Abraham Losee

ABRAHAM LOSEE.

Abraham Losee, one of the early pioneers of Utah, was born in Holderman Township, Upper Canada, September 6, 1814. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at an early date and was with the main body of Saints throughout all their persecutions until their removal to the Rocky Mountains, being intimately acquained with the Prophet Joseph Smith. In the year 1848, he drove a team across the plains for Bishop Whitney, and was married in the same year, after reaching Salt Lake City, to Mary Elizabeth Lott. She also had been with the Saints in the East, and had lived with the Prophet's family and worked for him when 13 years of age. After having worked on the Church farm at Salt Lake City for two years, he was called to remove and settle in Utah Valley, by Brigham Young. Bringing his family with him, he came and lived in what is now known as Lehi field, for the first winter in a covered wagon, having four men boarding with him. From then until his death he remained a citizen of Lehi and served as a City Councilman for several years. Having reared a family of eight, two boys and six girls, he died October 25, 1887, being 73 years old. His Wife died in May, 1888, at the age of 60 years. They remained faithful church members and progressive citizens until their death.

David Losee and Lydia Huff

Lydia Huff and David Losee

Lydia Huff, the 2nd great grandmother of Charles Reid Bird (my grandfather), was born on June 16, 1797 in Eucunea, Dutchess County, New York (near modern Poughkeepsie). 

David Losee, the 2nd great grandfather of Charles Reid Bird, was born on September 10, 1783 in Oyster Bay, New York.  (You may see a collection of historical photos from Oyster Bay here.)

On June 12, 1812, David married Lydia Huff.  (Using modern highways, they were born over 100 miles apart.)  Together, they had nine children, whom they raised as Quakers:

Abraham (born September 6, 1814)
Isaac (born October 5, 1816)
Mary Jane (born October 4, 1820)
Jemima (born September 30, 1823)
John (born March 25, 1826)
Rebecca (born July 31, 1828)
Sarah (born March 27, 1831)
Lydia (born July 24, 1837)
Matilda (born July 24, 1837)

The last two girls were twins.

On August 8, 1840, David and at least Abraham with him, were baptized members of the LDS Church.  Lydia also joined the church during her lifetime, but my records don't show whether she joined the church at the same time that David and Abraham did.  Isaac joined the church about six months later. 

After joining the LDS Church, David and his family moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, the then headquarters of the Church.David passed away on September 23, 1844, just three months following the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith.  We have looked for David's headstone in several cemeteries around Nauvoo and cannot find his headstone.

Following David's death, Lydia received her endowments in the Nauvoo Temple on February 6, 1846 (two days after the start of the exodus from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City, Utah). 

Ultimately, Lydia was buried in Manti, Utah.  I can find no record of her crossing the plains, but Abraham crossed in the Heber C. Kimball company in 1848; one can guess that Lydia traveled with her oldest son.

Permelia Darrow

Permelia Darrow and Cornelius P. Lott

Permelia Darrow was born 15 Dec 1805 in Bridgewater, Susquehanna, PA. She  was a schoolteacher prior to her marriage. She rode 20 miles on horseback to get to her school. 

Permelia married Cornelius Peter Lott, 27 April 1823 in Bridgewater. Her husband, Cornelius Lott, was born 27 Sep 1798 in New York, the son of Pieter Lott  b. 1 May 1774, NJ and Jane Smiley b. abt. 1777, NY. Cornelius and Permelia lived in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania, where the first seven of their children were born. Later, they moved to Kirtland, OH, where their son, Joseph, was born in 1839. 

It was probably while they lived in Ohio that they became joined to the Latter Day Saints Church (commonly known as the Mormon Church whose founder was Joseph Smith.)    It appears that Permelia Darrow and Cornelius Lott were the only members of their respective families that joined the LDS church. 

From Ohio, they moved to Illinois, where Permelia gave birth their third son, Peter Lyman, in Pike County in 1842. In 1845, at Nauvoo, IL, Permelia and Cornelius buried their four-month old son, Cornelius. Their youngest son, and the last of eleven children, Benjamin, was born in Salt Lake City, UT, in 1848. 

All of the children that lived to adult age, along with their parents became prominent members of the Mormon Church. Malissa Lott, the oldest daughter became one of the wives of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church. (See below.)

Records show that Cornelius practiced polygamy and probably had 6 wives. Other researchers list these as: Permelia Darrow (11 children), Narcissus Rebecca Faucett/Fauset (1 child), Charity Dickinson, Jane Rogers, Elizabeth Smith, and Elizabeth Davis.

Cornelius and his eldest son, John, were among those chosen to accompany Brigham Young on his journey to Salt Lake City, completing their trip in Jul 1847. Permelia and her nine children remained in Iowa. Two of her children, Harriet Amanda and Joseph Darrow died in Oct 1847, just ten days apart, and her grandson, Lyman Cornelius (son of John Smylie) died the following month. Permelia joined a company in 1848, led by Heber C. Kimball, and traveled to Salt Lake City. After being reunited with his family for less than a year, Cornelius Lott died 6 Jul l849.

 Permelia later moved to Utah Valley, near her second daughter, Mary Elizabeth, and lived in a  covered wagon. In the spring of 1851, Permelia joined the Lehi Colony, where she and her family lived in a log cabin with a dirt floor. Her children later recalled long nights when coyotes howled in the yard. Indian trouble forced them to move to the safety of the fort, and when they could leave, they built a four-room, two-story house.

Permelia loved her fruit trees and flowers, and had a beautiful flower garden. She was also known for her willingness to help the sick and needy. Permelia died at the age of 70, and was buried next to husband in Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Children of Permelia Darrow and Cornelius Lott.

