George Washington BRADLEY

Notes:

                   HISTORY: Patriarchal Blessing of Betsey Kroll Bradley

HISTORY: Sister Betsey, Beloved of the Lord, I place my hands upon thy head and seal upon thee a fathers or a patriarchal blessing in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.  I seal you up against the power of the destroyer and I seal upon thee all the blessings of Abraham and Jacob, the blessings of the priesthood in fullness in common with thy companion, thou shalt experience daily sorrow and thy mind hath err, disturbed many times with regret to what the Lord requires of thee, dismiss they fears sister for the Lord loves thee and will give thee power to make a righteous choice in all things which seemeth good unto thee, thou shalt be blest in thy storehouse with the best fruits of the earth and be satisfied with riches, thou shalt be blest in thy family, they shall become very numerous and thou shalt be a mother of a great people; thou shalt be preserved to a good old age and be a comfort to thy companion and thy children and all that are about thee, thou shalt take part in the first resurrection with all thy fathers house and friends in company with thy companion in faithfulness and inherit all the glories of being in a world with our Redeemer.


HISTORY: Blessing by John Smith, Patriarch upon the head of Betsy Bradley, daughter of Jacob and Mary Kroll, born in Erie County, New York, July 4th, 1811,  Great Salt Lake City, October 21, 1849

