John McDonald’s 1908 Account

John McDonald’s Memories of Crawfordsburn & Coming to Nauvoo

At the 1908 Clyde-McDonald reunion John McDonald (oldest son of James & Sarah) told us his memories of life in Crawfordsburn, County Down, Ireland. John was then 75 and serving as Patriarch until he passed away in 1910. Some of the dates he provided are a year or two off, but his memory is truly remarkable considering there were no written records available to him and no Internet. I am 73 and trying to write my own memoirs that have sent me scrambling for HS yearbooks, family pictures & asking my wife because I can’t remember details as well as remembering how I felt as I experienced events in my life. John’s spelling & grammar are more consistent with modern English than William’s, but several of his dates are different than those given by his siblings. John stated his father was born in Crawfordsburn and lived there until moving to America. It appears John was not aware that his grandfather Moses took his family to live in Greenock, Scotland when James was 4 or 5 or that after Moses was killed in 1812 the family returned to Crawfordsburn. John says they sold their home for $200.00 which was more likely £200 (about 2 1/2 times $) since it was in Ireland. John refers to his youngest brother as William being born in Belfast. William was neither the youngest brother, nor was he born in Belfast. John was only 9 (William was 8) when they moved to Belfast and David was born. David was buried in Nauvoo 64 years before this talk. William probably was baptized while they were in Belfast. Though John’s memory of the timing of events that occurred when he was 9 may have been faltering by age 75, his personal recollection of his experiences, as he remembered them, is a priceless heritage to us. We can always get the exact dates from documents available online, but these are John’s memories.

“My father and mother were born in Crawfordsburn, County Down, Ireland and lived there from the time they were born until they moved to America. About 1840 the Mormon Elders came to this town and preached the gospel to the people. They later took a room in my father’s house for which he would take no pay. Our people and 4 or 5 families joined the church. They would gather together every Sunday morning for meeting. They had a good time. The gift of tongues, the gift of interpretation, the gifts of the Spirit were given them. There was a good feeling there–the best I have ever felt. They stood up and bore their testimony that the gospel was true and that it had been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith.”

“In 1841 my parents decided to go to America. Father sold the house we lived in–the ground that it stood on did not belong to us. We sold the house and got about $200.00 for it. We fitted up with that to come to Zion, and the branch of the Saints that we were leaving felt very badly and there was much morning about our coming way. In 1841 we went to Belfast. Our youngest brother, William was born there. Two years later we sailed from there to Liverpool. We landed in Liverpool and waited 3 or 4 days for the boat to get ready. There were 250 Saints on this ship, just a small ship, and we started for America. For a week or two the weather was beautiful, but one morning I saw the captain set out with a spy glass. When he came back, he told the sailors to go and roll the sails up–there was no steam in those days. It wasn’t long until the storm came. I never saw such a storm in my life. They ordered us to the bottom of the ship, and they put the hatchways down. The waves rolled mountain high. There wasn’t one on the ship that wasn’t seasick, some that would just about as soon as die as live. We were kept down there for 3 days. I got a glimpse out and saw the sailors were lashed to their posts to keep them from being washed overboard.”

“There was a boat waiting for us at New Orleans, the “Maid of Iowa” owned by the Prophet Joseph Smith. We were five weeks after leaving New Orleans until we reached Nauvoo. We were hailed by mobocrats all the way up the river. We got there alright though. They would come on board when we pulled up to the shore to get wood or supplies. One of them put a lighted cigar into a feather bed and set the boat on fire. Captain Jones ran 3 or 4 of them right into the river. There was a great many to meet the “Maid of Iowa” and to see us land. Hyrum Smith was there to help the Saints get places to live.”

“We took an old house, repaired it and lived in it. We were out of money. Father had 75¢ when we got there, and he bought an axe with that. The country was all vacant. We could take up a homestead anywhere. The grass was knee high. The country was new and rich and even the City of Chicago was a little village.”

