Priscilla (née Clark) (Pickett) (Pickett) Wilford
The Life and Times of English Immigrant
Priscilla (née Clark) (Pickett) (Pickett) Wilford (1826-1869)
Part 2
By Richard L. Tolman, Ph. D.
Note by the author (May 2011):
This manuscript is a revised, updated, and expanded version of the paper that appeared in the
National Genealogical Quarterly [94 (DECEMBER 2006: 267-286] and that was also the winner
of the 2006 National Genealogical Society Family History Writing Contest.
Families can endure, and even prosper, despite tragedy, tribulation, and villains. Priscilla had determination and strength of character—willingness to face the unknown and follow through no matter the difficulty. Woven into the fabric of this courageous woman's life were three husbands, six children, and changing views of a controversial religion, all defining a strong-willed and resolute Nevada pioneer.
GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY
Generation A
1. James A Clark, christened 6 January 1793 at Buckland-Denham, Somersetshire, England; buried 29 January 1865 in the same parish.1 He married2 on 29 January 1826 at Buckland-Denham, Fanny Hurle, born 8 March 1801 in Rode, Somersetshire, to Richard and Mary (née Cox) Hurle.3 Fanny was deaf in 1851.4
James and Fanny Clark had eight children born in Buckland-Denham parish:
2 i. PRISCILLA CLARK, christened5 22 September 1826; murdered 5 July 1869 near Carson City, Nevada.6 She married (1) George Pickett, 4 September 1853,7 (2) William Armstrong Pickett, 3 March 1860,8 and (3) William Wilford, 30 June 1862.9
3 ii. AQUILA CLARK, christened 12 July 1829;10 died 5 December 1898 in Wolverhampton, England.11 He married12 4 April 1858 Mary Sheppard, born about 1829 in Frome, Somersetshire. Mary probably predeceased her husband as his married daughter was the informant for his death certificate. The daughter, Charlotte Annie Clark, was born 22 Jul 1870 at Cobden Row in Lockwood, Yorkshire, England, and married Job Starkey in Sep 1894 at Aston, Warwickshire.13 Aquila left Buckland-Denham by 1851, probably to apprentice as a woolen weaver. Aquila and his family moved every few years presumably following employment as either a woolen or cotton weaver--they lived in Wiltshire (1861), Yorkshire (1871), Lancashire (1881), and Somerset (1891). From time to time Mary was also employed as a weaver. In 1891 their daughter was a weaver in Aquila's employ.14
4 iii. SARAH CLARK, christened 4 September 1831.15
5 iv. CHARLOTTE CLARK, christened 26 April 1835.16
6 v. JANE CLARK, christened 2 July 1837; buried 13 July 1837.17
7 vi. JANE CLARK, christened 29 May 1838; buried 16 September 1838.18
8 vii. GEORGE CLARK, christened 6 September 1840.19
9 viii. WILLIAM CLARK, christened 4 December 1842.20
Generation One
2. Priscilla1(JamesA) Clark , christened21 22 September 1826 at Buckland-Denham Parish, Somerset; murdered 5 July 1869 near Carson City, Nevada.22
Priscilla married 4 September 1853 in Newbury, Berkshire, England, (1) George Pickett, a widower with three small children.23 A son of James and Mary (née Armstrong) Pickett, he was christened24 2 September 1821 at Chieveley, Berkshire. He died of smallpox on 2 April 1857 in St. Louis, Missouri.25 George Pickett had married26 (1), on 11 February 1843 in Chieveley, Maria Jarvis.
