Hannah Elizabeth Byington
My Mother
by Thora May Larson Morrison
The following information was told to me by my mother, Thora May Larson Morrison, about 1958 through 1963. It is written as if she were speaking. I took notes in longhand and typed them up 23 June 2000. Lois Ann Morrison Everton
My mother's name was Hannah Elizabeth Byington, Hannah E. Larson, and Grandmother Hannah Higbee, depending on the time period of her life.
My mother' parents were Hannah Dyantha Harr and Hyrum Elliot Byington.
Joseph Young and Hyrum Norton Byington were trail herdsmen for Brigham Young. Most likely, Brigham Young introduced Hannah Dyantha Harr to Hyrum Elliot Byington, the son of Hyrum Norton Byington. Grandmother married grandfather on 18 Feb 1861 in Salt Lake City. They were later sealed in the Endowment House by Pres. Brigham Young 13 Oct 1873. Grandfather [Hyrum Elliot] Byington came to Utah in 1860. He was born 14 Oct 1830 on Lake Erie.
Grandmother and Grandfather and other families were sent with Jefferson Hunt to Ogden Valley (Huntsville and Eden valley) help establish a settlement there. Their first five children were born here. The first, Hyrum Norton, 30 Dec 1861. He fell off a roof when he was still a young man and died 25 Nov 1879 at 18 years of age. Next, Joseph Henry was born 28 Dec 1862. He married Rosetta Hunt 10 June 1882. She lived to be over 100 years old. Joseph died 3 May 1929. Stephen Elliot was born 12 Jan 1866 in Eden. He married Elizabeth Jane Larson 30 Sep 1884. Stephen later married Isabell Burt Nelson 1918 and later Maude Lenora Mikesell April 1925. He died 15 Mar 1940. Sarah Jane was born 14 Nov 1867. She died 21 Nov 1869. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, was born 12 Oct 1868.
Later, in 1869 or the early 1870's, they moved to Bear River City, Utah area. They lived the first winter in a dugout in the side of the river bank. Later they built a two room cabin up off of the river bank. Their last three children were born there. They raised tomatoes and fed them to the hogs as they thought they were poison. They had several tomato fights and lickings to boot.
Alexander was born 3 Feb 1873. He died in September 1874. Rebecca Ann was born 25 Aug 1874. She died as a child. I believe both Alexander and Rebecca Ann were transported by train to Ogden and buried in the Hyrum Stow plot in the Ogden Cemetery. Nora Isabell was born 3 Feb 1876. She married Samuel Jason Palmer 30 Jan 1892. She died 10 Jan 1957 and is buried in Pocatello. Hyrum was Sunday School Superintendent while they lived there. There is a monument in Bear River City which includes the name of Hyrum Elliot Byington as one of the early settlers of that town.
Years later, as we would travel by car through the Bear River City area, mother always wanted to stop and see the old log cabin that is there. She always said that the cabin looked just like her home. She was just a young girl when the family moved away from there to go to Marsh Valley, Idaho but she must have had fond memories of growing up there.
Grandfather Hyrum Byington's family and other families were sent, along with Jefferson Hunt, to Oxford, Idaho to colonize Marsh Valley.
When my mother was a teenager, she lived at about 1 mile above Zenda railroad crossing which was about 5 miles from Swan Lake, Idaho. Indians used to come over the tracks. She would take the kids and hide them. One day she put them in the cupboards and closed the doors and she hid behind a box until they had left. Several times she gave all the fresh baked bread away. On one occasion, Mom and Dad were away and Hannah was in charge of the children. She looked out the window and could see the Indians coming, several wagons of them. The house was on a hill. There was also a hillside overlooking the house that was covered with tall sagebrush. This is where she took the children. She hid them well and waited for the Indians. Hannah waited and then she shouted from behind a bush, "Go away, there ain't no body home down there!" Luckily, the Indians never heard her. The Indians nosed around a bit and then left. (Aunt Nora told us, Lois and Thora, this story.)
Mother didn't go to school regularly. She'd go 1 or 2 days or a month to school and then maybe she wouldn't go at all. She went only to the 3rd grade. She taught herself to read and write after she was married.
Another family that was sent to Marsh Valley was the Thurston Larson family. One of the boys, Thomas Henry Larson, worked for Hyrum Elliot Byington helping with the cattle and sheep. His sister, Jane Larson met Steve Byington and this foursome, including my mother, would attend the church socials and other functions. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, and Thomas Henry Larson were married 30 Sep 1884 in Oxford, Onieda, Idaho. Aunt Jane Larson, a sister to Thomas Henry, and Stephen Elliot Byington, Hannah's brother, were married on the same day in a double wedding ceremony. My mother was a few days short of being 16 when she was married.
Jefferson Hunt was the first Bishop and my father, Thomas Henry Larson, was the first presiding elder in Grant Ward, Idaho. (There is no Grant Ward today.)
My parents lived in the vicinity of the Hyrum Elliot Byington ranch. They had nine children. First was Ester Elizabeth, 14 Oct 1885, next was Minnie Isabell, 23 Mar 1888, Henry Edwin, 5 Mar 1890, David Lorenzo, 19 Apr 1892, Carrie Lorinda, 4 Feb 1895, Archie Winfred, 17 Mar 1897, and Edith Dyintha, 26 Dec 1898.
When Edith was a baby, Father went on a mission and served 8 months at Anaconda, Montana. He would walk 10 to 25 miles a day. He went back to Nampa and Caldwell and Mountain Home (Indian Valley) He was there for 6 months. He became very ill and was sent home. He never did get very well.
Grandfather Hyrum Elliot Byington died in 1901. Since I was not born till 1902, I never did know my grandfather Byington.
Grandmother Hannah Dyantha Horr [Harr] Byington served as a midwife and a nurse in every community she lived in. She was skilled in the use of herbs and natural remedies. She was the midwife to my mother and brought me, Thora May, into the world 24 Feb 1902. I was born in the original log cabin on Steven Elliot's farm which is near the Byington family cemetery.
My father, Thomas Henry Larson, died 28 Dec 1903. He had typhoid pneumonia and had been ill ever since his mission. I was not quite two years old. I never did have a chance to know my father.
Mother had a baby on 15 July 1904, Thomas Horald, who died in January 1905 from pneumonia caused by a severe burn. In those days, all babies wore long dresses and Ester and Minnie were bathing the baby and they accidentally dropped him on the stove. They had shortened his clothes and were going to doll him up for grandmother when she came home. He may have kicked the oven door.
Aunt Lorinda Perkins told me (Lois Everton) the following:
Uncle Bert's mothers grandmother Canfield lived next door to grandmother Larson Higbee. She would give me (Thora) sugar cookies cut with a tomato can that would melt in my mouth. I used to come home from Sunday school and go over and grandmother Canfield would read me the funnies from the newspaper.
They moved from the ranch to a farm on the bench in Grant Ward a mile down the lane. They rented from Samuel Thomas for a year or so.
Mother told about us visiting her half sister Lorinda Hickman Stowe in Ogden.
She also told us about a molasses mill in Ogden and about going to get molasses whenever they went to Ogden. It was at about 31st street where an old brick kiln was above Adams. A large chimney marked the spot. This kiln was torn down about 1951. Lois used to walk by it while walking to Ogden High School.
Everyday at the end of the day, the children tucked in to bed. Mother cooked on an old black stove, a Monarch Range, that they kept really shined. They polished their shoes with soot from the back of the stove lids. Saturday night baths were the order of the day. We ate around a round table, knelt for prayer morning and evening and always, grandmother was there, living across from the church.
Mother remained single until I was about 6 years old. I would have been 7 in February and mother married Loren Higbee. We thought it was the most terrible thing mom could have done. Esther was working at Hides grocery store. She worked as a housekeeper. Minnie and Henry were staying at Parker, Idaho with Grandmother Larson. David and Lorinda and Archie were running the farm by the church. Edith and I mostly played. All the children cried and so I cried too. Higbee had two boys who were farmed out but two came to live with us. They were not trained and it really put a hardship on mother. Grandfather Higbee told about once working for her dad and whittled wood. He drank tea and coffee and smoked. He called grandmother "Little Hanner" or "Little Elizabeth" to make her mad. Eventually all the children left home to work or get married.
The Higbee boys that live with us were: Raymond, he lives in Pocatello now. Orval came first, then Raymond, and then Leon. Leon lives in Great Falls, Montana. Orval was 6 when he came. I was 7 years old at the time.
Higbee could not manage the farm and David left and got work with Chris Christensen. Henry came home for a visit. He and Lee Burrup went to a dance. They were driving a horse and buggy and they got in a wreck. They were going to Lone Pine for the night. They tipped over. Henry had a broken jaw and leg and a wrenched arm. Probably the wheels of the buggy locked and threw them. He laid several hours before help arrived. Lone Pine is 17 miles from Grant Ward and they had to ride a horse clear to Downey for the doctor.
David was helping Chris take trees out. They dug a hole one day to blow out the tree stumps on the farm and they didn't move far enough away. They were blown into the air. When David came down he was cut up badly, especially his face. Mother doctored him better.
Archie, Edith, and I were going to the pasture. Archie wanted me to get on the horse with him and Edith wanted me to get on with her. He went to shut the gate and she put me on her horse and handed me a willow and told me to hit the horse and I did. I fell on my shoulder and broke my collar bone. Mother bound up my shoulder till it healed. It was very painful.
Mom would send me out to the chicken coop. I was scared of the chickens. If Lorinda came out she would help me. If mother came out, I'd get a scolding.
We played hide and seek around the hay stacks. Beside the straw stacks were sacks of wheat piled up and we would play follow the leader and we all got stuck between two sack once and I couldn't get out. Archie help be get the sacks moved so I could get out.
We'd play dolls for hours at a time. Our cities were big and we use sticks for dolls and roses to decorate our homes with. Had trains and all for fun. Orval had a farm by himself so he didn't tease us so much.
Suzy Thomas, a friend and neighbor, had lots of money and a nice farm. Lorinda would tend their kids when she would go on trips to Salt Lake. When she returned, she would often bring us a little gift. This one time she gave me a beautiful Easter egg, a large one, white trimmed with colors. Mother made me share with Orval. I hated him for it. Suzy was always bringing me goodies and I always had to share. Susy had a wicker buggy. I just loved it. It had an umbrella attached. The Fort Bridger museum has one like it. (I went to this museum and did not find any buggy. Lois Everton)
Mother went for fruit on time and I was to go and I really wanted to. Edith was such a devil that she got to go instead of me. Good thing Lorinda was home as we made doll clothes and the folks were home in no time.
Mother used to make the very best Elder Berry pie. She always had some pork on the stove. After Mr. Higbee came, we always had sauerkraut by the barrels full. They'd kill one or two pigs at a time and put all the sausage to cure. Then they would put the sausage in salt sacks and hang it up to store.
Suzy Thomas' children I knew lived across from the school. Her house is still standing. Mildred, Vilda, Gwen, Conn, who was my age or younger, and another boy. She had lost two babies from ptomaine poisoning. She had lost her husband also. A tree fell on him.
Texie Thomas lived in a white brick home. We used to go get water at her house. We had a horse named Bud and he'd pull a two-wheeled cart with a barrel in it to carry the water in. Edith and I would go twice a day, early in the morning and again in the evening.
Texie's children:
Ray grade
Harold same grade
Helen lives in Grand Junction
Florance Evans, Tooele school principal
Earl drowned in Donnetta Hot Springs
Reed lives in Downey, works at bank.
Grandmother worked with Texie in MIA after Higbee married mother. About a year later (20 Nov 1909 Otto Fredrick Higbee was born in the house across from the church in Grant Ward. Steven Howard Higbee was born 21 July 1911 on a farm about one mile up the canyon. Both have died, Otto died 6 Mar 1945 and Howard died 12 Oct 1976.
