• • • Brief History oflsaac Conway Morris and Sarah Elizabeth Henderson Written by Beth Smith Turner Isaac Conway Morris was born April 25, 1828, at Llanfair Tahlaiarn Denbighshire, North Wales. He was the son of William Morris and Sarah Davies and had nine brothers and sisters. Isaac was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and was baptized 16 July 1849 in Wales. He lived with his parents until bis marriage to Elizabeth Williams. She was born to John Rowland Williams and Mary Roberts on May 15, 1828, in St. Asaph, Flints, Wales. Elizabeth was converted to the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and was baptized December 1849 in Wales. Isaac and Elizabeth were both married when the were 24 years old. There marriage took place October 16, 1852 in Wales. A few months after their marriage, Isaac and Elizabeth left all their family to start to Utah with other converts to the Church. They sailed from Liverpool, England and crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the ship, "Jersey." There were 314 Saints on the ship under the direction of George Halliday. They arrived at New Orleans 21 March 1853. The ocean voyage had taken 45 day. Isaac and Elizabeth continued there journey by river steamer to Keokuk, Iowa, which was the outfitting post for the emigrants in 1853. They left Iowa for the West in June of 1853. They crossed the Missouri River at Council Bluffs in July and continued on there journey across the plains by ox team. When the Saints stopped for the evening, the wagons were placed in a circle, and guards were stationed throughout the night to help protect them from the Indians. The Saints endured bot days and cold nights, and rationing of food. They suffered many hardships, but the people helped one another physically and provided moral support to each other. When Isaac and Elizabeth arrived in Sweetwater, Wyoming their first child Sarah was born . They arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah the l01h of October 1853. It bad taken 8-Yi months to make the journey from Wales to Salt Lake where they made their home. Two oflsaac's cousins, Nephi and Elias Morris, had emigrated to Utah in 1852, a year before Isaac arrived. All of them quarried rock and hauled it by ox team to help build the Salt Lake Temple. In 1862 Isaac and Elias built a bake oven at Camp Douglas for John Sharp who had contracted with the military authorities for its construction. He also worked with his cousin Elias on many other jobs. When Isaac was working on a building in Salt Lake City, he accidentally fell. It was a miracle that he survived. Alter Isaac and E lizabeth arrived in Salt Lake seven more children were born to them . Elizabeth, Isaac's first wife, died October 25, 1865, just four days after giving birth to Thomas who died a few hours after his birth. She was 37 years of age. This was a real trial for the family. There were six young children to be cared for, the oldest being twelve. Records indicate that the children came to Richville with their father and stepmother who Isaac had married in polygamy just 9-Yi months before bis first wife died. The marriage of Isaac and Sarah Elizabeth Henderson took place in January, l 865 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. This was the second marriage for Isaac. Sarah Elizabeth Henderson, was born April l 844 in Andrew, Missouri, the daughter of David Eaton Henderson and Mary or "PoJly" McFaden. The family bad moved from Morgan County, Illinois, to Missouri.. I 'll • • • Page 2 Sarah and her parents, David, and Mary were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints . She had six brothers and sisters. In the spring of 1856 Elizabeth and her family emigrated to Utah. She was 12 years old when she crossed the plains by wagon with her family. They lived first in Centerville, Davis County where her father settled on 40 acres of farming land. When President Brigham Young called some of the Saints to go south and settle new towns, David accepted the call. When his mission was up he returned to Centerville and found that his farm land had been divided into city lots. Sarah's father had beard of the beautiful valley of Morgan, at that time called Weber Valley and he decided to take his family there. Their journey up Weber Canyon in 1860 was a very difficult one. The very crude road had been built just five years earlier in 1855 by Thomas J. Thurston and other helpers. Elder Jedadiah Morgan Grant sent three men with teams to assist in putting the road through the canyon. It was a very great undertaking with there primitive ways of building roads. Their tools consisted of picks, shovels, and crowbars, with small plows. In some narrow places they had to go up on the side of the canyon and loosen large rocks and boulders and then roll them down into the river below to form a foundation on which to build a road. At last they were successful in completing this very crude, passable road. Even so, the road through Weber Canyon was so narrow and hazardous that