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Show ??[DEDICATED] IN MEMORIAM. Joseph W. Thatcher, son of Hezekiah and Abey Thatcher, was born in Berkeley County, West Virginia, August ?th, 1820, and died at his residence in Logan, December 16th, 1881, at 1 o'clock p.m. He received the Gospel message gladly and was baptized by Patriarch Father John Smith, in 1843, at ???, Hancock County, Illinois. With his father's family her experienced many hardships and deprivations attending the persecutions, by the wicked, of the Saints at Nauvoo, and suffered with others in the fatigues and destitution following the expulsion of the people from their homes. At "Winter Quarters" all through the weary days of a most inclement season, when piercing winds searched the marrow and bones of man and beast, he faithfully watched over and guarded the work oxen and cows which subsequently pressed the means of deliverance and temporal salvation to his father's household. Following close in the track of the Pioneers of 47, he accompanied his father and family across; the plains, driving a team of three yoke of cattle the entire distance without accident-then but a youth-yet endowed with the quick foresight and mature judgment of a man having the experience of many years. Over the plains, across rivers, and high mountains, through gulches and deep gorges, in water, mud, and burning sands, by night and day, obedient to his voice his faithful team bore the bitter yoke and hauled their heavy load a thousand miles into the wilderness. From the ?[fruit] of his unselfish care and months of ?[toi], with the aid of thistle roots and segos digged from the hills and valleys by him and his younger brothers, the family subsisted from September 1847 until the first crop of small grain produced in Utah was harvested, without reapers, ?[drawers],scythes or sickles it was, with willing hands gladly pulled up by the roots. Thousands may never have known the satisfied, happy feeling produced by a full stomach which has experienced hunger for a whole year, but he could never forget that first harvest in Zion. He remained in the "old fort," which was built upon what is now known as the 8th Ward Square, Salt Lake City, until the spring of 1849, when he accompanied his father and family to California. He returned to Utah in 18?3 and purchased a herd of cattle which were driven the same year to that State. During the Spring and Summer of 1855 [or 1853], Elders Henry G Boyle, David M. Stewart, and Wm. [William] H. Shearman preached the Gospel in ?[Yulo] County, where the family were then [unreadable line] rebaptized by the first named Elder; and, in July of the following year he returned to Utah in company with the family, excepting John B., Aaron D., and Moses Thatcher, who remained in order to full missions to which they had been called by Elder George Q. Cannon, then presiding here. During the Autumn of the same year he was ordained to the office and Priesthood of an Elder, and sent from Salt Lake City with others to Salmon K?er [King], Idaho Territory, for the purpose of guarding and protecting the Saints there, from the encroachments of the Indians, who had manifested considerable hostility. Accomplishing that mission he returned, and later in the season, and during the winter of 1857-8, he was enrolled in the militia of the Territory and held himself ready to defend the ?[parties] and homes of the people, against foreign or domestic enemies. In March 1858 he married Miss Hannah Morrison who has born him ten children, nine of whom are living to join with their mother in mourning the absence of a devoted, faithful, and pure husband and father. He was with the people in the "?ovo South" stopping at Payson where he continued to live until the Spring of 1860 when he came to Cache Valley, locating permanently at Logan, where he has since resided. Here he was ordained a Seventy and joined the ?[6]th quorum. In 1874-5 he filled an honorable mission to the states, laboring principally in Virginia. During the early years of the settlement of Cache Valley he was attached to a military organization known as "Minute Men," who were supposed to be ready on a minutes' notice, to meet any emergency that might arise in a country sparsely settled, and whose ?[in???ance,]were at all times liable to Indian raids. In order to meet the requirements of that service, horses and saddles had to be kept, night and day, within easy and speedy reach of the members of the association, whose services on more than one occasion, the early settlers will not have forgotten. In all matters of a public or private nature with which he had to do, Joseph Thatcher has left an unimpeachable record. His fidelity to a trust has never been questioned. He was honest, faithful, just and true. A friend to God, he willingly helped the weak, and was always, and under every circumstance, ready to defend the oppressed. The hungry-regardless of creed or color-never left his door unfed if he knew it, not the naked unclothed. His heart was big with human kindness, his generosity was equaled only by his ???[in?pty]. A cry of distress heard by him never failed to vibrate the best ?[strings, feelings] of a ?[spohie] soul. Faithful to God, he ??? servants, ?[devotion],?[husband] [unreadable]-he rejoiced in ?[Marly] and loved his country. To such, death, ?[disicrious] and voiceless, the dread of millions, [unreadable] but a friend, whose gentle hand smoothes the wrinkles and wipes away the pain drawn lines from the faces of the good and true. Surely the love of the Father, glorified in the son, has bridged, for their safe passage, the gulf between the living and the dead, we saw anguish and pain rebuked, and mortality made beautiful, even in death. No more sighs and sorrows for him-we would not call his ?[s??gia] spirit back, if we could, for his last words-"How long will you keep me here?"-uttered by lips that are silent now shall never be forgotten. When the sunset of time, the sad evening was done. The mission of life, undishonored, was through; When thy heart stopp'd beating and life ceased to be, Cared, thy ?[friend, kindred] were praying for thee. |