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Photos for Joseph Henry Byington and Hannah Molland Byington
The following letters were written by Hannah Molland Byington
Lava - A Part of God’s Creation
In a part of God’s Creation in the Rocky Mountain west,
There’s a village very dear to the ones who love it best.
From the hilltops eye can travel to the farms for mile around
O’er the homes and fields and pastures, where the farmers life abounds.
Here the mineral hot springs bubble, here the deer once come to feed.
Here the Indians camped on hillsides that supplied their simple needs.
Here the berries, wood and water - shelter for their wigwams found.
Women made the buckskin gloves; while the braves hunted all around.
Then the white men came to homestead and they settled by the score
Bringing with them civilization. The village grew more and more.
hardy pioneers who settled, building homes and church and school
All endured so many hardships, living by such rigid rule.
Always helping friends and neighbors, when and where the need arose
Plowing fields and planting gardens, sharing all their joys and woes;
Leaving us a grand tradition: Those names we’ll recall once more,
When the “roll is called up yonder” over on that other shore.
Still the Portneuf River winds through the Valley lazily;
Still the rolling dry farm wheat lands, stretch as far as eye can see;
Still the rocky hills stand sentinel, where the sheep and cattle roam
A “Great” part of God’s creation to the folk who call it home.
Joseph Henry Byington
This history is used with permission from Fay Byington of Bountiful, Utah.
Nothing more picturesquely wild and beautiful can be imagined than the scenery about the Ashtabula River in the early days of the Western Reserve.
The fertile soil, with its gigantic growth of Oak, Maple, and Cedar. The great gulfs and shadowy gorges with the white forms of the sycamore intertwined with the dark green of the hemlock and pine. The river rolling far down beneath the summits of these lofty hills. It formed a picture grand and awe-inspiring.
The name Ashtabula is said to mean many fish. To this place came our pioneer parents with their husbands and little ones, hearing only the scream of the panther, or hooting of the owl as night overshadowed them. One of the first white families there was the George Beckwith family. They occupied a log cabin located about a mile above the mouth of the river.
One January, George Beckwith went to Austinbury for a supply of salt and provisions. While returning to their cabin he perished in the snow. His brave young wife, left alone, became anxious at his prolonged absence. She locked her little ones in her cabin and made her way to Austinbury, a distance of twelve miles. With the help of some of the people in the town they followed the trail of her husband and found his body frozen where he had fallen in the snow.
Mrs. Beckwith bravely remained in her cabin, supporting herself and children by helping travelers across the river with her canoe.
Some of the other early settlers were Nehemiah Hubbard and his wife and six month old daughter who came over the Indian trail on horseback from New York; The William Thompson family; and Mrs. Joseph Kerr who was the mother of one of the first white children born in the area.
Enoch Fuller and his wife and large family of children were early Ashtabula settlers.
The first school was taught by Julia Hubbard.
In the olden times corncob ashes were used in place of soda. Coons were baked in an oven, placed upon a burning stump at the back of the house.
At first religious meetings were held in private homes presided over by a traveling minister who would preach two services on Sunday.
The wolves were an ever present menace to the settlers. They would come to the farm yards to get their few sheep or chickens. The pioneers would throw out firebrands to frighten them away. Sometimes they would bring a new born calf into the cabin to save it from the wolves.
School was held in a little log school with only ten scholars. As they walked to school the children were told to hurry and not to stop along the way as they were usually followed by wolves who hoped to catch one child alone.
One day, while crossing a clearing, Emily Miles saw something that looked like a stump someone had put in the path. On getting nearer, to her great horror, it was seen to be a pile of snakes. She retraced her steps, procured a pole and flat stone; then her courage returned. She threw the stone on the pile, it began to unroll. Then, with the pole she killed twenty seven snakes.
Some of the Indian tribes of the Reserve were the Senecas, Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnee and Delawares. The Indians of the reserve buried their dead in different ways. Some were buried in stone cysts; some were lain in horizontal position and some in sitting position.
The wife of big Son, the Seneca Chief was very dignified but a large stout woman. When she died the Indians, at a great expense, procured for her a new calico gown in which she was wrapped. Then they actually covered her arms and ankles with silver beads and broaches. She was buried in a coffin made of bark, being first rolled up in a large blanket. The grave was dug only three feet deep and was so arranged that a hole remained, out of which the departed could see the summons to arise and go out to that Indian Heaven, the happy hunting grounds of the Great Spirit.
One day a Mrs. Corbin, a faithful member of the congregational Church had a thrilling experience. She decided to visit a friend who lived on the other side of Ashtabula Creek. She went alone without a thought of danger. At that time, no bridges spanned the streams. You walked across on a fallen tree. Mrs. Corbin started to cross. She glanced to the other side of the log, and saw a large bear approaching. She screamed. This frightened the bear. They both turned and fled into the woods. That was the end of their acquaintance!
The first homes were rude bark or brush shacks. Later they had cabins built of logs. The roof was covered with small poles and dirt.
It was, no doubt in a small cabin such as this that Joseph Henry Byington was born the 25th day of January 1829 in Ashtabula county Ohio, to Hiram Norton Byington and Sarah Hawkins. He was their first child. How proud and happy they must have been.
They probably lived like the other settlers and had some of the Same experiences that happened in the early years of that area.
The principal fare was wild deer, coon and Johnny-cake. Sometimes in cold weather large flocks of wild turkeys would be driven by hunger to the very barnyards of the settlers.
On the 14th of October 1830, Hiram and Sarah welcomed another healthy child, a brother for Joseph Henry. They named him Hyrum Elliott.
Most of the settlers were devout and religious people. Hiram and Sarah probably attended the Congregational Church as their parents belonged to this church in Connecticut.
About the year 1831 or 1832, Sidney Rigdon and other leaders of the Mormon Church began preaching in this area. At this time several families joined the Church. The Kelly family who had come from Troy, New York and the Benjamin Hinckley family also joined.
We believe that it was at this time that Hiram and Sarah joined the Mormon Church. They packed their small children, Joseph and Hyrum and all their belongings into a covered wagon drawn by oxen and went to Kirtland to be with the other Saints.
Joseph Henry was not very old when they went to Kirtland but he was there when they built the beautiful temple.
His father, Hiram Norton, probably helped build it. They enjoyed the peaceful times in Kirtland before the persecutions began. Did the family have a better home in Kirtland? Did they have a garden and a cow and some sheep like the other Saints. It would be nice to know about them at this time.
About the year 1838, the Saints were driven from Kirtland. Joseph Henry was about eight years old when they had to pack the wagon and move on with the rest of the Mormons.
When Joseph Henry was eleven years old he was with his parents in Scott County, Illinois. A sister, Susan Augusta, was born there in 1840. How long they were in this area has not been determined. We find them in Nauvoo by 1844.
Joseph Henry was a young man of 14 in this year. He and his family lived there during some of the peaceful times. He probably saw the Prophet Joseph ride his white horse in the parades.
Mother Sarah tended the baby and spun the wool and flax for their clothing. Father Hiram could have worked on the Nauvoo Temple. Joseph Henry helped his mother plant the garden dn dry the fruit and vegetables for their winter use.
