Photos
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Eleanor Willden and Thomas Jefferson Hadden
Eleanor Maria Willden
Born: 10 January 1869 at Adamsville, Beaver, Utah Territory, USA
Parents: Charles Turner Willden and Emma Smith
Married: Thomas Jefferson Hadden 26 December 1884 at Bluff, San Juan, Utah, USA
Died: 11 August 1947 at Redmesa, La Plata, Colorado, USA
Eleanor Maria Willden was born on 10 January 1869 in Adamsville, Utah. Her father, uncle Ellot and grandfather were employed in the dwindling iron industry centered in Cedar City. Charles and Emma moved from Cedar City with their two eldest sons to Adamsville, northwest of Cedar City in Beaver County, in or before 1867. 1n 1870 Adamsville was home to 39 farming families. Adamsville was located in the Mineral Mountains, source of the iron ore which, in part, prompted the estblshment of the Iron Mission in Cedar City. By 1869 that industry was 12-years defunct. Eleanor's grandfather, was called to the Iron Mission because of his experience in that industry in England. He left Adamsville in 1864 for Cove Fort, and Eleanor's parents moved to Adamsville.
Work was difficult to find, so Charles Turner Willden left for Salt Lake City, but on meeting his brother returning from Salt Lake, who not having found work, was headed back to Willden Fort (Cove Fort), Charles Turner Willden joined Ellot Willden on this return trip. Without adequate food for both of them, Ellot went to Beaver and Charles Turner to Adamsville, from where he took his family back to Cedar City. The next thirteen years were difficult, but Charles found sufficient work to provide for his wife and children. Eleanor grew to young womanhood in Cedar City, and attended primary school there. Her uncle, Joseph Stanford Smith, was among those called to San Juan in 1879, as were her parents. Unable to outfit for the trip, they delayed a move until 1882.
Hyrum Perkins returned to Cedar City from Bluff with his family in November 1880 for the delivery of his wife's second child. Hyrum called on families in Cedar who missed the original trip to San Juan to organize a second expedition. The Willdens were among those who agreed to go. Plans were made to give two years to prepare, and Hyrum would return as a guide. He then took his family back to Bluff in spring 1881, and then returned in fall 1882 to bring the new group to the San Juan.
As the Halls had moved the ferry upstream, a new road was being developed to the San Juan Mission through Halls Creek and crossed the Colorado at Halls Crossing; they arrived in Bluff in mid-November 1882. Emma Smith Willden's brother, Joseph Stanford Smith, had proceeded to Mancos, Colorado, after his family arrived in Bluff. The Willdens likewise went on to Mancos rather than Bluff.
Eleanor married Thomas Jefferson Hadden on 26 December 1884 at Bluff, but they lived at Mancos.
(Bluff was then county seat of San Juan County, Utah, and Mancos was included in the San Juan Stake,
also centered in Bluff.) The Haddens eventually moved across the state line into New Mexico. They had a
total of nine children.
Sources:
1
The life story of Joseph William Willden and Emma Amelia Barker and their Ancestors and syblings
2 Journal of Josephine Chatterley Woods
3 Life sketch of Hyrum Perkins
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Eleanor Willden and Thomas Jefferson Hadden