Harris * Daniel and Hanna Thornton

Daniel Harris was born on 17 March, 1831, in south Bend, St. Joseph county, Indiana, or nearby in Michigan, as a census record states. His parents were John Harris and Lovina Eiler. (Photo courtesy Lorraine Laws, Blanding)
Children on the trek: Edward Royal, Jacob Alonzo, John Alma

Daniel is mentioned often in Miller's book either as a scout, delivering mail, bringing supplies, etc.  (Check index for pages.) He returned with the four Scouts: Sevy, Redd, Hobbs, and Morrell on their return trip from the San Juan early in Jan. 1880.  He then took pack animals with supplies back to the site of Bluff later that same month. (His father was still living there?)

He was married to Lydia HARRIS on 5 Oct 1853. Children were: Daniel Duane HARRIS.
He was married to Rachel THORNTON in 1873.  (Possibly sisters to George's wife)
He was married to Hannah THORNTON in 1874.      "                           "

Life of Daniel Harris son of John and Lovina (Compiled 1963.)
His father’s family had come there three years before from Ohio and they were the first white settlers in that area. They chose a choice prairie grassland enclosed by wooded area, which is named Harris Township to this day.
When Daniel was 16 or 17 years old, and his brothers and sisters numbered seven, his father and mother decided to go to Oregon. They were converted to the LDS Church. His father and mother were baptized at and sister were baptized. Daniel and the oldest girl, both were baptized in Grand River on 9 June 1846.
They remained in that vicinity until 1848. A baby brother was born at Harris Grove, Iowa. They emigrated to Utah in 1848 in Brigham Young’s second company. There were over a thousand people in the he company. Did Daniel notice and become acquainted with a young sixteen year old girl, Lydia Harris, who was no relative but later became his wife?

Daniel’s father settled in Farmington, Utah, and another brother was born there. In 1851, this family went to San Bernardino, California with Lyman and Rich to make a Mormon settlement. At San Bernardino, in the fort, their 2 families lived for some time in a one room apartment in the fort wall. Two years later he married Lydia Harris, whose family had also moved to California.
In 1856, his father was sent on a mission to the mining camps in northern California to raise money to pay the mortgage on their land. John Harris mentions in his diary about Daniel going home—was he called on a mission too? By this time Daniel and Lydia had a son and daughter. (more on Bailey site)
Daniel was called with some of his father’s family to go back to San Bernardino to bring back some of the cattle left behind. They were accused of stealing livestock, and jailed. This episode caused friction in Daniel’s family, and he left Lydia, his first wife, and his children (his oldest son about 12 years old) and never saw them again as far as we know.

 Lydia, moved in with her father and mother in Southern Utah. She married Samuel White and moved to Beaver. He died several years later. She spent the remaining sixty years of her life as a widow of meager means and raised Daniel’s four children and Samuel’s one daughter alone.

Daniel evidently moved to Juab County. In the 1870 census he was living at the new settlement of Chicken Creek with his parent’s family. He was baptized while there, the first baptism in the new ward.
Where and how did he meet Rachel and Hannah Thornton? These two English girls had emigrated to Salt Lake and evidently spent several years doing housework for a living before marrying Daniel. In 1873, he married Rachel when she was 27 years old. He married Hannah about a year later when she was about 20. One wife lived in Juab and one in Salt Lake. Five years later both were living in Salt Lake City.
Rachel’s children’s history was tragic. She had four children born in five years. Two were stillborn, one lived two months, and one eight months.
After 1879, Daniel and his two wives left Utah, joining others of the John Harris family and went to Colorado to work on the railroad. Family tradition says a land transaction left them with bitter feelings toward Utah settlements.
From there they evidently went to New Mexico where they met the Bingham brothers who were hauling freight to soldiers who were pursuing Geronimo. They worked with the Bingham boys and at times lived in Chavis, Lincoln, and Grand counties. . . . (1885) Hannah had six children by this time, five boys and one girl. While at Thatcher the youngest boy died. In 1892 Daniel went with McGee, an apostate Mormon) to Mexico to look after mining property. While there he died on August 25. McGee said he died of Salt poisoning—that is, took too much salt to ease the pain of abdominal cramps. The exact site of his grave is unknown.

