Jane… By Michael R. King
A
Woman’s Determination and the Wild West Frontier--1846-1891 DOWN to the HOLE IN THE ROCK
Michael
brought Jane back from the shadows where was lost and fading away. Michael
never forgot the tales told by a Grandfather.
He was the caretaker of many family possessions. This took him back to Monticello to look at
her grave and see what he could find. He
asked a librarian about Jane and she said, “You’re him and we have
been waiting for you”.
He must have found the Charles Walton journal then. After gathering up many other journals and
papers and with a lot of help “Jane was created for the world to see”.
Michael
King’s daughter, Whitney married Tyler Cahoon, my grandson
Jane
McKechnie, the story begins early on 24 July
1891, the 24th commemorates the
arrival of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers to the Salt
Lake Valley. Today will be a party.
Not only for the little ones, there will be parades, games, foods and
treats set out by friends and neighbors and a dance tonight, at midnight she would be killed.
Her
day begins as she looks though the haze at the Blue Mountains near her home. The long journeys are finally over, her three
children are raised and Monticello is her “final home”. Life has been hard full of many ordeals and
trials but she is happy and contented.
 |
| Add caption |
So Jean Tinto Bee McKechnie and her three children, Georgina 4, Jane 3,
and baby John walked out the door with all they could carry and never came back. The
night was cold, dark and scary but somewhere in the drizzling rain she did find
her missionaries and in time crossed the ocean in a steam-ship, went up the
Mississippi and walked the thousand miles to Utah.
 |
| Add caption |
Grandma
Janette Bee ashamed of what she had done joined this new Church. So the entire Bee family grandma, Joann,
Richard and Jane left Scotland to join a group of Church sponsored emigrants
called the “Forty Ninth Company”. They
sailed for America on a side-wheeled paddle ship with sails called the “North
Atlantic” on the 3rd September 1850.
They landed in New Orleans 1st November. They had some miserable times when the ocean
rose up to claim them. Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico the steam engine
quit and then the wind quit and the sails were useless. As they were sitting
disabled a hurricane then came along and blew them farther out to sea.
A
day or two later they boarded another paddle-wheeler but it was Fall and the
river was low. After running aground
several times the boat left them in ST Lewis 500 miles from their
destination. After the ice-breakup they
continued on to Council Bluffs.
In
the spring of 1851Grandma Janette with money caught the first train to Salt
Lake City, Joanne and Richard soon followed.
Jean and her children had to wait another year when she was able
to buy a quality team and wagon. Captain
Thomas Howell frontiersman led the company of one hundred wagons they left 9th
June 1852 on their journey. Georgina 7
and Jane 6 would walk bare-foot the 1100 miles to Salt Lake City. Little John 2 would ride on the wagon
seat.
Indians
seemed to bother the train the farther West they traveled. During the 1850’s there was little to fear
from the Indians in fact they treated the pioneers with kindness.
The
days melted together in a routine of walking, cooking and cleaning. Georgina’s job was to take care of John;
and bare-foot Jane herded the cows.
 |
| Add caption |
Three
days before they arrived in the valley Grandma Janette had married Joseph
Dobson. Later Jean married Ira Stearns
Hatch who had many wives.
Three months
after Jean’s little family entered the Valley Jean Bee McKechnie married Ira
Stearns Hatch. He had many wives who had
many wives. Her new home was in Sessions
Settlement later called Bountiful. The family
was well provided for and the children fit in quite well with all the new
brothers and sisters. Jane 11 is
remembered as the bare-foot “cow-herder and soon became a very skilled rider of
horses. Jane loved tending cattle out on
the range and listening to the coyotes at night.
In
1863 the southern states succeeded from the Union and the Civil War was
fought back East. Now the California Militia, a Northern Army came to
replace the Southern Army who back east to fight the north.
In 1863 the southern states succeeded from the Union and the Civil War was fought back East. Now the California Militia, a Northern Army came to replace the Southern Army who back east to fight the north.
 |
| Add caption |
As
the United States Army marched into the valley Jane was instructed by her
father, Ira to take the cattle 50 miles away until the conflict was settled. All of Salt Lake City was abandoned as the
women and children carried all their belonging and went south out of the
Valley. The men were sent to occupy
shooting positions in the narrow confines of Echo Canyon. The US Army had no idea what to do when fires
and so many men showing through to flames, it looked look like tens of
thousands of Mormon soldiers were waiting for them. Further conflict was avoided by an “Amnesty
Offer” and a promise to have the Army march through the Valley out to Cedar
Valley.
