Isabella was born in Glasgow, Scotland to Joseph McMurrin and Margaret Irvine, the youngest of 13 children. She joined the Mormon church as a teenager in Scotland and came to the United States in 1856 to work in a mill in Massachusetts. Several months after she arrived, her mother, brother Joe and his family came to America, paid off her travel expenses to the mill owner and took her with them as they crossed the plains to Utah. She pulled a handcart the whole way with the Martin Handcart Company. She was taken by Indians and was released only when her brother gave them some of their food. She arrived in Salt Lake in Dec. 1856 and married George Sims the next year. She helped him raise his 4 children by his 1st wife who had died. Bella and George had 2 daughters and 1 son. George drown in the Platt River coming home from a mission for the Mormon church in 1865. In 1870 she married Adam Browning Smith and moved to Tooele, Utah. She helped him raise his 6 children by his 1st wife who had died. Bella and Adam had 5 sons and 1 daughter (2 sons died as babies). She moved back to Salt Lake City in the mid 1880's where she lived until she died. You are my hero Grandma Bella!
Isabella was born in Glasgow, Scotland to Joseph McMurrin and Margaret Irvine, the youngest of 13 children. She joined the Mormon church as a teenager in Scotland and came to the United States in 1856 to work in a mill in Massachusetts. Several months after she arrived, her mother, brother Joe and his family came to America, paid off her travel expenses to the mill owner and took her with them as they crossed the plains to Utah. She pulled a handcart the whole way with the Martin Handcart Company. She was taken by Indians and was released only when her brother gave them some of their food. She arrived in Salt Lake in Dec. 1856 and married George Sims the next year. She helped him raise his 4 children by his 1st wife who had died. Bella and George had 2 daughters and 1 son. George drown in the Platt River coming home from a mission for the Mormon church in 1865. In 1870 she married Adam Browning Smith and moved to Tooele, Utah. She helped him raise his 6 children by his 1st wife who had died. Bella and Adam had 5 sons and 1 daughter (2 sons died as babies). She moved back to Salt Lake City in the mid 1880's where she lived until she died. You are my hero Grandma Bella!
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