William Moore ALLRED

Allred Family Organization
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William Moore ALLRED (01020505)

Allred Progenitors: (Isaac, William, Thomas)
Born: 12/24/1819
Died: 06/08/0190
Submitted by: Sharon Allred Jessop 10/04/2000

INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM MOORE ALLRED
related by Theras Orson Allred, a Grandson and Iris Allred Nielsen, a Great Granddaughter

It was a balmy spring evening in Nauvoo the Beautiful in the year 1841, that two young men age 21, arrived at a church function known as a Singing Practice. A new young face in the crowd attracted the attention of one of them, William Moore Allred, and he asked his friend, Stephen Goddard, for an introduction. The “young face” readily consented to meet the young man for she too had been attracted by a new young face. William gained permission to escort the young lady home following the practice. Thus began a romance that resulted in the marriage of the ancestors of Iris and Theras.

In the home of Orson Pratt on the 9th of January 1842, Orissa Angelia Bates and William Moore Allred were married by Dr. John C. Bennett. Among the guests present were the Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife Emma. Orson Pratt’s wife was an older sister of Orissa.

A common cause, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as restored in these last days, has brought these two young people together from widely separated sections of the country. Orissa was born the 17th of August, 1823, at Henderson, Jefferson County, New York. Her father, Cyrus Bates, came to New York from Vermont and his father, Oliver, was from Boston.

William’s people were from the South. William was born the 24th of December 1819 at Farmington, Bedford County, (now Marshall County) Tennessee where his father, Isaac had moved from Georgia. Isaac was born in South Carolina. William’s mother, Mary Calvert, was born in Elbert County, Georgia.

About the time the Church was being organized at Fayette, New York, Isaac was moving his family, consisting of seven children, from Tennessee some 500 miles northwest to the state of Missouri. He located on a farm in Monroe County in the Salt River District.

The climate there was quite different from that which the Allred family had left and for the first time they experienced snow on the ground and in the spring they shot their first deer on the crusted snow. That winter, William, a lad of 11, frosted his feet because he had no shoes. His twin brothers, Redick and Redden, had no shoes either so William stayed in the house and taught his brothers to read . . his only experience as a school teacher. His schooling was limited.

Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Hyrum Smith and John Murdock, brought the Gospel to Monroe County in 1831. The following year three Elders, George M. Hinkle, Daniel Cathcart and James Johnson, organized the Salt River Branch. On the 15th of September, 1832, William, along with his parents and others of the family, was baptized by Elder Hinkle.

William first saw the Prophet Joseph Smith in the summer of the year he turned 14. The prophet was on his way to Zion’s Camp to relieve the suffering of the Saints in Jackson County and arrived at the Salt River Settlement June 7, 1834. They camped there four days refreshing and reorganizing the camp.

William’s Uncle James raised 10 volunteers and joined the camp. On the return trip the Prophet Joseph visited the Salt River Branch (also called the Allred Settlement) and advised the Saints to gather in Clay County.

Speaking of his impressions of the young Prophet, William writes: “I thought he had a noble appearance, very kind and affectionate. I visited the Camp several times while it was at my Uncle’s farm. I knew he was a true prophet of God and I have lived to see many of the prophecies fulfilled and I am willing to have this testimony go to all the world. As I was not quite 14 when I first saw the Prophet I cannot remember many of his sayings then but I heard him preach in the Salt River Branch.” He wrote of a later period: “I was with him in the trouble at DeWitt and Adam-on-Diam and at Far West. I have played ball with him many times in Nauvoo.”

The Isaac Allred family had been devout Presbyterians and William had been a regular attender at Camp Meetings and Sunday Schools. Now the new convert had implicit faith in the Prophet Joseph and in the Gospel he taught, and gladly answered every call that was made of him by his new Church with a whole-hearted response.