He was in Nauvoo when the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum were murdered by the angry mob in Carthage.
From this time forward the City of Joseph, as Nauvoo was lovingly called, was filled with pathos and gloom. Its splendor soon departed. It became a morbid place of wickedness; its spirit became as dead as the rigid bodies that slept in the unmarked graves.
In the dead of winter the vanguard of pioneers fled from the city. The great leader Brigham Young, who seems to have slept with one eye open and one foot out of bed, was frustrated by his enemies but he had organized and planned.
Quietly, secretly the covered wagons were rolled into the door yards, loaded with bedding and provisions in preparation to being drawn upon the flat boats that would start them on a journey across the continent.
They were ready to turn their backs upon Nauvoo and hasten into the Indian territory before the mobs and soldiers could send its forces upon them.
They were driven from their beautiful city before they were permitted to make extensive use of their million dollar temple.
On the forth day of February, the first covered wagons laden with a scant supply of provisions were drawn onto flatboats and were ferried across the dangerous river. The Journal History says this about the dismal exodus in mid-winter:
“On February 15, Brigham Young and members of the twelve crossed the river with their families and moved on to Sugar Creek. The weather was extremely cold. The thermometer hovering below zero. On the 25th, Charles C. Rich walked across the river near Montrose, on the ice. The next few days witnessed the strangest sight of all, long caravans stretching out across the might river over a solid floor of ice which stretched from bank to bank a distance of one mile. A few days later, this unique roadway was broken, and the line of Caravans was halted as great blocks of ice chocked the river. The delay was but temporary. The ferry boats began to ply the river again and fresh caravans spotted the prairie. The great exodus of the Mormon people had begun.”
Of this sad parting, Brigham Young wrote:
Our homes, gardens, orchards, farms, streets, bridges, mills, public halls, magnificent Temple, and other public improvements, we leave as a monument of our patriotism, industry, economy, uprightness of purpose, and integrity of heart; and as a living testimony of the falsehood and wickedness of those who charged us with disloyalty to the constitution of our country, idleness and dishonesty.”
Joseph Henry was with his family in February 1846, when they crossed the frozen river into Iowa. He was there when they established a temporary camp on Sugar Creek while they waited for others to join them. In this barren wintry camp, nine babies were born the first night! On the first of March 1846, camp was broken and the trek across Iowa was begun. Daily progress was pitifully slow. Heavy spring rains set in, turning little creeks into impassable rushing torrents, and delays were necessitated until swollen rivers became smaller. At night the wagon wheels became frozen in ruts, requiring much effort in the morning to loosen them.
In June the heavy rains ceased. In their wake came swarms of mosquitoes and other insects, bringing plagues and fever to the harassed pioneers. Many of the Saints died and were buried along the wayside.
They arrived at council Bluffs on the Missouri River in late summer. Some of the exiles settled east of the river at Council Bluffs, Iowa. But the major portion of them established shelters west of the river, naming their camp Winter Quarters (later known as Florence, just north of Omaha, Nebraska). This was Indian territory. How would the Mormons be received by the natives?
In the typical mysterious way of native communication, news of the Mormons having been persecuted and driven from their homes by other white men spread from Indian tribe to tribe. Therefore, when the exiles arrived in the Indian Country, they were welcomed by the Omaha and Potawatomie Chiefs and their braves.
One old Chief told the Saints how his people had been driven from their homes east of the Mississippi River. “Now you have been driven away in the same manner from your lodges and lands and the graves of your people. We have both suffered. We must help one another and the Great Spirit will help us both.”
Joseph Henry was now with his family in Winter Quarters. Here they made preparations to make the thousand mile journey to the valley of the Great Salt Lake.
Some of the able-bodied men sought work in the frontier settlements of Iowa and Illinois. Their earnings were sent to the “Camps of Israel” on the Missouri in the form of food and other necessary articles which would be of use on their westward trek. Grain, bacon, livestock and other supplies were purchased.
The grist-mill at Winter Quarters was grinding a supply of flour. Each morning everyone was up and at work. Among the activities engaged in were knitting, spinning and making clothes preparatory to their continued journey.
The Byington family was no doubt working, planting and preparing the same as the others in Winter Quarters.
In the Spring of 1847, the first company of Saints made ready to leave. Brigham Young was leader of that first company. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July of 1847. We have already given a history of this company. Each group which came had about the same experiences.
Joseph was in Salt Lake, when the first pioneers began the survey of the city. While one group of men were clearing the sage brush from the land, others were plowing and building a bowery, composed of poles covered with grass and brush so they could hold church services.
A huge stockade or fort for defense against the Indians was constructed with heavy gates, which were locked at night. All day long blacksmiths hammered, shoeing oxen, repairing axles and setting wagon tires. Timber was cut and carpenters were at work. Soon a teeming village existed in the sagebrush where three or four weeks before only Indians, rattlesnakes and wild animals could be found.
The first pioneer companies had now laid the foundation for the New Zion where other Saints could join them in their mountain retreat. Over 1,500 Mormon emigrants were on the plains now wending their way toward Utah.
Brigham Young decided to take half of the men and most of the wagons and teams back to Winter Quarters before winter set in. The remainder of the men were to stay in the valley and continue construction on the fort. The first company selected to return to Winter Quarters consisted of 108 men.
Brigham, the Mormon Chief spoke to them from his wagon just before the departure. He warned them - as a father world warn his children to be on guard against the Indians and disease, to be industrious, to love one another, and to remember God. He also told them: “Men, we have to build a kingdom here. This is no time to be afraid. I must go back; and you must stay here and plant and reap next summer so that we’ll have food for next winter.”
By the fall of 1847, nearly 1,700 people had gathered in the Salt Lake Valley with the intention of remaining throughout the winter. The food they had brought with them from Winter Quarters was going fast, and there was no way to replenish it. Would these brave frontiersmen starve to death before a harvest season arrived?
A public meeting was called to see what could be done. While carefully considering the problems of how to avert starvation, one of the group suggested, “As long as there is a pound of flour left in the community, I move that we do not let anyone starve. A committee can be appointed to gather the food supplies that each of us have in our own homes; and then the food can be rationed to the people. The group agreed and Bishop Edward Hunter was placed in charge of the rationing committee.
Where was our Joseph Henry when this took place? He came in 1847 and we know that he also came in 1848 with Brigham Young’s company. Did he go back with Brigham to help his Father and family come to Utah the next year?
While doing searches on the life of Joseph Henry Byington I have determined that he crossed the plains several times. So it is possible that he acted as a scout for several of the pioneer companies.
The year 1848 was a very lean year for our family. This was the year of the “crickets”. Food was scarce and hunger was a visitor in all the homes. They managed to survive on thistle roots, sego lily bulbs and wild game.
Joseph Henry met and married Nancy Maria Avery the 25th of December 1849 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were here until the year 1852. They had two children, Nancy Maranda b. 4 Dec 1850 and Joseph Hezekiah b. 30 Nov. 1852.
Sometime between 1852 and 1855 they spent time in Tooele, Utah where Oliver M., another son was born 23 Feb. 1855.
