127. The rest of the story -- Hiram and Permelia Bundy, finally arrive in Utah.

 To fully understand this entry, read # 126, just before this.  The history of Hiram and Permelia Bundy begins there.

----------------------continued -------------------(from Hiram Dayton's diary)

Having arrived at Far West, I got into a house of Sister Rigdon's. Her husband, some of the Twelve and the Prophet was then in Liberty Jail. This was the first time my wife had been in a house for ten months. She was therefore very feeble, having been confined (having a baby) two months previous to our coming back to Far West.  (I think it was Lovira Myril Dayton, born Oct. 8, 1839, their 11th and last child).   We stayed with the Rigdons about ten days. I then rented a small house of one of the Brethren. We stayed there for two weeks and then had to give possession to the owner.

 Some few days after this a merchant heard my conversation with several friends and the owner of the house I had just left. I was talking about what I should do. He, the merchant proposed giving myself and team and labor, to freight merchandise for him and some of his friends. He said the Missourians would get drunk and steal his goods. He had a log cabin and stable one and a half miles from the city, which he said we could occupy. I loaded up what things I could take and moved out there.

 One of my daughters (Nancy) the one who had been well all through my sickness, rode horseback without saddle or blanket. She caught a violent cold while going out there, and took sick in a few days and lived about two weeks and died. She was just 4 years old.  I took her body down to the City to bury her. The ground was frozen very deep. I was very feeble and not being able to dig her grave. I asked several bystanders to assist me, but I could not get them to help me at all. I then borrowed some tools and went to the graveyard when a negro came to me and said, "Massah, I will dig the grave and bury your daughter."  

At that time we were destitute of food and clothing. My son Lysander drove the team, freighting for the merchant. He worked for him seven weeks and earned about $30 per week. I began to feel a little better in health. I felt as though I could do pretty well. On the eighth week I took one of my horses to haul up some wood to the door. I hitched on to a stick about thirty feet long. I got bound between two stumps. I took hold of the top end to raise it up when I fell as quick as though I had been shot.

 My wife and daughter was standing in the door and came to pick me up. I was about eight rods from the house. They helped me along, about half of the way I fell again. They lifted me up and carried me in the house and laid me upon the bed. I was bedfast for eleven weeks racked in most violent pain, the doctor called the disease "Theatic Rheumatism" in the kidneys. It finally broke and discharged, and I felt a little better.

 My eldest son Lysander and the team made out enough to keep the family up, until the first of April 1839, we then all had to leave Missouri or be exterminated. Four days previous to our time of starting, one of my neighbors came to me and said he wanted to have my son and team work for him one day. I had a very fine mare. He had tried very often to buy from me. My son performed the labor and turned the horses into a very strong yard. In the morning the mare was gone. My son hunted for her and of I hired a man to help him, three days, and she could not be found. We had to leave and I was then among strangers, thirty miles from Far West. I then took an old horse that had followed me from Far West and harnessed him up with my good horse. I chained the good horse back so he would have all the load to pull, the old horse coming along just to hold up his side of the tongue. A portion of the family being able to walk we traveled eight miles the first day. The boys nursed the old horse up the best they could. He improved so that in a few days he could pull his portion of the load.

We finally landed at the Mississippi River opposite Quincy, Illinois. We remained there about two weeks in which time I was able to walk with a little help. We then went to Nauvoo. The whole camp of us and the most part of the Saints at the Mississippi River were penniless and nothing to help themselves with, there may have been a few exceptions. Some few of the Saints got able to put in a little garden, some were able to break up land and put in some crops. After remaining there six weeks I recovered myself so as to be able to go to work. I built a good outstanding house, bought a piece of land from the government. (80 acres) With the help of my boys we put sixty acres under improvements.

 I bought ten acres of land from Hiram Kimball, and built three good houses and was prosperous in every thing I went into.  We remained there and helped build up that city and the Temple, until the mob came upon us. Not being able to sell anything, I left my property in the hands of Hiram Kimball, the original owner of the land, for to sell and do the best he could for me. He sold the property for houses and lots in the city of Boston, Mass. He afterwards took the Overland Mail. But I could collect nothing from him. Before taking the mail, he sold the property in Boston, bought with my lands, for $4,000, which was a dead loss to me. It was at the time when the property was worth three times the amount received.

They both received their endowments in the original Nauvoo Temple on Dec. 24, 1845.  Then on Jan. 13th, 1846, they were sealed in that Temple.

After we left Nauvoo in 1846, I crossed the River with many of the Saints and went about ten miles to a town of which I have forgotten the name of. I had to make two trips to get my things there, my team not being heavy enough to pull them all at once.

Myself and boys labored there until the fall of the year and earned me another team and wagon. We then moved to Garden Grove, with many of the Saints in 1846, We remained over the winter and put in our crops in the Spring. Being destitute of provisions I went into Missouri and worked for grain and meat etc.

