George Harding, son of Dwight and Phebe Holbrook Harding, was born December 18, 1833, in the small town of Weathersfield, Seneca County, New York, which is not far from the Hill Cummorah. His parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in January 1833, just prior to their marriage on February 12, 1833.

In 1834, the family moved to a small village near Kirtland, Ohio, where they spent the winter of 1834-35. The following summer they moved to Keytesville, Chariton County, Missouri, where they lived but a short time, then moving on with other members of the church to Caldwell, Clay County, Missouri, later on in the summer of 1835. Non-Mormons in the area were very unhappy with the prospects of having Mormons for neighbors and organized mobs to intimidate the Saints.

Dwight Harding and his family lived in Caldwell for about three years and then they were driven from their home along with other Saints by the angry mobs. They next settled in Far West, Missouri. Mobs forced them to move from here, and their next abode was Quincy, Illinois. Here they lived for about three and one-half years before moving on to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, where they lived for five years.

George Harding was baptized a member of the church in Nauvoo by Jonathan Hale and confirmed to membership by Hyrum Smith.

In a letter to his daughter, Phebe, who was a missionary for the L.D.S. Church in the Central States Mission in 1910, George Harding said, “If you are permitted to go into the Mansion House in Nauvoo, go into the front southwest corner room. There is where Lamoni Holbrook (his cousin) and I sat and had a long conversation with Joseph Smith, the Prophet. Go to the temple block. Go east four blocks on Mulholland Street, then south one-half block where Uncle Chandler Holbrook’s house stood across the street facing west, keep going south to the next corner. Our house stood on the northwest corner. Joining our lot on the south stood a two-story brick house where David Candlain taught school. You will find a picture of the house in the 1909 June Improvement Era. There I went to school. There is where your Aunt Anna and Aunt Phebe were born. Anna’s grave is right close to that schoolhouse.”

In a sketch of his life, George Harding is quoted as saying, “I remember the planning and building of the Nauvoo Temple. My father worked regularly on it. As a boy, I was kept busy carrying water to the workmen. One day the hat of one of the men was blown to the ground. He called to me to bring it up to him. The other boys were not allowed to climb the ladders. I gave him the hat and he permitted me time to look down upon the city of Nauvoo, the Mississippi River and the surrounding country. Later I was given regular work on the temple with part pay or credit.

“Our home was near that of the Prophet’s mother, Lucy Smith. Sister Smith and mother met almost daily at either of their homes. I attended school and played with Joseph Smith’s children.

“While attending Aunt Hannah Holbrook’s school at Nauvoo, a short time before the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, my cousin, Lamoni Holbrook, and I were dispatched as messengers to the ‘Mansion House’ with a note to be delivered into the hands of the Prophet Joseph. We were ushered into the house by Emma Smith. She took us into a room telling us to sit on a little bench. We were bare-footed and our feet did not touch the floor. We were told to wait as the Prophet was busy. Presently we were received by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He spoke kindly to us, received and read the note. I know the note was of great importance. He placed his hands upon our shoulders and conversed with us. His touch was pleasing, his words and countenance impressed us to such a degree that we never forgot the incident. It was more like the pronouncing of a blessing.

“I was a member of the first Sunday School organized in the church which was held at Nauvoo. It was organized with only one man in charge. He held two sessions then gave up the work and apostatized from the church. The object of these gatherings was to care for the younger children who were not old enough to comprehend the preaching. This man met with the children in a grove two Sunday mornings and told us stories from the Bible.

“One day, while herding cows on the outskirts of Nauvoo, just previous to the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum at Carthage jail, a light spring wagon was driven along the road near me. It was occupied by four or five drunken men. They stopped and asked if that road led into Nauvoo. I replied that it did. They then asked me whose boy I was. I replied, ‘I am Dwight Harding’s boy.’ One of the men remarked that my father was a member of Joseph Smith’s bodyguard. Then such cursings, swearing and profaning came from their lips as I have never heard before or since. They then drove on. I related the incident to father and described the men. From the description I gave him he was satisfied that they were the ring leaders among those who led the mob at Carthage.

“It was not an uncommon thing for thieving and other annoying atrocities to be practiced upon the people of Nauvoo. I well remember being with a group of other small boys playing upon a sidewalk. Our attention was directed to a man gathering clothes from a line. His action looked suspicious as we hurried to inform the lady who had hung them out not long before. She was standing near a door looking in a mirror on the wall. A little wash bench with a basin was before her. We hardly had a chance to inform her before she dashed out of the home and was after the man who was trying to climb the fence to get out of her way. She caught him and gave him all that was coming to him. He had dropped the clothes in his effort to get away. She picked them up disgustedly. Her chief concern seemed to be that she would now have to wash all the clothes over again.

“During our residence at Nauvoo, the first Relief Society was organized and, although mother was not present at the first meeting, she was a member of the first Relief Society. The first meeting she attended, John Taylor was present and was about to contribute one dollar but he gave five dollars to the association instead. The Prophet Joseph Smith was also present and instructed the sisters in their work and helped them to outline their plans for the future.

“My mother was a woman of great faith in the promises of our Heavenly Father’s love and protecting care for those who loved Him and tried to do His will. At one time while we were yet at Nauvoo, father was taken ill and his life was despaired of. We were in hard circumstances and mother, in despair, prayed to the Lord to spare her husband’s life. She was prompted to send for the elders to come and administer to him. They came and with their temple clothing on, formed a prayer circle around him. In the blessing that was pronounced, he was promised that he would recover and bring his family to the valley with the Saints. This promise was fulfilled and, although he was not strong, he managed by taking care of his health to enjoy life up until his death.

“My parents were at the special meeting of the church which was held at Nauvoo, August 8, 1844, in which the apostles asserted their right to lead the Church through their President, Brigham Young. They saw the countenance and heard the voice of Brigham Young change to that of Joseph Smith–a sort of transfiguration attested to by many saints present at the meeting which gave them a knowledge that Brigham Young was the right leader to follow.

“When the time came for our family to leave Nauvoo for the West, all our family possessions were put in one wagon and when we were about to leave, it was decided that the family of Truman O. Angell was to share the same wagon with us. Before having time to leave the place, a man and a small boy drove in ready to take possession of our home as soon as we left. We have the deeds which up to that time proved that we owned the property. To the succeeding possessors, it may be esteemed only as a scrap of paper. This was the third time we were mobbed and driven from our homes.”

George Harding, with his parents and other family members, left Nauvoo in the spring of 1846 and migrated westward. They settled on Mosquito Creek, about seven miles from Kanesville, Iowa.

In the fall of 1850, George made his first freighting trip for the U.S. Government from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Fort Laramie. A little later, he started on a freighting trip to El Paso, Texas. After leaving Leavenworth and before arriving at Fort Mame, he received instructions to return. The return trip was accompanied by very cold weather and much snow. He was traveling with another young man by the name of Smith. They nearly perished in the snow. George’s feet were frozen and, upon returning to Kanesville, his mother had to cut his shoes from his feet. The flesh from his heels and the entire bottom of his feet came off. He could not walk for some time afterward and all the rest of his life his feet were painful.

On June 16, 1851, the Hardings left Iowa for the Salt Lake Valley, arriving in Salt Lake City on September 19, 1851. The family went immediately to Bountiful to the home of George’s uncle, Joseph Holbrook, who suggested they go to Willow Creek (Willard) to live. While the family rested in Bountiful, George came north to Willow Creek to survey the possibilities of the family settling there. He returned within a few days and reported favorably. The Harding family arrived in Willard on September 16, 1851. They were not the first to locate in Willard as several families had come early in the spring of 1851.

Immediately the Hardings began to haul logs to build a house. The location was on the present main street about a block south of the town square. They took up about seventy-five acres of land running west from their home to a point west of the present railroad tracks. During the next two years, George was busy with his father and brothers, clearing the land and establishing a home on the new frontier.

In 1853, George Harding went to California with George Grant and others to drive a herd of church cattle. George Grant placed a great deal of responsibility and dependence in George Harding because of his reliability. One evening it was discovered that a number of the cattle were missing from the herd. It was believed that some of the drivers who were questionable characters had purposefully left them behind. Grant sent Harding in a heavy rainstorm to retrace their steps in quest of the cattle. George rode all night and at daybreak located them. Through hard riding, he brought the lost cattle back into the main herd the next day.

George Harding remained in California the next four years. Here he rubbed shoulders with many kinds of men where survival of the fittest seemed to be the unwritten law of the land and where gold seekers would use most any means to accomplish their purposes. George worked at several jobs while in California. One job was that of ranch hand on the ranch of a Mr. Thatcher who came to think a great deal of him and offered him many inducements to stay and locate there permanently.

Once, while taking a ride in a pleasure boat on the ocean with a crowd of people, the boat’s engine all of a sudden began making a grating and discordant noise. The people panicked and a woman next to George attempted to jump overboard. She was saved from doing so through the strong and determined efforts of George.

While a farm hand, George lived one summer at the boarding house of a Mrs. Flint, along with others, many of whom were Mexicans. Here he eventually discovered that food heavily seasoned with red peppers was too hot for Harding.

Late in the fall of 1857, George Harding and his brother, Charles, returned from California. Charles had gone there earlier in the year and worked through the summer as a ranch hand with George. They returned by way of the southern route with some freighters, many of whom were rough and careless men. One evening an Indian came into camp. He was extremely dirty and half dead from want of food and sleep. He was given food and then rolled up in a blanket and went to sleep. In the middle of the night, all were awakened by an explosion. Some of the rough characters had placed gun powder in the Indian’s hair and set a match to it. The hair on one side of his head was burned off, but not the hair on the other half. The Hardings befriended the poor Indian who soon fled in great fear in search of Indian friends and safety.

Early in the spring of 1858, President Brigham Young, then Governor of Utah, called for 150 men to go on an expedition up in the Salmon River (Idaho) country to protect a company of settlers who were being harassed and threatened by a band of Indians. George and Charles Harding were two of the ten men from Willard who volunteered to go. Upon returning, they came by way of old Fort Hall and were surprised to find it practically deserted. Moving on south by way of Bannock Valley, they encountered deep snow and took turns making trails for the horses. Coming on through the Snake River Valley, they discovered the dead bodies of several horses which gave evidence of an Indian raid. Upon close inspection, they found the dead body of  Bailey Lake of North Ogden pierced with many Indian arrows. They packed the body in snow in their wagon box and returned it to sorrowing relatives a few days later.

