Jones, William Ellis - Journal

WILLIAM ELLIS JONES – JOURNAL

 

           William Ellis Jones, the subject of this journal, was born April 6th, 1817, in the Parish of Mold, County of Flint.

 

            My father’s name is John Jones.  He was born in the Parish Hawarden.  Mother’s name is Catherine.  Her maiden name was Ellis.

 

            My father’s father and mother were John and Ann.  My Mother’s father and mother were Robert and Elizabeth.  My parents had nine children:  Paul, the oldest, now living at Manchester, England.  (Died March 1st, 1875)—NOTE: St. George LDS Temple Records provide a different date of death for Paul, 14 Feb 1881, which seems to be more accurate.)  John died in infancy.  Ann, my oldest sister, died at the age of 14.  John the 2nd is living near St. Helen’s, Lancashire, England.  Mary is living at Churton Grange Farm, Cheshire, England. Her husband’s name is William Parker.

 

            I am next in age.  I am the only one of the family that has hitherto embraced the Gospel.  Elizabeth is next younger than me.  She died when three years old.  Elizabeth 2nd is still living on Buckley Mountain, where all of mother’s children were born.  Thomas is still living at Buckley too.  He is the youngest of the family.  He has possession of father’s old homestead, though it rightly belongs to Paul.

 

            Always inclined to be religious from childhood, I learned to pray in secret when I was a very small boy and was very fond of reading good books, the Bible being my chief study.  I used to attend Sunday School and was a teacher when quite young.  At the age of seventeen I united with a religious sect called Independents and was very strict in attending meetings.  But as I grew older I found that I could not endorse the doctrines of their sect.  And I looked about to find some society that suited my notions of religion better than the Independents.  Accordingly, I united with the Wesleyan Methodists as they suited my views of religion better than any other people.

 

            At the age of twenty I commenced to preach the Methodist doctrine and preached four years.

 

            At the time I left the Independents I was working at a pottery belonging to a     Mr. Catherall, who owned the chapel and was himself a member of the society of Independents, and in a short time after I had joined the Methodists I was discharged from his employ.  As it was difficult to find another situation, I was a long time finding regular employment and was deprived of the means to get suitable clothing to attend my appointments for preaching.  I at length got employment at a colliery and worked under ground about 3 years.

 

            While at this work, I first heard the Gospel preached by James Mahon and Fredrick Cook.  I did not embrace it at first but inquired and searched after it for about 6 months, at the end of that time I obeyed the Gospel.  I was baptized June 27th, 1841, by Elder James Burnham, an American Elder.

 

            I obtained a testimony to the truth of this work the day I was baptized and still have it and know it is the work of God.

 

            I was ordained a priest soon after I was baptized.  I soon got the spirit of gathering and on Feb. 2nd, 1842, I left my native land, for the land of Zion.

 

I was sick nearly all the time I was on the sea, and many predicted that I would have a watery grave; but the Lord willed it otherwise, and I landed with the rest of the passengers at New Orleans, April 3rd, 1842.

 

            The ship I sailed in was the Hope.  Captain Soule commanding.  I still continued sick while traveling up the Mississippi River.

 

            I arrived at Nauvoo April 13th still sick.  As soon as I was able I went to work making rails for a Brother Cross, who came in the same ship as I did.  I next went to work at the Nauvoo brickyard. That fall I was again taken sick with fever and ague, and was sick most of the winter.

 

            I had some time been acquainted with Louisa Leavitt, daughter of Jeremiah and Sara Leavitt.  We were married February 28th, 1843, by Morgan Gardner, in the house of Benjamin Covy; on Hyrum Smith’s farm.  I went to live at Apenoose on the Mississippi, opposite Fort Madison.

 

            In 1844 I moved back from the river 2 miles to make bricks for John B. Tull; but before I had made many I was ordered away by a man named Bunion Atherton, because I was a Latter-Day Saint, so I went to Nauvoo and was there standing guard when Joseph Smith and Hyrum were killed.  After the excitement had abated, I moved out of Nauvoo about 7 miles to a place called Mound.  I was living on a farm with my father-in-law.  He and I made a kiln of bricks, about 40 thousand, but we never burnt them as the word came out that fall that the Saints were going to leave in the spring and, of course, nobody wanted bricks.

 

            I was ordained a Seventy in the 16th Quorum in Feb. 1845.  In May, 1846, I left the State of Illinois with the Saints, but had no team, not even a cow.  The only cow I had was shot by a Mobocrat.  I drove a team for a man by the name of Kidd as far as a place called Mount Pisgah.  I stayed there about      weeks, and put in some garden seeds.  I then went back to the place called Eddyville on the Des Moines River.  I went to work binding wheat, it then being harvest time.  My wife got a home with a Dr. Fish and his wife.  She sewed for her board.  The people here were very kind to us and we should have got along well; but I was taken sick in September and came near dying; my wife thought I could not live long. The doctor persuaded her to give me some calomel.  She did so and I got better but I was very weak for a long time and all my teeth were loose from being salivated.  I could not work much through the winter.

 

            In September 1847, I went with my two brothers-in-law, Wier and Lemuel, to Council Bluff.  I lived at Traders Point.  My wife had no child, but at this time she had one given her.  It was quite young and sick.  She was born in the spring of 1849.  Its mother had died soon after it was born, on the way to California.  We named her Isora Louisa.  We buried her on a high piece of land near the point.

 

            In a few days after that we had another little girl given us.  Her father was a Canadian Frenchman named Peter La Mott.  Her mother was a Puncah squaw, named Gratawa.  The child was about six months old when we took her. She was born Nov. 11th, 1848.  She is now married (1875) and has one child.  She is married to William H. Crow.

 

            In 1850 I moved to Council Point and stayed there until June 1857(1).  I sold my two cows (all I had left) and went to Saint Joseph, Mo.  My health had been very poor for a length of time and when I landed at Saint Joseph I was quite sick and unable to work.  And before I was able to work the last cent I had was spent, and it was difficult to find employment.

Soon after I went to St. Joseph I was made President of the Branch there.  In 1855 I moved to a farm, two and a half miles from town with one Thos. Singleton.  He was an English farmer and wished to have me with him as I understood farming in this country, which he did not.  He was a teacher in St. Joseph, when I presided and for some misconduct was cut off the Church.  And when we came to work together on the farm, he began to show his hatred towards me, and began to drink liquor, and get drunk and greatly mistreated me, until I wished many times I hadn’t gone with him on the farm.  My wife at this time was very sick with dropsy and it annoyed her greatly to see his conduct.

 

            On the 29th of May, 1855, my wife Louisa died and I was left alone with my little adopted girl, now six years old.  I had no neighbors that I could call upon to assist in taking care of my little girl, but I had to do my own cooking and washing and take care of her too, as well as do my share of work on the farm.

 

            In the latter part of the summer I got an old English lady to keep house for me.  Her name was Catherine Worstenholm.

 

            After the heaviest work on the farm was done, Singleton had more leisure and he drank more whiskey and was more abusive until he became almost intolerable.  But he was cut short in his career, not by death, but by the Lord allowing the Devil to torment him day and night.  Five in succession during which time he got very little sleep, and it would be a long story to tell all his suffering, in mind and body during that time.

 

            I, too, was robbed of my rest as he durst not move unless I was with him day or night.  In the meantime he went and was rebaptized, and was at last delivered from his sufferings at that time.  But in December of that same year he again took to drinking and was visited in the same way.  But again he was delivered, and in 1856 he came to the Valleys of the Mountains.

 

            I remained a widower about 8 months.  I then was married to Dinah Vaughan. She had three daughters:  Martha, aged 16; Elizabeth, 6; and Emmiline, aged 10 months.  I was married in St. Joseph by Wiley B. Corbett, Feb. 3rd 1856, and in April following I went to Omaha and made bricks for the capitol then being erected.  I stayed there until August and then moved to Florence.  I had a lot given me by Mr. Mitchel, the founder of Florence.  I built a frame house on it and sold it the following spring for four hundred dollars and moved one hundred miles west, by the council of Bishop Andrew Cunningham, then President in Florence.

 

            The place I went to was named Genoa, at the then crossing of Loupe Fork of the Platt River.  I stayed there three years and made considerable improvements, but it was chosen as a reservation for the Pawnee Indians, and I lost all the labor I had done there.  I stayed on the Reservation and worked at farming for some time.

 

            On Dec. 1st, 1859, my wife was delivered of my first-born child.  It was a boy and we named him Thomas Davies.  We had to wean him soon after he was able to nurse, on account of my wife’s breast being sore.  But he was a healthy child and got along well until we left the Reservation and started to go to Omaha. We had to get milk for him at different places and that caused him to be sick.  From Omaha, we moved in a short time to Crescent City, in Iowa, where I went to make bricks.  My boy in the meantime kept getting worse.  About the 25th of July, my little boy died and I was left childless.  He was buried in the Crescent City burying ground, east of that place.  I did not make much by coming to Crescent and shall leave in the spring.

 

            Several Elders from Salt Lake Valley came here last November, amongst them Brothers Wm. Martindale and James Wareham.  They stayed in the neighborhood all winter.   They organized a Branch of the Church here and ordained me President with Brother Eggleston 1st Councilor and Brother Henry Brooks 2nd Councilor.  I have not been able to earn much this winter and have not fared very well.

 

            April 10th, I leave Crescent City, if the Lord wills, tomorrow.

 

            June 27th, 1861.  I have been here at Omaha since April 11th.  I hope to go to the Valley soon.  I shall have to go with the Church teams as I have none of my own.  I have a wagon and a cow and flour enough to do me across the Plains.

 

            I have been trying for many years to get a team to go on my own means, but I am tired of waiting, although it seems very probable that by waiting, I might be able to go. But I don’t like to risk it as I have been disappointed so often.

 

            I started for Salt Lake Valley July 11th in Brother Joseph W. Young’s Company.  I found the journey far more pleasant than I expected.  I drove an ox team the last two hundred miles.  We arrived in Salt Lake City on Sept. 23rd.  I got a house to live in the day after I arrived, from Brother Spicer.  I found plenty of work to do and plenty to eat.   I and all my family were rebaptized, except Martha, Nov. 7th by Brother Byser.         Dec. 11th, went through the Endowment House with my wife Dinah.  She had her choice to take her former husband, William Vaughan, or me.  She chose me.  She was first sealed to me for Louisa Leavitt, my first wife now dead.  She was then sealed to me herself for time and eternity.  (Note: Endowment House Sealing Records list the date as  7 Dec. 1861)  It is a little difficult to get wood, having no team, but I have not suffered yet.

 

            Feb. 4th, 1862.  I met with my Quorum for the first time for many years (16th Quorum of Seventies.)

 

            Feb. 15th, 1862.  I was sealed to Martha, my second wife’s oldest daughter.  She was promised to me by herself and her mother long before we left the States.

 

            April 10th – I moved into Brother Hapgood’s house in the 16th Ward.  I made adobes through the summer.  I found it very difficult to obtain clothing for myself and family during this summer (’62) but we did not suffer.  There is a great overflow of water from City Creek Canyon, but no great damage done yet.

 

            July 4th. We greatly enjoyed ourselves today.  It is truly a day of liberty and joy to us who have just come to these valleys.

 

            July 24th.  I do not think I ever felt more like rejoicing in the goodness of God than I did on this day.  The children all promenaded through the streets, and I was one who helped to supply them with water; others carried their picnic.  It was a glorious sight to see them.

 

            July 31st.  My 3rd wife Martha was today confined and a son was born to me.  We named him William Vaughan after his grandfather.

 

            Sept. 7th.  I have been successful in getting many little comforts for my family.  My child was taken sick two days ago.  He had a fit.  My wives sent for me from my work in the 15th Ward, but he got better before I got home.  I called on my teacher, John S. Azlam, and he blessed my boy, but he was again taken sick with the thrush and on the 29th of Sept. 1862, my boy died, and I was left childless.  I buried him in the graveyard with the rest of the Saints who have died here; and look forward with joy to the time when I shall again receive my little boy in my arms.

 

            Oct. 6th.  I attended Conference and heard much good teaching from President Young and others.  I am at a loss to know where to get a house for the winter, as Brother Hapgood needs his.

 

Dec. 10th.  I have rented a house from Brother Pugsty Tanner, in the 19th Ward.  I have been in it since Nov. 8th.  I feel comforted and thankful, although I am poor and have very little else but my family to call my own.  I bought a calf from Sam Cooper.  It is all the livestock I own, except a few chickens.

 

            Jan 12th.  I have attended a theatre in the City with my family.  It is the first time in my life that I ever visited a theatre.  I attended a party at the Social Hall on the 10th.  I have enough to eat and wood to keep us warm.  I attend meetings regularly and enjoy them.

            March 3rd.  The winter is past and I have been comfortable.  Jan 26th I started up to Ogden to see some of my first wife’s relations, the Leavitts.  I was gone five days.

 

            March 6th.  I was called upon today by Lewis Perkins (our Captain) to go and stand guard at President Young’s!  I went and stayed there most of the time.  On the 9th, I was called with others by the firing of the gun and raising of the flag.  We came together in a hurry, few knew what for.  It was soon discovered that the soldiers from Camp Douglas, under Patrick O'Conner, was expected to come and take the President.  We kept guard several nights and days.  We frequently trained through the day. 

As we were training on the 13th, my gun accidentally went off when my right-hand man touched the lock with the heel of his shoe as we were grounding arms.  Many supposed that there was a cap on my gun, but there was not, but it being a very strong lock, it went off by the percussion left on.

 

            May 30th.  A few days ago I took a contract with Brother A. P. Rockwood to make 50 thousand adobies to build a schoolhouse in the 12th Ward.  I was to have a cow and a calf which I very much needed.  I was to have wheat, wood and other things that I need.  When I came to inquire about the cow and calf, Brother Rockwood had taken the calf and put to his cow, thus rendering the cow useless to me.  He then asked me to take another cow he was going to get from a Brother Alexander.  I agreed to take her. She was to be delivered by Brother Rockwood at the Penitentiary before she had a calf.  He neglected to do so and at the time he should have delivered her, he brought me word that she was dead and then wanted me to pay for her.  I refused to do so, as I thought and still think it was unjust.  I needed wood but could get none from him, and he would not allow me to sell the adobies I had made.  He agreed to haul the adobies out of my way as fast as I made them.  He neglected to do so and the consequence was I had to stop making and find other work not so profitable.  So I consider the contract broken by Brother Rockwood.

 

            My stepdaughter Elizabeth is living at Captain Hooper’s.  Martha Ann is living at Brother Hart’s in Sugar House Ward.

 

            During the summer I have seen three of my first wife’s brothers, Jerimiah, Dudly and Lemuel. They invited me down south where they live.  I should be glad to go if I had any way to go.

 

            Dec. 15th.  I have been enabled to build a small house with two rooms in the 5th Ward.  I moved into it four weeks ago.  After I moved in, when it was snowing very hard, Brother Rockwood came to my house and said he had just got ready to haul the adobies.  I told him it was too late in the season.  He had waited until many had been destroyed by rain and snow.  He said he wanted me to come to my Bishop where I had lived during the summer.  I went with him to Brother Raleigh of the 19th Ward.  After hearing both our stories, he said he saw no harm in the course I had taken if I would agree to make the adobies next summer.  I agreed to do so and pay percentage on what I had drawn on the contract (some 80 dollars) but I was not called upon to pay any percentage.  The next season I paid part of the adobies I owed.

Jan. 3rd.  Provisions are very dear this winter and I find it difficult to get enough to live on; but still I have not suffered.  The calf I bought in ’62 I have lost.  It has been driven off the range.  Jan. 3rd.  I worked in the canyon this winter getting down wood; but as I could not get a team to haul it, the most of it I have lost.  It has been stolen.  I have had some wood hauled, but it is a hard winter for the poor, and a profitable one for those who had plenty of flour to sell.

