My Grandparent's House

When I was young I loved to go to my grandma and grandpa's house.  They lived in Panguitch, Utah and so we often went there to visit and stayed several days since they lived 235 miles away.  When I was little, their house seemed like the biggest house on earth, probably because it was a two story home.  It sat on a huge lot with large trees and a fence.  It was a great place for a kid to explore and  play.

Faye and Bell.  Shows fence around yard

The house was actually very small, but it sat up on a high foundation making it appear bigger than it really was.  The outside of the house was covered with roofing shingles rather than wood or brick.  The house was on a very big lot with a fence made of cedar posts and wire with a wooden rail top surrounding the yard.  I remember trying to walk along the top of the fence.  The boards were warped and cracked in places, and it was difficult to walk very far.  A swinging wooden gate opened to a long concrete walk leading to the steps of the front porch.  At one time, a porch circled the entire house, but it was dismantled long ago and was changed into the smaller simpler porch.

Grandma's parents owned the house at 189 West 2nd South before my grandparents.  When Grandma's mother died, no one in their family wanted to pay for her burial. My grandma and grandpa paid for her burial.  In doing so, they got her house for their own.  They moved there when my mom, Faye was about four.

 

On the main floor of the house was a front room or parlor, as they called it in my grandma's day, a bedroom, the kitchen and a bathroom.  The door to the stairway that led to two upstairs bedrooms was in the parlor.  Originally, there was no bathroom in the house.  When it was added, a little corner room was built inside the kitchen area of the house.

The parlor was a simple room.  It contained a couch, two overstuffed chairs and a black upright piano.  Framed faces of cousins, aunts and uncles lined the top of the piano.  Lace curtains hung over the three small rectangular windows in the room.  There was an oil stove between the windows at the end of the room.  At one time there must have been a fireplace there because on the wall above the stove, there was still a mantle.  Grandma had a clock on the mantle that tick-tocked the day away chiming every hour.  Most every afternoon you could usually hear the sound of snoring and the ticking of the clock in the parlor.  In one corner in the front of the room was my grandpa's chair.  On the opposite side of the room in the corner was my grandma's chair.  There was a little telephone table next to the chair.  A handmade afghan draped the back of the couch.  A pretty mirror hung on the wall over the couch.  There were four doorways in this room, one going upstairs, one going to my grandma's bedroom, one going into the kitchen, and the front door.

The kitchen was in the back and ran the full width of the house.  A wood and coal stove sat in a corner of the room.  This and the oil stove in the parlor was the sole means of heat in the house.  I can hardly imagine how difficult it must have been for my grandma in her elderly years to get up on a cold winter morning and start a fire in the wood stove so she could make breakfast.

The kitchen was a combination of an old house that over the years had been updated in an attempt to make it more modern.  Necessary wiring and changes had been made to accommodate, but it was neither a modern or a pioneer kitchen.  Besides the coal stove, there was an electric stove in the room.  These stoves took up much of the room.  To the right of the electric stove was a freestanding sink.  There was a window over both the electric stove and the sink.  Next to the sink was the back door and on the other side of the door, a small fridge stood in the corner next to the table.  White metal cabinets hung on the wall above the table.  There was a small covered porch outside the back door.

I remember that Gram threw the grease and the leftovers out the back door for the chickens and the stray cats.  I always thought that this was strange, yet convenient.  It was fun to just throw your food out the door with no worry about it at all which was contrary to the way things were done at my house.  I remember that the dirt outside the back door smelled rancid and was oily.

The kitchen was a wonderful place, full of warmth, full of delicious aromas and full of laughter.  Whenever we would go to Grammy's house, we would be greeted by the scents of homemade bread and chicken and noodles, or homemade soup.  She always made us something good to eat for our arrival.  The kitchen was also a place where I played the card game, "Spoons" with Gram.  She would laugh and laugh when I stole the spoon and took her pile of cards.  She seemed almost pleased that I had stolen her pile.  She was always such a happy, loving, good person.  I had a lot of fun with her.  She always made me feel like I was the smartest and most talented girl in the world.

