AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PETER STUBBS

I, Peter Stubbs, son of Peter and Jane Steele Stubbs, was born at Newton, Middlewich, Cheshire, England, on December 13, 1824.

My mother died when I was ten months old, her family being old residents of Cheshire. Her father, John Steele, was a chair maker and made himself independent at his trade. My father died when I was five years of age. He was a Master Millwright, succeeding to the business from his father. The Stubbs family were also long residents of Cheshire. Some land in the vicinity bore the name of Stubbs, showing that my father's people had long lived in Cheshire. There were three of us children, two sisters named Mary and Emma, and myself, I being the youngest.

The days of my childhood were not filled with happiness. Deprived of a home, a mother's love and father's care were unknown to me, left a waif, as it were, upon the cold world. It is here I attended some private schools and went to what was known as a National School, but this was for a short time only, and so far as an education, it has been attained in the course of the practical life I have led. Happy and blessed are the children who have the love and tender care of kind and indulgent parents. All of this was unknown to me, and I received more kindness from strangers for whom I had worked, than from any of my uncles. My aunts, Sarah Stubbs and Mrs. George Steele, were kind to me.

After father's death, we children were left in charge of my Uncle John Stubbs, who was not very kind to us and got us off his hands as soon as possible. He bound me as an apprentice to a tailor when I was but twelve years of age, but my master was failing in business. It was in January 1840 that I left the tailoring business and went to the home of a Mr. James Stevenson in Stratford, Manchester, and went down to my Uncle George Steele at Middlewich, Cheshire, the place of my birth.

About February 1840 when I was fifteen years of age, I was in the company with some boys of my age and went with them into a Mormon meeting, more as a boyish prank than for the purpose of listening to what was said. But my attention was gained by the speakers on the occasion. Their earnestness and sincerity, the strength of the testimony they bore of the ministry of an angel unto Joseph Smith, had a wonderful effect upon me, and a strong impression in favor of the new doctrine took possession of my mind. The speakers on the occasion were Samuel Heath of Mackelsfield and Hyrum Clark, American elders who left Nauvoo in August 1839 in company with Parley and Orson Pratt as missionaries to England. I was so wrought upon by what I heard then and at subsequent meetings, that I commenced to talk up the Gospel, so far as I understood it, to my relatives. This seemed to embitter my Uncle George Steele towards me, and he treated me so harshly, I ran away to Liverpool. From here I wrote to my married sister, Emma Merrill, at Manchester, and she sent me money to pay my fare to that city. This was about the middle of May 1840. A few days after my arrival I obtained a situation with Henry Walker, baker and grocer of Rusham Sane, Charton-upon-Medlock, Manchester. Soon after my engagement here, I heard that the Mormons were about to open Carpenters Hall in Manchester. I attended the first and second meetings held there and continued my attendance until, through the preaching and teachings of the elders, I was convinced they had the truth, and that the Church of Christ had again been restored by revelation through Joseph Smith. On the 13th day of September 1840 I was baptized by Elder James Nahon and became a member of the Manchester Branch.

I worked for Henry Walker, baker and grocer, until the fall of 1843, when I left and was out of work for about three weeks. I found employment with Thomas Holbrook of Oxroad, Manchester, with whom I worked till February 1853. I started with Mr. Holbrook as an assistant baker, but was soon promoted to first hand, and after had charge of the business for a number of years. I gained the friendship and respect of Mr. Holbrook to such an extent that, although he was not a member of our church, he allowed me many privileges, so that I was able to give much of my time to church duties. I was now a priest, having been ordained February 18, 1852, by Elder James Newton, who soon after emigrated to Utah and lived in Salt Lake City. Mr. Holbrook was so favorably disposed toward the church, that his house became the home of the missionaries from Zion. Parley P. Pratt and Wilford Woodruff often stayed at Mr. Holbrook's, and so many courtesies were extended by Master through his favor to me, that the elders used to say I was doing more good than to emigrate to Zion. In all I stayed with Mr. Holbrook for about ten years. There at the shop I first saw my present living wife, Elizabeth Dunn. She used to come to our shop for the family bread when she was a little girl. I gave much of my time and means to church work while in Manchester.

My sister Emma unfortunately married a man named Merrill, who although a clever bricklayer, was addicted to drink, wasting his means to such an extent that I had to support them through several winters from my earnings. This was quite a drain on my finances, but before I left England, my sister Emma, obtained her husband's consent to her emigrating out to my other sister Mary's, who had gone to America and was at the time in St. Louis, Mo. Emma married a man at St. Louis by the name of Roberts. She afterwards came to Utah and married W.G. Dunn, but being overcome with the doctrines of the Josephites, she went back to St. Louis, where she now lives, December 22, 1903.

