Some Family History Combined with Travel History

I started this post almost a year ago. Maybe I better wrap it up. "Memorial Day" mentioned below would be May 31, 2021.

John Walker & Lydia Holmes

For our family night lesson Sunday evening we visited the grave marker for my maternal great-great-great-grandfather, John Walker, in the Farmington Cemetery:

Lucy gave a sweet lesson on a Memorial Day theme, and I shared some things I learned about John Walker.

Born in Peacham, Vermont, John was the eighth child born to Simeon Walker (who served in the Revolutionary War at the age of 19) and Mary Miner. In 1832, after being taught by Heber C. Kimball, John joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His wife, Lydia Holmes, and family were not thrilled. In fact, his eldest son, my great-great-grandfather, William Holmes Walker, said this when he learned about his father's baptism while he was away at school:

I felt worse, if possible, than if I had heard of my father‘s death and burial. I felt that he had become suddenly deranged and had entirely lost his reason or had willfully committed a crime by which he was unworthy of recognition as a father.

William relates that Lydia was ashamed of John's decision, and vowed that she would reclaim him by convincing him of the error of his choice by thoroughly studying and debunking Joseph Smith's claims. She and her children over the age of eight were baptized two years later. 😊

John was wounded at Haun's Mill and miraculously spared. Presumed dead, he survived on wild berries until William came back and found him three days after the massacre.

John and Lydia had ten children: five boys and five girls. I can relate to that! 

John also had three other wives, two of which left him (one of which, at least, because she felt she could not abide plural marriage) and four more children. I cannot relate to that. Nor do I want to.

John, Lydia and most of the family became very sick after arriving in Nauvoo, Illinois. Lydia died and is buried in Nauvoo. Joseph Smith recommended that John, now an ill, grieving widower, go on a mission to the Eastern States where he could regain his health. Joseph promised he would take care of the family. The oldest four (William, Lorin, Catherine and Lucy) would live with him, and the younger ones would be taken care of by other families. But, if there was a need, Joseph would take care of the younger ones as well. Jane had a some interesting things to relate, here, which you should be able to see if you are connected to me.

Much of what we know about him was written by William and a daughter, Jane. Jane married Lot Smith, and she and lot are buried next to him in the Farmington Cemetery. There is much more information about him -- and many of our other relatives -- in some of the histories on FamilySearch.org.

William H. Walker & Harriet Paul

In fact, I just requested John Walker's patriarchal blessing, as I suppose he had one, and while I went to FamilySearch to find his birth and death dates I happened upon a new picture of William Holmes Walker from the Deseret News:

Last year (mid June of 2020), we spent some time visiting the graves of ancestors and other relatives in cemeteries relatively nearby. I will share some photos and a few thoughts. (You can click on the small photos to see a larger image.)

This is the grave marker for William Holmes Walker and his wives in Lewisville, Idaho:

I was pleased to see the "Faith in Every Footstep" pioneer decal, along with the Mayflower Descendant and Mormon Battalion ones. Many people are trying to preserve the memory of some of our ancestors.

Our line is through Harriet Paul, his fourth and last wife. She is the daughter of Nicholas Paul and Harriet May, who converted to the Church in South Africa after being taught by a missionary named ... William Holmes Walker! (Nicholas was no fan of polygamy and publicly critical of plural marriages. But, it seems that he did love and respect William.)

We were planning to see William H. Walker's cemetery plot just before the Vernon Walker reunion, but the reunion was canceled for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our cute little set up at the Arco KOA

Arco

Instead, we visited Craters of the Moon National Monument and stayed at a KOA in Arco. 

This is our first time with a trailer.

We rented a travel trailer for the two nights we were out, and had a fun little trip up to Lewisville and then over to Arco. The KOA 

Our set up at the Arco KOA.

made free waffles for us every morning. Delicious.

Craters of the Moon has fascinating beauty, with the abundance of black volcanic rock. I was also very intrigued by the beautiful little flowers that grow in the black sand as if they were all planted at equal intervals.

Beautifully spaced wildflowers everywhere.

I think this is called Dwarf Buckwheat.

Our first stop in the park.

A walkway to the top of a mound of volcanic rock.

Black, rough, light-weight and sparkly.

Lucy photographs the view from atop the mound of cinders and ash.

At the summit.

Cones.

Dark landscape.

Viewing the hole from which the rock spewed.

First thought seeing this today: I think Joshua has grown a foot in the last year!