 

            Mar. 20th.  The winter is passed.  My family and I have been comfortable through the winter.  My fears were groundless.  The Lord has blessed me with food and wood and other things to our comfort.

 

            Mar. 28th.  This morning my wife, Martha, was delivered of a daughter.  We named her Mary Amelia.  My wife’s breast is very sore.

 

            Mar.29th.  I received a Patriarchal Blessing under the hands of C. W. Hope.

 

            May 8th.  My wife’s breast has been sore for five weeks. She is suffering with it.  Provisions still high and hard to get.  I am going to make adobies in Brother William Foster’s yard.

           

            Aug. 1st.  I have made 12 thousand adobies in the above yard, and 11 thousand in Brother Russell's yard.

 

            Oct. 2nd.  I went to work mowing hay, reaping and binding wheat.  I got sick from the exertion.  I lost a good deal of time.  In September, William Hamblin came to my house in the city and advised me to go down south.  He took my adopted daughter, Martha Ann, with him, promising to take care of her and pay her for her services.  In October,  John Bennion of Wet Jordan was called on a mission south with the privilege of sending a substitute.

 

 

He selected me to go in his stead and furnished me a yoke of cattle and a wagon heavy enough for three yokes.  I started south.  I had some provisions and he furnished me enough to last until I could get more.  But having no vegetables, it gave out sooner than expected.  I went to Clover Valley as Brother Erastus Snow had given his consent to my going there.  I arrived there Nov. 29th, 1864.  After Brother Job Harker and I arrived at Clover Valley, we thought of going to Eagle Valley to get a place to live; as there is not a very good chance here in Clover.  Accordingly, in the later part of December, we went to Eagle Valley.  But Brother Meltyre Hatch was not willing to give Brother Harker a place and so I was not willing to go alone.  We returned and took up abode in Clover Valley.  We built a shanty together and lived together until spring. We cut several hundred pickets during the winter.

 

            Feb 13, 1865.  Received a letter from my wife, Dinah. She has been sick, but is now better. She has found the heifer I lost last summer.  On the 2nd of March, Brother Luke Syphus brought word from Brother E. Snow of St. George that he was not willing for Brother Harker and I to stay at Clover.  On the 3rd of March I started for St. George.  I went to Shoal Creek with J. S. Huntsman, who intended to go to St. George after his father-in-law, Brother Parker.  But the snow was too deep, so I went alone.  I had never traveled the road before and had no one from whom to inquire after I left Shoal Creek, except one family – Brother Emmits, who lived alone at Mountain Meadows.  I was directed to his house, but as he lived three quarters of a mile from the road and up a ravine, and all tracks were covered with snow, I could not tell which ravine to go up, and it was near sunset when I got to the Meadows.  It was very cold and the snow about ___ inches deep.  I traveled up a hollow a long way, but found no one.  I was afraid I should not find the house before dark.  I thought I would call on the Lord, as there was no one else to call upon for directions.  I went down on my knees and asked the Lord to direct me, and just as I was getting up, I heard three or four blows of an axe, over a ridge south of me.  I knew then that I had been directed to a place where I could stop for the night.  I went in the direction from which the sound had come and just at dark reached Brother Emmit’s, where I stayed all night.  Next morning I started again, and that night stayed in Diamond Valley with Brother Wadley, and on the 6th of March I got to St. George.  Saw Brother Snow.  He said he wanted me and Brother Harker to go to Beaver Dams, or the Muddy.

 

            I got back to Clover Valley on the 10th.  The roads are bad and muddy so we cannot move at present.

 

            Brother Harker and I went to Beaver Dams in March.  We went across the mountains from Clover.  On our way down the Beaver Dam Wash we came across a camp of Indians. They were very rude, but did not injure us. 

Were two and a half days going to Beaver Dams.  We took up a little land, as there was not much to take.  We helped to get the water out and then started back to move our families on the 26th of March.

 

On the 2nd of April we started with our families.  We got to Shoal Creek, where I left my family while I went to Beaver after flour.  I was induced to go a new route, and I nearly lost the team or yoke of cattle.  But I got back to Shoal Creek safely, and on the 22nd of April we started for Beaver Dams.  We arrived there on the 29th.

 

            Brother Harker went back to Salt Lake City in July following.  I stayed and put in a crop and was glad I came here according to council.  I have been comfortable all summer.  In October I started for Beaver City after flour and got back all right but was sick with ague.

 

            Dec. 25th.  I built a log house and am now living in it very comfortably, except for my ague.  I bought a heifer from Mr. Frink, two years old.  I paid for it in corn at 5 dollars a bushel.  I am gathering a little stock around me.  I had none when I came here.  There are but few people here.  I have been one of three here for sometime; that is three men.  There are 8 souls in all, just the number that entered the Ark.  Brother Miller cut a watermelon one day and all ate what they wanted of it and had all they wished for.  Brother Bennion has sent me a cow by Brother Harker.

 

            Feb. 18th.  My chills have left me.  I am appointed teacher in this ward by Brother Henry Miller, to hold meetings in his absence.

 

            Mar. 11th.  Started for St. George on business.  I expected to get back in time to work on a ditch to take water onto a new piece of ground, but when I got back, Brother Miller had divided out the land and left none for me, although I had the promise of a piece ever since I have been here.

 

            May 13th.  I have got another piece of land from Brother Miller and have traded it for the piece I should have had before.

 

May 16th.  I started for Parowan to trade for some breadstuff and potatoes, got a little of each.  While I have been gone the word came that we must leave this place on account of the Indians being troublesome.  I moved to Santa Clara settlement in June, and on the 24th of July had a good time.  My stepdaughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, James W. Hunt, were here—so were Brother and Sister Harker.  The Harkers are now living in St. George.  We had a theater in the schoolhouse in the afternoon in which I took part.

 

            Dec. 24th.  It is four months since I wrote in my journal before.  I have been going from place to place so much that I have not taken time to write.  I have had charge of Jacob Hamblin’s orchard and have secured all his fruit for him and have a good share for myself.  I am living in Br. Dickinson’s house.  (He is gone to Salt Lake City.)  I have been to Beaver City to meet my wife Dinah and get some breadstuff.  I took my young wife with me and my little girl and stepdaughter Emmiline.  I have just got back from Shoal Creek.  My wife and I went to see her daughter Elizabeth.  We had a good visit.

 

            Jan. 30th.  I had a narrow escape of a sad accident as I was on my way from Beaver Dams to  Santa Clara.  I stopped a little before dark to put a little wood in my wagon as it would be dark before I got to water and as I was putting the wood into my wagon I had to get between the oxen and one end of the wood touched them and they commenced to kick and started to run, but I hallowed to them and my wife Martha who was in the wagon with my little girl, took hold of the stick of wood and pulled it in and the cattle stopped kicking and I got from between them.  I was hurt some but I felt very thankful to God for saving me and my family from danger.

 

            I moved to Beaver Dams again in the spring and helped to make a ditch to take the water out of a spring on the Virgin.  I have about three acres.  President E. Snow went by here 20th of April.

 

            August 10th.  My little girl is very sick—several of the St. George Elders have been here, Brother Gardner and three others.  They don’t think this place will ever be much of a place.

 

           

 

            Oct. 11th.  My wife had another son, we named him Hyrum Ellis.  I thought of going north again for provisions but I went to the Muddy Settlement 60 miles from here south.  I got some flour for dried peaches and made out my load with salt which I took to St. George and sold for flour and other things that I needed.

  

Oct. 20th.  My little girl is better and I feel to thank the Lord for it.         

 

Dec 17th.  Brother Erastus Snow came here with several of the brethren from St. George, on their way to the Muddy.  Several of them stayed at my house to eat with me.  A meeting was called in the evening.  They asked Brother Miller if he would be willing to come back to Beaver Dams; he did not seem willing to come back.  Brother James McLellan was appointed to preside for the present.  I asked Brother Snow if he was satisfied with my labor as a substitute for John Bennion.  He said he was and gave me a certificate to that effect.

 

            Dec. 20th.  Brother Snow went back home and on the 23rd the water came down the Beaver Dam Wash and raised to the top of its banks and next day the bank where the houses were began to cave in.  By noon all had moved their goods from their houses.  Some of the houses went in the flood and several things that were in them.  My house did not go.  The water washed under one corner and then stopped, but it is useless to me.  I am without a house or home.  I have made a shantee out of my floor and have to spend the rest of the winter here, intending in the spring to strike out and find a new home.  I have lost a valuable home here and to me it is a great loss as I have but little left that I can call my own.  I now wrote to Brother Bennion and told him the situation and asked him what I should do with his property that I had in my possession.  I enclosed the certificate I got from President Snow.

 

           Feb 28th, 1868.  I left Beaver Dams with my family and came to Santa Clara.  When I got there Brother Jacob Hamblin offered me the shelter of his roof, which I accepted.  I stayed there three weeks.  I then got a place at Bennington, now called Leeds.  I moved there with what family I had with me.  My first wife, Dinah, and her daughter, Emmy, have been at Shoal Creek all winter.  They left Beaver Dams in November.  I had to wait several days at Leeds before I could get a place.  Brother E. Snow came by on his way to conference.  He gave me a recommend, stating that he wished the President to give me a place.  Brother Benjamin Stringham was President.  When he saw my recommend, he gave me a 2 ½ acre lot in town.

 

            April 6th.  This is my birthday.  I am 51 years old today.  I started for St. George after some things I had left there and I met my wife Dinah on her way home from Shoal Creek.  She stayed at home 12 days and then went with me to Parowan, and she went from there to the City.  I returned with provisions, in the getting of which I succeeded beyond my expectations.

 

            July 24th.  Went to Harrisburg to celebrate today and had a good time.  In the fall I got a letter from J. S. Bussel requesting me to take charge of his household goods in St. George.  I have done so.

 

            Feb. 3rd, 1869.  I have not got a very good house, but we are pretty comfortable.  I am appointed a teacher here in Leeds.  The Saints here are not very well united and I am trying to make more union.  On Saturday, Dec. 6th, I joined the School of the Prophets in St. George and met a few times, and on the 23rd of Jan. 1869, joined the School in Toquerville—that place being several miles nearer than St. George.

 

            Feb. 21st.  President Stringham has layed off a piece of land for me to make bricks on.  Attended conference in St. George May 3rd and heard President Young and others speak.  The grasshoppers have destroyed everything green here, our prospect looks dark.

 

            I thought of going to Beaver City to work this summer.  I went to Shoal Creek on a visit and the people here persuaded me to stay here and make bricks.  I did so and moved my family here.  I had a tedious time getting here.  It rained most of the time I was on the road.  The Clara River was very high and my cattle stopped the wagon in the stream and I had to pack my wife and children to the bank and with difficulty saved them and what I had in the wagon.  But I got safely to Shoal Creek, now called Hebron.  Made a small kiln of bricks this summer, raised some potatoes and corn.  One of my oxen died soon after I came here so I was left without a team.  I did not have stock or any means to buy a team with.  Brother Amos Hunt lent me a two-year old steer and with that and what I had I managed to buy a span of horses, but one of them was very little account.  I had to hire a horse from T. S. Terry, to put with one of mine, as I wanted to go to Salt Lake City with my family.  He charged me a dollar a day for an old horse.

 

            On my way home, my little boy Hyrum was taken sick and I almost despaired of his living, but thank God he got well.

 

            I taught school in Hebron in the winter of 69-70 and the following summer I commenced to make brick, but could not get help enough to enable me to make enough to burn so that I did not accomplish much that season.  In the fall I went to Salt Lake City to bring my wife Dinah down to wait on my wife Martha, and on the 26th of October, 1870, my wife was confined with a son.  We named him Edwin Samuel.  I commenced to teach school the following winter (70-71) but the measles broke out here and I did not keep school going all of the term.  The following summer (1871) I commenced to make brick for a brick school house in this place.  Brothers James W. Hunt and Jefferson Hunt went with me as partners.  We made good bricks and the same fall the school house was built and I taught school in it that winter.  In December I went to meet my wife at Beaver City.  She came from the City by stage.

 

Now I will pass over several years, as I have not written in this book.

 

           April 13th 1875.  I was taken down sick with the pneumonia.  I came near dying, but through the blessings of God, I am spared after a long sickness that left me quite feeble.  Through the summer and in the fall I had not laid up much for winter, but the trustees gave me a chance to teach school—which I took.  It was a great help to me, but still I was bad off for provisions.

 

            In the spring I thought of joining the order at Orderville, but my wives were not willing, so I stayed and did the best I could another year, and Oh it has been an eventful year to me.  I thought I was bad enough off with my poverty, but the Lord saw fit to lay upon me something more.  On Sunday, January 28th, 1877, my beloved wife Martha was taken sick with pneumonia.  She grew worse and worse until Feb. 9th, when it pleased the Lord to take her from us.  Our loss is great.  Her aged mother mourns her loss day and night.  She cannot be reconciled to it—Like Rachel mourning for her child, and will not be comforted because she is no more to be seen until the Resurrection morn.  I am left with five little children—the youngest 15 months old, a little boy, James Edward.  He was weaned during my wife’s sickness and we were rejoicing that he was doing so well.  But in the night after his mother was buried, he was taken sick with the diarrhea and on the following day, Sunday, Feb. 11th, he had a cramping fit that came near taking his life.  But through the blessings of God, he was spared, although today he is still sick and is not willing to go to anyone but me.  My prayer to God, my Heavenly Father, is that he may be spared to us.

 

            Feb. 17th, 1877.  My little boy continued sick for several weeks, but thank God he got better and, as I am dependent upon my stepdaughter to help take care of my children, I have moved to Gunlock, on the Santa Clara.

 

            I got here April 10th—two months from the day my wife was buried and God knows how lonesome and broken hearted I felt in a strange place without a companion and without a home.  I am working in partnership with my stepson-in-law, D. O. Huntsman.  My wife Dinah has only been down here once and stayed only a week, so that I have had nearly all the care of my little children to myself.  But thank God that today they are alive and well, but Oh how I long for a home and someone to tell my troubles to.  May God in His kindness bless me and mine with a home and the comforts thereof.

 

            I am appointed by Brother J. McAllister to superintend the Sunday School here and to keep a day school, but after keeping school for 10 days, the parents kept their children away, so that I had to give up the day school.  I kept up the Sunday School as long as I could get a decent place to keep it in, but at this date, Jan. 1st, 1878, there is no Sunday School.  We have a house now to meet in and I gave out that I would commence school last Sunday, but only a few children came.  I hope that hereafter we shall have Sunday School regularly.  I intend to do my part although I have very little time to spare.  My family requires my attention.  My wife Dinah is at home now and has been for about two months, and I take a little comfort at home now.  We have moved into a house of our own and, although the weather is extremely cold for this place, we are comfortable and at present are not suffering for anything.  Yet we are very poor and it does seem to me that I am very unfortunate.  I have raised but little of anything this summer and I made several thousand bricks.  But there was quicksand in the clay, so that after settling them in the kiln and commencing to burn them, we found that they would not stand fire, so that nearly all my labor on them was lost and to make things still worse, one of my cows lay down and died last night.  One died last winter and one I had to sell last spring for bread, so that I am not prospering at present very much, but my children are all alive and well and that I prize more than anything else that is earthly and I hope to raise them to honor their parents.

 

            I have bought a small piece of land from Dudley Leavitt, my brother-in-law, on which I am now living, but I am not able to buy much land at present—unless I can sell my place in Hebron.

            I am elected assessor and collector for Gunlock School District and have assessed a tax of 3% and hope before long we shall have a good school house.

 

            July 23rd.  I have bought another piece of land from Dudley Leavitt on which I am raising corn, cotton and beans.  I think I am paying him a big price for it, but it is joining my present lot and it is worth more to me than it is to anyone else.  I am trying to make a good home here, but I have very little to make it with and find that as old age comes on my strength fails so that I am not able to work as I used to do.  But I feel thankful that it is with me as well as it is.  I am more contented than I have been since my wife Martha died.  My wife Dinah is at home now most of the time and takes good care of my children.

