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The following autobiography was written in 1914.
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I was
born in Laonelly [Llanelli], South Wales, February 15, 1843.
My father's family [included] Walter
Walters - father, Sarah Leigh Walters - mother, and the following children,
Mary, Ann, Sarah, William, Margaret, Hannah, Daniel and Elizabeth.
All except William set sail from England, February 4, 1854 and landed at New Orleans about six weeks later March 18, 1854. We traveled by steamboat to St. Louis, Missouri. A short time later we went to Illinois, and stayed there two or three weeks with my sister. Leaving there we journeyed to Kansas, where we lived for a short time. Finally we moved out upon the prairie to await the coming of the teams to take us across the plains. The trip was quite uneventful to me as I was only 10 years old at the time. We arrived at Salt Lake City, October 5th, 1854. My uncle Alexander Wright, met us and took us to his home, a place later known as Wandemere.
After a short stay the family, except me, moved to Brigham City, Utah. I lived with my uncle, Alexander, all winter. In the spring of 1855, my mother came for me and took me home. My mother was a strong woman and we walked 65 miles to Brigham City. It took us four days to make the trip. My first job on arriving home was to drive two yoke of oxen, breaking new land for spring planting. The crops looked well until August when the grasshoppers came and took all of them.
The years of 1855 and 56 were the hardest in the history of the country, since it was settled by white people. How we lived through it would be hard to tell. Our main food was bran bread. We ate anything we could get. The cattle were so poor and starved that they would freeze while standing. We had no team so we had to carry on our backs all the wood we burned that winter. The house we lived in, my father built with willows and plastered with mud. For a door we used a quilt and for windows some thin white cloth. I was only eleven years old at the time and as my brother, William, had stayed in the old country all the hard work fell on the shoulders of the girls. Along toward Spring, when the hills began to get bare we would sharpen sticks and go out to dig segoes for breakfast and dinner. Then go to bed hungry. Henry Thomas had married my sister, Margaret, in the autumn of 1855. They owned a cow, and it was our task every day to go to the hills and cut dry grass and carry it home, to keep her from starving. Nearly all the stock died before spring came. Those that did not die were so thin and weak that no work could be done until the grass grew and the cattle had time to gain strength. Planting was late that year.
During the winter of 1855, Henry Thomas and I pulled a bushel of wheat on a hand sled from Brigham City to Willard. We were able to get it chopped at a mill owned by Mallarry [Mallory]. We reached home late that night and had a great feast. Sometime later father drove a team of oxen and took wheat to the mill that we might have bread to eat. Remember, it was bran bread and that is pretty rough to use all the time. During the journey we had nothing to eat. On the way home we became very hungry. About one mile north of Willard we came to a home owned by Bankheads. My father said, gI have never begged in my life, but I can stand it no longer. He went to the door and asked the lady for a piece of bread. Mrs. Bankhead gave him a big loaf. Neither sister Bankhead nor myself have forgotten the incident. We have talked about it many times since we have lived neighbors in Wellsville, Utah, for nearly fifty years. I have told her many times that she is always welcome in our home, and I am glad she makes herself so.
We managed somehow to live through those hard times. Many times we
had nothing to eat except roots. In the spring of 1856 my father went to work
for Lorenzo Snow, in his garden. Father was an excellent gardener and made a
beautiful place for him. We were able to get along quite well as Mr. Snow would
share with us what little he had. I lived with the Snows all that summer and
tended cows and sheep. It was necessary for every family to have some sheep as
clothing had to be made at home and mostly by hand. Everyone raised good crops
during the summer of 1856-57 and we had more to live on.
During the summer of 1857, word came that an army was coming to
kill us off. The people were very much excited and got out all their old guns
and cleaned them up. They said, If we must use them, we will give them the best
we have. I was too young to stand guard in Echo canyon , but most of my
companions went and stayed all winter.
When spring came, word was received that we must move south. Just where we did not know. Most of the people were very hard pressed for means to
move with. However, a few had no trouble. It was pretty hard to pick up and
leave home to go (nobody knows where). But we did go and leave nearly everything
behind. I went to Salt Lake City to my uncle Alexander's
home (How I got there I cannot tell). When I reached there he was getting ready
to move south too. We loaded two wagons with household goods, flour and such
things we needed and pulled away. My Uncle drove the horse team and I drove the
yoke of oxen. After two days of hard driving we reached Spanish Fork. We stayed
with a lady named White, who had crossed the plains with us four years before.
