Eliza Olive Hamblin-Mangum

(Special thanks goes to Alice Brewer Amalong for donating this history, and Boyd Bronson for typing it in computer language and sending it in.)

Daughter of Mary Amelia Leavitt and William Haynes Hamblin was born in Cash Valley (now Wellsville) Utah 4 July 1857 before it was opened to settlement then her father was called to Dixie (St. George) as a missionary later settled in Clover Valley, Ut., which is now in Nevada where he had a silver mine and mercantile store. He was poisoned in May, 1872. She married John William Mangum 11 July 1872, son of James Mitchell Mangum and Eliza Jane Clark.

In four or five months started with my mother and sister, Rachel and two brothers, Tom and Joe to the border between Utah and Arizona, called Kanab, stayed in that part of Utah five years.

One of my husbands cousins caught up with us and traveled together until we got to Kanab he told us, my husbands father lived down on the Pahreah about 40 miles from Kanab and we wanted to stay there for Christmas so-he went on and told them we were coming and they came out and helped us through the Narrows we sure would have had a time if they had not been there for it was frozen over and the water would run over the ice and freeze in the night. Before we got there it had broke and run over the ice and you couldn't see the road for the water was mushy and if an ox got a foot out of the road it would go down to its belly so they had all the women and children go over in the horse teams and a man on horse back to go ahead and guide them to keep them in the road. Then we watched ox teams come across, the first team came all right but the next one got a little to one side and down he went then the front wheels went and then the back wheels it was all done so quick they didn't have time to think they just jumped into the water running with ice and slush each man grabbed a wheel another the ox by the horns and it was done so quick you couldn't see how, well we were all so surprised and pleased we almost cried for joy. We went on and got warm their feet from freezing.

You must be thinking what was my dear mother doing all this time. Well, we left behind us in Clover Valley my sister Amelia four years older than I was married the same day, she was going to have a baby so she took her mother, a fine doctor with her baby boy, Joe, 8 years old (1874) and went that long trek back and left the other two, Rachel and Tom, with us.

I will have to go back a little, after we got down on the Pahrea and the ice broke up in the "Narrows" the men had to go back and hunt up the stock every cow had a big fat calf and we had milk and butter galore and how we did live. For we all stayed there all that winter froze in and could not get out to anything to eat, so after our flour was gone all the bread we had was corn ground on a little mill and it was so course, not much better than cracked corn and I never could eat corn bread, so I just went without and they all said they didn't see how I lived. It was very warm down in that deep canyon and the vegetation such as wild cabbage, mustard, thistle and other green stuff that I didn't know the names anyway I watched what the cows ate and I knew what they ate was not poison as I was always out in the pasture among cattle since I was a child so out there on the other side of the canyon I found plenty of greens but I didn't tell any one for I knew they would laugh at me. My husbands stepmother gave me two hens and when they laid all their eggs and wanted to set, I put 15 eggs under them and they all hatched so I made a little brooder for them and raised every one and in the fall I had a flock of beautiful chickens and as soon as the chicks were old enough to eat we had all the meat we needed.

My sisters baby was born the 9 August 1874 and it was a girl named Mary Webb.

About the first of Sept. Mother and all came to help me for my first baby was born the 28 of Sept 1874 and just as soon as I was able we left the Pahrea and went to Kanab and there we bought us a home and there they started the UNITED ORDER we all joined and tried it for almost over two years (1 Oct. 1874 to 1877) then the bottom dropped completely out Bishop Stuart died and his sons claimed all the stock. My poor dear Mother lost all her young stock, she showed wisdom when she told them she didn't want her old cows branded in any other brand only her husbands that was all ready on them. So she had to see the young ones claimed by them boys.

My dear husband went to the buckskin mountains to cut and haul logs for the sawmill there the snow falls so deep they can't work in the winter so they had to haul the lumber down to St. George Temple. While in the mountain my husband cut his big toe and he had to walk in the snow all day with only one light coat it snowed all the time he caught cold in his toe when they got back to Pipe Springs there was an order for them not to come home but to go back to the mill and get another load of lumber and go back down to St. George before they came home. He was so worried about me ex- pecting the little one any time and his foot was in an awful fix, my husband never said a word but when the morning came the other men came to him saying, "Brother Mangum, we want to hear you. We would go on but your foot is so bad you can't, but if one backs out we all will." And my husband said, "You can all do as you please, but I am going home." So they all went home and told the Bishop Will Mangum's foot was the excuse, and Bro. Mangum couldn't report for three or four days and when he did the Bishop asked him why he didn't go back to the mill and he said, "Just because I didn't want to." And the Bishop reached out his hand and said "Brother Mangum, That's the best excuse I have heard yet."

