HYRUM JUDD

(1824-1896)

Hyrum Judd was born on August 31, 1824, the fourth child of Arza Judd, Jr. and Lucinda Adams, in Johnstown, Upper Canada.

The family was converted to Mormonism by James Blakely, and Hyrumwas baptized November 1, 1833. His mother died February 5, 1834 and his father later married Jane Stoddard.

The family moved to Kirtland, Ohio, but went to Missouri in 1838 and located at De Witt with John E. Page, who at the time was quite prominent in the Church. His sister, Rachael, married Jacob Hamblin, who later became famous as a scout and Indian missionary in southern Utah and Arizona. After the Mormons were expelled from Missouri, the family resided in Quincy, Illinois for a short time and then went to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1840. His father died in 1840.

Hyrum went to work for Lucius Hubbard Fuller in Warsaw, Illinois,where he met and married Lisania Fuller, June 27, 1844. He lived at Colesville and different places and was at Council Bluffs on July 16, 1846,when he enlisted in the Mormon Battalion, Company E. He was a teamster and so took one of the first wagons that ,ever crossed the continent. His wife stayed in Council Bluffs through the winter where their first son,

Hyrum Jerome, was born February 7, 1847. From there she returned to her parents’ home in Warsaw, and stayed until her husband came back from California.

When the Battalion disbanded in July, 1847, Hyrum acquired several ponies and started for Salt Lake, arriving in time to go back with a company to W inter Quarters. He went back and reunited with his wife and son and then located in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where a daughter, Jane Lucinda, was born May 2, 1849. They arrived in Salt Lake City in the fall and settled at Farmington, where they built a home where they resided until 1857, when they were called to settle the Dixie country.

They went to Santa Clara and built another home, planted an orchard and thought they were fixed for life. Then a big flood came in 1862 and took everything they had. From there they went to Meadow Valley and were in the dairy business for some time. Hyrum then was called to Eagle Valley, where the family built still another home. But later the state line was moved, which left them in Nevada, and they were taxed so heavily that they were all advised to leave.

The family next settled in Panguitch, Utah, where they built another home on a full block and acquired land in two or three places. Hyrum was justice of the peace, captain of the local Minute Men and was also on the school board. He was with one branch of Major Powell’s surveying outfit, with Captain Sutton, for two seasons. He was getting along fine until 1876, when he was called to help settle Arizona. He sold out for what he could get and moved to Arizona in the fall of 1877.

He joined the United Order in Sunset and was put in as Bishop’s Counselor. In 1879 the three camps, Sunset, Brigham City and Joseph City threw their cows together and started the Mormon Dairy twenty-four miles from Flagstaff, and, as Hyrum understood cheese making, he was put in as Presiding Elder and started what is supposed to be the first cheese making outfit in Arizona.

In 1881 he went to the Gila River Valley to live and helped dig the first Mormon canal in the Gila Valley, built another home, got some land and did some freighting. But in a few years people got too thick for him and he went on into Mexico and helped start several little towns there. He died in Colonia Juarez, October 5, 1896. He left a large family which at this writing (1941) number more than 1200 souls. He was a real man, a typical westerner and pioneer.

Daniel Judd, son

Stalwarts South of the Border, page 378

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch