-1- SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON THURSTON WRITTEN BY HIS DAUGHTER HULDA CORDELIA THURSTON S ITH, IN HER SEVENTY-SIXTH YEAR. July 1921: My father, Thomas Jefferson Thurston, was the son of Peter and Hannah Butler (Wheeler)Thurston. My grandmother, the widow Wheeler, had several Wheeler children of which I know but little except that vice president William A. Wheeler was her grandson. She lived to be ninety-seven years old and to see her grandson elected vice president of the United States. She was the mother of fourteen children. W. H. Wheeler was my father's half-brother. My father was seventh in a lineal descent from Daniel Thurston of Newberry, Glocester, England. There he had a noble line of ancestry traceable by names, coats of arms, and sketches, back to 800 A.D. Among them were monks, knights, archbishops and mint masters. One Thurston was Archbishop of York and chaplin and secretary to King Henry the Second. In 1100 A.D. he founded Fountain Abby and upon its ruins still remains his Device. There is much of interest to our family in the history of those times. In our country they were heroes and patriots on the roll of honor in the French and Indian Wars in which there is a record of sixty-four having given their lives. We have a record of eighty having been sacrificed in the wars of the American Revolution, 39 -2- and 170 gave their lives in support of the union in the Civil War. This, I suppose, is not a complete list of the casualties, being only those of record. There were many who lost their lives on the coast as fishermen, for they had to draw largely on the ocean for subsistence in those days and the New England Coast is rocky and dangerous. They were a religious, God-fearing, people. I find there are on record 197 ministers. Twin boys were born to the Thurston family in 1805, in Fletcher, Vermont. They were christened Thomas Jefferson Thurston and George Washington Thurston - an indication of the patriotic background of the family. While these children were young, the family went to Ohio onto what was then called the Western Reserve - a section of Ohio that was heavily tim¬bered; and game such as moose, deer, and wild turkeys, was plentiful. The streams were well stocked with fish. There were also many fur-bearing animals which father became expert in trapping. He was also an expert hunter of deer, and he used to amuse us children with his hunting and trapping stories. He bought from the Government a large farm which he paid for with money made in this way. Cash at that time was hard to get for they were so far from a market with their produce. I have heard him say that they sold their eggs for a dollar a bushel. He had to work very hard to make a start, the land being so heavily timbered. They must cut it down then drag it into piles and burn it before they even could erect a cabin, and thus they must clear every foot of soil before they could cultivate between the stumps. It was many years before the stumps decayed and much of their grain was harvested with a 40 -3- sickle, and all was threshed by hand with a flail. At the age of twenty-three he met and married my mother, then a girl of nineteen years. She joined with him in sharing the trying experiences of pioneering under difficult circumstances where by united efforts, economy and untiring perseverence they succeeded in making a nice home on a large and productive farm. Family history and tradition tell us that our mother's family were of the old Puritan stock and were one with the colonies, serving in the Indian Wars and the Revolutionary War and also in the war of 1812 against Britain. My father and mother were both born in Vermont, father in Fletcher, mother in Manchester. Their attention was first attracted to Mormonism in the year 1844 by the news paper accounts of the assassination of the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, in Carthage jail, by an armed and blackened mob without trial or process of law. Father was astonished to think that such a thing could happen in this land of liberty and what seemed to him worse than all, it was because of their religious belief. The press took the matter up with favorable comments, saying that they were dangerous men, and leading the people astray; teaching false and blasphemous doctrine and so on, and asserting that it was a good thing for "it was better that they should die than that a whole nation should dwindle in unbelief". Father and mother had heard some rumor of Joseph Smith and his golden Bible but had taken no particular notice of it till then. He then said to mother: "There must be something in it. I will improve the first opportunity to investigate the matter." Ere long two Mormon elders came to the town and engaged 41 -4- the district school house to preach in, and father went to hear them. He soon became much interested in their doctrines. They were very plain, conclusive and reasonable to him, and best of all they were supported and backed up by the Bible in which my father was well versed and a great believer. After the services father invited them home for the night, where they sat up nearly all night asking and answering questions and explaining the gospel, and my mother and older brothers and sisters also were delighted with their teachings. It filled their souls with joy and satisfaction unspeakable. They were religiously inclined, great Bible students, and had their worship daily consisting of the singing of a hymn of praise, the reading of a chapter from the Bible, and prayer. They often had wished to belong to a church and felt that they should, but were not entirely satisfied with any of them. This gospel seemed to satisfy that longing in their souls for the true gospel and my parents and all of the family who were old enough were soon baptized, and with baptism came the spirit of the gathering. Thsy immediately advertized their place for sale