William Arthur Cox
Manti
They arrived at Great Salt Lake City on 5 Oct 1852. They journeyed on to Manti, Sanpete County, where Orville S. Cox & family were located. They had gone to Manti with the first settlers in the fall of 1849. Orville S. Cox was his father's brother. The family first lived in a log house belonging to a man by the name of Sylvester Hewlett. They purchased a piece of land & at once began to clear the sagebrush from it, so they would be able to plant it in the spring. The sagebrush grew as tall as a man, so it would take them a week to grub, pile, & burn the brush on an acre of land.
William Arthur attended school the first winter after arriving at Manti in a log schoolhouse located just south of the Temple site. This building was used both for day school & for Sunday services. His teacher was Aunt Mary Cox Whiting, his father's sister.
During the summer of 1852, the people decided to build a small stone fort, so they might have a place to fortify themselves & their families in case of an attack by the Indians. They built the fort eight feet high. The walls were two and one half feet thick at the base & two feet thick at the top.
There were two places, called bastions, one on the northwest corner, & one on the southeast corner. These bastions had portholes so placed as to enable one inside to see on all sides of the outside walls. They also had two cannons which they could shoot through the portholes. On the inside of the walls were built rooms. Each room had one window & one door. The roofs were all built slanting into the center of the fort. Some of the roofs were covered with slabs & some with poles, then these were covered with straw & dirt on top of that. Sometimes the snow would melt & did not run off as the builders intended it should. It would wet sacks of flour & cornmeal, or some sick mother's bed, so that she would have to hold a parasol over her head. There was only one entrance into the fort--a large gate twelve feet wide. The labor to build this fort was all donated. Each man or family did a portion. Each family that lived in the fort built its own rooms. Father Cox built in the southwest corner two sixteen foot rooms for his family of three wives & thirteen children.
Word was received that Chief Walker was on the warpath. When the people received this word, as many of them as the space would accommodate moved into the small stone fort. Many of the people had log houses. They decided to haul these together to form a fort. This was done in great haste, for they did not know what minute they would be attacked, as the Indians had already caused trouble in the northern part of the valley. They built a log fort around one block, placing the log houses sixteen feet apart. The street between the small stone fort & the log fort was left open.
On 2 Aug 1853, some of the men had to go to Spring City to rescue & move those settlers to Manti, as the Indians had made a raid on their city. These people were taken in & allowed to build houses, some of log & some of adobe, until the center of the log fort was completely filled.
William Arthur attended the first Sunday School held in Manti. It was held in the home of James Brown in the northwest corner of the log fort. Brother Brown was the presiding officer at the meeting. The first grist mill to be erected in Manti was built by Phineas Cook. The first saw mill was built by Charles Shumway.
Walker War
The Indians became extremely daring, & began to steal & drive stock away, until it became necessary for half of the men to stand guard while the other half gathered their crops. Whenever the men went to the fields, one man would stand upon a wagon box with his gun & a field glass with which he would watch the country, while the other men harvested their crops or gathered their winter's wood. If there was danger, the alarm would be given at once. The men & larger boys always carried guns wherever they went so they might protect their lives & their homes against the Indians. The Walker War started 18 July 1853 & continued during 1853 & 1854. To add to the troubles of the people, grasshoppers greatly damaged their crops in 1854.
Because of the sickness of his father, William Arthur, then thirteen years of age, would stand guard two nights in succession during the Walker War as a substitute for his father. In the fall of 1854, Chief Walker signed a treaty of peace. On 20 Jan 1855, word was received by the settlers in Manti that Chief Walker had died at Meadow, Millard County, Utah.
On 6 Feb 1855, Harriet Lenore was born, another sister to William Arthur. She was born in the small fort.
Hunger
When the grasshoppers came, they destroyed everything. All vegetation was devoured by the pests. The fields were as bare as if there had been no crops planted in them, & the people were left with but little food of any kind. The only thing left that was green was a large tract of land just south of the Temple Hill, which extended two blocks to the south & ran up to the foothills. This was covered with pigweed, which the people would gather & cook for greens. The ground was so thickly covered with this weed that one would think it had been planted. It was like the manna from heaven in the ancient days, & the pioneers gathered this weed & used them for greens. Thus their lives were saved.
