The Family of Jonathan Heaton

The Family of Jonathan Heaton By Elsie C. Carroll THE greatest salvation for any young man," declares a modern journalist, "is for him to find the right hero, the hero that inspires him along the lines of character and talent which he believes he possesses in the highest degree. A man can do well in anything he attempts if he will just get the right hero, the right ideals in his mind, and never leave them. The biggest thing in any man's life is his heroes." Does the fact that the one hundred eighty-seven living members of Jonathan Heaton's family all keep the Word of Wisdom suggest that they have had the right kind of heroes and ideals to inspire them? At any rate that fact is most interesting in this day of compar- atively loose living — a family numbering one hundred eighty-seven members of whom it can be said that none of them use tea, coffee, to- bacco or liquor; that none of their names are listed among the law- breakers of any court; that they are all living clean, active, successful lives. , That these people do have the right kind of heroes and ideals is suggested by the following statement of one of Brother Heaton's sons ; "We often read in the daily papers and magazines of some man who has accomplished a great thing before he passed to the great beyond. I do not believe in waiting until my father is dead to express my feelings about the great thing he has done. Often in my travels I have heard such expressions as this: 'I wish the old man had left me a little money or property.' Such statements have caused me to ask myself the question, What is the best thing a man can leave to his posterity when he passes from this life? And such pon- derings have made me realize and appreciate the heritage my father The Jonathan Heaton Home at Moccasin, Arizona

April, 1929 THE FAMILY OF JONATHAN HEATON 485 and mother have given me. When I think of the things great men have achieved, I cannot think of anything greater than the achieve- ments of my father and his wives, who have given to the world twen- ty-six sons and daughters, and who, through their noble, unselfish lives and by their precepts and example have taught those children the principles of the Gospel and true citizenship to the extent that they and their families are all trying to live as Latter-day Saints should live." This statement of the son's seems almost like an echo of an ex- pressed prayer of the father's. In commenting upon the success he has had with his family, and in reply to a number of questions, Brother Heaton made this remark in one of his answers: "I think the Lord has been very good to me. Before I was married I used to tell the Lord that if he gave me a family I wanted him to give me strength, wisdom and understanding enough to re- turn them all back to him clean and pure — and that is still my prayer." It is evident that the Lord heard the prayers of that young man The Jonathan Heaton Family. Twenty-five of His Twenty-six Children are here Shown.

486 IMPROVEMENT ERA April. 1929 fifty years ago, and gave him both the family and the wisdom and understanding he desired. Jonathan Heaton was married to Amy Hoyt on his eighteenth birthday, September 22, 1875, in the Endowment House, in Salt Lake City. Three years later he married Lucy Carroll. It is an unusual privilege for a man to celebrate two Golden Weddings in his lifetime, yet that pleasure has been Brother Heaton's. At the time of these marriages, which was, of course, long before the "Manifesto" of President Woodruff, Jonathan Heaton and his wives were mem- bers of the United Order, which was at that time flourishing in the little town of Orderville. He and his wife Amy were the first couple married after the Order was established, and they lived in the Order as long as it lasted. Throughout the Church, United Orders had been organized according to a plan worked out by President Young and other authorities. These operated with varying degrees of suc- cess for a few years after their establishment; but none of the others lasted as long or worked as efficiently as the one at Orderville. There the people lived for about ten years as one big family. They ate together in a large community dining hall, and took turns working in the kitchen, the commissary, the tannery, the woolen factory and the many other shops and offices, just as the members of a large family might do. A large building in the center of the village, desig- nated as "The Big House," together with tents and wagons, provided sleeping quarters for the different families. All the property was held in common, and each person was apportioned what he needed by a controlling body known as the Board of Directors. A strong bond of brotherly love developed among these people, which marked the community for many years after the breaking up of the Order. The few surviving members of the organization still love to recount the good times they experienced "in the days of the Order." In commenting on this period of his life, Brother Heaton re- cently said: "We had no home at that time. During most of the time for a year or two our best room was a wagon box. Our first child was born at the saw mill which used to stand at the forks of the road a number of miles north of Orderville. We were at all times subject to the wishes of the Board of Directors, and didn't stay long in one place." From the time he was seventeen years of age, Brother Heaton was given much responsibility. At that age he was appointed by the Board to act as foreman over a company of men, many of them old enough to be his grandfather. It was a saying among his friends and fellow-workers that Jonathan Heaton could get more willing labor out of men than any one in the community. The secret of this, they claimed, was that his motto was always "come" instead of "go"

