Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Emma Jane Coleman Wilson

 
Emma Jane Coleman Wilson
 
Emma Jane Coleman Wilson died at age 25 in January 1888 at Thurber, Utah.  She died in childbirth due to the lack of professional help.  The family had to go 75 miles to get a doctor and he was four hours late in arriving.  In the meantime,  Emma Jane had suffered fatal injury. She is buried in the Teasdale (Utah) Cemetery.

Johan Gindrup and Sarah Andersen Gindrup




















Johan Joachim Ginderup aka John Gindrup

The youngest son of Jens and Julie Amica Jacobsen Ginderup was Johan Joachim.  Later in his life, Johan changed his name to John Gindrup.  He must have thought this would make his name easier for Americans to understand and spell.  From the time he left Denmark and throughout his life his name was spelled many different ways; Ginrup, Gentrup, Gintrup, Gendrop, and Gundrap.

John was born in 1831 in Trinitatis, Denmark.  We have no records concerning his adolescence.  We do know he was baptized in March of 1861 into the LDS Church.  In May 4, 1865, from what we can tell, John left Denmark alone with only his fellow saints as his family.

John boarded the Aurora with 557 other Mormons and sailed to Kiel, Germany.  At Kiel, they caught a train to Altona.  The journey continued with a steamboat ride up to a place near Hamburg, Germany.  It was at Hamburg that they boarded the B.S. Kimball, a double-decked ship.  Although the Kimball encountered only one real storm, death was a prevalent enemy.  Twenty-eight of the Saints died of the measles; twenty-five of those victims were young children.
 
On June 5, a boat came near the Kimball and informed the crew and passengers that the American Civil War was over and rebel president Jefferson Davis was a prisoner.  There was much rejoicing among the immigrants.  The passengers gave three hurrahs for their leaders, Bro. Windburg and Svenson, for Captain Dearborn, for a reunion in Utah, and even one for the American Constitution.

Near the end of the voyage, the water that was left to drink was so nasty to the taste, that they put vinegar in it to make it bearable to drink.  When they finally reached the end of the voyage on June 14, 1865, the bed bugs and vermin in their bedding were so annoying they could hardly stand sleeping in them.  Once in New York, 411 of the Saints continued on by railroad to St. Joseph, Missouri.  In Missouri, they caught a steamer for the rest of the way to Florence, Nebraska.  The group somehow got to Wyoming, Nebraska because that is where they waited to get their outfits and where they left for Utah.  The group waited over a month before they received all their oxen and provisions.

 On July 31, Miner Atwood, Captain of the group, led the Saints from Wyoming, Nebraska to the promised land of Utah.  John Gindrup was made the group’s secretary.  Driving across the country with oxen was a new concept to nearly all of the immigrant saints.  They soon had to learn commands like, who! and hoa! for the oxen.  They also needed to learn how to yoke, breach a wagon, fix axles and tongues, set tires and shoe oxen.

Death seemed to run rampant in this group.  One woman was trampled to death by four teams of stampeding oxen.  Later, near Fr. Laramie, some Indians and vagabonds started a stampede among the oxen and other animals while the animals were loose and resting.  One family was attacked – the father shot, and the mother abducted and never heard from again.

Provisions became extremely low when they were still four weeks and three days away from the Salt Lake Valley.  It was decided that each adult would receive only one pound of flour a day.  John Gindrup had his flour made up into three biscuits, like many of the other pioneers did.  He was overheard to say each morning after he ate his first biscuit, “Now Brother Gindrup, you have had your breakfast.”  He would then eat his second biscuit, and say “Brother Gindrup, you have had your dinner.”  Then after immediately eating his last biscuit he would finish with, “Now Brother Gindrup, you have had your supper and may travel the rest of the way among the prickly pears and cactus.”  John’s Company eventually arrived in Salt Lake City on November 8, 1865, and set up camp in a big field designated as the Eighth Ward square, where the City and County building now stands.

John then set himself up as an upholsterer in Salt Lake City.  John’s future wife would not leave Denmark for another two years.

Excepts from The Thompson Tale by Danielle Batson




Bengta Anderson Hansen

 
This photo is of Bengta Anderson (sister of Anders Anderson, my great grandfather).  See my post from October 23, 2012, for more info.  She is buried in the Rexburg (Idaho) Cemetery.

