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Cora Van Gundy McAndrews was born in 1867 in Golden,
Colorado. She came to Ashley Valley with her father, George W. Van Gundy
in 1878. There were few white settlers in the valley at that time. They
all went through many hardships of the first pioneers.
During the Winter of 1878, the dreaded diptheria epidemic struck the valley. Every family lost one or more members; one family lost six. There was neither doctor or medicine of any kind. Cora, one of the first victims, recovered somehow. She was then able to go about caring for the small children and aiding the mothers in their arduous duties. George Van Gundy was a cabinet maker by trade. One of his first tasks was to make the needed caskets. When lumber was available in wagonbeds was used up, he resorted to using handsawed lumber from logs. The women ripped their clothing for material to line the caskets. Cora, always deft with the needle, was busy sewing and making these linings. 1
The next spring, known as the hard spring found the valley snowed in. The settlers were always hungry and some days they had nothing to eat. They all divided their food and ground their seed wheat in the coffee mill, to keep alive. To add to their hunger, was the fear of Indians. The warriors went to and from Colorado, as this was the time of the Meeker Masssacre.
John Blankenship who hired Cora Van Gundy to help care for his family while he was employed by the Ouray Indian Agency. While she was there, both Oran Curry and John McAndrews courted her. One day McAndrews took her fishing and caught a fish so large,
Cora had to sit on it in the boat. 2Cora married John McAndrews in 1897. He was born in Madison, Indiana in 1855. He came to Ouray, Utah, in 1883. He was with the Department of the Interior in the capacity of Cheif Herder of Indian cattle. He remained in the Indian service twent years. Both of their lives were full of adventure and hardships. John McAndrews died in 1927.
1. Builders of Uintah, comp Daughters of the Utah Pioneers
2. Settlements of Uintah County' by Doris K. Burton
Ephraim Moroni Perkes (1853-1907) was born in the
village of Kates Hill, city of Dudley, Worcestershire, England, on
October 5th 1853, a son of James Perkes and Eliza Rollason Perkes.
Ephraim spent his childhood and early youth in England with his mother,
his father having came to America with converts to the Mormon Church,
when Ephraim was not yet one year old.
He came to America with his mother at the age of sixteen arriving in Ogden, Utah on the first emigrant train in 1869, they settled in Hyde Park, Utah and lived in a small log cabin, built for them by his brother Reuben.
Ephraim was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, on October 3rd 1869, by Nels Christiansen, in Hyde Park, Utah. He spent the next seven years there with his mother. On the 4th of November 1876 he married Harriet Louisa Clark, a daughter of Israel Justice Clark and Emily Jane Pearson. She was a pleasant, hard working, devoted wife and companion to him. "She was a saint and an angel," were the words of her sister, Clarissa. "Their life together was indeed a happy one in spite of all the trials and hardships" said Clarissa, "There was a strong bond of love between them that lasted through their many hardships."
In the Fall of 1877 Ephraim and Harriet Louisa, along with Israel Clark family, at the request of Brigham Young went to Ashley Valley, in Eastern Uta. There Ephraim worked in a blacksmith shop owned by Archibald Hadlock, and on the 28th of May their firsr child was born, a tiny girl, whom they named Nettie. In the Spring of 1879 they returned to Hyde Park, where in the Fall their twin sons, Israel and James were born, James lived only a short time. And the end of October found them back in Ashley Valley, just in time for the hard winter of 1879-1880.
During that Winter they lived in a sixteen by sixteen cabin with their two babies and Harriet's brother Jesse Clark, and Peter Percy and Fet Harris. The cabins were in a "U" shaped fort, there were eighteen of them, with one cabin in the center which served as a school and meeting house. During the hard winter the people of the valley went through the most trying circumstances of their pioneer days. They actually went hungry and lived on daily rations. There were no vegetables or fruit at all.
There were deer but they were so poor that when they boiled in a pot no grease would raise on top. There was no way out for supplies. The cattle huddled under ledges or anyplace that offered a little shelter and there they perished. Several hundred perished and by spring they had only a few left and milk was really a luxery. This was the coldest winter ever recorded in Ashley Valley. The snow was deep and the temperature dropped, there was no windbreak, there were no barns nor sheds for shelter and the cattle were swept away in large numbers by the cold hard wind. Some recall counting the dead cattle where they had huddled together to keep warm. Besides this situation the crops of 1879 had been badly damaged by grasshoppers. The scourged the fields and left waste in their wake, they saved almost no grain, but were grateful for a crop of sugar cane that made molasses in th fall.
