In the Book "Aspects of Burton Overy" there is reference to my 4x great Grandfather Thomas (Turner) Bucklar from 1851, unfortunately this has been transcribed as Thomas Buckley. Thomas came from Little Houghton, Northamptonshire, the reason is not known but he must have been quite a well-to-do man, running a farm (170 acres) and a local pub (The New Crown).
This is an extract from a book about one of his grandsons (my 3rd great grand uncle): - Brief history on the Life of Jane Fant by Mary E
B Jenkins (daughter).
George Riddington Bucklar was born 9 Apr 1840 in Burton
Overy, England .
He was the eldest son of Charles R Bucklar and Mary Larndon.
His vocation was as a labourer and belonged to The Church of England.
He heard the Missionaries preach the Gospel and was baptized
2 Dec 1872. Thinking his folks would be happy to hear the good news, he told
them of his conversion.
His father became very angry and told him to leave home and
not return if he thought more of the deluded religion than he did of his folks.
He worked and, when able, sailed to The Americas on the ship `Nevada ` 4 Jun 1873. He arrived in New York 16 Jun 1873 and then arrived in Salt Lake City 25 Jun
1873.
Soon after arriving, he received his Endowment in the
Endowment House, 11 Jul 1873. He took up farming in City Creek and lived in a
nice six room house. He married Jane Fant in the Endowment House 7 Jan 1875 by
David H Wells.
He helped to build the Salt
Lake Temple
After they were nicely settled in their house and everything
was going well, they received a Mission call from President Brigham Young to help
build up a section of Arizona .
They accepted this call. They sold their home and some personal belongings that
they could not put in a covered wagon and left 7 Oct 1876.
This was the first time they had ever ridden in a covered
wagon pulled by a span of mules. Their first experience to cook over a camp
fire was a trial in itself.
My mother baked bread in a Dutch Oven. Father didn`t know how
to use the brakes on the wagon and smashed his finger very bad. Sister Hans Nelson, who was called and set
apart to be a nurse for the Pioneers, took Bee`s wax and concentrated oil,
heated them
separately and then made a smooth salve, put it on his finger and, in three
days, it was better. They were in Lot`s Smith Company and they had lots of
hardships but never turned back. They were ferried across the Big Colorado
River in a flat boat. They also had to make the roads as they travelled. Three
weeks after leaving Salt Lake City ,
about October 28, they made camp near The Little Colorado River. This place was
called "Allens Camp". The men were given different jobs, planting
gardens, building houses in the form of a Fort and they also built a dam on the Little Colorado River .
Mother and Father lived in the covered wagon for nine weeks
until their one room house was built. A blanket was used for the door and a
flour sack covered the only window. Dirt was the floor. I was probably born in
this wagon. Mother suffered much,
receiving bumps and knocks while moving from place to place. Many times she had
no shoes because they were too expensive to buy. Father and Mother never had a
simple living of any kind. They had something more precious and valuable than all
of the gold in the world. They had the Gospel and believed and lived it to the
very best of their ability. Father and Mother entered into the United Order
that was presented to them in Arizona .
Due to the fact that some of the ones in charge were not fair in their
dealings, many had to withdraw. This left father and mother with very little to
go on. The new things such as their wagon and mules they took down to Arizona with them were
not given back to them but, the oldest and scrawniest horses and a beat up wagon was what they got.
While my parents and
us children shall we say, got the skim milk, the ones in charge got the cream.
It was not working right and was later discontinued. My parents told of a young
couple that came to Arizona
with them. They had two children and the baby was very sick. They decided to
return to Utah
for medical help. When they first came down to Arizona , they brought a new wagon and a good
span of horses.
When they left to
come back to Utah ,
they gave them a ricky old wagon, two of the poorest horses in the camp and
food for about three days. My folks often wondered if they ever survived the
trip and were very concerned about them. Father milked the cows in The United
Order, and the leaders refused to give them extra milk for their two children.
So mother would go and sit on a wagon tongue
with a small pan and, as father would go by with the milk she would
quickly dip out a panful of milk and take it to the children. Because father
had to milk the cows night and morning, he was always late in
getting breakfast and also the evening meal. When he arrived for his meal, they
always served him sour milk or clabber
and that was
one food he could not
stomach. I would never figure out with all the fresh milk why they always had
sour milk and clabber from the previous milking left over for my father.
