Written in his eighty-first year and published in three installments for The Idaho Enterprise, Thursday, June 9, 1932, June 16, 1932 and June 23, 1932.
James Parry Harrison was born January 22, 1846, London, England. He was the first son of James H. Harrison and Angelina Parry Harrison, being the fifth child in a family of eleven children.
He went to school till he was eight years old then he had to work a year to get money to go to school the next year. The first year he worked as an errand boy. He went to school the next year then at the age of ten years he went to work learning the trade of gunsmith. He worked at this till he was fourteen.
In the spring of the year, he left England for America on a ship called the Monarch of the Sea. His sister, Sarah Farnes, accompanied him. After being on the sea for thirty-six days, he landed in New York City.
His travels from New York were as follows: From New York to Chicago, from Chicago to St. Joseph and then to Florence, Nebraska. Here he joined Captain Horn’s Company and walked to Salt Lake. He landed there in September 1861. To get his board he worked with carpenter men. His board was all he got too. In March he began working for four dollars a month and worked till July. With the money he bought four chairs for his mother who he was expecting in the fall. The rest of the summer he worked for six dollars a month and was able to buy himself a shirt, a hat, and a pair of shoes. This took all his summer wages and he was left without work and without money. His father and mother came to Salt Lake that fall. His father took sick so his mother had to work for their living. She worked for twenty-five cents a day, washing clothes.
There was no work for James in Salt Lake so he set out to find some two days before Christmas. The first day he walked to Kaysville. His only companion was a large yellow dog which followed him. The second day saw him at George Facer’s in Willard. On Christmas day he walked to Wellsville.
On the way he met two Indians on horseback. The dog made them get off the road into the deep snow till he passed. He arrived in Wellsville safe but tired. He crawled up a wood pile to a straw shed, made a hole to sleep in, rolled his blanket around him, and with the dog lying on his feet to keep them warm, he was settled in for the night. A little later a boy came out for some wood and was frightened by the barking dog. The boy’s father came out and demanded to know who was there. James answered, “Me.” “Then ‘me’ come out,” was the quick reply. He was taken into the house and given supper, a bed and breakfast the next morning.
The next day he went to Logan where he found a job milking cows and feeding stock for his board. His shoes were worn out and he had to sell his dog to get them mended.
In the spring he went back to Salt Lake and worked at Fort Douglas, cooking food and washing dishes. In March 1864, he took a job driving ox teams going west. While at Ruby Valley, he took sick with mountain fever and was forced to lie in his wagon for ten days. An Indian squaw carried water to him and he gave her the food the other drivers had left for him. When he was better he journeyed on to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. All the drivers returned to Salt Lake in August. They camped on the Jordan river the first night of return. James walked to town expecting to eat with his parents but when he arrived the only food they had was a quart of carrots for five people so he walked back to camp for supper.
These things are mentioned to show the hardships his parents had to put up with during their first years in America, but their faith never failed them, growing stronger in the Gospel as their trials increased.
The next day they unloaded and James got what he had left of his summer wages and went down with his father. They bought three sacks of flour, paying $75 for a little less than 300 pounds of flour.
The next trip was to Coalville for coal. After asking three wagon bosses for a job, he was given a trial. The boss was so pleased with him that he offered him a $5 raise if he would go with him to Nevada again, but he refused because he had had enough of Nevada when he was there before.
James hired out to go to Montana for $40 in greenbacks or $25 in gold but after they reached Virginia City, he was only paid $25 in greenbacks. (At that time greenbacks were only worth 50 cents on the dollar.)
He started back to Utah with John Hughes in two wagons drawn by mules. When they reached Sweetwater, Montana, they got snowed in and could go no farther. One day while hunting the mules, he got lost in a snow storm. He wandered around until he finally saw a light. It proved to be an Indian camp. Here he was given food and a bed. His camp was found the next day. In a few days he moved on to the Toll gates on Stinking Water River. Here they cut cedars and hauled them to Virginia city, Montana. He wore his boots out so he had to buy a pair of moccasins with what money he had.
