(Katie Anderson - James Clyde Anderson - Zona Dell Thornock - Roland Thomas Thornock - Ann Selina Passey - Thomas Passey)
Thomas Passey
1837-1910
Autobiography written in 1910
I, Thomas Passey, was born in Strensham, England, September 23, 1837. I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints June 18, 1851 at Strensham, England. Then moved to Birmingham, England. I then sailed to America on the ship Enoch Train, and landed in Boston harbor May 1, 1856. Then I traveled by train to Iowa; then came to Salt Lake with the first handcart company, arriving there September 26, 1856. I drove an ox team across the plains, and had never seen an ox team before. I had mountain fever the last few days of our journey.
President Brigham Young and some of the saints met us over the mountains. They brought us watermelons and good things to eat from the valley. The saints from England thought it as a funny sight to see them eating watermelon. I was too sick to eat anything. My Uncle and Aunt, John and Sarah Grimmett met me in Salt Lake and took me home with them to Fort Herriman, a little west of Salt Lake. They took care of me through the winter. Everybody was in very poor circumstances, having a scanty supply of food.
In the spring, two companions and myself went to work for Edmund Ellsworth, he having married my cousin Mary Ann Bates, who came with me from England. My two companions were Thomas Fowler and David Bowen. We worked for him for seven years. While working there I met Drusilla Theobald whom I later married. In the spring of 1858, all the people who lived north of the mountains moved south. I drove a team of three yoke of black cattle with flour boxed up in lumber boxes of 150 pounds each, ready to cache if necessary. Inside of three months we moved back again. Those that had homes came back and anyone else that wanted to. I was still with Brother Ellsworth when the soldiers passed through Salt Lake about 50 miles south.
In August 1858, I married Drusilla Theobald; we lived in Salt Lake for two months. Then I went to work for Bishop Moon and moved to Farmington. We didn’t have much to move. Our property consisted of one bedstead, one sheet iron kettle, three plates, three cups and saucer, one vegetable dish, one tin pan and one cow. We thought we were rich.
The first thing to do was look for food. We had flour. I borrowed a gun and went hunting to obtain meat. It would be sometimes rabbit, chicken, and good many times nothing. We had some potatoes that I had dug on shares. At Christmas time we rode 20 miles on a load of wood to Salt Lake City to spend Christmas visiting with people we knew. Then we went to Fort Herriman for New Years in 1860. We came back to Salt Lake on a load of charcoal after a weeks visit. My uncle burnt it and then brought it to Salt Lake for the blacksmith. In the spring of 1860 I went to work for Sheman Leonard and worked for him for one year. Next year I worked part time on shares and raised a big crop of wheat. I had 200 bushels for my share and sold it for 35 cents a bushel. Grain was cheap then, but everything else was high. We still had our cow and had butter and milk. Our first son, John T. Was born January 24, 1860. In the fall father worked for Edmund Ellsworth, taking care of his garden and orchard. The same fall my father-in-law was called to settle the southern part of Utah, known as Dixie.
We moved to his place in the first ward and we had one lot in the first ward and one across the street in the second ward. We lived there until 1866. In the spring of 1863 I was called on a mission to go to Florence, Nebraska as teamster to bring saints from there to Utah as that was the only way they had to cross the plains. My brother Frederick and I went with Brother John W. Wooley; who was our captain going down. We had to take our own provisions with us going and coming back. They were donated by the members of the ward, consisting of flour, potatoes, bacon, eggs. We had to cache part of it on the road to came back on. The most was eggs. They were worth 5 cents a dozen. We had them three times a day for six weeks, four at a meal. If you don’t think we were sick of eggs just try it and see. We had to camp at Florence for six weeks watching for the saints to come that were emigrating from other places. There were a good many teams, but I have forgotten just how many. I came home with Brother Peter Nebeker, as captain of the company.
I arrived home September 23, 1863. In my wagon were three ladies. Mrs. Cole, her daughter Angeline, the other young lady is now Mrs. Taipps, she being a school teacher. Mrs. Cole’s husband was a tanner living in Salt Lake. He fitted out the team I drove. These people all being very good friends of me and my family. When I arrived home it was too late to get any work. My wife and two small sons lived on a small food supply consisting mostly of nettle green. We were sure glad to get back to our loved ones, as we had been gone from May to the latter part of September. Brother and Sister Cole and daughters proved very good friends. He, having plenty of work being a tanner, looked after my wife and family while I prepared for winter. I went upon the mountains and dug out cedar stumps for winter wood; nearly everyone had a fireplace at that time.
