Alexander Wilkins, Jr

Notes:

Life Story of Alexander Wilkins Jr.
Contributed By Robert Givens · 17 February 2014 · 0 Comments
THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER WILKINS JR.
(25 Sep 1854 – 8 Sep 1893)
By Robert E. Givens (8-2011)

My great grandfather, Alexander Wilkins, Jr., was the first born child of Alexander Wilkins and Alice Malena Barney. His father was baptized in 1845 in Canada and his mother was baptized in the 1843 – 1845 era probably in Nauvoo. On 11 Dec 1853 his parents married in Provo, Utah after their families immigrated to Utah. On the 25th of September 1854 Alexander Wilkins Jr. was born – the first child of his parent’s union.

His parents had built a house on the block they first unhitched at when they arrived in Provo and it was here that Alexander was raised until sometime before 1870 when they moved to Mona, Juab, Utah. This was still wild territory and his father fought in three Indian wars (Walker War, Tintic War, and the Black Hawk War.)

On 8 Oct 1873 in Mona, Juab, Utah the then 19 year old, Alexander, married 18 year old Charlotte York Carter. She was the daughter of William Furlsbury Carter and Sarah York. Her family had first settled in Provo, where Charlotte was born 2 Jan 1856, and moved from Provo to Mona when Charlotte was 6 and then to Santaquin four years later.

Alex and Charlotte set up their home in Mona for the first 6 years of their married life. While there, they were blessed with three children. Gustella Arminta Wilkins was born 13 Aug 1874, Alroy Alexander Wilkins was born 20 Apr 1876 and Edwin Granville Wilkins was born 14 Jun 1879. Sometime after Edwin was born and before the 1880 census on 10th of June 1880, the Wilkins moved to Santaquin. They lived in town near Charlotte’s brothers, Edward and Edwin Carter. Alexander was listed as a teamster, which means he drove wagons hauling freight. It appears that they must have lived in the center of the community as most of the neighbors had jobs as miners, laborers, and teamsters and only one was a farmer. (Little else is known of those days in Santaquin.) They had one more child while living there when William Edson was born on 19 July 1881. A special event occurred on 24 Jan 1882 when Alexander and Charlotte traveled to Salt Lake City to be sealed in the Endowment House by Daniel H Wells. This must have been a special occasion as it would have required several days to travel to and from Salt Lake City, and would have been no easy task as this was in the dead of winter.

Life in Santaquin must have been difficult and the winters were especially cold, so in 1883 they volunteered to move and settle in Arizona. At that time they were the parents of 4 little children. The trip from Utah to the Gila Valley in Arizona required about six weeks of travel and naturally called for a lot of hardships and sacrifices. They made the trip in the old covered wagons drawn by horses. While they were not molested by the Indians while making this long trek, people traveling ahead of them and people who followed them were. This company consisted of thirty-three people. The mother of Charlotte, Sarah York Carter, was one of the group. She was 72 years old at the time and she drove the team on one of the wagons all the way. Others of the group were William A. Carter and Edwin L Carter, brothers of Charlotte and children of Sarah, and their families. Also in the group were William Dale and his sister, Mary Ann Miller and her family. She came to join her husband who had come earlier to establish a home for his family. Traveling with them were Joseph Greenhalgh and family and A. M. Dixon and family.

They left Santaquin on the 10th of September 1883 and arrived at Smithville, Arizona on October 22, 1883. At that early day, living conditions in the Gila Valley were very primitive. Pima had only been settled three or four years and was called at that time Smithville. It was to Smithville that Alexander and his family settled.

Many of the houses were made of cottonwood logs. Some of them only had dirt floors and dirt roofs. They lived in Smithville about 5 years. During this time they had to contend with many hardships and privations of settlers in a newly settled area. They also had to deal with the Apache Indians and Mexican Renegades. Alex would have to work hard all day and stand guard at night, taking his turn with the other men of the little town, watching lest the Indians come upon them and take their lives. It was a nerve-trying ordeal for all of them. They kept tobacco and coffee around at all times so if an Indian came by and asked for something they would have something to give. To refuse could cost you your life.

