Friday, September 21, 2018
1850 U.S. Federal Census - Isaac & Charlotte Woods Higbee Family
Isaac Higbee (53), Charlotte (36), Amanda (27), Hannah (20), Emma (15), John C. (14), Minerva (4), Clarinda (Clara) (2), Philo Carter (20)
History of Minerva Melinda Higbee
Minerva
Melinda Higbee was born August 16, 1845 at Nauvoo, Illinois, to Isaac Higbee
and Charlotte Woods Higbee. She came to Salt Lake City with her parents in
1848, walking a great deal of the way with the other hand-cart pioneers.
She was a beautiful woman about 5’ 4”, 135 lbs., with beautiful, soft, hazel eyes, light brown hair and a divine disposition.
She was married September 13, 1862 at Camp Floyd, Fairfield, Utah to John Cunnington, a young, handsome drummer, who came from New York with the Walker Brothers and was affiliated with them. Her wedding dress was of calico and cost $1.00 a yard.
John Cunnington soon became very successful in mining and merchandising and opened his own large merchandise store called ”The Elephant Store”, a well-known pioneer landmark. He built a number of homes on West Temple and Fifth South in Salt Lake City, Utah, and he and Minerva lived in one of the two-story ones and raised seven of their eight children. Their first, a little girl, died in infancy.
John provided Minerva with ample help, a cook, nurse, wash-lady and a footman-gardener. It was a very busy household for they entertained a great deal. Minerva was a charming and gracious hostess but took time out to help the needy and sick. She was a wonderful wife and mother who deplored quarrels or upsets and kept her home one of harmony and happiness. During conference especially, their home was filled to capacity and more with relatives and friends from out of town. Grandma Higbee made her home with them and was a constant delight with her stories and sweet disposition. Their rose garden was one of the most beautiful in the state and John’s pride.
Minerva believed in good education and her girls were sent east to private schools and the boys to college. I believe Minerva received her education from her older sister, Emma, who taught school in the early days. She was very well read and a brilliant conversationalist. She loved opera, the theatre and was an ardent scholar of Shakespeare, her favorites being Hamlet and Othello, from which she could spout passages from memory. She also loved “Thanatopsis”, which she recited on occasion.
John died in 1890 and Grandma Higbee died in 1899. Minerva disposed of the store and finally her homes and real estate. Her time was spent with her children now married, and in traveling. Whenever a new grandchild was born, she was on hand to help and a better nurse never lived. She gave one a feeling of great comfort and well-being. She loved people in general and especially children. She would tell her grandchildren fascinating stories of the Indians and pioneers. To avoid any jealousy on their part, she would assure them that “each was the prettiest and smartest for his size and age”, an example of diplomacy. One never heard her make an unkind remark about anyone. She always made excuses for anyone in trouble and was generous to a fault.
In her later years, she wore her hair in a bun on top of her head and her glasses far down on her nose. She looked over her glasses mostly, even as she read, crocheted or pieced beautiful quilts. Most of her grandchildren have some of her beautiful work and treasure it greatly.
Minerva usually dressed in black satin or taffeta with a soft, frilly collar or jabot and a long, white waist apron of fine material trimmed with crochet. Most of her life she was blessed with excellent health and could out-walk most of her grandchildren.
Pneumonia was her worst enemy and she had it seven times. After that, her winters were spent in San Francisco with her daughter, Frances Bowles and her son, Will. A granddaughter, Frances Cunnington Cumberledge attended art school several terms in San Francisco and lived with Minerva and her son, Will Cunnington. During the World’s Fair, Minerva and Frances walked miles there many times and she never seemed to tire but loved the crowds and excitement.
She became ill with acute nephritis at Frances’ home and during the several weeks of her illness, she stayed there and with her daughter, May Sholes, at whose home she passed away in her sleep, November 25, 1932. She is buried beside her husband, John, in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Salt Lake City.
Many lives have been made much richer having known her and she is missed very day as she was loved dearly.