Johnston’s Army, which had camped in the vicinity of Echo Canyon during the 1857-58 winter, was coming into the Salt Lake Valley in the late spring of 1858. The Mormon settlers had sad experiences in Missouri and Illinois with officers of the law and decided if these soldiers proved hostile, they would move south and leave them only the “scorched earth.” In May 1858, the citizens of Utah, living north of Utah County, abandoned their homes and moved southward into this country leaving only a few men in each community to burn everything in case of hostilities. They decided they would rather burn their possessions than have the soldiers destroy them or appropriate them to their use.

Six or seven young men were left in Willard to apply the match if necessary. George Harding was one of these young men. They made the Harding residence their headquarters. While there, they made lead bullets but had no occasion to use them against the soldiers who marched eventually through Salt Lake Valley without molesting property, after which the Mormon settlers returned to their homes in the northern communities. The soldiers established Camp Floyd over the hill west of Utah Lake. George hauled provisions for the U.S. soldiers while they were camped there. The contract required him to haul provisions one-half the way, where they were transferred to other wagons of another contracting company to be carried to the camp.

George Harding told of an Indian raid in 1859 which had a bearing on his life. During this year, a company of emigrants were traveling west of Marsh Creek (near the present site of Downey, Idaho). The company, composed of several men, two women, and two children, were cautioned not to move on at this time because of ill feelings of the Indians toward white men. They did not heed the warning and the Indians stole their livestock and burned their wagons in Dry Canyon west of Marsh Creek. The emigrants did escape with their lives and subsequently returned to their homes in the east.

George heard about the incident later on and with others went to the scene to obtain wagon tires and other iron left on the spot of the burning. At this time they could not find the ox yokes and log chains, which made them curious. The iron was of great value to the Willard Settlers, as iron was indeed a much needed yet scarce commodity.

Two years later, when George was in the Marsh Creek vicinity on one of his Montana freighting expeditions, he ran across an old Indian who was in the raid. At first he denied his connection with the incident, but finally admitted that the oxen were driven a distance from the scene where they removed the yokes and chains. George went to the place described by the Indian and sure enough, there they were. Result–more needed iron supplies for the Willard pioneers.

During these years, George Harding became a seasoned freighter, making three trips across the plains for emigrants and several freighting trips to Leavenworth, Kansas, Montana, and California. The freight was of various kinds, including stoves, machinery, crockery, tin ware, shoes, and dry goods.

On one of these trips east for emigrants in 1863, he met a vivacious, brown-eyed Welsh

girl, Mary Jones, who more than anyone else was to shape the course of his life from then on, as she became his wife the next year.  

Alice Harding, daughter of George and Mary Jones Harding, wrote the following sketch of her mother’s life.

“Mary Jones Harding, daughter of Benjamin and Esther Davies Jones, was born February 1839 at Lampeter Carmarthenshire, South Wales. Her father, Benjamin Jones, was the son of David and Elenor Morgan Jones. Benjamin Jones was born on a farm called Pandry Manfymith at Mandils, Llanfyhennel, Carmarthenshire, South Wales, January 1, 1814. He died July 22, 1891, at Willard, Utah. Esther Davies Jones was born on a farm called Tanycord near Lampeter Carmarthenshire, South Wales and was buried in Pencareg Church yard.”

Quoting from a sketch of her own life, Mary Jones Harding says, “ My grandfather and

grandmother on my mother’s side were raised close together. The families owned their estates for generations back and were free holders. I was born in the same house that my mother was born in. My father’s family, also my mother’s family, were devout Methodists, very liberal in their ideas and very highly respected, being the wealthiest family in the area in the year 1838.

“My parents commenced their life accordingly with a good farm, and fine prospects, but sickness came and father was advised to move to Glamorganshire. This was just prior to the great cholera epidemic of 1848. The doctors advised him to work at his trade, that of boot and shoe maker. He was also a shoe merchant. Consequently, after my parents were married about five years, they moved to Cayrncoch where some of my father’s family had previously moved. My parents prospered and were doing fine. My sister Eleanor and my brother Evan were both born in this place.

“Again my parents were advised to move, but this time it was by the Methodist denomination. The Methodists wished father to lead the choir and take care of the chapel and cemetery. For about three years everything seemed to go their way, prosperity and contentment filled our home. I was about nine years old.

“In February 1848, we were living in Cadiston Parish. Captain Dan Jones passed through our village, Aterdais, on his way to Swansea to take the steamer for Liverpool and then to America. He brought the gospel of Jesus Christ with him, but it brought a spirit of uneasiness to the village. Some of the people ridiculed him and spoke all manner of bad things about him. A disturbance existed throughout the towns and villages. The people spoke of a new religion. We heard that the ministers of this new religion were poor, miserable-looking creatures.

“In a few weeks, one of the neighbors came to my father to ask him if he had heard these people preach. His answer was, ‘No, and he did not wish to, for they were men who were trying to make money by deceiving the people.’ He told her this to comfort her mind. This woman continued to go to the meetings, then she came to Father. She thought he was wise and intelligent and she could go to him in regard to spiritual affairs for he read the scriptures a great deal. 

“After going to meetings a few times, she dared not go to hear the missionaries, for her family opposed her so. The missionaries still held their meetings by the side of the street. Mrs. Griffiths, for this was the woman’s name, came to father and begged him to go and hear them to give her his opinion, for he could not say what he thought before he heard them. He told her he would go if that would be any satisfaction to her. When the missionaries came again, the following Sunday after the morning meeting, Mrs. Griffiths sent father word that there would be a meeting that afternoon. Father did not know what to do for he had promised to go with the Church of England parson to visit the sick; but as he would have to break one promise, he decided that he could go with the parson another time and to satisfy Mrs. Griffiths he would go to hear the missionaries. He went through some of the back streets and stood in a place where people could not see him.   

“When the parson came to call for father, mother told him that he was not in. He met me outside and wanted to know where my dad was. I told him I did not know. When father came back, mother wanted to know what he thought of the missionaries. He did not make much of an answer. He had some of their books and his own Bible. He read much of the time and we could see that father was uneasy about the doctrine. Shortly afterwards, one of the men came in to talk to father. Father invited him to come into the house for it was wet and miserable to travel. He had dinner and spent the afternoon with us. He came several times after that and father liked the principles and taught them to the family. This brought ill feelings between father and mother. Mother wished father to join the Church of England, for the denomination desired him to join them. They wished to put him in as clerk and he would have a better salary than he had been getting. He did not wish to take mother’s advice. He said he did not wish to give up the Methodist Church just because of money.

“The Latter-day Saints, as the new denomination called themselves, promised father that if he would be baptised by them with a pure motive and a prayerful heart he would have knowledge within himself that theirs was the right church. Under these conditions he made up his mind to try to find out. By this time he observed that these people were hated by their friends and neighbors, still he was determined to try out for himself and, in the course of a few weeks, he was baptised. The baptism took place one Sunday about midnight in July 1849. By this time, mother was willing and she was baptised six weeks later.

“One evening, two of the brethren visited our family and desired to baptize me. After a few hours of conversation, in obedience to my parents’ wishes, I was baptised by brother Hopkin Jones in 1850. In the meantime, father had made it known to the society to which we had belonged, so they ordered him to leave the place in which we had lived free from rent, in twenty-four hours.

“A few days after this I met the clergyman of the Church of England. He inquired of me if my father was a Latter-day Saint. I told him he was. After a long conversation, he told me that father would never go to Heaven, nor would I either if I went to Mormon meetings. He asked if I had been baptised. Being young and fearful, I denied it. He then advised me not to be baptised, gave me a little purse of money, and told me to attend the meetings and school of the Church of England. About this time, another man came to father and asked him to let him have me and my brother, David, who was then eight years old. He said he would care for us and give us a good home and education, but our parents refused to part with us.

“The elders of the Methodist Church came to plead with my father. They asked him to consider the disgrace he had brought upon his family and upon the church that he had been brought up in as also had his people for many years past. The curate and vicar of the Church of England pleaded with our parents not to keep David and me from Sunday and Day school. I well remember how badly I felt when I had to stay away from both of these institutions of learning. I used to cry and plead to go but to no avail. 

“Father tried to get a house in the same village but failed, so we had to move out four miles. My father was ordained an elder and called to preside over a branch, the president of the branch having died after presiding but a few months. Father presided over the branch for nine years. He presided over another branch for four years. During the first nine years, the meetings were held in our home. This made extra labor for us girls. The house always got a thorough cleaning. The floors were uncarpeted and we used to scrub them to ‘snowy whiteness’ with sand; but when the Saints met and if by chance one or two of the elders from Zion were present, our labors seemed as nothing and we felt that we could endure everything while we listened to their teachings. Many of our neighbors and former friends joined in persecuting our parents. Persecutions were heaped upon all of us without mercy, but as a family we all worked together.

“One of the great pleasures of my early girlhood was that which I obtained when conference was held in our district. Many times my brother David and I walked a distance of ten miles to attend choir. We would carry our shoes and stockings in our hands so that we might keep them nice and from wearing out, but just before we got to the place we would put on our shoes and stockings. Upon some of the joyful occasions, we were accompanied by other young people who were just as eager and happy as we were.

“David was a very kind, cheerful and lovable boy and very sincere in his belief in the principles of the gospel. One day he had the misfortune to break the bones in his foot where they joined the leg bones. There was no doctor to set the bones, but the elders were called in and they administered to him and anointed his foot with oil. The bones took their proper places and in the course of a short time they were knitted together so that the break was not noticeable and he was soon able to use his foot as before. Many years after his death and burial in the Willard cemetery, it was deemed advisable to move his body as well as the bodies of others to the new cemetery. My husband, George Harding, with the help of other men, attended to this without my knowledge of the time it was to be accomplished, for he thought it would grieve me too much if I knew they were doing so. After the body had been re-buried, he told me about it. I asked him if he was positive that he had taken up the right body. When he told me that one foot had been separated from the leg bones, I knew he had made no mistake and I was comforted. 

