Personal History by Paul Bert (Jack) Leonard, April, 1994

I was born of wonderful parents, Leopold and Zoe Ellen Powell Leonard, April 18, 1925, in the coal camp of Peerless, Utah. I was the eighth child of nine -- seven boys and two girls. As I started my earthly journey, I must say, it was something to think about!

About My Name

My first name and birth certificate read Ervin Bye Leonard. Then my parents had a change of heart and were given another birth certificate a short time later that read Paul Bert Leonard. Down the road a few short years, I came to be known as Jackie Leonard, so this gave me a few aliases to work with so, to end this, my social security registration reads Jackie Paul Leonard. How did I get the name "Jackie"? I was a child who did not like to stay home and help with the many chores that Mother had for us. This one Saturday, at an early age, I had taken off to go to the movie at the Star Theatre. At this time, Jackie Coogan was a popular star. Well, I was only five or six years old and, coming home over the railroad tracks on Carbon Avenue after all day at the movies, with my bib overalls and one strap undone, a shoe missing, I looked like a neglected child. The family was out looking for me. When they saw me walking down the street, they said I looked just like Jackie Coogan and so the name stuck. Some called me "Jack in the Box". I was rather small for my age and, when I was supposed to enter the first grade, they thought I was too small, so mother said: "Jackie, wait 'till you're seven years old. From then on, I decided to be as big as other kids and took the next path and that was to be the best I could be.

THE ETHNIC NEIGHBORHOOD

I was raised in a very pleasant ethnic neighborhood. The French families, the Italian and Greek families had a strong influence in my life. We all looked forward to Greek Easter, with the roasting of two or three lambs in their back yard, eating Greek cheese, pastries and the main course -- Greek dancing, music and their colorful dress. These years, with the variety of families in our neighborhood had a strong influence on me to appreciate all people and enjoy their life styles.

GROWING UP IN PRICE

Playing roughneck basketball by Uncle Abe's corral was very close to mayhem. During the summer of the late 1930's, a few of us would take a small herd of cows from the Pitts family. We would get ten cents a day to take them south of town for the day and herd them back at evening for milking. I tried my hand at thinning sugar beets between Price and Wellington. It paid ten cents a row. I am sure the rows were one half mile long and, after a few days, I decided this was not for me. I would sooner be home helping there. When growing up, I shined shoes with Rex, Don, Reid and Eben Powell, my cousins. It was a time when the depression had not quite ended. Rex Powell made me a shoe shine box, so I could be with them. We would shine shoes on Main Street and go into the Greek coffee houses. Shoe shines were ten cents. After making many rounds and earning enough for a Saturday matinee ticket of five cents, we would go to the Utah Cafe and order a large hamburger for ten cents, with a bowl of soup for ten cents and have enough left over for candy at the movie. At that time, there were Flash Gordon serials plus others that made you want to go each week. There were the original "Our Gang" comedies, Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, etc..

History of Clair and Blanche Leonard Written By Clair Leonard 1987

Born January 25, 1911 in Price, Carbon County, Utah. Educated at Price Jr. High and Carbon High School. Married to Blanche Ellison on December 9, 1929 at Castle Dale, Utah. Latter married in the Salt Lake Temple December 9/11, 1940.

Some of my early memories was when I was two or three years old I swallowed a peanut shell and was choking on it. I had turned black and blue from not being able to get my breath when my grandmother Sarah Jane Powell came into the house. She grabbed me by the heels of my feet, turned me upside down and gave me some quick slaps on the back. I coughed up the shell. I later developed pneumonia. When I was just a bit younger I received a scar over my right eat from a pan of hot grease. Mother was in bed ready to give birth to Evelyn, and dad's brother Fred and his wife Jessie had fixed a good meal for us. My brother Lee, however, decided he wanted fried eggs. Just as he started over to the table with the eggs, doctor Piske knocked on the door. I jumped up from the table to see who it was, and ran into Lee and the hot pan of grease. Another accident I remember was when we had been cleaning up the yard and was burning the trash. Someone picked up an old piece of garden hose that had been burning, whirled it around in the air, and I caught all the hot melted rubber on my face, hands etc.

