It's Sunday, I'm working on family history, and Zemira Palmer is who I felt like posting some things about today! Below is a report my son, Ky, wrote several years ago for the Utah Sons of Pioneers essay competition. He was in fourth grade (2005-06) and his report won first place. I thought he did a great job and it serves as a basis and/or starting point for more detailed research.

I like to play a game called Age of Empires. You can build your own civilizations, which includes gathering food, gold, stone, and wood and building houses and other buildings. You build your own armies and have battles. You have to do a lot of thinking and planning. My fifth great grandfather James Zemira Palmer did all of this in real life.

Zemira was born in Canada in 1831. He was one of seven children. His mom joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was two and about 1834 he came with her to Kirtland, Ohio. (His dad died not very long after he was born.)

Zemira lived in Kirtland with his mother until he was 7, and then they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. Before the Mormons built a city in Nauvoo, it was a swamp. Later on, a mob came and drove the Mormons out of their city when Zemira was 15.

The Mormons started to come across the plains to find new land to live on. The United States was at war with Mexico. They ask 500 men to form a battalion. Zemira joined the army as a servant to Captain James Allan because he was too young to be a soldier. Zemira carried a gun and rucksack like all of the other soldiers. His mom, Phebe Draper Palmer, worked as a cook and laundress and his new step dad, Ebenezer Brown, was a captain for one of the companies.

The Battalion suffered a lot of hardships like lack of food, clothing and water. They only had to use their guns for protection when a herd of wild bulls was attacking their camp. They marched 2,000 miles. It became known as the longest infantry march in history. They built important roads.

After the battalion was finished with their job, Zemira found work at Sutter’s Mill in California. When he was 17 he found gold there. This was the start of the gold rush. Zemira found $500 worth of gold. Back then one ounce of gold was $17 to $18. Today it’s worth $500 an ounce. Zemira found about 29.41 ounces which today is worth about $14,706. He came to Utah in 1850 and moved to the town of Willow Creek, which later became the town of Draper which was named after Zemira’s mother’s family.

Zemira pioneered lots of other places. In 1849 Zemira went with nine men to ferry the California and Oregon Emigration over the Green River. He was an important leader of several Mormon towns like Orderville. He was in charge of the United Order. Zemira was a very hard worker. He was a carpenter and a farmer.

Zemira liked to dance, sing, and write poetry, but he was also tough. When he lived in Heber City he was the Constable of Wasatch County and was also a Captain. He served in the Buchanan War.

Zemira died when he was 49. Like my fifth great grandfather, I want to be hard working, a leader, and enjoy life.

Wedding Bells

These articles on the wedding of Lynn Palmer to Fern Laws appeared in the San Juan Record, June 24, 1937.

Draper City History

A HISTORY OF SIVOGAH TO DRAPER CITY 1849—1977
Volume Two of History of Draper, Utah

(From Draper Historical Society website)

This article mentions Zemira Palmer's uncle Zemira Draper (Phebe's brother) and Zemira's stepfather, Ebenzer Brown. Pictured are Ebenezer Brown and Phebe.

PROLOGUE

Sivogah, meaning Willows, the Indian name for the area later known as Draper, is a beautiful cove of approximately fifteen square miles tucked away in the southeast corner of Great Salt Lake Valley. Draper, nestled west of towering Lone Peak, receives water from glaciated and stream-cut canyons beginning at 12,000 feet and sweeping down to a valley floor of 4,400 feet.

On the southern edge of this fertile cove are the Traverse Mountains, low hills branching west from the mighty Wasatch Range and continuing west for three miles to end suddenly in a dramatic drop to benches formed by ancient Lake Bonneville. The highest and most famous of these drops, Steep Mountain, has been a mecca for gliders towed into the air by motorized vehicles to catch updrafts and climb hundreds of feet into the clear, blue sky. A part of Steep Mountain called Widow Maker became nationally known for motorcycle hill-climbing contests. Motorcyclists, congregated for competition, were trying to be first to reach the top of the mountain. Hang gliders came later to take pilots soaring off Steep Mountain; both the less daring glider and hang-glider pilots had a bird’s-eye view of little-known Hidden Valley, and the well-known Jordan River to the west. All of these events were popular during the 1960s through the 1980s. Some hang-glider pilots continue to soar off Steep Mountain.

