I . • • • LIFE SKETCH OF GEORGE HEINER I was born March 26, 1846, in Baltimore, Maryland. My father Martin Heiner was born March 17, 1818 in the town ofWaldorfSaxMeinungen, Germany. My grandfather Johannas Heiner was born Oct. 16, 1777. My great Grandfather, John Jacob Heiner was born in 1693, and my third great grandfather, Adam Heiner was born in 1657. All of these were born in the same house, as people did not move around in those days as they do now, but remained in the same town for generations. When mother was about fifteen years old, she and two girl chums agreed to go to a fortune teller. When the girls came for her, her father was putting a piece of cloth in the loom and he needed her help. The other girls went anyway. They asked the fortune tell if he could tell a person's fortune if the person was not there, and he said he could if they could give him the date of her birth. They told him she was born the 11 day of June 1815. He figured awhile as he told fortunes by figures, and finally he looked up with surprise and said, "Who is this lady? Where does she live?" They told him she lived in Wasengen. The fortune teller said, "She is an elect lady, she is different from you girls. She will not stay in Germany very long. She will cross the great waters and join herself to another people, yes, a strange people." The girls were so excited with the fortune that they partly forgot their own fortunes. It was shown later that she was different from them for she did cross the great waters and join herself to a strange people called the Latter Day Saints . Father and Mother remained in Germany until four children were born to them .. Father's brother managed to get his father's property and father wanted to sue his brother for part of the property. There was a great deal of talk about America at that time, saying it was a good land to live in. So father and a neighbor of his agreed to come to America. When father's brother heard of this, he met him one the street one day and said "I hear you are thinking of going to America?" "Yes," said father, "If I can raise enough money, I will go." His brother said that he would buy the tickets and said, "There is a ship lying at the wharf now that is going to America. I will go down and see the captain." When he came back he saw father and said, "that ship will sail for America in fifteen days. I have got your tickets which will include four children. When you are ready, I will hitch the oxen and take you down." On May 18, 184 5 they were ready to start for America. Father's brother took them down to the ship and gave them their tickets as agreed. It seemed that he wanted to get rid of them and the trouble about the property. He thought it would be cheaper to buy their tickets than it would be to fight a law suit. It looks like the Lord over-ruled these things to get them to come to America. On 24th of June, 1845, having been forty days crossing the ocean, they landed in Baltimore, Maryland. The next year, March 26, 1846, I was born. Two years later the family moved to Wainsboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. When I was 6, I remember going with mother and the rest of the children upon the hills picking huckleberries, blackberries, and dewberries. We would take to town and sell them for 6 cents a quart. I /2..5 • • • In the fall we would gather chinkapin nuts and hazel nuts. We sold those too . In about November 1852 a Mormon missionary, Jacob F. Secrist, from Farmington, Utah came to the town in which we lived .. He stopped to see his father' s family, who lived about two miles from us. He was on his way to Germany to fulfill a mission. His sister lived near us. She told mother about a strange doctrine he was preaching and said he was going to hold a meeting that night in Thomas town. When father came home from work that evening, mother told him about the missionary and the meeting. After eating supper, he lighted his lantern and walked three miles to attend the meeting. He noted the Bible quotations the missionary made and upon returning home, he and mother looked them up in the Bible and found them to be correct. Two days afterward another meeting was held. Father and mother both attended and were convinced that he was preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Secrist stayed in W ainsboro about two weeks. When he was ready to leave, father went to him early one morning and said, "Brother Secrist , I would like you to baptize us before you leave for Germany." Brother Secrist told his brother to unhitch the horse, that he wouldn't need him that day. That day father, mother and the two oldest children were baptized by Jacob Secrist and also confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They had to cut the ice on the water so they could baptize them. Father gave Brother Secrist a letter of introduction to his brother who still lived in Germany. He desired his brother to hear the Gospel too . Soon after being baptized they talked of going to Utah and started saving their money. Father had a carpenter make him a savings box with a slit enough to slip a silver dollar through. When father was out