Theobald, George

Relative Bliss

Genealogy of Julie Ann Bliss Hammons

Biography of George Theobald
By Julia Theobald Herbert
(told by himself)

I, George Theobald, was the son of William Theobald. I was born May 22, 1848 at Newport, isle of Wight, England. I left England on a sailing vessel named “George William Bonan.” In 1851 we landed at New Orleans. We went up the Mississippi River to Omaha, Nebraska, then to Council Bluffs. We reached Salt Lake City, October 15, 1851, with the John Murdock Company. Our mode of travel was by ox-team or cows. Our houses were lighted by candles made by a piece of cotton dipped in melted tallow, this was called a ‘bitch’. There were no matches to be had so we took two pieces of flint and would rub them together to make a spark to light the candles. The only fuel we had was wood and quaking aspen. We ate green nettles, pig weeds, thistles and segos, all the first year. The worst year was the one before the army came into Utah, that year we nearly starved to death.

For clothing we wore buckskin shirts and pants. My father bought me an outfit but I fell into the creek and it shrunk to my knees, so I went without. “Golly those were hard times.”

Everybody including the little boys, all carried a scabbard and a knife at his side. Home spun suits came into use very early. These were made by the women folks. They took the wool, washed it, carded it, and spun and wove it, then made it into clothes for the men and boys.

In 1857 flour was $1.00 a pound in Montana, we could not buy it in Utah, so we went hungry. That is where the Walker Brothers made themselves rich. They bought up all the wheat they could find and sent it to Montana for that price I tasted my first sugar when I was 16 years old, in 1864. I bought 25 cents worth and sat down and ate it up in a few minutes, all by myself.

We very often killed a deer or bear for food while we were crossing the plains. One time we saw a buffalo stampeded, I was only three but I think I remember it, if not, it was made so plain to me that I have always carried the picture of it in my mind.

I was well acquainted with Porter Rockwell, one day I was alone in Emigration Canyon and he said, “Bud, have you seen anyone going along here on horseback?” “Yes, I told him, “He had a six shooter in both hands but his horse was give out.” Rockwell said, “Come on fellows let’s go “ and they caught up with the thief, who had stolen $600.00 from a man in the desert and left him afoot. The made had made his way into the city and reported the robbery and Rockwell and four more men in a white top buggy had started out after the thief to bring him back to justice.

I was policeman and remember seeing a man hung for stealing Another time I saw a man stabbed and the knife buried underneath the floor.

When I was nine years old I was camped with a group of scouts where Lehi now stands, we had walked 20 miles to see Johnson’s army march into he Salt Lake Valley. Their uniforms and swords, their guns and buttons glistened din the sun made such a profound impression on my childhood mind that I never forgot it.

We gook up a homestead near Pioche, Nevada, and for years had to sleep with one eye open to keep the water right I had on my ranch. “I didn’t kill anybody, but I was never driven off, and I never gave up till I good and ready.”

About 1870, when I was living in Rose Valley, the stage coach was held up and a silverbrick was stolen from it. There was a lot of excitement about it, but the robbers were never found.

While I was in Duncan’s Retreat, we were always being pestered by a gang of thieves driving off our horses and cattle, and stealing everything they could get their hands on. The officers made a haul and chased them into town. They had gone into hiding in a heavy clump of willows in the Virgin river bed; the river was a raging torrent and impassable. The officers were worn out and sent for me to go in and roust them out. They told me to pick someone to go with me, I chose Nate Badger. We went into he undergrowth. It was terribly thick, but we could see a large log and on each side was a dark object, we kept might still. We knew they would be tired and maybe were asleep. We called to them to throw up their hand, but they did not move. We called louder and then we blazed away and riddled the dark objects. They had hung their coats as a blind, and jumped into he river and reached the other side. They were well armed. On the other side was found a bundle of clothes and tracks leading out. After four days of near nakedness and starving they sent word that they would surrender. One of them was sent to prison for 12 years.

