Story of James Henry Davids and Ruth Piede Call

Story of James Henry Davids and Ruth Piede Call

James Henry was born April 2, 1833 at Hinesburgh, Chittenden County Vermont. At the age of 5, James' father died and shortly after his mother Anna (Lydia) maiden name unknown remarried Mr. Munger. Jim's mother was very strong woman...he said he can remember her standing with her feet together and lift two bushels of grain, one in each hand at the same time. After the death of his father he started working to help earn a living. At the age of 12 he was employed as a teamster driving donkeys which pulled canal boats on Lake Erie.

He left Michigan at an early age and joined Johnston's army. While in the army he traveled all over the United States and later came West to help drive the Mormons out of Utah. While on a scouting expedition he helped explore part of Wyoming and southeastern Idaho. It is said he found a stream or pond of water Remi which was a favorite camping spot for immigrants traveling the plains. It seems that the spot was named after a high ranking officer in his company.

Little of the life of James Davids is known before coming to the Salt Lake Valley, except the fact that the had been on a few hunting expeditions and had been married(after giving birth to a daughter his wife died, and the where-abouts of the daughter are now unknown)

Johnston's Army broke up at Camp Floyd, but Jim was an enlisted man and could not leave, so he procured his records, destroyed them, and deserted.

James was baptized into the L.D.S Church June 22, 1862 and was later employed by the Saints as a rock-mason. Under the leadership of Brigham Young he was sent with Anson Call to Southern Utah November 15, 1864 to help establish a colony near the Colorado River. The merchants of Salt Lake City had such difficulty in securing the necessary supply of merchandise, either from the east or from California, owing to the long distance it had to be hauled in wagons and the limited season during which the roads were passable that the idea occurred to some one that, if shipped by steamboat up the Colorado River to as a high a point as possible and there stored in a ware-house the cost of freighting might be materially reduced. They built a landing named "Calls Landing" and a ware-house and returned home in March 1865. When the Boulder Dam in Arizona was built the water backed upon land which was owned by the church. When the church officials went to examine the plight and relinquish their rights to the land they found this store-house made by James Davids almost submersed in the water. The weather, frost, and water had apparently done little damage to the building, even though he burned his own lime for building purposes. Many modern masons have looked at his work and marveled at the skill with which it was done.

James became well enough acquainted with Anson Call to ask for the hand of his adopted Indian girl -- Ruth Piede Call. They were married December 25, 1864.

The children Ruth Piede(name of her native tribe) and Dan purchased from the warring Utes for flour, spent their first winter in Fillmore with Anson's second wife -- Ann Mariah Bowen. Ruth was about ## years of age at the time she went to live with Anson's first wife Mary Flint. According to Anson's journal, "when he returned to Salt Lake City from Fillmore, Utah at the August election 1852 he took with him an Indian boy and girl whom he had purchased, and left them with his wife in Davis County. During the winter at Fillmore Ruth's mother who had also been purchased by neighbors helped the L.D.S women with their washings, and etc. and it is said she come to the Call home and fed her daughter by sticking her ****** through a knot-hole in the door. After spending the winter at Fillmore she suddenly came up missing and was never heard of again.

Because of his inborn love for hoses -- it is thought that the Indian boy -- Dan -- ran away with a circus when about twelve years of age.

Ruth adopted the ways of the white people and often wondered why she never had a birthday, so her father told her (in her ninth year) she could have his birthday, May 13, 1851 is the data of birth shown on records, but the exact date is not known. After their marriage James and Ruth lived in Bountiful, Centerville, Farminton, and Sandridge, Utah and later was the tenth family to settle in the Portneuf Valley -- building their dirt-roofed log cabin at Chesterfield, Idaho.

James and Ruth were endowed at the Salt Lake Endowment House March 29, 1875. While James was in Utah he saw one of his brothers going through to California during the Gold Rush. He told James his mother was following in a few days but James never got to see her. -- To This day we have been unable to contact any of his family.

Ruth remembering how kindly she had been treated by the White people done all she could to help when needed. She was considered an unusually good cook. Many have eaten at her table. one man said, "If Aunt Ruth has some clean water and a dish-rag she can make a very delicious meal." It is said her floors were so clean they were scrubbed white.

Though the mother of ten children she went as doctor and nurse to every home where sickness prevailed. Scores are there who call her "Aunt", because she was a sister to their mothers in child-birth. She was known to have had a very unusual power of healing. It is said that the touch of her hand across the brow has driven away many a severe pain. Dr. Dacklay of Soda Springs, payed her this noble tribute: "In cases of pneumonia and caring for babies, Aunt Ruth is as good as any Doctor!"

James was found dead lying behind the front room stove where he had apparently fell asleep while the family was at West's for dinner--January 1,1908. He was buried in the Chesterfield Cemetery--which is stationed on a section of his old homestead. During his life he had made six or seven trips across the plains--mostly per foot and donkey--and had visited what now comprises forty-four states in the Union, and also Canada. He did not have the privilege of seeing the Pacific Ocean. Ruth died September 19, 1919 at Chesterfield and is buried beside her husband.

