Karren

by

Some Early Settlers from Lehi to Plain City, Utah

A Personal Note

This document found its way into my family history files for good reason. Settler no. 68 — William Sharp (1825–1900) — is my ancestor. William was born 10 December 1825 in Misson, Nottinghamshire, England. He married Mary Ann Padley and the couple crossed the plains in the Moses Clawson Company, arriving in Salt Lake City on 15 September 1853. They went first to Lehi, but as the Plain City History records, “the land was not too good and there was no good grazing for their cattle.” They consecrated their Lehi property to the Church on 8 January 1857 — the same day as William Clark himself — before joining the group that would found Plain City.

The Daughters of Utah Pioneers history of Plain City describes William Sharp simply as “the first stone mason in Plain City.” That understates it considerably. He built the Episcopal Church in 1877, the old Singleton home, and Robert Maw’s adobe house — that last detail connecting two Lehi consecrators (nos. 68 and 47) in the work of building their new community. He played the cornet in Plain City’s first band alongside Abraham Maw. He made adobe bricks with Joseph Skeen, Joseph Robinson, and Jeppe G. Folkman — all men who appear on Clark’s consecration list. He worked with Thomas Singleton constructing many of Plain City’s early houses. His daughter Victorine Mary Sharp married Robert Edward Maw, connecting the two founding families by marriage as well as by community. His son Milo Riley Sharp played first base on Plain City’s founding baseball team, and Milo’s wife Lillie Stoker Sharp performed in Plain City’s second dramatic association. Milo served as school trustee beginning in 1897. Across generations, W. Albert Sharp served as a founding trustee of both the town board and the cemetery district when Plain City incorporated in 1944.

The Sharps were not alone in making that journey north from Lehi. The consecration list reads almost like a founding roster for Plain City — and the primary sources confirm it. Robert Maw (no. 47) left his own first-person account: “I Robert Maw, say that I was one of the first pioneers who came to Plain City on March 17, 1859. We left Lehi on the 10th of March.” The fall 1858 scouting party that selected the Plain City site included Daniel Collett (no. 14), Joseph Skeen (no. 69), William Wallace Raymond (no. 64), Joseph Robinson (no. 67), Joseph Folkman and Jeppe Folkman (no. 28), and Thomas Ashton — men who had consecrated their Lehi properties just months before. When Plain City Branch was organized in May 1859, William Wallace Raymond was appointed the first Presiding Elder, with Daniel Collett and Jeppe G. Folkman as counselors. Joseph Skeen — who built Plain City’s first log cabin and is credited with introducing adobe making to Utah — was appointed the first water master. His wife Alice Booth Robinson was recorded as the first white woman to set foot on Plain City soil.

Jeppe Jorgen Folkman (no. 28) managed Plain City’s cooperative ZCMI store from its founding in 1869 and operated one of the settlement’s first stores from his home. The Folkman family remained central to Plain City’s commercial and civic life for generations. Robert Maw (no. 47) founded the Maw family line in Plain City — his descendants produced three generations of ward bishops, a commercial dynasty in the Maw store and canning operations, and civic leaders serving on the town board and irrigation company board well into the twentieth century. William Van Dyke (no. 78) operated one of Plain City’s earliest merchant stores, confirmed as a living pioneer at the 1909 50th anniversary celebration. The Raymond family (nos. 63–64) provided the first Presiding Elder, first Relief Society president, and LDS Sunday School assistant superintendent.

The Lehi fort of the 1850s was, in a very real sense, the nursery of Plain City. Clark’s consecration list and the Plain City founding history are two windows into the same group of people, two years apart.

The following is a transcription of Clark’s paper, with the three original images and footnotes collected at the end.

Wayne E. Clark, a Lehi native and retired Auburn University professor of entomology, spent years examining the consecration deeds signed by early Lehi settlers, comparing them against Utah County property records, the 1860 Federal Census, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, and family history sources. His 2017 paper, part of the Wayne E. Clark Collection at the Lehi Historical Society and Archives (lehihistory.com), has been cited by the University of Utah’s Century of Black Mormons project and published in the Lehi Free Press. The underlying deeds are held in the Utah County Office of Land Records and at the BYU L. Tom Perry Special Collections.

Early Mormon Settlers in Lehi, Utah Territory, Consecrated Their Properties to Their Church

Wayne E. Clark
Lehi, Utah, 2017

The Lehi Pioneer Monument was erected in 1908 on the Northeast corner of First North and First West Streets in Lehi, Utah. A photographer pointing his lens toward the Southeast captured a portion of a small adobe home in an early photograph of the monument. That home stood on First North Street on the block on which the Lehi Memorial Building would come to stand in a few years. In pioneer times the block on which it stood was the northeastern-most of sixteen city blocks that were enclosed within a twelve-foot-high mud wall erected as protection against the fear of hostile Indians. The monument was constructed on the site of the last crumbling remnants of the old wall.

Things have changed in Lehi since the little adobe home stood across the street from the monument. The wall is gone and forgotten. The old Lehi High School/Junior High School athletic field that came to occupy the site on which the monument and the adobe house in the background is gone, if not entirely forgotten. Instead of the athletic field, chairs and umbrellas surround a small wading pool on a deck that extends south of the swimming pool that’s part of the large Lehi Legacy Center complex on the ground on which the monument stood, and a large parking lot covers the ground on which the house once stood. Today, if one stands on the spot where the photographer stood in 1908, or some time not long afterward, automobiles that carry people to and from the Lehi Legacy Center occupy a prominent portion of the scene. The Memorial Building can be seen along the photographer’s line of site in the background.

The owner of the home was my second great grandfather, English Mormon immigrant William Clark (1825–1910). He and at least 84 other heads of families in Lehi did what he did between 11 April 1856 and 30 January 1858. A little more than three years later he consecrated his little adobe house to the church.

Feramorz Young Fox provides an explanation of the “Consecration Movement” of the 1850s.2 He writes that the movement was church-wide. Hundreds of documents he calls “deeds of consecration” were generated in the Utah Territory between 1855 and 1862.3 The first public announcement of the Consecration Movement was given at general conference in April 1854, but the implementation was delayed until a proper form compliant with the laws of the Territory could be developed and printed. He writes that Brigham Young’s consecration deed4 is dated 11 April 1855, but notes the existence of an earlier deed recorded in Millard County on 1 January 1855.

Fox presents a table5 in which the numbers of deeds by county are listed, along with the population of each county between the years 1855 and 1857. The total for the fourteen counties in the table is given as 2,747. This must be the figure used by Leonard Arrington to calculate that about forty percent of the 7,000 heads of families in the Utah Territory deeded all their property to the church during the period in which the program was in effect.6 Fox gives the following numbers for Utah County: 69 (1855), 147 (1856), and 92 (1857) for a total of 922.

William Clark’s consecration deed is representative.

Be it known by these presents that I, William Clark, of Lehi City, in the county of Utah, and Territory of Utah, for and in consideration of the good will which I have for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, give and convey unto Brigham Young, Trustee in Trust for said Church, his successors in office, and assigns, all my claim to and ownership of the following described property, to wit:

One lot in the City of Lehi with buildings thereon and improvements: Lot no. 6 in Block 16 containing 50/160 of an improvement.

Also Lot 9 in Block 7 of Plat B in the American Creek Survey of Farm Land containing 5 acres … $25.00
Also Lots 12 & 13 in Block 5 Containing 2 acres in the Lehi Garden Lot Survey … $20.00
Also Lot 15 in Block 10 Containing 10 acres in Plat B, American Creek Survey of Farm Land … $30.00
Also outstanding account in land … $200.00
1 yoke of oxen, 1 horse … $140.00
1 wagon, $45, 1 rifle, $10 … $55.00
2 cows @ $30.00 each, 1 two year old, $25 … $55.00
1 yearling heifer, $15, 1 hog, $17 … $32.00
Farming tools, $10. Mechanics tool, $2.50 … $12.50
Household furniture … $50.00
35 Bu. of Wheat @ $2 per Bushel … $70.00
10 Bu. of Corn @ $1.5 per Bushel … $15.00
30 Bu. of Oats @ $1 per Bushel … $30.00
30 Bu. of Potatoes @ $1 per Bushel … $30.00
Garden Vegetable $6, Hay $24 … $30.00
120 lbs of Pork at 20¢ per lb … $24.00

Total Amount of William Clark’s property … $1048.508

Together with all the rights privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging or pertaining. I also covenant and agree that I am the lawful claimant and owner of said property and will warrant and forever defend the same unto the said Trustee in Trust, his successors in office and assigns, against the claims of our heirs and assigns, against the claims of any heirs, assigns, or any person whosoever.