There were two bedrooms upstairs,  the one where we slept directly at the top of the stairs, and a bedroom that was not used  The other room was latched shut and looked as if it hadn't been used in a long time.  I was always scared of that room, and was glad that my mom had to sleep upstairs with me so that I didn't have to be up there alone.  Sometimes we would open the door and look inside just to scare ourselves.  We were told to not go in there.  I don't know why.  I think that at one time there had been a fire in that room. Grandma said that the floor boards were brittle and we might break through the ceiling into the parlor.  But it was dark in there, with no lights, and we were afraid to go in there for more reasons than breaking through the floor.  At night, we were glad that the door latched on our side.

There was room for a double and a single bed in the small bedroom upstairs.  The ceiling was flat in the center and slanted from the center on each side of the room.  The room had once been papered, but had been painted over and in places the paper peeled from the wall.  The floor was covered with vinyl flooring.  The bigger bed was next to the wall and the single bed sat next to the stair rail.  There were two windows in the room, again covered with lace curtains.  A old fashioned dresser was between the windows.  At night in the summer, we would go upstairs and raise the windows to cool the room before bedtime.  The windows looked toward the sawmill.  I liked to look out the window at night and see the embers drifting from the sawdust burner.

My grandparent's bedroom was the room next to the parlor.  It was a small room with two windows, one in the front of the house and one on the side.  A small closet was beneath the stairwell.  Grandma had a cedar chest under the window in the front of the room.  A dresser with a big round mirror sat diagonally in the corner between the windows.  The head of the bed was against the wall directly across from the door.  I don't remember the colors of the room as I didn't go in there often, but I remember a picture that hung over her bed.  It was an oval face of a cherub.  I have that picture today on my night stand.  It was the one thing that I wanted that was Gram's.

My grandpa went to work as a sheepherder at the age of 13 and had spent most of his life away from home at the sheep camp for months at a time.  After he retired from that, he often kept a few sheep in their yard.  As a result, there was always sheep droppings on the lawn and the grass was purposely not mowed.  It was left for the sheep to eat.  Every spring when we would go to Grandma's, there would be new baby lambs.  The lambs were cute, but we did not like the big ewes and rams so much.  In fact Grandpa told us to stay away from them, so it wasn't so much fun playing in the yard when he had sheep.

In the back of the lot was a chicken coop, a barn and a pig pen.  I remember one time that Grandpa had a big pig and it was fun to throw things in the pen and watch the pig eat them.  Once, my big brother threw stink bombs in the pen and the pig ate them.  No wonder my grandpa didn't like us messing with the animals.  I also remember a time when they had chickens in the chicken coop.  Each day it was fun to go out and gather the eggs from the nests.

There was an irrigation ditch that ran across the yard dividing the barn area from the house area.  There was a little bridge that went over the ditch because water was running through the ditch most of the time.  This was a place that we really liked to play.  We would float all kinds of boats down the length of the ditch and would build houses along the shores pretending it was a lake.  We could pass a lot of the day away playing in the ditch.

Once a week or so, my grandpa would put a board in the ditch to stop the flow of water in the ditch and make it flood into his yard.  This was the way that he watered his lot.  He paid to have a share of the water which allowed him to have the water for a certain number of hours once or twice a week.  After the water had flowed into his yard for that amount of hours, he would go back out and pull the board from the ditch and make the water go back into the main irrigation ditch.

In back of the house there was an old fashioned water spigot.  I remember that I thought it was funny because it had a pump on the side that you had to pump up and down to bring the water out of the spout.  It also had a big crank handle on top where you could turn the water on and off but you had to pump it to make it come out.  This was one of my favorite things in their yard.  Right in back of the house was a clothesline.  Between the clothesline and the fence was an area that we were forbidden to tread.  It was where the septic tank was buried and we were told to never walk there in case it caved in.  Also near there on that side of the house was a tank for the oil stove that was in the parlor.

Panguitch is a beautiful little place, in fact we always said that the birds sang, "Panguitch is a pretty little place."  In the distance you can see the red cliffs leading to the scenic areas of Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon.  The little town is surrounded by small farms, meadows with meandering creeks, and the town is situated in a cove of foothills.  There is a large billboard outside town showing a big fish saying:  "Meet me in Panguitch!"  Panguitch means "big fish," and Panguitch Lake is just up the road from town.  These are the things we liked to see and the places we wanted to visit when we went to Grandma's.  We always loved to go to Red Canyon and take a picnic.  There we would hike and play among the red rock spires in the picnic grounds.  Gram would make a lunch and pack it in a tin bucket.  A stop at the Indian Curio Store was a requirement.  It still is.

