History of the Southern States Mission, Part 32: The Icebergs of Intolerance Begin to Melt

Early in the month of October [1886] President Morgan visited the North Georgia Elders at Rome, and later other Elders of the same state met in Polk county. The Elders and Saints of East Tennessee were visited by President Morgan directly after that. Other than this nothing of importance transpired during this month.

November was unusually dull, several Elders arriving for appointment to fields of labor being the only important work done. The Elders were working faithfully, and in some cases they met opposition. The year closed in peace to all the Elders, in spite of some threats in parts.

The year 1887 opened favorable to the work. The brethren were opening new fields in many of the states which was resulting in new friends for the Gospel. President Emery, of the Mississippi Conference, was the target of religious libertines during the month. Upon one occasion they took him into some woods, after abusing him considerably, and there held a consultation whether it were best to do him bodily harm or to expel him from that county, that he might no more be able to exercise his rights there an an American citizen. Disagreement arose among the members of the mob, so it was decided to let him go unharmed, but still have the penalty of death over him if he did not leave the county to return no more.


In the early part of February President Morgan returned from the west, where he had gone the previous November. He visited Nashville to see what was being done with the bill that prohibiting [sic] the preaching of polygamy, put before the legislature by State Senator Simmerly [sic]. The bill was practically the same as the one of 1884. It was referred to a sub-committee, with instructions to frame a new one, and there the matter rested.

Active preparations were being made for the emigration of a large body of Saints, who were very desirous of going to the west. The people sold their farms and implements, making every effort to join the company. On the first day of March a few left Chattanooga, and as they journeyed westward they were joined by others, as well as by released Elders, until upon reaching Memphis, they numbered one hundred and seventy-five. The party was in charge of President Morgan.

Through Hon. John T. Caine [delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Territory of Utah] several thousand copies of congressional speeches were received by the Elders at the office. The subject of the speeches was "Mormonism." All this matter was freely distributed among the people of the south. This resulted in removing considerable prejudice and giving the Elders better opportunities to gain access to those who would listen to their message.

At the close of this month a mission report was made, which showed ninety-two Elders travelling in the field. There were twenty-eight organized branches and a membership of 1,084—a very credible showing for that time. Prospects were very bright for a great work to be done in the ensuing six months.

In April several Elders were released to return home, and others arrived to be put to work in the different conferences. Elders Snow and William Rich, of the North Carolina Conference, were sent among the Cherokee Indians in Haywood, Swain and Jackson counties to endeavor to gain a foothold among that tribe. In reporting their labors the brethren said the Indians were very suspicious of them, and, seemingly, their work was of little avail; but they were determined to stay and do their duty.

During May the work continued on uneventful, save the arrival of Elders and the emigration of some Saints. Literature began to be recognized as an effective means of reaching the people; accordingly, much was prepared and sent to the Elders for distribution. The result was gratifying. With the publication and proclamation of the Gospel, the icebergs of prejudice and intolerance began to melt gradually, to leave a fertile field for future work.


Latter Day Saints Southern Star, Vol. 1, No. 36, Chattanooga, Tenn. Saturday, August 5, 1899, pp 281-82.

The newspaper article is from the New York Times, January 12, 1887, p 1. Picture of the Smoky Mountains in Jackson County, North Carolina, from www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/3017840580/.

Henry and Eliza Tanner's Trip to Arizona, Part 7

The Bushman diary records the following: "We all arrived at President Lot Smith's camp on April 29th, Sunday at 10:00 a.m. We all took dinner at the U.O. [United Order] Long Table and in the evening all attended meeting, where nearly all spoke. President Smith was pleased to see us return."...

The little group left Sunset and proceeded on to Joseph City. Date of arrival here is confused but probably not too important. About half of the sources say May 1st and the other half say May 2nd. After eating dinner with the Bushmans, the Hunts and Tanners started on to New Mexico where they had decided to locate. Presumably, Sunset and Joseph City did not look good to them. But after travelling up the Rio Puerco and seeing the sand blowing across the road, the Tanners decided that Joseph City was at least preferable to this.