On the 15th of February 1853 I embarked on the ship Elvira Owen with 345 saints under the direction of Joseph W. Young. We had a quick voyage, but the pleasure of our short passage was marred by smallpox breaking out on board ship. A child had been afflicted with the disease and was passed on board before the disease had entirely left it. Brother John R. Winder, now in the presidency of the Church, caught the disease, also Brother Jones from Dover, who died from it.

We landed at New Orleans March 31, 1853, where we took passage on the river boat up the Mississippi to St. Louis, where I left the company and visited my sisters, Emma and Mary. Emma was again married to a Mr. Roberts, as I have written before. Mary was there with her husband, John Hindley, whom she had married in England several years prior to their leaving for America. At embarking on the ship Elvira Owen, I had paid my fare through to Salt Lake City in what was then known as the Ten Pound Company, but persuading my brother-in-law, John Hindley, contrary to his previous plan, to leave St. Louis and go on to Salt Lake City that season. Therefore, to be in company with him and my sister Mary, I sold out my interest in the Ten Pound Company and agreed to join him in crossing the Great Plains. John Hindley bought a yoke of oxen and wagon, and after a month’s stay in St. Louis, I took a steamer for Keokuk, Iowa, with the oxen and wagon on board in my charge. Keokuk was the point for outfitting for the trip across the plains that year. On landing I hitched up the oxen and traveled with Captain Clawson's company to the west across the state of Iowa to Council Bluffs, where I met Brother Hindley as agreed upon. He had come on the Missouri River to that point. At Council Bluffs, Brother Hindley bought more oxen and another wagon. After a short stay at the Bluffs, we started across the plains in Captain Bailey's Independent Wagon Company. This word "Independent" means we had fitted out entirely on our own resources without aid from the Church and a fund known as the Perpetual Emigration Fund. This had been gathered in the Valley to assist the saints to emigrate, but we fitted out entirely through our own means. After a pleasant journey across the plains, we arrived in Salt Lake City about September 25, 1853. We went to William Dunn's, who had emigrated from Manchester Branch some years prior to our arrival.

We soon rented a house. I stayed in Salt Lake City for two months, and then started out with a view to locating in San Pete. The Indians were quite troublesome at this time. On our arrival at American Fork enroute to San Pete, we put up for the night with John Singleton, who persuaded us to locate at American Fork. Brother Hindley bought a log house at American Fork and a piece of land on which the house stood and where it now stands on the north of the public square in American Fork City. In the summer of 1854 I farmed on shares for John Singleton, and in the fall of that year the grasshoppers come in swarms and laid eggs. The next spring I started planting grain as early as I could. The grasshoppers hatched out and destroyed most of the crops, eating off the grain as fast as it came up. This is told in few words, but the suffering brought upon the people in the loss of their crops by the pest of grasshoppers would take pages to tell.

At the April Conference 1855, I was called on a mission to the Elk Mountains among the Indians, and also with a view of establishing a settlement. Our company numbered forty men with ox teams and a few horses. No women were with us on account of the hazardous nature of the venture. Alfred N. Billings was appointed our captain. The nature of the country made it very difficult for traveling. At one place our wagons had to be taken apart and let down a steep [detectivity], part at a time with ropes. We arrived at the place now called Moab, in southeastern Utah, just across the Grand River, where we built a fort and put in crops. The wheat did not do as well; the corn was fair. All the seed was in the ground by June 15th.

Our fort was about sixty feet square, built of rock. A stockade, the same width as the fort and 120 feet long, was built of logs set in the ground. In this stockade we stacked our hay and corn fodder and kept our stock at night. Some of the men would not stay, so they left the fort and returned to their homes in settlements. The nearest settlement to us was Manti, a little over one hundred miles distant. They left in small companies till there were only fifteen of us left in the fort.

