Winterton Prayer
PRAYER FOR THE AUTHOR AND OTHER
WINTERTONS WHO GROW OLDER DAY BY DAY
Lord, thou knowest better
than I know myself that I am growing older and will some day be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every
subject- and on every occasion. Release
me from craving to try to straighten out every Winterton’s affairs.
Lord, make me thoughtful
but not moody; helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a
pity not to use it all--but thou knowest,
Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.
Lord, keep my mind free
from the recital of endless details.. . Give me wings to get to the point. Seal
my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing and love of rehearsing them
is becoming sweeter as the years go by...
I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of other Winterton
pains but help me to endure them with patience.
Lord, I dare not ask for
improved memory, but allow me a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness
when my memory seems to clash with the memories of other Wintertons. Teach me
the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.
Lord, keep me reasonably
sweet; I do not want to be a saint--some of them are so hard to live with- -but
a sour old per son is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the
ability to see good things in unexpected places and
talents in ordinary people.
Give me the grace to tell them so.
Amen
The Winterton Family Reunion
The Winterton Family
Reunion is a regularly scheduled annual event at the Charleston, Wasatch County,
Utah Memorial Park. On the first Saturday of August each year the descendants of Utah’s Pioneer
William Hubbard Winterton bring their picnic lunches at noon and renew acquaintances
as they break bread.
This picturesque location
on the northern shores of the Deer Creek (Reservoir) Lake with its superb view
of the eastern slopes of majestic Mount Timpanogos is the scene, several hours later,
of a vocal and instrumental family talent program. Before each group separates
to return
home, anecdotes and reminiscences
of the lives of progenitors are exchanged and the names of brand new cousins
are added to family records.
It was my privilege to
attend the Winterton Family Reunion on Saturday, 3 August 1963, which noted the 100th anniversary of the
emigration of William Hubbard Winterton 1816-1890 and his two sons John
Marriott Winterton 1844-1910 and William Winterton 1846-1929 from Nottingham, England
to Great Salt Lake City, Utah. They were
reported to have been tramping in the dust of a covered wagon train in
company with several hundred other Saints facing westward beside the banks of
the Platte River somewhere in Nebraska at exactly this same hour, day, week and
month in 1863--100 years ago.
Honored as the Senior
Winterton citizen in attendance was Hyrum Shurtliff Winterton born 16 August
1878 at Charleston, Utah son of William and Ellen Widdison Winterton. The only other
grandchild of William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott Winterton present .at this
reunion was Carrie Winterton Davis born 5 May 1893 daughter of William and Jane
Steadman Winterton. A score or more of William’s grandchildren; Mrs. Bessie (Gill)
Wahlen, Ann’s granddaughter; Mrs. Viola (Coleman) Coleman, John’s granddaughter;
and William Hubbard Winterton’ s great grandchildren were also present as were
numerous fifth and sixth generation Winterton descendants from many parts of
the state.
The committee responsible
for making arrangements for the 1964 Winterton Family - Reunion is headed by Mr.
Sherron J. Winterton, son
of Valeo James Winterton, grandson of William Winterton and great grandson of
Pioneer William Hubbard Winterton. A capacity attendance will be
welcomed.
Winterton Family Reunion 2005
|
Please RSVP to Jack Simmons at 989-642-8850 or cell at
989-928-1084 or 989 928 1072 or you may reply to Jack Simmons by email:
jacksimmons@speednetllc.com
The Wasatch County chapter
of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers has this year of 1963 published a 1200 page
centennial history of Wasatch County. Section six of this ten section volume
contains Charleston’s history and biographies of several Wintertons and many
other pioneers of that community. See its pages 991 to 1045. The name of the book
is “How Beautiful upon the Mountains.” It
was printed by the Desert News Press of Salt Lake City, Utah.
What They Say
“Every man is his own ancestor and every man his own
heir. He devises his own future, and he inherits his own past.”
--Frederick Henry
Hedge
“The study of history is lifeless without genealogy.”
--John Fiske
““Those who do not treasure up the memory of their
ancestors do not deserve to be remembered by posterity.”
--Sir Edmund Burke
“He who cares not whence he came, cares not whither he
goes.”
--Ben Johnson
“These were their dwelling places and their genealogical
enrollments.”
I Chronicles Chapter 4
Verse 33
“So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies and their
names were written in the book.”
I Chronicles Chapter 9
Verse 1
“For a book of remembrance we have written among us,
according to the pattern given by the finger of God, and it is given in our own
language.”
Pearl of Great Price
Moses 6:46
“Consider the
years back from generationto generation, ask your father and he can
tell you.”
Deuteronomy 32:7
“… my God put it into my heart that I should collect the people (by name) to
get them enrolled genealogically. . . “
Nehemiah 7: 5
33 Winterton Grandchildren
WILLIAM HUBBARD AND SARAH
MARRIOTT WINTERTON’S
33 GRANDCHILDREN IN CHRONOLOGICAL
ORDER OF BIRTH
Name Born
1.
Sarah Ellen Winterton 10 Dec 1870
2.
John Eugene Winter ton 18 Jan 1871
3.
Sarah Ann Noakes 9 May 1871
4.
Eliza Ann Winterton 9 Oct 1872
5.
Sarah Sophia Winterton 11 Nov 1872
6.
Rosetta Noakes 23
April 1873
7.
Eliza Ann Winterton 9 June 1874
8.
William Heber Winterton 4 Oct 1874
9.
Anne Noakes 1
Feb 1875
10.
John Joseph Winterton 31 Aug 1876
11.
Emma Winterton 2 Dec
1876
12.
Twin Parker 8
Feb 1878
13.
John William Parker 8 Feb 1878
14.
George William Winterton 5 July 1878
15.
Hyrum Shurtliff
Winterton 16 Aug
1878
16.
Eliza Ann Parker 30 Dec
1879
17.
Ralph Stafford Winterton 27 Sept 1880
18.
Joseph Winterton 4
Dec 1880
19.
Moroni Winterton 28 Sept
1882
20.
Hyrum Winterton 6 Feb 1883
21.
Baby Winterton 26 Oct
1884
22.
Frederick Parker 3 Nov
1884
23.
David Winterton 5 Oct
1885
24.
Thomas Frederick
Winterton 14 Aug 1886
25.
Rose Anna Winterton 29 May 1887
26.
Alice Malissa Winterton 31 July 1888
27.
Henry Winterton 2 Dec
1889
28.
Robert F Winterton 10 Feb 1891
29.
Isabella Winterton 17 Feb
1893
30.
Carrie Elizabeth Winterton 5 May 1893
31.
Nettie Rachel Winterton 7 May 1895
32.
Edward Marriott
Winterton 16 Sept
1897
33.
Valeo “Leo” James Winterton 10 Oct 1900
Table of Contents
Utah Territory and its counties
around 1874
4000-2370 B.C. - Antediluvian
Ancestors
2369-2000 B.C. - Post Flood
Ancestors
2000 B.C. - 500 B.C. -
Pre-Historical Period
500 B.C. to 1000 A.D. - Ancient
Times
500 - 600 A.D. - What’s in a Name
1000 to 1700 A.D. - Medieval
Chronology
1700 A.D. to Present - Modern
Chronology
Biography of William Hubbard
Winterton
Journal Entries of William Hubbard
Winterton
Sarah Sophia Winterton Simmons
Alice Malissa Winterton Thomson
Carrie Elizabeth Winterton Davis
The George & Sophia Noakes
Family
Foreword
For the past several years
it has been my pleasure to participate in the preparation of family histories
for Viola’s paternal ancestors. During
this time certain of her
maternal ancestors families’ names and genealogical data has come into my
possession.
Because this is the one
hundredth anniversary of *e emigration of William Hubbard Winterton from
England to Utah, it seemed particularly fitting that a record of his posterity be
compiled together with biographical and historical data to commemorate that
event.
The Winterton family have
been Christian believers as far back as we have records concerning them so it
was felt proper to proceed on the basis of the 6, 000 year old Bible chronology
for our progenitors history.
Evolutionists and pseudo –anthropologists
who would make of our Winterton ancestor s some subhuman type of creature
emerging from the mire of many millions of years ago, are welcome to prepare
their own genealogies of our first earthly parents if they care to do so; but I
prefer the Christian belief.
My first view of Charleston
and Wasatch County came about the middle
of the 1930 decade some 30 years ago. This was before the Deer Creek Dam had
been constructed and before the backed-up waters of Provo River covered the
land that furnished sustenance to members of the Winterton family.
I hope you will find “Winterton
Pioneers of Utah” a suitable memorial to the family, which with some 80,000
other Utah pioneers endured so much to emigrate from their homelands. The establishment of homes in Zion where they
could worship according to their religious convictions was the accomplishment
of William Hubbard, John, William, Ann, Tom and Sarah Winterton.
As a family historian my
efforts are strictly amateurish. Perhaps it is because I recognized my own shortcomings that I felt
impelled to prepare this incomplete record. May all the future Wintertons add to what is presently known of
the family.
Arthur D. Coleman
4014 S. 565 E. St.
Salt Lake City, Utah
1 February 1964
Since most of the Winterton
progeny are so closely associated with Utah agriculture- - - raising live stock
and producing hay, grain and foodstuffs the following poem (adapted) seemed a
most appropriate tribute.
Wintertons Feed Them All
The politician talks
and talks,
The actor plays his
part;
The soldier glitters
on parade,
The goldsmith plies
his art.
The sailor navigates
his ship,
O’er this terrestrial ball,
The scientist pursues
his germ
And Wintertons feed
them all.
The preacher pounds
his pulpit desk,
Brokers read their
tape;
The tailor cuts and
sews his cloth
To fit the human shape.
The dame of fashion,
dressed in silks,
Goes forth to dine or
call,
Or drive, or dance, or
promenade,
But Wintertons feed
them all.
The workman wields his
shiny tools,
The merchant shows his
wares;
The astronaut above
the clouds
A dizzy journey dares.
But art and science soon would fade,
And commerce dead
would fall,
If the farmer ceased
to reap and sow,
For Wintertons feed
them all.
Acknowledgments
This book would not have
been possible if our unknown Winterton ancestors of the 12th-16th
centuries had heeded the spurious advice of the Arab philosopher Abu ala Al-Ma’
Arri of the eleventh Century who wrote:
“If ye unto your sons would
prove
By act how dearly them you
love
Then every voice of wisdom
joins
To bid you leave them in your loins.”
Thank goodness our
Winterton progenitors were Christian Englishmen and women who did not heed, and
probably never heard of, the Arabian writer.
I particularly want to
express my thanks and appreciation to the Salt Lake Genealogical Association
for their generous and gratuitous permission to use library and archive
facilities. for research basic
to this book. Many of the Winterton pioneer s and their de scendants have deposited
with the above organization their immediate family data.
I am indebted to them and
to contemporary cousins and other Winterton relative s for the names and birth
dates of 3rd, 4th and 5th cousins. Most of these names were supplied in response
to letters, phone calls and personal contacts.
Pictures of our Winterton
ancestors have been preserved by various descendants and family lines who sent
the photos of the Winterton Pioneers which are presented here. Likewise much of
the biographical material came from Winterton Family Memory books.
The name s of the
descendants of the Winterton pioneers who
have been most responsible for helping bring this book to completion by
their encouragement, verbal and financial, are shown here in alphabetical order
not only as an acknowledgment of their subscription but also as an accolade to
their family kinsmanship.
Mr. & Mrs. Farrell Abplanalp
Mr. & Mrs. Harris Bethers
Mrs. Velda Winterton Carlson
Mr. & Mrs. Duane
Galli
Mr. & Mrs. Alfred Allen Giles
Mr. &.Mrs. Roy Giles
Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth O. Gotberg
Mr. & Mrs. Grant Davis Gray
Mr. & Mrs. Hy Hainsworth
Mrs. Mervel G. W. Hall
Mr. & Mrs. John I. Hallmark
Mr. & Mrs. King Hendricks
Mrs. Florence G. Johnson
Mrs. Lillie G. Johnson
Mr. & Mrs. Ralph Kubni
Mr. & Mr S. Glade Kuhni
Ms. & Mr S. Melvin Kuhni
Mr. & Mrs. Arlin Kuhni
Mr. & Mrs. Theron Kuhni
Mr. . & Mrs. s. Ned LeSueur
Mr. & Mr s. Manuel Monis
Mr. & Mrs. Boyd A. Murray
Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth M. Nave
Mrs. Zella B. Nelson
M & Mrs. Arnold Paxman
Mr. & Mrs. Melvin Peterson
Mr. & Mrs. Buel B. Phillips
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Pinell
Mr. & Mrs. Lloyd Provost
Mr. & Mrs. Bert Simmons
Mr. & Mrs. William E. Slade
Mr. & Mrs. Joaquim Soto
Mr. & Mrs. J. Weston Thacker
Mr. & Mrs. George Thomson
Mr. & Mrs. Leland G. Waldron
Mr. & Mrs. Calvin T. Webb
Mr. & Mrs. Russell West
Mr. & Mrs. Bert Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Boyd W. Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Darwin Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Dick Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Grant Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Hyrum S. Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. James R. Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Neil F. Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Ornni 0. Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Winterton
Mrs, Sheila Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Stafford Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. V. J. “Leo” Winterton
Mr. & Mrs. Dean H. Wright
Mr. & Mrs. Lorin A. Wright
Mr. & Mrs. R. B. Anderson
Mr. & Mrs. Vern Huff
Mr. & Mrs. Fay E Thacker
“We go about our dignified
proceedings, solemnly addressing each other by the names of birds and beasts
and trees and kitchen implements. . . and the most important list of honored personages
contains nicknames graceless enough to keep us laughing for a month.”
“Surnames” by E.
Weekley
a professor at the
Nottingham
University in England
Published by Dutton
& Co. in 1916
A recent
newspaper article will be of interest to most readers of this Winterton family book:
THE SUMMIT COUNTY BEE
Thursday, October 3, 1963 No, 40 Coalville
WINTERTON HEREFORDS
WIN
KAMAS- -
Winterton Brothers of Kamas
won more total ribbons in the Hereford division at the Utah State Fair than any
other breeder, it was pointed out this week.
The honors for the Summit
County ranch were especially outstanding because this year ‘s Hereford show was
the largest ever held in Utah, and the judge stated “the quality of cattle
exhibited in the Hereford division exceeds that of most of the national shows,”
Hereford cattle were
exhibited from Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and Utah.
Winterton Brothers won the following first places:
Champion bull.
Reserve champion
female.
Summer yearling bull.
Winter heifer calf.
Winterington and Winteringham
Lincolnshire, England
The river Humber empties
into the North Sea on the east coast of England at Greenwich 0 degrees
longitude and about 53 ½ degrees north latitude. Upstream some twenty
or thirty miles on the south bank between the city of Barton-on-the-Hurnber and
the mouth of the River Trent and north of the Lincoln Wolds we find the
communities known as Winterington (or Winterton) and Winteringham.
This area is some 60 or
70 miles from Che ster and Carlton (or Derby and Nottingham) where we find the
f i r st known ancestors of William Hubbard Winterton, our Pioneer Utah
progenitor, Being more than a little curious about the possibility that our
progenitors may have originated in this area and taken the localities’ name as
their own surname, I wrote to the Librarian at Lincoln, England and was
furnished with the information which follows.
