Family Blog News

We have added some more resarch aids on the Family Heritage Blog. Also we changed the background to one that is a little easier on the eyes. As you may know, we have spent much of the last two weekends out "Headstone Hunting". We were blessed in that we were able to find the headstones of several ancestors on the Lefler side of the family that the location was not known to us.

Last night, as Dawn Ann was doing some research we found a new (to us at least) web site. It is called Utah Gravestones. What we found, to our surprise, was that this web site has been collecting digital photographs of headstones throughout Utah, and then posting them on the Web. Also, their database is searchable by name, or by cemetery. It is still a small database, but what was interesting was that many of Dawn Ann's ancestors were already in there! Especially those who are in the Midway and Charleston cemeteries (we had even already taken pictures of many of these headstones.). This web site welcomes contributions, and we plan on adding the photos that we have collected to their database. We have added the link to this website on the Family heritage blogs "Family History Resources" links section. It was interesting to learn that the Spirit of Elijah has been moving on others, the same as it has upon us -- for the need to photograph and identify the location of our ancestoral burial sites. I would still like to start tagging the photos with GPS coordinates, to help locating graves within the cemetery.

We have a big of bad news, my camera, the Olympus 450d has gone on the fritz. We are going to have to take it in for repairs. You can still take pictures with it, but you can't tell if it is zoomed in or zoomed out, or on what it is focusing. At the same time, this camera is 1.3 megapixel point and shoot only camera. As I have grown into digital photography, I have desired to have a camera with a higher resoulution, as well as the ability to have more control over the camera for more technical photographs.

So, we have decided that I will get a new camera, for a combination Father's Day/Birthday Present. Well, it isn't exactly new, its a demo camera that has had very light use. It does come with a full 1-year warrantee (I opted for an additional 3-year service agreement). The camera is a Nikon Coolpix 5400. I got it on ebay for a really good price -- less than half of what they were going for new. This camera model has been out for a couple of years, and is being phased out, which adds to the good deal I was able to get. This camera is a 5.1 megapixel camera, with many features, including a manual setting, that I will be able to use, with much of the same versatility I previously enjoyed with my old 35mm single-lens-reflex cameras of the past. Digital SLR's, would be something that I would like to get oneday, but they're still out of our budget range. Although this year, both Nikon and Canon have come out with Digital SLR's in the $800-$1000 range. So maybe someday, as prices keep coming down for new technology, a digital SLR will come within reach. Hopefully this new camera will do the job for some time to come. We will get the old olympus camera repaired, and then we will use it for more family use. We expect that Bryan will get quite a bit of use out of it.

In other blog news, I have posted my high council talk from last Sunday (Father's Day) on the Gospel Study Page. It is about the battle for the souls of men, which is a continuation of the war in heaven. Since it was father's day, I tied in how father's can help in this battle. The title of my talk is, "The War For The World".

Mars in the Sky

Mars Approaches


The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

Gilligan's Island Syndrome

What is Gilligan’s Island Syndrome?

That’s a good question. When I was a 10-year-old boy, I took swimming lessons at the Kearns Pool. I was a little older than the rest of the kids in my class. I think I had a little more fear of the water, that the younger kids in my class who didn’t realize that the water could be dangerous. I still remember the swimsuit I wore to those swimming lessons. It was a pair of red swim trunks, with white piping.

Each time I got ready to go to swimming lessons, I would get a knot in my stomach because I was so nervous about having to swim (and not drown) in the pool. I think I inherited some of this fear of the water from Grandpa Hatch, who wasn’t too comfortable with swimming either.

Each day, as the time of my swimming lesson would approach, the knot in my stomach would grow. As it so happened, Gilligan’s Island would just be coming on TV, just as it was getting to be time to leave for my swimming lesson. After a period of time, I began to associate the Gilligan’s Island theme song, with the knot in my stomach.

Even today, more than 35 years later, I still get a knot in my stomach when I hear the Gilligan’s Island theme song!

“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, . . . .” Noooooooooooo!!

Eventually, I overcame my fear of the water, and actually came to love swimming. I actually liked watching Gilligan's island, but I could have done without the knot in my stomach.

Tell me now, is this a psychosomatic illness, or what?

