Mission Farewell Photo - 1947Short Personal History by Mary Burton:
As a member of the Walker Lane Daughters of the Utah pioneer camp, I am challenged to submit this history ASAP. I submitted the history of my great-great-grandfather Lyman Curtis in order to become a member of the DUP.
He was one of the 9 horsemen who entered the [Salt Lake] Valley before the first Company [of pioneers] and built a huge fire of sagebrush so that it could be seen up immigration canyon in the month of July, 1847. The nine horsemen were scouts who scouted ahead of the first Company to make sure they were going in the right direction.
My Grandparents were: Ellis Whitney Wiltbank, son of Spencer Watson Wiltbank who crossed the plains as a young man in the first company. He drove a mule team for "the brethren" [of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]. He married great grandmother Annie Sanders, who also drove a mule team for her father. They were married on the first Christmas Day after their arrival.
Ellis Whitney married Hannah Mary Hall, daughter of Thomas Hall, who joined the church in England. When walking by a church he heard the hymns being sung inside a church. He went inside and joined Brigham Young and the missionaries singing before the audience, because he was a good singer and thrilled at the spirit he felt from hearing the hymns. He was soon baptized. He married Ann Hughes who was small enough to hide in the Grandfather Clock when Thomas came to ask for her hand. They lived to raise many grapes that could be picked right from the kitchen door in St. George, Utah. They worked on the St. George Temple and spent their later years serving there.
My mother's parents were likewise as valiant: She is the daughter of John Henry Plumb who is the son of John Merlin Plumb Jr. and Elizabeth Cleopatra Bellows whose family came to Nauvoo to be baptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith only to see him chased by the mobs and martyred before that took place. Merlin's father was a doctor who spoke five languages. On one occasion he was caring for a very sick child when the prophet Joseph came to their door when being chased by the mobs. They hid him in the feather ticking under the sick child and declared to the mob that the child was too sick to be moved. The mob then left. They must have suffered terrible times. After the Prophet was martyred, the mobs gave them only a few hours to bury their father who had become ill and died, and leave Nauvoo. They were later baptized by Eliza Sheets.
John Henry Plumb crossed the plains from Iowa to Salt Lake Valley when he was two years old, as his parents had stopped in Potowatamie county Iowa to wait for him to be born and grow old enough to make the rest of the journey. He grew up around Indian children as playmates as the Indians helped his father with his sawmill on Mt. Nebo. He learned Indian ways and was always friendly with the Indians and almost became like one of them. John Henry Plumb married Eveline Madora Curtis and had 11 children, and he married my grand mother, Ada Adeline Elliott who had two children and had been divorced. He was called by Brigham Young to take her as a second wife.
John Henry Plumb made trips back to help bring the saints to Salt Lake City. He was called to help settle Arizona. He maintained a farm in Gila Valley, Arizona and one in St. Johns, Arizona, from which he raised enough food to feed both families and do freighting back and forth. He had great respect for human life. He and his father at one time captured Geronimo and held him captured in their tent. Eventually they let him loose. His wife was near death and he received word about her while freighting. He stopped his horses in the mountains and went to pray in the woods and told Heavenly Father he would give up the use of tobacco if God would spare her life. His prayer was answered and he never touched tobacco again. He saw a white man beating an Indian that the man had tied to a tree. He stopped his wagon, went to the white man and pulled him away from beating the Indian and took away the whip. He asked the man to untie the Indian man and told him that was not the way to treat any human being. He always carried a gun as he was sought after for being in polygamy. He was ready to defend his families at any moment. He escaped to Old Mexico through a cornfield taking his families with him. He stayed on e year and came back to the states because he did not like Old Mexico. His wife asked him to quit carrying a gun, so he threw his gun in his chuck box and never carried it again. He took especially good care of his animals and his tack (bridles and harnesses, etc.) and his farms. Indians could be found camping in his yard and around his house on weekends and in their travels back and forth. One of my earliest recollections is riding in the back seat of our model T Ford underneath Grandpa Plumb's body after he passed away, as my parents were taking care of him at our ranch house ten miles out of Eagar, Arizona. My father and mother laid his body on a slab or wide board with a blanket over his body and laid it across the back windows. I tried to sit underneath, but I was too tall so I lay down to sleep until they arrived in St. Johns to prepare his body for burial.
I was not around my grandparents while growing up because they had all passed on. That makes these histories even more important to me. My parents lived in Holbrook, Arizona where I was born and moved to McNary, Arizona, and then to our ranch near Eagar, and then into Eagar.
I was raised in Eagar, Arizona and went to school there. As a teenager I worked at the movie theater, in the drug store, and I ironed shirts for voice lessons. I worked at my Aunt Mollie Butler's guest lodge [in Greer, Arizona] in the summers and met lovely people from the desert who came to fish while on vacations in the summer, one of whom was the Governor's secretary. She offered me a job if I would go to Business School in Phoenix. So, I did and then worked for the Arizona State Industrial Commission. From there I went on a mission [for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] to the North Central States.
