The Sowards Family

THE SOWARDS FAMILY

Members of the Sowards family have, at times, been a part of the lives of some of my family members.  My paternal grandparents were married in a ceremony officiated at by Nelson G. Sowards.  I went to school with Vaughn and Kelly Sowards.  My sister, Ella, went to school with Elwin Sowards.  Kelly Sowards and I were college roommates in Boulder.  Three of my mother’s aunts were married to Sowards men:  Vida Jackson to Troy Sowards; Mary Hannah Jackson to Wilbur Sowards; and Fannie Jackson to Willard Sowards.  I joined the Army during World War II with Cline Sowards.  Roland Sowards worked for many years for my father in the hardware store.  My father served in a bishopric with George W. Sowards, Jr.  I believe my father was the bishop when Georgie Sowards was called on his mission.  My mother used to send me to Vina Sowards to buy canker medicine.  Shelton Sowards, who is married to Dorothy Haynie, taught me how to work in the hay fields.  My mother’s closest girlhood friend was her cousin, Mamie Sowards.  And it has been my pleasure to officiate as Sealer at the Temple marriages and sealings of a member of Sowards family members.  Later this month, I will officiate at the marriage of Garth Sowards and his bride. 

Recently, I came into possession of a Sowards family history.  I will use this history to narrate information for my grandchildren.  I believe their lives will be enriched by a study of the pioneers and other experiences of the Sowards family. 

The Sowards family history follows: 

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The origin of the Sowards name is somewhat of a mystery, although there seems to be sufficient justification to assume that it was derived from the English word “Southward”.  It has been very difficult to obtain a complete genealogical history of the Sowards family because of numerous broken links in the line. 

The recorded history of the Sowards family begins with a woman named Latisha Mills.  She was married at different times to three men:  Thomas Sowards, Peter Ford, and one other.  Following is an outline of two of these marriages, together with the five children who were born to her:

Thomas Sowards,

       and Latisha Mills:  parents of 

                Thomas Sowards Jr.

                Charles Sowards 

                Mahaley Sowards

Peter Ford,

     and Latisha Mills:  parents of

               Moses Sowards (a) born 11 September 1813

               Lewis Sowards

(Please note:  The children of Peter Ford and Latisha Mills took the Sowards name after the     death of their father.)

(a)     The following is an outline of the family of Moses Sowards and his wife, Louisa Gannon:

Moses Sowards and Louisa Gannon, parents of:

                Arminta Sowards, born 11 January 1839

                George Washington Sowards, born 5 October 1840

                Diadema Sowards, born 11 January 1842

                Harmon Sowards, born 25 October 1844

                Colbert Sowards, born in 1847, who died in August, 1852

                Alvenia Sowards, born in April 1849

                Thomas Jefferson Sowards, born 24 August 1852

                Elizabeth Ellen Sowards, born 29 January 1854

                America Jane Sowards, born in 1856

                Rosa Melissa Sowards, born 16 November 1859

                Nelson General Sowards, born 22 February 1862

                Lewis Winfield Sowards, 1 July 1864

Louisa Gannon was the daughter of James Gannon and Delilah Branham.  Delilah was the daughter of John Branham and Patsy Elwick, a quarter-breed Cherokee Indian known by the Indian name of “Basket” prior to her marriage. 

(When we were boys growing up, I can remember Vaughn and Kelly Sowards talking

of their Indian heritage, claiming to be Cherokees.  I suppose Patsy Elswick, or “Basket”,

their ancestor, is the source of their claim.  DHL)

Moses and Louisa and eleven of their children accepted the Gospel and were baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  One child, Colbert Sowards, a son, died at an early age before the missionaries brought the Gospel to the rest of the family. 

The six daughters of Moses and Louisa Sowards remained in eastern Kentucky where they lived and died.  Four of the surviving sons came as Mormon pioneers to Manassa, Colorado; they were Nelson G. Sowards, who stayed only a short time before going on to Utah where he had a very successful career as an educator; George W. Sowards, a farmer and rancher; Lewis W. Sowards, a stockman; and Harmon Sowards, the first of the family to arrive in Colorado.  Thomas J Sowards, the only surviving son not to go to Colorado, settled in Arkansas where he became a successful farmer. 

The Sowards family history, on the following pages, is concerned with the lives of George Washington Sowards and his wife, Mary Emily Holbrook, as recalled by their children, Rebecca, Louisa, Troy, and George, Jr. 

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THE LIVES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON AND MARY EMILY HOLBROOK SOWARDS

George Washington Sowards was born in Pike County, Kentucky, on October 5 , 1840, the first son and second child of Moses and Louisa Branham Gannon Sowards.  A sister, Arminta, born January 14, 1839, was the oldest child in the family.  Other brothers and sisters were:  Diadema, January 11, 1842; Harmon, October 25, 1844; Colbert, 1847, who died in 1852; Alvenia, April, 1849; Thomas Jefferson, August 24, 1852; Elizabeth Ellen, January 29, 1854; America Jane, 1856; Rosa Melissa, November 16, 1859; Nelson General, February 22, 1862, and Lewis Winfield, July 1, 1864; making twelve children in all.   

