The story line was a sad one. It told of a family where the mother had died. For some reason, the father could not care for the children. I remember the father pulling some of the children on a sled, going to various neighbors and asking them if they'd be willing to raise some of the children and how sad he was to be giving them away.
Dad said the story reminded him so much of the true story of his own father and grandfather. Years later, after reading about his grandfather's life, I can see why it touched him so.
( I have since discovered I had a few things wrong. In the movie, the parents both died and the oldest brother had to give his siblings away. We now think the movie was called "All Mine to Give" which can be seen on youtube.)
History of Coriantumr Stephens and his wife, Frances Asenith Thompson
This history was compiled from the histories of the children of this family. Hyrum Grant Stephens wrote the histories of himself, Art, Ed and Joe. The history of Orpha was written by her daughter-in-law, Ilene Shelton.
Frances Asenith Thompson was the fifth child of Edmund Hobert Thompson and Frances Rachel Welborn. She was born the 22nd of February 1859 at Payson, Utah, Utah. Coriantumr was the son of Alexander Stephens and Ann Eliza Palmer. He was born the 14th of March 1858 at Pondtown (now called Salem), Utah.
Coriantumr’s father, Alexander Stephens , was born in Salisbury, Rowan, North Carolina. He was baptized a member of the church on the 28th of January 1840 at Brown County, Illinois. He was ordained a Seventy by Warren Snow. Family records show he was married and had one son, Ebenezer. He decided to go west with the Saints and joined a Mormon wagon train. For some reason his wife and son did not join him in his journey west. While the wagon train was making its way west, the government called for volunteers to go to California to fight the Mexican War. He walked nearly 2000 miles with the Mormon Battalion all the way to California. When he was released from the army, he and several others worked at Sutter’s Mill. He was one of the first ones to discover gold in California. He married Ann Eliza Palmer with whom he had four children, Adelia, Abraham, Coriantumr and Benjamin Franklin.
Frances Asenith’s father, Edmund Hobert Thompson was born in Erie, Springfield, Pennsylvania. His family began moving west, and while living in Iowa, he met Frances Rachel Welborn and was married the 4th of May 1850. One son, Willis Albert, was born to them before Edmund Hobert decided to go west and find his fortune in the gold fields of California. While traveling with a wagon train headed for California, they lost their horse one night and were left on the prairie without any means to travel. Sometime later a Mormon wagon train came along, gave them horses, and took them to Salt Lake. They did not continue on to California. Edmund and his wife were both baptized into the Church in May of 1853. Although Edmund traveled around quite a bit to find work, his wife and children remained in the Ogden and Salt Lake areas.
Coriantumr, who was known as Cora, spent his first few years at Salem. When he was about six or seven years old his family moved to Huntsville, Weber, Utah. In 1865 tragedy came to this family as the youngest son, Benjamin Franklin, died at the age of five. A few months later the mother of this little family left, leaving the father to care for the three remaining children, Adelia age 11, Abraham age 10 and Cora age 7. The family stayed in Huntsville for a few more years on a small farm they had. In about 1872 or 1873 Alexander went to the Ogden area to work for the railroad and left Cora in Huntsville to take care of the farm. Cora was 14 or 15 at the time. He was also working for a Brother Peterson trying to get enough money ahead to go back to school. In 1873 his father, Alexander remarried to Agnes Rodgers and they made their home in Wilson. In the fall of 1875 Cora went to Wilson to live with his father and new stepmother. There he met and fell in love with a young girl from the neighboring town of Hooper, Frances Asenith Thompson. They were married at West Weber, Utah, on the 28th of February 1876 by Hans D. Peterson. The story is told that after they were married they both got on the same horse and rode away. About three years later, on the 13th of March 1879, they were sealed in the Endowment House. They continued living in the Ogden area for the next few years. Two children were born to them at Hooper, CoriaArthur (called Art) born 9 March 1877 and Edmund Alexander (called Ed) born 9 May 1878.
After the birth of Edmund, Cora and Frances moved by team and wagon to Cannonville where Frances’ parents were living. While they were in Cannonville, two daughters were born to them; Frances Adelia, born 17 February 1880 and Asenith Delila born 10 June 1881. The family apparently stayed in the Cannonville area for about two years.
The family then moved back to the Ogden area and on 8 December 1882, Asenith Delila, aged 22 months, died of typhoid fever. Several other children were born to this family while living at Wilson Lane, just west of Ogden: Ammon LeRoy (called Roy) born 17 Feb 1883, William Guy (called Guy) born 30 May 1884, Hyrum Grant (called Grant) born 29 May 1886 and Joseph Raymond (called Joe) born 25 December 1887. On Christmas morning, the day Joe was born, Cora’s father brought the family a large family Bible. It was about 12 by 14 inches and about 3 inches thick. The book has been cherished by the family ever since and is now in the possession of Grant’s son Jack.
An incident is told of the time when both Cora and Frances were away from home one day. The children were playing in the house and Roy came in and asked them to come out and see his bonfire. He had made a fire on the top of a straw shed and when they looked out, the barn and all was burning. It was a sad loss as it burned all the chickens and pigs as well as the harnesses.
About this time some of Frances’ brothers, Hyrum Almanza and Edmund Hobert Thompson, were moving to Idaho and homesteading land in the St. Anthony area at a place called Wilford Flats. About the next year Cora and Frances decided to join them. They made the trip with a team and wagon. It was about 200 miles. Grant wrote that he remembers the trip was made through a big open prairie growing with sage brush and prickly pears as far as you could see. He also remembered the Indians as they crossed the Blackfoot reservation.
Cora and Frances homesteaded 160 acres of ground in the Wilford area.
“North half of the northeast quarter and the northwest quarter of section 23, township
7 north, range 40, east of Boise Meridian in Idaho”
Their son Grant records the following:
“My father had taken up 160 acres of prairie and built a log one room cabin covered with dirt. It was about 2 miles from the little settlement of Wilford, Idaho, which seemed to be a promising town at the time. Soon after my father moved there, another son was born and we named him Wilford Abraham. He was born May 19, 1889. About that time there were many people moving there and taking up homesteads. Our nearest neighbor was Sam Smith’s family who had about 4 boys when I first recall, but later their family grew to 9 boys. They were very good neighbors although us kids would sometimes quarrel and fight but usually got along fine. On the other side of us were the Singletons which were very fine neighbors. They also had a family of 5 boys and 2 girls. As time went on we had neighbors in all directions. I don’t remember too much about the first few years there.”
“I know my folks had a very hard time as they had no water for the place. There had been one small canal come out of Snake River, made by a bunch of the Birch brothers and was called the Birch Ditch. My father(Cora) was able to lease a little stream, enough for a garden. Times were very hard for us, we had two cows and a small team called Old Crook and Granny, so most of our living was bread, milk and garden. We used to eat bread and milk and gravy day after day. My father got part time work for $1.25 per day. We used to have one pair of shoes a year with a buckle across the front and a copper strip across the toe. As soon as the snow was gone in the Spring we went barefoot.”
“In spite of all the hard times the children kept coming, for on the 20th of February 1891, another sister was born. We moved into the little town of Wilford for the winter and on the night of her birth, us children were awakened in the night and sent over to Uncle Edmund Hobert’s place. I vaguely remembered when we knocked on the door, he called out ‘Who’s there?’ and my brother Roy answered, ‘Stephens’. That was the custom in those days, of sending the children away and calling a midwife as they are called. They usually charged about $5 or the equivalent in something they could use. So when we went back home the next morning, we had a new little sister, and we were very glad. They named her Dora Ann.”
“We moved back out to the homestead in the spring and found the rain and snow had leaked through the dirt roof and had warped the floor all up. I remember my father taking a long pole and prying it down. I think that was the summer he built another room on the house and it did seem good.”
“The winters were very cold there then. The snow would drift around the house nearly up to the eaves and cover the fences completely. to pass time we would play games and sing. My father and mother were good singers (at least I thought so) and quite often we got into the bobsled and went to some neighbors for the evening and had a good time. Of course each family knew only a few songs and they sang them over and over. It seemed to me they always wanted my folks to sing ‘On the Banks of Clady’.”
“Another thing I remember was when we all went down to the river for an outing and to fish. We would hitch the old team on the wagon and would all get in and go. Oh how we would enjoy it. But this one time we were all playing around throwing sticks and rocks in the water when Joe fell in the river and it was a very deep hole there. Of course he had hardly hit the water until my father hit it, too, and rescued him and of course that broke up the picnic for the day. I don’t know just how old he was at the time. I remember he was in a dress, but little boys wore dresses until they were about 4 years old in those days.”
“I don’t remember much about my mother (Frances), but I do remember she was very loving and kind to us children. When we would go barefoot on the prairie we done a lot of chasing around hunting pretty rocks and flowers and birds’ nests, and would usually get our feet full of slivers. At night she would have us wash our feet and then she would pick the slivers out. I remember kneeling by her side and saying my prayers before I went to bed.”
“We came through a hard winter of 1891-92 in good shape and all were happy. Everything went fine through the summer and of course when Fall began to come and snow began to fly we all looked forward to Christmas and the fun we would have. I don’t remember the getting of presents but Mother would make pumpkin pies and fixed a very nice dinner and we had a good time. Now, too, it was a double holiday for us as our little brother Joe had a birthday and he would be 5 years old. Of course, Mother did not feel too good, but we children did not know why and little did we know what was in store for us.”
Ed’s children also remember him telling them of his parents saving up grease all year to make donuts at Christmas time and that on this Christmas, their mother had made a stocking cap for Guy for a Christmas present. He always cherished that cap and wore it for many years.
Grant continues, “I think it was the day after Christmas that Mother became sick and there was no doctor to be had and we had no money to pay one anyway. As she grew worse my father went for Mrs. Hammond, a midwife, and on the morning of December 28, 1892, we were told we had a new little sister, but our poor mother sacrificed her life for her. She died from complications of childbirth and suffered untold agony. When she knew she was going, she called us children to her bedside and kissed us goodbye and told us to be good. I well remember just how she looked lying there with her head on Father’s lap and I think the last words she said was ‘Oh Cora, you don’t know what I have suffered.’ And of course, that set us all frantic. I can’t give the details of just what happened. Of course, friends and relatives came and went. It was bitter cold and the snow was at least 4 feet deep. Please excuse if you see a few tears on this page as it has been hard to write. Then of course the arrangements for the funeral, which followed in about three days. I don’t remember the details of that only that they sang the song, ‘There is a Sweet Rest in Heaven’. I will never forget that.”
“So imagine if you can the sadness that came over our little home. Ten of us children and the oldest only 16 years old. In the dead of winter, they dug a hole through the deep snow and frozen ground in the Wilford Cemetery where her precious body will be until the resurrection day. I am sure her soul went to heaven, there is sweet rest.”
Ilene Shelton writes, “With a brand new baby and Coriantumr consumed with grief, a family took the new baby, named Orpha, and tried to keep her alive by feeding her milk with a little lime in it, but she was not doing well and losing weight. (This family was the Davis family, good friends of the family.) Mary Belnap of Salem had recently lost a baby on the 3rd of February. The Relief Society president promised Sister Belnap that if she would take the baby she would be able to nurse Orpha even if it had been some time since her baby died. Orpha was a couple months old at the time. (This was the family of Augustus and Mary Belnap.)”
Before the family had moved to Idaho, Cora had been troubled with epilepsy and had frequent seizures. They occurred as often as once a month when they first began but became more frequent and more difficult to cope with. At one time they were as frequent as 10-12 within a few days’ period of time. Very little was known of the sickness at that time and there was not much one could do except let the seizure run its course. I am sure no one knows of his frustrations, anxieties and problems caused by people who did not understand his problem. In addition to his health problem, the sorrow and mourning for his beloved wife along with the overpowering responsibility of caring for 9 children was probably more than Cora could cope with. He was taken to the State Hospital in Blackfoot on 4 November 1894 for treatment. That Fall Cora had gone elk hunting with Joe Davis and had come back with some meat for the family, so Art and Ed, being the oldest tried to keep the family together that winter, having meat, milk and garden produce to live on. They weren’t able to keep the old cabin warm and with inadequate clothing, some of the children suffered from frozen feet.
