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Thomas Bingham Sr.

HISTORY OF THOMAS BINGHAM SR. and THOMAS BINGHAM JR.

Given to his granddaughter, Margaret Dudley, by Thomas Bingham Jr.

Transcribed by descendant Loren Whitney c 2002 from BYU Special Collections

My father, Thomas Bingham Sr., fourth child of Erastus and Lucinda Gates Bingham, was born in the 19th of July 1824 at Littleton, Grafton County, New Hampshire. He was a member of a family of ten, seven boys and three girls; their names beginning with the oldest; Mary, Sanford, Erastus, Thomas, Lucinda, Louisa Maria, Willard, Edwin, Jacob and Brigham Heber. Jacob died when about two years old.

All of father's brothers and sisters joined the church. All but Lucinda came to Utah. Lucinda married a non-Mormon by the name of Lorin B. Hastings. They moved to Porttownsman, Washington. As far as known none of their children ever joined the church. Lorin Hastings wanted father to go to Washington with him; he offered to pay his way, also set him up in business. Father said, "No! I am going with the saint." (They were at La Harpe, Illinois at that time.)

In 1830 Father's parents moved from New Hampshire to Concord, Vermont. Here in 1833 they first heard the gospel and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Father was baptized in 1836.

While living in Far West the mob surrounded the town and would not let anyone come in or go out. At this time Grandfather (Erastus Bingham) was out of town on business. Returning home he met a man who had been turned back by the mob. Grandfather said, "Let me borrow your gun. I am going to my family." When he came to the guard, they turned and walked off, then grandfather went through unmolested.

The Mormons were driven from Far West in 1837. Grandfather's family and many others were forced to leave their hard-earned homes by a cruel, revengeful mob. From the latter place he went into the state of Illinois and settled at La Harpe. There his father rented a farm.

Father helped on the farm. He went to work in the first grain that was ripe. At the age of 15 he was able to rake and bind, keeping up with the cradler, thus getting a cradler's wage.

In 1844 when father was 20, he went down on the Mississippi river to help chop timber. Here he took the Ague and Fever. After recovering from the fever, his body was left in a weakened condition.

In the fall of 1845 the family moved to the city of Nauvoo. Father helped with the building of the Nauvoo temple. He was present at the first meeting held in that building, Sunday, October 5, 1845. On account of a default in the flooring it settled a little and caused quite a jar in the building. For a few minutes there was a stampeed among the people. In their endeavor to get out of the building, some get trampled on. One man who was near a window jumped out and broke his arm. The men on the stand, realizing the cause, spoke to the people telling them it was only the floor settling, thus quieting the people; then they continued with the meeting.

Father received his endowments in the Nauvoo Temple before the saints were driven out.

The saints were preparing to start West when the United States Government called for 500 men to go help fight Mexico. On the 15th of July, 1846 father was out hunting cattle. When he returned home that evening, he was told by Uncle Erastus Bingham that the United States officers had been there to get men to help fight Mexico. Father said, "That means me." He and Uncle Erastus enlisted July 16th. They were among the first to enlist under Colonel James Allen.

The battalion organized into companies at Winter Quarters. They began the march, arriving at Fort Leavenworth August 1st, 1846. At this Fort they received their camp equipment and arms. Captain Allen being sick instructed the companies to go on and he would overtake them later. On the 13th three companies started on. Father was in one of these companies.

Captain James Allen died at Fort Leavenworth on August 23, 1846. He was liked among the men. Allen had said that if anything happened to him the first officer in command was to take his place. Jefferson Hunt was to have taken Allen's place but A. J. Smith was sent by U. S. officers to take charge of the battalion to Santa Fe, Mexico.

On Sept. 11th the battalion arrived at the Arkansas river. The last crossing of the Arkansas was reached on the 16th and here the commanding officer insisted that most of the families, about 12 or 15 in number, which had accompanied the battalion, should be detached and set under guard of 10 men up the Arkansas to Pueblo.

The exposure and having to walk brought on the Ague again. Then father asked for the privilege of driving a wagon with three yolk of cattle. Pine tar was used for axle grease. This tar made the wheels so stiff that some mornings the wheels were locked. Father put bacon grease with the pine tar to soften the tar. This loosened the wheels making the wagon easier to pull. His wagon then pulled so easy that father was able to give up one of his cattle, leaving two yolk to pull the wagon. He drove this team to Santa Fe.

All the men who were able had to walk. At times some of the men becoming tired, sat down by the side of the road. Father would let them ride. Often he had so many in the wagon that the men quarreled like little children. If father saw the officers coming, he would tell them to be quiet or the officers would make them get out and walk.

On October 3rd, the battalion was divided into two divisions, the first containing the strong and able bodied men; these arrived October 9th. The second, consisting of the sick, and the women, arrived in Santa Fe October 12th.

At Santa Fe the officers in command held a meeting. They decided to send the sick men and most of the women back to Pueblo. Uncle Erastus was in this company of eighty-six men and several women that left under command of Captain James Brown. It was understood that the invalid men with their escorts, the women and children would have the privilege of continuing their journey to the west at government expense.

On October 19th, the battalion left Santa Fe for California under command of Captain St. George Coke. Lieutenant A. J. Smith became acting commissary. From Santa Fe father had to walk, the team which he had driven had been sent back with the sick detachment.

On the journey the men suffered much on account of fatigue, excessive marches, and short rations.

Father hired a Mexican boy to go with him so he could ride the boy's pony to the top of Touse Mountain. This mountain was very thickly timbered and the snow was about one feet deep. When they had traveled at a distance up the mountain they came to a level bench which the boy said was the top. This bench, however, proved to be only about half way up the mountain. They walked till father and another man gave out.

Job Whitney carried a pile of wood, built a fire, then he went on intending to get some mules and come back for the two men. When Whitney reached camp at the foot of the mountain, the men told him that it was too steep and slippery for the mules to climb the mountain, besides they would not let him have any mules to try. Whitney not being very strong, often having chills and fever, had to content himself and wait till morning.

The two men scraped the snow away; then they broke pine boughs to put under the blankets. They arranged it so that the wind would blow the blaze over their bed. With their two blankets, on under and the other over, the two men fared as best they could that extremely cold night. Before morning they ran out of wood. The men went a short distance from the fire and found a dry log. Father said if he had been well he could have shouldered the log himself, but it was all they could do to get it to the fire and even then they had to stop and rest several times.

The next morning some Spaniards told Mr. Whitney that a well man could not live on that mountain during such a night, let alone a sick man. Mr. Whitney finally persuaded two or three men to go back with him. Having no shovel, they took an ax to cut boughs to cover the men as every one expected to find them dead. Their surprise was great when they met father and his companion coming down the mountain side. They had endured that memorable night with only a biscuit for supper and nothing for breakfast. Many a night it would be ten or eleven o'clock before father reached camp. Whitney usually stayed with him; if he felt chills and fever coming on he'd hurry to camp to get something hot to drink, then he'd return to meet father. Whenever Whitney met father he was whistling. One evening Whitney said, "You beat anyone I ever knew. I believe if you were going to die, you would be whistling."

The battalion had gone one hundred miles southwest from Santa Fe when the sick in camp were ordered back to Pueblo on the Arkansas river. Father was sent back with this second detachment of 55 men. Lieutenant W. W. Willis was in command.

They started back on the 10th of November, 1846. A few able bodies men were sent back to care for the sick. One of the brothers was chosen to go back, but he preferred going on with his brother. Elijah Norman Freeman asked to go in his stead. (Elijah Norman Freeman, who had married father's oldest sister, Mary, wished to go back to care for his brother-in-law, but of course he did not tell this to the commanding officer.)

The able bodied men were required to help push the wagon up the hills. Pushing the wagons made the men sweat and when they reached the top a cold breeze struck them. Freeman and Richard Carter caught a cold, mountain fever settled in. Freeman lived about five days and died on November 28th. Richard Carter died the same day. They were buried four miles south of Secora Rio Grand.

