PART SIXTY-ONE

The Gloucestershire and Worcestershire to Utah Line

Updated August 2024

Whilst this is a relatively new line to the Collett Family History website, most of the details were previously contained, in error, in Part 5 – The Tewkesbury Line. It was only the discovery of the adult baptism record for William Collett (Ref. 5M20), which was kindly provided by Darcey Slaughter from Columbia in Missouri, that has enabled this error to be corrected. This vital information, received in December 2011, revealed that he was the son of Thomas Collett by his wife Mary Vellender, rather than the son of Henry Collett and his wife Sarah Woodford. In addition to this, Darcey has also supplied other details which have helped to build a more accurate picture of William Collett (Ref. 61N2) and his family.

Over the preceding six years there have been many other contributors of information for this family line and they are Mark R Collett of Utah, Lu Rae Mortensen nee Collett (Ref 61S5), Clive Long, Janice Evans, and David Young Thomas, (Ref. 61R33) of Utah, whose great-great-grandfather was Reuben Collett (Ref. 61P4) of Pendock in Worcestershire and Smithfield of Cache County in Utah.

The new information added in October 2014 was kindly provided by Lee Ward Collett (Ref. 61R119) of Hagerman in Idaho, Tom Rogers from Bountiful in Utah – the son of Lucille Rogers nee Collett (Ref. 61R4), while the new photographs were supplied by Sharron Collier nee Collett (Ref. 61S1) of Provo in Utah.

Furthermore, new details received from Mark R Collett in Utah would appear to provide a line of descendants leading back to Thomas Collett (Ref. 1D1) 1485-1538 at the start of Part 1 – The Main Gloucestershire Line. However, clarification is being sought on a section of the family line relating to William (Ref. 61I1) the son of Henry (Ref. 6H1), who in turn was the son of another William (Ref. 61G1) who was born around 1590. The main problem seems to be that William (Ref. 61I1) married Mary Komm who was born around 1632, so was William a similar age to his wife, and therefore only around forty years younger than his grandfather. A reply to these questions will hopefully be received from Mark in due course.

Following an exchange of emails in 2019, an amazing amount of new details were received from Shirley Biladeau from Boise in Idaho on which other, previously unknown details, have also been unveiled, to create the new version of this much enhanced and greatly enlarged family line in 2023. Other contributions provided by Robert T Howse of Indianapolis in Indiana during 2020 have also been included in the 2023 updated.

61F1

Thomas Collett was born around 1577 and if so, he would have only been 13 years old when his son was born in 1590, which seems highly unlikely. Thomas was married to Ann Moulton who, it is suggested, was also born in 1577, thus also making her only 13 at the birth of her son. The death of Thomas seems to have taken place during 1612. The family tree provided by Mark R Collett indicates that Thomas was the son of Robert Collett and Katherine Sanders who were both born in 1552. However, Katherine Sanders, who was born in 1555, was the second wife of John Collett (Ref. 1E8) of Broadwell in Gloucestershire (1525 to 1605), the youngest son of the aforementioned Thomas Collett (Ref. 1D1).

61G1

William Collett

Date of birth to be confirmed

61G1

William Collett is reputed to have been born around 1590, although a further record also shows that he died in 1603 which, if true means that he was never married, nor was he able to have a son. It therefore seems more likely that he died in 1630, the earlier date simply being an error in transcription, and this would enable his son to have been born in 1632 by his wife Elizabeth.

61H1

Henry Collett

Date of birth to be confirmed

61H1

Henry Collett was originally thought to have been born in 1625, although this would appear to be unrealistic bearing in mind his son married a lady born in 1632. However, it appears that Henry’s wife Elizabeth was born in 1628 and that he died in 1674, just fourteen years after his son William. Further research work is required in this area to resolve these anomalies.

61I1

William Collett

Date of birth to be confirmed

61I1

William Collett was married to Mary Komm, the daughter of Robert Komm, who was born around 1632, although no reasonable date of birth has yet been found for William. It would therefore make more sense if William was a similar age to his wife Mary, and therefore also born around 1632. What is known is that William Collett died in 1660, when his son was barely one year old.

61J1

John Collett

Born circa 1659

61J1

John Collett was born around 1659 and would appear to have married later in his life, as he would have been around forty years of age when his son was born. The boy’s mother was Ann Collett who was born in 1663. Details regarding where father and son were born are not known at this time.

61K1

Richard Collett

Born circa 1700

61K1

Richard Collett may have been born in Gloucestershire around 1700. Certainly in 1725 he was living in Lower Slaughter when his son William was born. There is a possibility that Richard’s wife was Ann Harper who was also born around 1700 to 1705. Ann Collett nee Harper died during 1770, while her husband Richard Collett passed away five years later when he died in 1775.

