T I TLE PAGE PIONEER (full name) BIRTH (date and place) DEA TH (date and place) PARENTS . MARRIED (who a nd dat e) ARRIVAL IN UTAH (date) (Company arrived with) HISTORY (wh o wrot e) (date written) (who submitted) (addres s) Alma Porter Van Buren County, 15 December 1834 - Missouri Porterville, 27 October 1903 - Morgan County, Utah Chauncy Warriner Porter Amy Sumner Minerva Ann Devel - November 1858 S a r ah Jane Car ter - 10 November 1882 12 Octob er 1848 E zra T. Clark was captain W ealtha Por ter Heiner (daughter) About 1978 Gail Whitaker Birt ' 750 West 2175 South Morgan, Utah 84050 CAMP &: COUNTY SUBMIT T ING _S_o_u_t h_M_ o_r_g_a_n _________ Camp _M_ o_r_g_a_n ____________ Count y (Camp Historian & address)-· ---El-m-a -W.- D-ic-ks-on- ---------- R t 2, Morgan, Utah 84050 County Historian & address)- ---Ve-lo-y -To-nk-s -D-ick-so-n --------- PO Box 203, Morgan, Utah 84050 SOlJRCI:: OF Ii~FORMATION ti PACE NUMBERS: - 15 ALMA PORTER Father, Alma Porter, was born 15 December 1834, in Van Buren Co. , Missouri. He was a son of pioneer parents, Chauncy Warriner and Amy Sumner Porter. He was the oldest son of Chauncy Warriner and the only son of Amy Sumner (his Mother) who lived to maturity, she had other son's but they died in infancy. When father was about two years old his parents moved to Caldwell Co. , Missouri, being driven there with other saints. They lived there two more years, then were driven again into Illinois, then across the Mississippi into Iowa. Although young in years, he began to assist his father in driving the team and other work. In April of 1842, he was baptized into the church by Nathan T. Porter, an Uncle. At a very early age he began to show interest in the gospel. He would defend its principles and also the saints when they were assailed and opposed by their enemies. In the year 1845 the saints were again compelled by their enemies to leave their homes and go West. In the Spring of 1846, he writes in his history, "My father and family with the rest of the Saints started westward: that summer we stop-ped twelve or fifteen miles beyond Council Bluff, stayed over the winter, built a house and plowed a small piece of land. In the fall of 1846, I proved to be a great help to my father- - in hauling logs for building, chopped wood poles and etc. I also looked after the stock, they had to be wintered along the creek bottoms , where cane and bulrushes grew for feed." That winter my father and grandfather went one hundred miles down the • - 2 - / (:, river to get' provisions for the family, taking me along to drive the team. I was then twelve years old. This was in 1846. The 6 April 1847, my mother died, leaving we children in the hands of the wife father married just shortly before Mother's death. Lydia Ann Cook. She proved to be a blessing t o us a ll. She was kind and good to us children in keeping the family together. I will just say that during the next year or two, father married his third wife (Purcilla Strong}, this was two wives he now had in place of my mother. In the forepart of June 1848, father fitted up a team and wagon, putting my step-mother and her baby, with two of my sisters and myself as teamster, with sufficient food to last, we start ed for the valley of the Mountains. I was thirteen years of age, father placed me in care of his brother-in-law, Nathan Tenny. He would assist me in yoking and unyoking the oxen, greasing the wagon, etc. We traveled for t$ty or thirty miles, then waited a few days for the others to catch up, then we would organize for the journey ahead. Ezra T. Clark was captain of ten wagons. It was under his instructions we traveled to Utah. After a tedious journey of better than three months, we entered the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on 12 October 1848. Proving mys elf quite adequate for my task as teamster, I drove m y oxen the entire distance with but very little help. The winter of 1848 and 49, I lived with Ena T. Clark, m y old captain and friend, helping him to hauling wood, hunting cattl e and doing whatever work needed doing. In the spring of the nex t year, I plowed and planted the first c rop raised on his land, also helped him build his first home in the West. About the first of • • - 3 - July the next year I bid adieu to my old friends and went to live with my Uncle where my step-mother lived, helping Uncle harvest and haul his grain. In September of the same year, I went back to help the emigrating Saints, their teams being badly worn out. With two yoke of oxen, food and bedding, I started my journey. I met my father about the middle of Echo Canyon. When father arrived, he took all his family four or five miles south of the city, along the Jordon river where we lived together during the winter. In the Spring of 1851, father rented a sawmill twelve miles south of the city, eight miles up the canyon. The mill didnrt make us any money, we went behind, so we gave it up and went back to farming. In the year 1853, father built a double log cabin, took up some land, plowing, fencing, putting in grain, but that year the crickets ate just about everything we raised. Here I got disheartened, left my family and again went t o live with my Uncle. The rest of the family persuaded my father to leave and move to Center­ville where the rest of the folks were. On 4 March 1855, I was ordained a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. On 6 May 1856, I was chosen with others to get my endowments, so I was ordained an Elder at this time. On 24 February 1857, I was ordained to the Seventies Quorum. The year President