Show I The Story of Moab's Second Bride Moab's second bride was fas Irene Kennison step-daughter step of the pioneer settlements settlement's I first bishop Her lieI story as she told it has been preserved preserved preserved pre pre- served by the Grand County Camp of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Parts of follow follow follow fol fol- low Bishop Stewart my stepfather was called called called call call- ed to the little valley on what was then the Grand River now the Colorado They arrived arrived arrived ar ar- rived in Moab in July 1880 They planted corn which didn't make but matured enough to grate so they could use it to make bread it ft was sort of a sticky pone That fall fan and winter they got out house logs These were brought from the mountains a distance dis dis- tance fance of about twenty or twenty-five twenty miles All the hauling and snaking out was done with oxen As the men were going to and fro getting the logs they had to follow a tain stream Mill 1111 creek for quite a distance They made fish hooks and caught enough fish for the evening meal They did this until it got so cold the fish wouldn't bite any more A nice mountain trout and a apiece apiece I piece of corn pone made a very tasty lunch The first house was made livable during the winter The logs were laid up and chinked chink chink- ed and dabbed with adobe mud There were no windows The door was an old dry ox hide so dry it rattled whenever anyone I went In or out the door It wasn't much I but seemed mighty like a castle to us i The following year I was married to James Luster Miss J Kennison then was 14 We were the second couple to be married narried In Moab Bishop Randolph Stewart her step father performed the ceremony On our OUI honeymoon during the winter we drove a yoke of oxen to Salina Utah to get my husbands husband's two children by a former marriage an and supplies for the re remainder remainder remainder re- re of the winter It took us four days to get to Green River The flour we brought back was the first white flour we had in Moab On our way back we came through Salina Canyon The roads were frozen over and the oxen kept sliding off the road I carried sand in my apron to put on the road so the oxen could get a foothold When we got back to Moab everything was nice and green We took up a acre homestead what Is now the John Shafer and Dr Allen ranches We built an adobe house to live in We had to clear the land of sagebrush and greasewood which was ten to twelve feet high The first crops were sugar cane corn potatoes and beans The following fall when the sugar cane was ready everyone would bring their cane to our mill to be made into sorghum for forthe forthe forthe the winter They always had time for sorghum sorghum sorghum sor sor- candy and in the evenings a dance All was not drudgery In fact I think we I had better times than the young oung folks do now My husband and I were employed at what Is now Thompsons working on the railroad He drove a yoke four team foam of o oxen en to break bruk the ground I helped cook for from 10 to 15 men It was here I met Charles Backrack whom hom I later married My first child was born in 1881 My Iy baby clothes consisted of two long dresses two inner blankets some bands knit home stockings four a five sack flour-sack diapers My Diy mother was the midwife We were blessed with five babies four girls an done boy boy Uzza Lizza Levina Levine Loa James and Myrtle The day James was two years old his father was buried burled and Myrtle Myrtle Myrtle Myr Myr- tle was born The father died from burns received while fighting a fire It destroyed our home and all our belongings When Charles Backrack came along so patient and good he asked me to marr marry him I 1 said that I would I had been single for two or three years and it was quite a struggle to care for five children I eld cid washing for the hotels and cowboys and helped with housework I did didas didas didas as much of this work at home as was possible possible possible pos pos- sible in order to be with my children I was married to Charles Backrack July I 19 the year is 15 not given I had seven children children children child child- ren by this marriage We bought a ranch from Bill Silvey on Rattlesnake up near La Sal about 35 miles south of Moab My husband had head of cattle While we lived there my husband took sick and we let the cattle out on shares Soon we had the share shere and our partner had the cattle So it was just one more struggle My husband drove the mall mail for the Robertson Robertson Robertson Rob Rob- ertson Brothers In the summer we herded bucks and guarded wool at Thompson Occasionally as the fruit wagon came in from Moab he would sell peaches to the passengers He Ile would always say two for fora a nickel four for a dime six for fifteen cents The passengers would all buy his peaches |