Mormon Pioneer
History of Walter Turner Barney and Family
By Myrtle H. Nielson
D.U.P Sally Kanosh Camp
Ruby Iverson Historian
One Jacob barney, born about 1601 in England, came from Bredham, Buckinghamshire, England to Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. about 1634. He was among the early pioneers that came to America, quite a time before the Revolutionary War.
One of the early American descendants was Charles Barney, born March 23, 1873 in Massachusetts. By his first wife, Mercy Yeoman, he had Luther, Lewis, Lucien, Lucinda, Henry, Walter, John and Malinda. By his second wife, Deborah Street (Ribbel) his children were Emeline, Betsy, Liozo, Benjamin Franklin, William Smith and Sarah Jane. Charles Barney and the family, except Luther and Lucien, who never joined, were among the early converts to the Latter-day Saint Church.
Lewis Barney, the second child of Charles, was born 8 September 1808, in Niagra County, New York. He married Elizabeth Turner, born July 1808, on April 11, 1833. Their children were Sarah Jane, Walter Turner, James Henry, Alma, Joseph Smith and William Orson. Later, he married Elizabeth Tibbets in Utah, the widow of Joseph Tibbets. By this second wife, his children were Arthur, Margaret, Mariah, Martha, Ann, Lewis, David, Emiline Haret, Viola and William Edward. Lewis and his wife Elizabeth Turner Barney first lived in Lake Fork, Sangamon County, Illinois. There Walter Turner Barney was born September 18, 1836. Later, they moved in close to Nauvoo. Here, James Henry was born in 1841.
Living near Nauvoo, they often came in for church services and to attend to business. Walter Turner, then a lad, remembered seeing the Prophet Joseph Smith, and of going to Conference in the Nauvoo Temple before it was finished.
When Walter was eight years old, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed. Walter remembered when they were martyred, and the terrible gloom that was felt by all the members of the Church, both young and old. It also caused great- nervousness among the Saints, so the Barney family moved into Nauvoo, and lived in a brick building on a street called Buck Row, during the winter of 1844.
In the spring of 1845, Lewis Barney and his family, with other saints, crossed the Mississippi river, and continued on across the state of Iowa, to Bullin Grove, Pottawatomie County, Illinois, eight miles from Council Bluffs on the Mississippi River. There they lived during the winter of 1845-46 working in Missouri for corn and pork to live on. During this time Walter Barney, Lewis’ brother, was called into the Mormon Battalion. While there in Illinois, Walter was baptized by Orson Hyde, and confirmed by Elder Brickford.
In the spring of 1847, Lewis Barney left with the first company of pioneers for Utah. The company consisted of seventy-eight wagons, one hundred thirty-four men, three women, and two children. Lewis was the main hunter for the company.
This group of pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley July 24, 1847. Lewis’ name is one of the few engraved on the Brigham Young Monument in Salt Lake City, Utah. While Lewis was gone, the family lived eight miles from Council Bluffs, and his father Charles Barney, lived on Mosquito Creek, eight miles from Conesville.
The Prophet Joseph Smith was born in Vermont in 1805; he organized the Church in 1830, and in 1847, seventeen years, later, the Church made its headquarters in Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1847, Lewis Barney came back from Salt Lake City to where his family was, and stayed there until Spring. Then he moved his family, in the spring of 1848, up to the Six Mile Grove on the Bowie River, thirty miles from Conesville. While there, Alma Lewis, the third son, died.
The family remained at Six Mile Grove, with other saints, until the spring of 1852. They raised crops and made wagons out of logs for the various families. When they had enough food to sustain them, and wagons for traveling, they began their journey across the plains. Charles Barney, Lewis’ father, went at the same time. They were in Bryant Jolley’s Company. There were fifty families and they had captains appointed over every ten families. They left in the Spring of 1852, and arrived in Salt Lake Valley in September of the same year. They spent the winter in Provo, and the winter of 1853 in Palmyra, Utah County, Utah.
In 1854, the Barney men and others went up into Payson Canyon to build sawmills. That year, the Walker Indian War broke out, which lasted two years. While so many of the men were away working at the sawmill, the Walker band came through Payson by night and did some killing. The next morning when Lewis Barney and his son Walter Turner, were up early sawing wood for lumber an Indian runner burst in upon them, stating that a detachment from Walker’s Band was going to kill the lumbermen. Walter hurried to warn the brethren and their families. Being without arms, they were forced to hide at once in the brush.
Immediately, ten or fifteen Indians from the main band sprang out from ambush and began shooting in all directions. Jefferson (son of Charles Barney) and Walter Barney hid on a little hill and watched the Indians shoot three times at John Bellas, but they didn’t kill anyone. They drove off the stock from both mills, leaving but one yoke of oxen at the upper mill. As soon as the band passed by, the lumberman took this one yoke of oxen and hastened out with the women and children. On the way down the canyon they met men from Springville, Spanish fork and Payson coming up with help. The Saints all fortified themselves in the village, and the men organized themselves in military companies, taking turns a half day and night at a time, guarding the settlement and cattle.
