Charles W. Nibley
Born: 5 February 1849
Called as Presiding Bishop: 4 December 1907
Called as Second Counselor in the First Presidency: 28 May 1925
Died: 11 December 1931
Called as Presiding Bishop: 4 December 1907
Called as Second Counselor in the First Presidency: 28 May 1925
Died: 11 December 1931
Conference TalksOct 1906
Apr 1909 Oct 1909 Apr 1911 Oct 1913 Apr 1914 - "Mormonism” not an “easy” religion Oct 1915 - The tree of “Mormonism” produces good fruit Apr 1916 - Loyalty, a doctrine of the L. D. S. Church Oct 1916 - Pay your debts now, not some other day Apr 1917 - We live in perilous times Oct 1917 - Three practical sermons Image source: Improvement Era, July 1925
Image source: Relief Society Magazine, June 1916
Image source: Young Women's Journal, July 1925
Image source: Instructor, January 1932
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Image source: Improvement Era, January 1908
Image source: Juvenile Instructor, January 1916
Image source: Juvenile Instructor, December 1913
Image source: Improvement Era, January 1932
Image source: Relief Society Magazine, January 1932
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Biographical Articles
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 3
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Relief Society Magazine, May 1919, Golden Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, July 1925, President Charles Wilson Nibley
Improvement Era, December 1931, Greatness in Men--President Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, January 1932, President Charles Wilson Nibley
Instructor, January 1932, President Charles W. Nibley
Relief Society Magazine, January 1932, President Charles W. Nibley, an Appreciation
Relief Society Magazine, January 1932, President Charles W. Nibley
Relief Society Magazine, June 1932, The Friendship of Charles W. Nibley and President Joseph F. Smith
Improvement Era, July 1934, Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, August 1934, Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, September 1934, Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, October 1934, Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Relief Society Magazine, May 1919, Golden Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, July 1925, President Charles Wilson Nibley
Improvement Era, December 1931, Greatness in Men--President Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, January 1932, President Charles Wilson Nibley
Instructor, January 1932, President Charles W. Nibley
Relief Society Magazine, January 1932, President Charles W. Nibley, an Appreciation
Relief Society Magazine, January 1932, President Charles W. Nibley
Relief Society Magazine, June 1932, The Friendship of Charles W. Nibley and President Joseph F. Smith
Improvement Era, July 1934, Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, August 1934, Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, September 1934, Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley
Improvement Era, October 1934, Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley
Jenson, Andrew. "Nibley, Charles Wilson" Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 3. pg. 766-769.
NIBLEY, Charles Wilson, presiding Bishop of the Church, was born Feb. 5, 1849, at Hunterfield, a small coal mining town, eight miles south of Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the fourth child and the second son of James Nibley and Jean Wilson. The father, who was a coal miner, had difficulty in providing for his family, but was ably assisted by his wife, a most energetic, frugal and thrifty woman, who never seemed to tire of working and planning to better the conditions of herself and her family. She possessed, too, a deeply religious nature, and when, in the year 1844, she listened to the teachings of Henry McEwan, an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who spoke on the village green of Hunterfield, she felt a satisfaction in listening to his teachings that she had never before experienced. Both James and Jean Nibley, within a week, were baptized into the Church, and from that time forward they lived in the hope that they might join the main body of the Saints in America. Poverty prevented them from carrying out this wish, until they could save a sufficient sum to enable them to undertake the journey. A branch of the Church was organized at Hunterfield and James Nibley acted as president of the branch until he emigrated to America. The Nibleys finally left Scotland in 1855, crossing the Atlantic in the steerage of a sailing vessel and taking up their abode in Rhode Island, for their money was not sufficient to carry them further. For five years they resided in that State, working in the woolen mills until they could resume their journey to Utah. In the spring of 1860 they started again on their westward journey and reached Florence, Nebraska, which was the outfitting point for Church immigration. Joining a company led by James D. Ross as captain, they reached Great Salt Lake Valley Sept. 3, 1860, and soon afterwards established a home at Wellsville, Cache county, the first winter living in a dugout. Charles W. Nibley was at that time a lad of eleven years. He soon afterwards began providing for his own support, first by gleaning wheat with his mother in the harvest field, then by herding sheep, and from his initial step in the business world he utilized every available opportunity for advancement. Later he secured a clerkship in the village store and also made good use of his limited opportunities for the acquirement of whatever was possible in the way of education, with the most meager facilities for any kind of study. Yet, notwithstanding the lack of early educational advantages, he is today a wonderfully well informed man, for by reading and study he has continually increased his knowledge. The Nibleys were among the first settlers of Cache Valley. Charles W. remained in Wellsville until 1865, when he changed his residence to Brigham City. Box Elder county. After locating in Brigham City he clerked for Moiris Rosenbaum, one of the Jewish merchants of Utah, who was a member of the Church. In the fall of 18 69 Brother Charles W. Nibley, who had been ordained to the Priesthood years before, was called on a short mission to the United States, together with many others. He returned the following spring and soon afterwards went to work for the Central Pacific as station agent; afterwards he was an employee of the Utah Northern Railroad, being with that railroad when it first commenced its career in 1872. For five years he was general freight and ticket agent for the Utah Northern Railroad Company, during which time he made several trips east and west in the interest of the road. While in this service, in 1877, he was called on a mission to England, and labored under the presidency of Joseph F. Smith. He worked in the Liverpool office and had charge of the emigration and general business of the mission. When Joseph F. Smith left England, after the death of President Brigham Young, later in 1877, the affairs of the British Mission were left in charge of Elders Charles W. Nibley and Henry W. Naisbitt until Elder William Budge went to preside over that mission in 1878. Brother Nibley returned to Utah in May, 1879, having charge of a company of emigrating saints. His home was now in Logan, Cache county, where he was chosen as manager and secretary of the United Order Manufacturing and Building Company and was also elected assessor and collector for Cache county. Not only was Elder Nibley prominent in a business and social way in Cache county, but he took an active part in ecclesiastical affairs. For many years he acted as superintendent of Sunday schools in Cache Stake and his labors in other directions were marked by signal success. In the meantime his business adventure drew his attention to the northwest, and it was not long before he was recognized as a factor in the building up of eastern Oregon and western Idaho. In 1889 Elder Nibley, together with other prominent business men of Utah, organized the Oregon Lumber Company of Baker City. He acted as secretary of this company for many years. In 1890 he became one of the organizers of the Sumpter Valley Railroad Company, and for a number of years he occupied a position of leadership in business circles in eastern Oregon. The position of vice president of the Sumpter Valley Railroad Company was also held by Elder Nibley, and afterwards he became president of the Payette Valley Railroad. He was one of the founders and chief officials of the La Grande Sugar Company, afterwards merged into the Amalgamated Sugar Company, and took an active part in the colonization of Grande Ronde Valley, Oregon, and Payette Valley. Idaho. The lumber business in which he was interested was not confined to Oregon, but extended into California. Wherever he was known he was looked upon as an up-to-date, progressive and aggressive man of affairs. Ecclesiastically Elder Nibley was active in Oregon as elsewhere. When the saints residing in eastern Oregon and western Idaho were organized into the Union Stake of Zion, June 9, 1901, Charles W. Nibley was chosen as first counselor to Franklin S. Bramwell, the president of the Stake. In 1906 Elder Nibley and part of his family ac companied President Joseph F. Smith on a visit to Europe. In 1907 he was chosen as Presiding Bishop of the Church, being ordained and set apart to that office Dec. 11, 1907, with Orrin P. Miller as first and David A. Smith as second counselors. The long experience which Elder Nibley had had in financial affairs up to that time qualified him specially for that important position, in which it became his duty to handle the revenues of the Church. Under his administration the tithing system of the Church was changed and everything placed on a cash basis. The tithing office scrip, which had been used for so many years, became a thing of the past, and reforms in handling the tithes of the people, both at headquarters and in the many settlements of the Saints where the members paid their tithes and offerings, were materially improved. Early in 190 9 Bishop Nibley and a part of his family accompanied President Joseph F. Smith and others on a visit to the Hawaiian Islands. The next year (1910) Bishop Nibley accompanied President Smith on another trip to Europe, during which they visited a number of the conferences of the Holland Mission, the Scandinavian Mission, the Swiss and German Mission and the British Mission. In the summer of 1913, Bishop Nibley accompanied President Joseph F. Smith and others to Canada, on which visit a site for a Temple was dedicated at Cardston. July 27, 1913. Later in the year he accompanied the President to Chicago, where mission homes and chapels, recently purchased and erected by the Church, were dedicated. In November of the same year President Smith, Bishop Nibley and others visited Arizona. In August, 1914, Bishop Nibley accompanied President Joseph F. Smith on a visit to Canada. In the latter part of the same year he accompanied President Smith on an extended tour of the Southern States and California, on which trip the party traveled about 6,000 miles. In 1915 Bishop Nibley accompanied President Smith and others on another visit to the Hawaiian Islands, arriving in Honolulu May 21, 1915. On this visit, on the first day of June, 1915, President Joseph F. Smith selected the Temple site on which a Temple now stands at Laie, on the island of Oahu. Apostle Reed Smoot and Bishop Nibley were present with President Smith when he dedicated that Temple site. On their return journey the party visited Portland, Ore., where a Latter-day Saints chapel was dedicated June 13, 1915. Early in 1916 Bishop Nibley accompanied President Smith and others on another visit to Hawaii, the object of the visit this time being to give instructions in regard to the building of the Temple which was in course of construction there. The party returned to Salt Lake City March 16, 1916. In July, 1916, Bishop Nibley was chosen as a director of the Western Pacific Railroad. Subsequently he accompanied Prest. Joseph F. Smith on several trips to the Pacific Coast. During the great World War he was very active, assisting with Church and private means and his personal influence the different movements inaugurated to assist the allies. He was State chairman of the Red Cross organization and holds that position at the present time. In the spring of 1917 Bishop Nibley accompanied President Smith and others on still another visit to Hawaii. The party left on this trip April 30th, and Bro. Nibley returned May 24, 1917. On a trip to California, in company with President Smith, in December. 1917, Bishop Nibley visited some of the military camps, where Utah boys were training, giving words of encouragement to those who were in the service of their country. At a meeting held May 20, 1918, Bishop Nibley, in behalf of the Church, stated that 205,000 bushels of wheat stored since 187 6 (a movement started by President Brigham Young) would be sent to the United States government to assist in the wheat shortage, the same to be sent to the assistance of the allies. Bishop Nibley was appointed a member of the War Industries Board July 26, 1918. In the latter part of 1919 he accompanied President Heber J. Grant and others to the Hawaiian Islands, on which occasion the Temple erected at Laie, on the island of Oahu, was dedicated. Early in 1920 Bishop Nibley accompanied President Grant and company to Arizona, on which occasion the site for a Temple at Mesa, Maricopa county, was discussed. Bishop Nibley's commercial enterprises have placed him in a conspicuous position as one of the prominent representatives of the lumber and sugar trade of the West. He is a man of marked enterprise who from the beginning of his career has realized that success depends upon the individual, that when one avenue of opportunity seems closed he can carve out other paths to reach the desired goal. The proud American title of "a self-made man" has rightfully been won by him. Starting out in the business world in a most humble capacity, he is now a dominant figure in commercial and business circles; nor has he ever allowed the attainment of wealth to monopolize his time and energy, as he has always rendered a due measure of service to the Church and to the community in the work of general improvement and advancement. Bishop Nibley also figures as one of the popular and forceful speakers of the Church, his sermons always being pregnant with practical and wholesome advice. Bishop Nibley has a large family—nine sons and eight daughters and thirty-four grandchildren.