“Almost as soon as we joined the Church, my father could get no work. All our friends were against us, so we sold nearly everything we had to obtain something to eat. We endured persecutions from year to year, doing the best we could according to the counsels given us by the different ones presiding over us. I did the best I could by my parents, brothers, and sisters. I worked as a servant girl in the home of a rich gentleman several years and could have remained there indefinitely. Most of the money I earned I gave to my parents to help provide food and clothing for the family. During this time I had what would be considered a good offer of marriage to a wealthy young man who offered me all that money could buy, if I would denounce Mormonism and marry him and remain in Wales. I refused his proposal and have never regretted it. I then promised the Lord if He would give me a companion, a man who was a good Latter-day Saint with clean habits and who held and exercised the priesthood, that is all I would ask.

“An incident that came with powerful suggestion to my mind about this time, which taught me the seriousness of living and keeping the commandments of God, and respecting and heeding the counsels of those who held the priesthood, I will here relate:  In the minds of some of those who rejected the gospel there was a tendency to revile and curse those who held the priesthood. One of the neighbors was a woman of this type. She derided the idea of the priesthood which upheld the right of God. When her next child was born, the little one had but one arm. She had unwisely cursed the elders who had sought to bring her the peace that accompanies a firm belief in the blessings of God. She was punished severely for her folly, for she was convinced that the cursings she had asked for others had been heaped upon her own head and upon the daughter she bore.

“Twice, money was sent to me to go to ‘The Valley’ but my parents refused to grant me that pleasure. This was a great trial to me, as I loved the company of Saints so much that I have walked many miles with the elders to help them with the singing in ‘outdoor’ meetings. I endured the scoffs directed to me as well as to the elders. When I was twenty-two years old, I got a chance in the spring of 1863 to emigrate with the Saints to Salt Lake City, with my parents’ consent. I left Swansea shore on 28 May 1863 for Liverpool in a small sailing vessel called a packet. My parents and many dear friends came to the wharf to bid me good-bye. I cried pitifully for I knew that some of them I would never see again. This was true, for there I gazed for the last time on the faces of my dear mother and my baby brother, Johnnie. To make the parting easier for me, my little brother Joseph was placed in a barrel and he sang ‘We are coming sister Mary, we are coming bye and bye. Be ready, sister Mary, for the time is drawing nigh.’ Oh, how sweet the tones of his boyish voice and how assuring were the words of the song, how truly comforting.

“We sailed from Liverpool the last of June 1863, on the ship Cynosure. There were in the company about nine hundred Saints. I made many friends on the voyage. We were presided over by the Elders D.M. Stewart and Willard Smith, returning missionaries. The sea voyage lasted seven weeks and five days, then we landed in New York. We traveled to Saint Joseph, Missouri, by railroad. (An incident related by friends of Mary Jones says that the train on which the company of Saints were traveling from New York to St. Joseph was a through train, making very few stops. Many of the company were Welsh immigrants like herself. Mary was very cheerful, obliging and helpful to the new acquaintances in many ways. At one of the stops the train made to take in water for the engine, a little boy belonging to one of the families decided to leave the train. He ran down the aisle and was off the train before he could be stopped. In a flash, Mary Jones was after him, but in order to catch him she had to run around the depot. While she was off the train, it started and was well on its way when she captured him. The parents were frantic, but friends assured them that the little boy would be well cared for in the hands of Mary Jones. Mary, seeing the departing train in the distance, went into the depot and told her trouble to the agent. He assured her that another through train would be along soon and, as it made fewer stops than the first one, it would reach St. Joseph first. Imagine then the surprise of the parents when they got off the train at St. Joseph to find Mary Jones standing on the platform waiting to deliver the little boy to them.) 

“Our company remained in St. Joseph two weeks, then our next move was to Florence, Nebraska, by boat up the Mississippi River, which we had previously crossed four times when we were on the train. When we landed at Florence, I was met by my cousin John L. Edwards. This brought me great joy, for I had not expected to see him. He took me to an eating house to dine, then we went back to the wharf and he loaded my luggage into his wagon and started for camp, which was ten miles away. We reached there an hour after sundown. When I got out of the wagon, supper was ready and my cousin introduced me to the cook, George Harding. He was one of the brethren from the same settlement in which John resided. It was he who later became my life companion. It was now the seventh of August. On the 10th of August, we started to cross the plains. After our assignments were made into companies, a captain was appointed over each company.

“Each captain had in his care fifty wagons. We had for our captain, C.M. Stewart, who was assigned by Willard Smith. We reached Salt Lake City on 4 October 1863, after a long and tiresome journey. There was a good feeling in the bosom of everyone who obeyed those who were appointed to lead and direct them. We had good times too, even if we were more than nine thousand miles from our homes.”

Mary Jones was of a strong, robust nature, and she walked the entire distance of one thousand miles. She was always cheerful and had a very pleasing personality, both of which were assets as she cheered up the sad and put hope and courage into the hearts of many weak, sick, and discouraged associates. She was especially adapted to care for and nourish the sick and afflicted Saints and she willingly responded to every call. One incident is here related of a call to service. One night she was sleeping on her hard bed in a wagon when she was hastily summoned to the bedside of a very sick woman. The husband and wife had their bed on the ground. They had not been married long and the trip across the plains had been too hard for her. In the night she woke her husband and he called to Ned Morgan, a teamster who was then standing, shivering over a smoldering camp fire. Ned hesitated, saying he didn’t like to go where people were sleeping, but went and called Mary Jones. She responded at once, finding the woman lying on the shoulder of her husband, who was trying to support her. Mary rushed to obtain some medicine for the women’s relief but to her sorrow and grief of the husband, the woman passed away the following day. 

All the incidents of life on the plains were not of tragedy as there was comedy mixed in too. It was rumored about the camp one evening that a Mr. Campbell had taken to himself a bride, the marriage ceremony having been performed that day. Immediately it was suggested that, when the bride and groom came to join the circle around the camp fire, everyone would join in singing the song, “The Campbells are coming, Aha, Aha, etc.” This little bit of mirth did the emigrants a great deal of good, but it was rather embarrassing for the newly married couple.

Mary Jones experienced all the thrills that were experienced by other emigrants, including the fording of rivers and stampeding of oxen. In the evening, the programs were especially entertaining. The Welsh people are generally known for their ability to sing and they provided first class entertainment.

“Arriving in Salt Lake City, October 4, 1863, they were just in time to attend the October conference. This event brought many happy meetings and greetings with friends who had already arrived in ‘The Valley’ and had homes in Salt Lake City and elsewhere. On 12 October 1863, Mary left for Willard, Box Elder County, with Brother Jonathan Wright, Judge of Box Elder County. She arrived at the home of her cousin where she stayed for two weeks then she commenced working out.

“She found work in the home of Susan Boothe of Brigham City, with whom she bore a lifelong friendship. She would walk seven miles to Brigham in the morning, do a family washing for thirty-five or fifty cents, then walk back to Willard in the Evening, the distance of fourteen miles. This was hard work, but she had borrowed some money with which to pay her emigration fund and she was anxious to pay it back. Then too, she was anxious for all the members of her father’s family to emigrate to Utah. Judge Jonathan Wright asked her to work for him in his home, which meant a home for her at least. She was so anxious to give valuable service that after the housework for the day was done, she spent the evenings sewing and repairing the clothing for the family. Her work continued until 26 June 1864. During that time, she paid off the debt of her emigration.

“On July 3, 1864, she married George Harding in the Endowment House, Salt Lake City. Wilford Woodruff performed the marriage ceremony.

Four of Mary Jones’ sisters, three brothers, and her father emigrated from Wales to Willard in the years that followed. Her father and mother became estranged over some principles of the gospel and the mother remained in Wales where she died.

Shortly after their marriage, George built a rock addition of three rooms onto the adobe house of his father, where he and Mary lived. They helped to care for George’s parents as long as they lived, and then occupied all of the house. Later, they tore down the adobe part and erected a brick addition to the rock house. It is located across the road west from the southwest corner of the present square and school grounds of the Willard Elementary School.

The family of George and Mary Jones Harding consisted of three sons and seven daughters. The sons are Dwight, Ralph, and George. The daughters are Eliza, who died in infancy, Mary, Nancy, Phebe, Sarah, Alice, and Olive.

During 1867-69, the tracks for the Union Pacific Railroad were being laid in northern Utah where this part of the continental railroad was joined with the tracks of the Central Pacific Railroad at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. George Harding worked for the U.P. Railroad in making the road bed and laying the rails. This proved a great blessing, as it provided much needed money for the wages.

“Write to me and let me know how your health is this winter and mother’s and all the news that is going on. If you know where Dalton or Call or Father Zundel are for I am anxious to know. I have had no letters or papers as yet. Give my best regards to all.” – George Harding

When George left Massachusetts at the completion of his mission, his relatives gave him photos of their families and presents for his two children, which consisted of a little green trunk for Dwight and an engraved silver spoon for Mary.

In the next thirty years of the 1800s, many Mormon emigrants passed through Willard on their way to become settlers in other areas of northern Utah and southern Idaho. These people would camp in the Willard Square across the road east of the Harding home. George and Mary Harding were friendly, hospitable people and willing to share what they had with others. Many of these emigrants remembered with appreciative hearts these acts of charity. Mary P. Jones of Malad related the following incident:

     Our family arrived in Willard late in the afternoon. We were tired, weary, 

hungry, and footsore. As soon as Mary Harding heard we had arrived, she 

came with a fresh loaf of bread under her apron and a pound of good fresh

butter on a plate. I have never tasted anything so good as that bread and butter.

We had not tasted butter for weeks and had almost forgotten what good white 

bread tasted like.

Some emigrants remained in Willard and some of the Harding acres were divided up with them. This was thought of as a regular procedure in building up the country. The earlier settlers in a community established “squatter rights” to large areas of property. Most of the on-coming Saints were poor but eager to carve out a niche for themselves through their own efforts in the mountain-desert wilderness. They were given parcels of land by the earlier settlers on which to do this. Thus, the George Harding estate in Willard shrank to perhaps not more than 15-20 acres of irrigated land and less than this acreage in the mounds west of the U.P. Railroad tracks which are now covered by water in the Willard Bay Reclamation Project.