At one time Lieutenant Willis was helping father mount his horse. He said, "Why man! you'll never reach home alive." Father thought to himself, "Darn you, I'll outlive you." A few years later the lieutenant died.

After much suffering from the hardships from the journey-weak teams, scant supplies of food, illy clad, general sickness among the men, the fall of December snows in the mountain ranges north of Santa Fe, excessive cold, and several deaths; this detachment finally arrived in Pueblo on the 20th of December, 1846. They were warmly received by members of the first detachment who had arrived in Pueblo on November 17th. All told, about one hundred and fifty members of the battalion were now at Pueblo.

One evening while at Pueblo when the men were sitting around the campfire, Gib Hunt came into the camp where father and Uncle Erastus were. Uncle Erastus had left the group that Hunt had charge of, and joined father's. When he asked Hunt for his portion of the rations, Hunt acted indifferent and sassy. He said, "I'll give you your rations when I get ready." This made Uncle Erastus angry and he said, "I'll not be afraid of any Hunt that God ever made." He had no more said this when Hunt jumped through the fire and started to knock at Uncle Erastus. They had a few rounds when some of the men parted the two. Hunt said, "You may come and get your rations." At Pueblo on the opposite side of the river the Mississippi Company were camped. John Holladay and family were in this company. It was here that father met Caron H. Holladay who later became his wife.

The sick detachment under Captain James Brown and the Mississippi Company left Pueblo May 24th, following the trail of the pioneers. They entered Salt Lake Valley on the 29th of July five days after the arrival of the first pioneers. To the wife of one of the members of the battalion, Mrs. Catherine Campbell Steele, wife of John Steele, August 9th 1947, was born the first white child, young Elizabeth Steele.

Grandfather Erastus Bingham Sr. and family didn't arrive in the valley until September 19, 1847. This was grandmother's fiftieth birthday.

In the spring of '48 or '49 Uncle Sanford and his brothers took a herd of dry cattle into the canyon south of Salt Lake and west of Jordan. The canyon was named Bingham Canyon after the Bingham Brothers.

John Holloday and family settled south of Salt Lake City at a place which is now called Holladay. On the 6th of Sept. 1849 father married to Caron Happoch Holladay, daughter of John Holladay and Katherine Higgins Holloday. They were married by President Brigham Young in Salt Lake.

Father and his wife moved to Ogden in the fall of '49. They took up a farm there, which farm in 1850 was laid off in the city of Ogden. At this time the farm house was on 7th street south, which street is now called 27th street.

 

GREAT GRANDFATHER'S HISTORY WILL BE CONTINUED WITH GRANDFATHER'S

 

I was born August 12th, 1850 at Ogden, in a one room leg house at the foot of a hill near a spring east of Washington Avenue.

March 24th, 1851 a company of saints for Southern California was organized for traveling at Payson, Utah and commencing the journey the same day under the presidency of Apostle Amsa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich accompanied by Parley P. Pratt and a party of missionaries going to different countries to preach the gospel.

Father and the Holladay family were called to go on this mission and help start a settlement. We arrived in San Bernadine, California, June 1st. 1851. Father assisted in the building of the settlement of San Bernadino. He worked in the mountains most of the time sawing lumber and making shingles.

I can remember attending the funeral of my Aunt Kaziah Holladay Boyle, wife of Henry G. Boyle. I was then between 3 and 4 years old.

My sister, Mary, was born September 18, 1852 at San Bernadino. My second sister Lucinda Katherine, was born the 3rd of Nov. 1854 at the same place.

Father and family left California April 18, 1855. Twenty-seven were in the company which started back to Salt Lake Valley. We arrived there in the middle of May. Father purchased a farm at Bingham's Fort afterwards called Lynn. Father lived at this place till the spring of '56.

On March 2, 1856 father was called on a mission to Fort Supply on the Salmon River. He moved his family to Ogden the 1st of April, renting a house close to where I was born.

Father and Baily Lake started on their mission April 18th, joining the company at Hot Springs north of Ogden. When they came to Snake River in Idaho they had to make a raft to take their wagons and some of their cattle over.

This is from father's diary: "This day (May 15, 1856) we traveled 12 miles over a very rough road and reached Fort Limhi about 3 o'clock p.m. where we found the brethren in good spirits and glad to see us. I felt that we had been blessed of the Lord on our journey and to return him thanks for the same."

In a few days father and the men ploughed and planted wheat.

In June the grasshoppers came and destroyed most of the grain. The men fought the grasshoppers by digging trenches. Finally the remaining insects left, going south. By watering the grain, a portion of it was saved. This was harvested in the fall. During the summer the men built a fort by digging a trench about 3 feet deep, standing 12 feet logs up straight, and filling up the trenches. This fort was a protection against the Indians. That summer father also helped to build a flour mill.

There seemed to be a discontented feeling among the men. Quarreling and fault finding seemed to be their delight. Therefore, President Thomas S. Smith called a meeting on fast day.

From father's diary:

"Fast meeting commenced at 9 o'clock and lasted until candle light. The president was not satisfied with the spirit and thought it best to continue fasting until we obtained a better spirit. We met at candlelight for prayer meeting. We had a first rate meeting and a good spirit was manifested. The president thought that we had better all be rebaptized so he appointed half past nine the next Sunday for administration of the ordinance. The 9th was a pleasant morning. At 10 o'clock we repaired at the water for baptism and renewed our covenance and were baptized. A good spirit prevailed. In the evening we had a meeting and were confirmed."

November 10th, 1857 father and a company started to Ogden arriving in Ogden the latter part of the month.

In can remember the evening when father arrived. Mother had heard that father was coming so we went to the top of the hill to watch. As it was dark we were unable to see far but mother heard him speak to the team . Mother said, "That's father."

Father stayed home during the winter and hauled fir wood. He traded for flour and supplies for the coming summer. In the sprint, father built an adobie one room house for mother. He planted a garden then returned to Salmon River.

He went to work assisting the brethren in putting in a crop. One day while plowing father was holding the plow which was pulled by four yoke of oxen, they came to a swampy place, the plow went down, breaking the handles off. Brother Perry Green Taylor who put the handles in said, "Let me hold the plow, I believe I can keep it from going in."

Father said, "All right, I'll drive the team." When they came to the soft boggy place father whipped the team. Down went the plow, breaking the handles again.

Father labored there during the summer helping put in the crop and gathered the crops in the fall. Father stayed at Salmon River the winter of '57 and '58. In February 1858 George McBride and James Miller were killed near Fort Limhi, Idaho. While these men were out gathering in the stock they were killed by the Indians.

The latter part of March a company of 10 men were sent from Fort Limhi to notify President Young regarding the trouble with the Indians. This company was in charge of George Hill, and the Indian interpreter. Baldwin H. Watts, Bailey Lake and father were in this company. While traveling near Bannock Creek the men saw something on the hill near the road ahead. Looking through the spy glass they saw it was an Indian. This Indian made a fire which brought other Indians. When the company went to pass the Indians commenced to shoot. While the company were crossing the stream an Indian shot, killing Bailey Lake, who fell off his horse just as he was coming out of the stream. Father was driving the pack horses. As the horses would not go into the stream at all father called for help. Baldwin Watts came back. Then the men went up stream a short distance, then jumped off their horses, and hid under the bank behind some brush. The Indians shot one of the horses.

Father said to the captain, "If you will allow me, I'll take a whip and make the horses come down the bank." Brother Hill said, "Go and you shan't be hurt." Father took the whip and made the horses go down the bank. Just as this happened, one of the Indians went down the creek above them and set fire to the grass which caused smoke to come down over them.

The pack animals being loose and hungry, fed away from the company. The Indians came down and drove the pack animals up onto the hill right in sight of the company. Then they unpacked the horses and sat on the hill eating provisions.

The smoke was coming right down to where father and the men were, If the smoke continued the men would be driven from their hiding place. George Hill said, "Let's pray that the Lord may change the wind." In a few minutes the wind changed, the fire burned down the creek and went out. The men waited till dark before they rode on. The Indians having the pack horses and Bailey Lake's horse, it was necessary for one man to walk. The man took turns. The company didn't have any food except a little flour one man happened to have tied on his saddle and a few crackers that father had.