NIBLEY, Charles Wilson, presiding Bishop of the Church, was born Feb. 5, 1849, at Hunterfield, a small coal mining town, eight miles south of Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the fourth child and the second son of James Nibley and Jean Wilson. The father, who was a coal miner, had difficulty in providing for his family, but was ably assisted by his wife, a most energetic, frugal and thrifty woman, who never seemed to tire of working and planning to better the conditions of herself and her family. She possessed, too, a deeply religious nature, and when, in the year 1844, she listened to the teachings of Henry McEwan, an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who spoke on the village green of Hunterfield, she felt a satisfaction in listening to his teachings that she had never before experienced. Both James and Jean Nibley, within a week, were baptized into the Church, and from that time forward they lived in the hope that they might join the main body of the Saints in America. Poverty prevented them from carrying out this wish, until they could save a sufficient sum to enable them to undertake the journey. A branch of the Church was organized at Hunterfield and James Nibley acted as president of the branch until he emigrated to America. The Nibleys finally left Scotland in 1855, crossing the Atlantic in the steerage of a sailing vessel and taking up their abode in Rhode Island, for their money was not sufficient to carry them further. For five years they resided in that State, working in the woolen mills until they could resume their journey to Utah. In the spring of 1860 they started again on their westward journey and reached Florence, Nebraska, which was the outfitting point for Church immigration. Joining a company led by James D. Ross as captain, they reached Great Salt Lake Valley Sept. 3, 1860, and soon afterwards established a home at Wellsville, Cache county, the first winter living in a dugout. Charles W. Nibley was at that time a lad of eleven years. He soon afterwards began providing for his own support, first by gleaning wheat with his mother in the harvest field, then by herding sheep, and from his initial step in the business world he utilized every available opportunity for advancement. Later he secured a clerkship in the village store and also made good use of his limited opportunities for the acquirement of whatever was possible in the way of education, with the most meager facilities for any kind of study. Yet, notwithstanding the lack of early educational advantages, he is today a wonderfully well informed man, for by reading and study he has continually increased his knowledge. The Nibleys were among the first settlers of Cache Valley. Charles W. remained in Wellsville until 1865, when he changed his residence to Brigham City. Box Elder county. After locating in Brigham City he clerked for Moiris Rosenbaum, one of the Jewish merchants of Utah, who was a member of the Church. In the fall of 18 69 Brother Charles W. Nibley, who had been ordained to the Priesthood years before, was called on a short mission to the United States, together with many others. He returned the following spring and soon afterwards went to work for the Central Pacific as station agent; afterwards he was an employee of the Utah Northern Railroad, being with that railroad when it first commenced its career in 1872. For five years he was general freight and ticket agent for the Utah Northern Railroad Company, during which time he made several trips east and west in the interest of the road. While in this service, in 1877, he was called on a mission to England, and labored under the presidency of Joseph F. Smith. He worked in the Liverpool office and had charge of the emigration and general business of the mission. When Joseph F. Smith left England, after the death of President Brigham Young, later in 1877, the affairs of the British Mission were left in charge of Elders Charles W. Nibley and Henry W. Naisbitt until Elder William Budge went to preside over that mission in 1878. Brother Nibley returned to Utah in May, 1879, having charge of a company of emigrating saints. His home was now in Logan, Cache county, where he was chosen as manager and secretary of the United Order Manufacturing and Building Company and was also elected assessor and collector for Cache county. Not only was Elder Nibley prominent in a business and social way in Cache county, but he took an active part in ecclesiastical affairs. For many years he acted as superintendent of Sunday schools in Cache Stake and his labors in other directions were marked by signal success. In the meantime his business adventure drew his attention to the northwest, and it was not long before he was recognized as a factor in the building up of eastern Oregon and western Idaho. In 1889 Elder Nibley, together with other prominent business men of Utah, organized the Oregon Lumber Company of Baker City. He acted as secretary of this company for many years. In 1890 he became one of the organizers of the Sumpter Valley Railroad Company, and for a number of years he occupied a position of leadership in business circles in eastern Oregon. The position of vice president of the Sumpter Valley Railroad Company was also held by Elder Nibley, and afterwards he became president of the Payette Valley Railroad. He was one of the founders and chief officials of the La Grande Sugar Company, afterwards merged into the Amalgamated Sugar Company, and took an active part in the colonization of Grande Ronde Valley, Oregon, and Payette Valley. Idaho. The lumber business in which he was interested was not confined to Oregon, but extended into California. Wherever he was known he was looked upon as an up-to-date, progressive and aggressive man of affairs. Ecclesiastically Elder Nibley was active in Oregon as elsewhere. When the saints residing in eastern Oregon and western Idaho were organized into the Union Stake of Zion, June 9, 1901, Charles W. Nibley was chosen as first counselor to Franklin S. Bramwell, the president of the Stake. In 1906 Elder Nibley and part of his family ac companied President Joseph F. Smith on a visit to Europe. In 1907 he was chosen as Presiding Bishop of the Church, being ordained and set apart to that office Dec. 11, 1907, with Orrin P. Miller as first and David A. Smith as second counselors. The long experience which Elder Nibley had had in financial affairs up to that time qualified him specially for that important position, in which it became his duty to handle the revenues of the Church. Under his administration the tithing system of the Church was changed and everything placed on a cash basis. The tithing office scrip, which had been used for so many years, became a thing of the past, and reforms in handling the tithes of the people, both at headquarters and in the many settlements of the Saints where the members paid their tithes and offerings, were materially improved. Early in 190 9 Bishop Nibley and a part of his family accompanied President Joseph F. Smith and others on a visit to the Hawaiian Islands. The next year (1910) Bishop Nibley accompanied President Smith on another trip to Europe, during which they visited a number of the conferences of the Holland Mission, the Scandinavian Mission, the Swiss and German Mission and the British Mission. In the summer of 1913, Bishop Nibley accompanied President Joseph F. Smith and others to Canada, on which visit a site for a Temple was dedicated at Cardston. July 27, 1913. Later in the year he accompanied the President to Chicago, where mission homes and chapels, recently purchased and erected by the Church, were dedicated. In November of the same year President Smith, Bishop Nibley and others visited Arizona. In August, 1914, Bishop Nibley accompanied President Joseph F. Smith on a visit to Canada. In the latter part of the same year he accompanied President Smith on an extended tour of the Southern States and California, on which trip the party traveled about 6,000 miles. In 1915 Bishop Nibley accompanied President Smith and others on another visit to the Hawaiian Islands, arriving in Honolulu May 21, 1915. On this visit, on the first day of June, 1915, President Joseph F. Smith selected the Temple site on which a Temple now stands at Laie, on the island of Oahu. Apostle Reed Smoot and Bishop Nibley were present with President Smith when he dedicated that Temple site. On their return journey the party visited Portland, Ore., where a Latter-day Saints chapel was dedicated June 13, 1915. Early in 1916 Bishop Nibley accompanied President Smith and others on another visit to Hawaii, the object of the visit this time being to give instructions in regard to the building of the Temple which was in course of construction there. The party returned to Salt Lake City March 16, 1916. In July, 1916, Bishop Nibley was chosen as a director of the Western Pacific Railroad. Subsequently he accompanied Prest. Joseph F. Smith on several trips to the Pacific Coast. During the great World War he was very active, assisting with Church and private means and his personal influence the different movements inaugurated to assist the allies. He was State chairman of the Red Cross organization and holds that position at the present time. In the spring of 1917 Bishop Nibley accompanied President Smith and others on still another visit to Hawaii. The party left on this trip April 30th, and Bro. Nibley returned May 24, 1917. On a trip to California, in company with President Smith, in December. 1917, Bishop Nibley visited some of the military camps, where Utah boys were training, giving words of encouragement to those who were in the service of their country. At a meeting held May 20, 1918, Bishop Nibley, in behalf of the Church, stated that 205,000 bushels of wheat stored since 187 6 (a movement started by President Brigham Young) would be sent to the United States government to assist in the wheat shortage, the same to be sent to the assistance of the allies. Bishop Nibley was appointed a member of the War Industries Board July 26, 1918. In the latter part of 1919 he accompanied President Heber J. Grant and others to the Hawaiian Islands, on which occasion the Temple erected at Laie, on the island of Oahu, was dedicated. Early in 1920 Bishop Nibley accompanied President Grant and company to Arizona, on which occasion the site for a Temple at Mesa, Maricopa county, was discussed. Bishop Nibley's commercial enterprises have placed him in a conspicuous position as one of the prominent representatives of the lumber and sugar trade of the West. He is a man of marked enterprise who from the beginning of his career has realized that success depends upon the individual, that when one avenue of opportunity seems closed he can carve out other paths to reach the desired goal. The proud American title of "a self-made man" has rightfully been won by him. Starting out in the business world in a most humble capacity, he is now a dominant figure in commercial and business circles; nor has he ever allowed the attainment of wealth to monopolize his time and energy, as he has always rendered a due measure of service to the Church and to the community in the work of general improvement and advancement. Bishop Nibley also figures as one of the popular and forceful speakers of the Church, his sermons always being pregnant with practical and wholesome advice. Bishop Nibley has a large family—nine sons and eight daughters and thirty-four grandchildren.
Jenson, Andrew. "Nibley, Charles Wilson." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 4. pg. 727.
NIBLEY, Charles W., a member and chairman of the Old Folks Central Committee from 1908 to 1925, was born Feb. 5, 1849, in Hunterfield, near Edinburgh, Scotland, a son of James Nibley and Jean Wilson. He died Dec. 11, 1925, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (See Bio. Ency., Vol. 3, p. 766.)
NIBLEY, Charles W., a member and chairman of the Old Folks Central Committee from 1908 to 1925, was born Feb. 5, 1849, in Hunterfield, near Edinburgh, Scotland, a son of James Nibley and Jean Wilson. He died Dec. 11, 1925, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (See Bio. Ency., Vol. 3, p. 766.)
"President Golden Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Nibley." Relief Society Magazine. May 1919. pg. 264-266.
Golden Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Nibley. Presiding Bishop Charles W. Nibley and his wife Rebecca Neibaur Nibley celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, which fell on Sunday, March 30, with a reception at the Hotel Utah on Saturday evening, March 29. While many invitations were sent out for the affair, the bishop and his wife publicly invited friends who missed receiving one for the informal celebration of the passing of the 50th milestone in their married life. Music and refreshments accompanied the general festivities. Bishop and Mrs. Nibley were married March 30, 1869, in the old Endowment House, President Daniel H. Wells performing the ceremony. The Bishop was but 20 years of age and his wife had just turned 18 on the day of their marriage. As days of taxicabs and cars had not yet arrived, the pioneer youth and maiden walked, through eight inches of snow, from the bride's home on Second East street to be married. Alexander Neibaur, father of the bride and a well-known local Hebrew poet and scholar, and Mrs. Elizabeth C. Crismon, then Miss Cain, the bride's closest girl friend, witnessed the ceremony. Appropriately, Mrs. Crismon assisted Bishop and Mrs. Nibley in receiving their guests in the Hotel Utah. Mrs. Nibley was born in Salt Lake City, March 30, 1851. The Bishop's birthplace was near Edinburgh, Scotland. He was born February 5, 1849. When he was a lad of six years, his family moved to Rhode Island, saved up enough money to cross the plains, and arrived here in 1860. The 70-year-old financier and churchman today speaks smilingly of his boyhood here in Utah, when he gleaned wheat, and herded sheep. He tells of the days, too, when Mrs. Nibley dug segos on the hills, the bulbs being a considerable part of the pioneer food of those days. Two weeks after their marriage the young couple moved to Brigham City, where Bishop Nibley was in partnership in the mercantile business with M. D. Rosenbaum, Mrs. Nibley's brother- in-law. The following autumn Mr. Nibley went on a mission to the Eastern States. On his return, he was for a time station agent on the Central Pacific railroad and the young couple, with their baby, lived down on the railroad track alone for some time. When the Utah Northern was built, Mr. Nibley was appointed general ticket and freight agent at Logan. They lived there for 22 years and there most of their children were born. In 1877, Elder Nibley was called on a mission to accompany the late President Joseph F. Smith to Europe. He labored in the business department of the European mission for two years, and returned home in 1879. Later, the family moved to Baker City, Oregon, where Mr. Nibley engaged in the lumber business, and where they lived for 11 years. They have had ten children, four daughters and six sons, seven of whom are living. The couple celebrated their silver wedding in Baker City and invitations were sent out to many friends who were present 25 years ago. Since 1903 Bishop and Mrs. Nibley have made their home in this city. In 1907 the Bishop was appointed to his present office in the Church and in the same year Mrs. Nibley was made a member of the General Board of the Relief Society. One regret in connection with the present anniversary, expressed by both the Bishop and his wife, was that their close friend, the late President Joseph F. Smith, could not be present. Mrs. Rebecca N. Nibley has been a member of our General Board for twelve years, and has taken an active interest in the work of the Society, especially along practical lines. She has been a member of the Relief Society Magazine committee from its organization, and is Chairman of the Relief Society Home committee. She has successfully administered the financial affairs of the Home, keeping the place out of debt, and making it a haven of refuge for those who are sheltered there. She is invincible in testimony, quick in responsive loyalty to our leaders, and full of quiet generosity and sympathy to all her many friends and associates. This Church has been blessed with many great and wise leaders who have stood as pillars of strength to the people of God. Few have equaled, none have surpassed Bishop Nibley in integrity, sagacity and breadth of vision. He stands today as a mighty bulwark of strength and inspired leadership in his strenuous and important position as Presiding Bishop of the Church. His quick apperception of .spiritual changes, his masterly yet simply expressed loyalty and devotion to our present Church leaders is both inspiring and fruitful of results. The people repose, with increasing confidence, their trust in their great financial and temporal judge in Israel, Charles W. Nibley. He is one of the most important figures in business and financial circles of the inter-mountain west. And besides his host of friends in Utah, many prominent citizens over the entire western section of the country extended hearty congratulations to him. and Mrs. Nibley on their golden wedding anniversary. |
"President Charles Wilson Nibley." Improvement Era. July 1925. pg. 883-885.
PRESIDENT CHARLES WILSON NIBLEY Bishop Charles W. Nibley was appointed and set apart as second counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on May 28, 1925, to fill the vacancy caused by the passing of President Charles W. Penrose. In our opinion no more suitable or capable man for the position could be found in all the land. He is an active, progressive and aggressive man of affairs, whose life and character are irreproachable and whose integrity is unquestioned. His judgment and ability are of the highest order and his spirituality is that of a good Latter-day Saint. President Heber J. Grant's choice of him as counselor will meet approval and applause throughout the Church. His administration of the Bishop's Office during the past eighteen years has been characterized by deep business acumen and sterling ability, efficient management and a clear vision, tending towards helpfulness of the people, both in business and in religious matters. President Nibley was born February 5, 1849, at Hunterfield near Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, James Nibley, was a coal miner and had difficulty in providing for his family, but was ably assisted by his frugal, energetic and thrifty wife, Jean Wilson. She was of a deeply religious nature, and in the year 1844 listened to the teachings of Henry McCune of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with whose teachings she felt so satisfied that within a week after hearing him both she and her husband were baptized into the Church. From that time they lived in the hope that they might join the main body of the Saints in America, though poverty prevented the fruition of their hopes for ten long years. James Nibley, acted as president of the branch until he emigrated to America in 1855. The Nibleys crossed the Atlantic in the steerage of a sailing vessel and abode in Rhode Island, because their money was not sufficient to carry them further. Here they resided for five years, working in the woollen mills to obtain means to complete their journey to Utah. In 1860 they started westward and reached Florence, Nebraska, joining a company led by James D. Ross as captain, and reached Salt Lake Valley on September 3, 1860. Wellsville, Cache county, was their first home. Here they lived in a dugout. Charles was then a lad of eleven years and began at that early age to provide for his own support by gleaning wheat, herding sheep, and doing other chores. Later he secured a clerkship in the village store, and with his thrift and business ability, at that early age, made good use of his opportunities to obtain what little education it was possible for him to get at that time, and in this effort he has continued, until he is today among the best informed men in the Church, both in literature and in business- In 1865 he removed to Brigham City engaging as clerk for a Jewish merchant, Morris Rosenbaum, who was a member of the Church. The advancement which has come to President Nibley has been earned by faithful and painstaking Church labors in the past. On December 11, 1875, he was chosen first counselor in the first organized Y. M. M. I. A. at Logan, with George F. Gibbs president. He was ordained to the Priesthood in early life and filled a short mission in the United States in the fall of 1869, followed by a mission to England in 1877, where he labored under the Presidency of President Joseph F. Smith in charge of the emigration and business of the mission. When President Brigham Young died in August of that year, President Smith was called home and Elder Nibley and Henry W. Naisbitt were given charge of the mission until the arrival of President William Budge in 1878. In May, 1879, Elder Nibley returned to Utah in charge of a company of emigrating Saints. He settled in Logan and always took active part in ecclesiastical affairs, among other activities being superintendent of Sunday schools in Cache stake, then comprising the whole valley, for many years. In 1906 he was chosen first counselor to President Franklin S. Bramwell of the Union stake of Zion when it was organized June 9, 1901. In 1906 he accompanied President Joseph F. Smith on a trip to Europe and on returning, was later chosen Presiding Bishop of the Church, being ordained and set apart to that office December 11, 1907. Under his administration the tithing system was changed and everything placed on a cash basis. The tithing orders which had been used for many years were abandoned and many excellent reforms in handling the tithes of the people, both at headquarters and in the settlements, were inaugurated and materially improved and carried out. During his incumbency he made a number of trips with President Joseph F. Smith to the Hawaiian Islands, and in 1910, a second trip to Europe with President Smith, visiting the Holland, Scandinavian, Swiss- German, and the British Missions. In 1913, with President Smith he went to Canada where the temple site was dedicated on June 27, 1913. He accompanied President Smith to Chicago, where the mission home and chapel were dedicated, and at various times also he visited Arizona, Canada, the Southern States, California and the Hawaiian Islands. On the visit to Honolulu in May, 1915, the temple site on which the temple now stands at Laie on the Island of Oahu was selected and dedicated on June 13, 1915. The following year another trip was made to Hawaii in order to give instruction in regard to the building of the temple. He accompanied President Heber J. Grant and others to the Hawaiian Islands in 1919 on which occasion the temple was dedicated. Since then he has made several trips with President Grant to various places, and in 1920 to Arizona where the site for a temple at Mesa was discussed. In business affairs he stands high among the leaders of the State. When he returned from his mission in the spring of 1869 he obtained work with the Central Pacific as station agent, and later as an employee of the Utah Northern Railroad, in 1872. He was general freight agent of that company for five years, making several trips east and west in the interest of the road. In 1879 he settled in Logan where he became manager and secretary of the United Order Manufacturing and Building Company and occupied civil and business positions in Cache county. His business ventures drew him north, and in 1889, Elder Nibley with other prominent business men of Utah, organized the Oregon Lumber Company, of Baker City, of which he acted as secretary for many years. In 1890 he was one of the organizers of the Sumpter Valley Railroad Company, and in other respects occupied the position of leadership in business circles in eastern Oregon, later becoming president of the Payette Valley Railroad. He was one of the founders and chief officials of the LaGrande Sugar Company, and also took an active part in the colonization of Grande Ronde Valley, being looked upon as an aggressive and up-to-date man of affairs; and as with business affairs, so in religious matters. In 1916 Bishop Nibley was chosen director of the Western Pacific Railroad, and during the great World War he was active in assisting with Church and private means and his personal influence in movements inaugurated to assist the allies. He was State Chairman of the Red Cross organization, and visited on the way to Hawaii and California military training camps where the Utah boys were training, giving words of encouragement to those who were in the service of their country. In Church work he figures as a popular and forceful speaker. At the General conference his sermons are always enjoyed and are pregnant with effective points, faithful testimony, and practical and wholesome advice. Bishop Nibley has placed his Church work first, and has not allowed the attainment of wealth to stand in the way of his Church duties. His appointment to the First Presidency will add great strength to that quorum, and an influence for good that will be felt throughout the whole Church.—A. |
PRESIDENT CHARLES WILSON NIBLEY
Born February 5, 1849; chosen, ordained and set apart as Presiding Bishop of the Church, December 11, 1907; chosen as Second Counselor in the First Presidency, May 28, 1925, and set apart for the office on the same day by President Heber J. Grant. |
Hinckley, Bryant S. "Greatness in Men--President Charles W. Nibley." Improvement Era. December 1931. pg. 69-71, 92-93.