I can never understand how these faithful pioneers moved around, with a team of oxen and covered wagon, as often as they did. We next find Joseph Henry and Nancy Maria in Ogden, Weber County, Utah where a little daughter, Sarah Augusta was born 25 June 1857.
Were they sent by Brigham Young to help settle this area? If Joseph H. and Nancy Maria were there in 1857 they were some of the very first settlers.
About this time members of the church were asked to deed everything they owned to the church. Some of the more faithful members did this. Joseph Henry deeded all his worldly possessions to the Church while he was living in Ogden in the year 1857.
Joseph and Nancy Maria did not possess much in the way of worldly goods, but they were faithful members and did what the leaders asked.
In December 1854, Wilford Woodruff visited Ogden and described the town for the Deseret News: “This is the county seat of Weber county and is a flouring place containing some 150 families. The city wall will enclose one square mile and is to be built of earth, 8 feet high, 3 feet wide at the bottom and 18 inches at the top. They have two schools with about 120 scholars. They have two stores. The past season they have raised about 10, 000 bushels of wheat.”
The presence of Indians in the neighborhood made life in the early Ogden area an exciting experience.
They built forts as a protection, but there were times when they had to leave the fort. In the summer months the cattle were taken into the nearby hills and herded by boys who worked three weeks at a time. The Indians would come, several hundred in number and camp within a mile of the fort. They would steal the herd boys lunches, and grab them and drag them around by the hair of their heads and frighten them with threats of death.
The gardens of the Saints were not safe as the Indians would shoot arrows into their squashes, pick their peas and once in a while steal a beef.
Joseph Henry and Nancy Maria were here only a couple of years.
By the year 1860 they were in American Fork, Utah where another son, Hyrum Elliott, was born on the 19th of January. On the 27th of June 1862, the family, was living in Huntsville, Utah. By this time I am sure they must have had to put new wheels on the wagon, because they had moved so many times.
Joseph and Nancy now had five children to load into the wagon. Nancy Maranda age 12, Joseph Hezekiah age 10, Sarah Augusta age 5, and Elizabeth Ann just a few months old. Oliver M., the little boy born in Tooele died the first year they were in Ogden on the 27th of Feb. 1857.
By this time I suspect that Nancy Maria knew just the best way to pack a wagon, just the right amount of food to take and many other articles needed to move a family of this size. They must have decided to come to Salt Lake City to be sealed in the year 1864.
Somewhere between the month of June 1862 and the month of Sept. 1864, Joseph and Nancy were in Salt Lake City. It was on the 27th of Feb. 1864 that they were sealed together and had their six children sealed to them. It was also on this same day that Joseph Henry had his second wife, Hannah Molland, sealed to him.
Now Joseph had two wives to load into his wagon. This he did and headed back to Huntsville where Nancy Maria presented him with another son named John Henry, born 20 Sept. 1864.
Here they harvested the grass hay to feed their cattle. In the winter the snow fell to a depth of 3 to 4 feet in this area. They were sometimes snowed in for a month or more. It was here that they met the family of Captain Jefferson Hunt of the Mormon Battalion. Huntsville was named after Capt. Hunt.
By the spring of 1865, Captain Hunt decided that Huntsville was getting too crowded for him. The spirit of colonization was in his blood, and it lured him to Oxford, Idaho. He died 11 May 1879 at age seventy-six and was buried on his own land at the foot of Red Rock Knoll, near Downey, Idaho.
Joseph Henry and his wives, Nancy and Hannah must have left Huntsville about the same year as Captain Hunt. We next find them back in Ogden, Utah. They were doing their part to “multiply and replenish” as wife Hannah had her first child, James Henry Byington, there on the 4th of April 1865 and a daughter Hannah Maria, the 8th of August 1866. Wife Nancy Maria presented him with a fine daughter born in Ogden 3 Sept. 1866.
I do hope by this time that Joseph was possessed of more worldly goods than he had in 1857, because he now had a large family to feed and clothe.
The next move was to Call’s Fort in box Elder County where four more children were born. Call’s Fort is now Harper, Utah. Nancy Maria had a son, Noah S., born 28 Sept. 1868 and another son Ira Zina, 23 Oct. 1870. Her little son, Noah S. died 27 Nov. 1869 at Call’s Fort.
Hannah had a son, Charles Norton, on 29 Mar. 1868 and a daughter, Sarah Rebecca, 24 Nov. 1869. Both were born at Call’s Fort.
About the year 1871 the families were ready for another move. This time they headed for Idaho to a little place called Nine Mile (now Cambridge) near Downey. By 1872 they were there and three more children are added to the family. Hannah had a daughter, Martha Jane, born 25 May 1872 and a daughter, Mary Ann, born 27 January 1875.
Nancy had a boy born 20 July 1873 at Nine Mile. Nancy Maria and Hannah seemed to enjoy each other and get along very well. Hannah’s children always called her “Aunt Nancy”.
Martha Jane Byington Reed, the daughter of Joseph Henry and Hannah tells some of the experiences that happened to them.
James Henry, Hannah’s son and John Henry, Nancy’s son always played together. They were about the same age. They never learned to talk until they separated them, which was when they were about three years old. The two boys had a language of their own and world talk to each other all the time. No one else could understand them, but they could understand each other.
Joseph Henry had a small farm. He also worked away from home to earn money.
Joseph Henry’s brother, Hyrum Elliott, moved from Bear River to Red Rock (near Oxford, Idaho) about 1877. Is this why Joseph Henry moved there? Whatever the reason the family was on the move again.
Hannah had four children while they lived at Red Rock: Susan Elizabeth, born 31 Sept. 1876, Joseph Henry, born 18 Nov. 1878, John Parley, born 23 Mar. 1880, and Clarence Spencer, born 19 Dec. 1881. Hannah’s daughter Mary Ann, died while they were at Red Rock. She was about one year old. They took her back to Nine Mile to bury her.
Martha says: “When we lived at Red Rock we had a few sheep. They took the wool and washed it, then carded it into soft rolls about thirteen inches long and world spin this into yarn. Then Aunt Nancy would weave it into cloth for our winter clothes. She also wove blankets for our beds. We had to make or knit our own stockings. The boys as well as the girls did this. Oh, how I wished that I was a boy, for there was only half the knitting in their socks”.
“Mother would make the clothes for the boys as well as the girls, all done by hand. I was about nine years old when mother Hannah got her first machine. Hannah always had a good garden and it seemed like her chickens always laid eggs when no one else’s did.
Hannah and Nancy dried the wild gooseberries, choke cherries and service berries. At that time they had no bottles to use for canning. Everything was dried or put in crocks for winter use.
Each child had their favorite food. Martha’s favorite food was gooseberry dumplings. She remembers when mother Hannah would give her a slice of bread spread with butter. She would scrape all the butter off and give it to Miriah, for she liked butter.
Hannah always put bread fried in butter or lard in their school lunch pails. Hannah raised pigs and chickens so the meat they had to eat was pork and chicken.
Martha also tells of the time an Indian came to their garden and wanted a watermelon. She gave him a melon and he wanted another. She told him he couldn’t have it, but he was going to take it anyway as he knew there were no men at home. She called her mother Hannah, and she called Captain Hunt. The Indian ran off when he found he could not bluff them.
