Ancestors of Henry Grow

26 Pages·2009·1.61 MB·English

Ancestors of Henry Grow
The progenitors of the Henry Grow family originate from the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg
in Germany. In 1809, Napoleon made Wuerttemburg a kingdom, and it remained one until the
revolution in 1918. This was a beautiful wooded country comprising forests and agricultural
lands. The principle city of the area was Schwabisch Hall, a city now numbering about 20,000.
Schwabisch Hall has always been an important German city due to its production of salt. One
could not be a salt producer unless he were born or married into the profession. These people
coined their own money and until recently the Heller (coming from Hall) was a widely used coin
in Germany. From the earliest times it was a free city and the first ruler whose authority was
imposed on Schwabisch Hall was the Kaiser. Michelbach, Uttenhofen, Gschlachtenbretzingen,
Ottendorf, Westheim, and Tullau are all suburbs of Schwaebisch Hall, and are located in the area
south of the city. One of the towns, Gschlachtenbretzingen, which is about one mile north of
Michelbach, is a fairly small town and may have had civil and church connections with
Michelbach. The entire area comprising these cities is part of Wuerttemburg, Germany.
The research done on Henry Grow’s ancestors has given us some interesting glimpses into
the lives of those who have preceded us. We know that these men and women were industrious
and ambitious, and set an excellent example for us, their descendants. It is apparent that these
families did not, in general, move around very much. Their records seem to be located in three
Lutheran parishes, Michelbach, Ottendorf, and Westheim. The Grow name has been spelled
Graw, Grau, Grohe, or Groh. There are many other Grow families in America apparently
descending from German families with similar names to these. In addition at least one prominent
Pennsylvanian Grow family emigrated from England where the name was already anglicized
before coming to America. As far as can be determined, there is no connection to the English
family, and as far back as 1622 there are no records that connect the many German families.
Our earliest Grow ancestor we have record of is Michel Graw, who was born in 1577 in
Spoeck, near Ottendorf. He married Anna Sanwald, and their son, Adam Grohe or Grau, was
born in Uttenhofen in 1622. He married Barbara Sessler, and on March 23, 1660, their son, also
named Adam Grohe/Grau, was born and he subsequently married Ursula Mackh on September 8,
1686. Their son Georg Grohe/Groh, was born about 1692 in Michelbach an der Bilz. Michelbach
has feudalistic origins, and is presently a small town of about 2,000 inhabitants located on one of
the railroad lines passing through Schwabisch Hall. On April 20, 1717, Georg married Maria
Rosina Kuetterer. She was the daughter of Joseph Kuetterer and was born in Uttenhofen.
Uttenhofen is smaller and does not seem to have the same feudalistic origin as Michelbach.
Uttenhofen today is a predominantly agricultural town, with a number of farms that perhaps were
those of the free men from Schwabisch Hall. A large church was also not evident.
Ten children were born to this couple, of which our ancestor, Georg Friedrich, was the
fourth. Georg Groh is listed on his son Friedrich’s birth certificate as soldier, meaning he “worked
in the castle” and lived in the castle or adjacent to it. The castle is a very large feudalistic home
which is still standing but is now used as a school. The smaller homes surrounding the castle are
also still standing and some of them are lived in. Under the feudalistic system, Georg Groh might
have worked in either the fields or the forests. He also undoubtedly had a small plot of ground for
his own use. Since no civil records exist in Germany prior to 1870, no land records are available
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to say exactly where Georg Groh lived. All records were kept by the church, and the church,
called Martin’s Church, still stands. The building was erected in the tenth century with the name
being derived from Martin, who was a great spiritual leader in the eighth century. The fact that the
church has been standing so long in Michelbach is an indication of the age of the town. Georg’s
family was raised in Michelbach an der Bilz and worshiped in this church.
Georg Friedrich Groh (George Frederick Grow) was born August 4, 1723 in the town of
Michelbach an der Bilz. Until recently, seventy per cent of the productive effort of Michelbach has
been agricultural, whereas today about thirty per cent is agricultural. Many people left Germany
around the middle of the eighteenth century and went to Russia because there was no work.
