TERESA SOUTHWICK MARRIOTT

CROSSED THE PLAINS AS A TEEN-AGE GIRL--
A FOUNDING SETTLER OF MARRIOTT, WEBER COUNTY, UTAH

She wrote about crossing the plains-­
" . . . We had forty-six wagons and two hundred cattle. There were quite a number of young folks my age. Before we started, the captain gave orders for no one to go ahead or stay back of the company as the Indians and mountain men had been known to steal the women and girls. There were lots of currents and plums along the road. ..One day I got where the currents were thick. I was going to get my bucket full this time. When I looked up, the company was way up the road. Just at that time a big mountaineer sprang up in front of me. I was so frightened I could not speak. At the same time, I could see the captain coming back to see if anyone was left. I waved my hand, he saw me and came over to where I was with the mountaineer. He took us both back to camp. He gave the mountaineer his supper and a bed, he was gone before morning. The captain gave us a good lecturing. He saved me from being captured. I walked most of the way bare footed. I started with two pairs of shoes. I wore one pair out and kept the other pair, as I did not want to arrive in Salt Lake bare footed, where I expected to meet my brother. We only rode when it was storming or crossing rivers. I enjoyed my journey. We had no deaths and very little sickness."

(later in time while 1iving in Weber County)--
" For four years we never saw money. We had lots of grain to trade for groceries. ...at times flour and sugar were very scare. One year my husband (John Marriott) raised flax with which to make jeans. Margaret Burton and I spun the f1ax into warp."

"In 1857 word came that Johnston's Army was coming to take over the land. After the Saints had suffered and starved and endured all the hardships of settling this new land, they decided they wouldn't give up easily. President Brigham Young counseled the people to prepare to burn their places in case the army did come. Then he told the families to go south and stay until it was allover. (My husband) John Marriott remained behind with some others to guard their land. He dug pits at Little Mountain and hid his grain so the Indians would not steal it and also to protect it from the army. He also dug pits in Marriott by the river and camouflaged them with weeds and willows. The Marriott family stayed at Spanish Fork for two months. When they returned, they found a volunteer crop of barley. They lived on this until their crops were ready. They divided what food they had with all their neighbors."

Sent to Standard-Examiner by great grandson of Teresa Southwick Marriott-- Lowell Marriott Harrop, 393-5946
1255 Henderson Dr.
Ogden UT 84404-6514

Part of this was published in a feature section April 13, 1997.