George’s father, Moses, owned land, not only in Kentucky, but over the state line in Virginia; it is reasonable to assume that some of the children were born in Virginia.  One farm had a hill of slate rock that George liked to chew.  When he was about nine years old, he became so pale from chewing the slate that his parents became concerned and had him chew tobacco instead, hoping it would improve his health.  He chewed tobacco until age 52 when he suddenly quit.   

George Washington Sowards was a tall man of six feet, who had a slight stoop that made him seem shorter.  His eyes were gray, his hair snow white, and his beard was carefully trimmed.  (He had turned gray as a young man, even before he was married, but he kept his hair colored at that time.) 

About August, 1863, George’s father, Moses Sowards, moved the family to Johnson County, Kentucky.  It was here that George met his future bride, Mary Emily Holbrook, daughter of John R. and Rebecca Boggs, Holbrook.   

Mary Emily was the third daughter and sixth child in a family of eight children, including:  Phoebe, 1831; William, June, 1836; David, March 10, 1839; Mary Emily, February 15, 1840; John Harrison, October 16, 1845; and De Troy, May 11, 1850.   

Mary Emily’s family lived on a farm as she grew up.  She and her sisters and brothers went barefoot most of the time.  They had shoes to wear on Sunday but took them off as soon as they returned from the “meeting” and hung them on nails in the loft.   

Mary Emily was not allowed to go to school as, from the time she could pick up a frying pan, she had to cook for her family and help her sister, Gemima, with the work.  Their mother was ill a good part of the time and was bedfast after the last child was born in 1850.  Mary Emily was just seven years when she began her household duties and was only eight when the oldest girl, Phoebe, married.  

As she grew up, Mary Emily loved to dance and often danced all night, then returned home in the morning, and would weave three yards of cloth during the day.  All of the cloth for the men’s suits and other clothing, and the women’s and children’s clothing, quilts, etc., had to be woven at home.  Weaving was a daily task to keep ahead of the needs of a large family, and was very time-consuming. 

Mary Emily became a tall woman, about five feet ten inches, with dark brown hair, dark snapping eyes, with a kind but sober expression on her face.  She wore full-skirted dresses, usually in darker shades, to her shoe tops, with high necks and long sleeves.  Her dress was always covered by a waist apron when she worked.   

She felt that her father was the best father a person ever had.  During the American Civil War, she watched helplessly as roving bands of soldiers took everything her father had worked so hard for – livestock, crops, even food.  Often, she had to cook meals for soldiers, in groups of 26 to 28 men at a time.  Mary Emily was engaged to a young man, Arch Isem, who fought in the Civil War and was killed.  She determined never to marry and kept the young men in the community at a distance.  

The story is told that George had been courting another young lady.  However, when he learned she was sickly, he stopped seeing her.  He wanted a wife who would be a help, not a burden.   

One day, Jonathan Stambaugh, the husband of Mary Emily’s sister, Gemima, told Mary Emily he had a young man picked out for her and wanted her to meet him.  After much persuasion, Mary Emily did attend one of those Association Meetings.  (An Association Meeting was a large outdoor gathering held by the members of the local religious sects for which elaborate picnic lunches were prepared.)  It was here that Mary Emily was introduced to George.     

Mary Emily allowed George to “court” her.  Mary Emily’s mother predicted that Mary Emily was making a mistake – that George had tuberculosis and wouldn’t live long.  (He did have a bad cough, Mary Emily told a daughter, years later, that she never kissed her husband as she didn’t want to contract tuberculosis, if that is what made him cough.) 

The young couple married in November, 1871, in Johnson County, Kentucky.  After they married, Mary Emily and George settled down to a life of hard work, with very little time for pleasure.

In 1872 or 1873, they moved to Paintsville, Kentucky.  George’s parents lived with them for a few years.  Their home in Paintsville was a two-story frame house in a setting of gently rolling hills, green pastures, and cultivated fields, including the growing of sugar cane.  A large and varied vegetable garden was planted near the house and Mary Emily spent many hours tending it.  The woods included such trees as oak, beech, chestnut, hickory, walnut, and chinquapin.  Wild nuts were plentiful.  There were fruit trees, also, such as pawpaws and persimmons.  In addition to having plenty of wood to burn, the main source of fuel came from the seams and outcroppings of coal on the ridge back of the house.  The coal, after it was broken into chunks, was rolled down the hill and then picked up in buckets and carried to the house.  The sugar cane provided plenty of molasses.  Life was good, and food, clothing, and other necessities were more than sufficient.   