William Burt

William Burt
 
William Burt is the father of William Craig Burt (see the prior post) and is my 4th great grandfather.  He was born in 1810 and lived most of his life in Scotland.  He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1879 and came to Utah sometime in the 1880's.  He died in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1891.
 
Father and son share a headstone in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

William Craig Burt and Margaret Gilmer (Gilmour) Burt




















William Burt
William Burt, only child of William and Janet Craig Burt was born 18 February 1832 in Pulteney, Wick, Caithness, Scotland.  His father was a “master” plasterer.  The 1851 census said he employed five men and three boys.  The son was taught the plastering trade, serving five years as an apprentice.
 In December 1850 (or 1851) he married Margaret Gilmour (Gilmore) born 23 June 1831 in Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland, daughter of Thomas and Jane Patrick Laird Gilmour.  This marriage took place in Glasgow, Scotland.
On 5 October 1851, at the age of 19 William Burt was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Margaret had been baptized in December 1850.  For the sake of the gospel they came to America and on to Utah in 1868.  William Burt crossed the ocean on the ship, Constitution, and landed in New York 6 Aug 1868.  They brought their seven children with them:  William, John, Willard, Margaret, Jean, Agnes and James.  Their next and last child, Peter McKeith was born in Salt Lake City.

At the time of the family’s arrival in Salt Lake City the old Salt Lake Theater was just being built.  There was a 120 foot ornamental cornice to be run, but no one had been found who could do it.  Someone who had heard of grandfather’s coming here told the contractor of this plasterer from the “old country”.  He was contacted to see if he were able to do this intricate work.  This was his first job in Salt Lake City.  He and his helper ran the cornice in one day.  He was paid $100.00 for himself and $20.00 for his helper.  To earn $100.00 in one day in 1870 must have meant that he was a good plasterer.  Later he did plastering in the Lion House.

 He bought a home on E. Street and 4th Avenue.  He sold this home and moved to I Street and 1st Avenue.  Disagreement arose in the family, and he left and went to Beaver, Utah to work on Fort Cameron.  Soon his sons went to Fort Cameron to work with him.  William built a small home for his wife and she lived there for some time, but they didn’t live together.

 William Burt went to St. George to work on the Temple.  He was put in charge of all the plastering of this temple, doing all of the ornamental molding and casting throughout the temple himself.  The book “Temple of the Most High” states that William Burt was a master plasterer.

This book also tells that when the site for this temple had been dedicated, as President Brigham Young took the first shovelful of dirt from the foundation he made this statement, “There will not be any persons who will lose their lives on any of the works of this temple.”  William Burt’s son, John, was plastering one day at the top of the temple nearly 90 feet above the ground.  A man with him stepped off the scaffold causing the plank on which John was standing to tip.  He jumped onto a scaffold 3 or 4 feet below but the plank broke and he went right on through, falling 84 feet to the ground on scattered rock and dirt.  The workmen rushing to him found him still conscious.  In just ten days he was walking around the streets of St. George!  The fall did not disable him in any way and he was soon able to be back at work on the temple.  For a man to fall 84 feet onto rocks and be able to be back to work in a few days was certainly a direct fulfillment of President Young’s promise.

During the time of the building of this temple Louisa Willden, daughter of Charles and Eleanor Turner Willden, went to St. George to cook for the temple hands.  Here she met William Burt, the plasterer.  While working together they came to know and love one another.  William and Louisa were married; we do not know their marriage date but they came to Salt Lake City and were sealed in the Endowment House 7 January 1874.  William’s first wife objected to this plural marriage, nevertheless she went with them to the Endowment House and was sealed to him when he was sealed to Louisa, but she, Margaret Gilmour Burt, never lived with him afterward.                                             

William and Louisa had six children, all born in St. George, for William worked on the temple until it was completed.  The father loved the gospel and taught his children of it.  One of the oft-remembered things he taught them was to never speak against the leaders of the Church.  He cautioned them to always seek good company, and to do good to others just as they would wish to be done by.  He was a good public speaker, and often spoke in church meetings.  He knew the scriptures and found joy in teaching from them.  He had great faith in administration, and was often called to go to administer to the sick.  He must have had a special gift in this because he could sometimes invoke the healing power of the Lord when other good men’s efforts had gone unrewarded.  He administered to his own children, instilling great faith in their hearts.

Singing was important in their home.  Lou (a daughter) remembers that her father’s favorite song was “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer”.  Both the father and mother sang in the ward choir.

