Memorials › Caroline Elizabeth Farnsworth Walker

Caroline Elizabeth Farnsworth Walker

21 Mar 1849 – 26 Jun 1927

Birth	21 Mar 1849
Death	26 Jun 1927
Cemetery	Pleasant Grove City Cemetery Pleasant Grove , Utah County , Utah , USA
Added by	S G Michael on 14 Mar 2020
FaG	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37789

Bio

Caroline was the daughter of Stephen Martindale Farnsworth and Julia Ann Clark History. She came to Utah with her parents in Captain Higbee's company in 1852, when she was but three and a half years old. Her father was a cartwright and helped make wheels and repair wagons for the Pioneers who were crossing the [lains to Utah. He remained in Iowa several years after the first band of Pioneers reached Salt Lake Valley in order that he might help to outfit the companies. On their arrival in Utah in 1852 the Farnsworth family came directly to Pleasant Grove to make their home. As a girl, Caroline helped to spin, knit, and glean which was a daily occupation in those days. It was the usual thing for each girl to spin four skeins of yarn each day. She began early to work hard at knitting stockings for her brothers. Fighting grasshoppers was also part of the daily schedule in the summertime. She went to school during her early years in the little one-room adobe schoolhouse which stood about were the Robbins home is now on State St. just south of First South. She later attended school in the Old Schoolhouse - the present Public Library building. The class work was rather general, there being no grading in those days. Caroline Walker had a wonderful memory and her stories of early day life were accurate and interesting. She could well remember when her uncle, George S. Clark, presided over the Pleasant Grove branch when they came in 1852. She could remember when Henson Walker Jr. was the bishop of Pleasant Grove in December 1853 after Clark and others had been called to Cedar City to strengthen that settlement. Her first home in Pleasant Grove was near the site of William Hone's present residence on the state highway. Alter they built an abode house near the old Henson Walker residence inside the fort wall which surrounded the main portion of the town and served as a means of protection against the Indians. In later years they moved just outside the fort on the corner which is now the home of David Thorne. There Caroline lived until after her marriage. She well remembered the building of the first Meeting House on the southwest corner of the present city park, and also remembered that there was for many years, a store and tithing office in the basement of the Meeting House. By way of amusements in the early days, the girls & boys with their parents often took a two or three-day outing on Provo Bench where they could have military drills to keep them prepared to act as soldiers and guards, if necessary. Picnic and campfire programs were enjoyed and the outing was considered usually concluded with a big military dance which was held in the Meeting House. Old and young participated in these military outings. The girls always decorated the Meeting House for the dance, by putting up nice window curtains, hanging as large a mirror as times afforded, putting brushes and combs handy, and also providing a nice pitcher of water for the thirsty dancers. A favorite pastime of the girls in the early days was a horseback ride as far as Lehi and back, and when the young people enjoyed a dance at the lake, a wagon equipped with spring seats was the up-to-date mode of transportation. a jolly time it was espcially the ride which was of itself heaps of fun. Picture shows or slide shows as they were called then, were enjoyed even in those early times. A certain Mr. Dibble traveled about through the small towns showing slide pictures in a small lantern, of the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith. His boyhood, his young manhood, his death, his home, etc., were all projected on a sheet screen at one end of the room, and pictures of Nauvoo, and the Nauvoo Legion were also included in the evenings's entertainment. Plaster of Paris busts of Joseph and Hyrum were also shown and were among the novelties of the day. On October 24, 1868, Caroline Farnsworth was married to Henson Walker III in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. Of this union nine children were born, seven girls and two boys. Caroline's first home after her marriage was one room of the old Walker Home owned by her husband's father. At this time her husband was working on the railroad with headquarters at a placed called Humbolt, near Ogden. His work was chiefly as a teamster for a four-horse team. This was at the beginning of the building of the first railroad in Utah. Her husband and others cut logs and built cabins and a saw-mill at the Dell; they were engaged in getting out lumber with which to build homes in town. Caroline and her husband rented one room of their log house to another family and thus their own one room had to serve as a kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and all. But everyone else on the flat was living the same way so there was no cpmplaints made. During their residence at the Dell, Caroline cooked for nine men who were employed