Eli Saxton

Eli Saxton (1846-1900) Compiled by Joan W. Creamer great-granddaughter 2006

Added by BryanWayment on 14 Jan 2009

Originally submitted by micky_o to A William Cook Family Tree on 15 May 2008

Eli Saxton 

Eli Saxton was the first of the family to come to Almy.  He came in the fall of 1884 from Garden City to work in the coal mines.  However, it was not his first contact with the area as he had been in Bear River City during the riots in 1868 and he had carried the mail from Evanston to Coalville in 1882 – 1883.

Eli Saxton was born on 2 February 1846, in Clay Cross, Derbyshire, England, the second child of Thomas and Rebecca Slater Saxton.  However, his oldest sister, Sarah Ann, had died at birth so he was considered the oldest child in the family.  He had 10 brothers and sisters; Sarah Ann, Eli, Thomas, William, Brigham, Anna, Catherine, Emma, Martha, Solomon, and Hannah.  Of this large family only five lived to adulthood, one sister lived six years and the rest died as infants.

His father, Thomas, was a miner.  When Eli was six or seven years old he went to work in the mines as a “snubber,” a job that meant opening and closing the door in the mines for the miners.  He had some kind of accident while working at this and it left a scar on his back.

His parents had joined the Mormon Church 23 March 1850, but had not been able to get enough money to come to Zion, which was their dream.  However, Eli came to America about 1865.  There are two stories about his immigration.  One is that he came over with some missionaries who were returning, and the other is that he ran away and hopped on a boat as a “stowaway” and wasn’t discovered until they were quite a way out so the ship did not return to England.

He joined a wagon train to come west. At nights he stood guard (mainly because he had “no folks”) as there was quite a bit of Indian trouble rumored.  For a period of time it is uncertain as to what he did after he arrived in Utah.  Family stories tell of him working for a freighting line and was a pony express rider.  During the Black Hawk Indian War in the spring of 1867 he served under Captain Alma Eldridge as a volunteer.  The area their forces patrolled was from Bear River to Coalville down Chalk Creek.  When the railroad was being built he worked on it.  He was in Bear River City (Beartown or Gilmer) when it was the terminal.  Bear Town became famous for crime lynching, and had a pitched battle in November, 1868, between the townspeople and the construction gang.  Eli told of getting up one morning after a riot, between the vigilante committee, the gamblers and the members of the construction crews.  On the ends of the logs that poked out of the log cabins, six men were hanging.

In 1869, Eli’s parents and three younger sisters, Emma, Martha, and Hannah, came to America.  Some say Eli sent the money for this family to come to America, and others say that he didn’t even know they were in America.  During the years they had lost contact with each other.  At this time Eli was working on a ranch near Grantsville, (Utah).  He heard there was a Thomas and Rebecca Saxton who had come from England and were living in Coalville.  He found them to be his parents.  However, his mother would not believe he was her son as he had changed so much from the young boy who had left England four years before to come to America.  Finally he showed her the scar on his back from the mining accident, and his mother knew he was her son.

Eli then settled in Coalville and worked in the mines at Grass Creek, just out of Coalville near Upton.

In May of 1871 Eli married Vilate Murray Redden.  She was born 22 February 1856, at Grantsville, Tooele County, Utah, the daughter of Jackson and Naomie Murray Redden.  They had six children: Arthur, Eli, William, Noami, Rebecca, Anna, and Eva.  All died as infants except Naomi and Ann.

Eli served as a deputy sheriff sometime about this time, possibly under his father in-law.

Vilate died on 7 January 1883.  Just before her death she requested Eli to marry her sister to take care of her children.  On 14 February 1883, at Upton, he married Eliza Noami Redden, the sister of his first wife.  Eli and Eliza had no children of their own and were divorced after a very short marriage.  Eva, Vilate’s baby died in March, 1883. 

At this time Eli was carrying the mail up over the hill from Coalville into Evanston.  The trip consisted on going up the canyon about 12 to 15 mines one day; stay overnight at a ranch, then continuing into Evanston the next day.  The same thing would be repeated the next day for the return trip.  In the winter he couldn’t always get through even though he used snow shoes.  He came awfully close to being attacked by wolves and wild animals but used his gun to chase them away.

After his divorce, he took his two small daughters, Naomi and Ann, and moved to Garden City, Utah, where his parents had moved earlier in 1881.  He did this so his mother could help him with the two girls.  It was then that he became acquainted with his third wife, Martha Helen Moore.

Martha Helen Moore was born 15 November 1864, in Smithfield, Cache County, Utah, to Wright Anderson and Helen Palmer Moore.

In the spring of 1870 the Moore family was called to go to Randolph, Utah to help settle the area.  The family lived there until the spring of 1877 when “my father got that old Pioneer Spirit again and found some other men to go with him and settle Garden City on the shore of Bear Lake.”

When Martha was 17, she married Daniel Jacobs of St. Charles, Idaho, on 13 October 1881, in the Endowment House as a plural wife.  However, this marriage did not last and they were divorced.

