Claybourne Montgomery Elder

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Claybourne Montgomery Elder

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Rutherford, Gibson, Tennessee, United States
Death: January 08, 1912 (84)
Leamington, Millard, Utah, United States (Old Age per Death Certificate)
Place of Burial: Leamington, Millard, Utah, United States
Immediate Family:

Son of David Elder; David Elder; Martha Louisa Elder and Martha Louisa Elder
Husband of Frances Annie Pulsipher; Mary Ann Elder; Mary Caroline Elder; Nancy Williams Elder and Elizabeth Francis Elder
Ex-husband of Martine Marie Pederson Smith
Father of Clayborn Pratt Elder; Mary Luisa Elder; William David Elder; Jonathan Pratt Elder; Ellen Isabell Elder and 19 others
Brother of James Porter Elder and Martha Jane Elder
Half brother of William Milton Bell and Eli Bell

Occupation: Carpenter
Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Claybourne Montgomery Elder

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868

Elder, Clayburn Birth Date: June 2, 1827, Death Date: January 8, 1912, Gender: Male, Age: 24, Company: Unidentified Companies (1851)

SOURCE: http://lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneerdetails/1,15791,4018-1-...

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Son of David Elder and Martha Louisa Montgomery. Married Nancy Williams Ferguson, February 9, 1853, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. Married Mica Martina Margaretta Katrina Peterson, January 31, 1858, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. Married Mary Caroline Pratt, January 31, 1858, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. Married Elizabeth Frances Pratt, July 25, 1863, Manti, Sanpete, Utah. Married Frances Annie Pulsipher, August 6,1906, Castle Dale, Emery, Utah.

History - Claybourn Montgomery Elder was born in Bedford County, Tennessee [some sources indicate Rutherford County], June 2, 1827. He was the son of David Elder and Louise Montgomery [other sources say Martha Louise]. He had one brother, David Elder, who was older and a sister, Martha Elder, who was younger. They both died at the age of four years. His father died when he was young leaving him and his mother to face life alone.

Claybourn was very active all his life as well as a great lover. He was always on the move. He moved 23 times in one year and he said it was not a good time for moving either. He moved from Kolob Co-op cattle business to the sawmill which he bought and operated in Mountain Dell. He left Dixie and went to Parowan and got another sawmill in the canyon. Then he moved to Buckhorn Springs where he stayed on winter, then to a ranch called Greensville below Beaver on the river. This ranch location was sometimes called Pan Cake. He stayed here one summer and then moved to Minersville, then to Shauntie about 1875. His wife Frances didn't move with him this time. She and her five children stayed in Minersville.

While in Shauntie, Claybourn worked in a smelter. He then moved to Iron City in Iron County. He stayed here one winter and worked in a foundry. Then he decided to move to Antelope Springs on the Cannon Ranch about 40 miles southeast of St. George. He stayed there one summer and then moved to upper Kanab and started on the McDonald sawmill. Then he decided to change and go to Leaman sawmill 20 miles out of Glendale. Here he purchased a few milk cows, about 50 head. Claybourn worked at the sawmill and the women and children took care of the cows, the milking and the churning. Then they moved to Stanford Ranch in Arizona and stayed there for a while.

In the spring of 1885 Claybourn came back to Duncan City, Utah, and rented another sawmill on the Trumble Mountains about 75 miles south of St. George and operated it for four years. They would move into St. George for the winter where the children could go to school. While at the mountain, Claybourn and the older boys would run the mill, and younger boys and women would milk the 50 cows and make cheese and butter. The churn was a large wooden barrel with rockers on it. Two of the children could churn the butter by rocking themselves to sleep--one on each side of the churn. The butter was put into large wooden barrels and buried until someone went to St. George, and they would send it to market.

About 1880 Claybourn went to Arizona where they contracted grading on the Santa Fe Railroad. About this time a team of horses ran away and threw Claybourn out of the wagon and broke his legs between the knee and the thigh. He never had them set so it took about two years for them to heal. He went on crutches for some time and was left with a limp.

