HARRIET GUYMON CRANDALL
by Clarence Crandall, a grandson, of Thatcher, Arizona
The daughter of Noah Thomas Guymon and Margaret Johnson who also traveled with the Aaron Johnson Company in 1850. Her father was noted for his honesty and integrity and her mother was from an industrious immigrant family which had settled in Virginia and had become relatively prosperous for the time. They also valued education and many letters still exist which were written from the Guymons to their Virginia kin. Family historians have reported that Harriet Guymon greatly resembles her father, Noah Thomas Guymon. This comparison is believed to be a reference to the facial features of her father.
Harriet's heritage, of course, is contemporary with that of the people who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Illinois and thereafter made their trek across the plains of this country to the Great Salt Lake Basin. Harriet was born to Noah Thomas Guymon and Margaret Johnson Guymon on 11 November 1851 at Springville, Utah. Noah and his family had migrated from Illinois to this territory arriving 02 September, 1850. They arrived with the wagon train of the Aaron Johnson Company. Upon their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley eight wagons of this train were cut out by President Brigham Young of the Mormon Church and directed to proceed on to a valley 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. The Guymon Family went first to American Fork and spent one winter there then proceeded to the area the eight wagons had settled. They and others began the settlement that initially was named "Hobble Creek." Later the settlement was named Springville.
Among the wagons (families) that were directed to proceed to this new area was that of Myron Nathan Crandall, the father of Hyrum Oscar Crandall who married two daughters of Noah Thomas Guymon, namely, Margaret Guymon and Harriet Guymon.
In any sketch of Harriet's heritage one must, of necessity, in the absence of specific data, make reference to the character of her father. Noah Thomas Guymon has been characterized as a person of refinement, as a civic person who during his lifetime held numerous positions of trust and responsibility in the community and in his church. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He lived in a day when friendship was often the highest law. He had many friends and indeed, his life seemed dedicated to the service of his fellow man.
At this juncture (1851), Utah was a young land. American history was still in the making here. An early day log fort arose in "Hobble Creek" almost immediately to afford the first settlers protection from the Indians and from the approaching winter. The area had a bounty of mountains, badlands, canyons, valleys and desert. In short, the area was a geologic showcase. This was the wide open west the Mormons did so much to shape. The experiences of the settlers to Springville were peculiar to the pioneer way of life. Their experiences were accounts of travel in covered wagons, accounts of Indian battles and otherwise the eking out of an existence that at times was barely subsistence level.
The desert had not yet been tamed when Harriet was born into this area one year after it was settled. The transcontinental telegraph did not find a place here until ten years later and the transcontinental railroad was still twenty years away. The vast open spaces forced Harriet and her contemporaries to maintain the rough, hearty way of life. Yet, slowly and inevitably, a new advanced civilization was to develop during the lifetime of Harriet. And it is in this context that Harriet's history must proceed.
Harriet Guymon was born into a frontier community that was only one year old, more or less. Settlers were still in a subsistence level of existence. Their wilderness had not been tamed as yet. To a large extent the people in Springville were still under surveillance of the American Indian who was looking with disapproval at the inroads being made by the white man upon his hunting grounds. Food and clothing had to be produced on the spot through the toil and ingenuity of the frontiersmen and women. This was a setting which encompassed the immediate existence of the Guymon Family.
And it is interesting to note that Harriet was the third child in the family of seven born to Noah Thomas Guymon and his second wife Margaret Johnson, but more interesting to note that she was amidst 21 half brothers and sisters born to Noah through his other three wives. Her full brothers and sisters are: Margaret Elizabeth, Martin Lewis, Moroni, Julia Luella, Edward Wallace and Lillian M.
Very few records exist pertaining to Harriet herself. Indeed the formative years of her life must be deduced to a large extent from the history of the area in which she lived him from the movements of her family, both parental and immediate.
Her father was a religious man. He served as counselor to Bishop Aaron Johnson for some ten years. He was a merchant, farmer and stock raiser. According to the history gathered by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Harriet's parental family was active in all the affairs of the Springville community, both civic and otherwise. In 1851, the year of Harriet's birth, the first peach trees were planted in Springville. The settlers did not bring trees with them, but saved peach pits on their trek from East to the West. The pits were planted and the trees produced fruit five years later. Naturally, the order of business of every family in those days was to place land under cultivation for food and to build homes for shelter.
The church house, of course, became the center of all activity. This was particularly true in terms of social affairs. Peculiar to the times was the fact that some of the early settlers went to church and to social gatherings bare footed; and this was not considered strange or unusual. These pioneers loved to mingle and be sociable. Family reunions and celebrations were popular.
The spring of 1856, following the grasshopper war was one of scarcity; many settlers went for months without tasting bread. However, bounteous crops were produced in the Springville area the next season. The 24th of July always afforded the Saints a reason and an excuse for celebrating the arrival of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains; it was a Thanksgiving celebration as well.
As indicated, these were the conditions that cultured the formative years of Harriet's life. The fact that Harriet was born under and into a polygamous way of life had to have had its special affect on her, both as a girl and as a married woman. Cooperation, frugal ways, adherence to a common cause and a philosophical attitude were all basic elements of living. Lasting traits of personality in Harriet may have been carved from these components. These people were bound together indeed by a common cause, namely, the religion.
Between the years of 1852 and 1855 Harriet's father was called by the Church to serve in the mission field in England. This he did for three years. During this time all three of his families had to fend for themselves, so to speak.
Considering the amount of time available to Noah to spend in close association with his families from 1851 forward, simple deduction would indicate that Harriet got to see her father only sporadically during her lifetime. It would be safe to say that she was raised by her mother, Margaret Johnson Guymon. Assuming that this was true she would have assimilated the character of her mother more than that of her father.
It should be recorded here that Harriet herself entered into a polygamous arrangement when she married Hyrum Oscar Crandall. They married in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, Utah on 25 October 1869. Hyrum and Margaret Elizabeth Guymon, Harriet's sister, had been married five years when Hyrum was called by the Church to take another wife.
The story has come down through the years by Harriet's children that prior to Harriet's marriage to Hyrum Oscar Crandall, Harriet was very much in love with a young man who lost his life in an accident with his horse; that they had planned to marry and that this incident caused her great mental distress.
These were the years of great stress for the Mormon people. The principle of plural marriage had divine sanction, but it engendered both emotion and complexity in the lives of its adherents. And later when the laws of the land were focused against this religious principle many lives in the Mormon Church were affected adversely. In any event, thus did Harriet begin her married life. She was eighteen years of age at the time.
Hyrum and his two families moved from Springville to Huntington, Utah late in the summer of 1879. At about the same time Noah T. Guymon moved his family to Huntington. Harriet would have been 28 years of age and had already given birth to five of Hyrum's children. Julia Euzell was born 07 December 1871 in Springville; Hettie Margaret was born 09 September 1873 in Springville; Myron Marcellus was born 02 October 1875 in Springville; Louis Eugene was born 03 February 1878 in Springville; Lucinda Adelaide was born 03 May 1879 in Fountain Green; Melburn Roslyn was born 18 February 1882 in Huntington; Ralph Delos was born 18 August 1884 in Huntington; George Ernest was born 16 July 1887 in Huntington.
Hyrum Oscar Crandall helped to survey the area known as Huntington, Castle Valley, Utah. Hyrum had two families, so he drew two lots. And he built a house on each lot. He also filed on 160 acre homestead upon which he made improvements.
Hyrum and his two families remained in Huntington about seven years. During this time he was a counselor to the Bishop. He and William Howard developed the first sawmill in the area and made improvements on the town site.
Just what prompted Hyrum Oscar Crandall to pull up stakes and move his two families to Vernal, Utah, is not known for sure. In 1887 he sold his 160 acres in Huntington and moved to Vernal where he purchased 80 acres of land. Here he worked as a contractor building homes. Again he built two homes for his two families. It is recorded that each house had two rooms on the ground floor and two rooms up stairs. Access to the upper rooms was buying ladder. Both families lived in a congenial atmosphere with each other.
Harriet's last child, Stanley Leroy, was born to her on 30 July 1890. And it was about this time that the laws of the land began to focus against those Latter-day Saints when entered into polygamous marriage relationships. Because of attacks against the church over this issue the Mormon Church issued its Manifesto suspending the practice of polygamy in the church. This occurred on 06 October 1890. The church had conformed to the laws of the land, but the families that had been constituted through plural marriage found themselves in an adverse situation. Hyrum Oscar was already having to evade local and Federal agents bent upon putting him in jail.
Because he was not openly able to be with his two families the way his heart and conscience dictated, Hyrum Oscar Crandall held council with his two families over the untenable situation, and both families agreed that they should load both families into the wagons and move to Mexico where they could live unmolested.
In January of 1891 Hyrum and his two families departed Vernal, Utah surreptitiously in three wagons loaded with personal effects and provisions. Their accouterments consisted of four span of horses and mules and 48 head of loose horses. Just how much planning went into this move no one seems to know for sure. In any event Hyrum Oscar Crandall took enough time to sell and dispose of his property. Margaret Elizabeth was pregnant with her twelfth child as they began their journey southward which was to last five months. It is recorded that the wagons were well outfitted. The older boys drove the extra stock and the wagons. When evenings came they cooked and ate around a campfire. The days pass quickly and soon it became warm and sunny and the roads became dusty and dry. The stock kicked up clouds of dust and whirled around everyone.
Finding water was always a problem. And in the arid regions when a water hole was located they more and often than not found the Indians guarding the water. Hyrum Oscar had to barter a horse to the Indians on one occasion for permission to fill their water kegs and water their stock. Of culinary interest is a story that when crossing the alkali beds they filled containers with alkali to use as yeast in the making of their bread.
