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William John Gurr
Albena Hyatt
Born: 27 Dec 1878 in Parowan, Iron County, Utah
Parents: William Heber Gurr and Anna Hansen
Married: Albena Hyatt, 8 June 1910 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah
Died: 10 October 1955, Parowan, Iron County, Utah
WILLIAM JOHN GURR -- A LIFE HISTORY
William John Gurr was born on Dec. 27, 1878 in Parowan, Iron County, Utah. He was the
oldest of 10 children born to William Heber Gurr and Anna Hansen. Four of these
siblings died young, including a set of triplet sisters who only lived a few days.
His surviving siblings were Peter Hansen Gurr, Annie Ethel Gurr Jensen, James Edwin
Gurr, and Luella Gurr Lowder. William was not a tall man, standing about 5’6”.
He had brown hair and blue eyes.
Early Years
William’s parents were pioneers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
His father and family joined the Church in Australia and sailed to California on the
ship Lucas, crossing the wilderness of Nevada to settle in Utah. His mother’s parents,
Jorgen Hansen and Anna Pedersen joined the church in Denmark and were asked to settle
the wilderness of Parowan. Only two of their nine children survived the harsh
conditions and grew to adulthood.
When William was two-years-old, he traveled with his parents and a company of
Latter-day Saints through the “Hole-in-the-Rock” to help colonize Bluff, San Juan
County, Utah. The party chiseled their way over slick rock hills and valleys.
The trip took about six months and was filled with terrible hardships. The cattle
had to be guarded each night and day as there was always the threat of Indians around
who would stalk the camp in order to steal them. Once, the Indians drove off a few
heads of cattle belonging to the colony at Bluff. William’s father (William Gurr, Sr.)
stripped off his clothes, swam across the San Juan River, and drove the cattle back.
Because he was naked and so white, the Indians never fired a shot at him!
Schooling
William’s brother Peter was born while the family lived in Bluff. By December of
1882 the family was again living in Parowan where William grew up. He attended some
school in Provo, up in Utah County. He later attended the Brigham Young Academy in
Provo and then the University of Utah in Salt Lake City where he studied to be a teacher
and met his wife, Albena Hyatt. When he was 24 years old, he was called to serve in
the Colorado Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1902.
While in the mission home in SLC, he received his patriarchal blessing from Apostle
Francis M Lyman while in the LDS Temple and later a missionary blessing from Apostle
Hyrum M. Smith. A serious illness forced him to return home before his mission was
completed.
Work and Family Life
William met Albena Hyatt in Salt Lake City while they were both attending the
University of Utah studying to become teachers. They both were from Parowan but
didn’t know each other well, as she was raised in the “bottoms” north east of town.
William was 30 and Albena 27 when they married. They went with George Durham and
Nellie Marsden to Salt Lake City to be married in the LDS temple.
Williams’ first teaching job was in 1910, the year he married, at Summit, Utah, a
small town between Parowan and Cedar City. He rode a bicycle from Parowan to Summit
every morning and back at night. Later he came back to Parowan to teach. He was also
a schoolteacher in Preston, Idaho. (?) While living in Milford, he worked for Oil
Company from 1913 to 1915, also working in a hardware business. He was deputy tax
assessor from 1915 to 1955 under three different bosses – Maeser Dalley (4 years),
Ralph Prescott (4 years), and Hillman Dalley (32 years). As a result, he was never able
to spend New Year's at home, as he was out on the county line assessing the sheep and
cowherds. He had to go out on horseback and would be gone about a week. He also
assessed every house and business in Parowan, Paragonah, and Buckhorn. For a time
William served as City Councilman.
Eventually, William went to farming and Albena to housekeeping and raising a family,
and that was the end of their school teaching. They were able to run his father's
farm on shares, and after he passed away they inherited what wasn't sold off. Here
in Parowan on Holyoak Lane? they raised three boys and two girls. The children, Laverl
(1911), Elvin (1913), Mina (1914), Errold (1918) and Afton (1922) were all born in
Parowan.