Grant wrote, “The cold weather had set in again and some of us had frozen feet as usual when one day a man and woman came to the house and wanted a child. They wanted me to go but I did not want to go; but Joe, lying in bed with frozen heels spoke up and said, “I will go.” To those who knew Joe that was his type. He would try anything once. Well Joe went with them. Their names were Mr. and Mrs. Charley Jones. She had one girl by a former marriage. Her name was Eva Evangeline Shaleta Keppner Sprunger Jones, some long name. Sprunger was the last name of her mother’s first husband and Keppner was her mother’s maiden name. She was about the same age as Joe. They lived down below Rexburg at Hibbard on a farm. And so that took Joe out of our life for a while as we did not see him much for a few years. I think the Jones were pretty good to him only they had no religion. And they soon moved away. We knew not where. (They moved to Dillon, Montana.)”
Five of the children were sent to the poor house in Rexburg. They were Delila, age 14, Guy, age 10, Grant, age 8, Wilford, age 5 and Dora, who was not quite 4. This was in February of 1895. The poorhouse was run by a Mr. Claude Bramwell and his wife. There wasn’t a separate ‘house’ that was the poorhouse. The children lived with the Bramwell family in their house located on the corner east of where the Rexburg City Library is now located. The children were expected to do the household and barn chores and, as Grant put it, there was no love and lots of punishment for them. The Bramwells were paid $121.40 in July for ‘the care of indigent children’. This would have been for about six months care.
Art and Ed, being older, age 18 and 17 at the time, stayed at the family farm and kept Roy, who had just turned 12 with them. Grant described these boys; Art was always more hasty and quick-tempered, while Ed was more a peace-maker. He had a kind and lovable way and we always looked to him for counsel and advice. Roy was ‘hard to manage’.
Cora was released from the hospital on the 14th of October 1895 and came home and gathered his family together. Grant writes, “Another day of rejoicing came, Father had become much better and was released to come home. I never can forget the meeting when he came to take us home again. He wept like a child. And so we all went back to the old home for a while. I don’t remember how long. But all too soon Father took worse again and had to be taken away.”
This reunion was a very short one as on October 31, 1895, only two weeks after his release, Cora was readmitted to the hospital at Blackfoot again. Here I would like to tell what I have found about this hospital as Cora spent 10 years of his life there. It was called the State Insane Asylum. It consisted of two main buildings with small, cell-like rooms, about 10 by 12 feet each. Each room had a heavy wooden door that was kept locked at all times, with a small window in it, where the guard could look in every few hours to check on things. There were four men to a room, with two bunk beds in each room, and a small table at the head between the beds. The patients were referred to as ‘inmates’. I’m sure this was very hard on Cora to be there, away from his family. He was described as a very gentle, mild man.
When Cora was taken back to the hospital, Art and Ed again stayed at the home place and kept Roy with them. They worked around the area at what jobs they could find. Delila and Wilford went to live with Uncle Jim Thompson, Frances’ younger brother. Grant mentioned often how good Uncle Jim always was to them, and if they had no place else to go they knew they were always welcome at his home. Guy went to stay with Jack and Juliane Ricks and Grant went to stay with Jack’s brother, Lewis Ricks at Rexburg. Dora was adopted by a couple named Edward and Caroline Larson. The Larsons were in their sixties when they took on this little four year old to raise. They were immigrants from Norway and had a grown family of their own.
The next year, October of 1896, Juliane Ricks’ brother came down from Montana to visit. He thought he had tonsillitis, but it was diphtheria. When he came, Guy went to Uncle Jim’s to stay with the other kids for a few days. Soon he came down with diphtheria and lived only a few days. In a short time, everyone had it, including Art who had also come for a visit. Guy died on the 6th of October, while Delila and Wilford as well as two of Uncle Jim’s children died on the 10th. Of eight children who were at the house at that time, only three lived, Art being one of them. Ed’s children remember him saying that during this time when the family was quarantined he would bring them groceries and other things they needed and pass it to them through the window since he was not allowed into the house. He also told of seeing his sister Delila ironing a shirt for Guy to be buried in one day, and when he came the next time, she had died, also. After it was all over they set Jim’s house on fire with everything in it. They thought everything had burned but the next February some children by the name of Kershaw were playing and found an old book or magazine and soon came down with the disease. The entire family of eight children died between the 22nd of February and the 1st of March.