For a short time after their arrival in Smithville, the Wilkins family lived in their wagon boxes until a piece of land could be cleared and a house built. As Alexander was a teamster, he and his brothers-in-law, William and Edwin Carter went to the Graham Mountains to cut timbers. They then hauled the lumber back with their teams and wagons

Alex began building their house at once on the outskirts of the community. (In fact he helped sign the petition on 2 July 1884 requesting the Territorial Legislature to incorporate Pima, which had some 520 inhabitants at that time.) . This one room house was located on the Anderson farm across the wash from the main community. They had been asked to locate there to get that part of the town settled. When he completed his home, he moved Charlotte and their 4 children in. This was just two days before the birth of their fifth child, Parley Pratt Wilkins, who was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1883. One of the reasons Charlotte’s mother, Sarah York Carter, had come along on this journey to the Gila Valley was the birth of this child, which happened just 3 weeks after they arrived. Parley was a most welcome addition to their growing family of children.

There were log stockade houses in the mesquite thicket and new ones being built. New settlers during this time found Pima a beehive of activity when they arrived. Men were busy clearing land, planting grain and other food crops to care for the fast growing community. As it was dangerous to live that far out of town, the Wilkins family moved from the Smithville area of the community into what would become Pima proper shortly after arriving there.

While in Pima, on 20 Oct 1885, Alexander and Charlotte both received their patriarchal blessings. On the 4th of July 1886 they were blessed with another child, Sarah Melena Wilkins. It was also about this time on 21 March 1886,that Alexander was ordained a Seventy by John Moody. During this time Alexander helped to burn the lime for the first brick home in Pima. He had been out south of town working all week and came home Saturday night. A Brother Thurston came to take his place at the lime kiln. Alex reminded him that it seemed to be a likely place for the Indians to come, as the settlers had horses there. Soon after this the Indians did ambush and kill this man. His death surely cast a gloom over the community and the entire valley, as this good man was well and favorably known by all these early pioneers. The Wilkins family was especially thankful that their father had not been on guard that night.

Five years after settling in Pima the Wilkins family moved into a new community below Pima called Matthewsville. It was there on 7 Jan 1888 that Alexander was ordained a High Priest by Wm D. Johnson. My grandmother, Christa Lillis Wilkins, was born to them on Christmas Day, 25 Dec 1888. (Ironically this was the third straight child born to them on a major holiday – Thanksgiving, 4th of July and Christmas.)

On 2 September 1892 Alexander was called by John Henry Smith to be the bishop of the Curtis Ward near Eden – on the north side of the Gila River, northwest of Pima. Most of the people lived in scattered conditions on their respective farms which were irrigated from the Gila River. As there was no place there to live, their house was moved across the Gila River to Eden. Here he lived for only a year and he did a lot to help develop that community. During that time he secured the title to the spring above Eden which still supplies the town with drinking water.

Water became the cause of death for Alexander. Around the 1st of September 1884 Alexander was bringing some flour from a mill in Pima and had to swim his horse across the Gila to get home. He must have had his head go under the water and taught typhoid fever from the water. The Indians upstream apparently had the disease and it was carried down the valley in the water. On 3 September 1884 he passed from mortality. In addition to the grief occasioned by his passing their son Edson was also very low with the same disease. Their baby Lottie (who had been born 17 Mar 1892 prior to their leaving Matthewsville) was very ill from complications following a severe attack of whooping cough. So Charlotte was really loaded down with burdens and crosses.

Alexander’s body was buried the next day, 9 Sep 1893, across the Gila River in Glenbar in the Glenbar Cemetery. Fifty years later, in 1943, Charlotte was buried next to her husband. Today a beautiful tombstone stands as a memorial to the lives of these brave pioneers of the West.

Sources:
1. “Brief History of Charlotte York Carter Wilkins” (Given over the radio in Safford, Arizona, by President Harry L Payne, president of the Arizona Temple.)
2. “Alexander Wilkins Jr.,” in Mt. Graham Profiles, Graham County Arizona 1870 – 1977, Vol. 1, pub. Graham County Historical Society, 1977, pp. 361-2.
3. Pioneer Town – Pima Centennial History, pub. Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society Inc. of Graham County, Pima, Arizona, 1979, various articles - pp. 93 - 96, 166

Family Search Memories

Buried:
Burial:
Glenbar Cemetery
Glenbar
Graham County
Arizona, USA
GPS (lat/lon): 32.91972, -109.87375
Find A Grave Memorial# 72918589

Died:
Alexander Wilkins died unexpectedly on 8 September 1893 in Matthews, Graham, Arizona after contracting typhoid fever. He was only 38 years of age. The family lived in Eden, Arizona and needed flour so he had crossed the Gila River to go over to Matthewsville to get some. The river was swollen and while crossing back, he fell in and swallowed some river water. The Indians up the river had typhoid and he contracted it and died.

