Utah Pioneer of 1862

by Mary W. Stringham, Grand daughter^[1]

Fanny Mariah Wall Whitney was born February 13, 1842, in Horsley, Gloucester, England.  Her parents were William Wall and Sarah Sansom Wall, both of Horsley, England.  Her father was a master mason or, as we call them today, a contractor and builder of homes and other buildings, also, an architect.  Her mother was a very good cook for one of the prestigious families of their day.

Her parents must have been among the early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England, as she was baptized at the age of nine years by Abeady Clifford and confirmed by her father, William Wall.

Fanny's mother Sarah Sansome

Father William Wall

Fanny was the third child in a family of nine as follows:

1. Joseph Laban Wall, born 2 July, 1838, married Selena Stevens.
2. Sarah Emily Wall, born 7 Feb 1840, married William M. Cowley.
3. *Fanny Mariah Wall, born 13 Feb. 1842, married Samuel a. Whitney.
4. Elizabeth Dorcas Wall, born 14 April 1844, married Francis R. Cantwell.
5. Francis George wall, born 3 May, 1846, married Mary Bench and Susie Bench.
6. Celia Wall, born 4 May, 1848, married William Francom.
7. Emeron Wall, born 9 Nov., 1850, died July 1851, in England.
8. Rose wall, born 9 Nov., 1854, died also in England.
9. Henrietta Wall, born 27 March 1856, married Isaac K. Wright.

We know very little of Fanny’s childhood and youth.  Her father was a good workman and an industrious man, and built them a very good home in Horsley. (See photo).

Home William Wall built in Horsely, England. Twin home in middle of picture

They moved to Bristol, where he built another beautiful home out of stone of a light tan color.  Her mother, Sarah Sansom Wall was a capable homemaker as well as a good manager, and though not rich they were fairly comfortable.   Sarah Wall was very humorous and of a happy nature and talented as a worker of fine arts. She would say to her children “to spell London say: 2 ’Os, 2 N’s, a ’el, and a ‘De, put them together and spell them to me. London.”

Fanny had many of the qualities of her parents.  She learned to sing and entertain at an early age.  She was willing to work and learn.  As her schooling was limited, and as she worked in a corset factory at a very young age, her experiences in housework were limited.  Walking to work and back took most of the time she could spare, other than her preparation for work and going to church.

She was attractive and popular among her friends and relatives (as told to Mary Stringham by Fanny’s friends.)   The people had to walk long distances to church.  The boys and gi

rls would join hands and keep in step as they walked along the green lanes to their destination, perhaps as much as five miles.  She refused several offers of marriage from the young men of the group, saying always, “No, I am going to America and marry a wild Mormon boy.”  She did just that.

Her eldest brother and sister, Joseph and Sarah Emily, were the first to leave home for the valleys of the mountains.  Elder Charles C. Rich^[2] had been a visitor at their home in England and had promised them that despite many hardships, they would arrive in Great Salt Lake in safety.  They suffered starvation and cold as they came west in the ill-fated Martin Handcart Company.

The next to follow were Fanny and Dorcus, who came in the fall of 1862.  They may have come over on the ship Manchester, which left Liverpool May 6, 1862, with J.D.T. McCallister in charge of the company.  They were met at Salt Lake City by their brother, Joseph.  Selina Stevens, a girlfriend, who came with them, later became the wife of their brother, Joseph.

Their sister, Sarah Emily, had married William Michael Cowley of Salt Lake and had moved to Logan, so the girls went to stay with her.  Fanny was taken into the home of Elder Ezra Taft Benson, where she lived about a year until her marriage.  There she was treated like she was a member of the family.  The Bensons were her life-long friends.  [Elder Benson was the grandfather of the prophet, Ezra Traft Benson.]

When the two young English girls arrived in Logan, the wild mountain, (or Mormon) boy of whom Fanny had dreamed met and welcomed the emigrants, as was his custom.  [His name was Samuel Alonzo Whitney.]  Fanny had a beautiful contralto voice, and Sam, who was also a good singer, invited her to sing with him.  She sang alto, or “seconds” as they called it.  The two young folks were in great demand as entertainers at parties and programs throughout Cache Valley.  Their friendship soon ripened into love.