After this sad time, the rest of the family seemed to separate more. Art and Ed found work around in neighboring communities. Art tried to continue with his education more than the others and worked, also. Ed went into partnership with a half-breed Negro named Tommy Tanner and bought a race horse. They traveled all around the state, into Utah and Oregon, racing with this horse. They never made much money with her, but I’m sure they had a lot of interesting experiences. Roy always seemed to stay around Wilford or St. Anthony. Joe was in Montana and Dora and Orpha were with their adopted families at Salem, Idaho. Grant was pretty much left on his own to find places to stay and work for his keep. He stayed with the Ricks’ for a while then went to stay with James and Jan Stuart in Wilford. Next he went to work for Will Singleton, riding a sulky plow. Sometime in the spring of 1900, Grant went to live with Uncle Jim Thompson. Soon after this Uncle Jim moved from Wilford to a new place south of Blackfoot, and Grant went with them. They were pioneers again, built a two room log house, took out a small canal and dug a house well. In January of 1901 this all changed.
Grant wrote, “ Aunt Vilate (Uncle Jim’s wife) gave birth to a baby girl and gave her life for it almost repeating the way my poor mother went. She left five living children and the two she lost before with diphtheria. She also called me along with her own children to her bedside and said she was going and for us to always be good. She was a wonderful woman, almost like a mother to me.”
Grant went back to Wilford and stayed at Uncle Hyrum’s place until he found a place to stay. He never said where he found to stay for the winter. The next summer he went to Montana with Uncle Jim to put up hay.
Grant wrote, “While we were working some fellow came there from another camp, learned my name and asked if I knew Joe Stephens working at another camp. So I went over there and sure enough, it was my brother, Joe, whom I had not seem for years it seemed to me. And it was a grand reunion so he came back with me to our camp and Uncle Jim gave him a job driving derrick team. So we were both happy again and we worked there most of the summer.”
“That fall we went back and rented a small house in St. Anthony along with Roy. We worked around town, sawing wood or anything we could to make a little money. There were some chickens that picked around our dooryard all the time. Some of them got so tame they even got in our frying pan. Then when winter came and the snow got deep and we ran out of wood and the city marshall (Mr. McComber) just lived through the back lot and he had a nice big pile of sawed wood. So we borrowed some a few times. But he finally caught us, he followed our tracks through the snow. But he was very fair about it. He came over and talked to us about it and we paid for the wood we had taken. And didn’t take any more. The later on Joe went to stay with Joe Larson and I went to stay with Aaron Judy...both at Salem, so we went to the same school, but we would go back to visit Roy quite often. And if he didn’t happen to be home, we would climb on top of his house and poke a sack or something in the stove pipe or some other prank so he would know we had been there. Our teacher there at Salem was Mr. Bagley, a pretty good teacher, I guess. But we sure were not very good to him. I done the janitor work at the school for $4 a month and along towards Spring we heard that the water would be turned out of the ditch so we asked the teacher if we could take the afternoon off to catch some fish, but he said no, so we took it off anyway. Then when we went back the next morning he said we would have to leave. We could not come back anymore. So from then on we were pretty mean. We would go back each day and fool around the school house to draw the kids’ attention. We had a .22 rifle and would set up a target by the outhouse and then shoot at it. Then when the teacher would come out we would run and he could not catch us. Then when he would go back we would also go back. So you can see that we had not sprouted wings yet.”
I need to back up a little now to tell what had happened to the rest of the family during this time. Art had completed one year at Ricks Academy and gone down to Logan to go to school. There he had met his future wife, Martha Johnson. They were married at the Logan Temple, November 20th 1901. Also in 1901 on September 4th, Coriantumr had again been released from the hospital and came home. I am not sure but I think he must have stayed with Roy at the old home place. But again he was not home very long as he was readmitted to the hospital again on 6 January 1902, just four months later. Ed had gone to Dubois to work for the railroad. He was staying with Grandmother (Ann Eliza Palmer Stephens Yeamons). He worked with Coriantumr’s half-brother, Luther Yeamons shoveling coal in the coal chutes. Their job was to shovel coal down a wooden chute onto the railroad car. They got paid 8¢ a ton and loaded 200 tons on an average day.
