TITLE PAGE PIONEER (fu 11 name) _G_e...:.o_r~g,_e_J_a...:.c_k_l_in __________ BIR TH (date and place) 19 May 1842 - Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, Eng. DEA TH (date and place) 13 Aug 190? - American Fork, Utah, Utah PARENTS -Jo-hn- J-ac-kl-in- ----------- . MARRIED {who and date) ARRIVAL IN UTAB (date} (Company arrived with} HISTORY (who wrote) (date written) (who submitted) {address) Sar ah Goats Ruth Wagstaff - 17 April 1865 Elizabeth Mary Webb - 31 May 1875 October 1862 Ellen Jacklin Tracey (granddaughter) Leah Fern Brown Johnson 167 N. 200 W •• Mor g an, Utah 84050 CAMP & COUNTY SUBMITTING _s_o_u_t_h_M_o_r_g_a_n_ ________ Camp _M_o_r_g_a_n_ ___________ County {Camp Historian & address)- ---Lo-la- D-aw-so-n -Pe-te-rs-on- ------- P.O. Box 13, Morgan, Utah 84050 County Historian & address )_ __v _e_lo_y;..._T_o_n_k_s_D_ic_k_s_o_n ________ P. 0. Box 203, Morgan, Utah 84050 SOURCE OF INFORMATION & PAGE NUMBERS: ( - GEORGE JACKLIN RUTH WAGSTAFF and ELIZABETH WEB~ These memories of my great grandfather were written by my Aunt Ellen Jacklin Tracey. They were given to her by her father, John Jacklin, and some of his sisters as well as Uncle Nobe, who was a brother of George Jacklin. George Jacklin, the subject of this sketch, was ~orn at Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, England, on the 19th of May 1842. Re was the son of John Jacklin and Sarah Goats Jacklin, and grandson of William Jacklin and Jemima Easy Jacklin. His great grand parents, James Jacklin and Ann Howse, John Easy and Elizabeth Woods , and Great Great Grand parents James Jacklin and Elizabeth Wite all had lived in the vicinity of Wad don, Cambridgeshire, England. And all had been honest upright citizens, willing to work hard to earn their living. So, through out George's life we find him carrying on these same stalwart characteristics. When a lad of five or six years he hires himself out to herd crows off a r neighbor's farm. In those days crows of a certain variety were very numberous in England. They collected together in droves or flocks , and did much damage to the young crops on the farms . George was armed with a pair of clappers, which consisted of two small boards tied to a leather thong. This tong fit over the wrist with the boards in the palms of the hands. By shaking the hands just right the boards made a clapping sound which would frighten the birds. It was young George's work to keep the crows from destroying the crops in the daytime, and to drive them to their roast _.. ing place, a clump of trees called a rookery, at night. When these two little boards were knocked together in different ways they produced different sounds and would act accordingly and follow the signals given by the herder. For this work George received 2\ cents a day. These crows were different than the common black crows of this country for it is said that their flesh was highly prized for food . The wealthy and titled hunters often came into the country and spent the day hunting and shooting crows. On the 8th day of January 1848, when George was but six years of age, his mother died. A sister Hannah, the only other child in the family had died two years before. The following July his father married Emma Noble, and by this union the following brothers and sister made a happy Jacklin home; Amos ; Hannah; Moses; Sarah Ann; and Enos Noble. George's father John Jacklin, was an early convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, having been baptized 14 June 1846 by Elder Gad, just eight years after the first Elders took the Gospel to England. His mother, Sarah Goats followed in baptism a few months later of 24 of February 1847, Elder Gad also officiating. When George was fourteen years of age, he too was baptized a member of the Church 23 June 1856, the ordinance being performed by Elder Mark Lindsey. His father continued to work on the farm until a company came into that part of the country and bought up the land for the purpose of securing underlying deposits of petrified fossi ls. This section of England had at _one time been a sea bottom, and the bones of fish and other sea faring creatures were abundant in the soil, and although they had lain buried for many years were still in an excellent state of preservation. Every foot of the ground would be dug and combed to a depth of twenty feet, deeper than this did not pay. These fossils were ground up and used for fertiliz, fields of twenty to fifty acres would be dug this way then the soil would be leveled up and used again for farming. This work of digging fossils lasted for many years and furnished employment for a great number of men. After selling this land, John Jacklin worked for this company, endeavoring to save enough money to take himself and his family to Zion. This re-quired time, however, and for some thirty years he kept at it. It is supposed that George also worked and saved, hoping to realize that dream. George's teenage life was spent in the association of the missionaries who stayed so often at their home. And he was a w~lling helper in carrying on the work of the church in that vicinity. For many years his father presided over the Bassingborn Branch and served faithful and well, assisted by his