With
the dangers over the people returned to their homes to salvage their neglected
crops from another plague of grasshoppers.
Civil
War
 |
| Add caption |
“The
Walton Thresher” before Jane and Charles were
married, Charles got a calling from the Church to take a team of mules and
wagon back 1100 miles back to Iowa to pick up and bring another group of
immigrants to Salt Lake City. It was
harvest time when he got back so he fired up a customized portable thresher
that the Walton family brought to Utah in 1851. It was capable of stripping and cleaning
nearly one hundred bushels a day. It was
in great demand, earning them a good deal of money. 19 year old Jane missed him
and soon married Charles Eugene Walton 22nd
February 1867. They found a log cabin in
Bountiful where all three of their children were born; Charles Eugene Walton
born 28 January 1868, Magnolia Francis Walton 1 March 1869 and Leona Jane
Walton 19 August 1871.
In 1863 the southern states succeeded from the Union and the Civil War was fought back East. Now the California Militia, a Northern Army came to replace the Southern Army who back east to fight the north.
A
second calling in 1872 sent the family north to establish a new town at Ten
Mile Creek (later called Woodruff). so Jane and Charles sold what they could then loaded
the rest in a wagon and moved. It had a
lot going for it but the elevation made it a short growing season and it was so
cold in the winter. They built another
cabin, cleared the ground and lived there for the next seven years.
 |
| Add caption |
Jane
and Charles had many questions and problems but the Church would pay for their
expenses, crops and property. They were
promised that they would have all the provisions needed to travel to the San
Juan and establish a community.
They
left Woodruff the 2nd of October and Salt Lake City on the 17th
to meet with the rest of the expedition at Escalante at a place called “Dance
Hall Rock”.
Silas
Smith went back to Escalante for blasting powder and found Hyrum and Ben
Perkins who were experts from the mines of Wales. Little ten year old Charley Walton against
Jane’s wishes was lowered many times on rope to stuff the crevices with
blasting powder when the “Blasters from Wales” thought they were too heavy to be brought up
and down over the cliffs.
They
were headed to place called the “Hole-in the-Rock”. The local people tried to turn them back as
it was a dead end road to nowhere. But they decided to go anyway. It was a caravan of wagons, people and livestock
that stretched over two miles long traveled the sixty miles turning terrible
rock trail into a road. Wagons broke
down, horses went lame and animals starved as there was no feed in the
rocks. Finally they found the hole in a never
ending solid rock wall. When they
discovered it was only a three foot gap a mile long overlooking the river. The first 300 feet was a steep drop off. It was now late November and it was
snowing. They had plenty of food but no
water. It was cold with little wood. They couldn’t go back and couldn’t go ahead
and they were angry and discouraged.
Near the end of the meeting, Jens Nielsen spoke in his Swedish accent,
“We will go on whether we can or not. If
the Saints had plenty of ‘stickie-ta-Gudy’ cannot fail.” Spending Christmas of
1879 overlooking Glen Canyon and the river below, somehow now they had a
unified purpose and could go on.
 |
| Add caption |
At
the bottom they still had many miles to go and roads to build. On the 6th of April 1880 they
finally trudged to a small valley that would become their home. They named their new city “Bluff”. Life was hard they were too far away from any
forest to gather the logs for their houses, Church or even corals so they sawed
cottonwood trees length- wise in quarters.
Cottonwood trees were very crooked
and it was almost impossible to mud up the cracks. Irrigation ditches had to be dug and dams
built. Then after all that work floods
washed the ditches and crops away, they suffered sandstorms, the Indians and
outlaws ran off with their livestock. Their
land gave them corn, sugar cane, wheat, oats and barley and they were grateful
but they began looking for another place to live.
Their
forth calling came on the 4th March 1888 with twenty other families
to the Blue Mountain Mission. Charley
and his son, Charley once again was on the trail to Montezuma where their last summer’s
grain was stored someone had taken it.
