Native Pioneer 1857

Cyntha Ann Shurtliff was the second of seven children born to Luman Andrus Shurtliff and Melissa Adeline Shurtliff, July 6, 1857, in Ogden, Utah. Melissa Adeline was the daughter of Elisha Shurtliff, uncle of Luman and Synthia Ann Noble Shurtliff Bent.

Luman Andrus Shurtliff and Melissa Adeline were married at Winter Quarters, Nauvoo, Illinois, January 26, 1848, by Brigham Young, with Orson Pratt and George Smith as witnesses.

Luman A. was well acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and his family. He was on a mission at the time of the martyrdom and was called home...went through incidents of expulsion... called to stay at camp and teach school and care for camp, so was not a pioneer of 1847. They came across the plains in 1851.

Luman A. Shurtliff settled in Ogden, Weber County, Utah, He taught school and wrote for local papers. He moved south on move to Provo and went to Echo Canyon to meet Johnston's Army. In 1863 he was called to Harrisville, Utah, to be the Presiding Elder of the L.D.S. Ward, which then comprised Farr West and Harrisville. He filled five missions and had four sons go on missions. One son, Lewis W. Shurtliff, went on the Salmon River mission.

Cynthia's mother, Melissa, was president of the Relief Society in Harrisville for twenty years. She gleaned wheat, fought grasshoppers, and felt the pangs of hunger. When her parents went to Illinois from Massachusetts they were well to do and so aided in building the temple there.

Cynthia was about six years old when they moved to Harrisville. They had good schools in winter, but the school seasons were short on account of farming. When she was fifteen years old she was called as-a teacher in Sunday School. At sixteen she attended school in Ogden and learned the millinery trade.

In 1875 Sister Eliza R. Snow and others came out and organized "a Young Ladies Society." Cynthia was made first counselor.

On November 5, 1876, she was married to Willard Bingham, Jr. After his death, she sold the farm and bought a one-acre lot and small frame house, which was later moved to 2054 Ogden Avenue. There she lived the rest of her life.

She was always active in the church organizations. She was Relief Society counselor and visiting teacher in the Third Ward until the ward was divided, then her home was in the Fourth Ward. There she served as Sunday School teacher of the Parents Class, Religion Class teacher, visiting teacher of Relief Society, and served on the Old Folks Committee for many years. She was a charter member of Kamp K, Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

She worked hard to raise her little family of four. She did housework and washings and later worked as milliner in a small store on Grant Avenue, where they treated the straw and made ladies hats. She trimmed hats for the Lyons Millinery Store for many years,

She made lovely hats from wire frames, covered with chiffon all pleated on by hand. She knitted lovely sweaters and scarves and lace for pillow slips, etc., also crocheting and the very finest of tatting all her life until her eyes grew dim,

Her children attended the school at Garland, a district between Wilson and West Weber. Later my mother, Melissa Genet Bingham attended the Weber Academy which was a grade school, then to Smith's Business College. Later she taught in the Garland school.

Loretta Ann Bingham learned dressmaking; Lella Veretta worked for the Shupe Williams Candy Company, and Willard S. Bingham worked with Hyrum Pingree in the Ogden Furniture and Carpet Company.

Cynthia's aim in life was to teach her children the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to set a good example to them. She worked in two temples and tried to do her duty at all times. She was always prayerful.

She died December 29, 1939 at her home in Ogden at the age of eighty-two.

Written and read by Leah S. Taylor,

a granddaughter, from research and memory.

Camp K, North Weber County Company,

March 23, 1961