Benjamin Waldron married Emeline
Savage in polygamy at Kanesville, Iowa near Winter
Quarters. Levi Savage Waldron was born to this marriage, July 7, 1850 in Kanesville, Potawattamie, Iowa.
The following year, Emeline took her baby, Levi and her step son, Gillispie, age 12, and traveled with the James Allred
Company to Utah. Levi's mother told him of how his life was spared on at least
two occasions. One time Levi, being a baby, crawled into the middle of the
circle of wagons among the cattle. His mother told him how lucky he was to get
out alive. On another occasion they survived a buffalo stampede. They arrived
in the Salt Lake Valley a couple of days after Levi's first birthday. They
lived in their wagon in the pioneer
village for the rest of the summer and winter.
The next year Benjamin
joined them. On Aug. 18, 1853, a new baby brother, Benjamin, was born to Emeline and Ben. The family then moved to Centerville, Utah
where Benjamin built a shoe shop of adobe and made shoes
In the spring of 1855,
Emeline, baby Ben, Gillispie,
and Benjamin went to the south end of the Malad
Valley at a place called Oregon Springs, close to east Portage, with some other
families to homestead the land. The first house at Oregon Springs was built of
sod. Later they built a house of cedar logs. The conditions were harsh and the
Indians troublesome. Indians eventually forced the family to return to
Centerville
In 1869 Emeline and her children returned to Malad.
She and Benjamin had a misunderstanding, and they divorced. Emeline
and the children lived with another family for a while and later moved to
Samaria about October 6, 1870. Levi and Ben took care of their mother. They
built her a log house.
In 1873, Davinah
Elizabeth Roderick, a lovely Welsh convert, was with her family on their way
into the Malad Valley. They met a wagon train of farm
produce moving south. The roads were narrow and dirt. They stopped to converse
one with another. Levi, in the train, chanced to see Lizzy
(as she was called) with her parents, learned their intentions to settle in
Samaria, and told his companions "that is the girl I am going to
marry." He was 23 years old then, he had never shaved in life. He
was covered with the dust of farm labor on his work clothes. The fellows told
him "she might already have a beau," but Levi told them he would cut
him out. Davinah Elizabeth was only 13 or so years
old and was not at all attracted to the young man who had fallen in love with
her. The Roderick family continued on into the valley.
Davinah Elizabeth Roderick was born June 5, 1859, in Pendoylan Parish, Glamorganshire, South
Wales. She was the daughter of David and Hannah Spencer Roderick. They lived
near the mines, and her father worked as a carpenter in the mines.
Davinah Elizabeth, or "Lizzie", as she was
always called, was one of nine children in the family. She had very little
schooling, but she was a very good speller.
The Roderick family,
converts to the church in 1851, immigrated in 1869. They traveled to Utah by
train. The Roderick family stayed with their daughter, Margaret, in Brigham,
for a time before moving to Perry, then Pole Patch which is now called Mt.
Pleasant, just north of Ogden. They were there about two years and then moved
to Samaria, Idaho in 1873.
Levi built a home for
his bride in Samaria. Whenever he would mention that he had built a house
before he was married, he would say, "I always believe that you should
build a cage before you got the bird.”
On January 11th, 1875,
Levi and Davinah Elizabeth were married in the
Endowment house in Salt Lake City by President John Taylor. Levi loved Davinah very much. He devoted his entire life to making a
good living for her and the children. After their marriage, they moved into a
two room log house. Elizabeth was not yet sixteen but she knew how to cook and
sew.
Levi was a typical
pioneer, dealing with untamed Indians and homesteading in the wilderness. He
had little schooling but he had a very brilliant mind and had many inventions.
He was a hard worker. He cut and hauled a lot of wood. Levi and Davinah lived in Samaria for nine years, and then decided
to move to Gwenford, Idaho. When they left, they also
moved their house there. Over the years they built on and remodeled their home
until they had a modern house with many conveniences, unusual at that time.
Five children were born in Samaria. Eight more children were born in Gwenford.
Lizzie always had to
work hard. To keep house for a husband and twelve children, one having died, is
no easy task. Many times she had to wash until 10 o'clock at night on the
washboard with homemade soap. She did all of the sewing for the family and knit
mittens and stockings for all of them. Many a night, she had to sit up almost
all night to finish a pair for one of the children. When the children were
small and Levi was away from home, Lizzie had to milk the cows. Often times,
she would bundle her baby up in a shawl and go out to the barn to milk. She
also helped clear sage brush from the land.
Levi took up a claim
and bought land. He helped his children get farms of their own. After he moved
to Gwenford, he made a track of 2 x 4's and a truck
that held a barrel that was sent down the hill to the mill to get water. He had
a way to stop the barrel. He would then hook a horse to the barrel and pull it
to the top of the hill. That is how he brought water to the house.