The mounds property was a series of little hills a few feet high presumably constructed by the Indians before the days of the white man. In these mounds were found Indian pottery, stoneware and rock rolling pins which they used to grind their corn. The area abounded with Indian-made arrowheads, although it did not appear to have been a major burial ground.

During a period in the late 1870s and 1880s, before the Polygamist Manifesto, the Harding home was a refuge for Mormon polygamists upon many occasions. The civil laws were enacted to prevent polygamy and to punish those men with two or more wives and families. Not more than about 3% of the Mormons were polygamists. None of the Hardings were; however, deputy marshals were ever on the alert to apprehend and arrest the polygamists at this time.

One evening, when the Harding family was seated around their comfortable fireplace either studying or going through the spelling match which George conducted regularly for the benefit of his own and neighbors’ children, Mary slipped quietly out of the house thinking she heard someone prowling outside. She startled a deputy sheriff by the name of Snodgrass who was peering through the windows. He thought he might find something to report on polygamists. He was ashamed when discovered and retreated in haste from the premises.

Many times the Hardings sent their son, Ralph, as a small boy on his pony to the south of Willard to watch for the U.S. Marshals. He would sit on the fence at E.P. Cardon’s home and make careful observations of the Marshals approaching from the south. When they were discerned, he would ride his pony at full speed to Willard to sound the alarm. Before the arrival of the officers, all polygamists and their families were safely sheltered. At this time too, the Hardings helped polygamist families such as the Scotts and Owens to settle in other communities.

The Harding home was a refuge for polygamists on many occasions. They were protected, fed, and housed for months at a time. One bedroom was left to be occupied by those who needed protection. Among the women cared for were Amanda Perry, Philene Hall, Mrs. Ben Tolman, Mrs. William Watterson, and others. It was not uncommon for the Hardings to receive a note asking them to receive and entertain women and children until they were returned to their homes. They understood the request and asked no questions.

Many friends from communities north of Willard made the Harding home their “hotel” when going to and from General Conference in Salt Lake City. They would drive into the yard by wagon loads and were always welcomed. Here they found accommodations for themselves and their horses. On one such occasion, the Hardings entertained forty guests in their home. The guests provided their own bedding, but all were given a substantial supper and breakfast and made to feel genuinely welcome.

For over twenty years, George and Mary J. Harding had charge of the receiving, distributing, and accounting for the Willard Ward fast offerings. Procedures in this regard were much different than they are today. For instance, a large flour bin was placed near the door of the home, into which flour was received from donors. It was weighed and the pounds and price was credited to the donor. When it was disbursed, the accounting was similar for the recipient. The time spent in this activity amounted to many days in a year, which not only took time and effort but patience and skill as well.

Mary Harding also had charge of the Relief Society granary where wheat was received and disbursed. When the wheat was let out on loans, she had charge of the loan accounts.

For many years, Mary Harding made and furnished the bread for sacrament use in Sunday School and Sacrament meetings in the Willard Ward. The bread was made on Saturday. Sunday morning it was sliced and put on a plate in a basket covered by a white linen napkin. Each Sunday, her husband carried the basket to and from the meetinghouse.

This generation of Hardings lived in a day of self-sufficiency. It was an era where self initiative, imagination, thrift, and many self-taught skills and abilities determined the degree of abundance in living. Sugar was scarce and fruit was preserved in molasses, which was derived from sorghum grown on the home farm. Wheat was taken to the “grist mill” and ground into flour which was stored away in a dry place in the fall in sufficient quantity for the coming year. Hogs and beef were slaughtered in early winter. Home cured hams and bacon were an important commodity in the meat larder. The surplus fat was used to make soap, and wax from the family beehives was used to make candles. The sheep were shorn, the wool washed and spun into yarn on the spinning wheel. The yarn then was made into cloth on looms by family members.

The vegetable garden was one with a great variety of vegetables for year round use. Leafy and root vegetables were abundant in summer as was sweet corn which was dried for winter use. Squash, potatoes, carrots, table beets, and cabbage were appropriately stored for winter. Nearly all the food was home grown. The aesthetic side of living was not neglected. Mary Harding was a lover of flowers and took great pride in the appearance of her flower garden.

When the General Board of the Relief Society sponsored the silk (sericulture) industry, Mary Harding entered into the movement whole-heartedly and was one of the most successful sericulturists in Utah. In her home, the eggs were hatched into silkworms. They were fed mulberry leaves which were gathered by basketfulls by herself and her daughters. The worms eventually pupated and the cocoons formed, from which the silk was spun into skeins. These were sent to Salt Lake and made into cloth. This was returned in the form of many yards of silk cloth and from this dresses, handkerchiefs, and other valued apparel were made.

Mary Harding was an exceptionally energetic and industrious person and used every effort to the utmost in producing a maximum amount of silk skeins. One room in the Harding house was cleared in the summer for silkworms. When the worms began to pupate, tree branches were brought into the room, on which the cocoons attached themselves. The daughters did the spinning and the reeling of the silk. One year, 150 yards of silk dress goods were produced. This was enough for a dress for Mary and each of her six daughters, besides many waists, handkerchiefs, and other items. A bounty was given by the state to encourage the industry.

(Photo of George Harding and Mary Jones Harding)

(Photo of Dwight Benjamin Harding on a horse)

(Photo of George and Mary Jones Harding home in Willard, Utah)

One of the common pastimes in the Harding home on winter evenings was the popping of corn and the making of molasses candy. The Harding children and the neighbors’ children made merry on such occasions.

Another important home-featured activity on winter evenings was the tearing and sewing of rags for homemade carpets. In the summer, activities centered around the drying of corn, the making of soap, and the dressing of chickens (for the store) so that feathers might be had for pillows and mattresses. The fall season brought its fruit drying and the making of apple cider and vinegar.

Quilt making, principally in the fall, winter, and spring, was an important activity participated in by the family and neighbors. At one time, there were seventy-two quilts in the Harding house ready for use by those who needed them.

Cutting wood in Willard canyon and hauling it home was an autumn activity of George and the boys. The canyon was very steep and braking the wagons required careful diligence and skill. Cutting up the dry wood into convenient stove and fireplace lengths was a job for late fall and winter days. Until the years before his death, George Harding took great pride in the appearance of his woodpile. The wood lengths never varied more than an inch and they were always piled up in meticulous fashion. George Harding was an expert with the saw and the ax.

Mary Harding had an unusually clear soprano voice and was invited to use it when the 

Willard choir was first organized under the leadership of Professor Evan Stephens, himself a native of Wales. The Hardings purchased one of the first, if not the first organ in Willard and Evan Stephens frequented their home to practice on it. Mary continued her membership in the choir for twenty-two years under the leadership of such musicians as Shadrach Jones, Louis Edwards, and R.B. Baird.

Mary taught classes in the Willard Sunday School for forty-five years and was an officer in the Relief Society for forty-five years, serving in the local association and as a counselor to President Susanna P. Boothe in the Box Elder Stake Relief Society. She was personally acquainted with all of the General Relief Society presidents except Emma Smith, to the time of Clarissa Smith Williams and entertained them in her home.

The Harding children were, of course, in a home of great spiritual fervor. As with most pioneer families, the church was kept first and foremost in the minds of the children. Education, too, received great emphasis and most of the children, after attending “Brother Chandler’s school in Willard, received some schooling at the Brigham Young College in Logan.” The children were taken to Logan in the fall by horse-drawn wagons loaded with provisions for “batching it” with other students in rented rooms in the homes of Logan residents. Money in these days was not plentiful, but the old cliché “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” was taught with great seriousness of purpose and did much to contribute to young people’s education by way of building up determination and desire.

(Photo of Harding store, Willard, Utah)

(Photo of old Willard school house)

(Photo of Willard Depot)

(Photo of George Harding and Elizabeth Harding Zundell)

While George Harding was rather retiring in nature, his wife, Mary, was active in civic affairs as well as in church leadership activities. When Utah became a state, Mary was one of the staunchest advocates of women’s rights and women’s suffrage, doing much to promote the movement. She was the first woman in Box Elder County to serve as school trustee and held this office for two terms.

In November, 1912, Mary was stricken with dropsy of the heart. Through the winter she was given the best of loving care by her daughter, Mary, and received frequent visits from her other children. A few days before her death on April 29, 1913, she called her children and husband to her bedside where they formed a prayer circle in family prayer. She reminded them that death was near, but to bear up with courage and live exemplary lives, at the same time bearing her testimony as to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Following Mary’s death, George Harding was well cared for during the next nine years by his daughter, Mary, and his son, Dwight, who lived with him. Throughout his life, he observed regularity in his temperament, meals, and hours of sleep. His usual course for the day was to have breakfast at six in the morning, lunch at twelve noon, and super at six in the evening. The routine rarely varied. The sun was his guide and he did not believe in working himself, his helpers or his animals overtime.

At a quarterly conference of the Box Elder Stake in about December, 1917, George Harding was called upon to relate his boyhood experiences at Nauvoo and to bear his testimony as to the truthfulness of the gospel. Before a large audience, he related with clarity and conviction his early experiences and of his great admiration for Joseph Smith, the Prophet. This was in his eighty-fourth year. Though he lived to be nearly ninety years old, neither his memory nor his mentality failed him. Recent events were as clear in his mind to the last hour of his life as were the remote ones early in his life.

Four years previous to his death, which occurred at Willard on March 7, 1922, he fell from a ladder, breaking his leg. He was nursed back to almost usual health through the loving care of his daughter, Mary. He again broke his leg on a stair in his home, but recovered from his injury so that he could walk again by use of a cane. He always attributed his long life to active and temperate living.

The children of George and Mary Jones Harding and their posterity include:

Dwight Benjamin Harding

Dwight Harding, the eldest child of George and Mary Jones Harding, was born in Willard, Utah, on August 18, 1865. He attended the public school in Willard and pursued his studies further at the Brigham Young College in Logan. When he was a boy, a bad case of erysipelas cost him the sight in one eye. He was a strong, robust man and delighted in being around horses and cattle and breaking broncos.

