Contrary proof: Jacobsons

Oral history from Anders Anton Jacobson himself indicates he arrived in America through Toronto, Canada.

But ship records I found show Anders, and his wife Matilda and daughter Jenny depart in 1866 and have a son on arrival in New York.

Though the two arrival locations New York and Canada seem to contradict, they are in fact both correct!

According to record images from Ancestry, they traveled from Hamburg to New York on the
ship Humboldt. Anders Jacobson 28, a farmer, with wife Matilda 25 and infant daughter, Jenny
departed for New York on June 2, 1866.

An excerpt from the ships general voyage notes says:
“The captain, who was very kind to the Saints, admitted that he had never witnessed
so good and orderly a company of emigrants crossing the Atlantic before, and he was
very kind and sympathetic to the sick, sending them extra food from his kitchen. Five
persons, two adults and three children, died during the voyage” (Humboldt notes)

Family story says that Jenny was one of the five who died on the journey. The Humboldt came in to
New York harbor on July 18, 1866,. Anders 28, Matilda 25 and an infant son may have waited one day
on the ship or on the dock for a doctor’s inspection and are listed as arriving July 19, 1866.

So how did the family get to Toronto, Canada? At this point, the only personal account from the voyage on
Mormon Migration (which is now found at SaintsbySea), is written by a then 10 year old boy, Olof Jensen:

“We left New York City and went up the Hudson River in a boat to Albany, New York,
where we put in very dirty cattle cars. After many days, we reached St. Louis, Missouri
having changed cars at Chicago, Illinois. A Brother Johnson was president of the
company. We went in a paddle wheel steamer up the Missouri River to Florence,
Nebraska, now called Omaha, where we remained two weeks waiting for ox teams
from Salt Lake City.” (Jensen).

In the database where the other accounts were also found, when I searched for “Toronto 1866” the general voyage notes of the ship Kennilworth, which sailed 25 May 1866 one week before the Humboldt, gave insight to why and how they might have come through Canada as Olof suggests. Although the events below were for a different group, it does outline the path west that the church arranged for the immigrating saints. And this appears to be how both oral tradition handed down from Anders daughters and records for the family’s actual travels really happened.

“Elder Thomas Taylor, who again acted as emigration agent for the Church in 1866,
had experienced much trouble in making the necessary arrangements for transporting
the emigrants from New York to Wyoming, Nebraska. The railroad companies, whose
lines went out from New York, had apparently planned to speculate at the expense of
the ‘Mormons,’ and hence asked an unusual high price for conveying the emigrants
westward. At length, after making a trip to Boston, Elder Taylor succeeded in closing a
satisfactory contract for their conveyance, by an entirely new route, which was several
hundred miles longer, but much cheaper than the more direct route used to be.

“On the evening of the same day that the passengers of the ‘Kenilworth’ were landed at
Castle Garden, the emigrants proceeded on their journey on a large freight steamer to New Haven, Connecticut, where they arrived on the morning of July 18th. After staying
there a few hours, the journey northward by train was begun, passing through the
states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to Montreal in Canada. Here the
emigrants had to accept passage in some very uncomfortable and dirty freight and
cattle cars, in which they traveled through Canada, the route of travel being along the
north bank of the St. Lawrence River and the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, to
the St. Clair River. On the evening of July 20th, a part of the train jumped the track near
Port Hope on the banks of Lake Ontario, but through the interposition of kind
Providence no one was hurt. The emigrants were ferried over the St. Clair River to Port
Huron in the State of Michigan, where better cars were obtained, and they wended
their way via Chicago to Quincy, Illinois. A steamer took them across the Mississippi
River to the Missouri side, where they found temporary shelter from the burning sun in
a nearby grove. While stopping there, a young boy who ventured too far out while
bathing was drowned in the river. After a very disagreeable ride through the State of
Missouri, where the inhabitants at nearly every station did all they could to insult the
emigrants, the company arrived at St. Joseph July 27th. From this place they sailed
two days on a steamboat up the Missouri River. On this most unendurable passage up
the river they suffered all kinds of insults and abuses from a wicked crew.

“Finally, the company reached Wyoming, Nebraska, Sunday morning, July 29th, and in
the afternoon camped on the heights in and near the town. The 450 teams sent by the
Church in 1866 to the Missouri River to assist the poor had already waited some time
for the arrival of the emigrants in Wyoming, wherefore the necessary preparations were
hurriedly attended to in order to begin the journey across the plains as soon as
possible. . . .” (Kennilworth notes).

This account adds to the understanding of what young Olof said and let’s me track the very railroads my ancestors took.  As The Jacobsen’s were with the emigrants who “…were at once started westward by steamer and railway to
Wyoming, Nebraska, arriving there on Aug. 1st (1866).” (Humboldt notes)

Check out SaintsbySea or the ship manifest records to see what you might be missing. And if you know of other ship databases with captains longs and personal accounts, I would love to learn about it.

Happy Searching!