Between the ages of four and five we were on a trip out to Uncle Lots in Altonah. We were traveling by wagon from Price to Altonah when I became very sick. At the time they thought it was typhoid fever, and said they almost lost me. Years later around the year 1937 when I was living on 7th South in Salt Lake with my wife Blanche and our two children, Norma and Jimmie, I had to have my appendix out. The doctor at the L.D.S. Hospital asked my mother if I had ever had an attack before. He said my appendix had ruptured at one time, healed over, and had grown to my back and other parts of my body. He said that I was lucky to be alive. Mother told the doctor of my early supposed typhoid fever sickness on our way to uncle Lots in Altoniah, Utah by wagon, and how it had taken us over a week to get there. The doctor said that this must have been when my appendix ruptured and that I was lucky to have survived.

Another experience was when Mother was washing clothes and someone came to the front door. When she went to answer the door I had to see how the wringer worked. I hit the leaver and my right hand got caught and went through the ringer. My hollering brought my mother on the run and she hit the pressure leaver that stopped the rollers and opened up the rollers. I don't remember going to the doctors, but my hand had been split wide open and looked like a hand full of hamburger.

History and Memoirs by Evelyn Leonard Bjornn, July, 1994

The children have been asking me to write my life history. Every time I try to interest them in our ancestors, they laugh and tell me they are more interested in my life's story than in someone's who has been dead a hundred years. I have promised to do that, if they will accept the fact that none of us is perfect, even a great-grandmother. Some of the history may not be exactly as they wish it were.

The art of writing is certainly not one of my natural talents, but maybe as I record some events each day, I will, with practice, be able to express my thoughts more clearly.

At the time I started writing this history I was seventy-nine years old! Where has the time gone? The years have passed so quickly! When I think of all the wonderful events and experiences that have transpired in my life, I am so grateful my many blessings, and I hope that I can record them in such a way that my children will derive something worthwhile from them, add their histories to it, and pass them all on to their children.

I was born in Price, Utah on May 28, 1913, the fifth child of Leopold (Leo) and Zoe Ellen Powell Leonard. When I was born, Enid Russell's mother was heard to say, "That Zoe has really hit the jackpot with this baby! She has the most beautiful child - lots of black hair and big, brown eyes!"

We lived at 276 South Carbon Avenue, in a beautiful, two-story, white-frame home, trimmed in green. The house was surrounded by a white picket fence enclosing our yard which had a large lot for the children to play and romp in. My parents were blessed with nine children, seven boys and two girls. We never had a dull moment around the house because we had an older sister and brothers to tease. We had time for swimming in the local swimming hole, and our house was always filled with company.

Baby sitters observed that my parents reared a family who knew how to do things. We all knew how to clean the house and make crafts. Home was always a place where there was plenty of food, and where guests never went hungry. Many fond memories of those childhood days linger in my heart.

Personal Memories of Max Leonard by Robert Leonard

Written by Robert P. Leonard, Son of Clair Leonard and Blanche Ellison, Grandson of Leopold and Zoe Ellen (Powell) Leonard, and Nephew to Max Leonard.
November 15, 2003

The earliest thing I remember about Max was that he had polio at an early age.  It was something that none of us wanted to get but Max was the unfortunate one.   I remember how there was no cure at the time we were growing up and they did not know how to treat it for sure.  I remember the ‘Iron Lung’ that kids would have to go into for hours or days at a time.  This was the so called cure for polio but it did not.  The doctors didn’t know that exercise and heat would be the best things to save the legs and body from the deterioration effects.  A women Doctor or nurse was the first to prove this and she had to convince others of the correct treatment in the early days.  Max did not get the treatment he needed and lost most of the control of his leg.  I don’t know if it is correct to mention all of this but it was a very tough thing for Max and his parents to deal with at the time.

Max did not let the polio hold him back.  Max must have known that the use of his mind was going to be his biggest asset for the rest of his life and profession.  Max graduated from Carbon High and then went on to the University of Utah where he obtained his degree.  He must have been a teacher after he graduated, at Carbon High School.  He taught Geri (Cima) Turnbull and others at the High School.

Max taught several years at the High School and then must have applied to the Government Civil Service for a job and got a position as an Educator.  The government as I recall sent him, eventually, to England in the early 1950’s.  This would have been not to long after World War II.   I remember him going to England and the next thing I remember was that he was married to an English girl (Jean Morley).  I was told by my father Clair (brother to Max) that Max was doing well and was advancing in his work as an educator.  Next thing I remember, Max was transferred to Germany and took his family to live in Wiesbaden, Germany.  I had no idea where that was until later.

