A Matrilineal Chart for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! For the occasion, here is a chart of matrilineal descent, with pictures where possible. I have joked before that my matrilineal line goes straight back to Scotland, and that's where I got all my qualities of frugality and thrift. (This post is originally from May 2011, here updated and republished.)

My mother with her mother, Beverly Lucille Glade Wessman (1924–2008). Grandmother Beverly was a friendly and hospitable woman and enjoyed spending time with her large extended family.

Beverly's mother was Lucy Lucile Green Glade (1898–1980). She lived in Salt Lake City her entire life and liked to travel during her long widowhood.

Lucile's mother was Mary Isabell Pettit Green (1866–1905). We have a copy of her charming diary from when she was dating her husband. She died from complications of childbirth, and left several young children.

Mary's mother was Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit (1845–1922). She liked to tell the story that when she was a teenager she was so sick that the doctor told her she would never have children. She had fourteen, plus her three step-children.

Rebecca's mother was Isabella Hood Hill (1821–1847). She was born and married in Canada, and died as a young mother and Mormon refugee at Winter Quarters, near today's Omaha, Nebraska.

Isabella's mother was Margaret Bisland Hood (1791–1856). Born in Glasgow, Scotland, she and her husband emigrated to Canada in 1820 with the Lanark Society Settlers.

Margaret's mother was Agnes Pollack Bisland or Bilsland (1762–1842) of Glasgow, Scotland. Agnes's mother may have been Jean Glass Pollack, and her mother may have been Marjorie Geddes Glass, but there does not appear to be any comprehensive and reliable research on these families.

The picture of Rebecca Hill Pettit is from FamilySearch, courtesy of Sharon Wilbur. The next picture is from a family collection and is said to be Isabella Hood Hill and is historically possible, but the exact source of the attribution and any knowledge of the existence of the original has been lost to time. The picture from the gate of the Winter Quarters Pioneer Cemetery where Isabella Hood Hill is buried is from Flickr, courtesy of Dan McLean. The picture of Margaret Hood's gravestone in Creemore Union Cemetery, Simcoe, Norfolk, Ontario, is from FindAGrave, courtesy of Jan Darby. The photo of the Glasgow Cathedral is from Pixabay. 

Notable Relatives: Mitt Romney

This is a very occasional series about notable descendants of some of the people featured on this blog.

Willard Mitt Romney, currently slated to become the presidential nominee for the Republican Party in the 2012 general election, is a descendant of Archibald Newell Hill and his first wife, Isabella Hood Hill. Archibald and Isabella were Scots living in Canada when they met two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Samuel Lake and James Standing. The Hill family joined the Church and set out for Nauvoo and then started west with the Saints. Isabella died at Winter Quarters. Archibald set off across the plains and his sisters took his three small children, Samuel, Hannah, and Rebecca, to the Salt Lake Valley. Archibald later remarried (several times) and had a large family.

Standing, left to right: Archibald Newell Hill, Samuel Hood Hill. Seated, left to right: Hannah Hood Hill Romney, Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit.

I have wondered a time or two if it could have ever crossed the mind of Archibald and Isabella as they left Scotland, and then as they left Canada for the United States that theirs would be an integral part of the American dream: immigrants leaving old Europe and establishing a home in America and having their descendants become doctors and lawyers and professors and governors and even a possible president of the United States.

Romney's descendancy is:

Archibald and Isabella Hill

Hannah Hood Hill Romney

Gaskell Romney

George Wilcken Romney

Willard Mitt Romney

Our line is:

Archibald and Isabella Hill

Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit

Mary Isabell Pettit Green

Lucile Green Glade

Beverly Glade Wessman

This means that Grandma Beverly was a third cousin to the current candidate.

I personally find this relation only mildly interesting since Romney, being descended as he is from Archibald Hill, Miles Romney, Parley P. Pratt, Charles Wilcken, and others (see my Brief Guide to Mitt Romney's Polygamous Heritage) probably has many tens of thousands of cousins in the Church today, and it's neither rare nor novel to be related to him.

