William Heaton -- Our Great-Grandfather

by LaVerna Allen

He was painstaking and neat -- shown by his journal. 

He was educated -- expressing thoughts, feelings and experiences in well chosen words.

He was unafraid -- facing opposition, rebuking and healing. 

He was grateful for opportunities -- calling them blessings, thankful for a new suit -- a bed at night while on his mission.

He did his duty in spite of disappointments and insults.

He loved sincerely -- his God, his church, his family and Esther, the young woman who chose to be his wife.

He had strength to had now acres of harvest in the fields -- to walk the many miles between quaint English villages of uncommon names as Wilsden, Wheldrake, Wilberfoss, Escrak, and Knarsbro -- Lancaster, Acklam, Riccoll and Snainton -- Knottingly, Agbridge, Rillington and Scarsbro to teach the true plan of salvation.  He made many converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He had goodly parentage from Jonathan and Francis O'Dwyer Heaton who gave him birth  March 10, 1827 at Little Horton, Bradford, Yorkshire, England.  He died in 1877 in Orderville, Utah.  His father, Jonathan, who Grandpa Heaton was named for, was born in Great Horton, York, England 1794 and died in Wilsdens, England in 1855.  Francis was born in Rockdale, Lancashire, England in 1804 and died in Provo but was buried in Payson 1872. 

William Heaton was baptized when 22, 1849 in April.  In July the Weldon Branch of the church was formed with 7 members.  He was ordained a priest and his brother Jonathan an elder.  In 1850 he was made an elder and sent out to preach the Gospel.  He had a license and certificate.  His companions were Elders Thomas and Christopher Beilby.  He preached in the open to a very attentive congregation on the second coming of Christ. Next on the promises of God to Abraham and showed that we become heirs of the same promise by faith in God and obedience to His laws.  He had worked from august to December Conference which was held in Bradford.  He stated he had never been away from his home in his life before. " When he saw his parents, brothers and sisters in the meeting he could not describe his emotions, but his heart swelled with gratitude to Father in Heaven for leading us all into the straight and narrow way that leads to eternal life. They had all joined in the new and everlasting covenant with me and greatly rejoiced to see me.  They were all in good health."

"January 1, 1851 I arose this morning with feelings of thankfulness to my Heavenly Father for the blessings he has bestowed upon me the past year."  He prays that he can continue working for the restitution of the gospel that he will have wisdom to perform his duty.  He feels it is a difficult thing for people to put away the traditions of their fathers and believe that God has sent a message from Heaven in this enlightened  age.  He writes, "If a person comes forth and professes inspiration from God he is counted as a fool or madman by the religious world and they treat him as such." 

Three of Esther's family were leaving for Zion.  They saw them off

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at Liverpool.  William had been going with their younger sister, Esther, who was sad when her two brothers -- Robert, age 30, Christopher age 25 and older sister Mary age 24, with three other converts sailed for America.  They were married within two months.  He was made president of the York Branch.

His sister Rachel died which shocked him for he thought she was recovering from an illness when he last saw her, but belief in the resurrection and eternal families who were sealed to each other helped.

Williams tells of walking to Wilberfoss, of preaching in the rain to a few people.  He experienced some difficulty in getting a bed.  He tried all the Inns in the village but was refused, and had no better success with several private homes.  He was about to despair when he felt moved to try a house when he saw a light in it even thought it was 11 o'clock P.M. The tenant was a young man who offered to share his bed.  It was raining very hard he wrote, " I thanked him for his offer and accepted it joyfully and was very comfortable through the night."  He also thanked the Lord.  A Thomas Smith had been preaching against the Church and had prjudiced the people against William.  A Primitive Methodist local preacher had not thought repentence or baptism were necessary and he had listened to William several times and said he would check with his head preachers.  William could not get a house to preach in in Acklam so talked to an attentive congregation in a shed.  He distributed some tracts and several offered their houses. 

By the end of August it was harvest time and everyone was too busy to listen so he helped his wife's  family harvest.  William mowed 16 acres of corn by hand.  They heard Robert Beilby had died and Christopher and Mary had a fever.  Esther had been staying with her parents but Thomas hadn't joined the Church so she moved to William's parents home ^{her father was bitter}.  He helped ordain his father a teacher.  Mary had written from St. Louis that Christopher Beilby had also died.  William finished the year getting the branch records in order. 