 

            Dudley Leavitt is president here, but he is away a good part of the time so that I, being the only teacher in the place, have to keep up the Sunday School and Sunday meetings.  Brother J. S. Huntsman assists me more than anyone else.  He is trying to do his part, which is very acceptable to me.  I have had to sell my horse this last spring to enable me to live while I put in my crop.  I am now without a team, as I have but one horse, but I am in hopes that I can sell my place in Hebron before long and get something to help myself with.  I have not been able yet to do anything in the Temple for my dead friends and relatives, although I feel very anxious to do something for their benefit.  I have but a few names of my ancestors and I would like to go to my native land to find out more about them.  The name of my father’s father was John and his mother’s name was Ann.  My mother’s father was named Robert and her mother’s name was Elizabeth.  But when and where they were born and died I do not know.

 

            Jan. 19th, 1879.  I have sold part of my place in Hebron but I got little for it.  I have gotten along pretty well without it.  My family have enough to eat and comfortable clothing, but I have not yet been in the Temple and I feel anxious about it as there are many I wish to officiate for, but I have not had their births or deaths.  There are several that I wish to have sealed to me as wives which I hope my children will attend to if I do not have a chance – One Margaret Lewis, daughter of John and Mary Lewis, born in the year 1819 at Buckley Mountain; another one, Catherine Dickenson, born at a place called Balls Baun in Hawarden Parish, North Wales.  I do not know when she was born or when she died, but her age and that of Margaret Lewis can be learned by going to the graveyard at Buckley Mountain, North Wales.  I have several cousins that are dead that I wish to officiate for and some of them sealed to me. 

Their ages can be had at the above graveyard in Buckley.  Two of their names are Mary and Esther Ellis, daughters of Paul and Catherine Ellis.

 

           We are without a president in this place.  Dudley Leavitt is away a good deal and he does not take the lead when he is here, so that I have charge of meetings and Sunday School.  We had three home missionaries here on Sunday, Jan. 5th, 1879.  They were Brothers D. McArthur, D. Mylne and Franklin Snow.  They notified us that Brothers Snow and McAllister would be here Feb. 2nd to organize this place into a ward, but I have since received a note saying that they will not be here until Feb. 16th.  There is a good deal of surmising as to who will be Bishop, but I am not uneasy about it, I believe the brethren will appoint the right one.

 

            This is an eventful day. We have just received news that the Supreme Court of the United States of America has sanctioned the Court in Utah in the Reynolds case for Polygamy.

 

            Aug. 4th.  Joseph S. Huntsman is ordained Bishop of Gunlock; Franklin O. Holt and Jonathan Hunt are his councilors.  In June I was appointed Presiding Teacher in Gunlock.  Oct. 27th I was set apart as assistant secretary to H. A. Chaffin.

 

            This has been an unusually dry season.  I have raised but little on my land.  I am now dependent on my labor for my daily bread, but I trust in God who has hitherto provided for me.

 

            Dec. 17th, 1879.  I have had enough for my family to eat and wear to make them comfortable.  I am teaching school (commenced Dec. 15th) in Gunlock at $40 per month.  It is a good thing for me as I had no way to live that I knew of, only this, but the Lord has always opened my way and always will if I do right.  I could get along pretty well now if my own family was all I had to care for, but David Huntsman, who married my wife’s daughter, has gone away and left his family without food and I cannot see them suffer while I have anything to help them with.  He has been gone now nearly three weeks and nothing heard from him.  It makes it hard on me and harder for them.  He is a poor excuse for a husband or father.  Our Bishop has gone to Leeds to work and taken his family with him, thus weakening our school and settlement, but I suppose it is all right although it does not look that way to me. 

My wife is away from home and has been for four weeks, but she is doing good for herself and others.  She is now at Clover Valley. My daughter Mary does my housekeeping with a little help now and then.

 

            Jan. 25th, 1880.  My wife is still away from home, has been gone for over ten weeks.  I am still teaching school.  We had a good time Christmas and New Year’s Day—that is the majority of the people did.  Some feelings in the breasts of some hindered them from having a pleasant time, but the teachers with the Bishop visited the parties who had feeling and reconciled them to each other, so that a few nights after New Year we had a reunion party and all united in the dance.  Our Bishop is away most of the time this winter, but we keep up our meetings.  I am still teaching school, but I expect to close for the present after four more days, which will be Feb. 18th, 1880.  I engaged to teach three months, but so few have sent their children that the trustees think it best not to keep it any longer at present.  My wife is still away.  She expects to be home by the middle of March. David Huntsman is still away from home, nor has he sent his family anything to live on.  His poor wife and children have a hard time of it—living on the charity of their neighbors.  March 11th, David came home a few days ago.  He brought flour enough to last a few days.  He is now around trying to borrow again.  I do not know what will become of him and his family as no one is willing to lend him any more and he seems determined to live by borrowing.  My wife is still away from home, but she is doing well and sends things home that we need, but I would like to see her at home once more and if I could make her comfortable she should not go from home to stay long at a time.  But I am poor and she goes away to get things that I cannot get for my work, although I have done well.  I have kept school two months and have $74 in school warrants, which brings me flour and other good pay and no one can be more thankful than I am to make my family comfortable.  We have all been healthy this winter and my prayer to God is that we may all be spared to live and see the Kingdom of God more fully established on the earth.

 

            Oct. 18th, 1880.  My wife came home in April and has been home a good part of the summer and we have enjoyed each other’s society very much.  I went to Hebron in April and took a contract to make about 70,000 bricks for John and George Laub, 2/5s in cash.  But Brother T. S. Terry broke up the contract and I have not earned a great deal this summer.  But I have kept my family from suffering and I have a great deal of work to do this fall if I am able to do it. The Saints in this place are not very well united.  There are but few who are willing to support the Bishop with their faith and prayers and works.  I have done what I could in my capacity as Presiding Teacher to sustain him, but the people here do not seem to like him.  Brother James W. Hunt, who married my wife’s daughter, has bought a farm and will soon move down here with his family.  It will make this place seem more like home.  My wife is at Clover Valley at present waiting on Sister Serle, and I expect she will stop at Hebron and wait on Sister Emmiline Huntsman before she comes home. 

But wherever she is, she is generally doing good, but I miss her at home greatly.  The Trustees of Gunlock have hired a school teacher for nine months so that there is a prospect of having a school for our children to learn something—a thing that is needed in this place very much.

 

            April 5th, 1881.  I did not know at the fore part of the winter how I was going to get bread and other things that my family needed and, Oh!  So many times I have been in the same situation and every time the way was opened before me and I thank God that I have not been disappointed this time.  But when I saw no way, the Lord opened one.  The Trustees of Santa Clara hired me for ten weeks to teach school and, although I am not a good scholar and was afraid to undertake to teach there because I knew many good teachers had taught there, yet through the blessings of God and the aid of His Holy Spirit, I have been enabled to give satisfaction to Bishop, Trustees and parents and scholars, for which I feel very thankful.  I was paid $50 a month—one half cash and one half factory pay.  My term closed two weeks ago at which time I got up a social party for the small scholars in the afternoon and one for the adults in the evening.  On the following evening, March 26th, I had a theatre.  All were well satisfied with the parties and theatre and I left Santa Clara with the best of feelings toward the people and I am satisfied that they have the best of feelings toward me.

 

            I am now at home once more to try and comfort my family.  My daughter Mary has been sick with rheumatism for four weeks but is feeling some better.  But she is not well.  I do not know yet what I am going to do this summer, but I still trust in the Lord, knowing that He will bless me.  I have a great work to do in the Temple, but hitherto I have not been able to do anything for my dead friends and relatives on account of my poverty, not having my Temple clothes nor time to spare, but I hope and pray that the time is not far distant when I shall be able to attend to it.  If not, I hope my children will attend to it for me as there are several women that I wish sealed to me: 1st—Margaret Lewis, daughter of John and Mary Lewis born at Buckley Mountain, Flintshire, North Wales.   2nd--Catherine Dickenson, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Dickenson, born at Balls Baun, Flintshire, North Wales.  Elizabeth Lewis, daughter of John and Mary Lewis, born at Buckley Mountain and her sister Hannah Lewis of the same place.

 

            June 24th, 1881.  I have been making bricks at Hebron since May 7th.  I have made 36,000 but have not burnt them yet.  I have been at home a week but have not seen my wife.  She is at St. George waiting on Eliza Hunt Peterson.  I intend to go back tomorrow.  I have several thousand more brick to make and burn.  I am making most of them for Esther C. Pulsipher.  She pays me in store goods, factory pay and dairy pay so that I am able to make my family comfortable. 

Thus the Lord opens the way for me to live and bless my family and I feel to thank Him, though still poor.  My daughter Mary is better and able to attend things in the absence of my wife.

 

            Aug. 6th, 1881.  I have been home once more and found three of my children sick with chills and fever.  My boy has been with me, but was no help to me as he has been sick all the time I was burning bricks, which I finished doing July 25th and got home on the 30th.  My wife had got home a few days before me from Santa Clara where she had been to wait on Laura Knights.  My children are all better.  The chills have left them and they are gaining strength fast, for which I feel to thank the Lord.

 

Jan. 8th, 1882.  Another year has passed by and I and my family are all well.  I have been chosen and set apart as 2nd Councilor to Bishop J. S. Huntsman at the           St. George Conference, Dec. 18th, 1881, under the hands of President McAllister.  I still hold the office as Presiding Teacher. There has been a difficulty existing for some time between our Bishop and the widow Susan Hunt.  The teachers tried to settle it, but as Sister Hunt was the accusing party, we could not bring the Bishop to trial.  She wrote President McAllister and he sent Josiah Hardy and William Terry of St. George to settle it. The parties met at my house in Gunlock and settled it.

 

            I went to St. George Jan. 19th, 1882, to officiate in the Temple for my dead relatives and friends.  My daughter Mary went with me.  She went through on the 20th to get her endowments.  On the 24th, I was baptized for my father, John Jones; my grandfather John Jones; a grandfather, Robert Ellis; my uncle Paul Ellis; uncle Robert Ellis; uncle-in-law, James Dickenson; cousin Paul Ellis; brother, Paul Jones; brother-in-law, William Parker; my friend, John Lewis; and friend, Thomas Griffith.  My daughter, Mary Amelia, was baptized on the 24th for my mother, Catherine Ellis; my grandmother, Elizabeth Ellis; my grandmother, Ann Jones; my sister, Ann Jones; my aunt, Catherine Ellis; my aunt, Sarah Dickenson; cousin, Catherine Dickenson; my friend, Mary Lewis; friend, Elizabeth Lewis (she is the daughter of Mary Lewis); Hannah Lewis and Margaret Lewis (three sisters); for my two cousins, Mary and Esther Ellis.  On the 25th my daughter Mary and I stood proxy for my father and mother.  They were sealed husband and wife.  On the 26th Mary stood proxy for my grandmother, Elizabeth Ellis, and I for my grandfather Robert.  Mary Ellis was sealed to me the same day – my daughter stood proxy.  On the 27th I received endowments for my brother Paul and Sister Lydia Knights, went through for Elizabeth Lewis.  She was sealed to me through Sister Knights as my wife.  I have now four wives dead and one living, and may the Lord grant that I may be enabled to live worthy of them.

 

           This has been an unprofitable time for me.  I have done but little, not having a chance to earn anything, but I have not suffered for something to eat, though it keeps me poor.  I strive to get things for my family, but this is a poor place for those who have not got much land, and I have but little and no means to buy any more.  I have thought that I might do better by going to some place where land and water are more plentiful, but I have no team and cannot go unless I can get a team and wagon for my place in Gunlock.  My wife Dinah left home on Sunday, March 5th with William Crow.  She has gone to Clover Valley to wait on his wife, Martha Ann, and David Bill’s wife, Sarah.

 

            In one week after my wife left, my daughter Mary Amelia was taken sick with rheumatism and for sometime was helpless, so that I had to carry her to and from the bed.  We did all we could to relieve her pain and she soon got better, but she had a pain in the stomach and a cough.  Many times she came near to choking when I was not near her, and then the dropsy set in and she suffered untold pain, so that several times I thought she was dying.  At such times she would converse with her mother who died 5 years ago.  She said her mother had come after her to take her to rest, but she said she wanted to see her Aunt Emmy who lived down at Bunkerville.  Her mother told her she could stay until Emmy came, and Emmy came on the evening of the 21st of April and Mary died at 5 o’clock on the morning of the 23rd after having endured great and distressing pains.  She is at rest now and although we miss her so much, I would not have had her stay another hour to suffer as she did.  We shall meet her again.  We believe in a better world than this.  May the Lord help us to live so that we will meet her with joy.

 

            May 31st.  I went to Hebron and commenced next day to make bricks for George and John Laub.  I worked by the day at $2 and board –to be paid in money, flour and grain.  I have already had more than half my pay in money and flour.  I made about 44,000 and finished burning them on the night of the 15th of June, 1882.  I gave good satisfaction to the Laub brothers.  They knew I did the best I could for them.  My two boys, Hyrum and Edwin, have taken care of my place in Gunlock and for boys they have done very well.

 

           I was at home the 4th of July and drew up a program which was carried out by Franklin O. Holt, Marshall of the Day.  In the afternoon while we were having some horse races, Josiah Leavitt and William Truman got into a dispute about their horses and would have fought, but Brother Holt prevented them and had them make it right on the spot.  Bishop Huntsman thought we ought to stop the program and not have any party in the evening, but I did not think it right to disappoint all the young folks because two had acted the fool.  So we had the party in the evening.  The Bishop did not attend but we heard no more about it.

 

            Oct. 21st.  My wife is again away from home.  This time she has gone to Rabbit Valley to wait on her daughter, Elizabeth.  I feel lonesome without her and shall be glad when she returns.

 

            I have received a few more names from Wales for whom I wish to officiate in the Temple in St. George—William Catherall, born Jan. 28th, 1798, died Sept. 18th, 1875.  Anne, wife of said W. Catherall, died Oct 8th, aged 32 years.  Elizabeth Jones, wife of the above, died Jan 14th, 1842, aged 24.  Martha Catherall, her daugher, died March 29th, 1877, age 39.  John Taylor, died Oct. 7th, 1869, aged 83.  Mary, wife of John Taylor, Jr., died March 3rd, 1879, aged 65.  I have received a name from Brother Llewellen Harris, Lucina Comstock, born in Wauck, R.I., 1718, died in same place.  She was never married.  Baptized for Nov. 21st, 1882, Endowed for Dec. 1st, 1882, Clara Bowman proxy.  My daughter Mary Amelia, was sealed to Brother L. Harris, Nov. 29th, 1882, in the St. George Temple.  Clara Bowman proxy.  My sister Ann was sealed to him the same day.  Clara Bowman proxy.  My daughter also received her second anointing.  I believe my daughter has got a good husband.  He has been a missionary to the Indians for many years and is still on a mission among them in Arizona and New Mexico.

 

March 3rd, 1883.  I have not been able to go to work in the Temple this winter.  I am engaged teaching school in Gunlock.  I have three weeks more to teach.  My wife has been away a good part of the winter; she was gone 2 months to Rabbit Valley and now she has been gone 4 weeks to Hebron and I do not know when she will be home again.  I feel lonesome without her, as I have no housekeeper since my daughter Mary died.  It is true I have my little daughter, Dinah, but she is small and not much help.  I thank God that it is as well with me as it is.  I have my four children with me and they are a great comfort.  They all go to school and are learning very well.

 

           In order to preserve the record of a blessing I received under the hands of Brother John L. Smith, I write it here.

