Hannah D. Harr / Horr
Original Family name: Horr,
'English' pronounced 'Or'

Children:
Mary Lorinda Hickman
Brigham Alvin Hickman
Hyrum Norton Byington
Joseph Henry Byington
Steven Elliot Byington
Sarah Jane Byington
Hannah Elizabeth Byington Larson Higbee
Alexander Byington
Rebecca Ann Byington
Nora Isabelle Byington Palmer

Married:
William A Hickman: Sept. 11, 1853 (age: 17)
Hyrum E Byington: Feb. 18, 1864 (age: 24)


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Hannah Dyantha Harr
My Pioneer Grandmother
Born 1836 - Died 1917

by Thora May Larson Morrison [Granddaughter]

The following information was told to me by my mother, Thora May Larson Morrison, about 1958 through 1963. It is written as if she were speaking. I took notes in longhand and typed them up 16 June 2000. Lois Ann Morrison Everton

Hannah Dyantha (Diantha) Harr, was born 3 Aug 1836, in Jackson County, Missouri. She was my grandmother. Her family consisted of her Father, Alvin Horr, her mother, Lorinda Marsh, and two older children by her father's first wife, Harriet Clark, Calvin and Lovina. They were driven out of Missouri with the other Latter Day Saints. They eventually lived in Nauvoo. Two more children were born into the family in Nauvoo. Mary Jane was born in 1839 and Samuel was born about 1842. Her mother, Lorinda Marsh, died 13 Nov 1843, while they were living in Nauvoo. Her father, Alvin Horr, married his third wife, Sarah Davis, on 10 June 1844 at Nauvoo. Sarah had two boys from a previous marriage. When the Saints were forced to leave Nauvoo, Hannah and her family winter in 1847 in Winter Quarters. Alvin signed a petition to setup a post office in Potowattomi County. They crossed the plains with a covered wagon company about 1848. She was 12 when she came to Utah.

During the trek west they ran out of food except for flour and salt and they wanted to make cakes for the camp's supper. The children hunted grasshoppers and put into the cake. This was used as leavening or a shortening. She told about her feet bleeding because of all the walking. They wrapped layers of gunny sack tied with twine on her feet to protect them. After this wore out they put strips of bark layered with gunny sack. They made flour sack underwear and dresses. Flour came in large bags, about 100 pounds, so the flour sack was valuable for clothing.

After arriving in the Salt Lake Valley the girls, Hannah Dyantha and her sister, Mary Jane, worked part time for Brigham Young.

Some time after she arrived in Utah, she married [11 Sep 1853] a polygamist by the name of William Adams Hickman. She was his 7th wife. They had two children. Mary Lorinda Hickman, born 25 Jan 1857 and Brigham Alvin Porthugh Hickman, born 6 Jan 1859. Hannah's sister, Mary Jane also married Hickman at a later date.

Hannah and her sister Mary did not like living in polygamy and eventually took Hanna's children and stole away in the night. A temple divorce was granted both of the girls on 22 Nov 1860. These children of Hickman came to visit mother and I when I was 10 or 12.

Joseph Young and Hyrum Norton Byington were trail herdsmen for Brigham Young. Most likely, Brigham Young introduced Hannah to Hyrum Elliot Byington, the son of Hyrum Norton Byington. Grandmother married grandfather on 18 Feb 1861 in Salt Lake City. They were later sealed in the Endowment House by Pres. Brigham Young 13 Oct 1873. Grandfather [Hyrum Elliot] Byington came to Utah in 1860. He was born 14 Oct 1830 on Lake Erie.

Grandmother and Grandfather and other families were sent with Jefferson Hunt to Ogden Valley (Huntsville and Eden valley) help establish a settlement there. Their first five children were born here. The first, Hyrum Norton Byington, 30 Dec 1861. He fell off a roof when he was still a young man and died 25 Nov 1879 at 18 years of age. Next, Joseph Henry was born 28 Dec 1862. He married Rosetta Hunt 10 June 1882. She lived to be over 100 years old. Joseph died 3 May 1929. Stephen Elliot was born 12 Jan 1866 in Eden. He married Elizabeth Jane Larson 30 Sep 1884. Stephen later married Isabell Burt Nelson 1918 and later Maude Lenora Mikesell April 1925. He died 15 Mar 1940. Sarah Jane was born 14 Nov 1867. She died 21 Nov 1869. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, was born 12 Oct 1868.

Mary Jane Horr, grandmother's sister, died in 1863. She was 23 years old. We have no record of her having any children.

Later, in 1869 or the early 1870's, they moved to Bear River City, Utah area. They lived the first winter in a dugout in the side of the river bank. Later they built a two room cabin up off of the river bank. Their last three children were born there. They raised tomatoes and fed them to the hogs as they thought they were poison. They had several tomato fights and lickings to boot.

Alexander was born 3 Feb 1873. He died in September 1874. Rebecca Ann was born 25 Aug 1874. She died as a child. I believe both Alexander and Rebecca Ann were transported by train to Ogden and buried in the Hyrum Stow plot in the Ogden Cemetery. Nora Isabell was born 3 Feb 1876. She married Samuel Jason Palmer 30 Jan 1892. She died 10 Jan 1957 and is buried in Pocatello. Hyrum was Sunday School Superintendent while they lived there. There is a monument in Bear River City which includes the name of Hyrum Elliot Byington as one of the early settlers of that town.

Grandfather Hyrum Byington and Jefferson Hunt and others were sent to Oxford, Idaho to colonize Marsh Valley. Another family that was sent to Marsh Valley was the Thurston Larson family. One of the boys, Thomas Henry Larson, worked for Hyrum Elliot Byington helping with the cattle and sheep. My mother, Hannah Elizabeth Byington, and Thomas Henry Larson were married 30 Sep 1884 in Oxford, Onieda, Idaho. Aunt Jane Larson, a sister to Thomas Henry, and Stephen Elliot Byington, Hannah's brother, were married on the same day in a double wedding ceremony.