His mother wrote Esther had had a baby boy, May 17, 1852. Belief in eternal families when sealed by one with authority helped.  

• John Parker Jr had widow Lovina Marie Jackson Normington Parker
• Richard 21 Jan 1859
• Marie 19 May 1862
• John Parker Jr 14 Feb 1812 - 24 Mar 1886; m abt 1830
• Alice Whitaker Mar 1814 - July 1843
• 2 died at birth  1831 -33 Lancaster England
• William Parker - 24 Nov 1858 - 24 Apr 1905
• Elizabeth 13 Mar 1837 - John R Winder M 1856
• Mary Ann 4 Nov 1839 Samuel Richards 1 died at birth 1841 or 43
• Sailed for America 11 Jan 1845
• 2nd Ellen Briggs -b 7 Nov 1806 Lancashire - d. 24 Feb 1888 Virgin
• Alice Parker - 8 Jan 1848 St Louis - 6 Aug 1924 Hurricane
• John Parker -

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survive.  Brigham Young thought the Virgin River near new Enterprise was a good place to raise cotton.

1875 Esther died while on a trip with

Jonathan was 18 and Amy Hoyt 16 when they got their Salt Lake endowments.  The first couple married after the United Order was established.  He worked at a sawmill, then 4 years at the Cotton Farm (2 in charge) and ran sheep at Strawberry on Cedar Mountain, Castle, etc.  His first marriage was in 1875 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake.  

A factory was built by Hidden Lake where cloth was woven.  A tannery was built to tan hides and they made their own clothes and shoes.  The webbg farm was a dairy and one woman knew how to make cheese.

When Jonathan was put in charge of the Cotton Farm the last 2 years he was the fist to keep the irrigation water in use all season.  Because of gophers it was always breaking out of the sandy banks.  He lined the ditches with rocks with hard work and some help .  He caught a beaver while mending the ditch. 

The cotton was shipped to Missouri River during the Civil War.  It was worth $1.90 a pound.  Mama's grandmother, Ellen Parker, was an expert in spinning and weaving and she and John Parker were called to work with the cotton. They had a home near the farm.  

The Heaton Brothers were given Fiddler's Green and Moccasin when the United Order broke up.  The odlest, Chris, had been living in Mexico.  He hired a number of Mexicans to help with his molasses mill.  He had previously been in  charge of Moccasin Farm and was an expert in the molasses production for the Order.  

Salt Lake Temple for eleven years only 17 year old Alice, our grandmother, was unmarried.  The half brothers and sisters from both their parents' first marriages in England before the death of their partners and second marriage to each other in Nauvoo.  She was six years older than her husband who had worked three months on the Nauvoo Temple before he died. 

Both Ellen grand-daughters learned to spin and weave cotton. Alice made all her wedding linen and clothes.

He discovered missing barrels of molasses hidden in the can pulp and called the officers although he knew the Mexicans had been taking some along.  The law had not arrived by dark so he went out to the standard guard.  When they came for their cache, he tried to talk with the Mexicans but one slipped behind him, hit him on the head with the butt of his gun and while he was unconscious, they shot him.

His brothers, Jonathan and Fred were working late that same evening at the sheep dipping pen in Moccasin.  Jonathan raised up from his task and told his brother, "Something has happened to Chris."  The premonition was almost at the exact moment Chris died.  

The Mexicans were punished by their own people.  It was decided the youngest, Fredrick, would move the family of Chris back to Utah.  He returned a second time to dispose of his dead brother's property.

Before long, Jonathan and Alvin bought out Fred and Wilford's share in the farm at Moccasin.  They also bought two placed from the Jolly boys at Fiddler's Green where they remodeled the houses and built a big barn.  

In 1898, about the time Utah became a state and was admitted to the Union, Jonathan purchased the Seegmiller (Wild Rose Ranch) 30 miles north of Kanab.  Seegmiller had been killed by a Roundy neighbor who then shot himself over water.  

