In the little village of Brampton, near the city of Chesterfield, England where stands the old historic church, with its crooked spire, Ada Alice MacDuff was born on November 15, 1850. It was in a plain stone and brick two story cottage, roofed with tile. A large fireplace and built-in oven, with old fashioned endirons and kettle suspended through a cheerful flow and warmed and partially lighted their combined living room and kitchen. For it was before stoves were in common use and candles were the only means of lighting. A little garden patch and meadow with a brook running through it was in the rear, and here Ada spent many happy hours of her childhood. The brook, a little lower down, widened out and became deeper making a splendid place for baptisms. Some of the very first baptisms in this part of England were solemnized here. Many times they went in the evening and held lanterns while this sacred ordinance was performed. The reason for holding the baptisms at night, was that greater privacy could not be had, as it was near a busy highway, and during the day, people were constantly passing to and fro.
Together with Ada's parents and younger sister Jane, Ada emigrated to Utah in 1864. They crossed the ocean in an old sailing vessel named the George B. McLelland after one of the generals of the North, in the Civil War which was then near its close.
To avoid possible molestation by vessels of the South, they took a northern course and ran into fields of icebergs. Whichever way they looked they could see these great mountains of ice as they slowly wound their way southward, there to be melted by the warmer waters of the gulf streams.
There was a great danger of running into the icebergs, especially when the ship was nearing the foggy banks of Newfoundland. Extra caution was used to prevent this. But, suddenly one night after the passengers had retired to their bunks below deck, there was a grating and tremendous lurch of the vessel which threw many from their beds and spread confusion everywhere. Twice more this was repeated. Then the vessel gradually sank back, rolling from side to side as though she were about to turn over.
Women and children were crying. Men were hurrying to and from and the greatest of confusion prevailed. The thing they had most feared had happened. The ship had struck an iceberg and it was feared that a rent had been made in the ship that would let in the icy waters and send the ship to the bottom of the sea.
After the confusion had been somewhat settled; the mate of the vessel was sent with a lantern to examine carefully all parts of the ship for a possible leak. He passed the bunk where the young girls, Ada and sister Jane were. They were peering through the curtains with their white faces resting between their hands. "Little girls", he said, "aren't you afraid?" Almost in unison they said, "No, we're not afraid. The Lord didn't bring us here to be drowned in the sea." Then the mate, in a burst of joy, swung his lantern round and round and cried out as loud as he could "Hurrah this vessel won't sink, there's faith enough here to save the ship, any ship."
The next year while the George B. McLelland was making a voyage across the ocean. The ship was caught in a storm and went down in the ocean, carrying all the passengers aboard with her.
But this time the ship didn't sink; a company of God's people were aboard, going to the place divinely appointed to them, and His watchful care was over them. After a six weeks voyage, they landed at Castle Gardens, New York. After arriving at New York, they traveled by cars and steamboats for two weeks before they reached Winter Quarters on July 3rd, 1864. They stayed there six weeks, waiting for the ox teams to come from Utah to take them to their destination in the Salt Lake Valley.
Their captain was Bro. William S. Warren. It tool eleven weeks to cross the plains and come from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley. There were about 329 people in the wagon train and 65 wagons. It was at the time of the Civil War and most of the Indians were on the war path. Frontier settlements had been plundered and burned and many settlers had been killed. More than once they came upon ranch houses that had been pillaged and burned and the settlers massacred.
Ada especially remembered one place in which a white family had been murdered. Evidently the Indians had been scared away by the approach of the Mormon emigrant train and had fled in haste. Around the table, where the farmers had evidently just been seating themselves to their midday meal, were their bodies scalped and shot through with arrows, while on the table was the meal untouched.
Because of the danger from the warring Indians, the companies of saints at that time were especially large in order to protect themselves. Ada remembered seeing the great herds of buffalo as they grazed on the plains. At one time their train was stopped for hours waiting for the buffalo to pass as they wound their way down to the river for water.
At night, even though the pioneers had been walking weary and footsore, fording the streams, and picking up the buffalo chips to cook their evening meal, they surrounded the camp fires and sang:
Come, Come ye Saints,
No toil nor labor fear
But with joy wend your way."
