(Click on the family photo to view names of family members.)

HISTORY OF JOHN MADISON HAWS
March 24, 1847 - June 28, 1916
Father: Gilberth Haws Mother: Hannah Whitcomb

John Madison Haws was born 24 Mar 1847 in Wayne County, Illinois, the thirteenth child in a family of fourteen, son of Gilberth and Hannah Whitcomb Haws. As a child of eighteen months, he crossed the Plains with his parent arriving in Salt Lake Valley the 23 Sep 1848. In March 1849, the family joined the Saints who were sent to colonize Utah Valley. His father homesteaded a tract of land and became one of the best farmers in the valley. John Madison grew up on the farm and with the other members of the family, learned to work . . . for work they must if they were to survive. He must have been an unusual and reliable young man for at nineteen years of age he was called to go back to Winter Quarters to be Captain of a company of saints coming to Salt Lake. He had previously married Martha Bitner Glazier on 6 Mar 1866. Upon his return, the young couple moved to the small community of Mona in Juab County. On 22 Nov 1869, he married as his second wife, Laura Jane Partridge, of Goshen, Utah.

(The following is an except from a presentation given at BYU at a Book of Mormon Symposium in 1989. Unknown speaker.) "My great, great grandfather, Gilberth Haws, with his wife and 15 children, was one of the 23 families that Brigham Young sent here [Provo] in 1849 to settle Utah Valley. In fact "Haws field' here at the "Y" was part of the old Haws farm. (From askjeeves.com - Haws Fields 10-15-04)

Family life in the little community of Mona, was typical of all small pioneer towns and it was hard work for all members of a family just to eke out an existence and John Madison's was no exception.

In 1877 John Madison Haws was called and ordained the first Bishop of Mona. He served the ward until 1886 when, because of living plural marriage, he was forced into exile from the state. It must have been a sad parting for they knew not when they would be reunited as a family. Taking his two oldest sons, Kimball and Dean, they left in a covered wagon pulled by four horses, heading north for Salt Lake City. Here they camped on the old Church camping grounds long enough to buy supplies for the long journey ahead which was to take them into the state of Montana, some 500 miles away.

Arriving at Butte, they soon found work with their teams on the railroad that was being built at that time, later moving to Helena on the same job. The first winter they camped in tents on the shores of the Missouri River, where, at times, the weather would dip to 400 below zero and was remembered as a most severe winter. As spring broke their work took them back to Butte where they settled down to start on a home for the family who was expected to join them as soon as possible. As time went by they acquired several more teams of horses and huge freight wagons, by which they contracted to haul freight and ore from the mines and became known as the contracting Mormons.

Time went by and for five long years they were without family ties and church except for an occasional visit of a missionary or the saints as they would be passing through to and from Canada. This was a trying time, especially for the two sons, Kimball and Dean. The temptations that surrounded them were many and not easy to withstand, and did make some imprint on their future lives. By 1891 a suitable home had been built and much property acquired in Butte. Here the first wife joined them and became a home away from home for the missionaries, Church Authorities, and saints traveling through.

At this same period of time there was much unrest in the United States, starting with the terrible steel strike in Pennsylvania. The western farmers were saddled with mortgages and were fighting for lower freight rates on the railroads. The U. S. Treasury had been reduced from $10, 000. 000 to $2, 000, 000 in less than a year. Grover Cleveland was again elected President of his Nation now almost bankrupt. Gold was being hoarded, businesses were failing, banks closed their doors, the western silver mines shut down, and by the winter of 1893-4, thousands were jobless, hundreds were starving and bread-lines were forming across the nation. A railroad strike was spreading; the troops were sent out which caused much commotion and bloodshed. Butte was hard hit and in these few short years the family had been together, their properties and possessions crumbled around them and they lost all they had acquired over the years.