Captain Hunt was a great friend of the family and helped Hannah many times when there was sickness or trouble in her family. He was a kind man and had great healing power and was called to the home many times in case of sickness.
The home in Red Rock was an unfinished three room home. One end room had been completed and was used to store grain. Martha and her sister Miriah slept on the grain until the middle room was finished.
The area around Nine Mile and Red Rock was called Marsh Valley. Some of the first settlers in the area were William W. Woodland and his two brothers Henry and Solomon; Henry Wakley and Lee and Dave Whitaker.
Idaho was organized as a territory about 1863. Indian attacks kept settlers from coming into the area. The war parties and massacres occurred until about the year 1878.
The Otto’s immigrant train was moving along the Oregon Trail in a vast cloud of dust. The Indians fell upon it. Some were killed, others scattered. The Van Norman girls were taken captive. Fourteen of this ill fated group of forty-four escaped and made their way to the Owyhee River and there reduced to the mental state of children and subsisted by cannibalism. They were finally rescued by an Army Officer.
The greater part of Marsh Valley was sage brush land, but was covered with a healthy growth of prairie grass which made it an ideal place to raise stock.
In 1865, a stage route was established thru Marsh Valley. Each stage driver took an armed guard with him as protection from an Indian attack. Butch Cassidy and his gang also held up and robbed the stages between Utah and Montana.
W. A. coffin married Sophrona Hunt and moved to Nine Mile. Their wedding tour was a trip across the valley on the running gears of a wagon with an ox team to the home of William Woodland where their wedding dinner was served.
Wells Fargo had a stage route which passed thru Marsh Valley on the way to Montana. One stage station was set up on what was later the George Wakley place. William A. Tillotson was the station keeper.
About 18675 William H. Murphy of New York, a Civil War Veteran, was given a franchise by the Federal Government to operate a toll road thru Marsh Valley and as far north as Beaver Canyon at the Idaho-Montana line. He and his wife Catherine lived for a number of years at Portneuf Station, later known as McCammon. He built a bridge across the Portneuf River and established a toll gate and also had a ferry across the Snake River a short distance above Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls). In 1868 he established a toll gate in Beaver Canyon and hired Henry O. Harkness to take care of it.
William Murphy was addicted to alcohol and was cruel in his home. In 1869 he was arrested by Sheriff Morg Morgan and taken to Malad for trial. During the trial, not having been disarmed, he flourished his revolver, at the same time striking a lawyer on the head with a book. He started to run from the room, was ordered to stop, did not stop and was shot by Sheriff Morgan.
Henry O. Harkness married William Murphy’s widow Catherine the 11th of August 1871. They lived at Portneuf Station which is now McCammon, Idaho. They ran the toll gate until 1881. At this time it was opened for free travel. It is said Mr. Harkness took in as high a $600.00 a day at Portneuf Station. He charged $1.50 for a team and wagon and 50 cents for each additional wagon. Before he died he had built up a fine cattle and sheep ranch.
When the Oregon Short Line Railroad was built down the Portneuf in 1882 the Railroad officials tried to buy land from Harkness to build their shops, but not being able to agree on the price they built their shops at Pocatello.
Henry Harkness served as captain during the Civil War under a General Joseph K. McCammon. About the time the railroad came into Idaho. Joseph McCammon was sent as a government representative to secure a right-of-way thru the Indian Reservation. He and other officials met with chiefs of the Bannock and Shoshone tribes at Fort Hall and obtained the right-of-way. While McCammon was here he visited with his friend, Henry Harkness. It was at this time that Henry changed the name Portneuf Station to the name McCammon after General McCammon.
Nine Mile’s (now Cambridge) first settlers were M.D. Yeaman, Fred and Charles Aldous, William Jackson, Nathan H. Coffin, JJ Bybee, Charles B. Hancock, Joseph Byington Sr., Sid Kelly, John Bloxham and William A. Coffin who was the first Bishop of Cambridge.
Now, the Marsh Valley area is a thriving community. The Indian wigwam has been replaced with beautiful homes, churches and highways. It was pioneers like Joseph Henry Byington, Captain Hunt, Hyrum Byington, James Burrup, Joseph Bloxham, Frank Potter, Thomas Jenkins and many others who bore the hardships of pioneer life. They built the bridges, killed the rattlesnakes, fenced and cleared the land. They opened the mines, faced the danger of Indians and built roads at their own expense. They were the true pioneers. They were builders, hunters, trappers and sturdy settlers of early Idaho.
Joseph Henry and his wives left Red Rock about the year 1882.
Martha Byington Reed, a daughter of wife Hannah, says “We moved from Red Rock to Uncle Hyrum’s home in Marsh Valley. We lived there for one summer in his old home as he had built a new one. His home was between Red Rock and Downey.”
Hannah’s son, James Henry, and one of Nancy’s sons called Jode were up at Wilford, Idaho fixing up some places so they could move in when they arrived, but when they got to Annis it was so cold (22 Nov, 1883) that they decided to stay there. They found a place for three hundred dollars which they could afford so they bought it. It had a one room log house with no floor. The first winter they were there they all had the measles.
Hannah and her children stayed here. Joseph Henry took wife Nancy to Wilford or Willard (located the other side of Rexburg, Idaho) where Hibe and Jode lived for a few years.
It was at this time that Joseph Henry had to serve a year in the Dakota prison for having two wives. While he was in prison Hannah and her children stayed in Annis alone.
Wife Nancy stayed with her sons first in Wilford and then they went to American Falls.
Wife Hannah makes these entries in her diary: Jan. 18, 1889 - Joseph arrived here from Sioux Falls.
Mar. 12, 1889 - Joseph left for American Falls.
Joseph was living with wife Nancy when his wife Hannah died in Annis the 19th of November 1889.
After her death Joseph took Nancy and moved to Dempsey (Lava Hot Springs, Idaho). Many Byington families were early settlers of Lava Hot Springs. They were farmers and cattle ranchers. In this area for many years.
Other Byington families lived in Lava before Joseph and Nancy went there. Now that they were older they probably wanted to be near their children.
However, they did not stay in the Lava area very long. Joseph sold his farm. He took a personal check for it. The check was not good and somehow he got cheated out of his farm. He and Nancy then went down to Marsh Valley where Jode was living. They were there a short time. They went next to Neeley, Idaho, a small town near American Falls.
Aunt Martha Byington Reed says this about Joseph Henry: “I do not know why father mover so much, except that when anyone would come along with a big story of how good it was in another place he just had to move.”
“I can’t think of much to tell about my father as my mother was his second wife and he was not at our place very much. I remember he would take any mans word and go in partnership with them without a written agreement and generally got cheated out of his share. This happened time after time.”
“Father was always ready to help anyone in need. He had a lot of talent. He could tie any knot or braid any kind of braid. He would tan his own hides and make the boys braided ropes and whips. He could draw most any picture we children asked him to draw. He had a real talent and could have been an artist. He only went to school about six weeks in all his life. He printed most of his letters.”
“I do not believe he could be beat at hewing logs with a broad axe. All logs had to be hewed in those hays, as it was later that sawmills came into being.”