Six children were born to George and Mary Emily in Paintsville:  Keenus Robinson, October 19, 1873; Rebecca, January 8, 1875; twins Moses and John, August 13, 1876, who died (Moses in December, 1876 and John in November, 1877); Louisa, October 28, 1878; and Charlie, October 26, 1880.  (Rebecca remembers, although not yet three at the time, sitting on her mother’s lap as her mother rode side saddle on a horse up the hill back of the house to visit the graves of the twins under a beautiful beechnut tree.   

Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visited the family, and George and Mary Emily were among the few in the vicinity to embrace the new faith in the year 1879.  Thereafter, their home was headquarters for all of the LDS missionaries who came to the area.  Other members of George’s family joined the LDS church and there was much talk about among the brothers of going West.  George’s brother, Harmon, was the first to leave Kentucky.   

In 1880, Harmon and his wife, Jane Thompson Sowards, their six-month-old son, Wilbur; a niece, Eva Mullins; and a nephew, Harmon (Bud) Mullins (brother of Eva, and both the children of Harmon’s sister, Diadema, who had died), migrated to Manassa, Colorado.  George and Mary Emily talked of going to Utah, headquarters of the LDS church.  However, they decided, instead, to go to Colorado.   

With snow on the ground, the sleighs were loaded with the family’s heavy-laden trunks and boxes.  Rebecca, five years old, joined Keenus, seven years old, and Louisa, who was two, in the sleigh.  Then Mary Emily was next, with Charlie in her arms, and, as George clucked to the two horses, close family bonds were severed.  The call of the new religion was strong.   

The first night of the trip was spent with George’s sister and her husband, America Jane and Jess Ward.  The next part of their journey was made by steamboat, beginning at the landing on the Big Sandy River, then down the Ohio River and up the Mississippi to St. Louis.  Also traveling with George and his family were a younger brother, Nelson G., Elmira Mullins, a sister of Eva and Bud Mullins, John Van Hoose with wife and children, and Frank Castle and his wife, all convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   

At St. Louis, the party boarded a train for Alamosa, Colorado.  Upon arrival at Alamosa, George hired the one stage coach available, to carry the women and children to Manassa.  Since there was no room for the men, they walked cross-county the twenty-five miles to Manassa.  The men had less difficulty arriving at their destination than the stage driver, as George fixed his eye on a peak that was pointed out to him as being near Manassa, and the men arrived before the stage coach.   

The town is 250 miles south and a little to the west of Denver, Colorado, in the southern part of the state.  The San Luis Valley in which Manassa is located is about 150 miles long and from 40 to 60 miles wide, with a gradual slope to the southeast, with the rivers, Rio Grande, Conejos, and San Antonio, and some smaller streams all running southeast, furnishing sufficient water to irrigate many thousands of acres of very rich productive land.   

The history of the settlement of the townsite of Manassa begins in the northern settlements of Georgia and Alabama in the year 1877.  A young missionary, John Morgan, successfully engaged in teaching and converting to the LDS faith many of the southern people.  The vanguard of these emigrants who wanted to move West, numbering about fifteen men, women, and children arrived at the little settlement of Los Cerritos, Conejos County, Colorado, on May 19, 1878.  They had wintered in Pueblo, Colorado.   

In the early spring of 1879, a committee of Bishop Hans Jensen, Lawrence M. Peterson, and John Allen, with money received from President John Taylor of the Church, had made a first payment of $300 upon two sections of land, located about five miles northerly from Los Cerritos.   

In the summer of 1879, John H. Haugaard, a surveyor, was called by President John Taylor to leave his home in Manti, Sanpete County, Utah, and travel by train from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Alamosa, Colorado, and, thence, by wagon to Los Cerritos.  Haugaard and his assistants surveyed the west section (which became the townsite of Manassa) of the two sections, and laid out eight ten-acre blocks to the mile, making 64 blocks in the mile-square townsite.  Each block had four lots of 2 ½ acres each.  The streets were 100 feet wide, flanked by 12-foot sidewalks, with a three-foot ditch along the east side of each north-south street, reducing the lot acreage accordingly.  As soon as the survey was completed, many of the men made their selection of lots, and then went into the mountains to cut logs with which to build their homes.  

The name of the townsite of Manassa was selected in honor of Manasseh, son of Joseph of Ancient Israel.   

The first place for assembly for church purposes was patterned after the old bowery erected by the Utah Pioneers in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Posts were set in the ground with poles tied across the top and, then, brush of all kinds was placed thereon to keep the sun out.   

No sooner had their log cabin homes been completed and their families made as comfortable as conditions permitted, than the menfolk undertook the erection of a log cabin structure, sufficiently large to accommodate day school during the week and religious services on Sunday and in the evenings.  Alva Adams, a merchant in Alamosa, presented the people with very large and ornate kerosene lamps to light the log cabin auditorium, and in these the Manassa people took much pride.   