Husband Samuel Alonzo Whitney, Sr. about the time of marriage.

This is Samuel’s account [as dictated to Mary Stingham]:

In the fall of 1862 came two girls from England, Fanny and Dorcus Wall.  I started to take Fanny out for entertainment and association with her new friends. Their parents were to have come that later that fall.  I was herding cattle and couldn’t get away to go to Salt Lake City to meet them,[her parents] so Dorcus and Frank Cantwell went [to Salt Lake without me].  They [Fanny’s parents] didn’t come and the young people got married. [Fanny’s sister, Sarah Emily and Michael Cowley were married the week before their parents arrived.]

 I was married to Fanny the 18th October 1863.  I was working for Benjamin Marion Lewis and was living with him.  He had just one large room with a dirt roof, but he was working like a badger to get a lean-to added to make more room for the wedding.  As I went to invite Brother Benson and family he said, “I was just waiting to see what you would do, young man.”  Then he gave us a jolly good wedding, and performed the ceremony.  Wm. B. Preston was the bishop of the ward, and was present with his family at the wedding.

 We stayed at Benson’s home for two weeks after our marriage and then two weeks at the home of Bishop Marian Lewis. 

When she was six weeks old I sold out and moved to Clarkston, where our second child was born, Laura Ann, [more information about Fanny below] was born, 10th May 1866. We returned soon after to Logan and lived away up in the Fifth Ward.  While I was gone on a freighting trip to Salmon, Idaho, my wife’s parents came up from Sanpete, County, and moved to Millville where Frank and Dorcus were living.  On the 29 November 1867, we were sealed in the Endowment house in Salt Lake City, by Wilford Woodruff.  There I bought what was known as the Relief Society lot and there our next three daughters were born.

Fanny Wall Whitney

  Harriet Mariah, born 23 April, 1868, Ada Henrietta, born 1 July 1869, and Margaret Melissa, 15 February 1871.Then I bought the house and lot where I now live and there the rest of my childrenwere born.  Mary Alvira 16 April, 1873, and Samuel Alonzo 16 April 1873, these two children were twins.  Sara Vilate 14 February 1875, William Wells 29 June 1877, Zell Nora Adell 7 August 1879, all in Millville.”^[3]

A new home was then purchased on main street across the street from the old school house.  It was about the first frame house built in the town.  It consisted of two nice front rooms used as living room and bedroom, a long leant o kitchen, extending the length of the two rooms, with a good sized pantry at one end, and a cellar beneath.  There was a large lawn, with orchard and garden.  Her walls were white washed regularly and the floors covered with nice homemade rag carpets.  She was good at remodeling clothing for her family and also her home.

In this home were born the twins, Mary Elvira and Samuel Alonzo, born 14 April, 1873.  Then Sammie being the first boy helped his father until his marriage at the age of twenty, to Edna Vilate Hulse. 

Sarah Vilate was born 14  February 1875, William Wells was born 29 of June 1877.  Then along came Sell Nora Adell, the tithing baby, as she was jokingly called by her father to tease the other children, who feared she would be paid for tithing. She was born 7 August 187.

Fanny posed in front of Millville home

But that was not all Samuel’s second wife, Polly, went on a visit to her parents in Ashley Valley.  She decided to remain there, so he took her household things to her and brought back with him their year and a half old daughter, Frances Elmira May. Fanny and her children accepted her joyfully and she was brought up as one of them.^[4]

Fanny, despite her lack of experience in her youth, Fanny proved to be a wonderful wife, mother, and homemaker.  She developed an aptitude for cooking, sewing, and homemaking.  Her ten children were born over a period of fifteen years and the added child came in as though she had given birth to her.  The times were hard and primitive, but she had a deep love of education and was desirous that her children should receive the best to be had; and was willing to make any sacrifice to that end.

Samuel proved to be a good provider in spite of his handicap of only one hand, and Fanny was able to make the most of everything that came her way.  Sam did a good deal of freighting and would bring home bolts of cloth, factory denims or jeans, calico, linsey, etc.

