British Settlers

Her own gravestone disagrees with the sign. The monument raised over her grave at Bloomington in 1938 gives her death as November 16, 1888, not 1890, and family histories say she died that day at her daughter Nancy's house in Wardboro, aged 81. She was one of nine people Heber C. Kimball baptized in the River Ribble at Preston on July 30, 1837, the first converts made in a foreign land, before a crowd counted in the thousands. The surnames shift with her marriages: Hodgkinson, Walmsley, Palmer and Dalton.

What the plaque says

British Settlers Most early Bear Lake settlers came from Britain. One was the first woman convert to the LDS Church in Europe. Born in Preston, England, Aug. 24, 1806, Ann Elizabeth Walmsley Palmer was baptized July 30, 1837. An invalid, she was carried into the water, but walked out unaided. After coming to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1842, she drove an oxteam to Utah in 1849 and settled here in 1863. She died here Nov. 2, 1890. Through faith she gained the strength to overcome trials and to achieve triumphs. 319 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 3.7 mi
  The Bear River crosses this marsh twice: once in a canal into Bear Lake, and once in another canal on its way back out.
• Minnetonka Cave — 9.0 mi
  Found by a grouse hunter, named first for a porcupine and then in a language from the far side of the Rockies. Five kinds of bats winter inside.
• National Oregon/California Trail Center — 11 mi
  Emigrants came down off Big Hill and camped in the clover here. Brigham Young renamed the town; the trail center brings the camp back in costume.
• Beaver Mountain Ski Area — 17 mi
  A family-owned ski hill that has been run by the same family since 1939

More markers nearby

• Paris — 2.9 mi
• Paris Tabernacle — 2.9 mi
• Smith's Trading Post — 8.8 mi
• McAuley's Road — 9.3 mi