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History of Lucy Zina Lyman Redd


Lucy Zina Lyman
Born: 26 August 1860 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, USA
Parents: Amasa Mason Lyman and Eliza Maria Partridge
Married: Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr. 31 Oct 1883 at Saint George, Washington, Utah, USA
Died: 4 Jan 1930 at Blanding, San Juan, Utah, USA

LIFE SKETCH OF LUCY LYMAN REDD

Lucy Zina Lyman Redd was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, August 26, 1860, a daughter of Amasa Mason and Eliza Maria Partridge Smith Lyman. At the age of three years she moved with her mother to Fillmore, Utah, where the remaining part of her childhood was spent. Fillmore was a stopping and resting place for the many travelers coming and going to California and also a convenient gathering place for the various Indian tribes who were not always friendly. Since Fillmore was on the edge of the great Pauvant Desert, it was the scene of many early pioneer incidents such as skirmishes between the white settlers and their Indian neighbors. Lucy's early life blended with this atmosphere, and though hardship and privation were ever her lot, yet she was ready to go farther out into the frontier when her mother moved to Oak City in 1876. Here she further pioneered with her mother and her older brothers and sisters in one of the most remote settlements of that time.

The San Mission had been under way since the fall of 1879 when her brothers Platte, Edward, Walter, Joseph and his wife, Nellie, their sisters Ida and May, and also the baby Joseph P. Callister, son of her sister Carlie who had died earlier in the year, left on October 21 for Bluff on the San Juan River. They arrived there April 6, 1880, by way of the "Hole-in-the-Rock" on the Colorado River.

Platte returned in the fall of that same year to Oak City. It was then that Lucy, the youngest of her family, then twenty, headed for still more remote frontiers, leaving with her mother, Platte and his wives, Delia and Annie, Caroline and her daughters, Martha, Harriet and Annie, and others on November 1 and arriving in Bluff on January 1, 1881. Seven days out they found that they were too heavily loaded for their horsepower; from there, Aunt Carolina and her three daughters, Martha, Harriet and Annie, returned to Oak City.

This slow and arduous journey of 300 miles via the Hole-in-the-Rock took two months. Rocky dugways and deep sandy stretches, slush and snow characterized most of the road. Lucy related some of the details of the trek: "We camped at the 'hole-in-the-Rock' on the Escalante Desert for the horses and cattle to rest. We made bread for a week's travel using only 'shad scale' for wood. I put a loaf under my pillow at night to keep it from freezing but next morning it was frozen solid." This was a stern introduction to the life she was to find from now on in the San Juan country.

Lydia Partridge Lyman died before the San Juan Mission, so her three children, Ida, May, and Edward, came with Platte and it was only natural that Lucy wanted to be with them as well as with her brothers Platte and Joseph. Fred, Walter and Edward later returned to Oak City.

Upon her arrival at Bluff, Lucy met a prominent leader in the community, Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr. She was married to him in 1883 at the age of 23 as a plural wife in the St. George Temple. This was a very sobering experience for her since the less than 3% of the church who assumed this responsibility of plural marriage were counted upon as the most faithful and worthy. L. H. Redd's wife Eliza and three children journeyed with them to the St. George Temple. (This was seven years before the "manifesto" which discontinued the practice of plural marriage in the Church.) The trip to the temple was made by wagon and team, again by way of Moab as the Hole-in-the-Rock could not be traversed from the bottom up, but only from the top down.

They made their home in Bluff where she lived with Aunt Eliza and occupied a prominent place in the establishing of the pioneer community in a fringe territory inhabited mostly by Indians. This corner of the state was the crossroads for nomad tribes, horse thieves, and fugitives from the law.

Lucy's life was punctuated by many hair-raising incidents. "One time," recounts one of her sons, "when the Indians under 'Old Posey Ute' chased all the Bluff cow men off Elk Mountain, Mother took us all over to Aunt Ida Nielson's where we huddled together with them waiting for the cowboys to arrive, also wondering if the Indians would attack the little town. One of the buxom young girls was sitting on the extension table beside the coal-oil lamp, when down crashed the table, girl, lamp and all in the dark. A frantic scramble followed to get the lamp lighted again before the Indians got us. We were scared and nervous as we crept through the back lot to our home that night."

The Utes and Navajos would gather in the little town to play cards, gamble and swap horses. Many fights occurred between the tribes. One of Lucy's sons recalls that "during one of these fights an Indian came running up from the Co-op store and hid a rifle in the old stake and rider fence in front of our house. They would put their horses in our fields and defy us to run them out and would steal anything that was loose. This included garden stuff, fruit, hay, and livestock."

There were two major Indian uprisings, one in 1915 and one in 1923. Both resulted in killings, but mostly among the Indians. One white man, Joe Aiken, was shot and killed by the Indians near Bluff in the 1915 fight. Both of these uprisings required the help of the government to assist the local people in restoring law and order. The United States marshals helped in a minor way each time but the brunt of these affairs was still borne by the local people. This was also true in the many horse and cattle stealing cases and other defiance’s of the law by the Indians and other renegades.

