According to his personal records, Jorgen Smith was born May 28, 1823 in Fasted, Haderslev, Projsen (Prussia). Jorgen's father was Christian Andreasen from Stenderup, Haderslev, North Slesvig and his mother was Maren Jensdatter Svane (farm name) from Rurop, Haderslev, North Slesvig. Jorgen was their seventh child. Jorgen was only five years old when lost his father. He was drowned while taking a shortcut across a frozen lake to do his chores. The ice was thin and he fell through. Three months later his mother, Maren gave birth to her eighth child. The Andreasen boy's took the farm name as their own but some spelled it differently, Smit and Smidt. The farm was named after some German landlord.
Laws demanded that everyone receive an education. Whether it was by his landlord or the public system Jorgen received a very good education. He could speak seven languages and could write in five of them. He had a practical knowledge of drugs and medicines and how to mix formulas. He was capable of caring for the sick and infirm. He was a very good blacksmith and could even make shoes.
When Jorgen was twenty-two years old, he was drafted by Denmark to serve in the Danish Army, and went to Copenhagen for training from 1845 to 1846 and apparently stayed there for two additional years. When he was in Copenhagen the Duchy of Sleswig revolted and Jorgen was then conscripted by Denmark and sent to Sleswig to quell the revolution. If he had been home at the time, he would have fought with his brothers against Denmark. His allegiance to his landlord and Sleswig would have required him to do so. Christian VIII died on January 20, 1848, the new King, Frederick VII, made Sleswig part of Denmark. This caused the Duchies to revolt and their armies began to march north to the border. Jorgen's brothers were in this army. This was an opportunity for Prussia who also sent her armies against the Danes. As fate would have it, Jorgen would fight in a war against his brothers and neighbors. One of his brothers was killed in this war. Jorgen used to feel sad and sometimes cry about this war, praying that it wasn't his bullet that killed his brother
War ended in 1850, he was given a medal of honor with an image of Frederick VII engraved on one side and 1848-1850 on the other and a lifetime pension because of his wound. His wound was severe enough to cripple him some and in later life caused him to use a cane. Jorgen was proud of his medal of honor.
The last great battle of the War was fought on the 5th of July, 1850. Jorgen was still being held as a prisoner of war in Rensborg. When he returned to Haderslev is unknown but he would enter town on crutches wearing a soldier's uniform. He didn't waste much time because on the 6th of October, 1850 Jorgen Smith married, Christina Maria Bertelsdatter Birkedal, at Rodding, Haderslev, Slesvig. The two lived in the same county but Rodding was many miles to the east of his home in Faested.
Christina Maria and her twin, Zidsel Kirstine were born 11 April 1825 at Rodding, Fros, Riberhus (Ribe) now called Haderslev, Denmark. They were the 11th and 12th daughters of Bertel Bertelsen and Maren Jorgensdatter. Christina and Zidsel had seven brothers and three sisters. Their father was listed as a shoemaker. He came to Rodding from Sweden when he was a young man as a servant. Their mother was born in Rodding.
Four children were born to Jorgen and Christina in the next few years all in Nyby, Riberhus, Denmark, Theldren Maren (Mary) born 28 July 1851, Christian 6 Feb.1853, Bertel Birkedal 18 Sept.1855 and Maria 22 March 1857.
Jorgen and Christina joined the Mormon Church on 22 February 1854 and he served as one of its missionaries in Denmark until he immigrated in 1857. The Church was a very unpopular church because of polygamy.
The Tuscarora, a large three-masted sail ship left Liverpool on 30 May 1857 and after a pleasant five-week voyage arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the third of July. The family went from Philadelphia to Burlington, Iowa by train. Within days after arriving here two of their four children died. Four month old Maria died 16 July 1857 and Bertel age one died 31 July 1857. A year later, on 22 September, 1858 Christian, 5 years old would die. Jorgen later moved his family to Leharp, Illinois where Susane was born on May 30, 1859.
In 1861 they made their journey across the plains. They accompanied hundreds of wagons with about 20 immigrants per wagon. Jorgen was a scout and often went out to shoot wild game for food. It was a sixteen hundred mile trip to Utah and they had to ford rivers, cross prairies, deserts, and cross over mountain. The wagons were full and the oxen were slow, the pioneers walked most of the way. They walked in wooden shoes, woolen socks or bare feet. Arriving in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young sent them down to Springville and then on to Fountain Green.
