George Ernest Jordan

Alicia Kay Burk - Linda Kay Flake - Dolores Jordan - George Jordan

"Spike" the umpire

This was a letter written to George Comber for a school project in which his grandfather told him about 
"WHAT TOOK PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY" 
Story written by George Ernest Jordan 
January 6, 1966 

I was born in Pocatello, Idaho April 3, 1898. My mother (Mary Jane Peake) was washing and hanging our clothes, when I decided it was time for me to enter this world. We didn't have a doctor to deliver me, so my mother had a mid wife. Which is a woman who helps women in childbirth. My parents didn't have very much money. We lived across the railroad track near the railroad yards where my father (Edward Thomas Jordan) worked. When I was a small boy just eight years old my father was hurt in the railroad yards and died (July 3, 1907) My mother had a large family, 5 girls and 6 boys. When my father died he didn't leave my mother very much money, so we all had to work so we could live. I sold newspapers on the street corners, shined shoes and I would turn all the money I earned over to my mother to help feed and clothe us so we could go to school. 
I worked ever since I was 10 years old and I did plenty odd jobs. I was a pin setter in a bowling ally, messenger boy for the western union and I used to have a little red wagon the I pulled along the Railroad yard picking up lumps of coal that fell off the railroad cars, as they were switched from one track to another so we could keep warm and cook our meals. We didn't know what gas was at the time. We didn't have electric lights, we would burn kerosene lamp. We didn't have a bathroom like you have now. We had to take our bath in a wash tub (metal) my mother used to wash her clothes in it. Our toilet was outside. We called it a privey or outhouse. We didn't have running water so we had a pump and metal zinc. We had a kitchen stove that would bun wood and coal and had a reservoir that we would get warm water for our baths or heat water in a bucket. There was no such thing a Electric Lights, telephone, radio, television, but we had one of the fist old Edison phonograph, silent movies, opera houses and road shoes, and how we enjoyed them. 
When I got older I worked for the railroad as a call boy (calling freight train crews) then checking cars (car clerk), freight clerk, manifest clerk, E&F timekeeper, etc. When I was 15 years old I was considered one of the best swimmers and high divers around Ogden Utah. I made high dives of 65 feet from the 31st Bridge over Weber River from a moving freight train. Also every Sunday night at Lagoon, a pleasure resort, I did a FIRE DIVE from 35 feet into the swimming area of the lake. For instance we danced the 3 step, 2 step, one step waltz. 
In my life time the following have been invented. Telephones, Electric Lights, automobiles, airplanes, radio, television and motorcycles. 

 George / George (on the right) waiting to get a baseball signed

 George with his 2 youngest children: Bob and Donna / George the baseball umpire (middle)

 George (2nd from left) with siblings Leroy, Edward and Georgina Jordan

Gladys Stevenson Jordan

Alicia Burk - Linda Flake - Dolores Jordan - Gladys Stevenson

Sisters Ruth, Letha, and Gladys in Farmington, Utah

 George (middle) and Gladys (right) in 1918, while they were dating

Gladys with her 2 oldest children, baby Ray and Dolores

Gladys with her 2 oldest children, Dolores and Ray

Gladys and George with their children: Dee, Bob, George, and Donna

One day while Gladys’ mother was very sick with typhoid, Gladys and her siblings were out in the haystack where they decided to pray for their mother. To their delight, they found a cat with a new litter of kittens in the haystack. Gladys was so excited! They each grabbed a kitten and ran to show it to Mother, but Mother was so sick with fever that she thought they were lions. She screamed and no one could hold her down. Their grandmother rushed the children and kittens outside and scolded them for upsetting their mother. When two more brothers became sick with typhoid, Wilford decided it was time to move, because they didn’t know where typhoid came from.

When Gladys was six, she went to bed in a big bed in her new home (with Grandmother Mary Jane Johnson in Logan, UT) and she was sure she heard bears. She put her head under the covers, so terrified. The next day when she told her mother that she’d heard bears during the night, her mother said that it was just her grandmother snoring! When Gladys was six, her family saw Halley’s Comet heading straight for the earth. Everyone thought the comet would hit the earth and explode. All of Gladys’ relatives gathered together in her grandmother’s house to be together when the comet hit and killed them all. They all talked about it and went out to watch the sky. Gladys was so terrified to hear them talking and to think that a comet would hit the earth and suddenly kill her. She was so frightened, she couldn’t even talk. Then suddenly, the comet flipped its big fiery tail and turned back the way it came. So they knew they weren’t going to die!

Gladys says to her posterity, “I hope they will grow up in the Gospel and honor their fathers and their mothers.”

Sources: Cassette-tape interview with Gladys Stevenson Jordan, by John Rogers Burk , 1971

 Gladys and George with Donna, Les, baby Cheryl and Lorna  / Gladys and George

 Gladys with great-granddaughter Juliet Peden. Juliet is wearing a shawl crocheted by Gladys.

George and Gladys on their 50th Anniversary

I, Gladys Stevenson Jordan , was born in Fielding, Utah , on July 24, 1901. We lived in this little town until I was about 5 years old. I had two older brothers and when I was three and one-half a little sister came to bless our home. While we lived here my mother took typhoid from the well water and my grandmother Mary Jane Ainsworth Johnson came to take care of her. The night her fever broke my father was sitting in the chair waiting to take off the ice bags and add hot water bags when he fell asleep. As he awoke suddenly he saw my grandfather who had been dead for years looking in the window. He hurried to my mother’s side and found she was almost gone. It took quick work to bring her back. When she was better my father took sick with the same disease and nearly died. As he became better, my older brother took the dreaded disease and Mother and Father were so discouraged that when he was well enough they sold their home and went to Logan , Utah , to stay with Grandmother Johnson until they could become settled. There the second boy, Kenneth, became ill. The fever followed us wherever we went. The Lord blessed my father and mother again, and this boy became well.

I remember this house. It was a two-story house, and we loved to sleep upstairs. Morning glories covered the porch, I loved those flowers. They were so beautiful in the morning. When I was about six, my parents moved to Brigham City , Utah . There I started school. This house was a two-story house too, but we only lived in the lower part. In the summer we had great adventure playing in the empty rooms upstairs. There was a balcony and a cherry tree which we could reach from the balcony. This we would climb down and up, and the cherries were delicious when in season. All around the house was a tall hedge of lilacs. When they were in bloom it was a beautiful sight and we spent many hours trying to find five-leafed ones, which was supposed to be good luck.

