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Show • • FREDRICK WILLIAM WIDTE I was born November 17, 1852 at Southampton, England, a seaport town on the coast. My parents were middle class known as Trades-people. They were honest, hard working, and just in their dealings with other people. They were very religious and taught their children to reverence and respect the name of God. I am the oldest of nine children, five boys and four girls. Five of these children were born in Utah to which place my parents emigrated when I was ten years old. My father was a Marine Engineer, a good mechanic whose services were much in demand. My memory carries me back to the time when I was considered too large to be kept in petticoats and knickerbockers (the style of dress for boys in our country) and I was initiated into the full dignity of long pants. My childhood schooling was variable, my first teacher was a gentle lady who taught me my letters and writing. My second teacher was a "stern master''. Mr. Jobson, although a very good and congenial sort of man, was also strict, and allowed no violation of the rules of his school to go unpunished. When I reached the age of nine, my mother had to move from her place of residence to the suburbs called Islington. I had to change schools and my teacher, Mr. Fairmanner was a kind and gentle man in every sense of the word. This man was a member of the Presbyterian Church, however he seemed to share in the general contempt for Mormons. He found out one day that my parents belonged to the Mormon Church . On one occasion he pointed me out to some visiting school officials as a "young mormon." This was heard by the entire school class, so as a consequence I was very much annoyed by their taunts and insults. I complained to my Mother and she took occasion one day to visit my teacher at school to point out the folly in this course of action. He replied that he was sorry that I had suffered and he pointed out to the children that there were many different religions among the children. After this explanation and apology of the teacher I was not so persecuted by my schoolmates. I was now about 10 years of age, my parents had been saving for several years to immigrate to Utah. Just prior to this time my father was under the terms of a sailing contract to sail to a foreign port. It would be impractical for him to emigrate at this time. My mother had made every preparation for the journey. She was not a woman to be easily deterred from any worthy object she had set her mind on. My mother, Elizabeth was counseled by the President of the British Mission, who then resided at our house. She decided to make the journey without my father who would follow in about a year. This was a great undertaking for a woman with four young children, the oldest (being myself) only ten years of age. She would have no husband at her side to counsel with or protect her. To undertake a journey of 5,000 miles to a new • country, is something beyond the conception of most people. - • • It was in the month of June 1862 we set sail from Liverpool, England to New Y orlc, America. I recall crossing the plains. I was young and there were many hardships for us. Mother had hired a man to drive our oxen team to Utah. She was obliged to accept the help of a very profane rough talking man. One day when he was swearing and using bad language, mother told him to stop or she would not have him drive his oxen. The man stopped the team and told mother she would be left on the desert as he would not drive for her any longer. Mother told him she would get along very well without him. So being the oldest child of 10 years the driving of oxen was turned over to me. We were blessed with determination to reach Utah. After much difficulty and some dangerous experiences, we kept along with our company and arrived safely with the Saints. A year later, in 1863 Father joined us and we went to Toole County where father got work hauling wood out of the canyon. We lived in the tithing house until spring when we went back to Salt Lake City. Father bought a house but being unable to secure any amount of suitable work, he sold our house and walked to Cache Valley near Logan, to buy land and support his growing family. In 1864, father built a log home in Smithfied and was roofing it when I misbehaved and father came down and gave me my first paddling and I was much better boy afterwards. About this time my mother had a very impressive dream that disturbed her very much. She dreamed that I had met with an accident and nothing would satisfy her otherwise until I was brought into her room and she felt me to see if I was alright. (This happened about 4 years before I did have a serious accident . In 1871 we moved to Morgan County. Father got work an opportunity to work in Hardscrabble Canyon in Porterville to run a saw mill. I was 19 year old at this time. I went up on the mountain to cut down a large dry tree for fire wood. The man that was with me said he would haul it down for me. He was on the other side of the canyon out of my sight. I got half way up the canyon to the tree when an avalanche started. I heard the crackling of snow. I looked up and knew I would be covered so I turned around and started back into the rode. I threw my ax as far as I could for fear of getting cut. I can remember the snow striking me. It took my hat off and pinned me down. The slide carried me over the bank on the lower side of the dug-way road that had been shoveled out by men after a heavy snowfall the night before. I was thrown about 20 feet below the road and toward the creek bed after which the snow