About 1873, while living in Dixie, confusion developed somehow and Martina secured a divorce from Claybourn and she took her children and moved to Kingston, Utah, and took up a homestead. Here she and the children worked clearing and breaking up the ground with their ox teams. The older boys went to work to earn money to help run the farm and to buy seed. The first year they raised 1000 bushels of grain. Martina spun wool from the sheep she raised and made clothes for her children. Before going to Kingston she lived a year or two in Parowan, Utah. While in Parowan she married a man named Paul Smith, and had a little girl named Vivian. They got a divorce. Martina lived in Kingston until her family was grown and married. She built a small home in Junction 3 miles from her homestead where she lived until her death in 1910. She was buried in the Junction Cemetery.

Claybourn joined the church when he was 17 years old and always prided his connection with the church and retained a living testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. He was a very rugged type of man and always wore high top boots and a large hat. He was an excellent carpenter. He could build almost any kind of structure he decided upon. He was an apprentice carpenter in his youth and he helped to build the Prophet's mansion. He made the benches and helped to build the school house in Hinckley in 1875.

Parents:

Martha Louisa Montgomery Bell (1807 - 1888)

Spouses:

Nancy Williams Ferguson Ott (1822 - 1863)

Mary Caroline Pratt Elder (1838 - 1905)

Martine Marie Peterson Elder (1835 - 1911)

Elizabeth Francis Pratt Elder (1846 - 1887)

Frances Annie Pulsipher Miles (1860 - 1909)

Children:

Eli Alonzo Elder (1852 - 1946)

Mary Louise Elder Nelson (1861 - 1916)

Martha Susannah Elder (1864 - 1864)

William David Elder (1864 - 1923)

Maria Martine Eugenia Christina Elder Sudweeks (1864 - 1939)

James Edward Elder (1865 - 1938)

Joseph Alfred Elder (1866 - 1961)

Claybourn Lorenzo Elder (1867 - 1936)

Johnathen Pratt Elder (1867 - 1955)

Hyrum Pratt Elder (1867 - 1874)

Annie Elizabeth Elder Kelsey (1869 - 1958)

Ellen Isabell Elder Stanworth (1870 - 1952)

Walter Wallace Elder (1871 - 1933)

George Henry Elder (1871 - 1939)

Florence May Elder (1873 - 1874)

Agnes Ettie Elder Theobald (1874 - 1944)

Ira Milton Elder (1880 - 1941)

Parley Pratt Elder (1882 - 1967)

Edgar Pratt Elder (1887 - 1887)

Created by: SMS

Record added: Apr 22, 2009

Find A Grave Memorial# 36166961

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The following information was found on Family Search.org:

Claybourne Montgomery Elder, 1827-1912 and Elizabeth Frances Pratt, 1846-1887: His name has been spelled in records variously as Claybourn, Claybourne, Clayborn and Clayborne, etc. He was the son of David and Martha Louisa Montgomery Elder, the second of three children. He was born June 2, 1827 in Rutherford County, Tennessee. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1839 by Elias Smith and confirmed by Asial Smith. He had an older brother, James Porter Elder, and a younger sister, Martha Jane, born in February 1830 in St. Clair County, Illinois. His father died April 26, 1830, and four months later the baby sister died. Two years after the death of her husband, his mother married Alfred Bell, who along with the Elder family was a convert to the LDS Church.
From St. Clair County, Mr. Bell moved the family to Nauvoo, Illinois, at that time, the seat of the Church. Here the family endured the persecutions heaped upon the members of the church by the mobs who were actively engaged with their nefarious activities. Claybourne had many interesting experiences in Nauvoo. He told of being with other boys when the mobs would ride up and try to get information from them of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s whereabouts. The boys would not tell them anything. One time while they were flying kites, they were asked by several men if they had seen Joseph Smith. They answered, “Sure, we just saw him going to heaven on his white horse, and we are sending his dinner up on our kites.” He worked as a hod carrier in the building of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s Mansion House.

