Irene Lybbert Merrell

                                                                              

Irene Lybbert Merrell came into the world on April 23, 1898 to Mary Sophia Elizabeth Lybbert and William Porter Merrell in Naples, Utah, out in the wild lands near Vernal. She had the distinction of being the oldest child in a family of twelve children, which means she learned how to work and love others. They lived close to her Lybbert grandparents and enjoyed playing with cousins on their farm. She tells about the fond memories of “The great big haystacks, grain stacks, one corral for horses and one for cows, big stables for all the special animals, the two large cellars where the food was kept, the large barrels of meat being cured in brine, big bins of vegetables, milk cellar where shelves were full of pans of milk, a churn for butter and cheese, I can vision it all. It was great.” 1

As a young child, Irene learned to get the horses for her father, churn butter, tend children, and do a myriad of tasks no longer required for anyone to do. She was a bright child, but not too healthy. She loved reading and hearing her mother read stories from good books and the scriptures. Her father baptized her in the Green River when she was eight. At the age of ten, the family moved from Jensen to what would later be named Bluebell, Utah. They were among the first people to move there and her father later became the first bishop. She never saw a car, a train or electric lights until she was about seventeen. A handsome young man came to visit his relatives in Bluebell and he asked Irene to walk with him to a special meeting. She says she has been walking with him ever since. She married Luther Gale in the Salt Lake Temple on April 2, 1915.

This woman magnified every calling she had. She baked six loaves of bread for her growing family everyday as though it were on a list like “brush your teeth”. She was an excellent seamstress, making clothing for her children from underwear and socks to suits and formals. She made curtains and drapes, covers for furniture, and anything you could want or need for comfort and beauty in your home.2

She gave birth to twelve children. DeMar, Donald, Elden, Mildred, Bruce Kent, Arvene, Vena, Lynne LaDell, Evaune, Sterling, Eveart, and Sheron. Mildred and LaDell died at age six and Bruce died as a young father.1

Irene and Luther worked hard raising their children and lived in places like mining camps in Utah, Lehi, Orem, and Kanab Utah, Moses Lake and Richland, Washington. They served a mission to the East Central states for six months. 1

She was a cheerful soul who delighted in righteousness and good works. Her children and grandchildren love her and honor her for her devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ and her service to her family. She died at the ripe old age of 90 on July 10, 1988 in Orem, Utah.

1 From “William P. and Mary S. MERRELL Family Book” Volume 1, pp157-164.

2 From “Father Knows” Life stories of Evaune Winsor

Written by Sherilyn Gale Smith April 9, 2015

Anthonette Marie Olsen, A Legacy of Faith

About a hundred and sixty years ago in a land far away from Spanish Fork, Utah, a family lived in poverty. The father, whose name was Christian Olsen, worked hard every day as a skilled stonemason, which means he made buildings out of blocks of stone. As a child he had been leased-out as a bond servant to a rich landowner in Norway, and was essentially a slave. He had received a very little of motherly love as a little boy. But now in my story of his family, he was married to a woman he loved very much. 1

He received his pay at the end of each week. But he liked to spend a lot of his pay on “ale and wine with his jolly companions” before he took his money home to his family. “This made it hard on his wife, Christine,” and their eight living “children at home”.  Their oldest daughter, Anthonette Marie (who was called Nettie) went to work at the tender age of ten to earn money for food for the family. At first, she served as a helper at a textile factory. Each day she would arrive at 6 am and depart at 9 pm. Her first job was to hand threads to the girl who threaded the harness for the loom to make cloth. She worked there until age sixteen.1

As a young child, Nettie longed for the teachings of God and to have prayer in her family. At her school, she heard about the Mormon missionaries. Her teacher told the students to stay away from them because they are false teachers. “Young as she was she decided to find out for herself what the doctrine was they were sent to teach.”1