Note: I have extensive materials about Archibald and Isabella Hill and their families. They lived fascinating and complicated lives, but for a variety of reasons I will probably not get around to blogging about them until next year.

Hannah Hill Romney Album: Sisters

Archibald and Isabella Hood Hill had two daughters, Hannah and Rebecca. Here are pictures of the two of them. The first was sent by Pettit cousin Cheryl and shows Rebecca Hill Pettit with her husband Edwin Pettit.

This picture of Hannah with five children was sent by Sharon Wilbur and Christy Madsen to help with the identification of the pictures in this project.

Here is a picture from the Hannah Hill Romney Album. 

When I first saw this picture, I thought it was Hannah, but I looked at it again and think it is probably Rebecca. Here are some close-ups.

Rebecca Hill Pettit.

Picture from album.

Hannah Hill Romney.

Hannah Hill Romney. From Orson Pratt Brown website.

What do you think? I just looked at a web page on facial recognition technology. Facial recognition software evidently creates a "faceprint" using several criteria:

• Distance between the eyes
• Width of the nose
• Depth of the eye sockets
• The shape of the cheekbones
• The length of the jaw line ("How Facial Recognition Systems Work," howstuffworks.com)

Based on those guidelines, the first two pictures look like the best match, and I conclude this is Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit.

And to add to the data, the following picture was identified as Rebecca Hill Pettit. Could it be Hannah? It looks like her, but the girl does not look like the picture of Hannah's daughter Isabell at that age. It does look like Rebecca's daughter, Mary, so I conclude that this is also Rebecca Hill Pettit, as previously identified.

As always, please contact me if you have questions or comments or positive identifications or other pictures of these people. Leave a comment or send an email to the address listed in the sidebar.

Another Guest Post: Eminent Women: Isabell Romney Platt and Charlotte von Schiller

The next post in the Eminent Women series is about Isabell Hill Romney Platt. Isabell was the daughter of Miles Park Romney and Hannah Hood Hill Romney.

Hannah Hood Hill Romney was the sister of Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit. The two sisters were close their entire lives and despite great distances, they were able to spend a good amount of time with each other. After Hannah left Mexico, she lived with Rebecca a couple of times. I wish we had their correspondence!

Isabell Hill Romney Platt was named after her grandmother, Isabell(a) Hood Hill. To connect her to our family line, Isabell was the first cousin of Mary Isabell Pettit Green. Isabell Romney Platt's children were second cousins to our great-grandmother, Lucile Green Glade.

And I'm sure by now everyone is dying to know, during this curious election season, how all these people are connected to the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

Miles Park Romney was a polygamist. He had five wives and thirty children. His first wife was Hannah Hood Hill. Isabell Hill Romney was Miles and Hannah's first child, born while Miles was in England on a mission. One of Isabell's younger brothers, Gaskell, also a son of Hannah Hill Romney, is Mitt Romney's grandfather. This makes Mitt Romney a third cousin of grandma Beverly. (And now you know.)

So, head over to Keepapitchinin to read about Isabell Hill Romney Platt, and the woman whose temple work she did.

Hand-colored Picture of Edwin and Rebecca Hill Pettit

Pettit cousin Cheryl S. sent a copy of a picture of Edwin and Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit. The image was hand-colored, perhaps by the photographer, perhaps by someone else working in the studio.

My younger daughter was particularly impressed by Rebecca's jewelry, including her earrings, and with the color of Edwin's eyes. How much have the colors changed since the original work was done? How much have all those greens changed? Were Edwin's eyes really lavender?

Here is an interesting article about hand-colored images, including some notes about preservation. (Editor's note: the article recommends self-preservation of some images, but expert advice is appropriate in many cases.)

Thanks, Cheryl! What an amazing picture!