When Howard was born, a doctor was called. Dr. Arnet was the first doctor to attend a birth of her children. When Howard was born, Mom had made a batch of root beer before the baby was born. It was in the cellar. Edith and I drank almost all of it. We had spotted fever here. This was on the hill.
We used to have lots of chickens. They used to go into the chicken coop and this old mean rooster would peck them on the head. Years later, when we cleaned out an old trunk we found their hats that still had blood stains on them. The trunk also had fabric used in Grandmother Byingtons's coffin and dress.
Meria Burrup, Suzy, and Texie Thomas were Hannah's life long friends.
Marty and Texie bought Higbee's farm and Ed Burrup bought the home by the church so we moved to Downey. Archie and I rode on a load of hay. Horses were tied on to the wagon and cows followed them. Mom and Mr. Higbee and the boys looked after the cows. Archie and I cried all the way to town. When Ed bought the farm in Grant Ward, he had a contractor build the house in Downey. No running water or bath was put in. David and Archie put in the water later.
After we moved to Downey we had a picture taken in front of our house. I had a doll given to me that first Christmas. I called it Burt because it had a receding hair line like Burt.
When we moved to Downey, Edith said I couldn't make the grade and she insisted I should stay in the 3rd grade so I did.
Minnie came home when we were in Grant Ward once before her marriage. She came home for supper and a wedding cake. Mother took the top off of the cake and put it in an old clock. It was a fruit cake with white frosting, silver droplets and roses and leaves for trimmings. Edith and I used to eat separate from the others at times would pick a little of the frosting off to lick. This was the first wedding cake I'd ever seen.
Lorinda got a job in Downey working at the telephone company. One night while working, she fainted. Her corset had been cinched up too tight.
Henry left on a mission. He spent two years in the field. Chattanooga, Tennessee was his mission headquarters. He got yellow fever. Lost the use of his legs and came home early. He left from Grant Ward I think. He came home on the train. They brought him home on a stretcher. He was sick for about six months. Mother nursed him back to health. When he regained his health, he met Zanetta Wakley and married her.
Winifred, Henry's baby, was born one year later. Henry died when Winfred was three during the flu epidemic of 1918. David (? Not David Lorenzo) and Henry and Mr. Higbee's brother, Fred all died in this epidemic.
Mother had rheumatic fever about the same time as I did and she had to be turned with the bed sheets for she hurt so badly.
When Henry was well, he ran a barber shop in front of the pool hall. They had two pool tables. This was probably the first of David's troubles. It hurt mother to see her boy smoke as he had been so faithful. Archie was working for Thomas Thomas, Suzy's husband and Stoddarts. He met Annie Lauree Denny at a dance in Swan Lake, Idaho.
David helped to dig Henrys grave when I was so ill. No funeral was held, just a ceremony in the home. I watched from the window. Higbee came to my bedroom door with a fry pan of potatoes and asked if I wanted some. I couldn't eat a thing. Mother went and stayed two days and two nights until Henry died. Lorinda met Burt Perkins at a dance. The Perkins ran a livery stable in Downey. Lorinda married Burt on 22 Jan 1914. They moved to Chesterfield. They were caretakers of the dam. She cooked for the surveyors. Their first baby died and was buried in the Downey cemetery. They lived in Chesterfield for seven months. Edith went to visit during the summer. Here she met Chanuncy Call. Lorinda moved back to Downey in Perkins home, located on the west side of the old home in Downey. It was a white frame house and faced east.
David worked in the pool hall. He met Frank Bloxum who drank a good deal. Eventually David met and married Frank's sister, Bess. The business was sold to Fred Higbee and David moved to the slough area. Henry had a farm on the Malad Divide. He sold his barber shop to help build a house. This is how the Higbee's acquired a farm there. Archie bought the farm in the canyon and had a team of horses.
I lived with David after Judith was born. Then when Archie was married, I stayed with Annie and Archie in the log cabin. There was a flash flood. As the baby chickens came by the door of the house they caught them. We saved 7 or 8 of them.
David's children
Judith
Edith
Emma Jean
Cleo
Sunny
another girl
Lorinda's children
Thomas died , buried in Downey cemetery
Harold
Wayne
Dean died, buried in Logan cemetery
Bettey
Verna Lou
Archie married Annie Denney 3 Dec 1915
Ivalue
Henry
Jean
Lavern
Roy
Glenys
Reed and
Rex - twins. Rex died the same day
Edith married Sidney Chauncey Call in Pocatello 8 Apr 1915
Rose
Raldo
Robert, died as a child
Revis
Richard and Randall, twins. Both died in one day.
divorced and re-married to Herbert Golwey Emmens
One time mother's (Hannah Elizabeth Byington) kidneys stopped functioning properly and Archie took mother to Pocatello to the doctor. She never did forgive them for this. However she was made well.
Mother was made first councilor in Mutual. We went to church 3 times on Sunday. Sunday School, Priesthood Meeting, and Sacrament meeting in the evening. Primary was always on Tuesday after school. MIA was on Wednesday evenings.
Sometime in the 50's, about 1954, Thora, Lloyd Jean, Lois and Dean Morrison went up to Downey to Grandma Higbee's home and talked her into coming home with us to live.
She loved root beer floats. She loved little children and all her life she stood up for them, sang to them, and sheltered them.
Jean took her for an airplane ride over the Ogden Valley, Eden, and Huntsville areas. She loved it.
In the evening we would take a ride in our old ford station wagon. We would drive up the streets on the benches where we could look out and see the lights of the city come on all over Ogden. She loved to look at the city lights.
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The following is thoughts and memories of her grandmother by Lois Ann Morrison Everton:
When I was a little girl my parents would take our family up to Downey for a visit with Grandmother by this time she had married Mr. Loren Higbee, he was the only grandpa I remember.
One time I visited the Higbees and grandpa had one of his legs gone. He had a wooden leg but did not wear it all the time. This scared me. Never the less I sat upon his knee and grandmother came and stood by the chair and we had a picture taken. He called me "brown eyed Susan" after the flowers. Also "Little Izabell" he called me. He was very kind and loving. Grand mother had a back bedroom and in one corner was a little metal bed. It had a lovely baby doll in it and other dolls. Loved these dolls and I think it sparked a love for dolls in my life. She would let me hold the dolls if I was careful. In the kitchen there was a large Monarch range that just shone. It had a top shelf. This was probably where the yeast starter was kept. It was polished to a shine. In the middle of the kitchen was a large white round table and several chairs. My mother, Thora, said that the chairs were turned out daily and everyone kneeled in prayer and then the chairs were turned in and every one had a good time eating and talking.
On the left hand side of the house there were two light purple Lilac bushes. One time when Aunt Nora Isabell Byington Palmer came for a visit I took their picture by the Lilac bushes. Nora and Grandmother did not always have the same opinions on every thing. But they still loved each other very much. I loved to hear the Indian stories Nora told. These two Ladies were the last of the great Pioneers. Years later Aunt Nora came to my Weber College Seminary Graduation. She stood in line with me and Mother and Dad. She said it was a great thrill of her life time. I wrote to Nora until she died.
In the "good ole days" grandma had an out house. I was always afraid of it. They told me that one of Uncle David's little girls fell in and died. In l942 during the Second World War Uncle Archie Larson and Pop Morrison, my dad, and others came to stay a while and they built an indoor bathroom on the back porch area. It turned out nice. The Front room was on the right side of the house. This is where the old leather couch that made into a bed was. It wasn't very comfortable at all. A large rocking chair was their as well as an overstuff chair. Seems like she had a carpet over linoleum. At one time there was a good fence and gate to the front yard. The house still looks good from the outside.
Mother gave me the rocking chair and when we moved to California. I gave it to my brother Roy Dean Morrison. They have since restored it. When I was little I would climb into it and put my feet through the large hole in the back and put my feet on the rockers and rock myself. Many an hour of fun was spent in this large rocking chair.
June's girls Pam, Chris, and Patsy just loved all the attention grandmother gave to them.
I loved to watch her put up her hair. She would get a brown paper sack and tear it into little two-inch pieces and rolled up her bangs in the paper and twisted them close. When it was all dry and taken out, she had cute little curls all along her head.
Hannah Elizabeth was five feet tall. She wore a size 16 dress that went down to her ankles. She liked shopping at JC Penney's. They had a pair of black hushpuppy slippers with a black tassel on the top-front on the slippers. They looked real cute on her. I have several of her dress pins. I treasure them.
She loved to crochet and embroider. She had a whole dresser full of nice things. She had name tags on most of them. She felt bad when the people tending her house went in and took several items. She handed down to us Hannah Dyantha's crochet hook that came across the plains to Utah and then on to Idaho.
When Mr. Higbee had a stroke and could not talk, he motioned with his eyes. She looked in the mattress and found some money. He also had her look in his coat and she found some more sewn into the lining. She had just enough to bury him when he died.
Stephen Elliot Byington was grandmother's brother who had passed away. Grandmother Higbee would often take naps in the chair and wake up and talk about uncle Steve. She would often say, "Oh Stephen, I can't go with you yet. I'm not ready yet!" She repeated this twice and then later she asked where Steve was. This happened many times during the last months of grandmother's life.
Thora and Jean took grandmother to the doctor. He said for as old as she was she was in good shape and she may live a long time. I come home in August. It was deer hunting season and dad wanted mom to go out to Vernal with them. I was left to take care of grandmother.
I was hoping all would be well. Grandmother's legs were purple up to her knees. I suspect she had diabetes. She may also have had cancer. One night, I helped her sit up because she could not breath well. She seemed really cold. She made me promise that I would take her home and get her some herbs. I later learned that she had learned about the use of herbs from her mother.
I sat grandmother up and held her and she didn't feel very well. I called my sister June on the phone. She was a nurse. I asked her what to do. She had me give grandmother 2 teaspoons of paregoric in half a glass of water. She took it well and settled back to sleep. In the night she wanted to sit up and I put her head on my shoulder. She just slowly quit breathing. I feel that she had quietly passed on to the next world.
June came down to the house. We called my friend, the mortician, Brother Calderwood, who came along with Doctor Rich who pronounced her dead. She died at our home at 3274 Grant Ave., in Ogden, Utah at 4:10 AM on 23 Oct 1955. She was 86 years old.
Relief Society records written by Lorinda who was the secretary:
Name in full: Hannah Elizabeth Byington
Residence: Downey, Idaho
Born At: Ogden Utah, Weber County, 12 Oct. 1868-9
Blessed by:
Baptized by: Hyrum Elliot Byington 3 Dec 1891
Confirmed by: Charles Thornton
Schooling commenced at Oxford, Idaho
Ordained 1st councilor to Relief Society by Thomas H. Larson 1896
Married to Thomas Henry Larson by A. F. Caldwell at Oxford, Idaho 30 Sept. 1884
Endowed at Logan Temple 12 Sept. 1894
Patriarchal Blessing by Milo Andrus 14 Dec 1890
Height 5 ft.
Color of eyes blue, brown hair, general health very good
Special interests: children, clean house, embroidery, crochet
Children:
Ester Elizabeth Larson
Minnie Isabell Larson
Henry Edwin Larson
David Lorenzo Larson
Carrie Lorinda Larson
Archie Winford Larson
Edith Dyintha Larson
Thora May Larson
Thomas Horald Larson
Otto Fredarick Higbee
Stephen Howard Higbee
Taken from LDS Family Record and Index to Individual History Pages, sample sheet
My Mother
by Thora May Larson Morrison
The following information was told to me by my mother, Thora May Larson Morrison, about 1958 through 1963. It is written as if she were speaking. I took notes in longhand and typed them up 23 June 2000. Lois Ann Morrison Everton
My mother's name was Hannah Elizabeth Byington, Hannah E. Larson, and Grandmother Hannah Higbee, depending on the time period of her life.
