412. My 2nd great grandmother, a true pioneer! Caroline Farozine Skeen Butler. Amazing experiences!
Last night we went to a very inspiring lecture in the St. George Tabernacle by Glen Rawson. He was a Seminary teacher for 30 years, and now is an LDS tour guide, and talks often in various places. He told several inspiring and touching stories about pioneer women, and their trials, and how strong they were. He looked at our audience, and said to us, "You folks in this audience come from strong stock!" I truly felt what he was saying, and decided to repost two posts that I have done before, about one of my great-greatgrandmothers, Carolyn Farozine Skeen Butler. I have several wonderful pioneer stories about my great grandmothers, and will probably repost some in the next few days.
This story has been on my blog before, as you can read --
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2014
202. Great Pioneer Story, Grandmother Squaw, and my 2nd great grandmother, Carolyn Farozine Skeen Butler
Today I am re-posting blog # 71, and tomorrow # 72, about my 2nd great grandmother. She was a true pioneer, and went through many amazing experiences during her lifetime.
My great great grandmother on my mother's side, Caroline Farozine Skeen, the wife of John Lowe Butler, was an amazing woman herself. She had to run their farm and take care of the children many times when her husband John was gone with the Prophet Joseph Smith, as one of his ordained bodyguards. I'll post several different stories of her in the future, as her life is very inspirational.
The Story of Grandmother Squaw
After the Prophet was killed and the saints were moving West, John left with his family in Emmett’s Company. (Remember John Lowe Butler was the Prophet's bodyguard, see post # 66, and he also is mentioned in post # 26) John was a wheelright and blacksmith, and after helping to fix other wagons, they were rather late in starting west. Winter overtook them when they were in the heart of the Indian Country. So they had to stop and build log cabins and wait until spring. They stopped in a little valley and there was a little patch of timber between them and an Indian village. The men began to cut logs and they would bind a bunch of logs together and drag them into camp.
The children had great fun riding on the logs. One day a little Indian boy was very badly hurt, as the logs began to roll, not being bound tight enough. So the Indian Chief told them if the Indian boy died they would take one of the white children to pay for it.
Caroline was very sick and they were afraid she was going to die. Their food supplies had run out and they had had nothing but meat to eat without even any salt. One day as she lay very sick in her tent, with the other women trying to help her, the old Indian chief came into the tent and asked for the little tow headed girl, Keziah, who was about 12 or 14 years old.
Caroline looks like she could handle any adversity, doesn't she?
When she came in he took her by the hand and led her away to his camp. Caroline thought that the little Indian boy had died and that he had taken her own little girl as a ransom. But she was too weak and sick to protest. (Can you imagine being that sick?) The old chief took Keziah Butler to his camp and told her that her mother was very ill and that she would die if she didn't get something besides meat to eat. He gave her a pan of flour or meal and on top of that he put a bowl of coffee and on top of that a smaller bowl of sugar. He told her to carry them on her head till she got home and for her to make one biscuit a day for her mother. He told her to be sure and keep it all for her mother and that it would save her life. What joy filled the little camp when little Keziah came trudging home with her precious load, for the instructions were followed and the dear mother returned to health and strength. They never forgot to give thanks to their Heavenly Father for all these blessings.
This cabin above is probably similar to the "rude log cabin" they built for the winter.
They built a rude log cabin for the winter and were thankful for protection from the winters cold and for kindly Indian friends, for conditions might have been worse. John Lowe Butler was appointed as a hunter for the camp as meat was their only food supply. Time and again when the kill was sent home, Emmett left John's own little brood without any share.
During the winter an old Indian squaw came to see Caroline and told her she had just lost her only child. She wanted to know if Caroline had a mother and she told her no. So she asked Caroline to let her be a mother to her. All winter long she kept the little feet of the children covered with Indian moccasins. They called her Grandmother Squaw. When spring began to come and the sap began to rise in the trees the little camp began to make plans to continue their journey. They were in the sugar maple section and they used to tap the trees and catch all the syrup they could to eat.
