History of William Philo and Matilda Ann Goaslind Ellsworth
William Philo Ellsworth was the son of Ephraim Edgar Ellsworth and Elizabeth Edwards born Oct 22, 1864 at Franklin, Oneida, Idaho. He left home when he was between 12 and 16 years of age, because his mother had died, and his father had remarried and his stepmother was very cruel to him and his little 2 year old sister. The story is told of how she kicked them out of the house in November. William built a fire to keep them warm and to tend to his little sister. (Not much is known of what happened to them or to her.) We do know that William worked in mining camps and herded sheep. He went to White River before any white settlers lived on the Ute Reservation. He spent the winter of 1878 when he was fifteen years old, with the Thomas Smart family. Here he saw tall grass that grew along the riverbank up to the horses' back. In 1879 about forty cowboys and several large herds of cattle wintered on the White River. There was plenty of feed available, but the cold was so intense the cattle would often freeze to death while lying on bed-ground. The ice attained a thickness of thirty-three inches that year. Pioneers, including Ephraim Ellsworth, (William father;) Lydia , William, and Rodney B. Remington; Samuel Joseph, and Heber Campbell; William Darling; and a man by the name of Fisher, established a settlement about one and one half miles up the White River. They built cabins and settled their families in the White River colony. The winter of 1879-1880 was a very hard on the settlers, and they endured many trials. Their animals, either starved, froze, or were lost in quicksand. To fend off their own starvation, they traded their only team in Whiterocks for fourteen bushels of wheat. The wheat was ground into flour in a coffee mill. After the White River settlement closed and William quite chasing wild horses, he went back to Preston, Idaho. But the tall green grass up to the horses' back was something he never forgot. When he came back he never saw it like that again. While living in Preston he made acquaintance with Matilda Ann Goaslind. Matilda says that William had such a strong personality that she could not resist him and so they got married. We have learned the William had a dark complexion, black heavy hair and brown eyes. At the prime of his age he measured 6 feet 2 inches in his stocking feet. He had a large frame, quick tempered, cruel when angry or crossed from his ways or ideas. He had generous disposition especially if he knew anyone was in want. He loved to be praised in all his undertakings. He enjoyed being the boss of construction work of different kinds. He liked people who would make a fuss over him. He felt that only those people who worked continually were any good. Matilda lived with her grandparents until she married William Philo Ellsworth in the fall of 1893. They moved to Camas, Idaho, where they had purchased land and began farming and raising stock. They had a thriving ranch in Idaho, but he could not forget Uintah Basin. William had continued trouble with rheumatism so they thought that Utah would be a warmer climate. They left Soldier, Idaho, in the fall of 1911. They were driving three outfits. William P. drove one team and wagon. Thirteen year old Dick drove another team and wagon; however, he says he "tried to drive one team but they'd generally drive me before the day was gone…" Matilda drove the small team and buggy with the help of her daughter Alene. The small children: Ina, Edna, Florine, John, Bill and Nannie, ages: 11, 9, 7, 5, and 2, respectively, helping out with the baby, Lester, and as otherwise needed. Dick says: "I don't know how long we were on the road. All I remember is that it was summer time when we left and it was winter when we got there. I know when we came over Kamas, (Wolf Creek Pass), the snow was up to our waists. It was deep all across the pass. It took all day to pull it up the other side to the top, pull one outfit up, then go back and get the other one. The old team pulling the buggy couldn't hack it in the heavy snow. We had to go back with another team and help then out. We didn't bring any other livestock, except the two colts, which followed along with their mothers. We took what we could pile on the two wagons." The Ellsworth family moved into one of the Government housing in Randlett. The children went to school for nearly two years. Sunday, October 20, 1912 President Smart (Stake President of the Uintah Stake in which they now resided.) took William P. and Matilda to inspect Ouray Valley. They were impressed and filed on a homestead. When the measles broke out in Randlett, William decided to move on to there own land in Ouray Valley. They made their move on the 12 of February 1913. They had small tents for sleeping quarters and a big round tent where they did the cooking and eat their meals. This tent would sometimes blow down during