JOHNSON HISTORY FAMILY MANUSCRIPTS

OUR PIONEER MOTHER
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CHAPTER I

MY PARENTS

      My father was Charles Willden of Sheffield, England; a steel refiner, by trade. He was a Baptist Minister, but became a Mormon Missionary while he lived in England.
      My mother was Eleanor Turner, of Sheffied, England. She was a Methodist, but joined the Mormon Church while she lived in England.
      They were married in England in the year 1831. They did not believe in polygamy so my father did not practice it. Of the marriage there were four boys and five girls.
      I was born in Sheffield, England, May 15, 1845

INCIDENTS I REMEMBER IN ENGLAND

      When I was three years old I was at my grandmother's. My mother was milking a cow; noticing the streams of milk I asked if they were knitting needles.
      One day a lady gave me an English penny, and I was sure I could get a fine large doll with it; so I gave it to my father to buy me a doll, and he bought one that was worth a penny. It was only a rudely carved wooden doll with a painted face and no legs. My disappointment was very great, for I had expected that my penny would buy one of the beautiful show dolls in the shop windows.
      Once I was lost on the streets of Sheffield and was wandering about when a dressmaker, seeing me alone, spoke to me, but all I could say was, "Where is my mother?" "Where is my mother?"
      Mother and a policeman soon found me.
      Another day I was walking in the park for the first time; the daisies were very beautiful, and my brother and I wished very much to have some of them. So we slipped away from our parents and had gathered great bouquets of them when we were startled by a man on horseback, riding furiously toward us. We ran to our parents and all was well. The man was the lord of the manor, or estate, trying to frighten us.
      In the year 1849, my parents decided to leave England and go to America.
      While on ship board, we children were bathed in big tubs and barrels of sea water which we did not fancy.
      Many people were on board, and weather was cold. One day I was sitting on a little stool near a stove. A woman with a baby wanted the stool, so she pulled it from under me, causing me to fall against the stove and my hand was so badly burned that the scar remains to this day.

THE UNITED STATES

      We arrived in the "States" in the year 1849, and as we were going up the river to Iowa, my little sister died, and we were forced to land that we might bury her.
      I was about five years old, and the burial service made a deep impression upon me. We first settle in a neighborhood where there were no little children, and the Scotch settlers thought I was a "fine wee lassie," so asked mother to let me visit them for a day, which she did, but I returned with the germs of the "itch." Soon the whole family had contracted the disease. Mother was much troubled and worried, for this was a new disease to her.
      I was much interested in our first cow, and one day while I was studying her actions, she picked me up with her horns and threw me over her back. Someone ran and helped me up, but I was unhurt.
      When churning day came, I was standing close by with my mouth open and my hands behind my back. Father saw my interest, so took one of my hands, folded up my fingers, leaving the index finger free. He put this free finger on the churn dasher, which was covered with rich cream, then put my finger to my mouth that I might eat off the cream. Thus I was taught a cunning little trick for which I was severely punished later on. This little incident was of use to me when I was grown for when I ha babies of my own, I vowed that I would never teach them anything that they must be punished for later.
      My mother had a few chickens. One of them died. My brother and I remembered about the burial of our little sister, so we conducted the same service for the chicken.
      The greatest joy of my childhood, was the advent of my baby sister, Mary Elinor Willden, who became Mrs. Lillywhite.
      When I started to school I knew my "a, b, c's," and the teacher thought that she had a wonderfully bright pupil. She pointed out the letters to me from "a" to "z," and I knew them all. She pointed form "z" to "a," and I knew them all; then she skipped from "a" to "z" and from "z" to "a" and I knew not one letter.
      At recess I wanted a drink. The cup hung too high for me to reach, so I drank from the pail, and of course was punished.

THE CALL TO UTAH

      When we had gone up the Mississippi River we settled at Council Bluffs. Iowa, in a Mormon colony. Here my father bought a fine farm and was quite prosperous. We lived on this farm for two years, then came the call to go to Great Salt lake, Utah.
      My father arranged with an agent to sell the farm, as we had to leave right away. This agent traded the place, one hundred and sixty acres of the best of land, for an old second-hand watch.
      In the year 1847, Brigham Young, with a band of Mormon followers, had gone from Council Bluffs to Great Salt Lake.

