Jacob Hamblin
Jeff Westover

Jacob Hamblin and Kanab

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It is interesting to note that we are not related to Jacob Hamblin and we don’t actually have family connections in Kanab. This chapter in Damon’s family history adventure talks about both Jacob Hamblin and Kanab. There are connections to both of them in Damon’s family history.

On the Westover side the connections are many. Jacob Hamblin was a neighbor to Edwin Westover, who lived for many years in Hamblin, Utah. Charles Westover, living in St. George and Washington City, had frequent interaction with Jacob Hamblin. Residents of Southern Utah communities were regularly visited by Jacob Hamblin because his calling was to serve the Native American people of the area. He worked relentlessly to spread peace, resolve disputes and to teach the Gospel to the many Indian peoples.

In this video, we explore the activities of Jacob Hamblin in and around Kanab that have connections to all sides of the family:

We reference the Samuel Barnhurst family in this video for several reasons. First of all, their experience living in Circleville demonstrates how much interfacing with Indians was a factor in pioneer living. The Barnhursts were asked to settle there after many years in Ephriam. But they were not long in Circleville due to the Black Hawk War, which we have talked about before in detailing the complicated history of Warren S. Snow, of Manti.

The Barnhursts moved next to Cedar City, which put them in the orbit of Joel Hills Johnson. Later they moved to Hatch, which put them close the to Asay family.

And that’s just what pioneering life was like in 19th century Utah. It was a series of starts and stops that put people in contact with others who were experiencing the same.

The discovery of Aunt Anna Mary Barnhurst’s experience working for Joel Hills Johnson in Cedar City was made just last night. I was only trying to learn more about Grandma Priscilla’s siblings when I found that passage in Anna Mary’s autobiography. Damon was literally reading over my shoulder as I found it. In fact, he may have noticed it before I did because we both shouted at the same time.

It’s just a tiny detail, one that in the life of Anna Mary is merely a passing bit of trivia. But for Damon and for me it is powerful insight into their world and we never tire of reading these coincidences.

We’re still only up to about the year 1870 in our exploration. The next ten years in Southern Utah – for all families involved here – were fascinating. There is much more of this story to tell.

Asay Creek
Jeff Westover

Asay Creek – A Hatch Connection

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Asay Creek sits just south of Hatch. In this video we explain how Asay Creek was founded and its connections to Hatch.

Like all our pioneer ancestors who came to Utah the Joseph Asay family had a journey from place to place within Utah before finding their final destination. The video explains the travels of Joseph and Sarah Asay:

Just as their journeys are unique, so too are the individual experiences.

Joseph Asay followed a path of many men – men like Joel Hills Johnson and Edwin Westover. He was called again and again to uproot his family and settle somewhere new. Like them, Joseph Asay did it to benefit “building up the Kingdom”. It was always an act of faith.

Too often, the story of the women and their efforts and sacrifices are overlooked. Yes, they went with their men but often they were called upon to do more and extend themselves in new ways. For Sarah Asay, Damon’s 6th great grandmother, it was no different.

After arriving in Salt Lake, and perhaps in anticipation of the needs in the remote areas they would be sent to, Sarah was sent to be trained as a midwife. While Joseph and his sons labored on 140 acres in present-day South Jordan, Sarah went to school.

They were sent to the Muddy Mission – a notoriously unpopular destination as part of the Cotton Mission. It was unpopular because it was located “south of Hell” (some 80 miles south and west of St. George).

Led by Joseph Young, one of Brigham’s sons, it was hoped that the Muddy Mission would yield regular crops of cotton that could then be sent up the Colorado River.

The Asays went there as assigned and gave it their best. They were famously reported having met explorer John Wesley Powell as he was heading south on the Colorado towards the Grand Canyon:

Joseph Asay and two of his sons were fishing and hailed them to shore. Powell and his men were elated to see the three and were soon greeted as conquering heroes by the nearby settlers who knew of their voyage of discovery and were watching for them.

As the Asays prepared a supper of humpback chub, squash and corn, a messenger rode to nearby St. Thomas to let the settlers know the party arrived. Powell noted in his journal the hospitality he and his crew received:

They arrived about sundown, Mr. Asay treated us with great kindness, to the extent of his ability; but Bishop Leithead brought in his wagon two or three dozen melons and many other luxuries (cheese, bread, and butter, which we had not tasted for months) and we were comfortable once more.

Powell and his men rested and reprovisioned at St. Thomas for two days before continuing on their journey through to St. George to Salt Lake City, before returning to the east coast. Powell went on to become director of the U.S. Geological Survey. It was Powell who named Glen Canyon and for whom Lake Powell is named.

The Muddy Mission was a miserable place to live. It received little water, despite it’s name, and growing things there were difficult because of short growing seasons and the constant lack of water. When Brigham came to visit in 1870, when the picture below was taken, he admitted defeat and advised the settlers to move to Long Valley, which was north of Kanab.

Brigham at the Muddy Mission

Joseph and Sarah Asay are in this photo as well as several of their sons.

So move they did, settling Mt. Carmel with several other Muddy Mission pioneers. The adult children of Joseph and Sarah spread out. Issac went to Orderville, Jerome stayed in Mt. Carmel.

Joseph wandered, concerned the same problems experienced in the Muddy Mission would duplicate themselves in Mt. Carmel and sounding areas.

He ventured north and found a garden spot he took to calling Asay Creek. He knew that at an elevation near 7000 feet it would still be difficult to grow crops but the lush meadow near this tiny tributary of the Sevier River would allow cattle to flourish and that the mountains to the west would yield timber. Tapping the experience and resources of a partner, they opened a saw mill to the west, powered by water by streams flowing from the mountain.