Greatness in Men President Charles W. Nibley By BRYANT S. HINCKLEY President of Liberty Stake AT Far West, Missouri, in the turbulent days of persecution, Joseph F. Smith was born—a man whose influence and companionship have meant more to Charles W. Nibley than any other person in the world except his heroic Scotch mother and members of his own family. In September, 1848, with his widowed mother, and other courageous souls, Joseph F. Smith came to Utah, a boy ten years of age. Nineteen years after, he was made an apostle and went to Cache Valley where, for the second time President Nibley, then a Scotch lad eighteen years of age, met him. A friendship was established between these men which continued to grow stronger and brighter until death separated them. It was a fortunate thing for any man to know intimately Joseph F. Smith. He possessed a solidarity of character and an unconquerable heart. President Smith was the kind of man whose friends would die for him, for they knew he would be true unto death. He loved Charles W. Nibley with all the strength and fervor of his great heart and this love was returned to him in full measure, and thus was built up a friendship that was deep, enduring, and beautiful. To know intimately either of these men is to think better of mankind. THRIFT, caution, and economy are the national characteristics of the sturdy people of Scotland. Many humorous references are made to their caution in giving, but that little land has given to the world more than its full share of genius and of greatness. There are very few individuals from any land who have made a better contribution to the church of their choice than that wise and devoted Scotch Bishop, now president, Charles W. Nibley. His parents were of humble extraction but of sterling worth. As is frequently the case, their distinguished son received his best inheritance from his mother. His sagacity and enterprise, the strength of his character, the brilliancy of his mind, his spirit of adventure, his indomitable courage were all distinctly manifest in her life and character. Our admiration for this good woman rises with every difficult situation in which this family finds itself. She was a shining example of those Puritanic virtues which underlie all successful colonization and which permeate the lives of men and women who constitute the back bone of the world. No wonder her son cherishes, with reverent pride, her memory, for she was, indeed, an extraordinary woman. CHARLES W. NIBLEY is a man of large vision and courage, with a rare capacity for bringing things to pass. This, coupled with a keen sense of values and sound business judgment, enabled him to rise rapidly in the world. Alone, without prestige or favor, he fought his way from abject poverty to affluence and power. No man prominently identified with this Church has displayed superior capacity for successfully carrying forward large projects. While he has been a conspicuous leader in the industrial and financial world he has never slackened in his allegiance to his church, and all his life he has been a prayerful, thorough-going Latter-day Saint. The proof of his early poverty is graphically set down in his "Reminiscences, which will be a cherished legacy to his posterity. At the time referred to here the family was living in Wellsville, Utah, and he was about twelve years old. "Our breakfasts were of the scantiest kind," says he, "a little wheat porridge without much milk and a little of the brown or black bread without butter. In the morning I was furnished a piece of bread for my dinner as I would start off on the hills with the cows, but my dinner was devoured before I got half a mile away from our camp and I had to go hungry until evening. About the only clothing I had at that time was a pair of pants made from the tent which we used in crossing the plains, and which had grown so stiff and hard being weather-beaten in so many storms, and a shirt made of the same material, that when it touched my back or sides it nearly took the skin off, but it was the best I had and all I had. A rope tied around my waist was used to hold my pants up and my shirt down. I can remember that when I was hungry at dinner time about the only thing I could do to help my stomach was to tighten my rope." FEATURE that boy clothed as he was, fed as he was, the home in which he lived, much of the time without shoes, without a coat until he was sixteen years of age, and see him thirty years later, confident, prosperous, recognized; giving employment in mills, factories, and on railroads to thousands of happy workmen. "There is a path which leads from the lowliest depths to the loftiest heights." His feet have pressed that path. Not every poor boy can do what he did, but every boy can draw inspiration and encouragement from the story of his achievement and resolve that he will not be the victim of his environment. No matter how hard or lowly his circumstances may be, opportunity is calling to him and there is work for him to do if he will only get ready. In that humble pioneer home in Wellsville, the living may have been scant and the comforts may have been very few, but in Jean Nibley's home, no matter how poor, there was never any of that squalor or wretchedness which sometimes manifests itself in poverty. Charles W. Nibley certainly had what S. S. McClure said he hoped to bequeath to his children, "the advantages of poverty." TO go back to the beginning — President Nibley was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, February 5, 1849. His father, James Nibley, a coal miner, was a quiet, God-fearing, inoffensive man with many sterling qualities and a rich vein of dry Scotch wit—keen and incisive. That is where the President gets his engaging and delightful humor. His mother, Jean Wilson Nibley, "was all energy and push and seemed never to tire of working and scheming to get on in the world; withal she had pure Scotch thrift and prudence and could save a little money where most people would starve. She was of a religious temperament with a deep vein of spirituality Life was a serious thing with her, an almost desperate thing in which she had no time for levity or play; but only for work or prayers and religious activity. But for sagacity and thrift my mother was the savior of the family. It was a stern, hard life they had to live, one of unremitting toil and penury, but they struggled on, never faltering and made the best of it." When asked how he made his first dollar he did not say but related this circumstance: "I must have been four or five years of age when this happened. I visited my Aunt Sneddon who gave me a penny. On my way home from this visit I met what the Scotch call a "packman"; that is a peddler selling pins, needles, trinkets of one kind and another and a little candy, carrying his whole store on his back. I held up my penny to the packman who threw his pack at once on the ground, opened it up and asked me if I wanted rock, which meant hard candy. I answered with sufficient self-denial, /'No, I am no wantin' rock, I want peens and needles for my mother." I took the pins and needles to my mother, told her my story with all the pride the world. I can recollect how she picked me up with tears in her eyes, rejoicing I suppose, at my self-denial and cried, 'Aye, my bonny bairn." The Family came to American in 1855, steerage passage on a sailing vessel, a voyage requiring six weeks. They settled first in Rhode Island, where some of Mrs. Nibley's relatives lived, and for five years most of them worked in the cotton mills. During this time they saved sufficient money to fit themselves out for their journey to Utah. They went by rail to Florence, Nebraska, where they purchased a new wagon, two yoke of oxen, and two cows. They left Florence on June 17, 1860, and were little less than three. months making the journey to Salt Lake City. President Nibley, then a boy eleven, walked barefoot most of the way. There is a suggestion of thrift in this incident: "After the cows were milked in the morning, the milk not used was put in a tin churn and strapped on the side of the wagon and by noon it would be thoroughly churned; the butter could be gathered and the buttermilk had for lunch." Their arrival in the valley is described as follows: "On Monday, September 3, 18 6 0, we came out of the canyon on the bench near Fort Douglas, and I can very well remember with what joy we looked upon the little growing city in the wilderness. We felt that all our troubles and trials were at an end * * * when, as a matter of fact, they had just begun." ON arriving they camped on Eighth ward Square and very soon thereafter moved to Wellsville, Cache Valley, and were among its earliest settlers. During the pall he gleaned wheat barefoot with his mother. They would carry home on their backs the bundles of wheat which they had gleaned and then scrub it out on a washboard. To get a half a bushel of wheat in that way was a good day's work for both of them. The other members of the family were busy getting logs, building shelter for their cattle, and a dugout in which to live. This dugout was their first home in Utah. It was one room, twelve by sixteen feet, consisting of an excavation of about three feet, with logs laid up for another three feet, making it about six feet to the square. It had no windows and a part of a quilt served as a door. The chimney built by his father was of cobblestone and mud. Referring to it President Nibley says, "That chimney never knew enough to draw the smoke up, but spewed it out and filled the room." Quoting again he says: "My dear old mother has stated on many occasions that no queen whoever entered her palace was ever happier or prouder of shelter and the blessings of the Lord than she was when she entered the completed dugout." SPEAKING of the first winter he says: 'That winter everybody in Wellsville had the itch. Of course we were included in the number. There were no vegetables except potatoes; there were no lemons or acids to counteract the acid in the blood, so it broke out in hives or itch. Old Davy Moffatt, who crossed the plains in the hand cart company the same summer that we came, left his home in Salt Lake and somehow or other landed in Wellsville as he had no work to do, merely came up to visit us. We entertained him of course the best we could in our dugout—fancy entertaining anybody in a place like that—and while we did not have any Christmas present to give him, we did manage to give him the itch. He went home after a short visit and a little later Johnny McCarty was making a trip to Salt Lake for something or other and I begged the privilege of going with him and seeing if I could not get work. We got to Salt Lake City in due time and I went down and stayed at Moffatt's, down in the Third ward. I remember going to Walker Brothers store and asking one of the Walker brothers if they would not hire a boy to help do chores or help do clerking in the store, but they said they were not in need of any help just at that time. At Moffatt's in the evening old Davy would be scratching his back and I remember very well his saying to me: 'Mon, when you gang hame tell your faather (and this while he was scratching away at his back) tell your faather to send me doon a muckle hawthorne stick.' Two long and dreary winters were spent in the dugout. It was a scramble of the severest kind for a mere existence. To begin at the very beginning and make the earth produce their food and shelter was severe experience through which many pioneers passed. As a boy he did anything and everything he could get to do. For two seasons he herded sheep on the Wellsville hills. NOTE the significance of what follows! One is led to exclaim: How did it happen? "I borrowed from one of the Mitton boys a book of Shakespeare's plays, the first I had ever seen, and although I had never been in a theatre, had never seen a play performed, yet I took so to those plays of Shakespeare that I read and reread them and committed many passages to memory, which I can bring forward even to this day." Continuing he says: 'That summer I got hold of a copy of Burns' poems and I would carry it with me as I was driving my sheep 'about, and I committed many of those poems to memory. Bob Baxter, who was with me some of the time that summer, is wont to tell, even to this day, that while he was fooling away his time playing, I was studying Burns' poems and reading every other book that I could get hold of. Burns has been my favorite from that day to this. It was easy for me to talk Scotch and I always did enjoy it all thoroughly." Thus he became familiar with Shakespeare, Burns ,and the Bible, three great masterpieces of literature. These were his text books and he knows them. He is an educated man, and he got a precious part of it alone, herding sheep on the hills of Wellsville. Is there any boy too poor to go to such a school? One of the secrets of his great achievements is revealed here. We have in this boy —left to his own resources, alone herding sheep—a prophecy of the man. We fancy that he read often and treasured these lines from the great Scotch poet, took them to heart, and followed their admonition. "To catch dame Fortune's golden smile, Assiduous wait upon her; And gather gear by ev'ry wile That's justified by honour; Not for to hide it in a hedge, Nor for a train attendant; But for the glorious privilege Of being independent." TO hasten with the story we read again from his writings: "Early in the month of December, 1907, President Smith sent for me to come to the President's office. He said to me, 'Charlie, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needs a Presiding Bishop and you have been chosen for that place.' Of course it was a surprise to me. I had never dreamed of acting in that office. But I was glad and even anxious to do anything I could to assist President Smith in his administration of the Church affairs. And I told him so. He took me in his arms and kissed me and wept tears of joy as he embraced me and blessed me, as he only can do." The new Bishop was fifty-eight years of age and in the prime of life. He brought to this calling the strength and devotion of his great heart and the accumulated wisdom of a large and varied experience. He was an executive of recognized and transcendent ability and with his accustomed zeal undertook the arduous work of his office. The entire temporal structure of the Church felt the vitalizing touch of a master hand and results were soon manifest. During the eighteen years which he served as Presiding Bishop the Church made remarkable progress spiritually and financially. He was a factor in it. In 1918 President Joseph F. Smith passed away and in 1925 Bishop Nibley became counselor to President Heber J. Grant. Referring to the death of President Smith he says: "October 19, 1918, my dearest and best friend, my most lovable and precious brother, President Joseph F. Smith, passed from this sphere to his reward in the life beyond. This brought the greatest sorrow into my life, for to me he was my ideal. If I could only be assured that I would be worthy to associate with him in the hereafter I would be happy indeed." In a tribute which was published at the time in the Improvement Era, he says: "No heart ever beat truer to every principle of manhood and righteousness and justice and mercy than his; that great heart, encased in his magnificent frame, made him the biggest, the broadest, the tenderest, the purest of all men who walked the earth in his time." CHARLES W. NIBLEY was hardly seventeen when the Civil War ended. The construction of the great transcontinental railroad was soon under way. Money was plentiful; times were prosperous; and he was ready when his opportunity came. At an early age he began in a small way to accumulate some means and to discover himself. At twenty he was married; at forty he had accumulated a fortune; at sixty he was the Presiding Bishop of the Church; at seventy-six a member of the First Presidency— a man distinguished for his wisdom and the soundness and splendor of his character. His diversified interests and absorbing responsibilities in the great world of affairs in which he moved never submerged nor dimmed his interest in the Church nor engrossed his time to the exclusion of better things. His life is built upon an ampler scale than his fortune. In fact during his very busiest years he filled two missions. He and his nine sons have spent more than twenty years preaching the Gospel as missionaries. He has not only given generously of his substance to the Church, but he has given liberally of his time and his great ability. It is doubtful if, in the aggregate, any man in all the history of this Church has paid more in dollars and cents into its treasury, and the men are indeed few who have actually given more time in its service. He has seventeen living children, fifty-one grand-children and three great-grand-children, and his family is the pride of his heart. President Charles W. Nibley has read widely and prudently. He has a discriminating, luminous, and absorbent mind. He possesses the rare capacity to analyze quickly any problem, no matter how intricate or complex. Clear and decisive in his conclusions, established and unwavering in his faith, he stands on the summit of eighty-two years a staunch and patriotic American, a kind husband, a devoted father, a wise and congenial counselor, a courageous, God-fearing and benevolent leader of men. |
President Charles W. Nibley
A Scotch lad comes to America, herds sheep on the hills of Cache Valley where he memorizes Shakespeare, climbs the rough road to success financially, socially and, best of all, spiritually . Among his numerous friends was one especially beloved Joseph F. Smith, former President of the L. D. S. Church. President Nibley's Mother, Jean Wilson Nibley
The Nibley Home in Scotland
President Nibley's Father--James Nibley
Charles Wilson Nibley at the age of 24
Charles Nibley in his first suit of clothes. The material was woven by his mother.