THE COVERED WAGON

      We loaded our covered wagon with our household goods and the family, and started on the long hard journey to Salt Lake.
      Earlier in the year of 1851 other companies had gone to Utah. The traveling was so hard that their stock had given out, and so to lighten the loads, many of the household goods were thrown out and left behind; pots, pans, tubs, heavy articles of wearing apparel, and feather beds, were strewn all along the roadside. Our party would have liked to have picked up many of these things, especially the feather beds. Our teams were in good condition, and we could have carried many of these things, but we did not do so for fear of disease.
      The stock would stampede if they saw a dead animal by the roadside. At one time some women were walking ahead of the wagons, when they came upon a dead ox. They knew there would be trouble if something were not done, so they stood in line between the dead ox and the road, holding out their long skirts at their sides, thus making ad effective screen while the long train passed by.
      One day an old Indian chief came to our wagon. I saw him coming and ran to the far end of our "prairie schooner." He saw that I was afraid of him, so to tease me, ran his long spear as far into the wagon as he could reach. I surly was frightened for I thought he was going to kill me.
      At one time, all the men who could get away from the wagon train, went after a herd of buffalo. All returned from the hunt but my father and a companion. The train could not wait for them, as camp had to be made further on so they were left behind. At nine o'clock that night they had not reached the camp and the company became uneasy about them.
      A lantern was hung on a tall tree and guns were fired every few minutes. About three o'clock in the morning an answer came to the watching and anxious people. The answer was a gunshot fired by the lost ones.
      A few days later my brother Charles was lost for four days. He had gone back to help another company, which had taken the wrong road, and my brother in trying to find it was himself lost, but he kept up the search and at last found where they were camped. He led them back to the main road and to the camp of the wagon train.
      One day Charles was driving our wagon and John was driving the sheep behind the wagon. There was another company behind our outfit, and our parents got out of our wagon and said they would walk awhile and talk with the people. Mother told me to stay in the wagon and care for my little sister. After awhile John came to the wagon and called to me, "Annie, won't you come drive the sheep, I am so tired?" I was willing to do so. Had I gotten out of the wagon on the "nigh" side all would have been well, but - instead, I got out on the opposite side. The oxen, not being accustomed to this, kicked me under the wagon, a wheel struck my back and squeezed up my dinner, and my prized lead pencil was lost in the food. This pencil was a piece of common lead that I had in my mouth, chewing an trying to shape into a pencil. Though I was badly hurt, I mourned the loss of my pencil. While being run over I was calling frantically to my brother, "stop that wagon." I must have been made of India rubber not to have been seriously injured. My frantic parents came running to learn the trouble, and there was great excitement in the train for a little while. I was able to walk the next day.
      The great prairie was covered with high thick grass, and hidden underneath the grass was cactus. The wagon train left the main road to camp and I was walking behind in my bare feet. The cactus thorns would get into my feet and as I would sit down to get them out, I would get them into my hands. The wagon soon got so far ahead of me that I was sure I was lost. The people behind us did not know of the cactus and thought I was lingering because I had gotten into a "stubborn spell." In a short time, which seemed hours to me, my brother came for me on horseback. When my thorny condition was discovered and doctored, I was petted and comforted.
      While passing through Echo Canyon, we found it to be a very wonderful place, for there were great rocks and high cliffs, the fist we had ever seen. We children shouted, "Hurrah," and there came back to us, the answering "Hurrah." Again we called, "Who are you?" and again came the answer. "Who are you?" So we called, yelled, and shouted just to hear that mysterious, answering voice, echoing from the rocky cliffs.
      The older people soon tired of our noise, and we were forced to stop. It was also feared that our commotion and noise would stampede the cattle. We never traveled on Sunday, for the Mormons were strict Sabbath keepers.
      While traveling, the weaker members of a family rode in the wagon; the others had to walk. Mother should have ridden, but she walked over half the way.
      After many long, weary, interesting days we entered Utah.

