Kristy Robinson Chandler's Family History stories: 6th generation: William Nicholas Goodman (my ggg maternal grandpa; Amy Busby's maternal grandpa)

William Nicholas Goodman was born on Sept. 9, 1841 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England. He came to America with his brother,Nathaniel, in 1862. He married Margaret Ann Taylor on February 27, 1864 in SLC, Utah. He had immigrated to UT in 1862 in the Horton D. Haight Pioneer Company and she came to Utah the next year. He died and was buried on March 8, 1885 in St. David, AZ.

Coming to America
Contributed By: Billie Jo Wyatt · 11 February 2014 · on Familysearch.org

Brothers Nathaniel and William Goodman came to America aboard the ship William Tapscott which left Liverpool 14 May 1862 and landed in New York 26 June 1862. Reports indicate that the journey was rough and many of the passengers were seasick. A shipmate, Ebenezer Farnes, wrote, "About the third week on the voyage there came a terrible storm which tore everything down that could be broken. So bad was the storm that the people had to stay in their beds for three days, the hatchway being closed most of the time, the water being one foot on the first and second decks, washing from one end of the ship to the other and side to side, as the ship tossed and rolled. The captain said it was the worst storm he had ever seen and he had been a captain for twenty-five years. The ship sprung a leak and the pumps had to be kept going night and day until we reached New York. When the captain was asked about the storm he said if he had known the condition of the ship he would not have sailed on her but consoled himself as he had a load of Mormons on board he would get through all right as there had never been a ship lost that was carrying Mormons. After the ship landed in New York, she was not considered fit to carry anything back but lumber so they loaded her with that and she water-logged and was lost at sea. Taking the voyage all in all, it was quite an experience for us all....Only two deaths, one child and a man who was sick when he came on board. The burial at sea is a sad thing. The body is sewn in a canvas and a ball of iron placed at their feet so as to make the body sink feet first so the sharks cannot get it. A long plank is placed on the rail of the ship, part on the ship and part over the water, and the body is placed on the plank, feet to the water. After the burial ceremony the plank is lifted at one end and the body slides into the sea. You can see the body go slanting down for a long distance....Besides having storms, we had calms which lasted from two to five days at a time. Sometimes we had drifted forty or fifty miles out of course in all one trip. We did not have favorable winds. All the winds were head winds so we had to tack. During the calm the emigrants had a good time playing on deck, climbing up the riggings, dancing, and playing games."

Caroline E. W. W. Larrabee was a child on the ship and later wrote in her autobiography, "It was a three-masted sailing ship. It had three decks, the top deck where you could look over the side and see the ocean, then you went down a trap door to the second deck, this was like a large room with berths built all around the walls of the ship, they were the places you slept in. There were three tiers [of bunks], one of them above the other. Then there was another trapdoor that let you down into another deck. When you got on the floor of the third deck, it was so dark that you could not see for awhile till your eyes got accustomed to the gloom. On the third floor were more berths all around, and some lanterns lit so you could manage to see around....On the ship what you paid for your passage included your board. The rations consisted of sea biscuits that were as large as a modern sized plate and were hollow. There was salt beef, pork, rice, split peas, oatmeal, vinegar, mustard, black tea, brown sugar, fresh water and a very little flour, for there was no way of baking bread. The flour was to make a pie or pudding if you wanted to....Lots of the people had some extra food stuffs with them such as raisins, currants, and other fancy stuff....We would get two of those big sea biscuits each with a piece of boiled beef and pork with some mustard and vinegar on it, and go up on the upper deck and sit on the coils of rope enjoying ourselves. Then we would prowl around poking our noses into every place we got a chance....The only place I was frightened was when we had to go to the closet, there was just a straight stick across and of course you could see the ocean. How I did cling to my little sister when she was on that bar, for it was a large enough place to let a grown person down, let alone children. We liked to go look over the side of the ship and see the porpoises showing their heads out of the water and watch the ships go by."

From New York the Saints boarded a train for St. Joseph, Missouri, as far as the railroad went at that time. Fellow traveler William H. Freshwater wrote in his journal, "Just before we arrived in St. Joseph, Missouri, the rebels, or bushwhackers, [This was during the Civil War.] fired two cannon balls through our train, one shot went through the passenger car exactly eight inches above the peoples’ heads and the other through a baggage car destroying a great amount of baggage.We stayed in St. Joseph three or four days, afraid to go on because of the rebel soldiers being all throughout the country. While we were there, some fifteen rebel soldiers were taken prisoner, right from among our company, by the northern soldiers. Two companies of Union soldiers surrounded the depot and made the rebels surrender or they would have killed them. I can truly say I saw a little of the war between the North and the South. We went from St. Joseph to Florence (Nebraska) by steamboat up the Missouri River. We stayed at Florence (which was three miles above Omaha). Omaha had six houses and Florence, seven, all of which were trading posts."

After about two weeks in Florence, the company began the trek across the plains. They arrived in the Salt Lake valley in early October.