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Joseph William (Bill) Willden
Emma Amelia Barker
Joseph William (Bill) Willden
Born: 14 March 1863 at Cedar City, Iron, Utah Territory, USAEmma Amelia Barker
Born: 22 July 1866 at Parowan, Iron, Utah Territory, USALIFE SKETCH JOSEPH WILLIAM (BILL) WILLDEN AND EMMA BARKER
"Joseph William (Bill) Willden is born the 14th day of March in the year of 1863 in Cedar City, Iron County, Utah. He is the second child of Charles Willden Jr. and Emma Smith, he having six brothers and four sisters. He weighs 150 lbs., is five feet and eleven inches tall, with dark brawn hair, gray eyes and [his] health [is] mostly good.
"He is baptized [in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] on the 18th day of July 1885 by Samuel Hammond, confirmed the 18th of July 1885 by William Halls [and] ordained an Elder by Charles Brown. He marries Emma Amelia Barker on the 19th of May 1884, in Mancos, Montezuma County, Colorado, by Justice of the Peace, Mr. Samson. He is endowed in the Salt Lake Temple the 9th of November 1931. He receives his Patriarchal blessing by Luther Burnham.
"I wrote a letter to Father asking him to write a short history of his life. This is the letter I received from him.
Life History Letter
by Joseph William (Bill) Willden
Redmesa, Colorado 8th of March 1932
Dear Pearl,
As Ma is writing I will send you some of my history, the road I traveled from 1863 on up to 1932.
Herded Sheep at Eleven
The work I did to earn money was to herd sheep. I was thirty-two miles from home. I was with Ben Perkins. I was eleven years old, and say I sure got home sick. I was out thirty-two days and that ended sheep herding for me. On the thirty first day I made up my mind to go home, so on the thirty-second day.
I left and got home as the sun was going down.
Drove Wagon Team From Cedar City to Nevada at Age Eleven to Fourteen
From eleven years old up to fourteen years. I drove team for father from Cedar City out to Nevada, which was one hundred and twenty miles, (say this road is so long it has taken up all the ink, so I’ll have to finish with lead). There were twenty-one teams and plenty of work.
Road Horseback Carrying Mail at Fifteen
From fourteen to fifteen, I tended to stage horses, six miles north of Cedar City. Then from fifteen to sixteen I rode horse back carrying mail, from Johnson up to Red Creek, twenty miles then back to Johnson. This place where I tended stage horses, (I will give the names of towns). From Johnson Fort to Summit, six miles, then on to Red Creek, six miles.
Bill Meets Future Wife at Fifteen
Now from Johnson to Summit, is where I meet Miss Emma Barker. Miss Barker worked at the Post Office, which was about two miles from town. I walked through the snow from one foot to eighteen inches deep, and didn’t even give her a smile.
Drove Stage at Sixteen
Then from sixteen up to seventeen I drove stages from Eureka down to Silver Reef, which was one hundred and twelve miles. This route had four drivers, two men worked during the day and two worked during the night, Johnson Fort was about fifty miles from Eureka.
Then from Johnson to Silver Reef was sixty miles. These four men would change every month, the two that had driven during the day worked at night and the two that had driven during the night worked during the day.
Bill Gets Engaged to Doctor’s Daughter
Now from seventeen up to eighteen I tended stage horses at Hamilton Fort, six miles south of Cedar City. This was night work. This is where I fell in love with a girl by the name of Amey Middleton. She is a sister of Doctor George Middleton of Salt Lake City. I was engaged to her when I came to Colorado. (Hunt him up and ask him if he knew a young man by the name of Bill Willden). I boarded at their house when I was tending stage horses. (Amey Middleton was born in 1863 in Cedar City. She married Frances Elonzo Brown and [they] had nine children.)
Drives Stage to California at Eighteen
Then from eighteen up to nineteen, Mr. Salsberry was my boss. He took me out on the stage line to drive a team from Silver Reef to California. I was away eleven months, and I had the time of my life.
When I got home the folks were getting ready to come to Colorado. (Pearl wrote: Father drove one of the first stage coaches from Cedar City to St. George with six horses.)
