---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - A. R. Greene
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 5
number: 8
published: 1902-06
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'A. R. Greene, "In Memory of a Pioneer," *Improvement Era* 5, no. 8 (June 1902): 627.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0508unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0508unse
start_page: 627
end_page: 627
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1902-06)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0508unse
  publication_year: 1902
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1902, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# In Memory of a Pioneer

<!-- page:627 -->

EDITOR'S TABLE.                         627

treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; and shall
                                                              run and
not be weary, and shall walk and not faint; and I, the Lord, give
                                                                 unto
them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as
the children of "Israel, and not slay them."

                                                Joseph F. Smith.



                   IN MEMORY OF A PIONEER.


       Col. A. R. Greene, a leading member of the Kansas Historical
Society, a frequent visitor to Utah, and Special Inspector for the
Secretary of the Interior, a   man   of splendid literary ability, who
takes unusual interest in historical incidents, has given the Era
the following memoranda from his notes:
       Two or three miles down the North Platte from Scott's Bluff,
Nebraska, and within a few feet of the Burlington Railroad track,
is   the grave of Rebecca Winters, a "Mormon" mother         who died
here in 1850, at the age of 57, and who was buried at the side of
the old trail.   Her grave was marked by a wagon tire, placed at
the head, and on the edge of the iron band, her name and age, and
the date of her death, were cut in with a cold chisel.        Several
years ago, when the surveyors for the railroad came along, they
found their center line directly over this grave.    They went back
several miles and changed the alignment sufficiently to bring the
track a few feet to the south, and now the grave is about a yard
from the ends of the ties. Four cedar posts, connected with gas
pipe, the whole painted neatly, enclose the grave, and it is rumored
that there is a movement on foot to erect a monument there. The
papers published an account of the discovery and preservation of
the grave, but it is a fact that it had been known for more than a
decade, for the creek that runs near, and the precinct, are both
named Winters, in honor of the pioneer who lies buried at the side
of the Old Trail to Oregon and Salt Lake.
    There is a report in the neighborhood that a son of this woman,
now a man of 60 or 70 years, resides in Salt Lake City, and that
he is contemplating the erection of a monument at the grave of
.his mother.

       In the library of Jack Hunton, at Fort Laramie, is a book giv-