Samuel delighted in telling how Fanny would take a bolt of cloth, spread it out on the floor, cut out clothing of various kinds for all the children, without a pattern. He wondered how she would ever get so many pieces together again, but she always did.  Her girls were well dressed.  Her neighbors would ask “Sister Whitney, where do you get the patterns for your children’s clothes? They always look so nice.”

They didn’t have an abundance of clothes, and many a night her daughter, Ada, would sit up with Fanny until four A.M. while her mother washed and ironed the children’s clothes so they could go to Sunday School or day school neat and clean.

Her spinning wheel was always kept busy and she would often spin three to four skeins of yarn a day.  She knit the stockings for her children, all of them, Ada says, until her girls were big enough to help.

Fanny made her own candles, and the children delighted in helping with this task.  Her beds were well supplied with quilts of her own making.  She was very good at quilting and wasin demand at the neighborhood and Relief Society quiltings.

 She was always very thrifty.  She raised and also bought chickens, then dressed and sold them.  Fanny made butter, bought more which she worked over and molded on a special table.  These items she sold, shipping much of them to Montana to her daughter, Laura, who had a hotel.  This helped out the family budget. Her butter and eggs were of an excellent quality and were always in great demand.

Fanny Wall in fur coat.

She was a splendid cook and her children still remember her specialties, which were: rice puddings, which she made in large milk pans, her real old English plum or suet puddings, her chicken and dumplings, and her one-egg cake.

As was stated before, her schooling had been practically nil, but as her children grew up and went to school, she studied with them and as she had more leisure time, she spent a great deal of it in practicing penmanship and reading. ^[5]  While she never did become very good at writing, she was an omnivorous reader and became quite well educated by her own efforts and constant study.

At the age of forty five, Fanny began actively the study of music.  The family had acquired an organ, the second in the town.  Her fifteen-year-old daughter Mary became her first teacher.  Fanny was naturally musical, as were most of her children.  She practiced diligently, and it was not long before she was the assistant organist in Sunday School, a position she held for a number of years.  She finally traded the organ for a piano, and spent many happy hours at the keyboard for the remainder of her life.  She gave up most of the activities of her busy years for the practice of music, in which her soul delighted and in which she became surprisingly proficient, considering her age.  She said she wanted to learn to sing and play so she could sing with the angels when she got to heaven.  Once at a party given for her, Fanny played “The Battle of Waterloo” and one other number.  Peter B. Arson wrote an account of the party in the Logan Journal and commented on her fine playing at the age of seventy.

Like most English people, she was practically raised on tea and continued to drink it.  On one occasion one of the Apostles preached a sermon on the Word of Wisdom in her ward.  He promised the sisters that if they would leave tea alone and not drink it any more, they would be relieved of their headaches and feel much better, during her childbearing period, she had suffered intensely with neuralgia headaches. She decided to put this promise to a test, and for over twenty years she never tasted tea and was never afflicted with that malady.The closing years of her life passed peacefully away with her music and books to fill her time with contentment and comfort.  A new and modern brick house had  long since replaced the original frame house.  Here she lived with her daughter Mary, whose husband had passed away, to keep her company.  Mary had gone on a business trip to her home in Wayne County, and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Burns, her eldest daughter and husband from Walla Walla, Washington, had come to visit her.

Hurrying out in the morning to get utter form the milkman she slipped on some wet leaves and fell injuring herself internally.  She never regained consciousness, but passed peacefully away, November 11, 1915, and was laid to rest in the Millville cemetery.

Fanny Wall Whitney and daughers

May we, her numerous descendants honor and revere her memory and strive to emulate her example of love, industry, and desire to improve the talents given us.  One of her admonitions to her children was: “You can do anything you want to, to improve yourself, if you only want to bad enough.”^[6]

The Chandler family history adds that:

Samuel and Fanny separated and finally divorced.  When Fanny was in her late forties she formed a friendship with a neighbor by the name of Henry Chandler.   He was a small man and she was a large boned woman.  Fanny’s daughters did approve of them getting together. Their friendship bloomed into love. When a daughter found them giggling and holding hands on the couch one day, she told Fanny she needed to stop it.

