TITLE PAGE. Daughters of Utah Pioneers. 35 [035] PIONEER NAME-Esther Britton Taylor BIRTH DATE AND PLACE- 26 February 1851, Sedgley, Staffordshire, England DEATH DATE AND PLACE- March 11th 1927 FATHER- Thomas Britton MOTHER- Maria Smith WHO MARRIED AND DATE- John Taylor, October 30 1872 YEAR ARRIVED IN UTAH- March 14, 1872 NAME OF COMPANY- City of New York WHO WROTE HISTORY AND DATE- WHO SUBMITTED HISTORY AND DATE- Shirley Carter CAMP NAME- Mt. Joy CAMP HISTORIAN- Bertie Smith COMPANY NAME- Morgan [County] HISTORIAN- Dena Rich SIGNATURE OF AUTHOR OR OWNER OF THIS HISTORY- Shirley Carter CAMP RECEIVED (DATE)- Dec. 8, 2008 ( Esther was born on Feb. 26 . 1851 at Sedgley , Staffordshire, England • .,wito Maria Smith and Thomas Britton. She was the oldest girl o~ly of~i~een. This tiny baby was taken to be blessed ~J;b:e.eJelo,,pi,- of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 1beea~e Maria and Thomas were both of that church having accepted the gospel when it had come to England. The elders took this tiny babe in their arms and began to bless her, aRd' her name was to be Esther after her grandmother Esther Harper Britton. Each time the elder blessed her he named her Rebecca and twice he had to be stopped and was told again her name was to be Esther. The elder then said it was made known unto him to call her Rebecca so they named her Esther Rebecca Britton. When Esther was four ye:irs old , her oldest brother, Elijah , sneakea ~p behind her and lit a match to her clothes . She ran into the street screaming; a man was passing by and saw her. He wrapped her in his overcoat and smothered the flames. She was burned very badly and it seemed as though she couldn't live . But her parents , being very wise, and having much faith in the elders, had them administer to her and she was told in the blessing that she would live . They doctored her burns with lard and flour and they began to heal. It seemed as if her legs and arms were being drawn up out of shape. So she was stood in a tub and they would pull her arms and legs straight again. The blood would flow down her body and often times the bottom of the tub would be covered with blood. Her left side was burned the worst and the burns on her stomach were very deep. When the burns healed , she was scared quite badly and her left eye was drawn into the corner. This made her quite self-conscious all her life. In later years , the doctor could have straightened her eye but she wouldn ' t let him after having had it that way for so many years . when Ssther was but six years old, she had the responsi-bility of tending the children younger than herself while her mother hel9ed her father make nails. When the children slept , Esther would go out to the blacksmith shop and help also. t. BRITTON TAYLOR y Charlotte Taylor Dearden en Richins) All this time she was learning to do the housework and by the time she was ten. she was doing all of it besides helping in the blacksmith shop. j,'he could make nails as good as a m3.n. It seemed as though Thomas couldn't make enough to feed his family . They were very poor. One of the small baby girls na~ed Mariah.Maria born in 1859 starved to death h>I Jacfl7 1860 because they couldn't get her the right kind of food. She lay dead in the house one week before they could get anything to bury her in. Esther and Elijah used to go and gather up the potato peelings people had thrown away. They would take them home and boil them and eat them. On one occasion. these two children went to the neighbors and asked them if they would give them some work to do so they could earn a meal but the neighbor was kind and he gave them something to eat . When their father heard this. he was very angry and scolded them because he was very independent and proud . When Esther was twelve. she went to work in a brick y 3rd. She only made~ twenty-cents a day. She gave all the money she earned to her mother to help keep the family. On one occassion . she came home from work with her money and her brother. Elijah, met her at the door and demanded her money . (It seems he was quite lazy and wouldn't work). She wouldn't give it to him and he became quit e angry and would have shot her if her father hadn 't stopped him. Elijah didn 't seem to like Esther v.r;y. lll\teh. v&:atb9P ~to-· Jeal.oosy .or ;,just4lha-t- it :was, j,s,n,Jt ~ he was always trying to hurt he r in some way. She went to school for only three wee~s and that was at night. She learned to read