Mrs. Elizabeth Nicholls of Wembley, Middlesex, and the late Thomas Eames are pleased to announce the marriage of their daughter Emma Eames to William Stoker, son of Thomas and Ann Stoker of Brewood, Staffordshire. The couple were married on Sunday, 29 July 1849, at St. John’s Church, Wembley, in the parish of Harrow, after their banns had been read in church on three Sundays.
William gave his age as 23, a bachelor and saddler living at Newport, Shropshire, and named his father as Thomas Stoker, servant. Emma was 20, a spinster in service at Alperton, and named her father as Thomas Eames, wheelwright. Both William and Emma signed the register with their own names rather than a mark. Emma’s mother could not sign her name; fourteen years later she also signed Emma’s death certificate with her mark. The witnesses for the marriage were John and Anne Kidney, whose family lived two doors from Emma’s mother at Wembley.
Marriage of William Stoker and Emma Eames, St. John’s Wembley, parish of Harrow, 29 July 1849
Emma’s mother and stepfather, William and Elizabeth Nicholls, with the Kidney family two doors away, Wembley, 1851 census
William Edward Stoker was born 9 January 1827 at Crateford, a hamlet in the parish of Brewood, Staffordshire, and christened 4 February 1827 at the church of St. Mary and St. Chad in Brewood. Some histories and websites give 1822, even his own tombstone, a year worked back from the age of 77. The baptism register and English censuses agree on 1827.
His father, Thomas Stoker, was baptized at Brewood in 1787. The parish registers call him a laborer in 1825 and 1827 and a servant in 1828. By 1830 he was coachman at Somerford Hall, and he was still driving at 73. William’s mother was Ann Nightingale, and William was one of at least eight children. In 1841 the family lived at Four Ashes in Brewood: Thomas, coachman; Ann; Mary 21; Jane 16; Joseph 15, already a wheelwright; William 14; Thomas 11; and Eliza 8. By 1851 Ann was no longer in the household, and I have not yet found when she died. Thomas died at Brewood in 1865. Sometime in the 1840s William learned the saddler’s trade and moved across the county line to Newport, Shropshire.
Thomas Stoker household at Four Ashes, Brewood, Staffordshire, 1841 census
Emma Eames was born 16 January 1830 at Alperton and baptized 21 February 1830 at St. Mary’s, Harrow on the Hill, by William Whitmarsh Phelps. The register gives her parents as Thomas and Elizabeth Eames of Alperton, wheelwright. Thomas Eames had married Elizabeth Lewis, a native of Thatcham, Berkshire, at St. Pancras Old Church on 2 October 1825.
Baptism of Emma Eames, Harrow on the Hill, 21 February 1830, entry 1555
Emma had an older brother Thomas, born in 1826, who spent his life at Alperton and Wembley as a carpenter and later as the village postmaster and shopkeeper. His second wife, Christiana, came from his mother’s home village of Thatcham. Emma also had an older sister, Alice Ruth, christened at Harrow in March 1828, and a younger brother William, baptized at Harrow on 12 February 1832, who does not appear with the family again.
Baptism of William Eames, Harrow on the Hill, 12 February 1832, No. 118
Emma’s father was buried at Harrow on 12 September 1833, when she was three, and Elizabeth was expecting again. Their son William was born that winter and baptized at Harrow on 19 January 1834. He was buried there on 11 September 1834, nine months old. That September cholera came through Wembley. The curate wrote “Died of Cholera” beside the five burials just before William’s, though not beside his.
Baptism of William Eames, born after his father’s death, Harrow on the Hill, 19 January 1834, No. 308
Burial of William Eames of Alperton, aged 9 months, Harrow on the Hill, 11 September 1834, No. 1390
Within a few years Elizabeth married William Nicholls, a laborer from Ely, Cambridgeshire, and they had four children: William, Ellen, Caroline and George. By the 1841 census Thomas and Alice were living with them at Alperton, along with the two eldest Nicholls children. Emma was not there. “Emma Ames,” 10, appears instead in the household of John Lewis, a carman, at Horse and Groom Yard in the parish of St. John the Evangelist, Westminster. Elizabeth had a brother John, born about 1801, and the census notes this John Lewis was born outside Middlesex, so he was very likely Emma’s uncle.
William and Elizabeth Nichols with Thomas and Alice Eames and the first two Nichols children, Alperton, 1841 census
Emma “Ames,” age 10, in the John Lewis household, Horse and Groom Yard, Westminster, 1841 census
Emma went home to Alperton to have her first child. William Thomas Stoker was born there on 16 June 1850, and Emma registered the birth at Harrow eight days later. The certificate gives the father as William Edward Stoker, saddler.
Birth of William Thomas Stoker, Alperton, Harrow, 16 June 1850
By the end of March 1851 the young family was back in Newport, living on Middle Row: William, 25, journeyman saddler, born in Brewood; Emma, 22, born in Middlesex (the enumerator wrote “Studbury”); and William T., 9 months.
William, Emma and William T. Stoker, Middle Row, Newport, Shropshire, 1851 census
The family moved with William’s work. Alice was born 21 September 1851 at Brewood, near William’s family. Janetta, called Jeanette, was born 3 February 1856 at Kinver (the registrar wrote “Kinfare”), in Staffordshire, and Emma registered the birth at Wolverhampton. By 1859 they were back near Emma’s family, and Alfred was born on 22 September at Church End, Hendon, where Emma’s mother and stepfather were living by 1861. The family then settled in Reading, Berkshire, where Mary Ann was born on 24 February 1861.
Birth of Janetta Stoker, Kinver, 3 February 1856
William and Elizabeth Nicholls, written Nicholas, at 63 Church End, Hendon, 1861 census
The 1861 census found the Stokers at 18 Alfred Street in the parish of St. Mary’s, Reading: William, 34, saddler journeyman; Emma, 31; Thomas, 11; Alice, 9; Jenetta, 6; Alfred, 1; and Mary Ann, a few weeks old. The enumerator listed Jenetta as born in Brewood, but her birth certificate says Kinver. One more son, George, was born 28 October 1862 and died early in 1863.
The Stoker family at 18 Alfred Street, Reading, 1861 census
The Stokers met missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Reading. William Thomas, then twelve, was baptized on 1 February 1863, and William and eleven-year-old Alice followed on 27 May. We are not sure if Emma joined the church before her death or not. The church does not appear to have records of her joining while alive.
Emma died on 28 April 1863 at 18 Alfred Street, after a year of phthisis, or tuberculosis. She was 33, though the certificate says 35. The informant, who was present at the death, was her mother, Elizabeth Nicholls of Hendon, then about 58 and working as a charwoman, who signed with her mark. Find a Grave places Emma in St. Mary’s churchyard, Reading, but no records have confirmed this burial. Her brother Thomas named a daughter Emma the following year.
Death of Emma Stoker, 18 Alfred Street, Reading, 28 April 1863
Elizabeth outlived her daughter by more than thirty years. She and William Nicholls stayed at Church End, Hendon, where the 1891 census found them at 84 and 86, and she died in 1896.
William and Elizabeth Nicolls, Church End, Hendon, 1871 census
William and Elizabeth Nicolls, Church End, Hendon, 1881 census
William and Elizabeth Nicholls, Church Road, Hendon, 1891 census
A month after Emma’s death, William was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Two weeks before that, on 16 May 1863, his notice from the Reading Conference had been acknowledged for passage on the next emigrant ship. The British Mission register lists “Wm Stoker,” 36, sadler, and his children Thos 13, Alice 10, Janet 5, Alfred 3 and Mary A., an infant, all sharing the 7 Coley Street address of the Reading members above them. He paid a £6 deposit and a balance of £15 12s, £21 12s in all, on ticket 182. The ship’s name at the top of the page is written over a crossed-out “Cynosure.”
William Stoker and five children in the British Mission emigration register, ship Amazon, 1863, p. 295
The Amazon left London on 4 June 1863 with 895 Latter-day Saints. Before she sailed, Charles Dickens visited the ship and later described the emigrants as the “pick and flower” of England. Elijah Larkin, a fellow passenger, noted that thirteen-year-old Thomas was administered to on 16 and 20 June for a sickness he had had since sailing. The ship landed at Castle Garden, New York, on 18 July.
From New York the Saints went west by rail. Verna Olson’s history says that the same evening they landed, the family went on by train to Albany on their way to Florence, Nebraska, the Church’s outfitting post, the last stretch by river steamer up the Missouri. Two family accounts say William stayed and worked in New York for a time, but his marriage in Ogden in May 1864 means he must have crossed with the 1863 companies, since no company leaving the Missouri in 1864 could have reached Utah by then. At Florence, teams and wagons sent by the Church met those who could not pay for their own, and the emigrants divided into several wagon companies for the last thousand miles. The trail followed the Platte across Nebraska, past Chimney Rock and Fort Laramie, then up the Sweetwater past Independence Rock and through Devil’s Gate, where the Martin Handcart Company had been stranded seven years before. George A. Smith wrote that the company reached Salt Lake City and camped on Union Square on Saturday and Sunday, 3 and 4 October 1863, “in good health and fine spirits,” two days before General Conference opened on Tuesday, 6 October. The journey from London had taken four months. I have not yet identified which wagon company the Stokers crossed with. The Daniel D. McArthur company, which left Florence on 6 August and ended its journey at Salt Lake City on 3 October, is one likely candidate.
Ogden and Plain City
William settled in Ogden and opened its first harness shop. He married Eliza Sinfield in Ogden on 18 May 1864, and three years later, to the day, they were endowed and sealed in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. Their home stood on 26th Street between Washington and Grant, which the 1880 census lists as 6th Street; in 1889 Ogden added twenty to the numbers of its east-west streets. On 27 March 1869 William was called as one of the presidents of the 75th Quorum of Seventies.
Before long, the five children from England were living with families in Plain City, all of them Latter-day Saints at the time. Several Plain City families, the Sharps among them, later left for the Episcopal church after a dispute over tithing that Milo Ross remembered as the doing of one bishop. Family accounts say the children first camped in a tent on the Plain City square. Mary Ann was raised by George and Victorine Musgrave, who called her Lillie, and Jeanette by Lewis and Catherine Garner. The 1870 census lists all five with William and Eliza in Ogden, but it cannot be taken literally. It even includes Alice, who had died the previous September, and the others were also counted with the families they lived with; Jeanette appears with the Garners as “Janet.”
Children
William Thomas Stoker, known as Thomas, was born 16 June 1850 at Alperton, Middlesex. On 22 August 1870 he married Fanny Amelia Tucker in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, and they settled in Plain City, where they raised nine children. After Fanny died in 1892 he married Ellen Hemmings, and after her death, Catherine Oliver. He died at Plain City on 21 October 1908 and is buried in the Plain City Cemetery.
William Thomas Stoker
Alice Stoker was born 21 September 1851 at Brewood and was baptized with her father on 27 May 1863. She is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery, whose records give her death as 11 September 1869, ten days before her eighteenth birthday. In 1887 James England, born the same year as Alice, was sealed to her in the Logan Temple. I am not clear if they were engaged and then she passed away before marriage, or what occurred. But James and Alice were sealed while he was still alive.
Janetta (Jeanette) Stoker was born 3 February 1856 at Kinver, Staffordshire. On 22 December 1875 she married Charles David Rogers at Sandy, Salt Lake County, where they spent the rest of their lives. They had nine children, four of them sons who died young. She died at Sandy on 5 December 1941. Her obituary gives 2 February 1855 in Devonshire, but the birth certificate states Kinver.