William would occasionally give the children a nickel to buy candy at the Parowan
Mercantile. It was across the street from the Post Office (The Gurr's were box # 161)
and run by Arthur Joseph. They’d each get a small sack almost full of candy for that
price. There was a little store above the Merc called “John Mitchell’s store.”
Later, a Cheese Factory moved into that building, and a new structure was built for
the Mercantile on Main Street. Afton worked there for $1 a day as a teenager. Mina
remembers when William first started shipping milk to the Cheese Factory, and they
would return the cans filled with whey. They made a little money; it was the very
first money Albena ever got. One check was for $32 and the kids thought they were
the richest folks in town. The kids also picked peas and sorted potatoes in the cold
at night for $1 per night.
After the family settled in Parowan, William supported the family by farming and as
assessor part of each year. He was a hard worker; always up by 4:30 to milk the cows and
then in bed by 9:00. He would frequently milk the cows in the field because they didn't
have feed at home. Or sometimes they'd take them down to the pasture toward the little
salt lake just beyond Grandpa Hyatt's old farm.
The family was fed with meat and fruit, berries and vegetables from his wife, Albena’s,
very large garden. He raised potatoes, oats, alfalfa, and peas. He would grow field corn
on the dry land farm down the highway toward Paragonah. They called this area "down on
the flats." He also grew corn out back of the corral and in the orchard. At first, the
orchard was shared with his brother Pete who lived next door. They had a pond there for
watering, which came from a spring up in dry canyon. They would take turns draining the
pond on the garden, orchard and lawn. Eventually Pete bought most of the orchard.
Growing potatoes was hard work. With a sack full of seed potato sections, the kids would
follow the plow and drop them 14" apart. Then after they were up, a one-horse cultivator
was used to keep the weeds down and make furrows. After irrigating, they would cultivate
several times during the season, with one person holding the cultivator and another riding
the horse. They used a small potato digger behind the plow point, which shoved them up
onto a grill at harvest time.
One year a man from California came and asked if he would raise broccoli for him, which
he did. It was harvested in Parowan and shipped to California for processing. Afton
remembers it being the first time she saw her dad eat other veggies besides potatoes &
gravy, corn and sliced tomatoes with sugar sprinkled over the slices. William owned one
of the few grain binders in the valley. He was kept busy cutting grain for others, and
would receive grain in payment per acre cut. This kept him busy for several weeks.
Before harvest time he would pull the grinder up under the big shade tree out in front of
the house and would work on it to see that it was in good shape. He could repair anything.
When he cut the families grain, so it wouldn't dry, they rolled by hand the stems, bundles,
and shocks and at the same time kept the heads of grain out of the swill. Then with the
hay wagon it was hauled to town and stacked in one of the corrals. Then, the threshing
machine would thresh it. In the early days, the steam engine would do it. This was
usually stored in the granary, and later would be taken to the flourmill. They would grind
flour, cereal, germade, and rolled oats.
A slaughterhouse was up beyond the orchard by the pond. It was built by Grandpa Gurr
and the meat was sold in his store. This store handled all sorts of things. It
included a bakery and furnished the bread for the sacrament at church.
At watering time down in the field they would stay at least two days or more to
adequately water the crops. Until they purchased a car, they would take a grub box,
a bedroll and tent down and live in it. They had to watch the water the entire time.
William was a hard worker. When they would load the hay, they would start early in the
morning going down the lane to the farm, loading the hayrack wagon with hay, and hauling
it back up the lane and to the barn at the east end of town. The wagon would be pulled
close to the barn beneath a large, high opening. There hung a large fork with claws that
would drop down on the hay, enclosing a big hunk of hay. It would then be pulled up and
through his opening and dropped inside the barn. The girls remember riding the sweaty,
old horse until someone yelled, “Stop,” when they’d yank the rope and the claw released
the hay. They also used to ride on the wagon and tromp the hay.