Priscilla married27 (2) William Armstrong Pickett, George's elder brother, in Brigham Young's office at Salt Lake City on 3 March 1860. William was christened 9 November 1818 at Chieveley, Berkshire, and died 11 December 1901 in Tooele, Utah.28 At the time of his marriage to Priscilla he had two other Mormon wives: (1) Mary Castle, whom he married on 6 November 1841 and (2) Mary Brownjohn, whom he married on 11 June 1856. William took a fourth wife, Ann Todd, on 10 November 1873. He had no children from any of these marriages.29
Priscilla married30 (3) William Wilford at Hangtown (now Placerville), California, on 30 June 1862. Son of Edward and Ann (née Gutteridge) Wilford, he was christened 10 January 1825 at South Croxton, Leicestershire, England.31 William died of smallpox on 21 January 1869 at Carson City, Nevada.32
Priscilla and George Pickett had the following children:
10 i. LOUISA PICKETT, born 25 July 1854, probably at Chieveley Parish, Berkshire, England;33 died 1855-56, probably at St. Louis, Missouri.34
11 ii. MARIA LOUISA PICKETT, born 29 November 1856, at St. Louis;35 died 27 March 1930, at Twin Falls, Idaho.36 She married (1) Cyrus Ammon Tolman, 12 December 1878,37 and (2) George Franklin Read, 21 May 1891.38
Priscilla had a child of unknown paternity born in California:
12 iii. GEORGE W. PICKETT, born March 186239 (see discussion, Part 1); died before 1910 at Verdi, Nevada.40 He married Capitola Lenwire Aldrich, 1 May 1890 at Carson City, Nevada.41
Priscilla and William Wilford had the following children, born at Carson City, Nevada:
+ 13 iv. SARAH WILFORD, born42 26 September 1864; died by her own hand on 2 November 1918 at Salt Lake City.43 She married John Casper Lanno on 2 October 1886 at Salt Lake City.44
+ 14 v. WILLIAM M. WILFORD, born45 9 September 1866; died 17 February 1949 in Sonoma County, California.46 He married Martha Jane "Mattie" or "Jennie" Grandbois on 2 July 1895 at Carson City.47
+ 15 vi. LILLA ISABEL "LIL" WILFORD, born48 4 October 1868 near Carson City, Nevada; died 8 Feb 1954 at Medical Lake, Spokane, Washington.49 She married (1), at Carson City on 31 October 1886, Henry Heidenreich;50 (2), at Reno, Nevada on 22 November 1910, Jesse Allen Thomas;51 and (3), at Ely, Nevada on 26 August 1917 (div), Isaiah Sutherland.52
Priscilla' Clark had three stepchildren (born at Chieveley to her first husband, George Pickett, and his first wife, Maria Jarvis):
16 JAMES PIGGOT, born in 1844;53 died in Utah before 1860.54
17 MARY PIGGOT, born in 1846.55 Like her brother James, she died apparently in Utah before 1860.
18 JANE PICKETT, born in 17 November 1848; died 6 June 1907 at Saint Charles, Idaho. She married John Thompson Barker on 20 June 1870 at Salt Lake City.56
Generation Two
Figure 1. From Left: Mannie Pickett, George Orin Tolman, Maria Louisa (née Pickett) Tolman, Mary Elizabeth Tolman. The original portrait, made by C. R. Savage Pioneer Photography, Salt Lake City, Utah, about 1883 is owned by Patricia Ann Bates Miller, Corinne, Utah.
11. Maria Louisa 2(Priscilla 1, James A Clark) Pickett born 28 November 1856 at St. Louis, Missouri;57 died 28 March 1930 at Twin Falls, Idaho.58 She was called Louisa all of her life.59
Three months before Priscilla was murdered she placed twelve-year-old Louisa with Louisa and William Gill Mills in Gilroy, California, for schooling. Louisa and her sister Sarah accompanied Louisa and William to Salt Lake City about 1872. They had a house in the city and a store in the mining town of Alta.60 On 4 August 1878 the town of Alta was destroyed by fire.61
Louisa at age nineteen conceived a child with her foster father William. Son of Thomas and Jane (née Gill) Mills, William was born 18 December 1822 in Ardglass, County Down, Ireland, and died 24 May 1895 at Salt Lake City.62 He married63 (1), in Berkshire on 1 October 1851, Louisa Avalina Sleater, born 22 December 1832 at Sligo, Ireland, daughter of Robert and Mary (née Marchant) Sleater. Louisa died 30 January 1926 at Salt Lake City.64 They had no children.65 William married66 (2), as a plural wife on 14 June 1857 at Salt Lake City, Emily Hill. Emily (at age 20) was a survivor of the Willie Handcart Company, which was stranded and rescued in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming in the winter of 1856; William was one of the rescuers.67 Emily's only child with him was a daughter, Avelina. Emily was bitter after Wm Gill Mills ‘deserted’ (Emily’s word) her after his calling to Birmingham and subsequent excommunication. After a divorce and a remarriage in 1864, Emily became the noted poetess E. H. Woodmansee.68
Louisa left Mill's home to have the baby in Granite, a village south of Salt Lake City. She went back to Tooele County to seek out Pickett relatives, including William Armstrong Pickett, who had always acted as her family's protector.69 There she came to know Elizabeth (née Pickett) Tolman (W. A. Pickett's niece and Louisa's cousin), with whom she was very close for the rest of her life.70 Louisa married71 (1) Elizabeth's husband, Cyrus Ammon Tolman, as his third (plural) wife on 12 December 1878 at Salt Lake City. Son of Cyrus and Alice (née Bracken) Tolman,72 Cyrus was born 6 September 1848 at Fort Bridger, Wyoming,73 and died 24 May 1909 at Emmett, Idaho.74 His previous plural marriages were: (1), on 17 October 1870, Elizabeth Pickett, who was born 3 August 1850 at Chieveley, England;75 and (2), on 7 June 1875, Karen Sophia Isaacson, who was born 17 March 1857 at Christiania, Norway.76 He had no children with either wife.
