Year of birth - 1844 - John Tyler is President of the United States and James K. Polk wins presidential election defeating Henry Clay. Joseph and Hyrum Smith martyred in Carthage Jail.

Came to Utah with the Abraham O. Smoot - George B. Wallace Company in 1847 as a three year old.

She loved flowers, was kind and generous. When times were poor, she would make "Lumpy Dick". It was made of milk and flour cooked together until the flour made big soggy lumps in the milk. It was filling but not too appetizing.

A large woman who lived with daughters Melissa and Susannah after her husband died.

MARY ANN HAVENS NEBEKER

(1844 - 1911)

By

Blanche Wilson Smith, granddaughter

22 Mar 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii

This is an account of my paternal grandmother Mary Ann Havens Nebeker Wilson. It is also in some respects a history of my grandmother Ann Van Wagoner Havens Nebeker.

The early history of my grandmother until I became a member of her household is compiled from a short history of great-grandmother written or "facts given and accepted by Susanna Nebeker Pickering, January 1926, also from a sketch of her life written by great-grandmother herself and dedicated to her grandchildren Miss. Florence Sergeant or Ann Nebeker and Minnie Pickering, written in Payson and dated 9 march 1881. Facts have also been obtained from Grandmother's children and from a "History of Salt Lake" Brother Robert's History of the Church and a Centennial History of Sevier County, Thru the Years, published in 1947.

Grandmother is a descendent of early Dutch settlers of New Jersey. She was born 25 Feb 1844 in Jersey City (Jersey City was founded by the Dutch). Grandmother’s parents were Ann Van Wagoner and John Havens. Ann Van Wagoner Havens was born 25 March 1817 in Pompton, Bergen, New Jersey. The Birth date of John Havens is unknown to me.

Great-grandmother first heard of the Mormon Church from the mission Parley P. Pratt. Her husband was very bitter against the Mormon missionaries. However, the Van Wagoner family, Halmagh J., his wife Mary Ann Van Houghten Van Wagoner, children Hannah, Sarah, John and my great-grandmother Ann were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They made the long trip to New York and were baptized by George T. Leach, 13 April 1844. My grandmother was born this same year. She must have been three months old at the time. Great-grandfather John Havens refused to accept the gospel. This caused a separation and my great-grandmother with her two children moved to Nauvoo with the Van Wagoners. Here she was privileged to go through the Nauvoo Temple in 1846.

At the time the Van Wagoner family arrived in Nauvoo, the Saints were being persecuted and it was not long until they were forced to flee with the others.

In the spring of 1846, the family started with the first company on the journey to the West. At Cutler's Park (four miles west of Winter Quarters) the mother Mary Van Houghten Van Wagoner died. The advice from the President of the Church and his Counselors of the branch of the Church at this place was that it was too late to cross the Rocky Mountains at this season and so they went to Winter Quarters, which was on the west bank of the Mississippi River (actually the Missouri, r.a.w.).

All the troubles and exposure proved too much for the father Halmagh J. Van Wagoner and he passed away 5 December 1846 at Winter Quarters.

The responsibility was now on the shoulders of my great-grandmother. She was alone with her two children William and my grandmother Mary Ann. In the same company was a young man, Henry Nebeker who befriended her and she depended upon him for consolation. On 18 Jan. 1847 at Winter Quarters, the two were married.

In the spring of 1847, the journey to the great Salt Lake Valley began. My great-grandmother with her two children drove an ox team across the plains in one of those wonderful covered wagons that was in the first company of the original Pioneers of Utah. She traveled in Brother George Nobles Company and reached Salt Lake in October 1847.

Brother Robert's History of the Church says there were 11 companies that arrived in October, there were 171 in the Company of Brother Nobel "finishing the first contingent and the only ones to arrive in 1847."

My grandmother was three years old and I remember her saying that her brother was six years old. Children can stand hardships better than older people can but I am sure they must have gone hungry many times.

To get some idea of what life was like this first year in Salt Lake, I quote from an article in "Salt Lake History." "The Colonists who came the first year, save a few lived in the stockade or old fort located on Pioneer Square in the Southwestern part of the City. For the first winter, it was enclosed. The East side with log houses, the North side and West sides with adobe walls. It was rectangular. A large gate on the east was kept carefully closed by night for protection from the Indians. The roofs of the houses or huts of the Fort slanted inward; doors and windows faced the interior; but each house had a loophole for looking out."