William Arthur says that at one time they were without bread for two weeks. What little bread had been left in the Cox home was saved for the mothers who were nursing babies. The other members of the family lived on the greens, a very few potatoes, & a little milk. Later in the season when the grasshoppers got their wings they left & went east. Then the potatoes which had been eaten off to the ground began to sprout again, & a few potatoes were raised for winter.
The Cox family owned a large barn where they kept their stock. The boys, & sometimes the girls, slept there during the summer months.
The Big House
In 1856, the people began to move out of the forts & onto their lots & to rebuild the town. The Cox family began to build a large three-story house, which is still intact. The work had to be done after the day's work in the field was accomplished. William Arthur tells that Fred & himself would work hard all day in the field, clearing land & plowing, & when they returned at night they would carry enough rock up a runway made of lumber with slate across to supply the masons for the next day. They would carry a board loaded with large rock between them. Their house contained twelve rooms, with one large room on the third floor, which they used for a schoolroom & dance hall. William Arthur's father had four wives, & a family by each wife, making a very large family. They all moved into this large house. William Arthur tells of the constant effort that was required of every member of the large family. All had to work & assist in every way that they could, especially those who were old enough. They all shared alike in everything that was earned or brought into the house.
The family required a bushel of wheat a day for their bread alone. The wives & older girls would card the wool into rolls. Others would spin them into yarn, & still others would weave the yarn into cloth or knit it into stockings. For their Sunday best clothes, the mothers would dye the yarn & stripe their clothes or stockings. The dye was made of different plants--the yellow by boiling rabbit-brush blossoms; the red was made of madder, a plant which was raised in the gardens.
They had three looms with which to weave cloth & seven spinning wheels, & these were all kept busy. William Arthur tells that on many occasions the neighbor girls would bring their spinning wheels to the house, & all would have a "spinning bee". They would sing & tell stories while they worked. Meanwhile, the boys were harvesting the crops & getting the wood in for the winter.
William Arthur, at one time, hauled twenty-one loads of wood from the hills by himself in twenty days. There were five fires to keep going all winter & summer, & they were obliged to haul all their wood from the hills while the Indians could not get through the snow.
In about 1857, the Indians became troublesome again by stealing & driving off their cattle. So the settlers decided to build a large stone fort around nine blocks. This fort was built by cooperative effort, each man having a certain portion to erect, according to his ability to perform the labor.
As his father was a very busy man, William Arthur took the lead in managing the farm & seeing that all were kept busy & each did his part in helping to maintain the large family. When Father Cox was away, they all looked to William Arthur for advice as to what they should do.
The writer of this sketch remembers hearing Uncle Ben Driggs tell of an incident that happened while he was courting Aunt Rosalia, William Arthur's sister. There was going to be a dance & he (Ben) desired to get permission to take Rosalia to the dance. As was the custom, the father must give his consent. Uncle Ben was told that Father Cox was out of town, but one of the boys said, "Why don't you ask Cox's foreman (William Arthur), for whatever he does or says is all right with his father." Consent was obtained & Ben & Rosalia went to the dance at Ephraim.
The Cox home was a gathering place for the young folks, as they had their own dance hall, a luxury in those days, & their neighbors & friends were always welcome. In 1862, William Arthur had sixteen unmarried sisters all living in this large house. They would make the old house ring with their merry laughter & song. Among the songs were, "Row, Row Your Boat Gently Down the Stream", & "Sweet Alice Ben Bolt", & all the beautiful songs of their time.
On 15 Sep 1858 another brother, Sylvester Hewlett Cox, was born in Manti.
In 1860 William Arthur was ordained an elder.
One night William Arthur was going to a dance. Of course, he dressed up a bit. He wore a red & blue checked shirt (spun & woven by his mother), a bandanna handkerchief about his neck, homemade jean pants, high-topped boots with high heels, & a large brown hat. Around his waist was buckled a belt of cartridges, at which hung his six-shooter. Upon arriving at the dance, he was introduced to a little girl by the name of Christina Anderson. She was a very beautiful dancer & a beautiful little girl. He had heard from the other boys what a fine dancer she was, & he sought an introduction. It was love at first sight. When he returned to the barn that night, he told the boys that he had found his future wife. They told him that he was crazy, that he would never wait for that baby to grow to be a woman. However, he did, & in later years they were married.