Life Story of

HYRUM OAKS

 Hyrum Oaks was born on the 7th of September 1824, in Springville, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, to James Selah Oaks and Catherine Almira Prichard. He was the fifth of nine children, seven boys and two girls. According to family history, the Oaks Family moved to New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. It’s highly possible that while living in Niven, Pennsylvania, they encountered the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were converted, along with many people of this village.

When Hyrum was very young, his parents moved the family to the same locality where Joseph Smith lived – which would have been in or near Palmyra, NY. While living there, Hyrum and Joseph became very good friends, playing ball and other sports together. Later, in Nauvoo, Illinois, Joseph and Hyrum Oaks were again acquainted. When it came time to build the Nauvoo Temple, Joseph planned to borrow money from an individual to be able to pay the men for working timbers. But the lender went back on his word, and Joseph was forced to call for volunteers instead. Hyrum Oaks was one of the fifty men who volunteered to do the work despite his poor health. But Joseph told Hyrum that if he did the Lord’s work, the Lord would bless him with health and vigor. After a year and a half of working without pay, he enjoyed the good health Joseph had promised. It was reported in Hyrum’s obituary in 1903 that he lived with Joseph Smith and his family for at least one year while working on the temple.

Hyrum also served for two years in Nauvoo as a bodyguard to Joseph Smith, which included many unique experiences. Joseph and his brother Hyrum’s martyrdom in Carthage, Ill, was the most challenging occurrence he underwent. He also told of one winter when the Missouri River was frozen over, and he and Jess McCorral needed to collect money owed to them. They put on their ice skates and skated almost a hundred miles down the river to see the man who owed them money from work they had performed for him.

Like all the other Latter-day Saints, Hyrum was exiled from Nauvoo and forced to move west, eventually ending up in Winter Quarters, Iowa. Here, he would marry his wife, Sarah Ann Wood, on 6 December 1846.

For the next six years, they would continue living in Iowa until coming west. Hyrum and Sarah and their two sons, David Martin (age 4) and William Henry (age 3), crossed the vast plains together to come to Utah. Their oldest child, Martha, had passed away two years earlier in Iowa, and a second daughter, Catherine Almira (age 3), came to Utah, though not with the family.

Hyrum and Sarah traveled from the 6^th of June to the 1^st of October in 1852 as members of the David Wood company, and the Captain of 50 for this company was Sarah’s father, David Wood. Hyrum is the only child of Selah and Catherine Almira Oaks, known to have come to the Salt Lake Valley with the Saints.

Sarah Ann (Wood) Oaks wrote a brief sketch of her life in 1905, explaining that she was the daughter of David Wood and Catherine Crites. She was born on the 8th of April 1827 in Cornwall, Mount County, Ontario, Canada. She and her parents were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and baptized in 1840 when she was thirteen. Her family then moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, that same year, arriving on the 1st of October. They lived there until mobs drove the Latter-day Saints from the city in 1845. Following this, the Wood family moved with the Saints to Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where she married her future husband, Hyrum Oaks. After traveling across the plains of Nebraska to Salt Lake City in 1852, Hyrum and Sarah settled in American Fork, then moved to Provo until 1858, when they made their way to what was then called Provo Valley – now known as Heber City, Utah. Sarah described that she was the mother of eleven children: six sons and five daughters. Four sons and three daughters were currently living in 1905 when she recorded these things. She and Hyrum also presently had 69 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. Those eleven children and their spouses are as follows:

• Martha Oaks: Born in 1847 in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, when her father was 20 years old and her mother was She died at 3 years of age, though the location and exact date are not presently known, nor is her burial information. It can be assumed that it was in Council Bluffs, Pottawatomie County, Iowa, while the family lived there.

• David Martin (aka Martin David): Born on 2 January 1848 in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie Co., Iowa, when his father was 21 years old and his mother was 18. He married on 2 March 1869 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Abigail Mary Reynolds, who died on 23 December 1912 at the age of 70. Together they had four children. David died on 27 October 1894 in Vernal, Uintah Co., Utah Territory, at 46 and is buried in the Vernal City Cemetery.

• Catherine Almira: Born 2 October 1849, in Pottawattamie County, Iowa when her father was 22 years old and her mother was She married James Marshall Jackson in 1878 in Utah County, Utah, who died on 25 January 1925 at the age of 88. Together they had eight children. Catherine died on 16 July 1927 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah, at 78 and is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

• William Henry: Born on 16 July 1850(?) in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie Co., Iowa, when his father was 23 years old and his mother was 20. He married on 16 November 1869 in the Salt Lake Endowment House to Mary Ann Sessions, who died in 1880 at the age of 31. Together, they had three children, two of whom died before Mary Ann, with all three preceding William in William died on 26 March 1923 in Maeser, Uintah Co., Utah, at 73 and is buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Maeser, Utah.

• Hyrum Edwin (aka Edward): Born 6 January 1854 in American Fork, Utah Co., Utah Territory, when his father was 27 years old and his mother He married on 20 March 1878 in Heber City, Wasatch Co., Utah Territory, to Sarah Ann Watson, who died on 29 January 1933 at the age of 73. Together they had five children. Hyrum died on 13 March 1930 in Maeser, Uintah Co., Utah, at 76 and is buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Maeser, Utah.

• John Osborn: Born 18 May 1856 in American Fork, Utah , Utah Territory when his father was 29 years old and his mother 26. He married on 5 August 1884 in Daniel, Wasatch Co., Utah, to Mary Jane Bethers, who died on 6 November 1950 at the age of Together they had ten children. John died on 25 November 1924 in Daniel, Wasatch Co., Utah, at 68 and is buried in the Heber City Cemetery.