Mina remembers an incident on the farm with a bull. It was a mean one. “The calf
got in the bull pen. Dad gave me a pitchfork and told me to jab at him if he came
near, to attract the bull’s attention while he got the calf out of the pen. I was
only 14, and scared stiff. As Dad was getting the calf that bull started toward me!
I threw the pitchfork down and ran like crazy for the fence. It was a high fence but
I jumped and scaled it like it was nothing! I have never been so scared in my life!
Dad had to run and get the pitch fork and get after the bull himself.”
Once the family went to Salt Lake City to get a bull calf in an old dodge that had
been converted into a pickup. William removed the rumble seat and put in a lumber
pickup bed. Albena made a bed in the back for the kids. It was February and very
cold, as both of the windows were broken out. New ones were too expensive so they
were replaced with cardboard. When they arrived in Salt Lake an angry policeman stopped
them and grabbed the cardboard and pulled it out so William could see where he was
going. As they were stopped at a light in one small town a pedestrian noticed their
steering rod had lost a bolt and was flopping around. They were able to fix it without
incident and went merrily on their way.
William was a worker who took pleasure in his very fine horses and harnesses. In
addition to farming, in his younger years, he did a great deal of freighting with a
four-horse team between Parowan and Milford – plus longer distances to St., George,
Las Vegas and Caliente. He would hitch four horses together onto the wagon, two on
the front of the wagon and two leading. He would then trail one wagon behind the other.
He hauled many things, including lumber, brick, coal and salt from the little salt lake.
He often told the story of a time when he was coming down Parowan Canyon. He had a
big team of horses and they got away and what a time he had coming down that canyon.
When he would freight out to Delmar, Nevada, which was out in the middle of nowhere,
he would stay overnight with his wagon and team. He would dig in the snow to camp and
feed the horses. It would take him two or three days to meet the train and then return
home with the freight he’d picked up. He would haul for the mine there. He’d haul
both ways, as the railroad track didn’t go to Delmar in those days. This left the family
alone a lot. His son, Errold remembers traveling to Cedar City with his dad and loading
the wagons with yellow brick that Edgar Benson built his house with. They slept in the
train yard overnight.
William took great care of his horses, using everything at his disposal to keep them
healthy through the winters. Occasionally he would go with John Evans up north to get
barrels of sorghum (a by-product of sugar beets). He would dilute it with water and
sprinkle it on straw. This made the straw more palatable so the animals would eat it.
William was involved in building the Yankee Meadow Dam reservoir with his team. He dumped
the first load of dirt that went into that dam. After getting it started, William went to
the 6-mile where the water had run around, as there was a lot of sand there. They used the
sand to mix the concrete for the spillway. He and Ivan Orton, took several days filling
burlap bags and hauling it back up. One day he climbed in a tree to fasten a cable and
accidentally fell right on his head. They thought he was dead. Albena was almost
hysterical.
Another accident occurred at the Gravel Trap above Parowan. William was in a wagon
equipped with dump boards. (A series of 2 x 4's not nailed together.) They were not in
place, but just stacked together. While William was on his hands and knees the boards
slipped and tumbled down across his back. It's a wonder it didn't kill him. He just
shook his head and went on with what he was doing, and didn't even utter one cuss word.
He was a really tough little guy..
Albena and William were very loving and patient with their children. Though times were
difficult they would fine quarters for the kids so they could go to dances. They would
let them occasionally take the car. He kept gas in it all the time.
The family loved to spend time in the canyons; they would gather elderberries from which
Albena would make delicious jelly. They also loved to gather pinenuts. Sometimes they
would back the pickup under a tree and shake the pinenuts from the tree into the back of
the pickup to speed things up. After a frost the pinecones would open up and let the
pinenuts drop out. Or, they could put a blanket under the tree and shake the pinenuts
into it. Other times they just had to pick them up one by one, which was mighty tedious
- but they were surely good! William also used to enjoy deer hunting with his sons and
son-in-law Ivan Orton. Each summer they would try to go to Cedar Breaks and the Mammoth
for the 24th of July Celebration. They wold live under the wagon or anywhere they could -
even in the rain. They enjoyed the fireworks and the dances at Minnie's Mansion.