Friedrich might have left for the same reason. When he was 27 years old he emigrated to America
on the ship Patience from Rotterdam, arriving on August 11, 1750. Eight other men with the
name of Groh or Graw were on the boat. It is possible that some of these men were brothers or
cousins to Friedrich. One of his brothers, Georg Groh, might have also come to America. It is
apparent that the remainder of his brothers and sisters, totaling eleven children, died in Germany.
No one with the name of Groh still lives in Michelbach. One of the stores in Schwabisch Hall has
Groh in its name, apparently the proprietors name.
The date of Frederick’s marriage or his wife’s maiden name are unknown. It is suspected
that he married in Wuerttemberg and brought his wife, Maria Barbara, with him. The ship lists,
however, only recorded the male names. He settled in Pennsylvania, apparently first near
Philadelphia where he was attending the St. Michael’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Germantown, when his eldest son, Johann George Groh, was born in July of 1751. Shortly after
arriving in America, Friedrich bought a farm of about 163 acres in Lower Merion Township near
Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River. Eleven children were born to this couple, of which our
ancestor, Henry Grow, Sr. was the eleventh.
Photograph of Frederick Grow’s
home with accompanying story
published in February 1960 in a
Pennsylvania newspaper near
where Frederick lived.
“Frederick Groh, pioneer Lower Merion settler who came from Germany, was naturalized
September 11, 1763, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament permitting “foreign” Protestants
settled in the colonies to become subjects of King George II. The name was later Anglicized to
Grow and in 1778, the family acquired 600 acres in Penn. Valley. This was split up among the
succeeding generations into smaller farms. Adam Grow fought in the Revolution. The ancient
stone house shown here is believed to be one erected when the Grows acquired their farm. It is
located on Hagys Ford Rd., near Flat Rock Rd, and in now owned by E. S. Madara. The original
house has been preserved. Crow’s Hill where it is located was corrupted from Grow’s Hill.”
Lower Merion Township was part of the original land grant given by Charles II of
England to William Penn in 1681, much of which has become known as Penn’s green woods, or
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Pennsylvania. No area better suited the description of “green woods” than this rural township of
the mid 18th century. It was still partially timbered with virginal forests, and had many streams that
drained from its center plateau northward into the Schuylkill River and southwestward into the
Delaware River. By 1750 the ownership of the land had begun to come in to the hands of the
thrifty, diligent Pennsylvania “Dutch” farmers who were really of German descent and who,
because of wars, famine, and oppression in the loosely associated states known collectively as
Germany, had crossed the ocean. The voyage was often made at the cost of their entire savings
and by offering to sell their services upon arrival for a set period of years. Penn’s colony
welcomed them just as it welcomed the persecuted Quakers, and through their diligence they
worked out their indebtedness and purchased their own land. This was the background of many of
the 18th century settlers of Lower Merion Township. Such names as Bicking (Bichen), Grow
(Groh), Levering, Righter (Reiter), Moyer (Mayer, Meyer) are found intertwined in the early
history. They occur in private land, tax, and court records. They are recorded in the church
registers and burial grounds. Many of these people were not only diligent about things of this
world but also of the spirit. Although some could not read or write, they were concerned for their
children’s education and organized schools. They cleared and cultivated more of the land. They
built mills for lumber and paper and fisheries on the Schuylkill. They had blacksmiths and small
hotels known as taverns. Lower Merion Township became a prosperous, busy rural community
of farms, and the marriages between the families soon made most everyone related to everyone
else. (For carefully documented and vivid descriptions of this area, see “The ‘Old Dutch Church’
in Lower Merion” by Charles R. Barker, Bulletin of Hist. Soc. of Montgomery County, Penn, vol
9. GS #974.812 B2h.)
Frederick Grow made written notes in the inside of the front and back covers of his Martin
Luther family bible. On the inside of the front cover Friedrich identifies the date and place of his
birth, and on the inside of the back cover he kept record of the birth of each of his children. His
bible was printed in Germany in 1746 and was probably brought to America when he came. Many
notes were made in the bible either by him or his descendants. Five children noted in the bible
apparently did not survive. This bible is presently in the possession of George M. Grow, 1914
Lycoming Ave, Abington, Pa., a third great-grandson of George Frederick Grow.
