The Indians in and around Grafton, Utah

 See the full History on familysearch.org in memories of Mary Bertha WOOD HALL (Bertha was a first cousin of John Andrew WOOD.)

Life History of Mary Bertha Wood Hall

Recorded in May 1972 and July 1974 (Mary Bertha Wood was born on Oct 19, 1889 in Grafton, Washington County, Utah. She was the daughter of George Henry Wood and Emily Louise Hastings Wood. This history was taped by her granddaughter, Tauna Hall Navalta, during several interviews with Bertha Wood Hall.)....

Grafton, Utah Home of John Sr. and Ellen SMITH WOOD

1907 George Henry Sr (1860-1898) and Emily Louise Hastings (1860-1909) WOOD Family in Grafton, Utah Pictured Bertha in white far left back row, Orin, mother Emily, Geroge Henry Jr, 'Ella', front row left Elmer, Jennie, Nenniel

We had lots of Indians around Grafton. They put their homes or wickiups along the hill just above our place. They used to come to our home a lot. Once, before I was very old, and when Grafton was just started, the Indians came and were really tearing things up around there. So the folks all got together, fixed up a big bunch of food and clothes and took them to the Indians. It made peace between them and us. Seems like we always had a big bunch of Indians. And we used to feed them when they would come to our homes. At Christmas we used to always make something special for the Indians - pie, cake, bread, anything that we thought they’d like. Everybody in town made something and then on Christmas morning, they’d come to every door in town and say, “Christmas give.” And we’d take a sweet out and give it to them.

There was this one Indian that we called Wylie. When he died, they buried him in Grafton. I can remember after they got him down in the grave, they brought his horse and dug a big hole out to the side of his grave; killed the horse and put it down in there by him. They buried his saddle and rope too. After Wylie died, his wife, Sally - she seemed more like a white woman than an Indian - used to come there to my mother’s place and if Ma was washing, she’d help her do that washing on the board. She’d pick Nen up and throw him up in the air and say, “He-po-aun-o baby. Pretty baby. He-po-auno baby.” That meant good, real good. Those Indians were always so good to us. Seemed like those squaws liked my mother. Once right in the dead of winter, oh, it was cold, this Indian woman brought her newborn baby up and gave it to my mother. Just handed it over to her. The Navajo’s were raiding at that time and she was afraid for her baby so she brought it to my mother. Ma took that little baby and kept it for weeks. Finally she came back and got it and she cried and cried when she saw that little baby again.

Old Mary was Po-ink-um’s woman or squaw. They liked Grafton so much that they made their home there. They had two children: Wylie, that I talked about and the Puss. Ivie often thought of it - Puss, just standing out there leaning up against a big ol’ cottonwood tree that was just a little ways from the school house, while we were in school. Then he would come and play with us during recess. He liked to play ball. And sometimes he would go home with some of the children at noon, then he’d come back. But he wouldn’t go in the school building. They were afraid to be inside of a building, so he wouldn't go in.

After Po-ink-um died and they had a funeral for him, they buried him in Grafton. Old Mary didn’t want to leave but when nearly everyone else had moved away, then she went to live with the Indians more. The last time I saw her was in Leeds. We were going from Hurricane down to the Grist Mill in Washington and we had to go around that way cause there wasn’t any road down this other way. Well, Edgar, May and I were taking some grain down to get it ground. Mary was sitting on the ditch bank crying just as hard as she could cry. I went over to her and told her who I was (she was blind) and she put her arm around me and just cried and cried. I couldn’t talk to her cause she was crying so hard, ya know they didn’t talk so plain anyway. So I went in and asked Tom Stirling’s wife what was the matter with Old Mary. She didn’t know. Mary had been crying for days. A while after that, they told me that the Indians had come and taken her while she was crying there in front of that place, and they thought Old Mary had been put in one of those pens. When the squaws got too old, the Indians would put them in a pen to die - they would just starve to death. Tom Stirling said he would do all he could to keep her out - but they must have come and taken her.

The Indian kids used to play with us all the time. And ride horses, Oh, they loved to ride those horses! They’d see us out riding our horses and away they’d come to ride with us. There was this one little girl - Wylie’s and Sally’s granddaughter - that would come just a flying to go for a ride with us.

The Indians were quite interesting. They wouldn’t stay in Springdale or Zion over night. They were afraid of the ledges around, superstitious about them. They wouldn’t go up and stay over night, only just up and right back.

Some of the people in Grafton could talk Indian. Ep Ballard was just like an old Indian. On the 24th of July, he would get up and tell the pioneer story to the Indians in their language and his brother, Dave, would get up and tell us what he said. My Dad could talk some Indian too....

See other Grafton posts: Chuck Wagon, Grafton Boys, Our Family in Grafton, John Sr and Ellen SMITH WOOD

George Wahsington Gibson Headstone, Grafton Cemetery

More Indian News in the Family: 

(Biographies of Robert P. Gibson & Lucinda Wakefield Gibson)

"The Gibson family received terrible news in 1871. During an Indian attack on the people in Duncan’s Retreat on August 17, Robert P’s father, George Washington Gibson, was killed and Robert P’s mother, Mary Ann Sparks Gibson, was critically injured and died three weeks later on September 6. Both were buried in Grafton."