Source from familysearch.org

Alexander married Charlotte York Carter 8 Oct 1873, Mona, Juab, Utah, United States. Charlotte (daughter of William Furlsbury Carter and Sarah York) was born 2 Jan 1856, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States; died 24 Jan 1943, Tucson, Pima, Arizona, United States; was buried 27 Jan 1943, Glenbar, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Glenbar Cemetery
Glenbar
Graham County
Arizona, USA
GPS (lat/lon): 32.91983, -109.87356
Find A Grave Memorial# 110486491

Gustella married James Moses Larson 3 Jul 1891, Graham, Arizona, United States. James was born 24 Dec 1865, West Jordan, Salt Lake, Utah, United States; died 7 Jan 1937; was buried 12 Jan 1937, Glenbar, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Eden Cemetery
Eden
Graham County
Arizona, USA
Plot
Find A Grave Memorial# 16530637

Alroy married Phoebe Caroline Hancock 20 Apr 1897, Graham, Arizona, United States. Phoebe (daughter of Elijah Hancock and Eliza Caroline Rudd) was born 6 Aug 1876, Long Valley, Kane, Utah Territory, United States; died 22 Mar 1923, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States; was buried 24 Mar 1923, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Edwin married Helen Vilate Greenhalgh 31 Dec 1903. Helen was born 11 Sep 1885, Mathewsville, Graham, Arizona Territory, United States; died 3 Jun 1979, Safford, Graham, Arizona, United States; was buried 5 Jun 1979, Glenbar, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Glenbar Cemetery
Glenbar
Graham County
Arizona, USA
GPS (lat/lon): 32.91975, -109.87372
Find A Grave Memorial# 95807076

William married Alice Knyast 17 Jan 1907, Bisbee, Cochise, Arizona, United States. Alice was born Abt 1881, of Utah, United States; died 1981. [Group Sheet]

William married Lila Montoya 20 Oct 1920, Cuba, Sandoval, New Mexico, United States. Lila was born Abt 1885, of Utah, United States. [Group Sheet]

Parley married Emma Deane Hayes 8 Nov 1905, Solomanville, Graham, Arizona, United States. Emma was born 13 Nov 1889, Pima, Graham, Arizona, United States; died 30 Mar 1945; was buried 3 Apr 1945, Glendale, Los Angeles, California, United States. [Group Sheet]

Parley married Fannie Fry 18 Jul 1927, Whittier, Los Angeles, California, United States. Fannie was born Abt 1885. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Pima Cemetery
Pima
Graham County
Arizona, USA
Plot: SEC G-BLK 04-LOT 02W-SITE 04
GPS (lat/lon): 32.88056, -109.83811
Find A Grave Memorial# 18325940

Sarah married Charles Ira Hancock 30 Apr 1907, Solomanville, Graham, Arizona, United States. Charles (son of Elijah Hancock and Eliza Caroline Rudd) was born 6 Jul 1885, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States; died 27 Jan 1975; was buried Jan 1975, Pima, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
South Lawn Memorial Cemetery
Tucson
Pima County
Arizona, USA
Plot: Section 2, Lot 49A, Space 12
Find A Grave Memorial# 74777154

Christa married Joseph Craig Givens 25 Sep 1907, Globe, Gila, Arizona, United States. Joseph was born 1 Apr 1872, Audrain, Missouri, United States; died 3 Dec 1918, Oatman, Mohave, Arizona, United States; was buried 8 Dec 1918, Kingman, Mohave, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Christa married George A Damron 7 Aug 1926, Safford, Graham, Arizona, United States. George was born 15 Jun 1887, Central, Graham, Arizona, United States; died 13 Jan 1960, Tucson, Pima, Arizona, United States; was buried 16 Jan 1960, Tucson, Pima, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Pima Cemetery
Pima
Graham County
Arizona, USA
Plot: SEC D-BLK 01-LOT 02A-
GPS (lat/lon): 32.88181, -109.83628
Find A Grave Memorial# 24998219