Uncle Joe Armstrong and father had to work with me one half day to get me home as I was out on a spree with the boys before I left. Then we came to Colorado. (Also hunt up Johnnie Armstrong he tended to the reservoir in Salt Lake City. He was Uncle Joe’s brother). (Joe Armstrong married Mary Ann Smith. Mary Ann was the sister to Emma Smith Willden, the mother of Joseph William Willden.)
Crosses Colorado Three Times on Horse Back Coming Home
From nineteen to twenty I was on the road to Colorado. I drove four horses on the wagon. I rode a saddle horse across Colorado river three times on the way out here. We landed in Mancos, Colorado November 18, 1881.
Bill Meets Emma Barker Again
In 1882 I got acquainted with Miss Emma Barker and used to squint at her. I played for all the dances. That same year I took a contract cutting fence rails twenty cents a piece and cut three thousand. George helped me. It took us from September until the twenty third of December. It snowed two feet and we had to walk five miles with snow above our knees. We got two turkeys on our way home for Christmas dinner. (I will have to continue this in the next issue.)
Played for Dance and Earned Christmas Gift for His Mother
When I got home, Uncle Joe Smith had his team hitched up ready to go after us. They wanted me to play for a dance. I played until two o’clock in the morning, and I got fifteen dollars. I gave it to Mother for Christmas gifts. Well then I played for all the dances during the winter.
Bill Rents and Works Farms in Summer - Plays for Dances in Winter
In 1883 I rented Jack Robb’s ranch (a brother of Add Robb). He sowed fifty-five acres of wheat and oats sens I helped him. Then I cut the whole thing with the cradle. George and John raked and bound it by hand, while I did other work. I irrigated one hundred acres of land for Whitelock He payed me fifty dollars. In the fall I went on H.M. Smith’s thrasher. During the winter I played for dances. I even went to Bluff City to play for them.
I took Aunt Emma Perkins, Miss Emma Barker, Nell Willden home [from the dance]. Tom Hadden went with me.
Memories of Joseph William (Bill) Willden
by Dove Slade Willden
Charles Willden Jr. married Emma Smith on 26 March 1860. Joseph William (Bill) Willden is their second child. He is born in Cedar City, Utah. At the age of 18 his family moves to Colorado. They eventually settle in Mancos, Colorado 18 November 1881. Joseph (Bill) works as a farmer. He is a natural mechanic and is paid six dollars a day to go with the thrasher to take care of the machinery. He also works as a blade man on the grader for the county roads.
For several years he is a county road supervisor. He shears sheep and teaches his sons the trade.
Joseph William (Bill) Willden is a great musician. He loves playing the violin for dances. He does this all of his life. He can play by ear any tune he ever hears. He owns a Stradivarius violin at one time. Not knowing its value he gives it away to a friend.
Early Life of Emma Barker
By Mary Pearl Willden Evans - Daughter
This is the story of a woman who knows poverty and discouragement all her life but who rises above these conditions to raise a large family, who are all faithful in the Gospel, and to leave a heritage of courage and devotion for all of us who follow.
It is the story of Emma Amelia Barker, who is born on the 22nd of July 1866 in the little pioneer town of Parowan, Iron County, Utah. Parowan is still a small settlement in a valley surrounded by pine tree covered hills in Southern Utah, and many of the homes and buildings still look almost as they do when Emma’s parents, Joseph Barker and Mary Ann Doidge Barker, settle there.
Like most of the pioneers they are very poor.
When Emma is born there are already two girls in the family, Sarah and Mary. She is blessed by Jessie Smith on the 5th of August 1866. When she is three weeks old, she has whooping cough and nearly dies.
The doctor says there is no hope, but Grandpa Barker remembers the wonderful blessing she has received when she is named. She has been promised that she will live to have sons go on a mission. She recovers from the illness and the promise comes true in later years.
She is taught very young to work and help the family in their struggle for existence. Her father, Joseph Barker, freights back and forth to Pioche, Nevada. Often he takes the girls on these trips, which they enjoy very much. Emma is only eight years old (1874), when her father makes his last trip to Pioche.
He never comes back and years later the family learns that he has been burned to death in Eureka, Nevada.
He was a good religious man.
