28 Oct 1850 – 9 Apr 1938
In 1849 Elders Lorenzo Snow and Toronto had been sent on a mission to Italy. Elder Snow, then of the Twelve and later President of the church. Soon after his arrival in Genoa, President Franklin D. Richards of the European mission wrote as follows: “Now, with a heart full of gratitude, I find that an opening was presented in the valleys of Piedmont, when all other parts of Italy are closed against our efforts. I believe that the Lord has there hidden up a people amid the alpine mountains, and it is the voice of the Spirit that I shall commence something of importance in that part of this dark nation.” Somewhat later he wrote the following: “There has long been an intimate connection between the Protestants here and in Switzerland. I intend to avail myself of this circumstance, that the Gospel may be established in both places.”
One of the converts of these missionaries from Salt Lake City and of other missionaries from England, was the father of Margaret Stalle Barker; Jean Pierre Stalle. He had married Marie Croyer. She had died, leaving one child, a baby girl, who lived to womanhood, married, did not join the Church, and remained in Italy. She died in 1909. Later he had married Susanne Gaudin. She also died, leaving a baby boy who lived to be about two years old. About a year after, in 1836, he had married Marie Goadin (or Godin), The mother of Margaret Stalle (Barker). The Stalles and probably the Godins, as indicated by the names, were of Provencals or southern French descent. The country where they lived in Piedmont was very hilly, and the hillsides were covered with chestnut trees, fig trees, and grape vines. It is somewhat warmer there than it is here. The frosts are not so hard, and the winters are not so cold. Pierre Stalle raised fruit and farmed, and he also kept a few cattle. The farms were small and each family made the best use of what it had. They made their own clothing. Spinning the yarn and weaving it as they did here in the early days. The Stalle family lived at first in the Angrone valley where three children were born: Susanne, February 13, 1837; Bartholome’ June 2, 1839; Marie, August 15, 1844.
Pierre Stalle invested in sheep and a disease got among them from which they all died. At the same time the phylloxera Attacked the grape vines, After these misfortunes over a period of several years, he was compelled to sell his farm in Angrogne and move to Prarustin (Prarostino) where be owned another farm. This farm was further in the hills and not so good as the one he had to sell. Here Margaret Stalle (Barker) was born, October 28, 1850.
The Stalle family belonged to the WaIdenees. The WaIdenees were not numerous. They were to be found some 35 miles south west of Turin in the fertile and well-wooded valley of the Pellice and in the neighboring valley’s. The history of their origin is obscure because largely written by their enemies. Catholics regard them as simply the followers of Pierre VaIdo (or Valdes) of Lyons. They themselves repudiate this view and push back their beginnings to the age of primitive Christianity, claiming to have preserved the purity of the Faith through the age and that the Church was founded by St. Paul on his way from Rome to Spain. Another theory of their origin is that the seat had its origin in the time of Constantine as a reaction against the corruption of the Church of the Fourth Century. What seems more probable, however, is that the sect resulted from a fusion of the heretical followers of Claude of Turin (Eighth Century), Arnold of Brescia (executed in Rome in 1155), Peter of Bruys (1104-25), and Pierre Valdo who died in Bohemia in 1217. Valdo, a rich silk merchant of Lyons, had disposed of his property, giving part of it to his wife and the rest to the poor, and had begun preaching, at first as a lay member of the Catholic Church, and had then continued to preach after he had been excommunicated. Many of his followers took refuge in the Cottian Alps or in what was also to be known later as the Vaudois valley’s. Pierre VaIdo secured a translation of the Bible into the language of Southern France, the Provencal. This Bible has served as a basis for later French translations. The sect was subjected to terrible persecutions. The writer in Hastings, “Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. 12, page 664, says: They were able to withstand the attacks of opponents in a way that has almost suggested the miraculous. The need to realize the physical characteristics of the area in which it (the people) grew up, it was necessary to understand its rare characteristics and account for its sturdy independence and heroic achievements.”