Harriet, Margaret and Hyrum, with their two families, arrived in Deming, Luna County, New Mexico on 05 June 1891, after traveling by wagon for five months. Margaret was miserable at this stage of her pregnancy. Harriet was healthy and strong, but she did have a ten month old child that slowed her up somewhat. In Vernal she gave birth to Stanley LeRoy Crandall on 30 July 1890. Her daughter Adelaide, of course, was old enough to help her take care of Stan. It should be said here that Harriet's two oldest children, daughters Julia Euzell and Hettie Margaret did not come with a family on this journey to Mexico. Hettie had already married and Julia was in the process of getting married. These two children spent their lives in Utah and rarely saw the family again.
Upon their arrival in Deming, New Mexico Hyrum rented a house for Margaret and the younger children, as Margaret was expecting her baby soon. Tents were erected for the others.
On June 28th Hyrum and Harriet, together with some of the older children, departed Deming en route to Mexico (a distance of some 32 miles) to determine if Mexico should be their final destination. The story goes that they had not been gone long when one of Margaret's children caught up with them and announced the Margaret had started into labor. Harriet had been educated as a midwife, so the group returned to Deming immediately. Margaret gave birth to her last son, Elroy Ira.
A few days later Harriet and Hyrum left camp again to go into Mexico, but went only as far as the border. There they were confronted with the fact that the Mexican government would charge them $5.00 per head to bring their livestock into Mexico. The austere conditions of the area had already turned their heads, so they return to Deming convinced that Mexico should not be their destination.
Hyrum and the boys started looking for something to do to add funds to their very lean purse. Hyrum contracted with local people to dig a canal in the Deming area. The story relates that they dug the canal but did not get paid for their labors, as the person keeping the books absconded with the funds set aside for the project. Financially, these were difficult times for the Crandall clan. They remained in Deming doing odd jobs for approximately a year and a half. Their situation was not getting better, so they again held a council as a family about their future and decided that Margaret and her children should return to Utah to live and that Harriet and her family should proceed on to Gila Valley in the territory of Arizona. Harriet reportedly had already made friends with some people from Gila Valley who spoke in favorable terms about the area. It was decided; too, that Hyrum should accompany Harriet and get them settled and then returned to Utah himself and live with his first family. And this is the order of events that finally developed.
Margaret and her children went back to Utah on the train (Deming is located on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad). They settled temporarily in a home belonging to Hyrum in Indianola, Utah. Harriet and her children and Hyrum drove onto Stafford, Arizona by wagon and with what remained of the stock they arrived with in Deming. They arrived in Safford (the Layton area) in December 1892.
Harriet and her children settled in a temporary house which is now part of the Lawrence Fuller Ranch. Their immediate concern, of course, was a livelihood. Her oldest child with her was Marcellus who was seventeen years of age. Her next oldest child, Adelaide, was almost fourteen. But this combination was sufficient to see them down the road, because Adelaide was old enough to take care of the children while Harriet entered the workforce of the valley as a midwife. It is reported that Marcellus did some farming, some freighting and some cattle raising.
Hyrum Oscar Crandall remained with Harriet less than a year, reportedly. A Tax Collector's Office receipt reflects that on 12 April 1893, one H. O. Crandall paid $24.70 to Graham County, Arizona Territory, at Solomonville, Arizona, the county seat. It is said that when Hyrum returned to Utah to join his first wife he took one wagon and one span of horses with him.
The chronology of Harriet's life fails to record the early details of her efforts to settle down roots in Gila Valley. But her children and grandchildren are consistent in reporting that she faced the practical requirements of day to day living on a day to day basis. She was resolute and positive in her thinking. For one thing she did not have any of the material surroundings that are supposed to weaken one for the conflicts of life; to the contrary, from the beginning of this new adventure in Arizona there was everything to endure her to hardship and to suggest that her future would depend on her own wit and effort. The laws of the land, so to speak, had separated her and her children from Hyrum Oscar Crandall. And Myron Marcellus, her oldest boy, suddenly found himself in the position of father at the age of eighteen. Harriet was 41 years old when she began this new life in Arizona.
Perhaps a description of the era in which Harriet found herself in Gila Valley is warranted at this point to define the setting. The Gila Valley, fondly known as "The Valley," began primarily with a Mormon colonization. The first Mormon settlements in Arizona were made in 1876 when 100 families founded northern Arizona towns. A colony came into Gila Valley in 1879 and founded Smithville (now Pima). In the year 1882 a group of Latter-day Saint settlers came to the area which became known as the Safford and Layton districts. Layton was officially recognized as a settlement on 13 January 1883. Soon there are enough Saints in the settlement to organize a branch of the church, which took place on 02 March 1884. It was named Layton for the first President of the St. Joseph Stake, Christopher Layton. On 04 November 1884, the first ward in the area was organized with John Welker as Bishop.
Harriet came to "The Valley" at the time when the horse, buggy, wagon and train were still the means by which man traveled from here to there. The bicycle had made some inroads on these methods and by the turn of the century (Harriet would have been age 49) automobiles were beginning to replace the horse in an increasingly urban America. But it seems clear in retrospect that Harriet began her new life in a community that was not to have this mechanical innovation until years later. In assisting Dr. William E. Platt make some of his rounds to the sick, she found herself doing it in a horse and buggy as late as 1912.
The March 9, 1895, first issue of the Graham County Guardian newspaper referred to Safford as a sparsely populated 21 year old community with dirt streets. This issue of the paper made reference to the Solomonville stage robbery. Safford was then a small town of about 1000 people halfway between Bowie and Globe. Western Union Telegraph was in business, but the telephone system was in its infancy and served relatively few people. But in 1912 when Arizona entered the Union as a state, Safford was on its way to becoming an important agricultural community. Solomonville was five miles to the east of Stafford, and Thatcher was three miles to the west. The community of Pima lay six miles to the west of Safford. The G.V.G. & N. Railroad (Gila Valley, Globe and Northern), which later became the spur of the Southern Pacific Railroad, ran through the middle of the community. The Gila River runs its course just one mile north of town. This is a setting that contributed to the control and motivation of Harriet's actions.
One must pay deference to Harriet's daughter Adelaide who at age fourteen played a very important role in the family. During the critical time (1893) when Harriet and Marcellus had to establish themselves financially in the community it was Adelaide who had to stay home and look after and care for her young brothers. Stanley was age three, Ernest was age five, Ralph was age eight and Melbourne was ten. It goes without saying that these young boys assimilated a moral flavor from their sister Adelaide as well as from their mother. And one is compelled to speculate on the amount of time she lost at this task of babysitting that should've been spent in school.
Among Harriet's personal papers is a certificate from Dr. Ellis R. Shipp's School of Obstetrics. The certificate is not dated, but was issued at Thatcher, Arizona, and recites: "This is to certify that Harriet Crandall has attended my entire course of lectures, and passed successful examinations upon the subjects of Midwifery and Nursing. With great pleasure I recommend her as efficiently qualified to practice these branches," Signed Ellis R. Shipp, M.D. This certificate also bears the following testimonial: "Having examined Harriet Crandall, upon the subject of Midwifery, we also give her our cheerful recommendation," Signed Olea Shipp.
As indicated, the certificate is not dated, but appears to have been issued at Thatcher, Arizona. It is felt that she acquired this training certificate shortly after she arrived in Gila Valley, but that she had actually been trained in Midwifery in Utah prior to her departure in 1891. This was the foundation of her livelihood.
Harriet had not been in Gila Valley many years before she acquired a new home. As best this history can establish at this late date, her boys built her new home before the turn of the century, or about the time Marcellus got married. Marcellus married Clara Mabel Packer on 22 December 1896. At that time Marcellus would have been age 22 and Melburn age fifteen. At least Marcellus had rubbed shoulders with his father, Hyrum, enough to have acquired some knowledge in the building trade. This home still stands in the Layton district is Safford. At the time it was built it was surrounded by spacious yard. It had a fireplace for heat, but water had to be drawn from a well on the outside of the house. This dwelling had an upstairs loft that was accessible by way of a steep staircase. The neighbors' children used to like to play in Grandma Crandall's yard, because she would invite them inside occasionally and let them play in the loft area of the house.
Elizabeth Crandall, Stanley's wife, furnishes the information that when she and Stan were courting she visited in Grandma Harriet's home many times. Harriet would use a fireplace for heating hot chocolate and making toast for Stan and Elizabeth. And some of Harriet's living grandchildren today can recall visiting her in this home. They are consistent in saying that there was nothing useless or pretentious in her home; money was too scarce to be wasted on snobbish trimmings. And because of the apparent absence of hand me downs that can be identified with Harriet; it suggests that she did not accumulate many worldly possessions or papers.
It has been said that Harriet's life was a strong endorsement of the family unit. Materialism and status played no part; but such values as honesty and self respect motivated her existence. She was a person of such vigorous character that cohesiveness within her family of obviously originated with her. She imparted the stamp of her character to all her offspring, because it was easy to recognize in all her children the noble virtues of dignity, honesty, courage and hard work.
A profile of Harriet's outstanding characteristics should be appropriate at this point in her history. Physically she was tall and slender and strong. She had blue eyes and straight hair. In personality some have said that she was shy, fastidious and somewhat inclined to a bearing of quiet dignity. She has also been described as a genteel gentlewoman, as a genial person with considerate manners, and as having a light but sound voice. It has been said that those who knew her could appreciate her qualities far better than the casual acquaintance could. Simplicity was one of her definite characteristics.
Harriet was religious and at the same time intensely practical. If the cow was in the mire on a Sunday she believed that the cow had to be removed from the mire on a Sunday irrespective of the Ten Commandments. She attended church in the Layton Ward and paid her tithing faithfully. She liked to read in the scriptures and to meditate about matters that bore down heavily upon her. During her declining years the pose in the picture below was very typical.
by Clarence Crandall, a grandson, of Thatcher, Arizona
The daughter of Noah Thomas Guymon and Margaret Johnson who also traveled with the Aaron Johnson Company in 1850. Her father was noted for his honesty and integrity and her mother was from an industrious immigrant family which had settled in Virginia and had become relatively prosperous for the time. They also valued education and many letters still exist which were written from the Guymons to their Virginia kin. Family historians have reported that Harriet Guymon greatly resembles her father, Noah Thomas Guymon. This comparison is believed to be a reference to the facial features of her father.
