Charlotte Turley Bushman
1800-1847

Born: 15 April 1840 in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois1
Died: 1 November 1899 in Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah2
Buried: Fairview Upper Cemetery in Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah3
FamilySearch ID: KWJ5-XFH
FindaGrave Memorial ID:  37881140

Charlotte was the daughter of Theodore Turley and Frances Kimberley.

Charlotte married Jacob Bushman on 2 March 1857 in San Bernardino, San Bernardino County, California.4 They had the following children:

  1. Priscilla Elizabeth Bushman (1858-1859)
  2. Charlotte Amanda Bushman (1860-1928) m. John Sabey
  3. Theodore Martin Bushman (1863-1937) m. Elizabeth Morilla Lambson
  4. Frances Ann Bushman (1866-1874)
  5. Sarah Erminnie Bushman (1869-1947) m. Henry Fowles
  6. Mary Emma Bushman (1871-1872)
  7. Grace Honor Bushman (1873-1912) m. Emanuel Richard Lundquist
  8. Jacob Isaac Bushman (1876-1939) m. Effie May Bills
  9. Ida Roxana Bushman (1879-1970) m. Archibald Robert Anderson
  10. Ella Isadora Bushman (1884-1956) m. Rufus Orrin Barker
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Life Sketch

Life sketch coming soon.

Utah Pioneer of 1851 Answers Last Call

(Special Correspondence.)
FAIRVIEW, April 2.—Jacob Bushman, who died here March 25, was the son of Martin and Elizabeth Degan Bushman. He was born July 27, 1830, in Pennsylvania. His parents joined the Church about 1840, and soon afterwards moved to Nauvoo, Ill. There he passed through the stirring scenes of the years subsequent and had part in the migration westward of the Latter-day Saints. He arrived in Salt Lake City in September of 1851. From that time on he was an active empire builder, taking part in all the vicissitudes of pioneer life. He lived for a period in California. He married Charlotte Turley, March 2, 1857. He was a missionary, a trail blazer and an active useful man all his life. He came to Fairview to make his home in 1890. He is survived by six children, 36 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.

“utah pioneer of 1851 answers last call,” Deseret evening News, Friday, 4 Apr. 1919, p. 17, col. 1, newspapers.com.

Excerpt from Jacob Bushman’s autobiography5

Then there was missionaries sent up from Sanbernardino by Apostle Rich and Lyman for all the Mormons or even called themselves Mormons to come to (San Bernardino). There was about 10 families from San Juan, went to Sanbernardino, and I went with them. Arrived there about the Fall of 1855, and I thought it was a fine place. I went to work for Brother Theodore Turley and John Cook. A short time. Then went on the mountain to run and Engine for a saw mill for Gilbert Hunt. I was there about 3 months. In the Fall of 1856, I went to work for George Crisman. And in March 2, 1857, I was married to Charlotte Turley, daughter of Theodore and Francis Kimberly Turley. Then news came from Salt Lake for all that called themselves Latter Day Saints to come back to Utah, and the most of the Saints started back in December 1857.

I left Sanbernardino on the 25 day of Dec. 1857 in company with my father-in-law and two brother-in-laws and about 20 other families for Utah. We traveled along until we arrived at the Muddy on the night of 22 of Jan. 1858. And on the 23 of Jan. my first child was born, a girl Pricilla Elizabeth. We had a hard time from there until we reached Cedar City about the first of Feb. 1858. I left my wife there with her father and went on to Lehi with one of my brother-in-laws Stephen Franklin, and we arrived in Lehi about the 10th of Feb. 1858, being gone nearly six years.

In March, I returned to Cedar City for my wife and child, traveling through snow sometimes three feet deep. And started back for Lehi the first week in April 1858. Had to shovel snow a going back. Arrived there about the middle of April.

Biographical sketch from The Theodore Turley Family book (p. 474-477)

There had been much illness in Nauvoo when the Saints had fled from Far West, Missouri in 1839. Commerce (later named Nauvoo), Illinois was nothing more than a swamp that no one had wanted. But the Prophet Joseph saw this place as the beginnings of a beautiful city. Malaria, pneumonia, and chills and fever had touched almost every family. The Saints would not give up. They started draining the swamp areas and building homes.

