Memorials › Elvira Vail Nelson

Elvira Vail Nelson

25 Apr 1839 – 12 Mar 1932

Birth	25 Apr 1839
Death	12 Mar 1932
Cemetery	Riverdale Hill Crest Cemetery Riverdale , Franklin County , Idaho , USA
Added by	Burnt Almond Fudge on 22 May 2012
FaG	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43990749

Bio

History of Elvira Vail history written by herself 2 Dec 1922,Burley, Idaho I, Ella Nelson, now at the age of eighty-seven, wish to give a little history of my parents in my own life; my grandparents having died before I can remember. My father, Gamaliel Vail, was born in New York, Saratoga Springs, 7 June 1803. He grew up in the country and was a clerk in a store in Bloomington, Illinois seven years prior to his marriage. He was about five feet seven inches high, of fair complexion, sandy hair, large blue eyes and small ears, and weighed about one-hundred fifty to one-hundred sixty pounds. He was of a mild, even temperament and had the name of being a good singer. He was a member of the Methodist church. My mother, Martha Bartholomew, was a daughter of Joseph and Christiana Pickenpaw Bartholomew. Her father was a major in the American Army in 1812. My mother also belonged to the Methodist church in her younger days. They were both noted singers, my mother having taken the prize in singing on different occasions. She had heavy, black hair, brown eyes, was of medium height and well built. Her mother died and left the children in their teens, and she had the care of them until her father married again. My father and mother were married 8 April 1830. Six children were born to them. Two of them, a boy and a girl, died in infancy. Father was a farmer and had a farm of his own. Mother was a weaver. Besides weaving plain cloth and carpets, she was excellent at weaving counterpanes, tablecloths and fancy towels with linen and flax. She could draft her own patterns and make anything she fancied. Their home at this time was in McLean County, Illinois, where their children were all born, and I think where they were married. Father did a great deal helping prepare the graves for the dead and was about the best in that part in making what we called the vault. He would shape the bottom of the grave just like the coffin to past its height. That left a side or shoulder in the bank and boards would be laid across, making it just as secure as though a large box had been placed in. In digging a vault of that kind he took a severe cold, died in two weeks time and was buried at the home town. My parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the year 1842. Elder Rapalee baptized them. After joining the Church, my father had a great desire to see the Prophet Joseph Smith. He, with others, my Uncle Alva Benson being one of them, went to Nauvoo for the purpose of seeing and talking with the Prophet (Joseph Smith). Father gave a valuable horse for tithing. The Prophet made the remark, "I will record this here on earth and I'll see that it is recorded in Heaven." My father enjoyed the spirit of the Gospel the short time he was a member. He died 8 June 1844, aged 41 years and one day. My mother was left in moderate circumstances. My oldest brother, Isaac, was then 15 years old. In 1846 we left our home to come west with the Saints, in a little company of five families. Mother leased our house to a Mr. Knots and we came on to Council Bluffs and lived in that part of the country until 1851. Brother Isaac worked where he could and Mother kept on with her weaving. In 1851 we started for the Great Salt Lake Valley. We came in our automobile, but it needs a little describing. The engine was made up of two black milk cows of mothers and a pair of steers belonging to James Holmes. He yoked our cows and broke them to work and hooked them with the steers to his wagon. He made room in his wagon for our belongings. That was the conveyance that brought us here. He had a wife and one child; then there was Mother, my sister Angela, myself, and brother George, making seven in all. That one wagon brought what little clothing and bedding we could get along with besides provisions: no furniture except one chair. Mother also brought an oak chest from Illinois to the valley. We walked most all the way to Salt Lake Valley. After crossing the Missouri and before starting on, we were organized into a company of fifty. Morris Phelps was appointed Captain. Before unyoking the cows at night, we would milk them; then in the morning after they were yoked, we would milk them again. What milk was not used for breakfast was placed in a churn, which was fastened to the side of the wagon. The continual jolting made it into butter by night. I still have the same old churn in my possession. In 1851 we arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Just before reaching there, Isaac's little boy was drowned in City Creek. The body was taken to the Salt Lake cemetery for burial. It was in the month of September, I think, that we arrived in the Valley. Before winter set in, we moved on to Mill Creek Canyon and got a house of Sam Thompson. Mother and I lived there that winter. Sister Gela worked for Ezra Clark in the city. Mother wove most of the time. Wood was plentiful, so I gathered all that was needed to keep us warm. We had nothing to cook but bread, and that was cooked on a fireplace. In the spring of 1852, we moved from there into a house belonging to Barney Adams about two miles south of Salt Lake City. We raised a small garden, also chickens and ducks. Adams had some on the ranch and we raised a nice flock and got half of what we raised. If I remember rightly, Barney Adams wintered our cows when we were in Mill Creek Canyon, then in the spring we took them, and I tended to staking them out and milking them that summer. That same spring brother Isaac moved to a little town called Alpine (a little town south) and built a small house. George was with him herding cows part of the time. That winter, 1852, we moved in his house with him. While we were moving, the sad news came to us that brother George had frozen to death in going from American Fork, where he had left a bunch of cows to winter, across the bench to Alpine, Utah. This was in December. A terrible blizzard came up and he perished. He was buried in the Alpine cemetery. He was eleven years of age. Shortly after that, Gela and I started school. We went about three months, paying one dollar a month each. Then we worked some for neighbors and we learned to spin. In the summer of 1853 the Indians got bad and the women and children were all moved to Salt Lake City, staying there three months. The men moved all the houses and corrals in Alpine into a fort about ten acres square. As soon as that was done the men moved their families back to Alpine. Then they started making a high mud wall for protection around that piece of land, but it was not finished until the summer of 181861-1904555. In the summer of 1854 everyone raised a crop, spent some time guarding Indians and working on the fort wall. That fall Isaac married Sybil Stevens, his former wife having left him. That summer Gela was married to John W. Vance. That left just Mother and I. Mother would weave and I would work out when I could find work. In the evenings we would both sew, making pants of the home spun yarn for the neighbors, having a tallow candle for the light. I was married to William Goforth Nelson 25 November 1855 at Alpine, Utah by David Olney. Written by Elvira Vail Nelson and her daughter Luna Nelson Chadwick (1861-1945).

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William Goforth Nelson 1831–1922 FaG

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