On Monday (Memorial Day 2013), Iris and I made a brief journey over to the Bear Lake Valley to pay our respects to some of our kindred dead. Of course, we went to the Lanark Cemetery and contemplated the blessings that are ours in large part due to the love, work, and sacrifice of Darrell and Edna Eborn, our parents and grandparents. I miss them greatly and come to realize each day just how big a role they played in our lives and how blessed we all are because for them in so many, many ways. I always reflect on Mom telling me how beautiful she thought Lanark was in the springtime looking northward over the rolling green hills toward Liberty, where she was raised. These two small towns were not far apart and opportunities to travel very far beyond their boundaries were more limited than we can imagine in our day and age. I praise the day they found each other and all they did to show their love and care for us as we grew up.
Lately I have been thinking a great deal about another of our ancestors, my Great Grandmother, Mary Ann Pitman. We found her grave stone in the Liberty Cemetery and left a small potted flower as a token of our appreciation. As you can see from the picture below, Mary Ann Pitman Hymas did not lead a long life and we can rest assured that her life was not easy by our standards. Her love and sacrifice were demonstrated by the children she bore and cared for in the pioneer community of Liberty, where she passed away at the age of 32.
She came to America when she was ten years old after conversion to the LDS Church and first went to Iowa where they prepared for the journey to the Salt Lake valley to be with the Saints in the Rocky Mountains. Her father, James Pitman, died in Nebraska before their party was ready for the overland wagon journey. It is interesting to note that they came across the plains to Utah with the Homer Duncan Company in 1861, just as the U.S. Civil War was beginning. Her mother, Ann Moulton King Pitman, who, interestingly enough, was later married to a Joseph Lewis and eventually settled in Paris, Idaho, where she died in 1905. She is the great-great grandmother of one of our daughters-in-law, Candice Pope, our Stephen's wife and the mother of four of the best looking grand kids anyone could every hope to have. One of her children, while before passing in 1878, was our grandfather, Benjamin Pitman Hymas. Father of Edna Hymas, our mother.
They had the following children:
2 i. John William (1865-1959)
3 ii. Mary Ann Adelia (1866-1944)
4 iii. Joseph Manassah (1867-1932)
5 iv. Benjamin Pitman (1869-1940)
6 v. Clara Drucilla (1872-1901)
John A. Hymas of Essex and Idaho
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John Arnold Hymas. Born on 1 September 1839 in Rayleigh, Essex, England. Christened on 1 October 1839 in Rayleigh, Essex, England. John Arnold died in Liberty, Bear Lake County, Idaho, United States on 8 November 1917, he was 78. Buried on 11 November 1917 in Liberty, Bear Lake County, Idaho, United States.
Information from Ancestry.com Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah.
"John A. Hymas Son of William Hymas and Mary Ann Atkins. Born Sept. 1, 1839, Rayleigh, Essex, Eng. Came to Utah October, 1861. HYMAS, JOHN A. (son of William Hymas and Mary Ann Atkins). Born Sept. 1, 1839, at Rayleigh, Essex, Eng. Came to Utah Oct. 1861, Creighton telegraph train. William Hymas was born July 26, 1806, at Rayleigh, Essex, England, the son of Edward and Sarah Howler Hymas. He was married to Mary Ann Atkins January 6, 1834. She was born December 20, 1815, at Hockley, Essex, England, and was the daughter of Willam and Lucy Hart Atkins. They were the parents of 8 children: George, born in 1834; William Alfred, 1837; John I., 1839; Sarah, 1841; Susan, 1844; Benjamin, 1846; James, 1849; and Mary Ann, 1851. In 1853 William and his family first heard the gospel message and by 1856, when John sailed for America on the ship Caravan all the family except the oldest son had joined the Church. The following year William Alfred sailed on the George Washington and joined brother John in Iowa. William and Mary Ann saved their money and made plans to take the remaining members of their family to America. Their plans were at least partially realized when all except George sailed on the ship Underwriter on April 23, 1861."