The Walton’s sold their house and lot in Bluff and the family loaded up their belongings and moved to the Mission along with six other families where they established a new town and the Elders called it “Antioch” but name did not sit well with the people. Charles Jr. in a meeting suggested “Monticello” and was so it named it. They carved the city into 10 acre lots and twenty acre farming lots outside the city. By the end of April the Walton's were living in their log cabin with a garden growing and a farm with budding fields. Meeting House was built by August for the Conference. 100 visitors came and attend this four day event.
Monticello
was doing quite well with 320 acres fenced, a 100 acres planted with wheat,
oats, barley, corn and Lucerne, with two dairies producing 120 pounds of cheese
a day. A few houses are completed, more
being built. There are some still living
in tents and wagon boxes.
The Indian tribes became unhappy with the US
Government for allowing the White-man to settle tribal land. The Southern Ute
Chief, Red Jacket with about 250 braves were occupying Bluff and dancing in the
streets. The Bluff settlement land was devalued
to a few cents on the dollar. Then there
was Chief Posey who was at war with other tribes, ranchers and soldiers. He did not like the Whites living tribal
lands.
Well one day as Jane was out hoeing the garden she met Posey and a few braves. Posey, said, “Me hungry give me biscuits”. Waiting desperately for Charles to come home she began stalling. Posey angrily pulled his Winchester and pointed it at her. Her Scottish upbringing now unleashed, without thinking swung her hoe with all her might hit him between his eyes and he lay crumpled as if dead at her feet. Eventually he got up and his warriors road away. Some of the town’s people praised her courage, others were angry and afraid.
That fall when Charles was away Posey came back,
he put his hat on a stick and poked it through the door and said, “Squaw, me no
mad, me want biscuit.” She pulled the fresh cornbread out of the
oven and fed him. Before riding away he
chopped some wood and gave it to her.
Monticello
survived the winter in good shape, the summer had more rain than they wanted,
Thanksgiving had passed and Christmas was here.
They were still poor as for giving presents but song and dance made up
for them, William Adams danced with his Irish Shillelagh, Emma Hyde did a
“Highland Fling”,
Life
was lonely, children went to school, Church services were preformed, a few
drunken cowboys came to town, Indians came to be fed and it was noticed they
were starving and angry as more settlers arrived. The Church and the settlers pleaded for help
but nothing changed.
In
1890 Charles and Jane attended Conference in Salt Lake City and visited her
family in Bountiful. Monticello was
growing by leaps and bounds with stores but with more trouble with drunken
cowboys and more Indian problems.
He told the other cowboys, “Its Brigham’s big party tonight “it was the 24th of July 1891 and I am going to teach those pretty Mormon girls how to dance”. So he took his $13 dollars and went to town.
 |
| Add caption |
Chief
poesy and his braves watched and smelled the food being prepared. They had already stopped Charley and his
wagon with a slaughtered beef and he had given them some. They began roasting it over small
fire. They watched the many families
come into town each bring cakes, rolls, fruits and vegetables. Children played games even chased a greased
piglet. The rodeo was really a crown favorite.
By
eight o’clock the tables were cleared and the fiddlers began playing for the
younger dancers.
It
was Nine o’clock now and time for the adults to dance. At eleven o’clock Tom Roach broke in out of
turn and clapped himself into a quadrille.
By midnight Tom was drunk and mean and Frank Hyde tried to stop
him. Tom pulled out a knife and cut him
from ear to chin. Bill McCord a local
cowboy came rushing toward him and began to plead with Tom, “Shut up or I’ll
kill you and he did.” Meanwhile Frank Adams went
out and got Charles's 45/70 rifle sitting above the fireplace and a handful of
ammunition. He was drunk and was trying
to put a cartridge in the chamber as he ran.
Jane and Tom were old friends and she had no idea
that it would be dangerous to walk up and stand in front of Tom and demand, “Tom
you put that gun away”. Tom had seen Frank
raising the rifle to shoot him, so Tom ducked was ready for him. But there was only one shot that rang out. When the smoke cleared Jane said, Oh Roach
you’ve hurt me”. Then Jane McKechnie
Walton collapsed into the arms of her son.
