Charles Douben HOUSLEY

                   Invalid baptism temple code: REBAP.
                  

                   Historical information included in notes.



George Housley's History
Written by his granddaughter Emma Housley Auger
George Frederick Housley was born 29 Nov 1836, in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottingham , England, the son of Charles Douben and Harriet Agnes Cook Housley. He had a brother Charles, born 11 May 1833, and a sister Charlotte, born 21 Feb 1835.
In the fall of the year when he was three years old, his mother left his father on account of his bad behavior to her. She took George F. with her and went to Hull, leaving Charles and Charlotte with their father. After a few weeks had elapsed their father took them as far as Rotford, telling them he was taking them to their mother, but he turned back to Sutton and left them on the street in the dead of night and told them to go to their Uncle Joseph Simm 's house while he went home and made the bed for them. After waiting in the street for some time they called their Uncle who kept one of the children and arranged for the other to go to Allen Morley's. The next morning they inquired after their father but he had left town and they could not find out anything more about him.
Their Uncle could not keep them and the Relieving Officers would only allow two schillings per week. They said they could not keep them for so little as that so they put them in a workhouse.
After a few weeks their mother came from Hull and took them out of the Workhouse and took them with her. The Parish allowed her two schillings a week. They were so glad to be back with their mother and brother.
After some time his father came and promised his mother he would send her some money if she would not go to the parish again. She took him at his word but he did not send any money so she went to Ikston in Derbyshire where he was living to see what was the reason. When she got there she found that he had a house ready for her, promising that if she would live with him again he would behave better than he had done before. She consented and went to Sutton and got her children and they were all together and very happy for a few months. Then he began to abuse her again so she left him and went back to Sutton taking Charlotte with her and leaving the boys with him. After a few months he sent George F. to his mother and in about two years he took Charles and turned him out in the street in Sutton where his mother was living. Charles said "So Father got shut of us all - and we were all with mother and did rejoice, for truly a mother she was."
On March 23, 1849, Charles and Charlotte were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Charles was ordained on August 10, 1851, to the office of a Priest and on January 11, 1852, he was ordained to an Elder and did Missionary work until 1861 when he came to Utah.
George F. was baptized on December 31, 1854. His mother had been baptized on December 21, 1849. On Saturday, May 18, 1856, they left England to go to Salt Lake City, taking leave of Charles who came a short distance on the road with them early in the morning. He prayed God to give them a speedy passage over the sea and give them power to perform their journey to Zion in safety.
The next we know of George and his mother they were living in Draper, Utah. George was working for a man named Robert Shipley. While there he met a Danish girl named Maria Christina Jacobson. She had been sent to live with the Shipley family to be raised as one of their own. She soon began to confide in the hired man and tell him of her troubles, the children were making all manner of fun at her because she could not speak English very well and she would sound peculiar to them. This caused her to feel very badly.
George F. had left a sweet-heart in England who had refused to come to America and thinking he would never see her again--he married this Danish girl, Maria, when she was just fourteen years old in Salt Lake City and for a few years went right on living in Draper.
On 28 Nov 1860, their first baby was born. They named her Harriet Maria after her grandmother and mother.
Then on 22 Feb 1862 this couple were sealed as man and wife in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah.
And on this same day his mother Harriet Agnes Cook Housley was sealed to a widower by the name of Benjamin Green; he was the father of two sons; James, age 25 years, and William, age 22 years, both of them married prior to this time.
At the time just prior to the birth of George and Maria's first child this old sweet-heart who had remained in England came to America and sought out George, who was truly surprised to see her. She was still in love with him and so was willing to become his second wife, but Maria just couldn't see it that way. A short time later this young woman, whose name was Emma, took ill and died. As other children came to this union George wanted to name one of the girls after her but it was not until the seventh girl was born that Maria consented to name one 'Emma'.
The second child was born April 1, 1863, and they named her Charlotte Agnes. The next two were boys; George, born on 29 March 1865 and Lewis born 28 Nov 1866. They were all born in Draper, Utah.
George left Draper and moved his family to Cache Valley as the Church leaders called for settlers to go there. They first went to a little place called Avon, a farming district. Here he built a log house where they lived during the summer months for a few years, moving to Paradise in the winter. They first rented a house to live in, later on they bought a house and a little land in the west part of town. They then stayed in their own home and the boys took over and ran the dry farm for a while. He, George, would buy a few acres of land at a time as his meager means would permit. He had 20 acres in the southfield, as it was then called, and later a 10 acre piece east of town joining the cemetery.
