TONKS, WILLIAM HENRY 1859 My Father History of William Henry Tonks of Morgan, County, Utah William Henry Tonks, was born November 14, 1858, in New York City, N.Y. His father, William Tonks, was born July 19, 1332, in Staffordshire, England and died March 29, 1912, in Morgan, Utah. His mother Martha Darricot Tonks, born May 24, 1828, in England, and died Sept. 14, 1911 , in Morgan, Utah. His parents were married in England and sailed for America, settling in New York City for three years, where my father was born. In the spring of 1859, just before father was two years old, they started across the plains, with ox team. Grandmother Tonks walked most of the way across the plains, waded streams, and cared for her two children, George M. and William Henry,(always called Henry.) They arrived in Salt Lake City, October 1, 1859, where they settled for a number of years, living a few blocks north west of the temple grounds. They moved to Morgan in 1866, Henry being about eight years old at that time. Grandfather Tonks had a blacksmith shop on front street, where Mr. Halls has his shop now, (June 1948). They also bought a farm in south Round Valley, where they built a large house after the fashion of homes in that day, which is still standing and was occupied until recently. Grandfather Tonks always kept his blacksmith shop and after he was too old to run it rented to others to run. Sometime after his death it was sold to Earl Halls, who used it for some years and then tore it down and built a more modern structure on the grounds. Whan the railroad came through Grandfather Tonks shoed the mules that did the work on the railroad, and my father helped him around the blacksmith shop. They made all the shoes, also, that was used for the horses and mules. 3 they raised to manhood and womenhood, the first one to pass away being Henry William, January 8th, 1948, a man of 62 years. The early life of Henry and his wife Susan in Idaho was not an easy one. It was pioneer country, and sixty miles from Rexburg, Idaho, the nearest town where they could get any supplies. I remember father going to Rexburg for Sugar, flour, etc to eat and clothes for us to wear, and he would make the trip with team and wagon, the roads then were very poor, it would take him a week or more to make the trip there and back, camping along the way to rest his team and himself. There was no railroad there in those days, in fact the railroad was not put through to Victor until about 1912, sometime after we had moved back to Morgan. Fruit was very scarce up there, they grew no domestic fruit whatever, just the wild fruit that we could gather in the nearby hills, which were abundent in wild gooseberries, strawberries, currents, choke cherry, and huckle berries. I remember we especially liked the huckle berries, and father and mother would load us children into the wagon, pack a lunch and we would go gathering huckle berries and make a regular outing of it staying all day, most generally Aunt Louie and Uncle Ben Jones and their family would go with us, and we would have a wonderful time, especially the children. Upon one occasion, when I was a very small girl, an experience happened which I shall never forget. Father had unhooked the team from the wagon and was letting them feed on t he grass that grew in the hills. We had all gone farther up the hills to gather huckle berries when across a small ravine we saw a band of Indians, leading a white horse, which looked just like one of our horses,(the Indians still roamed that country freely in those days, and I think it was about the time the United States were having a war with the Indians, or some sort of trouble with them.) Mother was very excitable anyway, and was afraid of the Indians, so we all ran back to our wagon as fast as we could to see if they had taken our horse, we were miles from home and did not know how we would have gotten home if they had, for we didn't expect them to give it up if they had taken it. But fortunately it was not our horse, but one they had gotten some place else. That spoiled our trip for that day, though and we all got into the wagon and went home, very glad to get there. At the time Father and Mother moved to Idaho, Uncle Ben Jones and his wife Aunt Louie Tonks Jones, father's sister, moved there too, and were good friends and dneighbors all through the time our family lived there. Ben Jones still lives in Victor, and Aunt Louie or Mother Jones as she was known to every one in that valley, died some years ago. They were a very well loved couple and ran a Hotel in Victor for many years, but what I was going to say was that one ep experience mother and Aunt Louie had with the Indians was always remembered by them and I have heard them tell about it. The men were working in the fields and an old Indian man came to the cabin and insisted on being let in, one of the women stood across the door way with a shot gun in her hand while the other one ran across the fields to get the men, and when the Indian saw the men coming he left, but they had many similar experiences with the Indinas at that time. The winters were very severe in Idaho at this time, and the snow would drift over the buildings, and would have to be dug away, and it would be almost like a tunnel to get out. Father and the boys would make snow shoes, they were very much like the ski they use now a days. 4 They would get the green pine wood and curve it to turn up on the end, smooth it, put straps of leather across for slots to hold the shoes on their teet and go to town on t hem right on top of the snow. We children have gone to school on them many times. Especially the older ones. The roads were kept open a little better when I started to school, which wasn't until I was eight years old, but still remember going on snow shoes sometimes and it was fun, too. By this time there was a small town and a few stores and other buildings at Victor, where we went to church and school. Every one had to make the benches and tables for their children when they started school and I remember father making some for us children. The people were isolated from any center of population, so had to make their own entertainment, they had their dances, Christmas parties, and community Christmas tree, where the small children were given a present. In the spring the children celebrated May day with a May pole dance and braided the May pole, an art that is practically forgotten in these days. Fourth of July was celebrated with parade and program, and games, every one gathered for a good time under the old bowery, which the men turned out to build of branches gathered from the nearby hills, which were in summer abundent with growth and scrubs, in fact Victor is located at the foot of the three Teton peaks, on the Idaho side. I remember being in one fourth of July parade, with my hair all curled, and a fluffy white dress, which I was very proud of, for we didn't get many new dresses. The streams were abundent with fish, and ducks, the hills had plenty of deer and elk, so the people were able to get a fairly good living with fish pole and gun, and father and the boys kept us supplied. Mother's health was very poor in Idaho, it being too high an altitude for her, so after a trip she made back to Morgan, in about 1903, arrangements were made to move back to Morgan. Father rented the farm in Idaho to a man by the name of Hollingshead and in the spring of 1904, we were moved back to Morgan, Father and the boys driving the team and wagon with some of the boys driving the livestock and mother, Chloe, Verna, Claude and myself riding in the buggy to Rexburg, then on the train from there to Morgan. It took father and the boys about a week to make it. We went to live on Grandfather Tonks' farm in Round Valley and run his farm, which father did until his father passed a way then he sold his farm in Idaho to his brother George, and bought the other heirs share of the farm in Round Valley. Father was a farmer all his life, but was well schooled in black smith work and could have worked at that trade had he chosen to do so. In later years, after the death of Mother, May 24th, 1932, he lived part of the time at Morgan, and part with his daughters in Calif. He passed away Sept. 5th, 1942 at the home of one of his daughters, Chloe Nethercott, in San Diego, Calif. Had he lived until November 14th, he would have been 84 years old. He was brought to Morgan and buried in the South Morgan Cemetery by the side of mother; Sept. 11, 1942. Another thing he had all his teeth but one and one filled at the time 5 of his death, a very unusual thing for a man of that age. Father was a staunch Latter-Day-Saint, and always attended his church, he was a high priest at the time of his death. Many a time he has administered to us children when we were sick, and we found immediate relief. I had more faith in his administration to me than I did in all the doctors, and well may I for I have found relief from pain many times when he has blessed me. He was a very kindly lovable, good natured man, and well loved by every one. He was hard of hearing in the later part of his life, and this very fact made him a very quiet man, as he could not hear the ordinary conversation of others and hesitated to join in a conversation. One thing I especially remember of him, if any one of us said anything about any one, he would tell us that we probably didn't know what we were talking about and that if we couldn't say something good we had better not say anything at all. He always taught us to respect those in authority in the Church, and also to respect older people. by Elsie T. L. Bell, Morgan, Utah Morgan County Camp D.U.P.