I was the first girl and the second child in Allens Camp, 9
Nov 1876. Sometime after I was born, my father left The United Order and moved
a short distance. Mother used to take three strands of string and braid them
together, put them in a small cup of grease and that was all the light there
was. Some time later, they were able to have a candle mould and make their own
candles. The men built dams on the Colorado River
and, just when the crops were doing well, the dam would break and flood
everything. Then they would do the job over again. One time the crops were at
their best, the grain was tall and the corn was 6ft and all tasselled out. Then
the dam broke and down came the flood waters and everything was washed away.
All the people could see was mud and hundreds
and hundreds of fish. That was in 1880. With winter coming on and with the
dampness and hard work, nearly everybody had chills and fever. This was one of
the causes of my sister`s death, Lucy Jane 7 Sep 1880. I don`t even remember
seeing her but I can remember 2 men taking out a casket into a rainstorm. I was
about 4 years old. Father and Mother got on well with the Mexicans and Indians
who came to visit us many times and my father enjoyed having them in our home.
This one time, I was very small and an Indian was visiting my father. My
brother George fell into an open surf well and I ran into the house and said
"Dordy in the water". Father and the Indian ran out fast and grabbed
George by the hair and jerked him out of the well..
The well was 6ft deep and level full. I cannot remember that part of it, but I
can remember they wrapped him in a white blanket with a dark border.
When I was
small, the Indians went on the warpath and especially hated the Mexicans. There
was a small Mexican town not far from us that the Indians went in there and
killed every man, woman and child, hung them up like animals and split them
open. Father and other men went and dug a trench and buried them. That was all
they could do. One day our cow got loose
and went over into the timber near our home. Father and a man went to
get her. Just as father had the cow going home, out junped 5 Indians from some
brush. They were all painted up in war colors with clothes like the Indians
wear. One said, "Are you Mormon?". Father said he was. The Indian
said< "Undo your shirt at the top". Father did and the Indian ran
his fingers down on the inside and felt the garment. The Indian said, "You
Mormon, you heap good man, I no kill Mormon people, heap good people". He
then turned to the other man with father and said,"Are you Mormon?"
and he said "Yes". The Indian grinned an ugly grin and said,
"You no Mormon, you lie". Father thought for a minute that the Indian
was going to kill him. Father pleaded with the Indian and told him that he
did not understand Indian and that he was a good man and was
good to the Indians. "If he is your friend, all right" and then they
left. My father was stopped many times by the Indians but his garments saved
his life every time.
Father then moved his family to Sholo or Spring
Valley . It was further East and South. They still had trouble with
the water conditions. They could not make the dam hold for a number of years.
Father then worked on the Railroad with other men. At one
time, father got lost in a snow storm and, through the prayers of mother, he
was found alive.
They brought him home, he was as stiff as a board and his
clothes were frozen to his body. His clothes were cut from his body in order to
thaw out his body.
She (mother) worked
all night on him and it was through her prayers being answered that he was
saved.
It was in Flagstaff
that I first went to school. The schoolhouse was one room, one half mile from
the camp. All the Mormon children were treated real mean, even by the teacher.
We received no help with our lessons in our spelling and reading classes. We
were not allowed to take part but had to stand in the
class row then moved back to our seats. Our arithmetic was
done on a slate and we received no help. If anything went wrong, the Mormon
children were blamed
for it.During these
pioneer days, I remember a man called `Old Man Wall` .I cannot forget him. He
was a rough looking man, tall and always wore one part leg up
and the other part down. It always looked funny to us
children. He often killed a beef and told us Mormon children to skin it and we
could have the meat.
He owned hundreds of
stock and he always fed the white people and treated them right. I also
remember a man called `Paddy Cray` who was elected to be Sheriff of all Yaripah County Prescott to be sworn in. I can remember
seeing him before he left on his journey and Paddy Cray said, "When I come back, I will send all the Mormons to
hell", but he never came back. He
took four white men with him and a Mexican to do the cooking. They were killed by the Indians and the Mexican was shot
through the mouth. Paddy Cray had a gold ring on his finger and the Indians cut
his finger off and took the ring.