As if this wasn't enough, they had trouble with the Indians. This was a result of the Meeker Massacre. The Ute Indians were friendly with some of the settlers, they were told to build a fort in case they needed protection, and if trouble occurred they were to raise a white flag over the fort under which conditions they would be protected. The fort was constructed where the J.C. Penney store and the Uintah Bank now stands. Log cabins were to be placed in the square facing in, with a space between so that log buttresses could be put up for fighting purposes, however it was not finished so it formed a "U". So in the winter of 1879-1880 it was jovially called "Jericho".
That winter was indeed the most trying in the life of Ephraim and Harriet. They stayed in Ashley Valley another winter and in the spring of 1881 they went back to Hyde Park, where another son, Johnnie was born. He was killed by a horse while he was a small child. With some members of the Clark family they went back to Ashley Valley in 1883, with a load of flour and seed. Here Simmie (Simeon) was born, and lived only a short time, here again Ephraim was working as a blacksmith. In May 1886 they were agin in Hyde Park, where on the 5th of that month Inez Agnes was born. Here Ephraim was engaged in farming. On September 30th of 1887, Benjamin was born, and on July 1st of 1889 another daughter, Emily Jane was born.
In the fall of that year they went to Ashley Valley again, and on March 4th 1891 another son, George Albert was born to them. George Albert was the only one of my father's family that I really knew, he lived near us in southern Utah. When I was a child, he used to rock me to sleep sometimes when he was at our house in the evenings.
They then decided to try their luck in Teton, Idaho, where they stayed four years and Ephraim farmed and did some blacksmith work. On October 1st 1895 Lucy Ann was born. Again in early 1900 they went back to Ashley Valley to stay, except for short trips to Hyde Park to visit with Eliza, his mother. One more son Owen Orson was born to them on the 16th of August 1900. He died just one day after his brother Benjamin, on January 27th 1919. Ephraim passed away at 6:00PM April 29th 1907, at the age of 54 years, 6 months and 23 days of pneumonia after an illness of 19 days. He also had a contributing heart problem and had suffered a heart attack on January 10th 1907. He is buried in Vernal City cemetery.
Ephraim was a rather short man (5 ft, 7 inches) he had dark reddish brown hair and brown eyes. He must have been very close to his mother, having spent his early years alone with her in England, after his father had come to America. This may be why they spent so much time in Hyde Park, when they really would have rather lived in Vernal, Utah. Ephraim has his name on the honor roll having spent the "Hard Winter" of 1879 in Ashley Valley.
I have tried to put together what information that I have on Ephraim Perkes, my grandfather, my sources of information are;
Personal knowledge of my father, Israel Justice Perkes.
L.D.S. Church archives, Salt Lake City, Utah
Information and records of Leah Rudd, Denver, Colorado
"Builders of Uintah" by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers of Uintah County
By Harriet Lena Perkes Ames
submitted by: llipari@xmission.com
A Brief History of the Family Of William and Nellie Powell
William was born, along with his twin brother, John A, near Plattsburg, Missouri in 1850. He was the sixth out of nine children born to Charles Kelly and Elizabeth Ann Ellington Powell. They farmed between Plattsburg and St. Joseph and own slaves. William left his home as a young man and went west to seek his fortune. He had been in his fourth term at the academy and his mother wanted him to become a Methodist minister. He left and never wrote to them to let them know where he was. His mother thought he was killed on Custer's battlefield in 1876. In 1890, William's father sent him a letter informing him that his mother had died, The news caused him to travel back to Missouri and visit his family.
After working in the northwest and in Ogden, William decided to settle in Uintah Basin, Utah in 1877. He homesteaded 160 acres in Ashley Valley and was one of the first settlers in Vernal. He introduced honeybees in the valley, helped build rock point canal, and established schooling in the area. He helped build the first school building and was one of the valley's original schoolteachers. He married Nellie Luckey in 1887 and they had five children (they divorced in 1907). In 1902, he bought 200 acres of ranchland on the Green River in Jensen.
