On this day in 1846, Hetty Bushman, was born in this home in Nauvoo. She was the sister of Jacob Bushman, who was 15 when she was born. Below is the entry made in their father’s Family Bible:
Little Hetty died 11 months later as the family made the trek west after being driven from their home in Nauvoo.
From: Bushman Family History, compiled 1956 by Newbern I. Butt for the Bushman Family History Committee, pp. 12-15.
On Christmas day in 1845, Martin and Elizabeth also went to the Temple and were sealed for time and all eternity. Mob violence continued so that in February 1846 the main body of the saints left Nauvoo for the west. However Martin Bushman, along with a few others, were asked to remain at Nauvoo to plant crops and harvest them to provide food for the many new members coming from the east and elsewhere to gather with the saints. Bounteous crops were raised, but just when they were ready to harvest, the mobbers moved in and drove the rest of the faithful saints away from Nauvoo.
Before they left the city, Martin took all of his children into the temple and showed them the baptismal font resting on the backs of twelve bronze oxen. This occasion was never forgotten by the children. Forced to leave with just a few hours’ notice, Martin was poorly prepared to make the five hundred mile trip from Nauvoo to Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The trip was made during the wet season of fall and winter, over roads which were often all but impassible. The suffering was intense, and two of their little girls died and were buried in graves without coffins. After they finally reached the saints at Council Bluffs, Martin was assigned to the nearby settlement of Highland Grove located a few miles east of the Bluffs. He immediately proceeded to build a log cabin for his family. This accomplished, he headed for Missouri where he earned enough provisions to see the family through the winter. As soon as the crops were planted in the spring of 1847, Martin again went to Missouri to earn food for his family, and left his son Jacob and the smaller boys in charge of the crops. Martin was an excellent farmer, but the expulsion from Nauvoo and the hard journey across Iowa had left him with almost nothing to continue the journey to Utah. He worked out again in 1849 to earn clothing for the family and returned in the winter. All of the land available was put in crops in the spring of 1850 so that they would be assured of food for the planned trip to join the Saints in Utah in 1851.
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