Frederick Grow helped to found St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at Ardmore, Pa. He was one
of the six trustees representing the Lutheran congregation who bought 63 acres in 1765 as a site
for the church and burial ground. The church built on this site was used until early in this century.
Many of the Grow family were buried in this church cemetery, including Frederick, Maria
Barbara, Henry Sr, and Mary Riter, as well as the remainder of Frederick’s children who survived
childhood.
George Frederick lived to be 82 years old and died February 6, 1805. His wife, Maria
Barbara, died at the age of 81 in 1809. Five children survived both Frederick and Maria Barbara,
Johann George, George Adam, Maria Catharine, Jacob, and Henry. The family home still stands
on Grow hill at Ardmore, Pennsylvania and has been lived in up to the present time.
George Frederick’s youngest child, Henry Grow, was born in July of 1768 and lived out
his life near the old family home. He was the proprietor of the Flat Rock Tavern in Lower Merion,
Pennsylvania. Henry married Mary Righter/Riter, and they had seven children.
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The Righters came into Pennsylvania in the late 1600's. Among the very early settlers in
Roxborough Township, Philadelphia County, was a certain Peter Righter. There is a tradition that
he came from Germany in 1694 or somewhat later, as a member of the group of Pietists, who
settled on the Ridge above the Wissahickon Creek, south of what is now know as Hermit Lane.
Since there is no list of the persons who originally formed this group, or of those who joined them
between 1694 and the death of Kelpus in 1708 when the community began to break up, there is
no proof of whether Peter Righter was or was not a member. Julius F. Sachse in his German
Pietists in Pennsylvania believes this tradition, and states that it was from Phoebe Righter, widow
of Daniel Righter, a grandson of Peter, that proof was obtained. The Pietist Community did not
own the land on which it established itself. The Righters acquired the land after the Community
was scattered. The leaders of the Pietists were men of university education and considerable
learning. If Peter Righter was one of them, he was an unlearned follower, for he could not write
his name. The tradition further is that Peter Righter left the group very soon after his arrival here,
married and raised a family. There is no record of the arrival of Peter Righter in America.
Peter Righter was certainly of German origin. While he could not write his name, his son,
Bartholomew, could write and he signed his will in German script. The Anglicized spelling,
Righter, represents quite accurately the sound of the German Reiter.
The first record found of Peter Righter is the deed relating purchase, at a sheriff’s sale on
11 September 1725, of 80 acres of land that had belonged to Matthew Holgate. This tract
extended across Roxborough Township from the Schuylkill river to the Wissahickon Creek, south
of the line of the present Hermit Lane. Although the sheriff died before the actual conveyance of
this land to Peter Righter was completed, Peter seems to have taken possession at that time. It is
evident that by this time Peter was married, and his family was growing up about him on his farm.
No record of his marriage, of the name of his wife, or the baptism of his children has been located.
If Peter Righter adhered to any church after the break-up of the Pietist community, or his
departure from it, what church it may have been has not been determined.
On January 23, 1728, he sold 3 acres, a corner of this land at the northern end of the tract
on the east side of the road, to his son Bartholomew. It was not until December 6, 1728 that
Sheriff Owen Owen, successor to Owen Roberts, on completion of payment of the price of 22
pounds by Peter, executed deeds to convey the land to him. Peter Righter lived on this farm in
lower Roxborough Township for 16 years longer. When John Hyatt prepared his list of
landholders in Philadelphia County for Thomas Penn, Proprietor, in 1734, the returns for
Roxborough Township included Peter Righter, 80 acres, Bartle Righter (‘in corne’) 3 acres. With
the sale of 3 acres to Bartholomew (Bartle) the acreage for Peter should have been 77. On
October 27, 1741, Peter Righter, yeoman, sold his 77 acres of land for 60 pounds to this third son
Michael. Perhaps Peter was now too old to manage a farm, and lived out the few years left to him
with his son. No wife was named in association with him in this sale of land, so it may be
concluded that she died before this date. Letters of administration were granted 4 August 1744 to
Bartholomew Righter “on the estate late of Peter Righter, dec’d.” No account or inventory of
this estate is on file. Bartholomew’s account was to be filed 5 August 1745, when he may have
been in his last illness, for he died that summer.
