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Oliver DeMill (1830 - 1908)

Oliver DeMill
Born in Colesville, Broome, New York, USAmap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married 14 Feb 1845 in Hector, Schuyler, New York, United Statesmap
Husband of — married 13 May 1855 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USAmap
Husband of — married 3 Jun 1865 in Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory, United Statesmap
Husband of — married 10 Oct 1865 in Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory, United Statesmap
Descendants descendants
Died at age 78 in Rockville, Washington, Utah, USAmap
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Oliver DeMill was a Latter Day Saint pioneer.

Biography

Oliver DeMille was born March 30, 1830 in Colesville, Broome County, New York, just seven days prior to the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, which his parents, Freeborn DeMille and Anna Knight joined four months later in 1830.

Freeborn’s father, Garrett DeMille was acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith when he was a boy and went to the same school. ... Oliver passed through all the persecutions of the church at Nauvoo, and moved with his parents to Winter Quarters, then to Mount Pisgah, Iowa where he resided until their exodus to the Rocky Mountains in the year of 1849-1850. Oliver, being the oldest son of the family and his father being a cripple, he had the burden of the work preparing for the journey, although about 18 years old he accomplished it successfully and manfully and drove an ox team all the way to Manti, in Sanpete County, Utah where they made their home in the valley of the Rocky Mountains. Here again enduring many hardships and privations, famine, pestilence, Indian wars, the disadvantages of pioneer life, building roads and ditches, clearing land, building log and rock houses, fencing farms, etc. After arriving in Utah, Oliver moved to Manti with his parents. It was here where he met Emily Almina Beal. They were married on May 13, 1855. Emily Almina Beal DeMille is the sixth child of William Beal and Clarissa Allen and was born March 29, 1839 in Parma, Ohio. Her parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in an early day. For a while they lived in the beautiful city of Nauvoo. They were expelled from there with the rest of the Saints. At the age of sixteen years, Emily was married to twenty five year old Oliver DeMille on May 13, 1855, in President Brigham Young’s office in Salt Lake City, Utah, and sealed by Daniel H. Wells and witnessed by Wilford Woodruff and W. W. Phelps, Sept. 27, 1862. They were living in Manti when their first child, Olive Emily (named for both of her parents) was born on January 25, 1857 in Manti, Utah. Their second child, Oliver Jr. was born April 25, 1859 and the third, Orpha Almina was born April 1, 1861 in Manti. When this baby was eight months old, Oliver and Emily were called by Brigham Young to help settle Utah’s Dixie. They first settled in St. George, but did not like it there so moved to Rockville. Oliver DeMille, George Petty, Hyrum Stevens, Alma Millett, Hardin Whitlock and Charles Clapper, and their wives and children, left Sanpete County in the fall of 1861 to answer President Brigham Young's call to southern Utah. Oliver DeMille purchased the land from an old Piute Indian chief named Shones (or Shunes) and gave the name Shonesburg to the settlement. On Christmas day of 1861 rain started that lasted for 40 days. At least twice in that time the Virgin River, which was a ranging torrent, took out dams, filled the ditches, undermined banks and spoiled acres of valuable farm land. Because of the great amount of work necessary to prepare the ground for crops they were small that first year. The next year other settlers came: Artemus Millett Sr., Elijah Averett, James Thaxton, John A. Allred, Barney Stevens, Elisha Stevens, *Amos H. Stevens, *Hyrum Stevens, *Ezra Stevens and *Charles Franklin ... Stevens and their mother Martha Durfee Stevens. (The four with the * in front of their name are sons of Lyman Stevens and Martha Durfee Stevens.) In 1863 Samuel K. Gifford, Albert Petty, Walter Stringham and others came from Sanpete County. Albert Petty bought a grinding stone for a grist mill but he could not find a suitable place for it at Shonesburg so he moved to Springdale. Oliver and Emily’s fourth child, Ozro DeMill was born on November 29, 1863 while they were living there. By 1864 there were 7 families with 45 people living in Shonesburg. That year floods took the dam out of the river and left the crops without water in the hot, dry weather of July. There was about 75 acres of land under cultivation at the time, most of this was corn but there were 9 acres of sugar cane and 13 acres of cotton. There was one acre of wheat. Of course, because of the hard work necessary to get the dam back in the river, the crops suffered a great deal for