Lottie married William Sanford Mack 2 Oct 1912, United States. William was born 20 May 1889, Pima, Graham, Arizona, United States; died 21 Aug 1952; was buried 25 Aug 1952, Pima, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Lottie married Alof Peter Carter 15 Jun 1960. Alof was born 2 Mar 1891, Mathewsville, Graham, Arizona Territory, United States; died 14 Sep 1972, Pima, Graham, Arizona, United States; was buried 18 Sep 1972, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery
Phoenix
Maricopa County
Arizona, USA
Find A Grave Memorial# 84374741

Milas married Katie Agnes Welker. Katie was born 16 Dec 1898; died 15 Apr 1985. [Group Sheet]

Della married Thomas Theron Schofield 15 Apr 1917. Thomas was born 2 Feb 1895, Utah, United States; died 6 Mar 1981, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, United States. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
City of Mesa Cemetery
Mesa
Maricopa County
Arizona, USA
Plot: Section 997, Lot 3, Grave 8
Find A Grave Memorial# 64346668

Ivan married Edna Kempton 1 Oct 1931. Edna was born 7 Dec 1911; died 28 Jan 1996. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Eden Cemetery
Eden
Graham County
Arizona, USA
Plot:
Find A Grave Memorial# 16530283

Lottie married William Lachoneus Fuller 22 Feb 1916. William was born 6 Aug 1892, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States; died 3 Aug 1984, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States; was buried 7 Aug 1984, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Alice married Aaron Denzil Nelson 26 May 1917, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States. Aaron was born 15 Oct 1897, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States; died 29 May 1967, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States; was buried 31 May 1967, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Alexander married Millie Peel 20 Dec 1926, Safford, Graham, Arizona, United States. Millie was born 6 Jun 1897, Safford, Graham, Arizona, United States; died 11 Sep 1949, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States; was buried 14 Sep 1949, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Alexander married Willie Mae Furr 15 May 1951, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States. Willie was born 21 Dec 1902, Patsburg, Crenshaw, Alabama, United States; died 22 May 1987, Gilbert, Maricopa, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Gladys married Horace Daniel Fuller 13 Jul 1921, Safford, Graham, Arizona, United States. Horace was born 19 Mar 1901, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States; died 5 Mar 1991, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States; was buried 8 Mar 1991, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Alvin married Cledith Elizabeth Deal 6 Jan 1930, Safford, Graham, Arizona, United States. Cledith was born 28 Jan 1914, New Mexico, United States; died 8 Aug 2011. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Birth:
Name: Wilkins
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 10 Oct 1911
Birth Place: Eden, Graham, Arizona
Father: Alroy Wilkins
Mother: Phebe Hdancock
FHL Film Number: 2135124
Reference ID: item 1
Arizona, Births and Christenings, 1909-1917. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

Buried:
Burial:
Miles Cemetery
Miles
Runnels County
Texas, USA
Plot: Section F Lot 11 1/2
Find A Grave Memorial# 106180288

Ralph married Ollie Lee Taylor 8 Sep 1933. Ollie (daughter of Thomas Lonzo Taylor and Tiney Janie Chapman) was born 14 Apr 1918, Greenville, Hunt, Texas, United States; died 17 Aug 2001; was buried 17 Aug 2001, Miles, Runnels, Texas, United States. [Group Sheet]

Len married Thelma Marietta Smith 11 Mar 1935, Yuma, Yuma, Arizona, United States. Thelma was born 27 Mar 1920, McMinnville, Yamhill, Oregon, United States; died 9 Jun 1998, Warrenton, Clatsop, Oregon, United States. [Group Sheet]

Len married Mabel Julia Corynell 23 Aug 1955. Mabel was born 13 Nov 1914, Yakima, Yakima, Washington, United States; died 31 May 1997. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Miles Cemetery
Miles
Runnels County
Texas, USA
Plot: Section F, Lot 5 (Middle 1/4 )
Find A Grave Memorial# 69938567