William was an honest hard working man with a kind, generous nature. He was well known in the vicinity for helping his family and neighbors. He died in Vernal in 1923 and is buried in Vernal Memorial Park Cemetery. William's wife, Nellie Eleanor Luckey was born in Rio Vista, California in 1868, to Isaac Thomas and Eliza Jane Taylor Luckey. The Luckey's moved to the Vernal area in 1882. It took them over a year to make the trek as they herded cows 800 miles. Nellie and her little brother had to help. She was twelve years old. William and Isaac became good friends and William and Nellie became acquainted. They were married in 1887. They lived in a big one room house William had built out of cottonwood logs. He built more rooms as the family grew. Nellie knew horses and could handle them as well as a man. She did horse trading with the Indians who frequently traveled by their homestead.
After the divorce, Nellie married four other husbands: John Harper, Frank Fairchild, George Emory Stone, and Erastus Savage. Some husbands died and one took all her money, but William helped her when she was ill or down and out. He always made sure she had a place to live. According to her grandson, Nellie never was happy after she divorced William. The 1910 census for Uintah County indicates that her sons John, William and daughter Nellie were living with her and John Harper. Nellie died in 1952 at 84 years of age. She had a colorful character and came to be known as Grandma Savage. She is buried next to her father, Isaac, in the Vernal Cemetery.
Minnie Eleanor Powell was the first child of William and Nellie. She was born on the homestead in 1888. Her father built a loft in the home and fixed it up for Minnie and her sister, Elizabeth (nicknamed Lizzy). Minnie and her siblings grew up riding horses, swimming, and ice skating in the winter. When her father traveled back to Missouri after the death of his mother, he brought home dolls for her and her sister. Minnie cherished the doll from her dad. It had a painted china head. In 1905, two brothers came out to Ashley Valley from Missouri in covered wagons: Peter and Porter Long. Minnie married Porter in 1908, and her sister married Peter in 1906. Minnie and Porter moved to Iowa for awhile but she missed her father so much that she longed to get back to Vernal. William sold a cow and sent her the money ($60.00), so she could get back. Porter stayed in Iowa until Spring, so Minnie, who was expecting her fourth child, had to travel most of the way by train with three little children. A stagecoach took them the remainder of the trip into Vernal. William was there waiting for her and the children. The journey was so hard on her that she miscarried. She and Lizzie refused to move away from the homestead again. Minnie had five surviving children: Nora Ann, Ruby Mae, Eugene V., Porter Jr., and George Emery.
When William started slowing a bit, Minnie and Porter built a log house on the homestead and helped run the ranch. Minnie died in 1977 in Vernal. Elizabeth or Lizzy, was the second child of William and Nellie and was born in 1890. She married Peter Long, as aforementioned, in 1906. Her father tried to talk her out of marriage since she was so young, but she got married in spite of his advice, two years ahead of her older sister. For their honeymoon, they went to Lone Tree, Wyoming. Nellie, Minnie, and even little Nellie went along. Nellie drove the team and wagon and they stayed in an old cabin on Taylor Mountain (named after Eliza's brother, Teancum Taylor). They hung a blanket over the door and that night two wolves came within 100 yards of the cabin. Nellie would not let Pete shoot the wolves. Instead, she shot a pistol into the air and they took off.
Peter and Lizzie moved to Iowa when their second child, Elsie, was one year old. It took them three months by covered wagon. They had three black mares. The two couples were in Iowa together, but Minnie and Porter moved back to Utah before Lizzy and Pete. Lizzy and Pete moved back to Vernal by train in 1918. The husbands did not care for the dry Utah climate, but their wives would not budge a second time. Lizzy and Pete made two trips back to Iowa though. They had five children: James K., Elsie M., Hazel N., Sylvia June, and Denver Cecil. They lived in a home on the original homestead the rest of their lives. Lizzy died in 1975. John, William and Nellie's first son, was born in 1892. They called him Johnnie. When he was about one year old he fell into the irrigation ditch. His big sister, Minnie pulled him out by his dress (baby boys wore dresses until they were toddlers). She saved his life. He was only fourteen years old when his parents divorced. Johnnie was close to his mother and stayed with her when she was married to John Harper.
