Photos
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Jobe and Martha Openshaw Family
Jobe (Job) Openshaw
Born: 17 November 1855 at Touge, Lancashire, EnglandMartha Jane Watts
Born: 8 November 1860 at Paragonah, Iron, Utah Territory, USALIFE SKETCH OF JOBE OPENSHAW
As told by Sarah Jane Openshaw Hatch (Daughter)
My father, Jobe Openshaw Jr. was born in Touge, Lancashire, England November 17, 1855. His parents were Jobe Openshaw Sr. and Nancy Bestwick. His father was a weaver of no small renown. The family worked hard and were able to provide themselves with many of the good things in life, a happy, comfortable home and a family, good education for all of the children. My father attended school until he was twelve years of age. After that he worked in the coal mines near Bolton where they resided.
His father and mother joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the year 1842. According to church records in the Church Historians Office in Salt Lake City, father was baptized some time 1867 by Daniel Stones Sr. and was confirmed in 1867 by John Rothwell. He was rebaptized 21 of June 1880 by R. C. Allen and reconfirmed 21 of June 1880 by R. M. McIntyre.
The Openshaw family had a great desire to come to Zion. Their oldest daughter, Sarah had married Samuel Hamer and was already in Utah, but the rest of the family did not come until 1872. Then their second daughter, Mary, was also married, but she remained in England joining them later in Salt Lake City. Early in the year 1872 they sold their home and all their possessions in England and sailed from Liverpool on the ship 'Nevada' and landed in New York in 1872. From here they continued by train to Salt Lake City, Utah. At this time father was 17 years old and had vivid memories of his home in Bolton, England, and of the crossing the water, of New York City, and the train trip across the continent to Salt Lake City. Conditions were vastly different and many were the times homesickness overtook the members of the family which consisted of Jobe Openshaw Sr., his wife Nancy, and four sons, James, Jobe, Johnathon E. and William.
President Brigham Young met this family in Salt Lake and requested that they go to Kanab, Kane County, Utah, to make their home and where grandfather was to do weaving for the people of Kanab for a living. However, weaving was scarce and it was soon found that if they were to be independent they would have to move where there were more people and more needs for a weaver. So after a few years they returned to Salt Lake City. The oldest son, James, had already gone back to Salt Lake City and the rest were returning by way of Paragonah, Iron Co., Utah, in order to visit with the family of Daniel Stones Sr., who had been a great friend in their homeland and had come to Utah at the same time this family had.
By the time they reached Paragonah, their money was almost gone. It was decided that my father, who was the oldest boy with the family at the time, would remain in Paragonah and look for work. He found work as a hired man for Henry Holyoke, a cattle man, and remain there while the family returned to Salt Lake City. This was new work for father and many jokes were played on him. He had had very little experience with horses. Mr. Holyoke told one of the hired men to teach him to bridle, saddle, and ride a horse. The man, knowing that my father was recently from England, thought he would have some fun. So he had my father put the saddle on backwards. Mr. Holyoke happened on the scene just as father was ready to mount the horse. Of course, he laughed with the men who had gathered for the fuss, but somehow managed to turn the joke on them. After that it was not quite so easy to play a joke on Father.(1)
At Paragonah, father met a comely, blue-eyed lass, Martha Jane Watts. They soon fell in love and after a short courtship were married in the St. George temple on 25 of June, 1880.
Henry Holyoke had been called to go with a company of saints from Iron, Beaver, Garfield and Washington counties to go to San Juan County to help make and keep peace with the Indians. He needed a man to go along and help with his stock. My father was chosen and the company left Iron County about 1 November 1880 [The company left 1 November 1879. The Openshaws left a year later. The Openshaws would have traveled the Hole in the Rock Trail, however.] ...
...Visitors to the spot today find it almost impossible to believe that wagons were ever driven down through that steep, narrow gap to the river below. Even more difficult to believe is the fact that wagons were driven back up through that notch. "This was the main highway from the older Southern Utah settlements to the San Juan area and New Mexico for one year." (3)
A few days after leaving the Colorado River they reached a place near the San Juan River where they were to settle, happy to come to the end of their trail. The settlement was given the name of Bluff and is in San Juan County, Utah.
Their first home was a tent and a wagon box, but after a short time log houses were built.
Father spent most of his time on the range helping guard the cattle and horses of the small colony. His bride of a few months was left alone a good deal of the time. [Their first child was born in March 1881.]
Each family was given a plot of ground which he was to cultivate. The clime was hot and dry, the soil sandy. Water had to be taken out of the river to irrigate it. They had no cement for dams and it was impossible to make the dam hold. They would think they had one to hold but before many days it would wash out or the river would change its course and they would have another dam to build. Many of these pioneers watched the crops they had worked so hard to get started wither and die for want of water which was so near, yet so far away.