quite well and to write a little, but she didn't have much time f s r school ing because she had to work and help make the living for t he family. \ ( ( ,._ Esther's brother Elijah Esther soon advanced farther in her work. She learned to burn br icks and then would wheel t hem in a wheelbarrow to be stored. She had to wheel the barrow over a plank th~t was stretched ac r oss a pit . One day , she made a misstep and fell into t he bottom of the pit . It knocked her unconscious fQr qu; te a long time-. They took he r home and she was unable to work for a l ong time . When she did go back to work, she was scared to go near the pit. When she was eighteen , she met a young man and they kept company for a long time. He was quite well-to-do and he liked Esther very much . He wanted her to marry him. She liked him a lot but if she married him , she would have to stay in England which she didn ' t want to do , so she came to America with he r parents. They sailed on the ship "City of New York" in February 1872 and arrived in New Yor k on March 14, 1872. it t~hem a.-.PKi:~~£;&--C1t"Ql~...U::}6......0.1cea11. One day Esther and her sisters tucy and Priscilla , her mother and some more of t he children went on the deck to get some fresh air. A l arge wave came up on t he deck and swirled Lucy off her feet. As the wave went back into the ocean, it was taking Lucy with it when a man grabbed her and saved her life. They were ordered down to \their rooms and t hey were very glad to go in af'ter this terrifying experience. r ·, I L-R Lucy Bell, Priscilla Danks , and Esther Rebecca Taylor ·,.!hen they landed in New York, they ,,er e all examined. The officials said Esther had muscles like a man and they t hought it was a shame that so young a woman~ had t o work as hard as she ~ had to do. 1'v a1M~' 1c.~ They were me t by her fathe r. He had c ome ~before them and had gotten a j ob and with the money he had saved , one-hundred and forty dollars, and some he had borrowed from a friend , he sent for his family to come to Amer ica ~ EH0 l,md . GraRd fat he r Brit tQD.-had-bemrove-r here i.n-AmerJ..c.a.dn,i4:ce. The f amily went to Illinois f or a short time, · then to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Anywhere to get work. While in Pennsylvania, Esther met and fell in love with John Taylor. After a short courtship , they were married in Hickory, Mercer County, Pennsylvania , October JO , 1872 , ZJ1 ~e E ~ · Esther was twenty-two at the time . She was John's second wife. His first wife had been quite deaf and she had been chasing pigs on the railroad track~\ train hit her and killed her. She le~ th ree children . John was unable to tend t hem after his wife died so he gave the children away. After he married Es~her , he tried to get t hem back but was unable to do so. J ohn Taylor's f ather was William 'f..a~c_oJ:.-S:t,....-le±ens, Epg.lai:id. His mother was Betsy:l~n~n. F;Rg,la~z:R in-Rey.t-eR-,- Lancashira, Englal'ld, April 5. 18)2. JehA uas forly-twa yea~s oJ d when he m.i i:~i ed Esther. John was a coal miner. Esthe r used to do a lot of crocheting and kn t tting. She sold this t o help make a living for the~. In this way, she was able to buy her first table and chairs and also a stove. She used a box for a cupboard and they had an old bed given to them. ly Their first child w1s born a year after t hey were married. They named him John 'lbomas. He died a few months a~er he was born. She t hen had a girl Maria . 'lben she had another girl which died . Esther felt very bad about l osing her babies and s he used ~g ery about them a lot. ". ..,. - ---. l: I f: (_ . ......, L--R standing top row; James and Maria L - -F 2Cnhda rrloowt te. John Taylor (Father), Frank, Esther Rebecca (Mother), baby Ephriam Bottom-Josiah 4-1 v~en she was going to have her fifth child, she was very sick and nearly died as she had a tape-worm. She got rid of this but it left her very weak as it had taken all the nourish-ment from her, so when her baby was born on Christmas Eve, she went blind and was unconscious for two weeks. '.vhen she did re-gain her sight , she was unable to keep her eyes open for many minutes as the light hurt them. It t ook her months to gain her strength back. She named this baby ~ ~~ AmQe as it was a boy. Esther' s father and mother, brothers and sisters, were in Utah. Her father kept writing for her to save enough money to come to Utah ee-e..iuse it was the best place on eartA. She made up her mind that she would save for this event. John worked part time in the coal mines. He also rasied large gardens and sold vegetables. Anything to raise money. Esther started up a road house. She would sell new bread, cheese, and beer. After payday, all the miners would come and patronize her. After everyone had left, t hey would count the money they had received for the day. Esther had a good friend Ma."ry Sharp, and she would usually be there when they counted the money. ~~en John wasn' t looking, she would slip some of the money off the table and give it to Esther.