and in less than a year had sold out at a good price, getting one half of the purchase price down, the balance to be paid in one year, They went to Nauvoo, taking many scattered saints with them who had been unable to take part in the gathering. Among them was Phinias Young and family, brother of Brigham Young, and a sister of President Young and her husband named Kent. In nauvoo the people were very poor and many were sick. There was much distress and want among them. Corn was only twenty-five cents a bushel, yet people couldn't buy it. 42 -5- Father and my brother went down to the river and cut logs. Then they made a corn crib and filled it with corn and gave the word out publicly in meeting that all in need of bread could come and help themselves, and as it became necessary he replenished the supply. Thus he fed many, many people, He also gave his means freely to finish the Temple where he and mother received their endowments before it was destroyed. He also gave freely of his means to fit out the company of pioneers who started out in the early spring of 1846 with president Young. In fact he gave until president Young would take no more and told him, "Brother Thurston, you have given more than enough, you will need all that you have to get away from here with your family. I fear that the mob will come upon you before you can get away." Father replied: "I will get away from here all right, and not very far behind you either." Father then took my oldest brother, George, and started for Missouri with a good Horse and buggy, and says he traded with almost every man he met. He first met a man with a team and wagon, rather heavy, who was toiling along over very muddy roads. He accosted him in a neighborly sort of way. They chatted a few minutes and he bantered him for a trade. The man looked at his outfit and finally decided it might be a good thing to do as he was traveling salesman and father's light rig would be better for him than his heavy one, and in a very short time the deal was made and father was on his way with a good wagon and team and thus he continued to trade. He traded for everything and anything; cows, oxen, horses mules, clothing, bedding, wagons and wagon bows and covers, buying and selling all the time and 43 -6- always to his advantage. He said it was perfectly marvelous to him how everything turned to his advantage, and surely the Lord blessed them, and in a short time they returned to Nauvoo with an outfit consisting of five good wagons, three good yoke of oxen and cows for each, and when they left Nauvoo they took with them tow families beside themselves to Winter Quarters, and provisions and foodstuff to last all for one year. When about to leave Nauvoo a man came and bought our place and paid father fifteen dollars more for it than father had paid for it. This seemed wonderful for almost everyone left their homes unsold. The Government's call upon our camps for 500 able-bodied men to go into the war with Mexico so reduced our company's strength that they decided to stop over in Iowa until the next year, 1847, and our people went to what has since been known as Winter Quarters. I was born in a wagon on this trek through Iowa and in spire of the buffering of my mother, a stop of only one-half day was made. My father and brothers cut logs on the river and made cabins which they covered with willows and dirt, chinked the cracks in the walls and daubed them with mud, making them as warm as possible for winter. Father then fitted up a covered wagon with a stove, bed, etc. and took mother and the two smallest children with him, and they went back to Ohio, to their old home, to get the remainder due him on his farm and visit old neighbors who were very glad to see them. While there he baptized several people, including Mrs. Joanna Brown and family. The man who had bought the farm was prepared to meet his obligation and several people who owed him small amounts came and handed it to him. Some of these small amounts had been entirely forgotten by father 44 -7- and he said he did not believe that when he left Ohio there was a cent due him from anyone. Their journey to and from Ohio was a long tedious one of five months but it was accomplished in safety. The weather was very inclement, roads were bad, and there being no postal connections they hadn't heard from the family since leaving them at Winter Quarters. As they neared home they began to hear terrible tales of the sickness, distress, and deaths among the people at Winter Quarters. Hundreds of them had died of scurvey, dysentary and black canker, caused by wet, cold, exposure, and the unwholesome food they had had to eat. They felt very anxious about their children and before going home they searched among the graves at the cemetery to see if any of them were there. Not finding any they went home where they found them all living but some were mere skeletons and all had suffered greatly and came near dying from want of proper food. Their limited amount of flour had given out and they had, had practically nothing but corn meal, to which they had never been accustomed. And that had been saturated with the muddy water which had leaked through their dirt and willow cabin roofs when they became saturated by the rains and melting snow of winter. Heavy rains came early and their provisions became saturated with water then mouldy before they could dry any of it. They killed most of their stock which was very poor, yet I suppose that was all that saved their lives. The coming of my parents bringing a few comforts, together with the warm spring weather soon established a degree of health in the family and they again prepared to start west, they knew not where. This time it was a long journey before them and they must provide themselves with clothing, provisions of all kinds, 45 -8- seeds and grain, farming implements, which was heavy freight and this time our parents took