Gentleman George

Mike told the kids about their great-great-great grandfather the other day.  His name was George William Smith, but he went by George W. This is how we are related to Henry B. Eyring.  He is descended from George W's brother, Thomas X.  If I remember right.  Anyway, George W was born in England in 1823.  He married Catherine Wooten when he was 22 years old and she was 17.  They were baptized into the church three years later by Elder John Mead.  Thomas X also joined the church.  They were the only ones in the family that did.  In April 1854 they left England for New Orleans on a ship named The Clara Wheeler. Their fifth child was born in Echo Canyon as they arrived in the Utah Valley.  A little girl they named Annie.  Two days later they made it to Thomas X's house.  He had arrived in Utah two years before.

In England, George made straw hats.  By necessity, he now had to learn to become a farmer.  He was terrible at it.  He had a hard time plowing straight, so his rows were always weavy.  Makes sense for a weaver I guess!  He also always worked in his 'swallow tailed coat', because this is the only coat he had left.  All the others had worn out.  This is how he earned the nickname 'Gentleman George'.

George William Smith

Soon after they arrived in Farmington, they were asked to go help settle Muddy Valley, Arizona.  There were already settlers there who paid their taxes and even had a representative in the legislature.  When the state lines were officially run, it was discovered they had actually been living in Nevada.  Nevada was not friendly to Mormons and demanded years of back taxes.  The people could not afford this and received permission to abandon this city.  George W arrived in Muddy Valley about the time this was happening.  He ended up staying a few months, one winter, and then going back to the Salt Lake Valley.  He settled right around where Mike now works.  Life is sure easier for us now!

John Borrowman

We decided that we would learn about an ancestor every Family Home Evening.  I thought I should write down what we learn here.  Mike talked about one of his ancestors last week.  Gentleman George.  I'll make that into another post.  Today it was my turn.  I decided to talk about John Borrowman, mostly because of the framed Ensign article at my Grandma's house.  It was called Half a Penny and a Pearl, or something like that.  Anyway, when I looked him up on familysearch, someone had added a life sketch.  That was helpful, and he was born on Mike's birthday!  I had just asked if we should have a prize if any of our ancestors are born on our birthdays.  Mike says he didn't hear me say that.  Maysen confirmed that I started to say something like that and then got distracted.  I'm sure she is right.  Anyway, this is John Borrowman's life sketch copy and pasted from familysearch.

John Borrowman was born May 13, 1816, in Glasgow, Scotland, son of William and Marion Hannah Borrowman. When he was about 4 years old he went to Lanark, Canada with his parents (Ship: Commerce, 1820) and three sisters, Marion, Mary and Hannah (his oldest sister, Margaret, remained in Scotland until 1825). There he lived and grew to manhood,working in the lumber camps. While still a young man he was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was baptized into that church on June 7, 1843. 

Not long after joining the Church he was called to fulfill a mission in Ontario, Canada. While on that mission, a strange incident happened. He was traveling on foot one day, in an open prairie country, with his companion, James Park (a cousin of the woman he later married). It was at the time when Brigham Young was called as President of the Church. These two companions were conversing with each other and wondering if Brigham Young was really the right man for the place, when suddenly they noticed a strange man walking with them. He started to talk to them and said, "You were wondering about Brigham Young. I want to tell you that he is the right man in the right place." They asked him where he came from as they had not seen him come. He replied, " You did not see me come and you will not see me go. Mr. Borrowman made up his mind that he would certainly see him go when he did go, so kept his eyes fastened upon him. They came to a stream, and he glanced down to see where to step. In the instant his eyes were taken from the stranger, he disappeared. They always thought that this man was John the Revelator.

It was on this mission that John Borrowman converted the Park family, among whom was Agnes T. Park, the woman who later became his wife. When he joined the Church, his father "cut him off with a shilling." This meant that nothing further could be claimed from the estate. William Borrowman also willed him the family bible, but wanted him to return to Middleville in order to claim it. Not another member of his family joined the Church. From Canada he went to Nauvoo, and there started with the Saints to come to the Rocky Mountains. 

When the President of the United States called for 500 able-bodied men, later called The Mormon Battalion, to fight in the war with Mexico, John Borrowman was among those who volunteered. They left Council Bluffs on July 16, 1846, and arrived in California at Sutter's Mill in the Spring of 1848, shortly after which gold was discovered. Some of this gold he brought with him when he left California. 

