2013 Walton (Samanthy Ann) Gravestone Project Completed!

Samanthy Ann Walton Caldwell Witherell

A big thank-you to my brother and each of my Frazier, Walton cousins who contributed to the restoration of our great aunt’s gravestone.  Now firmly cemented in its rightful spot at the south end of the FRAZIER ROW in the Woodruff, Utah Cemetery. Evidence of what grateful, committed descendants can accomplish. 

Earlier posts about Samanthy Ann are here and here and here.

Thanks to cousin Flora Lee for stopping and taking these pictures.

Memorial Day, May 27, 2013. Randolph, Utah family gathering.

 Randolph, Rich County, Utah marker, south of Randolph.

 Randolph Cemetery tops the hill west of Randolph overlooking the town. Its where the wind always blows.

The William and Mary Brough Rex headstone has been repaired, stabilized, and now sits atop a cement base. Their six children's footstones are set beside them. All of their children are named here. 

My brother Rex stands beside the gravestone here. He and I and our spouses traveled to Randolph and Woodruff for Memorial Day. I don't recall being in Randolph on Memorial Day since prior to our parents' passing in 1982 and 1992. We had a wonderful day gathering with other Rex cousins on cemetery hill and in Cousin Flora Lee's Randolph home. A big thank you to her and her sister Nancy for all of their work promoting and accomplishing this Rex Gravestone Repair project. Thank you so very much!

The Brough Family Organization also completed (August 17, 2012) this Samuel Brough gravestone project in the Randolph Cemetery in time for Memorial Day.

First thing that morning we stopped in Woodruff, ten miles to the south, to visit the cemetery there and to drive past our Grandfather and Great Grandfather Frazier's Ranch.

My brother and I, our father, and Grandfather Frazier each attended the Woodruff Schoolhouse that stood across the highway from this sign posted in "downtown" Woodruff.

Rex and I, with our spouses, in the Woodruff Cemetery beside the Frazier/Walton

row of headstones. Note Samantha Ann Walton Witherell's broken headstone. 

A project we hope to complete before winter 2013.

Samanthy Ann Walton Caldwell Witherell, 1863.

Continued from here.

Samanthy Ann Walton Caldwell Witherell

1834, Mexico, Maine - 1919 Woodruff, Utah

Joseph Smith III from Wikipedia

The Semiannual Conference convened in North Star branch, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, October 6, 1863. Joseph Smith presided, Alphonso Young and Edward W. Knapp were clerks. The following-named elders reported: Joseph Smith, E. C. Briggs (by letter), Hugh Lytle, Colby Downs, Eli Clothier, Wheeler Baldwin, W. A. Litz, J. A. McIntosh, William Redfield, Alphonso Young, D. M. Gamet, George Morey, Nathan Lindsey, Frank Reynolds, E. Page, George Medlock, Lehi Ellison, George Sweet, John Jamison, D. H. Bays, and W. W. Blair. 

“On the 7^th Barton Parker and S. W. Condit reported. The following branch reports were presented: Plum Creek, Camp Creek, Fremont, Union, Little River, Glenwood, Nephi, North Star, Galland’s Grove, Bigler’s Grove, Omaha, Farm Creek, Raglan, Crescent City, Onawa, Council Bluggs, Boyer, Boomer, Weeping Water, Wheeler’s Grove, Little Sioux.

Elder D. H. Bays baptized Elizabeth Frazier, Sumantha A. Coldwell, Benjamin E. Ballowe, and J. F. Speight. On the 8th Elder Colby Downs baptized Ellen Chadburn, William Traver, David Wilding, Emily Smith, William Bowers, and Jacob Stoker.

Elijah B. Gaylord, Uriah Roundy, James Newberry, John Smith, and John Outhouse were ordained high priests, by Joseph Smith and W. W. Blair.

