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Show Volume XXX Issue VII The Ogden Valley News Page 9 November 15, 2023 Henry John Fuller Henry John Fuller, the fourth child of a family of thirteen children of Edmund Burke and Adelaide Jelly, was born December 18, 1857 at East Mill Creek, Utah. He was of English descent. His father Edmund Burke Fuller was born in Dover, Kent County, England, June 16, 1830. He was a member of the Protestant Church. He came of wealthy parents who gave their son a good education. He finished his college work while still quite young, at Oxford, and served three years in the Navy. When twenty-one years of age, he came to America on the ship Olympus where he became acquainted with Adelaide Jelly of Bedford, England. Adelaide, having joined the Mormon Church [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], was on her way to America to be married. She did not like the man to whom she was engaged. Adelaide and Edmund soon became very good friends. Shortly after they arrived in America, they were married, in St Louis, Missouri. They came to Utah in the summer of 1854, crossing the plains with ox-team in Captain Brown’s Company. (Other stories say they traveled with the Aaron Farr Company.) Three years later, Henry John was born in Mill Creek. He was small and delicate while young, but as he grew to manhood, he became strong and robust. He was six feet tall and very straight and manly. The family remained in Salt Lake City for a few years and while there, the father (Edmund) was the private secretary to President John Taylor. The family moved to Ogden, then to Eden in Ogden Valley in the early 1860s. They settled on the foothills in the southwestern part of the valley. The father was called by the President of the LDS Church to help the saints across the plains. This necessitated his being absent from home for some time. While the father was away on one of these trips, the mother had a terrible scare. A Mr. Wheeler, who wanted to force the Fuller family to move from the foothills so he could claim this land to use for his sheep, had one of his men, Steve Wilbur, dress up as an Indian to accomplish his trick. Steve had been drinking and was easily persuaded to dress as an Indian and go into the log cabin one night while the family was asleep. He went to the bedside of the mother and raised her up to a sitting position. This awakened her and seeing what she thought to be a troublesome Indian, was so frightened she jumped up and then went out through a small window. She ran a halfmile or more to the nearest neighbor for help. Part of the way was through water, knee deep, it being the spring of the year when the water was high. The neighbors returned to the cabin with the mother, but they found no one but the sleeping children who were all right. At this time, the youngest child, John, was only an infant of a few months. This scare had an ill effect on the mother’s health for as long as she lived. The family lived here for a couple of years, then moved to the central part of town, into a one-room log house. The winters were severe and the family, like all other inhabitants at that time, had not sufficient clothing to be comfortable. They suffered many hardships. Henry was very good to his mother and helped her a great deal. The father taught school one winter. The mother and the boys had to make the living. The mother worked very hard. She carried two big wooden candy buckets full of feed to the pigs (the distance being about one-half block). The children did not receive a very good education although the father was a good scholar. On Saturday nights, the mother would sit up till twelve o’clock, if need be, for patching, and mending and cleaning the children’s clothes so they could be ready to go to Sunday School on the following Sunday. Henry was baptized June 8, 1868. The father, Edmund Fuller, bought a lathe mill and had it set up in Wolf Creek Canyon, which is in the northwestern part of Eden. The boys of the family hauled the logs from the canyon, which then had a plentiful supply of timber. Henry tended the machinery and turned out many thousands of lathes. Later the mill was enlarged. and they sawed logs into lumber and pickets. When Henry was 23 years of age, he married Mary Jane Gould. The marriage took place in the Salt Lake Endowment House, January 8, 1880. Henry had a two-room house built from the lumber he had sawed. They had very little furniture for the house. Both worked hard and by careful and skillful management, they succeeded in getting, and making a good home and farm. They started with 6 acres of farmland. At the time Henry died, he had 80 acres of farmland, a good cow pasture, and part interest in several sections of rangeland in Wolf Creek Canyon. Henry continued to work at the mill when there was not much to do on the farm. In Wolf Creek Canyon, he cut wood of oak, maple, etc. for the fires in the stoves for cooking and heating. Wood was used entirely for the fires until the last ten years when coal was used only in the wintertime. Sometimes Henry would be very late coming home from the Canyon with a load of wood. After anxious hours of waiting, Mary would start to walk to meet him, fearing some accident had happened. At such times, the trouble was that the load of wood had tipped over or parts of the harness broke; but never was there a serious accident. In February 1880, Henry was put in as teacher of the Eden Ward Sunday School and also acted as Librarian. On Nov. 26, 1882, he was made assistant superintendent of the Sunday