Person:William Belnap (1)

From Heritage With Honor, 1974, by W. Dean Belnap

William James Belnap was born on August 31, 1858, at Ogden, Utah. His parents were Gilbert Belnap and Henrietta McBride and he was the oldest child of a family of four. Their home was on the bank of the Weber River, somewhere close to where the American Packing plant stood. On September 7, 1853, he was blessed and given his name by his father, Gilbert Belnap. Some called him Bill, but most people, including his family called him Will. When Will was eight years old, he was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When Will was about ten years old, his family moved to Huntsville, a town fourteen miles east of Ogden. While living there, he herded sheep and had Indian boys for playmates. He had no shoes to wear and went to school in his bare feet. After a few years the family moved back to Ogden, where they had a tract of land where the railroad yards now stand. Will remained at Huntsville at this time to work.

In 1868 his family moved to Hooper, Utah, and built a home, suffering from the cold through the winter while constructing it. Will moved them to Hooper to live with his family. He had very little education. In his youth, Will carried the mail route. During the winter, it was severely cold and so as not to freeze, he would get off his horse, take hold of its tail and trot along behind.

In January of 1872 he met his future wife and they became engaged. Early in the spring of 1873, Will was called to go on a colonization mission to Arizona. His companions from Hooper on this journey were his brother Gilbert R. Belnap, Levi B. Hammon, William W. Child and Joe Stone. Also many others including Sanford Bingham, John Bingham, John Thompson under the leader¬ship of Horton D. Haight. They assembled for instruction and departure in Salt Lake City on March 8, 1873* . Their mode of travel was horse and wagon and the way was hard. They went by way of Scipio, or Round Valley, and stayed there for a week to rest their horses. They camped a few days at Cove Creek Fork and also at Beaver and then Tokerville. There were times when they could not even find brush to make a fire. They camped at Lee's Ferry a week until other wagons reached there, and then John D. Lee, operator of the ferry, took the company across the Colorado River on his raft and charged them $5.00 per team and wagon. After they left the river, there was no road and the missionaries had to make their own way over big rocks, through deep sand and over steep hills. It took three span of horses to pull one wagon up the steepest and roughest hills and to go down, they locked the wagon wheels for a brake. It took the missionaries all one day to cross over this hill and they named it "Lee's Backbone." They finally reached a place called Moencopi, where they found a friendly tribe of Indians. Some men had been sent back to Salt Lake City to tell Brigham Young of the conditions they were encountering, and the company camped at this place while awaiting word from him in return. It was hot and dry, there was no grass for the animals and the only water was a small spring in the hills two miles away. The Indians there were praying to the Great Spirit for rain. When the horses' feed was gone, they mixed flour and water and fed that to them. ^They shared with one another as long as provisions lasted and by the time they decided to return home most of their provisions, as well as grain they had to plant, were gone. They met with many hardships on the return trip too. When they got back to the ferry, they found that the raft had broken loose from the anchor and had drifted down stream, so they had to cross the river in a small boat. They took the wagons apart and put the pieces in a boat and then floated the wagon boxes across. Gilbert Belnap sat in the back of the boat and held onto the horses' reigns — the horses were herded to the bank and into and water and swam safely across the river. On the opposite shore, they had to reassemble the wagons and then continue on their journey. In all, about fifty-four wagons, a hundred and twelve animals, one hundred and nine men, six women, and one child, were ferried across the river. They arrived home the last of July in 1873, with Thanksgiving On December 22, 1873, Will was married to Eliza Ann Watts in the endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. This marriage was blessed with fourteen children: William Oscar Belnap, born December 2, 1874; James Gilbert Belnap, born January 7, 1877 and died June 24, 1936; Clarence Robert, born February 18, 1879 and died December 23, 1898; Etta Eliza, born July 14, 1881 and died April 1, 1907; Henry, born February 13, 1883; Mary Ellen, born November 2, 1884 and died September 15, 1898; John Austin, born May 7, 1887 and died January 27, 1922; Sarah Elizabeth, born August 3, 1889; Iva, born January 15, 1891; Alonzo, born May 19, 1893; Hilma May, born April 25, 1895; Erma, born November 18, 1896 and died August 3, 1904; Nellie, born May 21, 1898; and Albert, born December 19, 1899.

After their marriage they lived with the Watts family in South Weber and Will worked the Watts' farm for three years. In 1876 they bought a small tract of land in Hooper, Utah, from James Mitchell, and there they built a little one-room log house near the banks of the slough.

During the summer of 1882, Will worked for his brother Joseph and a brother-in-law, Levi B. Hammon. They had contracted with the Oregon Short Line Railroad to build two miles of road bed — one mile in the Portneuf Canyon and the other on the desert west of American Falls. It was the forty-ninth mile west of American Falls, and lies just west of the town of Minadoka in Idaho. The equipment they used for grading, where necessary, was scrapers pulled by horses. While working in the desert area, they had to haul their water in a great tank, drawn by four head of horses, from the Snake River, which was a distance of thirty miles. Will's wife Eliza, left the two oldest children with their grandmother Belnap in Hooper and accompanied Will at this time to cook for the men. The railroad grade was completed in the fall of that year and the workers made their way homeward through Starr's Ferry, the Goose Creek Ranch, which was near where Burley City now stands, then through Albion and Conor Creek; camped on Raft River near the old Pierce Ranch for the night, and then continued their journey by way of Snowville, Brigham City to home at Hooper, Utah.