From the Spanish Fork River, during this time, the Saints took out the first ditch, with fifteen shovels. The brethren, thirty or more, kept the shovels busy taking turns thirty minutes at a time. By this means, they were able to water the land a raise fine crops.
When Walter was 18, he went with Sanders, by mule team to San Fernando, California. He remained there for two and one half years. When he decided to return to Utah he brought to ponies, saddles, and came in the company with Savage, the mail carrier. On the way, some of the party got ahead of the mail and suddenly they were surrounded by two or three hundred Indians who were making ready to annihilate the travelers, but when they learned that the travelers were with the mail, they left in peace, as the Indians had made a treaty to let the mail go unmolested.
When Walter got home, about Christmas, he found the Saints in great consternation because the U.S. Soldiers in Johnston’s Army had threatened all that fall of 1857 to enter Salt Lake Valley. Walter Turner was called by president Brigham Young to work under the direction of Lot Smith, who sent him with fifteen or twenty men to guard the mouth of the Spanish Fork Canyon. He was in Bill McGee’s Company at the Spanish Fork Canyon mouth, helping to keep the Johnston’s Army out. Later, in 1858, President Brigham Young made a treaty with the soldiers and Walter Turner was released.
That summer and winter, Walter courted Sarah Matilda Farr. The first time he took her any place was to a theater with home talent. It was in a log house without a floor in it, and the viewers had to imagine scenery and the curtains were sheets, stretched across the room.
Walter Turner and Sarah were married October13, 1858, by John L. Butler, at Spanish Fork, Utah. Here, in Spanish Fork, they lived until their son Walter Frances was born (July 8 1859) and died (Oct. 9 1860) at the age of fifteen months. Then they went to Springville, Utah, where Spanish Fork, where Alonzo Marion was born (23 May 1863).
They moved back to Spanish fork, where Alonzo Marion was born ( 23 May 1863). They then moved to Circleville, Utah, in 1864. In 1865 ( 24 July) Cyantha Dililah was born, and Alonzo died in August of the same year of Scarlet Fever.
While in Circle Valley, the Black Hawk war began so trouble commenced again. Jefferson Barney was killed in Payson by the Indians.
William Orson Barney, Walter Turner’s brother, when a boy of fourteen in Circle Valley, went to take to take the cows to craze across the Sevier River (1866). The Indians spied him and began shooting at him. He ran like a deer, but they struck him in the back with an arrow, stripped him of his clothes and left him dead. Three men were also killed, so the Saints pursued the Indians, taking seventeen captives in, and holding them in a guarded school house. While Walter Turner was off guard duty to dinner, the Indians began to revolt and the settlers had the Indians all killed when he returned. The Saints were so few in number and the Indians were so troublesome and wicked, the settlers left Circle Valley and the settlement broke up.
When they left Circle Valley, Walter Turner took his family and went to Beaver, Utah, where he cradled wheat to earn a living, and stood guard against the Indians.
That fall (1866) they moved to Kanosh, Utah, where they secured some farming land and built a log house. Later, he built a saw mill and a nice comfortable home. While living at Kanosh, Orin, (18 Jan. 1868); Azealia (6 Mar. 1870); Franklin (16 Sept. 1874); Chloe (6 Dec. 1880); and Lillie (27 Sept. 1863) were born.
In 1884, Walter Turner’s family were called to Arizona by the leaders of the Church. Arriving on the Gila Valley, he homesteaded 160 acres near Solomonville, (Graham County). In the early pioneer days in Arizona, the Apache Indians were very hostile. Excited by Geronimo, they were often on the warpath, killing and plundering at will. One night the Barney family was expecting a raid, so they took bedding and slept in a field. The Indians came in the night and stole, ducks, but not finding the people, they passed on.
In 1886, Sarah Matilida Barney purchased a store in Matthewsville, later known as Glenbar, Arizona, and ran it until 1906, when Ephriam Larson took charge.
In 1905, Sarah Matilda Barney and Walter went with H.I. Anderson and his wife, on a Portland, Oregon expedition, returning by the way of Salt Lake City and Idaho. From Idaho, they brought back their daughter Azelia’s children, their daughter having died earlier in Salt Lake City in confinement.
After the store was leased to Ephriam Larsen, Walter and Sarah lived on their ranch at Solomonville.
In 1013, Chloe’s husband, David Joseph Matthews, and son Bryan, died, so Chloe and her other children (2), Harold and Deborah, lived with her parents. On May 23, 1914, Sarah died of Typhoid Fever and was buried at Layton, Graham County, Arizona. Chloe Matthew and her children continued to live with her father, Walter Turner Barney, until his death.
Walter Turner died May 19, 1922, at his home near Solomonville, Arizona, and buried at Layton, Arizona, by the side of his wife.
“To know him was to love him.”
(From Franklin Russ Barney, Route 1, Safford, Arizona – 1956.)
