This history was written by my great-great aunt about her father, Joseph Moroni Sanders, my 2nd great-grandfather. My Grandma Amelia Sanders Squire was the kindest, most generous and loving woman. It looks like some of those traits were passed on from her grandfather, Joseph Moroni Sanders.
Joseph Moroni Sanders
25 December 1836
23 December 1916
Written by Margaret Irene Sanders Haslam Hardy (Daughter)
Joseph Moroni Sanders was born the 25th of December 1836 in Far West, Missouri, the son of Moses Martin and Amanda Fawcett Sanders.
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| Moses Martin Sanders |
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| Amanda Fawcett |
Joseph’s parents had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints soon after it was organized and had joined the Saints in Far West, Missouri. During this period of Church History its members were persecuted wherever they lived, and so the Sanders family stayed only a short time in Missouri. Their next move was to Quincy, Illinois in 1839, but their stay here was short also. They next moved to Nauvoo where the Saints were gathering. While there Joseph was less than eight years old when the Prophet Joseph and his brother, Hyrum, met their tragic death, but he always had a keen remembrance of it. He witnessed the events that took place when Brigham Yong was chosen to lead the Saints. He was greatly impressed with this event and it was always a testimony to him of the truthfulness of the gospel.
Joseph was baptized on his birthday the 25th of December 1844. The Mississippi River was frozen over so that a hole in the ice had to be cut out so he could be baptized. Father learned to be a good speller at eight years of age, but had no other schooling. He thought that he couldn’t read until he became too old to work, then he read extensively the church books, the newspaper, etc. by spelling out the words.
It is believed that the family remained in Nauvoo until they were driven out with the rest of the Saints on the 4th of February, 1846. They were among the first immigrants to leave for the West. (His obituary notice states he crossed the plains in 1850.)
William Fawcett, a brother of Amanda A. Fawcett Sanders, Joseph’s mother was recognized as a leader when the church was moving its way westward. He was chosen and set apart as presiding Elder over the Allred Branch in western Iowa. (It is believed to have been at Council Bluffs, a temporary stopping place for a portion of the driven Saints.) He tarried there under that commission directing and assisting in the great move until 1851 when he came on to Utah. In 1852 he was called to Provo where he soon became Bishop of the 4th Ward. He served from 1854 to 1867, a stalwart in the building up of Utah. He died in Provo in 1896 at the age of 90. It is said he left a name time will not dim.
Joseph, with his parents and brothers and sisters, first came to West Jordan after arriving in Salt Lake Valley in 1860. They were soon called from here to the Fort at High Cottonwood. He helped in the building of Union Fort and lived there during the Walker Indian War. The Sanders family was next called in 1859 to help settle the town of Fairview in Sanpete County where he took an active part in the erection of the Fort there. The exact year they moved to Fairview isn’t known, but it was about 1858/59.
My father, Joseph M. stood guard against the Indians with Capt. Warren Cox for two years during the Black Hawk War. For two years he resided in Fairview during the Black Hawk War and acted as a mount under Captain Isaiah Cox. Later the Government offered his brother John a pension for the activities he helped in at that time. John’s answer was, “No, the Government doesn’t owe me anything. It has done more for me than I have done for it.” This truly expressed the attitude of the family and the Latter-day Saint people even though they were cast out and cruelly treated at the hands of the government. Some of John’s children reared their children in Fairview as did his sister, Rebecca, who married Henry W. Sanderson. It is said that John built the first adobe house and the first sidewalk in town. The names of Moses Martin and his sons are found on the monument at Fairview erected in honor of its founders.
It was here in Fairview that Joseph M. met and married Hulda Charlotte Zabriskie. They were married the 20th of August 1860. Hulda was born on the 30th of January 1844 at Ambrosia, Lee County, Iowa, the daughter of Lewis Curtis and Mary Higbee Zabriskie.