The day after Christmas 1864, they started on a buffalo hunt to the Sun River. With them were some other boys, one whose name was Pat Kelly. On the way they heard of a mining camp called “Last Chance” so they went there. A little log cabin was put up for them to live in and Pat and James were put to work getting out timber. The only food that could be gotten was bread made of moldy flour and dead oxen that had crossed the plains. James had no shoes so he had to wrap his feet in anything that he could find. Often he left blood prints on the snow when he went for his horse in the morning. His clothes all wore out so he gave a ring that his father had given him, in exchange for a shirt. His good hat which he had bought in the summer, he traded for a pair of linen trousers. The pair he had you couldn’t tell which were patches and which was the original. Along about March his feet got so bad that he couldn’t go to the canyon. Every morning he would sit by the fire in the saloon and dry the rags he wore on his feet. Many times he cried when he had to put them back on his feet. His bed consisted of a blanket and a wagon cover. They were damp and as stiff as boards when he would get into them at night.
Hughes bought him a pair of boots. As he was only working for his food, he was very appreciative of the boots.
During the last of March, he got a job herding cattle. With his first money he bought himself a pair of buckskin pants and a buckskin shirt. He considered himself very well dressed.
About this time, there was a great rush to Helena, Montana. James hired out to go to Virginia City with ox teams for supplies. It cost the man he was working for $125 for one hundred pounds of flour. As they started out-of-town they were surrounded by a gang of men with guns in a flour raid. One man got into the wagon and threw one sack of flour into the mud so James jumped into the wagon and pitched the man out into the mud and told him that he guessed he could handle the flour. They held guns on him until he handed them all but about four sacks of flour so he could continue his journey with that amount to the camp.
In a few days, he made another trip with one wagon and five yoke of cattle. He got one hundred, fifty pound sacks and left before daylight in the morning. An Irishman who wanted to ride with him, sat at the back of the wagon with a gun to guard it. A mob started after them but couldn’t catch them. When they got to the Jefferson River bridge, the water was about eight inches over the bridge. When he went to pay the toll, the man refused it because he couldn’t assure safety. They crossed alright but about twenty minutes later the bridge went down. They overtook an elderly man and his family on their way to the Last Chance mine but he didn’t know the way so he decided to go along with them. The man promised James food if he would round up his horses for him when they were loose. James thought that the women’s cooking surely tasted good.
When they arrived with the flour, the people flocked around the wagon to buy it. It was sold for $75 for a 50 lb. sack. When it was about gone, the rest was taken into the store and sold for $18 for ten pounds.
The wagon was taken to where it belonged, then James started down the street. He passed a man that he knew who bought a little bag of flour for $18. His boots were worn out so he bought himself a new pair for $10.
He had no work so he camped out on the creek with a boy named Jim Woods. All they had to eat was willow buds and beef that was so tough it was not palatable. The beef had to be eaten without salt. He got so hungry that he stole some oats from a man’s horse and cooked it. It was the best thing he had tasted for many days.
Finally after three weeks, he hired out to a man to go to Fort Benton, so he gave him $1.00 to get something to eat. He got a dried apple pie which was the best thing he had eaten in a long time.
They started for Fort Benton. A little after dark they made camp. About half a mile ahead, the Indians killed 10 men around their campfire. They heard the shooting but didn’t know what it was. The Fort was a wall about 10 feet high and about 10 rods square. Most of the men lived in tents outside of the Fort.\
On their return trip to Helena, they found a Frenchman who had been killed by the Indians. The boys on the trip were afraid of the Indians so they slept in the grass, but James slept in his wagon. He was called Jackson, because he called his lead team Stonewall and Jackson.