A mountain of sand, a gift of ancient Lake Bonneville, creates the southwestern boundary of the cove, known as Point of the Mountain. In bygone years, train cars of sand in the thousands were loaded by steam shovels, cutting back into the mountain and destroying the ribbon-like Indian trails that traversed this area long ago. Currently, semi-trucks, filled to capacity by diesel loaders, move sand from these benches for use locally and nationwide in building roads, houses, skyscraper buildings, and hundreds of other projects requiring sand. Moving millions of yards of sand over many years has allowed the I-15 freeway to be widened into a six-lane highway, with frontage roads on each side and a railroad track along its east side. Very few drivers know of the space between mountain benches and the one-hundred foot cliff-like drop into Hidden Valley below.

The only human inhabitants for centuries consisted of migratory Indian tribes who pitched their tepees by mountain streams and along the Jordan River. Fishing the river, Indians could begin at Utah Lake and fish north to Great Salt Lake, a distance of thirty-one miles. The large area between the lakes has often been compared to the Sea of Galilee, the River Jordan, and the Dead Sea area in the land of Israel.

In 1776, Fathers Escalante and Domingues, with their flowing robes and supply-laden mule trains, explored the Utah Valley, stood on Point of the Mountain, viewed Great Salt Lake, and then turned south. This was the same year representatives of the thirteen American colonies signed the Declaration of Independence.

Mountain men, wearing buckskin clothing and using flintlock rifles and powder horns, occasionally traversed the cove, making no records and leaving no traces. Trappers too, in search of beaver dams and small animal habitats, set their traps, collected their pelts, and left. Neither was looking for a place to settle and both failed to recognize the potential of the great grasslands and plentiful streams that later enticed Mormon pioneers hungry for a home and for land they could call their own.

FIRST PIONEERS TO SEE THE SOUTH WILLOW CREEK AREA

"The first man to enter Draper was Joshua Terry. He and his companion, Levi Savage, made their camp in South Willow Creek in the year of 1847. Joshua Terry was born in Albion, Canada, on August 11, 1825. He joined the Mormon Church on June 20, 1840. Before making camp in Draper, Joshua Terry and Levi Savage worked in the canyons and neighboring fields around South Willow Creek." These pioneers did not visit South Willow Creek as settlers but were only passing through.

A majority of the pioneers came from Europe, England, Canada, isles of the sea, and other beautiful parts of the world, leaving comfortable homes, traveling by sailing ship, ox-drawn covered wagon, handcart, on horseback, and many of them walking, being led by a modern-day prophet. They gathered in the Utah desert, including South Willow Creek (Draper), hungry, tired, and weary after their arduous journey from their homelands. With faith and fortitude, these sturdy, God-fearing pioneers helped build an empire and made the desert blossom.

The western United States, prior to and including 1847, was Mexican territory, an unsettled vast open area, and for this reason was an area desirable for colonizing by Mormon pioneers. On 24 July 1847, pioneers traveling by wagon train entered the valley of the Great Salt Lake through Emigration Canyon. At last the Mormons could worship without the persecution they had experienced over the last seventeen years. Peace was short-lived, however, for in 1848 the war with Mexico ended and the United States was awarded the Mexican Territory, which comprised most of the western states as now constituted. On 9 September 1850, the Territory of Utah was created by an act of Congress, and persecution began again as United States government officials were appointed to govern settlers of the Utah Territory.

GOVERNMENT

The "provisions of the act of congress of the 24th day of April, 1820, entitled ‘An act making further provisions for the sale of the Public Lands,’" Utah. p. 1 allowed patents to land through certificates of registration in land offices throughout territories of the United States. Homesteads were not created in the cove because the land had not been surveyed. As legal descriptions were generally unavailable, land in South Willow Creek was occupied by squatters. A "squatter is a person who lives on land to which he has no deed or other evidence of title. Usually he may make a valid claim to the land if there is no other person with a legal claim. . . . Congress passed special laws which allowed squatters to [eventually] gain title to lands they occupied."

"[Greater Salt Lake County] was organized with Elias Smith as county and probate judge." This was done because President Brigham Young and the legislature knew there was an urgency in setting up a legal structure that would include courts and land offices where legal land descriptions could be registered. He knew people needed protection from drifters and lawless elements making life difficult in the Valley.

On 6 October 1853 the people of South Willow Creek, applying for a post office, registered their settlement as Brownsville in honor of Ebenezer Brown, the first settler, only to be rejected. Another Brownsville, which later became Ogden, had already been registered in the territory. South Willow Creek was renamed Draperville in honor of William Draper Jr., the first presiding elder in Draper. Ebenezer Brown, although illiterate, was appointed the first postmaster in1854. His wife Phoebe did all the postal work in an office located in their home in the Draperville fort. Draper Historical Society Library. On 14 March 1855, David James was appointed the next postmaster, followed by George Spilsbury on 26 November 1860.Washington D.C., 29 Sept. 1994. DHS Library.

