Sunday, November 30, 2014

Christmas Quilty Fun Sew Along


I am participating in an Instagram sew along for the first time.  All of these pictures were taken with my new phone and all of the sew along instructions along with pictures were via Instagram.  Lori Holt (Instragram @beelori1) called it #haveyourselfaquiltylittlechristmas if you would like to follow along.  In order to participate one needs to have a copy of Lori's book, "Quilty Fun."  Some of the block directions are found in her book.  I made another sampler sew along using her book last spring.  You can see more here.


The directions for the house were in the book.  However, the tree, gingerbread man, and stocking and other Christmasy instructions were on Instagram.  Pretty fun way to sew, just keep your phone handy on your sewing table.


There was not a final result shown at the beginning for Lori was designing, sewing, and sharing as we went along.  I would have fun trying to puzzle out how it would all be sewn together.


The final and 15th block was this cute series of wreaths with bright red bows which will be sewn on after the quilting is completed.


I worked on the scrappy borders (instructions given in Lori's book, "Quilty Fun," yesterday.


I finished before I went to bed last night and took a picture this afternoon.  Isn't it great?!  Most of the fabric was from my stash of leftovers.  I did buy some Christmas fabrics including the peppermint stripe, Santa, and dark green fabric.  I have something in mind for an added outside border and it will be bound with the remaining peppermint stripe fabric.  It has been so much "quilty fun."

Friday, November 28, 2014

Living my dream


My dream was always to live in an old house, a house different from all the neighbors with charm and a past of sheltering others through a hundred years of history.  I lived the dream for a few short months years ago.


Two of my children also had the dream and both have purchased and moved into great new old houses with their families recently.


As my daughter says, "It may have a few issues,  just like I do, but it feels like home."  Their new home was built in 1908.


My son also bought an almost 100 year old home. 


 It is a nice size bungalow with lots of charm built in 1916.


Both homes have amazing front porches.  Whatever happened to amazing front porches where you have space enough for a party?  Both homes have original wood floors and wood trim.  Those floors may squeak a bit but only because they have endured a hundred years of footsteps.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Yes, children, you are descended from a Pilgrim



Some years ago I wrote a blog post about my children possibly being linked to a passenger on the Mayflower through their father's side.  I determined that it was not likely that they were related to "Thomas the Pilgrim."  You can imagine how delighted I was to discover while doing family history research this summer that I was related to passengers on the Mayflower.


I learned that my great, great, great grandfather, Simeon Dunn, was a descendant of Edward Fuller (who signed the Mayflower Compact) and his wife through their son, Samuel.  This couple died shortly after coming ashore, but their son, Samuel did not.  It is thought that he was 12 at the time of his parents' death.  His uncle, brother to his father, and also named Samuel took young Samuel in and eventually Samuel grew to adulthood, married Jane Lathrop, and fathered nine children of his own.  You can read more about Simeon Dunn here.  You can read more about Edward and the Samuel Fullers here.

I am humbled to know that part of my heritage includes the beginnings of a great nation where religious freedom was valued and people were brave enough to do really hard physical and mental things to make their dreams come true.



A few years back I read "Mayflower" by Nathaniel Philbrick.  After discovering my relationship to Mayflower passengers, I went to my bookshelf to find this book so I could search the index for Fullers.  There was mention of Edward Fuller and two references for Samuel Fuller but Philbrick had it wrong.  He made both Samuel the nephew and Samuel the uncle out to be the same person.  Should one contact the author about an error like that years after the book was published?

Happy Thanksgiving!  I will ponder this dilemma as I make our Thanksgiving feast.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Job Pitcher Hall and Mary Elizabeth Jones