The men had traveled all day and part of the night, and again in the morning. At ten o'clock the company arrived at the Calls Fort, a settlement north of Brigham City. The people had left this fort and gone south. They found a few potatoes in a cellar. They cooked and ate these, then traveled on to Brigham City where they got a good meal. The company arrived in Ogden late that evening.

A messenger was sent to Salt Lake City to notify Brigham Young of the trouble with the Indians at Fort Limhi. Brigham Young called a company of about 100 men to go to Fort Limhi to help protect the brethren. When the company arrived at Bannock Creek they discovered the body of Bailey Lake. The Indians had stripped him of all his clothing and shot a number of arrows into his body.

As the people were moving south father moved his family and four children down to Payson field northwest from Payson. Father left his family and returned to Ogden to help take care of the crops that the men had put in that spring.

After the troops sent by the Government came to Salt Lake City, they were told by Brigham Young that they couldn't step within 50 miles of the city. The soldiers camped in Cedar Valley. They named their camp, Camp Loyd. After the soldiers were located, the company of saints, which mother was with, returned to their homes going west of Utah Lake, right by Camp Floyd, crossing the Jordan River at Lehi.

In the fall of '59 Father took his family and went down to Santaquin to see my mother's folks, the Holladays, who had come from California that summer. The Holladay's had sold some of father's property in San Bernadino and bought father a pair of mules. These mules came in very handy as father had no team at the time.

We returned with the mules to Ogden. When Uncle Willard saw the mules he wanted them as pay for a house and lot, which father had bought from him in the spring of '59. Later father traded a saddle pony to a company of emigrants that were going through to Oregon, for two yoke of oxen, yokes and chain.

In the spring of '60 father and I went into the north end of Ogden Valley. Here father found a nice grove of yellow pine. He built a shingle mill and cut shingles that summer. This was my first experience away from home. I was all right as long as father was at the mill. Father hurt his hand which laid him up for about three weeks. He left me at the mill with two other men. I soon got lonesome. One morning after a team that had come after shingles had left the boy and I decided to go home so we struck out. We soon caught up with the team.

At this time there were only two families living in the north end of Ogden Valley, John Riddley and Campbell. In July Surveyor David Jinkens and others came to the valley to survey.

Father and Issac McKay who was an uncle of David O. McKay and Printis Burt went with the surveyor and took up claims. Soon after a company of saints came into the valley and settled on the South Fork of Ogden River. Captain Jefferson Hunt, a captain of the Mormon Battalion had charge of the company, and when Huntsville was located the town was named for Hunt. Hunt was the first presiding elder.

The first of March, 1861 father and I went into Ogden Valley with an ox team. The snow was to and on-half to three feet deep. Father bought some hay from a man by the name of Hackshaw. We broke the road for about two miles taking the hay with us over on South Fork making a camp by putting up sticks in the shape of a tent then covering these with hay.

We went to cutting down poles. I had a small ax, which I used when I went with father, I soon got so I cold cut 50 poles a day. We hauled the poles over to the farm and made a larger tent. Father fastened three poles together, stood them up; then leaned the other poles around, thus forming a tent.

We returned to Ogden through a pass at the north end of the valley and down by Ogden hold (now North Ogden) as there was no road up Ogden Canyon.

In the spring of '61 father went up over the mountain east of Ogden City into a place now called the basin at the head of Wheeler Creek and found nice timber which would make shingles. In June father moved mother up into the basin. The shingles made that summer were made mostly of quaken asp.

Father went to Ogden for supplies and left Kalip Hartley to cut poles with which to make a corral. The man rode his pony up to the grove about a mile away. The first tree he cut scared the horse, the horse broke loose and returned to the house. Mother seeing the horse and some one in the distance wondered if it was an Indian.

She told me to get on the horse and ride up and have Kalip come right down. When I got to the place Kalip was ready to fall another tree. I was told to get off and hold the horse. As the tree fell the horse jerked away from me and ran back to the house. I told Kalip that mother wanted him to come down to the house. He said wait until I trim this tree. When we didn't return as soon as mother expected, she thought the Indians had killed us. Being afraid that the Indians would come and kill the children, she bundled them up and was ready to start down the canyon when she saw us coming.

In June father moved the family up to the shingle mill. A few days later father had to return to Ogden to get supplies. He took me with him to bring the spade back which he had used to help make a forn across the river. After father had finished the ford I started home. Going up the hollow where the grass was about waist high on each side of the road I looked up and saw a bear. I didn't know what to do. Father had crossed the river so I couldn't go back to him and I daresn't go up by the bear. The thought came to me, "I cane go back down the road aways and go around the hill, then come into the road above the bear."

Just as I was ready to start he raised his head, flopped his wings and away he went. I saw it was nothing but a sand hill crane. My how I did climb that hill.

The creek where we had the shingle mill went dry. Father had to move his family up about two miles west to a spring. One day at noon after father had lain down to rest, mother took the bucket to go to the spring to get some water. She saw a little brown bear. Immediately she called father. He jumped up, grabbed his gun. Charles A. Nye also took his gun and followed father. Father came within fifty yards of the bear, dropped down on his knee and shot. Nye shot at the same time and the bear fell. That was our first bear meat.

One day a bear came right close to the house. We had a couple of pigs that were laying down by a quaken asp. The bear would look at the pigs, then climb up the tree and act as if he would like to spring on the pigs. Kalip Hartley shot at the bear but missed him. The shot woke the dog. The dog barked at the bear. Mother called the dog away and the bear came down the tree and ran away before Kalip could re-load the gun.

Father cut shingles all that summer, then late in the fall he moved the family back to Ogden. We lived on the bench between 3rd and 4th street which would now be 23rd east and West and 24th street. I went to school that winter walking about seven blocks.

My sister, Phoebe, was born on the 4th of June, 1862. When she was about three weeks old father moved the family up in the basin to the shingle mill. We had to go around up by the north end of Ogden valley because the road was washed out in places up Ogden Canyon. The water being very high that spring the bridge had been washed out so we had to cross the river in a ferry boat at Farrs Grover.

Father took his family to Huntsville and left them there while he moved another family by the name of Enock Growell and his wife, Mary, who had father rent some cows so that she could make butter and cheese. After we had them moved up into the bason father moved mother up there also.

That fall father moved his family down to Huntsville. Father and Clinton D. Brunson were chosen as councilors to Elder Jefferson Hunt, all three were members of the Mormon Battalion. I went to the district school that winter. Our schools then were common schools reading, writing, arithmetic and spelling were taught. Every Friday afternoon we would choose up and have a spelling bee.

We had from two and one-half to three feet of snow. We used sleights during winter. In the spring the last of March and first of April, the snow was crusted so we could walk on top.

In the spring of '63 father gave a man by the name of Ed. Rushton [I think that's an 'R'! It's hard to see. - LEW] a yoke of cattle to bring him two stoves from St. Lewis - one for mother and one from grandmother Bingham. Father moved the family up into the basin the latter part of May. We moved up to the upper place. That spring father hired a carpenter, Franklin Cummins and John Gould. They put in a over-shot wheel to run the shingle mill. The water to an overshor wheel is brought in a flume and comes down a chute and stikes over the wheel. The force and weight of the water turns the wheel.

In July I went down to Huntsville to help Uncle Willard put up the hay. I stayed there about two weeks, then I got so homesick I couldn't eat. Uncle said I'd better go home so I struck out on foot and went back to the shingle mill.

One afternoon father told me to go and look for an ox that was lame. My sisters, Mary, Katies, and brother, David, went with me. We went up on the west side of a flat that was about a quarter of a mile across. Father went upon the east side of the same flat to cut timber. When he got to the upper end of the flat, he saw what he thought to be a bear. Mary, Katie, and David started for the house. When they turned and started to run the big black dog which father thought was the bear started to run after them. I stood still, looking to see where the bear was.

