We enjoyed meeting and greeting over a hundred people at the reunion in June. We gathered at the Despain Ranch near Fountain Green where we became acquainted with cousins who traveled from far and near. Two families traveled all the way from New Mexico and several came from California.
At the fireside Friday night we became acquainted with each other by introducing our families and telling our lineage. Those who remembered interesting stories about their ancestors shared them with us. We would like to share just a couple of the stories that were told:
I will just tell a few things that our Aunt Lill who lived out here in Birch Creek told us. She and father and everybody out here talked so much about Birch Creek. It fascinated me last year to learn for the first time that a whole colony of people came from Salt Lake to Birch Creek and settled here. My grandfather, William, and his brother James Campbell and their families, plus some other families who came from Scotland to Salt Lake.
In my teens, I used to sit and ask my Aunt Lill about life here in Birch Creek. She grew up here and her mother who was also my grandmother, had also told her stories. My grandmother, Lillias Dick Livingston, had a lot of relatives in Salt Lake. She had met my grandfather, William Livingston, when he was working for a lumber company there. She cooked and helped serve meals to the men and this is where they became acquainted. Their families had also known each other in Scotland. After they were married and had either three or four children, one being a little baby, they were called to go to Birch Creek and help settle it. Grandmother dreaded leaving Salt Lake. She just sobbed and cried. She was sorry to leave her relatives and everybody she knew in the city and come out into this sort of wilderness. Dan Livingston was my father's cousin (son of Charles) and he told my grandmother that it was really best for them to come here, that it was much easier to bring up a family out there. It turned out for the best because they had twelve children who all lived to adulthood.
When my mother, Lilly May Munk, was being courted by my father, Archibald Dick Livingston, he brought her to Birch Creek and she met his parents. She described my grandfather as a very jolly man who always saw the funny side of life.
Aunt Lill talked about the parties and how they enjoyed going to the square dances and of the good influence of Willie Dobbie (who you have all heard about) had on them. She mentioned "Uncle Jim" who went back to work in the quarry (that would be James Campbell). He had moved his family down here and then he went back to finish the job on the Salt Lake Temple. He had lost his arm in an accident at the quarry. She spoke about religion meaning more to her parents than anything.
This is just a few notes that I took from things she told me. I hope it has been interesting to you.
Thanks, Lillias
My parents (Orson A. Despain and Janet Livingston) came to Fountain Green in about the year 1878, and then they moved over to the east side of the mountain for a while - Moroni, and then they finally moved over here to Birch Creek. They tried to change the name of this community to Cedar Creek, but to no avail. They never did have a ward here. We were always a branch of the Fountain Green Ward. We held Sunday School and Primary. I can remember going Relief Society Teaching with Grandmother and Mother in the old buggy, but I think they went to Fountain Green for Relief Society.
There were three children in our family when they first came to Sanpete and then they had seven more afterwards. They didn't have any doctors come to the house at that time and when the babies were born they had midwives come and take care of the mother and baby. I was the ninth child in this family of ten.
I remember at home when we sat at a long table in the dining room. Father and Mother sat at the head of the table. On mother's side was the youngest child and then they kept moving around until by the time I got there the table was really filled. Every morning our chairs were turned with the backs to the table and we knelt for family prayer. We never ate a meal without having a blessing on the food.
Our floors in the living room and the bedroom were covered with rag carpets and they were padded with straw. The floors were quite rough because they put a layer of straw on and then the carpet would be stretched and tacked down. This carpet had to be taken up and cleaned at least twice a year. House cleaning came in the Spring and again in the Fall. The carpet was hung on the clothes line while the children had willows to beat it with and new straw was put down on the floor. Our bed ticks were filled with straw also. Except on Mother's bed. She had a feather tick.
