Medora White Call

Author Unknown

Maiden Name: Medora White

Birth: April 9, 1855; Farmington, Davis Co., Utah

Parents: John Stout White Sr. and Ann Eliza Adelaide Everett

Marriage: Israel Call;[1] December 21, 1874

Children: Israel Bowen (1875), John Anson (1876), Medora Adelaide (1878), Vasco (1880), Schuyler (1882), Chester Monroe (1884), Hettie Jane (1886), Ambrose (1888), Chloe Irene (1891), Vinson Oro (1893), Willard White (1895), Eldred Odell (1899)

Death: April 20, 1926; Bountiful, Davis Co., Utah

Burial: Bountiful, Davis Co., Utah

Medora White Call was the second daughter of John Stout White and Eliza Adelade Everett and was born April 9, 1855, at Farmington, Davis County, Utah.

Medora White Call. Photo courtesy of Ancestry.

Her parents were very poor as far as material possessions were concerned, but were rich in devotion, honesty, and love. Medora was taught from early childhood to be thrifty, and she learned how to labor with her hands. When she was only a small child she had to herd the sheep and cows, help cut and thresh the grain, feed and milk the cows, hoe and cultivate the garden, haul hay, and she learned how to keep a clean house and was known for her good cooking.

Medora’s schooling was very limited. She graduated from school when she was in the third reader, but she always loved to read and study. She was known as the life of the party and was very popular with the younger set. She had a very sweet voice, and she learned to step dance and she continued that art throughout her life.[2]

Israel Call rode a mule the seven miles from Farmington to Bountiful while he courted Medora, and they were married December 21, 1874, in the old Endowment House, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In the Spring of 1876, Israel Call and several other families from Bountiful were called by Brigham Young to colonize Sunset, Apache County, Arizona. All their earthly possessions were placed in the covered wagon. They arrived in Sunset in September 1876, after many hardships including crossing over Lee’s Ferry on the Colorado River where wagons had to be dismantled. This was an experience never to be forgotten because Medora’s baby was six months old, and her second son was to come, so the bumping, lurching wagon could have meant nothing but discomfort to her on that hard journey.

Thirty families lived the United Order during the ten years that they lived at Sunset. The Church owned everything they made, and they were given supplies according to their needs. They all ate at the same table. The women took turns cooking. They used open fireplaces to cook on. They appointed men to look after the sheep; some to look after the cattle.

They made a square fort which had two openings. The dining and kitchen space stood in the center of the fort, and the living quarters of the various families formed the walls of the fort. The garden and animal quarters were on the outside.

While at Sunset, five more children were born. The Saints had to have water, so they tried to build a dam. They hauled about fifteen tons of rock, but it wouldn’t hold because there was so much quicksand. Time and again the dams broke. When their son was born, there was no floor or window or door in the log cabin. They used a wagon cover for doors and windows.

In 1885, the Church authorities decided to locate other places for the Saints to live, and they sent Lot Smith and Israel Call to Mexico to find a place. This was the beginning of colonization in Mexico.[3] While he was gone his family suffered severe privations.

In September 1885, Israel Call, his wife, and six children left Sunset for Bountiful, Utah. During their stay in Arizona, Medora had become blind. Apostle George Teasdale came to Sunset at one time and promised Medora that if she would move back to Bountiful that she would regain her eye sight, which she did.[4]

Israel and Medora White Call (left) in Utah with Samantha Evoline Call Mann and Willard Call, half siblings of Israel Call. Photo courtesy of FamilySearch.

Medora was the mother of twelve children. Even with the hard life as a frontierswoman, she was happy and always had a smile on her face. Her house was filled with young people and her Sunday dinner was a must for young and old.

Medora passed away April 20, 1926, and was buried at Bountiful, Utah.[5] In writing about Mormon pioneer women, it must be remembered that for the most part they raised large families, and they did it while their husbands were away on Church assignments. This was true of the Israel Call family.

Vasco, the fourth child in the family, records some interesting items about his mother:

Mother was five feet tall and weighed around 230 pounds. Naturally she suffered with the heat especially when she was pregnant with her twelve children. They were raised in a one room cabin while they lived at Sunset, Arizona, and in two rooms at Bountiful. Their clothes were homespun and their food was homemade, so there was plenty for the women folks to do day by day. While she was blind at Sunset, the children would lead her around when she fed the animals and milked the cow. While at Sunset, Israel brought home a pretty widow with seven children as his second wife and they moved in next door. She would send the children to Winslow four miles away with butter and eggs to exchange for salt and sugar. The shade trees at Bountiful were mulberries and as the mulberries combined with dirt and were brought into the house with many bare feet that too would create a problem.

Israel was an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple for thirty-five years where he was gone every day but Sunday. Someone had to keep the home fires burning and Medora was that one. Surely this mother has received her crown of glory in the celestial world after having lived as she did in the Second Estate.

Ellis and Boone:

The “pretty widow” mentioned by Vasco Call was Jane Lucinda Judd Knight, widow of Joseph Knight. The Knight and Judd families lived at Sunset, under the leadership of Lot Smith, and at Old Taylor. After an illness of six weeks, Joseph Knight, age thirty-eight, died on June 27, 1878, leaving a wife and seven children, ranging in age from twelve years to six months.

On June 11, 1880, Israel married Jane Knight as a plural wife. Israel Call and his two families moved from Sunset to Wilford (Heber) and later to St. Joseph. Israel and Jane had three children born between 1881 and 1885.[6]

Israel and Medora Call left Arizona in 1885 so Medora could receive medical treatment for her eyesight; Jane remained in Arizona. Israel returned to Arizona in January 1886, moved Jane to Taylor, and then returned to Utah in October 1886. As descendent Jackie Solomon wrote in her book about Joseph and Jane Knight, “Whether he [Israel Call] planned to return or told her he would not be back is a part of history we do not know. We do know that she was left with a great responsibility and without a companion.”[7] This return to Utah became a permanent move for Medora. Vasco was apparently the only one of her children who returned to Arizona to live.

Susette Stale Cardon

Unidentified Granddaughter[8]

Maiden Name: Susette Stale/Stalle/Staley

Birth: February 12, 1837; Angrogna, Torino, Italy

Parents: Jean Pierre Stale or John Peter Staley and Jeanne Marie Gaudin (Gaudin-Moise)

Marriage: Louis Philip Cardon; July 10, 1857

Children: Joseph Samuel (1858), Emanuel Philip (1859), Mary Catherine (1861), Louis Paul (1868), Isabelle Susette (1871)

Death: July 18, 1923;[9] Tucson, Pima Co., Arizona

Burial: Binghampton Cemetery, Tucson, Pima Co., Arizona

The Stale and Cardon families lived in the Piedmont Valleys in Prarostino, Torino, Italy. They were descended from the Vaudois or Waldenses [people] who broke away from the Catholic Church and from the twelfth century on were the object of persecution. This group finally settled in these high alpine valleys, where they were subject to many indignities, unjust taxation, kidnappings (especially the children), homes burned, and others, even as late as 1848, when they were permitted to enjoy civil rights and also political, but not religious, freedom.

Susette Stale Cardon. Photo courtesy of FamilySearch.

It is significant that one year after toleration began in these valleys, Lorenzo Snow[10] and others were called at the October Conference in 1849 as missionaries to Italy, and Elders Thomas B. H. Stenhouse[11] and Joseph Toronto[12] were sent where Grandmother and her people lived. When they reached the valleys, there were about twenty-one thousand Protestants and five thousand Catholics.[13]

Jean Pierre Stale, and his wife, Jeanne Marie Gaudin, parents of Susette Stale, were both representatives of old Vaudois families. He, being unusually thrifty and prosperous, was considered well to do and had two homes, one on the sunny southern slope of a beautiful alpine valley where they cultivated grapes, figs, and other fruits, and the other almost straight up in the mountain vastness where they brought their sheep and goats in the summertime. Susette being the oldest child, took the responsibility of one place while her father did the other, thus learning at an early age to be reliable as well as active and efficient.

She was born February 12, 1837, at Angrogna, Torino, Italy, followed by her brother and sisters, Barthelmi Daniel, June 2, 1838, born in Angrogna; and Marie, August 15, 1845; and Marguerite, October 28, 1850 in Prarostino. The home life was thrifty, as they lived almost solely upon their own products—milk, cheese, fruits, grains, and all were utilized. Their bread was much sweeter than ours and was baked by her father, in huge ovens, two or three times a year. Her pets were her cows, which she cared for very carefully.

Susette had a long way to go to church, but she learned her catechism well and could quote long passages from it in her old age. Sunday School was the only school, the Bible was the text, and she was well versed.

When the missionaries came to the Valleys, she would go wherever a meeting was being held, regardless of distance or opposition. They were persecuted for joining the Church, property being destroyed, and the elders mistreated. One night she was at a meeting six miles from home, when a mob came, and she and her companions stood between them and the elders until they could slip away, being threatened by the mob. The family was baptized in 1852–54. Later in 1855, Franklin D. Richards and two companions, missionaries, were hiding from the mob in the high passes of the mountains and had been without food for three days.[14] They came to the Stale home and asked for something to eat. Susette ran out and milked the goats so they could have milk, while her mother prepared food and took care of other wants.

Brother Richards told them the family should go to Zion, but at first it was planned for Susette and her cousin, Madelaine Gaudin, to go first. There was so much bitterness that the father could not dispose of his property. Susette left for Liverpool, but Brother Richards, who realized it would perhaps be the last opportunity for any of the Saints to leave Italy, held the company, until the family “of the Girl who milked the goats” could get ready. Daniel was in the army, and it took some work to get him out to leave. They sailed on the ship John J. Boyd, from Liverpool, December 12, 1855, with about 500 Saints from several countries.[15] Immediately afterward the Italian Mission was closed. From New York they went to Winter Quarters, and then made preparations, and were in the first handcart company.[16]

We all have read of the trials and tribulations of this company. She and her brother Daniel pulled one handcart. She told many times that as it was so heavy, they would wear one set of new clothes until they became dirty, then throw them away. Others picked them up, and she saw a number of her dresses in Salt Lake City. It was a little more difficult, since they did not speak English, and it was hard to understand and be understood.

The father, Jean Pierre Stale, strove to help his family in all ways, even depriving himself of food so that they should eat more. He became ill and died August 17, 1856. The notation in the diary of the first handcart company outlined their day’s travels over sandy roads and several creeks, then “Camp at 4 P.M. on the side of the Platte, opposite Ash Grove. Brother Peter Stale died today. He was from Italy.” He was buried on the plains. Thus another unmarked grave was added to those who gave their all that we might be heirs to the greatest of all life’s blessings, the Priesthood.

The forlorn family traveled on to Zion. Grandmother said she heard people say those who came with the handcart companies spent evenings dancing around the campfires. She seemed to feel that they were tired from the weary miles, although she said they did sing and teach the gospel, reminisce and pray.

They stayed in Salt Lake City only a few days, then accompanied the Cardon family to Ogden, where they made a “dug-out” to live in. The floor was covered with fresh straw every Saturday when they could get it. They made beds and chairs from forked sticks put in the walls and floors, then wove rushes between. Several moves were made as they strove to make a living for the family as it grew up.

Her father had told her before he died that the day would come when they would have plenty, and as she got work, and her mother and brother also, things eased. They later moved to Logan, where Jean Marie Gaudin Stale married Philippe Cardon. Her daughter Marie married Elihu Warren, and Marguerite married Henry Barker.

Susette became accustomed to the strange life and customs in the new world, and her trials and troubles only made her faith and religion dearer. The 24th of July was sacred to her, and took precedence over every other anniversary. In 1857, she married Louis Philip Cardon, who had come to Utah four years earlier, from Prarostino, Torino, Italy. Their first two children, Joseph Samuel, and Emanuel Philip were born in Ogden, Utah. They later moved to Oxford, Oneida, Idaho, where my father, Louis Paul Cardon, was born, March 17, 1868, [and] also a daughter, Isabella Susette, who died when about two years of age.

Again came a call from the Church to move to Arizona and help colonize there. In Arizona the company stopped on the Little Colorado, at Lake’s Camp, called Obed, a few miles south of Allen’s Camp, now called Joseph City. They cleared land and planted crops. Grandfather was a stone mason and bricklayer for the company.

A stone wall was built around the town, and nice buildings were erected. This was about 1875, that the call came from President Brigham Young. Grandfather Cardon had married in plural marriage and persecution was very bitter.

It was another trek after religious peace and into an unknown wilderness. The provisions they took and farm machinery were a great help. Part of the family had married and went with him, although a return trip was made to get the families of their son Joseph. They went to Arizona with the George Lake Company from Salt Lake City, crossing at Lee’s Ferry, and landing in Obed as noted. By the time all were together, Grandfather had decided it was too swampy, so arrangements were made to move to Woodruff. At Obed and Woodruff they lived in the United Order. It called for faith and sacrifices from the Cardons, as they had taken supplies for two years, and had many cattle, but they were willing to share with those less blessed who would have suffered without help.