This was where two year old Susane died on the 17th of June 1861, shortly after their arrival. Christina had lost four of her five children during their travel to Zion only Mary, age seven still lived. Another child was born a few months later here in Fountain Green on September 13, 1861. He was named Jorgen (Jack--John) after his father.
Jorgen Smith married Mette Marie Villadsen on the 21st of February, 1863. He introduced her to Christina by saying "This is my new wife" but Christina would have nothing to do with it. She had already told Jorgen that she wouldn't stand for polygamy. She said "If she comes in one door, the children and I will go out the other." And they did. Each child carried a bundle of clothing on the end of a stick like a hobo but she had nowhere to go, she planned on asking her parents in Denmark for help but that would take to long. So, she had to swallow her Danish pride and returned home, as she was soon to become a mother again. Christena Marie (Stena) was born one month after she returned, on March 22, 1863.
Mette Marie didn't like polygamy either but she had no choice. She also didn't want to marry a man twice her age. Jorgen even said: "I am sure lucky and fortunate to have tree Danish vimmens for vives, but one would have been enough". Mette was only a girl of eighteen at the time.
He married Wilhelmine Pedersen on 30 January, 1864. She was a recent Danish immigrant, who was visiting her daughter in Fountain Green. No one seemed to resent Wilhelmine probable because she was a lot older than Jorgen and didn't seem much of a threat, everyone seemed to love her. She had one son and two daughters from a previous marriage. Jorgen more or less married her to give her and her children a home. Wilhelmine's children were loved, adopted and sealed to Jorgen. The family now consisted of Wilhelmine and her two children, Christine and her three children and Mette who gave birth to William on 3 January 1864. Three wives and their children in a small one or two room house prompted Jorgen to find a house of his own.
In early January 1864 he was one of the ten men, under the leadership of Albert Lewis, who came to a place later called Richfield looking for good land and water for a new settlement. Christina and her three children would remain in Fountain Green. The other two women would leave in early spring for Richfield This was Mette and her three-month-old baby, William, and Wilhelmine and her two youngest children. They would have to make do with only what they could carry in their covered wagon. Life was very hard of them there. They lived in the covered wagon and a dugout they built. The floor in the dugout was about three or four feet below the surface of the ground with short walls made of stone or sod and a roof of sod.
Both families lived together here for awhile The two families got along quite well and eventually a larger home was built for them. Here Jorgen opened the first store in Richfield. Wilhelmine ran the Drug Store in the house. Metta Marie gave birth to Maria, 28 April 1865, Maria (Rye) was the first white girl born in Richfield. Next year another child, Ane C. was born to her on the 2 November, 1866 but died the same day.
Jorgen must have visited both homes because Christina in Fountain Green gave birth to twins Wilhelmine and Caroline on 11 May 1865. Christina and her family still had to live in Fountain Green until the Fall of 1866 or the Spring of 1867 when they were brought to Richfield. The ladies did seem to get along most of the time but at times they were very jealous of each other. In those days a feather tic was given to the wife who was sleeping alone. After sleeping on this feather tic for two long weeks, Christina picked up the old tic, opened Mette's door and threw the tic at her and said "Here's the tic, I want my man."
Christina owned a copper tea kettle that began leaking. Jorgen who was an excellent tinsmith took it away to repair it. When it didn't seem to ever come back, she asked him why he didn't bring it back. He said Mette wouldn't let him. She grabbed him by his beard, pulled him off his chair, and all around the room. The kettle came back.
War with the Indians had been going on for two years and conflicts were becoming more numerous. Brigham Young had forbidden travel between settlements unless they had an armed escort but it seems that rules were sometimes made to be broken. There were no stores in Richfield at that time and Warren Snow had come from Salt Lake with some calico cloth and other desperately needed items. Mary Smith asked her mother, Christina if she could go with their neighbors, Hans Peter Petersen and his wife, Amalia, to Glenwood. Early in the morning of March 21, 1867 they left without an escort. Everything was going quite well until the wagon started going over a small dugway at Black Ridge where they were spotted by the Indians. Chief White Horse (Shena-Vegan), the cruelest and most daring Indian in the Territory, was herding stock he had stolen near the river. The three were killed and terribly mutilated. Christina could never forgive herself for allowing Mary to go.