Much of this data was found
in a book written by William Andrew of Winterton and printed by A. D. English, Silver -Street,
Hull in 1836 A. D. The book is titled The History of Winterton and Adjoining
Villages with a Notice of Their Antiquities. It was subscribed to by over 300
citizens of that area and dedicated to Lady Boynton who particularly encouraged
the literary effort.
Various ancient and rare
English records were examined to verify the authenticity of the historical
background of the Winterton Village account. Re searched according to Mr.
Andrews were the Doomsday Book, the Parliamentary W r i t s , the Charter Rolls
in the Tower and other valuable
and rare surveys. Every effort has been made to preserve the accuracy of
quotations from old sources, but it should be kept in mind that the compiler of
Winterton Pioneers of Utah did not have access to original documents and
has had to rely on secondary sources for much of this portion of the book.
“Agriculture was the
principal industry in Great Britain since about 1800 B.C. when the Britons began clearing the land for
growing of subsistence Crops” states the American Peoples Encyclopedia. By
about 1400 B.C.
the Neolithic islanders had domesticated cattle and horses, were
growing crops, mining tin and copper for
implements, and weaving woolen clothing. By 400 B.C. the Celts had invaded the
Islands, by 300 B. C. the Greeks had visited the islands and conducted some trading,
by 55 B. C. the Romans had invaded and conquered the southern portion of
England. About 450 A. D. the Saxons, Angles and Jutes came to the
British Isles from the Teutonic coasts of the north of Europe. At first they
made only temporary forays on the island returning to the shelter of their
homeland for the winter months. They gradually discovered that the relatively
mild weather along the coast and up the Abus, now the Humber River, to the
confluence with the Trent would permit outdoor grazing for their livestock almost
every winter day, hence they wintered there in ever growing numbers.
By 800 A.D. the Danes had begun to invade this
part of England. They sailed into the Humber and laid waste to large portions
of the adjacent English countryside. When a large Danish fleet was destroyed by
storm in the Humber in 838 A.D.
the barbaric invaders became so enraged that they indiscriminately killed the
Christian English women and children along with the male fighting forces of the
Saxons. The Danes took away much plunder to Denmark and continued pillaging the
countryside for several centuries. They, too, took up winter residence at a
number of towns in the Winterton area and forced the natives to pay fealty to
them as sovereign rulers.
Winterington and
Winteringham were included in the 33
lordships given to Norman d’Arcy or Darcey by William the Conqueror
after the Battle of Hastings and the conquest of England by the Normans in lo66
A. D. During the next three hundred years Winterton, as it now came to be called,
was owned and inherited by a successive line of Darcey Barons, i.e. Robert, Thomas
I, Thomas II, Norman I, Norman II, Phillip I, Norman III 1264-1296
who endowed the Winterton church with 2 pounds 13 shillings 4 pence annually for
“serving God.” Then came Phillip II, in the 24th year of the
reign of Edward I of England, and Norman (the fourth of that name) who died
without children in 1340 while fighting in Flanders.
Since then Winterton ‘demesne
lands’ have never been held by one person but have been divided among several feudal lords and men of family
and property. The Darcey Castle very likely stood to the west of town on the
road now called “Yerles Gate” which is probably an abbreviation of the Earls
Gate. Disappointingly though, no record was found of the name Winterton being used
as a surname in this area at the above
period of history.
An interesting document
signed and sealed 10th August 1456 has been preserved which reads:
“This endenture made between The Prior and Convent
of Malton and the Parson and Kirk of Winterton on the one part and the
parishioners of the same town of Winterton on the other part; Beareth Witness,
that whereas the said parishioners claim to have of the Prior and Convent yearly,
a deacon, founded in the said Church of Winterton, sufficiently learned in
reading and singing to the Maintenance of Gods service in the same place. Also
the said parishioners claim to have, in the Ember days before Christmas, one quarter
of wheat meal, two oxen, 5 pairs
of shoes, and 105 shillings to be given to the poor people of the same parish; Beareth
Witness that it is agreed the Prior and Convent of Malton and their
successors shall have certain swapes of meadows, (swapes appears to mean sweeps
of the hand scythe sometimes written as swarthes or swaths) called
Friar-Crofts, Typpete and Shackhole for all the grass there growing according
to the custom then used … the parishioners of Winterton have agreed to abide
the rule of Roger Fawconberg, Esquire of all the premises and all matters
between them from the beginning of the world to the day of making this
indenture … the Convent of Malton shall at their own cost repair a dyke lying in Winterton, between
Friar-Crofts and Brawater as often as it needs to be repaired.”
An absolution granted to a
person of opulence at the Winterton Lincolnshire England church in 1511 A.D. is curiously interesting as an
example of Christian ceremony of that time possibly some of our Winterton
ancestors owed feudal allegiance to such leaders of the community life. It was granted some years before the Winterton
Kirk in the late Sixteenth Century “… suffered
much damage from the bigatry and infidelity abounding. in these troubled times
… and had seriously gone to decay that for some time there was neither glass
for the windows nor covering for the body of the building … the congregation being
exposed to the weather … until Mr. Place at his own disadvantage, liberally
supplied the deficiencies … new floors, new oak pews, walls cleaned, bells
recast, yard levelled, glass installed …” (and of course a new roof).
“To our most dearly beloved in
Christ George Blank and Elizabeth his wife; Chief Guardian of the Friars’
Minors at Lincoln: Health and the attainment of the Kingdom of Heaven, through
the intercession of Holy Orders! So soon as I heard of the sincere devotion
which you bear us for the reverence of Christ, giving diligent heed, and lovingly
accepting those things, quite conducive to the salvation of souls,. I was
desirous so far as I am able under God, to confer some spiritual blessing upon
you in return to which end I grant unto you a perpetual participation both in life
and after death of all indulgences masses,
prayers, fastings, severities, watchings, preachings, and all other,
good works which our merciful Saviour shall graciously vouchsafe to perform by the
brethren placed under my care by these presents. Adding moreover of special
favor, that whensoever the memorial of your death shall be rehearsed in our
chapel, the same shall be done for you in all and every point that is used to
be done for the deceased brethren and friends of our order then commemorated. Farewell heartily, under the banner of the
Great King, the poor, the Crucified Saviour, and buckler of his dearest Mother,
The Virgin.”
Probably the most
celebrated remnant of antiquity, to be seen in present times, at Winterton are
the various tessellated Roman pavements which have been described in an
encyclopedia as:
“… chequered pavements consist of
cubical stones commonly about ½ inch in length whereof some are natural stones
wrought into that form and others artificially made like brick; these are of
several colours as white, black, blue, green, red, and yellow and are closely
pitched together in a floor of fine plaster, so disposed of by the artist with
respect to colour, as to exhibit figures to shew beasts, birds, trees, etc.”
The community of Winterton
is described by Mr. Andrews (ibid) as”…
bounded on the east side by the old Roman road or as it is called Herman or Old
Street; about a mile from Appleby this Roman way passes through the Roxby
pasture, the property of Mr. Elwes, runs across the Horkstow Road, from Winterton,
and by the East Field farm into the Winteringham lordship; the direct line it
formerly took through the latter town to the Humber lies now nearly a mile to
the east of that place and is destroyed by inclosures. It (Winterton) is
bounded again on the west by the Cliff hills and is eight miles west by south
of Barton. Winterton once of so much importance to the Romans is still (1836) a
flourishing town and contains twelve or thirteen hundred inhabitants …”
The site of old
Winteringham was almost enclosed by water and is properly described as a small
peninsula between the Ankham and Humber rivers. There was a spring of fresh
water on it which is a rarity arising so near an arm of the sea. Winteringham has been described (in 1836) as
a long straggling place about seven
miles westward from Barton containing 159 houses and 745 inhabitants and the
site of the Roman fort and town Ad Abum.
This was also a favorite
wintering place for many peoples in the 1000 B. C. to 1000 A.D. period of time Celts, Romans, Saxons,
and Danes in particular enjoyed the green winter-time pastures for their
livestock. History records the Danes were here on November 12, 1012 A.D. and that a terrible massacre took
place that might be in retribution for previous sufferings of the Britons.
The very ancient record
Doomsday Book mentions this community of Winteringham in the following manner “…
in Wintringeham Ulf had twelve carueates of land to be taxed, land to as many
ploughs. Robert a vassal of Gilberts has there four ploughs …” even back there
900 years or so ago the Wintertons were farmers! They were servants or subject at that time to Gilbert de Gant a
nephew of William the Conqueror who had among other holdings the lordship of Winteringham.
It included one ferry of thirteen shillings, the bed of a fishery, value ten
pounds, three mills of 37 shillings and four pence as well as a priest and a
church.
Robert Lord Marmion in the
year 1166 held in Winteringham twelve knights fees by descent and three by
purchase. The Marmion family were hereditary champions of the English kings for
several centuries and are to be remembered as the subject of Sir Walter Scott’s
imperishable saga of early English literature of which one couplet reads:
“We fain of thee would
search to know
What warrior form lies cold
below!”
As at Winterington so it is
at Winteringham in neither town nor hamlet have the names of early Winterton
progenitors of the William Hubbard Winterton family been preserved for their
posterities view. We do not know which Winterton males served Darcey and
Marmion or fought the advances of William the Conqueror. We do not know the
names of the Wintertons that worshipped at the Kirk, Convent or Parish-house.
We do not know the names of Wintertons who may have violated some byelaw rule or
ordinance and hastily moved to the adjoining shire of Derby or Nottingham during
Medieval Centuries to avoid punishment.
An old Winteringham Parish “lack-kount”
book has recorded in it, by the Churchwarden of the Seventeenth Century, such
byelaws as these:
“… none shall burne or
bake at any unlawful time of nighte on paine of three shillings and four pence”
“… none shall dry any hempe or flax by the fire upon paine of three shillings
and four pence.” “… none shall smoke tobacco on the streets upon paine of
two shillings for every default.”
May I complete this presentation of the Winterington
and Winteringham areas of Lincolnshire England which undoubtedly are the
origination of our Winterton family surname by quoting from a letter written by
Henry Kirke White in August 1804 when he was in residence at the Winteringham
rectory house though later he studied at Cambridge. He wrote:
‘Winteringham is
indeed now a delightful place, the trees
are in full verdure, the crops are browning in the fields, and my former walks
are becoming dry underfoot … the opening vista from our churchyard over the Humber
to the hills and receding vales of Yorkshire assume a thousand new aspects. I sometimes
watch it in the evening when the sun is just gilding the summits of the hills,
and the lowlands are beginning to take a browner line. The showers partially
falling in the distance, while all is serene above me the swelling sail rapidly falling down the river and not least of
all the villages woods and
villas on the opposite bank sometimes render this scene quite enchanting to me.”
Introduction
This is the story of the
William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott Winterton fami1y. William Hubbard born 26
June 1816 and Sarah 14 Feb 1825 were married at Nottingham, Nottinghamshire,
England, where they had lived their 26 and 17 years respectively, on the 24th
of October 1842.
Early in their married life
they heard the gospel story told by the missionaries sent to England by the
recently organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in North America.
They believed and were baptised, Wil1iam on the 6th of January 1850 and Sarah on
the 3rd of June of that same year.
Some
thirteen years later enough money had been
saved to buy passage for three of the family to come to Zion in the Utah valleys
of North America. William
Hubbard Winterton and his two oldest sons John Marriott and William ages 19 and
17 were the ones who boarded the sailing vessel “John J. Boyd” on that fateful day in 1863.
Little did William and
Sarah realize that day they would never see each other again! Tearful and
sorrowful as the 1863 parting was, Sarah believed, I am sure, that she would
soon take the other children to Utah to join her husband in Zion and see the “Tops
of the Mountains” where the Saints worshipped with freedom of conscience, where
the Temple was being built and where President Brigham Young personally and inspirationally
preached the revealed Gospel.
The three pioneer
Wintertons reached America and were in the John R. Murdock Company as they
started across the Plains. They overtook a Wells-Fargo wagon train company on the
Sweetwater River near the Black Hills in charge of a Captain Creighton. Several
of the Freightwagon drivers had quit and the Mormon immigrants were solicited
for new employees.
This was the first
opportunity the Winterton boys had for employment in America and they accepted
the jobs at once. They soon learned to drive the three yoke of oxen hitched to
the heavily loaded wagons of freight destined for California. After their
return from the Pacific Coast, they drifted about from Salt Lake to Provo and
other places finally settling in Wasatch County in 1865.
William Hubbard Winterton
after arriving in Salt Lake City soon found employment as “Toll Gate Keeper” in
Parley’s Canyon, a position he held for many years.
Two more of the Winterton
family came to Utah in 1869, Ann and Thomas aged 20 and 18 years respectively.
They arrived in Salt Lake City and met their father after crossing the Plains as
passengers of the new transcontinental railroad just six years after his
journey with their brothers. Sarah
Winterton who had married and divorced Arthur Parker in England came to Utah
about 1896. Her two children Eliza Ann
and Fred Parker had
journeyed to Carleston,
Utah a year or so earlier.
Sarah Marriott Winterton, the wife and mother who had worked so
hard and sacrificed so much to save the money for her loved ones journey to
Utah, died at Nottingham, England in 1902 surviving her husband by almost
twelve years. Neither she nor three of
her children who died as infants left England.
John Winterton and his
sister Ann Winterton married Emma Inkpen Noakes and George Washington Noakes
daughter and son of George and Sophia Crowfoot Noakes, another early pioneer
Mormon family that had settled at Charleston on land that is now inundated by
the waters of Deer Creek Reservoir.
The Winterton Pioneers and
many of their descendants farmed the irrigated Wasatch County lands and grazed
their cattle or sheep on nearby mountainsides and in adjoining valleys
particularly on the range that is now known as Strawberry Valley. They have
contributed their full share to the growth and development of the Utah
community.
On 3 August 1963, when
Viola and I went to Charleston to attend the Winterton Family Reunion, we also
drove past the fields where Grandfather
John Marriott Winterton and
Great Uncle William Winterton first cut hay with hand scythes. The farms they
homesteaded are now irrigated fields of alfalfa hay, for the most part, the
first cutting of which had been neatly stored in barns and the second crop was
about ready to cut. Fat dairy cows belonging to Winterton descendants enjoyed
green pastures.
Our grandparents’ home is
no longer standing, having been dismantled several years ago when it ceased to
be habitable. The backed-up waters of Deer Creek Reservoir cover the land where
grandmother Emma I. and great Uncle George W. Noakes lived as children and
young adults. Much of the area just south of Charleston so familiar to John and
Emma, William and Ellen, Ann and George during their courting days of 1869 and
1870 are covered by water.
If the level of Deer Creek
Reservoir should be raised to provide more storage space for the winter runoff
waters of the Upper Provo River, as some water engineers suggest as the best solution
for arid acres below, then the pioneer Winterton farms and Charleston may
become part of the lake bottom. If that should happen, the Winterton family
surely will find another place to hold their reunion.
This book is divided into
eight parts, one part for each of the William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott
Winterton families’ children. A separate chapter is devoted to each of their
thirty-three grandchildren. In order to readily identify each of their numerous
progeny a system of coding has been devised and adapted for use in this
Winterton Pioneers of Utah book.