Theodore Turley was the very first Mormon to build a home in this city. He took great pride in his work and the home was lovely. He and his wife, Frances Amelia, with their seven children moved into it before he was called to go with Heber C. Kimball and Wilford Woodruff on a mission to Eng­land.

It was in this home on April 15, 184[0] while Theodore Turley was in England that a lovely baby daughter was born. With all the illness and discouragements of the past year, what joy must have come to Francis Amelia to have this sweet spirit come into her home while their husband and father was away serving the Lord. The [baby] was named CHARLOTTE.

With much of the illness past, 1840 promised to be a very exciting year for the Mormons in Nauvoo. It was a Presidential Election year and the Illinois politicians wanted the Mormon vote. Many concessions were made to pacify the Saints and Nauvoo began to blossom. CHARLOTTE had been born at a time that was to be joyous for the citizens of Nauvoo. Those first few years must have been happy and normal ones for this beautiful little girl with black eyes and lovely black hair.

Then as the tides changed and the Saints became more and more persecuted, anxiety and fear once more filled the hearts of the Mormons. The Prophet Joseph was often sought by the mobs. Many times Theodore Turley hid the prophet in his wine cellar. CHARLOTTE often told her children that when the Prophet was in the cel­lar he would hold her on his lap and tell her stories so she would be very quiet. This was a memory she always cherished.

As the Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo, they fled across the Mississippi River and win­tered in Winter Quarters, Nebr. More sadness and tragedy took place here for the Turleys when Charlotte’s mother, Frances Amelia, and Theodore’s fourth wife, Sarah Ellen Clift, died. How grateful CHARLOTTE must have been to have older sisters and brothers as well as her father’s other wife to care for her as she was still a very young child.

When the Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, President Young almost immediately instituted his great colonization pro­gram. In the early 1850’s the Turleys were sent to San Bernardino to help with the building of this western-most boundary of the State of Deseret.
JACOB BUSHMAN, a well-respected teamster, arrived in San Bernardino with a group of LDS families. He fell in love with CHARLOTTE and they were married on March 4, 1857. Later in this year they returned to Utah with the other Mormon settlers from San Bernardino because of the threat of Johnston’s Army to the Utah colonies. They wintered in southern Utah, “Dixie.” It was here that their first child, PRISCILLA ELIZABETH, was born during a blustery January night near the Muddy River. As soon as spring came the following year, they continued north and settled in Lehi where JACOB took up his first farming land. He and his brothers ran the Saratoga Springs farm for John C. Naile for some years. During the following thirty years they pros­pered and were blessed with nine more children.

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 travelled 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 rain­storms 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 FOWLED 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.

Related Links

Timeline

Coming soon.

Important Places

Nauvoo, Illinois
Winter Quarters & Kanesville
Salt Lake City, Utah
San Bernardino, California
Cedar City, Utah
Lehi, Utah
St. Johns & Concho, Arizona
Fairview, Utah

  1. Family Memorial for Frances Kimberley; FindaGrave.com, memorial page for Charlotte Turley Bushman (15 Apr 1840–1 Nov 1899), memorial ID 37881140, citing Fairview Upper Cemetery, Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah, United States.
  2. FindaGrave.com, memorial page for Charlotte Turley Bushman (15 Apr 1840–1 Nov 1899), memorial ID 37881140, citing Fairview Upper Cemetery, Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah, United States.
  3. FindaGrave.com, memorial page for Charlotte Turley Bushman (15 Apr 1840–1 Nov 1899), memorial ID 37881140, citing Fairview Upper Cemetery, Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah, United States.
  4. “Jacob Bushman, Autobiography, Typescript, BYU, 1943” available at Ann Lewis’ family history blog.
  5. “Jacob Bushman, Autobiography, Typescript, BYU, 1943” available at Ann Lewis’ family history blog.