In 1947 their descendants numbered: four living children, forty grand-children, ninety-nine great grandchildren, and twenty-one great-great-grandchildren.

MANY ARE THERE DESCENDANTS. MAY THEY BE PROUD OF THEIR HERITAGE!!!

James Henry Davids was born April 2, 1833 in Hinesburg, Chittenden County, Virginia. Not much is known about his early life, but he left home when he was about 12. He traveled around a lot and roamed over most of the United States and Canada.

James came to Utah with Johnston’s Army which was sent by the United States government to suppress the supposed uprising of the Mormon saints. Upon arrival the Army realized there was no uprising, and after spending the winter in Utah they returned to Fort Leavenworth and were eventually disbanded. James then returned to Bountiful.

According to James’ grandson, Jim Johnson, James Henry Davids looked like a mountain man, close to 6 feet tall, 200 lbs. of muscle and very little fat. James was a mason by trade, but he seems to have been a jack of all trades. His tool shed was well stocked so he made things and kept everything well repaired. He built his own log home, and was known to shoe and break horses, which were used in all kinds of activities by himself and his sons, as well as others in the community.

James participated in church and community activities. Based on the accounts that have been written about him, it appears that he was a supportive husband and father.

Ruth Piede Call was a full-blooded Indian, but raised as a white child. She was purchased by Anson Call, when she was about 1 ½ when he was colonizing in Fillmore, Utah, by assignment of Brigham Young. When he returned to Bountiful, he took her to his first wife Mary Flint, where she was raised as one of his natural children with all of the love and privileges a family in an affluent position possessed. It was recorded in Anson’s journal that Mary was “much pleased with the present.”

When she was old enough to realize that she didn’t have a birthday, Ruth asked her father when her birthday was. Not knowing the actual date, he assigned her birthday to be on the same day as his, so her birthday was recorded as May 13, 1851. Education was important to the Call family, and this was past to Ruth, who encouraged her children and grandchildren to get an education or profession.

Ruth was only 4 1/5 – 5 ft. tall. She was plump of stature, and had dark eyes and long dark hair worn in a bun on the top of her head. She always wore skirts and blouses with an apron over them. Most of her aprons were blue and white checkered material with a flower of some sort cross stitched at the bottom.

James worked with Anson at Call’s Fort and Call’s Landing, where he came to know the family. At some point James asked for Ruth’s hand in marriage. Anson wrote in his journal “In the evening, James Davids was married to Ruth the Indian girl we raised. She was supposed to be 14 having been with us for 12 years.

She has been a very good faithful girl, Davids agreed never to take her away from us during my life and my wife Mary’s life without our mutual consent. This I, James Davids certify” – James Davids signature was affixed.

After their marriage, they moved around to several areas in Utah – Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington and Sandyridge.

In 1881, James and Ruth, along with their 4 young children, joined a wagon train of 6 wagons under the leadership of Ruth’s uncle, Chester Call. They left Utah in search of vacant land to settle a new community. They were one of the first 12 families to inhabit the Chesterfield area.

After they arrived in Chesterfield, 2 additional children completed their family. Their children were Ruthenia (Phene), Anson Chester (Chet), Orson, Annie Laura, Charlotte Vienna (Vinnie), and Emery Willard. They had 4 children that did not survive infancy.

Ruth kept an immaculate house. It’s said that she scrubbed the boards in her floor to the point that they were white. Each year the family performed spring cleaning, rugs were hung on the lines outside and beat to get the dust out of them. New straw was placed in the ticks on the beds, and if the year had been really good in gathering feathers, sometimes it was a feather tick. The windows were washed inside and out and the walls were washed with something that made them look like they were white washed.

Curtains were washed and then stretched and pinned to the floor with a sheet under them until they dried. This removed the wrinkles. When they were dry they would be re-hung.

The women in the community would get together and have quilting bees and rag rug bees. They used all that they had in the way of fabric, old clothing, rags, etc. to create the rugs used in their houses. The rugs were full room size rugs, and it’s said that in the fall they put straw under the rugs for padding and then tacked them down by having one of the boys with their rubber boot, “kick” the rug to stretch it then someone else would tack it to the floor. After sheep were herded down the roads, the women would go and gather the wool off of the barbed wire fences and use that as the bat in a quilt, or would spin it into yarn.

The Davids family had the first organ in the Chesterfield Valley. James traded a wagon and buggy to Mr. Turner, the Saloon keeper in the Johnson’s Hotel in Bancroft for the organ. Chet and Orson along with George Millward and one of the Higginson boys brought it home from Bancroft with a team and sleigh. They had a small bottle of fire water with them so they played the organ and sang the whole way home! Annie and Vinnie took music lessons from Adrian Ruger, a convert to the Mormon Church who had immigrated to Chesterfield from Switzerland. Had had taught music in a University, and exchanged the lessons for produce, eggs, chickens, meat and milk.