Now Mother began talking Arizona again, but my husband didn't want to go we had a good start of 18 head of cows and calves all heifers a year old but my dear Mother was a true Latter-Day-Saint she talked to us and told us we were obeying the authorities of the church for they were calling on every one that would go to go and they would be going on a mission just as much as if He had called them, so we left as though we were going on a Mission and we never regretted it.

First we wanted to go to the St. George Temple which had just been dedicated never was married in the endowment house and none of us had been sealed or Aunt Betsy's family, I had a breakdown working all day and at night set up a sock and finish it about two in the morning I had knit about eight pairs of white socks, then Billy my half brother said he would wait until Monday and if I wasn't ready they would go on, My mother fixed me a bed in the wagon and we were on our way before they and were gone over a month when we got back it was too late to get over the Buckskin so we all went back to the Pahreah and stayed there until spring, there was an excitement that somebody had found gold.

Before we got back to Kanab we picked up quite a bunch of my grandmothers people on my mothers side and my Mothers sister and her family (Betsy) all wanted to go so it delayed us so long we were caught in the first snow storm after we left St. George and the first night we got on top of the Hurricane hill and when we got up in the morning it had snowed us under and our teams and all the stock was gone and it took days to gather them up. My poor dear husband had the hard work of gathering wood and shoveling snow and getting up in the morning and building fires, sometimes we would have to camp where were no wood and he would unhook his oxen from the wagon and go for miles before he came to timer, then drag it down to camp enough for all and some left for other travelers that came along, then he would get up in the morning build the fires and put on water and go out to hunt for his oxen bringing them in, the other boys took care of the stock taking turns guarding all night finding water holes and grazing land. It was all hard work two young widow women with a large family this was a hard trip for the snow and mud and slush slowed us down all the way to Pipe Springs that was the only trail to Kanab in those days. Our provisions had run out and we had nothing but corn, but my darling Mother knew how to cook it, she took lye and boiled the corn in strong lye water and got the hulls off and the snow was so deep and so light the rabbits could not run just jump up and fall back in the snow and all the men had to do was go and pick them up so we lived on hominy and rabbits for about three weeks until we came to Pipe Springs (which was named for father) two of Fathers brothers, Uncle Frank and ------ who were living in Kanab came out and got the women and children I stayed behind to cook for the men while they brought in the stock and the slow oxen which had gone off they would come in so tired and hungry but with a smile and a joke, "Well, is dinner ready?" "Yes, all ready and waiting". "Got something good?" "What is it?" Hominy and rabbit just for a change". "Good, that's fine." And they sure would eat but my husband was the most sensitive man about his food, the poor old rabbits couldn't get anything to eat but brush and the meat smelled like it and he got so sick he couldn't stay around the camp fire, so one day he went over to Pipe Springs and came back with some bacon and I fried some and fried the corn in the grease and didn't they all enjoy it but my husband and he ate his corn and bacon.

When we got back it was too late to get over the Buckskins mountains so we all went back to the Paria and stayed there until spring there was an excitement that somebody had found gold down there or out in the mountains. We got up in the morning and found the country swarming with men some with wagons loaded with every thing to eat drink and wear for miners and when they found it was all a fake they sold out for cattle or anything they could get and we had nine cows and they all had heifer calves and we gave the 18 head for his outfit including the horses harness and wagon and the horses were fine matched blacks.

Uncle Frank Hamblin wanted us and my sister the Charley Webb to go upon his ranch, "The Swallow Park" and take care of his dairy and keep the men from stealing the things out of the house for he had every thing to run a dairy and food and he was not able to go or ready to move up there until May and he had work to be done on the place and repairing the pasture fence and corrals and we could get up all the cows we wanted to milk and make cheese so we stayed there until May then we went back down on the Paria and then began to fix for our big trek across the big Colorado river, we was not far from it where we were, a man on horse back could ride down the canyon and get there in a few hours but we can't go that way by wagon we were in Arizona all the time.