(Photo of the Family of George and Mary Jones Harding)

(Photo of Mary Jones Harding and Her Daughters)

As a young man, Dwight obtained employment as a rider (cowhand) with the old Bar M Ranching Co., at Promontory, Utah, which was the largest cattle company in Box Elder County at the time and was reported to have had over 30,000 cattle on the ranges of northern Utah, southern Idaho, and eastern Nevada. Dwight’s love for horses and cattle made him a favorite with the company management where he was given a job of trust and responsibility as cattle foreman.

Dwight also worked for a number of other cattle companies in northern Utah and southern Idaho.

In later years, Dwight had his own cattle operation, often purchasing stocker cattle in the spring, grazing them on the range through summer, and selling them in the fall.

When his father passed away in 1923, he acquired the farm in Willard and purchased a section of range land on the Paradise Creek in southern Cache Valley where he grazed cattle until the 1930s. His brand was a quarter circle U on the right ribs and his ear mark was both ears cropped. His cattle had one dewlap waddle and an ear tag in the right ear.

Dwight Harding was a real outdoor cattleman with no love in his heart for sheep men or cattle rustlers. He was an impressive sight mounted on a horse with chaps, boots, spurs, plaid shirt, red bandanna handkerchief around his neck and wearing a ten-gallon cowboy hat. He had good equipment in saddles and bridles. His nephews well remember his two black saddle horses, the favorite being “Old Midnight” and later two strawberry roans. He loved to joke with young fellows. When cattle prices were up and he was prospering, he was jovial with everybody; when the reverse came as it did at times, he was conspicuous by his silence and meditation.

Dwight Harding never married, although he carried a picture in his wallet of a girl he once loved and showed it occasionally to close friends.

In his declining years, he lived alone in the old family home in Willard and spent many a long evening by himself playing solitare. At the time of his death, Dwight was a member of the Box Elder Stake High Priest Quorum.

Dwight Harding was about six feet-two inches tall, stood erect and weighed about 230 pounds in the years of his prime. The period of his declining years closed an era in the western cattle industry when there was no more free open rangeland for grazing. The National Forest Act and later the Taylor Grazing Act passed by the Congress ended the days of free grazing in the wide open spaces of Utah and other western states. 

One achievement that particularly pleased Dwight Harding was the publishing of the following original poem by him in an Ogden Livestock Show Journal in about 1933. 

*LOOKING BACKWARD

By Dwight B. Harding

When I was young I rode the range I loved the bronco’s plunge and leap

And thought that men were passing strange I hated rattlesnakes and sheep,

Who lived their lives in cities dense I loved the lariat to whirl

And I unhampered by a fence. And seldom thought of any girl.

I loved the mountain’s heady air Our ranch was called the Big Bar “M”

And waving pines and pastures fair. And when we gathered round to talk

I loved the pine cone’s spicy scent At even’ by the cheerful fire,

The fleecy clouds that came and went. Each tried to be the biggest liar.

I loved the round-up’s heavy work And strange indeed the tales we told

And never thought to sulk or shirk Of cows and wolves and hidden gold

When storms swept down with howl and shriek Which some day we would surely find,

From jagged crest and savage peak. Till sleep at last claimed every mind.

But lived with ever growing zest Oh, would those days could come again

A life which seemed to me the best, And we once more could just be men

For was I not all free from care Who lived and rode and drank and fought

And had I not the best of fare? And in such things our pleasures sought.

What city man could come with me But now alas, the range is gone,

To where beneath some spreading tree Gone is the wolf, the bear, the fawn,

The cook had spread his pots and pans The boys are scattered far and wide.

And beans ne’er came from small tin cans. And very few can shoot or ride.

Where smell of pot roast on the breeze But this I know, though scattered wide

Invited us to take our ease, At business, farm, or foreside,

While coffee in the big tin cup, They oft remember all the joys

Was strong enough to stand us up. They loved so much when they were boys.

*Published also in “History of Box Elder County” by Lydia Forsgren, et al in about 1940.

(Photo of Mary Lucretia Harding)

(Photo of Alice Charlotte Harding)

(Photo of Phebe Elizabeth Harding)

(Photo of George Harding and John Edwards)

Eliza Ann Harding

Eliza Ann Harding, second child of George and Mary Jones Harding, was born August 24, 1867, in Willard, Utah. At the age of two, she died (December 4, 1869) and was buried in the Willard Cemetery.

Mary Lucretia Harding

Mary Harding, the third member of the George and Mary Jones Harding family was born  in Willard August 6, 1869. Like many members of the family who followed her, she was a member of James J. Chandler’s school in Willard. Later, she took a course in dressmaking in Mrs. Morrell’s Dressmaking School in Logan. Upon returning to Willard, she “took in dressmaking” and was actively engaged in this activity for a number of years.

(Photo of Ralph Joseph and Martha Williams Harding Family)

(Photo of Don Lewis and Janet Riggle Harding)

(Photo of Ralph Willaim and Kathryn Alsen Harding and Family)

(Photo of Obed C. Haycock)

(Photo of Mary Harding Haycock)

(Photo of Carl Duaine and Martha Jean Haycock Gardiner and Family)

As a young woman, Mary Harding displayed unusual ability in caring for the sick as a practical nurse. This was long before the days of registered and licensed practical nurses. Soon Mary became regarded as the outstanding nurse in southern Box Elder County and especially in the field of obstetrics. She assisted doctors in bringing many babies into the world in this area. As a nurse, she was associated for many years with her cousin, Dr. George F. Harding, in Brigham City and later with his brother, Dr. Jacob Dwight Harding in Brigham and Ogden.

After her mother passed away in 1913, she came to Willard to be with her aging father to whom she gave loving care until his death ten years later. Mary lived with her brother, Dwight, in the old Harding home in Willard the rest of her life.

Mary Harding never married. She was active as a young woman in the Church auxiliary organizations of the Sunday School, the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association, and in later years in the Relief Society.

One of Mary’s sisters once made this remark, “Mary did more good in helping people than all the rest of us sisters put together.” This is an especially appropriate remark upon which the Hardings in the latter part of the twentieth century might contemplate, for we are living in a period when the philosophy of “not how much can I give, but how much can I get” seems so prevalent.

Mary did not possess a fortune of worldly wealth in her lifetime, but certainly somewhere in a sunnier clime she must indeed be a most wealthy soul. The awards in personal satisfactions from unselfish service surely live on forever with us eternally!

“An angel of mercy” is a phrase that aptly describes the life of Mary Harding. She was a hard working, unselfish, devoted friend to the sick, the needy, and the poor. The day was never too long, the night too dark, nor the distance too far for Mary Harding to provide help to those in need when her services were desired and she was ever on the alert to offer a helping hand.  Many people now living are heard to say, “God bless the memory of Mary Harding.”

Ralph Joseph and Martha Williams Harding Family

Ralph Joseph, the fourth child of George and Mary Jones Harding was born in Willard, Box Elder County, Utah, on June 6, 1871. He attended “Brother Chandler’s School” in Willard and the Brigham Young College in Logan. Ralph was a fine athlete, distinguishing himself especially in baseball. He fulfilled an L.D.S. mission to the Eastern States and as a young man, he went to Malad, Idaho, where he operated a meat market and grocery store. He later entered the employment of the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company of which he was Malad Branch manager for many years.

Ralph J. Harding was active in politics as an ardent Democrat. He served in the Malad City Council, was a county commissioner for Oneida County and was mayor of Malad for several terms. He served on the local school board for twelve years. For eight terms he was a state senator in the Idaho Senate and was once a candidate for Congress in Idaho’s Second District.

Always active in church work, he was a High Priest in the L.D.S. Church, served as a counselor in the bishopric, was a member of the Oneida Stake High Council for many years and held numerous offices in church auxiliaries.

Ralph married Martha Williams of Henderson Creek, Oneida County, Idaho, in the Salt Lake Temple. She, like her husband, was an active church worker as an officer and teacher in the ward and stake M.I.A. and Primary organizations. 

Martha Williams Harding died on January 27, 1911, leaving her husband with three small children. Ralph never remarried and was assisted for many years by his sister, Alice, in rearing his family until they made homes of their own. 

The three children of Ralph J. and Martha Williams Harding and their families are as follows:

Mary Harding (Haycock) was born November 7, 1900, in Malad City, Oneida County, Idaho. She married Obed C. Haycock of Burley, Idaho, in the Salt Lake Temple. She was educated in the Malad schools and attended Utah State University in Logan. Always active in church and community activities, Mary was a member of the Malad Stake Primary Board at age sixteen. She was an officer or teacher in ward and stake Primary organizations in Salt Lake City for over 30 years. For many years she was organist of the Grandview Ward Relief Society in Salt Lake City. While her family was of school age, she was an active P.T.A. member. She served for a term as president of the University of Utah Engineering Wives’ Club.

Mary traveled extensively with her husband to conferences and conventions related to his activities in electrical and missile research. Her death in Salt Lake occurred October 26, 1963.

Obed C. Haycock graduated from the University of Utah and obtained a master’s degree in engineering from Purdue University. For many years he was a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Utah and, since 1957, has been Director of Upper Air Research at this university. From 1954 – 1959, the Haycocks owned and operated radio station KLGN in Logan as an avocational interest and sideline.

Children of Mary Harding and Obed C. Haycock include the following:

Martha Jean Haycock (Gardner) is married to Gail Gardner of Vernal, Utah, where they now live. Martha Jean graduated from East High School. In Vernal, she is active in P.T.A. activities and is a Sunday School teacher. Gail is a mail carrier, farms and works in scouting. They are the parents of five children: Patricia, Connie Jean, Michael Duaine, David Jay, and Bette. 

