Charlotte Elizabeth Mellor, the third child of James Mellor and Mary Ann Payne Mellor was born at Lincolnshire, England, January 16, 1842. She worked in a factory when very young, making infant bonnets. Her parents joined the Mormon Church in England in 1844 and were active in helping the missionaries teach the gospel to their family and friends. After a few years they became eager to join the Saints in Utah and began preparing to make the journey.
In May of 1856 the family went to Liverpool to make final preparations for sailing to America. When they were ready to sail, her mother, Mary Ann, became very ill with the threatened premature birth of twins. When sailing time came Mary Ann was in a hospital and very ill. She persuaded James to go ahead with their plans to leave England, since their belonging were all packed and ready. He left their oldest daughter Louisa and one of their 2 1/2-year-old twin girls with Mary Ann and taking the rest of the family he boarded the ship. Fortunately, inclement weather delayed the ship’s voyage. James was allowed to go ashore to visit his wife. During this time she had given birth to twin daughters, who were christened Eliza and Elizabeth. Both infants died after living only a few hours.
When it was time to board the ship “Horizon” again, Mary Ann insisted on going with them, even though she was very ill and weak. She was carried onto the ship on a stretcher. She was administered to by two Elders and blessed that “she would get well and go to the valleys of the Rocky Mountains and yet bear a son,” which she later did. John Carlos Mellor was born in Springville, Utah. Apostle Franklin D. Richards and his companions, Elder George Goddard and Cyrus Wheelock, boarded the ship with the Saints and they sailed on May 26, 1856 with 856 Saints on board. Their rations were sea biscuits, salt pork, salt beef, flour, rice, oatmeal, peas, sugar, tea, mustard, pepper, salt, and water.
The ship docked at Bost on June 28, 1856 after 5 1/2 weeks voyage. The emigrants debarked on the 30th and went to Rock Island, Illinois by train. From there they journeyed to Council Bluffs, Iowa where carts were not ready. The group had to wait several weeks for the carts to be constructed. They were made of unseasoned wood and not well constructed. Finally all was ready and the Mellors, along with other families who had come from England with them loaded their belongings into the carts, leaving room for the small children. Her twin sisters were just 2 1/2 years old at the time.
Charlotte helped pull one of the hand carts nearly all the way across the plains. They were in the Edward Martin Company, which started too late in the season and were victims of an unusually early and hard winter, not arriving in the Salt Lake Valley until November 30, 1856. Charlotte’s feet and legs were badly frozen and she suffered the rest of her life with them. Her father became ill, also from cold and exposure and for a few days the children pulled the handcarts with Mary Ann in one and James in the other.
Conference was in session in the Salt Lake Valley when word came of the approach of the last handcart company. President Brigham Young said: “When these persons arrive I do not want to see them put into houses by themselves. I want them taken into the homes of the Saints to be built up, feed and nursed back to health. There will be no afternoon session so the sisters can prepare their homes and food. Prayer is good but when ‘as on this occasion,’ baked potatoes, pudding, and milk are needed, prayer will not supply their place. Give every duty its proper time and place.”
When the handcart company arrived in Salt Lake on Sunday, November 30, many of the members were brought in wagons which had been sent out to help them. Charlotte Elizabeth Mellor was riding in a wagon as her feet were so badly frost bitten that she was unable to walk. Her wagon stopped at Susannah Roper’s home in the 9th Ward and Sister Roper asked her son Henry to carry the young lady into the house. Henry later said, “Charlotte Mellor was only 14 years old and light as a feather in my arms. As I carried her into my mother’s home, I looked into her dark eyes and saw love at first sight and there our romance began. We were married February 4, 1857 in Provo, Utah.” Charlotte had observed her 15th birthday in January, Henry was 21.
Charlotte and Henry lived for three years in Provo. Her first child, a son named Henry Hutchingson was born in Provo August 31, 1858 and died a month later. A daughter Susannah was born July 23, 1859, while the couple were still living in Provo. They moved to Lehi in 1859, where they lived two years. A second son, William, was born in Lehi on Feburary 2, 1861.
