Joseph Alma Barton

Obituary: Judge Joseph Alma Barton…At Greenville, Utah, February 26th, 1895, from complication of diseases, Joseph Alma Barton, probate judge of Beaver county, after a short but severe illness of eight days, passed peacefully and calmly away at two o’clock p.m. Though suffering intense pain at times, he bore his afflictions patiently to the last. He frequently called up on the Elders to administer to him, and everything that kind friends and loving hands could do to alleviate his sufferings was done. He leaves a grief-stricken wife and three sons, father and mother, brothers and sisters, and a host of friends who mourn his loss. In fact, the whole community will greatly miss him.

Joseph Alma Barton was the son of William and Esther West Barton, born February 1, 1848, at Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois. He was blessed when eight days old by Johnathan C. Wright, and he came to Utah with his parents in 1851, and settled in Parowan. When eight years old he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1858, with six other brethren, was called by President Brigham Young to go to Minersville to produce lead.

From thence the family moved to Beaver, where he grew up to manhood. In 1866 he performed a mission to the Missouri river, after the emigration in Captain Sam White’s train. He was an officer in the Utah militia and took an active part in the Black Hawk war. He was a student of the B.Y. Academy and had a practical education. He was appointed deputy marshal by U. S. Marshall Maxwell, and served two years, after which he married and settled in Greenville, where he held various offices in trust in the precinct. He was county selectman for two years and was probate judge at the time of his death.

Not considering himself a member of the Church, he took no particular interest in Church matters until recently, but did not oppose. He frequently attended meeting, and was a member of the Y.M.M.I.A., in which he took an active part. About 10 days before his death he delivered a lecture to the public from the Book of Mormon. Some fifteen months before his demise, he buried his loving and only daughter, a beautiful girl sixteen years of age, which seemed to work a change in his heart and turn him to the Lord, which was manifested by the fact that his family were all baptized, and he himself expressed his intention shortly before his death of renewing his covenants with the Lord in the waters of baptism.

SOURCE: Deseret News, March 9, 1885

Another obituary from The Salt Lake Tribune, February 28, 1895, reads as follows: Joseph Alma Barton, Probate Judge of Beaver county, died at his residence, Greenville, five miles west of Beaver City, on Tuesday. Deceased had been suffering for some weeks from kidney complaint, and for the last few days was in considerable distress and pain. He was born at Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois, February 1, 1848; came to Utah with his parents in 1851, and had been a resident of Beaver City and county for the last 30 years. Barton was a Deputy United States Marshal under Maxwell in 1875 and 1876; was Selectman two terms, and in August, 1893, was appointed Probate Judge by President Cleveland. He was noted for courage, independence and individuality of character, had many warm friends, and was fearless in the discharge of his duty. He leaves a wife and three children. Funeral tomorrow.

The following is taken from a book entitled, Our Eternal Legacy, The Story of William, Esther and Mary Barton. It tells about the death of Hetty and then later her father Alma.

In the fall of 1894, a typhoid epidemic broke out. Alma's two children, Hetty and Wes, were the first ones to get it. Daphne Barton Smith, Daniel's daughter, remembered walking into their house and seeing both of them lying in bed very ill. Hetty was such a pretty girl, plump and good-natured. Daphne walked over to the side of her bed and stood there for a moment; then she bent down and kissed her. She stood there a little while longer, and then her auntie said, "you'd better go to school now Daffy, or you'll be late." Hetty kissed her again, and Daphne walked out of the house. On her way to school she had such a sick feeling and was worried. "Hetty looked awfully sick," she was thinking.

In just one week, on the twenty-fourth of November, Hetty, Alma's only daughter, at age eighteen, died. Nothing like this had ever happened before on the bench, and no one anywhere was happy. The day of the funeral, Daphne went with the others to Uncle Alma's house. She went into the room where Hetty was. Some of the aunts and Grandma Esther were there. Daphne's auntie said, "Go in the other room, dear, till we put her in this pretty box; then I will come and bring you to see her." After a while, she came and took Daphne to where the casket stood, covered with black velvet and lined with satin and lace. It also had silver trimmings and handles and seemed so high. Her auntie lifted Daphne up, and there Hetty was, not the girl Daphne loved, but a beautiful lady. Her auntie must have wanted her to remember, for she called attention to Hetty's dress, which was white cashmere, pleated full and tied at the waist with a heavy white cord with tassels that were down half way to the bottom of her dress. Her pretty slippers also had silver trimmings.