When the Saints were driven out of Nauvoo by the mobs, Claybourne was ready to leave with the first groups. He didn’t arrive in Utah with them, however, as he was sent back to serve as a scout for the Saints. He crossed the plains by ox team, no doubt providing entertainment and music for dancing with his expert fiddling. He arrived in Utah in 1850, where he became a carpenter.

After being in Salt Lake City for a time, he met a young widow, Nancy Ott, and her son David. LDS Temple Index Bureau records show Claybourne and Nancy were married February 9, 1853 in the Endowment House. Her name was given as Nancy Williams Ferguson. She was the widow of Frederick Ott, who had died in Nauvoo, Illinois earlier. Nancy was born August 27, 1822 in Pulaski County, Kentucky.

Sometime after their marriage, Claybourne and Nancy moved to Grantsville, in Tooele County. They apparently had no children together, although family tradition says they adopted an Indian girl, Sarah. Sarah was enumerated in the family in the census of 1860, age 6. Virgin Ward records show her as Sarah Maria Elder, Indian Squaw, baptized 31 September 1868. She was not shown with the family in the census of Virgin in 1870 or later. Federal Troops Head for Utah to Vanquish the Saints.

In September of 1855, W.W. Drummond was appointed Chief Justice of Utah. Being hostile to the Church, Judge Drummond and others circulated falsehoods concerning the Saints. In March of 1857, he resigned his position and in his letter of resignation, he wrote wicked and abominable falsehoods against Gov. Brigham Young and the people of Utah, influencing the United States government to send troops against the “Mormons.” The troops were called the “Utah Army,” and as they approached, the citizens organized for self-defense. In September, when the troops reached Ham’s Fork in Wyoming, General Daniel H. Wells left Great Salt Lake City for Echo Canyon, where he established headquarters. About 1,250 men from different militia districts were ordered to Echo Canyon in an attempt to prevent the Utah Army (also called Johnston’s Army) commanded by Albert S. Johnston, from entering the valley. Claybourne Elder was one of the men from Grantsville who traveled to Echo Canyon for this purpose, serving under General Wells.
In a history of Claybourne Elder, it states he joined up with the Christensen handcart company. No reason was given why Claybourne Elder had been with this group, or at what point. However, Church Chronology states that on August 15, 1857, Col. Robert T. Burton and James W. Cummings left Great Salt Lake City with seventy men for the purpose of protecting the emigrant trains and observing movements of the approaching army. They arrived at Ft. Bridger on the 21st and Devil’s Gate on the 30th. They apparently met handcart and wagon train companies at Ft. Bridger, and began to accompany them on the last leg of their journey into Great Salt Lake Valley.

Apparently, at some point during this exercise, Claybourne Elder met up with the Christensen handcart company and joined them in traveling on into Salt Lake City. The Christian Christensen handcart company and the Mathias Cowley wagon train arrived in Great Salt Lake on Sunday, September 13, 1857. One of the immigrants in this handcart company was a young woman from Denmark who was destined, in the not too distant future, to become of the wives of Claybourne Elder. The company with which the Pratt family traveled may also have come in contact with these other groups coming into the valley about this time, making the acquaintance of Claybourne Elder.

