Alvin Ira Wilkins

Alvin married Cledith Elizabeth Deal 6 Jan 1930, Safford, Graham, Arizona, United States. Cledith was born 28 Jan 1914, New Mexico, United States; died 8 Aug 2011. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Eden Cemetery
Eden
Graham County
Arizona, USA
Plot
Find A Grave Memorial# 16530637

Alroy married Phoebe Caroline Hancock 20 Apr 1897, Graham, Arizona, United States. Phoebe (daughter of Elijah Hancock and Eliza Caroline Rudd) was born 6 Aug 1876, Long Valley, Kane, Utah Territory, United States; died 22 Mar 1923, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States; was buried 24 Mar 1923, Eden, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Burial:
Eden Cemetery
Eden
Graham County
Arizona, USA
Plot:
Find A Grave Memorial# 16530643

Notes:

Married:
Name Alroy Wilkins
Spouse's Name Phebe C. Hancock
Event Date 20 Apr 1897
Event Place Carter, Graham, Arizona, United States
"Arizona Marriages, 1865-1949," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQ29-VLX : accessed 23 September 2015), Alroy Wilkins and Phebe C. Hancock, 20 Apr 1897; citing Carter, Graham, Arizona, United States, reference P. 320, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 2,109,910.

Notes:

Life Story of Alexander Wilkins Jr.
Contributed By Robert Givens · 17 February 2014 · 0 Comments
THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER WILKINS JR.
(25 Sep 1854 – 8 Sep 1893)
By Robert E. Givens (8-2011)

My great grandfather, Alexander Wilkins, Jr., was the first born child of Alexander Wilkins and Alice Malena Barney. His father was baptized in 1845 in Canada and his mother was baptized in the 1843 – 1845 era probably in Nauvoo. On 11 Dec 1853 his parents married in Provo, Utah after their families immigrated to Utah. On the 25th of September 1854 Alexander Wilkins Jr. was born – the first child of his parent’s union.

His parents had built a house on the block they first unhitched at when they arrived in Provo and it was here that Alexander was raised until sometime before 1870 when they moved to Mona, Juab, Utah. This was still wild territory and his father fought in three Indian wars (Walker War, Tintic War, and the Black Hawk War.)

On 8 Oct 1873 in Mona, Juab, Utah the then 19 year old, Alexander, married 18 year old Charlotte York Carter. She was the daughter of William Furlsbury Carter and Sarah York. Her family had first settled in Provo, where Charlotte was born 2 Jan 1856, and moved from Provo to Mona when Charlotte was 6 and then to Santaquin four years later.

Alex and Charlotte set up their home in Mona for the first 6 years of their married life. While there, they were blessed with three children. Gustella Arminta Wilkins was born 13 Aug 1874, Alroy Alexander Wilkins was born 20 Apr 1876 and Edwin Granville Wilkins was born 14 Jun 1879. Sometime after Edwin was born and before the 1880 census on 10th of June 1880, the Wilkins moved to Santaquin. They lived in town near Charlotte’s brothers, Edward and Edwin Carter. Alexander was listed as a teamster, which means he drove wagons hauling freight. It appears that they must have lived in the center of the community as most of the neighbors had jobs as miners, laborers, and teamsters and only one was a farmer. (Little else is known of those days in Santaquin.) They had one more child while living there when William Edson was born on 19 July 1881. A special event occurred on 24 Jan 1882 when Alexander and Charlotte traveled to Salt Lake City to be sealed in the Endowment House by Daniel H Wells. This must have been a special occasion as it would have required several days to travel to and from Salt Lake City, and would have been no easy task as this was in the dead of winter.