with them six besides our family - brother Washington Cook, his wife, two step-sons named Wyley and Madison Thomas, a step-daughter and her husband, John Berry. All of them settled south of Salt Lake City. Father provided food and clothing for all that he brought with him - enough to last them one year - and when they arrived in Salt Lake, father weighed all their provisions and divided it pro rata, each in-dividual drawing his share, and they separated each family going to itself. I can remember how we got our first start of potatoes. Father brought some seed balls from the potato vines. They were about the size of a small fruit called the ground cherry and like them full of small seeds which he planted the next spring (the spring of 1848 as we arrived at Salt Lake in October of 1847) and they grew. From those seeds we raised our start of potatoes. The first crop amounted to about two quarts. Father brought them to the house in a small pan. I seem to remember them. They were all sizes, shapes and colors, the sizes ranging from a chestnut to a peanut, some were as long as double peanuts but smaller around and all were as full of eyes as they could well be. They were all treasured for seed for the next year. Not until the third crop was harvested did we taste a potato and it was several years before our seed potatoes were selected and sorted. I can also remember the segoes my brothers used to bring home at night after herding cows all day over Jordan River. We used to cook them and they tasted very nice, much like sweet potatoes. Hardships were endured during their journey across the plains. Mother drove a horse team all the way. Sometimes they had to lie over for 46 -9- days in consequence of the immense herds of traveling buffalo with which they were at times amply supplied with meat, and once this caused a stampede among our cattle. My father and brothers had much hard work to do. They built one of the first adobe houses in the sixth ward in Salt Lake City, making the adobes themselves. Father was first councilor in the first ward organization, brother Hickenlooper was bishop. We lived for a short time in the log fort where all endured much privation and suffering from scarcity of the necessities of life and none of the luxuries. Then there was very little inequality among people. All suffered nearly alike. I think our family were a little more confortable than some for my older sister, Sara A. Grant, tells me that brother Garr, who had six or seven children, heard that we had some bran that father had brought along for horse feed and came to our house and said that his family had just eaten the last of their oxen and they were now without food. He wanted bo buy our bran. Father asked him what he wanted it for and he said for bread. Father said he could have the bran but would not sell it to him. He thankfully took it and the family made bread ot it. My father with William W. Potter, Joseph Mount and Stephen Spaulding built the first boat and were the first of our people to navigate the lake. It was accomplished in the spring of 1848 and they took with them as guests Jedediah M. Grant and Parley P. Pratt. There was a little pleasantry connected with the event which I will relate. The boat was built in our yard and when they decided to go they all met at our house and it was a merry party. There was 47 -10- laughing and joking with considerable merriment. They lengthened out the coupling of the running gear of a wagon and loaded their boat onto it together with their bedding, guns, ammunition, and provisions to last two days, expecting to be gone one night. They organized their crew with captain, first and second mate and so on, preliminary to starting, and finally remembering that their ship had not been christened they attempted to name it. One proposed one name and another, another but they could not seem to agree. Finally one of the party proposed that they name it for the first game they killed. To this they all agreed. They then drove down to the Jordan River, placed their boat with equipment in the stream and started with smooth sailing down the river. They hadn't gone very far until one of the party spied a mud hen on the bank of the river a short distance ahead which he immediately shot. This gave the boat the name of Mud Hen. At this they all laughed, but the funny part of it came after, which made the name most appropriate, for when they came to the delta where the river empties into the lake the water was not deep enough to float the boat and the men had to take off their shoes, hose, and some other clothing and get out and attach ropes to the boat and wade in mud knee deep, dragging their boat through mud for about a mile before it would float. So it was a veritable mud hen. They then set sail and arrived at the island in due time without other incident. They found fresh water there and lots of ducks, geese, gulls and wild chickens but no other game and no living fish or animals in the lake. Their object in going was to explore the lake and island to see if either could be depended upon by our people for food, as provisions of all kinds were very scarce and all were investigating every avenue 48 -11- for food. Several were poisoned while testing roots and herbs. People were testing and trying to find food from all kinds of roots and herbs. When we first came to the valley some of the men went to the lake, my father one of them. They decided that the lake was so dense that nothing could live there but others went to the lake during or after a storm when the waves were rolling high and imagined that they saw large fish, sea animals, and so on in the lake and while our folks could not credit it, they concluded to stop all controversy by going into the lake and examining it for themselves and thought there might be game on the island. Father and his party stopped on the island one night and the next morning started