Chapter 7

"And they pitched their tents, and began to till the ground, and began to build buildings; yea, they were industrious, and did labor exceedingly." Mosiah 23:5 

Considering the life of Lorenzo and his families over the next few years, this particular scripture describes them pretty well. Their lives up to this point had been no existence of leisure and ease, in fact, Lorenzo's life as a missionary in the Harmony area the previous decade was very much filled with tents, tilling ground, building buildings and much work, but he was alone - without his family. Bringing his families into southern Utah at this time was a challenge probably much more difficult than they anticipated. But, as with the people of Alma, referred to in the above scripture, they trusted in the Lord to help them and protect them through it all.

Not much is known about the specific call for Lorenzo to go to Southern Utah again and take his families. In Susannah's history it says, "In the early 1860's Brigham Young called Lorenzo, along with others, to travel to southern Utah and settle the area."¹ Annie's history, quoted at the beginning of this work says, "While he was living at Centerville, he was called to go south to help settle the country, went in the year 1866."²

This was actually 1865. According to deed recordings, Lorenzo sold his Centerville property on 30 March 1865, for $1759.³ It is not clear whether he moved both of his families at this time. There are several accounts of the settling of Upper Kanab, or Roundy's Station. From the various accounts, it is certain that he went to the Upper Kanab area to set up homes for his families. According to one account⁴, he took both his families that spring (1865), in another⁵, he took neither family and yet another⁶, he took Susanna's family and then came back to get Prisella's family. It appears that the most likely situation is that Prisella's family stayed with her father in Utah county, possibly in Salem and Lorenzo took Susanna's family with him as they first went to Southern Utah to establish their homes there. Several stories⁷ speak of Susanna being with her family at that place while Lorenzo went up to Salem, either with or to get Prisella and her family. The 1860 federal census shows Samuel Parrish being in Springville with two of his wives.⁸ He was most likely there in 1865 and could have helped his daughter and her family while Lorenzo readied their new homes.

The first recorded reference to Lorenzo's being in this new area of Southern Utah comes with a report from Franklin D. Richards, dated 13 Sept. 1865. In describing the terrain, settlements, forestation, etc., about halfway through his report, as he described their southward progress past the "divide between the valleys of the Sevier and Rio Virgen." He describes "Leaving the road and traveling southeast three miles, we came to the Roundy settlement."⁹

The age of the children at this time (spring 1865) are:

Myron Shadrach - 21 (was married to Mercy Ann Deuel a few months prior)

Wallace Wesley - 17

Malinda Elizabeth - 15

Napoleon Bonapart - 14

Matilda Ann - 12

Celestia Almeda - 10

Mary Isabella - 8

Betsey - 6 (she died the next year of scarlet fever¹⁰)

Lorenzo Wesley, jr - almost 4

(no more children were born to Susanna after Lorenzo, jr.)

Prisella's children:

Fannie Jane - 6

Sarah - 3

Samuel "H" - 2

Joel Jesse - almost 6 months

It appears that when the two families were finally united with Lorenzo's return at Upper Kanab in the fall of 1865, there came an order for them to move farther south, to Lower Kanab, near the current location of present-day Kanab, in order to strengthen the families there. The situation of the Black Hawk war and fears of the spread of "Indian depredations" brought concern over the welfare of these faithful saints. Lorenzo was chosen as a captain in the military district and charged with working to protect the people of the entire area.¹¹

It is interesting to note that Lorenzo is sent to remote and dangerous parts of the territory at the time of the major Indian war outbreaks. As he was called on his Southern Indian Mission in 1853, the Walker War was underway, which continued until the following summer. Now, as he is called to go and help settle this area of the Kanab, the Black Hawk war has just begun, having started in April of 1865. The Black Hawk War was considerably more difficult and violent than the Walker War and lasted well into 1868 and covered more of the Territory than did the Walker War. There were serious warnings in the military commission given to Lorenzo.

Shortly after the first of the year, John Davis Parker, Lorenzo's brother-in-law, and his family arrived in Kanab, by way of Pipe Springs. According to John's daughter, Melinda Parker Roundy, who was 14 at the time, she relates that three days after he left Pipe Springs, the Navajo Indians attacked the settlers there and killed two men, Robert Whitman and James McIntyre. . Lorenzo called for volunteers to carry the message to Saint George. According to the record, Byron D. ROundy and Oran Clark answered the call and left Kanab at 9 PM arriving in Saint George the next morning at 10 AM.¹² On January 15, 1866, James Bleak relays a report "received from Bro. Roundy, president of Kanab. The Indians made a break on the 18th December on Kanab and took four horses out of the corrall of Bro. Savage and Smith, all the horses the settlers had up, also four horses belonging to the Piedes, the following morning five of the brethren and 25 or 30 of the Piedes followed the thieves without overtaking them."¹³

It was at this time, on 30 Jan. 1866 that Betsey, daughter of Lorenzo and his wife, Susannah, died from scarlet fever in the settlement in Kanab. Others were afflicted as well with two other children also dying of scarlet fever at this time.¹⁴

There are reports of communications from Lorenzo concerning the problems in the Kanab and Paria area: "Bp. A. P. Winsor took Elders George A Smith and Erastus Snow to Virgin City, where they held a meeting and preached to the people, and then continued the journey to Toquerville. They received a dispatch from Capt. Roundy containing a letter from Peter Shirts on the Pahreah stating that he and his family were alive and well, though terrible lonesome and desiring that as his team had ben taken by the Indians the brethren would send out two or three teams to move him."¹⁵

