• • • John and Caroline Coolbear Ager By Beth Turner and Rosella Compton, great granddaughters Caroline Coolbear was born in Ulting, Essex, England on the 16th of March 1835. When she was young she had an illness with a very high fever that left her right side partially paralyzed. Her mother deaJt with this by requiring her to use her right hand and arm for all "one-handed" tasks, She had thick black hair, gray eyes and a pleasing personality. Around 1854, Caroline, her father (John Coolbear) her mother (Mary Ann Barnard Coolbear) and her younger brother (David Cool bear) were contacted by missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter- Day Saints and all joined the Church. Her testimony was strengthened through a dream in which she saw a long train of covered wagons. Caroline was the first member of her family to come to "Zion". About three years later her mother and brother came, but her father never did. He was angry with the church because the missionaries held meetings at his home until late into the night when he felt all respectable people were home and probably in bed. On April 11, 1859 Caroline left England on the "William Trapscott". There were British, Scandinavian and Swiss Saints on board, speaking nine different languages and having djfferent backgrounds and customs. Good planning, however, helped make it easier for the passengers to live as saints should. The company was djvided into ten wards, five English and five Scandinavians with a president over each to see that his members observed cleanliness and good order. Morning and evening prayers, meetings, instrumental music, singing, dancing and games broke the monotony. The I 3th of May 1859 they arrived at New York where the doctors and government officers sajd they were the best disciplined and most agreeable company that ever arrived at that port. After traveling by steamboat, rail and steamboat again they arrived in Florence, Nebraska the 25th of May and joined a wagon train. Caroline walked most of the way. Upon arriving in Salt Lake City, she worked for a fami ly named Clives for two years; then went to Sessions (later called Bountiful). Here she worked and fell in love with John Ager. John Ager was born in Ulting, Essex, England on the 27th of April 1837 and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints twenty years later. He sailed from Liverpool, England 301h March, 1860 on the ship "Underwriter" with 594 saints on board, arriving in New York on the 151 of May and at Florence, Nebraska on the 3rd of May. John Ager, who had been a friend of Caroline's in England came two years after she did. He was light complexfoned, bad blue eyes , light hair, and was short and heavy set. In 1860 he worked his way across the plains by hunting wild game for the wagon train company he was with. He did a very good job because he was such a good shot. He would save the softest bird feathers to make pillows when he married. On his arrival, John found Caroline and a romance between them began. The marriage of John Ager and Caroline Coolbear was performed by President Brigham Young in the endowment House on the 5th of January 1861. This couple then went to Centerville and lived in a one-room cabin with very little means, they had to rajse most of their food. Their first child, Mary Ellen was born there on the 271h of September 1862. This same day her mother, Mary Ann Barnard Coolbear and her brother David Coolbear arrived at the Ager home. C 71 • • • • • • Page2 Mary Ann and David had come over the ocean on the "William Trapscott" and crossed the plains with John R. Murdock's ox team. In 1863 John and Caroline were asked to settle in Morgan and her mother and brother came with them. They lived by the side of a haystack or pile of weeds for six weeks while John readied some ground for planting and built a one-room log cabin .. Here their second daughter, Caroline was born on the 19th of January 1865. Once when the weather was warm, Caroline went out to gather hops. Wanting the baby to get some sunshine, she took her out and laid her on a blanket on the ground and kept glancing at her. All went well until she glanced and saw a large rattlesnake sliding over the baby's face. As it slithered away she picked up the child and went back to the cabin and after that she placed the baby in a cradle by the door for her to get some sunshine. However, she had another scare with baby Caroline. Brigham Young had told the pioneers it was better to feed the Indians than fight them, so when two Indians came to the open door asking for "Bisket, bisket" she got a few biscuits for them. It took only seconds, but was enough time for the Indians to take the baby. She screamed for John who went after them. He caught up with them in the vicinity of what is now Young Street and Second East and was able to get his daughter back. John periodically walked over the mountain to Centerville or Salt Lake City taking produce he bad grown and exchanged it for items for his family. Once he brought back red fl annel to make clothing. He was an industrious man. Besides farming the land he built a saw-mill and a brickyard. The red clay hills were ideal for making bricks. He acquired approximately the west half of the block where later Morgan's first Stake House was built. The third Ager daughter, Sarah Amelia was born the 5th of March 1867. John prepared a cellar or dug-out for his family to live in near where he was building a new brick house on the southwest corner of the new property, and he let a widow, Martha Slade, and her young daughter, Amelia, have the cabin in the field. Amelia commented on their wonderful house - it had a door and two windows. John worked on the new house until it was ready for the roof to be put on. Then a very tragic accident happened. In 1868 there was no bridge across the Weber River. It was high water time and John and two other men were crossing the river in a boat or raft to get supplies. The boat capsized and John could not swim. The men bad all they could do to save themselves but John drowned. His body was not found until six weeks later about ten miles down stream. It was the 9th of June 1868, and he was the first white man drowned in Morgan's part of the river. Only a couple of months later, on the Ith of August 1868, Caroline's Mother, Mary Ann Barnard Coolbear, died. Caroline did her best to provide for her three little girls, all under the age of six. Every day she made a large crock of homemade, live yeast and it seemed everyone in town used her yeast, paying with flour. As soon as Mary Ellen was old enough to tend the other two girls, Caroline did housework for anyone who wanted help. l never heard when the house was fini shed. However, when it was finished, meetings and dances were sometimes held there, and when the men went hunting, the women and children would bring their bedding and have a "sleep over" on the floor. Caroline married David Ross, and later married James Durrant. She raised a grandson, Bert Allen after his mother, Mary Ellen died. Caroline and James added two rooms to the house and made it more comfortable. They always had a lovely garden and plenty of fruit and vegetables. The house was set back from the street and there were lovely flowers on each side of the walk. She loved flowers and spent many hours among them. She furnished flowers for funerals on many occasions. She was always busy with her flowers, knitting, making rag rug carpets and quilts. The last year of her life she lived with her second daughter, Caroline, and her husband George Compton. • • •