A Post Office was soon established, the Postmaster receiving 60% of the stamp cancellations for his services.  A mail route to the county seat at Conejos was established with mail sent and received three times a week.  At first, the mail carrier from Conejos made the journey of about six miles on foot.  The co-operative store, tannery, and flour mill were next established.  This co-operative feature was the underlying reason the Mormon communities succeeded.  People arrived from Utah with well-bred cattle.  The cattle owned by the colonists which had been purchased from the Mexicans were much improved and were gradually built up until, today, the Mormon settlement is noted for the excellence of its cattle.   

There was some opposition in the several Colorado newspapers over the Mormon colonization and some printed virulent articles against them.  However, other newspapers published the truth.  One said, “The Mormon Colony in Manassa is expecting an addition of some thirty-five families.  If they are of the same honest, industrious class as our friends who have lived there for the past few years, they are welcome to the country.  This colony has taken an apparently barren section of the country and, by irrigation and hard work, have raised good crops and are making a garden spot of this place.  True, the houses are comprised chiefly of hewn logs, either pine or cottonwood, and are covered Mexican fashion with planks and two or three inches of dirt on top, although a few shingle roofs can be seen.  The manufacture of shingles during the coming winter promises to become quite an item of business as the temporal progress of the Saints will soon permit them to erect better and more substantial homes.”   

At first, Mary Emily did not care for the Colorado country.  The wide-open, sage-covered San Luis Valley, in contrast to the lush green pastures and wooded rolling hills of Kentucky appeared too forsaken.  She thought they ought to go on to Utah, perhaps to the Ogden area, but when missionaries, arriving from Utah, told of an outbreak of diphtheria, she changed her mind as she didn’t want to expose her children to that dreaded disease.  After much discussion, they decided to stay in Manassa.   

George’s habit of being thrifty enabled him to arrive in Manassa with $1,400 in his possession.  This money gave him the means to establish his family immediately.  Fortunately, the owner of the only house in town with a shingled roof, wanted to sell.  George bought the house for $125.   

The house, built of logs, was about 24 x 24 feet.  The logs had been chinked with small boards held in place by a plaster made of lime and sand.  There was one partition.  Later, George sealed the inside of the house with smooth lumber and added a large kitchen along the east side, with a stove in one end and a fireplace in the other.  A grandchild, Elwin A. Potter, son of the oldest daughter, Rebecca, remembers some things about the house as he visited there in his childhood.  He remembers that the house was only built partly of logs, and had had two additions to it.   

The house was in the southeast section of the town, a mile away from Harmon, who lived in the north end of town.  The house was on the northwest lot of Morgan and Third Street and was closer to the south end of the lot.  The Danish Widow Christensen and family lived on the southwest corner lot.  A large irrigation ditch flowed along the west side of the block with tall sagebrush along the banks.  George grubbed off enough of the sagebrush to make a path along its bank.  He bought a cow, some chickens, and an ox team (named Tom and Jerry).  He made a trip to Pueblo, Colorado, to buy the kitchen range and additional furniture.   

George continued to buy land, feeling it was better to put surplus money into land than banks.  Since there was no bank in Manassa, and to have money readily accessible, he often put coins in cans and buried them temporarily in different spots around the yard.  The story is told by Luther Bagwell, long time resident of the Manassa area, that Luther’s father, and Mike Kaneaster, and Nick Miller, were at George’s yard one day looking at a bunch of yearlings in the corral.  As the men stood talking, Mr. Miller idly kicked the ground where he was leaning on a fence post.  Once of his kicks exposed a can of coins.  George shouted at him to stop and, then, laughed if off by saying that he had forgotten that he had put the can there.  Seems he literally believed in putting money back into the land.   

George bought a ten-acre plot of pasture land located in the Co-op Field from a Mr. Morgan.  The Co-op Field was east of town and consisted of 640 acres that had been fenced by Co-op members.  George also bought a 20-acre plot from a Mr. Perkins.  At one time, he owned nine city blocks.  He made a practice of giving a lot, among other things, to each of his children at the time they married.  The lot he gave his daughter, Rebecca, she later told to her brother, Troy, and upon it, he built his Manassa home.  Four of George’s children:  Keenus, Troy, Gemima, and George, Jr., built homes in Manassa, Keenus on the original homesite, Troy on the northeast corner of Third South and Jack Street, Gemima on the southwest corner of Third Street and Evans Street, and George, Jr., on a lot facing First Street and Second South.   

Tragedy struck the family when young Charlie died in 1882.  The cause of death was thought to be typhoid fever, although there were no doctors in the town to give a diagnosis.  Rebecca, the oldest daughter, remembers that her mother rode to the cemetery sitting in a chair placed in the bed of a wagon.  Two weeks later, on September 22, 1882, a boy was born who was named De Troy after his mother’s brother by the same name.  (According to Rebecca and Louisa, his older sisters, his name really was De Troy.  However, Troy did not use the “De,” insisting that his name was just “Troy.”)

Other children joined the family.  A girl, born November 1, 1881, was named Gemima after mother’s sister by the same name.  George W., Jr., was born October 8, 1886, and was named after his father.  George used only the initial “W,” although his older sisters have maintained he was named George Washington Sowards after his father.   