Harriet's heritage, of course, is contemporary with that of the people who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Illinois and thereafter made their trek across the plains of this country to the Great Salt Lake Basin. Harriet was born to Noah Thomas Guymon and Margaret Johnson Guymon on 11 November 1851 at Springville, Utah. Noah and his family had migrated from Illinois to this territory arriving 02 September, 1850. They arrived with the wagon train of the Aaron Johnson Company. Upon their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley eight wagons of this train were cut out by President Brigham Young of the Mormon Church and directed to proceed on to a valley 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. The Guymon Family went first to American Fork and spent one winter there then proceeded to the area the eight wagons had settled. They and others began the settlement that initially was named "Hobble Creek." Later the settlement was named Springville.
Among the wagons (families) that were directed to proceed to this new area was that of Myron Nathan Crandall, the father of Hyrum Oscar Crandall who married two daughters of Noah Thomas Guymon, namely, Margaret Guymon and Harriet Guymon.
In any sketch of Harriet's heritage one must, of necessity, in the absence of specific data, make reference to the character of her father. Noah Thomas Guymon has been characterized as a person of refinement, as a civic person who during his lifetime held numerous positions of trust and responsibility in the community and in his church. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He lived in a day when friendship was often the highest law. He had many friends and indeed, his life seemed dedicated to the service of his fellow man.
At this juncture (1851), Utah was a young land. American history was still in the making here. An early day log fort arose in "Hobble Creek" almost immediately to afford the first settlers protection from the Indians and from the approaching winter. The area had a bounty of mountains, badlands, canyons, valleys and desert. In short, the area was a geologic showcase. This was the wide open west the Mormons did so much to shape. The experiences of the settlers to Springville were peculiar to the pioneer way of life. Their experiences were accounts of travel in covered wagons, accounts of Indian battles and otherwise the eking out of an existence that at times was barely subsistence level.
The desert had not yet been tamed when Harriet was born into this area one year after it was settled. The transcontinental telegraph did not find a place here until ten years later and the transcontinental railroad was still twenty years away. The vast open spaces forced Harriet and her contemporaries to maintain the rough, hearty way of life. Yet, slowly and inevitably, a new advanced civilization was to develop during the lifetime of Harriet. And it is in this context that Harriet's history must proceed.
Harriet Guymon was born into a frontier community that was only one year old, more or less. Settlers were still in a subsistence level of existence. Their wilderness had not been tamed as yet. To a large extent the people in Springville were still under surveillance of the American Indian who was looking with disapproval at the inroads being made by the white man upon his hunting grounds. Food and clothing had to be produced on the spot through the toil and ingenuity of the frontiersmen and women. This was a setting which encompassed the immediate existence of the Guymon Family.
And it is interesting to note that Harriet was the third child in the family of seven born to Noah Thomas Guymon and his second wife Margaret Johnson, but more interesting to note that she was amidst 21 half brothers and sisters born to Noah through his other three wives. Her full brothers and sisters are: Margaret Elizabeth, Martin Lewis, Moroni, Julia Luella, Edward Wallace and Lillian M.
Very few records exist pertaining to Harriet herself. Indeed the formative years of her life must be deduced to a large extent from the history of the area in which she lived him from the movements of her family, both parental and immediate.
Her father was a religious man. He served as counselor to Bishop Aaron Johnson for some ten years. He was a merchant, farmer and stock raiser. According to the history gathered by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Harriet's parental family was active in all the affairs of the Springville community, both civic and otherwise. In 1851, the year of Harriet's birth, the first peach trees were planted in Springville. The settlers did not bring trees with them, but saved peach pits on their trek from East to the West. The pits were planted and the trees produced fruit five years later. Naturally, the order of business of every family in those days was to place land under cultivation for food and to build homes for shelter.
The church house, of course, became the center of all activity. This was particularly true in terms of social affairs. Peculiar to the times was the fact that some of the early settlers went to church and to social gatherings bare footed; and this was not considered strange or unusual. These pioneers loved to mingle and be sociable. Family reunions and celebrations were popular.
The spring of 1856, following the grasshopper war was one of scarcity; many settlers went for months without tasting bread. However, bounteous crops were produced in the Springville area the next season. The 24th of July always afforded the Saints a reason and an excuse for celebrating the arrival of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains; it was a Thanksgiving celebration as well.
As indicated, these were the conditions that cultured the formative years of Harriet's life. The fact that Harriet was born under and into a polygamous way of life had to have had its special affect on her, both as a girl and as a married woman. Cooperation, frugal ways, adherence to a common cause and a philosophical attitude were all basic elements of living. Lasting traits of personality in Harriet may have been carved from these components. These people were bound together indeed by a common cause, namely, the religion.
Between the years of 1852 and 1855 Harriet's father was called by the Church to serve in the mission field in England. This he did for three years. During this time all three of his families had to fend for themselves, so to speak.
Considering the amount of time available to Noah to spend in close association with his families from 1851 forward, simple deduction would indicate that Harriet got to see her father only sporadically during her lifetime. It would be safe to say that she was raised by her mother, Margaret Johnson Guymon. Assuming that this was true she would have assimilated the character of her mother more than that of her father.
It should be recorded here that Harriet herself entered into a polygamous arrangement when she married Hyrum Oscar Crandall. They married in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, Utah on 25 October 1869. Hyrum and Margaret Elizabeth Guymon, Harriet's sister, had been married five years when Hyrum was called by the Church to take another wife.
The story has come down through the years by Harriet's children that prior to Harriet's marriage to Hyrum Oscar Crandall, Harriet was very much in love with a young man who lost his life in an accident with his horse; that they had planned to marry and that this incident caused her great mental distress.
These were the years of great stress for the Mormon people. The principle of plural marriage had divine sanction, but it engendered both emotion and complexity in the lives of its adherents. And later when the laws of the land were focused against this religious principle many lives in the Mormon Church were affected adversely. In any event, thus did Harriet begin her married life. She was eighteen years of age at the time.
Hyrum and his two families moved from Springville to Huntington, Utah late in the summer of 1879. At about the same time Noah T. Guymon moved his family to Huntington. Harriet would have been 28 years of age and had already given birth to five of Hyrum's children. Julia Euzell was born 07 December 1871 in Springville; Hettie Margaret was born 09 September 1873 in Springville; Myron Marcellus was born 02 October 1875 in Springville; Louis Eugene was born 03 February 1878 in Springville; Lucinda Adelaide was born 03 May 1879 in Fountain Green; Melburn Roslyn was born 18 February 1882 in Huntington; Ralph Delos was born 18 August 1884 in Huntington; George Ernest was born 16 July 1887 in Huntington.
Hyrum Oscar Crandall helped to survey the area known as Huntington, Castle Valley, Utah. Hyrum had two families, so he drew two lots. And he built a house on each lot. He also filed on 160 acre homestead upon which he made improvements.
Hyrum and his two families remained in Huntington about seven years. During this time he was a counselor to the Bishop. He and William Howard developed the first sawmill in the area and made improvements on the town site.
Just what prompted Hyrum Oscar Crandall to pull up stakes and move his two families to Vernal, Utah, is not known for sure. In 1887 he sold his 160 acres in Huntington and moved to Vernal where he purchased 80 acres of land. Here he worked as a contractor building homes. Again he built two homes for his two families. It is recorded that each house had two rooms on the ground floor and two rooms up stairs. Access to the upper rooms was buying ladder. Both families lived in a congenial atmosphere with each other.
Harriet's last child, Stanley Leroy, was born to her on 30 July 1890. And it was about this time that the laws of the land began to focus against those Latter-day Saints when entered into polygamous marriage relationships. Because of attacks against the church over this issue the Mormon Church issued its Manifesto suspending the practice of polygamy in the church. This occurred on 06 October 1890. The church had conformed to the laws of the land, but the families that had been constituted through plural marriage found themselves in an adverse situation. Hyrum Oscar was already having to evade local and Federal agents bent upon putting him in jail.
Because he was not openly able to be with his two families the way his heart and conscience dictated, Hyrum Oscar Crandall held council with his two families over the untenable situation, and both families agreed that they should load both families into the wagons and move to Mexico where they could live unmolested.
In January of 1891 Hyrum and his two families departed Vernal, Utah surreptitiously in three wagons loaded with personal effects and provisions. Their accouterments consisted of four span of horses and mules and 48 head of loose horses. Just how much planning went into this move no one seems to know for sure. In any event Hyrum Oscar Crandall took enough time to sell and dispose of his property. Margaret Elizabeth was pregnant with her twelfth child as they began their journey southward which was to last five months. It is recorded that the wagons were well outfitted. The older boys drove the extra stock and the wagons. When evenings came they cooked and ate around a campfire. The days pass quickly and soon it became warm and sunny and the roads became dusty and dry. The stock kicked up clouds of dust and whirled around everyone.
Finding water was always a problem. And in the arid regions when a water hole was located they more and often than not found the Indians guarding the water. Hyrum Oscar had to barter a horse to the Indians on one occasion for permission to fill their water kegs and water their stock. Of culinary interest is a story that when crossing the alkali beds they filled containers with alkali to use as yeast in the making of their bread.
Harriet, Margaret and Hyrum, with their two families, arrived in Deming, Luna County, New Mexico on 05 June 1891, after traveling by wagon for five months. Margaret was miserable at this stage of her pregnancy. Harriet was healthy and strong, but she did have a ten month old child that slowed her up somewhat. In Vernal she gave birth to Stanley LeRoy Crandall on 30 July 1890. Her daughter Adelaide, of course, was old enough to help her take care of Stan. It should be said here that Harriet's two oldest children, daughters Julia Euzell and Hettie Margaret did not come with a family on this journey to Mexico. Hettie had already married and Julia was in the process of getting married. These two children spent their lives in Utah and rarely saw the family again.