By the time the Allred family joined the Church the gathering place was Jackson County, Missouri, and Isaac, under the spirit of gathering, sold his farm and prepared to move to Independence. Before he got away the Saints were driven out of Jackson County so Isaac rented the farm he had just sold and stayed in Monroe County. In 1855 they gathered with the Saints in Clay County, locating on Fishing River.

The citizens of Clay County would not tolerate the Mormons much more than those in Jackson so within the year the Allred family moved with the others and settled in a sparsely settled part of Missouri and had a petition for a new county, Caldwell. The saints in and about Far West began to prosper and the influx was so great that another county was formed called Davies County. Isaac had land on Long Creek, about 8 miles from the newly formed city of Far West.

The few settlers in this area were mostly fugitives from justice or political outcasts, and most of them were bought out by the Mormons and the situation held the promise of peace and prosperity and Far West bid to become the Beautiful Zion that Independence had been meant to become. The Church now consisted of two stakes. Here the Allreds lived for two years and the last of their ten children were born.

The Anti-Mormons of Missouri were not content for the Latter Day Saints to occupy on foot of Missouri soil. Persecutions began anew. Outlying settlements in other counties were the first to suffer from new mob violence--DeWitt, Faun’s Mill, Crooked River, etc. and as trouble mounted Governor Boggs issued his extermination orders.

William had a vital part in some of the incidents that followed. Following the advice of General Alexander Doniphan, an officer in the State Militia, Caldwell county called out its Militia and William, age 18, was among those in Far West intent upon defending the City and its citizens against the depredations so recently perpetrated against persons and property in Jackson County.

William was in a small company under the leadership of Colonel George M. Hinkle that went to the relief of Saints at DeWitt on the Mississippi River in Carol County. They reached the place in the night and the enemy fired upon them. Bullets thudded into the trees about them but none was hit.

While on another such mission William had pointed out to him the stones at Adam-ondi-Ahman that were once an alter on which Adam offered sacrifice. (See History of the Church by Joseph Smith, Vol. 111 pg. 40 footnote).

On such missions they usually had to sleep in the open and once they awakened to find themselves under six inches of snow.

Once while out with a scouting party they discovered an army of thousands of men marching on Far West under banners of the State Militia. They knew they would be needed to defend their city against such numbers. By taking a circuitous route and doubling their efforts they came into the city from the opposite side before the mob arrived.

As they rode in behind a breast-work of wagons, boxes, fallen trees--anything that could give protection--William tied his horse, threw down his hat, tied a handkerchief about his head, took up his rifle and joined the other men. As he did so, Captain Killian shouted. “Boy, the watch word is God and Liberty.”

As the mob came marching up the defenders expected to get the order to fire, but suddenly the marching men whirled and retreated to a small creek out of the range of Far West muskets where they made camp about a mile from the city. It seems that they feared they might lose too many men under the circumstances. One mobster remarked later that they thought they saw a thousand men ride in behind the breast works. They found a cheaper method to gain their ends. They had found a traitor.

Colonel George M. Hinkle rode out to the enemy camp reportedly to determine their purposes. He returned saying that the leaders of the mob wished to see the Mormon leaders and that they would be safe, returning the evening of the next day. So under the supposed protection of Colonel Hinkle, the Prophet, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wright and others, went into the camp of the enemy but they did not return that evening nor the next day as free men. They were taken prisoners. It was testified later that George M. Hinkle said as they rode into camp. “These are the men I agreed to deliver to you.” George M. Hinkle, the Elder that baptized William had sunk to the low level as traitor!

From William’s Journal we learn that when the brethren were betrayed in the enemy camp they were treated with the upmost contempt. “I shall never forget that night, such cursing, yelling and screaming heard. It could be distinctly heard up town. They held court martial and condemned Joseph and Hyrum to death.”

The report came that the prisoners were to be shot the next morning, Nov. 4th 1838, on the Public Square before the eyes of their wives and children. William was there when the prisoners arrived. But they were not shot as planned. General Donaphan had been appointed their executor but refused to have any part of it, declaring it cold blooded murder and he ordered his men to leave the place.