Draper was distinguished for the evolution of its name: Sivogah, Willow Creek, South Willow Creek, Brownsville, Draperville, and finally Draper. In an early journal entry, Andrew Jackson Allen, a pioneer of Draperville, wrote, "Now this country ware set of as a territory and calld Utah and we sent a brother to Washington to represent the people of Utah Territory, but it seemd as tho the saints could not have there just rights and we ware denied in allmost every instence."

Because of the threat of Indian uprisings, Ebenezer Brown donated land in the area of 12650 South and east of 900 East for a fort, with dimensions of 35 rods (577.5 feet) north to south and 23 rods (379.5 feet) east to west. The fort walls of adobe bricks were started in 1853, then during 1857 when Johnston's Army was a threat, the pioneers began to widen the wall and extend its height to nine feet. The threats ended before construction was completed, so the fort was never finished or enclosed. Remains of the walls are nonexistent, but the general location of the fort is well-known since the Draper Historical Park is being developed on part of the fort site at this time (1999).

Additional information regarding the Draper Fort is recorded in Perry Fitzgerald’s history: "The Indians were quite numerous in the area and causing some trouble, so, in 1854, the settlers decided to build a fort for their protection. It was big enough to house 31 families and some of the people lived there, especially during several winters. . . .

". . . Perry rendered valuable service in defending the colonists during Indian difficulties, and he showed courage in the fight with the Indians at Battle Creek (now known as Pleasant Grove). During the Walker War he was active in every measure which was taken for the welfare of the people. He was elected as first lieutenant of the Willow Creek Militia, Company A."

Many Draperville residents were included among 3,000 Saints celebrating the tenth anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers into the Valley at Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon with Governor Young.

"On the 24th, the flag was unfurled from the summit of the highest peak. Prayer was offered and the singing and cannon roared. The juvenile rifle corps performed an excellent drill. Brigham Young asked John Bagley to climb to the top of a tall pine tree and top it to mount a flag. So John climbed the tree, cut it off, and stood on his head on the top of the tree to show his courage and agility. In New Brunswick [where John Bagley was from], before a pine tree was cut down, the lumberjacks would top it. It literally meant pining the tree or getting it to a point where they took off the top so they could have the log. Then if you were especially skilled, you would stand on your head on top of the topped tree. So, this is what John Bagley did."

Individual histories see the celebration a little differently, but an official statement by B. H. Roberts has the final say. The official count was "2,587 persons in the company; with 464 carriages and wagons, 1,028 horses and mules, and 332 oxen and cows. . . . [The official news of Johnston’s Army was delivered:]

"‘About noon’ Messrs. Smoot, Stoddard and Rockwell, these men with the ‘war news,’ accompanied by Judge Elias Smith from Salt Lake City, rode in upon this scene of peace and joy and patriotism. Their advent, however, did not disturb the peace and joyousness of the occasion. Their message was delivered quietly to President Young and his immediate counselors and associates. For the rest, the afternoon’s merriment and enjoyment went on as if no messengers from the east had arrived."

When settlers knew Johnston’s Army was coming, pioneers began preparing for their defense under the direction of Governor Brigham Young who met with government officials in hopes to dissuade the army from entering the Valley. When that was not possible, he told them they could enter without their guns. On their refusal, Governor Young informed them the Saints would defend themselves and would not move again. Andrew Jackson Allen recorded in his diary on 11 July 1857, page 5: "Had a company drill at willow creek where I lived for the first time." The Utah Militia was mustered and residents prepared to burn their homes and all their property and move south. Brigham Young made it plain there was not to be left for the enemy one building, one foot of lumber, a tree, or parcel of grass that would burn.

Many Draper men were involved in this new emergency: "[Norman Brown] was a scout for Lot Smith for fifty-two days and was in the Utah Legion."

We find for 15 August 1857, on page 6 of Andrew Jackson Allen’s diary, "There ware ten men cald on from the Willow Creek division."

Who the ten men were is not known. In other entries, A. J. Allen wrote about fifteen and twenty men being called to serve. Complete lists were not recorded; however, the following men were involved in the Utah War in some capacity: Andrew Jackson Allen, William C. Allen, John Bagley, Guernsey Brown, Norman Brown, Charles Burnham, Charles Crapo, Henry Eastman Day, John Enniss, John Fitzgerald, James Green, Frank Johnson, Roan Palmer, Orrin Porter Rockwell, Tom Stokes, Joshua Terry, and possibly a few others.

"Sept 26th [1857] Got orders to start out to meet the soalders as they intend to come in, started the same day went to S.L. City."