History of Jemima Wimmer Powell, Utah Pioneer

The most part of this history is material supplied by a Great grand-daughter Mary Powell Blackburn, which was taken from an old record book in 1930 by Mary who found it at the home of Charles Wimmer, now deceased.

Other information from a family group sheet submitted by Jay Prince, and a few personal memories of a Grandson, Samuel Powell. This history written for Mary Blackburn— by Nora Lund D.U.P. historian 1970.

Born - 14th March, 1814 - Lisbon, New Castle, Henry Co. Indiana.

Died - 13th Dec. 1893— At her son Robert's ranch-near Price, Carbon County, Utah

Buried in Salem, Utah County, Utah.

Married - James Powell

Information furnished and history filed by Mary Powell Blackburn - Granite Park Camp, South Center Salt Lake County

(My Great Grandmother) Jemima Wimmer Powell was born 14 March, 1814 in Lisbon, New Castle, Henry County, Indiana. She was number 5 in a family of 11 children, born to Peter and Elizabeth Shirley Wimmer. The group sheet lists her brothers and sisters as Robert, born in Penn., all the rest who were born in Indiana were as follows: John P, Jacob, Polly, Susannah, Peter Martha, Elisabeth, Ellen and William. Only four out of this large family grew maturity and married, these were Robert, John and Susannah and of course Jemima. We have no death dates recorded for the other members of the family with the exception of Susannah, who married Simeon J. Comfort, no doubt in Hancock County, Ill. She was just 22 years old when she died, 2 April, 1840.

Jemima was taught the rudiments of home making by her mother, so was well prepared to take on the  responsibilities of a home of her own when she married James Powell in 1334 in Indiana. She was 20 years old and he was 25, having been born 13 Oct. 1309 in North Carolina. He was the son of Abraham and Elizabeth Powell.

Jemima's parents, Peter and Elizabeth Wimmer became converted and were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were thoroughly convinced of the truths of the gospel, and felt they were making the right choice, but just being members of this unpopular religion meant trouble, and they had plenty. Jemima and James didn’t join the church then.

The History of Emmett and Madge Leonard and Their 64 Years Together

By Madge Leonard

Emmett was born in Price, Utah, on April 22, 1907, to Zoe Ellen and Leo Leonard. He was the second of nine children. They lived in Peerless, Utah, a coal mining town and the children were bused to school in Price, Utah, about 25 miles away.

I was born in Orangeville, Utah, August 12, 1908 to Annie and John Irving Jewkes. l was the second of five children. My father and mother moved to Wattis, Utah, a mining town where Dad worked in the coal mines mining coal. I finished high school in Wattis. The family then moved back to Orangeville and I stayed there and worked in an ice cream and candy store and also went to beauty school.

During that time Emmett's parents moved back to Price while he remained in the mining camps and worked in the coal mines. Leo, Emmett's father, had a ten-piece orchestra. Emmett and his brothers, Lee and Clair all played in it. Emmett played the saxophone. They were called "The Night Hawks." They played for dances all over Utah and other states for 10 - 15 years. That's where I first met Emmett, I was sixteen and he was seventeen. They were playing for a dance in Helper, Utah. My friends and I were there having a good time. The music was great. I looked up and saw Emmett and thought he was a tall, good-Iooking guy, so I winked at him. When the dance was over he came over to talk to me and to my surprise he was short, but still good—looking. (I was never going to marry a short guy.)

We went together for a while, but on one date we had to go to a dance and he called and cancelled saying he had to work. It just happened that Birdie, Emmett's sister, came and asked if I was going to the dance. I said, "No." She insisted, saying. “If you get a date, you take me. And if I get one, I'll take you."

Birdie got a date and he had a friend, which made it nice for me. Surprise, there at the dance was Emmett dancing with a new girlfriend. Well, that was enough of that two-timing guy, I thought. Needless to say, we started going together again two months later and on October 27, 1927, we got married in Orangeville, Utah.