Martha returned to her parent’s home in Garden City.  She was teaching a Sunday School class and two of her students were the grandchildren of Thomas and Rebecca Saxton, who were living with their grandparents after the death of their mother.  Their father, Eli, came to see his daughters and noticed their Sunday School teacher who seemed to like and help the two little girls.  It was through this that Eli Saxton and Martha Helen Moore became acquainted.  They married 12 February 1884, at Garden City, Utah.

Martha and Eli lived in Garden City until the fall of 1884.  Eli then left and moved to Almy, Wyoming, to work in the coal mines.  Martha remained in Garden City until after the birth of their first child, a son, Thomas Wright, who was born 19 November 1884.  Just before Christmas, when Tom was about three weeks old, Martha’s father Wright A Moore, brought his daughter and baby and Eli’s two daughters to Almy to join their husband and father.  Even though it was extremely cold and the journey was made in a covered wagon, no one suffered any ill effects.

Martha and Eli were the parents of 10 children: Thomas Wright b. 19 November 1884, at Garden City, Utah, d. 24 March 1976; all the other children were born in Almy, Wyoming: Vilate, b 12 November 1886, d 16 November 1886; Elizabeth b. 2 February 1888, d. 2 February 1888; Eli Brigham, b. 8 February 1889, d. 18 February 1889; Elijah Brigham, b. 12 March 1890, d. 23 February 1944; Philip Richard, b. 20 September 1892, d 2 May 1961; Anglo Moore, b. 16 May 1894, d. 13 January 1978; Eli Moore, b. 15 November 1896, d. 17 April 1954; Wright Thomas, b. September 1898, d. 4 November 1970; and Helen, b. 15 November 1900, d. 21 January 1901.  Eli also had a son Octavius “Tav” born 11 September 1886, by Mary Eleanor Moore.

Their first home in Almy was a house on the north side of a slag dump.

The unions were sending in men to agitate to get the unions into the mines.  Eli joined with them in agitating for unions and as a result, he was fired.  This occurred just before the mine explosion of 1895, which killed so many, but probably saved his life.  Even though he was not working at the mines at the time, he helped search for the survivors and get the dead men out.  He told how parts from the mine were found clear over by Turner’s hill and all along the road from the terrible explosion.

He and Martha then started to buy the ranch at Almy which is called the Saxton place yet today.  They also started to homestead up Stacey Holler, down where the Chapman Reservoir goes into Woodruff.  Here they would live in the summer in a low log house built with just two rooms.  They had one room and Jack Stacey had one.  They would cut the hay off their homestead and lived on the sage chicken, which were so plentiful.

Eli’s health was not good and he died of yellow jaundice, 8 October 1900.  He had requested and was buried by his first wife in Coalville, Utah.

It was one month after Eli’s death that Martha gave birth to her daughter Helen.  It was a sad time because this little girl also passed away at two months old.

Martha went ahead with her boys to buy the ranch.  Fourteen years later, Tom left with 89 herd of the cattle as the capital in the Wyuta Cattle Company.  There were no debts on the ranch as it had been paid for.  In the spring of 1919, Martha rented the ranch to her son Lige and his wife, Clara, and went out to Blackfoot, Idaho where her parents were living.  She looked for a place to buy there, came back and sold the ranch in Almy in the fall of 1919.

She lost the place in Idaho and then moved to Salt Lake City.  She started to do a lot of Temple work and helped her son Eli get the research work for the family going.  For a period of time she then lived or visited for extended visits, her children; Wright and Muriel in Bear Lake, Lige and Clara in Almy, Phil and Mary and Eli in Ogden.  Martha then moved to Ogden and bought a little house on the hill.  Eli used to go up there, visit and check on her until they decided it would be better if she were closer.  They build a little house on the back of Eli and Thelma’s house for Martha.  Her eyesight became so poor she then moved in with Phil and Mary.

Martha Helen Moore Saxton died 21 November 1952, in Ogden and is buried in Coalville, Utah.  She was 88 years old.

second story............................

Utah Hot Springs Hotel

August 17, 1900

Dear Wife, Weary at hand and me glad to hear from you. But sorry to hear that you feel that bad about me. Now Martha, I am telling you the truth in my letters and the Boys around hear says what a big change thaire is in me for the Better. Since I came dowen is in fact I can feel and also See for now that I am getten Better and Wiser Every Day. But off Coarse it keeps me Week withe Shivering Sniveling So Much. But for all that my Weight was 130 Lbs Last Night. this Morning is the foirst tiem that I have Drank a full Riemd Cup of it Without making me sick but I feel good hafter it but I can feel it at work on my Liver and hart. You best believe that it is the foirst Rale Maikeen of thaire is Seoares a Refill Calles it takes a Big Drink of it Every Dayes or thay bad By for youre helth and if thay git-sick thay Send after it in a Buttele. You Best it Cleaner your in Side frum filth and so you Can rest your Self. Conted that I am all Better and iff I was not I wood Rite and tell you I could tell your voice all Bitter at that kind of wire and I Culd hear that you was crying to and Martha that is all Bosh. Now Becoase I think Now that I am out of danger iff I only can keep on as good as I am Now the woman that Wates on the tabell getes Moe Diferent things to hear then the Rest when I tell her that I cannot heat the Bill of faire. Burt Dunchen and Cottey Furgeeron and Hed Isom is Comin home for Shuer. So you can See any of them and thay will tell you what thay think of dis. You Did not say anything about Mick Bros Browen ad to Say in your Letter. Well it is tiem now to go in the Bath the water is the Rite heat So we all go in to gether and So you Bet thare is a Nise Lot of us thick and thin. I got your Letter this Moarning Before Brecfest and ansering it after Brecfest So I ain’t Lost Much tiem this tim.

