George Henry Westover
Born: 25 Oct 1865, St. George, Washington, Utah, USA
Died: 5 October 1941, Huntington, Emery, Utah, USA
Parents: Charles Westover and Mary E. Shumway
Married:
Alice Ann Leonard 20 October 1898, Manti, Sanpete,Utah, USA
Alice Ann Leonard
Born: 2 April 1875, Saint John, Tooele, Utah, USA
Died: 26 February 1966, Ferron, Emery, Utah, USA
Parents: David Henry Leonard and Elizabeth Charles
George Henry Westover
George Henry Westover had just turned 14 years of age when he began his Hole in the Rock adventure. His half-sister Eliza was married to Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr. George was assigned to herd cattle and horses for the Redd family. The following story relays some of the perils this young man faced. “Most of the loose stock pastured back along the trail toward Escalante remained there until they could send men back to round up the cattle. Needless to say, some stock was lost during this winter operation. Cattlemen and herders responsible for the welfare of the herd spent many perilous days and nights in the course of this endeavor. Young George Westover, herding for L. H. Redd and James Monroe Redd, for whom he expressed the highest regard, had one of those difficult experiences: ‘. . . he and another boy got lost . . . in a snow storm and to keep from freezing they wrestled all night . . . long. They were so tired and sleepy, but kept on until daylight when they were able to get back to camp.’”
George Henry Westover was born in St. George, Utah shortly after the ending of the Civil War. The 1870 US Census shows him living in St. George, Utah where his father, Charles Westover, was working as a day laborer. In addition to his mother Mary, George had an older brother Charles and a younger brother Alberto.
Ten years later, the family was living in Pinto - Pine Valley Precinct, Washington, Utah. The 1880 Census shows that Charles has two wives, Mary E. and Eliza A. Westover. The children of Charles and Mary were: Julie A., Charles E., George H. and Mary R. Westover. Charles and Eliza’s children were: Artimetia, William A, Lewis B., and Minnie T. Westover. Charles Westover married his first wife, Eliza Ann Haven, October 14, 1849. His second wife, Mary E. Shumway he married 1 September 1856.
Since George was back home to be counted on the 1880 census, he either had made a quick trip back home once the stock was delivered to Bluff, or his parents just counted him as living there assuming he would be returning quickly.
Alice Ann Leonard, George’s future wife was just a child growing up in Castle Valley, Emery County, Utah. “In contrast to the mild weather of the two preceding years, the winter of 1879-80 (in Castle Valley) was very severe. The snow came early and stayed late, accompanied by extreme cold. Alice Leonard Westover, who was four years old at the time, remembered awakening to see long strands of hoar frost that had formed on the dugout's earth walls during the night. One morning she discovered a cow frozen to death in a standing position a few yards from their door. Almost the entire herd of 1,500 sheep that David Henry Leonard had brought to Castle Valley died from cold and starvation. John Duncan reportedly lost 2,000 head of cattle, their carcasses strewn across a thousand acres in the Quitchupah region. The Jewkes family lost some 200 head of cattle and ten of their twelve yokes of oxen.”
Local communities, therefore, grew mostly through natural increase. In a very practical sense, Castle Valley population growth depended on reliable nursing and the successful birthing of children. The southern communities had weathered their most serious setback in the fall of 1886, when the “black canker” (diphtheria) hit southern towns. An epidemic swept through the area, killing twenty-seven people in Huntington alone, thirteen dying between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Molen, about halfway between Huntington and Muddy Creek, also suffered severely, and the John Duncan family lost four children within hours of each other. Under the pressure of mounting deaths, the Warren Peacocks had to lay their two little girls in a single grave . . . All over, women nursed the sick. In Huntington, Sally Wimmer, Mary Jane Hill, “Aunt Jane” Woodward, and Mary E. Westover entered house after house. When disease won out, Esther Grange and Adelia McElprang arrived to wash and lay out the dead and measure them for burial clothes.