Alfred William Stoker, known as Jim, was born 22 September 1859 at Church End, Hendon. By 1880 he was living with his father in Ogden, and on 30 July 1881 he married Elizabeth Branson. They raised twelve children. By 1900 the family had moved to Pocatello, Idaho, where he worked as an upholsterer for the Oregon Short Line. He died at Pocatello on 3 November 1927 and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery.
Mary Ann (Lillie) Stoker was born 24 February 1861 at Reading. She was raised by George and Victorine Musgrave of Plain City and on 11 May 1879 married Milo Riley Sharp. She died at Plain City on 6 May 1935 and is buried there.
Mary Ann Stoker Sharp
George Stoker was born at Reading on 28 October 1862 and died there early in 1863, only weeks before his mother.
The Second Family
Eliza Sinfield was born 26 January 1842 at Eversholt, Bedfordshire, to Samuel Sinfield, a bricklayer’s laborer, and Phebe Cross, who had joined the Church. Phebe died on 20 August 1852, a week before the family was to leave for Zion. Samuel still made the trip with his two daughters. They sailed to New Orleans and up the Mississippi. Samuel drove a Church team across the plains in 1853 while the girls walked most of the way. In Ogden they lived at first in a dugout cut into the hillside, and there a long fever left Eliza lame. She was 22 when she married William in 1864. As a widow she lived for a time with her daughter Agnes at Mullan, Idaho. She died at Agnes’s home in Salt Lake City on 3 April 1912, of heart disease, and was taken home to Ogden for burial.
Emma Stoker was born at Ogden on 24 March 1865 and died there on 16 October 1878, aged thirteen. She is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery.
Agnes Stoker was born at Ogden on 1 October 1866. She married George Shields, and by 1889 they were in the mining country of northern Idaho. In 1900 they were at Mullan with their children, her widowed mother and her brother Albert. George died in 1906, and Agnes settled in Salt Lake City, where her mother died in her home in 1912. Agnes died in Salt Lake City on 6 September 1921 and is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery.
Agnes Stoker
Henrietta (Etta) Stoker was born at Ogden on 10 October 1868. At sixteen she married Simon Heber Weston, and she lived in Ogden the rest of her life. They had nine children, six of whom she outlived. Simon died in 1939, and Etta died at Ogden on 10 June 1942.
Eli Benjamin Stoker was born at Ogden in July 1870; his death certificate gives 1872. He married Sarah Jane (Jennie) Thomas in Salt Lake City on 22 November 1899, and they settled in the mining town of Mullan, Idaho, where he lived for most of the next fifty years. They had six children. He died at Silverton, Idaho, on 16 May 1952 and is buried at Mullan.
Eli Benjamin Stoker
Albert Edward Stoker was born at Ogden on 12 May 1873. In 1900, still single at 27, he was living with his sister Agnes and their mother at Mullan, Idaho. On 17 February 1908 he married Annie (Larson) Shulsen in Salt Lake City and became stepfather to her son, William. He later settled at Midvale, where he died on 8 February 1949, and he is buried in the Midvale City Cemetery.
Victoria Stoker was born at Ogden on 28 May 1875. She died there at a quarter past six on the evening of 20 November 1888, aged thirteen, and her funeral was held two days later at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Ogden’s Episcopal church. She is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery. In July 1891 William and Eliza had Victoria and her sister Emma baptized by proxy in the Logan Temple, and that October Emma’s endowment was done there on the thirteenth anniversary of her death.
Three of William’s daughters: Mary Ann (Lillie) Stoker Sharp and Jeanette Stoker Rogers, who sailed on the Amazon, and their half-sister Henrietta (Etta) Stoker Weston, born in Ogden
William’s Death
William died in April 1899 at a son’s home in Plain City. The Ogden Standard gave the date as the 11th; his headstone gives the 12th. His funeral was held at the Plain City meeting house on Thursday, 13 April, and he is buried in the Plain City Cemetery. The paper remembered him as a pioneer of Weber County for thirty-six years and the first man to go into the harness business in Ogden. It listed four sons and four daughters as survivors, which matches the eight children known to have outlived him.
Notice of William Stoker’s funeral, Ogden Standard, April 1899
This is the only other picture we have of William Edward Stoker, as a much older man. You can see the tuft of hair in the middle that has not changed, and the same man greatly aged. Look closely and you can see some of the resemblance in his sons.
William Edward Stoker, older
Emma was sealed to William by proxy on 18 May 1867, the same day he was endowed and sealed to his second wife. That seems to indicate he and others had her baptism and confirmation information, as well as someone performing her endowment. Those records, if existing do not currently show. She was baptized by proxy on 7 August 1956. Her endowment was done by proxy on 20 December 1956 in Idaho Falls Idaho Temple.
Milo Sharp, Archie Richardson, Mary Ann and Ethel Sharp, Roy Richardson
William Stoker and the late Emma Eames Stoker are pleased to announce the marriage of their daughter Mary Ann to Milo Riley Sharp, son of William Sharp and Mary Ann Sharp. They were married at the Episcopal Church in Plain City, Weber, Utah on 11 May 1879.
Milo is a farmer in Plain City. The couple will make their home in Plain City.
Just trying to write these first three paragraphs was not easy with this family. So many twists and turns with each individual name makes it difficult to find the proper wording and fashion to form the sentences. If you do not know the story of the names, it can be confusing. There are two Mary Ann Sharps in this family (Milo Riley’s mother, and his wife Mary Ann “Lillie” Stoker) and two Victorine Sharps a generation apart (Milo Riley’s sister, and his own daughter). I have tried to be careful throughout to distinguish them.
I struggled on whether to call Mary Ann by her other known name, Lillian “Lillie” Musgrave. After marriage, she was known as Lillie M Sharp, she is said to have signed her own name that way throughout her life. She was born 24 February 1861 as Mary Ann Stoker at 18 Alfred Street within St. Mary’s Parish in Reading, Berkshire, England. She was the fifth of six children of William Stoker, a journeyman saddler working in Reading, and Emma Eames. Her youngest sibling, an infant brother George, died in Reading in March 1863, just weeks before Emma herself died. Emma contracted tuberculosis (listed as phthisis on the death certificate) and passed away 28 April 1863 at the same address after a year struggle with the disease. Mary Ann never knew her mother or her baby brother. She was just two years old. Her older brother William Thomas, eleven years her senior, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 5 December 1860. Her father and older sister Alice joined on 27 May 1863. For the fuller story of the Stoker family in England, see Stoker-Eames Wedding.
1861 British Census, Stoker family at 18 Alfred Street, Reading, with infant Mary Ann
The family wasted no time in gathering to Zion. The Stoker family departed from London on the ship “Amazon” on 4 June 1863. George Q Cannon dedicated the ship which was entirely of Saints (880+) headed for Zion. It was this same ship that Charles Dickens wrote that the Mormons were not taking misfits and scoundrels, but the “pick and flower” of England. George Sutherland, future U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was also on this ship. Here is a link to the story by Charles Dickens: The Uncommercial Traveller. The LDS church also tells of the story that day at this link: Amazon Departure. The ship sailed to Liverpool before heading out for the United States. Elijah Larkin, who would help found Larkin Mortuary, noted that on the 16th and 20th of June, Thomas Stoker was administered to due to a sickness.
Amazon emigration fund ledger — William Stoker (saddler) with Thomas (13), Alice (10), Janet (5), Alfred (3), and Mary A (infant)
The “Amazon” docked at Castle Gardens, New York on 18 July 1863. The Saints from there took rail to Albany, New York and then to Florence, Douglas, Nebraska through Detroit, Wayne, Michigan. From Florence they made their way by wagon train on to Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, arriving 3 and 4 October 1863 (depending on which of the two companies), just in time for General Conference. Several of the company wrote of Brigham Young coming out to greet them and giving them advice.
William moved to Ogden, Weber, Utah and set up shop working with leather. William remarried to Eliza Sinfield in Ogden 18 May 1864. While Mary Ann is listed as a child for William and Eliza on the 1870 Census, she was actually living with George Augustus and Victoreen Jane Dix Musgrave. She is listed with their family on the 1870 Census as well. Additionally, the other children from this first marriage were also being raised by other families. Family lore indicates that William and Eliza could not afford to raise these older children and farmed them out to families that could afford to take care of them. Other evidence points that they were not all that poor. Here are three of the sisters later in life. They still maintained their relationship despite being raised by separate families.
l-r: Mary Ann Stoker Sharp, Jeanette Stoker Rogers, Henrietta Stoker Weston
George Augustus Musgrave was born 22 October 1833 in Clerkenwell, London, the son of George Augustus Musgrave Sr. and Georgina Louisa Wheatley. He married Victoreen Jane Dix in St Pancras on 18 February 1855, and the two joined the LDS Church and emigrated to Utah in 1857, several years ahead of the Stoker family. Unable to have children of their own, they welcomed Mary Ann into their home. Victoreen was herself an adopted child. After George’s passing, she remarried to George’s brother, Thomas Henry Musgrave, also a resident of Plain City. Lillie later helped care for Thomas and Victoreen in their old age, repaying a debt of love within her adoptive family. George died 12 November 1903 in Plain City; Victoreen in 1921, Thomas also in 1921. You can read more of the Musgrave family’s role as the first teachers and choir leaders of Plain City in the History of Plain City.
Victoreen Dix Musgrave
While Mary Ann was raised by George and Victoreen Musgrave, she knew who her real father was, but had few, if any, childhood memories of him. George Musgrave was a school teacher and musician in Plain City. Although not formally adopted, George and Victoreen called her Lillian Musgrave, and she went by Lillie the rest of her life, taking the Musgrave as her middle name after she married. Her son Austin lists his mother’s name as Lillee Musgrave.
Victoreen Dix Musgrave and her second husband, Thomas Henry Musgrave
George and Victoreen knew music and taught school. Naturally, Lillie was taught the same. She ended up participating in the second dramatic association in Plain City. Some of their shows put on were, “Mistletoe Bough,” “Mickle Earl,” “Maniac Lover,” “Fruits of the Wind Cup,” “Streets of New York,” “The Two Galley Slaves,” “The Rough Diamond,” “Earnest Mall Travers,” and “Ten Knights in a Bar Room.”
All was not well in Zion during these years in Plain City. Family lore has it that when a Bishop (Lewis Shurtleff, Branch President 1870–1877, Bishop 1877–1883) extended himself beyond what the members felt was right, these families made sure it was known. The final straw came when Bishop Shurtleff started telling the members what they would give as tithing. These were not just fringe members, but good standing members of the church in the area. William Sharp (Lillie’s future father-in-law), the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Cartwright Sharp, began construction on St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1877 for many of these disaffected members. The building still stands today now owned by the Lions Club in Plain City. For whatever reason a significant group of members were excommunicated between 1877 and 1882. Many of Plain City’s leading members were excommunicated. Excommunicated on 31 January 1879 were William Sharp (the same who built the new church), Mary Ann Sharp (William’s ex-wife, divorced 19 May 1876, Lillie’s future mother-in-law), William Skeen, Edwin Dix, George Musgrave (Lillie’s adopted father), Thomas Musgrave, Thomas Singleton, Thomas Davis, George W Harris, Jonathan Moyes, John Moyes, Winfield Spiers, James Wadman, Robert Davis, John Davis, and Thomas Robson. These lists also have “and wife” as well as “and family” which seems to indicate that this list may have included spouses and families. Mary Ann Sharp (Lillie’s future mother-in-law) is the only woman listed separately, perhaps because with the recent divorce she was not represented by William. Many of these families returned to the church, some took generations, some never did.
