While there is little recorded about Ormus Arba Lambson and his descendants, (we will try to change that when we get back to Missouri) there is considerable about his brother Frank and his descendants (and why not...they compiled this book, where I am obtaining much of my material).   There is much that is amazing, touching, and funny about these cousins of ours, so I thought I would share some of these in the next few entries.

GIFT FROM FRIENDS

As as young lady, Ann Henderson, a noted writer, witnessed and recorded the following anecdote in which a group of Ramah Elders, Including FRANK, figured prominently.  This took place about 1917.  Homesteading was still taking place in selected areas of the West.  The Henderson family had recently settled near Whitewater, an area bordering the Zuni Reservation about twenty-five miles northwest of Ramah (See map page 79).

Their log house was nearly finished.  Only the windows and doors needed to be put on.  Then the Jim Hendersons could move into their new 'log cabin' home.

The fall harvest was lagging.  Jim had to quit work for now at the saw mill so he could get the crop in.  They had to get potatoes dug, the corn in the bin, the cabbage pulled and hung, the beans pulled and dried and ready for thrashing [sic].  Jim and Hattie were working hard and fast to get the harvest done.  Now the oat hay was stacked and the bean hay was salted and also in a stack.  The potatoes were in the bin in the cellar.  Jim and Hattie had shredded enough cabbage one night for a five gallon crock of sauerkraut.  The rest of the cabbage was hung by the roots upside down from the cellar ceiling cross the beams to keep for winter.

While Jim was finishing part of the roof, he fell, and was badly injured.  They were worried about Jim, the roof and the windows and the rest of the harvest.  Hattie could not do all of the work.  Jim tried very hard to help Hattie but was in so much pain he could not help.  When Hattie was alone she cried and prayed. 'Dear Father, please help us if we are worthy,' she said.  'Jim is down.  A winter storm is brewing.  The beans need to be thrashed and carried in.  The house needs finishing.  Please, God, help us.  amen.' 

Hattie knew she could not get all of her winter preparation...work done now as she must do the most necessary jobs first.

Ann was getting bigger now.  She was seven years old, willing to help...

One early morning Ann was...washing the breakfast dishes by the kitchen window and happened to...see six wagons of people come over the hill towards their log house.

Ann called...'Mamma, look!  There are wagons coming!'...

'Six wagons, piled with something.  And men and women too,' she said.  Then Hattie looked again  in disbelief and wonderment...

...The wagons came and stopped in front of Jim and Hattie's half-done house.  Hattie was afraid.  Then someone knocked on the door.  Hattie...opened...A bearded man, about forty years stood at the door.

He said, 'Hello, Ma'am.  Is this the Jim Henderson home?

'Yes,' said Hattie, 'Yes it is."

The man asked 'Is Jim Henderson here?'

Hattie replied, 'Yes he is, but he is in bed.  He is hurt and cannot come...'  At this moment Jim called out, 'Hattie, bring the gentleman in here to my bedroom to talk to me.'

Hattie showed the way...the man walked into the room...and put his hand out to shake hands with Jim saying, 'We are from the Church of Latter-day Saints from Ramah, south of here.  I am Frank Lambson.  There are also Bonds, Crockets, Clawsons, Days, and Merrills here.  This is my brother Gene...we have come here to help you finish your house.  There is a major storm coming.  You need to have your house finished before the storm hits here.'

Jim said, 'Yes, Mr. Lambson, I know, but I cannot do any work yet.'

'We are here to help and do the work for you,' Mr. Lambson said.

Jim answered, 'I can't pay you, Mr. Lambson.  I do not expect you to do my work with no pay.'    

'Mr. Henderson, we do not want pay.  You are in need.  We are God's people and must help one another.  Maybe someday some of us will need help and you can return to help us if you want to.  But you will not owe us anything,' Mr. Lambson assured Jim.

Then Jim spoke up.  'I also do not have the necessary supplies to finish our house.'

Mr. Lambson answered, 'We brought the necessary supplies, Mr. Henderson, so now we will start to work.  If you will tell your Missus, we also have ladies that will help her.'

Like a drone of locust, the men and women from Ramah worked all over Hattie and Jim's new home.  They put the windows into the walls.  At once the ladies put curtains on every window.  The men finished the roof on the whole house, then completed the porch.  They brought in the beans, thrashed and stacked them, harvested the winter squash and the rest of the small crop.  The ladies brought with them over a hundred jars of home canned fruits, relishes, pickles, jams and jellies to give to Jim and Hattie for winter food help.  They brought homemade quilts.  They even brought wood all sawed the right length for the fireplace and stove.  Each wagon was loaded with supplies...The Mormons carried all of the cut wood in and stacked it onto the covered porch so it would be dry and easy to get to.

When this day and work was ended, the Mormon work train left.  Jim shook hands with the Mormon men and thanked them many times saying, 'If I can ever help you, please let me know.'  Harriet cried and said, 'Thank you God for answering my prayer...Now we can make it through this winter.'          