(Photo of Richard Obed and Peggy Elaine McNair Haycock and Family)

(Photo of Hugh Ralph and Joan Carol Hart Haycock and Family)

(Photo of Roland Sanford and Mary Lois Haycock Porter and Family)

(Photo of Don Harding Haycock)

(Photo of Benjamin and June Yearsley Harding)

(Photo of Ralph Ray and Wilhemina Conrad Harding and Family)

(Photo of Alice Kay and John Harding Miller)

(Photo of Gaylen and Nadine Harding Cox and Family)

(Photo of Ralph Ray Harding and President John F. Kennedy)

Don Harding Haycock graduated from the University of Utah in 1957 in mechanical engineering. He began work with Westinghouse in Pittsburgh and transferred with this company one year later to the Pacific coast. He later entered the employment of Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles where he is presently working on the Discovery Space Craft Program which is primarily concerned with getting a man to the moon in the next few years.

Ralph Hugh Haycock graduated from the University of Utah in 1961 in mechanical engineering. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Joan Hart Haycock and their family. Ralph is employed with the University of Utah Engineering Research Station where he is engaged in research of the upper atmosphere. Their five children are: Pamela, Debra, Mary Elizabeth, Anne, and Alice Jane.

Richard Obed Haycock attended the University of Utah and is employed by the International Business Machines Co. in Salt Lake City in the maintenance of computers. He is active in church work and scouting. He lives with his wife, Peggy Lee Haycock, and their five children in Salt Lake City. Their children are: Richard Scott, Sharyn Lee, Linda Diane, and Kent Thomas.

Mary Lois Haycock (Porter) attended Utah State University and the University of Utah where she majored in home economics. She is married to Roland S. Porter and is presently engaged in the dual role of homemaker and secretary. Roland is completing his studies in education at the University of Utah. They have two children: Michelle and Roland Scott.

Ralph William Harding, eldest son of Ralph J. and Martha Williams Harding, was born July 10, 1902, in Malad City, Oneida County, Idaho. He attended Utah State University and the University of Idaho where he graduated in 1925. Since this time, he has been an athletic coach, teacher, and administrator in Idaho high schools. He also maintains a farm and livestock operation in Malad. He married Kathryn Olson of Downey, Idaho, in the Salt Lake Temple. She graduated from Downey High School and attended an art school in California.

Both Ralph and Kathryn have been active in church, civic, and community organizations. Kathryn has served in ward and stake YWMIA, Primary, and Relief Society organizations and is well known for her flower arranging and handwork. Ralph is a past director of the Chamber of Commerce and Lions Clubs. He served on ward and stake YMMIA and Sunday School boards.

He was a counselor in a bishopric for seven years and a member of the Malad Stake High Council for five years, a position he presently holds. Ralph and Kathryn Harding live in Malad, Idaho. Their seven children include the following: 

Ralph Ray Harding was born September 9, 1929, in Malad, Idaho. He graduated from Malad High School, attended the University of Utah and graduated from Brigham Young University in 1956. While a student at B.Y.U., he served a term in the Idaho Legislature as a representative from Oneida County. He was elected to the United States Congress from Idaho Second District in 1960, and was re-elected in 1962. Congressman Harding was a member of the House Agriculture Committee and was instrumental in getting through Congress the authorization for the $52 million Lower Teton and the $7 million Ririe projects, the first newly started water projects for Idaho’s Second District since 1948. He firmly supported Utah’s Dixie Water Project and supported important national legislation during his four years in Congress, among which were the Peace Corps, Tax Reduction Act, Sugar Act of 1962, Rural Housing Act of 1961, Food for Peace, Civil Rights Act, Social Security Improvement Act of 1961, and many others. Ralph is a Democrat like his father and grandfather before him.

(Photo of Joyce Harding Freidenberger and Family)

(Photo of Sgt. George R. Freidenberger)

(Photo of Gaylen J. Cox and Family)

(Photo of George Robert Harding and Family)

(Photo of Owen Miller and Alice Kaye Harding Miller)

Ralph served two years as an L.D.S. missionary in the Central States Mission. He is a Korean War veteran and a captain in the Army Reserves. He is active in church and civic activities.

Ralph Harding married Wilhelmina Conrad of Iona, Idaho, in the Idaho Falls Temple and they are the parents of two boys and two daughters: Ralph David, Cherie, Charlene, and John Kennedy. They presently live in Alexandria, Virginia.

Joyce Ludean Harding (Freidenberger) was born September 26, 1930, in Jerome, Idaho. She graduated from Malad High School and attended Utah State University in Logan, after which she was employed as a telephone operator in Pocatello, Idaho. She married George Freidenberger of LaJunta, Colorado. This marriage was later solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple. Joyce is active in the Primary and Relief Society organizations. George is a career man in the U.S. Marines in the Pacific Area. They are parents of two daughters, Anna Kathryn and Betty Diane and presently live in Santa Anna, California.

Cliss Nadine Harding (Cox) was born July 15, 1932, in Malad, Idaho. She graduated from Malad High School and attended Brigham Young University. She was employed as a secretary at Hill Air Force Base at Clearfield, Utah, and also at Brigham Young University, and for the Geneva Steel Company at Orem, Utah. She married Gaylen J. Cox of Manti in the Salt Lake Temple. Gaylen is a graduate of B.Y.U. and presently is a pharmaceutical salesman. He is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Nadine is active in P.T.A. and community concert work. She received her YWMIA Golden Gleaner Award in 1962, has been active in ward and stake MIA activities and at present is president of South Bountiful Stake YWMIA. Gaylen and Nadine have three daughters: Catherine Jean, Carolyn, and Calene, and live in Bountiful, Utah.

Alice Kay Harding (Miller) was born December 22, 1934, in Malad, Idaho. She graduated from Malad High School and attended Brigham Young University, after which she worked as a secretary in several oil companies. She married Owen Miller of Hyde Park, Utah, and they are presently living in Toronto, Canada, where he is comptroller of Kennecott Copper Company’s Canadian operations. They are parents of one son, John Harding Miller. 

George Robert Harding was born June 12, 1936, in Malad, Idaho. He graduated from Malad High School, after which he attended Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, and Utah State University in Logan, Utah. He married Kathleen Smith. Robert is employed by the FAA as an electronics technician in Malad. He is active in YMMIA and in community activities. Robert and Kathleen are the parents of one son and one daughter: Robert Lane and Holly Kay. They live in Malad, Idaho.

Don Lewis Harding was born September 13, 1936, in St. Anthony, Idaho. He graduated from Malad High School, after which he attended Snow College and Brigham Young University. He graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he entered law school in the fall of 1964. Don fulfilled a mission to England and is serving as a Sunday School teacher in his ward in Washington, D.C.

Thomas Hal Harding was born May 9, 1947, in Malad, Idaho, where he is presently attending high school. He is active in scouting, having just received the Duty to God award. He is active in 4-H Club work, in high school athletics, and lives with his parents in Malad, Idaho.

Benjamin W. Harding, second son of Ralph J. and Martha Williams Harding, was born November 24, 1905, in Malad, Idaho. His childhood and younger years were spent in Malad, where he graduated from Malad High School. After this, he attended Brigham Young College in Logan for one year. From 1925-1927, he served as an L.D.S. missionary in Canada. Upon returning home, he continued his schooling at the University of Idaho Southern Branch in Pocatello.

In December 1930, Benjamin married June Yearsley of Woodruff, Idaho, in the Logan Temple. At the age of fourteen, June became secretary of her ward Primary Association and in 1964 she received a Primary pin for Twenty-five years of faithful service as a Primary worker. At present, she is second counselor in her ward Primary Association,

Down through the years, Ben has served in various capacities in the church auxiliary organizations.

For many years, the family lived in Malad, later moving to Pullman, Washington, and then to Moscow, Idaho, where they now reside.

Benjamin W. and Ruth Yearsley Harding have the following children and grandchildren:

Gerald Ben Harding, born in Malad, Idaho, April 2, 1932. He graduated from Malad High School. He attended Washington State University in Pullman and Utah State University in Logan, Utah, from which school he received a baccalaureate degree. He served for one year in Korea in the U.S. armed forces. In 1952, he married Verna Ann Bailey of Downey, Idaho, the marriage later being solemnized in the Logan Temple.

Gerald is presently engaged as a high school coach and mathematics teacher at Buhl, Idaho.

Both Gerald and Verna Ann are active church members in the auxiliary organizations of their ward. They are the parents of five children: Gerald Dee, Teri Ann, Larry Dean, Cindy Gay, and Robert Ray.

Dwight Conrad Harding was born in Malad, Idaho, in 1933. He graduated from Moscow High School in Moscow, Idaho, after which he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and is making it his career. He was married in Japan to Chicko Kanari. To this union were born two children: Helen Kanari Harding and David Kanari Harding. They are stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Mattie Louise Harding was born in Malad in 1934, and lived only one month, dying from pneumonia. June Gay Harding (Scott) was born in Malad, Idaho, on November 11, 1935, and graduated from Pullman High School located in Pullman, Washington. After graduation, she was employed by the First Security Bank until she married Stanley Earl Scott in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Stanley graduated from Pullman High School and is employed as a salesman by the Pacific Fruit Company. June and Stanley are the parents of two children: Patricia Ann and Stanley Gregory Scott. They live in Lewiston, Idaho.

James Merrill Harding was born in Malad on July 18, 1938, and graduated from Moscow High School in Moscow, Idaho. After graduation he was married to Leslie Bea Leavitt, also a graduate of Moscow High School. They are the parents of two boys: James Merrill, Jr. and Gerald Kay Harding (deceased).

Erma Pauline Harding (Meyerhoeffer) was born in Malad, Idaho, on December 6, 1939, and graduated from Moscow High School. She attended the University of Idaho. She is married to Gerald Robert Meyerhoeffer, who received a baccalaureate degree in business from the University of Idaho and a master’s degree from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. He is employed by the Idaho State Department of Employment Security as a counselor. The Meyerhoeffers have three children: Teresa Dee, Christopher Lee, and Stephen David. They live in Moscow, Idaho.

Tamra Sue Harding was born in Moscow, Idaho, on February 20, 1952, and is a student at Moscow Junior High School. She is active in church activities, music, and 4-H Club and lives with her parents in Moscow.

Nancy Ann Harding and Mark Leslie Nichols Family

Nancy Ann Harding, the fifth child of George and Mary Jones Harding, was born in Willard, Utah, on July 4, 1873. She attended public school in Willard and a private millinery school in Ogden, Utah. After this she was a clerical worker in the Harding Store in Willard, operated by George and Charles Harding.