On the 6 Oct 1890, the MANIFESTO (the forbidding of plural marriage in the Church) was presented to the saints and unanimously adopted. All brethren of the Church could now return back to their homes in Utah. John Madison Haws had no home, he made a new start for his families. With his son Dean, he left Butte in the spring of 1894 once more to go ahead and see what could be done to make a home for his families in Utah. Upon their arrival in Salt Lake City, they found a home near Beck's Hot Springs and immediately sent for the family to join them. Soon after becoming settled again, most of the family became very ill with typhoid fever. For days and into weeks little hope was given for various members' lives, but their home was one of faith and all recovered. The condition of the home, they felt, had been the cause so they found better living quarters upon the Avenues and moved once more. The current depression had also hit Salt Lake, for here, too, bread-lines were forming, industries were tottering, and men were begging for work and there was little to be found. Because they had teams and wagons and many hands, they were fortunate to find work.

Their first job was for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad at their coal yards working four teams of horses for $1. 50 per day, delivering coal around the city. To better care for their teams with a feed yard near by, they found a home on Folsom Avenue on North Temple between 1st and 2nd East. Added work was found bringing wood out of City Creek Canyon, sawing and splitting it up which they furnished to all the city schools. Because of Kimball's ability and experience with horses , he was given work with the City Fire Department. Also under contract they hauled fill dirt for the new City and CountyBuilding that was to be built.

A Brother Roe, a convert from England, heard of the plight of the family. He knew John Madison because it was his brother, Caleb, who had brought the Gospel to him and it was at his home that Caleb passed away while on his mission in England. Brother Roe was president of The Corrine Bills and Stock Company, also owning and operating a model farm in Corrine in Box Elder County. He had also acquired much land to the north in the Bear River Valley were a canal had been dredged out thus opening up new farm lard. Needing help on the farm, he gave John Madison the opportunity to move his family there which he did, and worked the farm during the year 1895.

In the spring of 1894 John Madison Haws contracted for the purchase of 480 acres of land from Brother Roe in what was known as Elwood, eighteen miles to the north. Here they lived in tents until the bitter cold of the winter which forced them to move to a home in Brigham City were they lived until a suitable home could be built on the farm. A log house was first built which served as a temporary home while they were constructing a large seven-room adobe brick, the brick being made from clay pits on their own land.

In 1899 John Madison was called on a mission to the Southern States where he served as Conference President. He spent much of his time in North Carolina. While serving as a missionary he became very ill and was cared for and nursed back to health in the home of one of his converts, Brother Rufus Tyner. The Tyner family followed him back to Utah.

Not far from the big brick home, John Madison built a little home which the children knew as the red brick home for his second wife, known to all as Aunt Laura. She was a little lady and always made one welcome in her home. She was the mother of seven children all of whom were married.

The first wife, Martha , was a large woman, always kind, but with a certain air of nobility that made you look up to her. She had been a real pioneer mother all her life, sacrificing much for her husband and family. She passed away on the 30 Jan 1912, always a faithful Latter Day Saint.

Aunt Laura moved into the big home to care for her husband. The Tyner family was sent for to help run the farm for about this time his sons and daughters, all but Kimball, sold their property and moved into Idaho .

After about two years of carrying on at the farm, John Madison's health began to fail and he and his wife, Laura, moved into the little red brick house and Kimball took over the farm and moved into the big red brick home.

On 28 Jun 1916, John Madison passed away leaving a posterity of fourteen children and eighty-eight grandchildren, his life having been one of service to his church and his families. He was a stern old gentle man in his beliefs yet, he had a sense of humor that all loved.

His wife, Laura, all alone now, soon left the farm to make her home with her daughter Eliza Nyhart in Portland, Oregon. Here she passed away on the 25 May 1945 at the ripe old age of 94.

(Haws, John Madison, Bishop of the Mona Ward, Juab Stake, Utah, from 1877 to 1886. He was baptized in 1856, ordained a High Priest and Bishop July 1, 1877, by Erastus Snow, and filled a mission to the Southern States in 1899-1900.
Source: Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia - Volume 4. Stake and Ward Officers - Juab Stake)

Note: Children not yet linked from his 2nd wife...Rowena Haws Jenson, Hannah Eliza Haws Nihart, and Matilda Haws (died as infant).

View online death certificate
(Note: Incorrect spelling of father is listed on death certificate. Father's name is Gilberth Haws.)