Lewis Hunt, at the funeral service of Henry Tanner, related the incident of the decision to return to Joseph City. He said that when the Hunts were ready to start after a stop for noon they noted that the Tanners had not made preparation to go. John Hunt came to the Tanner wagon and noticed that Eliza had been crying and he was not sure but that Henry had been also. They then announced their intention of returning to Joseph City which they did.

This was probably one of the most important decisions in their life and one plenty hard to make. They were close friends of the Hunts. Eliza was about the age of the oldest girl. The Bushmans and Westovers were new friends they had made on the trip. One would like to know the thoughts which went on in the minds of this young man of twenty-five and his nineteen year old wife as they sat in the covered wagon that noon with the sand being blown across the road by an Arizona wind storm. That they returned to Joseph City is high tribute to the new friends they had found on the trip. That these friendships were to endure was to be proved during the next half century. May Hunt Larson notes the day of the turning around as May 5th. She said, "It was a very sad parting for us all. We had been like one family for three months and we children had been school mates with them all our lives."

John Bushman noted the event in his diary. "The first of May John Hunt and family, also Henry M. Tanner came to St. Joseph and all took dinner with the Bushman family. After traveling for two months together under great difficulties, they had become very much attached to each other. In the evening the Hunts and Tanners started for New Mexico. After traveling for three days, Henry M. Tanner and wife turned around and came back to Allen's Camp and joined."

At a later date, John Bushman inserted the following in his diary. "They little knew that here they were to do their life's best work. Here they raised an honorable family of eleven children. Brother Tanner was counselor in the bishopric for more than thirty years. He was superintendent of the Sunday School for over twenty years and was one of the strong pillars in building up the little, but progressive town. And his wife Eliza was one of the leaders in the community. They were a very earnest and prompt family. Henry was counselor to Bishop John Bushman over twenty-eight years, always faithful to duty."

Excerpt from George S. Tanner, Henry Martin Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer, 1964, pp 17-18. Some minor editing corrections made to the text.

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The picture of Henry and Eliza Tanner is from Elizabeth DeBrouwer, Sidney Tanner: His Ancestors and Descendants. Sidney Tanner Family Organization: Salt Lake City, 1982, p 434.

Samuel Walter Jarvis and Pearl Dean Taylor Jarvis

Samuel Walter Jarvis, fifth child of George and Ann Prior Jarvis, born in London, Middlesex, England, April 18th, 1854, married, first, Frances (Fanny) Godfrey DeFriez, December 4th, 1877, in the St. George Temple.

A sketch of the life of Samuel, and a complete record of this family and his descendants from his wife are to be found in Part II of this Book, in the "Joseph George DeFriez" section, commencing on page 66. [Found in the post Samuel Walter Jarvis and Frances Godfrey DeFriez Jarvis.]

Samuel Walter Jarvis married, second, in Poligamy [sic], which was then being practiced in the "Mormon" Church to some extent, Pearl Dean Taylor, daughter of Edwin E. and Alice Ann Taylor, Taylor. They were married quietly the fall of 1902, at Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and went to the Temple in St. George and had their Ceiling [sic] done there August 28, 1907. Pearl was born at Springerville, Apache County, Arizona, September 4th, 1881. She was a very nice looking young woman, well and gracefully built, of medium size and rather dark complexioned. After her marriage, she often went with her husband out on jobs, where she would have to live in crude conditions of camp life as it was in Mexico at that time, so that she did not enjoy the luxuries of a nice home, but helped him in his work of overseer on contracts building sections of the railroad, etc., by cooking and making a home for him at his camps. This he appreciated, as his first family was by this time too large to shift about, and leave an established home and a store which they had there, also livestock, and other interests that needed to be looked after.

