David Joseph Foremaster &
Mary Elizabeth Stratton
David
Mary
David
Mary
LIFE OF DAVID JOSEPH FOREMASTER
Written by his daughter Martha Foremaster Schmutz 1954My father passed away when I was small so I can't remember him. I have left time pass by without trying to get some information about his Life from my mother while she was alive, or from his brothers and sisters, or his friends and acquaintances. I have just a few things about my father.
David Joseph Foremaster was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 11, 1863, the fourth living child of Frederick William and Sophia Lindau Foremaster. About two years later the family was called to St. George to help build the temple. My father grew up as other boys and girls of that time with very little schooling but lots of hard work. He may not have taken advantage of the little opportunity for school that he did have according to a talk I had with my husband's mother, Clorinda Schmutz. I remember asking her one day if she could remember my father, as they used to live within a few blocks of each other. She was a few years older than he. She said one thing in particular she could remember was that he was so much like my son Richard. When Dick was about six years old he was rather slow, and carefree so their looks and actions were very much alike. She told how Grandmother Foremaster would send him off to school and he would come up the street by their fence and find the shade of a tree, if the weather was hot, and there he would spend his time until school was out for noon. Then he would go home for his dinner. In the afternoon he would return and stay until school was out for the day. She said this was a common sight. She also said no one had a chance to go to school for a very long time anyway.
When he was a very young lad, he joined with his two brothers Uncle Albert who was older end Uncle Eph who was two years younger, and started to drive a team. They helped haul lumber and stone for the St. George Temple. As Uncle Albert was somewhat older, he did lots of freighting to Mt. Trumbull for lumber and to railroad centers and my father was taken along to help drive. Like his other two brothers he started to herd and ride after cattle for different men that owned stock, such as Anthony Ivin, James Andrus and also for the church when they owned cattle. In this way they acquired a few head of cattle for themselves.
He spent some time herding cattle for James Andrus out at Scootum or Scootumpaw, as Brother Spencer called it. I heard that Brother Spencer had known my father so one evening I celled on him. As I entered his gate he was digging in the yard. As he came toward me, I told him I was a daughter of David Foremaster and asked if he knew him. He is a man in his eighties and his memory is getting dim. He said he knew my father very well although my father was some few years older. Then he said, "Don't tell me who he married. Let me think first. Oh, yes, he married Mary Stratton. The first time I ever saw her was down by Bloomington as she and her family were coming home from Mesa, Arizona, where they had been living. Then he said he remembered going to Scootumpaw. It was late at night when he arrived there but my father got up, prepared a meal for him and a bed and he spent three days with him. Then he also said, "he was honest, clean, very generous with all he had, and always helped out those who were in need and defended anybody that was being mistreated, or underprivileged." And I thought, "What more could be said of any man." As I left he followed me to the gate, then to the car and said, "You had a wonderful Father."
In talking to John Whipple one evening he said he thought he knew my father as well as anyone, for he had spent six weeks with him under very trying circumstances trailing cattle from the Colorado River to Gunlock. Preston Nutter had purchased 1000 head of cattle in Arizona, intending to trail them from Brunelle's Ferry on the Colorado River to his ranch at Strawberry Mountain in northern Utah. It was about the middle of September 1891 my father along with four other men, Mahonri Snow, Ralph Keats, a man by the name of Montgomery, and John Whipple, who was around sixteen years old at the time, met at the Ferry. Mr. Nutter had gone up to his ranch on the Strawberry for wagons, horses, provisions, and more men. My father was foreman of the outfit which consisted of only their riding horses and two pack horses.
They spent several days at the Ferry waiting for the cattle to arrive. During this time they ran horse races, played horseshoes, and other things to pass the time. When the cattle arrived from the other side there were 21 men with them. After several days out the five men had a very difficult time managing 1000 head of cattle, their provisions became low, also water was hard to find. They ate bottle stoppers to quench their thirst. Their matches gave our and they had to carry coals from one meal to another in a bake skillet. When their rations ran out they killed a beef but being hot weather it spoiled. After several days of this three of the men quit, leaving my father and John Whipple to do the best they could. The horses became too weak to carry them so they had to go on foot. The cattle were stretched out for miles. Finally the leaders sensed that water was close by, then there was such a stampede that the men could do nothing with them. The two men abandoned the herd and went to get water for themselves and horses.
They carried water back to the three men, in their coffee pot. The three men joined in with them again, and after two days and nights of hardship and struggle they finally got the cattle together. They arrived at Bunkerville and secured a sack of flour from Ute Perkins and started on to Gunlock, expecting to get aid from Nutter any day. Before they got to Gunlock, Keats, Snow and Montgomery quit so again father and John were alone. By this time many of the cattle were starving to death and dying of thirst. The horses were in a bad condition. Finally they reached the Santa Clara in below Gunlock and were met by Nutter with fresh horses and men.
After seeing the condition of the cattle Nutter decided to take the cattle to Parashunt which is located almost back to the starting point on the Colorado River. By the time he got there he had lost sixty percent of his herd. This shows how Preston Nutter got started running cattle on the Arizona Strip, also shows the dependability of David Foremaster when assigned a job.
In the meantime he met my mother, Mary Stratton, and they were married December 11, 1893. They Lived in the old rock house that Grandfather Foremaster had built and now is owned by Tony Lytle. They then moved in the home owned by Louise Goff. It was while they were living here that he and Uncle Eph mad a trip out into Hurricane valley. As they were riding along they saw some wild horses off in the distance. My father wanted to get some of those horses. He started after them and his horse stepped in a hole and fell with him. He was badly hurt but managed to go on out to the ranch, but his condition became worse and they brought him home. If I remember right my mother said he lived six weeks. He died at the age of thirty-six. This left my mother alone with two small children and expecting another. She said she never told my father of another child coming because he would have worried so. My sister Minnie was four and a half years old and I was one and a half. Our brother David was born seven months a
er father's death.As my mother's health was not too good she moved back with her mother. Grandmother Stratton was a widow also at that time. After my mother's health improved she and grandmother took in boarders to make a living for their families. It was here that she met William Marshall, who came there to board. On December 4, 1902 they were married. Five children were born to them and Papa Marshall became a true father to we three. An own father could not have been any kinder.
My mother passed away July 16, 1938. She has seven living children, sixteen grandchildren and twenty-two great grandchildren. My father has three living children, eleven grandchildren and twenty-one great grandchildren.
History of Mary Elizabeth Stratton Foremaster not available.