The mob leader then ordered the prisoners to be taken to Jackson County under General Lucas. William saw the prisoners given permission to gather some necessities and to bid farewell to their families. He heard the men of Far West ordered to give up their arms and he surrendered his musket with the others. He saw the men sign away their real property at the threat of death. He saw prisoners thrust away from the arms of clinging wives and children at the point of the bayonet and into wagons for the journey to Independence. He heard General John B. Clark, who was given command of the occupation forces, make that infamous speech to the people of Far West, whose means of defense had been forced from them, whose leaders had been imprisoned, whose property had been confiscated, stolen or shot in their tracks, whose wives, sisters and daughters had been molested and insulted. General Clark’s words were these: “It now falls upon me to fulfill the treaty that you have entered into, the leading items I shall now lay before you: (the only person who could have signed the treaty is Hinkle) The first requires that your leading men be given up to be tried according to law; this you have already complied with. The second is that you deliver up your arms. This too has been attended to. The third stipulation is that you sign your property to defray expenses of the war. This you have also done. Another article yet remains for you to comply with, and that is, that you leave this State and whatever may be your feelings concerning this, of whatever your innocence, it is nothing to me. General Lucas, who is equal in authority with me, had made this treaty with you....and I am determined to see it fulfilled. The character of this State has suffered almost beyond redemption, from the character, conduct, and influence you have exerted and we deam it an act of justice to restore her character to its former standing by every proper means. The orders of the Governor to me were that you should be exterminated, and not allowed to remain in the State, and had your leaders not given up, and the terms of the treaty complied with you and your families would have been destroyed and your houses ashes.

There is a discretionary power vested in my hands which I shall exercise in your favor for a season; for this leniency you’re indebted to my clemency. I do not say you have to go now, but you must not think of staying another season, or for putting in your crops, for the moment you do this, the citizens will be upon you....As to your leaders, do not once think..do not imagine for a moment..do not let it enter your mind that they will be delivered or that you will see their faces again, for their fate is fixed..their die is cast..their doom is sealed.

I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so great a number of apparently intelligent men found in the situation you are; and oh! That I could invoke the Great Spirit..the Unknown God..to rest upon you and make you sufficiently intelligent to break the chain of superstition and liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism with which you are bound..that you no longer worship a man.

I would advise you to scatter abroad, and never again organize yourselves with Bishops. Presidents, etc. lest you excite the jealous people, and subject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come upon you.

You have always been the aggressors..you have brought upon yourselves these difficulties by being disaffected and not being subject to rule..and my advice is that you become as other citizens, lest by a reoccurrence of these events you bring upon yourselves ruin.” (History of the Church by Joseph Smith Vol, 111 pg 202-204)

So the people went home to find their crops destroyed, animals stolen or shot and left to die, feather beds ripped open and other household goods destroyed. William’s father had a few horses left but “My sisters,” William said “had to walk through the rain, mud and snow for eight miles, their skirts wet to their knees.” It was the 6th of November.

When the Church Leaders were put on trial work came to Far West that a mob was assembling near the Court House to kidnap the Prophet. William was one of a group of men who hid themselves near the scene so as to be available if they were needed. They stood ready until the danger passed.

Before the worst of the mob trouble at Caldwell County developed, William’s brother, John, went to visit his wife’s folks on the Mississippi, opposite Quincy. When the mob leaders were hunting for the active participants in the defense of the Saints, William was advised to go into hiding so he went and stayed with a brother until the danger subsided. After that, he and others, including a younger brother chopped a cord of wood on the Mississippi working in the cold where they suffered greatly.

Early in the Spring of 1839, William with his father’s family left the state of Missouri and moved back across the Great River into the then friendly state of Illinois. Isaac rented a farm in Adam’s County from a Mr. Stone, 20 miles south of Quincy. Due to hardships of the previous months William suffered a severe sick spell and it was more than a year before he could do a good days work. Sickness followed the family to Nauvoo where they moved in the Spring of 1840.