Children of John and Minerva M. Higbee Cunnington, born in Salt Lake City: (1) Martha M., born 25 November 1863; died 28 January 1864. (2) Rosie E., born 24 October 1864; married Henry Fitzhugh. (3) James William, born 23 June 1866; died 8 March 1918; married Carrie Braizure. (4) Maribah Elizabeth, born 23 March 1870; married Rue High Sholes. (5) Winifred H., born 23 August 1874; married Maurice E. Kaighn. (6) John Robinson, born 10 December 1875, married Nora Wadsworth. (7) Isaac Alexander Patrick, born 17 December 1877; married Mabel Britt. (8) Frances Woods, born 27 September 1881; married Eugene Pettit Bowles.
Written by Frances Cunnington Cumberledge, granddaughter.
Source: Higbee Family Magazine 1957
She was a beautiful woman about 5’ 4”, 135 lbs., with beautiful, soft, hazel eyes, light brown hair and a divine disposition.
She was married September 13, 1862 at Camp Floyd, Fairfield, Utah to John Cunnington, a young, handsome drummer, who came from New York with the Walker Brothers and was affiliated with them. Her wedding dress was of calico and cost $1.00 a yard.
John Cunnington soon became very successful in mining and merchandising and opened his own large merchandise store called ”The Elephant Store”, a well-known pioneer landmark. He built a number of homes on West Temple and Fifth South in Salt Lake City, Utah, and he and Minerva lived in one of the two-story ones and raised seven of their eight children. Their first, a little girl, died in infancy.
John provided Minerva with ample help, a cook, nurse, wash-lady and a footman-gardener. It was a very busy household for they entertained a great deal. Minerva was a charming and gracious hostess but took time out to help the needy and sick. She was a wonderful wife and mother who deplored quarrels or upsets and kept her home one of harmony and happiness. During conference especially, their home was filled to capacity and more with relatives and friends from out of town. Grandma Higbee made her home with them and was a constant delight with her stories and sweet disposition. Their rose garden was one of the most beautiful in the state and John’s pride.
Minerva believed in good education and her girls were sent east to private schools and the boys to college. I believe Minerva received her education from her older sister, Emma, who taught school in the early days. She was very well read and a brilliant conversationalist. She loved opera, the theatre and was an ardent scholar of Shakespeare, her favorites being Hamlet and Othello, from which she could spout passages from memory. She also loved “Thanatopsis”, which she recited on occasion.
John died in 1890 and Grandma Higbee died in 1899. Minerva disposed of the store and finally her homes and real estate. Her time was spent with her children now married, and in traveling. Whenever a new grandchild was born, she was on hand to help and a better nurse never lived. She gave one a feeling of great comfort and well-being. She loved people in general and especially children. She would tell her grandchildren fascinating stories of the Indians and pioneers. To avoid any jealousy on their part, she would assure them that “each was the prettiest and smartest for his size and age”, an example of diplomacy. One never heard her make an unkind remark about anyone. She always made excuses for anyone in trouble and was generous to a fault.
In her later years, she wore her hair in a bun on top of her head and her glasses far down on her nose. She looked over her glasses mostly, even as she read, crocheted or pieced beautiful quilts. Most of her grandchildren have some of her beautiful work and treasure it greatly.
Minerva usually dressed in black satin or taffeta with a soft, frilly collar or jabot and a long, white waist apron of fine material trimmed with crochet. Most of her life she was blessed with excellent health and could out-walk most of her grandchildren.
Pneumonia was her worst enemy and she had it seven times. After that, her winters were spent in San Francisco with her daughter, Frances Bowles and her son, Will. A granddaughter, Frances Cunnington Cumberledge attended art school several terms in San Francisco and lived with Minerva and her son, Will Cunnington. During the World’s Fair, Minerva and Frances walked miles there many times and she never seemed to tire but loved the crowds and excitement.
She became ill with acute nephritis at Frances’ home and during the several weeks of her illness, she stayed there and with her daughter, May Sholes, at whose home she passed away in her sleep, November 25, 1932. She is buried beside her husband, John, in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Salt Lake City.
Many lives have been made much richer having known her and she is missed very day as she was loved dearly.