After two years in Woodruff, the family moved to Taylor where they hoped to make a permanent home. Peace was not here for those of plural marriage, so in 1885, President Taylor advised Grandfather Cardon and his son Joseph, who had married into this order, to go to Old Mexico where the government had no objection to this practice. Now the family was divided. Grandfather and Grandmother Sarah, the son Joseph and his families, and Emanuel and his family went. Father and Grandmother Susette stayed in Taylor. In 1896, her son Louis, was called to Colonia Dublán, Chihuahua, Mexico, to teach in the Church school. Grandmother went with him, another move for her religion, and she joined her husband and the rest of the family there. They arrived there late in August 1897, and lived there until the exodus in 1912, when the Americans in the colonies were driven from their homes to El Paso, Texas. From there they went to Tucson, Arizona where she spent the remaining years of her life. She died July 18, 1923.[17]

Grandmother was very industrious and thrifty. Her family never wanted for food and clothing, although when small she did gather wool from thorns and bushes where sheep had gone through, dyed it, and spun it, then made their clothes. She used wild plants and indigo for coloring and the result was beautiful and durable. She also made blankets, and knitted some of these, as she did other articles of clothing. I remember her showing me her own dresses, up to fifty years old, that looked almost new. She wore these with an air of distinction, not looking old fashioned, but rather more like a Dresden china doll.

She was small, weighed not over a hundred pounds, not over five feet tall, with sparkling black eyes. In her youth her hair was brown. She was just a bundle of energy, with all this energy put into her work of the Church, which she held dear all her life, and also into the care of her family.

Susette Stale Cardon. Photo courtesy of Ancestry.

She always had meats, vegetables, and fruits preserved but the strawberry was her specialty. She made a great deal of money in Idaho during the berry season from her small patch, serving strawberries and cream to the public. Again in Arizona she had her berries, and many a basket was given to those who had not, though she admired thrift in taking care of what one had. She dried great quantities, and took them with her on her journeys. When she left Mexico, she took some with her that had been dried in Idaho forty years before. The Economics Department of the University of Arizona asked for a sample of them. They said they had never heard of dried strawberries, much less of them being preserved to that age in a moth-infested country like Arizona and Mexico. They were still edible, but required airing away from the mothballs. A special treat in my childhood was some of her strawberry jam on pancakes.

Grandfather Cardon died in Mexico April 9, 1911, and when we were driven out, she [Grandmother] had accumulated quite a bit of property and money invested in the Union Mercantile store, which she lost. However, she showed her faith, even in leaving, since she had so many things in her home, and they could not be taken with her. Father told her he would take them and bury them, so maybe the rebels would not find them. Many people did this for the things that would not rot, and asked her why she did not. She replied simply, “No. They will not touch my things.”

Our home, being a large one, was stripped of all valuables, but when the first war storm had passed over, Joseph Elmer Cardon, her nephew, went back to Mexico to see if anything could be salvaged. He returned with a wagon load of her trunks of clothing, bed and table linen, and quantities of dried and preserved fruit. Her house, although unlocked, looked as though it had never been entered.

She loved the scriptures, and the hymns of the Church. After she came to America, President John Taylor gave her a hymn book written in French, and she obtained a Book of Mormon in French. She prized these very highly. Of course she had her childhood Bible also in French, and she read these all her life. She said she could understand her Bible so much better after reading the Book of Mormon.

Trials, like the song says, made her faith grow stronger, and her life was an inspiration to all who knew her.[18] She died July 18, 1923, age eighty-six, and was buried in the Binghampton Cemetery, just out of Tucson, Pima Co., Arizona.

The day she died she walked the short distance from her little home to our place, and stayed laughing and joking with my sister Florence and I. She ate dinner with us when the family came in. After the others left she laughed at us and told us how differently girls acted in her day, and dressed, also danced, and demonstrated the difference by dramatization until she was out of breath. After she had rested a few moments she started for home. She was still laughing but swayed slightly and caught the door frame to steady herself. We helped her to the bed, and my sister went after Father, Louis Paul, as we could see it was serious when she began to talk French and couldn’t remember her English. In a few hours it was over, so her wish never to be a burden on her loved ones came true. She was praying in French, her childhood language, and when the shadows of life’s evening closed she prayed as she did at the close of day, every day of her life, aloud in French, before going to rest, to arise refreshed to meet the dawning of another glorious morning, only this next arising the shadows will be dispelled throughout eternity.

Ellis and Boone:

When William Mulder was writing about Scandinavian immigration to Zion, he devoted one chapter to spoken language. He wrote, “For the Mormon immigrant, the break with the Old World was a compound fracture, a break with the old church and with the old country. . . . The new church was an American church interested in unifying the brotherhood, not in perpetuating backward-glancing cultural differences. . . . It is not surprising that in Utah the mother tongue died out quickly. . . . Elsewhere in the United States, in communities of Scandinavian and German Lutherans, for example, the church as part of the old Establishment performed an exactly opposite function: it strengthened ties with the homeland; it was a flame keeping warm the old language, the old faith, and the old customs through religious services and newspapers and denominational schools in the mother tongue.”[19] In Utah, English became the uniting language, both in congregations and in marriages where the partners were sometimes from different countries.

But this did not mean that immigrants forgot their native languages. As was noted for Cardon, she treasured her French scriptures and usually read them rather than an English version. She loved her French hymnbook and said her prayers each night in French. Finally, in the last hours of her life, she was speaking exclusively in the language of her childhood. Susette Cardon brought a little of the French language to Arizona when she made it her home after leaving Mexico.

Hannah Christina Bjorkman Chlarson

Albert Chlarson

Maiden Name: Hannah Christina Bjorkman

Birth: October 22, 1850; Malmaland, Sweden

Parents: John Gabriel Bjorkman[20] and Anna Christine Hanson

Marriage: Hans Nadrian Chlarson (or Nilsson);[21] January 17, 1884

Children: Frank (1884), Albert (1886)

Death: December 7, 1932; Tempe, Maricopa Co., Arizona

Burial: Thatcher, Graham Co., Arizona

My mother, Hannah Christina Bjorkman, was born in Malmaland, Sweden, on October 22, 1850. She was raised in the Lutheran faith until she was twenty-six years old, at that time she met the Latter-day Saint missionaries and heard their message; she was converted and joined the Church. Her family, friends, and even her sweetheart turned against her; she was cast out and disowned.

In 1880 she emigrated to the United States and then came out to Utah. She met and married, Hans Nadrian Chlarson, in January 1884. Two children were born to this union, Frank on December 26, 1884, and Albert on October 29, 1886. They came to Arizona in 1886 where my father engaged in farming for a time, then he went into the saw mill business.

My mother remained faithful to her church throughout her life. At one time her bishop said of her that she was one of the most faithful tithe payers in the ward. She was a Relief Society teacher and attended Relief Society regularly. She never heard from her folks or friends. She passed away at my home on December 7, 1932, at the age of eighty-two. At that time we were living in Tempe, Arizona. We laid her to rest in Thatcher.

When I was a young man, we lived close to President Andrew Kimball, Spencer Kimball’s father.[22] My mother and I were coming home one evening just about dark. Spencer was milking the cows and singing at the top of his voice. My mother stopped dead still for a few seconds and then she said, “That boy will one day be an Apostle of the Lord.” We walked perhaps twenty feet farther, she stopped again, this time she seemed to be out of breath. She raised both her hands and looked up and said, “Yea! And he might even live to lead this Church.”

Ellis and Boone:

It is significant that Albert Chlarson chose to emphasize the story about Spencer W. Kimball when writing about his mother. The citizens of the Gila Valley, and indeed all of Arizona, were thrilled to have an Arizonan Apostle and later President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Evan Tye Peterson, when writing about the history of the Mesa Arizona Temple, said:

For many Arizona natives who are members of the Church President Kimball is one of their own, the first Arizonan to serve as President of the Church. Arizonans always claimed him and he always claimed them. However, more realistically, in his inspired perspective, he was a prophet for all regardless of their geographic allegiances. In point of fact, he was born in Salt Lake City and did not come to Thatcher, Arizona, until he was three years of age. When he was called to the apostleship, at the age of forty-eight, he moved to Utah. Yet he retained his love for Arizona. One General Authority, a person who was reared in Arizona, once asked him if it would be possible for him to fill his Church assignment and live in Arizona. President Kimball’s answer was, “If that were possible, I would be the first to go.”[23]

Hans Chlarson was a polygamist. His household in the 1880 census in Utah consisted of four wives and eleven children, but not all of his wives permanently located in Arizona. Christina was his fifth wife. By 1910, Hans and three of his wives lived in Thatcher. Each wife lived separately, and Christina lived only a few doors down from Spencer W. Kimball.

The 1910 Old Folks Party photograph, W. W. Pace Home; front row, left to right: Ann Pace, Celia Chlarson, Phebe Fife, Hannah Chlarson, Samuel Claridge, Rebecca Claridge, Lora Ann Brown, Harriet and Marion Montierth; back row: Mrs. H. H. Romney, Elizabeth Pace, Cynthia Layton, Mary Ann Hoopes, Erastus and Julia Carpenter, Ella Brinkerhoff, Emma B. Coleman, Maud Callison, Christina Chlarson, Isaac Robinson, Laura Barney, Katherine Pace, Louise Hamblin, Sarah Jane Lewis, Erastus and Maria Wakefield; child in front: Roy Pace. Photo courtesy of Graham County Historical Society.

In the census records, Hans Chlarson gradually changed from listing his occupation as photographer (1870), to artist and farmer (1880), and sawmill owner (1900), with five of his sons working as loggers or in the mill.[24] In early Arizona history, the name Chlarson is synonymous with sawmilling. Hans’s son Hyrum first moved the Chlarson sawmill to Crooks Canyon, two times further up the mountain, and finally moved it to Show Low.[25]

To summarize Christina Chlarson’s life, however, this 1927 description of her comes via Ryder Ridgway. In 1977, he wrote a newspaper column which described a 1910 photograph from Thatcher: “From the goodness of their hearts and over a period of many years, Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Pace would invite Thatcher area pioneers into their home for heartwarming reunions. Over tables piled high with delicious foods the oldsters would reminisce about days of yore, sing songs of yesterday [and] among other things, have their likenesses recorded for posterity.” Earlier, in 1927, W. W. Pace had sent the 1910 photograph to the Arizona Republican and described each person. Of Christina Chlarson, he wrote, “Next, Christina Chlarson, who still lives and is as energetic as a woman of half her age. She really has made two blades of grass grow where none grew before, one of the most energetic, industrious women we have ever known.”[26]

Julia Ann Holladay Clark

Unidentified Descendant

Maiden Name: Julia Ann Holladay

Birth: January 4, 1862; Spring Lake, Utah Co., Utah

Parents: Thomas Wiley Middleton Holladay and Ann Horton Matthews[27]

Marriage: William Ashby Clark; January 21, 1878

Children: William Thomas (1879), George Wiley (1882), Minnie Ann (1883), Edward Watkins (1886), Maud Elizabeth (1889), Delbert Ashby (1893), Nevert Leroy (1894), Lois Julia (1896), Elora Phoebe (1900), Vernal Hollis (1902), Millie May (1905)

Death: August 1, 1926; Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., California

Burial: Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, Los Angeles Co., California

Julia Ann Holladay was born January 4, 1862, the fourth child of Thomas Wiley Middleton Holladay, born September 2, 1836, in Marion County, Alabama, and Ann Horton Matthews born December 15, 1838, daughter of Joseph Lazarus Matthews and Rhoda Carroll.

Julia Ann’s father came into Salt Lake Valley a boy of eleven years, with his parents, John Holladay and Catherine Beasley Higgins, six sisters and three brothers. They settled on Cottonwood Creek, which became Holladay, Utah. He had the honor of bringing the first forty pounds of turkey hard wheat for seed from which all the mountain states have obtained their seed.[28] These people were converts from Alabama and arrived in Salt Lake Valley a few days after Brigham Young’s first company.

Julia Ann’s grandfather, Joseph Lazarus Matthews, was one of Brigham Young’s scouts who preceded him into Salt Lake Valley by two days. The company with Brigham Young arrived July 24, 1847. He [Joseph] left his wife, Rhoda Carroll, and three little girls at Winter Quarters with the Saints (Mormons). He, with others including Brigham Young, returned to Winter Quarters and brought their families [west] in 1848.[29] His name is on the “This is the Place” Monument, built to honor the first Pioneers of Utah.

Both of Julia Ann’s grandparents, John Holladay and Joseph Matthews, were called, with other Saints, by Brigham Young to settle San Bernardino, California, in 1851. This was known as the “Charles C. Rich and Amasa Lyman Company.”[30] Thomas Wiley Middleton Holladay and Ann Horton Matthews were young people and married in San Bernardino April 1, 1856, a year before the Saints were called from there back to Utah by Brigham Young due to troubles of the Mountain Meadow Massacre and other reasons.[31]

On returning from San Bernardino these families settled in Santaquin, Utah County, Utah. Julia Ann was born in Spring Lake near Santaquin. Here she grew up as a child, suffering the trials and hardships of pioneer life. Being a “good worker,” she learned to knit stockings when very young. At the age of ten she was invited to the grownup quilting bees “because she was a good little quilter.” Later in life she quilted at Relief Society and taught her daughters and others the art. She was a good cook, making the best mince pies, head cheese, biscuits, etc., and at church socials and picnic dinners her pies and homemade bread were always welcomed.[32]

Nursing was her second nature, and she was happy relieving others of their aches and pains. A dreadful thing happened when she was about twelve years old. Her little sister, Henrietta Caroline, started to build a fire in the kitchen stove with coal oil. It exploded and burned her severely. Her mother, who was in bed with a tiny baby, hurriedly rushed in with her bed clothing and smothered out the fire and saved the child. Julia Ann heard the screams and came running. Her mother’s hands were so badly burned that for weeks she had to assist her mother by taking out her breast for the baby to nurse. Henrietta’s hands and face were scarred and to protect her poor burned eyes she wore a bonnet always. She lived to be the mother of thirteen children and was a favorite of her loved ones.