The leaders of the company made friends with the Indians and thus were able to make and keep peace with them. The little food and supplies the company had were shared with the Indians and the Indians were helpful to the settlers in helping them obtain wild game for food.
Their mission was accomplished. Since Bluff was so far from any other settlement and such a difficult place to make a living, after about five years President John Taylor gave the settlers permission to leave and go any place they wished to settle.
While at Bluff, two children were born to this mother and father. Mary Elizabeth on the 12th day of March, 1881, and Benjamin William on the 18th day of October, 1882.
Henry Holyoke returned to Parowan, Iron County, [actually, Holyoak accepted the release and moved his family to Moab] to make his home and would have no further need of a hired man so Father and Mother decided to go to Salt Lake City, but when they reached Moab they decided to remain here for a short time. While here another child, Nancy Ellen, was born on 13 December 1885. When she was about one year old they went on to Salt Lake City.
Here they leased a farm on the Jordan River south and west of Salt Lake City. I do not know the name of the man they leased from, but he promised to sell it to them if they wanted to buy it in two years. Father worked very hard on this farm. He broke up new land, built canals to irrigate it and raised some good crops. Before the two years were up the owner decided it was too good to sell and moved onto it himself. (4)
About 1888 Father moved his family back to Paragonah, Iron County, Utah. For a time he worked for his father-in-law, Benjamin Watts, for a small wage and a five acre plot of ground in the south Paragonah field. He farmed the land but was never given a deed to it. Grandfather Watts had the deed made out to Father and signed it before he died 16 June 1896. The deed was given to Mother after Grandmother Watts' death in 1907 when the Watts estate was being settled.
Their first home in Paragonah was across the street east of the Alfred Lund home and was a three roomed log house. Later he built a five roomed adobe home up by the Indian mounds and across the street north of the Dennis Talbot home.
Father made the adobe for this house and did most of the work of building. It was built about 1895-96 and we were very proud of it.
Not having a trade, Father worked very hard to make a living for his family. At one time he and Benjamin Watts Jr., a brother-in-law, ran the Cedar City Co-op sheep herd. Father did the herding and looking after the sheep and Uncle Ben handled the business part of the deal. At the end of five years, because of the misuse of the finances, they were so far in debt this venture was given up. Father worked many years before that debt was paid and he paid it alone.
After the Cedar Sheep Co-op Association's herd was given up, Father decided to take up a homestead at the head of Little Creek Canyon northeast of Paragonah. He filed on the land but had to make certain improvements such as build a house on it and live on it for a certain length of time each year. He thought he had met all the requirements and went to make the final settlement only to find that a man in Parowan had "jumped his claim." At that time Father was not an American citizen, but soon after he took the examination and received his papers making him a naturalized American citizen. Again he tried to prove his homestead but he was too late. The other man had been granted the homestead, using Father's improvements as his own. He was advised to "fight" the other man, but that would mean an expensive law suit and he did not have the money. He was allowed to take his house and some of the improvements he had made such as the material of the corrals and fences around the house which he sold to Uncle Bill Williamson. This place was known as the Round Meadows at the head of Little Creek Canyon and was a beautiful valley with a natural stream of water and native grass which was cut and used as hay.
After the experience with the Cedar Sheep Co-op Father herded sheep for many years for Edward Owens of Paragonah for $30 a month. Late he was paid $50 a month. Sometimes his herd ground was in Garfield County on the rim of Bryce Canyon and sometimes farther away on the Escalante desert. In the spring he would follow the sheep to the shearing corrals. With the blades he could sometimes shear as many as 110 sheep in a day, which was as much or more than most men could do. He also "freighted" with from four to six horses. Hauling ore from the mines at Pioche, Nevada to the railroads at Milford and Lund, Utah. He also would haul goods from the railroads at Milford to the stores at Parowan and Paragonah.
When the Uinta reservation was opened up for settlement names were entered and drawn for locations. Father and his brother, J. E. Openshaw, a banker in Salt Lake City, entered. J. E. Openshaw paid the entrance fees and Father was to inspect the sight they drew. He made the trip from Salt Lake to the Uinta Basin on horse back. It turned out that the ground they drew was so far out from roads and any settlement and was such poor ground, most of it being in the steep foothills, they decided they couldn't afford to develop it. He had borrowed $100 from his brother to buy the horse and make the trip. When he returned to Salt Lake he sold the horse for $50 so he still had $50 to pay to his brother. He did so five or ten dollars at a time.