home. They hadn't gone far out on the lake when one of those terrible rain and wind storms came up suddenly. It was terrible with strong winds which blew the salt spray with much force into their faces and eyes nearly blinding them, and the choppy waves nearly engulfed their little boat. None of them knew anything about managing the boat but William W. Potter, and but for him all would surely have been lost. He had spent several years on Lake Erie and understood lake navigation. He finally got them to the island shore. They with their bedding, guns and ammunition were completely soaked. Provisions of which they had brought enough to last them only two days were all gone. They had killed fowls the day before but now they had no way of doing that, there was only one way to obtain anything. There were lots of eggs, but it being rather late in the season they were in all the various stages of incubation. Some of the men sould not eat them and others had stronger stomachs and did eat some when they got hungry enough. 49 -12- I have often heard my father and brother J. M. Grant laugh at these incidents and say some of the men ate them with the feathers on them. The men were gone on the trip three days. When they arrived safely they found their people very anxious about them. Those men were the closest of friends and as long as they lived whenever they met they saluted each other according to their rank in the ship's crew. After their cruise was over there seemed to be no further use for the boat and father bought the interests of the others in the boat. He enlarged a water ditch near our house and put the boat into it so it did not check and dry up and we children used it for a playhouse where we spent many happy hours. In the fall of 1848 news of the discovery of gold in Cal¬ifornia reached the East and created great excitement and thousands fitted themselves up and prepared to start for the gold fields as soon as possible in the spring. Consequently, as soon as grass grew, thousands of emigrants were on their way. Many were wealthy people with splendid teams and outfits of groceries and provisions and dry goods sufficient to last them a long time for they knew that they were going into wilderness country where they could not obtain supplies. In their eagerness to get to the gold fields, and partly for lack of properly organized companies, many rushed hurridly across the plains, and being heavily loaded, on reaching Salt Lake, their teams were exhausted and they could go no farther. They were obliged to unload and sell their goods for what they could get. Many sold their fine horses that were ppor and worn out for two or three fat ponies. They would ride one and pack the others and start on for the gold fields. Many lightened their burdens and then 50 -13- proceeded on their journey. Many went by the northern route and when they reached Bear River they found it a deep turbid stream which they could not ford. They remembered seeing our boat, The Mud Hen, when in Salt Lake City and they sent back to see if father would come out and ferry them over. He did and ferried all over without accident. Some who had money paid him in cash, others found them¬selves still overloaded and paid him in things they had to spare, and others who had neither money or goods to spare were taken over free. When the season was over he came home with supplies of every¬thing for the family. My oldest sister, Sarah A. Grant, says it was then for the first time that she had enough to eat of good wholesome food and white bread. They had left their old home in Ohio four years before. It was then and there that Thomas Jefferson Thurston established the first ferry over Bear River although the History of Utah says that William Empy did it. The same history by Whitney says that Parley P. Pratt was the first man to navigate Salt Lake in modern times. It fails to tell how he happened to get ahead of the party of six who went with him (or rather with whome he want) for he, Parley P. Pratt, did nothing toward build¬ing the boat nor did he put a cent into it. He merely went with those who did both, by invitation. In the year 1848 father took up a good farm of 80 acres in Centerville, Davis County, about twelve miles from Salt Lake City which he improved and built upon and in 1850 moved our family there. Here my father solved the problem of dry farming which is now being so generally adopted and taught by our Agricultural Colleges. My father always raised good crops and was considered the best and most successful farmer in Davis County. We had not enough water to raise a garden and none for grain. Father was careful to plough 51 -14- his land when in proper condition, and sowed but three-fourths of a bushel to the acre and then when that was harrowed into the ground with an old wooden-toothed harrow, I think it safe to say that not more than two-thirds of a bushel would get into the earth deep enough to germinate. Our neighbors sowed two or two and a half bushels to the acre and it looked beautiful early in the season, but was crowded and had not room for root growth and when the hot sun of summer came it would turn yellow and finally dry up and much of it die which therefore resulted in crop failure. We had many years of almost crop failure caused by grasshoppers, which caused much suffering and want of food; in many places complete failure of crops. Yet during all these times we always raised fairly good crops of wheat which father never sold but kept for the poor. I have seen him refuse gold for grain in hard times saying this to them: "If you have money you will find someone who will sell to you, mine is for the poor who have no money." He always visited the camps of in¬coming emigration in the fall and brought home from one to three families and kept them over winter and furnished employment for them. Father probably was the first man to get timber from the tops of the