Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Phillips Camp Biographies, Campkin to Curtis

page 33

and his wife EETBlfRA MERRI:E: CoLrJETT Reuben Collett was born July 19, 1839 in Pendock, Worchester, England, the son of Daniel and Esther Jones Collett who left England in 1840 for the United States, locating in Nauvoo, Ill. He remembered the Prophet Joseph Smith very well and also the expulsion of the saints from Nauvoo. His father, a wheelri ght and bl~cksmithe , ~ as a p pointed to supervise the building of wagons, carriages , and equipment for the exodus to the west . They later came to Utah in 1849 and were among the pioneers of east Mill Creek, in Salt Lake Count y . They moved to Lehi, Utah in 1851 and in 1855 he was called to go with a company to establish a mission among the Indians on the Salmon River in Idaho, known later as Fort Lemhigh. The company r e turned to Utah in L858. His mother died · c June 4, 1857 at Lehi and 1859 his father moved the family and settled in Plain City, Weber Co., Utah. He and his father plowed the first irrigation ditch in Plain City with an oxen team. In 1860 he moved to Smithfield, Utah, There he met and married Elthura Merrill. Elthyra Roseltha Merrill wa s born Sept. 13, 1842 in Hancock Macomb, Co., Michigan, the daughter of Samuel Bemes Merrill and Eliz­abeth Runyun Merrill. They were living at Nauvoo at the time of the expulsion and came to Utah in 1849. Samuel settl ed with his family in Mill Creek and in the s p ring of 1860 moved to C a~~ Valley, settling in Smithfiel d. El thura Merrill married Reuben Collett in January 1861. The were the first cop~le marri ed in Smithfield. Their first six children were born there and the first, a girl , died in 1862. In 1864 he went back with his team to Mis s ouri for immi grants. Vmile absent, his son, Reuben , ~as born.