History of Walter Turner Barney and Family
By Myrtle H. Nielson
D.U.P Sally Kanosh Camp
Ruby Iverson Historian
One Jacob barney, born about 1601 in England, came from Bredham, Buckinghamshire, England to Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. about 1634. He was among the early pioneers that came to America, quite a time before the Revolutionary War.
One of the early American descendants was Charles Barney, born March 23, 1873 in Massachusetts. By his first wife, Mercy Yeoman, he had Luther, Lewis, Lucien, Lucinda, Henry, Walter, John and Malinda. By his second wife, Deborah Street (Ribbel) his children were Emeline, Betsy, Liozo, Benjamin Franklin, William Smith and Sarah Jane. Charles Barney and the family, except Luther and Lucien, who never joined, were among the early converts to the Latter-day Saint Church.
Lewis Barney, the second child of Charles, was born 8 September 1808, in Niagra County, New York. He married Elizabeth Turner, born July 1808, on April 11, 1833. Their children were Sarah Jane, Walter Turner, James Henry, Alma, Joseph Smith and William Orson. Later, he married Elizabeth Tibbets in Utah, the widow of Joseph Tibbets. By this second wife, his children were Arthur, Margaret, Mariah, Martha, Ann, Lewis, David, Emiline Haret, Viola and William Edward. Lewis and his wife Elizabeth Turner Barney first lived in Lake Fork, Sangamon County, Illinois. There Walter Turner Barney was born September 18, 1836. Later, they moved in close to Nauvoo. Here, James Henry was born in 1841.
Living near Nauvoo, they often came in for church services and to attend to business. Walter Turner, then a lad, remembered seeing the Prophet Joseph Smith, and of going to Conference in the Nauvoo Temple before it was finished.
When Walter was eight years old, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed. Walter remembered when they were martyred, and the terrible gloom that was felt by all the members of the Church, both young and old. It also caused great- nervousness among the Saints, so the Barney family moved into Nauvoo, and lived in a brick building on a street called Buck Row, during the winter of 1844.
In the spring of 1845, Lewis Barney and his family, with other saints, crossed the Mississippi river, and continued on across the state of Iowa, to Bullin Grove, Pottawatomie County, Illinois, eight miles from Council Bluffs on the Mississippi River. There they lived during the winter of 1845-46 working in Missouri for corn and pork to live on. During this time Walter Barney, Lewis’ brother, was called into the Mormon Battalion. While there in Illinois, Walter was baptized by Orson Hyde, and confirmed by Elder Brickford.
In the spring of 1847, Lewis Barney left with the first company of pioneers for Utah. The company consisted of seventy-eight wagons, one hundred thirty-four men, three women, and two children. Lewis was the main hunter for the company.
This group of pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley July 24, 1847. Lewis’ name is one of the few engraved on the Brigham Young Monument in Salt Lake City, Utah. While Lewis was gone, the family lived eight miles from Council Bluffs, and his father Charles Barney, lived on Mosquito Creek, eight miles from Conesville.
The Prophet Joseph Smith was born in Vermont in 1805; he organized the Church in 1830, and in 1847, seventeen years, later, the Church made its headquarters in Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1847, Lewis Barney came back from Salt Lake City to where his family was, and stayed there until Spring. Then he moved his family, in the spring of 1848, up to the Six Mile Grove on the Bowie River, thirty miles from Conesville. While there, Alma Lewis, the third son, died.
The family remained at Six Mile Grove, with other saints, until the spring of 1852. They raised crops and made wagons out of logs for the various families. When they had enough food to sustain them, and wagons for traveling, they began their journey across the plains. Charles Barney, Lewis’ father, went at the same time. They were in Bryant Jolley’s Company. There were fifty families and they had captains appointed over every ten families. They left in the Spring of 1852, and arrived in Salt Lake Valley in September of the same year. They spent the winter in Provo, and the winter of 1853 in Palmyra, Utah County, Utah.
In 1854, the Barney men and others went up into Payson Canyon to build sawmills. That year, the Walker Indian War broke out, which lasted two years. While so many of the men were away working at the sawmill, the Walker band came through Payson by night and did some killing. The next morning when Lewis Barney and his son Walter Turner, were up early sawing wood for lumber an Indian runner burst in upon them, stating that a detachment from Walker’s Band was going to kill the lumbermen. Walter hurried to warn the brethren and their families. Being without arms, they were forced to hide at once in the brush.
Immediately, ten or fifteen Indians from the main band sprang out from ambush and began shooting in all directions. Jefferson (son of Charles Barney) and Walter Barney hid on a little hill and watched the Indians shoot three times at John Bellas, but they didn’t kill anyone. They drove off the stock from both mills, leaving but one yoke of oxen at the upper mill. As soon as the band passed by, the lumberman took this one yoke of oxen and hastened out with the women and children. On the way down the canyon they met men from Springville, Spanish fork and Payson coming up with help. The Saints all fortified themselves in the village, and the men organized themselves in military companies, taking turns a half day and night at a time, guarding the settlement and cattle.