Job Pitcher Hall was born on 16 Aug 1820 in Belmont, Waldo County, Maine to Ebenezer and Eleanor (Burgess) Hall, who had been married on 20 Apr 1807 either in Vinalhaven or on Matinicus Isle, Hancock (now Knox) County, Maine (there is some confusion as to the correct year of marriage, but the bonds were published on 5 Apr 1807 per Vinalhaven Vital Records, Page 414). Job was the 7th child of the 8 children born to this marriage. His father had been married previously to (1) Sarah Calderwood and (2) Mary (Polly) Ames or Eames, so he also had four half-siblings. The family had moved from Matinicus Isle, Maine sometime after the 1810 U.S. census was taken and resided at Hall’s Corner in Belmont. Belmont had been created out of the lands held in the Plantation of Greene. Ebenezer Hall purchased or confirmed purchase of land in Belmont described as Lot 42 from Benjamin Joy, owner of the Plantation of Greene, on 10 Sep 1823. Job’s father, Ebenezer Hall, probably had died by 1836 when Job would have been 15 or 16 years old, as in the Waldo County, Maine records there is a deed dated 6 Feb 1836 from some of the older children granting to William Hall their interest in property of "Ebenezer Hall late of said Belmont yeoman deceased as heirs at law of the said Ebenezer Hall, deceased." A Petition for Administration of his estate was filed in Waldo County on 2 Apr 1838.

Note:  When Glen and I went to Maine about 10 years ago we stayed at a B & B on Deer Isle.  As we made our way there we came to an intersection in the road called Belmont Corners.  The main building was a small LDS chapel.  Somehow that seemed most appropriate.

The occupation of Job Pitcher Hall was being a cooper (barrel maker) and later as a farmer. Job Pitcher Hall and/or other members of his family may or may not have heard a speech given in Belmont in 1838 by Elder Wilford Woodruff of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while he was traveling through that part of Maine. . The three youngest sons of Ebenezer and Eleanor (Burgess) Hall - Andrew, Job Pitcher and Charles - traveled from their home in Belmont, Maine to Illinois, probably to find better economic opportunities than those that were available to them in Maine. Of the three, only Andrew was already married (he had wed Sarah Jane Moody on 19 Jan 1839).

The younger two, Job Pitcher and Charles, became converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois, being baptized in the Mississippi River on Sunday, 7 Apr 1844, immediately following a church conference morning session at which Joseph Smith delivered his King Follett sermon. Both baptisms were performed by Henry Jacobs, as part of a total of 35 persons baptized between conference sessions. Both Job Pitcher Hall and Charles Hall had been ordained as Seventies by the time they were endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on 30 Jan 1846.

They seem to have been associated with Hosea Stout in their traveling through Iowa after the Church members were expelled from Nauvoo, as on 31 Oct 1852 Hosea Stout recorded in his journal at Red Creek (Paragonah), Utah: "Here I found Job and Charles Hall, who came with me in the guard when we left Nauvoo in the Spring of 1846. They were then only mere boys, but now are married and doing well." Journal entries of Hosea Stout written in Iowa in April and May, 1846, tell of Job Hall returning with his cattle and being thoroughly wet, having come all of the way in the rain, and going to the Grand River to work for Rockwood.

While staying in the Winter Quarters area, near present-day Omaha, Nebraska, Job Pitcher Hall was married on 25 or 26 Feb 1848 to Mary Elizabeth Jones, who had been born in New York City, New York on 17 Mar 1828 to William and Elizabeth (Hughes) Jones. Twelve children were born to this marriage. Shortly before his marriage, he wrote a letter to LDS Church President, Brigham Young, beginning: “As we are about to leave the place according to your council we will leave a record of our family in case we should not return so that you can do for our friends what we should do if we were alive.” The list included names of the members of the William and Elizabeth Jones family.

Job Pitcher Hall and his new wife, Mary Elizabeth Jones, were in St. Joseph, Missouri, when their first child, Job, was born on 15 Dec 1848. Job Pitcher Hall and his little family made the trek from the Missouri River, Nebraska to Utah with the William Snow/Joseph Young Company, which started on Friday, 21 June 1850 and arrived in Utah on 4 Oct 1850. A second child, Mary Eleanor, was born at Strawberry Creek on the Mormon Trail in Wyoming on 8 Sep 1850. They had a team of oxen and a yoke of cows that furnished them with milk and butter, which they shared with others and occasionally used for trading for other food. Job Pitcher Hall and his brother, Charles Hall, were in the group called to settle Little Salt Lake Valley under the direction of George A. Smith, founding a town eventually called Parowan, the first LDS settlement in Southern Utah, in January, 1851. Parowan became a part of Iron County, Utah. According to Mary Roe Porter in the biographical sketch that she compiled: “Job Pitcher Hall, with his brother, Charles, built the first log cabin in Iron County. They moved into it on 17 Feb 1851. It consisted of two rooms with a fire place in each room. Charles Hall was elected with three others as constables on 17 Jan 1851. First officers of the law in Iron County.”