 

            Brother William, in the name of Jesus Christ, of Nazereth, I place my hands upon thy head and seal upon thee a Patriarchal or Father’s blessing.  Thou art of the House of Joseph, through the loins of Ephriam and because of the integrity of thy heart and thy desire to serve the Lord, no good thing shall be withheld from thee.  Thy days and thy years shall be multiplied unto thee according to the desire of thy heart, thy guardian angel hath watched over thee and turned aside the shafts of the advisary when, to all human appearance, there was no aid.  There shall be no lack in thy house for the days of thy poverty shall pass by and thy last days shall be thy best days and thy children and thy children’s children shall call thee blessed and they shall be ornaments in thy Father’s house.  Thou hast a work to accomplish for thy friends both dead and living which shall result in great good unto them even in uniting the chain back to the days when thy forefathers enjoyed the gifts of the Gospel.  All thy former gifts and blessings I renew upon thee with eternal lives and all thou canst desire in righteousness which, if thy faith fail not, thou shalt surely receive in the name of Jesus thy Redeemer, Amen.                   C. Pulsipher, Clerk.  Recorded in Book B, page 3-, No. 3.

 

           March 28th.  My school term is out and I am building a brick house for Joseph S. Leavitt.  My wife had been at home a short time but she is gone again, this time to Mountain Meadows to wait on Jane Holt.  My little boy James is sick and I am watching over him and praying for him.  Later, my boy got well, thank God for His blessing on me and my family.

 

            June 17th, 1883.  It seems to be my lot to have a good deal of sickness in my family lately.  I have not been very healthy the past winter, but have been able to attend to my business until May 19th, when I was taken down with the ague.  I had four chills, the most severe I have ever had in my life.  I was administered to by J. S. Huntsman and my son Hyrum, but we had not faith enough to break up the chills and fever.  I sent Hyrum to St. George after a box of pilules.  I took them and several other kinds of medicine and by them all and the blessings of the Almighty the ague left me.  Although I have not had a chill for over 3 weeks, I am quite feeble and not able to do much work, but I hope before long to get strong again.  I am very thankful that my wife was at home during my sickness.  It makes my sickness more endurable.  She paid me all the attention in her power and, although she had three calls while I was sick, she never left me for an hour.  May God bless her, for to me she is the best of women and to my children she is kind and good.  I hope they will be good to her.

 

            July 16th, 1883.  I do not gain strength very fast.  I suppose it is because I am getting old.  I attend to what little land I have and that is about all I am able to do, but I cannot complain for my family do not suffer for the necessities of life.  My son Hyrum works a good part of the time for Franklin O. Holt and Frank is a good neighbor to me.  I have been blessed with my wife’s company a good deal lately, but I expect she will leave home in a few days to go to Leeds to wait on J. T. Wilkinsin’s wife.  I shall miss her but I trust she will not be gone long.  My boy Hyrum has today gone to St. George to carry the mail for the first time from Gunlock.  Sister Solenda Huntsman is postmistress.  If I was able to leave home, I have a chance to go to Pine Valley to make bricks, but I am not very strong and my wife will go away soon, so I will have to stay at home.                                I was chosen watermaster in Gunlock this spring and, although this has been a very dry summer so far, we are better off for water for our orchards and gardens than we have ever been before.  We are allowed a little water every day and I am entrusted to divide it out, which I am trying to do in a just manner.

 

           On the 13th of August I went to Pine Valley to make bricks for Joseph Burgess and brothers.  I made and burned sixty thousand.  I was successful in making good bricks and burning them good.  Several persons said I could not make as many as I promised in a day—that was 25 hundred, but I made them every day.  Others said I could not burn so many as sixty thousand in one kiln, but I had no difficulty in doing that.  The brothers and their wives treated me very kindly while I was working for them and boarding with them.  They paid me two and a half dollars a day and board in cash, flour, grain and lumber.  While I was burning their bricks, Brother B. Pace telegraphed to me that he had a contract to let to make bricks for the mining company, of which he is President, and he wished me to come to St. George to take it.  I went, but as it was fire brick they wanted made, I did not want to take the contract but agreed to work by the day at three dollars a day and board myself.  I went to Jacksonville where the bricks were to be made, but soon found that the clay would have to be ground in order to make good brick.  So I came home again and waited until the mill was put up to grind the clay.  Then, with J. S. Huntsman, his brother Aron and my boy Edwin, went again and were ready to commence making when we received a note from Brother Pace that we were not to make any bricks at present.  He is in Salt Lake City, so we have come home again but do not know why they are not to be made.  We shall know bye and bye, this is the 15th day of October.  Nov. 19th the reason why the company does not want the bricks made is because they think they can do better by hauling the ore to Little Cottonwood in Salt Lake County.  But they now wish they had them made, but the weather is too cold and I am teaching school.

 

I commenced on the 5th of this month and have 22 scholars.  My wife is away from home at present, she has gone to Santa Clara to wait on Samuel Knight's wife, Laura.  I do not miss her quite as much as I did a short time ago.  My little daughter Dinah, who is nearly eleven years old, is a great help to me.  She is able to cook our victuals and is a pretty good little housekeeper.  My children all go to school.  My wife got back from Santa Clara in a few days after she left here.  I was taken with a chill on the 7th of December and was afraid I was going to have them continue.  It seemed to me that I could not endure many such.  I took a few pills, had the Bishop and other Elders administer to me.  Now, thank God, on the 15th I am able to sit up and write this and hope in a day or two to teach school again.  I did expect to go to St. George to Conference today, but was not well enough to go.

 

           March 26th, 1884.  This winter my wife has been from home a good part of the time.  She left home Jan. 2nd to go to Hebron. She was there nearly three weeks. When she got to Mountain Meadows a severe snow storm came on, so that she was unable to get home.  She started home on March 2nd, just two months from the time she left home.  Michial Truman started with her in a sleigh and after traveling about 7 miles south there was no snow on the ground.  He came about 6 miles on bare ground and then his team was too tired to come any farther.  He left the sleigh and my wife and came on to Gunlock with his horses.  He told me where my wife was.  I got a team and my boy Edwin and I started to where she was nine miles from home.  We got there and found her all right.  She hardly expected us to get there that night, but she was not afraid to stay there all night alone.  We got home about eleven o’clock at night all right, but my wife in getting out of the wagon stepped her weight on her foot and broke a bone in her foot.  She did not feel it much that night, but the next morning she could not stand.  For two weeks she was unable to do much.  At the end of three weeks she was able to get around.  At that time there came Obed Hamblin and his wife to take her to Clover Valley to wait on his sister Hannah Logan.  She had written several times to my wife during the winter and my wife had told her each time that she could not go.  But when they came after her and told how much depended on her help, she concluded to go.  So on the 24th of March she left home again not knowing how long she would be gone.  But she has gone to do good and I am willing to spare her.  The roads are in a terrible condition owing to the great amount of snow that has fallen this winter.  But I pray that she may get there all right and return in safety.  I have taught school three months the past winter.  We did not expect to get any school appropriation on account of some discrepancies in our reports.  I went to Conference in St. George the 15th of March and there found the appropriation larger than ever before, it being $70 and as Sister Elizabeth Truman was teaching school, I let her have $15, although according to the law of the territory she could not draw any, because she is not qualified, having no certificate.  But I was very thankful indeed to have what I did have, it enabled me to get many things for my family that I did not expect and I know how to appreciate the blessings I receive.  My oldest boy, Hyrum, has been living in St. George with George Cottam for about 5 weeks and has not seen his mother since the 2nd of Jan.  Now she is going away again and he would not be likely to see her for a long time, unless he came on Sunday, the 23rd, for my wife was going to start the next morning.  But he came Sunday afternoon and we were all glad to see him. He went back next day and expects to be home to stay in about a week.  My health is not very good at present, having taken a severe cold.  I feel some times that I am going to have a chill, but I pray that I may not.

 

            April 17th, 1884.  I am much better than I was, but not very well.  My wife is still away from home and the Santa Clara so high that it will be difficult for her to get home if she is ready to come.  My boy, Hyrum, is at home from St. George, he has engaged to work for F. O. Holt during the summer and until the crops are gathered.  Sister Truman has quit teaching school.  She could not have any of the appropriation because she has no certificate of qualification.  My wife got home on the 22nd of April in good health.  She had a very unpleasant time on the road on account of so much mud and water.                On the 25th, I went to St. George to hear President John Taylor and others from the City who came with him and held a two days meeting at which we heard good and encouraging talks.

 

            On the 31st of May my wife went to wait on my adopted daughter Martha Ann Crow, at Clover Valley.  Her husband, Wm. H. Crow, came after my wife.  The roads are better and the Santa Clara not so high as it was.  The woman she waited on when she was at Clover before promised to send her fifty dollars in a few days after she left, but she has not sent it yet.  She promised to pay her whatever she charged if it was a hundred dollars, but that was before my wife waited on her.  I have several calls this summer to go and make and lay brick, but I do not know whether I can attend to any of them, my health is so poor at present.

 

            July 27th, 1884.  My wife is at home but unable to help herself.  She got her fifty dollars while out at Clover Valley and started home on the 30th of June.  She came about 5 miles with Dock Crow, who was bringing her home.  When he had covered that distance, one of the tires ran off the wheel and he had to stop and put it on.  While stopping for that purpose, Zera Terry came along with a wagon.  He and Orson Huntsman had been there to preach.  Zera’s wife and Susan Terry were with them.  They invited my wife to get in with them, which she did.  They had gone but two or three miles when Zera struck both horses and started them so quick that it threw Orson and my wife and Susan out of the wagon, and the spring seat after or with them.  They fell out backwards and it is supposed that the seat fell on my wife.  At any rate she was taken up for dead, but after a while she came to.  It looked doubtful about her living long and she suffered a great deal of pain in going from there to Brother Terry’s ranch in a wagon, a distance of about 17 miles.  She got there and Dock Crow came on to Gunlock after me.  I did not know whether I would find her dead or alive.  I got there July 3rd and found her alive, but very low and helpless and suffering great pain.  Brother Terry’s wife, Mary Ann, was very kind to her and did all she could for her.  After I got there I took care of her until Sunday, July 6th.  I then got Brother Terry’s spring wagon and Elias Hunt took us to Brother Holt’s ranch where Sister Holt did all she could to make her comfortable for a week.  Then David Huntsman came with a wagon and took us home.  She has been at home now for two weeks and is much better, but her back is still very sore and lame.  Thus she is called to suffer through neglect and carelessness of William Crow and Zera Terry.  If Will Crow had soaked up the wagon, she would have come all right with Dock Crow, or if Zera Terry had warned them or been more careful, she would have come safely with him.  So it is, we know not what a day brings forth.  My own health is still very poor.  Emmy, my step-daughter, is living with us and waiting on her mother.

 

 

           Oct. 3rd, 1884.  My health is much better.  I have been down to Jackson and made and burned 14,600 brick for the mining company who are putting up a smelter there.  I was not very well when I went there, but my health improved as soon as I began work.  My wife’s health is improving slowly.  She and I went to St. George on Wednesday, Sept. 24th, and took our two youngest children and my oldest boy, Hyrum, with us.  My wife and I got our 2nd annointing in the Temple and my boy, James, stood proxy to have his brother, Thomas D. Jones, adopted to me and his mother, Martha V. Jones.  My daughter, Dinah A. Jones, stood proxy for the little girl that was given to my first wife, Louisa Leavitt Jones.  She had no child of her own.  Hyrum went with us to drive the team.  My wife, Dinah, was much better after being in the Temple and walked from there without any help to where we were stopping, with Brother George T. Cottam, farther than she had walked before since she was hurt.  We all got home feeling well and thankful to God for his many favors and blessings.  My step-daughter, Emmiline, is still living with us but she expects soon to remove to Mesquite-ville with her family.

 

            Dec. 26th, 1884.  I am sitting alone, my wife has been gone for two weeks to Hebron.  I did not think that she would ever go there again after meeting with such an accident as she did the last time she was away from home, but she did not like to refuse.  I hope and pray that she will return safely to her home shortly.  My daughter Dinah keeps house for me and she does well for one so young.  My step-daughter, Emmiline, has been gone some time.  I am not teaching school this winter; the Trustees have hired Julia Westover.  The scholars do not like her very well, but the Trustees prefer her to me.  I suppose it is right, but I don’t know.  My boys and I have been working for the Mountain Chief Mining Co., but we cannot get our pay and many others are in the same situation.  Among them is James W. Hunt who has come all the way from Rabbit Valley to cut and haul wood for them, and his family are in great need of the pay, but he cannot get it.  He has been here at my house a good deal lately on account of stormy weather.  I have plenty to eat and am able to make Brother Hunt comfortable as far as feeding him and his team, but he feels uncomfortable on account of his family.

 

            Brother James W. Hunt started for his home in Rabbit Valley on Jan. 8, 1885.  My wife got home from Hebron on Jan. 12, after an absence of five weeks and three days.  She is not very well; she feels the hurts that she received last June.  I don’t know but that she always will, but I hope not. She does not intend to go from home to wait on women, they must come to her if they wish her to wait on them.  The school teacher does not give satisfaction, the children do not like her, but still the Trustees keep her contrary to the wishes of the majority of the parents.  I cannot persuade my children to go and I do not like to drive them.  I believe they learn as much at home as they would if driven to school.  I know that children never hated to go to school to me as they do to her, but I believe it is all for the best.  We must acknowledge the hand of the Lord in all things.  My wife is at home at present and is not likely to leave very soon to tend to women.

           Obed Hamblin’s wife has been living in Gunlock for some time for my wife to wait on her, and on Sunday morning, March 8th, she was delivered of a fine boy.  When Obed asked my wife what she charged for her services, she told him she charged four dollars, but he was gentleman enough to give her double that amount—something that is seldom done by people that live in this selfish world.

 

            March 13, 1885.  Pres. J. D. T. McAllister came to Gunlock Wednesday the 4th and preached in the evening.  On Thursday he and L. S. Terry came to my house and made us a short visit.  I invited them to come to dinner next day, they promised they would, but next morning Brother Terry was called away to Panaca.  His daughter, Sarah Maria Wadsworth had died.  He was there just at the hour appointed for her funeral.  Pres. McAllister came alone to my house to dinner and said many comforting things while there.

 

            I started to Conference in St. George today, March 13th, attended Conference and had a good time; heard many good instructions and some beautiful singing.  At Conference a jubilee was appointed to be held in the various wards in the stake.  Each ward appointed their time so that no two wards would have their jubilee on the same day, except where two or more wards united together.  Gunlock was appointed to meet at Pine Valley and Pinto Ward and Hebron Ward were appointed to meet there also, but Hebron did not come. The jubilee was for the Sunday Schools and teachers and scholars took part in the dialogues, recitations and singing.  There were two bands there, one from St. George and one from Pinto.  I had the training of the Gunlock scholars.  I felt some anxiety about our scholars, as they had never had any practice before, but I felt proud of their success.  They were not excelled by any there.  They seemed to be inspired when they got up to speak their pieces.  I prayed that they might be and I believe they were.  There was a good feeling throughout the jubilee and the people of Pine Valley were very kind to those who came from other wards. The jubilee was held on the 10th of May, 1885.

 

            I went up to Pine Valley on August 1st to set and burn a kiln of bricks that Bishop Jones had made.  I was gone from home for ten days and earned 500 lbs. of flour, of which I was in great need.  I got home on the 10th.  I spoke in two meetings and one Sunday School while I was at Pine Valley.  The day after I got home, my wife went to the Mountain Meadows with William Slade and his wife.  She went to wait on Jane Holt, and when she got there that night she got word that James W. Hunt was dead.  She went to Hebron that same night.  It was a terrible shock to all to hear of his death.  I saw him on the 26th of July, well and hearty and to hear of his dying on the 11th of August was sudden and unexpected.  He has left a wife and five children, three of them quite small.  Such is life.  The young as well as the aged are called away.  It all says, “Be ye also ready.”