They carried her home and laid her down in front of her fireplace she had died at the
age of forty-five
Dreams,
Jane had a dramatic spiritual experience after the birth of Magnolia as she lay
in a comatose state for several days, her father who had died came for her and
he came to escort her home to Heaven.
Jane pleaded to let her stay to raise her children. He told her he would come for her when she
was at the age of forty-five.
Chief
Posey with a large number of braves grieving with shaved heads and showing sorrow
came to town and said they could track Tom down; Sheriff Willard Butt swore
them in as a lawful posse. Tom Roach was
never seen again. I believe Posey did
find and kill him but no one knows. Frank
Adams had many who thought the local boy was innocent while many wondered what
to think.
 |
| Add caption |
Tom
Roach was never seen again. Some say that Posey killed him but rumors did
crop up that he got away. There is still
a warrant for his arrest for the murder of Bill McCord.
Chief
Posey loved to steal the White-man’s horses and shoot their cattle. He fought many battles with the soldiers and
the cowboys and killed many of them. He never
did bend to the White man’s law. He was
alone and off the reservation in 1923 when someone shot and killed him.
Jean
Tinto Bee McKechnie Hatch was 88 years old when she died 9th August
1915in her Bountiful home. Ira died in
1869.
Richard
John Moxey Bee married his niece, Georgina McKechnie Bee and had a large
family. She died in 21st February
1912 and Richard died 18th July 1912.
Joanna
Murray Bee married George Thomson, later married Arthur Welshman. She died the 14th January
1913.
 |
| Add caption |
Francis
Magnolia (Maggie) Walton married John Ezra Bailey and had seven children one
was Clifford Walton Bailey (the authors Grandfather) Maggie died 2nd
June 1918.
Leona
Jane Walton married Frank Nielson and had nine children. She died 9th September 1942.
Charles
Eugene Walton Sr. was later a Logan Temple worker and died in Logan 14th
December 1923, 76 years old.
On
a cliff and no way down
Adventures
of Maria Beck and Anton Nielson
By
J. C. Nielson
They moved over to Huntington,
Utah. Their first home was a hole in the
side of a deep wash. Their granary was a
wagon box in this hole. A flood ran them
out. They built a log cabin with two
rooms. Their bedroom was in the
attic. The entrance was a pole ladder
that went to a small door in the end of the gables. When Father and I went down there to put a
stone on Katherine's grave, that being the year of 1923, he took me to their
old home. His remark was, “There has not
been a pole on the fence or anything changed since we lived there forty years
ago." There is a garage on the
premises now where the old house stood.
The first year that they lived in Huntington, Mother said they lived on
boiled wheat and venison. There were a
great number of deer in the mountains.
When they would get short of meat, they would take the wagon, go into
the hills and kill several deer and bring them to town and butcher them. Mother said she had to feed the men five
times a day. Uncle Pete wasn't married
then, but was farming with Father and helping and trying to get a start for
himself. I'll have to go back a ways
because I forgot to tell you that Father was one of the first county
commissioners down in Emery County. 
Uncle Ras Beck, that's Mother's
brother, he lived in Colorado, the San Luis Valley. He wrote and told the folks how much grain he
had harvested that fall, and it was more than the whole town of Huntington had
produced. So father and a man named
Sanford pulled stakes and started for Colorado.
Mother had to drive the team, and Father drove the stock. When
they got out to just this side of the Colorado River, just as your entering
that little wide spot where they turn-off to go to the Arches Monument, their
road came to an abrupt end. They were on
a cliff, and it was very steep down.
So, they took the horses down, but they had to take all of their
provisions and wagons and let them down over the side of the cliff, The wagons were taken apart so they could
let over the cliff by a rope, there being a post set in the rocky flat where
there being a post set in the rocky flat where the wagon was. The trail from there down was or is to this
day visible, only wide enough for one horse.
In 1936 I was working on A job out in that area, so I did a little research work, so I found
some of those old timers out there where this was. So I stopped one day and examined it, and
that post was still standing there with rope burns on it embedded down into the
post three quarters of an inch showing how many things had been let over this
cliff