When the people of Mexico had to leave because of the War, Samuel took his families to St. George where his relatives lived, but as soon as possible left there to find employment for himself and his boys, and by 1919, they were down near the border, hoping to be able to get back into Mexico, and get the use of some of the property they had left in the exodus. By this time, Pearl had six children, and had moved many times. She was in El Paso, Texas, when she took the "Flu," and became dangerously ill. Her husband was with her and sent (or took) her to a Hospital, where all possible was done for her. She had a baby boy born March 1st, 1919, that died the next day, and she lived until the 21st, and passed away. She was buried March 23rd, 1919, in Concordia Cemetery, El Paso, Texas.

Samuel was by this time, in failing health and quite discouraged. The next years were hard for both father and children. For a time the small ones lived with their father's first wife, Fanny, the older boys being able to get some work, and partly, at least, take care of themselves. It was trying on all concerned to have the two families together, and as soon as the father thought it was at all possible, he got a house and let the oldest daughter, Pearl, manage a home for their family. By this time she was between eleven and twelve years old, but she did very well, and the children were learning to take care of themselves. The father did not live very long. He passed away February 7th, 1923, at Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico, after several months illness. He was buried there.

Children:
Hyrum Taylor (1903, Mexico)
Edwin Walter (1906, Mexico)
Brigham Taylor (1908, Mexico)
Pearl (1910, Mexico)
Earnest Van Buren (1912, Utah)
Bessie Ann (1916, Texas)
Baby boy (1919, Texas)


From Margaret Godfrey Jarvis Overson. George Jarvis And Joseph George De Friez Genealogy. Mesa, Ariz: M.J. Overson, 1957, i: 69-71.

Samuel Walter Jarvis and Frances Godfrey DeFriez Jarvis

Frances (Fanny) Godfrey Defriez was born May 5th, 1859, in London, Middlesex, England, was the youngest daughter of Dr. Joseph George and Mary Anne Godfrey DeFriez. She was given the best education available, especially musical training, which only the well-to-do could afford. The family kept servants for their house-work, and Fanny had a private maid. These things were all changed when she came with her mother to Utah, and had to learn to do all the various things necessary for the early Pioneer Women. She was a sweet, charming young lady of eighteen years when they arrived in St. George, Utah, in the summer of 1877, and was soon sought and won by a "Dixey" [sic] boy, Samuel Walter Jarvis. They were married in the St. George Temple, December 4th, 1877.

In the spring of 1879 they started for Arizona in answer to a call made by Brigham Young just prior to his death, to help establish settlement in Arizona, along the Little Colorado River.

Fanny had to camp out and sleep in a wagon box while her husband and brother Charles got timbers to build their log houses in Snowflake, fence and prepare land, and put in crops, &c. She must have been very lonely at times, there being no one of her class or kin, except the pioneers in that vicinity who were also making a new home. Charles had left his wife and baby in St. George until he had a log house for them to occupy. Accordingly, as soon as possible, he returned to Utah for them, arriving in Snowflake November 22nd, 1879. In the meantime, Fanny had given birth to their first child, July 11th, 1879 in Snowflake, while among strangers. One other child, George, was born October 13th, 1881, in Snowflake.

The following spring of 1883, her husband and brother moved to Nutrioso, Apache County, Arizona, to make a home there. They each moved into a one-room log house with dirt floor and roof, but Sam soon had a two-room frame house up, and Charles put a small stock of merchandise in the room he had vacated, but not before another son had been born to Sam and Fanny.

Sam's next move was to Old Mexico, in the fall of 1885. Here, as the Poet expressed it "Nature had moved in first, a good long time, and had things already somewhat his own style." They had to clear the ground, before building brush shelters, then proceed to make rude houses to shelter them from rain and storms. Townsites were selected, farms and ditches located, land cleared and fenced, etc. No time to help the women-folk with their affairs. To prepare food for so many under such circumstances, to do the necessary washing and taking care of little children was a full job. These were hard conditions for all, but they made the best of what could be obtained and lived through the stage of want and poverty, and established themselves, gathered comforts. They had a good home, cattle, land and means, when they had to leave it all at the time of the Revolution in Mexico.