school. In 1881, he was made second counselor to Heber R. McBride in the Young Men’s Mutual organization and released Dec. 17, 1884. He was ordained a High Priest Jan. 27 1884 and the same day he was set a-part as Second Counselor to Bishop David McKay. Bishop McKay held the position for only a year or two when he was made the Bishop of the Huntsville Ward. That made a vacancy in the Eden Ward, which was filled by the appointment of Josiah M. Ferrin. Henry was made the Second Counselor June 15, 1895; he was put in as bishop of the Eden Ward, which position he held until his death, Jan. 1911. He honorably and faithfully filled this position. Henry Fuller had the gift of healing, many times going out to see the sick in all kinds of weather, no matter how he felt himself. About 2 months before he died, he was called to Joseph Bachman’s wife, Maggie. She had given birth to a baby girl who did not live. He was called to administer to the wife. (It was one of the bishop’s duties to meet the call on such occasions.) During the conversation, Henry happened to say “I could be sick too if I gave in.” Mrs. Bachman said that he truly looked as if he should have been in bed. At this time, he had typhoid fever before he contracted pneumonia. All this time he went about his usual work and never complained. No one knew that he had typhoid until after Dr. Shield was called in when he had pneumonia and gave him an examination and said that he had typhoid, but it had developed into pneumonia. It must have been that pneumonia that had set in, for he was confined to the house for about four days. Only the last two days before he died did he stay in bed. It was a strong characteristic Thanksgiving Day Mass November 23 at 9:00 a.m. Thursday Night 6:00 p.m. Saturday Night 6:00 p.m. Sunday Morning 9:00 a.m. Fr. Joshua Marie Santos 801-399-5627 FrJoshuaS.Stambrose@gmail.com Saturday 5:30 p.m Sunday 8:00 a.m. or by appt. Saint Joseph Catholic Elementary, Middle School, and High School Providing a challenging, college-focused education in the proven tradition of Catholic schools, for the families of the Ogden Valley. We want to teach your children! For information on our program, financial assistance, tours, or application, please call 801-393-6051 or 801-394-1515. of the Fuller family not to give in to their own feelings, when sometimes it would have been better if they had. Just after Henry was married, and for years after, he took part in the shows and plays that were given in the ward. He never cared for dancing or very much for surprise parties. He never cared to go away from home to eat, especially to what was called big dinners at that time. His father (Edmund) once said “that he would not go across the street to one of the chicken dinners.” He said, “overloading the stomach was not good, and made one swell like a barrel.” He did not like butter or could not drink milk; it made him have cramps. Henry was very fond of plum pudding and always ate it with thick sour ream. He always ate fresh strawberries and raspberries with thick sour cream. He never drank tea or coffee, although it was an English custom to do so. It was not that he did not like it but because it was the principle taught by the Latter-day Saints. He said he had a very strong temper (coming naturally by it because his father had a strong temper and did not try to curb it.). He had a hard time not letting it get the best of him. At home, in the evenings, when he was not too busy with Church affairs, he romped and played with the children. He got down on the kitchen floor and played marbles with the boys. The game I remember especially, and one we usually wanted to play, was “Bear.” Father would be the bear and down on his hands and knees would chase us. We would run, laugh, and scream. We sure had a lot of fun. Henry had a very good way with children. I do not think there was ever a time when a child did not make friends with him. I remember one time that Roseltha left her children while she went to town. It was late at night before she returned. The youngest, Adrain, about 2 years old, cried for his mother and could not be comforted. Father took him on his lap and began to talk to him and it was no time before Adrain was asleep. Father always told us that when we were ready to select a mate for life, to select someone better than ourselves. He said that was why he chose our mother. He died January 13, 1911 of typhoidpneumonia. The day he died was the first day of that winter that sleighs had been used. The day before the funeral, it rained so we went to the cemetery in buggies. Note: The author of this story is unknown; however, from the wording it appears to have been a daughter of Henry John. The last page of the story contained the following: Notes on Grandma and Grandpa Fuller Adelaide Jelly Fuller was born April 12, 1821 in Bedford England. She had a very good education. She was an excellent seamstress and tailoress. While in the East, after arriving in America, she worked for a tailor, making men’s coats, mostly. She died in 1865. I was just about 6 months old. Grandpa Fuller died Nov. 1902. In the spring of 1902, he had a very good horse which took sick in the Minnie Creek pasture, about a mile east from where he lived. He walked back and forth, doctoring the animal until he himself took sick. He took Brights disease, which lasted until in November when he died. This was near Thanksgiving time. From The Past . . . “Coming home through Ogden Canyon.” Photo courtesy of Blythe Klein. 2668 Grant Avenue, Suite #104A, Ogden, UT 801-612-9299 |