Lynn Rosenberg, Bell Cooper, Aunt Grace, Me in front, Joann Liston, Than Cooper, Aunt Jean and Mom (Faye Rosenberg) at Red Canyon

There was a little store in town named "Foy's Variety Store."  I think we kept that store in business.  Every day my brother and I would take a walk to town and go to that store leaving with a new treasure.  Next door to Foy's was the Panguitch Rexall Drug Store that had a soda fountain.  We'd have a drink there and maybe buy a candy bar.  We also had to make a daily visit in the car to the local fast food drive-through, "The Eatables."

Across the street from Grandma's house was Panguitch Elementary.  It had a playground, so usually every day we went there to play on the playground equipment.  We put in plenty of hours on the merry-go-round and monkey bars at Panguitch Elementary School.

It was always fun when other family members came to visit Grandma when we were there.  I loved it when Uncle Grant and Aunt Jean got together and began to reminisce about their childhood.  One story called for another and there were some pretty tall tales. Then my mom and Aunt Mae would join in with some antics of their own.  The stories were so funny and we all laughed so much.  This was often the only time we would see some of our relatives.  Everyone was so happy, especially my grandma.  She loved visitors as she was alone so much of the time.  "Come again soon."  She would say.  

Going to stay with my grandparent's might not seem like an exciting time for kids today.  There really wasn't much to do, but we had fun.  I remember the drive there was awfully long to a child, but as we drove the last few miles approaching the town, we watched in anticipation for the sawmill smoke which let us know that we were almost there.  It's funny that today if I travel toward Panguitch, I still feel the same excitement.  I loved going there.  I loved to spend time with my dear grandparents, to sleep upstairs in the little bedroom and look outside at the glowing sawmill embers.  I loved to explore the yard, walk on the fence, swing on the gate, and float boats down the ditch.  I loved spending the 24th of July there with my relatives, watching the Panguitch parade, and going to the rodeo.  These are all treasured memories!

Isabell and Nathaniel Cooper

When Bell Cooper was staying at our house in the 1970's a tape recording was made of her telling stories from her life.  To see the previous post go here.  In this post, Bell talks about teaching school and how she met her husband, Than Cooper. 

"I was in the second year of high school.  Dale Webb had a high school there in Panguitch. He was a kind of a talented old feller who had this high school. I was chosen to go to Hatchtown to teach school.  That was a joyful time.  I enjoyed every minute of it.  I taught school the one winter then I got married the next summer. I enjoyed that immensely.  When I was in the hospital with a broken leg (in 1955),  seven of (my former students) came to see me. That was nice and I appreciated it.  Now they say when they see me, "She could outrun any boy in Hatchtown. She could jump over any fence quicker than any boy in Hatchtown."  I couldn’t do it now, I couldn’t even step over a rock.   I’ve been blessed with a good big family. This is a blessing in my life to be taken care of now in my old age. But I’ve not give up yet.  I’ll make it yet  another  ten years.

My mother asked her, "How did you meet your husband?"

She replied, "I had a case on him most of my life.  I thought he was the best looking man in the world, he was so good to his mother. His father died when he was 13 and he took care of the family, his brothers Trav, Jed and his sister Ena.  He was awful good to his mom. I had another boyfriend. 

I remember one Halloween party we had the girls stayed there all night.  I can just see a pitchfork come through the window pick up the cake we had there on the table.  In the morning, we got up and we couldn’t find our corsets.  They were hanging on the fence on the main road.  Than was one of the boys that did it.

I was on my way to Hatchtown to a meeting.  Than and George Dodds came along I thought he (Than) was the best looking man, I fell right in love with him.  He said I asked him to marry him.  But I didn’t have to, I had another boyfriend who was up a little higher in life than he was. I was never sorry.  I started going with him along then.  I've had a good life."

This picture was taken in 1912
Than is seated 

My mom asked her to tell about Grandpa sheep herding and when she and the kids would go in the summers to stay with him.  All she said was, "You mean the homestead (where) we lived?  Dad and (brother) Trav would herd sheep around there all summer.  I’d be there too with my kids.  We’d raise chickens, little rabbits for the kids.  I've always said I would live it over.   I’ve always looked on the bright side of things.  I’m getting to where I don’t look at it so bright.  I think I’m getting old.  But I’m still blessed." 