The conditions this dainty English maiden had to endure during her long life and pioneer experiences cannot be even guessed at by us now, who have every convenience and comfort of this time. She bore it all uncomplainingly, and was the mother of twelve children. Her daughter Frances died and left a baby girl which she raised. Her husband had another wife, who died and left six children. These she helped care for until the oldest girl was able to manage the family, making in all nineteen children she mothered. In addition, she had her own mother [Mary Ann Godfrey Defriez] who was totally blind, with her for the last fifteen years of her life, and cared for her most tenderly, seeing to it that she had every necessity and comfort that was possible under the circumstances. Fanny also helped her husband with his store business and learned to speak Spanish, so as to be able to take care of their many Mexican customers.

Needless to say, her life was a busy one, yet she had time withall to live with her children and impress upon them the lessons of life, love, industry, self-reliance, kindness, loyalty to God and their Religion, and each other, and the fundamentals of culture and refinement.

Her daughter Grace Jarvis Fenn gives the following description and tribute: ——

Somewhat under average height, a bit sturdily built, comely of features, grey eyes, medium brown hair, Mother was a queen among women, with manners that became Royalty; not given to much speech, yet possessing an unlimited vocabulary, her expressions were easy-flowing and couched in the best of correct English, with the London accent, musical to the listener. Born and reared in London, tutored in a private school, her cultural nature was without flaw. She seldom sang except for congregational, though her voice was sweet and true. Her touch on the piano or organ was unexcelled, with rhythm seldom acquired. Her character was beyond question, lavishly endowed with all the noble qualities and graces. She was honest, upright, trustworthy and filled with integrity to the Truth. Having embraced the Latter Day Saint's Faith at mature womanhood, she understood and practiced its principles. Businesslike and methodical in all she did, it was said of her, "She was at home in any company." Neat and extremely particular in personal appearance, she won the admiration and respect of all who knew her, and 'twas often said she looked like Queen Victoria.

Her ability in art was best expressed in her bouquets of natural looking wool flowers of many kinds and rich hues. Brought up in luxury, with household servants for all menial tasks, she was not reared in idleness, but required to use her time profitably and advantageously, and when her age permitted, was allowed to assist her mother as Postal Clerk in one of London's large division offices. Being trained somewhat in elocution, she often gave public readings, with dignity and ease.

Much time during her last years, after her husband's death, was spent among her children tho' she kept a home of her own. She was able to wait on herself until near the last, when her children were glad to do all that could be done, waiting upon her with all tenderness.

She never complained of her lot, but was always thankful for her many blessings. She rejoiced in the fact that she had heard and accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ in her native England, and had come to Utah; and her testimony of its truthfulness was faithful to the end. She passed away September 17th, 1933, at El Paso, Texas aged 74 years.

Children:
Samuel Walter (1879, Arizona)
George Josiah (1881, Arizona)
William Heber (1883, Arizona)
Frances (1885, Mexico)
Amelia (1887, Utah)
Grace (1888, Mexico)
Nephi (1890, Mexico)
Clementhina (1893, Mexico)
Lehi DeFriez (1895, Mexico)
Joseph DeFriez (1897, Mexico)
Benjamin Charles (1899, Mexico)
Mary Esther (1902, Mexico)


From Margaret Godfrey Jarvis Overson. George Jarvis And Joseph George De Friez Genealogy. Mesa, Ariz: M.J. Overson, 1957, ii:66-69.

Henry and Eliza Tanner's Trip to Arizona, Part 6

[The missionaries to the Arizona settlements had split up to travel through the arid areas of northern Arizona.]

On April 20th when they started they had not gone far when they discovered the animals of the Bushman party. They caught them and put two of them into their team which was badly needed. The rest of the animals were rounded up and driven loose by Henry Tanner while his wife drove the team.