The fall of 1879 we went right through the Kaibab forest and camped close to House Rock before we could go on my husband had to go off to work so he fixed up a temporary tent by the side of the old Rock Fort and I and the two babies lived on the one side and my sister (Amelia Webb and three baby girls) on the other side and my Mother, Rachel and Tom and Joe in front of the fort, the house inside were all full, for this was the meeting place before crossing the desert, we could rest as long as we were over the Buckskins or Kaibab Mountains before it snowed us in. Aunt Priscilla made the three sisters who relied on each other. The house inside were all full fixing up for the long trip.

When my husband came back in place of those beautiful fine matched black horses he had two yoke of oxen (4) and maybe you don't think I cried, but no one ever knew it, he was told no one that ever tried to go to Arizona with horses was sure sorry they didn't have oxen, he brought lumber and nails and tore the old wagon box to pieces and took the screws and bolts from it and made another box four feet longer then he took the wagon apart and made it four feet longer to fit the box and then put a double cover on the top and cut holes in the ends then punched holes around the edges and sewed around the holes to keep it from tearing. Then he traded our big stove for the cutest little one and a dandy cooker and fastened it down to the floor of the wagon and I got in and made up my bed and he rolled it up to the trunk and it made the back for a sofa and it was as soft I was just as comfortable, never worried or asked where the money was coming from to buy the clothes for the little one that would soon come, I just sat there in that soft seat and cooked our meals and took care of my two babies and when they got uneasy and wanted to get out I would tell them a story or sing them a song and I could do both then. About the third day just before we got to the Little Colorado river my Mother's team was ahead of us and Willie saw Mother's youngest boy Joe out walking and he began to beg to get out and go walk with him and I said let him out and off he went to see if he can't keep up. We had heard there was someone coming with a camel or dromedary and just before he caught up with Joe, poor little Willie saw something loom up in front of him, well I was not looking at anything but that wonderful animal for it was the first one I had ever seen and when I looked down and saw his face I thought he was dead or dying, he asked "O, Pa, put me in the wagon quick, quick! Pa!" he put his head down in my lap and I tried to coax him to look at the camel, that it wouldn't hurt him but I couldn't get him to look at it, he just acted like he would die if he ever saw it again. It was hours before I could get him to look up and I asked him if he wanted to get out and go walk with Uncle Joe and he said "No, I don't." and he never would get out only when he had to.

We reached the big Colorado that night and the next morning was the task of getting across, they wanted me to stay in the wagon and ride across but I told them no, if the boat did leak I could at least see when it was going to happen and not be blindfolded and go down to the bottom without knowing it, so I got into that leaking old boat took my two babies and went across and saw it all. It was the first boat I was ever in and biggest river I had seen.

Next was Lees Backbone, we had heard such awful stories bout it so we thought it was worse than it was, but was bad enough some of the women got in their wagons and covered up their heads, but if I was going to die I wanted to see how it was done, I sat up and opened up the cover and saw it all, some of the places was so steep it looked like if the wagon ever started to slip it would never stop. If I got nervous I would just turn and look at my brave fearless husband and all fear would leave me, sometimes I think there never was a braver fearless man on earth.

Next we traveled through Moenkopi (?) and those that had horses lost them and my youngest brother Joe's pony was gone with them and he stayed behind to hunt them and we never saw him or any of them for three months he was only 13, they got on the St. Johns Road Greers Ranch or Hunt and we were on the Round Valley Road. We traveled up the Little Colorado and one day there came to our noon day camp an Indian woman, she wanted to sell a piece of cloth for corn so we gave her a pan full of corn and for it, five yards of as fine a flannel as I ever saw and we always felt god sent that dear old soul to us for there was all I wanted for my little ones baby clothes.

Next we came to Greers Ranch (Hunt) it was Christmas Eve and so cold if you threw out a bucket of water it would be ice before it hit the ground, so we drove our wagons close together and hung a blanket at one end and made a big fire in the center and it was nice and warm and the children could sing and talk across to one another. In the morning a Negro Mamie, and my little girl wanted to tell the other little girl so she whispered it over the head of the Negro, "It's a Niga Nigger Mammie! It's a Nigger Mammie" twice before I could grab her by her dress and pull her back on the bed.