In June, 1883, the San Luis Stake of Zion was organized in Manassa by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The local authorities sustained were:  Silas Sanford Smith, President of the Stake, with Richard C. Camp and William Christensen as Counselors.  In the Manassa Ward, John C. Dalton was sustained as Bishop, with Silas S. Smith, Jr., and Samuel S. Smith as Counselors.  At a Quarterly Conference of the Church held in Manassa on May 15, 1887, the Saints were directed to build a Stake House, to be called the San Luis Stake House.   

From time to time, other converts to the Church emigrated to the San Luis Valley.  As the result of missionary work of Elders Henry W. Barnell and Mathias F. Cowley, in the state of Virginia and in surrounding areas, about 120 members were brought into the Church, eighty of whom emigrated to the San Luis Valley.  Among these were John Dempsey and his family who lived in Manassa for many years.  When they first arrived in the Valley, they found a haven in the home of George and Mary Emily, where they were made welcome.  It was because of their stay in Manassa that William Harrison “Jack” Dempsey was called “The Manassa Mauler,” when he became heavyweight boxing champion of the world.   

George always killed a beef and many hogs in the fall of the year.  He cured lots of bacon and hams.  When he hired a man to work for him, as he did Mr. Dempsey, he paid him in flour and meat.  George bought hides, and of course, farmed.  He never rode on the wagon as he went to the fields and other places.  He enjoyed walking.  He always walked in front of his oxen and talked to them just as if he were talking to a couple of children.  The oxen would follow him around wherever he went.   

George often went to the Pinion Hills to cut wood.  One of the canyons was called “Uncle George’s Canyon”.  If he handed the wood to a person, he received $2.00 per load.  If he cut the wood for others to haul, he would get two out of every three loads.  The hills were five to six miles away.  Often, according to Troy, he and his father would leave about four o’clock in the morning, even in winter time, when the temperature was 30 degrees below zero, and camp in the hills for a week at a time.  They would come to town for Sunday, but would go back on Monday.  Troy remembers that, once while in the Pinion Hills, his father killed two deer with one shot.  He did it with what was called “that old needle gun”.  Luther Bagwell of Manassa recalls of hearing George’s own words as George told of this unusual feat.  George said, “I tell ya, boys, I saw this deer across the canyon, shot and killed it, and when I went over to it, faith and behold, there lay one bigger than the one I had killed.”  Luther said George often used the expression, “I tell ya, boys,” to begin a conversation.  Luther said George and his (Luther’s) father were the best of friends (cronies) and no matter where they met, they could spend hours and hours talking.  Both had very loud voices and could be heard for blocks.  Some people said that, on a clear frosty morning, George’s voice could be heard all over town!  Luther said they talked loud even when they were standing or sitting close to each other.  Luther said that, when the men parted company, if one of them thought of something he would turn and shout it to the other one, who would answer, although they were two, three, or four blocks apart. 

Troy remembers working the ground by the cemetery with his father.  At first, there was no water on the ground, but George made a ditch with the oxen, ole Dave and Charley, and a slip-scraper, with Jesus Espinoza using a pick and a shovel.  These oxen were very strong.  At one time, they pulled a building on skids for Hugh Sellers that he wanted moved downtown for use as a store.   

The Sowards cemetery (private) and the old Manassa Cemetery are located south of town, on the edge of the foothills.  George obtained the foothill land from the State of Colorado.  He donated a piece of this land, east of the plot he wanted for the Sowards Cemetery, to the town of Manassa for the town cemetery.   

When George obtained what became the cemetery area, there were some stone huts on the site, apparently once used by the early Indians.  The huts even had what appeared to be portholes in them.  On the west side of the Sowards Cemetery is a curious rock formation known as Devil’s kitchen.   

In the early years, prairie dogs abounded in the cemetery area and, occasionally, brought bones to the surface.  Troy reported putting bones back into their respective graves.  These pests were later eradicated.  The Sowards Cemetery was later fenced by Keenus with the assistance of some of his nephews.   

The Sowards Cemetery is the final resting place not only of deceased members of the Sowards family, but of a number of friends who made special requests to be buried there.  It is of interest to note that the headstones of both Moses Sowards and George Washington Sowards indicate that they had fought as volunteers in the 39^th Kentucky Infantry during the Civil War, on the side of the north.   

George bought cattle and ran them in the mountains.  He would salt the cattle by sprinkling the salt on each cow’s back.  The cows would crowd up to him as he carried the salt in a bucket over his arm.  He used crumbled rock salt.   

