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William Willard Hutchings, Jr.
Sarah Agnes LeBaron Hutchings
Matilda 'Ella' and Sarah Elizabeth Hutchings (about 1878)
William Willard Hutchings, Jr.
Born: 23 November 1851 at Cottonwood, Salt Lake, Utah, USA
Parents: William Willard Hutchings and Sarah Ann Baldwin
Died 18 Mar. 1927 at Beaver, Beaver, Utah, USA
Married: Sarah Agnes LeBaron, 7 April 1874 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA
Sarah Agnes LeBaron
Born: 18 November 1851 at New Orleans, Orleans, Orleans Territory, Louisiana, USA
Parents: Alonzo Harrington LeBaron and Sarah Jeffs
Died: 7 June 1943 at Beaver, Beaver, Utah, USA
Sarah Agnes was born to Alonzo Harrington LeBaron and Sarah Jeffs shortly after Sarah's arrival in the USA with her returning missionary husband. They married in November 1850 at Stratford, Warwickshire, England. She and her mother were members of the Moses Daley freight train which arrived in Salt Lake City 27-29 September 1853. From Council Bluffs to Green River Crossing, they were in the care of a Brother James Cooper.
Sarah later wrote: "My father, Alonzo Harrington LeBaron of French decent, was on a mission in England where he met my mother, Sarah Jeffs, and was married about 1849 or 1850, and came to New Orleans, State of Louisiana in the year 1851, where I was born 18 November 1851.
"Father left mother and I with a gentleman's family while he came to Utah to make a home for us. The mother being ill and dying, leaving a baby about the same age as myself, my mother nursed both of us.
"When my father had a home ready for us. Sent for mother and I to meet him in Salt Lake City, which we did in the year of about 1853.
"I was too young to remember the crossing of the plains, so will tell you of it as my mother told me. When we were camped one night in a tent where there were plenty of wild hogs, one found his way into our tent took me by the shoulder and had drug me to the door, when my mother awoke and got me in time to keep the pig from carrying her little girl away and being devoured. So any person can imagine how thankful my mother was to our Heavenly Father for helping her save her baby's life. We had a very hard time getting to Salt Lake City."
On 17 September, Alonzo LeBaron met the wagon company about 20 miles west of Green River Crossing, and took them in his charge to Salt Lake City. [Alonzo had crossed the plains with the Philip De La Mare Company in 1852, reaching the city on 10 November 1852. The family lived for several years in Weber County, then relocated to Beaver in 1863 or 1864. Here, her mother died in child-birth about 12 July 1864.
William Hutchings, Jr., was just a year-and-one-half when his mother died. His father remarried in 1853 and William, Jr., was raised by a step-mother, Matilda Wiseman. This family lived for several years at Brighton. At twelve, he traveled to Toquerville by ox-team with his father, step-mother, and another of his father's wives, Josephine Ritter, when his father accepted a call to the Cotton Mission. In 1867, they moved to Beaver.
He and Sarah Agnes LeBaron were married in 1874. In 1879, William was 'called' to leave Beaver with his wife and three young daughters (Sarah Elizabeth, Matilda Ellace 'Ella', and Lydia Marie) for the San Juan Mission. When the assembled company reached 50 Mile Spring, William was one of four selected to scout ahead for a trail on the east side of the Colorado. While on this scouting expedition, he was among those who attempted to reach the San Juan River by a boat lowered from the canyon rim. Rapids turned them back before they reached the San Juan. His name is reported to be etched in the sandstone wall of the canyon, now submerged under Lake Powell. His and the other explorers discouraging reports of the country ahead did not sway the groups determination from completing their mission.
He and his family reached what is now Bluff about April 6, 1880. He is credited with suggesting the name of 'Bluff' for the new town, due to the large sandstone cliffs in the area. The Hutchings family returned to Beaver before March 1881 where a fourth daughter was born.
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
William Willard Hutchings, Jr.
Sarah Agnes LeBaron Hutchings
Matilda 'Ella' and Sarah Elizabeth Hutchings (about 1878)