• • • 1/ L', Charles Sreeve Peterson Ann Dennis Peterson Ann Patton Peterson Charles Sreeve Peterson, Ann Patto n Peterson, and their fa mily along with the Thomas Jefferson Thurston family were the first white settlers in the Morgan Valley. How I have wished I could go back in time and come into the valley with them; however their first years were filled with hardship and sacrifice. They were strong, courageous individuals who never faltered in their defense of the trnth. Charles was descended fro m Swedish ancestry who settled in Delaware in the early 1600' s. Born in 1827, he spent his earl y years in New Jersey. A quote from his history proves interesting and helps us understand his personality. "While I was at Mr. Gaskill's the great excitement over the ' Falling Stars' took place. Mr. Gaskill and family were members of the Methodist Church and the church was within 150 yards of his house. This was in the town of Pembertown, Burlington County, New Jersey. About midnight, the stars apparently began to fall thick and fast like flakes of snow, though they resembled flakes of fire. Sometimes they would be like balls of fire and would strike the ground and burst into pieces. The flakes, when near the ground , would disappear like so much fire going out. Soon the church bells began to ring and the people came claiming ' The Judgment Day has come, and the earth is about to be burned up!' They carried on such a shouting and howling that they could be heard.all over the town. Mr. Gaskill came to my door and asked, ' Are you not coming to the church to pray? The end has come.' I replied, ' No, it is too late to pray now, if the end has come. I will stay here and take it as easy as I can.' After poking my head out of the window to satisfy my curiosity, and listening to the howling of the Methodists, I went back to bed, went to sleep, and woke in the morning and fou nd the fa mily there, getting breakfast ready as usual, and the end had not come. I have since learned that at this very time and night the Latter-day Saints were being butchered and driven from their ho mes and lands, which they had made and purchased from the government in the state of Missouri." In the spring of 183 7, Charles married Ann Dennis. Three children came in quick succession the third Andrew being born in January of 1842. Again fro m his jou rnal, "In the fall of that same year, while hauling coal, I met a man who lived near Burlington who told me of strange people who m he had just visited in Illinois; he had become converted to their church and faith. His name was Matthew Ivory. His rehearsal of the faith and principles of their church gave me a peculiar feeling that I could not throw off my mind. I did not believe in any of the numerous sects, although, honest in their convictions; but there was such a difference in the beliefs of the different sects in regard to the meaning of the writings in the Bible that I had become almost an infidel, although I had witnessed some strange manifestations." " At two different time, previous to talking with Mr. Ivory, while laying in my bed, reflecting in the midnight hours, a light brighter than the noon-day sun burst into my room, encircling a personage who looked me in the face and passed out of the room, apparently down the stairs, and left the room as dark as a dungeon, for so it was before the light entered, as there was a heavy thunderstorm in progress at the time." Mr. Ivory gave C harles some pamphlets about tl:u s strange new religion. He took them home and he read them aloud as Ann sewed. "We were so interested that midnight !9S • • • was upon us before we were aware of it, or scarcely a word had passed between us, and I bear witness that the Holy Spirit bore witness into our spirits at nearly every sentence I read, that the doctrines and principles contained therein were trne, and from God, and from that day to the present I never doubted the truth of the Latter-day work." As soon as Charles and Ann ' s conversion and baptism were mad e know they became the object of public ridicule and were shunned by their neighbors. Charles was given an ultimatum by his employer and he put thjngs in o rder and wa lked away. They immediately began to make preparatio ns to move their family to Nauvoo. The evening before they left he was called upo n to speak at a meeting. While speaking, the spirit came upon him and he prophecied that within the year he would shoulder his gun and stand in defense of the Prophet and the saints in Nauvoo. Soon after they arrived in Nauvoo trouble commenced which resulted in the destrnction of the printing press and ultimately the martyrdom of the prophet. He wrote about this time, " . ... the people mourned as I have never seen people mourn, either before or since. It seemed that heaven and all things around us wept and were in mourning." Only three months after the death of the prophet, Ann died and left Charles with four small children. The youngest was only three months old. This child lived one more year then passed away to join his mother. ln 1845 he married Mary Ann Patton. From this unio n three children were born. Charles and his family, with the remainder of the saints in Nauvoo, worked to complete the Nauvoo temple, then were driven from·their ho me to make their way west. In obedience to a call from Brigham Young he gave up his team and wagon to assist the first company of saints on their journey west and