In Nauvoo, William was an active citizen and devoted church member. When the Nauvoo legion was chartered in 1841 he was commissioned by Governor Carlin..a Captain of the 2nd Company, 2nd battalion, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Cohort in that Organization. It was the greatest military organization in the greatest city in the state of Illinois at that time. They were issued rifles but when the Nauvoo Charter was taken away they had to give up arms.

When construction of the Nauvoo Temple was begun, William left the rock quarry with the first load of rock for the Temple’s foundation but a man by the name of Lorenzo Brown, who drove a team of horses, passed William’s slower moving oxen and won the honor of putting the first load of stone on the Temple site. William assisted with the construction in other ways...as carpenter, joiner and mason, often without sufficient food and clothing. When the edifice was sufficiently completed he took his family there for Endowments..3rd Jan. 1847 and on the 23rd they were sealed by Elder Heber C. Kimball.

On the 2nd day of May 1845 William was ordained a Seventy by Elder Levi W. Hancock.

Apostates, trying to injure the Church, built a saloon near the Temple site. The Nauvoo City Council declared it a public nuisance and William’s Company of rifle men stood guard while the building was hauled to the brink of a deep gully where it was rolled down the steep incline..bottles, liquor and all.

William remembers when the printing establishment the Nauvoo Expositor was destroyed, and when Joseph Smith preached the first sermon on The Salvation of the Dead. He saw the first baptisms for the dead performed in the Mississippi River and recalls what his father, Isaac, said: “It is astonishing to me that I have read the Bible all my life but never understood it in that light.”

In William’s writings he records many interesting events in connection with the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was closely associated with the Prophet, maybe because he was a brother-in-law to Orson Pratt. He played ball many times with the Prophet, and some of the pious folk resented his playing ball with the boys. He related a story of a certain Prophet sitting under the shade of a tree when a hunter came along and reproved him. The Prophet asked him if he kept his bow strung all the time and the hunter answered he did not. The Prophet asked him why not and the hunter said it would lose its elasticity if he did. The Prophet said that was the way with his mind, he did not want it strung all the time.

William heard the Prophet say in one of his sermons that all the Lord had revealed to him the people would seek his life. Pointing back to a Brother Cole on the stand he said: “Even as good a man as old Father Cole here.” He heard the Prophet make many predictions. The War on Slavery, that the Saints would go to the Rocky Mountains, and his own martyrdom. He was in a crowd of men in Nauvoo when the Prophet, Hyrum and others left for Cathage to give themselves up for trial and the Prophet said: “Boys, if I don’t come back take care of yourselves. I go like a lamb to the slaughter.” William hear the last sermon ever preached by his beloved leader the previous Sunday.

William was in Nauvoo June 27, 1844 when the word arrived that Joseph and Hyrum had been murdered. He was among the 10,000 mourners who viewed the bodies when they were brought to Nauvoo. He was one of the crowd who expressed the desire to retaliate with armed force but followed advice of Willard Richards when he said: “Think, brethren, think and then think again before you act.”

After Orissa and William were married they began housekeeping in a room in the home of Orson Pratt. Their first child, William Lansing, was born there October 18, 1842. Before the second child, Mary Adeline, was born Dec. 20, 1844 William bought a lot near the rising Temple for $150.00 and built a small brick home on it. When they were forced to leave Nauvoo, they sacrificed their home for $35.00.

After the death of the Prophet a perplexing problem arose . . .Who should now lead the Church? William was caught up in the controversy and heard the claims of Sidney Rigdon to the right of leadership. William was also present at the meeting when Brigham Young spoke with such power that most of the saints were convinced of the Authority of the Twelve in all things. “I was perfectly satisfied” said William.