When she was sixteen, the Mormon missionaries contacted their family. The whole family joined the church. Nettie’s family was happy now. The father quit drinking and smoking. He prayed and attended church with the family. They had missionary meetings in their home every Thursday night.1

At work at the textile factory things were not so good. All her friends there became her enemies when they found out she had joined the church. She left that job and found another one the next day where she worked until she was twenty years old.1

Christian and Christine and their family dreamed of immigrating to Zion in the Rocky Mountains. They decided to send 20 year-old Nettie first. Her father bought her a trunk. In it she placed a few pieces of underwear and a dress. She had one pair of shoes and a dress to wear. She brought along a shawl. “Neither she nor her parents understood the nature of the journey she was going to undertake.” 1

First she crossed the North Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, all alone, without her family. In Boston, she boarded a train and rode to Florence, Nebraska with other newcomers. From Florence, which is Omaha now, she walked to Salt Lake City, a distance of nearly 1000 miles. It took six weeks. I just want to stop a minute and really think about what it means to walk over a 1000 miles in six weeks. I figure that if you walk 1000 miles in six weeks, minus Sundays, you would walk an average of 28 miles a day. Three miles an hour is a pretty good walking pace for people who just walk for exercise. If she walked 3 miles an hour it would take over 9 hours a day. No stopping, no resting. If she walked 2 miles an hour it would take 14 hours a day. And, Nettie walked that distance every day except possibly Sundays for six weeks. Her shoes wore off her feet at 300 miles in about 12-13 days or a third of the way, so she walked in her stockings for the rest of the way.1

Let’s talk about what she ate. Her food ration was two cups of flour a day. At night she would mix the flour with water and set it in a tin cup near the tiny fire she had built. In the morning she would bake a large biscuit and eat it as the day progressed. Sometimes she was given a strip of bacon.1

At night, she lay on the ground with a bag under her head for a pillow, and her shawl for a blanket. The trek was not without accidents and fearful incidents.  Several people died on the journey. A young girl she walked with was trampled in a cattle stampede. Other dangerous experiences occurred on her journey. One woman lagged behind the others and an Indian came out of the bushes, lassooed her, and took her on his horse. Her husband chased after them, but was shot in the legs with two arrows by another Indian. They never saw the woman again.1

Nettie prayed to God every day for a portion of His spirit to guide and lead her on. With that help, she was able to maintain a spirit of harmony and good will, for which she was grateful. 1

When she arrived in Salt Lake in November of 1865, she was on foot and alone and went to bed without any supper. She knew only a few words in English, and couldn’t put together one sentence. After a time, she worked weaving cloth, and learned how to prepare wool to make cloth. She learned to speak English.1

In a few months, she married Christian Frederick Bernard Lybbert in the endowment house, becoming his second wife. They had six sons and five daughters, and settled in Ashley Valley, near Vernal, Utah. Her children adored her and her friends and family enjoyed the comfort and good food she provided in her home.1

Four years after Nettie immigrated, her father and a brother, arrived in Utah. They worked and earned money for the mother and five more children to come to America and settled in Santaquin.1

The reason I am telling you this story is that we can learn something important from this woman and her family. This Nettie is my great-great grandmother. I love her with all my heart, even though I have never met her in this life. I knew some of her children and grandchildren. They are great people, strong in the gospel. Today she has over 5,000 descendants. What would my life be like if her father and mother had rejected the church? Who would I be if she had rebelled against her parents and had given up on them or the church and stayed in her home country? Her struggles crossing the ocean and the plains so she could raise her family in the gospel have great meaning in my life. 1

I think about Nettie and remember a talk given by Sister Elaine S. Dalton, the general Young Women President last year. Sister Dalton spoke in General Young Women Meeting March 30, 2013. In talking about another young woman from Denmark a long time ago, and this applies to my great-great grandma too, she said, “her decision… had eternal significance for generations.”2