William’s second wife, Louisa, grew sickly.  Heart trouble took this sweet mother on the 28th of May, 1883, when she was just 29 years of age.  The family then had to be divided among relatives.

In 1884, William Burt went to Provo, Utah, to plaster on the Brigham Young Academy and the State Hospital.
 
Sometime in the 1880’s William sent to Scotland for his father and his second wife, Euphemia Fortune Burt, to come to Utah.  The father, William Burt Sr. had finally embraced the gospel in 1879.  When he came to Utah he lived in Salt Lake City.  William’s mother, Janet Craig, had died 10 November 1871.

  In 1885 when the Manti Temple was ready to be plastered, William Burt went to Manti with some of his children by Louisa, where he was the head plasterer on that temple.  William became acquainted with a woman named Mrs. Emma Peterson Cox Clawson, a widow with seven children.  His children needed a mother and her children needed a father, so they were married 17 February 1886.  William’s children were so happy for this marriage; they thought it would be like heaven to have a mother again, but it just didn’t work out that way.  Thirteen step-brothers and sisters brought such complications!  William and Emma had three children born in Manti.  This marriage certainly wasn’t a very happy one, so the father left this wife and took his children by Louisa Willden to live in a very humble abode in Manti.

Daughter Lou remembers that her father was an ardent reader—always choosing good books.  He loved to read the scriptures and lives and works of the Church leaders.  Many nights he read until 1:00 or 2:00 am.  Nevertheless, he always arose early.  In the summertime he was usually working in his garden by four or five o’clock in the morning.

William Burt lived in Manti and did plastering work until the fall of 1899, when he went to Salt Lake City to live with daughters Nell and Lou.  There he worked with his son (from first wife, Margaret), John.  Two of the buildings in which he plastered were the Deseret News Building and the Studebaker Building.  He had been asked to do the head plastering on the Salt Lake Temple years before, but had work contracted in Manti and was too long in finishing it.

In August 1902, William had a stroke as he was walking along the street.  The family didn’t know about it, but began a search for him when he didn’t come home.  Lou’s husband found him and took him to their home where he died a week later 26 August 1902.  He was buried at the side of his father in the Burt lot, on the south side of 180 N and just west of Cypress Street, in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

 --Excerpts from history compiled by Ruth Love Turner, granddaughter, July 1955.

Amina Raymond Stephens

Amina Ann Raymond Stephens as a teenager
 
Amina Ann Raymond Stephens
 

William Barry

William Barry
 
William is a sibling of Kim's grandmother Christina Barry Todd.  He lived his whole life in Ireland. 

Verda Coleman Jones and Mary Wilson Anderson

Verda and Mary look like they had a wonderful bond established!!!  This photo was most likely taken about 1906.  Verda was about 2 years old and Mary was about 18 years old.  These two girls are actually cousins.  When Mary's mother, Emma Jane Coleman Wilson, died at Mary's birth, Mary and her older sister, Jane, went to live with their grandparents, George and Jane Smith Coleman.  Mary's uncle Alexander was 18 years old when the two girls came to live with their grandparents and aunts and uncles, so Mary would have bonded like a sibling to Alexander.
 
Mary came to Idaho in 1906 to help her aunt and uncle, Annie and Alexander Smith Coleman, with their store that they owned in Thomas, Idaho. Verda is the third child of Annie and Alexander. 
 
It was at the store in Thomas that Mary met her future husband, Neils Anderson, and they married in 1908.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

William W Hoskins

William Wesley Hoskins
 
 
 
 
 
Death of W. M. Hoskins
 
Wm. M. Hoskins died at the residence of D.P. Thomas in this city last night at 10 o’clock.  Mr. Hoskins had been in poor health for the past year or more and last summer he underwent a critical operation in a Salt Lake hospital.  After recovering from the effects of the operation, in company with Mrs. Hoskins and little son, he went to Southern California intending to remain for the winter in the hope that the low altitude and mild climate of that section would benefit his health.  On the contrary, his constitution gradually weakened, and realizing that his time on earth was short, he and his family returned to Montpelier, arriving Tuesday night.  He was so weakened by the journey that the end came sooner than was expected and as Father Time was about to close the records for the year 1908, the spirit of Mr. Hoskins peacefully took its flight to that home where death and sorrow never enter.
 