[signed] William Clark his x mark

Witnesses:
Thomas Taylor
George A. Leslie
Thomas Ashton

Territory of Utah, County of Utah. I Lucius N. Scovill, Recorder of the aforesaid County, certify that the signer of the above transfer, personal known to me, appeared this 8th day of January AD 1857, and acknowledged that he of his own choice executed the foregoing transfer.

Lucius N. Scovill
Recorder of Utah Co. UT.

The property William Clark and his neighbors in Lehi consecrated to the church included title to land. This falls into three categories for Clark and for the others: farm land, garden plots and lots on city blocks. The farm land is defined in what the deeds refer to as the “American Creek Survey of Farm Land.” This survey has not been located.9 Likewise, the survey for the Garden Plots referred to on the consecration deeds has not been located.10 The third category of property in land recorded on the consecration deeds refers to a “Lehi Survey of Building Lots.” The survey was evidently done in 1853 by Bishop Evans, as described in the consecration deeds.

The sixteen blocks inside the fort were numbered beginning with the block on the Southeast corner as Block 1 and continuing east to west with Blocks 2 through 4, then switching to east on the second tier of blocks and so forth to Block 16 on the Northeast corner of the fort.

Although the blocks inside the fort had to be re-numbered, this numbering system is consistent with one in use today. The current system apparently dates from 1861. According to Gardner,13 on April 27, 1861, the council received a numerously signed petition asking that the city be enlarged. This unmistakable sign of growth occasioned much discussion. For one, Bishop Evans seriously objected to any such extension of the city, giving as his reason the lack of water in Dry Creek to supply any considerable addition to the population of Lehi. Finally, however, all objections were satisfactorily adjusted, and the City Council ordered that a tier of blocks be surveyed around the wall. These did not supply the unexpected demand for building lots, so a tier each on the North and South was subsequently surveyed and sold to home builders.

Gardner included a diagrammatic depiction of the fort, surrounded by the wall, in his history,14 with four gates for ingress and egress, four guard towers, and the locations and layouts of each of the blocks, as well as the layout of the building lots on the blocks, are depicted. The numbers of blocks 1–16 are shown, with the corresponding numbers of the same blocks in the later surveys and continuing to this date, in parentheses. The lot and block numbers are listed on 71 of the 85 1856/1858 Lehi consecration deeds.15 The building lots on the diagram as assigned to the individual settlers are identified by the following numbers. Some of the homes listed on the consecration deeds are still standing. The house nearest current addresses of these are listed. The apparent location of houses no longer standing are also given below.
The Settler Lists

Note: Seventy-two of the 85 examined consecration deeds list the block number and the lot number of property in the city. All of the blocks listed are inside the fort. A few deeds list portions of additional lots, and some list two or more complete building lots. Thirteen deeds list no city lots. Presumably those individuals did not own their own homes. Thirty-two deeds list an adobe house and one lists a “mud house.” These are valued from $150.00 to $1,100.00. Two individuals, Abram Hatch and John Riggs Murdock, specified that their adobe houses had four rooms and one cellar. Joseph Skeen listed a 6-room adobe house. Eight log houses (on 7 lots), with values ranging from $60.00 to $200.00, are listed on the deeds. Eighteen deeds list a lot number and a block number but specify only that the property was “with improvements,” without describing the type of house. Fourteen of the 85 deeds have no lot or block numbers or houses. Presumably these individuals did not own their own homes. Lehi settler’s consecrations ranged from $127.75 to $3,075.00, for a total of $93,128.70.

South, 400 West
1. Andrew Anderson (1833–1909). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 12, with adobe house, $400.00, $1,203.00 total consecration. 17 November 1856. BK C, 1855, p. 83. 37 South, 400 West

South, 200 West
2. Thomas Ashton (1813–1903). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 11, with log house, $200.00, $1,543.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 109. 36 South, 200 West

140 South, 200 West
3. Charles Barnes Jr. (1827–1911). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 7, with adobe house, $300.00, $1,008.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 129.

69 South, 300 West
4. Alfred Bell (1794–1874). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 11, with adobe house, $400.00, $1,201.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 123.

5. Jens Peter Ipsen Benson [Peter Benson] (1831–1898). Lehi, no city lot, $135.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 177.

6. Yeppa Benson [Jeppe Bendtsen] (1795–1872). Lehi, no city lot, $168.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 177.

West, 300 South
7. Samuel Briggs (1826–1898). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 4, with adobe house, $150.00, $997.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 131. 382

West Main Street
8. George Brough (1823–1914). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 16, with adobe home, $150.00, $421.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 180. 55 North Center Street

North Center Street
9. Abram Brown [Abraham Brown] (1808–1891). Lehi, Lot 9, Block 12, with adobe house, $250.00, $608.00 total consecration. 26 January 1857. BK F, p. 208. 333 West Main Street

West Main Street
10. John Brown (1820–1896). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 9, with improvements, $150.00, $3,083.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 81. 45 West Main Street

15 West, 100 South
11. Martin Bushman (1802–1870). Lehi, Lot 6, Block 8, with improvements, $300.00, $1,032.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 167.

284 West, 200 South
12. David Clark (1816–1889). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 6, with adobe house, $600.00, $1,520.00 total consecration. 5 February 1857. BK G, p. 71.

100 West, 100 North
13. William Clark (1825–1910). Lehi, Lot 6, Block 16, with adobe house, $200.00, $1,048.50 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 91. 45 West, 100 North

West Main Street
14. Daniel Collett (1807–1894). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 15, with improvements, $200.00, $1,313 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 126. 188 West Main Street

West Main Street
15. Sylvanus Collett (1835–1901). Lehi, Lot 6, Block 10, with adobe house, $150.00, $360.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p.

104, 115 West Main Street
16. Sarah Couzens [Sarah Jaque] (widow of Joseph Couzens [Joseph William Cousins (1809–1856)], deceased). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 13, with improvements, $150.00, $927.20 total consecration. 9 March 1857. BK H, p. 40.

206, 389 West, 100 South
17. Daniel William Cox (1801–1858). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 5, with adobe house, $450.00, $2,225.50 total consecration. 20 January 1857. BK F, p.

West Main Street
18. William Taylor Dennis (1810–1894). Lehi, no city lot, $4,115.50 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 111.

West Main Street
19. Joseph Dobson (1804–1872). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 15, with mud house, $200.00, $721.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 83. 130

86 North, 400 West
20. James Downs (1815–1882). Lehi, Lot 6 and W1/2 of Lot 7, Block 13, with adobe house, $250.00, $1,813.00 total consecration. 9 March 1857. BK H, p. 46.16

North, 100 West
21. Robert Dunn (1818–1885). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 16, with improvements, $250.00, $1,085 total consecration. 20 January 1857. BK F, p. 272.17 86 North, 100 West

North, 100 West
22. Shadrack Empy (1822–1892). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 14, with adobe house, $200.00, $820.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 130. 229

West, 100 North
23. Abel Evans (1812–1866). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 14, except NE Quarter of lot, with house, $150.00, $528.00 total consecration. 31 December 1856. BK F, p. 40.18 90 North, 300 West

Main Street
24. David Evans (1804–1883). Lehi, Lots 2 and 6, Block 14, $1,100.00, $3,075.00 total consecration. 10 May 1856. BK C, p. 39.19 288 West Main Street

Main Street
25. Henry Beck Evans (1830–1911). Lehi, no city lot, $180.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 284.

200 West
26. Joseph Field (1831–1911). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 10, with improvements, $200.00, $489.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 178. 49

200 West, South
27. John Folker (1814–1884). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 6, with adobe house, $200.00, $984.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 94. 166

South, 200 West
28. Jeppe George Folkmann [Jeppe Jorgen Folkman] (1824–1916).20 Lehi, Lot 6, Block 1, with improvements, $65.00, $394.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 285. 65 West, 200 South

200 West, South
29. William Fotheringham (1826–1913). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 1, with two log houses, $100.00, $1,845 total consecration. 4 November 1856. BK C, p.

