Found Her! (Almost . . .)

Springville Cemetery, Utah County, Utah

Thanks to my dad's cousin's good memory, we found Eleanor married to Charles Hulet of Springville, Utah, in the President's Office, 23 March 1857.

We found no confirming evidence that Eleanor Jenkins Vaughan Hulet is actually buried there in Springville. And I went through all two thousand some names in the Springville Cemetery on-line to see if anything at all could be a match. And she does not appear with the Springville Hulets in the 1860 Census - nor anywhere else, for that matter (and I've tried variations along the lines of "Hewlett," etc.).

Charles Hulet may have married her to take care of her. She was an older widow without any means. And he could have done that in an entirely different household. He died in 1863. So with no descendants of Eleanor then in Utah, no one was around to take care of her grave, wherever it is.

Complicating matters, everybody in Salt Lake City left in 1858 to go south into Utah County, at least for a short time, because of the advancement of Johnston's Army sent by President Buchanan. Ward records got lost or were simply not kept during the move and the agitation of possible warfare with the U.S. (well, at least with President Buchanan). And with no standardized record-keeping system in place, everything from 1850-1860 seems a bit sketchy in what I have been reading.

I had been searching Payson Ward records from a hint that Eleanor maybe went there. The clerk comments in the ward history that Bishop Franklin W. Young took the records with him when he left to colonize elsewhere claiming they were private property, "with what justice is best known to him and the early settlers of the place." Even funnier than that, I was prohibited from seeing that history at the Church History Library because of a few pages of some sacred stuff in there. I went over to the Family History Library and got exactly what I needed.

Eleanor doesn't seem to show up on the 1860 Census anywhere so she must have died. But we now have an additional surname to be looking for. I think I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow to visit the Family History and Church History Libraries. Maybe a cemetery. It's way too late tonight (or this morning).


ADDENDUM
Later (many hours) same day

I did take some vacation leave and go to the FHL. I went to special collections to confirm the endowment & sealing information for Eleanor. And I found some additional info on Whitney Parish Registers to help out Eleanor's parents and a sister. I also went through ward records for Springville and Salt Lake City 19th Ward. She does not seem to be either place even if her second husband is in the records in Springville. He must have set her up in a household elsewhere.

The best part was seeing that Eliza R. Snow and Elizabeth Ann Whitney performed Temple ordinances for Eleanor. That really moved me. And the historical fiction writer in me comes out:

Sister Whitney: "So I see your are from Whitney in England. That would have pleased my husband!"

Eleanor: "Yes. I knew Whitneys that lived there, but the Lord of Whitney Court when I married and left was named Dew. It is a beautiful place. And I so miss my family that I left behind." 

Sister Snow: "That is the purpose of the temple we will build - to bring all our family together to rejoin our Heavenly Parents." 

Eleanor: "Sister Snow, I do love your poem that I first read in the Millennial Star the Elders brought me and then the hymn that we now sing."

Sister Snow: "Thank you, my dear, dear sister."

Eleanor, Eliza, and Elizabeth, thank you for helping with the work.