Our Amazing Ancestors

Okay, strictly speaking, Judah McClaskey Gillett is not our ancestor. She is the sister of my gggrandfather, Samuel McClaskey. I have been obsessed with Judah and her family for about 5 years.

She was born in southern Ohio along the Ohio river on land given to her father and brothers in payment for their services in the War of 1812. She grew up there, married there and had several children there. At some point, she and her family made the decision to move westward. On the 1850 census, Samuel and Judah and their family are living, amazingly enough, in Nauvoo. I suppose at some point they heard about the abandonment of Nauvoo by the Saints and chose to move there. From Nauvoo, Samuel and Judah and the younger children moved back to Knox County, Illinois, near Galesburg. However, five of their children headed west to California. Another daughter would move there later.

One of Judah's sons died at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862 and Samuel died in Knox County in 1865. At some point, she decided to journey west and join her children who lived in California. She died there in 1896.

In October, I was able to travel to California with Rene when he went on business. When we decided to take an extra day and go north to the Redwoods, I suggested that we also go to visit the parts of Humboldt county where Judah's children settled and where she died. What a thrill that was! I described the trip to Petrolia here, but let me just say that it was wild and rugged countryside that we traveled through. After zigzagging up and down the mountains, we finally descended into the beautiful Mattole valley. This is where Judah and her children settled. I was touched to see the charming little farmsteads, many with small orchards and beautiful yards. In Petrolia, we went to the tiny cemetery, where we found the grave on Judah's son-in-law. We drove on up over more mountains to Ferndale, where some of Judah's grandchildren lived and died.

This little excursion really increased my admiration for this family. It took us, in a car, 4 hours to make the trip from the main highway to Ferndale. There is only one road that goes through Petrolia and it's not a good one. How in the world did they do it with a horse and wagon? How did they even know that this beautiful, isolated little valley was out there? I'm sure they were very self-reliant and worked hard to be successful. I wonder if they ever felt alone or isolated? I know they lost children and many of them died at a young age. Did Judah feel discouragement as she survived many of her own children?

When we went to Lauren's blessing in St. Paul earlier this month, Preston blessed Lauren to have the faith of her pioneer ancestors. To me, that was a thoughtful and tender blessing and one to be sought after by all of us, too!