73, 66 West, 300 South
30. Charles Wesley Gallup. Lehi, no city lot, $438.50 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 170.

31. John Henry Glines (1831–1897). Lehi, no city lot, $387.00 total consecration. 31 March 1857. BK H p. 90.

Block 6, Lot 6, 6 North
32. Abram Hatch [Abraham Chase Hatch] (1830–1911). Lehi, Lot 6, Block 4, with adobe house, $750.00, $2,891.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, np. 132.21

100 South
33. Lorenzo Hill Hatch (1826–1910), and Sylvia S. Hatch. Lehi, Lot 2, Block 13, with buildings and improvements, $800.00, $1,608.00 total consecration. 11 April 1856. BK C 1855, p. 41.22 212 South, 300 West

125 West
34. John Joseph Hayes (1825–1899). Lehi, E1/2 Lot 7, Block 7, $100.00, $311.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 105. 125 West, 100 South

96 North, 200 West
35. William Brown Hill (1836–1883). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 15, with improvements, $150.00, $931.75 total consecration. 29 December 1856. BK F, p. 30. 96 North, 200 West

93 North, 100 West
36. William Hyde (1818–1874). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 15, $150.00, $1,040.00 total consecration. 23 December 1857. BK H, p. 106.

187 West Main Street
37. Ezekiel Hopkins (1801–1872), or his son, Ezekiel Hopkins (1839–1911). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 10, with log house, $200.00, $610.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 120.23 187 West Main Street

87 North, 300 West
38. Daniel James (1807–1880). Lehi, E1/2 Lot 7, and N1/2 Lot 8, Block 13, with adobe house, $200.00, $871.00 total consecration. 28 February 1857. BK H, p. 21. 87 North, 300 West

South, 300 West
39. Samuel James (1825–1893). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 12, with adobe house, $150.00, $490.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 278. 24

West Main Street
40. John Karren (1834–1905). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 11, with adobe house, $150.00, $441.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 181. 231

West Main Street
41. Thomas Karren (1810–1876). Lehi, Lot 2 & the E1/2 of Lot 3, in Block 12, with log house, $150.00, $1,766.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 92. 390 West, 100 South

217 South, 100 West
42. Henry Kearns (1778–1859). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 1, with improvements, $350.00, $1,049.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 128.

West Main Street
43. Suel Lamb (1833–1913). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 9, with adobe house, $150.00, $652.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 127. 95 West Main Street

261 South, 200 West
44. John Irvin Lawson [John Lawson] (1805–1884). Lehi, N1/2 Lot 3, Block 3, with improvements, $50.00, $145.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 117.

290 South, 200 West
45. Abraham Losee (1814–1887). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 3, with improvements, $150.00, $1,153.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 115.

290 South, 200 West
46. John Smiley Lott (1826–1894) and Permelia Darrow Lott (widow of Cornelius P. Lott, deceased) and Peter Lott (1805–1882). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 3, $150.00, $1,153.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 115.

[Peter] Lyman Lott (1842–1906). Lehi, Lots 6 and 7, Block 3, with improvements, $600.00, $2,226.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 100. 241 West, 200 South

47. Robert Maw (1834–1920). Lehi, no city lot, $285.00 total consecration. 19 January 1857. BK F, p. 182. PC

45 West, 100 North
48. James McGaw (1824–1872) & Elias Bassett.24 Lehi, Lot 6, Block 16, with adobe house, $400.00, $2,255.00 total consecration. 23 December 1857. BK H, p. 108.

100 North
49. Ephraim Mecham (1808–1891). Lehi, no city lot, $392.50 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 280.

50. John Miller (1846–1939). Lehi, no city lot, $127.75 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 280.

300 West
51. John Murdock (1792–1871). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 3, with house, $100.00, $295.00 total consecration. 31 December 1856. BK F, p. 38. 209 South

300 West
52. John Riggs Murdock (1826–1913). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 3, also 3/8 of Lot 3, Block 4, Lehi, with 4-room adobe house with cellar, $800.00, $5,097.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 114. 269 South, 300 West

238 West, 300 South
53. Orrice Clapp Murdock (1824–1915). Lehi, Lot 2 and 2 rods of the E side of Lot 3, Block 3, with house, $500.00, $1,665.50 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 95. 238 West, 300 South

South Center Street
54. Jens Nelson [Jens Nielsen] (1796–1875). Lehi, N1/2 of Lot 7, Block 8, $50.00, $306.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 171. 140

South Center Street
55. Henry Elliot Norton (1826–1913). Lehi, no city lot, $460.00 total consecration. 7 May 1856. BK C, p. 42.

74 West, 100 South
56. Peter Madsen Peel [Peder Madsen Pihl] (1820–1900). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 9, with log house, $100.00, $537.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 279. 74 West, 100 South

140 South Center Street
57. Hans Peterson [Hans Pederson] (1823–1881). Lehi, S1/2 of Lot 7, Block 8, with log house, $60.00, $537.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 286. 140 South Center Street

88 South, 300 West
58. Canute Peterson (1824–1902). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 12, with improvements, $150.00, $1,957.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 85.

59. Peter Peterson (1821–1901). Lehi, no city lot, $307.50 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 283.

290 South, 100 West
60. Stephen Howard Pierce (1816–Deceased). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 2, with improvements, $466.00, $761.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 275.

290 South, 100 West
61. Charles Price (1800–1873). Lehi, no city lot, $680.00 total consecration. 27 November 1856. BK C, p. 104.

South Center Street
62. Tunis Rappley (1808–1883). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 1, with adobe house, $200.00, $772.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 282. 220 South Center Street

260 South, 100 West
63. Alonzo Pearls Raymond (1821–1904). Lehi, Lot 8,25 Block 2, with adobe house, $300.00, $2,305.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 108. 260 South, 100 West

215 South, 100 West
64. William Wallace Raymond (1824–1881). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 2, with log house, $200.00, $2,020.00 total consecration. 31 March 1857. BK H, p.

88 West, 215 South
65. William Reid (1805–1858). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 13, with improvements, $23.00, $450.50 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 179.

86 North, 400 West
66. Alonzo Donnell Rhodes (1824–1893). Lehi, E1/2 of Lot 1, Block 10, with house, $200.00, $1,164.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 102. 90 South, 100 West

125 West, 100 South
67. Joseph Robinson (1814–1891). Lehi, W1/2 Lot 7, Block 7, with improvements, $100.00, $521.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857.26 BK F, p. 281. 125 West, 100 South

100 South
68. William Sharp (1825–1900). Lehi, no city lot, $235.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 86.

86 West, 125 South
69. Joseph Skeen (1816–1882). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 4, with 6-room adobe house, $1,000.00, $2,764.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 99. 377 West, 200 South

205, 390 West Main Street
70. Joseph Johnson Smith (1821–1902). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 13, with adobe house, $500.00, $1,804.00 total consecration. 20 January 1857. BK F, p.

89, 267 South, 400 West
71. Samuel Thomas Smith (1823–1890). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 4, with adobe house, $150.00, $507.50 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p.

West Main Street
72. James Taylor [James Whitehead Taylor] (1819–1891) and Ann Taylor. Lehi, Lot 8, Block 7, $700.00, $1,300.00 total consecration. no date, no month,27 1856. BK C 1855, p. 40. 110 South, 100 West

382 West, 300 South
73. Thomas Taylor (1826–1900). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 2, with adobe house, $300.00, $932.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 106–107.

65 South, 100 West
74. William Taylor [William Whitehead Taylor] (1828–1907). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 10, adobe house, $200.00, total consecration $625.00. [no date]. BK C 1855, p. 81. April 1856. 65 South, 100 West

186 South, 300 West
75. Daniel Stillwell Thomas (1803–1878). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 12, with adobe house, $300.00, $842.50 total consecration. 26 February 1857. BK G, p. 204. 405 West Main Street

West Main Street
76. Preston Thomas (1814–1877). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 11, with log houses, $200.00, $2,207.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 97. 281 West Main Street

186 South, 300 West
77. John Titcomb (1800–1858). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 5, with adobe house, $300.00, $1,150.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 122.

37 West, 200 South
78. William Van Dyke (1830–1901). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 1, with adobe house, $200.00, $523.75 total consecration. 30 January 1858. Not found in Utah County book.28

11 West, 200 South
79. Andrew Vince [Moses Andrews Vince] (1809–1859). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 8, $450.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 88. 11 West Main Street

216 South, 200 West
80. William Sidney Smith Willes (1819–1871). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 3, with improvements, $700.00, $2,020.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 112–113.