HISTORY: Betsey Elizabeth Kroll Bradley
1811-1893

HISTORY: Written by great, great granddaughter Callie O. Morley

HISTORY: 	Betsey Elizabeth Kroll was born of parents Jacob and Mary Waltman Kroll in the frontier settlement of Clarence Hollow on the 4th of July 1811.  It was the only settlement in the western part of Erie Co., New York at this time.  She was the youngest girl of a family of ten children
	Much is not known about Betseys childhood, but she always said that her parents were of high Dutch descent, and not of the low, and she made a point of wanting every one to know that.
	Betseys parents Mary and Jacob made their home in Lancaster, Penn. after their marriage.  Seven of their children were born here.  Then they moved into Cumberland County where Betsey and two others were born.
	Betsey Elizabeth grew up here and when she was 17 years of age she married Thomas Jefferson Bradley in 1828.  Thomas and Betsey made a home in Clarence, Erie County, New York, and on 15 January 1829 a baby girl was born.  They named her Amanda. She was followed by a brother and two sisters, namely Jerome Bonaparte, 3rd December 1830, Elizabeth in July 1832, who died a few days later, and Cynthia Abiah who was born the 14th of September 1833.
	Thomas Jefferson never saw his last little girl, for he died 5 months before she was born, on April 13, 1833, leaving his young wife with practically nothing, except the responsibility of raising three lovely children.
	But her husbands family were good to her and helped her all they could, and the following year her husbands younger brother, George Washington, suggested to Betsey that since he cared very deeply for both her and her children that he marry her and raise his brothers children as his own.  The idea appealed to Betsey and they were married on the 2nd of March 1834.	The following year Betsey and George Washington settled on some land, built a house and began a family of their own with the birth of Betsey Louisa on the 9th of November 1835.  The next year they moved their little family to Clarkston, Monroe Co., New York where George Washington was engaged in his occupation as a cooper, and 3 more children were born to them, namely: Lydia Mary, 14 March 1837, George Henry, 23 February 1840, and Melinda Euphemia, 29 January 1842.
	It was at this time that Elder Zebedee Coltren of the Latter-day Saints Church came to their door, preaching the gospel.  He came many times to the Bradley home and George W. said, What was said sounded to him like the truth, so he and his family studied its principles carefully for a year and by that time had satisfied themselves that it was true.  So, George Washington and Betsey joined the church and were baptized on the 2nd of July 1843 by Elder John P. Green.
	After this event, they traveled west and lived with the Saints until they were driven west to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Ill.  Here they rented and ran one of the farms owned by the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Here their son, Jacob Joseph, was born on the 14th of November 1843.
	All of the Saints worked hard to build Nauvoo into a beautiful city and it was said that vegetables and flowers grew bigger and better here than anywhere else.  They all loved the prophet Joseph Smith and all he stood for and were willing to undergo great hardship for their church, but it was hard for them to understand why other people should want to persecute them because of their belief, for after all, they were United States citizens with rights and privileges too or so they thought until Joseph Smith sought relief from the government in behalf of his people and was told they were sorry but nothing could be done for them.
	Things reached the climax when the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred, and the Bradleys along with many others wept when they saw Dr. Richards return with their murdered leaders.  They wept again at the mansion house where they saw the prophet lying in his casket and saw the wife and son of Hyrum Smith kneeling by his casket, silently weeping.
	After this event, conditions in Nauvoo became unbearable.  Women and children were molested, food and clothing became scarce, and homes were burned to the ground.  Their lives were in peril and there was no let up or peace for any of them.  On the 11th of June 1845, frail little Jacob Joseph died and November of that same year things got so unbearable that the Bradleys, along with other families, packed what they could into wagons and began moving across the river into Iowa.  Many wagons were ferried across the river, but by February 1846 weather was cold and ice was thick enough to hold up a team and wagon.
	The Bradleys traveled around Iowa and made a camp at Pottawattamee.  Here on August 22, 1846, Betsey gave birth to a baby girl, Levina.  She died the following month.  Betsey grieved for her lost children.  If there had only been more food, perhaps they could have lived.  But their father describes their plight in his own words, I revert to the times of Nauvoo, its seasons of hard times, scant clothing, scantiest provision, the one half bushel of meal in three weeks for a family of nine, thankful for wild greens we could gather, a standing sickness, mounting guard over my own home and friends, finally leaving my unfinished home for the mob.
	Their camp across the river was in low, marshy land, misery bottom it was called, and well named for it was winter and people were living in tents and wagon boxes with neither fuel, shelter, or clothing enough to keep them warm.
	Then one morning Betsey looked at her oldest daughter, Amanda, who was now 17 and was horrified to see the sores of the deadly black canker forming all over her body.  People were dying of it every day and plain lumber coffins could hardly be made fast enough to supply the demand, and men were so weak from diarrhea and lack of food they were scarcely able to dig the freezing ground to bury their dead.
	Amanda became delirious with chills and fever, and the sores of black canker became as large as fifty-cent pieces.  Then one day an old lady came to their wagon.  She said, Sister Betsey, I think I have something that will cure your daughter, and she went to her own wagon and bought back a bottle of reddish brown medicine.  It looked about like catsup.  She said, Give the girl a spoonful of this three times a day and I will tell you how to make it so when it is gone you can get the ingredients and you can make some more.  Then she blessed the family and left.  Betsey gave her daughter the medicine and in a few days the big sores went away and Amanda got well.  But she never forgot the little old lady nor her recipe for making canker medicine.  She vowed she would do unto others as she had been done by and to the end of her days she and her family made canker medicine for others.
	When spring broke and they were able to travel, they moved with the other Saints to Winter Quarters in Nebraska.  Here they were able to build a more permanent shelter and plant some wheat, mend their wagons and prepare for the long journey ahead, and on the 3rd of July, 1847 Betsey gave birth to another baby boy whom they named Hyrum Moroni after the brother of the prophet and the Angel Moroni of Book of Mormon fame.