The letter ‘W’ will stand
for the Winterton family name
and for William Hubbard Winterton’s father. W1 then will stand for William Hubbard Winterton 18160-1890; W11 will
stand for pioneer John Marriott Winterton 1844-1910 his oldest son; W1ll will
stand for John Eugene Winterton 1871 -
1959; W1111 will stand for Jesse Richard Winterton born 7 Nov 1900; and W11111
will stand for Ernest Winterton, a fifth generation descendant of William Hubbard
Winterton.
Or as another example of
the coding system, let’ s use W125211 Julie Winterton born 14 Aug 1956, a sixth
generation descendant of William Hubbard Winterton. Her father is W12521 Eldon Willoughby
Winterton born 31 May 1933. Her grandfather is W1252 Van Delos Winterton
born 21 May 1905. Her great grandfather
is W125 Hyrum Shurtleff Winterton born 16 Aug 1878. Her second great grandfather is the pioneer W12 William Winterton
1846-1929. Her third great grandfather is the senior Winterton pioneer W1 William
Hubbard Winterton 1816-1890.
For numbering those
families in which there are more than 9 children a dash will be used to
indicate the two digits are to be read as a whole number. For example W11-12-1
Viola Mae Coleman is the first child of Isabella Winterton who was the twelfth
child of John Marriott Winterton, who in turn was the first child of William
Hubbard and Sarah Marriott Winterton.
Winterton descendants, by
familiarizing themselves with this system of family coding, can readily
determine who is their common progenitor and just what relationship they are to
each other. Numbers can be given to yet
unborn generations by simply adding a digit to the parents’ number in the
numerical sequence of their birth.
The following relationship
chart will assist in classifying your relationship to kinfolk in corrollary
lines such as “second cousin once removed” or “grand nephew” etc.
Relationship Chart
“Common or Cannon Law”
Method
|
|
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
|
0 |
Self |
P |
GP |
GGP |
2GGP |
3GGP |
4GGP |
5GGP |
|
1 |
S-D |
B-S |
U-A |
GU |
GGU |
2GGU |
3GGU |
4GGU |
|
2 |
GS |
N-N |
1C |
1c1r |
1c2r |
1c3r |
1c4r |
1c5r |
|
3 |
GGS |
GN |
1c1r |
2C |
2c1r |
2c2r |
2c3r |
2c4r |
|
4 |
2GGS |
GGN |
1c2r |
2c1r |
3C |
3c1r |
3c21r |
3c3r |
|
5 |
3GGS |
2GGN |
1c3r |
2c2r |
3c1r |
4C |
4c1r |
4c2r |
|
6 |
4GGS |
3GGN |
1c4r |
2c3r |
3c2r |
4c1r |
5C |
5c1r |
|
7 |
5GGS |
4GGN |
1c5r |
2c4r |
3c3r |
4c2r |
5c1r |
6C |
|
8 |
6GGS |
5GGN |
1c6r |
2c5r |
3c4r |
4c3r |
5c2r |
6c1r |
|
9 |
7GGS |
6GGN |
1c7r |
2c6r |
3c5r |
4c4r |
5c3r |
6c2r |
|
10 |
8GGS |
7GGN |
1c8r |
2c7r |
3c6r |
4c5r |
5c4r |
6c3r |
Key Instructions
B-S is Brother
or Sister Count the number of
generations both
C is Cousin persons have descended
from their common
G is Grand progenitor. Then find
the numbers on the
GG is Great
Grand outside of the chart corresponding
with the
N-N is Nephew
or Niece number of generations removed
and read
P is Parent the square that is
applicable to both lines.
r is Times
Removed
S-D is Son or
Daughter
The Seagull, Sego Lily,
Beehive are Utah’s symbols.
Utah Territory and its
counties around 1874
Winterton Chronology
4000 B.C to 1963 A.D.
“In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth. And God created man in His own image, … male
and female he created them.”
Genesis I: 1 and 27
The foregoing Bible verses
are the record of the earliest of our Winterton ancestors. Adam and Eve, according to most Bible
students, were given life about 5963 years ago--or about 4000 B.C. If we assume
that a new generation of life is created on the average of every twenty-five
years we are the 240th generation of descendants from our original
ancestors or if as some folks claim the average time for a new generation is
more nearly twenty-three years we may be the 260th generation from
Adam and Eve.
The Bible writer Mathew, a
Jew, at his first chapter first seventeen verses gives us a very interesting
genealogy of our Savior’s ancestry back through King David and on to Abraham to
prove Jesus was the promised Messiah. His contemporary writer Luke, a Greek
Gentile, traced our Savior’s ancestry back to Adam in an apparent effort to
present him as a Universal Savior for all races of mankind. (Chapter 3:23-38)
Frankly, I have no axes
(good or bad) to grind in preparing this genealogical account of a small
segment of our ancestral line, I believe there is a lot of good in all of
us--there is good and bad in the best of us and there is good and bad in the
worst of us. The information on our Winterton relatives is presented as it was
given to us without embellishment or criticism,
In the following paragraphs
an attempt will be made to follow our ancestors and their activities down to
our present generation and the year 1963 A.D. This writing is a sort of
centennial memorial of the arrival of our Winterton ancestors in Utah in 1863.
Our Winterton ancestral line of progenitors is far from complete for there are several
thousands of years in which we do not know our ancestral progenitors names.
What an interesting area this would be for further genealogical research.
Perhaps some Winterton descendant will yet succeed in the task.
4000-2370 B.C. - Antediluvian Ancestors
Adam and Eve were created,
married and they became the parents of Cain, Abel, Enoch, Seth, and other sons
and daughters. Genesis 5:5 … Adam lived
930 years and died (about 3096 B.C.) Enoch transferred about 3039 B.C. Noah was
born about 2969 B.C. a son of Lamech, a grandson
of Methuselah, a great grandson of Enoch, and a second great grandson of Adam. Lamech dies at age 777, and Methuselah dies at age 969 prior to the Flood which
some Bible scholars date during the year
2369 B.C.
Genesis 5:32 “Noah was 500
years old and then he got three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” These three sons were probably born between
90 and 100 years before the Flood. During this 100 year period before the
Flood, Noah preached God’s righteousness and built an Ark of Gopher Wood. The only people on the earth at that time
who were not corrupt and therefore not destroyed were Noah, Japheth, Shem, Ham
and their wives. (Genesis 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th chapters)
2369-2000 B.C. - Post Flood Ancestors
Our Winterton ancestor Noah
lived after the Flood according to the Genesis account chapter 9 verse 28 and 29 for 350 years for a
total life span of 950 years. He died
about 2020 B.C.
The Winterton ancestry would appear to have descended through Noah’s
youngest son Japheth and his wife. The
10th chapter of Genesis verses 2 thru 5 adds two more generations.
“The sons of Japheth; Gomer,
and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meschech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz,
and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish,
Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the
isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after
their families, in their nations.”
2000 B.C. - 500 B.C. - Pre-Historical Period
The grandsons of Noah by
his son Japheth, in each succeeding generation, moved north and west from the
Euphrates Valley, from the land of Shinar, and away from the ruins of the Tower
of Babel. Among these families and
tribes were the remote origins of the Winterton family. Shem and Ham’s children populated Africa,
Arabia, Persia, India, Asiatic, and southern lands.
Gorner who was the father
of the Galatians (and possibly as some claim the Teutons) and Magog the father
of the Scythians first settled on the western shores of the Caspian Sea in what
is now called Southern Russia. Javan
occupied the area we know as Greece and the Balkan Peninsula. Tubal the lands South of the Black Sea or
much of what is called Asia Minor in recent Geography books. Meschech and his children squeezed in between
Tubal and Magog along the eastern and northern shores of the Black Sea. Kittim (Chittin) and Dodanim took to the
water and enjoyed the islands in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Tarshish went even farther west to Southern
Spain on our maps. The thirty-eighth
chapter of Ezekial sixth verse refers to Togarmah and all his bands as being in
the uttermost parts of the north. Actually
it seems they were east of the Caspian Sea and scattered in an area extending
to Mongolia and north to Siberia an area called Turkestan by recent
geographers.
The Winston Dictionary on
my library shelf to which I referred for information on the word Japhethic said it was used to designate
members of the Caucasian races of Europe to distinguish them from the Semitic
and Hamitic races of people in other parts of the world.
It is quite probable that
Japheth’s sons or grandsons reached the British Isles well before the year 2000
B.C. as they scattered abroad on the face of the earth. The ancient wanderers were not only our
ancestors but also the progenitors of the so-called aborigines found by the Keltic
(or Celtic) invaders of the 5th Century B.C.
The Kelts, whose origin was the Central European region between the
headwaters of the Rhine and Danube, are said to have brought a higher level of civilization
and culture to the islands than was known before that time. It seems likely to me that both groups had
common Japhethic ancestors some 1700-1800
years before the Keltic invasion.
It is claimed that Japheth
had a knowledge of the
British Isles which he transmitted to his posterity after the Flood with such
glowing accounts of its desirability as a place to live that they were all
trying to reach it--some going via the Mediterranean route, some via Europe and the Danube-Rhine
valleys and others north into what is now Russia and then west through the
North Sea and Scandinavian countries.
Legends or traditions claim
that Adam was the father of 33 sons
and 23 daughters, that Ireland’s
fairy stories have their origin in Enoch’s transferance; that one system or
time used in reckoning chronological events such as Adam’s birth, the flood,
etc. has these events actually take place 300 years later than the dates I have
used; these legendary sources also assert that
the British Isles were
occupied before the Big Deluge by Adam’s sons and several generations of his
grandsons who were in communication with their cousins and other relatives in
the Fertile Crescent and Euphrates Valley Areas. A few more reliable dates will
cover the intervening generations.
1300 B.C.
Israelites in Egypt
1000 - 900 B.C.
King David and King Solomon reign.
600 B.C. The
Jewish captivity in Babylon.
500 B.C. to 1000 A.D. - Ancient Times
356 - 323 B. C. Alexander the Great the fall of Egypt, Persia, India,
and the rise of Macedonia.
170 B.C. Invention of paper in
China.
55 B. C. British Isles are
invaded by Julius Ceasar’s Roman Legions. .
1-30 A.D. Approximate
lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth.
51 A.D. Caractacus
British Chieftain captured and taken to Rome.
61 A.D. Boadicea leads British revolt
against Rome.
142 A.D. Wall
built by Romans against the Caledonians from the Forth to the Clyde.
313
A.D. Constantine
embraces Christianity. Issues decree of Milan to protect Christians,
410 A.D. Britain abandoned by
Romans. As Rome withdrew her legions
from Breton, groups of Angles, Saxons and Jutes began to arrive on the Island
and soon pushed the Bretons, Kelts, Picts, and other groups to the north and the
area became known as Angleland
or England as we pronounce the word today.
432 A.D.
The commonly
accepted date that St. Patrick began his conversion of the Pagan Irish to
Christianity.
597 A.D. St.
Augustine brought Christianity to England, particularly that portion near the Southern
Coast we call Kent and from
there it spread gradually over the Island.
664 A.D. Council
of Whitby established Roman Catholic version of Christianity in England which
later suffered some spiritual lapse during the Danish invasions of the eighth
and ninth centuries and many church buildings were destroyed.
500 - 600 A.D. - What’s in a Name
The first written or
documentary evidence of our family name or one of reasonably close resemblance
that has come to my notice was made by the Anglo Saxon warrior-chief Hereward
whose exploits are dated in the sixth century. He lauds one “Winter” as his
most faithful and loyal bodyguard but we do not learn what the fates had in store
for his comrade at arms.
Perhaps you have been as
curious to learn the meaning or origination of the name Winterton as I was when
this family research project commenced. Etymologists tell us that all names are originally significant and
that many of the English surnames in particular come from their occupation or
home community or some combination of these and other factors.
An unknown writer in discus
sing family names has said, “No name is to be disliked, the evil does not
disgrace the good, neither does the good restore the evil to fair repute!” Another writer of some years ago--”Camden”—philosophized
“To finde out the true originall of surnames is fulle of difficultie.” The most cogent thought though is that
somewhat sarcastic exclamation:
“…His parents are the
Lord knows who!”
It is impossible--for me at
least--to put the name “Winterton” in a straitjacket and come up with a one
origin or meaning of our sobriquet. Neither
can I determine for certain exactly when or where the name Winterton was first
used by our progenitors as a hereditary surname.
The English records such as
Domesday Book, 100 rolls, etc. extant from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
contain such names as John le Vinetur, Ralph le Vinetuner, William le Wyneter, and
show a Norman influence as well as an occupational adaptation. These men and others undoubtedly took the
name of their trade --that of wine merchant, grape grower, or perhaps the more specialized and closely
related early industrial activity that of putting the spiritous beverages and
liquors in containers called TUNS. A man from the community where
this work was performed being called, let us say, “William from the Wine
Tunners (or Vintners) Town,” which was soon shortened to suit the Anglo Saxon
taste “William Winterton.”
Perhaps William le Wyneter
mentioned above was an important and well-known man in his and surrounding
areas and John left that town to
go to another area, what would be more natural than to refer to him as John
from Wyneter’s Town and before long he would be signing his name John Wyntertowne
and later it would be as we see it today Winterton.
Here is an interesting
couplet, naming trades that give rise to surnames, from an early Medieval English
poem entitled “Cocke Lorrelles Boteu”:
… Woolenen, Vynterers
and Fleshmongers,
Salteras, Jewelers and
Haberdashers.
Some etymologists suggest
the names Winter, Finter or Vinter have a Cornish origin and are from that ancient
tongues words for “white water” GWYN
DOUR. The addition of town, hall,
bottom, field, etc. to the base word not changing its meaning, i.e. Winterton
means town near White Water or Winterbottom means White Water in the lowest
portion of a steep valley, field near the
White Water, etc.
Certain dictionaries define
winter in addition to a season of the year as meaning cold, unattractive, unpleasant,
disagreeable. Some claim that as
pressure was applied to our progenitors to furnish two names a surname as well
as a Christian name it often happened that when William was born in the winter
he would sign his name in after years, if he learned to write that is, as
William Winter to distinguish himself from that other William living nearby who
caught herring for a living- -and he in self protection learned to sign his
name as William Herring. The “ton” being added as someone else came to identify
themself as being from Winter’s town or from the Herring town.
Many other family names
have been formed in addition to our own Winterton name by the adding of another
word or syllable to the “‘Winter” root. Recently I examined a number of telephone directories for widely
scattered American cities on file in the Salt Lake City Telephone Office Building
lobby.
From just this one source
the following “Winter–plus” names were noted and found listed in alphabetical
order. Surely we have progenitors in
common with some of them no more
than forty or fifty generations back along the ancestral lines of ancient
England. You may recall more such names than are listed here.
Winterberg, Winterberger,
Winterbotham, Winterbottam, Winterbottom, Winterburn, Wintercorn, Winterer,
Winterfall, Winterfeld, Wintergalen, Wintergarden, Wintergood, Wintergreen, Winterhalder,
Winterhall, Winterhalter, Winterhoff, Winterholder, Winterhouse, Winterkorn,
Winterling, Winterman, Wintermantel, Wintermute, Wintermyer, Winternitz,
Winterose, Winterowd, Winters, Wintersdorff, Wintersgill, Wintersmith,
Wintersole, Winterson, Wintersport, Winterstein, Winterstellar, Winterstine,
Winterville and Winterwerp.
An Etymological Dictionary
written in 1857 by William Arthur defines our surname as follows:
“Winterton- -from the village of Winterton
in the County of Norfolk, England, so
called from its cold situation.”