That fall he returned to Salt Lake and found that his family had moved to Logan. When he found his father’s home in Logan, his sister, Fanny, answered his knock. She didn’t know him for a few minutes–he had left home when but a boy and now he was a man. His folks were very thankful to have him with them again because they had given up all hope of ever seeing him again. They had heard of a boy by the name of Jim Anderson freezing to death and had thought that it must have been their boy, but that the name had been stated wrongly.
James stayed in Logan that winter with his brother-in-law, Edwin Curtis, and got poles from Green Canyon for his board. In the spring he hired on with a man named Bill Aldridge. He drove three yoke of cattle with a wagon load of flour to Helena, and then worked all that summer for the same man that he had worked for the previous summer, driving teams to Fort Benton.
In the fall he came back to Salt Lake and worked for a man named James Cummings hauling material for woolen mills and then the finished material back to the city. He worked here all winter. Then in the spring he went to Logan where he hired on with a man named Rice to drive a four mule team hauling freight to Salmon City, Idaho.
His next job was in Leesburg, hauling logs and lumber into a town with a one horse sleigh. On May 1, it snowed two feet so he quit and went back to Salmon City. On the trail when he went to Leesburg, the pine trees looked about four inches high. But when he left in the spring, they were medium sized pines. This proves how deep the snow was.
He then made two trips to Fort Benton. There he went to work for a man hauling hay from Milk River to Camp Cook, which was a soldier’s camp on the Missouri River about 40 miles from Milk River. He hauled four tons to the load driven by six yoke of cattle.
On one trip, he found an Indian trophy of a weasel skin, two Indian scalps, one white woman’s scalp, and bear’s claws, all on a string. He kept them for a long time. On his last trip he left about 40 tons of hay in the stack. When he returned there was not a straw left. The buffalo had been there and ate it all.
From Fort Benton he went to Helena, walked without horses with his blankets on his back and spent the winter there. In the spring he made two trips to Fort Benton and bought himself some horses and came back to Logan. When he got there, his folks had moved to Malad. He then went to Malad and worked in the harvest all fall.
One day he went down to Spring Creek to eat his lunch. John Williams and his daughter, Elvira, were on the other side eating their lunch. As soon as James saw her he thought of her as a good wife, but did not know much about her until the next spring. He worked all that winter on the railroad. All he got for it was enough iron for a plow, without beam or handles. He courted Elvira Williams for a short time. Then he went away to earn money to get married on. But after being away for two months, he came back without a cent. He was eventually hired by B.F. White to drive a team for $50 a month. He worked three months then came home with $150. He paid his tithing, got a few things he needed and had $135 to get married on. He borrowed a pair of mules and a wagon from Elvira’s father and went to Salt Lake to get married in the Endowment House.
He was married on December 13, 1869. He had not been made an Elder yet and in the meeting at the Endowment House, John D.T. McKalister asked if anyone there was not an Elder. James and one other man stood up. They got a good scolding for not having it done before they left home. While in the Endowment House, James received a very strong testimony on pre-ordination and it has never left him.
After having spent all their money for some dishes, knives, forks and a stove, he and his wife returned home. He made a bed, table and cupboard. They lived in part of his father’s house. In January 1870, he was appointed visiting teacher (Home Teacher today) and also a teacher in the Sunday school.
James worked around the home that summer. That fall he worked on a thrashing machine, thrashing the whole valley as far south as Mound Springs, around to Portage and up to Samaria, which was a long trip in those days for one machine.
In November of 1870, he went to the canyon with a yoke of three-year-old cattle to get house logs out. He also hauled out the rock for the chimney, often leaving before day break and returning after dark. At nights after supper, with only the help of his wife, they built two rooms. In one month from the time they started working on the house, they were living in it.
That winter he worked on a log meeting house, which was built where Bolingbroke’s house is now, on Spring Creek. James also worked for his father-in-law for part of the first two winters after he was married.
The next spring he went to Utah and worked in the mines. The next summer he went back to Malad to work. He took about 1,000 head of cattle to Bannock Valley. He herded them for six months. One day after riding the range, he came back to camp to find Pocatello, the Indian Chief, there with two wickiups within a rod (16.5 ft.) of his camp. He had to feed him for a week but he was very friendly.
