• • • THOMAS PALMER SR. and THOMAS AND RUTHA PALMER June 3rd 1859 a son was born to Thomas Palmer and Fannie Stark Palmer in Salt Lake City, in the vicinity of the 6th ward. This son was named Thomas Palmer Jr. The family lived there until he was three years old. At this time Brigham Young advised the people to spread out and settle other sections of the country. They settled in Enterprise. The name was being chosen by Jessie Haven for an enterprising place to live. There roads were almost impassible. The wagons had to be taken to pieces and carried up over the mountain at Devils Gate. Brigham Young advised the people to take up 25 acres of ground and not more so there would be plenty for settlers who would come later, and to take the land best suited for irrigation. They built a one roomed cabin west of where the main highways runs, in a grove of Cottonwoods. They used one comer for a grainery. They had four children three boys and one girl. They brought a yoke of oxen, one cow and an old stove from Salt Lake. They came early in the spring of 1862, and in the fall of that same year the mother, Fannie died. She is buried at Peterson in the field south of where the old Peterson school stood . Mrs. Haven helped care for the children but the little girl died a year later at the age of eleven. After the mother's death the family had 25 bushel of wheat that had been harvested that first year. It was cut by hand with a sythe, and pounded out with a flail. On this the family lived for 6 months having nothing to eat except the boiled wheat. Two years later Thomas Palmer Sr. married Mrs. Mills an English woman who had four children. Later he married one of her daughters, "Louie". The family went six months at a time without tasting bread. At that time the closest grist mill was at Farmington. To get flour the men would carry the grain on their backs over the mountains, and have it ground. Some of the women also helped to carry the grain. Their clothes were made from cloth spun from flax, grown by Thomas. There was a Swedish man that lived down by the river, he would throw the flax into the slew, until it cured. Then he spun the flax and weaved it into cloth with a wooden loom. It resembled burlap. Thomas laughed, saying "the pants and shirts scratched so bad, we would get running so fast, to get away from it, that we could not stop." Thomas Sr. bought two buffalo robes from the Indians, or traded a pony for them. Thomas said they laid one robe down with the hair up, and put the other over them with the hair down, and this was he and his brother Wills, bed for years, until the hair was almost completely worn off from the robes . 1e • • They only dishes they had were wooden bowls. They used green blocks of wood and a man that lived in Milton made these bowls. Some held about a pint and others a quart. He also made wooden spoons. Thomas Sr. made a table from slabs. The children stood around the table to eat, because there were no chairs. In the summer it was so hot and crowded in the cabin that Father Palmer moved the stove outside of the house in a kind of a bowery he had built. One day the team of oxen were frightened by some approaching Indians and ran right through the bowery smashing the priceless stove all to pieces. After that the families' cooking had to be done in a fire place, built in one end of the cabin. The pony express was the only means of getting mail at that time . Soon after this the stage coaches came. The station was about one half mile from their home. The station tender lived right at the station. When the stage would be near the station, the driver would shout until he roused the keeper, who would bring out fresh horses and change teams, while the driver was warming himself Then away they would go on the run again. They always used two teams on each coach. During the wet season it was often necessary for the settlers to use their ox teams to pull the stage coach across the muddy Enterprise bench. Thomas remembers coming to Morgan with his family, in the wagon to watch the first train arrive. He said when the train whistled, it frightened the children and also the horses. The horses came nearly running away. This same year the grasshoppers came in hordes and destroyed all the crops, even eating the leaves from the trees. Every vestige of green was gone. Thomas said on the Enterprise Point, the hoppers were six and eight inches thick. The dog would try to run through them, but they would jump and hit him in the eyes and face until he would howl. Had it not been for the money the settlers earned on the construction of the railroad it would have been impossible for them to have remained in the valley. The railroad brought in supplies and by these means the settlers survived through the winter. Thomas tells that when he was about eight years old there were 