Samuel Lufkin, son of Samuel Lufkin and Sarah Livingston, was born June 22, 1788 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. As an adult Samuel became a school teacher and when as a young man, he became ill with consumption, he left his home in Massachusetts to go to Nova Scotia. While there he met and married an Irish girl, Eleanor Johnson, the daughter of James Johnson and Eleanor O'Brien. Eleanor Johnson was born in Londonderry, Nova Scotia in 1795. Samuel and Eleanor married on March 29, 1815. Eleanor was 19 and Samuel was 27. He was 8 years older than her.
Eleanor and Samuel were living in Vermont when they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the 30’s or early 40’s.
Eleanor and Samuel had such a great desire to join with Saints, that they were willing to make significant sacrifices. The family struggled financially and could not afford to move the entire family west. So, Samuel, Eleanor, and Henry left Vermont and traveled to Kirtland, OH in 1850 leaving behind George Washington and Jane Ann with their oldest sister, Sarah, to earn their own money to go west. The 1850 Census shows George and Jane living with Sarah and Benjamin. George did all kinds of odd jobs and Jane Ann taught school even though she was only 15 years old.
Upon arriving in Kirtland, Samuel and Eleanor were disappointed to find not even enough Mormons to hold meetings. Undeterred, they continued west searching for the saints. They went by boat to St. Louis where wagon trains were made up and eventually arrived in Council Bluffs in the spring of 1852. George and Jane followed after their parents. They passed through Nauvoo where they danced and eventually caught up with their parents.
Because the family was so poor they had to divide up among wagon trains. Family tradition says that Samuel left first as a driver for “Blind Leonard.” According to the LDS church website listing pioneer companies and their members, there were at least 24 companies that Samuel could have come with. Furthermore, there were four known individuals with Leonard in their name who came west in pioneer companies during the summer of 1852. One named Leonard John Nuttall was not blind. The others are Leonard Kirchner, Leonard Floyd and Leonard Wilkins. Little is known of any of them including whether or not they were blind. Therefore, we do not know for certain in which company Samuel traveled.
George was the second to leave. He drove a wagon for Isaac Bullock and is listed as a member of the Isaac Bullock Company on the LDS church website listing pioneer companies. According to George's recollections later in life, the company left 4 July 1852. It was the last time George saw his mother. She came out on the road to say good-bye. Unbeknownst to them, she would die several days later but George did not find out until he reached Salt Lake City.
Family tradition states that Eleanor and Henry left last in the train of Captain Hawley’s group. However, on the LDS church website no Hawley Company is listed during 1852 or any year for that matter. Eleanor, Henry, and Samuel are listed as members of the James C. Snow Company, which left on July 5. There is a Hawley family in the company. It is possible that Brother Hawley was a subcaptain of the company which would explain why family tradition names the company after him. The journal of the 17 year old Asa Hawley, states that cholera swept through the camp and several people died. The company journal records the death of Eleanor from cholera on July 16 “about ˝ after 3 A.M.” in Loups Fork, Nebraska. She was buried with bark stripped from trees under and over her body.
Samuel made it to Utah and was initially assigned to settle in Salt Lake City. He lived with his son George for a time. Then in 1856 he married a Norwegian lady by the name of Ingobar Helener/Olena Hanson/Olsen, who had two children, a boy and a girl, by a former marriage. The latter (daughter of Ingobar) married Porter Rockwell. Olena had three children by Samuel, two girls and a boy. The older girl, Sarah Jane (named after Samuel's sisters), married a Dr. Henry Rudy and the younger one, Eleanor, married Jedidiah Kimball, a son of Heber C. Kimball. The son, named Samuel H., married a Martha Alice Yates. During the 1858 exodus to the south, Samuel took his family to Lehi, UT along with his son George and his family. However, Samuel settled permanently in Lehi. He was called as the Sunday School Superintendent in Lehi and was ordained a high priest. Samuel died in 1867.