he remained behind to help make wagons to cany the saints to a place of refuge. During this time he married Mary Ann' s half-sister, Ann, in plural marriage. Thirteen children were to bless this union. Ann had moved to Nauvoo with her father in L842. She too, had been present in Nauvoo during the martyrdo m of the prophet and the completion of the Nauvoo Temple. Ann had great respect and love for the Prophet Joseph Smith. When she was a you ng woman Joseph had come to their ho me soon after they moved to Nauvoo. Though she had never seen him, she was thrilled from head to foot and she knew beyond a doubt that he was the Prophet. Upon arriving in Utah, Charles first settled his family in Alpine, but in a few short years he and a friend Thomas Jefferson Thurston decided to settle in the Weber Valley. During the winter of 1854-55, they forced a road up Weber Canyo n, blasting rocks from the walls of the canyon, then breaking them to form a very rough road bed. By spring they were able to bring their families and some livestock into the valley. Charles and his family settled in the northwestern part of the valley and established Weber City. The name was later changed to Peterson in honor of the early settlers. Soon after settling in the valley, Mary Ann left the family. Charles kept the child from their marriage. This left Ann, a young mother (age 24), now the caretaker and mother of eight children aged l 7 to one. Her daughter later wrote, "Mother was equal to the task and cared for all the children as if they were her own. Ann's daughter leaves us an interesting account of those early years on the farm in Peterson. 'Those were trying times when the Indians roamed the country. In Utah, forts were built around the towns, that the people might protect themselves fro m the Indians . 2 • • • This family- the first white settlers, moved into that valley, without any protection, except their faith in the Lord and the protection that came through their kindness to the Indians. I never heard of the Indians harming them or anything belo ng ing to them, but father would g ive them flour and meat; and mother would feed them when they came to the house. Often, w hen they awakened in the morning, they would find Indians curled up in their blankets lying asleep on the floor. In those days, people did not have locks on their doors, as we do now. They were not to be had. They had only latches, and the Indians moved so quietly that they could come up to the door and pull the string o n the latch and sli p into the house without being hea rd . At that early day in Utah, everybody was poor. Clothing and food were hard to obtain, as everything in the shape of clothing had to be freig hted in from the Missouri River by team. Consequently, everything was very hig h, and mo ney was out of the question. Between the crickets, g rass-hoppers, and frost, food was just as hard to get as clothes, so we had to wear patched clothes until at times the must have resembled Joseph' s coat of many colors. It was o ften hard to tell which was the original cloth. Mother would have to wash our clothes after we were in bed and dry them before the fire for us to put o n the next morning, but we were always kept as neat and clean as possible under the conditio ns. Mother never complained, and we were healthy and happy. Sewing machines had never been heard of then; all sewing had to be done by hand. There were no washing machines, electric power, nor even coal-oil lamps. Everyone used tallow candles which they made themselves. Mother had some candle-moulds, and we used candles as late as 1870; we got a coal-oil lamp about that time. In those early days we did not have stoves. All cooking and warming of the house had to be done with the fire-place. All the baking had to be done in an old-fashioned Dutch oven, and all frying was done in a frying pan on the hot coals in front of the fireplace. The boiling was done by hang ing iron kettles o n an iron rod that was suspended across the cllimney. In the summer time, the water for washing was heated in big iron kettles hung over the fire out of doors; but in the wintertime it had to be heated in smaller kettles hung in the fireplace. Wooden tubs, made like a half-barrel were used and father made mother' s washboards from pine or cottonwood planks, using a plow plane to make the ribs o n which the clothes were rubbed. All the soap she had was soap she had made herself from wood ashes. The ashes were put in a big wooden box called a ' bleach' and water was poured over them. The water was caught at the bottom of the box as it leaked off the ashes, and that was the lye used. It was put into a barrel with bones and scraps of grease to make the soap. Cooking utensils and dishes were scarce. The dishes from w hich we ate our bread and milk were wooden bowels. We ate with wooden spoons and were glad to have them. From this you can see that everything was crnde in those early pioneer days, and this made life dreadfully hard for a mother with a large family. At one time we were without bread for three months, and we lived on segos and other roots and greens, and if any of us children wished we had bread, mother would say, 'Be thankful for segos for many children do not even have them. Be patient and we will have bread after a while,' and we did get it. Father got some wheat somew here. Part of it was boiled and ate who le, and part of it we ground in a