April, 19 29 THE FAMILY OF JONATHAN HEATON 487 — a motto to which much of the success of his family can also be attributed. During the period of the Order, Brother Heaton and his wives were called to superintend the work of raising cotton for the Order on a large farm near Washington. They lived there for four years, successfully carrying on the work that had been assigned to them. When asked about the success with which he carried on such responsibilities at so early an age, Brother Heaton replied: "I always thought if the Board had confidence enough in me to put me in such places, I would do the best I could; and as sixty days was all the schooling I ever had, I had to shoot or give up the gun." After the Order broke up, Brother Heaton was chosen coun- selor to Bishop Henry W. Esplin, which position he held for a num ber of years, until he moved to the northern part of Kane county, then called Upper Kanab, the present cite of Alton, which town owes its creation and development to the Heaton family. Today Brother Heaton has a large home at Alton, where his wife Amy resides, and one at Moccasin, Arizona, in which Sister Lucy lives, and many of his sons and daughters have their homes at Home Built by Jonathan Heaton for His Children While They Were Attending High School at Beaver, Utah

488 IMPROVEMENT ERA April. M9 one or the other of these two places. The family has thus been able to work on a cooperative basis, which helps to account for the financial successes it has attained. Besides his two wives and twenty-six sons and daughters and their wives and husbands, Brother Heaton now has one hundred six living grandchildren, eleven grandsons and granddaughters-in- law, and twenty great-grandchildren, making the total of living members in his family one hundred eighty-seven. The contribution of this family in service to the Church is something of which they may well be proud. When asked regarding the missionary work of his family Brother Heaton made this state- ment: "My own children have spent a total of twenty-one years in the mission field. I have spent $19,000.00 for missionary work, and it has brought better returns than any other money I have ever spent. There are three of my grand-children on missions now, and of course my family have used a lot of means for missions besides what I have spent." The fact is, -that twenty of the one hundred eighty-seven mem bers of the family have filled missions, many of them to foreign fields. All of Brother Heaton's sons and daughters except one are engaged in Church activities. At the present time his sons are hold- ing the following Church positions: In stake presidency, 1 ; high councilor, 1 ; bishop (also one just released), 1; bishop's counselors, 2; presidents of elders' quo- rums, 2; president of seventies, 1 ; presidents stake Y. M. M. I. A., 2; secretary of Mutual, 1 ; superintendent ward Sunday School, 1 ; assistant superintendents, 2. His other children are all engaged as teachers, secretaries, etc., in the different organizations. The members of Brother Heaton's family have not alone been successful in their religious lives, but thy have achieved temporal suc- cess as well. They all have good homes and good businesses — his sons being chiefly engaged in stock-raising, farming and building — and are among the leading citizens in the communities in which they live. When asked how he had accomplished so much with his family along the lines of personal success, Brother Heaton made this comment: "I have always kept them busy, letting them use their own judgment and initiative as much as possible, and I have tried to give them a practical education — and, above all, my children have had good mothers. We have always tried to be as one." One of the sons in commenting upon the success of his father with this large family said: "I believe the reason father and our mothers have succeeded

April, 1929 THE FAMILY OF JONATHAN HEATON 489 The Jonathan Heaton Home at Alton, Utah so well in this is because they have always prayed with us every night and morning, and have taught us to pray from our infancy. Father eliminated the devil's work-shop, idleness, by always having something for us all to do. We have all been well taught and I believe that to marry well and to rear clean, noble families is the greatest calling of Latter-day Saints. I know nothing more valuable that could be given to a family than the examples and teachings that have been given to us." Brother Heaton and his two deserving wives are all in the best of health and are living happily and contentedly in the Kanab stake surrounded by their splendid families. It must truly be a source of satisfaction to them to watch this procession of fine men and women they have given to the world, going forward, clean and upright, in the service of their fellow-men and their God. This living monument to the ideals and precepts and examples of these parents should serve as a source of inspiration to other parents still going through the struggle of endeavoring to mould real men and women. Also the successful lives of the children of Brother Heaton should convince young people of our Church that the best heroes boys and girls can take to serve, as inspiration and guides, are their own heroic Latter-day Saint fathers and mothers.