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| Hulda Charlotte Zabriskie |
Lewis Henry Zabriskie was born September 17, 1817 in Hamilton County, Ohio, the son of Henry and Eleanor Calpin Zabriskie. ON the 13th of April 1839 he married Mary Higbee, who was born on 5 September 1821 in Clermont County, Ohio, daughter of Isaac and Keziah String Higbee. They were the parents of six children. Mary died on the 17th of March 1847 in Iowa. Lewis Curtis then married Sarah Ann Park on July 25, 1847. They came to Utah with the Garden Grove Company in 1851 and settled first in Provo, then in Selin (Pond Toom), then in Fairview, and finally in Spring City, Sanpete County permanently. He was a member of the 31st Quorum of Seventies, (Deseret News, June 27, 1855). On May 7, 1857 he was made one of the seven presidents of the 45th Quorum of Seventies (Church Historical Record). The family was always active in church and civic affairs. Lewis C. Zabriskie died November 17, 1872 in Spring City.
My parents were proud, but happy parents of a daughter, their first child, born September 10, 1860/1 [Mary Amanda]. The next child was a son, Joseph Moroni, born 26 February 1864. Their happiness was soon dimmed for he lived only two days.In 1865 Moses Martin Sanders and family including his married sons and their families were called to the Dixie Cotton Mission in southern Utah. Here again they shared in the trials, hardships and toil that went with the conquering of a new frontier and a new industry. Cotton could be raised here, a thing that was vital to the Saints in Utah. Brigham Young was making the people sufficient and self sustaining. In Washington, Washington County, Utah, they built a factory where they turned out yard goods, some ready made clothing of both cotton and wool, mixed goods, blankets, etc. these in turn were exchanged for other products throughout the state.
The sons, including Joseph M., obtained what is known today as the Washington Fields while their father bought what is known as the Middleton Ranch. He also owned property in St. George.
His sons had a great deal of trouble along with the rest of the people in the area. Their irrigation dams and ditches washed away easily. Their method of irrigation was to flood the land. In order to cover the high places, they waded in barefooted. From doing this, Joseph M. had chills and fever for 18 months and would come home from work dead tired at night. He would drop down inside the door and couldn’t get up, when he had rested, his wife, Hulda, would pull the bedding off the bed onto the floor and roll him onto it.
It was a hard and sad life for them, especially when they lost the next four children that were born to them. However, the Lord had not forgotten them for William M. was born and he came to stay. His sister, Mary, was extremely happy as also were his father and mother. They were soon blessed with more children. John Andrew and soon after him came Richard Franklin. The latter’s stay wasn’t very long; he died just the day before he was three years.
Joseph M. and Hulda had eight children by this time and had lost five of them. The death toll was very high among the young children of these pioneer days. The next born into this family was Sarah Elzirah born 19 September 1875.
A colony of people from the Dixie Cotton Mission was called and went down to the Muddy Valley on the Virgin River. They planted crops and made temporary houses expecting to remain there, but the floods tore out their dams and ditches until they were forced to leave in poverty. They also learned that they were in Nevada where they had to permission to go without first making arrangements. They were recalled and they came back through Washington. It is said that Joseph M. and Hulda fed more teams and people than anyone else in town. Joseph’s neighbors used to say, “I don’t see how you live and feed so many people and teams.” Another man was heard to say, “Brother Sanders, your haystack is like the Widow’s Barrell in the Bible; it never seems to go down considering the amount being used off from it.” This was really true and he felt that the Lord blessed him in return.
The ranch at North Creek, a few miles north of Virgin, was a beautiful place. There they grew fruit, a garden, and feed for livestock which provided a living for their growing family. Their home was a favorite stopping off place for people living around St. George, Washington, Toquerville. Many travelers were welcome at mealtime or a stay overnight on their way to and from various ranches on Kolob Mountain. Man and beast were treated with hospitality. They were fed and given shelter. The Sanders were noted for their hospitality wherever they lived. No one ever loved to feed, shelter and care for the homeless, the stranger or friendless than Mother. I have heard that they were a very good looking and popular couple in Washington, taking part in community fun and entertainment as well as entertaining in their own home.
While living in Washington, Joseph M. had a sun-stroke which may have been caused from the long siege of chills and fever that had sapped his strength. As a result, he had to go to a cooler place to live. He was disabled for over a year and weighed less than 100 pounds which isn’t much for a man over six feet tall.
