Margaret Allen

Mormon Pioneer Ancestor
(Compiled by Carolyn Webb, 1999)

Margaret was born March 31st, 1827 at Ellows Creek, New Jersey. She was the daughter of James Dickerson Allen and Sarah Ann Hardy. She joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when she was fifteen years old. Margaret's parents were members of the Church and were in Nauvoo during the mobbings.

The day before the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed, Margaret's father James Allen, was taken prisoner by some of the mob people. The mob tied him to a post and there he stood all day while various members of the mob took turns loading a gun, putting it to James Allen's head and threatening him by saying: "Here's a shot for the Mormons". But fortunately, James Allen had a neighbor who did not belong to the Church but who felt sympathetic towards the Mormons. He talked to the people in the mob and begged them to let James go home to his family, and this neighbor promised the mob that James Allen could be trusted to come back the next day to assist in the killing of the Prophet.

James was released and after he reached his home, this same neighbor came to him and urged that he and his family not go near the people in the mob, because they intended to kill James. James hid away in some woods all night behind the house to avoid being captured. Margaret walked around the woods during the night to stay on watch for any mob attack. They prayed for help. Their prayers were answered as they were able to avoid the mob and get back home again.

Margaret exhibited great courage during this time she lived in Nauvoo, Illinois. She became an excellent horsewoman and was called upon to use her skills riding horses at night to carry messages from one group of Saints to another. She learned how to be stealthy and shrewed in this important undertaking. These brave messengers were a vital part of the survival of the Mormons.

PLURAL MARRIAGE:

Margaret must have been about 17 years old when she met Charles Young Webb in Nauvoo. She married him and became his second wife. Charles was already married to Laura Smith, his first wife. By her he had a son named Willis who Margaret had to take care of when Laura died October 14, 1846. Ten days after Laura and her second baby died, Margaret had her first child who she named Jennette. Jennette was born October 24th, 1846 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Margaret had gone to live with her parents in Council Bluff, Iowa while Charles was away with the Mormon Battalion.Now here was Margaret with a new born baby of her own, plus Laura's infant Willis to take care of and Charles had already left with the Mormon Battalion. He did not know of the loss of Laura, the loss of the baby nor did he know about the birth of Jennette. It would be one year before Jennette would see her father.

NOTE:

Very little is known about Jennette's life except that after Margaret left Charles Webb, Jennette along with her mother lived in various towns in the South Western part of Utah. She did grow into adulthood and marry Horatio Harris Merrill November 17, 1862 in SLC. They had two children Laura and Horatio. Her son died in September 1884 and Jennette died soon thereafter at the young age of 38 years in Smithfield, Cache County, Utah. Cause Unknown.

After Charles returned from the long march with the Mormon Battalion, he reunited with what was left of his family - Margaret, young Willis, Jeanette now 3 years old, and a new infant Lydia born March 25, 1847. Charles prepared Margaret and the children for the trek to Salt Lake City, Utah and by 1849 they were ready to leave in William Wall's fifty. The day they left their home, Margaret came down with the measles. She was very sick a long time on the trail, but finally recovered enough to leave the wagon for two weeks. Then she and Lydia both became ill with Cholera, and the baby Lydia died. Margaret survived, but it took a long time for her to gain back her strength. When they reached the Rocky Mountains, Margaret again became ill and contracted a high fever called the "Rocky Mountain Fever". But even with her ill health, they trudged on across the miles of dusty trails. Eventually, they arrived in the Valley of Salt Lake 1849, and almost before the family could rest and settle, Apostle George A. Smith called for 100 volunteers to join him on a mission to Iron County - Parowan. The call came in 1850.

Charles answered the call of Brigham Young and went to Parowan to help settle it while Margaret remained in Provo with the Children until some shelter could be erected in Parowan sufficient to meet the needs of the family. This was finally accomplished and in the Spring of 1851, Charles and two other men were sent back to Provo to escort the wives and children down to the Parowan Settlement.

Margaret was a good ox team driver so she drove her own team, while Charles helped the other women. While they were crossing the Sevier River, Charles was driving the team just ahead of her and one of the horses balked just as they were coming up out of the water onto shore. Margaret had to stop right in the middle of the river, where the water came up to her knees, and keep everything under control while Charles and others unhooked the spooked horse and put another one on.