One of the neighbors of the Holladay family in Santaquin was the Edward Watkins Clark family who came to the Valley in 1852. They were converts to the Latter-day Saint Church in England in 1847. He [Edward] was born June 6, 1820, in Pattingham, Staffordshire, son of James Clark and Phoebe Ransford. His wife, Lucy Ashby, was born December 14, 1818, in Millend Harts, England, daughter of William Ashby and Elizabeth Grimsdale. They, Edward Watkins and Lucy Ashby Clark, settled first in Provo where their son, William Ashby Clark, was born May 1, 1855. Their old home is still standing in Santaquin (1958) where Julia Ann and William Ashby had their courtship.

Julia Ann Holladay Clark. Photo courtesy of Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society, Pima.

She said he used to haul her around the streets in a little red wagon when she was a little tot. He was seven years older than she. He grew up and worked with the cattle up in Montana, later coming back home and falling in love with her. William’s parents are buried in Santaquin and Julia Ann’s parents are buried in Pima, Arizona, but her grandparents, John D. Holladay and Catherine Beasley Higgins, are buried out from Santaquin on their original acreage of 640 acres that they had for their farm and home.

William and Julia Ann’s first child, William Thomas, was born April 26, 1879, in Payson, Utah. They went to Salt Lake City and were sealed for time and eternity in the old Endowment House September 18, 1879. Soon after this, they joined the company that was called by the Church Authorities to settle in Gila Valley, Arizona. Her grandfather, Joseph Matthews’ family, her father and mother, and all her brothers and sisters, save one (George Holladay, who married Alveretta Jones and remained in Salt Lake City) went to Arizona.

These families were experienced pioneers, but with their oxen, horses, cattle, covered wagons, and supplies, they experienced many hardships traveling through southern Utah and northern Arizona. They had to carry water for themselves and cattle and horses. It took them three months to complete the journey. They had to ford the Colorado River. Even at this time, Indians were hostile, and fear of them was constantly on their minds, especially Julia Ann with her young baby. She always said she started to Arizona with her baby and an old iron stove in the wagon.

These families settled along the Gila River in Graham County, Arizona, first at Smithville, later called Pima, almost in the shadows of Mount Graham. The Matthews families and others settled down the valley a few miles and named the place Matthewsville, later changed to Glenbar. Anyone raised in the Gila Valley knows how high, wide, and handsome the mesquite trees grow. Here at Smithville the people all got their water from the town well in the midst of these mesquites. It was raw land indeed. Here everyone came for water for home use and to water their stock and to exchange news. They had what they called “lizard trails” from their camp to the well. The “lizard” being a green forked mesquite limb on which were fastened their water barrels with rawhide thongs. They pulled this limb with a horse. Julia Ann rode with her baby many times on the lizard to meet her neighbors at the well and obtain drinking water.

The town Smithville, later Pima, after the Pima Indians, was patterned after Salt Lake City—wide streets, big blocks, and large lots for each family. The men drew their lots for their home place. The fields were out by the river where they could obtain irrigation water.

The hardships of these dear Pioneers were many, hewing down mesquites, clearing the sagebrush, making dams in the old Gila River, and digging long canals to carry the precious water to their small farms. About the time they got a good dam built, with water coming and growing crops, the river would go on a rampage from hard rains in the mountains and wash out the dam, change its course, and leave some poor farmers with acreless land which became worthless river bottom.

Shortly after their son George Wiley was born February 18, 1882, in Pima, Julia Ann and William Ashby sold their home in Pima and moved with their family to a homestead on the north side of the river across from Matthewsville. Their first home was a one-room adobe house, the roof being built of limbs and dirt. An additional room was constructed of willows and mud, built Indian style with dirt floor. Julia Ann prided herself in keeping these dirt floors hard with water and swept them daily. Here she lived and gave birth to Minnie Ann, born November 8, 1883; Edward Watkins, born March 10, 1886; Maud Elizabeth, born January 5, 1889; two boys, Nevert Leroy and Delbert Ashby, who died in infancy; and Lois Julia, born November 28, 1896, also born in this pioneer home.

During this time on the farm in Eden, Arizona, they raised many cattle, hogs, and grain crops—wheat, corn, sorghum cane, and vegetables. In the winter time, William worked with his teams and wagon, freighting from the end of the railroad in Bowie to the copper mines in Globe, Arizona. This was very dangerous, due to the hostility of the Indians. It was a constant worry to Julia Ann when William was away. Many Indians were killed by these freighters in these days.[33] Once they got a wagon full of ladies’ hats and scattered them all over the desert.

All the people who lived in Eden had to haul their drinking water from a clear cool spring some five miles out in the hills. They used the river or canal water for other purposes and to clear it, stirred it up with long sticks and put a beaten egg in it. Julia Ann also made her lye for soap from wood ashes. She colored flour sacks for children’s clothing and quilt linings with chaparral or sour dock roots. The children would gather wild sour dock in the spring for “rhubarb pies.” She was very proud of her bed ticks which she stuffed with the finest of corn shucks, saved while the family shucked corn for the hogs. She made beautiful white pillow shams and bed spreads embroidered in red thread.

Before 1900, William built them a lovely new brick home on the homestead. Julia Ann busied herself in making new homemade carpets from the children’s old clothes. Here her family enjoyed candy pulling parties, pets like a young fawn, and a black dog named Rover. Here two more children came to bless her home: Elora Phoebe, born February 14, 1900, and Vernal Hollis, born June 10, 1902. Her daughter Minnie Ann attended the Gila Academy, being one of the first students to attend after it was built in Thatcher, Arizona. While living here, her daughter Minnie was married and gave her two lovely grandchildren—a boy and a girl. The girl died, bringing grief to all.[34]

About 1903 William had begun prospecting. His land was all washed away by the river and the brick house was about three hundred feet from the river bed. He decided to move his family onto a rented farm in Fort Thomas. Here he did a lot of good farming. Here their last baby girl, Millie May, and their eleventh child was born April 29, 1905. She proved to be a great comfort to her mother in later years. While living here, their daughter Minnie died of typhoid and pneumonia in Pima, leaving her son to be raised by his father. He was buried in the river bank in a cave in—his neck was broken and when they found him he was dead.[35]

From Fort Thomas they moved to Eden again, but the river washed within a few feet of the house. At this time William sold one of his mining properties, the “Cobra Grande,” for enough money to buy a new house and farm in Pima. The entire family was joyous to make the move. They gave the Eden brick house to the Church and a tithing office was constructed of the brick. Julia Ann was especially happy because her mother and sisters were there. She always entertained the folks from across the river like they were her own when they were caught on her side of the high river. Here her family lived and were happy. Her daughter Maud married and after two children were born, came home to have her third while she worked. Her mother cared for the little ones, and they were like sisters and brothers to Julia Ann’s younger children.

World War I came and at that time Julia Ann had many problems of nursing whole families with the flu during the epidemic. Her own family all took a turn, and she kept going day and night. Her children were taught prayer by her. She seemed to breathe a prayer. She had a firm testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and always went to Church with her family and taught them to walk uprightly before the Lord. She was honored and loved dearly by her husband and children. She saved Sunday eggs for the building of the Arizona Temple[36], lived to see it built, but was very disappointed in not being able to attend the dedication.[37]

Her girls at home all attended the Gila Academy and received religious training there. Her daughter Julia married and moved to California. Elora finished school and taught many years in the Gila Valley and in Tucson. After Elora married, Millie went to Tucson to live with her. Julia Ann and William were homesick for their children so they sold the old home in Pima and moved to Los Angeles, California about 1923. They built themselves a nice house there within a few blocks of their daughter Julia. Her husband and Vernal and Millie helped them. They worked faithfully in the Church in Belvedere Gardens. They were all active in the Church and helped build the first church house of Belvedere Ward. This was the first ward in all of the mission of California.[38]

They enjoyed their lovely garden of vegetables and flowers. She [Julia Ann] had always wanted beautiful flowers. She enjoyed her grandchildren there and also visits from Elora and her baby from Tucson. Her sister Nora and other relatives lived there, and she was so in love with life. She got ill, and after a year’s time of serious illness, she grieved because she knew she had to leave us. Her baby girl, Millie, was not married at this time. Her son Vernal was the last to talk to her at midnight. She died August 1, 1926, and was buried among the beautiful flowers, at her request, in Inglewood Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

Ellis and Boone:

William and Julia Clark’s move to California in 1923 was typical of many Arizonans. Although a few Latter-day Saints lived in California earlier, growth of the Church in California did not really begin until Joseph E. Robinson became president of the California Mission in 1901. After the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the mission home was changed from San Francisco to Los Angeles, where there were more members and a direct rail service to Utah.[39] Those portions of Arizona that were not part of a stake became part of the California Mission, meaning Tucson and sometimes St. David. President Robinson traveled to Arizona and organized the Binghampton Branch on May 22, 1910, and the branch at Pomerene on March 9, 1911; when Robinson came to Arizona, he would play the piano, sing, and speak. Originally, residents of Pomerene wanted their town named “Robinson,” but this was rejected by the post office.[40] While Robinson was mission president, the Adams Branch in Los Angeles was organized and the Adams Branch chapel (next to the mission home) was dedicated on May 4, 1913.

After eighteen years of service, Joseph Robinson was released, and Joseph W. McMurrin became president of the California Mission. As a young man, McMurrin had lived for a time in the Little Colorado River communities, so he was known to many in Arizona. He immediately began working toward having wards and stakes in California, and on January 21, 1923, the Los Angeles Stake was created and the Adams Ward organized on March 11. Within a year, twelve other wards were created in southern California, including the Belvedere Ward. Four years later, the stake’s membership had doubled and a second stake was created.[41]

Richard Cowan and William Homer wrote that “consistent with the Church’s progressive attitude [during the early part of the twentieth century], leaders continued to send clear signals that settlement in California would not only be condoned but encouraged.” Arizona pioneers moved to California a few at a time as it became obvious that many of the Mormon farming communities simply could not support the natural growth of large families.[42] In addition, after World War I Arizona’s farming and ranching economy struggled with drought and little market for cotton.[43] Cowan and Homer thought that Church members in general came to California for “advanced education, a mild climate, an interesting and stimulating culture, and the comparatively favorable salaries and working conditions.”[44] As demonstrated by the fact that some of William and Julia Clark’s children move to California first and then William and Julia followed in 1923, often family members simply wanted to be with loved ones. Many of Arizona’s pioneers eventually became modern pioneers to California.

Harriet Ann Bean Cluff

Author Unknown

Maiden Name: Harriett Ann Bean

Birth: May 31, 1855; Provo, Utah Co., Utah

Parents: James Addison Bean and Harriet Catherine Fausett

Marriage: Orson Cluff; December 30, 1872

Children: Orson Leroy (1873), Abbie Nina (1875), Harvey Milton (1877), William Fairington (1879), James Addison (1882), Margaret Hilda (1885), George Leo (1887), Hattie Mae (1890), twins Vera and Vella (1894), Eva Irene (1895)

Death: April 16, 1931; Pima, Graham Co., Arizona

Burial: Pima, Graham Co., Arizona

James Addison Bean and his wife, Harriet Catherine Fausett, had been in their new home, the town of Provo, Utah, for a short while and were working hard to get the farm and orchard developed. In the spring of 1855 a new daughter, Harriet Ann made her appearance on May 31. She spent her childhood in the shadow of the beloved Timpanogos mountain, growing in body, mind, and spirit, next oldest to five sisters and six brothers.

In her youth she learned the art of spinning, weaving, and knitting, and used these arts in helping her mother make clothing for the younger children. She also learned to make candles and to make soap from the scraps of fat not used for food. She was a good cook and learned to make delicious dishes from the materials they had. One winter before the sugar factories were brought into that valley, sugar and honey were scarce, but they had had a bounteous harvest of squash. Freezing the squash turned the liquid very sweet, so she and her mother cut squashes and put them out on the snow to freeze. Then they put them in pans in the house to thaw. The juice which drained from them was boiled down to a syrup, and this was used to sweeten their pies, to make pumpkin butter which was used as a spread for their bread, and to make other desserts.

Harriet Ann Bean Cluff. Photo courtesy of FamilySearch.

Her father later raised delicious fruits and Hattie, as she was lovingly called, learned methods of preserving a supply for use through the long cold winters. Apples and peaches were dried; hams and bacon were smoked and hung in the smoke house. Beef and venison were scalded and dried into jerky (strips of flavorful dried meats which kept through warm or cold weather).

President Young had seen to it that Provo had schools established, and Hattie attended whenever she was free from home duties. She loved to recite poetry and give readings. This was an art often used for public entertainment in those days when people had to provide all of the pastime activities and social performances.

Dancing parties and candy pulls were popular among the young folks. Among her acquaintances was a young man who also delighted in giving dramatic readings, and who excelled in dramatics and took part in all the plays. He was a neighbor, Orson Cluff. These two found enjoyment in their mutual interest and soon fell in love. They were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on December 30, 1872.

Hattie kept busy for months before her wedding working on her trousseau. She spun the thread and wove the cloth for her linens and house dresses, and made quilts from the scraps. The cloth for her wedding dress and temple clothes was purchased from the store in the city.