Claybourne Montgomery Elder Weds-Takes Two Wives:
Martina, as she was called, had been converted to the Mormon faith in Denmark. She left Denmark with her young daughter, Hannah, her sister, Julia, and her brother, Jorgen Pedersen to sail from Liverpool, England for America. On April 25, 1857, the ship, Westmoreland, set sail, carrying 544 saints, mostly Scandinavians, under the direction of Mathias Cowley. It arrived at Philadelphia on May 31st. The immigrants reached Iowa City by rail June 9th. Martina’s husband, not being a member, or not able to withstand the persecution and ridicule accorded the converts, withdrew and did not accompany the immigrants, but gave his permission for Martina to go and take their daughter.
Claybourne Elder seems to have been a versatile fellow and an expert on the violin. He provided music for the entertainment and dancing in the evenings around the campfire in the circle of the carts and wagons. All that was needed for the dancing was a man and his fiddle. And if the stories which have been handed down are true, he took his own turn at the dancing, and danced many times with Martina. And if he did meet up with the Pratts along the trail, he may have danced with the Pratt girls; or, he may have met the Pratt family after their arrival in Grantsville.
At any rate, within a few months of the arrival of the Jonathan Pratt family in Grantsville in the fall of 1857, Mary Caroline became a wife of Claybourne M. Elder, and, at which time, he also married Mica or Micka Martina Magrethe Pedersen Gibb or Gipp. (Various records show slight differences of the order and spelling of her names.) The marriages took place in the President’s Office in Salt Lake City on 31 January 1858. The marriage ceremonies were performed by President Brigham Young. At this same time, Nancy was sealed to her first husband, Frederick Ott. (Some have interpreted the entry as Nancy also having been sealed to Claybourne, but consultants at the Family History Library who studied the entry, agreed that she was sealed to her first husband at this time, not to Claybourne.) This was during the time that polygamy was being practiced among some of the people in Utah.
After the marriages of Claybourne to Mary Caroline and Martina, and the sealing ordinance of Nancy to her first husband, they returned to Grantsville to join together as one household, including Nancy’s son, David Ott, and the adopted Indian girl, Sarah. Mary Caroline was the youngest of the three wives, at the age of twenty. Marriages Bring Children
In due time, the children began to arrive. Mary Caroline’s first child, Clayborn Pratt Elder, was born August 1, 1859. Martina’s first child, Don Carlos Elder, was born October 10, 1860. Mary Caroline’s second child, Mary Louisa, was born June 5, 1861. A family group chart in the LDS Family History Library shows Martina’s second son, Eli Alonzo Elder was born August 31, 1861 in Grantsville. This conflicts, however, with the records of the Zion Park Stake, which state that Claybourne Elder was with the group who settled in Duncan’s Retreat in January of 1861. The 1860 census of Grantsville lists Claybourne’s family as follows:

Claiborn Elder, 33, farmer, real estate valued at $300, personal estate at $90, born in Tennessee; Nancy W., 37, born in Kentucky, David F. Ott, 18, farm laborer, born in Indiana, Sarah Elder, 6 (Indian), born in Utah, Martina Elder, 25, born in Denmark, Hannah, 6, born in Utah, Mary C. Elder, 22, born in Tennessee, Claiborn Elder, 1, born in Utah.
Many adjustments would be necessary to bring about tranquility in a family of three wives, mothers and their several children. It would require women of extreme patience, sensitivity and understanding to avoid unpleasant situations, including jealousy, hurt feelings and favoritism. Apparently, these women met the challenge, at least to a degree that they lived together in relative harmony for several years. Called to the Cotton Mission
At the same Church October General Conference of 1861 in which Jonathan Blackmore Pratt had been called to travel to Southern Utah to help colonize that area and raise cotton, Claybourne Elder was among those called to the cotton mission. Church Chronology makes note of this call as follows:
“Sun. 6. The semi-annual conference of the Church was commenced in G.S.L. City . . . A number of brethren were called to settle in southern Utah and turn their special attention to the raising of cotton.” (October 1861, page 66.)
People who had spent several years establishing homes, planting fruit trees and clearing the land to make it productive for their farm crops were, naturally, reluctant to uproot their lives for this hard and sometimes dangerous undertaking. Faithful to their leaders, however, most responded to the call.
After hurried preparations, the ‘cotton missionaries’ left their homes and proceeded to make their way to Southern Utah, where they would begin again to make a home and a life in a harsh environment. It is assumed that in Claybourne’s group were his three wives, Nancy, Martina, and Mary Caroline, and their children.
With winter approaching, the departure was made as soon as they could make themselves ready. All suffered from meager rations, difficult travel conditions and cold. Most of the missionaries went to St. George, but a few families went to the upper settlements, apparently tarrying along the way before arriving in Duncan’s Retreat in January 1862. As mentioned above, Zion Park Stake records indicate that Claybourne and his father-in-law, Jonathan Blackmore Pratt, and their families were in this group.
And so the long, hard struggle to survive in Duncan’s Retreat began. In 1863, Claybourne’s wife, Nancy, died and was buried in a small lot next to where the church would be built the following year. Her large rock grave marker is the only landmark of the place where Duncan’s Retreat once existed.
During the summer of 1863, Claybourne and Frances Elizabeth Pratt, youngest daughter of Jonathan and Susannah (a sister of his wife Mary Caroline), were married in Salt Lake City in the Endowment House. It is not known whether this was before or after the death of his wife, Nancy. Frances Elizabeth Pratt
Frances Elizabeth Pratt (or Elizabeth Frances) was the sixth child and youngest daughter of her parents Jonathan Blackmore Pratt and Susannah Halbert Pratt. She was born in Tishomingo County, Mississippi and lived in that county and Itawamba County until she migrated with her parents to Utah in 1857. She was about eleven years of age at that time. She was the youngest living child in the family. A brother, John Wesley, was born in Itawamba County in 1849, but he died as an infant the same year.
In Tishomingo and Itawamba Counties, Frances was acquainted with relatives in both Pratt and Halbert families. She no doubt enjoyed her nephews, sons of her older sister, Rebecca, and would sorely miss them when she left them behind as she journeyed toward “Zion.”
Frances knew first hand the hardships and difficulties encountered in being a young pioneer girl. As they traveled along the trail, she would have fewer chores than her older sisters and brother. She would enjoy the company of other young folks in the wagon trains. As they crossed the prairies, where little wood was available, she was probably assigned, along with other youngsters, the unpleasant task of collecting buffalo chips. These chips provided fuel for the fires for cooking, heating water for baths and laundry, and were a very necessary part of the evening chores in the plains areas, where little wood was to be found.
Frances was old enough to help her mother with the duties required to feed the family and keep them in clean clothes. But she was young enough to join in the fun and frolic in the evenings with the other young folks, and perhaps, was asked to dance occasionally. She knew the weariness of travel, unpleasantness of the rough, bumpy roads, the danger of the river crossings and the fear of Indian attacks and buffalo stampedes.
Frances may have received some schooling in Mississippi, and perhaps a little in Grantsville after their arrival in Utah before the call came for the family to move to Utah’s Dixie. The arduous trip was a repeat, to a certain extent, of the longer trip from the Dixie she had known in her childhood. At the time of the call to the Cotton Mission, she was a young woman of about fifteen, and the primary help to her mother, as her sisters had all married. She learned the necessary skills at her mother’s side, which would enable her to take on the role of wife and mother.

Frances Becomes a Bride;

When Frances was still a very young woman, she became the bride of Claybourne M. Elder, her brother-in-law. The date of their marriage, which took place in the Salt Lake LDS Endowment House, was July 25, 1863. She was 16 years, 9 months and 24 days of age at the time of her marriage. Claybourne was almost twenty years her senior. No doubt they traveled from Dixie to Salt Lake City in the same company of others going for the same purpose, as was the custom.
With her marriage to Claybourne, she would become a plural wife, joining the family with his wives Martina and Mary Caroline. Descendants of Claybourne and Frances have reported great affection between the two. Frances had known Claybourne, at least, since their arrival in Utah, and especially, since his marriage to her sister. They became parents of eleven children. The families of Claybourne were enumerated on the 1870 U.S. census of Virgin City, on the line below Jonathan B. Pratt. They had moved from Duncan to Virgin prior to that date, due to the danger of the Indian troubles at that time.

