117. Anne Chamberlain, (born Cape of Good Hope) and Hiram Miles Dayton, Cedar Fort, and Ophir, Utah, early Pioneers
Hiram Miles Dayton was born 10 October 1821 at Welchfield, Ohio. He was the eldest son of eleven children of Hiram and Permelia Bundy Dayton.
His parents had been prosperous farmers and stock raisers, and had a beautiful home in Parkman, Ohio. During their prosperity Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, came to Parkman and taught them the Gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were converted and baptized Feb. 18, 1832. After this, even their friends and neighbors heaped persecutions upon them. Hiram Miles was a boy of eleven years and it was hard for him to understand this sudden hostility of his associates. Following the new church, the family moved to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1834 and went through the many persecutions there.
In 1838 they moved to Davis County, Missouri, then to Far West, Jackson County, Missouri. They were driven out of Missouri into Illinois. The Prophet Joseph Smith had purchased a large tract of land on the banks of the Mississippi River. By much hard work of the industrious Mormons, the swamps were drained and the beautiful city of Nauvoo took shape. For a short time the Mormons enjoyed peace, but it wasn’t long before the persecutions began again, the mobs were even worse than they were in Missouri.
It was during these trying times, when the Saints were being driven out of Nauvoo across the Mississippi River into Iowa, that Hiram Miles married Catherine Foy in 1846. He had one son, Samuel. There is no more information in the Dayton book concerning Catherine. It does state, however, that his son, Samuel, never came to Utah. Hiram joined the trek across the plains and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley 25 October, 1849. He then went to Cedar Fort, Utah, where he worked long and hard to build a house and cultivate a farm. He helped erect the fort of Cedar Fort for the protection of the settlers against the assaults of the Indians. He made charcoal and supplied the Salt Lake and Mercury railroad and several mining companies with this product.
He was 50 years old when he met and married Anne Chamberlain on 4 July, 1872. Anne was a lovely young lady of 26 years. She was born 19 July, 1846, in Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Two years before her birth her parents had left Oxford, England, for South Africa, where the King of England was offering great advantages if his subjects could settle on his holdings.
Her parents, William and Mary Allen Chamberlain and family had joined the Mormon Church while in South Africa, and emigrated to Utah in 1859, settling in Kaysville, Davis County. In Kaysville where her family moved, Anne made new friends. However, everything was so strange in this new home and they were so poor that it was difficult at first to make a living. Her father did get work, but soon his health began to fail. He went to different doctors but did not get help there either, so he took a ship back to his doctor in England, but died there June 6, 1868, at the age of 52. (See blog # 116 for their story.)
Her mother lived until March 23, 1900, surviving Anne by 6 years, living to the age of 85. When Anne was 16, almost 17, she married Henry Shaefer on the 23 of May, 1863. This marriage did not work out and they were divorced.
Then on July 4, 1872, she married Hiram Miles Dayton, at age 26. She was almost 25 years younger than her new husband. He had been in Cedar Fort around 23 years before they were married. After their marriage, he took her to his home in Cedar Fort. He worked long and hard to build a house and cultivate a farm. He helped erect the fort at Cedar Fort for the protection of the settlers against the assaults of the Indians. He made charcoal and supplied the Salt Lake and Mercur Railroad, and several mining companies with this product. He was a soldier in the Mexican and Florida Indian Wars, and was drawing a pension from the government at the time of his death.
Their nine children were born in Cedar Fort. Joseph Henry (Gladys’ father) who married Ann Elizabeth Henwood was the oldest. He died at the age of 44; Mira Elizabeth, married Caleb Orton, and died at the age of 18; James Edward, married Mina Elemeda Byrd, and died at the age of 74; Martha Jane, died at the age of 11. Their daughter Millie (Gladys’ father’s sister – her aunt) was living in San Francisco at the time of the great earthquake and fire there. She was believed killed in the terrible event, as she was never heard of after that. Her death is recorded as 18 April, 1906, at the age of 24, the day of the quake.
