Sketch written by grand daughter, May C. Burns
Bountiful, Utah
Millizer Robinson was born in Eastwood Nottinghamshire, England, August 21, 1819. She was the daughter of Samuel Robinson and Mary Price. She was a member of a large family consisting of five boys and three girls,
There were no free schools in those days, consequently her schooling was limited. She was early taken out of school to work in one of many factories in that locality.
At the age of twenty-two she married William Cooper, who belonged to the Methodist Church, and who became a local preacher in that church. In the year 1848, she and her husband joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In the year 1862 they, and their eight children, emigrated to Utah.
They started on their journey in May and arrived in Bountiful, Utah, in October. Six weeks were spent crossing the ocean in the sail boat Tapscot. On the boat there were two or three decks. Each deck served as a bedroom, dining room, and living room for its occupants, On the top floor there was a large stove, Each family did much of its own cooking. Sea biscuits and salt bacon was the principle fare. Split peas soup and potatoes were occasional luxuries. Each person was allowed a certain number of soda crackers and sweet crackers.
At one time there was a terrible storm for three days. All passengers were locked down in the ship. On the second day the Captain went below. He told the members of the Church they had better pray. He said he had never lost a Mormon, but things looked very serious. Different members of the Church led in prayer. After they had finished the Captain said he felt sure that their lives would be spared.
On landing in New York, they went by train to the Mississippi River as it was war time the train was fired on by Union soldiers who thought that the train contained Confederate soldiers and supplies. They rode up the Mississippi on a flat boat. It took the crew much of their time to keep the passengers from all crowding to the shady side of the boat and upsetting it.
After a wait of six weeks at Florence, Nebraska, the company was met by ox teams from Utah. One wagon had come to serve for two good sized families. Those who were able to walk were expected, of course, to walk most of the way.
During this strenuous journey across the plains, grandmother gave birth to a baby girl. Her life was short. She lived only about three weeks as grandmother could not nurse her. She often spoke of how it cut her to the very core to hear her baby cry of hunger when she had no milk to feed her.
Then arriving in the valley, the first winter the family lived in the bake room of Robert Telfords home. The next spring they moved to a piece of land they had purchased.
Another girl was born four and a half years after the family’s arrival in Bountiful. In October, 1868, just six years after their coming here, grandfather passed away. The hardships of pioneer life had been more than he could stand.
Grandmother, who was now left with the responsibility of a large family, endured many hardships. She knew the discouragement of seeing the crops being eaten by grasshoppers. She washed, did house work, or nursed to get provisions for the family. At one time she nursed a woman whose family was short of food, The sick woman was fed what they could get for her. Grandmother used to tighten her skirt to lessen the pangs of hunger.
She was a foreseeing woman and one who used very good judgment in all the affairs of life. She possessed a rate instinct for judging character upon first meeting a person. Closer acquaintances almost always proved that her first impressions were right.
She believed most firmly in keeping out of debt. Her words of advice, though not always followed by her descendants, proved to be gems of wisdom.
My uncle, Orson Cooper, who never married, had stayed on the old homestead, with his mother. When I was an infant, only seven days old, my mother died. So grandmother and uncle took care of me (Mae Burns).
On the fifth of May, 1900, grandmother passed away very suddenly as she had always wished. She was nearly eighty-one years old and she died firm in the faith for which she had sacrificed so much and to which she had devoted her life.
William Tapscott boat left Liverpool, May 13, 1862, Capt. J.B. Bell. There were 807 saints on board. They arrived in Salt Lake Valley, Sunday, Oct. 19, 1862 – – William Gipson, President of company.
Francis M. Lyman ship sailed, May 14, 1862. They divided the people into wards. There were 19 in a ward. William Cooper was over on of these wards.
William Cooper was a collier. He worked with coal. When they came over, their ages were as follows:
William Cooper 41
Millizer Cooper 42
Children:
John 18 Orson 11 Sariah 5
William 15 Eliza 9 Catherine 2
Ann 14 Heber 7