Martha Matilda McGill Nelson - Life Story Part Nine

Martha Morgan:A Journey to Zion

Story by Allen Morgan Kendall

Pictures added by Lois C. Berrett


Life in Levan

William Morgan was one of the two men given responsibility for temporal affairs in Levan by Elder Erastus Snow. Each family was allotted half a block, or 2.5 acres of land within the town boundaries, as well as twenty acres farm and pasture land outside. William and Martha selected a lot at what was then the center of town at the southwest of the junction of Main Street (now 1st West) and Canyon Lane. Here William built a log house, consisting of three rooms, all in a row. The roof was constructed of cottonwood sticks supporting a layer of clay and straw, covered with a layer of soil.39

The Morgans shared their block with Jacob Hofheins, Mormon Battalion veteran, his two wives and large family. The Hofheins family had lived in Parowan and had been part of the first group sent to support the Iron Mission. They had also moved from Chicken Creek and so the two families were undoubtedly well acquainted. In the years to come intermarriage would make them closer yet.40

The United Order was introduced into the Levan Branch in 1875. In late October and early November, William and Martha entered into the Order by covenant through the token of baptism. Children Martha Ettie, James Nathaniel also joined, as well as married son Daniel with his wife. A total of 113 persons joined the United Order at that time, with the number increasing to 273 by 1878. In spite of growing numbers, the Order eventually ceased to function in Levan, as it did in most Utah communities where it was attempted.41

1870 Census

The United Order 

From the Encyclopedia of Mormonism:

"United orders" refers to the cooperative enterprises established in LDS communities of the Great Basin, Mexico, and Canada during the last quarter of the nineteenth century in an effort to better establish ideal Christian community and group economic self-sufficiency... Economic goals of consecration included relative income equality, group self-sufficiency, and the elimination of poverty. Under this plan, the head of each family would consecrate or deed all real and personal property to the

Presiding Bishop of the Church and would receive, in turn, a stewardship, or "inheritance," from consecrated property. Thereafter, Church members would consecrate annually all surplus production from their stewardship's to the bishop's storehouse.

Here in Levan their last son, Ira Robert Morgan was born, 25 February 1868.

Ira Robert Morgan

William Morgan appeared before the First Judicial Court in Provo in October 1871 and became an American citizen.42 By virtue of her marriage to William, Martha now became an official citizen herself, renouncing legally her allegiance to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

After years of sacrifice and travel, the Morgans were settled into a pastoral lifestyle on land of their own, surrounded by family. It was to be altogether too brief.

If family tradition is correct, William suffered from the symptoms of asthma.43 There can be no doubt as to the source of his affliction. A glance at the history of his fathers, and his own occupational experience in the mines tells the story. His decline would have been gradual, the great strength from years of hard labor being sapped by his respiratory weakness. William Morgan died on 24 November 1876 in Levan.44  He was 59 years old when the cold specter of the coal

mine which had haunted generations before him finally claimed his life also. He was buried in the cemetery southeast of the town. It was the location he himself, as one of the city fathers. had helped to select just a few years earlier.45

Martha was 52 years old and a widow. Within two years she suffered further sorrow when she

lost her dear sister Jane, still living in Beaver and a highly respected midwife, to a relatively

early death.46

She remained in Levan for the rest of her life. She watched from under the shade of the fruit trees planted by the hand of her husband47 as the plot of tall blue grass grew into an industrious little town. Many businesses sprung up, including a broom factory operated by son Daniel.48 She witnessed the raising of three church meeting houses, from the simple log structure a few blocks north of her home, to the present stately brick church with gothic windows, under construction when she died. And before the end of her life, even the miracle of telephone had reached this former frontier settlement.49

Martha's life was certainly one of industry. While her sons toiled in the fields, she would have supported them planting and harvesting gardens, preserving fruit from the orchard, cooking and

mending. Wrestling with the notoriously hard water coming from the canyon springs must have been a massive chore on wash day in and of itself. It was a life of labor, but that had become the only life Martha knew.