Baylis and Nancy Sprouse KWJZ-DL7 & KWJZ-DLQ

An Old Heber City Fort Family

Written By Jerry Duke

Heber Valley Heritage Foundation

Were it not for John Crook’s journal one would not likely know that Baylis Sprouse and his two stepbrothers, Cub and Alfred Johnson were residents of the old Heber City Fort or were even associated with Heber Valley for the 1860 U.S. Census lists all three as residing in Salt Lake City. Apparently, they moved to Heber after the census was taken, but still during the year 1860 as did my own great grandfather, Robert Stone Duke. Mr. Crook states that they resided in the fort over the winter of 1860-61. This in spite of a son being born to Baylis and Nancy Sprouse on December 16, 1860, in Salt Lake City and a three-year-old son who died in Salt Lake on March 12, 1861. There is no other evidence that I’ve found that shows anyone of these three except Cub Johnson as living in the valley, just some coincidences that suggest that they did. I think the connections along with the Snellen Marion Johnson documentation and the John Crook records are quite convincing.

Baylis Earl Sprouse was born August 6, 1837 in Macon, Noxubee, Mississippi to John Sprouse and to Catherine Ann Hundley or Honley. He was the second of nine children born to this couple. His father, John, was from South Carolina and his mother, Catherine was native to Noxubee County, where she and John were married. The family moved from Mississippi to Grimes, Texas around the year 1846. In Texas, Catherine met missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who taught her the gospel although her husband, John, expressed his disapproval. She must have been strong willed for she joined in spite of his consternation. This was in 1850 and Baylis joined as well though just a boy of twelve. He is the only one of the children to become a member at this time. Only two other children would have been old enough to become members.

At Catherine’s death in 1851, she extracted a promise from John to take the family to Utah, that was her sincere desire. John, probably reluctantly, agreed, but soon after delayed and seemed to forget his promise. John was rather well to do with servants, cattle, and a line of racehorses and was probably reluctant to leave all this and go to Utah, especially when he had no affinity for the Mormon Church. This all changed abruptly when John had a spiritual experience that convinced him that he must fulfill the promise made to his wife. He quickly disposed of his possessions and headed north to Utah with most of his family, three of his younger children and his wife had died while in Texas. They left June 10, 1854, from Fort Kearney, Nebraska and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 21. John and his family remained near Salt Lake City for several years. John was baptized October 22, 1854 in Salt Lake City.

Baylis Sprouse met and married a young lady by the name of Nancy Willmirth Johnson on February 17, 1857. She had arrived with her family also from Texas in 1855. Her father, Willis Snellen Johnson, had died in 1853 and the record shows a baptism for him in 1850. All of the children and his wife, Nancy, had no baptismal record prior to arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, but since some received their Endowment at Salt Lake City without a recorded baptism, it follows that there must have been some recording problems. It seems like the baptisms should have been performed again as some were. Those who did not do the ordinance themselves have subsequently had them done by proxy. Nancy was baptized March 4, 1857 in Salt Lake City and sealed in the Endowment House to Baylis on February 9, 1858.

Her widowed mother was also named Nancy Willmirth but her full name was Nancy Willmirth Reddick Greer Johnson. Having the same name has caused some confusion in the records. On March 17, 1857, John Sprouse, Baylis’ father was sealed to Nancy Willmirth Reddick Greer Johnson, Baylis’ mother-in -law and by proxy to his former wife, Baylis’ mother, Catherine Ann Hunley Johnson. I hope that’s not too confusing. John Sprouse was to live just one more year; He died on October 27, 1858. Baylis Sprouse is listed as a member of the Utah Militia in Cedar City, Utah in 1857, but he and his wife Nancy must not have been there long, because of that 1858 sealing in Salt Lake City. The Greer/Johnson and the Hundley/Sprouse families became interconnected in multiple places and for the next forty years or more there are shared experiences and a lot of inter-marrying among these families. Such events seem to replicate themselves in early Mormon Family History.

In 1860, Baylis Spouse was living in Salt Lake’s 6th Ward with his wife, mother-in- law, an orphaned niece, and a two-year-old son. Later he spent at least part of the winter of 1860-61 in the Old Heber City Fort. His stepbrothers Alfred and Snellen Marion (Cub) Johnson were also in the fort that winter. Some additional proof that the Johnson brothers and their step-brother Baylis Sprouse were residents of Heber Valley is the appointment of Cub Johnson as the first county sheriff. Brigham Young was later to withdraw this appointment, but the fact that it was made by Judge John W. Witt should provide solid evidence that Snellen Marion Johnson was living in the Heber Valley. Another resident of the fort was the grandmother of Baylis Sprouse, Permelia Emily Wooldridge Hunley Rooker, the wife of Sam Rooker. John Crook lists Sam as one of the persons who stayed the winter of 1860-61 in the fort and if one looks with magnification at the map of the fort on page nine of the book How Beautiful Upon the Mountains, the name Sam Rooker is there on the south wall. Rooker’s remained in the valley, but the Johnson and Baylis stays were short-lived.

By 1863 they were back in Utah County and then moved to the area around Bear Lake on the Utah/ Idaho border by about 1865. In 1870 Baylis was listed as a farmer with four children living in Laketown, Rich, Utah Territory. He moved to Colorado in the 1870’s and in 1880 he was living in Manassa, Conejo, Colorado. He was still farming, and his two oldest sons were employed as laborers. He had a large family of eight children. Baylis opened a store in Manassa, a largely Mormon community in southern Colorado, north of Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico, a town laid out in blocks in the typical design of historic Mormon planning.