Daphne attended the funeral and then went with the family to the cemetery. She was just standing there when, all at once she heard the most awful sound, not loud but awful. She looked around and saw that Uncle Alma was leaning over that awful hole in the ground, running his hand through his hair and making a gasping, sobbing sound. Daphne's father, Dan, was standing so close to him. His other brothers, Jack, Hugh, John and Stephen were there, as were grandpa and grandma and aunt Telly. Daphne couldn't stand it, so she ran away where she couldn't hear. After a while she came back. They were still standing together there, but were so quiet, and the men were putting the soft brown earth back. They made a neat little mound over where Hetty's body lay.

The following winter went by with only the usual croup, sore throat, and so on, until one night in February Alma became seriously ill. Daphne heard Wes, Alma's oldest son and their cousin, Eva, John's daughter, talking about it at school the next day. Evidently Alma had gone to his brother John's for help, because he was afraid he was going to die. Wes said, "I sure was scared; I thought he was going to die." Alma suffered untold agony for a week and then died on February 26, 1895. Dr. Christian, the family's good friend, did everything that he could. At that time he called it inflammation of something or other; now we know it as appendicitis. That is what caused Alma's death.

Once more the families in Bartonville, or on the "Bench" as they often called it, were bowed down in grief. And Mariah, Alma's wife was overcome with sorrow. She kept saying, over and over, "I just don't know what we are going to do without Alma." And how she cried.

The day of the funeral, Daphne was standing by the casket near Grandma Esther, and as always, Grandma was so calm and composed. Some friends from Beaver were consoling her. Grandma reached into the casket and held Uncle Alma's hand and said, "This isn't Alma, Sister Shepherd, this is just the clay. Alma has just gone on." Grandma was so calm and self-possessed in contrast to Grandpa. When he looked the last time at Alma, he cried brokenly, "Goodbye Alma. Goodbye, my boy." Daphne later recalled, "But what I didn't understand was my father's deep grief at the loss of his companion brother. Afterwards I heard people say, "Dan's hair turned grey in a night." Auntie said to my mother, "they surely loved each other, didn't they, Nell? Just like David and Johnathan." Then I did not know what she meant, but today I read in the Bible, "The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David and he loved him as his soul."

Such a large congregation attended the funeral. Friends from any places came to pay their respects. Daphne also remembered that Mr. Robert Stoney brought his excellent choir from Beaver. The singing was wonderful, but one song was especially beautiful and she memorized a little of it:

"Beautiful gates that stand ajar to greet a stranger from afar, a gleam across the portals come, to guide a weary, worn traveler home."

Of the rest of the day, Daphne remembered little. So many people had come from Paragonah. Grandfather William, some of his brothers, and many cousins were there, and they had a family dinner at Daphne's house. "My father had killed some wild geese, so Mother and the other sisters served a goose dinner."

When Alma died, he left three small boys, Alma, Wesley and Bill. All of Alma's brothers helped a good deal, but Grandma Esther and Jack took most of the responsibility and helped Mariah raise her young children. Alma was previously married to Mary Lundblad, and they later divorced. From this union, a girl, Mary Amberzine (Zina) was born and went with her mother after the separation. Mary, the mother, later married a Mr. Ash, and Zina took the name of her stepfather. When Zina grew up, she married Fred Mackrell and gave birth to two sons, Elton and Walter.

Alma was very well known and thought highly of by all who knew him. Because he knew the Indian language well enough to be able to communicate with some of the tribal chiefs, he was many times able to prevent trouble between the Indians and the whites. He also acted as a United States marshal in some of the early escapades.