Music, dancing and other merry makings were often indulged in; but promptly at nine o'clock a prayer was said, thanking God for His blessings bestowed during the day, and invoking His aid on the morrow. Soon the fires died down and the camp, save for a few men left to guard the cattle, was wrapped in slumber.
The next morning, bright and early the camp bugle was sounded and everyone was up and preparing for the day's trek. The first wagon to arrive the night before was the first out in the morning. So large was this train that as much as an hour elapsed between the departure of the first and last wagons.
Arriving in the valley at the age of fourteen, Ada was stricken with mountain fever, a disease which often attacked the emigrants before they became use to the climate. They were in a new strange country and a living was to be made. Consequently, the girls had to find employment. They worked in the fields gleaning, pickup up potatoes, and doing house work for those better situated in life than they were.
Most of the time Ada worked in the home of one of the Walker brothers, the pioneer merchants of Salt Lake City. Here she was treated almost as a member of the family. Mrs. Walker took a personal liking to her, often taking her to the theater and other places of amusement.
At the age of nineteen, Ada married Henry Rampton of Bountiful, Utah. After Ada was married she lived in Bountiful for about eighteen years. Then Ada and her eight children moved to West Syracuse in 1885 onto a 40 acre homestead where the family was engaged in farming. She took care of the farm with the help of her children. The farm was close to the great Salt Lake and the nearest neighbor was over a mile from their home. Life in Syracuse was hard and disappointing. Her husband Henry only occasionally visited Syracuse. Ada was his third wife. Son George Albert was 15 at the time and helped a great deal with the farm. The farm was barren and unproductive. They had but bare necessities, yet Ada bore it without a murmur or complaint.
After Henry's death, which occurred May 15, 1903, Ada returned to her home in Bountiful, which she had never sold. All of the children except Elizabeth and Sarah being married. Here Ada resided three years before her death. In the meantime Elizabeth and Sarah were both married. Ada's health was very good up until about 1809, until her health failed her and Ada developed a painful heart condition. Ada was never bedfast.
Ada Alice was first counselor in the Primary in the Syracuse Ward when the Primary was organized. She remembered that Sister Aurelia S. Rodgers and Sister Clark from the General Board Presidency visited their Primary quite frequently. She served as a counselor for about twelve years.
Ada ‘s days in school were very few. But Ada made the best of them, learned to read and write partially at home and with this small beginning made herself well informed. Ada loved to read and was a deep thinker. She was self-educated. Nearly every night she read, the last thing before she turned off the lamp to sleep. She read from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. She was fond of the English classics. She also liked Shakespeare and was acquainted with grand operas and knew many lines and verses from memory. Ada possessed a beautiful voice and loved to sing.
Ada was a true Latter Day Saint, believing in the principles of the gospel with a sincere and trusting faith. To her and her husband, it was the biggest thing in life and held the most glorious promise for the life to come. She never failed to impress its truth upon her children, encouraging them to read and know for themselves. Its poetry and music especially appealed to her. She knew and loved to sing the songs of Zion and taught them to her children. And by precept and example endeavored to implant in their hearts a sincere faith in the mission of Joseph Smith and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ada Alice Rampton died Sunday, September 11, 1910, at 8:00 pm at the home of her daughter Elizabeth Rollins at Centerville, Utah. She was fifty-nine years old. Her posterity, living at the present writing (1945) are: four sons, four daughters, forty-two grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. One child and ten grandchildren having passed to the great beyond. Surely Ada deserves to be numbered among the elite pioneers of Syracuse where she endured privations and hardships on a lowly farm.
By Karen Bennett
Together with Ada's parents and younger sister Jane, Ada emigrated to Utah in 1864. They crossed the ocean in an old sailing vessel named the George B. McLelland after one of the generals of the North, in the Civil War which was then near its close.
To avoid possible molestation by vessels of the South, they took a northern course and ran into fields of icebergs. Whichever way they looked they could see these great mountains of ice as they slowly wound their way southward, there to be melted by the warmer waters of the gulf streams.
