Maryanne

I am sure this post wont be very exciting for anyone but I was excited and had to share. So I was reading a really morbid book (Deaths in the Grand Canyon) which in a round-about way got me back into researching Mary Ann. The book talked about William Leany that lived in Harrisburg and the theory that he was in some way involved in the murder of three people in the 1869 Powell Expedition down the Grand Canyon. I will be researching this because other books and sites have listed it as William Laney. I think there is a different person but this book got it confused with the Harrisburg William Leany. Anyways that made me think of Mary Ann.

For those of you who don't know.... I was a bit obsessed with Mary Anne when I was 16 yrs old. She was a pioneer that lived in Harrisburg. She also died in Harrisburg at the age of 16 and was buried in the cemetery there (which happened to be across the street from where I lived). The fact that she had died so young and at the same age I was at the time... my curiosity got the better of me and I started researching her. I had a lot of fun researching things about her. I Even went as far as to contact one of her sisters great-granddaughters in Virginia. I got some interesting stories about the family. One thing that bothered me though... was the discrepancy in dates. Her DOB, the date she died. The family stated she died in 1867, but the headstone states 1868. I was starting to think the headstone was wrong.

Anyways last night I did something I never thought to do. I pulled up archives of the Deseret Morning News and found her obituary. It confirmed that she did die on February 10th 1868. It doesn't specifically state how she died, but I know it was related to childbirth since she had a son 9 days prior (who happened to die 2 days before her). Plus the family in Virginia states women in the Harris family had issues with blood clots after pregnancy. It has taken more than one women's life in that family.

I was so excited when I found that obituary. I wasn't sure I would find it. I also can't believe I never thought to look there before. I of course saved the picture of her obituary so here it is...

I am now back full swing into researching this. I spent all day yesterday researching. Some of the neat things I found out is that her Grandfather Moses Harris (who founded Harrisburg) came across the plains with his family in 1849. They travelled across the plains with the Aldridge Family and had two of their sons marry Aldridge girls. Mary Anne's uncle Silas Harris married Sariah Alldridge at Independence Rock, WY. The families all ended up in Sessions Settlement (later to become Bountiful). Mary Anne's father John S. Harris married Nancy Lydia Aldridge (the sister to Sariah) in Bountiful. Mary Anne was their first born child who was also born in Bountiful.

I think it is neat that is how her parents met was during the hard trek across the plains. It is just fun finding out the different things about her life. I am determined to find out the events going on in the world around her life time and to try to reconstruct that events she lived thru and the activities she may have participated in. I love history!