Father loved his six children dearly and always tried to teach us to do right and love each other. He made a good home for us with the help of Mother and we were always pretty well provided for. His greatest desire was that we all receive a good education and to a certain extent this was accomplished, all of them received at least an eighth grade education. The eldest daughter, Mary, was able to complete the nursing course given by the L.D.S. Relief Society in Salt Lake City and later was able to make a good living at this trade as well as do much good to the people she served. She made a host of friends where ever she went. I, Sarah Jane, was a graduate of the Branch Normal School at Cedar City, Utah, in 1913, and taught school for five years. John Nolen attended the same school for two years but never graduated. He filled a mission to the North Western States Mission from 1923-25. Benjamin also filled a mission to the same mission from 1932-35.
Father was a good story teller and when we were children often entertained us with the stories he had learned in England. I remember best "Jack and the Bean Stalk" and "Jack the Giant Killer," but he also told such tales as "The Dog in the Manger," "The Little Boy who Cried Wolf," "The Joseph Smith Story" as he had learned it, and stories from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He had a good singing voice and was called upon often to sing at public parties and meetings and dances. However, not one of his children ever inherited the same talent. He also loved to dance as a child. I can remember how he and Mother dance the Quadrille and Schottische.
Father loved animals and his horses were always treated as pets. When he was "freighting" he had what was known as a "black whip," a long black whip that could reach the lead team of his six horse outfit, but they were seldom, if ever, touched with it. He would crack it over their heads but that was all. We had an old dog named Bounce. He seldom ever left home and we all loved him. One time Uncle Ben Watts took him to help drive some cattle to market. He was such a good cattle dog that the man who was buying the cattle offered Uncle Ben $25 for him. Uncle Ben took it. When he got back home every member of the family asked, "Where's Bounce?" Uncle Ben took the $25 from his pocket and handed it to Father and said, "I sold him for this." Father did not take the money. Instead he said, "Well, you can just take this back and get our dog." Bounce was home the next morning. He had a piece of rope around his neck that had the end chewed. Later Uncle Ben returned the money.
During the summer months while we were ranching on Parowan Mountain Father hauled lumber from the Parowan Co-op lumber mill which was located about five miles down the valley from the ranch to the Co-op store in Parowan, a distance of forty miles. For this he was paid so much for a thousand feet of lumber hauled. Sometimes his load would bring him as much as ten dollars and he was able to make two trips a week. One day he would go to the mill and get as big a load as he could take to the top of the mountain, unload it and go back to the mill, get another load and bring it back as far as the ranch house. Early the next morning he would take that load to the top of the mountains, reload what he had taken up the day before and go on to town. The return trip to the ranch would take most of the next day. Compared to wages now this would have been starvation pay, but then it was considered big money and we got along very nicely on it. Two trips a week were usually made with Sunday as the day of rest, spent either at the ranch or in town where Father could attend church.
The summer of 1907 Father worked with his team for the Telleroid Company in Beaver Canyon helping build the power plant that supplies electrical power to Beaver and some of Beaver County. One night when the job was nearly completed his horses got loose and wandered away. He had to go up on a hill for them. Just as he was about to put the rope on one of them, it jerked away. Father slipped on a loose rock and fell, striking his hip and back on a rock and wrenching his back. He was able to keep hold of the rope he had gotten on the horse and after some time he was able to get on it and go back to camp. The other horse followed him, but it was noon before he got to camp and when he did he could hardly move. He came home the next day. Dr. Green was called and he recommended that he take some electrical treatment from an electrical machine which he left for him and that he rest most of the time. After two weeks he thought he was well again so he went to herd sheep for Edwin Owens. After two weeks they brought him home again unable to walk. Dr. Green was again called and said he could have him well again in a short time. That was in early September but he never got so he could walk again. Before long he was paralyzed from his hips to his feet. Dr. Green said the nerves in his hips had been severed by his fall and that caused his trouble.
Mary had completed her nurse course in Salt Lake in the spring of 1907 and had worked as a practical nurse in Salt Lake from June until September, but she came home about the 20th of September and with mother's help took care of him until the 12th of April, 1908, when he passed away.
Dr. Green said he had bright disease, with complications, but from my observations and experiences, I am convinced he had a slipped disc caused by his fall on the mountain side and his paralysis was caused by that. Had he been given some of the treatment they give today (1956) I am sure he could have overcome it and lived many years more. He was only 53 years old when he died.
Services were held in the church at Paragonah on the 15th of April and conducted by Bishop Thomas Jones. He was buried in the Paragonah Cemetery.
Oh, how his family missed him! I still do.
-Sarah Jane Openshaw Hatch --------------- (1) Told to me by Daniel Stones, Jr. (2) Taken from the Deseret News, April 11, 1954; David E. Miller - from the journal of Joseph F Barton, a member of the "Hole in the Rock" Expedition. (3) Ibid (4) From the memory of Walter Hamer, a nephew of Father
SourcesRight-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Jobe and Martha Openshaw Family