Henry Chandler, 2nd husband

One day Henry and Fanny were meeting in the corn field out back, and one of her sons came to the house and over heard talking and Fanny crying.  When he investigated, and over heard Fanny saying, she wished that they could just run away together and get married.  Her son then sat her down and said that if she loved him they really should just get married.  He made arrangements and on 1 September, 1903 Fanny remarried Henry Chandler.^[7]             

* * * * * * * * * *

                                            Memories of Grandma Fanny

By Roda Cowley

Things that I remember of my grandmother Fanny.

She was a very lovable person, full of jokes and humor.  One time when I and my husband were visiting her, after a day of travel, we needed a bath of shower to clean us and cool us as well.  The only way that they had to heat water was on a coal stove.  This means of heat made the home very warm, so she had put a large tub of water in the sun to take her shower a she always did in the afternoon when she was uncomfortably warm.  Instead of her using it [herself,] she insisted on us having that pleasure.  She gave us some old dresses and told us to go in the shed put them on and play like children do. She insisted in staying there to watch us.  At first we were a bit shy, but she soon took that out of us with her pranks and we really enjoyed our shower.  She rinsed us off with the hose and said skute [scoot] and get dressed, so she could visit with us.

Another time when I was there visiting, she insisted on taking me over to Logan for lunch and to meet some of my Cowley relatives.  She was of a goodly age then, but she was very active and alert.  The first Coke I ever tasted was that day.  I certainly did enjoy the visit with our relatives.  I learned a good deal about my Pioneer ancestors that I never had another chance to hear from them as they passed away before I had a chance to visit in Logan City again.  When we got back to Millville, she sat down to the piano, played and sang for some time, then she insisted on us telling her of ourselves and especially my mother [Sarah Vilate], her daughter that she didn’t get to see much of after Sarah went to Sevier County, married and raised her family of eleven children: I was the third child [ in Sarah Vilate’s family].

Grandmother shed tears as I related the news of the family and my parents.  It was late in the night before she would let us retire, because she wanted to get as much news as she could in her old age, of her children in Sevier County.  I will always love her.  I am so glad that I had a chance to see what a wonderful character she was in her last years in this life.

The depths of our character is determined by the obstacles we meet and the method we employ towards the outcome. May we, as grand, and great grandchildren honor and revere her memory and strive to emulate her love, industry, and a desire to improve our talents given us.  One of her admonitions to her posterity was,

I expect to pass through this world but once.

Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness

That I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now.

Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Fanny and Sam Whitney Children Back Row: Mary Elvira, Sarah Vilate, Samuel Alonzo, Francis Emira Mae, Ada Henrietta Front Row: Hariet Mariah, Fanny Louisa, William Wells, Zelnora Adell, Margaret Melissa

                                                                  * * * * * * * * * *

These are the ten children of SAMUEL ALONZO WHITNEY and FANNY MARIA WALL:

Name                                     Born               Died         

1.        Fanny Louisa                       23 Sep 1864             18 Nov 1922

2.        Laura Ann                             10 May 1866             12 May 1893

3.        Harriet Maria             23 Apr 1868              23 May 1956

4.        Ada Henrietta                       1 Jul 1869                24 Sep 1947

5.        Margaret Melissa                  15 Feb 1871              18 Sep 1965

6.        Mary Elvira    (twin)              14 Feb 1873              31 Dec 1954

7.        Samuel Alonzo   (twin)       14 Feb 1873              8 May 1953

8.        Sarah Vilate*                        14 Feb 1875              3 Mar 1925

9.        William Wells                        29 Jun 1877              30 May 1961

10.       Zelnora Adell                        7 Aug 1879              6 Dec 1958

*Grandma Roda Breinholt’s mother

Fanny’s Children

Fannie Louise married Robert Burns, 10 Dec. 1885, he was a telegrapher operator, from Detroit Michigan.  Later general Freight and a Passenger Agent, of the D.R.G. and W. railroad.  They moved about a good deal but lived for so many years at Walla Walla Washington.  Mr. Burns did not belong to our Church, but never the less was a fine man; and he was proud of her loyalty to her people and loved to associate with them.  They had no children, but raised the son of her sister Laura who had died at his birth, Lewis Alonzo.