Upon their arrival in Deming, New Mexico Hyrum rented a house for Margaret and the younger children, as Margaret was expecting her baby soon. Tents were erected for the others.
On June 28th Hyrum and Harriet, together with some of the older children, departed Deming en route to Mexico (a distance of some 32 miles) to determine if Mexico should be their final destination. The story goes that they had not been gone long when one of Margaret's children caught up with them and announced the Margaret had started into labor. Harriet had been educated as a midwife, so the group returned to Deming immediately. Margaret gave birth to her last son, Elroy Ira.
A few days later Harriet and Hyrum left camp again to go into Mexico, but went only as far as the border. There they were confronted with the fact that the Mexican government would charge them $5.00 per head to bring their livestock into Mexico. The austere conditions of the area had already turned their heads, so they return to Deming convinced that Mexico should not be their destination.
Hyrum and the boys started looking for something to do to add funds to their very lean purse. Hyrum contracted with local people to dig a canal in the Deming area. The story relates that they dug the canal but did not get paid for their labors, as the person keeping the books absconded with the funds set aside for the project. Financially, these were difficult times for the Crandall clan. They remained in Deming doing odd jobs for approximately a year and a half. Their situation was not getting better, so they again held a council as a family about their future and decided that Margaret and her children should return to Utah to live and that Harriet and her family should proceed on to Gila Valley in the territory of Arizona. Harriet reportedly had already made friends with some people from Gila Valley who spoke in favorable terms about the area. It was decided; too, that Hyrum should accompany Harriet and get them settled and then returned to Utah himself and live with his first family. And this is the order of events that finally developed.
Margaret and her children went back to Utah on the train (Deming is located on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad). They settled temporarily in a home belonging to Hyrum in Indianola, Utah. Harriet and her children and Hyrum drove onto Stafford, Arizona by wagon and with what remained of the stock they arrived with in Deming. They arrived in Safford (the Layton area) in December 1892.
Harriet and her children settled in a temporary house which is now part of the Lawrence Fuller Ranch. Their immediate concern, of course, was a livelihood. Her oldest child with her was Marcellus who was seventeen years of age. Her next oldest child, Adelaide, was almost fourteen. But this combination was sufficient to see them down the road, because Adelaide was old enough to take care of the children while Harriet entered the workforce of the valley as a midwife. It is reported that Marcellus did some farming, some freighting and some cattle raising.
Hyrum Oscar Crandall remained with Harriet less than a year, reportedly. A Tax Collector's Office receipt reflects that on 12 April 1893, one H. O. Crandall paid $24.70 to Graham County, Arizona Territory, at Solomonville, Arizona, the county seat. It is said that when Hyrum returned to Utah to join his first wife he took one wagon and one span of horses with him.
The chronology of Harriet's life fails to record the early details of her efforts to settle down roots in Gila Valley. But her children and grandchildren are consistent in reporting that she faced the practical requirements of day to day living on a day to day basis. She was resolute and positive in her thinking. For one thing she did not have any of the material surroundings that are supposed to weaken one for the conflicts of life; to the contrary, from the beginning of this new adventure in Arizona there was everything to endure her to hardship and to suggest that her future would depend on her own wit and effort. The laws of the land, so to speak, had separated her and her children from Hyrum Oscar Crandall. And Myron Marcellus, her oldest boy, suddenly found himself in the position of father at the age of eighteen. Harriet was 41 years old when she began this new life in Arizona.
Perhaps a description of the era in which Harriet found herself in Gila Valley is warranted at this point to define the setting. The Gila Valley, fondly known as "The Valley," began primarily with a Mormon colonization. The first Mormon settlements in Arizona were made in 1876 when 100 families founded northern Arizona towns. A colony came into Gila Valley in 1879 and founded Smithville (now Pima). In the year 1882 a group of Latter-day Saint settlers came to the area which became known as the Safford and Layton districts. Layton was officially recognized as a settlement on 13 January 1883. Soon there are enough Saints in the settlement to organize a branch of the church, which took place on 02 March 1884. It was named Layton for the first President of the St. Joseph Stake, Christopher Layton. On 04 November 1884, the first ward in the area was organized with John Welker as Bishop.
Harriet came to "The Valley" at the time when the horse, buggy, wagon and train were still the means by which man traveled from here to there. The bicycle had made some inroads on these methods and by the turn of the century (Harriet would have been age 49) automobiles were beginning to replace the horse in an increasingly urban America. But it seems clear in retrospect that Harriet began her new life in a community that was not to have this mechanical innovation until years later. In assisting Dr. William E. Platt make some of his rounds to the sick, she found herself doing it in a horse and buggy as late as 1912.
The March 9, 1895, first issue of the Graham County Guardian newspaper referred to Safford as a sparsely populated 21 year old community with dirt streets. This issue of the paper made reference to the Solomonville stage robbery. Safford was then a small town of about 1000 people halfway between Bowie and Globe. Western Union Telegraph was in business, but the telephone system was in its infancy and served relatively few people. But in 1912 when Arizona entered the Union as a state, Safford was on its way to becoming an important agricultural community. Solomonville was five miles to the east of Stafford, and Thatcher was three miles to the west. The community of Pima lay six miles to the west of Safford. The G.V.G. & N. Railroad (Gila Valley, Globe and Northern), which later became the spur of the Southern Pacific Railroad, ran through the middle of the community. The Gila River runs its course just one mile north of town. This is a setting that contributed to the control and motivation of Harriet's actions.
One must pay deference to Harriet's daughter Adelaide who at age fourteen played a very important role in the family. During the critical time (1893) when Harriet and Marcellus had to establish themselves financially in the community it was Adelaide who had to stay home and look after and care for her young brothers. Stanley was age three, Ernest was age five, Ralph was age eight and Melbourne was ten. It goes without saying that these young boys assimilated a moral flavor from their sister Adelaide as well as from their mother. And one is compelled to speculate on the amount of time she lost at this task of babysitting that should've been spent in school.
Among Harriet's personal papers is a certificate from Dr. Ellis R. Shipp's School of Obstetrics. The certificate is not dated, but was issued at Thatcher, Arizona, and recites: "This is to certify that Harriet Crandall has attended my entire course of lectures, and passed successful examinations upon the subjects of Midwifery and Nursing. With great pleasure I recommend her as efficiently qualified to practice these branches," Signed Ellis R. Shipp, M.D. This certificate also bears the following testimonial: "Having examined Harriet Crandall, upon the subject of Midwifery, we also give her our cheerful recommendation," Signed Olea Shipp.
As indicated, the certificate is not dated, but appears to have been issued at Thatcher, Arizona. It is felt that she acquired this training certificate shortly after she arrived in Gila Valley, but that she had actually been trained in Midwifery in Utah prior to her departure in 1891. This was the foundation of her livelihood.
Harriet had not been in Gila Valley many years before she acquired a new home. As best this history can establish at this late date, her boys built her new home before the turn of the century, or about the time Marcellus got married. Marcellus married Clara Mabel Packer on 22 December 1896. At that time Marcellus would have been age 22 and Melburn age fifteen. At least Marcellus had rubbed shoulders with his father, Hyrum, enough to have acquired some knowledge in the building trade. This home still stands in the Layton district is Safford. At the time it was built it was surrounded by spacious yard. It had a fireplace for heat, but water had to be drawn from a well on the outside of the house. This dwelling had an upstairs loft that was accessible by way of a steep staircase. The neighbors' children used to like to play in Grandma Crandall's yard, because she would invite them inside occasionally and let them play in the loft area of the house.
Elizabeth Crandall, Stanley's wife, furnishes the information that when she and Stan were courting she visited in Grandma Harriet's home many times. Harriet would use a fireplace for heating hot chocolate and making toast for Stan and Elizabeth. And some of Harriet's living grandchildren today can recall visiting her in this home. They are consistent in saying that there was nothing useless or pretentious in her home; money was too scarce to be wasted on snobbish trimmings. And because of the apparent absence of hand me downs that can be identified with Harriet; it suggests that she did not accumulate many worldly possessions or papers.
It has been said that Harriet's life was a strong endorsement of the family unit. Materialism and status played no part; but such values as honesty and self respect motivated her existence. She was a person of such vigorous character that cohesiveness within her family of obviously originated with her. She imparted the stamp of her character to all her offspring, because it was easy to recognize in all her children the noble virtues of dignity, honesty, courage and hard work.
A profile of Harriet's outstanding characteristics should be appropriate at this point in her history. Physically she was tall and slender and strong. She had blue eyes and straight hair. In personality some have said that she was shy, fastidious and somewhat inclined to a bearing of quiet dignity. She has also been described as a genteel gentlewoman, as a genial person with considerate manners, and as having a light but sound voice. It has been said that those who knew her could appreciate her qualities far better than the casual acquaintance could. Simplicity was one of her definite characteristics.
Harriet was religious and at the same time intensely practical. If the cow was in the mire on a Sunday she believed that the cow had to be removed from the mire on a Sunday irrespective of the Ten Commandments. She attended church in the Layton Ward and paid her tithing faithfully. She liked to read in the scriptures and to meditate about matters that bore down heavily upon her. During her declining years the pose in the picture below was very typical.
HARRIET GUYMON CRANDALL
by Clarence Crandall, a grandson, of Thatcher, Arizona
The daughter of Noah Thomas Guymon and Margaret Johnson who also traveled with the Aaron Johnson Company in 1850. Her father was noted for his honesty and integrity and her mother was from an industrious immigrant family which had settled in Virginia and had become relatively prosperous for the time. They also valued education and many letters still exist which were written from the Guymons to their Virginia kin. Family historians have reported that Harriet Guymon greatly resembles her father, Noah Thomas Guymon. This comparison is believed to be a reference to the facial features of her father.