A History of Leo Pold and Zoe Ellen (Powell) Leonard

Written By Clair Leonard in 1987 

What I remember about my parents:

Although I had many a licking and grabbed by the hair of the head when I tried to get away from my mother, it was because I did not do what I was told to do at the time. Playing came first with me, as it does with all kids, and when a woman has a baby every two years her strength and nerves are not in the best shape.

Dad was more easy going, and was a good provider, but mother was the money manager. When I was a teenager and would have a run in with my mother, I would go up and stay with my grandmother Powell. My mother was the 8th child of Sarah Jane and John Powell, born December 6, 1887. She met Leo P.  Leonard at Sunnyside. Utah while working at her sister Florence's Boarding house. They were married June 17, 1904 and had nine children - seven boys, and two girls.

Mother was quite high strung and could get quite hysterical, and would become a screaming female when something unexpected would happen. A good example of this behavior is one that I will never forget. We were out in Carbon Co. in 1919 when a cloud burst happened. It rained so hard that Price River was flooding over its banks and the fire truck came down past our house at 2 a.m. with siren and fire bell blasting, and a string of cars behind.

Mother started screaming, "What's happening". Dad went out and down to the river to find out what had happened. It seems that a young couple had been parked to close to the river bank which had caved in and took them and their car into the river. I don't know if they ever did find them. As Dad talked with people. They were all afraid the Scofield dam was going to break. The next morning they put a train of cars together, loaded the cars down with men, scrapers and horses, and sent them up to the dam to save the dam. Clark and I both tried to get on but they kicked us off.

Personal History of Stanley Floyd Leonard written by himself

Written by Stanley in 1994
Born June 23, 1915, Price, Utah
Early in the morning of June 23rd, 1915, I was born to Leo B. and Zoe Ellen Powell Leonard, in Price Utah. I was number six out of what was to be a family of nine children -- seven boys and two daughters.

My father was born and raised in Kamas, Utah. He was a kind man, hard—working, dedicated to his family - working really hard to see that we had the food and clothes we needed.

My mother was a native of Price and lived there nearly all her life. She was a very strong personality, with a great deal of good common sense. She was a competent planner and could get things done that needed to be accomplished. Mother and father always kept our home very attractively, as it was one of the nicest homes in Price at that time.

One of the earliest experiences I can remember (when I was approximately three years old) is the night my family arrived home from Idaho. We pulled into the railroad station at Price. It was dark, wet, and cold. Years later, I talked to mother about these memories and she said that it had to have been when we came home from visiting Dad, who was working in Idaho. I can also remember a lot of people at the station.

We lived in Peerless for nine or ten years. While there, Max and Jack were born. It was my job to wash the diapers and, boy, were there a lot of them! Some wash days, usually Saturday, I headed for the hills and hid. A boyhood friend, Ken Howard, and I would take enough food to get by for the day. We would come slinking back at night, only to be rewarded with a good spanking.

I had little odd jobs to earn money, such as pass bills for a dollar, or work at the company store for a new pair of shoes, bananas, or whatever. We would have to go to Mutual and Sunday School at Spring Canyon. I joined the Boy Scouts in Spring Canyon, where I would have to go alone at night. It was scary coming home at 10 o'clock and I would run all the way. But at Christmas time, I was always the one who had the privilege to go up in the mountains to get our Christmas tree at Peerless. I didn't have to go far, just up a mile or so but the snow could be quite deep at times.When we moved back to Price, I remember that I got sick and had to stay with Dad and Birdie in Peerless, where I could be close to the company doctor.

The Mining Legends - Caleb Baldwin Rhoads

Perhaps mining presents more legends than any other source.  In our chapter on mining in Utah, we told of a religious man who came into a mining camp, claiming he possessed the power to resurrect the dead.  How alarm spread the camp as the miners considered the many embarrassing triangles that would be exposed.  How grudges would be revived and perhaps men would be killed if the resurrection took place.  The prosperous miners panicked. They collected 2,500.00 and gave it to the religious fanatic on condition he leave Alta’s grave yard intact.  In our files are many such incidents.

Caleb Baldwin Rhoads was a pioneer of 1846, who camped in the valley in the summer of 1846 on his way to California.  This is a story of a very rich gold deposit that was supposed to be in the Uintah Mountains.  Its whereabouts were known only by Caleb Baldwin Rhoads, who was married to Malinda Powell.  Believe it or not but here is the story I have heard from my father and old Caleb’s mouth.