I grew up loving to sing after taking voice, so in Phoenix I sang in the Youth Ward Choir. And in the mission field I had fun singing whenever called upon. When I came home, I worked for J.W. Becker as his secretary. Then I came to BYU, thinking I could find the same missionary spirit and associates that I enjoyed as a missionary. But, things weren't the same and re-entry was lonely and hard. There were few missionaries I knew, until one Sunday I was late for my church and went to the next ward and there was a missionary I knew, Elder Burton. We enjoyed each others company. He talked and I listened. When we met his cousin Melva Fawn Smith from Arizona, we began to find out we had a lot in common. She was a granddaughter of Lot Smith and he was a great grandson of Lot Smith. Melva Fawn and I were friends in the Arizona Club at BYU. My father and grandfather were friends of Lot Smith and his family in pioneer times when all those Arizona pioneers were there together and knew each other. Lot Smith was the first Stake President in Arizona and my grandfathers, Merlin and John Plumb, were also right there with all of the first ones to help settle Arizona.
So, I married George LeR Burton who was born March 16, 1930 in Holbrook, Idaho and I was born in Holbrook, Arizona on August 24, 1928. It's been fun having that in common and knowing that our grandparents knew each other.
When our children were small and growing, we had opportunity to go a lot of places as LeR was in National Real Estate. We traveled to many cities in the U.S., such as Seattle, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisico, San Diego and many cities in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Idaho Montana, Florida and Hawaii. We have been to some Church history sites and would like to see more.
In the fall of 1988 we traveled to England and Germany on our way to South Africa. I was in South Africa five weeks and it was the greatest trip of my life. We had an equally great trip to Alaska to see Denali and the glaciers and boat trips to see the sea life. It was an unforgettable experience.
As far as holding positions in the Church, I have always loved serving my Father in Heaven anywhere I have been asked to serve. I began with teaching the small children in Sunday School with my girl friend in the Phoenix Third Ward. I was called as a youth to sing in the Ward Youth Choir. We traveled around the area and sang where ever our Bishop made the arrangements, from the Mesa Temple to Youth Conference in Prescott. Next I served as the Stake Youth Activities President (chairman). It was challenging and fun to have that responsibility. Next, I was called on a mission from the Phoenix Third Ward. I served in the North Central States with headquarters in Minneapolis, Minn. I was only 19 years old when called and served in the mission office as mission statistician for nine months and then I served out proselyting in the city for the remaining eleven months. After coming home, I taught in MIA, Sunday School, Primary and Relief Society. I was asked to be the Jr. Sunday School Coordinator back in 1953 in our BYU ward in Provo. I taught all of my children in primary, especially the boys in scouting. I served as a den leader for both my boys and their friends for about nine years.
My awards are not particularly spectacular. I worked hard to receive my Golden Gleaner Award. And now, they do not give that award anymore.
My greatest reward is my children. We have six daughters and two sons [Julie Robin, George Craig, Janene, Elizabeth, Kathryn, Camille Jared LeR and Helen]. They were born within the first ten years of my marriage. That is the greatest challenge I have had mainly because the illness of hypoglycemia. As I got older the illness became worse and I would fall asleep during family night or other important times when I needed to be alert from my blood sugar dropping so low. With the responsibilities of family I seemed to neglect my own needs of going to a doctor to find out what was the cause of the problem. Through it all I have had many spiritual experiences that have gradually taught me to listen closely to the promptings of the Spirit and it has strengthened my belief and relationship with the Savior. Learning and listening about the pioneers and their experiences of faith and fortitude has increased my attitude of gratitude. I realize that I should have had a great appreciation of pioneers in my youth. May I never forget to honor them and to be grateful for their sacrifices.
My next greatest reward is in my grandchildren and great grand children. They are our most priceless rewards! We have many family problems that I am sure other families have had through the generations. Our grandchildren have made achievements beyond our greatest expectations already in their lives and may they all continue to do so and use their older cousins as examples to follow. We want each one to always keep themselves worthy to have all the blessings of the gospel in their lives by keeping the commandments. Learning how to communicate and how to remain friends and realize mistakes are made by everyone, that no one is perfect, and to love one another are some of our challenges as a family. I want my family to know that i have a testimony of our Savior and through the power of the atonement have received baptism by fire and the Holy Ghost, becoming clean from the blood and sins of this generation and taken into God's rest, but still must endure to the end. So, through my spiritual experiences, I have learned and know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true Church on the earth today. I love the Savior. I believe in Him. Jesus is my friend. I honor Him and worship Him in every way. I still have much to learn about Him. Much progress is to be made in our whole family continually.
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| Mary Elizabeth Wiltbank Burton Junior High School |
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| Mary Elizabeth Wiltbank Burton High School |
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| Mary Elizabeth Wiltbank Burton graduation |
I love it Helen. Thanks so much. I've been kind of busy so couldn't help with the picture right away. I don't know how to link names. Maybe you could show me. I love this and especially mom's testimony at the end. Thank you.
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