MISSING PAGES –  (Missing is the rest of the history of child number five, Nancy Ann Harding, and her family and most of the family of child number six, George David Harding, and his family. The history picks up again with the children of George David Harding’s daughter, Margaret, and her two sons.

…California three years later. They then went to La Jolla, California, where Claude became a faculty member of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Margaret moved back to Logan in 1949, where she was a laboratory technician with the Budge Clinic. She obtained her master’s degree in education and has since taught elementary school in the Cache School District. Margaret has two children, Karl Mark Zobell (ZoBell) and Dean Harding Zobell (ZoBell).

Karl Mark Zobell (ZoBell) graduated from Logan High School and did his college undergraduate work at Utah State University, Columbia University in New York, and Stanford University, where he graduated with a law degree. During this period, he also served his country for three years with the Coast Guard in the Pacific Area. In the meantime, he married Janet Tener Reilly of Montclair, New Jersey, in 1954. (Later divorced).  After graduation from Stanford, the ZoBells moved to LaJolla, California, where Karl was engaged in the practice of law.

Karl and Janet have five children: Bonnie Jarvis, Elizabeth, Karen Margaret, Claude Tener, and Mary Helen.

Dean Harding Zobell (ZoBell) graduated from Logan High School in three years, where he received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to the University of Utah in the first such group of scholars in Utah. Upon graduation from the University of Utah, he went to the University of California, where he received a doctor’s degree in medicine. He married Jane Elizabeth Hay of Salt Lake City in the Salt Lake Temple.

Upon completion of his internship and residency in San Francisco, Dean and Jane went to Key West, Florida, where Dean served his country in the government’s Key West Hospital. 

The Zobells (ZoBells) moved to Salt Lake City in 1963 where they now reside. They have four children: James Bruce, Ann Ruth, Elizabeth, and Susan.

Phebe Elizabeth Harding

Phebe Harding, seventh child of George and Mary Jones Harding, was born January 18, 1877, in Willard. She received her early schooling in James J. Chandler’s school and graduated from the old Box Elder High School in Brigham City. She then attended Brigham Young College in Logan for three years, graduating with a teacher’s certificate from its normal school.

Her first teaching assignment was at Portage, Utah, for one year. Then she returned home to Willard and taught at the Willard Elementary School for the next nine years.

In 1908 she received a mission call from the L.D.S. Church and for two years labored in the Central States Mission with headquarters at Independence, Missouri, where Samuel O. Bennion was mission president. While there, she visited many of the scenes of her father’s activities and experiences as a young man when he lived in Nauvoo and other communities of early L.D.S. Church history. Letters written to her father at this time describing her activities pleased him very much and he, in turn, directed her to the exact locations of his experiences when a boy and young man in this area.

Returning from her mission, Phebe Harding lived in Malad, Idaho, for a short time with her brother, Ralph. His wife, Mattie, passed away in 1911 leaving a family of three small children. Phebe returned to Willard, where she taught school for a few years and in Brigham City for a year before accepting a position at Brigham Young College in Logan as principal of the Brigham Young Training School. During this period, she received a baccalaureate degree from Brigham Young University in Provo.

When Brigham Young College was closed by the Church in about 1926, Phebe Harding became principal of the Whittier Elementary School in Logan, after which she was employed as a teacher in the Logan Junior High School from 1930 until her retirement from the public schools in 1941. During the next two years, she was employed by the L.D.S. Church as a teacher in the Logan High School Seminary.

Phebe Harding was an excellent teacher, always weighing carefully standards of excellence in terms of the learning abilities of individual students. The person in the student always received primary consideration. Many students who attended Phebe Harding’s classes might have been school dropouts if it had not been for her personal interest and understanding of their problems in school and at home. One successful businessman in later years said, “What success I have attained in business, I owe primarily to a change in my thinking while a Junior High student, brought about through the personal interest shown in me by that great teacher, Phebe Harding.”

Throughout her life, Phebe has always been active in church work. She was a librarian in the Primary Association. She was a teacher in the first religion class in the Willard Ward. At one time she was a member of the Box Elder Stake Sunday School Board, and was president of the Willard Ward Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association. While a faculty member at BYC, she was a member of the General Church Board of Religion Classes and a member of the Logan Stake Board of Religion Classes, as well as a member of the Logan Stake Sunday School Board.

After retirement, Phebe Harding has lived in the old George Harding home in Willard, where she annually receives numerous visits and communications from former students, friends, and associates made throughout the long years of her active life.

Sarah Azuba Harding and Clarence Eugene Horsley Family

Sarah Harding, the eighth child of George and Mary Jones Harding, was born October 20, 1878, in Willard, Utah. She married Clarence E. Horsley, son of William and Elizabeth Welch Horsley on January 18, 1905, in the Salt Lake Temple. They made their home in Brigham City, Utah, where they lived all their married lives.

Sarah attended Brother Chandler’s School in Willard and Brigham Young College in Logan, after which she taught school in Malad from 1901-1902 and in the Box Elder County Schools for the next two or three years.

(Photo of Clarence Eugene and Sarah Azuba Harding Horsley)

(Photo of Clarence LeGrande and Doril White Horsley and Family)

Clarence fulfilled a mission to England from 1906-1908. Upon returning home, he entered into business with his father and brothers which was known as the Wm. C. Horsley and Sons Co. For nearly fifty years, this firm operated a mercantile store, a fruit and vegetable marketing business, a fruit orchard south of Brigham City, and a dry farm on the Promontory in Box Elder County.

Clarence and Sarah Horsley were devoted church workers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For over twenty years, Clarence was a member of the Box Elder Stake Sunday School Board. Sarah held many church positions including president of the Box Elder Stake Primary Board and president of the Brigham City Second Ward Relief Society, teacher in Sunday School, assistant supervisor of the religion classes and secretary of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers local chapter in Brigham City.

Clarence Horsley died on December 30, 1933, within a few days after an automobile accident which occurred near the Horsley farm on the Promontory. His funeral was held in the Box Elder Stake Tabernacle and was attended by one of the largest gatherings to ever assemble on such an occasion, indicating the high esteem in which he was held as a friend, in church work, and as a civic leader in the community.

Clarence and Sarah Horsley had two sons: Clarence LeGrande and George Harding Horsley.

Clarence LeGrande Horsley was born February 2, 1910, in Brigham City, Utah, and graduated from Box Elder High School and obtained a bachelor’s degree from Utah State University. He married Doril White of Willard, Utah, daughter of Ephraim and Martha Eliza Owens White, in the Logan Temple. They first made their home in Washakie, Utah, where they both taught the Washakie Indian children in the public school there. The next year, they moved to Malad, Idaho, where LeGrande taught school in the L.D.S. Seminary. He served as bishop of the Malad Third Ward for six years. From Malad, the Horsleys moved to Logan, where LeGrande was associated with the J.C. Penney Co. for two years. They then moved to Salt Lake City, where LeGrande was associated with the J.C. Penney Co. there and later to Shelley, Idaho, for one year with J.C. Penney.

The Horsleys then came to Brigham City, where LeGrande taught at the Box Elder Seminary until the time of his death on September 28, 1960, at which time he was principal. LeGrande was bishop of the Brigham City Second Ward for several years, mayor of Brigham City from 1953 to 1957, member of the Box Elder Stake High Council, member of the executive committee of the Golden Spike Council of the Boy Scouts of America, vice-president of the Brigham City Rotary Club, and incoming president of this club at the time of his death.

Doril, too, has been very active in church and community activities in all of the communities in which she has lived. After LeGrande’s death, she became a school teacher in the elementary schools in Brigham City. 

LeGrande and Doril Horsley are the parents of three children:  Brent LeGrande, Martha Claire and William White Horsley.

Brent Horsley graduated from Box Elder High School and attended the University of Utah two years before accepting a mission call to Germany where he labored for two and one-half years. After completing his mission, he returned to the University of Utah where he is presently registered in the school of medicine. On September 16, 1963, Brent married DeAnn Jenkins in the Salt Lake Temple.

Martha Clare Horsley graduated from Box Elder High School and Utah State University, after which she taught high school in Salt Lake City and Logan. On August 17, 1964, she married James Fredrick Christensen in the Salt Lake Temple. They presently reside in Logan, Utah.

William White Horsley is a student at Box Elder High School where he is president of the senior class. He resides with his mother in Brigham City, Utah.

George Harding Horsley was born January 25, 1912 in Brigham City, Utah. He graduated from Box Elder High School, after which he attended Weber College. He fulfilled a mission to Hawaii from 1931-1934. Upon returning home, he entered business in Ogden, later becoming owner-operator of the George H. Horsley Company. On May 11, 1937, he married Mildred Purdy in the Salt Lake Temple.

George H. Horsley is very active in civic and community affairs in Ogden, having served 

 as president of the Ogden Rotary Club and president of the Ogden Chamber of  Commerce. His wife, Mildred, is active in church and community activities in Ogden.

George and Mildred Horsley have four children: George Harding Jr., Cheryl, Rolfe Purdy, and Janet.

George Harding Horsley, Jr., married Nona Kay Valdez in Ogden on July 29, 1963. They reside in Ogden.

Alice Charlotte Harding

Alice Charlotte Harding, the ninth child of George and Mary Jones Harding, was born in Willard, Utah, on May 6, 1881. Like most of the other members of the Harding family, she attended “Brother” Chandler’s school in Willard, after which she was a student at Brigham Young College in Logan for one year. She was also a student at the Albion State Normal College in Albion, Idaho.

At age eighteen, she was employed to teach school in East Portage, Utah (a one-room school of eighteen students), at a salary of thirty dollars per month. She then attended Brigham Young College for a year, after which she taught school at Bear River City, Utah, for two years.

Her next teaching assignment was in Brigham City, where she was principal of the Columbia (4th Ward) Elementary School for two years while teaching the first grade. The next two years she taught at the Brigham City Central School. The Willard Elementary School was the scene of Alice’s next year of teaching and from here she went to Malad, Idaho.