The enemies of the Church thought the death of the Prophet would be the end of the Church and the “Mormon problem”. When they discovered this was not the case, persecution began anew and rapidly increased until it became necessary for the Mormons to leave Nauvoo and seek a home in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains.

In the spring of 1846, soon after Brigham Young with the vanguard of the Church crossed the Mississippi River and headed west, William and his family left their beloved Nauvoo and joined the pilgrimage westward. William did not have the necessary outfit, but his father Isaac, took the family with him. Isaac bought a farm in the vicinity of Kanesville, Iowa (later known as Council Bluffs) on the east side of the river, where he presided over a Branch called the Allred Settlement.

In June of 1849, Isaac with his family, excepting William and Redden, left for the Salt Lake Valley. William, not yet prepared to make the journey, bought his father out and remained another two years.

Oliver Cowdery came back into the church and was re-baptized a member. William was present at a Conference of the Church when Oliver was called on to speak. Oliver Cowdery said: “I know who wrote the Book of Mormon . .Mr Spalding did not write it . . . Sidney Rigdon did not write it . . .I wrote it myself as it fell from the lips of the Prophet”.

At another conference held in Kanesville in 1850, Apostle Orson Pratt was present. He was staying with William and his family at their home some 8 miles from Kanesville. It had been a very dry season and crops were suffering from lack of rain. The presiding officer at the Conference called upon Brother Pratt to open the Conference with prayer and requested that he pray for rain. William said: “It was clear as a bell, not a cloud to be seen in the sky when we started for home but before they reached home clouds appeared and it rained and rained, and when they reached home they were as wet as if they had been in the river.”

After his father left, William was associated with Samuel Wood in the business of building wagons. It had been William’s constant aim to get ready to make the journey west. He built his own outfit from the ground up (all but the iron) then he painted it.

The wagon cover had to be lined with green calico to protect his daughter, Adaline’s eyes from the light. She had learned to sew when but a child and had pieced an entire quilt by the time she was 6, but this proved to be too much for her eyes and she could not stand strong light.

William raised two steers and broke them to work. He got another ox team from his brother-in-law, Orson Pratt, and with two milk cows under yoke and three teams to draw his family and their portable goods across the plains they set forth. In 1851 they made the trip in the Orson Pratt Company.

Like all such journeys the good was hard. Perhaps it was harder on William than on some men for he had the care of Orson Pratts teams as well as his own. Orson had well broke animals for leaders but the others in his team were wild, unbroke and caused much trouble. Then, too, William was in much demand for fixing broken tongues and wheels of other wagons. At every camp William would leave his own outfit for his family to care for and rush to care for the wild animals in the leader’s team . . then repair other wagons so that all would be ready to start the next morning. Often, when he had his own outfit over a bad place in the road, he would had the whip to Lansing, only 9 years old, and remain to help others across, then run to catch up with his own outfit.

That those days were exhausting for William is born out by the words of his wife, Orissa; “He could not sleep nights, night mares. He would dream that some outfit was bogged down in some bad place in the road. He would pin me down so I could not rise, then cry out for help and awaken the children. The night guard, hearing the commotion would come running to learn what the trouble was:. Orissa finally learned to recognize first symptoms and arise before he could pin her down. “I told him if he couldn’t do better than that I’d have to stake him out with the cattle.

Concerning the services rendered by William and his untiring efforts on that journey, Mr. W. Cummings said to Daniel H. Wells after arriving in the valley: “I wouldn’t go through what William Allred did on the plains for $500.00.” William replied, “for fear that some of you may Orson Pratt put too much on me, I wish to say that he had always done well by me.”

At Fort Bridger there was bad news for William. They met a Brother Cooley going east and he brought the sad news that William’s mother, Mary Calvert Allred, had died. (History says she was the first white woman buried in the Holladay Cemetry) (HAL). It was indeed a heavy blow for William. He had been counting the days as the miles slowly slipped by for a happy reunion of all his family in a new land.