Notable Relatives: Mildred Tanner Pettit

Next in the Notable Relatives series is the composer Mildred Tanner Pettit.

Laura Mildred Tanner was a great granddaughter of John Tanner and Elizabeth Beswick Tanner. In 1921 she married William Alfred Pettit, the son of Edwin Pettit and Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit.

Mildred Tanner Pettit's short biography in Our Latter-Day Hymns mentions that she taught school for several years before marrying William Pettit when he finished medical school.

After some time in Salt Lake City, where she served on the Primary General Board and was heavily involved in musical programs for that organization, she and her husband left for Philadelphia. While there she was able to get advanced musical training. After about a year, Will and Mildred moved to Southern California, where they spent the rest of their lives. She was very active in the community, as noted in her obituary, recently added to the memorial site FindAGrave.

Will served as president of the Pasadena Stake. He wrote the book Pettit Peregrinations, which contains a wealth of information about the Edwin and Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit family.

Mildred continued to be very involved in composing church music. Here are some posts about some of her music. ("Christmas Carol") ("The Holy Child") ("Visiting a Primary Meeting, 1933") (Recordings of some of her lesser-known tunes here.)

In a story that's been frequently told, Naomi Randall wrote the words for the children's song "I Am a Child of God," and sent them to Pasadena to have Mildred Pettit write the music.

I will include a post later about a visit with Will and Mildred Pettit written one of my great aunts.

Here is a recording of the song which is known and loved by many members of the Church around the world.

Picture of Mildred Tanner Pettit from Friend, October 1984, p. 14.

A Note About the Picture of a Young Rebecca Hill Pettit

Yesterday the post from Mary Isabell Pettit's diary included a picture sent by Pettit cousin Sharon Wilbur that was identified as Rebecca Hill Pettit and included an unidentified child. 

I had never seen the picture before and it is always a pleasure to see new photographs, especially when the only idea you have of a person is at a certain age, which is particularly the case for Rebecca Pettit, since all the pictures I'd seen show her at a distinguished middle age:

The facial features are very alike on the portraits, so I will assume that the family identification of the younger photo as Rebecca Pettit is correct.

And, for purposes of identification, the person who scanned the photograph was very kind to include the photographer's mark.

Savage & Ottinger was a Utah business run by two notable Utah artists, photographer Charles R. Savage (1832-1909) and artist George M. Ottinger (1833-1917).

 

This article from the American Phrenological Journal, New York, May 1868, mentions a number of their business concerns but most particularly the line of business we are interested in:

Besides supplying the "Saints" and the "Gentiles" with the best literature of the Old World and the New, they produce good pictures—we may safely say some of the best we have ever seen. Portraits of the "saints" and "sinners"—are not all sinners?—"we reckon"—Indians, pictures of trees, mountains, water-falls—real river waterfalls, not the sort we see in the opera or on Broadway—and some of the most sublime scenery in the world.

The gallery and bookstore, between the post office and Council House in downtown Salt Lake City, opened in December 1863. The partnership lasted until 1872.

It is quite likely, therefore, that the picture of Rebecca was taken between 1863 and 1872, which would put her between the age of 18 and 27.

Rebecca married Edwin Pettit in October 1864, so the picture was probably taken after this date since her only sister, Hannah Hood Hill, was three years older and married to Miles Park Romney by the time the photograph studio opened, and since the child in the photo is not a sister, she is more likely to be a stepdaughter or daughter.

There are two likely possibilities. First, the child in the photo could be Rebecca's stepdaughter Alice Maria Pettit, who was three years old when Rebecca married Edwin, and was eleven years old when Savage and Ottinger ended their partnership.