On 26 May 1905, Dora Ann died of diphtheria at Salem and was buried by her mother, brothers and sisters in the Wilford cemetery. She had gone by the name of Larson for 10 years when she lived with the Larson family, but was buried with the name of Stephens again. It was also in 1905 that Cora was released from the hospital for the last time, on the 2nd of September. In May, Ed and his wife, Mary, moved to Star Valley near her folks, the Hardmans. They lived in the upper valley for a while and then went to the lower valley and took up land there in what is now called Etna. When Cora was released from the hospital, he went to Star Valley and lived with Ed and Mary for part of the winter. Mary remembered him as a very wonderful person. He used to sing songs to her little sisters in the evenings. “The Yellow Rose of Texas” is the one she remembered the most.
Grant and Joe had fixed up a wagon, sheep camp style, with a bed in the back and a stove and table in the front and went to work on different canals in Twin Falls and Minadoka. They came back to Idaho Falls for the winter then decided to move back on to the old farm at Wilford. While Cora was living in Star Valley he divided up his land between the six living children, giving each 20 acres and keeping 40 for himself. Although they had owned it for 17 years, the land had never been farmed so it was a big job for Grant and Joe. They were 19 and 20 years old at the time. They grew a pretty good crop that first year. In the spring, Cora had moved down to the old log house with Roy and had told the boys of a valley just south of Alpine, Idaho, that was beautiful and just opening up for homesteading. In the fall, Grant went and filed on land there and sold his land in Wilford. Joe was not old enough to file until the following year, but as soon as he turned 20 he also moved to Alpine. The land they had is now covered by the Palisades Reservoir. Cora and Roy stayed on the old place for a while but just couldn’t get along with each other, so Roy moved in to St. Anthony. So Cora was left alone, and on the morning of the 12th of July 1907 his body was found in an irrigation ditch. It is assumed that he had another seizure and fell in the ditch and drowned in the evening of the 11th or the morning of the 12th. Ed, Grant and Joe came home and took care of the body. He was buried by the side of his good wife and children who preceded him in death. He left 6 children and 6 grandchildren.
To close this history I would like to use a paragraph written by Clem Thompson.
“The history of Coriantumr and Frances may seem to be one of heartache and sadness, but as one contemplates the events of their lives, it becomes evident that is not the case. The great love and devotion they had for each other and their children, the great sacrifices they made for each other and their family and their knowledge of family life in the hereafter, make theirs a story of success and happiness.
Of their remaining 6 children:
CoriaArthur (Art) died 20 September 1916 of asthma, leaving a wife and six children. He was 39.
Ed died 30 July 1935 of a stroke, leaving a wife and 6 children at the age of 57.
Roy died in Salt Lake City, Utah on 26 March1913 from ‘spleen trouble’. He never married. He was 30 years old.
Grant was the only family member who lived to see his family raised. He died 19 October 1963 at age 77.
Joe died in a railroad accident 18 October 1922 leaving a wife and 6 children. He was 35.
Orpha died 9 June 1929 of asthma leaving a husband and 6 children. She was 34.
Grant was an amateur poet and left this sweet poem about their great family tragedy.
What It Takes To Make A Home
We see all kinds of houses
From the mansions great and tall,
Down to the humble cabin
That is sometimes very small.
Sometimes you see a mansion
You will think looks just complete
But to the folks that's living in it
It's just a place to sleep and eat.
Other times you will see a beautiful home
You will think it sure looks swell
But what goes on inside its walls
Would not be fit to tell.
So it doesn't make much difference,
Just where you must reside
The thing that makes a happy home
Is what goes on inside.
So I would like to tell a story
If you will only pardon me,
I will tell you about my childhood days
And how things used to be.
My father took up a homestead
A good many years ago.
It was way out on the prairie
Way up in Idaho.
He built a humble cabin
And covered it with dirt,
But he really did have plenty
So I guess it didn't hurt.