In her nature Lucy was modest and retiring and experienced constant fear of the Indians by whom they were always surrounded. One of her sons recounted that the burden of her family prayers was "Bless the Indians that they may have no power over us" and "Unite our hearts together that we might live in peace with one another." Even as a young woman and in spite of her timid nature she displayed unusual courage and stout-heartedness on many occasions. The following incident, as related by one of her sons, is an example:

It happened in June 1886 when Amasa Barton was shot and killed by the Navajos at his little trading post on the River four miles west of Bluff. A friendly Ute, "Posey," brought the word to the little town. People were thrown into panic since nearly all the men were away in Colorado at the time. His body was brought to Bluff for burial. When Feenie Barton, with her mother and her two little boys, were to return to the trading post, it was Lucy Redd (then married three years with no children yet) who volunteered to return with them. There were no men to protect them, thus they went into the Indian country, three women and two little boys, to carry on the business of trading with the Indians.

As Lucy herself related, "We could frequently see Indians skulking in the rocks on the hill back of the store but none came to molest us." This showed the great courage and faith Lucy could muster in spite of her timidity and natural fear of the Indians.

She took a prominent part in caring for her brother Joseph A. (Jody) Lyman [Joseph Platte Callister lived with his family much of his youth] who was shot in the leg by some horse thieves he was following in company of Lemuel H. Redd, Hyrum Perkins and the two Halls brothers on October 2, 1881. The posse was in hot pursuit crossing the Colorado River in a small boat when they were ambushed by the desperadoes on the cliff above them. Jody was brought back to Bluff on horseback on October 13, a trip of some one hundred miles. Uncle Jody was an invalid for many years and finally died as a result of this injury. Lucy applied her pioneer ingenuity by using "prickly pear poultices" on his wound with a healing effect. This was a common remedy in her household along with bread and milk poultices, rhubarb root, garfield tea and castor oil.

Lucy's father, a very prominent man and apostle of the newly organized church, was away on a mission in England at the time of her birth. She and her mother and the other members of the very large family seldom had the pleasure of seeing him as he was in missionary work most of the time.

Her mother was a daughter of Edward Partridge, the first presiding bishop in the Church, and was married and sealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith as also was her sister Emily, who later married Brigham Young.

Lucy was of noble birth and of choice lineage. In her home the principles of the Gospel were taught and lived. Her mother was a resourceful woman, providing by her own labor most of the living for her family and an orphaned grandson, Joseph Platte Callister, son of her daughter Carlie, who died when the child was very young.

Before Lucy's second child was born she was compelled to flee to Mancos, Colorado, to live for a while in hiding from the United States marshals who were hot on the trail of any polygamists. There her son L. Frank was born. Back in Bluff she lived in a one-room house until after her fourth child was born, and then two more rooms were added. She was resourceful in taking care of her little family and home. She kept bees and extracted the honey, raised her own fruit trees and garden, milked hew cows, washed, carded and spun wool and knitted stockings. She made mattresses and quilts from her own sheep's wool. She canned and preserved fruit, and made laundry soap from tallow and grease she saved. Her honey cake and home-made candy were the delicacies she provided in abundance for her children. She was an expert seamstress and made clothes for herself and family and also for others.

In 1907 Lucy moved to the new town site of Grayson, twenty-five miles to the north on White Mesa, later to be known as Blanding. Here she was a pioneer all over again but later had a fine new home which she enjoyed the remaining years of her life. Since there was no hotel in the little town, it became her lot to entertain in her home many important people, church authorities, two United States marshals and many high state officials and prominent politicians. At one time Utah's Governor Simon Bamburger knelt in family prayer before breakfast at her table.

She was always found active in her Relief Society work and taught classes in Sunday School and attended regular Sacrament Meetings. While raising her family Lucy found time for much community activity. Her cheerful service extended into the homes of the sick and needy where she would spend weeks at a time caring for families quarantined for contagious diseases and where death and sorrow were present. Many hearts have been comforted and made glad by hr ministering among them in times of sorrow, sickness and poverty. There is no earthly record of these activities but the impression for good is engraved deep in the souls of many and will never be effaced. In her service for her fellowmen she followed the admonition of the Master, "Let not thy right hand know what they left hand doeth."

Aunt Lucy," as she was affectionately known, will be remembered as a quiet, reserved, unassuming person. Her name will not be known by her glamorous deeds or for holding high positions but she will be remembered by many of the poor and lowly in her community. Those in sorrow and sickness knew her comfort and her sympathy and helping hand in their hour of distress. Her greatest joy was administering help to those in trouble and sorrow. Sources:
1 FamilySearch Memories for Lucy Lyman
2

Photos

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Joseph Platte Callister Lucy Lyman

Joseph Platte Callister and Lucy Lyman Redd

Lucy Redd family

Lucy Lyman Redd and her children