The reports continue with "On the 15th of February he [Geo. A. Smith or Erastus Snow] received a note from Bro. Lorenzo W. Roundy of Kanab by the hand of a Piute Indian (keeps) which gave him the first information he had received of the death of Bros. Whitmore and McIntyre. Bro. Roundy addressed his note to Bro. Shirts, if alive, but supposing from Piute reports that Bro. Shirts was killed and Sister Shirts blockaded in the house." The report later says that Peter Shirts was found alive with his family. In a military order at the bottom of the report, George A. Smith asks for them to remove stock on the south side of the Virgin River of Kane County to "localities protected from Indian depredations." and to raise an infantry force of 50 men to "reinforce the settlement in Long Valley."¹⁶ On 1 March 1866, the settlers of Kanab were called upon to go to Mount Carmel in Long Valley "to strengthen the pioneers in that area."¹⁷

Apparently there was some disagreement about keeping to the rules of safety. In a later note to Daniel H. Wells from Parowan, it is reported:

"To explain Roundy's letter I will say that orders had been issued to keep all the stock of the Kanab settlement in a canyon about four miles this side of that place. There was a man however named Tom Smith … took it into his head that the cattle could find better grass beyond the settlement, so he drove down there about sixty head of stock, mostly his own, which the Indians took away from him without even stopping to thank him for bringing them to them."¹⁸

On 21 June 1866, Erastus Snow sent a letter telling the Long Valley people to move to Saint George, for safety from Indian attack. Lorenzo was informed to take his group north to Kanarra. They arrived there July 2, 1866.¹⁹

And so, much like the experience of Alma and his people, the experience in this new area was short lived.

¹ "A Story of Susannah Wallace," written by Wavie Williams Peterson; location, as of June 21, 2009: http://myerscraig.blogspot.com/2008/07/dear-susanna-wallace-roundy.html

² History of Lorenzo Wesley Roundy - as written by his daughter, Annie Isadore Roundy Davis. The handwritten pages of Annie's history, which includes this history of her father, can be found at the website: http://aeb.buchananspot.com/histories/AIRoundyLife/viewer.html .

³ Land Tenure note, dated 30 March 1865, BYU, Harold B. Lee Library, HBLL Special Collections, 094 Utl 1859, no.5.

⁴ "A History of Kane County" by Martha Sonntag Bradley, published 1999 by Utah State Historical Society Kane County commission, pp 65,66. It says "That fall, Roundy left Susannah and traveled with his plural wife Priscilla Parrish and her family to Salem in Utah County." This is followed immediately by the story about the Piute Indian threat to the settlers of Upper Kanab mentioned elsewhere in this chapter.

⁵ Malinda Parker Roundy, "Pioneers of the Early Days," Garfield County News, Panguitch, Utah, June 6, 1930, p. 4. She is not specific, but the wording implies that neither family came south in the Spring: "In the spring of 1865, Lorenzo W. Roundy, Jerad C. Roundy, Myron S. Roundy and WIlliam Ford, settled in upper Kanab in that part of the county now called Alton. … That fall the Roundy brothers returned to Centerville, Davis County, to get the rest of their families."

⁶ DUP, "An Enduring Legacy," Vol 6, p 37.

⁷ According to the History of Alton, without any specific references, it states, "Lorenzo brought his first wife, Susanna Wallace and her family with him and built two log cabins that summer (1865). … In the fall, Lorenzo went to Salem for his other wife, Priscilla Parrish and her family. While he was gone, a friendly Piute informed the settlers that his band planned to wipe them out. Terror struck the people, especially Susanna, with only fourteen-year-old Napolean to protect them. Pole slept constantly with a weapon by his side. The other families wanted to leave, but Susanna refused to budge until her husband returned. An early snowfall saved them. For the Indians would not stay in the upper elevations with snow on the ground and their food supply curtailed." [History of Kane County, published by Kane County Daughters of Utah Pioneers, ed. Adonis Findlay Robinson, The Utah Printing Company, SLC UT 1970 - pp 457, 458]; Also mentioned in the 1999 "A History of Kane County," by Bradley

⁸ 1860 Census records for Springville, Utah, 7 Sept., page 299:

Name:  Saml Parrish

Age in 1860: 62

Birth Year: abt 1798      Birthplace: Canada

Home in 1860: Springville, Utah, Utah Territory

Gender: Male

Household Members: 

Name Age

Saml Parrish 62    Can

Martha Parrish 58    Engl

Margt Parrish 51    Engl

Ann Thomas 82    Wales Blind

⁹ Document from Historian's Office (LDS) of documents for 1865

¹⁰ Carroll, "History of Kane County," 1860, p 9; Robinson, "History of Kane County," p 10; Reneé Mounteer, "Memorial Service for Lorenzo Wesley Roundy, " p 8.

¹¹ In the notes of James G. Bleak of Saint George: "Nov. 19th, Colonel D. D. McArthur issued Military Order to Lorenzo W. Roundy, informing him that he had this day been elected Captain of Co. O. of the 2nd Regiment Iron Military District and ordering him to proceed immediately to Kanab, Kane Co. and to build a good and sufficient fort at that place sufficiently strong and commodious to protect the people there, and those in that vicinity from hostile Indians; also to maintain a vigilant guard by day and by night to protect the people and their stock. And to enforce, if necessary the concentration of the families of Pah-Reah, Upper Kanab and Skootem-Pah, at Kanab." [LDS Journal History, 19 Nov. 1865]

¹² Malinda Parker Roundy, "Pioneers of the Early Days."

¹³ LDS Journal History, 15 Jan. 1866.

¹⁴ Mounteer, Lorenzo Wesley Roundy Memorial program, p 8.

¹⁵ Deseret News, 19 February 1866; LDS Journal History, 19 Feb. 1866.

¹⁶  LDS Journal History, 10 Mar. 1866.

¹⁷ Mounteer, p 8.

¹⁸  LDS Journal History, 15 Mar. 1866.

¹⁹ Mounteer, pp 8,9.