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.

James Stevenson

Alicia Burk--Linda Flake--Dolores Jordan--Gladys Stevenson-Wilford Albert Stevenson-James Stevenson

 Edward, James (age 22) and Elizabeth Stevenson in 1852

James at age 40 and at age 75

James Stevenson was born 12 August, 1830, in Albany, Jefferson County, New York, to Joseph Stevenson and Elizabeth Stearns. Little is known about his childhood. He left Council Bluffs when about 16 or 17 years old with his parents and family. They arrived. in Salt Lake City Valley in 1848. He always liked to fight for his Church of country. He often said it was easier to fight for the Church than to live for it. He offered to fight in the Mormon Battalion but was too young and could not go. He was a very quiet and reserved man, and he loved music of all kinds.

He left Salt Lake and came to California in the Gold Rush. He found some gold but living was so high that his gold did him little good. I have heard him say he paid $20 for a pair of boots and $15 for a bottle of pickles. He became ill from lack of proper food and returned home. He must have stayed with his brother Edward where his mother lived. He went from there to Farmington to work; while he was working on a threshing machine he met Sarah Elnora White. This friendship bloomed into a beautiful romance and on 3 November 1852 they were married, and sealed in the Endowment House in 1853. He built a home of two rooms. The first two rooms were adobe, and a third room being added on the east was a rock room. In this little home there were 11 children born, 8 boys and 3 girls and in this home 5 of them died as children, 3 boys and 2 girls. The two little girls, one 4 and one 2, died with diphtheria just a month apart. Their mother being very sick with the disease did not know of their death until she recovered and found them gone.

When Grandmother White died she left them her 22-acre farm. Here James raised fruit and vegetables selling them in Salt Lake. They always had several cows and pigs. He was a good musician, playing several instruments: violin, base drum, base horn and snare drum. He organized an orchestra in which he played violin for 30 years around Davis County, Utah. This helped financially. He organized a brass band in which he played a base horn, and he also organized a marshall band in which he played the snare drums. He never took a lesson of music in his life but memorized it by going to fine concerts and hearing the great artists play. One evening he attended the Salt Lake Theater and heard a new tune. He went home and found he could only play half of it, which upset him very much. He went to sleep and dreamed the rest of the tune, got up in the small hours of the morning and played the tune clear through until he knew it well.

He was a member of Lot Smith’s army that protected the Saints from invasion by Johnson’s Army and from the Indian uprising. He went with this army to arbitrate with Captain Johnson. There were about 40 men. When Johnson asked where the rest of the men were, Lot Smith answered, “Just beyond the hill.” There were very few men beyond the hill and this little band of faithful men succeeded in holding the army of the U.S.A. from destroying the homes and land of the Saints for the last time. He also fought in the Morrisite War at Morristown.

He was a good provider for his family and was always ready to give his life for his Church or Country. He died in the same house that he built for his young wife, the same home his children were raised in and where one year before, Jan. 12, 1915, his wife died at the age of 83. On 29 March 1916 at the age of 85 he left this earth for his reward.

--As told by his son Frank Stevenson to his granddaughter, Gladys Stevenson Jordan

----

James Stevenson (father of Wilford)

(Son of Elizabeth Stevens and Joseph Stevenson Born August 12, 1830, New York Married Sarah Elnora White in Salt Lake City, 1852 Died March 29, 1916, Farmington, UT)

James’ family joined the Church a few years after the Gospel was restored, and James was baptized when he was eight years old. When James was 18, his family joined the pioneer trek west to Utah. When the United States Government asked for 500 volunteers to join an army to fight Mexico, James offered to join this Mormon Battalion. But he was too young and just continued on the Salt Lake. During the Gold Rush, he briefly traveled to California. After marrying Sarah Elnora White, he built a one-room log cabin on Main Street in Farmington, UT, and later added two more rooms. Just as he finished building these two rooms, the call came for the settlers to move south because Johnston’s Army was coming to Utah to attack the Mormons. James and Sarah remained in Springville for a month before returning home. James was a member of the Lot Smith Cavalry that protected the saints. He filled a mission to the Lamanites in 1853. He organized the first four bands in Farmington, including a Drum and Fife Band. He played a horn, a snare drum, and a violin; his drum is on display in a Utah museum today. He played violin in a Farmington orchestra for 30 years for dances, theaters, and entertainments. He taught his boys how to play and had music in the home. He gave his boys one-half day off a week and took them hunting or fishing. He also gave them about one day off a month if they would not play games on Sunday.
(Margaret Steed Hess, My Farmington 1847-1976, p.122)

1895, about age 65

 Obituary of James Stevenson

appeared in the Deseret News March 30, 1916

JAMES STEVENSON OF FARMINIGTON IS DEAD
James Stevenson, a pioneer resident of Farmington, died here yesterday afternoon. 
Mr. Stevenson was born in Albany, N.Y. Aug 12, 1830. His father died when he was two years old and his mother joined the Church among the earliest converts. He was a brother of the late Edward Stevenson, known in past years as a missionary, traveler and lecturer throughout the Church. There were also two sisters. The mother, with her little family, passed through the trying times of early Church history, both before the migration westward and in Utah, where she arrived with her children in 1848. James Stevenson married Elnora White Nov 3, 1852; she died Jan 12, 1915. There were 11 children born to them, six of whom are living, five sons and one daughter; three boys and two girls died in infancy. Mr. Stevenson came to Farmington among the first settlers and his life is closely interwoven with the history of the community. He was known for 30 years as the leading violinist of Davis county and he played for dances and entertainments until old age stiffened the once deft fingers. Mr. Stevenson was one of Lot Smith's cavalry soldier in the Echo canyon episode and further east in 1857. All his life he was ever ready and willing to do is share in public work and a s father, husband and citizen he was typical His children are: there are 16 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock in the Farmington ward chapel .

Sarah Elnora White and her father, Joseph White

SARAH ELNORA WHITE and her father, JOSEPH WHITE

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 wheat. 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

----
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.