Pioche, in the 1870's, is considered to be one of the wildest mining camps in the west. According to a number of sources, ‘hired gunmen are imported at the rate of about twenty a day during boom times to fight mining claim encroachments.’ Evidence of the 'toughest town' image is the reference that early day residents would make when they would point with pride to "Boot Row" where seventy-five men are buried before anyone in the roaring mining town dies of a natural death.
Emma’s mother and the other girls are left alone and now began the struggle to make a living. They glean in the fields in the fall, shuck corn to earn a pan of flour and a cup of molasses, and often have only bread and onions for lunch. In the winter Grandma teaches school and takes in washing.
Emma is baptized by Thomas Davenport on the 16th of August 1874. Soon after, she is placed in the home of some people named Hewlett, who live in Summit, Utah, in order to earn her own living. She receives only a bare living and has to work very hard both with the outside chores and all the household duties.
Dora, Emma’s youngest sister adds the following about Emma’s working away from home: Emma, to Summit, to a family named Hullett. Before this she has worked in Parowan for Bishop Dame and his two wives. But they say, “We would like the little fat one.” This is Kate.
So at eight years of age, Little Cassie [Kate], goes out to earn her own way. Later Emma goes to Paragonah to work. She even helps with the farm work; her wages are fifty cents a week, and every week the money is sent home to Mother. Because of the necessity of working out, these older girls are deprived of much of their education.
Another story that Jeanie writes, quoting Mary, saying, "Once Emma and I are playing in a deep, dry ditch. All at once a shaft of light shot by our faces. Emma says, in an awed voice, ‘That’s a sign!’ ‘Yes,’ I say, ‘It’s a sign we’d better get out of here fast.’ We have hardly scrambled up the bank when a great head of water, enough to drown us, comes down." Jeannie added, "In speaking of this in later years, Emma always regarded it as a sign from Heaven. Mary held that it was the reflection of light on the advancing water. How right they both were!"
New Father
A year or so later her mother marries James H Dunton, a man much older than herself [eight years].
Their first boy is born in April of 1879 and is named John H. when he is a year old.
(1880) the family moves to Mancos, Colorado taking the two smaller girls with them. Sarah, Mary, Emma and Kate follow in 1882. Emma is now sixteen and she works in various homes in Mancos to support herself there, as there is no room for the older girls at home.
The year is 1884 and Emma will soon be 18 years old. She is living with other families to earn her own living. Emma is the third child of Joseph and Mary Ann Barker and her oldest sister Sarah is 23 years old and her sister Mary Ann is 20 years old.
However, Joseph William (Bill) Willden has been interested in Emma for at least three years.
He is now 21 years old and has experiences far beyond his years. He is ready to settle down and begin his family. It is spring, the valley flowers are abundant and the vast meadow of velvet green grass lifts the hopes and emotions of everyone.
Joseph (Bill) and Emma’s parent’s are converts to the LDS Church in England. Both families have sacrificed beyond our imaginations for their Church to help establish a Zion People. Both families have been brought together in this remote little community, far away from many of their family and friends.
They are both poor, yet very industrious and have the courage and dedication of a truly covenant people. They are ready to prepare the way for hundreds of their future posterity of which you and I are blessed to be a part of.
In a uniquely beautiful corner of Southwestern Colorado there is a Mesa of national interest. The Mesa is located a few miles southeast from the pleasant little community of Cortez. The site is known today as Mesa Verde NationalPark with its famous ruins of early American cliff-dwelling Indians who carve their homes and their history into the towering but protective cliff walls. A few miles east of the park entrance is the historic little town of Mancos.
In a history of Mancos “Come Back to My Valley” Fern D. Ellis writes:
“Mancos town was born in 1881, when there was only a log schoolhouse, three settler’s cabins close by and a store.
“In 1885 a group of worshipers were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons.”
“The first member of the group, Joseph Stanford Smith, [brother ofEmma Smith Willden, uncle of Joseph] had come into the valley in 1880, later leaving to return with his family in 1881. Within the next year several families belonging to the religious sect arrived - Lafayette Guymon, James Dunton, [second husband of Mary Ann Doidge Barker ] Amos Hyrum Fielding and Charles Willden [father of Joseph]
[In 1881, James Dunton moved Mary Ann Doidge Barker with three children. In 1882 Charles Willden and his family moved with the four Barker daughters of Mary Ann.] “They move into the long narrow valley known as Webber south of Mancos, taking up homesteads and putting up cabins. A steady increase of Mormons continued in the next few years.
