Little is known of James’ boyhood
but he must have had some schooling because he could read and write. There were many hardships in a newly settled
area where the work was all done without machinery. His father died 26 Sept. 1848 when Jim was
only 8 years old, and his youngest sister, Mary Jane, was born about 7 1/2 months
after her father's death, in Saline County, where the family had moved
previously. Jim's oldest brother John
W., who was only 15 at the time, became the breadwinner of the family. His
brother, Samuel was nearly 12 years old.
Sometime between 1856 and 1860,
John W., his widowed mother, and her four youngest children, William, Ann
Eliza, Joseph, and Mary Jane, moved to Fremont County, Iowa as they appear
there in the 1860 census of that county.
His sister Catherine and her husband, Jacob Cannon, were already living
in Fremont County. James and Samuel, who
by 1860 were adult, also must have accompanied the family on this move to Iowa,
because on 17 Feb. 1862 they both enlisted in the Union Army, 25th Missouri
Infantry, Company E. They were listed as
residents of Fremont County. They were both
mustered in 28 Feb. 1862. James deserted
20 Mar 1862, St. Louis, Missouri. Samuel
remained in the service, however, was wounded, but was given an honorable
discharge toward the end of the war.
James said he deserted because he would have had to fight against one of
his brothers.
After James deserted the army he
was hired by James Spicer, a freighter from Hamburg, Iowa, who had three
freighting wagons and 175 head of loose cattle, and was planning on going West
to California. He had his wife with him,
but no children of his own, though he had with him an orphan boy. Also on the trail was a married couple and
their nephew from Fremont County, Iowa by the names of Edwin Cutler and his
wife, and nephew, Abraham, also bound for California.
Abraham (Abe for short) was actually the son
of Heber C. Kimball and polygamous wife Clarissa Cutler, whom Heber had left at
Winter Quarters in the spring of 1847, convinced that she would never come to
Utah. Clarissa's father, Alpheus Cutler,
had denounced polygamy and established a church with himself as leader calling
it "The True Church of Latter-Day Saints". He taught that Joseph Smith was a true
prophet but Brigham Young was an impostor, and that he, (Alpheus Cutler) was
the true leader and had the authority to carry on the latter-day work. Abe's mother died two years later and Abe was
partly raised by his grandparents, the Cutler's, who taught him to hate Mormons
and to be afraid the Mormons would harm him.
After his grandparents could no longer care for him and his brother,
Isaac, they had them bound over to an uncle Thaddeus until 21 years of age, who
later sadly neglected them. So when Abe
got a chance in 1862 to go to California with his Uncle Edwin and wife, he gladly
accepted.
In a short while after leaving
Iowa, Abe's uncle started making Abe do all the work of camp chores, etc. His aunt decided she was going back home when
they got to Fort Laramie. Spicer could
see that Abe had been misused and offered to take him to California, to which
he agreed and he told his uncle that he was going with Spicer.
When the Spicer outfit reached the
Fort Hall road, which was the route to California, Spicer was informed that
several wagon trains had been robbed and some persons killed while traveling in
that direction. He then decided to go
through Utah, as this was his last chance, much to Abe's concern because of his
fear of Mormons. Up to this time, the
entire outfit was ignorant of Abe's parentage so he thought he had better make
a confidant of one of the boys named James Leffler. He told Leffler that he had a father in
Utah. Leffler was very anxious to know
who Abe's father was so Abe told him it was either Brigham or Heber but he didn't
know which, but thought it was Brigham.
At Parley's Park (Kimball Junction)
in the Wasatch Mountains near what is now Park City, Utah, Abe met three of his
brothers, William, Solomon, and Charles.
They were farming there and were happy about Abe's coming to Utah.
The Spicer outfit continued on to
Salt Lake and two days later they arrived at Immigration Square in Salt Lake
City. The next day Spicer asked Abe what
he was going to do. Abe decided he'd
better stay in Salt Lake so Spicer told him that if he wasn't suited that he
could find him at Camp Floyd, where he would winter and that if Abe came he
would give him a home as long as he had one.
They bade each other good-bye, both shedding tears as they parted. Spicer must have been a fine person and
employer. If he wintered at Camp Floyd,
south of Salt Lake, as he said he would do, James Leffler did, too. Abe found his father, was well treated, and
joined the Church.
Grandfather Leffler continued to
work for the Spicer outfit freighting between San Bernardino, California
through Utah and taking supplies and whiskey and wine to the mining camps of
Montana after gold was discovered there.
