Letter to Samuel Joseph Johnson
The son of Benjamin Samuel and Susan Elvira Johnson. Born 17 March 1878 in Skootenpah, Kane County, Utah.
On March 18,1922, his father wrote him as follows:
My dear son Jodie:
Yesterday was your birthday. Just 44 years ago you came to us as a sunshine, but in a cold country and on a cold night. The wind was howling and the snow was drifting all over the floor, through the old shingles, cracks in the house, and around the windows and door.
I had sheets up around Mother’s bed and one over the top of it, but the snow and wind would find its way through onto Mother and you. The old house we were in had not been used for several years. The floor was mostly gone and it was a horrible old house for such a fine fellow as you to be born in. Your mother was sick with a bad cold and cough. When you came your eyes were swollen nearly out of your head.
You could not lay down as hot water seemed to fill your eyes and you would keep crying. I would have to take you up. We had a big fire place in the house, but the chimney was not high enough and the wind blew the smoke into the house, so I could only keep a little fire. I would sit there all alone with you on my knee trotting you all the time.
As soon as I quit trotting you, you would wake up and begin crying.
There I sat, half frozen to death and so cold and sleepy that I wished that I could go to sleep and die. I got so nervous jiggling you and keeping myself on the go, for so long a time and so steady, that I nearly had a nervous breakdown. I felt like throwing you out the window into the snow.
There was at this time a lot of sickness. One woman, Dorkis Clark, was cramping in her stomach and we could hear her screaming. The midwife was the only one that could do anything for the sick and she had three or four old shacks to keep going to, and that left me all alone to keep the snow off of Mother and to wait on and you to jiggle on my knee (teeter). The most horrible night I ever spent in my life was the night that you came to me as a sunshine, on a dark and stormy night. One night was not all. For over a week I held you and cared for poor old Ma, who had several setbacks and was out of her head.
The rest of the letter was lost.
[The place where I was born was an old vacated sawmill where a few of the old houses were still standing. A group of pregnant women gathered there where one midwife could take care of the bunch, as there were no hospitals or doctors in those parts. Sister Rachel Lee, the fifth wife of John D Lee rode on the running gears of an old wagon behind a yoke of oxen from Lees Ferry to Skootempah where I was born through the rain and snow. God bless her. She held the company three weeks awaiting for me. S.J. Johnson] (Grandpa was near 25 and Grandma, 21/22. Their first child, Bertha Elvira, lived two days.) [There are two slightly different versions of this letter.]
This took place in a deserted saw mill camp near Kanab, Utah. Some transient pregnant women had stopped off there in the old shacks to get the benefit of a midwife, Sister Lee. She had come in January, and had to wait until the 17th of March for Elvira Johnson's baby, so the others got in on the deal.
Rachel Lee, the fifth wife of John D. Lee, was worried about Elvira Johnson and against the wishes of her husband, had made the trip to Scootenpaugh.
John was anxious to leave Lee's Ferry and go to Blanding to get his land ploughed in time for the spring crop. Rachel had her son Ralph hitch the oxen to the running gears of a wagon and they took the 60? mile trip over the Buckskin Mountains through the cold and snow of January.
Samuel J. was blessed 12 June 1877 by his Uncle Sixtus E. Johnson. Baptized 25 November 1886 by Uncle Benjamin Farland Johnson and confirmed by him 26 November, in Nephi, Arizona. Ordained a deacon (in Nephi) 17 November 18 _, by Samuel Openshaw. Married to Cora May Allred 30 September 1896 by Grandpa Benjamin F. Johnson. Ordained an Elder 7 March 1897 by James L. Lisonbee. Endowed in St. George Temple. Married by David H. Cannon 20 September 1898. Ordained a High Priest by Bishop John Merrill 31 May 1905, San Pedro Ward
He was Sunday School Superintendent ten years or more. First Counselor to Bishop, Branch Counselor, Branch President twice. Filled a two-year mission, a long time Stake mission. Temple grounds guide. Long time Temple worker. Road, Wood & General Hauling Contractor and freighting of all kinds with teams. He turned a team of 16 horses and three wagons around in a Tombstone, Arizona street.
He was huge: 61/2 feet, 52 inch chest. Father of ten boys and two girls. A good farmer, blacksmith, carpenter, rock mason and foreman to lots of jobs.
Died 22 July 1963 in Phoenix, Arizona.
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