John Prichard Squire

                   John Prichard Squire - My 2nd Great Grandpa
                   Essay written by Loren D. Squire, my grandpa

                                     Born: 30 March 1824
                                      Died: 25 April 1872

John Prichard Squire was born March 30, 1824, in Bainbridge, Geauga County, Ohio. He was a son of Aaron and Elizabeth Prichard Squire. He kept a journal or diary, from the age of 21 when he left his home in Ohio.

Lorenzo Snow, born in Manua, Ohio, April 3, 1814, became an early convert to the Mormon Churtch in Kirtland, Ohio, 1836, and began missionary work in his neighborhood. Among the families he visited was the Squire family in nearby Bainbridge. He converted John P. Squire and his older sister Harriet, who became one of Lorenzo Snow's wives.

John P. Squire came to Utah with the Lorenzo Snow Company, arriving in Salt Lake City, September 22, 1848. At the October conference in 1849, Lorenzo Snow was called to open up the mission in Italy. He hired John P. Squire to take care of his families during his absence. He returned from his mission August 30, 1852.

October 1, 1852, Mr. Squire left the employ of Lorenzo Snow and left for Manti, where he built a one-room log cabin for the purpose of opening a school, which he did December 13, 1852.

A couple of weeks after opening the school, Mr. Squire married Adelia DeMill, December 31, 1852. She was the daughter of Freeborn and Ann Knight DeMill, who was born in Jackson County, Missouri, September 19, 1832. This school room became their home, where they moved the school benches out after school and beds for family living.

This journal states that he taught school in this building until February, 1856, when illness forced him to close down. He died April 25, 1872, at the age of 48. They were the parents of 8 children -- 2 had died, leaving Mrs. Squire a widow with six children to raise. Mrs. Squire also raised 2 grandchildren whose mothers had died at his birth, and Alice Squire, a daughter of Oliver, the youngest son.


I (the author of this story) started school in Manti the fall of 1904, and got the job of getting the kindling wood and coal (when they had it) in for Widow Squire after school each night. She was 62 when I started this job and I did it for several years. I used to play with a sword that hung in a metal scabbard from a peg in the wall. My arms were not long enough to draw the sword without dropping the scabbard to the floor. Widow Squire said her father, Freeborn DeMill, had brought it all the way across the plains to Manti, as it was the one his father Garrett DeMill owned and used in the Revolutionary War, while he served in Duchess County, New York Militia, under the command of Colonel Abraham Brinkerhoff.