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Bartholomew Righter was probably born shortly after 1700 in Roxborough Township, the
son of Peter Righter, the emigrant. He learned the trade of cordwainer, and had sufficient
education to be able to write his name in German script. On January 23, 1728 he purchased from
his father a “corner” of his father’s 80 acre farm, 3 acres of land on the road leading to Holgate’s
Ford on the Wissahickon Creek, now probably Hermit Lane. On April 23, 1736 he and his wife,
Elizabeth, sold this lot, including a messauge, which he may have built on it, to John Georg
Gager. About two years later, on January 4, 1737/8 he purchased 250 acres of land from the
Norris estate. This tract was located in upper Roxborough, on both sides of the road from
Plymouth to Philadelphia, now Ridge Road, extending north from approximately the present Port
Royal Avenue to the present Manatawna Avenue, and east from the present Hagy’s Mill Road to
the Township Line Road. He built his new home there, and lived there the rest of his short life.
As is the case with his father, no church records of Bartholomew’s marriage, or of the
baptism of his children have been found. He and Elizabeth were the parents of five children, four
sons and one daughter. He was associated with the Quakers or Society of Friends. He was
interested in a school in the neighborhood for his growing family, and was appointed to serve as
trustee of the first school mentioned in Chestnut Hill. In August of 1744 he was appointed
administrator of his father’s estate. On August 19, 1745, “being weak in body” he made his will,
giving his plantation and personal property to his wife, Elizabeth, for her use for life or until she
remarried. Should she remarry, her share was to be 50 pounds, and the estate was to be held in
trust till the children came of age. The land was then to be divided among the four sons, and the
daughter, Elizabeth, was to receive 100 pounds on reaching age 18. He signed his name to this
will in German script “Barthol Reiter.” The exact date of his death, and his place of burial have
not been determined. At the June 1757 term of the Court, the sheriff was ordered to partition the
land of Bartle Righter among his four sons.
The probate records from Montgomery and Philadelphia counties show two wills, one for
a Bartle Righter, proved 20 Sep 1845, and for a Bartle Righter proved 14 Nov 1809. These are
father and son. The name Bartle is a variation of the name Bartholomew.
Bartholomew Righter, Jr., the oldest son of Bartholomew and Elizabeth Righter, seems
always to have used Bartle as his name. His wife was named Charlotte, and they were the parents
of eight children, of which our ancestor, Mary, was the second. By occupation he was a
blacksmith, and lived the greater part of his life in Lower Merion Township. He was born in
Roxborough and was a minor when his father died in 1745. When his father’s 250 acre farm was
divided among the 4 sons in 1757, he inherited 66 1/4 acres, most of it on the westerly side of the
Ridge Road, and at the southern end of the tract. He sold part of the land to his brother Peter
soon after that. He probably sold his Roxborough land before 1769, because his name was not on
the tax assessor’s list of that year. No wife is mentioned on the sale of the land, so he probably
married Charlotte after March 1763. Perhaps he lived with John when he first went to Lower
Merion, for on the tax assessor’s list of 1769 his name was entered with John’s grist and saw mill.
On March 26, 1773 he purchased for 235 pounds, 46 acres in Lower Merion, from his brother
John. Most of this land Bartle held for the rest of his life, and on it probably had his blacksmith
shop. Bartle’s name was on the tax lists for Lower Merion in 1774 with 45 acres of land, 1 horse,
2 cattle, and in 1780 his property had a valuation of 1500 pounds.
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Bartle Righter made his will in October 1807 and probably died in 1809, for the will was
probated on November 14 1809. It provided that his wife Charlotte should hold for her use during
her life all his estate, real and personal. He left 25 pounds to each of his daughters to be paid
when his youngest son should attain his 21st year. He gave his daughter Elizabeth his best feather
bed.
