On May 28, Markerly and her party boarded the steamship Phoenix, which would travel up the Champlain River and across the lake of the same name, a distance of 160 miles to Whitehall. In the distance, she saw Vermont 's high mountains covered with snow. The next day they boarded a Northern Canal boat, which carried them to Fort Ann, and the widow noted that they had traveled 4,200 miles and were greatly fatigued. She observed that she would not wish to settle in this area, but that the inhabitants were a great improvement over the Canadians. Then they transferred to the Western Canal ( Erie ) and on this boat the incompetent captain and steersman repeatedly hung up the craft through the night. She marveled at the changes in the countryside as neat villages, plowed fields, and large orchards came into view the next day. Were it not for her overwhelming exhaustion, she could have enjoyed this scenery even more. By June 1, they had passed through Schenectady, New York and on Sunday morning, they neared Utica, where she observed that all the children were very ill.40
In her journal she recorded that little William only had a few hours to live, and by noon, her grandchild had expired. Rather than discuss her own sense of loss, Markerly expressed relief that the child would no longer suffer. Her main concern was how Hannah would bear her grief and what consequences it would have on the mother's health. Once again, her first thoughts were for her family rather than herself. Two days later they stopped at a village called New London for a few hours where they assembled the baby's coffin and then continued. The next morning, Wednesday, June 5, they arrived at Port Byron. Her brother David Hurn and son-in-law William Doncaster preceded her into town to meet Markerly's son, John. She declared, “I will not attempt to describe my feelings, but I had from my first leaving home and for sometime previous to that event strove to keep them in subordination and I did so then.”41 That evening they interred little William in a burying ground on a high hill. Despite all of her efforts, not all of her family would finish the journey “From Old England towards America .”42
Lucy Hurn Markerly's journal ends with the Port Byron entry, but Hudson newspaper obituaries, deed transfers, and Federal census records prove that the Markerly family built a successful life in Hudson, Ohio. Her son John and nephew David Hurn Jr. established a successful carriage making business and livery. As a land speculator, John Markillie's name appeared on thirty transfers in Summit County, Ohio. He also served as the Hudson Village Clerk, maintained a photography business, and donated land for the village cemetery. The Doncaster family operated a profitable funeral home well into the twentieth century.43 The Markerly family owed much of its success to a strong willed woman who never strayed from her vision of a better life in the United States for her children and their descendants. Not content to eke out an existence as a marginalized agriculturalist, this woman analyzed business potential in the Western Reserve and took proactive steps to exploit those opportunities in an expanding American economy. Her leadership and planning skills were definite assets in this family endeavor. Markerly assumed responsibility for securing passage on this long and complex journey from England to America. Setting an example of strength and courage, she relied on her faith in God and spiritual beliefs to sustain her on the long voyage. She refused to allow illness and physical hardships to deter her from a carefully planned mission. Keeping her emotions in check, she presented a picture of hope and offered relief in times of fear and danger. Her family's welfare was always her primary concern. Rather than tolerating government oppression, rising taxes, and a state sponsored religion financed by tithes, she chose to immigrate to America where her loved ones would benefit not only from enhanced economic opportunities, but also enjoy a society that cherished individual rights and respected personal liberty.
As a case study, this English immigrant provides insight into the role of women and their family duties and obligations in the nineteenth-century. Following the death of her second husband, Lucy Hurn Markerly assumed responsibilities beyond the traditional domestic sphere of childcare and homemaking. Rather than passively accepting British government decrees and economic pressures, she displayed agency in moving her family to the Western Reserve village of Hudson. Her journal offers a contrast to the accounts examined in Lillian Schlissel's Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey. Markerly was a first generation immigrant to the Midwestern United States, and her story revealed an unbridled enthusiasm for the transition. According to Schlissel, the accounts of American women pioneers to Oregon and California displayed not just a lack of enthusiasm for the move, but an outright anguish at the dislocation. Several factors may account for the difference in attitude. Although Markerly covered a much longer distance, her principle conveyance was water transportation, which lasted less than three months. The land journey from St. Joseph , Missouri to California and Oregon took from six to nine months. Markerly, as a widow, actively chose to come to America, whereas virtually all of the Schlissel accounts revealed married women's deference to nineteenth-century patriarchy concerning the overland experience.44 Yet both the Markerly journal, “From Old England towards America,” and Women's Diaries of the Western Journey shared common themes of childcare and illness, pregnancy and infant death, as they strove to maintain family integrity.
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