My Ancestor Helped Build San Francisco, Saw Gold Discovered, and Brought Alfalfa to Utah

In 1844, my 3rd-great-grandfather, Isaac Goodwin, and his family heard the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often called the Mormon Church. Isaac and Laura quickly joined and soon became stalwart members. Then in late 1845, they received instructions from the Church leaders in Nauvoo, Illinois that they should join with those members in moving to some undefined place in the West.

But rather than travel overland, it was decided it would be better if the members on the Eastern Seaboard could charter a ship to take them to California, where they were to await instructions on the final settlement location.

A portrait of Isaac Goodwin

So it was that on February 4, 1846, the same day that the first group of Church members left Nauvoo, the Isaac Goodwin family, together with 229 other members of the Church, set sail on the 370-ton ship Brooklyn, chartered by their local Church leader Samuel Brannon. Their trip, spanning 26,000 miles of ocean, took 6 months to complete. Conditions aboard the ship were cramped and uncomfortable, to say the least. It was said that the drinking water was so thick with slime that it had to be strained between the teeth and even then, the taste was so dreadful that the passengers could hardly drink it. Moreover, all the passengers had to share a space below deck that was roughly the equivalent of a modern 4-room home.

A devastating loss at sea

After the ship had rounded the treacherous Cape Horn, the stormy seas did not abate. Coming up on the Western side of South America, the ship tossed violently in a gale, causing pregnant Laura to fall down a hatchway, leading soon thereafter to her death. Laura’s dying wish was that she not be buried at sea. To honor that request, the ship put in at the Juan Fernandez Islands, the first time the passengers had stepped on solid ground in 3 months of navigation. There, on what is also called Robinson Crusoe Island, Laura Hotchkiss Goodwin was laid to rest. It was a difficult time for everyone, particularly for Laura’s 7 little children, ranging in age from 17 months to 11 years. They had not only lost their mother, but they also knew they would never ever see this lonely burial spot again.

A photo of Robinson Crusoe Island taken at the turn of the 20th century, several decades after Laura was buried there

Settling Yerba Buena, later known as San Francisco

After a much need refueling stop in Hawaii, the Brooklyn ultimately reached the sleepy town of Yerba Buena on July 31, 1946. At first sight of the Brooklyn, the U.S. military on shore thought they were facing an enemy attack, but then upon seeing many women and children on board, they greeted the ship with a gun salute. Once the Brooklyn docked in the harbor, they saw that there were only a few American settlers to greet them. The local community consisted mainly of a few Spanish families and a small group of Indians. The Catholic Mission in the area was deserted at the time, so some of the weary travelers found temporary shelter there. Others began to pitch tents for their initial dwelling place.

A lithograph of Yerba Buena created by Jean-Jacques Vioget in 1837

The arrival of the pilgrim group aboard the Brooklyn basically tripled the population of the small California village of Yerba Buena, later to be known as San Francisco. These pioneers were not fortune seekers. Rather, they were settlers. Among their number were doctors, teachers, farmers, mechanics, carpenters, masons and millers. They had brought with them mechanical and agricultural tools, grist mills, a harrow, blacksmith and carpenter tools and a printing press. They also brought school supplies, Bibles, a library, wheat seed and farm animals. They had come to stay.

In their first year in Yerba Buena, the Mormon Saints constructed more than 100 permanent structures, preparing the area for a true village, later to be renamed San Francisco. They published the village’s first newspaper, the California Star, and built the first schoolhouse where lessons were taught in English. Their agricultural association organized projects that extended to what is now Fremont and the San Joaquin Valley.

Rejecting Salt Lake Valley

In the following Spring of 1847, Isaac Goodwin, along with the Saint’s designated leader, Samuel Brannan, and a third man by the name of Charles Smith, traveled over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to meet up with Brigham Young and his vanguard group of some 148 persons making their way West. They met each other at Green River, Wyoming. Brannan thought he was there to help guide Brigham Young and his party to the San Francisco area. Brannan told Young about the beautiful and fruitful valley in which the California Saints were building a place for all the Saints coming from Nauvoo to occupy. Instead, Young reminded Brannan that the Church members were all going to settle in the Salt Lake Valley where they could establish themselves without interference. The Saints intended to make the desert “blossom as a rose.”