About the last of September the Indians of the neighborhood, under Chief Quick, became quite ugly and threatening, the cause for which was unknown to us. Just a few days before the Indians attacked us, the largest number of our brethren that had left us at one time had just departed, and the Indians knew there were but a few of us left in the fort. The most dangerous Indian was the son of the chief, named Charlie. On Sunday afternoon, September 23, 1855, this Indian, Charlie, shot James Wiseman Hunt, my companion. He was from American Fork; we slept together. He was shot in the back. When we heard he was shot, some nine of us went out and carried him to the fort. Some 25 or 30 Indians rode up on their horses from the river and began shooting at us, but the boys at the fort opened fire at the Indians, knocking one nearly off his horse. We supposed he must have been badly wounded. I attended Brother Hunt; the boys tried to keep the Indians back. Good fortune was with us, for the holes we had made inside the stockade, for the mud to build our fort, were full of water, or the Indians might have turned the stream from our fort, and thus made us surrender. Our stay in the fort was not to be for long. The Indians fired our stacks, but the Indians that did it were shot. Another Indian that crawled up close to the fort was seen by one of the men to part some heavy, coarse grass that grew near a spring, and our man shot the Indian in the breast, and we were quite sure that three Indians were killed. Alfred N. Billings was shot in the finger, but no bones broken.

In the afternoon some talk was had with the Indians, but nothing that gave us satisfaction resulted there from. Brother Hunt died that night. Two of our brothers, William Behinin and Edward Edwards, were out hunting and no doubt were killed, as we never saw them again. We held a council of war, and it was determined the best action to take would be to vacate and make our way for the settlement. Next morning we left for Manti. No Indians were seen. We left 15 head of oxen and 9 cows at the fort and the body of poor James Wiseman Hunt, unburied. We were all on horseback, our captain, Alfred N. Billings, having two horses. A small sack of flour was all we had as provisions. After much suffering, we reached Manti September 30th, tired, weary, and worn out by travel and the excitement of repelling attacks of the Indians. Brother John McEwan (father of John, Amanda, and Mary Jane McEwan, all of Provo) was lost for three days, but a party from Manti found him alive and brought him to Manti. His suffering was intense, and he was very weak when found. (See the Juvenile Instructor for further account of his mission.)

I got back to American Fork early in October 1855 and worked for Brother Hindley for my board that winter. To give ones entire time and labor for board seems a great hardship today, but in those days shelter and food were hard to obtain. The great question so often asked and of much weighty import then was, "Have you got your breadstuff?" Today it may be, "Have you got your piano?" It was a struggle for existence in those early days, and with the plenty that surrounds us now, one can hardly realize the hardships endured then, battles fought with the sterile soil, and the effects of the attacks of the famine breeding myriads, the grasshoppers.

I continued working for John Hindley in 1856, working his farm on shares, which, together with fifteen acres of meadow of my own, kept me busy. In the fore part of the year there was a great scarcity of provisions in Utah, and feed for cattle was so scarce many cows and oxen died of starvation. The grasshoppers came again and sadly injured my crops, so there was very little for my share in the fall. I was now about 32 years of age and thought it time I was married, and my choice went out to Elizabeth Dunn in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I went to the city and spoke to Elizabeth's father and mother in regard to the matter and gained their consent to pay court to their daughter, who was not quite seventeen years of age. Upon my making my desires known, she accepted me, and in a few weeks we were married by Bishop Hickenlooper of the Sixth Ward in Salt Lake City on October 19, 1856 at the house of Brother Dunn. Charles Walker and William Barnes were witnessed the ceremony.

I left my wife with her parents for some little time and went back to American Fork to arrange for a home. I was very poor, had no means to provide a comfortable home. At the same time I was as well off as most young, single men at the time of my marriage, with health and strength and willingness to work at anything that would add to the comfort of my wife. I had traded for two log rooms, but had very little furniture to put in them. Although our means were very limited through the first winter, my wife made every effort with what she had at her command to make us comfortable and with considerable success.

The next spring I rented some land from Solomon Thomas and raised a fair crop. At this period, in common with the greater number of the people, we were lacking in many necessities for our comfort, and even for tools to prosecute our labors on the farm, but our wants were supplied through means that was intended for the destruction of all of us as a people.

In 1857 the U. S. government sent an army against the people of Utah, influenced by false reports forwarded to Washington by Judge W. W. Drummond. Our people took the alarm, and the elders were called home from foreign missions, and the saints who had settled in Carson Valley, on the Salmon River, Green River, in the southern California, were all called home. The army did not come in that season, but through the efforts of Brigham Young, then governor of the territory, the militia were called out, and they harassed the army that they were forced to camp at Bridger for the winter and cool their courage in the snow.

