William Arthur Cox
Marriage
William Arthur renewed his acquaintance with the little Danish girl, Maren or Mary Christina Anderson, whom he had first met at a dance years before. She was born 3 June 1848, on the Island of Falster, Denmark, & came to Utah in 1855 with her parents. She was a very lovely girl, small in stature, with dark brown hair & grey eyes. She weighed about one hundred & fifteen pounds. She was very graceful & stately, was a beautiful dancer, & had a most lovable disposition, making friends wherever she went. After they had gained the consent of her parents, William Anderson & Henrietta Barnson Anderson, to be married, they, in company with four other couples, Ezra Shoemaker & Abigail Tuttle, John Hall & Almira Tuttle, Peter Anderson & Esther Smith, & Andrew Van Buren & Lavina Cox, started for Salt Lake City by horse teams.
They were married in the Endowment House on 1 Dec 1866, by George Q. Cannon. After arriving home, they started to keep house in one small room in the Big House, & remained there until William Arthur could build a house on a lot he owned just across the street north. He hauled rock mornings & nights when he could get the oxen. Building material was very scarce. They could not always get lumber, because the Indians were so treacherous, they dared not venture into the canyons in the summer. He did the carpenter work himself, working on winter days & late at night. They moved into their new home in the summer of 1869. On 4 Sep 1869, their first child was born, a son who was named after his father, William Arthur Cox, Jr.
Colorado Mission
On 4 Sep 1878, William Arthur was called to fill a mission in Colorado. There had been a colony of people from the south sent to settle Manassa & one or two other settlements in the San Luis Valley, Colorado. These people did not know how to irrigate the land, nor to farm, so the Church called a few men to go & teach them how to farm. William Arthur was among the missionaries chosen, so he had to leave his wife & young family.
William Arthur was the first man to plow, to make the first irrigation ditches, & to irrigate the land in the new settlement of Manassa, Colorado. He also assisted the people to build their log houses & to make furniture, such as tables, cupboards, & chairs.
While on this mission, at one time he made 14 ox yokes from one cottonwood tree, making a vise for holding the wood by carving a hardwood screw and seating it into two blocks by turning it while pouring sharp sand from the creek over it. He sold them to a freighter who was passing through the town. He had to make a little money on the side to care for his little family. He was never idle.
Bishop Jensen, one of the men who was called on that mission with William Arthur, had an interesting experience. One day, when he was returning home by team with his daughter, he was surprised to find themselves surrounded by a band of Indians who were on the warpath. They knew no power on earth could save them, so they prayed to the Lord. Just before the Indians reached his wagon, someone seemed to whisper to him, "Get out of your wagon, run up & down the road shouting & throwing your arms about as if you are crazy." So he did this, & when the Indians saw him, they said, "No goot", & left as fast as they could. Brother Jensen marvelled at this, & told his people about it after he arrived home. An old Indian scout explained that the Indians had the idea that he was possessed of evil spirits, so they fled for their lives. But Brother Jensen knew that his prayers had been answered.
William Arthur told Bishop Jensen that he would not preach in church. "Why?" he asked. "I am just as likely as not to start swearing before I get through. I have driven oxen and mules too long not to start swearing whenever it strikes me just right, and then all the people would apostatize from the church."
On one occasion, William Arthur, with several other men and their mule teams, went to the railroad station to meet and bring some of the settlers to Manassa. On their return trip they had to cross a swiftly running river in the bottom of which was quicksand, so they had to drive through quickly or get stalled. William Arthur was on lead and he drove through all right. When he got to the other shore, he called back to the next teamster, "Lay your whip on your team or you will get caught in the quicksand." The teamster called back, "All right." But he did not use enough force with the lazy mules, for just as soon as the cold water touched them, they stopped, and the wagon began to sink. When William Arthur saw this, he knew he would have to go to the rescue. He quickly unhitched his own team, went back, and hitched them onto the stalled wagon and tried to start the floundering mules. The water was over his waist. The mules would not move, so William Arthur lit into swearing at them. The mules seemed to realize when that started that the whip would come next, so they started up and pulled for the shore. When the immigrants heard him swear they asked of their president, "Is that man a Mormon?" He answered them, "I do not know whether he is a Mormon or not, but you see what he has done for you, how he leaped into the ice cold water without any hesitation when we were in trouble and thus saved the teams, wagons, and your lives."
About two years ago, one of William Arthur's nieces was teaching school in Manassa, & she says that some of those people are still living there, & that they still remember & love William Arthur for what he did for them.
On 2 June 1879, William Arthur received word that his father was not expected to live, as he had been crushed between two logs. Since the accident he had not been able to speak a word, but when they asked him if they should send for William Arthur, he spoke just one word, "No". They knew that he wished his son to remain & finish his mission. On 5 June 1879, his father passed away, & was buried at Manti, Sanpete County, Utah. On 22 July 1879, William Arthur returned home.
During the next two years, William Arthur, besides his farming, worked in the canyon cutting & hauling logs & poles.
On 15 Jan 1883, they were blessed with another son, who was given the name of Frederick Walter, after his grandfather.