Mary Pettit Green

Second, the child could be Rebecca's oldest daughter Mary Isabell, the diary writer. She was born in 1866 and would have been six years old when the Savage and Ottinger partnership ended. Edwin and Rebecca had three other children during this time period. Clara Anna Hill Pettit was born in 1868 but died at the age of 16 months in 1869. Emeline was born in 1870 and although she was just barely the right age to show up in the image if it was taken as late as 1872, probably would have been photographed together with her older sister Mary. Edwin Pettit, Jr., was born in 1872.

The photograph could be more closely dated by an expert in Utah photography, but without having that done, the choices are that this is a photograph of Rebecca and Alice, or that this is a photograph of Rebecca and Mary.

My best guess is that this picture was taken after Clara died, and shows Rebecca and Mary. But it could also be taken shortly after her marriage and be a picture of Rebecca with Alice. What's your best guess? Anyone know for sure?

For more information on the photographers, see Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn. Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2000.

Some Notes about the Edwin and Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit Family

Edwin Pettit and grandchildren.

When I looked up Alice Pettit online after the mention of her in Mary Pettit's diary, it quickly became clear that many of the online family trees for the Edwin Pettit family are inaccurate at best.

There is a good source for information on the Pettit family. It is the book:

Pettit, William Alfred. Pettit Peregrinations, 654 to 1961. Provo, Utah: J. Grant Stevenson, 1963.

The book was written by Edwin and Rebecca Hill Pettit's youngest son Will Pettit, and includes a wealth of family information. You can purchase a copy here.

Although I will not put the entire family tree here with documentation, here are some basic facts.

First, Edwin Pettit did not have a middle name. His middle name was not Alfred. Alfred was his older brother. (See photograph below.)

Second, Edwin Pettit did not marry a woman named Elizabeth Sparks. He did not have children in Texas.

Edwin Pettit was born on February 16, 1834, in Hempstead, Queens, Long Island, New York. Hempstead is now in Nassau County, but at the time it was in Queens County, and for genealogical purposes, vital facts should be listed with the locations as they were at the time of the event, so Hempstead should be listed in Queens.

Edwin's parents were Jesse and Mary Pettit Pettit. His father and mother were first cousins, both grandchildren of Increase and Martha Eldert Pettit. The family was of English and Dutch origin and many ancestors had been among the early European settlers of North America.

The Pettit family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1840 and moved to join the Saints in Lee County, Iowa, across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo, Illinois. There, Jesse and Mary died in 1842. Edwin and his sister Mary Pettit Seeley went with the Saints to Utah. Edwin's oldest sister Emaline Pettit Carman was married and had remained in Hempstead, Long Island. Edwin's brothers remained in the Midwest.

Edwin, William, and Alfred Pettit.

Edwin went to California in the Gold Rush, then again to California with the San Bernardino settlers. He returned to Utah in 1857. His autobiography can be found starting here.

Edwin Pettit married Maria Pettit Bush, his second cousin, in 1860. She had been married previously to Richard Bush and had two living children, Richard Nelson Bush and John Pettit Bush. A daughter, Ellen Elmira Bush, had died before her first birthday. 

Edwin and Maria had a daughter, Alice Maria, born in 1861. 

Maria Pettit died in 1863.

Edwin Pettit married Rebecca Hood Hill in 1864.

These are their children with spouses listed in parenthesis: 

• Mary Isabell (Henry Green)
• Clara Hannah (died at age 1)
• Emeline (Foster Jones)
• Edwin Jr. (Sarah Louise Weichert)
• Lillian (Benjamin Birkinshaw)
• Daisy (Cassius Cummings)
• Florence (died as infant)
• Nellie (Thomas Morton)
• Fannie Rebecca (died unmarried at age 27)
• Archibald (Genevieve Johnson)
• Elsie (Victor Rue McKnight)
• Jesse Raymond (Phyllis Clayton)
• Winifred (Bertram Reeves)
• William Alfred (Mildred Tanner)

Edwin and Rebecca Pettit.

Rebecca and Edwin died in Salt Lake City, Rebecca on September 17, 1922, and Edwin on April 17, 1924.