We found out from the Negro how far it was to Round Valley about 40 miles and we Hurried as fast as the oxen could travel and got to the Valley on New Years Eve 1879, we traveled on up the Valley close to the Little Colorado for it ran down through the Valley, we had gone about 8 miles when we came to an old Mexican Fort a streeam of water ran by it was all shot to pieces where they fought. Some Said Mr. Milligan built it in 1871 no one was in it so the men took each one, one Of the old dilapidated rooms, there was a log house by the road and they found out it belonged to the Brown boys and their mother and that they had gone back to Utah and wouldn't be back until spring so the men talked it over it was only up to the walls and a door and fire place sawed out and a big log across the center for a ridge pole and as I was the one that was in need of a good warm place so soon they all turned out and finished it off, two took their teams and went up in the mountains and got down some small poles and another two hauled in green rabbit bush and two more got shovels and dug a hole and filled it up with water and mixed some mud and less than a day we got the poles laid and they threw up the green brush and laid them down with the roots up and tied a rope to the bucket pail and pulled the mud up and spread it down smooth about a foot thick, chinked and plastered every crack and there was plenty rocks close by so they hauled rock and mixed more mud for the fire place and we had as warm a house and two warm some times it was the best mud chicking for no wind could get through then some of the poles left from the roof he took and made what they call a "bunk" by driving a forked pole down in the ground for we had no floor only Mother earth and sawed it off the right height and fastened them on the frame he made and then took a mattress cover or straw tick and went out in the field where piles straw where they had been thrashing grain and the field was open and the men got permission from Milligan to turn their stock in. Well I never slept better on a bed that was more comfortable.

It had clouded up and began to look like it was going to snow that is why we hurried so and we had no more than got in the house and a load of wood in and the others fixed up in the fort and when we got up and found the ground covered with snow and still snowing it never let up until the snow was over three feet on the level then it cleared up and maybe you don't think it was cold it froze the river so completely up they couldn't run the grist mill or the sawmill for they were both run by water and there was not another mill in the country and we only had a few pounds of flour and not one in the outfit had any or no money to buy some and if they had there wasn't any to buy, so we heard of a man in Nutrioso a small place 15 miles from there that had grain to trade for stock so the men went over there and my husband took the best yolk of oxen and men that had money got ahead of us and to all his wheat, but my husband tole him he had to have some for his wife was going to be confined and he wouldn't let him have the oxen if he couldn't and then when they got home what could we do for we couldn't eat barley whole so they started out to hunt for a grinder of some kind. the other town, Springerville, was six miles from where we were, so when they got there they heard of a big government coffee mill someone had and they had to give five dollars for it and thankful to get it so the next question where were we going to put it, we had the only house that was made of logs and the mill was so big it had to have a solid place to nail it, so we had to have it in our house and there were five families to grind for and so hard the men had to do it for their families and I had plenty of company for it took every hour of the day until ten at night. Then on the fourth of Feb. we had something else a little guest of our own he arrived about 10 O'clock and from then on until spring we had fun for in place of the noise waking him he would cry for it, just as soon as it would stop. If he was asleep he would wake and begin to cry and just as soon as it started he would stop, and everyone around there would gather in to hear it for they would not believe it, when the ice melted and they could run the water mill when ever they would meet me they would ask, "How does the baby get along with the mill?" and it did take a long time for the baby to forget.

Well, this big snow storm and freeze was just what Mr. Milligan the man that owned most all the land around here, was waiting for. He had hundreds of hogs and he was waiting to have a hog killing. John Will (Mangum) andCharley Webb got the job, they killed about fifty big hogs when Mr. Milligan wanted them to take a contract from him cutting and hauling logs for his saw mill and as soon as it got warm enough to thaw out the ice in the river to saw them. I guess he thought that would be a good chance to get rid of his --------------. They thought it a good deal at the time so they brought the heads to show us how and helped us and so did our brother Tom and we were giving hog heads to all the people in the Fort and by this time the men were getting awfully sick of their bargain and I guess they said things about that old man they wouldn't say to his face, and my poor husband wasn't one to take too much off anyone like that and he got so sick of those heads he couldn't stay where they were cooking for they could not be cooked any way only boiled and he didn't like boiled pork only head cheese and not much of that.