In the following May his wife and children came from Salt Lake City with the Anson Call company. In the next few years, Job Pitcher Hall moved to Paragonah, north of Parowan; to Toquerville; to a settlement on the Santa Clara Creek; to Clover Valley (later found to be on the Nevada side of a disputed border); to Pine Valley; to Gunlock; to Glendale; to Panguitch; and finally to Potato Valley (later called Escalante). It is difficult to understand why he moved so often; perhaps he was a restless soul who believed that opportunities would be better at the next place. Job Pitcher Hall married his second wife, Lydia Jane Tryon, on 14 May 1852 in Paragonah, Utah. She was born on 19 Apr 1839 in Quincy, Adams, Illinois to Truman and Rebecca Emma (Conley) Tryon, apparently soon after they arrived in Quincy where they were part of the group of LDS members expelled from Missouri. There were five children born to this marriage of Job Pitcher Hall and Lydia Jane Tryon.  Reportedly Lydia Jane went to visit her parents after the death of her youngest child and Job Pitcher Hall never went to get them.  She raised her remaining three children alone and working as a midwife in Salem, Utah.  After her children were grown and married she remarried.  Two of her children went to live in Escalante near Job Pitcher with their spouses.  Lydia Jane died in Salem, Utah on 21 Aug 1897.

 In 1861 he accepted a call to take a wagon and team of horses across the plains to help bring immigrants from Nebraska to Utah. One of these immigrants traveling with Job Pitcher Hall, in the Ira Eldredge Company, was Jane Walton. She reports in an autobiographical sketch that she was assigned to the wagon of Job Hall, and it is believed that she walked across the plains but that her belongings were carried in his wagon. She became his third wife on 20 Sep 1861 in the Endowment House, after they arrived in Salt Lake City.   Jane was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, England on 8 Oct 1839 to Henry and Mary Ann (Harwood) Walton. Three children were born to this marriage, but only their son lived beyond infancy. Henry Walton Hall claimed that he was born in a wagon under a buffalo robe in Toquerville, Utah. Later, while residing in Pine Valley, Utah, Jane was given permission by President Brigham Young to divorce Job. She then was married to William Green Bickley on 21 Mar 1867 in Pine Valley. There are unverified traditions either that Job Pitcher Hall performed this ceremony or was given a bag of potatoes by William Bickley. Her children by her marriage to William Bickley believed that she felt resented by the first two wives for Job having taken a third wife with whom he was sealed to in the Endowment House before the first two wives were sealed to him.  She also felt they resented her joining the family when they were so poor.  Jane also felt that he neglected her.   Jane and William moved to Beaver where Jane successfully ran her own store and was a leader in the community.  Jane died on 21 Jun 1919 in Beaver, Utah.

While living in Pine Valley, Job Pitcher Hall may have been making kegs and barrels for the storing of Dixie molasses. In addition to farming at various locations where he lived, he is reported also to have been a charcoal burner. According to a Note submitted originally to new.FamilySearch.org by Michael A. Carter:  “Some time after 1872, Job, with his three [I think there was only one] wives and children, moved from Gunlock, Utah to Glendale, Utah. While there, he contracted severe rheumatism and as a result was left a cripple for life, never walking again. From Glendale, with his first wife and family (his second and third wives having left him), he moved to Panguitch, Utah. Because of the cold, they moved to Escalante in the fall of 1875, where they lived in a dugout during the winter, later settling on a ranch in the Escalante Valley.”   The book, “Excerpts from the Escalante Story….1875 - 1964,” by Nethella G. Woolsey mentions Job Pitcher Hall several times. At page 46: "Known to come that year, 1876, was Job Pitcher Hall, his first wife, Elizabeth; a married son, William and his wife, Malinda; other sons, Ebenezer, Joseph, Charles, Morris, and Robert, and daughters Annie and Eliza. A brother, Charles Thaddeus [actually had no middle name] Hall, the explorer and boat builder, came with his wife, Elizabeth Caroline, and children, Charles, Margaret Ann, John W., Elinor, Nancy, Reed, George, Susan, and Eben." At page 91: "Probably the first year-around farm home was that of Job Pitcher Hall in the river basin about three miles northwest of town. He and his family settled there in 1877. Job was a cripple who made and sold shoes, wove baskets, and made barrels. His wife and young sons broke the ground, built fences, and raised crops. The walls of their first house were made by placing cedar posts upright in stockade fashion.“