His father, Moses M. had bought the controlling interest in a ranch and saw mill on North Creek, about 6 miles from Virgin. Lumber had been sawed there in 1862, a boom in Southern Utah at that time. Life was hard here at first with father not able to work; however, in a year’s time he regained considerable strength.
At the ranch there were three houses. One of these was occupied by Morris Wilson, Sr. and his family. One of the features of the ranch was that there were several orchards bearing fruit, mostly apples. Every plot of farming ground had a separate irrigation ditch and this added to the work for the gophers were bad and it was a frequent job to repair the ditches where they had been damaged. Joseph M. when he was able to work spent most of his time tending the farm and orchards. The family first located on the south side of the creek on the place called the Orchard. Later on, when they decided to stay at the ranch, Joseph M. made payments to the other shareholders including his brothers.
Over the course of time the Sanders family increased by one son and five daughters. The children that lived to maturity were ten in number. They all married and reared families in southern Utah. The children that were born at the ranch were Henry Samuel, Julia Minerva, Margaret Irene, Eunice Elisa, Nettie Ann, and Cloie Lovinia.
It was sometime near the year 1882 that Joseph and his brothers received a call to go and help settle Arizona. Father was in no condition for such an undertaking, but his brothers, John, David, and Moses M., Jr. accepted the call. They left southern Utah in the year 1882 taking their families with them and also their mother Amanda. Moses M., Jr., the youngest of the brothers, had a family of four or five children at the time they were called to Arizona. In 1865, when the Sanders family was called to southern Utah he was but 12 years old.
David and Moses M. Jr. settled in Tonto Basin near Tonto Creek, Arizona. Their mother felt that they were too old to move again, but Moses M. Jr. accepted the call and went to Old Mexico sometime in the year 1887. He and his family remained there until they were driven out by the Mexicans.
It became Hulda’s job during Joseph M.’s illness to be the business manager for the family. Having done so well during his illness, he was glad to have her continue with this important work. Money was scarce and people used all sorts of produce in exchange for the things they needed. There was vinegar, peaches and apples preserved in cans and grape juices stored in new pine barrels. This was for both home and market. Hulda made pickles by the barrels which found a ready market any time of year. In latter years the fresh fruit was peddled during the summer.
My sisters and I loved to watch mother as she made different things such as tallow candles, soap, lye water from cotton-wood ashes, butter, cheese, etc. She washed, carded and spun wool into yarn and dyed it. From this she would knit the family socks and stockings. All the clothing the family wore we cut and made from cloth. It wasn’t until the boys were quite grown that a tailor who made suits came to southern Utah. Mother was an expert at fitting clothing and was very often called upon to help others especially at fitting dresser. She was so expert at doing beautiful hand stitching and quilting. She was very fast in her work. Among the many things she did was to boil black walnut hulls, strain off the water and use it to dye a beautiful golden brown. The bedding used consisted mostly of quilts that mother made. Mother taught my sister and me many of the things that she did about home.
Father acquired a ranch by homesteading on Kolob Mountain which is about twenty miles away from North Creek. Mother and part of the family would spend about three months of each summer there. Their work consisted of manufacturing dairy products: butter and cheese. They had a ready market for all the products of all southern Utah. Mother had gourdes each fall for butter packed in new oak keys from the merchants at Silver Reef. They would store and sell it during the winter.
During the year 1879 my parents took into their home G. Campbell. He was then fifteen years of age, motherless and ill. He was nursed back to health after being bedfast for over a year. He remained with the family as one of them until the age of forty-eight. He then married Susie Thompson Knep. His older brother George F. married Sister Mary. His younger brothers, Lewis and Ralph lived with us for eight and four years respectively. Jed, as we called him, proved to be a blessing to our family. He did considerable building at both ranches such as the log houses and fences at Kolob, and the additions to the house, barn, and fences, etc. at the mill ranch. At one time, Mother was ill and not able to sew on the machine so he made her a complete layette with the usual tucks and ruffles of the day.