1. Malissa Lott b. 9 Jan 1824 Tunkhannock, Luzerne, PA. On 20 Sep 1843 in Nauvoo, IL she became the 12th wife of Joseph Smith. The FamilySearch Pedigree Resource File of Ancestry.Com shows that Smith had a total of 21 wives. The following information is written in the book, "The Mormon Experience, A History of the Latter-day Saints" by Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton; "The number of women so sealed to Joseph Smith is not known. One biographer listed forty-eight, but many of these were undoubtedly wives in name only, officially 'sealed' to him for the future life but not living with him conjugally in the present. As for the others, abundant discussion has failed to establish whether or not Smith actually cohabited with them, and the lack of evidence of children from these relationships has not clarified the question. Several women later did testify that they were wives in the full sense of the word. Emily D. P. Partridge said she 'roomed' with him, and Melissa Lott Willes testified that she was his wife 'in every deed'.The testimony of Melissa Lott Willes can be found in: "Affidavit of Melissa Willes, 4 August 1893, in Raymond T. Bailey, 'Emma Hale, Wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith' (Master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1952), pp 98-100."After Joseph Smith assassination in Nauvoo in 1844, Malissa moved to Utah with her mother in 1848. On May 13, 1849, she married Ira Jones Willes. The following is written about Mr. Willes and is taken from the "Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia", Volume 4, Miscellaneous Biographies by Winn, Dennis Wilson.
   "Willes, Ira Jones, a member of the Mormon Battalion, Company B, was born Jan. 21, 1812, in the State of New York, a son of Eleazer Willis and Achsah Jones. Ira joined the Church in early days and was with the saints in many of their persecutions. Having arrived on the Missouri River as an exile, together with the rest of the saints from Illinois, he enlisted in the Mormon Battalion in July, 1846, and marched as a private in Company. B to California. In 1849 (May 13), after his discharge as a soldier and his arrival in Utah he married Malissa Lott Smith, a young widow of the Prophet Joseph Smith and moved to Lehi, where he purchased a farm and became actively engaged in farming. He was accidentally killed Dec. 5, 1863, while crossing Dry Creek, near Lehi, by a load of wood overturning and burying him in the ice, together with his nine year old son, Cornelius."Some researchers show that Malissa married a third time to John Milton Bernhisel. Bernhisel was a very prominent church member who served as a delegate to congress from the Utah territory and fought very hard to have Utah admitted as a state. I have not been able to find any substantial proof of Malissa's marriage to Bernhisel.
2. John Smylie Lott b. 23 Mar 1826 in Springville, Susquhanna, PA. John Smylie Lott was an active member of the church and apparently took advantage of the polygamy aspect of the church. Records show that he married Mary Ann Faucett, 5 Apr 1846; Clarissa Cemantha Rappleye, 22 Jan 1859; and Docia Emmerine Molen 20 Jun 1862. He had children with all three women. He died 4 Aug 1894 in Joseph, Sevier, UT.
3. Mary Elizabeth Lott b. 9 Mar 1827, Susquehanna County, PA. Mary Elizabeth married Abraham Losee, 12 Nov 1848. This marriage had an issue of 6 daughters and 2 sons. Mary died 18 May 1888.
4. Almira Henrietta Lott b. 15 Dec 1829 in Bridgewater, Susquehanna, PA. On 13 Nov 1849, she married John Riggs Murdock in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, UT.
   The following is found in Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Biographies, Parkinson, William Chandler"Murdock, John Riggs, president of the Beaver Stake of Zion from 1877 to 1891, is the son of John Murdock and Julia Clapp, and was born Sept. 13, 1826, in Orange township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio. His father and mother joined the Church in November, 1830, being among the first converts to "Mormonism" in Ohio; and they became closely associated with the Prophet Joseph. The mother died in 1831, leaving a family of five children, including a pair of twins, a boy and a girl (Joseph and Julia), born at their mother's death. The twins were adopted by the Prophet and his wife and tenderly fostered. When the boy was a year and a half old, he caught the measles, and through exposure took cold and died at the time the Prophet was mobbed at Hiram in 1832. Julia remained in the family until she had grown to womanhood. After his mother's death John R. was sent with [p.305] Caleb Baldwin, sen., to Jackson county, Mo., where he lived in the family of Morris Phelps. After the Saints were driven out of Jackson county, he was baptized by his father in Clay county in the year 1834; he also passed through the mobbings and persecutions in Caldwell county. His father, after spending about five years on missions, married again, when John R. left Brother Baldwin and rejoined his father's family, with which he removed from Quincy to Nauvoo. Here he worked on the Prophet Joseph's farm about four years, and was still in the Prophet's employ at the time of the martyrdom; in the exodus from Nauvoo in 1846, John R. came west with Father Cornelius P. Lott. On his way he enlisted in the Mormon Battalion, and as a private in Company B he marched all the way to San Diego in California. After serving his time he made his way, in company with many other Battalion boys, to Great Salt Lake valley, and arrived on the present site of Salt Lake City, Oct. 12, 1847, after a tedious journey of twelve hundred miles with pack animals. He spent the winter in the "Old Fort" and married Almira H. Lott, daughter of Cornelius P. Lott. In the spring of 1851 he settled in Lehi, Utah county, being one of the early settlers of that place; and among the several positions filled by him here was that of mayor of the city. In 1856 he took a most active part in rescuing the hand-cart companies, who were perishing in the snow storms. When he brought in some of the suffering emigrants he found the snow on the Big Mountain fifteen feet deep. To many of those who crossed the plains before the Union Pacific Railroad was built, the name of John R. Murdock is very familiar. He was sent east five times as a captain of Church trains after the poor, namely in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1868. He also carried the mails from the Valley to Independence, Mo., as an employee of the B. Y. X. Company, and in that capacity he made two round trips to the States in 1857, in unprecedented short time. In 1358 he went to Omaha as an escort to Col. Thos. L. Kane, making the round trip of 2,120 miles with the same animals in 42 traveling days. He also brought trains of merchandise for Livingston & Bell in the early days. Altogether "Captain Murdock," as he was familiarly called in early days, made eleven round trips across the plains, and has brought more "Mormon" emigrants to Utah than any other leader. He is credited with making a better record than any other man known in bringing ox and mule trains across the plains and over the mountains. In the spring of 1864 he was called and ordained to the office of a Bishop by President Brigham Young and sent to preside in Beaver, Beaver county. He occupied that position until 1877, when the Beaver Stake of Zion was organized, and he was chosen and set apart as its president. This responsible position he filled for fourteen years. He has served eight terms in the Territorial and one in the State legislature. He was also a member of the Constitutional convention, which framed the State constitution in 1895. He has also served as probate judge of Beaver county and as a colonel in the Iron County Military District. From the first Elder Murdock was one of the representative and leading men in the Church and community at large. He has occupied many positions of honor and trust in the Territory and State, and is now in his old age highly respected and beloved by the people."Almira Henrietta Lott died 16 Dec 1878 in Beaver City, Beaver, UT.