From the Spanish Fork River, during this time, the Saints took out the first ditch, with fifteen shovels. The brethren, thirty or more, kept the shovels busy taking turns thirty minutes at a time. By this means, they were able to water the land a raise fine crops.
When Walter was 18, he went with Sanders, by mule team to San Fernando, California. He remained there for two and one half years. When he decided to return to Utah he brought to ponies, saddles, and came in the company with Savage, the mail carrier. On the way, some of the party got ahead of the mail and suddenly they were surrounded by two or three hundred Indians who were making ready to annihilate the travelers, but when they learned that the travelers were with the mail, they left in peace, as the Indians had made a treaty to let the mail go unmolested.
When Walter got home, about Christmas, he found the Saints in great consternation because the U.S. Soldiers in Johnston’s Army had threatened all that fall of 1857 to enter Salt Lake Valley. Walter Turner was called by president Brigham Young to work under the direction of Lot Smith, who sent him with fifteen or twenty men to guard the mouth of the Spanish Fork Canyon. He was in Bill McGee’s Company at the Spanish Fork Canyon mouth, helping to keep the Johnston’s Army out. Later, in 1858, President Brigham Young made a treaty with the soldiers and Walter Turner was released.
That summer and winter, Walter courted Sarah Matilda Farr. The first time he took her any place was to a theater with home talent. It was in a log house without a floor in it, and the viewers had to imagine scenery and the curtains were sheets, stretched across the room.
Walter Turner and Sarah were married October13, 1858, by John L. Butler, at Spanish Fork, Utah. Here, in Spanish Fork, they lived until their son Walter Frances was born (July 8 1859) and died (Oct. 9 1860) at the age of fifteen months. Then they went to Springville, Utah, where Spanish Fork, where Alonzo Marion was born (23 May 1863).
They moved back to Spanish fork, where Alonzo Marion was born ( 23 May 1863). They then moved to Circleville, Utah, in 1864. In 1865 ( 24 July) Cyantha Dililah was born, and Alonzo died in August of the same year of Scarlet Fever.
While in Circle Valley, the Black Hawk war began so trouble commenced again. Jefferson Barney was killed in Payson by the Indians.
William Orson Barney, Walter Turner’s brother, when a boy of fourteen in Circle Valley, went to take to take the cows to craze across the Sevier River (1866). The Indians spied him and began shooting at him. He ran like a deer, but they struck him in the back with an arrow, stripped him of his clothes and left him dead. Three men were also killed, so the Saints pursued the Indians, taking seventeen captives in, and holding them in a guarded school house. While Walter Turner was off guard duty to dinner, the Indians began to revolt and the settlers had the Indians all killed when he returned. The Saints were so few in number and the Indians were so troublesome and wicked, the settlers left Circle Valley and the settlement broke up.
When they left Circle Valley, Walter Turner took his family and went to Beaver, Utah, where he cradled wheat to earn a living, and stood guard against the Indians.
That fall (1866) they moved to Kanosh, Utah, where they secured some farming land and built a log house. Later, he built a saw mill and a nice comfortable home. While living at Kanosh, Orin, (18 Jan. 1868); Azealia (6 Mar. 1870); Franklin (16 Sept. 1874); Chloe (6 Dec. 1880); and Lillie (27 Sept. 1863) were born.
In 1884, Walter Turner’s family were called to Arizona by the leaders of the Church. Arriving on the Gila Valley, he homesteaded 160 acres near Solomonville, (Graham County). In the early pioneer days in Arizona, the Apache Indians were very hostile. Excited by Geronimo, they were often on the warpath, killing and plundering at will. One night the Barney family was expecting a raid, so they took bedding and slept in a field. The Indians came in the night and stole, ducks, but not finding the people, they passed on.
In 1886, Sarah Matilida Barney purchased a store in Matthewsville, later known as Glenbar, Arizona, and ran it until 1906, when Ephriam Larson took charge.
In 1905, Sarah Matilda Barney and Walter went with H.I. Anderson and his wife, on a Portland, Oregon expedition, returning by the way of Salt Lake City and Idaho. From Idaho, they brought back their daughter Azelia’s children, their daughter having died earlier in Salt Lake City in confinement.
After the store was leased to Ephriam Larsen, Walter and Sarah lived on their ranch at Solomonville.
In 1013, Chloe’s husband, David Joseph Matthews, and son Bryan, died, so Chloe and her other children (2), Harold and Deborah, lived with her parents. On May 23, 1914, Sarah died of Typhoid Fever and was buried at Layton, Graham County, Arizona. Chloe Matthew and her children continued to live with her father, Walter Turner Barney, until his death.
Walter Turner died May 19, 1922, at his home near Solomonville, Arizona, and buried at Layton, Arizona, by the side of his wife.
“To know him was to love him.”
(From Franklin Russ Barney, Route 1, Safford, Arizona – 1956.)