A few days later the men that were working for father rolled a log down the mountain. The log struck one fo the oxen and broke its leg. They had to kill it. They skinned the ox and hung the quarters up in a tree. One night a big bear came down and ate quite a bit of the meat. The next day father fixed a scaffle near where the carcus lay in the tree. Just at dusk he took his gun and went up on the scaffle thinking the bear would come and he would have a chance to shoot him. Just at dark he heard the bear come into the opening where the carcass lay. The bear stopped and looked up at the scaffle. In place of going out to the carcass he turned and went around to the back of the scaffle. Father had to change his position on the scaffle. Moving scared the bear and it gave a snort and away he ran and didn't return that night.

A few days after that at noon the bear came again and started to come down to the corral. The bear ran through some small brush and stood upon his hind feet. Father shot at the bear but missed him. He reloaded his gun, it being a musle loader, and started to follow the bear. He could hear the bear but could not see him till he had followed for about a mile, he came into an opening just as the bear was going out. The bear saw father and started toward him. The bear come sideways his hair standing on end, that making himself look like a big hog coming to war. Father raised his gun. He thought he would let the bear come within 10 feet so he could be sure to hit him. Father began to think his gun not might go off as the caps he was using were not sure. The thought came to father that maybe he could scare him. The bear got within 20 steps of father. Father gave him a gib whistle. The bear turned and soon disappeared. Father turned and went home.

When I was bout fifteen father had a number of men working at the shingle mill. He sent a man by the name of Walker to cut a new road through the brush to some trees he wanted to get for shingles. While he was working close to a large pine tree an old Grizzly bear came out after him. He dropped his ax and ran as hard as he could. The bear followed him some distance then turned and went back under the tree again. It seems the bear had chosen this place by the roots of the tree for his winter home. Walker didn't walk but he ran as hard as he could for the shingle house. When he got to the house he was out of breath and he couldn't tell us what the matter was for sometime. He finally told us there was a bear up where he was working. Three or four of us returned with him, and old hunter by the name of Hildreth went also.

When we got up close to where Walker said the bear was the dog ran in under the tree. The bear came out after the dog right toward us. We all climed the tree, in a hurry. The old hunter who had his gun said he could see the bear through the trees. We called the dog back and told Kildreth to shoot. At the report of the gun the bear made an awful bellow. We sent the dog after the bear again but the bear made no noise or moved as we could see. The dog seemed to be pulling at the bear.

We climbed down out of the tree. The old hunter walked up cautiously with his loaded gun. The old man said there he is in there laying perfectly still. I said go in and pull him out but the hunter said, "No, you go!" Charles A. Nye and I went in and pulled the bear out. The bear had been shot right through the heart.

We took a chain, put it around the bear's neck, hitched the chain behind the cart and took the bear down to the house. The bear was so poor that he wasn't worth skinning. We measured his head from the point of his nose to the top of his head, it was 16 inches long. His foot was ten or eleven inches long. He made the biggest track of any bear I had seen in the basin. We were satisfied that he was the same bear father had followed and tried to kill a year or two before.

In the summer father worked in the mountains making shingles then he would move the family to Huntsville in the winter, so the children could go to school. The schools were held in the winter about six months and for a number of years we had only one teacher. I think it was the same winter Mary and I attended the dancing school conducted by Heber McBride.

When I was about 17 they called on the young men to enlist in a training school to prepare them to be soldiers. David McKay, father of the Apostle David O. McKay, was our major and head officer. I was chosen as sergeant. We would come together one or two nights a week and practice drills in the old school house. During the summer of '67 we were called to a training camp in Weber County. We made our camp about 10 miles norther of Ogden near the point of the mountain. We did lots of drilling and marching during the day.

At night we would put out guards. No one was allowed to come in or go out without giving the counter sign. I went out one night to take new men out and release those already on guard. Whenever we came near a guard he would say, "Who comes there?" We would say sergeant with release guard. He would say, "give the counter sign." I replied, "all is well." He said, "March forward and present arms." Then one man would drop in and the man on guard dropped out then on around till we had made the complete change. We had a merry time when not on duty, jumping, running races, pitching horseshoes and wrestling. After five days we returned home. The men who enlisted were not given a pension because they were not called by the U.S. Government.

Early in the spring of 1868 three men were called from Huntsville, George Aldows, Frank Hammond, and I, were called to drive ox teams back to the northfalt terminus of the U.P. Railroad to bring the saints that were coming that were from the east that season. We left Ogden about the 17th of June. We were in company of John Gillespie, we traveled up through Weber Valley, through Echo Canyon. We saw the pile of rocks that were piled on timber on top of a ledge of rock to let loose on the Johnston Army if need be. The water was very high ant that spring and we had to ford the streams. We arrived at Green River at Robinson' Ferry on the Sweet Water routs, on the afternoon of the 26th of June.

We learned that six boys had been drowned the day before while crossing on the ferry boat. Two yoke of cattle that were on the boat had crowded to the upper side of the boat which caused the boat to dep water. The boat went down over the men's heads which caused the ropes not to break. Then the boat came to the top. Some of the boys got on the boat, others grabbed onto the oxen thus drowning the oxen, then they had to find their own way to shore. Six of the men were drowned. There names were: Niels Christofferson and Peter Smith of Manti; Peter Nielson of Fairview, Chris Jensen and Chris Nebellar of Mount Pleasant and Thomas Yeates of Millville, Cache Valley.

They hadn't got the rope stretched across yet when we arrived. Six of eight men got on the boat and tried to row across but they couldn't make it and had to come back. Next morning a number of men got on the boat and rowed up the sore as far as the rope would let them, then they started to row across keeping headed upstream by the time they were down to shore the rope was stretched across they threw a rope to a man on the other shore. He then pulled them to shore. We worked hard all day in driving the cattle across, driving them out and making them swim across.

One of the men in the train in which the boys were drowned composed some verses about the boys. Frank Hammond happened to be in their camp and here's the verses read. He borrowed them and copied them. I learned the words and used to sing the song. I have never had them copied but I believe I can repeat them all now.

Tune: Just Before the Battle Mother.

We the boys of Sanpete County In obedience to the call Started out with forty wagons To bring the pilgrims in the fall. Without fear or thought of danger Lightly on our way we sped Every heart with joy abounding Captain Seeley at our head.

2 O'ver the hills and by the fountains Through the mud and through the dust Slowly climbing the loft mountains Far below the snow white crust. With the sun to the West descending Glad to welcome closing day By some stream or gushing fountain To refresh all night we'd stay.

3 When we reached Green River Ferry Upon its banks all night we stayed Next morning ferried our wagons over Hoping soon to row again. Next to drive our cattle over But we found they would not swim Though the boys were in the water Many hours up to their chin.

4 Thus they stayed from morn to evening In the most severe cold But water and the labor brought them low Though they were bold. And the might winds were blowing All the day and night before And the rushing waves were rolling Drove the cattle back to shore.

5 As the boat was passing over The water in the boat did pour The captain cried boys we're going under We shall see our friends no more. Down they went and broke the tackling Then on board they could not stay An the mighty rushing waters Swept them down without delay. 6 Some to oxen's hornes were clinging Till with them it was all o'er Boys an callt all went under N'er again to step on shore. Some to planks and slabs were clinging Down the swelling tide did float Some by heaven seemed protected Drifted to shore upon the boat.

7 One had landed on an island Clinging to the willows green But with him life was extinguished Backwards fell into the stream There were twenty boys in number I added these That went down upon the wave four lines Six of them now are slumbering) Beneath a cold and watery grave.)

These six boys from parents driven And from friends whom they did love Yet we hope again to meet them In a better world above. O accomplish the great mission (This can be used We were sent to fill below as chorus) To lift our parents, wives and children Across the dreary plains to go.

After we had crossed Green River we took the Sweet Water route, crossing Little Sandy and Big Sandy and over the South Pass traveling late the evening of the third of July to reach the three crossings of Sweet Water. We were late in getting supper. One of the boys having a watch said, "'Boys, this is the Fourth of July. Let's celebrate.'" We all got our revolvers and guns and discharged them one after another. Captain Seeley's train was camped on Sweet Water about a mile from us. Hearing the report of our guns they thought Indians had attacked us. They called up their teamsters and put on double guard. They never learned what was the cause of our shooting until we reached the North Platt.