Ellen died in 1891 at age 7; Ethel Lavee only lived 8 days. Children 8 and 9 were twins and died at birth in 1888. We don’t know just when Hiram and Ann moved to Ophir, Tooele County, Utah, as he was 67 years old when the twins were born, and they still lived in Cedar Fort. Anne was a skilled seamstress and took great pride in her mending. She raised an herb garden for the benefit of the early pioneers whom she served as a nurse and midwife. She sang in the ward choir for many years.
She suffered with kidney trouble for quite a few years and on July 4, 1894, her 22nd wedding anniversary, (at age 48) she went to join her children who had gone before. Only three of her nine children were still alive when she died, and her daughter Millie died later in the 1906 earthquake. Only two children lived to raise families. Hiram Miles shortly before he died went to visit his son, Samuel. He was gone about eight months. He had quite a good visit, and probably met some grandchildren he hadn’t met before. We found him in the 1900 Census in Jackson, Lee County, Iowa. His son Samuel lived in Montrose, Lee County, Iowa, and Hiram was 78, a widower, and staying with a granddaughter.
Before he went on this trip, his wife had died, and his four youngest children, and 2 older children. The youngest living child that he left in Utah when he went to visit, was a daughter 18 years old, who died 6 years later in the San Francisco earthquake. Gladys wrote that her grandfather died when she was one year old. Samuel Dayton, the son he went back east to visit in 1900, was a half-brother to Gladys Dayton Eckman’s father.
According to the History of Tooele County, Ophir resulted from mining claims staked by Colonel Patrick Connors’ soldiers in 1860. It proved to be very rich in silver. Today it is a semi-ghost town, snuggled picturesquely in the bottom of a deep canyon of the Oquirrh Mountains.
In the old neglected Ophir cemetery is where Gladys’ grandfather, Hiram Dayton, who died June 15, 1902, and also her grandmother, Anne Chamberlain Dayton, who died in Ophir July 4, 1894, are both buried. Anne’s four youngest children had died before her. Grandpa was 81 when he died and Grandma was 48. Although he was much older than she was, he survived her by almost 8 years.
His parents had been prosperous farmers and stock raisers, and had a beautiful home in Parkman, Ohio. During their prosperity Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, came to Parkman and taught them the Gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were converted and baptized Feb. 18, 1832. After this, even their friends and neighbors heaped persecutions upon them. Hiram Miles was a boy of eleven years and it was hard for him to understand this sudden hostility of his associates. Following the new church, the family moved to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1834 and went through the many persecutions there.
In 1838 they moved to Davis County, Missouri, then to Far West, Jackson County, Missouri. They were driven out of Missouri into Illinois. The Prophet Joseph Smith had purchased a large tract of land on the banks of the Mississippi River. By much hard work of the industrious Mormons, the swamps were drained and the beautiful city of Nauvoo took shape. For a short time the Mormons enjoyed peace, but it wasn’t long before the persecutions began again, the mobs were even worse than they were in Missouri.
It was during these trying times, when the Saints were being driven out of Nauvoo across the Mississippi River into Iowa, that Hiram Miles married Catherine Foy in 1846. He had one son, Samuel. There is no more information in the Dayton book concerning Catherine. It does state, however, that his son, Samuel, never came to Utah. Hiram joined the trek across the plains and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley 25 October, 1849. He then went to Cedar Fort, Utah, where he worked long and hard to build a house and cultivate a farm. He helped erect the fort of Cedar Fort for the protection of the settlers against the assaults of the Indians. He made charcoal and supplied the Salt Lake and Mercury railroad and several mining companies with this product.
He was 50 years old when he met and married Anne Chamberlain on 4 July, 1872. Anne was a lovely young lady of 26 years. She was born 19 July, 1846, in Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Two years before her birth her parents had left Oxford, England, for South Africa, where the King of England was offering great advantages if his subjects could settle on his holdings.
