Mary Jane Lindsay Burbank
(by Mae Rawlins Jorgensen)
Mary Jane Lindsay, also known as Jane, was born 7 August 1853 in Centerville, Davis County, Utah. She was the second child or Edwin Ruben and Tabitha Cragun Lindsay. Their first child Sarah Adeline was born on the plains of Missouri. The family's first home in Utah was in Bountiful, they moved on to Kaysvllle, then later to Brigham City.
Little is known of her early life except that she grew up as other pioneer children with plenty of work with little chance of a formal education.
On 2 January 1871 at the age of 18, she was married in the Salt Lake Endowment House, to Daniel Mark Burbank Jr. Jane was his second wife, the first being her older sister Sarah Adeline. As far as is known the two wives always had separate homes.
In about the year 1874 or 1875 Grandfather moved his families from Brigham City to Deweyville to pioneer a new area. Grandmother's home was on the north edge of Deweyville.
At the time of the crusade against plural marriage in 1 887 Grandfather took his first wife Adeline and family to Bear Lake County, Idaho, settling in Bennington once again to pioneer. Grandmother and her children stayed in Deweyville.
Grandmother's oldest child, a son, died a few days after birth. At the time her husband went to Idaho she had six children to care for. The oldest was fifteen years old. Grandmother was a small woman and not very strong physically but very a ambitious person who worked hard and taught her children how to work. They were taught to waste nothing, especially food. They picked wool from fences and bushes where sheep had been which was spun into yarn or carded Into bats for quilts. He daughters were taught to sew and to knit. Grandmother made lye from wood ashes which she used in making soap.
Fruit trees did well in Deweyville and the family made the best of it. By the front gate of their home grew two mulberry trees that had nice sweet fruit.Grandmother cared for a few hives of bees. The honey from them provided the sweetening for all the family use. Sugar was a rarity, and money to buy suon things very hard to get.
Most of Grandfathers time was spent in establishing a home in Bennington, Idaho so Grandmother was alone with her children most of that time. They had a large dog that was tied by the back door. He seemed to sense that it was his duty to protect this family. People of the town always called out when they came and someone would hold the dog.
After the railroad came through Deweyville vagrants were often seen around. One night a heavy knock came at the front door Grandmother asked who it was, a man's rough voice demanded to be let in. While Grandmother argued with him one of the children opened the back door and released the dog. The man ran away screaming "Call him off!" When the dog returned he had torn clothes in his mouth.
About six years after moving the one family to Bennington Grandfather came to get Grandmother and her family. Some of her children had visited their aunt Adeline and were unhappy about the move.
They were settled on a plot of ground about a mile and one half west of the other home at the mouth of Red Canyon.
The growing season here at Bennington was much shorter that at Deweyville. Many of the vegetables they grew froze and there was always a battle with the squirrels and other pests. They missed the fruit, also the much milder climate. Winters here were long and cold. There were many wild animals roaming the areas. There were times when family members had a frightening encounter with a mountain lion.
In her later life Grandmother kept a few cows. She milked them, separated the cream usually by putting the milk in shallow pans and skimming the cream off the top. This cream was sold in Montpelier and constituted her only support money.
Nearly every fall a trip was made back to Deweyville or Brigham City with a team and covered wagon by some of the family for a load of fruit, melons, and ect.
Grandmother had nine children, three boys and six girls. Edwin, who died as an infant, Emma, Laura, Esther, Cora May my mother, Rachael, Ruben who died at the age of twenty-one, Ephraim, and Trisha who died as a child.Grandmother died 5 January, 1918 in Bennington Idaho at the age of sixty-five years and five months and was buried in the Bennington cemetery.
(Written by a granddaughter, Mae Rawlins Jorgensen from stories told to her and her brothers by their mother Cora May Burbank Rawlins and from a history about her Grandfather Daniel Mark Burbank Jr.)