Eight more children were born to them while living in Paradise, one son and seven daughters . Anna Eliza was born 28 Oct 1868, Benjamin, 28 March 1871, Julia, 1 March 1873; Elizabeth, 16 Jan 1875; Ellen, 16 Feb 1876; Emma, 15 Aug 1878; Janette, 9 Dec 1880 (and died 14 Feb 1881) ; Carolyn, 24 Sep 1883.
George was always a hard working man. He made two return trips to bring immigrants to Utah. He was an Indian Scout, a war veteran, a miller and a freightor. He brought a load of paper to Utah that the Deseret News was printed on. (the first Deseret News was printed in June 15, 1851 according to Essentials in Church History). He also brought several loads of material to set up factories. Besides his farming he did some logging and worked quite a bit in the canyon.
George went about waiting on the sick folk in the town, and as the epidemics came along, as was the case in those days in the winter-time, he was called upon to go into the different homes many times in the night. He would always go but would usually say "I don't see why they always call on me. I'm not going to go. I'll not go another time." But all the time he was dressing and putting on his coat and boots and hurrying off to do whatever was needed for his sick neighbors. Among the pioneer remedies he would use a warm baked potato to bind on the throat. He also spent a lot of time in the evenings going up to Gregory's and reading the paper to Mr. Gregory. They were an aged couple and Brother Gregory was blind. George like to carry a few raisins in his pocket to give to his little children when he came home.
He had a strong testimony of the Gospel and attended Church as often as he could, considering the illness of his wife and family. He sang in the choir and it was not uncommon for him to rise to his feet on Fast-Day and sing a hymn of praise and thanksgiving by way of a testimony as he felt his weakness to speak. He was an honest up-right man. He would not harm anyone. If differences of opinion came up between he and Maria, he would just put on his hat and walk a block or so and return, open the door, and throw his hat in - would laugh and say, "Please, may I come in?"
They were a very proud couple and appreciative of what they had although they never were blessed with much of this worlds goods. They taught their children the Gospel and tried to keep them active in the Church.
On the 14 July 1893, George's brother, Charles, and sister, Charlotte were sealed in the Endowment House to their mother and Benjamin Green. But George refused, as he said he did not want to be sealed to a man who was not his own father.
Maria passed away in March 1896, after a lingering illness of over twenty years. A lot of the time she was not able to walk. Three girls were not married, the youngest one was thirteen years old at the time.
On 18 Nov 1896 George married a widow from Hyrum by the name of Mary Ann Buckley Baron. She was thirty-six years old, the mother of ten children; three of these had died and those still livng were between the ages of two-and-a-half and twenty years. Her oldest sons, Thomas and Carlon Peterson, were married the same day and the same place-the Logan Temple, thus a double wedding.
George was hauling mail from Paradise to Logan and, as it was hard for him to get to Paradise from Hyrum, the family moved up to his home in Paradise for the winter but when spring came they all moved to Hyrum. Carry was the only son of George's children who live a while with this family. She was a little younger than Nellie Baron but they got along nicely together.
George (who was always called Housely by the Baron family) would go up to Paradise and get the mail. He took eggs from Soren Hansen to Paradise. One time George had the small pox along with ten of the children. He had them very badly and when he was able to resume his daily mail route they stopped him from hauling the eggs.
He had a small cafe in Logan that was called "the Little Broom Hotel," but he gave so many meals away that he lost out and had to sell his business.
He hauled mail eight years. Then he sold blankets for the Baron Wollen Mill. He also worked some in the factory, hauled loads of goods to the depot to be sent away on trains. Delivered some to the stores and would take orders for more. His goods consisted of batts, sox, yarn, union assortment of blankets. He also did some door to door canvassing, and ran his farm in Paradise. (I remember that) One year he raised field corn of the twenty acres in the south field.