Mention may be made of some of these persecutions. In 1487 Innocent VIII-issued a bull for the extermination of the Waldensees, and Alberto de Capitanei, archdeacon of Cremona, put himself at the head of a crusade against them. In 1655, French troups of Louis XIV and Irish soldiers who had fled before Cromwell were garrisoned in the valleys. In 1695 the Edict of Nantes, which had granted freedom of worship in France was revoked, and a persecution which aimed at entire extermination was begun. The resistance of the Waldensees in guerrilla warfare was so stubborn that 2600 of them were permitted to withdraw to Geneva. From Geneva they scattered over Switzerland and a number passed into Germany. Four years later, however, their pastor, Henri Arnaud led a band of 800 to a re-conquest of the valleys. The writer in Hastings’ Encyclopedia says that they made “One of the most magnificent stands for religious liberty ever recorded in the annals of history.” In 1695 all Church records that could be procured, together with their churches, were burned by the troups of Louis XIV. One document bearing the date 1290 survived this burning. It contains the name Stalle as an inhabitant of the valley of the Angrogne, which was later to be the birth place of Jean Pierre Stalle, father of Marie Stalle Barker.
In 1855, the Stalle’ family received word from Franklin D. Richards, president of the European mission, that they could go to Zion, and they were ready in two weeks. It was impossible to sell the place in so short a time and it was left without their receiving anything for it. The missionaries were persecuted a great deal, and soon (1862) were driven cut, and there have been no missionaries there since. (Missionaries are once again proselyting in Italy.)
When the missionaries came to the Stalle” home, the family gave them the best they had, gave them their best bed, and slept on a poor one. Their home was always open. The last time F. D. Richards was there before they left for Zion, he came in the early morning hours to escape from the officers, got a bite to eat and a moment’s rest. At that time he told them they would soon be leaving for Zion.
Three weeks later they left Prarustin in Piedmont and traveled, probably like the Malin family two years before, in carriages to Pignerol (Pinerolo) and, from there to Turin, the capital of Piedmont, thence to the town of Suza by rail, then up the steep Mt. Cenis in a large coach placed on sleds and drawn by sixteen Government mules, much of the way being covered by perpetual snow and Ice. Then to Loundsburg on the Savoy side where the coaches were taken from the sleds, and then by coach to Lyons, France. From Lyons they traveled by railway to Paris from there by railway to Calais, by steamer to London, and by railway to Liverpool where they remained a short time while waiting for the ship to sail.
The family left Liverpool on December 12, 1856. T hey are listed on the list of emigrants sailing on the ship John J. Boyd, as follows:
Pietro Stall’e 48 agriculturist
Maria Stall’e 45 wife
Susanna Stall’e 19
Bartolomeo Stall’e 16
Maria Stall’e 11
Margrita Stall’e 5
The following is taken from a letter describing the voyage written by 0. R. Savage and published in the MILLENNIAL STAR, Vol. 18, Page 209: “We left Liverpool on Wednesday, December 12. at seven A. M., and had a fine run down the channel, sighted Cape Clear on the Friday morning following, and had mild weather with a fair wind for three days after. Daring this time we had leisure to devise plans for the maintenance of order and cleanliness during the voyage.
The Saints, were, by the sound of the trumpet, called to prayer morning and evening. Meetings were also frequently held in the Danish, English and Italian languages during the voyage. On the whole we enjoyed ourselves first rate, notwithstanding the gales and hurricanes we experienced from the breaking up of the fine weather in longitude fifteen degrees, to our anchoring off SandyHook.
“About midway on our passage we fell in with the clipper ship, Louis Napoleon, from Baltimore to Liverpool, laden with flour, with all her masts and spars carried away, and leeward bulwarks stove in; upon nearing the ship we found her in a sinking condition The captain and crew desired to be taken off, which was done. This acquisition was of great advantage to us, as the bad weather,” sickness and over exhaustion from overwork, had made quite a gap in our complement of sailors. We had much sickness on board from the breaking out of the measles, which caused many deaths among the Danish, chiefly among the children. In the English and Italian companies we lost three children. The weather got worse after crossing the Banks, so much so, that we driven into the Gulf Stream three times, and many of our sailors were frost bitten. Our captain got superstitious on account of the long passage, and ordered that there should be no singing on board; the mate said that all ships that had preachers on board were always sure of a bad passage; however, the Lord heard our prayers, and in His own due time we arrived at our destination. On the evening of the fifteenth of February we were safely at anchor – having been sixty-six days out from Liverpool.