GETTING SETTLED

      After our company reached Cedar City, Iron County, Utah, the men were examined to wee what type of work they were fitted for. My father was a steel refiner. A company had built a furnace, and the refining of iron was started; but the refined iron was of an inferior quality, either because of poor quality of iron or because of poor workmanship. The company wanted father to build his furnace, but he would not go to the expense till he found if their refined iron was good enough to make into hood steel, so he went to farming, and was considered one of the best farmers in all that country.
      The first year in Utah, the people worked to build a fort. Each man had his portion to build. The fort was a half mile square, houses being built in the interior.
      We built a cellar and our large family lived in it for some time. We slept, cooked and ate in that one room. The beds were piled in one corner during the day and spread out on the floor at night. This did not last very long, for my father was an enterprising man. He built a house, the kitchen first, then the other two rooms being added later.
      While living in the cellar, an old Piute Indian came to trade. Mother had to step out a few minutes and told me to watch to see that the Indian did not try to steal anything, - though there was not much to steal. When mother left, the Indian took hold of me. I was dreadfully frightened and thought I was to be killed then and there. I pulled away and ran to mother and left the Indian to steal what he would.

A HARD WINTER

      After the second harvest the company built a grist mill. Everybody had to have his wheat ground before the old weather came on and froze the mill stream. Father had all his ground. He took care of the bran and shorts, which were to be fed to the stock in the spring, if the family did not need it. It was a blessed good thing that we kept it that year, because the cold weather came on early and lasted late, and no one else had all their wheat ground.
      Everybody was out of flour and did not have even bran to eat. Father would not let anyone have his flour, as there was only enough to carry his family through the winter, but mother was free--hearted and tender, and she could not eat nice bread and see her neighbors, and those who were sick, suffer, so she kept giving away flour, a little at a time, praying and hoping all the time that a thaw would come before here family would be in need; but a thaw did not come and our family was at the starvation point.
      First we ate the bran, then began on the shorts, but we did not have to eat them very long, for the prayed-for thaw came and the mill was kept running day and night.
      I thought it was a hard old winter, and that the salt- rising bread, made of bran flour, the poorest food anyone could possibly eat.
      Shortly after the birth of mother's last child, mother was taken very ill. We could not get anyone to help us, so I had to do the family washing when I was but eight years old. I had to wash with soft soap and it was made so strong with lye that when I would dip it out with my fingers to put it on the clothes it would eat my fingers, and they would not have time to heal before another wash day, so I had raw and bleeding fingers continually. The blood would stream from my fingers while I worked. I would cry, and my poor mother in her weakness, had to see me suffer.
      One brother was to have helped me with all the work, but his interests were along other lines, so I had to do it all alone. After a few weeks mother was quite well again. One day I took the baby and went with some girls to the mill, leaving the housework undone. Soon I saw mother coming after me with a stick. I put the baby down and ran home. When she reached home I was busily washing dishes, "Well, Madame, you just saved yourself a whipping," she said, as she saw me busily engaged.

NEEDLE AND THREAD

       I went to school very little. When I did go, I went to a large building wherein was a large dance hall, which was the school room. There was a man as principal and two women teachers.
      Sewing was taught, - and how I did want to learn to sew. I asked mother for some quilt pieces, but she had none, so I hunted about and found some old rags, and the girls at school gave me a few pieces. I had no needle, and mother had only one, and of course she would not let me have that. But, oh, - I was so very anxious for it, that I took it and went to school.
      The teacher started me on my "block" for a quilt; then - I lost my needle! Down it went, - and through a crack in the floor! I got down on the floor, hoping to find it by peeping into the cracks. Then along came the principal and hit me over the head with a stick. So ended my first sewing lesson.
      That evening mother wished to sew, but she could not find here needle. She turned to me and said, "Ann, did you take that needle?" There was no way out of it, I had taken it, so I took my punishment.
      Later, mother was able to secure needles, but she had no thread. I was so intensely interested in learning to sew that, now, that I had needles, I must have thread; so I went to the barn and got horse hairs and used them for thread.
      After that, horse hairs were very precious and I took good care of any that I found anywhere.
      I sewed enough pieces to help mother a great deal in her work of making her "Wild Goose Chase" quilt. My mother was very proud of my quilt work and exhibited it at every opportunity. I have kept up my quilt making all my life, and no other hand work is so interesting to me.