5. Permelia Jane Lott b. 2 Oct 1832 in Bridgewater, Susquehanna, PA.
   Permelia Jane married Abram Hatch, 2 Dec 1852 in Lehi, Utah, UT. The following is from Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia
   Volume 1, Biographies, Smart, William HenryHatch, Abram, president of the Wasatch Stake of Zion from 1877 to 1901, is the son of Hezekiah Hatch and Aldura Sumner, and was born Jan. 3, 1830, in Lincoln, Addison county, Vermont, in a pleasant farm house near the foot hill of the Green Mountains. He is the fourth son of a family of five sons and two daughters. His grandfather (Jeremiah Hatch) was a soldier of the Revolution and served under General Washington. Abram received a common school education in the rural district schools of Lincoln and Bristol, and had reached the age of ten years when Elder Peletiah Brown came to that section of country, preaching "Mormonism." The entire family, consisting of his grandfather and grandmother, father, mother and their children, joined the Church. His mother died in 1840, and in the fall of that year the family moved to Nauvoo, where his father bought property, opened up a farm on the prairie and built a brick house on Mulholland street, in the city, three blocks east of the Temple; he died in 1841. Abram became a member of the Nauvoo Legion and served with the posse under Col. Stephen Markham and Sheriff Jacob Backenstos in 1845. During the exodus of 1846 he rendered efficient service as captain of the numerous flat-bottomed ferry boats employed to cross the Mississippi river carrying the fleeing multitude. He was also in the first company that moved west in the main "Camp of Israel" which made its rendezvous on Sugar creek, and he drove a wagon for Joseph C. Kingsbury. He assisted to build the temporary settlement of Garden Grove, visited Missouri, and later made a trip to Pennsylvania to see some of his relatives who had identified themselves with the Rigdonite movement. He again joined the exiled Saints at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and assisted his brother Lorenzo to harvest a crop on "Brigham's Farm," near Winter Quarters, after which he went to the settlements of Missouri and there helped his brothers to earn a traveling outfit with which they with their families crossed the plains in 1850. Having spent the winter in Salt Lake City, Abram moved to Lehi, Utah county, in 1851, and assisted to build a grist mill at the mouth of American Fork canyon. Dec. 2, 1852, he married Miss Permelia Jane Lott, after which he made his home in Lehi till 1867 and assisted materially in the development of the place. He engaged in farming and stock-raising, and also kept a hotel. In 1861, in company with Captain John R. Murdock, he made a trip to the States for the purpose of bringing immigrants across the plains and buying and freighting merchandise for his store. They also freighted goods for others, and found it a profitable business. In 1863, he again went back to the Missouri river for the same purpose as in 1861. On both trips he drove a mule team in the train. Altogether he has made eleven trips between the Missouri river and Utah. In 1864-67 he filled a mission to Great Britain, where he labored as a traveling Elder in the Birmingham conference, later as president of the Manchester pastorate, and still later as president of the Birmingham pastorate. He also visited Switzerland, Germany and Holland. Returning to America, he crossed the Atlantic ocean in the steamship "Great [p.360] Eastern." He arrived home in August, 1867, and a few weeks afterwards he was called by Pres. Brigham Young to go to Wasatch county to act as presiding Bishop. He was ordained and set apart to that office Dec. 2, 1867. Under his wise and practical management Wasatch county soon became a prosperous and desirable locality and Heber City especially grew to be a town of importance. When the settlements of the Saints in Provo valley, or Wasatch county, were organized into a Stake of Zion, in 1877, Abram Hatch was appointed its president, and in that capacity he served about a quarter of a century. His duties as president were necessarily various, active and continuous. "He took a leading part in all measures adopted for the development of the resources of the county, and utilized them for building up the Stake and promoting both the material, moral and spiritual welfare of the people, in improving Church property, superintending the erection of public edifices, building roads, bridges, irrigating canals, etc." He also established a ranch in Ashley valley, where settlements of the Saints, that have since grown into a Stake of Zion, were founded. Pres. Hatch has served several times in the Utah legislature, has acted as probate judge of Wasatch county and been elected to many other offices within the gifts of the people. (See also Tullidge's Histories, Vol. 2, Bio. p. 187.)
   Permelia Jane Lott died 28 Nov 1880 in Heber City, Wasatch, UT.
6. Lucinda Alzina Lott b. 4 Mar 1834 in Tuckhannock, Luzerne, PA. She married William Sydney Smith Willes, 23 Apr 1852 in Lehi, Utah, UT. Lucinda and William had ten children.
   William Sydney  was born 18 Mar 1819 in Jefferson, Cole, MO, the son of Eleazer Willes/Willi and Achasah Jones. He practiced polygamy being married to both Lucinda Alzina Lott and Docia Emmerine Molen. He married Docia 15 Feb 1857. William died 3 Feb 1871 in Lehi, UT.
   Lucinda Alzina Lott died 18 Aug 1910 in Lehi, Utah, UT.
7. Harriet Amanda Lott b. 30 Mar 1836 in Tunckhannock, Luzerne, PA. d. 5 Oct 1847 at age 11.
8. Joseph Darrow Lott b. 18 Feb 1839 in Kirtland, Lake, OH. d. 15 Oct 1847 at age 8.
9. Peter Lyman Lott b. 2 Nov 1842 in Pittsfield, Pike, IL. Peter married Sarah Hannah Snow, 23 Dec 1862. Other researchers show that they had an issue of 9 children.
   Peter Lyman Lott died 1 Mar 1906 in Lehi, Utah, UT.
10. Cornelius Carlos Lott b. 30 Sep 1844 in Nauvoo, Hancock, IL and died 6 Jan 1845.
11. Benjamin Smith Lott b. 16 Nov 1848 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, UT. Benjamin married Mary Abigail Evans 25 Oct 1869. They had 8 children.
    Benjamin Smith Lott died 26 Mar 1923 in Lehi, Utah, UT.