168 West, 200 South
81. Thomas Griffin Winn (1829–1904). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 7, with adobe house, $200.00, $666.50 total consecration. 7 January 1857. BK F, p.

80 West, 168 South
82. William Henry Winn (1833–1884). Lehi, no lot or block, $148.00 total consecration. 9 April 1857. BK H, p. 84.

240 South, 100 West
83. Solomon Wixom (1809–1879).29 Lehi, Lot 7 and N1/2 of Lot 8, Block 2, with adobe house, $400.00, $1,308.50 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK H, p.

36 West, 100 South
84. Georg Gottlieb Zimmermann (1781–1866). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 9, with improvements, $125.00, $443.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 169.

88 South, Center Street
85. John Zimmerman (1820–1908). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 9, $125.00, $1,873.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 176.
Fort Cabin Occupants

The cabins were arranged end-to-end to form a hollow square in the first of two phases of the fort. Van Wagoner says nearly three hundred settlers occupied sixty cabins, but he names only fifty-three individuals31 on the list corresponding to the numbers (1–85) of the diagram.

East Side (7)North Side (12)West Side (18)South Side (16)
William Goates2. Thomas AshtonJohn AndreasonOrrace Murdock
81. George Zimmerman4. Alfred Bell17. Daniel Cox51. John R. Murdock Sen.
John Zimmerman22. Abel EvansSamuel James50. John Murdock
John Spires23. David Evans38. Samuel James31. Abram Hatch
61. Tunis Rappley14. William Dobson75. Luke Titcomb45. Mrs. Pamelia Lott
Martin BushmanPhilip OlmsteadCharles Partridge45. John S. Lott
John BrownPrime Coleman7. Samuel BriggsIra J. Willes
William ColemanWilliam Goates77. W. S. S. Willes
George Coleman70. Samuel T. Smith44. Abraham Losee
William Burgess12. David ClarkMrs. Lydia Losee
Jehial McConnell57. Canute Peterson68. Joseph Skeens
Joel W. White9. Abraham Brown40. Thomas Skeens
Israel EvansJohn MercerAlonzo D. Rhodes
David Evans69. Joseph J. SmithThomas Karren
Riley Judd84. Daniel S. ThomasJohn Winn
David JuddSamuel HarwoodSilas P. Barnes
John W. NortonDaniel Cox61. Tunis Rappley
Henry NortonOley Ellingson
J. Wiley Norton
David Norton

Closing Notes

Some of the settlers remained in Lehi after their 1856/1857 consecrations were accepted and recorded. The locations of the homes of several of them in later years have been located in other studies.32 Some moved from Lehi. Some moved from the fort in Lehi to other property in Lehi. For example, William Clark moved from the Lot 6 property on Block 16(40) to a home on Lot 4 of the same block some time before he received title to both lots in 1871.

Some of the names absent from the cabins list are absent from the consecration deeds. This could reflect the fact that the individuals left Lehi before the consecration movement began, or that the individuals did not consecrate their property, or that their consecration deeds have not yet been located.

Sixty-eight of the 128 building lots on the sixteen blocks in the fort are represented on the consecration deeds. If 40% of the men in the Lehi settlement consecrated their property, as Arrington says was the estimated percentage of the participation of the men in the Territory, 51 lots should have been claimed on the deeds. It appears that participation in the consecration movement was higher in Lehi than in other parts of the Territory.
Notes

1 This, and similar documents by Wayne E. Clark, are posted at the Lehi Historical Society and Historical Archive Indexes, https://www.lehihistory.com. Thanks to John Knollin Haws Jr. and the other volunteers at the Lehi Historical Society and Archives for encouragement and support, and to Dan Olds for heartily pushing for the search for consecration deeds and for other important historical information. Corrections or additions welcome. wayneeldenclark@gmail.com.

2 Fox, Feramorz Y. (March 1944). The Consecration Movement of the Middle ‘Fifties,’ Improvement Era, 47 (2) February, March 1944: 80–81, 120–21, 124–25, 146–47, 185, 187–88.

3 He wrote that the recorded deeds were to have been sent to the office of the Trustee-in-Trust of the church in Great Salt Lake City. These must include the deeds now preserved in the LDS Church History Library, in Salt Lake City. Consecration Deeds, 1854–1867. One book, Consecration book, circa 1857–1858, Call Number CR 5 53, Identifier CR 5 53/b0001. No. 233, has a list of deeds from throughout the Territory. The original deeds on the printed forms of many are accessible from CR 5 53: Consecration Deeds 1854–1867. For example, the original consecration deed of John Brown is accessed from Deeds, B, #271–288. Fox mentions the existence of two deeds in possession of a man who found them in a rubbish pile.

4 Found in “Book A of Deeds” in the church historians office, and in “Pioneer Records, Salt Lake County Recorder’s Office, p. 249.”

5 p. 120

6 Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900, p. 146–147. See also James Naylor Jones, The Utah Valley Home, https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/987726. Accessed 15 February, 2017, and Willing Hands: A Biography of Lorenzo Hill Hatch (1826–1910), http://www.b13family.com/html/journal-lorenzo_hatch.htm. Accessed 15 February, 2017.

7 Fox notes that this is an exact count, taken from records in office of the county recorder. He must have seen the copies of the deeds preserved in LDS Conveyance books in the Utah County Office of Land Records, 100 East Center Street, Suite 1300, Provo, Utah 84606. The contents of the books are indexed for electronic searching. Consecration deeds of early Lehi settlers are found in books labelled LDS Church Conveyances, BK C, BK F, and BK H.

8 His consecration was twenty cents below the average, $1,048.70.

9 Ownership and numbers of Lots and Blocks and acreage on various surveys throughout the county are contained in Webb Access to Utah County Land Records – Abstract Images — LDS Church Conveyance. Included are “American Creek Survey 1851,” “American Creek Survey of Farm Land,” 1853–1855, “Upper Dry Creek Survey of Farming Land,” 1853, and “Lake Farm Land.”

10 Presumably the garden plots in 1855/1856 were the same as the ones on later records. The earliest entry in the Utah County abstract book for garden plots for Lehi is for 1 December 1879.

11 Hamilton Gardner, 1913, History of Lehi, Including a Biographical Section, https://archive.org/stream/historyoflehiinc

12 Lehi: Portraits of a Utah Town, https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1023732&from=fnd, accessed 17 November 2016.

13 Hamilton Gardner, 1913, History of Lehi, Including a Biographical Section, p. 158–159.

14 Hamilton Gardner, 1913, History of Lehi, Including a Biographical Section, https://archive.org/stream/historyoflehiinc.

15 Webb Access to Utah County Land Records – Abstract Images — LDS Church Conveyances BK C, BK F, and BK H.

16 Original in LDS Church History Library, CR 5 53, box 2, fd. 16

17 Original in CR 5 53, box 2, fd. 16

18 Original in LDS Church History Library, CR 5 53, box 3, fd. 1

19 Immediately follows the deed of David Evans, dated 10 May 1856, and of Henry C. Norton, dated 7 May [1856].

20 A brother, Jens Peter Folkman (1829–1911), has a son born in Lehi in 1858.

21 Original in LDS Church History Library CR 5 53 box 3, fd. 3

22 Original in LDS Church History Library, CR 5 53, box 3, fd. 3. See also Willing Hands: A Biography of Lorenzo Hill Hatch, 1826–1910, http://www.b13family.com/html/journal-lorenzo_hatch.htm

23 Original in LDS Church History Library, CR 5 53, box 3, fd. 3

24 James McGaw, age 34, was in Ogden, Utah, in the 1860 Census. His wife, Mary Matilda Bassett (1800–1878), age 56, was with him, as was Mary’s mother, Matilda Salter Bassett (1800–1878), age 56, (1837–1906), age 23, and Elias Bassett, age 40. Elias must have been James’s brother in law.

25 This may be listed in error for Lot 6. Lot 8 of Block 2 is also recorded as having been claimed by Solomon Wixom on 28 January 1857. Alternatively Raymond and Wixom could each have occupied 1/2 of Lot 6 in 1857.