Some of the women standing on the bank of the river were screaming, thinking that Margaret would be drowned, yet she sat there calmly with a big stick guiding the oxen as was necessary to keep them from going down stream. Later the women asked Margaret if she had been afraid and she said: "I didn't have time to think about it."

When Margaret arrived in Parowan she discovered that she did not have a cabin built for her and the children. The men had only had time to prepare for a few families. It was difficult to get the housing ready because they had to go into the mountains to get timber to build with and every night part of the men would have to stand guard over the stock as well as the people in order to protect them from the Indians. So, Margaret and the children camped out in a covered wagon. By the first of July, the cabin was finally finished. At about the same time George Albert Smith, an apostle, and his wife came to the valley and were in need of a place to live in. One story I have found is that Margaret graciously gave them her cabin to live in until the Smith's could get one of their own built. Another story I have found is that the cabin was George Albert Smith's and he gave it to Charles for some work he did at the Sawmill. Which story is true...I do not know. But I do know that Margaret says her son Charles Young Webb Jr. was born July 26th 1851 in her cabin.

The women were left alone a great deal of the time while the men were in the canyons cutting timber to build with or taking care of the stock and farming, or drilling for the militia. Margaret was a very busy woman during this time. She milked cows, made cheese, grew her own garden, and spun her own wool to make cloth and sew clothes for all the family members.

One morning while she was alone with her three little children; Willis, her step child, Jennette, and baby Charles Jr. fifteen Indian warriors rode up to the house and wanted to come in and get warm by the fire. She motioned for them to come in one at a time. One came in and stood by the fire while Margaret was cooking breakfast. Since the Indian was dirty, Margaret motioned for him to back away from the area where she was cooking. He looked at her and grunted, so she grabbed the poking stick and started after him, he ran out of the house where he was received by the other Indians with loud laughter. They all got on their houses and rode away. Two or three days later, the same Indian came back with a string of fish. He said, "White squaw, heap brave." So whenever the Indians came after that they were considered to be her friends.

The next summer, the women all made cheese. They had a big dinner made for the 24th of July, and each woman was to bring her cheese for Bro. George Albert Smith to be the judge. He didn't know who made the cheese, but Margaret's cheese took the prize.

When Margaret had first married Charles she had married into a plural marriage situation but upon the death of the first wife, Margaret remained the only wife for a few years. However, in 1852, on one of the trips that Charles took to SLC he met Adeline Freeman and married her. He brought her to Parowan and moved Margaret and her children to Paragoonah known then as Red Creek. I suspect that the marriage began to deteriorate as more children came along - and Charles was less and less available.

Margaret gave birth May 19, 1853 to her 4th child, James Dickerson Webb named after her father. On the 19th of August that same year, Adeline had her 1st child John Freeman Webb, named after Adeline's father. Adeline bore her 2nd child Nancy Beal Webb the 7th of January 1855. Eight days later Margaret became the mother of her 5th and last child with Charles - baby boy Joseph Webb born the 15th of January 1855 at Kaysville, Davis County, Utah where her parents lived. It seems that she and Charles had separated about this time.

Two years later, Margaret remarried into a plural marriage situation and again she and her children were left to fend for themselves. She married John Glover Smith who already had a wife and family. So now I will focus my attention on Charles Young Webb, Jr.our great grandfather who was the product of two plural marriage arrangments, his father having another wife other than Margaret and having a total of 17 children, and his mother marrying for the second time to a man that already had a wife. It isn't likely that this boy saw his father all that much. When the plural marriage between Margaret and Charles failed - Charles Jr. was just a small boy of 6 years old.

Margaret married John Glover Smith who had a wife previously to his marriage to Margaret and apparently he felt it was his duty to take care of her first, because according to Margaret's biography he lived with his first wife most of the time, and did very little to help Margaret or provide for her family. Margaret, John Glover Smith and the kids and his first wife and family lived at Mill Creek for two years. By now Charles is 8 years old and Margaret gives birth to Sarah Ann Smith September 4, 1858. A year later in 1859, they all move to Smithfield in Cache Valley, Utah. John Glover Smith was the first Bishop there and they named the town for him. On June 4th 1860, another son was born whom they called Robert Wilson Smith. Charles Jr. is now 9 years old, with lots of extended family, and no biological father.