mountains in Utah which he did from the steep mountain above our farm in Centerville. From the mountain top he went over far enough to see the beautiful little Weber Valley. It was early summer and that little well-watered and well-wooded valley was in strong contrast with the hot, dry, and then almost barren Salt Lake Valley. He was greatly charmed by it. It reminded him of his old home in Ohio and he must go over and explore the valley. He talked of it until he got two friends to go there with him. They went over the mountain into the valley and camped three days. They explored the valley and its resources and they found the valley 52 -15- well-watered with lots of timber on its streams which were all well stocked with fish, the country covered with grass, and deer and fowl and game in abundance, wood and timber so plentiful and conven¬ient that without making any canyon roads they could go into the low hills and get three loads of dry quaking aspen poles in a day. They also found very fine building rock. It looked like a paradise to him and he was, and all were, much enthused with its natural advant¬ages and opportunities. There was, however, one serious obstacle to the enjoyment of all this and to most people it would appear unsurmountable. The valley was surrounded with high and rugged mount¬ains. The narrow canyon through which the Weber River flowed seemed the only opening through and none but the Indians had traveled it, their trails sometimes winding half way up the mountain side, over precipitate masses of rock to avoid the narrow passes where only the river could find its way in the canyon below. But no difficulty seemed unsurmountable to father. He talked much to his friends of this beautiful valley. Finally Charles S. Peterson with two sons, and his son-in-law, Roswell Stevens, said they would like to go but it was grasshopper times and they were without bread. Father told them if they would go with him and work on the canyon road he would give flour for them and their families and also furnish seed wheat to plant when they got in the valley. So they joined him in the enterprise. In the winter of 1855-56 they went to the canyon and camped, working constantly until they could get through with their wagons. There were brother Peterson with two sons, Roswell Stevens, father and one son, and two Englishmen - John Counsins who later went to Bear Lake and brother Thomas Bebington. The two latter with their wives camped there after father had kept them over winter in our house, and later in the spring brother J. M. Grant sent three men with two teams to assist in putting the road through 53 -16- It was April and time to put in crops. Brother Grant's team remained and put in twelve acres of wheat and made water ditches. It was truly a great undertaking with their primitive way of road making. Their tools consisted of picks, shovels, crow-bars and small ploughs. In some narrow passes they had to go up the side of the canyon and loosen large rocks and boulders and roll them down into the river to make a foundation on which to build a road through the narrow passes. At other places they constructed long dug-ways and they had to ford the river several times. They finally got through and brothers Peterson and Stevens settled at the place now called Peterson. They ploughed and sowed grain that spring and lived there many years. The Petersons have the honor of having the first white child born in Weber Valley. Her name was Sarah Ann Peterson and she married David Tribe of Ogden. My father took his wife Elizabeth, and me for company for her, six miles farther up the valley where he, with the help of brother Grant's men and teams, ploughed and sowed about ten or twelve acres to wheat which failed to mature for lack of water. They built a dam in Deep Creek which was a large stream in the spring of the year. They took the water out in ditches but the stream soon failed. They then went about two miles to Canyon Creek, put in a dam, surveyed a canal and dug it and brought the water to Deep Creek. There was not enough water to fill the creek bed and they then put in a levee and made a canal across the creek but by that time there was not enough water to wet up the canal which was about two miles long so their crop was a total failure. Father had injured himself with the heavy work and lifting heavy rocks in the canyon. Before he got through with the summer work he became very ill and came near dying. He probably never would have got out of the valley alive had brother Grant not come up with 54 -17- his carriage and brought him home to Centerville where he could be under the care of a physician. He got better but not well. The next spring, 1857, he took his wife, Elizabeth, and baby and again went into the valley, ploughed the same land and a little more and again sowed it to grain which did not mature in consequence of early frost. He harvested it and put it in a corrall thinking it would be useful for horse feed the next spring when putting in his crops, but our Mormon boys who were out in the canyons watching Johnston's Army at the time of the "Mormon War" found it very convenient for horse feed, and our cabin also made them quite comfortable in the cold winter weather. In the spring of 1858 we moved at the time of the great Mormon exodus. We went as far south as Spanish Fork, and on the Spanish Fork bottoms there was good feed for our stock and plenty of fish in the river. At that time all the people living north of Utah Valley moved south leaving their homes with furniture, farming implements, in fact their all, not knowing where they were going nor what their destiny. They piled their furniture in their houses with plenty of straw and combustibles and men were left behing ready to apply the torch should orders be sent them at any time. Many hauled their fencing materials together for the same purpose, and the men left would have