 

           My wife is still away from home and this is Aug. 21st, 1885.  My little daughter, Dinah, keeps things straight and we get along all right, but it does not seem much like home when my wife is away.  We are disappointed in our fruit this year.  We expected a large crop of grapes this year, but our white grapes are nearly all blighted and some of the California grapes, so we will not have many to dry.

 

            Pres. McAllister came to Gunlock, Thursday, Aug. 14th, and preached that night and on Friday he ate dinner at my house.  We had a good visit together.  He went away on Saturday.  My boy, Edwin, went to Hebron, Tuesday the 19th, to see his Aunt Elizabeth Hunt and his cousins.

 

            Nov. 18, 1885.  My step-daughter, Elizabeth Hunt, has moved to Gunlock.  She bought a lot from George Holt and has had a house put up on it.  She is pretty comfortable but feels the loss of her husband.  My wife is again from home, this time in Washington to wait on Jasper Wood’s wife.  She went on the 9th of this month.  There has been a feeling against me by some of the Saints in this place as a school teacher.  It would be hard for them to tell what was the cause of it, but I know it is nothing but prejudice as I have done nothing to merit their ill feelings.  Bishop Huntsman and Sister E. Truman are the principle ones against me, but they are kind enough to my face.  On Sunday last the Bishop and F. O. Holt came to my house to ask me to teach school this winter.  I told them I thought they were barking up the wrong tree this time.  But after a long talk, I consented to teach.

 

            I knew they would not have come to me if they could have done better, but they could not get another teacher and I want my own children taught, so I thought it would be best for me to teach.  I have promised to commence next Monday, Nov. 23rd.  Accordingly, I commenced and had taught two weeks when the superintendent of district schools, Brother Joseph Orton, came here and said I must pass another examination and get my certificate renewed or the school would not be legal and the Trustees could not draw the appropriation.  I went to St. George on Dec. 9th and passed my examination on the 10th, but did not get my certificate.  Brother Orton promised me and one of the Trustees that he would send it.  This is Jan. 3rd and it has not come yet.

 

            My wife got home from Washington one week ago today.  She found us all able to go about, but not very well.  We have all had severe colds except Hyrum, he was well.  Nearly all the children in this place have been sick with colds, and I had to stop teaching school a few days.  But they are all better now, and the school is going on very well now and the children seem to love to go to school.  I think a good deal of the prejudice has left the parents and children.  My three youngest children go to school.  Hyrum has gone to Mesquite-ville, went Tues. the 29th.  Perhaps he will go to the Muddy to see David Huntsman and family.  He did not go to the Muddy.  He got back from Mesquite all right.  My school closed the 27th of April.  I taught two terms at $60 per term.  I got the appropriation--$56.  It was a great help to me and I feel thankful for it.  I am now preparing the children for a jubilee to be held at Pine Valley on June 3rd.  I got up a theatre and dance at the close of my school.  It went off very well, all seemed well satisfied.  My health is not very good at present.  I did not attend Sunday School or meeting on last Sunday.

 

            May 16th.  My wife went to Mesquite-Ville on April 29th to wait on her daughter, Emmy, in her confinement.  She has not come back yet.  The jubilee passed off, but we were not there.  When the time came for us, there were no teams with which to go.  Franklin Holt has moved his family to Mountain Meadows Canyon where his father lives and the rest of the folks who have teams do not care about going.  I have but one horse that I can use and so we have to disappoint the children here and the folks in Pine Valley.

 

            My wife got back in June, having been gone nearly seven weeks.  I started for Pine Valley the morning she came.  While there Reuben Gardner asked me to make some bricks for him.  I promised I would.  On Monday, July 19th, I went there to prepare a yard for making them and on the following Monday, July 26th, I commenced to make them, but the clay was not suitable and I only made 18 thousand.  I set them in the kiln and then came home to wait until the wood was ready to burn them.  I have not heard from there yet.  This is Saturday, Aug. 14th.  Franklin Holt moved back yesterday.  I am glad to see him with us once more.

 

            I wrote to Pres. Taylor before I went to Pine Valley and got an answer from him concerning the adoption of my wife’s (Dinah) daughters.  He told me it would be all right to have them all adopted to me.  I also asked him what I could do for my adopted daughter, Martha Ann Crow, wife of William H. Crow, who died at Clover Valley this spring.  I was told to go ahead and do what I could for her in the Temple, as her husband was not likely to do anything for her.

 

            I burned the bricks for Bro. Gardner early in September.  My son, Hyrum, brought the team up on Tuesday, Sep. 8th.  I came home the next day.  In August last my wife was suddenly deprived of her hearing and it is with difficulty that we make her hear anything that we say.  I find it difficult to get things necessary for my family on account of money being so scarce and no sale for the things we raise here.  Dried peaches are only worth 3 ½ cents a pound, dried grapes no sale in the stores, grain and beans no sale, but we make exchanges with our neighbors and in this manner manage to live.  But notwithstanding the times are hard I feel thankful that we are as well off as we are.  We have enough to eat and are not suffering much for clothing.  Still we are needy and no way at present to get the things we need, but I know the Lord will open up the way as he has always done.  I have written to my step-daughter, Emmiline, to come up here to be adopted to us.  Her sister, Elizabeth, is going for the same purpose, as their own father has not shown himself worthy of them.  I have no wish to take any man’s children from him, but he cannot claim them and they go with their mother and me.  He is dead and I intend to do all I can for him.  I write these things that my children may read them when I am gone beyond the veil to meet with my wives and children that have gone before me.  I am hardly willing to go yet, as I have work that I want to do before I leave this world.  I am now in my seventieth year and not able to work very hard, but I have three good boys who are willing to work for me, and I have one good girl who loves to help me all she can.  I am trying to raise them up so that they will be faithful in serving the Lord.

 

            Jan 12th, 1887.  It is strange how the Lord orders things for my good.  I did not know what I would do this winter to get things that I needed for my family.  I did not expect to teach school in Gunlock this winter as the Trustees hired a girl from St. George.  She taught school two weeks and by the end of that time the children got tired of her and she was tired of teaching here, and so she went home and soon after got married.  The Trustees then came to me.  I never felt so reluctant to teach as I did at the time I commenced to teach, but the children needed someone to teach them, and I needed the pay, and as the Trustees apologized for not asking me at first, I consented to teach.  I am glad I did.  I have a good school and have already received $60 appropriation money.  I acknowledge the hand of the Lord in it.  The children seem to like to come to school and I like to teach them better than I ever did before.  My son, Hyrum, left home over three weeks ago and went to the Muddy, nearly a hundred miles from here. He went to trade for grain and I expected him back in ten or twelve days.  I have not heard from him since he went away, but I do not forget to pray for him every day and hope he will soon return home safe.  I expected my step-daughter, Emmiline, to come with him.  Jan. 20th I got uneasy about Hyrum, not hearing from him for so long.  I hired a horse and sent my boy, Edwin, after him to see what had become of him. He has been gone four days.  I heard from him yesterday through Weir Leavitt who saw him at Mesquite-Ville.  I also learned that Hyrum is at the Muddy and that he was expecting to start for home soon.  I shall be glad when they are both at home again.

 

           Feb. 18, 1887.  My two boys have come home and my step-daughter Emmiline D. Huntsman came with them, and on the 31st of last month I went down to St. George with my wife and two step-daughters, Elizabeth and Emmiline, and we all went into the Temple.  They were adopted to me and stood proxy for all my wife’s daughters who are dead; and a little boy whose name I have forgotten, stood proxy for her little boy, William Samuel.  Martha Ann Crow was also adopted to me as a daughter.  When we were coming home from St. George, we got along all right until we got to Sister Conger’s, and we were thinking soon to be home.  But all of a sudden the fore wheels of the buggy came apart from the rear and let us all down.  I held to the lines as long as I could, but had to let go and away went the horses with the front wheels.  They soon got loose and ran away toward St. George.  Emmy and I ran after them for about a mile and caught them, but the buggy was broken and no way of fixing it.  I left the women and children at Conger’s and rode one of the horses and let the other one follow me home.  Then I sent my boy, Hyrum, and grandson, Alfred Hunt, with teams to bring the folks home and the buggy.  They got home about 9 o’clock at night.  Sister Conger and daughters were very kind to them.  I shall always remember their kindness.  My daughter, Emmiline, thought of starting home on the Monday following, but Bishop Huntsman had a public dinner on that day and a party at night, so she did not go until Wednesday, Feb. 9th.  Hyrum went with her.  I have commenced to teach a night school to teach arithmetic and writing.  I teach on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

 

           March 17, 1887.  I have taught one term of school and 9 days on the second term, but Bishop Huntsman has tried to break up the school.  He kept his own children out and tried to induce others to do so.  Elizabeth Truman followed his example and kept her girls out.  The excuse was that schooling came too high.  I only got $24 a month and board for myself.  Brother F. O. Holt has been my friend, and sends his children to school and, being one of the Trustees, he is determined that the school will go on.  My wife was taken sick on or about the 8th, and I was obliged to stay from school to take care of her.  She is very feeble and eats but little.  My daughter, Elizabeth Hunt, stays with us at night.  In the latter part of March my wife began to get better, so that I was able to commence school again.  It seems like a miracle to see my wife in good health again.  She has a better appetite than she had before she was taken sick, but she still suffers some from rheumatism and her hearing is no better.  But I am thankful that she is as well as she is.  In resuming my school, Sister Truman sent her girls to school.  The Bishop sent his little girl, but kept his two boys out and does not feel friendly to me or the school.  I only taught a half a term.  It is getting late in the spring and several of the children have the whooping cough, so the school closed on April 15.  After putting in my  crop, I went to Pine Valley to make bricks for Reuben Gardner, but the weather was so windy and cold I only made 2 thousand and came home and have not been back yet – and this is July 13th, 1887.

 

            On the 10th, Pres. McAllister was here.  Samuel Reber and John Staly of Santa Clara were here with him.  On the 8th of this month, I attended a convention in St. George, having been selected a delegate by the people of this precinct, and at the close of the convention I was selected for another one held the following day at the same place.  I got home on the 9th, about 9 o’clock P.M.  We have had a very dry season and crops are beginning to suffer and feed is scarce on the range, but it is raining today.

            Aug. 16, 1887.  It is still dry, scarcely any feed on the range and water low in the Santa Clara.  Crops are suffering some for water.  I have again been to Pine Valley to make bricks for Edward Whipple.  I have made about 14,000 – He wants 10,000 more, but harvest coming on I came home on the 12th to wait while he does his harvesting.  Then I expect to go back and set and burn them.  On Sunday last a thing took place that caused me to feel bad.  My boy, Edwin, was finding fault with his younger brother, James, because he had not got up the cows as Edwin thought he ought to do.  I asked him why he did not get them himself.  He said it was not his business and when I tried to show him it was, he got angry and used some very bad language, and I did what I should not have done.  I got angry too, and pulled Edwin’s ear.  He then damned such a home and I told him to leave it, but was sorry as soon as I said it.  I went to him to make up with him, but he would not stop to listen to me and he has not eaten anything but fruit here since.  I and the other children have asked him to eat, but he will not, and I do not know that he has eaten anything but fruit since Sunday—this is Tuesday afternoon.  I know I am cross when my children rise up against me and disobey me, but no father ever tried harder to make his children comfortable than I have.  I am poor and cannot make them as comfortable as I would wish. But I have done the best I could and if they rebel against me the loss will be theirs.  I have one child who never rebels, that is my daughter Dinah.  She is a good and obedient child, may God bless her and may he bless them all and enable them to do right that they may be saved in the kingdom of heaven—for I dearly love my children and desire to make them happy and comfortable.  I have written this that my children may know when I am dead and gone how I loved them and know how it grieves me when I have to be cross to them.

 

            There are several incidents and scenes that I should have written in my journal which, perhaps, my children would like to read when I am gone.

 

            In the winter of 1844-45, my brother-in-law, Lemuel Leavitt, and I, having nothing to do at home and needing something to live upon, took our axes and started out to hunt work—either chop wood or dig wells or anything else to make something that we needed.  We traveled all day without finding anything to do.  About sundown we met a man with a load of wood.  We asked him if he knew of anyone who wanted work of any kind done.  He said he wanted to hire some wood chopped and said he would give 25 cents a cord.  We asked him if he would board us.  He said no, we would have to pay our own board.  We told him we did not think we could chop more than would pay our board and as it was dark and we had no place to go for the night, we asked him if we could stay all night at his house.  He said no, he had no room to keep us but pointed to a large white house a little way off and said the man who lived there wanted rails made and would be likely to keep us all night.  We went there and I told him I understood he wanted rails made and would like to get the job of making them.  He asked us where we came from and when we told him, he asked if we belonged to the Latter-Day Saints.  We told him we did.  Then said he “You need not go any farther to hunt work.  You are in MacDonough County now and we have agreed not to employ nor have anything to do with that people.”  I told him I was sorry to hear it for I would not have come there if I had known their decision.  “I suppose then you would not be willing to keep us over night.”  It was dark and we had no place to go.  “Oh, as to that” he said, “I never turn anyone away when they have no place to go.”  We could stay all night and soon we had a good supper and after supper he got the Bible out and said he would like to talk to me awhile, although he said he did not believe in any religion at all.  He understood that one of our preachers had said that the Book of Mormon was of more value than the Bible.  I told him that to us, as a people, it was of a great deal more value, because if the Book of Mormon was true, it was translated by inspiration and that would prove Joseph Smith to be a prophet and the Latter-Day Saints right.  He admitted the correctness of my statement and after talking until ten o’clock at night, he said I had argued the most reasonably of anyone he had talked with, but he did not believe in either book.  We had a good night’s lodging.  In the morning we thought we would not wait for breakfast for fear we should be too troublesome.  So we went out to get our axes in the dooryard where we left them the night before and found them snipped up pretty badly.  We supposed that the boys (of which there were several) had done it for spite.  We started out for our breakfasts and I told Lemuel that I was not going to be a Mormon until I had my breakfast.  He said, “Right, breakfast it is.”

 

            We went to the house of a man by the name of King.  We heard he wanted some rails made.  We asked him about it.  He said he had engaged a man to make them.  He asked where we were from and we told him we were from Pontusak.  Now that place was inhabited mostly by mobcrats and we lived several miles from there and just then we were a long way from it.  But the ruse took and he said his father, who lived across the road, wanted rails made and told us to tell his father that he had sent us.  We went, and got no job, but we got our breakfast because we were from Pontusak.  While we were eating, the old lady who got it for us told us she would not give a Mormon a meal of victuals if he were starving.  I told her if all was true that was told about them, they ought to starve.  However, we got our breakfast and were Mormons again.

 

            Oct. 1, 1887.  My wife went from home Sept. 9th to Mountain Meadows to wait on her granddaughter, Alice Holt, in her confinement.  I got home from Pine Valley the following day so that I did not get to see her before she went, nor have I seen her since, and it seems lonesome without her.  My son, Hyrum, has been gone a week.  He too has gone to the Meadows to help the Holts make molasses.  Edwin has taken Mr. Dagget’s rams to herd for two months.  He has let four of the young bucks get away.  I have not done much farming this year.  It has been a dry season and I have been away a good deal and my boys have not tended the crops very well, so we have but little to harvest.  This place is now without a Bishop, as J. S. Huntsman resigned last Sunday, being requested to do so by the authorities in St. George.  They did so on account of his selling whiskey to the young folks in Pine Valley.  My wife got home on the 10th of Oct.  My granddaughter, Alice Holt, was delivered of a girl on Oct. 5th, 1887.