The Draperville men answered the call and outfitted themselves for the campaign. They were ready to leave by 23 August 1857, but it was in September that the orders arrived.

From the Andrew Jackson Allen diary for 22 November 1857, page 10, we learn: "Got orders to go on to Weber and recruit here the ground was partly bare of snow, here I fel in with Mager Tilor from home at Willow Creek and Cornal Harmon with there command. There ware 20 of the boys right from willow creek here I got a bundle from home that I kneeded very much." For 24 January 1858, on page 11: "We are making arangements to gow out in the spring to defend our people from our ennemies from the U.S." For 27 January, the diary reads, "As well as those on our boarders, I was selected for one 15 was to gow from Willow Creek where I live."

"Porter Rockwell selected men he wanted to help him with a scouting expedition and chose the men from Willow Creek. Their duty was to spy on the army, get what information they could and stop it if possible. Brigham Young issued orders to the militia not to kill one man, but to destroy all the wagon trains and supplies and to stampede or drive all their animals away. The men knew the Lord would protect them and they carried out the order in full Lot Smith’s company burned 73 wagons of supplies and drove off 150 head of cattle belonging to the army." One Hundredth Anniversary of the Draper War, p.27

"Henry [Eastman Day] was one of the 25 men who marched up to the army and told those in command what they intended to do. They were angrily told that there were not enough of them to do it. Lott Smith told them that all he had to do was whistle if he needed more help, even though his men all knew there were no more men within 40 miles. The soldiers handed over their ‘bill of laden’ and Lott Smith and his men took all the firearms, put the men, about 100, under guard and burned the wagons. Henry said he cut up the yoke the oxen wore for kindling to light the wagons. When peace was negotiated Henry Day returned home."

"About this time Johnston’s Army was going to pass through the Salt Lake Valley, and the settlers were advised to move their livestock a few miles away from their path. So Ezekiel [Price] drove what [livestock] he had to Fort Canyon, a short distance northwest of Alpine. His mother and sister, Ann, also moved to Alpine."

Through the good work and efforts of Colonel Thomas Kane, a long-time friend of the Mormons, who pleaded their case, President Buchanan realized the Mormons were not in rebellion, and peace was finally obtained. On 27 June 1858, Johnston's Army came into Salt Lake City, passed over Jordan, and camped to rest before moving southwest to Camp Floyd. Gentile merchants followed them in with their supplies. President Young counseled the pioneers not to trade with them until there were some arrangements made between the merchants, the army, and the Church. "Brigham told the brethren to be incouriaged that they would gow back to there old homes. To day I am at my oald place on Willow Creek. I can see the soaldiers camp mooving up Jordan."

While Henry E. Day’s family waited anxiously above Alpine for Johnston’s Army to pass through the Salt Lake Valley, Leah Rawlins Day gave birth to her child, Leah Jane Day, in a cave or dugout. During the long wait, two men were left in Draperville to take care of things, irrigate crops, and torch the homes and buildings if necessary. The two men were 17-year-old John Fitzgerald and 36-year-old John Enniss.

Some time following the 24th of July celebration, pioneers began preparing for their immediate defense. Andrew Jackson Allen says, "I mooved my famely to Utah valley and set them down without anny covering only a waggeon cover on a waggeon box." This is probably one of many families who moved over the hill into Mountainville, the area now called Alpine.

"During the Johnston Army troubles he [Joseph S. Rawlins] was captain of the guards sent out to guard the passes in Echo Canyon against the approach of the army; and also participated in fighting many of the Indian uprisings in Utah."

From Andrew Jackson Allen’s diary for 1858, page 14: "July 1st The word came to our camp that we could moove back to our homes. July 2nd Me with many others mooved our affects back."

The Mountainville camp (Alpine) ended short of two months. On 6 July 1858, the army moved to a permanent camp in Cedar Valley at Camp Floyd. Federal troops were retained at this camp until the army "left Camp Floyd for Washington, D.C. [on 1 March 1860]." Then the camp was abandoned, leaving wagons, large guns, and empty buildings.

Having 2,500 military personnel and many services attached to the camp brought worldly problems to the Utah Territory. Orrin Porter Rockwell had a saloon and way station near the Crystal Hot Lakes, just south of where the Utah State Prison now stands. The saloon furnished not only alcohol but food and a rest stop for stagecoaches and the pony express riders. Some of the settlers joined in with the worldly ways and much control of the Utah Territory was lost by the Church authorities. In order to establish law and order in the Draperville area, John Fitzgerald, born on 24 March 1840, "was appointed first justice of the peace."