900 Indian warriors led by chief Washakee come through Morgan on their way to Wyoming to battle with the hostile tribe of the Sues (Sioux). They left the squaws and papooses at Box Elder County, and went on their way up through this valley, camped on the flat where the Peterson school house now stands. They demanded food so the bishop of Peterson had each family give what they could. They also stripped everything out of the settlers gardens, then moved on. They were gone 5 or 6 months, when they returned. The sad story was told that there were only 60 braves to return to the squaws and papooses. The rest of the tribe had been slaughtered in battle. Thomas walked from Enterprise to Peterson to go to school, about four miles. He said they had very few clothes, no underclothes and no overshoes. His first teacher was Isaac Bowman. He went to school three or four months and some of his school mates !9} • • • were Will and John Croft, Joseph Green, and Henery and Charles Hale . Thomas worked hard all through his boyhood years. One of his first jobs away from home was on a large ranch out on Bear River, near Evanston. He, Will and George Croft, and Joseph Green walked from Enterprise to the ranch in March The snow was deep and they went up Lost Creek and over the Divide. The snow crusted until they reached the top of the divide and then it broke through, making it almost impossible to walk. It was about midnight when they finally reached the ranch and they were nearly frozen to death. That fall they went to Park City, where silver mines were being opened. There they contracted to cut quaking asp for the Ontario Mine, for $1. 00 per cord for green and $1.25 for dry wood. It was burned at the mine to run the hoists. They worked there for three years. The Union Pacific was building a branch line Rail Road from Echo to Park City. Thomas got a job grading for the railroad up through the Coalville meadows, From there he joined a bridge gang and worked for 12 years on bridges from Ogden to Laramie, on the regular gang outfit of the Oregon Short Line. From there he went to Granger and then to Hams Fork, then on to Golden Colorado. There had been wash outs there at the mines and the bridges had to be rebuilt. He worked there three or four years as head foreman of the gang. Then he came back to Ogden and worked four years on the Union Pacific. Dancing played a big part in the entertainment of the young people in the early settlements. Thomas said he danced at the old Peterson Hall, at North Morgan, and Milton and Enterprise. He remembered having his hat stolen at the Milton dance hall one night and had to go without a hat for nearly a year until he could afford a new one. Thomas remembered traveling from place to place at that time was very slow. The only mode of travel was by horse back, or horse and wagon, but the young folks still had good times, and he smiled when he told about the incident when he met Rutha Stewart, the girl who later became his wife. Rutha Elizabeth Stewart was born March 16, 1868 at Ogden in the vicinity of 26th street and Washington Ave. She was the daughter of Rufus Stewart and Nancy Browning. Her father came to Utah with the second company of pioneers in 184 7. Her mother was a full sister to Jonathan Browning the gun inventor. She lived in Ogden until she was eight years old, when her mother died, leaving eight children, one a baby two months old. Rutha's oldest sister, La Vina cared for the children. And when La Vina married James Stewart and moved to Morgan, Rutha went with her to live. Their home was the one now owned by J.C. Little. Rutha was twelve years old at that time. She lived with La Vina until her marriage to Thomas Palmer at the age of 21. Her father moved from Ogden to Morgan in the year of 1882 and bought the farm now owned by Mrs. Howard Thackeray. Their home, a 15 room structure, stood where • • • the Thackery barn now stands. It was a lovely home for those days. At that time there were great mining prospects in the Morgan vicinity. Rutha was small built and pretty, and remembers many boy friends that use to call on her during her teen age. She also remembers very vividly , when she first met tall, handsome Thomas Palmer. It was in July the summer of 1885. Thomas was driving cattle with Thomas Condie of Morgan to the summer range on the ranch in Croydon owned by Thomas Palmer and his brother. They were ready to leave Morgan at noon. James Stewart asked them to eat at his table before they left. Rutha age 19, small dainty and very pretty and also a good cook had prepared the dinner. She had also scrubbed the kitchen floor spotlessly white. When the two young men came in, although Thomas Palmer was very shy, Rutha was aware of something different about him that she had ever noticed in any other young man she had ever met. But she also