After William and his family had been at Pima, Arizona nearly four years, William was taken dreadfully ill with an abscessed liver. After a long illness he died June 5, 1883 at the age of 49 years. His death was a heavy blow to his wife, Harriet, who was left alone with five small children. The oldest being a boy of 13 years.
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William Randolph Teeples, son of George Bentley Teeples and Huldah Colby, was "born June 7, 1833 at Huron, Huron County, Michigan.

His parents were baptized into the Mormon Church in 1834, and his father received a Patriarchal Blessing from Joseph Smith, Sr. William Randolph was ten years of age at the time of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum, and remembered well when their bodies were brought home for burial. His family were closely associated with the Prophet's family and the other Saints in Nauvoo; their own home was destroyed three different times by fires set by members of the mobs.

They came to Utah in 1848, crossing the plains in Heber C. Kimball's company. William Randolph, at the age of fifteen, drove an ox team for Mary Fielding Smith, mother of President Joseph Fielding Smith. He, with his parents, became one of the first settlers of Provo, Utah County. He was baptized in Nauvoo, by Elder Zenos H. Curley, in 1842. William Randolph Teeples was married three times.

William Randolph Teeples learned the blacksmith trade when a young man. He participated in the early Indian wars in Utah; he served in the Echo Canyon campaign during the Johnson's Army troubles. He assisted in starting the cotton industry in southern Utah. He was one of the first settlers of Bear Lake Valley, arriving there December 7, 1863.

In a little log house, built with thatched roof and dirt floor, their second child, Beatrice Ann Eliza, was born March 31, 1864; the first white child born in Bear Lake Valley. A floor was built in one corner of the cabin, from the boards of Grandfather's wagon-box. Wild hay covered the rest of the floor and they were quite comfortable because it was a mild winter. In order to be on the trail of the people traveling to Oregon, my grandfather moved to Montpelier, where he build a house and a blacksmith shop. He had plenty of work to do, shoeing the horses and mending the wagons of the travelers.

Money was scarce and merchandise was expensive, at one time my grandmother gave a twenty-dollar gold piece for 16 yards of factory cloth, from which she made undergarments by hand. She helped to teach some of the ladies of the community to spin wool, weave and sew their outer clothing, and to make hats from straw. The men in the community dug a pit, across which they placed logs to saw for flooring and finishing lumber. One man would stand in the pit, and the whipsaw would be drawn up and down through the entire length of the log. From such lumber, my grandfather built a new cabin with floors.

Trout was plentiful in the streams nearby, and antelope roamed the surrounding hills; flour was purchased at Logan, and gardens were planted. The wheat that was planted in April (1865) was frozen in August by an early frost. It was the beginning of a very hard winter. The wheat was harvested, although it had been frozen; a little wild hay was gathered from the fields. The snow became so deep that most of the cattle died, but a few were kept alive with the shrunken wheat and the small amount of wild hay. The people had not anticipated such a long, hard winter. At times, only the smoke from the chimneys marked their location. fences were completely snowed over,

In the Fall of 1865, William Randolph and his wife, with their two little girls, moved to Holden, Utah, to escape another hard winter. In the Spring of 1866, the Black Hawk War broke out in earnest; William joined the Militia and all the people on the outskirts moved into town for protection.

In 1878, however, George, was called by Erastus Snow to go to Arizona to establish a colony there; and although it was one of the greatest trials of their lives to leave their comfortable home to begin again in a wilderness, they did not refuse to go. They sold their home, and on the 29th day of October 1878, they began their trip. They traveled past Kanab and Johnson's Settlement, on down the big Colorado River Bank. They were advised to cook enough food to last them while they traveled along the bank of the river, because they would find no wood to burn, everything was petrified to stone. This they found to be true.

They crossed the river on a ferry, climbed the mountain on a narrow dugway across Lee's Backbone, on a trail where the wagon wheals were at times only six inches from the edge, with perilous depths below. Twelve wagons were in the company, and each wagon had to be pulled over the top by all twelve teams, the climbing was so steep.

After the trip down the other side of the mountain, they camped at the foot and spent the night. Next morning they continued their journey over rough and wild Indian country. They hauled water in barrels and the horses became very thirsty with so little allowed for each of them to drink.

When they arrived on the banks of the Little Colorado, they replenished their water supply from the shallow water; forded the river using all possible haste, because they found that the river had a quicksand bottom. On the other side of the river, they were invited to have dinner in the large dining room of the United Order. From there, they traveled on to Snow Flake, Show Low Creek, and finally on Christmas Day, they stopped at a place called "Cluff's Ranch." They had known the Cluff's in Utah, so felt that they had friends there, and decided to pitch their tents for the Winter.

Leaving the women and children and some of the men at Cluff's Ranch, William Randolph Teeples as head of the company, took four other men and went on South to find a place to settle. They traveled through a forest, past Fort Apache, crossed the Gila River into the Gila Valley and decided that here was the place.

When the five men arrived back at Cluff's Ranch, all of them except Mr. Teeples, decided not to return to the Gila Valley. Another company was formed and these men and their families moved on, arriving again in the Valley on April 8, 1879. The first home was built from rough cottonwood logs. Mesquite trees nearby were found to be covered with huge caterpillars which ate all the leaves, but a heavy frost came and killed the caterpillars - - the people believed it to be an act of God, to keep the Mormons from complete despair.

They named the new settlement "Smithville" in honor of President Jesse N. Smith of the Snowflake Stake, who gave them a Ward Organization. Other people moved into the settlement and a Postoffice was applied for. The Government advised them that there was already a Postoffice by the name of Smithville, Arizona, so gave them the name of "Pima." My father, at the age of nine, helped to carry the chain to mark the site of the town.

Grandfather Teeples was appointed Postmaster in June 1880. He built a little store which his wife, Harriet Betsy, tended; she also performed most of the duties in the small Postoffice while my George farmed and did blacksmith work. There was little money in the community, so most of the store-goods was sold on credit and very little of this money was ever collected.

Daughter: Caroline Hulda Teeples Warren