Cornelius Peter Lott

Cornelius Peter Lott (September 22, 1798 – July 6, 1850) was an early member of the Latter Day Saint movement, father of one of Joseph Smith's plural wives,^[1] a member of the Council of Fifty and a Danite leader.^[2]

Early life and marriage

Lott was born in New York City, to Peter Lott and Mary Jane Smiley. His grandfather, also named Cornelius Lott, was sheriff of Somerset County, New Jersey, and served as Captain of the Middlesex County Men in the American Revolution.^[3][4]

Lott married Permelia Darrow^[5] on April 27, 1823. Sometime before 1834, both joined the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints). They moved to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1836.^[6] He later took on additional, plural wives as well.

Settling Missouri

See also: Mormon War (1838)

In 1838, the Lotts moved to Missouri and settled near Haun's Mill. During the 1838 Independence Day celebrations in Far West, Missouri, the military band passed in review of three men acting as Generals: Lott, Jared Carter, and Sampson Avard.^[7] Lott was involved with a rogue band of Mormons called "Danites", and during the 1838 Mormon War he led a Danite raid against a farm near Adam-ondi-Ahman. The farm had been harboring weapons and ammunition for a Missouri mob.^[8]

Settling Nauvoo

In the winter of 1838 - 1839, the Lotts were driven from Missouri with the rest of the Latter Day Saints. They settled in Pike County, Illinois, forty miles south of the main body of Saints in Nauvoo, in 1839, before moving to Joseph Smith's farm just southeast of Nauvoo.

Once in Nauvoo, Lott took over management of Smith's farm and purchased some adjacent land, on which he built an eight-room farmhouse.^[9][6] While there, he served as a Captain of Smith's bodyguard^[6] and received his endowment with W.W. Phelps and Joseph Fielding.^[10] In addition, Joseph Smith proposed marriage to Lott's daughter, Melissa.

Years later, Joseph Smith III, who was a boy at the time, recalled that the "rather old" Lott (then in his mid-forties and possibly with prematurely gray hair^[11]) "was still strong and muscular and was usually willing to demonstrate his strength."^[12] Smith related that not long after arriving in Nauvoo, Lott came to his father's red-brick store to purchase supplies. Joseph Smith had spent most of the afternoon wrestling with customers and had "thrown" all of them. When Lott walked in, carrying "a threatening-looking blacksnake whip that seemed to challenge all comers,"^[12] Smith challenged him to a match. After Lott threw aside the whip and accepted the challenge, Smith was unable to throw him.^[12][13]

Plural marriage

Lott practiced plural marriage. On January 22, 1846, he married three women: Elizabeth Davis,^[14] Rebecca Fossett, and Charity Dickenson. Elizabeth left while the family was in Winter Quarters, Nebraska.^[15] Rebecca left before the birth of their child, whom he never met. Charity appears to have stayed with him.

In 1848 he married Eleanor Wayman and Phebe Crosby Peck Knight, Hosea Stout's mother-in-law and widow of Joseph Knight.^[9]

Settling Utah

In late Spring 1848, Lott served as a captain in Heber C. Kimball's company, an early group crossing the plains. Mary Fielding Smith, a single mother and widow of Joseph Smith's brother Hyrum, was a member of the company. Lott told her that she should stay back until she could gather others to help her and her children make the journey. He said she would be a burden on the company.^[16] She refused, and according to her son, later church president Joseph F. Smith, Lott humiliated her throughout the trek. Joseph F. Smith despised Lott for his actions.^[17]

Once in the Salt Lake Valley, Lott and his families lived in a two-room house at the southwest corner of Third South and State Street in Salt Lake City. He managed a church farm in the Forest Dale area.^[18] One of his daughters married William S. S. Willes.

Lott died in 1850, of either dysentary or fatigue.

Temperence Keller

Temperence Keller Penrod-
Birth: Nov. 18, 1817 Rowan County North Carolina, USA
Death: Nov. 15, 1893 Provo Utah County Utah, USA

Temperance Keller

When the saints decided to go west Temperance and David had six children, all born in Union, Illinois. Two more children were born to them in Hancock, Iowa. As mob violence and persecution became greater, their lives were in danger from day to day. They began getting things together to start the long trek to the Promised Land, where there were no mobs or persecution. David was a wagon maker by profession. When they arrived at the Missouri River and many of the saints who had started the journey with ill prepared wagons and outfits, were held up because of broken parts, mostly wheels and tires, he was asked to remain there and repair them so the Saints could continue West. Temperance and David remained here for about a year after which they joined the Orson Hyde Company of 1849 and resumed the journey.

On the way to Utah they buried Soloman by the roadside. They covered him in a grave with rocks and sagebrush so the coyotes and Indians couldn't find it. During the journey Temperance became very ill with Cholera, in fact, she was so very ill they did not expect her to recover, so the wagon train moved on without them, leaving one man and woman to take care of her and the family. Through their great faith and prayers to their Heavenly Father, she was restored to health and was soon able to travel and they were able to catch up with the company. They arrived in Utah with the Company in 1849. They remained in Salt Lake for about a year, and then came with other families to Provo, moving into the Old Fort. While living at the Fort another son was born. They named him David Nephi

Later they moved to their own home, a four roomed adobe house located between 3rd and 4th West on Center Street in Provo. In this house it is presumed that the other four children were born.

David was a stock raiser and farmer. He kept sheep and after the shearing was done Temperance would wash the wool and prepare it, then spin it into year to make stockings, shawls, and other things for her family and also very often for needy families. It is said by neighbors and people far and near that Temperance was an Angel of Mercy. She went out in all kinds of weather to help the sick, taking with her food and medicine for the needy. In fact, she was in a way a mid-wife. She was always generous with others and would willingly share food and clothes with those not so fortunate as she.

During her life she was afflicted with asthma. After the death of her daughter Olive, who was married to George Meldrum, she took their infant daughter and raised her. After the death of her husband, and when the children were all married, it was lonesome for her living so far away from them, so they all pitched in a built her a two roomed house on a piece of land between Nephi and Amasa's homes. The boys built the new house for her without her knowing they were building it. When it was completed with paint and everything, they went to her home and said, "wouldn't you like to go for a ride"? Indeed she did, but the ride lasted so long she finally asked if it wasn't time to be getting home. In the meantime the others had moved her belongings to her new house. Imagine her joy and surprise when they took her to her new home.