Amy's School Concert

Yesterday I took the afternoon off to see Amy's end-of-school year concert. As I made my way into the school, my mind reflected upon the experiences I have had at the school building during the past year. As near as I can recall I have been in that school building for about 8 different events. Four of those occasions were for school meetings regarding Bryan's education plan. The other times have been for various official school functions: a Christmas concert, the Boys Maturation Program, Bryan's State Fair project and exhibit, and today's 4th grade year-end program.

I have to admit that the building gives me mixed emotions. We have had some hard times in that building, including a couple of which turned into a Battle Royale with the school administrators. The last IEP meeting was just last Friday, so it was still fresh on my mind. It kind of reminds me of "Gilligan's Island Syndrome" from which I suffered as a child.

Today's event was for Amy’s 4th grade program. We had hoped to have Grandma C. there, but she had to take Grandpa C. in for a Dr. Appointment at the same time.

Unfortunately, mama couldn't be there either, because we had Bryan in for some end of year Developmental Testing (The Woodcock-Johnson Test at our own expense: $500 out of our own pockets, - Ouch! ) So it was just me there to support Amy.

The kids sang a series of songs with a Utah history theme, plus played two songs on their recorders, which they have been practicing since January.

Here is the list of songs they sang:

- "The Indian Tribes of Utah". This song highlighted the names of all the Indian tribes from Utah.

- Song about Spanish Explorers. The search of a trail from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterrey, California. This was about the famous Dominguez-Escalate Expedition that took place in 1776.

- Song about Inter-Continental railroad completion on May 10, 1869. (When they were practicing this song, Amy took a picture of the driving of the Golden Spike to class to explain that her third great grandpa was there, and in the picture – somewhere.

-Song about Utah Statehood: "Utah: This is the Place!" A song written for the state centennial celebration in 1996.

They played two songs on their Recorders:

- First, a monotone recorder song – yes, all the notes were the same note for the entire duration of the song (which lasted for about 15 seconds). At first the parents didn’t know what to think – was that a song or just a warm-up? When it became apparent that this was indeed a song, an uneasy applause started. I overheard one parent say to a sibling in the crowd, “don’t laugh!”

- Second, another recorder song using only the left-hand, upper register notes (G, A, and B). This one at least had a melody. And the applause was genuine, rather than forced.

(I guess for the recorder songs, they had to keep the skill level down to the Lowest Common Denominator – too bad, because they have been practicing since January. I know that Amy can do a lot more on the recorder than that.)

- Song "Stand for Something!" A nice song about Utah Values. To do something good, and to stand up for the right. (It is interesting that a few years ago, President Gordon B. Hinckley, of the LDS church released a book called “Standing for Something” which essentially says the same things as what the song was espousing.) It’s a good thing the ACLU wasn’t there!

- "We're not that different after all". This was the obligatory tribute to multi-culturalism, which tried to help everyone realize that regardless of race, creed or color, that we are all really pretty much the same after all.

The children had all of these songs committed to memory. I know they also learned a song that included all the county names in Utah as well, even though they didn't perform it in the concert.

Actually, by committing these songs to memory, and having sung them over and over again (and having learned them at a young age) the words to these songs will likely be accessible to the children's minds throughout most of their lives. I can still remember songs that were taught to me in elementary school. I would suspect that the parts of Utah History that they will remember best, will be the the ones that they learned through the music. It will be much easier to recall the things that were set to musc, over those they heard in a lecture, or even read in a book. The concert, then, not only gave the children a chance to perform in front of their parents, but it also will help them to remember much of what they have learned about Utah History. Good for the 4th grade teaching team!

At the end, Mr. T., Amy’s teacher expressed how much he had enjoyed working with the fourth grade team, and how much he will miss the children in his class. He got a little choked up in the process. You could tell that he had formed a real bond with the children, and that he would genuinely miss them. From our experience, Mr. T. is a great teacher. He is nice and polite with the kids, but firm in his discipline. He actually expects children to fulfill their assignments, and to behave in class! A kind of velvet steel type of guy. He has just completed his 27th year of teaching.

The good news is that Mr. T. will be teaching sixth grade next year, and he is projected to be Bryan’s teacher. If we decide to place Bryan in the public school, rather than homeschooling for next year, Mr. T. will finally be a great asset in the regular classroom – which up until now has been the missing link in Bryan’s education. We have never, as of yet, had a really good and effective regular classroom teacher for Bryan. The prosect of having Mr T. for Bryan's teacher is a source of hope for next year.