Before night they reached the mountain and found all the members of the two parties who had preceded them.

"While in this valley our Brin ox died from eating some poisonous week, we thought. We now found it impossible to take the ox team farther as we only had one ox out of four left." [Quote from the Bushman diary?]

At this point, John Hunt exchanged five horned animals and his light wagon for a fresh team of horses. He also exchanged another span of weary horses for a fresh team and a saddle horse. It was later learned that this latter exchange of horses was made possible because the owner had slain his partner and wanted to get rid of the horses which might be used as evidence against him. "We now had fairly good teams and we left the San Francisco Valley [the Flagstaff area]."


Excerpt from George S. Tanner, Henry Martin Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer, 1964, p 17. Some minor editing corrections made to the text.

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Photo of the San Francisco Peaks from www.flickr.com/photos/7202153@N03/2640138819/.

John and Jessie Doman Springthorpe

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently working on the history of the Springthorpe family. I was going through my dad's scanned files and saw a picture of an aged pioneer-era couple. The back of the photo looked like this:


So I loaded it into Picasa (a free graphics program from Google) and played around with it and discovered this writing (with a lovely Nile green for the background):


That's clear enough to decipher the following:

John & Jessie Springthorpe [name misspelled, but I'm not going to try and figure out what the person wrote]
He was aunt Fannie Christensen's mother's brother.

And, here they are.


John Springthorpe (1824 or 27 Leicestershire, England – 1901 St. Johns, Arizona) and his wife Jessie Doman Springthorpe (1830 Leicestershire, England – 1902 St. Johns, Arizona).

Henry and Eliza Tanner's Trip to Arizona, Part 5

[Ed.—In this excerpt, the travelers are back in the Hualapai Valley, with some contradictory information. The book about Henry Martin Tanner is an unedited manuscript that was never formally published, so there are some inconsistencies that might have been edited out of a published book.]


Several of the Hunt girls have left accounts of the journey, based on diaries kept on the trip. It seems that the company was divided into three groups on account of the scarcity of water. Bushmans and Manasseh Blackburn [1852-1878] were in the lead, followed by the Westovers and their company and last were Hunts and Tanners.

The diary of May Hunt Larsen [1860-1943; she is mentioned in John Morgan's diary] gives a day by day account of the movements of the latter group.

In the Walaipi [Hualapai] Valley they rested their animals as the water and grass were fairly good. [Didn't he just say in the last post that there was no water in the Hualapai Valley?] "Here one of Henry's mares died of distemper."

At Fortoon Spring [can't find anything under this name or under "Fortune Spring"] an ox in the Hunt team gave out and had to be left. "There was very little grass here so we did not expect to see him again."

On April 7th they came to Young Springs where they noted "a great many Indians but very little water. There being only two little springs, had it not been for a ranch (Peach Springs) three miles off the road on the left, the animals would have suffered greatly for water. We unloaded our light wagon and took the barrels and everything that would hold water up to be filled. Here our old Broad, our trusty near wheel ox, got down on a rocky hill and could not get up so we sold him to the Indians to eat. This left only two oxen in the team and we had to work cows in the place of the dead oxen."


Excerpt from George S. Tanner, Henry Martin Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer, 1964, pp 16-17. Some minor editing corrections made to the text.

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Photo of "Lower Mesa near Young Springs" from the Wheeler Survey (1871) of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The collection is in the Smithsonian and is made available to the public by the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. Series: Geographic Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian. There are some very interesting photos in this collection of the arid borderlands in the Utah-Colorado-Arizona-New Mexico-Nevada area.

Henry and Eliza Tanner's Trip to Arizona, Part 4

On March 21, 1877, they left the river and started on their way. The trip from here to the San Francisco Peaks proved to be the most trying of the trip. Roads were bad and heavy and the animals grew weary. Water was scarce and uncertain.


