Delilah Jane Willis Turley

In the fall of 1877 my parents went to the St. George Temple to receive their endowments and to have their five children sealed to them. Two of these children had died in infancy. My parents were blessed with fourteen children. Soon after, my parents, some of my mother's people, the George Gardner family and others left for Arizona. This journey was begun in January, and the weather was most cold and disagreeable. When we arrived at Brigham City it was decided to leave the family here for the remainder of the winter. The people here were living the United Order. My father did not remain here for very long. He and his brother, John Henry Willis, continued to drive their cattle on to the Tonto Basin.

A short time after we were in Brigham City a family moved in with a child who had died with diphtheria. My two little brothers were exposed to the disease and died within two weeks. I did not take the disease but several children in the neighborhood died with it. Mother was left to bury her two little boys alone as it was impossible to get word to father who had gone on to the Tonto Basin. This left mother with one child out of her five. In the Spring, father returned and moved his family to the Tonto Basin. We lived here during the summer. The men had to go to Camp Verde for all our groceries and supplies. Father had quite a lot of flour stored in the mud and log hut we were living in.

One morning when father awoke he saw a large blue racer snake hanging down from the pole rafters over my bed. He jumped and yelled which caused the racer to draw itself up and get away. We were most frightened at the time. There were so many blue racers and rattlesnakes here. It was most beautiful here in the summer. The Tonto Creek ran so clear and there were many fish to be seen swimming in the clear pools.

The fall of 1878 we moved back to Brigham City. I remember going up to the Mormon Dairy, which was south of the railroad town of Flagstaff; however, there was no railroad here at the time. Most all transportation was done by ox team.

When we got to Brigham City my father went on into Utah were he got work at a place called Seeman's Sawmill. My mother and I followed him a short time after. We lived in Johnson, Utah most of the time for a year, when father decided to return to Arizona. We arrived in the fall of 1879. While on the way after crossing the Colorado River by way of Lee's Ferry and about a day s drive out, we overtook William J. Flake and his wife, Lucy, with some men driving the herd of cattle from Beaver City to pay for the Snowflake Valley Brother Flake had purchased from Mr. Stinson. We were most happy to join with these friends.

My parents got out of the wagon to walk along with these good people and to visit. Mother had my baby sister, Mary in her arms and I was left in the wagon. Walking along visiting and paying little attention to the road or wagons, a wheel or the wagon in which I was riding hit a deep rut and turned the wagon completely upside down, the wheels spinning around in the air. My parents were very much frightened. Mother was jumping up and down, crying, thinking I was killed, but when the wagon was righted I crawled out without a scratch or hurt of any kind. This seemed a miracle because I was sitting between two large chests, one a tool chest, the other a clothes chest.

We traveled the remainder of the way with the Flake family, also a Brother and Sister Paul Smith. We settled in the town of Snowflake. I attended the district school. The Academy commenced the fall of 1888.

I was married November 3, 1888 to Alma Reuben Turley. We traveled by team to the St. George Temple. This made five times I went over Lee's Backbone and crossed the Big Colorado River by ferry boat. At this time the Church was under a heavy ban for marrying couples. We were both under age so could not obtain a marriage license. My husband's mother was dead and his father was living in Old Mexico. We had to go through quite a routine to get papers made out before we could be married. We thought for a time we would have to go back across the line into Arizona to have a civil ceremony performed. We were sixteen days on our way to the Temple. We traveled in company with two other young couples, who also were going to be married.

My husband bought us a house in Snowflake where we lived until the year 1900. Five of our children were born there. We then moved to the little town of Woodruff. Here we had a hard struggle to keep up the financial part as we depended on our farm for a living. The people were constantly harassed with dams going out in the Little Colorado River.

I have nine living children out of a family of thirteen. We tried to give our children a high school education. We would have to send them to Snowflake to school. The last four children graduated from the Academy and high school in Snowflake. All have their companions and own their own homes. We have had two sons go on missions as well as a short-term mission. One daughter completed a two year college course and is teaching school. We have sixty-three grandchildren (now a total of 75-1959), and eleven great grandchildren.

I am very proud and thankful for my family. There is not one crippled or deformed one and all have their normal faculties.

I commenced working in the Relief Society when just a girl, tending babies, running errands, etc. At one time a president of the Relief Society told me some day I would become a president of the Relief Society. This was true as I was a president for seven years and was a counselor for five years before being made president. I have enjoyed working in the Sunday School. I have been teacher of different classes since soon after I was married. I have also had the privilege of working in the YWMIA.

I am well and spending my winters working in the Arizona Temple. This is a great joy to me as my patriarchal blessing told me I should spend the latter part of my life working in the House of the Lord. My husband passed away on March 15, 1938. We were able to spend one winter together working in the Temple before he was called away.

I enjoy my life, my family and friends, and above all, my membership in the Church.

Delilah Jane Willis Turley died September 26, 1946 at her little home in Woodruff. She was found dead in her bed by her grandchildren, Clinton and Erlene Kartchner, when they went to take her some freshly churned butter for her breakfast. She had been to visit her two daughters and two sons and her friends, Brother and Sister Q. R. Gardner, the day before. She had attended a show that night. She had suffered some with heart trouble, but none of us realized the seriousness of it, and mother never complained or let any one know how she felt, other than "All right." She was buried in the Woodruff Cemetery along the side of her husband.

Delilah Willis Turley (Additional autobiographical sketch by Roberta Clayton)

I know but very little of my ancestors; only that they were of a religious nature. Their nationality was American a far back as we have any record. Most all favored the Republican platform and were very loyal to this country and its laws. The greater part of them followed agricultural lives.

My birthplace was in a little southern town in Utah–Virgin City. My parents, William W. Willis and Gabrilla Stratton, moved to Arizona when I was six years of age, settling in Brigham City, where the United Order was carried out; lived there one winter when the family moved to the Tonto Basin with my father’s brother John H. Willis, Sr. Stayed there during the summer when they moved back to Johnson, Utah; lived there one year, returned to Arizona, settling in Snowflake, traveling with William J. Flake and his wife Lucy when they were driving their cattle out, overtaking Uncle Paul Smith and his wife Jamima who were waiting at the Colorado River for company.

The second day out after crossing the Big Colorado River, our wagon tipped over upside down. I, being the only one in the wagon, all the company thought I was killed but was taken out unharmed in any way. Resided in Snowflake during the rest of my childhood days. Was married the fall of 1888 to Alma R. Turley, living in Snowflake then moved to Woodruff, Arizona, a small settlement on the Little Colorado River, which is still my home.

Have had many hardships and trials, through the dams going out, depriving us of raising our crops. Through it all I have enjoyed working in the Sunday School, being a teacher over different classes for several years, also the Relief Society, working in it from the time I was a small girl until the present time of writing, as a Teacher, 1^st and 2^nd counselor and president. Was counselor and president 14 years from 1908 to 1922.

My religion and trials are what have influenced my life more than any other thing as it has been my desire to serve the Lord, do what little I could for the good of my associates and family. Have tried to raise my children up to be good citizens and church members; to cherish the Gospel, that the world would be better for their living in it. My husband and I have quite a numerous posterity–five daughters, four sons, fifty-three grandchildren, four great grandchildren. They are our treasures and blessings.