By 1885 . . .[nine other families settled].
“The group had been holding Sunday School in the homes of members but by 1885 the had grown to such considerable numbers that there were no homes large enough for the congregation and it was deemed necessary that they construct a building.” [Apostle Brigham Young Jr., selected the site for the building and presented it to the priesthood group on 7 Oct 1894.] The large room would hold from 200 to 300 people.
“Arriving in the years 1886-88,were the following families - George and William Halls, Joseph H. Smith, Joseph Wheeler, John Willden, Soren and Jens Jensen, Hyrum and Jim McEwen, John Watson Bell, Peter Brown and Charles Lamb. By this time there were thirty-five Mormon families settled on about 4,000 acres of land, of which more than 500 acres were under cultivation. By 1893 the group had increased in membership to 250.” [Joseph H. Smith is likely the grandfather of Joseph William and John is the Brother of Joseph.]
On the 1900 US Census for the Lower Mancos area, there are at least five Willden Families and several other related families residing in this area.
A New Family is Born
In the middle of these years a new family is created. In 1884 the family of Charles Willden and the family of Mary Ann Doidge Barker Dunton are beginning to mature. Joseph William Willden is now 21 years old and one of the finest young girl in town is Emma Amelia Barker, who is nearly 18 years old.
In his latter years Joseph William writes a letter to his oldest daughter, Pearl to share his story:
Joseph William writes: “In 1882 I got acquainted with Miss Emma Barker and used to squint at her. I played for all the dances….
"In 1884 I rented Uncle Joe [Stanford] Smith’s ranch. When spring came I was batching. This didn’t suite me so I married Miss Emma Amelia Barker.
“We lived in a small log cabin the Perkins field west of the old meeting house, where our first child was born a girl whom we named Mary Pearl. She was born the 3rd day of January 1885.“
Joseph William played his violin for all the dances for which he received a small fee.
“From there we moved to a room at the south east corner of Charles Willden Jr’s (his father) ranch. It was there that our next child was born a boy on 20th October 1886. Joseph P Franklin, and he died the second of February 1887.
Then the 21st of January 1888 were blessed with another boy who we named Charles Stanford. He lived only ten months, then died with Pneumonia.
“I filed on some land and lived there for some time. It was here that our second daughter was born, on the 21st of January 1889, Catharine Arabelle.“
Three years after Bell was born, Oscar William was born (January 8, 1892). A short time later they moved to the Barney ranch, which they had bought. He sold this for a team and wagon harness and they moved seven miles farther south in Webber Canyon. Several more moves were made further down this desolate canyon, with Joseph William building either one or two-room houses on each place.
“Also Oscar William who was born the 8th day of January 1892. I traded this ranch for a team, wagon and harness, then moved to Webber Canyon seven miles farther south.
“Ethel Amelia is born on the 11th of April 1894.” [Ethel is the third daughter of Joseph William and Emma.]
“This is where Ernest was born on August 17th 1896.” [ Ernest is the forth son and second son of Joseph William and Emma to live beyond childhood.]
“Then we sold this place and moved to Ghost Hollow. There Ralph Edward was born on February 1, 1899. When Ralph was ten months old, the children all had either measles or scarlet fever. Ralph was recovering but one day while crawling over the drafty floor he took the croup and died within a few hours. Ethel and Ernest were very ill also. I believed they would have died, if it had notbeen for our faith and prayers.
“About November in the year 1900 we moved to a five-room house we had built in Webber. Here Ray Barker was born the 14th of April 1901.
“We moved into the mountains during the summers, and it was back there in Webber that Vernon was born, the 13th of October 1903.
“In 1908 we moved to Redmesa, LaPlata county, Colorado.” Well this is about all I can think of. I hope it is what you wanted. If not let me know and I will try to do a little better.
With Love, Your Dad.”
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Joseph William (Bill) Willden
Emma Amelia Barker