SPINNING AND WEAVING

      We had lived in the Old Fort for three years, and as there was no longer fear of the Indians, we moved into a new house in New City, which was near the mountains.
      Here I learned to spin. We then made our own thread with a "to wheel." Later I learned to run the big spinning wheel and made all the yarn for our clothes. I learned to knit when I was eight years old, and always made my own stockings.
      An old lady came to room with us in our new house, and know all about making cloth, as well as looms. Father wished to make a loom, so the lady stayed right by, and he worked under her direction until a fine loom was built. We were now quite independent, for we could make all our wearing apparel.
      In order to make our own hats, I learned to weave, or braid the long slender stems of the wheat straw, then sew and shape the braids into hats. I thereafter made all the hats for the family. After I was married, I made the hats for my children and husband, and often for the neighbors.
      The Mormons called the twenty-fourth of July their Independence Day, for that was the date that the first company of Mormons entered Utah. All the men of our family wished new hats for that day, so I had to make them, and there was very little time in which to do the work. I braided, and braided, and sewed, and sewed; and I shaped and shaped, and on the twenty-third, I had finished the last hat. Because of this continuous hard work with my hands and fingers, a felon grew on my thumb, which caused me to spend a suffering holiday.
      We all went to the celebration. Many people had to stand up during the speeches, but I found two seats and told mother, but she did not wish to separate herself from the family, so I called a girl friend and the two of us occupied the seats. Father saw me call the girl, but he did not see me ask my mother to take the seat. When I got home I was scolded by my father for my neglect of my mother. He would not listen to my explanation and I was broken hearted. The pain of the felon, the sorrow of being misunderstood, and my hard work in making the hats seemed little appreciated.

WORK AND PLAY

      When we were preparing to build our new house in New City, my father made adobe bricks, and I had to pile them after they were dry. This I did continuously all the long day. At night my body would be in a very tired condition.
      My father really never meant to be harsh and unkind. He had just been brought up to spend life digging and digging.
      One day mother went to visit some friends and told me that when I had finished the work, I could do anything that I wished. I hurried and did everything up nicely. Inasmuch as I was not used to having a half-holiday, I really did not know what to do to celebrate the occasion. I secured some sheep skins, put them on the floor, then laid down upon the and began singing. My father came in the house and found me thus celebrating and said. "If ye hae't got not to do, I'll gie ye sumit to do." As the result I went out in the garden and hoed weeds all afternoon.
      There were bathing holes in the creek near the town, where the girls went bathing. It was a secluded place so the girls except myself went in the water without suits. I gathered a number of old scraps of cloth, sewed them together and make them into a slip. (It was a coat of many colors.) This slip I used for a bathing suit just once, for my father saw it and traded it (part payment) for a buckskin, and this was the last of my bathing in the creek.
      One day I went to a picnic. Mother wished me to wear my old "gingham," but all the girls were to wear their prettiest clothes and I wished to do the same so persuaded mother to let me wear my white dress. I had nothing for my head but my winter hood which was made of colored silk thread. A rain storm came up while we were in the hills and we all became thoroughly wet. The colors "ran" in my beautiful hood, all over my face and my white dress. How funny I must have looked when I reached home, all wet and muddy and bedraggled, showing up all colors of the rainbow. The colors never came out of my dress; my hood was spoiled, and my hair was nearly ruined; it was red, white, blue, green and orange colors.
      I always helped with the work on the farm; drove the ox team and sowed the grain in the spring. Father had a threshing floor and the ripened grain was spread out on this floor, then the horses were driven round and round over the grain, and in their tramping threshed the wheat. The straw was then raked off and the wheat gathered up and fanned with a fanning mill. There was no one to do the fanning but father and me. I had to turn the fan from early morning till late at night. The only rest I had was in carrying half bushel baskets of the wheat, on my head, to the bin at the house.