My father bought Grandfather Stevenson’s farm in Farmington , Utah , and built a five-room house next door to Grandfather Stevenson. When I was seven we moved into our new home. When I was 8 I was baptized at Farmington , in the river. I remember hjow we undressed and dressed behind the bushes. I was glad my birthday came in the summer because in winter they just broke the ice and dunked you in. James Steed baptized me. When I was ten in 1909, on October 31, another little girl came to our house and being Halloween we were a little disappointed because we were not allowed to mix with the spooks. Instead, we had to sit on the porch and watch the others have fun. In the spring when I was ten, I took typhoid and was healed only through prayer and the goodness of the Lord.

My childhood was spent on a farm at the foot of the mountains. We climbed these and went into the canyons on the north and south. The meadows and lake lay on the west. We gathered buttercups, sago lilies, curley cues and ferns in the mountains, and may flowers and violets in the meadows. We rode horses and swam in the lake. My childhood was very full and free.

I remember when we lived in Brigham City . My Aunt Effie Johnson died of small pox. The doctors pronounced her dead and her husband Jarvis Johnson prayed for Father In Heaven to give her back her life, that she might raise her eight or nine little children. She opened her eyes and became well, raised her children and outlived her husband. We were not informed of the change and came to the funeral loaded with flowers and tears, to find no funeral, which made us very happy.

We have a resort in Farmington where we danced when we were older. We had many happy evenings there. I went to the Davis County High School . President L.J. Muer was my principal. Here I met my husband, George E. Jordan, at a dance. He was an Ogden boy and had come to a basketball game and dance. We were married on May 29, 1919 and went to live in Ogden , Utah . We lived there for six months and moved to Pocatello , Idaho . There our first little girl, Dolores Elaine, was born on March 14, 1920. When she was nine months old, she had the whooping cough and measles, which left her in poor health. We lived in Ogden at this time and work being bad we went to Sparks , Nevada . There we found a little Church and a handful of Saints about 25 families in all. It was part of the California Mission. There were no stakes in California in 1921. We stayed there a year and a half. There we learned to love the Saints and enjoyed having the elders to our home several times a week for their meals. My husband was baptized there by Elder Frank P. May, a fine boy whom we learned to love as a brother. My husband was ordained to the priesthood, and was a faithful worker. Bishop Vanderhoof gave us a recommend to the temple and on the morning of April 12, 1922, we were sealed in the house of the Lord for time and all eternity, taking our little girl with us who then was just 2 years of age. I taught primary and Sunday School and was secretary for Relief Society here.

Now Dolores took pneumonia this same spring and the doctor said we must bring her to California for her health. We came here in 1922 in the summer. Rent was $50 a month for 3 rooms so we rented for 3 months and then bought a lot in San Gabriel County , whiat is now called Rosemeade. There we lived in a neighbors garage while we built a four-room house, moving into it as soon as the outside shell was up.

The following February 7, 1933, our second child came to us, a 9-pound  boy we named Raymond Jay. We spent many happy days here, and we found a branch of the Church in Alhambra where we went to Sunday School and mutual. These meetings were held in the W.O.W. Hall on Main Street . I taught Sunday School here, we had no primary, and relief society was held in the sisters’ homes. There was only about 35 families here then and, of course, we had 2 missionaries. I always loved living in the mission field. There is a different spirit there. The Saints are so close to one another. It seems that after wards are established people become too dependent of themselves and lose a portion of that Holy Spirit that is necessary to maintain and hold a mission together.

In 1925, Mr. Jordan was transferred to Sacramento . Here we again lived in a mission field. We learned to love the people here and I was appointed Secretary of Relief Society and also taught a class in the Sunday School, but we had sadness come into our home here and we were not satisfied in this town again. Our little Raymond took diphtheria on the 1^st of April, 1927, and went to his Father in Heaven at one o’clock April 5, 1927. This was a shock to us and I know my belief in this Church and its teachings kept me going form day to day. My husband and I had always been very close to each other but this brought us to even a greater understanding of life and our mission together here on this earth. We took this boy to Ogden and buried him close to his grandfather coming back to Sacramento to take up our life again where we had stopped to pause.

The following July 20, 1927, a lovely boy came to bless our home and because I always felt bad that I had not given my first boy his father’s name, I named this boy George Earl Jordan. He was much comfort and joy to me coming to me so soon after my great loss.

During this time the branch had been separated into three branches. The Sacramento Branch being the original and North Sacramento Branch and the Sutter named for the old fort which is still standing there.

We belonged to the Sutter Branch. Now my baby was the first baby to be blessed in this new ward and Bishop Jensen blessed him. My husband had always wanted to bless his babies but he was so timid at doing these things that he never gained the courage to bless one until the last baby and he gave her a lovely blessing.

Here I served as secretary of Relief Society, teacher in primary, sang in the choir, and helped my husband with mutual as he was president. We held mutual and primary at my home; these were certainly inspirational meetings, the crowd being small and the Spirit of the Lord being large. We had a large basement and the M-Men would go down there for their boxing and basketball practice while we would have classes on the main floor. Sometimes we couldn’t hear ourselves think for the noise downstairs, but we never thought of complaining.

Now the depression was beginning to stir and my husband was laid off work with the railroad so he went to work as bookkeeper in a bank This did not pay very well and soon we became discouraged trying to keep up with our obligations so when the bank asked him if he would like a transfer to Los Angeles,, we were very happy as we felt we could find better work here after getting settled.

We came to Los Angeles in the winter of 1929. George went to work in the Bank of America as bookkeeper. After getting settled, George began to look for better work. This he found with the oil company in Santa Fe Springs as a bookkeeper, but soon the company began laying men off and George received his notice. He then went to work for a truck company called H.P. Truck. The wages were small, but we managed to live within our income and help some that were more unfortunate than we.

Now we went to Church at Alhambra again. By now they had bought an old building on 1^stStreet here. I was not in the ward long before I was asked to be second counselor in Relief Society, Sister Agnes Bruce being our president. I learned to love her very dearly and enjoyed working with her. George was asked to take charge of the basketball in the Alhambra Ward and being a very fine athlete he made a great success of this work.

