Isabella Meikle was born in 1837 in Scotland and immigrated to Utah in 1856 with her mother and siblings as part of the second handcart company. She married William Blackhurst in 1857 and had four children, but he passed away in 1864. She then married Theodore Curtis in 1868 and had two more daughters, but Isabella herself passed away in 1873 from dropsy at the young age of 35.

1. PIONEER HISTORY OF
Isabella Meikle 1837-1873
http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~curtistheo/page6.html
Isabella Meikle
Born 6 April 1837, Lanark, Hamilton, Scotland
Died: 6 Jan 1873, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
LDS Emigration Isabella Meikle Along with:
Mother: Margaret Jessie Jackson Meikle,
Step-Brother William Meikle
Brother: James Joseph Meikle
DEPARTED: 23 March 1856: Liverpool, England;
aboard ship “Enoch Train”.
ARRIVED: 30 April 1856 Boston, Massachusetts
DEPARTED: 2 May 1856 Boston,
Massachusetts; Mid May 1856
ARRIVED: Iowa City, Iowa
DEPARTED: 11 June, 1856 Iowa City, Iowa
with 2nd Handcart Company
ARRIVED: 26 Sept 1856 Salt Lake City, Utah
REFER TO HER MOTHER (JESSE JACKSON MEIKLE) HISTORY FOR MORE DETAILS
CONCERNING EMIGRATION FROM SCOTLAND TO UTAH, U.S.A.
Isabelle Meikle = Isabella Meikle Blackhurst Curtis
Isabelle or “Bella”, was born 6 April 1837 in Lanark, Hamilton, Scotland to William Meikle and
Margaret Jessie Jackson.
Isabelle’s father died in Scotland. Her widowed Mother brought the family to America, sailing on the
Enoch Train. They crossed the plains in Daniel D. McArthur’s 2nd handcart company, arriving in Salt
Lake City on Sept. 28, 1856, and Isabelle settled there to live.
Her mother, Jesse Jackson Meikle, and brothers, Robert and James Joseph, moved to Smithfield, Utah
sometime later 1859 or early 1860.
1st Marriage
Isabelle was married & sealed to William Blackhurst in the Salt Lake Endowment House on September
11, 1857. This was Bella’s first marriage and William’s fourth. William and Bella had five children:
(4 children from Ancestral File)
William, born 17 Jan 1858;
Margaret, born 21 April 1860;
Brigham, born 5 October 1862; and
Hyrum, born 11 January 1865.
William died from pneumonia on 9 September 1864, only seven years after their marriage and four
months before the birth of Hyrum.

2. 2nd Marriage
Fourth Wife of Theodore Curtis
Isabelle next married Theodore Curtis on August 1, 1868 in Salt Lake City. The 1870 census shows
Theodore and Bella living in the 7th Ward. Her mother-in-law, Jane Blackhurst, lived with them.
From this second marriage, Bella had two daughters,
Agnes, born 10 November 1869
Theodosia, born 23 May 1870 in Salt Lake City.
(At least one daughter’s birth date, from FamilySearch, seems wrong since these birthdays are only six
months apart.)
Isabelle’s death from dropsy on Monday, 6 Jan 1873 was briefly announced in the Deseret News.
There is Sweet Rest in Heaven was sung at her funeral. Milford Bard Shipp and Brother Cannon
[probably George Q. Cannon, who was Theodore’s sister’s brother-in-law] spoke at the burial service on
January 8. Isabelle was just 35 years old and her two youngest children were three years of age and
under.
On January 10th, Theodore Walter Curtis wrote, “Called to see father today; he was exceedingly
disconsolate; expressed himself uninterested in life as if it were but a burden, illumined by not a ray of
happiness or comfort: He longed, it seemed, to go himself.”
Isabelle must have been a person of great strength, comfort and happiness. Her untimely death was
deeply mourned.
 Isabella

3. Theodore Curtis

4. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=34201914
FIND A GRAVE
Isabelle Meikle Blackhurst
Death: Jan. 6, 1873 Salt Lake City Salt Lake County Utah, USA
Burial: Salt Lake City Cemetery Salt Lake City Salt Lake County Utah, USA
Born at Hamilton, Lanark, Scotland Daughter of William Meikle and Margaret Jessie Jackson
Married William Blackhurst, 11 Sep 1857, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Married Theodore
Isabelle Meikle Blackhurst
Spouse: William Blackhurst (1807 - 1864)*
Children: William Blackhurst (1858 - 1874)* Margaret Blackhurst (1860 - 1863)* Hyrum Meikle
Blackhurst (1864 - 1918)* Brigham Meikle Blackhurst (1868 - 1909)*