“I was not twelve years old when we moved to Orderville. Father turned all his property over to the United Order, except the household and personal things. We experienced a great change in our lives, making new friends and changing our way of life among new people who became dear friends and a good people to live among.
“When we first went to Orderville the people were all eating at a large dining hall in the center of the little town. There were three rows of tables that could seat about two hundred people at a time. Soon after we went to Orderville, there were about seven hundred people and we had to set the tables three times. Besides the dining hall, there was the kitchen, supervised over by a man and a good sized boy to help tend the furnace and do chores, and a bakery, where the baker [made] all the bread fresh every day. There were three married women and three young ladies to work in the kitchen. There were six [sets] of cooks and six sets of girls to work in the dining hall. We [each] took our turn at the work.
“The men were given the privilege of choosing the job… they liked best. My father, being a cabinet maker, was given a shop and materials to work with. He made furniture.… My older sister was married, but she had no children, and her husband Howard Spencer was on a mission in England, so she did the painting of the furniture for some time. There was another man who ran a furniture shop, so the people were soon well supplied with furniture.
“There was a man and his family by the name of Warriner A. Porter who moved into the community. His brother Edson accompanied him to help him, but intended to return to his home in Porterville. He stayed at Orderville three weeks, and as all young men are interested in girls, he had an idea he might see one that would suit him. The first week passed and he said to himself, ‘There is not a girl here that I would have.’ The second week brought a new set of girls into the dining hall. As the girls came in, he saw one among them and he thought, ‘She is mine.’ He stayed another week and then found a chance to go back home to Porterville with a man who was going north to get a load of goods. There was also an Orderville woman who was going to visit her parents, and as they were setting around the campfire that evening, she asked Edson if he had found him a girl at Orderville. He said yes, and she asked him what her name was. He said he didn’t know, he hadn’t talked to her, but described her dress and her appearance. She said that her name was Catherine Carling and she was a mighty fine little girl. He went back home feeling like he had his girl picked out.
“He decided to come back to Orderville during the summer. He completed his arrangements to get ready to move his widowed mother and two brothers and a sister to Orderville in the fall. After Edson and his mother became established in their new home, his sister Annie and my sister Ellen and I worked in the dining hall together. She invited us to go to their home and spend the evening. We went and spent a very enjoyable time until about 9 o’clock when we bade them good night. Edson followed us and asked if he might accompany us home. The snow was several inches deep, and he saw us home safely. After that, he came to our home quite often. We would walk to Sunday evening meetings together. He and my sister Ellen and I became fast friends. Ellen was older than I and we were always together. I thought I was just going along with my sister and Edson. As we became acquainted, he paid so much attention to me that I really enjoyed being with him.
“One day Ellen said to me, ‘I am going to quit Edson.’
“I said, ‘I don’t care if you do quit him, but why are you going to quit him?’
“‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I am going with someone else.’ She was going with Thomas Chamberlain and in due time she married him.
“Those fleeting years—how quickly they passed, leaving sweet memories of times long passed and gone. I felt that there was no other man I could ever love as I did [Edson]. But there was something I must know for myself. My older sister Ann told me how she fasted and prayed three days and three nights to the Lord that she might know if this man who wanted her to be his wife was the proper man to be her husband and she received such a wonderful testimony that he was.
“I said to myself, if the Lord answered my sister’s prayer, [He] can do the same for me. I have never done anything that would hinder me from receiving [His] blessing. So when the time came that I must know for myself, I, too, fasted three days and three nights and my Heavenly Father did hear and answer my prayers whether the man who had asked me to be his wife for time and all eternity would be a proper companion for me. I did receive a testimony that has always, since then, been as an anchor to my soul. I have never felt that I had made a mistake in my choice. I have never felt that I might have done better if I had married someone else.”
Catherine A. Carling died at age 92 on November 1, 1957, in Mesa, Arizona. See www.sanfordporter.org
This article originally appeared in Vol.59 No.1 of Pioneer Magazine.
John R's mother was ill and stayed in Winter Quarters, but John R and his brother Franklin W ( 8 ) left soon after the advanced party, in the Jedediah M Grant Company. In his book John R. states that they were no ones responsibility, but everyones chore boys. It is heart renching to me to picture a sick mother sending a 10 year old son on a 1000 mile treck through wild country with an 8 year old in tow. One morning when they were camped on Hams Fork near Ft Bridger, in what is now Wyoming, a cow was sick and would not get up. John was left behind to try to get her up and bring her to the next camp site. It is terrible to think of the fear he felt as the last dust settled from the wagons as they faded from view. While tending the cow he saw an Indian across the river, and he decided to leave the cow and head for camp. The next morning several men returned to the previous camp site, and found that the cow had been butchered by Soux Indians 'on the war path after Shoshones', This band raided Ft Bridger, but left the Mormon train alone except for one sick cow.