Sister Dalton also says to the young women of the church, and I might add as well as to the young men, “…You are standing on the edge of many important decisions and making choices daily, some of them difficult, that will shape not only your future but also the destiny of generations. You too are facing…opposition, adversity, peer pressure and moral pollutions. And yet you are standing immovable and living the gospel in the face of the raging storms in our society. Like (my great-great grandmother, Nettie) you are making correct decisions. You are loyal, you are royal.”2

“The choices you are making right now are of critical importance. …Live your lives in such a way that you can listen to and hear the Holy Ghost and he will help you make correct decisions. In fact, ‘he will tell you all things what ye should do’.”2

I believe what Sister Dalton has said. I see the value in living a Christ-like life. I see the turmoil and unhappiness in the lives of members of our community and of members of our extended family who do not live the principles of the gospel. Some of them are caught in and believe the lies of the terrible, terrible monster who teaches that, “This is my life and I can do what I want to do.” Some of our extended family members may also believe that since they have sinned, it is too late for them. There is no way back for them.  In Doctrine and Covenants 18:10-13 we read. “10-Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. 11 For, behold, the Lord your redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men that all men might repent and come unto him. 12 And he hath risen again from the dead that he might bring all men unto him on conditions of repentance.13  And now how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth.” I say to you that Jesus Christ has suffered for our sins and wants us to return to him, no matter what we have done. Our behavior does matter to Him and to our families, those who live now, even those who have already lived and also those yet to come. Keep the commandments. Remember who you are, a child of God and  you belong to families of people who love the Lord and sacrifice their time, talents, energy and their very lives that you might have the gospel in your own life to bless you.

My great-great grandmother, Nettie taught her children the value of the gospel by living it with all her heart. As she walked the three fourths of a mile to church on Sundays with her children she would say to her daughter, Mary, my great-grandmother, “ ‘It’s a privilege to attend meeting and to partake of the Sacrament. We must ever guard ourselves against the temptation to fall asleep spiritually’.”1

May we all ever guard against falling asleep spiritually!  May we have the strength and intelligence us to repent and come back to Heavenly Father when we fail! May we have faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement!

1.      From the book, Christian Frederick Bernard Lybbert, a family history, 1974. Anthonette Marie Olsen’s history and Christian Olsen’s written by Minnie I. Hodapp. pp 51-57. 

2.      Elaine S. Dalton, “Be Not Moved”, Ensign, May 2013, pp121-124.

Louisa Pool Alexander

                                   

“Louisa (pronounced loh EYE za) Pool Alexander was born the second child and first daughter of Alvah Alexander and Phoebe (Phebe) Houston on January 2^nd, 1825, in the town of Acworth, Sullivan County, New Hampshire. She had two sisters and two brothers.

Shortly after the Hatches accepted the gospel in Vermont, Louisa met Jeremiah at a church service where her parents took her. The Alexander family moved to join the rest of the Latter-Day Saints, including the Hatch family in Nauvoo.

At 17 years of age Louisa married Jeremiah Hatch on the 25^th of December in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. They crossed the Great Plains as Mormon Pioneers and arrived in Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1850. Louisa was a faithful wife and mother and traveled all over the frontier land with her husband. Together they had 11 children in the following areas: Nauvoo, Illinois; Winter Quarters, Iowa; Salt Lake City, Utah; Lehi, Utah; Nephi, Utah; Manti, Utah; Moroni, Utah; and Smithfield, Utah. She endured many trials such as leaving Nauvoo under great persecution and living in Winter Quarters for a couple of years, living in a dirt-floor hut with sticks for the roof, and consequently being flooded with water while eating, and sleeping. She survived Indian attacks, and often had little food to eat, cooking over a fire with simple pans, and two of her children died before she did.

Louisa died at the age of 44 on April 13, 1869, when her youngest child, Josepheus, was only three years old. Her husband, Jeremiah wrote of her death to her father. Here is a short quote from that letter. “As for her, she has fought the good fight and kept the faith and there is a crown of righteousness laid up and she will surely receive it but I have the rest of the journey of life to fill.” The above photo of her was taken five weeks before she died.

