THE LIFE OF JOHN and MARIA CHRISTIAN LINFORD

THE LIFE OF JOHN and MARIA CHRISTIAN LINFORD

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF JOHN and MARIA CHRISTIAN LINFORD

By Eliza Maria Linford Denio-Granddaughter and James Linford, Son and other histories

Eliza Denio wrote:

As Grandmother lived with us most of the time since my earliest recollection until a year previous to her death, I believe I was really better acquainted with her than most of her grandchildren. She seemed just as near to me and just as much a part of the family as my parents. I used to sleep with her; and I loved to sit in her room and hear her relate stories of her life.

I must have wearied her often with my questions. I was an inquisitive youngster and wanted to know all about her early life in England; therefore, this sketch will be somewhat reminiscent.

Grandmother was born April 10, 1813, at Gravely, Cambridgeshire, England. She was the daughter of William Christian and Mary Bentley.

Right here, I will relate the story she told me of the first meeting of her father and mother. Her father's people were quite wealthy and he would have had plenty of money to have lived comfortably, but he lost it all through the treachery of a false friend.

Her mother was an orphan and had to work for a living. She was serving as a maid in the family of some wealthy people, and one of her duties was to carry water to use in the kitchen from a nearby pond or pool of water. She must have been a very attractive girl, for great-grandfather fell in love with her at first sight. It happened this way: One day as she went for a pail of water, William Christian, with a friend, rode up to give his horse a drink, and there saw Mary Bentley for the first time. She must have made quite an impression on him for he turned to his friend and said, “If I ever marry, that is the girl I am going to have.”

Well, he won her and they became the parents of a very large family. I think Grandmother was one of the younger ones for I have heard her tell stories of her older brothers and sisters. From what she told of their home life, I think her mother must have been a very superior woman, a good manager, and a fine housekeeper. I am sure that Grandmother inherited her sterling qualities, but as a girl she was not very strong and healthy, and her mother was worried when she wanted to get married. However, she married on June 24, 1833, when she was 20 years of age to John Linford.

This information comes from various sources, including son, James.

John and Maria attended Methodist meetings at the home of John Fielding, an uncle of Joseph F. Smith, who later became the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). In 1837, John F.'s brother, Joseph Fielding, was serving a mission in England and came to Graveley to visit him. Joseph and the other Elders did not meet with much success, as John Fielding was against, them, and they only stayed a few days. However, they did set up a Sunday meeting and John and Maria and her father, William Christian attended. They were all very much impressed. Her father said, “Why, it is the Old Gospel come to earth again!” But the Elders left and before any more came, William Christian died.

John Fielding died some time later in an accident and Joseph Fielding then returned to Graveley and on December 9, 1842, John and Maria were baptized. John became one of the leaders of the Church, and this won for them the enmity of their relatives and friends who persecuted them and did all in their power to induce them to renounce “Mormonism”. Grandfather was a shoemaker, and his family and friends said, “If we cannot persuade him to give up Mormonism we will starve him to it by withholding our work.” Soon his business was suffering and he had to let his workmen go. His son, James, said :

“During those hard times, Father kept an open house for the Elders as usual, and they never knew the straightened circumstances we were in; neither did anyone else. My noble mother stood by my father without a murmur in this hour of trial. It was a dark outlook for a husband and father as financial ruin and starvation stared him in the face. We thanked the Lord for turning away the trial. From the time Father became a member of the Church in 1842 until he emigrated 1856, he kept open house for the Elders, paid donations to help buy glass for the Nauvoo Temple, contributed to the tithing fund, and also contributed to the support of the local branch. Out house was used for religious meetings, three being held each Sunday.”

On March 28, 1856, they left their home to come to Zion (Salt Lake Valley). They sailed from Liverpool on May 4, 1856 with their three boys, George (17), Joseph (14) and Amasa (11)(our ancestor) on the ship “Thorton”, with the James G. Willie company. Their oldest son, James, stayed in England to labor as a missionary. John began a small diary on the trip across the ocean. It is a small black leather bound notebook, four and one-half inches long, three inches wide, and one-half inch thick with a metal clasp on one end. Attached to one side of the cover was a long leather loop made to hold a pencil. ( It is in the Archives section at the LDS Church Office Building.)

They arrived in New York June 14, 1856, having been on the ocean nearly six weeks. They went by rail to Iowa City which was the outputting place for the emigrating Saints. Not finding the hand carts ready as they expected, they had to wait until July 15 before starting on their way across the plains, which was later than such a journey should have been undertaken. They left with 120 handcarts and six wagons. John was called to be the leader of a group of twenty, which shared a tent.

Through some mismanagement, their food supply ran short and they were put on rations; but they ran out altogether before they reached the Sweet Water River in Wyoming. An early winter was upon them and they were dragging their handcarts through the snow. John had been sick for several weeks and Maria and the boys had pushed him in the handcart. They camped near the Sweetwater River and were three days without food. It was there that John died of cold and hunger. He was buried in a grave with 14 other people, on October 19, 1856. 68 people died on this journey.