Mormon Pioneer
History of Walter Turner Barney and Family
By Myrtle H. Nielson
D.U.P Sally Kanosh Camp
Ruby Iverson Historian
One Jacob barney, born about 1601 in England, came from Bredham, Buckinghamshire, England to Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. about 1634. He was among the early pioneers that came to America, quite a time before the Revolutionary War.
One of the early American descendants was Charles Barney, born March 23, 1873 in Massachusetts. By his first wife, Mercy Yeoman, he had Luther, Lewis, Lucien, Lucinda, Henry, Walter, John and Malinda. By his second wife, Deborah Street (Ribbel) his children were Emeline, Betsy, Liozo, Benjamin Franklin, William Smith and Sarah Jane. Charles Barney and the family, except Luther and Lucien, who never joined, were among the early converts to the Latter-day Saint Church.
Lewis Barney, the second child of Charles, was born 8 September 1808, in Niagra County, New York. He married Elizabeth Turner, born July 1808, on April 11, 1833. Their children were Sarah Jane, Walter Turner, James Henry, Alma, Joseph Smith and William Orson. Later, he married Elizabeth Tibbets in Utah, the widow of Joseph Tibbets. By this second wife, his children were Arthur, Margaret, Mariah, Martha, Ann, Lewis, David, Emiline Haret, Viola and William Edward. Lewis and his wife Elizabeth Turner Barney first lived in Lake Fork, Sangamon County, Illinois. There Walter Turner Barney was born September 18, 1836. Later, they moved in close to Nauvoo. Here, James Henry was born in 1841.
Living near Nauvoo, they often came in for church services and to attend to business. Walter Turner, then a lad, remembered seeing the Prophet Joseph Smith, and of going to Conference in the Nauvoo Temple before it was finished.
When Walter was eight years old, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed. Walter remembered when they were martyred, and the terrible gloom that was felt by all the members of the Church, both young and old. It also caused great- nervousness among the Saints, so the Barney family moved into Nauvoo, and lived in a brick building on a street called Buck Row, during the winter of 1844.
In the spring of 1845, Lewis Barney and his family, with other saints, crossed the Mississippi river, and continued on across the state of Iowa, to Bullin Grove, Pottawatomie County, Illinois, eight miles from Council Bluffs on the Mississippi River. There they lived during the winter of 1845-46 working in Missouri for corn and pork to live on. During this time Walter Barney, Lewis’ brother, was called into the Mormon Battalion. While there in Illinois, Walter was baptized by Orson Hyde, and confirmed by Elder Brickford.
In the spring of 1847, Lewis Barney left with the first company of pioneers for Utah. The company consisted of seventy-eight wagons, one hundred thirty-four men, three women, and two children. Lewis was the main hunter for the company.
This group of pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley July 24, 1847. Lewis’ name is one of the few engraved on the Brigham Young Monument in Salt Lake City, Utah. While Lewis was gone, the family lived eight miles from Council Bluffs, and his father Charles Barney, lived on Mosquito Creek, eight miles from Conesville.
The Prophet Joseph Smith was born in Vermont in 1805; he organized the Church in 1830, and in 1847, seventeen years, later, the Church made its headquarters in Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1847, Lewis Barney came back from Salt Lake City to where his family was, and stayed there until Spring. Then he moved his family, in the spring of 1848, up to the Six Mile Grove on the Bowie River, thirty miles from Conesville. While there, Alma Lewis, the third son, died.
The family remained at Six Mile Grove, with other saints, until the spring of 1852. They raised crops and made wagons out of logs for the various families. When they had enough food to sustain them, and wagons for traveling, they began their journey across the plains. Charles Barney, Lewis’ father, went at the same time. They were in Bryant Jolley’s Company. There were fifty families and they had captains appointed over every ten families. They left in the Spring of 1852, and arrived in Salt Lake Valley in September of the same year. They spent the winter in Provo, and the winter of 1853 in Palmyra, Utah County, Utah.
In 1854, the Barney men and others went up into Payson Canyon to build sawmills. That year, the Walker Indian War broke out, which lasted two years. While so many of the men were away working at the sawmill, the Walker band came through Payson by night and did some killing. The next morning when Lewis Barney and his son Walter Turner, were up early sawing wood for lumber an Indian runner burst in upon them, stating that a detachment from Walker’s Band was going to kill the lumbermen. Walter hurried to warn the brethren and their families. Being without arms, they were forced to hide at once in the brush.
Immediately, ten or fifteen Indians from the main band sprang out from ambush and began shooting in all directions. Jefferson (son of Charles Barney) and Walter Barney hid on a little hill and watched the Indians shoot three times at John Bellas, but they didn’t kill anyone. They drove off the stock from both mills, leaving but one yoke of oxen at the upper mill. As soon as the band passed by, the lumberman took this one yoke of oxen and hastened out with the women and children. On the way down the canyon they met men from Springville, Spanish fork and Payson coming up with help. The Saints all fortified themselves in the village, and the men organized themselves in military companies, taking turns a half day and night at a time, guarding the settlement and cattle.