 

Yesterday, Sunday, Oct. 16th, Presidents McArthur and David Cannon were in Gunlock.  They came here to find out the state of things here and to find out the minds of the Saints with regard to sustaining J. S. Huntsman as Bishop of this ward.  Two of the brethren were in favor of sustaining him, viz: F. O. Holt and Amos Hunt.  W. E. Jones and Jeremiah Leavitt were not in favor and spoke against it.  No one else spoke their feelings, but when it was put to a vote, not one hand was raised in his favor – a few voted against him and the rest were neutral.  We have no Bishop but Bro. F. O. Holt was appointed to hold meetings and receive tithing.  I was appointed to assist him.  We are out of a postmaster here, Bro. Huntsman having been put out by the government.  I have proposed to put in my daughter, Elizabeth Hunt.  We took a vote on it on Oct. 9th and the people voted for her.  I intend to go to St. George tomorrow, Oct. 19th, to get up a petition for a post office and postmistress.  I went down to St. George and got a petition drawn up by John T. Woodbury.  I left it with Bro. Prymm and came home and got 40 signatures and sent it down by Dudley Leavitt on the 21st.  I hope we will soon have a post office here.  I went to Pine Valley on the 21st.  Edwin went with me. We got a load of potatoes and flour.  We got home next day, but had some difficulty getting down the big hill on account of the brake giving away, but we got home all right.  Edwin is a good boy to travel with.  He is not so easily discouraged as I am in such cases.  On Sunday we had a good meeting.  I presided and Bro. John Powell and Bro. James Bowler were the speakers.

 

            This is Monday the 24th of October.  My children have gone to a party.  In this case it is gotten up by my boy, Hyrum, as he is going away to work for Frank Dagget and expects to be gone all winter.  Shortly after the petition that I got up was sent in, an answer came back to Bro. Pymm, saying that there had been so much fraud practiced by many of the post masters in Utah that the government would not appoint a postmaster in Gunlock unless Bro. Pymm would vouch for her. He is not acquainted with my daughter, Lizzie, and of course could not vouch, but told me to get two or three men that he was acquainted with to vouch for her and he would vouch for them.  I got Bros. F. O. Holt, Amos Hunt and Frank Dagget to sign the document and sent it.  I have not heard from it yet, Dec. 13th.  On Sunday, Nov. 27th, Pres. McAllister and James G. Bleak were here and reorganized this ward.  F. O. Holt was appointed Bishop, William Ellis Jones, 1st Councilor, Bro. James S. P. Bowler, 2nd Councilor, but we are not ordained to our offices.  My wife went away in the fore part of November to wait on Laura Knight at Santa Clara.  She was gone over two weeks.  Got home on the 23rd of November.  On the 23rd of December I went down to St. George in company with J. S. P. Bowler and on the same day F. O. Holt was set apart as Bishop of Gunlock Ward, I was set apart as 1st Councilor and Bro. Bowler as 2nd Councilor to Bro. Holt, under the hands of Pres. E. Snow, Pres. McAllister and counsel assisting.

 

            March 9th, 1888.  My wife went from home yesterday to Mountain Meadows to wait on Jane Holt in her confinement.  I am sorry that she promised to go as there are three women here who need her shortly.  This is a very wet spring and there is a good prospect for water through the summer.  My two boys are both from home – that is Hyrum and Edwin.  They are both working for Frank Dagget, so I have all the work to do and it is so rainy that I cannot do much.  We are having good meetings in Gunlock this winter and spring.  Bro. John Powell of Fillmore is here and is teaching a theological class.  We meet twice a week and a good deal of interest is taken by all who attend and nearly all in the place attend. There is a better spirit manifested here since J. S. Huntsman resigned and Bro. Holt was appointed Bishop.  Bro. Huntsman has left this place and gone to the Muddy, and I do not know of anyone who is sorry that he is gone.  Bro. Bowler is teaching school here. The children and parents liked him very well when he first began to teach, but most of them feel differently now.  My boy, Edwin, went to the Muddy with a load of things for J. S. Huntsman.  He started on the 9th of January and got back on the 4th of February.  He traded off my yellow mare because he could not get along with her on account of her baulking when she came to bad places.  He got along very well with the horse that he got for her.

 

            My wife came home from Mountain Meadows on the 11th of March – only gone three days and back in time to wait on the women spoken of.  She went to Diamond Valley on the 5th of April to wait on William Laub’s wife, was gone three days.

 

            May 4th, 1888.  My boys are still herding sheep for Mr. Dagget and I have to put in my crop all alone with only my boy, James, to help me.  He is not able to help much, but is willing to do what he can.

 

            Aug. 3rd, 1888.  It is quite awhile since I wrote here.  Before writing I got in my crop and Edwin has been at home and helped me to hoe my field and haul my hay.  He is now gone with F. O. Holt to Mountain Meadows to help him harvest his wheat.  On Sunday, 22nd of July, I started with Bro. Holt to Pine Valley.  There was a conference of the Young Men’s Mutual I. A. held there on Monday and Tuesday.  The Sunday School of the different wards met with them, so it was a joint conference and we had a good time.  The authorities of the Stake were there, notwithstanding they were in danger of being arrested by the Marshall for living with their wives.

 

            This is the 29th of Sept. 1888.  I have been in Pine Valley this summer and set and tried to burn a kiln of bricks for Gardner Bros., but for the first time in my life I failed to get a good burn and after burning for five nights, I had to leave them unburned.  It was on account of having wet bricks in the kiln.  My boy, Hyrum, is still herding sheep.  Edwin is gone too a good part of the time.  He came home yesterday and today he has gone to St. George.  My daughter, Dinah, has gone to Dagget’s sheep herd to see Hyrum.  There is a good deal of sickness in other settlements, but it is healthy here.  My family are well, but my wife is still very hard of hearing.  My crop is not turning out very well.  My corn is very poor and cane does not look very well.  My grape crop is almost a failure.  But I don’t feel like repining – we have food and raiment, but bread stuff is very scarce.  At present nearly everybody is out of flour.  I have lent a good deal and am nearly out myself and not much prospect of getting any back soon.  I expect we will have some before we suffer.

 

            Nov. 21st.  We have not suffered for anything but flour is still scarce.  Edwin and I went to Pine Valley on the 12th of this month, but could not get my wheat ground.  It is ground before this time, but roads are muddy and Edwin has gone to Clover Valley after Dagget’s bucks and I am getting too old to go to Pine Valley alone.  My daughter, Dinah, and boy, James, go to school. Bro. Bowler is teaching.  I have taught school for several years in this place but for some reason the Trustee, Bro. Holt, will not employ me if he can get anyone else.  It makes no difference.  I shall live without it for if one door closes another will open and, although I am poor, the Lord has always provided for me and I am confident He always will.  I have always tried to do right and let the consequence follow and expect to always do so.

 

May 4th 1888.  My daughter, Elizabeth Hunt, has got the post office here.  The mail has been coming twice a week for over a month.

 

            Nov. 21st, 1888.  I should have written the above on page 90, but I made a mistake.  Lizzie has had the post office now for over seven months.  She does not make much at it, but what she makes is cash and is quite a help to her.

 

            I have a nephew in Wales, William Jones, he writes to me regularly and I answer all his letters.  He is a religious man and he belongs to the Congregationalists.  He thinks he is right and I am wrong.  I got his last letter on the 12th of this month.  I answered it on the 16th.  He does not want me to stop writing to him and if anything happens to me that I cannot write, he wants some of my children to write to him – which I hope they will do, as he seems to be well meaning but he cannot believe that Mormonism is right. There seems to be very little interest taken in our meetings and Sunday Schools in this place.  I hardly know the cause, but it may be because there are but few here.  Several of the brethrern are away after flour, but I think the teachers should go visiting oftener and stir up the people to their duties.  They have not been around for over six months and the people are getting careless.  I was called upon last Sunday to speak, but I did not feel as if the Saints wanted to hear me, so I said a few words and then sat down.  I generally like to talk, but I felt as though the spirit had nothing to say through me and I do not want to talk without its influence.

 

            Jan. 14th, 1889.  Things are in a better condition than when I wrote last.  Our meetings were never better attended than they are at present and our Sunday School is in a flourishing condition.  The Saints have waked up to a sense of their duties.  I spoke yesterday in meeting and had a good time.  Bro. F. O. Holt has resigned his office as superintendent of the Sunday School and, as I was 1st assistant superintendent, it released me.  Bro. J. S. P. Bowler was put in Bro. Holt’s place and Bro. A. P. Hunt in mine.  My two boys, Hyrum and Edwin, are herding sheep for Mr. Dagget.  It is a bad time for them.  It has been raining for two days and today it is snowing.  I am very sorry that my boys have to be out in the storm, but we are poor and must do something for a living.

 

           March 2nd, 1889.  Oh! What a change has taken place since I wrote before.  I spoke of things being in a good condition, but alas for humanity.  Josiah Leavitt was appointed 2nd assistant superintendent and he had not had the office long before he got drunk and fought with his brother, Jerimiah.  He got up in meeting and confessed his fault, but in a short time afterwards he got drunk again and fought with Almus Truman and finding that he was no match for Truman, he drew a knife and stabbed Almus in the back.  Now Josiah is in jail and Almus is laid up with the wound and the powers of darkness have gained their end.  I do not know that this should be in my journal, but it goes to show how things are going on here and these things are not settled yet.  Josiah and witnesses have to be at Beaver City on the 20th of May.  This is the 8th.  This will take nearly all the men out of Gunlock and we that are left will have a lonesome time.  My wife went to Hamblin on the 15th of April and got back on the 6th of May. She went to wait on Lyman Canfield’s wife.  I have traded off my land in the Gunlock field for a piece near home, but have only half as much water right to the piece I have got.  I get three cows and calves to boot.   My two oldest boys are herding sheep for Frank Dagget.  They are very good to me and often give me a little store pay which is a great help to me, as I am not able to earn much myself.  My wife, too, is a great help to me as she gets money or store pay for her services.  I find that I am getting old and feeble.  I am told that I don’t look old for my age but I feel old.  My heart is young and my love for my family is strong as ever.  In spite of all my good feelings, I sometimes get angry with my children, but I get the worst of it for I never speak a cross word but what I feel sorry and I do wish I could talk without getting angry.  I have been trying for years to overcome this cross feeling, but I have not yet done it.  But I intend to keep trying while I live.

 

           June 5th, 1889.  Well the folks have got back from Beaver, all but Josiah Leavitt.  He is sent to jail in St. George and is to pay a fine of $150 and costs of suit, which are over $400.  There is a bad feeling in the ward owing to one party having to testify against the other in court.  How it will all end I do not know, but hope it will not last long.  As to myself, I have no hard feelings for anyone, but I pity them all.

 

            June 19th, 1889.  My wife was called a little before midnight to wait on Jerimiah Leavitt’s wife.  She had a daughter born. 

 

July 31st.  My wife has today gone to Hamblin to wait on John Day’s wife.  I still feel quite feeble and cannot do much work.  My boy, James, is willing to help me all he can.  My two boys, Hyrum and Edwin, have both left Dagget and gone to Panaca, Nevada.  Hyrum is riding buckboard for Aron Huntsman at $20 a month.  Edwin is working out for a dollar a day.  I am expecting one of them or both to come home in a few days.  I shall be glad to see them.  They are good boys and I wish they could get work to do nearer home so that they could attend meetings and Sunday School.

 

           Sept. 26th, 1889.  My boys have both been at home since I wrote the above.  Hyrum was home long enough to help me haul my 2nd cutting of lucerne and Edwin came home and helped me with my 4th cutting.  He has hauled off fruit four times since then.  He is out now with the fourth load.  He went to Panaca.  Started on the 23rd of this month and this is the 2nd of October, and still Edwin has not come back.  I expected him four days ago.  James went with him.  On Monday, 30th of Sept. my wife was called to wait on Benjamin Platt’s wife at Hamblin.  She went in a hurry, started about 9 o’clock in the morning and got there about noon.  The people there were very much alarmed, as Sister Platt had been in labor all night and no one there who could deliver her.  But by two o’clock P.M. my wife had delivered her all right.  Truly my wife is a wonderful woman.  She has been engaged more or less waiting on women in childbirth for 50 years and has never lost a case.

 

            She came back home next day, Oct. 1st, having been gone about thirty hours.  On the 2nd, my wife was called to wait on Josiah Leavitt’s wife and about 9 o’clock she was delivered of a son.  I should have stated that Josiah got home a week ago, having served about four months in the County jail, he was reprieved and set at liberty.

 

            Saturday night, Oct. 19.  My boy, Edwin, is at home.  He intends to start for St. George tomorrow to take a load of dried peaches to Milford.  He did not start until the 21st and left St. George on the 22nd.  He went as far as Washington and the next day, while getting on the wagon while it was going, he fell and the wheel went over his left hand.  We heard that it was broken, but have since learned that it was not broken, but badly bruised.  I have heard from him by several persons who have seen him.  Although his hand is not bad as I feared, yet he had a hard trip to Milford.  I suffered a great deal of anxiety until I heard from him and sent up many earnest prayers in his behalf.  I am expecting Hyrum home soon.  I shall be glad to see him, as it is several months since he was at home and I shall hear something more about Edwin.  He is still away and has been gone for over three weeks.  My health is much better than it was during the hot weather.  I went to Pine Valley in the fore part of August with Franklin O. Holt and from there to Grass Valley and Fort Hamblin and came home feeling much better.  Nov. 27th – Hyrum got home on the 22nd.  He brought the team and wagon home and left Edwin at Panaca working for Bro. Wadsworth.  I don’t like my boys to be gone from home, but there is nothing to be done here that will bring money or store pay, so my boys have to go elsewhere to get it.  Hyrum is going to haul wood to St. George to pay for my tithing hay.  My wife’s health is very poor.  She promised to go to the Muddy to wait on her daughter, Emmiline Huntsman, and on Saturday the 23rd, David came with a buggy to take her down.  But she was not well enough to go, so he went by Dudley Leavitt’s ranch to get Maria Leavitt to go with him.  I have learned since that Maria did not go with him and he tried to get Martha Leavitt, but she was sick and could not go.  I do not know whether he got anyone from Overton or not.  I hope he did.  My wife was called out Friday morning, Dec. 6th, to Mary L. Hunt, Alfred Hunt’s wife.  She was delivered of a son at 10 minutes to seven that night.  Bishop T. S. Terry and I were there several hours as she was sick some time, and we exercised our faith and priesthood in her behalf.  The people of Hamblin want me to go there and teach school this winter and, as I need money and have not much to do here, I intend to go.  I expect I shall find a great deal of difference in the climate, but I must try and stand the change as well as I can.  I never saw so long a spell of rainy weather as we have had this winter.  The roads are almost impassable.  But I and my wife expect to start for Hamblin on Saturday, Dec. 26th, she to wait on her granddaughter, Alice Holt, and I to teach school.

 

 

 

            March 27th, 1890.  Instead of starting on Saturday, we started on Friday.  It rained on us for awhile and then snowed the rest of the day.  It was very cold and disagreeable and we were glad when we got to Henry Holt’s place.  I commenced teaching school on Monday, the 30th of December.  I had but nine scholars so that I was able to teach them a good deal and most of them learned very fast.  I enjoyed my labor and parents and children were satisfied, believing that I had done my best to give the children all the learning I could in the time I was teaching.  I did not suffer with the cold and had a pleasant time through the winter.  The people were very kind to me and I shall never forget their kindness.  I taught 12 weeks and on the last day of school we had a good sociable time.  Several of the sisters and parents came in and we had a picnic and candy, some dialogues and other exercises.  I think all that were there will long remember that day.  I for one shall never forget it.  I came home on Sunday, March the 16th and nearly everyone in Hamblin came to see me off and bid me goodbye.  Hyrum has been at home all winter or I could not have been away from home.  Edwin has been away from home since last October.  He is now with the railroad surveyors at Cane Springs, Lincoln County, Nevada, but he wrote that he was going to California soon.  My prayer is that God will protect him from harm.