My mother' parents were Hannah Dyantha Harr and Hyrum Elliot Byington.
Joseph Young and Hyrum Norton Byington were trail herdsmen for Brigham Young. Most likely, Brigham Young introduced Hannah Dyantha Harr to Hyrum Elliot Byington, the son of Hyrum Norton Byington. Grandmother married grandfather on 18 Feb 1861 in Salt Lake City. They were later sealed in the Endowment House by Pres. Brigham Young 13 Oct 1873. Grandfather [Hyrum Elliot] Byington came to Utah in 1860. He was born 14 Oct 1830 on Lake Erie.
Grandmother and Grandfather and other families were sent with Jefferson Hunt to Ogden Valley (Huntsville and Eden valley) help establish a settlement there. Their first five children were born here. The first, Hyrum Norton, 30 Dec 1861. He fell off a roof when he was still a young man and died 25 Nov 1879 at 18 years of age. Next, Joseph Henry was born 28 Dec 1862. He married Rosetta Hunt 10 June 1882. She lived to be over 100 years old. Joseph died 3 May 1929. Stephen Elliot was born 12 Jan 1866 in Eden. He married Elizabeth Jane Larson 30 Sep 1884. Stephen later married Isabell Burt Nelson 1918 and later Maude Lenora Mikesell April 1925. He died 15 Mar 1940. Sarah Jane was born 14 Nov 1867. She died 21 Nov 1869. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, was born 12 Oct 1868.
Later, in 1869 or the early 1870's, they moved to Bear River City, Utah area. They lived the first winter in a dugout in the side of the river bank. Later they built a two room cabin up off of the river bank. Their last three children were born there. They raised tomatoes and fed them to the hogs as they thought they were poison. They had several tomato fights and lickings to boot.
Alexander was born 3 Feb 1873. He died in September 1874. Rebecca Ann was born 25 Aug 1874. She died as a child. I believe both Alexander and Rebecca Ann were transported by train to Ogden and buried in the Hyrum Stow plot in the Ogden Cemetery. Nora Isabell was born 3 Feb 1876. She married Samuel Jason Palmer 30 Jan 1892. She died 10 Jan 1957 and is buried in Pocatello. Hyrum was Sunday School Superintendent while they lived there. There is a monument in Bear River City which includes the name of Hyrum Elliot Byington as one of the early settlers of that town.
Years later, as we would travel by car through the Bear River City area, mother always wanted to stop and see the old log cabin that is there. She always said that the cabin looked just like her home. She was just a young girl when the family moved away from there to go to Marsh Valley, Idaho but she must have had fond memories of growing up there.
Grandfather Hyrum Byington's family and other families were sent, along with Jefferson Hunt, to Oxford, Idaho to colonize Marsh Valley.
When my mother was a teenager, she lived at about 1 mile above Zenda railroad crossing which was about 5 miles from Swan Lake, Idaho. Indians used to come over the tracks. She would take the kids and hide them. One day she put them in the cupboards and closed the doors and she hid behind a box until they had left. Several times she gave all the fresh baked bread away. On one occasion, Mom and Dad were away and Hannah was in charge of the children. She looked out the window and could see the Indians coming, several wagons of them. The house was on a hill. There was also a hillside overlooking the house that was covered with tall sagebrush. This is where she took the children. She hid them well and waited for the Indians. Hannah waited and then she shouted from behind a bush, "Go away, there ain't no body home down there!" Luckily, the Indians never heard her. The Indians nosed around a bit and then left. (Aunt Nora told us, Lois and Thora, this story.)
Mother didn't go to school regularly. She'd go 1 or 2 days or a month to school and then maybe she wouldn't go at all. She went only to the 3rd grade. She taught herself to read and write after she was married.
Another family that was sent to Marsh Valley was the Thurston Larson family. One of the boys, Thomas Henry Larson, worked for Hyrum Elliot Byington helping with the cattle and sheep. His sister, Jane Larson met Steve Byington and this foursome, including my mother, would attend the church socials and other functions. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, and Thomas Henry Larson were married 30 Sep 1884 in Oxford, Onieda, Idaho. Aunt Jane Larson, a sister to Thomas Henry, and Stephen Elliot Byington, Hannah's brother, were married on the same day in a double wedding ceremony. My mother was a few days short of being 16 when she was married.
Jefferson Hunt was the first Bishop and my father, Thomas Henry Larson, was the first presiding elder in Grant Ward, Idaho. (There is no Grant Ward today.)
My parents lived in the vicinity of the Hyrum Elliot Byington ranch. They had nine children. First was Ester Elizabeth, 14 Oct 1885, next was Minnie Isabell, 23 Mar 1888, Henry Edwin, 5 Mar 1890, David Lorenzo, 19 Apr 1892, Carrie Lorinda, 4 Feb 1895, Archie Winfred, 17 Mar 1897, and Edith Dyintha, 26 Dec 1898.
When Edith was a baby, Father went on a mission and served 8 months at Anaconda, Montana. He would walk 10 to 25 miles a day. He went back to Nampa and Caldwell and Mountain Home (Indian Valley) He was there for 6 months. He became very ill and was sent home. He never did get very well.
Grandfather Hyrum Elliot Byington died in 1901. Since I was not born till 1902, I never did know my grandfather Byington.
Grandmother Hannah Dyantha Horr [Harr] Byington served as a midwife and a nurse in every community she lived in. She was skilled in the use of herbs and natural remedies. She was the midwife to my mother and brought me, Thora May, into the world 24 Feb 1902. I was born in the original log cabin on Steven Elliot's farm which is near the Byington family cemetery.
My father, Thomas Henry Larson, died 28 Dec 1903. He had typhoid pneumonia and had been ill ever since his mission. I was not quite two years old. I never did have a chance to know my father.
Mother had a baby on 15 July 1904, Thomas Horald, who died in January 1905 from pneumonia caused by a severe burn. In those days, all babies wore long dresses and Ester and Minnie were bathing the baby and they accidentally dropped him on the stove. They had shortened his clothes and were going to doll him up for grandmother when she came home. He may have kicked the oven door.
Aunt Lorinda Perkins told me (Lois Everton) the following:
Uncle Bert's mothers grandmother Canfield lived next door to grandmother Larson Higbee. She would give me (Thora) sugar cookies cut with a tomato can that would melt in my mouth. I used to come home from Sunday school and go over and grandmother Canfield would read me the funnies from the newspaper.
They moved from the ranch to a farm on the bench in Grant Ward a mile down the lane. They rented from Samuel Thomas for a year or so.
Mother told about us visiting her half sister Lorinda Hickman Stowe in Ogden.
She also told us about a molasses mill in Ogden and about going to get molasses whenever they went to Ogden. It was at about 31st street where an old brick kiln was above Adams. A large chimney marked the spot. This kiln was torn down about 1951. Lois used to walk by it while walking to Ogden High School.
Everyday at the end of the day, the children tucked in to bed. Mother cooked on an old black stove, a Monarch Range, that they kept really shined. They polished their shoes with soot from the back of the stove lids. Saturday night baths were the order of the day. We ate around a round table, knelt for prayer morning and evening and always, grandmother was there, living across from the church.
Mother remained single until I was about 6 years old. I would have been 7 in February and mother married Loren Higbee. We thought it was the most terrible thing mom could have done. Esther was working at Hides grocery store. She worked as a housekeeper. Minnie and Henry were staying at Parker, Idaho with Grandmother Larson. David and Lorinda and Archie were running the farm by the church. Edith and I mostly played. All the children cried and so I cried too. Higbee had two boys who were farmed out but two came to live with us. They were not trained and it really put a hardship on mother. Grandfather Higbee told about once working for her dad and whittled wood. He drank tea and coffee and smoked. He called grandmother "Little Hanner" or "Little Elizabeth" to make her mad. Eventually all the children left home to work or get married.
The Higbee boys that live with us were: Raymond, he lives in Pocatello now. Orval came first, then Raymond, and then Leon. Leon lives in Great Falls, Montana. Orval was 6 when he came. I was 7 years old at the time.
Higbee could not manage the farm and David left and got work with Chris Christensen. Henry came home for a visit. He and Lee Burrup went to a dance. They were driving a horse and buggy and they got in a wreck. They were going to Lone Pine for the night. They tipped over. Henry had a broken jaw and leg and a wrenched arm. Probably the wheels of the buggy locked and threw them. He laid several hours before help arrived. Lone Pine is 17 miles from Grant Ward and they had to ride a horse clear to Downey for the doctor.
David was helping Chris take trees out. They dug a hole one day to blow out the tree stumps on the farm and they didn't move far enough away. They were blown into the air. When David came down he was cut up badly, especially his face. Mother doctored him better.
Archie, Edith, and I were going to the pasture. Archie wanted me to get on the horse with him and Edith wanted me to get on with her. He went to shut the gate and she put me on her horse and handed me a willow and told me to hit the horse and I did. I fell on my shoulder and broke my collar bone. Mother bound up my shoulder till it healed. It was very painful.
Mom would send me out to the chicken coop. I was scared of the chickens. If Lorinda came out she would help me. If mother came out, I'd get a scolding.
We played hide and seek around the hay stacks. Beside the straw stacks were sacks of wheat piled up and we would play follow the leader and we all got stuck between two sack once and I couldn't get out. Archie help be get the sacks moved so I could get out.
We'd play dolls for hours at a time. Our cities were big and we use sticks for dolls and roses to decorate our homes with. Had trains and all for fun. Orval had a farm by himself so he didn't tease us so much.
Suzy Thomas, a friend and neighbor, had lots of money and a nice farm. Lorinda would tend their kids when she would go on trips to Salt Lake. When she returned, she would often bring us a little gift. This one time she gave me a beautiful Easter egg, a large one, white trimmed with colors. Mother made me share with Orval. I hated him for it. Suzy was always bringing me goodies and I always had to share. Susy had a wicker buggy. I just loved it. It had an umbrella attached. The Fort Bridger museum has one like it. (I went to this museum and did not find any buggy. Lois Everton)
Mother went for fruit on time and I was to go and I really wanted to. Edith was such a devil that she got to go instead of me. Good thing Lorinda was home as we made doll clothes and the folks were home in no time.
Mother used to make the very best Elder Berry pie. She always had some pork on the stove. After Mr. Higbee came, we always had sauerkraut by the barrels full. They'd kill one or two pigs at a time and put all the sausage to cure. Then they would put the sausage in salt sacks and hang it up to store.
Suzy Thomas' children I knew lived across from the school. Her house is still standing. Mildred, Vilda, Gwen, Conn, who was my age or younger, and another boy. She had lost two babies from ptomaine poisoning. She had lost her husband also. A tree fell on him.
Texie Thomas lived in a white brick home. We used to go get water at her house. We had a horse named Bud and he'd pull a two-wheeled cart with a barrel in it to carry the water in. Edith and I would go twice a day, early in the morning and again in the evening.
Texie's children:
Ray grade
Harold same grade
Helen lives in Grand Junction
Florance Evans, Tooele school principal
Earl drowned in Donnetta Hot Springs
Reed lives in Downey, works at bank.
Grandmother worked with Texie in MIA after Higbee married mother. About a year later (20 Nov 1909 Otto Fredrick Higbee was born in the house across from the church in Grant Ward. Steven Howard Higbee was born 21 July 1911 on a farm about one mile up the canyon. Both have died, Otto died 6 Mar 1945 and Howard died 12 Oct 1976.