After their marriage the young couple moved to Coleville where Orson found employment. The house that they moved into was infested with bedbugs, and they could hardly sleep. Since there were no known poisons for pests in those days Orson stretched a sheet above the bed. As the bugs came out of hiding they fell onto the sheet, and by this means he was able to do away with many of the miserable pests. So they were able to get a little sleep. The next day Hattie went over the house and filled in all the holes that she could find, and lighted a caustic stick which she let burn all day. That got rid of the bedbugs for the remainder of the time that they lived in that house.[45]

They moved back to Provo soon after their first born, Orson Leroy, was born. While here two more children came to bless their home, Abbie Nina and Harvey Milton. There was a call from President Young for young couples to help settle the wild new Arizona territory. Orson moved his little family to a small community of Forestdale which was a few miles west of Show Low camp. There were many wild animals, deer, porcupines, skunks, etc., which ate on their crops. Wild [mountain] lions and panthers sometimes frightened their cattle and horses. And the Apache Indians were not friendly. They were near the reservation line. The Indians pestered them a lot hoping to drive them to move out of the area.

The house had no windows in the openings, and Hattie was frightened of Indians since there had been wagon trains burned by these marauders. One day the horses wandered off. Orson went out to follow their tracks, which led to Show Low camp.

He asked a neighbor boy to go over to stay with Hattie until he returned. But the boy did not come so Hattie hung quilts up to the openings and pulled the cupboard in front of the door and stacked trunks and boxes filled with goods against the openings, then walked the floor all night listening to the prowlers outside with fear of being molested any minute.

After dark came upon Orson, he was quite certain that his team had gone back to the Show Low ranch, where they had been accustomed to being, so he continued to walk along the trail through the thick timber over the hills. As he walked he could hear the pat of steps behind him. When he became very nervous he stopped, turned, and lighted a match and the light reflected into two large yellow eyes. Having no gun or knife with him he was forced to travel on. The animal continued to follow him right up to the door of his relatives who lived at the ranch. The next day they saw many very large cat tracks in the door yard.

Cluff family about 1923; (adults form left) Harriet Ann Bean Cluff, Merintha Loveridge Cluff (second wife), Orson Cluf, Mary E. W. Cluff Haymore (widow of Harriet's son, Orson LeRoy), Orson LeRoy Cluff Jr., and his wife Helen Loving Cluff; (children from left) Ellen Haymore (youngest daughter of Mary Wilson Cluff Haymore), Rose, Ivan, and baby Harold (children of LeRoy and Helen). Photo courtesy of Ron Haymore.

When the government moved the reservation lines out, which included Forestdale in the Indian reserve, the Cluffs and their neighbors, the Wests, Adams, Lundquists, Farleys, Frisbys and Nuttalls, were forced to go elsewhere to make their homes.[46] Most of them decided to go into the Gila Valley. They were followed for the first few days by a band of Apache braves. Under these trying circumstances, they felt very humble and solicited the Lord’s protection on their travels. After making camp and settling the children in their beds, the men built a big bonfire. They sang and told stories, and before retiring one of the men was asked to pray; he stood beside the fire, raised his arms to the heavens (as preachers used to do), and asked the Lord to protect them from the Apache molestations. The Indians slinked off into the night and the travelers went in peace.

About thirty years later one of the men, who knew of this incident, related it to an old Indian friend. The old man told him that he was one of the young braves who was following the Mormons, and when they saw the man talk to the Great Spirit, they left not wanting to interfere.

As her family married and began to have families of their own, Hattie’s heart was made sad by the early death of her oldest son Leroy, whose first child was but three years old.[47] A few short years later her oldest daughter, Nina, passed away with pneumonia leaving five young children.[48]

Harriet Ann Bean and Orson Cluff in her garden (note trellis for beans) at "Grandma Cluff's house" in Pima. Photo courtesy of Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society, Pima.

Hattie took the younger boy, Hartley, who was three years old, and with her daughter Eva went back to Utah to care for her aged father in his last days.[49] Through all her trials and sorrow, Hattie remained faithful and true to her faith.

After her father passed away she and Eva went to Pima, Arizona, and made their home. Eva married Wallace Taylor of that town, and they built a home next to her mother so Hattie enjoyed this family of grandchildren; though the others lived some distance away, she visited them periodically.

Loved by all her neighbors and friends, she [Hattie] passed away April 16, 1931, at Pima.

Ellis and Boone:

This sketch for Harriet Ann Bean Cluff includes very little information about her life after coming to Arizona, which also included living in Mexico. Orson Cluff married a second wife, Merintha Altheria Loveridge, in 1890 at Colonia Juárez, Mexico. She was twenty years younger than Harriet, and both Harriet and Merintha had children born in Mexico. The Cluff family also lived at Colonia Garcia.

After leaving Mexico during the revolutionary unrest of 1912, the Cluff family lived for some time in Utah; the last child of Orson and Merintha was born in November 1912 in Salt Lake City, and Harriet’s mother died in Provo that same month. By 1920, Harriet was living in Pima with her son James Addison and his family; Orson and Merintha cannot be located and so are assumed to be living in Mexico at that time. By 1930, Orson and Merintha were living at Alma, Maricopa County, and Harriet was living alone in Pima. In 1931, Harriet died and was buried in Pima; on her death certificate she is listed as a widow. Orson died two years later and was buried in the Mesa Cemetery. Merintha lived another twenty years and is also buried in Mesa.

With Harriet living in Pima (Graham County) and Merintha living in Alma (Maricopa County), the Orson Cluff family illustrates one of the choices polygamists made to live separately after coming out of Mexico. It was common for a woman to report herself a widow in federal censuses (even though her husband was still alive) if they were not living together. Nevertheless, these two informal photographs from the 1920s illustrate that Harriet and Orson Cluff maintained some contact during this period.

Louisa Gulbrandsen Cross

Author Unknown[50]

Maiden Name: Louisa Gulbrandsen[51]

Birth: November 27, 1850; Asser Precinct, Christiana, Norway

Parents: Hans Gulbrandsen and Ellen Poulsen

Marriage: David Eugene Cross; February 28, 1870

Children: William Benjamin (1870), Mary Ellen (1873), Florence Pearl (1875), Cora Louise (1877)

Death: March 24, 1936; Snowflake, Navajo Co., Arizona

Burial: Snowflake, Navajo Co., Arizona

Louisa was born November 27, 1850, in Asker, Norway, the daughter of Hans Gulbrandsen and Ellen Poulsen. She had two sisters and one brother: Paulina Augusta, Mathia, and Bernhard, but only Paulina (Lena) Coombs lived to adulthood.

Her mother died in 1858, and then her father married Anna Marie Andersen.[52] The family embraced the gospel in 1860, and in May of 1863, they set sail for America in the ship Excellent No. 12 arriving in New York, the latter part of June. They were about six weeks on the water.

She [Louisa] was terribly seasick and, in trying to get to the railing one day, a man stepped in front of her and she spewed down the front of his fancy white shirt. They crossed the Plains with ox carts in Captain Nebeker’s Company, arriving in American Fork, Utah, in October 1863.

On February 28, 1869, she was married to David Eugene Cross in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City by Daniel H. Wells.[53] She would not marry anyone outside the Church, so he joined it to get her. They moved to Fountain Green, Utah, where three children were born to them; William Benjamin, Mary Ellen (Nellie) and Florence Pearl.

In 1875 they moved to Freeport, Illinois where another little girl, Cora, was born. David became conductor on the C[hicago,] M[ilwaukee], and St. Paul Railroad. They had a lovely home with imported carpets, oil paintings, marble topped furniture, a black walnut piano, etc. Everything was the very best, but he forced her and the children to leave their church and join his—the Lutheran Church.[54]

One morning in March 1885, he left home on his regular run on the railroad but failed to return. He completely disappeared. She advertised in the papers and wrote to old friends every where but could find no trace of him, and meanwhile, his brother Charles was helping to support the family. [55] She finally sold her home and furnishings, all but a few choice paintings and the piano, and went west to Woodruff, Arizona where her father and step-mother lived.

She settled her little family in one room of the old adobe fort with her father to keep an eye on them and went to Holbrook to find work to support them. The fort leaked so badly their clothes, bedding, and piano were nearly ruined, and the citizens of Woodruff refused to associate with the new “gentile” family from the city.

Louisa Gulbrandsen Cross with her children just before leaving Freeport, Illinois in 1886. Children standing: Mary Ellen (Nellie) and Bill; seated: Pearl (left) and Cora. Photo courtesy of the Ellis Collection.

Conditions got so bad for her children that Louisa went back there and moved them into a “rock” house she rented. She then went back to Holbrook where she worked in hotels or took in washing—anything to make an honest living. The Woodruff people still mistreated the youngsters, so they were all re-baptized into the Church. A few months later, they decided they needed a new church building; instead of going to the hills for the rock, the townspeople put the Cross children out of their house and tore it down.

The mail driver took the news to Louisa so she returned in the night on the buckboard to see for herself. She went to the bishop and told him what she thought of him and predicted the building would never be finished. As late as 1909, the foundation still lay unfinished.

She took her family away from Woodruff at that time and boarded them with other LDS families. Will went to Holbrook and Pinetop to work; Nellie lived with and worked for the Albert Minnerlys in Snowflake; Pearl lived with Mr. and Mrs. Joe Bargeman in Holbrook and then with a school teacher named Webb; and Cora with Bishop James Owens of Woodruff and later his son Clark Owens, until the children all married one by one.[56]

Louisa continued to work in Holbrook in the winter time, but in the summer she would go from one daughter’s home to the other and sew carpet rags, piece quilts, and make soap.

In spite of working hard, she enjoyed life. She had a jolly, sunny disposition and was always ready to laugh or to dance. Most of the cowboys in the country would tell you that she taught them how to dance.

When the Clarks gave up the Hotel where Louisa worked, they insisted she make her home with them, which she did, until Mrs. Clark passed away. Louisa then lived with Nellie’s family in Snowflake until long after Nellie’s death in 1927, when she moved to Joseph City and lived with Cora.

When Pearl returned to Snowflake from Oregon, she took care of her mother until she [Louisa] passed away March 24, 1936. She would have been eighty-six years old had she lived until November of that year.

Ellis and Boone:

Information in this sketch may be more problematic than any other sketch in PWA, but the errors did not come from Clayton. She received this sketch from Louisa’s granddaughter, Hattie Miller, after most of the book was typed.[57] Therefore, it is found at the end of the book rather than in alphabetical order.

This story of Louisa’s life is a sanitized version written for grandchildren and the general public.[58] Adults in the family often discussed other versions among themselves. During his lifetime, David Cross sometimes lied about his age and used several different aliases. When he and Louisa were married in the Endowment House, he was using the name of Bradley Wellington Wilson because he had deserted from the army in Utah.[59] After moving his family back to Illinois, he deserted them and assumed the name of David Robert White.[60]

Louisa Gulbrandsen Cross, about 1920, at the home of her daughter Nellie Hunt in Snowflake. Photo courtesy of Ruby Gibson Collection, Catherine H. Ellis.

This sketch illustrates many of the problems common in historical and genealogical research. Misinformation about the immigrant trip to Utah may have arisen from Norwegian-English language problems. Hans Gulbrandsen was a watchmaker and borrowed $376 from the Perpetual Emigrating Fund to finance the trip. The family may have traveled from Oslo to Liverpool on a Swedish steamship, the Excellencen Toll, but they crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the packet ship Antarctic arriving at Castle Garden, New York, on July 10, 1863. Then they traveled by train from New York City to Florence, Nebraska, and became part of the Peter Nebeker wagon company. This was the Fourth Church Train in 1863; the company left Nebraska on July 25 and arrived in Salt Lake City on September 24.[61]

Eventually, Louisa, believing she was a widow, applied for a pension based on David’s military service (Civil War and service in Utah). She first applied in 1908, was rejected because she could not prove David’s death, and then reapplied in 1923 after the pension laws were liberalized. Many of the unsavory aspects of David’s life surfaced during the application process, but papers in the file (covering fifteen years) show that Louisa was held in high esteem by people from Arizona, Utah, Nebraska, and Illinois. Even the pension examiners considered her deserving, although at first they questioned whether or not she was telling the truth. In 1923, the special examiner wrote, “I am satisfied that she did not intentionally conceal the fact that [the] soldier was financially involved at the time he left Freeport, Ill. in 1885.” In conclusion, he also said, “The claimant is well known and enjoys a splendid reputation at Snowflake, Ariz. where she has lived for more than 30 years. Every one of whom inquiry was made spoke of her in the highest terms.”[62]

Sarah Diantha Gardner Curtis

Olive Kimball Mitchell[63]

Maiden Name: Sarah Diantha Gardner

Birth: September 9, 1852; Payson, Utah Co., Utah

Parents: Elias Gardner and Diantha Hanchett

Marriage: Joseph Nahum Curtis; January 17, 1870

Children: Sarah Diantha (1871), Charlotte Iris (1873), Lillie (1874), Florence (1876), Chloe (1879), Joseph Naham (1881), Milton (1884), Erastus (1886), Elsie Luella (1887), Clara Edna (1890), Nora Visalia (1892), William Warren Elias (1894)

Death: April 5, 1942; Tucson, Pima Co., Arizona

Burial: St. David, Cochise Co., Arizona

Sarah Diantha Gardner was born September 9, 1852, in Payson, Utah. Her parents were Elias Gardner and Diantha Hanchett Gardner. She was a strong, healthy child and very industrious. She loved whatever work she had to do. Sarah, or Sadie as she so often was called, attended school in Payson until about the age of thirteen, then her father moved to Richfield where he had a store and a sawmill. She helped in the store and at many little jobs. At nursing and baby-tending, she was kind and capable. As a young lady, she was one of the first teachers in Payson and Salem, Utah.