In 1893 he and his wife returned to Utah with their one daughter still at home to again farm and make the Uintah Basin their final home. His good wife Nancy died on March 13, 1902, in Vernal, Utah and she was buried in the Fairview Cemetery, Maeser, Uintah, Utah. Baylis moved to the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation at White Rocks, Utah and opened a store and Post Office near LaPoint, Utah named officially the Taft Post Office after the then current U.S. President.

I don’t believe that the last couple of years in Baylis’ life were very pleasant. They were spent in the State Hospital for the mentally insane at Provo, Utah. I visited that hospital in the 1950’s and it gave me the willies and I always left depressed. I can imagine, unfortunately, what it must have been like in 1915. The symptoms on his admittance papers seemed like Alheimer’s Disease more than a severe mental disorder. Yet, those around him experienced his aggressive behavior and he also demonstrated self-destructive behaviors and thus was committed. Sadly, that is the way things were at the time. He died March 29, 1915, at the hospital and was buried on March 30, 1915, next to his wife, Nancy, at the Maeser cemetery.

His obituary reads: “His entire life was spent on the fringe of civilization; he was devoted to the labor of a pioneer. In youth he assisted the early settlement of Salt Lake City, Cedar City, Iron County and Rich County in Utah, San Luis County, Colorado and finally, and last of all he established the first store in the Deep Creek district of the reservation…….As a citizen, he was honorable, upright and progressive.” There was no mention of Heber Valley or Wasatch County in this obituary, an obvious omission.

Children of Baylis and Nancy Sprouse

John Willis Sprouse was born on 9 October 1858, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, His father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 21 and his mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 16. He died on 12 March 1861, in Salt Lake, Utah, United States, at the age of 2, and was buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States.

Baylus Earl Sprouse was born on 16 December 1860, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. His father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 23 and his mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 19. He married Elmina Walker Pinckard on 7 February 1881, in Manassa, Conejos, Colorado, United States. They were the parents of 2 sons and 6 daughters. He lived in Manassa, Conejos, Colorado, in 1880 and Roosevelt, Duchesne, Utah, United States in 1910. He died on 5 December 1924, in Delta, Millard, Utah, at the age of 63, and was buried in Delta City Cemetery, Delta, Millard, Utah.

Marion Lycurgus Sprouse was born on 2 August 1863, in Spanish Fork, Utah. His father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 25 and his mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 21. He lived in Laketown, Utah in 1870 and Manassa, Colorado, in 1885. He died on 29 June 1889, in Manassa, Colorado, at the age of 25, and was buried in Manassa, Colorado.

James Johnson Sprouse was born on 6 December 1866, in Oneida, Idaho. His father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 29 and his mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 25. He married Emma Victoria Jensen on 17 November 1887, in Los Cerritos, Colorado. They were the parents of 6 sons and 3 daughters. He lived in Naples, Uintah, Utah, United States in 1900. He died on 6 April 1944, in Roosevelt,Utah, at the age of 77, and was buried in Roosevelt Memorial Park, Roosevelt,Utah.

Nancy Emily Sprouse was born on 22 April 1869, in St. Charles, Idaho. Her father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 31 and her mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 27. She married James Warner Bosnell Mitchell on 2 November 1887, in Manassa Colorado. They were the parents of 4 sons and 2 daughters. She lived in Manassa, Colorado, in 1880 and Mountain Dell, Utah, in 1900. She died on 20 June 1901, in Vernal, Utah, at the age of 32, and was buried in Maeser-Fairview Cemetery, Maeser, Utah.

Cora Adeline Sprouse was born on 24 October 1871, in Laketown, Utah. Her father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 34 and her mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 29. She married Harmon “Bud” Mullins on 23 September 1890, in Manassa, Colorado. They were the parents of 4 sons and 3 daughters. She lived in Manassa, Colorado, in 1880. She died on 22 March 1942, in Roosevelt,Utah, at the age of 70, and was buried in Roosevelt, Utah.

Elmira Victoria Sprouse was born on 16 May 1874, in Los Pinos, Colorado. Her father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 36 and her mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 32. She married James William Harrison on 24 April 1895, in Vernal, Utah. They were the parents of 5 sons and 3 daughters. She lived in Whiterocks, Utah, in 1910 and Election Precinct 18 South Price, Utah, in 1940. She died on 1 February 1950, in Price,Utah, at the age of 75, and was buried in Roosevelt, Utah.

Nathan Coon Sprouse was born on 30 July 1876, in Randolph, Utah. His father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 38 and his mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 34. He died on 8 January 1877, in his hometown, at the age of 0, and was buried in Randolph City Cemetery, Randolph,Utah.

Genevieve Sprouse was born on 9 December 1877, in Montezuma, Colorado. Her father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 40 and her mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 36. She married Snellen Ichabod Johnson on 1 May 1897, in Meeker, Colorado. They were the parents of 5 sons and 3 daughters. She lived in Vernal, Utah in 1900 and Vernal, Utah in 1910. She died on 6 August 1953, in Montebello, Los Angeles, California,at the age of 75, and was buried in Whittier, California.

William Sprouse was born on 25 May 1880, in Manassa, Colorado. His father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 42 and his mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 38. He married Myrtle Mae Johnson on 14 April 1902, in Price, Utah. They were the parents of 3 sons and 3 daughters. He lived in Whiterocks, Utah in 1910. He died on 1 February 1948, in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the age of 67, and was buried in Maeser-Fairview Cemetery, Maeser, Utah.

Burnetta Sprouse was born on 11 January 1886, in Manassa, Colorado. Her father, Baylus Earl Sprouse, was 48 and her mother, Nancy Willmirth Johnson, was 44. She married Warren Leone Ross on 2 October 1905, in Uintah County, Utah, United States. They were the parents of 3 daughters. She lived in Roosevelt, Utah in 1920 and Orange, California in 1930. She died on 26 December 1968, in Los Angeles, California at the age of 82, and was buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, California.