Our Heritage - Memorial Day Weekend

Kanab Cemetery - Memorial Day 2005
(Click on Photos to see a larger image)

On our way to Lake Powell, from St. George, we passed through Kanab, Utah. As we went past the cemetery, I noticed two columns of flags lining the main drive in the cemetery. The display was so striking to me, that I had to go back and take a pictures of it. I got out of the truck, and started snapping some photos. To my surprise, everyone else bailed out of the truck too. Dawn Ann remembered that she had some relatives buried there. So Dawn Ann and Amy started looking around the cemetery to find headstones of relatives. Bryan, on the other hand, wanted something to do, rather than just browsing around the cemetery.


Zadok Judd

We were able to find a few of Dawn Ann's relatives there. In particular, we found the grave of Zadok Judd. Zadok's sister, Mary Lois Judd Mitchell, was Dawn Ann's direct ancestor. They were born in Canada, and later joined the church in Ontario during the early 1830's. A few years later, they decided to gather with the Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, only to find out that Joseph Smith, and the Elders of the church had already moved on to Missouri. The family continued on in their quest to join together with the Saints, in a 1,000-mile trip to Missouri. Soon after arriving, however, they were driven from Missouri, and eventually settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. Eventually, they were driven from Nauvoo too, and began their trek to the valleys of the Rocky Mountains.


Mormon Batallion Insignia

Zadock, joined with the Mormon Batallion, which is noted on his headstone. There was a special insignia commemorating his status as a Veteran of the Mexican war of 1846-47.

Meanwhile, while we were finding and photographing headstones, Bryan located a fellow who was installing a headstone. Bryan learned how to use the block and tackle that the installer was using. Bryan lowered the 900 pound headstone in place, while the installer guided it into position. For Bryan, this something that really caught his interest, and was even fun for him.


Bryan Installing the Headstone

Both Dawn Ann and I come from a rich heritage. Our ancestors have been instrumental in the establishment of the Church, and the settlement of the American West. We also have ancestors who came to America starting in 1620, and who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Now our children inherit the heritage from both of our family lines: From pilgrims on the Mayflower, to Revolutionary War Veterans, to the earliest members of the church (both in the United States, as well as in Great Britain), to hearty pioneer forefathers who crossed the plains in covered wagons and even handcarts, to soldiers who marched with the Mormon Battalion - on both sides of the family. One ancestor who fought on the Union side of the Civil war. Our children's ancestors helped build both the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples. They marched in Zions Camp, at Hauns Mill they were shot at, and some died. They helped settle many areas of the intermountain West as pioneers. Another ancestor was a timekeeper for the Union Pacific Railroad, and was present at the driving of the Golden Spikewhen the first transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah.

We have a rich heritage in the church, and as Americans. It is our responsibility to teach our children of their heritage. They must know of the sacrifices which have been made to make this country, and to build the Kingdom of God on Earth. That is why we stop at little the cemeteries along the way. That is why we tell them their stories, and record them for future posterity.

Lake Powell - Then and Now

Lake Powell in 1985


Lake Powell in 2005
Click On the Images for An expanded view.

Twenty Years ago, in 1985, I traveled to Southern Utah. One of the places I stopped was Wahweep Marina, on Lake Powell, near Page, Arizona. Things were quite different then. We had just come through the extremely wet years of 1983 and 1984 - the years of the floods in Salt Lake City. Lake Powell was nearly full. I visited there in the fall of the year, and I remember that the Lake was only 10-15 feet from its maximum level. Today, it is some 185 feet down from the top.

The two photos above illustrate the difference between then and now. The top photo, taken in 1985 was taken from nearly the same position as the bottom photo, taken last week. In both photos, you can see Navajo Mountain in the background as a reference point. On the more recent photo, nearly everything from the half-way point on down was under water in 1985.

From what we learned on our recent trip, Lake Powell is filling up by about 18 inches per day . However it would take two or three more years of above-normal precipitation to completely fill it up again, because of the water that will be drawn down to meet contractual water obligations downstream, and the need to generate hydroelectric power.

Back in 1985, I took a boat ride out to Rainbow Bridge.