I will not provide examples of the erroneous files regarding Edwin Pettit and his families, but there are plenty, and they should be corrected or removed by the people who put them online. I will also note that I have seen files regarding the colonial ancestors of the Pettits that have truly egregious and easily correctable errors. The purpose of doing genealogy, especially when putting it online, is not to copy large sets of data from whatever family trees are available in whatever source, but to collect and publish correct, documented information.

Historical picture of Hempstead from Atlas of Long Island, New York (Beers, 1873) as found at http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1527304. Pictures of Edwin and grandchildren, Edwin and Rebecca, and Edwin and his two brothers sent by Sharon Wilbur. Images of family Bible are from user katy02 from Ancestry.com.

Henry Green: 1891 to 1905

Harry was ordained an elder on December 6, 1891. Three days later, on December 9, 1891, he and his dear sweetheart, May, were sealed together for time and eternity. Since the Salt Lake Temple was not yet completed, they traveled to Logan to have the ordinance performed. At the time, he was 24 and she was a year older. Her parents honored them with a wedding reception on Friday, December 11, at their home.

On New Year’s Eve, three weeks later, he wrote, “I ever feel thankful to God, my Heavenly Father, for his goodness in permitting me to take one of His chosen daughters through the Temple and make us one through His servants laboring in the Temple. I sincerely believe that I have got one of the best of that noble sex. And to repay for what I have, I hope to be kind, honest, upright and above all others virtuous unto thee. The loss of mother has been my extreme sorrow—the gain of thee my wife has been my extreme happiness.… Had I dreamed such happiness awaited me in the old country, I should have thought it impossible to have it realized. I can look back to the time I left the old homestead and see the wonderful hand of God’s tender mercy towards me from that time to this. How he has watched over me and answered my prayers in our behalf. Truly has it been with me four years of unbroken happiness. But could I have realized or experienced the past four weeks previously I would not change and live over again the four years for the four weeks, would it be possible to do so.”

Harry, Will, Lucile and Leone Green.

For the next few years, they lived in his mother’s home at 443 West 8th South. Harry’s brother, Albert, lived with them for a while; he was a trial at times for May. A son was born to them on September 20, 1892, William Edwin, followed by another son on September 4, 1894, Harry Melvin. From a program which they saved, we can surmise that they attended the Salt Lake Temple dedicatory services on April 14, 1893.

Their family grew as two daughters were born: Mary Leone (June 5, 1896), and Lucy Lucille (April 14, 1898). A third arrived on October 1, 1899, Ethel Rebecca, but lived only a year, dying in infancy of spinal meningitis. Mary kept very busy with her small children. Like all of the Pettits, she was very frugal. When she died she had saved $300 without her husband’s knowledge. She was a very hard worker and a meticulous housekeeper. Leone, her daughter, remembers her always scrubbing. Her father, Edwin, often came and talked to her, standing in the doorway as she scrubbed the floor.

Mary wore dark skirts with tight-fitting peplum tops, usually coupled with an apron. The Pettit girls were remembered as being stylish and well-dressed. All were excellent housekeepers and great seamstresses. When they got together, which was often, they laughed and joked. They were close as sisters and even took trips together. In 1904, Mary went to San Francisco where her sisters were working as seamstresses. She took Leone along, partly because she was hard to manage and no one wanted to tend her. Lucille wasn’t old enough to go, and jealously said that the reason was that her feet hurt her. Mary also visited her half-sister, Alice, in Tooele. When she was away, Harry wrote how much he missed her.

 

Harry and May enjoyed the out-of-doors. They took many outings up Big Cottonwood Canyon with their children. Harry fished and May put up the chokecherries that they gathered. They homesteaded on some property a mile above Storm Mountain. During part of the year they paid a man, Mr. McNut, to stay on it for them; he later got the property. One summer around 1903, Leone fell off when walking on a bridge across the stream and almost drowned. Luckily, she was plucked out 75 feet downstream.