George was one of the leading citizens in Manassa as long as he lived.  He believed in education in all forms.  He could always find money to purchase good books or to buy materials for handwork.  He had a delightful sense of humor and was well known as a good story-teller.  He enjoyed discussing current events.  He read regularly from the Bible.  His children remember him most vividly with a shovel or hoe over his shoulder, walking cross-country to rendezvous with the oxen he had sent down the road.  Distances seemed to mean little to him.  Even when the grain had to be taken to the grist mill ten miles away, he walked beside the oxen to the mill and back, even though it took all day.  His counsel was sought by many, and especially by the Widow Christensen who lived next door.  When her four boys would be incorrigible, she would appeal to George W. for assistance.  Always, George would find time to have a talk with the boys.   

George found circuses fascinating.  His boys remember going with him very early to Alamosa (where most circuses erected their tents) so they could arrive in time to watch the circus trappings being unloaded, and then watch the big tent go up.  They would stay overnight so that they could enjoy a performance.  Sometimes, three days were needed for the trip.   

In 1892, George’s brother, Harmon, returned to Kentucky to visit his parents.  He brought his parents, Moses and Louisa, back to Colorado with him, as well as his youngest brother, Louis Winfield Sowards.  Both of the parents were elderly and in need of special attention.  George and Harmon built a house for them on a lot owned by their brother Nelson G.   

One day, while visiting her mother-in-law, Mary Emily told her of a dream she had had in which a sister-in-law, Elizabeth Ellen (the ninth child of Moses and Louisa, who had died in 1876) came to her and told Mary Emily that “she was unhappy about her burial dress.  She was supposed to have been buried in a long white dress, but had been buried in a short one.”  Mary Emily had not been present at the time of Elizabeth’s death or funeral, so she knew nothing about the situation.  Louisa burst into tears and said, “That is right, Pop (Mary Emily’s nickname).  Her dress was made by someone with a sewing machine who mistakenly made the dress short instead of long.” 

Louisa needed daily help.  Her namesake, Louisa (second daughter of George and Mary Emily), stayed with her much of the time.  Other grandchildren helped at times, until failing health forced them to return to Harmon’s home where both passed away, Moses on May 3, 1895 and Louisa on July 1, 1896.   

George called Mary Emily “Polly”, which he soon shortened to “Pop”.  George was affectionately called “Uncle George” by many of the townspeople, so they became Uncle George and Aunt Pop.  George read the Bible out loud to Pop each morning as she prepared breakfast.  She cooked biscuits for every meal.  None of her children ever remember having white bread.  Sometimes, she would make cornbread.  She had a large vegetable garden and was a natural gardener.  She traded vegetables for services that she didn’t do so well, such as to Mrs. Blair for the sewing Mrs. Blair did for the family before a daughter, Rebecca, was old enough to take over.  Pop put up a barrel of kraut each fall and a barrel of pickled green beans.  She dried corn and other vegetables for the winter.  Since she hadn’t been able to go to school as a child, she learned to read with her children as they learned - - they taught her.  She was famous for her potato soup, and, usually had potatoes baking in the coals of the fireplace to be used as a snack by hungry children.  There was a barrel of sorghum for winter.  George liked nothing better than to invite the friends of his children to the house to eat a baked potato as they sat around the fireplace and talked.   

Pop’s hands were never idle.  She was a fast worker and could kill, clean, and cook a chicken in record time.  She was a true pioneer as she made herself accept situations she could not change and then she made the best of it.  After living in Manassa many years, she told of how in the early years, she was very homesick for Kentucky.  She had only to think of how peach trees looked in bloom or with peaches hanging from the limbs and she would cry enough tears to almost water the garden.  Winter evenings were occupied with the making of many quilts, and the sewing of rags into strips to be used in making rag rugs.   

The oldest daughter, Rebecca, married George Melbourne Potter on May 2, 1891, at the family home in Manassa.  The second daughter, Louisa, married James Franklin Potter, a brother of George Melbourne Potter, on September 9, 1904, in Cardston, Alberta, Canada, and Gemima married Albert Buren Aydelotte on December 14, 1904 at the family home in Manassa.   

In June of 1907, George was caught in a rain storm on a Saturday afternoon.  He didn’t change his clothes when he got home, although Pop asked him to.  Never having been sick a day in his life, he refused to consider that a little soaking would hurt him.  A cold developed which turned into pneumonia.  A doctor was brought from La Jara, 10 miles away, but to no avail.  He died the next Friday night on June 11, 1907.   

There is a bit of controversy now over just what George W. was doing when he was caught in the rain storm.  Rebecca records in her history that he was “surveying land”.  Troy, in his history, says “he was over setting out trees in this pasture by old man Scott’s.  He had little Willard Sowards, a nephew, helping him.  It come up a rain storm and they got wet.  I was at Cumbres herding cattle.  When I came home, he was sittin’ in the kitchen and he said to me ‘I’m just a chillin’ all over, Troy.  I’ve got an awful cold.’  The next morning, he was spittin’ up blood.  He lived five days from the time he caught cold until he was dead.”   