Mr. Hoskins had been in business in Montpelier for the past six years and was recognized as one of the city’s substantial citizens.  He was a man who attended strictly to his own affairs yet he was ready at all times to assist in any movement having for its object the advancement and upbuilding of the city.

Besides his widow and son George 10 years old, he is survived by an aged father who resides in Grand Island, Neb., a brother and two sisters at Omaha, a brother at Eureka, Wash., and a sister at Spirit Lake, Idaho.
 
The funeral will be held from the residence of D.P. Thomas Sunday afternoon at 1 o’clock.  The deceased was a member of the order of Eagles and a delegation from the Pocatello lodge, in which he held his membership, will arrive from there Sunday morning to conduct the burial services.
 
 
This obituary appeared in the newspaper in Montpelier, Idaho.  The D.P. Thomas mentioned was a brother-in-law, David Phillip Thomas, who was married to Catherine’s sister Esther.  The Register of Deaths in Bear Lake County lists Wm. Hoskins, age 48, dying 12-31-08, from mitral stenosis.  His birthplace is listed as Iowa, father and mother-Thomas Hoskins and Samantha, duration of illness-4 years.  The Montpelier Cemetery also shows his middle initial as “M” in their burial records.
 
 

Virgil Elliott Stephens

Virgil Elliott  Stephens
 
(December 23, 1899 - January 1, 1956)

Heber James Wilson

This is the first post that I've done without a photo.  I don't have a photo of my great-grandfather, Heber James Wilson.  I've tried without success to come up with a photo.  If any of you cousins happen to have one, I'd love to see it.


Heber James Wilson

 
Heber James Wilson son of Robert Wilson and Mary Ann Baldwin was born August 28, 1860 at Salt Lake City, Utah.  In the year 1861 his father was called by the church to go to Santa Clara.  He took his three wives, his first wife Mary Ann Baldwin and two Blood girls and moved to Santa Clara, Washington County, Utah.  The two Blood girls refused to stay in such a desolate, forsaken place.  So Robert left May Ann and her family at Santa Clara and he and the Blood girls returned to Salt Lake City.

 
The family consisted of Robert the eldest son, who took his place as head of the family, Richard Almira, Lenora, George and Heber James the baby.  Under the most trying of circumstances did this lovely pioneer woman and her children struggle for their existence. Heber James was grown before he knew what a pair of shoes were. They lived chiefly on bread and molasses.  The heat was terrific.  The lizards would flop over on their backs to cool their stomachs as they ran from the shade of one bush to another.  The children herded the cows barefoot.  Robert shared no responsibility in the raising of this family.  In fact the children only saw their father three times during his life time.  He visited them at Santa Clara when Heber James was 4 years old, at their mother’s funeral, at the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. Heber James never knew any of his half brothers or sisters until he was grown. Then he met a half sister and brother in Idaho.

 
After Heber James mother’s death, which was caused by heat stroke, the family moved.  Bob married and moved to Kanab, where he lived until his death.  The other children went to Escalante, Utah.  Heber James wandered into Wayne County and in the year 1884 married Emma Jane Coleman in the St. George Temple.  Two girls blessed this union, Jane and Mary.  When Mary was 4 days old her mother died from complications of child birth.  No doctor was available and the midwife in attendance was unable to render the assistance needed.  Their Grandmother Coleman took the motherless little girls and loved and mothered them as her own. 

 
In the year 1888, September 17 at the Manti Temple, Heber married Mary Jane Perkins.  12 children were born to them.  Four boys and eight girls.  Nine of which grew to man and woman hood.  Heber James filled a mission to Great Britain between years of 1897-1899. He made many friends and converts.  He was honorably released after 26 months of labor.  He often said this was the happiest time of his life, because he was able to live his religion best at this time.  He was Bishop of the Giles and Teasdale Wards for years.  He then served as High Councilman until he moved to Monticello, San Juan County, in the year 1916.  He was also active in Civic affairs.  He was sheriff in both counties and various other public offices.  He made several trips in to the Robbins Roast and captured some of the bad men and brought them out to be tried and found guilty.

 
He was respected by all classes for his honesty, fearlessness and his courage to do what he thought was right.  A the age of 74 years he died, June 10, 1935, after poor health for two years caused from a stroke.  He was survived by his wife Mary Jane and 10 children.

Heber James Wilson obituary


This obit appeared in the San Juan Record on June 13, 1935.

