Ira Rice

His great great grandfather may have changed the name from "Royce" to "Roys," and his grandfather may have changed it to "Rice." Ira Rice's father served in the Revolutionary War, and Ira served in the War of 1812 as a private or sergeant under Captain Joseph Hart's company of Colonel Peter Allen's regiment. Ira had a narrow escape from the British, jumping into the river below Niagra Falls and swimming to escape. Shortly after the war he married Minerva Saxton, but she died a few years later. Ira then went to Michigan to settle in wild country made available to veterans, where he lived with his new wife Sarah Ann Harrington. Missionaries found them there, and they converted and moved to Nauvoo. Ira and his family acquired property and some fine horses, and had a nice house by the temple, but after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith their home was burned by a mob. They fled during the winter, and during the trek west got as far as Mount Pisgah before Brigham Young sent Ira back for supplies. Ira helped Orson Pratt and Lorenzo Snow's families go west. From Winter Quarters, Brigham Young again sent Ira back, to get grain in Nauvoo. Eventually Ira made it into the valley with Captain Edward Hunter's 100 in September of 1847, wintered at "Old Fort," and built a log cabin in what is now Farmington, Utah. He had come forward alone, but the next year his children came out. Sarah was not with them; she likely died along the trail. The family lived in Ogden and then in Cache Valley, which was wild enough that the area made for--on one occasion--a dramatic, multi-day grizzly hunt for a maurading bear that took its toll on the hunters before it was killed. By now Ira had married a third time, to Elizabeth Ann Morris Butler, who had crossed the plains by handcart, had been a housekeeper for Ira Rice, and then married him. At 73, Ira volunteered to colonize Utah's Dixie, and headed south for the "Muddy" on a cotton mission. Brigham Young saw him and told him he didn't need to go, but they were already on the way so they continued. A flood near Beaver Dam (the southwestern Utah area, not the Cache Valley Beaver Dam) washed away their belongings, sickness set in, and they were released to go back to Cache Valley. Ira died en route, in St. George.

Sarah Ann Harrington

Married Ira Rice in Michigan and began raising a family of twelve children (and Ira already had children from his earlier marriage to Minerva Saxton). Moved to Nauvoo after converting to the LDS church, received her endowments in the Nauvoo temple, and was blessed by patriarch Hyrum Smith. The family prospered in Nauvoo, but they were eventually driven out by mobs. Sarah apparently died on the trek west, while her husband was ahead establishing a home in northern Utah.

William Orville Smith

One of the first settlers in Farmington, Utah. Married to Emily Jane Spinnings.

Emily Jane Spinnings

One of the first settlers in Farmington, Utah. Married to William Orville Smith.

Francillo Durfee

The family name has been spelled "Durfey," "Durffy," "Durphee," and "Durphy." His father, Ebeneezer Durfee, fought in the Revolutionary War to make Americans free, and Francillo ultimately had to flee the country to find religious freedom. Francillo was born in Vermont, and in 1816 there was a freeze every month all year round, so the crops froze. The family cut and burned trees to make potash to sell. Sisson Chase, an LDS missionary, arrived and baptized the family, and led them to Nauvoo. Francillo received a patriarchal blessing from Hyrum Smith. In 1844, they went to the Mansion House for the viewing of the martyred prophet Joseph Smith. In the fall, with his wife home with a new baby, Francillo went off to get supplies and returned to find that a mob had turned his family out of their home, burned it, and stolen their cattle. They fled to the west bank of the Mississippi to the Camp of Israel. His wife died of pneumonia shortly after the mobbers drove them out. The rest of the family endured a cold winter before heading west in the spring. After many problems with mud, they set on staying in Council Bluffs for a time. Thomas Kane's discussion with President Polk led to the recruitment of the Mormon Battalion, and Francillo joined Company C under Captain James Brown, with young Jarvis Johnson going along with his great uncle Frank. He had to leave his five motherless children in the care of other Saints. Francillo and Jarvis scouted and hunted for the company, shooting a grizzly with single shots in one instance. Some of the battalion became sick (which wasn't helped by a doctor forcing on the men a mixture of calomel and arsenic), and as the main group headed on toward Santa Fe, Francillo went with the sick detachment to Pueblo. The next summer they headed for Fort Laramie, and en route were surrounded by a band of Sioux. Francillo rode out and spoke to them in tongues, shook hands, and that was that. They ran into Brigham Young, who was on the trail west, and came into the Salt Lake Valley either with Brigham Young or a few days later. Francillo opened with prayer the first meeting in the Old Bowery. The next year, Brigham Young sent Francillo and other Mormon Battalion members east to help other emigrants, and the year after that Francillo brought his family in. Francillo met Cynthia Harrington Bowen, whose husband had died on the trek west, and married her, possibly in Council Bluffs by Brigham Young.