The soldiers came and stood guard while the people from Glenwood moved to Richfield and all gathered with their livestock, families and all they owned into Fort Richfield. He stood guard night and day at the Fort shooting at the Indians who tried to start fires and do mischief. Jorgen left the safety of the fort many times to secure provisions. He received a Medal of Honor for being a Blackhawk War Veteran and his name appears with others on an historical marker in Bicknell.
Blackhawk sued for peace in 1867 but Shena-Vegan (Chief Whitehorse) was not ready for peace, he kept the settlers out of the southern part of the state for another four years. Settlers, under orders from Brigham Young, left their homes in Richfield. Wagon after wagon came from all northern settlements. Jorgen's family was taken to Fort Ephraim. The Fort was built of logs, stone and adobe with walls twelve feet high, like an old middle aged European fortress. Three months later Christina gave birth to her last child, Joseph, June 6, 1867.
As soon as they could they moved back to Fountain Green. Times were hard and the children were always hungry. Caroline went out to the fields looking for something to eat. They had learned how to find sago lilies and to eat their bulbs. But this day she ate the bulb of the "False Sago Lily". Caroline died 29 April 1869. Caroline was the twin sister of Wilhelmine.
Mette had another child and called her Mary after her sister who was killed by the Indians. Three years later 17 March 1870, James Andrew was born to Mette in Fountain Green.
The families all moved back to Richfield in the spring of 1871. Indians hadn't bothered anything in the four years that they were absent from Richfield, everything was well preserved. All of the homes and buildings were still standing just as they had been left. The settlers planted their crops and waited for a prosperous year. The town was growing as never before. Then came the grasshoppers, wave after wave of them. The farmers tried to crush them with large rollers and with fire, but nothing worked to stop this terrible scourge.
Wilhelmine died in 1882 at age sixty-five. She was a wonderful woman and became a friend to all who knew her. For one who was well-educated and used to servants, she adapted well to her new life style and harsh living conditions.
Jorgen at age 63 was called by the Church to leave Richfield and settle an area farther south. They only got as far as Grass Valley, now called Koosharem. He was probably trying to stay ahead of the Federal Marshals. They were now entering their homes, arresting and jailing any polygamist if they could catch them. They came without warrants, day or night, breaking the door down if it wasn't opened quickly. This was when the Church asked him to leave Richfield. Federal Law and these laws were now being enforced. Jorgen left Richfield.
He divided up everything he owned, Christina received one-third of everything. She received the house and lot, five acres of land, two cows, one horse, five sheep, and the lower hay lot for a total of $445 dollars. Life was never an easy one, only four of her ten children lived to be adults. The hardships of pioneer life had killed six of her children. She never accepted polygamy, but tried to make the most of it. After enduring all this she had to watch her husband with a younger wife leave the place they worked so hard to build. She was 61 years old now, she had been left in Fountain Green and now in Richfield.
When it was time for Jorgen to leave, Christina walked up to Jorgen, looked him in his eyes, then put her hands on his chest and gave him a push, "Go, she said, "Take her and go, don't come back." Then she picked up her copper kettle and said, "Here, take this with you, Go". All of Christina's fears had now come to pass. Her husband was gone and she loved and missed him very much.
Christina Maria was 75 years old when she passed away on 28 December 1900. She was buried in Richfield Cemetery.
Jorgen Smith was a most influential man, he was an experienced pioneer by now and knew almost all the building and survival skills. He will always be remembered as a great colonizer of the church and as one who would do all that was asked of him. His knowledge of medicines and drugs was often needed. His skill as a blacksmith was used to make household utensils and farm equipment. He was also the postmaster, Justice of the Peace (performed the marriages of two of his daughters), and shoemaker. He was the second presiding elder until this branch of the church was discontinued and went to Aldridge. A trustee on the school board for the Aldridge and Notom Precinct. He was an excellent shot and was able to furnish food for his family in both good and hard times. Deer, rabbits or ducks were always a part of the family dinner. Living in Notom Jorgen was kicked in the head by a horse, for awhile it was believed he was dead and was about to be buried. It took a long time to recover.