George is next heard of in 1888 when he is sent to reconnoiter Castle Valley for his family. He moved there around 1890. Every spring, he had typically sheared sheep for his neighbors, usually in the mountains that bounded it to the north—in the Park near Soldier Summit, near the railroad junction at Colton, or by the mining town of Scofield. Consequently, he knew many of the lands falling under federal forest conservation. So, one of the area’s first forest rangers was a home-grown boy, George Westover. His outdoor life included driving stagecoach from Price to Fort Duchesne in the early 1890s, when once he saved his frozen feet and calves from frostbite (and amputation) only by sticking them through a hole cut in the icy crust of a mountain creek, an old freighter cure. His toughness and experience made him an ideal choice for ranger’s assistant when the forest was first created. After several years the head ranger retired, and recommended George Westover as his successor, following the obligatory federal tests. George passed the oral test brilliantly. Like so many boys of his generation, however, his full outdoor life had left him time for only about three years of schooling. He failed the written test, and the ranger post went to another. Without the income from employment on the forest, Westover went back to freighting and working with his team, later involving his whole family. Daughter Roxie Westover Nelson remembered going from Huntington to Price after a load of coal. “We left home at 4 in the morning so we would get there before the other wagons and be one of the first to be loaded.” Her father let her drive: “such an honor,” she remembered. On another occasion, “we camped overnight at a wagon campground and stayed all night under the wagon in a pile of quilts. The next day poppa unloaded the freight and loaded up another and we went back home."
An example of the variety of mostly short-term jobs relied on by many Emery County families can be seen in the life of George H. Westover, who came to Castle Valley in 1890 or 1891 from the Mountain Meadow area in southern Utah.
He married Alice Ann Leonard in 1898, and after a few years the couple acquired a small plot of land on the outskirts of Huntington and built a three-room log and frame home. Here they brought up six children. In order to provide for his family, George Westover ranged far and wide in search of work: shearing sheep at Colton or Scofield in the spring; doing field work in the summers with his fine team of horses on the Miller ranch some fifteen miles north of his home or at Quitchupah forty miles to the south; driving the stagecoach from Price to Fort Duchesne during the winter; serving for several years as an assistant ranger on the Manti National Forest; helping to construct the coal camp of Kenilworth; threshing, baling hay, hauling coal, peddling produce to the coal camps. In later years he rented a farm in Huntington Canyon. Never physically strong, never owning more than a few acres of land, hardly ever having what would now be regarded as a regular job, George Westover nevertheless provided a respectable living for his family and saw to it that all of the children received an education, "so that they needn't do housework for other people, or pick-and-shovel work all their lives." Of course these things could not have been accomplished without the cooperative efforts of Alice Ann and the children, who kept up the house and small home acreage, raised most of their own food plus garden produce to sell, sewed their own clothing, and raised and dressed turkeys each year for the local Thanksgiving market.
The 1900 US Census finds George and Alice living in District 0197, Huntington, Emery, Utah in home they own free and clear. George is listed as being a day laborer.
Huntington’s George Westover, unsuccessful in his Forest Service exam, hired out with his team to help construct the coal town Kenilworth in 1908, and earned the respect of the foreman when he uncharacteristically refused to move a big rock which the unobservant superior had asked him to drag downhill, over the top of his horses.
By 1910, George and Alice are the parents of four children; Lina E., Mary E., G. Eldon, and Eva E. Westover. They are on a farm they own free and clear and George is listed as a farmer.
In 1917, one of George’s daughters, Eva related the following experience with her father. She “told of learning about life, love and Christmas joy at the age of eight. Tucked in on the buckboard seat between Papa and brother Eldon, 10, they drove Dot and Pat, sleigh bells ringing at every prance, the miles to Bear Canyon to find a Christmas tree. Papa told how a bear once tried to share a tent with him and a friend and that was how Bear Canyon got its name. Eva was left to hold the reins while the menfolk disappeared into a draw with an ax. She was sure a bear was snooping around from the way the horses behaved. She was glad to hear chopping sounds and relieved when they returned with a splendid tree to place in back. They passed by Meetinghouse Rock where Papa showed her two names written in axle grease. The names were George Henry Westover and Alice Leonard Westover. Alice wanted to write her new name on the rock on their way back from their marriage in the Manti Temple. The first night they camped in a wooded dell. For the first time, Eva realized her parents were sweethearts once and still, and was caught up in the euphoria of their romance. She noticed how Mama came to the gate and how Papa swept her up in his arms. However, her (Eva’s) toes were frozen numb. The heated rocks wrapped in towels at their feet had long since cooled. Together they hurried into the warm kitchen permeated with odors of frying pork chops and baking mince meat pies.
