My 4x Great Grandfather’s Grave, Plus 15 Minutes in Wyoming

I decided to drive to Wyoming today.

In the past few months, I’ve been to Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Texas. Every state in the western part of the country except Wyoming.

As I was looking at the Google Maps route between my house and the southwest corner of Wyoming, I saw that we’d go through Coalville, Utah. I found out earlier this year that my ancestors (on my mom’s side of the family) helped settle Coalville, and that several of them were buried there. So I figured I’d stop at the Coalville cemetery along the way to see their graves.

My buddy and I took off and drove the hour or so to Coalville from Salt Lake. I quickly found the graves of

My great, great grandfather and grandmother (John F. Wilde and Sariah Robinson)
My great, great, great grandfather and grandmother (Henry Phillips Wilde and Jane Batchelor)
My great, great, great, great grandfather (William Wilde, born 1807; his wife died in England)

All of them were born in England, were converted by Mormon missionaries, came to America in the 1850s, and crossed the Great Plains with handcarts. They all died in Coalville, Utah, after living most of the rest of their lives there.. My great grandfather was born in Coalville but moved to Oregon (and died there), where my grandfather was born.

There were actually 3 whole pages of Wildes in the cemetery’s list of people buried there. I have a friend who’s from a town near Coalville. She went to high school with Coalville kids and knows a bunch of Wildes. Crazy.

After the cemetery, we kept heading northeast to the Wyoming border. We went to the southwest corner of Wyoming, where there’s a large stone marker and small plaque. Then we drove around some dirt roads in Wyoming for a while before going back home.