The Orson Pratt Company arrived in Salt Lake City on the 7th of October 1851 . . .after some 60 days on the trail. William rented a small house near Temple Square and found employment as a carpenter. He also had the affairs of the of Orson Pratt who had gone to Washington D.C. on a mission.
That winter, William was set apart as one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventies Quorum. In 18-- the power of the Priesthood was made manifest to the Allred Family. Ada’s eyes had not improved. Like the Doctors in the East, those in Salt Lake City said there was nothing they could do to help her. William went to see Bro. Pratt about the problem and told him they had fasted and prayed and had her administered to with no avail. Orson asked for her full name to take to the prayer circle that was being held that evening by the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve. He then instructed William to take the girl to Patriarch John Smith and ask him to administer to her . . which William did.

William reports in his Journal that at the Patriarch’s home his wife covered her eyes with oil and the Patriarch blessed her and prayed for her. On the way home, William was leading his daughter by the hand when she suddenly said: “Father my eyes are well.” And I bear you my testimony that her eyes were well. A darkened room was no longer necessary. On the 20th of the following December, Adaline turned 8 and her father cut a hole in the ice in City Creek and baptized her.

William was present to witness the historic event of the breaking of the ground for the construction of the Salt Lake Temple.

In 1854-5 William moved his family to Grantsville, Utah. William was sustained as Second Counselor to Bishop Thomas H. Clark.

Theras reports that he taught High School in Grantsville from 1926-1941 and he gathered some information about William’s affairs. Two elderly brothers, Bill and Bob Hudson, claimed to have known the family well. They said they grew up with Lansing and Adaline and knew Bryon and Marvin. They told Theras this story.

There lived in Grantsville a man by the name of Martindale who had a teen-age daughter named Martha Jane. Martha began keeping company with a man her father disapproved of and he forbade her to see the young man any more. She continued to meet him in secret and the courtship continued. Finally they eloped, heading for California on horseback accompanied by several of her lover’s friends.

Mr Martindale gathered a posse of friends and made chase, overtaking the fleeing party somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains. A pitched battle ensued in which the girl’s lover was killed. There seemed to be nothing more to fight about and a consultation was held to decide what to do next. They decided to let the girl decide if she wished to go on to California with her lover’s friends or return to Utah with her father. She chose to return to Utah, but when her father moved from Grantsville a year or so later she stayed in Grantsville maintaining herself by “working out” as a maid in the families of Grantville as she was needed.

As to the truth of this story we are not certain but we do know that on the 29th of Nov. 1856. Martha Jane Martindale was sealed to William Moore Allred in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City as a plural wife.
To that union were born two children, Edgar Merlin 27 Fe. 1858 and Martha Jane, Nov. 1860. At the birth of Martha Jane both mother and daughter died and were buried in the Grantsville Cemetry. Orissa took Edgar into her home and heart and raised him as her own.

When the Johnson Army was sent out by the United States Government in 1857 to quell an imagined rebellion by Brigham Young, William was among the volunteers who went to Echo Canyon to stop the army from entering the valley. Theras says: “I have heard Grandfather tell how they piled boulders at the top of the canyon rim ready to roll down on the soldiers if and when they tried to pass the Echo Camp. He also told about being drilled with the men to march around a point that was visible to any one coming down the canyon, then out of sight and back again so as to appear to be a huge body of men.”

William was mustered out of that camp with instructions to be ready at a moment’s notice to return to service if needed. He arrived home on the 4th of December 1857. The efforts of Colonel Kane in behalf of the Mormons resulted in a settlement that permitted Johnson’s Army to pass through the Salt Lake Valley and to camp at Camp Floyd west of Lehi.

In the Journal History of Feb. 1858 we read of a Mass Meeting held in Grantsville where William is one of a committee to compose a draft resolution “expressive of sentiment of the meting resolved to sustain Brigham Young.”