“I remember when my sister Susan was three years old in 1879, he freighted flour and sugar, with six head of horses, into Montana.” “I never knew him to milk a cow or do a chore. He worked away from home most of the time.”
They were living in Neeley, Idaho when Joseph died on the 22nd of Sept. 1909. He was taken back to Annis for burial. Here he lies buried in the peaceful, quiet cemetery beside his second wife Hannah Molland and his father Hiram Norton.
May this record of the life of Joseph Henry Byington be like a “River Crossing” in the current of life, where gifts of a “cherished heritage” are exchanged for a rededication to tasks that lie ahead.
This history is used with permission from Fay Byington of Bountiful, Utah.
Nothing more picturesquely wild and beautiful can be imagined than the scenery about the Ashtabula River in the early days of the Western Reserve.
The fertile soil, with its gigantic growth of Oak, Maple, and Cedar. The great gulfs and shadowy gorges with the white forms of the sycamore intertwined with the dark green of the hemlock and pine. The river rolling far down beneath the summits of these lofty hills. It formed a picture grand and awe-inspiring.
The name Ashtabula is said to mean many fish. To this place came our pioneer parents with their husbands and little ones, hearing only the scream of the panther, or hooting of the owl as night overshadowed them. One of the first white families there was the George Beckwith family. They occupied a log cabin located about a mile above the mouth of the river.
One January, George Beckwith went to Austinbury for a supply of salt and provisions. While returning to their cabin he perished in the snow. His brave young wife, left alone, became anxious at his prolonged absence. She locked her little ones in her cabin and made her way to Austinbury, a distance of twelve miles. With the help of some of the people in the town they followed the trail of her husband and found his body frozen where he had fallen in the snow.
Mrs. Beckwith bravely remained in her cabin, supporting herself and children by helping travelers across the river with her canoe.
Some of the other early settlers were Nehemiah Hubbard and his wife and six month old daughter who came over the Indian trail on horseback from New York; The William Thompson family; and Mrs. Joseph Kerr who was the mother of one of the first white children born in the area.
Enoch Fuller and his wife and large family of children were early Ashtabula settlers.
The first school was taught by Julia Hubbard.
In the olden times corncob ashes were used in place of soda. Coons were baked in an oven, placed upon a burning stump at the back of the house.
At first religious meetings were held in private homes presided over by a traveling minister who would preach two services on Sunday.
The wolves were an ever present menace to the settlers. They would come to the farm yards to get their few sheep or chickens. The pioneers would throw out firebrands to frighten them away. Sometimes they would bring a new born calf into the cabin to save it from the wolves.
School was held in a little log school with only ten scholars. As they walked to school the children were told to hurry and not to stop along the way as they were usually followed by wolves who hoped to catch one child alone.
One day, while crossing a clearing, Emily Miles saw something that looked like a stump someone had put in the path. On getting nearer, to her great horror, it was seen to be a pile of snakes. She retraced her steps, procured a pole and flat stone; then her courage returned. She threw the stone on the pile, it began to unroll. Then, with the pole she killed twenty seven snakes.
Some of the Indian tribes of the Reserve were the Senecas, Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnee and Delawares. The Indians of the reserve buried their dead in different ways. Some were buried in stone cysts; some were lain in horizontal position and some in sitting position.
The wife of big Son, the Seneca Chief was very dignified but a large stout woman. When she died the Indians, at a great expense, procured for her a new calico gown in which she was wrapped. Then they actually covered her arms and ankles with silver beads and broaches. She was buried in a coffin made of bark, being first rolled up in a large blanket. The grave was dug only three feet deep and was so arranged that a hole remained, out of which the departed could see the summons to arise and go out to that Indian Heaven, the happy hunting grounds of the Great Spirit.
One day a Mrs. Corbin, a faithful member of the congregational Church had a thrilling experience. She decided to visit a friend who lived on the other side of Ashtabula Creek. She went alone without a thought of danger. At that time, no bridges spanned the streams. You walked across on a fallen tree. Mrs. Corbin started to cross. She glanced to the other side of the log, and saw a large bear approaching. She screamed. This frightened the bear. They both turned and fled into the woods. That was the end of their acquaintance!
The first homes were rude bark or brush shacks. Later they had cabins built of logs. The roof was covered with small poles and dirt.
It was, no doubt in a small cabin such as this that Joseph Henry Byington was born the 25th day of January 1829 in Ashtabula county Ohio, to Hiram Norton Byington and Sarah Hawkins. He was their first child. How proud and happy they must have been.
They probably lived like the other settlers and had some of the Same experiences that happened in the early years of that area.
The principal fare was wild deer, coon and Johnny-cake. Sometimes in cold weather large flocks of wild turkeys would be driven by hunger to the very barnyards of the settlers.
On the 14th of October 1830, Hiram and Sarah welcomed another healthy child, a brother for Joseph Henry. They named him Hyrum Elliott.
Most of the settlers were devout and religious people. Hiram and Sarah probably attended the Congregational Church as their parents belonged to this church in Connecticut.
About the year 1831 or 1832, Sidney Rigdon and other leaders of the Mormon Church began preaching in this area. At this time several families joined the Church. The Kelly family who had come from Troy, New York and the Benjamin Hinckley family also joined.
We believe that it was at this time that Hiram and Sarah joined the Mormon Church. They packed their small children, Joseph and Hyrum and all their belongings into a covered wagon drawn by oxen and went to Kirtland to be with the other Saints.
Joseph Henry was not very old when they went to Kirtland but he was there when they built the beautiful temple.
His father, Hiram Norton, probably helped build it. They enjoyed the peaceful times in Kirtland before the persecutions began. Did the family have a better home in Kirtland? Did they have a garden and a cow and some sheep like the other Saints. It would be nice to know about them at this time.
About the year 1838, the Saints were driven from Kirtland. Joseph Henry was about eight years old when they had to pack the wagon and move on with the rest of the Mormons.
When Joseph Henry was eleven years old he was with his parents in Scott County, Illinois. A sister, Susan Augusta, was born there in 1840. How long they were in this area has not been determined. We find them in Nauvoo by 1844.
Joseph Henry was a young man of 14 in this year. He and his family lived there during some of the peaceful times. He probably saw the Prophet Joseph ride his white horse in the parades.
Mother Sarah tended the baby and spun the wool and flax for their clothing. Father Hiram could have worked on the Nauvoo Temple. Joseph Henry helped his mother plant the garden dn dry the fruit and vegetables for their winter use.
He was in Nauvoo when the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum were murdered by the angry mob in Carthage.
From this time forward the City of Joseph, as Nauvoo was lovingly called, was filled with pathos and gloom. Its splendor soon departed. It became a morbid place of wickedness; its spirit became as dead as the rigid bodies that slept in the unmarked graves.
In the dead of winter the vanguard of pioneers fled from the city. The great leader Brigham Young, who seems to have slept with one eye open and one foot out of bed, was frustrated by his enemies but he had organized and planned.
Quietly, secretly the covered wagons were rolled into the door yards, loaded with bedding and provisions in preparation to being drawn upon the flat boats that would start them on a journey across the continent.