Note:  It is most likely that Lydia Jane Tyron had gone north with her children before the move to Glendale.

Mary Roe Porter also reports that during the years in Escalante it was necessary for Mary Elizabeth to work with her children in the fields, while Job was able to take care of their youngest daughter, Eliza Ann. Eliza Ann would assist her father by bringing him the items he needed for making shoes and weaving baskets. Job Pitcher Hall died on 1 June 1888 in Escalante, Utah and was buried in the Escalante Cemetery. His wife Mary Elizabeth died there on 16 Sep 1901 and also is buried in the Escalante Cemetery.

SOURCES include, but are not limited to "History of Job Pitcher Hall; His Hall Ancestors 1764-1600, His Descendants 1848-1958," compiled by James Varley Roe and Mary Roe Porter (Privately published, circa 1959) and "George Hall and His Descendants (1603-1669," compiled by Robert Leo Hall. Pages 150, 246. (Privately published, Grand Rapids, MN, 1998),




Mary Elizabeth Jones was born the 17th of March 1828, at New York City, New York. Birth records show that she was the second child of ten. There were two boys and eight girls. Mary Elizabeth’s father, William Jones, was born at Bristol, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia). His birth is given as the 12th of February 1799. Her mother, Elizabeth Hughes, was born in New York City, New York, on the 22nd of March 1803. Going by birth records, this Jones family lived in New York City until after the 18th of June 1834, as on this date their fifth child, Charlotte Jones, was born. Three daughters were born in Cincinnati, Ohio from the 25th of June 1836 and 5th of June 1839. The last two children were born in Nauvoo, Illinois.

Mary Elizabeth was baptized in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1841.  Her parents received their endowments  on the 31st of January 1846, in the Nauvoo Temple.  Hyrum Smith gave a Patriartical Blessing to Elizabeth Hughes on the 18th of October 1841. William Jones later received his on the 14th of March 1842 also by Hyrum Smith. Mary Elizabeth’s father, William Jones, was a stone carver and cutter. While the Jones family lived in Nauvoo, most of his time was put in on the stonework of the temple.   In William Clayton's journal we find:

The following is a list of the stone cutters who cut the stone for the Temple, to-wit: Alvin Winegar, James Standing, Harvey Stanley, Daniel S. Cahoon, Andrew Cahoon, Stephen Hales, Jr., William Jones (he cut the first plinth), John Keown, Rufus Allen, Samuel Hodge, Bun Anderson and George Ritchey. These persons were among the first who commenced cutting stone for the Temple and have continued to the close. Pulaski S. Cahoon, John Dresdale and Aaron Johnson also commenced to cut stone at the beginning, but did not continue long.

And from Chronology of Construction of Nauvoo Temple:

11 Jun 1842 -- James Whitehead added as a clerk to the Temple Recorders staff. Later John P. McEwan was appointed assistant clerk. (Clayton, "Nauvoo Temple History Journal," p. 19; William Clayton Journal, Journal History, 31 Dec 1844, CA.) On this date William Player also set the first plinth, or moonstone, on the southeast corner. (Journal History, 11 Oct 1842, CA.) The moonstones were deeply carved relief of a crescent moon, facing downward, with a man's face in profile. Each stone was cut from solid stone. (New York Messenger, 20 Sept 1845.) The first plinth was cut by William Jones. (William's Clayton's Journal, Journal History, 31 Dec 1844, CA.)

Family tradition also holds that William Jones cut stone for the baptismal font which is supported by the following.

