Silas Wilson Morrell & Luzernia Allred, A Story Of The Wild West

SILAS WILSON MORRELL was born August 11, 1851, in Cottonwood, Salt Lake County, Utah, to William Wilson and Sarah Jane Richards. He mar­ried Virginia Morrell while living at Union Fort. Virginia died on August 2, 1875.
Silas moved to Rabbit Valley (Wayne County) with his father in 1876. On July 12, 1876, he married Luzernia Allred in Fremont, Utah, daughter of Andrew Jackson Allred and Chloe Stevens. They were parents of seven children. Their daughter Chloe Jane Morrell was the first white child born in Wayne County.

While working his father’s sawmill Silas was injured and was unable to do manual labor after the accident. He and his wife owned a farm just east of Fremont where they built a two-story, log house. They also had a dairy farm east of Fish Lake, later known as Silas Springs where in the early summer they herded milk cows to the mountain spring to graze during the warm months. Summers were spent making cheese, and in the fall they took it to Richfield to sell. March 1891 Silas and Luzernia decided to go to a warmer climate in New Mexico, hoping his health would improve.

Luzernia was pregnant and they stopped at Bluff. She gave birth to her baby in the wagon bed. The next morning when they moved it, there were three rattlesnakes beneath it in the sand. Although they stayed in New Mexico for some time, Silas’s health never improved, so they decided to return home. They reached Fremont in the latter part of September and hadn’t been home long when Silas died on September 26, 1893, in Fremont, Utah, and was buried in the Fremont Cemetery.

Raising a family as a widow is difficult, especially in the “wild west.” A year after her husband’s death, Luzernia married William Henry Long (Bill) on November 14, 1894. He was a crack shot and took care of the Morrell family. They had two daughter born to them at Fremont, Viola in 1896 and Evinda Ann in 1898.

Luzernia and Bill (pictured to the right) later moved to Duchesne, Utah where they lived until their deaths. Bill was a colorful character and is suspected to have once belonged to the Butch Cassidy outlaw gang. On his death certificate, it states that Henry William Long died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head “two miles east of Duchesne,” Utah on November 27, 1936. Luzernia Allred Morrell Long died a few months later in Duchesne on March 11, 1937. Here is a website for information on this theory

http://www.sundancekidhenrylong.com/

To see the headstone for Luzernia Allred and William Long click this link:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=32890821

To view the headstone for Silas Wilson Morrell click this link:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=17381847

Chloe Jane Morrell, A True Cowgirl

CHLOE JANE MORRELL was born in Fremont, Utah on March 15, 1877, the first white girl and second white child born in Wayne County when the Mormon settlers were beginning to settle Rabbit Valley, an area populated by Indians.

Luzernia Allred and Silas Wilson Morrell owned a farm just east of Fremont where they built a two-story, log house. They also had a dairy farm east of Fish Lake, later known as Silas Springs where in the early summer they herded milk cows to the mountain spring to graze during the warm months.

Silas had suffered a severe back injury and also plaqued with rheumatism. In March 1891, he and Luzernia decided to go to a warmer climate in New Mexico, hoping his health would improve.

Chloe drove the cattle and was in the saddle every day but five for the next six months. It was tiring, because in those days, ladies rode sidesaddle with one leg straight, resting in the stirrup, and the other leg with bended-knee perched on top of the saddle because it was improper for a girl to ride astride a horse. After an eventful and difficult journey they stayed in New Mexico for only a short time. Fortunately Chloe rode back using a real sidesaddle that was much easier to ride on.

During the summers of 1893 and 1894, Chloe worked near Fishlake, a beautiful lake twelve miles north of Fremont. It was at Fishlake where Jeremiah Jackson entered the picture. In 1894 he and one of his friends went to Fishlake on horseback and stopped at the place where Chloe worked. She was a very shy girl, but nevertheless, a romance ensued, and they were married in Fremont at her parent’s home.

Chloe was brave and tough. Nick Indian liked to tease her daughter Luzernia. One day he came to house and started to tease her. Chloe was cutting bread with a large butcher knife. Nick teased Luzernia until she started to cry. Chloe turned around and said, “Nick. Quit that!”

He just went on teasing.

Chloe threw the knife. It flew across the room and stuck in the door casing to the side of him.
Nick looked at the knife quivering in the frame and abruptly left.

Chloe was a true cow girl. She rode horses, could throw a lariat and shoot a gun. One day, her husband and her son Harvey were trying to rope a calf to brand it as Chloe watched them. They made two or three throws but couldn’t hook it.

Chloe laughed and asked, “Are you having trouble roping that calf?”

Harvey replied, “I bet you couldn’t do it?”

She walked up to him and said, “Give me that rope.”

He handed the rope to her, and she flipped it over the calf’s head with ease, then handed the end of the rope back to him. Nobody said a word.

Chloe was devoted to her husband and family and lived most of her life in Fremont, Utah. They were parents to 5 sons and 3 daughters. Perry L. Jackson was her youngest child.

Chloe was in Salt Lake visiting her daughters when she died on October 16, 1956, on the 16th anniversary of her husband Jeremiah’s death.

To view the headstone for Chloe Jane Morrell Jackson click this link:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=16224008