While Lillie’s name is not on the list, she was probably classified with the Musgrave family. We do not have any record of her baptism, but she was with the Musgrave family attending the newly established St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Although it seems Victoreen Musgrave was excommunicated, she continued active with LDS Relief Society (or she was not excommunicated). It was during this time that Lillie came to fall in love with Milo Riley Sharp. William Sharp, with the assistance of Milo, had also helped build the Musgrave’s new home. In St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, James Lee Gillogly married Milo and Lillie on 11 May 1879.
Milo Riley Sharp was born 23 July 1857 in Lehi, Utah, Utah. He was the fourth of six children born to William Sharp (1826–1900) and Mary Ann Bailey Sharp (1828–1913), English converts to the church. William is son of Thomas and Elizabeth Cartwright Sharp of Misson, Nottinghamshire, England. Mary Ann had a child, Lorenzo Padley, from a previous marriage in which she was widowed. William and Mary Ann Sharp immigrated to Utah in 1853 after joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1848 and 1846 respectively. At first they were sent to Lehi but had a number of issues with range for the cattle and other minor squabbles. Water was also not found to be very dependable in the Lehi area. William learned of land near Ogden that was going to be opened up from some of the Saints passing through Lehi (abandoning Salt Lake City before the arrival of Johnston’s Army). These Lehi Saints were told of ample land and good water that was available west of Ogden. A scouting expedition went to search out the area in the fall of 1858 and visited with Lorin Farr who told them of the available plain to the west.
The Sharp family left with other Lehi Saints on 10 March 1859 to travel to this new area. The group arrived 17 March 1859 at what is present day Plain City. William Sharp put his carpentry and masonry skills to work making adobe brick and helping build the first homes in Plain City. In one of these first adobe brick homes is where Milo Riley grew up. William served in the Plain City band, the Plain City Z.C.M.I. board, as a builder, and as a city leader. Milo’s little sister Evelyn is claimed to be the first white girl born in Plain City in October 1859.
Milo’s mother, Mary Ann Bailey Sharp, moved out on Christmas Eve 1875 and refused to go back to William. William sued for divorce and Franklin D. Richards granted the divorce (in probate court) on 19 May 1876.
Milo Riley Sharp as a young man
Milo kept busy working with his father building homes and other masonry and carpentry work. He also had time to play first base on Plain City’s first baseball team. The team could beat all the other northern Utah teams except Salt Lake. He was elected a school trustee in 1897, alongside S. P. Draney.
The marriage of Milo and Lillie eventually produced a quiver of 12 children. Milo Ray was born 29 February 1880 and died 14 November 1946 in Ogden. George was born 2 August 1881 and passed the same day. Effie was born 6 June 1882 and died 6 September 1883. Delwin arrived 30 June 1884 and died 27 May 1969, having lived his whole life in Plain City. Ernest and Austin, twins, came 7 January 1886. Ernest contracted infantile paralysis as a small child; it left him crippled his whole life, and he never married, living with his mother and then remaining in the family home until his death 30 April 1967. Austin married Martha Hazel Howard and eventually settled in Prosser, Washington, where he died 26 August 1954. Edward William appeared 25 October 1887, married Lillie Elva East, and died 24 August 1962 in Othello, Washington. Victorine showed 23 November 1889 and married Fredrick Lawrence Hunt; she died 27 August 1987. Mary Irene materialized 26 June 1892 and married Oscar “Os” Child Richardson; she was the first of the twelve children to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in her own lifetime, being baptized in October 1931, and she died 11 September 1990. Edith dawned 4 February 1895, married Clements Richard Martin on her twentieth birthday; she died 15 September 1979 in California. Ethel was born 9 April 1898 and I have written of her before; she died 6 August 1925 in Ogden. Ethel is my great-grandmother. Emily appeared 5 April 1900 and quickly passed 31 July 1900. Nine of the children lived to adulthood and eight of those married.
Milo built a new home for the family early on so the family had room to grow. He added to it as more room was needed as you can see in this photo. We do not know the year it was originally built, but we know the children after 1888 were born in this home. The home’s address is 2897 North 4200 West in Plain City. Before Milo died, he sold the farm and that home to his son Austin, and built a smaller brick home on a lot just south of the farm for himself and Lillie.
Milo and Lilly Sharp, Ethel, and Archie and Roy Richardson about 1912
Milo successfully farmed all of these years. He kept busy with civic affairs. He was elected constable of Plain City on the Republican ticket in 1891. In 1893, he sat on a committee to investigate the incorporating of Plain City, although it was not incorporated until 1944 with grandson William Albert Sharp serving on the town board. Milo and Lillie were singers and continued to play in the Plain City bands. Lillie was also well-known for her poetry — I have shared a few of her poems, including Wash Day, Home Coming, and Old Folks Day. In 1911, Milo finished building the new home pictured below (address is 2771 North 4200 West in Plain City). Milo farmed hard until he caught influenza and eventually pneumonia, passing away at the early age of 59 at 9:30 a.m. 24 June 1916 at his sister’s home, Victorine Maw, who lived at 5 Warren Court in Ogden. His funeral was held in the little church he helped his father build, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, on 27 June 1916.
Lillie lived in this home for the rest of her life. Her son Ernest, who had lived with a disability since contracting infantile paralysis as a child, helped take care of her and lived the rest of his life in the home, dying there in 1967. Milo James Ross, Lillie’s grandson, purchased the home at that time and later transferred it to his daughter Caroline.
Lillie kept a clean home. The grandsons were taught to stop by every time they passed, especially to and from school. This permitted dishes to be washed, wood to be hauled, and wood to be split. Lillie had a strict regimen for cleaning pots, dishes, and pans (especially bedpans). This included the outdoor pump station, even with lye to remove odors. The boys knew to take special care not to make a mess when carrying firewood or in any other way on entering the home. The gate was always to be closed, whether coming or going. While this might seem stern, she always opened the door for those coming and going and gave them a warm smile. My own grandfather, Milo James Ross, spoke fondly of these visits, of helping put the hooks through her shoe-lace holes, of pulling her girdle strings tight, and of the hearing horn she used in her last years, which he liked to tease her about. Lillie’s granddaughters had their own weekly errand, walking half a mile with a little jar of milk skimmed off the butter, trading it for the previous week’s empty jar with two pennies tucked inside, then running another half mile into town to spend them on all-day suckers.
Mary Ann Stoker Sharp
Lillie often made bread, keeping her own live yeast, often from warm potato water. She had her own milk separator and used it. The boys helped make butter and she treated them to buttermilk and warm bread. She would also warm apples in the oven to share, or dried fruit. She kept a full root cellar with homemade cured meats, dried fruits, and bottled vegetables. The Sharp family had onions that could be used to flavor soups and other needs. Many of the family still grow these onions even today. Many mushrooms and watercress were gathered too.
Lillie often had kind words and a warm, gracious smile. She kept a small table in the pantry where she brushed her teeth with salt, baking soda, and a bar of soap. The bucket was always there with a drinking cup and a ladle to draw water. Her granddaughter Ruth Sharp Draper, who knew her well in those later years, remembered her as small — about 4 feet 10 inches, with black hair and dark eyes, wearing her hair in a roll on top of her head. Other family accounts describe her as thin and tall. I cannot say with certainty which description is more accurate; she was known to different grandchildren across different decades of her life. She wore long dresses from her neck to her feet with shoes that went up about six inches. If she was not thin enough, she wore a corset to make her look even smaller. She was very neat and proud in her appearance.
She kept a spinning wheel in the home for the times when she would spin wool into thread. She also had the grandsons help turn her mattress from time to time. She did not leave the house much in her later years unless she had a ride, but even then did not stay long before going home. It was clear she enjoyed watching her grandchildren. The last decade or so of her life, she had to use a hearing tube to hear. Some of her grandchildren joked that it was like using the telephone, just you could see who was on the other end. Ruth Draper recalled her father Milo Ray sometimes taking Lillie to get fitted with a hearing aid, but they did not work for her.
Lillie could never stand to see an animal mistreated. It is said that some men were working on the road by their place with horses tied up all day without being unharnessed. She went and told them if they didn’t treat those horses better she would turn them in.
Lillie M. Sharp obituary, Ogden Standard, May 1935
Lillie passed at 10:55 p.m. at her daughter’s home, Victorine Hunt, on 6 May 1935 of hypertension with chronic major carditis and pneumonia. She had remained faithfully active in the Episcopal Church until she could not get around very much. Later in life she needed assistance as she could not walk very far. Her funeral was held in the Plain City LDS chapel with Rev. John W. Hyslop officiating on 9 May 1935. She was buried with Milo in the Plain City Cemetery.
Raymond Draper, Caroline Ross Gallegos, Milo Ross; Grave marker for Milo Riley Sharp, Lillie Musgrave/Mary Ann Stoker, Mary Ann Bailey Sharp in Plain City Cemetery
Returning to the Church
Mary Irene Sharp was the first of Milo and Lillie’s own children to return to the church in her own lifetime, baptized in October 1931. Victorine followed in September 1975, baptized at age 85. Lillie’s own proxy baptism and confirmation were completed 4 June 1970, alongside three of her Stoker siblings in a single family effort at Idaho Falls. She was endowed 1 July 1970 and sealed to her parents 8 September 1970. Milo Riley himself was baptized and confirmed by proxy 17 November 1976 and the next day endowed and sealed to Lillie.
The largest single gathering came on 27 June 1978 at the Ogden Utah Temple, when eight of Milo and Lillie’s twelve children, George, Effie, Ernest, Delwin, Austin, Edward William, Ethel, and Emily, were all sealed to their parents in a single visit. My own grandfather, Milo James Ross, was present that day, watching his mother Ethel’s temple work completed more than fifty years after her death. He was sealed to Ethel and Jack Ross himself on 8 February 1980, the same day his parents were sealed to each other. The work continues today.
I thought it would be important to share the story of one of the ships that traveled to America in 1863. Among the millions of family history records preserved of the LDS western migration is an entry for one family among the thousands who sailed for Zion that year.
William Stoker and children: Thomas Alice Janet Alfred Mary A. Sailed on the Amazon.
On 4 June 1863, the Amazon, a packet ship departed London with 895 Latter-day Saint emigrants, the 126 Company. William Edward Stoker, a journeyman saddler born in Crateford, Staffordshire, England, was 36 years old. His wife, Emma Eames Stoker, had died of tuberculosis just five weeks earlier, on 28 April 1863, at their home at 18 Alfred Street, St. Mary’s Parish, Reading, Berkshire. Their youngest child, Mary Ann, had been born on 24 February 1863. Emma had lived only two months after her daughter’s birth. William boarded the Amazon as a widower with five children, the youngest not yet four months old.
William Edward Stoker
That infant, Mary Ann Stoker, later raised by an adopted family and known all her life as Lillie, grew up in Utah. She was raised by George and Victorine Musgrave of Plain City, and married Milo Riley Sharp on 11 May 1879 in the Episcopal Church in Plain City, Weber County, Utah. She is my 2nd great grandmother. William Edward Stoker is my 3rd great grandfather.
The Voyage
The Millennial Star, the official publication of the LDS Church’s British Mission, reported the Amazon’s departure as follows:
“The splendid packet ship “Amazon,” Captain H.K. Hevey, sailed from London, England June 4, 1863, with a company of 895 souls of Saints on board, under the presidency of Elder Wm. Bramwell, who acted with Elder Edward L. Sloan and Richard Palmer as counselors.
