John Christopher Pettingill

Family Group Record
Submitted to Family Blog by Suzanne J. Belger (desertmtnmalinois@gmail.com)

Husband
John Christopher Pettingill
Wife Eveline Taylor
Notes
HUSBAND - John Christopher Pettingill
This information was gathered by Renae Moncur from sheets of
Brenda Parish Bailey

1. Elba Ward Records GS film #2462 birth, blessing, death and name of child #6 & child #7
2. Marriage record of husband & wife Microfilm #M0375 Batch #M183398 Serial #0318
3. marriage records Cassia County Courthouse
4. Elba Ward Records film #9538 007450 show birth, bapt death & marriage records of all family members
Another sourse:
Ancestral File

CHILD 6 - Clotilda Pettingill (Twin)
She was a twin with Robert Pettingill who was still born
On other records we found that she was named Matilda

CHILD 7 - Robert Pettingill
Was a still born twin of Clotilda Pettingill

Sources
1. Delta Parish Wickel, Pedigree Chart, Deborah Beecher Jones, 26 West 200 South, Burley, Idaho 83318.
2. Delta Parish Wickel, Pedigree Chart.
3. Payne Mortuary, Funeral Program for Ida Parish, Deborah Beecher Jones, 26 West 200 South, Burley, Idaho 83318.
23Nov2009

John Christopher Pettingill
30 August 1850 - 10 December 1921

Born August 30, 1850 at Kanesville, Lee County, Iowa

. Died December 10, 1921 at Willard, Box Elder County, Utah

John Christopher Pettingill was born at Kanesville, Lee County, Iowa, 30 August

1850, the eldest son of Elihu Ulysses and Jane Clotilda Marsh Pettingill. The family joined
the church in the middle west, suffered many hardships, and john, being the eldest, had
many responsibilities.

When he was two years old, the family moved west by ox team with a large company
of Saints, lived in Bountiful, Utah and Ogden, Utah when he was smal1. Then the family
moved to Willard, Utah .

. In Willard he met, courted and married Everline (Eveline) Taylor in the Endowment
House in Salt Lake City, Utah. After his marriage, he lived on his father's farm until they
had three children. He and his family moved to Snowville, Box Elder County, Utah, then
to the Dilly Ranch, where he farmed.

At this time, many of the young people of Willard were moving to Elba, Cassia
County, Idaho, so John took his family and went there too, homesteading an eighty acre
farm. At that time they could cut hay from the meadows for the livestock. They went
there in 1877.

The early settlers had trouble with the Indians, as they had camped and hunted there
for many years.

Grandfather was a good carpenter and helped build many of the early homes, the
church and schools. He was always called to help build the caskets of his neighbors, as
there were no mortuaries. All of them were built from lumber hauled in from Ogden, Utah
by freight wagons and teams. The freight wagons were owned by his brother-in-law,
Thomas Taylor, who also owned the general store in Elba. John was a good farmer and
stock raiser.

Wood poles and logs were brought from the near by canyons which they used to build
the log homes, poles for the fences and corrals, and for firewood. Brick homes were built
later.

One time, while getting a load of wood, he cut his foot across the instep. He rode
home on the load of wood. The wound took a long time to heal, so he learned to knit, as
the stockings the children wore were all hand knitted. One side of his shoe had to be built
up after the accident.

He was a very accomplished violinist, having studied with Evan Stephens, first in
Willard, then in Salt Lake City He played for dances at Elba and surrounding towns. He was accompanied by one of his daughters. They would load the organ into the buggy, or
wagon, or white top buggy and go to surrounding towns to play. Dances were an all night
affair so supper was served at midnight. The pay was $10.00 per night, which was very
good pay at that time.

He taught many boys to play the violin, among them was Hank Perkiser, an Indian. He
stayed in their home many times. Later he took his own life.

John was(n't) a particularly religious man, but very interested in the affairs of the
community and was much respected and helped by many people. Later, the family moved
back to Willard selling their farm to their son John.

John died on December 10, 1921 in Willard, Box Elder County, Utah and was buried
in Willard. 

A Tribute to John Christopher Pettingill

By Ransom Beecher, a nephew

They have records sent out by the church for the old time dances (here in Brigham
City) supposed to be the best old-time music for the dances, but when you compare them,

. especially the quadrilles, it sounds pretty tame. Wouldn't it have been something
wonderful if we could have made some records of Uncle John's hornpipes a and handed
them down to our children now they are beginning to appreciate the good old past?
Bishop Wright used to say, "I have danced allover the country, but 1 never found anyone
that could make you hit the ceiling as nearly as John Pettingill's music.

They play some of his old tunes, but how? About like Tom Babbit or the rest of us.

You can dance by them but they don't pick you up and carry you up in the sky.

1 think the finest tribute 1 ever heard paid anyone was that Christmas (or was it New
Year's) when they coaxed the Elba Hall Committee to let them go after Pettingill to play.
Uncle Merritt Beecher was playing. The house was full, the dance was going, forming for
a plain quadrille, and you know what a tumult of chattering and laughing that meant.

Suddenly it all stopped short, still as a mouse. You could have heard a pin drop.

Pettingill stood in the doorway, that old violin under his arm. Every eye was upon him as
he walked up to the stand - he took plenty of time, as you well remember. It took a long·
time to unwrap the flannels, to rosin the bow, to tune up. He didn't start out, like some
today, half tuned. It had to be exactly perfect.

All the time he was getting ready you could have heard a pin drop. 1 remember Sam
Graham, Hen Grahm, and Erv Savage standing in the set in front of me at perfect
attention, But when uncle John finally hit the high note of the hornpipe, which nobody else
tried to play, you never heard such a turn loose of noiseand hand clapping. Maybe you
remember, but it was a long. time ago for a young fellow like you to remember - Ha! 1 like
to think of the past

Remember the time we went to Almo, to honor John Morgan's soldier boys of the
Spanish American War, 1898. Uncle John played for the dance, and they coaxed him to
playa solo on the program - the only time 1 ever heard him play one. Of course, everyone
was drunk with patriotism (some might have had something else too).

Anyway, he walked out on the stage like a professional, the old violin under his right
arm, the bow dangling from his thumb. No great artist ever got a finer hand for the size of
the crowd. He bowed just so you could see it was a bow, that fine dignity of his, and then
he played a medley of patriotic songs and the national anthem.

The crowd went wild, another tiny bow - no one could have acted the part better. He
had to come back again and again. He played a deep bass. Was it the Oxford waltz? A
glide waltz, beautiful time - and his son John could dance it so beautifully.

Enough of the past.