Jane Manning James

Jane Manning James, the most well-known female black pioneer, was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Connecticut. She then walked 800 miles with eight family members, including her young son, to meet thousands of church members in Nauvoo, Ill., in 1843.

Originally, she thought she would ride a steamboat for part of the journey, but after she put her trunk of clothes on the boat, the captain would not let her on and would not give her back her truck.

In her life history, which she dictated to be read at her funeral, she detailed her shoeless journey.

"We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground," she said. "We stopped and united in prayer to the Lord; we asked God the Eternal Father to heal our feet. Our prayers were answered and our feet were healed forthwith."

During the trip they each had to show free papers at state borders to prove they were not escaped slaves.

When they finally got to Illinois, they were not met with the excitement from the Mormons they expected. James' records indicate her family of new black converts who arrived in worn-out clothes were rebuffed by some members.

But church founder Joseph Smith had the opposite reaction.

James said he welcomed them into his home with a warm smile.

"We had now arrived to our destined haven of rest: The beautiful Nauvoo," she said. "Brother Joseph took a chair and sat down by me and said, 'You have been the head of this little band, haven't youfi' I answered, 'Yes sir.' He then said, 'God bless you.' "

Historian Margaret Young said the records show James had a close friendship with Joseph and Emma Smith. When everyone in James' family found jobs except her, the Smiths hired her to work in their home.

She later married Isaac James in Illinois, and then left with him to travel to the Utah territory. In Winter Quarters, Neb., she gave birth to her second son, and shortly after entering the Salt Lake Valley in 1947, she gave birth to Utah's first black girl.

Jane and Isaac James worked for Brigham Young and had five more children before Isaac left Jane and the children. Margaret Young said there are few records about the divorce and nobody really knows why Isaac left or why he came back 20 years later.

"Again, black issues broke apart churches and communities all over the country," Young said. "Utah was no different. Some people just had to get away."

She outlived six of her children before she died in 1908 at age 86. The president of the LDS Church at the time, Joseph Fielding Smith, spoke at her funeral.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A2.