Because of Indian troubles, Glenwood was vacated, so Joseph Laban Wall and his wife Selena Doel Stevens went to live in Manti. While they were living there, their fourth child was born, William John Wall, on the 19th of July, 1868. In 1870 Glenwood was resettled so the family moved back there. They built the old flour-mill and started in the farming business. Joseph and Selena were blessed with a family of ten children. They worked hard for a living and sometimes they didn't have enough money to buy shoes for their children, so William's mother would make shoes out of old overalls. William went through the third grade in a one room adobe schoolhouse. In August when he was 12 or 12 years old, he was out cutting grain, when a bee stung one of the horses and it threw the reighns out of his hands, so he junped off the binder to stop the horses. By so doing, he was knocked down and thrown in a ditch and a piece came off the binder and broke his leg. He laid in the ditch in the hot sun for many hours before his brother came and found him. They rushed him to the Doctor, but he was not able to do a very good job setting the leg so that for the rest of William's life he had one bad leg. When he was 15 years old, he started freighting with his Uncle. They would make one trip a mont. While he was greighting, he brought the first printing press to Glenwood. While on their trips, they would be gone for 2 to 3 weeks. Many nights they slept out in the snow and rain. When he was 22 years old, he met and fell in love with Jensine Mortensen from Ephraim, Utah. They were married Dec. 17th, 1890 in the Manti Temple. They made their first home in Glenwood. They were the parents of 5 children and were very happy together. They worked hard making aliving ans were loved by all their friends and neighbors. When their oldest daughter was 3 years old they moved to Aurora, Utah. Their happiness was ended after 14 years of marriage when Jensine died at the age of 35 from heard troubles. This left William to raise his children alone. He would hire a woman to take care of the children and his girls, being 13 and 10, would do whaty they could to help out. On the 20th of August, 1907 he had some more bad luck, his two sons who were nine and six were drowned: Brothers Lynn (9 years old) and Webber (6 years old) drowned in the Sevier River. They had gone to take the cows to the pasture, and on the way back stopped to go swimming. One got into a whirlpool and the other tried to help him. Lynn was found at 8 pm and Webber was found 2 miles down the river the following day at noon. Three years after the death of his first wife, he married Pearl Kennedy, the 11th od December, 1907 in the Manti Temple. They were married for 53 years. They were the parents of two sons, both called by death when small children. The one was 7 years old and the other one was 7 days old. They took in a young boy by the name of Jimmie who lived with them for 7 years. William had 21 grand children, 58 great grand children, and 23 great-great grand children. William was very ambitious, he always raised many beautiful flowers and a nice vegetable garden. He took great pride in the way his lot and surroundings looked. On the 25th of June, 1959 he was stricken with cancer and was confined to his bed for the next ten months. He died April 21, 1960. |