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Show Volume XVII Issue XI The Ogden Valley news Page 9 November 15, 2009 Memories of Huntsville and Its People By Donald D. McKay Note: This is the third in a multi-series of articles that are from the above titled compilation, which is being reprinted by permission of the McKay family. The information was initially printed in 1960. William McKay, the relative, was evidently converted and became a member of the church about 1840 or 1841. I have a certificate that dated March 21, 1842, indicating that he had been ordained an Elder and set apart to preach the gospel. It was issued in Edinburg, Scotland, and was signed by G.D. Watt and W. R. McLean. Watt was a secretary in the church here and a correspondent for the Desert News. I can get no information on McLean. When this man joined the church every member of his family, except his son, Hugh, disowned him. He came to Utah sometime in the 1860’s and owned a farm and belonged to the Willard Ward. When the Willard Cemetery was established in Willard, he acquired a lot just a few feet inside the front gate. It seems that pioneers had something more to do than keep records, for there is little information in Willard about this man. Bishop Wirthlin had the records in Salt Lake searched for information about him but there was nothing in Willard Ward records in Salt Lake at that time. This man died there on February 19, 1875. Father was there and helped take care of him during his sickness. He also reported his death to his son, Hugh, in Scotland, suggesting that he, Hugh, come out to Utah to take possession of his father’s property, which he finally did. Hugh was born January 10, 1843, in Scotland, and his parents were William and Barbara McKay. Hugh also died in Willard on December 23, 1906. He was never married because his sweetheart would have nothing to do with him after he joined the church. She also died a spinster. He lived at our house frequently for lengthy periods. He was a mason by trade, and laid the foundation for the Renstrom home. This man was a humanitarian and a profound student of history and human progress. My recollection of him is an elderly man whom we always called “Uncle Hugh.” A characteristic of his was that when walking he frequently talked to himself and gesticulated with his hands. He had a rare gift of understanding the spirit and meaning of things, and when he talked about them, his language was clear and concise, and the effect was convincing to the listener. He talked frequently about the British Isles and its empire, and the Irish and their problems and also of Gladstone and Lord Salisbury. He was a grown man when he left Scotland and he had been back there twice on missions to the British Isles and to Ireland. It was from him that I first heard about Herbert Spencer, Robert Ingersoll, and Darwin, about the Scottish Cieefs, The Wandering Jew, Walter Scott, and Mosheim the historian—these and many other things that interest me to this day. It was a frequent expression in pioneer times that a dish of muddy water could be cleared by putting a split prickly pear into it. Whether this be true or not I do not know, but to Uncle Hugh, Mormonism was the prickly pear that gave sense and meaning to human existence, bring harmony, reason and purpose into a field where doubt and confusion had existed before. His views and learning had a profound influence on me. Returning again to the story of my grand- father, he and his family left Scotland for Liverpool in 1856. They sailed from there on the ship “Thornton.” When they landed in New York he expected to get some money from a contractor that he had coming. This would be enough to take them to Utah. Instead of getting the money, he got a letter that the contractor was broke. So were they. They all scrambled to get jobs. The balance of the Mormons who came over in the ship with them went on, but all of grandfather’s family who were old enough to, got jobs for their board or small salaries, but it took them two years to acquire enough money to take them as far west as Iowa City, Iowa. They stayed there long enough to buy an old wagon, a yoke of three-year-old steers, a yoke of cows, and an old ox to hitch up in a harness on lead to haul a family of seven. They traveled with this outfit three hundred miles to Council Bluffs, where a big company of immigrants were being fitted out. There were finally fifty wagons in the company and it was called the “independent company” with James Brown as the Captain. When they were about to leave, it developed that there was an old lady named Garvy with a little girl, without means to go on, so grandfather picked them up. They arrived In Salt Lake City later in the season than they expected. They had intended to locate in Cache County, but they met Bishop Bunker of Ogden, whom they had known in Scotland, and he persuaded them to locate in this town. When they got there he sold them a piece of ground and loaned them a hundred pounds of flour. They had a hard time getting started but they were not afraid of poverty or hard work. My father, Angus McKay, was the son of another William McKay who had