water and were not too good that year. In 1865 more families had moved into Shonesburg: Mrs. Mary Parker and her sons, Samuel and William, John Alma Beal, Joseph Millet, son of Artemus Millet, Walter Kenner, Walter Windsor, George Potter, Elijah “Guard” Potter and his mother and sisters, Sarah and Wittha, Joseph Scott and others. After the Indian trouble they did not all move back, some stayed in Rockville and some moved to other places. A correspondent writing to the Deseret News in Salt Lake City wrote on April 9, 1866: “We had an unusual amount of snow for this region this past winter. We have an unusually late spring, doing damage to some of the early fruit such as apricots and grapes. Peaches were not hurt, of there will be an abundance. A short time past, six of us, by order of our probate judge, penetrated these impossible mountains and made a horse trail over to Berry’s valley (Long Valley). We have already received dispatched by this new trail, one having reached Grafton from Manti in 4 days. This trail was also used by the people of Springdale and Rockville to take their cattle onto the mountain for their summer grazing. A windlass was built up over the ledge in Shonesburg Canyon to take the mail up and down without making the long climb over the trail. A mail carrier was hired to go from Toquerville to the Shonesburg trail and back. At one time Lorenzo and Horace Slack took the contract. They would leave Toquerville Monday morning and go to Shonesburg town the first day and camp there. The next morning they would go on up the head of the canyon, run the mail down the wire and return to Shonesburg for the night. The next day back to Toquerville, they made two trips a week, of course, not working on Sunday. The story is told of Ed Allred who was at one time running the mail up from the bottom of the canyon; that he and the operator at the top decided to meet about half way up the trail and visit for a while. They visited all right but some argument came up and when they parted it was in anger. Ed came back down the trail determined to do something to pay the offender for being so stubborn. The next trip with the mail the fellow at the top thought there must have been a sudden increase in the amount of mail because the load was so heavy. When he finally pulled it to the top he was extremely angry to find that the load he had worked so hard to pull to the top was mostly rocks from the canyon floor. In times of high water (which was about a month every spring) they could not cross the river and would have to station someone on both sides and run the mail across on a wire. They used a mule to pack the mail much of the time, an alforja on the each side of the saddle being used to hold it. Oliver DeMille married a plural wife, Fidelia Winget on June 3, 1865 in Salt Lake City. She wrote: "...Some years later we moved to Manti in Sanpete County. While I was working out in Manti, I became acquainted with a man by the name of Oliver DeMill. I was then sixteen years of age; he was eighteen years my senior. In a short time I became his second wife. We were married June 3, 1865, in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. I left all my people and went with my husband to Shonesburg in Washington County, Utah. For a time I was very lonesome. A year or so after going to Dixie, I became very ill and went back to Manti where my people were and received medical treatment there. After recovering, I spun yarn and paid my own doctor bill, then returned to Dixie. For a while I lived with my husband's first wife and family. Later I had a small home of my own, which consisted of one room of a log house with a dirt roof and floor. Our clothing was all homemade; we spun our yarn and wove the cloth. We dug roots to make coloring for the cloth and for a long time we did all our sewing by hand. In addition to doing my own sewing, I did all the sewing for the other family, which consisted of eleven children. I knitted all our stockings and socks and worked in the Washington County clothing factory. I was married five years before I had children. I am the mother of seven children, as follows: Ada Elvina, married Newell K. Beal mother of seven children. Melvina died at birth. Almeda, married Edgar Alonzo Beal mother of three children. Melborne, married Jennie Petty. Adlinda, married Arthur Hull mother of nine children. Jesse, married Zelpha Petty father of nine children. Delia, married Nathan Petty, mother of one child. During the time I was rearing my own family I did a big washing, scrubbing it on the board for twenty-five cents.” Oliver DeMille took another plural wife and was married to Rebecca Jane Allred on October 10, 1865 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They had one daughter, Mary Jane – born May 25, 1868) (Rebecca) In the early days of the settlement cotton was raised, which furnished employment for the children as well as grown people. In time, the cotton fields were