There was a great danger of running into the icebergs, especially when the ship was nearing the foggy banks of Newfoundland. Extra caution was used to prevent this. But, suddenly one night after the passengers had retired to their bunks below deck, there was a grating and tremendous lurch of the vessel which threw many from their beds and spread confusion everywhere. Twice more this was repeated. Then the vessel gradually sank back, rolling from side to side as though she were about to turn over.
Women and children were crying. Men were hurrying to and from and the greatest of confusion prevailed. The thing they had most feared had happened. The ship had struck an iceberg and it was feared that a rent had been made in the ship that would let in the icy waters and send the ship to the bottom of the sea.
After the confusion had been somewhat settled; the mate of the vessel was sent with a lantern to examine carefully all parts of the ship for a possible leak. He passed the bunk where the young girls, Ada and sister Jane were. They were peering through the curtains with their white faces resting between their hands. "Little girls", he said, "aren't you afraid?" Almost in unison they said, "No, we're not afraid. The Lord didn't bring us here to be drowned in the sea." Then the mate, in a burst of joy, swung his lantern round and round and cried out as loud as he could "Hurrah this vessel won't sink, there's faith enough here to save the ship, any ship."
The next year while the George B. McLelland was making a voyage across the ocean. The ship was caught in a storm and went down in the ocean, carrying all the passengers aboard with her.
But this time the ship didn't sink; a company of God's people were aboard, going to the place divinely appointed to them, and His watchful care was over them. After a six weeks voyage, they landed at Castle Gardens, New York. After arriving at New York, they traveled by cars and steamboats for two weeks before they reached Winter Quarters on July 3rd, 1864. They stayed there six weeks, waiting for the ox teams to come from Utah to take them to their destination in the Salt Lake Valley.
Their captain was Bro. William S. Warren. It tool eleven weeks to cross the plains and come from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley. There were about 329 people in the wagon train and 65 wagons. It was at the time of the Civil War and most of the Indians were on the war path. Frontier settlements had been plundered and burned and many settlers had been killed. More than once they came upon ranch houses that had been pillaged and burned and the settlers massacred.
Ada especially remembered one place in which a white family had been murdered. Evidently the Indians had been scared away by the approach of the Mormon emigrant train and had fled in haste. Around the table, where the farmers had evidently just been seating themselves to their midday meal, were their bodies scalped and shot through with arrows, while on the table was the meal untouched.
Because of the danger from the warring Indians, the companies of saints at that time were especially large in order to protect themselves. Ada remembered seeing the great herds of buffalo as they grazed on the plains. At one time their train was stopped for hours waiting for the buffalo to pass as they wound their way down to the river for water.
At night, even though the pioneers had been walking weary and footsore, fording the streams, and picking up the buffalo chips to cook their evening meal, they surrounded the camp fires and sang:
Come, Come ye Saints,
No toil nor labor fear
But with joy wend your way."
Music, dancing and other merry makings were often indulged in; but promptly at nine o'clock a prayer was said, thanking God for His blessings bestowed during the day, and invoking His aid on the morrow. Soon the fires died down and the camp, save for a few men left to guard the cattle, was wrapped in slumber.
The next morning, bright and early the camp bugle was sounded and everyone was up and preparing for the day's trek. The first wagon to arrive the night before was the first out in the morning. So large was this train that as much as an hour elapsed between the departure of the first and last wagons.
Arriving in the valley at the age of fourteen, Ada was stricken with mountain fever, a disease which often attacked the emigrants before they became use to the climate. They were in a new strange country and a living was to be made. Consequently, the girls had to find employment. They worked in the fields gleaning, pickup up potatoes, and doing house work for those better situated in life than they were.
Most of the time Ada worked in the home of one of the Walker brothers, the pioneer merchants of Salt Lake City. Here she was treated almost as a member of the family. Mrs. Walker took a personal liking to her, often taking her to the theater and other places of amusement.
At the age of nineteen, Ada married Henry Rampton of Bountiful, Utah. After Ada was married she lived in Bountiful for about eighteen years. Then Ada and her eight children moved to West Syracuse in 1885 onto a 40 acre homestead where the family was engaged in farming. She took care of the farm with the help of her children. The farm was close to the great Salt Lake and the nearest neighbor was over a mile from their home. Life in Syracuse was hard and disappointing. Her husband Henry only occasionally visited Syracuse. Ada was his third wife. Son George Albert was 15 at the time and helped a great deal with the farm. The farm was barren and unproductive. They had but bare necessities, yet Ada bore it without a murmur or complaint.