About 1930 we began to build a new building, the old one being too small and the Church sold it to the Seven-Day Adventists. They allowed us to rent it and continue our meetings there until our building on 8^th Street was up sufficiently for us to meet in.

Sister Bruce resigned at this time because of her husband’s health. (He passed away in 1935.) I was put in her place. We fed our men two meals a day and raised a great deal of money for our new building and then in September 1931 I was released because of the coming of my next baby, a boy born October 26, 1931. We named him Robert Ray and again I took a short vacation, but the following spring Brother Bill Chappel chose me as second councilor for the Genealogy Society, Pauline Clapp being the first, and again I was put in second counselor to Sister Norah Hoyle in the relief society. But this baby was a very cross baby and when older had to have an operation on his throat, so found I must the relief society work. But I helped them with their magazines and I taught in the primary during these years.

In 1934 I had to resign everything as my health was failing and August 18, 1935, a baby girl came to our home. We named her Donna Ruth, Ruth for her aunt. I was two months in bed this time and it seemed that my mission here was finished when the Genealogy Class on Monday night sent me some lovely flowers and prayed for the Lord to spare my life. I know that these prayers were answered for I was better the next day and only one week I got out of my bed. I was a year gaining my strength back and perhaps will never be as well again, but I am able to do some Church work and take care of my little family for which I am thankful.

In 1936, we decided we could save some money by moving to Hunting Park as his work was in Vernon . The building there was finished and dedicated. The new organ was in and paid for so we felt that a good job was finished and we could leave content.

Moving to Huntington Park, I helped here with the teaching, being supervisor for about a year then again I was chosen for counselor but my health would not allow me to do what my heart and mind wished to do, so I had to ask for a release after about 6 months, but I took the teachers topic and for one winter I carried this on. Now the primary asked for help and I took a class in the winter of 1938. It is now 1939 and I am still there.

This winter, 1938 and 1939, we started a junior genealogy and I was asked to be a teacher. I am glad now for all the years I have attended this organization for now I may help the young girls and boys to enjoy an dlove this work that is so close to my heart. I hope I might help some of these people to a sure footing in this work that they might be leaders. During all this time from 1921 to now I have been a relief society teacher only asking for rest while my babies were born. I love this work too.

The winter of 1928 and 1939 has passé by. My Junior Genealogy class advanced with the Spirit of the Lord and are almost ready for their second years work. My primary class went into the Guide Class and I feel these two things have been accomplished well. It is now time to start another winter’s work.

During this summer I took my two boys and little girl to Lake Elsinor to camp on the edge of this beautiful lake. Both my boys can swim and my little girl loves the water. Donna had the whooping cough while we were there. I also had my brother’s boy Odell Stevenson for the summer. He is a good boy. An old friend Sister Mable Ripley who lives at 1827 Vic Street in Sacramento , California , spent a month with us. Our vacation was perfect. After returning home I put up much fruit and vegetables, having 800 quarts in all as our work stopped in June; work being very bad here at this time.

Today, September 3, 1939, England and France declared war on Germany , who has been firing on Poland for two days bringing my thoughts closer to our genealogy teachings of the last days and the last war. I hope I may have courage during the things that must come and never lose sight of my duty to do the Lord’s work.

It was always thought that the Jordans came down from noblemen in England , however, cousins who have been contacted in England know nothing of this story. However, in Salt Lake City ’s library there is a Gerrard from the same territory as the Jordans came from and this could be the noble line in place of the Jordans , however, here is a copy from a book in the Los Angeles Library, Page 1223 – Gen R. 974-1 and Gen R. 920.073 A 511-V4 (Jordans ancient family in Dorsetshire, and occurred very early in Coker Frome, at Frome White Field. Their arms are quartered with Trenchard and Mohun.

In the windows of Manor House of Wolverton, if windows remain there is almost a complete pedigree of these ancient notables. Wolverton Manor lies eight miles from Weymouth , John Jordan its ancient owner was escheator of the county. The fifth of Henry the IV and his name occurs in a list of gentlemen the twenty-fifth of Henry VI he bought place from his daughter’s heir to Henry Trenchard of Hampshire.

            John Jordan held land at Wigmouth 1440

            John Judeyne a member of Parliament, 1553

            Richard Jordain, Mayor of Melcomb, 1596

            The name Jordan was adopted as a surname

One Weeks Diary

Sept. 1             Friday – today it is still summer. The children are out of school. My day went as usual. Poland and Germany are at war which brings sadness to we who have been through the world war 20 years ago.

Sept. 2             Saturday – Drove over to Bell Gardens to see Georges brother Edd on arriving home we heard over the radio England gave Germany until Sunday noon to withdraw their troops and stop fighting.

Sept. 3             Sunday – This morning brought news of England and France declared war against Germany . We went to Sunday School and the testimony and prayers of our good people were full of the Spirit of the Lord, each one spoke of the ward and prayed for strength for the Saints.

--typed up by Alicia Burk Riley, April 2015, from typewritten pages found at my parents' home
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Grandma Jordan was a descriptive writer.  I like how she tells about the two story homes she liked with flowers.  It shows me another side of her that I don’t remember.

She was a most perfect grandma.  I loved it when she played “This Little Piggy” with me, then laughed so merrily.  I later played it with all of my grandchildren.  She was very talented with her artwork and china, but she also embroidered dishtowels and pillowcases for her granddaughter’s “Hope Chests”. She also painted each granddaughter a set of beautiful, floral china.   She later made cute little crocheted dolly purses and embroidered books for her great-grandchildren.

Grandma Jordan had the warmest laugh. It just bubbled up from inside of her.  She was always very cheerful with her grandchildren, and loved to teach us how to do things.  

When I was staying with her on a break from BYU, she told me that she didn’t feel any older than when she was 17, but then she would look into the mirror and wonder who that woman with gray hair was!  My mother, my twin brother Bob, and I lived by her and Grandpa Jordan for the school year after my father died, in July of 1963.  We moved to Huntington Park from North Bend, Oregon, where  I started my Sophomore year at the same High School (I am guessing?) Lorna Graduated from in probably 1957.  (She lived with them at the end of her Senior year because she had gotten very sick in Oregon.  She needed the warm Los Angeles air to get well.)  My Grandma taught me to paint a china dish and I have it to this day.