Jorgen wrote to the Church authorities around 1900 and asked if he could be released from his calling. He said that he was getting too old and life was too lonely. He was immediately released. He sold his 160 acre farm to his son-in-law Charles Mulford who had married Dena Smith. In 1900 Jorgen's family moved to Thurber (Bicknell), where they enjoyed life and family and made many friends. This story was told to him by a Jane or June Brinkerhoff. As Jorgen lay waiting to part this world a fly began to bother him, he began to sing "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother I", but death really didn't come to him without pain, Clint Chedister said, "His groans of pain were heard all over Bicknell." He died 28 August, 1908 in Bicknell, Utah and was buried there. He was a man with a great determination and left a proud heritage and a name that future generations can be proud of.
Mette Maria Smith would live out her remaining years in Torrey. She lived thirteen long and lonely years after her husbands death. She said, "This would not have happened if she could have married a man near her own age". She felt that to much was asked of her when she was told to marry a man almost twice her age and a married one at that. She was a loving, agreeable woman with a sweet disposition and was loved by all children, her own or the neighbors. She died in her home at Torrey 22 February 1925 at the age of 84 and was buried beside her husband in Bicknell, Utah.
Due the genealogy mix-up Christina Maria not only suffered in life but in death as well. I believe that she must have known that the stories, genealogy and the sealing would eventually be corrected. This is something that the family has been fighting over this for at least 60 years now. A fight between those who personally knew her and those who believed in what Hans N. Ogaard brought back.
There are many records showing that Christina Marie was his wife.
#1--The Tuscarora shipping records page 6 in Treasured Trails; written as Christina M. Smith.
#2--Jorgen Smith's handwritten records page 26 in Treasured Trails; He wrote it as Christine M. Berkedal.
#3--A letter from Genealogical Society, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 11 July, 1966. (a partial reprint of letter)
Dear Sister Davis;
For your information we are sending a card for Christina Maria, which is her self endowment card, her sealing to Jorgen Smith is recorded and also the witnesses. Furthermore, as no sealing cancellation has been found and this marriage was performed while both parties were alive, this marriage will have to be accepted---etc..
#4--Her name was written as Christina Maria Smith when she was married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah, 10 May, 1898.
#5-- She signed her name as Christina M. Smith on Warranty Deed #360. The first line reads; "Jorgen Smith and Christina M. Smith his wife, grantors of Notom, County of Wayne, State of Utah, hereby convey and warrant to Mette Marie Johnson, grantee--etc."
#6--Mack Taft said, "The proof is on films, M 183395, and H 90076 in Church Records but you must have a Temple Recommend to see them." He said, "Ardella was to young to know her Grandmother personally as Mother (Artie) did." Right now in the Genealogy Archives Jorgen is supposed to be married to four wives and that is ridiculous, Jorgen knew who he married. His first three marriages were performed while all parties were still alive. The last was after all had died and was in error.
Christina Maria Bertlesen Birkedaul; Sealed to Jorgen Smith 16 August, 1862 by W. Woodruff, witnessed by D.H. Wells and S.L. Sprague, (Endowment House Book D Sealing, page 95, number 4967).
Metta Maria Villardsen; Sealed to Jorgen Smith 21 February, 1863.
Wilhelmine Petersen; Sealed to Jorgen Smith 30 January, 1864.
Zidsel Kristine Bertlesen Birkedaul; Sealed to Jorgen Smith 26 April, 1937 by Ardella Smith Davis.
#7--Ethel Taft Petersen has provided the following Richfield Cemetery records page 52 and 53 states; Christina Maria Smith, buried 29 December, 1900, lot 10, block 3, born 1 April 1824, Denmark, died 28 December, 1900 of old age, general debility. Today the stone at cemetery lists her as Fidsel Kristina Smith, wife of Jorgen (Richfield Monument 896-4031 or 896-5290). Ethel said, "This is an old stone, but not a 1900 year old stone. I suggest someone else had the small flat black granite stone placed later."
Ethel also said, "I have seen her death certificate with her name written as Christina Maria witnessed by her daughter Christena Marie Smith and her husband James Nielson but I can not find it now." The Fidsel stone is now being replaced by one with Christina Maria Birkedaul Smith by the Taft families.
#8--The Nielson records states; Christina Maria named her daughter, "Christena Marie Smith" after herself.
possible by Artie Smith Taft
Jorgen (John) Smith was the son of Jorgen and Christine Marie Birkedahl Smith. He was born the 13th of September 1861 in Fountain Green, Utah, Sanpete County. In 1863, when he was two years old the family moved to Richfield, Utah. In 1867 they moved to Fountain Green, Utah again (Brigham Young ordered all the settlers from the Richfield area until the Indian War was settled) and then again moved to Richfield.