Jonathan turned in his two homes in Orderville on this deal.  (1900 - Alvin took the ranch at the Green and gave Jonathan Moccasin.)  Jonathan had seen how the united efforts of many men could accomplish more together.  He organized his

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boys into an incorporated company -- Heaton and Sons - in 1900.  Each son when he married or became of age received 500 dollars worth of stock.  A home was built for him when needed, records were kept of work, expenses and credit for the company.  At the upper mountain ranch they raised Durham short horn cattle -- about 200 head that bred range stock.  There was grass and 2 or 3 tons of hay put up each summer there.  It was also ideal for the raising grains and potatoes.

Jonathan had a large dairy herd housed in a huge barn built against the hillside.  From the back the hay wagons could be driven right into the roomy loft and unloaded.  He also had one of the first derricks in the area.  This place was summer quarters for summer herds of cattle and sheep for the Heatons.  There was also a two story (granary) on a knoll about 100 yards from the corrals.  The big ranch house was home for Aunt Amy and her 15 children.  

 Orchards set out at Moccasin during the time it belonged to the Order were kept up and replenished with new trees when Lucy and her family took over the Arizona ranch at Moccasin.  They raised less sugar cane, but grapes, corn, dry beans, onions, and other vegetables which did well in the sandy soil waterd by the large springs.  Moccasin watermelons were famous for their flavor. Trout and ducks were at home in the three reservoirs in the Black Meadows for down pillows and feather mattresses, and gardens kept bug and insects down and furnished feathers for pillows and mattresses. Fruit was dried and canned for all the married families and relatives there each summer.

William J taught school at the Wild Rose Ranch and sometime when he visited Moccasin.  After Charles died, Kezia (lived 25 years longer than her husband) visited and helped Lucy's children with their lessons.  She lived 25 years longer.   Her older children, Charles, Fred, and Esther and Kezia were taught some winter months when in Orderville by Kezia's stepson, Willard, who had been the village schoolmaster in Heber and now in Orderville.  Kezia helped teach the 2 years she lived in Provo, the 19 years in Heber and again in Orderville, in the United Order as well as helping Lucy Elizabeth's children.

Jonathan laid out the town of Alton.  A sawmill was acquired. Junius married Mabel Glover and moved to Marysvale to take charge of the store and mercantile business the Company had acquired.  This was the new train terminal 100 miles away where wool from their sheep was freighted out and needed goods brought in.  Transportation by loaded sleighs were sometimes used in the winter.  If heavy snows came it would sometimes have to be left and the driver find his way home with the horses.  

In 1910 Jonathan bought a house in Beaver so his  and other young folks from Oderville could attend the Murdock Academy.    Amy took Rebecca, Clarissa, Dan with Mercy and Timothy.  Lucy's four -- Christopher, Edward, Esther, and Lucy, plus Howard Spencer, Hans Chamberlain, Ray Esplin and Ethel Carpenter from Orderville all got to the Murdock Academy.    Rebecca, Aunt Amy's third girl was named for father's Aunt Rebecca Nebeker.  She met Lincoln Murdock in Beaver, married him and moved to San Francisco.  She copied Amy Simple McFearron's Role and left the church but made money as a spiritual healer.  

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Coming from Canadian soil the Carrolls were the best prepared to pioneer the west.  Much of our vigor, longevity, height, dark hair, white skin, blue eyes and sense of humor can be traced to our 6th Generation Irish blood -- James O'Carroll of Armage, Ireland.  He married Margaret Pottle of St. Johns, New Foundland where Patrick was born and his parents buried. 

Patrick moved to New Brunswick, Canada and married Nancy Ann Negus.  She was buried at Carrolls Ridge there but he died at Pikes Peak, Colorado and was buried at Fort Laramie, Wyoming.  Their son Charles dropped the "O" in O'Carroll and married Kezia GIles from England in Salt Lake City.  He was 40 and she 17. They had 2 children in Provo and 9 in Heber.  THere was a half sister born in Heber and 2 in Orderville where the parents died.  He was 87 and she 85.  One child died at infancy. The first of 4 boys Charles died at 100 in California.  Of the other children, 4 each lived into their 90's, 80's, and 70's.  Grandma died first at 75. Aunt Emma lived to be 96 and Aunt Vine 95.  They were small and active when old.  