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition or 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

In 1904, the parents went to the World’s Fair in St. Louis. They had good times together and were still very much in love.

 

 Mary Isabell Pettit Green.

A great tragedy came into Harry’s life the next year. On April 1, 1905, Mary, at age thirty-eight, died in childbirth. She had been busy putting up curtains and changing things around the house in preparation for the arrival of the baby, supposedly in June, when suddenly labor started. Mary was rushed to the new LDS Hospital, where the 2-month premature baby, the umbilical cord around her neck, was born. She was later named Mildred and had the distinction of being the very first baby to be born in that hospital. Harry went back home after being told they were all right. Shortly thereafter, he was called back and by the time he reached the hospital, Mary had passed away. She died of a hemorrhage. The family felt that the doctor was incompetent and negligent. [He may have been, but Mary's brother, William Pettit, later a medical doctor, noted that she had placenta previa, which is difficult to treat even today.] The funeral was held in the 30th Ward. Lucille and Leone remember riding in a black surrey, waving to school friends alongside the road, and later picking up the baby in the hospital on the way home from the cemetery. They also remember their mother telling them as she left to go to the hospital to be good children and not to quarrel.

Henry Green with baby Mildred and Will, Harry, Leone, and Lucile.

Rebecca Pettit, Mary’s mother, raised Mildred until she was twelve and also helped take care of the other children. It was hard on her to see the inefficient housekeepers who were hired. At times her sister, Hannah Romney helped out because they were in such need. The children disliked one housekeeper named Miss Turner. When their father told them later he was going to marry a Miss Turner, they were dismayed. It turned out to be another Miss Turner from Morgan. Harry had often gone on fishing trips to Morgan with his children. His good friend, Sam Francis whom he knew as a missionary in England, lived there. Sam’s sister, May, had a friend named Eliza Christina Turner, whom Harry became acquainted with. Lucille remembers Eliza coming over to visit her when she was sick one Sunday at the Francis’s. Harry courted Eliza, in spite of her sisters who thought it was a big mistake.

Grandmother Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit.

To be continued... 


Photo of the Logan Temple from www.flickr.com/photos/jamiedfw/4054175759/. Photo of the chokecherries from www.flickr.com/photos/86953562@N00/237179619/. Picture of the Exposition from Wikipedia.

Edwin Pettit Autobiography, Part 9

On one occasion, when returning from the coast, I met two men who were on their way to California for freight, and we camped together at Cain Springs on the Santa Clara River. I was very well acquainted with both of them. On returning their journey they were riding at the head of their train. When they had gone quite a distance ahead of their train, some Indians who were traveling along with them, after pretending to be friendly, shot them both in the back with arrows. This happened out on the desert. One of them was killed there and the other was taken into San Bernardino and died from his wounds. I have since seen the grave where one of them was buried. Thus ended the lives of two brave men.

One evening we turned our mules out to graze for a short time preparatory for a journey across the desert. As they strayed away, one of the boys followed to bring them back, and while doing this two Indians ran into the herd and shot four mules. I heard him holler and jumped up on the front of the wagon box to see what the trouble was. I saw the mules running, and I called to the other boys as I grabbed my revolver and ran to help this fellow. We could not catch one of the mules to ride on or we could have got the Indians, as we saw them run up into the hills. The owner of the mules declared vengeance, as we knew that the Indians would follow us to get the meat of the dead animals. The four mules died the following morning, as they had been shot with poisoned arrows. The man wanted to remain and get the Indians when they came up for the meat, but being tired and sleepy they gave up that idea for fear that they would get too far behind the train on the desert and would suffer for water. On this same trip we got snowed in the canyons, and it was necessary for the men to break the trail before the wagons and mules could be taken through the snow.