The home her sons built for her still stands at 12th North between University Avenue and First East. She lived her for the remainder of her days. She is buried in the Provo City Cemetary
Information was sent to Diane Hawkins by Fran Ward from California
TIMELINE:
1817 born Rowan Co, North Carolina
1830 Census Union Co, IL
1832 Married David Penrod Union Co, IL
1840 Census Union Co, IL Baptized
1880 Census Provo, Utah Co,Utah
1893 Death Provo, Utah Co, Utah
Family links:
Parents:  Abraham Keller (1783 - 1854) and Sarah Hinkle Keller (1785 - 1826)
Spouse:  David Penrod (1815 - 1872)*
Children:  William Lewis Penrod (1832 - 1916)*  Soloman Penrod (1834 - 1849)* Elizabeth Penrod Wall (1836 - 1925)*  Sarah Evelyn Penrod Prescord (1840 - ____)* Christiana Penrod Smith (1842 - 1902)*
Israel Penrod (1843 - 1910)* Abraham Penrod (1844 - 1893)* Polly Elmina Penrod (1847 - 1848)* David  Nephi Penrod (1850 - 1915)* Temperance Penrod Evans (1852 - 1934)* Minerva Olive Penrod  m (1855 - 1879)* Ephraim Penrod (1857 - 1865)* Amasa Lyman Penrod (1858 - 1953)* *Point here for  on
Burial: Provo City Cemetery Provo Utah County Utah, USA Plot: Block 3, Lot 10

David Penrod

David Penrod
Birth: Jan. 9, 1815 Illinois, USA

Death: Feb. 26, 1872 Provo Utah County Utah, USA (Buried in Provo, Utah, Cemetery)
Son to Lewis and Polly Penrod. David and Temperance had 13 children, 7 boys and 6 girls.

HISTORY OF DAVID PENROD
1815-1872
Written by Mary P. Young

David was born 9 January 1815, in Jonesboro, Union County, Illinois, son of Lewis and Polly Beggs Penrod. He married Temperance Hinkle Keller. She was born in Rowan County, North Carolina, 17 November 1817.
A study of the Federal Census records shows us that David's grandfather, Samuel Penrod Sr., came to Illinois sometime before 1817. The family is not listed in the 1812 Census, so it was between those dates when they came.
David's father, Lewis, was married to Polly Beggs and his mother's name was Polly, but we do not know her maiden name. This Polly was the wife of Samuel Penrod Sr.; there are eight Penrod heads of families listed in the 1818 Census for Union County, Illinois. According to the group sheet we have for Samuel's father, John Penrod Sr., they seem to be brothers of Samuel Penrod Sr. David joined the Mormon Church and was a very intelligent and religious man; he accepted the Gospel in all its fullness, lived it, and taught it to his family.

William Jasper Boren Sr.

William Jasper Boren Sr.

William Jasper Boren was the oldest living child of Colman and Mlinda Keller Boren.  He was born November 30, 1837, at Peoria Illinois.  His father had come from Tennessee.  They moved to Nauvoo when he was a small boy, as they had joined the Church and wanted to be with the Saints.  He remembered the Prophet Joseph Smith and remembered when the Prophet and his brother were killed.  His father was a wealthy man at this time but it wasn’t long until they were going through the trials with the rest of the Saints.

When he was a lad of ten years, they were driven from their home and they started for Utah from Nauvoo.  They stopped for a while.  He walked all the way across the plains and drove his fathers oxen, three cows and the sheep.  They started with plenty of food and clothes.  His father was bringing them food, were not molested.  At one time they were delayed two days as their oxen had strayed, but they found them all. 

Through sharing their food with others, they didn’t have much left by the time they reached the valley.  They reached Utah in 1851 and settled in Salt Lake, Later settling in Provo.  Their home was between first and second south on third west.  He being the oldest child, he had many tasks to perform, among them was herding the sheep and cattle.  He also went to the canyon with his father for wood.  One time while heading the flock, a fellow came and started to ask about the people of Provo, later on he found out the was a man who had left the Church in Nauvoo and had come with Johnstons Army.  He went to Echo Canyon and was in the Echo Canyon War.  He saw and talked with chief Blackhawk.

When he grew to young manhood, he worked at the carpenter trade, also was a cabinet maker.  He made bedsteads, cupboards, tables, wash-stands and chairs.  He also made wooden dolls and sheds and he sold all he could make, especially at Christmas time.

After his father died, he looked after his mother and her interests.  When he was twenty-one years old, he met Lucina Mecham and after keeping company with her one year they were married July 3, 1859 in Provo, by Johnathan O. Duke, a very dear friend of the family.  He was very ambitious, he wanted always to get the best for his family.  He helped build the road in Provo Canyon.  He was one of the first settlers of Wallsburg.  William Wall and George Brown were the first.

While working one day, the Indians came and they had to leave their home in Wallsburg where they went to Heber and stayed in a granary.  His wifes sister, Emily and family stayed with them. The Allred family also stayed in the granary, but they had a carpet hung as a partition between them.  After staying in Heber a while, they went back to Provo.  But when there was no more danger of Indians, they moved back to Wallsburg.

One time he was in Provo Canyon five days without food, but they finally worked their way out, but they had a narrow escape.  He sent his mother her winter potatoes with his brother but that brother took the credit for the potatoes.  His mother died very suddenly with a heart attack.  He was always ready to help the poor and needy.  One Spring a lady said, “We would have starved to death in the winter if it hadn’t been for William J. Boren giving us food”. At one time there was a poor family near the Borens.  The Boren children said they felt sorry for them.  Their father said “How sorry are you?  Are you willing to divide what you have with them?”  The children thought for some time, the one of them said, “I guess I can give a dress.”  It was a few minutes until another spoke up and after another, when all had offered to give something that belonged to them their father said, “We will make it in a bundle and take it to them.”  It made the Boren children happy.  He learned to use tobacco before they knew it was wrong, and it was hard for him to overcome the habit.  But he succeeded in doing it.  He always felt like he would gain a blessing by doing it.

One morning his wife was going to do the family wash, she had her clothes piled in different piles.  Just after she started she missed one of the boys.  She looked for him and then her husband looked, but they could not find him.  They got the neighbors out looking too.  They thought he had been stolen by an Indian.  The men decided to take their gun and if one found him, he was to shoot the gun.  The hunt went on for two hours, when he thought he ought to go back and see how his wife was.  He had just been back a few minutes, then the little boy woke up and crawled from under a pile of clothes.  It didn’t take the father long to shoot his gun and call the men back again.

When William Wall was chosen as Bishop of the Wallsburg, grandfather was chosen as his first counselor.  He also worked in the Sunday School and in the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association.  He was a High Priest.

