Catherine Elizabeth Owens Daniels

Name: Catherine Elizabeth Owens Daniels

Date & Place of Birth: 27 December 1868 at Malad, Oneida, Idaho

Date & Place of Death: 20 June 1963 at Ogden, Weber, Utah

Date Arrived in Utah: (Native Pioneer)

Company Arrived with: “ “

Name of Person or Persons Married & Date: Daniel Moroni Daniels

Married 2 December 1885

History Written By: Mary Williams Felix

Date Submitted: 11 January 1974

Far South Company, Weber County, Utah

Camp: #49

By Granddaughter Mary Williams Felix

Catherine Elizabeth Owens was born to John E. Owens and Mary Thomas December 27, 1868 in Malad, Idaho. Her parents were converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Merthyrtydvil, Wales. They left Wales on Feb 3, 1853 and met on board ship, John Bright, and were married. It took them eight months from the time they left Liverpool until they arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1853. They lived in North Ogden until 1866, then traveled on to Malad, Idaho. She was the 7th child of a family of eight. Her brothers and sisters were: Richard T., Sarah, Margaret, John T., Edward T., Mary Blanch and Charlotte Jane. She was next to the last child. They lived 2 ½ miles from Malad and the mail coach which carried passengers and mail stopped at her Dad’s place to get vegetables to take to the next station 4 miles north. Mrs. Eliza Chivers and husband took care of the station horses and meals for passengers and driver. The people were dressed real fancy from the East and were traveling West to see the country. The mail coach used two spans of horses.

The only time Catherine attended school was when one of her brothers missed school. She went to about the 4th grade. Catherine’s oldest brother, Richard, became a school teacher and he taught her and the rest of the family. After Richard graduated from school in Malad he went to Salt Lake for two winters, going to school. Catherine took milk and butter to the old saw mill about twice a week. She was always thankful they always had shoes and stockings to wear for so many of the people did not. When small it was her job to make all the candles out of tallow from beef in the winter. She made 4 candles at a time in molds. Catherine’s father used to do a lot of butchering for the two hotels in Malad. He had a sausage machine and cleaned the intestine skins himself.

When Catherine was 13 she started to work for her oldest sister, Sarah. She helped with her children, did all the cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing each time her sister had a baby. She also worked for Mrs. Ben Jones for about a year. Her family had one of the first organs in Malad. They used to go to dances a lot.

An Indian called Cross-eyed Joe was always trying to make love to the young girls and they were afraid of him. He asked her mother for a drink of buttermilk and after drinking it asked her for a pound of butter. She asked him how he would carry it and he said put it in some buttermilk. Her parents had sheep and spun their own yarn which was usually grey. Two persons, Mrs. Lusk and Mrs. Richard Jones had weaving machines and made grey blankets. They would weave it and her parents would make grey suits for the boys out of it and also dresses and skirts for the girls. They made their own dyes from bark and wood. Catherine learned to card, weave and dye the wool and make it into clothes. They made their own stockings.

When Catherine was small she always hung up her stocking for Christmas which was filled. She remembered only one person having a Christmas tree and everyone going down to see it each year. For Christmas the girls usually received something they could wear, mostly dresses, the boys a new tie, sometimes a shirt if needed it. Very few toys were had. The girls would receive a doll sometimes. Before Christmas they went caroling in bob sleighs. Went to church 3 times on Sunday and they were usually in Welsh.

Catherine married Daniel Moroni Daniels when she was 17 on December 2, 1885 in the Logan Temple. This was Dan’s second marriage. His first wife Mary Ellen Jones and their first child died during child birth on the 18th of March 1884.

They didn’t have jars to bottle fruit until after she was married. They used to salt string beans down in jars and when used would take a pan of beans and soak them in water for several hours to get the salt out of them. During harvest time, after she was married, she would cook for at least 15 to 20 men and sometimes more besides her own family. Usually baked everyday or every other day. Always had a two quart jar of yeast on hand. She would start her dough before going to bed and it would be up in the morning to make biscuits for breakfast and bake the rest in bread. She usually made between six and eight loaves of bread. When she had her family she always canned at least 10 bushels of peaches besides 5 to 6 bushels of pears, apricots, cherries etc. Preserves were made in jars at first and a cloth wrung out of brandy was laid on top to preserve them. Always salted down a pork whenever needed and made fagots out of the liver and onions wrapped in thin membrane from the stomach. She was an excellent cook and whenever she made them all the family that were married would come for supper that night. They raised their own pork and beef. Killed a beef whenever it was needed. They kept the beef frozen. When her children were small her husband freighted between Corinne, Utah and Butte, Montana. Washing was done all by hand for years. She bought a sewing machine soon after she was married, having two treadle machines during her life. Made all her first baby’s clothes on the machine and knit the woolen stockings for winter for the first children out of homemade yarn and later could buy black yarn for stockings. Her mother died when Catherine’s first child was only two weeks old. She always made her girls fancy dresses for the 4th of July and Christmas. At one time she did all the sewing for eight girls.

Catherine was the mother of 12 children and they all grew to maturity. Mary, Daniel, Leroy, Catherine, Luther, Florabel, Russell, Lenna, Lona, Margaret, Pearl and Fern. She reared two granddaughters when two of her daughters died the same year and helped with some of the other grandchildren. Earlier she helped two of her sisters when they had operations by taking two of their children and keeping them for about a year each.

Catherine was in the Relief Society presidency for 9 years and they took care of the sick and prepared the dead for burial at that time. She was president of the Oneida County War Mothers and the Native Pioneers of Idaho. She was a good cook and enjoyed having all her family home for dinner. Many times the table was set for 20 at a time and usually reset 2 or 3 times. She never was too busy to help anyone. They had one of the first phones and received many calls for neighbors close and a block or two away. Then it was the job of the two granddaughters to run on errands to call the people to the phone. She worked hard all her life with none of the conveniences we have today. Her husband was Mayor of Malad during World War I. He had to close the town and schools during the war on account of the flu epidemic. My father, her eldest daughter Mary’s husband Tom was made Deputy to help enforce the law at that time. Catherine had two granddaughters, my sisters Thelma and Adele, older than her last two children. They were dressed alike a lot.

Catherine was called by everyone in town Aunt Catherine relation or not usually. When she told her children or grandchildren to do something they knew they had to obey. She always had a large garden and supplied many with food from her garden. She raised her own raspberries, gooseberries, apples, plums, crab apples, and rhubarb. She loved flowers and always had many flowers blooming. She had a good sense of humor. Catherine was a tall lady with dark brown eyes, olive skin and brown hair when she was young. Her hair turned grey and then to white. Her hair was curly when young. She never was in the hospital until she was 80 years old for an operation on her eyes in Salt Lake City for a cataract to be removed from one of her eyes.

For many years she would visit her daughters in California, Ogden, and Boise going on the train or bus by herself. Until she was about 87 or 88 she could out walk her daughters or granddaughters when she would go shopping for hours at a time. She was in good health until 89 years old. She was placed in a rest home in Ogden on the advice of her doctor. She became blind a couple of years before she died. She resided in Ogden until she was 94 ½ years old. She died the 20th of June 1963 just 25 years to the day her husband died in 1938. She was the last in her fathers’ family to die. She was preceded in death by her husband, 4 daughters, 1 son and several grandchildren. She left a large posterity of over 200. She was buried in Malad, Idaho.

The accounts of her early life was told to her Granddaughter Mary when she visited her many times in Ogden and recorded down as she talked about them.