Elder Families Move Frequently:
The Elder families lived in Duncan for just a few years. During the years following, Claybourne moved around frequently. The birthplaces of his children born in the ensuing years reflect their various moves. One history of Claybourne reported that he moved twenty-three times in one year. Considering the distances between the places they lived, and the slow mode of travel in those days, this seems to be a bit improbable. Twenty-three moves in a year would mean no more than about two weeks at each location not allowing much time for births of babies, settling into new homes, or for travel time.
Moving from place to place, starting over time and time again, giving birth in wagons or rude cabins, wherever they happened to be, trying to find food for their families, cooking over campfires, doing laundry in stream or river, or carrying water for use in the house, couldn’t have been easy in the best of circumstances. The education of the children also suffered from the frequent moves.
The livestock industry in southern Utah in those early pioneer days was important to the welfare of the citizens. There were several individual holdings in the beginning, but later cooperative herds were organized. Claybourne Elder and William Wright helped to care for the Kolob Co-op herd.
During this time, the Indian problems flared up, and on January 8, 1866, James Whitmore and his hired man, Robert McIntyre, were slain by the Indians near Pipe Springs, Arizona. Claybourne was with the militia under Captain James Andrus when the bodies were found.
A few months later, on April 2, 1866, Robert Berry and his wife, Isabella, and his brother Joseph Berry were slain by the Indians near the Maxwell Ranch on Short Creek. They were on their way home to Berryville (Glendale) in Long Valley from a trip to Spanish Fork to visit family. Claybourne and William Wright were taking cattle to the range near the Canaan Ranch, when the bodies were discovered.
The Canaan Cooperative Cattle Stock Company was organized in 1870 at Toquerville. In 1871, James Andrus became superintendent of the Canaan Company’s activities. Minutes of the Washington County Court board meeting held on March 30, 1876, show that James Andrus had engaged Claybourne Elder to take charge of the company’s ranch at Antelope Springs. He was to have use of company cows for dairying, the company to receive two-fifths of the butter and cheese produced. The company provided the necessary equipment for this operation. He stayed there one summer, then on to Upper Kanab, and from there to Glendale. He and his family, including wives, Mary Caroline and Frances, along with their children were enumerated in the 1880 census of Glendale, the census taken in June. His stay there was two years. His sons Franklin and Ira were born at Glendale. Some records show their birthplaces as “Ranch” or “Glendale Ranch.”
In 1873, problems had arisen between Claybourne and his wife Martina, and she secured a divorce from him. In 1880, (apparently after the census was taken) Claybourne moved his two wives and children to Arizona. This could not have been an easy trip for any, but for Frances with her young nursing baby, Ira Milton, it was particularly hard. Two years later, their son Parley Pratt Elder was born in or near Snowflake in 1882. In Arizona, Claybourne and the older sons worked on grading on the Santa Fe Railroad. They also contracted making pine shingles.
While in Arizona, they had many Indian scares with the Indians killing women and children. One day Frances saw Indians coming. Afraid for her children, she left her son Jim (James Edward) at the house and told him to feed them melons while she hid the other children. When the Indians came, they asked Jim if the Squaw was afraid. He replied, “Yes.” He fed them melons until they could hold no more, then they left. The next day the same Indians, and more, came. Again, the women and children fled, but this time Claybourne was home. The Indians asked about the squaws and papooses. They had roasted a deer and brought with them to treat them. The women and children returned and enjoyed the meat, while the Indians gorged themselves on more melons.
When they left Arizona to return to Utah, they were crossing the Colorado River at Lee’s ferry on a large raft. In the middle of the river, the mules which had not been unhitched, suddenly started to buck. It was a close call, as they almost backed the wagon off the ferry into the river.
