• • 1 :'· • JPEG;. Bk13 TITLE PAGE PIONEER (full name) BIR TH (date and place) DEA TH (date and place) PARENTS MARR IED (who and dat e ) ARRIVAL IN U~AH (date) (Company arrived with) HISTORY (who wrote) (date written) (who submitted) (address) Rachel Fielding Burton 27 June 1839 Preston, · Lancashire, Eng . 20 July 1914 Ogden, Utah Joseph Fielding Hannah Greenwood William W' alton Burton 28 March 1856 23 September 1848 Heber C. Kimball Company Autobiography· and Burton Family History Committee Francis Burton Turner 194 W. 100 N. Morgan, U~!h 84050 CAMP & COUNTY SUBMITTING _S_o_u_t_h_M,_o_r-'g"'"a_n _______ Camp _M_o_r_g a_n ___________ County (Camp Hi_storian & address)_ __G_ l_e_n_na_R_._ P_o_r_t_e_r ________ _ County Historian & address)- ---Ba-rb-ar-a -P-or-te-r ------ - --- SOURCE OF INFORMATION & PAGE NUMBERS: · Family Histories • • • JPEG-Bk13 HISTORY OF RACHEL FIELDING BURTON "I was born in Preston , Lancashire, England, on the 27 June 1839 . My father's name was Joseph Fielding and my mother's name was Hannah Greenwood. I left England and came to Nauvoo with my parents before I can remember , when I was near two years of age . In Nauvoo father bought some land at $8.00 per acre and planted a garden, and dug a well. He planted some raspberry bushes. When they got big enough to bear fruit, Ellen and I were delighted. One morning we got out of bed and stole out the back door and ate our fill of raspberries . We got some juice on our gowns. Our mother reproved us, so we did not do it again. Once after we went to a meeting we went home with Uncle Hyrum Smith's family. The children , our cousins, had a little wagon and we had a good time with a rocking horse . I fell down the stairs, and it left a scar on the back of my head. Uncle Joseph Smith used to enjoy a romp with the c hildren , and played with us many times. The day I was 5 years o l d the perse- ~ cutors ki ll ed my Uncle Hyrum and his brother Joseph, the Prophet , and I remember well the sorrow and excitement at that time. (Quoted from Joseph Fielding's Diary) After the martyrdom of the Prophet and Hyrum the buildi~g of the Temple was resumed with great vigor . . . The upper room was finished and in December 1845 it was dedicated and the Twe l ve began to give the Sain t s their endowments • .• On the 23rd of January we were sealed in the Tem-ple and on the 26th our four children, Rachel , Ellen, Heber, and Joseph were sealed to us. " Unquote • 2 When the mobs were raiding Nauvoo, the men were gone, and my mother and auntie · (Mary Ann) were alone with us children, so they brought the pitchfork, hoe, rake, and axe into the house. They filled the stove with hot water, and put the cayenne pepper on the table, ready to use if it were necessary in defense of our home and family. But our enemies did not come. After our enemies drove us out of Nauvoo, our parents had many worries and a great deal of hard work. We had two heavy covered wagons - a span of horses on one, and two cows pulled the other. At Winter Quarters we were often hungry. We ate pig-weeds and cornbread, our only food until our vegetable gar-den grew. At Winter Quarters my two little brothers died - Hyrum Thomas and John. • We had many enjoyable times on the plains as well as sad • JPEG - Bk13 ones. Some nights we camped early and in the evenings we had immense bonfires and the Saints would gather around the fires sing hymns or dance and be merry. The bigger the fire the better it seemed and the spirit wtth which the hymns were sung was an inspiration. As we traveled, I remember one time we came to what seemed a large lake of saleratus and all the women gathered some. I helped my mother and we both filled our aprons full . It was in cakes. Mother took care of it so we were supplied with saleratus for a long time. We used it for baking soda and we were glad to have it when our bread was sour, which was quite often, owing to the way in which we had to neglect it in our travels. 2.()/ 3 Once while traveling on the plains, the ox we had of Aunt • Smith's became sick, so sick to seemed it would die, but my • • father poured oil on it and administered to it. It lay per-fectly still a few minutes, got up and shook itself, ate a little grass, and it was alright after that. So father hitched it up and we were on our way rejoicing. We had lost one of our horses, so father put the oxen on one wagon with the remaining horse in front of them forming a spike team. A second wagon had one of our xen plus one of Aunt Smith ' s oxen pulling it. Mother and Auntie drove the wagon with the spike team with the children in it until the lines broke and then I had to lead the horse by the bridle. Father drove the second wagon with all our earthly possessions in it . Leading the horse by the bridle was difficult . I was bare-foot and the horse stepped on my heels, keeping them raw and sore. When we reached Big Mountain, Mother and Auntie happened to be walking behind the wagon. My little brother Joseph and my little sister Mary were in the wagon. I remember the descent looked long and rather steep, but I went . down without waiting for my parents. The people at the bottom of the mountain were very much alarmed and shouted, "That child will be killed . " However, we arrived safely at the bottom . I would not think of letting go of that bridle because the children were in the wagon. My feet were dreadfully cut and bruised, and my steps could be traced some distance by my bloody footprints. We arrived in Salt Lake on the 23 of September 1848. I remember feeling so glad that we were in Zion - no more traveling! JPEG-Bk13 • • • JPEG-Bk13 4 For awhile we live with Aunt Mercy Rachel Thompson, father's sister who had come to the valley the year before us. Then father obtained a piece of land in South Mill Creek. We still lived : in our two wagons, Mother in one and Auntie in the other. This was in the fall and father worked hard to get logs from the canyon and dragged them home with the help of our hor.se. He notched them together and soon we had walls for a one room house. Someone let us have straw and this was our floor and then father stretched the tent over the top and we had a living room, the wagons were still our bedrooms. In January Auntie had a little daughter - mother was the doctor, nurse, house keepter. In May, mother a l ~o had a little daughter and Auntie