~Linda Kay Flake Burk (This is told to the best of my memory : )

 Alicia with a picture of her great-grandmother Gladys

Silhouettes of George and Gladys / Gladys with her mother in Farmington, UT, early 1900's

Mary Jane Ainsworth (and Jarvis Johnson)

Alicia Burk - Linda Flake - Dolores Jordan - Gladys Stevenson - Sarah Adalaide Johnson - Mary Jane Ainsworth (1854-1916)

Family of Jarvis Johnson Sr.: Top row: Myrtal, Hazel, Jarvis Jr., Cynthia  2nd row: Sarah Adelaide, Rettie, Mary Jane Ainsworth Johnson, Joseph, Owen   Front Row: Wallace, Ruby     Iin the framed picture : Jarvis Johnson Sr   died: January 28 1898

When Mary Jane Ainsworth Johnson was a little girl in England, her father was an inventor. He worked hard and long and invented the first weaving machine. Because he was poor, he had a partner who furnished all the money while Grandfather did all the work. After the partner stole the patent for the weaving machine, Grandfather lost his mind and had to go the sanitarium. His wife was left with three children, our grandmother Mary Jane and her two older brothers. Mary Jane’s mother had to go to work to earn money to feed the family. Mary Jane’s brothers were old enough to go to school, but Mary Jane was locked into the house all day long and took care of herself. Mary Jane’s mother joined the Church and decided to come to America with her children. Before they left England to go to Utah, they visited their father in the sanitarium to say good-bye. He told them how happy he was that they were going to Utah and then he picked up stones from the ground and gave each child a stone. He thought the stones were money and told each child how much money he was giving them and instructed them to spend it wisely. Mary Jane was eight years old when they left England and crossed the ocean in a boat. One day, she fell overboard but was rescued and brought safely back on board. After arriving in Nauvoo, they crossed the plains. Along the way,

Mary Jane and her brothers picked up buffalo chips for the evening fire. One day as they were laughing and running along, collecting buffalo chips, the children realized they were lost. They couldn’t see anyone around and they didn’t know which way to go to find the wagon train. Mary Jane began to cry. “A lovely lady came to them and said, ‘Why are you crying, dear?’ ‘We’ve lost the wagon train and don’t know where to go.’ And she said, ‘Oh, don’t cry anymore. I’ll take you.’ So she took them until they could see the fire of the evening camp. When she showed them the fire and said, ‘Now go to the fire and that’s your camp,’ they ran quickly without looking to see where the dear lady went or to thank her and when they came into camp the men were just getting up a possy to go look for them. They told their story and the elders told her that this was surely an angel of the Lord had that helped them because they were so far away from any civilization that it couldn’t have been a human person. She always remembered this and told us this so that we would have faith if we got lost and would pray to the Lord.” Mary Jane’s mother married again when she reached Utah, but she was ill with heart trouble and died when Mary Jane was 16. Mary Jane now had nowhere to live, so she went to work for Jarvis Johnson. Jarvis Johnson brought many people with handcarts across the plains and was a widower with 12 children. Mary Jane kept house for him for a year, and after a year was over, the children loved her so much that they begged her to marry their father so that she would never have to leave them. So Mary Jane married Jarvis when she was 17 years old. She gave birth to 10 children and raised all 22 children. She also raised one granddaughter whose mother died when the baby was one-year-old. Mary Jane lived until she was 60 and did much genealogy. As she was canvassing door-to-door to make ends meet, a lady was about to throw out a book but gave it to Mary Jane. It was a record of her Ainsworth ancestors, so Mary Jane did much temple work. “I loved and honored her very much. I always wanted to be just like her.”

Source: Cassette-tape interview with Gladys Stevenson Jordan, by John Rogers Burk, 1971

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Mary Jane Ainsworth with granddaughter Deborah Goodsell

In the middle of the eighteenth century there lived in Staffordshire, England, a worthy couple, Joseph Ainsworth and his wife Mary Huff. They were a religious, God-fearing couple and when the Gospel was firsttaken to England by Apostle Heber C. Kimball, they were converted and becamemembers of the Church on July 4, 1854. Mary Jane was born July 4, 1853. Two older brothers, Joseph and James, also blessed their union. When Mary Jane was two years old her father died. Shortly after his death twin boys were born, but they only lived about three weeks. The father was an inventor and died of shock when his partner stole the patent to his invention which he had spent the best years of his life making ready for use.

Jane was baptized at age eight. One month later the family left England in a sailing vessel to cast their lot with the Saints of God, to share their difficulties, and enjoy their great blessings. They were five weeks on the ocean and their mother was ill all the time. Jane enjoyed the trip, though one day she nearly fell overboard and was saved by a sailor. They had for food only some corn beef and a small cake of white bread once a week. They landed at Castle Grade, New York, then went by sail and boat to Council Bluffs, Iowa. They crossed the plains by ox team in Captain Henrey W. Miller’s Company,leaving Florence, Nebraska, August 8, with sixty wagons and 665 emigrants. Theyarrived in Salt Lake City October 17. The company suffered much from sicknessand about 28 persons died on the journey. Their mother was ill all the way andthe children walked the entire distance. One day when it was nearly evening and time to camp, Jane and her younger brother, Jim, began, as was their custom, to gather buffalo chips for the campfire. Jim was putting some in a sack, while those Jane gathered she carried in her apron. They were so intent upon theirwork that they did not notice that the teams had gone far ahead and had disappeared from sight. Darkness came on and the wolves were howling all around. It was only natural that this boy of ten and girl of eight should be very much afraid. Remembering the counsel of their mother, who was a very prayerful woman, they sent an earnest and faithful prayer to their Father to keep them from harm and to guide them safely to the company. Shortly they saw an old lady who said, “Don’t cry my little dears, I’ll take you to the camp.Follow me.” When they were nearly there, not being a member of their camp, she disappeared. Their mother told them it was their guardian angel, for what mortal being would be there on that trackless waste so far from human habitation alone at night.