The “Topography Dictionary
of England” published in 1840 lists two places called Winterton. One is a
parish in the Wapentake of Manley, County of Lincoln 8½ miles from Barton-upon-Humber containing at that time 1840 some
1295 inhabitants. It is about 55 miles
North of Nottingham and 70 miles from where our early Winterton progenitors lived
in Derbyshire. They could easily have walked
the distance in several days time.
The other Winterton is a parish
in the hundreds of West Flegg Eastern Division
of the County of Norfolk 5½
miles N by W from Caistor containing 631 inhabitants (in 1840). On a promontory called Winterton Ness are two
lighthouses (about 5 miles north on the Coastline from New Yarmouth on our 1960
maps). This is about 90 miles south west of Breadsall and Little Chester in
Derbyshire where we find early Winterton ancestors.
This is a reply to a letter
of inquiry I sent asking for information about the Winterton name.
Great Yarmouth Public
Libraries and Museums
Central Library
Dear Mr. Coleman, 11th
October, 1963.
Thank you for your enquiry
of 23rd September. Winterton is an ancient fishing village, lying in
a bay, 8 miles north of “Winterton Ness”, a dangerous headland once dreaded by
sailors as much as any part of the Coast between the Humber and the Thames. It has 912 inhabitants and contains 1,367 acres
of land, exclusive of a large extent of seabeach and warren. This Coastal
parish has almost four miles of sandy beach backed by dunes - now
an ideal site for holidaymakers.
The name “Winterton,”
derives from the Old English “tun” meaning an enclosure, a farmstead, an estate
or a village. There are many towns and villages
in England with this suffix, e.g. -Hampton, Plumpton, Allerton, etc. (there are
230 in the County of Devon alone). In
the case of Winterton, it would almost certainly denote the seasonal uses of
the farms (i.e. used in Winter). The soil is light in this area,
but very fertile, the chief crops today being wheat, oats and barley.
Winterton was originally a
township. It is mentioned in the
Domesday Book, and it can be presumed that it was once a place of much consequence as it formerly had a
market and a fair and races (now discontinued). The people of Winterton have
always been a hardy group, but due to their associations with the sea, a very
superstitious one as well.
The Church, dedicated to
the Holy Trinity and All Saints, was built about 1400. It consists of a nave, South porch, Chancel
and fine embattled tower. The latter is
120 feet high and is surmounted by four carved figures in lieu of pinnacles. It
contains five bells and its summit commands an extensive view of the ocean. New windows were inserted in the Chancel in
1859. The roof of the Nave is supported
by 18 wooden pillars, 9 on either side and the pulpit stands under the centre of
the Chancel arch. Here, is a brass to
Thomas Husband, dated 1676, and several tablets of the Knights, Lens,
Huntington and Hume families. The Rectory House was built in 1822.
Daniel Defoe, who visited
this part of the coast about 1722, wrote
of it, that the farmers and
other country people “had scarce a barn, or a shed, or a stable, nay, not the
pales of their yards and gardens….but what was built of old planks, beams,
wales and timbers –etc., the wrecks of ships and ruins of Mariners and Merchants’
fortunes.” He goes on to give a vivid picture
of a shocking disaster on this part of the coast one night about 1692, in which
were involved 200 light colliers from Yarmouth, a fleet of ships from the North
and vessels from Lynn and Wells, laden with Corn for Holland. In a sudden storm over 200 ships and a
thousand lives were lost.
On the 1st September,
1756, the Winterton folk saw the finish of a sharp sea-fight between H.M.S. Hazard
and the French privateer La Subtille, carrying twelve guns and eighty-six men. The engagement began off Lowestoft and was
continued for six hours. The prisoners
were landed at Yarmouth and lodged in the gaol; but by undermining a wall
fourteen of them escaped and only four were retaken.
An inscription in the
Church links Winterton with the nineteenth century political philosopher Joseph
Hume, who lived at the Hall. In his
young days he was a surgeon in the East India Company, and by the time he was
30 he was able to come home with all the money he needed. For 30 years he was one of our leading
politicians, and though a bad speaker in Parliament, he was a good leader for
the abolition of abuses and an ardent advocate of freedom of trade with India. Untiring in exposing extravagence, his
watchword was Peace and Reform, and it was largely due to his efforts that flogging
in the Army, the Press Gang, and the old System of imprisonment for debt were
abolished. He started the Savings Bank
movement, and his daughter, Eliza Greenhow, who has a memorial at Winterton, is
remembered for the splendid work she did in helping on National Schools.
The lighthouse built in
1617 stands on a lofty summit on the south east side of the village. It
is a hexagonal tower, nearly 70 ft. high. It is the property of Trinity House, London, and was granted in
1687 to Sir Edward Turnow, with “ld. per ton for every vessel sailing by”. There were formerly two lights on the Ness, more than a mile north of
the village, but they were removed about 1830. In 1859, a life boat was placed here by the National Life Boat
Association, and in 80 years of its history the Lifeboat saved 500 lives.
Winterton has given the
title of Earl to the Turnow family since the year 1766. The present Earl is the 6th Earl Winterton
(Edward Turnow, P.C., T.D.),
Viscount Turnow, and Baron Winterton, of Gort, Co. Galway, in Ireland, and Baron
Turnow of Shillinglee, Co. Sussex in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Hoping this information will be of use to you.
Yours faithfully,
A. A. C.
Hedges
Borough Librarian and Curator.
All communications should be addressed to A. A. C. Hedges, Borough
Librarian and Curator, Central Library, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
1000 to 1700 A.D. - Medieval Chronology
1066 A.D. The
Normans invaded England and defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Hastings. Were any of our Winterton ancestors in that fight?
1100 - 1200 A.D. Were
the years of the Crusades. Did any of
our unknown Winterton ancestors take part in these religious pilgrimages?
1215 A.D. Magna
Carta signed at Runnymede. Were any
Wintertons at this famous gathering?
1295 A.D. English
Parliament established.
1349 A.D. The
Black Death, a mysterious plague, took the lives of over a third of the English
population. How many of our Winterton ancestors
were involved in that horrible tragedy is not known.
1492 A.D. Columbus
sailing for Spain after being refused ships by England, discovers the American
continents.
1611 A.D. The Bible is printed in the English language
and made authorized reading by King James. No doubt many of our Winterton ancestors heard its words read for
the first time early in the seventeenth century.
1620 A.D. The
Puritan emigration to America commenced as a result of religious intolerance on
the part of England’s rulers.
1700 A.D. to Present - Modern Chronology
1755 A.D. William Winterton, the
grandfather of William Hubard Winterton 1816-1890 was born this year at
Breadsall, Derbyshire, England. This place is about 30-35 miles distant from
the Nottingham area where our grandparents were born. His wife Ruth Buxton is
thought to have been born at the same place a few years later.
The community of Breadsall
is described in the “Topographical Dictionary of England” published in 1840 by
Samuel Lewis as a parish, in the Union of Shardow, hundred of Appletree, three miles
northeast by North from Derby containing 565 inhabitants at the last census. The Church is a large handsome structure with
a lofty spire. The living is a rectory
valued in the king’s books at slightly over 28 pounds.
A
nonconformist divine of considerable celebrity
was the incumbent in this parish from 1644-1662 (who may have started our
Winterton ancestors to think about religious subjects for themselves). The
Little Eaton Canal and railroad pass through the parish (in 1840 but not in
1755). Here was anciently a house of
friars, hermits afterwards converted into a priority for monks.
William Winterton 1755-17??
married about 1780 Ruth Buxton born about 1760. They were the parents of John Winterton, born 6 April 1781 died 5
April 1825. If there were other
children it has not been determined, neither has the death date of the parents
been found in my research.
Apparently William and Ruth
Buxton Winterton have moved a few miles from their birthplace as the Lewis
Topographical Dictionary of England 1840 edition describes Little Chester, John
Winterton’s birthplace, as a township in the parish of St. Alkmund and the
Union of Derby, but without the limits of the borough, in the hundreds of
Morelton and Litchurch containing (at that time) 191 inhabitants. It is situated on the eastern bank of a stream
about one mile north-northeast of the town Derwent.
The Domesday-book referred
to this place as “Cestre” a parcel of the ancient demesne of the Crown. Numerous remains of Roman antiquity such as
foundations, and coins of gold, silver and copper have been found here.
1796 The
year of the Great bread riot in London, England.
1802 on the
8th of November John Winterton (Born 6 April 1781 died 5 April 1825) married
Ann Hubbard (born 10 July 1782 died 20 January 1857) at Nottingham, England.
Not much is known of these
ancestors other than that they led miserable lives by our present day
standards, John was pressed into the British Army shortly after marriage and
served overseas for ten years 1805-1815.
Whether he was with the British regiments that fought the Americans in
the War of 1812 or whether he served in India or some other part of the world I
do not know. It was only after he was
injured and disabled that he was permitted to return home to his wife and
daughter (Ruth Ann Winterton born 22 Oct 1803 died 19 Jan 1877 was the wife of
William Britton). John’s son-our great
grandfather William Hubbard Winterton--was born 26 June 1816 the year following
his father’s release from the army. If
John and Ann had other children, their names are not known to me nor did I
notice any such indications in my research.
1811 Frequent
riots in England’s manufacturing districts and in 1812 war was declared against
United States.
1816 On
the 26th of June William Hubbard Winterton, our great grandfather and a pioneer
in the settlement of Salt Lake City and Utah, was born at Nottingham, England.
His father John Winterton 1781-1825 had apparently moved about thirty miles
east of his birthplace but his mother Ann Hubbard seems to be a native of
Nottingham City as well as of Nottingham Shire (County).
To obtain a picture of the
community in which our ancestors were born and lived and married I have
consulted the Topographical Dictionary of England published in 1840 by Samuel Lewis,
a copy of which is in the Salt Lake Genealogical Library. Reading this description written at the time
they were residing there gives one a better under standing of their story and
actions.
Nottinghamshire is an inland
county of England being bounded on the north by Yorkshire on the East by
Lincolnshire on the South by Leicestershire, and on the East by Derbyshire containing
about 536,000 acres and in 1840 about
225,000 people (the 1960
census figures are 841,000).
The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of
Mercia flourished here about 1400 years ago. During the Middle Ages there was strong fortifications and much
fighting of civil wars in the area. The
river Trent flows through the county and is bordered by rich grasslands and fertile
soil. Crops cultivated here during the
early part of the nineteenth century include wheat, rye, barley, oats, beans,
peas and grasses. Hops, burnet and woad
are also mentioned. Much of the area
was once covered with forest and deer were plentiful but has since been “disafforested”
and the red deer are entirely “extirpated.”
The City of Nottingham is
124 miles north northwest of London and had in 1840 about 51,000 inhabitants,
the number in 1960 had grown to 306,000 people despite the emigrations of
William Hubbard Winterton and other families to America during the latter half
of the nineteenth century. During the
seventh to tenth centuries the Danes held intermittent possession of
Nottingham. William the Conqueror
considered it an important area and placed his son in charge. Many battles, plots and counterplots as well
as treason occurred in the area as various political forces attempted to establish
their supremacy in England during the 1200-1800 A.D. period.
Following the French and
American revolutions in about 1811 and 1812 and only a couple of years prior to
William Hubbard Winterton’s birth there occurred in Nottingham the organization
of workingmen known as the “Luddites”“
who “ …. ascribed their distress to the introduction of new machinery and as a
consequence were excited to the destruction of considerable property-
-buildings as well as machines. The
next several years have also witnessed several disturbances occasioned by the
framework knitters which have caused the passing of the 57th Act by
King George III …” It would be
interesting to know what the Winterton ancestors and their corrallary family
lines were doing in those troubled times.
The City of Nottingham gets
its name from the numerous caverns and subterraneous dwellings excavated in the
sandy rock on which it is situated.
The Saxons called the place
SNOTTINGHA –HAM or “place of
caverns.” The present name is only a
slight modification from the primitive tongue.
To quote directly from the
Topographical Dictionary “The staple manufactures are silk and cotton
stockings, bobbin-net and lace, which afford employment to nearly 40 000
persons in the town and its environs … For its present (1840) prosperity
Nottingham is greatly indebted to science for the improvement lately made in
the machinery employed in the national industry which has given this town a
decided superiority. The machines for making bobbin-net and lace are exceedingly
expensive and being therefore beyond the purchase of the poor are let out to
them at a weekly rent.”
A
recent 1960 geographer describes
Nottingham as “an important industrial and rail center with lace, hosiery,
textiles, tobacco, brewing, bicycles, drugs, shoes, leather goods, motorcycles,
railroad and electrical equipment, coal and clay products. The University and colleges were founded in
the 9th century. This is the
scene of the legendary Robin Hood and the Sherwood Forest is nearby.”
1818 It
was in December of this year in the Austrian
Alps that a village priest wrote the words to the lovely Christmas carol “Silent
Night, Holy Night.”
1825 Great
commercial panic in England.
1830 March Joseph
Smith Jun. published 3,000 copies of the Book of Mormon in New York State, U.S.A.
1830 April The
Mormon Church is organized at Fayette, New York and moves to Kirtland, Ohio, Independence
and Far West, Missouri and to Nauvoo, Illinois by 1840 as it grows and
increases in membership.
1832 Slavery
ceases in all British colonies.
1838 Queen
Victoria coronated.
1840 L.D.
S. missionaries are sent to the British Isles to preach the Gospel.
1842 On
the 24th of October William Hubbard Winterton 1816-1890 married
Sarah Marriott 1824-1902. They were
parents of eight children born at Nottinghamshire, England.
The birthplace of John and
William Winterton has been listed as Carlton, England on all the family group
sheets and other records that have come to my attention. The William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott
Winterton family undoubtedly made their home there rather than in the City of
Nottingham. Possibly they may have
moved back and forth, but I think that unlikely.
The statement that they
walked three miles to attend the L.D.S. Church services coincides with the
distance between Carlton and Nottingham. For a description of this home community of William Hubbard
Winterton’’s I turned to the 1840--4th edition of “Lewis Topographical
Dictionary of England” page 464 and found that: “Carlton is a hamlet in the
parish of Gelding union of Brasford, Southern division of the Wapentake of
Thurgarton and of the County of Nottingham, 3 miles east northeast from the
City of Nottingham. At that time (1840) it contained 1,704 inhabitants living in an extensive area. Its chief employment and industry is the
making of hosiery and lace.”
1842 This
was the year 26, 000 people were massacred in British India.
1844 On
the 16th of May, John Marriott Winterton was born the first child of William Hubbard
and Sarah Marriott Winterton of Carlton, Nottingham, England at the age of 19
he was destined to emigrate to Utah crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a sailing
vessel and the plains of North America on foot and as an oxtearn driver.
1844 This
year saw great growth, during the early months, in the Mormon City of Nauvoo, the
temple was being built. The Nauvoo
Legion drilled faithfully, Joseph Smith Jun. was a candidate for President of
the United States, emissaries of the Church were investigating new areas where
colonies might be established when there were too many people for Nauvoo. Many converts were being added to the membership
by missionaries in England and other foreign nations.