First, I will mention some of the words which my father, John A. Powell, related to me.  My father and Caleb Rhoads were great hunters and were out in the mountains together often in their days, where on many occasions Uncle Caleb told my father many things in regards to the gold he knew of, but never would show him where it was located.  Although my father had seen much of the ore and said it was very rich in gold, he could not understand why, if Caleb knew where there was so much gold, he did not locate it or at least get more out than he did and not talk as much about it as he did.
One time in the early days of Kamas, Caleb and my father, being the first two settlers of Kamas Valley, went on a hunting trip back in the mountains west of Kamas.  While on this trip they killed a large buck deer but could not carry it to camp so they took the entrails out and hung it in a tree until they could come the next day with a horse and could take it to camp.  Nothing was said about the gold at this time, but a number of years later when they had moved from Kamas to Price, Caleb asked my father if he remembered the time they had killed the buck deer, where upon my father said, “Yes, very distinctly I do.”  Then Caleb told my father that not very far from the place where they killed the deer was where they got his rich gold ore, but he did not tell what direction or how far he meant by saying, “Not very far.”  So my father was at a loss to know whether it was one mile, five miles, or more.

How Leo B. Leonard and His Sons met with President Eisenhower

During the summer of 1940 the Army had their most ambitious war games prior to World War II. The setting was the newly named Ford Ord, near Monterey, California. Many of the soldiers involved in these war games used wooden rifles. There was little ammunition for the First World War cannons. Trucks were used as mock tanks. This exercise was to be the U.S. Army's first attempt at amphibious landing. As the troops came ashore from rowboats in Monterey Bay, trucks zoomed back and forth with soldiers shouting boom boom, pretending they were tank guns firing away! Above the beach line, crowds of local citizens yelled and applauded while the 32nd Infantry regimental Band played. That band was conducted by Staff Sergeant Leo Bradford Leonard.

The Army maneuvers were partially planned by Mark W. Clark, a brilliant officer from the office of the Chiefs of Staff in Washington D.C. With Col. Clark was his friend and classmate from the West Point Class of 1915, Lt. Col. Dwight David Eisenhower. Ike (as he was called) was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, and wondered if he would ever get a regimental command. With nothing official to do but watch, Ike wandered over to the band and chatted with Staff Sergeant Leo B. Leonard. He asked Leo if he could play a song called "Abdul a bul bul a mir", Ike's favorite song. Staff Sergeant Leonard said that most of the boys knew that song from their many visits to the local bars, but they did not have the music with them since it was not scheduled for the program that day.

Leo Bradford Leonard A Short Biography

Leo Bradford Leonard was born in Price, Utah on 17 August 1905. He was the oldest son of Zoe Ellen and Leo P. Leonard. As the oldest of 9 children, he had to assume responsibility early for the care of the younger brothers and sisters and was expected to perform his share of chores around the home and property. He showed early a flair for leadership and assumed his responsibilities with great enthusiasm. He and his younger brother, Emmett, became popular among the young folk in the Carbon County area. Their popularity was equally strong between the young women and the young men. Both played in their father's band, the original Night Hawk Orchestra. This was the first band organized in that part of the state of Utah and all of the children played in it at one time.

Leo Bradford graduated from Carbon County High School and left home early after signing a professional baseball contract. He subsequently played for the professional teams in San Pedro and Los Angeles, California. In addition to playing for these minor league professional teams, he hung around the lots of a number of movie studios and played in the movie studio orchestras. He also played as an extra in several movies including, Wagon Wheels, an early talkie, where he played the part of an Indian.

(Picture 1: Leo at the POW camp in Gorica, Italy, circa 1945 where he was the commander.)

Remembering Max Leonard by Dr. Leo D. Leonard

                One of my earliest memories is of my Uncle Max. We were living at 1773 Michigan Avenue in Salt Lake City. I remember my father, Leo Bradford Leonard, throwing me up in the air and then catching me.  I remember this was not the first time my father had played that game of throwing me above his head then catching me on the way down.  Each time he threw me, I was terrified and filled with rage.  Oh, how I hated that game!