William Arthur was appointed city road supervisor. He held this position for several years. There was a great deal of public work to be done. In those days, each man was expected to give one half of his time to assist in building roads in the city & canyon.
On 10 January 1886, they were blessed with another son, who was given the name of Calvin.
In connection with his work in the canyon, William Arthur says that the tallest tree he ever cut in Manti Canyon was one hundred feet high, & the circumference was four feet.
William Arthur was appointed City Water Master of Manti, & he held that position for several years.
Their daughters were Effie Laverne, Henrietta, Mary Geneva (born 21 May 1889), Stella (born 8 Aug 1893). He now had a family of four boys & four girls. He thought himself very rich, with the possession of these precious jewels God had entrusted to his care. He felt it a rare privilege to care for & guide them aright.
Last Years
In 1889 William Arthur was ordained to the office of Seventy in the Priesthood. In about 1893, William Arthur was ordained a High Priest in the Church.
On 4 Mar 1896, his beloved mother, Emeline, passed away & was buried by the side of his father in the Manti Cemetery. She lived to be seventy nine years of age.
On 14 Aug 1906, the wife of his youth passed away. This was a severe trial to him. What would he have done at such a difficult time, if he had not been a man who believed in work? He believed that true religion is not a belief that we would not die, but that when death comes, it should find us with our tasks done & our obligations to man & to our Creator fully & honorably discharged. Their home had been a happy home, one filled with lovely & lovable children. Work did not dampen their pleasure; it added new zest to their home life. The great consolation that William Arthur experienced at this sad parting, was the thought that both he & his beloved wife had done their best.
During the winter months of 1908-09, William Arthur spent his time working in Manti Temple. It was while performing this duty that he met Miss Margaret Ann McMahon on 1 Dec 1908. She was the daughter of James McMahon & Lucinda Atcherson. She was born 17 Sep 1874, in Holden, Millard County, Utah. She was also working in the Temple at this time. They were married 13 Jan 1909 in the Manti Temple by President Lewis Anderson. William Arthur has often said that as he felt assured upon the first meeting with his first wife-to-be, he also had felt just as assured that Miss McMahon would yet become his wife. And it is here only proper to state that the writer of this sketch, the second wife, has had no occasion to regret having become the wife of this honorable & lovable man.
When speaking of the amount of hard manual labor he has performed, William Arthur once said that he had cut, hauled, & built close to one hundred miles of pole fence, most of which was put together with wooden pins made with a hand-ax. He would make those fence pins at night by candle light after his day's work was finished. He has cut thousands of feet of saw-logs, hauled them to the sawmill in Manti Canyon & to the saw mill that now stands in the east part of town. He continued to perform this labor until 1919. He would do his farming during the first part of the season. In the fall he would start to labor in the canyon, where he would continue until the snow became so deep that he was forced to remain in town. The cold nor rain never prevented him from going.
William Arthur has also harvested good crops. He has raised hundreds of bushels of potatoes & sold them to the people of Manti. The Lord has blessed the labor of his hands, & the soil has given its best to him.
He has always shown his appreciation by remembering the Lord in the payment of his tithing on whatever he received. He has always been willing to assist in upbuilding the Church & in forwarding God's work on the earth. There is no one who is more charitable, nor more willing to overlook the faults & shortcomings of his fellowmen. One of his favorite expressions when told of some error of another is, "Well, I think we shall have to allow him a little more rope, so he can handle himself better." And this was always accompanied by a smile.
William Arthur has always been charitable in giving to those who are in need. He enjoys the true spirit of service. He will never be so aged or feeble but that if he hears of someone in need, he will say, "Well, I think I can do it."
In speaking of education, William Arthur often says, "I could not remain in school too long when a boy, because I felt that I must be at work to assist my father in caring for our large family. When I was in the schoolroom, I was always thinking of the work that had to be done, & would plan what I was going to do & how I was going to do it. And so, his education, like that of so many of those pioneer boys & girls, was rather limited. He has a workshop which he loves to call his "office", in which he has stored many relics of the early days. He delights in showing these relics to visitors. He has a great variety of early reminders--the six-shooter & cartridge belt he wore when the captive Indians broke jail, an old-time powder-horn, a stone used by the Indians to crush their corn, a flint-and-steel with which he used to start fires, an old grain-cradle used in early days to cut their grain & a wooden tooth rake with which they raked it. Here are also two ox yokes, two wheels of a wagon with iron axles & iron linch pins which were brought to Utah by Johnston's Army in 1857.
In 1919, he was granted a government pension for his services during the Black Hawk War.
William Arthur has trained wild oxen to the yoke; has broken stubborn, kicking mules to the harness; has worked all his life in the timber & on the farm; but he has never experienced a broken limb, & at the age of eight-four years, on 27 Dec 1925, he is enjoying good health. Anyone passing the Cox home at almost any time of the day will still be able to see him busy sawing wood or straightening nails in the yard, for he is a firm believer in the old saying, "It is better to wear out than to rust out." At the present time he has eight children, all living, twenty-four grandchildren & 11 great grandchildren.
William Arthur Cox died 3 Apr 1932 In Manti, Utah.