When Sister Mary, who had married George F. Campbell, died, Mother took her family into her home until they were all married. There were four children ages from eleven to nineteen. Their names were: Joseph Allen, George Fredrick, Jr., Charlotte Ellis, and Mattie Isabell. Their mother died at Hinckley, Millard County, Utah. They moved there a few months previously from Tropic, Garfield County, Utah. A short time before they had left the Mill Ranch to give their children greater opportunities for education, etc. also to find work in George’s trade. He could do most any kind of work which was a characteristic of their family from way back on both Campbell and Brewer sides. He specialized in carpentry, was a good cooper, blacksmith, wheelwright and shoemaker.
Mountain Dell, where five or six families lived, was one and a half miles below the Mill Ranch. Morris Wilson, Sr. moved his family there from the Mill Ranch. The other families at Mountain Dell were the Isoms, the brothers and sisters and their widowed mother. Sarah Isom Wilson, wife of Morris Wilson, Sr. was a member of this Isom family. Sarah Amelia, the oldest daughter of this Wilson family married my brother William. Her sister Alice married George F. Campbell, Jr. His brother Joseph married Lovenia Isom, a cousin to the Wilson girls of Mountain Dell.
The little community was a branch of the Virgin Ward which also included the Mill Ranch. It was here that we attended Sunday School quite regularly except for a few winter months which we spent in Virgin attending school or at times when we were at the Mountain Ranch at Kolob. Our school was cut short especially in the fall.
The fruit ripened late which, of course took several grown-ups and the children to harvest, cut and dry before the final trip to market could be made. From this we obtained our winter clothing and supplies.
It was with regret that we had to say good-bye to such a short term of school. However, we did enjoy Sunday School at Mountain Dell. We usually stayed for afternoon meeting, games, etc. Sometimes the folks at Mountain Dell would come to the Mill Ranch and hold Sacrament services at our home. Occasionally a like service was held by the ranchers at Kolob Ranch.
The neighborly spirit ran high and as Brother Wilson put it, “If I had only one biscuit, Brother Sanders should have half of it.” It was quite true of everyone. Many times we or the people of Mountain Dell would gather up a load of young people and go to Virgin to a dance or some other entertainment, or just go for the ride. The Wilson’s and the Isom’s were good singers. The mountains often times echoed our songs and merriment. Those who lived at Mill Ranch and Mountain Dell always got together for the 4th and 24th of July. Often it would be with an ice-cream party or a campfire supper at some favorite spot. The entire mountain country was a fairyland of beauty, so there were many places we could go for entertainment. Horse riding was a favorite sport which whiled away many happy hours for the youngsters.
My father was a very even tempered, kind and good to everyone. He never had an enemy. In traveling to market and back it seldom cost him cash for lodgings as he had friends in every town glad to return some kindness. One day he approached me with a stern face and a willow switch in his hand. He turned me over his knee and gave me a few straps which hurt only my feelings. I cried because it was the first time he had ever done it. He chuckled and laughed at me asking me whose birthday it was. I was eleven that day.
If Mother ever had occasion to punish any of us children, she sent us after a willow and we certainly never dared talk back to either Mother or Father.
Mother was in poor health in later life. She died June 11, 1908 at Mill Ranch, North Creek, Utah, age sixty-four. She was a wonderful mother and a skillful worker and manager.
After Mother’s death father made his home mostly with his daughter, Eunice, and her good husband William Hardy in La Verkin after having lived a turn or so with each of his children and their families. Most of all he enjoyed several years at St. George doing temple work until all was finished for his known relatives at that time. That had been his goal. He died at La Verkin, Utah, December 23, 1916, at the age of eighty—a wonderful, loving father.
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(South Facing)
Hulda C Sanders
Born in Ambrosia, [Lee] County, Iowa
Jan 30, 1844
Died at North Creek, UT
June 11, 1908 |
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Hulda & Joseph's Joint Tombstone
Located in the Virgin City Cemetery
This side shows the SANDERS name. |
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(North Facing)
Joseph M Sanders
Born in Clay Co.
Missouri
Dec 25, 1836
Died at Laverkin, UT
Dec 24, 1916 |