No tolerance could be shown
to a small group of dissenters who dared set up a printing shop in Nauvoo and
publish statements contrary to Joseph’s beliefs and without his approval! It was destroyed immediately. But the non-Mormon people of the surrounding
community thought Joseph Smith Jun. had too much power and not enough respect
for the laws of the State of Illinois and the United States. He was arrested and while in the Carthage
jail waiting trial was assassinated by a mob. Brigham Young took charge of the evacuation westward which soon
followed and Nauvoo became a ghost city.
A
number of events which had a later
significant bearing on the lives of the Winterton family took place in 1846. On 25 April 1846 the first shot of the
Mexican war was fired at Rosia, Mexico and when the war was over and the Peace
treaty of Guadolupe Hidalgo signed on 10 May 1848, Utah ceased to be a Mexican
Province and became United States Territory -- Brigham Young and the Mormon
Colony were again subject to the laws of the United States.
15 June 1846 the United States and Great
Britain signed a treaty dividing the Oregon Territory peaceably, at the 49th
Parallel.
5 July 1846 California
declared its independence from Mexico and later as did Texas, joined the United
States.
6 May 1846 In Nottingham, England, William
Winterton, son of William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott Winterton, was born. He was the third Winterton destined to
immigrate to Utah in 1863.
10 Sept. 1846 Elias
Howe Jr. obtained the United States patent on his sewing machine and in 1851
Isaac Singer patented the rocking treadle type sewing machine. Can you even begin to guess how many items of
clothing the Winterton family womenfolk have made on these machines to be worn
by all members and descendants of the Winterton Pioneers of Utah?
1847 The
first Wagon train of Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24,
1847 following the Wagon tracks of the previous year’s ill-fated Donner Party. It was only four days later July 28, 1847
that President Brigham Young chose the Great Salt Lake City site of the LDS
Temple.
1847 On
May 18th a baby boy was born to William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott Winterton at
Nottingham (Carlton) England. Before he
died the next day he was hastily named John.
24 Jan. 1848 James
W. Marshall found gold at Sutter s Mill --now Sacramento, California -- and the
next year 1849 saw the famous California Gold Rush which gave extra impetus to
the western movement.
1849 the
year that Ann Winterton, daughter of William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott Winterton,
was born at Carlton, Nottinghamshire, England on the 11th of September. Ann was to emigrate in the year 1869 when she was twenty, arriving
in Utah on the new transcontinental railroad.
1849-1851 As
soon as the Mormon Pioneers reached Utah they held many important meetings. On March 10, 1849 the Constitution of State
of Deseret was adopted. On July 2, 1849 the
first meeting of the Assembly of the State of Deseret was held. On Feb. 28, 1850 the Univ. of Deseret was
founded. On March 13, 1850 Univ.
Regents selected the Campus of Deseret Univ. on the East Bench, some 500 acres
now occupied by the Univ. of Utah. On
Sept. 9, 1850 Utah was granted
Territorial Government. On Sept. 22,
1851 the first meeting of the
Territorial legislature was in session. On Oct. 4, 1851 the Utah
Legislature adopted all the laws of the Provisional State of Deseret.
1850 John
Hubbard Winterton and his wife Sarah Marriott Winterton and their two oldest
sons become L.D.S. converts and soon began to dream and plan of the time they
might go to Zion in North America and join the other Saints there in worship and
in living the new gospel. Many things
happened during the years that were to elapse between their conversion and
their arrival in Zion. They became the
parents of eight children, three of whom died in infancy, and the new church
that they had joined made many new converts and established its headquarters in
Utah in the Great Salt Lake City.
When missionaries (without
purse or script) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appeared in
the British Isles in the 1840-1850 decade and at the Winterton family home in Carlton,
Nottinghamshire, England, they undoubtedly told of the prophecy that had been
received by Joseph Smith in North America. They surely related the account of
the Angel Moroni appearing to him some 30 years prior on the night of September
21, 1823 in New York State and in North America. Saying that soon afterwards
men would dream dreams and see visions and there would come wonderful things
upon the earth such as mankind had never before seen. The Bible verses at Joel
Chapter 2 Verses 28-32 were said to have been the text of this message:
“And it shall come to
pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men
shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those
days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in
the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into
darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the
Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of
the Lord shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance
as the Lord hath said and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.”
What were some of these “wonderful
things”? must have been the question asked by our Winterton great grandparents.
The mechanical reaper patented in
America twenty years before in 1831 would be one of the answers: A marvelous
device that ended 5000 or so years of cutting grain with a hand scythe or
sickle. And of perhaps even more interest
to the Winterton womenfolk was the miraculous device that put a needle and
thread in a machine and eliminated the drudgery of hand sewing every garment
the family needed. Then both men and
women were now in the 1850
decade taking advantage of the steam powered railroad passenger and freight
service the slower oxcart and even the horse-drawn stage coach was being displaced
by a mechanical horse capable of achieving
previously undreamed of speeds. Had they
also heard of the new way of sending messages?
Words were put in a code and tapped out and sent by wires to people many
miles away in just minutes -- the wonders of telegraphy was no longer a dream. Had they heard that natural gas had been used
for illumination in Fredonia N.Y. on January 29, 1826?
Why hesitate? Here was proof that the messages received by
the prophet Joseph Smith were indeed inspired revelations from heavenly
Messengers. The prophecies and the
dreams and the visions actually came true. And still more were to come for God was pouring out his spirit to
give men the inspiration to change their lives not only in the use of these
material things but also in spiritual matters as well. The William Hubbard Winterton family believed
and were baptised and sought to follow the LDS gospel teachings.
They and their descendants
have seen the dreams and visions of men continue to come true with God’s
blessings for over a Century despite several world-wide wars, earthquakes,
famine and pestilence on various parts of the globe. They have seen the chain reaction which followed those early
beginnings just named. They have seen photography,
telephone, electricity, the automobile, airplane, radio, television, atomic power,
yes even missiles and space vehicles have been seen orbiting the earth in
minutes.
Whether the Mormon missionaries
and the Winterton family in Nottingham discussed other recent events on the
North American Continent we can only conjecture. Did they talk about the Lewis and Clark expedition that left the
Pacific Coast shore line near the Mouth of the Columbia River in March of 1806 to return to the young nation1s Capitol
with a report of their strange findings in the previously unexplored western
half of a continent? Did they talk of the fighting in Texas and the massacre at the Alamo on 6
March 1836?
Were they aware of the time
that it took to communicate between the Atlantic and Pacific coast areas of
North America? An example is the
anecdote told concerning Richard Henry Dana, a seaman and author of the popular
book “Two Years Before the Mast”, who sent a message from Monterey, California,
via horseback to Vera Cruz, Mexico, from there by boat to Boston, Massachusetts,
where it was received by the middle of March 1836 in only ten weeks elapsed time!
It was the fastest recorded
transcontinental communication in history of North America up to that time!
Perhaps the most
overpowering prospect or promise that influenced our Winterton ancestors back
there in the 1850 decade was the thought that the Bible verse at Deuteronomy 7:
6 was meant for them. It reads:
“For thou art an Holy
people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special
people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth”
The Mormon missionaries
surely explained that Moses had visited Joseph Smith only a few years before,
in 1836, and commissioned him to “gather Israel from the four parts of the
earth.” They must have believed, for a
powerful urge came over them. It was irresistible for they were willing --even
anxious -- to sever family ties, to leave acquaintances and familiar places, to
leave the community where their families had lived for generations. They must join that main body of Saints at
Nauvoo and later at Salt Lake. How many
times did they read those wonderful Bible verses ascribed to Jeremiah over 2500
years ago? The 31st chapter 6th-14th verse reads:
“For there shall be a
day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, arise ye, and let us
go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. For
thus saith the Lord; sing with Gladness for Jacob, and Shout among the chief of
the nations; publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the North
Country (surely this meant England), and gather them from the coasts of the
earth, and with them the blind and the lame,
the woman with child and her that travaleth with child together; A great company
shall return thither. They shall come with weeping and with supplications will
I lead them; I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, (the Wintertons walked
hundreds of miles westward along the Platte River) wherein they shall not
stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born. Hear the word of the Lord, O Ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, he that
scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the
hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion (Salt
Lake City, Utah is almost a mile above sea level), and shall flow together to
the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the
young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered
garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old
together; for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and
make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of
the priests with fatness and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
saith the Lord.”
The Winterton Pioneers were
privileged to live out their life span and see many of the prophecies of Isaiah
literally unfold before their own eyes and the eyes of their children in far
greater profusion than the missionaries had ever suggested. Surely the dreams and visions of those
ancient prophets were inspired of a kind
and loving Father in Heaven. Did not
the desert wilderness yield to their efforts and husbandship and “Blossom as
the Rose” as foretold in Isaiah 35:1?
1851 On
the 4th of September Thomas Winterton, son of William Hubbard and
Sarah Marriott Winterton, was born at Nottingham. He was destined to come to Utah 18 years later on the railroad
instead of by the covered wagon train as his father and brothers did six years earlier.
1849- 1854 According
to Vol. 20 (1952) of the Utah Historical
Quarterly, The Perpetual Emigration Fund was founded by the Mormon Church in
1849. All or part of European emigrants
expenses could be paid by the fund with the understanding that those so
benefited would reimburse the society as soon as they were able. By 1854 it is reported that 6800 pounds had
been used to emigrate 1700 people. After 1853 a plan was developed where
Mormons with limited funds could pay 13 pounds at Liverpool and receive transportation
to Salt Lake. A publication
which William Hubbard and Sarah Winterton very likely read carefully and
joyously was distributed in Great Britain during the 1850 decade. It read:
“The channel of Saints
Emigration to the Land of Zion is now opened. The long wished for time of Gathering has come. Good Tidings from Mt. Zion! The resting place of Israel for the last days
has been discovered.”
By December 1860 over
29,000 Mormon converts had sailed from England and the Wintertons -- father and
two sons -- were soon to swell the growing number!
While the Forty-niners
pushed through Utah on their way to the California gold fields they traded much
of their merchandise to the people in the early Mormon settlements for
livestock and farm crops. This
increased encroachment of the whites displaced the Ute Indians from their
accustomed hunting trails, their favorite fishing places and their special
pasture grounds. Then in 1852 the new
Utah territorial legislature outlawed the Indian slave trade with the Mexican
silver mines and ranches. This and
perhaps other fancied or real grievances against the whites led to the Utah Indian
wars; the Walker War of 1853-54, Tintic War 1856 and the longer Black Hawk War
of 1865-68 in which John and William Winterton participated.
1853 On
26 of December 1853 a baby was born to William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott Winterton
at Nottingham, England; it lived only a few minutes and died before being
named.
1854 The
Crimean War began.
1855 On
30 December Hyrum Winterton was born. This child of William Hubbard and Sarah
Marriott Winterton lived less than four weeks. He died 24 Jan. 1856. Britain in war with China.
Originally, Utah includes
much more territory than her present boundaries which were fixed when she
became a state sixty-eight years ago.
Utah Territory 1856
The Provisional State of
Deseret (“Deseret” a Book of Mormon word meaning “honey bee” and symbolizing
industry) included in addition to present day Utah: parts of Idaho, Wyoming,
Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and even a few miles of Southern
California seacoast. Various acts of
the U. S. Congress reduced these far flung areas to the present boundaries.
In addition to its present
29 counties, Utah also had ten other counties mostly in the 1850 decade: St.
Marys, Humbolt, Rio Virgin, Green River, Shambip, Greasewood, Cedar, Little
Salt Lake, Carson and Desert. The early
day map of Utah on an adjoining
page show some of these pioneer county boundaries.
14 May 1856 the
first camels were imported to travel the South West deserts with burdens of
freight for the mines, army and coast areas.
16 Sept. 1856 The
Mountain Meadow Massacre of 120 California immigrants occurred near St. George,
Utah.
1857 On
the 13th of February 1857 the eighth child of William Hubbard Winterton and Sarah
Marriott was born. Their second
daughter was named Sarah. E. G. Otis
installed the first practical elevator for passenger service in New York City.
1857-58 The
Winterton family was still in England when the so-called “Utah War” caused some
30,000 Mormons to be evacuated from the Salt Lake Valley before Johnston’s Army
marched through to establish camp Floyd in Cedar Valley a few miles west of
Lehi. The Army remained until 1861
buying food and supplies at good prices and hiring many of the local workers.
Then when they left, their surplus supplies and equipment, most of which had
been freighted west from the Mississippi at considerable cost, were sold to the
Mormon settlers at a few cents on the dollar.
15 Sept. 1858 the
first of the Butterfield overland Mail Stage coaches began its 24 day 2800 mile
journey between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, California.
11 June 1859 the
famous Com stock Silver Lode was discovered in Nevada about that same time
across the continent at Titusville, Pennsylvania America’s first oil well was
brought in and at Chicago a cabinetmaker named Pullman converted a railroad
coach into a bedroom on wheels to eventually change the travel habits of the
nation.
1859 the year that the Charlestown area saw
the temporary camp of surveyors Charles Shelton and Alex Wilkins of Provo as
they made field notes concerning the topography of the Upper Provo River and
Wasatch Valley area. This was also the
year that the first known crops were planted by white men -- a small acreage of
grain that was entirely lost to heavy frost. The land claims were made by George Noakes, William and Freeman
Manning.
1860 Saw
the first crude log cabin and
some corrals built near where the town of Charleston is now situated. More settlers came with their families and
livestock and successfully harvested crops of grain and hay.
15 April 1861 President
Abraham Lincoln declared a state of Civil War which was to continue for four years
during which time the three Wintertons came to Utah. Also in 1861 on the 22nd day of May the much publicized
Pony Express was regularly inaugurated between Denver and California Gulch; and
on the 24th of October the telegraph line was completed across the Continent
and joined the two American continental coast lines, the Atlantic and Pacific. Another first for the years.
1862 a
detachment of Federal troops under Col. Connor founded Fort Douglas at the
mouth of Emigration Canyon on the Salt Lake East Bench. Lacking other assignments his troops were
encouraged to prospect in the surrounding hills for minerals, and were largely
responsible for the later mining boom.
1862 Mormon
Church authorities in Great Salt Lake City sent a message:
To all the Saints in
England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and adjacent countries we say: ‘emigrate as
speedily as possible … bring with you all kinds of choice seeds … of grain,
vegetables, fruit, shrubbery and trees to cheer the soul of man; also the best tools
of every description … and machinery for spinning, weaving, dressing cotton, wool,
flax and silk, etc … or models and descriptions of the same by which you can construct
them … such as corn shellers, grain threshers and cleaners … smut machines,
mills and every implement and article within your knowledge that shall tend to
promote the comfort, health, happiness and prosperity of any people.
1862 The
homesteading of land along the Provo River in the Wasatch Valley was opened by
the government this year.
1862 Early
in this year (January or February) the Utah Territorial Legislature created Wasatch
County out of portions of Salt Lake and Utah County. About 1000 persons were
then residing in the new area which included Charleston.
3 March
1862 The first county
road was established in Wasatch County starting southwest of Charleston and
running in a North-Westerly direction following the old immigrant trail terminating
at Ross Summit (Hailstone) on the Northern County boundary.
1863 This
was the year of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and his Emancipation Proclamation freeing
the slaves.
1863 It
was in 1863 that their long cherished dream became a reality and the three
Wintertons were aboard the sailing vessel “John J. Boyd” in the Liverpool,
England harbor and with other Mormon converts on their way to Zion in the Valleys of the Mountains of North
America.