                This particular day, Grandmother and Grandfather Leonard were visiting from Price, Utah.  They came into the front room, followed by Uncle Max.  Zoe Ellen told my father to stop throwing me.  Max walked over and caught me on the way down from one of my father’s tosses, held me in his arms and settled me down.  I think that must have been the time when Max became my favorite Uncle.

                Max’s big hug and soft words were most comforting.  During my visit with Max in December of 2002 in Palm Desert, he confirmed that the event had indeed happened, so it wasn’t my imagination.  We left our home in Michigan Avenue in 1940 to move to Fort Ord, CA; so it was either in 1940 or late 1939 that this event had taken place.

Recollections of Max Leonard From the Early Years in Peerless and Price

I was born in Peerless, a small mining town in Carbon County, Utah on December 21, 1922. I was the seventh of nine children born to Zoe Ellen (Powell) and Leopold Leonard. My parents had moved from Price to Peerless, about 10 miles away, in 1920, in order for my father to assume his new position as a tipple and weigh boss at the mine. They rented our house in Price while they were living in Peerless. Peerless was the first of several coal mining towns located in a small box canyon that was about nine miles long and that was known as Spring Canyon. These towns were connected by a narrow dirt road and a railroad that was used for hauling out the coal that was mined near each town. Peerless was made up of just about fourteen houses that were laid out on each side of the canyon. At the entrance to the canyon was the large tipple where the coal was loaded on to the railroad car after being hauled up the road from the mines.

The coal miners homes where made of wood. They had large balconies on one side and wooden steps on the other side. These homes lacked such essential amenities as bathrooms and running water for bathing, cooking and dish washing. Water had to be hand carried from a communal water hydrant that had to be hand pumped. We didn't have an indoor toilet. Facilities consisted of a small wooden structure placed over a hold in the ground. It was called an outhouse. That was because it was out back some distance from the main house. With these inconveniences to contend with bathing was a once a week ritual. It was usually done on Saturday night. Toileting was never a nocturnal activity unless there was an emergency. It was dark and cold out back and you never knew what you might encounter as we lived in a remote canyon where it wasn’t unusual to see wild animals.

Children outside the school in Peerless. Max is on the right at the front with his hands on the girl's shoulders and his brother Emmet is behind him.

A Life Sketch of John Ammon Powell Which He Dictated

I John Ammon Powell, was born in Pisday, Ill. Nov. 27, 1844, the fourth child in a family of nine. My father, James Powell was born in 1809. He was from North Carolina. My mother was Jerminah (Jemima) Wimmer Powell, she was born in the state of Indiana.

My father was a partaker (victim) of the Missouri persecutions against the Latter-Day Saints. At one time he refused to sign a petition against the Mormons. In consequences of his refusal the mob used violence against him, cursed him, and struck him on the side of his skull with the barrel of a gun. After a long sick spell, he recovered, but even after his recovery the left side of his body remained paralyzed.

My parents arrived in Utah, Oct. 13, 1852. We came in the company of Captain Robert Wimmer. We went directly to Ogden and lived there until 1854. My father drowned in the Weber River west of Ogden, July 2nd, 1854. I was then I my tenth year. After the death of my Father, my Mother disconnected with the location and moved to Springville, Utah. My Mother endured many hardships.

From the time I was thirteen years old I managed an ox team. For years I hauled timber and cordwood from Lamb’s canyon to Salt Lake City. I went to Kamas Valley in 1858 and took up a homestead. At that time there were only two houses in the Valley. I built the third house. It was for my Mother. I cut and hewed the logs and laid them into the wall with my own hands, without any assistance. It was big, comfortable one room house.

I was at that time fifteen years old. Mother lived in the house two years. Later I built another log house near my mother’s. It was a great improvement over the first one. I was married January 13th, 1863, to Hannah Matilda Snyder. My first two children were born in Kamas. The third house I built in Kamas was better than the first two, but the fifth house I built in the Valley was the best of all.

The Black Hawk War drove us out of Kamas. Everybody had to move, so I moved to Lamb’s Canyon, where I could work and not be troubled by Indians. I never had any particular trouble with the Indians; although I met them in dangerous moods. In 1861 while I was in Kamas Valley cutting hay with a mower (scythe or cycle) where a band of fifty Indians formed a circle and camped just above where I was working. They had scalps of seven white men hosted on poles and were firing shots and yelling.