Night after night Caroline sat up boiling, boiling, boiling the precious syrup into sugar to help fed her little flock. By her hard labor she filled a small trunkful of the maple sugar to use on the journey to the great Salt Lake. One day Emmett demanded that she divide her sugar with the camp and she refused to do it. So he asked her husband John if he could make his wife mind him. John said, "Well on that point Caroline can just suit herself. The rest could have had some if they had worked as she did."
This 1950's precious photo is of 3 Navajo Indian Women, but I picture "Grandmother Squaw" as looking like one of these women. Look at their knarled hands -- they had seen a lot of work. These dear Navajo women are great grandmothers to some Navajo friends of mine. From left to right, Big Lady, Lady Yellow Hair, and Lady One Salt. I did the Temple work for Lady One Salt. I really love this photo. It tells its own story.
Grandmother Squaw told Caroline not to leave before she could say goodbye to her, but the call came to break camp and Caroline did not get to see Grandmother Squaw. They traveled about ten miles that day and after they had gone to bed Caroline heard a moaning noise. She listened and it seemed to be coming closer and closer. Finally there came the faithful old squaw to tell them goodbye. Grandmother Squaw sat up all night by the low burning fire to finish a beautiful pair of beaded moccasins for Caroline.
In the morning Grandma Squaw gave Caroline a present of a Deer pouch or stomach filled with pounded dried deer meat, and a little bowl of coffee. She told her that just a few spoonfuls of this meat would make a kettle of soup that would save their lives. The old squaw mourned their going away. She had been to them a real true friend in need and they always cherished the memory of Grandmother Squaw. Just a few years ago the temple work was done for "Grandmother Squaw" known as such to the John Lowe Butler family.
My great great grandmother on my mother's side, Caroline Farozine Skeen, the wife of John Lowe Butler, was an amazing woman herself. She had to run their farm and take care of the children many times when her husband John was gone with the Prophet Joseph Smith, as one of his ordained bodyguards. I'll post several different stories of her in the future, as her life is very inspirational.
The Story of Grandmother Squaw
After the Prophet was killed and the saints were moving West, John left with his family in Emmett’s Company. (Remember John Lowe Butler was the Prophet's bodyguard, see post # 66, and he also is mentioned in post # 26) John was a wheelright and blacksmith, and after helping to fix other wagons, they were rather late in starting west. Winter overtook them when they were in the heart of the Indian Country. So they had to stop and build log cabins and wait until spring. They stopped in a little valley and there was a little patch of timber between them and an Indian village. The men began to cut logs and they would bind a bunch of logs together and drag them into camp.
The children had great fun riding on the logs. One day a little Indian boy was very badly hurt, as the logs began to roll, not being bound tight enough. So the Indian Chief told them if the Indian boy died they would take one of the white children to pay for it.
Caroline was very sick and they were afraid she was going to die. Their food supplies had run out and they had had nothing but meat to eat without even any salt. One day as she lay very sick in her tent, with the other women trying to help her, the old Indian chief came into the tent and asked for the little tow headed girl, Keziah, who was about 12 or 14 years old.
When she came in he took her by the hand and led her away to his camp. Caroline thought that the little Indian boy had died and that he had taken her own little girl as a ransom. But she was too weak and sick to protest. (Can you imagine being that sick?) The old chief took Keziah Butler to his camp and told her that her mother was very ill and that she would die if she didn't get something besides meat to eat. He gave her a pan of flour or meal and on top of that he put a bowl of coffee and on top of that a smaller bowl of sugar. He told her to carry them on her head till she got home and for her to make one biscuit a day for her mother. He told her to be sure and keep it all for her mother and that it would save her life. What joy filled the little camp when little Keziah came trudging home with her precious load, for the instructions were followed and the dear mother returned to health and strength. They never forgot to give thanks to their Heavenly Father for all these blessings.
They built a rude log cabin for the winter and were thankful for protection from the winters cold and for kindly Indian friends, for conditions might have been worse. John Lowe Butler was appointed as a hunter for the camp as meat was their only food supply. Time and again when the kill was sent home, Emmett left John's own little brood without any share.
