Ancestor of the Week: William Eddington

I "Googled" my 3rd Great Grandfather's name this weekend and found a great picture of him!

This is William Eddington. He was born in 1821 in England.

Thanks to the Perpetual Emigration Fund he was able to come from England to Utah. The very ship he sailed on, the "Ellen Maria", and the departure, (January 1853), was painted by Ken Baxter. I have included the painting here. His future wife Louise Sarah Barton also sailed on this ship thanks to the PEF.

Hannah Cornaby, who also sailed on the Ellen Maria wrote the following poem about the departure day. This poem I am sure describes the feelings of William Eddington & Louise Barton as well:

In January, Fifty-three, we left our English home,
Determined for the Gospel’s sake, to Zion’s land to come.
Our family was very small, its members numbered three,
Yet strong in faith of Israel’s God, and full of hope were we.
’Twas not to us an easy task to bid old friends adieu,
To take a long farewell of those who always had been true,
To leave for aye, the cozy home we made but just before,
And take a last fond look of things we should behold no more;
The wind blew keen, as out we went into the cold gray dawn,
But keener far the chill we felt within our hearts that morn.
The stars were shining over us, but brighter in our breast
Was the star of hope that lured us on to the distant West.

Hannah L. Cornaby, “Crossing the Atlantic Ocean: A Reminiscence,”
Autobiography and Poems (Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham & Co., 1881), 65.

William crossed the plains at age 31 in the company of Joseph W. Young. Lousie Sarah Barton was also in the company. They were married a year later.

He was elected the first mayor of Morgan City in 1868.

That's all I know for now...

How we are related:

William Eddington had a daughter named Lousie Jane Eddington who married Edward Callister. Louise & Edward are the parents of Irene Callister who married Raymond Verne McCullough. They are the parents of Beth McCullough who married Jay Harold Henderson.

The South Seas by Paul Callister Part 1

It is time to tell a story again.

The following was written by Paul Callister, Irene Callister McCullough’s brother, about a trip they went on to the South Seas. As it is quite a long story…here is Part 1….

The South Seas

Getting Ready to Leave and a Funny Moment on the Train

Anticipation often leads one into the far corners of the earth and I had often thought of traveling to the South Seas where I had been told that palms and ferns grew profusely. In the winter time I have longed for the warmth of ocean sands and warm ocean breezes and anticipation has now given birth to reality for here Mary and I are on the S.S. Monterey with Verne and Irene (McCullough) and Walter and Margaret Latshaw.

In August, when the trip was first mentioned, I was confined at home from a condition brought on by not keeping the Word or Wisdom. Mary loves such trips as much as I do and was for it from the start. Preparing for a vacation of this magnitude gave her much joy in things she loves to do, shopping and more shopping. When we made our reservations, January 11^th seemed so far away and I wondered at the time if I would be strong enough by then to make the trip for I could hardly make my way around the house. The body soon mends if given a chance and strength returns where it has been dissipated away. Health is such a precious thing and yet we think little of it until suddenly deprived of the precious gift. Days, weeks, months passed fast. Mary had all of her bags packed before Christmas.

On January 7^th we left Ogden for San Francisco. Paul (my son) and his wife Elenore drove Verne, Irene, Mary and I to Ogden to catch the train. We had decided to leave Salt Lake at 5 o’clock to give us plenty of time to make the thirty-eight miles to Ogden, but when we called to pick up the McCulloughs, Verne was just repacking one of his suit cases, looking for a pair of gloves, here we lost fifteen minutes. I had forgotten my rubbers so another five minutes was squandered going back to our house and then we had to go to the Kearns Building for Verne’s rubbers. We lost more than thirty minutes of precious time but we made it to the Ogden Depot just in time to get aboard the train; thanks to my boy Paul’s good driving.

No trip was ever taken that didn’t have its funny parts. Verne started this one out by leaving his ticket home. He is so meticulous how others do, that he often forgets about himself. On the train he put his watch on backwards and read from the illuminated dial in his upper berth 7:30 AM instead of 1:30 AM. Out of his berth he climbs and shaves, washes, dresses, eats an apple and hurries Irene out of her berth, fearful he would be too late for breakfast.

He walks into the club car, all dark with the brake man dozing in a chair. He wakes the brakeman and asks where all the people are and was told in their berths asleep where they should be, but Verne, in his mild manner, says they should be up as it is after eight o’clock. The brakeman looked at Verne and then his own watch and told Verne that his watch read 2:30 AM. When Verne saw his mistake he went back to his room and told Irene of his mistake. Irene said she thought it was one of the shortest nights she had ever slept through. They both undressed and went back to bed.

To be continued...

Nicholas Thomas Henderson and siblings

This is a picture of Nicholas Thomas Henderson and his 3 younger brothers....James Mormon, Heber Charles, Hyrum Edgar.

Nicholas is top center; I believe Heber is on the left, James is on the right, and Hyrum is bottom center.