I Ramain Ever as yours,

Eli Saxton.

Utah Hot Springs Hotel was located in the Salt Lake Valley and was advertised as the ‘Pleasantest and Most Beneficial Pleasure Resort in the West.’ Besides mineral baths at 144 degrees Fahrenheit, they also offered different drink concoctions of Silica, Alumina, Calcium Sulphate, Calcium Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Chloride, Magnesium Chloride, and Magnesium Carbonate. They claimed they could cure whatever ailed you. It is presumed that Eli went there in hopes to cure the yellow jaundice he had developed. It is also known that Eli drank quite heavily and his disease could have possibly been cirrhosis of the liver instead of jaundice.

Eli was unable to recover from his illness and was in bed sick most of the time until he died 8 October 1900. Once when Martha had gone into Evanston to get some medicine, Eli called his sons into his bedroom and gave Tom the charge to take care of his mother and brothers and to feed them.

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Timeline

1846

2 Feb

Birth

Birth

Grantsville, Tooele, Utah, USA

should read

Clay Cross, Derbyshire, England

1864

Age: 18

Arrival

1871

May

Age: 25

Marriage to Vilate Murray Redden

1883

Feb

Age: 37

Marriage to Eliz Naomi Redden

1884

12 Feb

Age: 38

Marriage to Martha Helen Moore

Garden City, Rich, Utah, USA

1900

8 Oct

Age: 54

Death

Almy, Uinta, Wyoming, USA

1900

Age: 54

Residence

Almy, Uinta, Wyoming, USA

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Stories

Eli Saxton Compiled by Joan W. Creamer great-granddaughter 2006

Added by Unandersdotter on 20 Feb 2009

Eli Saxton 1846 - 1900

Eli Saxton was born 2 February 1846, the second child of Thomas Harold and Rebecca Slater Saxton in Clay Cross, Derbyshire, England. Their first child, a girl, died at birth so Eli was considered the oldest chi... Read more »

Eli Saxton (1846-1900)

Added by Unandersdotter on 20 Feb 2009

Eli Saxton (1846-1900) Added by BryanWayment on 14 Jan 2009

Originally submitted by micky_o to A William Cook Family Tree on 15 May 2008

Eli Saxton

Eli Saxton was the first o... Read more »

Eli Saxton 1846-1900

Added by Unandersdotter on 20 Feb 2009

Added by BryanWayment on 9 Jan 2009 Originally submitted by BryanWayment to on 1 Dec 2008 Read more »

Eli Saxton (1846-1900) letter to his wife, Martha Helen Moore (1864-1952)

Added by Unandersdotter on 20 Feb 2009

Eli Saxton (1846-1900) letter to his wife, Martha Helen Moore (1864-1952) Added by BryanWayment on 17 Jan 2009

Transcribed copy with comments Read more »

... Read more »

All stories (4)

Family Members

Parents

Thomas Harold Saxton 1823 – 1896

Rebecca Slater 1826 – 1906

Show Siblings

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Sarah Ann Saxton
1844 - 1844
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Thomas Saxton
1848 - 1848
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William Saxton
1849 - 1849
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Brigham Saxton
1850 - 1869
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Annie Saxton
1853 - 1859
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Catherina Saxton
1855 - 1855
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Emma Saxton
1858 - 1927
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Martha Saxton
1860 - 1956
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Solomon Saxton
1862 - 1863
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Hannah Saxton
1864 - 1940
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Spouse & Children

Mary Eleanor Moore 1868 – 1956

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Octavious W Longhurst
1886 – 1960
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Vilate Murray Redden 1857 – 1883

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Arthur Saxton
1872 – 1972
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Eli Saxton
1874 – 1874
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William Saxton
1876 –
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Naomi Rebecca Saxton
1877 – 1957
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Annie Saxton
1879 – 1920
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Eva Saxton
1882 – 1883
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Eliz Naomi Redden

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Martha Helen Moore 1864 – 1952

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Thomas Wright Saxton
1884 – 1976
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Vilate Saxton
1886 – 1886
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Elizabeth Saxton
1888 – 1888
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Eli Brigham
1889 – 1889
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Elijah Brigham Saxton
1890 – 1944
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Phillip Richard Saxton
1892 – 1961
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Anglo Moore Sexton
1894 – 1978
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Eli Moore Saxton
1896 – 1954
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Wright Thomas Saxton
1898 – 1970
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Helen Saxton
1900 – 1901
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Family Group Sheet

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Sep 14 2016, 15:41:29 UTC