From Footnote - Susan Easton Black “A Voice of Gladness for the Living and the Dead”, BYU Family History Fireside - Joseph Smith Building, February 21, 2003:

The men selected to cut the stone for the font were William W. Player, Benjamin T. Mitchell, Charles Lambert, William Cottier, Andrew Cahoon, Daniel S. Cahoon, Jerome Kimpton, Augustus Stafford, Ben Anderson, Alvin Winegar, William Jones, and Stephen Hales Jr. Stone artisan Francis Clark, who arrived in Nauvoo in April 1841, did much of the fine carving on the oxen.


 William Jones

William also served in the Nauvoo Legion.  William Jones was listed as a second lieutenant (commissioned 19 Sep 1842) in the Nauvoo Legion, company 2C.  Joseph Smith's Journal for January 10 and 11, 1844 mentions the detainment of William Jones:

"William Jones staid all night at Wilson tavern in Carthage. Very cold. Thursday, January 11, 1844... This morning Wm Jones was arrested by Col Levi William and his company and kept him in custody without rations until noon."

Mary Elizabeth’s mother, Elizabeth Hughes Jones, was a close friend of Emma Smith, the prophet’s wife. During those times in Nauvoo, it was necessary for the Saints to live close to each other and give each other a helping hand. Borrowing from each other seems to be a Mormon custom. On one occasion, Mary Elizabeth’s mother was loaning some furniture to Emma as the Prophet was expecting a visit from a governor. She said how shocked her mother was when the prophet drove up on a Sunday morning with a wagon to pick up the furniture. She rushed out to meet him and exclaimed, “Oh Brother Joseph, not on Sunday!” His reply was, “Why Sister Jones, the better the day the better the deed.” She loaned him her big rug, a library table and chairs and other odds and ends, telling him to keep the library table as a present.  Mary Elizabeth’s mother was one of the charter members of the first Relief Society held on the 17th of March 1842, and organized by the prophet. At the time, it was called the “Female Relief Society”.

1. Emma H. Smith, President
2. Sarah M. Cleveland, 1st Councilor
3. Elizabeth Ann Whitney, 2nd Councilor
4. Eliza R. Snow, Secretary
5. Elvira A. Coles (Cowels) Treasurer
6. Phoebe Ann Hawkes
7. Elizabeth Jones 
8. Sophia Packard
9. Philinda Merrick
10. Martha Knight
11. Desdemona Fulmer
12. Bathsheba W. Smith
13. Phoebe W. Wheeler
14. Margaret A. Cook
15. Sarah Ann Kimball
16. Sophia Robinson
17. Leonara Taylor
18. Sophia R. Marks

Mary Elizabeth was a small person and she often ran errands for the Prophet. She told how her mother and Emma often dressed her up as a little girl and gave her a rag doll to carry in her arms, even up to the time she was a young lady. When the prophet was in hiding or being watched, she could pass the guards unnoticed. Sometimes she appeared to be driving the milk cows to pasture or out to graze. When all was clear, she went on looking for the person the message was for. Other times, she went skipping off with her rag doll through the streets of Nauvoo until she was near the person the information was for.   Her password was “Brother I am ambushed.” The person knew she had a message from the Prophet.

During this time, the big effort was to finish the Nauvoo Temple. The saints from the rural areas were gathering into the city of Nauvoo. The Prophet was considering fleeing into the Rocky Mountains for his life. Times grew worse till that day in June 1844, when Joseph and Hyrum were murdered. Mary Elizabeth would have been 16 years old. She told how the people were too stunned to think of anything else.

On the 4th of February 1846, a number of wagons drawn by horses and oxen drove out of Nauvoo and onto flat boats and were ferried across the mighty Mississippi. On reaching the Iowa side, the wagons struck out into the western prairie and disappeared from the sight of Mary Elizabeth and those that were left to follow later. Work was carried on as usual for the next group and so on. Records show that on the 11th of September 1846, President Brigham Young called another group to come to Winter Quarters (Six miles from Omaha, Nebraska). In this group is William Jones’ name. Other records show this family reached Winter Quarters on or before the 7th of December 1846; as on this date Mary Elizabeth’s younger sister, Mary, died of chills and was buried in grave No. 31, Northwest corner. This Jones family came on to Salt Lake City sometime before 1850 and 1851 because in going over the Salt Lake City census of those years, Elizabeth and William Jones’ names are listed. Mary Elizabeth would have been past her 18th birthday when they left Nauvoo. Now just where she met Job Pitcher Hall is unknown. They were in Nauvoo at the same time. They could have met on the same wagon train from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters, or met on their arrival there.