On the 24th of July some of Shelley's men stamped our cattle. The cattle went about ten miles before the men on hourse back could go ahead of the cattle. Some of the poorest cattle were in the lead.

We traveled east on the Sweet Water route till we came to the Bitter Creek Route, east by Rollins Springs to within two miles of North Platt at a place called Benten City (which was a city built for the benefit of the railroad workers, later this city became the teminus of the railroad for a short time.) We turned northwest for about five miles and made our camp on the North Platt. We camped there until about the 14th of August.

While we were camped on the North Platt some of us boys went up to Benton City where we got work unloading the ties and rails. We got $2.00 a day and dinner.

The captain learned that there wasn't as many saints coming as expected. He took the best wagons of the train and loaded up freight on the 12th of August at Benton and sent them back in charge of Assistant Captain. We came home the Bitter Creek route. We forded Green River near Grangers Ferry about 11 miles down the river from Robinson's Ferry. One day one of the wagons broke down. They divided the freight till they got to camp; then the wagon was repaired. The U.P. was building the railroad all along the Bitter Creek route. When we got to the mouth of Echo Canyon we turned and went south up the Weber River by Coalville and Wanship up by the Silver Creek through Parley's Park and Parley's Canyon by the penitentiary into Salt Lake City, arriving there on the 7th of September. I drove four yoke of cattle on one wagon. My load was about forty hundred.

When I arrived home father had taken a contract to build two miles of railroad west of the promitory. The central pacific were building the road from Omaha to Ogden. Then the Union Pacific were to build the road from Omaha to Ogden.

I wasn't home but a few days till father went around the North end of the promitory near a small stream called Indian Creek. I and my sister, Mary went with father. A man by the name of Richard Shelton and his wife went in the company. She and Mary were to do the cooking. Father had ten men with their teams to work on the grade. When the grade was very near completion, father took the teams and went thirty miles west to Grouse Creek and took a contract to build another mile leaving two men and myself and one team to finish up the grade.

Then we moved on to where the rest of the company were. We assisted them in finishing up the mile they had started to build. We finished the work and started home about the first of December. When we got to the promitory, father saw some contractors who wanted him to cut a lot of cord wood for the railroad. Father took the contract and left two men and myself to build a house while he went into Ogden to get supplies and other men. We built the house, and was ready for the roof when the two men decided to leave.

It being near Christmas the men said they were not going to stay there any longer. They helped me pitch the tent inside the house, then left. As there were others camped close by I was not afraid. Father didn't return and about three days before New years I decided to go home myself. So I started out early one morning to walk home which was over one hundred miles.

While walking alone down a canyon, I saw the men running from a place on the railroad grade which was about a quarter of a mile away. Soon a blast went off and I saw something flying in the air; a rock lit in the road just behind me, I had walked about 10 miles when I came to a railroad camp; I saw a horse team standing there, I wondered if that team wasn't going the same way I was. I walked on. The man came along and invited me to ride; I rode with him to Brigham City and stayed all night with a young man by the name of Hi Smith, who had been in the same company with me when I returned from North Platt the summer before. Next morning I went to see the man I had ridden with the day before, but he said he didn't think he would go any farther that day.

I started to walk to Ogden. The man I had ridden with the day before overtook me and let me ride through the canyon. I then had four miles to walk. I got home about nine o'clock. When I arrived home I found the reason father did not come back. One of my little sisters were sick and father could not leave home.

In the spring of '68 father built a new shingle mill east about 20 miles. I didn't go to the mill till the spring of '69 as soon as the snow was gone I went with father to work at the mill. While working at the mill a crowd of young folks came up from Huntsville. We went about 19 miles over to a stream called Blacksmith Fork. A stream that ran into Cache Valley. We stayed several days. We water was heavily charged with lime which made it very clear. One could stand off 20 to 30 yeards and see the fish swimming in the stream. We returned home feeling that we had had a jolly time. I worked at the mill till that fall when father moved the family back to Huntsville where I went to school in the winter.

Father worked at a place called Shunk Creek. We made shingles there for about two years. Then moved in the spring of '71.

Shunk Creek being small father moved over the mountain east down on to Sugar Pine Creek where there was plenty of water. He put in a turbine wheel to run the shingle mill. Late in the fall of '71 father moved the family to Huntsvill leaving two young men, John Walker and George Stow and myself to prepare the house for winter.

When father had been gone a day or two there came a rain storm at the mill but it was snowing on the mountains above us. It snowed hard for two days. Then I told the men that we had better be gitting out or we'd be snowed in. The men said what will we do with the pigs. I said, "We'll take them along;" so we baked some break for ourselves and water-bread for the two pigs. When we started it was still snowing. Snow was about a foot deep in the mill. The pigs didn't want to go so we coaxed them along. When we got about a mile from the mill the snow was quite deep. Two would go ahead making trails while one would drive the pigs. The pigs were willing to follow.

When we got on top of the mountain the snow was up to our waist. We took turns at taking lead. One would take lead and break trail then change and another lead. At skunk Creek there was a log cabin. We used one room and the pigs the other. When we got up in the morning there was snow on our bedding; there being a crack in the wall where the snow had blown.

When we got on top of the snow and started out the pigs followed right along. In going down Beaver Creek I stepped in a hole and went down in the hole up to my arms. The boys helped me out. I shoved the bedding into the hole. I said, "I'm not going to carry this bedding any farther." John Walker said, "Hold on, I want my fiddle!" I said, "All right you can have it. I'm not going to carry the bedding." He pulled the bedding out, got his fiddle and poked the bedding down into the hole. While going down the canyon I looked and saw a big wolf fastened in a trap. I said to the boys, "One of you go up and get that wolf." They said, "No, we're too tired." So I climbed up the side of the hill and shot the wolf, then took the trap and the wolf back down to the boys. We freed the wolf from the trap, too the trap and left the wolf at the side of the road.

When we got down to shoreBeaver Creek emptied into the South Fork we came to a sawmill that Uncle Willard was running. He had moved away but left two of his boys, Willard and Eugene. As it was getting late we stopped here for the night. Just before dark 10 teams came from Ogden going up to Bear Lake Valley. They camped at the mill all night. One man by the name of Beers who had a wagon of supplies, told one of my cousins he would give him a new pair of boots if he would help him up to the head of Beaver Creek Canyon.

I said, "Jean you go and I'll let you take my boots if you'll bring down my roll of bedding. You can have the wolf's skin, if you want it." He expected to get back that night but he never returned till the next day about noon. The two men that were with me took the pigs and left for Huntsville. The next day my cousin returned bring my roll of bedding. My brother, David, and Dan Allen came from Huntsville with a sleigh and took me home.

The winter of '70 and '71 I went to high school at Ogden City and boarded with my cousin, Miria Scoville. My teacher was Wm. W. Burton. In the spring I went to Salt Lake City and attended April Conference. On the 10th of April I went to the endowment house and was ordained an elder and then went through the endowment house and received my endowments.

I worked at Sugar Pine Mill in '72 and '73. In the fall of '73 O. C. Allen and I were left at Sugar Pine Mill with two teams, a yoke of oxen and a span of horses. We had a wagon and a sled. Father moved the family to Huntsville leaving Dan Allen and myself to haul shingles to the to of Mt. Christy.

Father hadn't been gone but a day or two when it commenced to snow on the mountain and rain at the mill. We started up the mountain one day with two loads of shingles. When we had traveled a ways the snow became so deep we decided to leave the sled putting both teams on the wagon. We went on up to the top of the mountain. Returning to the sleight we threw the shingles off and returned to the mill.

The next morning early we put our bedding on the sleigh and started for Huntsville. The snow was quite dep, probably two feet or more. When we got nearly to the top we ran into a snow drift. I told Dan Allen to hold the horses while I unhitched them, then we would work the horses through the loose snow. One of the horses made a quick lunge to get out of the drift and stuck Allen in the nose. Allen's nose began to bleed. The blood froze on his face. The oxen and horses were covered with a sheet of ice.

