' • • • C WILLIAM GEORGE BROUGH Written by his daughter, Jenna Brough Rich William George Brough was born in Longton, Staffordshire, England on July 2, 1855. He was the son of Thomas Brough and Jane Patteron. He came with his parents to America in 1856, living in Madison County, Illinois for eight years. He crossed the plains with an ox team in the Captain Martin Company, which took eleven weeks. Being nine years old, he walked many miles and arrived in Porterville, Morgan County, Utah, on September 18, 1864. There were seven children in the family. There were no homes, so they dug a hole in the hillside and lived there for 1 Yz years. His father was a brick maker, mason, and carpenter. The boys worked with him learning these trades and making the first bricks in Morgan County. They also had a lime kiln, which was a help to mason work in those early days. As a boy he carried drills and picks from the blacksmith shop to the men working on the Union Pacific Railroad as it came through Echo Canyon and Morgan. He and his brother went into the hills, cutting grass with a scythe, carrying it in canvas, and storing it to feed to the cattle in the winter. He was a trustee for the school district in Porterville when he was a very young man. During this time, Emily Jane Cotterell came from Farmington, Davis County, Utah, where she was born on November 16, 1860, to William Cotterell and Emily Saunders. She came to teach school. He met her at the train and found a place for her to board. They were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on January 30, 1879. He was the first Superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association of the Morgan Stake. Junius F. Wells of Salt Lake City came to organize the M.I.A.. As he watched the people come into the meeting house, he said, "There's the man," when he saw William. He was sustained on August 12, 1878, and held the office for 21 years. The mode of travel was mostly by horseback, which was slow and very cold. Many times it was in the early hours of the morning before he arrived home. Sometimes he would remain overnight with friends in some of the far-away wards. Later they went in a bob-sleigh taking hot rocks to keep from freezing. While he was away, his wife did the chores, milking cows and caring for the family. People found him to be a very interesting speaker. He had a wonderful memory and studied all the church books he could get. Many times authorities of the Church were taken into his home and entertained during their visits to the Morgan Stake M.I.A. In December 1881 , he left Utah to fill a mission for the L.O.S. Church in Pennsylvania. They worked for their board by farming, digging coal, hauling and chopping wood, or building barns and houses. He was successful in helping convert and baptize many people. They had very little money. He had to walk ten miles to the post office and was disappointed many times because he received no mail. He got the Deseret News a few ' • • • times. One of these contained an account of the death of his father before he received word from his family. It was a terrible shock to him. His father was only 48 years old at the time. He was a hard worker--farming, shearing sheep, making bricks in the summer, logging in Hardscrabble Canyon in the winter, and cutting and hauling trees to the shingle mill owned by his brother, Samuel Brough. They spent a lot of time breaking roads to keep open all winter, working in snow and cold almost every day. Toward the spring of 1885, he with three other men were buried in a snow slide. Luckily they were not too deep and help was nearby. They also rescued two horses out of the six. A larger slide had occurred frrst covering rocks and filling ravines, otherwise these men probably would not have been saved. He would haul wood and chop enough to keep the family warm whi le he was working in the canyon hauling slabs and shingles to Morgan, where they were loaded on cars and shipped away. There was no coal then, so it took a lot of chopping to keep from freezing. The following was taken from his diary of February 1886. "I went to the sawmill in Hardscrabble Canyon, stayed overnight. The next day I walked over the mountain to Bountiful, went to Salt Lake City to meet with Junius F. WeJls about M.I.A. work. Gave him $9.10 for contributor subscriptions. Spent Sunday in Bountiful going to church and visiting with friends. On Monday, March 1, 1886, walked from Bountiful, Davis County, to my home in Porterville, over the mountain, down Hardscrabble Canyon. There was lots of snow, a very hard journey." One day while he was speaking in the Porterville meetinghouse, the spirit of prophecy came over him and he said, "There are people under the sound of my voice who will see this building lighted with electricity." Some years later, the first electric plant, being in Hardscrabble, passed th.e church to get to Morgan City. Many of the people saw this fulfilled. In 1899 he was encouraged to go to Star Valley, Wyoming, to make bricks. Several attempts had been made and failed. He had to leave his family, buy a piece of property, hire help, and work very hard himself. He worked at mason work and built chimneys. While laying brick, he fell from a scaffold striking across a floor j oist and breaking some ribs. Doctors said he would be unable to work for several weeks. It was conference and he said if the visiting church authorities would administer to him, he would be alright. He received the blessing and was back to work the next day. The history would not be complete without mention of the horse Old Dobbin. He was the silent partner in the brick business for nearly thirty years. He was purchased from the Indians. He learned just what was expected of him around the brick yard and carried father around the Stake for his appointments and to Star Valley and back many times. • • • In the fall of 1899, father was called home from Star Valley by the serious illness of his wife. She died September 19, 1899. This was a very sad trial for him as he had to leave his motherless family of seven children and return to Wyoming because he had so much invested. The following year, the baby that was born when his wife died passed away. He returned to Morgan, a broken-hearted man. His oldest daughter was soon married and his son went on a mission. He again farmed and made bricks during the summer. In 1903 while working in the brickyard, he became sick. He died in April 1904, leaving six children and one grandchild .