Harris * , John and Lovina Eiler

John Harris was born on 2 Dec 1808 in Green, Northumberland Co., Pennsylvania. He died on 4 May 1899 in Farmington, Davis Co., Utah. Parents: Jacob HARRIS and Susannah HARTMAN.  (Photos courtesy Lorraine Laws, Blanding.)
He was married to Lovina EILER on 5 Jan 1831 in Indiana. Children were: Daniel HARRIS , Lucinda HARRIS, Angeline HARRIS , Jacob HARRIS, Susannah HARRIS , Rebecca HARRIS, Joseph H. HARRIS, Oliver HARRIS, George HARRIS.  Source

Lovina EILER was born on 17 Dec 1807 in Dayton, Montgomery Co., Ohio. She died on 7 Sep 1886 in Central, Graham Co., Arizona. Parents: Daniel EILER and Barbara GRIPE. She married John HARRIS on 5 Jan 1831 in Indiana.
John was the oldest of a large pioneer family (11 children). His father, who had come from Northern Ireland, had been the first to settle in the South Bend, Indiana, area. The township and fields had been named in his father's honor (Harris Township and Harris Fields).

At some time around 1845, John and his family had been converted to Mormonism. In February 1846 they started out to join the Mormon settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois, from South Bend. About a month later in March 1846 they arrived at Nauvoo. Two days after their arrival, John and his wife Lovina were baptized in the Mississippi River. John attended the dedication of the Nauvoo Temple on May 1, 1846. Within a few days they found themselves on the move once more. The Mormons were being driven out of Nauvoo. They crossed the Mississippi River on May 9. John Harris was elected captain of his company on May 11. On May 15 they started out on their journey.

Family records indicate that John and his family didn't arrive in Utah until 1848. If this is true, it appears likely that he and his family stayed in the vicinity of Council Bluffs for a couple of years before starting out again. When they did arrive in Utah, they settled in the Farmington area.
In March 1851, John, along with many other Mormon families (500 people in 150 wagons), were called upon to move to the San Bernardino area in California to establish a Mormon settlement. They arrived in California in June 1851.

In 1855, John was called on a mission in the mining district near Sacramento to help the Mormon Church pay back the money they owed for the property in San Bernardino. He spent most of the year in Coloma as a carpenter and handyman. As his wife didn't know how to write, he was lonesome a good deal of the time. He did correspond when he could with some of his children. During this time, John kept a journal which is now on file in the LDS Church Archives in Salt Lake City.  (Lorraine Laws, Blanding, has a copy of this journal.)

During 1856 Brigham Young recalled the settlement in San Bernardino. This was during the Utah Wars. John and his family later settled in southwestern Colorado. Later John and his family later got word that the Mormon Church was planning to create a settlement in the Southeastern portion of Utah near Bluff.  Since his son Daniel and his family were part of that original group, it is likely that was the connection.) In anticipation, he moved a portion of his family over to this area, and they were there to greet the first scouting expedition who came through The Hole in the Rock looking for a shortcut to the area.
Harris Cabin in Bluff:

 John's wife Lovina later died in Arizona. In his old age, John moved back to Farmington, Utah, where he died in 1899 at the age of 90. 

Life of Daniel Harris son of John and Lovina (Compiled 1963.)

In the history above it states that Daniel's parents John Harris and Lovina Eiler, were married two months before his birth, probably because of the scarcity of ministers in their area. His father’s family had come there three years before from Ohio and they were the first white settlers in that area. They chose a choice prairie grassland enclosed by wooded area, which is named Harris Township to this day.
When Daniel was 16 or 17 years old, and his brothers and sisters numbered seven, his father and mother decided to go to Oregon. They were converted to the LDS Church. His father and  mother were baptized at Navvoo in 1846, a brother and sister were baptized. Daniel and the oldest girl, both were baptized in Grand River on 9 June 1846.
They remained in that vicinity until 1848. A baby brother was born at Harris Grove, Iowa. They emigrated to Utah in 1848 in Brigham Young’s second company. There were over a thousand people in the he company. Did Daniel notice and become acquainted there with a young sixteen year old girl, Lydia Harris, who was no relative but later became his wife?
Daniel’s father settled in Farmington, Utah, and another brother was born there. In 1851, this family went to San Bernardino, California with Lyman and Rich to make a Mormon settlement. At San Bernardino, in the fort, their 2 families lived for some time in a one room apartment in the fort wall. Two years later he married Lydia Harris, whose family had also moved to California.
In 1856, his father was sent on a mission to the mining camps in northern California to raise money to pay the mortgage on their land.
Harris Wash Was this named after / by John Harris? or George or Daniel?

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.