1. Information taken from Jeremiah Hatch & Family History by Dale Hatch, 96-97, 165.

Other sources to find info on her:

2. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=181538

3. http://www.hatchfamilyassoc.org/pdfs/News_Letter_02.pdf

4. http://records.ancestry.com/Louisa_Pool_Alexander_records.ashx?pid=25622575

5. http://howellresearch.com/d0061/g0000096.html

Jeremiah Hatch

“Jeremiah Hatch, the second son of Hezekiah and Aldura Sumner Hatch, was born on 7^th of July 1823, in Lincoln, Addison County, Vermont. He was named in honor of his grandfather, Captain Jeremiah Hatch, who fought in the revolutionary War with Washington. Jeremiah had a dark complexion with dark hair and eyes. As an adult he was five feet nine and one-half inches tall and weighed 130 pounds.”1 “On December 27, 1840, at the age of 17 he joined the Mormon Church along with his family and together they traveled from Vermont to Nauvoo, then on to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. President Brigham Young and Quorum of the Twelve sent Jeremiah to help settle Lehi, Smithfield, Moab, Manti, and Vernal, Utah. He had three wives and a great posterity of 30 children. He died May 2, 1903, in Vernal, Uintah County, Utah, at the age of 80 years.” 2

Jeremiah married his first wife, Louisa Pool Alexander, on Christmas Day, December 25, 1842, in Nauvoo, Illinois. They had eleven children, two of whom preceded Louisa in death. While living in Nauvoo, Jeremiah was called on a mission to Michigan. Later, they left Nauvoo with the main body of saints, and spent some time in St. Joseph, Missouri, crossing the plains and arriving in Utah September 17^th, 1850. Jeremiah was called as a missionary to the Indians to teach them farming and the gospel. The Indians loved and respected him and called him, “Uncle Jerry”. After the death of his wife, he served a second mission to his home state of Vermont for one year.  He married the daughter of one of his converts, Aurilla Bard Hadlock, October 10, 1870, by whom he had nine children. In 1877, he married a plural wife, Henrietta Augustine Clark. She bore him 10 children. He held the priesthood offices of seventy and high priest. He was called to serve as bishop, high councilor, and patriarch. He worked hard to provide for his large family as a blacksmith, digging canals, raising sheep, and farming.

1. Jeremiah Hatch: The Life and Times of an Extraordinary Man Compiled by his granddaughter Mary Owen Hatch Heslop.1996,1.

2.     Jeremiah Hatch & Family History by Dale Hatch, no date1993?,53.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=15386466