1864 The
Great Salt Lake of the
intermountain United States has been described as a remnant puddle of the once
enormous Lake Bonneville. Fresh water Utah Lake some forty miles to the south is another fossil remnant of
geological time with drainage into the lower elevation to the north where
evaporation effects a super saturation of all the minerals carried down from
the surrounding higher elevations.
Before ancient Lake Bonneville found an outlet through
Red Rock Pass in Northern Cache Valley and escaped via the Snake and Columbia
Rivers to the Pacific Ocean, it covered much of the area that has been called
the Great Basin. It was about 350 miles
in length and 150 miles wide and over a thousand feet deep in some places. Its terraces are still to be seen along the
western slope of the Wasatch Mountains.
The Great Basin, and Utah
in particular, has about 97 acres of wasteland to every three that are tillable.
The small habitable valleys are
isolated between interminable strings of arid, barren rocky mountains and sandy
dry wastelands where even sagebrush has a hard time to live and where now (1963)
salt flats provide the land areas needed for “Bombing Range Sites” and “Race
Car Speed Trials.”
The Great Basin --The Zion
of the Winterton and other Latter-day Saints in 1863 -- the Valleys in the Tops
of the Mountains -- was formed by what geologists call the Cascade Disturbance.
It created the Wasatch and Rocky
Mountains and lifted the Plateau area of Southeastern Utah many hundreds of
feet above sea level. This rock wasteland
is a terrible and at the same time beautiful spectrum of color -- immense,
lonely and empty -- changing each hour as light and shadow vary with the earth’s
rotation.
The thousands of feet of
rock buckled into the air is sculptured by sandblast and wind and an infrequent
gully washing thunder shower. Its hundreds
of miles of meandering cliffs are carved and broken and split by deep narrow
canyons -- too wide to jump across and too long to go around -- even scientific
engineering investigation and survey have found only a very few places for highway
and railroad to cross the Colorado River and traverse the Southeastern Utah
area.
This is the area that
Brigham Young hoped no one would want and that Daniel Webster orated against
adding to the U.S. This was the
Mormons’ sanctuary, this was the refuge from the sinful world, this was Zion in
the tops of the mountains. This was the
country that our Winterton ancestors immigrated to one hundred years ago.
John Winterton, William
Winterton, George Noakes, (John’s future father-in-law) John Eldrige, David
Walker, George Giles, Joe Taylor, Stan Davis, Joe Bagley, Finity Daybell,
Manuel Richman, George Simmons, Ether Davies, Joe Nelson, Isaac Brown, Dave
Young and Eli Gordon were among the first to file on the land.
17 December 1864 The
marriage ceremony of William Hubbard Winterton and Elizabeth Hughes in Salt
Lake City, Utah Territory was performed this date.
1865 The
United States Civil War came to an end and President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated
in April of 1865.
1866 On
27 July 1866 the first submarine telegraph cable was laid across the Atlantic
joining the U.S. with Europe in a new and faster means of communication. This same year in September the first
keyopening tin cans were patented in the U.S.A. and expedited the storage of foodstuffs and facilitated ready
access to their contents. This was the
year of the Utah Black Hawk Indian War with the Winterton brothers participating.
As the Indian trouble subsided the families
moved back to the lands around Charleston and cared for crops and cattle
continuing to build their homes and farms.
1869 Copper
outcroppings had been discovered by the Bingham brothers in 1850 in the Oquirrah
mountains on the southwest side of the Salt Lake Valley. Iron mining and smelting had been tried near
Cedar City as early as 1852-53 and lead mining and smelting in Beaver County in
1858. But it was not until the coming
of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 that large scale mineral development
took place which was to furnish employment to many of the pioneers’ descendants.
The Silver Lead-Zinc
Deposits were discovered at Park City in 1869 and these were in particular only
a couple of hours horseback ride over the hill from Midway and charleston a
ready market appeared there for farm
produce raised in Wasatch County and hauled via team-and wagon within a one-day
trip.
Tom and Ann Winterton
emigrate from Nottingham to Utah.
Other 1869 mineral
(Silver-Lead-Zinc-Gold) discoveries were at Eureka, Utah, The Tintic District
and at Mercur and Ophir. The 1870’s saw
the fabulous Silver Reef west of St. George, Utah and the Horn Silver at Frisco
in Millard County.
Coal was discovered in
Carbon County (about this same time). A colony had settled at Price in Carbon
county as early as 1858. It was greatly
strengthened in 1877 and subsequently.
A group of American women
formed the National Woman Suffrage Association in the year 1869 with the avowed
purpose of securing the ballot for women by amending the United States Constitution
but, for the next few years, the Winterton women in Utah -- Elizabeth, Ann,
Emma and Ellen -- were more concerned with the day to day struggle for bread
and clothing and the care of their
little ones and husbands.
1869 the
Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad joined their rails at Promontory,
Utah on May 10, 1869. With railroad transportation
assured coast to coast, Utah’s economy and the Winterton Pioneers were certain of
future success and prosperity.
1870 The
next year saw the first railroad cars of refrigerated fresh meat shipped by the
founder of Swift Co. and women were given the right to vote in Utah. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern in
Chicago on the evening of Oct. 8, 1871- when the flames died down over 17,000 buildings
had been destroyed, 250 people killed, and the estimated loss was almost
$200,000,000.
1870 On
the 10th of December Sarah Ellen Winterton was born, daughter of
William and Ellen W. Winterton. There
were now about fifteen families and no matches in the valley near Charleston so
the family to raise a smoke from their chimney in the morning was sure to have
a caller with a fire shovel for a start of “live coals” so their breakfasts
could be cooked.
1871 On
Nov. 10, 1871 explorers Stanley and Livingston met in Central Africa.
1871 Two
grandchildren were born this year to William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott
Winterton on 18 Jan. 1871 John Eugene Winterton, son of John M. and Emma
Winterton; on 9 May 1871 Sarah
Ann, daughter of Ann Winterton and George W. Noakes Jr.
1872 On
9 Oct. 1872 Eliza Ann, daughter
of William and Ellen Winterton was born. Also that same year on 11 Nov. 1872 Sarah Sophia, daughter of John
M. and Emma Noakes Winterton was born.
1873 Rosetta
Noakes was born on 23 April, daughter
of Ann Winterton and George W. Noakes Jr. Charleston was surveyed to include 20 blocks each with four lots,
streets were 6 rods wide.
2 May 1873 the
Deseret News published at Salt Lake this date contained an article in which Nymphas
C. Murdock of Charlestown was quoted as saying there were 24 families living in
that community, that considerable land was still available for preempting, a
brick meetinghouse was under construction, he -- Murdock- -- was conducting a small co-operative
store re-exchanging produce in other markets, and that a U. S. post office
would soon be established.
1873 A one room frame schoolhouse was built in Charleston. Utah and John
Brown was the teacher. Tuition
was $1.00 a month paid for by eggs, butter, vegetables, hay or anything the parents
could spare and Mr. Brown could use.
1874 On
9 June Eliza Ann was born
daughter of John M. and Emma Winterton; also William Heber Winterton was born on 4 Oct 1874, son of William and
Ellen W. Winterton.
1874 Chewing
gum had been patented for five
years now. Its discovery was claimed by an Ohio man, William Semple .
1875 On
1 Feb Anne Noakes was born, daughter of Ann Winterton and George W. Noakes Jr. Later that same month her mother
Ann Winterton Noakes died on Feb 26th.
25 June 1876 In
Montana another tragedy -- General Custer’s 7th Cavalry force of 276 soldiers were massacred
at the Little Big Horn River by Indians .
1875 John
and William Winterton helped construct the Upper Charleston Canal and organize the
company which operated the first irrigation system in that area.
1876 John
Joseph Winterton was born on the 31st of August 1876, son of William
and Ellen Winterton. Emma Winterton was
born 2 Dec 1876, daughter of John M. and Emma Winterton. Also
1876 saw the 100th Anniversary of this nation’s Independence. Also on 10 March 1876 the first sentence was
spoken and under stood on Alexander Graham Bell’s new telephone. City and intercity exchanges grew rapidly,
then in a few years interstate exchanges. On 24 December 1876 Sarah Winterton married Arthur Parker at
Nottingham.
1877 Winterton
pioneers and all other members of the LDS Church were saddened by the death of
their church President Brigham Young that year. This was the year that the Charleston LDS Ward was organized with Nymphus C. Murdock
as first Bishop.
1878 George
William Winterton, son of John M. and Emma W., was born 5 July 1878. Hyrum Shurtleff Winterton, son of William
and Ellen W. was born 16 Aug 1878
and the Parkers in England had twins, one died at birth, and John William
Parker was born 8 Feb 1878.
1878 saw
bottled milk delivered in New York City; a mail order house started its
successful business in Chicago and a dime store chain was originated in New
York City. The first telephone switchboard
was used commercially this year.
1879 Eliza
Ann Parker, daughter of Sarah Winterton and Arthur Parker, and 16th grandchild
of William Hubbard Winterton, was born 30 Dec 1879 at Nottingham, England.
1870 The
decade was the scene of Thomas Edison’s triumphant electrical achievements – the
invention of the mimeograph, phonograph and the electric light; on the 3rd
day of Dec. 1881 the first streets were lighted by electricity in Philadelphia,
Penn.
1880 was
the year of the first electric lights in Utah. Also it was the year that the first meat market was opened at
Charleston, Utah. The seventeenth and
eighteenth grandchildren of William H. were born this year. Ralph Stafford Winterton, son of William and
Ellen W., was born 27 Sept 1880. Joseph Winterton, son of John M. and Emma W.,
was born on 4 Dec 1880. The first telephone
exchange in Utah was at Ogden in Sept. 1880. No longer could one sit in their 1850 bath tub without the
telephone ringing !
1882 The
U. S. Congress passed the Edmunds Anti-polygamy Law (which was added to in
1887). Moroni Winterton, son of William and Ellen W. was born at Charleston,
Utah on 28 Sept.
1883 This
was the year that the U.S. Civil
Service Commission was first established. Also on the 6th of February Hyrum Winterton, son of John
M. and Emma W., was born at Charleston, Utah.
1884 The
baby born to William and Ellen Winterton on the 26th of October
lived such a short time that a name was not given. Fred Parker, son of Sarah Winterton and Arthur Parker, was born at
Nottingham, England 3 Nov 1884. The first blacksmith shop in Charleston, Utah was opened this year.
1885 First
appendectomy in medical history performed in which the patient made a complete recovery.
1885 David
Winterton, son of John M. and Emma,
was born at Charleston, Utah 5 Oct 1885.
First electric street railway operated on streets of Baltimore,
Maryland, U.S.A. on Aug. 10, 1885.
1886 Thomas
Frederick Winterton was born on 14 Aug 1886 at Charleston.
14 Feb. 1886 the first train load shipment of
oranges from Los Angeles, California went to Eastern States and started the
citrus fruit industry. In June of that year the incorporation of national labor
organizations was made legal.
1887 Rose
Anna Winterton, daughter of John M. and Emma W. was born 29 May. The Statue of
Liberty on Bedloes Island, New York was unveiled on Oct. 28, 1887.
1888 Alice
Malissa Winterton was born 21 July 1888, daughter of William and
Ellen Winterton.
1888 The
Charleston Lower Canal Irrigation system was completed and put to use in June
1888.
1889
Henry Winterton was born 2 Dec 1889, son of John M. and Emma W. of Charleston. On 8 March
1889 Ellen Nellie Widdison Winterton, wife of William Winterton, died at
Charleston, Utah. Elizabeth Hughes Winterton, second wife of William H. died on
19 Sept 1889 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
1890
L.D.S. President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto in 1890 ending the
practice of Polygamy as an official Mormon doctrine (during the previous decade
thousands of Mormons had been disenfranchised, prosecuted and imprisoned, the
Church disincorporated with much of its property confiscated). During the early 1890 decade many former
Polygamists were pardoned and their Civil rights restored, also the Church
property was returned. Some of the
Mormons, however, who had fled to Mexico and Canada remained there. Ellis
Island opened as Immigration Depot and Castle Gardens closed on Dec. 31, 1890. Also in 1890 newspaper reporter Nellie Bly
raced around the world in 72
days 6 hours and 11 minutes to set a new world’s record for traveling. The United Mine workers labor Union was
organized in 1890.
1890 William
Hubbard Winterton died on 16 March 1890 and was buried in the Salt Lake
Cemetery. He had lived in the Valley
for his last 26 years and at Carlton, Nottingham, England the first 47 years of his life. The obituary notice in the Deseret Evening
newspaper of 17 March 1890 is on microfilm and at the L.D.S. Church Historian’s
Office.
1891 It
was on the 10th of February 1891 that Robert F. Winterton was born, the eleventh child of John M. and Emma W.
and the 28th grandchild of
William H. Winterton. Also in 1891 Edison
applied for a motion picture talking machine patent. The American Baseball League completed its first year of
competition games.
1893 Isabella
Winterton was born 17 Feb 1893, the youngest child of John M. and Emma Winterton
of Charleston, Utah.
1893 Carrie
Elizabeth Winterton was born at Charleston 5 May 1893, the daughter of William and
Jane Steadman Winterton. Duryea
brothers operate first American gasoline buggy successfully -- the inventors aren’t sure whether it was in 1892 or 1893.
1894 This
was the year of the Chinese - Japanese war in which Japan gained Formosa and other
territory. Jacob S. Coxey
led “army”“ of 20,000 unemployed from the Midwest to Washington, D.C. to get
jobs. Diesel engine invented this year.
A
creamery was built at Charleston this year by George Daybell which soon
had seven wagons employed in the transporting of milk from local farms.
1895 Nettie
Rachel Winterton was born at Charleston 7 May 1895, daughter of William and Jane Steadman Winterton. W. K. Roentgen, a German
physicist and Nobel Prize winner, discovered the X-Ray in 1895.
1896 The
first wireless patent was granted by Great Britain to Marconi on June 2, 1896. Finally, after several abortive attempts, Utah was admitted as
the 45th state of the Union
on Jan. 4, 1896 when President Grover Cleveland signed the Congressional
Document admitting Utah to statehood in the United States of America. This was the year that William H., Fred,
Moroni Winterton and others organized the. Charleston Harmonica and Brass Bands
which serenaded the townspeople
on the Fourth and Twenty-fourth of July holidays.
1897 Edward
Marriott Winterton was born at Charleston, Utah on 16 Sept 1897, the son of William
and Jane Steadman Winterton.
1898 Hawaii
annexed by U.S.
Eugene V. Debs formed the Socialist party in the U.S.A. on Feb.
15, 1898. The Battleship Maine blew up
in Cuban waters with a loss of some 260 officers and men, and a few weeks later
we were in war with Spain. Com. Dewey
was in charge of the U.S. fleet. It was
this same year that radium was discovered at Paris, France by Pierre Curie and
his wife, also the year that Greater New York City was established of five
boroughs.
1899 This
was the year that on February 6 the
peace treaty with Spain and the United States was ratified by the Congress. The Filipino insurrection and the Boer (South
Africa war) also occurred in 1899. Charleston,
Utah became an incorporated place on 30 Dec 1899. Also on September sixth of that year at 2:00 P.M. saw the first
steam engine, and six passenger cars of people from Provo, arrive at the new
railroad station.