In the spring the newly appointed governor, Alfred Cummings, came in and investigated the charges made by Judge Drummond and found them to be false. Explanations followed satisfactorily on both sides, and in the month of June the army, under Albert Sidney Johnson, left Bridger and marched through Salt Lake City and camped in Cedar Valley at the mouth of North Canyon. The in-coming army, which consisted of three regiments of infantry, few companies of cavalry, and one of artillery, numbered in all about four thousand with the camp followers. This proved a great blessing to the people of Utah. We were out of iron, and wearing apparel and tools were very scarce. The army opened up a source of supply for all our wants, and the people of Utah were the gainers to a great extent by this visitation of the "Flower of the American Army."

My condition was much improved by their coming. Brother Hindley and I joined together, buying a few provisions and vegetables. He took them to camp and sold them to the soldiers at a very good profit. We continued this trade until the soldiers moved to Fairfield, calling their encampment Camp Floyd. We built a small store and bakery at Camp Floyd. My trade learned in England then came to good use to me. We made money here and ran the bakery business all through the stay of the army, until the soldiers were withdrawn from Utah on account of the attempt of the southern states to secede from the Union.

The departure of the troops, like their coming and stay, was of great benefit to the people of Utah. It was estimated at the leaving of the army that four million dollars worth of stores sold for about one hundred thousand dollars. When the troops left, I moved to where I now live in Provo and bought the home and farm of Anson P. Winsor. I paid one thousand eight hundred dollars for the home and farm in trade such as horn stock, horses, etc. Brother Winsor moved to St. George, Washington County, in southern Utah. About that time Joseph Birch, an old acquaintance of mine, and I were offered $6,000.00 in provisions and supplies to be paid for in flour the next spring. We bought about as many more goods that winter, also to be paid for in flour. We loaded two wagon trains with flour and took it to Carson, Nevada. At the time the wonderful mines at Virginia City were yielding much precious metal. Mr. Birch and I continued in business for some time, buying goods as opportunity presented.

In the spring of 1862, in accordance with a plan adopted for the gathering of saints from frontiers, I sent a yoke of cattle down to Florence to aid the incoming emigrants to Utah. Albert Jones was the teamster in charge of my cattle this year, and they were returned in good condition. I furnished a yoke of oxen for this purpose for several years, as I was now in good financial circumstances.

In the fall of 1862 I became acquainted with Ann Wride, the daughter of Danson Wride of Cardiff, South Wales, and in accordance with the law of marriage prevailing in the Church at that time, she became my plural wife, and we were married in the old Endowment House at Salt Lake City, October 10, 1862.

During the trouble with the Indians in 1866 and 1867, known as the Black Hawk War, I acted as Commissary and advanced supplies from my store to the men that were ordered into the field from Provo City. The scenes of trouble were mostly in Sevier and Sanpete Counties. The settlers of those two counties suffered great loss during the war. At the first call for a company of cavalry to intercept Black Hawk, who was reported to be raiding the West and beyond Tintic Valley, I responded and was gone from home several days under the command of General B. Pace.

I continued in business for several years, part of the time with Robert C. Kirkwood as partner, but in consequence of a system of co-operative merchandising being introduced by President Young about this time, we suffered reverses in business and ultimately failed. This was brought about by a spirit of excitement that held sway during the start of the movement. The idea became general to support nothing but the co-operative stores. I had shown my willingness to support the movement by subscribing $500.00 stock in the stores, but so intense was the effort to support the new movement, that my store was under a boycott, as it were. After this I went to the Tintic Mining District about 1870, but it being a new camp, I did not succeed in business there. However, I gained an interest in some mining claims that subsequently furnished me with several thousand dollars at different times. I again restored and returned to Provo and started up in the baking and provision business.

Now I record a gloomy and sorrowful episode in my life. About the 10th of August 1886 my wife Ann went on a visit to her brother, Barry Wride, in Payson. While there on the 13th of August, while taking a ride in the buggy with her sister-in-law, Mrs. Wride, the wheel of the buggy struck a large boulder with such force as to nearly upset the buggy. My wife was so frightened and her heart being affected, it stopped beating, and she died almost instantly. She was the mother of nine children, two of her boys died very young, leaving seven children, three boys and four girls, at her death. Her youngest child, Frank, was only three months and twelve days old.

This was a sad blow for us as a family. My wife Elizabeth having nine children living, had about all she could attend to, but she left the store where she was then living, and moved back to the house I had bought from A. P. Winsor, where Ann had lived, and took charge of the whole of the children and raised Ann's children with her own. My wife Elizabeth has truly been a mother to them, as well as her own.