Life in Santaquin must have been difficult and the winters were especially cold, so in 1883 they volunteered to move and settle in Arizona. At that time they were the parents of 4 little children. The trip from Utah to the Gila Valley in Arizona required about six weeks of travel and naturally called for a lot of hardships and sacrifices. They made the trip in the old covered wagons drawn by horses. While they were not molested by the Indians while making this long trek, people traveling ahead of them and people who followed them were. This company consisted of thirty-three people. The mother of Charlotte, Sarah York Carter, was one of the group. She was 72 years old at the time and she drove the team on one of the wagons all the way. Others of the group were William A. Carter and Edwin L Carter, brothers of Charlotte and children of Sarah, and their families. Also in the group were William Dale and his sister, Mary Ann Miller and her family. She came to join her husband who had come earlier to establish a home for his family. Traveling with them were Joseph Greenhalgh and family and A. M. Dixon and family.

They left Santaquin on the 10th of September 1883 and arrived at Smithville, Arizona on October 22, 1883. At that early day, living conditions in the Gila Valley were very primitive. Pima had only been settled three or four years and was called at that time Smithville. It was to Smithville that Alexander and his family settled.

Many of the houses were made of cottonwood logs. Some of them only had dirt floors and dirt roofs. They lived in Smithville about 5 years. During this time they had to contend with many hardships and privations of settlers in a newly settled area. They also had to deal with the Apache Indians and Mexican Renegades. Alex would have to work hard all day and stand guard at night, taking his turn with the other men of the little town, watching lest the Indians come upon them and take their lives. It was a nerve-trying ordeal for all of them. They kept tobacco and coffee around at all times so if an Indian came by and asked for something they would have something to give. To refuse could cost you your life.

For a short time after their arrival in Smithville, the Wilkins family lived in their wagon boxes until a piece of land could be cleared and a house built. As Alexander was a teamster, he and his brothers-in-law, William and Edwin Carter went to the Graham Mountains to cut timbers. They then hauled the lumber back with their teams and wagons

Alex began building their house at once on the outskirts of the community. (In fact he helped sign the petition on 2 July 1884 requesting the Territorial Legislature to incorporate Pima, which had some 520 inhabitants at that time.) . This one room house was located on the Anderson farm across the wash from the main community. They had been asked to locate there to get that part of the town settled. When he completed his home, he moved Charlotte and their 4 children in. This was just two days before the birth of their fifth child, Parley Pratt Wilkins, who was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1883. One of the reasons Charlotte’s mother, Sarah York Carter, had come along on this journey to the Gila Valley was the birth of this child, which happened just 3 weeks after they arrived. Parley was a most welcome addition to their growing family of children.

There were log stockade houses in the mesquite thicket and new ones being built. New settlers during this time found Pima a beehive of activity when they arrived. Men were busy clearing land, planting grain and other food crops to care for the fast growing community. As it was dangerous to live that far out of town, the Wilkins family moved from the Smithville area of the community into what would become Pima proper shortly after arriving there.

While in Pima, on 20 Oct 1885, Alexander and Charlotte both received their patriarchal blessings. On the 4th of July 1886 they were blessed with another child, Sarah Melena Wilkins. It was also about this time on 21 March 1886,that Alexander was ordained a Seventy by John Moody. During this time Alexander helped to burn the lime for the first brick home in Pima. He had been out south of town working all week and came home Saturday night. A Brother Thurston came to take his place at the lime kiln. Alex reminded him that it seemed to be a likely place for the Indians to come, as the settlers had horses there. Soon after this the Indians did ambush and kill this man. His death surely cast a gloom over the community and the entire valley, as this good man was well and favorably known by all these early pioneers. The Wilkins family was especially thankful that their father had not been on guard that night.

Five years after settling in Pima the Wilkins family moved into a new community below Pima called Matthewsville. It was there on 7 Jan 1888 that Alexander was ordained a High Priest by Wm D. Johnson. My grandmother, Christa Lillis Wilkins, was born to them on Christmas Day, 25 Dec 1888. (Ironically this was the third straight child born to them on a major holiday – Thanksgiving, 4th of July and Christmas.)

