brown print, the material for the dress cost seventy-five cent a yard. She had two bed pillows which she had earned by doing house work. This was her trousseau.



She had little chance for a formal education, yet, her intellectual interest made her a seeker of knowledge. She was very fond of reading and urged her children to obtain knowledge. She did not speak with a Scotch accent. She knew the Bible.

She was a very modest woman, of a quiet retiring nature. She believed that “actions speak louder than word”. She was a very religious character and lived honestly up to her belief and often bore a strong testimony of her knowledge of the Gospel and the Goodness of God. She was a strict observer of the Sabbath day, and believed styles and fashions (extreme) were ungodly.

On Saturday the house was cleaned, food prepared, baths were taken, clothes checked, shoes polished and all things made ready for the Sabbath. And Sunday morning all went to Sunday School. One neighbor said, “S[iste]r. Low, I don’t know how you do it, you have a bigger family than I do, yet you have your work all done for I went and peaked in your window to see, and your dinner was cooking on the stove. How do you dit it?”

She died on December 13, 1905 after an illness which covered a period of ten years. Five of these years she was bedridden. Her patience and fortitude during this time was exceedingly remarkable. All of her life she has been an example worthy for her posterity to follow and all should be proud to carry on what she so nobly lived.

Signed Sylvia E. Low Jensen

[Daughter of Ann Allan Paton]
[This history was written in 1936]