Harriet Page Wheeler Decker Young, one of the three original pioneer women of Utah, was in a sense the matriarch of the three, as she was the actual mother of one of them, Clara, President Brigham Young’s wife. She was born of Welsh ancestry on September 7, 1803, at Hillsboro, New Hampshire, a daughter of Oliver Wheeler and Hannah Ashby, was reared in Salem, Massachusetts, her mother’s home, and after a brief schooling, was employed in one of the local mills, where she became an expert spinner of flax and wool. When she was seventeen, she moved to Ontario County, …

One of three women in the original pioneer company. Born March 3, 1825, in the parish of Ten, Thelemarken, Norway to Ysten Sondrasen. Originally named Aagaata Ystensdatter, she emigrated with her family in 1837 when she was about 13 years old. They settled in Indiana and later moved to La Salle Co., Ill., where she joined the Church in 1842. She was married to Heber C. Kimball in the Nauvoo Temple on Jan. 7, 1846. At first, the original company was made up of only males, but when Harriet Young pleaded and was permitted to join the company, Ellen was …

“There aren’t any trees, but they can be planted.” Clara Decker Young, Harriet’s daughter was a natural choice for a third woman to accompany the Vanguard Company across the plains and into the valley. First, she was a hard worker, she was smart, and she naturally took to helping her mother Harriet with a six-year-old little brother and a six-year-old little step-brother. She said that before she left Winter Quarters she made herself a fine skirt and it was hard to keep it clean during the journey but that they always had some clean clothes on the Sabbath day. One …