. . . Henry Groom, Percy's older brother, was the first to leave England. Sent by his parents to travel with a group of missionaries returning to Utah, Henry boarded the S. S. "Nevada" on April 11, 1883. He lived with friends in Utah until his parents arrived.
Nathan, Percy's father, was the next to leave, also a passenger on the S. S. "Nevada." He left on April 9, 1884, almost to the day one year since Henry's departure. Nathan's passage cost 14 pounds 10 shillings.
Finally, on May 16, 1885, the finances were sufficient to allow three more of the family to travel to America leaving only Annie, age 19 at the time, to save for the passage. Annie, left alone for a year or two was encouraged by donations from members in her parents, ward in Utah, and by the promises of the missionaries that as she paid her tithing she would be able to leave soon. Emma Elizabeth, brother Nathan Jr. who was eighteen, and Percy who was eleven sailed from the British port of Liverpool on the S. S. Wisconsin. Percy recalls: "One bright May morning in the early eighties, mother, my brother Nathan Jr., and myself left so called merry England for Utah. Mother had sold all the goods and chattels she wanted to sell, and some not being saleable, she gave them away or left them in the house for others to use. However, Mother had some nice China tea sets and some Dresden ware and other brick-a-brack that she neither would sell or give away and other heirlooms that were dear to the heart of English women.
Things went well at the start. We boarded the good ship Wisconsin at Liverpool and with about 300 other emigrating Saints from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Holland and other parts of the British Isles. We started across the mighty deep. The old ship was a rather rickety tub and it was in the habit of twisting, yawning, squeaking and groaning as it made its way against the buffeting of the waves, but the Saints were going to Zion, and they made the welkin ring with their Mormon songs. Strange, but all these nationalities could sing the piece; that is the tune was the same, but the words were expressed differently. But what lacked in unison of words, they made up in the rendition of such songs as: "Come, Come ye Saints," "We Thank Thee Oh God for a [p.3] Prophet," and "Israel, Israel God is Calling," etc.
The trip was quite exciting seeing whales, porpoises and other marine animals and birds. It is strange how long a flock of seagulls will follow a ship and keep up with it without resting a spell. Some thirty large icebergs were seen on the way as May is a good time to cross if one wants to see these dull, silent, gray piles of arctic glaciers as they majestically float down from Greenland and eventually melt in the Gulf Stream. One large pile of ice had as a passenger a polar bear. This boy was no doubt beyond his depths, as when the iceberg melted, which it surely would do, then the bear would be without a footing and while very clever in water, they have to come up for breathing, and eventually the poor bear would become a victim of its own thoughtlessness. It took a total of thirty days to cross the Atlantic."
The immigrant passengers on the ship Wisconsin crowded the deck, everyone pushing to the rail jostling one another to get their first glimpse of America. Mother lifted their small children to a better vantage point. The Statue of Liberty lifted her torch to the new residents entering New York Harbor. Each member of the family read the inscription on the base of the giant lady which reads, in part: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shore, send these the homeless, tempest tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
Percy and his mother were soon to find out, however, that the American government would tempest toss the Groom's just once more before sending them on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. This came through the agents of the U.S. custom service. At Ellis Island all the passengers were medically gone over. Each took his turn being given the very painful small pox shots, then Uncle Sam stuck his nose in Emma's business looking for taxable items. Percy remembers about that experience: "My mother never thought that Uncle Sam was so keen nosed to search through her baggage. They spied the sets of china, the Dresden plate and other brick-a-brack and immediately put the usual tariff charges against it. This placed her in a position to either leave her precious goods in the hands of the government or pay the charges; she chose the latter. However, this almost cleaned her out of our passage money to buy food from New York to Salt Lake [p.4] City. After shelling out to Uncle Sam, she had in American money the sum of $1.96 to keep herself and two boys in food from the American metropolis to Zion.
Customs completed, we made our way to Grand Central Station in New York to board the train for the four day trip to Utah. With good Scotch thrift, mother made the $1.96 go as far as it could, but even then our food consisted of water from the tap, bread, and canned meat. The train journey seemed long and our meager rations dwindled to none. No more food became available until the morning after our arrival in Buttlerville Bench, east of Murray, Utah. I was so hungry and my stomach hurt so badly I was unable to sleep my first night in Zion.
The family had been separated in part for two years, but now their journey to Utah was complete and so was the family. . . . [p.5]
BIB: Groom, Percy. Biographical Sketch (Ms 10631), pp. 3-5. (CHL).
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