Miriam Jones

Also "Mariam," "Marion," "Mariana," "or Marian," depending on the record. Her father was a clockmaker, who learned his trade from his father. Married Francillo Durfee. She received a patriarchal blessing in Nauvoo from Hyrum Smith. After being driven from her cabin by the mob that burned it, she died of pneumonia.

Frederick Barker

"Parker" in some English records, Frederick Barker was part of a group of poor people moved by their government to America so they could find better living conditions. Frederick had married Ann Bligh, and they came to New York on the ship "New Brunswick," living through a voyage that struck many with smallpox. In New York they joined the Church, and in 1946 headed west in a horse drawn wagon after the main body of the Saints had already evacuated Nauvoo, stopping briefly at the Nauvoo temple to climb to the roof before crossing the Mississippi to Iowa. They built a cabin and put in crops, and in 1849 went on to Council Bluffs, joining Captain Allen Taylor's company of 100 to go to Zion. Frederick initially went to Sessions Settlement (now Layton) in Utah and then to Broom's Fort (now Ogden). There, the murder of Chief Terekee by a settler, and Chief Walker's Ute uprising, made things interesting, as did cricket infestations of the crops. Frederick lived the Principle, and his wife Ann Bligh either took exception to that or to something else, since it seems she divorced him and married his brother. There isn't a lot of family information on that turn of events.

Ann Bligh

Alternatively "Blye," "Blygh," or "Blyghe." Married Frederick Barker and came to America in the company of poor English folk sent over by their government. Converted in New York and went west to join the Saints. However, and the family record is not especially clear on this, she took exception to either polygamy or something else, because it seems she divorced Frederick Barker and married his brother. She had a number of dramatic encounters with Indians while living in southern Idaho. In one instance, a Ute killed an old Bannock, ran off the man's wife, and captured his little sister. He was dragging her through the settlements, begging, and cutting her as he went. Ann hid the girl under a bed, and then in a haystack when more Utes came to look for her again. Little Soldier threatened Ann, and Uncle George--who the Indians called look-a-here because he always said "Look here"--chased them off. Later more of the tribe came, and President Farr said they had best give her up. When the Indians took her, they began cutting her, and one of Ann's daughters, Harriet, and Harriet's friend Louvisa Bronson, ran out and pulled her back. The Indians were so impressed by this bravery that they let the Indian girl go. However, when the girl's brother came to get her and started off with her, he ran into Little Soldier and traded her to him. She fled, and Ann hid her again. When Little Soldier showed up, Uncle George went out to talk to him and his group. He spoke in their language for a long time. They said it was the voice of the Great Spirit, and left. Another time Uncle George teased an Indian that he would sell Harriet for buffalo horses, and when the Indian actually brought him enough horses, Uncle George had to hide her and talk them into going away. Yet another time Ann was ironing, and six Indians came in and demanded bread, threatening to burn the baby if she did not give them bread. Uncle George limped out and they made fun of him and his cane, but he commanded them to leave in the name of Jesus Christ, and they left immediately. Years later, Little Soldier came by Ann's home dejected about the treatment of his tribe, the loss of their weapons, and their growing poverty. She spoke to him in Shoshone, told him about the Book of Mormon and its promises to his ancestors, and he left feeling better (Little Soldier not only eventually became peaceable toward the Mormons, he became one.)

Hyrum Smith Rice

The son of Ira Rice and Sarah Ann Harrington. He also went by "William Hyrum Rice." Tended sheep, boiled salt from the Great Salt Lake, raised livestock, and freighted. Married Olive Emily Smith and ranched in Idaho territory, at Round Mountain in Cassia County, a way station for freighters. Then on to The Cove in Almo, Idaho, after the completion of the railroad cut down on stage and mail traffic near Round Mountain. Didn't like the "Smith" being in his name. Was nice when he wasn't drunk.

Olive Emily Smith

The daughter of William Orville Smith and Emily Jane Spinnings. Religious; no one knows how she wound up with Hyrum Rice. Died after a colt Hy was breaking by hitching it in with a team of horses, spooked when a dog chased a chicken by the wagon. Olive was pitched out and broke her arm badly. Infection set in, and she died a few weeks later. She was buried on the ranch, and reburied in Farmington.