“our supply of water was almost exhausted, – we had on arrival only about one day’s water on board. The provisions were very good and proved abundant to the last.”
THE CONTRIBUTOR Vol- 13, Page 554, relates that “On the sixteenth of February, 1850, the emigrants landed in New York and after tarrying a few days in Castle Garden the journey was continued on the twenty-first or twenty-second by rail via Dunkirk and Cleveland to Chicago, where the company, according to previous arrangements, was divided into three parts, of which one, consisting of about one hundred and fifty souls, went to Burlington, Iowa, another to Alton, Illinois, and a third (the one Margaret Stalle, was in) to St. Louis, Missouri. Most of those who went to Burlington and Alton remained in those places or near them a year or more working to earn means wherewith to continue the journey, The part of the company which went to St. Louis, arrived in that city on the tenth of March, and soon afterwards continued the journey to Florence, Nebraska. where they joined the general emigration that crossed the plains in 1856.
Pierre Stalle’s wife, Marie Stalle, desired to earn means and come by ox team; Pierre Stalle’ himself wanted to follow the advice of Brother Richards and come on at once. In consequence, they joined the first or Ellsworth handcart company at Florence. It had. left Iowa City, the Mormon outfitting post, June 9, 1856.
The following quotation is taken from the diary of the Company:
August 17: The camp moved out at a quarter to 9 a.m. and traveled 12 miles. We crossed over Wolf Crook and ascended the Sandy Bluff. We crossed the Bluff to the left instead of going-up the old track. It is easier for handcarts and ox teams. The road today was very sandy for several miles. Passed over several creeks. Camp at 4 p.m. on the side of the Platte opposite to Ash Grove. Brother Peter Stalle’ died today. He was from Italy.
Note: The notation, “Brother Peter Stalle died today. He was from Italy. to in part written over something else and was perhaps added later. Margaret, Stalle (Barker) relates his death as having occurred on the Sweet Water (In what Is now Wyoming) when the company was one week from Salt Lake Valley. This is undoubtedly correct.
A grave was dug, sage brush put in the bottom of it, then the body wrapped in a sheet, then more sage brush, and then the grave was covered over. Henry Barker crossed the plains in the Sixties to bring in the immigrants from, the Missouri, and later thought it strange that he should have particularly noticed the grave of the father of Margaret Stalle who was later to be his wife.
Deseret News, October 1, 1956
THE FIRST HANDCART COMPANIES.
Having learned that Captain Edmund Ellsworth’s company camped at the Willow Springs on the evening of the 25th inst., on the 26th Presidents Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, Lieut. Genl. D. R. Wells, and many other citizens, in carriages, and several gentlemen and ladies on horseback, with a part of Capt. H. B. Clawson’s company of lancers and the Brass Bands under Capt. William Pitt, left the governors office at 9 a.m. with the view of meeting them and escorting them into the city.
Within about a mile and half of the foot of the Little Mountain, Pres. Young ordered the party to halt until the hand carts should arrive, and with Pres. Kimball drove on to meet them. Ere long the anxiously expected train came in sight. led by Capt. Ellsworth on foot, and with two aged veterans pulling the front cart, followed by a long line of carts attended by the old, middle aged and young of both sexes.
When opposite the escorting party, a halt was called and their Captain introduced the new comers to Pres. Young and Kimball, which was followed by the joyous greeting of relatives and friends, and an unexpected treat of melons. While thus regaling, Capt. Daniel D. McArthur came up with his hand-cart company, they having traveled from the east base of the Big Mountain.
From the halt to the Public Square on 2nd West Temple street, the following order was observed, under the supervision of Capt. Clawson; Lancers; Ladies on horseback; Pres. Young’s Pres. Kimball’s and Lieut. Genl. Well’s carriages; the Bands; Capts. Ellsworth’s companies; Citizens in carriages and on Horseback. The line of march was scarcely taken up, before It began to be met by men, women and children on foot, on horses, and in wagons, thronging out to see and welcome the first hand-cart companies; and the numbers rapidly increased until the living tide lined and thronged South Temple street.