When he was nine years old, Jorgen went with a couple and a family crossing the Sevier River with team and wagon in high water time, the river started taking the wagon down, and Jorgen swam out and unhitched the horses from the wagon carrying all to safety on the horses and saving their lives.
Then he went to work with the Hunt family of Monroe, Utah, and later became engaged with their daughter, Lida. He later came to Wayne County with Church cattle. Frank Haws, who later became his brother-in-law, took their cattle to New Mexico as partners. Jorgen was poisoned on ivy and had to leave, so they moved to Durango, Colorado, then to the Boulder Mountains. While they were on their way, they ran into Frank's sister, brother-in-law and family on their way to California and Arizona to live. Jorgen was introduced to Sarah Sariah Durfey after which he broke his engagement to Lida, and on the 12th of April 1887 John and Sarah were married.
Jorgen and Sarah soon took up a Homestead on the Fremont River with one hundred acres where he grubbed and cleaned sage brush, dug ditches, put up fences and where fourteen children came to gladden their home. On the 16th of February 1888, John Floyd was born. Jorgen was out on the mountains when Floyd took sick. Sarah was alone with the baby. When the baby did not seem to be getting better, Sarah jumped on her horse bare back, riding side ways , took her sick baby up Red Canyon to hers fathers and mothers home. She woke her parents and her baby was sick all night. The next morning Floyd would go to the window and look up the road and would say, "I wish my Daddy, Jack would come home." Jorgen felt worried and told the men he was working with that he was going home. Just before he arrived, their Floyd passed away (June 19, 1889).
On the 14th of February 1890, his second son was born: he died three days later on February 17. They named him Charles William. Amanda Melvine was born April 11, 1891 and Artie Jane was born March 17, 1893.
Jorgen and Mr. Nielson (Hans Peter Nielsen husband of Maren Catrine Nielson, James Nielson's sister) went to Salt Lake City to purchase the machinery for a grist mill. Jorgen was half owner of this grist mill for many years. It was called the Nielsen Mill.
Jorgen purchased a saw mill from Matthew Mansfield. During the summers he and his family would live at the saw mill up in the mountains where he would make lumber.
Becoming discouraged with their present surroundings and, I guess, certain happenings, the family moved away leaving Amanda, Artie and Lynn. They sold their farm and all they owned and bought a home in Midview, Utah. Before buying their home, the family lived for ten days at Duchesne. They farmed seventy acres in Midview and it was there that their fifteenth child was born, Jay Durfey Smith, on May 15, 1917.
The Bishop of Midview, Alma A. Burgener, paid a great tribute to Jorgen for his honesty. He said he would always be poor because he permitted other people to take advantage of him. Jorgen would always pay more than his share of Fast Offerings and Tithing, and he was always kind and loving father to all who knew him. He would ask people to eat with his family and he always had a bed for everyone. He did a great deal of work on the Manti Temple and after the temple was completed he and his wife were sealed for time and all eternity on December 4, 1889 soon after their first child died. As a tribute from his family of 15, there was never a time the children went cold or hungry their whole lives.
In 1922 they had a bakery in Myton, Utah. They lived in Myton for awhile but later moved back to Midview then to Park City, Utah where Jorgen worked as a miner and Sarah ran a boarding house. Jorgen worked at the Daily Judge Mine. They then moved back to Midview where Merin and Cora moved them and furniture back to Fruita where they lived until Easter Sunday Morning 1932. Sarah took very sick and was taken to William and Amanda's home where she passed away April 14, 1932.
Being alone and very lonesome without his wife and family, Jorgen lived at Livermore, California with Lincoln and Ardella for nearly six years after which he moved back to Utah again and lived with all of his children until on the 25th of June, 1938, while sleeping at Dee and Artie's home, he passed away in his sleep. He was laid to rest beside his loving and kind wife and three sons at Bicknell, Utah, Wayne County where he always wanted to be laid. He was laid to rest June 27, 1938 in his L.D.S. Temple Robes which he well earned throughout his life. He had a very large funeral service. He had a total of 225 Progenitors, with 23 passing away making a total now living 191.
