Biography:Written by his son, James Duke Mecham in 1959

My father, Moses Moroni Mecham was born July 8, 1845.  We always supposed he was born in Nauvoo as this was the place of birth taken from an old family bible, but from the account given in a Book of Remembrance – he was born in Lee, Iowa!  He crossed the plains at the age of eight with his father’s family, walking most of the way and driving cows.  They arrived in Utah in 1853 and settled in the Utah County.

Father was a quiet man and did not have much to say.  For that reason, we never knew much of his early life.  I have been told that he was tops with his fists; there was not anybody around that wanted to tackle him in a fist fight, which was a common sport in those days.

He married Almira Jane Duke on December 26, 1875, in Wallsburg and they made their home in Wallsburg for the next nine years.  Then, they moved to what was known as Riverdale, later called Jensen.  They established a home there, but,  the next year they came back to Wallsburg where I was born.

When I was about six weeks old, they went to Logan and had their endowments and had their first six children sealed to them.  This was on the 4th of November 1885.  They, then, went back to their home in Jensen, Uintah County, Utah, where the rest of their children were born.

I do not think father was much for religion up to a while before I was born.  At that time he had a terrible sick spell.  He was milking a cow and the calf was feeding at the same time.  The calf bunted and he scratched his finger on the left hand – he got infection in it and it turned to blood poison.  What few doctors there were in the country didn’t know much about what to do.  He must have been awful bad for the doctor gave him up to die.  My mother always had a lot of faith, so she called in the Elders.  They administered to him and he immediately began to get better.  This gave him renewed faith in the Church and he was called to the First Counselor in the Bishopric; he held this position for 20 years.

Mother died in 1894, and father was left with a family of seven unmarried children and one married daughter.  I was eight years old and there were three younger than I.  Pearl, the oldest, was married and was living in Sanpete County; she came home with the family and helped with the raising of the family.  Sarah, who went by the name of Rhae, was a small baby, I think six weeks old.  It was a hard struggle for years to keep things going.

 Somewhere around 1905 or 1906, he sold out and went up to Duchesne River, where Lee and Almira had homesteaded land.  He got a piece of land and lived there for a few years, then he went to Manti to do Temple work.  After he was there a while, he married Martha Harmon.  She owned the hotel where he was staying; she was also doing Temple work.  They stayed there around 15 years and worked almost constantly on the Mecham line.  He did 598 names and his wife did 202; they kept a record of the names and when the work was done for each.  It is quite complete, as it gives the name and relationship, date of birth, death and date of baptism and endowments of each one.

Father’s health began to fail, so they sold the hotel and moved to Salt Lake City and bought an apartment house.  I think he lived there about five or six years.  My wife, Zina and I visited with them several times.  His wife was a fine woman and always treated us fine and I think she was good to father. 

The last time we were out to see him, he said he had to get back to Jensen – that his time had about come.  At that time, the roads were bad – it was winter and the only road that was open was around by Price and through Nine Mile.  He said as soon as the roads were open through Strawberry, he was going to take the stage and go to Jensen where his daughter, Mary was living at that time.  Before the roads were open, he told his wife he had to go as he didn’t want to die and have to be shipped over the mountain in a box, as he put it; so she got him ready and got his burial clothes ready and put them in a suit case and put him on the bus.  She couldn’t leave so I guess she did the only thing possible for when father wanted to do something, there was no changing his mind.  She gave instructions to the bus driver to look after him and  to relay the message to the other bus drivers to see that he made connections.  So, he arrived unexpectedly in Jensen.  In a few days he became very ill and they sent for me.  I was with him when he died.  Death came March 16, 1928 at Jensen, Utah.