When we got to the top of the mountain we decided to leave the wagon and take the sleigh as we thought there would be snow all the way to Huntsville. But we didn't go five miles till we struck bare ground. We had to leave the sleigh. We put our bedding on the oxen and rode the horses. We arrived in Huntsville about 2 o'clock in the morning. Father and another man were ready to start that morning after us. The winter of '73 and '74 I started to go with Mary Elizabeth Gfroerer. The first of June we were married in the endowment house by Daniel H. Wells. That summer went up to the shingle mill. Lizzie and my sister, Mary, did the cooking.

1875 and '76 I worked on Father's farm at Huntsville. One the 11th of June 1875 our first child Mary Lenora was born. On the 25th of October 1875 I married Margaret Louesa Gfroerer, a twin sister to Lizzie. We were married in the Salt Lake Endowment House by Daniel H. Wells.

In the summer of 1875 father found a ledge of silver quartz close to the sugar pine mill. The winter following we went there to work and sunk a shaft. He got three men to go with him - Benjamin F. Bingham, Osbera R. Nye, and George Stow. In March mother became quite anxious about father. She wanted me to go up and see what they were doing. So I got a young man, John Walker, to go with me.

My brother took us about eight miles in a sleigh then we had to go from there on snowshoes. We reached Skunk Creek Saw Mill that night. I had a pair of ox bow snow shoes on. Walker had a pair of Norweigen snowshoes. I was about tuckered out as the ox bow snow shoes were not as good as the Norwegian snowshoes. That night I made a pair of Norwegian shoes.

Next morning we started on. We had to climb the steep mountain for about a mile and a half, then from there on it was down grade. We arrived at the mill about noon. We found the men all well. We started back, leaving Walker to work with the men. We traveled to Skunk Creek Sawmill and stayed all night. The next morning we started out early taking a short cut. When we came to Beaver Creek we struck the trail Walker and I had made. The snow had frozen. We took off our snow shoes and hung them in a tree. We got within two miles of home we met David and went home with him in the sled.

I worked on the farm the summer of 1876. In the fall of '76 father and I went up into Cache Valley locating some claims in the Smithfield band west of Smithfield on the west side of Bear River. After locating the claims we returned to Huntsville for the winter. The first of March we went up to Cache Valley to a place called Trenton and bought a house. Charles A. Nye and his wife and my sister, Katies, went up with us. On the 20th of March 1877 my oldest son David was born at Huntsville.

I returned from Cache Valley to Huntsville when David was about a week old. I had been home about two days when one of our neighbors, Slaters, had a child die. They wanted me to go back up to Cache Valley to tell the father They took me to Ogden. Early in the morning I took the train for Cache Valley. When the train got to the Summit I got off and walked down to Bear River bridge and from there back to Trenton and notified Albert Slater.

Three of the Harmason's C. A. Nye, Oae Nye, father and I went in together and planted about 10 acres of wheat. The wheat came up and looked nice.

I stayed at Trenton till May when I went back to Huntsville and moved my family up. On the second day my little girl, Mary, was quite sick. She had a fever all day. We were two days from Ogden crossing Bear River at Curing up to the settlement upon on the west side of the River. Here we stayed all night. The next day we arrived at our place at Trenton. Our Mary was sick till the 26th of June when she died. As there was no carpenters Will Blanchard and I made a coffin. We held the funeral at our house. Then she was taken to Clarkstone where we buried her. She was buried in the same cemetary in which Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon was buried.

Right after the Fourth of July father wrote me a letter saying I had better come down and help Mark M. Hall put up the hay. So I loaded up the mower and rake and what bedding and supplied we needed, then with my family we started home. We crossed Bear River on a ferry boat. We went up through Logan and south over the divide between Cache Valley and Ogden Valley. We arrived in Huntsville. I helped Mark Hall put up his hay.

In July a man by the name of John Hyet, a brother-in-law to T. Taylor, came through the Ashley Valley on his way from Arizona to Huntsville. He gave quite a glowing description of Ashley Valley, especially on the Strawberry valley. Father was quite taken up with the description he gave of this country. Father talked with others and finally father and three other men Alvin Baity, Mark M. Hall, and Ludividk Feltt started out in a wagon by way of Heber and Strawberry into the Ashley Country arriving here on the first of October. They had the first frost the first of Oct.

After staying here a couple of days they started back going north through Brown's Park, up Henry's Fork, crossing Bear River, through Echo canyon down the Weber and over the divide into Huntsville. Father in describing the valley to others got quite a number interested. Before starting for the Asheley Country father went to Salt Lake and had a talk with Apostle John Taylor as President Young had died on the 29th of August previous. President Taylor told him to go ahead and take others that wished to go and when he got to Ashley Valley to call a meeting and select an elder to take charge of the Saints. Father and others got ready and started on the 8th of November. As near as I can remember there was my father, Thomas, Bingham; mother, my brother, David, my sister, Pheobe; with two wagons a yoke of oxen and a span of horses; Charles A. Nye, Neilson and wife and one daughter with one wagon; Chell Hall and wife, Lola, and one child, Sally, one wagon; Orson Hall, Horseback; Alvin Bailey single; all these from Huntsville. Alma Taylor and wife and two or three children with one wagon; Enoch Burns and wife, Martha Jane, two children, Jacob and Sarah, one wagon; Frederick G. Williams, son-in-law to Enoch Burns, and wife, Amanda, and one child with one wagon.

It being late in the season they thought it best to come up Echo Canyon by Fort Bridger down Henry's Fork down Brown's Park and into the Ashley Valley on Green river by Brush Creek. They camped on the river east of the Dry Lake which was later George Billing's pasture. Here they camped for the winter.

In April father and family went up to Dry Fork, being a second family locate. Chell Hall's family was already living there. T. Taylor, Ot Hall, Chell Hall, father and Charles A. Nye located claims in Dry Fork. Chell Hall built the first house in March. Father built the second in April; T. Taylor the third house and he built it during the summer. Father took up his claim east of Chell Hall's, Charles A. Nye located a place east of Father's. Father put in a crop of his place that spring.

There was some business father needed to attend to at Huntsville so Charley and I thought we would go to Ashley Valley to see if father could come and look for his business. We started on the 10th of June. When we got to heber we learned that a couple of Indians had just come in from here with a team. I went and saw the Indians and leaned that we could get through. We had heard that the water was very high. The Indians said two wagons were waiting on the Duchesne for the water to go down so they could cross. When we got to the upper crossing in Duschesne we found they had already gone over. Charley got on one of the horses and rode across. He came back and we forded the river with the wagons, we traveled on about three miles and found two wagons camped. They were waiting till sundown when the water was the lowest. We waited and crossed the river going to Rock Creek where we camped all night

Next morning we had to fix a new ford before we could cross Rock Creek. We left Rock Creek about noon, crossed Blue Bench and down to the crossing on the Lake Fork and camped all night. One of the wagons was loaded with supplies for Pauper's ranch which was located East of the Ashley Valley on Blue Mountain. We found, a crossing we thought we could go across al right. We hitched up four horses on my wagon to take it across first. Just as we were coming out of the stream one horse fell on the wagon tongue and broke it. I had my horses on lead and they pulled the horse and wagon till we got to the bank where we could get out and splice the tongue.

The man who owned the team was Jack Bates who was from Sniderville near Parley's Park. Bates was afraid of the water. He fastened double trees on to one horse and got on the other and started back. He should have gone quartering down the stream but he tried to make the horses go straight across the stream and the horse fell down throwing the man into the water. Man and horse both went floating down the stream.

A gravel bed was in the middle of the stream. The man worked his way and got out on this gravel bed; the horse floating along by the gravel bed with his head out of the water. The man walked up and down the gravel bed but he was afraid to go out to make the horse get up. Hye Rasmussen rode out and made the horse get up then he led the horse to the shore. The other horse started down the stream floating into deep water. He floated for quite a ways then he worked his way toward shore and stood up in the water with the double trees under his feet. It was getting late so we camped for the night. Next morning Charley took the horse and double trees and crossed the river. The men decided to wait a few days till the water went down. We traveled on. I learned later that the Indians we had seen in Heber came along in about a week. The Indians forded with their four horses hitched on in head of the horses and wagon. When they were nearly across the same horse fell down in the same place it had previously fallen. The Indians with their horses pulled horse and wagon the rest of the way to dry land.