CHURCH

Ebenezer Brown, as was the custom, received a call from President Brigham Young on 7 December 1850 to go on a settlement mission. By September of 1852 he was back in South Willow Creek for the organization of a branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. William Draper was designated presiding elder, with Ebenezer Brown and Zemira Draper as his counselors. By the spring of 1852, twenty families had settled in Draperville: Andrew Jackson Allen, George Bankhead, Ebenezer Brown, Joseph Guernsey Brown (a step brother to Zemira Palmer. They both helped rescue the Martin and Willie Handcart companies.) Andrew Burnham, Henry Eastman Day, James Downs, William Draper, Zemira Draper, John Enniss, Perry Fitzgerald, Harvey M. Rawlins, Joseph Sharp Rawlins, Robert Shipley, Absalom Wamsley Smith, John Sivil Smith, Jacob Terry, Joel E. Terry, William Reynolds Terry, and John P. Wright.

President Brigham Young, after settling the pioneers in Salt Lake, sent scouts and surveyors to establish settlements throughout the vast Mexican Territory.

Joseph S. Rawlins and his family moved to Draper in 1850. "For twenty years thereafter they made their home at Draper, nine miles south of Murray. During this time our subject crossed the plains seven times, bringing three companies of immigrants to Utah, and also served for three months as guard in protecting the United States overland mails, serving under Captain L. Smith with the rank of lieutenant."

Ester Ann Munro was married to John Boulter on 29 January 1855 by the first elder of Draper, William Draper, Ester’s great-uncle. She and John moved to Spanish Fork where they had three children. They then moved back to Draper, after which she did community work and practical nursing. Many people called her Aunt Ester. To this union were born twelve children, six of whom lived to adulthood.

When William Draper (another of Phebe's brothers), first presiding elder of Draper, moved to Sanpete County, the Draperville Branch was organized into a ward in October 1856 and remained part of the Salt Lake Stake, replacing the branch created three years earlier. Isaac Mitton Stewart was sustained as the first bishop, William Reynolds Terry, the first counselor, Absalom Wamsley Smith, the second counselor, and John Heward, the clerk. The bishopric served without pay under the governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Two local priesthood holders visited the homes of pioneers each month, noting conditions of health, shelter, and provisions of food and clothing, which they later reported to the bishop and his two counselors, who administered both the spiritual and temporal affairs of the settlement. Nearly every family owned copies of the scriptures used in Church meetings. Passages from these scriptures were read and explained as family members took turns reading. Following the spiritual message, pioneering and Indian stories were shared, home-building and farming practices discussed. Exchanging experiences provided parents and children the opportunity to improve their storytelling techniques. These visits were usually completed with all kneeling in family prayer.

Sunday School in the Church was organized two years after the Saints entered the Great Salt Lake Valley. On 17 May 1857 a Sunday School was first commenced in Draperville, it being one of the first Sunday Schools ever organized in Utah. Ann Wilson Fitzgerald, with Elizabeth Heward and Elisabeth Enniss, began that organization in Draperville and taught the youngsters who came each Sunday.

Men were sent from Church headquarters in Salt Lake occasionally to encourage pioneers to be faithful in living the commandments. "Too of the brethren who were sent out to visit the settlements and preach calld at our place thay held three meetings.

"Those meetings ware verry interesting there was a good spirit prevaild many of the brethren expresst there fellings felt that the lord had been with the saints in there present difficulty with the Jentiles as we had not one man fallen in all the difficulty."

Life had become more manageable toward the end of this decade, and the pioneers felt blessed that their hardships were lessening. Many thought being rebaptized would show their gratitude for surviving and overcoming the hardships encountered crossing the plains and becoming established in prospering settlements. Others were rebaptized as they attempted to live the United Order. Even President Brigham Young was rebaptized. Andrew J. Allen recorded in his diary for 27 May 1860, on page 18, "I baptised Purlina and Sary Martha [his daughters] for remission of sins and Purlina for hir helth."

"[Norman Brown] was the sexton of the Draper [Ward] Cemetery until a few years before his death, having dug nearly all the graves in that cemetery until that time, most of them without remuneration."

"William [Reynolds Terry] received a very important letter [about 1859]. It was written by President Brigham Young, asking William to come to his Salt Lake office. Early the next morning William hitched two horses to a wagon and journeyed to town. The president was busy meeting other people, so William waited his turn. An office boy called those waiting, and thus it went all day without William being called. When evening came he journeyed home to his family. Soon after, he received a second letter from President Young inquiring why he had not come in. William sat down and wrote the following words back to the President: ‘I received your first call to come to your office and drove in to see you the next morning. And waited all day, but it seems your help was unable to see me. So if you care to see me about anything I am still living in Draper and it is the same distance from Salt Lake to Draper as it is from Draper to Salt Lake.’