Three more children were born while living in Grantsville. Though very busy with her large and growing family, Orissa found time to assist in the school as a teacher part of the year.

Before leaving Grantsville the oldest daughter, Mary Adaline, married Mosiah Booth. “Uncle Si”, we called him says Theras.

Following the call of Apostle Charles C. Rich to head a colony of saints in the settlement of the Bear Lake country, William sold his holdings in Grantsville and moved his family of 7 unmarried children and settled in the village of St. Charles, near the north end of Bear Lake. They arrived here the 26th of May 1864. It was then part of Rich County but later became Bear Lake County, Idaho.

Adaline and her husband also made the move.

It was a cold but healthful climate said William. Deep snow in the winter and plenty of good water any time. That was not true of the place they had left! For a time they lacked bread but there were plenty of fish.

William was an enterprising man. He helped build a saw mill and a grist (flour) mill. Associated with him in the saw mill venture were Bishop William G. Young and H.C. Davis and is the grist ,mill was David Taylor.

In Civic affairs William was very active. He served as Pound Keeper in St. Charles, County Clerk and County Recorder for Rich County (now Bear Lake) and as Justice of the Peace in St. Charles.

At St. Charles, Orissa gave birth to two sons which completed the family. Our Father, Grand Father, Nelson Calvert was born 5th of Oct. 1865 and Orson Pratt 29th Nov. 1867. Theras says his father, Orson was born in the home on the south edge of St. Charles and 20 years later Theras was born in the same home.

William was very active in Church affairs serving for many years as St. Charles Sunday School Superintendent in 1877 was made Stake Sunday School Superintendent. Which included wards from Lake Town to Montpelier and north to Georgetown.

Some time after the birth of Orson, William built a new home on the east border of St. Charles. Theras says he has a vivid mental picture of that home. “It was built of logs, unhewn, as was the barn to the east of it and it had a pole fence corral and a pasture to the east. The entrance to the house was from the east and lead into a large living room with a fire place in the middle of the north end. There were and-irons, poker and tongs, and a steel ark holding a large black kettle which could be swung out away from the fire or in to be heated for cooking. On either side of the fireplace were doors leading to bedrooms above. In the first room above there was a drum through which the smoke and the heat from the fireplace passed to give some heat to the rooms above.

We were there to spend Christmas and I was put to bed upstairs. My stocking had been hung by the fireplace downstairs. While I was trying with great difficulty to get to sleep I became frightened at a rattling in the drum. I called for mother and she came and explained that some papers had been put in the fireplace and the heat had taken them unburned up into the drum by the draft. It was not Santa trying to come down the chimney. I remember the spinning wheel that stood by one of the east windows in the living room and a loom for weaving carpet by another window. Just south of the entrance door was a shanty for storing items that wouldn’t freeze.”

When Orson was ten years old, his mother died of a heart attack . . 29th Jan. 1878. About that great sorry William records in his Journal: “. . . . My wife took sick just as Sunday School was dismissed. Some of the children said they thought she was more cheerful that morning and sang more sweetly than usual. She always delighted to be with children. She had taught school a great deal and the Sunday School children thought everything of her. She was a great help in that organization. As I had been appointed Stake Superintendent I started that morning to visit another Sunday School. When I left, I bade her good morning not thinking for a moment that it would be the last time in this life that I would speak to her. She was unconscious when I got home. She was a very kind and affectionate wife and mother. She passed away two days later at the age of 54.

Orissa and William had gone through many tribulations together. They had been driven from their home in Nauvoo in the dead of winter. They experienced loneliness, sickness, and death while they arranged to go west. On that journey across the plains Orissa had to do most for her family while William helped others. They pioneered in Salt Lake, again in Grantsville, and they pioneered again in the Bear Lake Valley. They reared a fine family of 11 . . all of whom were active in the church and were sealed to their mates in the Holy Temple. Edgar M. and Nelson C. filled missions for the Church. Now Orissa had gone to her reward, leaving William with four sons to finish rearing: Edgar, 20, Seymour 16, Nelson 12, and Orson 10. William writes: “for a time we got along quite well. Edgar was a good housekeeper, but with no mother at home William thought it best to resign his Sunday School position so he would have more time with the boys.”