Sarah Thornton Coleman

Sarah Thornton Coleman
 

Sarah Thornton Coleman, daughter of William Thornton and Elizabeth Christian, was born June 11, 1806 at Little Paxton, Huntingtonshire, England.  She and her older sister, Jane, were left motherless at the age of ten and eleven, as their mother died August 23, 1816.  The father placed the two girls in a boarding school, and afterward married again.  Rules and regulations of the school were so strict that the students had no childhood or girlhood pleasures.  Whipping was not allowed but some of the punishments were going without food, undressing and going to bed in the daytime, separation from classmates, etc.  The most cruel punishment was that given the children when found sleeping with the knees drawn up.  They were expected to recline in bed perfectly straight and should they draw their knees up in their sleep; the teachers and nurses roughly jerked the legs down suddenly waking the child.

 
Sarah Thornton decided, then and there that should she ever have children they should never acquire their education at a boarding school.  However, she remained at this school about ten years, when she met and after a courtship of six weeks, married Prime Coleman, son of George Coleman and Elizabeth Prime, born 1804 at Arlesey, Bedfordshire, England.


The young man’s Father told him that he was making the mistake of his life by marrying a girl who had spent her life at school, and could not be a helpmate to a cattle man and a farmer.  But as the old saying is – “love goes where love is sent”—the young man decided he knew best, and so Prime Coleman and Sarah Thornton were married August 1826.

 
They owned and lived on a large, well-equipped farm at Thorncot, Bedsford, England.  The house was a large two-story one splendidly furnished.  Here seven children were born to them –George, Sarah, Prime Thornton, Ann Elizabeth, William, and Rebecca; and later one more in Nauvoo, Illinois, USA named Martha Jane.  There was always plenty of hired help in the house and on the farm, so the mother’s only work was to look after her children and manage the household affairs.  It took only a few years to convert the father-in-law that he was mistaken in his opinion as to what an educated girl could and could not do, for then Mr. Coleman finally acknowledged to his son and daughter-in-law that she had made a wonderful wife and mother.
 

There being no washboards or washing machines in those days, the family washing had to be done by rubbing the clothes between the hands.  This family’s washing was done every six weeks and the task was not finished in less than three days.

 
One day as Mrs. Coleman approached her home; she met a man with a beautiful feather bed.  He asked her to buy it.  She thought it looked very much like her bed, but she paid him for it.  On taking it upstairs to her bedroom she discovered that her feather bed was missing, and upon examination, found she had really bought her own feather bed from a “would be robber.”
 

One of the girls who lived for years with the Coleman family at Thorncot was Lucy Brown, whose father had died, her mother had married again and she had to go out to service.  She also joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and came to America with the Coleman family.  After arriving in Nauvoo, Illinois, she went to live with the John Taylor family at a dollar a week.  There she met and married Elias Smith.  They came to Utah, September 1851.  The Coleman and Smith family have been close friends ever since “Aunt Lucy” as we have always called her, lived so long with the Prime and Sarah Coleman family at Thorncot, England.

 
Mrs. Coleman was much more inclined toward religion than was her husband and often said that whil she attended church, he enjoyed more to rest at home reading and smoking his cigar.

 
When the Elders found them, the Coleman family was not long in making their decision to join the church and come to the New World.  So, with their four children who were over eight years of age, they were baptized in 1841 and 1842, and on the first of January, 1843, left their home at Thorncot in a large baggage wagon and began the journey to America.


Christopher Layton, (for whom the city of Layton, Davis County, Utah, was afterward named), had been one of the hired men on the Coleman farm in England.  He too, was baptized and came with the family.  He and the oldest son, George Coleman, about 16 years of age, drove the baggage in a very cumbersome wagon with three strong horses.  Listen to their part of their trip with the baggage wagon:  “It was against the laws of England for teamsters to ride, and while both of us were riding, a policeman saw us and gave chase.  We whipped up the horses and after about three miles we out-ran him and slowed down to a peaceable jog.”  Leaving the wagon at Wolverhamton, they went by train to Liverpool, where they joined other Saints, and were enrolled on the ship Swanton, (Captain Davenport), as the 19th company of Latter-Day emigrants, with Lorenzo Snow as Company’s captain.  They had to stay at Liverpool two weeks waiting for repairs on the ship, but made the vessel their home, doing the cooking and sleeping on board.  Brother Layton acted as cook for the Coleman family.  Once incident in their history says – “One day Brother Coleman said to Layton: ‘Chris, ain’t you going to peel some potatoes and make us a pie?”  So Chris made the meat and potatoes into a pie, and when it was all baked, all the others wanted to share it, and saked for the recipe for “Chris’ Pie: as they called it.”