In the spring of 1908, while herding goats, he found a huge bone. He wondered what it was. Then he found another bone. He told a man named Conrad Frank who lived nearby. Johnnie took Mr. Frank to see the bone. Mr. Frank told others and soon all of Jensen knew about Johnnie's find. The news of a dinosaur find reached a man who was a professor from The Carnegie Museum of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The area where Johnnie was goat herding is now the Dinosaur National Monument. The rest is history, but young Johnnie was never given credit in the history books for being the one who first discovered dinosaurs in Vernal, Utah.
John married Ruth Olive Gray in 1918. He could not have found a sweeter, nicer wife than Ruth. The couple had cattle and raised a big garden. They worked hard, living humbly in a house with a sod roof and dirt floor. It was modernized over time, and still stands on the place. Powell descendants live there today. One the 23rd of June, 1923, William was at the river home visiting John and Ruth. He passed away without any suffering with John by his side. He was 73.
John and Ruth raised eight children on the ranch: John William, Dorothy Ruth, George Keith, Charles Kelly, Mary, Robert Ray, Betty Elizabeth, and Alice May. John died in Vernal in 1968 at 76, the first of the children to pass away. The fourth child was William Swinford, whom they nicknamed Bud. He was born in 1894. He got his nickname from Bud Waful, who was his father's nephew from Missouri. Bud also stayed with his mother and John Harper along with his big brother, John.
Since Bud's father, William had a good education (for his day), it was a source of joy for him to see Bud go off to Kansas City for to mechanics school. After returning from school, Bud got a job for awhile at a saw mill on Diamond Mountain. He helped rescue a man who was lost due to snow blindness. In 1923, He worked for Calder Bros. Creamery, and remained at that job for 23 years. Bud married Ivy Adams in 1925. What was probably their first home was a boarded up tent under a big cottonwood tree on the Powell place. Gay was born there. Bud and Ivy's children are: Iva Gay, Nera Mae, William Swinford III, Stephen Ray, Sarah Layne and Rhama. Bud died the 21st of June, 1977, two weeks after his oldest sister, Minnie.
The last of the Powell children to be born was Nellie Elaine, named after her mother, on her mother and father's wedding anniversary, February 1, 1901. She lived her entire life on the place where she was born, the original homestead. While her mother, Nellie was living in New Mexico several years with her third husband, Frank Fairchild, she met a lady named Mrs. Kloeppel. Nellie told her about her 18 year old daughter, Nellie. The Kloeppel's had a handsome son who had just returned from serving in WW1. Mother Nellie left her husband Frank, and went back to Vernal (ill). In the meantime, Kloeppel's son, Henry began to write letters to young Nellie. They were married in 1921: They had five children: Nellie Mae, Alvaretta, Ruby Ruth, Walter Henry, and Jerry William. Nellie and Henry were married 63 years together. Nellie passed away in 2002 at 101. She was the last of William and Nellie' children.
Every member of the family lived their lives out on the homestead. It has been placed on the 100 year Century Farm listing.
~This history received from Christine Hinckley, submitted by Bob Walker
| On-Site Biographies arranged by surname, click on coresponding letter range | ||||
| A through F | G through L | M through R | S Only | T through Z |
M
During the Winter of 1878, the dreaded diptheria epidemic struck the valley. Every family lost one or more members; one family lost six. There was neither doctor or medicine of any kind. Cora, one of the first victims, recovered somehow. She was then able to go about caring for the small children and aiding the mothers in their arduous duties. George Van Gundy was a cabinet maker by trade. One of his first tasks was to make the needed caskets. When lumber was available in wagonbeds was used up, he resorted to using handsawed lumber from logs. The women ripped their clothing for material to line the caskets. Cora, always deft with the needle, was busy sewing and making these linings. 1
The next spring, known as the hard spring found the valley snowed in. The settlers were always hungry and some days they had nothing to eat. They all divided their food and ground their seed wheat in the coffee mill, to keep alive. To add to their hunger, was the fear of Indians. The warriors went to and from Colorado, as this was the time of the Meeker Masssacre.