After Edgar married, William hired a housekeeper, a widow with two children. Her name was Mary Perkins Osburn. He later married the widow and reared her two children, sending her son on a mission. The marriage was for time only as Mary had been sealed to her first husband.

In 1894 or 5m William purchased 40 acres of land in Star Valley, Wyoming where four of his sons had bought farms . . . Byron, Seymour, Nelson and Orson. William’s 40 acres was part of the homestead of Ola A. Jenson and lay on the Salt River a half mile east of the town of Fairview. It bordered on land purchased by Nelson. Nelson built a home on the south west corner of their land but Orson built his home on a 5 acre plot near his father . . . given to him by his father so Orson would be near to care for him and Mary during their declining years. William built a two room house just south of Orson’s.

Theras says: “When Grandfather became too feeble to do his own chores, he hired me to do them for him . . . milk his two cows, feed and care for his horse (Bird), his cows, pigs, chickens and young stock and to irrigate and weed his garden and lawn. For this he gave me one calf each year. Twice a day, morning and night, I carried water to fill the stove reservoir and a bucket on the washstand. After Grandfather’s death I continued to serve Aunt Mary in like manner.”

William died the 8th of June 1901 at the age of 82. He was buried beside his beloved wife, Angelia Orissa, in the St. Charles Cemetry.

About his Grandfather, Theras says: “Many times I have heard his bear his testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospel and to the divinity of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I have thrilled to the stories he told of his association with the Prophet in Nauvoo. Interesting also were his experiences crossing the plains and pioneering in the west. I hope I can so live that I will be acquainted with him and Aunt Mary and know my grandmother, Orissa, whom I never saw.”

Iris closed her account of this good man with these sentences: “The last 6 or 7 years of William’s life were spent in Star Valley at Fairview, Wyoming. He had a two room home built about a half mile east of Fairview where he lived near his youngest son, Orson. Aunt Mary lived on in the little house after Great Grandfather’s death for about two years, then my father, Theras C. Allred bought his property, and there I and my older brother were born. The house is still standing and is being used. It has been remodeled and added to and is owned by my cousin, Enid Allred, who lives there today. Great Grandfather remained true to the gospel and continued to bear strong testimony to its truthfulness and to the divinity of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

He loved his family and was always concerned about their faithfulness. He said he would rather follow his prosperity to the grave than for them to disgrace themselves. He truly endured to the end”.

APPENDIX

To anyone interested in the life of William Moore Allred, we think the following items would be welcome.

1. AT HIS FUNERAL AT FAIRVIEW, WYOMING
2. HIS LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
3. THE WILLIAM ALLRED FAMILY REUNION OF 1897
4. THE WILLIAM ALLRED FAMILY REUNION OF 1898
5. THE WILLIAM ALLRED FAMILY REUNION OF 1899
6. JUVENILE INSTRUCTOR Vols. 9:206; 12:50; 16:45

There is another history about William Moore Allred . . Compiled by Migon Michaelson Watt. It is very much the same as this one I have copied.

These things she added:

Grandfather often told of hearing Brigham Young speak in Logan in 1876. He heard Prophet speak many times. One statement he could never forget “Prophet Joseph said that a man just as well put out his hand and stop the down flow of the Mississippi River as to try and stop the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”

She also added that Grandmother Orissa was a wonderful singer: the people said she loved and admired her family. The people said she was happy in St. Charles. They had endured the persecutions of the early days with the pioneers . . poverty, sorrow, sickness and death. Now they were able to live more comfortably, with 7 children married and all living near. They both passed away to take their places on the pages of Mormon Pioneer History.

Helen Allred Lewis

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