The family was in Richfield when the Black Hawk War broke out in that area. She met Joseph Nahum Curtis, who fought in this war. Sadie helped her mother make crackers and helped her father dry meat for these soldiers. She saw many scenes of torture and savagery.

Joseph Nahum Curtis of Salem, Utah was nicknamed “Dode” by many friends and relatives. He fell in love with Sarah Diantha; they had a short courtship and were married in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake City, January 17, 1870. After the wedding, they returned to Salem where they built their home and where their first five children were born. They were very active in Church affairs. On November 20, 1870, at a general meeting of town folks, Eliza R. Snow proceeded with the organization of a Primary Association, and after her preliminary remarks she paused, and pointing down into the audience, she said, “There is the president of our organization.” Then she said, “Please stand up.” Sarah Diantha Curtis was the woman chosen as the first Primary president of this new ward. Sister Snow had been given the power to select the person whom God thought would make this Primary organization a success.[64]

President Brigham Young had foreseen the rapid influx of converts to the Church, and many people, among them Joseph Nahum Curtis, were called by President Young to go to Arizona and to investigate the opportunities to settle in this new land.

Before leaving for Arizona, Joseph N. Curtis married his plural wife, Marilla Gardner, a sister to Sarah, on March 24, 1881. This was a happy marriage as all were united together.

It was April 18, 1881, when they left their comfortable little home in Salem, Utah. Dode’s brother, William Curtis, and other families traveled along with them. They took three months to make the trip. When they reached the Colorado River at [the] place that is called Lee’s Ferry, a short distance south of the Utah border [but] in Arizona, they found the river raging with flood [waters] and badly swollen. A delay of some ten days was incurred. They had to take the wagons apart and take them over in small boats and swim all their livestock, which was a treacherous undertaking, but successfully done. When the families and their possessions were across, they re-shod the mules, horses, cows, and oxen.[65] They did baking, washing, and mending and all repairs and finally got on their way, still bearing south over a dreary desert for miles without much grass or trees and only an occasional water hole.

Sarah Diantha Gardner Curtis. Photo courtesy of Joyce Goodman McRae.

Due to the rocky road and dead ax wagons, Sadie had to ride a mule most of the way over the Buckskin Mountains and Lee’s Backbone mountain in order that she might protect her unborn child.[66] This was her sixth child. The trip was long and painful for her. The going was rough, the cows and horses had to be shod several times as their feet and legs were sore and bleeding from the sharp rocks along this mountain road. It is hard to understand how such people could leave their comfortable homes and a way to provide for their loved ones, to go through so much difficulty in order to reach a place they knew nothing about, all because their Church Authorities had told them to do so, and they wished to obey. They didn’t think of turning back; they simply plodded on and made the best of their troubles. As they wandered, they passed through small settlements and outposts along the way, such as Joseph City, Flagstaff, Concho, Fort Apache, and on down to the Gila River, Rice, San Carlos and finally reaching a small colony of Mormons at Pima, Arizona where they rested a few days, then on south they went, past the Graham Mountains, near Fort Grant, in the Sulphur Spring Valley, over Dragoon Pass, then down to the San Pedro River, at St. David, where they arrived June 16, 1881.[67] They took refuge in the shade of a huge mesquite tree and stretched a tent for a house. While living under this tent and tree, Sadie’s first son was born. His name was Joseph N. Curtis Jr., commonly called Jody. He was born August 5, 1881, about two months after their arrival.

The Apache Kid, an Indian, was on the warpath and sometimes raided the flocks and herds of the people. So at night they would sleep in a rock fort built by the settlers for protection. This was the time of the great Indian trouble with Chief Cochise and Geronimo.

The following September 12, the ladies of the colony met in the house of Philemon Merrill, who was presiding over this colony, and organized the YLMIA. Sarah Curtis was chosen as president, with Emma Merrill first counselor, Lucy Ann Merrill second counselor, and Hulda Hubbard secretary.[68]

In April 1882, Joseph had built a small adobe house for better shelter. On May 1, 1882, Marilla gave birth to her first child, whom they named Marilla May. Marilla was not long with this family. She had five little girls and with the fifth one she was called to the other side and so Sarah raised the five girls as her own.[69]

On February 25, 1883, when the General Authorities had chosen Christopher Layton, who also came from Utah, to be president of the stake, which was then called St. Joseph Stake with headquarters in St. David, quoting Sarah, “I was released from Ward YLMIA and chosen to be president of stake YLMIA by President Christopher Layton. Laura Nuttall was first counselor, Rhoda Foster second counselor and Sarah Burns as secretary.”[70]

After a period of time, President Layton moved to Thatcher and the headquarters of the stake was moved there which made 120 miles for Sarah Curtis to travel by team and buggy to her board meetings and conferences, always taking two or three little children along. On March 22, 1888, Sarah resigned her position because of the hostile Indians and dangerous conditions and Laura Nuttall took her place as president.

It was in 1883 that Joseph (Dode) filed on a homestead of 160 acres, about six miles south of present St. David. Joseph was asked to leave the St. David country to go to Thatcher to live, but he could see that, in this fast growing part of St. David, he could do better by his family, so they lived there on this once beautiful homestead until their deaths.[71]

On August 18, 1889, the YLMIA was organized under Bishop Peter A. Lofgreen[72] of the St. David Ward. Sarah was again put in as president. On February 10, 1898, she was released from MIA and sustained as first counselor to Margaret Goodman in the Relief Society.[73] In January 1899, the St. David Ward was divided and Sarah was sustained president of Relief Society in the new San Pedro Branch of the St. David Ward of the California Mission. She remained in this position until the ward disintegrated. The people of the San Pedro Ward, commonly called Curtis Ranch, moved away on account of scarcity of water. Joseph Nahum Curtis was the bishop of the San Pedro Ward.

The gospel was a priceless possession to these two wonderful pioneers who labored hard under trying difficulties. Sarah had twelve children of her own and the five girls that her sister Marilla left her to raise, also a grandson whose mother had died. She raised them and loved them as her own.

The striking of artesian water on this ranch was an exciting experience. Large streams of water poured from the pipes.[74] Sarah had been seen many times taking large pieces of hot bread and homemade butter out to these men while they were drilling for water. During 1898 and 1899 the Curtis family drilled fifteen wells on this ranch. Many ponds or reservoirs were made to conserve the water for the fields. Huge cottonwood and willow trees were planted around the ponds.

It was a beautiful ranch; Sarah and Dode were friends to all that called, and many travelers stopped to rest under the beautiful trees. When the house was full, they would invite the weary travelers to sleep in the barn on the clean, fresh hay. Great mulberry and black walnut trees shaded the rambling house. It had a huge kitchen, with its pungent smelling pantry and large dining table. The parlor was Sarah’s choice room, for guests could sit quietly and thumb through the red velvet picture album of her family and many relatives and friends or they had a stereoscope which you held to your eyes and passed beautiful pictures through. Sarah and Joseph both loved music, and they had a piano and a lovely tread [pump] organ which all the girls played. There were many bedrooms with the floral spreads on the beds and a large earthen pitcher with bowl on the wash stand. Last, but not least, the beautiful flowered chamber pot sat primly under the bed.

Sarah Diantha always worked right along with the girls. If it was extracting the honey she would save all the cappings from the slats of combed honey to place in another jar or tub to make vinegar from. At a certain stage this fermented honey with water made a delicious drink, it was called tizawing or mathigalong (Indian names). Some of the stands of bees were down under the plum trees where the privy stood and sometimes it became a little dangerous there while leafing through the Sears Roebuck catalog. It was a beautiful walk down there in daylight or moonlight.

Sarah Diantha’s most important work on the ranch was raising chickens and turkeys. Making butter and cheese was also important. She had ready sale for them in Tombstone, the place that was too tough to die. She had her buggy and “Old Babe” and would always take from one to four little girls along. She was so proud of these girls as she was very insistent on them keeping fair and beautiful. She would tie their bonnets on their hair and make them wear long stockings on their arms so they wouldn’t get sunburned or have coarse skin.

Sadie was a beautiful woman. She always felt presentable for company with a clean, fresh apron on, preferably a white one; this always helped to hide “my large stomach.” This very remarkable woman loved her grandchildren, and they loved their grandmother. There would always be ice cream to make and candy to pull and if they needed their shoes shined she would use the soot off the cooking stove lids to polish them up. I hear her calling: “Which one of you girls would like to bring me a pan of chips? I will stir up a nice Johnnie cake for supper. My! It will taste so good with little green onions out of the garden.” “Olive, will you go with Grandma to help push the turkeys out of the trees? If you’ll go down under the south end of the haystack and look carefully, you may find a new nest.” “Olive, will you sit under the shade of the trees and do the churning? See how quick you can make the butter ‘come.’” Olive would be tired when night came, but it was a nice bed at Grandmother’s, for she had corn shuck mattresses to sleep on.

The beautiful Lady Banksia rose bush, which was a cutting from the largest rose tree in existence, was taken from the Lady Banksia of Tombstone, Arizona.[75] This rose bush furnished a large area of shade for the Curtis family reunions for many years; it covered the entire front of the house.

Sarah Diantha Gardner Curtis. Photo courtesy of FamilySearch.

For many, many years the Apaches would stop in this lovely old Ranch home for something to eat and cold water on their long jaunts between Ft. Huachuca, San Carlos, and Globe. As Sarah and Dode always said, “If you feed them plenty, they will do no harm.” So many times the large table of food was prepared and most of the Indians would have a flask of whiskey inside their shirts and fall over asleep in different corners of the room, waking occasionally to belch a few times. One day as these Indians heard the daughter, Clara, practicing on the piano, they peeked through the windows to listen. Joseph invited them in and one large [man] was so pleased with the music, he took some strings of beads off his neck and gave them to the girl. Sarah, or Sadie, had many days of worry with this large family, as many times her husband, Joseph, would be away freighting in Mexico. But she was a brave and courageous woman.

This part of the country was noted for its treacherous storms and thunder and lightning and the big flash floods. Sarah Diantha grieved to her dying day for her youngest son, William [age twenty-one], who had been struck and killed by lightning while he was out hunting cottontails. After several hours he was found dead, with a dark line down his back.[76]

Joseph Nahum died July 26, 1925, at the old homestead on the San Pedro (Curtis Flat). After Joseph N. Curtis died, Sarah Diantha and her youngest daughter, Nora Visalia, who was crippled with arthritis, continued to live alone on the ranch.

As time passed by, the artesian wells ceased to furnish much water for this once beautiful place. The son, Milton, owns the place at this writing. The children married and moved away, but still have wonderful memories of this grand old place where they rode horses, milked cows, swam in ponds, and rode on skiffs on the pond, broke wild horses, and many other interesting things.

Sarah Diantha Curtis lives on in the hearts of thousands who knew her. She lived her last couple years with her daughters Elsie Matteson and Clara Kimball. She died at the home of her daughter Clara Kimball, in Tucson, Arizona, April 2, 1942. She was buried in the little cemetery in St. David, Arizona, April 5, 1942.

Ellis and Boone:

In southern Arizona, the Curtis family lived in an area regularly traversed by Apaches. This may explain why Mitchell thought Sarah’s honey drink came from Native American culture. Mitchell called this drink tizawing or mathigalong, but both of these words suffer from oral tradition and typographical errors. Tiswin (sometimes spelled tizwin or also called tulapai) is the traditional Apache drink made from corn, although the Tohono O’odham people in southern Arizona sometimes used saguaro fruit. For her cookbook, Stella Hughes described its production: “First, gunny sacks of whole corn are wetted down and kept damp until the corn sprouts. This may take about two weeks. Then the corn is ground, boiled, and reground. Then it is set to ferment—all kinds of native herbs are added. The drink itself might not be so deadly, but . . . when the tulapai is ready for consumption they sometimes add a bottle of Levi Garrett’s snuff or a plug of Brown Mule chewing tobacco or a sack of Bull Durham. Either or all prove very potent . . . I drank a dipperful of tulapai once . . . It blew the top of my head off!”[77] Tiswin is obviously not Sarah’s honey drink. Mitchell’s other word, mathigalong, should probably be metheglin, the traditional mead, made from fermented honey water, with herbs and spices added. These included vanilla, ginger, orange peel, nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, or cloves. Metheglin, however, is not a Native American word but is a term used in English folk medicine.[78]

Sarah’s daughter Clara Kimball remembered that her mother “liked herbs a great deal and we used a lot of herbs. We had peppermint and catnip planted around our place. Mother always made cinnamon tea for us if we looked like we needed something for a laxative and that was one of her real good remedies. [She] gave us peppermint tea for cramps in our stomach. Every once in a while, mother would get a little flask of brandy that we’d use for real bad colds, and she said that it would be as good as anything we could use. I know that she used that as a medicine every once in a while. Otherwise none of my folks used any kind of liquor.”[79]

Many Mormon families, particularly those of Scandinavian descent, made slightly alcoholic beverages well into the twentieth century. For example, Emma Swenson Hansen (245) kept hop vines and provided yeast for the citizens of Joseph City. Alice Hansen wrote,

“This hop yeast along with molasses also made delicious homemade beer which was properly aged in big earthen crocks. For village celebrations it was thought no one could make this type of refreshment as well as Emma Hansen and Johanna Westover.”[80] For Rowena McFate Whipple’s wedding (90), thirty gallons of beer were served, but the bride thought “a person could have drunk the whole 30 gallons and not got drunk.”[81]

On a different topic, Clara Kimball remembered her mother selling produce to supplement the family income. She said that her mother:

sold lots of chickens, eggs, milk, and butter in Tombstone and Benson and she got money for that. When it would come time to go to Tombstone, she would say, “Now I’ll take two of you, but I can’t handle more.” We went straight to the store [where] they had all kinds of lovely material.