flowed over me. I was pinned down on my face with my left arm by my side and my right arm thrust forward. I made an effort to scramble out. It was not long before I lost consciousness, perhaps 10 or 15 minutes. A person can do a lot of thinking in a little time under such conditions and my memory raced back over my past life very fast. According to Mr. Buchanan, the man who went for help. I was buried for 2 hours and 30 minutes. Since I survived that long under about 8 feet of snow I must have obtained air from some source, perhaps from the channel of the creek bed. Mr. Buchanan • immediately made his way to the saw-mill and notified my father. Father ran from the • • saw-mill with one broken handled shovel. Other men went for tools to dig . When they arrived at the site, the men appealed to my father to show them where to dig. Father designated the spot, after a few minutes of digging, he changed the place about the length of a boy's body. They continued digging in that place until they struck the heel of my boot. If they had stayed digging in the first place they would have struck my head. The man with the shovel fainted so father jumped in and continued digging. When they brought me out I was so dark everyone thought I was dead. After I returned to consciousness and found myself surrounded by family and friends I cannot describe the feelings of my dear mother as she watched them labor over me not knowing whether I would live or not. She had foreseen in a very impressive dream 4 years earlier this calamity that had overtaken me. I was none the worse for the experience. I went back to work again the next day a little stiff and sore. In the spring of 1873 we moved the saw mill 3 miles farther up the canyon and finished sawing what timber was left to be found suitable for lumber. Then my father and Mr. Eddington dissolved their partnership and went out of business. In the fall I worked on the thrashing machine. In the winter I took my oxen and worked in the canyon hauling wood for winter and some lumber slabs from the old saw mill to build a shed and stable for the animals . In the summer and fall of 1875 I went to work at a saw mill in Parley's Canyon Park. Late in the fall I returned to Coalville and went to work for James Welch logging at the head of the Weber River. I have never experienced a worse winter in my life. All winter it snowed day and night. It covered our cabin until we had to tunnel our way out in order to go work in the timber. We had to go to the company store to get supplies every week or ten days. We had to make a trail through the snow for about six miles. We always left one of the boys at camp to keep the fire going and prepare supper for us , four of us made the trip. On one trip we got so tired and wet, we had to leave our supplies hanging them up in the trees over night. It was 20 minutes after midnight when we got in camp. Soon after we found our timber getting scarce, so we had to move camp to another canyon. Two of our men went on snowshoes and found a nice grove of trees in another canyon about 3 miles away. First we had to break a trail through waist deep snow. By constant tramping and wallowing, we managed to keep a trail open while we went back and forth to our work. Our first job was to shovel out a spot large enough to build a small cabin. We dug out a hole in the snow down to the ground and built a huge fire to dry out the ground. We cut logs on the hillside and slid them down to our building spot and commenced to • building our cabin. • • • When our cabin was completed we cut small sapling trees, trimmed them smooth and laid them close together and nailed them down to the ridge pole. On top of these we laid boughs and trimmings from the poles to help keep out the storm. Then we dug a lot of dirt from the floors of the cabin and spread it on top of the roof to keep out the snow. The main difficulty commenced when we had to move to our new camp. There were bedding, cooking pans, trunks, suitcases and axes. Each man had 3 axes to do his work. One to chop down the trees, another to trim the trees of limbs and pine knots, and we each had a large Broad axe to hew the face of the tree and make them into ties--or flatten them on two sides. This made 1 S axes in all. The worst job was to get the cook stove over the trail, for we could not get along without it. It weighted about 400 pounds. We trimmed a long pole about 8 ft. long, removed the oven door and dismantled all loose parts, ran a pole through the oven and out the back of the stove where the chimney attached. With two ofus behind and two in front, we hoisted it to our shoulders and headed for the new camp. One ofus went ahead to tramp the trail. It took us two days to cover the 3 miles. We left our stove along the trail the first night and went back to our old camp to rest and eat a cold meal, then continued on the next day. The next heavy article was our grindstone, for we had to grind our axes every evening to be ready for the next days work. Sometimes we would be up until midnight grinding our axes by candle light. I was 23 years of age at this time. (This is the end of the record written by Frederick (Fred) White. It was written and given to a granddaughter, Nellie Spencer on July 1935. Within one week he had passed away.) Frederick White married Sarah Ellen Porter on July 3, 1879 in the Salt Lake Endowment House. They had nine children. Manilla White was born on August 24, 18898. She was the 8th child. Contributed by Lorraine B. Turner granddaughter of Manilla White Carter .:C n-font" a+{ o "t a I so C,Or)tr, bu_f aJ by the( V daujh+er C Iara: Spar-ks • • • |