William Burgess, Jr.

"In the fall of 1862 I was called to go to southern Utah and take my saw mill to Pine Valley to saw timber for the pipe organ (for the Salt Lake Temple.)  That was the first saw mill in that part of the state.

(Pine Valley is about 20 plus miles north of St. George and is a beautiful mountain valley.  The Burgess family settled there and my great grandfather, James William Burgess was born there.  William Burgess, Sr. helped settle the town and was known as "Grandad" by all the residents.  He and his wives are buried in the cemetery there.  The church building in Pine Valley is a historic building and one of the oldest LDS churches still in use.  Elder Jeffrey Holland rededicated it several years ago after a remodeling.  His ancestors worked side by side with ours to establish the community of Pine Valley.  There is a monument that still stands today to honor the Burgess men and their contributions to the community via the saw mill.)

"There was extra good timber in the Pine Valley mountains.  Some of the timber was sent to help with the tabernacle in Salt Lake.  We were called by President Brigham Young.  We lived in Pine Valley about twenty years, meanwhile building the first grist mill.  Some time in 1882 we moved to Thurber, Wayne County, with a few settlers to open up that part of the state for new homes as population was increasing all the time.  We farmed and raised cattle for a livelihood.

(When he says they were called by Brigham Young, this is what he meant.  In the October 1861 General Conference, Pres. Young announced several names from the pulpit as those he wanted to go south to help establish the Dixie Mission.  The Pulsiphers and Burgesses were called in this manner.  They had no warning, just the call from the pulpit.  And they went, Zerah and William were in their sixties, as were their wives, and once again, they packed up everything they owned, sold their comfortable homes and businesses and traveled to St. George and it's outlying areas.  Exercising incredible faith and commitment to what they believed.)

"In 1885 I took my family and moved to Huntington, Emery County, where my wife's folks had settled.  The Pulsipher's had a saw mill in Huntington Canyon.  I went into the bee business and also bought into the Co-op Mercantile Company.  (One of the principal stockholders, he served as president for seven years.)  I made this town my home the rest of my life.  We had a family of nine children, five girls and four boys.  My wife (Mariah Pulsipher Burgess) passed away on December 26, 1892.  She was seventy years, six months and nine days old.  She was buried at the Huntington Cemetery.

William Burgess, Jr. passed away on September 26, 1904 at the age of eighty-one years.  He was buried near his wife in the Huntington Cemetery.


My mom, Bonnie Jean Petty Higginson, talks about going camping and fishing in the mountains near Huntington as a child.  She says the country there is beautiful.

The life and times of William Burgess, Jr.

"In the spring of 1841 we moved to Nauvoo, Illinois.  I was elected Captain of the Third Company, Fifth Regiment of the Nauvoo Legion.  I passed through the trials and privations with the saints there and assisted in building the temple.  On October 18, 1844 I was ordained a seventy by Daniel J. Mills.  We completed the temple for ordinance work and on January 7, 1846 we received our endowments in the House of the Lord."

Neither William nor any of our ancestors who left written records describe how horrific the conditions they suffered under actually were.  Probably because so many years had passed by the time that they sat down and recorded their experiences and events.  There are many great resources out there to explore that describe the conditions of the day and how the pioneers suffered at the hands of the mobs.  When William says they left Nauvoo in February he does not tell how they were forced to leave in the dead of winter and had to cross the miraculously frozen Mississippi river, many of them without the necessary clothing or shoes necessary at that time of the year.  You will recall Emma Smith's description of having Joseph's translation of the Bible tied around her waist under her skirt while she carried her babies across that frozen and freezing cold terrain, with her other children clinging to her skirts.  Many people recorded having bruised and bloodied feet by the time they reached the other side of the river.  None of our pioneer ancestors who left written records really share just how bad the conditions were nor do they complain much.  They were true heroes who suffered and sacrificed so very much so that they could have the gospel in their lives and be able to worship freely.  That blessing is now our own because of their sacrifices.