of work in the winter, he would make baskets out of white oak wood. He would take a small straight tree and cut it about six feet long and split these into strips Y4 of an inch square. At night when we came home from school we would take knives and whittle the corners off and point one end so we cold poke them in the holes of the oron that he had made with 8 holes in it. The holes were sharp on one side so when we pulled the plits through the holes, it made them round and smooth like a wire. Each hole was a little smaller that the other so he could make them any size he wanted. He also made small sewing baskets and shopping baskets, with a handle so it could be carried on the arm and bushel baskets as well. When he had enough made, he would tie them together and put them over his shoulder and carry them to the farmers to sell them. I would go with him and carry the small baskets. April 21, 1855, I was baptized by my father and confirmed the same day by Jacob Secrist, who was returning home from his mission. The next year father hited me out to William Wiles for a dollar and fifty cents a month. I stayed there eight months and during that time I didn't draw a cent of that money. Father collected the money which amounted to $12.00 and put it in the savings box to help bring us to Utah. The next year he hired me to his brother Jacob, for $2.25 a month. In 1858 he hired he to Soloman Sarbash for $3 .25 per month. I attended school in Blue School house for three winters. James Burnes, James Snowbarger and William Secriat were teachers. • • • In the summer of 1859, Carl G. Maeser, a missionary from Salt Lake City, came to Pennsylvania. He said there was going to be a Civil War and the brethren would be drafted into the war. He advised the saints to go to Utah. Daniel Robinson said, "Here is Brother Heiner, he has a very large family and it will be very hard for him to make such a trip." But brother Maeser said, "Brother Heiner will be the first one to go." That spring we held a sale and sold everything that we could not take with us, and on April 11th 1859 we started for Utah. Father hired Joseph Mainser to haul us 175 miles to Pittsburgh. We had to cross the Allegheny Mountains, which took about three weeks. There we took passage on a steam boat which was a lumber craft and went down the Ohio River to Cincinnati. Father called on his sister and her husband who were living there and owned hotel. They had no children of their own and wanted to keep four of our children, two boys and two girls. They thought father had so many children that they could easily spare four of them. There were 10 children. Our uncle said that he would provide for them as a father. But father could not spare one. We continued to St. Louis, where we changed boats and came up the Missouri River to Florence. On coming up the river the boat would stop and take on wood to heat the engines with. They would carry the wood to the boat across a plank. I would go with the men and help carry wood. They stopped and unloaded nail kegs which they rolled down the plank. I helped them to do that also. The boss said, "That kind of boy I would like to hire for deck hand." That made me feel quite proud as I was only thirteen at the time. We stayed in Florence several weeks before we were ready to start across the plains. Father bought one yoke of oxen, a yoke of cows and a new shuttler wagon. While in Florence, the immigrants bought wild steers, and when they hitched them up, they would run and bellow and tum the yokes upside down. It was like a wild west show. My oldest brother, John, got a job with the immigration agents and came across with them. I got a job driving Widow Kate Rock' s team and she gave me my room and board, so that made two less for father to keep. We then started on our perilous journey at the 20th of June, taking us ninety days from Florence to Salt Lake City, Utah. I walked almost all of the entire distance as well as father and mother and the larger children. Our captain, Edward Stephenson. We had only one wagon in which to carry all our provisions and the small children who were not able to walk very much. We had some hard rain storms while on the plains. They would come at night and the wind would blow the tent down and everything would get wet. After we traveled about two weeks, one of our cows had a calf, so we milked her and worked her all the way across the plains. One day a lone buffalo came running by the train. Our captain rode out after him and shot him with his pistol and we all had some fresh meat. I think there were three buffaloes killed during the journey. When we got to Ash Hollow, it had been raining so that the alkali water stood in puddles. The cattle drank some and that night 8 head of oxen died. One of them was ours. There was a man named Taylor, who was driving some cows loose, he let father have two cows to work. He sawed his yoke in two and hitched up two yokes of cows and one ox on ahead. When we traveled about two weeks, that ox go so lame we had to trade him off for a bull at a trading post. We passed lots of Indians, five hundred or • • • more. They were Sioux Indians who