OCR Text |
Show EiQGRAFHY 0F AMELIA 0. C3At She was born January at Bristol, Gloucester, ' My parents, William and Claressa Bench, v England, joined the Saints Church in 18-1 to Utah, crossing tl Capt. Doly's Company Salt Lake City Sept. J I was nine years o: crossed the plains and with mountain fever i: time that my recov aculous. When w Green River, If.: on into the trer-drowning trer-drowning my f. cued me. Thej'j . the wagon hi,, ? t . negleced it vofr a1' threw me oua".'g i. This happenco time was so sick it aimed V my parents were so ful , and hope, as they had he. ised that they and. then " should reach the valleys mountains in safety. After landing in Salt Lai ley I came near being dr. again. Some children were , ered at a neighbors when a rific rain storm came on; I sla ed for home but the rain came t steady and fast I sought sheltei in a small frame building. The water came down in torrents and soon washed the building to pieces pie-ces and away I went down with the wreckage in the water, under and over fences for a distance of three blocks and was near dead when a man got me out and took me to his house. The family got the sand and mud out of my nose, aye's and mouth, put dry cloth, ing on me and took me home. My folks wer; rc t ahirnmd as they thought me safe at Luo neighbors. ne-ighbors. My Fa'her and family had a hard time with the rest of the people as the crops were destroy-3d destroy-3d by the grasshoppers and crick-2ts. crick-2ts. Breadstuff was very scarce. My younger brother Theophilus md I gleaned wheat as long as there was a head to be found. In 1854 my father, William Ohambers, planted a crop of eot-:onseed eot-:onseed six miles south of Salt Lake City and many times 1 walk-ad walk-ad there and back without feeling tired. In 18'56 my parents moved to Mill Creek. In 1857 when the Johnson's Army came into the valley, Brigham Young advised many familes to move south. My parents settled in Spanish Fork. After the peace and Council meetings, me-etings, the people were alowed to come back. This was known as1 the move. My parents moved back to Mill Creek, here I made a big bed out of milk weed silk gathered by myself and which I prized highly. high-ly. While living at Mill Creek w enjoyed ourselves dancing and attending spelling bees. We lhad no buggies in those days. We rode horseback behind the boys. I was married to Thomas Calvin Cragun Aug.2, 1861 in the Endowment En-dowment house in Salt Lake City. In 1863 my husband and his father were called on a mission to settle St. George, Utah, then a new place. Other families were called too. There were no houses-people houses-people lived in tents, shanties and dug-outs until they could build houses and plant crops. We had narow escapes from being bitten by rattle snakes and scorpions. In 1865 all crops were almoHt a failure and flour was beyond our reach. Many families went days without any bread, subsisting subsis-ting on boiled roots or anything-that anything-that was edible. We all worked, hard. I carded and spun cotton by hand to make clothes. I also-carded also-carded and spun woll and my mother in-law wove it. After a-bout a-bout six years of hard work I was homesick to se my parents,, then living In Smithfield, which: : they had been called to settle. (Continued on Page Kifrht) HERE'S MORE ABOUT llJIOCJKAPHY OF AMELIA C. CRAGUN (Continued from Page One) We got tilings ready and started start-ed by horse team and wagon. It took us three weeks over very rough rocky roads. We reached the Summit or divide west of Smithfield and looked over Cache Valley. It was early Spring and the meadows, farms and everything every-thing looked beautiful. I thought of the contrast, of the roads we had ' travled and of St. George and then I said, "I'll never go back to Dixie again." My husband said :"Allright, good-by Dixie", and we never returned. We left , all we owned and began anew in ! Smith field. This was in 18C5. We had ten . children, . seven boys and three i girls. After a time my health broke bro-ke and I was an invalid for several sev-eral years. While confined to my bed in 1SG7 a terrible epidemic of diptheria broke out and no one seemed to know what to do. Five of our children had it very bad-i bad-i Three died in two days. Two were placed in one grave True and I - |