Young took the contract to carry the Government mail, I with others was called to go back and take provisions, tools, and what was needed to put up stations along the way for the Pony Express. The year 18 S8, I worked with others digging the Cottonwood Canal. In the same year the Saint s moved south. I made two trips to help with stock and provisions . That winter I spent with the Militia in Echo Canyon under Captain Lot Smith and Porter Rockwell. The United States Army came to the valley and they 16b • • - .4 - 1'1 wintered on Ham's Fork all winter. The following year a treaty was made between the Saints in Utah and the United States Government. In the fall the people returned to their homes without loss of life or property. In November 1858, Minerva Ann Devel and I were united in marriage by Apostle Charles C. Rich at her father's home. Two weeks after we were married I rented a little house from my Grandfather (Sanford Porter Sr.) across the street. We lived there until the Spring 1860. In this little house where I had taken my bride, two children were born to us. First, a son named Alma William. He was born 6 August 1859 and died 22 Nov­ember the same year. Mary Minerva, first daughter born 19 September 1860. Ann Eliza, second daughter born 22 October 1862. The next spring we moved from Centerville to Morgan County. My father was President of the Branch in East Porterville. I was called to labor as a teacher. Our next two children we lost--Lewis Alfred and Nelson Warriner, both died in infancy. In the Spring of 1868, I buried my father, Chauncy Warriner Porter. He died 3 March 1868. In December before father's death, Charles Worthy was born to us 17 December 1867. In the Autumn of and winter of 1868 and 69, the Union Pacific Railroad came through. I cut and hauled 500 ties for the road. I also built on to my house that year (where Zylpha Shaw now lives - 1978). Ors en Merit another son was born 26 July 1868. In that year I was appointed to preside over the Porterville Branch. 17 March 1871, George Myron was born to us. The next few years were lean ones for us, for the grasshoppers were bad, eating nearly everything that was green . I spent the summer of 1872 hauling ore from. a mine in Dry Canyon, but I • • - 5 - never got my pay for that work. The 29 January 1873, Amy Vilate was born to us, on the 10 February, twelve days later, I lost my wife. This left m.e with six small children to care for. With all my losses and misfortunes, this was the hardest to bear. I was now alone, no one to be with me. I must paddle the canoe of life alone. The labor and trials of life were mine alone to bear. For nearly ten long years, father struggled along best he could under the circumstances. He must now be father and mother to his little brood. Only to those who know sorrow through death and separation can know the loneliness and heartache. Mary Minerva, oldest daughter, was only thirteen years when the responsibility of keeping house and doing the work fell to her. Uncle Lyman Porter's third wife, Sarah, cared for the tiny baby Vilate for the immediate years ahead. In the Spring of 18 77, father was working in the canyon cutting timber when he broke his leg (shin bone of right leg). Good doctors were hard to find in those days to set the broken bone. Uncle Sanford, who had served in the Mormon Batallion in the Medi cal Corps, set the bone, but in putting on the bandage, wrapped it too tightly and stopped the circulation, the pain was so severe that when the bandage was loosened the bones lapped each other again and thus it healed to some degree. Father was lame on that leg the rest of his days. Many, many times he used crutches to get about, especially when he had worked too hard or lifted too heavily. When the Morgan Stake was organized in July 1877, father was ordained as Patriarch. This office he held until his death. He was 43 years of age when called to this position. Many beautiful and inspiring blessings were given to the people of this Stake and others under his hands by the power of the priesthood. 18b • , • - 6 - He was set apart as a High Councilman on 16 July 1884, by Albert Carrington, an Apostle . Before 1882, Mary and Eli:za were married and had homes of their own. It is plain to see why Bro. E:z;ra Clark advised his son, Hyrum, to go to Porter­ville and get one of Alma Porter's daughters for a wife. Hyrum and Eli 7a, the ideal couple, or so it has always seemed to me, With the girls gone with their husbands; father, Charles , Ors en and Myron lived as bachelor's for sometime, then one morning as father lay awake in bed pondering over his situation, wondering where he could find some one to keep, cook and make a home for he and the boys, a voice said to him, 11 Go to Bishop Carter's home and get his daughter, Jane. 11 Meditating upon this inspiration, he decided to do just that. Shortly after he mounted his horse and rode up to Bishop Carters. "If Jane meets me at the front gate, she will accept my pro­posal. 