In 1866 Apostle Erastus Snow was the Brigadier General in the United States Militia, within the Territory of Utah. He had immediate control of the Southern District where there had been a lot of trouble with the Indians. He came down to Southern and urged young men to rally to the defense of the people, and to hold themselves in readiness to protect the helpless women and children. He appointed officers and gave instructions that the hostile savages should be taught a lasting lesson. The Indians were of the Piute Tribe, and were regarded as an inferior grade of Redmen.

I was mustered into service under Captain James Andrews. William F. Pratt and Clayburn Elder were in the same company. Two men, Whitmore and McIntyre, and been killed and robbed near Pipe Springs. Here the Militia went and hunted till the bodies were found. The Piutes were hanging around all the time. The bodies were found complete stripped of clothing and covered with snow. They had hoped the snow would cover up all traces of their crime, but when the bodies were found they began to scatter off. Andrews called for them to halt, but they refused or could not understand. So he ordered force, and one of the Indians was lassoed and dragged one hundred yards in the snow. When he saw we meant business he was docile enough. When one body was found and uncovered Andrew called out, “Where is the other one.?” They were found about a rod apart. One of them, thought to be Whitmore, had the remains of a shirt on. Both bodies were frozen solid and were taken to St. George for burial. The murdered men had been out looking after their cattle and would have soon left for California. The Militia found on the Indians the clothes and the money they had taken from the men. There were eight of the Indians and they had divided the stolen property between them. When the bodies were loaded in the wagon Captain Andrews gave orders for the Indians to stand in a row, so we could take them to camp, but they broke into a fast run and we were ordered to shoot .l And shoot, we did. We shot till they were all still in their tracks. They fell headlong and they lie there still for all I know. James Andrews, our Captain, was part Piute Indian himself.

After this event our posse went to Kanab and stayed all winter. We built a fort and moved families in from dangerous places. In February 1867m we chased one bank of Indians as far as the Buckskin Mountains where our horses gave out, so we had to lead them back. A big flood came and the streams were all swollen, and when the horses tried to cross them, sometimes the current would take them down and then it was a real job to get some of them up. One night we were wet to the waist after trying to get some of them up, and they we had to walk seven miles to camp. We led our horses and our clothes were frozen to our legs, when we reached Kanab that night. That winter, Ammon Tenny and I lived with a man named Savage. We ate bacon and hominy all winter. We stood guard there till April, when we were sent out to find the bodies of a man and his wife, named Berry, who had been killed and tortured by the Indians. William Wright and Clayburn Elder had found them where Tenny and I got there, but they had no way to take them as they were loaded with ammunition. One man had eight arrows in his breast, and two in his neck. Another, who was a passenger had fourteen arrows in his breast. The woman was thrown across the buggy tongue. The outfit had been to Spanish for supplies, and had come home by way to Long Valley and Virgin City. We brought the mutilated bodies back for burial. This was in April 1876.

In the fall of that year (or it may have been in the fall of the next year) eight of us were called into service one night at sundown. I was chopping wood when I was told be packed with food enough to last three days, and to be at Virgin City at 9:00 A.M. the next morning. By the time we had rounded up our mules and got them ready to pack, it was dark. We had to light up the meeting house with candles that we had borrowed from people in town. It was there where we packed our outfits. The others that were with us were Jacob Hamblin and his son Lyman, James Andrews, Joe Stratton, Hinsky Prince (they called him Wooly JoJud. Ab Stratton joined us later. We met at the appointed time and traveled all day and all night, reaching Pipe Springs the next morning and then was transferred to John Pierces Company. He divided us and sent eleven others to Moccasin Springs with directions to follow him if he were not there when they returned. I found he had taken some men and gone out into the desert on an Indian trail and was headed for the Colorado River. We reported to pierce, and for a month watched and guarded and carried grub. We passed over the ground fourteen times from Short Creek to Pipe Springs, while Pierce and his men scouted around and studied the situation. One trip we had a little pony for a pack animal. We put one hundred pounds of flour on her and left Short Creek about nine at night. During the journey the midget rolled down the mountain side and she could not be made to carry the load any longer. My company had to take the corn and I the flour and left the beef on the midget. We reached Pipe Springs at sunrise where we found that 30 men had been without food for 24 hours. A big fire was burning and each men made a dive into the flour sack, mixed his own cake, and then put it in the coals to bake. Then they cut off a piece of meat, put it on a forked stick, and fried it over the coals; they ate it half done. The horses were as glad to get their grain as the men were to get their bread. My supply train was called by the men the “Express”, and a delay in delivery was a great inconvenience.