After arriving in Utah, Jane went out to service in the home of a Sister Willis at 50 cents a week and board. She was the mother-in-law of Joseph A. Young. Jane’s mother was an invalid for three years, which necessitated the children doing all they could to provide for themselves andher. When they had been there about three years her mother married Robert Wilson. They moved to a farm in Mill Creek. About a year later Robert Wilson was mortally wounded in a runaway and died in about a week, suffering untold agony. The doctor came once and dressed the wounds. Jane and her brother caredfor him the rest of the time, sitting up with him every night. The day he died their wheat stocks, hay, and everything they had burned to the ground. The shock of losing everything they had and her husband’s death was too much for the already weakened body of the little mother. She died a week later. She passed to her final rest in October 1866. Her last words to her daughter were, “My dear, never leave the Gospel, ‘tis true, and I want to meet you on the other side.” She was a wise mother. Young as her daughter was, she had taught her the secrets of her own being, which was a great safety to her when she was left alone in the world.

Brother Wilson was a silk spinner, but there being nothing in that line to do here, he was willing to work at anything. Besides farming,he and his wife’s sons made the poles for the first meeting house at Mill Creek.

After her mother’s death, Jane worked at one time for $1.50 a week milking thirteen cows night and morning, besides her other work. She later stayed with a Sister White who was very kind to her. Through her own efforts and with the help of Sister White, she learned to read well and to write a fair hand. She was always a great reader, thus accumulating considerable knowledge.

When her older brother was eighteen, he was called to fight in the Black Hawk War. In the spring of 1869 they moved north to Brigham City.Although only fifteen years old, she went to keep house for Jarvis Johnson. He had 12 children who loved her so much they persuaded her to marry their father.

During the first year of her marriage, she spun yarn enough to make fifteen yards of cloth, enough for the children’s clothes. She knit for the family summer and winter, even making suits for her husband and his sons.She also sewed for others. She was a very prayerful woman and earnestly prayedfor wisdom to guide her in her duties of wife and mother. Her prayers must havebeen answered because every one of her husband’s children lived at home until they were married. She was the mother of 10 children, four sons and six girls.Two children died with appendicitis, each at the age of 21. When her second child, Addie, was born, she had typhoid fever. The doctor said she could not live, but through the faith and prayers of her husband, Brother Adolph Madsen and other friends, she was restored to health and strength.

The spring after her marriage she became a member of the Relief Society. When the Retrenchment Association was first organized, Sister Minnie J. Snow was president, and Jane was chosen as a counselor. When the city was divided into wards, she was chosen counselor of the fourth ward.

The Johnson family moved to a farm in Beaver in the spring of 1880. While there she was president of the Primary 20 years and a teacher in Relief Society. She did most of her knitting going to and coming from her meetings. She was in four run-aways,being thrown out three times, but never having a limb or skin broken.

Her husband died when her baby was one year old and nine months. She had two married children and eight at home. Before his death he said to her, “Mamma, I leave you in the hands of the Lord. You will never want for any of the comforts of life. The Lord will always provide for you for what you have done for me and mine, and I shall always pray for you.” About a year after his death she moved to Logan. She went out nursing the sick for about four years, then she rented a house with 20 rooms and kept a boarding house for three years. Her health became broken so she took up canvassing. She did better financially at this than anything she had yet tried.

Jane helped prepare many bodies for burial, often making the clothes for them. She did endowments for about 300 and has been baptized for many more. She has a genealogy for about 1,700 of the Ainsworth family. In 1915 she had eight living children, 37 living grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, all faithful members of the Church.

On a visit to the home of Brother Madison, he said to her, “Sister Johnson, when you get to the other side and relate your earthly experiences people will gladly sit and listen.” We certainly believe this true, for who does not love to listen to the rich experience of an unselfish life. Sister Johnson certainly had a life devoted to others and to the work of God. Truly the greatest lives are the lives of service, for did not the Great Teacher say,“The servant of all is the greatest of all. He who would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, let him be the least and the servant of all.”

--by her granddaughter, Gladys Stevenson Jordan (typewritten papers transcribed by Alicia)

 

Children of Jarvis Johnson and Mary Jane Ainsworth:                     / Sarah Adalaide Johnson

Tin type photo 1877

Sarah Adalaide Johnson (born Jan 18 1873) 

Jarvis Johnson ( born sept 27 1876) 

Mary Emereta Johnson (Retty) (born February 6 1871) 

Wilford Albert Stevenson and Sarah Adalaide Johnson

Alicia Burk - Linda Flake - Dolores Jordan - Gladys Stevenson - Wilford Stevenson and Sarah Johnson

Wilford (1871-1946) remembers as a little pioneer boy hearing the meadowlarks sing. He thought they were singing, “I see lazy WILford.” His parents told him that because they didn’t want him to be lazy! He didn’t like to work, but he grew up to be a hard worker.

As a little boy, Wilford lived on a 50-acre-farm but didn’t like to work on the farm because they had to make their own crude farm tools and did much work by hand. They had wooden rakes rather than metal rakes (Wilford later gave a wooden rake to a Utah museum). Wilford and his brothers grew up in the times of the outlaw Jesse James. The brothers loved to play Jesse James and became quite rough in acting out Jesse James. Wilford was very musical and could play almost anything--violin, flute, piano, almost anything anyone gave him to play. The family had a little band of their own and played for the dances. Wilford and his brother later played flute and piano for dances, too. Wilford was in the first primary, organized by Aurelia Spencer Rogers, and had a little membership card. On a famous painting of the first primary, Wilford is one of the little boys sitting on the bench. 

Wilford had an eighth-grade education and was considered very educated. In those days, people were lucky to receive a third or fourth-grade education. So people came to Wilford from all over town to ask for his help in figuring out things and doing things they weren’t educated to do. While travelling to another part of Utah, Wilford stayed in a boarding house. A girl named was working in the boarding house; she and Wilford got married. They took out a dry farm (or homestead) for a few years. One terrible winter, Wilford had to go tend to the cows and horses. As he walked in the blizzard, he could not see to find his way home and wandered around and around. Luckily, his wife stood on the porch with a lantern held high, and he eventually spotted the light and found his way home. The next day when he went to , he saw his footprints in the snow and noticed that they went within one foot of a deep well. If he’d fallen in he could have been killed. “So the Lord was with him to guide him back to the house safely.” He had a big dog on that farm and he loved the dog very much. One day, Wilford’s two-year-old son escaped from the house and ran out among the horses. As the dog followed the boy, he ran in circles around the boy, while barking and barking to keep the horses from trampling the little boy. The dog had saved the boy’s life until his mother and father discovered he was missing and came to find him. 

