Researched and compiled by the Kartchner Brothers

Daughter of Jacob and Sarah Knowlin Casteel; first wife, in a polygamist marriage, of William Decatur Kartchner.

She and her young family were commemorated as one of the first 2090 Pioneers to enter Utah [from summer 1847 thru summer 1848 as part of the company commonly known as the "Mississippi Saints"] on page 241 in "E.L. Sloan & Co Utah Gazetteer and City Directory for 1884 (Pioneer
Section)".

Margaret Jane Casteel was born in Cooper County, Missouri, in 1825. Margaret was baptized when she was thirteen and by the time she was seventeen the family had moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. Here she met William Decatur Kartchner, and they were married 17 Mar 1844.

They had been married six months when they were asked to go up the Missouri River and plant crops in antiscipation of the Saints moving to the West. It was a hard trip and many times they were without food and other rations. Many of the company left to go back to Iowa City. Margaret and William stayed the winter with his brother, John, then in 1846 they joined the Mississippi Saints and traveled with them to Pueblo, Colorado. Here her first child was born. All this time William was suffering from rheumatism, and it was hard for him to prepare the wagons for the trip. Finally in 1847 they got to Fort Laramie just three days behind Brigham Young and the first company of Saints. They arrived in the Valley 28 Jul 1847.

The first winter they suffered much for the want of food, but the second year was much better. In 1850 they were called to go with Amasa Lyman to San Bernardino, California to settle. They were there until 1857 when they were called home because of the Utah War. They stayed in Beaver, Utah for a time, then into Nevada, and lastly into Arizona, finally settling in Snowflake, Arizona. With each move Margaret cared for her children, raised chickens, carded and spun wool, made cloth, put up fruit, etc. Margaret took part in Church activities, and was a skilled midwife.

Margaret spent thirty-four years of her life in helping to colonize four of the western states. She had walked many weary miles, and had journeyed many thousands of miles over mountains and deserts, where no roads eased the rocky way, behind slow, plodding oxen, months at a time, having only a wagon-box for her home. Now, at last, she had reached a haven of rest, for Snowflake was to be her permanent home. A rather fine log house was built and life seemed now to have settled into a more peaceful, and less strenuous pattern of living. She took part in the activities of the new settlement, especially in the religious affairs.

In 1881 Margaret was stricken with a severe pain in her head and a bad cough. She continued to get worse, until she died on 11 August 1881.

ATTENTION: Thank you Melva Johnson for the Cemetery name. This cemetery is also known as the Snowflake Cemetery