"Within the next few days Brigham Young paid him a visit. The President called William to settle in St. George. No doubt the family hated to leave their lovely home and all their friends, but they obeyed the call from the Lord’s anointed and moved to St. George."

Abigail Holman Stevens

A Life Sketch of Abigail Elizabeth Holman Stevens – grandmother

Written by Laura Stevens 

She was born July 3, 1836 at Canaughtville, Crawford Co., Pennsylvania of an industrious and noble family. 

The descendants of the Holman name have passed through every hardship of pioneer life.  William Holman and his wife, Winifred, came from the North Hampton, England and settled in Cambridge, Mass. Ezekiel Holman was a member of the first Baptist Church of Providence, R. I. These are the ancestors of Joshua Sawyer Holman, the father of Abigail’s mother Rebecca Greenleaf’s ancestors were many of note. 

Abigail’s parents joined the church in 1832 and lived in Kirtland, Ohio. They helped build the Temple there, but when the people were driven from there, they located at Nauvoo, Illinois and helped to build that city and Temple. They were very faithful Latter-day Saints. Her father was among the first men called on a mission to the Indians. Their first two children were boys and died in their infancy. The rest, Franklin, Rebecca, John, Amelia, Ezekiel and Abigail grew to maturity. 

The Saints were driven by the mob out of Nauvoo, Illinois into Council Bluffs, Iowa. There had to be roads made and a bridge built, before the Saints could go on.  So a company of men were sent ahead to make the roads and build the bridge over the Sweetwater River.  Her father was put in charge of this work.  He was a hard working man and was in the water a good share of the time, while building the bridge.  He caught a cold and died November 1, 1846 in Indian Territory, now Florence, Nebraska. His wife and family went to Potawatmi Co.[sic] to teach school for the Indians, and in the year 1849, she and her oldest son, Franklin and daughter, Rebecca, took down with the cholera within five days of each other and died. This left the four other children orphans, homeless, and broken hearted. Amelia married out of the church and went with him but later left him and came to Utah and was rebaptized. Abigail was thirteen years old. The Gospel, being her guiding star sustained her through all the dark days that followed. She came to Utah with her brothers John and Ezekiel the next year, 1850. 

Her brother, John, drove a team for Brigham Young on the memorable journey, crossing the plains. He settled in Pleasant Grove. Ezekiel and Abigail stayed in Salt Lake Valley working for different people for several years to make a living. Ezekiel married young. 

Then Abigail went down to Pleasant Grove to her brother John. While there, she met Walter Stevens and married him April 27, 1854, not quite eighteen years old. Their first house was built there, which was still standing in 1914. Two children were born to them while living there; Marinda, who died in infancy, and Walter Joshua. 

In August 1858 they moved to Holden, Millard Co., Utah where his father's family were and they lived there until 1880. They lived inside the fort, in a two roomed adobe house for several years. In the year 1859, David Alma was born to them. As the years went by, Rebecca Sybil and Mary Thdocia [sic] were born. 

They didn't have much money those days pioneering a new place. She carded wool, spun yarn from the wool, and had to make the cloth of various kinds for her children's clothing. She spun yarn and made blankets, clothsuits. There was no such thing as ready made suits those days. She made gloves for men out of buckskins, also made men's and women's straw hats by braiding from three to seven strands of straw with flowers for trimming from straw and horse hair colored various colors. They had to do all their sewing by hand in those days. 

Two more daughters, Ardell and Emma Jane, joined their family. Her husband had to wprk hard to support his family. After the town was surveyed, he got logs from the canyon and built a log room out on his lot to live in. There was a loft above the room that the two older boys slept in on a shuck tick on the floor. They had to climb the logs to get to it. The parents bed was a wooden bed they had made, carded with a rope, a tick of shucks and a feather bed on top of the shuck tick. The girls bed was a trundle bed and in the day time it was kept under the large bed and pulled out at night. They managed to live that way for a few years. 

Her husband was called on a mission to Pennsylvania after being released as Presiding Elder of the Ward about the year 1871 and he filled that calling honorably. While her husband was away on his mission, she had many more duties to perform and her children were small. 

A new baby girl was born in 1870 and that same year she was chosen President of the Holden Relief Society and set apart for that labor by President of the Stake, Thomas Calister, Sr. She chose good faithful women as her counselors and they united together looking after the sick, poor, and needy of the ward. She urged the sisters to do their duty by turning out to the meetings and counseled them to do good to one another and teach their children the gospel. She advised the sisters to start home production, plant mulberry trees and raise silk worms. 