did all for her. There were no stores at first and they developed very slowly, so it was difficult to get the necessary food and clothing . We were entirely on our own resources and had to do everything for ourselves. Father had brought with us a piece of broadcloth which he had purchased in England with the intent of making a suit for himself but .he had to sell it to get food for us. To take the place of matches, we used a tinder box. We saved every bit of grease, even that which collected on the dish-pans, and made our soap using lye from wood ashes. We scrubbed our floors with sand instead of soap and brushes . The cry was, "Use plenty of elbow grease and spare the soap~. Ragweed was used for 6rooms until we raised broom corn and made real brooms. Syrup (our only sweet) was made from frozen squash and beets, we braided our hats from straw and made starch from grated potatoes. • • • JPEG-Bk13 5 Mother knew how to spin and was a skilled weaver. She bought a spinning wheel and father had some sheep and he bought a loom. Mother washed the wool that father sheared, spun it into yard and wove it into cloth . ·,she dyed the cloth and from it she made our clothes and quilts. When she was weaving, she liked us to do all the regular work we could and to keep her supplied with bob-bins so she could stay with the weaving. Mother's brother, George, came from England one day . He was well fixed financially and wanted to buy a farm so mother went with him to Kaysville to see some friends who knew of a man wanting to sell some land. It was through this transaction that William Walton Burton came into my life." (From family history) When William Walton Burton came to their home, Rachel and Ellen met and admired him. Later when he asked Rachel to be his wife , $he agreed on condition that he would also marry Ellen. William and Rachel were ~arried on 28 March 1856 . For some years they struggled in poverty. Everything seemed to go wrong . Rachel dreamed that if he would go and take Ellen for his wife, they would do better and God would prosper them . This proved to be true. They were married 2 November 1861. Joseph Fielding had been pleased with the marriage of his two daughters and in a conversation with William shortly before his death, he expressed his approval in case William should also be inclined to marry Sarah Ann. After the death of Joseph Fielding and his two sons Heber and Joseph, Sarah Ann and her mother, Hannah Fielding, were moved to Ogden to live with William, Rachel and Ellen. Sometime after • • 6 this, both William and Sarah Ann had dreams which they each re-lated to Hannah Fielding . The significance of the dreams made them feel that it was right for them to marry so Sarah Ann be-came William's third wife on 23 May 1870 . "Our old home on Grant ~nd 23rd Street in Ogden was a log structure, with a unit for each wife and one for Mother Fielding, but the living room was used for the entire family . The happy harmonious relationship 9f ·:our life together there are sweet memories." OUR HOME Lines penned to Rachel and Ellen 1868 Our home, I love it, though humble it be, All its surroundings are dear to me; The song of the children - the·smile of my wife- Are pleasure and sunshine to gladden my life. There dearst ones meet me, and sweet smiles greet me , Giving me welcome that fills me with love; A foretaste of heaven our Father has given ~ To ~i nd us together and lead us above . Grandma Rachel had a · side seam in the dresses she wore which which always housed a pocket from which she would produce an old fashioned peppermint or a piece of hard candy. There were 10 of us girls, all cousins and our two youngest aunts. We had a Club we called the D. OF M. (Daughters of Mirth) We loved to meet with Grandma in the back parlor which was Grand- • ma's room. She seemed to take great pleasure in our fun and non-sense. She told us one that she was living her girlhood through JPEG-Bk13 • • • 7 us, because she was a child, then a wife and mother and she never had any real youth period in her life. She said "Laugh and enjoy life, stay young as long as you can. Responsibilities await you in a few years." Her stories of her early years have strengthened our testimonies. Rachel Fielding Burton was about five feet three inches tall and weighed about one hundred sixty pounds. Her eyes were blue and her hair was black and waved beautifully about her ,face. She had nice skin and beautiful hands regardless of all the hard work she did. · Her face had few wrinkles and had a serene expression and rather youthful appearance. Her body became old but not her spirit and mind. Even in the later years of her life, she asked a granddaughter to teach her how to type and to play the piano. She was a woman of great faith an~ humility and she had a very strong testimony of the Gospel for which she had suffered arid sac-rificed. She was the mother of thirteen children, two of which died as children. In the winter of 1888 when the U.S. marshals were ~ "heckling the polygamists and it was necessary for William to be away from Ogden, their little Julina age 2 years 4 months was taken seriously ill and died with croup. This was a great grief to Rachel , to be · bereft of her baby daughter so suddenly and to have to meet it alone. Rachel loved flowers and gardening. She could not abide weeds. There were rows of peonies, and phlox. Lilac and sweet honeysuckle bushes, a violet bed, cosmos, poppies, petunias, larkspur, bleeding heart, and beautiful roses. Inside, the windowsills were full of JPEG-Bk13 • 8 flowering plants. Poetry was another source of great joy in her life and she assembled scrapbooks of beautiful poems. Rachel was never idle. There were apples, peaches, pears, plums, gooseberries, raspberries, both black and red currents, rhubarb and grapes on the place, besides a large vegetable gar-den that took much time and work during the summer and fall. No-thing was allowed to waste. Each year dried fruit and preserves were sent to Star Valley to Sarah Ann because seasons were too short there to raise fruit. Rachel~ last home was on Monroe and 25th Street in Ogden. A place that was home to her family and also her sister's child-ren as they came from Star Valley to Ogden for education. She died 20 July 1914 at the age of seventy-five and was • buried in the Ogden City Cemetery • • JPEG-Bk13