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Charles Willden, Jr.
Emma Smith Willden
Charles Turner Willden
Born: 12 January 1837 at Sheffield, Yorkshire, EnglandEmma Smith
Born: 27 September 1843 at Wordsley, Staffordshire, EnglandLIFE SKETCH CHARLES TURNER WILLDEN AND EMMA SMITH
Charles Turner Willden came to the United States in November 1849 aboard the Zetland, bound for New Orleans. He was twelve at the time, second oldest son of Charles William Willden and Eleanor Turner, along with his five siblings. Arriving at New Orleans after 44 days at sea, they then found passage on the 'Ben West' for St. Louis, then traveled by wagon to Council Bluffs where they joined the larger body of saints. In 1852 they left Nebraska for Salt Lake City in the Third Company of Thomas C.D. Howell, reaching Salt Lake September 13, then on to the Iron Mission at Coal Creek (Cedar City) as Charles William was a steel refiner by trade.
At Coal Creek, Charles William contracts to herd between 200 and 300 cows, for a cent a head a day. Charles, Jr., and his brothers are to do the herding. The herding has to be done every day, rain or shine, wind or snow, over rocks, hills and prickly pears, and the boys are barefoot most of the time.
During late-1857 to mid-1858 Charles, Jr., was called to help build up Las Vegas and another point in Nevada. He returned to Cedar City in July 1858 when all settlements were recalled to Utah due to the approach of Johnston's Army's. Another move came in March 1859 when the Willden family moved to Beaver. When the land there proved worthless for farming, Charles Jr. returned to Cedar and his father helped establish Cove Fort, then known as Willden's Fort. Four years earlier, Emma Smith came to Cedar City with her parents, as her father had been an iron worker in England. Charles and Emma married 26 March 1860 in Cedar. Ten of their thirteen children were born in Cedar City, four of whom died.
In 1879 Emma's brother, Joseph Stanford Smith, and his family, accepted the call to the San Juan Mission, and departed in October. Two years later, at April 1882 conference, Charles Willden and family, three other families from Cedar (Samuel and Josephine Wood, David Adams, and Alvin Smith) and Frederic Isaac Jones family from Enoch, are called to help build up San Juan. Hyrum Perkins happened to be in Cedar from Bluff when the time set for their departure came, and led the group over the desert and Colorado River. On 18 October 1882, this group set out for Escalante. Of their departure Jody Wood wrote: "We moved slowly away from our beloved Cedar with aching hearts after saying goodbye to our loved ones, and our homes and the land of our birth, not knowing when, if ever, we would see them again, and not knowing where we were going."
The new trail to Hall's Crossing was no better than that to Hole-in-the-Rock. Many days their animals had difficult pulls through deep sand, often over shoe-tops; men and women had to push on wagon wheels. There was little feed and day by day they hunted desperately for water. "Water is one of the greatest blessings we can have while traveling. It is so priceless we pour a cup of it on one man's hands, and another holds his hands under that, and four or five wash with one or two cups of water," wrote Aunt Jody.
After one month of travel in cold weather and blowing sand the group reached Bluff 18 November 1882. They were glad to be alive after the strenuous journey, and thankful to the Lord for their arrival on the San Juan River, but what did it have to offer them? For the present, nothing but the cramped quarters in the little log fort with it's mud roofs that they built for protection. Emma's brother, Stanford Smith, wrote to the family that conditions are favorable in Mancos, Colorado. Considering his reports, Charles and Emma prepare their young family and move to the Mancos area and stay temporarily with Emma’s brother. Charles immediately files on land located about one half mile south of Mancos in the community known as Webber. He proceeds to build a small three-room log house with a dirt roof on the land. The ceilings are lined with unbleached muslin.
Three additional daughters are born at Webber (Mancos) each with the assistance of Aunt Hannah Perkins, the midwife there. From Webber, Charles and Emma move to Fruitland, New Mexico and then to Redmesa, Colorado. They spend their final years in Redmesa.
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Charles Willden, Jr.
Emma Smith Willden