 
On January 16th, 1843, they set sail from Liverpool, the company numbering 212 souls.  After sailing for seven weeks and three days, they arrived at New Orleans, Louisiana, and were transferred to the ship “Amarauth” in which they sailed up the Mississippi River to St. Louis.  There they were transferred from the steamer to a barge, and here they had to stay two weeks waiting for the ice to break.  About the 7th or 8th of April; a small steamer fastened a cable to the barge and ugged it up the river to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they landed April 12, 1843, three months and twelve days after leaving their home at Thorncot, England.  Choice feather beds and other valuable baggage had been left behind, or thrown overboard enroute, to decrease the weight of the ship, as the journey was a long tedious one.

 
When they arrived at Nauvoo, Illinois, the Coleman family went to live on the farm belonging to the Patriarch Hyrum, as Brother Prime Coleman had been an experienced farmer in his native country.

 
Here they suffered privation and hardships not known before by this prosperous family, and the mother gave birth to her eighth child, Martha Jane, September 15, 1843, four months after their arrival in Nauvoo, Illinois.  A little over one year of this new life of sacrifice and hardship, and typhoid fever broke out in Nauvoo.  Some of the Coleman children were down with it.  The father was also ill.  A cat had broken the windowpane.  Rather than allow the mother to get out of her bed, Brother Coleman insisted on fixing something to stop the wind from the sick room.  While in the act of doing so he took a chill and said—“I am a dead man.”  Typhoid fever developed and he lived only a short time.  The father and the oldest daughter Sarah, age 15 years, died June 1844, within a few days of each other, and were buried in an old well along with the others.

 
This left Sister Coleman with seven children to raise, lacking the comforts of the olden days in England, and almost destitute of the necessities of life.

 
The same month, June 1844, about two weeks after these sad deaths in the Coleman family, the Prophet and Patriarch were martyred, bringing to the Saints an almost unbearable sorrow.  One of Sister Coleman’s daughters, Elizabeth, about ten years old, was staying at the home of the Patriarch Smith at the time.  She often related the scene of grief and sorrow in the home when the bodies of the brethren were brought home to their wives and children.

 
The widow Sarah Thornton Coleman, with her family moved from the Smith farm into the eleventh ward of Nauvoo.  Here she met David Evans, who was Bishop of that ward, and when the Saints were driven from county or state to another, she with her children shared the persecutions and trials of the exodus from Nauvoo and of crossing the plains.  Being driven further west from state to state, they spent between four and five years on the journey to Utah, stopping at times for the men to work and purchase teams, wagons, and provisions to continue the long trek over mountains and bridgeless streams.  One stop lasted about three years in Nodaway County, Missouri, where they built log huts.  Babies were born in these huts with no doors, windows, chimneys or floors.  Food consisted mostly of corn bread, and bran for coffee.  The corn had to be ground on a handmill.  Here the men had plenty of work, and completed a good outfit for the trip across the Plains.

 
Companies were organized for the move and the Coleman family was placed in Bishop David Evans’ Company.  They made the final start on June 15, 1850, arrived in Salt Lake Valley the following September 1851.  President Brigham Young sent David Evans south to preside over the little colony already located in Dry Creek.

 
Sarah Thornton Coleman and her seven children, three sons and four daughters, came with the Evans family and remained to help build up what is now Lehi City, Utah.  Her sons built a two-room house for her which was among the first adobe homes built there.  It still stands (1934), one block west and a half block north of the Relief Society Hall.


Sister Coleman was chosen and acted as president of the first Relief Society organized in Lehi, in the fall of 1868 and served in that position many years.  She was blessed with the gift of tongues and used that gift many, many times.


The Coleman family were among the first to employ a genealogist in England to search out their ancestors, and have done the temple work for hundreds by the surname of “Coleman, Thornton, Prime and Christian,” from England, also the Coleman’s of America.  Sister Coleman and her oldest son, George, with his wife, Jane Smith, began work in the St. George Temple soon after it was opened for ordinances; work for the dead, and as soon as the Manti and Logan Temples were finished, all her family joined in this work for the dead.  When not able to go and do the work personally they furnished the cash to hire it done.