26 Immediately follows the deed of David Evans, dated 10 May 1856, and precedes the deeds of Lorenzo Hill Hatch, dated 11 April 1856, and of Henry C. Norton, dated 7 May [1856].

27 See Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Joseph Robinson, https://history.lds.org/overlandtravel/pioneers/17621923085049108012/joseph-robinson. Accessed 1 March 2017.

28 See Biography of Joseph Morgan Wixom, https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/999379. Accessed 1 March 2017.

29 This figure includes $1000.00 listed by John Brown for his wife’s slave girl. See Consecration, Reformation, and “One African Servant Girl” in Lehi, Utah, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2a0libjFK1d2VEME0/view?usp=sharing

31 Lehi: Portraits of a Utah Town, https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1023732&from=fnd, accessed 17 November 2016, p. 4–5, citing Andrew Field, “Notes.” Courtesy Leona Noyes, Lehi Library/Archives. Tunis Rappley is listed on both the East and South sides of the fort.

32 A subsequent study of the consecration deeds combined with the 1860 Census and other sources of information resulted in a more complete picture of the Lehi City fort in the years following the issuance of the deeds. Mormon Pioneers in Lehi, Utah Territory, 1854–1871, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2YzRBczAxMjlhsVFU/view?usp=sharing

33 The Old Fort Wall, a Herd of Cows, and a Near and Dear Neighbor in Lehi, Utah, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2a0libjFK1d2VEME0/view?usp=sharing


~

For more on William Sharp and his descendants, and on the Plain City families whose Lehi roots are documented in Clark’s consecration list, see:

Sharp-Bailey Wedding — William and Mary Ann’s story
Sharp-Stoker Wedding — Milo Riley Sharp and his family
History of Plain City — a multi-part series on Plain City’s founding families and history
1895 Plain City Student Body — the children of Plain City’s founding generation, including Delwin Sharp and the Skeen, Maw, and Folkman families
Sharp Family History Outreach — the broader Sharp family history and connections

Wayne E. Clark, Lehi, Utah, 2017. Part of the Wayne E. Clark Collection at the Lehi Historical Society and Archives, https://www.lehihistory.com. Contact: wayneeldenclark@gmail.com. Corrections or additions welcome.

Settlers in Lehi, Utah, Consecrated their Properties to their ChurchDownload
by

Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment

In September 2020, Amanda and I took our family out to Golden Spike National Historic Park at Promontory Summit, Utah. I have written about that visit previously. What drew us there, in part, was the knowledge that Amanda’s 3rd great-grandfather Joseph Wayment had been present on 10 May 1869 when the last spike was driven completing the transcontinental railroad — and that Andrew J. Russell’s famous photograph had captured him standing in the crowd. I promised in that post to tell more of Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment’s story another time. This is that time.

Hiram, Amanda, Aliza, and Paul Ross, Bryan Hemsley, Lillian and James Ross, and Jill Hemsley at Golden Spike National Historic Park, September 2020
Hiram, Amanda, Aliza, and Paul Ross, Bryan Hemsley, Lillian and James Ross, and Jill Hemsley at Golden Spike National Historic Park, 7 September 2020.
East and West Shaking Hands at the Laying of the Last Rail, Promontory Summit, Utah, 10 May 1869. Photograph by Andrew J. Russell.
East and West Shaking Hands at the Laying of the Last Rail, Promontory Summit, Utah, 10 May 1869. Photograph by Andrew J. Russell. Joseph Wayment stands in the crowd on the left side of the image. Find the man standing below the Union Pacific’s No. 119 locomotive light with his jacket open and white shirt, then find the man whose head is in front of that man’s right thigh, behind the fellow with the partially raised hat. That is Joseph Wayment, age 25.

Andrew J. Russell, the official photographer of the Union Pacific Railroad who took this photograph, wrote of that moment: “The continental iron band now permanently unites the distant portions of the Republic, and opens up to Commerce, Navigation, and Enterprise the vast unpeopled plains and lofty mountain ranges that now divide the East from the West. Standing amid ‘The Antres vast and Desert wild,’ surrounded with the representative men of the nation, an epoch in the march of civilization was recorded, and a new era in human progress was ushered in.”

Joseph Wayment was one of the men in that crowd — a twenty-five-year-old English convert who had crossed the Atlantic seasick on the Amazon, walked the plains behind an ox team, survived Montana winters so cold the dishwater froze before it hit the snow, and was now building a life in a patch of Utah desert he would spend the next six decades transforming into a home, a farm, and a community. Would he have fathomed that 151 years later his great-great-great-granddaughter, and her children, would stand at that same spot.

Origins in Whaddon

Joseph Wayment, circa 1874.

I used AI to colorize and sharpen the images. If you click on them, you should be able to see the original black and white. AI took a bit of liberty on the photos regarding clothes.

Ann Reed, circa 1874.

Joseph Wayment was born 7 February 1844 in Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, England, the second son of William and Martha Brown Wayment. His older brother Aaron had lived only one day, so as far as the family was concerned, Joseph was the eldest. I have written previously about his parents in my post on William and Martha Wayment.

Ann Reed was born 1 January 1852 in the same small village — the fifth child and second daughter of James and Sarah East Reed. Whaddon was a tight community, a small village in the district of Royston, County of Cambridge, gathered around the ancient stone church of St. Mary the Virgin. Whaddon appears to have been somewhere around 400-500 people. The Wayments and the Reeds were neighbors in every sense of the word. Their children attended the same meetings, worked the same fields, and children would be baptized in the same river/brook.

Ann’s early life was marked by tragedy. When she was two years old, she slipped into a deep ditch near their home. No one else was nearby. Her mother, Sarah East Reed, then heavy with child, jumped in after her. Ann was saved, but the ordeal brought on labor. The baby girl was born 13 July 1854 and died the same day. Three days later, Sarah also died from complications, and mother and infant were buried together in the same casket. Ann’s father James Reed did his best to keep the family together, but he too died on 2 February 1858, leaving five orphans — the oldest fourteen, Ann just five years old.

Their mother’s sister, Hannah East, came to Whaddon to keep house for the children. Hannah was herself from Whaddon — born there on 24 August 1828, the sister of Sarah East Reed and of George East Sr., who would later become a familiar figure in Warren, Utah. Hannah was baptized LDS 3 June 1848. She stayed with the Reed orphans for several years before emigrating to Zion, where she eventually settled in Lehi, Utah, married Thomas Karren in 1865, and lived until 2 May 1907. It is a quiet thread of continuity that Hannah — who held Ann’s orphaned family together in Whaddon — ended her days in the same territory where Ann built her life, just a day’s journey away in Lehi.

After Hannah left England, the children were kept by the Parish until they could earn their own living. Ann went out to service at age eleven. She endured difficult conditions in several positions before finally working David and Mary Hide Grieg (the histories state it was Grigg), where she stayed nearly five years and carefully saved her wages toward passage to America. The Grieg family lived in nearby Melbourn, a family that was not LDS.

The Gospel Comes to Whaddon

I wrote in the William and Martha Wayment post about how the Wayment home had become a gathering place for LDS missionaries since William’s baptism in March 1850 — how despite community hostility, meetings were held in different houses and baptisms conducted at night to avoid mobs. The gospel took hold in Whaddon. On the night of 7 May 1860, Joseph Wayment, age sixteen, was baptized in Whaddon Brook along with his brother Samuel and sister Emily. Ann Reed, age eight, was baptized and confirmed the same night.

They shared the same waters. They would share a life.

Joseph worked in the peat bogs with his father from his early teens, fossil digging to earn enough for his passage to Zion. He had one more memorable appearance in Whaddon before he left: shortly before his departure, he sang a solo at a church meeting that deeply impressed those present. His voice was described as a clear and beautiful bass. Ann Reed, then twelve years old, was in that congregation. Decades later she would tell her grandchildren with deep feeling how thrilled she had been sitting in that meeting listening to Joseph sing.

The Voyage of the Amazon, 1863

On 1 June 1863, Joseph left Whaddon for Liverpool. Three days later, on 4 June, he booked passage on the sailing vessel Amazon — listed on the manifest as “Joseph Waymound,” age 19 — and sailed from Liverpool with 881 fellow Saints bound for Zion. As I wrote in my Stoker family post, the Amazon was a famous voyage. It was this crossing that Charles Dickens observed and wrote about, describing the Mormon emigrants not as misfits and scoundrels but as the “pick and flower” of England. Future U.S. Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland was also aboard (whose family was LDS). George Q. Cannon dedicated the ship. My own Stoker ancestors were on this same vessel — an extraordinary coincidence that ties our two family lines together. Since Warren and Plain City were small communities, they likely knew each other.