During the winter an old Indian squaw came to see Caroline and told her she had just lost her only child. She wanted to know if Caroline had a mother and she told her no. So she asked Caroline to let her be a mother to her. All winter long she kept the little feet of the children covered with Indian moccasins. They called her Grandmother Squaw. When spring began to come and the sap began to rise in the trees the little camp began to make plans to continue their journey. They were in the sugar maple section and they used to tap the trees and catch all the syrup they could to eat.
Night after night Caroline sat up boiling, boiling, boiling the precious syrup into sugar to help fed her little flock. By her hard labor she filled a small trunkful of the maple sugar to use on the journey to the great Salt Lake. One day Emmett demanded that she divide her sugar with the camp and she refused to do it. So he asked her husband John if he could make his wife mind him. John said, "Well on that point Caroline can just suit herself. The rest could have had some if they had worked as she did."
Grandmother Squaw told Caroline not to leave before she could say goodbye to her, but the call came to break camp and Caroline did not get to see Grandmother Squaw. They traveled about ten miles that day and after they had gone to bed Caroline heard a moaning noise. She listened and it seemed to be coming closer and closer. Finally there came the faithful old squaw to tell them goodbye. Grandmother Squaw sat up all night by the low burning fire to finish a beautiful pair of beaded moccasins for Caroline.
In the morning Grandma Squaw gave Caroline a present of a Deer pouch or stomach filled with pounded dried deer meat, and a little bowl of coffee. She told her that just a few spoonfuls of this meat would make a kettle of soup that would save their lives. The old squaw mourned their going away. She had been to them a real true friend in need and they always cherished the memory of Grandmother Squaw. Just a few years ago the temple work was done for "Grandmother Squaw" known as such to the John Lowe Butler family.
203. Carolyn Butler Skeen, the rest of the story -- sewing on a thumb, knitting mittens from a buffalo mane.
This is to follow yesterday's entry about my 2nd great grandmother, and her experiences as a true pioneer. ----------- (was blog # 72, in January, 2014)
I wrote about my 2nd great grandmother, Caroline Farozine Skeen yesterday. I decided the rest of her story would be good to include now, so you can get a fuller picture of her life. This entry may be a bit longer than others --
She was born April 15, 1812, in Tennessee, the seventh child in a family of ten children. On February 3, 1831, at the age of 19 she was married to John Lowe Butler. To them 12 children were born. Most of their leisure time was spent in reading the Bible, but the religions of the day did not satisfy them. According to John's diary, he was literally thirsting of a knowledge of his Creator. He had prayed many times, very earnestly for light, until he became rather discouraged. (I'll tell more of him later.)
As an answer to their prayers, one evening in 1835, an invitation came to attend a cottage meeting given by two Mormon Elders. The message filled their hearts with joy and after the meeting, John Lowe and Caroline both applied for baptism. It was just what they had been looking for. From then on their lot was cast with the body of the saints in the trials and persecutions in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa and later in Utah.
Being driven with the saints from one place to another, she and her children lived for six weeks on nothing but wild crab apples and honey, when her husband was on a mission to the Indians; and herself in delicate health at the time. John was gone a long time on a mission to the Indians, and when he returned he had lice from living with them. So his wife had to get him a whole set of clean clothes for him. The Indians told her to put his clothes on an ant hill and the ants would eat the nits (or fleas). His clothes were just white with knits but the ants cleaned them up.
Caroline was very resourceful and they nearly always had something to eat, even when others went hungry. She used to parch corn (the hard kind) and pound it, then put new milk over it for them to eat. When she had flour, she would very often make her bread the day before they ate it, so as not to have hot bread all the time while traveling. Then too, cold bread lasted longer.
During the building of the Nauvoo Temple they lived on a farm on the outskirts of the city. John Lowe, being one of the Prophet's bodyguards, was away from home much of the time, and most of the work on the farm was left for Caroline and her children.
