Hyde *, William and wives: Angeline Harris and Mary Ann Green

William HYDE was born on 22 Sep 1832 in Marion, Williamson Co., Illinois. He died on 13 Sep 1894 in Mancos, Montezuma Co., Colorado.
(Photo provided by Lamont Crabtree, Circa 1875)

Angeline HARRIS was born on 4 Nov 1834 in Bertrand, Berrien Co., Michigan. Married William Hyde in 1852 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah. She died on 14 Feb 1893 in Nephi, Juab Co., Utah. Parents: John HARRIS and Lovina EILER. Angeline’s parents and siblings were the lone family found living at Bluff when the Hole-in-the-Rock pioneers arrived in April of 1880. (Photo provided by Lamont Crabtree, Circa 1875)

Mary Ann GREEN was married to William HYDE on 7 Apr 1858.  (Photo provided by John Needham, Circa 1875)

"William was Sheriff or a policeman in and around Salt Lake City for a time, and went to San Bernadino with Charles C. Rich. He married as his second wife, Mary Ann Green, a niece of Bro. Rich. In fact he drove a team for Charles C. Rich across the plains to Utah and was with him and his family a great deal before he married Angeline Harris."  Letter on file

 William Hyde and family were living in Salt Lake City at the time they received their mission call to Montezuma. The call was issued on April 7, 1880, interestingly one day following the arrival of the Hole-in-the-Rock pioneers at Bluff. Church leaders had no apparent way of knowing the group had arrived safely, and William and family were the only missionaries called to San Juan during that conference (Fort Montezuma1879-1884By R. F. McDonald © 2010)

William Hyde was born on September 22, 1832, at Williamson, Illinois, the son of William Wood Hyde and Sarah Jackson. He had crossed the plains with his mother in the wagon train, which followed the original Vanguard Company from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

William Hyde came from Salt Lake City where he had been a member of the police force.  Upon arriving in San Juan they established a trading post at Fort Montezuma, then later moved to Mancos, Colo (Saga of San Juan p 312). 

Kumen Jones wrote: Late in the Fall of 1881, I made another trip as far as Escalante for freight which had been left there by William Hyde who, in that year, opened an Indian trading post on the river. This was late in the Fall. . ."
The store which William Hyde began at Rincone, ten miles down the river from Bluff, had been slowly growing in prosperity in spite of Erastus Snow's ban on isolated dwellings. Amasa Barton married William Hyde's daughter, Parthenia, and became interested in the store. In 1885, Barton became the owner of the store; at least he became the manager and the clerk, and he moved there with his wife and child to attend to the business
(Fort on the Firing Line by A.R. Lyman chpt 13).

William and Angeline arrived at Montezuma near Williams’ forty-eighth birthday. Angeline was 46, and she brought four children: Parthenia, (Feenie) seventeen, Ernest fourteen, Frank eleven, and Edna Estella five. Her daughters, Sarah, and Edith, and her son, Edward, were married and did not accompany the family to Montezuma.

William’s second wife, Mary Ann Green also accompanied him to Montezuma. Mary Ann was born August 11, 1838, at Caldwell County, Missouri to Harvey Green and Jane Ann Rich. She was forty-two when she arrived at Montezuma. Mary Ann had five children by William, two having died prior to the mission call, Joseph, and Edwin. The three surviving children accompanied the family to Montezuma: Helen Athalia, twenty-one, Mary Luella, ten, and Charles Albert, five. Mary and Helen are pictured on this page not far from the age they were when arriving at Montezuma.


The Hyde family left Salt Lake on June 27, 1880, using six wagons loaded with supplies. William hired teamsters and guards. The written account of one unidentified hired hand tells of leaving half of their supplies at Escalante, and blazing a new trail to the Grand River, (Colorado River), and crossing the river by way of the Halls Ferry. They suffered many hardships, and traveled long distances without water. He mentions sifting wigglers and polliwogs from the water at first, but said they eventually gave up and just drank what water they could find, wigglers and all.


The group arrived at Fort Montezuma on September 18, making the trip from Salt Lake City to Montezuma in three months less nine days. The Hyde family had been asked by Church leaders to accommodate the Navajo people, by providing a market for their wool. They immediately went to work building a substantial house, followed by construction of the first store in San Juan County.

At first William freighted supplies from Alamosa, Colorado, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was a six to eight week trip to retrieve freight from Santa Fe. Later on he freighted supplies from Animus City above Durango, which only took two weeks per trip. He could freight the 17 miles from Montezuma to Bluff in two days, and return with an empty wagon in one day.