Joseph was seasick nearly the entire six-week crossing. The Amazon landed in New York around the middle of July 1863. He traveled by train to a point on the Missouri River, then by boat up to Florence, Nebraska. From there he walked and drove an ox team across the plains in Captain Dan McCarty’s company — a new experience for him, as he later told his grandsons, having learned to handle horses in England but never oxen. He arrived in Salt Lake City on 3 October 1863, four months and two days after leaving his father’s home.

The very next day the October General Conference of the Church began, held in the Bowery. Joseph stood near the speakers’ platform. Brigham Young was one of the speakers, and Joseph later said it was one of the most inspiring sermons he ever heard — that Brigham Young seemed to be surrounded by a bright light. Part of that sermon Joseph remembered all his life.

The Freighting Years, 1864–1866

After a winter in Lehi, Joseph went to work in the spring of 1864 for a freighting company — probably the Toponce Freighting Company — hauling goods to Montana. He stayed with the outfit until the fall of 1866. Those were hard and consequential years.

The winter of 1864 was brutal. The freighters were snowbound on a Montana river for several weeks. Joseph served as camp cook. He later told his family that when he threw out the dishwater, it froze to ice before it hit the snow. Some of the cattle froze to death. One day the lot fell to Joseph to fetch wood. His hands were tender from cooking and dishwashing, but he went out and cut an armful. As he was picking up the last piece of wood, he felt his whole body beginning to freeze. He stumbled back toward the cabin, but before he reached it his whole body had gone numb. The men rubbed him with coal oil and did everything they could to revive him. One of them said, “Joe Wayment gets no more wood this winter — I’ll get it for him.”

During the freighting years two confrontations became family legend. In the first, a stranger from another company approached the camp and asked if there were any Mormons present. He was directed to Joseph. The man told him he had helped mob the Saints in Missouri and Illinois, then pulled open his shirt to his chest and said, “Now shoot me.” He had lived such a miserable life since helping the mob, he said, that he wanted a Mormon to shoot him. Joseph replied: “No Mormon will ever stain his hands with your blood.”

In the second, the freighters encountered soldiers who had been in Johnston’s Army making their way north into Washington. Learning that some of the freighters were from Utah, they asked to hear the song that had been made up about Johnston’s Army coming to Utah. Joseph was the best singer in camp. He refused at first, knowing it would anger them. When they promised not to get angry, he relented and sang. One soldier became so furious he drew his pistol and threatened to kill the singer. The captain of the soldiers, quick as a flash, drew his own pistol on the angry man and said he would kill him if he harmed the singer. The other soldiers took the man away.

A third incident, at a freighters’ stop near Oxford, Idaho, demonstrated that Joseph was a man of both faith and action. He and his longtime friend and fellow teamster William Butler had pulled in for the night after a long drive. Other freighters already there greeted them with jeers — “There’s those Mormons” — and tried to force them to move on. Joseph and Butler had weary teams and held their ground. When words grew heated, Joseph walked briskly to his wagon, took the green willow switch he used to urge his team, walked thirty paces to some soft ground, and with one swing left it standing upright. Then he walked back, drew his pistol, turned, and split the willow with one shot. The heckling stopped immediately.

In the fall of 1866 Joseph had a strong feeling come over him that he should return to Utah. The company he was working with was a rough and irreligious crowd. He found a secluded spot in the timber, knelt, and asked the Lord for guidance. The next morning his mind was made up. He saddled his horse, gathered his belongings — three buffalo robes and his working clothes — and started for Utah.

Settling Salt Creek

He came first to Layton or Kaysville, then went to Call’s Fort near present Honeyville where he worked for a man named Barnard and helped build the first schoolhouse there. He bought a piece of land at Call’s Fort but eventually sold it. In 1872 he moved to what was then called Salt Creek, southwest of Plain City, and bought the land he would own until his death — purchasing it from H. H. Wadman, making him the second family to settle on Salt Creek. He kept “Bachelor’s Hall” there for about two years. His brother John B. Wayment, who arrived from England in July 1873, lived with him for part of that time.

The home of Bishop William Thomas Wayment and his wife Maud at 662 N. 5900 W. in Warren. Joseph Wayment appears at far right with a horse.

About 1872, Joseph began writing letters to a young woman of his boyhood acquaintance back in Whaddon — Ann Reed. She had grown up, gone out to service, endured difficult years, and was now working for the Greig family, carefully saving her wages. She accepted his invitation to come to Utah and be his wife.

Ann Comes to America, 1874

Ann left her place of work on 2 June 1874 and sailed from Liverpool on 24 June 1874 aboard the steamship Idaho. The Idaho carried 903 passengers on that voyage, arriving in New York on 6 July 1874. Ann traveled overland by rail and arrived in Ogden about the middle of July.

Joseph met her in Ogden — likely taking her to his brother Samuel’s home. On the way they crossed a stream of clear running water. Joseph stopped the horses to let them drink, cupped his hat, dipped it in, and offered Ann the first drink. She couldn’t bring herself to drink water out of a hat from a river like that. Joseph enjoyed the cool drink regardless.

On 7 August 1874, Joseph Wayment and Ann Reed were married by Louis Warren Shurtliff at Joseph’s home in Salt Creek — ending, as Alma Hansen later wrote, the era of “Bachelor’s Hall.” On 29 June 1876, Joseph and Ann traveled to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, where they were endowed and sealed to each other for time and all eternity. Joseph had been ordained an Elder by Alonzo Knight ten days earlier, on 19 June 1876, in preparation for that ordinance.

The First Years in Salt Creek

The Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment home in Warren, photographed June 1928. Joseph is likely the seated figure visible on the front porch.

Their first child, Sarah, was born 29 October 1875 — one of the first white children born in the Salt Creek area. In the spring of 1876 the Weber River overflowed its banks and covered much of the country where Warren now stands. The first time it came up, it stayed two weeks. The crops survived. But the river flooded again, higher than before, and stayed six weeks. The crops were completely destroyed. Joseph’s house was just high enough to keep the water from running under it — but it came right to the doorstep. He kept a rowboat in which he and Ann traveled to the sandhill in Plain City to do business. His horses broke loose just before the flood and were later found on meadows west of Brigham City. The other cattle and horses in the area lived on the high knolls until the water subsided.

Joseph planted the first fruit and shade trees in the Warren area. He watered them by hand from a well he dug himself, using a long pole with a hook and a bucket because he didn’t have a rope. Later he had a windmill built over the well and irrigated some of his crops with it. About 1880 the residents of Salt Creek organized together and built a ditch up to Four-Mile in the southern part of Plain City to run water to their crops. Part of that original ditch can still be seen near the north side of the bench in Warren.

In March 1881 Joseph was appointed secretary and assistant superintendent of the Salt Creek Sunday School, offices he held for many years. In 1883 he was chairman of the board of trustees for the first schoolhouse built in Warren — a one-room brick building on the bench. His sister Martha Wayment, now Mrs. David East, was the first teacher.

About 1877 Joseph was appointed the first road supervisor in the Warren district, a position he held for ten years. The road supervisor received no pay for his services other than to apply his labor toward his poll taxes, as did all the other men. About the first work done was to fill up some of the creek crossings. He also hauled salt from the creek banks west of Plain City up to the Hot Springs — a full day’s work per load for which he received fifty cents. The salt was used in the smelting of silver ore in Montana.

Six more children followed Sarah: Martha Ann (2 June 1877), Leonard Joseph (12 September 1878), Mary Jane (8 May 1880), Walter Hyrum (14 November 1881), Hannah Alberta (23 August 1883), and Amelia Brown (29 July 1890).

Back row, left to right: Sarah Wayment, Martha Ann Wayment, Leonard Joseph Wayment, Mary Jane Wayment. Middle row: Hannah Alberta Wayment, Joseph Wayment, Ann Reed Wayment holding Amelia Brown Wayment, Martha Brown Wayment (Joseph’s mother). Seated in front: Walter Hyrum Wayment. Photograph circa 1890–1891.