Incidents in the Life of James Powell as Related by his Wife After his Death

One day while we were living in Caldwell County, Mo. We were visited by what might be termed a mob, composed of the following persons: Arthur F. Wethers, John Gardner, Riley Sanders, Clark Ellis and Philon Ellis. They requested my husband to join the forces against the Mormons. He told them that if they had no Federal Authority to molest them he could not go. They replied warningly, “If you do not join us we will kill you.” Following this they went in the direction of my father’s home. Fearing for the safety of our small daughter, who at the time was at my father’s place, we followed them, little knowing what might occur. As we were about to overtake them, they stopped and ordered us back. My husband said we were going after our little child.

At this remark three of the men sprang from their horses, and one a Mr. Wethers, caught up a stick and struck my husband between the shoulders, causing him to turn around and grapple with Wethers, who then shouted for help. Gardener shot at my husband, missing him, and not wanting to endanger a fellow posse man, Gardner then used his gun as a club and struck him on the head several times. I ran for help, but as the posse left I ran and lifted my husband’s head, thus relieving his pain as best I could until my mother and two sisters came to my assistance. They were Latter-Day Saints so they immediately administered to him by laying on of hands. After they had administered the ordinance he arose and walked to my father’s house about two hundred yards away.

When the men left they gave us warning that if we were not out of the place by the time the sun was a yard high the next morning they would return and kill all of us. Thinking that these fiends might return and carry out their hellish threats we decided it was best to leave. We packed up our things in the wagon and started that very night for Huntersville (a town about four miles away). We arrived there the next afternoon after driving all night through wooded country; being followed by the posse who were determined to see us well out of the country.

Upon our arrival in Huntersville we were immediately surrounded by a crowd of about three hundred men. They asked what he had in the wagon. They then asked if we had anything done for him and if we were Mormons. We had done very little for him and neither one of us was a Mormon, and had never heard a Mormon preach. One of the men then told us to go to a certain vacant house. Arriving there they took my husband out of the wagon, laid him on a door and the Doctors performed an operation on his head. They cut his scalp in four parts, drew down as far as his ears and forehead. Then thinking we would tell the posse they left him in this condition.

Incidents in the Life of Robert Wimmer Brother of Jemima Wimmer Powell

I Robert Wimmer, son of Peter and Elizabeth Shirley Wimmer, was born in the state of Pennsylvania in the year A. D. 1805. I moved with my father to Cincinnati, Ohio, in the year 1808, when Cincinnati had not more than 550 inhabitants. From there I moved to Gold Vain 11 miles west, and from there 5 miles still west. Here Father opened a large farm in the timber.

Here I got my first pair of pants. I wore long shirts. I expect I was ten years old before I owned a pair of pants or shoes. My mother had to make all our wearing apparel out of flax, tow and wool. Wool was carded by hand and spun on a little wheel. I can well recollect when the women made their dresses out of four yards of yard wide home made cloth. They made their skirts wide enough to run in. They made our shirts out of flax. Domestic cotton was not then worn. The women said it was so hard to wash, they would rather make linen than wash cotton cloth. You could hear the buzz of the little wheel in every home.

My father was called to war in 1814 under General Harrison and left my mother with four little boys in winter time. It was a hard winter too. There was a mad dog that came and drove us up on the loft and kept us there 30 hrs, when a neighbor man came in and rescued us from danger.

About the year 1820 my father hired me to an Indian trader and took me to Andersontown, twenty five miles north of Indianapolis, on the White River, a Delaware Indian Village. I became a great favorite with the Indians and they offered a very high price for me in horses. My father got uneasy about me and took me home. One, Ben Davis, and his squaw followed to steal me, but kept watch. Some of the Delaware Indians have silver ornaments, such as broaches. Half moons hung down their back. They wore large nose ornaments. They had the rims of their ears cut.

They laid their dead on top of the ground near black posts with a cross near the top and built pens around them. I was at one of their grave yards one day. Seeing a considerable pile of tobacco, I slipped a piece. One of the Indians saw me and gave me a chase. He over took me and picked me up by the seat of the pants and back of the neck and threw me against a big stump and came very near to caving my side in. Some of the Indians would bury their dead in great logs, others upon trees. The trails or roads were very narrow, as they always grew one right after the other. Their trail some places was very deep for roads.