married Grace Gunn. He was born on the 3rd day of June, 1838 in Kirtomy, Scotland. This is a town in the Highlands of Scotland, south and not so far from the spot where my mother was born. He and a friend by the name of William Christie were converted to Mormonism by Uncle Hugh’s father, who baptized him on August 9, 1860. He was ordained a Seventy by Bishop Chauncy W. West on March 27, 1869, in Utah. He and his friend William Christie decided to come to Utah as soon as possible, so they began to save their wages for that purpose. They finally had enough, so, they came to the United States. No other member of their families joined the church, and father’s family was decidedly bitter. They had a bad trip coming across the plains. There was no one in the group who knew them, so they got all the menial tasks to do. They contracted what was called in those days Mountain Fever, and by the time they reached Salt Lake they could hardly walk. Apostle Franklin D. Richards came out to Immigration Square to meet the company. When he saw these two sick boys he took them to his home and nursed them back to good health. He kept them employed until they finally came to Ogden. Father located in Huntsville in 1864. Here he met mother and they were married by Bishop F. A. Hammond in 1866. They received their endowments in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake City the following year. After mother’s marriage, Aunt Kate cooked for her family in the old log cabin Grandfather had built, and Dad and Mother lived in a long log cabin just north of the present rock house. Uncle David eventually got the lot to the south, and Uncle Issac got the one south of that. That took care of Grandfather’s half block. In 1872 Dad began to build the present rock house, but did not have the finances to finish it. He got it up to the square and the roof started. Then they moved down to Willard to William Christie’s for the winter. They were there only a little while when he got a call for a mission to Arizona. This was a colonization job. Mother was left in Willard with the three children, and Father had to sell thirty acres of the best land he owned to get the necessary seed, feed, and equipment for the trip. William Christie drove Mother back to Huntsville in early April, and it rained and snowed the whole day and they were wet to the skin when they arrived. The dirt roof on the log cabin was plain mud, and everything inside was soaking wet. The partly finished roof on the rock house had caved in and a part of the front wall had been punched out by the four feet of snow. The entire summer in Arizona was so dry that toward fall it was almost impossible to get enough water to keep men and horses alive, and the company was compelled to trek back, the trip being a complete failure. Early in the year, 1876, he was again called to go to Arizona on the same kind of expedition. This expedition, like the first one, cost him as much money as it did the last time. He and Frank, a son of President Hammond, left Huntsville on February 1. It took nearly everyone in Huntsville to get them out of town, the snow was so deep. The next day the whole group got together in Ogden. Apostle Franklin D. Richards blessed Dad and appointed him to be Captain of the Weber County group. When they got down to the place they were to settle, they began to survey, build small dams and ditches, as well as plow and sow. Some looked for springs, others for tillable land, and everybody had work to do. Frank Hammond took sick during the middle of April and died on the 27th of that month. A coffin was made out of the timber in a wagon box, and he was buried at 4:00 p.m. the next afternoon. On June 10, Dad got a letter from President Hammond telling him he must come home because his wife was ill. He arrived home a month and two days later. On December 4, 1882 he was again called on a mission, this time to the Southern States. He was President of the South Carolina Mission. It was there that he first met B.H. Roberts and J. Golden Kimball. They remained friends during his whole life. In November of 1883 he was transferred to the Scottish Mission, without the opportunity of coming home. He was the President of the Scottish Mission, and John Henry Smith was President of the European Mission. At a conference held in Glasgow in July, 1884, there were present President John Henry Smith, George Goddard, Robert Hunter, Samuel McKay, James W. Thomas, James G. Crane, George F. Hunter, Francis George Wilson, and Marshall from Ireland. In the Millennial Star of October 6, 1884, he read of his impending release. On October 23, the Saints met in the Conference House and gave him a party. Daniel Connelly, Second Counselor of the Glasgow Branch, presented HIsTorICal cont. on page 13 Historical Photo 10TH Grade HuNTsVIlle Jr. HIGH “a” BaskeTBall BulldoGs of 1944/45 Back row: Coach Floyd Barnett, Norman Montgomery, Mack Fuller, Eugene Wilson, Athletic Manager, Paul Ward. front row: Ned Clark, Barrie McKay, Larry Knight, Moyer Grow, Eugene Thurston. Photo courtesy of Eugene (Kelly) Wilson of Bountiful, formerly of Eden. 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