Elizabeth Bennett Hunter
1844-1924
Elizabeth,
the oldest daughter, a beautiful girl was 19 years of age when her family set
sail from their homeland. She could well remember the friends left behind, and
the many weeks aboard ship that seemed would never end. She also could remember
the landing and the trip to Albany
in cattle cars before they could proceed on with their westward trek. She saw
the soldiers, and sensed the troubled times. She said they had hung their hats
and bonnets up and the cattle ate them, “and they were nice ones too.”
She
remembered the vessel could not get up the Missouri River, as the river was so
low, so the Captain said that all that could walk must get out and walk to Omaha. The mothers with
small children and the aged stayed on the ship, and all the able-bodied men
were held back to help.
Elizabeth, with her
younger brothers and sister to care for, set out on foot with the company
through the woods. They found several kinds of wild fruits and nuts, and plenty
of wild pigs.
They
got through the woods alright and then they came across two men in a covered
wagon and a yoke of oxen, the first oxen and covered wagon they had ever seen-a
queer sight for them. The men said, “Put all the small children in the wagon,”
which they did, as they were very tired.
They
all went to a school house to stay that night. They had no bedding so they had
to use anything they could to make beds for the children. The older ones sang
hymns and songs most of the way. The ship got up the river the next day. They
stayed at St. Joseph over night and her father
and brothers went on the Missouri River to Omaha.
When
they arrived in Florence, Nebraska, they stayed for a few days to wash
all their dirty clothes. There she met John D. Hunter, who later became her
husband. She, with a number of others, had been called and sent by the leaders
of the church with their outfits to meet and bring the poorer saints to Utah. She came in the
same company as he did. They crossed the plains in Samuel D. White’s company
with ox-team. She walked all the way, a thousand miles, and arrived in Salt Lake City the 15th
of October, 1863.
When
they arrived in Fillmore, John and Elizabeth were married by Thomas Callester, and the next day they went to his home in Cedar City.
They
lived there until March, 1864 then moved back to Fillmore. They were met at
Beaver by her father and brother Edward.
The
members of the Bennett family were all good singers, and the good people of
Fillmore were attracted by their singing. So, they held a concert. For their
pay, they received some molasses, dried fruit, flour and potatoes. There was
very little money. What the people nowadays have, they were glad to get then.
Early
in February, her father and brother, Ben, went to Deseret to work on the dam in
the Sevier River. They worked about a month
and built a room which had a dirt floor, willows and dirt roof. (Elizabeth’s husband made
some adobe bricks and built a two room house and covered it with willows and
mud.)
(My
father and Uncle Ted went to Beaver for lumber casings. My mother’s home had a
lumber floor in it. When it would rain, the water and mud would come through
down the clean white washed walls, on the beds, clothes and all.)
That winter of 1864, wheat prices
went up to five and seven dollars per bushel. My! It was hard coming from a
place of plenty, but then have to eat bran bread and work hard but they did it
for the gospel’s sake. (I have heard my mother tell and well remember some of
the hardships and trials, but never heard her murmur or complain.)
Matches were so hard to get. They
had to cover the red coals at night and if they couldn’t get their fire started
they would go and borrow some from their neighbors who did have fire.
Her first pieces of furniture were
two homemade chairs. Father put raw-hide in the bottom. She no stove so they
baked in a bake skillet and frying pan. The bed was wood with pegs at sides and
at the end it was corded with raw-hide.
When John E. Hunter was born, Elizabeth had two gingham
aprons. She took one apron to make a dress for her baby when he was born. She didn’t
have anything else.
One morning when her husband got
up, his oxen were gone. He told Elizabeth
he would have to go get them so he left her in their dugout cellar which they
lived in and went to track the oxen. He followed them to Whiskey Creek, 25 miles
East of Deseret, then south of Holden and came to a creek where the water comes
down from Pioneer
Canyon. There was a large
meadow of blue grass and they stopped there to feed. He found them there and
stayed before starting back to Deseret the
next morning. He had walked 50 miles before he found his oxen. He walked back
to Deseret. He had been gone 5 days. He
hitched his oxen to the wagon, took his scythe and went back to Pioneer Creek.
He cut and tied in bundles enough blue grass to feed the oxen during the
winter. Next spring, he came back as they were settling in Holden. He acquired
a farm south of Holden.
Every June, some of the grand
children would go to the field with Elizabeth and John by team and wagon to
pick gooseberries.
She lived in Deseret while her
husband worked on the railroad in Echo Canyon, went back to Deseret and got
their few belongings, left all they had worked hard for-their home, and farm-
and never received a penny. (They moved to Holden in October,
1868 where they lived until the time of her death.) She was a faithful
Latter-Day-Saint, a Relief Society Teacher for fifty-four years, a Primary
President for twenty-five years, and a member of the ward choir sixty years.
While Primary President, she had
all the children bring a tree and a beautiful park was planted in front of the
church. She was the mother of ten children and fifty-four grandchildren at the
time of her death.
When she was first married and they
moved to Cedar where her husband John D. and his two brothers had the Hunter
Co-Op Store, they were prospering, but she was 19 years old and pined for her
mother and family so they moved back to Deseret.
Her first two children, John Edward and Elizabeth Jane were born in the old mud
Fort at Deseret. They went to Salt Lake City and went through the Endowment
House October 3, 1868, so the other children were born under the covenant.