During the troublesome times at Nauvoo, most of the care of the family was left to Caroline. One day a mob of men with blackened faces came hunting for John. After a fruitless search they demanded that Caroline give them some supper. She didn't have much to cook so they made her kill a mutton and cook some of it for them. When they sat down to eat, one of them demanded a fried egg. Great grandmother Caroline broke it into the frying pan and was going to cook it when he said, "Bring it to me, that is done enough." As she did so she recognized him as her brother, and said, "Oh, Alex why would you bring trouble to your sister like this?" He said "I've come to take you away from this damned outfit." She told him that she was better off than he was and she didn't want any of his help.
To supply her family with soap to wash with, she was as usual ever ready to meet every emergency. She used to gather what fat she could from dead animals along the way, the marrow from the bones etc. and cook it with water that she had soaked cottonwood ashes in. She made it into soft soap, and used to keep a barrel of this soft soap in the back of the wagon, when they were coming across the plains.
On their journey west, they met a wagon train and traded something for a sack of flour. Caroline made a pan of biscuits and gave one to each little child. One little girl, Sarah Adeline (our great-grandmother) wanted to feast her eyes on it awhile and accidentally dropped it into the soft soap barrel, in the back of the wagon. But she was so hungry for bread, she fished it out, wiped it off and ate it anyway.
They settled in Spanish Fork, Utah, about 1852. John Lowe Butler surveyed the cite for the city and laid it off into city blocks. He was the first LDS bishop in Spanish Fork. He moved his family into a three-sided shanty on the back of someone's house and went to find work. Caroline's baby took sick and cried for meat he could smell cooking, she traded a piece of handwork for a piece of meat for her sick baby. Many a time she walked 5 miles to milk a cow to get milk for her family. She was a good manager and they always had something to eat. When flour was scarce, she would parch corn and grind it and put milk over it to feed her family.
Caroline had one grievance. While she was away helping to provide for her family, her husband had the chance to get his endowment in the Nauvoo Temple. Caroline always felt badly over this. She never got her endowments until she went to the endowment house in Salt Lake City.
I wrote about my 2nd great grandmother, Caroline Farozine Skeen yesterday. I decided the rest of her story would be good to include now, so you can get a fuller picture of her life. This entry may be a bit longer than others --
She was born April 15, 1812, in Tennessee, the seventh child in a family of ten children. On February 3, 1831, at the age of 19 she was married to John Lowe Butler. To them 12 children were born. Most of their leisure time was spent in reading the Bible, but the religions of the day did not satisfy them. According to John's diary, he was literally thirsting of a knowledge of his Creator. He had prayed many times, very earnestly for light, until he became rather discouraged. (I'll tell more of him later.)
As an answer to their prayers, one evening in 1835, an invitation came to attend a cottage meeting given by two Mormon Elders. The message filled their hearts with joy and after the meeting, John Lowe and Caroline both applied for baptism. It was just what they had been looking for. From then on their lot was cast with the body of the saints in the trials and persecutions in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa and later in Utah.
Being driven with the saints from one place to another, she and her children lived for six weeks on nothing but wild crab apples and honey, when her husband was on a mission to the Indians; and herself in delicate health at the time. John was gone a long time on a mission to the Indians, and when he returned he had lice from living with them. So his wife had to get him a whole set of clean clothes for him. The Indians told her to put his clothes on an ant hill and the ants would eat the nits (or fleas). His clothes were just white with knits but the ants cleaned them up.
Caroline was very resourceful and they nearly always had something to eat, even when others went hungry. She used to parch corn (the hard kind) and pound it, then put new milk over it for them to eat. When she had flour, she would very often make her bread the day before they ate it, so as not to have hot bread all the time while traveling. Then too, cold bread lasted longer.
During the building of the Nauvoo Temple they lived on a farm on the outskirts of the city. John Lowe, being one of the Prophet's bodyguards, was away from home much of the time, and most of the work on the farm was left for Caroline and her children.
During the troublesome times at Nauvoo, most of the care of the family was left to Caroline. One day a mob of men with blackened faces came hunting for John. After a fruitless search they demanded that Caroline give them some supper. She didn't have much to cook so they made her kill a mutton and cook some of it for them. When they sat down to eat, one of them demanded a fried egg. Great grandmother Caroline broke it into the frying pan and was going to cook it when he said, "Bring it to me, that is done enough." As she did so she recognized him as her brother, and said, "Oh, Alex why would you bring trouble to your sister like this?" He said "I've come to take you away from this damned outfit." She told him that she was better off than he was and she didn't want any of his help.