They were ready to turn their backs upon Nauvoo and hasten into the Indian territory before the mobs and soldiers could send its forces upon them.
They were driven from their beautiful city before they were permitted to make extensive use of their million dollar temple.
On the forth day of February, the first covered wagons laden with a scant supply of provisions were drawn onto flatboats and were ferried across the dangerous river. The Journal History says this about the dismal exodus in mid-winter:
“On February 15, Brigham Young and members of the twelve crossed the river with their families and moved on to Sugar Creek. The weather was extremely cold. The thermometer hovering below zero. On the 25th, Charles C. Rich walked across the river near Montrose, on the ice. The next few days witnessed the strangest sight of all, long caravans stretching out across the might river over a solid floor of ice which stretched from bank to bank a distance of one mile. A few days later, this unique roadway was broken, and the line of Caravans was halted as great blocks of ice chocked the river. The delay was but temporary. The ferry boats began to ply the river again and fresh caravans spotted the prairie. The great exodus of the Mormon people had begun.”
Of this sad parting, Brigham Young wrote:
Our homes, gardens, orchards, farms, streets, bridges, mills, public halls, magnificent Temple, and other public improvements, we leave as a monument of our patriotism, industry, economy, uprightness of purpose, and integrity of heart; and as a living testimony of the falsehood and wickedness of those who charged us with disloyalty to the constitution of our country, idleness and dishonesty.”
Joseph Henry was with his family in February 1846, when they crossed the frozen river into Iowa. He was there when they established a temporary camp on Sugar Creek while they waited for others to join them. In this barren wintry camp, nine babies were born the first night! On the first of March 1846, camp was broken and the trek across Iowa was begun. Daily progress was pitifully slow. Heavy spring rains set in, turning little creeks into impassable rushing torrents, and delays were necessitated until swollen rivers became smaller. At night the wagon wheels became frozen in ruts, requiring much effort in the morning to loosen them.
In June the heavy rains ceased. In their wake came swarms of mosquitoes and other insects, bringing plagues and fever to the harassed pioneers. Many of the Saints died and were buried along the wayside.
They arrived at council Bluffs on the Missouri River in late summer. Some of the exiles settled east of the river at Council Bluffs, Iowa. But the major portion of them established shelters west of the river, naming their camp Winter Quarters (later known as Florence, just north of Omaha, Nebraska). This was Indian territory. How would the Mormons be received by the natives?
In the typical mysterious way of native communication, news of the Mormons having been persecuted and driven from their homes by other white men spread from Indian tribe to tribe. Therefore, when the exiles arrived in the Indian Country, they were welcomed by the Omaha and Potawatomie Chiefs and their braves.
One old Chief told the Saints how his people had been driven from their homes east of the Mississippi River. “Now you have been driven away in the same manner from your lodges and lands and the graves of your people. We have both suffered. We must help one another and the Great Spirit will help us both.”
Joseph Henry was now with his family in Winter Quarters. Here they made preparations to make the thousand mile journey to the valley of the Great Salt Lake.
Some of the able-bodied men sought work in the frontier settlements of Iowa and Illinois. Their earnings were sent to the “Camps of Israel” on the Missouri in the form of food and other necessary articles which would be of use on their westward trek. Grain, bacon, livestock and other supplies were purchased.
The grist-mill at Winter Quarters was grinding a supply of flour. Each morning everyone was up and at work. Among the activities engaged in were knitting, spinning and making clothes preparatory to their continued journey.
The Byington family was no doubt working, planting and preparing the same as the others in Winter Quarters.
In the Spring of 1847, the first company of Saints made ready to leave. Brigham Young was leader of that first company. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July of 1847. We have already given a history of this company. Each group which came had about the same experiences.
Joseph was in Salt Lake, when the first pioneers began the survey of the city. While one group of men were clearing the sage brush from the land, others were plowing and building a bowery, composed of poles covered with grass and brush so they could hold church services.
A huge stockade or fort for defense against the Indians was constructed with heavy gates, which were locked at night. All day long blacksmiths hammered, shoeing oxen, repairing axles and setting wagon tires. Timber was cut and carpenters were at work. Soon a teeming village existed in the sagebrush where three or four weeks before only Indians, rattlesnakes and wild animals could be found.
The first pioneer companies had now laid the foundation for the New Zion where other Saints could join them in their mountain retreat. Over 1,500 Mormon emigrants were on the plains now wending their way toward Utah.
Brigham Young decided to take half of the men and most of the wagons and teams back to Winter Quarters before winter set in. The remainder of the men were to stay in the valley and continue construction on the fort. The first company selected to return to Winter Quarters consisted of 108 men.
Brigham, the Mormon Chief spoke to them from his wagon just before the departure. He warned them - as a father world warn his children to be on guard against the Indians and disease, to be industrious, to love one another, and to remember God. He also told them: “Men, we have to build a kingdom here. This is no time to be afraid. I must go back; and you must stay here and plant and reap next summer so that we’ll have food for next winter.”
By the fall of 1847, nearly 1,700 people had gathered in the Salt Lake Valley with the intention of remaining throughout the winter. The food they had brought with them from Winter Quarters was going fast, and there was no way to replenish it. Would these brave frontiersmen starve to death before a harvest season arrived?
A public meeting was called to see what could be done. While carefully considering the problems of how to avert starvation, one of the group suggested, “As long as there is a pound of flour left in the community, I move that we do not let anyone starve. A committee can be appointed to gather the food supplies that each of us have in our own homes; and then the food can be rationed to the people. The group agreed and Bishop Edward Hunter was placed in charge of the rationing committee.
Where was our Joseph Henry when this took place? He came in 1847 and we know that he also came in 1848 with Brigham Young’s company. Did he go back with Brigham to help his Father and family come to Utah the next year?
While doing searches on the life of Joseph Henry Byington I have determined that he crossed the plains several times. So it is possible that he acted as a scout for several of the pioneer companies.
The year 1848 was a very lean year for our family. This was the year of the “crickets”. Food was scarce and hunger was a visitor in all the homes. They managed to survive on thistle roots, sego lily bulbs and wild game.
Joseph Henry met and married Nancy Maria Avery the 25th of December 1849 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were here until the year 1852. They had two children, Nancy Maranda b. 4 Dec 1850 and Joseph Hezekiah b. 30 Nov. 1852.
Sometime between 1852 and 1855 they spent time in Tooele, Utah where Oliver M., another son was born 23 Feb. 1855.
I can never understand how these faithful pioneers moved around, with a team of oxen and covered wagon, as often as they did. We next find Joseph Henry and Nancy Maria in Ogden, Weber County, Utah where a little daughter, Sarah Augusta was born 25 June 1857.
Were they sent by Brigham Young to help settle this area? If Joseph H. and Nancy Maria were there in 1857 they were some of the very first settlers.
About this time members of the church were asked to deed everything they owned to the church. Some of the more faithful members did this. Joseph Henry deeded all his worldly possessions to the Church while he was living in Ogden in the year 1857.
Joseph and Nancy Maria did not possess much in the way of worldly goods, but they were faithful members and did what the leaders asked.