by HAWS DURFEY
Jayson Lynn had bought a new car and the family went to Salt Lake City, a very joyous occasion until they entered an intersection and was hit by a Murray Laundry truck. All were thrown from the auto except Amanda and the baby she was holding. The seat she was sitting on was thrown out leaving them sitting on the floor unhurt. Lynn was slightly injured but Sarah Sariah had broken her back and suffered from it for the rest of her life. Alma, her Father, was also slightly injured.
by HAWS DURFEY
There were two Jacks in town, one Red Jack and Black Jack, young Jorgen was Black Jack. He was the one they seemed to like to tease on Halloween. His cows had disappeared one night, a search by all the towns people had begun but not a track could be found leaving the town, or anywhere. A day or two later when the ladies opened the Relief Society Building, the cows came running out.
Another year he searched in vain for his buggy only to find it high on the roof of this same building.
This story was donated by Eugene Halvorson.
as told by Dessie Gill, Kenneth's sister to Marla Burdick
Kenneth was the second child born to Joseph Oren and Mary Alice Allen Smith. He was born May 30, 1919 in Ferron, Utah. Kenneth had an older sister, Dessie , who was born in Elmo, May 26, 1917. His parents divorced sometime prior to Nov 23, 1921 because that is when Mary Alice married Seth Hitchcock. Joseph Orem remarried also on the 24th of Oct, 1922 to Alice Maud Hunt. Both couples stayed in Ferron.
The following was sent to me, Marla Burdick, by Dessie (Gill).
What led up to this story, started in Ferron, Emery County, Utah in about 1925 during the Depression. We were living in a log house on the corner of the Hitchcock lot. Where they (the Grandparents live).
Somehow my stepfather, whom I will call grandpa in this story, heard some of the folks said there were farms in Duchesne County for sale if you would farm them.
We moved to Roosevelt. The farm was 2 miles north of town. There were 5 of us kids and the folks I'm the oldest, Kenneth, Dollie, Ray & Ruth. Grandpa's brothers and family were our neighbors. Ken and I went to school there and we were baptized there also. The following summer, Grandpa's birthday being July 22, they planned a trip to the mountains, our neighbors and family in one wagon and we in another one after a long way. We kids would run along side picking wild flowers and giving them to the small ones in the wagons.
The neighbors said he thought we had missed the right road and said he would walk back a way and see if he could see another. He looked back and Kenneth was following him. He told him to go back to the wagon because he didn't know how far he might go. When he came back, we wanted to know where Kenneth was and he said he sent him back....the following is from a newspaper article :
Roosevelt-- July 25, 1927 (Special) Kenneth Allen Smith, 8, rosy cheeked and apparently well fed on berries, is back home today playing with the rest of "the kids" after 80 hours lost in the rough hills between Uinta canyon and Pole Creek. His mother, Mrs. Alice Smith Hitchcock, is confined to her bed from nervous prostration due to worry, and his step-father is also at home due to injuries suffered in a fall early Sunday while searching for the boy.
Kenneth disappeared from the family's camp Thursday before noon and when he could not find it he said he went over the mountain and when he hit Pole Creek, where he had heard his parents talk of moving their camp to, he went up it and just waited for them to come.
The first night, he says, he spent on top of the divide and under a big tree, and on coming down to Pole Creek he says he lost his coat and hat. The next two nights he slept in the brush, burrowing under leaves and covered by branches.
Except for being bothered one night by a "big cat with a long tail" believe to have been a mountain lion which curiously sniffed around his hiding place, the boy said everything went along all right and he declares he did not cry. He was near a patch of raspberries and the creek was close to the spot where he was discovered.
As the long skirmish line of men swept down the hillside, he patiently waited from his seat on a rock in the sunshine and when within hailing distance calmly yelled, "Here I am, Papa."
Ever since his disappearance posses have been searching the countryside but Sunday an organized hunt with nearly 1000 in line started from the site of the Hitchcock camp and went to the divide into Pole Creek, reformed and then swept down in a solid line until they came to the boy.
Those on the lower end of the skirmish line tell of finding the boy's tracks which were being followed by a lion. They followed them but the other searchers found him before the trackers reached his camping place.
The party working Sunday included practically all the man power of Roosevelt which had not been exhausted by the Friday and Saturday hunts, together with 200 men from Vernal under Sheriff Emery Johnson of Uinta County and another large party from various other sections of the Basin under Sheriff A.H. Mitchell of Duchesne county.
The following is from a letter I received from Dessie Gill, July 14, 1999.
