Oscar Crosby’s Move to California

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Why did Oscar move to California in the mid 1850s?

a.                  He was sent to settle by Brigham Young

b.                  He apostatized from the Church

c.                   To find gold

d.                  Since he was a slave, to be liberated

Yesterday’s answer:

D   Bryce Canyon

From the life of Mary Ann Park Bryce:   It was here that Ebenezer Bryce, a young Scotsman, first met and fell in love with Mary Ann. He was living with the Smith’s at this time. Ebenezer’s and Mary Ann’s courtship flourished and on 16 Apr, 1854, when he was twenty-three and she seventeen, they were married by Apostle George A. Smith at his home in Salt Lake City. Mary Ann made her own wedding dress of white cross bar with a tight fitting bodice and full skirt. Her most treasured wedding present was a pair of silver spoons, an item unavailable on the Utah market at that time.

They moved many times in their life time. Ebenezer was called many times to southern Utah to help build saw mills, shingle mills, and four mills. One of their first moves was to Tooele to build a mill for Eli Kelsey. From Tooele they went with Luke Johnson and some others to start a settlement in Rush Valley (Clover). The family lived in Spanish Fork while Ebenezer was on guard in Echo Canon. They also lived in East Weber (Uintah) for a time, near Mary Ann’s parents.

 When he was only twenty-nine, Ebenezer was called by the Church Authorities to go to St. George to help build up that part of the country. Ebenezer had no family in the West and now Mary Ann was away from her family. There were forty days of rain that winter while they lived in a covered wagon with five small children.

Ebenezer was later sent to Pine Valley to help build a saw mill. Here Mary Ann bore five more children (one set of twins). While in Pine Valley, Ebenezer was advised to move to a warmer climate for the benefit of Mary Ann’s health. He homesteaded land in Tropic, Utah. Their cabin home in Tropic has been made into a museum which is down the canyon.

While in Tropic, Ebenezer dug ditches to take water out of the Paria Creek for irrigation purposes and built a road to the timber to obtain logs. The people in the area also used the roads to get timber and wood and they called the canyon “Bryce.” Bryce Canyon became the twelfth National Park. Mary Ann’s health was very poor.

Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, Daughters of Utah Pioneers: (International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers: 1998), 1:400.