Margaret Ann Haskell

Daughter of Thales Hastings and Margaret Johanna Edwards Haskell, Margaret Ann Haskell, was born in Pinto, Washington County, Utah, on April 6, 1864. Her family called her Babe. She was raised in the San Juan Valley, Colorado, on the frontier, schooled in the trials of pioneer life, and resourceful beyond average. She served as a counselor to the stake Relief Society president before her marriage. When her fiancé lost almost everything he owned down the river in a flood, she encouraged him to start over and exhibited great confidence in him. Jesse Joel Smith married her on her birthday, as planned, in 1884. Jesse’s father had been called to help settle Manassa, Colorado, and Babe and Jesse had some money, but no transportation to travel to Manassa. Margaret’s sister and her husband had transportation, but no money, so they shared and arrived in Manassa with two and half dollars. Their six children were born while they lived in the San Luis Valley: Jesse Haskell, 1885; Margaret, 1889; Silas Thales, 1891; Mary Clarinda, 1894; Joseph Wayne, 1896; and Rebecca Inez, 1901. Mary Clarinda died at two weeks old, and Joseph Wayne died when he was four, which brought much sorrow into their home. When Margaret’s husband, Jesse, was called on a mission to the Eastern States, they had four living children from twelve years old to less than two. With full confidence in the Lord, Margaret sent her husband off on December 4, 1897, and managed their affairs so well that when Jesse returned two years later, the amount of money in the bank was nearly the same as when he left. After four years more of working the ranch and finding that sheep were damaging the rangeland, they decided to move to Wyoming, and start over again. They were blessed to sell their herd for a good price and packed up their belongings in two wagons. Their oldest son, Jesse drove the team pulling the two wagons. Margaret had a gentle team and drove  her buggy. Thales, ten years old, followed on his pony, and Jesse, the father, scouted ahead and found the best route. A trusted friend accompanied them on their journey. Just as they neared the Wyoming border, their seventeen year old son, Jesse, became ill with stomach cramps and had to be taken to a hospital, where he underwent surgery for appendicitis and died three days later. They took his body back to Manassa and buried him beside other family members and resumed their journey. Their first home in Wyoming was a dugout, where they lived until they could build a cabin. Jesse made sure that Margaret had a good home. They built up a good ranch and spent winters in town, where Jesse was part owner of a store. Just as things were starting to get good, Jesse became ill with inflammation of the bowel, which the family thinks might have been appendicitis. He did recover from it, but months later died after a short illness. Margaret continued to work the ranch with her young son, Thales. He was called on a mission to the Southern States and served well there. Upon returning home from his mission, he fell ill and decided to stay in Salt Lake and have his appendix taken out. His mother was warned in a dream of his predicament and on that knowledge, took a train to Salt Lake and met her son. She lived until October, 1943, and died in Greybull, Wyoming.

Taken from Family History Stories of Silas Sanford Smith and family pp.34-37, in the possession of Darrell and Sherilyn Smith.

Jesse Joel Smith

Jesse Joel Smith, the second son of Clarinda Ricks and Silas Sanford Smith, was born in Paragonah, Utah, November 4, 1857. His mother died when he was six years old. His step-mother, Eliza Bennett Smith, took charge of Clarinda’s family and taught them faith in the Lord. The boys learned early in life to assume responsibility with their father on the farm and with the care of the stock. Jesse acquired considerable skill in the management of horses and cattle before he was grown. At age twenty two, along with other pioneers, he was called to colonize the San Juan River Valley in southeastern Utah. Jesse’s father was called to head this expedition, later called the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition, which turned out to be an extremely difficult journey. Upon arriving in the San Juan Valley, the Saints built Bluff City. Here Jesse and a friend, Amasa Barton, built up a trading post business on the banks of the river to trade with the Indians. It was successful until a huge flood came down the river and carried all of his supplies away early in 1884. With his fiancee’s encouragement, he started over and married her, too. It was on her twentieth birthday, April 6, 1884, that he and Margaret Ann Haskell were married. By this time his father, Silas, had been given the responsibility to form another settlement in Manassa, Colorado. Jesse thought the new place might be a good one to start over and took his bride, sharing expenses and transportation with her sister, Maria and husband, Brigham Harrison, to the San Luis Valley in Colorado. Jesse worked in a flour mill, saved some money, bought a saw mill, sold it and then ran a cattle ranch with his father fifty miles from Manassa until he could start his own ranch. He also worked as a range foreman for a large corporation. His family lived on the ranch in the summer and moved to Manassa in the winter to attend school and church. Jesse was called to serve a two-year mission and left December 4, 1897, serving in New Jersey. Upon returning home, he found that even though he had paid for his mission, his wife had managed their affairs so well that he still had savings. The range was damaged by sheep and Jesse decided to find a new home. Wyoming was being advertised as a new frontier and he made a trip there in December, 1901. He purchased a ranch on Shell Creek, about fifty miles from Big Horn Stake where an LDS colony had been established in early 1900. At home once more, he started planning and preparing for the move to Wyoming. They started with a large outfit, two wagons trailed together drawn by six horses and driven by 17 year-old Jesse, a top buggy for mom and sisters, and ten-year old Thales on a pony. Jesse (Dad) scouted the trail on his horse. Near the Wyoming border, young Jesse took sick with cramps in his stomach. He was taken to a railroad hospital, undergoing surgery for removal of the appendix and died three days later. The family returned home to Manassa by train, leaving their belongings with a trusted friend, and buried their son. After a difficult journey, they finally arrived at Shell in July, 1902. Jesse and Thales worked hard developing their ranch. In the winter, Jesse worked in a store, being part owner. He also helped with the canal. He enjoyed good friends, other the cattlemen in the area. In April 1905, he became seriously ill with inflammation of the bowels but overcame it. He seemed to understand after that that he did not have much longer to live. In September 1905, he became ill again and shortly thereafter passed away. He told his wife, “The boys have come for me and I must go.” At his funeral, his bishop said, “When it comes to being true blue and loyal to the church, there isn’t a man in my ward that I would place above him.”