The family portrait above, taken around 1890–1891 when Amelia was an infant, captures all seven children in a single frame. Four generations are present — including Joseph’s mother Martha Brown Wayment at far right, who had herself made the journey from Whaddon in 1878. I wrote about her in the William and Martha Wayment post.

The Flood of 1884 and Ann’s Heroism

In the spring of 1884 the Weber River flooded again — not as severe as 1876, but severe enough to kill all the crops, many fruit trees, and berry bushes. Joseph moved his family into his brother John’s house on the brow of the hill north of the Arthur Marriott home — a one-room house, not large enough for all the family to sleep in. Some of the children slept in a wagon under the shed.

A day or two after they moved, a heavy rain set in. The children’s bedding became soaked. In trying to provide for his family, Joseph was exposed to the rain, cold, and mosquitoes, and he took down with malaria fever. The house was too small for any comfort, and some of the men of the locality moved the family back into their own house — even though it was surrounded by water.

For six weeks Joseph lay near death. Many did not expect him to recover. During this time Ann would walk — and sometimes wade, in water up to her knees — a quarter to half a mile west on the bench to where their cow was pastured. She milked the cow and carried the milk back to feed her husband. For a while he was so weak he could not feed himself, and Ann would have to feed him by hand. He sent for elders from Plain City to administer to him. While they were visiting, he asked to be propped up in bed and talked with them at length. From that time he continued to improve, though he was not entirely well for several years. That fall he was well enough to work on the threshing machine.

Of all the incidents in the long life of Joseph and Ann Wayment, this one — Ann wading flood water to milk the cow and hand-feed her dying husband — speaks most directly to the character of their partnership. The memorial card at their graves in West Warren says it plainly: “Ann Reed Wayment gave loyal and loving support to her husband. No problem arose that they did not find a place of adjustment and agreement.”

Firsts in Warren

The 1902 Portrait, Genealogical and Biographical Record of the State of Utah described Joseph as “one of nature’s noblemen” and enumerated his contributions to the community. He planted the first fruit and shade trees. He was the first road supervisor, serving ten years. When the first schoolhouse was built he served as school board chairman, assessor, and collector. He was one of the first stockholders and directors of the Slaterville Creamery. He raised one hundred tons of sugar beets annually for the Ogden sugar factory.

By 1888 Joseph had shifted his main occupation from general farming to dairying. He kept as many as fourteen milk cows at once. His children did much of the work — milking the cows, putting the milk in cans under cool water until the cream gathered to the top, then skimming and churning it to butter. They sold as many as 2,000 pounds of their own butter in a single year. Later the milk went to the Slaterville creamery, of which Joseph was a founding director.

In November 1910 Joseph was elected Justice of the Peace of the Warren Precinct — a fitting civic capstone for the man who had been among the first to settle Salt Creek and had spent decades building its institutions.

In 1896 Salt Creek was officially named Warren, after Lewis Warren Shurtliff, the stake president who organized the new ward — the same Louis Warren Shurtliff who had married Joseph and Ann in 1874.

Ann in Warren

Ann Reed Wayment.
Ann Reed Wayment at her home in Warren.

Ann Reed Wayment was a woman of quiet and enduring strength. Her daughter Mary Jane wrote of her: “She was an energetic worker in Relief Society, holding and filling many offices in it. She was very useful among the sick, exercising great faith as her best healing art. She was a kind, loving, very thoughtful mother to her family. She lived a useful life, impressing her children and those who mingled with her what a wonderful mother and woman she really was.”

The Warren Ward Relief Society was organized on 30 November 1902. Ann was sustained as its Treasurer — her sister-in-law Castina Wayment, wife of Joseph’s brother Samuel, served as First Counselor. Ann was not present at the organization meeting but was set apart as Treasurer on 5 February 1903. At the first Relief Society meeting held at the home of President Jane Stewart on 18 December 1902, Ann bore her testimony and gave the benediction. She served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Warren Relief Society from 1902 to 1916.

Alma Hansen, who knew both his grandparents personally and compiled their biography from firsthand family accounts, described Ann in a single memorable sentence: “She was short of stature but stood ten feet tall in her loving service.”

A February Week in Logan, 1893

Logan, Utah, with the Logan Temple visible in the background, circa 1890s. Digital Image © 2001 Utah State Historical Society. All rights reserved. Used for non-commercial, educational purposes.

In February 1893, Joseph and Ann made an extended trip to the Logan Temple — a journey that had been years in the making. In careful sequence over eight days, they completed ordinance work for ancestors in their lineage and sealed their families together for eternity.

On 16 February 1893, Joseph was sealed to his parents, William and Martha Brown Wayment, in the Logan Utah Temple.

On 21 February, proxy baptism and confirmation were performed for James Reed and Sarah East Reed — Ann’s parents — in the Logan Temple.

On 22 February, the proxy endowment was performed for Sarah East Reed in the Logan Temple. Almost certainly the same was done for James Reed that day, though that record was later lost and the ordinance was repeated at the Manti Temple in 1938.

On 23 February 1893, Ann was sealed to her parents, James and Sarah East Reed, in the Logan Temple.

For a woman who had grown up an orphan at age five — whose mother died saving her life in 1854 and whose father died in 1858 — this February week in the Logan Temple completed a covenant that no earthly circumstance had been able to make. The parents she had barely known were now bound to her forever.

A Mission at Fifty-Six

Joseph Wayment’s handwritten mission acceptance letter to Brother George Reynolds, Warren, 15 January 1900. “It would be agreeable my feelings, and consistent with my circumstances, to take a mission to preach the gospel, if I am considered worthy. I can be ready within 30 days, or less. I remain your Brother, Joseph Wayment.”

On Christmas Day 1899, Joseph was asked to fill a mission for the Church. He was fifty-five years old, a grandfather, and still carrying the kidney effects of a severe malaria attack from fifteen years earlier. His response, written in his own hand on 15 January 1900 to Brother George Reynolds of the First Council of the Seventies, occupies four plain lines: it would be agreeable to his feelings and consistent with his circumstances; he could be ready within thirty days, or less. He remained the reader’s Brother, Joseph Wayment.

On 19 January 1900 he received his formal call from President Lorenzo Snow to labor in the Southwestern States. He was set apart on 14 February 1900 by Apostle George Teasdale in the Temple Annex in Salt Lake City — the same day his Seventy’s License was formally issued, signed by Seymour B. Young, President of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies.

Joseph Wayment’s Seventy’s License Certificate, issued 14 February 1900, certifying his ordination as a Seventy by Jacob Gates on 7 November 1889. Signed by Seymour B. Young.

His Missionary Certificate bore the signatures of the entire First Presidency: President Lorenzo Snow, First Counselor George Q. Cannon, and Second Counselor Joseph F. Smith. That Joseph’s mission call passed through the hands of George Reynolds — historically notable as the defendant in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Reynolds v. United States (1879) — places it squarely in the living history of the Church.

He left the next day for Kansas, laboring first in Elk County under Elder H. E. Harrison, then for nearly four months in Greenwood County, until he was taken very sick with malaria again. In his own words: “I left my field of labor on the 4th of July for St. John and arrived home on the 7th, three days later. I was sick for three or four months.” The malaria affected his kidneys, an effect he felt until his death.

While Joseph was away on his mission and then ill at home, Ann kept the farm, the animals, and the household organized. When he returned, she nursed him back to health.

The Children

Of their seven children, three preceded them in death. Martha Ann, their firstborn daughter, married Louis Alma Hansen on 23 November 1898. She died on 19 October 1908 at age 31 of acute nephritis, leaving four children and her husband. Her loss was a grief Joseph and Ann carried quietly for the rest of their lives. Leonard Joseph married Sarah Naomi Hodson in 1902, was called to the British Mission in November 1915, labored in Belfast, Ireland, took sick, and arrived home 19 July 1916. He passed away the next morning, leaving a wife and three children.

The four who outlived their parents were Sarah (married Joseph Emelius Hansen), Mary Jane (married Samuel Bagley Willis, later Orson Francis Waldram), Walter Hyrum (married Iva Dell Wade), Hannah Alberta (married Thomas LeRoy White), and Amelia Brown (married George James Lythgoe).

The 70th Birthday, 1914

Family portrait honoring Joseph Wayment’s 70th birthday, 7 February 1914, Warren, Weber, Utah. Third row center: Ann Reed Wayment and Joseph Wayment, flanked by siblings John Brown Wayment and William Thomas Wayment and sister Martha East.