He was asked by a wine dealer to take a keg of wine and present it to
Brigham Young as he went through Salt Lake City. President Young graciously accepted the wine
and told Grandpa Leffler that he would sometime become a Mormon. Leffler thought to himself, "You are a
------ liar. I'll never do that."
On one of these trips he left the
wagon train to look for meat. He was
successful in killing an antelope. While
skinning it, something buzzed past his ear.
He thought it was a fly until an arrow took off his hat. Looking around, he saw a small band of
Indians and dropped into a swale for protection. He shot and killed two Indians and also
killed a horse that one of them was riding.
This frightened the rest of them away.
He laid low till dusk for fear they would return. He later left and finally located camp by
firing his gun, to which the men in camp responded with a gunshot.
After the Continental Railroad was
completed and the golden spike was driven on May 10, 1869 north of the Great
Salt Lake, the town of Corrine sprang up.
Grandfather Leffler participated in freighting from Corrine to the
mining camps of Montana. He told of one
particular place called Robber's Roost, located between what is now Pocatello
and McCammon, Idaho on the Portneuf River.
The most famous holdup was the
Great Portneuf Stage Robbery on July 13, 1865.
As a coach from the north was passing through Portneuf Canyon seven
robbers attacked it and riddled the coach with broadsides of buckshot. When the firing ceased four men lay dead and
three were dying inside the coach. One
passenger escaped into the brush unhurt.
The robbers rifled the bodies and the treasure box of $65,000 in
gold. It was later learned that the
driver of the stage was in league with the robbers and was followed to Cherry
Creek, Colorado, where he confessed and was hanged. A few others were finally caught and
executed. There were also other
robberies committed at that place, and it became known as Robber's Roost. During the freighting season the road was
often lined with teams going to Montana or coming back and most of them were
pretty rough outfits.
James Leffler married Mary Jane
Gleave, 24 July 1872, who was the daughter of John Gleave and was born Jan. 2,
1858 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.
Baby Joseph Livingston Leffler was born 3 Feb. 1873, and died at birth
as did the mother and was buried beside his mother at Tooele, Utah it is believed.
James
then married Annie Maria McGregor 4 Jan. 1875 in Salt Lake City.
In the spring of 1876 grandfather
and Uncle Jim McGregor went to Gentile Valley, Idaho and filed for
homesteads. Grandfather filed in Trout
Creek and Uncle Jim in Mound Valley.
Grandmother gave birth to a baby girl, Annie Maria Leffler, 25 May 1876
at the home of her parents, William and Ann McGregor, in Salt Lake City on 8th
South and 4th East. When the baby was
six weeks old, grandfather Leffler came and got grandmother and baby Annie and
took them to the homestead to live in a cabin he had built on Trout Creek by
Trout Creek Falls. He farmed and also
went on many trips to the Canyon to get timber to build a nice home on the road
at their property line on the east.
In
1880 his brother, Samuel Leffler, and family came to visit them, then went on
to Heppner, Oregon to homestead. Annie,
who was only 4 years old, remembers them coming by covered wagon.
Both grandfather and grandmother worked in the
church in Lago and held important positions.
He was Superintendent of the Sunday School, Assistant Superintendent in
1887; Counselor in the YMMIA (1896); Grandmother was president of the Primary
from 1891, 1895 and 1900 and counselor in the Relief Society in 1906. Their daughter Annie was President of the
YWMIA in 1893.
Grandfather had a violin and was a
good fiddler and played for dances and entertainments.
Annie married Peter C. Mickelson 27 Nov. 1895. Three children were born to them. James Martin Mickelson was born 17 Dec.
1896. Annie left her husband Peter, the
next spring and then found out she was expecting again. Twin girls, Anna Roberta and Mary Inez, were
born 15 Dec. 1897 and lived with their grandparents part of the time, as did
their brother James (Jim).
In 1908 Grandfather Leffler and
daughter Annie went to Iowa and Nebraska visiting relatives and gathering
genealogy.
In 1915 grandparents Leffler had a
white brick home built in Preston, Idaho, where they lived until grandfather's
death on 9 Oct. 1923. He was buried in
the Whitney, Idaho Cemetery, and grandmother was buried beside him 13 years
later, 13 Nov. 1936. Their daughter,
Annie Leffler Christensen, 4 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren survived
them.
Written by Clara Belle Christensen
Ott, James Abner’s granddaughter.
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