As children we used to look forward to threshing time. That was just about as much fun as Christmas. They hooked up eight teams of horses onto the thresher. I don't know just how it worked, but it looked like a big wheel and this fellow, I think it was old Tom Morgon, sat up on the hub, and the horses were hooked out around the wheel. He cracked his whip and the horses went round and round until the trail was pretty deep by the time they got through. We children had a lot of fun running around that circle. Sometimes the thresher broke down or something or other happened and they would have to stay at the homes more than a day. We children were glad about that. When the threshers came, boy we had a lot of good things to eat. They even made coffee and tea for them sometimes. I remember once my sister and I had never tasted tea and so we wondered how it would tate. We waited until the next day when no one was around and there was still some tea left. It wasn't a bit good. Bitter as it could be.
The women of course had to cook for the threshers. There was quite a crew. I can't remember how many, but it seemed like quite a bunch of hungry men that had to be fed three times a day. The older girls had to wash the dishes. We younger kids spent a lot of time playing in the straw and in the grain bins. When the threshers had to stay any length of time at one place, the farmer had to feed the horses as well as the men. Sometimes they would stay for days and the horses would eat up a whole stack of hay.
I can remember Grandfather Livingston (James Campbell) real well. I can remember him as well as I can remember anything. We used to love to go to his place. He used to run races with us. He would say "Throw your arms back, throw your shoulders back, tuck in your stomach, and now RUN." And we would run and he would run with us.
Every time mother churned, we had to take a little bucket of buttermilk down to grandpa. He surely loved buttermilk. I don't think he ever drank water, just buttermilk. He lived right through the field. Our path led right past the old farm where there were pollywogs and frogs and a lot of interesting things we had to stop and look at.
Christmas Eve there was always a program in the school house for everybody. They had a big tree and most of the decorations on it were gifts. They were little 5¢ gifts. Maybe some of them weren't even 5¢. They were little dolls or animals or sometimes a tiny little mug or figurine. There was something there for everybody in the town.
Christmas was a wonderful time of the year. Deon Livingston's folks, Aunt Addie lived way up on the hill, then there was Uncle Jim and Uncle Charley. Christmas morning we would get up long before daylight. We would start out and go to someone else's house and see what they had. Then they would go with us and we would go on to the next house. We would end up clear out to Uncle Charley's. Then we would all come back to Grandfather's. He had a beautiful home. They always had a great big Christmas tree and lit candles. They always had a toy or some little remembrance for all the children.
On the 28th of December was Grandmother Livingston's birthday. We always went to their house for a big party. We all sang Auld Lang Syne. I remember the last time that we went there they sang that song. Grandmother's voice broke and she was overcome with emotion. By the next year she was gone.
(Thanks, Aunt LeFern. 82 years young)
Young and old alike seemed to really enjoy the stories and activities that went on at the reunion.
Saturday morning we shared our genealogy information with each other. At the business meeting we elected new members to our board and retained some of the old. The board now stands as follows: Margaret and Dale Livingston, Enid Cox, Ted Livingston, Ron Livingston, Donley Despain, John Riggs, Wanda Bond, and P.J. Livingston.
It was decided at the meeting to proceed with research under the direction of Dr. Ariel Crowley, Idaho City, Idaho. Judge Crowley is an excellent researcher in his own right and we are lucky to have him in the family. His wife is Daveda Livingston. We discussed the possibility of hiring a researcher in Scotland. This was approved by all present.
Please plan your schedules so you can join with us at the reunion next year. It will be held on the last Friday and Saturday in June at the same location.
Since the reunion we have hired Donald Whyte, Esquire, from Kirkliston, West Lothian, Scotland. We have since received the findings of his first search and felt it would be very profitable to continue with him. We find him to be very thorough.
If you will refer to your group sheets we sent out last year, the one concerning Archibald Livingston born June 4, 1702, and Christian Muir born about 1704, this is the one that our researcher is working on at the present time.
We are happy to report that we now have two possibilities for the parents of Archibald, but no proof of either as yet. The problem is that the Dalgety register is blank from 1660 to 1717. The researcher is searching other sources now and we hope to produce proof of his parentage.
He is also searching for the parents of Christian Muir and has one possibility, but not positive proof as yet. We cannot publish this information until it has been proven.
We feel very encouraged and excited about these new finds, and as Judge Crowley states, "it is a substantial advance over these many years of total stalemate."