John Blankenship who hired Cora Van Gundy to help care for his family while he was employed by the Ouray Indian Agency. While she was there, both Oran Curry and John McAndrews courted her. One day McAndrews took her fishing and caught a fish so large,
Cora had to sit on it in the boat. 2Cora married John McAndrews in 1897. He was born in Madison, Indiana in 1855. He came to Ouray, Utah, in 1883. He was with the Department of the Interior in the capacity of Cheif Herder of Indian cattle. He remained in the Indian service twent years. Both of their lives were full of adventure and hardships. John McAndrews died in 1927.
1. Builders of Uintah, comp Daughters of the Utah Pioneers
2. Settlements of Uintah County' by Doris K. Burton
N
NONE
O
NONE
P
He came to America with his mother at the age of sixteen arriving in Ogden, Utah on the first emigrant train in 1869, they settled in Hyde Park, Utah and lived in a small log cabin, built for them by his brother Reuben.
Ephraim was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, on October 3rd 1869, by Nels Christiansen, in Hyde Park, Utah. He spent the next seven years there with his mother. On the 4th of November 1876 he married Harriet Louisa Clark, a daughter of Israel Justice Clark and Emily Jane Pearson. She was a pleasant, hard working, devoted wife and companion to him. "She was a saint and an angel," were the words of her sister, Clarissa. "Their life together was indeed a happy one in spite of all the trials and hardships" said Clarissa, "There was a strong bond of love between them that lasted through their many hardships."
In the Fall of 1877 Ephraim and Harriet Louisa, along with Israel Clark family, at the request of Brigham Young went to Ashley Valley, in Eastern Uta. There Ephraim worked in a blacksmith shop owned by Archibald Hadlock, and on the 28th of May their firsr child was born, a tiny girl, whom they named Nettie. In the Spring of 1879 they returned to Hyde Park, where in the Fall their twin sons, Israel and James were born, James lived only a short time. And the end of October found them back in Ashley Valley, just in time for the hard winter of 1879-1880.
During that Winter they lived in a sixteen by sixteen cabin with their two babies and Harriet's brother Jesse Clark, and Peter Percy and Fet Harris. The cabins were in a "U" shaped fort, there were eighteen of them, with one cabin in the center which served as a school and meeting house. During the hard winter the people of the valley went through the most trying circumstances of their pioneer days. They actually went hungry and lived on daily rations. There were no vegetables or fruit at all.
There were deer but they were so poor that when they boiled in a pot no grease would raise on top. There was no way out for supplies. The cattle huddled under ledges or anyplace that offered a little shelter and there they perished. Several hundred perished and by spring they had only a few left and milk was really a luxery. This was the coldest winter ever recorded in Ashley Valley. The snow was deep and the temperature dropped, there was no windbreak, there were no barns nor sheds for shelter and the cattle were swept away in large numbers by the cold hard wind. Some recall counting the dead cattle where they had huddled together to keep warm. Besides this situation the crops of 1879 had been badly damaged by grasshoppers. The scourged the fields and left waste in their wake, they saved almost no grain, but were grateful for a crop of sugar cane that made molasses in th fall.
As if this wasn't enough, they had trouble with the Indians. This was a result of the Meeker Massacre. The Ute Indians were friendly with some of the settlers, they were told to build a fort in case they needed protection, and if trouble occurred they were to raise a white flag over the fort under which conditions they would be protected. The fort was constructed where the J.C. Penney store and the Uintah Bank now stands. Log cabins were to be placed in the square facing in, with a space between so that log buttresses could be put up for fighting purposes, however it was not finished so it formed a "U". So in the winter of 1879-1880 it was jovially called "Jericho".
That winter was indeed the most trying in the life of Ephraim and Harriet. They stayed in Ashley Valley another winter and in the spring of 1881 they went back to Hyde Park, where another son, Johnnie was born. He was killed by a horse while he was a small child. With some members of the Clark family they went back to Ashley Valley in 1883, with a load of flour and seed. Here Simmie (Simeon) was born, and lived only a short time, here again Ephraim was working as a blacksmith. In May 1886 they were agin in Hyde Park, where on the 5th of that month Inez Agnes was born. Here Ephraim was engaged in farming. On September 30th of 1887, Benjamin was born, and on July 1st of 1889 another daughter, Emily Jane was born.