Life on the farm was hard; if it rained they had a good crop, if it didn’t rain they had a poor harvest. Another of Wilford’s sons had long curly hair down to his shoulders. His mother didn’t have any little girls, so she let her son have long hair and wouldn’t let anyone cut it. One day while mother was at Relief Society, Wilford got out the scissors and gave his son a boy haircut. Mother cried when she saw the haircut! Later, the family was drinking from their well which had typhoid germs. Mother had just recovered from typhoid when Wilford became very sick with the typhoid. Mother was too weak to care for him, so she had a spiritualist nurse come. During the heavy snows, someone would knock at the door but when Mother opened the door, no one was there. There weren’t even any footprints there. The nurse said not to answer the door; it was spirits coming to see her, she said. Mother was frightened and sent the nurse away. After the nurse was gone, Wilford was so enraged that he couldn’t be held down or calmed. So Mother let the woman come back, and as soon as she came in, Wilford calmed down and was quiet.

--by his daughter Gladys

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Sarah Adelaide Johnson (wife of Wilford Albert Stevenson) 1873-1930

 Sarah (2nd row, far left) with her mother Mary (2nd row, 3rd from left) and siblings

Sarah / Sarah with Ruth

Joseph White and Ruby Elnora Sterns, and their daughter Sarah Elnora White

Joseph White (Born in Boston in 1801, Married Ruby Elnora Sterns in 1829, Father of Sarah Elnora White, Died in 1850) and Ruby Elnora Sterns

Joseph was born in a small log cabin in Boston in 1801. After marrying Ruby, he took her home to Boston for one year, then they moved to Palmyra, New York, where their baby Sarah was born. In 1834 they moved to Ohio. In 1838, Joseph heard the Gospel preached by a missionary and was converted at once. Upon arriving home, he told his wife that he had found the gospel that he had been seeking for all his life. Ruby was a Methodist school teacher and investigated the Church for a year before joining in 1839. She was baptized by Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon. Her family was very upset at her for joining the Church, so Joseph and Ruby moved to Nauvoo. In 1840, Joseph joined the Nauvoo legion and was a mounted guard until the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. The Whites lived just one mile from Carthage Jail, then in Bear Creek (eight miles out of Nauvoo). While Joseph was guarding Nauvoo, word came that all Mormon families would be killed or tortured in a terrible way. As a result, Ruby Elnora and her children went to a neighbor’s home with a big cellar. Each evening, several families locked themselves in the cellar for safety, while the house was guarded by six armed men outside. This continued for about two weeks, during which time no one took off their clothes.

In 1846, the Whites moved to Council Bluffs on their trek to Utah. They drove into Council Bluffs at night with nothing more than a wagon and a yoke of oxen. The next morning, Joseph told his wife that he had volunteered to join the Mormon Battalion. Ruby Elnora fainted, but a neighbor comforted her and said he’d care for the family until Joseph returned. Leaving his family camped in their covered wagon, Joseph walked all the way to Mexico and California, then returned to Council Bluffs by way of Utah in 1847. Joseph found his family in a two-room log cabin; in one room, Ruby Elnora had been teaching school to support the family for nearly two years. The Bishop and other men had decided to build her the cabin so she could teach all the children. Ruby Elnora was a wonderful teacher and was paid with flour and clothes and everything to keep them well and warm. Joseph worked for another year in Council Bluffs, earning money for two wagons, two yoke of oxen for one wagon and four oxen and two cows on the other wagon. A man bought him a wagon if he would carry groceries for him. They headed west in April 1849 and spent four months on the trail. Once while crossing a deep stream, Joseph was riding behind the wagon driven by his 12-year-old son. When an undercurrent of water hit them and Joseph thought Robert might drown, Joseph screamed for him to jump on the back of the head oxen and turn them back in the proper course. With the aid of his Heavenly Father, Robert jumped safely onto the back of the oxen and in a miraculous way turned the oxen in the right direction, thus saving the lives of them all. While on their trek, the pioneers caught cholera from the Indians and many pioneers died. Joseph became very ill, overdosed on the medicine, and as a result slept for three days. He appeared to be dead and was prepared for burial, but then he woke up from his deep sleep!

The Whites settled in Farmington and were able to clear, plow, and plant wheat that year. Joseph left in early 1850 to try for gold in California. When he returned in the fall, he was sick but planted four acres of wheat. He fenced his farm, then cut and

shocked all his wheat. But he worked too hard and took sick with a bad sore throat and died within five days. He was one of the first people buried in the Salt Lake Cemetery.

Sarah Elnora White (Born November 18, 1831, in New York Married James Stevenson Died January 12, 1915 (age 83))

Eleanor lived in Nauvoo when she was a little girl, while Joseph Smith was a prophet. Her father was a guard to help protect Joseph Smith; wherever the Prophet was, Grandfather White could also be found. When Sarah was about 8 or 9, she played with the jailer’s daughter. Sarah’s friend lived in the same jail in which Joseph Smith was killed. Sarah often went to the jail to play with her friend; she drew many a bucket of water from the well and oftimes dangled her feet from the window where the prophet and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred. One day as Sarah and her family were walking out of their front gate, a man on horseback rode down the street waving a hat and crying that the prophet and his brother had been killed. (Margaret Steed Hess, My Farmington 1847-1976, p.122)