More acres and acres of wild flowers.

Acres and acres of lava flows.

The first reactor, EB1, is now a museum, but it was closed because of the pandemic. A few of us went to a little park in Arco with the sail of a submarine and veterans memorial, and while there, a charming old man came by and let us into a tiny little building, which was a museum about nuclear power. 

Sub sail in Arco.

A green torpedo facing SE, and a gold Benge torpedo
led by Marcus facing NW.

This mini-museum is packed with content.

This mini-museum is his creation. He had worked on the early reactors that were pioneered in that area. It was very interesting to hear some first-hand accounts of what they were doing and how they felt about what they were creating. I also gained a respect for Admiral Hyman Rickover (aka "The father of the nuclear navy") and the work he did. I didn't realize that the early Navy nuclear reactors were built in Idaho.

Francis Peak

In mid July, we drove up to Francis Peak. On top of Francis Peak is a radar facility with a couple of domes. There are no cemeteries. But, it is beautiful and I thought I should share some photos. It is accessible driving up Farmington canyon, which is a narrow, dirt road most of the way -- and driving up and down it is on the stressful side and takes a long time. I've always wanted to go there, as it is visible all along the Northern Wasatch front.

One has a beautiful view of valleys to the east and the west.

The road to the radar station is blocked to vehicles. We parked in a big flat area between peaks. Beautiful views all around!

As far as we could go in the car.

But, some of us walked up.

By "access", I assumed they meant
getting in the building.

Looking south. You can see the little flat where we parked.

The view to the north.

To the west is Layton, Kaysville, Farmington, etc.

Morgan is to the east. If you zoom in and
strain really hard, you can see the
East Canyon Dam and reservoir to the upper right.

Enoch and Esther enjoyed the
strange-looking building.

Sanpete Tombstone Hunting and Maple Canyon

Just a week later the family from Rachel and down went to Sanpete County to look for family grave sites, see where the Wes Benge family lived in Fairview, see where the David Benge family lived in Manti, and enjoy the unique landscape of Maple Canyon.

We scoured the Fairview Cemetery for some of Susie's ancestors and couldn't find anyone. But, as we went to the closed Museum, her ancestor James N. Jones is found as one of the founders of Fairview!

We love Manti, and stayed there for this short trip. No close relatives we know of in the Manti cemetery, though.

Ephraim is where many of the Nielson family come from. This iconic home on the main street is still in the family.

Maple Canyon is very interesting. We did some hiking,
and I took a ton of pictures.

You see climbers from all around world here.

We found family in both the new and old Ephraim cemeteries:

Today is May 4th, 2022. I gotta finish this! As mentioned above, I started this months ago, thinking I could put some coherent thoughts together on a couple of our trips and some hunting for the burial places of relatives. I want to bring up more trips. We had a few, and a couple that involved some tombstone hunting.

Andrew and Papa in Houston

Susie had a wonderful idea to help Andrew with some of his anxiety: take him on a senior trip! It worked well (Andrew is on a full time mission in Indiana now), and we had a blast, visiting the Johnson Space Center and a huge museum, enjoying a BYU football win over a talented University of Houston team, and an enlightening visit to San Jacinto. This took place in mid October of 2020. I should probably post something separate about our adventures as I have dozens and dozens of (probably boring) photos, which is easier said than done. But, for here, how about just a few decent photos highlighting what we did there? I'll leave 'em small: click to enlarge.

Huntington and San Rafael Swell

Around the end of March in 2021, we found relatives in the Huntington cemetery on a trip to Green River and the San Rafael Swell:

Lots and lots of Guymons. (And a lot of plots!)

The mini Grand Canyon was wonderful!

We hiked around, saw some neat things outdoors and indoors, saw petroglyphs, the hoodoos at Goblin Valley ... all fun! (Except it was very cold!)

Aunt Loa

On April 10th of 2021 was not just Susie's birthday, but also my sweet Aunt Loa's funeral. Susie and I took a short trip to attend the funeral in Kuna, Idaho. It was very gratifying to see so many relatives. Idaho seemed much more relaxed about masking requirements for COVID, which was very refreshing.

Loa is an amazing person -- the kind of person I wish everyone knew.

Devin

My gentle and fun-loving brother, Devin, passed away on June 16, 2021. Doctors had warned us that his AVM could easily take his life at any time. It still is stunning and painful when it happens. The link to his obituary on this blog is here. His funeral was June 26th. His grave marker wasn't done by that time, but his wife, Katy, has picture of the headstone.