President Nibley plays a good game of golf
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"President Charles Wilson Nibley." Improvement Era. January 1932. pg. 131.
President Charles Wilson Nibley THE trail which began at Hunterfield, near Edinburgh, Scotland, nearly eighty-one years ago ended in Salt Lake City, December 1 1 , at 12:5 1 p. m. when President Charles Wilson Nibley, whose trail it was, passed beyond the horizon leaving his earthly achievements behind him. There can be no doubt that the indomitable Scotch spirit is still toiling upward towards new conquests. At one end of the trail there was a small miner's cottage; at the other, beautiful homes, fine office buildings, a large park where thousands play, such as the Scotch boy had never dreamed of, a great hotel, railroads, factories, hosts of relatives and friends. More than eighty-one years ago, a tiny Scotch laddie came to the home of James and Jean Wilson Nibley. They nursed him and cared for him until his tiny feet could be set firmly upon the upward trail. Then hand in hand they began a journey across the ocean, and on across the continent. They were poor, but they had their faces turned toward the light —the Gospel light — which had come to the parents in 1844, about five years prior to the birth of their son. The trail then turned aside into Cache Valley. Later it beckoned the young man to Oregon and then, at the call of President Joseph F. Smith back to Salt Lake City. When he was twenty he took the hand of Rebecca Neibaur in marriage and together they continued on the trail, and ever upward—onward. Later he married another good woman, Miss Ellen Ricks, and still later another, Miss Julie Budge. Children came to him, and soon he was followed by a group of youngsters upon whom he showered his affections. He became interested in stores, railroads, lumber companies, and sugar factories. Thousands benefited by his wisdom and sagacity and earned their livelihood from enterprises which he had organized or assisted in organizing. But always he kept his face toward the light with an unswerving Scotch fidelity. He was never too busy or too engrossed to heed the call of his Church. He filled various positions ranging from those connected with his early offices in the Priesthood, running through superintendencies and missions to that of Presiding Bishop of the Church and Second Counselor to the President of the Church. The little boy who had left the miner's cabin in Scotland—following the gleam half around the world—now has: scores of relatives, a host of friends, and nearly three quarters of a million of Latter- day Saints following him. His trail had no down curves; they were always up towards the light. He has passed the horizon out of view for the moment, but behind him are thousands, faces aglow, turned toward the summits he reached and they know he is on before—beckoning. A rather complete story of his struggles and achievements: appeared only last month in the Improvement Era. At the time that story was written, he was vigorous for his age, animated, interested. The story came out. in time to receive his approval. The powerful pen. of President Bryant S. Hinckley had delineated a powerful personality just in time. The article was illustrated with photographs of the boy and the man: of the father and mother; of the little home in Scotland; but not with photographs which could have been taken of some of the great enterprises which were children of his brain and brawn. President Nibley has passed on, but his great achievements, his loyalty, his devotion still live in. the hearts of those who knew him. |
President Charles W. Nibley
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"President Charles W. Nibley." Instructor. January 1932. pg. 3.
President Charles W. Nibley The sudden death of President Charles W. Nibley, which occurred on Friday, December 11, 1931, came as a distinct shock to the Latter-day Saints, few of whom knew of his brief serious illness until the announcement of his demise. Though more than ten years beyond the three score and ten allotted to mortality. President Nibley seemed well and strong. He was young in spirit and loved youth to whom he was a constant inspiration. His humor was proverbial, his companionship always a keen joy to those fortunate enough to share it. Born in humble circumstances, going through the fires of poverty he rose to affluence in the community and to one of the highest positions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A splendid tribute to President Nibley was but recently paid by Elder Bryant S. Hinckley, President of the Liberty Stake in the Improvement Bra, and other magazines, newspapers and periodicals have given the life story of this remarkable man which need not be repeated in The Instructor. The feelings of the three hundred thousand members of the Deseret Sunday School Union are partly expressed in the letter sent to the First Presidency and family, which is as follows: December 16, 1931. To President Heber J. Grant and President Anthony W. Ivins of the First Presidency and to the Family of President Charles W. Nibley. Dear Friends: In the passing of your esteemed associate, your beloved husband and father, and our dear friend and leader, President Charles W. Nibley, we have suffered a distinct loss. His life and service is an inspiration to us. He set us a most worthy example of whole-hearted devotion to the Gospel, to the Church and to His associates. His encouragement of our work has always been heartening and strength giving. In his every word and act he has kept before us the nobility of unselfishly giving time, treasure and talent for the advancement of the work of the Lord. He exemplified this ideal so sincerely and so abundantly in his own life that he made that ideal profound and impressive. His faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ was so generously manifested by his prodigious labors in the interest of the Church that whenever he was called upon to bear a verbal testimony it was doubly forceful and impressive. The fact that men of his attainments devote themselves with such complete forgetfulness of self and with such consecration of time, ability and means to the cause of the Church, cannot help but win the admiration and the respect of all mankind. His lavish bestowal of material, mental, moral and spiritual benefactions upon his fellow men and the Church seemed to be. his way of emulating the Divine Example. In this respect he was truly a child of God and a friend of man. With you we rejoice in the assurance which the Gospel .of Jesus Christ brings to us all, that he will be received with honor in the courts of our Heavenly Father. It is our earnest prayer that his family, who have known so well the many beautiful and more intimate attributes of his character and who will, therefore, feel his passing most keenly, may, as a recompense for so great a loss, be sustained and comforted by the Spirit of the Lord and by an abiding faith in His goodness to them. Very respectfully and sincerely your brethren, Deseret Sunday School Union Board David O. McKay Stephen L. Richards George D. Pyper General Superintendency, |
Lyman, Richard R. "President Charles W. Nibley An Appreciation." Relief Society Magazine. January 1932. pg. 3-5.
President Charles W. Nibley An Appreciation By Dr. Richard R. Lyman of the Council of the Twelve THE fairy tales we tell our children are hardly more romantic, marvelous or miraculous than the life story of President Charles W. Nibley. It portrays his rise from poverty to affluence, from a humble station to positions of honor, dignity and trust. Born in poverty, the son of a Scotch coal miner, Charles W. Nibley learned early in his life the lessons of frugality, industry and the value of money. These lessons contributed greatly to the phenomenal success of his later life. In his public addresses, thrift, the habit of saving, the wise use of time and money were among his favorite themes. The faith, the integrity, the industry and the sterling worth of his mother were the chief inspiration of Charles W. Nibley. To him she was ideal. She and he, mother and son, were held together by bonds of affection and mutual esteem. During the whole of the eighty-two years of his unusual career, this distinguished civic leader, business man and high Church official could hardly mention his mother's name without shedding tears. Her religious temperament, her spirituality and her early instructions created in his young heart a faith, a knowledge and a burning testimony of the divinity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which glowed in his soul unceasingly with such intensity that his life was lived in accord with the divine admonition: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Her industry and her capacity for work, her devotion to duty, and her honesty of purpose inspired in him all of these admirable qualities, Very naturally, in those early pioneer days, there was in her life little time for play. She devoted herself earnestly and continuously to work, to prayer and to other serious things. While her life was one of continuous struggle, and devoid of comforts, her reward was rich indeed when compared with that which comes to those who seek only self-gratification and the passing pleasures of the moment. What greater reward can come to any woman than to be the mother of such a son? As a man of affairs, Charles W. Nibley had few equals. We stand amazed at what he accomplished in the midst of rather ordinary surroundings. His was a fine intellect, his was a discriminating and accurate mind. As an organizer he was a master. It was this ability that made successful so many of his big undertakings. He never did himself what he could have others do. He placed responsibility on his subordinates and held them for results. Nor did he expect too much of his associates. He secured from them not only hearty but affectionate support because his practice was to look for something in them or their work to commend rather than for something with which to find fault. Thus this master organizer found time to devote his own unusual abilities to major rather than to minor matters. In all fields of his endeavor his mental power, his insight, his sagacity and good judgment carried him ever on and on from one success to another. He excelled as business man, merchant, railroad operator and manager, statesman, and Church leader. His success in the broad field of his activities was exceeded only by his unbounded generosity. Sharing his fortune with others was one of his greatest pleasures. Having felt the pangs of hunger he had deep and genuine sympathy for all who were poor or unfortunate. No cry for food or clothing ever reached his ear unheeded. The needy never appealed to him in vain. His large and generous gifts to the Church in addition to the payment of his regular dues and contributions and his magnificent gift to his city mark him, I think, as being peerless in liberality among his fellow churchmen and fellow citizens of Utah. This great man had a personality unusual, remarkable, and charming, resulting from the combination of a fine physical make-up, a keen intellect, good emotional balance, and a sane outlook on life and its problems. He had a magnetic attraction for both old and young. While he had admirable dignity there was in him a natural affection that drew people to him. He had good poise; he was free from complexes. His genial spirit and his understanding heart drew admiration and affection from those who knew him. We often think of men who are great in business as more or less cold toward the members of their own family. President Nibley, however, had as one of his outstanding characteristics, love, devotion, and generosity both as husband and father. His affection for his family was exceeded only by his faith and his devotion to Divine Providence. To his wives and children he was generous perhaps to a fault. All that he had and all that he enjoyed he wanted them also to have and enjoy. He was never happier than when surrounded by the members of his family. Making these happy gave him delight. He had his most enjoyable recreation at his family reunions. When surrounded by those dear to him by family ties he would relax and indulge in humor, in pleasantries, in fun-making to the great satisfaction of the members of his household. The humor, the wit, the repartee of his children on these happy occasions aroused pride and pleasure in his heart. On all such occasions it was also expected that the talented father would bring forth cheer, joy and admiration, not only with his keen native wit and spontaneous Scotch humor but with recitals of poetry, with stories of romance and with family and Church reminiscences. And while these reunions were frequent Charles W. Nibley never let such an occasion go by without expressing to the members of his family his love for his Church, his devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He endeavored to impress upon the members of his household that a testimony of the Gospel, of the divinity of the message of the Prophet Joseph Smith is the greatest gift of God to man. For their father, his children, every one, had genuine admiration. By them his greatness and ability were recognized and admired. In large degree, the unselfishness, sympathy and generosity of this good man were enjoyed also by his friends. From them he received respect, admiration and affection because to them he was ever faithful, true, logical, and dependable. His devotion to a friend was unchanged and unchangeable. In his actions and conclusions he was guided by exalted and clear-cut standards, principles, and ideals. Vacillation to him was unknown. His explanation of the reason why a favor could not be granted and his expression of regret were so effective as to make disappointment easy to bear. His own feelings were so sensitive, were so fine, and his imagination so keen, that he could understand what disappointment and suffering meant to others. He spoke no unkind words. He seldom if ever showed a feeling of anger. His great heart was sad if others were sad. The unusual powers of this man were the gift of God. He was born with a marvelous intellect. No other evidence of this is needed than that as a barefoot boy he studied, read, learned, loved, and understood Shakespeare as few college graduates understand the writings of this great literary genius. His life on earth is finished. When will come again such another? I shall never forget the picture of his casket as it rested in the beautiful home of one of his daughters just before the lid was closed the last time. He has two living wives, and seventeen living sons and daughters, fifty-one grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. The two wives, all but one of his children, their married companions and many of the grandchildren were standing by to take a last look at that face which nearly always wore a smile, at those lips whose practice through eighty-two years of life was to speak words of wisdom, cheer and affection. As I looked at that great group standing about that open casket the words uppermost in my mind were: "A King." In eighty-two years he created a fortune, a family, a kingdom of his own. As I gazed with admiration, I thought to myself, these descendants can have as their guiding star, as their ideal, no more exalted example than the life, the labor, the faithfulness, the honor, the sobriety, the nobility of their distinguished ancestor, Charles W. Nibley. This family is a rich reward for that honest-hearted, religious man and wife who, away back in Scotland, recognized the voice of the Good Shepherd in the words which were uttered by humble missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. These fine Scotch folk were baptized almost immediately after hearing the Gospel. They devoted themselves for years to acquiring means enough to bring them to New Jersey. There they toiled on until they had saved sufficient to bring them to Utah. Their burdens were heavy, their responsibilities great, but greatest of all is their reward. |
"President Charles W. Nibley." Relief Society Magazine. January 1932. pg. 48-49.
President Charles W. Nibley
WHEN President Charles W. Nibley died the Church lost one of its most worthy sons. He was an outstanding character, honored and loved by all who knew him. He combined the intrepid spirit of the pioneer with the culture of today. He was widely read and this sermons were enriched by thoughts and quotations from the great writers. He put first things first. The gospel of Jesus Christ had his unwavering allegiance. To it he gave full-hearted support in the days of his poverty and in the days of his affluence.
During the period when he was Presiding Bishop of the Church, the executive officers of the Relief Society had intimate contact with him. They found him always courteous, understanding, and kind. Many loving memories are cherished by them of the meetings held with him, the advice he gave, and the consideration he accorded them.
His loss will be keenly felt but the work that he has done will live after him. He has made a place for himself in the history of the Church that time will not dim.
President Charles W. Nibley
WHEN President Charles W. Nibley died the Church lost one of its most worthy sons. He was an outstanding character, honored and loved by all who knew him. He combined the intrepid spirit of the pioneer with the culture of today. He was widely read and this sermons were enriched by thoughts and quotations from the great writers. He put first things first. The gospel of Jesus Christ had his unwavering allegiance. To it he gave full-hearted support in the days of his poverty and in the days of his affluence.
During the period when he was Presiding Bishop of the Church, the executive officers of the Relief Society had intimate contact with him. They found him always courteous, understanding, and kind. Many loving memories are cherished by them of the meetings held with him, the advice he gave, and the consideration he accorded them.
His loss will be keenly felt but the work that he has done will live after him. He has made a place for himself in the history of the Church that time will not dim.
Nibley, Preston. "The Friendship of Charles W. Nibley and President Joseph F. Smith." Relief Society Magazine. June 1932. pg. 350-353.