 From Garden Grove, Iowa, went to Kaysville, Iowa. There we opened farms, mine being worth $400. We stayed there one year and then went with the most of the Saints to Winter Quarters. I opened a farm about two and a half miles from town and with the help of my boys broke up thirty acres valued at $400. After I had got under full headway, about the first of April, the Indians stole all my cattle, but one steer and one cow, which I used as a team. The cattle they stole was well worth $250. 

When I commenced operations the First of April, all I had to sustain my family, consisting of fifteen souls, was one sack of flour, one bushel of meal, forty pounds of bacon and very little salt, which was all we could have until I raised more. We were obliged to dig wild potatoes, wild onions and greens, which was the principal part of our living.

The next season I took a job digging a mill race, by the request of President Young. I accomplished that and got a mill running. I then started from Winter Quarters with the 5th Company with Ezra Taft Benson. I had two yoke of cattle each, some oxen and some cows. We arrived in Salt Lake City, October 27, 1849.

I am now here in Cedar Valley, Utah County, Utah, enjoying good health, in the month of May 1878 and an eighty years old the first day of November next."

(Written by W.N. Bassett and dictated by Hiram Dayton Sr.)

HIRAM DAYTON'S TESTIMONY.

This is a true account of my losses and persecutions, but the sufferings myself and family have passed through no tongue can express. The loss of my property is no comparison to my suffering for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I can truly say hat I am thank thankful that the Lord as sustained me so that I have never seen a day that I have murmured, nor my wife, through all the tribulations that we have passed through, and we have been stripped and broken up five times. I here would say that I think it would take $30,000 to cover my losses.   (That would be much more today.)

I have traveled to preach the Gospel in most every Northern State in this Country, and one of the Southern States, Kentucky. I am safe to say that I have traveled thirty thousand miles, without purse or script, except one mission when I took my wife to visit her friends.

Signed by Hiram Dayton, at Cedar Fort, Utah 26 May 1879.
  

Hiram lived during the time when polygamy was taught as a true and righteous principle, revealed by Joseph Smith. Hiram accepted this law and accordingly married several fine and capable wives. His posterity by all of them are a great credit to him and to each wife. They have proved to be good citizens, intelligent and capable civic and Church leaders and devoted parents. 

Hiram died December 10th, 1881, at American Fork, Utah, of causes incident to old age. He is buried at American Fork, Utah. His last years were good ones, he lived them well—earned peace and comfort, surrounded by a numerous posterity, who gave honor and joy to him. He was a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served as a Patriarch in the Alpine Stake of Zion. His descendants may well revere and hold in loving memory the life and labors of this great and good man.

  

JOURNEY OF HIRAM DAYTON AND FAMILY

Lived at Parkman, Ohio, left there in 1834 for Kirtland, Ohio Left Kirtland in 1838 went to Far West, Daviess Co. Missouri. Driven from Missouri in 1839, went to Quincey and then Nauvoo, Ill. Driven from Nauvoo in 1846 to Iowa and then to Winter Quarters, Nebr. Left Winter Quarters in 1849, Arrived in Salt Lake City 25 Oct 1849

A SILVER DAGGER GIVEN TO HIRAM DAYTON BY JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET.

"A silver Dagger was given to Hiram Dayton by Joseph Smith, the Prophet, as an emblem of defense and a keep sake, and as long as he carried it he would not be killed by mobs, and that it should be kept in the family as a protection to the person that had it about them.' The blade is 5 1/2 inches long; 1/2" wide at the handle and tapers to a point. The handle is 3 1/2 inches long from it's junction with the blade, and is nearly 7/8 inches wide at the widest place and is 1/2 inch thick, except the nob at the end, which is 3/8 inch. The little guards come forward from the handle along the blade 1/2 inch, while the little one in the center comes forward 1/4 inch. The sheath is just six inches long and a little over 5/8 inches wide at the top and is 3/8 inches thick. When sheathed the whole is a little over nine inches long. There is a pin, much like the pattern of those on a broach, on the sheath, to attach same to clothing. The sheath has a strip of leather down the inside to protect the blade of the dirk. Hiram Dayton had his son Lysander wear it under his clothes when he went among the mobbers after food, in the perilous days of Missouri, and he was miraculously protected. Another son, William Preston Dayton, had the dagger stored with his gold and silver in his home at Bellevue, Idaho. When his house burned down, the gold and silver that was stored with it all melted and ran together, but the Dagger was not affected in the least, the leather on the sheath not even being schorched. Another feature about this marvelous Dagger is that it has never been known to tarnish." The Dagger is now in the possession of Lowell Dolby Smith of Toppenish, Wash He is a Great Grandson of Hiram Dayton. WHAT A GREAT LEGACY OF FAITHFULNESS, TESTIMONY  AND HARD WORK!