After Henry's death, which occurred May 15, 1903, Ada returned to her home in Bountiful, which she had never sold. All of the children except Elizabeth and Sarah being married. Here Ada resided three years before her death. In the meantime Elizabeth and Sarah were both married. Ada's health was very good up until about 1809, until her health failed her and Ada developed a painful heart condition. Ada was never bedfast.
Ada Alice was first counselor in the Primary in the Syracuse Ward when the Primary was organized. She remembered that Sister Aurelia S. Rodgers and Sister Clark from the General Board Presidency visited their Primary quite frequently. She served as a counselor for about twelve years.
Ada ‘s days in school were very few. But Ada made the best of them, learned to read and write partially at home and with this small beginning made herself well informed. Ada loved to read and was a deep thinker. She was self-educated. Nearly every night she read, the last thing before she turned off the lamp to sleep. She read from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. She was fond of the English classics. She also liked Shakespeare and was acquainted with grand operas and knew many lines and verses from memory. Ada possessed a beautiful voice and loved to sing.
Ada was a true Latter Day Saint, believing in the principles of the gospel with a sincere and trusting faith. To her and her husband, it was the biggest thing in life and held the most glorious promise for the life to come. She never failed to impress its truth upon her children, encouraging them to read and know for themselves. Its poetry and music especially appealed to her. She knew and loved to sing the songs of Zion and taught them to her children. And by precept and example endeavored to implant in their hearts a sincere faith in the mission of Joseph Smith and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ada Alice Rampton died Sunday, September 11, 1910, at 8:00 pm at the home of her daughter Elizabeth Rollins at Centerville, Utah. She was fifty-nine years old. Her posterity, living at the present writing (1945) are: four sons, four daughters, forty-two grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. One child and ten grandchildren having passed to the great beyond. Surely Ada deserves to be numbered among the elite pioneers of Syracuse where she endured privations and hardships on a lowly farm.
By Karen Bennett
In the little village of Brampton, near the city of Chesterfield, England where stands the old historic church, with its crooked spire, Ada Alice MacDuff was born on November 15, 1850. It was in a plain stone and brick two story cottage, roofed with tile. A large fireplace and built-in oven, with old fashioned endirons and kettle suspended through a cheerful flow and warmed and partially lighted their combined living room and kitchen. For it was before stoves were in common use and candles were the only means of lighting. A little garden patch and meadow with a brook running through it was in the rear, and here Ada spent many happy hours of her childhood. The brook, a little lower down, widened out and became deeper making a splendid place for baptisms. Some of the very first baptisms in this part of England were solemnized here. Many times they went in the evening and held lanterns while this sacred ordinance was performed. The reason for holding the baptisms at night, was that greater privacy could not be had, as it was near a busy highway, and during the day, people were constantly passing to and fro.
Together with Ada's parents and younger sister Jane, Ada emigrated to Utah in 1864. They crossed the ocean in an old sailing vessel named the George B. McLelland after one of the generals of the North, in the Civil War which was then near its close.
To avoid possible molestation by vessels of the South, they took a northern course and ran into fields of icebergs. Whichever way they looked they could see these great mountains of ice as they slowly wound their way southward, there to be melted by the warmer waters of the gulf streams.
There was a great danger of running into the icebergs, especially when the ship was nearing the foggy banks of Newfoundland. Extra caution was used to prevent this. But, suddenly one night after the passengers had retired to their bunks below deck, there was a grating and tremendous lurch of the vessel which threw many from their beds and spread confusion everywhere. Twice more this was repeated. Then the vessel gradually sank back, rolling from side to side as though she were about to turn over.
Women and children were crying. Men were hurrying to and from and the greatest of confusion prevailed. The thing they had most feared had happened. The ship had struck an iceberg and it was feared that a rent had been made in the ship that would let in the icy waters and send the ship to the bottom of the sea.