One time when the corn was green, he went to his son Ben's home and brought a few ears which he called "roasten ears". After the shucks were taken off, he stuck a fork in each of the corn ears and placed them on the stove hearth by the open flame. When the corn was brown he put a little butter and salt on it. We then ate it for dinner. It surely tasted good. Then in the fall when the corn was ripe he came again with some that was ripe. What a lot of pretty colors of kernals were on each cob. George showed us how to help shell it, then he put it in the corn popper on the stove. How surprised we were when it did not pop. As soon as it was a golden brown, he removed it from the popper and ground it up fine in the food chopper. He made some molasses candy, when it was done he poured in the ground corn and put it in a tin milk pan to cool. How good it tasted. I have never seen any like it at any other time. The bulk of the corn was sold for feed. Hay and grain were alternated on the ten acres east by the cemetery.
George was always on hand to help his children or neighbors who would move. He would see to it that everything was carefully packed so that there would not be anything broken. When his daughter Julia moved back to Hyrum from up in Idaho, he went with his buggy and brought her children to his home and kept them there a few days while the house was being made ready for them to live in.
Three children were born to this couple; one boy and two girls. Jesse Frederick was born 9 Sep 1897; Florence Wanda was born 16 July 1899; Vilate was born 18 Aug 1903, all in Hyrum, Utah.
This family had a vegetable garden and rised some small fruit. They also had two large mulberry trees just west of the house on the brough of the hill. The berries on one tree were dark colored berries. These berries made very good juice to drink.
Mary Ann was a good cook and they did a lot of entertaining on special occasions such as having dinners for birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.
"Just as always, both he and his good wife were continually waiting on the sick, many of the sick, lame, and crippled were taken into their home and cared for. Some of them were nursed back to health, others passed away, but they never expected pay.
One spring when his son Ben's wife was down with a bad spell of rheumatism and three of the children had diphtheria and were quarantined, George took his wife and went to Mapleton by team and buggy. Mary Ann stayed to care for the sick. Now in those days, anyone who went into contagion had to stay until all were better and fumigation was completed throughout the house and everything that could be washed was thoroughtly done. The laws were so strick that even though the cows were miled by someone who did not go in where the disease was and the cream was separated in another building they could neither sell milk or cream. Mary Ann helped churn the cream into butter. She stored the butter in crock jars and gallon buckets. These were buried in the ground. When all were well, George came again and took Mary Ann and part of the butter. When they got home they also buried their butter. Both families had what butter they needed and it kept good until early fall.
He helped build the Hyrum Second Ward Church house where they attended church. He and his wife sang in the choir for a number of years. The Bishop of the Ward wanted George to talk in Church and tell of his coming across the plains, but George said he just could not speak in public so his wife's brother-in-law, George Wood, who was a lawyer, came to his home and took his story down in short hand as George told the story to him. Then they had it read in a reunion. It was a follows:
In the year of 1865, I with mother left our native land England, with about 600 others for our America "The Zion of Our God," on the good ship "Horizon," spending five weeks in our voyage to Boston. Where we took passage on a steamboat to Iowa. Awaiting there for three weeks for our hand-carts to be made that were to carry our "all" across the vast stretch of the plains to Utah. Each family supplying themselves with the necessary food for their journey if they were well. At Iowa City, where we were camped, a gentleman told me that we would starve to death if we went there at this season. One of our people and his family decided to stay over. I became tempted to do likewise and upon telling my mother that we better stay she became much depressed in spirit and told me to wait a little while. During the time she prayed to Our Heavenly Father for guidance. One fellow traveler, after deciding to stay, sent out one day in the woods to hunt for game, and while away was seized with fever and ague. He hurried home and upon entering the tent where mother I were awaiting him, he laid upon the cot and commenced singing in poetry and rhyme, telling mother to take me with her to the valley and that we should get through alright. Mother told me she had made it a matter of prayer and by this means her prayers were answered. I told her then that we would go to the valley at all hazards because I was satisfied all would be well.
Upon the company starting we were in line with our cart and ready. All went well as we joyously sang, "For some must push and some must pull as we go marching up the hill. As merrily on the way we go, until we reach the valley, Oh" As days wore on, our spirits lagged as we became weary. Some of our people became sick and were compelled to ride, thus compelling others to be more heavily loaded. Provisions commencing to get scarce as the days wore on, necessitating our captain to put us on shorter rations. Many dying by the wayside where they were buried each night where we camped and their graves were left unmarked expect by our tears. At this season and at this part of the plains it commenced getting cold, and were again placed on shorter rations of 4 ounces of flour to each