William Green Family History (also Ann Green Dutson)

History of Greens and Dutsons

Written by Erma Kelly McBride

     William and Jane Green, my great, great grandfather and grandmother, were natives of Lugwardine, Herefordshire, England.  They had eight daughters and two sons,      Jane the eldest, Sarah, Susan, Mary, Poebe, Eleanor, Ann and Elizabeth.  Sons were William and Phillip.

     They all joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the time Wilford Woodruff and Brigham Young converted the whole parish, including the minister.  Sarah married a man well-to-do and waited to sell their property and never emigrated.  Neither did Susan whose husband conducted a big stageline.  Mary died when a young woman.  Eleanor and Poebe married, emigrated and died in St. Louis.  Elizabeth married Mr. Richmond, who died during the persecution of the Saints after they were driven from Nauvoo.  William married Harriette and Phillip married Rhoda.  Ann married John Dutson and had two children, Jane, my grandmother and John Dutson.

     The women owned a large laundry and the men a shoe shop.  Two of the three helpers, who had joined the Church, accompanied them to America.  The girl was adopted by Ann, my great grandmother.  My great grandfather went into the city of St. Louis to transact some business and never was heard from again.  It was supposed he met with foul play of some kind.  Phillip was the last to be converted, but after he was, he came to America and was an enthusiastic missionary.  Great, great grandfather and grandmother lived in the city.  Great, great aunt Susan had a hat shop and her husband used to take grandmother in to visit with her father's folks.  Her great, great grandfather Green worried about her having enough to eat, as the Dutsons had to buy everything out of the shops.  When she would return, great, great grandfather Green would say, "Well,Jenny, hast thou had all thou could eat whilst thou hast been gone?" During cherry and     berry time, he'd tie up a bush or tree to protect it from the birds so as there would be         some left over for Jane.  Grandmother sang in the Methodist Choir, when so small she             stood on a chair so she would be as tall as the other members.

     The family crossed the ocean with Orson Hyde, when he returned from Jerusalem, arriving in America Wednesday, December 7, 1842.

     Great, great Uncle William and Phillip buried several children, while they were being driven around during the persecutions.  The both had plenty of money and so built them nice homes in Nauvoo.  At one time, when they were driven out of Nauvoo, they left clothes boiling in large brass kettles and on returning, found the clothes all ruined. They both died in St. Louis.       Their families stayed there and became wealthy. Grandmother corresponded with her cousin, Phillip, until she died. (Phillip was a cripple.)

           During the family sojourn in Nauvoo, the mob poisoned the well and grandmother      suffered the rest of her life from it.  Grandmother [Jane Dutson] was a good dressmaker.         She sewed three months for the Spencers while in Winter Quarters, while Brother Spencer was on a mission, for enough calico to make herself a dress.  Amelia Spencer Rogers, first President of the Primary, made mention in her biography published in the Children's Friend, of leaming to sew rom Jane Dutson.

     On Mosquito Creek, Grandmother sat up half of each night nursing the sick and sewing for the dead by the light of a candle sat on a white sheet.  This was the time the Saints were afflicted with the scurvy, caused from the lack of vegetables.  Another time when fleeing from the mob, Grandmother and Angus Cannon crossed the Missouri River on the ice.  Winter was breaking, the ice melting-they could hear it crack under their feet.  They took hold of hands but stayed as far apart as they could so their weight wouldn't be all in one place and in one place they had to jump from block to block. Great, great grandfather and grandmother [William and Jane]Green died in St. Louis in 1849.

      Great Aunt Elizabeth Richmond [sister of Ann Green] emigrated in 1851.  One year before great grandmother and her children.         Great Aunt Elizabeth had two stepchildren, but no children of her own.  One of these boys was a member of the Mormon Battalion.  "Aunt Richmond", as we called her, lived in Provo two years before she was called to Fillmore in 1853.  Later she married a Mr. Niel, so as to have someone to take care of her land and cattle.  She was a business-like woman and he was an emigrant fresh from England and not adaptable to frontier life.  It must have been a trial marriage, for Mr. Niel proved too stupid and slow, so she left him an managed herself  She was a friend to everyone.  Her home was open to orphans and widows and the

homeless.  She was a splendid cook.  For the few foodstuffs available, were prepared to tempt the most particular ones.  She died in Fillmore February 7, 1883.

      Ann Green Dutson, my great grandmother, married John Carling, a widower with one girl and two boys, Kathryn, Abe and Isaac.  They came to Utah in 1852.  They lived in Provo one year and was then called to Fillmore to gather with her sister and daughter.  Great Grandmother was set apart by Prophet Joseph Smith as a midwife and was told to use nothing but herbs and she would be successful, which she did.  She was a doctor and nurse for a number of years for the people of Millard County.  One trip, going to Deseret to deliver a baby, the team of mules ran away and she fell off the running gears of the wagon and hurt her hip.  After that, she always had to use a cane.  There was always cookies, candy and nuts for the children at Christmas.  She lived to be 94 years old.  She had two sons by Mr. Carling.  The youngest, Joseph died at the age of 18 from the affect of freezing out in the Clear Lake cedars.  He had given part of his bedding to  another man and boy, who didn't have but one quilt.  He was sick one month and he would say he was glad he had helped the man and boy.  Just before he died, he told Great Grandmother to give all his clothes to the boy.

      My grandmother Jane Dutson married Alexander Melville, a widower with a small daughter, in Hariesville, Iowa, May 29, 1848.  They came to Utah in the Orson

-Hyde Company.  Henry Miller was captain.  Grandfather swam the rivers to find the best place to ford and Grandmother would drive the oxen across. In after years, Grandmother's stepbrother would drop in her home with the greeting, "He Buck Swim Melville." The oldest brother, James Andrew, was carried almost all the way across the plains, in a clothes basket, by Grandmother.  The first year they lived in Provo, they hadn't been able to raise any crops, as they arrived in the fall so they had to dispose of most of their clothes to get food.

    In England, Grandmother learned to bind shoes in her uncle's shoe shop and she worked for a large shoe company in St. Louis.  She bound shoes for the Fillmore Co-op-Henderson and Lambert were the shoemakers.  By exchange with Pugaire, she kept the family in shoes.  Her work was to make the uppers and Pugaire the soles.  In the social side of life, it was not neglected.  Hyrum Mace conducted dancing school.  She made men's suits and hats in exchange with others who spun and wove for her.  She did her own dyeing.  She grew madder in the garden to color red, used indigo for blue, and rabbit brush for yellow.  By combining these, she made other colors.

   The last years of her life, she was nearly blind from cataracts, She died at 87 and her husband, seven sons and three daughters survived her.  With the exception of her first child, an infant boy named John who was buried at Council Bluffs.  Grandmother almost lost her life at the same time her baby died of Cholera, but Grandfather had such good faith that she recovered.

   Grandmother was a wonderful woman.  She had a sunny disposition and was a wonderful house keeper and homemaker, and she always made everyone welcome.  She was never too busy but that she could visit the sick and lots of times, she stayed day and night with the sick until the crisis had passed.  She was a wonderful cook and whatever she had was enjoyed by those who partook of it.  In later years, she would relate her experiences to her many grandchildren, who would sit and listen.  She sang in the choir for a good many years.