Rainbow Bridge circa 1985

As you can see, the water was right up to Rainbow Bridge, and even went under it. Nowadays, with the lake level so low, the water is nowhere near the Bridge. If you take a boat ride out there, be prepared for a hike to the Bridge.

Picasa-Hello Vs. Flickr

B&W Version of San Raphael River
(Click on the Photo for a larger Version)

Just Trying out some free photo editing and publishing software from Google. I changed this photo to Black and White, using Picasa, and then posted here using its companion piece called Hello! Hello isn't quite as user friendly as Flicker to publish photos to the Internet. However, the companion piece, Picasa, offers some pretty nice photo editing and organizing software, which Flickr does not offer.

The photo editing and organizing abilities of Picasa are really quite good, especially considering it's free! If you are considering whether or not to purchase photo editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop, I would recommend that you try out Picasa first. It may do all you need to do. If you are a professional photographer, or graphic designer, you'll need all the tools of Photoshop, but for most amateurs, I think Picasa will do just fine!

Hello!, on the other hand is less intuitive, and not as straight forward when it comes to posting photos on a blog, or to post photos on the internet. If you ask me, it is kind of a weak link, and still needs some work. I checked out Hello! when I first started blogging, and found it to be cludegy and awkward. I can tell they have made updates to Hello, since I last tried it 6 months ago, but its still not as nice to use as Flickr.

Flickr on the other hand, is quite simple to use. You can easily upload a photo to Flickr, and if you want to post it to your blog, you just click a button, and it's done. No mess, no wondering what to do next. It's all pretty seamless. Flickr is also more of a community as well. You can post your photos to be seen by the public, or to be seen by family or friends, or it can be completely private, so that only you can see it. It also lets you organize your photos in to albums (or "sets") and you can attach "tags" to your photos, which are searchable for later recall.

Recently Flickr was bought out by Yahoo! So we'll have to see how integration with Yahoo will affect Flickr in the future. But for now, I would highly recommend Flickr for blogging, and Internet sharing of photos.

Ai Chihuahua Mama!

On Friday, May 27^th, we got everything packed and loaded for our 4-day Memorial Day Weekend Trip. We were on our way by about 11:00 am. Everything seemed OK. The weather was good, our mood was good, kids werent fighting. All in all a good start!

Well we made it a whole 2 hours into our Memorial Day weekend trip when we had our first adventure. We were just coming up upon the town of Fillmore, Utah. Dawn Ann had been woodcarving on her Mahonri project - (her seemingly interminable wood carving project). She was putting her tools away, when we hit a bump -- and next thing you know, one of the carving tools jabbed deeply into her left thumb (on top between the first and second joints). Her carving tools are very, very, sharp. The knife went in nearly 1/2 inch. Being so sharp, it went in very cleanly, and nearly painlessly too -- at first. Ai Chihuahua Mama! Thats gonna hurt!

Fortunately, the knife went in at a low angle, nearly laterally. The wound was shallow, but in the process she had severed a vein. Blood started gushing out like crazy! As it turned out, her hands were already right over the little garbage can we have in the center console area of the truck so we didnt have a lot of blood stains to clean up in the truck.

Immediately, Dawn Ann grasped the cut thumb with her other hand, and held on tightly. There was a pretty good stream of blood dripping off of her hand, but her direct pressure was able to eventually control the bleeding.

All this was happening as we were barreling down the freeway at 75 mph. A ranch exit was coming up, and we were about 5 miles outside the town of Fillmore, Utah. We took the exit, and pulled over. We got some of the extra napkins that were left over from our lunch, and tried to clean her up as best as we could. We put about 4 folded over napkins over the thumb and then Dawn Ann continued holding it with direct pressure. Being a nurse, Dawn Ann realized that having an ice pack would also help control the bleeding. So she asked Amy to get her an ice-cold can of pop out of the ice chest, and held it against her thumb, over the napkins to act as a cold compress.


Front Entrance to the Fillmore Community Hospital

We got back onto the freeway, and headed on toward Fillmore. After driving through most of the town, we found the Hospital, and made our way to the emergency room.

As we entered the hospital, I stayed at the business office and got Dawn Ann Admitted, and took care of the insurance coverage.

Dawn Ann went into the ER with a nurse, where they cleaned up the wound, and called-out the Dr. on-call. He was just next door at the family clinic, but we knew it would be a while until he came.

