Riah Brockhouse

Contributed By

Nicole Elder Dyer

The Life Story of Riah Brockhouse

Riah Brockhouse was born the ninth of March 1843 in Willinghall, Staffordshire, England. She married William Beddoes the 13th of August 1860. Thirteen children were born to them, nine girls and four boys. The first two children were a girl named Phoebe and a boy named William who died of scarlet fever one week apart. This left them childless but the Lord was good to them and blessed them with two little girls, Selina, born the 31st of December 1865 and Matilda born the 10th of May 1867.

Mother heard the gospel through the Elders and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints along with Father in 1865. Their home was open to the Elders. Mother would wash, mend, and help them in every way that she could. Mother and Father had many relatives and friends who embraced the gospel but their desire was to come to America, known as Zion. Mother worked very hard and saved in every way by taking in boarders, washing, housecleaning and sewing to keep the home up so that Father's wages might be saved for the expense of coming to America. When it was made known a year later that they were going, Father was very much surprised at the money that Mother had saved in addition to keeping up the house.

When their plans were made known to their friends and relatives, they were surprised. Her parents, however, were much opposed and tried to persuade her not to go. They told her of many bad things they had heard of America. Her father took the oldest little girl and tried to hide her away, thinking it would make them late and so keep her from going. But Mother's mind was made up and her desire was firm to come to Zion for the Gospel. She told her mother that no matter what she would suffer or have to endure she would not torture her with the knowledge. She said many times with all the suffering she never complained nor wished herself back. They disposed of all they had at a very low price, selling what they could and giving the rest away. Many valuable things which would have been very useful could have been put in their luggage.

They left England in the spring of 1868 with their little girls and were six weeks on the water. They were very sick while on the ship except Matilda who had her seasickness on land. The ship "Manhattan" sailed from Liverpool, England with 480 Saints under the direction of Archibald N. Hill. It arrived in New York July 4, 1868. The emigrants continued to journey to North Platte, a station of the Union Pacific Railroad, 391 miles west of Omaha.

From Omaha the journey across the plains was by ox team under the direction of Captain Lanard G. Rice. Rovert Davis left St. George on Jun 15, 1868 in Dan Macarthur’s company to meet the emigrants. Ten companies went back and there were 61 wagons. They met at a place called Benton on the North Platte and started home August 8, 1868, arriving in Salt Lake City September 2, 1868. They suffered many hardships and much sickness on the journey.

Father went to work in Echo Canyon on the railroad and Mother and the children came on with Robert Davis, their teamster. She had no relatives and knew nothing of the place nor the people, but Brother Davis thought it the best place for them. She had related many times to her family the first night she spent in Salem. It was late in the evening when they arrived. She was placed in a house which had no doors nor windows and was anything but clean. The children cried for food but she had none to give them nor knew where to get some. Mr. and Mrs. Durphy lived on one of the other rooms, a small adobe house which was built in what they called the fort.

Mother went to them asking them if they would let her have a little bread but they had none and were parching corn for their supper. Mother made the children as comfortable as she could then sang them to sleep. Having heard of the Indians she was so frightened that she sat up all night. In the morning a kind woman came to her and told her how sorry they were that she had been put there. Some brought her things to eat; others wanted her to come to breakfast. She soon made many friends. She went to live with a lady whose husband was a schoolteacher and helped her with the work and cared for the children. She also worked at anything she could do, sewing, knitting, washing and cleaning house and by this time she was able to care for herself and children.

Father worked on the railroad but did not get much money. He received $4.00 which he sent to Mother. She paid it on a piece of land where the Dudley house now stands. Mother would wash all day for a pan of flour. Father having had such poor success in getting his money came to Salem to find Mother very sick with Mountain Fever. It was a joyful meeting. They lived the following winter in the old fort which was built as a protection against the Indians.

The next spring, Father homesteaded a farm which was a tract of sagebrush. They worked very hard to clean the ground. Father got logs from the canyon to build a cabin for a home which still stands in the same place on the farm. With untiring labor, Mother worked to bring to cultivation the farm she lived on until she died the 24th of April 1925.

She was a wonderful mother, having a family of thirteen. Her babies arrived about every two years. She had to part with he first two and the last two, one died in young womanhood. She nursed her children through serious sickness, including typhoid fever. Her third daughter was stricken with fever just before her twelfth child was born. The doctor said that Mother must be moved from the home as they had but two small rooms and her daughter was very sick.