Jefferson Hunt was the first Bishop and Thomas Henry Larson was the first presiding elder in Grant Ward, Idaho. (There is no Grant Ward today.)

May Underwood told me, Lois Ann Morrison, that Alvin Horr and his family, including Hannah Dyantha, were visiting with her family, Esther Larson Underwood, in Marsh Valley and May and her sister, Jenny, were shelling peas on the back porch when this incident happened. She remembered it well.
Hannah Dyantha told about being sent for wood with the boys, her step brothers from Sarah Davis. The boys were sawing the wood and she was carrying the wood. Somehow, in a prankish way, the boys cut her head with the saw. Her father, Alvin Horr, gave her a blessing and it did heal but she carried the scar till she died.

My parents lived in the vicinity of and on the Byington ranch. When Edith was a baby, Father went on a mission and served 8 months at Anaconda, Montana. He would walk 10 to 25 miles a day. He went back to Nampa and Caldwell and Mountain Home (Indian Valley). He was there for 6 months. He became very ill and was sent home. He never did get very well.

Grandfather Hyrum Elliot Byington died in 1901. He left his children a great deal of money and land, cattle and sheep and cows. Uncle Steve took the farm. Uncle Joe took the money. Since I was not born till 1902, I never did know my grandfather Byington.

Grandmother Byington served as a midwife and a nurse in every community she lived in. She was skilled in the use of herbs and natural remedies. She was the midwife to my mother and brought me into the world 24 Feb 1902. I was born in the original log cabin on Steven Elliot's farm which is near the Byington family cemetery.

My father, Thomas Henry Larson, died 28 Dec 1903. He had typhoid pneumonia and had been ill ever since his mission. I was not quite two years old. I never did have a chance to know my father. Mother had a baby on 15 July 1904, Harold, who died in January 1905 from pneumonia caused by a severe burn. In those days, all babies wore long dresses and Ester and Minnie were bathing the baby and they accidentally dropped him on the stove. They had shortened his clothes and were going to doll him up for grandmother when she came home. He may have kicked the oven door.

The first memories I have of my grandmother Hannah Dyantha Harr Byington was when I was 5 or 6. She lived across the street from the church in Grant Ward. Sometimes I would stay with her. She bought candy in old fashioned wooden buckets, hard tack, some rock candy, and a few chocolates. She would sack the candy into green and red striped candy sacks and sometimes she would let me help. If I was real good I would get a piece of candy for myself. These sacks of candy would be sold at the box socials or wedding dances or any occasion to help her with her finances. Both mother [Hannah Elizabeth Byington Larson] and grandmother Byington [Hannah Dyantha] were widows. After the dances my mother would sell and serve an oyster supper and lemon pie and I was allowed to stay up and help.

Grandmother Hannah Dyantha moved from Grant Ward to two miles up the canyon. I used to take milk over to her home. She had a spring in which she kept all her food in buckets. She lived here about two years and in the summertime. I was 7 or 8 and would take a milk container full of milk at night, about 6 in the evening, and would stay all night. I would go home in the morning and do my chores. Climbing through sage and all, I got tic fever. Only time I ever remembered having a doctor in the home was when Lorinda got pneumonia.

Uncle Joseph H Byington had a house below the tracks in Downey. They took grandmother there to live. Uncle David had a home next to mother Larson Higbee. They moved mother next to them in Downey.

Grandmother, Hannah Dyantha Harr Byington, wore ankle length skirts, usually dark and long sleeve blouses that were light. A lot of them had high laced collars on them. She wore laced old-fashioned high-top shoes with the bunions cut out because her feet were damaged during the trek west. She wore her hair parted in the center and pulled back into a bun. She was not a very smiley person but on the stern side. She was a good housekeeper, everything was in its place. She always had clean floors and stoves and bedding.

Grandmother, Hannah Dyantha Harr, had a large iron kettle with three legs that she put over an open fire to cook with. She made dumplings that were out of this world. She made a sour cream raisin cake which was 3 to 4 inches high and was it delicious! She kept brown sugar, sourdough cake, and bread in crocks. She also made delicious potawatame jam.

I took care of grandmother Byington. One morning I didn't see her outside nor did I see her looking out the window. It was three P.M. when I went over to the house where she was staying. I didn't want to go for some reason. I opened up the door and grandmother was on the floor and she said, "Oh Thora, why didn't you come? I have been praying and calling for you all day." I couldn't budge her so I ran to get Lorinda. We carried her across the road and through the gate. She was paralyzed on the right side. As we were going through the gate grandmother passed out and got skinned on her right side. It scared me to death. We took her over to the porch and got her a chair and put her into the chair and pulled her through the door and into our house in the rocking chair. I ran to the doctor's office and then to Uncle Joseph's and back home. Mother nursed grandmother and in a year or two she was able to walk and talk well. Later on in years, her mind began to fail her and every time anyone came to visit her she thought they had come to make fun of her. She died in 1917, 27 July, at age 82. I was 15 years old. She is buried above uncle Steven's place in the Byington family cemetery plot.

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In a auto-biography of Thora May Larson/Morrison, Thora recorded: "Grandmother Byington I remember well as she had much to do with, and for, me as I was growing up. I remember her wonderful sour cream cake with raisins; 2 inches think and mouth watering. Large chunks of brown sugar sealed with real thick molasses."

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Idaho State Death Record
Name: Byington, Hannah D
Cert or Record #: 018502
Death Date: 28 Jul 1917
Place of Death: Downey