· Many times John would say that it seemed to him there should be more money and Mary would say, "Nay, John, Thee don't know how to count". Then he would count the money over again. They would do this every Saturday night until Esther had enough money saved to come to Utah. One day when John came home from work, Esther said, "We are going to Utah". John said. "I can It go, but I will sell everything we have so you and the c hildren can go". Esther t hen s howed him the money she had saved. There was finally enough to take them to Utah and enough to give them a start when they got there. John was so happy . he cried. He said, "God bless Mary; she has saved t he day for us." / 6 if/" ~ The day came for their departure and they took a train to ~~ Utah. It took them a week to come as the trains traveled slow in those days. When Aee:F-ly--t~enefeI:.,- Uj,ah. t he ~ which they were going and where her parents were living, s to Esthe r's father. Thomas B · n, Esther's father, received the te min the ni rge Tristiam brought it down from Echo. He w ~ and gave it to him. Thomas re '.ld it and the ~ up the rest of tne-famlil_. "Get up, he said, Esther er family will soon be here. We rn\lS't kill a chic do some cooking because they will be hungry afte S"UC ride". Soon it was daylight and they ·hooked up a team and wagon d startecf'£ Echo. They were all so happy that E and ne family were co only had tow· sort .time until the train came in. How happy Est n were to see Mother and Father Britton.~ alked at once a · n!-.t-.a.pY,time until ~~we-fehome.) They had a very happy reunion together and....t-hey had so many things to tell. You can be sure that they ta1.ked far into the night. · John soon found a one room house they rented and lived in for a short while . Grandfather gave them some ground and a house. It wasn ' t up to much but they kept building on to it until they had two rooms and a lean- to on the back. f ·i Taylor Home iL-- R 1Violet Taylor (baby Alton) 1Charlotte in door way; James Taylor, Onida Taylor (boy in front) I The first work John Taylor did in Utah was for Charles Richins. He received a bushel of wheat for a day's work. As John grew older , his health began to ' fail and he develop-ed asthma. It was then up to Esther to earn the living for the family. She used to walk four miles to Echo , do a large washing and when walk back at night. She did this for fourteen years, even though she had children. J~ Jgs18tl was the first child born in Utah . Later on, Esther had a b~by girl and she named her Charlotte. WlieA--tA:l:s ~ wa.s Otl~ two :weeks o~~~e.:c-.ole~hter Maria and her father. They would feed her milk tl:l-at~ s~~d and a little ·suga?-aeo~d. This was all the baby got un~her motfier came home at night. When Esther got home at night, she had to do the baking and also make her children I s clot.hes by hand . She would sit up until one o'clock many a night sewing and mending then go to bed and be up again at six in the morning. She would bathe, dress and feed the baby , then start tow~rd Echo to work again. In the winter the snow would be so deep , she could hardly get through and at night oft times it would be so dark she could hardly see . One time she was walking home from work and she took sick. S~ g.ot to .!Fe-~-eyun . (I.t :was e~ this be-cause :th.e.r? used t o be a lisUeP tank there fo-r-the-t-ra4'ns). She laid down beside the track and was so sick she felt she couldn 't go on. She .laid there and began to think of her children at home and how they would be looking for her , so ' . she would get up and go a little farther, then lay down ,gain. She was so late getting home that her husband began to worry about her so he set out to find her. He found a very sick woman who he helped home. She was very sick f or a week. James Fowler would ork and h He was very she was walking home and met Richins ('Ibom..s ~--. e said, "You'~er not go home tonight, .it'71s so dark and surely y~". Bu:t-5he had to get home to her children so she came home anyway. It ~~ so dark, she couldn't see but when it was lightning. She was very happy to get home that night. S.he bad many hardships to contend wi-th. 1-0n ~~ night when she was coming home, she heard some kind of a weird scream coming from somewhere a1rom1d .lihmot..!.