11 He knew this in his heart. Thus it happened. He told her his story, his circumstances, also his impressions. Their courtship was of short duration. Six weeks to be exact. He always said, "What the Lord does, he does well. 11 They were married 10 November 1882. Father was in his forties, Mother nearly nineteen. She made a home for father and his boys. Yes, a home for all the children when ever they chose to come. She loved his children as she loved her own. A "Happy Home Sweet Home, 11 was theirs. Father loved to dance, he used to call for the Quadrills, the French Four and Upper Reel were some of his favorite , dances. Some of these old tunes they loved so much, are lost to us today . Father's life was full and rich with spiritual gifts and blessings. I have seen the sick instantly healed through his administrations. These made a lasting - 7 - I Cf impression upon my life. He was deeply religious from childhood. So far as I • remember, he lived every principle of the Gospel, his advise and judgement were sound, his life an example, were without question. • He passed away 27 October 1903, after a weeks illness of pneumonia, leaving a large family. Mother had ten children, nine girls and one boy. She lost her first baby, a daughter (Etna), when she was a month old. So Effie, being the next oldest, had just been married three weeks when father died and the youngest (Martha) was but five months old. So in all father had nineteen children. Seven sons and twelve daughters. To his sacred memory I dedicate the following: Gentle Father and Sire of mine Your memory I cherish, your life was divine. You taught us and led us to have faith in God Undaunting, unwavering along lifes road It's been years since you left us But our memory still clings To the heights you attained Through your service to men. How well I remember my childhood and you Your loving kindness, your patience too. You scarcely ever scolded, and seldom did whip Our childhood pranks you stood like a brick "Tut-tut," was the word we often would hear When we would do wrong and you were quite near If I could recall some things you said to me Perhaps I could do better and more clearly see I c ould visualize the future between eternity and me. Only today in your book I was reading Some of those blessings kind and good You pronounced on someones head In the calling in which you stood. You magnified that calling , in honor did you part As a Patriarch and Father many blessings thus were wrought, Some have lived to their fulfillment And much joy and peace attained It has been an armour bearer an anchor for their faith. • - 8 - Since the years are quickly pas sing On wings of time they fly We will try to do your bidding, from that home on high. I hope I shall be worthy on the Ressurrection Day To be called with all the family Almost numberless are they May our family chain be welded With no mis sing links I pray In that day of glad rejoicing In that glorious Day of Days Lovingly - Your Daughter W ealtha Porter Heiner Things I want to add to the history: W ealtha wrote this history, and it is my guess she got most of the material from father's journal. He kept and also recorded many things in it. But to me she should of gone a. little farther and told of building the house and I know it as "Home" and all of us, for that matter as all of Mother ' s children lived there, as her first ones were only small at the time they moved there. When father and mother were first married, he had built the house where Zylpha Shaw now lives, and mothers first three or four were born there. Father's farm was a little distance from there so he bought a piece of land from Hyrum Phillips to build a house on, that would be closer to his work, only on the opposite side of the road and creek from his farm, and just a little about where the two creeks meet. The one coming from Hardscrabble Canyon and the other from East Canyon. Mother wanted him to buy right down to the creek, called Mill Creek because there used to be sawmills in Hardscrabble C"'nyon (and as a note here, father's father, Chauncy Warriner Porter, was the first man to build a sawmill there). But father said no one would build a house so close to the creek. But they did , Mother's brother, Heber Carter, built a house there, the one Parley and Norma C,:,rter now live in. It must of been about the year 1892 that father started building the home, as he says in his book they moved into the home 15 December, although it wasn't finished. Father could not of lived there more than about 10 years as he died 27 October 1903, when I (Martha} was only five months old. He built a foot bridge across the creek with railings on both sides so the children would not fall into the creek. Mother said she worried so much when they first moved there for fear some of the girls may fall in and be drowned, that father said to her, " Jane, if you will stop worrying so much, I promise you in the name of the Lord we will never loose a child in that creek, " and no one ever did. I can remember how us kids used to go running over that bridge with never a thought of falling into the water. Of course father had to "ford" the creek with the team and wagon whenever he wanted to go someplace and mother did too for many years until Horace grew up and built a wagon bridge across it. • , '"'' - 9 - Father had a bad cold, it turned into pneumonia, he died 27 October 1903 (age 69) in the home he built, also two of his daughters, Mercy at age 14 and Loretta age 19. Mother at age 6 3 . When Horace and Elsie were married, the house was divided. Mother living in the front part and Horace and Elsie in the back. But that wasn't for long as they were married in April of 1928 and Mother passed away 13 October 1928. I often wonder what will happen to the old home when Elsie is gone. A home that has known so much love, one that has known good and happy times. So many memories , many of them sad, but that is life. But it is faith in God, hope in a better life and a strong desire to endure to the end t hat keeps us going. The Gospel to guide us, help us. May we ever be true to our heritage, left us by this wonderful man. Martha Porter Rose