Black Hills

On a much, much lighter note, we headed to South Dakota on June 28, 2021, in our big, golden, dented, twelve-passenger, accidentally-bicolored-sliding-doored van. I won't try to cram all our trip info in here! It definitely deserves a post. It was a great trip! How about two photos from that trip? One proving we were really there, and another showing some of Susie's relatives (the Bryner family) who were part of the Willie and Martin handcart companies, and whose names were on display in the visitor's center for these companies in Wyoming:

Walker Reunion at Steadman Ranch

There were no graves to be found at Steadman Ranch in Idaho at the Walker Family Reunion July 15-17, 2021, lately always held on my grandfather Vernon Walker's birthday (the 16th, excepting the 2020 reunion, which had been canceled for COVID). Hanging out with the living is really fun, though, and it was terrific to see so many uncles, aunts, cousins, 2nd cousins, etc., together. It was also a very spiritual experience. I don't think we will have another reunion like it at that level: there are so many of us that it is a quite and undertaking, even when only half show up! Here are some photos from the reunion:

Uncle Terry explains that the family chart lists all the missions served by Vernon Walker and his posterity. It is quite extensive!

Victory!

Yeah, Enoch is playing with the big boys!

Candy cannon!

Shakespearean Festival

For our wedding anniversary, Susie and I took some R&R at a Bed & Breakfast in Cedar City, watching some shows at the Shakespearean Festival. We got rained out of the one outside performance we purchased, but that didn't a very good time.

Boys Trip

In September, Mike Johnson, Andrew, Joshua, Enoch and I went to Las Vegas to watch BYU vs Arizona in Allegiant Stadium. Lots of driving for a short trip! Enoch said he didn't care for the trip to much, but I loved it.

Great Basin National Park, Delta and Holden

We were determined to attend the blessing of Katy Benge's children in Delta on October 17, 2021. After Devin's death, Katy moved back home with her parents there. School had a couple of days off as well, so we decided to make a little vacation of it, rather than lots of driving on one day for the blessings. On the way down on the 15th we visited the Tintic Railroad Tunnel and went on to visit Topaz, the internment camp for those of Japanese descent during World War II.

The next day we planned to do some hiking at Great Basin National Park and visit Lehman Caves there. Unfortunately, early snows closed the park, and we were only able to view things from a couple of scenic spots on the side of the road. We took a short hike, too. But, I was also too late getting tickets for Lehman Caves, leaving us on stand-by. Lucy and Rachel were the only ones that were able to go on a tour (unless Joshua got in, too ... I don't remember for sure).

But on our way back from the national park we stopped and see the Ward Charcoal Ovens, which were pretty neat.

Before our church meetings Sunday morning, we also drove out to the Fort Deseret so see the remains there.

And after the blessing of the children in Katy's ward sacrament meeting and a nice lunch provided by the family at the clubhouse of the local golf course, we took a longer way home through Holden, were my great-great-great grandparents, Nicholas and Harriett Paul, are buried.

William Holmes Walker, one of the first missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve in South African, met and baptized the Pauls there in 1853. Nicholas and Harriet had a young daughter at the time named Harriet.

After emigrating to America and making their way to the Utah Territory, William Walker married the younger Harriet as is fourth wife. I am a great-great grandchild of theirs!

A bit of their story is in Saints volume 2. See here, here and here.

Spring Break 2022: SoCal

We went to Southern California for spring break this year, high gas prices and all. Again, I won't try to cover that trip here. But, I want to share a single photo that summarizes something about the theme of this very long post. The photo is of us visiting the Newport Beach Temple. In the temple of the Lord, ordinances bind and seal us as together as families in the household of God. How grateful I am for this! This binding is not just for time, but for eternity. 

I am grateful that I can be bound to noble and faithful ancestors of mine. I felt deep reverence and gratitude as I visited their burial sites. I am thankful to be eternally bound to my sweetheart forever, as long as we remain worthy. I am grateful to be bound to my children and their posterity. I love them, and I love to be with and serve them. I am thankful for dedicated and loving parents and siblings and in-laws, and pray that we can all be worthy to be bound together forever. 

I am grateful that death, as sorrowful as the parting might be, is not the end. I am eternally grateful for Jesus Christ and the plan of our Father in Heaven for making this possible. I worship them and testify of them.