 
Sarah Thornton Coleman raised a highly respected and very prosperous family; all of them became active in the church in the cities where they lived.  She lived an exemplary life, passing on at the ripe age of 86 years nine months, with full faith in the Gospel for which she had sacrificed so much.  She died March 1, 1892, at Lehi, Utah.



Eleanor (Nellie) Barry Garrett

Eleanor (Nellie) Barry Garrett
 
Nellie is a sibling of Christina Barry Todd - Kim's grandmother.  Nellie was born in 1895 in Comber, County Down, Northern Ireland.  Nellie married John Garrett, another native of Ireland.  She came to America in 1913 and settled in Pocatello, Idaho.  John and Nellie had 2 sons, John S (Steeley) and James (Jimmy).  In 1931, when she was only 36 years old, Nellie and a neighbor were both electrocuted trying to straighten a power pole where the wires sagged down.  The grass was wet with rain and somehow the electricity was conducted to them.  She left a husband, a 13 year old son and an 8 year old son.  Nellie was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Pocatello.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

John Stephens (1811-1870) and family

The John and Elizabeth Briggs Stephens family - photo circa 1863

William Asa Speirs

Birthday of William A. Speirs
Montpelier News Examiner (clipping Ca. 1967)
 
Montpelier Man Celebrates 90th Birthday
 
Montpelier - Active, healthy and alert, William A. Speirs celebrated his 90th birthday anniversary recently at an open house at the home of his granddaughter, Mrs. Ray Larsen. 
 
A retired barber, Mr. Speirs through the decades has kept abreast of the times by being an ardent reader of books and magazine.  He says his Presidential vote will go to George Romney if he is nominated and he is undecided for a second choice.  He is in good helath and puts in a three-hour daily shift at Neeley's Arctic Circle, preparing Idaho potatoes for French fries and doing odd jobs.  He lives alone in his home at 743 Jackson Street.
 
Recently he sold his car.  For the past two or three years he has walked to destinations in town, using a cane more for ornament than an aid to locomotion  Relatives and friends take him by car for longer trips and on scenic drives.
 

An ardent and adept fly fisherman and troller for Bear Lake mackinaw trout, Mr. Speirs gave up the sport just three years ago.

He was born Nov. 16, 1877, at Tooele, Utah, a son of William H. and Mary Jane Walters Speirs.  The family moved in 1880 to Bennington, Idaho, where he spent his childhood.  He attended barber college in Chicago from 1899 to 1900.  For 10 years he had a chair in the Matt Lyon barber shop in the old Templeton Building at the corner of Main and South Temple, Salt Lake City.
Coming to Montpelier in 1910, he was associated with the late Riley Barkdull for 26 years in a shop located in the building now occupied by Zed's Glass and Paint.

In 1921 he opened a barber shop in the then newly-remodeled Burgoyne Hotel.  After four years he sold the business to Walter Phelps and returned to his former location with Mr. Barkdull.  He worked for short periods with other shops, retiring in 1941, but continuing to do barbering at home.

Mr. Speirs married Mary Ann Hilton Aug. 6, 1903, in Salt Lake City.  Mrs. Speirs died April 7, 1956.  They had two children, the late Mrs. George (Mable) Hoskins and Frank H. Speirs of Montpelier.  There are three grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Cousins

Here's my best guess at who's who in this photo.  Let me know if I goofed!

Standing in front: Steve, Lyle, Leslie, Hal, Delia, Lana.
Seated: Grandpa Neils Anderson, Grandma Mary Anderson
Standing 2nd row back: Evelyn holding Robert, Janice, Mary Karen, don't know who is behind Mary Karen, Deloy, Sylvia between Grandpa and Grandma.
Standing on the back: Kelvin, Kurt, Sharlene, Arvella, Brent, don't know who's next, Neils, can't tell who's the last one.

(Norman, Mary Joyce, Clair, Darold, Dale are the possibilities for the missing)

Sunday, November 18, 2012

George Hoskins and his bike

I love this photo of my grandfather, George William Hoskins, as a schoolboy with his bike.  He is so nattily dressed and must have been pretty proud of the bike.  He lived in Montpelier, Idaho, at the time this photo was taken.  The family was quite well to do when his father was alive, but his father passed away when he was 9 years old and things changed in George's life at that point.