While I was in Florence it rained a good deal. We had to take turns at night herding out stock. One morning as I was coming back to camp I picked up a little roll of paper. It had been raining ll night and the paper was so wet I couldn’t unroll it, so I put it in my pocket until it dried. When I unrolled it I found it was $18.00 in green backs. I could not find the owner so I bought a stove. The stove had a high back like they did at that time. I was allowed to take it home with me; that was all I received for my summer wages. I had a little work all winter that kept us, with what help Brother Cole and his family gave us. Flour was scarce at that time. We lived on corn bead all winter, except when Mrs. Cole sent us a loaf of white bread, baked in a bake kettle. It was salt risen and like cake to us. We had meat but no butter. It was on November 1st of this year that our daughter Florence was born.
In the spring of 1864 we moved into Sister Hawkins’ house as she was going back to London, England on a visit. My wife kept house for her two sons, Greighton and Reigo through the winter of 1864 and 1865. I was one of the special police guards for the wards. I went to Camp Douglas. The trouble was settled by the soldiers. They were very rough and rude, threatening the Mormons with everything imaginable. I had a pair of brass knuckles made for the occasion, but never had to use them. In the fall of 1864, sister Hawkins returned from London. Then we moved to Tanner’s at the mouth of Parley’s Canyon. I worked that winter in the tanning yard with Brother Cole. In the spring of 1866 we moved back to Salt Lake; the company having closed the tanning business because it did not pay to run it.
I moved my family back to the First Ward and went to work for J. M. Blair. He bought the ten acre block which formerly belonged to Edmund Ellsworth. He built a concrete house in the middle of the block, letting the contract to a man to build it. Mr. Blair came to see me the next morning and said, “Tom, can’t you do this job for me?” I had never seen that kind of work done as it was the first year it had been used in this part of the country. It consists of lime cable rocks, and gravel. It was a slow piece of work as it covered so much ground. I stayed with it and finally completed it, and everyone said it was a fine piece of work. In September I built a small one for Brother Steele.
In October 1866 we prepared to move to Bear Lake County. My parents and my brother Fred moved there the fall before. Fred brought his ox team to move us to Bear Lake. It was very cold and stormy all the way. Brother Lewis went with us from Cache Valley. We arrived at the foot of the mountains November 5, 1866. It was almost dark and it had been raining all day. The road was so slippery the oxen could hardly make any headway. We were afraid to camp for fear of snow, then we couldn’t get over the dug way for a long time. We had two wagons and three yoke of oxen. Fred and Brother Lewis went on ahead and we followed. We had not gone far before it started snowing. The snow came in big flakes that covered everything. Soon the snow was so deep that we could hardly see the road. Brother Lewis tried to walk on as the teams were so heavily loaded with provision, but the snow was so deep we had to ride. We arrived in Liberty on November 6, at 2:00. We had dinner at Brother John Hymas’; that was the first we had eaten all day. We let our teams eat for about two hours, then drove into Paris. It was after dark when we arrived. The roads were very bad, and the lights were on the south as the houses all faced that way, and we drove into Paris from the north. My parents and brothers were glad to see us.
My parents had a comfortable two rooms, with a cellar and lean-to to make another room. We lived with them that winter. One room had a slate floor and the others had wooden floors. Father said there was plenty of room here in Bear Lake and plenty of lumber in the hills to build our home. The next thing was to get a lot to build a home on. There were no sw mills in the country then, so we had to go to the hills and get logs to build our homes. My brother George and I hauled logs to build a two roomed house. He helped saw lumber for floors, doors, and windows. That was more than any of the houses had at that time. They had either slate rock or straw for floors, but mostly straw. I finished our home in May. The grain froze and we had to go to other valleys for grain and flour. The ones that made their own bread had black bread. We had very hard times every year either from frost or grasshoppers taking our corps, but we were counseled to keep on. That year I had a herd of sheep on shares, but people complained about them being a nuisance so I got rid of them. Then I went to Cedar City Valley and got some cattle to herd, for the Wilcox family on shares. We moved up here and took their cattle to Dingle in 1875.
I was hired to go to Nounan Valley and look after the cooperative there. I lived there until the fall of 1879, when I moved to Paris. Then in May 1880, I moved back to Nounan. Two of our children were born there, Drusilla and Margaret.
In the spring of 1881 I moved to Liberty and took over the union Dairy there. I worked for Brother Horsley for three years, then bought the old Joe Rich ranch, and lived there until 1908. Then I sold out to Joseph Wilcox and moved to Paris that year. My wife and I went to Logan to visit our son Frank, also a dear friend of ours, Brother and Sister Bowen, whom we had not seen since we left Salt Lake 40 years before. We also did some work in the Logan Temple and visited other friends we knew.
In the year 1910, in May, we went to Canada to visit our sons, George and William Passey, who lived there. We had a wonderful time, and on our way we visited my wife’s sister, Mrs Shaw and Mrs. George S. Baker.
Thomas Passey died December 10, 1910, and was buried in the cemetery at Paris, Idaho.
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(Learn more about the Edmond Ellsworth Handcart Company at http://lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompany/0,15797,4017-1-111,00.html.)