-s---fe=pm in the river bottoms. She t hought it was a panther as she had heard rumors of one being around. She was very frightened and ran home as fast as she could. Later on, she found out that it was Jimmy Lythgoe1s mother. She was old and feeble and had wandered away from home~. ~tteB lo»t. Whe had wandered around in the river bottoms and had lived on wild currants and berries until she died. A young boy, Walt Bw1CS't, went swimming and found her dead body by the side of · the river. She had been lost for a week. Esther and John took all their children to the Logan Temple and had them sealed to them. T~ 1 while \~... Her name :uas M.rs Boo_ge. Just a few years after going to the temple, John t ~ok sick and died April 23, 1896. Esther had just buried a little girl, Betsy, who was fourteen month s old, just a week before her husband died, so it added sorrow to her. She was left a widow with seven children to take care of. James, t he oldest child, was t he only one big enough to work. He worked for Will Stephens with the sheep for $5.00 a month t~h. When Josiah got older, he went t o work, ~., ~ t hey wouldn't let t heir mother work after that as she was getting along in years and s he needed to be home with her family. ( ·.,__ ( ' ) 4' tt She had many friends in Echo she visit , es!)ecially those she had worked ~,,.....d:ll..1+11c~.-"'i.fi:;..-B~lee- .)1rs . Fd.1/-,-J=:...--..M.Lld.J.Jt.:i..::i.t:.........:M..u.:.::;..._.b'.i;:l~d.=.e=r.:.~~~_..,_.~~..w.L-'1JJU...-\:Mme.PS. Often time Mrs. Blackman er to watch while she went out d cry and hold his breath. He did .S:fJ this grabbed him and struck his head in t he rain barrel He never held his breath when she was around~- Esther was a good, church-going woman and loved her religion ~ . She was a Relief Society block teacher for years. ~nen she was put in as president of the Relief Society . She enjoyed this work '.-eflY...Jlm.Ch. She was very active in going to the temple and doing work for the dead. She would go to Salt Lake for weeks at a time. Ephraim , Tom , and Ch~rlotte would stay at home alone , even though they were just children . Esther's sisters lived ne~r and they kept an (eye out for the childr en.) E riam was cal led to States- in him there . blessed -ab1.U,~1u..,4 missionary em to keep They we re ve~ fine 1912--:- Joe and Esther put their money together and bought a home in the town of Henefer , having lived on the outskir ts of town all this time. (~ vi-einity 0f whar-e-G~arm ~). Esther wouldn ' t have to carry wate r so far now and in l ater years t hey had running water put in t he house. She surely a opreciated her home and would show people what a nice place s he had. He.i:. h~ \1a-s--aB1ays -Peat and cleai:ra-s-a-new- ~ Her children were all married by now, that is , all ex-cept Joe and he was very good to her and he supr,orted her. She loved him very much and appr eciated everything he did for her. She loved all her children and was always ready to give the :n a helping hand. • \d: . In her later years, Esther spent lots of her time at t he temple doing the work she loved so much. In the winter of 1927 she took the influenza and she had quite a time throwing this sickness off, in fact, s~e never got entirely over it. She had some teeth that were bad and she t hought that if she had these pulled she would feel better, so she went up to Coal-ville and had them taken out. It was too much for her he3rt that was weakened from the influenza and h~rd work and she seemed just worn out . On March 11, at 2:JO P.M. she passed away as quietly as she had lived. Maria married Charles Faulknet and had 3 children--all boys. James married Violet Brewer and had 8 children. Charlotte married Wellington Dearden and had 6 children. Frank married Ada Marshall and had 5 children. Ephraim married Eunice Calderwood and h3d J children. Thomas married Beatrice Dearden and had 5 children. Joseph marri ed Anna ·dyberg in their lat~r years and had no children. r L-R standing Beatrice , Charlot te, Eunice , Ada , Josiah and Violet. L-R front row Wellington , Thomas, Ephriam, Frank; Ann and James.