“On the 3rd the company passed the government emigration officer, who eulogized the order and general appearance of the emigrants. After this President George Q. Cannon, accompanied by other Elders from various parts of the British Mission, held a meeting in which the organization took place the officers of the ship. The cabin passengers and visitors on board listened with marked attention. A brass band from South Wales, the performers being members of the Church on their way to Zion on the “Amazon,” discoursed sweet music on the poop deck before and after the meeting. The Presidency having been appointed and Elder Wm. McLachlin nominated as clerk, President Cannon dedicated the ship.
“It is worth of note that the departure of the ship “Amazon” from London laden with Saints is another instance of the fulfillment, in some years ago, while Elder Eli B. Kelsey was laboring in London, he predicted in a public meeting in that city that the ships should yet leave that port filled with Saints emigrating to Zion. It was with no intention of bringing about the fulfillment of the prophecy that we chartered the “Amazon,” for we were entirely ignorant of the utterance of such a prediction until we heard it stated at a meeting of the Saints held on Sunday the first instructions three days before she sailed. Indeed the chartering of this vessel was not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We could not obtain a vessel in the port of Liverpool suitable to our purpose — vessels of this description being almost unprecedentedly scarce this spring, and we were therefore compelled to go to London. Thus were the circumstances over ruled to bring to pass the word of a servant of God.
“Of the Elders who sailed on the “Amazon” four were Utah Elders, namely Wm. Bramwell, Richard Palmer, Edward P. Edwards and A.W. Van Der Moulde. Among the Elders who emigrated to Zion as passengers were Edward L. Sloan, Thomas Crawley, John Berrett and Joseph Morgan.
“Before sailing from Liverpool the company was fully organized. The emigrants were divided into fifteen wards under the supervision of the following officers: 1— John Wells; 2— James Poulton; 3— Joseph Wilson; 4— A. Cox; 5— J. Kimber; 6— S. Liddiard; 7— S. Evans; 8— D. Williams; 9— A. Sutherland; 10— W. Fowler; 11— W. Van Der Moulde; 12— J.W. Morgan; 13— J. Berrett; 15— E.T. Edwards. E. Larkin was appointed Sergeant of the Guard and George Braithwaite, lamp lighter and trimmer.
The Ship and Its Passengers
George Q. Cannon, who dedicated the Amazon before departure, was at the time president of the British Mission. He would later serve as a counselor in the First Presidency under four Church presidents, one of the most influential figures in nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint history. His presence at the ship’s dedication was a mark of the importance the Church placed on the emigration program.
The Amazon carried some remarkable passengers. George Sutherland, later an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, appointed by President Warren G. Harding in 1922, was among the emigrants. George William Larkin also traveled with the company; after arriving in Utah he was appointed by Brigham Young to oversee the Ogden cemetery, and in 1885 he began the family tradition that grew into Larkin Mortuary. Also aboard was Elijah Larkin, whose journal notes that on 16 and 20 June, Thomas Stoker, William’s eldest son, then thirteen years old, was administered to because of a sickness since leaving Liverpool.
The Amazon’s departure also caught the attention of Charles Dickens, who visited the ship before it sailed and wrote of the Mormon emigrants in his essay collection The Uncommercial Traveller. Dickens had expected to find the kind of misfit and desperate crowds he associated with emigrant ships, instead he found something that surprised him entirely. He described the Mormon emigrants not as misfits and scoundrels but as the “pick and flower” of England, orderly, healthy, purposeful people. William Stoker and his five children, traveling in grief just weeks after Emma’s death, were among those Dickens observed.
Stoker Sisters — l-r: Mary Ann Stoker Sharp, Jeanette Stoker Rogers, Henrietta Stoker Weston. Three of the five children who sailed on the Amazon.
The Journey West
The Amazon landed at Castle Gardens, New York, on 18 July 1863. From there the company traveled by rail to Albany, then through Detroit to Florence, Nebraska — the traditional jumping-off point for the overland journey to Utah. From Florence they traveled by wagon the remaining distance across the plains.
The company arrived in Salt Lake City on 3 and 4 October 1863 — just in time for General Conference. Several members of the company recorded that Brigham Young came out to greet them and offer counsel. The journey from London had taken exactly four months.
William moved almost immediately to Ogden, Weber County, Utah, where he set up his leather and saddlery trade. He remarried Eliza Sinfield in Ogden on 18 May 1864. The five children from his first marriage were distributed among other Plain City families. Mary Ann with George and Victorine Musgrave, who called her Lillian/Lillie and raised her as their own. It is through the Musgraves that she came to know the Sharp family, and through that connection to Plain City’s Episcopal congregation that she met Milo Riley Sharp.
Mary Ann Stoker Sharp
William, Mary Ann, and their overland journey through Devil’s Gate and Independence Rock are part of the larger story I told in Casper Wyoming Temple Open House — where I counted ten of my own ancestors who crossed the Mormon Trail through that same ground. William Edward Stoker and infant Mary Ann were among them.
For the full story of the Stoker family — William and Emma, the five children, and what became of each of them — see Stoker-Eames Wedding. For Lilly’s life in Plain City and her marriage to Milo Riley Sharp, see Sharp-Stoker Wedding. For Emma’s brother Thomas and the Eames family in Alperton, Middlesex, see T. Eames Grocery and Provision Store.
Milo Ross in front of John Carver Cabin, Plain City, Utah
Here is a photo that Grandpa shared regularly. He was pleased to have helped with the restoration of the John Carver home in Plain City, Weber, Utah. As you can see, he also liked to write notes on photos and things to preserve his thoughts. “Milo J. Ross, Number 1 Shop, P. Calvert. Harold Carver family – money. First Ward. Restored Carver Log Home – President Calvert Plain City. Thanks to Milo Ross and Harold Carver family – Money. Milo did the carpenter work free – and supplied also.”
It was a great source of pride that he helped restore this cabin and preserve part of Plain City’s history for future generations. It had the canopy over it before and obviously another was put up. I am not sure if it went without a canopy for a while, or if this photo was just taken before it was reinstalled.
I could not really find anything on the cabin otherwise. I found this website that has photos.
1959 Article on John Carver Cabin
John Carver was born 6 August 1822 in Clifford, Herefordshire, England. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1842, immigrated in 1850. He met and married Mary Ann Eames on the ship, marrying 10 March 1850 on the Atlantic Ocean. He had a farm at Kay’s Creek which he gave up when he moved to Plain City in the fall of 1859 (according to Plain City history). John built this cabin in 1860.
2018 photo by Jacob Barlow of John Carver cabin
John died 11 January 1912 in Plain City and was buried on the 14th in Plain City. Mary Ann died 18 June 1870 in Plain City. John took another wife, Rachel Fredrica Tellefsen, in 1864. He took another wife, Sarah Ann Eames, in 1871. Rachel died in 1903 in Plain City, Sarah died in 1909 in Eden, Weber, Utah.
Daughters of the Utah Pioneers plague on John Carver cabin in Plain City, Utah
John had 10 children with Mary, 5 children with Rachel, and 7 children with Sarah.
Note by Milo Ross regarding the Carver Cabin
Little framed box Grandpa put together with nails from the cabin roof.
October 3, 1983
Milo Ross is repairing Daughters of Pioneers Log Cabin by our church. These are nails out of the boards the Pioneers used to make the roof on the Log Cabin.
I was trying to find some photos and stumbled upon my Mom’s graduation pamphlet I had scanned a few years ago. Thought maybe it was time to share it, especially where I have seen some of her classmates have passed away recently.
1972 Baccalaureate and Commencement – Burley High School – Burley Idaho
These programs courtesy of the following Public Spirited Business Concerns
Amalgamated Sugar Co.
Burley Processing Co.
Burley Reminder
Cassia National Bank
First Federal Savings & Loan Assn., Burley Branch
First Security Bank
Guys ‘N Dolls
Idaho Bank & Trust Co.
Idaho First National Bank Burley Office
McCaslins
Ponderosa Inn
J. R. Simplot Food Processing Division
South Idaho Press
Class Officers
President Garth Beck
Vice President Bud Hoffbuhr
Secretary Jill Hinz
Executives Peggy Wood, Peggy Larson, Kaye Dawn Larson, Jeananne Gruwell, Jean Graham
Class Adviser Mr. David Peck
Baccalaureate Sunday, May 21, 1972 2:30 P.M.
Mr. Tom Gruwell , Principal, Presiding
Processional High School Band Mike Chesley, Conducting
Welcome Garth Beck Class President
Invocation Bud Hoffbuhr
Special Number Bel Canto Choir Elden Wood, Conducting “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
Address Dr. Walter R. Peterson
Cherubim Song Senior Octet
Benediction Calvin Pearson
Recessional High School Band
Commencement Monday, May 22, 1972 8:00 P.M.
