Alzada Sophronia Palmer

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Alzada Sophia Kartchner Palmer was born January 3, 1858, at Lower Waters, Mohave Crossing, California, near what is now San Bernardino. She was the daughter of William Decatur Kartchner and Margaret Jane Casteel. They were pioneers in California at this time, and were just preparing to leave for Beaver, Utah, to pioneer the desert lands when their daughter, Alzada, was born. The night after she was born, her brother James, who was two years of age, died. The journey then was delayed three or four days to let the mother rest. The father prepared the little boy for burial in an old fashioned metal churn, sealing it tightly. They took him to Parowan, Utah, to bury him.

The Kartchner family moved into Beaver, where they made their home for eight years. Their home was humble but a heaven on earth. They were all musicians, some played violins, Alzada played the accordion, and they all danced and sang. Three of four spinning wheels were put in one room where all could work together and enjoy real companionship and a wealth of family love. Alzada wove cloth when she was so small she could hardly reach to put the band on the wheel. They spun their own thread as well as wove the cloth. One year her sister Sarah wove four hundred yards of cloth. It was here in Beaver that Alzada first went to school. In her diary she mentions the caroling on Christmas morning, how she looked forward to the wonderful Christmas songs and spirit.

In 1871 they went to Panguich where they built a log house of two rooms also a blacksmith shop as her father was a blacksmith. In this home as always they made work a pleasure and were taught by example as well as precept to be good sports and make life pleasant in the face of difficulties. In her own words she says, "I was proud of my parents. They were honest and true."

It was in Panguich that she met Alma Z. Palmer whom she married on May 11, 1874.