The Relief Society got a few silk worms, but they didn't have any success with them. The sisters were very good to donate and they asked the sisters to donate their milk on Sunday for making cheese to sell. Sister Elizabeth Stevens and Lettie Stevens, sisters-in-law, were chosen to make the cheese. They made and sold $88.50 worth. The Society also made quilts to sell. 

In 1873, a boy was born to them. In December that same year, the Presidency decided to start a store. It was built about the center of town and Ellen Stevens was chosen clerk, this was before she was married and changed her name. In 1875, the Society donated $38.35 on the St. George Temple. The President of the Stake, Thomas Calister, advised all the Relief Society Presidents to store up wheat in time of need and the sisters donated grain for several years. They were asked to donate the start of their Relief Society Hall. She advised them to donate anything in the way of material to build with or labor. They managed to get it built while she was still President. She taught the sisters to braid from three to seven strands of straw for making hats and she chose a committee for that work. In the year 1876, her tenth child, a boy, was born. 

They milked about 25 cows one summer and made butter and put it in a tub of strong brine to keep it good until they got enough to make a trip to Salt Lake City and got a good price for it. He bought a charter Oak Cook Stove with his butter money. This was the first cook stove they had ever had. She had to make her own soap and had to make the lye to make the soap with. They made lye from hard wood ashes. 

While she was President of the Society, the organization helped to immigrate a poor family here to Holden, Utah from England and care for them after they got here. The Relief Society also built a house for a poor widow woman. 

Abigail's two oldest sons, Joshua and Alma, were called by Erastus Snow, the Apostle, to go to San Juan County to pioneer that place in 1879. They took their cattle and were with the first band of intrepid settlers who located in Bluff, but were not satisfied with location so they went 100 miles farther up the San Juan River into New Mexico. 

She was President of Relief Society for ten years. In 1880, they went to New Mexico where she was chose President of the Kirtland Ward. After a number of years they returned to Utah, settling in Manti where they labored for six years doing Temple work. 

She died March 5, 1912 while back in New Mexico. Her husband died two years later, July 24, 1914, and his body was shipped back to New Mexico to be buried by the side of his wife, Abigail.

 

Walter Stevens

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF WALTER STEVENS

by

Silas L. Cheney (Grand son-in-law)

 

Walter Stevens was born January 17, 1829, in Gore District, near Mount Pleasant, Upper Canada. He was the second son of William Stevens and Marinda Thomas Stevens.

The William Stevens family first heard the gospel preached at Mount Pleasant in October, 1833, by the Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. Some of the family were baptized the same year, others, the year following, but William deferred his baptism until June, 1837.

 The Stevenses emigrated from Canada to the United States in the year 1838. Their intentions were to settle in Missouri, but hearing of the troubles the Saints were experiencing in that state, they wintered in Illinois and joined the Saints the following year at their gathering place in Commerce (Nauvoo), Hancock County, Illinois. It was here that Walter Stevens, then but a boy, became personally acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith.

During the exodus of the Saints from Illinois in 1846, the Stevens family journeyed west to Council Bluffs on the Missouri River. Here with seventy-five other families, they made a temporary settlement and became members of a large branch of the church which was organized at that place with James Allred as Bishop. While residing here in 1847, Walter Stevens became a baptized member of the church.

During the summer of 1850, the Stevens family made the laborious trek west, traveling in William Snow's company. They arrived in Salt Lake City, October 1, and three days later moved south and settled near a spring, now known as "Stevens Spring", located between American Fork and Pleasant Grove.

On April 27, 1854, Walter Stevens married Abigail E. Holman. Four years later they were called to help settle Cedar Springs, now Holden, Millard County. Brother and Sister Stevens willingly accepted the call because they had implicit faith in the wisdom of the general authorities of the church. And their faith was justified since, due to their industry and thrift, they prospered and were held in high esteem by almost everyone who knew them. Brother Stevens was selected and set apart as the first Presiding Elder of the Cedar Springs Branch of the Church. 

While at Holden, Brother Stevens became a modestly successful cattleman. He also owned and operated a small butcher shop, and served as a sales agent for the highly valued Bain wagon.

These activities established him as one of the most prosperous men in the community.

He was ordained a Seventy by Albert P. Rockwood in 1858. Later he served as the Presiding Elder of the Holden Branch of the Church from 1861 to 1871. He was then called to do missionary work in the United States. 