When he took his wife and family to Wallsburg, he had built a one room cabin, but he wasn’t long in building a farm house.  He bought stock in a cannery and lost what he put in. Then he bought stock in a co-op store, but one man got all the benefits of that.  He freighted from For Laramie to Salt Lake.  One time while in Parleys Canyon, one of his oxen got its leg broken and they had to kill it.  He had to borrow an ox to finish his trip.  He bought a Shingle Mill and made shingles for a few years.  He was successful ar farming and cattle raising.  He and some friends bought a threshing machine, it was run by hoursepower.  His two brothers lived with him after their mother died, until they had homes of their own.  His father had two wives, his second wife married Robert Broadhead.  When she married, his mother divided everything with her and she looked after his second wifes children.  She felt it was her duty.  He often said his mother was the best looking woman he ever saw and he also thought she was one the best.  Although his mother left a great deal of property, he never received any of it.  His three sisters got it.  His brother Alma died a young man, he was not married.  At one time he was selling grain and as he was scooping the measure up the men said, “You sure believe in giving a good measure.” He agreed, “Well, I don’t want to have to go back and give somebody a few pounds of grain when I get on the other side.”  It was a lesson that some of his children never forgot.  He was honest in all his dealings and his word was as good as his bond.

On March 7, 1870, he took his wife and went to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.  After a few years, his brother Bryant came from Arizona and his brothers and sisters went to Salt Lake and were sealed to their parents.  He also had a half-sister and for half-brothers.

One time his wife said she would like some cucumbers.  His team was out on the range.  She thought he had gone for his team, but the next day he came home with a sack of cucumbers.  He had walked the twenty-five miles to Provo and back for the cucumbers.

At one time his neighbor needed a doctor, he got his cart and rode forty-eight miles and got the doctor.  Then he took him home again.  He bought the first Surrey in Wallsburg, They sure were a proud family that could ride in a surrey in place of a cart on White Top.

His wife was President of the Primary and as there was no place for the children to meet, he made benches and moved them in and out on Primary day, so his wife could hold Primary in her own home.  He built a large room on the North of his house, they held meetings, parties and even dances there.

One Christmas he surprised his family with a hanging lamp.  He fixed it up Christmas eve after the family had retired.  Christmas morning all were thrilled to see the Lamp, to see those glass pendants hanging on it.  It was something to own one in those days.  He was always giving the family something nice.  They were the second in Wallsburg to have an organ.  He built many houses, at one time he built a house at Deer Creek, where the cannery is now.

When his oldest boys got married, he gave them each ten arces of ground, a team, 3 cows, sheep and a pig and told them if they wanted to, they could get rich.  He also made cupboards and wash-stands for his daughter-in-laws.  The youngest boy had to make his own without a fathers help for in 1892 he trusted a friend which took everything he had in land, but the home and two lots.  He had to sell his cattle at a sacrifice as he had no wasy to deed them that fall.  The next summer, he was ill and he never was well after that.  He had diabetes.  After being ill for seven years, he died May 16, 1900.  He was a firm believer in the Latter Day Saint Church until the day he died.

William Jasper Boren Jr.

William Jasper Boren Jr.

Written by Nola Boren(wife of Leo Boren – Grandson of William Jasper Jr.)

William Jasper Boren Jr. was born 11 April 1860 in Provo, Utah.  He was the son of William Jasper Boren Sr. and Lucina Mecham.  They lived in Provo for four years where William Jasper Sr. worked as a carpenter and cabinet maker.  They sold their home in Provo and came to Wallsburg, Wasatch, Utah by way of ox team to make their home.  William Jasper Jr. helped his father on the farm until he was 23 years old.  The then married Temperance Wall, the daughter of William and Elizabeth Penrod Wall, the 6^th of Sept, 1883 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.  They were blessed with a family of ten children.  He had a nice farm and raised hay, grain, and summer beets.  He also had dairy and range cattle.  He was Sunday School Superintendent for some time.  He was released and taught the Adult Class in Sunday School for years.  From 1901 to 1903 he was on a mission to the southern states.  His headquarters were in North Carolina.  On 11 May 1903, he was called as Second Counselor to Bishop George Peter Graff.  On 26 May 1908 he was called as first counselor to Bishop Graff.  He was released as Bishops counselor 28 June 1912.  He was then called as second counselor in the YMMIA.  He took part in the theater and plays for which he enjoyed very much.  He was on the Wallsburg ball team.  In 1892 he played the base horn in the Wallsburg band.  He was a school trustee for fifteen years.  When the school house was being built, he hauled flag rock from lake creek with a team of horses and helped with the building.  He was Justice of the Peace from 1917 to 1919.  He was a road supervisor for a time then Deputy Road Commissioner.  He died in the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City on the 4^th of April, 1926.  He was laid to rest in the Wallsburg Cemetery.

Sara Elizabeth Ross

Sara Elizabeth Ross

Sara Elizabeth Ross was born 23 April 1843, in Newark, Essex county, New Jersey, a daughter of Stephen Weeks Ross and Jane Stephensen.  Her family was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and later crossed the plains to join the saints in Utah.  She met and married James Jackson Lamb on 21 March 1863.  They made their first home in Lehi, Utah, where James was involved multiple times in protecting the settlers during the Indian Wars.  They lived in Lehi until they had six children.  Then about 1874, they bought a farm in Wallsburg, Wasatch Co.  Here four more children were born, making 10 in all, five boys and five girls.  One died as a child, and one never married, but the remaining eight had families of their own, so that now they have a numberous posterity scattered over much of the west.  Sara passed away on the 5^th of October 1927 and was buried in Wallsburg beside her husband.

James Jackson Lamb

The Life History of James Jackson Lamb

By Elva May Lamb Boren (Granddaughter)

My grandfather , James Jackson Lamb, was a man of good character, a trusted citizen, a good husband and father and had many friends where ever he was known.  His life was an interesting one, of hard, experiences.  I only knew my grandfather a few short years, but in remembering back through the years, I loved my grandfather very much and respected in very way.  So in writing this history, I hope that whoever reads this, will learn to love him as we did who knew him.

James Jackson Lamb, was born at Huron, Wayne County, New York, April 29, 1835, son of Erastus and Abigail Mindwell Jackson Lamb.  His father was a native of Connecticut and his mother was born in Seneca county, New York.

The family joined the Mormon Church and in 1852 began the journey across the plains.  His father died on the plains, it must have been hard for this little family to leave him there and go on their way.  Great Grandmother bravely gathered up her little family, three sons and a daughter and fought the trials and hardships and journeyed to Utah, where she immediately went to Lehi, where she made her home.  Here my grandfather, James grew to manhood, met and married Sarah Elizabeth Ross.  They lived in Lehi until they had six children.  Then about 1874, he bought a farm in Wallsburg, Wasatch Co.  Here four more children were born, making 10 in all, five boys and five girls.  One died as a child, and one never married, but the remaining eight had families of their own, so that  now Grandfather Lamb has a numberous posterity scattered over much of the west.