remembers that she was very annoyed, because the young men splashed dirty water from the wash basin on her clean white floor. Whether it was Rutha' s pretty daintiness or the lovely dinner she had cooked or both, Thomas was very much attracted by her. One week later, he asked Rutha to go to the 4th of July dance with him. Rutha noticed his shyness more than ever this night, for he walked her all the way to South Morgan without so much as taking her arm, when she wanted so much for him to put his arm all the way around her waist. Well anyway this meeting budded into a romance that lasted I 1h years. During this time Thomas rode his horse, once or twice a week from Lost Creek to Morgan to see Rutha. Their marriage took place on New Year,s Day in 1887, at the home ofRutha' s sister. It was solemnized by Bishop O.B. Anderson of the North Morgan Ward. Two years later they were remarried in the Logan LDS Temple. The marriage continued on for 56 years. After their marriage the young couple moved to Croydon and their home was one of the nicest at that time. Thomas was 29 years old. He had saved his money and with this he bought his farm. Their furniture was the best that could be bought at that time. They had a homemade carpet on the bedroom floor. The kitchen floor was bare, but Rutha kept it scrubbed very white. There was not a happier couple in the country, and on Jan. 10, 1888 a sweet little girl was born to them, named Lavina. This happiness lasted only 7 short months, for in July of the same year little Viney took whooping cough and died. Their happiness shattered for the time Rutha and Thomas left Croydon and moved to North Morgan, and made their home in a little rock house, where Rutha could be close to her sister and there October 12, 1891 another baby girl was born to them. They named her Hattie and two years later on Christmas Day another little girl was born. They named her Rutha after her mother, but she lived only one week and died on New Year,s day. l'IJ • • • January 12, 1896 still another baby girl came and she was called Ida. When Ida was ten months old Thomas was called on a mission to the Southern States. Thomas rented his farm and with the money he had saved fulfilled a 26 months mission. After returning home Thomas resumed work on his farm June 12, 1900 their first son James Thomas was born and the second son Earl William was born Dec. 11, 1902. A third son was born April 10, 1906 Frank Parley and Rhea was born Oct. 27, 1911 making eight children. About the year of 1914 or 15 Thomas had a very serious illness and tells this incident of a visit of three personages who he thinks were the three Nepbites. He had been ill for several months. In April or May he was in the hospital with 3 abscesses on his lungs. He stayed for 10 days. He had been promised complete recovery by the elders of the Church from the beginning of his illness. After returning home he did not regain his health as he had been promised. He became very discouraged with the condition he was in. The doctor said there was very little hope of complete recovery, his family was really in need and his crops were a complete failure. She he decided to ask the Lord why he had been deprived of the promise of the Priesthood. He prayed, asking if there was anything standing in the way that he could overcome . As a direct answer to his prayer in the middle of the night three personages visited him and told his as they stood at the foot of his bed, that he would recover, and that before morning that which was on his lungs would slip off and he would enjoy better health than he had ever had before. The three personages he said were of medium build and they had very pleasing voices. He did not see from where they came, or where they went, but he did enjoy the blessings they promised. And up until the age of 83 did some work on his farm. There was no doubt in his mind that these were the three Nephites spoken of in the Book of Mormon. Rutha always had a lovely voice and sang in the Ogden Stake Tabernacle to a large audience at the age of 8 and in the choir from the age of 12 and in the North Morgan ward. She remembers when Brother West from Round Valley was the conductor, then Brother Edward Anderson. On Jun 3, 1937 Thomas and Rutha celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. During their entire lives Thomas and Rutha took active parts in their church and community. Then one beautiful Autumn day proved to be the most tragic in Rutha's life. Thomas came home from the field at noon riding the black pony at a brisk gallop, came in the house in very high spirits. He ate a hearty meal then acting as if he were chocking left the table, and went to the back porch, there he suddenly dropped of a heart attack. Rutha was 81 years old at the time this was written ............ History by Fem Palmer