Ruth always had a tablecloth on her table, and was a stickler for her dishes and silverware to be placed correctly. We believe this came from her upbringing in the Call home, and was passed to her children as well.

Based on Chesterfield’s remote location the family was as self-sufficient as they could be. They raised chickens, both for eggs and for meat. They had milk from the cows and made butter both for family use and to trade at the store. They had special paper to wrap it in, and a block mold to make it look like it was store bought. They would trade eggs and butter to the store in order to purchase additional items they needed.

They raised a large garden, and would store the produce in a root cellar. The cellar was a large hole dug into the ground with a roof on top. There were wooden stairs to go down into the cellar, and it had shelves around the outside edges holding canned fruit, vegetables, as well as butter and milk. The only fruits in the area were wild service berries, chokecherries and currants. Anson would send fruit from Utah for Ruth if someone was going to Chesterfield. This would have been either fresh or dried depending on the time of year.

The Davids family also paid their tithing in produce, meat, grain, eggs, butter or in other words, whatever they had.

The flour bin in Ruth’s kitchen was famous for its treasures. In addition to housing the flour, rice and beans for the winter, it possessed a shelf where the leftover goodies were stored. Ruth was a noted baker in the community. Her grandchildren noted in their histories that they loved to go to Grandma’s to get doughnuts, cookies, pies, jelly, etc. The talked of going to dances then taking the whole group to Grandma’s for dessert.

Their existence was meager, and many times had to make do with what they had. At one point, Chet needed new pants, and there was no money for them, so Ruth made him pants out of gunny sacks. There was concern that he would be ridiculed by the other kids, but after Chet wore them, they became the rage, and other kids wanted them too.

Ruth had a great power of healing, and was a mid-wife as well as a substitute doctor. She had a horse and buggy that she hitched up herself to allow her to go and visit the sick. Emery says in his journal that she was only home about half the time, which tells you the power of Ruth and James belief in service to others.

Dr. Kackley was a doctor in Soda Springs, and in a letter said that he was very much impressed with Ruth’s intelligence. He said “Aunt Ruth taught me more about child birth and pneumonia than I ever learned in school.” It’s said that he would refer patients in that area to “Aunt Ruth”.

One time James and Ruth’s granddaughter, Velva, nearly sliced her finger off on the knife on a hay mower. She was rushed to Grandma, who stitched her finger back on with a needle and thread. Turpentine was used as the disinfectant. Then every morning Grandpa Davids would go to her house to have her soak her finger in carbolic acid water. He’d then rub some “medicine” on it. She thinks it may have been Olive oil, but she’s not sure. If he ever saw her finger curled up, she would crack her knuckles with something to make her straighten it out. Thus, she had a very straight finger.

Ruth raised her own herbs and gathered wild herbs to use in her medical practice.

The people of Chesterfield were hard workers, they also enjoyed the time they had to associate one with another. Church was central to this, as well as the dances and other activities. Chesterfield was famous for its dances, and Ruth and James’ children were very good dancers and won many contests. There is a story told that two strangers came to the store, and started playing cards with the locals. Somewhere in James’ travels he had learned Spanish, and when the men began talking Spanish, he warned them in Spanish to talk in English or quit playing. That ended their scheme to swindle the people of Chesterfield.

James and Ruth taught their children to work hard, and to understand the value of work. The children began working outside of the home early in their lives. The boys worked breaking horses, herding sheep, or general ranch labor. The girls worked at the ranches or cow corral during roundups as cooks.

James passed away January 1, 1908. The rest of the family had gone visiting another family, and James said he was tired and wanted to stay home. He laid down by the pot belly stove to rest and was found there by the family upon their return. James funeral was held at the Chesterfield Church. The church was packed as a great man left a community he loved, and they in turn loved him.

Ruth died of pneumonia on September 19, 1919. Just prior to her passing she told the people in the room that Jim had come for her. Her funeral was also at the Chesterfield Church with an overflowing attendance.

The legacy that James and Ruth have passed on to their family has been evident in the closeness of their descendants through the years. Regular family reunions have spanned the generations, and continue to keep their legacy alive.

James Henry Davids – April 2, 1833 – January 1, 1908

Ruth Piede Call Davids – May 13, 1851 – September 19, 1919

Ruthenia Davids Parker – Mary 26, 1870 – November 16, 1928

Anson Chester Davids – March 10, 1874 – August 3, 1957

Orson Davids – August 12, 1877 – March 6, 1899

Annie Laura Davids Johnson, Anderson, Holt – February 21, 1881 – October 26, 1964

Charlotte Vienna Davids Call – March 23, 1884 – November 4, 1958

Emery Willard Davids – July 4, 1889 – November 10, 1957

Resources:

Many family histories written by Children and Grandchildren

Compiled by Myra Call Martinsen – Granddaughter to James and Ruth