Tombstone was such a big city. It was quite a treat to get to go. Mother would say, “What about us going into the Can Can Restaurant and having something to eat while we’re here?” The Can Can Restaurant was a Chinese restaurant and it was a very wonderful place for us. Oh my, to go in a restaurant to eat. So we’d get in there and mother would say, “Now if you would please give these children a bowl of soup and some crackers, it would be just fine.” We knew we wouldn’t get much else, but the soup . . . tasted so wonderful to us.[82]

Mary Louisa Whitmore Price Garner Cutler

Roberta Flake Clayton, FWP[83]

Maiden Name: Mary Louisa Whitmore

Birth: February 14, 1838; Athens, McMinn Co., Tennessee

Parents: John Whitmore and Elizabeth Burk

Marriage 1: Samuel Maxwell Price; January 1858 (div)

Children: Samuel Whitmore (1859), Mary Salina (1861), Franklin Whitmore (1863), William (1867)

Marriage 2: David Garner; January 3, 1870 (div)

Children: Mary Elizabeth (1870)

Marriage 3: Lorenzo Cutler; December 1, 1875 (div)

Children: none

Death: July 20, 1923; Mesa, Maricopa Co., Arizona

Burial: Mesa, Maricopa Co., Arizona

“She shall not go with that deluded band of outlaws even though she has joined them,” John Whitmore’s face was white with fear and anger. “Send her to me immediately, and we shall see what she has to say for herself!” His wife left the room weeping softly to herself.[84]

Mary Louisa Whitmore and Samuel price. Photo courtesy of FamilySearch.

Mary, a beautiful twin girl of eighteen years was singing merrily as she packed a small trunk, with her most treasured belongings. “Your father wishes to see you at once.” Mary’s face sobered as she saw her mother’s tears. She kissed her cheek, and with an affectionate pat she left her. As she entered the living room her father was pacing the floor nervously. A long talk between father and daughter followed in which Mary promised him if he would listen to the Mormon doctrine as she had heard it, if he did not believe in it she would remain at home a year. The father was well pleased with this arrangement for he was a Bible student and expected to corner the Mormons on their teachings.

The elders arrived, and for three days and nights a hot discussion ensued, and John Whitmore put his arm around his girl, gave her a father’s blessing, and said, “Go to Zion! Mary, do the best you can. We may never live to get there.” It was a sad parting when Mary left Father, Mother, her twin sister Martha, other sisters, brothers, and friends and never saw any of them again.

They started on their long, long journey across the plains. Mary’s brother Doc, his wife, and two friends Betty and Tildy Damron were among them.[85] The three girls rode horseback most of the way and at night they sang or danced around the camp fire, being the life of the party.[86]

They had not been out long when they overtook Johnston and his army who had been sent to kill off all the Mormons. They passed each other many times in their journey. The soldiers abused their horses and called them “Old Joe Smith and Old Brigham,” when the Mormons came near enough to hear them. Then the girls would ride by singing:

The Mormon car is moving,

It’s been in motion long;

At first its powers were feeble,

But now they’re getting strong,

And having started on the track,

The best that we can do;

Is to keep the car in motion,

And pop her quickly thru.

We have a good conductor,

And brakeman with his force,

Who when a danger threatens,

Can stop the iron horse;

We’ve an engineer and fireman,

And an engine good and true;

So let’s keep the car in motion

And pop her quickly thru.

She is stationed with the buckeyes,

With the brutes and suckers too;

Who have prophesied the Mormon car,

Would never travel thru,

But on solid track and fire darts;

With Deseret in view;

She’s disappointed all their hopes,

And popped her quickly thru.

We’ve been long enough in leading strings;

And can’t with patience wait,

So we’ll make a bow to Uncle Sam,

And asked to be a state,

Then with Brigham at the head

And Wells and Heber too,

We’ll all unite with one consent;

And pop her quickly thru.

The little company of Mormons arrived in Salt Lake in the fall of the year of 1857.

Twenty years later the heroine of our story and her family left for that unsettled land of Arizona. Fate had laid a heavy hand upon Mary since she left her father’s home. A train accident had deprived her of both her feet. The doctors gave no hope of saving her life and told her, had she been on the battle field in her condition she would not have been picked up. There was nothing in those days to deaden the pain, and she suffered much from them. She had seen much trouble, poverty, and hardships but was faithful and true thru it all.

While the little company was trying to cross a turbulent stream, a little colt fell in. He swam frantically for his life along the bank. The oldest boy Sam was trying to rescue him, and the bank caved in and in he went with the colt. The little thing seemed to know he had been trying to save it so here it came after Sam. And everywhere that Sam went that colt was sure to go. At last they were both rescued from the cold muddy waters.

Next morning several Indians came riding into camp. The whites were good to them and gave them breakfast. They then looked them all over and in a few English words with many grunts they made them understand they wanted to trade a pinto pony for Mary’s little girl Elizabeth. Their offer was declined and the company moved on. The Indians were very angry but rode away.

It was winter and very cold, the hills were bare and there was no feed for the horses, so the straw mattresses were ripped open, the straw mixed with flour and fed to the animals. After many dreary, long weeks they settled in the Gila Valley.

Mary was very ambitious and set about raising chickens, pigs, and a garden, and she had a few apple trees. The amusement hall was not far away, and the apples were quite a temptation to some of the boys who persistently came over and helped themselves. After many of these raids, Mary got the old shot gun out, made wads of gunny sack strings, and put a lot of powder behind to make a big noise and then she stationed herself among the grapevines. Soon two youths came slipping over to the apple tree. She could see their hands between her and the starry sky. She shot just above them. She squatted down and remained very still; bang—went the second shot; they scrambled across the blackberry patch and thru the barbed wire fence as the third shot rang out. They left samples of their best Sunday go to meetin’ pants on the fence. Mary never missed any more apples.

Mary Louisa Whitmore Price Garner Cutler. Photo courtesy of Bobbie Poppleton.

For many years Mary’s only pastime was reading and fancy work. She knew the gospel as very few of us will ever know it, and she loved to tell it to others both in word and song. In her later life she became practically blind and deaf, but she praised God from whom all blessings flow and trusted in him to the last.[87] In spite of her great misfortunes she was a very cheerful person and her memory remained clear as did her beautiful voice. One day she was asked how many hymns she knew. She sang more than fifty without looking at the book and she knew many others not found in the LDS song books. In a blessing, she was promised she would retain her beautiful voice and sing in the choirs in heaven.

Two days before she went to receive her reward, she sat up in bed and sang the following.[88]

We are floating down the stream of time.

We have not long to stay;

The stormy clouds of darkness,

Will change to brighter day,

So let us all take courage,

For we are not left alone,

The life boat is soon coming,

To gather the pilgrims home.

Then cheer my sisters cheer.

Our journey will soon be o’er.

Our loved ones we will meet again;

Upon that golden shore,

We’re pilgrims and we’re strangers too;

We’re seeking a city to come,

The life boat is soon coming,

To gather the pilgrims home.

Some times we get discouraged;

And to think it all in vain;

To live the life of a Mormon,

And walk in Jesus name;

But when we heard the Master say,

I’ll lend a helping hand,

If you will trust in me;

I’ll guide you safe to land.

The life boat is soon coming,

By the eye of faith I see:

As she sweeps thru the water,

To rescue you and me;

And carry us to the ports above,

To friends we love so dear;

For we are on the life boat,

And on our journey home.

At the age of eighty-six years, Mary L. Cutler died in Mesa, Arizona, July 20, 1923.

Additional Information From the FWP Sketch[89]

On February 14, 1838, down on a plantation in Tennessee, John and Elizabeth Burk Whitmore received two beautiful valentines. The proud parents named them for the justly famed sisters in New Testament history, those friends of the Master, Mary and Martha.[90]

Mary was the smaller of the two and for that reason was, perhaps, a little more petted and favored. It is about her that these incidents are told. The family consisted of five boys and one girl, before the arrival of the twins.

John Whitmore was a school teacher, and his wife, Elizabeth, a doctor and nurse who went among her neighbors to assist in times of sickness and death. She was an excellent midwife, and her services were much in demand but not so well remunerated. . . .

When the twins were seventeen, their parents moved to a big cattle ranch they had purchased near Tyler, Texas. Fond of horses as were the girls, they enjoyed the free life of the range and were very happy. There was a large flock of ducks on the ranch too, and each of the girls plucked enough down and feathers from the live ducks for a bed. The one made by Mary is still in use by her daughter, though it is more than seventy years old.

The [Whitmore parents] and children [were] staunch members of the Baptist Church; the oldest son was a Baptist preacher. They had been in Texas about a year when two Mormon missionaries called at their home, and with true Southern hospitality, they were invited in and entertained in the Whitmore home for several days.

With their knowledge of the scriptures, Mary and Martha thought it would be an easy matter to convince the young missionaries of the error of their ways, but in a discussion that lasted three days and part of that many nights in which all of the family took part, Mary and two of her brothers were converted to the then very unpopular religion, and all except the minister brother were favorably impressed with the doctrines advocated by the elders.

As was only natural, the new converts wished to gather with the body of the Church, and a company was forming to leave for Utah soon. Because of her love for her family, Mary decided to remain at least another year with them, but as the time came for the company to start, the father and mother consented for Mary and her two brothers, James M. and Franklin, to go with it. As they said good-bye, they realized it would probably be the last time they would see each other, and it was, for the parents both died the same day, ten years later, and were both buried in the same grave. . . .

Soon after her arrival in Utah, she was married to Samuel Price and by him had four children, three boys and a baby girl that died at the age of three months.

With marriage, life began in earnest for Mary. Raised as she was in comparative luxury, it was pretty hard to be deprived of the actual necessities of life, and share in the poverty of the early pioneers, and though often times, she longed for her home and its comforts, she never allowed a disloyal thought to her church enter her head, nor a murmuring word to escape her lips. With her sweet voice resounding, she would drive away the “blues” while she bathed, put her children to bed long enough to wash, dry, iron, and mend their clothes so they could put them on again. The three little boys had lots of enforced rest periods.

Two great sorrows came to Mary in her early married life, one, the loss of her husband,[91] and the other, her brother, James M., who with a companion was murdered by Indians when they were out rounding up cattle. Their bodies were buried under the snow where [they were later] recovered and taken to their homes in [St. George] for burial.[92]

Although left a widow [meaning divorcee] with three small sons, almost destitute of the necessities, she possessed a spirit of cheerfulness and love, always trying to make others happy, regardless of her lot. “I have put my hand to the plow,” she often quoted, “and I will never turn back, regardless of what comes.”

Mary again married, this time to David Garner, who had been a member of the Mormon Battalion, and a pioneer of 1847, by whom she had one child, a daughter. Many a time she took her baby girl on one arm and a basket of eggs on the other and walked four miles to the store and back to get some necessary article. Again she was deprived of her husband and companion.[93]

Later she moved to Springville, Utah. One of her boys, who had remained in Ogden, was stricken very seriously ill and sent for his mother to come to his bedside. She went by rail and on arriving in Salt Lake City, she had to change trains. While trying to find out when she could leave, a switch engine backed up, struck her, and threw her across the track, catching her feet and crushing them. She was also cut severely over the right eye from which she nearly bled to death before she was taken to a hospital.[94]

She was so terribly injured that the doctor told her afterward that if it had been on a battle field, she wouldn’t even have been picked up, as death seemed so evident. So serious was the accident and so little hope was held out for her recovery, that the doctors waited for an hour after the amputation of her one leg, six inches below the knee, before they took off the other. She took very little chloroform and was conscious and realized all her pain and suffering, which was so intense that she slept none at all until the third night, when in a fitful nap, she was given assurance in a dream that she would live.

Maimed and crippled though she was, she was glad that she could live for the children’s sake. This dream was a great consolation to her during the three months that she was allowed to lie flat on her back in the hospital without once even being turned on her side. The Dr. who attended her at first either thought it a useless task, or was drunk at the time, as the flesh was never drawn over the ends of the bones and for a long time these were as tender as one’s eye.

The doctors said they were sure she would die, but she lived for forty years thereafter. She brought suit for damages against the railroad company, but the only witness she had, that she could count on, was mysteriously drowned in the Weber River, leaving a wife and two little children. All Mary ever got for her two priceless feet was a thousand dollars, just about enough to pay her hospital bill.

When at last she was brought home to her baby girl, then seven years old, she forced a smile of cheerfulness and as she took her little daughter in her arms, assured her they would get along somehow as they had one pair of good feet between them and little Elizabeth was always willing to loan hers for her mother’s comfort. Such is the background in the life of this pioneer woman, who with two artificial feet and two crutches came to Arizona in 1884. Not a dependent by any means, but a useful, beloved, independent citizen.

Her hands were always busy, piecing quilts, making spreads and rugs, and she crocheted hundreds and hundreds of yards of lace, for which she always found sale, as it was so evenly and beautifully done. Then there were her chickens, a nice flock of them always, and generally there were ducks as there was good sale for their feathers. Peddlers who marketed her eggs told her that her chickens laid more eggs than anyone else’s did.