MOUNTAIN MEADOW MASSACRE

      A company from the "States" came across the plains going to California by the Southern route. There were three hundred miles of good roads from Salt Lake City to Cedar City, and fro Cedar City to San Bernardino. The Mormons got their supplies form San Bernardino, and consequently through teaming to and from that town, the roads were kept in good condition.
      The company mentioned was a very large one, so all the people in it did not know each other. There were may of the rough class in it, drunkards, gamblers, and many non-Christians. They camped in Cedar City, inside the fort. (We had not yet moved to New City.) They were going to remain a few days and rest their teams.
      By some means, by bringing it with them, or by getting it in a Mormon community where it was made, they had large quantities of liquor. The "ungodly" often became drunk and often insulted the Mormon women and girls with their swearing and cursing.
      In their maudlin state they said that they had helped to kill Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, and now they would help to kill Brigham Young. This made the Mormons very angry, and they immediately sent "twelve apostles" to Salt Lake to advise with President Young, as to what treatment this company should receive.
      In the meantime the company had moved on but the Mormons of Cedar City planned to detain them till word was received from Brigham Young.
      The word was so long in coming that the Mormon men grew impatient and decided to take the affair in their own hands. They went down and surrounded the emigrants at Mountain Meadow, taking all the Indians they could get to help in the surrounding, telling the emigrants that they were there to protect the from the hostile Indians.
      Two Mormons disguised themselves as Indians and went into the emigrants' camp and heard all their plans. They found them well armed and with plenty of ammunition, so they dared not attack them, but waited a few days longer for the message from headquarters, but it did not come.
      The Mormons pretended then that they could not control the Indians, and told the company that the Indians would kill every one of them unless they gave up all their arms and ammunition.
      When the emigrants had seemingly given over all their arms and ammunition the Mormons decided that it was time for the onslaught, so they pushed the Indians to the front to do the shooting and then the Mormons found that the emigrants had not given over all their arms and were ready for fighting. They killed some of the Indians and when their ammunition had given out they were left to the outrages of the Mormons, who rushed in and killed men, women and children, (whole families), and no matured person was left to tell the story. Only the little babies and a few children, eight to ten years of age were saved, about thirty in number.
      Being a young girl I was not supposed to know anything of the terrible deed, but received the information from these older children*. *Note. - This account of the massacre is the same as that given by W. Cody, 1857.
      Soon word came from headquarters to let the emigrants go on their way, unmolested, but too late, the dreadful crime had been perpetrated and forever after the hand of man seemed against those who took part in the massacre.
      After all was over these men gathered up all the property of the people that they had murdered and took it to Cedar City and New City to sell.
      Father came home late one evening and I heard him and mother talking fearfully and softly. Mother asked father if he was at the sale. Father answered in the saddest voice, "I was there, but I bought nothing, I just could not buy anything that had belonged to those poor, poor, murdered people. I feel that some evil would have befallen us had I done so."
      One day, a dirty, ragged, sad-looking boy came to our door and asked for food. He said he was one of the boys of the ill-fated company. I began asking him questions about it, but mother quickly stopped me, telling me that it would be my death knell were any of the officers to hear me, for all people were forbidden to speak of the massacre.

THE YOUNG MAN

      One day my father sent me down to a neighbor's on an errand and there I met a young man who was boarding in the home. I met him again at a party where we played games together. I thought that he was the nicest, and handsome man that I had ever seen. He had come from Denmark when he was 17 years of age and had worked his way over the United States to Missouri where he joined a handcart train and crossed the plains to Utah.
      This young man came riding by one day and stopped for a visit. I said a few words to him but I was so shy and bashful that I could not stand a longer visit, so I made a rush for the sheep-fold, for I remembered that I had not let out the sheep. I drove them far away, allowing them to take their time. When I returned my visitor had gone. I met him a day or so later and overcame my shyness enough to explain to him that I had gone to let the sheep out to pasture the day he had called. He often called as the months went by. perhaps, sometimes, I wondered who the man would be that I would marry, for two old men had already asked my father for me to become a second wife. One of these men had a wife and six children but my parents did not believe in polygamy, so it could not be possible for them to let their dear little daughter enter into such a marriage; though it was a rule of the church.
      This young man and I kept company for some time and when the work in the house did not go right, mother would say, "You are thinking too much about Neils."