Our plans at present are to continue this search as well as get into other lines. We have been requested to pursue the Jean Bain line which has been at a complete standstill for so long. This we hope to do, perhaps using our same researcher in Scotland. We are checking into this possibility at the present time and hope to have further information in time for the next bulletin.
Our financial Chairman has recently sent out a notice to all of the family members encouraging them to send in their 1974 Family Organization dues. The response to this recent letter and previous letters has been tremendous. We extend our sincere appreciation to all the family for their generous contribution and continued support. We find ourselves on a healthy financial footing which is most gratifying. We will prepare a year end statement to give you an indication of the income and the expenses that have been accounted for this year. This will be printed in the next bulletin.
We will be happy to receive any 1974 dues through the end of this calendar year. If you wish to send in next year's dues towards the end of this year or at the beginning of next year, please make your checks showing the year that the dues apply to. Remember, one wise individual has said, "money is like fertilizer - what good is it unless you spread it around?"
Many of you had histories at the reunion that would be interesting to print in the bulletin. Please send us copies so we can share them with everyone. Is there a history of William somewhere?
Enclosed in this bulletin is the history of Charles Livingston. Also enclosed are the group sheets on he and his two wives. There must be many of his descendants who are not on our mailing list. how can we go about finding them?
If you have any suggestions or helps for our bulletin, we would really appreciate receiving them.
Remember also to send us any change of addresses you might have or any new additional you might know that should be on our mailing list. Help us keep our list current. We have 290 total names on our list now.
Many thanks for all the support and encouragement we have received from many of you. We hope and pray that the coming year will meet with much success as we search out our ancestors, and become acquainted with each other as a family.
Charles Livingston, son of Archibald and Helen Livingston, was born in the Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland, March 16th, 1835.
My mother died when I was a little over two years old, leaving my brother James, myself and sister Helen. My father married Jean Bain a year or two after mother's death and she had two boys and a girl, Archie, Isabel, and William, and she died in 1849 and father died two months after, leaving six children - the youngest nine months old.
At my father's death, father's mother, Grandmother Livingston took charge of the family. As she had embraced the Gospel we also became acquainted with the principles of the Gospel and were baptized in May 1849.
We sent my brother James to the Salt Lake Valley in 1853 and with the help of my uncle John Dobbie they got us to emigrate to the Valley in 1855. We left our home in Scotland on the 16th day of December 1854 and arrived in Salt Lake on the 25th day of September 1855. We crossed the sea in a sailing vessel to New Orleans and came up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to Atchison. I helped to make the first improvements that were made in Atchison. We moved about five miles and established what was called "Mormon Grove." Did a great deal of work there, ditching, making corrals, branding cattle. etc.
Arrived in Salt Lake City with my grandmother, Uncle James and Aunt Ellen, with two brothers and two sisters. The first work I did in Utah was getting coping for the wall around the Temple Block; then worked on the Cottonwood canal in the spring of 1856. I took our best clothes and went south as far as Draper and sold them for anything I cold get for the family to eat, and on that trip I agreed to work for $15.00 per month and board, in 1857. I worked in the quarry getting rock for the foundation of the Temple. Was in Big Cottonwood Canyon when the news came of Johnston's Army coming to Utah. Was in that campaign ten weeks in the fall and eleven weeks in the spring as captain of one of the Tens in Company A as first Company of the 3rd Regiment.
In 1858 my brother James and myself took a contract to get two courses of Flagging to cover all the foundation of the Temple before commending laying the Cottonwood granite. Then went out to work in the quarry in Cottonwood; left there and went to San Pete in 1860, helped to establish North Bend, now called Fairview. Worked on the erection of Bernard Shaw's mill at Ephraim; came back to Salt Lake City and took contracts in filling in the center of State Street for about five blocks, which at that time was impassable part of the year. Also north of the City we continued contracting for building rock, for digging cellars, etc., until 1864 when James and myself were called to go on the Police Force in Salt Lake City. In the summer of 1866 I was called to go down to San Pete on an Indian expedition. I had been commissioned by the Governor as First Lieutenant and was gone over three months.