Harriet's heritage, of course, is contemporary with that of the people who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Illinois and thereafter made their trek across the plains of this country to the Great Salt Lake Basin. Harriet was born to Noah Thomas Guymon and Margaret Johnson Guymon on 11 November 1851 at Springville, Utah. Noah and his family had migrated from Illinois to this territory arriving 02 September, 1850. They arrived with the wagon train of the Aaron Johnson Company. Upon their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley eight wagons of this train were cut out by President Brigham Young of the Mormon Church and directed to proceed on to a valley 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. The Guymon Family went first to American Fork and spent one winter there then proceeded to the area the eight wagons had settled. They and others began the settlement that initially was named "Hobble Creek." Later the settlement was named Springville.
Among the wagons (families) that were directed to proceed to this new area was that of Myron Nathan Crandall, the father of Hyrum Oscar Crandall who married two daughters of Noah Thomas Guymon, namely, Margaret Guymon and Harriet Guymon.
In any sketch of Harriet's heritage one must, of necessity, in the absence of specific data, make reference to the character of her father. Noah Thomas Guymon has been characterized as a person of refinement, as a civic person who during his lifetime held numerous positions of trust and responsibility in the community and in his church. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He lived in a day when friendship was often the highest law. He had many friends and indeed, his life seemed dedicated to the service of his fellow man.
At this juncture (1851), Utah was a young land. American history was still in the making here. An early day log fort arose in "Hobble Creek" almost immediately to afford the first settlers protection from the Indians and from the approaching winter. The area had a bounty of mountains, badlands, canyons, valleys and desert. In short, the area was a geologic showcase. This was the wide open west the Mormons did so much to shape. The experiences of the settlers to Springville were peculiar to the pioneer way of life. Their experiences were accounts of travel in covered wagons, accounts of Indian battles and otherwise the eking out of an existence that at times was barely subsistence level.
The desert had not yet been tamed when Harriet was born into this area one year after it was settled. The transcontinental telegraph did not find a place here until ten years later and the transcontinental railroad was still twenty years away. The vast open spaces forced Harriet and her contemporaries to maintain the rough, hearty way of life. Yet, slowly and inevitably, a new advanced civilization was to develop during the lifetime of Harriet. And it is in this context that Harriet's history must proceed.
Harriet Guymon was born into a frontier community that was only one year old, more or less. Settlers were still in a subsistence level of existence. Their wilderness had not been tamed as yet. To a large extent the people in Springville were still under surveillance of the American Indian who was looking with disapproval at the inroads being made by the white man upon his hunting grounds. Food and clothing had to be produced on the spot through the toil and ingenuity of the frontiersmen and women. This was a setting which encompassed the immediate existence of the Guymon Family.
And it is interesting to note that Harriet was the third child in the family of seven born to Noah Thomas Guymon and his second wife Margaret Johnson, but more interesting to note that she was amidst 21 half brothers and sisters born to Noah through his other three wives. Her full brothers and sisters are: Margaret Elizabeth, Martin Lewis, Moroni, Julia Luella, Edward Wallace and Lillian M.
Very few records exist pertaining to Harriet herself. Indeed the formative years of her life must be deduced to a large extent from the history of the area in which she lived him from the movements of her family, both parental and immediate.
Her father was a religious man. He served as counselor to Bishop Aaron Johnson for some ten years. He was a merchant, farmer and stock raiser. According to the history gathered by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Harriet's parental family was active in all the affairs of the Springville community, both civic and otherwise. In 1851, the year of Harriet's birth, the first peach trees were planted in Springville. The settlers did not bring trees with them, but saved peach pits on their trek from East to the West. The pits were planted and the trees produced fruit five years later. Naturally, the order of business of every family in those days was to place land under cultivation for food and to build homes for shelter.
The church house, of course, became the center of all activity. This was particularly true in terms of social affairs. Peculiar to the times was the fact that some of the early settlers went to church and to social gatherings bare footed; and this was not considered strange or unusual. These pioneers loved to mingle and be sociable. Family reunions and celebrations were popular.
The spring of 1856, following the grasshopper war was one of scarcity; many settlers went for months without tasting bread. However, bounteous crops were produced in the Springville area the next season. The 24th of July always afforded the Saints a reason and an excuse for celebrating the arrival of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains; it was a Thanksgiving celebration as well.
As indicated, these were the conditions that cultured the formative years of Harriet's life. The fact that Harriet was born under and into a polygamous way of life had to have had its special affect on her, both as a girl and as a married woman. Cooperation, frugal ways, adherence to a common cause and a philosophical attitude were all basic elements of living. Lasting traits of personality in Harriet may have been carved from these components. These people were bound together indeed by a common cause, namely, the religion.
Between the years of 1852 and 1855 Harriet's father was called by the Church to serve in the mission field in England. This he did for three years. During this time all three of his families had to fend for themselves, so to speak.
Considering the amount of time available to Noah to spend in close association with his families from 1851 forward, simple deduction would indicate that Harriet got to see her father only sporadically during her lifetime. It would be safe to say that she was raised by her mother, Margaret Johnson Guymon. Assuming that this was true she would have assimilated the character of her mother more than that of her father.
It should be recorded here that Harriet herself entered into a polygamous arrangement when she married Hyrum Oscar Crandall. They married in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, Utah on 25 October 1869. Hyrum and Margaret Elizabeth Guymon, Harriet's sister, had been married five years when Hyrum was called by the Church to take another wife.
The story has come down through the years by Harriet's children that prior to Harriet's marriage to Hyrum Oscar Crandall, Harriet was very much in love with a young man who lost his life in an accident with his horse; that they had planned to marry and that this incident caused her great mental distress.
These were the years of great stress for the Mormon people. The principle of plural marriage had divine sanction, but it engendered both emotion and complexity in the lives of its adherents. And later when the laws of the land were focused against this religious principle many lives in the Mormon Church were affected adversely. In any event, thus did Harriet begin her married life. She was eighteen years of age at the time.
Hyrum and his two families moved from Springville to Huntington, Utah late in the summer of 1879. At about the same time Noah T. Guymon moved his family to Huntington. Harriet would have been 28 years of age and had already given birth to five of Hyrum's children. Julia Euzell was born 07 December 1871 in Springville; Hettie Margaret was born 09 September 1873 in Springville; Myron Marcellus was born 02 October 1875 in Springville; Louis Eugene was born 03 February 1878 in Springville; Lucinda Adelaide was born 03 May 1879 in Fountain Green; Melburn Roslyn was born 18 February 1882 in Huntington; Ralph Delos was born 18 August 1884 in Huntington; George Ernest was born 16 July 1887 in Huntington.
Hyrum Oscar Crandall helped to survey the area known as Huntington, Castle Valley, Utah. Hyrum had two families, so he drew two lots. And he built a house on each lot. He also filed on 160 acre homestead upon which he made improvements.
Hyrum and his two families remained in Huntington about seven years. During this time he was a counselor to the Bishop. He and William Howard developed the first sawmill in the area and made improvements on the town site.
Just what prompted Hyrum Oscar Crandall to pull up stakes and move his two families to Vernal, Utah, is not known for sure. In 1887 he sold his 160 acres in Huntington and moved to Vernal where he purchased 80 acres of land. Here he worked as a contractor building homes. Again he built two homes for his two families. It is recorded that each house had two rooms on the ground floor and two rooms up stairs. Access to the upper rooms was buying ladder. Both families lived in a congenial atmosphere with each other.
Harriet's last child, Stanley Leroy, was born to her on 30 July 1890. And it was about this time that the laws of the land began to focus against those Latter-day Saints when entered into polygamous marriage relationships. Because of attacks against the church over this issue the Mormon Church issued its Manifesto suspending the practice of polygamy in the church. This occurred on 06 October 1890. The church had conformed to the laws of the land, but the families that had been constituted through plural marriage found themselves in an adverse situation. Hyrum Oscar was already having to evade local and Federal agents bent upon putting him in jail.
Because he was not openly able to be with his two families the way his heart and conscience dictated, Hyrum Oscar Crandall held council with his two families over the untenable situation, and both families agreed that they should load both families into the wagons and move to Mexico where they could live unmolested.
In January of 1891 Hyrum and his two families departed Vernal, Utah surreptitiously in three wagons loaded with personal effects and provisions. Their accouterments consisted of four span of horses and mules and 48 head of loose horses. Just how much planning went into this move no one seems to know for sure. In any event Hyrum Oscar Crandall took enough time to sell and dispose of his property. Margaret Elizabeth was pregnant with her twelfth child as they began their journey southward which was to last five months. It is recorded that the wagons were well outfitted. The older boys drove the extra stock and the wagons. When evenings came they cooked and ate around a campfire. The days pass quickly and soon it became warm and sunny and the roads became dusty and dry. The stock kicked up clouds of dust and whirled around everyone.
Finding water was always a problem. And in the arid regions when a water hole was located they more and often than not found the Indians guarding the water. Hyrum Oscar had to barter a horse to the Indians on one occasion for permission to fill their water kegs and water their stock. Of culinary interest is a story that when crossing the alkali beds they filled containers with alkali to use as yeast in the making of their bread.
Harriet, Margaret and Hyrum, with their two families, arrived in Deming, Luna County, New Mexico on 05 June 1891, after traveling by wagon for five months. Margaret was miserable at this stage of her pregnancy. Harriet was healthy and strong, but she did have a ten month old child that slowed her up somewhat. In Vernal she gave birth to Stanley LeRoy Crandall on 30 July 1890. Her daughter Adelaide, of course, was old enough to help her take care of Stan. It should be said here that Harriet's two oldest children, daughters Julia Euzell and Hettie Margaret did not come with a family on this journey to Mexico. Hettie had already married and Julia was in the process of getting married. These two children spent their lives in Utah and rarely saw the family again.
Upon their arrival in Deming, New Mexico Hyrum rented a house for Margaret and the younger children, as Margaret was expecting her baby soon. Tents were erected for the others.
On June 28th Hyrum and Harriet, together with some of the older children, departed Deming en route to Mexico (a distance of some 32 miles) to determine if Mexico should be their final destination. The story goes that they had not been gone long when one of Margaret's children caught up with them and announced the Margaret had started into labor. Harriet had been educated as a midwife, so the group returned to Deming immediately. Margaret gave birth to her last son, Elroy Ira.