wife and children. At their home the Elders were always welcome, and they were given the best the home afforded. In those days popular opinion vas very much against the Church and often the Elders needed friendly protection from those who sought to quell the Gospel message. This protection along with shelter and food was always given the Elders who came to the Jacklin home. And every Elder who left this home was given money enough to take him Page 1 r ·~ to wherever he was going. George was taught to be a strict tithe payer , and honest in everything he did . By example and precept his father taught him to be a true citizen and worthy member of the Church. When in England , for lack of means, it was not p• ossible for the entire family to emigrate to Utah at the same time, so it was decided that George, then a young man of twenty years , should precede the others. It was felt that he could come and prepare to receive the rest of the family as soon as they could come . He accor dingly embarked in the spr ing of 1862 on a sailing vessel bound for America. He traveled to where the Saints were preparing to leave for Utah and joined a company for the trip accoss the plains. To pay his way he drove an ox team and he walked most of the way, arriving in Salt Lake City in October of 1862. It is related that while at Council Bluffs the Company George was with was ee-layed; so that before they again started westward another gr oup of Latter Day Saints bound for Utah had arrived. In this latter company was Samuel Wagstaff and his family. It was at this time that George Jacklin became acquainted with Ruth Wagstaff, then a lass of fifteen, and who later was to become his life's companion. It only requires a little imagination and a few stories handed down by others in that small company to understand the pleasure these two must have been to each other during those heartaches that were met on those long days and nights of walking, working, and worshiping, enduring the trials and this l ovely young girl must have ment much to a young man who had left all his relatives in a far off land. It is presumed that he spent the winter of 1862 and 1863 in Lehi at the home of a cousin, Samuel James . In the spring of 1863 he came to American Fork and secured employment on the "Chipman Farm" near the Hunter farm which was being operated by Samuel Wagstaff. George continued this employment for sometime, and again was near young Ruth Wagstaff. An attachment was formed which grew and blossomed into love. On the 17th of April 1865 they were united in marriage . When the Endowment House opened three years later they went up to Salt Lake City and were sealed for time and all eternity. For a short time after their marriage they lived in a small home in the south part of American Fork, then they built their first home. It was a one room log structure with a dirt floor and a roof of dirt. This was built on the lot near the middle of the block of thtrd north, between Center Street and first West . It was on the north side of the street . It was her e that four of their children wer e born: Sarah Lucy, born· 22 January 1866; Ruth, born 7 January 1868; George born 21 March, 1870; And George died 2 February 1882, when he was eleven years old . And John, born 2 September 1872. A little tater on they built a two story brick house on the same lot, but to t he west of the log structure. (1960, this house is still standing, although it has changed hands many times since George and Ruth Jacklin built it.) In this small brick home two more children were born: Ellen Jane, on the 13 of September 1874; and Amos on the 10th of ~y 1878 and who died the following day, the 11th of May 1878 . In the year 1867 George Jacklin along with Samuel, David and Amos Wagstaff, Andrew Crystal and Thom.as Burnsides, took up land in what is known as the North Fields, northwest of American Fork and began homesteading. George buil t him a small dwelling of ,sod on a rock foundation. Part of this rock foundation is still in place on the Jacklin farm (1933i. At this time george's father was still in England and he sent his son the seed of a Honey Locust tree in a letter. This seed was planted on the new homestead and grew. This tree, now 63 years old (1933), is still grOW"ing on the farm and is very beautiful. On the 31 of May 1875 George entered the covenant of plural marriage, being united in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City to Elizabeth Mary Webb, a daughter of James Webb and Lydia Parcel . Elizabeth was born 21 June 1855, in Littlington, Cambridgeshir e, England. To this union thr ee chr ldren were born: William James , on the 20 February 1876; Ernest Elijah on the 11th of September 1878; and Martha Elizabeth on the 15 of May 1884. When Martha was only three weeks old, the mother of these thr ee children died on the 7th of June 1884. Ruth Jacklin took these three children and raised them as her own. In 1879 Geor ge moved his wife Ruth and family to his farm in the North Field where he had constr ucted a small house . This house built of logs and adobes stood Page 2 there until after 1950 when it was torn down by the Mitchell family who had bought the farm. It) Their first winter on the farmstead was