• Margaret Rozella: Born 25 October 1858 in Heber City, Wasatch , Utah Territory (may have been born while the family lived in Fort Heber), when her father was 31 years old and her mother 28. She married on 12 January 1880 in Daniel, Wasatch Co., Utah Territory, to Albert Heber Fullmer, who died on 7 September 1890, just a week before his 38^th birthday. Together, they had five children. She then married on 26 February 1898 in Mapleton, Utah Co., Utah, to David Avery Curtis, Jr., who died on 24 April 1938 at 79. Together, Margaret and David only had one child. Margaret died on 13 February 1902 in Mapleton, Utah Co., Utah at 44 and is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Springville, Utah Co., Utah.

• Sarah Ann: Born 22 October 1859 in Heber City, Wasatch , Utah Territory (may have been born while the family lived in Fort Heber), when her father was 32 years old and her mother 29. She married on Christmas day, 25 December 1879, in Wasatch County, Utah, to Benjamin Franklin Dennis, who died on 23 April 1934 at 81. Together they had eleven children. Sarah died on 25 April 1953 in Morenci, Greenlee Co., Arizona, at 93 and is buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Fruita, Mesa Co., Colorado.

• Mary Agnes: Born 30 November 1862 in Heber City, Wasatch , Utah Territory when her father was 35 years old and her mother 32. She married on 12 January 1880 in Wasatch County, Utah Territory, to Thomas L. Brown, whose death date is unknown presently. Together they had one child. Then, on 12 December 1880, she married again in Heber City, Utah, to Samuel Israel Burgess, who died on 1 April 1909 at 57. Together, she and Samuel had ten children. Mary died on 31 August 1930 in Glines, Uintah Co., Utah, at 67 and is buried in the Maeser Cemetery.

• James Sidney: Born 22 March 1864 in Heber City, Wasatch Co., Utah Territory, when his father was 37 years old and his mother was 34. He married on 13 February 1886 in Heber City, Utah, to Mary Elizabeth Ivie, who died on 8 April 1955 at Together they had seven children. James died on 25 April 1939 in Lyman, Uinta Co., Wyoming, at 75 and is buried in the Lyman City Cemetery.

• Oscar Alonzo: Born 20 March 1866 in Heber City, Wasatch , Utah Territory, when his father was 39 years old and his mother was 36. He lived a little over a month and passed away in May of 1866. He is buried in the Heber City Cemetery.

In the summer of 1859, after living in Provo, Utah County, Utah, for a short time, Hyrum was called upon to serve in the Blackhawk War with the Indians. “This war consisted of an estimated 150 battles, skirmishes, raids, or military engagements from 1865 to 1872, primarily between Mormon settlers in Sanpete and Sevier Counties and other parts of central and southern Utah. The fight was against members of Ute, Southern Paiute, Apache, and Navajo tribes, led by a local Ute war chief, Antonga Black Hawk. Latter-day Saints considered themselves in a state of open warfare. They built scores of forts while hundreds of Mormon militiamen chased their illusive adversaries through the wilderness with little success.”¹

When first coming to the Heber Valley, Hyrum, Sarah, and the other early settlers had ongoing problems dealing with the Indians. The Indians would steal their horses and cattle and threaten their lives. Because of these hostilities, the people felt it was imperative to build a fort to protect themselves – Heber Fort. The first lives lost in this valley by the hands of Indians were the lives of the only two boys of a widow. Hyrum was one of those called out to help search for these boys, and it was discovered that the Indians had placed their bodies by the lakeshore. Snow had covered them, but their blood came to the top of the snow and disclosed their hiding place.

During the thirty years that Hyrum and Sarah lived in the Heber Valley, they first located on the old Heber Creamery Spring after moving from Fort Heber, where they had lived on the North side. After a few years at the Creamery Spring, they moved to the John Cliff place at the mouth of Daniel’s Canyon. There, he farmed and ran a sawmill Hyrum had purchased, which furnished much of the timber used to build the first homes in Heber. Hyrum loved hunting with his sons in the mountains nearby during winter and was known as a great hunter and deadly shot. Sarah’s parents, David and Catherine Wood, also moved to the Heber Valley in 1860, where they built a home in Midway.

In 1963, an “Oaks Family History” was written by L. Weston Oaks, a great-grandson of Hyrum.

He explained that Hyrum did all his own blacksmithing, horseshoeing, and repair work on his sawmill. In later years, he often walked from the village of Heber over to Park City to participate in the Thanksgiving and Christmas rifle shoots for prizes of beef. Hyrum sported a handsome beard and took pride in always being presentable.

¹ Wikipedia, “Black Hawk War (1865-1872),” 8 Feb. 2024.

The Oaks family lived in Daniels Creek until 1889, when they moved the family and Hyrum’s sawmill eastward to Ashley Valley, now known as Vernal. He hauled the sawmill those 127 miles using ox teams, then located it permanently thirty miles north in the mountains in an area known as Oaks Park. He continued working in that sawmill, selling it about a year before his death.

At seventy-eight, Hyrum Oaks died in Maeser, Uintah Co., Utah, on Friday, the 20th of March 1903. He passed from the effects of pneumonia and is buried in the Maeser Cemetery in Uintah County, Utah.

Sarah Ann (Wood) Oaks also died in Maeser, Uintah Co., Utah, on her 79th birthday, Sunday, the 8^th of April 1906. She is buried alongside her husband in the Maeser Cemetery.

The great and wonderful posterity of Hyrum and Sarah Oaks must be approaching one thousand persons, including a great-great son who is presently the first counselor in the presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Dallin H. Oaks.