It seems the first part of the winter was very mild but as the season advanced heavy snow fell); "dirt and willow roofs descended in drizzling streams upon the heads, beds, bodies; spoiling at once their tempers and provisions." Umbrellas were often used in bed, or held in one hand while turning beef stew with the other.

In a note to her grandchildren great grandmother in speaking of Salt Lake said, "Lived there five years, and in that time there was a grasshopper cricket war; and a hen and her chickens saved a great deal of our grain. We then moved to Payson and the Indians were very bad. The Saints built a fort and their families had to leave their homes and go to the fort for protection; on one occasion, one of the guards was shot and killed. The women then were taken to the school house; the men stood guard for we did not at what moment we might be killed."

At this time, my grandmother was about eight years old. I don't know how much schooling she had but there were school inside the fort in Salt Lake the first winter but there must have been later also.

Lack of water in Payson forced the settlers to leave; and with David Crockett and John B. Fairbanks (grandmother's uncle by marriage) the family moved to Salem where the first settlers. However, in 1852 they moved back to Payson. Here my grandmother's step father, Henry Nebeker, built a school house on the east side of the Nebeker home, which marked the south east boundary of the Old Fort in Payson.

Grandmother was the oldest girl in the family and helped take care of her half-brothers and sisters. She learned at an early age to spin wool. She helped weave cloth for their clothing. She learned to get along on very little. I remember how well she liked "lumpy dick" boiling water with flour stirred in with a little salt.

When Grandmother was sixteen she met a handsome young man named Bradley Barlow Wilson; son of Guy Carlton Wilson and Elizabeth Hunter Wilson of South Bend, Ohio, himself a pioneer. They fell in love and were married by J. W. Young in the presence of John Fairbanks (grandmother’s uncle) and Henry Nebeker, her step-father, in Payson 20 Dec 1861. A year later, they were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake.

They lived some nine or ten years in Payson where five of their eleven children were born. My father, John Bradley, was one of the five born in Payson. He was born 27 Jan 1870.

Sometime between 1870 and 1872, grandmother and grandfather moved south to Glenwood where they were among the early settlers who helped build the town. In the History of Glenwood, it is recorded that in 1863 the first group of men that was called by Brigham Young to explore the country to the south, explored the area where Glenwood now stands. Robert W. Glenn with others "came upon a small cove with two cool springs sending a large stream of water west to the valley about one and one half miles below. They saw wonderful possibilities for irrigation and power." As was the custom, the next year families were sent to settle where Glenwood now stands. among those people were my mother's father and mother, my grandfather and grandmother Wall. My Uncle Joseph Wall, Jr. my mother at this time that Grandfather and Grandmother Wilson came to Glenwood. There was still some little trouble with the Indians but two years later in 1872 General Morrow of the United States Armey, concluded a treaty with the natives in Mount Pleasant, and Indian hostilities ceased. (History of Sevier County). Through the work of missionaries sent to work with the Indians life apparently became more peaceful.

Sometime between 1872 and 1882, Grandfather and Grandmother made their summer home in what is known as "Kings Meadow," a little valley about ten miles from Glenwood. I have heard my aunts laugh at the fun they had gathering slabs of dried clay mud that curled up like plates and piling them on the old nag. After the death of Grandfather 10 Nov 1896, they spent all their time in Glenwood.

In 1874, the Presiding Authorities of the Church, during the life of President Brigham Young, decided to establish the United Order in Glenwood. It was installed by the Apostle Erastus Snow under the direction of the First Presidency of the Church, quoting from Through the Years, a Centennial History of Sevier County. "The organization of the Order consisted of as many of the members living in the Ward who were willing to turn over their property to the board of trustees. The Bishop of the Ward was Chairman of the Board. All of the property was appraised, and each man received credit for the amount he turned in and then received credit for the labor that he performed. From this source, the families were provided with necessities of life for their families.

During the time of the order, covering a period of five years the people were united and blessed temporally and spiritually. By their united efforts they were able to build up a number of industries." I never heard my grandmother mention the United Order -- or perhaps I didn't know what she was talking about - but she certainly must have lived under it.

I was seven years old, when I was taken by my father to live with my grandmother after the death of my mother. I have heard my father and grandmother recount the terrible winter it was when my mother died. Grandfather Wilson died a month after my mother. Typhoid was rampant and my mother died of typhoid.

I remember my grandmother vividly. She died when I was fifteen years old.