Her parents, William and Mary Allen Chamberlain and family had joined the Mormon Church while in South Africa, and emigrated to Utah in 1859, settling in Kaysville, Davis County. In Kaysville where her family moved, Anne made new friends. However, everything was so strange in this new home and they were so poor that it was difficult at first to make a living. Her father did get work, but soon his health began to fail. He went to different doctors but did not get help there either, so he took a ship back to his doctor in England, but died there June 6, 1868, at the age of 52. (See blog # 116 for their story.)
Her mother lived until March 23, 1900, surviving Anne by 6 years, living to the age of 85. When Anne was 16, almost 17, she married Henry Shaefer on the 23 of May, 1863. This marriage did not work out and they were divorced.
Then on July 4, 1872, she married Hiram Miles Dayton, at age 26. She was almost 25 years younger than her new husband. He had been in Cedar Fort around 23 years before they were married. After their marriage, he took her to his home in Cedar Fort. He worked long and hard to build a house and cultivate a farm. He helped erect the fort at Cedar Fort for the protection of the settlers against the assaults of the Indians. He made charcoal and supplied the Salt Lake and Mercur Railroad, and several mining companies with this product. He was a soldier in the Mexican and Florida Indian Wars, and was drawing a pension from the government at the time of his death.
Their nine children were born in Cedar Fort. Joseph Henry (Gladys’ father) who married Ann Elizabeth Henwood was the oldest. He died at the age of 44; Mira Elizabeth, married Caleb Orton, and died at the age of 18; James Edward, married Mina Elemeda Byrd, and died at the age of 74; Martha Jane, died at the age of 11. Their daughter Millie (Gladys’ father’s sister – her aunt) was living in San Francisco at the time of the great earthquake and fire there. She was believed killed in the terrible event, as she was never heard of after that. Her death is recorded as 18 April, 1906, at the age of 24, the day of the quake.
Ellen died in 1891 at age 7; Ethel Lavee only lived 8 days. Children 8 and 9 were twins and died at birth in 1888. We don’t know just when Hiram and Ann moved to Ophir, Tooele County, Utah, as he was 67 years old when the twins were born, and they still lived in Cedar Fort. Anne was a skilled seamstress and took great pride in her mending. She raised an herb garden for the benefit of the early pioneers whom she served as a nurse and midwife. She sang in the ward choir for many years.
She suffered with kidney trouble for quite a few years and on July 4, 1894, her 22nd wedding anniversary, (at age 48) she went to join her children who had gone before. Only three of her nine children were still alive when she died, and her daughter Millie died later in the 1906 earthquake. Only two children lived to raise families. Hiram Miles shortly before he died went to visit his son, Samuel. He was gone about eight months. He had quite a good visit, and probably met some grandchildren he hadn’t met before. We found him in the 1900 Census in Jackson, Lee County, Iowa. His son Samuel lived in Montrose, Lee County, Iowa, and Hiram was 78, a widower, and staying with a granddaughter.
Before he went on this trip, his wife had died, and his four youngest children, and 2 older children. The youngest living child that he left in Utah when he went to visit, was a daughter 18 years old, who died 6 years later in the San Francisco earthquake. Gladys wrote that her grandfather died when she was one year old. Samuel Dayton, the son he went back east to visit in 1900, was a half-brother to Gladys Dayton Eckman’s father.
According to the History of Tooele County, Ophir resulted from mining claims staked by Colonel Patrick Connors’ soldiers in 1860. It proved to be very rich in silver. Today it is a semi-ghost town, snuggled picturesquely in the bottom of a deep canyon of the Oquirrh Mountains.
In the old neglected Ophir cemetery is where Gladys’ grandfather, Hiram Dayton, who died June 15, 1902, and also her grandmother, Anne Chamberlain Dayton, who died in Ophir July 4, 1894, are both buried. Anne’s four youngest children had died before her. Grandpa was 81 when he died and Grandma was 48. Although he was much older than she was, he survived her by almost 8 years.
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