Sunday, February 3, 2008

ames Henry Martineau, a pioneer of Utah, Arizona, and the Mormon colonies in Mexico, lived a long and useful life. It would take many times as much space as we have here to relate his many interesting experiences.
89James H. Martineau was born at Port Jackson, Montgomery County, New York, on March 13, 1828. He was of Huguenot descent, his ancestors having fled from France to America in the Seventeenth Century in order to gain religious freedom. John Martineau, the father of James H., was a successful engineer who accumulated a fortune in building bridges and waterworks, for large cities and railroads.
89The first wife of John Martineau died about 1822, and in 1824 he married a girl seventeen years of age, Eliza Mears of Baltimore, Maryland. Four years later a son was born who was named James Henry.
89 - 90The panic of 1837 swept away the father's fortune, and the boy was forced to make his own way at an early age. However, he took a philosophical view of the situation. "I was compelled at an early age to engage in the battle of life," he wrote, "and thus I became in a measure courageous, persevering, and independent."
90James registered as a student at the Monroe Academy at Elbridge, New York, and worked his way through school...