an extra strong windstorm, but the children thought it was fun. It was a cold winter, the temperature went down to twenty below, then the thermometer broke. It was in one of these tents that Ray, the first white baby, was born. He was born May 1, 1913. His father and his oldest sister Alene took care of Matilda's delivery. They pioneer life for Matilda was very lonely, as she never saw another women for three years. The Indians did not treat them badly but they took whatever they wanted. When Matilda would bake bread, she made 12 loaves at a time, the Indian braves would simple ride up take all the bread and ride off. She would have to start all over again. The Ellsworth's wasn't able to raise a crop that year. The canal wasn't completed and when it was, little water found its way to the end of the ditch. J. Winter Smith, an engineer for the Ouray Valley Irrigation Company, came into Leota after the Ellsworth's. He hired them to assist him in a canal building project. Everyone helped on the construction of the canal. J. Winter Smith, the Engineer said that little, nine year old, Florine even helped him with some of the surveying. And the Ellsworth's worked with their teams on the construction and continued to work on the canal maintenance for years. Dick Ellsworth says, "You might say we worked for nothing. You got credit. You didn't get cash. You worked for credits" (water stock). The Indians had the primary water rights while the white people in Ouray Valley held only secondary rights, which meant that they were only entitled to water during high water and after high water only enough for their gardens. The first public building was built of blocks and a dirt roof. This was used for church and school. The first school had fifteen students attending who ranged in grades from the first to the eighth and were: Forrest, Wayman, Harold, Dorothy Birtcher; and Dick, John, Edna, Ina, Florine, Alene, and Bill Ellsworth; and two others. The first teacher who taught in the one-room schoolhouse was Miss Ruth Steinaker, an 18 year old high school graduate from Vernal. She boarded in with the Ellsworth's. The building was of rough, hewn logs, with one door and one window, and equipped with the old-style benches. A huge stove was used and the boys had to split wood and cut it into logs pieces for fuel. When the pupils graduated from the 8th grade they left Leota and found homes in Vernal or Roosevelt where they could board and attend the high school. The Ellsworth's hauled water for their household purposes from the Green River in barrels. They had a garden and an orchard of fruit trees. They would turn their herd of cows out in the morning to graze and to go to the river for water and then in the evening one of the children would bring them in. Later they dug a well west of their home and put in a trough for the cattle to drink from. This well was also used for all water purposes. This article appeared in the Vernal Express on January 29, 1915: W.P. Ellsworth was up from the Ouray Valley this week with a load of wheat. The first to be raised with water from the New Ouray Valley Canal. It is of fine quality and the yield is heavy. A few new families have recently moved into the valley and several more are planning to move into the area when spring opens. One newcomer has brought in a new first class steam-threshing outfit and some large farming implements. The canal is nearly completed and water will be ready for this years crops. The district school is progressing nicely and a new grade has just been added. With the coming of a few more families the Glines Ward of Uintah Stake set up a Sunday School organization in Leota, with James L. Hutchens as Superintendent. The Ellsworth's had been away from any church organization for several years and some of the family had not been baptized. James L. Hutchens took care of this on Aug 29, 1915, by baptizing Ina, Edna, Florine and John. The Ellsworth's built the first home in Leota. It was a single-room cabin made of cottonwood logs and had a dirt roof. Mary Eva was born in the cabin December 3, 1915, with Mrs Graham, a new neighbor, acting as midwife. Later on they built a large house between the one-room log house and the pond to the west. Their home had a large porch on the south, which some of the children slept on in the summertime. During the years that Green River over flowed, they would watch to see when the water went back into the channel and then go down and pick up tubs of live fish and brought them home and bottle them for their food supply. When there was water they raised very good crops of grain and Hay. They had a large herd of cattle, some for milking and the rest for beef to sell. They also took the grain to Vernal to the mill for their flour and bran. This took 3 days, one day to get there, one day to grind the grain, and one day to get back home. The year the crickets were so bad, Matilda had a hard time