On March 21, 1866 he enlisted in the Black Hawk War and was mustered out of service July 18, 1866.  He also fought all through the Walker War.

When James Jackson Lamb volunteered for  duty in the Black Hawk Indian War, he was an old hand in Indian struggles.  He had gone in 1856, just before he was 21 years old, to what was called the Tintic War, had been at the age of 25 to the relief of the settlers at fort Lemhi, Idaho, and when the call came for volunteers for the Black Hawk War, he was among the first men to leave Lehi.

Grandfather was married and the father of two children, when the first company from Utah county was organized into a preliminary expedition, under the command of Washburn Chipman of American Fork.  The company was made up of men from the neighboring towns of north Utah county.  They left the third of March, 1866, traveling by way of Cedar Valley, Tintic valley, and on south to Cherry Creek.  Although they heard of skirmishes between other troops and bands of Indians, this company did not encounter one Indian before they were disbanded in Lehi, March 27, having been gone just three weeks.  May 1^st of the same year grandfather, who had enlisted for the “duration of the Indian troubles” was given the rank of sergeant and was organized into a company under Abraham G. Conover of Provo.  The company went first to Sanpete county where the Indians had caused the most trouble.  The next two and one half months were spent guarding the towns of Sanpete and Sevier counties and going with scouting parties as far south as Circle Valley.  The men were disbanded July 18^th.

Perhaps the most exciting encounter grandfather had with the Indians was the so called “Tintic War”, a disturbance confined to North Utah county in the late winter of 1856.  An Indian was reported to have stolen an ox from a herd at Goshen, the men in charge of the herd of cattle sent word to Utah county sheriff who then gathered a posse and started for Cedar Valley.  Fifteen men from Lehi Militia, among whom was grandfather Lamb, then a young man of 21 years, were called to assist but they arrived at the scene too late.  Two of the herders Henry Morgan and Washington Carson had already been killed by the red men.  Grandfather and John Glynes were sent to take the sad news to Cedar Valley and by doing so missed the wanton killing and scalping of the third man.  A larger force was sent out and in a few days the trouble had ended for a time.

Grandfather’s most hazardous experience took place when he went with a group of men to the Salmon river country in Idaho to rescue the settlers from Fort Lemhi who were being harried severely by the Indian tribes of that area.  At the call of President Brigham Young, men from several communities gathered at fort Ogden from where they left 11 March 1858.  Many of them were wearing moccasins, most of them had no overcoats, and much of the underwear men were wearing had been made from worn out wagon covers which had crossed the plains.  Deep snow and high mountain passes made the journey slow and difficult, they reached the fort after going to Malad, Blackfoot, up the Snake river to the head of the Salmon and then downstream to the fort which they reached March 28, The Fort Lehmi settlers were brought back to safety and it was many years before Mormons again moved into the Salmon river area.

He drove one of the first teams back to Florence, Nebraska, in Joseph Young’s company after Mormon immigrants who were too poor to furnish ways for themselves to come to Utah.  While at Florence, he was chosen to drive to Utah with George Q. Cannon, who was just returning from England.

Because of his generous and helpful nature he was beloved by friends and neighbors wherever he lived. His services in the Indian Wars were recognized by the United States Ware Department and he was pronounced eligible for bounty lands but as far as we know he did not take advantage of the bounty law.

This great man whom everyone loved, was thrown from a load of lumber and instantly killed, October 21, 1896, at the age of 61 years, leaving a wife, five boys and four girls.  He was buried in Wallsburg, Utah.

Temperance Wall

TEMPERANCE WALL BOREN

Temperance Wall was born October 8, 1865 at Wallsburg in the Old Fort near Spring Creek. She was the youngest daughter of William Madison and Elizabeth Penrod Wall. Her father died when she was four years old. She helped her mother glean wheat and helped tend the sheep. Then she picked wool for her mother to spin yarn for their stockings.

When she was older she worked at a place near Charleston for fifty cents a week. She worked until she got enough to buy calico material for a new dress.

When she was eighteen years old she was married to William Jasper Boren Jr. in Salt Lake City Endowment House, September 6, 1883. They lived on a farm in Wallsburg all their lives. They milked cows, and Mother made butter and cheese, for which she couldn't beat. She had two different butter molds to print the butter with. She sold her cheese and butter and eggs to John Greer. He took them to Park City and sold them there.

She was a good nurse, also a good cook. She liked to sew and make quilts. She was a good Latter-day Saint; she was a Relief Society Teacher for years.

They were blessed with a family of ten children; Malinda, William, Archie, Maude who died Jan 17, 1913, Ray who died Nov. 2, 1939, Ellis, Polly, Ethel died July 18, 1952. Eldwin died Jan 6, 1949, and Areva.  Temperance died December 6, 1949, she was laid to rest in the Wallsburg Cemetery.

Written by Melinda Boren Ford.

Elva Mae Lamb

Elva Mae Lamb

I was born October 18, 1889, in Lehi, Utah.  I was born in a two room dobby home, with two rooms upstairs and I lived there until I was six years old.  We rented after that in many homes in Lehi.  I was baptized in the LDS church when I was 8 years old in the old Mill Pond, by the Lehi Sugar Factory.

When I was about 5 years old on the 4^th of July, I spilled something on my dress.  We took it off and washed.  It was very pretty and covered with lace.  It was made of pink sateen.  So while it dried I decided to go to town with a nickel.  I took my mother’s parasol.  When mother discovered I had gone, my oldest cousins started to hunt for me.  They found me in my petticoat prancing around town.

 I remember going with the folks to fields and swamps after cat tails for our beds.  We put the fuzz in the ticking to make the mattresses.  The cat tails were thickest by the Mill Pond.

I remember one year we heard the world was coming to an end, so I took all my play things and put them in the grainery. I had a cupboard and a table, dishes and a doll.

I went to a little school house behind the old 1^st Ward Chapel .  It had two rooms.  I went  to the first grade under Miss Baker and then I went to the second grade in the second room.

I remember we used to roll in the snow and have such a good time.  We used to  make snowmen too.

We never had very much for Christmas of anything.  But one Christmas I got some little dishes. They were painted.  I put them on the stove and the paint burned.  I’ll never forget the smell of that paint.  I usually got a little doll.  We didn’t always have a tree, when we did it was a cedar, and we decorated it with popcorn and apples.

I mixed my first batch of bread when I was seven years old.  My mother was sick. Later my dad had to put water with it and mix it over.  From then on I mixed the bread.  My mother was sick from then on and I had to learn to do a lot of things.