A diary kept by Joseph Price has several entries of interest to us:
“1805 Feb 7 – Begun a Coffin for old Frederick Grow, he was 82 years old. Been here
44 or 45 years. Bout his first purchase in 1760. . .he was a well Read German, left 4 sons
and one Girl”
“1808 Aug 2 – . . .to see the Flat Rock where they are Gooing to Build a bridge
Tremendous Rude place. Henry Grow has Built a very deacant 2 story house intended for
a tavern.”
“1809 Oct 12 – attend the funeral (of Bartle Righter) the first dutch Buriel I believe I
was at without whiskey or something. I hope it may continue.”
(Joseph Price and his Diary, 1778-1810, Bulletin of Historical Society of
Montgomery County, Vol II, p 58, p 60. GS # 964.812 B2h. Spellings not
corrected.)
No record of the marriage of Mary Righter/Riter to Henry Grow has been found, but there
is a record of the christenings of three of their children in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Ardmore,
Pennsylvania, or the “Old Dutch Church” as it is affectionately referred to in many histories and
by its members. It has been assumed that the marriage of Henry Grow and Mary Righter was
performed perhaps by one of the itinerant preachers who served the rural congregation and either
no record was made or it no longer exists. The Temple Index Bureau endowment record for Mary
Riter lists her birth as 1784 in Germany, and her death as 26 Aug 1864, and that she was married
to Henry Grow in 1771. A check of both the 1850 and 1860 census shows a widow, Mary Grow,
living with the family of William G. and Catherine A. Smith, her daughter and son-in-law, in
Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. These censuses list her age,
respectively, as 74 and 84, and her place of birth as Pennsylvania. This establishes her birth year as
1776. Her tombstone in the Lutheran Cemetery in Ardmore, Pennsylvania gives her death at 22
August 1864 and her age as 88 years 3 months and 3 days, giving us a birth date of 19 May 1776.
Henry Grow and Mary Righter had eight children, and their youngest child, Henry Grow,
Jr., was born October 1, 1817 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Henry Grow, Jr., when he was
ordained a seventy in 3 Dec 1842 in Nauvoo, listed his parents as Henry Grow and Mary Righter.
Later, on 22 July 1845, and 13 Mar 1858 when receiving patriarchal blessings, he listed
his father as Henry Grow and his mother as Mary Riter. The interchange of spelling is not unusual
as both spellings are pronounced similarly and may be anglicized renderings of the German name
Reiter.
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Biography of Henry Grow and Mary Moyer
Henry Grow was born October 1st, 1817, at
Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the
seventh son of Henry Grow and Mary Riter. His
grandfather, Frederick Grow, and his grandmother
emigrated from Germany to Pennsylvania before the
war of the revolution and took up a large tract of
land which they divided into five farms of 60 acres
each for their children, four sons and one daughter.
The family were farmers. The estate still remains in
the family. This grandfather was in the war of the
revolution. The British army camped within a mile
of his farm house.
As a young man, Henry was an apprentice to
a carpenter and joiner and learned the trade of Mill-
wright and bridge builder. By the time he was 25,
he was superintendent of all the bridges and culverts
on the Norristown and Germantown railroads, both
in constructing and repairing the works, under the
direction of George C. Whitmore, president of the
roads and ex-mayor of Philadelphia.
On August 1, 1837 Henry married Mary
Moyer, the daughter of Charles Moyer and
Elizabeth Bird. Mary was born April 28, 1817, and was 20 years and 4 months old, and Henry
was two months short of his 20th birthday. They became converted to The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day saints. Henry was baptized in the Delaware
River, Philadelphia, in May of 1842 by William Morton, but
Mary was expecting the birth of their third child at any
time, and was not baptized until after his birth, on June 8,
1842. According to a granddaughter, Dorothy Kirk,
Henry’s family were not happy about his joining the LDS
Church and severed many of their ties with him. They
emigrated to Nauvoo, arriving May 15, 1843. His first
work at that place was building a barn for the Patriarch
Hyrum Smith. He also worked on the Nauvoo Temple until
it was finished in 1846.
Henry and his family went through all the troubles
of those days and he was a member of the Nauvoo Legion.