In 1845, Sarah travelled to Council Bluffs and lived there while her father served in the Mormon Battalion’s march to Mexico. When Sarah was 16, she crossed the plains with the pioneers. Sarah and her 12-year-old brother were in charge of driving a team of oxen hitched to a wagon, while her parents drove another team and wagon. That way, her family would have two teams of oxen and two wagons when they reached the Salt Lake Valley. Sarah and her brother traded off riding a horse while leading the cows and driving the wagon. Many times, the pioneers didn’t have enough food and Sarah was very hungry. One day, they boiled the leather harnesses (worn by the oxen) to make some soup. One day while crossing a river, the oxen and wagon became caught in a whirlpool. Sarah and her brother were riding alone in the wagon and bravely manipulated the oxen until they arrived safely on the other side of the river and climbed onto the bank. At some deep streams, the water was so high due to rainfall that the pioneers would raise the wagon box by placing four blocks under the box. Even then the water often came into the wagon and soaked all their goods. Halfway across the plains, the pioneers came to a big river and had to be ferried across (they took turns riding on a big raft made of logs). 1500 Indians were coming across the river going the other direction, so after a load of pioneers crossed the river, a load of Indians rode the ferry back across the river. When night came on, 50 pioneers were camping on one side of the river and 50 pioneers were on the other side of the river, both groups surrounded by Indians. A double guard was placed for protection, but the Indians were not hostile. That evening, a teenage boy and girl went for a walk along the river bank. They had been warned not to go beyond the covered wagons, but they walked too far and were kidnapped by Indians. A big Indian came into the pioneers’ camp with an interpreter and informed the pioneers that the two teenagers would be returned if the pioneers would give their best team of oxen to the Indians, which they did. Sarah camped on the ground that night with Indians all around on one side and buffalo running around on the other side, with wolves howling in the distance. One night the buffalo frightened the oxen and caused them to stampede and run away. It took two days to locate all the oxen. Every Sunday, the pioneers rested from their travels to hold church meetings and show gratitude to the Lord.

When they arrived in Utah, they settled in Farmington, . Sarah met and married a pioneer boy, James Stevenson. They lived with Sarah’s mother for one year, then they

built a house out of rocks with walls one-foot thick. In the fireplace they cooked all their food. The large windows had deep windowsills, so deep they could use them as tables! They had to leave their comfortable home and move south when Johnston’s Army was marching to Utah. They thought everything would be burned when they returned home, but Brigham Young promised them that nothing would be harmed. The family had two beds in the one big room; father and mother slept in the one big bed, while all the children slept on a bed that was kept underneath the parents’ bed and pulled out at nighttime. Sarah and James had 12 children, but not all of them lived. One time, Sarah and some of the children were very ill with diptheria. Sarah had two daughters at the time and both of them died. Shortly thereafter, Sarah gave birth to another daughter. The baby was rushed out of the home and cared for by a neighbor until the Stevenson’s had recovered from diptheria. This baby was the only surviving daughter. She had six older brothers, one of whom is our great-great-great-grandfather Wilford Albert Stevenson.

One time, the Indians came to Sarah’s home while all the men were up in the canyons cutting wood. “They didn’t know just what to do, but Aunt Emma...talked in tongues to these Indians and she had never spoken a word in her life of the Indian language. She never knew what she said to them, but it frightened them so that they got on their horses and went away very quickly. This was always a testimony to me that they Lord will help you when you really need it.” According to Margaret Hess, Aunt Nancy talked to the six Indians in the Indians’ language, then invited the Indians to eat dinner with them. The Indians made her understand that if she would give each Indian a blanket, they would leave in peace, and they did.

Sources: Cassette-tape interview with Gladys Stevenson Jordan, by John Rogers Burk, 1971

Margaret Steed Hess, My Farmington 1847-1976, p.122-26)

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(The following typewritten account by Gladys Stevenson is nearly identical to the account above.)

Sarah Elnora’s father, Joseph White, was born in 1801 in Boston. At age 28 he married Ruby Elnora Stearns. He took her home to Boston for one year. In 1830 they moved to Jefferson Co., New York. Sarah Elnora was born here on November 18, 1831. In 1834 they moved to Ohio. Here in 1836 at 34 Joseph White heard the Gospel preached by Acel Blachard and was converted at once. On arriving home he told his wife that he had found the Gospel he had been seeking all of his life. Sarah Elnora’s mother was a school teacher and a Methodist. She did not become converted until 1839 and then after a year of investigation, she was baptized by Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses. Her family was extremely bitter toward her for joining the Mormon Church so they moved to Nauvoo.

At Nauvoo in 1840, Joseph W. joined the Nauvoo Legion. He was one of the mounted guards and remained one until and during the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. While Joseph W. was guarding Nauvoo, the little family moved to Carthage, just one mile from the jail. Elnora played with the jail keeper’s little girl. She drew many a bucket of water from the well and often dangled her feet from the window where the prophet and brother Hyrum were martyred. During this time of mob bitterness toward the Mormons, her family moved to Bear Creek, about 8 miles out of Nauvoo. Joseph White was on guard in the City of Nauvoo when it was feared that all Mormon families would be killed or tortured in some terrible way. It was unsafe for Ruby Elnora and her little family to stay home at night so they went to Russel White’s home, a large house with a large cellar. Each evening with the other families they were locked in for safety. The house outside was guarded by six armed men. This continued for about two weeks during which time no one took off their clothes. One day as they were going out of their gate to go to the Hyde home a man on horseback came down the street waving a hat and crying that the prophet and his brother Hyrum had been killed.

After one year on the farm at Bear Creek, the family moved back to Nauvoo, in the fall of 1844. In 1846 the White family moved to Council Bluffs. They drove at night with nothing more than a yoke of oxen. The next morning Sarah Elnora’s father came into camp and said he had volunteered to join the Mormon Battalion and go to Mexico to fight for his country. On hearing this his wife fainted, but Brother Miller, a neighbor, comforted her, saying he would care for her and the family during Joseph’s absence. Joseph walked all the way to Mexico and California. He returned through Salt Lake City and met the pioneers there in 1847 and reached Council Bluffs the same year. He found his family living in a  two-room log cabin. One room was used for a school where Sarah Elnora’s mother taught and supported the family. She taught school for almost two years to pay for food and clothing to keep them well and warm. When Joseph White left with the Mormon Battalion, his family was camped in a wagon. Daniel Miller, bishop of the little colony of pioneers, called the men together and they decided to build a log cabin with one room for a school and the other room for the family to live in. All the children of hte colony came to the little school as she was a splendid teacher. In this way the family was cared for until Joseph returned from Mexico. Sarah Elnora was 13 when they arrived in Council Bluffs and 16 when the family started across the plains to Utah in 1848. They remained in Council Bluffs during 1848 while Joseph earned money to outfit two wagons and teams. The teams were two oxen on one wagon and four oxen and two cows on the other. A man bought them a wagon if they would carry groceries for him.