were going down to Omaha to fight the Pawnee . When we got Big Sandy, the bull became so lame we had to trade him off for a yearling steer. That left us with only two yoke of cows the rest of the way. When we camped at the head of Echo Canyon, that steer and some of the cows that were driven loose, strayed away. Myself and two of the men were sent to hunt them, while the train traveled on. When we got to the mouth of Echo Canyon, there was a store and the men bought some cheese and crackers. It was dark when we started on. We had to walk to Henefer where the train was camped. We got there about midnight and stayed all the next day to let the cattle rest. We then went up East Canyon over Big Mountain and over Little Mountain and down Emigration Canyon. We landed in Salt Lake City, September 16, 1859. When we got to the city mother baked the last flour on the camping stove. John my oldest brother came in three weeks before and had earned some flour which came in very handy for us. My parents knew how to take care of money. While they war in Pennsylvania,, father worked for forty-five cents a day in winter and seventy-five cents a day in summer, and with that large family they saved enough money to buy an outfit to come to Utah independently. We received no help from the Church. We first moved up to the mouth of Parley's Canyon. There we lived in a dugout for about a month. There was no floor in the house. Angus Cannon got us a place up in Bingham Creek about a mile from the mouth of Bingham Canyon. This place belonged to Apostle John Taylor's uncle. We herded cattle for him. On New Year's Day Barney L. Adams came and wanted a boy to herd his sheep. Father said for me to go with him. I took care of his sheep in rain or shine until the next fall. I had no over coat and no underclothes. He bought me a new pair of boots that kept my feet warm. About the middle of June they took their sheep down to the Jordan River to wash them before shearing. The river was very high and the water overflowed the banks. I must have been standing on the bank where the current was quite swift. I let go of the sheep and he kicked me in the stomach. I slid into the water like a post, but my hat stayed on top. I heard one of the men say "There goes his hat!" That gave me courage so I tried to swim .. I stayed up long enough to get my breath before going down again. When I cam up the second time, I saw a man jump in after me. When I went down the third time, I reached my arm upward and he caught hold of my hand. I brought my other hand upon his shoulder and we both went down,. When we came up again the current had carried us still further into the bend. I saw a willow sticking our so I let go of him and caught hold but I went under again. It seemed that I was going down a thirty-foot well. Suddenly I stopped and found that the willow was securely fastened to the bank. I gave a pull which brought me to the top. I hung there with my arms across the willow until the men came for me. The men had momentarily lost track of me and gone after the man that tried to save me. There was some power besides human power that saved my life. I think my guardian angel must have been with me that time . In 1860 I went to work for Daniel H. Wells My chore was to stay around the house and • • • run errands for the women. They had a nice orchard beside the house. The fruit would fall off at night and I would get up at daylight and pick it up, eat what I wanted and take the rest into the house. They had seven mule teams and the men who worked them by day boarded at their home. They would go to work at seven o'clock and a man by the name of James Snarr had to walk 11 blocks to feed and tend the mules. I thought I could do it for him occasionally and save him a long walk every morning, so I went out with him to see what rations he fed each animal. They were fed carrots and hay. So the next morning I slipped out and tended the mules. As I was feeding the last one, he came and was surprised to see me feeding the teams. He looked at each one and said that was as good as he could do. The fourth morning Snarr didn't come so I had worked myself into the job. Soon the weather became very stormy and the men didn' t come to work. I had to take care of the teams twice a day then. I had to take them two blocks for water. I was riding one mule when I met Snarr coming up the road with a tin pan in one hand. He banged the pan and frightened the mule and I lost my balance and fell off striking the inside of my left knee on a frozen clod. My brother John came along an took my to my sister's place. I couldn't walk for five weeks. March 8th 1862 I went with Brother Wells and his family to the Salt Lake Theater to play called "Pride of the Market." That was the first play I had ever seen and I saw every play that winter . The people in Salt Lake were asked to furnish teams and wagons to send to Omaha and bring immigrants to Utah. Brother Wells was asked to furnish four yoke of oxen. My brother and I went with the company. We brought in 500 immigrants. I was sixteen, and don't remember when I enjoyed a summer better than I enjoyed that one. We