From the Spanish Fork River, during this time, the Saints took out the first ditch, with fifteen shovels. The brethren, thirty or more, kept the shovels busy taking turns thirty minutes at a time. By this means, they were able to water the land a raise fine crops.
When Walter was 18, he went with Sanders, by mule team to San Fernando, California. He remained there for two and one half years. When he decided to return to Utah he brought to ponies, saddles, and came in the company with Savage, the mail carrier. On the way, some of the party got ahead of the mail and suddenly they were surrounded by two or three hundred Indians who were making ready to annihilate the travelers, but when they learned that the travelers were with the mail, they left in peace, as the Indians had made a treaty to let the mail go unmolested.
When Walter got home, about Christmas, he found the Saints in great consternation because the U.S. Soldiers in Johnston’s Army had threatened all that fall of 1857 to enter Salt Lake Valley. Walter Turner was called by president Brigham Young to work under the direction of Lot Smith, who sent him with fifteen or twenty men to guard the mouth of the Spanish Fork Canyon. He was in Bill McGee’s Company at the Spanish Fork Canyon mouth, helping to keep the Johnston’s Army out. Later, in 1858, President Brigham Young made a treaty with the soldiers and Walter Turner was released.
That summer and winter, Walter courted Sarah Matilda Farr. The first time he took her any place was to a theater with home talent. It was in a log house without a floor in it, and the viewers had to imagine scenery and the curtains were sheets, stretched across the room.
Walter Turner and Sarah were married October13, 1858, by John L. Butler, at Spanish Fork, Utah. Here, in Spanish Fork, they lived until their son Walter Frances was born (July 8 1859) and died (Oct. 9 1860) at the age of fifteen months. Then they went to Springville, Utah, where Spanish Fork, where Alonzo Marion was born (23 May 1863).
They moved back to Spanish fork, where Alonzo Marion was born ( 23 May 1863). They then moved to Circleville, Utah, in 1864. In 1865 ( 24 July) Cyantha Dililah was born, and Alonzo died in August of the same year of Scarlet Fever.
While in Circle Valley, the Black Hawk war began so trouble commenced again. Jefferson Barney was killed in Payson by the Indians.
William Orson Barney, Walter Turner’s brother, when a boy of fourteen in Circle Valley, went to take to take the cows to craze across the Sevier River (1866). The Indians spied him and began shooting at him. He ran like a deer, but they struck him in the back with an arrow, stripped him of his clothes and left him dead. Three men were also killed, so the Saints pursued the Indians, taking seventeen captives in, and holding them in a guarded school house. While Walter Turner was off guard duty to dinner, the Indians began to revolt and the settlers had the Indians all killed when he returned. The Saints were so few in number and the Indians were so troublesome and wicked, the settlers left Circle Valley and the settlement broke up.
When they left Circle Valley, Walter Turner took his family and went to Beaver, Utah, where he cradled wheat to earn a living, and stood guard against the Indians.
That fall (1866) they moved to Kanosh, Utah, where they secured some farming land and built a log house. Later, he built a saw mill and a nice comfortable home. While living at Kanosh, Orin, (18 Jan. 1868); Azealia (6 Mar. 1870); Franklin (16 Sept. 1874); Chloe (6 Dec. 1880); and Lillie (27 Sept. 1863) were born.
In 1884, Walter Turner’s family were called to Arizona by the leaders of the Church. Arriving on the Gila Valley, he homesteaded 160 acres near Solomonville, (Graham County). In the early pioneer days in Arizona, the Apache Indians were very hostile. Excited by Geronimo, they were often on the warpath, killing and plundering at will. One night the Barney family was expecting a raid, so they took bedding and slept in a field. The Indians came in the night and stole, ducks, but not finding the people, they passed on.
In 1886, Sarah Matilida Barney purchased a store in Matthewsville, later known as Glenbar, Arizona, and ran it until 1906, when Ephriam Larson took charge.
In 1905, Sarah Matilda Barney and Walter went with H.I. Anderson and his wife, on a Portland, Oregon expedition, returning by the way of Salt Lake City and Idaho. From Idaho, they brought back their daughter Azelia’s children, their daughter having died earlier in Salt Lake City in confinement.
After the store was leased to Ephriam Larsen, Walter and Sarah lived on their ranch at Solomonville.
In 1013, Chloe’s husband, David Joseph Matthews, and son Bryan, died, so Chloe and her other children (2), Harold and Deborah, lived with her parents. On May 23, 1914, Sarah died of Typhoid Fever and was buried at Layton, Graham County, Arizona. Chloe Matthew and her children continued to live with her father, Walter Turner Barney, until his death.
Walter Turner died May 19, 1922, at his home near Solomonville, Arizona, and buried at Layton, Arizona, by the side of his wife.
“To know him was to love him.”
(From Franklin Russ Barney, Route 1, Safford, Arizona – 1956.)