I had come to stay 3 days, and had been gone a month. The Militia had found nothing but an Indian trail and the men were ragged and worn. I had to borrow a pair of pants, mine had completely worn out. I told Pierce he must get me some more or I would have to go home naked. So about 4:00 P.M. we started home, deciding we would come back if necessary. When we come to the forks of the road where the owner of the pants turned off, I took them off and wrapped myself in my coat as good as I could, proceeded the rest of the way without any pants. The rest of the men were ragged and hungry and worn, but none of them were bare. When I reached home I had to wait for my step-mother to reconstruct some before I could appear. But I was to hungry, so I called for a blanket to wrap myself in an ate my supper while she sewed. The next day a man came up from Rockville, trying to drum-up a dance, but was having a hard time of it. He asked me if I was afraid to ride a bronco, to go find a fiddler. I tried it, then the fun began. He jumped a four pole fence, and a rock wall, and then I fell off, I got back on, however, and ode 6 miles. I found a fiddler and the dance went on.

During the Walker rebellion I was only three years old, but I remember, being terribly frightened at the sight of some Indians I saw dressed as warriors. I had this impression of the Indians; they wore rabbit skins and a breech cloth and always carried bows and arrows, and they always ate lizards, and grasshoppers.

Wild sego, poison and tame, were plentiful and it took some vivid experience to distinguish between them.

Our family traded out ream for land. Father made a plow out of a big forked stick, and we boys held it is place while our father pulled it; he fastened it to himself by a strap. We plowed two and a half acres that way and planted wheat. I always remembered that picture of my father doing the work of a horse. The plow was made from quaking aspen.

There was a small store and a blacksmith shop in connection and there were found the farm implements used at that time. Most all of them were made by hand. There were rakes, plows, hoes, spades, scythes, cradles, and flails, these shops were the first industries that I remember.

About where the first Ward Chapel in Salt Lake City now stands was a great big corral, where people camped. That was one of the first hotels in Salt Lake City. The first school I attended was in the old adobe school house in the first ward in Salt Lake City. It was used as a meeting house also. The benches were large logs of wood sawed in the middle and legs put in the ends with the rounded side down.

I remember on school teacher names Foster. He was cross-eyed and impressed me very much because he was so cruel to us. He knocked us around and his floggings were no trivial affair. The tuition was paid for with produce and work, and the teacher boarded around among the pupils. I remember the primer, first and second readers.

Before 1866 I was in Duncan’s Retreat, Utah. The telegraphy station was located at Toquerville, about 12 miles from there.

I remember well the horse and mule car in the early days. They would “Whoa” any time or place one called to them no matter for how short of a ride. I saw my first automobile in Hinckley in the fore part of the present century, the first train in 1888. I rode my first time in a train in 1891, In Salt Lake before going to Dixie I saw a lot of Theatrical Entertainment, these were local people as well as traveling troops.

I was ordained an Elder into the Church in 1867. On March 18, 1874 I was married to Naomi Ruth Tanner in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. We became acquainted while she was teaching school in Dixie. My wife, formerly lived in beaver, Utah. Her parents were Sidney and Julia Shepherd Tanner. (They were also pioneers having arrived in Utah, October 19, 1854 in San Bernardino, California)sic. We had twelve children, my wife died October 6, 1916.

We moved to Hinckley, Utah in 1890 and helped to build the reservoir at the Sevier Bridge at U B Dam. I served as water master for 24 years. The second house built in Hinckley was built by my wife and I. I cut all our grain by hand and the children helped to rake it so it could be bound.

I always believed in being charitable and people were always kind with us too.

George Theobald, son of William and Martha Lane Theobald, died February 3, 1942.

Julie Bliss Hammons
Clarkdale, Arizona
relativebliss@hotmail.com