Charley and I came on and camped on the Unitah on the mouth of Deep Creek. When we were half way from Deep Creek to Ashley one of my horses gave out. The horse would walk along but couldn't pull anything. We came on, took the road from Deep Creek through Dodd's Twist up the draw and down the pass into the west end of Ashley Valley. There I saw a man who told us the way to Dry Fork to get another team. I let them feed for about two hours then I hitched them up and started up the canyon. When I got up Dry Fork Canyon a ways I met my brother, David. We put the fresh team on my wagon and went on up to Dry Fork arriving on the 22nd of June, 1878.

We found the folks all well and glad to see us.

While here I went with father down to Green River and went down to Isacc Burton's place on Green River. We had green peas for dinner.

My brother, Charley, stayed in Ashley. Father, mother and I left the 28th of June. We arrived in Huntsville on the 4th of July.

On the 16th of September, I started with my family, two of my uncles, Erastus and Brigham Heber Bingham, and another man by the name of Richard Shelton. We brought part of my household goods. We were twelve days on the road arriving at Dry Fork on the 28th of September. The next day after we got in, it commenced to rain. It cleared up on the first of October. We had the first frost. The folks had green corn and watermelons.

About the 1st of October I hitched up my team and took my two uncles and Shelton and started for Green River to look over the valley. When we got on the Shelly Bench just below where Vernal now stands, they said they didn't like the looks of the land. They had seen all they wanted to see. The next day they started back for Huntsville. My brother, Charley, took my teams and went back with them to bring father and mother back.

David and Phobe and Chell Hall and wife had started back for Huntsville. He had missed them near Heber for they had taken a short out and we had gone up through Parley's Park. The latter part of October father started back from Huntsville. He had leased about 150 lead of stock. Mark Hall and sister, Mary, Charles A. Nye, and my sister, Katie, with one child and Osbern R. Nye came with father.

During December of '78 all the men living in Dry Fork came together and split poles and hued them down and put them down for a floor in Mark Hall's house making what is called the hunching floor.

They had a dance on Christmas night. Harvey Meaks came and played for us. The winter of '78 and '79 was a very mild winter, very little snow. The young cattle gained. They came out in better condition in the spring.

In the spring of '79 we put in some wheat west of Dry Fork town and made a water ditch. The water came down one week and then dried up. We had no more water all summer and very little rain. That summer some of the springs on the mountains dried up. The wheat, laid in the ground all summer and came up early next spring about one third of a crop. The stock got poor and we lost two or three old cows.

Early in the fall of '79 father made arrangments with Captain Doods to get flour from Heber. He traded poles for flour. My brother, David when with a four horse team and hauled the flour in.

On June the 1st 1879 at a special conference held in Ashley Valley Pres, Abraham Hatch and others came out and held meetings. The saints who had settled on the Ashley Fork and on Green River were now organized into three districts name Incline (now Jensen), Ashley Centre and Mountain Dell with Fred G. Williams, Jerimiah Hatch and Thomas Bingham Sr. as their respective presidents.

Along the first of October 1879 the Indian Agent, Meeker, who was agent of the uncompogry and White River Indians at Meeker in Colorado was having some trouble with the Indians and fearing they might have an outbreak, he sent for a company of soldiers. The Indians heard he had sent for soldiers, but Meeker denied it. The Indians put out spies to watch. When they saw the soldiers coming they came into the agency and gave notice killing Meeker. Then they opened fire on the soldiers.

Captain Thornburg was killed. The Indians went back to the agency took Meeker's wife and daughter and left. This caused quite an excitement in Ashley. The people were advised by Uncle Jerry Hatch and I. J. Clark to fort up for protection. The people on the bench came together at the fort. Uncle Jerry Hatch and Clark had a talk with the Indians. The Indians said they wouldn't cause any trouble. Most of the people forted up for the winter.

Later Meeker's wife and daughter were rescued from the Indians.

Along the first of November Charley Bingham, William Bradshaw and I were hired by the Government surveyors to survey this country. We did a little surveying at the head of Deep Creek. They went down to Green River at Bacer Bend then down the river on both sides to the Fort located just north of the Co-op Store where White River empties into Green River and then up White River for about ten or twelve miles.

There were two surveyors, Ferron Bitner and Auto Salman, son of Surveyor General of Utah. Ferron took a bunch of men and went over on to Willow Creek and did some surveying for some stock men. We were down there till in December. Some of the men who started to Salt Lake got caught in a snow storm in Strawberry. Some returned and wintered there.

Winter came very early that year. It snowed deep. As very few had hay and only a small amount of stock were fed and the rest were to rustle for themselves. Lots of cattle died that winter. Some who came in with eight or ten cattle only had one or two in the spring. This was known as the hard winter of 1879-80. It was very cold.

One of the Colton's said that there were sixty days that the frost never thawed off the trees. There were 18 inches of snow all over Ashley Bench. Quite a few deer roamed the mountains but these were so poor they were hardly fit to eat. Early in the spring Wm. G. Reynolds and Moroni Taylor got a couple of rocks and made burrs to grind flour and ran them by the horse power and did some grinding. The horses were so poor that at times the men had to get a hold of the sweep and help the horses.

As soon as they could get over the mountains a number of teams went to Rock Springs to get flour. Over Diamond and through Brown's Park. The people who lived in the fort on the Ashley Bench north of the old Co-op used up the last flour they had the day the teams returned to the valley.

In the spring the stock men from Heber came in to gather up their stock and drive them back. They drove some of the cattle belonging to the people in the valley. Some of the cattle were seen in Strawberry Valley by Ashley Settlers.

In the winter of 1879 Mark M. Hall was chosen as superintendent of the Sunday School and I was chose as assistant.

The winter of 1879 and '80 I was out hunting on the Mesa north of Chell Hall's. I ran on to a little bunch of deer and shot two deer with one bullet, but I only got one of them. I dragged the one down the hill and covered it up. The next day the snow blinded me and I couldn't go hunting for the deer. In a few days I went and got the deer I had covered and brought it down to the house.

On the 18th of February, 1880 my father was appointed selectment for Uintah Country by Eli H. Murry, governor of Territory of Utah. On 2nd of August 1880 my father was elected probate Judge for Uintah County. He acted as probate judge for two terms of three years each. He was elected again on the 6th of August, 1883. The summer of 1880 father took a crowd of men and went over and built a bridge across Lake Fork this being the first bridge built in the country.

The Christmas of 1880 Chell hall gave a Christmas gift to every child that lived in Dry Fork. This favor and gift was 25 cents.

On the 22nd of February my brother, David, was married to Harriet Perry.

On September 11, 1882 Thomas Bingham Sr. was ordained Bishop of Mountain Dell and Dry Fork with Jurom Merril and Thomas Bingham Jr. as councilors. In february, 1883 I was ordained High Priest by Jerimiah Hatch. In the fall of 1884 my father moved to Mill Ward now Maeser.

The 20th of May, 1883 I was set apart by Francis M. Lyman as missionary to the Indians in Uintah. Jeremiah Hatch, Isreael J. Clark, Thomas Carsn, George Glines and myself were chosen. We labored among the Indians during that summer, held a meeting at White rocks and eight or ten Indians were baptized. We went down close to the mouth of the Ducheane, asisted the Indians in getting out water to water their crops. The Indians agent at White Rock forbade us laboring with the Indians.

In the spring of 1884 my brother, David, bought a claim in Mill Ward. I came down and helped him put up a house and he moved down. I took up a claim joining my brother david's on the west, but before I made a filing we prevailed on father to make a filing in my stead. During the summer of 1884 father traded his place in Dry Fork for 80 acres in Mill Ward and gave my team and cow toward paying for the place. Father had the land deeded to me. My land was the west half of the section 1y township 4 south range 21 east Salt Lake Merridan.