	When it came time to choose those who were to make the first trip west with Brigham Young, all could not go who wanted to and after the men for the Mormon Battalion had left, the male population was thinned considerably so that about all that were left were men with large dependant families, sick men, old men or young boys.  But they were all assigned to some labor and worked diligently until Brigham Young and those of the first company returned to lead them to Zion in 1848.
	Each family was required to have so many pounds of flour, blankets, warm clothing, etc. before they could leave.  Betsey also crowded her spinning wheel into the wagon.
	When the companies were organized, the Bradley family was assigned to the 1st Brigham Young Company, 3rd division with Captain Lorenzo Snow in charge of their group of 100, and Daniel Russell over their group of ten wagons.  They were members of the Big Company as they called it, and many incidents, both funny and sad, happened to them and were repeated many times to their grandchildren, but no written record was ever made of them because they did not think them important at the time.  So what we know has been handed down by word of mouth or through descriptions by Isaac Morley and others who kept a record of their travels.  Suffice it to say that the whole Bradley family took turns walking in their bare feet and Amanda, their oldest daughter, drove the oxen of one of their wagons almost all of the way across the plains.
	Both she and her mother suffered intensely and fought for their breath as the wagons lunged forward and huge rolling clouds of dust settled in their asthma choked lungs.  They passed many large herds of wild buffalo, and the meat from some of these animals found its way into many a pot of stew, giving strength to weary travelers.
	Daniel B. Funk and his family were friends of the Bradley family and came in the same company.  They helped each other over the bad places and often visited with other divisions of this big company when they camped within a few miles of each other.
	They arrived in Salt Lake City the 15th of September 1848.  George W. said, We moved our wagons about six miles north of Salt Lake City, built a log house near some springs.  Afterward a settlement was established there called the Willow Settlement.  Daniel Funk and Edwin Pace and family also settled here at the same time as the Bradleys, and both families staked out 50 acres of land and began building their log houses on the 16th of September.  This district is now included in the South Bountiful ward, and eight other families came and spent the winter near them, but these were the very first families to settle there.
	In the early spring of 1849, they built another cabin about half a mile west of the first one, and planted four acres of corn (ref. Andrew Jensen), then moved into Salt Lake City where they built another home.  There was an old mud fort, some log houses and miles of desolate sage brush and saleratus stretching in every direction, but they said this was better than the terror of Nauvoo, and what they did, the sacrifices they made and all were for God and His cause, and that was enough.
	They became the owners of one of the first teams of horses in the Salt Lake Valley and were very proud of them.  One Sunday they had driven them to church, unhitched them as they usually did and put them to feed on wild hay they had brought along.  But instead of feeding, one big sorrel followed the family to the church door and keep nuzzling them when they tried to take him back.  So the good brethren standing at the door said jokingly, Brother Bradley, I think this horse wants a blessing.  So they blessed it and took it back to feed, and when they came out of church they found the horse dead.  So before they could take the wagon back home they had to find and buy another horse.
	George W. had drawn 20 acres of land in the big field on 9th South and on the 27th of September shortly after he had arrived and was busy with this and his new home, Willard Richards, who had raised some small potatoes, gave them a few of the peelings for seed to plant in their garden.  They felt very thankful for this favor and thought themselves very blessed to have such good friends.
	Then in June, Apostle Lorenzo Snow came and asked him and Daniel Funk to go the Green River and ferry the gold rush immigrants across the river for some extra cash.  The idea appealed to them so they built one boat and took plenty of supplies, then built another boat after they got there.  These being the first boats used on the river, they had an idea they were going to make a lot of money, but they had many troubles, for they could not trust many of the gold rushers.  Some times they took turns guarding the property day and night.  But when one ruthless bunch of outlaws came along, they were forced at gunpoint to turn over all their belongings to them.  However, when the thieves fell out and fought one with another, some were drowned and some were killed, and Bradley and Funk fortunately got all their property back.
	By natural habit Daniel Funk was always early to bed and early to rise.  He was always up about four a.m.  After a hard days work he was tired and could not hold his eyes open, so he went to bed early, slept very soundly and was hard to awaken.  So it was agreed that Daniel would run the first boat in the morning and George would run the last boat at night, count and divide the days receipts and put Daniels share in his pocket.  George often asked him to recount the money, but he always declined, and said it was not necessary.  He said he knew by experience Georges sterling qualities of fairness and honesty and he knew he never needed to worry about being cheated.  They handled the ferry trade till it fell off about the middle of August, and came home with $500.00 each for their summers work.  They immediately paid one tenth of this for tithing, then Bradley bought a fine team of horses, but a short time later when President Brigham Young came to him and said he was in need of the team, Bradley immediately gave them to him.
	In the mean time, Betsey had given birth to another baby boy.  The event took place in a wagon box near the tithing yard on Temple Square the 10th of August 1849.  The child had lots of beautiful red hair, but was very frail and weak, in fact, they did not think he was going to live.  So after George W. had come home and the child 6 weeks old and still sickly, John A. Smith ordained him a high priest and then gave him the name of Amos Alma.  The baby had more strength then they thought, he lived to earn membership in all of the lower quorums of the church, such as Deacon, Teacher and Elder and was 73 years old when he died.
	When the terrible plague of crickets came and ate up almost all of their grain, when frosts came early and foodstuffs were rationed out to all families, the Bradleys with their large family had bad trouble along with all of the other hungry people.  They were forced to dig sego lily and thistle roots to get enough to eat.  But however hungry they became, their minds were still alert and their hearts were still happy and full of thanks to God for their many blessings.
	Amandas dashing young sweetheart, Daniel Henrie, had just returned from the long Battalion march.  He had been at Sutters Mill when gold was discovered there, and had brought many of the costly nuggets back to Utah with him.  Romance was in the air and wedding bells began to ring.  Amanda was now 20 years and Daniel was 24 years.  They were married by President Brigha