Susannah Goudin was born 30 July 1833 at Pinerolla, Piedmont, Italy.  She became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1853 at the age of 20 years.  At the age of 22 years, in 1855, she began her journey to Utah in a sailing vessel from Liverpool, England on Dec. 12.  She was on the water more than three months.  After arriving in New York City^[1], she took the train to St. Louis, Missouri.  From here she started on her way to Utah pulling a handcart in the Edmund Ellsworth Handcart Company^[2].  Along with many others, she endured many hardships.  A large number of their company died on the way and were buried along the trail.  They ran out of food and for days all they had to eat was one tablespoon full of flour per day which they stirred in a little water and drank.  This was the first handcart company which arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on the 26 Sep. 1856.

After remaining in Salt Lake for a short time, she went to Ogden to live.  On March 16, 1857, she married John Paul Cardon.

In 1858 with many others she moved south when Johnston’s Army entered Utah.  Within a few months she moved back to Ogden where her husband had stayed to guard or burn possessions and crops if the Army tried to take possession of them.

In 1860 she moved to Logan, Utah where her husband had come the year before and built a home for her.  She spent the remainder of her life in Logan and in Cache Valley at Benson Ward.

With her husband they built the first hotel in Logan which they operated for over ten years.  It was the largest hotel north of Salt Lake and the only one in Logan for a long time.  It was known as the Cache Valley Hotel.

The first few years in this valley were extremely severe and she underwent many hardships.  This was especially the case during the first year as the grasshoppers destroyed all the crops.  They used herbs and roots as their principle food.  They were very fortunate to occasionally get some game meat such as deer, rabbit, fish, etc.

Grandma Cardon was a natural nurse.  She had the gift of knowing how to use different kinds of herbs for the sick and was called to go all over the valley to help the sick.

One very interesting incident in her life happened when the Indians were giving the Saints so much trouble.  A detailed account is given later.

Prior to her coming to Utah, Susannah earned her living by working in the silk industries and naturally she turned to this same kind of work when the opportunity came.  She was the first in the Territory to plant Mulberry trees and when they were large enough, she gathered the leaves for the silk worms.  This resulted in the raising of a very fine grade of cocoons.  She was asked by Brigham Young to travel south and teach others the trade.  She had a small loom made and was the first person here to produce silk thread.

She served in many positions in the church.  She was 2nd to join the Relief Society in Logan.  She labored in this organization practically all her life as a teacher and councilor.  She took pleasure in doing good and keeping in mind the happiness and welfare of others.

She was the mother of 11 children, six boys and five girls.  Six of them were still living at the time of her death in.  She had six grand-children and 45 great grand-children, a total of 116.

Few persons, if any, ever have been loved and revered more than Grandmother Cardon.  Her faith in God and His glorious work was indeed sublime and radiated the spirit of love in such a wonderful degree as to impress all whoever associated with her.  She was 87 years of age at the time of her death on 8 Dec. 1920.  Her funeral was held in the Logan Tabernacle on 11 Dec. 1920.  She died in the home of her daughter Sarah (Sally) Turner in Logan, Cache, Utah.

Notes

1:  The official New York ship's manifest for the John J. Boyd is dated February 18, 1856.  Susannah is listed on the last page of the manifest.

2:  Existing histories of the first handcard company don't list Susannah.  However, other biographies of Susannah say that she travelled with Pierre Stalle or Peter Stalley, who is listed in the handcart roster. The ship's manifest for the John J. Boyd shows Susanna Godin and just above her, Pietro Stalle with wife Maria and children Susanna, Bartholeme, Maria, and Margrita.  Also shown is the Beus family listed as Michell Bosis, wife Mariann, and children Anne, James[it's hard to read], Jean, Michell, Paul, Louis P., Maria, and Madelan.  At least some of these people must have travelled in the handcart company.

Revisions

December 2010:  Added notes 1 and 2.

August 29, 1999:  Converted to HTML by Matt Young from a WordPerfect document transcribed by Quinn Young.  The original source was probably collected by Reda Ricks and typewritten by Dorothy Miles.