Laura Ann married Lewis Reynolds, 24 September 1902.  He was not a member of our Church, but was sympathetic with her religion, family and friends.  They lived at Anaconda, montana where she died at the birth of her third child.

Harriet Mariah married Neils Fritchoff Jenson 4 May 1888.  She was a tiller of the soil, dairy man and a real farmer.  He was a Latter-Day Saint, he was from Trenton, Utah.  They built them a home in Cornish, Utah.  Here they raised a large family of nine children, six girls and four boys.

Ada Henrietta married Percy George Chandler 6 February 1898.  He was a farmer and tiller of the soil , he raised fruit and other garden products.  He was a Local boy, and was of the same faith as his wife.  They made them a home in Millville for some time, then moved to Elign, Oregon.  From there to Weiser, Idaho.  They reared a nice family of children.  Three girls and four boys.

Margaret Melissa married Henry William Chandler, 9 April, 1889.  He was a farmer, cattle man.  A local boy, and he was not of the same faith as his wife.  They made their home in Springfield, Idaho.  Here they reared a brood of seven children.  Four of these sons served in the World War I, two of them died from its effects.  She was always active in church work.

 Mary Elvira married George Walter Stringham 10 November 1905.  He was of the same faith as was Mary.  He was a merchant of Thurber, Wayne County, Utah.  Also a farmer and cattle man.  She went to his home to help him in his business as she had been a school teacher and an educator and had much experience in a general business life.  She was a poet, a singer, a writer, a good housewife and mother.  They had three nice boys, to help them in their business and activities in life.  He died and left her a widow with two boys to raise, the third one was born soon after her husband’s death, and died when he was a child.  But she carried on taking care of her boys and her mother in her old age, and then she cared for father till he passed on.  She educated her sons and put them in business.  Then she married her husband’s brother and cared for him in his old age.  He died and left her a widow agin.  She fell and broke her hip and went in a wheel chair for sometime.   When she was unable to care for herself, she went into a rest home where she spent much of her time visiting and entertaining those less fortunate than she.

Samuel Alonzo, Jr.  Married Edna Vilate Hulse, 17 August 1893.  They made their home in Millville, where they were born and raised.  They reared a family of ten children.  Six girls and four boys.  He worked as a freight or and farmer, logging and doing those jobs that would help them care and educate those lovely children of theirs.  Their children were talented, having lived by their grandfather Whitney who could sing to them to sleep or tell them stories till the cows came home, as the saying goes.  They were good Church people and did much for the community in which they lived.  Sam and Edna later in life moved their large family onto a farm in Weston, Idaho, where they could help a new community grow.

–Samuel and Mary were twins.

Sarah Vilate married Franklin Washington Cowley 8 march 1893.  They were cousins, although they were raised in different parts of the state.  She in the north and he in the south.  He was a tiller of the soil and engaged in raising grains of the harvest to feed the hungry and those less fortunate than he.  Sarah Vilate was nicknamed by her friends and relatives as, Dot.  She went to Sevier County, to work for her Aunt Emily.  Here she met the boy that in a short courtship were married and made their home on the banks of the Sevier River, on the farm he had at that time.  Later when the town was named Venice, and had a school and Church they moved with their first five children into town that they might go to school and church and get a good education.  They reared eleven children.  Three boys and eight girls.  They were industrious and thrifty and helped build up that little town in a few short years.

William Wells married Nellie Fox McCarthy 28 April 1901.  She was a school teacher and traveled about teaching school in the different communities.  She was also a stenographer.  She was born in South Dakota, but also lived in Cincinnati, Ohio where her home was at the time of her marriage to Wells.  She was not of his faith when they were married.  But he took her to Church among his friends and relatives, where she learned about the Mormons.  In 1910 she joined the church so she could help raise their children in the Church.  She liked it principles and teachings.  They reared five children, three boys and two girls.  They made their home in Millville, Cache county, Utah, for a time.  Later they moved to Clarkston, Cache County, Utah.  Here they raised their children and helped build up that community.  He was a dry farmer, and a very successful one at that.