In December 1854, Wilford Woodruff visited Ogden and described the town for the Deseret News: “This is the county seat of Weber county and is a flouring place containing some 150 families. The city wall will enclose one square mile and is to be built of earth, 8 feet high, 3 feet wide at the bottom and 18 inches at the top. They have two schools with about 120 scholars. They have two stores. The past season they have raised about 10, 000 bushels of wheat.”
The presence of Indians in the neighborhood made life in the early Ogden area an exciting experience.
They built forts as a protection, but there were times when they had to leave the fort. In the summer months the cattle were taken into the nearby hills and herded by boys who worked three weeks at a time. The Indians would come, several hundred in number and camp within a mile of the fort. They would steal the herd boys lunches, and grab them and drag them around by the hair of their heads and frighten them with threats of death.
The gardens of the Saints were not safe as the Indians would shoot arrows into their squashes, pick their peas and once in a while steal a beef.
Joseph Henry and Nancy Maria were here only a couple of years.
By the year 1860 they were in American Fork, Utah where another son, Hyrum Elliott, was born on the 19th of January. On the 27th of June 1862, the family, was living in Huntsville, Utah. By this time I am sure they must have had to put new wheels on the wagon, because they had moved so many times.
Joseph and Nancy now had five children to load into the wagon. Nancy Maranda age 12, Joseph Hezekiah age 10, Sarah Augusta age 5, and Elizabeth Ann just a few months old. Oliver M., the little boy born in Tooele died the first year they were in Ogden on the 27th of Feb. 1857.
By this time I suspect that Nancy Maria knew just the best way to pack a wagon, just the right amount of food to take and many other articles needed to move a family of this size. They must have decided to come to Salt Lake City to be sealed in the year 1864.
Somewhere between the month of June 1862 and the month of Sept. 1864, Joseph and Nancy were in Salt Lake City. It was on the 27th of Feb. 1864 that they were sealed together and had their six children sealed to them. It was also on this same day that Joseph Henry had his second wife, Hannah Molland, sealed to him.
Now Joseph had two wives to load into his wagon. This he did and headed back to Huntsville where Nancy Maria presented him with another son named John Henry, born 20 Sept. 1864.
Here they harvested the grass hay to feed their cattle. In the winter the snow fell to a depth of 3 to 4 feet in this area. They were sometimes snowed in for a month or more. It was here that they met the family of Captain Jefferson Hunt of the Mormon Battalion. Huntsville was named after Capt. Hunt.
By the spring of 1865, Captain Hunt decided that Huntsville was getting too crowded for him. The spirit of colonization was in his blood, and it lured him to Oxford, Idaho. He died 11 May 1879 at age seventy-six and was buried on his own land at the foot of Red Rock Knoll, near Downey, Idaho.
Joseph Henry and his wives, Nancy and Hannah must have left Huntsville about the same year as Captain Hunt. We next find them back in Ogden, Utah. They were doing their part to “multiply and replenish” as wife Hannah had her first child, James Henry Byington, there on the 4th of April 1865 and a daughter Hannah Maria, the 8th of August 1866. Wife Nancy Maria presented him with a fine daughter born in Ogden 3 Sept. 1866.
I do hope by this time that Joseph was possessed of more worldly goods than he had in 1857, because he now had a large family to feed and clothe.
The next move was to Call’s Fort in box Elder County where four more children were born. Call’s Fort is now Harper, Utah. Nancy Maria had a son, Noah S., born 28 Sept. 1868 and another son Ira Zina, 23 Oct. 1870. Her little son, Noah S. died 27 Nov. 1869 at Call’s Fort.
Hannah had a son, Charles Norton, on 29 Mar. 1868 and a daughter, Sarah Rebecca, 24 Nov. 1869. Both were born at Call’s Fort.
About the year 1871 the families were ready for another move. This time they headed for Idaho to a little place called Nine Mile (now Cambridge) near Downey. By 1872 they were there and three more children are added to the family. Hannah had a daughter, Martha Jane, born 25 May 1872 and a daughter, Mary Ann, born 27 January 1875.
Nancy had a boy born 20 July 1873 at Nine Mile. Nancy Maria and Hannah seemed to enjoy each other and get along very well. Hannah’s children always called her “Aunt Nancy”.
Martha Jane Byington Reed, the daughter of Joseph Henry and Hannah tells some of the experiences that happened to them.
James Henry, Hannah’s son and John Henry, Nancy’s son always played together. They were about the same age. They never learned to talk until they separated them, which was when they were about three years old. The two boys had a language of their own and world talk to each other all the time. No one else could understand them, but they could understand each other.
Joseph Henry had a small farm. He also worked away from home to earn money.
Joseph Henry’s brother, Hyrum Elliott, moved from Bear River to Red Rock (near Oxford, Idaho) about 1877. Is this why Joseph Henry moved there? Whatever the reason the family was on the move again.
Hannah had four children while they lived at Red Rock: Susan Elizabeth, born 31 Sept. 1876, Joseph Henry, born 18 Nov. 1878, John Parley, born 23 Mar. 1880, and Clarence Spencer, born 19 Dec. 1881. Hannah’s daughter Mary Ann, died while they were at Red Rock. She was about one year old. They took her back to Nine Mile to bury her.
Martha says: “When we lived at Red Rock we had a few sheep. They took the wool and washed it, then carded it into soft rolls about thirteen inches long and world spin this into yarn. Then Aunt Nancy would weave it into cloth for our winter clothes. She also wove blankets for our beds. We had to make or knit our own stockings. The boys as well as the girls did this. Oh, how I wished that I was a boy, for there was only half the knitting in their socks”.
“Mother would make the clothes for the boys as well as the girls, all done by hand. I was about nine years old when mother Hannah got her first machine. Hannah always had a good garden and it seemed like her chickens always laid eggs when no one else’s did.
Hannah and Nancy dried the wild gooseberries, choke cherries and service berries. At that time they had no bottles to use for canning. Everything was dried or put in crocks for winter use.
Each child had their favorite food. Martha’s favorite food was gooseberry dumplings. She remembers when mother Hannah would give her a slice of bread spread with butter. She would scrape all the butter off and give it to Miriah, for she liked butter.
Hannah always put bread fried in butter or lard in their school lunch pails. Hannah raised pigs and chickens so the meat they had to eat was pork and chicken.
Martha also tells of the time an Indian came to their garden and wanted a watermelon. She gave him a melon and he wanted another. She told him he couldn’t have it, but he was going to take it anyway as he knew there were no men at home. She called her mother Hannah, and she called Captain Hunt. The Indian ran off when he found he could not bluff them.
Captain Hunt was a great friend of the family and helped Hannah many times when there was sickness or trouble in her family. He was a kind man and had great healing power and was called to the home many times in case of sickness.
The home in Red Rock was an unfinished three room home. One end room had been completed and was used to store grain. Martha and her sister Miriah slept on the grain until the middle room was finished.
The area around Nine Mile and Red Rock was called Marsh Valley. Some of the first settlers in the area were William W. Woodland and his two brothers Henry and Solomon; Henry Wakley and Lee and Dave Whitaker.