In the fall of that year they went to Ashley Valley again, and on March 4th 1891 another son, George Albert was born to them. George Albert was the only one of my father's family that I really knew, he lived near us in southern Utah. When I was a child, he used to rock me to sleep sometimes when he was at our house in the evenings.
They then decided to try their luck in Teton, Idaho, where they stayed four years and Ephraim farmed and did some blacksmith work. On October 1st 1895 Lucy Ann was born. Again in early 1900 they went back to Ashley Valley to stay, except for short trips to Hyde Park to visit with Eliza, his mother. One more son Owen Orson was born to them on the 16th of August 1900. He died just one day after his brother Benjamin, on January 27th 1919. Ephraim passed away at 6:00PM April 29th 1907, at the age of 54 years, 6 months and 23 days of pneumonia after an illness of 19 days. He also had a contributing heart problem and had suffered a heart attack on January 10th 1907. He is buried in Vernal City cemetery.
Ephraim was a rather short man (5 ft, 7 inches) he had dark reddish brown hair and brown eyes. He must have been very close to his mother, having spent his early years alone with her in England, after his father had come to America. This may be why they spent so much time in Hyde Park, when they really would have rather lived in Vernal, Utah. Ephraim has his name on the honor roll having spent the "Hard Winter" of 1879 in Ashley Valley.
I have tried to put together what information that I have on Ephraim Perkes, my grandfather, my sources of information are;
Personal knowledge of my father, Israel Justice Perkes.
L.D.S. Church archives, Salt Lake City, Utah
Information and records of Leah Rudd, Denver, Colorado
"Builders of Uintah" by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers of Uintah County
By Harriet Lena Perkes Ames
submitted by: llipari@xmission.com
A Brief History of the Family Of William and Nellie Powell
William was born, along with his twin brother, John A, near Plattsburg, Missouri in 1850. He was the sixth out of nine children born to Charles Kelly and Elizabeth Ann Ellington Powell. They farmed between Plattsburg and St. Joseph and own slaves. William left his home as a young man and went west to seek his fortune. He had been in his fourth term at the academy and his mother wanted him to become a Methodist minister. He left and never wrote to them to let them know where he was. His mother thought he was killed on Custer's battlefield in 1876. In 1890, William's father sent him a letter informing him that his mother had died, The news caused him to travel back to Missouri and visit his family.
After working in the northwest and in Ogden, William decided to settle in Uintah Basin, Utah in 1877. He homesteaded 160 acres in Ashley Valley and was one of the first settlers in Vernal. He introduced honeybees in the valley, helped build rock point canal, and established schooling in the area. He helped build the first school building and was one of the valley's original schoolteachers. He married Nellie Luckey in 1887 and they had five children (they divorced in 1907). In 1902, he bought 200 acres of ranchland on the Green River in Jensen.
William was an honest hard working man with a kind, generous nature. He was well known in the vicinity for helping his family and neighbors. He died in Vernal in 1923 and is buried in Vernal Memorial Park Cemetery. William's wife, Nellie Eleanor Luckey was born in Rio Vista, California in 1868, to Isaac Thomas and Eliza Jane Taylor Luckey. The Luckey's moved to the Vernal area in 1882. It took them over a year to make the trek as they herded cows 800 miles. Nellie and her little brother had to help. She was twelve years old. William and Isaac became good friends and William and Nellie became acquainted. They were married in 1887. They lived in a big one room house William had built out of cottonwood logs. He built more rooms as the family grew. Nellie knew horses and could handle them as well as a man. She did horse trading with the Indians who frequently traveled by their homestead.
After the divorce, Nellie married four other husbands: John Harper, Frank Fairchild, George Emory Stone, and Erastus Savage. Some husbands died and one took all her money, but William helped her when she was ill or down and out. He always made sure she had a place to live. According to her grandson, Nellie never was happy after she divorced William. The 1910 census for Uintah County indicates that her sons John, William and daughter Nellie were living with her and John Harper. Nellie died in 1952 at 84 years of age. She had a colorful character and came to be known as Grandma Savage. She is buried next to her father, Isaac, in the Vernal Cemetery.