Brannan was upset because he thought the idea of forsaking California was foolish. Brannan, Goodwin, and Smith joined with the vanguard group as they continued on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. Upon arriving, Brannan pointed out to Young how difficult it was going to be to develop this barren land by the Great Salt Lake, whereas California was the land of promise. When his efforts were once again rejected, he, Goodwin and Smith left the Salt Lake Valley and returned to California. Many years later, Brannan died a pauper in California.

Striking gold

One year later, when Goodwin was back in California, he and some of his fellow Mormons found work at Sutter’s Mill near present-day Sacramento. Isaac Goodwin was present when gold was discovered in the American River. It is not clear from the record if Isaac ever tried his luck with gold, but if he did, he did not do so for very long.

Sutter’s Mill, California, where Isaac Goodwin witnessed the discovery of gold

After living in the San Francisco area for almost 10 years and raising his seven children by himself, Isaac decided it was time to get married again. Some two years earlier his oldest daughter Emerette had married William Kuhns, a discharged soldier from the Mormon Battalion now working in the gold fields. That left Isaac without an important helper. So, on December 22, 1855, he married Mary Cox. They stayed in California for several years. But the message from Salt Lake City to join with the Saints there and forsake the lure of gold and other temptations in California finally hit home with him. On February of 1859, some 13 years after he first landed in San Francisco Bay on July 31, 1846, Isaac and his new wife, along with some of his children, arrived in present day Lehi, Utah.

Bringing alfalfa to Utah

When Isaac came to Utah, he brought a small quantity of alfalfa seed instead of gold, considering the former far more precious than the latter. The Spanish had introduced alfalfa to California and Isaac in turn introduced it to Utah. In 1860 he planted his first seeds, in order to use the resulting plants to produce more alfalfa seeds. Early on in this process of slowly developing a suitable supply of alfalfa seeds, a neighbor picked up a pinch of Isaac’s small collection. “Put it down,” admonished Isaac. “I would as willing give you so much gold dust.” A few years later he had produced enough seed that he could make alfalfa seed available to all the farmers in the area. It was not long before many acres of alfalfa hay were being cut. Isaac was rightfully given the credit for his efforts in bringing the first seeds to Utah.

An alfalfa field in California circa 1890

Isaac initially settled his family on the west side of the Jordan River at a place called Cold Springs. He later moved into the heart of Lehi, setting up his residence on a 2½ acre plot on the southeast corner of Fourth West and Main Street. To this home he invited his granddaughter Laura Elizabeth Coons to live. Laura bore the brunt of the failed marriage between Isaac’s daughter Emerette and William Kuhns (often known as William Coons). Once Emerette left William to marry a second husband, and with William working in the gold fields, Laura was farmed out to a number of families in California. It was ultimately decided by William to send Laura to Utah to live with her grandfather Isaac and his family, where she lived until she got married.

Peace and contentment

Isaac developed his Lehi property by planting a carefully nurtured garden and orchard. A story about his efforts is found in a book by John Codman, written in 1879. In the book, Codman talks about “sauntering about the Lehi neighborhood” when he came upon Isaac’s home. He could not help noticing the “fruitful orchard” surrounding Isaac’s home. He knocked on the front door, and when Isaac answered, he asked if he could buy some of the abundant fruit. The answer from Isaac was: “No, but you can take as much as you please.”

Later that day, after Mr. Goodman had enjoyed the fruit so generously given him, he asked Isaac about the Mormon practice of polygamy. Isaac told Mr. Codman: “I believe in the doctrine [of polygamy] for those who like it, but God never required it of me. I like to go it alone.” Codman was impressed by Isaac and concluded that portion of his lengthy travel narrative which discussed his visit to Lehi by saying: “Good, honest, straight, and narrow-walking Isaac Goodwin gets along through the world in peace and contentment with only one wife, because he loves her too well to take another.”

Isaac did not live long after the visit with Mr. Codman. He died on April 25, 1879 at the age of 68. He was buried in the Lehi City Cemetery. But his good works live after him.

Isaac Goodman’s descendants, the Rust brothers, in the Grand Canyon. MyHeritage user Marvin Rust, who wrote this story, is on the right

Many thanks to Marvin Rust for sharing his ancestor’s remarkable story with us. Explore more American Family Stories and discover how ordinary families experienced extraordinary moments in U.S. history on MyHeritage’s America 250 hub.