In October of 1848, he arrived in Utah. On January 9, 1849, he married Agnes T. Park. In November, 1853, they were called to help settle Nephi. They brought with them two small children. Three more children were born to them in Nephi, making five children in all: William Park, Jane Duncan, Agnes Thompson, John Park and Marion Hannah.

On October 26, 1869, he left for another mission to Canada, faithfully fulfilling this mission , returning to Utah two years later. He was Justice of the Peace in Nephi for 20 years, and held the position of Senior President of the 49th Quorum of Seventies for a good many years. He was a well-read man, and few men knew more about the scriptures than he. 

They built a small house and lived for two years or more on what was known as the "sawmill lot." Later they built another house and lived the remainder of their lives on the lot where our worthy Captain, Nellie S. Cowen and her husband now live. He served in the Indian Walker War before they came to Utah, and in the Black Hawk war served as a lookout, as he was then an older man and was classed as one of the "Silver Grays." John Borrowman died March 2, 1898. Five months later, on August 6th, 1898, he was followed by his good wife Agnes.

Here are a couple of pictures that I also found on the site.  The first is John Borrowman's coin.  It was on display at the church history museum at one time.  Although when Mike and I went there a few weeks ago I asked about it and the lady had no idea what I was talking about.  I'm glad someone took a picture of it and posted it on the family history site.

John Borrowman's coin

 John and Agnes Borrowman shortly after their wedding

 John Borrowman's obituary

We also talked about how when he was in the Mormon Battalion he was put on guard duty when he was completely exhausted.  He closed his eyes for a second and was caught right away.  He spent three days in prison.  Someone got mad that his sentence wasn't harsh enough.  They said it was better to have no punishment then a punishment too light, so he got released.  I think I got that story right.  It was hard to read because there was about a half a sentence missing about every other line.  I remember my grandma telling me this story as well.  We talked about how John Borrowman left his family and his inheritance to follow the gospel.  When he was in California and very successful during the gold rush, he immediately left it when he was called to come back to Salt Lake.  He also left his home and settled Nephi when he was asked to do so.  He put living the gospel and following the prophet above anything else in his life.  That is something to strive for!

Preston was really excited to do this and begged to be the one who got to go next.  We'll see what he comes up with.

Lost in San Francisco

We rode the bus and BART into San Francisco with Mike today.  We couldn't find a seat, but Preston didn't mind.  He rode the entire way like this.  He did not want to stand by me he wanted to be with Jorja. He is like that a lot.  He idolizes her.

Jorja & Preston, Stockton, Mike

Our first stop was Chinatown!  I was hoping Jorja and Preston would love this, but they weren't too impressed.  I guess they see Chinese writing all the time.  Preston did want one of those lucky cats, but I know you can get them at the Chinese store here.  I had no desire to lug a cat statue around with me all day.  My dad got some cool pictures with the kids at the gate to Chinatown.  My pictures are lame.  Oh well. Better that than nothing!

Maysen, Jorja, Preston

 Jorja & Preston ~  Stockton is so excited to be here!

 Stockton Street is in Chinatown, so that was cool.

Preston & Stockton on Stockton Street

 Stockton

We then walked all the way back to the first trolley stop.  We had gotten off the BART here.  There was a small line.  When we came back the line was huge!  It went pretty fast though.  I think we were in line around 40 minutes.

 Turning the trolley

 Very high tech

Stockton, my dad and I all hung on the ends.  I was grateful Maysen, Jorja and Preston were inside.  Mostly I was grateful Preston was inside and the girls were looking after him.  It was fun to stand on the end until the trolley in front of us broke down.  Someone had pulled the emergency line so the trolley was stuck until an official person could do whatever they needed to do.  Unfortunately that meant we were also stuck.

View from the trolley

The end of the line just happened to be a block away from Ghirardelli Square.  We went again and ordered the giant dish to share.  The one with eight scoops of ice-cream.  I remember my brothers and I loving this when we were here years ago!  I ordered various flavors, one of them being strawberry.  Preston loves strawberries.  He loved it so much he decided to share the joy and spread the strawberry ice-cream around the entire dish.  Stockton put his spoon down and refused to eat it.  Pretty soon it was up to my dad and I to finish off the entire thing. We are heroes.

