Brief Synopsis From Memory of the Life of Charles Livingston
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Brief Synopsis From Memory of the Life of Charles Livingston
By Himself
Charles Livingston, Son of Archibald and Helen Livingston, was born in Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland, March 16, 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, his mother, Christina Campbell 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 Utah 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 could get for the family to eat, and on that trip I agreed to work for $15.00 per month and board, in 1857.1 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 commencing 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 was Impassable at that time 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, garreters, 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 18801 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 up out of the cement. After I left the Temple Block In June 18931 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 Ball 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 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 18, 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.