Back in Duncan’s Retreat, Frances gave birth to her tenth child, Charles Pratt Elder. Claybourne rented a sawmill on Trumbull Mountain south of St. George. This he operated for about four years. While on the mountain, Claybourne and the older boys would operate the mill. The younger boys and daughters would milk fifty cows and make cheese and butter. The churn was a large wooden barrel with rockers on it. Two of the children could churn the butter by rocking themselves to sleep, one on each side of the churn. They would place the butter into large wooden barrels and bury them until someone could take them into St. George to market.
During some winters they would move into St. George so the children could go to school. Actually, the children had little opportunity for schooling.
Frances gave birth to her last child, Edgar Pratt Elder, on April 2, 1887 in St. George. Two and a half weeks later, on April 19th, Frances died of complications of childbirth. She was only forty-one years of age.
The abandonment of Duncan started around 1885, when some families left for Millard County. Others followed over the next year or two. Mary Caroline’s children were grown and marrying. Since her sister Frances was now raising a young family, Claybourne stayed with her. Perhaps it was at this time that Claybourne and Mary Caroline came to a parting of the ways. Could the separation have been the result of political pressure to end polygamy in Utah? We will never know for sure, the real reason for their separation.
Traveling and moving so often was very hard on women, especially when pregnant, and on the babies and little children. Frances, being young at her marriage, and with a growing number of children, had to endure much and accept many responsibilities. Giving birth in isolated places, with little or no medical help save that of a midwife, if one was available; burying her infant daughter and young son Hyrum; meeting the demands of a growing and ever-increasing family, were extreme burdens thrust upon her young shoulders.
These hardships and struggles may have contributed to wearing her body out, leaving it with little stamina and resistance to bear one more birth. Two weeks after Frances’ death, on May 11, 1887, her newborn son, Edgar, died. Frances was buried in St. George Cemetery, St. George, Washington, Utah. No record of Edgar’s burial was found, but he was probably also buried in the St. George Cemetery.
No record of a divorce has been found; however, the marriage records of Washington County include a remarriage of Claybourne and Mary Caroline Pratt, dated August 14, 1887 in St. George. Both were shown as residents of St. George. This was three months following the death of Frances. Perhaps this event reconciled Claybourne and Mary Caroline, as they lived the remainder of their lives together.
The ensuing events are not clear as to when Mary Caroline moved to Hinckley, before or after Claybourne moved there. Her parents had already moved in the spring of 1887. May Elder Petty, in her sketch of her grandfather related that Mary Caroline moved to Hinckley, and Claybourne brought Frances’ two youngest children to her to care for. They lived in Hinckley until 1895 when Claybourne and Mary Caroline moved to Ferron, Emery County, Utah where Mary died of pneumonia 11 February 1905 in Ferron. She was buried in the Ferron Town Cemetery on 13th of February.
In 1908, Claybourne married Frances Anna Miles, widow of Thomas C. Miles. She was born October 19, 1860, in Fort union, Utah. She was the daughter of C. Pulsifer and Sarah Robbins. She was a good wife to Claybourne. She died in 1910 and Claybourne was again alone. He went to Millard County to visit some of his children and remained in Leamington to live with his son Parley Elder, where he died January 8, 1912. He was buried in the Leamington Town Cemetery.

Information for these life stories from a book published by Grace Pratt Thomas entitled The Pratt Halbert/Holbert Connection, of which I have a copy. She gives extensive source notations.

by Peggy Crook

 
view all 42

Claybourne Montgomery Elder's Timeline

1827
June 2, 1827
Rutherford, Gibson, Tennessee, United States
1859
August 1, 1859
Grantsville, Tooele, Utah, USA
1860
October 10, 1860
Grantsville, Tooele, Utah, USA
1861
April 13, 1861
Age 33
April 13, 1861
Age 33
April 13, 1861
Age 33