During November of 1880 William’s daughter, Harriet Parthenia (Feenie) Hyde, embarked on the formidable task of teaching school. Her class would soon grow to nearly thirty students of diverse ages, some of whom were near her age of seventeen  (Fort Montezuma 1879-1884 By R. F. McDonald © 2010)

Hyde's story Hole in the Rock on file U of U UTAH HUMANITIES RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Hyde Children in San Juan County 1879-1880:
Angeline's: Harriet Parthenia, Ernest Bertrand, Francis (Frank) Herbert, Edna Estelle.
Mary Ann's: Helen Athalia, Mary Luella, Charles Albert
Most data for the children can be found at Bailey Family Genealogy Site
Harriet Parthenia (Barton) [Nickname Feenie] Born 1863 In Minersville, Beaver, Utah.  Married Amasa Barton 28 Nov 1884; he was killed by an Indian at Rincon on the San Juan River in 1887. She was San Juan's first school teacher. She died on 16 Apr 1950.
Francis (Frank) Hyde: was born on 28 May 1870 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah. He died on 18 Dec 1935 in Long Beach, Los Angeles Co.  Married Lucinda Diantha Nielson, daughter of Jens Nielson, who also came through the Hole in the Rock. 
Ernest Bertrand was born on 5 Jan 1866 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah. He died on 21 Apr 1933 in Salt Lake City
Edna Estelle was born on 25 Sep 1875 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah. She died on 1 Mar 1948 in Long Beach, Los Angeles Co.
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What happened to the Hyde family?
In 1880, the Hyde family brought a good number of cats with them from Salt Lake to Montezuma.

The local Indian people were very curious because they had never seen a domesticated cat. The cats
multiplied and became numerous around the Hyde place. Following the abandonment of Montezuma
many of the cats remained in the area. Possibly as a result, the Navajos named the area Mosi, which
means cat, and the area is still called Mosi by natives to this day. One account states the place was
named for an old trader the Indians called (Old Cat). It is unclear whether Old Cat was William Hyde
or if the name has reference to some other trader who lived there at a later date.

The William Hyde family suffered more than the loss of their farm and home in 1884. Angeline was
forced to either live in the little trading post at Rincon, which was also flood damaged, or stay with
friends at Bluff. Later she moved to Nephi, Utah; where she died February 14, 1893 at age fifty-nine
following the flood she never reunited with her husband.

William continued in the Rincon area for a short time. By the end of 1884 he had moved to River
View (now called Aneth), where his second wife, Mary Ann was living. Their cabin and store at River View were located a short distance from the Henry Mitchell place. William also built another trading post, which is still in operation today under the name Ismay. It is located a few miles northeast of River View, along
McElmo Creek. According to information provided by his 2nd.great grandson, Joe Wesh, All that’s left
of William’s trading post as of the year 2004 is the foundation under the Ismay trading post. William
hauled his store goods from Mancos, and didn’t use the route through McElmo canyon, but did his
freighting from Mancos, down Mancos Creek to the San Juan River, and west to River View. He
would stock the River View store and continue on up McElmo Creek to stock his store in McElmo,
which he later sold to Mr. Ismay.

The Navajos gave William the name: Nakai Nez, probably in reference to his deep sun tan, and his
ability to speak Spanish to the Mexicans in the area. He also spoke Navajo. As we have said earlier,
William was a highly motivated individual. He built at least four trading posts: Fort Montezuma, Rincon, River View, and the last one in McElmo Canyon. During 1888 William, Mary Ann, and the
two remaining children who were living at home, Mary Luella and Charles Albert, moved to Mancos
Colorado where they lived the remainder of their lives. According to 2nd great grandsons Johnny and
Joe Wesch, William worked as marshal for a time, and also during another period was employed as
city manager of Mancos. They also said William disaffiliated with the LDS Church. The author has
not verified that claim. William Hyde died at Mancos, of Brights disease, on September 13, 1894 at
age sixty-two. Mary Ann died at Mancos on January 6, 1912, at age seventy-four. Johnny and Joe
Wesch provided the following unedited and interesting obituary for William Hyde:
Another old resident of Mancos has passed to the mysterious beyond. Yesterday
morning at about 7 o clock Mr. William Hyde, who would have been 62 years of
age on the 23rd of this month, breathed his last. He was a man of magnificent
physique but for some months past it had been noticed that some insidious disease
had been making inroads upon it. He was born in Illinois and moved to Utah in '47.


In 1858 he was married to Miss Mary Green, a southern lady. In 80 he and his family moved to the San Juan River and there he established Hydes Ferry. In 88 he and his family came to Mancos, where they have since resided. His life was an eventful one, filled with deeds that border on the romantic. His nature was kindly, but one could
readily see, even in his declining years that he would be a foe of great energy and
implacable fierceness. . . .
It is sad that the final resting place for both William and Mary Ann is an unmarked spot on the north
edge of the Cedar Grove cemetery at Mancos. The only clue was a small note on cemetery records for
the location: (Mary Hyde beside unknown grave). They were valiant pioneers who filled their mission
to the letter and also went the extra mile. They had been called to establish a wool-trading depot for
the Navajo people to export their goods. During a five-year span they had built four such trading posts,
least three homes, a water wheel, and two ferry boat operations. Did they become wealthy? No, they
dealt honestly with the Indians, and kept little for themselves. After the death of William, Mary Hyde
supported herself as a cook. They are deserving of a gravestone.

At Rincon William’s two sons Ernest and Frank formed a partnership with Amasa Barton and Joseph
Barton, who had taken over the Hyde trading post. They had accumulated a good number of sheep
from the Navajos which Ernest enjoyed herding. The Hyde-Barton trading business at Rincon
continued until a Navajo killed Amasa Barton on June 9, 1887, just days following the birth of their
second son. This tragedy put an end to operations at Rincon.

Ernest and Frank stayed in San Juan for many years. Their lives are another story in itself. Edna
Estella married Albert Dalley in the St George Temple and lived places other than San Juan. Mary
Ann’s daughter Helen Athalia died in childbirth at Nephi Utah. youngest child Charles Albert moved to Oregon.