Two more children had joined the family by the time of the 1920 US Census. Lina, Elden George, Eva A., A. Roxie, and Caroline were living at home. Roxie and Caroline were the latest addition to the family. Elden at age 12 is listed as earning a wage on the home farm. George is listed as the employer.
The 1930 US Census shows three children still at home in the Westover family; Elden age 22, Roxie age 19, and Caroline age 16. At age 64 George is still listed as a farmer.
Caroline was the only child living at home with George and Alice in 1940. Caroline is employed as a stenographer for the school superintendent and earned a salary of $840 for working 36 weeks. George is now 74 years old and Alice is 64. He indicated he is not looking for work, but notes he has some income from other sources.
George Henry Westover dies October 5, 1941 after suffering with the flu for 3 weeks and then 2 more weeks of acute bronchitis. Alice Ann was the informant on the death certificate. His obituary recounts some of the facts of his early life.
In 1943 Alice moves to Ferron, Utah. On her 85th birthday and open house was held for her at her daughter Eva’s home in Ferron. After her move to Ferron, “. . . where she has resided ever since, doing her own housework, raising beautiful roses and fashioning beautiful knitted and crocheted articles, sweaters, stoles, bedspreads, tablecloths, and many other things. During the last year she has knitted for each of her children and each of her oldest grandchildren, a perfectly knit and fitting sweater. During the winter months she lives with Lina in Salt Lake City. Three of Mrs. Westover’s children are school teachers; Lina, Elden and Eva. Roxie and Caroline were graduated from Heniger’s School of Business. . .” It is clear that George and Alice fulfilled his wish to have their children educated and not ‘have to do housework or use a pick and shovel’.
“Alice Ann Leonard Westover, 90, last living and oldest pioneer resident of Castle Valley, passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Paul Nelson, Saturday of causes incident to age.” So read the first line of Alice’s obituary in March of 1966.
Both she and George were true pioneers in helping settle the unsettled lands of early Utah.
Researched and written for the Hole-in-the-Rock Foundation by:
C.S.M. Dean Phillips
Notes:
1 Miller, David E., Hole in the Rock, The University of Utah Press, 1966, p. 77
2 1870 US Census, St. George, Washington, Utah, USA, 6 June 1870, p. 26
3 1880 US Census, Pinto, Washington, Utah, USA, 12 June 1880, p 16
4 A History of Emery County, Edward A. Geary 1996 Utah State Historical Society, Emery County Commission, 1996, pp. 73-74
5 Castle Valley America HARD LAND, HARD-WON HOME Nancy J. Taniguchi Utah State University Press Logan, Utah © 2004 pp 80-81
6 Castle Valley America HARD LAND, HARD-WON HOME Nancy J. Taniguchi Utah State University Press Logan, Utah © 2004 pp 117-118
7 A History of Emery County, Edward A. Geary 1996 Utah State Historical Society, Emery County Commission, 1996, pp. 214-215
8 1900 US Census, District 0197, Huntington, Emery, Utah, 8 June 1900, Sheet 6
9 Castle Valley America HARD LAND, HARD-WON HOME, Nancy J. Taniguchi, Utah State University Press, Logan, Utah, p 144
10 1910 US Census, District 0043, Huntington, Emery, Utah, 9 May 1910, Sheet 13
11 Conover, Eva Westover, Emery County Historical Society Meeting, Emery County Progress, Castle Dale, Utah, 18 December 1990, p. 2
12 1920 US Census, District 0072, Huntington, Emery, Utah, 14 January 1920, Sheet 8
13 1930 US Census, District 0015, Huntington, Emery, Utah, 2 April 1930, Sheet 1
14 1940 US Census, District 8-19, Huntington, Emery, Utah, 23 May 1940, Sheet 4
15 Westover, Alice, Honored at Open House, Emery County Progress, Castle Dale, Utah, 14 Apr 1960, Thursday, p. 6
16 Westover, Alice, Obituary, Emery County Progress, Castle Dale, Utah, 3 March 1966, p. 5