When Howard was born, a doctor was called. Dr. Arnet was the first doctor to attend a birth of her children. When Howard was born, Mom had made a batch of root beer before the baby was born. It was in the cellar. Edith and I drank almost all of it. We had spotted fever here. This was on the hill.
We used to have lots of chickens. They used to go into the chicken coop and this old mean rooster would peck them on the head. Years later, when we cleaned out an old trunk we found their hats that still had blood stains on them. The trunk also had fabric used in Grandmother Byingtons's coffin and dress.
Meria Burrup, Suzy, and Texie Thomas were Hannah's life long friends.
Marty and Texie bought Higbee's farm and Ed Burrup bought the home by the church so we moved to Downey. Archie and I rode on a load of hay. Horses were tied on to the wagon and cows followed them. Mom and Mr. Higbee and the boys looked after the cows. Archie and I cried all the way to town. When Ed bought the farm in Grant Ward, he had a contractor build the house in Downey. No running water or bath was put in. David and Archie put in the water later.
After we moved to Downey we had a picture taken in front of our house. I had a doll given to me that first Christmas. I called it Burt because it had a receding hair line like Burt.
When we moved to Downey, Edith said I couldn't make the grade and she insisted I should stay in the 3rd grade so I did.
Minnie came home when we were in Grant Ward once before her marriage. She came home for supper and a wedding cake. Mother took the top off of the cake and put it in an old clock. It was a fruit cake with white frosting, silver droplets and roses and leaves for trimmings. Edith and I used to eat separate from the others at times would pick a little of the frosting off to lick. This was the first wedding cake I'd ever seen.
Lorinda got a job in Downey working at the telephone company. One night while working, she fainted. Her corset had been cinched up too tight.
Henry left on a mission. He spent two years in the field. Chattanooga, Tennessee was his mission headquarters. He got yellow fever. Lost the use of his legs and came home early. He left from Grant Ward I think. He came home on the train. They brought him home on a stretcher. He was sick for about six months. Mother nursed him back to health. When he regained his health, he met Zanetta Wakley and married her.
Winifred, Henry's baby, was born one year later. Henry died when Winfred was three during the flu epidemic of 1918. David (? Not David Lorenzo) and Henry and Mr. Higbee's brother, Fred all died in this epidemic.
Mother had rheumatic fever about the same time as I did and she had to be turned with the bed sheets for she hurt so badly.
When Henry was well, he ran a barber shop in front of the pool hall. They had two pool tables. This was probably the first of David's troubles. It hurt mother to see her boy smoke as he had been so faithful. Archie was working for Thomas Thomas, Suzy's husband and Stoddarts. He met Annie Lauree Denny at a dance in Swan Lake, Idaho.
David helped to dig Henrys grave when I was so ill. No funeral was held, just a ceremony in the home. I watched from the window. Higbee came to my bedroom door with a fry pan of potatoes and asked if I wanted some. I couldn't eat a thing. Mother went and stayed two days and two nights until Henry died. Lorinda met Burt Perkins at a dance. The Perkins ran a livery stable in Downey. Lorinda married Burt on 22 Jan 1914. They moved to Chesterfield. They were caretakers of the dam. She cooked for the surveyors. Their first baby died and was buried in the Downey cemetery. They lived in Chesterfield for seven months. Edith went to visit during the summer. Here she met Chanuncy Call. Lorinda moved back to Downey in Perkins home, located on the west side of the old home in Downey. It was a white frame house and faced east.
David worked in the pool hall. He met Frank Bloxum who drank a good deal. Eventually David met and married Frank's sister, Bess. The business was sold to Fred Higbee and David moved to the slough area. Henry had a farm on the Malad Divide. He sold his barber shop to help build a house. This is how the Higbee's acquired a farm there. Archie bought the farm in the canyon and had a team of horses.
I lived with David after Judith was born. Then when Archie was married, I stayed with Annie and Archie in the log cabin. There was a flash flood. As the baby chickens came by the door of the house they caught them. We saved 7 or 8 of them.
David's children
Judith
Edith
Emma Jean
Cleo
Sunny
another girl
Lorinda's children
Thomas died , buried in Downey cemetery
Harold
Wayne
Dean died, buried in Logan cemetery
Bettey
Verna Lou
Archie married Annie Denney 3 Dec 1915
Ivalue
Henry
Jean
Lavern
Roy
Glenys
Reed and
Rex - twins. Rex died the same day
Edith married Sidney Chauncey Call in Pocatello 8 Apr 1915
Rose
Raldo
Robert, died as a child
Revis
Richard and Randall, twins. Both died in one day.
divorced and re-married to Herbert Golwey Emmens
One time mother's (Hannah Elizabeth Byington) kidneys stopped functioning properly and Archie took mother to Pocatello to the doctor. She never did forgive them for this. However she was made well.
Mother was made first councilor in Mutual. We went to church 3 times on Sunday. Sunday School, Priesthood Meeting, and Sacrament meeting in the evening. Primary was always on Tuesday after school. MIA was on Wednesday evenings.
Sometime in the 50's, about 1954, Thora, Lloyd Jean, Lois and Dean Morrison went up to Downey to Grandma Higbee's home and talked her into coming home with us to live.
She loved root beer floats. She loved little children and all her life she stood up for them, sang to them, and sheltered them.
Jean took her for an airplane ride over the Ogden Valley, Eden, and Huntsville areas. She loved it.
In the evening we would take a ride in our old ford station wagon. We would drive up the streets on the benches where we could look out and see the lights of the city come on all over Ogden. She loved to look at the city lights.
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The following is thoughts and memories of her grandmother by Lois Ann Morrison Everton:
When I was a little girl my parents would take our family up to Downey for a visit with Grandmother by this time she had married Mr. Loren Higbee, he was the only grandpa I remember.
One time I visited the Higbees and grandpa had one of his legs gone. He had a wooden leg but did not wear it all the time. This scared me. Never the less I sat upon his knee and grandmother came and stood by the chair and we had a picture taken. He called me "brown eyed Susan" after the flowers. Also "Little Izabell" he called me. He was very kind and loving. Grand mother had a back bedroom and in one corner was a little metal bed. It had a lovely baby doll in it and other dolls. Loved these dolls and I think it sparked a love for dolls in my life. She would let me hold the dolls if I was careful. In the kitchen there was a large Monarch range that just shone. It had a top shelf. This was probably where the yeast starter was kept. It was polished to a shine. In the middle of the kitchen was a large white round table and several chairs. My mother, Thora, said that the chairs were turned out daily and everyone kneeled in prayer and then the chairs were turned in and every one had a good time eating and talking.
On the left hand side of the house there were two light purple Lilac bushes. One time when Aunt Nora Isabell Byington Palmer came for a visit I took their picture by the Lilac bushes. Nora and Grandmother did not always have the same opinions on every thing. But they still loved each other very much. I loved to hear the Indian stories Nora told. These two Ladies were the last of the great Pioneers. Years later Aunt Nora came to my Weber College Seminary Graduation. She stood in line with me and Mother and Dad. She said it was a great thrill of her life time. I wrote to Nora until she died.
In the "good ole days" grandma had an out house. I was always afraid of it. They told me that one of Uncle David's little girls fell in and died. In l942 during the Second World War Uncle Archie Larson and Pop Morrison, my dad, and others came to stay a while and they built an indoor bathroom on the back porch area. It turned out nice. The Front room was on the right side of the house. This is where the old leather couch that made into a bed was. It wasn't very comfortable at all. A large rocking chair was their as well as an overstuff chair. Seems like she had a carpet over linoleum. At one time there was a good fence and gate to the front yard. The house still looks good from the outside.
Mother gave me the rocking chair and when we moved to California. I gave it to my brother Roy Dean Morrison. They have since restored it. When I was little I would climb into it and put my feet through the large hole in the back and put my feet on the rockers and rock myself. Many an hour of fun was spent in this large rocking chair.
June's girls Pam, Chris, and Patsy just loved all the attention grandmother gave to them.
I loved to watch her put up her hair. She would get a brown paper sack and tear it into little two-inch pieces and rolled up her bangs in the paper and twisted them close. When it was all dry and taken out, she had cute little curls all along her head.
Hannah Elizabeth was five feet tall. She wore a size 16 dress that went down to her ankles. She liked shopping at JC Penney's. They had a pair of black hushpuppy slippers with a black tassel on the top-front on the slippers. They looked real cute on her. I have several of her dress pins. I treasure them.
She loved to crochet and embroider. She had a whole dresser full of nice things. She had name tags on most of them. She felt bad when the people tending her house went in and took several items. She handed down to us Hannah Dyantha's crochet hook that came across the plains to Utah and then on to Idaho.
When Mr. Higbee had a stroke and could not talk, he motioned with his eyes. She looked in the mattress and found some money. He also had her look in his coat and she found some more sewn into the lining. She had just enough to bury him when he died.
Stephen Elliot Byington was grandmother's brother who had passed away. Grandmother Higbee would often take naps in the chair and wake up and talk about uncle Steve. She would often say, "Oh Stephen, I can't go with you yet. I'm not ready yet!" She repeated this twice and then later she asked where Steve was. This happened many times during the last months of grandmother's life.
Thora and Jean took grandmother to the doctor. He said for as old as she was she was in good shape and she may live a long time. I come home in August. It was deer hunting season and dad wanted mom to go out to Vernal with them. I was left to take care of grandmother.
I was hoping all would be well. Grandmother's legs were purple up to her knees. I suspect she had diabetes. She may also have had cancer. One night, I helped her sit up because she could not breath well. She seemed really cold. She made me promise that I would take her home and get her some herbs. I later learned that she had learned about the use of herbs from her mother.
I sat grandmother up and held her and she didn't feel very well. I called my sister June on the phone. She was a nurse. I asked her what to do. She had me give grandmother 2 teaspoons of paregoric in half a glass of water. She took it well and settled back to sleep. In the night she wanted to sit up and I put her head on my shoulder. She just slowly quit breathing. I feel that she had quietly passed on to the next world.
June came down to the house. We called my friend, the mortician, Brother Calderwood, who came along with Doctor Rich who pronounced her dead. She died at our home at 3274 Grant Ave., in Ogden, Utah at 4:10 AM on 23 Oct 1955. She was 86 years old.
Relief Society records written by Lorinda who was the secretary:
Name in full: Hannah Elizabeth Byington
Residence: Downey, Idaho
Born At: Ogden Utah, Weber County, 12 Oct. 1868-9
Blessed by:
Baptized by: Hyrum Elliot Byington 3 Dec 1891
Confirmed by: Charles Thornton
Schooling commenced at Oxford, Idaho
Ordained 1st councilor to Relief Society by Thomas H. Larson 1896
Married to Thomas Henry Larson by A. F. Caldwell at Oxford, Idaho 30 Sept. 1884
Endowed at Logan Temple 12 Sept. 1894
Patriarchal Blessing by Milo Andrus 14 Dec 1890
Height 5 ft.
Color of eyes blue, brown hair, general health very good
Special interests: children, clean house, embroidery, crochet
Children:
Ester Elizabeth Larson
Minnie Isabell Larson
Henry Edwin Larson
David Lorenzo Larson
Carrie Lorinda Larson
Archie Winford Larson
Edith Dyintha Larson
Thora May Larson
Thomas Horald Larson
Otto Fredarick Higbee
Stephen Howard Higbee
Taken from LDS Family Record and Index to Individual History Pages, sample sheet
Hannah Elizabeth Byington
My Mother
by Thora May Larson Morrison
The following information was told to me by my mother, Thora May Larson Morrison, about 1958 through 1963. It is written as if she were speaking. I took notes in longhand and typed them up 23 June 2000. Lois Ann Morrison Everton
My mother's name was Hannah Elizabeth Byington, Hannah E. Larson, and Grandmother Hannah Higbee, depending on the time period of her life.