On 2 September 1892 Alexander was called by John Henry Smith to be the bishop of the Curtis Ward near Eden – on the north side of the Gila River, northwest of Pima. Most of the people lived in scattered conditions on their respective farms which were irrigated from the Gila River. As there was no place there to live, their house was moved across the Gila River to Eden. Here he lived for only a year and he did a lot to help develop that community. During that time he secured the title to the spring above Eden which still supplies the town with drinking water.

Water became the cause of death for Alexander. Around the 1st of September 1884 Alexander was bringing some flour from a mill in Pima and had to swim his horse across the Gila to get home. He must have had his head go under the water and taught typhoid fever from the water. The Indians upstream apparently had the disease and it was carried down the valley in the water. On 3 September 1884 he passed from mortality. In addition to the grief occasioned by his passing their son Edson was also very low with the same disease. Their baby Lottie (who had been born 17 Mar 1892 prior to their leaving Matthewsville) was very ill from complications following a severe attack of whooping cough. So Charlotte was really loaded down with burdens and crosses.

Alexander’s body was buried the next day, 9 Sep 1893, across the Gila River in Glenbar in the Glenbar Cemetery. Fifty years later, in 1943, Charlotte was buried next to her husband. Today a beautiful tombstone stands as a memorial to the lives of these brave pioneers of the West.

Sources:
1. “Brief History of Charlotte York Carter Wilkins” (Given over the radio in Safford, Arizona, by President Harry L Payne, president of the Arizona Temple.)
2. “Alexander Wilkins Jr.,” in Mt. Graham Profiles, Graham County Arizona 1870 – 1977, Vol. 1, pub. Graham County Historical Society, 1977, pp. 361-2.
3. Pioneer Town – Pima Centennial History, pub. Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society Inc. of Graham County, Pima, Arizona, 1979, various articles - pp. 93 - 96, 166

Family Search Memories

Buried:
Burial:
Glenbar Cemetery
Glenbar
Graham County
Arizona, USA
GPS (lat/lon): 32.91972, -109.87375
Find A Grave Memorial# 72918589

Died:
Alexander Wilkins died unexpectedly on 8 September 1893 in Matthews, Graham, Arizona after contracting typhoid fever. He was only 38 years of age. The family lived in Eden, Arizona and needed flour so he had crossed the Gila River to go over to Matthewsville to get some. The river was swollen and while crossing back, he fell in and swallowed some river water. The Indians up the river had typhoid and he contracted it and died.