  

     

Myth-Busting

There is not a lot of information recorded about my great-grandfather, Ormus Arba Lambson, nor his wife, Rose Stradling, nor their descendants, including my grandfather, Paulos Byron, and his siblings.  The history Our Lambson Family Barnabas - Boaz: Ridgewell to Ramah 1635 -1992 does not add a great deal.  In fact, there is more in the histories of Joseph and William Stradling I posted earlier, on July 21st of 2018.  However, what there is serves to reinforce the Stradling history, and debunks a myth my family grew up with, that Ormus Arba was a gunslinger and likely died in a gunfight.  What I have been able to put together, recorded below, is taken from the Lambson Family history.

Ormus Arba's father was Apollos Boaz, son of Arba Lorenzo, the source of his middle name.  How he got his first name is a little bit more humorous:

"At about twenty-two years of age, APOLLOS left Springville (Utah) to make his own life, being drawn generally toward Tooele or Rush Valley, west of Salt Lake City, where the Bates family resided.  Circumstances indicate that he had met his future wife at a much earlier age in Iowa.  It is likely that the families were in touch from that time on.  Regardless of the circumstances, he sought permission to marry Anjenette, and Ormus Bates (her father) refused.  The story goes they ran away to Levan, were married and then returned to Rush Valley to break the news to the bride's family.  The first year of their marriage was spent in Rush Valley where their oldest son was born in December 1867.   APOLLOS wastwenty-four years old.  We assume the supposed rift was immediately mended as he gave his first son the name of both his father-in-law and his father, Ormus Arba, his second son the name of Ephraim (Ormus Bates' middle name) and his third son, Bates.  In 1869 they were married in the Salt Lake Endowment House returning to live in Levan, Utah where their next two children were born." (P. 67)

"...In 1875 APOLLOS was called by the L.D.S. general authorities to help in the coloniozation of the Arizona Territory outposts.  In 1876 they arrived with their teams and wagons at the small Mormon fort near Winslow...

It was in this general area that our first recorded word of mouth history from FRANK comes.  He told of his older brother Arba, and is work in Sunset with the Hashknife Ranch.  'Arb' was one of several young Mormons hired to take care of the cattle in the rustler-infested territory.  It was in that place and at that time, Ormus Arba developed a reputation as a gun fighter and a fine fiddler." (P.68)

"On to the Zuni  Mountains APOLLOS went with his sons ARBA, EPHRAIM, FRANK, AND GENE...And  on south they would go, down into the blistering Sonoran Desert country of the Gila River Valley of Arizona...It was there in the year 1894, that his last child was born; and it was there that his beloved wife died.  ...FRANK was eight years old, and bis oldest brother (ARBA) was twenty-seven.

With Anjenette's death, APOLLOS was left with six children from thriteen years down; and eight years later, ARBA, his oldest son, died from "consumption," which may be construed to mean any number number of respiratory lung ailments.  ARBA left a young family and his widow, Rose Stradling Lambson." (P.70)

Here the Lambson and Stradling histories disagree, and the Stradlings have it right...Rose died before ARBA, in July of 1902, and was buried in Provo, and the children were taken to live with Rose's sister Mary (Stradling) Cook and her husband George in Provo.  Arba would die not eight months later in St. Johns, Arizona and is buried there.

The one other item relating to ARBA attests to his musical ability:

"Little history can be found for ARBA, the first child of APOLLOS, at this time.  Fannie, his sister, stated that he was not just a fiddler, but was 'extremely good'". (P. 73)

So, Ormus Arba was named to create peace between his father and grand-father in law, was not a gun-slinger, but a gun-fighter, fending off cattle rustlers, was a good musician, and died of consumption, not a bullet, at the young age of 35.  Myths busted.

         

            

Saturday, March 2nd, 2019

WHATS IN A NAME?

I know it has been a while...ok, over 2 months, but not a full quarter.  At any rate, I am easing back in with a short one.

In reading through "Our Lambson Family - Barnabas to Boaz" I came across a section dealing with the various permutations that are known in the spelling of our family name.  I quote from page 3:

"Research on the family name has given us the following information:

  'Various forms of the name are as follows: Godwin Lambesune...Berkshire during the reigns of            Henry III and Edward I...Johannes and Ricardus Lambeson resided in Yorkshire in  1379...                  Thomas Lamson appears in Court Rolls in the reign of Edward IV and William Lampson in                 the time of Queen Elizabeth....' "[To this we can add that it was recorded in Essex County in                 the 16th Century with the spelling LAMBSON.]"  (Bardsley): Dictionary, English and Welsh               Surnames."

 "The earliest mention of our name in America is William who, it is recorded came from England in 1634.  He appears on a list of freemen in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1637.  BARNABAS arrived in 1635, and is recorded as a Selectman in 1636.  Thomas is found at about the same time. He did not settle in Massachusetts but went to New Haven, a very early Connecticut settlement.  BARNABAS settled in Newtowne, later named Cambridge, Massachusetts, living there until his death around 1640. These three men, with Colonial records generally spelling the name , "Lamson or Lampson" are purported to be closely related, possibly brothers.  It is recorded that William and Thomas were christened in Terling, Essex, England, but we have not yet found BARNABAS' place of birth. (Taken in part from the writings of Dr. W. J. Lamson.)"

Sooooo......spell it however you  want😊.