History of Walter Turner Barney and Family
By Myrtle H. Nielson
D.U.P Sally Kanosh Camp
Ruby Iverson Historian
One Jacob barney, born about 1601 in England, came from Bredham, Buckinghamshire, England to Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. about 1634. He was among the early pioneers that came to America, quite a time before the Revolutionary War.
One of the early American descendants was Charles Barney, born March 23, 1873 in Massachusetts. By his first wife, Mercy Yeoman, he had Luther, Lewis, Lucien, Lucinda, Henry, Walter, John and Malinda. By his second wife, Deborah Street (Ribbel) his children were Emeline, Betsy, Liozo, Benjamin Franklin, William Smith and Sarah Jane. Charles Barney and the family, except Luther and Lucien, who never joined, were among the early converts to the Latter-day Saint Church.
Lewis Barney, the second child of Charles, was born 8 September 1808, in Niagra County, New York. He married Elizabeth Turner, born July 1808, on April 11, 1833. Their children were Sarah Jane, Walter Turner, James Henry, Alma, Joseph Smith and William Orson. Later, he married Elizabeth Tibbets in Utah, the widow of Joseph Tibbets. By this second wife, his children were Arthur, Margaret, Mariah, Martha, Ann, Lewis, David, Emiline Haret, Viola and William Edward. Lewis and his wife Elizabeth Turner Barney first lived in Lake Fork, Sangamon County, Illinois. There Walter Turner Barney was born September 18, 1836. Later, they moved in close to Nauvoo. Here, James Henry was born in 1841.
Living near Nauvoo, they often came in for church services and to attend to business. Walter Turner, then a lad, remembered seeing the Prophet Joseph Smith, and of going to Conference in the Nauvoo Temple before it was finished.
When Walter was eight years old, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed. Walter remembered when they were martyred, and the terrible gloom that was felt by all the members of the Church, both young and old. It also caused great- nervousness among the Saints, so the Barney family moved into Nauvoo, and lived in a brick building on a street called Buck Row, during the winter of 1844.
In the spring of 1845, Lewis Barney and his family, with other saints, crossed the Mississippi river, and continued on across the state of Iowa, to Bullin Grove, Pottawatomie County, Illinois, eight miles from Council Bluffs on the Mississippi River. There they lived during the winter of 1845-46 working in Missouri for corn and pork to live on. During this time Walter Barney, Lewis’ brother, was called into the Mormon Battalion. While there in Illinois, Walter was baptized by Orson Hyde, and confirmed by Elder Brickford.
In the spring of 1847, Lewis Barney left with the first company of pioneers for Utah. The company consisted of seventy-eight wagons, one hundred thirty-four men, three women, and two children. Lewis was the main hunter for the company.
This group of pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley July 24, 1847. Lewis’ name is one of the few engraved on the Brigham Young Monument in Salt Lake City, Utah. While Lewis was gone, the family lived eight miles from Council Bluffs, and his father Charles Barney, lived on Mosquito Creek, eight miles from Conesville.
The Prophet Joseph Smith was born in Vermont in 1805; he organized the Church in 1830, and in 1847, seventeen years, later, the Church made its headquarters in Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1847, Lewis Barney came back from Salt Lake City to where his family was, and stayed there until Spring. Then he moved his family, in the spring of 1848, up to the Six Mile Grove on the Bowie River, thirty miles from Conesville. While there, Alma Lewis, the third son, died.
The family remained at Six Mile Grove, with other saints, until the spring of 1852. They raised crops and made wagons out of logs for the various families. When they had enough food to sustain them, and wagons for traveling, they began their journey across the plains. Charles Barney, Lewis’ father, went at the same time. They were in Bryant Jolley’s Company. There were fifty families and they had captains appointed over every ten families. They left in the Spring of 1852, and arrived in Salt Lake Valley in September of the same year. They spent the winter in Provo, and the winter of 1853 in Palmyra, Utah County, Utah.
In 1854, the Barney men and others went up into Payson Canyon to build sawmills. That year, the Walker Indian War broke out, which lasted two years. While so many of the men were away working at the sawmill, the Walker band came through Payson by night and did some killing. The next morning when Lewis Barney and his son Walter Turner, were up early sawing wood for lumber an Indian runner burst in upon them, stating that a detachment from Walker’s Band was going to kill the lumbermen. Walter hurried to warn the brethren and their families. Being without arms, they were forced to hide at once in the brush.
Immediately, ten or fifteen Indians from the main band sprang out from ambush and began shooting in all directions. Jefferson (son of Charles Barney) and Walter Barney hid on a little hill and watched the Indians shoot three times at John Bellas, but they didn’t kill anyone. They drove off the stock from both mills, leaving but one yoke of oxen at the upper mill. As soon as the band passed by, the lumberman took this one yoke of oxen and hastened out with the women and children. On the way down the canyon they met men from Springville, Spanish fork and Payson coming up with help. The Saints all fortified themselves in the village, and the men organized themselves in military companies, taking turns a half day and night at a time, guarding the settlement and cattle.