A few days later Harriet and Hyrum left camp again to go into Mexico, but went only as far as the border. There they were confronted with the fact that the Mexican government would charge them $5.00 per head to bring their livestock into Mexico. The austere conditions of the area had already turned their heads, so they return to Deming convinced that Mexico should not be their destination.
Hyrum and the boys started looking for something to do to add funds to their very lean purse. Hyrum contracted with local people to dig a canal in the Deming area. The story relates that they dug the canal but did not get paid for their labors, as the person keeping the books absconded with the funds set aside for the project. Financially, these were difficult times for the Crandall clan. They remained in Deming doing odd jobs for approximately a year and a half. Their situation was not getting better, so they again held a council as a family about their future and decided that Margaret and her children should return to Utah to live and that Harriet and her family should proceed on to Gila Valley in the territory of Arizona. Harriet reportedly had already made friends with some people from Gila Valley who spoke in favorable terms about the area. It was decided; too, that Hyrum should accompany Harriet and get them settled and then returned to Utah himself and live with his first family. And this is the order of events that finally developed.
Margaret and her children went back to Utah on the train (Deming is located on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad). They settled temporarily in a home belonging to Hyrum in Indianola, Utah. Harriet and her children and Hyrum drove onto Stafford, Arizona by wagon and with what remained of the stock they arrived with in Deming. They arrived in Safford (the Layton area) in December 1892.
Harriet and her children settled in a temporary house which is now part of the Lawrence Fuller Ranch. Their immediate concern, of course, was a livelihood. Her oldest child with her was Marcellus who was seventeen years of age. Her next oldest child, Adelaide, was almost fourteen. But this combination was sufficient to see them down the road, because Adelaide was old enough to take care of the children while Harriet entered the workforce of the valley as a midwife. It is reported that Marcellus did some farming, some freighting and some cattle raising.
Hyrum Oscar Crandall remained with Harriet less than a year, reportedly. A Tax Collector's Office receipt reflects that on 12 April 1893, one H. O. Crandall paid $24.70 to Graham County, Arizona Territory, at Solomonville, Arizona, the county seat. It is said that when Hyrum returned to Utah to join his first wife he took one wagon and one span of horses with him.
The chronology of Harriet's life fails to record the early details of her efforts to settle down roots in Gila Valley. But her children and grandchildren are consistent in reporting that she faced the practical requirements of day to day living on a day to day basis. She was resolute and positive in her thinking. For one thing she did not have any of the material surroundings that are supposed to weaken one for the conflicts of life; to the contrary, from the beginning of this new adventure in Arizona there was everything to endure her to hardship and to suggest that her future would depend on her own wit and effort. The laws of the land, so to speak, had separated her and her children from Hyrum Oscar Crandall. And Myron Marcellus, her oldest boy, suddenly found himself in the position of father at the age of eighteen. Harriet was 41 years old when she began this new life in Arizona.
Perhaps a description of the era in which Harriet found herself in Gila Valley is warranted at this point to define the setting. The Gila Valley, fondly known as "The Valley," began primarily with a Mormon colonization. The first Mormon settlements in Arizona were made in 1876 when 100 families founded northern Arizona towns. A colony came into Gila Valley in 1879 and founded Smithville (now Pima). In the year 1882 a group of Latter-day Saint settlers came to the area which became known as the Safford and Layton districts. Layton was officially recognized as a settlement on 13 January 1883. Soon there are enough Saints in the settlement to organize a branch of the church, which took place on 02 March 1884. It was named Layton for the first President of the St. Joseph Stake, Christopher Layton. On 04 November 1884, the first ward in the area was organized with John Welker as Bishop.
Harriet came to "The Valley" at the time when the horse, buggy, wagon and train were still the means by which man traveled from here to there. The bicycle had made some inroads on these methods and by the turn of the century (Harriet would have been age 49) automobiles were beginning to replace the horse in an increasingly urban America. But it seems clear in retrospect that Harriet began her new life in a community that was not to have this mechanical innovation until years later. In assisting Dr. William E. Platt make some of his rounds to the sick, she found herself doing it in a horse and buggy as late as 1912.
The March 9, 1895, first issue of the Graham County Guardian newspaper referred to Safford as a sparsely populated 21 year old community with dirt streets. This issue of the paper made reference to the Solomonville stage robbery. Safford was then a small town of about 1000 people halfway between Bowie and Globe. Western Union Telegraph was in business, but the telephone system was in its infancy and served relatively few people. But in 1912 when Arizona entered the Union as a state, Safford was on its way to becoming an important agricultural community. Solomonville was five miles to the east of Stafford, and Thatcher was three miles to the west. The community of Pima lay six miles to the west of Safford. The G.V.G. & N. Railroad (Gila Valley, Globe and Northern), which later became the spur of the Southern Pacific Railroad, ran through the middle of the community. The Gila River runs its course just one mile north of town. This is a setting that contributed to the control and motivation of Harriet's actions.
One must pay deference to Harriet's daughter Adelaide who at age fourteen played a very important role in the family. During the critical time (1893) when Harriet and Marcellus had to establish themselves financially in the community it was Adelaide who had to stay home and look after and care for her young brothers. Stanley was age three, Ernest was age five, Ralph was age eight and Melbourne was ten. It goes without saying that these young boys assimilated a moral flavor from their sister Adelaide as well as from their mother. And one is compelled to speculate on the amount of time she lost at this task of babysitting that should've been spent in school.
Among Harriet's personal papers is a certificate from Dr. Ellis R. Shipp's School of Obstetrics. The certificate is not dated, but was issued at Thatcher, Arizona, and recites: "This is to certify that Harriet Crandall has attended my entire course of lectures, and passed successful examinations upon the subjects of Midwifery and Nursing. With great pleasure I recommend her as efficiently qualified to practice these branches," Signed Ellis R. Shipp, M.D. This certificate also bears the following testimonial: "Having examined Harriet Crandall, upon the subject of Midwifery, we also give her our cheerful recommendation," Signed Olea Shipp.
As indicated, the certificate is not dated, but appears to have been issued at Thatcher, Arizona. It is felt that she acquired this training certificate shortly after she arrived in Gila Valley, but that she had actually been trained in Midwifery in Utah prior to her departure in 1891. This was the foundation of her livelihood.
Harriet had not been in Gila Valley many years before she acquired a new home. As best this history can establish at this late date, her boys built her new home before the turn of the century, or about the time Marcellus got married. Marcellus married Clara Mabel Packer on 22 December 1896. At that time Marcellus would have been age 22 and Melburn age fifteen. At least Marcellus had rubbed shoulders with his father, Hyrum, enough to have acquired some knowledge in the building trade. This home still stands in the Layton district is Safford. At the time it was built it was surrounded by spacious yard. It had a fireplace for heat, but water had to be drawn from a well on the outside of the house. This dwelling had an upstairs loft that was accessible by way of a steep staircase. The neighbors' children used to like to play in Grandma Crandall's yard, because she would invite them inside occasionally and let them play in the loft area of the house.
Elizabeth Crandall, Stanley's wife, furnishes the information that when she and Stan were courting she visited in Grandma Harriet's home many times. Harriet would use a fireplace for heating hot chocolate and making toast for Stan and Elizabeth. And some of Harriet's living grandchildren today can recall visiting her in this home. They are consistent in saying that there was nothing useless or pretentious in her home; money was too scarce to be wasted on snobbish trimmings. And because of the apparent absence of hand me downs that can be identified with Harriet; it suggests that she did not accumulate many worldly possessions or papers.
It has been said that Harriet's life was a strong endorsement of the family unit. Materialism and status played no part; but such values as honesty and self respect motivated her existence. She was a person of such vigorous character that cohesiveness within her family of obviously originated with her. She imparted the stamp of her character to all her offspring, because it was easy to recognize in all her children the noble virtues of dignity, honesty, courage and hard work.
A profile of Harriet's outstanding characteristics should be appropriate at this point in her history. Physically she was tall and slender and strong. She had blue eyes and straight hair. In personality some have said that she was shy, fastidious and somewhat inclined to a bearing of quiet dignity. She has also been described as a genteel gentlewoman, as a genial person with considerate manners, and as having a light but sound voice. It has been said that those who knew her could appreciate her qualities far better than the casual acquaintance could. Simplicity was one of her definite characteristics.
Harriet was religious and at the same time intensely practical. If the cow was in the mire on a Sunday she believed that the cow had to be removed from the mire on a Sunday irrespective of the Ten Commandments. She attended church in the Layton Ward and paid her tithing faithfully. She liked to read in the scriptures and to meditate about matters that bore down heavily upon her. During her declining years the pose in the picture below was very typical.
by Clarence Crandall, a grandson, of Thatcher, Arizona
The daughter of Noah Thomas Guymon and Margaret Johnson who also traveled with the Aaron Johnson Company in 1850. Her father was noted for his honesty and integrity and her mother was from an industrious immigrant family which had settled in Virginia and had become relatively prosperous for the time. They also valued education and many letters still exist which were written from the Guymons to their Virginia kin. Family historians have reported that Harriet Guymon greatly resembles her father, Noah Thomas Guymon. This comparison is believed to be a reference to the facial features of her father.
Harriet's heritage, of course, is contemporary with that of the people who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Illinois and thereafter made their trek across the plains of this country to the Great Salt Lake Basin. Harriet was born to Noah Thomas Guymon and Margaret Johnson Guymon on 11 November 1851 at Springville, Utah. Noah and his family had migrated from Illinois to this territory arriving 02 September, 1850. They arrived with the wagon train of the Aaron Johnson Company. Upon their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley eight wagons of this train were cut out by President Brigham Young of the Mormon Church and directed to proceed on to a valley 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. The Guymon Family went first to American Fork and spent one winter there then proceeded to the area the eight wagons had settled. They and others began the settlement that initially was named "Hobble Creek." Later the settlement was named Springville.