I described the nature of the accident to the hospital staff, and where we were (in our vehicle) at the time of the accident. The hospital office staff said that they would have to submit the claim first to our auto insurance. Their experience was that if the health insurance carrier learned that the accident took place in the vehicle, that they generally will deny the claim outright, unless it was first submitted to the auto insurance carrier.

So I had to go out and get my vehicle insurance certificate out of the glove box of the truck. They photocopied both my health insurance card, as well as my auto insurance card. They will submit the claim first to the auto insurance carrier. If the auto insurance carrier denies the claim, then I am go get a copy of the denial letter, and send a copy to the hospital. The hospital will then submit a claim to the health insurance carrier, along with the denial letter form the auto insurance carrier. It will be covered one way or another -- but things like this can take months to reach a final resolution. And that's just for the ER room charges. There likely will be a whole set of additional charges for the physician, (for his 5 minutes worth of time) as well.

While I was learning more than I ever really wanted to know about the intricacies of hospital insurance billing, Dawn Ann was having a nice chat with the RN at the hospital. Dawn Ann is an RN herself, and they had a nice time chatting about things they had in common. (Hospitals that they had worked for in the past, etc.) Dawn Ann had scoped out the hospital, and decided that she could work there. (She is always wanting us to move to a small town. After we pass through nearly any small town, we nearly always hear Dawn Ann exclaim: We could live here! As nice as that would be, small towns don't often have the kind of employment that I need to support a family.)

We had to wait about an hour for the Dr. to show up. While we were waiting, the great question was this: Stitches or Super Glue?

Dawn Ann was decidedly in favor of super glue over stitches. (Actually, Dawn Ann was rather emphatic about NOT getting stitches. I recall her saying something to the effect of: I won't have Stitches! I won't! I won't! I won't! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME! -- or something to that effect.) As you can see from this little outburst, our Ai Chihuahua Mama is not the best of Patients in a medical setting. Isn't it funny how these fine medical people generally do not make very good patients. Alas, such is the case, Im afraid to say, here.

So Dawn Ann and the RN on duty, Karen, laid out the super glue on the tray near the hospital bed, hoping that the Dr. would get the hint that super glue was the only way to go!

The last time Dawn Ann had stitches in her hand, was when she had her previous major woodcarving accident (We'll call that "The Case of the $5,000 Pinewood Derby Car". -- but that's a whole other story, for another time.) The kids were more than happy to divulge their mama's complete medical history to the hospital office staff. The kids mentioned the pinewood derby incident, and how mama had to have micro-surgery on her hand to reconnect the nerves in her index finger. The hospital staff recommended that it was time to hide mama's carving tools!

One thing that she did learn from her $5,000 pinewood derby car was that the burning and tingling sensation from the lidocaine - intended to deaden the thumb in order to sew the stitches -- was, to her, WORSE than getting the stitches in the first place! She was prepared to have the stitches WITHOUT anesthetic. Actually, she was prepared to have the stitches, without anesthetic, as long as she could hold my hand, and crush my fingers while all this was going on. Now I dont know whether she would have derived more comfort from my great calming and loving presence, or from knowing that someone else was suffering pain right along with her as she was crushing the life out of my fingers. (Hint for men trying to comfort their wives in time of pain or suffering, such as in childbirth, or, as in this case, getting stitches ONLY LET HER HOLD TWO FINGERS! If you let her hold three or more fingers, she really can crush your hand. Two fingers give you a measure of safety in what otherwise could be a perilous situation.)

So instead of getting 2 or 3 lidocaine injections in her thumb, Dawn Ann & Karen conspired to put on a topical anesthetic cream called Emela which is normally used to deaden the skin just prior to having an IV being inserted.

The doc still didn't come for another 45 minutes or so, which gave the Emela enough time to take effect.

Finally Dr "G". appeared. He went for the idea to use the super glue, instead of doing stitches. -- Heh! Less time for him to be in contact with a potentially combative patient on the edge! The Dr. cleaned the wound, laid down 2 layers of super glue, and was safely gone in less than 5 minutes. -- His four-figure bill to come later, I'm sure! Combat pay, you know!

By this time, the kids had grown bored of the ER, and had made their way down to the Solarium. which was a room with a few windows and a sliding glass door overlooking a ditchbank. (Actually, I was picturing the solarium to be a large atrium with all kinds of indoor plants, and a water fountain, and maybe some pet birds -- which was not!). This room had a couple of vending machines, a couple of tables, and a checkerboard.