In 1884, Will rented his little farm in Hooper and went with Eliza and their children back to South Weber, where he once again took care of the Watts' farm. The M. I. A. was organized in South Weber on January 10, 1884, with George W. Kendell as president, William James Belnap as first counselor and Thomas F. Jones as second counselor. On October 15, 1886, the M. I. A. was reorganized with Mathew Bambrough as president, George W. Kendell as first counselor and William James Belnap as second counselor. Will sold his farm in Hooper to Lars Johnston in 1886 for $500 and this amount, plus $1200 was paid to Reuben Belnap for one hundred and sixty acres located one and a quarter miles farther north, and once again Will moved his family to Hooper to make their home. Reuben had built a one-room adobe house on this place and a make-shift summer kitchen, and there were many fruit trees.

In the winter of 1887, the family had diphtheria and the children were very ill. Night and day Will and Eliza sat at their bedside doing what they could for them and praying for their recovery. Will and John Stoddard, a brother-in-law, administered to the children often, and through their efforts and the help of the Lord, they all recovered.

In 1889, Will was elected School Trustee and was appointed Secretary for a term of three years. He was re-elected several times and was active in this position for several years. Will and Eliza had sorrows and heartaches through their married life — they lost a daughter, Mary Ellen, on September 15, 1898, of a bad heart. Their son, Clarence, was shot accidentally while herding sheep in Wyoming and died on December 23, 1898 from his injuries. In 1905 their second son, Jim, lost his wife and Eliza and Will took his two children and cared for them until the son remarried. In April of 1907 their daughter, Etta, died and left two small children, and Will and Eliza took the children and cared for them until they were grown. However, there were many happy times for the family too — oftentimes three or four families would make trips to the nearby canyons in covered wagons and catch all the fish they could eat and had real good times.

Will and his brother, Frank, owned and operated a threshing machine which was turned by horse power — five teams went round and round in a circle — and it was always a big event for a family to have the threshers, and a joy to the women to cook big meals. Will also owned half interest with Si Rawson in a well drilling machine and they drove wells in West Weber, Taylor, Hooper and Plain City and many wells were driven on the Belnap farm. Will was a breeder of and loved beautiful horses and would break his own horse to ride or to pull the wagon or buggy. He got as high as $500 per team for his black beauties. With the money from one team he sold, he invested in a small dynamo to attach to one of the wells he had driven on his farm. He thought the flow of this well was strong enough to turn the dynamo and he installed a storage battery, set up a line and wired his house for electricity, but this attempt was un¬successful. Later he invested $500 in an electric power company in Farmington, Utah, but lost his investment as the line only came to the center of Hooper and he never did get electricity. There were many people who did have it though because of his great contribution.

In 1913, Will and Eliza thought the farm was too large for them to handle, so they sold it to their eldest son, William 0. Belnap, and a year later they pur¬chased 20 acres, with an old adobe, two-story house thereon, from Ephraim Fowler. By 1915 they had built a new six-room yellow brick home, revived an old orchard, put up new fences, built a new barn and got the land ready for crops.

On New Year's Day in 1916, Will and Eliza, with friends, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Manning and Mr. and Mrs. Bill Simpson, went to South Weber for a visit. While at the home of Mr. George Kendell, Will had a stroke and, as a result of this, his left side was paralyzed. Following this, Will was unable to do much work so he rented his farm. It was difficult for him to sit and watch the weeds grow and the land uncared for by the tenants.

A big event in the lives of Will and Eliza was their Golden Wedding Anniversary, which they celebrated with a party at their home on December 20, 1923. Many of their children were home for this affair and friends and relatives were invited to participate in the celebration. Will's health improved and he and Eliza were able to spend the winters of 1926 and 1927 visiting some of their sons and daughters in California and in Portland, Oregon.

Finally Will completely lost the use of his left arm and hand and only with great effort could he walk, and he spent most of his time in his later years sitting in a big leather arm chair. In December, 1932, he suffered a second stroke and this time his vocal cords were affected and he could not speak. He lay this way for four days and then died on December 20, 1932, at his home in Hooper.

Will was not a public speaker, but well liked by all who knew him. He was a humble man and he lived the Gospel and had a strong testimony of its truthful¬ness. In his later years his health didn't permit him to be active in Church work, but at the time of his death, Will was a member of the High Priest Quorum in the Hooper Ward. Honesty was his watch-word and his word was as good as his bond. He and his wife could not give their children the beautiful material things of life, but gave them something far better — a heritage their children are proud of. They gave them strong bodies and that sweet spirituality which goes with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they taught their children to pray, to be honest and to do good among their fellow men. "•Heart Throbs of the West, by Kate B. Carter, Vol. 3, Page 320.