destroyed orchards and vinyards, leaving desolation behind us had not peace been made with the United States Government. During that exodus I shall never forget the distress and poverty of the people. I have seen men wearing trousers made of carpet, their feet wrapped in burlap or rags. Women sewed cloth together and made moccasins for their feet. Many women and children were barefooted. One good sister, a neighbor who had a family of seven, told my mother that aside from the clothing on their bodies, she could tie up in a common bandana handkerchief every article of 55 -18- clothing they possessed. She would put the children to bed early Saturday night and repair and wash and iron their clothing preparatory for Sunday. The people were practically all poor for we had, had several years of great scarcity of crops because of the grasshoppers. This with our large incoming emigration, mostly from Europe, which we must provide for as best we could, made life a hard struggle, and beside all this we must fit out several trains of wagons and teams and teamsters to go out to the eastern frontiers to meet and bring to Zion the poor saints who could manage to cross the ocean and get that far on their way, depending on us for the completion of their journey. It was hard for the people to do this and they often made great sacrifices. Often they cooperated in this way when the call was made: one brother would say to his neighbor, "I have a good wagon which I think will stand the trip, now if you will share with me the use of your old wagon I will send mine," In like manner they cooperated in the use of teams for none but the best were taken. The teamsters also must have good outfits of clothing and provisions. Many a family gave their last ham, side of bacon, or shoulder of pork, which had for weeks been saved to cook with greens when they were doing their spring work. Then these wagons must be loaded with flour and provisions for support of the emigrants they were to bring home. These provisions were cached or deposited at various places while going out to be taken up as required on the return trip. It wasn't then, unusual for people to boil a ham bone, piece of bacon, or bacon rind, for two or three successive dinners or mid-day meals and they considered it a real treat. Money was scarce yet every¬thing was high and hard to get. We used to pay twenty-five cents letter postage from the states with foreign mail much higher. Tea was five dollars a pound, sugar we had not, calico eighty-five cents 56 -19- a yard, cotton cloth or unbleached factory $1.25 a yard, cotton yarn five dollars a bunch, and all such things scarce and hard to get. Books, stationery, slates and pencils were heavy freight and very few were brought so far, so they were very expensive. But Oh! what a sudden and complete change came to our people at this critical period. Peace between us and our government had been established. The army and a new governor came into Utah, also many wagon trains loaded with dry goods and army supplies, with fine teams and wagons, in fact everything that our people needed. The army must have feed for themselves and teams, also have houses and barracks built which furnished employment for all our men at good wages. They furnished us a good market for everything we could spare such as butter, eggs, cheese, chickens, in fact everything and when we came back to our homes we could get twenty yards of calico for a dollar and everything in proportion. Thus we were fed and clothed by those who had plotted our destruction. In July 1858 after an absence of three months, we returned to our home in Centerville, Davis County, where we found a good crop of wheat where none had been sown. Father called it volunteer wheat. About three hundred bushels was the harvest. The next spring, 1859, father sold our property to president Brigham Young for seven thousand dollars, taking his pay principally in cattle, sheep and horses, which he took into the valley on the Weber where the Territorial Legislature had granted to my brother-in-law, Jedediah M. Grant, my father, Thomas Jefferson Thurston, and my oldest brother, George W. Thurston, a large section of land for herd grounds. In the fall of the same year he moved our family there. This was the fall of 1859. We arrived the evening of October 31st, and were surprised in the morning to find about 57 -20- eighteen inches of snow on the ground. It continued to fall at intervals until we had three feet of snow on the ground. This did not leave the ground until late in the spring. It was May 15th, when father commenced to plough and then there were ravines full of snow and large drifts on the north sides of the hills. We had a very cold winter. A young man, 18 or 19 years old, named James McKan, who was working for us was frozen to death when re¬turning from a trip to Salt Lake City. We didn't know of his fate for two days. Father, thinking he would not try to come home while the weather was so extremely cold, did not expect him. He was a fine young man and his poor mother never knew what became of him. We didn't know who his parents were nor where they lived. He had lately come from one of the western states, I think it was Illinois. I believe it was in the year 1854 or 1855 when my oldest brother, George W. Thurston, was on a mission in England, that brother Jedediah M. Grant placed before the Territorial Legislature a bill which becam a law granting to Jedediah M. Grant, Thomas Jefferson Thurston, and George W. Thurston, all of the south end of the Weber Valley from what was then designated as Line Creek (and it still bears the name) and from where it emptied into the river. It followed the east fork of the river about two miles, then struck across eastward to the mountains, thus encompassing Round Valley. I don't remember the other boundaries. This scope of country was granted them for a herd ground. This law can be