Mr. Tom Gruwell, Principal, Presiding
THEME: “I Dream Dreams that Never Were and I Ask, Why Not” – George Bernard Shaw
Processional – High School Band – Mike Chesley, Conducting
Invocation – Connie Smith
Welcome Address – Garth Beck, Class President
Greetings from Austria – Marianne Koch – Exchange Student
“Man and His World” – Senior Choir
Valedictorian – Julieann Kerbs
Trombone Solo – Doug Nichols
Salutatorian – Edi Lou King
“The Halls of Ivy” – Senior Sextet
Presentation of Diplomas – Mr. Norval Wildman, Mr. Albert Klink, Mr. Dave Peck, Mr. Tom Gruwell
Class Song “Crescent Moon” – Class of ’72 – Gwen Bowen, Conducting
Benediction – Wayne Johnson
Recessional – High School Band
Adams, David Ratelle
Allen, Kathryn Marie
Allred, Anthony Jon
Allred, Howard Lynn
Amen, Joanne Marie
Andersen, Debra
Anderson, Roxanne
Anderson, Jerald DeLayne (1954 – 2017)
Anderson, Jay S
Anderson, Todd Michael (1953 – 1972)
Angus, Joyce Ann
Baker, Cheryl
Baker, Rell Dean
Banner, Marc
Barkdull, Marlene
Bewan, Lynnette
Beard, Patrick Scott
* Beck, Garth Warren (1953 – 2002)
Beck, Reid Belliston
Beckham, George Benjamin
Bedke, Douglas Herman
Bell, Larry W
Bench, Michael R
Berkenmeier, JoAnn
Bishop, Gregory Lynn
Black, Don Reid
Bodily, Ted O (1954 – 2019)
Bowcut, Bruce V
Bowen, Gwen
Bowers, Gloria
Bradshaw, Bill A Jr
Breeding, SHelly Marie
Briggs, Larry
Brill, Russel Dean
Brown, Julieann
Burgi, Lysene (1953 – 2016)
Burton, Arlen Lynn (1954 – 2014)
Call, Milo Jay
Campbell, Debra “Debbie” Kay (1954 – 2019) Johnson
Cargill, Elwin Verl II
Carey, Mirian June
Castillo, Yolanda Hernandez
Christian, Debbie Lynn
Clark, Bradley Hales
Clark, Antone “Tony” Lee (1954 -2015)
Coleman, Rick Lynn
* Crane, RoZann
Cunnington, Gaylene
Darrington, Jerilyn
Davids, Michael Lynn (1953 – 2020)
Davis, Donna Emily
Day, Debra E
Dayley, LaNae
Dayley, Lee K
Delaney, William W
Dille, LuRene
Draney, Rex Leonard (1953 – 2007)
Duncan, Rocky Gale (1954 – 2020)
Dunn, Rodney K
Dunn, Roger
** Eames, Lou Ann
Eldredge, Debbie
Farwell, Albert Michael (1952 – 2023)
Fairchild, Aleta Ann
Fenton, Wayne J
Ferlic, Beth Anne
Ferlic, Robert James
Filger, Thomas W
Fillmore, Louise
Fletcher, William Kent
Forschler, Laura Lynn
Forschler, Melody
Frazier, Lon Mitchell
Frost, Verlynn
Funk, Barbara Elaine
Gallegos, Linda K
Garcia, Don J
Garrard, Vickie Lynn
Goodwin, Irene Cecilia
Goold, Gary
Graf, Becky Ann (1954 – 2011) Moats, Kloer
Grafft, Duane Brian (1953 – 2006)
Graham, Jean
Green, Michael Dan
** Green, Sharon
Gregersen, Denice
Gruwell, Jeananne
Guiles, Randy Andrew (1953 – 2015)
Gunnell, Brent Udell
Hanks, Gary Thomas
** Hansen, Rae
Hansen, Sondra
Harper, Leslie C
Hatch, Karol (1953 – 2004) Kerr
Haycock, Con D
Hazel, Stanley Jarvis (1953 – 2008)
Heiner, Paula Jean
Hepworth, Linda
Hess, Steven Lerlan
Heward, William Alex
Hill, Michael Gordon
Hinz, Jill Marie
Hinz, Kathleen Ann
Hobson, Sheryl
Hoffbuhr, Vernard “Bud” Standley Jr (1954 – 1997)
Holm, Steve D
* Holmes, Thomas J
Holt, Phillip L
Holyoak, Kenneth Reid
Hunt, Timothy Lynn
Hunter, Richard A
Jackson, Kelly Ann
Johnson, Becky A
Johnson, Jack Wesley
Johnson, Mary Beth
Johnson, Wayne Richard (1953 – 2008)
Jolley, Patricia
Jonas, Sandy (1954 – alive)
Jones, Steven
Judd, Rockland K (1953 – 2012)
Karlson, Kerry
Kawamoto, Becky
Keen, George E
Keen, Vickie Rae Funk
Kelly, Pat
** Kerbs, Julieann
Kidd, Cory Vaughn
** King, Edith Louise
King, Gary
Knight, Robin Daniel (1953 – 2014)
Kober, Glen R
Koch, Marianne
Koyle, Garth H
Koyle, Shanna
Kunau, Nancy Rae
* Lamb, DeEsta Marie
Larsen, Brent
* Larsen, Scott William
Larsen, Vickie Esther
Larson, Vickey Irene
Larson, Kaye Dawn (1954 – 2019) Silcock
Larson, Peggy (1954 – 2016) Stirland
Lee, Roxanne
Lopez, Manuel Campbell
Loveland, Cynthia (1954 – 1981)
Loveland, Kevin R (1954 – 2008)
Lynch, Gary D
McBride, Anita Marie
McMurray, Susan Mary
* Mackley, Sally Irene
Mai, Kelly
Malloy, Michael John
Manning, Roger D
Marston, Della Kathleen
Martin, Gregory Max (1954 – 1975)
Martin, Stephanie Lyn
Martin, Stephen William
Maselter, Denise Ann (1954 – 2022) Rollins
Matthews, Ennis Eugene
Merrill, Kaye Ellen
Miller, John Edward
Moore, Debra Lynn (1954 – 2002)
Moorman, David Edgar (1953 – 1997)
Navejar, Oscar
Newcomb, Kathy Lorene (1954 – 2020) Bailey
Nichols, Doulgas Arthur
Nielson, Alice Ann
Nielson, Allan (1954 – 2020)
Obermiller, Cynthia Jean
Olsen, Ricky Ross
Olson, Donna Gaye
Ostrander, Diane Kay
Ostrander, Greg
Osterhout, Rex Dale (1954 – 2017)
Otte, Royce Oliver
Page, Linda Marion
Patteron, Peggy Ann
* Pearson, Calvin H
Peterson, Edith Victoria
Pitchford, Debra Faye
Poulton, William Arthur
Powell, Leslie Dean (1953 – 2005)
Priest, Roger Kirk
Ramirez, Adelita
Ramsey, Glenn Douglas
Randall, Steven Grant
Redder, Karen Lea
Reedy, Pamela Hannah
Rehn, Scott Leonard (1954 – 1994)
Rendla, Gary M
Rich, Diane S
Richardson, LuAnn
Rickert, Janice Norene
Ritchie, Neil B
Roberts, Kelly Jo
Robinson, Beth
Ross, Norman Clyde
Russell, Patricia B
Sager, Kent Leslie
Sandmann, Michael Remund
Schorzman, Anne
Severe, Rhonda
Short, David G
Silcock, Richard Donald
Simcoe, Steve Bryan
Sivley, Mary
Smith, Connie Sue
Sowers, Bill A
Spann, Debora
Stephenson, Julia
Taylor, David A (1953 – 2009)
Taylor, Russell Price (? – alive)
Thaxton, Stephen Craig
Thompson, Carlene Diane
Thornburg, Deborah
Telley, Marsha Ann
Tolle, Kent Ray
* Tollefson, Kathryn M
Tracy, Perry Alan (1953 – 2005)
Vannatian, Frances Ruby
Vorwaller, Kristine
Wardle, Diane
Wardle, Pamela Kaye
Warr, Dee Ann (1954 – 2013)
Warr, Paul K
** Weirich, Yvonne Denese
West, Monte M
Wetzstein, Lynette Kay
White, Kristine
Whittle, Ferol Kristine
Wickel, Lee Roy
* Winward, Brenda Arlene
Wolf, Richard Patrick
Wood, Peggy Ann
Woodland, Kirk
Woolstenhulme, Steven Leo
Worman, Barbara Ann
Wright, Edward R
Wyant, Ronald Lee
Wyatt, Marla Jean
Young, Richard LeRoy (1953 – 2022)
Zollinger Janene
National Honor Society Members
** Gold Cord – with 3.8 average or above
* Blue Cords – with 3.5 average to 3.8
The sketch of the Burley High School on the front of the Diploma case.
Sandy Jonas Burley High School Diploma
Mom’s actual Diploma.
Burley High School – Burley, Idaho
This Certifies That Sandy Jonas has satisfactorily completed a Course of Study prescribed for Graduation from this School and is therefore awarded this Diploma.
Given in the month of May, nineteen hundred and seventy-two
I have two copies of the History of Plain City, Utah. The front indicates it is from March 17th 1859 to present. As far as I can tell, the book was written in 1977. At least that is the latest date I can find in the book.
One copy belonged to my Grandparents Milo and Gladys Ross. My Grandpa has written various notes inside the history which I intend to include in parenthesis whenever they appear. They add to the history and come from his own experience and hearing.
I will only do a number of pages at a time. I will also try to include scanned copies of the photos in the books. These are just scanned copies of these books, I have not tried to seek out originals or better copies.
History of Plain City March 17th 1859 to present, pages 44 through 57.
THE LIFE STORY OF MARY ANN CARVER GEDDES
SUBMITTED BY HER GRANDDAUGHTER
SELMA GEDDES SUMMERS
“SAND IN HER SHOES”
This is a task I have always wanted to do yet now I sit down to write the facts of my Grandmother’s life, I feel quite inadequate to do justice to her story.
There are some things about her life that even she has forgotten. There are other things I am sure she would ask me not to write just now. There are many things that should be written but that are difficult to put into this account. I will do then the best I can from my memory of her stories and from accounts written by others who have seen fit to write of her life.
“It’s a good world, but it takes a lot of grit to get along in it. Sometimes you just have to put a little sand in your shoes.”
Have you ever had Aunt Min tell you this? Then you are one of the lucky ones, for that means you are one of the lucky ones whose paths has crossed the path of a woman whose influenced must have made you a little better.
Perhaps you were fortunate enough to spend some time in her friendly old kitchen. Were you tired when you came, or blue, or a little discouraged? Even the sight of the old adobe house with its trim neat lawns and bright flowers must have mad you feel a little better and when her white head appeared (it’s been white so long) and both hands were stretched out to greet you, whatever burden you were bearing must have felt a little lighter. And while you were rested or unburdened yourself, Aunt Min bustled about and soon you found yourself sitting at a table loaded down with large pink slices of the most delicious ham you ever tested, tiny new potatoes cooked in milk with sprinkles of parsley and crusty slices of bread fresh from the oven and juicy thick wedges of black currant pie. One’s troubles are never as bad when the stomach is full she often said. And then she listened if you wanted to talk or she told you of experiences that were similar to yours that would help solve your own problems, then she told you of God and you left with a loaf of warm bread under the other, knowing that truly you been helped by a good woman.
And when you had gone, more than likely, she out her old blue sun bonnet on her white head, tied a bucket round her waist and went out into the hot sun to pick more currants and strawberries or apples, so that the next time you came she would be ready for you.
This remarkable woman was born on October 2, 1857, in Kaysville, Davis County, a daughter of John and Mary Ann Eames Carver. Her parents were deeply religious who left England and came to America because of love of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Her only recollection of her Kaysville home was her nightly prayer when she asked God to bless “the Weavers, the Carvers, and stubby legged Jones.”
When she was two years old, the family moved to Plain City. Here they lived in a dirt cellar furnished with furniture made by the father’s own hands—table, beds and even a little chair for little Minnie. The cupboards were a ledge dug in the dirt wall. At the side of a four-poster bed made of posts set upright and rawhide strips crosswise to support the tick was Minnies bed. Two poles placed horizontally one end resting on edge of Mother’s bed, one end driven in the dirt wall and rawhide strips on which the straw tick was placed. The blue and white calico valance was quite stylish as it hung in folds from the high posts and hid the boys’ trundle bed which was pulled out at night and hidden in the daytime.
She loves to tell the stories of her childhood, especially those she remembers of a beloved mother who passed away far too young. She tells of how her mother reared in England by parents who were considered in those days to be financially fairly well off, had the grit and determination to make a good life for her husband and children out in the wilderness. She likes to tell how her mother sold her beautiful dresses that she had brought from England to obtain food for her children and how her mother crawled to the cabin door to milk a cow to obtain milk for her children when she had a new baby, when the father had been delayed. Yet one of the strongest recollections in her life was the suffering of her mother during frequent child birth and it was one of the things which influenced her entire life.
Her early girlhood was spent much as all pioneer children. She helped make soap, starch, candles, she learned to spin cord and knit besides there was milking, churning, sewing, shoe making and cooking to be done. Most of the water was carried from the spring below the hill, but sometimes she would carry water from the well driven by Thomas Singleton because it made better tea than the spring water.
With the other children she helped gather greasewood for soap because ashes from this bush had more lye content that sagebrush.
From Aunt Rachel, her father’s second wife, she learned much of knitting and crocheting. Years later her children and many of her grandchildren’s clothes were made prettier and fancier by her spinner – it was always lumpy, but she knit her own stockings when she was ten years old. Her first crochet hook was made from the hard inner core of sagebrush, scraped with a piece of glass. Lucky too are her children and grandchildren who own one of the beautiful hand made quilts she has made.
Along with the other children she went to school under Mr. McQuire and took turns with what few books and smooth boards to write on that were available. In the winter there were shoes to wear made from leather from hides her father took to worn, but in the summer she and her brothers ad sisters went barefoot to save the shoes.
Her first pair of button shoes were purchased at a store owned by Jappa Folkman. It was in an adobe house that has since been destroyed. It was there too she tasted her first piece of peppermint candy which Mr. Folkman broke up and passed around for all to taste.
Some of her earliest recollections are of the days when the railroad first came in 1869. The school children saw the smoke rising from the engine stationed at the Utah Hot Springs. They mad one bound out of school, ran across to the Hansen’s and stood upon a shed to get a better view. On the way back, Mr. McQuire waited at the door and as the children filed past each received a crack on the hand. Next day, however, school was dismissed so that all could go to the Springs and see this new wonder.