William was a small man, shorter than his wife. He always wore overalls, except on
Sundays. The first thing you would notice about him was his bright blue eyes. It seemed
like he was smiling all the time. He loved to whistle and sing. Everyone thought he was
a real sweet guy. He was quiet by nature, but liked to make jokes and tell stories.
He was quite a happy, jovial fellow. He began losing his hair quite early in life. He
had a fringe around the edge and one long swatch that he would comb over right on top
from one side.
He was such an early bird going to bed for he would always be up at the crack of dawn.
Getting up early was a habit of his and difficult to break. The house had two wood
burning stoves, a “Home Comfort” cook stove in the kitchen, and a big pot bellied stove
in the dining room which was in the center of the house. These stoves heated the entire
house. He would stoke up these stoves so it would be nice and warm when the family got up.
William was very loving with the children, Afton remembers him bouncing the grandkids on
his knee and singing, “Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra” to entertain them. He also always
kept a horse just for the Grandkids to ride, and made the farm a fun place for them to
visit. He was a sweet man and would always kiss his wife when he was going somewhere.
Afton remembers that when she’d have to leave after a visit he would put his arms around
her and cry to see her go. Albena didn’t like it, but he would occasionally wander down
to the corral and smoke a cigar.
Church Service
William served as Second Counselor to President Alvin Benson in the Mutual
organization and was set apart on the 1st of September 1900. He was later called
to serve in the Colorado mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
in 1903, at the age of 24. Before he left, he was given a bible from President
Heber J. Grant that he had written in and signed. While in the mission home in
Salt Lake, he received his patriarchal blessing from Apostle Francis M. Lyman in the
Salt Lake LDS Temple. After about six months in Colorado, he became seriously ill
with “quinsy” which is similar to a serious tonsillitis. This forced him to return
home, and he felt very badly about that. Later he was able to go on a mission to
Preston, Idaho. (OR DID HE TEACH THERE?) On March 31 1929, he was ordained a high
priest in the LDS Church by Thomas J. Jones, and as such, served as First Counselor
to Clayton Mitchell in the Bishopric of the Parowan Ward for a number of years.
Final Years
In 1949, William sold the family farm and retired. But, they kept the house until
his untimely death in 1955 when Albena moved into Cedar City to be close to her
daughter, Mina. Death came suddenly to William in the form of a heart attack while
he was in his yard shucking corn on the 10th of October 1955. Albena called him to
dinner, and he didn’t come so she went out and he had toppled over with a lap full of
corn. He was shucking and then trimming, and he had a knife in one hand and an ear
of corn in the other. She screamed and cried, and his bishop who was working nearby
came to help. He is buried in the Parowan Cemetery next to his loving wife, Albena.
He was honest and well liked by everyone he came in contact with. Many said he was
the most honest man they’d ever known. He made many friends wherever he went. It was
said of him that he never uttered an unkind word to anyone in his life!
(Compiled by Dawna Spear Booth from information obtained from Afton Gurr Booth,
Errold Gurr, and Mina & Ivan Orton and genealogy records in their possession.)
Note: Article from Parowan Newspaper:
Not a molar in his head, and all of a sudden, he cuts two wisdom teeth. Well, not all
of a sudden either. One came in a couple of years ago. Then just a few days ago the
second pushed through the gums. No canines or incisors between, you understand, just
those two wisdom teeth.
And the catch was – he couldn’t keep them. Had to have both pulled in fact.
It happened to William J. Gurr of Parowan who happens to be a retired farmer and 77
years old. He’s been completely toothless since about 1946 when his own ivories were
extracted. And while Mr. Gurr would like to grow a whole new set, two lone wisdom teeth
aren’t much help. Just make his false set wobbly.
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
William John Gurr
Albena Hyatt