The procession reached the Public Square about sunset, where the Lancers Bands and carriages were formed in a line facing the line of handcarts; and after a few remarks by Pres. Young, accompanied by his blessing, the spectators and escort retired and the companies pitched their tents, at the end of a walk and pull upwards of 1300 miles
This journey has been performed with less than the average amount of mortality usually attending ox teams; and all, though somewhat fatigued, stopped out with alacrity to the last, and appeared buoyant and cheerful. They had often traveled 25 and 30 miles in a day, and would have come through In a much shorter time, had they not been obliged to wait upon the slow motion of the oxen attached to the few wagons containing the tents and groceries.
On the day of Peter Stalle’s death, during the mid-day halt his wife Maria had climbed on the hub of the wagon in which he was riding. Margaret Stalle (Barker) relates the conversation as she had it from her mother. He said he would not reach the valley, but the family would; that they should never want for bread, and that the youngest daughter (Margaret) would some day be well-to-do. When mother, (Maria Stalle) came back to the wagon at the next halt, he was dead.
During the entire journey Pierre Stalle had been Ill and unable to pull the handcart. His wife, Maria, had been ill the entire time of the crossing, and the pulling of the handcart had fallen to the lot of Suzette, 19, and Daniel, 16. Maria 11, walked the entire distance, and Margaret, 5, walked except while crossing some of the streams and when carried by her sister Maria,
ACCOUNT OF MARGARET STALLE BARKER
When we entered the Salt Lake Valley, Mother found herself in a difficult position. Neither she, Uncle Dan nor Mary could speak English, and I only a little. And we no longer had Father to help us. How to live was a problem. Aunt Susette went to work for a family, I no longer remember the name. Aunt Mary, who was eleven, was taken by Mrs. Alfred Randall to take care of her sick daughter, who was seventeen. She was treated by Mrs. Randall, who desired to adopt her, as one of the family. And though Mother wouldn’t consent to the adoption, she remained with Mrs. Randall until she got married. Paul Cardon (the Cardon Family also came from the Piedmont area of Italy) came from Bingham’s Fort Ogden, to meet them.
Mother went to gleaning wheat, and gleaned all the wheat, and more, that we could use.
The Cardon’s had a high funny house with a stable by it. I can still remember it. (It was built, no doubt, side by side like the houses and stables in the valleys of Piedmont and in other parts of Europe.)
When Mother and Dan couldn’t glean wheat any more, they went to work and dug a dug-out in the side of a hill. They covered the dugout with willows, bull rushes and dirt, and had a piece of canvas for a window. Of course, it was rather dark inside. They had no furniture, and for a bedstead they stuck forked sticks in the ground and made holes in the wall in which to rest the ends and one side of the bed. They then laid willows across the bed, then bull rushes and then straw. My brother (Dan) borrowed an ax of Cardon’s and a saw, and sawing a tree trunk into suitable lengths and splitting it in two and putting logs into the rounded side, he made three stools and a table.
The winter was a hard one, and it buried us up with snow In the night. We had no watch nor clock, and did not know that it was early day when Paul Cardon’s folks, seeing only our chimney, came and dug us out.
Mr. Cardon raised some flax and some hemp, and managed to divide it into two grades. Of the roughest he made ropes, and Mother spun the rest. He made himself a loom, and together they wove cloth for sheets, bed ticks, and underwear. I remember well how when Mother had worked all day, she still continued to work spinning at night. We had no candles, but we gathered dried sunflowers and while Mother spun I lighted them, one by one, in the fireplace and held them up for her.
Whenever Mother could get a little work she would go for miles to do it, perhaps getting a squash in pay and then carry it home. At times she walked in this way as far as North Ogden and back.
We stayed at Bingham’s Fort a year. When Mother no longer had anything she could put on my feet, I gleaned wheat bare-footed.
We had no team, but we went as far south as Spanish Fork ‘on the move’.(When Johnstons Army threatened and every one from the north went to Utah valley,) Provo River was alive with fish, and they were easily caught About this time Mr. Cardon found some shoes or boots that had been thrown away by emigrants, using the tops of the worn out boots and making soles out of wood, be made clogs’ for us. I still remember how he cut a groove around the wooden sole and fastened the leather to it. If It hadn’t been for this, I would have had nothing but rags to wear on my feet.