William goes on to say, "I left Nauvoo on February 10, 1846 with the pioneers, but came back the last of March, fixed up the best my wife and I could and started on May twenty-third for Council Bluffs, Iowa.  I stopped in Iowa and worked.  We arrived in Winter Quarters on September 16, 1846.  We passed throught that sickness that took so many lives and left Winter Quarters in May 1848 for the west.  After four months we arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 22, 1848.  We wintered in what was called the Old Fort in the Sixth Ward.  The country was new and there was not a house on the city plot except the Fort.  It commenced to snow the fifth of December.  We had a long hard winter.  The ground was covered with snow until April.

In the spring of 1849 the militia was organized and I was elected Captain of the Fifth Company of the First Regiment.  In 1853 I was elected Colonel of the Second Regiment.  I was also ordained a President of the Ninth Quorum of Seventies.  In May 1855 I was called to go on a mission to the Indians on the Salmon River.  My nephew, Baldy Watts, and J.Kress went with me.  We were there more than a year.

After we came home I put up my saw mill in Parley's Canyon.  We made lumber for the shingles and sawed timber to help build the old Fort and some of the first homes in the city.  We were alloted ten acres of land.  (The Denver and Rio Grande Depot is now on this spot.)  My father, William Sr., and brothers, Harrison, Horace, and Melanchton worked with me."

In one history, it is recorded that Melanchton Burgess's wife was the very first white woman to live in Park City.  The Pulsipher men also had saw mills up Parley's Canyon alongside the Burgess mills.  They were always working and living together.

The life and times of William Burgess, Sr.

We have established that John Christian Burgess, formerly known as the Hessian soldier, John Christian Borges, came to America from Germany to fight against the colonists but ended up fighting alongside them.  He married Hannah Newland and they raised a large family in Lake George, New York.

Their son, William, married Violate Stockwell and they had a large family as well.  One of their sons, William, Jr. wrote a life sketch:


I was born March first 1822 in the township of Putnam, Washington County, New York.  When I was ten years old my father and most of his family (his wife and kids, not his siblings) joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint.  This was December second, 1832.  The next August we started to move to Jackson County, Missouri.  We arrived in Kirtland, Ohio the first part of September.  The Prophet Joseph Smith advised us to stop there and help build the Temple.  The walls were about four feet above the ground.

That fall (1833) the church was driven out of Jackson County by the mob.  In February 1835 I was baptized by my brother Harrison Burgess and confirmed by the Prophet Joseph Smith, under the following circumstances.  There had been about thirty-five baptized during the week and all went to church on Sunday to be confirmed.  We sat on the three front rows of seats and I was on the third one.  Jared Carter and Elder Cahoon were doing the confirming.  After they had confirmed all on the first row, the Prophet held up his hand for them to stop, and came to where I was and confirmed me, then went back to the stand and told the brethren to go on with the confirming.
(William had lived with Joseph and Emma and I think that may have been why Joseph performed William's confirmation.)

I lived in the Smith family for two years, and learned much of the gospel hearing the prophet talk.  I helped build the Kirtland Temple and was at the dedication.  We passed through the persecution with the saints and were driven out.  We then moved to Caldwell County, Missouri in August of 1838.  The prophet counseled us to go to Daviess County.  We arrived at Adam-Ondi-Ahman about the twentieth of August, 1838.  The mob spirit was raging and all the old settlers but two moved away in order to have their families safe while they were fighting.  For about three months I didn't undress only to wash and change clothes, and no one except those that passed through it knows the tribulation and privations that we had to endure.  As it was for the gospel's sake, we endured cheerfully.  (Wish I could say I always "endure" cheerfully!)  I was taken prisoner by the mob and abused terribly.  But we depended on the Lord and He delivered us from them.  We went to Caldwell County in December and in the spring we were put in prison and the church was driven from the state.

We next went to Adams County, Illinois.  We were driven out of Missouri leaving our homes and all we had, but we were thankful for our lives that we were spared.

On September 17, 1840 I married Mariah Pulsipher, daughter of Zerah Mulsipher and Mary Brown, near Lima, Adams County, Illinois.

This is where the Pulsipher and Burgess families first become forever connected.  Another Burgess boy married Mariah's sister, Almira.    These two families, the Burgess's and the Pulsipher's then were always together, settling area after area until finally ending  up in different parts of southern Utah.