Daughter of Charles Shumway and Elizabeth Jardine

Married Nephi Johnson, 1 Oct 1879, St. George, Washington, Utah

Sketch - Julia Ann Shumway was born April, 4, 1864, in Wellsville, Cache, Utah. Her early years were spent at Johnson, Kane County, Utah where she met and married Nephi Johnson Jr. when she was fifteen years old. They were married in the St. George Temple on October 1, 1879. They rented Sixtus Johnson's home and Nephi carried the mail part way to Paria that winter.

In the spring of 1880, they moved to Arizona, with her family. The first child, Nephi Merrill, was born October, 8, 1882, at Concho, Arizona. The second child, Charles, was born the following year and only lived long enough to be named.

The family moved to Taylor, Arizona, and Nephi went to work for United States Geological Survey. Julia Ann went with him. When the men were gone she was alone at camp with only a big dog for her protection. She was a very brave and efficient woman.

During the twelve years they lived in Arizona. she had four more children, James, who died at birth, Arthur, who was born August 19, 1885, and Susie, who was born on January 5, 1890, and one stillborn.

In 1892 the family made a long, tedious, dangerous trip on a wagon back to Johnson, Utah, the town named for Nephi's ancestors. Nephi went into business with three brothers. They operated a store, engaged in cattle and sheep raising.

After a year Nephi bought a ranch in Dairy Canyon, near Johnson, and moved his family there. They built a comfortable adobe home with four bedrooms, a kitchen, a large cellar where the milk and other food was kept, a dining room, a large fireplace. There were weeping willow trees, a running spring, a well and a green grassy meadow in front of the ranch known as Dairy.

Nephi hauled freight from Belnap, later from Marysvale, Utah, which was a railroad terminal. He would be gone two weeks at a time, so Julia Ann was left to care for everything. With the help of the boys, she milked thirty cows. The milk was strained in pans and set for the cream to rise. Then the cream was churned into butter and taken into Kanab where it was sold for twenty-five cents per pound. She also raised chickens and geese. Every six weeks, she plucked the geese and used the feathers to make pillows and feather beds. Work on the ranch was hard but they made a good living.

In the winter they moved to Kanab so the children could go to school. During this time Julia Ann gave birth to seven more sons. Six of them were born at the ranch and in Johnson, but the last one Hugh, was born in Kanab. All of her children were born at home with the help of a midwife. After each birth, she had the help of a hired girl for two weeks.

Also, during this time, she had to lay away two of her sons who died at the age of two and a half years. She grieved, about this but went bravely on. She worked very hard to help provide for her children and give them an education.
In the church she helped any where she could. Many times taking care of the authorities when they visited. When parties came along her part was always to furnish the coleslaw and suet pudding for which she was noted.

Since she had no opportunity for much schooling, she was always doing things to educate herself. She read everything she could find and was very talented in sewing and arts and crafts.

One time she made a beautiful deer on velvet which she sold for five dollars. Also, she made beautiful wax flowers and put them under glass. She made all of her own clothes and all of Susie's, did a lot of knitting and crocheting and always tried every new craft that came along. She loved nice, stylish clothing and always kept a black satin or silk dress to wear on Sundays. One time she made a lovely Queen-of-Hearts costume to wear to a ball.

After the family sold the ranch, they moved to Marysvale, Utah, a booming little mine town. There she managed a hotel for two years. Nephi drove mail from Marysvale to Kanab for two years. At the end of these two years they moved back to Panguitch, and bought a house. Julia Ann supervised it's remodeling so that she could take in boarders. There she made many friends who always remembered her. Many were teachers who came to Panguitch to teach school.

In 1924, she and her youngest son, Hugh, moved to her daughter Susie's home where she died of heart complications on November 21, 1924, at the age of sixty-one.