Children of John and Minerva M. Higbee Cunnington, born in Salt Lake City: (1) Martha M., born 25 November 1863; died 28 January 1864. (2) Rosie E., born 24 October 1864; married Henry Fitzhugh. (3) James William, born 23 June 1866; died 8 March 1918; married Carrie Braizure. (4) Maribah Elizabeth, born 23 March 1870; married Rue High Sholes. (5) Winifred H., born 23 August 1874; married Maurice E. Kaighn. (6) John Robinson, born 10 December 1875, married Nora Wadsworth. (7) Isaac Alexander Patrick, born 17 December 1877; married Mabel Britt. (8) Frances Woods, born 27 September 1881; married Eugene Pettit Bowles.
Written by Frances Cunnington Cumberledge, granddaughter.
Source: Higbee Family Magazine 1957
Minerva Melinda Higbee Cunnington's Story in Her Own Words
Following is her own story, written by Minerva Melinda Higbee Cunnington
It was July 24, 1847 that the first company of pioneers reached Utah, but a few men came the day before. They hurriedly built a few log huts in the shape of a fort, to shelter them until they could look around and get settled and located at their journey’s end.
Their leader was President Brigham Young, and as Mr. S.A. Kenner says in his book, “Utah As It Is”, pioneers had a pretty hard time of it, crossing an unsettled, savage and barren wilderness, of which they knew but little, to arrive in a place of which they knew nothing. But what they didn’t know, they proceeded to find out.
My father did not come to Utah with the first company, for President Brigham Young counselled him to stay at Missouri to ferry the Mormons that were left there across the river. He was the ferryman at that time, so they could take their ox wagon train for the far west as this Rocky Mountain region was then called.
It was in the spring of 1848 that my father started west with his family, which consisted of my mother (Charlotte Woods Higbee) and three daughters and one son and a step-son, John S. Carter, my mother’s former husband’s son. (His father, Gideon Carter, was killed by the mob in Nauvoo). I was only three years old but I faintly remember two incidents that occurred on the journey west.
One day the company stopped to allow the women to do their washing and I saw a large herd of buffalo in the distance.
My father’s oldest daughter, Amanda, was married to John McEwan about two years before the move, and while I know they came to Utah with the early pioneers, I cannot find out which company they came in. They had a son born near Nebraska on the way out and he is still living in Provo City.
We were about three months on our way and when we reached Salt Lake City, it had become quite a settlement and we stayed there about a year, when my sister, Clara Higbee Graves was born, January 2, 1849.
Soon after that, President Young called my father to take his own and thirty or forty other families and go fifty miles south to start another settlement near Provo River. They first built the fort on the shore of Utah Lake, which is several miles west of the present Provo town. The houses or huts, were built adjoining, in the shape of a fort, about the size of a city block. The Indians were very troublesome that winter. They came down from the East Mountains and circled the fort, yelling their horrible war whoop and we expected them to break in the fort and massacre the lot of us. But help came from Salt Lake in time to save the fort, but there was a severe battle with the Indians and my brother Joseph was killed, my father’s only son. He was only twenty years old. The fight occurred on February 9, 1850. My mother had charge of the ammunition and the kegs of powder were kept under her bed in one corner of the room, and I can remember seeing my two half sisters, Hannah and Emma Higbee, kneeling in front of the fireplace running the bullets of melted lead into the molds that were to fit the guns that were used in the fight.
Those were truly troublesome times in the days of the Mormon pioneers.
As soon as possible after 1850, President Young made peace with the Indians. The fort was then abandoned and the people moved to where the city of Provo is now located and my sister Lottie was born August 15, 1851, in the new town.
Little do the present generations know of the hardships the pioneers had to endure, the obstacles they had to overcome, or the difficult situations they had to meet, but by their faith and industry and determined will, they laid the foundation of the great state of Utah; and for the benefit of their children and those who came after, they have succeeded in making the “Desert blossom as the rose”.
Received from Minerva M. Higbee Cunnington by Ruby Thomas, February 12, 1929.
Source: Higbee Family Magazine 1957
Contributed to by pamelakayhigbee1 · 12 January 2014
1897 Marriage License for John R. & Elnora (Wadsworth) Cunnington
Witnesses: A. Cunnington & Josephine Wadsworth
Groom John R. Cunnington / Bride Elnora "Nora" Wadsworth
Oct. 14, 1897; Weber County, Utah
Thursday, September 20, 2018
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