The following resolutions were adopted:-

“Resolved, that the counties of Shelby, Crawford, Audubon, Guthrie, Dallis, Polk, and Sac, be under the presidency of J. A. McIntosh; Mills, Fremont, Page, and Taylor counties, under Wheeler Baldwin; Decatur and vicinity, under George Morey; Central Nebraska, under George Hatt; South Nebraska, under Elders A. Young and William A. Litz; Harrison and Monona counties, under Silas W. Condit; Pottawattamie and Cass counties, under Hugh Lytle.

 "Resolved, that this conference authorize the committee of publication to publish the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, with such corrections in arrangement as may be necessary."

-True Latter Day Saints' Herald, vol. 4, p. 122. 

Anna's cemetery headstone late summer 2011.

Looking North along the Frazier/Walton row in the Woodruff, Utah Cemetery, 2011. Samanthy Ann's broken headstone is in the foreground.

Stephen Vestal Frazier's vacant Rock Home on the old Frazier Ranch. 

Consider this a call to Walton/Frazier family members to support Samanthy Ann's headstone repair. Last summer I received a couple of bids and it will be $400 to have the stone up-righted, repaired, and re-attached to the base. You can contact me at the e-mail on this blog for donation mailing instructions.

Samanthy Ann, Susan Walton's daughter, is called Anna. Part 7.

(Continued from here.)

Samanthy Ann Walton
b.17 Oct 1834, Mexico, Maine
p. Samuel Walton & Susan Walton
m. Slat Caldwell, Kansas City, Missouri, he died Douglas, Kansas
m. Captain Justus Witherell, Douglas County, Kansas

Samantha A. Walton appeared in the 1856 Pleasant Ridge, Lee County, Iowa census as a 22-year-old “Embroideress.” She was living with her mother, Susan Walton Houghton, who was widowed. Her sisters Gratia [Grace] Walton and Rosanna Cord [Card ] were at home with their children, F. M. Cram [Crain] and Charles A. [Alonzo] Card. Her sister Elisabeth, and brothers B. C. [Benjamin Chaplin] and S. A.[Samuel Augustine] Walton, were living with them also. The census is posted here.

At some point Samantha married Slat Caldwell. He died. From the Douglas County, Kansas, marriages, 1869, there is record that Justus Witherell, 32 years, was married to Anna Caldwell, 29 years, on 23 September 1869 in Douglas, Kansas, by James M. Hendry, PJ [presumably Justice of the Peace].

Captain Justus Witherell served in the Civil War as part of the 11th Regiment, Michigan Infantry 2nd, Company I. He ranked in as a First Lieutenant, and ranked out as a Captain.

Captain was used as a first name in his NFS record, and in an entry in the Woodruff, Utah, Ward History.

1888, January 18
Frazier Bros. & Cap. J. Witherell assisted by Deputy Marshals searched several houses in Woodruff for Polygamists but were not successful. Further information about the Fraziers in Woodruff history is posted here.

In 1900 Justus and Anna Witherell were living in Ogden, Utah where they were "fruit growers." Whether seasonal, or permanent, the previous account in the old Woodruff Ward records, indicates some of my ancestors did not endear themselves to the community.

From The First 100 Years in Woodruff, page 461, it says, Samantha Ann was married to Captain Witherell and lived her whole life in Woodruff. Aunt Ann, as she was affectionately called, was an active very alert, independent person. She lived in a little house just below the Frazier Ranch. She had no children. It states in her sister, Elizabeth Walton Frazier's, history, “And she took her widowed sister, Ann Witheral into her home for years.”

It appears Captain Witherell died shortly after 1900. I can’t find a record of his death, or burial, but this Civil War widow’s pension record indicates Anna applied for benefits.

Ann Witherell died in 1922 and is buried in the Woodruff Cemetery. Thank you to Lisa, who looks after the cemetery, and the records there, for sending me the picture of Anna's headstone.

(Susan Walton's children's histories to be continued.)

Woodruff Ward History 1887-1935, LR 20227-11, page 39. Church History Library in Salt lake City, Utah. The original records were burned in a fire in the 1930's. This section of the history on microfilm was "recollected" after the fire. http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/douglas/marriage/marr1869.htm