At the time there was a new brick home being built for them. So Mother took the children to the home of her eldest daughter, Selina, who married. When Mother was confined, she was very ill with childbed fever. Mother had many hard sick spells and difficult births because of her hard labor in the fields before confinement. She would work all day in the field stripping the leaves from the cane so that it could be cut and hauled to the mill where it was ground up and made into molasses. This was used as sugar for the table and for preserving. Then after a full days work was done, the supper and other family duties were seen to and possible before morning the baby would be born.

Besides caring for her family, she adopted a seven-year-old boy name Frank Joseph Beddoes, an orphan. He lived with the family on the farm until her death and then lived with her son Willis. He is now married.

Mother was very ambitious. She made butter and raised chickens. As there was not a way of getting these products to the market, she would carry them to Payson to peddle to a man named Joseph Bills. She would leave every Monday morning with a bucket or a basket in each hand and one on her head. She would carry on her head all that she could lift up. She always aimed to be on Payson Hill when the sun came up.

In the early days, when everything was expensive and hard to get, she would gather milkweeds for pillows and cattails for beds. By opening them and drying them they were light and fluffy.

She was a wonderful manager and supervisor and taught her family to be industrious and saving. As her family grew up, in addition to the work on the farm, she would take fruit orchard son shares and cut and dry the fruit. Every fall, she would take a load of dried fruit to market thereby getting necessities for her family and home.

She was very handy with her needle, doing sewing for her family and others. When thread was hard to get, she would sew with ravelings taken from strong cloth. She would relate how, having no light, she would place in a dish filled with grease, a twisted rag around a button and light it. That was called the old *****. They had fireplaces because they could not get stoves.

When knitting and some difficult part needed to be done, to set or to narrow a heel, she would put on more sagebrush for added light. To make yeast bread, father would gather saleratus from the lower fields and she would put it in the water. When it had settled, she would use it as soda to make the bread rise. For water softener, she would take odd ashes and put into a kettle to settle.

As Mother and Father were the first of their families to come to America, all succeeding friends and relatives made their home with them until they could find employment and a place to live.

Mother was an active worker in the church. She sang in the choir for many years and was a visiting teacher in the Relief Society. She would lie out the dead and prepare the bodies for burial. At that time, caskets were called coffins and made by a carpenter out of lumber. Mother was very handy in lining and trimming them.

Mother was firm and true to her family and her religion, ever willing to help and to go without for others. She was a wonderful mother. God gave us friends and that means much but far above all others, the greatest of his gifts to earth was when he thought of Mother.

Father and Mother took part in all the activities of the ward. They enjoyed themselves at the surprise parties and the cutting bees and the rag bees.

They used to sing together and were always asked to sing a song which they sang before leaving England. The meaning of the song was the coming to America. This song was written by Father:

Will Thou gang along with me, Bonnie Lassie, O

Far across the deep blue sea, Bonnie Lassie, O

Fearing neither wind nor tide,

I can love thee by my side,

If thou will gang along with me, Bonnie Lassie, O

What makes thee want to roam, Bonnie Laddie, O

To leave thy happy home, Bonnie Laddie, O

Does thy country displease,

Or does sorrow vex and tease,

As thou can’st not be at ease, Bonnie Laddie, O

But the journey’s long and drear, Bonnie Laddie, O

And my heart is full of fear, Bonnie Laddie, O

For the journey’s over plains,

Mid’st the frost, the snow and rain

I shall perish with the pain, Bonnie Laddie, O

Nay, the journey’s not so bad, Bonnie Lassie, O

If thy heart does not retard, Bonnie Lassie, O

So banish all thy fears,

For I will thy troubles bear,

So gang along with me, Bonnie Lassie, O

Then I must leave my home, Bonnie Laddie, O

And like Abraham and Sarah roam, Bonnie Laddie, O

Take my children in my arms

For to baffle many storms

Leave my country in its charms, Bonnie Laddie, O

Yonder temple is rearin’ high, Bonnie Lassie O

With it’s spire in the sky, Bonnie Lassie, O

And our Father says he’ll bless

Our hearts with humbleness

If we will toward it press, Bonnie Lassie, O

Let’s prepare to make a start Bonnie Laddie, O

I’ll agree with all my heart, Bonnie Lassie, O

And for future let us say

When we kneelest down to pray;

May God help us on our way, Bonnie Lassie, O