Here is an interesting excerpt from The Theodore Turley Family Book  (pp. 474-478) about Charlotte Turley Bushman, my 2nd Great Grandmother who was born on this day:

In 1884 Jacob and Charlotte and their family were called on a mission to help colonize St. Johns, Arizona. He sold his property in Lehi and prepared for a permanent home in Arizona. They took their herd of 40 head of cattle and traveled by covered wagon. The trip was not an easy one. Amanda had contracted a liver condition and was seriously ill in one of the wagons the whole trip. Nights were not free from anxiety. Their beds were in the wilds with rattlesnakes so close that sleep was difficult. Many other wagons met the Bushmans in Richfield and together they started on the long journey. Food was baked over rocks.

One day as they reached Willow Springs, they stopped to fill the water kegs on the sides of their wagons. Indians met them and continually pestered them for food throughout the rest of the trip. They reached House Rock and ferried across the adjoining river. They traveled through the Petrified Forest with their six span of horses. The mud and mire was so deep that it reached the horses bellies. After a hard six week trip they reached their destination where they were immediately sent to Concho, eight miles from St. Johns. They settled there for two years. Jacob made a log house; and they were rather comfortable until the terrific rain-storms and floods came. The floods were so treacherous that they were forced to return to St. Johns. There they rented a farm and their children attended school with 500 Mexican children.

Even in St. Johns they couldn’t seem to escape the flash floods. Grain farming became almost an impossibility. After years of struggle with the elements in St. Johns, President Woodruff sent a letter of release and urged them to return to Utah as soon as possible. Six years of struggle had depleted Grandfather Bushman’s savings considerably. He had just enough to return to Fairview, Utah where his daughter Sarah and her husband Henry Fowles lived. He bought a small farm, with an old log house on it where the family was to live.

On the first of November, 1899, Charlotte died as a result of pneumonia. Her life had been one of service and love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She had participated in the great drama of Nauvoo, crossing the plains, colonization, motherhood, and sustaining and supporting her husband as he performed his duties as a father and missionary.

One granddaughter recalls that Grandmother Charlotte’s picture hung in her parents’ home. She relates how her mother Ida used to pause and look at her mother’s picture saying, “Mother was a very beautiful woman. Her creamy white complexion, her black eyes and silky black hair made her one of the most beautiful women I ever knew!” Ida also enjoys relating how beautiful her mother, Charlotte, was and the utmost care she always exercised in her appearance, Also of her mother’s neat black dress, with a pocket in the skirt where frequently pieces of candy were usually available for her children and grandchildren. Mrs. Ora Anderson, a granddaughter, helped prepare this record, and mentioned her mother telling of the devotion to children, husband and the church, assuming any hardship that came with no complaint, as her mother, Charlotte, accepted each day as it came and gave thanks to God for her lovely family.