Taken from a page from Job Pitcher’s diary, on the 18th of February 1848, Brigham Young called him and some others to go on some mission of danger. Records show that Job Pitcher Hall and Mary Elizabeth Jones were married on the 26th of February 1848, but no place is given.  Birth records show that this union was blessed with twelve children, five girls and seven boys. Their first child, Job, was born on the 5th of December 1848, at or near St. Joseph, Missouri. They left for the Salt Lake Valley in 1850. Mary Elizabeth told of being in with oxen teams, hauling grain on into the valley. Their covered wagon was drawn by a yoke of oxen and a yoke of cows. They milked the cows on the way. The night’s milk was left sitting till morning when the cream could be skimmed off and put into a tight container, and by evening, the constant bouncing and swaying of the wagon churned it into butter. The morning milk was carried along for children during the day. If there was any excess, it was customary to share with others. Mary Elizabeth told how she patched grain sacks all along the way, as the constant pounding and jarring of the wagons on the rough roads kept bursting the grain sacks. They gave her grain for the mending. She said they were more fortunate than others in making this historical trip.

Before reaching Salt Lake City, their second child, Mary Eleanor, was born at Strawberry Creek on the 8th of September 1850. The wagon train was held up for two days. Then the wagons moved on. During the afternoon, the baby began to bleed at the navel.  Job Pitcher’s wagon was pulled out to one side of the road and the midwife took over. In a short time all was in order and they soon caught up with other wagons and stayed in the rear. They spent their last night together around the campfires as tomorrow would see them in the Salt Lake Valley and they would be separating for different parts of the valley. Mary Elizabeth, husband, and two babies entered Salt Lake, ready for a new life away from mobs where she could worship and raise her family as she saw fit.

Mary Elizabeth was happy to see her father and mother and family and to be united with them again but their stay in Utah was relatively brief.  Records show that William Jones, Sr. was baptized 5 January 1851 in Salt Lake, but the family was in southern California by 1854. The last time that Mary Elizabeth saw her family was as they passed through Parowan on their way to California. Family tradition states that the Jones family "came West with the Mormons after spending a few years in Salt Lake City." The family was in San Bernardino briefly.

The Mormon settlement of southern California, begun about 1852, ended suddenly, in 1857, when church members sent on the original mission to California were recalled to Utah. The Jones family stayed in California, however, moving north to reside briefly in San Francisco where William helped to build the custom house and also worked as a stone cutter in the building of the forts in the old state house.  Elizabeth Jones died in 1859.  The move to Alameda County may have taken place just after 1860. The 1867 Alameda County voter record shows William Jones, age sixty-eight, in Mission San Jose. Family tradition states, "the family moved up to Mission San Jose and were there many years. There are Jones buried there." In 1870 William, age seventy-two and listing his birthplace as Pennsylvania, appears in the census records in Washington Township in Alameda County in the household of his daughter Anna Maria Stiver. William died in 1879.

 Grave marker of William and Elizabeth Jones

Sometime after their arrival in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young made a call for one hundred volunteers to go south to Little Salt Lake, Iron County. The date Job Pitcher left Mary Elizabeth and their children in Salt Lake is not given, but following the history of George A. Smith, their leader, he would have been in Fort Utah (Provo), Sunday the 15th of December 1850. Job Pitcher and his brother, Charles, are given credit for building the first log cabin in Iron County. It consisted of two rooms with a fireplace in each room. This was built in January and February of 1851 and it was used for a meetinghouse. Records show that the following spring, Mary Elizabeth and her two small children arrived from Salt Lake City, and met up with her husband. They settled in what is now Parowan for a few years. Here we find the following children born: Anna Elizabeth on the 13th of December 1852, William Wesley on the 3rd of October 1854, Ebenezer on the 27th of November 1856, and David on the 23rd of October 1858.