The Friendship of Charles W. Nibley and President Joseph F. Smith By Preston Nibley ONE of the most interesting and beautiful things in connection with the life of my honored father, Charles W. Nibley, was the admiration, friendship, and love which he manifested throughout his whole life toward President Joseph F. Smith, and which was returned to him in full measure. I do not recall any similar record of such a friendship, unless it be that of David and Jonathan. It was at least the strongest friendship I have ever known to exist between two men, and it certainly resulted in greatly enriching the lives of both. Since the death of my father, the family has come into possession of about one hundred pages of his autobiography, which he dictated at various times over a period of twenty years. In this autobiography, he carefully traces a record of his childhood, his immigration from Scotland to this country, his settlement in Rhode Island, and then the trip across the plains, which occurred in the summer of 1860. There is a little note in the autobiography which contains the first mention of his ever coming in contact with or hearing of Joseph F. Smith. The event took place at Omaha, and is as follows: "I think it was in June, 1860, that we first saw Apostles of the Church—Amasa Lyman, Charles C. Rich, and a young boy, not then an Apostle, Joseph F. Smith (by name, here on their way to fill a mission to Europe." I can picture these two youths taking side-glances at each other, probably out of mere curiosity. My father at that time was a boy of eleven years, barefooted, just beginning his long walk across the plains by the side of his father's covered wagon. President Smith was a mature, strong, young man, twenty-two years of age, going on his way to England to fill his second mission. He had previously filled one at the age of seventeen to the Hawaiian Islands. My father came on to Utah, and after enduring unusual hardships in the settlement of Wellsville, in Cache County, he moved to Brigham City and set himself up there as a merchant. He prospered, more or less, in everything he undertook, and by the time he had reached the age of twenty-five years, he was general freight and passenger agent of the Utah Northern Railroad. In going through his autobiography, there is this second little note of his contact with President Joseph F. Smith: "I continued to work as a general freight and passenger agent of the Utah Northern Railroad from 1873 to 1877, when I was called on a mission to Europe. President Joseph F. Smith had been called by President Young to go and preside over the European mission. President (Smith sent for me and asked me to go with him and (take charge of the business affairs of the Liverpool office. This was the beginning of the friendship with President Smith, which has been invaluable to me in so many ways. His example has always been the best and his friendship has always been to me like the friendship of Jonathan and David. From the very first, we seemed to understand each other. I owe so much to him." My father has often related to me his experiences while on this European mission and how kind and considerate President Smith was in every way toward him. They traveled together throughout the British Isles, preached together, ate together, and at Liverpool, lived in the same house—old Forty-two Islington. As everyone knows, who has been on a mission, there is a natural, strong friendship springs up between an Elder and his companion, but in this case, it was permanent and remained throughout a lifetime. After returning to Utah, there was a long period of years in which these two men were closely associated, particularly during the old anti-polygamy days, when they often had to be absent from the state. Upon many occasions, they were together and took long journeys to the East and to the Northwest. Whenever my father was in any position where he required advice, he always hastened to President Smith, and sought and obtained the advice and counsel from him. In the year of 1901, at the death of President Lorenzo Snow, President Smith succeeded him as President of the Church. By this time my father was a very prosperous and busy man, at the height of his career; yet I remember on many occasions when President Smith and members of his family would be at our house to dinner, or we would be at his home visiting with him. The friendship between the two men continued and grew stronger. In the summer of 1906, President Smith and my father, together with members of their families, made a trip to Europe. On their return home, they stopped and visited me in Chicago, where I was a student, attending the University there. On that occasion, I accompanied the party on a visit to Carthage and Nauvoo, Illinois. I recall that it was President Smith's first visit to Carthage jail, and never shall I forget how he sank down in a chair and wept in the little jail room, where his father had been killed. Also I shall not soon forget the picture of my father standing by him with his arms around him, silently weeping too. These men had their moments of joy and their times of sorrow together. In my fathers' autobiography under date of December, 1907, there is this: "Early in the month of December, 1907, President Smith sent for me to come to the President's office. He said to me: 'Charlie, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needs a presiding bishop, and you have been chosen for that place.' Of course it was a great surprise to me. I had never dreamed of acting in that office, but I was glad, and even anxious to do anything I could to assist President Smith in his administration of Church affairs, and I told him so. He took me in his arms and kissed me and wept tears of joy as he hugged me and blessed me, as only he can do." During the time my father was presiding bishop, he traveled far and wide with President Smith. They took two trips to Europe together, four trips to the Hawaiian Islands, and many throughout the various states, and to Canada. In the autobiography, father says: "Surely it was a great favor and blessing to me to be thus [privileged to associate with one whom I so dearly loved and who was always so companionable with me." On a certain occasion in Salt Lake City—to be exact, I find it was under date of November 14, 1913 — there was a large reception at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. W. McCune on North Main Street. During the course of the evening President Smith was called upon to address the group. He was in a happy frame of mind and complimented one and another, and also bore his deep, strong, testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. Suddenly, pointing to my father he said, "This is my bishop and he is the Lord's bishop. He is the presiding bishop of the Church, and he is a good man in his place. I know that the voice of the Lord spoke to me about his choice and calling to that position, just as well as I know that I am speaking to you tonight. It was all just as clear to me as my voice is clear to me now while I am speaking to you." About Christmas time of this same year, my father presented to President Smith four volumes of Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, by Thomas Carlyle. As an inscription in volume one, he wrote: "To President Joseph F. Smith, the best friend I have ever had and the truest." In the third volume, Bishop David A. Smith has recently shown me a little writing of his father's, which neither of us had known prior to be there. It is as follows : "From Honorable Charles W. Nibley, the most generous, truest, and most unselfish friend I ever had, except only my wives, my children, and my Heavenly Father. I thank God for such a friend and invoke His eternal favor and blessings upon him." On many and all occasions, during the lifetime of my father and President Smith, especially during the time they were associated together as officers in the Church, it was always my father's first desire, as he termed it, "to help make President Smith's administration successful." I might say that he gave the principal efforts of his bishopric to that service. After reading the above lines, one can well understand what a shock and a blow it was to my father when in November, 1918, President Smith passed away. Father records in his autobiography as follows: "On November 19, 1918, my dearest and best of friends, my most lovable and precious brother, President Joseph F. Smith, passed from this sphere to his reward in the life beyond. This brought the greatest sorrow into my life, for to me, he was my ideal. If I could only be assured that I would be worthy to associate with him in the Hereafter, I would be happy indeed." On the day of the funeral, standing beside President Smith's open grave, he paid him this loving tribute: "He did not set himself up to be great; for he was so simple, so unostentatious, so gentle, loving, and kind; and yet, -when his spirit was roused at any indignity, at any insult, no man could or would more fiercely or more quickly resent it; but his life was gentle and he was a man such as we seldom see. I say, from my point of view, here lies the body of the greatest man and the best man in all the world." It took my father many years to recover from the loss of this great friend, and indeed, I do not know that he ever recovered. In going through some of my father's papers after his death last December, I came upon this beautiful letter, written to him by President Smith on February 5, 1916. The letter is almost too sacred to print, and yet I want to reproduce it, as I think it is one of the most beautiful letters ever penned. It expresses in the fullest measure the glorious friendship which President Smith felt towards my father, and it also expresses his wonderful and abiding faith in the favors of our Lord: "Feb. 5, 1916 "Bishop Charles W. Nibley "City. "My Beloved Brother and Most Respected Bishop. "I welcome your 67th birthday anniversary with the fullness and richness of its accompanying gifts and blessing from above and all around—with all my heart and soul. How glad I would be if I could simply add just one blessing more — just one joy or holy pleasure to all of those you already possess, by God's kind providence in your behalf. "You are already assured that there is nothing in this world, in my opinion, too good for you, and that the lightest grief or smallest hurt or wrong would be most unwelcome and Unkind and undeserved. "God bless my friend and brother. May each of the many anniversaries to come be better and happier than the last. May every noble desire and ambition of your heart be crowned with success, and every aspiration of your soul be not only pure and good—but readily attained. May the highest wisdom and the clearest foresight always guide you in your individual pursuits, and in your public duties and business. May the record of your Bishopric be spotless and the glory of your Stewardship excel that of all who have gone before. May your name go down the coming ages in most honorable and loving remembrance, and your posterity minister forever in righteousness before the Living God. "May the honor and glory of Divine Priesthood and Authority never depart from your House—nor forsake your posterity. "Oh God bless the Presiding Bishop of Thy Church, and his associates, and secure unto them the heart-felt love and confidence of Thy people, and make them a mighty power in Thine hand for good. With abiding love and confidence, I am Your brother, "Joseph F. Smith." If I were to be asked what secret lay at the bottom of whatever success my father had in life, I think I should answer: "He had a friend." |
President Joseph F. Smith and Charles W. Nibley, taken at the time they were on a mission in England together, in 1877. President Smith was 39 years of age and C. W. Nibley was 28.
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Nibley, Charles W. "Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley." Improvement Era. July 1934. pg. 396-397, 417.
Reminiscences of Charles W. NIBLEY A man who has risen above the crowd, attained success in many lines and yet has remained true to all the best in his own idealism has many lessons to teach others. Such a man was Charles W. Nibley, late counselor to President Heber J. Grant; and such lessons are woven into the memoirs left by him at his death in December, 1931. No member of the Church to which President Nibley gave such great measure of loving service could fail to enjoy the autobiographical glimpses of the boy who was later to be the man. It is impossible to publish the entire work, much of which was written primarily for his family, but permission to print the section covering early years and those at Wellsville has been given, and it is with grateful pride that this magazine presents to its readers excerpts from the journal of a great man.—Eds. FOR several years past whenever I have told my children incidents of my childhood or early life, which seemed interesting to them, they have often requested that I write them down that they might preserve them. I have delayed long in doing this, chiefly for the reason that there is so little to record that, to me, seems worth preserving. Yet to the children and their children after them, there is nothing more interesting than the incidents of years long gone by. I was born in the little coal mining village of Hunterfield, some eight' miles south of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the fifth day of February, 1849. My father's name was James Nibley. He was born near Hunterfield about the year 1810, but he himself did not know the exact day of his birth. Of my father's family I know but little. He came from an old Scotch family whose genealogy is traced in the Edinburgh records for two or three hundred years back. They were farmers or what the Scotch called "portamers" which in some way pertained to the land. Whether this implied an interest in the land I do not know but they were farmers in the neighborhood of Ephinstone, Scotland, for generations back. My father, himself, was a coal miner and had been one for years before I was born. He was rather tall and raw boned, prominent nose and high cheek bones. His eyes were of pure blue. I should say he was about five feet ten inches tall and would weigh about 165 pounds. He walked with a certain stoop or bend from the lower part of the back, not round shouldered at all, but bent in that way. This, I suppose, in consequence of bending so much while he was at work in the coal mines. His hair was dark brown and very curly. Of education he had not at all. Could read a little and write imperfectly but he had a vein of humor and dry Scotch wit, keen and incisive, almost sarcastic at times and yet delivered in such a droll way,- not intended to be sarcastic at all, but which sometimes cut like a two-edged sword. He was a plodder at his work. Was what the Scotch call a "cannymon": inoffensive, quiet, unobtrusive anywhere, but a constant worker, plodding quietly along. He was content with little and never aspired to have much or to be much of anything—a quiet, God-fearing, hard working, inoffensive man. I have diligently searched for all the direct line ancestry of the Nibleys, and have not been very successful in finding many of them in the Scotch records. However, all that I have found I have had the work done for in the temple, yet there must be many more whose names will doubtless be recovered in years to come, and I hope my children will see to it that the temple work is done for all relatives not yet discovered. MY mother was born in the neighborhood of Musseburgh on the 18th of June, 1815. Her maiden name was Jean Wilson. Her mother was a Chalmers. My mother was different from my father in that she was all energy and push and never seemed to tire of working and scheming to get on in the world. Withal she had pure Scotch thrift and prudence and could save a little money where most other people would almost starve. She was the manager of the family. She had a very strong constitution, well built, though not tall—built for work, and she did work all the days of her life. As a girl, I have heard her tell that she worked in the coal mines before the law prohibited women from doing that class of work. She, with other women or girls, would carry coal on their backs in baskets or "creels" as they called them, from down in the pit up an incline to the pit head. It is inconceivable to us at this day to think of a woman being permitted or obliged to do that kind of work, but the world has moved on rapidly since those days. My mother had brown eyes, brown hair, although she was gray at a very early age. She was more of a religious temperament than my father, although he had a vein of true piety running through him, but not of the strong Presbyterian type. Life was a serious thing with her, an almost desperate thing, in which she had no time for levity or play, but only for work and for prayers and other religious activities. She was denied the consolation of even knowing a tune, could not even hum snatches of tunes as she rocked her children to sleep; never could in all her life tell one tune from another, while on the other hand my father was fond of music and song. But for sagacity and thrift my mother was the savior of the family. It was a stern, hard life they had to live — one of unremitting toil and penury but they struggled on never faltering and made the best of it. It was in the spring of the year 1844 when they had three children, Mary, James and Margaret, that an elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Henry McEwan by name, (the father of the numerous McEwans who live in Salt Lake City and Provo at this time, 1912), came to Hunterfield to deliver his message of glad tidings. He preached on the green near the little house that my parents lived in, a house by the way which most of my children have been over to see and take photographs of because I was born in it five years after 1 844. My mother had been brought up a Presbyterian but could not feel entirely satisfied with that religion. She, therefore, joined the Baptists as being more nearly to her way of thinking but still there was an unsatisfied something in her soul and she afterwards quit the Baptist Church and connected herself with the Congregational Society. She attended this meeting on the green, stood and listened to Elder McEwan's sermon and drank it all in as though it were living water which was springing up unto everlasting life. In fact she declared many a time and oft that for the first time in all her life her soul was satisfied and she was converted, thoroughly converted by that first sermon. After the meeting was over she went directly to Elder McEwan and asked to be baptized. It all seemed so plain and simple to her, the plan that he had outlined, that without hesitating a moment she wished to become a member of the Church by baptism. He asked her if she had heard of the Mormon people and if she had read any of their works. She answered that she had never once heard of them until that day where she stood through the meeting holding her baby, Margaret, who was about a year old, in her arms during the entire meeting. He stated that he thought it would not be wise for her to be baptized just then but that he would leave some of his tracts with her and she could read them over and study the subject carefully and pray about it also. He stated that if she was of the same opinion when he came back the next Sabbath he would baptize her. She was disappointed in being put off in this way. She wanted to be baptized then and there and stated after, that she felt a dread to think that if she should die before the next Sunday and had not received baptism she would surely be lost. DURING the week she read the tracts and was more and more convinced and converted to the truth of the message that the elder delivered. She was so anxious that my father might join in her way of thinking and receive the Gospel too, and yet she was fearful that he might say no and take stand against it, that she hardly knew how stealthily or cunningly to lay the matter before him, for she said, if he did say no, she knew no power would ever be able to turn him. Consequently she was full of anxiety to get the matter properly presented to him. So when he would come home from his work in the mines while he was bathing, which consisted in merely washing the main part of the body, including the face and head, in a tub of water, she would read these tracts to him and make such observations concerning them in such a way as to try and catch him. To her joy and somewhat surprise also, she heard him say one evening when she asked "What do you think of all this," he answered, "Aye, but it is true." So the next Sunday when Elder McEwan came back they were both ready for baptism and were accordingly baptized. Speaking of my father's Scotch faculty of not being able to change his mind, I have heard my mother tell that when he was a little boy he had been scolded for doing something or other and would be let off easy if he would only promise not to do it again. But he made up his mind that he would not promise. The man who was offended at him for something and trying to extract this promise from him, after much coaxing and laboring with him finally took him by the heels and threatened to throw him down an old pit that was close at hand, perhaps many hundred feet deep. The man actually took him and held him by the heels, his head down in the pit and told him, "Now I'll drop you down unless you promise you will never do it again." But he never would make the promise, even though he were dropped to his death. So knowing his disposition in this respect she was more than overjoyed when she heard him give his assent to the truthfulness of Mormonism. My parents had been members of the Church just about five years when I was born. My father was then president of the branch in that village and the meetings of the branch were held in our house. I have heard my mother say that I was a very puny and sickly child with little vitality and that she scarcely expected that I would pull through and live. Indeed I have heard her tell that when I was about two years of age my life was despaired of entirely and she had the grave clothes made already that in case I should die, they were ready for burial; to such an extent did this Scotch thrift show itself forth. I HAVE little recollection of Scotland as a child, except here and there a slight incident. I was only six years of age when we left there for America in the spring of 1855 but I have a clear recollection of one incident which may throw some light on my way of looking at things monetary. I must have been four or five years of age. I had been over to see an aunt by the name of Snedden who had just been confined and had a fine baby. It was the custom at that time in Scotland for the neighbors, especially the relatives, to call. On such occasions usually bread and cheese and Scotch whiskey were on the table for all visitors who came to wish good luck to the family. I had made my call and my aunt had given me a penny in addition, perhaps, to a piece of currant cake. On the way home from this visit I met what the Scotch call a "packman," that is, a peddler selling pins, needles, trinkets of one kind and another and a little candy, carrying his whole store on his back. I held up my penny to the packman who threw his pack at once on the ground, opened it up and asked me if I wanted rock, which meant hard candy, rock candy or stick candy. I answered with sufficient self-denial, "No, I no wantin' rock, I want preens and needles for my 'mither'." I took the preens and needles to my mother, told her my story with all the pride in the world. I can recollect how she picked me up with tears in her eyes, rejoicing, I suppose, at my self-denial, and cried, "Aye, my bonny bairn." I do not remember when I first learned to read. My mother must have taught me for I can remember reading parts of the New Testament for her when I was about four years of age. I had not been to school, indeed I do not believe I ever attended school in the old country, but I was naturally fond of books from the earliest days. Our living was of the most simple and frugal type. Oatmeal porridge with a little sour milk was our chief article of diet. We got a little meat perhaps once a week, generally on Sunday. Naturally enough our clothing was the cheapest that could be bought. I remember when we were leaving for America that we made a visit to my mother's brother, Thomas Wilson, who was at that time a station agent on the railroad, which, in comparison to our low circumstances was a very high and exalted position. This brother, one of a large family, was a little out of the ordinary in the way of intellect and faculty and had got himself moved up quite a few steps from the coal mining level of society. We visited with them a day or two, then went back to our old home and presently sailed away for America. President Nibley's experiences as a boy in Cache Valley, Utah, will appear in a later issue. |
CHARLES NIBLEY IN HIS FIRST SUIT OF CLOTHES. THEY WERE WOVEN BY HIS MOTHER
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Nibley, Charles W. "Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley." Improvement Era. August 1934. pg. 473, 501-502.
Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley part II
WE had a quick passage across the sea, being only twenty-eight days from Liverpool to New York, which was considered at that time a good quick passage. Of course, we were all in the steerage with several hundred other steerage passengers, mostly Irish. I have little recollection of the inconveniences that must have been experienced, except that a certain storm had been encountered which made the sea very rough, so much so that most of the people thought that we were going to the bottom and the cries and prayers and curses of those wild Irish people are still well remembered.
Landing at New York we took train for Providence, Rhode Island and from there, eight miles out in the country we located at my aunt's place of residence, a little village called Greenville, where my father, my two sisters and elder brother, James, soon got work in the woolen mills there. They made fair wages and every penny was scrupulously and frugally, almost stingily, taken care of and tolled out, that is, as much of it as had to be tolled out, to exist upon. There was no branch of the Church in that neighborhood, none nearer than Boston, I think. For the five years we lived in Rhode Island we never attended a Latter-day Saint church. We children attended services mostly at the Baptist Church and so I forgot all about Mormons and Mormonism. I attended a little village school for a season or two which was practically all the schooling I ever had. At nine years of age I was at work in the woolen mill tending "bobbins" as they called it, some light work for a boy of my size and years. Our relatives in Rhode Island were Roman Catholics and we had little in common with them, although they were kindly disposed towards us.
We were all pretty steadily at work during those five years except in the panic of 1857, when most of the mills in that section were shut down for a part of the year.
By the spring of 1860 my ever thrifty and prudent mother must have had saved away some two or three thousand dollars. There was nothing but war talk in the United States that spring and lest my father and older brother should be drafted into the war which was just then beginning, it was thought that we had better pack up with what means we had and start for the west rather than wait longer to try and accumulate any more. Accordingly we auctioned off our belongings in the month of May, 1860, and started for the west. We first went to Boston where we joined a company of emigrating saints, from Boston to Albany, New York, then up the Mohawk Valley over the present New York Central Railroad route to Buffalo, Niagara Falls and on the Michigan Central Railroad through Canada and Detroit to Chicago. From Chicago we traveled by rail to Hannibal, thence on to St. Joseph on the Missouri River. That was the farthest west that any railroad had extended in 1860. At St. Joseph we took the boat up the river to a place called Florence which is six miles above Omaha.
HERE we met large numbers of emigrating saints congregating there and outfitting for the travel across the plains. It was here that I first began to get the least insight into Mormonism and Mormon methods. Meetings were held regularly, hymns sung everywhere and oft and the religious enthusiasm and spirit of the people were entirely different from what we had left behind in the east. A great number of the emigrating saints were assisted by the Church through the perpetual emigrating fund, but luckily we were rich enough to buy an outfit of our own and travel in what was called the "Independent Company." The family of Thomas D. Dee, who was then a boy of fourteen, was in the same company. J. D. Ross was the captain of the company. George Q. Cannon was in charge of the emigration and was there at Florence buying cattle, wagons and supplies for the emigrating saints. I think in June we first saw Apostles Amasa Lyman, Charles C. Rich and a young boy who was not then an apostle, Joseph F. Smith by name, who were on their way to fill missions in Europe.
Our outfit consisted of a brand new Schettler wagon, two yoke of oxen and two cows. We had a new Charter Oak stove in the wagon and our tent, bedding, provisions, etc.
We camped at Florence for nearly a month, as I remember. We lived in an old shack of a house during that time which was just enough shelter to keep some of the rain from wetting us. The house was located right where the reservoirs of the present water works are which supply the city of Omaha with water, the same being pumped out of the Missouri River into these reservoirs and filtered. I find from Jenson's Church Chronology that our company left Florence, Nebraska, June 17, 1860, and arrived in Salt Lake City on Monday, September 3rd. The company consisted of 249 persons, 36 wagons, 142 oxen and 54 cows.
Our journey across the plains was of the usual ox team kind. There was little of special note that transpired. On the 4th of July we were near where the city of Kearney now stands and we heard the artillery from across the river at old Fort Kearney. This is about 200 miles from Omaha. We traveled about 90 miles a week which was an average of 15 miles a day for six days a week. No traveling was done on the Sabbath. It was always a day of rest and religious worship. I remember how green we all were with respect to yoking up cattle or milking cows or greasing the wagon or in doing anything that pertained to frontier or pioneer life.
AT Florence when our two yoke of cattle and wagon were turned over to us, my father got on the off side of the cattle and tried to drive them. Of course, they were frightened and ran away down the hill to where the present engine house of the Omaha water works now stands at Florence. But we soon learned to manage things. The little tent which we had would be folded up carefully and tied behind the wagon. The tent poles, the two props and the roof pole would be tied together and there was a place for them in the wagon. Our bedding was all carefully taken care of and so we journeyed on. At noon the cattle would be unhitched, perhaps not always unyoked, and after eating a little we would give them a drink, and in the course of an hour and a half or two hours we were plodding on our road again. Of course, there are inconveniences and more or less hardship in that mode of travel but as I was a child of 1 1 years of age I do not remember the hardships; on the contrary, I rather enjoyed the whole trip. One thing that I distinctly remember is seeing tens of thousands of buffalo on the hills west of Kearney.
Sometimes the captain would have to stop the train and allow herds of buffaloes to slowly cross the wagon road and as they were in very large numbers this would occupy sometimes an hour. We often had buffalo meat to eat. It was very sweet and good. We would get long strips of it and hang it up to dry in the hot sun and when it was thoroughly dried it could be kept for days and weeks and was much better eating than chipped beef.
Every night the wagons were formed in a circle at some level convenient place for camping near water and each wagon would start its campfire and cook supper, what little cooking there was to do, which consisted mostly of baking bread in an iron skillet, a utensil about eighteen inches in diameter, about four or five inches deep, made of cast iron. It had a heavy lid and it had three or four short legs to raise the body of the skillet from the ground and admit the fire underneath and then we put coals on top of the heavy lid. We often had difficulty in finding wood to burn as there were so many trains and so many camping places and no forests, whatever. It was a question to find something to make a fire. The best fuel we had on the plains where there was no wood at all, was what was called "buffalo chips," which in reality is simply sundried buffalo dung. After the cows were milked in the morning the milk that was not used would be put in a tin churn and strapped along side of the wagon and by noon it would be thoroughly churned and butter could be gathered and buttermilk could be had for lunch.
The thunder and lightning and rain storms that transpired periodically along the plains of Nebraska were something terrific and occasioned us some inconvenience and considerable fright. The Indians were very plentiful and sometimes a little troublesome although we never had any conflict whatever with them, but I can remember that they were a haughty and insolent lot, as they would ride upon their ponies decked in their feathers and paint and would frighten most of us people who were not used to them.
WE young ones walked with bare feet most of the way across the plains. We soon got used to the wagon and tent and campfire life. Our bedding was rolled in bundles in the morning and the bundles simply unrolled at night upon the ground, thus the beds were made again. Altogether it was rather an enjoyable time for a boy of my age than any hardship. At least if it was a hardship I did not feel it so. Of course to my father and mother at their time of life it must have been very different, and, no doubt, they suffered great inconvenience and more or less trial and sacrifice in it all.
We suffered no loss until we reached the crossing of Green River on the old immigrant road. At this point one of our best oxen lay down and died. This left us with three oxen and two cows. We yoked up one of the cows with the odd ox and traveled right along, as our load through consuming our provisions, was becoming lighter each day. The last Sunday of the trip was spent near Parley's Park, a day's travel with oxen from Salt Lake City. George A. Smith and other leading brethren came over the mountain to greet us and welcome us to our new country.
On Monday, September 3rd, we came out of the canyon and onto the bench near Fort Douglas, and I can very well remember with what joy and pleasure each one of our company, and even I, myself, looked upon the little growing city in the wilderness. We felt that all of our troubles and trials were practically at an end, when as a matter of fact, they had only just begun, for all the changing vicissitudes of pioneer life had to be undertaken and gone through with. Many things were difficult to learn and carry on.
Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley part II
WE had a quick passage across the sea, being only twenty-eight days from Liverpool to New York, which was considered at that time a good quick passage. Of course, we were all in the steerage with several hundred other steerage passengers, mostly Irish. I have little recollection of the inconveniences that must have been experienced, except that a certain storm had been encountered which made the sea very rough, so much so that most of the people thought that we were going to the bottom and the cries and prayers and curses of those wild Irish people are still well remembered.
Landing at New York we took train for Providence, Rhode Island and from there, eight miles out in the country we located at my aunt's place of residence, a little village called Greenville, where my father, my two sisters and elder brother, James, soon got work in the woolen mills there. They made fair wages and every penny was scrupulously and frugally, almost stingily, taken care of and tolled out, that is, as much of it as had to be tolled out, to exist upon. There was no branch of the Church in that neighborhood, none nearer than Boston, I think. For the five years we lived in Rhode Island we never attended a Latter-day Saint church. We children attended services mostly at the Baptist Church and so I forgot all about Mormons and Mormonism. I attended a little village school for a season or two which was practically all the schooling I ever had. At nine years of age I was at work in the woolen mill tending "bobbins" as they called it, some light work for a boy of my size and years. Our relatives in Rhode Island were Roman Catholics and we had little in common with them, although they were kindly disposed towards us.
We were all pretty steadily at work during those five years except in the panic of 1857, when most of the mills in that section were shut down for a part of the year.
By the spring of 1860 my ever thrifty and prudent mother must have had saved away some two or three thousand dollars. There was nothing but war talk in the United States that spring and lest my father and older brother should be drafted into the war which was just then beginning, it was thought that we had better pack up with what means we had and start for the west rather than wait longer to try and accumulate any more. Accordingly we auctioned off our belongings in the month of May, 1860, and started for the west. We first went to Boston where we joined a company of emigrating saints, from Boston to Albany, New York, then up the Mohawk Valley over the present New York Central Railroad route to Buffalo, Niagara Falls and on the Michigan Central Railroad through Canada and Detroit to Chicago. From Chicago we traveled by rail to Hannibal, thence on to St. Joseph on the Missouri River. That was the farthest west that any railroad had extended in 1860. At St. Joseph we took the boat up the river to a place called Florence which is six miles above Omaha.
HERE we met large numbers of emigrating saints congregating there and outfitting for the travel across the plains. It was here that I first began to get the least insight into Mormonism and Mormon methods. Meetings were held regularly, hymns sung everywhere and oft and the religious enthusiasm and spirit of the people were entirely different from what we had left behind in the east. A great number of the emigrating saints were assisted by the Church through the perpetual emigrating fund, but luckily we were rich enough to buy an outfit of our own and travel in what was called the "Independent Company." The family of Thomas D. Dee, who was then a boy of fourteen, was in the same company. J. D. Ross was the captain of the company. George Q. Cannon was in charge of the emigration and was there at Florence buying cattle, wagons and supplies for the emigrating saints. I think in June we first saw Apostles Amasa Lyman, Charles C. Rich and a young boy who was not then an apostle, Joseph F. Smith by name, who were on their way to fill missions in Europe.
Our outfit consisted of a brand new Schettler wagon, two yoke of oxen and two cows. We had a new Charter Oak stove in the wagon and our tent, bedding, provisions, etc.
We camped at Florence for nearly a month, as I remember. We lived in an old shack of a house during that time which was just enough shelter to keep some of the rain from wetting us. The house was located right where the reservoirs of the present water works are which supply the city of Omaha with water, the same being pumped out of the Missouri River into these reservoirs and filtered. I find from Jenson's Church Chronology that our company left Florence, Nebraska, June 17, 1860, and arrived in Salt Lake City on Monday, September 3rd. The company consisted of 249 persons, 36 wagons, 142 oxen and 54 cows.
