SPENCER WATSON WILTBANK &
ANNE SANDERS
Welcome to the homepage of my g-g-grandparents. This page is still under construction, so please be patient. I am still in the process of gathering histories, pictures, etc. and so it may be awhile before everything comes together.I hope that you will benefit from your visit here. Please feel free to look around and if you want some more information on anyone here, please write to me and request that. Also, if you see mistakes, or if you notice that there are some additions that need to be made to the descendancy lists please let me know so I can correct them. I'm not claiming that the information I am presenting on here is 100% correct, as I could have typed them in wrong, or the information I have may be in error, but I'm presenting it as I have it.
Ancestors Descendants Photo Album Early Family History
Relative Links:
Glynn And Thelma Wiltbank Family (Thelma is in George's line)
Spencer Watson Wiltbank was born 22 Oct, 1824, at Christiana or Wilmington, Castle, Delaware. He was the son of Jonathan 0. Wiltbank & Elizabeth Spencer. Little is known of his early life, his occupation was fishing until he was converted to the LDS Church. After he joined the church his relatives disowned him, so he moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. Soon after he was called on a short mission traveling without purse or script as was the custom in those days.
He left with the Saints in the spring of 1848, in the company headed by Brigham Young, at the same time in the company headed by Heber C. Kimball was a young lady (Annie Sanders) who was to become his wife, on 25 Dec 1848. They later receiver their Endowments in the old Endowment House. The Wiltbank's lived in Salt Lake City for ten years where five of their children were born, Brigham Ellis, Spencer Sanders, Rachel Ellen, Ellis Whitney & Annie Elizabeth. A daughter, Sarah Ida, was born in Farmington, Utah. Their five other children were born in St. George, Utah: Charles Edwin, Wilhelmina, John R., George, and Franklin. Spencer worked on the Salt Lake Temple while they lived in Salt Lake City and while they lived in St. George, he worked on the temple there.
It was in the spring of 1879 that he decided to leave Utah for a new home. After talking to Pres. Snow, he decided to make it Arizona, because he was a farmer at heart and he wanted a place where he could have plenty of land. In that spring he and his son Ellis W. (Ett) came to Round Valley. They planted a crop in Water Canyon and arranged for John Eagar to build the first house, for them, in Amity. They stayed to harvest their crop, returning to St. George in December to find that one month after they left for Arizona, his wife Annie had contracted quick consumption and had died 21 Jun 1879.
In 1880 he left Utah with his four younger children, a trip that he planned for his wife and family but now he was facing it alone with his younger children. He was accompanied on this trip by his daughter, Annie Elizabeth and her husband William Lund, and their two children. They went as far as Snowflake, where they spent the winter.
The early settlers of Amity had hard times for a while, their flour was ground on small coffee grinders, out of wheat, barley, rye, or corn. While living at Amity he was a very active church worker, walking many miles up and down the river to do his ward teaching.
He died in Greer, Arizona at the home of his son, Ellis Whitney on the 7th of May, 1902, and was buried in the Eagar Cemetery.
Anne was born at Wilmington, Delaware on the 11th of Jan 1832. She was the daughter of Ellis Mendenhall and Rachel Broom(e) Roberts Sanders. Her father was among the early converts to the LDS Church and was a personal friend and body guard of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Annie was baptized in the Mississippi River at the age of 15 by her father on the 26th of Jan 1846. When she was 16, she drove a team and wagon across the plains in the Heber C. Kimball company, arriving in Salt Lake City in September 1848. She was married that next Christmas Day to Spencer Watson Wiltbank.
Annie was a good seamstress besides making clothes for her own family, she made gloves and shirts for sale. She was never afraid of the Indian, in fact she did lots of baking for them. She was also handy with water-colors and paints, which she used to beautify her home. While she was preparing for Annie Elizabeth's wedding she had a hemorrhage of the lungs, and it wasn't long after that she died. She is buried in the St. George Cemetery.
Site owned and maintained by Paul E. Price
Updated 1 Jan 08