Among the wagons (families) that were directed to proceed to this new area was that of Myron Nathan Crandall, the father of Hyrum Oscar Crandall who married two daughters of Noah Thomas Guymon, namely, Margaret Guymon and Harriet Guymon.
In any sketch of Harriet's heritage one must, of necessity, in the absence of specific data, make reference to the character of her father. Noah Thomas Guymon has been characterized as a person of refinement, as a civic person who during his lifetime held numerous positions of trust and responsibility in the community and in his church. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He lived in a day when friendship was often the highest law. He had many friends and indeed, his life seemed dedicated to the service of his fellow man.
At this juncture (1851), Utah was a young land. American history was still in the making here. An early day log fort arose in "Hobble Creek" almost immediately to afford the first settlers protection from the Indians and from the approaching winter. The area had a bounty of mountains, badlands, canyons, valleys and desert. In short, the area was a geologic showcase. This was the wide open west the Mormons did so much to shape. The experiences of the settlers to Springville were peculiar to the pioneer way of life. Their experiences were accounts of travel in covered wagons, accounts of Indian battles and otherwise the eking out of an existence that at times was barely subsistence level.
The desert had not yet been tamed when Harriet was born into this area one year after it was settled. The transcontinental telegraph did not find a place here until ten years later and the transcontinental railroad was still twenty years away. The vast open spaces forced Harriet and her contemporaries to maintain the rough, hearty way of life. Yet, slowly and inevitably, a new advanced civilization was to develop during the lifetime of Harriet. And it is in this context that Harriet's history must proceed.
Harriet Guymon was born into a frontier community that was only one year old, more or less. Settlers were still in a subsistence level of existence. Their wilderness had not been tamed as yet. To a large extent the people in Springville were still under surveillance of the American Indian who was looking with disapproval at the inroads being made by the white man upon his hunting grounds. Food and clothing had to be produced on the spot through the toil and ingenuity of the frontiersmen and women. This was a setting which encompassed the immediate existence of the Guymon Family.
And it is interesting to note that Harriet was the third child in the family of seven born to Noah Thomas Guymon and his second wife Margaret Johnson, but more interesting to note that she was amidst 21 half brothers and sisters born to Noah through his other three wives. Her full brothers and sisters are: Margaret Elizabeth, Martin Lewis, Moroni, Julia Luella, Edward Wallace and Lillian M.
Very few records exist pertaining to Harriet herself. Indeed the formative years of her life must be deduced to a large extent from the history of the area in which she lived him from the movements of her family, both parental and immediate.
Her father was a religious man. He served as counselor to Bishop Aaron Johnson for some ten years. He was a merchant, farmer and stock raiser. According to the history gathered by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Harriet's parental family was active in all the affairs of the Springville community, both civic and otherwise. In 1851, the year of Harriet's birth, the first peach trees were planted in Springville. The settlers did not bring trees with them, but saved peach pits on their trek from East to the West. The pits were planted and the trees produced fruit five years later. Naturally, the order of business of every family in those days was to place land under cultivation for food and to build homes for shelter.
The church house, of course, became the center of all activity. This was particularly true in terms of social affairs. Peculiar to the times was the fact that some of the early settlers went to church and to social gatherings bare footed; and this was not considered strange or unusual. These pioneers loved to mingle and be sociable. Family reunions and celebrations were popular.
The spring of 1856, following the grasshopper war was one of scarcity; many settlers went for months without tasting bread. However, bounteous crops were produced in the Springville area the next season. The 24th of July always afforded the Saints a reason and an excuse for celebrating the arrival of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains; it was a Thanksgiving celebration as well.
As indicated, these were the conditions that cultured the formative years of Harriet's life. The fact that Harriet was born under and into a polygamous way of life had to have had its special affect on her, both as a girl and as a married woman. Cooperation, frugal ways, adherence to a common cause and a philosophical attitude were all basic elements of living. Lasting traits of personality in Harriet may have been carved from these components. These people were bound together indeed by a common cause, namely, the religion.
Between the years of 1852 and 1855 Harriet's father was called by the Church to serve in the mission field in England. This he did for three years. During this time all three of his families had to fend for themselves, so to speak.
Considering the amount of time available to Noah to spend in close association with his families from 1851 forward, simple deduction would indicate that Harriet got to see her father only sporadically during her lifetime. It would be safe to say that she was raised by her mother, Margaret Johnson Guymon. Assuming that this was true she would have assimilated the character of her mother more than that of her father.
It should be recorded here that Harriet herself entered into a polygamous arrangement when she married Hyrum Oscar Crandall. They married in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, Utah on 25 October 1869. Hyrum and Margaret Elizabeth Guymon, Harriet's sister, had been married five years when Hyrum was called by the Church to take another wife.
The story has come down through the years by Harriet's children that prior to Harriet's marriage to Hyrum Oscar Crandall, Harriet was very much in love with a young man who lost his life in an accident with his horse; that they had planned to marry and that this incident caused her great mental distress.
These were the years of great stress for the Mormon people. The principle of plural marriage had divine sanction, but it engendered both emotion and complexity in the lives of its adherents. And later when the laws of the land were focused against this religious principle many lives in the Mormon Church were affected adversely. In any event, thus did Harriet begin her married life. She was eighteen years of age at the time.
Hyrum and his two families moved from Springville to Huntington, Utah late in the summer of 1879. At about the same time Noah T. Guymon moved his family to Huntington. Harriet would have been 28 years of age and had already given birth to five of Hyrum's children. Julia Euzell was born 07 December 1871 in Springville; Hettie Margaret was born 09 September 1873 in Springville; Myron Marcellus was born 02 October 1875 in Springville; Louis Eugene was born 03 February 1878 in Springville; Lucinda Adelaide was born 03 May 1879 in Fountain Green; Melburn Roslyn was born 18 February 1882 in Huntington; Ralph Delos was born 18 August 1884 in Huntington; George Ernest was born 16 July 1887 in Huntington.
Hyrum Oscar Crandall helped to survey the area known as Huntington, Castle Valley, Utah. Hyrum had two families, so he drew two lots. And he built a house on each lot. He also filed on 160 acre homestead upon which he made improvements.
Hyrum and his two families remained in Huntington about seven years. During this time he was a counselor to the Bishop. He and William Howard developed the first sawmill in the area and made improvements on the town site.
Just what prompted Hyrum Oscar Crandall to pull up stakes and move his two families to Vernal, Utah, is not known for sure. In 1887 he sold his 160 acres in Huntington and moved to Vernal where he purchased 80 acres of land. Here he worked as a contractor building homes. Again he built two homes for his two families. It is recorded that each house had two rooms on the ground floor and two rooms up stairs. Access to the upper rooms was buying ladder. Both families lived in a congenial atmosphere with each other.
Harriet's last child, Stanley Leroy, was born to her on 30 July 1890. And it was about this time that the laws of the land began to focus against those Latter-day Saints when entered into polygamous marriage relationships. Because of attacks against the church over this issue the Mormon Church issued its Manifesto suspending the practice of polygamy in the church. This occurred on 06 October 1890. The church had conformed to the laws of the land, but the families that had been constituted through plural marriage found themselves in an adverse situation. Hyrum Oscar was already having to evade local and Federal agents bent upon putting him in jail.
Because he was not openly able to be with his two families the way his heart and conscience dictated, Hyrum Oscar Crandall held council with his two families over the untenable situation, and both families agreed that they should load both families into the wagons and move to Mexico where they could live unmolested.
In January of 1891 Hyrum and his two families departed Vernal, Utah surreptitiously in three wagons loaded with personal effects and provisions. Their accouterments consisted of four span of horses and mules and 48 head of loose horses. Just how much planning went into this move no one seems to know for sure. In any event Hyrum Oscar Crandall took enough time to sell and dispose of his property. Margaret Elizabeth was pregnant with her twelfth child as they began their journey southward which was to last five months. It is recorded that the wagons were well outfitted. The older boys drove the extra stock and the wagons. When evenings came they cooked and ate around a campfire. The days pass quickly and soon it became warm and sunny and the roads became dusty and dry. The stock kicked up clouds of dust and whirled around everyone.
Finding water was always a problem. And in the arid regions when a water hole was located they more and often than not found the Indians guarding the water. Hyrum Oscar had to barter a horse to the Indians on one occasion for permission to fill their water kegs and water their stock. Of culinary interest is a story that when crossing the alkali beds they filled containers with alkali to use as yeast in the making of their bread.
Harriet, Margaret and Hyrum, with their two families, arrived in Deming, Luna County, New Mexico on 05 June 1891, after traveling by wagon for five months. Margaret was miserable at this stage of her pregnancy. Harriet was healthy and strong, but she did have a ten month old child that slowed her up somewhat. In Vernal she gave birth to Stanley LeRoy Crandall on 30 July 1890. Her daughter Adelaide, of course, was old enough to help her take care of Stan. It should be said here that Harriet's two oldest children, daughters Julia Euzell and Hettie Margaret did not come with a family on this journey to Mexico. Hettie had already married and Julia was in the process of getting married. These two children spent their lives in Utah and rarely saw the family again.
Upon their arrival in Deming, New Mexico Hyrum rented a house for Margaret and the younger children, as Margaret was expecting her baby soon. Tents were erected for the others.
On June 28th Hyrum and Harriet, together with some of the older children, departed Deming en route to Mexico (a distance of some 32 miles) to determine if Mexico should be their final destination. The story goes that they had not been gone long when one of Margaret's children caught up with them and announced the Margaret had started into labor. Harriet had been educated as a midwife, so the group returned to Deming immediately. Margaret gave birth to her last son, Elroy Ira.
A few days later Harriet and Hyrum left camp again to go into Mexico, but went only as far as the border. There they were confronted with the fact that the Mexican government would charge them $5.00 per head to bring their livestock into Mexico. The austere conditions of the area had already turned their heads, so they return to Deming convinced that Mexico should not be their destination.
