History of Ellen Amelia Johnson Lisonbee

Pioneer of 1852
Author: Granddaughter, Mrs. Ellen Winget
Source: Camp Alma DUP Histories, J-N, Monroe, Sevier Co., Utah
Copied: January 16, 1997 by Ann Marie Nielsen Bridges

Ellen Amelia Johnson Lisonbee, daughter of Lorenzo and Mary Lyman Johnson, born December 12, 1847 at Winter Quarters, Nebraska. She was the seventh child of a family of eight children. Her parents remained in Winter Quarters with the saints who dropped out of the company of saints that came to Utah in 1847.

She came to Utah with her parents in 1852. They settled in Springville. The opportunity for education was very limited but she was very studious and applied herself so was able to assist in teaching school at an early age.

She was married to James Thompson Lisonbee on the 20th of April, 1861. The first ten years of their married life was spent in Springville where their first four children were born. In 1871 they moved with their family, two sons and two daughters, to Monroe, Sevier County, Utah. There they lived in the Fort that had been built to protect the white people from the Indians.

She taught the first school in the Fort and was active in all the affairs of the community. They moved from there to Annabella in the Spring of 1873, living in a dugout while the land was being cleared of sagebrush preparatory for planting their crops. On the 25th of August their third daughter was born. At this time she lived in a little log room without windows, door, or floor. I can remember seeing her wetting the floor around the stove and patting it down with a cloth to keep the dust down.

In 1874 our father was called back to Monroe to act as bishop and president of the United Order, which office he held until his death in 1877. He was set apart by the President of Sevier Stake, Joseph A. Young.

On the 22nd of May, 1875, another daughter came to cheer and bless their home and was the fourth daughter and the sixth child.

At the general conference in April, 1876, our father was called to fill a mission to the Southern States and left the following May for his field of labor. Our mother had endured many hardships of pioneer life up to this time, and now she was left with the responsibility of making a living for a family of six children. Her cheerful and uncomplaining nature proved a great help to her in enduring this burden.

After our father left for his mission she rented her home to the telegraph operator’s family for the summer. The office was in her home and had been for some time. She took her family and went to Springville where there were better opportunities to get work. She and her sister, Harriett, who also had the responsibility of a family, rented an orchard. They took care of the fruit by drying most of it which consisted of apples, peaches, and plums. They had to build the scaffolds to dry the fruit and carry all the fruit from the orchard to the house. In the fall they sold the dried fruit to the merchants for merchandise. The spare time they had after taking care of the fruit, they sewed and did any other work they could get.

That fall or early Winter she returned home.

Our father’s health failed so with the hardships of his mission that he was released in the Spring, but not being able to get the money for his fare home, he remained in the mission field until early winter. On the 28th of Nov., 1877, he arrived in Springville. Two days after arriving there he took sick with pneumonia and died on the 9th of Dec., 1877. He was buried in Springville on the 12th, the day our mother was thirty years old.

It was in sorrow and disappointment that she returned home to resume the task of taking care of her family. She had taken them all with her which she was always very thankful for. Traveling with horses and wagon, and it being just before Christmas, made the trip very unpleasant. She traveled in company with a man from Monroe by the name of Richard Loynd who had hauled freight for the stores from Salt Lake City. One night we camped in York, a little railroad terminal. Only Eastern people lived there. It was just night when we arrived, and Mr. Loynd went to every house in York and tried to get a place for us to get in out of the weather as it had already started to storm but of no avail. Our mother then made a bed on the ground for the four oldest children. She and her mother wrapped themselves as comfortably as they could and held the two youngest children all night in the front end of the wagon. When morning came there was only a mound of snow to be seen where the bed was made. Our mother’s mother was left a widow five years before so she was taking her home with her, glad of the opportunity to do so.

She was always a great comfort in the home. She had a very pleasant and cheerful personality. She was not only a comfort to have in the home, but she was always busy doing the family knitting, darning and mending, which, of course, was a great help when our mother had to be so busy all the time earning a living for her family.

Our home was her home for twenty-six years when she passed away at the age of 92. Sometimes she would have our father’s mother with her to. [sic]. Our father’s mother being blind made the task harder.

Our clothing for the trip to meet our father was made of homemade linsie, with the help of her sister, Harriet, they spun, wove, and sewed suits, dresses, and underwear. Her responsibility of making a living necessitated her doing any kind of work she could get to do but her main pursuit was sewing. She did all kinds of family sewing. She would go out and sew by the day for 50 cents. For her sewing she would take foodstuff or whatever she could use for her family. She washed and sometimes ironed. For this she would get $1.00 and $1.25 when she took them home.

With the kind cooperation of the manager of the Co-op store, she was given the work of making men’s jumpers, and overalls, for the store. Handling this heavy material made the work very strenuous. And later when the Nielssenn [sic] Brothers’ started in the mercantile business, in addition to jumpers and overalls, she made shirts, and underwear. She would carry home bolts of shirting, cotton flannel, and denims and made these articles by the dozens.

Though she faced many discouraging situations, with her sincere faith and courage which comes from a knowledge of the gospel, gave her courage and determination to carry on in a spiritual, as well as temporal things.

She took pride in attending Sunday School with her family regularly every Sunday morning. She was secretary and taught a class for many years in Sunday School. She was always ready and willing to help take care of the sick. She would wash and lay out the dead bodies and make clothing for them, and all free gratis, which was the custom then.

One Fall she left the older children at home and went to Springville to get work. She helped to gather the Fall crop of fruit. With these earnings she bought material for the family clothing before coming home. After reaching home she received notice of an allotment for $25.00 on the Manti Temple. She called her four daughters to her and asked them how they felt about giving their new dresses on the allotment. They were happy for the privilege. She helped pay her allotment in that way. The workman taking in exchange for their labor.

She taught school for awhile, using her home for a school room. About 1880 our schools became more permanent. She took the school teachers to board.

In about 1884 or 1885, her youngest son felt like he would like to stay at home and farm if he had more land and perhaps arrange so his mother wouldn’t have to work so hard, so she traded her home in town and her 20 acres of farm land for more land a home on the farm, but when they did this, they didn’t have animals or machinery to handle it with so this necessitated mother going to town, a distance of about four miles, this distance she walked many, any times. She would sew all day for the meager sum of 50 cents and walk home.

While living on the farm she took an invalid lady and her little girl to take care of. This was a hard task as the woman was helpless with rheumatism.

She also took a family of motherless children to care for.

A portion of theses earnings was used to get something permanent on the farm but had to contend with adversity and losses in various ways.

She bought ducks, turkeys, and chickens, hoping to get something started on the farm that would bring revenue, but the canal run through the farm and the ducks would get in it and stray away or something happened to them. They were soon all lost. The coyotes would get the turkeys and so their hard earnings would be a loss.

Not long after, she moved back to town and still continued to sew for a living. She only lived to the age of 56 passing away on the 25th of December, 1903, at Monroe, Utah.