Previous to this time, her sister-in-law, Martha Williams, had passed away, leaving her brother, Ralph, with three children, Mary, Ralph, and Ben, all in grade school. Phebe and Olive had previously lived with Ralph and his family for a year or so when Alice came to this home to take the part of a mother.

During the next seventeen years, Alice taught in the Malad Elementary School, where for several years she was the principal of the lower grades with ten teachers under her direction.

In Alice Harding’s life, the church was central in her thinking. At age ten, she was chosen as librarian of the Willard Primary Association. Her next assignment was in the Willard Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, where she edited the paper featuring news items, original poems, essays, and stories. At East Portage, she organized the students into a Primary Association under her own initiative and leadership.

Alice organized and taught the first religion class conducted after school in the Box Elder Stake while she was a teacher in Bear River City. She also taught a class in Sunday School while at Bear River. During her five years of teaching in Brigham City and Willard, she was a teacher in Y.L.M.I.A. and also a member of the Box Elder Stake Sunday School Board. Box Elder Stake back then, was comprised of nearly all communities in Box Elder County and visits to Sunday Schools in communities as far away as Snowville, which were made by “horse and white top,” took as long as three days. 

In Malad, Alice was a counselor in the presidency of the Y.L.M.I.A. for six years and for thirteen years was Stake President of the Primary Association. She then was made a member of the Malad Stake Relief Society Board, a position she held for several years.

A few years after the death of her brother, Ralph, and after the marriage of his children, Alice came back to Willard and lived with her sister, Phebe, in the old Harding family home until her death. During these years, she was very active with the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, the ward Relief Society, and in genealogical research and temple work.

In autobiography, Alice expresses appreciation for the privilege she had in traveling in eighteen states, Mexico, and Canada.

Alice Harding will long be remembered by her friends and associates for her lovable, humanistic, and friendly attributes which endeared her to all who became intimately acquainted with her.

Olive Esther Harding and William Orvil Facer Family

Olive Esther Harding, the tenth and youngest child of George and Mary Jones Harding, was born November 8, 1883, in Willard, Box Elder County, Utah. In her youth, she assisted her sisters with the collecting of mulberry leaves by the wagon load to feed the silk worms, as efforts were then being made to establish a silk industry in Utah. In the winter she reeled the silk from the cocoons into thread which was sent to Salt Lake City to be woven into cloth. As a result of this effort, Mary Jones Harding and her six daughters wore silk dresses made from this silk in the years of the 1890s.

Olive worked as a clerk in the Willard Co-op store for several years and for the Willard Fruit Growers’ Association. She was Willard City Treasurer at the time when culinary water works were installed in the town. She spent a year in Malad as a companion and homemaker for her brother, Ralph, and his family upon the death of her sister-in-law, Martha (Mattie) Harding.

As a young woman, Olive was active in the church auxiliary organizations. She was custodian of the songbooks in the ward Primary organization as a little girl, a member of the ward choir at age twelve, the secretary of the ward Primary at age fourteen, and secretary of the ward Sunday School at age seventeen, a position she held for many years. She was affiliated with the “Girls’ Etiquette Club” of Willard and in 1907 was made president of the ward Y.W.M.I.A., a position she held until her marriage to William Orval Facer on September 13, 1911, in the Salt Lake Temple.

William Orval Facer was born in Willard, Utah, December 3, 1884. As a boy, he moved with his parents to Malad, Idaho. He returned to Willard in 1903 and was called on a mission to the Samoan Islands in 1906.

After their marriage, the Facers moved to Ogden, Utah, where they lived until 1920, when they moved to Salt Lake City. In 1922, they moved to Provo where they have since lived. William Facer was employed as a salesman during their early married years, but for more than thirty years was an employee of Provo City in its water works and street departments.

The Facers have always been active church members. William was made a counselor in the bishopric of the Provo Fifth Ward in 1927 and for ten years was the Bishop of this same ward, being released in 1939 to become a member of the Stake High Council, a position he held for 15 years.

Olive has been active in leadership positions in the Primary and Relief Society in Provo for over forty years. For many years, she was an active member of the Alice Reynolds’ Literary Club and with the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. William is an active member of the Brigham Young University Chapter of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers.

The four Facer children are: 

Alice June Facer (Seiter) was born June 17, 1912, in Ogden, Utah. She graduated from Provo High School and attended Brigham Young University before her marriage on June 5, 1933, to Walter Harry Seiter, who had immigrated to America with his parents in 1926. Walter was born in Karlsrude, Germany, and returned to Germany in 1930 as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Most of the time since their marriage, the Seiters have lived in Heber City, Utah, where Walter was the successful owner-operator of a bakery business until it was sold in 1963. Alice and Walter have been active in community, civic, and church activities for these many years in Heber City.

Walter has served a total of fifteen years as a member of the Wasatch District School Board. He has been active in scouting and genealogical work, as a Sunday School teacher, and served as Y.M.M.I.A. superintendent. He has served as a ward clerk, as a counselor in the bishopric, and is currently bishop of the Heber Second Ward.

Alice has served as a local and district president of the P.T.A. She has taught in the Sunday School and in the Y.W.M.I.A., having been a ward drama director, a stake drama director, and a counselor in the ward organization. For five years, she was a board president of the Relief Society and is currently a teacher in the ward Sunday School and in the Relief Society.

Alice Facer graduated from Brigham Young University in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She is currently an English teacher at Wasatch High School.

The Seiters are the parents of ten children, all of whom are living. They are as follows:

Virginia Seiter (Draper) was born in Provo, Utah, on October 22, 1934. She married Rulon Draper in the Salt Lake Temple. She is a secretary for the American Agencies in Salt Lake City. The Drapers are active in church work, both having held ward and stake executive positions in the M.I.A., of which Virginia is now ward president in the Bountiful, Utah, ward where they reside.

Carolyn Seiter (Beckstrand) was born in Provo, Utah, on October 13, 1935. She married Mervin Beckstrand in the Salt Lake Temple. Mervin is employed by the Beneficial Life Insurance Co. of Salt Lake City. Both are active church workers in their ward. They have three children: Douglas Mervin Beckstrand, Kenneth Dean Beckstrand, and Karin Diane Beckstrand. They live in Bountiful, Utah.

Carl William Seiter was born in Provo, Utah, on January 4, 1939. He graduated from Wasatch High School, after which he served an L.D.S. mission to Switzerland. He married Honalee Green in the Swiss Temple in Berne. Carl graduated from the Dunwoody School of Baking in Minneapolis, Minn. and is employed as a baker by Safeway Stores in Salt Lake City, where he is currently attending the University of Utah in a pre-medics course. Honalee is a registered nurse.

Beverly Esther Seiter (Pace) was born in Heber City, Utah, on January 27, 1941. She served as a missionary for the L.D.S. Church for two years in the Central German Mission, after which she became the wife of William Ray Pace in the Salt Lake Temple on September 2, 1964. William is at present a student at the Los Angeles School of Optometry. Beverly is a junior in college and hopes to be able to earn her bachelor’s degree in languages while in California.

Martha Gaye Seiter (Schmerse) was born in Heber City on July 29, 1942. She married Hans Schmerse in the Salt Lake Temple in August 1963. They are active church workers in their ward. Gaye is a secretary for a Salt Lake realtor and Hans is attending school at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Steven Paul Seiter was born in Heber City on May 17, 1944. He is currently serving as an L.D.S. missionary in the Texas Mission. Upon completing his mission, he plans on continuing his studies in electrical engineering at Brigham Young University.

The other children of Alice and Walter Seiter live with their parents in Heber City. They are: Michael Walter Seiter, Mark Evan Seiter, Wendy Joan Seiter, and Dwight Christian Seiter.

Blaine Harding Facer was born March 10, 1915, in Ogden, Utah. Blaine graduated from Brigham Young High School in Provo. He married Myrtle Jensen Morrison on August 1, 1938. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Manti Temple. Blaine is a building contractor. 

Blaine and Myrtle are the parents of two sons:

David Morrison Facer was born in Provo, Utah. He married Sidney Karen Holliday on November 6, 1960. They have one son, David Clark Facer, born December 27, 1962, in Provo.

Brent Morrison Facer, the second son, was born in Provo, August 8, 1950, and lives there with his parents.

Ruth Delores Facer (Andrus) was born in Ogden, Utah, on December 15, 1919. She graduated from Brigham Young High School and from Brigham Young University in 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in business and education. She has taught high school business and English courses in the Provo High School and at Spanish Fork High School in the Nebo School District where she is currently employed.

Ruth married Ralph Andrus of Spanish Fork in the Salt Lake Temple shortly after he had completed five years of service with the armed forces of our country. Three of these years were spent overseas in combat zones. Shortly after their marriage, Ralph was called on an L.D.S. mission to serve in the Northwestern States mission.

Upon returning from his mission, Ralph and Ruth lived in Salt Lake City for two years while Ralph attended the University of Utah. Later he received his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 1952 in education. He first taught school at Panguitch High School in Garfield City and since has been employed as a teacher in the Nebo School District in Spanish Fork. 

(Photo of Blaine Harding Facer)

(Photo of Carol Morrison Facer)

(Photo of David Morrison Facer)

(Photo of Brent Morrison Facer)

(Photo of Joan Bayer Facer and Mack Harding Facer)

Ralph and Ruth Andrus have always been active in church and community activities, serving in leadership positions. Ruth has been a teacher in Sunday School and in the M.I.A. and has served in both ward and stake Relief Societies. Ralph has been a teacher in one of the priesthood classes for many years. He is a coach of M-Men basketball in his ward and has been a Sunday School teacher.

Ruth and Ralph Andrus have six children: Ruth Marie, Barbara Sue, Kathleen Olive, Mary Ann, Ralph Henry Andrus III and Crista Joy. They live in Spanish Fork, Utah.

Mack Harding Facer was born September 19, 1925, in Provo, Utah. He graduated from Brigham Young High School, where he was student body president and captain of the basketball team. He served two years in the Coast Guard in the Pacific Area. He married Ann Cromoga Clive on March 9, 1945. She died in 1961 and he married Joan Meyers.

Mack is engaged in building construction. He has served his church as a ward teacher and a scoutmaster. He lives in Oakland, California.

This history was taken from “The Harding Family History Book.”