On 7 February 1914 the extended Wayment family gathered at the Warren home for Joseph’s 70th birthday — a family portrait captured four rows of family: children, grandchildren, siblings, their spouses and children, and young Alma Wayment Hansen himself, visible as a boy in the second row, who would later compile a biography of his grandparents. At the center of the third row sit Joseph and Ann, flanked by his brothers John Brown and William Thomas Wayment and his sister Martha East. By this gathering all the children had married.

The Grasshoppers

One incident from Joseph’s later years became a touchstone story in the family, attested to by his daughter Sarah. A summer or two after his first malaria attack, he had planted wheat in the field north of the house. The crop grew abundantly, had headed out full, and was beginning to turn yellow when the children noticed one evening that a great horde of grasshoppers had descended on the grain. They went in and told their father. He was not well, still weakened from the malaria. He arose, took his cane, and walked out into the field.

The grasshoppers were large and so thick they were bending the stalks almost to the ground. What once looked like a bounteous harvest now seemed doomed. Then right there in the midst of the grain and the grasshoppers, Joseph knelt and made a most fervent appeal to his Heavenly Father for aid. Night came on. The family retired — but not without family prayer. The next morning not a grasshopper could be found on the grain. There were no traces of where they had been.

The Golden Wedding, 1924

Salt Lake Tribune, 12 August 1924. Joseph Wayment and Wife Honored on Their Golden Wedding Day.
Left to right: Walter Hyrum Wayment, Amelia Brown Wayment Lythgoe, Joseph Wayment, Ann Reed Wayment, Sarah Wayment. Photograph taken at the Warren home, circa 1924.

On Thursday, 7 August 1924, Joseph and Ann celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with elaborate festivities at their Warren home. The Salt Lake Tribune reported the occasion. By remarkable coincidence, a great-grandson was born that same day at nearly the identical hour that Joseph and Ann had married fifty years before — a son born to Mr. and Mrs. William Bennington Jr. of Ogden. The event, as the paper noted, cheered the aged couple considerably.

The celebration drew family from across Weber County. Among those present were Joseph’s siblings — his sisters Mrs. Martha East of Warren and Mrs. Emily Mullen of Ogden, and his brother Bishop William T. Wayment of Warren — along with four daughters, one son, and twenty-six grandchildren.

The photograph captures something of what fifty years in Warren had built. Joseph stands center-rear, his great white beard the same beard his doctor had prescribed after the 1884 malaria — protection for his throat and chest from the cold. Ann stands center-front, hands folded, short of stature. Sarah, their eldest — the first white child born in Warren — stands at the right. Walter Hyrum, their only surviving son, is at the far left with his wife Amelia Lythgoe beside him.

Final Years

Ann Reed and Joseph Wayment.
Left to right: Verlan Hansen, Ann Reed Wayment holding Donald Peterson, Eulail Peterson (back), Robert Hansen (front), Joseph Wayment holding Elaine Hansen, Irene Hansen. Joseph and Ann were the great-grandparents of the children in this picture.

Joseph bought his first automobile in 1912, just past his 68th birthday. About 1922 his eyesight became too poor to read. From that time until his death, someone had to read all news to him. He lived at his own home in Warren until the very end, cared for by his daughter Sarah. He delighted in bearing his testimony and seemed never to tire of talking about and explaining the principles of the gospel. His last public appearance was at a fast and testimony meeting on 11 October 1931, where he bore a strong testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospel and to the fact that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.

Ann did not live to see it. She died on the morning of 14 June 1931, at 8:10 a.m., at their Warren home after a three months’ illness — her cause of death recorded on her death certificate as chronic myocarditis with arteriosclerosis as a contributing factor. She had lived in Warren for 57 years without interruption. Her brother-in-law Bishop William T. Wayment was among the speakers at her funeral. A sextet of nephews and nieces sang. Mrs. Jessie Wayment sang a solo. Grandsons served as pallbearers. Granddaughters took charge of the flowers. She was buried in the Warren Cemetery on 17 June 1931.

Joseph took sick on the afternoon of Thursday, 17 December 1931. He passed away very peacefully on Sunday evening, 20 December 1931, at Dee Hospital in Ogden, of bronchopneumonia — the chronic malaria that had plagued him since 1884 listed as a contributing condition. He was 87 years old.

Obituary of Joseph Wayment, Ogden Standard Examiner, 21 December 1931.

He was buried on 23 December 1931 in the Warren Cemetery, beside Ann, who had preceded him six months and six days. They had been married 56 years, 10 months, and 7 days.

Legacy

Sarah Ann Wayment Hansen and her father Joseph Wayment in his final years. Sarah cared for Joseph at home until his death in December 1931.

When Joseph and Ann Wayment arrived in Salt Creek in the early 1870s, there was almost nothing there. When they died in 1931, Warren was a community with a church, a school, a creamery, roads, canals, orchards — many of the first of each having been planted, built, or organized by Joseph himself. They lived to see 32 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren. Two of their children served missions; one granddaughter and five grandsons also served missions, all returning safely.

Amanda and I visited their graves in the West Warren Cemetery on 24 May 2020. The memorial card at their headstones — the laminated display that prompted much of this research — was photographed that day. Amanda is their 3rd great-granddaughter through the line: Joseph and Ann Wayment → Martha Ann Wayment Hansen → Walter Wayment Hansen → Bryan Hemsley → Amanda Ross.

Bryan Hemsley, Amanda, Aliza, and Hiram Ross with the tombstones of Joseph Wayment and Ann Reed Wayment, West Warren Cemetery, 24 May 2020.
Bryan Hemsley, Amanda, Aliza, and Hiram Ross with the tombstones of Ann Reed (1852–1931) and Joseph Wayment (1844–1931), West Warren Cemetery, 24 May 2020.
The memorial card displayed at the graves of Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment, West Warren Cemetery.

Source Documents

The following family histories are available for download:

Life Sketch of Joseph Wayment – copied from a record belonging to Ida H. Johnson (granddaughter), transcribed by Hollis R. Johnson, 1956

Emily Wayment and William Negus – compiled by Alma W. and Martha M. Hansen, 1979

John Brown Wayment and Sarah East – compiled by Alma W. Hansen, 1980

john_brown_wayment_sarah_east_biographyDownload
emily_wayment_negus_biographyDownload
joseph_wayment_life_sketch_1956Download
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1952, 1957 Utah American Legion State Champions

1957 Utah State Baseball Champions

1957 Utah American Legion Baseball Champions. Back(l-r): Ellis Jonas, Lionel Benson, Jed Pitcher, Ken Chambers, Larry Federico, Bruce Pitcher, R.L. Pitcher, Joe Watts, Richard Lamb, George “Dutch” Reese. Front: John Hale, Glade Mather, Robert Eliason, Jim Mack, Doug Brinley, Vernon Rice, Brian Thornley, Lee Burke.

This is a photo that was handed out at Uncle Ellis Jonas‘ funeral.  I thought I would make it available.  The photo is of the 1957 Smithfield American Legion Team.  This photo was taken at the Regional Tournament in Winslow, Arizona. The 1957 Smithfield American Legion Team had won the Utah State Championship.

Ellis Jonas is listed as the manager and George Reese is the American Legion Representative.

Absent from the photo are Terry Griffen, Brian Toolson, Todd Peterson, Ferris Groll, Charles Wood, Mark McCraken, Ned Gylenskog, and Claire Nielsen.

The following photo is of the 1952 Smithfield American Legion Team.  This photo was taken at the National Tournament in Wichita, Kansas.  The 1952 Smithfield American Legion Team had won the Utah State Championship as well as the Regional Tournament.

L-R

1952 Utah American Legion Baseball Champions.  Back(l-r): DeVon Britenbeeker, Royce Lumberg, Jon Hyde, Erle Reese, Reese Naegle, Jerry Hansen, Richard Hodges, Hal Jensen, Ellis Jonas.  Front: Darold Whatcott, Ralph Tresedor, Cleon Hodges, Ross Godderidge, Jerry Coleman, Ferrell Karren, Ralph Roylance, Kay Inglet, Jack Reese.

Ellis Jonas is listed as the manager and Jerry Coleman as the bat boy.

Lastly, here is a little insert regarding Ellis as the coach.  I think it speaks for itself and his regard in Smithfield.

Ellis Commendation