Peninna Smith Frost, in later years

        It was under these circumstances that McCaslin and Peninna became acquainted. A little too acquainted. When McCaslin and Peninna were married on November 28, 1809 in Johnson County, North Carolina, she was expecting their first child. It is a fact that around the turn of the eighteenth century, one third of brides in the United States were already pregnant when they married. At the time of their marriage, McCaslin was 23 and Peninna was about 15. it is also a fact that girls married much younger in those days.

        McCaslin and Peninna first made their home in neighboring Wake County, North Carolina where their fist child, Samuel Buchanan, was born on January 2, 1810. He was followed by his sister, Nancy Ilewood on August 12, 1812.

        Around the time that his father died in 1815, McCaslin and Peninna moved to Knox County, Tennessee, near Knoxville, the main city in the eastern part of the state. This is a mountainous region, and had been settled only a short time when they were married. They lived on a river or possibly a creek. At the foot of the hill below their house was a wonderful cold spring. They built a room over this spring and used it not only for drinking water and culinary purposes but also for the refrigeration of their dairy products. Their crocks of milk, butter, and cheese were kept in excellent condition.

        The rest of their eight children were born in Knox County The other children were: Isabelle VanDyke (14 Feb 1816), Fereba Smith (17 Sep 1818), James William (30 Aug 1820), Martha McKinney (7 Oct 1825), Mary Ann (27 Oct 1827), and Margaret Elzira (28 Apr 1830).

        They were a musical family and sang many old folk songs, some of which are known to have been old English folk songs. McCaslin's father made a violin and presented it to the first one of his boys who learned to play it. McCaslin won the violin, and many years later he gave it to one of his sons, who played it at many pioneer dances and entertainments after he came to Utah. All the family could sing, dance, and play. McCaslin's oldest son, Samuel B. Frost could "fiddle", step dance, and sing, all at the same time and still not be short of breath.

        Times were hard during that period. When Samuel was a young man, he went north one winter and secured work in Hancock County, Illionis. He liked the country and the opportunity it afforded and decided to remain their. In 1834 he married Rebecca Foreman in Hancock County and began raising a family of his own.

        Two of McCaslin's and Peninna's children died before reaching adulthood. Mary Ann had died on August 24, 1829 when she was two years old. James William died in October 1834, when he was a lad of fourteen.

        Isabelle was married in about 1835 to Wiley Jones, also a native of Tennessee. Nancy married Archibald Kerr of Knoxville in May 1833. Fereba married William Harrison Barger, a native of Indiana, in Fairfield, Iowa in about 1837. After his death by drowning on July 23, 1858, Fereba married Revrand John E. Beatty at Sidney, Iowa in February 1862.

        McCaslin being a straunch Methodist hated to break the Sabbath but he shot and killed a big turkey which became the main course the next day for the wedding of Martha McKinney, or Patsy as she was called, when she married Harmon Akes in the spring of 1840.

        While living in Illinois, Samuel became acquainted with the Latter-day Saints and was converted to Mormonism. He was very enthusiastic over his new religion and early in the spring of 1841 he returned to his old home in Tennessee for a visit and to explain the principles of the gospel to his family. Not only was the Frost family converted to his new belief but also a number of their neighbors as well. A hole had to be cut in two feet of ice to baptize his parents and part of the rest of the family. Margaret was too young; Fereba was married and away; and Isabelle never did join the church because of her husband's objections.

        After becoming interested in Mormonism, McCaslin was eager to join the people of his faith. They left their home in Knox County and began their journey to Illinois. They went first to Memphis, Tennessee where McCaslin worked for a short time before beginning their voyage up the Mississippi River to Iowa where they stopped off for a while to see their daughters Fereba. Then on to Illinois where they resided for the next few years. They rented a place five miles from Carthage, Hancock County, and lived there for a few years.

        Peninna and their daughter, Martha were members of the Relief Society when it was first organized in 1842.

        At the time of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Patriarch, on June 27, 1844 the Frost family was living about five miles from Carthage jail, and when the word reached the people of the ruthless murder of their beloved Prophet and his brother, they could hardly believe it and sent messengers to investigate.

The original Nauvoo Temple

        It was a crushing blow to the Saints, and almost more than they could endure. But they listened to those in authority, although they could have called out the Nauvoo Legion to avenge the deaths of their leaders, they allowed their enemies to go in peace, and waited for the law to punish the assassins. The Frosts could see from the doorway of their home, the smoke from other Mormon villages which were being burned by mobs. McCaslin moved his family from this home soon after this time.

        Both McCaslin and Peninna were endowed and sealed in the Nauvoo Temple on January 5, 1846 before leaving the city. Martha's husband and all three of their children died in Nauvoo. She married George Washington Langley on January 20, 1846 in the Nauvoo Temple.

        When the persecution became too intense, McCaslin moved his family to Iowa, where prejudice against the Latter-day Saints was not so intense, and where they could enjoy comparative peace and freedom from persecutions.

        In the Fall of 1846, McCaslin and Samuel B. went to Nishnabotna, Iowa about sixty miles further down the river from Council Bluffs, where Samuel B. bought a place and they all lived there for a time. While living in Iowa, McCaslin's youngest child Margaret Elzira married Harvey McGallard Rawlins, a native of Illinois on December 3, 1846 in Nishnabotna, Iowa.

        McCaslin's family slowly made their way west to Utah. The fist to make the trek were his daughters Margaret and Martha, who both crossed the plains with their families in 1848 with the Heber C. Kimball Company.

        McCaslin and Peninna remained in Iowa until 1856 when they set out for Utah along with their daughter Nancy and her family in the Philemon C. Merrill Company on June 5, 1856. At the time McCaslin was 69 and Peninna was 62. Two hundred individuals and fifty wagons were in the company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Florence, Nebraska.

        All went along very peacefully until one night camping on Wood River, something was seen to crawl in among the cattle just before they stampeded, overturning some wagons in their pellmell rush. (pellmell 1. In a jumbled, confused manner; helter-skelter.2. In frantic disorderly haste; headlong) When crossing the plains in Indian country Cattle were very easily stampeded. They had to stay there for three days gathering up cattle, some never were found, having got mixed in with the buffalo.

Full Throttle by Kyle Sims

       That season the buffalo were very thick on the plains. Herds of thousands were seen everyday. Sometimes the wagon train had to stop while the herds went past to water. One day while nooning on Wood River, a big herd came charging over the hills. All hands were called out with guns and fired into them to head them off. Another time while traveling, buffalo stampeded the whole train, causing some accidents. Some of the ladies got badly bruised by being thrown from the wagons.

        Most of the emigrant trains traveled on the south side of the Platte River up to Fort Laramie. But they traveled all the way on the north side. Captain Merrill said they would find the best feed on the north side of the river. In going over the hills to Sweet Water Creek they had to camp one night without water. There was about thirty five miles between sources of water.