Another exciting event was the day the smoke could be seen at Promontory where the railroads met and the golden spike driven.
She also likes to tell how the grasshoppers came and she says, “sharpened their teeth on the fence at night to be ready in the morning”. The grasshoppers plague lasted for about seven years. She says, “We drove grasshoppers when they were little, we drove them when they were big—from morning until evening with the exception of a few hours during the middle of the day at which time hoppers would rise, circle about in the air with a humming sound much like the noise of the airplanes you now hear overhead. They were in such numbers they shadowed the sun making a shady spot on the ground below. At night the group would light on fences covering boards until it looked black with their bodies. The settlers tried to plant fruit trees and bushes, currants, gooseberries and such to replace the natural shade the hoppers destroyed but it seemed almost a losing battle. She remembers covering a lone strawberry plant almost ready to bear in the morning the grasshoppers had crawled under the pan and eaten the entire plant. Broken-hearted she went to her mother who told her not to worry, God would take care of things and sure enough He did, she says.
When she was 12 years of age her mother died, leaving John, George, Minnie, Willard, Joseph, Parley and Nancy. Nancy passed away when she was 11 years old with inflammation of the bowels or appendicitis. Although Aunt Rachel was very good to the children it seemed that her brothers turned more and more to sister Minnie and continued to do so all the days of her life and she has lived to see them all pass to their reward.
At 15 years of age, she began her public career as a teacher in the Sunday School. John Spires was the First Superintendent, Mr. Boothe Assistant. The Bible, Testament, 1st and 2nd Reader were the text books used. She remembers her Father going to Salt Lake to buy books. He took with him a big barrel of molasses, corn and wheat which had been donated by townspeople to be exchanged for books. She taught Sunday School from 1872 until 1879, teach Book of Mormon and Arithmetic.
In 1875 the M.I.A. was organized in Plain City and she was among its first members. By this time she was a lovely young lady of 18 years and she had a great dramatic talent. The best entertainment of the day was the dramas enacted by the young people and in these she always had a leading part. Her eyes still sparkle when she gives small excerpts from these old plays. Another popular form of entertainment was the band concerts and the young neighbor of the Carvers, William Geddes took a leading part in these, William was a steady quiet boy who paid court to her in great seriousness. But there were other young men who took sought her hand and it wasn’t until she was almost 20 years old she decided that William was the man to whom she wanted to entrust her life. She married him in August of 1877 and went to live in Salt Lake where her husband was working as a stone cutter on the L.D.S. temple. This was a special mission and the men who received their call from President Brigham Young were required to stay there and only return home on special occasions. Her husband became an expert stone cutter. It was particular work done with a chopping knife and dust blown away until the desired shape was obtained. Some of the balls on the outside of the temple were made by William Geddes.
It was in Salt Lake that her first baby Elizabeth was born and in a few short months died. This too was another experience that was to have a direct influence on the activities of her entire life. Because of her mother’s difficulties in child bearing and her own difficult time at Elizabeth’s birth, she was always and forever trying to find ways and means of helping at the time of birth. It became a common thing in Plain City to “run for Aunt Min when a new baby was coming to town.” How many times she helped at the coming of a new life would be impossible to estimate. It has been said that she helped at the birth of children in practically every family in Plain City.
She was familiar to all the early doctors of Ogden and they came to rely on her to such an extent that many times before a doctor would make the long trip to Plain City from Ogden with horse and buggy, they would instruct patients to have Aunt Min come and see if the services of a doctor was necessary and then if she said it was essential, the doctor came.
After a short time in Salt Lake, she returned to Plain City to the two room adobe house her husband had built for her and here she has spent nearly three quarters of a century. Her home was built on the spot which had once been the camping ground of an Indian tribe, but the Indians gave them very little trouble now.
In 1879 she became Secretary of the Y.L.M.I.A. She was editor of the paper known as the “Enterprise” which was read at Conjoint meetings. After this position she became First Counselor in the same organization. In 1906 she became Superintendent of the Religion Class for one year and then became President of the Plain City Relief Society from September 5, 1907 until December 2, 1911.
At this time the Relief Society was an organization which was primarily interested in taking care of the sick and those unable to do for themselves. Aunt Min was one of the first women to see in this organization an opportunity for women to, as she said “improve their minds and further their education that they could become better wives and mothers”, and she was one of those who were instrumental in planning and beginning classwork in Relief Society.
In 1911, she was released from the Presidency of the Relief Society that she might spend more time with her ailing father.
In February 1912, she became an aid in the Stake Board of the North Weber Stake which position she held for 12 years.
In 1882 her husband was called to fulfill a mission for the church in Scotland. She was happy that he had this opportunity to serve the church and she took care of their home and little family while he was gone in cheerfulness and love. He returned in 1884.
If there were hardship in her married life or moments of discouragement, never have you heard her speak of them. Nothing but words of deep devotion, love and respect for every member of the entire family have ever passed her lips.
Fiercely loyal she has been to every one who bears the Geddes name, yet her own family would be the first to tell you that if they needed correction or chastisement they need look no further than home to receive it, for she has been one to council and advice, instruct and scold if need be, every member of her family even down to the third generation. Wise has been her council and direction. Never has she discussed the problems or imperfections of any member of her family with any other member.
She has had an almost Christ-life virtue of seeing some good in the worst of us. Intensely religious herself, she was always tolerant when she sought to understand the other fellows point of view.
After the death of her husband in 1891 leaving her five children and another little soul on the way, her need for the grit and determination she was born with was greater than ever, for it was not easy for a woman to make a living for a family in those early days.
She did much hard work and early trained her children that it was by the sweat of the brow that there was bread to be eaten. More and more she turned to the kind of work for which she was a natural and it became a common sight on the dusty roads of Plain City to see Aunt Min—in summer a blue sun bonnet on her head, in winter a knitted shawl around her shoulders—tramping from one end of town to the other, tending the sick, the dying, and the new born. Usually under one arm was a loaf of fresh bread, in her hand a pot of warm gruel, in her apron —– from a hot water bottle to a bottle of Castro Oil. Down the middle of the dusty road she trotted to bring comfort and aid to those who needed her. Morning, noon, or the dead of night, cold or heat, snow or rain made no difference to her and Aunt min became and “Angel of Mercy” to a whole community.
She labored long and hard to get the money necessary for her children’s living yet money for moneys’ sake has never meant a thing to her. She was as proud of the home her husband built her as had it been Buckingham Palace. The new things her children brought her in her later life meant more to her for the thoughtfulness in their hearts than the convenience it meant to her. She gave of her means as freely as she gave of her times and talents.
She has always been an admirer of others life herself who could take adversity and make of it a triumph, and she has always had an open heart and in any moral or spiritual sickness as well as physical illness.
Her natural sunny disposition has been lightened by a ready wit and a quick tongue. As a girl she was vivacious and her quick wit is best described by a story she tells of a conversation between she and her husband. He once said to her, “Minnie—You’ll have to admit I’ve been a good husband to you, I’ve never said a cross word to you in my entire life”. And then she answered, “Well, I’ve been a better wife than you have a husband then, for I’ve had to say lots of cross words to you”.
Nearly a century of living has dimmed her eyes and slowed her feet, but for you who would still find the time from the hectic living of this day and age to sit at her feet for but a few moments, you would find that you came away from her more akin with the Lamb for didn’t He say Himself, “Even as ye have done it unto the least of Mine, Ye have done it unto Me.”
So pause for a moment and lend an ear for there is much you can learn from she who has lived with—
Sand in her shoes,
Healing in her hands,
Wisdom in her head and
The love of God in her heart.
Second log cabin built in Plain City. Built by John Carver Sr. Restored [have to search for Carver Cabin in 1997 history] by Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Plain City Camp.
Andrew Peter Poulsen one of the early settlers of Plain City, Utah was born June 12, 1842 at Ronne, Bornholm, Denmark. In his late twenties, he was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and with his brother Hans left their beautiful land of Denmark and came to Utah in 1869.
They worked on the railroad from the mouth of Weber Canyon to Ogden and then on west of Hot Springs and north to Promontory Point.
Late in the fall of 1869, Andrew married Sena Henson and their first home was a sod hut at the northwest part of Plain City. They lived there until they bought land east of the center of town and built an adobe house. This was a project that relatives and friends helped with as all the adobe bricks were made by hand.
This house still stands today having been remodeled and extra rooms built after World War I by his son Hans Peter Poulsen. Today a grandson Bernard H. Poulsen lives in the home.
Andrew Peter Poulsen loved horses and took great pride in keeping them well groomed. He had two fine teams of horses, one a white team and the other one a dark pair. For years, he was active in church and community work and used his “long back” surrey and fine white team of horses to carry the deceased to the church and cemetery. He gave freely of his time and money for the building up of the church and the community. He died September 20, 1922 at his home of stomach cancer.
Andrew’s parents, Pedra Poulsen and his wife Karen Kirstine Rettrup also came to Utah from their native Denmark and settled in Plain City in the late fall of 1869. They brought their daughter Andrea Marie Poulsen with them. She later married Christine Olsen in 1872.
Andrew Peter Poulsen’s team of white horses pulling the “long-back” surrey.
Hans Peter Poulsen was born April 19, 1875, in Plain City, Utah a son of Andrew Peter Poulsen and Sena Benson. He was the second oldest and only son in a family of four children, three of whom lived to adulthood. He was educated in the Weber County schools and also attended Brigham Young Academy where he was on the first football team at that school. He fulfilled an L.D.S. mission to Denmark from June 26, 1901 to October 3, 1903. He left his wife and young son at home with her mother in Ogden, Utah.
Hans Peter or H. Poulsen, as he went by to distinguish himself from his Uncle Hans was a farmer and dairyman. He was one of the charter members and a director of the Weber Central Dairy Association. For years, he was a director in the Farm Bureau Association. Most of is life he was active in church and community work. He was a loving and devoted father and husband. For over 50 years, he was married to Ellen K. Maw and they were the parents of seven children.
Hans Peter Poulsen was the first constable of Plain City, from 1916 to 1920, and was also a Deputy Sheriff of Weber County. While he was constable one of his first jobs was to round up several young men for stealing cattle from the towns people and selling them to the slaughter house in West Ogden.
Traveling in those days by horse and buggy was much slower than the fast cars of today but within a short time, the young men were taken into custody and placed in the Weber County Jail which was located in Ogden between Washington Blvd. and Adams Avenue on 24th Street.
White team of horses owned by Hans’ father, Andrew Peters Poulsen
HISTORY OF THE DUMMY
Submitted by Ivy Skeen Carver
Between 1897 and 1910 one could buy a round-trip ticket from Ogden to hot Springs for 30 cents on a train called “The Dummy”. It left Washington Blvd. and 19th Street to Hot Springs via North Ogden.
This “Dummy” train line was extended to Plain City via Harrisville, in 1909. There was quite a celebration; Royal Carver remembered his uncle, Jim Carver, standing on the platform around the engine, pulling the whistle and ringing the bell. One of the engineers was William Clark, the conductor was “Moonie” Holmes, and other engineers were Charles Tracy of William Lane, Charles Lunt and others.
The “Dummy” would start grass fires along the line, with its twice a day trips. One fire was started in the grass on Charles Taylor’s home on the 4th of July, 1915, which burned his barn sheds, pig-pens the old sow and her brood. This disrupted the celebration in Plain City center as the ball team and other men went to Poplar Lane to fight the fire and save the house. The railroad was held negligent and they paid Charles Taylor $1500. After the fire in 1915, and before 1918, they electrified the “dummy” as a precaution to prevent other fires. One amusing tale of the Taylor fire was the Milkman, George Moyes, coming from the dairy with some of his cans full of sour milk and his using this milk along with water from the slough to pour on the fire.