He was one of the remnant that remained at Nauvoo after
the departure of the Twelve with the advance companies of
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the Saints for the Rocky Mountains. His son Pernell said “He was doing all the building work
back east for the Church. When Brigham Young left there he said they needed him more there
than they did in the Rocky Mountains, but when he was ready for him, he would send for him.”
The covenant made between the four commissioners chosen by the State of
Illinois–namely General Hardin, commander of the State militia, Senator Douglas, W. B. Warren,
and J. McDougal–and the Mormon apostles gave ample time for the removal of the people of
Nauvoo. But in April 1846, before the vanguard of the pioneers had got fairly on their journey
west, the anti-Mormons began to rise and the mob outrages on the Saints were horrible. Yet W.
B. Warren, the major commanding the Illinois Volunteers, in his reports in the Quincy Whig on
the 20th of May 1846, said: “The Mormons are leaving with all possible dispatch. During the week
four hundred teams have crossed at three points, or about 1,350 souls. They are leaving the State
and preparing to leave, with every means God and nature have placed in their hands.”
Notwithstanding this statement from the commander of the Volunteers, the mob marched
upon the doomed city and on the 19th of September 1846, commenced the famous (infamous)
Battle of Nauvoo, which lasted three days. Henry Grow was in this battle. The mob of well armed
men with 13 pieces of artillery camped in front of his house, within about an eighth of a mile’s
distance. The first night they were camped there, Henry, while lying in bed, heard a voice
distinctly say, ‘Get up and get out of here in the morning.’ He arose in the morning, hitched a
yoke of cattle to his wagon, put in utensils, bedding and tent, leaving every other thing in the
house, got his wife and four children in the wagon, and had moved about fifty yards from his
house, when the mob fired a twelve pound ball through the frame house, completely destroying it.
Henry crossed over to Montrose, Iowa, where he and his family lived in a tent during the battle.
He was in the three day’s engagement with the mob, the defenders being under the command of
General D. H. Wells and Col. Cutler.
Starting on his journey westward, Henry traveled alone with his family across the prairies
of Iowa to Winter Quarters where they arrived late in the month of October 1846. He first built a
log cabin at Winter Quarters, and then went to Kimball’s, six miles above, where he built himself a
house and settled for a year. In the fall of 1847, he moved his family down into Missouri, on the
Little Platte, twenty miles above Weston. There he kept the saw and grist mill in repair, and did
other carpenter work for two years for Colonel Estel, who sold out to Holladay and Warner,
merchants well known in the early history of Salt Lake City. Henry worked for Holladay and
Warner till the spring of 1851 until he had sufficient money to finance the journey to the Salt Lake
Valley.
Henry and his family then again came up to the Missouri River bound for the Valleys of
the Mountains, where his people had established themselves. The Mormons still traveled across
the Plains at this date on the old pioneer plan of organization of hundreds, fifties, and tens. Henry
was organized in Captain James Cummings’ hundred, in Alfred Cordon’s fifty and Bishop
Kesler’s ten. Because of high water the companies headed up the Elk Horn River and came on to
the Platte below Laramie. On the Sweetwater below Independence Rock, the company was
surrounded by a war party of Cheyennes. Kesler’s ten got separated from the other tens, but they
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succeeded in sending a message to Captain Cordon, who was camped with the remainder of his
fifty at Independence Rock and he sent relief and they went up and camped with their company.
Next day, above Independence Rock, they met a thousand Snake warriors waiting for the
Cheyennes.
Their journey lasted for five months, and Henry Grow arrived in Salt Lake City on his
birthday, October 1st, 1851. Having friends in Weber County, he located at Mounds Fort, near
Ogden. He then located in Huntsville for one winter, and then came down to Ogden to build a
bridge located on Washington Boulevard and 14th Street. He obtained a contract to build the first
suspension bridge built in the Territory, across the Ogden River, for Jonathan Browning. This
bridge was so well done that it attracted the attention of President Brigham Young.
His son Pernell said, “His first bridge was over the Ogden River from–they call it
Washington Boulevard now, they used to call it Washington Avenue–down about 14th Street, I
believe. I’m not certain. Then he built one across the Provo. Then he went back up and built one
across the Weber River, there at what they call Riverdale, and then he built one across the Jordan,
what they called the White Bridge. That’s the bridges he built.”