Caroline suffered many hardships and privations. They had to move around a good deal and most of the care of the family was left to her. Once when she was ill in Nauvoo with malaria, she wanted the Prophet to come and administer to her, but he was too busy as there were many who were sick so he sent his handkerchief to put over her face and so great was her faith that she was made well.
(The following story was in the Children’s Friend):
The women of Nauvoo were asked to contribute their dimes and pennies for the Temple fund. One day when a committee called for Caroline's donation, she had nothing to give. She felt very badly. A few days later, she and her children were going into the city in a wagon, when they came across two dead buffalo. To her thrifty hands this find was a great boon. She had her boy stop the wagon and they pulled the long hair from the manes of the buffalo. They got a large sack of the long hair off it's mane. This she took home and washed, corded, and spun into yarn. Out of this yarn she made eight pairs of gloves (mittens) for the rock cutters on the Temple who were working in the dead of winter to rush the building to completion. Like the widow's mite she did her bit to help carry on. Many times she was able to get this hair from where buffalo had fought and killed each other. This she made into quilts, pillows, beds, socks, etc. to help provide for her family.
To supply her family with soap to wash with, she was as usual ever ready to meet every emergency. She used to gather what fat she could from dead animals along the way, the marrow from the bones etc. and cook it with water that she had soaked cottonwood ashes in. She made it into soft soap, and used to keep a barrel of this soft soap in the back of the wagon, when they were coming across the plains.
On their journey west, they met a wagon train and traded something for a sack of flour. Caroline made a pan of biscuits and gave one to each little child. One little girl, Sarah Adeline (our great-grandmother) wanted to feast her eyes on it awhile and accidentally dropped it into the soft soap barrel, in the back of the wagon. But she was so hungry for bread, she fished it out, wiped it off and ate it anyway.
They settled in Spanish Fork, Utah, about 1852. John Lowe Butler surveyed the cite for the city and laid it off into city blocks. He was the first LDS bishop in Spanish Fork. He moved his family into a three-sided shanty on the back of someone's house and went to find work. Caroline's baby took sick and cried for meat he could smell cooking, she traded a piece of handwork for a piece of meat for her sick baby. Many a time she walked 5 miles to milk a cow to get milk for her family. She was a good manager and they always had something to eat. When flour was scarce, she would parch corn and grind it and put milk over it to feed her family.
Caroline had one grievance. While she was away helping to provide for her family, her husband had the chance to get his endowment in the Nauvoo Temple. Caroline always felt badly over this. She never got her endowments until she went to the endowment house in Salt Lake City.
Caroline was very resourceful, serving as nurse and doctor for those in need. One morning Caroline saw a crowd down the street. She told her little girl to watch the children while she hurried down to see what was the matter. It was in the spring and one of the men was trying to shear his sheep, so his wife could make the wool into clothes, for their family. The old buck had jumped up so hard, that the shears had cut his whole thumb nearly off, just hanging on.Caroline was skilled in making buckskin gloves.
Someone shouted, “If we only had a doctor,” but there was not a doctor for miles. Then they asked everyone around the circle if they could help and each said, “Not me.” When they came to Caroline she said, “I can try.” Just wait till I get my buckskin needle and thread. She was an expert buckskin glove maker. She hurried home and put some of her homespun thread she had made from their cotton in Tennessee on to boil in a little water with her buckskin needle. She had a bottle of sticky pine gum, to use, as there were no disinfectants.
Then as they held the man, she put the needle through each side of the cut, then clipped the thread and tied it. She did this all the way around the base of his thumb. Then she plastered it over with sticky gum and wrapped it up and put it in a sling. Someone said, “He’ll never use that hand again.” But when it was healed it was as good as new!” (From “History of Iron Co. Mission and Parowan, page 70.)
After her husband died, she lived with her children in Panguitch and Paragonah. She died in Panguitch but later was taken to Spanish Fork Cemetery to be buried by her husband.
Comments
Annalise Castor