found in the first volume of the Compiled Laws of Utah. At this time my brother was in England and my father had no¬ting to do with the petition. He was surprised when this law was passed. When brother Grant came to our house I heard father talking to him. He appreciated his good will but was surprised. I remember that brother Grant said he thought for all father had done he 58 -21- deserved that much recognition. He further stated that many public utilities were going by grants. President Young was granted City Creek Canyon for a toll road, brother John Taylor a canyon in the west mountains for a toll road; Brother Heber Kimball, South Bountiful Canyon; brother Parley P. Pratt, I believe, in Parley's Canyon; William Empey was granted a ferry right over Bear River; and many herd grounds were granted to different ones. He said; "I don't want this for myself but I put my name at the head of it because I thought it would then pass without controversy.". There never was any contract, verbal or written, between my father and brother Grant which in any way implied a partnership in the settlement or improvements made in the Weber Valley, but brother Grant did a good deal to help my father and the most perfect faith and confidence for each other existed between them. Up to the time of brother Grant's death they were very close. Much labor had been done in getting into the valley. Two years they had planted crops without any returns. First drought took it and next frost, but father had continued to make improvements; had built cabins, corrals and sheds, also a stockade for protection in case of Indian attacks, had fenced in with a good fence all the lands between Deep Creek and Line Creek. Father had always intended that brother Grant should be a full partner with himself in all things, but in the providence of God, and to the great sorrow of the whole community of Latter Day Saints, brother grant was taken from us. At first, while the county was new, only one family was living in the whole valley - Charles S. Peterson. Then came Johnston's Army and the move south and back again. We were living in Centerville. Brother J. M. Grant's wives all were married to his brother, G. D. Grant. Thus time passed on but as stated above in the spring of 1859 father sold his farm in Centerville to president Young. He took pay princi- 59 -22- pally in horses cattle and sheep and took them up into the Weber Valley and then moved his family up in October. We lived there all during the winter without a neighbor, the Petersons who were five or six miles away were the only other people in the valley. Snow fell very deep. We didn't see anyone until spring. Then brother George D. Grant came up to put cattle on the summer range. Father did not know just how to arrange matters so that brother Jeddie's family should all be benefited alike for the interest he had shown in assisting him in making the road and developing the county. He would not show any partiality to his daughter, Sarah Ann, who was one of brother Grant's wives. He finally thought the proper thing to do was to divide his holdings with brother George D. Grant who had taken the responsibility of the care of his brother's family. Father then measured the distance between the two creeks and drew a line in the center and took brother George D. Grant out and showed him the land and division and told him how he felt toward brother Jeddie and family and said: "Now, brother Grant I wish you to take your choice of the divisions of land." Brother Grant chose the half on which we were living with all our improvements, such as ploughed land with water ditches all made, our cabins, corrals, cattle sheds and the large stockade. In fact, all the improvements that had been made in four or five years. When father came to the house he smiled and said: "Well I was a little surprised at brother Grant today. He chose this half of the land where all my improve¬ments are, but I don't care. I would rather have the other end of the land, but he didn't know it". G. D. Grant had never done a days work nor spent a dollar there. It wasn't long before there was a separation between George D. Grant and his brother's family and I don't suppose that brother Jeddie's family received any benefit from this property. Brother George divided this land letting his 60 -23- son, George, and William Benjamin Hampton, and his step-son John Lamb have the farms which came from that which my father gave in good faith for the benefit of his brother's family. Brother G. D. Grant kept a farm himself with the improvements. In writing my father's history, I have said that he estab¬lished the first ferry over Bear River which is correct. But I am also aware that when the Legislature met in 1850, brother Empy got a grant from the legislature to establish a ferry and went up there the following summer where he found father's boat and equipment quite convenient for his use, for father left them there in 1849 thinking he would go back there and use them the next year. I have written considerable about my father's labors and achievements as I know and remember them. Of some of the dates I am not quite certain. He was a great benefactor to the poor. I am sure that I am correct in saying that no one who ever asked him for assistance was turned away without help. In times of famine he fed many who came to him from far and near. No one ever went away without food. He was so blessed of the Lord that he always, even in the greatest scarcity of food, had some food for the hungry. Yet he was not perfect. I believe his greatest failing was in the treat¬ment of his own family. His personal wants were few. He was satis¬fied with meagre fare and if his clothes were clean and mended they were plenty good enough for him. Consequently, he thought the same kind was good enough for his family. He could never realize any want or necessity in his own family. We were also sadly neglected educationally. Although father always had plenty of means with which we might have had many more of the comforts of life and en¬joyed the priveleges and advantages of the time in which we lived, we surely were deprived of very many things which were essential to our comfort and developement. 