Our men went up to find a location to camp and fix a camp ground in the mountains for all through January and February it was very cold but it didn't keep the men from their work, for it did not storm and they could make their roads and chop down trees and saw them up and haul them down to the mill, so by the time the river began to thaw they had a pile of logs.

In March the wind began to blow and the oxen were Mexican broke so they didn't know anything about logging and what was said to them so John Will had to have a rope tied to the horn of the one next to him to make him mind and I guess he had his life and soul aggravated out of him and the wind would blow the dust and gravel in his face until I would have to pick it out of his flesh and he had no overcoat and he would suffer with the cold but never complained only when he got down to where he had to go through a long lane in the lumber yard and the first load of logs he brought down they were sawing and they threw the lumber right out in the road where he had to go and he had to stop and pile that lumber up before he could go through so he told Mr. Milligan, "Now, don't let them put the lumber in my way for it throws me out of bring another load." "Oh, I won't Mr. Mangum I won't forget it." And the next day they had a bigger run than the Day before and threw it in the same path and he had to stop and move it. Mr. Milligan was in the house and he came out acursing and raving like a mad man and John Will said, "Now, look here Mr. Milligan, I don't want to come down tomorrow And find this road full of lumber again." "Oh, you won't, Mr. Mangum, you won't". "If I do Mr. Milligan, I am not going to stop, I am going right through, lumber or no lumber." "Oh, you won't have to," he said. Mr. Mangum replied, "All right I hope I won't." but the next day when he saw the lumber in the road, it was blowing so hard the gravel was stinging his face and the oxen wouldn't stay in the road and it was so cold and angry when he saw that lumber that he just cracked the whip to those poor old oxen and they plunged right through that lumber and you can imagine better than I can tell how the lumber broke and flew in the air when those big logs struck them and Mr. Milligan came out cursing and swearing and came down to the log yard where John Will was unloading, he came just as close as he could looking him in the face and was so close if the log rolled it would knock him down, John Will yelled for him to get out of the way and gave him a push that sent him backward and his heel struck a rock and he fell flat on his back but Mr. Mangum never stopped or said a word but went right on as though nothing had happened, Mr. Milligan got up and stood there sizing him up and turned and went to the house, I asked him if he wasn't afraid Mr. Milligan would come back with a gun? He said no and he didn't care if he did for he was too tired and cold and hungry and Mr. Milligan had lied and John Will knew that was the only way to make him do something about it, he had been ordering and cursing Mexicans and killing them when they didn't obey his orders or any man, Mr. Milligan knew they had to go through with the contract if they let him get by with --------------------- the new settlers the same way. When I was picking the gravel out of his face Charley Webb came and said he would not have dared done that for fear he would have killed him, it is said he had killed a dozen men, John Will told him he didn't care if he had killed forty he would rather die than let a man like that run it over him, and he was going to get even with him on those hog heads yet before he got through with him, and Charley said, "Oh, for heavens sake John Will, don't please don't! think of your family, he will kill you sure if you do." Kill my foot, He has to be put in his place, and he never found any more lumber in the road when he went down the next day or any other day while they were working for him, when they had almost finished the contract John Will told Charley, "Do you know how I am going to get even with Milligan for those hog heads?" "No, John Will, what?" he said, "I am going to Haul down some of those big logs that he can't saw" and poor Charley almost Swooned, he said, "For heaven sakes, John Will, don't do anything more to make Him any angrier at you for you are going to be killed if you do.." "Oh your Foot, don't worry if he pulls a gun on me I have my ox whip and it has a good Heavy stock and I can rap him on the head or knock his gun out of his hand before He fires, so look for me tonight and have a good hot supper for I will be hungry". It was nice and calm in the mountains but down in the valley it was blowing a Hurricane and the gravel was driving on the face of both the oxen and driver When he drove into the yard and the driver was not in a very good humor and Milligan met him at the yard with a string of oaths but the driver just drove on As though he didn't hear a thing all the time Milligan following and cursing and When he started unloading Milligan came up close to him and stood right in front Of him so John Will gave him a shove to push him out of ---------------------------- On his back and he jumped to his feet faced Mr. Mangum and they stood glaring Into each others eyes and my husband said he was expecting Milligan to pull a Gun but he was for ready for him. All of a sudden he went to the house and Mangum looked for him to come out with his gun but he didn't. Everyone was so afraid of him, his lack of fear was one of his outstanding qualities. On the third day as he was unloading Mr. Milligan came down and waited until he was finished then handed him a bottle of wine of some kind and said, "Now Mr. Mangum for God sakes, don't bring any more of those big logs." "I won't bring any more for these pays for those hog heads, don't they", was his reply, then Milligan said, "I don't blame you for that was a damn dirty trick" and he reached out his hands and they shook and were good friends and he told my husband if there was anything he could do to help him let him know and that spring they rented some land from him and grain to plant. That year there was a frost in August that spoiled all the grain in the valley.