Bryan had found an elderly friend named Neil to play checkers with (who was a patient in the long-term care portion of the hospital). Amy had found a jigsaw puzzle to work on.

We gathered the kids up, and hopped back into the truck, and were on our way again -- after our little 2-hour tour of the Fillmore and its environs.


NOT mama's Thumb.
BUT IT COULDA BEEN!

So now the Ai Chihuahua Mama has an Ah Carrumba Thumba!

David Lewis - Pioneer Forefather

David Lewis, and his first wife Duritha Trail.
Photo taken about 1850.

As part of our Memorial Day weekend trip, we stopped in Parowan to visit the grave of David Lewis. He was one of Dawn Anns ancestors, and an early member of the Church. He, and his brothers had settled at Haun's Mill, Missouri. On October 30, 1838, anti-Mormon mobs (In The guise of the Missouri Militia) descended on the small Mormon villiage. Just two days before, the mob/militia had demanded that the residents of Hauns Mill disarm themselves - which they mostly did. (You can read David's own account of the Haun's Mill Massacre here. This is a sworn deposition he wrote to petition for redress to the State of Missouri for damages he suffered at Haun's Mill.)

Now the armed mob/militia came with a force of 300 men and surrounded the men and boys of the community in a blacksmth's shop. They then began firing upon the men and boys - taking great delight in killing and wounding the men, and even took delight in killing the little boys.

David and 2 of his brothers were present in that blacksmith's shop. David's older brother, Benjamin was criticlly wounded, and died later that night.

Another older brother, Tarleton Lewis was shot multiple times. One wound was in his shoulder, with the bullet being lodged near his spinal column. He would survive Hauns Mill, and later come West with the Mormon Pioneers. Later, Tarleton would be called as the first Bishop of Salt Lake City.

At the time of the Haun's Mill Massacre, David Lewis had been sick for some time -- possibly with Cholera. He had just regained enough strength to walkwhen the mob descended upon their villiage. David, found himself along with his these two brothers in the blacksmith's shop. They all realized that they had to get out of the blacksmith's shop if they were going to have any chance to survive. Tarletonand Benjamin took off on the run. David, because of his recent illness could not run, but only walk. He left the blacksmith's shop and headed for a fence, the other side of which was a forested area that would provide some cover.

As David made his wayto the fence, numerous shots were fired at him. David had been blessed with a comforing spirit by the Holy Ghost that he would not die of a bullet wound. So in faith, he made his way accross the open area toward the fence. He heard several shots go whizzing past his head, but he kept on going. The commanders of the militia were cussing out their men because they couldn't seem to hit him. Later, an examination of his clothing would reveal numerous bullet holes, but there were no wounds to his flesh.

David made it over the fence, and hid in the woods. Eventually, he was taken prisoner by the militia. The next morning, he asked the militia if he could go check on his family, and that afterword, he would return and surrender himself to them again. Atfirst the militiamen scoffed and mocked him at the idea that he would ever return. hDavid gave his word of honor yhe wouldin fact return.

They let him go, not really expecting him to return. However David did just as he said he would. He found that Benjamin had died that night of his wounds, and that Tarleton had been seriously injured. He checked his wife, and is own familh, and then returned to the camp of the militia.

For a short period of time, David fetched wood, hauled water, and cooked meals for the militia men. After that he asked if he could return permanently to his family. By then, the hearts of the militiamen were softened toward David. They gave him a permission slip to move about the area, signed by the commander of the militia, which would prove to be a blessing to David and his family.

Later on David, like his brother Tarleton, would come west with the Mormon Pioneers. He was instrumental in the settlement of communities in Southern Utah. He also was a missionary to the Indians and helped with developing diplomatic relations with the Indians in the Southern Utah area.

You Can Read more accounts of David Lewis' life after arriving in Utah below:

The Early Settlement of Utah's Dixie
The Southern Indian Mission
A Mystery In The Desert


David Lewis' Headstone at Parowan Cemetery
Click on Photo for Larger Image

David passed away in Parowan, Utah, possibly of a stroke of some kind. It was an honor to visit his grave, and to remember him and the sacrifices he and his family made for the Gospel's sake.