When Mother returned from the “move” she stopped at Kaysville in a little house to which the owner had not yet returned, Those who had left hens when they had gone south, found them when they came back with lots of little chickens, some of them mixed with the wild ones. There was no sale for milk or butter, and Mother milked three cows for a family for her milk and butter. They would have given it to her, but she wouldn’t take it that way. She gleaned wheat again, and when she couldn’t glean any more, she came to Ogden where Liberty at 27th Street now is. At that time there was a hollow and a stream of water there. It was in this stream, backed up for the purpose, that I was baptized.
Mother made a little house here, but the Cardons went to Cache Valley and coaxed Mother and Dan to go with them. Older sister Susette eventually married Louis Philippe Cardon March 11, 1857. By this time Dan had a yoke of two year old steers, a wreck of a wagon and two heifers. He drove the steers to Logan, and had quite a time. He went to Cardon’s again, and next year Mother gleaned wheat again, and after that I was ten years old — we didn’t glean any more.
Four years later I came to North Ogden to live with my sister, Mary, who had got married. I lived there three years until I was seventeen, when I got married.
The following quotations are taken from the diary of the handcart company:
August 13:
The camp rolled at 30 past 9 a.m. and traveled 12 miles, the roads were rather heavy owing to last night’s rain. Camped about 5 p.m. along side of Bluff Fork. We forded the river previous to camping.
August 14:
The camp rolled at 10 past 9 a.m. and traveled eighteen miles. The first 12 miles was nearly all over heavy sandy bluffs right from the camp. It made heavy pulling the last six miles the road was pretty good. One of the covered hand carts broke down. Camped about 7 p.m. alongside of the Platte.
August 15:
The camp rolled out at a 1/4 to 9 a.m. and traveled fourteen miles for the first 6 miles the sand was fully as bad if not worse than yesterday. We crossed four creeks took dinner at Goose Creek for the rest of the road was good. We forded Rattle Snake and camped about 1/4 mile from the old Rattle Snake camping ground camp about 1/4 past 6 p.m.
August 16:
The camp moved off at a 1/4 to 9 a.m. and traveled 16 3/4 miles a good part of it heavy sandy traveling. Other parts of the road was good traveling. We crossed several creeks, had dinner on the banks of camp Creek about 7 p.m. on the East Bank of Wolf Creek. Buffalo chips not so plentiful here, good feed for the oxen.
August 17:
The camp rolled out at 20 past 7 a.m. and traveled 19 miles. The road was good today forded Castle Creek, passed no other creek during the day, had dinner alongside of a slough passed over a sandy ridge today. Slough on the left hand side of the road about 4 miles from the Platte. Camped 20 to 7 P-m- on the side of the Platte. (This is the second entry for the 17th: See text, P. 6, for other.)
August 18:
The camp rolled out at a quarter to 8 a.m* and traveled 20 miles the road today in parts was very sandy especially crossing the Coble Hills it was very sandy. We crossed the Crabb creek today camped about 30 Past p.m. on the Platte opposite Ancient Bluff Pains.
August 19:
The camp rolled out at 30 Past 7 a.m. and traveled 20 miles. The road was tolerably good till we came to the last five miles when it became very sandy in some parts especially in crossing over a sand Bluff. Camped on the side of the Platte 45 past 6 p.m.
NOTES CONTINUED
Sunday, October 27, 1850
Elder Lorenzo Snow baptized Jean Antoine Bosc at La Tour, Valley of Luserne Piedmont, Italy, as the first fruit of the preaching of the fullness of the gospel in Italy, Soon afterwards a number of others were baptized in the same locality.
Letter of Lorenzo Snow to President Young from “La Tour, Valle do Luserne Piedmont, Italy November 1, 1850.
“The Protestant inhabitants are called Vaudois or Waldenses They number about 21,000; there are also about 5,000 Catholics. The fertile portion of these valleys are rich in their productions, but two-thirds, or more, present nothing but precipices, ravines and rocky districts, or such as have a northern aspect. The inhabitants are far too numerous, according to the nature of the soil. They are often compelled to carry mould on their backs to form a garden amid the barren rocks. The French language is generally understood, but in many parts it is spoken very imperfectly, and with an admixture of provincialism and Italian. The latter is understood by a considerable number of persons, but not extensively used. In fact, this is a place where there are at least five distinct dialects spoken by different classes.