 

            April 21st, 1890.  I received a letter today from Edwin.  He is in California, 60 miles from San Francisco and while I was answering his letter, Hyrum came home.  He is going to stay at home awhile and help me.  My wife went to St. George today, the 23rd.  I have had letters from Edwin lately.  He sent word that he was going to start home shortly and we learned from Solen Huntsman that he started on the cars for home on the 3rd of May.  This is now the 29th and we have not heard a word from him.  I feel very uneasy about him, but I have prayed morning and night for him ever since he went away and I hope nothing serious has happened to him.  I will be very thankful when I see his face once more.  Hyrum has been gone for four days on the range to hunt F. Dagget’s horse.  My daughter, Dinah, went away on Tuesday with Pratt and Laura Canfield to Hamblin.  The Canfields are going to Cedar City.  My daughter is making a visit at the Meadows.  My wife was taken with a pain in her left breast last night and suffered all night with it, but it is better this morning.  My daughter, Elizabeth Hunt, has been sick for several days, but is some better today.  Her health has not been very good for several years.

 

            June 25th, 1890.  I have heard that Edwin is in Nevada near Panaca.  It seems strange that he would be so near home and not write, but it is a great relief to know where to write.  I hope to see him home before long.  I attended Conference on the 15th and 16th of June.  Hyrum went from home on the 18th to Hamblin.  I expect him home today.  My wife went to Hamblin on the 13th to wait on Jane Holt.  She got back in about three weeks.

 

            July 25, 1890.  I am feeling happy today.  My children are all at home.  Edwin got home on the 23rd, and all my children are here except Emmy.  At night I heard she was three miles down the creek and one of the horses was sick.  Edwin and James took a span of horses and brought her and her children here, so that all my children are at home today, for which I feel very thankful to God my Heavenly Father.

 

           Sunday, Aug. 3rd.  On the 30th of July, 1890, I went to St. George with my daughter, Dinah, and Arthur L. Westover.  On the following day they were married in the St. George Temple.  According to the law of the territory, they had to have a license from the County Clerk.  I went with them and got it, and on the 1st of Aug. we had the wedding dinner which was a credit to the bridegroom and his sister, Laura Canfield.  In the evening we had a nice social party in the school house, of which I was the floor manager and everything went off in good order.  I believe my daughter has got a good husband.  My two boys and I intend to start to Grass Valley in the morning, Aug. 14th.  Edwin and I to make bricks for Thomas Gardner and Hyrum to get a load of lumber.  It is not very pleasant for me to leave home and go away to work at my age, but I have not been able to lay up anything for old age, so I must do the best I can.  Aug. 10th – Edwin and I have got back from Grass Valley.  We commenced to make brick for Bro. Gardner, but found that the clay was not good, so we quit and came home.  We had to walk all the way home and have not yet got anything for our trouble.  Nov. 14th – My boys are at home.  Edwin has made a good deal with the team, selling fruit and hauling freight.  He is now gone to Cedar City to get the flour due him for fruit.  Hyrum is not earning much, but he does not like to leave home, and I am glad that my boys love to be at home.  James is going to school and is learning a little.  We have a school teacher here, but I have to teach my boy at night or he would not learn much.  I hope he will learn as his memory is very poor and it is difficult for him to take in learning.  Dinah and her husband are living with us at present.  My nephew that I have been writing to for four or five years, died on the 26th of May, 1890.  He was 44 years ago.  His name is William Jones.  He was a good man and beloved by his family and neighbors, but he could not believe that Mormonism was true.  I had one letter from his daughter, Agnes.

 

            Feb. 10th, 1891.  My wife and I were both taken sick with colds two weeks ago.  I am much better, but my wife is still sick in bed and very feeble.  I had the promise of a school in Hamblin this winter, but the people there could not all agree to send for me again, and so I am earning nothing this winter.  My boys are all at home and not making much, but they don’t like to leave home and I like to have them at home.  I hope something will turn up so that they will be able to stay near home for I am getting old and not able to do much.

 

 

            April 5th, 1891.  Tomorrow is my birthday.  I shall be 74 years old.  I have been sick for about two months and am not well yet.  My wife has been very sick for several weeks and kept her bed most of the time.  She is still confined to her bed and is very low.  This is a trying time to me, but I know the hand of the Lord is over us and He has a purpose in thus trying us.  Whether we recover from this sickness or pass behind the veil, it will be all right.  I have no desire to stay here after my work is done, but I would like to do all the good I can before I leave.  Edwin has been at home all winter.  He has not been able to earn anything and we are in need of many things, but I am thankful that we have plenty of bread and have not yet suffered for anything else.  Our clothing is getting worn out and no way to get more at present, but I know that the Lord will open the way before long so that we shall not suffer.  My son-in-law, Arthur L. Westover, has lived with me all winter.  They moved away several weeks ago, but are still living in Gunlock.  At present they are on a visit to Hamblin.

 

            April 30th, 1891.  My health is still very poor.  I am quite feeble and not able to do much work.  My wife is still confined to her bed, but she is much better than she was.  Whether we shall ever be much better than we are or not, I do not know, but at present we do not seem to be likely to stay here a great while and for my part I do not see much to live for, as I am not much use to anybody.  I have today made out a list of 21 names of women I want to be endowed for in the Temple.  I am going to send them to Thirzy Leavitt, as she has promised to officiate for them.  July 28th.  Sister Thirzy Leavitt has stood proxy for the 21 females mentioned above and the following named I intend having sealed to me, if I have an opportunity, if I do not, I want my children to see that they are sealed to me:  Ann Vaughan, Eliza Harris, Margaret Lewis, Hannah Lewis, Elizabeth Ellis, Esther Ellis, Martha Catherall, Miss Harris No. 1, Miss Harris No. 2 (I do not know their given names), Mary Wainwright.  I want to give my brother Paul his three wives, but I do not know their names.  Pres. McAllister told me to give them as follows:  1st, Mrs. Gray Jones; 2nd, Mrs. Paul Jones; 3rd, Mrs. Mary Ann Jones.  There are other women that I want sealed to their husbands, but I hope to be able to attend to it myself.  Bro. McAllister was here last Sunday, July 26th, 1891, and gave me and others instructions on Temple work.

 

           Oct. 9th, 1891.  My health has been very poor all summer, but I have been able to do a good deal of work.  Work that used to be a pleasure to me, is a burden now, and my children are all willing to help me.  I went to Hamblin on Aug. 8th and Bro. Holt’s on the 10th.  While there I heard that I was wanted at Pine Valley to set and burn a kiln of brick.  I got there on the 12th and next day commenced to set and finish burning them on the 26th.  I was surprised that I was able to do the work that I did, but the Lord gives me strength for the work that I have to do, for when I came home I commenced to cut peaches and carried or packed most of them.  James and my granddaughter, Florence, were a great help too.  I was taken sick with billiousness about the middle of September, but the peach cutting still went on and now all the peaches that I am able to cut this season are through with.  There are many, very many peaches rotting on the ground and on the trees that we are not able to take care of.  My wife has worked to try to save all the apples she could by cutting and drying them, but just now she has gone to Clover Valley to wait on two of the Woods’ women.  She went on the 6th of October.  Lamond Woods came after her.  Edwin has gone to Washington today, the 9th, to get flour, as he failed to get any at Pine Valley where he went on the 6th.

 

            Jan. 6th, 1892.  My wife got back from Clover Valley in November and got $40 for her services.  She has been at Pine Valley since she went on the 12th of December, and got back on the 21st.  My health is a great deal better than it was and I have had a pretty good time this winter.  I do no hard work and my family have plenty to eat and have comfortable clothing.  Edwin brings in most of our living.  He hauls freight from Milford when he gets a chance and hauls bullion to Milford and wood to St. George.  My wife is a great help to me, as she earns a good deal by waiting on women.  I could earn a good deal by teaching school if I had the chance, but one of the Trustees, F. O. Holt, is prejudiced against me and has never yet let me teach in Gunlock if he could get anyone else to teach.  It would be difficult for him to tell why he doesn’t like me to teach, for I know and I think he knows that the children do not learn as fast as when I taught them.  When I teach anywhere else I am well liked. But I am satisfied it is all right for me and I think it is all right for Gunlock, as Bro. Bowler is teaching the young folks to sing, which I could not do.  At the same time, I have done more to make Gunlock what it is than Bro. Bowler or any other man according to my means and sometime it will be acknowledged.  Feb. 9th, I went with my wife to St. George to see Dr. Hosford about her hearing.  Edwin took us down.  The doctor thought he could help her and operated on her ears and she seems to hear a little better. We came home on the 2nd of March and went again with Edward Leavitt on the 6th and stayed until the 9th.  Edwin brought a load of wood down on the 8th to pay for my wife’s and my likenesses which we had taken while at St. George.  My children have now something to remind them of us when we are gone.  How soon we shall go is uncertain, but I hope we shall be ready when called upon to go.  I would like very much to do a work in the Temple before I go, but it seems difficult for me to get a chance to stay in St. George long enough to do any work.  I hope my children will attend to it, if I do not.  There are a few women that I want sealed to me.  Thirzy Leavitt has been endowed for 21 females, some of them I want and some I want to give to their husbands.  I will here name those that I want for myself:  Hannah Lewis, Margaret Lewis, Esther Ellis, Martha Catherall, Ann Vaughan, Eliza Harris, Miss Harris No. 1, Miss Harris No. 2, Miss Harris No. 3.  The above I wish to have sealed to me and the following to their husbands, whose names can be found on page 100 (this journal).

 

 

 

            April 1st, 1892.  On Monday, March 28th, Bro. Andrew Jenson left St. George to come back to Gunlock.  In coming, he took the wrong road and went up Jackson Wash five or six miles and had to come back to the road he left.  He had his wife with him.  It was 8 o’clock when he arrived here.  He held a meeting in the schoolhouse and gave a good discourse on the necessity of keeping records, both individual and public.  He requested all who could give any information on the settling of Gunlock and the changes that had taken place since its settlement to meet at Bishop F. O. Holt’s house at 8 o’clock next morning.  At the close of the meeting he said to me, “Well, Bro. Jones, you will be there first in the morning won’t you?”  I said in a jocular manner, “I will if no one gets there before me.”  In the morning I was there at 8 o’clock and no one was ahead of me.  Bro. Jenson said that was the key to my character.  He knew I was punctual.  I told him I was never late if I could help it.  He then handed me a lead pencil belonging to Sam Knight which he had brought away by mistake.  He said he could depend on me to give it to him.  I sent it the same day with the mail carrier.  He then commenced to take items from the ward records which I had kept for years and I gave other information that was not on record.  I also gave him information on the settling of Beaver Dams and the cause of its being broken up.

 

           April 6th, 1892.  This is my birthday.  I am 75 years old today.  My daughter, Dinah, prepared a birthday dinner and invited Elizabeth Hunt and her four daughters.  I did not know that she was getting it on my account until I had eaten my dinner and I was asked if I knew it was my birthday.  I told them no, not until I had eaten it.  I suspect Dinah thought I took it rather cool after she had gone to the trouble of getting up such a good dinner, but I certainly thought she had gotten it up for Lizzie and family or I would have been more interested in it.  On April 13th Dinah and her husband went to Hamblin.  Arthur went to shear sheep and Dinah to make a visit, but Arthur was taken sick in a few days and they came home.  We were all glad to see them and especially their little boy, Arthur Ellis.  We all love him. He is a bright little fellow and we have missed him while he has been gone.  My wife went from home on Friday, May 27th, 1892. She has gone to wait on her granddaughter, Alice Holt.  She was gone seven weeks.  I went to Hamblin July 12th, 1892.  Moroni Canfield sent for me to superintend a brick yard at Pinto where he was going to make some bricks.  I did not do anything until the 16th.  My health was poor but I set and burned 53 thousand.  I was well treated by Moroni and all his family and my health improved while I was there.  I finished burning on the 24th of August and got home on the 26th.  My wife was sick when I got home, but she was better than she had been a few days before.  She is still quite feeble.  I attended Sunday School and meeting yesterday, Sunday, 26th, for the first time in seven weeks.  We had a good time.  Bro. Bowler and myself conducted the meeting.  On Tuesday evening my wife was called about 8 o’clock to go to Hamblin to wait on John Day’s wife.  She got there about 2 o’clock in the morning.  When she got there, Sister Day had been delivered of twins (boys).  She is still there, Sept. 6th.  I have felt uneasy some times on account of our homes in Gunlock because of the delay of the homestead patent.  It is over five years since it was homesteaded, but the patent is here now in my possession and we expect soon to have deeds made out and signed by Bro. J. S. Huntsman. 

Sunday, Sept. 4th, Hyrum and my son-in-law, Arthur Westover, went to Hamblin to help about threshing and to get some grain for our work on the brick yard.

 

            Oct. 20th, 1892.  The boys have returned.  Arthur brought some grain for himself and some for me.  He took it to Washington and got it ground.  He has today started for St. George to haul a load of bullion to Milford.  James has gone with him.  It is the first time for James to go with a team without one of his older brothers with him, but his brother-in-law, Arthur, will be as good as a brother to him.  May God bless and prosper them both.  This has been a very unprofitable season for me.  Our peaches were killed in the spring and we had but little of any other kinds of fruit, and what I planted in my lot did not amount to much.  So we have not much to commence the winter with, but I know that the Lord will open up the way before us, as He has always done before.

 

            Dec. 1st, 1892.  Arthur and James got back all right.  They had a pretty cold trip but did not suffer much. Today Edwin and James have started for Cedar City. They have taken molasses to trade for flour.  I have had bad luck lately.  James found one of my cows so poor he could scarcely get her home and a few days after she came home, she laid down and died.  Feed is very scarce on the range and cattle are very poor.

 

            Dec. 11th, 1892.  Edwin and James came back on the 8th.  They had a cold time of it, but got home all right with flour for the winter.  Hyrum has been quite unwell for several days, but is getting better.  My wife left home on the 3rd of this month.  George Colman came after her to wait on his wife at Hebron.  Pres. McArthur came to Gunlock on the 7th of this month. Erastus B. Snow was with him.  They came to get donations for the Salt Lake Temple.  They got only one dollar, but I have collected $4.25 since they were here.  All together I have collected $50.50.  My wife came back from Hebron on Dec. 13th in pretty good health.  My health is much better than it was last winter, but I feel that I am growing old and, although there is a possibility of my living some years yet, I am liable to be called away at any time.  I would like to live to do some work in the Temple before I go so that I can meet my relatives and friends with pleasure and tell them I have done what I could for them.  But it seems hard for me to make arrangements to go to the Temple.  I hope my boys will take up my work where I have layed down. The folks in Gunlock had a pretty good time at Christmas.  We had a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and Edwin and my son-in-law, A. L. Westover, remembered me and put on the tree a nice pair of shoes, a pair of pants and suspenders.  It is a pleasure to know that my children respect me.  My boys have been burning coal for three weeks. They got through the beginning of this month (Feb. 1893).  They had to pay out the most of their earnings for hay.  My wife started with Lamond Woods today to Clover Valley to wait on his wife.  This is Feb. 10th.  On the 3rd of this month, my wife was 80 years old.  We had a birthday dinner.  All my children and several of my grandchildren sat down to dinner and Laura Canfield was here. We had a sociable time.

 

            This is a hard winter for stock.  Many are dying on the range, and how many many more will die before grass comes, no one knows but the Almighty, whose ways are past finding out.  But we know that whatever happens will be for the best, although it may not seem so to us.  My arm is quite lame.  I cannot write very well.