My mother' parents were Hannah Dyantha Harr and Hyrum Elliot Byington.
Joseph Young and Hyrum Norton Byington were trail herdsmen for Brigham Young. Most likely, Brigham Young introduced Hannah Dyantha Harr to Hyrum Elliot Byington, the son of Hyrum Norton Byington. Grandmother married grandfather on 18 Feb 1861 in Salt Lake City. They were later sealed in the Endowment House by Pres. Brigham Young 13 Oct 1873. Grandfather [Hyrum Elliot] Byington came to Utah in 1860. He was born 14 Oct 1830 on Lake Erie.
Grandmother and Grandfather and other families were sent with Jefferson Hunt to Ogden Valley (Huntsville and Eden valley) help establish a settlement there. Their first five children were born here. The first, Hyrum Norton, 30 Dec 1861. He fell off a roof when he was still a young man and died 25 Nov 1879 at 18 years of age. Next, Joseph Henry was born 28 Dec 1862. He married Rosetta Hunt 10 June 1882. She lived to be over 100 years old. Joseph died 3 May 1929. Stephen Elliot was born 12 Jan 1866 in Eden. He married Elizabeth Jane Larson 30 Sep 1884. Stephen later married Isabell Burt Nelson 1918 and later Maude Lenora Mikesell April 1925. He died 15 Mar 1940. Sarah Jane was born 14 Nov 1867. She died 21 Nov 1869. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, was born 12 Oct 1868.
Later, in 1869 or the early 1870's, they moved to Bear River City, Utah area. They lived the first winter in a dugout in the side of the river bank. Later they built a two room cabin up off of the river bank. Their last three children were born there. They raised tomatoes and fed them to the hogs as they thought they were poison. They had several tomato fights and lickings to boot.
Alexander was born 3 Feb 1873. He died in September 1874. Rebecca Ann was born 25 Aug 1874. She died as a child. I believe both Alexander and Rebecca Ann were transported by train to Ogden and buried in the Hyrum Stow plot in the Ogden Cemetery. Nora Isabell was born 3 Feb 1876. She married Samuel Jason Palmer 30 Jan 1892. She died 10 Jan 1957 and is buried in Pocatello. Hyrum was Sunday School Superintendent while they lived there. There is a monument in Bear River City which includes the name of Hyrum Elliot Byington as one of the early settlers of that town.
Years later, as we would travel by car through the Bear River City area, mother always wanted to stop and see the old log cabin that is there. She always said that the cabin looked just like her home. She was just a young girl when the family moved away from there to go to Marsh Valley, Idaho but she must have had fond memories of growing up there.
Grandfather Hyrum Byington's family and other families were sent, along with Jefferson Hunt, to Oxford, Idaho to colonize Marsh Valley.
When my mother was a teenager, she lived at about 1 mile above Zenda railroad crossing which was about 5 miles from Swan Lake, Idaho. Indians used to come over the tracks. She would take the kids and hide them. One day she put them in the cupboards and closed the doors and she hid behind a box until they had left. Several times she gave all the fresh baked bread away. On one occasion, Mom and Dad were away and Hannah was in charge of the children. She looked out the window and could see the Indians coming, several wagons of them. The house was on a hill. There was also a hillside overlooking the house that was covered with tall sagebrush. This is where she took the children. She hid them well and waited for the Indians. Hannah waited and then she shouted from behind a bush, "Go away, there ain't no body home down there!" Luckily, the Indians never heard her. The Indians nosed around a bit and then left. (Aunt Nora told us, Lois and Thora, this story.)
Mother didn't go to school regularly. She'd go 1 or 2 days or a month to school and then maybe she wouldn't go at all. She went only to the 3rd grade. She taught herself to read and write after she was married.
Another family that was sent to Marsh Valley was the Thurston Larson family. One of the boys, Thomas Henry Larson, worked for Hyrum Elliot Byington helping with the cattle and sheep. His sister, Jane Larson met Steve Byington and this foursome, including my mother, would attend the church socials and other functions. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, and Thomas Henry Larson were married 30 Sep 1884 in Oxford, Onieda, Idaho. Aunt Jane Larson, a sister to Thomas Henry, and Stephen Elliot Byington, Hannah's brother, were married on the same day in a double wedding ceremony. My mother was a few days short of being 16 when she was married.
Jefferson Hunt was the first Bishop and my father, Thomas Henry Larson, was the first presiding elder in Grant Ward, Idaho. (There is no Grant Ward today.)
My parents lived in the vicinity of the Hyrum Elliot Byington ranch. They had nine children. First was Ester Elizabeth, 14 Oct 1885, next was Minnie Isabell, 23 Mar 1888, Henry Edwin, 5 Mar 1890, David Lorenzo, 19 Apr 1892, Carrie Lorinda, 4 Feb 1895, Archie Winfred, 17 Mar 1897, and Edith Dyintha, 26 Dec 1898.
When Edith was a baby, Father went on a mission and served 8 months at Anaconda, Montana. He would walk 10 to 25 miles a day. He went back to Nampa and Caldwell and Mountain Home (Indian Valley) He was there for 6 months. He became very ill and was sent home. He never did get very well.
Grandfather Hyrum Elliot Byington died in 1901. Since I was not born till 1902, I never did know my grandfather Byington.
Grandmother Hannah Dyantha Horr [Harr] Byington served as a midwife and a nurse in every community she lived in. She was skilled in the use of herbs and natural remedies. She was the midwife to my mother and brought me, Thora May, into the world 24 Feb 1902. I was born in the original log cabin on Steven Elliot's farm which is near the Byington family cemetery.
My father, Thomas Henry Larson, died 28 Dec 1903. He had typhoid pneumonia and had been ill ever since his mission. I was not quite two years old. I never did have a chance to know my father.
Mother had a baby on 15 July 1904, Thomas Horald, who died in January 1905 from pneumonia caused by a severe burn. In those days, all babies wore long dresses and Ester and Minnie were bathing the baby and they accidentally dropped him on the stove. They had shortened his clothes and were going to doll him up for grandmother when she came home. He may have kicked the oven door.
Aunt Lorinda Perkins told me (Lois Everton) the following:
Uncle Bert's mothers grandmother Canfield lived next door to grandmother Larson Higbee. She would give me (Thora) sugar cookies cut with a tomato can that would melt in my mouth. I used to come home from Sunday school and go over and grandmother Canfield would read me the funnies from the newspaper.
They moved from the ranch to a farm on the bench in Grant Ward a mile down the lane. They rented from Samuel Thomas for a year or so.
Mother told about us visiting her half sister Lorinda Hickman Stowe in Ogden.
She also told us about a molasses mill in Ogden and about going to get molasses whenever they went to Ogden. It was at about 31st street where an old brick kiln was above Adams. A large chimney marked the spot. This kiln was torn down about 1951. Lois used to walk by it while walking to Ogden High School.
Everyday at the end of the day, the children tucked in to bed. Mother cooked on an old black stove, a Monarch Range, that they kept really shined. They polished their shoes with soot from the back of the stove lids. Saturday night baths were the order of the day. We ate around a round table, knelt for prayer morning and evening and always, grandmother was there, living across from the church.
Mother remained single until I was about 6 years old. I would have been 7 in February and mother married Loren Higbee. We thought it was the most terrible thing mom could have done. Esther was working at Hides grocery store. She worked as a housekeeper. Minnie and Henry were staying at Parker, Idaho with Grandmother Larson. David and Lorinda and Archie were running the farm by the church. Edith and I mostly played. All the children cried and so I cried too. Higbee had two boys who were farmed out but two came to live with us. They were not trained and it really put a hardship on mother. Grandfather Higbee told about once working for her dad and whittled wood. He drank tea and coffee and smoked. He called grandmother "Little Hanner" or "Little Elizabeth" to make her mad. Eventually all the children left home to work or get married.
The Higbee boys that live with us were: Raymond, he lives in Pocatello now. Orval came first, then Raymond, and then Leon. Leon lives in Great Falls, Montana. Orval was 6 when he came. I was 7 years old at the time.
Higbee could not manage the farm and David left and got work with Chris Christensen. Henry came home for a visit. He and Lee Burrup went to a dance. They were driving a horse and buggy and they got in a wreck. They were going to Lone Pine for the night. They tipped over. Henry had a broken jaw and leg and a wrenched arm. Probably the wheels of the buggy locked and threw them. He laid several hours before help arrived. Lone Pine is 17 miles from Grant Ward and they had to ride a horse clear to Downey for the doctor.
David was helping Chris take trees out. They dug a hole one day to blow out the tree stumps on the farm and they didn't move far enough away. They were blown into the air. When David came down he was cut up badly, especially his face. Mother doctored him better.
Archie, Edith, and I were going to the pasture. Archie wanted me to get on the horse with him and Edith wanted me to get on with her. He went to shut the gate and she put me on her horse and handed me a willow and told me to hit the horse and I did. I fell on my shoulder and broke my collar bone. Mother bound up my shoulder till it healed. It was very painful.
Mom would send me out to the chicken coop. I was scared of the chickens. If Lorinda came out she would help me. If mother came out, I'd get a scolding.
We played hide and seek around the hay stacks. Beside the straw stacks were sacks of wheat piled up and we would play follow the leader and we all got stuck between two sack once and I couldn't get out. Archie help be get the sacks moved so I could get out.
We'd play dolls for hours at a time. Our cities were big and we use sticks for dolls and roses to decorate our homes with. Had trains and all for fun. Orval had a farm by himself so he didn't tease us so much.
Suzy Thomas, a friend and neighbor, had lots of money and a nice farm. Lorinda would tend their kids when she would go on trips to Salt Lake. When she returned, she would often bring us a little gift. This one time she gave me a beautiful Easter egg, a large one, white trimmed with colors. Mother made me share with Orval. I hated him for it. Suzy was always bringing me goodies and I always had to share. Susy had a wicker buggy. I just loved it. It had an umbrella attached. The Fort Bridger museum has one like it. (I went to this museum and did not find any buggy. Lois Everton)
Mother went for fruit on time and I was to go and I really wanted to. Edith was such a devil that she got to go instead of me. Good thing Lorinda was home as we made doll clothes and the folks were home in no time.
Mother used to make the very best Elder Berry pie. She always had some pork on the stove. After Mr. Higbee came, we always had sauerkraut by the barrels full. They'd kill one or two pigs at a time and put all the sausage to cure. Then they would put the sausage in salt sacks and hang it up to store.
Suzy Thomas' children I knew lived across from the school. Her house is still standing. Mildred, Vilda, Gwen, Conn, who was my age or younger, and another boy. She had lost two babies from ptomaine poisoning. She had lost her husband also. A tree fell on him.
Texie Thomas lived in a white brick home. We used to go get water at her house. We had a horse named Bud and he'd pull a two-wheeled cart with a barrel in it to carry the water in. Edith and I would go twice a day, early in the morning and again in the evening.
Texie's children:
Ray grade
Harold same grade
Helen lives in Grand Junction
Florance Evans, Tooele school principal
Earl drowned in Donnetta Hot Springs
Reed lives in Downey, works at bank.
Grandmother worked with Texie in MIA after Higbee married mother. About a year later (20 Nov 1909 Otto Fredrick Higbee was born in the house across from the church in Grant Ward. Steven Howard Higbee was born 21 July 1911 on a farm about one mile up the canyon. Both have died, Otto died 6 Mar 1945 and Howard died 12 Oct 1976.
When Howard was born, a doctor was called. Dr. Arnet was the first doctor to attend a birth of her children. When Howard was born, Mom had made a batch of root beer before the baby was born. It was in the cellar. Edith and I drank almost all of it. We had spotted fever here. This was on the hill.
