History written by
Celia Morgan Mifflin
I was born in Trefforest, South Wales, Glamorganshire, April 13, 1841. A daughter of John
Morgan and Mary Meredith Morgan. Was baptized when eight years old. My mother died when I
was three years old. Father joined the church in our native land. We emigrated in 1849 [1850],
started from Swansea, Wales, on a ship called the Troubador to Liverpool, sailed from there on
the vessel Josiah Bradley to New Orleans. We were on the water eight weeks. Took a boat up the
Mississippi River to St. Louis; many died with cholera on the boat.
We settled for two years in Pottawattomia County, Iowa; then emigrated to the Utah Valley in
1852. We seen large herds of buffalo while crossing the plains. After coming into the valley, my
father moved North to Box Elder Creek, now known as Brigham City. We lived in a dugout, our
only neighbors on the north were Indians, and father would lend his gun and so many rounds of
ammunition to them and they would go up into the mountains and kill wild sheep and give us the
hindquarter of the sheep for the use of the gun; and if they would have bad luck and would not
get anything, they would come back and tell us. Then father would give them a few more founds
of ammunition and they would bring us back some game. That is how we got our meat the first
winter.
The Indians were very kind to us, they never stole anything from my father. The second winter
we had to move into a fort for protection, for another tribe of Indians came and they were on the
war path.
I lived on the farm north of Brigham City until the year 1855 when I came to Salt Lake City and
lived in the home of C. B. Robbins. I lived there three years; there were five in their family, and
my wages were one dollar a week. It was there I met my husband Howell Mifflin, as he worked
at the same place.
In 1863 we were married in the Endowment House, and the next spring my husband and I
crossed the plains, driving our own team, to bring my husband's aunt, who wanted his assistance,
to the valley. In 1865 we moved to Malad, Idaho, and as pioneers in that valley. We lived in
Malad Valley thirty-two years. We raised a family of ten children. Four boys and six girls to
manhood and womanhood. Our first lost was a twenty-two-year old daughter. She died and left
two little boys. They were brought to me; I raised the youngest until he was ten years old when
he died. The oldest of the boys is now married and living in Salt Lake.
While living in Malad, my husband took a leading part in the Sunday School of that district and
was counselor to the Bishop of the ward for many years. In the Spring of 1902, Mr. Miffline's
health began to fail, so we sold our ranch and moved to Salt Lake. We bought a home near
Liberty Park and had three of our unmarried children and two grandchildren with us. Mr. Mifflin
died October 15, 1902, with cardiac asthma.
This is all I can remember, when I am writing this. I am eighty-two and eight months old.
[When grandma died on the 16 September 1934, she was ninety-three and five months old.]