She was very ambitious and did buttonholes and other hand sewing in exchange for other work. Mary was a great reader and when not employed otherwise, she spent much time in worthwhile reading. She read the Bible and Book of Mormon through many times. Shortly after coming to Mesa in 1917 with her daughter, her eyes began to fail and this great pleasure was denied her.

A habit she had always had was so firmly rooted that it remained with her; it was to arise at daybreak every morning and go all over the house to see that everything was all right for the day. As she grew older and could not get around on her wooden feet so well, she made herself some heavy pads for her knees and would make her daily rounds, and wait upon herself. She never allowed anyone to do anything for her that she could do, and always made her own bed.

Ellis and Boone

Not mentioned in either of these sketches is Mary’s third marriage in 1875 to Lorenzo C. Cutler, a man sixteen years her junior.[95] They came to Arizona together and lived in the Gila Valley. As is often the case when there is a large age difference in a marriage, each spouse was creative when reporting their age. Mary’s correct age was given in 1850, 1860, and 1870, but in 1880 and 1900, she reported herself as one year younger. Lorenzo’s correct birthdate (1854) was used in 1860 and 1870, but in 1880 and 1900 he reported himself as three years older (1851).

In 1910, Lorenzo and Mary Cutler were living apart (and each used the correct birthdate).[96] By 1920, Lorenzo Cutler had remarried, and Mary was living in Mesa with her daughter.[97] After the divorce, Lorenzo Cutler first married Jemima Virginia Jenkins Whitmer who died on May 8, 1922, and then he married Nancy Lemmon Chlarson on December 26, 1923.[98] With these two marriages, Lorenzo began reporting himself as six to eight years younger (birthdate 1860 to 1862). In 1927, when Lorenzo was seventy-three, he became a father: Glorene Nora Cutler was born on May 7, 1927, with her father listed as age sixty-six and her mother age forty-five. A half sister of Glorene’s said, “This blessing had come late in life to Mr. Cutler, his first child and he was very proud of her.”[99]

Although Mary and Lorenzo Cutler may have thought that their age differences did not matter when they married, in old age the sixteen-year difference did matter. When Mary was old and feeble, Lorenzo was still relatively young. Obviously this third divorce was difficult for both Mary and her daughter, Elizabeth, and consequently it was simply not mentioned in PWA. The FWP sketch lists her as Mary Louisa Whitmore and Pioneer Women of Arizona as simply Mary Cutler, both with no explanation.

Pioneer Girls: Layton Granddaughters. Many of Christopher Layton's children settled in the Gila Valley; these girls are his granddaughters. Front row (left to right): Grace (Despain) daughter of Charles M. Layton, Jessie (Ewing) daughter of Oscar Layton, Carrie (Naylor) daughter of Joseph Layton, Wilmyrth (Robinette) daughter of Christopher Layton, Ione (Curtis) daughter of Charles M. Layton; Middle row: Iretta (Tate) daughter of Joseph Layton, Bessie (Savage) daughter of Christopher Layton, Priscilla (McIntyre) daughter of Christopher Layton, Della (Smith) daughter of Heber Layton, Priscilla (Standish) daughter of Selina Layton Phillips; Back row: Blanche (Udall) daughter of Oscar Layton, Maggie "Dot" (Asay) daughter of Eliza Layton Allred, Minni (Hatch) daughter of Christopher Layton, Edna (Jones) daughter of Joseph Layton, Sophronia (Clawson) daughter of Richard Layton, and Mattie (Pace) daughter of Richard Layton. None of Elizabeth Williams Layton's (402) grandchildren are represented here, but three of the girls are Joseph and Cynthia Abigail Fife Layton's (399) daughters. Photo courtesy of Graham County Historical Society.

Notes

[1] See Watson, Israel Call.

[2] Larry Shumway describes step dancing as a solo dance with “a light step, but no heelwork,” done to a hoedown rhythm but often unaccompanied. He wrote that the interest was in the “foot movement and not the body or arms” and that it was often performed for an audience, sometimes spontaneously. Shumway, Frontier Fiddler, 262.

[3] Men from the Little Colorado River area left for Mexico in January 1885 as Arizona began prosecuting men for polygamy. The number of men on the expedition was much greater than just the two mentioned here, and, although Joseph Fish describes the trip, he does not give a list of participants. He does mention Israel Call in April when the men thought they were going to be expelled. James Freestone and Israel Call were sent to the border to intercept other Latter-day Saints before they paid duty on goods to be brought into Mexico. Fortunately, the problems were soon worked out, and Mormon settlements in Chihuahua eventually flourished. In July 1885, Israel Call was mentioned as part of a party exploring the area, and he must have returned to Arizona shortly after this time. Krenkel, Life and Times of Joseph Fish, 281, 286–87.

[4] George Teasdale (1831–1907) was born in London, England, and died in Salt Lake City. He was ordained an Apostle in 1882. Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4:1648; “George Teasdale,” Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:144–47.

[5] Although PWA lists this date as April 2, Utah death records have this date as April 20.

[6] Solomon, Joseph Knight, 152−53, 167, 171−75.

[7] Ibid., 180.

[8] The author was a daughter of Louis Paul and Edith Cardon who lived in Tucson.

[9] With emigrants from Europe, names often became English equivalents, including for the Stale family. Although Susette Cardon’s son, Louis Paul, was informant for the death certificate, there are discrepancies when compared to Ancestral File; these include a different birth date (February 15, 1838), different parents (Dan’l Staley and Susette Gooding), different death date (July 18, 1923), and different burial date (July 19, 1923). AzDC.

[10] Lorenzo Snow (1814–1901) of Mantua, Ohio, was a student at Oberlin College and a Baptist when he became converted to Mormonism in 1836. He immediately began preaching the gospel and was ordained an Apostle in February 1849. At the October general conference that year, he was assigned to go to Italy, resulting in the conversion of the Stale family. Snow became the fifth President of the Church, serving from 1898 to 1901; he is remembered for his reemphasis of tithing and being the brother of Eliza R. Snow. Maurene Ursenbach Beecher and Paul Thomas Smith, “Lorenzo Snow,” in Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 3:1367–71.

[11] Thomas Brown Holmes “T.B.H.” Stenhouse (1824–82) was an early convert to the Church from Scotland. He joined Snow and Toronto in this mission to Italy and Switzerland, but by 1870, Stenhouse had requested excommunication and joined the Godbeites. He is remembered for his 1873 book, The Rocky Mountain Saints, and his wife Fanny who wrote “Tell it All,” both of which are well-known Mormon exposés. Stenhouse, who died in San Francisco, never reconciled with Mormonism. Walker, “The Stenhouses and the Making of a Mormon Image,” 51–72.

[12] Joseph Toronto (1818–83; born Guiseppe Taranto) was an Italian sailor who joined the Church in Boston in 1843. After his ship collided with another and Toronto nearly drowned, he abandoned sailing and joined the Saints in Nauvoo, contributing nearly $2600 in gold coins for the building of the Nauvoo Temple. On this mission, he went to Sicily to preach to his family. Toronto Family Organization, “Joseph Toronto: Italian Pioneer and Patriarch,” M270.1 T684j 1983, CHL.

[13] Christianson, “Early Missionary Work in Italy and Switzerland,” 35−46.

[14] Franklin D. Richards (1821–99) was born in Massachusetts and died in Ogden, Utah. He was ordained an Apostle in 1849 and was appointed the first president of the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1894. Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 2:537, 4:1644.

[15] A little over 500 Mormon emigrants from many nations were aboard this ship; religious services were held in English, Danish, and Italian. A returning missionary, Elder Charles R. Savage, noted the captain’s superstitions regarding religious passengers, particularly in response to the long and difficult passage with bad weather and sickness. They arrived in New York City on February 16. Sonne, Ships, Saints, and Mariners, 120−21.

[16] The family’s surname is spelled “Stalle” in the MPOT database. The family consisted of husband Jean Pierre (age 52), wife Jeanne Marie (age 45), and children Susette (age 19), Bartolomi Daniel (age 18), Marie (age 10), and Marguerite (age 5). This first handcart company had about 280 people, fifty-six handcarts, and three wagons. Reminiscences of Margaret Stalle Barker, in Cardon Family Biographical Sketches, MS 11825, CHL; MPOT.

[17] Although many records in Ancestral File list her death date as July 19, 1923, the AzDC states it was July 18, with the burial on July 19.

[18] Robert B. Baird, “Welcome, Welcome, Sabbath Morning,” Hymns (1985), no. 280.

[19] Mulder, Homeward to Zion, 248.

[20] Sandi Dodge; http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ghibben&id=I7680.

[21] Myrtle Chlarson Sowell, “Hans N. R. Chlarson,” in Burgess, Mt. Graham Profiles, 1:75.

[22] Andrew Kimball (1858–1924) was living in Salt Lake City when he was called to Arizona as the second president of the St. Joseph Stake. “Andrew Kimball,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:364–66; Olive Woolley Kimball, 367.

[23] Peterson, Ninth Temple, 424.

[24] 1870 census, Hans Chlarson, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah; 1880 census, H. N. Chlarson, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah; 1900 census, Hans Chlarson, Thatcher, Graham Co., Arizona.

[25] Burgess, Mt. Graham Profiles, 1:75; Huso and Ellis, Show Low, 49−50.

[26] The photograph also included H. N. Chlarson’s two other wives who came to Arizona. Arizona Republican, Pioneer Edition, March 31, 1927; Burgess, Mt. Graham Profiles, 2:113−15.

[27] “Thomas Middleton Wiley Holladay,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 2:396–97; “Ann H. Matthews Holladay,” Ibid., 1:397; Ann Horton Matthews Holladay, 275.

[28] Generally, hard wheat was not planted until after the invention of steel roller mills in 1878. Because John Holladay was in Pueblo, Colorado, with the Mississippi Saints and the sick, women, and children from the Mormon Battalion, perhaps this is a reference to the “Taos wheat” that the Mormon Battalion members brought to Utah. It was later mixed with club-head wheat brought from California and became the staple planting in Utah fields. See Tyler, Concise History of the Mormon Battalion, 318; Ricketts, Mormon Battalion, 254 and 259; Bigler and Bagley, Army of Israel, 460.

[29] Joseph Lazarus Matthews (1809–86) brought his family west with the Willard Richards Company of 1848. This was a large company of 526 people; they left Winter Quarters on July 3, 1848, and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley between October 10−19. He died at Pima, Graham Co., Arizona. “Joseph Matthews,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4:713; MPOT.

[30] Charles C. Rich (1842–83) was ordained an Apostle in 1849. Amasa M. Lyman (1813–77) was ordained an Apostle in 1842. Rich and Lyman were sent to California in 1851 to supervise a settlement near Cajon Pass. The result was San Bernardino, which flourished until 1857 when Brigham Young recalled all members to Utah; about half of the residents returned. When William J. Flake was a teenage orphan, he lived with Lyman in southern Utah. Ted J. Warner, “Pioneer Settlements in California,” in Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1:247–48, also 4: 1641, 4:1644; Cowan and Homer, California Saints, 167–84, 207–15; Lyman, San Bernardino, 35–83.

[31] The Mountain Meadows Massacre “occurred between September 7 and 11, 1857, when a group of Mormon settlers in southern Utah joined with nearby Indians in killing all but some of the youngest members of a group of non-Mormon emigrants en route to California.” Reconciliation between descendants of the emigrants and the perpetrators came in 1990 with the erection of a monument at the site. Ronald K. Esplin and Richard E. Turley Jr., “Mountain Meadows Massacre,” in Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 2:966–68; Walker, Turley, and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows.

[32] Head cheese is jellied, seasoned meat generally made from parts of the head and feet of hogs.

[33] While this statement may be true, it is more likely that the author means the opposite: many freighters were killed by the Indians. Pioneer deaths from Apaches were more common in the Gila Valley than in other Mormon communities.

[34] Minnie Ann Clark married Niels Joseph Roseberry; their children were Joseph Roseberry (1902–17) and Minnie Dot Roseberry, born March 22, 1904, and died May 30, 1904. Minnie Ann Clark Roseberry died September 25, 1904.

[35] Probably this refers to Minnie’s son, Joseph Ether Roseberry born August 31, 1902, died April 1, 1917, buried in the Pima Cemetery, but an AzDC was not located.

[36] We did not update the term Arizona Temple, because the temple at Mesa was the only Latter-day Saint temple in Arizona during the period this book covers, 1880–1969.

[37] For a description of donated Sunday eggs, see the comments by Ellis and Boone for Julia Johnson Smith Ballard, 53.

[38] Although the Belvedere Ward was one of the first in southern California, it was not the first ward or the first chapel (see comments by Ellis and Boone).

[39] Cowan and Homer, California Saints, 247–52.

[40] Ellis, Latter-day Saints in Tucson, 52; Larson, Pomerene, Arizona, 120–21.

[41] Cowan and Homer, California Saints, 266–73.

[42] Palmer, History of Taylor and Shumway, 33–34.

[43] Sheridan, Arizona, 206–27, 253.

[44] Cowan and Homer, California Saints, 264.

[45] For another method of eliminating bed bugs, see Sarah Ellen Marsden Smith, n. 188, 692.

