Thursday, September 24, 2009

Morgan 10: Samuel Linton and Ellen Sutton Linton, Part 3 of 3

Continued by Mary L. Morgan, 1945.

My father, Samuel Linton and my Uncle Peter Sutton went to Echo Canyon to guard against Johnson’s Army. They naturally spoke of their sisters, so I concluded that father became acquainted with mother, Ellen Sutton, as they were married in April, 1858. She was previously married to Charles McKetchney who was a glass stainer by trade. They had one child, Sarah Ellen, who lived with grandmother Sutton till she was 10 years old, when she died with diptheria [sic].

[Note: Ellen Sutton (age 21) and Charles McKetchney or McKecknie or McKetchine (age 23) traveled to Utah in the Joseph W. Young Pioneer Company in 1853. The notes indicate that this was called the "Ten Pound Company." The sources for both Ellen and Charles list the Perpetual Emigrating Fund. The sources about this trip across the plains are extensive, and include multiple notes about the Sutton family, including some difficulties they had with animals.]

McKetchney had some dealings with President Brigham Young on which they didn’t agree so he apostacized and went to California threatening to take their baby. Mother has told me how Uncle Peter guarded her till he knew he, McKetchney, had left the country. He begged Mother to go with him, but she told him she could not leave her church and people to follow him. I think she never heard of him any more. Father was a very large, strong man. He had a farm in the old field and could cradle more grain in a day than any other man around Nephi, where they lived and could cut more wood, so I have been told by men who knew him. He had great faith in prayer and the Priesthood which he held. We never had to call a doctor if father administered to us, we got well immediately, no matter what ailed us.

He was called to the “Muddy Mission” down near St. George about 1869 to help develop that country and went with others that had been called, just a few days before Alice was born. Mother pleaded with him not to go till after, but he thought he was called and had to go. Mother came nearly leaving us, but I guess his faith and prayers prevailed as she was spared to live and bear five other children. Three of them died at birth, twin boys and one girl. Mother was a hard worker too. She could take the wool shorn, wash, dry and send it to the machines to be made into rolls; spin it into yarn which was made into skeins. Then gather rabbit brush, steep into tea, dip the skeins in this, then in blue dye to make the different colors for shirts, dresses, etc. Dear mother was a patient sufferer. I wonder that she lived as long as she did. She was 77 when she passed away. She was affable and kind. All loved her who knew her.

When Alice was a year old, Father was helping on the thresher and got his leg in the horse power. It was just mashed. Dr. Bryan set it putting it in a heavy box. Brother Adams made the box from heavy timber. They couldn’t keep the flies out of it. Oh goodness what he must have suffered. Father and John went to work for Mr. R.W. Young in Arizona. Father was quite taken up with that country. He wrote Mother to sell the meadowland and prepare to move. Mother had a good councilor in her eldest brother Uncle Peter, who advised her not to sell and said father might change his mind, which he did, and came home thankful he still had his meadowland. This was a wild grass which they cured for their animals to feed through the winter. They used to take me to tromp the hay as they loaded it. I would ride with John going down but felt safer with father coming back on top of a high load. Roads were not paved then.

Father was very anxious to have his folks join the church. His father died a year after they came to Philadelphia and father left to gather with the Saints, as he has told us. After 20 years he got a letter from his mother through the dead letter office. He began writing trying to convert them. Later he made two trips to visit them, but they were too full of prejudice to talk to him or listen so no more joined the church, but he has had their work done in the Temple which we hope they have learned to accept and appreciate.

Linton, Samuel and Mary L. Morgan. "History of Samuel Linton." Nephi, Utah, May 1908 and 1945.

Part 1.
Part 2.

Photo of Echo Canyon from www.flickr.com/photos/bryanto/3149234611/.

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