Than and Bell in the 1940's standing by the Sheep Wagon.  Notice above the door is painted "Home"

Stories from Isabell Cooper's Life

Back in the 1970's when Grandma Cooper was staying with us, we got out a tape recorder and asked her to tell some stories about growing up.  When I heard my grandmother's voice on that recording, it took me back to being a child.  I hadn't heard her voice in over 30 years and yet it was just like yesterday.  She said about every two or three sentences, "I've had a good life."  She was that positive. I loved her so much. 

She said, "I lived on a farm or ranch most of my life.  We used to raise a lot of milk cows and make butter and cheese.  We'd go to St. George in the fall and take a load of cheese and butter and trade it for fruit.  I remember the big barrels of pickles that we would have outside.

When the Indians would come for the 24th of July, they would always stop at our place for cheese and butter.  One time an Indian came in and said,"How much for a dollar?" and mom showed him this much. 

He said, "No, I want this much!"  He went to put his hand on it and she cracked his hand with a butcher knife.  We kids were terrified.  We were scared to death.  

She said, "I don't allow anyone to touch my cheese."

The Indians went on their merry way, but they did come back later for some milk and cheese.

My mother was a very religious woman but my dad wasn’t too religious.  Sunday was the most glorious day of the whole year for me. It seemed like everything was great, I’d wake up in the morning and the sun was shining. The day was just the same, but I was just happy. I had a good life, a good youth."

She said of her mother, "Mother was quite strict, she was quite clean.  We lived up on the Mammoth one summer.  I remember the night we moved there, Mother imagined that she saw mice in the house.  We had to camp outdoors in the snowstorm.  She was just that fussy.  She heard that burning old shoes would run away mice and bedbugs so she set the shoes on fire and set the house on fire.  So we were (living) out for two or three days."

"We had four deaths of children, Mom’s babies.  I don’t think anybody felt any worse than I did over those babies. Two were between me and my brother Dunning." (Rhoda 3 months old, Abraham Arterbury 6 months old) "One had whooping cough, another had spinal meningitis, the last one that died."  (Charlotte was 7 when she died.  Grandma would have been 3 years old at that time.  The last one that died was William Wallace.  Grandma would have been 10 years old when he died.)  "My father was in House Rock Valley hauling freight when Wallace died.  Dad was a great freighter.  We had an old dog named Balli. They called my father  and told him that Wallace was dead.  He said he couldn’t make it back for a few days.  The old dog was standing there by him and he heard Mother’s voice.  He barked when he recognized her voice.  Dad didn’t come for a few days, it was snowy. I remember how terrible that was. Wallace was 11 months old.  He was very smart. Everybody lost children in those days.  There was a lot of families that buried two from a family at the same time. Aunt Sarah (Ipson) buried two at the same time.  It was quite a time."  Grandma's four brothers and sisters who died in childhood died in an 8-year period.  The first to die was Rhoda, (3 months) who died in May of 1896.  Her sister Charlotte age 7 died 4 months later in September of 1896.  Six month old Abraham died 13 months later (Oct 1897), then there was about seven years until William Wallace died in January of 1904.

When grandma was a teenager, her brother John Dunning nearly drowned.  She was very close to him as there were no surviving siblings between them.  He was five years younger than she was.  She said, "My dad and brothers used to haul freight with teams and wagons.  On one trip I rode to Circleville with John to visit (my friend) Rachel Haycock.  I stayed a few days while he went to Marysvale to get freight.  He came to get me on his way back and there was a big rain storm with thunder and lightning.  When we started for home I had my clothes in a little suitcase.  I had on my best clothes.  When we got in Circleville Canyon a big flood came.  A man came along in a buggy with two horses.  

My brother Dunning said, "Will you take this girl up to Robinsons," which was about five miles up the canyon.  So he took me there. It was a terrible storm.  John and his freight got in the main part of the flood, One horse drowned.  In the night word was sent that he (John) had drowned.  My dad came down from Panguitch to the Robinson’s. 

In the meantime, a traveler came and took (John) out of the flood and put him in a ranch house for the night in Circleville. We didn’t know until morning that he wasn’t drowned.  Another man that was with him, an Ipson man, his  horses both drowned.  I’ll never forget that night.  It was on the Sevier River on the road to Circleville."