planted to orchards and vineyards. Emily and her husband’s second wife, Fidelia Winget, worked very hard drying fruit. Their children were also taught to work hard and fast to keep the fruit from spoiling. Emily made her own tallow candles. The furniture in her home was all homemade except her stove and sewing machine. She also had an old-fashioned bureau or dresser. Homemade rag carpets covered the floors. Lace curtains hung at the windows. The walls were white washed. The bedsteads were corded or crisscrossed with rope instead of having springs; ticks filled each fall with fresh cornhusks were used instead of mattresses to sleep on. Samuel Gifford, a brother-in-law made their chairs. Most of her sewing, she did by hand as she did not like to sew on her machine after getting one. Her husband taught her to read and write after they were married, and she took great pleasure in reading, especially in reading the Semi Deseret Weekly News. Oliver and Emily’s fifth child, Oscar DeMille was born November 21, 1866. In 1866 all the settlers were obligated to move to Rockville for protection against the Indians. Indians came and went a great deal through Shonesburg Canyon and the situation became a serious one. Ezra Stevens told of the death of Elijah Averett: “Averett was killed by Indians near the present sight of Escalante. He was hired out to go with a group of the military to find out where the Indians were taking the cattle and other stock they were stealing. President Erastus Snow talked with the men before they left, they were camped on the plain above Rockville and asked if any of them had a desire to kill the Indians, if so they were released from going on this mission. At the time Averett did not speak up, but no sooner had they gone on their way then he said he would kill every Indian he could. When the company had reached the neighborhood of Escalante, some of the horses became somewhat jaded and a few of the men go the chills, so Averett was appointed to take them back. He was riding and leading a horse and the horse that he was taking back with him followed behind. As Averett was ascending the hill, he was suddenly confronted by two Indians who shot him with an arrow and killed him. The other whites turned and belted back, brought up help, but the Indians had gone. Averett was buried at the place where he was killed. It was Piute’s who shot him.” There were some Indians who were helpful at times, especially when the whites needed someone to run errands for them. Sometime they did a great deal of good. They also like to play jokes on the whites and some of them did not care if their dealing with white people was not fair so long as they got the best of the bargain. There was, for instance, the Old Indian who came to trade some pine nuts to a Shonesburg housewife, Mrs. Anne Allred. He wanted some flour in exchange. She set the flour down close by her chair and sat down to knit. Suddenly the Old Indian jumped up, grabbed the flour, took a better hold of the pine nuts and away he went, laughing with glee because he had beaten her in the deal. She never did get the pine nuts. ... ... About 1870 a school house was built. It was 14x22 feet and was the only public building they had, but the building that really became their meeting place for recreation was the private residence of Oliver DeMille. It was built before 1863 (according to their son, Ozro’s history) and is still standing today. It was a two story building 56x20 and was built of solid rock. Christian Larson Christensen was in charge and did the carpentry work. Joseph Millet did the mason work. Oliver’s sons did not want the house to be built on the hill so they refused to help with it. One day the workers needed some rock moved but they had no team. They knew it was of no use to ask the DeMille boys to help them move the rock, so Chris Larsen Christensen went out of the edge of the hill and called to one of the boys to hurry and bring a team up because Joe Millet had broken his leg. Of course the boys immediately hurried up the hill with a team and wagon but he was pretty upset when he found there had been no accident and they only wanted him to haul the rock. When the building was completed it was used for dances most of the time because it was so much larger than the school house. There was room enough for 3 sets of quadrilles. David Lemmon states that he can remember when he was a small boy going to this house and waiting while his father played the violin for the people to dance by. Some of the others who played were Jim Thaxton, Samuel K. Gifford, Chris Larson Christensen on the violins and Byron Millet played the banjo. They had such good times at these dances. He said, “We danced barefooted and would leave blood streaks on the floor and the next morning we would gather up the toenails.” Oliver and Emily’s 7th child, Ira was born April 17, 1871. Their 8th child, Benjamin Franklin was born July 26, 1873. ... ... In 1874 a