In 1880 the polygamous family was living in Ophir, Tooele County Louisa with a new daughter (Mary Elizabeth).77 The grass in Tooele County gave out in the 1880s, and the Tolmans moved to the Goose Creek country of southern Idaho. When Mormon Church President Wilford Woodruff published the 1890 Manifesto abandoning polygamy as LDS doctrine and clearing the way for Utah statehood, Louisa quickly divorced Cyrus.78 He subsequently married (4) Minnie Marie Mauchian or Menchon on 15 March 1896 at Emmett, Idaho,79 and was excommunicated for "taking a plural after the Manifesto."80
Shortly after her divorce Louisa monogamously married (2), 21 May 1891 at Marion, Idaho, George Franklin Read.81 Born 23 March 1861 at Nephi, Utah, and died on 23 May 1951 at Burley, Idaho, George was son of Robert Locke Read and Ann Jane (née McCowan) Read.82 Louisa's children were not separated from her ex-husband, however; in 1900 the Reads and Tolmans were neighbors.83 Louisa taught school in Marion, worked in her church, and lived to see her children raise large families.84
For a portrait of Louisa and her first three children, see figure 1.
Louisa Pickett and William Gill Mills had one child:
19 i. MANNY PICKETT, born 4 January 1876 in Granite, Utah;85 died 5 October 1963 at Caliente, Nevada; buried at Burley, Idaho.86 He married Dora Lenora Briggs on 24 December 1896 at Marion, Idaho.87
Louisa and Cyrus Tolman had two children:
20 ii. MARY ELIZABETH TOLMAN, born 7 January 1880 at Knowllen, Utah; died 27 December 1967 at Murtaugh, Idaho.88 She married Andrew Glenn on 2 March 1900 at Elba, Idaho.89
21 iii. GEORGE ORIN TOLMAN, born 11 June 1882 at Knowllen, Utah; died 23 January 1939 in an automobile accident at Pacoima, California.90 He married Katherine Loveland at Logan, Utah, 7 September 1910.91
Louisa and George Read, had three children, all born at Marion, Idaho:
22 iv. ROBERT LOCKE READ, born 20 August 1895; died 29 October 1956, at West Los Angeles, California.92 He married Cora Lucille Hammond at Salt Lake City, 6 May 1920.93
23 v. WALDEMER PICKETT READ, born 19 July 1897;94 died 17 March 1975 at Salt Lake City.95 He married96 Ethel Elizabeth Olsen at Salt Lake City, 24 October 1924. He earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Chicago and was for many years head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Utah, a much loved and respected man of wisdom and judgment and a contributor to his community.97
24 vi. ULEA JANE READ, born 26 February 1899; died 25 February 1985 at Seattle, Washington.98 She married99 (1) Clarence "Don" Wharton at Shoshone, Idaho, 24 October 1924, and (2), about 1930, Andrew F. Bozarth.100
12. George W 2 (Priscilla 1, James A Clark) Pickett born in February 1861 probably at Hangtown (now Placerville), California;101 died before 1910 at Verdi, Nevada, perhaps in a mining accident or from illness.102 He married 1 May 1890 at Carson City, Nevada, Capitola "Allie" Lenwire Aldrich, daughter of Horton Uriah and Emma (née Mitchell) Aldrich.103 She was born 3 March 1869 at Mason Valley, Nevada, and died 8 June 1946 at Stockton, California.104 George traveled with his remarried mother from California to Carson City. After her murder the Henry Ross family raised George less than a mile from the Wilford ranch on Clear Creek.105 After marrying in the Ross home,106 he and Capitola moved to Verdi, Nevada, where George worked as a mine laborer.107 By 1900 the couple had three children.108 In 1910 the widowed Capitola was working as a cook near Stockton, California, not far from where son Walter (who called himself Andrew) and daughter Priscilla worked.109
George and Capitola Pickett had three children:
25 i. WALTER aka ANDREW MARNI PICKETT, born 4 February 1891 at Verdi,Nevada; died 19 February 1956 at Tehama, California.110 He married but she died before 1956.111
26 ii. PRISCILLA M. PICKETT, born 4 May 1894 at Carson City, Nevada; died 5 February 1920 at Stockton, California.112 She married Homer Alfred Clow,113 14 October 1913 at Stockton. They had two children.114
27 iii. GEORGE FRANK PICKETT. born 26 September 1896 at Verdi, Nevada. He lived at Burlington and Palmyra, New Jersey, after serving in the Navy and died in the Philadelphia Naval Hospital, 6 April 1970. His wife was Frances G.[--?--].115
Figure 2. Sarah Wilford Lanno [about 1904] and children (clockwise from Sarah: Leo J. Lanno, George Henry Lanno, Edward Lanno, Henriette Frances Lanno, Wilford Lanno), original is owned by Gayle Minjarez, Santa Barbara, California
13. Sarah2 (Priscilla1, James A Clark) Wilford born 26 September 1864 at Carson City, Nevada; committed suicide on 2 November 1918 at Salt Lake City.116 She married John Casper Lanno, 2 October 1886 at Salt Lake City.117 He was born about 1849-50 in Germany,118 and died on 26 April 1899 at Truckee, California.119