In the year 1895, he
invented a water-wheel to use in rolling grain and cutting wood and running
grind stones. He owned the first blacksmith shop in the valley. He kept a diary
for 50 years. It is now preserved in the Special Collections library at Brigham
Young University. He spelled phonetically following his English accent. He kept
track of business transactions, work hours, deaths and funerals and the graves
that he helped dig. He recorded his feelings when his little son, David, was
very ill and died, and other trials that came his way.
He wired his house and
had electric lights run by power provided by the water wheel, which worked very
well. That was before Western States Utilities brought lines and replaced
Levi's electric. He built a fencer that stretched the wire for making fences,
making it easier to staple the wire to the posts. It was pulled along to
stretch the wire and the old wire could also be wound up on the spools. He made
this in his shop, and it saved a lot of time when he fenced. He also fixed an
outfit to pull old staples out of the fenceposts.
Levi bought a grain
binder, but it wasted so much grain that he fixed a canvas where the grain was
coming out, thus saving the grain. The agent came and saw how he had fixed the
binder. He shared his idea with them thinking they might pay him for the idea
but they said they couldn't use the idea. The following year they produced a
model using the very idea he had given them. He was never given credit or paid
for his idea.
Levi bought a well
machine and dug most of the wells in Samaria and surrounding communities.
He was a man with yankee drive and ingenuity. He had
three months of formal education, but all lived better because of his
achievements. He was creative with many skills. In 1908, he weatherboarded
and lathed and plastered the old house and remodeled it. A few years later, he
added rooms on to that again making a nice house. He also built his mother a
brick house near his brother's store.
Levi was always busy.
He dug wells, flowing wells, and made duck and fish ponds. He gathered ice from
his ponds and stored it in sawdust from his mill and preserved it for use in
the summer months. Many came to get ice from him to make ice cream. He made a
measuring chain out of heavy galvanized clothes line in foot lengths, two rods
long, to measure land. It was used for many years.
The last few years of
his life he spent whittling miniature ox yokes and chains from wood with his
pocket knife. He carved many beautiful things. He was also a carpenter.
He was generous and
hospitable and made everyone welcome in his home. He always offered food and
lodging. Levi played the violin and often played for the local dances with Mr.
Palmer and Joseph Thorpe. Their music was in popular demand. He played by ear.
Levi did his civic
duty. He always voted. He served jury duty even when he had to travel all the
way to Blackfoot over dangerous roads past Robbers Roost. He helped build the
canal to Washakie for irrigation for the Indians. He built toys for his
children, worked on guns and made targets. He took his family to pick choke
cherries. He was on the board of the Samaria Water and Irrigation Company.
At the age of 73, he
was still very active improving his inventions, making shoes, sawing wood, and such things. Levi would bounce the grandchildren
on his knee and sing "Old Dan Tucker" to them. He also told them
Indian stories.
Lizzy loved to hitch her horse to the buggy and go
to visit her family and friends. When anyone was in trouble or needed help, she
was always there to assist in every possible way. She continued to drive her
horse and buggy until she was 70 years old.
Lizzie said, "It
wasn't always easy to go to church with a large family like mine, but I tried
to teach them to go, and I think I have a good family."
She taught Relief
Society for a number of years and had a testimony of the Gospel. Even
though she had plenty to do, she found time to entertain guests, and everyone
was welcome in her home. She was a very good cook. All her grandchildren
loved to come and enjoy her raisin bread, and they often said that her homemade
bread was better than cake. I remember her raisin filled cookies which were
very good and always available when I went to visit her.
On January 11, 1925,
Levi and Lizzie celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Most of their
children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were present.
Levi became ill and
was confined to his bed for fourteen months before his death and no one could have
been kinder and gentler to him than Lizzy was. She
cared for him until his death on March 9`h, 1936 in Gwenford.
He was buried in Samaria. His funeral was very large as most of the community
attended.
After his death, she
kept house for her son, Charles, and seemed to have good health for several
years. Even though she was getting old, no one ever came to her home without
her wanting to fix them something to eat, no matter what time of day or night
it might be.
A short time before
her death, she was honored at a Mother's and Daughter's program at Malad. There were five generations present, and they
had their pictures taken together.
In her older years she
lived with her son, Lew and his family as did Charles.
Lizzie passed away at
her home in Gwenford, January 14, 1947, at the age of
87, after an illness of three months. It was possible that she had cancer of
the liver according to one of her historians. She was survived by 11 children,
79 grandchildren, 121 great grandchildren, and 12 great, great grandchildren.
One writer reported a posterity of 224 at that
time. She was buried in the Samaria Cemetery.
Information was
obtained from several histories by Mary W. Howell, Hannah W. Atkinson and some
unknown writers. Some information came from the book by Elizabeth
Ballard, Pioneer Destiny, The Samaritan by Raymond R. Martin
and Esther Jenkins Carpenter, Welsh Mormon History on
the internet and Daughter's of the Utah
Pioneers Museum in Salt Lake City.