Their parents were Alexander Shillington Henderson & Almira Heath Silcock Henderson.

This next picture is also of Nicholas Thomas Henderson with some of his family...though they are only identified as "NT & family". If anyone knows which siblings are in the picture I would love to know.

Also, for anyone interested we are trying to get another printing done of the Silcock Book "Come After Us" which is a biography of Almira's parents: Nicholas Thomas Silcock and Jane Heath Silcock. It is full of pictures, and is beautifully written and is full of inspiring stories. It is about 400 pages long. If we can get 100-200 orders then we can get another printing done.

Picture & Story of the Week: February 11, 2009 Irene Callister McCullough

The following was written by Gerry Ebert about this picture. Thank you so much for sharing!!!

"I don't know where the picture of my mother was taken. I assume it was in front or on the side of her house on G Street. I'm not even sure if she was married or not. I keep getting the feeling that it might be her on her wedding day. She also said that she weighed 98 pounds when she got married...She told me that to let me know and for her to remember that she was not always overweight. "

Items of note:
Irene & Verne were married 27 Sept 1917
Irene was almost 25 when she got married.

Happy Birthday Grandma Beth McCullough

February 5th is Beth McCullough Henderson's birthday! She was born in 1924. Here are some pictures of her when she was a baby.
This first picture is with her mother Irene Callister McCullough.
The next picture is with her Grandmother Ruth Susan Independence Keysor McCullough.

"Pictures of the Week" Nicholas Thomas Henderson

This is a picture of my great grandfather Nicholas Thomas Henderson. He went by N.T. He was a dentist.

He liked golf quite a bit I have heard, so this is a great picture. My uncle Mark recently told me the following about him:

When he came to visit them, he always took the boys out for a golf lesson, "whether they wanted to or not".

As the years went on he didn't like to have to pull his golf clubs around. So he fixed up a gasoline powered engine to attach to his golf club bag. It had a throttle to control it. Mark said that it often looked like the bag was going faster than he was. I sure wish we had a picture of that!

The other picture is N.T. with some of his golf trophies. This picture was taken in front of his home on Military Drive in 1932.

I would love to hear more stories about him...hint, hint, all my aunts and uncles. If you don't know how to leave a comment, have one of your children teach you...otherwise, e-mail me at funseekerfamilyhistory@gmail.com.

"Thoughts from Grandma Beth" Family, Friends & Time

January 8, 1984 Sunday

I have decided in this New Year I shall try and write in my journal at least once a week. Hopefully someday I shall find time to write a little every day.

Today Dianne played the organ in sacrament meeting--the prelude and postlude and all the Hymns. She did very well and I was proud of her. There is nothing like good practical experience. All the lessons in the world are not enough. One needs the opportunities to use what talents one has. Our church is so wonderful in this respect that it gives a member a chance to serve and use what talents he has and thus develop them. I will always appreciate the opportunities I had to use my musical ability in the various organizations of the church. Also to teach the gospel has been a real joy for me.

My very dearest friend, Kathryn Kirk has cancer and it breaks my heart. She has always been so healthy. It really makes one wonder what on earth one can do to avoid that awful disease. I feel sure Kathryn ate good healthy food. She had been working very hard on a book that contained the history and story of the lives of all her ancestors. She had been working on it for about two years. I got after her several times, to not spend so much time on it, as she was missing so many other things in her life. She told me several times that she did not know what it was that seemed to give her a sense of urgency to get the book finished. She said she just felt like she had to keep at it and finish it. I feel sure that was the Spirit urging her on.

I know the Lord can easily make her better if her mission here is not finished, but perhaps she is needed on the other side. I shall really miss her. She was a great example to me in many ways. I never heard her swear or tell a dirty joke. She really lived the commandments as far as I could see and put the church first in her life along with her family. I did get a chance to see her when they first brought her home from the hospital. She really wasn't having any visitors, but they did let me in to talk to her for a little while. We did cry together for we both knew how serious her condition was. It was significant to me that she said, "From now on I must get my priorities straight." Coming from one who gave so much time to the church and her family, I was somewhat surprised. She did give much service also to worthwhile community things. I can only guess that perhaps she felt that she tried to do too much at the expense sometimes of the things that matter most.

That is true in my life for sure. I am too busy and I don't do the compassionate service I should be doing. By that I mean, visiting with my sick friends, taking in food. I do some of that but not enough. I know if I knew that I was going to die in a short period of time, I would let all my clubs go and spend that precious time with my family, letting them know I loved them so much. All my clubs are really worthwhile and I learn a lot and develop my talents because of the things I do in the groups, but we still have to choose in life among many good and worthwhile activities. That is the real test, I am convinced, to learn what one must eliminate when there is just so much time. I know my husband often thinks I am too busy to spend time with him. Well, I shall try and do better, before it is too late!!

Beth

Picture taken on a camping trip to Colter Bay that the Henderson & Kirk family went on together. Kathryn Kirk and Beth Henderson standing next to each other in the middle.