In 1852, This Mormon Pioneer Woman Died Of Cholera While Migrating West, And Her Grave Was Marked Only By A Wagon Wheel: Then, Over 100 Years Later, Her Gravesite Was So Popular Among Visitors That It Had To Be Moved
In 1833, a young woman named Rebecca Winters was baptized into the Mormon Church– making her and her family some of the earliest converts.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had only been founded just a few years before Rebecca’s baptism. So, unfortunately, the Winters were forced to deal with discrimination and harassment over their religion.
Then, during the 1850s, Rebecca and her family ultimately decided to move west throughout the United States. They were a part of the Mormon migration to the state of Utah, which was trailblazed by Brigham Young.
Venturing to the west was a treacherous challenge at the time, though. And by August of 1852, cholera– an infectious bacterial disease of the small intestine– had started to run rampant among the group Rebecca was traveling with.
So, unfortunately, she eventually contracted the fatal disease and passed away very shortly afterward while in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
Countless people died while traveling along the very same trails that Rebecca and her family migrated. However, graves of the deceased are often never found because people were typically buried right underneath the road.
In turn, whenever wagon wheels ran over the graves, the ground would harden, and peoples’ remains were not likely to ever be discovered.
That was except for Rebecca’s grave, though– which was thoughtfully placed and marked with a wagon wheel.
The Winters family had buried her next to the road, rather than directly under it, and made sure to dig her a deep grave. Afterward, they then placed planks taken from a broken-down wagon on the bottom.
ronm – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual wagon wheel
Rebecca’s body was wrapped in a few sheets before being placed on top of the wood. Finally, the Winters concealed her body with more wooden planks on top– constructing almost a coffin-like container.
William Reynolds, a family friend of Rebecca’s, was also present when she was laid to rest. He decided to bend a wagon wheel into the shape of a headstone in her honor before inscribing her name and age: “Rebecca Winters, Age 50.” Then, the Winters family continued on with their travels.
It was not until decades later when a railroad began running through that region of Nebraska, that surveyors actually stumbled upon the wagon wheel grave marker. They realized that a Mormon pioneer had been buried there and soon marked the area with a stone monument. In addition to the monument, a fence was later built around the grave, too.
And interestingly, after being rediscovered nearly a century earlier, visitors flocked in masses to see Rebecca’s grave during the 1990s. In fact, the resting place had so many visitors that the railroad even began to worry about their safety– since the grave was located quite close to train tracks.
So, after getting permission from Rebecca’s descendants, her grave was ultimately moved to a different spot located away from the tracks. And she is now honored within a small memorial park that is tucked away among the sprawling fields of Nebraska.
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