Loren DeLance Squire Family History Chapter 9

I think it's nice that my grandpa not only wrote on his genealogy, but in this chapter he writes on his wife's line as well.  Very interesting to read about my ancestors, who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when the church was still in its infancy.  I owe so much to my forbears.  I am so grateful for the choices they made, which have placed me where I am today!

CHAPTER NINE 

THE SANDERS-WILSON LINE...MY WIFE'S LINE 

On Renthun Street in Birmingham, England there lived William Isom and his wife Elizabeth Austin, where on May 2. 1814 they had a son born to them and named him Owen. Owen had one older sister, named Sarah and three younger brothers. 

As a young man Owen was working in a factory when he met a young lady working at the same place by the name of Elizabeth Howard, a daughter of William Howard and Tamer Mills. She was born Sept 13 1821 in Birmingham also. They had to sign a contract to work for at least a year to get a job at this factory. Six months before their year was up they were married. Each lived with their parents until the year was up and then moved unto themselves.

Their sixth child was a girl and was given the name of Sarah Elizabeth. She was born June 14 1854. This family was converted to and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In May 1860 they left their home and went to Liverpool, where they boarded the ship William Tapscott and on May 8, 1860 set sail for the United States and Utah where they planned to made their home. Sarah Elizabeth was a month short of being six years old. The two older children William and Mary, had good jobs so stayed in England to work for another year to raise funds on which to travel. Two other children had died in England and their baby died of smallpox just after landing in the US.

Owen and his two elder sons got employment in a harness and Military equipment factory in New York as they did not have enough funds to go on. In the spring of 1861 William and Mary who had remained behind in England arrived in New York. William had married in England before leaving and he with his wife and sister, Mary, had funds to go on to Salt Lake so departed, leaving the rest of the family in New York. It was not until May of 1862 that they felt they had funds enough to travel to Salt Lake, so they left with a company of converts.

They traveled by train to St. Joseph, Missouri. A fire on the train just before reaching their destination burned most of their belongings. They took a boat from St. Joseph to Florence, Nebraska which was as far as boats went at that time. From there they went to Elk Horn River, a meeting place of the saints and where companies were organized to cross the plains. With the exception of the mother and baby the rest walked all the way across the grassy plains of Nebraska and on over the Rocky Mountains. Their oxen had become poor and tired out, so they traded one yoke for a fresh pair at Green River and paid the difference out of their meager funds. Their son, William, knew they were on the way, so he came to meet them and they met on the Weber River where his help speeded their travel on into Salt Lake. 

Steamer "Omaha" Landing
Mormons at Florence, Nebraska

They had expected to stay in Salt Lake to make their home; but the land had mostly been taken up and they had no funds to purchase land. So they decided to go south to Utah's Dixie where they were told they could have the land for the fencing. They stayed in the Salt Lake area for about ten days and worked on their first molasses mill in Centerville. Mary had married, after reaching Salt Lake, a man by the name of Smith Thurston and was expecting in a few months and wanted her mother to stay with her. So it was decided to leave the mother, her son Samuel, daughter Sarah Elizabeth and the baby Frank in Salt Lake while the others went on to find a home. They joined a small company headed south. The group had a small herd of cattle to drive with them. When they got to Ash creek in the northern part of Washington County, William lsom and George Thurston left the rest of the company there and went on into St. George to locate a place to go. On the way they met a man by the name of Sextus Johnson who urged them to go up the Rio Virgin River to the town of Virgin to settle, so they came back and got the rest of the company and started for Virgin, arriving there a few days before Christmas. They had no relatives or friends to go to, so they chose an unoccupied lot in the north-east part of Virgin. The choice lots had been taken up. This one was sandy and had gullies washed through it by the rains. 

Virgin, UT 1907

They started to build some kind of a shelter to live in. They hauled some rock and built four walls, then put logs across the walls, limbs on this and on the limbs they placed bagass or the pulp or cain after the juice had been squeezed out, then upon this they shoveled dirt and moved in for the winter. 