President Young invited Henry to move to Salt Lake City, but some of his children stayed
in the Ogden/Huntsville area. Henry worked for Brigham Young for the next few years. President
Young called him to supervise the public works, under Miles Romney, the first superintendent of
the carpenter’s shop. He worked on the Old Tabernacle, which occupied the spot where the
Assembly Hall now stands. He also built a sawmill, as the winter was mild. He also worked
building the Social Hall.
In 1854, he went to work at Sugar House to build the sugar works under Bishop Kesler,
and in 1855 he worked in the building of the two saw mills in Big Cottonwood Canyon known as
A and B. In 1856, he moved a saw mill from Chase’s Mill
in the ‘Big Field’ up City Creek seven miles above Salt
Lake City for President Young, and the same fall he went
up Big Cottonwood again and framed and put up Mill D,
sawed two logs and left on the 17th of December. There
was seven feet of snow, so the five men walked on snow
shoes. It was a very dangerous trip and they had many
narrow escapes because the snow was so deep. It took
them two days to get out of the snow. They ran great risk
of their lives. In 1857, he built Mill E at the head of Big
Cottonwood canyon, near Silver Lake.
With the coming of Johnson’s army in 1858 Henry
went to Provo and erected temporary buildings for
President Young and other Church authorities to occupy
during the exodus from Salt Lake City. He also built the
suspension bridge over the Provo River. Returning to Salt
Lake City, he worked on the building of the Salt Lake
Theater. At the time of putting up the theater he built a
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water-wheel on the water ditch, opposite Dr. Sprague’s, to hoist all the rock and timbers for the
theater. He also made the heavy beams and principal rafters for the building, and fitted up the
footlights. In 1859, he tore the works out of the old gristmill at the mouth of City Creek Canyon
and placed the cotton and woolen machinery in the mill for President Young. This machinery, the
first of its kind used in Utah, was afterwards taken to St. George.
In 1861, Henry received a commission to construct a bridge across the Jordan River west
of Salt Lake. He designed the bridge in the form of a lattice work which he used in the east under
the Remington Patent. The timbers of the bridge were held together by wooden pegs. He also
built a suspension lattice bridge across the Weber River. These bridges were still in use after 35-
40 years. In 1863-4, he did a great deal of mill work for President Young at different places.
President Young called on Henry in regard to the construction of the Big Tabernacle. His
son Pernell tells the following story with respect to the tabernacle. “Well, you see, there was a
fellow by the name of Angell that was the architect for the Church. Brigham Young told him what
he would like to have built, the self supporting roof and the size of it. Angell, after awhile, came
and told President Young it couldn’t be done. They couldn’t do that. One day when father was
coming out of the shop–they used to have a shop in the Temple Square there all along the east
side, excepting the gates, and half-way down the north side to those gates there. They had shops
in there. So they were coming out, and Brigham Young stopped Father and told him and asked
what could be done. President Young had seen the Jordan River bridge, and he asked Henry if he
could construct an arch of lattice work that would be as strong and durable as the bridge. The
President is said to have sketched on the ground the kind of an auditorium he wanted built, a large
oval shaped roof without any supporting pillars. In that conversation the Salt Lake Tabernacle
was born. Father says ‘I’ll think it over and figure out what I can do and let you know in the next
three or four days.’ So Mother says he would walk,
studying, back and forth, back and forth. When he
was ready, he went and told Brigham Young, ‘Now, I
can build a building 150 feet wide and as long as you
want it with a self-supporting roof, but I wouldn’t
want to go over 150 feet wide.’”
President Young and Henry Grow then went
to work, assisted by Architect William K. Folsom,
and in 1864 the supporting buttresses were
constructed. The next year Henry supervised the
construction of the great center arches. They were
built on the ground, then raised on the supporting
buttresses. Then the arches were joined together.
Gradually the great roof began to take form, under
the superintendency of the two master-builders,
President Brigham Young and Henry Grow. The
outside dimensions of the Tabernacle are: length
250 feet; width 150 feet. On the inside it measures
232 x 132 feet; height of ceiling 65 feet. The roof
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