George Jarvis Files the Claim to His City Lot

As I mentioned, I'm reading the Washington County Probate Court Records. While waiting for some other scanned pages to save to my thumb drive yesterday evening, I scrolled ahead in the microfilm and saw this item. All the townspeople had to file claim to their lots with the government. George Jarvis did so on June 5, 1871.

The record notes:

George Jarvis, Sworn, Says, he drew Lot number Six (6) in Block Number Two (2), official map, plat A, From the City, ten years ago. 

Was the first man who moved with his family on the City plot after the lots were given out. Has resided on said lot No. Six, Block Two, with his family ever Since.

Here's a bit of the Pioneer Map of St. George showing the Jarvis lot, situated as it is partway between the Tabernacle and the Temple. The Jarvis home is, of course, no longer there.

Each block was 32 rods square, and each lot was 8x16 rods, or 132 ft x 264 ft, equalling .8 acres per lot. The blocks were separated by streets 90 feet wide.

Here is a picture of the Jarvis home in St. George. There was previously a porch, and the traces of it can still be seen. It looks like it was a small brick or adobe house with a lean-to on the right. The family surrounded the home with vegetable and flower gardens and trees.

And here is a picture of old St. George. The Tabernacle is in the bottom center.

Sources

"Jarvis Home in St. George, Porch Removed," as found at George and Ann Prior Jarvis Family Website, courtesy of Ellen Raye.

Miller, Albert E., J. B. Ireland, Nicholas G. Morgan, et al., "Pioneer Map City of St. George, Washington County–Utah." Salt Lake City, Utah: n.d. As found at George and Ann Prior Jarvis Family Website.

"St. George, Utah," as found in Margaret Godfrey Jarvis Overson. George Jarvis and Joseph George De Friez Genealogy. Mesa, Arizona: M. J. Overson, 1957.

Washington County, Utah Probate Court Records, FHL Film 484838, Book B, 253-254.

Guest Posting Today: “Lives of Ancestors All Remind Us”: Family History Books

Today's effort to get over this month-long wheezy cold and get back on track with all my projects is a guest post at Keepapitchinin:

“Lives of Ancestors All Remind Us”: Family History Books

The title is a reference to an anonymous little poem found in Will Pettit's Pettit Peregrinations:

Lives of ancestors all remind us,
We leave pictures to our kin,
And departing leave behind us,
Relatives who point and grin.

The post is about the resources available through FamilySearch's amazing collection, Family History Books.

New School Year Starts ... Projects Resume

With the children in school, it's time to get back to work. Right now my top projects are:

The Eminent Women of the St. George Temple

The Eminent Women project is very busy right now. I'm processing dozens of family histories from the kind ladies at the Washington County DUP and will also start reading the Washington County court records as soon as the microfilms reach my regional Family History Center. The current women are:

• Caroline Blake Hardy / Jane Mary Nugent Burke
• Elizabeth Reeves Liston / Dolley Payne Todd Madison
• Sarah Leaver Lewis Griffin / Anne Isabella Milbanke, Baroness Byron
• Catherine Donald Rankin Pymm / Abigail Smith Adams

Perhaps someday I'll keep a record, but I would guess that I spend at least 40 or 50 hours on each biography.

I will not post any more biographies until after I read the court records, because I hope that they will solve some mysteries about some of the upcoming women.

A short biography of Rose Ellen "Ella" Bywater Valentine

This is a chapter for an ongoing series of biographies of Mormon women. Ella Bywater Valentine was the first woman dentist in Utah and the head of the Relief Society in the Swiss-German Mission, where she had accompanied her husband who served twice as mission president in the German-speaking countries. She left a charming memoir. I have been in touch with several of her cousins, but have had difficulty contacting any of the few descendants of her two adopted children to get permission to use a picture.

Additional Projects

• I'm rewriting the Wikipedia article on HLHS, since it's pretty bad. I've already fixed a thing or two, but it needs extensive work. I'm currently working on the second section, "Causes," reading articles and books on the subject and reviewing the latest medical studies.
• I have another project in mind that I won't mention now, since I'm trying to decide how much time and energy to devote to it.
• Current projects at TheAncestorFiles include posting David Nathan Thomas's history, the history of the Southern States Mission, and Swedish family research. I also need to survey my father's amazing genealogical collection that's sitting behind my computer on a hard drive, and post as much content as I can.
• Every now and then I do a little work on the history of the black slaves and former slaves and slaveholding families of Utah Territory.
• And then there are the other things: family and church responsibilities, home renovation and maintenance projects, etc. I mention these last but they really take up most of my time and energy.

Life's busy, and it's good, but there are many, many things to do, and not quite enough time to do them all. In other words, I won't be posting too much here until I get caught up on the Eminent Women and Valentine projects, but eventually I'll finish the current backlog and resume posting more material.