Our journey across the plains was of the usual ox team kind. There was little of special note that transpired. On the 4th of July we were near where the city of Kearney now stands and we heard the artillery from across the river at old Fort Kearney. This is about 200 miles from Omaha. We traveled about 90 miles a week which was an average of 15 miles a day for six days a week. No traveling was done on the Sabbath. It was always a day of rest and religious worship. I remember how green we all were with respect to yoking up cattle or milking cows or greasing the wagon or in doing anything that pertained to frontier or pioneer life.
AT Florence when our two yoke of cattle and wagon were turned over to us, my father got on the off side of the cattle and tried to drive them. Of course, they were frightened and ran away down the hill to where the present engine house of the Omaha water works now stands at Florence. But we soon learned to manage things. The little tent which we had would be folded up carefully and tied behind the wagon. The tent poles, the two props and the roof pole would be tied together and there was a place for them in the wagon. Our bedding was all carefully taken care of and so we journeyed on. At noon the cattle would be unhitched, perhaps not always unyoked, and after eating a little we would give them a drink, and in the course of an hour and a half or two hours we were plodding on our road again. Of course, there are inconveniences and more or less hardship in that mode of travel but as I was a child of 1 1 years of age I do not remember the hardships; on the contrary, I rather enjoyed the whole trip. One thing that I distinctly remember is seeing tens of thousands of buffalo on the hills west of Kearney.
Sometimes the captain would have to stop the train and allow herds of buffaloes to slowly cross the wagon road and as they were in very large numbers this would occupy sometimes an hour. We often had buffalo meat to eat. It was very sweet and good. We would get long strips of it and hang it up to dry in the hot sun and when it was thoroughly dried it could be kept for days and weeks and was much better eating than chipped beef.
Every night the wagons were formed in a circle at some level convenient place for camping near water and each wagon would start its campfire and cook supper, what little cooking there was to do, which consisted mostly of baking bread in an iron skillet, a utensil about eighteen inches in diameter, about four or five inches deep, made of cast iron. It had a heavy lid and it had three or four short legs to raise the body of the skillet from the ground and admit the fire underneath and then we put coals on top of the heavy lid. We often had difficulty in finding wood to burn as there were so many trains and so many camping places and no forests, whatever. It was a question to find something to make a fire. The best fuel we had on the plains where there was no wood at all, was what was called "buffalo chips," which in reality is simply sundried buffalo dung. After the cows were milked in the morning the milk that was not used would be put in a tin churn and strapped along side of the wagon and by noon it would be thoroughly churned and butter could be gathered and buttermilk could be had for lunch.
The thunder and lightning and rain storms that transpired periodically along the plains of Nebraska were something terrific and occasioned us some inconvenience and considerable fright. The Indians were very plentiful and sometimes a little troublesome although we never had any conflict whatever with them, but I can remember that they were a haughty and insolent lot, as they would ride upon their ponies decked in their feathers and paint and would frighten most of us people who were not used to them.
WE young ones walked with bare feet most of the way across the plains. We soon got used to the wagon and tent and campfire life. Our bedding was rolled in bundles in the morning and the bundles simply unrolled at night upon the ground, thus the beds were made again. Altogether it was rather an enjoyable time for a boy of my age than any hardship. At least if it was a hardship I did not feel it so. Of course to my father and mother at their time of life it must have been very different, and, no doubt, they suffered great inconvenience and more or less trial and sacrifice in it all.
We suffered no loss until we reached the crossing of Green River on the old immigrant road. At this point one of our best oxen lay down and died. This left us with three oxen and two cows. We yoked up one of the cows with the odd ox and traveled right along, as our load through consuming our provisions, was becoming lighter each day. The last Sunday of the trip was spent near Parley's Park, a day's travel with oxen from Salt Lake City. George A. Smith and other leading brethren came over the mountain to greet us and welcome us to our new country.
On Monday, September 3rd, we came out of the canyon and onto the bench near Fort Douglas, and I can very well remember with what joy and pleasure each one of our company, and even I, myself, looked upon the little growing city in the wilderness. We felt that all of our troubles and trials were practically at an end, when as a matter of fact, they had only just begun, for all the changing vicissitudes of pioneer life had to be undertaken and gone through with. Many things were difficult to learn and carry on.
Nibley, Charles W. "Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley." Improvement Era. September 1934. pg. 528-529, 570.
Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley The Nibleys build a home in Cache Valley—a log house, one room, "but no queen who ever entered her place was happier or prouder" than Jean Wilson Nibley was fit. PART III WE camped in the city on what was later the 8th Ward Square, where the City and County Building now stands. My parents had known and had ministered to many of the traveling Elders in the old country, and some of them like Robert L. Campbell, the father of Rob Campbell, came and hunted us up, took us to their homes, gave us food to eat, and looked after us as well as they could. The great question now was, where shall we go? What shall we do? There were no mills or factories where the family could secure work such as they had been accustomed to in the east. Neither was there any coal mining, which my father would have been glad to work at. An entirely new mode of working and living had to be undertaken. But where to locate? That was the question. On inquiring concerning different Scotch families that had preceded us to this country, we were told that among others, the Stoddard family who had joined the Church and lived near our folks in the old country, had just recently gone to a new pioneer valley called Cache Valley. Of course we did not know whether Cache Valley was east or west or north or south. We did not know the elevation of the country or whether it would raise anything or raise nothing, or whether the land was all alkali or was good land, but we were told there was land and water to be had in abundance, and that timber and wood to burn could be had in the mountains nearby. And as the Stoddards and others had gone to Cache Valley why should not we go? We only knew that it was about another one hundred miles' travel which would take us five days. So after we had rested two or three days in the city we hooked up our three oxen and two cows and were off for Cache Valley. THE lake was very low that year and the wagon road from Salt Lake City to Farmington was considerably west of any green fields, right out on the alkali lake bottom, as dry as a bone. The road was so level and easily traveled that we made the twenty miles to Farmington in a very short day. We camped for the night at Hector Haight's place and our oxen broke into his field and ate up some of his melons. I remember that in the morning he demanded pay for the damage done, which, of course, he was rightly entitled to. I have no recollection of any other camping place until we arrived at Wellsville. I remember going down Box Elder Canyon, before we came to Wellsville, that the road was full of stumps and was not much of a road at all, just a trail cut through the brush and not very many wagons had gone up and down that road. It was so rough that it impressed me. I recollect that part of the trip distinctly, but have no recollection of Ogden or Brigham City or other settlements. When we got to Wellsville, which was a village of perhaps 20 or 25 log houses, we drove at once to Granny Stoddard's dugout. She had been baking her bread in a skillet and in the fire under the skillet she had a lot of the finest kind of large new potatoes, for it was now about the 11th of September. She was very hospitable to us, gave us everything she had in the way of something to eat, but I recollect that those fine baked potatoes and the fresh buttermilk which she had churned that morning were about the finest combination of food that I had ever tasted. We were all so hungry for vegetables, having had scarcely a taste of anything in the line of vegetables all the way across the plains, it makes my mouth water yet to think of Granny Stoddard's potatoes and buttermilk. The Bishop of the ward was William H. Maughan, a young man of about twenty-five years, a son of Peter Maughan who was the President of the organizations of the Church in Cache Valley. He was very kind to us in helping us to get located, advising us how to proceed to get some logs out of the canyons and build some kind of shelter for the winter, both for ourselves and for our cattle. We had money enough to buy some wheat which we had made into flour at Hill's mill, at which there was no way of separating the smut and chaff from the wheat, but was all ground together and made a black or brown bread. We located at the end of what was called the new fort, for the town was not laid out as it is now, but was merely a fort of houses all huddled together for protection from Indian raids. It was a new and hard experience getting out logs from the canyons and getting out our winter's wood. And also securing hay from the hay fields down below Mendon, with which to feed our cattle for the winter. All these new experiences were difficult and of the worst kind, but we did manage to get a dugout roofed in and a little yard made with quaking aspen poles and a shed covered with hay where we could keep our cattle for the winter. I recollect that the very first day after we arrived and got our camp permanently pitched, my mother, with her characteristic energy started out and took me with her into the adjoining field to glean wheat. That was my very first work in Utah — gleaning wheat. And walking in the wheat stubble gleaning wheat all day, barefooted, was not altogether a picnic, but we would gather up the heads of wheat, tie them in little bundles and carry them to our camp. We two gleaned close to one-half bushel of wheat a day. We would take the little bundles of heads and use a washboard which we had brought with us to rub out the heads of wheat or thresh them out as we would say. Then we would put this wheat in a pile on our wagon cover and I would have to take a plate or something of that kind and throw the wheat up in the air to let the chaff and smut and straw blow away with the wind, and keep on so throwing it in the air until the wheat was as clean as we could get it, ready for the gristmill. If we bought a load of wheat, which we did once or twice, in bundles from the field, we would take and lay those bundles on our wagon cover on the ground and drive a yoke of oxen around and around over the bundles until the oxen had tramped out the wheat. This, of course, was done where there was no threshing machine, and I don't think there was a threshing machine in all Cache Valley that fall. Wellsville was the oldest and largest town in the valley at that time. Logan had merely started with about half the number of houses that Wellsville had, and a little start was being made at Hyrum, Millville, Smithfield, Richmond and Franklin, but Wellsville and Logan were the two prominent places. AFTER we were through gleaning wheat I had to look after the two cows and see that they were brought in from the range every night. In fact, I was expected to herd them during the day and bring them home at night. Our breakfasts were of the scantiest kind, a little wheat porridge without much milk and a little of the brown or black bread without butter. In the morning I was furnished a piece of bread for my dinner, as I would start off on the hills with the cows, but my dinner was devoured before I got half a mile away from our camp and I had to go hungry until evening. About the only clothing I had at that time was a pair of pants made from the tent which we used in crossing the plains, and which had grown so stiff and hard, being weather-beaten in so many storms, and a shirt made of the same material, that when it touched my back or sides, nearly took the skin off, but it was the best I had and all I had. A rope tied around my waist to hold my pants up and my shirt down. I can remember that when I was very hungry at dinner time, about the only thing I could do to help my stomach was to tighten my rope. IT was probably about the middle of November, or a little later when we completed a little one room, part dugout and part log house. We dug a square hole in the ground about 3 feet deep and then built logs around that hole, 3 logs high. We built up the two gables with logs then put a center roof log and one on each side of that, half way down the wall. On the top of these logs we laid small quaking aspen poles not any larger than my wrist. On the top of these we put straw and then covered that with a thick coat of dirt. My father built a cobble stone chimney in the opposite end from the entrance or door. The chimney was simply built of cobble stones and mud for plaster, as we had no lime or any other kind of plaster that would hold. The chimney never knew enough to draw the smoke up but spewed it out and filled the room. We had many a sorry time of it with that chimney. What cooking was done we did on that fire for we had sold our stove to John Stoddard, who was the father of George Stoddard, for a piece of land over in the east field. I can remember that one day Brother James A. Leishman (who at this date, 1915, is still living) asked me if we had sold our stove and for what. I told him and he intimated that we had rather been imposed upon in the deal as he' said he would not give that stove for the whole of the east field. That east field land is now worth more than $100.00 an acre. There was no window of any kind whatever in our house. Neither was there a door. My mother hung up an old quilt or piece of an old quilt, which served as a door for the first winter. This was our bedroom, our parlor, our sitting room, our sleeping room, our kitchen, everything in this room of about 12x16. How in the world we all got along in it I do not in the least remember, but we did manage somehow. Of course when you mention comfort or anything like comfort, there could have been none of it there, but I do recollect that my dear old mother has stated on many occasions that no queen who ever entered her palace was ever happier or prouder of shelter and the blessings of the Lord than she was when she entered that completed dugout. (To be Continued) |
PRESIDENT NIBLEY'S FATHER AND MOTHER, JAMES AND JEAN WILSON NIBLEY
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Nibley, Charles W. "Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley." Improvement Era. October 1934. pg. 597-598, 601-603.