Minnie Eleanor Powell was the first child of William and Nellie. She was born on the homestead in 1888. Her father built a loft in the home and fixed it up for Minnie and her sister, Elizabeth (nicknamed Lizzy). Minnie and her siblings grew up riding horses, swimming, and ice skating in the winter. When her father traveled back to Missouri after the death of his mother, he brought home dolls for her and her sister. Minnie cherished the doll from her dad. It had a painted china head. In 1905, two brothers came out to Ashley Valley from Missouri in covered wagons: Peter and Porter Long. Minnie married Porter in 1908, and her sister married Peter in 1906. Minnie and Porter moved to Iowa for awhile but she missed her father so much that she longed to get back to Vernal. William sold a cow and sent her the money ($60.00), so she could get back. Porter stayed in Iowa until Spring, so Minnie, who was expecting her fourth child, had to travel most of the way by train with three little children. A stagecoach took them the remainder of the trip into Vernal. William was there waiting for her and the children. The journey was so hard on her that she miscarried. She and Lizzie refused to move away from the homestead again. Minnie had five surviving children: Nora Ann, Ruby Mae, Eugene V., Porter Jr., and George Emery.
When William started slowing a bit, Minnie and Porter built a log house on the homestead and helped run the ranch. Minnie died in 1977 in Vernal. Elizabeth or Lizzy, was the second child of William and Nellie and was born in 1890. She married Peter Long, as aforementioned, in 1906. Her father tried to talk her out of marriage since she was so young, but she got married in spite of his advice, two years ahead of her older sister. For their honeymoon, they went to Lone Tree, Wyoming. Nellie, Minnie, and even little Nellie went along. Nellie drove the team and wagon and they stayed in an old cabin on Taylor Mountain (named after Eliza's brother, Teancum Taylor). They hung a blanket over the door and that night two wolves came within 100 yards of the cabin. Nellie would not let Pete shoot the wolves. Instead, she shot a pistol into the air and they took off.
Peter and Lizzie moved to Iowa when their second child, Elsie, was one year old. It took them three months by covered wagon. They had three black mares. The two couples were in Iowa together, but Minnie and Porter moved back to Utah before Lizzy and Pete. Lizzy and Pete moved back to Vernal by train in 1918. The husbands did not care for the dry Utah climate, but their wives would not budge a second time. Lizzy and Pete made two trips back to Iowa though. They had five children: James K., Elsie M., Hazel N., Sylvia June, and Denver Cecil. They lived in a home on the original homestead the rest of their lives. Lizzy died in 1975. John, William and Nellie's first son, was born in 1892. They called him Johnnie. When he was about one year old he fell into the irrigation ditch. His big sister, Minnie pulled him out by his dress (baby boys wore dresses until they were toddlers). She saved his life. He was only fourteen years old when his parents divorced. Johnnie was close to his mother and stayed with her when she was married to John Harper.
In the spring of 1908, while herding goats, he found a huge bone. He wondered what it was. Then he found another bone. He told a man named Conrad Frank who lived nearby. Johnnie took Mr. Frank to see the bone. Mr. Frank told others and soon all of Jensen knew about Johnnie's find. The news of a dinosaur find reached a man who was a professor from The Carnegie Museum of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The area where Johnnie was goat herding is now the Dinosaur National Monument. The rest is history, but young Johnnie was never given credit in the history books for being the one who first discovered dinosaurs in Vernal, Utah.
John married Ruth Olive Gray in 1918. He could not have found a sweeter, nicer wife than Ruth. The couple had cattle and raised a big garden. They worked hard, living humbly in a house with a sod roof and dirt floor. It was modernized over time, and still stands on the place. Powell descendants live there today. One the 23rd of June, 1923, William was at the river home visiting John and Ruth. He passed away without any suffering with John by his side. He was 73.
John and Ruth raised eight children on the ranch: John William, Dorothy Ruth, George Keith, Charles Kelly, Mary, Robert Ray, Betty Elizabeth, and Alice May. John died in Vernal in 1968 at 76, the first of the children to pass away. The fourth child was William Swinford, whom they nicknamed Bud. He was born in 1894. He got his nickname from Bud Waful, who was his father's nephew from Missouri. Bud also stayed with his mother and John Harper along with his big brother, John.