From the Spanish Fork River, during this time, the Saints took out the first ditch, with fifteen shovels. The brethren, thirty or more, kept the shovels busy taking turns thirty minutes at a time. By this means, they were able to water the land a raise fine crops.
When Walter was 18, he went with Sanders, by mule team to San Fernando, California. He remained there for two and one half years. When he decided to return to Utah he brought to ponies, saddles, and came in the company with Savage, the mail carrier. On the way, some of the party got ahead of the mail and suddenly they were surrounded by two or three hundred Indians who were making ready to annihilate the travelers, but when they learned that the travelers were with the mail, they left in peace, as the Indians had made a treaty to let the mail go unmolested.
When Walter got home, about Christmas, he found the Saints in great consternation because the U.S. Soldiers in Johnston’s Army had threatened all that fall of 1857 to enter Salt Lake Valley. Walter Turner was called by president Brigham Young to work under the direction of Lot Smith, who sent him with fifteen or twenty men to guard the mouth of the Spanish Fork Canyon. He was in Bill McGee’s Company at the Spanish Fork Canyon mouth, helping to keep the Johnston’s Army out. Later, in 1858, President Brigham Young made a treaty with the soldiers and Walter Turner was released.
That summer and winter, Walter courted Sarah Matilda Farr. The first time he took her any place was to a theater with home talent. It was in a log house without a floor in it, and the viewers had to imagine scenery and the curtains were sheets, stretched across the room.
Walter Turner and Sarah were married October13, 1858, by John L. Butler, at Spanish Fork, Utah. Here, in Spanish Fork, they lived until their son Walter Frances was born (July 8 1859) and died (Oct. 9 1860) at the age of fifteen months. Then they went to Springville, Utah, where Spanish Fork, where Alonzo Marion was born (23 May 1863).
They moved back to Spanish fork, where Alonzo Marion was born ( 23 May 1863). They then moved to Circleville, Utah, in 1864. In 1865 ( 24 July) Cyantha Dililah was born, and Alonzo died in August of the same year of Scarlet Fever.
While in Circle Valley, the Black Hawk war began so trouble commenced again. Jefferson Barney was killed in Payson by the Indians.
William Orson Barney, Walter Turner’s brother, when a boy of fourteen in Circle Valley, went to take to take the cows to craze across the Sevier River (1866). The Indians spied him and began shooting at him. He ran like a deer, but they struck him in the back with an arrow, stripped him of his clothes and left him dead. Three men were also killed, so the Saints pursued the Indians, taking seventeen captives in, and holding them in a guarded school house. While Walter Turner was off guard duty to dinner, the Indians began to revolt and the settlers had the Indians all killed when he returned. The Saints were so few in number and the Indians were so troublesome and wicked, the settlers left Circle Valley and the settlement broke up.
When they left Circle Valley, Walter Turner took his family and went to Beaver, Utah, where he cradled wheat to earn a living, and stood guard against the Indians.
That fall (1866) they moved to Kanosh, Utah, where they secured some farming land and built a log house. Later, he built a saw mill and a nice comfortable home. While living at Kanosh, Orin, (18 Jan. 1868); Azealia (6 Mar. 1870); Franklin (16 Sept. 1874); Chloe (6 Dec. 1880); and Lillie (27 Sept. 1863) were born.
In 1884, Walter Turner’s family were called to Arizona by the leaders of the Church. Arriving on the Gila Valley, he homesteaded 160 acres near Solomonville, (Graham County). In the early pioneer days in Arizona, the Apache Indians were very hostile. Excited by Geronimo, they were often on the warpath, killing and plundering at will. One night the Barney family was expecting a raid, so they took bedding and slept in a field. The Indians came in the night and stole, ducks, but not finding the people, they passed on.
In 1886, Sarah Matilida Barney purchased a store in Matthewsville, later known as Glenbar, Arizona, and ran it until 1906, when Ephriam Larson took charge.
In 1905, Sarah Matilda Barney and Walter went with H.I. Anderson and his wife, on a Portland, Oregon expedition, returning by the way of Salt Lake City and Idaho. From Idaho, they brought back their daughter Azelia’s children, their daughter having died earlier in Salt Lake City in confinement.
After the store was leased to Ephriam Larsen, Walter and Sarah lived on their ranch at Solomonville.
In 1013, Chloe’s husband, David Joseph Matthews, and son Bryan, died, so Chloe and her other children (2), Harold and Deborah, lived with her parents. On May 23, 1914, Sarah died of Typhoid Fever and was buried at Layton, Graham County, Arizona. Chloe Matthew and her children continued to live with her father, Walter Turner Barney, until his death.
Walter Turner died May 19, 1922, at his home near Solomonville, Arizona, and buried at Layton, Arizona, by the side of his wife.
“To know him was to love him.”
(From Franklin Russ Barney, Route 1, Safford, Arizona – 1956.)
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