there. the next spring their hopes were realized when they were able to build their own home in Pleasant Grove. In the fall her husband was called to take a mission to Arizona so they withdrew from the Order. (Caroline & Henson joined the United Order, putting all their possessions except their home, into this organization). Before returning to his mission, Henson sold their home to Evan Gamette and took Caroline and the children to Jerico, Sevier Co., Utah to the home of her parents. This trip to Arizona they made with teams and covered wagons. Mr. Butler, a Spaniard, made the trip with them and drove one of their teams. He was a friend and made his home with them for a time. It was a long, tedious trip to Arizona, and it took them almost four weeks to make the journey. Finally, they reached their destination which was on the so-called "Moneoppie Hill" near a Mokie Indian Village. Only three white families were living there, and they were about 150 miles from any other white settlements, with Indian villages all around them. they remained at Moneoppie only overnight and then established their home at Tuba City two and a half miles farther up the wash, where nine other Mormon families were residing. The Walkers because of their good wagon equipment were usually chosen to make the trip and Caroline crossed the Bi Colorado River on the ferry seven times during their years in Arizona. the trips were a blessing since home-sickness was the greatest enemy of these far-a-way settlers and the short visits with their folk in Utah helped them to stay in Arizona for several years. They lived in Tuba City for three years, then moved back to Pleasant Grove so that way they could send their four daughters to school. All went well until December when an epidemic of diphtheria saddened the community. Ada, Essie, and Julia Pearl contracted the disease and all died within four weeks. It was difficult for Caroline to locate Henson, because of the extremely poor means of communication but finally, her brother, Frank Farnsworth, went to see him and located Henson receiving the sad news, Henson hastened home to find that three of his daughters were dead and buried and the oldest child, Carrie and the baby Henson S., ill with the dreaded disease. They lived in Tuba City until the next fall when they were released on their mission to the Indians, having served seven years in the Tuba District. They spent one winter in a little one-room log house on the bank of the San Juan River and the next spring moved to the banks of the LaPlata River fifteen miles away. In the fall of 1885 after threshing their five large stacks of wheat, the Walkers moved to the Stephen's ranch a mile away, then later they moved to Buno, Grand Valley, San Juan Co., Utah driving all their stock with them to this place. Two years later, they sold their Grand Valley, again receiving their pay in cattle, and moved to Vernal, Utah. In the spring of 1893, they left Vernal to move back to Pleasant Grove, moving into the old Shipley home. While they lived in this home, Mabel and Sanford contracted typhoid and Mabel succumbed to this dreadful disease. Other members of the family did not have the typhoid, for which they were all grateful. Caroline continued her canvasing (she began canvasing for the Oxien company, an eastern medical firm) until 1903 when her daughter Zina, age six, died of scarlet fever. Their friend in this time of need and deep sorrow was Mrs. Mary Mayhew Nelson, who came in and helped them when no one else dared to enter the house because the disease was so contagious. It was only a little more than a year and a half after Zina's death that their oldest son, Henson S. ( twenty-two years old) who was then employed at Fort Douglas as a teamster, died of typhoid fever. His death was a great shock to his parents since they had visited him the day before and he had seemed much better. Soon after this, Henson began working as a teamster for A. K. Thorton Lumber Co. and also kept up their small farm. Henson was Justice of the Peace for several years and also served as a ward teacher. They were all comfortable and happy until on Oct. 5, 1914, Henson suddenly became ill, dying the next day Oct 6. 1914, of what doctors thought to be ulcers of the stomach. After Henson's death, Caroline went to Vernal to visit her daughter, Carrie, for six weeks and later to visit her daughter, Ida at Burley, Idaho. She then lived alone in her part of the family home until 1917. She purchased a small frame home just north of the family home from the Otto Mayhew estate. There she lived alone for several years, content and independent. She died in Pleasant Grove on June 23, 1927, at the age of seventy-nine years. She and Henson were ardent Latter-day Saints and enjoyed doing temple work. One remarkable thing about this family is, that, although they lived in so many different places, all of the six deaths of the children happened to occur while they were living in Pleasant Grove or were there on a visit, and all are buried in the family lot in the Plesant Grove Cemetery. By Mrs. Helen Smith Walker

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Henson Walker III 1848–1914

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