Isabella DEANS

  Noted events in her life were:

• Emigration, 1853, USA. Utah Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Records
Isabel Deans female 26 August 1847 Arrival 1 June 1853 Deseret USA Death date 20 May 1926

• Census, 1870, St George, Utah, USA. Washington St George Ephriam is a farm labourer with daughter Frances and son Ephriam

• Census, 1880, St George, Utah, USA. Washington St George Ephriam is a carpenter with daughters Frances, Agnes and Edith and son David D

• Census, 1900, St George, Utah, USA. Washington St George with Ephriam and sons David, Henry, Robert , Wallace and daughters Edith and Gladys

• Census, 1910, St George, Utah, USA. Washington St George widow with Edith, Henry H, Robert E, and Gladys

• Census, 1920, St George, Utah, USA. Washington St George head of house widowed living with daughter Gladys
Entered as separate household son Hanry H with his wife and two daughters

• Death, 1926, St George, Utah, USA. Senile debility

• Obituary, 1926, St George, Utah, USA. Isabel was born in West Houses, Edinburg, Midlothian, Scotland, the second child to David and Helen Haswell Deans. Her father died when she was an infant. Her mother Helen was a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (It is unknown whether her father,David, had joined the faith also.) In 1849 at age 3 she emigrated with her mother and brother to America. Presumably they landed in New Orleans and travelled by steamboat to St. Louis. There in St. Louis while preparing for the long journey west, her mother married another Scotsman and convert to the Church named Archibald McNeil. By 1853 they were in Salt Lake City. The next several years were spent primarily in Salt Lake City and Pleasant Grove, Utah. In 1861 the family pioneered again in St. George, Washington County. Her step father was a highly respected craftsman and builder.
At the age of 19, Isabel married a craftsman/builder by the name of Ephraim Wilson. They are the parents of Agnes Wilson Frei

• Life. The Saleratus Biscuit
In the early settlement of Utah's "Dixie" there were no rich; but different degrees of poverty among the people. However, they made their homes and surroundings as comfortable as they could under the existing conditions and later made "the desert blossom on the rose". In St. George there lived a boy and girl who are the characters in this story. The girl's name was Isabel Deans; the boy's name, Ephriam Wilson, familiarly known as Bell and Eph. They lived on adjoining lots and saw each other often.
It was the custom to turn the oxen out at night to forage for themselves, as food was scarce. The only food available was corn fodder or begasse (sorghum cane after being run through the rollers of a cane mill to extract the juice, then dried). One morning, Eph arose and went to find the oxen to start the day's work. He was a fine specimen of young manhood. He went whistling away without his breakfast. The animals had strayed farther than was their wont and when noon came Eph had not returned. Bell kept a watchful eye on the place next door. When it came time to prepare the midday meal at her home, Bell's mother said that as a special treat to relive the monotony of corn or caneseed bread, she would make some biscuits. In those days the people got soda, or saleratus from soda springs, out in Clover Valley, Nevada. The soda would rise like alkali on the ground and was then scooped up as clean as possible, but though they did their best, some dirt would always be mixed with it. There were other minerals in the substance, and when the housewife used it she would put some of it in a vessel and pour water on it to dissolve it and let the soil settle to the bottom, afterward, pouring off the liquid. In this way it was hard to tell just how much to use. When dinner was prepared, Bell said, "Mother, I would be glad if you would give me my biscuits. I do not feel like eating them now." Her mother, with an understanding heart, gave her two biscuits. They were yellow with saleratus, but still they were biscuits. She put them in her apron pocket.
Bell watched the shadows lengthen as the sun crept towards the Black Hills as she waited anxiously for Eph. Finally, she decided she must go to meet him. She walked up the sandy road around the point and up by Dodge's Spring keeping a watchful eye for her sweetheart. At last she stopped. It was not safe to be so far away from home after nightfall. Anxiety forced her to go only to the next turn. To her joy she saw Eph sitting dejectedly on a stone by the roadside, too tired, too hungry, and too worn-out to go further. She quietly hastened to him. The sand deadened the sound of her footsteps. She put a hand on his shoulder, took out the two precious biscuits and gave them to him. He took her in his arms, kissed her and said, "Bell, you are an angel. I had gone as far as I felt that I could go, but you have brought me new life and courage." They sat there and talked as he ate the biscuits, then arm in arm they made their way home without the oxen. They were married not long afterward, going with an ox team to Salt Lake City to the Endowment House. They reared a large family in "Dixie". When Aunt Bell told me this story Uncle Eph added, "I can never remember at any time in my life when cake tasted as good to me as Bell's saleratus biscuits." Bell and Eph are sleeping in the cemetery at St. George.

Isabella married Ephriam WILSON. (Ephriam WILSON was born on 4 Mar 1844 in Illinois, USA and died on 15 Jul 1908 in St George, Utah, USA.)