cooking any meal because the insects would hop up onto the stove as she cooked. William and Matilda loved to dance and they were very good at it. The only one of his daughters that he really loved to dance with was Ina. He called her his "Princess". In 1917 the Leota area was changed from the Uintah Stake to the Duchesne Stake under President Smart, who on Sunday, May 14, 1922, rode horseback from Randlett to Leota and held a baptismal service in which William P. Ellsworth was baptized. It was in the spring of 1922, that fourteen year old, Bill Ellsworth, had his accident. He was out doing chores and was on top of the haystack forking hay down to the livestock. In trying to pry loose a forkful of hay, which was frozen to the hay below it, his fork slipped from the hay and he toppled backwards from the stack. They took him to Vernal but the doctors did not discover all the damage which he had suffered. They did what they could for him, but said that he had sleeping sickness because he couldn't talk. It was six months before they took him to a chiropractor whose treatments caused a fifty percent improvement. Bill's mother spent much time with him in Vernal and in Roosevelt where they lived for a while in President Smart's second house free of charge. Then, Matilda Ellsworth's mother died and left her a little inheritance. With this money Matilda took her son, Bill, to Salt Lake City where he was given the most-up-to-date examinations. He had had a broken shoulder, His back had been broken, pinching nerves which had paralyzed him from the waist down. The roots of his tongue had been injured which made it impossible for him to approach normal speech. These impediments did not keep young Bill from participating in church. Although he got so he couldn't hold his head up he was a studious reader and had a keen mind. Everybody had the patience to wait until he could get his thoughts vocalized. They took him to the Manti temple where he went through for hundreds of names. And all the time his devoted mother, Matilda, was with him. The Ellsworth's spent some $10,000 on medical doctors to help Bill. The oldest son, Dick, took jobs to supplement their income. He worked for J. Winter Smith and John G. Smith, whose land joined Ellsworth's on the west, In helping them make proof on their lands. He freighted for Uintah Railway Company. He did some freighting on his own with teams and wagons from Price. But mostly, his time was spent on the Leota place, working on the canal, and breaking horses. President Smart visited with Ellsworth's many times and records in his diaries of at least six times that he spent the night with them. William P. may not have lived up to everything that President Smart desired as far as the church was concerned, but he was real active in any community efforts. As William got older and he became ill, and could not do all the farm work, he would sit outside in the summer and try to supervise the farming. He could do very little. His sons Ray and Lester and his daughter Frances did all the farming and tending to all effects of the farm. They also had sheep, pigs and chickens. When William's daughter Ina died he furnished some beautiful lumber that he had saved for his own coffin and told them to use it to build hers. The last few days of his life he was in a great deal of pain and one day he asked his son-in-law, Oliver, to give him a blessing. He said he knew it would not heal him but it would ease the pain. March 9, 1939, Vernal Express Funeral Services for William Philo Ellsworth, age 76, pioneer of Ouray Valley was held Monday, March 5, 1939 in the Leota L.D.S. Ward Chapel, under the direction of Bishop I.S. Eklund. The music was furnished by the Avalon Ward. Jesse Brough and Bishop Lawrence Wall were the speakers. Interment was in the Leota Cemetery under the direction of the Swain Funeral Home. Mr. Ellsworth died Friday at his home following a lingering illness. William Philo Ellsworth was born at Franklin, Idaho. He married Matilda Ann Goaslind. In 1912 they moved to Leota where they lived at the time of his death. During the time of his residence there he has been active in community affairs and a promoter of good roads and canals. Surviving are his widow, Matilda Ann Ellsworth and eleven sons and daughters; Mrs. Luther (Alene) Swett, Lester, Ray, and John Ellsworth of Vernal; Mrs. Leslie (Edna) Barney of Pleasant Grove; Dick Ellsworth of Burnt Fork, Wyoming; Mrs. Lowell (Mary) Chivers; Mrs. Ray (Florine) Barney and a daughter, Frances, and a son, William, all of Leota, Utah. William P. Ellsworth was the first one to settle in Leota and even during his lifetime his name almost became a legend. After he died Matilda went to Manti to do temple work. (I imagine she sold the cattle to accomplish this.) She died many years later from a stroke. (Taken from Book written by Robert Cooper about William J. Smart and personal knowledge of the family. )