Henry Dennison Durfee

Born to Francillo Durfee and Miriam Jones. An express rider for Brigham Young, Henry Dennison Durfee was also sent out repeatedly to help pioneers come across the plains. In addition, he went on the handcart rescue, and he also went on the Salmon River Mission rescue during which he helped save his father from Indians. When Johnston's Army came to Utah, he evacuated south to Sugar Creek near Payson. When he returned to Providence (near Ogden), he was the first constable in the town. He lived in Beaver Dam, then Connor Springs, then Almo. Henry Dennison Durfee tried to always have family prayers, read the Bible to his children, and rest on Sundays. He was married to Jane Isobelle Barker. He lived to be 82.

Jane Isobelle Barker

As a child, her parents Frederick Barker and Ann Bligh took her west to join the Saints, and when they reached a largely empty Nauvoo she sat on the temple steps and cried. Then they ferried across the Mississippi. Three years later they left for the valley, when she was ten. Along the way she gathered buffalo chips for fuel, played, and danced. Once Indians came into camp demanding meat, but there wasn't any. They saw a pan that Jane had put buffalo chips in, and thought it had meat in it. That night, they snuck into camp and stole the pan. When the pioneers reached Salt Lake, there wasn't much beside sagebrush and Indians for neighbors. The pioneers got sugar from beets, but didn't have much flour. The Barkers went north to Weber, where Jane married Henry Dennison Durfee. She was shy, but frequently spoke in tongues, and on one occasion Eliza R. Snow interpreted for her, saying Jane had spoken in Hebrew.

Nathaniel Able Rice

His parents were Hyrum Smith Rice and Olive Emily Smith. After his mother died, the siblings scattered. Nathaniel worked in Almo, Idaho, and Farmington, Utah, and Nevada with cattle, and came back to Almo to marry his sweetheard Alice Jane Durfee. With Lorenzo Durfee he bought land from the Hoagland Brothers but also worked at roadbuilding, haying, dairying, and building the Vipont mine. Nathaniel came from rough stock, but his wife guided him toward church, and together they built a prayerful family. He brought his extended family back together at the ranch. Nathaniel was known for having a word that was better than a bond. If he had men under him and the contractor didn't pay, he paid his men himself. Nathaniel loved spirited horses, but when one reared up and hit his head, he started having strokes and died of one a few months later.

Alice Jane Durfee

She was born in Box Elder County, but her parents Henry Davidson Durfee and Jane Isobelle Barker soon moved to Connor Springs, a remote and desolate place with only three other families near. Corinne was the nearest town, and it was wild--Utah's most notorious town. She liked to dig Segos, play in a cave, and so forth, but lost some of her curiosity when she fell into a deep spring covered with watercress, and almost drowned. Her brother saw her fall in, and saved her. The family went back to Beaver Dam, then on to Almo, Idaho, to a leaky, dirt-roofed, dirt-floored log cabin. She got through the 8th grade in Almo, sometimes going to school on horseback, sometimes by sleigh. Settlers were at times afraid of the Indians, who had supposedly ambushed a wagon train in City of Rocks a few years earlier (that story is now disputed by some historians). Indians would gather pine nuts in the area, and once when she wandered off and was lost, an Indian found her and took her back to her home. When her husband Nathaniel Able Rice died, she became impoverished. The county had begun giving out some widows pensions, but she heard a woman speak critically of a widow in Elba who had a pension, and she was too proud to want to suffer similar criticism. She got a weaving loom to make rugs, and her children worked, so they survived, and during it all she maintained great faith in the priesthood and in its ability to help their family.

Janie Isobelle Rice

Born in Almo, Idaho to Nathaniel Abel Rice and Alice Jane Durfee, she grew up with cold winters and cougars prowling around the house. She ran free, trying to catch lynx kittens, climbing at City of Rocks, and at age eight walking to a log cabin school. Her appendix burst when she was small, and the doctor wanted to operate right there at home. Her mother trusted in the priesthood instead, and Janie lived. At age ten, her father died, and not long into her marriage her own husband Charles Francis Wake would die, leaving her a widow most of her life. As a young woman, though, there were still the dramatic programs, sleigh rides, rabbit drives, and dances above Tracy's store. Janie was patient and hardworking, making soap, cooking to feed the threshing crew, and doing all the rest that comes with ranch life. At one point she had a gas powered washer, and in the 1940's her son Edgar bought her a refrigerator, which was an amazing appliance. When her mother died, Edgar packed Janie off to Oregon so who wouldn't be alone, and she was amazed and delighted by the airplane ride. However, she was homesick and soon returned to the ranch. For her grandchildren, the ranch was a fun place to visit, to sit eating green apples with a salt shaker, or to ride a horse Uncle Wes saddled up. She spent her final years at a rest home in Burley, where she entertained the facility by singing Bruce Springsteen's rock song "Born in the U.S.A." over the intercom.