Mary Elizabeth’s whole life was spent in moving from one valley to the other, spending a few years in each place. Sometimes a bowery was made from framework of posts and poles about ten feet high then covered with willow cedar boughs, sage brush, or any shrubs available, to break the summer heat. If winter caught them without a log cabin, a dugout was built. Edward W. Hall of New Harmony, Utah, Mary Elizabeth’s grandson, tells of seeing a few good dugouts and of living for three months in one they made while cutting wood. They were usually made in the side of a hill and small, 6’x 8’ or 8’x 8’, but it depended on the size of the family that was to live in it. They had a fireplace in one end or side, made from rocks and mud. The other three sides above the ground were logs. There were posts or poles over the top. There was straw over the poles and dirt over the straw, and the opening or door on the lower side. The door sometimes was a hide or blanket dropped down over the opening.

In the spring of 1858, Mary Elizabeth's husband and others went to what is now called Toquervllle, and he built a log cabin. Then came their families. Here Mary Elizabeth's seventh child, Sarah Rebecca (my greatgrandmother) was born on the 24th of September 1860. They had a fairly nice place here with better accommodations to put up people. Brigham Young and other church leaders stopped with Mary Elizabeth and her husband,  Job Pitcher. While living here in the fall of 1860, Job Pitcher brought a sugar mill into this area. In the spring of 1861, Mary Elizabeth was left in Southern Utah while her husband and others answered the call from Brigham Young to come to Salt Lake City with their best horses and go back across the plains to help bring others and their belongings into Salt Lake City. He arrived back in Southern Utah in the fall of the same year. This trip he brought back his third wife.

At Santa Clara, Mary Elizabeth's eighth child, Charley, was born on the14th of January 1863 and, also, here her ninth child, Lovina Alzina, was born on the 25th of July 1865 so once again she had moved to a new place. Her tenth child, Robert Franklin, was born in St. George on the 22nd of October 1867.

The fall of the year 1869, Mary Elizabeth met with one of life's big tragedies. While at Santa Clara, the first death in her family occurred. Her four-year old daughter, Lovina Alzina, passed away on the l6th of September. Her oldest son, Job, previously, had gone to California and liked the life better there and never returned.  Mary Elizabeth's two older daughters were both married at Salt Lake City on the 5th of October 1869,  Mary Eleanor to Alfred Hale Riding and Anna Elizabeth to Levi Hamilton Callaway.

Next we find Mary Elizabeth In Pine Valley where her eleventh child, Maurice Ensign, was born on the 22nd of April, 1870. They then moved to Gunlock. Here her twelfth and last child, Eliza Ann, was born on the l6th of November, 1872. Just why and when they left Gunlock, we do not know but they made their home at Heberon for a few years before moving to Glendale, Utah. By this time Job Pitcher's other two wives had left him.  Job Pitcher was rheumatically inclined and at this time he was 54 years old. His best years had passed. He had worked hard, and many days and nights were spent in the cold wet weather without the proper clothing.  Here at Glendale, inflammatory rheumatism struck Job Pitcher in the knees and hips while making adobes. He was bed fast for three months and was left a cripple for life, not to walk again.

Mary Elizabeth with her crippled husband and family moved then to Panguitch in the spring of 1875. They found it to be too cold and moved to the more mild Escalante.  They lived in another dugout for the winter, and then in the spring, a log home was constructed.  To hold the family together and keep them all working fell mostly on Mary Elizabeth.   Job Pitcher was a helpless cripple from the waist down. He spent his days sitting in a rocking chair making and fixing shoes. The friendly Indians taught him to make moccasins from buckskin and also baskets from willows among the creek banks. Mary Elizabeth took all the children, except Eliza Ann, and went into the fields to work. Eliza Ann was left with Job Pitcher. She said her father had a big cowbell sitting at his side and she was not to get out of his sight and when he rang that bell she was to return to him at once. A few rings would bring the family from out of the fields to look for her.

