Wilmer Burgess, continued

As promised, though much later than expected, is the continuation of Wilmer Burgess's story:

"In the spring of 1869 I went with my uncle to Clover Valley, Nevada (this is where my great grandmother, Dina Elizabeth Crow was born) to help move his folks.  It was here I met my future wife, Tressie Jane Heath.  She was working for my uncles' family.  She was going back to her home, so I took her with me to St. George.  On the twentieth of June we were married.  After we married, we lived in Pine Valley for about a month, then we went to Salt Lake City.  I got a job hauling ties for the railroad on the Weber River.

We returned to Washington County three weeks before Christmas.  On the tenth day of January, 1870 I was called to join the Iron County District Militia of Utah, to guard against the Indians for a month and seven days.  I was fired at twice by an Indian, but I shot him.  I don't know whether or not I hit him, but he didn't bother me any more and I was able to save two hundred horses.  His companions carried him off.  There were twelve Indians on the raid, and we six guards, but some of the guards were sleeping in a log house near the horses.  We sure had a bad time that night.  The Indians came upon me first and I fired five shots to scare them off, that's how I shot the Indian.  I was subject to call any time, day or night, until the Indian trouble was over in 1875.

After returning home, I broke a pair of wild mules and started hauling lumber into Pioche, Nevada.  I worked at team work, freighting and hauling lumber, and saw mill work until the fall of 1876.  That winter I moved my family to Panaca, Nevada.  By this time we had two children, Will and Eva.  I spent the winter hauling and burning coal for the mines.  We were making charcoal from the coal.

In the spring, we returned home to Pine Valley.  I was called to make a road to Mount Turn Bow to a saw mill to haul lumber to St. George to help build the Temple on the twenty-third of June, 1876.

I was called by the St. George Militia to join a military company on the Colorado River to build a fort.  This was to prevent the Indians from crossing the river and to keep them away from the settlements.  They had made threats that they would kill and raid as long as there was an Indian left.  In the company there were about forty men.  We arrived there on the fourth of July.  I had charge of all the horses, and I was head scout.  I was continually riding from Lee's Ferry to the Old Lite Ford, forty miles above watching the trails for Indians.  Thales Haskell was our head captain at Lee's Ferry. I was continually riding and scouting around until October 15, 1874.  Then we had a peace conference and made peace with the Indians.  I was released and got home the first of November--I believe I got home on Sunday.  On Tuesday, I was called to take a band of horses to Lee's Ferry Fort to trade to the Indians.  These horses were traded to the Indians to keep them from going into the settlements.

At the time we made the peace treaty with the Indians, we promised to keep a trading post at Lee's Ferry so they could trade their Navajo blankets and other things for horses and supplies.  Jim Heath, Jacob Hamblin and his son, Ben, accompanied me on this trip.  There were five men at the fort when we got there, including Captain Haskell and  his men.  I had the job of head trader.   I traded about seventeen head that trip.  I got into a dispute with them, and twenty five Indians gathered around me with their bows and arrows ready to shoot.  The chief's daughter, twenty years old, stepped in and crowded the Indians back.  She said, "You will have to give me a horse for saving your life."  I asked the chief it it would be all right and he said, "Yes."  So that settled the trouble.  (sounds slightly like the Pocohantas story.)

The chief's daughter gave me many presents and wanted me to go home with her.  The chief said he would protect me if I would go, and he had two other daughters who were just as pretty, and I could have one or two or all three.  I told him I had a wife, and three children.  He said that was all right--I could bring them also, so I told him I would talk to my wife about it.  I gathered and sold about three hundred head of horses to the Indians that winter.

The captain gave me the privilege of coming home that winter, and on the nineteenth of January, our twin girls were born.  But they only lived until the twenty-fifth of February.  We buried them in Pine Valley.