He delivered his cattle in the fall and got himself a small pair of mules. Earlier he had taken up 160 acres of land on the squatters rights, west of Devil Creek, in 1868. Later on the county was surveyed and he took up 160 acres on the Homestead Act. He then gave up the other. That was his home for fifty years. He worked and got out material for a house, corrals, and fencing. That summer they only had bread and butter to eat and sometimes they had bread without butter.
In 1872 he was put in as Superintendent of the Sunday school but he was away so much of the time that Brother Roberts was made Superintendent and he Assistant Superintendent.
In the winter of 1873, he and his wife went to Rossfork (now Fort Hall) and worked all winter for $24 a month. He worked with his own team also. He worked fpr R.M. Shilling, his brother-in-law. The next spring he got a six horse team and harnesses and wagons and began freighting to Montana for himself. He paid all his debts and lived through the next winter. Then for some time he worked on his farm and was active in church work also. He had a ten-horse team on the road freighting and Ephriam Williams was handling it. He was not raising much on his farm yet and depended on the freighting for his living.
One Sunday morning, in 1880, he received two letters. One was asking him to accept a position as Bishop’s counselor to George Stewart of the Malad Ward. The other letter was from Ephriam Williams asking him to come and take his freight team or sell it. It was a trial when money was so scarce to choose between his religious duties or a chance to make good money. He made it a matter of prayer and so accepted the position as counselor to the Bishop and sent word to Ephriam to sell his team.
On November 28, 1880, he was called to go on a mission to the Southern States. He made preparations for a two year mission. However, Brother Stewart would not let him go until some of the brethren from Salt Lake should visit Malad.
That summer they came to a counselor’s meeting in Brother Stewart’s house, Brother George Q. Cannon asked James about the condition in the St. John WArd. President John Taylor spoke up and said, “Brother Harrison, we release you from your mission to the Southern States and we give you a mission to St. John.” On August 27, 1884, he was set apart as Bishop of St. John Ward by Marion Lyman and acted in that position until 1908.
On November 26, 1884, he married Emma Dredge. In the spring he went on the “underground” as it was called. He had to hide most of the time because plural marriage was bitterly persecuted by the people out of the Church at that time. In January 1886, he left on a mission for the Southern States. He Spent most of his time in the state of Virginia. He stayed until November 1886. He was then honorably released on account of poor health. He weighed 187 lbs. when he left and when he returned he only weighed 118 lbs. He worked in the temple the next two winters. In the summer of 1887, he went to Montana with a four horse team and made enough money to pay up his debts. Then he worked in the temple that winter. All his father’s and mother’s families were sealed to them at that time. He worked on the farm the next spring. In June he was tried in court for unlawful cohabitation. When he stood up to be sentenced, the judge said if he would promise to obey the law, he would suspend his sentence. James said, “I have no promises to make.” the Judge said, “I am sorry I cannot give you 10 times as much as I can.” He was sentenced to six months imprisonment. He served his sentence and returned home. He worked on the farm and was active for many years in church duties.
In March 1908, he was released as Bishop of the St. John Ward. In August he was appointed president of the High Priests of the Malad Stake by apostle Clawson. He has worked in the temple every year since. In 1924 he helped organize the surname organization of the Harrison family.
The day he turned 82 years old, January 22, 1928, he was released from the presidency of the High Priests on account of the poor health of his wife, Elvira, and that of himself not being able to get around as would have liked to.
He celebrated his golden wedding anniversary with his wife, Elvira, on December 13, 1919, at the home of his daughter, Elvira Deschamps. All but one of his children and grandchildren were present. His daughter, Ellen, was on a mission to the Northwestern States at the time. As soon as he came home, he went into the army.
About 33 people attended the anniversary celebration, including 24 grandchildren and six children.