William Talbot and the Panguitch Quilt Walk

My grandmother, Isabell Cooper had a very rich pioneer heritage.  Her mother's last name was Talbot and her father's last name was Church.  Her grandfather, William Talbot was a convert from England.  That is another very interesting story which I will save for another post.  He was one of the early settlers of Panguitch, Utah.  I never knew much about the Talbot family, but it turns out that William Talbot was somewhat of a hero.

Every June, Panguitch celebrates an important event from its history called The Quilt Walk.  They have created a small park and placed a large bronze statue to commemorate the story of how seven men made a journey over the mountains to Parowan in the middle of the winter to obtain food for their starving community.  The park also contains seven stone benches each engraved with the name of one of the seven men and a short biography.  The City of Panguitch has also placed seven green benches dedicated to the men on both sides of Main Street.


The inscription on the monument says:


The first group of pioneers came to Panguitch on March 16, 1864, from Parowan under the leadership of Jens Nielson.  They followed the route over the rugged Bear Valley, a part of the Spanish Trail.  Crops were planted, but the season was short and they did not mature.  The winter of 1864 was extremely cold and the snow was deep.  The closest supplies were either in Gunnison, 115 miles to the north, or Parowan, 40 miles to the west over the difficult Bear Valley Road.  Seven men, Alexander Matheson, William Talbot, Thomas Richards, Jesse Lowder, John Butler, Thomas Adair, and John Paul Smith left Panguitch to go to Parowan to get flour and food for the starving colony.  They had two yoke of oxen and a light wagon which they had to abandon at the head of Bear Valley because of the deep snow; they then proceeded on foot.  The only progress that could be made over this frozen, crusted snow, was to lay a quilt down, walk to the end of it, relay it and walk again.  In this way they reached Parowan.


Alexander Matheson recorded in his journal, "We decided that if we had faith as big as a mustard seed, we could make it and bring flour to our starving families.  So we began the quilt-laying in prayerful earnestness.  The return trip was harder with the weight of the flour, but we finally made it to our wagon and oxen and on home with thankfulness to the Lord of His goodness.  The whole settlement welcomed us, because we had been gone longer than expected.  There had been prayers, tears, and fears which turned to rejoicing and cheers."


I had not seen the bronze statue or park in Panguitch as I had not been there for several years.  One day I was reading on the internet about the Quilt Walk Festival in Panguitch.  This event was not familiar to me because Panguitch did not celebrate it years ago when my grandma lived there.  As I was reading, I saw the name, "William Talbot."  "Wait a minute," I thought. "I have an ancestor by that name!"  So I looked at the vital information for my ancestor and compared it to the William Talbot who was involved in the Quilt Walk.  It was the same person!  I was so surprised.


I never heard my grandmother talk much about the Talbot family and I don't know if she was aware of the story of the Quilt Walk.  She had a history of William Talbot in her belongings and nothing is mentioned about the historic event.  I wonder if William Talbot considered himself a hero?  I doubt it.  He probably considered the event another hurdle in his life story.

William Talbot's bench in Quilt Walk Park