Margaret Livingston Bio

Margaret Livingston

Margaret was born on October 12, 1818 in Loch, Gilphead, Argyleshire, Scotland. She left Scotland to go to Canada with her mother and father when she was two years old. When Margaret was sixteen she worked in Detroit as a ladies' maid to earn money to give to her widowed mother. She would sometimes walk 200 miles back to Canada in order to save the stage fare.

Margaret met a Scotsman, Archibald Gardner, in Canada, fell in love and married him in 1839. She had three boys while living in Canada. Her last baby boy died of "bowel trouble." She buried him there. Her next baby born in Canada was a baby girl.

That same year Margaret and her husband were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on February 11, 1845, while residing in Canada. The next year the Gardners decided to join the Saints in Nauvoo. They sold their property at a sacrifice price and left Canada. Margaret left her widowed mother, two of her three sisters and all four brothers in Canada.

They left Canada in 1846 to join the Saints in Nauvoo, but the Saints, by that time, had moved on to Council Bluffs. The family caught up with the Saints there and at the request of Brigham Young helped the families of the Mormon Battalion that were left behind.

They started for Zion in June, 1847, with Bishop Edward Hunter's Wagon Company. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on October 1, 1847 and five days later Margaret delivered a baby girl. She had driven her covered wagon with her two little boys in it while pregnant.

Margaret later moved from Salt Lake City to Mill Creek to Spanish Fork until 1865 and then to West Jordan.

Her husband's seventh wife stated, "Margaret was more like an angel that anyone she had ever known." Her flour bin, food, favors, and friendliness never seemed to be empty for family or strangers - including tramps who came and went.

By 1900, Margaret's descendants numbered over 1,300 with 14 sets of known twins.

BIRTH DATE: 12 Oct 1818, Loch Gilphead, Scotland
DEATH: 21 Sep 1893, West Jordan, Salt Lake Co., Utah
PARENTS: Neil Livingston and Janet McNear
PIONEER: 1 Oct 1847, Edward Hunter Wagon Train
SPOUSE: Archibald Gardner
MARRIED: 19 Feb 1839, Brooke, Kent, Canada
DEATH SP: 8 Feb 1902, Salt Lake City Salt Lake Co., Utah

SOURCE:
Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, Vol II, F-L, International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, pages 1057-1058

Descendancy

Archibald Gardner and Margaret Livingston

Neil Livingston Gardner

Delila Gardner

LaVon Williams

Diane Finlinson