At this date I have fifteen children married and one at home. I have fifty-five grandchildren and two great grandchildren and am proud to say that all my children, so far, have lived at home until they married.

(All of this biography copied from Peter Stubbs diary by Albert S. Jones.)

Peter Stubbs died at Provo, Utah on June 1, 1906.

CHILDREN OF PETER STUBBS

By Elizabeth Dunn:

Jane Elizabeth born 13 Feb 1858
Mary Ellen " 5 Jul 1860
Emma Selena " 20 Aug 1862
Hannah Asenath " 16 Apr 1864
Sarah Ann (born dead) " 31 Mar 1866
Sarah Ann " 13 Mar 1870
Peter " 15 Nov 1867
James Ephraim " 7 Dec 1868
Fanny Adah " 24 Dec 1873
Albert Peter " 24 Oct 1877
Alfred Dunn " 16 Oct 1880

By Ann Wride:

George Danson 11 Aug 1863
John William 1 Oct 1865
Lewis Wride 15 Jan 1868
Ann Elizabeth 17 Dec 1869
Thomas Peter 22 Mar 1872
Martha Amelia 24 Sep 1874
Ruby May 25 Sep 1877
Edna Louise 5 Sep 1880
Frank Wride 30 Apr 1886 Parents: Peter STUBBS and Jane STEELE.

Spouse: Susan LEONARD.

Spouse: Charles FARRINGTON. Children were: Ann FARRINGDON.

I am sharing my data in the interest of collaborative research.
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that are connected via interlocking marriages, and
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via interlocking marriages, does not matter how distant.
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My hobby is working on interlocking marriages,to any
family surname that is in my data,and I exchange with
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that link into their families. Parents: .

Spouse: Thomasine COKEWORTHY. Children were: Thomas STUKLEY.

Spouse: Elizabeth FITZROGER.

Spouse: Living COTNER. Children were: Living STUEDEMANN.

Spouse: UNKNOWN GERTRUD. Children were: Hans STUELL.

Spouse: Unknown NOEH. Children were: Jost STUELL.

Spouse: Ehla BEER. Children were: Anna STEULL.

Spouse: Eunice Marie HICKMAN. Eunice Marie HICKMAN and Chester G. STUHR were married on 8 November 1930. Children were: Living STUHR.

Spouse: Living MOORE. Children were: Living STUHR, Living STUHR.

Spouse: WODE. Children were: Margery STUCKLEY.

Spouse: Jacob NEWKIRK. Margaret Ann STUMPH and Jacob NEWKIRK were married on 5 December 1796 in ,Washington, Pennsylvania. Children were: Daniel NEWKIRK.

Children were: Margaret Ann STUMPH.

Spouse: Jacob DOAN.

Spouse: Mrs. Mary STURDIVANT. Children were: Mary STURDIVANT.

Spouse: Living NEAL. Children were: Living NEAL, Living NEAL, Living NEAL.

Spouse: Daniel JONES. Mary STURDIVANT and Daniel JONES were married in 1747 in Bristol Parish,Prince George,Virginia. Children were: Sarah JONES.

Spouse: Sarah ANDERSON. Children were: John Anderson STURDIVANT.

Spouse: John Anderson STURDIVANT. Children were: Mary STURDIVANT.

Spouse: Ralph BASSET. Joan STURDON and Ralph BASSET were married.¹⁶ Children were: Richard BASSETT, Ralph BASSETT, Joan BASSET, Heiress Of Weldon Alianore (Eleanor) BASSET.

Spouse: Elizabeth DENNIS.

Spouse: Eleanor TERRY. Children were: Isham STURGEON, Hobart STURGEON, Robert STURGEON, Jeremiah STURGEON, James STURGEON, John STURGEON, Martha STURGEON, Sary STURGEON, Barbara STURGEON, Mary S. STURGEON, Nelly STURGEON.

Children were: Samuel STURGEON, Jeremiah STURGEON, Thomas STURGEON, Peter STURGEON, Henry STURGEON, William STURGEON, Robert STURGEON, Sarah STURGEON, John STURGEON.

Spouse: Jesse SATTERFIELD. Sary STURGEON and Jesse SATTERFIELD were married on 15 October 1800 in Barren Co., Ky. Children were: Greenville SATTERFIELD, Hardin SATTERFIELD, Louisville SATTERFIELD, Louisville SATTERFIELD, Greenville SATTERFIELD, Hardin SATTERFIELD.

Spouse: Deborah BEERS.