Jorja in front of a creepy fountain.  There are frogs there, I promise!

We then walked to the Maritime Museum, or something like that.  They had three different ships that we could board.  My great-great-great grandparents (Abraham Coombs and Olive Olivia Curtis Coombs) and their three children sailed on The Ship Brooklyn.  The Ship Brooklyn left Brooklyn Harbor in New York and arrived in Yerba Buena 5 months and 27 days later.  Yerba Buena became San Francisco.  The United States had taken possession of the territory three weeks before they landed, so they were the first group of immigrants that landed in that United States Territory.  Anyway, we were hoping we could find some kind of a marker, but the guy said that the 49ers destroyed everything.  The real 49ers, not the football team.

My dad went to get a pass so we could board the ship.  He bought the life time senior citizen pass that will get him and a few other people into national parks for the rest of his life.  Sounds like a good deal.  Dad accidentally left his camera at the booth where he bought his pass.  He noticed it was missing three minutes later, maybe even earlier.  He went right back for it.  The lady said that someone left a camera, but they had already come and picked it up.  We are pretty sure that it was my dad's camera that someone else claimed.  Stinks!  My dad had so many beautiful pictures of this trip!

 Preston

 Preston and Jorja

Maysen loved being aboard the ship.  She is writing a story right now where one of the settings is a pirate ship.  Maysen took a lot of notes and pictures.  It was really cute.

After we left the boats, there was a souvenir shop on the corner.  I wanted to go in and look for a towel.  The kids came in with me and were helping me look.  I decided not to get one, so we left.  I immediately noticed that Preston was not with us.  We frantically searched the store, which was quite large.  We could not find him anywhere.  My dad decided to look for him outside.  After about five minutes I called to see if he had any luck.  Nope.  I told him I was going to talk to the store people to find out how to get help.  My dad said, "Wait!  Wait!  I see him!  He is walking back to me!"  I started crying and crying.  I was so scared!  My dad said Preston ran up to him and gave him a big hug.  He could tell he was holding back the tears. Preston had gotten all the way down to the Fisherman's Wharf sign before he turned back.  He thought we had left him and he was trying to catch up to us.  SO SCARY!  

A little while later Preston was wandering off again.  I caught him and said, "Don't do that!  You have no idea how scared I was when I couldn't find you!"  He indignantly said, "Oh ya!  You don't know how scared I was!"  True.  Love him.  Glad we found him.

My kids have been loving the biscoff spread lately.  We brought some on the trip, but ran out.  At Fisherman's Wharf they had a biscoff coffee shop where they sold the spread.  I bought the regular size jar, even though the giant one was tempting!

Jorja

I was worried it would take too long to get back to the motorhome park. I talked my dad into taking a taxi.  We waited in line, but no one would take us.  We waisted at least thirty minutes doing that.  Finally we just had to walk all the way to the BART.  Mike picked us up in the motorhome at the BART station.  I do regret not walking down to the water at the motorhome park since we were right on the ocean.  Oh well.

Our next stop was Peggy's house.  Peggy's house is crazy!  The house is more like a castle.  So much fun.  Peggy and her sister's made tacos for us.  They love making their mom's taco recipe.  Annabelle's tacos.  They are deep fried and delicious.  Peggy's twins were there.  Amy and Hailey have grown so much!  Shea was there, I haven't seen her since she met us for dinner in Seattle years ago.  Eric, his wife and their three kids were there.  So much fun!  Eric is going to be in Salt Lake doing the call for the BYU/Utah baseball game.  I actually have tickets for the game but can't go.  Hopefully my dad can take Preston.  Eric said to come up to the box and say hi.  That would be so fun!

Preston golfing with the statue's club

That is not Peggy's house in the distance, it is the barn.

 Cali, Chloe and Preston pushing Colton

I remember this chair!  Matt wanted to play Scum at this table so the king could sit in this chair.

Stockton

 Cali and Preston

This is a small little room at the top of the house.  You have to go up this narrow windy staircase to get there.  It is adorable though.

Preston

 Preston on the balcony at the very top of the house

We watched Frozen for awhile in the movie room.  My dad and I talked to Peggy and Janie for a long time before we headed off to bed.  What a fun day!