1900 On
the 10th of October 1900 Valeo James Winterton was born at
Charleston, Utah, the 14th child of William Winterton and the 33rd
grandchild of William Hubbard and Sarah Marriott Winterton. His grandfather had been dead for some ten
years but his grandmother would live another sixteen months and know of her 33 grandchildren and several great
grandchildren.
1900 The
Boxer insurrection took place in China and Carrie Nation, Kansas Anti-Saloon agitator
began raiding bars with a hatchet. The campaign to wipe out yellow fever got
underway. U.S. President William McKinley was shot while attending the
Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, New York. Upon his death, 14 Sept. 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became our 26th
President.
1901 On
Feb 17th Charleston Ward called William Daybell as its second Bishop.
1902 Sarah
Marriott Winterton, first wife of William Hubbard Winterton, died at
Nottingham, England on 19 February 1902.
On May 8th Mt. Pelee erupted with an active volcano
destroying St. Pierre Martinique with the loss of some 30,000 lives. The Republic of Cuba was inaugurated May 20th.
The First International Court opened at
The Hague, Holland in October, and the first radio message was sent on Dec. 21,
1902.
1903 The
first successful automobile trip across the United States was completed,
leaving San Francisco on May 23rd. The auto and its two drivers reached New York City on August 1st. Henry Ford organized the Ford Motor Company.
1903 The
Wright Brothers flew the first airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on Dec. 17,
1903.
1904 Many
people claim this was the year that the ice cream cone we know so well was “invented”
at St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. The Panama
Canal Treaty with the New Republic of Panama was ratified by the Senate on Feb.
4, 1904. The New York subway was opened.
1905 Russo-Japanese
War started Feb. 6, 1904; peace treaty in U.S.A. Sept. 5, 1905.
1906 The
San Francisco earthquake and fire occurred some 800-900 miles west of the
Winterton home in Charleston, Utah on April 18-19, 1906 with a property loss of
over $350,000,000. There were 452
people reported to have been killed. Norway
became a separate kingdom.
1907 is
to be remembered for the financial panic that occurred then affecting
Wintertons and all other Utahans and Americans.
1908 The
Winterton Progeny were growing rapidly in numbers as the state and nation moved
into the age of the Auto with
Henry Ford’s first successful run in his “horseless carriage” at Detroit,
Michigan on June 4, 1896. Over 4000 such
vehicles were built in 1900 and by 1908 there were 622 autos and trucks
licensed to operate by just the State of Utah alone.
1909 The
North Pole was discovered by Admiral Peary, who planted the United States flag
there on 6 April. John William Parker
died in England.
1910 On the 29th
day of December John Marriott Winterton died at Charleston, Utah, leaving two
surviving brothers and a sister.
1911 Boy
Scouts of America was formed by the joining of two earlier organizations -- Woodcraft
Indians and Sons of Daniel Boone. How many hundreds of the Winterton progeny have been members in the past fifty years is
not known! Capt. Amundsen discovered
the South Pole on Dec. 14, 1911.
1912 China
became a republic on Feb. 12,
1912. The
Titantic (cost $7,500,000) sank in collision with an iceberg; loss of life,
some 1500 people. Camp Fire Girls
incorporated this same year. Revolutions
in Mexico; General Pershing sent there in March 1916.
6 April 1917 U.S. declared war on Germany.
Peace treaty signed 11 A.M. Nov.
11, 1918.
1918 On
the 10th of June Thomas Winterton died at Charleston, Utah leaving a
surviving brother and sister. Also in
1918 on February 24th Moroni Winterton was sustained as Second
Counselor to the new Bishop of the L.D.S.
Charleston Ward, J. M. Ritchie.
1921 The
first airplane to land in Wasatch County was flown by Lt. R. L. Maughan. Schools were closed so the
children could watch the Dehaviland flying machine take off from the Clyde farm
pasture.
1923 First
talking pictures demonstrated.
1924 On
7 May of this year Fanny Boardman Winterton, widow of Tom Winterton, died at Charleston, Utah.
1925 On
the 7th of October George Washington Noakes, husband of Ann Winterton 1849-1875
died at his Charleston home.
1926
David Cluff, second husband of Sarah Winterton Parker, died at Provo.
1927 Lindberg
flies non-stop in 33½ hours from New York to Paris, a distance of 3600 miles alone
in a monoplane.
1928 On
the 27th of December Sarah Winterton Parker died at Charleston, Utah
leaving one surviving brother.
1929 On
the 14th of September 1929 William Winterton died at Charleston,
Utah, the last survivor of the Pioneer Winterton family who emigrated from
Nottingham in 1863. Stock market crash
year. Many Americans lose life savings.
1933 The
Depression year -- for some of the Wintertons and many thousands of their
fellow Americans. On 10 July 1933 Emma
Inkpen Noakes Winterton, widow of John Marrio tt Winterton, died in Salt Lake
City.
1936 On
Feb. 16 Bishop W. C. Whiting of the Charleston
L.D.S. Church chose Heber R. Winterton as one of his counselors.
1943 On
the 25th of February Jane Steadman Winterton, widow of William
Winterton, died at Charleston.
1963 Today
-- 100 years after William Hubbard and his sons John and William Winterton
arrived in Utah -- your guess is as good as mine, but I would venture to say
that the descendants of the Winterton Pioneers own (in partnership with the
finance companies) over 1,000 autos with television sets, radios, electrical
appliances and other modern conveniences in the same profusion.
Would not the people of the
1850’s have considered these “wonderful things” beyond the reach of the most
vivid human imagination, inspiration or dream? And yet we who have lived in the 20th Century have
experienced even more wonders, such
as around the world airplane flights and more recently manned orbital space
missiles circling the globe in a matter of minutes and more than a dozen times
a day.
Some thirty years after
Joseph Smith was reportedly visited by Moses and commissioned to gather Israel
from the four parts of the world we find the three members of the Pioneer
Winterton family in Salt Lake City in 1864 with some fifty or sixty thousand
others, singing from the heights of Zion “just as Jeremiah had prophesied at
the 31st Chapter and 12th Bible verse.”
Did not the missionary
preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from America point
to the 7th verse of the same chapter for their message text “Shout
among the chief of the nations, publish ye, praise ye, and say O’ Lord save my people the remnant of
Israel”? Yes Great Britain was one of
the World’s Chief nations in the 1840 decade and the Wintertons wanted to be God’s
people.
The 8th verse reads “Behold
I will bring them from the North Country … and a great Company shall return
thither.” The William Hubbard Winterton
Family was in the great Company that gathered at Utah and at the Temple in the
Great Salt Lake City. Certainly they
must have been of Ephriam’s branch of the House of Israel for they answered the
call to “Gather to Zion” in the Rocky mountains.
Verse 9 “They shall come with weeping and supplications”
…Recall with me those terrible days at Nauvoo in 1844 the martyrdom of the Prophet
Joseph and his brother Hyrum Smith. Then
in 1846 the forced evacuation of the saints from their homes and escape from the violent mobs across the February ice on the frozen Mississippi River,
nomadic wandering until they
could cross the plains. Certainly there was hardships, hunger and
privation, prayer, humbleness and weeping -- yes much sorrow but happiness too in
reaching the valley.
Verse 9 continues “I will
cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way wherein they shall
not stumble.” They walked father and two
sons of the Winterton family much of the 600
miles westward along the North Platte River and into the Rocky Mountains.
Verse 12 … “And they shall
not sorrow any more … for the wheat and wine and oil … and water (and verse 13)
… will satiate the soul … and my people shall be satisfied.” The
Wintertons planted crops and harvested them; they raised cattle; they planted
trees and ate their fruit and sat in their shade. They built homes and married and lived in the homes and reared
children and worshiped in the new land. The Winterton Pioneers were fed full with blessings and testified
of their gratitude for that fact in many public meetings.
Isaiah many thousands of
years ago foresaw that God would do a “new thing.” Let us read again the 43rd chapter of Isaiah 19th
and 20th verse “I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers
in the desert. There was a “way” made
in the wilderness -- a new way of living and farming. Were not the first Utah pioneers inspired to
irrigate their late crops? And did not each group that pushed forward
the frontiers create rivers of water across the dry dusty desert? Yes the irrigation ditches across the parched
wilderness were rivers in the desert -- a new thing for the Winterton pioneers
from textile mills of Nottingham.
The 41st Chapter
and 18th verse reads “I will
open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of valleys I will make a
pool of water in the wilderness and springs of water in the dry land.” What an apt and correct description of the
Utah irrigation systems built by the pioneers and their descendants. Picture the gates of the 6000 foot elevation mountain valley
reservoirs being raised on a hot summer day and the impounded waters from
melting mountain snow and ice rushing downstream. What are these but “Rivers in High Places”?
Have you ever seen an
artesian well drilled in the valley floor going down through dry earth, sand
rock etc? Then the water gushing up and
soaking the parched land so that seed and plants and trees soon flourished. What are these but “fountains in the valley”?
Yes the pioneers certainly created pools
of water in the Utah wilderness and springs of water in the dry land of many counties
of the intermountain west. A census of irrigation
conducted in 1959 by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce’s Bureau of
Census reports that 3,000,000
acre feet of irrigation water was delivered to 43,000 Utah farms that
year.
Surely
the Utah desert places in the wilderness have blossomed like a rose as a result of the work of the pioneer
Wintertons, their descendants and contemporary Latter-day “Israelite” pioneers from
many chief Nations.
Biography of William Hubbard Winterton
and his first wife Sarah
Marriott (they were married 24 Oct 1842 at Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Eng.) and his second
wife Elizabeth Hughes (they were
married 17 Dec 1864 at Salt Lake City
Williarn Hubbard
Winterton
born 26 June 1816
in England
died 16 March 1890
at Salt Lake City,
Utah, U.S.A.
Sarah Marriott
born 14 February 1824
died 19 February 1902
at Nottingham, England
The
name of William Hubbard Winterton did not come to my attention until the latter
part of the 1950 decade. When Viola and
I married in 1933 I knew her mother’s maiden name was Isabella Winterton and
rather vaguely that her grandfather, dead for some twenty years at that time,
was named John Winterton. I am sure
that her great grandfather’s name was not in our conversations then or for
quite some time later.
While visiting some cousins
late in the 1950 decade, we were shown a partially completed progenitor’s chart
with his name among other ancestors. The story of his two sons being early converts
and among the pioneer arrivals to Utah and in particular at Charleston in
Wasatch County was clear. But less was known about great grandfather William
Hubbard Winterton’s activities.
The book “Pioneers and
Prominent Men of Utah” written some fifty years ago by Frank Essholm was found
to contain on page #1256 a brief biographical statement indicating that great grandfather
was a convert in 1850 of the Mormon missionaries and had served as a home
missionary and teacher in England; that after coming to Utah in 1863 he
obtained employment as a Tollgate Keeper in Parley’s Canyon and died in Salt
Lake City in 1890.
The Salt Lake Genealogical
Society’s Library supplied some more research material in the form of cemetery
records. They would show the exact date of death or burial. The microfilmed
index encouraged me to look further; it showed great grandfather had purchased
by deed #991 (register A44) grave space in Plot B, Block 9 in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Looking further in the Salt
Lake Cemetery Records (handwritten entries preserved on microfilm tape), I
discovered the entry #10055 “buried Elizabeth Hughes Winter ton, wife
of William Hubbard Winterton, died 19 September 1889, in Platt B lot 9.” Their
residence and church membership was shown as in the 21st Ward in
Salt Lake City.
Six months later the same
record shows William Hubbard Winterton died and was buried at the same place. His entry is #1442 and shows the exact date of death as 16 March 1890. A book
on the shelves of this same reference library (catalogue # Utah S3) records on
page #1615 about the same information. Also
that Elizabeth Hughes Winterton (wife of “Wm. H.”) was born in England 30
August 1817 and that “Wm. H.” was seventy-three years old when he died.
Recently I was privileged
to become acquainted with and to read Hyrum Shurtliff Winterton’s memoirs and
history of his father’s family. His account
of the family’s trip to Salt Lake City and his recollections of a visit to his
grandfather which occurred some seventy years ago is excellent reading. The small boy, his two brothers, and possibly
his sister, too, were caught raiding their grandpa’s strawberry patch with dire
results. Possibly the old gentleman
didn’t mind the young uns eating a few of the nice ripe berries, but he sure
hated to see the whole patch tramped over, the green berries mashed and the new
runners bruised so bad they wouldn’t take root!
“Aunt Bessie” had a kind
word and listened attentively when the small boy told of the wonderful and
exciting sights he had seen on
the trip from Charleston -- a real honest to goodness steam engine and a long
train of freight cars -- and those high wheeled bicycles the big boys and men
rode about the streets of the City -- why didn’t they tip over? He had never before seen such strange things;
it wasn’t a bit like the farm life of the 1880s that he was used to up in
Charleston.
Hyrum’s account indicates
that great grandfather William Hubbard Winterton never returned the visit. For that matter he never was in Wasatch
County before or after his son William and family made their visit in 1883.
That was apparently the last time they saw each other for seven years later
both he and “Aunt Bessie” were dead.
The Ward Records of the
Salt Lake City 21st Ward of the LDS Church were my next source of
biographical information. They reported
that great grandfather William Hubbard Winterton was first baptized by LDS Missionary W. Clayton and confirmed
by W. Brewerton on 6 Jan 1850 in Nottinghamshire, England. He was re-baptized in Great Salt Lake City,
Utah Territory of the United States of America on 26 Nov 1864 by R. Ramsey and
reconfirmed 27 Nov 1864 by John Hall. He
married Elizabeth Hughes on 17 December 1864 in Salt Lake City.
On 7 April 1851 Wm. H. was ordained a preacher by T. W.
Brewerton. On 5 June 1853. Wm. H. was
ordained a priest. Elizabeth Hughes Winterton’s
entry on the 21st Ward microfilm record shows she was re-baptized
about 1866 by Bishop John Sharp (in Salt Lake City) and that her parents were
Joseph and Elizabeth Hughes. The spaces
to show from which ward they had been received were blank. She was
born in England and emigrated to Utah in 1856.
Elizabeth Hughes sailed
from England to America on the vessel “Samuel Cowling” embarking 19 April 1856
according to the Emigration Card Catalog in the LDS Genealogical Library in
Salt Lake City. She crossed the plains in “Bunkers” Company leaving Council Bluffs
(or Florence, Iowa) on 23 June
1856. Apparently Elizabeth Hughes
unmarried at age 38 had insufficient
funds or resources to make the journey. As an LDS Convert, she applied for and received help from the
Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company. She was
still indebted to this Fund some 21 years later as a book published in
1877 by the “Star Book & Job Publishing Company” of Salt Lake City lists
her name. The list of “Persons and
Sureties indebted to the
Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company from 1850 to 1877 Inclusive” is authorized by
that company’s officers: President Albert Carrington, Secretary Robert R.
Anderson and Treasurer Edward Hunter.
No Winterton name is found
in this list, which indicates that William Hubbard, John M., William, Thomas and Ann Winterton’
s emigration fares and expenses were paid for in cash or if they received an
advance from the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company the amount had been repaid
in full before 1877. The names of five Widdison
girls, all friends and neighbors of the Wintertons, Sarah J., Mary Ann,
Elizabeth, Eliza A. and Ellen,
were on the 1877 list.