The White family was in Captain Gully’s charge and there were 100 teams. This division was again divided into 50 teams with Captain Vanderhoof as head and Captain McCarthey was head over the division of 10 teams. The journey began in April 1849 and took four months. Sarah Elnora, just a girl of 16, drove one team of oxen in the afternoon and in the morning rode a horse and drove the cattle. Her brother Robert, just 12, drove the oxen in the morning and the cattle in the afternoon. About half way across the plains they came to a river and had to be ferried across. About 1500 Indians were moving camp in the opposite direction. This meant that after a load of Saints was taken over, a load of Indians was brought back. That night fifty teams were on one side of the river and 50 on the other side. A double guard was posted for protection but the Indians were not hostile. While camped by the river that evening a boy and girl about 19 went for a walk along the river bank. They had been warned not to go outside the enclosure of wagons. They were kidnapped by the Indians and a short time later a big Indian with an interpreter informed the pioneers that they would return the two for the finest yoke of oxen they had. They were given the oxen and the two were returned. The Indians had cholera and the pioneers took it from them. Ten out of the 50 died with it, Captain McCarthey being one of them. Joseph White also took the cholera, but he recovered after a severe attack. He took an overdose of medicine which caused him to sleep for three days. They prepared to fix him for burial for they supposed he would die, but he awoke and fully recovered.

Imagine camping at night with all the wagons in a circle forming a corral, the Indians wandering about on one side and buffalo on the other, and listening to the uncanny howling of wolves. One night the buffalo frightened the oxen and caused them to stampede. It took two days to round them up. Some of the streams were so high because of the rains that it was almost impossible to cross. They raised the wagon  box by putting blocks under it and even then sometimes the water soaked all their goods. One stream of water was especially swift. Joseph White was in the wagon behind the one his son Robert was driving. The leaders on Robert’s wagon turned downstream because of the the current hitting them. Realizing the danger of his son and the oxen drowning, Joseph called to him to jump on the back of the head oxen and turn them back in the proper direction. With the aid of his Father in Heaven the boy jumped safely onto the back of the oxen and some way turned them back, thus saving himself and his oxen, which were so valuable to them. Sunday was a day held sacred by them and they ceased their travel to hold meetings and show gratitude to the Lord. They also had their recreation period in their little circle when music, singing and dancing were enjoyed.

After four months of travel this division of pioneers landed in Salt Lake City coming through Emigration Canyon. Joseph’s family went to Farmington, and took up land and began farming. The winter of 1849 was mild and Joseph cleared, plowed and planted one acre of  at. Joseph and Amasa Lyman and a company of 100 men left for California in the spring of 1850 to look for gold. When summer came and the wheat grew tall and ripened with no one to cut it, Sarah Elnora and Robert went into the fields and with a scythe cut the wheat. The brave youngsters with the help of their mother shocked the wheat and thrashed it. This was done with two wagon covers sewed together and flakes made from willows. After the wheat was sacked the two children hauled it to Brigham Young’s flour mill at Liberty Park to be ground.

Joseph White returned from California in the fall, sick. He planted four acres of wheat, fenced his farm and scythed and cradled the grain. he took sick with putrid sore throat and within five days he died. He was buried in one of the first graves in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

After her father’s death, Sarah Elnora went out to work at different places. Before she became 21 she married James Stevenson of Salt Lake City. They lived one year with her mother and then rented a farm.James built a log cabin on the main street of Farmington. In 1853 he went on a mission to the Indians at Fort Supply, some miles from Fort Bridger. He had just finished building two more rooms and making them comfortable when they call came to go south on account of Johnson’s Army coming. They had to leave everything except what they were to eat and wear, and did not expect to find anything when they returned, if they ever did return. They thought it would all be burned. They went south with Brigham Young and he promised them nothing would be harmed. When they returned no damage had been done. Once all of the men had to go into the hills, to get logs, leaving one man to fire a gun if help was needed. One day while the women were preparing dinner, six warriors with intent to  kill came up to the house. Nancy Stevenson, wife of Edward, went calmly to them and for the first time in her life talked in tongues. It was the language of the Indians. Aunt Nancy had dinner served and invited the Indians in to eat. They ate dinner and made her understand that if she would give them each one blanket they would leave in peace, and they kept their word.

Here in this little home they raised six children and buried five, for a total of 11. They added two more frame rooms, making a five room house. They were very happy there and celebrated their 65th anniversary of married life. Both were well at that time. Sarah Elnora died January 12, 1915, at the age of 83 and James Stevenson, 29 March 1916 at the age of 85. Both died at the old homestead they built as pioneers in Farmington, and were buried by their five children in the city cemetery.

---by Sarah’s granddaughter, Gladys Stevenson Jordan (typed up by Alicia)

pic on right: 1852 age 21

 1896 age 65  / 1905 age 74

Obituary of Sarah Elnora White
appeared in the Deseret News January 12, 1915

Death of Mrs. Stevenson, Utah Pioneer of 1849. Mrs. Stevenson, an esteemed pioneer, passed away at 1:30 this morning at her home in Farmington. She was loved by all who knew her, her live having been one of goodness from childhood to old age. She cast her lot among the Later-day Saints when only a child, her father having been baptized when she was 7 years old and her mother one year later by Martin Harris, on of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon.
Mrs. Stevenson, formerly Sara Elnora White. was born Mar. 18. 1831 in Pamella, Jefferson county, New York. Her father, Joseph White, later became a member of the Nauvoo Legion and was one of the mounted body guards of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was also one of the Mormon Battalion.
Mrs. Stevenson endured the many persecutions at Nauvoo. The trip to Utah was by ox team, with all hardships and privations incident to that great pilgrimage. The journey was made particularly sad from the fact that she witnessed the burial of many companions who died from cholera. She arrived in Utah in the fall of 1849, when her father and mother made their home in Farmington. She also experienced the discomforts of the move south.
Mrs. Stevenson is survived by a husband, James Stevenson, and six children William H., Edward D., Wilford A., Frank, Orson L. Stevenson and Mrs. Herbert Stayner. Funeral announcement will be later.