Idaho was organized as a territory about 1863. Indian attacks kept settlers from coming into the area. The war parties and massacres occurred until about the year 1878.
The Otto’s immigrant train was moving along the Oregon Trail in a vast cloud of dust. The Indians fell upon it. Some were killed, others scattered. The Van Norman girls were taken captive. Fourteen of this ill fated group of forty-four escaped and made their way to the Owyhee River and there reduced to the mental state of children and subsisted by cannibalism. They were finally rescued by an Army Officer.
The greater part of Marsh Valley was sage brush land, but was covered with a healthy growth of prairie grass which made it an ideal place to raise stock.
In 1865, a stage route was established thru Marsh Valley. Each stage driver took an armed guard with him as protection from an Indian attack. Butch Cassidy and his gang also held up and robbed the stages between Utah and Montana.
W. A. coffin married Sophrona Hunt and moved to Nine Mile. Their wedding tour was a trip across the valley on the running gears of a wagon with an ox team to the home of William Woodland where their wedding dinner was served.
Wells Fargo had a stage route which passed thru Marsh Valley on the way to Montana. One stage station was set up on what was later the George Wakley place. William A. Tillotson was the station keeper.
About 18675 William H. Murphy of New York, a Civil War Veteran, was given a franchise by the Federal Government to operate a toll road thru Marsh Valley and as far north as Beaver Canyon at the Idaho-Montana line. He and his wife Catherine lived for a number of years at Portneuf Station, later known as McCammon. He built a bridge across the Portneuf River and established a toll gate and also had a ferry across the Snake River a short distance above Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls). In 1868 he established a toll gate in Beaver Canyon and hired Henry O. Harkness to take care of it.
William Murphy was addicted to alcohol and was cruel in his home. In 1869 he was arrested by Sheriff Morg Morgan and taken to Malad for trial. During the trial, not having been disarmed, he flourished his revolver, at the same time striking a lawyer on the head with a book. He started to run from the room, was ordered to stop, did not stop and was shot by Sheriff Morgan.
Henry O. Harkness married William Murphy’s widow Catherine the 11th of August 1871. They lived at Portneuf Station which is now McCammon, Idaho. They ran the toll gate until 1881. At this time it was opened for free travel. It is said Mr. Harkness took in as high a $600.00 a day at Portneuf Station. He charged $1.50 for a team and wagon and 50 cents for each additional wagon. Before he died he had built up a fine cattle and sheep ranch.
When the Oregon Short Line Railroad was built down the Portneuf in 1882 the Railroad officials tried to buy land from Harkness to build their shops, but not being able to agree on the price they built their shops at Pocatello.
Henry Harkness served as captain during the Civil War under a General Joseph K. McCammon. About the time the railroad came into Idaho. Joseph McCammon was sent as a government representative to secure a right-of-way thru the Indian Reservation. He and other officials met with chiefs of the Bannock and Shoshone tribes at Fort Hall and obtained the right-of-way. While McCammon was here he visited with his friend, Henry Harkness. It was at this time that Henry changed the name Portneuf Station to the name McCammon after General McCammon.
Nine Mile’s (now Cambridge) first settlers were M.D. Yeaman, Fred and Charles Aldous, William Jackson, Nathan H. Coffin, JJ Bybee, Charles B. Hancock, Joseph Byington Sr., Sid Kelly, John Bloxham and William A. Coffin who was the first Bishop of Cambridge.
Now, the Marsh Valley area is a thriving community. The Indian wigwam has been replaced with beautiful homes, churches and highways. It was pioneers like Joseph Henry Byington, Captain Hunt, Hyrum Byington, James Burrup, Joseph Bloxham, Frank Potter, Thomas Jenkins and many others who bore the hardships of pioneer life. They built the bridges, killed the rattlesnakes, fenced and cleared the land. They opened the mines, faced the danger of Indians and built roads at their own expense. They were the true pioneers. They were builders, hunters, trappers and sturdy settlers of early Idaho.
Joseph Henry and his wives left Red Rock about the year 1882.
Martha Byington Reed, a daughter of wife Hannah, says “We moved from Red Rock to Uncle Hyrum’s home in Marsh Valley. We lived there for one summer in his old home as he had built a new one. His home was between Red Rock and Downey.”
Hannah’s son, James Henry, and one of Nancy’s sons called Jode were up at Wilford, Idaho fixing up some places so they could move in when they arrived, but when they got to Annis it was so cold (22 Nov, 1883) that they decided to stay there. They found a place for three hundred dollars which they could afford so they bought it. It had a one room log house with no floor. The first winter they were there they all had the measles.
Hannah and her children stayed here. Joseph Henry took wife Nancy to Wilford or Willard (located the other side of Rexburg, Idaho) where Hibe and Jode lived for a few years.
It was at this time that Joseph Henry had to serve a year in the Dakota prison for having two wives. While he was in prison Hannah and her children stayed in Annis alone.
Wife Nancy stayed with her sons first in Wilford and then they went to American Falls.
Wife Hannah makes these entries in her diary: Jan. 18, 1889 - Joseph arrived here from Sioux Falls.
Mar. 12, 1889 - Joseph left for American Falls.
Joseph was living with wife Nancy when his wife Hannah died in Annis the 19th of November 1889.
After her death Joseph took Nancy and moved to Dempsey (Lava Hot Springs, Idaho). Many Byington families were early settlers of Lava Hot Springs. They were farmers and cattle ranchers. In this area for many years.
Other Byington families lived in Lava before Joseph and Nancy went there. Now that they were older they probably wanted to be near their children.
However, they did not stay in the Lava area very long. Joseph sold his farm. He took a personal check for it. The check was not good and somehow he got cheated out of his farm. He and Nancy then went down to Marsh Valley where Jode was living. They were there a short time. They went next to Neeley, Idaho, a small town near American Falls.
Aunt Martha Byington Reed says this about Joseph Henry: “I do not know why father mover so much, except that when anyone would come along with a big story of how good it was in another place he just had to move.”
“I can’t think of much to tell about my father as my mother was his second wife and he was not at our place very much. I remember he would take any mans word and go in partnership with them without a written agreement and generally got cheated out of his share. This happened time after time.”
“Father was always ready to help anyone in need. He had a lot of talent. He could tie any knot or braid any kind of braid. He would tan his own hides and make the boys braided ropes and whips. He could draw most any picture we children asked him to draw. He had a real talent and could have been an artist. He only went to school about six weeks in all his life. He printed most of his letters.”
“I do not believe he could be beat at hewing logs with a broad axe. All logs had to be hewed in those hays, as it was later that sawmills came into being.”
“I remember when my sister Susan was three years old in 1879, he freighted flour and sugar, with six head of horses, into Montana.” “I never knew him to milk a cow or do a chore. He worked away from home most of the time.”
They were living in Neeley, Idaho when Joseph died on the 22nd of Sept. 1909. He was taken back to Annis for burial. Here he lies buried in the peaceful, quiet cemetery beside his second wife Hannah Molland and his father Hiram Norton.
May this record of the life of Joseph Henry Byington be like a “River Crossing” in the current of life, where gifts of a “cherished heritage” are exchanged for a rededication to tasks that lie ahead.