The passing away of Job Pitcher on the 1st of June 1888, was unexpected and sudden.  In the spring of 1889, Mary Elizabeth took Maurice Ensign and Eliza Ann to a valley near the foothills of the mountain and ran a dairy ranch for Joseph Lay. Everything went well and they did very well. The change and being away from the Hall farm seemed to agree with Mary Elizabeth as her health was greatly improved. Mary Elizabeth's youngest child, Eliza Ann, was married to Charles John Roe on the 27th November 1889 In the Manti Temple. They returned to Escalante and made their home there. As Mary Elizabeth grew older, the boy's interest changed.  The boys sold the Hall farm for $1600.00 to William Spencer. After the Hall farm was sold, Mary Elizabeth made her home with her children. At Panguitch, Mary Elizabeth stayed one year with her daughter, Mary Eleanor, who was sick.   Anna Williams, one of the children, tells of making bread with her grandmother and that Mary Elizabeth planted the first cucumbers that they knew of growing in Panguitch.  Mary Elizabeth made her home the last year of her life with her daughter, Eliza Ann In Escalante, Utah. Her children were all married except Maurice Ensign, who was a small man and not likely to get married. He was making his home with Joseph Tryon Hall. Joseph Tryon, son of Lydia Jane, had come to Escalante, Utah where his father was to make his home. Mary Elizabeth wondered about the welfare of Maurice Ensign and what would happen to him when she passed on.  Mary Elizabeth's health failed fast during the summer of 1901. She was given a room to herself and the children were not allowed in unless she let them. Each thought it a great privilege to go in. On the 16th of September 1901, Maurice Ensign died with pneumonia. Mary Elizabeth's health was falling fast and she was not told of his death. The last few days, her mind ran back to the days in Nauvoo, which she talked a great deal about and the Prophet Joseph Smith. Mary Elizabeth passed away in her sleep on the 18th of September 1901. The same day Maurice Ensign was buried.

Job Pitcher Hall in later life

Mary Elizabeth Jones in later life

Grave marker for Job and Mary Elizabeth in Escalante

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Quilt show at the BYU Museum of Art


This quilt show first opened in June 2014.  I finally trekked the mile to the MOA this week.  This is one more indication of how busy and fun summer and fall have been this year for I postponed seeing the quilts until the last week.  They will come down on November 26.


Thank goodness for a sister who makes sure that I don't miss important things.  There is also a costume exhibit currently at the museum.  These are spectacular movie and mini-series costumes beautifully made by a costume workshop in London.  This exhibit closes on December 6.  If you want to see what the stars have worn up close, now is your time.  You will be amazed at how small the waists.  Pictures were forbidden in the costume exhibit.


That was not the case downstairs and so we have picture overload.  I just couldn't stop myself.


These quilts were created by those living on the border of Pakistan and India on the western side.


As my sister pointed out, these astoundingly intricate quilts were made without the modern quilting tools we use for cutting and piecing.


The amount of delicate work is awe inspiring.


A close up of the needle turned zig zag border around each block.


These are made as bed covers and they tended to be long and narrow.


The bottom spangled quilt was a ceremonial wedding quilt, the top a utilitarian one.


Most all the quilts are hand quilted with the quilting running top to bottom and very close together.


In fact, this is a two tone quilt.  The color variation comes from the color of the quilting thread used.


Including mitered corners.



This quilt had a special story.



This sign tells the story.


Truly amazing.


Not all were bed quilts.  This is a prayer rug.


And a camel cover.


Often the embroidery is the pattern with the fabric as a background.


This quilt looked like it could be local.  Half square triangles anyone?


A mystery, why leave one space empty and change out two blocks.  I'm sure there is a story.


Stars


and nine patches.  I loved the interplay of simplicity, intricacy, and color.


A close up of thread providing the color and texture.


Wow!


A scrap quilt.  Love it!


Delicate embroidery.



Dense embroidery.







A great variety of creativity and passion.



I can't even fathom all those triangles within triangles.




Notice the difference in fabric interplay at each corner and it all works out.






Two different but similar circle quilts.



And teeny tiny applique.





I meant to edit these pictures more but the variety and beauty won out.  We live on a beautiful planet where creative hands are constantly at work.  There was a picture of great flooding in this area.  Most were saving their quilts over other possessions.  No need to wonder why.