In England William Heaton and Esther Beilby were married, but their boys were born in Payson. They had no girls.   Three of the Carroll girls married William Heaton's boys. Lucy Elizabeth at 16.  

Lucy was dark haired, blue eyed with a fair complexion.  She was about 5' 4" tall.  Shew as calm, sensible and responsibly.  Mama thought she was ??? and capable.   Her mother, Lucy Elizabeth, was the matriarch of Moccasin.  She handled the nursery group in Sunday School with music, finger plays, and Bible stories.  Papa had 8 grades of school in Orderville.  I don't know how much formal education his parents had.  I never remember Grandma Heaton reading, just knitting, working and sitting at their long dining room table with her grown and married sons while he would have his nose in a book.  There was few words, litle fuss and noise, just cooperation and respect in their spic and span comfortable home.  Her white hair came early, she was sturdy, cool in emergencies, the doctor, the keeper of the inn, and tower of strength for her family and those who ventured to the Arizona Strip.  She was intelligent and experienced.  

The Heatons had English ancestors but there was a Valentine O"Dwyer in their 6th generation and a Frances O'Dwyer in the 5th, born in and married in England, but buried in Payson after marrying grandparents, William Heaton and Esther Beilby, had 6 boys (no girls) in Payson. One died at birth and the others married.  William died at 45 and buried in Orderville. His wife was buried in Payson when 34.  They had 2  each die in their 70's and one died at 50.  They joined the United Order before it broke up in Orderville and had average to large families. Jonthan was the 3rd son.  Papa was his and Lucy's 2nd.  They had 11 chidlren together and with half brothers and sisters there were 26.  William's George married Clarissa Terry Heaton.  Three of boys married Bishop Carroll's girls.  Their third son, Jonathan marreid his third child, Lucy Elizabeth when he was 21 and she 16.  They had 11 children.  

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Clipped English mustache

In the Heaton 9th Generation Ann named a son Jonathan Heaton, 1677.

In the 6th William Heaton married Martha Blaymires and a Valentine O'Dwyer is mentioned.  He died at 75.  

In the 5th generation another Jonathan married Frances O'Dwyer.  He was buried in England at 61. Frances wa buried in Payson when 68.  

Their son, William Heaton 1851 married Esther Beilby in England, was converted, had two boys -- one died a week before their handcart company reached the Salt Lake Valley.  She buried in Payson when 45 and he in Orderville at 50.  One boy died in infancy after birth, one son lived to 50 too.  Two each died in their 40's and 70's.
Jonathan and Wilford lived the longest.  Grandpa was active and erect at 73 when he died after being critically hurt dragging a road grader.  Wilford lived to 75.  

He had a fair complex, was about 6', slim. Jonathan was handsome, about 6' and slim with curly light brown hair and brown eyes that twinkled and a leader and organizer.  He ran sheep, raised wheat, ran a lumber mill, he helped build churches which also served as a school, and frame houses for himself and his 15 sons as they married except for Timothy- who died early of a ruptured appendix on the roundup.    

Aunt Amy also lost a girl, Mercy, while attending high school in St. George. The other 23 married and raised families.  Mercy also died young while going to school in St George.  They were both Aunt Amy's children as was Dan who was more light, but who looked most like Jonathan.  Three of William's sons married Bishop Carroll's girls.  The third, Jonathan, married Lucy Elizabeth, when he was 21 and she 16.  They had 11 children the same numbers as her mother Kezia Giles had had.  He had married Clarissa Amy Hoyt at 18.  He had 25 children in all - -15 sons.  Lucy Elizabeth had 11 children -- Fred (Papa) was their second child.  

After two marriage, Jonathan had 25 children  -- 15 were boys.  Timothy's appendix ruptured on the roundup and Mercy died young while going to school in St. George college.  (They were Aunt Amy Hoyt's) Papa (Fred C) the handsome Irish looks -- dark hair, white skin, bright blue eyes.  Fred C, Robin Hamblin and Brad and Chris Stapley also inherited these genes.  

Aunt Amy's Dan looks the most like Grandpa Heaton (Jonathan).  He just died in 1986 in his 90's.  St George Aunt Amy's Israel was 6'3" Uncle Ed and Gilbert were over 6'.  The rest about 6'.