In the spring of 1862 they were called to help settle Gunnison in Sanpete County, know then as Hogwallow. Charlotte’s parents, James and Mary Ann Mellor had been called in the spring of 1861 to go to Warm Creek (Fayette) to settle a community. Hogwallow was not many miles from Fayette. When they arrived in Hogwallow Henry made a dugout home for this family by digging a hold in the river bank in a bend of the San Pitch River, some distance south of the river bed. He covered the top with poles, willows and brush, then clay. The floors was packed dirt. A fireplace at one end served for heating and cooking. The front was built in with willows, brush, grass, and mud, and had a canvas for the door.
Henry cleared some land and planted a crop of oats, which he harvested and took to Salt Lake to trade for much needed supplies and some fabric for Charlotte. When he arrived back home on November 25, it was to find that Charlotte had given birth to a baby girl on November 23. They named her Selena. She was the third white child born in that part of the territory. The rain was dripping through the mud roof and all the pots and pans were on the bed catching the rain in order to keep the bed, mother and children dry.
Soon the Church authorities advised the settlers to move to higher ground, which they did, and settled Gunnison. They were advised to build a fort for protection against the Indians. The outside walls of the fort were constructed of stone, then individual homes were built inside with the fort wall serving as the back wall for each home. Gates were built at the north and south ends of the fort. Stoves and lamps were not to be had, so folks cooked over a fire in the fireplace, which also furnished light and heat for the room. Sometimes fires died out in the night and when smoke was seen coming from a neighbors chimney, the children were sent to get some coals with which to start their fire.
Life in these little pioneer communities had none of the conveniences which the families had enjoyed in far-off Europe. They had to learn to be totally self-sustaining and to learn the skills of making do with whatever they had. Many of the women became wonderful cooks, with only the fireplace as their stove. Charlotte was no exception and became expert at making cheese, butter, bread, molasses, soap, in spinning yarn, dying fabrics, etc.
Cheese was made by putting rennet in the milk and working it to the right condition, then put the curd in round molds that were lined with cheese cloth. A lid was placed on the mold and a lever was used to press it down to get out all the moisture. The lever was left on until the next day. Then the cheese was taken from the press and laid away on a shelf in the cellar. Each cheese had to be turned over each day for a month or two and by then it was ready to use. Butter was made from the extra cream, which was saved until two or three gallons had accumulated. A half hour or so of up and down splashing in the churn usually brought butter. Then the buttermilk was worked out with a butter paddle and the butter was molded into one-pound bricks. What the family didn’t need for home use was traded at the store. When the hens laid more eggs than the family could use, the eggs were also traded at the store for things which they could not make for themselves.
Before yeast or yeast cakes were available Charlotte made salt rising bread. The start was made by adding a little salt to a flour and water batter, which was allowed to stand in a warm place and sour. A quantity of this sponge was mixed with the flour and water and the batch placed in a warm place to rise. In a couple or three hours it would be ready to form into loaves. She then baked the bread in an oven in the fireplace.
The Roper’s raised a patch of sorgum cane every two or three years. When the first frost came in the fall the came was cut and run through a press; and the juice was boiled for about 6 to 8 hours until it turned golden brown and became thick. Then it was drawn and dipped out of the vat and put in barrels.
As there was no soap to be bought, Charlotte made their own soap. Fats were plentiful – grease from bear, deer, beaver, mutton, and beef. They had no lye, so they burned large amounts of shadescale brush, leached the alkali out of the ashes, added it to the grease, boiled it in a small amount of water, and made a soft soap.
Some years a late frost in the spring killed the fruit crop, so on good years the people dried all the fruit and corn they could. Because the fruits and vegetables would keep for several years when dried, this was their way of preparing for a time when food would be scarce. They had all known times of hunger and hoped to prevent that from happening to their families. The corn at roasting age was cut off the cob and spread out on dishtowels to dry in the sun. The apples, plums and other fruits were done the same way.
