Webmasters note: Following is some very interesting information about the Betts, Miller and Powell families, told by Elizabeth Betts Miller. Elizabeth is the daughter of Ebenezer John Betts and Hanna Susan Powell. Ebenezer Betts was the son of Peter Betts and Eliza Franklin. Peter immigrated to the United States at age 46, in December of 1848 and landed at New Orleans, Louisiana. We believe he left Liverpool, England on the ship "Counin" with Captain Mellon. It appears that he returned to England and then came to the United States with his family in 1850.
 

I, Elizabeth Betts Miller, was born in Payson, Utah, January 8, 1887. I am the daughter of John Ebenezer Betts and Hannah Susan Powell Betts, and one of eleven children, who follow according to age: John, James, Susan, Elizabeth, William, Charles, George, Jesse, Reid, Roy and Ruth.

We moved to Salt Lake City in 1902 and lived there until my marriage to Henry Daniel Miller on February 27, 1907. My husband and I lived in Midvale, Utah, then called Dingham Junction, where my first daughter, Dorothy, was born March 25, 1908. My second daughter, Henrietta, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on September 22, 1909.

My husband and I moved back to Salt Lake City, in 1922, where my husband was employed at the Granite Hardware.

I was born of pioneer parents. My mother's mother was born in Hanover, Wales. Her father was born in England. Their home was used as a missionary headquarters. While the missionaries were staying with my grandparents, my grandfather Powell became seriously ill. The Elders administered to him and promised that he would be healed and be able to bring his tools to Utah and help work on the temple, as he was a stone-cutter by trade. They joined the L.D.S. Church and with their six children sailed from Liverpool, England, March of 1856 on the sailing vessel Enoch Mann with Captain Edmond Ellsworth. After three weeks at sea a terrible storm came up and blew them back until the shores of Ireland could be seen. Their little girl Sara Ann died and was buried at sea. They landed in Boston, Massachusetts and took a train to Ohio. From Ohio, they were to have taken a train across the Mississippi River, but they arrived too late to make the train. My grandfather said this was an "act of providence" as the bridge collapsed and all aboard the train were drowned. They eventually made it to Iowa, where they stayed while grandfather helped to build handcarts, as at that time oxen and wagons were no longer available. They were members of the first Handcart Company, Edward Ellsworth was Captain.

Their journey across the plains was very hard, especially on my grandmother, who had a young baby boy, David, just three weeks old. Although the older children and grandfather often went without eating so grandmother could have more, she was unable to give the baby proper nourishment and he became ill. He managed to survive, but at the age of 19 was killed in a snow slide with a brother-in-law in Payson Canyon. After a long journey and many hardships, they arrived in Emigration Canyon on September 26, 1856. Brigham Young and a group of his followers met them at the mouth of the canyon and brought them food, for which they were most grateful. They rested for a few days and then pushed on into Salt Lake and settled in the 16th Ward. Grandfather Powell worked only 16 days on the temple, then died of Cholera.

After five years Grandmother Powell moved to Payson, where her children all married.

My father's parents, the Peter Betts family, were converted to the L.D.S. Church in England and arrived in the United States in 1850. He died in New Orleans one year after his arrival. The family moved to St. Louis, Missouri where the older sister and brother lived. The boys, Richard, James and John, together with their mother, started for Utah. In Wyoming, John, my father, joined a return wagon train, while the others continued. They settled in Payson, Utah. John worked with wagon trains carrying supplies all along the Mississippi River and into Mexico. One year later he returned to St. Louis, Missouri, where he finished learning his trade as wood finisher, painter, graining and paper hanging. He returned to Payson when his mother died in 1868.

My grandfather, Peter Betts, was a carriage maker and had a shop near London. He was commissioned by the King, I believe Queen Victoria's father, to build a carriage for the Queen, who was not very strong. Peter Betts invented a spring for the carriage. The King was so delighted that he Knighted him. There is a Coat of Arms in the Tower of London. His son, Richard Betts, received permission to photograph it and I have the original photograph that was brought back from London. I understand that there is also a copy in the archives, but I have never seen it.

William N. Betts, the eldest son, returned to England and worked in the shop with his father. His father taught him to make the springs. William returned to the United States during the Civil War. I don't know if the spring was ever patented, but William and his brother Peter had a shop in St. Louis and started making springs for carriages, wagons and for the first railroad cars that carried them. They sold out in St. Louis and went around the horn to San Francisco, California. Peter wanted to farm and went south and had a farm where the city of Long Beach, California now stands.

William built a factory in San Francisco and manufactured springs for railroad cars. He tried to get as many relatives as would come to learn the trade. Among them were two boys named Porter, and two nephews by the name of Wild. They worked with him until the earthquake and fire of April, 1905. He was considered a multi-millionaire at the time, but was wiped out. The factory was situated on the corner of Market and Fremont Streets. Almost one half of the factory and sidewalk sank 15 feet. He died of a heart attack.

His son, Percy, and other relatives, saved as much of the machinery as they could and built a small factory on Fremont Street. It has been enlarged many times. I visited it the last time I was in San Francisco. I didn't know I had so many relatives on the West coast. It is known as The Betts Spring Company.

Shortly after my father and mother were married in June, 1869, he and his brother, James Betts, leased a saw-mill in Payson Canyon. They chopped the trees and my father sawed the lumber and James overseen the shingle mill. The lumber was used for flooring and sheathing, shingles for finishing the roofs. During that time, my father built a chest of drawers, in which no nails were used. He painted and grained it and I still have it in my home. The original paint is still intact in spite of the fact that it is over 91 years old. Two years later, he and James examined the soil on the hill south of Payson. Nearly all the houses in Payson were cut from logs. They started an adobe yard. Many of the buildings were later made of adobe. Among them were the old Co-op Store, the tithing office, and the most prominent was the L.D.S. Church, later called the Nebo Stake House. The church later burned down and all the records were destroyed, but a beautiful new Church now stands on the ground. Many of the dwellings in Payson, Goshen, Benjamin, Spanish Fork, Salem and Santaquin were built of dobes and later with bricks.

In 1878, they went up Payson Canyon to get wood for fuel. My mother's brothers, James and David Powell, were both killed in the only snow slide ever known to have occurred in Payson Canyon.

The next spring, my father converted the adobe yard into a brick yard. The Opera House, and Whitman Hotel and many prominent residences were made of brick from this yard.

In the spring of 1882, my father, John, was taken seriously ill and was bedridden for 13 months. He was forced to sell the brick yard and then returned to his trade that he had learned as a young man. My father and a traveling artist, John Have, and a local artisit, John Fairbanks, also the father of Avard Fairbanks, the prominent sculpturist, painted all the scenery of the Payson Opera House, which my father managed for 8 years. He also did the painting and graining in the building. Other buildings he worked on were the L.D.S. Church; the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches and some of the better homes in Payson.

During this time he was a member of the Payson Dramatic Company, of which I was also a member. He also became interested in civic affairs. He was Health Officer and held every office in the Payson City Council with the exception of Mayor, which he declined. He was elected representative from Utah County to the Second Legislature after Utah became a State. I have been told that he was instrumental in getting some of the buildings erected for the University when it was located on the west side where West High School now is situated. His name, John E. Betts is on a plaque in the P--rc Building on the University Campus. He was active in Church affairs and was President of the Seventies until he left Payson. Due to his long illness, the livelihood of the family became the responsibility of his wife and children. With the help of the older boys, he still worked with his trade. The oldest daughter, Susan, married young and the boys drifted to Eureka, Utah and other places where they could earn a better living. Some of us were employed in Salt Lake City, so he and my mother decided to sell the house in Payson and move to Salt Lake City in 1902.

My mother died April 16, 1916. After her death my father sold his home in Sugarhouse and spent time visiting with Susan in San Jose, California. Upon his return to Utah he was unable to return to his trade, so built a chicken coop on some ground I used and owned in Holiday. He alternated living with me and my sister Ruth for two years. He was very successful with the chickens, but had to abandon this after a severe attack of erysipelas. He had been gathering willows along a ditch bank and had lost consciousness. He was severely sunburned and upon regaining consciousness rubbed his face and his neck with his hands which were soiled, causing an infection. I nursed him for 4 months at my home in Sugarhouse and upon his recovery he moved to my brother, Reid's, home. Here he remained until a year before his death when he moved in with James. The people in Holliday brought trees to him which he cut up into fireplace length logs and sold them for a living. He did this until one week before his death on December 24, 1932. Five boys and my sister Susan died between 1913 and 1938. Three boys have died since, leaving myself and my sister, Ruth C. Gail of Roosevelt, Utah, the only surviving children.