In 1881 the next year we went up on the head of the Little Colorado river and took a squatters right on a piece of land and rented grain again and planted another crop and when it was almost up there came a flood down the river and buried it up and caved the banks off where our garden was planted and we had to stand on the hill and watch it go down the river, that was one of the hardest things we had witnessed in all our pioneering, but my dear brave husband just stood there, never spoke until he saw my tears then he turned and walked off a little ways and came back and said "Don't cry, wait, maybe it won't take everything," so we went to the house and I got dinner and we ate and I put the children to bed, we sat and listened to the roaring of the floor it was too dark and cloudy to see outside, we stayed in the house and soon went to bed. When we got up in the morning, as soon as it was light enough to see, my husband went down to see if the garden was all caved in, it hadn't caved all the land off, for it was in a low place and what was left was covered with mud on the lower half where we had a little potato patch which were just getting big enough to eat and we had several meals and wanted to save some for seed next year, they were such little tiny things when Uncle Jacob gave them to us in a bag that didn't hold more than two quarts some of them weren't bigger than a bird egg we planted whole the bigger ones we cut up with two and three eyes I dropped them in the holes John Will dug.

The Apache Indians were stealing horses and killing wherever they could so, we had to build our homes in a Fort so we moved down, my husband had been cutting and hauling logs all this time to build us a house down in the valley to a little town called Amity (founded 29 Oct. 1882) so we moved down there and he hewed the logs and we soon had a nice comfortable warm house for winter, it had a nice little fireplace and a floor and a shingle roof. And when the Apaches went on the rampage all who had farms up the river had to be awfully careful, but we went up and tended our garden what the flood had left and our prayers were surely answered for when the mud dried out we dug down and the first potatoes that were set on before the flood come then rooted again and the vines grew up so grand and high it was a beautiful sight everybody that saw them could hardly be- lieve they all came off that little piece of ground and that handful of seeds, sweeter and bigger potatoes never grew, just as sweet as an apple and we had potatoes all winter and enough to plant a nice patch in the spring and we always raised chickens the number was 15 which was lucky number for me, always raising the fifteen, then we had our cows, with milk and butter and buttermilk, cottage cheese and rennet cheese (chedder) some call it press cheese and how we loved to eat the squeeky curds before it was pressed for two days and if rubbed with butter kept all winter in a cool place.

We struggled along there on that river, but we never tried to do any thing more on that place but went up three or four miles above there fenced about eight or ten acres and built a house and there another boy was born and then we began to have bad luck with our children, we had such healthy ones never one of them ever sick, we had six, then someone brought the scarlet fever up there and we lost our third boy, Jeremiah the fourth one born 27 February 1882, died February 1884 then we couldn't stay there any longer so we traded our place for a house and lot over to Nutrioso a small town 15 miles from there and our bad luck seemed to follow us. We had a pair of twins born there premature and one of them died only lived two weeks, born in January and the next June we lost our other little boy two years and a half old, Thomas Rowell in June 1888, born 21 April 1886 in Springerville or Amity.

We had been Arizona 10 years and had nothing but bad luck, we never found fault about our hard luck but when we began to lose our children then we wanted to get away from there for we did not like Nutrioso and we had heard so much about the Gila that we thought we would try it and in the fall of 1889 we started out on another trek.

Here we settled in Smithville (Pima) where we had a house in town for winter and in the summer we had a saw mill in the Graham mountains here four more children were born making 12 in all.