branch of the United Order was organized in Shonesburg. Brigham Young had visited there on March 5th and authorized the organization. Oliver DeMille was in charge. The “Order” did not last long but Oliver DeMille continued to preside over the Shonesburg branch until 1889 when his son Oscar took his place. Oscar was the last Presiding Elder at Shonesburg. Brigham Young visited Shonesburg a number of times. He would stay at Oliver and Emily DeMille’s home. They were proud to welcome him and especially the time that he brought his wife and baby. Emily was a good cook and Brigham praised her for her hospitality and good meals. Oliver DeMille told him that he would like to move out where there were better schools but Brigham advised him to stay there, saying that there would be a family for every acre of land and a better school. Mrs. Emily M. Nebeker, a descendant of Olive DeMille, made this comment, “In time this was true about the land as floods washed the land away, but the schools didn’t get any better.” Oliver and Emily’s 9th child, Levi Garrett was born November 29, 1876 or 1877. Oliver Demille married his 4th wife, Rachel Gifford on January 2, 1878 (no children listed) Emily gave birth to their 10th child, Anna Maria who was born October 31, 1879, followed by their 11th and last child, Roswell who was born October 1, 1882. Emily was always cheerful, and her hardships were not hardships to her, only duties performed with love and kindness, she was a good nurse. Her special self-training was with children. She seemed to understand their diseases well and loved to take care of them. Her tender saying for them was, “Oh, kiss your foot.” Oliver DeMille was obedient to the council given by Brigham Young and stayed in Shonesburg until his children were all grown and nearly all were married and had families of their own. John J. Allred moved out in 1890 and left just Oliver and his large family and his brother-in-law, Alma Beal. The year 1897 was the last year that school was held in Shonesburg. Most of Oliver’s family had moved to Rockville where their children could attend school and church. Oliver and his two wives, Emily and Fidelia stayed there until 1902 when they too, moved to Rockville. Shonesburg was a town no longer. There had been so much of the land washed away by floods that there was not enough to support a town any longer. Emily always had something to divide with those less fortunate than herself, and was a cheerful giver which was one of her hobbies along with braiding and making straw hats for her children and grandchildren, knitting stockings, cooking big dinners and calling her large family together. She was happiest when doing for others. She loved music and dancing and was a faithful Latter Day Saint. She was diligent at all times in training and teaching her children in the principles of the Gospel and making home a happy and entertaining place for them and her friends and neighbors. Her life was a busy one and she was loved by all that knew and understood her. She was about 5 feet 5 inches in height, had black hair, dark blue eyes, she was slender in her younger days, but a little heavy in middle life. Then after a severe sick spell was very thin for a few years before her death, which occurred November 3, 1905 at Rockville, Utah. She was 66 years old. Oliver was 78 years old when he died on July 8, 1908. He was buried in the Rockville Cemetery in Rockville, Utah beside his wife Emily Almina Beal. His wife Fidelia died on November 5, 1931 at age 83 and was buried in the Monroe City Cemetery in Monroe, Utah. All that is left of the once bustling town of Shonesburg, Utah is the remains of Oliver DeMille’s rock home, a few remnants of chimneys and the graveyard where 27 graves of those were once residents of the town lie in eternal sleep. Some say the rock home was built by Oliver DeMille and others say it was Alma Millett but no one knows for sure who built it or when. Some say it was built in the 1860’s and others say it was between 1881 and 1889. Either way, it is still standing but people are forbidden to go inside for safety reasons.

OLIVER AND EMILY’S CHILDREN (Note that some of the children spelled their last name DeMill and other DeMille) ...

  • "Oliver DeMill Family Story" See full story including info about Oliver's birth and parents, and his children and their lives. --> [1]

...


  • Called by Brigham Young to settle southern Utah

Sources

  • Family Story of Oliver DeMill: [2]




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It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Oliver by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Oliver:

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De Mille-4 and DeMill-12 appear to represent the same person because: Chosen "DeMill" spelling is taken from a photograph of his tombstone.
posted by [Living Winter]

D  >  DeMill  >  Oliver DeMill

Categories: Warren Foote Company 1850 | LDS Pioneers