coffee-mill. This was sifted tlu-ough a sieve to take 3 19'/ • • • out the coarsest part. Mother made bread of the flour thus obtained, and if she ever fretted or worried over our condition, she never let us children know it . She was always a kind, good-natured mother, even up to the time of her death. Not only did the sewing have to be done by hand, but stockings had to be knit to cover all those feet. She would even take the old worn out felt hats, and the tops of old worn out boots, and make shoes for the little tots. The girls were taught to work and to do their part in the home ... things went on the same way until 1857 when father got a small flock of sheep. Then mother's work increased as she had to wash and card the wool into rolls and spin it into yarn to be woven into cloth to make our clothes. Some of the yarn was used for knitting the stockings. The girls were taught to card, spin and do some weavmg. When trouble came in the form of the Utah War the family left their home and moved south to Santequin. Ann was expecting a baby at any time. She walked most of the way and would pick up the newborn lambs and carry them in her apron. On June 24th, her son Joseph Smith Peterson, was born in a cane Wikiup. Once the soldiers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and a peace settlement was made the famil y returned to Peterson, Ann carrying her tiny newborn son. Conditions in the valley remained much the same until the railroad came in J 869. Charles and some of his grown sons contracted with the railroad to furnish ties for the tracks; Am1 took in some of the workers as boarders; and goods became cheaper and more available. During the early years Charles was established as a leader in the communit y. ln 1860 he was set apart as presiding elder over the settlements in the northern part of the valley, and in 1861 he was set apart as bishop. He was postmaster and selected probate judge by the territorial legislature. On February 17111 1862, Morgan County was organized and Weber City became the county seat. He was the peoples' representati ve to the Territorial Legislature from 1864 to 1866, and in J 868 was elected to the office of selectman. After serving as bishop for 18 years he was honorable released in the summer of 1878. Ann, too, served in positions of leadership. She was called to serve as the Relief Society President of the Weber City Ward (later changed to the Peterson Ward). She served in that calling for more than 10 years and was dearly loved. In 1870, Charles married Margaret Crispin who bore hjm two children, and then in 18 72 he married Mary Thompson, who later bore him ten children. Farming in Peterson was difficult, and in the fall of 1878, Charles moved to the northern part of Box Elder County hoping to get his sons settled on farms there, but they returned to Peterson in 1880. In 1882, he with his wives and unmarried children moved to Mesa Arizona, then in 1884 he, with Apostle Young, AF. McDonald, and others, negotiated with the Mexican government for land for a Mormon settlement. He spent the next four years serving in the Indian mission near Mesa and living in Mexico. Charles passed from this life on the 26th day of September 1889. As quoted from his history, "When he felt that his time had come, he called those of his children around him that were living in the vicinity, blessed them and bore his testimony to them. He sent his love and blessings to those who were not present, and admonished all of his family to be faithful in the gospel, and to use the talents with which 4 198 • • • the Lord had blessed them fo r the good of their fellowmen and for the building up of the Church and Kingdom." When Charles had moved to Mex)co with one wife and family, Ann stayed on their ho mestead near Mesa. He returned to the homestead prior to his death. Not long after Charles' death, Ann ' s home burned to the ground and all her belongings went up in smoke. She sold off part of the land to provide shelter for herself and her youngest daughters who were still living at home. A widow now, she continued to work hard. Hard earned money was saved to pay for trips to Utah where she did temple work for both C harles' and her ancestors. Much of her time was taken up in nursing the sick, a task to which she had dedicated a lifetime. On January 28111, she passed to her reward. In the words of her daughter, "We feel that when she meets her maker, she can truthfi..illy say, ' I have foug ht the good fight, I have finished the work Thou did st give me to do, ' and that she will receive the glad word, ' Well and faithfolly done."' (Sources: Information gathered from "A Sketch of the Life and Labors of Ann Patton Peterson'' as written by her daughter, name unknown, "Life of Charles Sreeve Peterson" partially his autobiography and partiall y author unknown. Information summarized and edited by Laraine S. Whitear, a descendant of Charles and Ann Dennis Peterson. l (Laraine) have the privilege of now living on the farm originally ho mesteaded by Charles and Ann Patton Peterson in 1855. This farm was purchased by E li Whitear, my husba nd, Don' s grandfather, about three years after Charles and his family moved to Arizona. An interesting sidelight for me is that I, too, came to thi s farm as a stepmother of a large and growing family; however my challenges have been far fro m those experienced by Ann Patton Peterson. I hold a special love for her.) 5