The Goodridge Family in the Woodruff Pioneer Company
Benjamin Franklin Goodridge and Penelope Gardner Goodridge were members of Wilford Woodruff’s pioneer company (16 June 1850 - 14 October 1850)
They were members of the Methodist Church. In 1844, Penelope’s brother, George Bryant Gardner, came to them with a message of the restored gospel and bore his testimony as to its truthfulness. Several of the children were baptized in 1844. Penelope followed in 1849.
Benjamin and Penelope, and their seven living children left their home in Lunenburg, Massachusetts and joined Wilford Woodruff’s 1850 pioneer company headed to the Salt Lake Valley. Benjamin and his son, George Albert, and daughter, Mary Jane, were baptized in the Platte River by Wilford…show more content… They were a musical family, full of fun and possessing the happy faculty of making the best and most of every situation. The girls sang and danced; they gathered berries on the way; they laughed. But they also counted the graves and wondered about the sadness and hardships of the travelers and wept for those who were left behind on the prairie. They helped nurse the sick, washed and mended, cooked and carried water; they knew how to work. When necessary they would wade streams without complaining, shake the dust out of their clothing without resentment and gather buffalo chips without disgust. They could fall on their knees night and morning and thank their Heavenly Father for their health and strength, their safety, their food and clothing, and the boundless sea of grass that paved their way to freedom.
Upon arriving in Salt Lake The Goodridge family stayed at the Fort (currently Pioneer Park) for a few days, later moving to Wilford Woodruff’s lot on West Temple and South Temple Street. Benjamin traded his teams and wagons for a small house and lot in the 19th Ward, at 330 North 3rd
