Jedediah Morgan Grant’s migration from New York to Utah typified the “chain migration” west of families and closely-knit New England Communities. Wilford Woodruff and Grant left Nauvoo together in May 1844 to go east to campaign for Joseph Smith’s bid for U.S. President. They stopped to visit Jedediah’s father Joshua at the latter’s farm near Galesburg in Knox County Illinois. Here Woodruff recalled that his own father and Joshua’s father (also a Joshua) were classmates back in Connecticut.
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May 11, 1844 ~ Saturday
11th We travled across the prairies this day to Br Justice Ames on Ceder Creek within 3 miles
of Galesburg, it was the first time I had been on his farm he had a plesent place of 100 acres & 40 acres in corn & wheat they all appeared glad to see me we spent the night with them I talked with them untill about midnight. In the morning before we left, we lade hands upon Br Justice Ames & his Son Christopher Ames & ordained them unto the office of Elders. distance of the day 20 miles
May 12, 1844 ~ Sunday
12th Sunday we parted with Br Ames family He accompanied us on our way 12 miles to the big mound & we parted with him & he returned & we continued on to walnut grove & stoped at Br John Gaylords & fed the Horses I accompanied Br Grant to his fathers house He found them well except his mother was some out of health his father Joshua Grant was a school mate of my fathers in Connecticut told an anecdote concerning a coon & a cheese after spending 2 hours plesantly & dining with them we took our departure & rode to Fraker’s Groove & spent the night with Br Austin Grant & Gideon Gillet distance of the day 31 miles
May 13, 1844 ~ Monday
13th [FIGURE] I wrote a letter to Mrs Woodruff & sent By Elder Grant informed her to write to Kirtland we had a rainy morning, we parted with Elder Grant and rode to Toulon and spent the night with Br Adam Perry held a meeting with the Saints & appointed a meeting at the Court House at 2 oclock on the morrow distance of the day 9.
Page 258 of Journal (January 1, 1843 – December 31, 1844) | Wilford Woodruff Papers
Grice daguerreotypes have sporadically appeared on the internet and in museum exhibitions. For example the web site, 35 Vintage Photos Show Styles of Victorian Men in the Mid-19th Century ~ Vintage Everyday, include the two Grice images shown below, Reverend Arthur Buckminster Fuller (1822-1862) and Brigham Young (1801-1877). A current exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers – New Orleans Museum of Art (noma.org), displays Grice’s portrait of Reverend Fuller’s 1844 fellow Nauvoo visitors, Reverend Augustus Conant and Betsey Kelsey Conant.
Rod's Ramblings and Ruminations 