George W., Jr., maintained that he and his father were digging postholes and, when it began to rain, his father sent him to the wagon to cover up with some blankets, but his father did not join him, as he said a little rain wouldn’t hurt him.  When they returned to the house, Pop asked George W. to change his wet clothes, but he scoffed at the idea.  However, all the children agreed that pneumonia was the cause of his death.  Elwin A. Potter, son of Rebecca, recalls the trip from Park City, Utah, to Manassa, with his parents at the death of his grandfather.  He still has a mental picture of his grandfather’s nose projecting above the top of the casket his grandfather was lying in, in the front room of the old log house.  All members of the family constantly referred to Reenus for instructions, as he directed the preparations for the funeral.  The meat back with the wide rear doors, that George W. used to deliver butchered beef and hogs to clients, was used as a hearse (as it had been used many times for others who had died in Manassa), to take his body to the cemetery.   

That summer, while most of the family were together, they loaded camping equipment into a covered wagon and went up Conejos Canyon, perhaps a quarter of a mile up Elk Creek, and had a wonderful time for a week.   

Mary Emily continued to keep busy.  She welcomed the first daughter-in-law into the family on October 7, 1909, when Troy married Vida Jackson.   

The summer of 1910, Mary Emily, along with her daughter, Gemima, and two of Gemima’s children, visited Rebecca and Louisa in Grace, Idaho, where both were living at the time.   

In December, 1911, George W., Jr., (known as Jim Dick), took Mary Emily back to Kentucky for a while.  He tells of going to visit a cousin who lived back in the mountains.  Mary Emily’s brother put chairs in the bed (box) of the wagon for them to sit on.  Jim Dick rode on ahead on a horse.  As the wagon rolled along the country roads, it hit a chuck hole that threw Mary Emily, and the chair, out of the wagon.  She hit on her back.  Jim Holbrook, a cousin, who was with the party, telephoned to where Jim Dick had arrived at Vesta Skaggs, the cousin who they were going to visit, for him to come quick.  He rode the two miles back down the mountain and found his mother screaming with pain.  A doctor was called but he lived four miles away and had to come on horseback.  In the meantime, Mary Emily had been moved to Jim Holbrook’s place.  When the doctor arrived, he gave her something to ease her pain.  He determined that her back wasn’t broken.  The doctor stayed all night.  Mary Emily and Jim Dick didn’t return to Manassa until the end of January.  While they had been gone, Keenus had begun a more modern home on the north end of the lot.  When the house was finished, the family moved into it (Mary Emily, Keenus, and Jim Dick), and the old log house was torn down.   

In June of 1913, Mary Emily made another trip to the West to visit her daughters, Rebecca and Louisa, and their families.   

George W., Jr. (Jim Dick) married Ara Melvina Nance on December 10, 1913, in Kaysville, Utah, the home of the bride.  Keenus Robinson married Estella May Curran on June 17, 1914, in Denver, Colorado.  Mary Emily continued to live with them but it was difficult for her to give the management of the household, where she had reigned so long over to another woman.  Estella, nearing forty, and Mary Emily, at seventy-one, were both too set in their ways.   

Mary Emily had been having trouble with one eye.  Estella took her to the Mayo Clinic.  The diagnosis of cancer was confirmed.  The eye was removed, the eyelids were sewn together, and special glasses, with a side piece to protect that side were made for her.   

In May, 1919, Mary Emily was again in Utah where she took her endowments in the Salt Lake Temple on June 25, 1919.  The deceased twins and Charlie were sealed to her and George.  She visited with Rebecca and Louisa.   

Troy, in his history, wrote that “Estella and my mother couldn’t get along some way or another.  And Stella was going to quit Keene if my mother continued to stay there.  She asked me if she could come live with me.  I said, “You dawgone right!  You can come and live with me just as long as you want.  So I moved her into my home while Vida was gone to Sunday School.”  This arrangement was a happier one, as Mary Emily no longer felt her position threatened.  She was the guest in Vida’s established household.   

Mary Emily died in Manassa on March 10, 1922.  Her casket was padded with cotton and lined with cloth.  The large funeral was held in the San Luis Stake House.  She was buried beside George W. in the Sowards Cemetery near Manassa.   

On February 2, 1980, Elwin N. Sowards (son of George W., Jr., and grandson of George Washington Sowards), with his wife, Lena, spent an evening with Wayne and Mildred Rogers, life-long residents of Manassa, and recorded their remembrances of “Uncle George and Aunt Pop.”  Wayne’s father, G. Wayne Rogers, had been a good friend of Uncle George, and Wayne, as a boy, knew Uncle George and Aunt Pop.   

Wayne recalled that, when he was a small boy, Uncle George took cows to the pasture located west of the present site of the Town Sewer Plant.  Wayne lived in the northern part of Manassa.  Uncle George would stop and visit for a few minutes when he took the cows to pasture or when bringing them back.  This recognition meant much to a small boy.   