61 -24- At the time of the selling of our home in Centerville, my father's family at home consisted of himself, my mother, and four children who should have been in school. He planned to take his second wife, Elizabeth, and her children with him to Weber Valley, and buy a home for mother in Salt Lake City. Had he done this we children could have had the social and educational advantages we so much needed. But when father made a final settlement with President Young, he said to father: "What are you going to do with your family, brother Thurston?" Father replied: "I will take part of them with me to the Weber Valley and leave part ot them in Salt Lake. I have bought a house and lot in the 17th ward." President Young asked who he had bought from and father told him he had bought the home of brother Moore down near John Nebeker's. President Young asked how much it cost him and if he had already paid for it. Father told him the price and said the bargain was made but he had not yet made payments. Then President Young said: "You had better not buy it brother Thurston." There then seemed nothing for father to do but take both of his families with him into the wilderness where we continued to live. I was but twelve years old and two brothers younger than myself and one older sister were at home. It was years before people moved in there and schools were established. I never went to school after the year that I was eleven years old (coming twelve in the following June). However I have the nonor of having taught the first school in Morgan County. I had about twenty-five students. I taught in a log cabin with a willow and dirt roof and a dirt floor. It was heated with a fireplace. Most of the students were Scandinavian children. They were very attentive and they learned rapidly. I taught reading, writing, spelling, number work, and the definitions of words. Father was not altogether to blame for taking us outside the place of civilization and de¬ 62 -25- priving us of education and culture for, as before stated, he had intended to leave mother and her family in Salt Lake City. In writing of father I have tried to give as correctly written a sketch of his life as possible. He was a great and good man, and my mother loved and honored him and taught her children respect and obedience to him. He was intellectual, exceptionally well versed in the Bible and in ancient and modern history; he was a beautiful penman, writing like copy plate. He was the father of twenty-four children. Yet father had peculiarities of which I have written with love and the best of feelings toward him. Father was the first bishop in Morgan County, presiding over the valley for several years. He took up and improved one of the best farms in the country and at one time valued it at thirty thousand dollars. When he became old he turned his farm over to some of his children, took his wife, Elizabeth, and some of the younger children and went to Saint George where his life's labor was brought to a fitting close working in the temple. He died and was buried there in 1886, being eighty-one years old. When he died his record showed that he had been baptized for 6,822 persons and had done more temple work than any other one person in the Saint George Temple. He had been endowed for 2,108, of course, much of this was done by proxy but he paid one dollar a name for the endowment work that was done by proxy. The following statement is made to supplement a statement published by the Chase girls in a late issue of the Deseret News concerning the old log cabin. My father and Aaron B. Cherry were the first settlers in Centerville. They went there and took up farms in 1848. Cherry's land was located on the creek which runs through the town of Centerville, father's on the next creek north. Father built the first log cabin, which is still there. The Chase 63 -26- family have moved it up to their present home, put it in good repair and are keeping it as a relic hall for the Chase family. ABout the year 1915, by invitation, I visited the old home place, was shown the cabin and told that it was the cabin we had left on the place, which they had rebuilt nicely and fitted up as a relic hall and had learned that it was the first place built in Centerville. I told Kate, the oldest sister, how pleased I was that the old cabin had fallen into the hands of such appreciative owners. After returning to my home in Logan I wrote and sent to her a little history of the old cabin, telling her how it had furnished a home temporarily for many of our incoming emigrants, gave her names of several families who had lived there. Among them were her aunt and uncle, Desdimony and John Chase Gleeson, and John Cousins who went out to Bear Lake and was there made County sheriff. One of his daughters is now the wife of Dr. Edward Rich, a prominent physician of Ogden. Also John Pickett; both of the latter were from England. At that time I sent to Miss Kate Chase a record of three or four large families of Chases (who also belonged in our family) with their temple work finished. I spent the night as a guest of Kate Chase and enjoyed the privelege of being again in my father's old log home. Note: Hulda Cordelia Thurston Married Willard G. Smith on April 15, 1865. For many years, Willard G. Smith served as president of the Morgan Stake. This pioneer sketch was contributed by their daughter, Alberta Smith Porter, October 30, 1950. Thomas J. Thurston's first wife was Rosetta Bull. She was born April 25th, 1809 at Manchester Vertmont, Died at Pinia, Arizona in July 29th, 1880, Mr. Thurston May 4th, 1885 at St. George, Utah.