I checked out a book from the library titled: "Isaac Sorensen's HISTORY OF MENDON, A Pioneer Chronicle of a Mormon Settlement." I found a few references to Ira Ames that shed a little more light on his time in Mendon. I also did a google search of Mendon. I found it interesting that Ira was listed as one of the first settlers, yet he is not listed on the stone and bronze 'Mendon Pioneer Monument' honoring the settlers of 1859 - 1860. Ira didn't spend much time in Mendon; he moved to Wellsville. A very interesting history of Ira Ames is already on this blog but I have listed here some of the things I read about him. (1) Ira served as a bodyguard for Joseph Smith, Jr., in Kirtland, Ohio. (2) He came to Utah in 1851 and to Cache Valley in the summer of 1859 where he built a sawmill, established a tannery and set up a store. He lived first in Mendon, then moved to Wellsville. After Wellsville was incorporated on 19 January 1866, Ira and Alexander Brice Hill were both elected to its first town council. Ira served until his death three years later. (3) Dancing was an important form of amusement in early Mendon. In 1860, Sorensen recorded, "The winters were passed in dancing, in our old Log Meetinghouse, and indeed many a good time was enjoyed, with tallow candles to give light, and Ira Ames for our fiddler or musician...Ames left after being here two or three years." (4) Ira Ames and Benjamin Gibson were two additional early Mendon settlers of 1859. (5) Ira Ames and his wives made their permanent home in Wellsville. (6) Summer 1859 - A sawmill was built by Ira Ames, 55, and George G. Snyder. (7) Winter 1859-1860 - Meetings were held in private cabins until a log meetinghouse was built in Mendon. At LDS church services Roger Luckham, 44, led the singing and Ira Ames played the fiddle. (8) Fiddler's Hollow near Mendon was named in honor of Ira Ames who played the fiddle in early day meetings. (9) January 15, 1869 - Early settler Ira Ames, 64, died at Wellsville.
In the listings of 'Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel,' it shows that Ira (46), Sarah (37) and Samuel (8) were in the Easton Kelsey Company of 1851. They originally left Kanesville (now Council Bluffs) Iowa on June 10th but went back due to Indian troubles. They started again on June 19, 1851 and arrived September 22nd or 23rd. The traveling companies were divided into smaller groups. Ira was under James Allred, captain of 100, and with William Shurtliff, captain of 50. Ira was Brother Shurtliff's 1st counselor. One of the trail excerpts I read quoted someone as saying : "One member had a fiddle as we then knew it and all joined in the evening dances around the campfires within the big circle." I imagine that was Ira. Sarah was pregnant at the time she crossed the plains. She and Ira had a baby boy three months after arriving in Utah. Two of their other children were buried before they made the trek, one in Nauvoo and one in Iowa.
Although Ira crossed the plains with only one wife and one child, by the time of the 1860 census, I found Ira's household to contain three of his wives and three of his children:
Ira Ames (55)
Catherine [Slauson Brown] Ames (48)
Sarah [Johnston] Ames (46)
Isabelle [Caulder] Ames (25) [wrong age!]
Samuel Ames (18) [son of Ira and Sarah]
Meredith Ames (15) [son of Catherine and Ira]
Henry Ames (8) [son of Ira and Sarah, born in SLC]
Ira died before the 1870 census, but the Ames household was listed as follows:
Catherine Ames (64)
Sarah Ames (56)
Henry Ames (18)
Isabella Ames (47)
[three wives and one son!]
In Wellsville's 1880 census, Sarah and Isabella Ames are still living together. Sarah is the head of the household and Isabella is marked 'other.' They are both listed as widows, and both their birthdates are incorrect. Henry is married by this time and lives elsewhere in Wellsville with his wife and young son, also named Henry. I found Catherine Ames, age 74, living as a boarder in Burrville, Sevier County, Utah.
In the pioneer company rosters I searched for the surname of 'Ames' and didn't find many of the family members who came to Utah. I located Clark Carter Ames (20) in the Parley P. Pratt Company of 1852. He is the son of Ira and his first wife, Charity Carter, who had died. Charity is the one our family line comes through. There was a Meredith Fisk Brown Ames (male, age 11) who arrived in the Philemon C. Merrill Company in 1856. He was in the same company as his mother who is listed as Catherine Slauson Brown (50). It is unclear why Meredith, born in 1845, is listed with the last name of Ames on the wagon train records of 1856, when his mother was not. Catherine didn't marry Ira until 1857 in Salt Lake. All of Catherine's other children are Browns. Ira preached the gospel in Pennsylvania and spent time in Brown's Settlement and with Ezekiel Brown, who was Catherine's husband. In Ira's journal he records some patriarchal blessings, one of which was upon Meredith Ames, who he lists as his and Catherine's son. That leaves lots of unanswered questions.
Ira was buried in the Wellsville Cemetery by himself for many years. Eventually his son Henry J. Ames and Henry's wife, Lillian Baxter Ames joined him. Later, three great grandsons were buried nearby. They were the sons of Henry Baxter Ames and Nettie Hanson Ames. Supposedly Ira's wife, Sarah, died in Wellsville in 1889, twenty years after her husband. She is probably buried in the Wellsville Cemetery but I haven't found her grave...or anywhere else, for that matter. Nothing is listed under her maiden or married name that I can locate. It seems a little strange that none of Ira's five wives are buried next to him. Obviously, Charity was buried in Illinois. Sarah Ann Jewell married Ira in 1856 for time only. She is buried in American Fork Cemetery under the name of Sarah Ann Jewell King, yet her husband, with the surname of King, is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. In searching http://www.findagrave.com/, I found Catherine's headstone in the Smithfield Cemetery. She is listed as Catherine Brown, not Catherine Ames. I'm also still looking for the burial plot of Ira's wife, Isabella Caulder.
No comments:
Post a Comment