• • JOSEPH ETHER BUTTERS & !SABELLA ELIZA WELCH 1862-1945 ?-1948 Joseph Ether Butters, son of William Butters and Mary Johnson, was born in Dearham, Norfolk, England, 23 June 1862. He came to America on the ship Manhattan with other members of his family on 22 September 1869--he was 8 years old. He remembered many things which took place while crossing the ocean, and often spoke of the white caps and huge waves on the ocean. He was baptized 21 July 1871. Ether Butters, as he was called, married Isabella Eliza (Lizzie) Welch, daughter of Thomas Robert Green Welch and Harriet Nash Welch, in the Salt Lake City Endowment House, 29 November 1883. To this union were born ten children, all born in Morgan, Utah. Their first child, a son, Charles Arthur was born 31 December 1884. He lived to be only three years of age and died 20 September 1887. The second child, a beautiful daughter named Harriet Plessie, was born on 20 November 1886, and lived to be only one year old; she died 3 November 1887 just six weeks after her brother, Charles. Three and one-half years later they lost their third child, a son, Joseph William, who was born 27 September 1888 and died 29 May 1891 , being only 3 % years old. What a sorrow this was to a young couple to have lost their first three children. Their other seven children all lived to manhood and womanhood and raised a family. Their children were: Henry James Butters, born 21 October 1890-died 27 October 1965; Afton Louise Butters, born 5 September 1892--died 11 July 1969; Parley Nash Butters, born 21 September 1894; Leo Welch Butters, born 25 April 1897-- died 16 October 1971; Irvin Robert Butters, born 30 June 1899--died 4 March 1973; Elvera Welch Butters, born 2 November 1902; and Glen Woodruff Butters, born 20 April 1909. Mr. Butters worked as a farmer through his life, having the reputation of plowing the straightest furrows without using lines to guide his horses. One day Ether and a farm helper were working in the hay field, they finally had the hay all piled ready to haul when he said, "we had better go to dinner or we will have a cold dinner and a hot cook." Just at this time a wind twister came up and blew hay all over the field again. Ether worked in the old quarry up the canyon and "would blast the rock out for the road and railroad to be built. He was definitely the best quarry man this town ever had. Ether and his son, Henry, hauled coal from Coalville. One trip was made each day; they would go up one day and back the next day with a load of coal. They made eight trips at $13.00 a load; the snow was deep for the bob-sleigh and the weather mighty cold in the winter time. Ether was a guard on the railroad during the 1st World War in 1917, and he rode a three-wheel hand cart. In the early days the Indians used to come to Morgan and camp on Francis' slough where Dutch Porter's home now stands (now being 1973), and one of the boys, when he was a young man, used to go to this Indian Camp and wrestle the Indians. He was never known to be pinned in any wrestling contest. At one time he was a co-owner of the Old Morgan Opera House, originally known as "Simmons Hall", located across the street from his home where the Richard H. Rich home .now stands. Ether and Isabella made home-made ice cream which they sold during intermission at dances in the Old Opera House. He was always a great step-dancer until past 80 years • of age, always calling for faster music. He was a member of the Morgan band, and played the bass drum. Baseball was the sport he enjoyed most and played on the Morgan team for many years. As a catcher, behind the bat, he used just a little glove with the fingers cut off. He could throw a baseball for 100 yards, or a rock for a city block. He served for many years as field Superintendent for the Morgan Canning Company, traveling through Morgan County on horseback. When Morgan was first occupied there was a Welch's corner in Monday Town, and that is where Isabella lived with her mother, father, and family. She was the first of the Welch's born on Welch's comer; later they moved down to Morgan City when the city was laid out. Brigham Young came to Morgan and told them to move their town to what is now Morgan City where the Morgan City and County Building now stands. This was the part of town that wasn't under water. President Young helped them layout the town in blocks. Isabella Eliza Welch was born 29 October 1865 in Morgan, Utah, and was baptized by Bishop Charles Turner on the 9 August 1874. She was the only daughter in the Welch fami ly of boys. They all thought she was a great blessing, and because of this the boys had great respect and love for her. The first little school house was on the courthouse block, Isabella went to school in the first school house; they held dances in this same school, and she attended dances there. During the later part of her life there were only two brothers living, they were Charles F. and Robert H. of Salt Lake City, Utah. The two would come to Morgan at least once a month to have a visit with their sister, and the custom was for her to have a rice pudding to • eat. The recipe for the pudding ended with her death. At one time she and brother, Charlie, talked about their home life and she told him she had the clothes their mother used to have the children blessed in. Some time after this Charlie came up again and asked Belle, as she was fondly called by everyone, for these clothes. She refused to part with them. They talked it over and agreed to cut the long dress (all children were blessed in long dresses) in half so each could have part. Nice it would be now to have this dress for it would be over 100 yrs old. After she was married they lived in their two-room house on Field Street, and later added extra rooms to their home. She had a flowering tree, an oleander, growing in a barrel set on casters and kept it in the house in winter and outside in the summer. Whenever anyone passed her house she waved and greeted them and was always hospitable to everyone. Sometimes she would go out to the street when she saw a wagon coming and stop whoever was in it so she could visit for a few minutes. This was mostly the way they got the news from around town. Isabella (Belle) always kept a good, clean house. Her home and family were foremost in her mind. Offen she would cook Yorkshire pudding on washdays because this pudding needed an extra hot oven, and washdays took a hot stove for the boilers to heat the wash water. She was a very friendly person and well known for her hospitality; very few, if any, who went to her home were not invited to have dinner or lunch. She would always have some good food. More often she would have a rice pudding to serve because • this was one of her favorite dishes. She was a good homemaker and loving mother. She was affectionately known through all of Morgan Stake as "Aunt Belle Butters". 