Since Bud's father, William had a good education (for his day), it was a source of joy for him to see Bud go off to Kansas City for to mechanics school. After returning from school, Bud got a job for awhile at a saw mill on Diamond Mountain. He helped rescue a man who was lost due to snow blindness. In 1923, He worked for Calder Bros. Creamery, and remained at that job for 23 years. Bud married Ivy Adams in 1925. What was probably their first home was a boarded up tent under a big cottonwood tree on the Powell place. Gay was born there. Bud and Ivy's children are: Iva Gay, Nera Mae, William Swinford III, Stephen Ray, Sarah Layne and Rhama. Bud died the 21st of June, 1977, two weeks after his oldest sister, Minnie.
The last of the Powell children to be born was Nellie Elaine, named after her mother, on her mother and father's wedding anniversary, February 1, 1901. She lived her entire life on the place where she was born, the original homestead. While her mother, Nellie was living in New Mexico several years with her third husband, Frank Fairchild, she met a lady named Mrs. Kloeppel. Nellie told her about her 18 year old daughter, Nellie. The Kloeppel's had a handsome son who had just returned from serving in WW1. Mother Nellie left her husband Frank, and went back to Vernal (ill). In the meantime, Kloeppel's son, Henry began to write letters to young Nellie. They were married in 1921: They had five children: Nellie Mae, Alvaretta, Ruby Ruth, Walter Henry, and Jerry William. Nellie and Henry were married 63 years together. Nellie passed away in 2002 at 101. She was the last of William and Nellie' children.
Every member of the family lived their lives out on the homestead. It has been placed on the 100 year Century Farm listing.
~This history received from Christine Hinckley, submitted by Bob Walker
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Beldon Moroni "Bob" Reynolds was born May 8, 1862 along with his twin sister, Isabelle in Heber, Utah to William P. and Melissa Bardwell Reynolds. He was named after his maternal grandmother, Abigail Beldon Reynolds.
Bob was one of the first settlers of the Maeser, coming to the area in the Fall of 1879, just before a very hard winter. Bob assisted his older brother, William G. Reynolds in moving his family there from Heber. With the help of Heber Timothy, they drove three yokes of oxen. Coming through Daniels Canyon they had to cross the creek 72 times before they were through. It took them five days to reach the head of Strawberry Valley because of the bad weather and another three weeks to reach Vernal. Nineteen people spent that winter in a one room log cabin with a dirt roof and dirt floor. This was known as the Hard Winter. The snow fell to a depth of about sixteen inches, but it wasn't like ordinary snow. The extreme cold froze the snow into crystals, some of which were six inches long.
Bob spent the next year again helping his brother William and his father who had recently moved to Vernal build the Reynolds flour mill. This badly needed mill was completed in Dec. of 1880. Later, Bob and William along with two other men opened one of the first coal mines in the Ashley Valley. It is now known as the Wardle mine. He also made his living as a farmer and stockman.
On Oct. 6, 1883 Bob married Rhoda Freestone, the daughter of George and Alice Carlisle Freestone. They made their home in Vernal and later in Dry Fork. They had seven children: Maybelle, Alonzo, Fredrick, Hazel Dell, George "Lynn", Carlyle. On Jan. 10, 1899 a stillborn son named Le Roy was born and Rhoda died three days later, suffering the same fate as her own mother.
On May 19, 1900 Bob married a second time, a divorcee named Susan Gough Labrum. Bob was then 38 and Susan was 43. They did not have children of their own, but Susan had a daughter named Olive, and she looked after Bob and Rhoda's children.
On July 23, 1910 Bob went into Moffat (now Gusher)and came upon Tabby White, a Ute Indian whom he knew well. Some say Tabby had lived at Bob's home for a time. Tabby was holding Judge J.A. Wilson at gunpoint and was in the process of robbing him. When Bob told Tabby not to shoot the judge, Tabby replied, "Well, then I will shoot you for good luck". Bob ducked into the store and came out with a gun. Tabby fired at Bob, hitting him twice, in the stomach and right chest. Bob returned his fire, hitting Tabby twice, and then died immediately after. Tabby was to recover and spent a long time in prison, being convicted of murder in the first degree.
Bob left behind several children, the youngest being eleven years old. He was laid to rest in the Maeser cemetery next to Rhoda.