Ellen Breakel was born at Preston, Lancashire, England on February 28, 1811. Her father was a very wealthy English farmer, but Ellen wanted to work because her friends and associates were working. Ellen married Alexander Neibaur, a French and Polish Jew who had been educated to become a rabbi before joining the church.
In 1841, the first organized company of Saints left England on the ship Sheffield, and the Neibaurs were among the Saints on that ship. At that time they had three children who they brought with them, having already lost one baby and buried it in England. Ellen was sick the entire seven weeks it took to cross the ocean, and she never once came up on deck during the whole voyage. They landed at New Orleans, and went directly to Nauvoo. There Alexander Neibaur met the Prophet Joseph Smith and taught him the Hebrew and German languages.
They were in Nauvoo at the time of the great persecution of the Saints, and in 1846, when the mob made the raid on the Saints, Ellen Neibaur, with a 10 day old baby and six other children were driven from their home.
In May 1848, they left Winter Quarters in the Brigham Young Company and arrived in Salt Lake City, September 20, 1848. After their arrival in the valley, the family lived in a tent during the fall and winter of 1848. It was the most they had ever suffered, and often the children went hungry.
When Spring came, the father built a small hut, 12′ by 14,’ and they moved into it just before their 10th child was born. When they became more settled and began to make a little money, Alexander bought his wife a nice pair of shoes, and she knitted herself some stockings that were blue and white striped. She was very proud of them and thought they were very pretty.
She had only had them for a short time when the Brethren came around collecting clothing to take with them to meet the pioneers of the Martin Handcart Company. When they came to their house, Alexander said he had nothing to give them, but Ellen answered, “Yes, we must give something,” and she took from her feet the pair of new shoes and stockings and gave them to the Brethren, binding her own feet in rags.
When the handcart company of Saints arrived in Salt Lake, people turned out to welcome them. Among them was an old friend of Ellen’s that she had known in England . . . and she was wearing Ellen’s shoes and stockings!