A Life History of

PHOEBE ANN GRIFFETH (HYDE)

by Matilda Miles

Phoebe Ann Griffeth was born February 9, 1847, at Garden Grove, Iowa. She was the oldest child of Patison Delos Griffeth and Elizabeth Carson. Her paternal grandparents are, Judah Griffeth and Maria Rockwell. Her maternal grandparents are, George Carson and Ann Hough.

Phoebe was a snail woman, about five feet four inches tall and weighed 120 lbs. She had dark brown hair and eyes. She was rather serious, a firm woman, stern with the children, but kind and was loved dearly by them, as well as by her nieces and nephew, and everyone that knew her. She was a solid Latter—Day Saint. When she was four years old her parents left Nauvoo and started for Utah. She experienced some of the hardships of those days. At one time a mob came to Nauvoo and the Saints feared they were all going to be killed. Phoebe’s Father took her mother and the two small children out into the corn field where they had to stay for several hours in rain storm, while her father went back to help fight of f the mob.

Phoebe crossed the plains in 1851 in the William H. Walton Co. After arriving in the valley the family lived in Cottonwood, Lehi and Cedar Fort. She lived and grew up as other pioneer girls did working, and sharing, glad for what food and clothing they could get. While they were living at Cedar Fort, President Brigham Young asked Phoebe’s Father to go with a scouting party up into Cache Valley. As a consequence her father, Patison Delos Griffeth, William Hyde and several other families gathered their belongings together and moved to Cache Valley where they started a new settlement. At this time Phoebe was thirteen years old.

The Griffeths and the Hyde. lived very close together and were always the best of friends. When Phoebe grew to womanhood, William Hyde had already married four women, but felt he had room in his heart for the lovely neighbor girl. On August 31, 1867 Phoebe and William were sealed in the Endowment House. The sealing being performed by President Heber C. Kimball. She became the fifth wife to William Hyde.

All the families lived in one large house with separate quarters for each wife and children. There was order in the house

and all were congenial. Each child knew where to go at mealtime. On holidays the women decided what should be served in the home and each one cooked the same food for their family dinner.

William and Phoebe had one daughter, Martha Elizabeth, but she only lived a short time. They had three sons, Wilford Andrew, Delos William, and John Alma. When John was about three weeks old his mother was left a widow. William Hyde died in March 1874. While living in Cache Valley, William Hyde was appointed the first Bishop of the new settlement and it was named Hyde Park in his honor Phoebe’s father, Patison Delos Griffeth, and Molene Simpson were his two counselors.

After Phoebe’s husband died she moved into a log house close to her father, who had moved from Hyde Park and located on the sand hills about two miles west of where the Fairview Idaho ward chapel now stands. Her father, with the help of her two brothers, Andrew and Edward, provided for her and her family. Edward said, ‘1 remember many times seeing my father carrying a sack of flour and other things to eat over to my Aunt Phoebe’s house.” During this time Phoebe’s sister, Urmina had married Heman Hyde, a nephew to William Hyde, her first husband. Heman and Urmina also moved to Fairview and took up a homestead and began to farm. (This is the farm where Robert J, Bodily lived and owned). They persuaded Phoebe to take up the place south and adjoining their property. While living here in Fairview, close to her sister and her husband, Phoebe and Heman became interested in each other, and Phoebe became again a plural wife to Heman Hyde who was serving as Bishop of the Ward. They were married in 1884.

Soon after their marriage, the officers found out and the “Deps” (as those unpleasant persecutors of the Mormon polygamists were called), began to make their unpleasant visits. They never succeeded in catching Heman, hard as they tried. He was forced to move his family into Star Valley, Wyoming. From this marriage came the following children. George Albert, Phoebe Ida, Leroy Griffeth. Leroy died as a child. George William and John, children of Phoebe’s first husband, died within a few weeks of each other when a siege of typhoid fever struck a little town in Nevada where the were living. As of this writing (1968), Phoebe Ida, (Mrs. Albert Miles) is still living in Star Valley, Wyoming.

Phoebe Ann lived in Grover, Wyoming until her death January 11, 1891. Heman Hyde was born in Kaysville, Utah February 3, 1855 and died November 5, 1943 at the home of his daughter, Dora Porter at Payson, Utah.

Matilda Miles Box 155 Afton Wyoming