We used to have lots of chickens. They used to go into the chicken coop and this old mean rooster would peck them on the head. Years later, when we cleaned out an old trunk we found their hats that still had blood stains on them. The trunk also had fabric used in Grandmother Byingtons's coffin and dress.
Meria Burrup, Suzy, and Texie Thomas were Hannah's life long friends.
Marty and Texie bought Higbee's farm and Ed Burrup bought the home by the church so we moved to Downey. Archie and I rode on a load of hay. Horses were tied on to the wagon and cows followed them. Mom and Mr. Higbee and the boys looked after the cows. Archie and I cried all the way to town. When Ed bought the farm in Grant Ward, he had a contractor build the house in Downey. No running water or bath was put in. David and Archie put in the water later.
After we moved to Downey we had a picture taken in front of our house. I had a doll given to me that first Christmas. I called it Burt because it had a receding hair line like Burt.
When we moved to Downey, Edith said I couldn't make the grade and she insisted I should stay in the 3rd grade so I did.
Minnie came home when we were in Grant Ward once before her marriage. She came home for supper and a wedding cake. Mother took the top off of the cake and put it in an old clock. It was a fruit cake with white frosting, silver droplets and roses and leaves for trimmings. Edith and I used to eat separate from the others at times would pick a little of the frosting off to lick. This was the first wedding cake I'd ever seen.
Lorinda got a job in Downey working at the telephone company. One night while working, she fainted. Her corset had been cinched up too tight.
Henry left on a mission. He spent two years in the field. Chattanooga, Tennessee was his mission headquarters. He got yellow fever. Lost the use of his legs and came home early. He left from Grant Ward I think. He came home on the train. They brought him home on a stretcher. He was sick for about six months. Mother nursed him back to health. When he regained his health, he met Zanetta Wakley and married her.
Winifred, Henry's baby, was born one year later. Henry died when Winfred was three during the flu epidemic of 1918. David (? Not David Lorenzo) and Henry and Mr. Higbee's brother, Fred all died in this epidemic.
Mother had rheumatic fever about the same time as I did and she had to be turned with the bed sheets for she hurt so badly.
When Henry was well, he ran a barber shop in front of the pool hall. They had two pool tables. This was probably the first of David's troubles. It hurt mother to see her boy smoke as he had been so faithful. Archie was working for Thomas Thomas, Suzy's husband and Stoddarts. He met Annie Lauree Denny at a dance in Swan Lake, Idaho.
David helped to dig Henrys grave when I was so ill. No funeral was held, just a ceremony in the home. I watched from the window. Higbee came to my bedroom door with a fry pan of potatoes and asked if I wanted some. I couldn't eat a thing. Mother went and stayed two days and two nights until Henry died. Lorinda met Burt Perkins at a dance. The Perkins ran a livery stable in Downey. Lorinda married Burt on 22 Jan 1914. They moved to Chesterfield. They were caretakers of the dam. She cooked for the surveyors. Their first baby died and was buried in the Downey cemetery. They lived in Chesterfield for seven months. Edith went to visit during the summer. Here she met Chanuncy Call. Lorinda moved back to Downey in Perkins home, located on the west side of the old home in Downey. It was a white frame house and faced east.
David worked in the pool hall. He met Frank Bloxum who drank a good deal. Eventually David met and married Frank's sister, Bess. The business was sold to Fred Higbee and David moved to the slough area. Henry had a farm on the Malad Divide. He sold his barber shop to help build a house. This is how the Higbee's acquired a farm there. Archie bought the farm in the canyon and had a team of horses.
I lived with David after Judith was born. Then when Archie was married, I stayed with Annie and Archie in the log cabin. There was a flash flood. As the baby chickens came by the door of the house they caught them. We saved 7 or 8 of them.
David's children
Judith
Edith
Emma Jean
Cleo
Sunny
another girl
Lorinda's children
Thomas died , buried in Downey cemetery
Harold
Wayne
Dean died, buried in Logan cemetery
Bettey
Verna Lou
Archie married Annie Denney 3 Dec 1915
Ivalue
Henry
Jean
Lavern
Roy
Glenys
Reed and
Rex - twins. Rex died the same day
Edith married Sidney Chauncey Call in Pocatello 8 Apr 1915
Rose
Raldo
Robert, died as a child
Revis
Richard and Randall, twins. Both died in one day.
divorced and re-married to Herbert Golwey Emmens
One time mother's (Hannah Elizabeth Byington) kidneys stopped functioning properly and Archie took mother to Pocatello to the doctor. She never did forgive them for this. However she was made well.
Mother was made first councilor in Mutual. We went to church 3 times on Sunday. Sunday School, Priesthood Meeting, and Sacrament meeting in the evening. Primary was always on Tuesday after school. MIA was on Wednesday evenings.
Sometime in the 50's, about 1954, Thora, Lloyd Jean, Lois and Dean Morrison went up to Downey to Grandma Higbee's home and talked her into coming home with us to live.
She loved root beer floats. She loved little children and all her life she stood up for them, sang to them, and sheltered them.
Jean took her for an airplane ride over the Ogden Valley, Eden, and Huntsville areas. She loved it.
In the evening we would take a ride in our old ford station wagon. We would drive up the streets on the benches where we could look out and see the lights of the city come on all over Ogden. She loved to look at the city lights.
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The following is thoughts and memories of her grandmother by Lois Ann Morrison Everton:
When I was a little girl my parents would take our family up to Downey for a visit with Grandmother by this time she had married Mr. Loren Higbee, he was the only grandpa I remember.
One time I visited the Higbees and grandpa had one of his legs gone. He had a wooden leg but did not wear it all the time. This scared me. Never the less I sat upon his knee and grandmother came and stood by the chair and we had a picture taken. He called me "brown eyed Susan" after the flowers. Also "Little Izabell" he called me. He was very kind and loving. Grand mother had a back bedroom and in one corner was a little metal bed. It had a lovely baby doll in it and other dolls. Loved these dolls and I think it sparked a love for dolls in my life. She would let me hold the dolls if I was careful. In the kitchen there was a large Monarch range that just shone. It had a top shelf. This was probably where the yeast starter was kept. It was polished to a shine. In the middle of the kitchen was a large white round table and several chairs. My mother, Thora, said that the chairs were turned out daily and everyone kneeled in prayer and then the chairs were turned in and every one had a good time eating and talking.
On the left hand side of the house there were two light purple Lilac bushes. One time when Aunt Nora Isabell Byington Palmer came for a visit I took their picture by the Lilac bushes. Nora and Grandmother did not always have the same opinions on every thing. But they still loved each other very much. I loved to hear the Indian stories Nora told. These two Ladies were the last of the great Pioneers. Years later Aunt Nora came to my Weber College Seminary Graduation. She stood in line with me and Mother and Dad. She said it was a great thrill of her life time. I wrote to Nora until she died.
In the "good ole days" grandma had an out house. I was always afraid of it. They told me that one of Uncle David's little girls fell in and died. In l942 during the Second World War Uncle Archie Larson and Pop Morrison, my dad, and others came to stay a while and they built an indoor bathroom on the back porch area. It turned out nice. The Front room was on the right side of the house. This is where the old leather couch that made into a bed was. It wasn't very comfortable at all. A large rocking chair was their as well as an overstuff chair. Seems like she had a carpet over linoleum. At one time there was a good fence and gate to the front yard. The house still looks good from the outside.
Mother gave me the rocking chair and when we moved to California. I gave it to my brother Roy Dean Morrison. They have since restored it. When I was little I would climb into it and put my feet through the large hole in the back and put my feet on the rockers and rock myself. Many an hour of fun was spent in this large rocking chair.
June's girls Pam, Chris, and Patsy just loved all the attention grandmother gave to them.
I loved to watch her put up her hair. She would get a brown paper sack and tear it into little two-inch pieces and rolled up her bangs in the paper and twisted them close. When it was all dry and taken out, she had cute little curls all along her head.
Hannah Elizabeth was five feet tall. She wore a size 16 dress that went down to her ankles. She liked shopping at JC Penney's. They had a pair of black hushpuppy slippers with a black tassel on the top-front on the slippers. They looked real cute on her. I have several of her dress pins. I treasure them.
She loved to crochet and embroider. She had a whole dresser full of nice things. She had name tags on most of them. She felt bad when the people tending her house went in and took several items. She handed down to us Hannah Dyantha's crochet hook that came across the plains to Utah and then on to Idaho.
When Mr. Higbee had a stroke and could not talk, he motioned with his eyes. She looked in the mattress and found some money. He also had her look in his coat and she found some more sewn into the lining. She had just enough to bury him when he died.
Stephen Elliot Byington was grandmother's brother who had passed away. Grandmother Higbee would often take naps in the chair and wake up and talk about uncle Steve. She would often say, "Oh Stephen, I can't go with you yet. I'm not ready yet!" She repeated this twice and then later she asked where Steve was. This happened many times during the last months of grandmother's life.
Thora and Jean took grandmother to the doctor. He said for as old as she was she was in good shape and she may live a long time. I come home in August. It was deer hunting season and dad wanted mom to go out to Vernal with them. I was left to take care of grandmother.
I was hoping all would be well. Grandmother's legs were purple up to her knees. I suspect she had diabetes. She may also have had cancer. One night, I helped her sit up because she could not breath well. She seemed really cold. She made me promise that I would take her home and get her some herbs. I later learned that she had learned about the use of herbs from her mother.
I sat grandmother up and held her and she didn't feel very well. I called my sister June on the phone. She was a nurse. I asked her what to do. She had me give grandmother 2 teaspoons of paregoric in half a glass of water. She took it well and settled back to sleep. In the night she wanted to sit up and I put her head on my shoulder. She just slowly quit breathing. I feel that she had quietly passed on to the next world.
June came down to the house. We called my friend, the mortician, Brother Calderwood, who came along with Doctor Rich who pronounced her dead. She died at our home at 3274 Grant Ave., in Ogden, Utah at 4:10 AM on 23 Oct 1955. She was 86 years old.
Relief Society records written by Lorinda who was the secretary:
Name in full: Hannah Elizabeth Byington
Residence: Downey, Idaho
Born At: Ogden Utah, Weber County, 12 Oct. 1868-9
Blessed by:
Baptized by: Hyrum Elliot Byington 3 Dec 1891
Confirmed by: Charles Thornton
Schooling commenced at Oxford, Idaho
Ordained 1st councilor to Relief Society by Thomas H. Larson 1896
Married to Thomas Henry Larson by A. F. Caldwell at Oxford, Idaho 30 Sept. 1884
Endowed at Logan Temple 12 Sept. 1894
Patriarchal Blessing by Milo Andrus 14 Dec 1890
Height 5 ft.
Color of eyes blue, brown hair, general health very good
Special interests: children, clean house, embroidery, crochet
Children:
Ester Elizabeth Larson
Minnie Isabell Larson
Henry Edwin Larson
David Lorenzo Larson
Carrie Lorinda Larson
Archie Winford Larson
Edith Dyintha Larson
Thora May Larson
Thomas Horald Larson
Otto Fredarick Higbee
Stephen Howard Higbee
Taken from LDS Family Record and Index to Individual History Pages, sample sheet
My Mother
by Thora May Larson Morrison
The following information was told to me by my mother, Thora May Larson Morrison, about 1958 through 1963. It is written as if she were speaking. I took notes in longhand and typed them up 23 June 2000. Lois Ann Morrison Everton
My mother's name was Hannah Elizabeth Byington, Hannah E. Larson, and Grandmother Hannah Higbee, depending on the time period of her life.
My mother' parents were Hannah Dyantha Harr and Hyrum Elliot Byington.
