In 1886 Charles purchased some land about two and one-half miles from Peoa, called Oakley. Soon he, Eliza and their sons, Charley and William, went out there to live and improve the place. Perhaps Charles and Eliza felt that farming would be a good experience for their teenage sons.
In the early part of the year of 1891, Charles was asked to take charge of the co-op store in Peoa as Superintendent. In order to do so he had to buy two shares of stock at five dollars a share. During the week while Charles worked at the store, he stayed at Caroline's home, leaving the farm work to the boys. When Will, the youngest son recalled his life on the farm, his most unpleasant memories were of frightening nights
when he was left alone, while Charles was away at work and his mother was out nursing. Then every strange sound such as the thud of dirt thrown on the roof by neighbor boys, or the “Tap, Tap” of a big mountain rat in the darkness had an eerie meaning for him. On the other hand, his happiest memory of the farm was of a big family reunion, when all his brothers and sisters assembled there with their families. He never forgot the joke the older boys played that day, when they fastened some old horns to the head of a yearling
calf, and then called their father to see the “strange steer” in the stockyard.
On the 25th of February 1891, Charles Jesse the next to the youngest son of Eliza and Charles wed the lovely, soft spoken, dark-haired, Elizabeth May Newman of Peoa in the Logan Temple. In reference to his work as superintendent of the Co-op store in Peoa, Charles had this to say in his journal. “I got along there pretty well for nearly two years. The directors thought they would like a change.” (Apparently the directors and Charles didn't see eye to eye on company policy.) “So in 1892 I went to Salt Lake and worked as a bookkeeper for Knight and Company, my son Jabez being of the company.”
While working in Salt Lake, Charles was taken ill with the rheumatic fever at his son Jabez's home. Jabez and Jessie were very kind to him, nursing him through his illness. When he was able he went back to Oakley where his wives Eliza and Mary Ann nursed him back to health. The latter had sold out her home in Salt Lake City and purchased a farm in Oakley. With the help of a mason, Charles and Mary Ann's two sons built a rustic home for her. Her sons, William and Edward, worked the farm. Not being content on the
farm in Oakley, Mary Ann moved back to Salt Lake City.
The latter part of the spring of 1895, Charles went again to Salt Lake and did some work for Knight and Company on their farm at Kaysville. His son-in-law, George Draper, had charge of the farm. In July 1895 Charles began to homestead one hundred sixty acres of land situated in Mountain Green, Morgan County. (“It was about three miles up a mountain ravine from the main road,” said Charles.) The latter part of October (31) 1895, Charles and Eliza moved from Oakley to Morgan, where they, rented a log house which was near his son Thomas and Maggie. Here Charles wintered stock. In the summer he was kept busy
putting up hay for Knight and Company farm in Kaysvil1e. While there he and Eliza lived in a one-room summer house which George Draper and Charles had built. This arrangement was good because he was a close neighbor of his daughter Eliza and family.
In addition to working for Knight and Company on the farm, he also worked at times on his own homestead or ranch, which was mainly grazing land. One of the great joys of Charles and Eliza was to see their son Jabez depart on April 25, 1897 for a mission to Great Britain. How thrilled Charles was to receive letters from his son telling of his missionary experiences and to know that he was assigned to labor in the
Oldham District of the Manchester Conference.
Charles had given his son Jabez letters of introduction to his brothers and sister, John, Benjamin, William and Maria. In June of the year 1897, Charles was pleased to receive letters telling of the reunion of his son with his uncles and aunt in London during the Golden Jubilee in honor of Queen Victoria. Uncle William had treated Jabez royally and had taken him to see his other relatives. In other letters that Jabez had written his father and brother Thomas, he said that Uncle William had attended some Mormon meetings with him and that he had shown an interest in the gospel. --Still later Jabez reported to his father that Uncle William had written him, asking his nephew to come to London and baptize him. So Jabez went to London, spent the holiday with his Uncle William and baptized him January 5, 1898. Charles felt this to be one of the rewards for the sacrifice he had made in coming to Zion, also to later learn that his son Jabez had been made
President of the London Conference.
Note: Among Dot West's papers (given to her by Amy West Heiner) was found a letter written by her father Jabez, to his brother Thomas C. West. In the following Jabez had some interesting details to report of his visit with relatives in London while on his mission. Only a portion of the letter is reproduced here.
No. 56 Chief Street
Oldham, Lancashire England
October 22, 1897
T. C. West Esquire
Dear Brother,
I spent a very pleasant time with Uncle William and Uncle Ben in London during the Jubilee. I found Uncle William very much like Father, both in looks and ways. You could hardly tell them apart. They walk just alike. Uncle William is straighter than Father, about the same in height and disposition. He would give you his all if Aunt Lizzie did not stop him. She takes care of the money. Uncle Ben is very poor, depending on days work. His girls also go out to work. I was only in his company twice. Uncle John looks like a Jew with his long thick beard, cut rather short. Aunt Phillis is very poorly and has no use for the Gospel. Uncle John would be all right if he was alone by himself, but he is dependent entirely on his boys. When he started to
talk on the Gospel they told him that was enough of that nonsense. I only called on them once as I wanted to see all of London while I was there. I am going to get moved to the London Conference and then I shall wake them up on the Gospel. I got Uncle William and his family to go to meeting and took the Elders to their place, and made them acquainted. Uncle writes me often. I sent the Millennial Star every week for them to read. I also gave them a Book of Mormon and a variety of tracts and I think they are coming along all right."
While Jabez was on his mission, grandmother Eliza Dangerfield West had responded quickly to assist with cases of illness in Jabez's family. How wonderful it was for Jessie, the wife of Jabez, to have the comfort and assistance of her mother in-law. Jabez arrived home from his mission on June 4, 1899, but he missed the smiling face of his brother Thomas. The latter had died in the summer of June 25, 1898 of complications
following typhoid fever and a subsequent operation, at the age of forty-five years.
The spring of 1900 brought many revolutionary changes in the West family. Joseph and Annie Neville had been called by Apostle Woodruff to help settle the Big Horn Basin in Northwestern, Wyoming. William West and Charlie Wright (young bachelors then) were also going as members of the company. The family of Charles West was once again represented in a great pioneering undertaking. Just as these pioneers were leaving for Wyoming, Charles Henry John West learned that his son Jabez was made bishop of the Ninth Ward. Charles Jesse, his next to youngest son, was running a butcher shop for the Utah Slaughtering Company in Murray, acting as its manager, and he had also bought up fifty acres of land.
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