View Larger Map
Hualapai Valley (approximately) to Hackberry to Fort Valley (Flagstaff)

To quote the Bushman diary, "From the river south, the roads were sandy and hard to go along. We had to make considerable roads which delayed us some. Water being so scarce, we divided the company. Came to Walaipi [Hualapai] Valley thirty miles long and ten miles wide, but no water.

"On Monday, April 2nd, came to Hackberry, a little mining camp. On the 3rd came to the old Beal[e] road that was used in 1852.* This road will take us past the San Francisco Mountains to the little settlements on the Little Colorado River. On April 13th, the first part of the company arrived at Fort Valley by the San Francisco Mountain. They remained there until April 20th when all the company came. All rested here until the 24th when they started for the Little Colorado."

*If you read the link about the Beale Road, it mentions that Lt. Edward Beale brought camels into Arizona to aid in the construction of this road. Syrian Hadji Ali (Hi Jolly) and the 77 camels of the U.S. Camel Corps are remembered to this day. The road was constructed in the late 1850s, though, not 1852.

Excerpt from George S. Tanner, Henry Martin Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer, 1964, p 16. Some minor editing corrections made to the text.

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Henry and Eliza Tanner's Trip to Arizona, Part 3

Another highlight of the crossing was the swimming of Mag, one of the white mares of the Tanner team. She was a marvelous swimmer and carried herself high in the water. One could ride her across a stream and scarcely get wet. [Ed.—Although that may have been the case with most streams in Arizona, whether or not you were riding Mag!] She was hitched to the boat which carried the supplies and furnished much of the motive power. She is reported to have made seven round trips in one day for this purpose.

A near tragedy occurred during the crossing when [Edwin] Lycurgus Westover [1845-1877] who was not as experienced a horseman as Henry and some of the others was swept from his horse into the fast moving waters. But being a fairly strong swimmer, he managed to cheat the river and make it to shore.

After the successful crossing, Mr. Pearce offered to take them for a moonlight ride in the ferry. One of the Hunt girls had a guitar and played very well. It was reported that Mr. Pearce was so carried away by the feminine company and the entrancing music that he almost let the boat go into the rapids which would have resulted in serious consequences.


Excerpts from George S. Tanner, Henry Martin Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer, 1964, pp 15-16. Some minor editing corrections made to the text.

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Photo of the Colorado River downstream from the Hoover Dam from www.flickr.com/photos/sovietuk/28236646/.

Henry and Eliza Tanner's trip to Arizona, Part 2

Some distance out from St. George, the company was joined by John Bushman and his second wife, Mary Peterson, and daughter Lois. They had previously arranged to travel together to Arizona. They were also joined by Edwin Lycurgus Westover and wife Joanna and two small children and Joanna Westover's father.

Speaking of the road to the river, John Bushman in his diary says, "This road was very bad, dugways for miles, very hilly and water scarce. This is a new road from St. George to the Pearce Ferry on the Big Colorado River. On Monday, March 19th, we reached the Ferry and found Father Pearce very glad to see us."

What is a dugway?
A road or trail carved into a cliff or steep slope. The Dictionary of the American West defines "dugway" as "a road or trail going through a high land form which is dug out of the land form or excavated into the land form or excavated into the land form to provide a path for transport." It is also described as a path scraped out of a steep hillside allowing cattle and wagons to travel the hillside. (www.frankstehno.com; Outdoor Terminology)

Two days were used in getting the wagons and animals across the river. The wagons were ferried across without mishap but the livestock presented a difficult problem. The animals refused to swim the broad river and there was no other way to get them across. Henry was a skilled horseman and used to handling stock and it was his job to get the animals across.

After scores of attempts which met with failure, the company was about to despair. He related that on the second day after many failures, an old Indian came into camp and asked for food. While he was being fed, he noticed the men trying to get the animals to swim the river.

