Show BIOGRAPHY OF BARRUS FAMILY copy from Grants grantsville ville observer Obie ryer yer my grand parents freeman nick eron and chapman were born bom in america about 1780 the gospel found them in new york in 1833 the prophet Josep hSmith and some 0 ther other elders visited that part of new york and made their home with grandfather nickerson for a time thus thua it happened that grandfather nickerson and his family consisting of several sons and daughters some married and some single joined the church in 1833 ile he became very enthusiastic and spent the remainder of his days pro aching the gospel grandfather was a fisherman and used to quote the saying in the bible 1 I 1 will send out fisherman to fish them and hunters to hunt bunt them and when any one would say anything against chechur ch he would say be ba meek and lowly like tho the master blaster I 1 received a great testimony concerning his faithfulness while I 1 was in the temple and through that manifestation I 1 was enabled to receive second endowments for grandfather nickerson and his hia good wife my father emery barrus was born in chautauqua county nw york in 1809 in 1833 he was working as a farm hand for freeman nickerson was waa keeping company with my mother abigail nickerson when they first heard tho the gospel ila iio was the only one of his hia fathers family who was baptized in new york major ruel barrus being only 11 years old at that time and subject to his father until he be came of age when ho he left his fathers homo home and came to nauvoo my mother was 16 years old and father and mother were baptized and mn married ari ed in 1833 in new york grandfather nickerson and entire family sons in law and daughters in law I 1 including my father and mother took up tho the line of march together with the saints in missouri in 1839 when B F barrus was one year old spent the winter of 1839 in jefferson city missouri arrived at the seat of nauvoo in the spring of 1840 bought city lots and built homes planted orchards etc lived in comparative peace until about 1844 when the prophet joseph smith and his brother were assassinated in the carthage jail after that date the came very severe men were whipped houses burned cypra destroyed until 1845 the saints acred to vacate their be beautiful 1 homes leaving tolving the orchards with their fruit trees just coming into bearing preparations were made for across aliat at never to be forgotten journey across the plains wagon shops were created father had a shingle mill on an island in the mississippi where mother would hold one end of the crosscut cross cut saw and saw the trees into blocks ready for shin shingles in 1845 they moved to the island and father would go into the woods wooda and get the timber and mother would help saw it into suitable lengths for the different parts of the wagon then put it up over his head in the shop to season lie ile made mad a 16 wagons right from tho the stumps of the trees after the prophet was killed the mob saw that mormonism was not dead and told the people if they would drop Mormon laim they could remain in their homes many found the temptation too great and dropped b by the wayside not intending to denounce mormonism but to sidetrack side track until they could find an easier way to worship god uncle levi nickerson was tho the only one ona of grandfathers sons that remained true to mormonism until death grandfather nickerson and family who had left new york in left nauvoo tn in august seven years later crossed the mississippi river and again took up the line of march ilia his wagon contained him self and grandmother bl ickerson and a sister butler grandfathers cousin eliza beckett and her son who had been converted by himo him five in number or on of the old ladles ladies died on the prairie pra rl six miles from des then we turned down into a grovo grove of timber ant and made winter quarters at a place called sheridan point by tho the time january 1847 was half over grandfather nickerson and the other old lady and her son had died of hardships and exposure leaving grandmother nickerson the only one of tho the five occupants of that wagon she joined with her son levi lev 1 and family and arrived in salt lake city in 1850 she died in provo prove city in 1860 during tho the westward journey we traveled in appleton harmons company and he was a faithful captain ile iia appointed my father as hunter for the company rather father would go ahead of the wagon train and when he could find buffalo close to the road ho he would shoot one down and wait for the wagon train to divide it up the cholera was in in he be wagon train in front of us and the one behind us and the captain advised that we use as little meat as bos possible sible the barrus family arrived in grans ville in october 1863 1853 my brother owen was born in do doc c 1853 two months after our arrival we built a fort by joining house to house around a tract of land of about four acres the inhabitants of grantsville Grants ville became quite numerous by the spring of 1854 samuel steele arrived with the first seven families in 1851 the indiana made a gre greaL aLdea deal I 1 of trouble for the settlers in early days we had to herd our stock in the day time on the range and stand guard at night to keep the indians indiana from driving them off in those days there were no carding machines davenport and wilson each had a flock of sheep the homo home of mother barrus was a regular manu fracturing fac turing plant mother would take the wool right from the tha cheeps back card and spin it into rolls make the rolls into yarn yam and then yarn into cloth and stockings the cloth into clothing for the family and neighbors after there was a carding machine in provo mother would tako take the wool to provo driving a pair of colts we brought across the plains and get the wool mado made into rolls she also made thousands of pounds of cheese and butter father brought 46 40 head of loosey loo stock besides the oxen that were yoked joked to the wagons across tha plains not a fruit tree or shade tree was growing in grantsville Grants ville in 1853 brother seeva sceva john clark and tames james mcbride were the first to plant fruit trees my father made the first barns in grantsville Grants ville and some good houses father thos 11 II dark clark was our first bishop and timothy parkinson and john B walker were his Cons ulars in 1855 the grass hoppers came so thick they darkened the sun and destroys de stroyd the crops 1856 was the year of the famine A good horse would not buy a sack of flour we wa were without bread for months living on degoes thistles whistles es roots and etc brother john W cooley had bad a patch of barley git get almost ripe in 1855 1850 and brother william burton barton and james kearl harvest it by hand thrashed it with nails flails and cleaned it up in the wind each family got one half bushel 1 and ground it in coffee mills to make cake for the ath of july dinner in 1850 this one half bushel of grain was a gift from jo john hn W cooley some other grain got ripe enough to be harvested and milled and each family got a pan of flour for the of july dinner emery barrus furnished a fat animal animal for beef so each family had a flour cake and a beef steak tor for dinner july 1856 in 1857 wo we heard that johnsons johnsona army was coining to civilize tho the mor mons every abbed bodied man and boyeas expected to go to echo canyon to hedge up the way of the army 1858 was the move south it was decided to burn bum every building destroy every tree and all growing crops provided the army persisted in coming in but they did not come in until a treaty of peace was signed every family had left the grants ville precinct we left a few faithfull br ethern to water the crops with orders to burn if molested by the army amy when the treaty of peace was signed we all swung our hats and made a rush for home As far as I 1 know samuel worthington of oakley idaho and D B P F barrus barms are the only echo canyon rebels now living who were residents of grantsville Grants ville at that tyne time father was the first mayor of grantsville Grants ville city and attended to surveying the into burfal buri allots lots and drove rove the stakes when it was surveyed by charley chailey herman ile ha was a faithful worker in the temple and only came homo home two weeks before his death I 1 would say F father ather you ought to have a rest but he be said ben I 1 have not much time left and when I 1 meet my relatives ovetA over there here they will ask me what I 1 did for them we have labored diligently and finished the barrus Gen Ge neology cology as far as av wo 0 cou could 1 d g go 0 an and d n now 0 w it r remains e m al n s for our chi children 1 re n to c carry ar r y on t the h 0 w work 0 r k it makes me feel good that I 1 have finished my fathers work that our children will appreciate the sacrifice that fathers made for the gospel and that it may help to mako make their ligat liblit so shine that others can follow is my sincere desire at the present time the defendants of emery barrus totals over souls B F BARRUS editors note this very inter interesting ste and valuable history was written by the late brother B F barrus just prior to his death |