most people traveling through it left their wagons and buggies and walked the narrow stretch which was commonly known as Horse-shoe Bend. The driver would then lead the horses and wagons around the bend. This road was still hazardous in 1915. Trappers and Indians had traveled Weber Canyon by horseback, but this road was wide enough for a wagon . The fall of 1860 David Eaton Henderson and Jonathan Hemingway located the settlement of Richville in Weber Valley. Weber Valley was later changed to Morgan, which was named after Jedadiah Morgan Grant who so greatly helped the early settlers. This community of Richville is midway between what is now the town of Morgan and the community of Porterville. Sarah's father built the first house, a log cabin, down by the creek (now East Canyon Creek) about a half mile northeast, or below the present town. David Eaton Henderson had selected a place for a town near East Canyon Creek, but because of the flooding problems, he advised the newly arrived families to build on high ground near the base of the hills and west of the creek, where the town of Richville now stands. There were about a half dozen log houses built during the year of 1861. Nearly all of the first settlers came from Centerville. The land was rich and productive, and the residents claimed to own the best land in Weber Valley. They started at once to plough and plant crops. Work was immediately started on an irrigation ditch. It was built mostly with pick and shovel, some parts plowed, shoveled, and leveled by eye. This ditch became known as the Richville Irrigation and Canal Company. A good crop of wheat, oats and vegetables was produced in 1861 . A half dozen families spent the winter of 1861- 1862 on the present site of Richville. Sarah Elizabeth's father did much to build up the town ofRichville. He was active in Church affairs, and in 1878 at age 67 was called on a mission to the Middle and Southern States. The fir.st schoolhouse in Richville was erected in 1863. It was a log building measuring 18 x 24 feet, with a fireplace at one end for heating. This bui lding was used for school, church meetings and social purposes. This is where Sarah Elizabeth and her family attended church. Sarah worked hard helping her mother in their humble home and her father on the farm. I don't know how she met Isaac Conway Morris but after their marriage on 7 January 1865, they resided in Salt Lake City for awhile. After the death oflsaac's first wife Elizabeth, there were six children to be cared for. 173 • • • Page3 The family moved to Richville in 1865 or early 1866. Their life in Richville was typical of the early pioneers. Hunting and fishing were the main sports. Game was plentiful at this early period of time. It was an easy task to get enough fish for breakfast before the sun came up, or shoot enough chickens for dinner, or kill a deer. There were also wild animals such as bears, mountain lions, lynx and bobcats. Dancing was the social amusement. The dance would begin at sunset and last until midnight. Supper was then served. Candles were used for light, and the fireplace heated the building. Playing checkers was also popular in the wintertime. The people were frightened at the first kerosene lamp, so much so that the story is told of one fellow getting a long dry willow, opening the door a little bit, and lighting the lamp with a stick through the crack. The Shoshone and Ute Indians sometimes made the canyons around Richville and Porterville their home during the summer months. Sometimes 500 Indians at a time would come through the Valley. Once in awhile the Indians would ride through town with scalps hanging on poles. These were taken from the Snake and Cheyenne Indians by the Shoshone. The Indians were peaceful with the white settlers and did not bother them much, but did at times ask for food. President Brigham Young told the Saints it was better to feed the Indians than fight them. The only means of transportation before the railroad was a buggy or wagon, and bob sleigh in the winter. Not much traveling took place in the winter. Isaac Morris was a very good rock mason and did some rock laying in Salt Lake when he lived there. In the early Spring of 1868 the railroad hired him to build a rock abutment for the railroad bridge at Devils Gate, Weber County, Utah. It is still in good condition. A second bridge was constructed when the double tracks were laid in 1926. Union Pacific Railway was pushing its way westward and came through Morgan in 1868-1869. When the railroad was being built through Morgan, it proved a blessing to the people. Many men were hired to help move earth and make fills. Much of this grade was accomplished with wheelbarrows. Richville became a tie center for the railroad. Men went into the canyons nearby and cut loads of ties and brought them back to Richville, and as the railroad progressed, the ties were hauled to Echo and further down Weber Canyon. The canyons around Richville and Porterville produced thousands of ties for the railroad. Union