Joseph Young and Hyrum Norton Byington were trail herdsmen for Brigham Young. Most likely, Brigham Young introduced Hannah Dyantha Harr to Hyrum Elliot Byington, the son of Hyrum Norton Byington. Grandmother married grandfather on 18 Feb 1861 in Salt Lake City. They were later sealed in the Endowment House by Pres. Brigham Young 13 Oct 1873. Grandfather [Hyrum Elliot] Byington came to Utah in 1860. He was born 14 Oct 1830 on Lake Erie.
Grandmother and Grandfather and other families were sent with Jefferson Hunt to Ogden Valley (Huntsville and Eden valley) help establish a settlement there. Their first five children were born here. The first, Hyrum Norton, 30 Dec 1861. He fell off a roof when he was still a young man and died 25 Nov 1879 at 18 years of age. Next, Joseph Henry was born 28 Dec 1862. He married Rosetta Hunt 10 June 1882. She lived to be over 100 years old. Joseph died 3 May 1929. Stephen Elliot was born 12 Jan 1866 in Eden. He married Elizabeth Jane Larson 30 Sep 1884. Stephen later married Isabell Burt Nelson 1918 and later Maude Lenora Mikesell April 1925. He died 15 Mar 1940. Sarah Jane was born 14 Nov 1867. She died 21 Nov 1869. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, was born 12 Oct 1868.
Later, in 1869 or the early 1870's, they moved to Bear River City, Utah area. They lived the first winter in a dugout in the side of the river bank. Later they built a two room cabin up off of the river bank. Their last three children were born there. They raised tomatoes and fed them to the hogs as they thought they were poison. They had several tomato fights and lickings to boot.
Alexander was born 3 Feb 1873. He died in September 1874. Rebecca Ann was born 25 Aug 1874. She died as a child. I believe both Alexander and Rebecca Ann were transported by train to Ogden and buried in the Hyrum Stow plot in the Ogden Cemetery. Nora Isabell was born 3 Feb 1876. She married Samuel Jason Palmer 30 Jan 1892. She died 10 Jan 1957 and is buried in Pocatello. Hyrum was Sunday School Superintendent while they lived there. There is a monument in Bear River City which includes the name of Hyrum Elliot Byington as one of the early settlers of that town.
Years later, as we would travel by car through the Bear River City area, mother always wanted to stop and see the old log cabin that is there. She always said that the cabin looked just like her home. She was just a young girl when the family moved away from there to go to Marsh Valley, Idaho but she must have had fond memories of growing up there.
Grandfather Hyrum Byington's family and other families were sent, along with Jefferson Hunt, to Oxford, Idaho to colonize Marsh Valley.
When my mother was a teenager, she lived at about 1 mile above Zenda railroad crossing which was about 5 miles from Swan Lake, Idaho. Indians used to come over the tracks. She would take the kids and hide them. One day she put them in the cupboards and closed the doors and she hid behind a box until they had left. Several times she gave all the fresh baked bread away. On one occasion, Mom and Dad were away and Hannah was in charge of the children. She looked out the window and could see the Indians coming, several wagons of them. The house was on a hill. There was also a hillside overlooking the house that was covered with tall sagebrush. This is where she took the children. She hid them well and waited for the Indians. Hannah waited and then she shouted from behind a bush, "Go away, there ain't no body home down there!" Luckily, the Indians never heard her. The Indians nosed around a bit and then left. (Aunt Nora told us, Lois and Thora, this story.)
Mother didn't go to school regularly. She'd go 1 or 2 days or a month to school and then maybe she wouldn't go at all. She went only to the 3rd grade. She taught herself to read and write after she was married.
Another family that was sent to Marsh Valley was the Thurston Larson family. One of the boys, Thomas Henry Larson, worked for Hyrum Elliot Byington helping with the cattle and sheep. His sister, Jane Larson met Steve Byington and this foursome, including my mother, would attend the church socials and other functions. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, and Thomas Henry Larson were married 30 Sep 1884 in Oxford, Onieda, Idaho. Aunt Jane Larson, a sister to Thomas Henry, and Stephen Elliot Byington, Hannah's brother, were married on the same day in a double wedding ceremony. My mother was a few days short of being 16 when she was married.
Jefferson Hunt was the first Bishop and my father, Thomas Henry Larson, was the first presiding elder in Grant Ward, Idaho. (There is no Grant Ward today.)
My parents lived in the vicinity of the Hyrum Elliot Byington ranch. They had nine children. First was Ester Elizabeth, 14 Oct 1885, next was Minnie Isabell, 23 Mar 1888, Henry Edwin, 5 Mar 1890, David Lorenzo, 19 Apr 1892, Carrie Lorinda, 4 Feb 1895, Archie Winfred, 17 Mar 1897, and Edith Dyintha, 26 Dec 1898.
When Edith was a baby, Father went on a mission and served 8 months at Anaconda, Montana. He would walk 10 to 25 miles a day. He went back to Nampa and Caldwell and Mountain Home (Indian Valley) He was there for 6 months. He became very ill and was sent home. He never did get very well.
Grandfather Hyrum Elliot Byington died in 1901. Since I was not born till 1902, I never did know my grandfather Byington.
Grandmother Hannah Dyantha Horr [Harr] Byington served as a midwife and a nurse in every community she lived in. She was skilled in the use of herbs and natural remedies. She was the midwife to my mother and brought me, Thora May, into the world 24 Feb 1902. I was born in the original log cabin on Steven Elliot's farm which is near the Byington family cemetery.
My father, Thomas Henry Larson, died 28 Dec 1903. He had typhoid pneumonia and had been ill ever since his mission. I was not quite two years old. I never did have a chance to know my father.
Mother had a baby on 15 July 1904, Thomas Horald, who died in January 1905 from pneumonia caused by a severe burn. In those days, all babies wore long dresses and Ester and Minnie were bathing the baby and they accidentally dropped him on the stove. They had shortened his clothes and were going to doll him up for grandmother when she came home. He may have kicked the oven door.
Aunt Lorinda Perkins told me (Lois Everton) the following:
Uncle Bert's mothers grandmother Canfield lived next door to grandmother Larson Higbee. She would give me (Thora) sugar cookies cut with a tomato can that would melt in my mouth. I used to come home from Sunday school and go over and grandmother Canfield would read me the funnies from the newspaper.
They moved from the ranch to a farm on the bench in Grant Ward a mile down the lane. They rented from Samuel Thomas for a year or so.
Mother told about us visiting her half sister Lorinda Hickman Stowe in Ogden.
She also told us about a molasses mill in Ogden and about going to get molasses whenever they went to Ogden. It was at about 31st street where an old brick kiln was above Adams. A large chimney marked the spot. This kiln was torn down about 1951. Lois used to walk by it while walking to Ogden High School.
Everyday at the end of the day, the children tucked in to bed. Mother cooked on an old black stove, a Monarch Range, that they kept really shined. They polished their shoes with soot from the back of the stove lids. Saturday night baths were the order of the day. We ate around a round table, knelt for prayer morning and evening and always, grandmother was there, living across from the church.
Mother remained single until I was about 6 years old. I would have been 7 in February and mother married Loren Higbee. We thought it was the most terrible thing mom could have done. Esther was working at Hides grocery store. She worked as a housekeeper. Minnie and Henry were staying at Parker, Idaho with Grandmother Larson. David and Lorinda and Archie were running the farm by the church. Edith and I mostly played. All the children cried and so I cried too. Higbee had two boys who were farmed out but two came to live with us. They were not trained and it really put a hardship on mother. Grandfather Higbee told about once working for her dad and whittled wood. He drank tea and coffee and smoked. He called grandmother "Little Hanner" or "Little Elizabeth" to make her mad. Eventually all the children left home to work or get married.
The Higbee boys that live with us were: Raymond, he lives in Pocatello now. Orval came first, then Raymond, and then Leon. Leon lives in Great Falls, Montana. Orval was 6 when he came. I was 7 years old at the time.
Higbee could not manage the farm and David left and got work with Chris Christensen. Henry came home for a visit. He and Lee Burrup went to a dance. They were driving a horse and buggy and they got in a wreck. They were going to Lone Pine for the night. They tipped over. Henry had a broken jaw and leg and a wrenched arm. Probably the wheels of the buggy locked and threw them. He laid several hours before help arrived. Lone Pine is 17 miles from Grant Ward and they had to ride a horse clear to Downey for the doctor.
David was helping Chris take trees out. They dug a hole one day to blow out the tree stumps on the farm and they didn't move far enough away. They were blown into the air. When David came down he was cut up badly, especially his face. Mother doctored him better.
Archie, Edith, and I were going to the pasture. Archie wanted me to get on the horse with him and Edith wanted me to get on with her. He went to shut the gate and she put me on her horse and handed me a willow and told me to hit the horse and I did. I fell on my shoulder and broke my collar bone. Mother bound up my shoulder till it healed. It was very painful.
Mom would send me out to the chicken coop. I was scared of the chickens. If Lorinda came out she would help me. If mother came out, I'd get a scolding.
We played hide and seek around the hay stacks. Beside the straw stacks were sacks of wheat piled up and we would play follow the leader and we all got stuck between two sack once and I couldn't get out. Archie help be get the sacks moved so I could get out.
We'd play dolls for hours at a time. Our cities were big and we use sticks for dolls and roses to decorate our homes with. Had trains and all for fun. Orval had a farm by himself so he didn't tease us so much.
Suzy Thomas, a friend and neighbor, had lots of money and a nice farm. Lorinda would tend their kids when she would go on trips to Salt Lake. When she returned, she would often bring us a little gift. This one time she gave me a beautiful Easter egg, a large one, white trimmed with colors. Mother made me share with Orval. I hated him for it. Suzy was always bringing me goodies and I always had to share. Susy had a wicker buggy. I just loved it. It had an umbrella attached. The Fort Bridger museum has one like it. (I went to this museum and did not find any buggy. Lois Everton)
Mother went for fruit on time and I was to go and I really wanted to. Edith was such a devil that she got to go instead of me. Good thing Lorinda was home as we made doll clothes and the folks were home in no time.
Mother used to make the very best Elder Berry pie. She always had some pork on the stove. After Mr. Higbee came, we always had sauerkraut by the barrels full. They'd kill one or two pigs at a time and put all the sausage to cure. Then they would put the sausage in salt sacks and hang it up to store.
Suzy Thomas' children I knew lived across from the school. Her house is still standing. Mildred, Vilda, Gwen, Conn, who was my age or younger, and another boy. She had lost two babies from ptomaine poisoning. She had lost her husband also. A tree fell on him.
Texie Thomas lived in a white brick home. We used to go get water at her house. We had a horse named Bud and he'd pull a two-wheeled cart with a barrel in it to carry the water in. Edith and I would go twice a day, early in the morning and again in the evening.
Texie's children:
Ray grade
Harold same grade
Helen lives in Grand Junction
Florance Evans, Tooele school principal
Earl drowned in Donnetta Hot Springs
Reed lives in Downey, works at bank.
Grandmother worked with Texie in MIA after Higbee married mother. About a year later (20 Nov 1909 Otto Fredrick Higbee was born in the house across from the church in Grant Ward. Steven Howard Higbee was born 21 July 1911 on a farm about one mile up the canyon. Both have died, Otto died 6 Mar 1945 and Howard died 12 Oct 1976.
When Howard was born, a doctor was called. Dr. Arnet was the first doctor to attend a birth of her children. When Howard was born, Mom had made a batch of root beer before the baby was born. It was in the cellar. Edith and I drank almost all of it. We had spotted fever here. This was on the hill.