[46] Much of the history of Forestdale comes from the affidavits submitted to the federal government by Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst in 1917 and 1921. Andrea Smith wrote, “While Ashurst was wrong in claiming that the reservation boundaries had been altered after the settlers established themselves at Forest Dale, he was not entirely mistaken regarding the map issue. Some maps from the 1870s and 1880s do show a rather vague if not inaccurate delineation of the northern boundary of the White Mountain Apache Reservation.” Smith, “Mormon Forestdale,” 165−208, quote on 180; Williams, “Settlement and Growth of the Gila Valley in Graham County,” 5−20. See longer discussion on Forestdale in comments by Ellis and Boone, Sarah Alice McNeil Mills, 468.

[47] Orson LeRoy Cluff died January 30, 1898, at Colonia Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico.

[48] Abbie Nina Cluff Turley died March 12, 1912, at Colonia Morelos, Sonora, Mexico.

[49] James Addison Bean, died January 20, 1917, in Provo, Utah Co., Utah; his wife, Harriet, had died earlier, November 28, 1912, also in Provo.

[50] This sketch was given to RFC by Hattie Miller of Snowflake, Arizona, but a guess as to author would be Amelia Anderson Cross of Holbrook, who was the Cross family genealogist prior to 1960.

[51] This surname has also been spelled Gulbransen, Guldbrandsen, Gouldbransen, etc.

[52] PWA listed Maria Sophia Peterson as Gulbrandsen’s second wife; perhaps this name is a combination of the second and third wives. Inghbor Maria Petersen was Hans Gulbrandsen’s third wife and the one who came to Arizona with him. Hans Gulbrandsen died June 26, 1894, and Inghbor died in 1905; both are buried in Woodruff.

[53] Daniel H. Wells (1814–91) was second counselor to Brigham Young from 1857 to 1877. Thereafter, he served as counselor to the Twelve, but he was never ordained an Apostle. Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4:1649.

[54] There is no indication that the Cross family was originally Lutheran; David Cross’s brother had married into a German family and was attending a Lutheran church in Freeport, Illinois.

[55] By 1885, David Cross was no longer working for the railroad but was a traveling salesman. This version of the disappearance (i.e., that David Cross died at an unknown location while on the sales trip) was the one that Louisa chose to believe; her children believed that David had deserted the family. See comments by Ellis and Boone.

[56] The school teacher named Webb would be Edward Milo Webb Jr. and his wife Charlotte (758).

[57] Roberta Flake Clayton to Hattie Miller, September 1, 1966; copy in possession of Ellis. Clayton wrote of Louisa, “She was a wonderful woman & I prize my memory of her.” RFC also wrote a poem for Louisa titled “Auntie Cross.” Clayton, Rhymes, Rhythms, Rhapsodies, and Reveries of Roberta, 16.

[58] For a more detailed and researched account see Ellis, Black Sheep Story.

[59] Ellis, “A Common Soldier at Camp Douglas,” 49−63; TIB, Louisa Cross.

[60] Several years after the publication of an article about David Cross’s Civil War service, Ellis was contacted by August R. Doll Jr. with almost certain proof that David Robert White and David Eugene Cross were one and the same person. David Robert White married three more times after leaving Louisa (divorced once), had three more children of whom two lived to maturity, and died August 31, 1934, in Savannah, Georgia. See Ellis, “Letters from David Eugene Cross, One of General Sherman’s Boys,” 173−80; Findagrave.com #93753444.

[61] Hartley, “Brigham Young’s Overland Trails Revolution,” 1−30.

[62] Ellis, Black Sheep Story, 208.

[63] Olive Kimball Mitchell was a daughter of Gordon Kimball and Clara Curtis. Olive was an English professor at Brigham Young University and turned this sketch into a full-length book published in 1967 with a subtitle of “The Story of a Mormon Pioneer Woman—Sarah Diantha Gardner Curtis and Her Part in the Colonization of the San Pedro Valley in Southern Arizona.” Mitchell, Life is a Fulfilling.

[64] As Madsen and Oman wrote, “Relief Society leaders had the responsibility to organize Primaries throughout the territory even after a general Primary president was called in 1880.” Eliza R. Snow, as General Relief Society president, traveled throughout Utah calling presidents and organizing Primaries after the first Primary had been established by Aurelia Spencer Rogers on August 11, 1878, at Farmington, Utah. This description of organizing a Primary Association in Salem, Utah, is typical of those described by Madsen and Oman. Madsen and Oman, Sisters and Little Saints, 10.

[65] Generally, only the mules and horses would be provided with metal horse shoes nailed to the hoofs, but sometimes pioneers also shod the oxen.

[66] “Sometimes written “dead-ax” or “dead-axe” (referring to axle). Dead ax wagons” refers to wagons with no springs.

[67] Although this general route was often used to St. David, the towns seem out of order, meaning Flagstaff and Concho, for traveled from Lee’s Ferry to the Gila Valley. For a map of this route see Ellis, “‘Arizona Has Been Good to Me,’” 1−32. For a description of the reverse trip, see Godfrey, “Writing in the ‘Waggon,’” 95−154.

[68] Emma Orilla Perry Merrill, 450; Lucy Ann Merrill (1860–84) was a daughter of Dudley Merrill and married to Seth Merrill; Hulda Hubbard is probably Hulda Agnes Hubbard (1864–1932) who married James Harve Blain in 1886.

[69] Marilla Gardner Curtis died November 13, 1891; her daughters were Millie May (1882), Alta Sophrona (1884), Lexie Artimecia (1888), Mignion (1889), and Jennie Betsey (1891).

[70] Laura Naomi Gardner Nuttall, 494; Rhoda Elizabeth Harvey Foster (1861–1908); Sarah Burns unidentified.

[71] In 1883, Christopher Layton was asked to move to Arizona to serve as president of the St. Joseph Stake. He first settled in St. David but recognized that more water was available for farming from the Gila River than the San Pedro. Oran Williams wrote in 1937, “With the coming of President Layton and other settlers who had energy, foresight, money, and farming equipment, a more rapid economic development of the [Gila] Valley was inaugurated.” In 1885, Layton proposed a new canal be built, pledged $10,000 toward its construction, and urged Mormons to settle land to be irrigated by the canal “before speculators should anticipate their movements.” Layton purchased land, laid out the town of Thatcher, and by the end of 1886 had moved the stake headquarters to Thatcher. Presumably when Joseph Curtis was “asked to leave St. David,” it was with Layton’s move from St. David to Thatcher, but whether this was an official call from the Church or simply a suggestion from someone like Layton is not known. Williams, “Settlement and Growth of the Gila Valley,” 36–42.

[72] Peter Anderson Lofgreen, postmaster, was born January 18, 1847, in Sweden and died March 5, 1922, in St. David, Cochise Co., Arizona. He was bishop of the St. David Ward from 1888 to 1901. “Peter Anders Lofgren,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4:601; AzDC.

[73] Margaret Ann Taylor Goodman (1841–1926), mother of Theresa Hope Goodman Wright, 823. AzDC.

[74] Brothers Joseph A. and John K. McRae were reportedly the first to develop artesian wells in this area (around 1885). However, artesian water at St. David is generally associated with the earthquake of May 3, 1887. As members of the St. David Heritage and Cultural Arts Society recently wrote, “The earthquake was considered a great tragedy at the time though there were no human casualties: the fort was destroyed as well as the school and many rock and adobe buildings. However, [the earthquake] was attributed with bringing many changes to the land, some of which proved helpful. The swamplands were swallowed, along with the mosquitos thought to cause the malaria and other illnesses. The flow of the river became much less, but the presence of large quantities of artesian water was revealed.” St. David Heritage and Cultural Arts Society, Mormon Pioneers of the San Pedro Valley, 20–21.

[75] The Lady Banksia (or Lady Banks’) rose is known in Arizona as the Tombstone rose. This rose, originally from China, is a nearly thornless shrubby vine with pale yellow or white flowers which blooms early in the spring. In 1885, a Lady Banksia rose was planted in Tombstone and is still growing today. It has been pruned into a tree, and the trunk has a twelve-foot circumference, which puts it in the Guinness record book.

[76] William died July 8, 1916, and is buried in the St. David Cemetery.

[77] Hughes, Chuck Wagon Cookin’, 22−23.

[78] Balché is a fermented Mayan drink made with bark and wild honey, but a Native American fermented honey drink was not produced in the Southwest. LaBarre, “Native American Beers,” 224−34; Mail and McDonald, Tulapai to Tokay, 217, 225.

[79] Rothschild and Hronek, Doing What the Day Brought, 27–28.

[80] After the Eighteenth Amendment brought prohibition, Emma Hansen decided that hop beer, no matter how mild, was unconstitutional, and she could not be persuaded to make it again. Hansen, Joseph C. Hansen Story, 31–32.

[81] See also Mulder, Homeward to Zion, 257, 270–72.

[82] Rothschild and Hronek, Doing What the Day Brought, 19–20.

[83] Clayton wrote a completely different FWP sketch, in narrative form, for Mary Louisa Whitmore. It has more information about Mary’s early life in Tennessee and Texas, where she encountered Mormon missionaries. It also gives important details about husbands and children, although it uses “the loss of her husband” instead of divorce. It seemed impossible to combine the two sketches, so portions of the FWP sketch are included after the PWA sketch.

[84] When RFC enrolled in a Palmer Photoplay correspondence course, she was using a company that tried to make a profit from struggling writers desperate to publish their wares. Clayton never sold a screenplay, but some of her writing was influenced by the feedback she received. In June 1923, John Branch Timms, commenting on the difference between narrative and dramatic writing, said, “NARRATIVE is applied to stories that are . . . a series of incidents or lengthy descriptions. DRAMA is conflict or soul struggle. . . .” John Branch Timms to Clayton, June 1, 1923, Roberta Flake Clayton (1877−1891) papers, box 1, folder 6, Luhrs Special Collections, Arizona State University. See also Christopher Lockhart, “‘The Inside Pitch:’ In Memory of Mrs. Mary C. Brockway,” http://twoadverbs.blogspot.com/2006/04/in-memory-of-mrs-mary-c-brockway.html. This sketch for Mary Cutler is written in the short story/drama form, which can almost become fiction. Clayton’s biography of her mother is also written in this same form (and with the same results); see Clayton, To the Last Frontier.

[85] James Montgomery “Doc” Whitmore was born December 28, 1826; he was married to Mary Elizabeth Carter (1827–1892).

[86] The Whitmores and Damrons were part of the Homer Duncan Company of 1857. There were forty-two people in this company including James Whitmore (age 30), wife Elizabeth (30), children George (3), James Jr. (1), and Joseph (infant), plus brother Franklin Perry Whitmore (22), sister Mary Whitmore (19), Sarah Elizabeth Schultz Damron (58), her children William Wallace (24), Sarah Matilda “Tildy” (21), Cynthia Elizabeth “Betty” (19), Joseph (16), and a married daughter Susan Emeline Damron Coldiron (23) and her husband and children. The company assembled in Ellis County, Texas, and moved northward up the Old Shawnee Trail trailing over 1,300 head of cattle. The company divided into two groups, which arrived at Salt Lake City on September 14 and 20. MPOT.

[87] “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow,” Hymns (1985), No. 242.

[88] This hymn is a traditional Southern gospel song, which is often thought about at the time of death. It was popular from about 1890 to 1950 and has been published in twenty-three hymnals under the title, “The Lifeboat.” These words are slightly different from some versions, reflecting oral transmission and also modification to fit Mormon doctrine. There are three more verses; “Then cheer, my sisters, cheer” is the chorus. The FWP and PWA versions have some differences with one additional verse included in PWA.

[89] See also “Brief History of Mary Louise Whitmore,” MS 18592 and “Mary W. Garner, Autobiography, 1923,” MS 10006, CHL.

[90] Luke 10:38−41; John 11:1−47, 12:1−3.

[91] Samuel Maxwell Price did not die; he lived until January 4, 1908, and had at least some contact with his sons. Franklin Price lived near his father in Wellsville, Cache Co., Utah, in 1900.

[92] The deaths of James Whitmore and Robert McIntyre at Pipe Springs on January 8, 1866, and the ensuing massacre of Paiutes by Mormon militia is an example of the social upheaval in Native American culture when large Mormon herds were introduced into the Arizona Strip. See Peterson, Utah’s Black Hawk War, 218−24.

[93] With this marriage, Mary became a plural wife to David Garner. The 1870 census (North Ogden, Weber Co., Utah) shows David (age 51) living with Mary (age 32), his first wife Dolly (age 54), and Mary’s three sons by Samuel Price. However well Mary may have thought a polygamous marriage would work, “again she was deprived of her husband and companion” means divorce from David Garner.

[94] This incident took place about 1878; in the 1880 census, a note is made that she had lost her feet.

[95] 1880 census, Lorenzo Cutler, Springville, Utah Co., Utah; 1900 census, Lorenzo Cutler, District 21, Graham Co., Arizona.

[96] 1910 census, Lorenzo Cutler, Pima, Graham Co., Arizona; 1910 census, Mary L. Cutler, Thatcher, Graham Co., Arizona.

[97] 1920 census, Mesa, Maricopa Co., Arizona: Samuel B. Rial (40), Elizabeth Rial (48), Helen Rial (15), Maude Dameron (18), and Mary Cutler (82); 1920 census, Lorenzo Cutler, Thatcher, Graham Co., Arizona.

[98] “Jemima Jenkins, Jacob Whitmer, Lorenzo Cutler,” in Hooper, Century in Central, 153–54.

[99] McLaws, Regarding Nancy, 175. Lorenzo Cutler died December 8, 1939. AzDC reported his age as 79, but he was really age 85.