George was good with carpenter tools. The two men built a number of homes, the first LDS chapel, and other structures. Their names are on several plaques noting their contributions. George managed the co-op store and it boasted the first telephone in the community. He later operated the Tooele Z.C.M.I. store. He was a member of the County Livestock Association. George and his brother were both members of the Tooele militia.
My great grandfather was born 19 October 1834 in (McCame), McDonough County, IL. That is just 101 years before my birth. McDonough County is the county in which Carthage, IL…
Family history excerpts of two paternal great-grand-parents, followed by two maternal great-grandparents of LaMar Adams: Barnabus Lathrop Adams was born Aug. 28, 1812, in Canada to Joshua Adams and Elizabeth…
“This is the Place Monument” By Wayne K. Hinton As we near the usually time for the SUPer-DUPer Day at This Is the Place State Park, it is appropriate to…
Bountiful Pioneer At their December meeting the South Davis Chapter eulogized the pioneer life of Thomas Briggs, which was presented by Bruce Briggs, a second great-grandson. Thomas Briggs emigrated to…
From 1863 to 1875 cholera swept through Europe. The Austro-Prussian War in 1866 accelerated its spread. That fateful year 250 thousand people died from the lethal disease in Prussia and Austria, 90 thousand perished in Russia, and 113 thousand succumbed the next year in Italy. Hungary, Holland, and Belgium were similarly hard hit by the disease. Little wonder, then, that the virulent bacteria made its way on board the ship that the Anders Peter Warnick family boarded in Hamburg, Germany on June 1, 1866.
This story originally appeared in the Nov/Dec 1980 issue of Pioneer Magazine Winner Senior Division Pioneer Story Contest 1980 Encampment Helen Free VanderBeek Route 5 Box 151 Idaho Falls, Idaho…
WHILE WORKING AROUND A THRESHING MACHINE, ANDREW LOST HIS ARM IN THE GEARS, NEEDING AMPUTATION ABOVE THE ELBOW. IT WAS SAID OF ANDREW, HE COULD HARNESS A TEAM OR ANY OTHER WORK ON A FARM AS QUICKLY AS ANY MAN WITH TWO ARMS AND HANDS.
Submitted by Hudson Bradshaw, a student at Arrowhead Elementary School in Santa Clara, Utah. Robert Kirk Anderson I’ve never met my great grandpa Bob, but I’ve heard that he was…
On February 2nd 1846 the migration west began. Stillman and his family remained in Nauvoo until after the battle of Nauvoo in September 1846 when they were driven at the point of a bayonet across the river. Tribulations and hardships were many as the winter set in early and the Mormon refugees were without the proper food, clothing and shelter. The camp was ravaged by malaria, cholera, and consumption. The Pond family fell victim of all of these diseases. Stillman’s wife, Maria, became consumptive and all the children were afflicted with malaria. Snow fell early on the plains of Iowa and along the way Stillman and Maria buried their son Lowell Anson in September of 1846 on the plains of Iowa. Maria’s body wracked with pain and bowed down with grief for the loss of her son; was unable to walk and was confined to her bed in the back of the wagon with the fever of malaria. In this condition she gave birth to twin boys Joseph and J. Hyrum, the later part of September and the twins died a few days later and were also buried along the trail in Iowa.
A Call to the Bishopric By Elwood J. Corry This story originally appeared in the Nov/Dec 1971 issue of Pioneer Magazine. I never knew my grandfather William Henry Corry very…
Wagons for Fleeing SaintsJohn Carling and his son Isaac worked at making and mending wagons for the Saints who were being driven from Nauvoo. The mob violence became so intense that the Carling family decided to leave with the main body of saints. Brigham Young sent Heber C. Kimball to inform John that if he would stay until all of the Saints had been provided with good outfits, not a hair of their heads would be harmed. They remained as requested, though some wives complained that they would all be killed.
“The morning they were to leave, they were counseled to get to the ferry boats before the mobs were astir, and upon arriving at the ferry, the captain hurried them onto the boat and admonished them to be quick because they could see the mobs coming. Some were on horses, and others were running, but all with guns in their hands, and they were cursing. As the saints left the shore, they could hear the leader of the mob ordering his men to shoot. But as the men came to the shore, they stood still. It is told by some that two shots were fired but they missed the people in the boat.”
Born in 1857, B.H. Roberts became a historian, and politician, and would serve as President of the First Council of Seventy. But every famous man was also once a boy,…
Francis Webster was attending Sunday School. A group of adults criticized the Church for letting the Martin Handcart company suffer on their 1856 trek. Old Brother Webster stood up and…
0
1
Brother Joseph
Pioneer John