Taken from Family History Stories of Silas Sanford Smith and family, in the possession of Darrell and Sherilyn Smith.

Elvena Sessions

Born into a family of ten children, on 15 January 1894, Elvena was the youngest of five sons and five daughters. Her parents, Byron and Idella Winn Twombly Sessions had worked hard to build their ranch and raise their children in Woodruff, Utah. When she was a baby, the family moved into a lovely two-story home with seventeen rooms. Some of her older siblings were married and lived with them or nearby. When she was six, her father was called by President Lorenzo Snow to help settle the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming. They made preparations to leave their beautiful home and many friends and departed on April 24, 1900. It was quite an undertaking with 200 saints and all their worldly belongings traveling together to settle another new part of the West. They arrived a month later.  The first thing the men did was to begin digging a canal, so the land would have water and could be farmed. The families lived in tents and wagons until the fall, when the men stopped the canal work to build log cabins. She says this about her parents, “Our childhood memories are filled with good examples of my parents. Our devotional exercises where we read from scriptures, gathered around the organ to sing a song or two, and then knelt in prayer each taking our turn, taught us to pray before others as well as in our own secret prayers.” Elvena tells about several experiences where prayers were definitely answered. As a child, she attended school in Woodruff, Utah and then in Byron, Wyoming. She was a member of the Byron girls’ basketball team and played the position of guard. She was blessed with a good voice and a talent in music. She could play the piano and the organ; her sisters having taught her when she was very young. She was the Primary organist when she was thirteen. She first met her future husband, Thales Smith, when she was twelve. They attended the same school when she was fourteen and he, sixteen. They became engaged and then he left on a mission to the Southern states. She kept herself busy with church duties and caring for her invalid mother, remaining loyal to Thales. She met him at the train station at Cowley when he returned in January, 1914. Vena and Thales took the train to Salt Lake and were married in the temple there on April 3^rd. Upon arriving home, they loaded up their wagon and traveled for a whole day to their home on Shell Creek. They worked hard and built a good place to live, developing a ranch. Their family consisted of four sons; Thales Sessions, Jesse Byron, Arthur Callis, Scott Haskell and two younger daughters; Thelma and Ida Mae. While at Shell Creek, they were two days round-trip travel from Byron. There they attended church whenever they could. Some years, Vena would spend winters in Byron with her children, while Thales stayed on the ranch tending the animals. When Thales Jr graduated high school, Vena took most of her children with her to Provo, where they attended BYU, high school, and grade school. Vena also took classes at BYU; music and concert chorus. She enjoyed performing with the chorus all over Utah. In the fall of 1952, Thales and Vena were called on a short tem mission to California. She says that “No greater happiness can come than from being in the constant service of our Father in Heaven.” Vena passed away November 11, 1968, a great woman of many talents and with much love for her friends and family.

From Life History of Elvena Sessions Smith in possession of Darrell and Sherilyn Smith.