Source from familysearch.org

Alexander married Charlotte York Carter 8 Oct 1873, Mona, Juab, Utah, United States. Charlotte (daughter of William Furlsbury Carter and Sarah York) was born 2 Jan 1856, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States; died 24 Jan 1943, Tucson, Pima, Arizona, United States; was buried 27 Jan 1943, Glenbar, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Elijah married Eliza Caroline Rudd 25 Dec 1867. Eliza (daughter of Erastus Harper Rudd and Caroline Bradford) was born 18 Dec 1850, Harris Grove, Pottawattamie, Iowa, United States; died 11 May 1895, Payson, Utah, Utah Territory, United States; was buried 12 May 1895, Payson, Utah, Utah Territory, United States. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Alexander Wilkins Autobiography
Contributed By DebArm2 · 6 April 2013 · 0 Comments
Alexander Wilkins, the son of John Gansworth Wilkins and Nancy Kennedy, was born in Upper Canada, district of Bath, on the 9th day of July, 1835; lived there two years after my birth, when my father and mother embraced the gospel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and were baptized into the church; was blessed into the church at the time of my parents baptism. My parents immediately gathered with the Saints at Far West Missouri, reaching the gathering place of the Saints in the winter of 1837--the journey consuming three months. Apostle John E. Page was with our little company. Here I was blessed under the hands of the Prophet Joseph Smith.; was with the Saints in all the persecutions and mobbings and drivings and with the Saints when they went to Nauvoo in 1839. Here my fathers family helped in the building of that temple, while my mother knitted socks, which she sold to help in the building of that holy structure. I helped carry water to the men employed there. A year after we moved to Nauvoo, my father bought a farm about twelve miles from Nauvoo at what was called Green plains, a place two miles from Carthage. Here we had a nice home.
On the afternoon of the 27th of June 1844, I was standing on a knoll about a half mile from our home, all of a sudden I heard the discharge of guns in the direction of Carthage. Almost instantly a peculiar feeling came over me, I hastened home and found my mother leaning against the well curb. She was very pale. I said “Mother, what’s the matter?” she replied that she had heard the guns and was afraid my father was in danger. Just then a gentle neighbor flew past on horseback yelling “God **** you! You’ve got no more prophet!” My mother at once remarked “There, that accounts for all of it!” During all the time the brethren were gathering in the woods on my father’s farm determined to protect their lives against the mob that was assembled bent upon the extermination of the Saints. As soon as Joseph and Hyrum were martyred the mob seemed to be filled with a sudden dread, fearing the Mormons would gather at Carthage and exterminate them, they fled from the city and his themselves. A bright light from heaven shone upon the prophets face as he lay against the well curb at Carthage Jail, and after that disappeared, the heavens commenced to darken up, and the earth trembled. A most violent storm followed, the rain coming down like a flood. Such a storm as I have never seen before or since. One afternoon in October in the fall of 1845 a mob well mounted on horseback of about thirty or forty men came up to my father’s house for the purpose of burning our home. The captain of the mob said to my father “Wilkins, as far as you’re concerned we have nothing against you, we like you as a neighbor and as a citizen, if you’ll say that Joe Smith was a false prophet we won’t burn your property.” My father made answer and said “Gentlemen, you can burn and be damned, I’ll never say that, I hope, while breath is in my body.” He then seeing they were making preparations to burn the house, requested that he might be allowed to go back into the building and get an old family Bible, which contained the genealogy of his family. This request was partly refused, the mob telling him he knew enough of the Bible already. The loss of this genealogy has never been replaced, and a link is thus lost in our family records. Two weeks before my father died, he told me he stood joyfully and watched the destruction of his property, knowing it was a fulfillment of the scriptures. He also said he had never gone back on his testimony in regard to the divine calling of the Prophet, Joseph. At the time my fathers home was burned, my brother Oscar, was a baby, two weeks old.
In the early spring of 1846, before winter broke up, we left Nauvoo for Winter Quarters, crossing the Mississippi on ice. We crossed the plains in President Brigham Young’s company. We arrived at Council Bluffs in August 1846.
I well remember the call for the Mormon Battalion and the prophetic words of Brigham Young when 500 men were called, said he “If you will go and do right, not one of you shall lose your lives.” It was during our stay here I received a most wonderful manifestation of the Lord’s goodness to me. I went out one morning as usual with the cows to a place about three miles from Winter Quarters . About ten o’clock in the morning I took out a pistol which I usually carried with me for the purpose of shooting crows. It was an old revolutionary horse pistol, carrying an ounce ball, it was very rusty, never having been used since we left Nauvoo. I aimed the pistol at a crow, but it would not go off. I laid it across my left knee, and pulled the trigger with my right hand, and pulled down on the hammer with my right hand. It went off but with damaging results. The ball entered under my knee cap, severed the main ligament of the thigh, tore out the calve of my leg, and blew out a part of the bones, splintering the balance of what was left. The ball finished it’s work by tearing out the side of my foot. The force of the discharge knocked me to the ground. I sat up and found my pants, a pair made from a cotton wagon cover, on fire. I put out the fire and then started for home. I could not walk, for in that condition such a thing was impossible. I managed to get home the whole three miles by resting my body on my hands with my feet elevated. The journey consumed over five hours and I got home about 4 o’clock. My mother saw me first and she almost fainted at the sight. I was at once put to bed, and the service of a man by the name of Martholeuren summoned. He took an old sheet and scraped from it sufficient lint to fill up the wound, first soaking it in camphor. My leg was bandaged and he instructed my mother to let it stay in that condition for five days. On the morning of the third day after the shooting I was out of my mind through the intense pain I was in. My sister Jane was the only person in the room. I asked her to hand me a butter knife that was lying on the table. She did it. I took it and ripped open the bandages, digging deep into the flesh at the same time. I then tore open the bandages and threw them off. The dead flesh fell off in clumps, leaving the shin bone perfectly bare. My sister screamed and soon the whole house was filled. It was the general opinion that I would die---that it would be impossible for me to recover. I told my father that I would not die if he would go to Winter Quarters two miles below where we were staying and get Patriarch Morley and let him administer to me. I knew that if he would do this I would get well, because I realized the promise made to me by Joseph Smith the Prophet that I would live long upon the earth, and see my prosperity become numerous, and my sons and daughters teach the Lamanites. My father hitched up our only yoke of cattle, and went to Winter Quarters and brought Father Morley. Immediately upon his arrival I was administered to, I went to sleep when he was midway through his administration, something I had not enjoyed since I was shot. I slept fully 24 hours, the folks could not wake me, and only knew I was alive from the fact I was breathing. I never suffered in the least pain from that day till this. In three months I was able to use my leg again and could not detect anything ever having been the matter with it only for the scar. After my recovery my father went to Missouri and succeeded in procuring an old outfit to cross the plains to come to Utah. We left in the spring of 1850 and arrived in Provo City the same fall having been on the plains four months. We unhitched on the very block where we now live and have never moved. We helped to survey and lay off Provo, and have assisted in every way to make her what she is today. I have been in three Indian wars, the Walker War, the Tintic War, and the Blackhawk War, and though I have been in many hot engagements am thankful to say that I never sustained any injury. I was married on the 11th of Dec. 1853 to Alice Malena Barney to whom nine children have been born, and on 7th Feb. 1856, I was married to Eliza Barney, sister to my first wife, to whom eight children have been born. Sixteen of my children are living today, and 40 grandchildren. I was ordained a High Priest in 1890 and set-apart as the second councilor to Bishop Ervan Wride, of the Provo second ward of the Utah Stake of Zion.
I was in Salt Lake in 1853 and witnessed the laying of the first cornerstone of the Salt Lake Temple. I was there also on the 6th of April 1892 and witnessed the laying of the capstone which finished the outside of that beautiful building. This is a synopsis of my life. I am enjoying good health and am 57 years old and a firm believer in Mormonism. From your loving Father and Grandpa,
Alexander Wilkins