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Another Sideline Story

This is another story of how I made a discovery about a family member by researching on Findagrave as I was connecting the children of Seguine and Christina Cooper to their parents.  Let me first explain by giving some family tree information.  My grandfather was Nathaniel Cooper.  His father was James Michael Cooper. James' father was Seguine Cooper.  Seguine Cooper was originally from Texas.  He married Christina Goheen and they had 10 children.  All of the children are buried in the Panguitch Cemetery except for daughter, Dorinda Christina Cooper.  Dorinda was two years younger than my great grandfather, James Michael Cooper.   

I researched Ancestry.com and Family Search for information on when she died and where she was buried.  The only information I found was that she died in Pasadena, California with no death date.  Other information for her was that she married Benjamin Willis in Ft. Herriman in 1884. 

I researched the census records for her.  In the year 1870 she resided in Panaca, NV, in 1880 she was living in Panguitch.  Since she got married in about 1884. I next looked for her married name, Dorinda Willis and found that  in 1900 she was in San Bernadino County, California.  The census records usually have various information on the person such as age, where born, where both parents were born, whether married or single, etc.  The members of the same household are also usually listed.  Each census, done every 10 years asks many of the same questions, but include other information than in previous years. 

On the 1900 Census the information for Dorinda's Willis in said she was 37, she was married, she was born in Nevada, and her parents were both born in Texas.  These responses were all correct for the Dorinda I was looking for.  I looked at the column with members in the same household and the whole page was included.  I thought, "Does she live in a boarding house, or what?"  So I looked for more clues to where she could have been living.  Near her name where it usually lists the occupation of the person, it said "patient." The top of the Census sheet for location was Southern California State Hospital.  She was a patient in this hospital.  My next step was do a search on the internet for Southern California State Hospital.  I discovered that it was an asylum and that its name was later changed to Patton State Hospital.  When it opened in 1893, it was named the "Southern California State Hospital for the Insane and Inebriates."  I also discovered that this hospital was the largest sterilizer of the mentally ill in California.

My response to this information was one of shock and sadness.  I thought it was really sad that her whole family was living in Panguitch, Utah and that she was alone in an asylum in California.  Why was she there?  Did her family know that she was there?  Where was her husband?  Did she die there?

I did some more research on the hospital and discovered that there are approximately 2,022 people buried in a weed field with a dirt road that runs through it. The cemetery was full by 1930. After that when people died and were unclaimed, their bodies were donated for research to what is now Loma Linda University.  I tried to find cemetery records of who was buried there, but was unable to. 

I went back to the Census report and discovered another fact that made me sad for Dorinda Willis.  She was a mother of one, but that child was not living.  I wondered if that had something to do the reason she was in the hospital.

I started looking for her husband, Benjamin Willis.  I was not able to find anything on him.   

Dorinda may have died in Southern California State Hospital since there is no trace of her after the 1900 Census.  I wrote a letter to the hospital asking for a death date, telling them I wasn't asking for any medical records, I just wanted to know when she died.  I included a copy of the Census showing she was a patient.  They wrote back saying they couldn't release any information without a death certificate.  Well if I had that, I wouldn't be writing to them.  Dead end.

So there was no happy ending for this story.  I think about what it must have been like to be a patient in a mental institution in the early 1900's.  The living conditions would have been bad, and the treatment of the patients terrible; just a sad situation.  I would like to find out what happened to her, and when and where she died.  I hope she wasn't an unclaimed person and sent to Loma Linda for research.  Hopefully sometime I will find out.

Here is a picture of Southern California State Hospital in the 1900's.

Sideline Stories

One of the things I do in connection with genealogy is connect families together on the website Findagrave.com.  In a previous post, I explained Findagrave memorials and how family members can be connected by creating electronic links.  For example, If you click on the name of the parent on the links, it will take you to the parent's memorial.  I have found out quite a few interesting stories in the process.

Picture by Sherril Henrie Findagrave.com

One example is my grandma's oldest sister, Sarah Ipson gave birth to triplets in 1930 in Panguitch, Utah.  They were the first triplets born in that town.  Two of the babies lived a few hours, but one baby lived about three weeks.  I found a Panguitch newspaper story about the babies.  Click on Garfield County News to read the story.  (If it doesn't go to the right story, the directory at the left has the story listed and you can click on "First Triplets Born in Panguitch")

Sarah lost five children in all, only two of her children grew to adulthood.  When her sister, Verda was killed in a car accident in 1932, Sarah took two of her sister's orphaned children to raise.  Sarah's mother, Charlotte Emily Talbot Church took Verda's daughter, Barbara. My grandmother, Bell Cooper took another.  Click on Verda Church Kenney to read the story of Verda's accident and death.

