, 4 • • • Gillispie Walter Waldron & Ann Dewhurst Gillispie Walter Waldron was born at Castle County, New York on August 15, 1836, a son of Benjamin Waldron and Sally Lapham. The Mormon elders found the Waldron family and Gillispie was baptized in a small creek in Musketa Creek Town. His father married Emeline Savage in plural marriage in 1849. A son, Levi, was born to Benjamin and Emerline, July 7, 1850 at Winter Quarters in council Bluff, Iowa. Benjamin and Sally decided that since Emeline's people were already in Utah, Emeline would go with one wagon and oxen team to prepare a place in Utah. Gillispie was twelve years old. He drove the oxen team across the plains in the Allred Company. They averaged better than eleven miles a day. The bugle call at 5 A. M. would awaken 148 persons. They had prayer, then fed 247 animals before they ate breakfast. They started traveling early in the morning. There were men with loaded guns riding along with the caravan. The oxen are not as steady pulling as the horses, a long chain attached the ox yoke to pull the wagon. A twirl of the "brad" (a very long willow) a shout "Gee" to the right, "Haw'' to the left were the directional signals for the oxen. The jolting of the wagon churned the cream into butter where it hung on the back of the covered wagon. In the evening in the desert, the wagons were drawn into a circle to form a corral for the animals. The horses were pastured near the camp. A guard was kept on duty throughout the night to keep the Indians from stampeding the horses. The Allred Company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 9, 1851 with Gillispie, Emeline and Levi. They lived in their covered wagon in Pioneer Park through the summer and in the winter. While Gillispie was yet in his teens, he drove a freighting team from Salt Lake City back on the old pioneer trail. He also helped build bridges and roads from the time he was fifteen years old. Amm Dewhurst was born at Blackburn, Lancastershire, England on September 20, 1840 a daughter of James Dewhurst and Elizabeth Fielding. The gospel was brought to Ann and her twin sister Elizabeth and they were baptized March 7, 1851. Shortly after Ann was baptized she was taken very ill. President Wilford Woodruff administered to her and promised her she would get well and go to Zion . j • • • On February 10, 1854, her father James Dewhurst and mother Elizabeth and daughters Ann, Alizabeth, and Esther set sail for America. They sailed on the ship "Windmere." Their ship sprang a leak and the Captain came to the Mormon company and said, "If you have any faith, for God's sake pray to save this ship." At another time on their voyage the ship caught fire and their lives were saved. When they reached America the captain and five of his crew joined the L.D.S. Church. They were nine weeks on their voyage. In October of 1854, this Company of saints joined the Mormon Pioneers. While they were camped at Winter Quarters cholera broke out and they suffered much. The father, James Dewhurst, died and was buried there. This left Elizabeth with three small daughters to journey to Utah. They began their journey across the plains in the William A. Empey Company. When they were camped at Fort Bridger, the twin girls picked up a large flat iron that weighed eight pounds and they walked the rest of the way taking turns packing the flat iron. This iron is now in the Daughter of Utah Pioneers Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. They arrived in Salt Lake on October 29, 1854 and made their first home there. Elizabeth and her daughters made a living putting reed bottoms in chairs and tending small children. When Ann was fifteen years old they moved from Salt Lake City to Centerville, Utah. It was there she met her future husband, Gillispie Walter Waldron . The wedding of Gillispie and Ann was plain with no costly apparel. Gillispie said to Ann, "I have nothing to offer you but all my love." Together they walked up on the hillside and dug the sweet bulbs of the sego lilies and that is what they had for their wedding supper. The Indians believed the sego lilies to be a gift of the Great Spirit in time of hunger. The couple built a small log house in the Malad Valley. The Indians became so hostile they had to give up their farm and home and return to Centerville. They had their first baby and named him Joseph Theodore. He was born on September 10, 1859. In the early part of the year 1861 , they were called by President Brigham Young to settle in Weber Valley. Gillispie, Ann, and family left Centerville, Utah and traveled to Weber Canyon. A crude road had been built earlier through Weber Canyon. It was so narrow and hazardous that most of the travelers walked and the driver would lead the horses or oxen and wagon around the narrow stretch commonly called Horseshoe Bend. They found Weber Valley was a beautiful valley in the Rocky Mountains. They built a two room log house on the high lands near the base of the hills, west of the creek, where Richville is now located. The first houses built by the settlers that year consisted of about a half dozen houses . 1 • • Gillispie said that when he arrived in Richville, April 6, 1861 , with his family, work was commenced at once on a ditch. He was accompanied by John Henrey Rich and others, They plowed with a single hand plow and ox team and used a pick and shovel and leveled by eye. This ditch afterwards became known as the West Richville Irrigation Canal Company. That season the ditch was finished for a distance of one mile. In 1862 a few more settlers arrived. The ditch was extended about a mile and one-half. The first schoolhouse in Richville was a log building 18 X 24 feet. It was erected in 1863 and served for meetings, school, and social purposes. It had a fireplace at one end for heating. The grist mill which was started in Richville in 1862 started running in the spring of 1864. It was the first grist mill in Morgan county. Prior to its completion, many teams hauled grain over the mountains in a southwestern direction into Salt Lake Valley to be milled. In 1867-1868 the crops were destroyed by grasshoppers and some of the brethren were employed on the Union Pacific Railroad. Lumber became a leading industry in Hardscrabble Canyon. Thousands of ties were hauled from Hardscrabble with ox teams to a lumberyard in Richville. As the railroad progressed, the ties were hauled as far as Echo and as far west as Weber Canyon . The railroad was completed through Morgan County in 1869. A number of the men again worked on the grade an assisted in laying the track. The railroad coming through Morgan brought many avenues of trade and ways of making money. Gillispie Walter Waldron and Ann Dewhurst Waldron were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, November 15, 1869. Bishop Willard G. Smith appointed Gillispie Walter Waldron to be Presiding Elder of the Richville Branch in 1873. He presided until 1877 when the Richville Branch was organized as a ward and became a part of the Morgan Stake. When the Morgan Stake of Zion was organized July 1, 1877, Gillispie was sustained as first counselor of the Richville Ward and served for 29 years. Lucy Emeline Waldron was the last child born in the little log house, Auiust 13, 1881 . On September 13, 1907, Gillispie and Ann lived to enjoy their 50 wedding anniversary. They lived together for 62 years. Nine of their children grew to adult life, three died in infancy. They adopted a daughter, Hulds Lovica. • By Louise Butters Waldron