Romance on the Plains by Lenore McFarlane Ruesch

James and Martha Ann McFarlane Family Abt 1878

Romance on the Plains

One Hundred Year Ago

by Lenore McFarlane Ruesch

Martha Ann Smuin met her future husband, James McFarlane, as she was crossing the plains in 1866 on her way to Zion in the company headed by John Nicholson.

She has come on the journey ahead of her family from her home in London, England with two girls friends.  They were in the care of a Brother and Sister Andrews, who were close friends of her parents.  Because they were young and strong, the three girls had walked all the way across the plains from Florence, Nebraska where they had been met by teamsters and covered wagons drawn by oxen, which had had room in them for only women and children.  Martha Ann was 18 years old.

Before the journey was over, she and her friends had worn out their shoes from the constant walking.  They had wrapped cloth around their feet, but even so, their feet were sore and bleeding from all the thistles, rocks and hot sand they had to travel over in the long hours of the day.

James McFarlane, also eighteen years old, son of a shoemaker, saw their predicament as he was driving a wagon filled with telegraph wire, and invited two of the girls to ride along with him.

He tells the story in his short autobiography:

"I, James McFarlane, was called by President Brigham Young, with many other young men, as teamsters, to drive oxen and covered wagons loaded with supplies of food for the Saints coming to Utah.  I made four trips over the plains.  After the Saints were taken care of the wagons were loaded with telegraph wire.  The last trip I made was in 1866.  My wagon was loaded with wire.  Taking pity on two young ladies who walked alongside  of my wagon day after day, I offered to give them a ride, which they graciously accepted.  Little did I know that one of them would become my wife two years later."

On October 5, 1867 (just one year later rather that two, but it probably seemed longer than one year to young James), Martha Ann Smuin and James McFarlane received their endowments and were married in the Endowment House.  They had to make an overnight trip from their homes in Ogden to Salt Lake City.  They were accompanied by another you couple, George Odell and Florence Grant, who were married the same day; and they were chaperoned by Gilbert Wright and Annie Odell Wright, who had been married in Ogden some time before, and who were sealed the same day as the others.

Martha Smuin McFarlane and her new husband, James returned with the other couples to Ogden, where they built a home on property given to them by James' father, and next door to his father and mother's home.  There their children were born and there they lived until the turn of the century (about 1901) when they moved to Salt Lake City, because  James' work with the Union Pacific was transferred there.

Martha Ann Smuin lived in Salt Lake City with her husband and family until her death on November 13, 1913.  She was born August 9, 1847 in Abingdon, Bershire, England, daughter of John Smuin and Jane Honey.