11 Belle Butters was always helpful to anyone in need, and never turned away from her door that was hungry. She was thoughtful of the sick and would go in the home where the . • sick were and help with the nursing. She always had lots of remedies for sickness and one was marshmallow root tea for kidney ailment; another was potato poultice for infection. )I r C One of Belle most pleasant afternoons would be spent visiting with Sister Hilma Rose and her husband, John Rose of Richville, Morgan County. Another human side of Ether and Isabella was they enjoyed many evenings playing Chinese checkers with their life long neighbors, Richard H. and Nettie Rich, who lived just across the street. They also spent lots of hours with close friends A.A. Barlow and family in North Morgan. Isabella was kind to children and when they came to her home they could always find cookies, homemade bread and jelly, and other goodies in her kitch~n for them. Then there was the orchard they were allowed to play in and pick apples. In the back yard was a root cellar where children spent many hours playing on the dirt cellar and sliding down the wooden cellar door. In the early years of their married life she and her husband picked as many as 100 pounds of green, string beans from their garden, slicing and salting them in a large wooden candy bucket and selling them to owners of the Culmer Paint and Oil Company of Salt Lake City at $5.00 a bucket. This took many hours of work during the hot summer. They also boarded many piano, organ, and other salesmen, as in those days it was quite a busy game. This was one way of extra income for the family. Ether Butters furnished their • transportation around Morgan County with horse and buggy or bob-sleigh. One salesman, Mr. Ridges, was a grandson of the man who built the first Salt Lake Tabernacle organ. They went through the hardship of the grasshopper time remembering when the trees were stripped of their leaves. The grasshoppers ate the leaves of every growing thing they could get to. The railroad tracks were so thick with the hoppers that the wheels just wouldn't turn, slipping and slipping like the tracks had been greased, until the train crew spread sand over the tracks before they ware able to go on. During most of the cold winters, Isabella and Ether used to only heat two rooms in their home, everyone slept in a cold bedroom, and many, many times they would wake up in the morning with frost on the blankets from their breath. Isabella and Ether rode in a one-horse buggy with a top on it in the summer time. They remembered one time coming home from shopping over town one day, driving the horse and buggy up to the crabapple tree and helped their mother in the house with the groceries. They didn't tie the horse up, but just let her stand, and after they left her she went on under the tree and tore the top of the buggy off. This was one time when Ether was upset, to say the least. They would take some of their family (all could not leave at the same time because of the chores to do) and go to Kamas to visit with Uncle Jim Butters and Aunt Minnie Fitzgerald. They would leave at four o'clock in the morning and get there just before dark . • Isabella would take heated bricks and rocks wrapped in blankets to keep their feet warm • J under the covers in the bob-sleigh. Their 50th wedding anniversary was held at the family home on 29 November 1933 • in South Morgan, Utah, with their family--including seven sons and daughters, husbands and wives and 16 grandchildren. Also attending was a brother Robert H. Welch and his wife, Ardella of Salt Lake City, Utah. A lovely turkey dinner with all the trimmings and a beautiful wedding cake was served to all. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ether Butters were honored Friday evening, 6 December 1940, with a surprise party in honor of their fifty-seventh wedding anniversary at the home of their son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Butters. The long table was spread in the dining room with a centerpiece which was their original wedding cake, 7 years ago. Fall flowers were used through the rooms for decorations. Covers were laid for Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Butters, Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe Brough, Mr. and Mrs. Parley Butters, Mr. and Mrs. Milford Mecham, Mr. and Mrs. Glen W. Butters all of Morgan; Mr. and Mrs. Henry J. Butters of Ogden; Mr. and Mrs. Leo Butters of Preston, Idaho; and the guests of honor. Mr. and Mrs. Butters were presented with a beautiful wedding cake especially prepared by loving hands, upon which was an arch from which hung in gold letters "57" . This was presented to them by Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Butters. At this writing, August 1973, Joseph Ether and Isabella have 144 descendants-- twenty-three grandchildren, seventy-one great grandchildren and fifty great, great grandchildren. • Isabella was a dear sweet person; she loved the Gospel and was a good mother and wife. She left a heritage to be proud of. Joseph Ether Butters died at his home in South Morgan, Utah, on 10 April 1945; Isabella followed her husband in death in three years. She • passed away at her home on 17 February 1948. They were both buried in the South Morgan City cemetery, Morgan, Utah . 4-s