After the confusion had been somewhat settled; the mate of the vessel was sent with a lantern to examine carefully all parts of the ship for a possible leak. He passed the bunk where the young girls, Ada and sister Jane were. They were peering through the curtains with their white faces resting between their hands. "Little girls", he said, "aren't you afraid?" Almost in unison they said, "No, we're not afraid. The Lord didn't bring us here to be drowned in the sea." Then the mate, in a burst of joy, swung his lantern round and round and cried out as loud as he could "Hurrah this vessel won't sink, there's faith enough here to save the ship, any ship."
The next year while the George B. McLelland was making a voyage across the ocean. The ship was caught in a storm and went down in the ocean, carrying all the passengers aboard with her.
But this time the ship didn't sink; a company of God's people were aboard, going to the place divinely appointed to them, and His watchful care was over them. After a six weeks voyage, they landed at Castle Gardens, New York. After arriving at New York, they traveled by cars and steamboats for two weeks before they reached Winter Quarters on July 3rd, 1864. They stayed there six weeks, waiting for the ox teams to come from Utah to take them to their destination in the Salt Lake Valley.
Their captain was Bro. William S. Warren. It tool eleven weeks to cross the plains and come from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley. There were about 329 people in the wagon train and 65 wagons. It was at the time of the Civil War and most of the Indians were on the war path. Frontier settlements had been plundered and burned and many settlers had been killed. More than once they came upon ranch houses that had been pillaged and burned and the settlers massacred.
Ada especially remembered one place in which a white family had been murdered. Evidently the Indians had been scared away by the approach of the Mormon emigrant train and had fled in haste. Around the table, where the farmers had evidently just been seating themselves to their midday meal, were their bodies scalped and shot through with arrows, while on the table was the meal untouched.
Because of the danger from the warring Indians, the companies of saints at that time were especially large in order to protect themselves. Ada remembered seeing the great herds of buffalo as they grazed on the plains. At one time their train was stopped for hours waiting for the buffalo to pass as they wound their way down to the river for water.
At night, even though the pioneers had been walking weary and footsore, fording the streams, and picking up the buffalo chips to cook their evening meal, they surrounded the camp fires and sang:
Come, Come ye Saints,
No toil nor labor fear
But with joy wend your way."
Music, dancing and other merry makings were often indulged in; but promptly at nine o'clock a prayer was said, thanking God for His blessings bestowed during the day, and invoking His aid on the morrow. Soon the fires died down and the camp, save for a few men left to guard the cattle, was wrapped in slumber.
The next morning, bright and early the camp bugle was sounded and everyone was up and preparing for the day's trek. The first wagon to arrive the night before was the first out in the morning. So large was this train that as much as an hour elapsed between the departure of the first and last wagons.
Arriving in the valley at the age of fourteen, Ada was stricken with mountain fever, a disease which often attacked the emigrants before they became use to the climate. They were in a new strange country and a living was to be made. Consequently, the girls had to find employment. They worked in the fields gleaning, pickup up potatoes, and doing house work for those better situated in life than they were.
Most of the time Ada worked in the home of one of the Walker brothers, the pioneer merchants of Salt Lake City. Here she was treated almost as a member of the family. Mrs. Walker took a personal liking to her, often taking her to the theater and other places of amusement.
At the age of nineteen, Ada married Henry Rampton of Bountiful, Utah. After Ada was married she lived in Bountiful for about eighteen years. Then Ada and her eight children moved to West Syracuse in 1885 onto a 40 acre homestead where the family was engaged in farming. She took care of the farm with the help of her children. The farm was close to the great Salt Lake and the nearest neighbor was over a mile from their home. Life in Syracuse was hard and disappointing. Her husband Henry only occasionally visited Syracuse. Ada was his third wife. Son George Albert was 15 at the time and helped a great deal with the farm. The farm was barren and unproductive. They had but bare necessities, yet Ada bore it without a murmur or complaint.
After Henry's death, which occurred May 15, 1903, Ada returned to her home in Bountiful, which she had never sold. All of the children except Elizabeth and Sarah being married. Here Ada resided three years before her death. In the meantime Elizabeth and Sarah were both married. Ada's health was very good up until about 1809, until her health failed her and Ada developed a painful heart condition. Ada was never bedfast.