Issac and Jerome would make Asay Creek home to their families for the duration, raising their families there for more than 25 years. Jerome petitioned for a post office for Asay and it served all the neighboring communities for several years. But when the saw mill burned down in the late 1890s Asay Creek started to die and even those of the Asay family moved to Hatch or other areas.

When Joseph died in 1879 in Mt. Carmel Grandma Sarah Asay returned to Asay Creek for most of the rest of her life. She gained a great deal of respect as the area’s midwife and she continued to serve the community in that capacity for many years before she passed in the late 1890s.

Sarah Pedrick Asay

Grandma Asay

Hatch
Jeff Westover

The Deep Roots of Hatch

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Our next stop as part of Damon’s Family History Adventure was in Hatch, Utah – a tiny place that has always been a tiny place. But it is a place that looms large in Westover Family History and, for Damon, also in his Asay Family History. Here’s our video:

The incredible find in such a tiny place does a lot to explain the journey several families Damon is related to took to arrive where we are today. Quite literally, Damon exists because of the efforts of these people from both sides of his family to pioneer the area.

Joseph Asay Sr.

Joseph Asay Sr.

The Asay family was led by Joseph Asay Sr, who founded the nearby Asay Settlement on Asay Creek in 1872. Born in 1823, this pioneering 5th great grandfather to Damon was a respected man who, like others in Damon’s pioneer family history, was assigned to settle Southern Utah in several areas. Asay Creek was Joseph’s home for many years and many of his children and grandchildren remained in the Hatch area for years.

On Damon’s paternal side, William Reeves Riggs Sr moved to Hatch around the early 1890s and the Riggs family would become embedded in nearly every activity in the small community for generations.

William Reeves Riggs Sr. Family

For the multi-generational families that stayed in Hatch there were many who married each other. We see that in the later generations that came with names like Barnhurst, Barney, Hatch, and Burrows. A visit to the Hatch cemetery is an exercise in unraveling a lot of brothers marrying sisters and several generations of families that remained in the area.

For our Riggs family members, Hatch was a place of great memories. Here are a couple of my Grandmother, who spoke fondly and often of her grandparents on both the Riggs and the Snow side. Here she talks about her Grandma Riggs – Priscilla, as talked about in the video above:

The video below features both my Grandma Maurine but also Aunt Allie. In this video they recall Christmases they celebrated as children:

Jeff Westover

Aunt Allie

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Our visit in Enoch took us to nearby Cedar City to visit family who lived there a little more recently.

In this wind-swept visit to the Cedar City cemetery I wanted Damon to know and understand a little bit about my Grandma’s sister, Aunt Allie.

Aunt Allie

Aldyth Riggs Quilter was not known to me until I was an adult and met her when she came to California to help care for Grandma. I had long heard legendary stories of “Aunt Allie”, as she was called, but never had the opportunity to meet her. I came to quickly see what so many said about her. She was just a joy to be around.

It’s important for us to make connections with every family member we can. It is more important that we remember the good things they did and what they meant to other people. In the short time I got to know Aunt Allie I knew I wanted to be able to tell her stories to my children and grandchildren.

That’s why one of my daughters is named Allie – and now Damon has an Aunt Allie, too.

This brief introduction to Aldyth Riggs Quilter, it turns out, became significant on this family history trip.

There’s a good reason for that.

A younger Damon with his Aunt Allie

ps – That picture above is Aunt Evie, Grandma, Aunt Elma and Aunt Allie.

Jeff Westover

History of Fort Johnson

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Joel Hills JohnsonDamon’s next stop was a visit to Fort Johnson in present day Enoch, Utah. Fort Johnson was named after Damon’s 6th great grandfather, Joel Hills Johnson.

Joel Johnson had quite a history before he ever got to Utah. In the 1820s he patented a machine that made shingles. He joined the Church in 1831 and is listed in both the Joseph Smith and Wilford Woodruff papers for his activities in New York, Ohio and Illinois. He was a victim of mob violence in the Midwest and was a well-regarded leader in the Church.

Here is Damon’s video about Fort Johnson and other family members who are connected to it:

The Iron Mission in Parowan, Utah – as it was called – became an area of service for many Utah Pioneers. As a city founder and one well connected to Church leadership, Joel Hills Johnson had an influential part to play in that long project, which ultimately failed to produce iron. But the area soon blossomed as a productive agricultural concern in Southern Utah and that happened thanks to Joel Hills Johnson’s skills as a farmer and fruit grower.

While there are many connections to “Cedar Valley”, as the area around Enoch, Cedar City and Parowan are known, Damon’s can claim several grandparents with roots in the area.

Thomas Price Smith, Damon’s 5th great grandfather on his maternal side, came from England in the early 1850s. He was married with several children and a member of the United Brethren when he became associated with Wilford Woodruff and joined the Church. He was, as many were in England at that time, called to serve as a missionary. It was while a missionary that he taught and fell in love with Mary Dugard, an heiress some 20 years younger than he.

Mary Dugard eventually married Thomas Smith and came with him to Utah, settling in Parowan before she passed away tragically at the age of 40. She is buried in the Cedar City cemetery.

William Rowe, Damon’s 5th great grandfather on his Westover side, was called to the Iron Mission in the early 1850s. Along with his wife Elizabeth they first lived in Fort Johnson and later in Parowan where several children were born, including Ruth Rowe Westover, Damon’s 4th great grandmother.