When he was 12 years old in 1863, Charles Jr. went with his mother and John Glover when they were called to go to St. George County to help settle and build new homes. On the way there they had three outfits. In the first there were two span of horses, a covered wagon carrying John G. Smith, his first wife, Susan, their two children and their luggage. The second was a carriage with two horses driven by Margaret with her children, Sarah and Robert. The third wagon was an old government wagon drawn by the yokes of oxen driven by Charles Y. Webb Jr. This wagon had the two boys and their luggage in the front. In the middle of the wagon, they built a pen for the pig and on the back they built a coop for the chickens. Bringing up the rear was James Dickerson Webb and George Brown walking with the cows and sheep. One morning as the boys were rounding up the sheep and cows to leave their campsite and start on their journey, a mountain goat ran into the herd and frightened the sheep. The stock ran in every direction, while the mountain goat ran through the camp, tossing dishes, food scattering things in every direction. Finally the men and boys got the stock rounded up, collected everything, and were on their way again. Just before they reached Cedar City, they ran into a snow storm which made it very difficult to travel.

Margaret, and John Smith built their first home of Cedar Posts that looked like a stockade without a roof on it. So they did their cooking around the camp fire and used the covered wagons as bedrooms. Charles Jr. tried to do what he could to help the family. One winter, Charles Jr. worked for William Land and for pay all he could get was a meal made out of cane seed. This food was so strong that they would have to eat onions with it to be able to get it down. Margaret knew that the survival of her children depended upon her resourcefulness. The next summer___George McClane who ran a dairy asked if Margaret could go with him to Mountain Meadows to make cheese for him. They lived there all summer and within one mile of where the Mt. Meadow Massacre occured.

That following fall___, Margaret and her children went back to St. George where Margaret rented a loom and began weaving cloth and carpets for other familes. She did this for two years, then moved twenty miles from St. George to the Canfield Ranch ten miles from Pine Valley. There Margaret rented four acres of land from Solomon Foster, she also rented a herd of cows from David Mustard. Margaret and her children lived there for years before moving to Clover Valley in Nevada. She lived in Clover Valley 4 years. Her son Robert died there. Margaret's husband, John Glover Smith and his first wife had moved to Draper, Utah.

Margaret moved to Gunlock. Here her son James Dickerson married a girl named Eliza Leavitt. Margaret lived with them for awhile. In 1877 she went to Smithfield in Cache Valley to live with her daughter, Sarah who had married Horatio Harris Merrill the year before. While there she would go out to nurse the sick and deliver babies as a midwife. The other children went on to Pima, Arizona to make their homes. She joined them there the next fall. While there she did nursing again for about two years. Her son James lost his wife in Neutriosa, so Margaret went to be with the bereaved family and she remained there for about three years to help with the children. When Sarah's husband and daughter Eliza were killed by the Indians, Margaret returned to her home to be company for Sarah and her family. A few years later, Sarah married Warner Bingham and they moved to Idaho, in the Albion Valley. Margaret came to Provo and stayed for awhile with her daughter Eliza then soon she joined Sarah and family in Idaho where she made her home for the rest of her life.

When Margaret first came to Idaho she was about eighty years old. She lived in Albion about one year, then moved to Unity and lived there for about nine years, and then three years in Declo. During most of this time she was an invalid. The last three years she was in bed most of the time, the last six months she was bed ridden. Margaret was a true Latter-day Saint. She was a faithful Relief Society Worker and a most devoted mother. Margaret had not much chance for an education, or a life of comfort, and the only things she ever had were what she could gain from life's experience and her own hard work. She died at the age of ninety three in Declo, April 4, 1919, at the home of her daughter Sarah, and was buried in the Declo Cemetery, April 6, 1919.

List of children by Charles Webb Sr.:

List of children by John Glover Smith:

Post Script: A most remarkable woman my great, great grandmother. I only wish I had a picture of her.