Meantime, in 1869-- with the encouragement of Church officials and the approval of his loyal and devoted wife, Abigail - Walter married a second wife, Marietta Mace. In the fall of 1880, Walter moved his first family to Northwestern New Mexico where they became the first permanent LDS settlers at a place known as Fruitland. One of the reasons for the Steven's choice of this location was that their two eldest sons, Joshua and Alma, had accompanied the "Hole-in-the-Rock" colonizers to Bluff, Utah, the previous year; and, not liking the location, had gone up the river about a hundred miles and established squatter's rights on a tract of land at Fruitland. This land could not be obtained in any other way until it was made available to homesteaders following a government survey. The soil was rich and the Stevens boys had raised a fine crop of grain. 

Brother Stevens acquired a farm land near the San Juan River which had a one room log cabin upon it. Having arrived in Fruitland late in the fall, November 26, the family spent the winter in this cabin, supplemented by tents and wagons. They had brought with them from Utah an exceptionally good outfit consisting of five Bain wagons, a carriage, several fine horses, cattle, and two yoke of oxen. 

Brother Stevens established a small but prosperous Indian trading post where he bought wool, sheep pelts, and blankets from the Indians, as well as the silver and turquoise ornaments they were skilled in making; and in exchange, sold them the food, clothing, and other goods they needed. 

Later, when other Mormon settlers were called to help settle Fruitland, Brother Stevens was counseled by the Bishop to allow his store to become a cooperative institution. This he did, but not without misgivings; and his feeling in the matter was justified by subsequent events. The new manager lacked his business acumen so the store soon failed and he received nothing for the stock of goods he had allowed to be taken over by the community. 

In the fall of 1881, he moved his second family from Holden to Fruitland. Due to polygamous persecution, however, in 1885, he was advised to move Marietta and her family to Bluff, Utah. 

In January, 1889, Brother Stevens was ordained a High Priest by Apostle John Henry Smith and became a member of the High Council of the San Juan Stake for a number of years. In 1893, he was sustained as first counselor to Bishop Luther G. Burnham of the newly created Burnham Ward.

Due to the loyal service he rendered the Church, and his unquestioned honesty, thrift, sound judgment and good-neighbor policies, Brother Stevens won the confidence, respect, and high esteem of the people who knew him best, whether they were Mormons or Gentiles, white men or Navajo Indians. The Indians liked and trusted him and the members of his family. They called him "Husteen Ez", meaning "tall, old man". 

He was a powerfully built man, standing six feet two inches in his sock feet, and having a heavy head of white hair - which he wore in pompadour fashion - keen blue eyes, and a full white beard.

To the day of his death, he was neat and clean in his personal habits, never missing his bath and change of clothing, and always washing his hands and face before sitting down at the table for his meals. He was very friendly and hospitable to all. Even the Navajo Indians who came from a distance to trade at his store were given supper and breakfast at his table and invited to roll up in their blankets on his kitchen floor for the night. 

During his lifetime, Brother Stevens manifested keen interest in a wide variety of things; but from the time he joined the Church, his religious callings and duties were of primary importance to him and his devoted wife, Abigail. He was humble, and capable, who did not covet high positions in Church or State, nor did he refuse to accept a call to office; and when accepted, he earnestly endeavored to perform the duties devolving upon him. Certainly he possessed rare ability, humility, resourcefulness, and instinctive know-how. 

During the latter years of his life, he was afflicted with sciatic rheumatism which in particular affected one of his hips. As a result, it was difficult and painful for him to move about, but he refused to be defeated by this handicap. With the aid of a cane, he persisted in going places and doing things. If the distance involved was too far to walk, he would hitch his big bay pacer Prince, to a single buggy and be on his way. 

In 1905, Brother Stevens and his wife, Abigail, went to Manti, Utah, for the purpose of doing temple work. In the fourteen months they were there, they performed ordinance work for 3,000 of their ancestors. They returned to Fruitland and sold their home, farm, cattle, and horses, and most of their personal possessions, then returned to Manti in 1908. They there continued to do temple work until Sister Stevens' failing health in the latter part of 1911 made it advisable for her to forego any unnecessary exertion. Because of this, they sold their home in Manti and went to Nephi, where they stayed with their daughter, Mary S. Bigler, for a few weeks. They then returned to Fruitland, New Mexico, and lived with their youngest daughter, Abbie S. Young. It was here on March 5, 1912, that Sister Stevens passed away. 

This history was scanned by Deniane Kartchner on 3-10-09 from a typewritten copy obtained from the personal files of Fern Laws Palmer, daughter-in-law to Rebecca Stevens, grand daughter of Walter Stevens.