A kind correspondent from Utah, Mr William Jolley, has sent me an extract from "Ancestors and Descendants of George and Mary Etherington Stanger" by Vesta Wright Barnett, relating to the youth of George Stanger and his emigration from Faceby to Utah.  In this extract, the author recalls various family stories told of her grandfather, George.

This makes for very interesting reading.  As we so often find in family history, these vivid stories do not entirely tally with the historical record, but are perhaps all the more revealing of the character of the people concerned.

George Stanger, remembered by his descendants

George is remembered as a strong and forceful man, and as we know from his life story, he was resourceful and determined.  

The family tales preserve the memory of his first encounter with American wildlife (he caught a snapping turtle in the journey up the Mississippi River, and "called his companion to him exclaiming that he had caught the Devil himself"), the memory of the strong secret mutual attachment between George and Mary Etherington, and the journey across the plains during which George "drove two yoke of oxen".  They do not preserve the memory of the Faceby Branch of the Church and the large party of family and neighbours in which George and Mary travelled.  

The arrival of the first Mormon Elder

The story of George's discovery of the Mormon religion is interesting.  There are two variants, both beginning with a meeting held by a young Elder called William Burton.

In the first variant, George (who is described as "a leader among the young men in his community") planned to give a signal to his friends to create a disturbance and break up the meeting.  Amazed to recognise in the opening hymn a song that he had heard in his dreams, he failed to give the signal.  When a local minister came in and urged the audience to leave, George took the minister by the shoulder and told him to sit down, as the Elders had paid to use the building and had a right to be heard. 

In the second variant, the first visiting Elder was invited to the parish church by the clergyman, who then denounced them to the congregation.  George would not allow the minister to kneel to dismiss the meeting, insisting that the Elders be given a fair opportunity to speak. 

George's interest led to his conversion to the Mormon Church and his baptism on 5 November 1853.

This account – in either variant – gives a likely explanation for the introduction of the Mormon religion to the little village of Faceby, which has always been something of a mystery.  It seems very probable that Elder William Burton, who may have been travelling between the Branches in Leeds and County Durham, stopped in the neighbourhood of Faceby and decided to hold a meeting.  This was probably not in the village itself,  as this was and is only a small hamlet.  Elder Burton would have been much more likely to obtain the use of an independent chapel or temperance meeting house in one of the larger townships, or towns, in the area, where he would have been sure of an audience. 

It seems very improbable that a young labourer would manhandle the local Anglican clergyman, who held a position of authority in the parish, but he might possibly have been rather rough with a Nonconformist minister or lay preacher.

Was it George who took the lead, or his father James?

Naturally enough, George is the central character in this family story and seems to take the lead in converting to the Mormon faith. 

However, George’s baptism was rather late in the story of the Faceby Mormons.  By the time he was baptised in November 1853, his brother-in-law Charles Hogg was already ordained a priest.  I think it highly probable that it was not George Stanger who went to the meeting to scoff and stayed to listen, but his father James Stanger. 

James was a substantial member of his community, a craftsman who owned property, more than capable of challenging a Nonconformist minister, and we know that he was welcoming Elders into his house to hold meetings by 1852.

The love story of George and Mary

The family stories recall the strong mutual bond between George Stanger and Mary Etherington, which  was apparently kept secret from her parents. 

The writer wonders whether George 

"was influenced by his sweetheart, Mary Etherington, whose family had their arrangements already made to come to Utah, but George wouldn't let his sweetheart leave until he married her secretly, in Stokesley, England, on February 13, 1855.  She came to Utah with her family, and he traveled alone". 

His journey took him from Liverpool to New Orleans, then on to Council Bluffs, arriving in Utah before Mary and greeting her with a kiss to the surprise of her brother, who said, "Aren't you getting mighty friendly with another man's daughter?", to which George replied, "She may be another man's daughter but she is my wife".  Mary's brother reproached them for keeping the marriage secret, saying he would have helped them across the water. 

There are various interesting inaccuracies in this story. 

George did not travel alone – the Faceby Branch emigrated as a group, including George’s brother and sister and their spouses, and it is this story of the Faceby emigration that is the main omission from the family anecdotes. 

Nearly all the Branch took the chance of leaving for Utah, including the young tailor Charles Wake, who was only able to take his family to America with the help of his fellow Branch members, who gave him the money for the fares.  Old James Stanger and his wife remained behind, possibly to help their widowed son John with his motherless little girls; they all joined the rest of the family about 15 years later.  Their son Thomas’s brother-in-law William Wilson made the crossing in 1888, and Mary Etherington’s sister Frances Bulmer and her family emigrated in 1884.

It seems that George Stanger originally planned to leave in November 1854, on the Clara Wheeler.  He probably altered his arrangements when it became clear that his family and friends, including Mary and her parents, planned to emigrate in February 1855. 

The details of the journey, as passed on in the family, are not quite accurate.  The Siddons  was 52 days at sea, setting sail from Liverpool on 27 February 1855 and reaching Philadelphia on 20 April.  The Faceby emigrants then travelled on to St Louis, Missouri and from there to Mormon Grove, near Atchison, Kansas Territory. 

It is highly likely, however, that George had little contact with Mary during this time.  On the voyage the single men, including Mary’s 19 year old brother Thomas, will have berthed separately from the families and single women, and the Stangers and Etheringtons crossed the plains in different companies.  Mary and her family made the journey with Secrist's company, arriving two weeks before George and his family, who were in Ballantyne's company.

The most important part of this family story, however, is the secrecy kept by George and Mary about their love for each other,  which was the basis for their life-long partnership.

It is not clear why they kept this secret from Mary’s parents.  Perhaps she felt that her parents wished her to see more of the world before she settled down with the boy next door.  Possibly it simply seemed sensible to keep quiet in the bustle of preparations.  Mary's parents were, after all, getting ready to leave their old life, say farewell to children they might never see again, and cross the Atlantic in a party which included their pregnant daughters Elizabeth and Ann – Elizabeth’s baby was two months old when they set sail, and Ann’s baby was born in the Emigration Home in Liverpool. 

George and Mary’s secret wedding is recorded as taking place in Stokesley on 13 February 1855, shortly before the departure for Liverpool.  This is slightly mysterious, as Mary was still under the age of 21 and would have required her father’s consent to marry. 

At last George and Mary were reunited in Utah, where her brother was apparently surprised that they felt the need to keep the secret from him!

Conclusion

Inaccuracies aside, these family stories vividly record the impact of the visiting Mormon Elder on the lives of the Faceby villagers and the excitement of their arrival in the New World – and they reflect the way George’s descendants remembered him, as a man of strong character and enterprise.