We used to have lots of chickens. They used to go into the chicken coop and this old mean rooster would peck them on the head. Years later, when we cleaned out an old trunk we found their hats that still had blood stains on them. The trunk also had fabric used in Grandmother Byingtons's coffin and dress.
Meria Burrup, Suzy, and Texie Thomas were Hannah's life long friends.
Marty and Texie bought Higbee's farm and Ed Burrup bought the home by the church so we moved to Downey. Archie and I rode on a load of hay. Horses were tied on to the wagon and cows followed them. Mom and Mr. Higbee and the boys looked after the cows. Archie and I cried all the way to town. When Ed bought the farm in Grant Ward, he had a contractor build the house in Downey. No running water or bath was put in. David and Archie put in the water later.
After we moved to Downey we had a picture taken in front of our house. I had a doll given to me that first Christmas. I called it Burt because it had a receding hair line like Burt.
When we moved to Downey, Edith said I couldn't make the grade and she insisted I should stay in the 3rd grade so I did.
Minnie came home when we were in Grant Ward once before her marriage. She came home for supper and a wedding cake. Mother took the top off of the cake and put it in an old clock. It was a fruit cake with white frosting, silver droplets and roses and leaves for trimmings. Edith and I used to eat separate from the others at times would pick a little of the frosting off to lick. This was the first wedding cake I'd ever seen.
Lorinda got a job in Downey working at the telephone company. One night while working, she fainted. Her corset had been cinched up too tight.
Henry left on a mission. He spent two years in the field. Chattanooga, Tennessee was his mission headquarters. He got yellow fever. Lost the use of his legs and came home early. He left from Grant Ward I think. He came home on the train. They brought him home on a stretcher. He was sick for about six months. Mother nursed him back to health. When he regained his health, he met Zanetta Wakley and married her.
Winifred, Henry's baby, was born one year later. Henry died when Winfred was three during the flu epidemic of 1918. David (? Not David Lorenzo) and Henry and Mr. Higbee's brother, Fred all died in this epidemic.
Mother had rheumatic fever about the same time as I did and she had to be turned with the bed sheets for she hurt so badly.
When Henry was well, he ran a barber shop in front of the pool hall. They had two pool tables. This was probably the first of David's troubles. It hurt mother to see her boy smoke as he had been so faithful. Archie was working for Thomas Thomas, Suzy's husband and Stoddarts. He met Annie Lauree Denny at a dance in Swan Lake, Idaho.
David helped to dig Henrys grave when I was so ill. No funeral was held, just a ceremony in the home. I watched from the window. Higbee came to my bedroom door with a fry pan of potatoes and asked if I wanted some. I couldn't eat a thing. Mother went and stayed two days and two nights until Henry died. Lorinda met Burt Perkins at a dance. The Perkins ran a livery stable in Downey. Lorinda married Burt on 22 Jan 1914. They moved to Chesterfield. They were caretakers of the dam. She cooked for the surveyors. Their first baby died and was buried in the Downey cemetery. They lived in Chesterfield for seven months. Edith went to visit during the summer. Here she met Chanuncy Call. Lorinda moved back to Downey in Perkins home, located on the west side of the old home in Downey. It was a white frame house and faced east.
David worked in the pool hall. He met Frank Bloxum who drank a good deal. Eventually David met and married Frank's sister, Bess. The business was sold to Fred Higbee and David moved to the slough area. Henry had a farm on the Malad Divide. He sold his barber shop to help build a house. This is how the Higbee's acquired a farm there. Archie bought the farm in the canyon and had a team of horses.
I lived with David after Judith was born. Then when Archie was married, I stayed with Annie and Archie in the log cabin. There was a flash flood. As the baby chickens came by the door of the house they caught them. We saved 7 or 8 of them.
David's children
Judith
Edith
Emma Jean
Cleo
Sunny
another girl
Lorinda's children
Thomas died , buried in Downey cemetery
Harold
Wayne
Dean died, buried in Logan cemetery
Bettey
Verna Lou
Archie married Annie Denney 3 Dec 1915
Ivalue
Henry
Jean
Lavern
Roy
Glenys
Reed and
Rex - twins. Rex died the same day
Edith married Sidney Chauncey Call in Pocatello 8 Apr 1915
Rose
Raldo
Robert, died as a child
Revis
Richard and Randall, twins. Both died in one day.
divorced and re-married to Herbert Golwey Emmens
One time mother's (Hannah Elizabeth Byington) kidneys stopped functioning properly and Archie took mother to Pocatello to the doctor. She never did forgive them for this. However she was made well.
Mother was made first councilor in Mutual. We went to church 3 times on Sunday. Sunday School, Priesthood Meeting, and Sacrament meeting in the evening. Primary was always on Tuesday after school. MIA was on Wednesday evenings.
Sometime in the 50's, about 1954, Thora, Lloyd Jean, Lois and Dean Morrison went up to Downey to Grandma Higbee's home and talked her into coming home with us to live.
She loved root beer floats. She loved little children and all her life she stood up for them, sang to them, and sheltered them.
Jean took her for an airplane ride over the Ogden Valley, Eden, and Huntsville areas. She loved it.
In the evening we would take a ride in our old ford station wagon. We would drive up the streets on the benches where we could look out and see the lights of the city come on all over Ogden. She loved to look at the city lights.
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The following is thoughts and memories of her grandmother by Lois Ann Morrison Everton:
When I was a little girl my parents would take our family up to Downey for a visit with Grandmother by this time she had married Mr. Loren Higbee, he was the only grandpa I remember.
One time I visited the Higbees and grandpa had one of his legs gone. He had a wooden leg but did not wear it all the time. This scared me. Never the less I sat upon his knee and grandmother came and stood by the chair and we had a picture taken. He called me "brown eyed Susan" after the flowers. Also "Little Izabell" he called me. He was very kind and loving. Grand mother had a back bedroom and in one corner was a little metal bed. It had a lovely baby doll in it and other dolls. Loved these dolls and I think it sparked a love for dolls in my life. She would let me hold the dolls if I was careful. In the kitchen there was a large Monarch range that just shone. It had a top shelf. This was probably where the yeast starter was kept. It was polished to a shine. In the middle of the kitchen was a large white round table and several chairs. My mother, Thora, said that the chairs were turned out daily and everyone kneeled in prayer and then the chairs were turned in and every one had a good time eating and talking.
On the left hand side of the house there were two light purple Lilac bushes. One time when Aunt Nora Isabell Byington Palmer came for a visit I took their picture by the Lilac bushes. Nora and Grandmother did not always have the same opinions on every thing. But they still loved each other very much. I loved to hear the Indian stories Nora told. These two Ladies were the last of the great Pioneers. Years later Aunt Nora came to my Weber College Seminary Graduation. She stood in line with me and Mother and Dad. She said it was a great thrill of her life time. I wrote to Nora until she died.
In the "good ole days" grandma had an out house. I was always afraid of it. They told me that one of Uncle David's little girls fell in and died. In l942 during the Second World War Uncle Archie Larson and Pop Morrison, my dad, and others came to stay a while and they built an indoor bathroom on the back porch area. It turned out nice. The Front room was on the right side of the house. This is where the old leather couch that made into a bed was. It wasn't very comfortable at all. A large rocking chair was their as well as an overstuff chair. Seems like she had a carpet over linoleum. At one time there was a good fence and gate to the front yard. The house still looks good from the outside.
Mother gave me the rocking chair and when we moved to California. I gave it to my brother Roy Dean Morrison. They have since restored it. When I was little I would climb into it and put my feet through the large hole in the back and put my feet on the rockers and rock myself. Many an hour of fun was spent in this large rocking chair.
June's girls Pam, Chris, and Patsy just loved all the attention grandmother gave to them.
I loved to watch her put up her hair. She would get a brown paper sack and tear it into little two-inch pieces and rolled up her bangs in the paper and twisted them close. When it was all dry and taken out, she had cute little curls all along her head.
Hannah Elizabeth was five feet tall. She wore a size 16 dress that went down to her ankles. She liked shopping at JC Penney's. They had a pair of black hushpuppy slippers with a black tassel on the top-front on the slippers. They looked real cute on her. I have several of her dress pins. I treasure them.
She loved to crochet and embroider. She had a whole dresser full of nice things. She had name tags on most of them. She felt bad when the people tending her house went in and took several items. She handed down to us Hannah Dyantha's crochet hook that came across the plains to Utah and then on to Idaho.
When Mr. Higbee had a stroke and could not talk, he motioned with his eyes. She looked in the mattress and found some money. He also had her look in his coat and she found some more sewn into the lining. She had just enough to bury him when he died.
Stephen Elliot Byington was grandmother's brother who had passed away. Grandmother Higbee would often take naps in the chair and wake up and talk about uncle Steve. She would often say, "Oh Stephen, I can't go with you yet. I'm not ready yet!" She repeated this twice and then later she asked where Steve was. This happened many times during the last months of grandmother's life.
Thora and Jean took grandmother to the doctor. He said for as old as she was she was in good shape and she may live a long time. I come home in August. It was deer hunting season and dad wanted mom to go out to Vernal with them. I was left to take care of grandmother.
I was hoping all would be well. Grandmother's legs were purple up to her knees. I suspect she had diabetes. She may also have had cancer. One night, I helped her sit up because she could not breath well. She seemed really cold. She made me promise that I would take her home and get her some herbs. I later learned that she had learned about the use of herbs from her mother.
I sat grandmother up and held her and she didn't feel very well. I called my sister June on the phone. She was a nurse. I asked her what to do. She had me give grandmother 2 teaspoons of paregoric in half a glass of water. She took it well and settled back to sleep. In the night she wanted to sit up and I put her head on my shoulder. She just slowly quit breathing. I feel that she had quietly passed on to the next world.
June came down to the house. We called my friend, the mortician, Brother Calderwood, who came along with Doctor Rich who pronounced her dead. She died at our home at 3274 Grant Ave., in Ogden, Utah at 4:10 AM on 23 Oct 1955. She was 86 years old.
Relief Society records written by Lorinda who was the secretary:
Name in full: Hannah Elizabeth Byington
Residence: Downey, Idaho
Born At: Ogden Utah, Weber County, 12 Oct. 1868-9
Blessed by:
Baptized by: Hyrum Elliot Byington 3 Dec 1891
Confirmed by: Charles Thornton
Schooling commenced at Oxford, Idaho
Ordained 1st councilor to Relief Society by Thomas H. Larson 1896
Married to Thomas Henry Larson by A. F. Caldwell at Oxford, Idaho 30 Sept. 1884
Endowed at Logan Temple 12 Sept. 1894
Patriarchal Blessing by Milo Andrus 14 Dec 1890
Height 5 ft.
Color of eyes blue, brown hair, general health very good
Special interests: children, clean house, embroidery, crochet
Children:
Ester Elizabeth Larson
Minnie Isabell Larson
Henry Edwin Larson
David Lorenzo Larson
Carrie Lorinda Larson
Archie Winford Larson
Edith Dyintha Larson
Thora May Larson
Thomas Horald Larson
Otto Fredarick Higbee
Stephen Howard Higbee
Taken from LDS Family Record and Index to Individual History Pages, sample sheet
Family Members
Siblings
Half Siblings
Children
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Esther Elizabeth Larson Underwood
1885–1946
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Minnie Isabell Larson Grover
1888–1958
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Henry Edwin Larson
1890–1918
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David Lorenzo Larson
1892–1950
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Carrie Lorinda "Lorinda" Larson Perkins
1895–1980
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Archie Winford Larson
1897–1951
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Edith Diantha Larson Call Emmens
1898–1953
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Thora May Larson Morrison
1902–1968
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Thomas Harold Larson
1904–1905
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Otto F Higbee
1909–1945
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Stephen Howard "Howard" Higbee
1911–1976
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