Son of Elijah Mayhew and Lydia Farnsworth Mayhew

Husband of Martha Jane Walker Mayhew , married & sealed 24 Oct. 1868 in Endowment House in Salt Lake City, UT

Father of Austin Ship Mayhew, Elijah Walker Mayhew, Martha Medora Mayhew Gibbons, Berthamenia Mayhew Stoddard, Cordelia Mayhew Knight, Earnest Mayhew, Caroline Mayhew Lance , Walter Franklin Mayhew, Robert Ray Mayhew, Luella Mayhew Pedersen, Otto Benjamin Mayhew and Shelby Rufus Mayhew

Brother of Lucinda Mayhew, Laurana Mayhew, Otto Lyman Mayhew, Elijah & Elisha Mayhew (twins),Caroline Abigail Mayhew Chipman , Elijah Warren Mayhew and Walter Franklin Mayhew


Austin Ship Mayhew, husband of Martha Jane Walker, was born on Oct. 24, 1838 in Leport, Leport, Indiana. He was a son of Elijah Mayhew and Lydia Farnsworth. He planned to become a doctor and studied medicine two years to be a bone specialist. He was also a very gifted viiolinist.
His plans were interruped when his parents decided to come to Utah. They joined the Church May 25, 1852. In the spring of 1853 they joined the Daniel Miller Company and came to Utah by ox-team. This was a large company and Elijah was appointed captain over one group. His sons helped him organize the people and it was said that this gropu was on the best organized of any. It was long and tedious journey as the oxen were slow, but they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley Sept. 9, 1853.
They soon moved to Pleasant Grove about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City. Otto was 21 years old and Austin Ship was 19, they were assigned to a plot of ground on the square, the most souhterly lot on the southwest corner. Here Elijah built an adobe home for his family. The schools in Pleasant Grove at this time were not staffed to teach Austin soon teaching school himself. His father had some farming land and they raised their own food and feed for their stock.
Young Austin worked and helped his father and also helped in a store. He was always called upo to "fiddle" for the dances. This didn't give him much chance to dance and get acquainted with the girls. So he was 30 years old when he met and married Martha Jane Walker. She went to school there and knew the Mayhew family. Martha Jane was only 15 years old when she and Austin Ship Mayhew were married in the Old Endowment house in Salt Lake Oct. 24, 1868. They have 12 children. His father had built a rock house on the road leaving Pleasant Grove going west toward American Fork.
So Austin Ship and Martha Jane moved into the adobe house which was the first home of his parents and had just vacated. By this time Austin had a store of his own and they had a garden plot and a cow and a team. In a few years there were too many people in the town for the water supply. So there wasn't enough water for irrigating all the crops that were planted. The people of the town heard that there was winter grazing in Southern Utah. Austin and gropu of men took them and rove them down for awinter range, they started their trip in Late September but it was slow going as they had to let the stock feed and water on the way. This valley, because of the color of the soil--the hills looked blue so it was called Blue Valley. The climate was mild and the feed good. The Henry Mountains in the distance and many streams of water made it like a paradise. They took the stiock back to Pleasant Grove the next spring and because it was so far away, they didn't do it again. But Auastin Ship couldn't talk of anything else. He called it the "valley of my dreams." He wanted to go down there again, but Martha Jane did not have a desire to leave where she was born.
There was, however, a new country opened up in southeastern Utah called Moab and Martha Jane consented to go down there to see if she liked it. So they started out one spring day with two wagons loaded with household goods and what stock they could take. It was hard traveling through the steep canyons and Martha Jane regretted consenting to go. The dugways were steep and she was frightened, but they reached the top and entered a small green valley in Carbon County. They pushed on toward the east and when they reached the Green River, it was wide and deep. Austin Ship took his wagon across but his wife refused to try crossing the river. After several days Austin Ship gave up and they went back to Pleasant Grove.
In 1884 they finally left Pleasant Grove for good, as Austin Ship had persuaded his wife to go to Blue Valley. He wanted first choice of this land. They sold their store and started out. They went straight south this time and did not encounter mountainous roads for sometime, but they did find the road rough and finally had to make thier own road. In one place they had to cut a rough pass down a rocky incline and let the wagons down qwith ropes. This was all very frightening for Martha Jane and she asked him how they would get back and he replied we won't have to get back up because we are going on. When they arrived in Blue Valley it was beautiful and the climate so good that she was content. They found that there were several famililes already there. They loved it there, planted crops and raised food. So Austin Ship taught the first school. He played the fiddle for the dances and the children soon were picking music up from their father. There was plenty of water for the land but the people had a hard time keeping their canals intact. In about 1905 a big flood came down and washed out a new canal that they had been all spring making and a lot of people got discouraged and began to leave. Austin Ship did not have very good health and for some years, his boys had taken over the farming. The Mayhew family was active in the ward and community. Austin Ship continued to play for dances. Austin Jr. was in demand as "caller" for the dances, Walter Franklin also played the violin and Robert Ray played the guitar. All of the family sang well and no program was complete without song from some of them. By 1910 the town was almost deserted. The ward was disorganized Apr 26, 1910 amd Austin Ship died May 22, 1910 and was buried there.
After her husband died, Martha Jane went to Delta with her three children that were left. The next spring, 1912 They all went to the Uintah Basin. Austin moved his mother into a log house near Elijah's and three years later, built her a lovely frame home where she lived the rest of her life. She was very comfortable there and seven of her children lived within a few miles of her home.
Austin Jr. was very good to his mother and when she got older he took over the cooking and washing and other household chores. He used to "set" the bread very night just as his mother had done and he put out a pan of biscuits and a small loaf of bread every morning. her heart was bad the last few years, but she got around pretty good until the last few weeks. She passed away Dec. 9, 1928 and was buried in the Utah Cemetery De. 11, 1928. Her sons brought her husband's body there so she was buried beside her beloved husband.

By R. May Mayhew Foote