 

            March 11th, 1893.  My wife is still away from home and I am very lonesome.  The boys are at home and my granddaughter, Nancy Hunt, is keeping house for us.  We are not very well prepared for the winter.  Our living is poor, but we try to bear it patiently.  I believe all are more patient than myself.  I know it is all right or the Lord would order it different and I hope He will before long.  We have been blessed with rain and snow lately so there is a prospect of our having plenty of water and good crops this summer.  On Saturday, March 25th, I went with F. O. Holt to Hamblin.  We got there just before dark.  My wife was at Ben Platt’s.  She was ready to come home but we did not come home until Tuesday, the 28th.  On Friday the 31st of March, I went with Edwin to Cedar City to get provisions.  We got there Sunday, April 2nd and started back on Monday.  We got home Wednesday about noon.  We had a pretty pleasant journey although the roads were quite rough.  Hyrum has been at the Meadows nearly a month.  He got home yesterday, the 11th.  The weather is cold for this time of the year.  Our fruits are threatened, but I hope they will not be killed.  I don’t think we shall have many peaches, but there is a good prospect for apples, and very few apricots.  I forgot to mention my birthday, which was on the 6th of April, the day the Temple in Salt Lake City was dedicated.  I was not able to go there for want of money.  My daughter, Dinah, and granddaughter, Nancy Hunt, got us up as good a dinner as they could and we enjoyed it.  I am unfortunate about the few cows I own.  One of my best cows died last winter.  Another one died about two weeks ago.  I had but six cows and how many are alive I do not know.  But whether they live or die it must be right, but it looks strange to me that I should be so unfortunate.  It will not make any difference in a little while, as I expect to leave this world before long, although I may stay here several years yet, just as the Lord wills.

 

           May 1st, 1893.  The weather is very cold for this time of the year.  It froze last night or this morning.  There is danger of losing our fruit.  My wife went to Hebron this morning.  A. P. Hunt came after to attend to Celesta Hunt, who needs her help.  She died soon after my wife got there.  Edwin left home on the last day of April.  He has gone out west to find work as we are in need of things to live on.  I hope he will succeed in finding work, for it seems hard to leave when there is so much to be done at home.  We are obliged to do the best we can, and try to be thankful that we are as well off as we are.

            May 22nd, 1893.  It is still very cold for this time of the year, but we have a pretty fair crop of peaches so that we are better off than we expected.  There has been a cattle drive lately.  Hyrum found two of my cows, but there were two more that have not been found.

 

            Arthur Westover moved from here into George Holt’s house.  I have sold him a strip of land in my lot to build on, containing about an acre.  Edwin has not got back yet nor have I heard a word from him.

 

            June 1st.  Edwin got back home this evening in good health.  We are all glad to see him.  He has been shearing sheep at Cedar City, and has done well for these hard times.  He gave me $5 and bought James a pair of boots.  June 5th.  He has gone back to work for a few weeks longer.  I am sorry to see him go, but there is nothing to be earned here.  June 20th.  Hyrum has gone to St. George today to get some flour.  Times are dull and it is hard to get things that we need.  I feel so helpless not being able to earn anything and so much needed, but still we are better off than thousands of others in the world who are suffering for the necessities of life, and suffering from fire, flood and other calamities that are upon the earth.  My daughter, Dinah, gave birth to another son on Thursday, June 15th, 1893.  My wife, her grandmother, waited on her.  June 29th.  I went to Hamblin on a visit.  James drove the team and Lizzie went with us to visit her daughter, Alice Holt.  Before we started we heard that Moroni Canfield had died the day before, and when we got to Hamblin the body had just arrived from Hay-Springs where he died.  We now  learned that he took his own life.  I visited his family.  They felt very sorrowful and well they might.  I visited Henry and George Holt and left Hamblin to come home July 5th.  I came with James Woods, who was coming after my wife to wait on his wife.  I got home about noon and my wife went away in the afternoon.

 

            July 14th, 1893.  I received a letter from Edwin today.  It was written on the 4th.  He said he would start home in about a week from then, but he has not got here yet.  I expect him soon.  I shall be glad to see him.  He is a good boy to me whatever he may be to anyone else.  All my children are good to me and I would like to see them settled down and have homes and families of their own before I leave this world, which, if I judge by my feelings will not be long.  I have had a desire to go to the Temple in St. George and do some more work for myself and my dead relatives and friends, but I do not know whether I shall have the privilege or not.  My strength is failing fast and I may not be able to do anything more.  If I do not, I hope my children will do what I have requested of them in this record.  There are several women that I want sealed to me, that they may come up in the morning of the resurrection.  And there are several women that I want sealed to their husbands.  You will find the names of all of them in this book, some on page 50 and some on page 100 (this journal).  Those that I want sealed to me:  1-Hannah Lewis, 2-Margaret Lewis, 3-Esther Ellis, 4-Martha Catherall, 5-Ann Vaughn, 6-Eliza Harris, 7-Miss Harris No. 1, 8-Miss Harris No. 2, 9-Miss Harris No. 3, 10-Mary Wainwright.  The last named is my niece.  She has been married to Alfred Wainwright. They had one child. Alfred is married again.  If I knew that he would be worthy of his wife, I would not want her sealed to me, but as there is little prospect of him claiming her, let her be sealed to me.  And if he comes up all right, he can have his wife.  Margaret Lewis has been married.  She is an old sweetheart of mine.  Bro. McAllister told me I could have her sealed to me if I could get the consent of her sister.  I got her consent.

 

            July 29th, 1893.  On the 22nd Hyrum went to Hebron to spend the 24th.  Edwin was there too, and on the 26th they both got home.  Edwin is going back soon to get his pay.  I went to Mountain Meadows with J. P. Canfield on Monday, the 31st of July and on Friday, Edwin came there and I went with him to Cedar City to get his mare that he left there and to get some money that was due him, but he did not get either.  My wife is still away from home. She came from Clover to Henry Holt’s the same day that I got to Hamblin and the next day she came to Hamblin and she is there yet.  Edwin and I got home on the 8th of August.  When I was in Cedar City, I had a good visit with J. F. Wilkinson and his wife. They were very kind to me while I was there. My wife got home from Hamblin on the 14th and is going back there tomorrow, the 19th to wait on Lyman Canfield’s wife. She got home Sept. 5th. Edwin and my son-in-law, Arthur, left home the same day to go to Milford.  It is very lonesome in Gunlock at present. Many of the brethren are away from home and the Bishop is away most of the time.  We have neither Sunday Schools nor meetings.  How long will it remain so.  I cannot tell.  I hope it will not be long.  Hyrum expects to go away today to work for William Bunker.

 

            Oct. 20th, 1893.  My right arm is very weak and nervous.  It is difficult for me to write much, but I want my children to have something to remind them of me when I have left this world.  I have endeavored to set a good example before my family and neighbors, but I have not always succeeded.  I have always attended to prayers and meetings and other duties that are binding upon me, and I have always been true to the Gospel, but I often lose my temper and then show my weakness.  Edwin went a week ago to drive cattle to Milford.  He passed through here on the 19th.  On the 9th of November Edwin went north to trade for flour.  He took molasses and dried fruit.  My wife went about the same time to Hamblin to wait on Esther Canfield.  On the 4th of Nov., Pres. D. D. McArthur and A. W. Ivins came to Gunlock. They held a meeting in the evening.  Bro. Ivins spoke on changed conditions of the Saints to what it was a short time ago.  Pres. McArthur spoke a short time when word came that Bishop Holt had been thrown from his horse and was badly hurt.  They brought him home about midnight.  He is still suffering from his wounds.  Edwin got home from his trip north on the 30th of Nov.  He did not succeed very well.  He suffered with the cold and was glad to get home and we were all glad to see him.  While he was gone my oldest son, Hyrum, made up his mind to get married.  He had been keeping company with his cousin Nancy J. Hunt.  They were married in the St. George Temple, Nov. 29th, 1893.  I believe Hyrum has got a good wife and she a good husband.

 

          Sunday, Dec. 17th.  My wife is very sick with a pain in her breast.  I am staying home and doing all I can for her.  I feel very lonely.  Sunday, the 24th.  My wife is better, but has some pain yet.

 

           Jan. 10th, 1894. Hyrum and his wife and my daughter, Dinah, and her husband went to Bunkerville, Dec. 23rd, 1893. Hyrum came home on the 28th, and Dinah on the 5th of Jan., ’94, all well. My wife has got rid of her pain and is able to go about. Hyrum went to help drive cattle on to the range for men from Pine Valley. He started on the 3rd of January and got back on the 10th. While on his way home his horse got sick. Hyrum felt impressed to get off him, and had no sooner done so when the horse fell among a pile of rocks and had he been on him when he fell, Hyrum would probably have been badly hurt or killed. But thank God he was saved. This shows that you should listen to the still small voice. Jan. 12th. My two boys, Edwin and James, started for Bunkerville yesterday and perhaps they will go to the Muddy before they come back. Feb. 7th. My boys went to the Muddy. Edwin traded off a little mare for pork, which is very acceptable, as we have not had any this winter. He also brought some salt which he took to St. George and got other things that we needed. Hyrum and his wife went to Hamblin on Tuesday, Jan. 30th. The roads were bad and the snow deep so that he did not get there until the next day. He is still away working on the Hebron reservoir. Hyrum and his wife got home from Hamblin on Tuesday, Feb 27th. They had a tedious time getting through the snow. This is a hard time to get things that we need as money is very scarce and no business going on in this part of the country. My boys need boots and clothing, but I see no way to get them at present. I hope the Lord will open the way before long. My wife has earned a little money this winter or we would have been worse off than we are. I am not able to earn anything myself. I have got to be a drone in the hive. My wife left home on the 6th of March with George Coleman. She has gone to wait on Jane Holt at Hamblin. She was quite unwell when she left home. I did not like to see her go, but she had promised and did not want to disappoint. Hyrum went to Pine Valley this morning, March 13th, after grain that he and Edwin earned the past winter. He got back in three days and Edwin took the grain to mill. My wife got home from George Holt’s on April the 5th. I feel very feeble these days. It seems to me as though I shall not live a great while longer and I don’t see that I am of much use here, but I will wait patiently until my change comes. My wife was called upon near midnight on April 18th to wait on Elthear Leavitt. The baby was born the next morning at 6 o’clock. Monday, April 23rd, I went to Santa Clara with my son-in-law, Arthur L. Westover, to test the brick clay. I got home on the 27th with D. P. Canfield. I have been thinking of resigning my office as 1st Counselor to the Bishop F. O. Holt for some time on account of my failing health and strength, and on Sunday, April 22nd, I tendered my resignation which was accepted by the Saints of Gunlock and a vote of thanks was given me for past services.

            On the 25th of May, Pres. McArthur and Erastus B. Snow came to Gunlock and held a meeting at 5 o’clock P.M. They gave us some good instructions. June 3rd, Edwin left home to find employment as there is no chance to earn anything here. He went to Grassy Flat from here, intending to go from there to Cedar City to try to get a job shearing sheep. He did not feel very well towards me when he left. His mare was loose in the lot and when I told him about it, he said I found more fault with him than the other boys. But that is not so. I do not allow anyone to turn an animal loose on my vines and garden. I have just as much love for Edwin as anyone and do as much for him and  willing to do more if I could. Edwin started to Pioche on Thursday the 12th of July. He asked me to go with him. He thought it would do me good. I went and felt better all the time I was gone. We went to Grassy Flat and had a good time until we got back there and then Edwin undertook to go home through the mountains, but got stuck and had to leave the wagon and come back to Josiah Leavitt’s at Grassy Flat. We were there until the 24th, when we went down to Hebron and had a good time with old friends and relatives. I got home on Thursday, the 26th, being gone just two weeks. On Friday, Aug. 3rd, my son-in-law, David Huntsman, arrived here with most of his family. His son, James William, has been sick for some time. He brought him up here hoping he would regain his health, which I believe he will. Aug. 22nd. James William got better very slowly. Edwin went again to Pioche on the 11th. He is now at Grassy Flat. On the 29th my daughter-in-law, Nancy J., Hyrum’s wife, was delivered of a son. They intend to name him James Ellis. I would like to write a good deal, but my arm is very weak. I have not done much work in the Temple and there is much that ought to be done. I hope my children will be more faithful than I have been so that the dead will not have to complain. The sealing I want to make plainer so there will be no mistake. My grandmother, Ann Jones, to her husband, John Jones; Catherine Ellis to Paul Ellis; Sarah Dickinson to James Dickinson; Mary Parker to William Parker; and Mary Lewis to John Lewis.

 

            Oct. 4th. My hand is very unsteady and my heart is very heavy, we are so poor, so destitute of the comforts of life. My boys are needing clothes and nothing to get them with. I myself am needy. May God help us for we are unable to help ourselves. I left home Sept. 15th to go to Bro. Terry’s ranch at Hebron. Young Thomas came after me and I was treated very kindly and felt well in being able to earn something for the winter. But Satan hindered and I had to come home. I am a man of sorrows.

 

            Dec. 31st, 1894. The last day in this year. I have not written in my book for nearly three months. I thought it best not to write unless I had something good to write. I suppose it is not right to complain, but I have not power to avoid it. I know that my children will not like to read my complaints, so I will not write them any more. James has had a spell of sickness for about a month, but he is well now. Edwin was taken sick about the same time that James got well, but he is getting better now, for which I thank God. My health is pretty good for an old man, but I am quite feeble.

 

Jan. 14th, 1895. Edwin does not gain strength very fast, but is able to get about and do a little work. My daughter, Dinah’s two little boys are sick. The oldest one, Arthur, is getting well; the younger one is quite low and Dinah herself is quite unwell.

 

March 11th, 1895. I have put off writing for some time because my heart was too full to write the things I have to write. Dinah did not get well, but on the 31st of January, 1895, she left this world for a better one and left her friends and relatives to mourn her loss. And Oh! What a loss to her husband and little children, and not much less to her father and near relatives. But we have one consolation. We know that she has gone to a world of happiness and rest, for she was as near perfect as mortals generally get to be. My arm is so weak I do not write much. I am sitting by the bedside of my wife, who is sick and very feeble, and I am very lonely as there is no one here to speak to me. Edwin has gone to Milford, and I am praying that my wife will live until he gets back home, as she has given up all hope of getting well. Hyrum and his wife will move away in a few days and I shall be still more lonely. But God will not leave me. He will provide for me.

 

May 3rd, 1895. Edwin got back from Milford. He paid my debt in the store for which I am very thankful, as it was a great burden on my mind, but it was a hard trip for Edwin. My wife was taken sick on April 11th, she is still alive but very feeble. The neighbors are all very kind to her.

 

May 29th, 1895. My beloved wife, Dinah, has left me and gone to a better world, and I am left to mourn her absence, and Oh, how I miss her. I watched by her bedside for six weeks, and on the 23rd of May, closed her eyes in death. I am left without a companion, but hope soon to follow her as this world has no attractions for me, and I don’t see that I am of any use here. But God knows best. His will be done, not mine. She was the most patient soul I ever saw in her sickness. Not a word of complaint did I hear from her during her sickness.

 

 

 

 

Nov. 11th, 1895. I am trying to write a little, but it is hard work. My hand shakes so. I am very feeble and very lonesome, although every one is kind to me. I cannot help feeling that I am a burden to my friends, but they do not seem to think so. I have had a letter lately from my niece in Wales, by which I learned that my two only brothers died this year. I want to record births and deaths so that my sons can do a work for them in the Temple. John was born in 1812 (I don’t know the month) in Buckley, Flintshire, North Wales. Died May 28th, 1895. Thomas was born April 30th, 1829, in Buckley. Died June 19th, 1895, in Buckley. 

(NOTE: Christening Records from St. Matthew's Church in Buckley, Wales indicate that William Ellis Jones’ younger brother, Thomas, was born on 10 July 1828 not in 1829. Thomas Jones and sister Elizabeth Jones were both christened on 26 October 1828.)

 

My son, Edwin, went to DeLamar the latter part of October and came back the 22nd of Dec. 1895. Today, Jan. 23rd, 1896, he has gone to Bunkerville. Oh, how the time flies. It is nearly a year since my dear daughter, Dinah, died.

 

May 22nd, 1896. I had no idea, one year ago, that I would be alive today. It will be one year tomorrow since my wife died. I thought then I should soon follow her, but I am here yet but very feeble. I would like to write more but my arm fails me.

 

(NOTE: For more Biographical and LDS Temple Ordinance information for the William Ellis Jones Family, please see the copy of his Journal located in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.)