Hyrum and the boys started looking for something to do to add funds to their very lean purse. Hyrum contracted with local people to dig a canal in the Deming area. The story relates that they dug the canal but did not get paid for their labors, as the person keeping the books absconded with the funds set aside for the project. Financially, these were difficult times for the Crandall clan. They remained in Deming doing odd jobs for approximately a year and a half. Their situation was not getting better, so they again held a council as a family about their future and decided that Margaret and her children should return to Utah to live and that Harriet and her family should proceed on to Gila Valley in the territory of Arizona. Harriet reportedly had already made friends with some people from Gila Valley who spoke in favorable terms about the area. It was decided; too, that Hyrum should accompany Harriet and get them settled and then returned to Utah himself and live with his first family. And this is the order of events that finally developed.
Margaret and her children went back to Utah on the train (Deming is located on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad). They settled temporarily in a home belonging to Hyrum in Indianola, Utah. Harriet and her children and Hyrum drove onto Stafford, Arizona by wagon and with what remained of the stock they arrived with in Deming. They arrived in Safford (the Layton area) in December 1892.
Harriet and her children settled in a temporary house which is now part of the Lawrence Fuller Ranch. Their immediate concern, of course, was a livelihood. Her oldest child with her was Marcellus who was seventeen years of age. Her next oldest child, Adelaide, was almost fourteen. But this combination was sufficient to see them down the road, because Adelaide was old enough to take care of the children while Harriet entered the workforce of the valley as a midwife. It is reported that Marcellus did some farming, some freighting and some cattle raising.
Hyrum Oscar Crandall remained with Harriet less than a year, reportedly. A Tax Collector's Office receipt reflects that on 12 April 1893, one H. O. Crandall paid $24.70 to Graham County, Arizona Territory, at Solomonville, Arizona, the county seat. It is said that when Hyrum returned to Utah to join his first wife he took one wagon and one span of horses with him.
The chronology of Harriet's life fails to record the early details of her efforts to settle down roots in Gila Valley. But her children and grandchildren are consistent in reporting that she faced the practical requirements of day to day living on a day to day basis. She was resolute and positive in her thinking. For one thing she did not have any of the material surroundings that are supposed to weaken one for the conflicts of life; to the contrary, from the beginning of this new adventure in Arizona there was everything to endure her to hardship and to suggest that her future would depend on her own wit and effort. The laws of the land, so to speak, had separated her and her children from Hyrum Oscar Crandall. And Myron Marcellus, her oldest boy, suddenly found himself in the position of father at the age of eighteen. Harriet was 41 years old when she began this new life in Arizona.
Perhaps a description of the era in which Harriet found herself in Gila Valley is warranted at this point to define the setting. The Gila Valley, fondly known as "The Valley," began primarily with a Mormon colonization. The first Mormon settlements in Arizona were made in 1876 when 100 families founded northern Arizona towns. A colony came into Gila Valley in 1879 and founded Smithville (now Pima). In the year 1882 a group of Latter-day Saint settlers came to the area which became known as the Safford and Layton districts. Layton was officially recognized as a settlement on 13 January 1883. Soon there are enough Saints in the settlement to organize a branch of the church, which took place on 02 March 1884. It was named Layton for the first President of the St. Joseph Stake, Christopher Layton. On 04 November 1884, the first ward in the area was organized with John Welker as Bishop.
Harriet came to "The Valley" at the time when the horse, buggy, wagon and train were still the means by which man traveled from here to there. The bicycle had made some inroads on these methods and by the turn of the century (Harriet would have been age 49) automobiles were beginning to replace the horse in an increasingly urban America. But it seems clear in retrospect that Harriet began her new life in a community that was not to have this mechanical innovation until years later. In assisting Dr. William E. Platt make some of his rounds to the sick, she found herself doing it in a horse and buggy as late as 1912.
The March 9, 1895, first issue of the Graham County Guardian newspaper referred to Safford as a sparsely populated 21 year old community with dirt streets. This issue of the paper made reference to the Solomonville stage robbery. Safford was then a small town of about 1000 people halfway between Bowie and Globe. Western Union Telegraph was in business, but the telephone system was in its infancy and served relatively few people. But in 1912 when Arizona entered the Union as a state, Safford was on its way to becoming an important agricultural community. Solomonville was five miles to the east of Stafford, and Thatcher was three miles to the west. The community of Pima lay six miles to the west of Safford. The G.V.G. & N. Railroad (Gila Valley, Globe and Northern), which later became the spur of the Southern Pacific Railroad, ran through the middle of the community. The Gila River runs its course just one mile north of town. This is a setting that contributed to the control and motivation of Harriet's actions.
One must pay deference to Harriet's daughter Adelaide who at age fourteen played a very important role in the family. During the critical time (1893) when Harriet and Marcellus had to establish themselves financially in the community it was Adelaide who had to stay home and look after and care for her young brothers. Stanley was age three, Ernest was age five, Ralph was age eight and Melbourne was ten. It goes without saying that these young boys assimilated a moral flavor from their sister Adelaide as well as from their mother. And one is compelled to speculate on the amount of time she lost at this task of babysitting that should've been spent in school.
Among Harriet's personal papers is a certificate from Dr. Ellis R. Shipp's School of Obstetrics. The certificate is not dated, but was issued at Thatcher, Arizona, and recites: "This is to certify that Harriet Crandall has attended my entire course of lectures, and passed successful examinations upon the subjects of Midwifery and Nursing. With great pleasure I recommend her as efficiently qualified to practice these branches," Signed Ellis R. Shipp, M.D. This certificate also bears the following testimonial: "Having examined Harriet Crandall, upon the subject of Midwifery, we also give her our cheerful recommendation," Signed Olea Shipp.
As indicated, the certificate is not dated, but appears to have been issued at Thatcher, Arizona. It is felt that she acquired this training certificate shortly after she arrived in Gila Valley, but that she had actually been trained in Midwifery in Utah prior to her departure in 1891. This was the foundation of her livelihood.
Harriet had not been in Gila Valley many years before she acquired a new home. As best this history can establish at this late date, her boys built her new home before the turn of the century, or about the time Marcellus got married. Marcellus married Clara Mabel Packer on 22 December 1896. At that time Marcellus would have been age 22 and Melburn age fifteen. At least Marcellus had rubbed shoulders with his father, Hyrum, enough to have acquired some knowledge in the building trade. This home still stands in the Layton district is Safford. At the time it was built it was surrounded by spacious yard. It had a fireplace for heat, but water had to be drawn from a well on the outside of the house. This dwelling had an upstairs loft that was accessible by way of a steep staircase. The neighbors' children used to like to play in Grandma Crandall's yard, because she would invite them inside occasionally and let them play in the loft area of the house.
Elizabeth Crandall, Stanley's wife, furnishes the information that when she and Stan were courting she visited in Grandma Harriet's home many times. Harriet would use a fireplace for heating hot chocolate and making toast for Stan and Elizabeth. And some of Harriet's living grandchildren today can recall visiting her in this home. They are consistent in saying that there was nothing useless or pretentious in her home; money was too scarce to be wasted on snobbish trimmings. And because of the apparent absence of hand me downs that can be identified with Harriet; it suggests that she did not accumulate many worldly possessions or papers.
It has been said that Harriet's life was a strong endorsement of the family unit. Materialism and status played no part; but such values as honesty and self respect motivated her existence. She was a person of such vigorous character that cohesiveness within her family of obviously originated with her. She imparted the stamp of her character to all her offspring, because it was easy to recognize in all her children the noble virtues of dignity, honesty, courage and hard work.
A profile of Harriet's outstanding characteristics should be appropriate at this point in her history. Physically she was tall and slender and strong. She had blue eyes and straight hair. In personality some have said that she was shy, fastidious and somewhat inclined to a bearing of quiet dignity. She has also been described as a genteel gentlewoman, as a genial person with considerate manners, and as having a light but sound voice. It has been said that those who knew her could appreciate her qualities far better than the casual acquaintance could. Simplicity was one of her definite characteristics.
Harriet was religious and at the same time intensely practical. If the cow was in the mire on a Sunday she believed that the cow had to be removed from the mire on a Sunday irrespective of the Ten Commandments. She attended church in the Layton Ward and paid her tithing faithfully. She liked to read in the scriptures and to meditate about matters that bore down heavily upon her. During her declining years the pose in the picture below was very typical.
Family Members
Siblings
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Margaret Elizabeth Guymon Crandall
1846–1929
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Julia Luella Guymon Maycock
1857–1943
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Edward Wallace Guymon
1859–1937
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Mary Jane Guymon Matson
1838–1912
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Lucinda Harris Guymon Hurst
1840–1867
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Emma Melissa Guymon Kearnes
1842–1931
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William Albert Guymon
1849–1922
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Clarissa Ellen Guymon Scovill
1851–1921
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Noah Thomas Guymon Jr
1853–1920
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Amy Amelia Guymon Jewkes
1859–1947
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John Wesley Guymon
1860–1916
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Elizabeth Ann Guymon
1861–1869
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Willard Richard Guymon
1864–1958
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Owen Winnie Guymon
1866–1953
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Thomas Henry Guymon
1868–1882
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Annie Louisa Guymon Geary
1870–1889
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Sarah Jane Guymon Brown
1872–1948
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Joseph Hyrum Guymon
1874–1955
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Melissa Luella Guymon
1876–1883
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Laura Louisa Guymon Brown
1879–1971
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Franklin Noah Guymon
1883–1976
Children
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Julia Euzell "Zell" Crandall Truman
1870–1955
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Hettie Margaret Crandall Rolfe
1874–1950
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Myron Marcellus Crandall
1875–1951
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Louis Eugene Crandall
1878 – unknown
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Adelaide Lucinda Crandall Robinson
1879–1953
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Melburn Roslin Crandall
1881–1952
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Ralph Delos Crandall
1884–1971
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George Ernest Crandall
1887–1931
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Stanley LeRoy Crandall
1890–1942
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