The Salt Lake City 21st
Ward, now of the Ensign Stake, was organized 5 July 1877 and detached from the
20th Ward which in turn had been organized in 1856 to include all
who lived north and east of “A” Street
and South Temple Street in the Salt Lake Stake of Zion. The 21st Ward
boundaries were west “H” Street, east “M”
Street, north 7th Ave. and south South Temple Street. It appears that they had been members of the
20th Ward before the transfer in 1877, but I did not find their
names when I viewed that microfilm tape, probably because it was faded and
partly illegible.
Great grandfather William
Hubbard Winterton worked as a Tollgate Keeper in Parley’s Canyon. On Page 194 of Heart Throbs of the West
by Mrs. Kate B. Carter, published in 1939 by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers
we read:
“From the very
beginning of the settlement of Utah it was the people who paid for the
improvement and construction of the roads they used. The first travelers of course built their own roads. Where ever the wagons could not be pulled
across the desert lands, they unhitched their oxen from the wagons, unloaded a
plow or scraper and went to work. On
hillsides they often no more than plowed a furrow for the uphill wheels of the
wagon to roll in.
“Then as settlements
were made and efforts made to improve and make the roads more passable, a road
tax was charged for everyone who used
that particular section of road. These
were called toll roads to distinguish them from the trails where no charge was
made.”
Perhaps the earliest of
these Tollroads of importance and interest to .the pioneers of the Great Salt
Lake Valley or the State of Deseret was that built by Parley P. Pratt (a cousin of my great grandmother
Jemima VanCott Ambler). He and his associates spent the summer of
1850 improving the road in Big Canyon Creek. Because of this work the canyon soon became known as Parley’s Canyon,
which name has continued over 100 years down to our day. It has been said that he expended about
$2,000 in this work and that he collected $1,500 in tolls that year of 1850.
The road down Parley’s Canyon
is now U.S. Highway #40 and one
of the main east-west routes through the Rocky Mountains. It was originally known as the “Golden Pass”
Toll Road. On 29 June 1850 Parley P. Pratt advertised in Utah as follows:
“Travellers between
this state and California are respectfully informed the new road will be opened
by July 4th avoiding the two great mountains and most of the canyons
so troublesome on the old route. The
road is somewhat rough and unfinished but is being made better every day. Several
thousand are already expended by the proprietor who only solicits the patronage
of the public at the moderate rate of fifty cents for a conveyance drawn by one
animal, 75¢ for a conveyance drawn by two animals and ten cents for each
additional animal.”
Sheep could be driven or
hauled on the Golden Pass Toll Road through Parley’s Canyon in 1850 for only
one cent each!
Several years later after
Utah became a territory, the legislature passed an act empowering the road
commissioner to locate a state road in this same general area and to erect a
tollgate so that no one could use the Parley’s Canyon road without passing
through the gate in order that taxes or tolls could be collected to reimburse
for the cost of improvements, maintenance and road repair.
The toll was to continue in
effect until all costs were refunded. The rates established at that time were
as follows: wagon and two animals (hauling wood, timber, coal, rock, lime,
etc., 25¢; wagon and four animals hauling wood, timber, coal, rock, lime, etc.
, 37½ ¢; wagon and buggy, two
animals and passengers, $1.00; wagon and buggy, four animals and passengers, $1.50; loose animals, l0¢.
A
report made March 1948 to President Brigham
Young at Winter Quarters tells of the efforts to build bridges and roads over
Mill Creek and Jordan River: “ … our pathmaster is instructed to call men and
repair the roads as fast as is consistent with other duties. We tried to have them built by the “Hundreds”
but had to abandon the idea and try a direct poll tax on polls and property … estimates
are being made by the pathmaster
and the people are satisfied the labor tax will bear equal … and the bridges
will be speedily built.” (A later
estimate placed the cost of the first Jordan River bridge at $800.00.)
The Parley’s Canyon toll
privileges and concurrent road maintenance responsibilities passed in 1855 to
the Kimball and Associates group as Parley Pratt went to South America in
response to a mission call. The
contract was for five years and extended to the Karnas Prairie from the
mouth of Big Kanyon. The problem
seemed to be that the toll collected was not enough to pay for the cost of
maintaining the road through the narrow canyon where each thundershower would
cause new washouts.
The bridge across City
Creek (used free by General Johnston’s army in the spring of 1857) was another
toll affair. The rates were reported to be one cent per person on foot, two
cents if mounted or riding in a conveyance, three cents a head for animals and twenty-five cents for
team and wagon.
There was a Toll bridge
built across the Jordan River in 1853 with a Mr. Zimmerman acting as toll
collector.
There was a Toll Gate in Provo Canyon operated
by Sam Pyne in 1876-77. The Provo Canyon charges were somewhat higher than in Salt
Lake being $1.50 for a vehicle drawn by two animals and $2.50 if drawn by six
animals. A horseback rider paid
15¢; sheep, goats and swine were 5 cents each; and horses, mules and cattle could
be driven through for ten cents each.
It is likely that William
Hubbard Winterton as an inexperienced immigrant first worked as a laborer on
road construction that was sponsored by President Brigham Young and other
Church authorities and probably sometime in 1865 or 66 secured the less
physically demanding but certainly thankless position as road tax collector. A Jan. 17, 1867 bill approved by the Utah
legislature and signed by the Governor of the territory doubled the previous
toll rates in an effort to improve the Parley’s Canyon road.
A
Feb. 19, 1869 legislative enactment defined the duties of the
Superintendent of the “Salt Lake City and Wanship Wagon Road” and divided the
road into three sections with separate toll stations for each section. It may be that with the increased number of toll stations in Parley’s Canyon William
H. Winterton was hired and first collected tolls that year. The early impetus
for good roads quickly ended with the joining of rails at Promontory that same
year as the railroads were much more efficient movers of the longhaul freight
and passenger Loads.
Did William H. own a saddle
horse and ride from his home on the Avenues in the 20th (later 21st)
Ward to the tollgate site in Parley’s Canyon each morning and night? Or did he stay in the Canyon all week and
only come home for Sunday worship service? Or did he and Bessie both live in a canyon cabin near the tollgate
for the first ten or twelve years of their marriage? Perhaps they did not move to the avenue home until after his
retirement! No one seems to know many
of these details except that he was still working as a tollgate keeper in 1869
when Ann and Tom arrived in
Utah.
During the 1870 and 1880
decades many toll stations were unattended during the winter months and only sporadically at other times
because there just wasn’t enough traffic to pay the tollgate keepers wages let
alone collect any revenue for road building and repair. My guess is that great grandfather Winterton
and “Aunt” Bessie had a rather meager livelihood at best.
Great grandfather William
Hubbard Winterton arrived at his Zion in the Tops of the Mountains and in The
Valley of the Great Salt Lake early in September 1863 -- 100 years ago. The Murdock Company brought the hundreds of
emigrants over the route from the Black Hills country to the Mormon Church
Headquarters some four weeks quicker than did the Wells-Fargo Freight Wagon train that young John and William Winterton
had attached themselves to. In fact it
was Conference time in October when their slow moving ox teams lumbered through
the streets of the Great Salt Lake City on the way to California.
What an experience those
summer months of 1863 provided the forty-seven year old factory worker from
Nottingham, England! He was pleased, I
feel certain, when he considered the events of those months that he had been
fortunate enough to have been assigned to the J. R. Murdock Company. Why, he was the most experienced and capable
leader of all those who brought
the teams and wagons from Utah to take the
immigrants back across the plains.
Yes! before the railroad
was completed in 1869 -- six
years after great grandfather made the crossing -- this man Murdock had made
eleven (or was it twelve?) round
trips, perhaps more than any other Mormon wagon team driver. They say that Haight made seven, Roundy five,
Andrus, Duncan and probably others made three and … “there were scores of young
fellows that made one or two trips for the new converts but Murdock made at
least eleven and I was with him,” Wm. H. surely soliloquized.
It had been tiresome
waiting there at Council Bluffs for the teams to come in from Utah, but all in
all, the journey was well organized. But
why not? Wasn’t it the will of the Lord? Wm. H. recalled of hearing the account told many times of how
President Brigham Young had a revelation when the Mormons were evacuating
Nauvoo (14 January 1847 The Word and Will of the Lord Concerning the Camp of
Israel in their Journey to the West). Each wagon train company was to have divisions of Hundreds,
Fifties, and Tens with a Captain over each group. A blacksmith and
wagon maker with tools was assigned to each fifty wagons. Then our company had a President and two
Counselors, a Clerk and a Captain of the guard who were all sustained by a vote
of all the emigrants before we ever left our camp at Council Bluffs.
That guard duty was hard
for Wm. H. He had never been on the
prairie before, such strange noises and the stories he heard about the savages that
lurked out there waiting for a straggler – man or beast. What would he do if he were to actually encounter
one?
“The Mormon Wagon Trains
were fine examples of fairness but we were all required to do our share of the
work. If anyone neglected his assigned
guard duty, he would be publicly rebuked for the first offense and the second
time he would get extra duty herding the cattle. No profanity was allowed, no card playing and if one was found
being cruel to animals there was a heavy fine to pay. Only a moderate use of the whip was permitted those who drove the
teams,” recalls one pioneer journal.
“Each wagon took its turn
to lead off from the night’s camping grounds at 7:30 in the morning and the next day it would be last in line. In that way everyone had a turn at eating the
dust from all the other wagons. We all
had to be in our wagons by 9:00
P.M. except those on guard. No one
could leave camp without the Captain’s permission. Everyone in camp attended regular prayer meetings. Wagons and wagon wheels were inspected frequently
on the trip and kept in repair and spokes tightened or soaked in water, “ relates another paragraph by the same writer.
Can
we reconstruct great grandfather Wm. H‘s
thoughts while on guard duty outside the elliptical coral of wagons linked
together to prevent the animals from straying and to safeguard them from Indian
attack or theft. The animals have
grazed during the late afternoon and evening, the company is probably 15 or 20 miles closer to their
destination, the cattle have been
watered, the firewood has been gathered for evening and morning cooking, the
food for the night meal has been eaten, prayers said, the Captain of the Guard has
blown his horn and now I am responsible for
the safety of all these people and all their possessions.
Wm. H. hears the lowing of
oxen, the bleating of sheep, the neighing of horses near by and the howling of
coyotes and wolves out over the prairies and on the distant hills or possibly
an occasional bird. Then there may be
some quiet times broken only by the snore of some loud sleeper. Thank goodness one half hour has passed and the #1 guard has cried “all is right.” I
must answer him in kind. With such
enchanting scenes so fresh in his mind it is no wonder that Wm. H. had feelings
of praise, veneration and thanksgiving for the God of the Saints when he
arrived in Great Salt Lake City.
The wagons at the start of
the journey westward, generally, were each loaded with 1000 lbs. of flour, 50
lbs. of sugar, 50 lbs. of bacon, 50 lbs. of rice, 30 lbs. of beans, 25 lbs. of
salt, 20 lbs. of dried fruit, a gallon of vinegar and a dozen bars of soap
which was thought to be enough supplies for about eight or nine adults for the
several months the trip would take. The
experienced drivers might be able to shoot deer or antelope or other wild
animals on the trip to provide some fresh meat as extra food.
The few personal
possessions and bedding of each of the Wintertons and other emigrants assigned
to the wagon probably increased the load to about 2000 pounds which was a more
reasonable load than the 2500-3000 pounds often piled on the commercial freight
wagons. The next year 1864 saw freight
depots established by the Mormon Church along the route of travel. Several in Wyoming
were three stories high and warehoused as much as 2,500 sacks of flour and
70,000 pounds of bacon with beans, dried apples and other miscellaneous
supplies to replenish the emigrant wagons as they came by.
Then in 1869 most wagon
train travel was abandoned in favor of the new Iron horse -- the steam-powered
railroad locomotive and its long string of cars. Wm. H. was glad that Ann and Tom obtained transportation to Salt
Lake City on this wonderful new invention and did not have to tramp the long
weary way across the plains as he and their brothers John and William had done
six years before.
Great grandfather William
Hubbard Winterton with sons John and William crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the
sailing vessel “John J. Boyd” of
1400 tons registry and Capt. J. H.
Thomas, Master. They left the
Liverpool, England harbor on 30 April 1863 bound for New York, U.S.A. where agents of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints provided them with rail
transportation most of the way to Council Bluffs. It was necessary to arrange a detour in 1863 through part of Southern
Canada because the fighting between the Confederate and Union armies had
disrupted rail travel in the southern Pennsylvania area that year.
The parting of the family
had been a sad experience -- Sarah had clung tearfully to young Bill until the
gangplank was being hoisted. Would it
have been better to have waited until they could all leave together? Surely it would be best for her to come later
when the three smaller children were older. Why, little Sarah was only six years old, she couldn’t possibly
make the trip across Ocean and Plains.
Wm. H. recalled their
twenty-one years of marriage. Of their
eight children three had died and the others had worked from the time they were
5 or 6 years old and nothing to show for it.
They just had to take a chance that things would be better in America. Thirteen years now since they had accepted
the Gospel preached by the LDS Missionaries. Other textile workers from Nottingham with no more worldly goods
than they had traveled to Zion.
Thirteen years since their
baptism. Wm. H. was certain that he had
learned to teach the new gospel as it had
been explained to him by the preachers and missionaries from Great Salt
Lake City. But Sarah had so little time to study and listen to the
explanations of some of the strange new doctrines. She was so busy keeping up the home and caring for the children
when she wasn’t at the factory -- actually when does she sleep? if ever?
Did William H. ever recall
Sarah’s insistence that he plant and raise vegetables -- something useful and
edible in the few square feet of soil connected with their living quarters
instead of those ”useless flowers” he
enjoyed. Certainly Sarah was the
practical one in the family who made their meager income -- probably not more than
two or three dollars a week by modern rates of exchange in the equivalent of
our money system -- that would be the earnings of the four of them in the 1850
decade with father, mother and two oldest sons working to bring home some 15-20
shillings a week at best.
She seemed particularly
troubled about the doctrine of plural marriage. It was rumored that Joseph Smith Jun. the Prophet had over fifty spiritual
wives and Sarah heard other disquieting stories at the factory -- those
busybodies. Well she had agreed to wait
a while until he could send for her and the three young ones.
It is not known when Sarah
Marriott Winterton first learned of her husband’s plural marriage. Did he plan such action before leaving
England? Did he write her before the ceremony?
Or did Ann and Tom first discover the
fact when they arrived in Great Salt Lake City in 1869? Sarah could never under stand it.
Despite offers by her
children to send her fare for the trip to Utah both before and after her husband’s death (and the other wife’s
death also) Sarah Marriott Winterton remained in England. When young Sarah married Arthur Parker, it
was soon evident that he spent too much time in the local pubs to support a
family so Sarah helped her daughter and grandchildren until they, too, left for
Utah.
Before her death in 1902 at
the age of 77, Sarah knew her posterity numbered 33 grandchildren with great
grandchildren in ever increasing number. She also knew Mrs. Widdison had died in New York City while on her
way to Utah. If widow Ellen Stafford
couldn’t live through the rigors of travel, she couldn’t either! Did Sarah ponder the reasons why Jane and
Elizabeth Widdison and their husbands had left Utah and the LDS Church to live in Nebraska and New
York?
There are many unanswered questions about the life and beliefs of great grandmother Sarah Marriott Winterton. Of this we may be certain, she wanted her children to have the best opportunities available and made many sacrifices to assure their g