not without its hardships. The winter was a long, cold one, and the snow piled up deep and froze hard. Their fuel consisted of sagebrush which was piled up to the west side of the house and was covered so deep with the icy snow that it was difficult to get it out , and it was impossible with this wet sagebrush to warm the house enough to make it comfortable. It was during this experience that a new baby girl came to t•h e Jacklin home on New Year ' s Day, 1880. This little girl who was named Francis, contracted pneumonia because the house was so cold, and she died on the 25th day of the same month in which she was born. Four other children were born during their sojour n on the farm. Mary Annie , born 1st of January 1881; Hannah, born 29 August , 1885; Jemima Fern, born 16th of September 1889 and Mononi W. Bor n 21st of November 1891 . In the fall of 1897 the family purchased the Isaac Wagstaff home, a big two story building on the corner of 4th north and 2nd west streets . The far m was turned over to their son John to operate. The Jacklins purchased a home at 364 North third West , and sold the big house. Years later John Jacklin bought the home on their west and lived there until his death in 1850 when his son Ernest bought it and is still living there (1960) . It was in this home that George Jacklin passed away on the 13th of August 1906. George Jacklin was a modest man, not given to public display . He loved his home and family and by his prudence and industry sought to provide for them the necessitities and comforts of life. As one of his daughter ' s has said, "I never remember of a time when we went hungry , but many a time we went to bed after a supper of corn meal mush, molasses and milk. He was a good farmer, and his wel l kept farm and livestock attested his industry and good management. He was known all over Utah County for his fine horses, a number of which were sold for breeding purposes. He materially assisted in redeeming the waste places and making the desert bring forth its abundance. He planted the second bunch of alfalfa which grew in American Fork. One dry hot summer he rented water in order to save the young fruit orchard. He was a pioneer in the making of molasses from sorgham cane in this community. On the 18th of October 1870, George in company with Samuel and David Wagstaff set up a molasses mill and began cooking the cane syrup. The main part of the mill was bought in Salt Lake City, having been brought to that city from Milwaukee where it was manufactured. The first year they cooked 772 gallons of molasses. The following year they made molasses making a commercial business and paid for help, such as labor, in the mill, hauling cedar wood from the West Canyon, and cutting the cane, in so many gallons of molasses . For over twenty years George peddled molasses to the people living up Provo Canyon and Valley. He made these trips with a wagon and team and often took gr ain in payment; one bushel of wheat for one gallon of molasses. Coming back from one trip George had a load of grain, his horses were not sharp shod and the ground was slippery with ice and snow. At one hill the horses feet slipped so bad they could not pull the load up. Another man with a sharp shod team came along and r efused to help get the load up the hill. Mr. Jacklin had his young son John with him. After this other man passed on, the father carried the grain, one sack at a time on his shoulder , up the hill until the load was light enough for his team t o get the wagon up. Brother Jacklin believed in keeping out of debt. He was honest in his dealings with his fellow man. One night, while he lived on the farm he was in his sheds doing chores when he heard a voice calling "Mother" , It was snowing quite hard and the wind was cold . Sensing some neighbor in distr ess , he l eft his work and followed the sound of the voice . He found George Mitchel, an old man, on his way home from town and lost his way in t he storm; so sat in his wagon, clinging to the lines to hold his team, and calling for his wife. Mr. Jacklin being a younger man was abl e to guide him safely home. ( ( George Jacklin was a law abiding citizen whose wor d was as good as his bond. In his r e ligious life he was somewhat r etir ing; yet he was a firm believer in the Gospe l of Jesus Chr ist as r estored to earth by the Prophet Joseph Smith; and by his influence and materi al substance sought to help along this gr eat work. In the year of 1894 he sent his son John on a mission to ~he Souther n States for some thirty months. The day his son left> t he fathe r gave him r beautiful silver pocket watch. John carried t hat watch with hi m all thr ough the mission field and used it until his death in 1950 when it was given to his ol dest . son Raymond . At the time of his death > Geor ge was a High Priest. Although he was in poor health for some two year s , he remai ned cheerful and considerate of those around him. The shock of his son Ernest's death > 14th of Januar y 1906 made him ver y ill . But he r ecovered enough to sit up and to be around in the house. He was only bedfast for about ten days or two weeks before he was r e leased f r om this life and passed away on the 13th of August 1906. II