My father was a cripple, he fell on the ice when he was 14 years old, and bruised his hip.  The bone decayed and every year his hip would gather and break after that.  He could only work part of the time.

For three years my mother could not stand on her feet and had to stay in the house all the time to help.  She had sinking spells.  I remember standing by the window watching the other kids playing outside.  But I was always well and healthy.

One year my father bought us a little pig and said we could have it if we would feed it.  So one day we would treat it awfully well and the next day we would forget it until it got black tooth and my dad had to kill it.

My father died when he was forty-one.  The leg injury turned to T.B. of the bone.  I was thirteen years old.  He was sick one month.  When he died, mother had a baby one month old.  The night the baby was born he was so sick he couldn’t sit up.

I never had a colorful or happy life.  My father was poor and we had to get by the best we could.  I used to walk 1½ miles to school each day after I was in third grade.  I finished my sixth grade.  After that I had to go to work for a living.  There was no welfare in those days.  We used to make hollyhock dolls and put a current on top for its head.  We never had much to play with.  We had to make our own fun.

In the winter I went to school more than once with holes in the bottom of my shoes.  I would put a piece of cardboard in the bottom of my shoe in the morning and when I got to school, I would have to put another piece of cardboard in my shoe.  I even went to dances with a cardboard in the bottom of my shoes.

I was always scared and quiet in school.  I had so many freckles.  They and my red hair were the plague of my life.  The kids used to say, ‘Red head – wet the bed’. And, “Do you know why you have freckles?  Your mother washed you and forgot to dry you and you rusted.”

My mother said if she send me on an errand and I didn’t come back soon, I would be helping someone.  If anyone was in trouble or sick or a funeral, I was always there helping someone.  Once my mother sent me somewhere and I ended up in another part of town in a home where there was a funeral.  A boy had been shot and the mother asked me if I would stay at her home and fix dinner.

I started to school in the 7^th grade, but I had to stop because I didn’t have any clothes.  I started to work out for people and house cleaned for three weeks first for one person and then for another.  I worked for women who had new babies, most of the other girls wouldn’t work like that but I did it.  There  used to be a midwife,  Mrs. Long, to take care of new babies and the mothers.  And more than once she would ask me to wash a new baby and dress it so she could hurry on.

The Relief Society wanted me to go take a course in nursing and I thought I would but I got married instead.

Allen’s built a big barn and paid for it by holding dances in it before they turned it into a barn.  When we didn’t have a date Dad Mecham – Ephriam Mecham, would take us in a bobsleigh.  He would take all of the young girls, and we would have a lot of fun.

We used to go to the Hot Pots in Heber often in the summer.  We would go into the water for a little while, then we would have a picnic.  Neither Will or I liked to swim very much.

We, a big group of girls, would go to the corner block in Wallsburg and sing.  My aunt said, “My, I surely missed you young girls singing on the corner after you were married.”

I went to the Hot Pots on my first date with Will. We went in a white top buggy.  It belonged to his dad and we thought we mighty special, to use it.

I worked at the Sugar Factory Boarding house.  I would get up at 4:00 AM and then I wouldn’t get to bed until 10 or 11 PM.  The trainmen would come in for supper late.  I had to walk about two miles to the boarding house from my house.  I worked so hard there that I got blisters all over the bottoms of my feet.  I had to lay off work for a week until the blisters healed.

I used to do a lot of roller skating. I was able to skate really good. I won a prize roller skating at the old Garff building in Lehi.  The prize was one dollar. We used to go to Saratoga Springs.  It used to be called Beck’s Hot Springs.  The name was later changed to Saratoga.

I was never home longer than a week at a time between jobs.  I used to go out and wash for people too.

My last Christmas, I got a glass basket with a little bottle of perfume on each side.  Will usually sent me some money.  I bought me an old trunk once, then I started buying things to put in it.  Once I bought a pretty platter, sheets, tablecloths, etc.

Mother  had to take in washings after my father died.  She had a little baby that was sickly and she had to feed him on Horrlicks Malted Milk.  Whenever my brother or I any extra money we would give it to her for some milk for the baby.

Will came and got me, and we went over to Provo and were married by a Justice of the Peace.  Will hired the hall and we had a wedding dance.  We had to furnish a wedding dance for everyone to enjoy.  I had a beautiful white dress, it had tiny tucks all around the full skirt – four tiers of flounces.  The top had a high collar and insertions.  There were tucks and narrow lace insertions in each flounce.  My cousin made it for me.

The wedding presents I got were, a pair of pillows from Will’s mother, a quilt from my mother, a platter, a set of dessert dishes.  An uncle gave me a hen and a rooster.  My great grandfather, William Clark, gave me a set of towels.  We called him grandfather even though he was my father’s step father.  He was one of the original pioneers of Lehi.  He helped start the bank and the coop.

We lived in Wallsburg after we were married.  I spent the first summer in Lehi and Wallsburg while Will was at the  herd.  In the Fall, we got a big one-roomed house.  I had 3 strips of carpet sewed together.  It filled half the room and that part was the bedroom.  The other part was my kitchen.  I had to scrub the kitchen floor.

The year Leo was born Will played on the basketball team in M.I.A.  We used to bundle Leo up and go in a bob sleigh to the games in Center Creek, Charleston, Midway, an Heber.  Everyone took their babies in those days.  We used to have married peoples parties in those days and take pot luck about once a week.  We used to go to dances.  Will didn’t dance, but I liked to dance.  We would go to the Meeting House in Wallsburg.

I worked in the Primary and was a Relief society Teacher.  I’ve been a Relief society Teacher for 55 years.

The first home we bougth was a big doby room with a shanty on the back.  We were so proud of it.  After we paid for it, we bought a better one.  Then we bought a farm in Charleston.  It was a brick home, with six rooms and a shanty.  I worked in the Primary for 15 years in Charleston.  I used to sing in the ladies chorus.  I used to be in most of the pageants there.  We used to have parties in Charleston too.  A big bunch of us, Ray & Hazel Boren, Lillian & Ferris Hoover,  Hi & Mae Carlson, and Ralph & Zella Thacker.  We used to play rook a lot there as well in Wallsburg.

Will used to ski in Wallsburg.  He used to coax me to go but I wouldn’t.  One day he came in all white.  I had dinner already.  He was so sick he couldn’t eat.  He had hurt his leg.  He had to go to the Doctor with it.