“We next moved from Nauvoo to Boneparte on the Desmoines River. We had to get out of Nauvoo or be killed. We finally got an old Brother Holmes who had a yoke of oxen that looked like they were 25 years old to move us. We were 3 days moving 30 miles. Joseph and Hyrum Smith had been murdered and there was nothing for the Saints to do but to leave. When Brigham Young decided to go further West we prepared to follow. We got about six oxen and two wagons and yoked them up. I drove them for a month before we left and got them trained. Then we moved out for Zion in the West.”

“We got out–I don’t know how far–but the cholera became very bad, some dying every day. When we got to the Platte River my father took the cramp. He had just buried a man who died of it. This was just after we got across the Platte River. I remember wading across the Platte. The water was right up to my neck. When we got to the other side father died. We buried him there on the banks of the Platte River without a coffin. We broke up a large chest that we had and made kind of a vault in the grave. We had to go on.”

“This is all true, every word of it. And I am glad for the privilege of going through all the trouble we went through.”

It is from John we learn the Elders lived with them in what they called their “big hoose.” Several of James’ children referred to their Irish home as the “big hoose” (house). It must have been a large home to hold James & Sarah & their 7 children (the oldest being 14). They still made a room for the Elders to live and held meetings on Sunday morning in their home attended by five families! That had to be one “Big Hoose”! John told us that they sold their home but did not own the land it was on (we now know the land was rented from William Sharman Crawford.) This was common in Ireland. Most people were not landowners. The few who owned land were called Lords (Landlords) and held a seat in the House of Lords. This is still true today in Great Britain. We, as Americans, are used to everyone having an opportunity to own land. So some have concluded that our ancestors were peasants because they didn’t own land. But land ownership was something new to most immigrants coming to America. That they had a goat which was “something extra in the village” indicates our McDonald ancestors were better off than most. When the goat died, they sold the house and came to America. That they were able to afford coming to America when most Irish Saints weren’t able is another indication, they were better off than most. John only mentions Hyrum Smith, but his mother mentioned the Prophet Joseph was there. An entry in Joseph’s journal on April 13th, 1844 “About 5pm Maid of Iowa arrived at Nauvoo House wharf.” Nauvoo membership records list our ancestors arriving in Nauvoo on Saturday April 13th, 1844.

John’s brother, William McDonald added a few more details when he wrote, “Elder David Wilken orginized a Branch in Ireland & meetings Were Held in our House Whitch Was Head quarters for the Branch it Being about the first introduction of Mormonism in that Country. Persequishon at first Was very Bad.” County Down was not only predominantly Presbyterian, but the center of an extreme anti-Catholic movement that viewed the Church of Ireland (Episcopal or Anglican), Methodists, and Baptists as being too tolerant of Catholicism (or not Protestant enough). They were called the “Orangemen” and County Down had the highest concentration of them in all of Ireland. The modern Irish flag of green, white & orange was intended to symbolize the two factions living in peace.

Just as the Protestant reformation created a climate in which the Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel was possible, the way was opened for our ancestors to receive the Restored Gospel in County Down Ireland. John McDonald said his father worked for “Sherman Crawford” at his estate in Crawfordsburn. I found a biography of the largest landowner in County Down. By learning some about James McDonald’s employer and landlord we gain a greater appreciation of how the Lord created the setting in which the Gospel could be preached and accepted in County Down Ireland.

William Sharman-Crawford

William Sharman-Crawford, an Irish politician, was born 3rd September 1780, at Moira Castle, in the County of Down. He was the eldest son of Colonel William Sharman, for many years member for Lisburn in the Irish Parliament, who died in 1803, leaving him large estates. In 1805 he married a wealthy heiress, Mabel Crawford, whose surname and arms he added to his own. He represented Dundalk in Parliament, from 1834 to 1837, was subsequently returned for Rochdale without cost to himself; and sat many years for that borough. He greatly increased the prosperity of the tenants on his large estates by extending and confirming the Ulster custom of tenant-right; and the main object for which he strove during a long parliamentary career was to give legal effect to this right, and to extend it to other parts of Ireland. The tenant farmers justly regarded him as their champion. 

A great stone obelisk has been erected to his memory on a hill on the Rademon Estate, near Crossgar, Co Down. It bears on one side the following inscription:

William Sharman Crawford’s temple work was completed in Provo 16 May 1989.