In March of 1885 we thought that the U. S. Marchal was coming here to arrest the polygamists. There were a number of us that left the valley and went over into Castle Valley. Jerimiah Hatch, I. H. Clark, Frank Haddlock, and I went over to Huntington, Castle Valley. We stayed there until after the last of April when we got word that there was nothing doing. We returned home on the first day of May. In the spring of 1886 I came down and put up a two room house on my place. Louesa came down and did the cooking for me. As soon as the house was finished I moved my family down.

Lizzie had the following children: Annie, George, Francis. Louesa had: Clara, Maggie, and Frederuck G.

As soon as I moved down to Millward I was chosen as teacher and choster in the Sunday School and also Choister for the choir. Ira Jacobs had previously been choister. Philip Stringham was the first superintendent of Mill Ward Sunday School. He was chosen in 1879. Charles H. Glines had Isaac M. Jones as assistants. Millward was not organized until 1882 but Sunday School and meetings were held previous.

The 9th of May, '887 Ashley Valley was organized as Uintah Stake by the Apostles John Henry Smith and John W. Taylor with Samuel R. Bennion as President Ruben S. Collet and James Hacking as councilors. I was chosen as one of the High Council. Father was an alternate.

In June, 1892 two U. S. Marshalls came and arrested me for unlawful cohalbitation. My wife, Louesa, and daughter, Clara, wer witnesses I had to appear before commission Thomas McConnel at Fort Duchesne and give bonds to appear in the district court at Provo on the 18th of September, 1892.

I went out to Provo taking Louesa, Clara, Maggie and Lester and Vilate Louesa and Clara received 21.50 each for acting as witnesses. Brother Charley took them up to Huntsville to Louesa's mother. She stayed for about one month, then came back to Ashley with Oson Hall.

On the 19th of September, 1892 I was sentenced to three months imprisonment and cost of court which was about 80 dollars. I was taken to Salt Lake that evening and put in the penitentary on the hold over side. On the first of October a new warden was put in. He had all that were on hold over side go over onto the convict side and put on striped clothes. I was put in a cell with a man by the name of Sullivan.

On the third of October Levi G. Taylor, who had married two of my cousins, was brought to the penitentary on a three months sentence. We got the warden to let us be in the same cell together. I was out working on the farm every day except Sundays to help get in the potatoes ancorn that had been raised on the penitentary ground. At four-thirty the gong was sounded and all who were laboring on the farm had to go inside. One evening as those who were out were coming in, one of the trusty's had brought a goat and wagon for a little boy that belonged to one of the farm hands. The trusty was trying to get the goat hitched to the wagon. He said: "Will you please help me hitch the goat to the wagon?" I stopped and helped him for a few minutes and when I got up to the gate all the rest had gone in. The guard said, "Mr. Bingham, why can't you come in with the rest?" I told him why I had been detained. He said, "I want you to all come together." I thought to myself, "that's what you're here for -- to wait for us."

I wrote my brother, Charley, at Provo to send me a Deseret Song Book. I then went to Frank Hadlock, who was a convict and asked him to make me a tuning fork. Then I took the organ and filed it to the key of C. When my song book came I learned quite a number of songs. While practicing singing one evening one of the convict men called me down and said, "You'd better be quiet. You're making too much noise."

While I was at the penitentiary I helped to unload two carloads of coal from the depot.

Taylor wasn't very well and he stayed in the cell most of the time.

I joined the choir and helped them sing in the chapel on Sunday. A few days before my time was up the warden said to Taylor, "We'll have to separate you and Bingham." Taylor said, "What for?" The warden said, "Young Bingham and you have too good of a time." Taylor said Bingham's time would soon be up. The warden said, "Guess I won't bother to make the change."

One day I helped a trusty to kill a pig and we were quite late in finishing up. Those inside had all their supper and gone to their cells. The guard took us down in the basement under the guards room and gave a square meal. We had bread and cheese and beef. The bread served inside was cold, sour, light bread with the exception of the two days in the week when they gave us corn bread.

My cousin, George T. Holladays, and wife came to see me and brought me a two quart fruit jar of fruit. I put it in the head guards' room for keeping. In a day or two I went to get my fruit and they said it was gone. Someone had stole it.

Soon after I went into the pen Lars Augustson had a daughter down at Vernal and he sent for me. I went and talked to him, and wrote a letter to his family. Augustson and Edward Thomas were both sick with pneumonia. Every day or two they would send for me to come and see them.

My time was up on Sunday, the fourth of December, but they said they didn't allow five days off each month on a three month senctence. Taylor went to a lawyer. While Taylor was gone the warden came back and said they allowed the five days off but as there was a cost of $80.00 on my side I would have to be taken before the comissioner and I'd have to wait till Monday morning.

Edward Thomas' time was up and he sent for me to help him. He was so anxious to get away he didn't know wat to do. He said, "I'll be at the commissioner's office in the morning." So Monday morning the guards took me up to the commissioner. The commissioner asked me how much property I had and how many children I had. I told him twelve. He counted up what my property would come to and he said you haven't enough so I didn't have to pay the fine. I was released.

I went up to Huntsville then I took the train for Price where my brother-in-law, Charles A. Nye, was waiting to take me home. We arrived home a few days before Christmas.

I commenced to labor in the Sunday School as 1st assistant to Charles H. Glines, He had chosen me November 20, 1895 while I was away. I labored in this position until October 20, 1895 when I was chosen as Sunday School Superintendent with Don B. Colton as first assistant.

In April 1893 I attended conference at Salt Lake City and was present at the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. It was a wonderful thing. It was inspiring to listen to the testimonies of the leaders of the church. Wilford Woodruff was President.

In December, 1893 I was chosen to represent the Maeser Sunday School to take a Sunday School course at the B. Y. U. The School opened on the 4th of January, 1894. A twenty week course was given. J. P. Rudy from Glines, Albert G. Goodrich from Naples and I were chosen. We all three boarded with Sister Holden, my brother Charley's mother-in-law. J. P. Rudy only 10 weeks. A. G. Goodrich and I stayed the 20 weeks. We attended April Conference. The school was held until about the 4th of June.

I was one in the chorus who sang with Suzie's band. This man was a great composer and leader. Held a concert in Provo tabernacle. The leader of the Provo choir was Henry E. Giles.

I arrived home about the 12th of June. On the 15th of June I planted some potatoes and raised as good a crop as I ever raised here.

In July 1905 my sister, Mary came down from Canada to be with her daughter, Maysie, who was very sick. Maysie died the day before Mary arrived. Mary stayed until November 10th when she started back. I accompanied her as I wished to visit with two of my children, Mrs. Annie Dudley and Francis Bingham who lived in Canada.

In going through Idaho and Montana I noticed a number of grain stacks that hadn't been threshed. When we arrived at Great Falls, Montana, we had to lay over a day. We arrived in Canada at Streling about 3 o'clock a.m. Next morning at seven we took the train running to Cardson. We arrived in Mcgrath on the 23rd of November. That evening Francis took me in a buggy up to Spring Coulee where my daughter, Annie Dudley, lived.

Sephen M. Dudley was threshing when I got there. They were threshing until noon on the 24th. When it commenced to show and they had to stop. The grain being in the shock they had to wait until the snow melted and the grain dried.

While in Canada I got a chance to go with a man named Jessie Smith up to Calgary and from there 50 miles East to Glucien, a farming district. We stayed in the hotel over night. In the morning they let us take a sleigh and we went out to look at the country. We returned to the hotel in the afternoon and took the train to Calgary. The next morning we took the train back to Mygrath.

While in Canada I visited with my two brothers, David and Charley. My, brothers, my son, Francis Bingham, and son-in-law bought me an overcoat.

I returned home the last December, arriving in Ogden on New Years Day of 1896. I went to Huntsville and stayed two days and then back to Ogden. Taking the D. & R. G. Train at Ogden I went to Mack, Colorado and then over the mountain north to Dragon and from there by stage to Vernal.

 

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