Wayne remembers Uncle George as weighing about 200 pounds, with a slight stoop, a strong voice, hard-working, with little time for recreation, except that he enjoyed visiting and talking with his friends, and that he always wore suspenders to hold up his trousers.  Uncle George did not smoke or drink and was a good neighbor.  He was not too active in the Church, as he could not bring himself to talk in church, but when he did attend, he wore his best overalls.  As he became older, he lost all his teeth and his chin quivered as he talked.   

Uncle George used oxen in his farming operations, growing peas, wheat, and hay.  He butchered cattle, sheep, and hogs.  He had a slaughterhouse on the northeast corner of the lot and sold meat to two stores.  He tanned the hide from the cows, using a hollowed-out log as a vat to hold the curing solution.   

As Mildred Bunnell typed this information about her grandfather, she realized that she needed to learn more about the processes used in tanning.  She was told that the most common of the early processes of tanning called “brain tan”.  This early process had been learned from the Indians and was known and used by the early settlers.  It was called “brain tan” as the brains from deer contained both acid and protein, two ingredients needed for good tanning, along with other main ingredients, such as salt, alum, and water.  The hollowed-out log was used to hold this curing solution.  The log, itself, may have contributed something too, as the bark of certain trees was used instead of brains of a deer, as some barks contained the tannic acid needed.   

The hides were first scraped free of hair, with a lime solution being used to speed up this process, and then the hides were put in the vat and soaked for the proper length of time, then taken out and wrung as dry as possible, then “beat” with stones, etc., as the hides were “worked” until there were as soft and pliable as desired.   

Some of this “leather” was used by George’s brother, Harmon, to make shoes for their two families, as well as for other people.  Harmon had learned to make shoes in Kentucky before coming to Manassa.  He also made harnesses from the leather.  Hides not used by the family were stored until there were enough of them to ship a carload to Kansas City.  

Wayne and Mildred remembered some things about the old log house.  The flours were of rough wood, scrubbed white, and later covered with braided or woven rugs.  They remember the folding bed with beautiful wood.  The bed was a novelty as there were very few of them in the vicinity.  Aunt Pop had a big black kettle and an iron tea kettle on the cranes of the fireplace all the time.  The big black kettle was used for many purposes.  It was placed on heavy rocks out in the front yard and, when a pig was butchered, great quantities of water were heated in it.  The kettle was also used to render the lard from the fat of the pigs, and was then filled with the renderings from the lard when soap was made from them.   

The house had many out-buildings around it.  East of the house were the pig pens and two or three chicken coops built of adobe mud bricks.  Aunt Pop tended the chickens.  Even after moving to Troy’s, she would walk the block back to the coops, twice or more times a day, to take care of the chickens and gather the eggs.  The hide house was on the west, almost to the south fence, close to the road, so that the hides could be loaded easily and taken to Romeo to ship by train to Kansas City.  There was an old cellar and storehouse by the house that had double doors to keep out the frost.  Extra supplies of food and winter food storage were kept there, as there was not sufficient room in the house.   

There was a granary with a loft where the boys slept as they grew older.  The slaughterhouse was on the northeast corner of the lot.   

They had a buggy and wagons for transportation.  Uncle George used the oxen to haul wood from the hills.  He cut, hauled, and fenced a 40-acre field with poles.   

The Rogerses recalled that, at the time of Uncle George’s death, the funeral was held outside in front of the granary.  This was a common practice when there was an epidemic, such as smallpox, when people were quarantined and no public meetings were held.  They thought that this might have been the reason for the funeral in the open air that friends and neighbors dared attend.   

Uncle George and Aunt Pop were considered by their friends and neighbors to have been blessed with plenty of this world’s goods.  They were rich in that they always had their large garden, cows that furnished milk, butter, and cream, and beef, mutton, pork, chickens, and eggs, and plenty of grain for flour.  The surplus was used to trade to others for commodities they did not raise, such as trading the leather to Harmon for shoes and harnesses, and paying part-time helpers in products.   

Aunt Pop was known as a good cook.  About 1920, when Jack Dempsey the boxer, came back to Manassa for a visit and was asked by the Blair family to eat with them, he begged-off, saying he wanted to go to Aunt Pop Sowards to eat some of her delicious home-made biscuits and milk.  

The Rogerses recall that it was about 1915 when Aunt Pop had trouble with the one eye.  They said that her son, George, Jr., took her to a clinic in Missouri to have the cancerous eye removed.  Regardless of who took her or where the operation was performed, it was a success and she had no more trouble with cancer.  They thought she didn’t ever wear glasses or anything over the closed eye, but others recalled that she did, so perhaps she had glasses with a shield, as some describe, but didn’t always wear them.   

Mildred Rogers recalls that she was at choir practice in Manassa when word was brought that Aunt Pop had died.  It was a sad announcement.  Aunt Pop had been loved by all the townspeople and was remembered for her many kindnesses to each of them.  They left a fine family to carry on the example that she and Uncle George had set.   

4-8-92   (1979-1980/Mildred P. Bunnell)