On leaving San Bernardino, when the trouble there arose between the Mormons and the government, those who were not of our faith were afraid the Mormons would try to smuggle ammunition back into Salt Lake with them. The marshal of San Bernardino [1] asked me to accompany him in a light spring wagon, into the canyon to carry ammunition and firearms to deliver to those who were coming to Salt Lake. Why he should have selected me for this errand was somewhat of a mystery to me, as I was rather young for such an undertaking. This, of course, was not strictly in accordance with the law at the time, but we were anxious to assist our friends who were returning to Salt Lake.

On one occasion, while traveling with a man and his wife with their family of eight children, we were snowbound, with teams that had given out. We were without wood, water or grass, and night coming on. We could see in the distance some small pine trees. My companion took an axe on his shoulder and I followed him with a yoke of oxen to get some wood. We took it back to camp, scraped the snow away; made a fire; boiled a kettle of potatoes and sat on the wagon tongue to eat them. It seemed to me I never ate a better meal. That night our horses ran away and left us, being driven by the storm for twenty miles. I followed them and brought them back. This was extremely risky as there was great danger in being lost in the snow storm.

On October 29, 1864, I married Rebecca Hood Hill, daughter of Archibald N. and Isabella Hood Hill. [2] We settled in the Fourteenth Ward of Salt Lake City, where we lived for about eight years. We then moved to the present location. We have had a family of ten girls and four boys.

In 1882 I made a trip to California on a visit to see some of my old friends. In 1905 I, in company with my wife and four of my daughters, visited Southern California, spending about six weeks in seeing some of the familiar places so dear to me and visiting with my former friends. I was invited to address the Pioneer Society (of which I am a member) in San Bernardino.

After forty-two years I visited my native home in Long Island, and found there many of my old acquaintances and relatives.

I have enjoyed the West. Have seen it under every condition, from the comparatively early days, and traversed it for the mere love of recreation. I finally settled in Salt Lake and made my home in the Fourteenth Ward for a short time, later moving to the present location, where I have spent the last forty years. I have crossed the desert between here and Los Angeles seventeen times by team and three times by rail. I am not only a Pioneer of 1847, but also of 1851, being one of those who went to fill the first mission in California.

FINIS

[1] The San Bernardino Police Officers Association Website lists the early marshals of San Bernardino (1853-1905) as Bud Rollins, Stewart Wall (1836-), George Mattheson, Frank Kerfoot, Charles Landers, Mark Thomas, John C. Ralphs, L. Van Dorin, Joseph Bright, Hughes Thomas, David Wixom, William Reeves, John Henderson, Ben Souther, and Walter A. Shay. The marshal in 1857 would probably have been one of the first of those listed.

[2] Edwin Pettit was married first to Maria Pettit. Note from Edwin and Rebecca's son William Pettit, Sr.: On February 27, 1861, his first child was born; a girl who received the name of Alice Maria Pettit. The mother, Maria Pettit, died on May 20, 1863 when Alice was a few days less than twenty-seven months old.

This left Father with a home and three children, two boys and a baby girl, to care for. His business took him away from home a great part of the time. Richard Bush, born August 2, 1850, was thirteen years old and John P. Bush, born September 9, 1856, was seven years old when their mother died. This was a great responsibility and undoubtedly a great worry for a man twenty-nine years old who had never been tied down to a home life until he was twenty-six years old.

Father always attended Church when he was near a Mormon Church. I remember going to Church with him when I had to hold on to his hand and he would help me partake of the Sacrament. Living in the Fourteenth Ward he undoubtedly participated in the Ward activities.

Sources

Pettit, Edwin. “Biography of Edwin Pettit: 1834-1912,” in Pettit Peregrinations: 654 to 1961 by William A. Pettit, Sr. Pasadena: privately printed, 1961; reprint, Salt Lake City: privately printed, 1988.

Pettit, William A., Sr. Pettit Peregrinations.

Family pictures from "A Picture Book," author unknown.