Ada Alice was first counselor in the Primary in the Syracuse Ward when the Primary was organized. She remembered that Sister Aurelia S. Rodgers and Sister Clark from the General Board Presidency visited their Primary quite frequently. She served as a counselor for about twelve years.
Ada ‘s days in school were very few. But Ada made the best of them, learned to read and write partially at home and with this small beginning made herself well informed. Ada loved to read and was a deep thinker. She was self-educated. Nearly every night she read, the last thing before she turned off the lamp to sleep. She read from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. She was fond of the English classics. She also liked Shakespeare and was acquainted with grand operas and knew many lines and verses from memory. Ada possessed a beautiful voice and loved to sing.
Ada was a true Latter Day Saint, believing in the principles of the gospel with a sincere and trusting faith. To her and her husband, it was the biggest thing in life and held the most glorious promise for the life to come. She never failed to impress its truth upon her children, encouraging them to read and know for themselves. Its poetry and music especially appealed to her. She knew and loved to sing the songs of Zion and taught them to her children. And by precept and example endeavored to implant in their hearts a sincere faith in the mission of Joseph Smith and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ada Alice Rampton died Sunday, September 11, 1910, at 8:00 pm at the home of her daughter Elizabeth Rollins at Centerville, Utah. She was fifty-nine years old. Her posterity, living at the present writing (1945) are: four sons, four daughters, forty-two grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. One child and ten grandchildren having passed to the great beyond. Surely Ada deserves to be numbered among the elite pioneers of Syracuse where she endured privations and hardships on a lowly farm.
By Karen Bennett
Together with Ada's parents and younger sister Jane, Ada emigrated to Utah in 1864. They crossed the ocean in an old sailing vessel named the George B. McLelland after one of the generals of the North, in the Civil War which was then near its close.
To avoid possible molestation by vessels of the South, they took a northern course and ran into fields of icebergs. Whichever way they looked they could see these great mountains of ice as they slowly wound their way southward, there to be melted by the warmer waters of the gulf streams.
There was a great danger of running into the icebergs, especially when the ship was nearing the foggy banks of Newfoundland. Extra caution was used to prevent this. But, suddenly one night after the passengers had retired to their bunks below deck, there was a grating and tremendous lurch of the vessel which threw many from their beds and spread confusion everywhere. Twice more this was repeated. Then the vessel gradually sank back, rolling from side to side as though she were about to turn over.
Women and children were crying. Men were hurrying to and from and the greatest of confusion prevailed. The thing they had most feared had happened. The ship had struck an iceberg and it was feared that a rent had been made in the ship that would let in the icy waters and send the ship to the bottom of the sea.
After the confusion had been somewhat settled; the mate of the vessel was sent with a lantern to examine carefully all parts of the ship for a possible leak. He passed the bunk where the young girls, Ada and sister Jane were. They were peering through the curtains with their white faces resting between their hands. "Little girls", he said, "aren't you afraid?" Almost in unison they said, "No, we're not afraid. The Lord didn't bring us here to be drowned in the sea." Then the mate, in a burst of joy, swung his lantern round and round and cried out as loud as he could "Hurrah this vessel won't sink, there's faith enough here to save the ship, any ship."
The next year while the George B. McLelland was making a voyage across the ocean. The ship was caught in a storm and went down in the ocean, carrying all the passengers aboard with her.
But this time the ship didn't sink; a company of God's people were aboard, going to the place divinely appointed to them, and His watchful care was over them. After a six weeks voyage, they landed at Castle Gardens, New York. After arriving at New York, they traveled by cars and steamboats for two weeks before they reached Winter Quarters on July 3rd, 1864. They stayed there six weeks, waiting for the ox teams to come from Utah to take them to their destination in the Salt Lake Valley.
Their captain was Bro. William S. Warren. It tool eleven weeks to cross the plains and come from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley. There were about 329 people in the wagon train and 65 wagons. It was at the time of the Civil War and most of the Indians were on the war path. Frontier settlements had been plundered and burned and many settlers had been killed. More than once they came upon ranch houses that had been pillaged and burned and the settlers massacred.
Ada especially remembered one place in which a white family had been murdered. Evidently the Indians had been scared away by the approach of the Mormon emigrant train and had fled in haste. Around the table, where the farmers had evidently just been seating themselves to their midday meal, were their bodies scalped and shot through with arrows, while on the table was the meal untouched.