Pacific brought provisions into the county in schooner wagons with eight an ten mule teams. The wages were $10 a day for man and team. Had it not been for this extra work, the people of Morgan would have suffered during the winter of 1868 and 1869. Two children were born in Richville to Isaac and Sarah Elizabeth. Sarah was expecting her third child when heart-breaking tragedy struck this family. Isaac became ill and died 22 November 1868 of stomach cancer. He died just three years after the death of his first wife Elizabeth. He was only 40 years of age and had been married to Sarah not quite four years. The death of Isaac made orphans of the children by bis first wife. They ranged in age from 7 to 15 years. One of the children, Isaac, wrote, "My parents died when I was very young, and I made my home with Bishop Elias Morris in Salt Lake City. I secured a job driving a wagon." Lizzie Ann, another child, said she had to live with anyone who would take her. In exchange she did chores for them. Sarah Elizabeth had a real struggle now to feed and clothe her children. A son, Conway, was born six months after the death of his father . l?'f . . • • • • Page4 Sarah was an excellent seamstress and would weave cloth and make men's suits. In this way she was able to make a living. The children thought their mother was doing all right financially and did not want her to marry again. About five years after the death of her husband, Sarah Elizabeth married Anthony Heiner who was married to her sister Lucinda. Anthony was married to sisters in polygamy. He moved Sarah Elizabeth from Richville to North Morgan where she lived in what was known at that time as Uncle George's Carpenter Shop. She then moved into one room of Lucinda' s home. Anthony Heiner built a log house in Echo Canyon at the mouth of Heiner Canyon where the two wives Lucinda and Sarah Elizabeth took turns being there in the summertime. They milked cows and made butter which was taken to Echo and shipped to Salt Lake and sold. All of the children had to help milk the cows and chum the butter, They made from 20 to 30 pounds of butter every other day. They had a milk house situated over the ditch to help keep the milk cold. The milk was poured into pans to raise the cream. The pans were set on shelves made of slats or wood that would turn around so it would be easy to remove the pans. Sometimes they would set close to fifty pans of milk at one time. That meant washing lots of utensils. The churn was a barrel, shaped with a handle to turn it around like a crank. The two families worked hard on the ranch in the summer and then moved back to Morgan in the fall so that the children couJd go to school. My grandmother Lucinda said she remembered very well the hard, back breaking work on the ranch in the summers up Echo Canyon and was so glad to move back to Morgan in the Fall. While at the ranch, when Indians came around, Sarah Elizabeth would hide the children in the big, wooden flour bins. She told them that whenever the Indians were around, it was extremely important that the children not act like they were scared. Sarah Elizabeth would give bread to the lndjans. Whenever she and the children left the ranch, the Indians would come camp there. One evidence of the Indians having been there was the pretty colored beads found in the gizzards of the chickens. The only means of transportation to and from the ranch was a buggy or wagon . It took a good part of a day to travel to Morgan from the ranch. The roads were quite hazardous and they had to cross the river many times. Sarah Elizabeth had seven children by her second husband Anthony Heiner, but was sealed to her first husband Isaac Morris. Sarah Elizabeth worked hard caring for her 10 children (three by Isaac Conway Morris). She still wove cloth and made clothes. She made candles for their light; they later bought a coal-oil lamp. The washing was done on a washboard, the water carried from a ditch and heated on a coal stove. Soap was made from leftover grease and lye made from wood ashes. It was very difficult to dry clothes in the winter months. When Anthony Heiner bujJt his home in North Morgan, he hired Conrad Smith and Henry Rock to lay the rock for his home. They were paid in grain and cows. In the late l 880's and early 1890's the people practicing polygamy were going through a very difficult time. The Government had passed a law prohibiting plural marriage. U. S. Marshals were bunting the men, fining them and putting them into prison. In 1889 Anthony Heiner was arrested by the Federal authorities for practicing polygamy. On April 1, 1889 he was sentenced by Judge Henderson to three months imprisonment in the Sugarhouse Penitentiary and fined $200 for unlawful cohabitation. He was released on June 15th, two weeks early. While in prison, he handcrafted several items. One item which still exists is a small breadboard. When the Church banned polygamy in 1890, he chose to live with Sarah Elizabeth; although he still showed much concern for his first wife, Lucinda.