Along the Railroad line from Harrisville to Plain City there were several wooden platforms for loading and unloading freight. There were two newspapers, Morning and Evening, which the “dummy” brought out to be delivered by boys on horses such as Royal Craver, Vern Palmer, Edward Kerr and Charles (Chuck) Skeen and others. The train was so slow that kids would out-run the train on their farm horses and even on foot, running until they gave out.
The “Dummy” worked as a freight engine. The road-bed was laid and rails set by residents along the line. They were paid by Script, which was good for a ride on the train.
More History of the “Dummy”
Submitted by Irene Skeen
In 1909 John Maw, Lyman Skeen and Mr. Skeen and Mr. Eccles, then head of Utah-Idaho Railroad company, negotiated for a railroad to Plain City. On Nov. 15, 1909, the first railroad was built into Plain City.
A big celebration was held in the adobe school, on the north east corner of the town square.
The tracks came along the side of the road through Harrisville and down Plain City to the cemetery, then north to the square. This railroad was used for produced, beet-hauling, lumber, coal and transportation. It was known as the “Dummy” by everybody in Plain City. It was one car pulled with the engine. The inside had a coal stove and kerosene lamps. The car was divided by a partition; one end for the men and the other for ladies. However, it was not restricted as such.
A foggy morning, in 1915, as they were on their way to Ogden and traveling on the old Harrisville road, the “Dummy” ran head-on into an engine pulling railroad cars full of coal. Naturally, everyone was thrown from their seats and some were injured, however, not seriously.
There were two houses nearly where the people went to keep warm. The ladies at the homes bandaged the cuts, where needed, and the people were returned to their homes on bob-sleighs.
Most of the passengers were students going to Weber Academy or to Ogden high School. The “Dummy” stopped at the depot located about one-half block west of the Post Office on 24th Street and the passengers walked to their destination or to Washington Blvd and caught a city street-car.
England’s Store
***
ENGLAND STORE
Merlin England’s grandfather, his mothers father, had a store in Logan. Mrs. Ellen England persuaded her husband to go into the business in Plain City. The store was located west of the England home. Mr. England left for L.D.S. Mission early in 1896, and left the store, coal-yard and farm for Mrs. England to supervise. Merlin England was 3 months at that time.
AGENDA OF THE 50TH CELEBRATION OF THE SETTLEMENT OF PLAIN CITY
MARCH 17, 1909
The citizens of Plain City met in the L.D.S. Church on March 17, 1909, at 10:00 am to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the settlement of Plain City.
Masters of ceremony: Bishop Henry J. Garner, Josiah B. Carver, James L. Robson
Singing by Choir: “Let the Mountains Shout for Joy”
Fred Kenley directing, Bertha Robson organist.
Prayer: Alonzo Knight
Ladies Quartet: Ruby Ipson, Pearl Taylor, Jessie Kenley, Sylvia Richardson
Speech: Lewis W. Shurtliff, First Bishop of Plain City
Song: Willard Lund
Reading of Poem: Peter M. Folkman, composed by David Booth
Speech: George W. Bramwell, Past Bishop
Josiah B. Carver announced that today work was begun on the railroad for Plain City.
Humor Speech: Charles H. Greenwell of Ogden
Singing by Choir:
Prayer: Charles Weatherston
All of the people went it the Adobe Hall to the banquet, the first day for the old people, and the second day for the children. About 1000 people were fed.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE THAT APPEARED IN THE OGDEN STANDARD EXAMINER IN 1930 ENTITLED:
“HOMECOMING OF PLAIN CITY IS WELL ATTENDED”
ONLY SURVIVORS OF ORIGINAL SETTLERS IS GUEST OF HONOR
Twelve annual homecoming of Plain City, celebrating the seventy- first anniversary of the settlement of the town held Tuesday, proved to be a very enjoyable affair and was attended by a large gathering of residents and former residents from other Utah towns and Idaho and Oregon.
Lyman Skeen, 79, only survivor of the original settlers, was guest of honor and gave a brief talk. Mr. Skeen is a son of Joseph Skeen who built the first log cabin in Plain city. Other early residents of Plain City, now residents of Smithfield, who attended the celebration, were Mrs. Tillie Collette Merrill, 81, and her sister, Mrs. Julia Collette Cantrell, 79.
Plain City was founded on March 17, 1859, by a group of people from Lehi. A history of the founding of the town and many interesting incidents connected therewith were given by P.M Folkman.
A tribute to the pioneers of the town and to the pioneers of Utah was given by Miss May Taylor. A talk on community loyalty was given by Lawrence Jenkins. Wilmer Maw presided at the morning session. Invocation was given by Gilbert Thatcher.
March 17, the date on which Plain City was founded, was also the date on which the Relief Society of the L.D.S Church was organized in Nauvoo by the Prophet Joseph Smith and this subject was discussed by Mrs. Sarah Larkin of the North Weber Stake Relief Society Presidency.
Mayor Ora Bundy, City Commissioners Fred E. Williams and W. J. Rackham, and County Commissioners F. W. Stratford, Harvey P. Randell and I. A. Norris were among the distinguished guests.
Luncheon was served at noon. Dancing was enjoyed at night. Music and readings and other features were on the program which continued throughout the day.
Lyman Skeen
Lyman Skeen came to Plain City with his father Joseph Skeen with the original settlers on March 17, 1959 at the age of nine on his pony. He was the last living original pioneer of Plain City. He died in 1933.
ANNE CATHERINE HEDEVIG RASMUSSEN HANSEN
SUBMITTED BY HER GRANDDAUGHTER
LAVINA TELFORD THOMPSON
Anne Catherine Hedevig Rasmussen Hansen was the first wife of Hans Christian Hansen and was born October 1, 1823, in Millinge, Cavanninge, Svendborg, Denmark.
On October 7, 1849, she married Hans Christian Hansen in the Parrish of Horne.
Hedevig and her husband were among the first people in their community, Helsinger, to give willing ears to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were baptized October 25, 1851. She supported her husband in preparation for leaving their homeland and families and their immigration to America. They left Demark, December 20, 1852, and sailed for Utah on January 16, 1853 on the “Forest Monarch”.
Pioneering in Utah was not easy, particularly to one who has experienced the upper middle class level of circumstances since her marriage. After living a pioneer life in Utah for a little over a year, Hedevig was thrilled with the birth of her child and first daughter, Josephine.
During the next three years, they moved several times, first in Ogden, then to Bingham’s Fort and finally to Harrisville. It was there that her third son, Nephi, was born.
August 28, 1857 became a special day in their lives. They were sealed together in the Endowment House. The first born in the covenant and her second daughter, Anne Margarethe, arrived April 6, 1859, in Harrisville.
Early in 1869, a great challenge came into the home, when Hedevig’s husband was called to fill a mission in his native Denmark. Hedevig made a shirt for her husband from material of one of her petticoats. She dyed it in juice from bark and roots, and Hans wore it as he left for his mission.
The following was taken from Josephine’s writing:
It was known that mother could wait upon women in confinement cases. It was a natural gift with her. They came for her to go to Plain City to care for a lady there. This was four miles away. She did her work so well that the woman paid her $2.00 in silver. Her career was established and they kept coming for her to go around nursing. Two bushel of wheat was the price usually charged. Then the Bishop came to our place from Plain City and wanted mother to move down there so she would be nearer to wait on women in their confinement cases. They tore our log house down, moved it to Plain City, and put it up again. They also built us a dugout, and now we lived in a settlement and could go to school. Two or more children blessed Hedevig’s home in Plain City. Hans Christian was born August 14, 1863, and Chauney Ephrian was born May 8, 1866.
Hedevig lived a full life and was taken in death March 31, 1899, being buried in Plain City.
HISTORY OF PLAIN CITY FROM THE LIFE OF
CHARLES NEAL
I, Charles Neal, son of Job Neal and Harriet Smith Neal, was born September 7, 1834, in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England. I was baptized August 10, 1849, at Stratford-on-Avon by George Smith, and confirmed by Elder John Freeman. About 1853, I was ordained a Teacher by Elder Weeks.
I, with other immigrants left England on the 22nd day of March 1857 on the ship George Washington with Captain Cummings in command. We arrived in Boston about April 12, then proceeded on our journey to Iowa City, which was the Western terminus of the railroad. There we had to wait about three weeks for the handcarts to be finished before we could start our journey across the plains. There were about 125 handcarts and 275 men, women, and children in the company. Israel Evans was Captain, and Benjamin Ashley, Assistant Captain. I was teamster most of the way. After a long and tedious journey on the plains, our food supply became exhausted so that we had to live four days on buffalo meat without salt. We arrived in Salt Lake City on September 11, 1857, from which I further continued my journey to Lehi.
On the 24th of September I returned to Salt Lake City and found Miss Annie England who came across the sea and plains with me. We were married the same day by Elder Israel Evans., Captain of our company and then returned to Lehi and went to work for him.
On March 10, 1859, a small company left Lehi in search of a new home. We were in that company which settled in the place now known as Plain City.
Upon arriving on March 17, we took up the arduous labors of fencing in the Big Field and making Plain City Irrigation Canal, besides fencing in our own lots and planting them. Being of an ambitious character, I carried stakes from the Weber River and fenced in the first lot.
The first year we lost our crop. I then went in search of work and got a job from President Brigham Young on the wall around the Eagle Gate in Salt Lake City. Two weeks later, my wife, Annie England Neal, followed me on foot to Salt Lake, and learning I was working for President Young, she obtained work in the Lion House in Brigham Young’s family where she remained for eighteen months.
When we were about to return to Plain City, Sister Eliza R. Snow, recommended that we have our endowments. Accordingly, before leaving, we were endowed and sealed by President Brigham Young on October 24, 1860. On the same day I was ordained an Elder by Elders J. V. Long and George D. Watt.
We then returned to Plain City where I was appointed with a company of three to oversee the water ditches, in which capacity I served about three years. I was then appointed watermaster in Plain City. I served one year with credit and satisfaction.
I was one of the first appointed Sunday School teachers in Plain City, and at the Sunday School Jubilee held in Salt Lake City in 1899, I received my badge for having been a Sunday School worker for thirty-five years.
From 1864 to 1899, I served as organist in the Sunday School and Ward.
In 1860, I helped to build the first school house, which was adobe. I also helped to build the second school house which was fifty by twenty-five feet. I was Chairman of the committee to construct the present meeting house. I was one of the school trustees for eight years and road supervisor for about nine years.
In 1866, I was called to go to the Missouri River with four yolk of oxen to bring some immigrants, which made my third trip across the plains. While at the Missouri River I met the two orphan children of my sister, Ellen Eggerson, who died and was buried at sea on July 4. Her infant baby died on the 21st of July in Nebraska and was buried there. I returned and brought with me my sister’s little son, two and one-half year old. When about four days out from the Missouri River, I was taken very sick and was not expected to live; in fact Captain Harden was about to leave me there with provisions that should I recover, I would be brought in on the stage. But I begged the Captain to bring me along with them, telling him if he would, I should recover. So they brought me along and after traveling for about three hundred miles, with good care, I was able to drive my own team and get back all right.
When home again, I assisted in starting the first martial and brass band in Plain City. We purchased a second-hand set of brass band instruments from the old Camp Floyd Band in Salt Lake.
I was Postmaster in Plain City for many years. The following was published by the President of Ogden in 1903.