We remained here and rested two days. On the third day we started back to get
another load. We made two trips. When we got back for the second load my father,
mother and younger sister, Elizabeth had arrived at my uncles. How they got
there I never found out. But everyone was helping everyone else. So we were
helped along. At this time John Owen came with twenty-five teams from Iron
County to help move the people South. The journey was about three hundred miles
and took two weeks. John Owen had married my oldest sister, Mary, the year
before we moved.
At Cedar City during the summer of 1858 Mr. Owen and I hauled coal for the iron works. Iron making at this time soon failed. In the spring of 1859
a number of people became dissatisfied, sold out their belongings and moved back
to Salt Lake City. Cache Valley was being talked about very much at this time.
John Owen bought ten acres of Cache Valley land from William Hamlin, who
remained in the south.
We came to Cache Valley about April 10, 1859 and lived in tents until houses could be built for the winter. We planted wheat on the land and
harvested a very fine crop. In the fall and winter of 1859, sixty houses were
built of logs and covered with straw and dirt as there was no saw mill to make
lumber for roofing.
During this summer the first hostile Indians came upon us, and
everyone thought we would be finished. There was about fifty of them to our
twenty-five or thirty. They were well armed, and we had very little and poor at
that. The Indians were painted and dressed ready for war, dancing about and
trying to frighten us. It would have been foolish to fight with them, so we met
with them to see what they wanted. Peter Maughan had charge of the colony at
this time. The Indians asked for beef, flour, sugar and tea. No one had tea or
sugar, but everyone divided what they had, and brother Maughan sent men out for
a beef. This satisfied them, and they went away. We found out that this was the
best way to fight Indians.
Cache Valley was bleak, cold and so foggy that the sun was not seen
at times for a month. The wheat we raised had to be hauled to Brigham City for
grinding, as no mill had been started here. The hardships of settling a new
country are very severe. For two or three years we had a hard time to make a
living. If wheat was to be sold, it must be taken to Salt Lake City, and for our
trouble we received 50 cents per bushel. Sugar was 75 cents a pound, calico - 50
cents per yard, iron cut nails - 75 cents per pound and a spade or shovel - $5
each.
The fort had to be guarded at night, and the cattle and horses
herded in the daytime to keep the Indians from stealing them. Even with this
care many horses were lost. In 1859 every horse on the range was taken. The oxen
and cattle were the most important at this time, as we depended upon them to do
the farm work and supply us with food. In January 1863, Colonel Conner gave the
Indians a good whipping so we lived in peace after that.
The following incident is a true account of one of my own
experiences:
"Evan Owen and myself had a very dangerous chase to recover some horses stolen by the Indians. It was a custom to turn the horses out during the day and bring them in for the night. I went to bring them home and found only my own horse. I inquired to John Bankhead as to where I might find them. He said he had seen them just ten minutes before. When I reached the place they were gone. I traveled down the road [and] signaled to Evan. He came as fast as he could. Taking our pistols in hand we rode very fast but did not encounter any Indians. If we had, I guess both of us would have been killed. After a twelve-mile chase the horses were abandoned by the Indians. We turned them toward home, only to discover that darkness was coming on. As it was dangerous to travel at night we sat up and guarded them until morning. The horse Evan used died during the night. It belonged to his brother John, and Evan had to pay him $300 for it. We traveled a short time when we met a man and boy going to their home in Franklin. This gave us company, for which we were very glad. The folks at home thought surely we had been killed and sent a group of ten minute men to look for us. They met us at Dry Lake and took us safely home. When we were near enough we could see people standing on the housetops to find out if we were alive or dead, but we were very much alive. Our people [were] very happy to see us again.
I have thought of this experience many times in my life and can say that it was more good luck than good management that we returned alive. We were both young and had little thought of the dangers in the wild country and among hostile Indians. Two weeks after I was called to guard teams going to Brigham City. On this trip my valuable horse was crippled. Both these fine animals died in the service of our country -- signed: D. L. Walters."
In the autumn of 1861 we had so much rain that it was almost
impossible to harvest the crops. By the middle of January 1862 the grain at
Paradise had not been threshed. As I worked on a threshing machine, it was
necessary for me to help them. While doing so I contracted a very bad cold and
was sent home. I was ill and in bed for two months. It was during this time that
I began my work on the violin. I had bought one and my father would sing and
whistle tunes until I learned to play them. This gave me much interest and
amusement while in bed. However, this was not the beginning of my interest in
music. On the boat crossing the ocean I met a man who played the flute and was
always close to him when he played. He saw that I was fond of music and made me
a present of a flute, telling me to practice and learn to play. This I did even
though I was but ten years kicking up so much noise that later the girls threw
it into the river, ending my music for a while.
About this time at Brigham City a man named William Lewis was teaching young people to sing. I joined and spent two nights a week at classes where a very fine children's chorus was organized and a good one for those days. Mr. Lewis was very strict, and I had my first vocal training.
By the spring of 1862 I was well again and went to Salt Lake City to drive a ward team to haul rock from Little Cottonwood Canyon to help build the temple. A trip of twenty miles made in two days. I boarded with a very fine family near the bridge on Big Cottonwood. When I had hauled the allotment I hired to Mr. Wm. W. [Nixon?] to haul grain from Logan to Salt Lake City. I made two trips then came home.
I had not done much with the violin during this time, but during this winter of 1863 I set to work in earnest. I knew the job was a very hard one, and very few people learn to play one well without good teachers. As there was no one here who could help me I did the best I could, playing by ear as we say. Much progress was made during the next year. Still no one came who could help me. I would know more than any of them or I would think I did. I kept on doing the best I could alone (I think all one needs to succeed, is a will to do and never say fail). Soon I ran against a wall. I must learn to read music but there were no books I could get to help me. Finally a family named John came to Wellsville. One of the boys had taken lessons on the violin, in England, and had a book of instructions. He would not sell it but loaned it to me. I learned the scales and a few simple tunes.
Shortly a Mr. James Shore came to town. He could play the violin so we played together during the Winter. James Shore, Edwin Mitton and Henry Haslam played together. Shore (violin), Mitton (concertina) and Haslam (cornet). The music those boys played was beautiful to hear. I could not play well enough to join them but played sometimes while Mr. Shore danced. After a while Shore moved away, and I took his place. We played together many years.
The group was engaged to play at Logan for Brigham Young and party. They went to Brigham City the next night and took us with them to play for a dance. In the afternoon we were asked to get into a spring wagon and serenade the town. During the dance Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball asked us to play some of the music played at Logan the day before. We did all we could, and it was much appreciated by everyone. The people treated us very kindly. Brigham Young said I would be one of the finest violin players in the country.
After playing with the boys for many years I got together four instruments, first violin, second violin, cornet and cello. This was called the first string band north of Salt Lake City. We traveled all over Utah and had much pleasure in our work. I can play the violin very well now, in my 72 year.
In the year 1864 I began to think of my future and the making of a home and raising a family. So on the 26th day of December, Martha Stenit [Stennett] Poppleton and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. In the spring of 1865 I cut the first logs to build a house. That summer I cut and hauled enough to finish it. I did all the work myself. As there were no saw mills to cut lumber and shingles, the roof was made of small timber, straw and dirt. A quilt served for a door and white cloth as windows. When it rained it fell inside as well as out and continued long after it had stopped outside. When our first child, Sarah was born we had to hang a wagon cover over the bed to keep mother and child as dry as possible.
I was engaged by John Stoddard in the summer of 1872 to run a saw mill at [ ? ]. On the 4th of July I had the misfortune to lose the middle finger of my right hand. Blood poison set in, and I almost lost my life. Many years passed by before I could use my hand freely at any kind of work. During these years I made my living almost entirely with my violin. As I came to use my hand freely again, I took up the carpenter trade and was quite successful. While the Tabernacle and Logan Temple were being built I worked about a year on them. I had charge of the timber work on the Wellsville, Ward Tabernacle for some time.
Much time has been spent in traveling over the state of Utah
presenting musical programs and playing for dancing. I have taught music to many
and had at one time a very fine family orchestra. A brass band organized in
Wellsville was one of the best in the state at that early date. The violin I use is one that I was fortunate enough to get from a
blind man by the name of Owen Jones who lived with us at Brigham City in 1856. I
paid him $100.00 for it. He said, "No
other man on earth could have it."
Before Mr. Jones consented to sell it to me I had to promise never to sell it. I
have kept my word to this day. I value my violin very highly because it has a
tone not found in the ordinary instruments. Thomas Giles, the Welsh harpist,
named her Jennie Linn [Jenny Lind].
We have had twelve children, Sarah - Martha - Daniel - Ann - Mary -
Walter - William - Edward - Elizabeth - Thomas - Maud and Margaret. All lived to
be adults except Ann, who died at fifteen and Maud at three years.
Daniel Leigh Walters died 27 [?]
July 1917 on the train en route from Weiser, Idaho, to Wellsville,
Utah, and is buried in the Wellsville City cemetery.
The autobiography was obtained from Robert G.
Olson, a great grandson of Daniel Walters.
The photograph of the grave stone was obtained from Marcia Mattson.
The photograph of the grave stone was obtained from Marcia Mattson.
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