They searched for land to farm and finally decided on a place about four miles north of Virgin or what is now known as Mountain Dell. They grubbed the brush, fenced it and dug a ditch to water it from the creek. This was all new to these people who had worked in factories all their lives. It took too much time traveling from Virgin to the farm so they sold their place in Virgin and built them a shelter on the land. That fall Owen's wife and the rest of the family arrived from Salt Lake just in time to help with the cotton and molasses harvest. Sarah Elizabeth was now nine years old and it is she who is to become the mother of my wife's mother. 
For the next five years cotton was one of the main crops along with sorghum, peaches, apricots and grapes. From the grapes, wine was made and sold to the church to be used as sacrament wine. After five years cotton ceased to be a major crop. They dried tons of peaches, apricots and grapes which along with some barrels of molasses made up their loads to peddle in the north towns for flour, clothing, sugar and etc. Much of their clothing of the first years was made by spinning and weaving cloth from their own grown cotton. 

During the next few years as Sarah Elizabeth Isom grew into a young woman another family came into Utah's Dixie by the name of Wilson.

Thomas Wilson was born December 22, 1811 in the state of Louisiana. His father, Thomas Wilson, Sr. was killed in the Battle of New Orleans in the war of 1812 just before Thomas Jr. was born.

Thomas Wilson Jr. married a widow by the name of Nancy Lindsey, a daughter of Morris Lindsey and Nancy Rodgers. In the year 1843 in Lauderdale, Mississippi this couple's second child, a son was born on Nov. 24, 1845 and given the name of Morris Wilson. This family became converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and came to Utah in the fall of 1857. Brigham Young told them as they were from the south he would like them to go to Utah's Dixie and grow cotton. So they started out and when they got to Gunnison, Utah, they thought this must be the place and settled down, planted crops and started to haul logs from the mountains to build them a home. Some months later when Brigham Young came to Gunnison and saw Thomas Wilson, he said. "Why Brother Wilson, I thought you were in Dixie growing cotton." This family loaded up their belongings, leaving a home in the building and crops nearly ready to harvest and headed south again, arriving in Virgin in the fall of 1863 where they lived for the next three years. In 1866 they cleared land of brush and moved onto it and built a home five miles north of Virgin and it became known as the Mill or Millville. This made them close neighbors to the Isom Family at Mountain Dell just a mile down the creek. A romance sprang up between Morris Wilson and Sarah Elizabeth Isom which after three years resulted in their marriage. 

For the next eleven years they lived in a one room house with a lean-to kitchen at the Mill where five of their children were born. Here on October 25 1876, their third child a daughter was born and given the name of Sarah Amelia. They moved from the Mill to Mountain Dell where they lived for thirty years before moving to Hurricane. These were the people I boarded with when I first came to Dixie.

The Sanders Line: David Sanders and his wife Mary Allred living in Franklin County, Georgia had a son born to them on August 17, 1803 and named him Moses Martin Sanders, who married Amanda Armstrong Faucett. They became converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were with the saints in Far West Missouri, where on Christmas Day, December 1836, they had a son born to them and gave him the name of Joseph Moroni Sanders. He married Huldah Charlotte Zabriskie Age 69 on August 20, 1860. She was born Jan. 30, 1844 in Ambrozia County, Iowa. Just when they arrived in Utah I do not know. This family was living in Washington Town, Washington County, Utah where on August 16, 1869 they had a son born unto them and gave him the name of William. Shortly after, this family moved to the Mill north of Virgin and was living there when Sarah Amelia Wilson was born, William Sanders being seven years old at the time. These young people grew up there and when William was twenty-eight years old and Sarah Amelia was twenty they were married and made their home at the Mill in the same house Sarah Amelia was born. Here three of their children were born. Their first child was a son, Clarence and the second a daughter, born Oct. 3, 1899 and given the name of Amelia. Their next child also a daughter, Maggie, was born before they moved to LaVerkin to make their home in 1903. William had worked several winters on the Hurricane Canal and then sold the land he had earned and purchased land in LaVerkin. 

The Sander's home was on second north and first east and was a one room with a lean to of rough lumber for a kitchen and it was here the rest of the family was born and where they were living when I met their daughter Amelia. The boys slept in the loft of the bam and the girls in the grainery next to the house. They had a fifteen acre farm and the lot they were living on. Mr. Sanders did quite a lot of hauling freight with teams to supplement their farming for a lively-hood.