The Minor Family of Somerset

Samuel Franklin was the last born child of Robert and Sarah. H
e was born 18Mar 1848. When he was eleven months old, the hous
ehold furniture was sold and the family left the old home in Ste
eple Ashton with their boxes, bedding and trunks loaded in a car
t. They were part of a great movement of "gatheringsaints to Z
ion." They were joining the thousands who had been converted t
othe "Mormon" faith and were gathering to the Valley of the Gre
at Salt Lake in Utah, United States of America. .........The Be
rrett family, accompanied by Robert's brother James and a few fr
iends from Steeple Ashton, went directly to the LDS emigratio
n headquarters where arrangements were made for theirdeparture.
They boarded the ship Ashland from George's Landing, the only la
nding stage in Liverpool at that time and it was only 500 feet l
ong. CaptainHarding had charge of the ship and Elder John John
son presided over the LDS company consisting of 187 souls. The
y sailed away 6 Feb 1849. They were eleven weeks on the ocean a
nd landed in New Orleans about the last of April....
New Orleans was a picturesque old place....
Soon all was ready and the Berrettfamily took passage on a stea
mboat for St. Louis, about a thousand miles upthe Mississippi R
iver...
Cholera broke out before the boat reached St. Louisand Albert E
dward (Teddy) Berrett, about 4 years old b 2 feb 1845 as the nin
th child of Robert and Sarah, was one of the first to die. He w
as the third child or Robert and Sarah who had died. Albert wa
s buried in the St. Louiscity cemetery in May 1849 in the sam
e grave with the wife of John Broom. Later Mr. Broom built th
e Broom Hotel in Ogden. ...On the way up the MissouriRiver t
o Council Bluffs, Sarah the wife of Robert of 1797 and mother o
f then died. The boat was anchored long enough for her to be bu
ried on the floodplan of the Missouri River. A neighbor's litt
le child about a year old was buried in the same grave. The mo
rning after they arrived in Council Bluffs,about the middle o
f May, Robert's brother James (Uncle Jim), age fifty, died.A w
eek later, Robert's eldest daughter, Rhoda, age twenty-two passe
d away, leaving a brokenhearted father, four sad brothers and tw
o lonely sisters.from Berretts of Steeple Ashton, by LaMar C
. Berrett