Priscilla Clark Pickett Pickett Wilford 1826-1869
2010
Priscilla Clark was born in England in 1826. In 1853, she married direct ancestor George Pickett after the death of his wife Maria Jarvis. George had three children at the time he married Priscilla. Daughter Jane Pickett is our direct ancestor. She married John Thompson Barker. Priscilla and George emigrated from England to America with others of their faith. They had heard the message of the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints while in their native land and had been baptized. In 1857, they found themselves in St. Louis, Missouri, preparing to make the trek west to Utah. George Pickett contracted smallpox and died. Priscilla and the children continued on to Utah. In 1858, she married her deceased husband’s older brother William Armstrong Pickett. The marriage ended in the first year. Taking her daughter Maria Louisa from her marriage to George Pickett, and waiting for the birth of a child by William Pickett, Priscilla left Utah for California. By 1862, Priscilla married again. Her new husband was William Wilford. He was a wealthy man who lived in Carson City, Nevada. William and Priscilla had three children. When William Wilford unexpectedly died in January of 1869, he left his estate to Priscilla. Since he had been married before and had children with a previous wife, there was great contention among his posterity.
In June of the same year, Priscilla Clark Pickett Pickett Wilford was found dead in her home by her daughter Maria Louisa. She had been stabbed to death. Her daughter pulled the knife from her body.
Our ancestor Jane Pickett Barker was young when her mother Maria Jarvis died, when they made the voyage across the ocean and when her father died in Missouri on the way to Utah. Her own biographical notes state that she didn’t spend much time with her step-mother and did not know her half-sister Maria Louise very well.
Shown here is the cover of an excellent researched document written by Roger Tolman of Henderson, Nevada. A copy is in our personal family history file.
The migration of Priscilla Clark Pickett Pickett Wilford
England to Utah to California to Nevada