Verda's husband had died five years before her death.  Her children were about 9, 7, 2 and 3 months when their father died of liver trouble after an illness of several months.  Verda's obituary said that she was a clerk at the Southern Utah Equitable (the S.U.E.) store in Panguitch.  The obituary says, "The whole town mourns with the bereaved family in the passing of Verda as she was a bright, lovable woman and was widely known through her work in the store.  And especially was she a devoted mother to her little children.  She will be greatly missed by all and the sympathy of the community goes out to these orphaned little ones, to the aged mother and brothers and sisters."

 My grandma talked about Verda's accident and death in a recorded interview done sometime in the 1970's when she was staying with us.  She said Verda was moving to California to be near her sister Mary and to educate her son Brye.  She had hired someone to move her there when there was an accident 25 miles west of St. George.  Her back was broken in the accident.  Grandma said her son Bob was also hurt.  They took Verda to the St. George hospital.  She lived for 11 days.

Grandma said,  "She wanted to go down there (to California).  We all thought it was bad at the time. I’ll never forget how awful sad Brye was. My sister Sarah and her husband Parl (Ipson) and I went to St. George.  That was the pitifulest thing there ever was.  We hated to have her go so bad. She said, 'If I’d have listened to you folks, I wouldn’t be in this situation.'  They moved her from downstairs to upstairs, the day she died.  I stayed at the hospital with her.  She said to me just before I left to go get my dinner,  'You know, Bell I know what’s here, but I don’t know what’s on the other side.  Will you go up stairs and bring my shoes up to me?' I did and I held them up to her.   She said, 'They’ll be a lot different style when I can wear those shoes again.'

While I was out for dinner at the home where I was staying, I heard the phone ring, ringing hard.  I thought, 'Oh dear I hope that’s not Verda.'  It was. They said your sister just died. Oh my goodness, that was a terrible thing.  We nearly had a fit when she left. She was dear to me, such a sweet thing."

Verda Church Kenney

Verda's children:  George Brye Kenney died in 2005, Robert Church Kenney died in 1987, John Harold Kenney died in 1974 and her daughter is believed to still be living.

Charlotte Emily Newman Talbot Grandmother of Isabell Church Cooper

Introduction:  This is the life history of Charlotte Talbot.  She and her husband have an interesting story:  They were converts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Their journey from England was a hard one. They lost a child after arriving in America.  They were called to settle many struggling communities in Southern Utah.  Her husband was one of the Quilt Walk pioneers.   


William and Charlotte Talbot

Charlotte Emily Newman was born on March 10, 1835 in Linkenholt, Berkshire, England to Mary Ann Wesson and Henry Newman.  She married William Talbot on October 12, 1850.  William had become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that same year, but Charlotte did not yet belong to the Church.  Shortly after their marriage, she was taken ill and dreamed if she was not baptized that very day she would die.  Charlotte told her husband about her dream and he related it to Elder Ward.  After dark that night the two men carried her some distance to a beautiful little lake and there baptized her.  When she came out of the water, she was instantly healed and walked in her wet clothes to Brother Ward's home several miles away.  There she changed her clothes, ate a good supper and walked home.  She never had a cause to doubt the gospel she had embraced. They remained in their native land until the year 1854.  In December of that year they sailed for America.  They sailed from Liverpool with their two small children, Orson and Mark.

The British Saints had been scheduled to sail to America on the ship “Helios” which was set to sail from Liverpool on November 23, 1854.  During the night there was a storm and the ship was damaged when a small ship called a ‘brig’ collided with the “Helios” breaking the ship’s bulwarks.  The passengers had to find lodging until they could board another ship.  They spent about two months in Liverpool with poor living conditions and a scanty diet until the health of many people had deteriorated.  They finally left Liverpool on January 17, 1855 on a clipper ship, the “Charles Buck” with 403 members of the Church.