Some Mexicans saw all that went on from under brush where they were hiding. It
proved to me that he was not a fit man to hold any such position.My
mother worked hard, making clothes for us, knitting stockings after cutting the
wool from the sheep`s back, washing and spinning it into yarn.
She was always busy
doing the necessary jobs needed to keep her family fed and clothed. Father used
to drink beer. He never got drunk but mother said to him,"Now that
we have a family coming up around us, will you stop", He said, " If
the little one we are expecting is a boy, I will not quit but, if it is a little
girl, I will never drink again" and he kept his word. He never touched
beer again. This little girl was Ada
May who was killed in 1895.
John W Young, a big promoter in Arizona ,
offered father $1000 for his ranch in Arizona .
It had springs of water and good feed. Father sold it and had the deed made out in Flagstaff .
They said, if he would leave the deed, they would send him the money. He did
but they kept on promising the money and then finally they just laughed at him and said that they did
not owe him anything. After nineteen years of hardships and hard work.On July
29 1895, father and mother left us all on the ranch and went into town. I was
in my teens and had just put on a big wash. Just then, Ada May came in and was singing very
beautifully "O ye Mountains high". (About a week before she came in
the house and laid herself on the table and said that this was the way she
would like to look when she was dead). She went out where Charles, John and
Rosy were playing with a little wagon hauling in all the goffers they had trapped placing them in a little row so
father could see what they had done. Ada
and John went under the wagon shed and the building fell on them. Charles
called me and I ran and all I could see was John`s left arm. I called Ada , she whined, that was
all I heard. I asked John if he was alright, he
said,"Oh hurry, I am smothering" and he breathed up the sleeve of his arm that was out. I worked hard
and fast moving the large poles and got John out, then I tried to get Ada out alive but she was dead. I sure worked
with her to get her to live but she was gone. I carried her into the house and laid
her on the table and that was where she was when father and mother came home.
John was black and blue from head to foot one side for several days. I
was sick for five years after that. A complete nervous wreck, no one will ever
know what I went through. If I cut my finger, instead of blood
coming out, it was just pink water. I also received a bad rupture moving the
heavy logs, low down on my right side and at times it was so painful I could hardly walk. When I came to Salt Lake City , I went to the Temple and received a special blessing and
from that time on I had no pain or
trouble from rupture.
Father and mother left us six children at home and went to
April Conference in Salt Lake City .
While walking in the streets of Salt
Lake England
when he was a Mission
there 1870 - 1877. Father and Bro. Brigham Young clasped each other and, with
arms around each other,
patting each other on their backs and, with eyes full of tears, they were so
full of joy in meeting again. Bro. Young said, "All those
people that went to Arizona
with you came back within the first two years. why didn`t you come back?"
and father said, "Brig" as that is what he always called him ,"I have never
been released". Bro. Young said, "George, I am now an Apostle and I
will release you.
Go back, sell your
property and bring your family back to Zion "
..
Father bought another homestead in Flagstaff from Babbits. These people owned a
store and other buildings. It was here that I met Mrs Babbit and went to California
to be Governess for her children.
Father used to smoke a pipe and mother tried to get him to
stop many times. Once he said,"I will never go back to Zion smoking". In 1902, they sold their property and left for Zion , Utah Buckskin Mountains
They stayed in Circleville about 1 year then came to Provo , settling in Orem on a fruit farm. In
1917 when father and mother could not look after themselves, they sold their
property and we built them a two room
house on our little
farm and I took care of them until mother died on 18 Feb 1918. I then took care
of Father, cooking, cleaning and washing for him. When we moved to
Hinckley, we took Father with us and then he went with us when we moved to Logan . I took care of
Father as long as he lived.
One morning on my
regular routine, I got breakfast over with, fed and cleaned up Father and had
the children doing their various activities. Father sat by the
open over door. I was washing dishes when, about 10 o`clock he said, "When
is Grandpa Jenkins coming back?".
I didn`t want to bother him and said nothing. He repeated it
time and time again and then said, "Can`t you answer a fellow when he asks
you a question?
Grandpa Jenkins has
been visiting and he told me he was going to Salt Lake City Temple
Three days later, father died quietly on 1 Jan 1929 in Logan , Utah