On 10 November 1861 when John Arnold was 22, he first married Mary Ann Pitman, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. Born on 4 October 1846 in Parish Of Hound, Southampton, Hampshire, England. Mary Ann died in Liberty, Bear Lake County, Idaho, United States on 22 January 1878, she was 31. Buried on 27 January 1878 in Liberty, Bear Lake County, Idaho, United States.
Treasures of Pioneer History Treasures of Pioneer History: Vol 4 the Price of Pioneering They Gave Their Lives
"James Pitman and his wife, Anne M. King Pitman, with their daughter Mary Ann, then ten years of age, came to America in the year 1857 from South Hampton, England. James was listed as forty-four years of age and his wife forty-two. When they reached the New World the family went to Iowa where they were to make preparations for the journey West to join with the Saints in Utah. James Pitman died the following year. While Ann and Mary Ann were living in Omaha, they became acquainted with Joseph Lewis whom Ann later married. When Mary Ann grew to young womanhood, she married John Hymas in Salt Lake City in 1861, and her mother and Joseph Lewis joined them the following year. The Lewis family made their home at Paris, Idaho and the Hymas family settled at Liberty, Idaho. ”Edith Haddock and Mary O. Lewis"
Her husband, John A. Hymas married again later and had several more children. This is chronicled more completely elsewhere in this blog.
Below are the two Liberty Ward churches with which I am familiar. The picture immediately below was completed in 1958. I actually had the opportunity to do work on the construction of this building when I was a teenager. This, I consider to be my home ward to this date. It was from this ward that I was called to serve my mission in 1960. I lived with our young family in the old Lyme Hymas home about a mile to the south. We had three little boys while we lived there for three years and I well remember pulling Jason and Jared to the Church on sunny summer mornings in their little red wagon.
This is the Liberty Ward LDS Chapel. It was dedicated in 1958.
Below is the old Liberty Ward Church where mother attended meetings etc. as a child and was still in use for a few years after the Lanark Ward was joined with the Liberty-Sharon Ward to become the Liberty Ward I knew as a teen ager.
When the Lanark Ward was merged into the Liberty Ward I was a young high school aged boy.
I remember how terrified I was when asked to give a two and a half minute talk in Sunday School
before so many strangers. I did know most of the young people because we all attended school together in Paris and rode the same school bus to and from school much of the time. I learned to love the Liberty Ward and to this day I consider it my home ward.. It was there that Bishop Marvin Hymas interviewed me for my mission back in the summer of 1960. I still have many fond memories
of the people and activities of the Liberty Ward and shall ever be grateful for the guidance and support I got as a member of that ward. The building above was the Liberty Church when we joined the ward. Mother told us of the many good times she had while she lived in the small community of Liberty and these experiences helped shape her life.
This Daughters of Utah Pioneers marker is situated on the southwest corner of the Liberty, Idaho LDS Chapel located along the north side of Highway 36. It is visible from the highway, with the plaque facing east. The marker is attached to a large base made of carved stones. It reads:
Liberty is a small ranching community in the northwest corner of Bear Lake Valley, built on the south-facing slope of a hill between Mill Creek and Ovid Creek. Narrow fingers of the valley extend towards the Bear River Mountains in this area, separated by hilly areas. Irrigated fields fill the valley, where hay is the main crop, and hills are covered with grass and sagebrush. The forested peaks of the mountains provide a beautiful backdrop to the scenery. The only public structure in Liberty is the Mormon church at the main intersection.
Mormon settlers arrived in 1863, descending into the valley through Emigration Canyon, which lies northwest of Liberty, and settled at Paris, several miles to the south. Liberty was settled soon after, as recorded on a historic marker in Liberty.
State Highway 36 passes through Liberty, leading to Emigration Canyon on the northwest, and Ovid to the southeast. Lanark Road begins at Liberty and heads south along the west edge of the valley. The elevation is 5,980 feet at the low end of town, and houses extend up the hill to about 6,080 feet. The population may be about 100 people.
Posted by Bart