A friend gave Kenneth a horse after he was home. That winter Ray was very sick in the hospital with Pneumonia. The Dr. operated on him by going through his ribs and removing a lot of fluid from his lungs. He slowly recovered.
Dot was born Dec. 11, 1927, sixth child. One day a man by the name of Mr. Shipp came to our house and told the folks he had foreclosed on the mortgage. We lost the farm, also our home in Ferron. All we could do is move back to Ferron.
Grandpa hired a man with a black star car, "izenglass in the curtains" to take back home. As we were going over Indian Canyon, we tipped over upside down. We all crawled out, we were not seriously injured, cuts and bruses, Mama had battery acid on hir legs and worried about the baby who was in her lap.
A salesman came along and took us to a Hotel in Helper, a lady cleaned us up the best she could and gave Mama some stockings after washing her legs.
The man finally got his car fixed and picked us up and took us to Ferron. Grandpa stayed behind to bring the wagon, furniture and animals.
We stayed with the Hitchcock grandparents for a few days then moved to Rochester, where he farmed for Mr. Moore. We planted a garden, had pigs, chickens, rabbits and cows and were doing better.
One day my Dad (Oren), Maud, brother Orvin also Grandma Smith and Stella, came by and wanted me to go with them to Joseph. Dad was guite "happy", singing all the way. We got to Aunt Pearls that evening. She made beds for us. I slept with Grandma and Stella. Dad and Maud went home next morning. We stayed a week (I remember eating greengage plumbs and playing on the school playground with my cousins and the good meals we had.) They came and got us and brought me home. I didn't see as much from them for a long time. Then one evening they came to our place with everything they owned in a Model-T Ford. Dad, Maud and Orvin, had been working in the Crystal Mine in Salina Canyon, due to the depression, the mine closed so they had to leave. They stayed with us a week or two, then found an empty house 3 blocks west of us. Grandpa gave them chickens, pigs and the use of the horses so they could make a garden. Hen they got settled Grandma Smith and Stella came to stay with them. Ken took his horse and lived there too. Stella and I had fun together. She wanted me to come and live there too. I did for a few days.
Saturday, the Sunday School was taking all the kids on the Desert for Easter outing. I had planned to go, when I got up that morning Dad said I had to help Maud do the washing because she had a sprained wrist. So I left and went to Mamas, made a sandwich. Dad came to get me, they tried to catch me but I stepped out the door and left. When I got back, everyone was upset with me. Monday morning all us kids rode the school bus to Ferron. At noon I went to Grandma Allen's (She lived a block from school). I told her and she let me stay till the weekend.
One Saturday morning, I was on my way to Dads and met Kenneth on a neighbors horse. I ask where he was going. He said his horse was in the stray Pen and he was going after it. He said "Dad and Maud are going to Huntington tomorrow, but I'm not." I asked why and he said "I don't want to" and rode off.
He got his horse and was leading it behind him, he must of tied the lead rope to the back of his overalls. When the horse he was riding came to its place it wanted to turn in so the horses were turning around each other Grandpa was on a load of hay and could see what was happening, and jumped off, jumped over a fence and as he picked him (Kenneth) up he breather his last.
He took him to Grandma Allen's in Ferron while they made arrangements for the funeral. He is buried in Ferron. We lived in Rochester (latter called Moore) for another year. Cleo Elaine was born there but we moved back to Ferron where Kenna Lee and Franklin Dean were born. Dean was 9 months old and died of phenmonia..
Dad, Maud and Orvin, now called Jack moved to Lawrence, East of Huntington. Norma was born there. I stayed with them a week while Dad went to Salt Lake for a Hemroid operation.
The following is an account of the accident as told in the EMERY COUNTY PROGRESS, dated Friday, September 18, 1931. Under the Ferron City News ROCHESTER YOUTH KILLED BY HORSES
Funeral services were held here Sunday for Kenneth S. Hitchcock, 12 of Rochester, who was killed last Friday afternoon while attempting to bring his pony in from the field.
The lad was riding one horse and leading the other, when the rope of the led horse became entangled around his neck. He was pulled from his horse to the ground, and the two horses, becoming frightened, kicked him several times, breaking his neck before his father and the neigbors, who were close at hand, could rescue him.
He is survived by his parents and 4 brothers and sisters.
This story was donated by Marla Burdick