When the Union Pacific Railroad was being constructed there was a very great amount of crime such as murders, garroters, gamblers, hurdy-gurdy harasses and all the worst criminal element in the country. There had been a riot at Bear River for several days and it was decided that there would have to be a check put upon such lawlessness, and I was selected and commissioned by the Governor and appointed by the County Court of Summit County as Justice of the Peace and sent out there to stop all lawlessness and to enforce the law of the Territory. After I left Echo and came home; in a few months I was sent up to Ogden to help the Police Force up there and I was several months up there. I came back on the Police Force again after my leave of absence.
In 1880 I was appointed Supervisor of Streets of Salt Lake City and held the office until 1890. After leaving the City I contracted to lay the Street Car Railroad track from South Temple to the Warm Springs. I was then appointed Superintendent of the Temple Block and continued there until the Temple was finished. I had the honor of placing in the capstone the engraved plate and all the records and papers. I had a shelf or projection put all around on the inside of the stone to place them, as I understood that they were going to put cement in the stone to make it more solid so I put the shelf to keep the records out of the cement. After I left the Temple Block in June 1893 I went out to the West, south of Utah Lake, and opened some onyx quarries and worked there several months. I then was appointed Desk Sergeant and Bail Commissioner of the Police Department and held that position for over ten years, and when the American Party came into the political control of the City, by request of the new Chief, G. A. Sheets, I resigned my position in the Police Department. I had been in the service of Salt Lake City for thirty-six years except the leave of absence when I went to Echo, Summit County, as Justice of the Peace, and the short time I was in Ogden helping the officers there for a few months.
I am now seventy-one years of age and find it very difficult to get anything to do.
I was baptized May 18th, 1849 by Elder Paul Gourley; was ordained a teacher in the Holy Town branch in the Glasgow Conference about 1852; was ordained to the office of a Seventy on the 28th day of December 1857; into the Eighteenth Quorum of Seventies was appointed one of the presidents of the quorum; was changed to the Fifty-seventh Quorum and was one of the presidents of that quorum; was appointed a Home Missionary in the Salt Lake Stake of Zion, and was on that mission about ten years. I was appointed Superintendent of the Eleventh Ward Sunday School and held that position for over five years. On November 1, 1891 I was ordained a High Priest and set apart as First Counselor to Bishop Robert Morris of the Eleventh Ward, Salt Lake City.
The details of my personal experience in the various positions that I have held would be sensational and startling enough for one of Beadle's Yellow Back Novels. If I was convinced that I would have to meet the issues again, I am satisfied my faith would fail me.
The surname of the Scottish family of Livingston, originally 'de Levingstoun', is of territorial origin, and is derived from the lands of Levings-tun or Levingstoun in West Lothian, now the village of Livingston, Linlithgowshire, so that the correct spelling of the family surname is Livingston, the modern rendering of Levingstoun, and not Livingstone; the final 'e' being a subsequent addition which alters the whole meaning of the name, which signifies the 'toun' or dwelling place of Leving, who owned these lands in the early part of the twelfth century. This Leving or Living, whose name in the contemporary monkish Latin characters is written Levingus, was undoubtedly of Saxon lineage, for in England long before the Norman Conquest the patronymic Leving, Living, or Lyfing, derived from Leofing which in modern English means 'the son of Leof' - namely 'son of the Beloved' 1- was borne by numerous persons of rank and position as their family or tribal name. It occurs as early as the middle of the ninth century as the name of one of the witnesses to a charter of Berthwulf of Mercia; 2- and the Archbishop of Canterbury who crowned Edmund Ironside in 1016, 3- and who likewise crowned his rival and successor Canute a few months later, also bore that name. 4- So did another famous Saxon churchman, the Bishop of Credition and Worcester, and the friend of Earl Godwine, who has come down to us in the words of the old Xaxon chronicler as 'Lyfing se wordsnotera biscop', namely 'Living the eloquent bishop.'
Note: This newsletter included the following family group records for Charles Livingston:
Sheet 1
Sheet 2
Sheet 3