One of the women noticed that the Indian showed a great deal of interest in the ferry operation. It came to her that this Indian had had experience in crossing the river with animals and she mentioned the fact to one of the men. By the use of sign language, he was asked if he knew how to get the animals across. He said that he did and was asked to help. But he wanted to be paid. After some bargaining, he settled for a small sack of flour which he tied on the saddle of his horse. He then went down to the river and motioned for the men to drive all the animals into the edge of the water. At the right moment when all the animals were up to their bellies in the water, the Indian, who by this time had taken off what few clothes he had and was covered only with an Indian blanket, seized the top corners of the blanket in his hands and began flapping the blanket and letting out war whoops.

The animals, now more frightened of the Indian than the river, quickly took to the water and headed for the other side. The last animal to take to the water was an old, lazy mule. As he was getting out of his depth, the Indian threw his blanket to one of the men, seized the tail of the old mule and let him pull him across the river. When the mule saw the Indian on his tail he was so frightened that it is reported he made a new record in crossing the river.



Excerpts from George S. Tanner, Henry Martin Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer, 1964, pp 14-15. Some minor editing corrections made to the text.

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Photo of the Colorado River from www.flickr.com/photos/7202153@N03/483251259/. Picture of the Mokee Dugway from www.flickr.com/photos/jeroen020/73315908/.

Henry and Eliza Tanner's trip to Arizona, Part 1

Henry M. Tanner and Eliza Ellen Parkinson were married January 25, 1877, in the St. George Temple. He was twenty-four and she nineteen. Henry had already received his call to go to Arizona as one of the colonists. They had little more than a month after their marriage to get ready for the journey....

At the time of their marriage, [her father] Thomas Parkinson gave Eliza a milch cow named Red. She was taken to Arizona with other cattle but she was always a little special. George Parkinson, Eliza's brother, says that Eliza included in the news from Arizona items about Red and her calves along with information about the birth of children....

In preparation for their departure, [Henry's father] Sidney Tanner gave a reception and farewell for the young couple in the upstairs of his ample home. In addition to the friends in Beaver who attended were the members of the Hunt family who were also going to Arizona. For the past year the Hunts had been living on Cove Creek two and a half miles from Joseph City, Sevier County, Utah. The Hunts had eight children, the oldest of whom was but one year younger than Eliza Tanner. They had three wagons of their own, one drawn by two yoke of oxen, one by two span of horses and a light wagon with one span of horses. The oxen were driven by a young man anxious for a bit of adventure by the name of Isadore Wilson. He was a neighbor of the Hunts. John Hunt drove the four horse team and two of the girls drove the light wagon. Also in the Hunt company was a four mule team owned by Manasseh Blackburn, also anxious for the adventure of the trip. His wagon carried mostly heavy supplies belonging to the Hunts.

Before leaving Beaver, Thomas Parkinson had mixed a large quantity of flour with soda and probably cream of tarter so that all that was necessary in making bread [biscuits?] was to add salt and water. The company left Beaver February 21, 1877, accompanied by Father Sidney Tanner who went one day's journey with them and hauled feed for their animals. Enroute to St. George, Henry and Eliza went by way of Toquerville for a few days visit with relatives. Emma Ellen Stapley, cousin of Eliza, was at that time a girl of fifteen. Perhaps she little dreamed that ten years later she would be going to Arizona too....

This party of pioneers did not go by way of Lee's Ferry as the earlier settlers had done. John Hunt and Henry Tanner had been asked to explore a better crossing of the Big Colorado River at Pearce's Ferry below the Grand Canyon. As early as 1862, this crossing had been used by Jacob Hamblin, but not until December, 1876, was regular service established by Harrison Pearce, father of James Pearce, later a pioneer in Taylor, Arizona. The ferry was located at Grand Wash, just a few miles east of the Nevada line. The location is now submerged in Lake Mead. Whatever advantage this crossing was thought to have, evidently did not prove to be and it was not used again by the Arizona settlers.


Excerpts from George S. Tanner, Henry Martin Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer, 1964, pp 13-14. Some minor editing corrections made to the text.


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Picture of Lake Mead from www.flickr.com/photos/wouterkiel/3442561279/.