Many of the members of the Church were coming to America with the aid of the Church's Perpetual Immigration Fund, the debt being worked off by the recipient once they arrived.  The Church would charter ships for large groups of church members and would stock the ship with provisions for those people.  The provisions stocked on the "Helios" had been described as "excellent and unusually comfortable and a liberal amount."  When they had to leave the "Helios," the provisions were withheld from them by the captain of the ship.  He instead provided them with raw oatmeal, course biscuit, a little rice and flour.  After sailing for about six weeks they began to run out of supplies and the passengers were placed on short allowance of provisions.  This was two weeks before their arrival in New Orleans.  For several days many of the Saints had nothing to eat but oatmeal cakes or porridge, and for three days only two quarts of water was served out to each passenger.  The Talbot history describes the trip as a very rough voyage with much storm.  During this ocean voyage Charlotte and her infant child were very sick.  She was not able to sit up or take care of her baby.

After a very long and trying voyage they landed in St. Louis on the morning of March 14, 1855.  Orson turned three years old the day they landed in St. Louis.  A few days after landing the baby (8 mos), Mark died.  William then became very ill which prevented them from continuing their journey to Salt Lake.  Many of the passengers of the ship came down with cholera.  They were not in very good condition after having to spend several months in poor living conditions in Liverpool, then without sufficient nutrition on their voyage.  Their weakened physical state probably left them vulnerable to the cholera.  As soon as possible they started, crossing the plains with an ox team.  These dear souls passed through all the trying scenes of such a journey.  When they arrived in Fort Bridger, nearly everything they owned was burned.  Can you imagine this loss; losing all they owned after all the previous trials of the journey? 


They arrived in Salt Lake in the fall of 1855, the year of the cricket farming when there was but little raised to sustain life.  Roots were dug to eat and to pay rent.  William spent three days trying to spend fifteen cents for something to eat, but could not get anything.  Heber C. Kimball had a little flour which he rationed out as far as it would go.  Families received a cup of flour a day.


In the year of 1856 they were called to Parowan, Iron County, whey they farmed for a Bishop William Darne.  A small house was built in March, 1857, this was their first home since leaving England.  Daughter Lydia was born on March 19, 1857.  Another daughter was born in Parowan.  Rhoda Jane was born on August 26, 1858 and died two days later on the 28^th.


In the fall of 1860, a call came for them to settle Dixie.  Charlotte had just given birth to Thomas on March 6 of that year.  They willingly left their little home and obeyed the call.  At the beginning of the journey the weather was good, but on reaching Hamilton Fort, it started to rain and continued raining for days.  The water was so thick it was like mud.  Their drinking water had to be hauled for some distance which was no easy task.  The children suffered much at times for a drink.  The rain subsided after a few days and the journey was continued as far as Kanarra where it again began to rain so hard that it was impossible to travel down the Black Ridge, so the family remained in Kanarra for the winter.


Spring came with Charlotte in poor health.  William wrote a letter to the First Presidency of the Church telling them their condition and asked if they still wished them to go on.  The answer was no, that they had made the sacrifice and was now at liberty to settle where it suited them best.


The family went back as far as Cedar City, Iron County, and lived there for a short time.  Their son, William, was born on June 16, 1862.  Afterwards they moved to Summit, Iron County where their last daughter, Charlotte Emily (our ancestor) was born on Jan 4, 1864.


In March 1864, the family started for Panguitch.  The Indians were on the war path so people were not allowed to travel over Bear Valley without a company.  They had a week layover in Paragonah waiting for a company of people to form who were going to Panguitch to make homes for their families.


People in Panguitch were extremely poor and there was little flour in the place.  Wheat was boiled and also pig weeds.  Wheat was ground between two flat stones to make mush.  Charlotte had a few potatoes which she divided with her neighbors.  Some of the children were so hungry, they would get the potato peelings out of the swill buckets and eat them.  There was very little food raised the first year and none too much the second year. 


More trouble with the Indians began and it was not long until the people had to leave their crops and all that had been done to settle Panguitch.   


A call came to go to Circleville to help strengthen the place.  The meeting house was given to William for his quarters.  A number of families lived together there.  They only stayed in Circleville one week.  A number of families were going to Parowan with their grists to the flour mill.  William and his family went with them where they stayed that summer.  They then moved to Beaver where they lived until 1879.


Once again they moved back to Panguitch and lived there the remainder of their days.  William and Charlotte Talbot were the parents of seven children, two died in infancy.   The youngest daughter's personal history, (Charlotte Church), describes her mother (Charlotte Talbot) as a cripple.  The history states that Charlotte, (the daughter), took care of the Talbot family.   


Charlotte Emily Newman died on December 15, 1892 at the age of 67.  She is buried in the Panguitch Cemetery.