“Charles Neal, the retiring Postmaster of Plain City, has a most enviable record of service. The post office at Plain City was discontinued today and that town will be furnished with rural delivery. Charles Neal, who has been Postmaster in Plain City for the past twenty-five years, retires from service with an enviable record. He has served continuously under five Presidential administrations and that is sufficient evidence of his ability. He has a record in the Government of which he may feel proud”
My first wife, Annie England Neal, died November 5, 1900. She was a faithful and devoted wife, and endured many hardships and privations in our pioneer days in this, our mountain home. She was a true and faithful Latter Day Saint. Having no children of her own, she raised my sister’s child, Emily Neal Eggerson, from two and a half years old until about nineteen. We raised my brother, Willard, from eight years old until he married at the age of twenty, and Sophia England, her niece, from three months old to about fifteen years old; also Ella Jerimah Neal, my niece, from nine until she was about nineteen. We also raised William Neal, my nephew, from two and a half years to about twelve when he went away with his sister, Ella, who married Thomas H. Cottle.
In 1901, I married Miss Myra Swingwood. About 1907, my wife’s sister, Annie Swingwood Brown, died, leaving two children-a boy and an infant baby girl. We adopted Myra, the baby girl, who is now six years old.
At present, I am the oldest handcart pioneer in Weber County.
(Dictated shortly before his death)
Thomas Singleton’s home now owned by Elmer Singleton
I wanted to share this interesting little incident that happened on Friday.
Amanda and the rest of the kids went to Utah for the weekend. Aliza stayed because she had school and rode down with me on Friday.
As we neared Plain City I asked if she remembered Great Grandpa Milo. She said that she did. She then asked if we could drive past his house. (She often asks to drive past places.)
We drove past and I asked if she wanted to stop at the Plain City Cemetery. She said yes.
We stopped and walked over to Grandpa and Grandma Ross’ grave stone.
Aliza with Milo & Gladys Ross tombstone
I asked if she wanted to see Grandpa Milo’s mother’s grave. She agreed and we walked over to the grave of Ethel Sharp Ross.
I also took her to the grave of Paul Ross, 1922-1932, and I explained my relationship to him.
Aliza with Milo and Mary Ann “Lillie” Sharp, also Mary Ann Sharp’s tombstone.
Aliza recognized the Lillie, although Lillian was only loosely named after this Lillie. We use the Lillie spelling for her nickname based on this Lillie though. I explained the Milo name, the relationships, and how Mary Ann on this stone is Mary Ann Bailey Sharp, Milo Riley’s mother.
We then walked over to Lillie’s father, William Edward Stoker. In this picture below, you can see Mary Ann or Lillie Sharp’s proximity to her father’s grave. Her mother died in England before the family could immigrate to Utah.
Aliza with William Edward Stoker’s grave stone
Needless to say, being related to some of the older graves in the cemetery, we are related to a number of the other families in the graveyard. We walked around for quite a while talking about names and how they are related.
I started walking back toward the car and Aliza wanted to go back over by William Stoker. I told her we did not have any more family graves over in that part of the cemetery. She insisted, “we didn’t stop at the other family tombstone for a picture.” Knowing there was no other family over there, I followed her so she could see for herself.
She then stopped at another grave. She wanted to take a picture of it. I told her we were not related to them and she said, “Yes we are, I want a picture.” Rather than have a battle in the cemetery over it, I took her picture.
Aliza with William and Martha Wayment tombstone
If you look closely, you can see William Stoker’s grave behind William Wayment’s grave marker, and the Sharp tombstone right above Aliza. I took the picture and it dawned on me, Amanda’s Great Grandfather’s middle name was Wayment and his mother had been a Wayment. I was not sure if these Wayments were related to Amanda’s Wayments or not.
Sure enough, Aliza was right. While not related to me, these were her relatives! These are her 5th Great Grandparents through Amanda’s line.
I was a bit struck by the determination she had that we had another family grave I had not taken her. Dumbfounded that they were in fact her family, and not mine! It inspired and spooked at the same time.
Amanda’s Great Grandfather is Walter Wayment Hansen, 1904 -1995. His mother is Martha Ann Wayment Hansen, 1877-1908. Her father is Joseph Wayment, 1844 – 1931. His parents are William Wayment, 1822 – 1883, and Martha Brown, 1823 – 1905, the individuals whose graves Aliza wanted a picture. My father-in-law, Bryan Hemsley, did not remember they were buried in Plain City.
Martha Brown and William Wayment’s tombstone
A quick internet search located this brief history of William and Martha Wayment. In reading, the Stokers and Wayments came to America both on the same ship, the Amazon! Multiple linkages in history between the two families. I corrected a couple of spellings in the biography.
Martha Brown was born May 26, 1823 in Bassingbourne, Cambridgeshire, England to William Brown and Mary Wade. Cambridge is a flat coastal plain located in the southeast part of England. The climate is moderate with much rainfall which produces much vegetation. Martha met and married William Wayment on Christmas Day December 25, 1841 in the Bassingbourne Parish in Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, England. They both signed the certificate which seemed an unusual procedure to the clerk. William signed his name Whayment. He gave his age as 20 and was listed as a laborer. Martha gave her age as 19 and was listed as a spinster. William and Martha made their home with his widowed mother, Mary Rook Wayment. Several members of her family have told of this incident – “as a bride living in her mother-in-laws home”, Martha found that circumstances and conditions were not always pleasant. One stressful day Martha threatened to leave the home and her husband. She went into a small room (or a clothes closet) to get some of her things, her mother-in-law quickly closed and locked the door. There Martha was kept until she promised not to leave. Satisfactory adjustments were made and she kept her promise. Martha’s grandfather, William Brown of Whaddon has been described as a wealthy farmer. His son, Samuel, Martha’s father was disinherited after he married a servant girl, Mary Wade, who worked for his parents. He was a butcher by trade. He extended his business and it is said he became a well to do merchant. Martha had seven brothers and 1 sister all born in Bassingbourne. It is said the Browns were a family of large men, all of them being over 6 ft tall, and long lived. Martha was the only one to live to be over 80, however. Though a hard worker William, Martha father, never accumulated much wealth. Their modest home and limited circumstances was a source of embarrassment at times for Martha in England. William earning being sometimes about 8 shillings a week (about $2 in US dollars). But through careful management they were able to take care of their children as they came into the family. William and Martha had 6 boys and 2 girls, all born in Whaddon. Aaron, Joseph, Samuel, William Emily John Brown William Thomas, Martha. Seems as though it was necessary for them to come to America to develop their potential. The children hired out at an early age, working for farmers of the area. work included keeping birds out of the cherry trees and pulling poppies out of the grain fields. Often the children would leave home at 5:00 in the morning and work for 3 or 4 hours then they would be called in for breakfast. Some meals were very meager. The first missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints arrived in Liverpool, England July 20, 1837. Having sailed on the ship “Garrick” under the leadership of Heber C Kimball. Later working their way to the Whaddon, Bassingbourne area. after William and Martha heard their messages they opened their home to the missionaries. Many people of the community stirred up others to try to stop the spread of the gospel. This made it necessary to hold meetings and baptisms services at night to avoid the mobs that were a continually threat to them. The Brown family were especially bitter against the church. This caused William and Martha to delay joining the church although they were convince of the truth. Finally in 1850 William and Martha decided to disregard the threats of the Brown family. William was baptized May 1850 a few months later Williams mother, Mary Rook Wayment was baptized in 1851. The three of them continued to support the missionaries. Martha was baptized 1 May 1857 in spite of her families wishes. When her father learned of her actions he disinherited her except for the benefit of a few shillings. All the children were each baptized into the church eventually. Joseph the oldest living son worked with his father fossil digging and earned enough money for his transportation to America. Joseph aged 19, 1863 booked passage on the “Amazon”. After Joseph left the family continued working together to meet their needs and maybe to emigrate? It took many years to reach their goal. by the spring of 1878 they were making final preparations to emigrate to Zion. They booked passage on the ship “Nevada” and sailed from Liverpool May 25, 1878. Travel was long and much seasickness. After arriving on the shores they rode west on Pullman cars to Philadelphia then changed here to “immigrant cars,” which were very uncomfortable. The east was beautiful but the farther west they came the habitation vanished and scenes about them were dry and barren. They arrived in Ogden, Utah Territory June 1878 the family was met by son, Joseph and Samuel and taken to Samuel’s home in Plain City, After living here a few months they settled in the Salt Creek area close to Joseph on land he had purchased in 1872. Their home was a log house. William applied for homestead rights to a quarter section of land. They planted cotton wood trees, yellow roses, tea vines and other fast growing plants. They all continued being active in the church and received their endowments in the Salt Lake Temple. Martha was not idle as she received her citizenship papers November 16, 1885. In 1886 Martha received the property deed William had applied for Signed by President Grover C Cleveland, President of the United States of America Oct 18,1886 Martha cared for most of her needs but over the years became very overweight. The story is told: April 12, 1905 at age 82, she saw the traveling grocer coming & hastened to arrive home before him. Arriving about the same time, she told him she would have to gather her eggs for his pay. The grocer said he would go to other places and come back later. When he returned he could not find her, over exertion had brought on a stroke and she died. Her survivors were, Joseph, Samuel, John, William Thomas, Emily and Martha, 46 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren. Her service held in the Warren church was overflowing with family & friends. She is buried in the Plain City Cemetery next to her loving husband April 14, 1905
This photograph was just provided to me this past week. I think it is a fascinating photo, the lady was not sure if it was related to us. The Eames name immediately caught my attention as did the English design of the home and the lady’s clothes. I did a little research and this is what I know.
This grocery and provisions store was on High Street in Alperton, Middlesex, England. Thomas Eames is the brother to my Emma Eames Stoker.
Thomas Eames lived in Alperton/Wembley, Middlesex, England his entire life. The 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901 censuses each have him living within the same square mile. The majority of these years were all on High Street, west of the railroad. He was a laborer and carpenter by trade. In the 1871 Census it shows his wife is a general shop keeper. I have a suspicion they took over a shop from his wife’s family. By 1881 he had become a postmaster and was running that within the store as well. In 1891 he was still the postmaster but he had turned the shopkeeping business over to his son, John Eames. By 1901 Thomas no longer worked but still lived next door, or in the same house, as his son John. The censuses do not make it entirely clear to me if these are separate households in separate homes or separate households within the same home. Most of them appear to be living in the same house.
I do not believe this building is still present. The stretch of High Street in the censuses are all to the west of the railroad. Much of this street has been modernized. Working down the street on Google Maps does not provide any buildings with the same design or brick pattern over the windows.
Thomas had a home named Vine Cottage. As shown from this document, it was registered in 1937 and was located at 332 Ealing Rd, Wembley, Middlesex.
We know some of Thomas and his family. He was born 28 June 1826 in Harrow, Middlesex, England to Thomas and Elizabeth Eames. We really do not know a whole lot more about his parents. I suspect he was actually born in Alperton, just that since Harrow was the name of the civil parish Alperton is within and that explains why it shows as where he was born.
He married Harriet Shettick 31 January 1847 in St Mary’s, Harrow on the Hill. She passed away at some point with no known children. He remarried to Christiana Leader in 1853. They had five children, Thomas (1854), Christiana (1856), Alfred (1860), John (1861), Emma (1864). Christiana passed away in 1896. He again remarried to Annie Clayton in 1896. We don’t know anything more about her and doubt any children were born to this marriage.
I know some more of some of the grandchildren, but I think I will leave that for another time. If anyone is related to this Eames line or knows anything more, I would be glad to hear from you.
![William and Elizabeth Nicholas [Nicholls] at 63 Church End, Hendon, 1861 census](https://sophrosynean.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/1861englandcensusforelizabethnicholas.jpg)