Because of the danger from the warring Indians, the companies of saints at that time were especially large in order to protect themselves. Ada remembered seeing the great herds of buffalo as they grazed on the plains. At one time their train was stopped for hours waiting for the buffalo to pass as they wound their way down to the river for water.
At night, even though the pioneers had been walking weary and footsore, fording the streams, and picking up the buffalo chips to cook their evening meal, they surrounded the camp fires and sang:
Come, Come ye Saints,
No toil nor labor fear
But with joy wend your way."
Music, dancing and other merry makings were often indulged in; but promptly at nine o'clock a prayer was said, thanking God for His blessings bestowed during the day, and invoking His aid on the morrow. Soon the fires died down and the camp, save for a few men left to guard the cattle, was wrapped in slumber.
The next morning, bright and early the camp bugle was sounded and everyone was up and preparing for the day's trek. The first wagon to arrive the night before was the first out in the morning. So large was this train that as much as an hour elapsed between the departure of the first and last wagons.
Arriving in the valley at the age of fourteen, Ada was stricken with mountain fever, a disease which often attacked the emigrants before they became use to the climate. They were in a new strange country and a living was to be made. Consequently, the girls had to find employment. They worked in the fields gleaning, pickup up potatoes, and doing house work for those better situated in life than they were.
Most of the time Ada worked in the home of one of the Walker brothers, the pioneer merchants of Salt Lake City. Here she was treated almost as a member of the family. Mrs. Walker took a personal liking to her, often taking her to the theater and other places of amusement.
At the age of nineteen, Ada married Henry Rampton of Bountiful, Utah. After Ada was married she lived in Bountiful for about eighteen years. Then Ada and her eight children moved to West Syracuse in 1885 onto a 40 acre homestead where the family was engaged in farming. She took care of the farm with the help of her children. The farm was close to the great Salt Lake and the nearest neighbor was over a mile from their home. Life in Syracuse was hard and disappointing. Her husband Henry only occasionally visited Syracuse. Ada was his third wife. Son George Albert was 15 at the time and helped a great deal with the farm. The farm was barren and unproductive. They had but bare necessities, yet Ada bore it without a murmur or complaint.
After Henry's death, which occurred May 15, 1903, Ada returned to her home in Bountiful, which she had never sold. All of the children except Elizabeth and Sarah being married. Here Ada resided three years before her death. In the meantime Elizabeth and Sarah were both married. Ada's health was very good up until about 1809, until her health failed her and Ada developed a painful heart condition. Ada was never bedfast.
Ada Alice was first counselor in the Primary in the Syracuse Ward when the Primary was organized. She remembered that Sister Aurelia S. Rodgers and Sister Clark from the General Board Presidency visited their Primary quite frequently. She served as a counselor for about twelve years.
Ada ‘s days in school were very few. But Ada made the best of them, learned to read and write partially at home and with this small beginning made herself well informed. Ada loved to read and was a deep thinker. She was self-educated. Nearly every night she read, the last thing before she turned off the lamp to sleep. She read from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. She was fond of the English classics. She also liked Shakespeare and was acquainted with grand operas and knew many lines and verses from memory. Ada possessed a beautiful voice and loved to sing.
Ada was a true Latter Day Saint, believing in the principles of the gospel with a sincere and trusting faith. To her and her husband, it was the biggest thing in life and held the most glorious promise for the life to come. She never failed to impress its truth upon her children, encouraging them to read and know for themselves. Its poetry and music especially appealed to her. She knew and loved to sing the songs of Zion and taught them to her children. And by precept and example endeavored to implant in their hearts a sincere faith in the mission of Joseph Smith and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ada Alice Rampton died Sunday, September 11, 1910, at 8:00 pm at the home of her daughter Elizabeth Rollins at Centerville, Utah. She was fifty-nine years old. Her posterity, living at the present writing (1945) are: four sons, four daughters, forty-two grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. One child and ten grandchildren having passed to the great beyond. Surely Ada deserves to be numbered among the elite pioneers of Syracuse where she endured privations and hardships on a lowly farm.
By Karen Bennett
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