Reminiscences of Charles W. Nibley This article concludes the series of reminiscences of President Nibley which have been made available for use in this magazine by Preston Nibley, son of the late -president. These pioneer pictures of life in Cache Valley three quarters of a century ago we thought would be interesting to the entire Church membership. “The boy is father to the man" therefore we wished to present some of the materials which went into the making of the later great pioneer organizer and merchant. We completed about the same time a little stockyard or corral with a small shed that would protect our cattle from the storm. And we succeeded in getting up a few loads of hay from the bottoms north and east of Wellsville, that our cattle might subsist on for the winter. It was a long dreary winter. That winter and the winter following we still lived in the dugout. It was a scramble of the severest kind for a mere existence. How to begin at the very beginning of things and make the earth produce you food and shelter was such a new experience and such a severe one that the older folks never forgot it. Somehow we managed to trade for some wheat and we built a little bin with some boards in one corner of the dugout and put our wheat in this bin and on the wheat made our beds. Wheat is about the hardest stuff to sleep on that I have ever experienced. After we had been in Wellsville about thirty days and I had been gleaning wheat and herding cows during that time, old Brother John H. Bankhead hired me to herd his sheep on the hills southeast of Wellsville. We did not dare to go very far from the fort as there was too much danger from the Indians during the first settlement of the valley and indeed we did not need to go far because feed was abundant. This was my second job of work in Wellsville. Winter came on, however, soon, and put an end to that. My mother used to go out and do a day's washing here and there and take flour for her pay. Usually 12 ½ pounds of flour was payment in full for a hard day's washing. Poor old mother, how she struggled and worked and slaved to bring us all up. She did more or less washing for the Bankheads all that winter as I remember. It helped to keep us eating and that was the main struggle just at that time—to get something to eat. I had an old pair of homemade shoes that winter, but how I got them I do not in the least remember. It was years after before I ever had a coat. I think I was 16 years old when I had my first coat. Previous to that I had had nothing but a shirt and a pair of pants or overalls. My sisters, Mary and Margaret, hired out to different people in the village and got their board and very little else beside. Brother James A. Leishman tried to teach school in the log meeting house that stood in the street not far north of where Bishop Maughan's old home stands, (where Aunt Margaret lives at this time) . But Brother Leishman, while he did his best, knew very little about school teaching. The only books I had were a Webster spelling book and a Greenleaf arithmetic, which we had brought from the states. Our reading lessons were from the Book of Mormon and I had to borrow the privilege of reading from one of the boys of the class or school. I could spell the whole school down when we had spelling bees and somehow I could work examples, or sums, as we used to call them, which Brother Leishman himself could not quite master. Such a school would not put anyone very far on the road for education. WE did not have sufficient hay to feed all our cattle so we sent one yoke with a herd of cattle that was going into the promontory. It seemed like bad luck was determined to follow us, for in bringing the cattle home from the promontory in the spring, there was one ox drowned in Bear River and out of all the big herd of cattle that happened to be our ox. That same winter one of our cows had laid down in her little narrow stall and although she was securely tied with a rope by the horns, yet somehow she had got her neck twisted so that her head was under her body in some shape and there she died. So that by spring we were considerably poorer than we were when we landed in the fall. But we were gaining experience and were a little more able to hold our own and wrest from the earth some kind of a scanty livelihood. The long winter nights and without any amusement and without books to read, made life seem quite dreary. There was, however, some kind of amusements going on, chiefly dances in the log meeting house. There was a brother who could play the fiddle a little bit (Samuel Ames) and he was kept pretty busy furnishing music for the dances. Then there would be little gatherings at this hut or house, or the other, a few families called in to spend the evening which would help to while away the time. But I can remember how, long before daylight would come, my father was up, tired lying on his hard bed and moving the quilt to one side, peering out into the darkness, I have heard him exclaim, "It's eternal darkness here." That winter everybody in Wellsville had the itch. Of course, we were included in the number. There were no vegetables except potatoes; there were no lemons or acids to counteract the acid in the blood, so it broke out in hives or itch. Old Davy Moffat who crossed the plains in the handcart company that same summer that we came, left his home in Salt Lake and somehow or other landed in Wellsville as he had no work to do, merely came up to visit us. We entertained him of course the best we could in our dugout—fancy entertaining anybody in a place like that—and while we did not have any Christmas present to give him, we did manage to give him the itch. He went home after a short visit and a little later Johnny McCarty was making a trip to Salt Lake for something or other and I begged the privilege of going with him and seeing if I could not get work. We got to Salt Lake City in due time and I went down and stayed at Moffats, down in the Third Ward. I remember going to Walker Brothers Store and asking one of the Walker brothers if they would not hire a boy to help do chores or help do clerking in the store, but they said they were not in need of any help just at that time. At Moffats in the evening old Davy would be scratching his back, and I remember very well him saying to me, "Mon, when you gang hame tell your faather (and this while he was scratching away at his back) tell your faather to send me doon a muckle hawthorne stick." I do not recall how I worked my way back home to Wellsville. The second winter we spent in our dugout was much like the first, although there were many more settlers in the village the second year. The first year there were the Stoddards, Leishmans and Williamsons and one or two other Scotch families, and the second year there were added the Murrays and Kerrs and Jardines and others, so that Wellsville was really the Scotch town of the north country. As soon as spring came we were busily engaged trying to plow some ground and plant a field of wheat. This was in the spring of 1861. Lincoln had been elected in November, 1860, and in the spring of 1861 all the news we got from the states was of the coming great war between the North and the South. We had no newspapers of any kind. Indeed during the first year or perhaps two, of our existence in Wellsville, I don't remember that we ever received or wrote a single letter. There were no mail routes established during the first season and letters were carried by anybody going or coming. I GOT a job doing chores at Bankheads. It gave me my board and I suppose I must have earned a little flour or perhaps I was able to earn a couple of head of sheep which he paid me for my work. I was engaged in helping milk the cows, churn the butter, keep the calves herded or away from the cows and helping to look after the sheep. Bankheads were the rich family of the valley at that time. Among other property, they owned two men negroes, Nate and Sam. It seems like harking a long way back to the days of slavery, but negro slavery was actually the law of the land and practiced to a small extent in 1860 and 1861 and 1862 in Cache Valley. I felt quite elated when I could sleep with big Nate, the big black negro that Bankhead owned. Old Sam used to ask me if I had read any news of "de wah," and I can remember very well him saying at one time, "My God, I hope de Souf get licked." Only once did I see the old man Bankhead get angry at his slaves, and at that time he tore around pretty lively and threatened to horsewhip them to death if they didn't mend their ways. Once I was careless enough to let the calves, a dozen or so of them, get out of their pens and into the yard with the cows, and of course they got all the milk. And milk was money in those days. The old gentleman Bankhead was so wrathy at me that, "If this should ever happen again," he said, "I am damned if I don't want you to leave the plantation." Along in July in 1861 we began to get some new potatoes and green peas in the little garden that my father had, which was well cultivated. It seemed like I never could get enough of green peas. I would lie out in the patch on the ground and eat peas until I nearly burst. During that summer we were engaged at work more or less on the Hyrum and Wellsville Canal that brings the water from the Muddy or little Bear River onto the Wellsville east field, which the county road runs through. The man who could shovel out the most dirt or cut the most hay or grain, or bring the largest load of logs or wood from the canyon was the hero of the community in those times. It was not brain or intellect or any great attainments, it was just who could do the most work. At 12 years of age, as I was then, I was small even for my age and was not equal to hard work. But I can remember working on that water ditch and being a good mimic, I had all the men rolling with laughter at my mimicry of this man or the other who would brag about the amount of shoveling he could do. I was better at mimicking than I was at working. By this time we began to gather around us a few chickens and a pig or two. Eggs and butter were the chief currency of the country. There was no such thing as money. I don't think we saw a dollar in money in the first two years we were in Cache Valley. Wheat was $2 a bushel and it was considered that a bushel of wheat was payment for a good day's work. We traded around and got some hay land and we had the farm land from Stoddard so that we were just beginning to understand what it took to get a livelihood right from the very elements. It was a good experience all that, even if it was hard. There was not much butter for us to eat, and rarely indeed did we ever have an egg to eat. Mother was extra thrifty and the eggs and most of what little butter was made, had to be kept to exchange for a little thread or a little calico or perhaps a pair of shoes when some peddler wagon should come along. THE second winter found us still in our dugout home. There were no Sunday Schools or Mutual Improvement Associations, no anything, but the weekly meetings and the everlasting dance. During the second winter Brothers Rigby, Mitten, Bradshaw and John Thorpe, who, by the way, is still living in Logan (1915) organized a little theatrical company. A stage was fixed up at one end of the log meeting house and what with the help of a few quilts for scenery, theatricals were undertaken. I was called on to play the child in "The Charcoal Burner," the first play they brought out. There was not much to the part but I seemed to do it so well that they always called on me for parts that I was large enough to fill, during the next two or three years. I suppose there never was any worse acting on any stage than could be seen there, but it was a change from the dance, and poor as it was, or bad as it was, the people enjoyed the change and it was a step in the direction of culture. I borrowed from one of the Mitten boys a book of Shakespeare's plays, the first I had ever seen, and although I had never been in a theatre, had never seen a play performed, yet I took so to those plays of Shakespeare that I read and reread them and committed many passages to memory, which I can bring forward even to this day. The next spring, 1862, it was decided that all the sheep in the town should be taken in one herd and kept on the range between Wellsville and Mendon. Two men living in town, Phillip Dykes and Thomas Davis, were awarded the contract to. take care of these sheep until fall. I hired out at once to Dykes and Davis to look after the sheep during the day time. Our camp was at Gardner's Spring, half way between Wellsville and Mendon, just on the County Road. We had a wagon box to sleep in and either Dykes or Davis would come out each night and sleep at the camp, for it was considered unsafe to leave me there alone. But I was alone during the entire day. There were not many jobs to pick from in those days but I always did manage to get some kind of a job which I could work at. I was paid in sheep for my summer's herding. I forget just what number, and I got my board and what lodging there was in a wagon box, and earned a little something. One could hardly believe it, but I could pick out each man's sheep in the herd. As a general thing all sheep look alike but I knew everybody's sheep and could pick them out for them at once. I could tell many of them by their bleat. Lying in bed at night and hear a sheep bleat out, I could say to Dykes or Davis, who happened to be with me, that is so and so's wether or ewe. That summer I got hold of a copy of Burns' poems and I would carry it with me as I was driving my sheep about and I committed many of these poems to memory. Bob Baxter who was with me some of the time that summer is wont to tell even to this day that while he was fooling away his time playing, I was studying Burns' poems and reading every other book that I could get hold of. It was easy for me to talk Scotch and read Scotch and I always did enjoy it all thoroughly. The rattlesnakes were pretty plentiful on the upper benches that summer and I recollect one instance of killing the largest rattlesnake I ever saw. I had no stick but there were plenty of stones which I kept picking up and throwing at him and instead of him running away from me, he would spring directly toward me, but I kept out of his way far enough and kept pelting away at him until I finally killed him. One morning in the fall of the year we woke up early and looked out from our wagon box over the country to the north of us and we saw a great big grizzly bear, the largest one I ever saw wild, coming up out of the carrot patch below Gardner's creek, where he had been feeding during the night, and was now making for the mountains. We did not disturb him but just let him go leisurely on his way. It was a little dangerous to tackle him. IN the fall the wolves were numerous and once in a while would get one of our sheep. I remember one evening after sundown I had driven my sheep ahead of me down from the bench and had foolishly loitered along, when looking back I saw five large gray wolves sneaking up after me. I was very much frightened and commenced to yell for my dog as though I had a dog with me, which I did not, but tried to frighten them with the idea that the dog was coming, but they did not retreat very much, they would merely turn their heads around, then come down a few steps towards me. I got down under the bench and then ran as fast as I could for the camp. On another occasion we were sitting in our wagon box eating our breakfast, Mr. Dykes and I. The box was put upon some sticks which raised it about a foot from the ground. I noticed Dykes kept looking through a crack in the wagon box floor, right under where I was sitting. Finally he said, "Charlie, don't move," and he pulled his gun out and shot through the crack in the floor and killed a great big rattlesnake which was curled up right under where I was sitting eating my breakfast. Once in a while we would get a large fish or prairie chicken or a sage hen or a wild duck and cook it on our campfire at the sheep herd and have a great feast. But eating never bothered me very much, whether I had much or little or good or bad. I was always worried about trying to make something and save something and get ahead in the world. In the summer of 1862 Wellsville broke up its old fort life and the town was laid out in the wheat field where we owned five acres and we secured our city lot just one block west of where the old Wellsville meeting house now stands. We had no government titles to land in those days, indeed there were no U. S. surveys for seven or eight years after that, until the railroad got through, so that all we had really was a "squatter's" right or claim. But those claims were all respected by everybody and were perfectly good. But we bought and sold and traded in, just as though we had good title. That summer gold was discovered in Montana and there grew up quite a considerable trade in flour and other provisions being shipped into Montana and being paid for in gold dust. Men would come down from the mining camps with buckskin sacks full of gold dust and would bargain for flour, potatoes or other supplies that we had to sell and pay in gold dust at $20 an ounce. Every trader had a pair of gold scales to weigh the gold dust out for payment of supplies purchased. That was the first thing in the shape of money that we had seen and we did not get very much of a share of that but we did get a little. During that summer I had for some reason or other, which I do not now remember, been sent over to Logan on some errand. I had no horse to ride, so walked over and back. On the return trip a large body of Indians which had camped away from the settlement for some time, and were reasonably peaceable, had broken camp and were that afternoon going towards Logan on the County Road. I was a little fellow thirteen years of age, on foot and alone, and I must confess I was rather frightened at the way some of those young bucks on their wild ponies would come fast towards me as if to frighten me to death, and then as they got close, swing their horses out to one side and laugh with great enjoyment at the scare they had given me. However, I knew I was entirely powerless and all I could do was put on a bold front and toddle on home, which I did. WE were now living a little more comfortably in our new two roomed log house, and were beginning to learn the ways and methods of the western wilds. My father made a garden of the acre and a quarter lot which he kept and improved until his death and such a garden was rarely, if ever, seen, in that part of the country. The land produced immensely and my father worked in it from early morning until late at night. It was slow plodding work, just the kind that suited him and he kept at it all the time. The only habit that I ever knew of, which he had that could be condemned, was that he would smoke an old clay pipe. He got hold of some tobacco seed and he grew a little patch of tobacco plants which did very well in that climate. He dried the leaves and hung them up in a little smoke house and made of them fairly good smoking tobacco, so I have been told. But some years after, I have heard my mother tell that one day she said to him, "I have no seen you smoking, what have you din wi' your pipe?" His answer was just two words, "I've stoppet." "For how long," she asked. "Some months past," he answered. And there was his old clay pipe on the mantelpiece in plain view all the time, yet he had never touched it. He laid it there as much as to say, "I will show you which is master, you or I." The winter of 1863 I passed in what was called a school, taught by an old Brother Lawson who was a cripple and knew very little of school teaching. I must have spent a few weeks of the winter in that school but the chief enjoyment I had was in the theatricals that were being presented. The next summer was spent in working some little on our farm or land, and again herding sheep, the second year for Dykes and Davis. I recollect that that summer I drove our yoke of oxen and we took two or three hundred pounds of flour, my mother and I, over to Logan and traded it for some calico and other little things she needed, which we bought at William Jennings' store, which was being run by Henry Sadler, the same Henry Sadler who is now (1915) living in Salt Lake City. But the next season Bishop Maughan had secured a mail contract to carry the mail from Brigham City to Wellsville and Logan. I drove the mail wagon for him a good deal of the time and worked in the field for him some of the time. We usually made the trip over in about three hours or little more between Brigham and Wellsville. There was no hotel in Brigham but through some arrangement with Bishop Nicholls we were allowed to stay at his house and it was here that I first heard an organ played in the home, or, indeed played anywhere else for that matter. What a marvel it was to me to hear that little old organ and to hear the Bishop's daughters singing to its accompaniment. In the fall I was engaged getting out our winter's wood. I would take the running gears of the wagon with a yoke of oxen, sit on the tongue behind the oxen with a sharp pointed stick and prod them along as fast as they would go up Wellsville Canyon and into the maple groves and secure a load of wood and be back home by night. It was very hard work and I was not quite equal to it, but I did the best I could and kept at it as long as my strength would permit. The next winter, Morris Rosenbaum sent over from Brigham City to Wellsville a wagon load of goods with Isaac Neibaur, his brother-in-law, to open a store and sell them during the winter. Isaac Neibaur brought his little fourteen-year-old sister to help keep house for him and his wife during that winter. Part of the time Isaac would be gone to Brigham City and other places and I had been asking for a job as soon as he located there and had secured the position which I so much coveted, to clerk in that little old store. It was in this way that I became slightly acquainted that winter, not very much, with his sister Rebecca, who four years afterwards became my wife. THE Neibaurs moved away in the spring, back to Brigham and Ira Ames opened a small store not far from where my sister Margaret now lives. I secured the position of clerk in this store at fifty cents a day and board, staying at the Ames' home. I can recollect how happy and grateful my poor old mother would be if I took home to her, as I remember I did on several occasions take her, some little present of towels, calico or anything that I thought would be useful to her and please her. It always gave me the greatest pleasure to try to make her comfortable and happy. At the time I was clerking in the little store of Ira Ames, who was one of the earliest members of the Church, I boarded at the Ames' home, receiving fifty cents in store pay and my board as wages. One evening Father Ames in his reminiscent way, was telling me of incidents that occurred in his early experience in the Church. He said that while he was living at or near Kirtland, Ohio, in 1832, on the morning of February 17th of that year, he was up early, as was the Yankee custom to rise in the morning before daylight and feed the cattle, chickens and hogs, and on that morning he was out attending to these chores when Sidney Rigdon passed by, coming from the home of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Sidney Rigdon saluted Father Ames with good morning and stated that he had been up all night with the Prophet, writing a most glorious vision which had been shown to them that night. This vision is the 76th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants. This incident just gives a little human touch in putting me so closely connected with the event as to having conversed with the man Ira Ames who first saw Sidney Rigdon and talked with him that morning after that most wonderful vision. I thought perhaps my children might be interested in this incident in my life. The End |
A FLOWER OF THE DESERT TAKEN NEAR SILVER CITY, NEW MEXICO
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