arrived in Salt Lake City, October 3rd. That winter Brother Wells sent me to school, which I attended for six weeks. In April 1863 Brother Wells had me go to Black Rock and herd his cattle and then his sheep. One day I happened to find a cave. It was fifty feet night, the walls were perpendicular and covered with hieroglyphics. The top seemed to be one large flat rock. Near the earn of the cave it narrowed down to a five foot hole then opened up into another cave of about thirty feet high and seven to eight feet wide and about two hundred feet long. There I found thirteen Indian skulls. The mountain on top of the cave was about five hundred feet high. I once heard Brigham Young say that every young man should learn a trade. He said, "If you want to be a carpenter, go to the carpenter and tell him you want to learn to be a carpenter. If you want to learn to be a blacksmith go to the blacksmith to learn the trade. If you want to be a farmer be a good farmer." I thought enough of that advice to leave my job with Brother Wells and went to work as an apprentice to James Hunter; a carpenter. I worked for four months for my board, and never received a cent. I went home that year for Christmas. My parents had settled in Morgan County. I arrived on the 24th of December. The people had built a log school house, and father said • • • that they wanted everyone to come there and help scrub the floor so they could have a dance Christmas night. Father, Anthony, and myself went. We had a good dance Christmas night and I got acquainted with all the people. In about six weeks I told father I thought I had better go back and finish my trade, but he said there was so much work to do that I had better stay till the crops were planted so I never went back to finish my trade. The farm had not been fenced. On the tenth of February, I took the team and went up the river and cut willows and hauled them for willow fences. On March 7th we hitched two yoke of oxen on the plow and started to plow sage brush. We had no hay to feed them so turned them out on the hill at night. I would get up at the peep of day and go to get the oxen every morning. When I returned, Anthony and Daniel had eaten their breakfast and would yoke the oxen to the plow and start plowing. After I had my breakfast I would go down and gather up sage brush and pile them in huge piles and then we would bum them. We raised three hundred bushels of grain that summer, wheat, oats, and barley. There was no threshing machine in Morgan at that time. The river bridge was washed out in Devil's Gate, so they could not get a thrashing machine through. We hauled clay on a spot of ground, then soaked it well with water. We then hitched two yoke of oxen together and drove them around it to thoroughly mix it. We then smoothed it off and let it dry which left a hard smooth surface. Neils Arave made us a roller by pinning two 2X6 scantling on a long edge-ways about eight inches apart connecting them to a frame. To that we hitched two horses. We would place the wheat on the floor and turn the roller around until the grain was well thrashed out, then we raked the straw off and pushed the wheat in the middle of the floor. This same man made us a fanning mill. When we had a large pile of wheat, we could set the fanning mill up and clean the wheat. All our crops were cut by hand, Our hay was cut with a scythe, and we cut our grain with a cradle, which we raked and bound by hand. We built a granary that summer. Wheat was six dollars a bushel that fall. May 1st 1864 I was appointed a School Trustee in the North Morgan School District with Thomas Grover and my brother Anthony. Each scholar paid a half bushel of wheat which was to pay the teacher. I was the secretary and Miss Lucinda Brown was hired as a teacher. In 1865 I was appointed constable for the Morgan Precinct. During that year I helped to survey the town of North Morgan. December 22, 1866, I was married to Miss Mary Henderson in the Endowment house by Apostle George Q. Cannon. For a short time that winter, we lived in a one room house with my brother Anthony who married my wife's older sister Lucinda. In the summer I built myself a log house. Dec 18, 1867, Mary Ellen our first child was born. We named her after my wife and sweetheart. About June 1st I crossed the Weber River with my wife and baby. I missed the ford and the team had to swim down the river about 10 rods. We were all wet but came out all right . • • • In 1868 I was appointed pound keeper in Morgan County, which I help for 12 years. That same year I was elected a city councilman, which position I held for 4 years. I was also appointed road supervisor for Morgan District I held that position for 10 years. September 15, 1869 Eliza Adelgunda, our second baby was born. We called her Eliza after her aunt and Adelgunda after her grandmother. In 1870 I was appointed first councilor to Charles Turner to preside over the North Morgan Branch. I held this position until 1877. After the death of my brother John, who was called with his wife, Sarah Coulam, to help settle St. George, I built a nice log house for his widow. I had the logs sawed on both