When clothes became worn out beyond reasonable mending, they were washed and torn into 1-inch wide strips. The strips were then sewn together and the children would roll the rags into balls which were put away in a bag until sufficient were collected to make a rug. They were then either woven or braided into rugs for their floors. If different colors were needed to make a desired design, the rags were dyed the color desired, usually with dye which the housewife had made from different plants.
A spinning wheel was a must in all pioneer homes. Most families had a few sheep and the wool from their sheep was washed and worked and corded into lengths. The corder was a tool about 12″ x 5″ x 1/2″ thick with a handle on one side and faced with pins set close together in rows. They are used, one in each hand, by a push-pull motion, with small amounts of wool on the teeth, which is finally fluffed and comes out in a long roll. Bats for quilts were also made by using the same tools. After the wool was corded, it was placed on the spinning wheel and twisted into thread or yarns, and were wound into skeins for weaving cloth on hand looms, or twisted into yarn for knitting. Charlotte taught her daughters how to do the cording and how to work the spinning wheel and they frequently helped neighbors with their spinning.
Charlotte and her daughters were never idle. If they did have time to sit down for a few minutes to visit, their hands were endlessly busy with knitting stockings or mittens or knitting or crocheting pretty lace to edge dresses and petticoats or pillowcases or doilies for their furniture.
After using home-made candles, or a wick in a dish of animal fat for a light, when coal oil lamps were brought to the little communities they were considered a real luxury.
In the spring of 1882 Henry and Charlotte sold their home in Gunnison and moved to Lawrence, Emery County, where they took up a homestead on the Huntinton River and built a small log house. Their last child, a boy, named Oliver Marion was born on May 13, 1884 in Lawrence.
Charlotte Elizabeth was a devoted mother and knew the hardships of pioneer life. She was a genteel English lady and kind to everyone. She was a faithful latter-day saint and took an active part in the ward. One Sunday she sat by an open window in the Lawrence Church and took colk and died the following Friday, on June 26, 1886. She was only forty-four years of age. She was buried in Lawrence, Emery County. To Henry and Charlotte were born thirteen children, six girls and seven boys. Twelve lived to maturity, and raised families of their own.
The family of John Henry Roper and Charlotte Elizabeth Mellor
Henry Hutchinson
Born 31 August 1858, Provo, Utah
Died 29 September 1858
Susannah Elizabeth
Born 23 July 1859, Provo, Utah
Died 16 February 1919
Married James Case, 28 February 1878
Married James Madison Jensen
William
Born 2 February 1861, Lehi, Utah
Died 24 February 1927
Married Maria Wimmer, 28 January 1886
Salena
Born 23 November 1862, Gunnison, Utah
Died 26 December 1948
Married George Marston Bartholomew, 2 November 1883
Sarah Ann
Born 13 March 1865, Fayette, Utah
Died 12 January 1908
Married Albert David Dimmick, 24 January 1887
Mary Ann
Born 23 February 1867, Gunnison, Utah
Died 14 February 1902
Married John Wesley Guyman, 23 October 1884
Clara Althera
Born 15 October 1869, Gunnison, Utah
Died 5 May 1898
Married James Richard Lake, 12 September 1890
Charlotte Elizabeth
Born 4 March 1872, Gunnison, Utah
Died
Married Olof Nielson, 21 October 1890
Charles Henry
Born 10 January 1874, Gunnison, Utah
Died 19 February 1946
Married Hope Wayne Dack, 3 October 1892
George Albert
Born 8 February 1876, Gunnison, Utah
Died 24 October 1959
Married Charlotte Pearl Lewis, 6 March 1895
Benjamin Franklin
Born 8 September 1878, Gunnison, Utah
Died 24 August 1953
Married Maud O. Bowen, 29 May 1920
James Leo
Born 29 December 1881, Gunnison, Utah
Married Maria D. Wilstead, 11 March 1903
Oliver Marion
Born 13 May 1884, Lawrence, Utah
Died 23 January 1964
Married Laura Ellen Fowler, 29 May 1907
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