He built it strong and sturdy
And he made it very warm
For we had such long cold winters
but it sure kept out the storms.
It was furnished very meager
And our food was very plain,
But the Father in Heaven blessed us
And we really did not complain.
I had a kind and loving mother
And my father was large and strong
Who corrected all our troubles
When anything went wrong.
We lit our house with a coal oil lamp
And cooked our food with wood.
And the way that mother prepared it
It surely tasted good.
Radios, cars, and electric lights
To us were quite unknown
But still we had sweet music
That filled our little home.
When it came to choosing records,
We didn't have much choice.
We didn't have much choice.
Our house was filled with music
With my angel mother's voice.
But this happy time all went too soon
For one cold December day
For one cold December day
The angels came from heaven
And took my mother away.
So that broke up our family
When Mother was taken above
For our little home did not seem the same
Without a mother's love.
So it really makes no difference
Just where you reside
The thing that makes a happy home
Is what goes on inside.
Coriantumr Stephens
b. 14 Mar 1858 Ogden, Weber, Utah or Salem, Utah, Utah
d. 12 July 1907 Wilford, Fremont, Idaho (drowning)
md. 28 Feb. 1876
West Weber, Weber, Utah
Frances Asenith Thompson
b. 22 Feb 1859, Payson, Utah, Utah
d. 28 Dec. 1892, Wilford, Fremont, Idaho (childbirth)
Children:
1. CoriaArthur (Art)
b. 9 Mar 1877 Hooper, Weber, Utah
d. 20 Sep 1916 Logan, Cache, Utah
(asthma - age 39 - left wife and 6 children)
2. Edmund Alexander (Ed)
b. 9 May 1878 Hooper, Weber, Utah
d. 30 Jul 1936 View, Cassia, Idaho
(stroke- age 57 - left wife and 6 children)
3. Frances Adelia
b. 17 Feb 1880 Cannonville, Garfield, Utah
d. 8 Dec 1882 Wilson, Weber, Utah (age 2- typhoid fever)
4. Ascenith Delila
b. 10 Jul 1881 Cannonville, Garfield, Utah
d. 10 October 1896
( age 15 - diphtheria)
5. Ammon Leroy (Roy)
b. 17 Feb 1883 Wilson Lane, Weber, Utah
d. 25 Mar 1913 Salt Lake City, Utah
(age 30 - never married - spleen trouble)
6. William Guy (Guy)
b. 30 May 1884 - Wilson Lane, Weber, Utah
d. 6 Oct 1896
(age 12- Diphtheria)
7. Hyrum Grant (Grant)
b. 29 May 1886 Wilson Lane, Weber, Utah
d. 9 Oct 1963 Logan, Cache, Utah (age 77)
8. Joseph Raymond Stephens (Joe)
b. 25 Dec 1887 Wilson Lane, Weber, Utah
d. 18 Oct 1922 Pocatello, Idaho
(age 35 - railroad accident - left wife and 6 children)
9. Wilford Abraham
b. 19 May 1889 Wilford, Fremont, Idaho
d. 10 Oct 1896
(age 7 - diphtheria)
10. Dora Ann
b. 20 Feb 1891 Wilford, Fremont, Idaho
d. 26 May 1905
(age 6 - diphtheria)
11. Orpha Gertrude
b. 28 Dec 1892 Wilford, Fremont, Idaho
d. 9 June 1929 Idaho Falls, Bonneville, Idaho
(age 34 - asthma - left husband and 6 children)
Sources:
This history is compiled by Jack Stephens, grandson of Cora and Frances, from histories of some of the children of this family. Hyrum Grant Stephens wrote the histories of himself, Art, Ed and Joe.
The history of Orpha was written by her daughter-in-law, Ilene Shelton.
3. BLM serial # IDIDAA 050775
Wilford, Idaho, cemetery records
1870 census Utah Territory, Weber, Ogden Valley p. 14 (Huntsville post office)
1880 census 004244808, image 258 (Cannonville Precinct, Iron County, Utah, page 329 A)
Idaho death cert, state file #58016, 58671, 94969
Utah death cert. 160043