sides and put on a shingle roof March 2nd 1871 Clara our third child was boqi. July 22, 1874 George Angus our first boy was born. We named him George after myself: and Angus after Angus Cannon who was a missionary in Pennsylvania. In 1868 I helped to buy the first organ for North Morgan Ward. I learned to read music and was able to pick out a few cords. Later, I gave Octave Ursenback his first lesson in reading notes, and he later became a very good choir leader and band master. In 1874, I built me a two story brick house 19X40 It was the first brick house in North Morgan. The brick was made by Bishop Charles Turner. I bargained with him to haul mahogany wood from Mahogany Hollow to pay for the brick. The brick was laid by Conrad Smith and Peter Rock. The carpenter work was done by myself. March 3rd 1877 Nettie, our firth baby was born. January 11th 1878 Christina Sophia was born. She only lived three weeks. July 1st 1877, I was set apart as second councilor to Bishop Wyman M. Parker of the North Morgan Ward by Franklin D. Richards. March 6, I was appointed judge of election for the North Morgan precinct. May 8, 1880 John Martin our seventh baby was born. We called him John after my brother and Martin after my father. That year I took charge of the threshing machine, which I ran for seven years. Charles Bull, was the best violinist in Morgan at that time, and I would play the organ. I had purchased a small four octave organ. We would go all over Morgan playing for dances. I helped organize the first home dramatic company in Morgan. We took one of our plays to Croydon on Christmas night. My daughter Mary Ellen and myself were booked to sing a song. Joseph Story said he would stand behind the curtain to assist me in singing bass. The next day I met Mandy Rock, and she said to me, "Why George, I've never heard you sing bass as nice as you did last night at Croydon. May 15, 1881, I was set apart as second councilor to Bishop William B Parkinson of the North Morgan Ward. In May 1882, I was met with a great sorrow; my wife took the black measles during an epidemic. She was pregnant and not well enough to survive the disease. She died May 28th 1882, leaving me alone with six little children, the youngest two years old . • • • The same year I was road supervisor and helped build a road t Round Valley which was on the side hill most of the way. I also farmed my father-in-law's farm at Richville and raised 600 bushels of grain. February 22, 1883, I married Sarah Jane Taggart, daughter of George Washington and Clarrissa Marina Rogers Taggart, in the Endowment house in Salt Lake City, Utah. Brother Daniel H. Wells performed the ceremony. February 17, 1884 I was set apart as first councilor to Bishop 0. B. Anderson of the North Morgan Ward, which position I held for 20 years. On March 24, 1884, our first baby was born. We named her Ida May. In April of that same year I took the agency of selling wagons, buggies and harnesses for the Studebaker Bros. Company. I also built me a barn 30X40 feet, with a concrete basement. February 21, 1886 our second baby was born. We named her after my wife's sister, Julia Taggart. The same year I took the agency to sell wagons and farm machinery for the Consolidated Wagon Machine Company and worked for them until 1903. In 1887 my brother Daniel and I built a butcher shop and also shipped grain and potatoes. May 1, 1888 Horace our third child was born. In 1890 Daniel and I built a three story brick hotel. April 15, 1891 Vila our fourth child was born. I was still in the shipping business and shipped 51 carloads of potatoes that fall. December 14, 1896 Clifton our sixth child was born. In 1902 Anthony and Daniel and myselflayed a pipeline from the north Morgan Spring to our homes. July 1904 I was appointed postmaster for Morgan County. The following year Rural Free Delivery was established with Reinard Olson as the delivery man. The first winter he boarded at our home. The next winter he pitched a tent in the back room of the post office and batched it. The roads were in such bad condition in the winter that it took him two days to make the trip around the county. My girls helped a great deal at the post office and the boys did the farm work. In May 1910 I sent my son Horace on a mission to Australia. The summer of 1913 I built on another room and divided the house so Horace and his wife could live in it. During World War of 1918 my son Leland, contacted pneumonia at Camp Lewis. He was thought dead and placed in the dead house. Bert Dickson immediately went to see him and noticed he moved. He administered to him and he lived until August 1928. My wife Sarah Jane Taggart, died from Sugar Diabetes and a stroke September 26, 1933. She was 73 years old. George Heiner peacefully passed away, May 16th 1937 after being bedfast one week. His mind was clear and alert up to the last. The winter before his death he retyped his whole history. He lived a live of profound usefulness. At the age of 90 he helped care for the garden, fed chickens and pigs and got kindling for the fire. His faith in the gospel never wavered. . ... ......... Donated by Margaret Smith Taggert