Benjamin Martin Ivie

Benjamin Martin Ivie

My 3rd Great-Great Grandfather

Birth Date: 15 September 1846
Birth Place: Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa
Parents: James Russell Ivie and Eliza McKee Fausett
Death Date: 4 March 1926
Death Place: Lynndyl, Millard, Utah

 

Spouse: Martha Annie Memmott
Marriage Date: 21 Jul 1864
Marriage Place: Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete, Utah

Benjamin Martin Ivie was born September 15, 1846, in Pottawattamie, Iowa, the eleventh child of James Russell Ivie and Eliza McKee Fausett.  He was baptized in 1854 by his mother’s brother, John Fausett and confirmed by the same.  He was not quite two years old when he made the trip with his parents and brothers and sisters across the plains to Utah.  He came with his parents and family in 1848, in Brigham Young’s company.

 Grandfather Ivie’s boyhood were spent about the same as most pioneer children, knowing the pangs of hunger and scantly clothed at times.  The Ivie’s were good hunters and usually had meal if there were any game.  We loved to hear the Indian stories he told and some of his boyhood pranks.  We loved to have him tell the story of his first date.  It was winter time; their folks had a large sleigh with a wagon on it.  The boys decided to take their girlfriends for a ride.  Grandfather was the youngest, 13 years old with the crowd; he wouldn’t go unless he asks a girl to go with him.  There was a family of Mormon converts from Denmark living next to the Ivie family on Provo Bench.  They had a daughter Mary, about grandfather’s age.  Her light hair was short and thin, she had a narrow piece of red cloth braided with her hair to make one small braid reach the other. 

 Grandfather thought it alright until the older boys teased him about this girl.  Grandfather told her to get out of the sleigh and go back home.  He went with the crowd a little ways and slipped out of the back of the sleigh and went home too.  Only he waited until Mary was far enough ahead so he wouldn’t have to walk home with her.  Grandpa said this wasn’t the hard part of it.  It was when his mother told him he must go tell Mary he was sorry he had been so unkind to her.

 Grandfather’s family first came to Salt Lake, then to Provo, called Roads Valley at that time.  In 1853, they left Provo and moved to Mt. Pleasant.  They had relatives there by the name of Allred’s.  The water for irrigation purposes was not too plentiful, so they left there in 1861, going to Weber, making a camp near where Kamas now stands.  They came to Round Valley in 1863.  They did not go over on the bench called Graball, where the settlers were, but down further south, about a mile or a little more to a place that was called the Gap.  Here the stream of water that came down from a little natural lake fed from springs ran down into the valley at the point where the Ivie’s stopped.  The creek separated into about the center of the valley.  This stream was given the name of Ivie’s Creek .  It went by that name for years.  As soon as a town site was laid out by President Brigham Young and George A. Smith; the Ivie’s were the first to get timber out of the nearby canyons and build their house.

 Almost as soon as a few families settled in Graball, they built a log house, this large room was used for all purposes.  Sometimes in the evenings the young people would gather there to dance.  The music sometimes would be some singing or a mouth organ.

 It wasn’t long until one of the Ivie boys, Martin Ivie, found his way down to Graball to one of these gatherings; there he met a young lady by the name of Martha Ann Memmott. After a courtship of a year, this young couple was married July 21, 1864, at Mt. Pleasant by Martin’s brother-in-law, cam Billingsly.  They made their home in Round Valley, later called Scipio.  Martin, with the help of his brothers, soon had them a log house built.  Often grandmother Martha would spend sleepless nights for grandfather and others owned a saw mill in Saw Mill Canyon.  They were obliged to go there and stay in order to get timber out to saw; at this time the Indians were on the rampage a lot of the time. 

 Grandma and the other wives were so afraid the Indians would attack their men folk going or coming from the canyon.  Often grandfather would be called to stand guard at day or night as his turn came.  It was on June 10, 1866, that the Indians attacked grandfather’s father in what was called the pond fields. 

 Grandfather had gone down in the fields just West of town, 1  mile, after a milk cow that had a new calf.  He was unarmed.  The Indians killed him, removed his clothing, all but his boots, and left the body lying there with his feet in the edge of the pond.  Soon after this, the logs houses were rebuilt close together to form a fort, a protection from the Indians.  This was the summer and fall of 1866.  On October 22, 1868, grandma and grandpa drove by team to Salt Lake City to go through the Old Endowment House for their own endowments.

 Grandfather and grandmother had a large family;  nine boys and two girls.  Grandfather had a small farm.  For years a small herd of sheep, milk cows and always some good horses.  He was a wonderful gardener.  He always had a large melon patch.  In the late summer and early fall he would have plenty of good melons.  It was his delight to gather some of his best melons, cool them, and treat his friends, and usually give them all they could carry off with them; especially the children.

Many times grandmother would be called to homes where there was sickness or death.  She was one of the best nurses in the country.  It would have been impossible for her to have gone if grandfather had not been willing to stay at home and look after the little ones.  Sometimes when people would come for her she would say, “I would gladly go, but I don’t know about leaving my family.”   Grandfather would say, “Well my work can wait,” or “I will take the children with me.” “Go and help them out if you can.  I am sure you can do them some good.”

 One of the greatest joys we as grandchildren enjoyed, was to go to stay overnight at Grandpa and Grandma Ivie’s .  Grandpa would pop corn and grandma would make molasses candy for us.  They both had good voices (none better to us grandchildren).  We would always want them to sing.  We all had our favorite song.  There was “Fair Charlotte” and “Will the Weaver”, “I Sail the Seas”, “Till the day I die”, and “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie”.  Sometimes we would join in the singing.  In grandfather’s house there was always room for one more or several.  In early days so many people would come to stay overnight with them.  Sometimes it would be someone they did not know at all, but was a relative of someone who knew grandpa or grandma.  They never turned anyone away.

 Grandfather’s education was a like a lot of pioneer children, rather limited.  He would read very well and spent the evening reading to the family from the Bible and Book of Mormon.  Grandma loved to sit with her sewing and mending while grandpa read from his favorite book , the Book of Mormon.  When the children saw grandfather take the Book of Mormon from the shelf on the wall they knew that meant it was the time when they sat on their chairs to listen while their father read a chapter from the Book of Mormon.

 Grandfather always provided a good living for his family.  Grandmother was a splendid seamstress.  In the early days she could was, cord the wool in rolls, spin it into yarns to knit socks and stockings and weave into cloth for clothing for the family, out of the wool grandfather sheared from his sheep.  Later on, the wool was sold to the wooling mills and cloth and blankets were made there.  Grandfather was an artist with his ax in preparing logs for their houses.  As their family increased, grandfather would add more rooms to their home.  With his pocket knife he would carve all kinds of animal toys, wooden chairs, and dancing dolls for his grandchildren.

 We all loved to gather at our grandparent’s home on special occasions such as weddings and birthday dinners, thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  It was a sad day when grandma was called home; for all of us, especially dear grandpa.  They had lived sixty together sixty years.  Grandfather had to close the old home where they spent many happy years together.  We all missed our pleasant visits we used to make there as often as we could go.  We were always so welcome.  Grandfather made his home with his children.  It was while he was at the home of his youngest son, Jerome, in Lyndyl, he passed away May 3, 1926 at the age of 80 years.