User:TrustTruth/Thomas Bagshaw Broderick

Thomas Bagshaw Broderick (December 24, 1824 – September 14, 1864) was an early Mormon pioneer, geologist, and one of the founders of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Early life
Broderick was born in London, England, on Christmas Eve in 1824 to John Broderick, a watchmaker, and Mary Bagshaw Broderick. He was christened at St Marylebone Parish Church in central London. Charles Dickens' son was later baptized in the same church, a ceremony fictionalised in his book Dombey and Son.

Conversion and Marriage
Broderick trained as a brick maker. He joined the Mormon Church in 1848 at age 23 and immigrated to Utah in 1850, sailing from Liverpool on the ship Argo and traveling via New Orleans. He received his Endowment in the first incarnation of the Endowment House in April 1852.

During his 18-month stay in Utah before returning to England as a missionary, he along with Robert and Archibald Gardner attempted to scale Twin Peaks in the Wasatch Range. Broderick was the only one that make it to the top, and all of them had difficulty during the descent, which they attempted using a different route down, through Millcreek Canyon.

Broderick was back in England by May 5, 1854, when he married 20-year-old Elizabeth Hillard in Bath. Nine months later, Elizabeth bore their first child, John, in Brighton, England. He died a short time later.

Mission and Immigration
Thomas served as a missionary in England between at least 1853 and 1855, serving as an Elder in the Kent Conference and, by the end of his mission, serving in what the Millennial Star described as a "responsible position" in the country. He was released on December 8, 1855. In 1856, the Brodericks left England for the United States, sailing on May 25th from Liverpool on the ship Horizon along with Edward Martin and many people who later became members of his ill-fated handcart company. They arrived at Constitution Wharf in Boston on June 30, and took a train to Iowa City, where they met up with Dan Jones' wagon company, departing for Salt Lake on August 1, 1856. Jones was returning from his second successful mission in Wales. The group was one of two ox-wagon trains traveling behind the ill-fated Martin and Willie Handcart Companies. Although the wagon company was better provisioned than the handcart companies, in the end the wagon company members needed rescuers as well to help them complete the journey from Devil's Gate (where they were forced to leave most of their belongings) to Salt Lake.

The couple settled in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, where he probably used his brickmaking skills for employment, but also studied and lectured on geology.

The Brodericks were members of the Salt Lake 14th Ward. Church apostle Wilford Woodruff lived in their ward. They were sealed in the Endowment House in 1860.

Broderick began practicing plural marriage when he married Francis Carolina Budd in May 1860. They had two children together: a son who died very young and a daughter who was born after Broderick's death.

Temporary disfellowshipment
On Sunday, July 7, 1861, Broderick's bishop Abraham Hoagland reported he had "labored with Bro. Broderick" and that the "hand of fellowship" had been withdrawn. The next Friday, during a meeting Hoagland and his counselors had with Brigham Young, the matter came up. Young recommended they restore Broderick to fellowship. Two days later, Hoagland did so in the Sunday ward meeting. Thus ended Broderick's one-week disfellowshipment.

High Council
At the church's 1862 April General Conference, Broderick was called to serve on the high council at Salt Lake. After his death, he was released at the 1864 October conference and replaced by Emanuel M. Murphy.

Death
Broderick died of a stroke in Salt Lake City on September 14, 1864, two days after the birth of his youngest child, Charles Heber. He was 39 and left behind his 30-year-old wife, Elizabeth, and four children, ages 6 and under.

Family's fate
Three years after Thomas died, Elizabeth became a plural wife of a 30-year-old farmer named Thomas White. He was reportedly unkind to the Broderick children. She died on May 2, 1871, at age 37. She left behind four orphan children, all boys, ages six to 14, who were dispersed to live with family and friends. The oldest, Thomas, was killed less than four years later in a snow avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon. His body was not found until the following Spring. The remaining three boys each lived to adulthood.