One of John's sons wrote a final entry in his father's diary:

“The 19th of October we mett a snow storm and soon after we mett the brethren from the valey brother wetlock [Cyrus Wheelock] and young [Joseph A. Young] about 270 miles from the valey we had eat up all our flour we have relying upon _______hundred weight of bisket for a week _____people then we came to camp and in the morning we were snowed in and had got all out biskets among us brother willey went to meet the wagons on a mule and father died the 21 October 1856 down by the sweet water river at 5 o'clock in the morning he had been ill from florence first the fever and ague and then weekness and the diareah the jurney was to much for him.”

John's son, Amasa, who was eleven years old at the time of his father's death, later wrote:

“We finally reached camp where some five died the first night, fifteen died the second, among whom was my father, John Linford. Fifteen were put in one grave. While father was sick and just before he died of starvation, Levi Savage emptied his flour sack to make him some skilly as it was called; after eating this he died.” ( A note about Levi Savage- he was with the Saints in Iowa and was heading back to Salt Lake-he advised them to not start out so late in the year, but food was scarce in the camp in Iowa with winter coming, and it was decided to go on. He said that he would go with them, help them, and die with them if necessary. He survived the journey.

They were finally met by wagons carrying provisions and clothing, sent out by Brigham Young from Salt Lake, when he heard that handcarts were stranded out in Wyoming. By a miracle, James Willey set out to try and meet the wagons and actually found them. The help coming from Salt Lake had no idea where the people were camped. They arrived in Salt Lake on November 9, 1856. A Mr. Ford that had been a neighbor in England took them into his home in Centerville until they recovered. Then they all had to find jobs. Amasa at 11 years old was sent to Ogden to work for a family there and the other boys worked for different families. Maria worked for a Mrs. Cherry in Centerville and was very unhappy being separated from her sons.

When Joseph Rich offered them a home so they could all be together, Maria became his plural wife on July 26, 1857 when she was 42 years old. She worried for a time that her dead husband might not understand, then he appeared to her in a dream and she was happy after that.

In September 1861, her oldest missionary son James came to Salt Lake very ill and was taken to his Mother's home and nursed back to health. He later said, “We never had a home in Utah until Mother married Father Rich. We loved him as our own father for he was a real father to us.” Joseph R. loved them and was always kind, just, considerate, as well as firm. He said little, but that little counted. He helped James towards starting to earn his way. When James was married in Joseph's home, he gave them the only chair they had, a real old one that had been in the Rich family a long time.

The marriage of Joseph Rich and Maria Christian Linford proved to be beneficial to both families. Joseph's wife Elizabeth had a stroke which did not make her entirely helpless, but she could scarcely wait on herself after, so Maria took the responsibility of the home. As Joseph was not young any more, he appreciated the help of her sons, Joe and Amasa. Before long the two older boys went out for themselves, but they always had a home to come to.

In the fall of 1863, Joseph's son, Charles C. Rich, answered a call to lead in settling Bear Lake Valley. Though a feeble old man of 78, Joseph wanted to go, also, for he felt that the family would all be together and pioneering held no terrors for him.

There was another good reason for going. Free land was available and laws would shortly go into effect to prevent this, but besides what land Joseph Rich got, his step-sons, Joseph and Amasa got good farms. George was called on a mission to England early that spring so he couldn't go to Bear Lake. James sold out and was ready to move with the family, but Charles advised him not to because James had a tiny son who was ill. So James and his family lived in Joseph's old home in Centerville for a time and ran the farm.

Joe Linford, then 22, went to Paris in May 1864 to get things ready for the family and late that summer when Charles Rich returned to Bear Lake, Joseph and his family went with him. All the Richs lived rather close to each other. Like the others, Joseph had a small dirt-roofed log house with only the ground for a floor. The previous winter had been very mild, but this year there was one blizzard after another. Then came cold like none of them had ever experienced before. They all suffered greatly and many animals froze to death. Mary Ann Rich said of their first two years there, “We nearly starved and froze to death.” Joe and Amasa Linford slept in a wagon box all that first winter.

Joseph Rich and the boys made every effort to make things more comfortable before the next winter. He must have worked too hard, for in 1865 he had a stroke which left him entirely helpless. Maria and her boys had their hands full, but Charles' family helped them out. Mary Rich, Joseph's granddaughter and Joe Linford married, which pleased the family.

When Joseph Rich died in 1866, his property was divided between his first wife and Maria. Maria stayed in Paris and at some point lived with her son, Joe, and his family. She was president of the Paris Relief Society, and a counselor in the Stake Relief Society. She also helped in getting the Primary Association organized and did much to encourage and help it along. She was described as being extremely dignified and lady-like and very particular about her personal appearance.

In 1884, at her request, Joe took her to Utah to visit her two sons, James in Kaysville and George in North Ogden. Maria's rocking chair, well-padded with pillows, was put in the covered wagon and she was made as comfortable as possible for the journey. Amasa also went along. The following summer she wanted to come home, but when the family arrived to get her, she was very ill and died on October 2, 1885, and was buried in North Ogden Cemetery.