Grandmother was a short heavy woman with very dark brown eyes. I thought her very stern at times, but she had a real love of the beautiful. She was particularly fond of flowers and they grew everywhere in their loveliness, all around our home, inside and out.

Our home was built of adobe and rock, as so many of the Pioneer homes were. Grandfather built the rock portion. The window sill were wide and a perfect place for flowers and were filled summer and winter with flowering plants. Some that Grandmother called exotic were planted in wood containers and were moved in the house in the winter and out on the porch in the summer. Our house also had a wide rock wall on two sides of the lot to keep out the flood waters and I enjoyed walking along it.

"Quilting Bees" and "Rag Bees" were a part of grandmother’s life and were exciting for me especially the good food that they served. She dyed old clothes and tore them into strips and made balls of the different colors and kept the colors separated and when she had enough of them, her daughter-in-law wove a wall to wall plaid carped that as a child i thought was beautiful. Hooked rugs made by my aunts were also part of our home furnishings.

Other than her sincere devotion to the Church and our prayers at home, just the two of us - grandma kneeling by her favorite rocking chair and I in my small rocking chair, was her treatment of the Indians. The old squaws ( as they were called) would come in the house on cold days and squat on the floor and stay for hours it seemed to me. I was mortally afraid of them at first - would run and hide under the bed. I remember how she cured me. it was my task to put the bacon, or bread, or apples or whatever they asked for, in their baskets or sacks while they held them open for me. Sometimes they would pick up the apples and fill their sacks. Grandmother to them was "Wino."

The day Grandmother died, an elderly Indian woman named Rosie came to the house, learning that Grandmother was ill she asked to see her. My aunts let her go into the room and when she came out the tears were streaming down her face.

Most pioneer women were good cooks I guess, grandmother was I know. I helped her grind the meat for "head cheese" and mince meat - sausage with sage in it. These were made into cakes and stored in large crocks. Of course, now I appreciate the wonderful varieties of pickles, jams, and jellies, she made. I helped pick the cucumbers for pickling and even carried chips as a small child to keep the smoke going under the hams.

Grandmother owned three-fourths of a block in Glenwood, which gave ample room for fruit trees- apples, peaches, plums, pears, and one cherry tree, which was my favorite one to climb. red currants and red and black raspberry bushes kept my aunts and occasionally myself busy picking them in season. Many of the apples were put out to dry, others were "fall" apples and were gathered and put in the cellar for winter eating.

I still remember the smell of "home made soap" - all the laundry was washed in this soap - also the wool for quilts. Grandmother taught me to card wool into bats for the quilts and I remember her using the spinning wheel to make yarn to make stockings.

Grandfather who died when I was a baby was a skilled cabinet maker. He made some of the pieces of furniture in our home. One, I remember vividly was a dresser - "wardrobe” I believe it was called. It had leaves and flowers on each drawer. I also remember a handsome shelf to hold the clock - it was carved so that two birds held up the shelf. Grandfather was also interested in growing things. He grafted many trees that were in the yard. He was born 5 March 1832 in Richland, Ohio. His father Guy Carlton Wilson, died while crossing the plains. His brothers were Lycurgus, David, Isaac, Francis, Hyrum, Guy, and one sister Mary Elizabeth. His nephew Guy Carlton Wilson, son of Lycurgus, was President of the LDS Business College in Salt Lake and at one time a professor at BYU.

I have mentioned my grandmother's love of flowers. Her real hobby was flowers. When i learned to read, I poured over the seed catalogues with her - reading about the plants and flowers she was interested in buying. I remember her thrill the day the bulbs or plants arrived in the early spring, wrapped in moss and burlap bags. Then my aunts, and I tagging along; would get my father ( John Bradley) to hitch up the horses to the light carriage and we would go up in the canyon and get good rich black soil from under the oak trees - this was screened by grandmother to transplant or plant her precious flowers.

The last few years of Grandmother's life was lived in comfort and ease compared to her early life. Although her health was not too good, she kept busy with her flowers and sewing rags for rugs. She raised five boys and four girls - two children having died in infancy.

Two boys and one girl filled honorable missions. Charles labored in the Southern States in the Oklahoma area; Heber C. labored in the Eastern States in and around New York and in Canada. Susan labored in the North Central States, in and around Chicago. Heber C. is the only child living today.

Grandmother passes away 24 January 1911 at the age of 66 years. She was buried in Glenwood, Sevier, Utah.

Mary Ann was adopted. Her natural father was John Havens.

    Source:  Temple Index Bureau

Buried in the Glenwood Town Cemetery.