A brief history of Uckfield’s Emma French

As we look ahead at what 2020 has in store for us, CommunityAd thought they would go back in time to an era that is not controlled by the digital world, where social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are used by millions to connect with other people, leaving particular pleasantries behind in the shadows such as a good old fashioned meet and greet, morning ‘hello’ or local library gathering. We go back to 1836 and look into the life of Emma Lee French.

Born in Uckfield on 21st April 1836 to parents Henry and Elizabeth Batchelor, at the age of 22 after being converted to Mormonism, Emma moved to Chicago, USA before heading to Illinois where she pushed a cart filled with goods given by her Church 1,400 miles to Salt Lake City! Emma pushed the cart herself as one of the many Mormon handcart pioneers.

During that trip, 150 people died during snowstorms and many others suffered illnesses such as frozen feet, noses and other diseases. Emma would care for these people leading most of them to a full recovery, and from this, as well as delivering many babies, Emma was referred to by many as Dr French.

In Salt Lake City, French worked as an indentured servant to pay for her trip from England and it was here where she met the prominent John Doyle Lee who she would marry in 1848, becoming his seventeenth wife. John and Emma would go on to have seven children but with John’s involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre which left 140 people dead, the couple were followed by federal marshals for nearly 20 years. In 1873, John became a fugitive, leaving Emma and his children behind, but eventually got caught by the US Army and was shot dead on March 23rd 1877.

Two years later, Emma married wandering gold prospector Franklin French and they moved to Winslow, Arizona. At this time the Santa Fe railroad was being built so a special train would bring Emma to help take care of the railroad workers’ injuries. During this period, French again helped multiple women give birth.

Emma would suffer personal heartbreak in the late 1880s as her daughter Victoria committed suicide at the age of 14 and her second son Ike was murdered by a cowboy who was trying to seduce his wife.

On the 16th November 1897, whilst preparing breakfast, Emma suffered a heart attack and died later that night with a crowd of businessman and women keeping vigil outside her home. Emma’s funeral was the biggest event the town of Winslow had experienced up to that point. The Santa Fe stopped their trains in tribute for her and her tombstone located in the old cemetery in Winslow, Arizona is marked as ‘Dr. French’.

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