Written by my daughter Susie age 18

P.S. These persons who receive this please let all my living relations read it’s contents.


Family Search Memories



Buried:
Burial:
Provo City Cemetery
Provo
Utah County
Utah, USA
Plot: Blk 5, Lot 68
GPS (lat/lon): 40.2245, -111.64645
Find A Grave Memorial# 72197629

Alexander married Alice Mathena Barney 11 Dec 1853, Graham, Catron, New Mexico Territory, United States. Alice was born 25 May 1835, Kirtland, Lake, Ohio, United States; was christened Aug 1836; died 13 Nov 1916, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States; was buried 16 Nov 1916, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States. [Group Sheet]

William married Sarah York 17 Nov 1834, Winter Quarters, Douglas, Nebraska, United States. Sarah was born 25 Aug 1812, Bethel, Oxford, Maine, United States; was christened , Bethel, Oxford, Maine, United States; died 8 Sep 1888, Glenbar, Graham, Arizona, United States; was buried Sep 1888, Graham, Arizona, United States. [Group Sheet]

Solomon married Phoebe Adams 30 Jun 1836, Wooster, Wayne, Ohio, United States. Phoebe was born 7 Jun 1811, Middlesex, Yates, New York, United States; died 4 Feb 1897, Payson, Utah, Utah, United States; was buried , Payson, Utah, Utah, United States. [Group Sheet]

Erastus married Caroline Bradford 1 Mar 1848, Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa, United States. Caroline was born 31 Dec 1821, Starr Township, Hocking, Ohio, United States; died 8 Jun 1886, Salem, Utah, Utah Territory, United States; was buried , Payson, Utah, Utah, United States. [Group Sheet]