61L1

William Collett

Born in 1725 at Lower Slaughter

61L1

William Collett was born at Lower Slaughter in 1725 and all that is known about him at this time is that he married Elizabeth Skerrett, with whom he had a son Thomas who was born at Charlton Abbots.

61M1

Thomas Collett

Born in 1752 at Charlton Abbots

61M1

Thomas Collett was born at Charlton Abbots in October 1752, the son of William and Elizabeth Collett. He was very likely an agricultural labourer and he married Mary Vellender at Charlton Abbots on 3^rd November 1778. Mary was born in 1749 and was baptised as Mary Verinder at Winchcombe on 12^th October 1749, the eldest child of James Verinder and his wife Mary Balinger. It is also interesting that Mary would have already been carrying Thomas’ child on their wedding day, the child eventually being named after Mary’s youngest sister Naomi who was baptised at Cutsdean on 19^th September 1762 as Naomi Felinder, daughter of James and Mary Felinder. This shows some of the variations of the Vellender name, as kindly provided by Zoe Cleal nee Vellender whose 5x great aunt was Mary Collett nee Vellender. Some years before they were married Mary Villender had been committed to Gloucester Gaol from Winchcombe bridewell from where she absconded in 1771 and, according to the ‘Verrinder Views’ Special Edition 2002, she was the later wife of Thomas Collett.

The notice of banns and the date of their wedding day were noted in the parish register at Charlton Abbots as follows “Banns of marriage between Thomas Collett bachelor and Mary Vellender spinster both of this parish were published in this church on 11^th & 18^th days of October and the 1^st day of November 1778. The said Thomas Collett & Mary Vellender were married in this church this third day of November 1778 by me J W Bedwell, Curate. The marriage was solemnised between us [the marks of Thomas and Mary] in the presence of Thomas Crook and Thomas Redes.”

The parish records also show that they had at least four children at Charlton Abbots, with their first child born within six months of the date of their marriage. It almost seems likely that other children may have been born to the couple in the seven years between their third and fourth child listed below. Thomas Collett died during November 1820 and was buried at Charlton Abbots on 15^th November 1820, when it is believed his age was incorrectly recorded as 87 instead of 68, either that or he was not the Thomas Collett born to William and Elizabeth in October 1752 – see below.

Mary Collett nee Vellender died at Charlton Abbots on 14^th December 1837. The death was registered at Winchcomb Registration District in the sub-district of Guiting on 21^st December 1837 with the following details. Mary Collett of Charlton Abbotts, female aged 85, a labourer. Reason for death, general break-up of constitution. The informant was Eleanor Smith [who made her mark], an inmate present at her death at Charlton Abbotts. It therefore seems likely that she was also an inmate living at the Charlton Abbots Union Workhouse, and that her age was given in ignorance of her actual age which would have been nearer to 88.

If the age of Thomas Collett who died in 1820 was correct at 87, then one possible option is that he was Thomas Collett who was baptised at Temple Guiting on 8^th April 1744 when he would have been around ten or eleven years of age, although no parents were named. The reason for including this is that Temple Guiting is only one and a half miles from Cutsdean where Mary's family settled and where her sister Naomi Felinder was baptised, as referred to above. However, it is the Charlton Abbots connection which is the most compelling.

61N1

Naomi Collett

Born in 1779 at Charlton Abbots

61N2

William Thomas Collett

Born in 1781 at Charlton Abbots

61N3

Thomas Collett

Born in 1783 at Charlton Abbots

61N4

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1790 at Charlton Abbots

61N1

Naomi Collett was born at Charlton Abbots in 1779, where she was baptised on 25^th April 1779, the eldest child of Thomas Collett and Mary Vellender. It was at Charlton Abbots on 12^th May 1804 when Naomi was twenty-five that she married John Cummins who was born in 1776. Their marriage produced three children, Hannah Cummins (1807-1809), John Cummyns/Cummings (c1808-1891) who was baptised in 1810, and Amy Cummin(g)s (c1818-1893).

John Cummings’ wife was Hannah and they had nine children, seven sons and two daughters between 1830 -1848. The eldest child, John Cummin(g)s (1830-1906) was born at Didbrook and was baptised at Temple Guiting during 1830. The youngest daughter was named after his mother Naomi Collett and Naomi Cummin(g)s (c1844-1921) later married Thomas Dolphin in 1867 within the Pershore registration district. Naomi’s and John’s youngest daughter Amy Cummin(g)s (c1818-1893) married William Perry (c1825-1862) at Temple Guiting in 1845, and they only had one child, their daughter Ann Perry (c1847-1925) who married John Greening in 1870 at Winchcombe.

61N2

William Thomas Collett [previously Ref. 5M20] was born at Charlton Abbots, to the east of Cheltenham, on 30^th January 1781, the son of Thomas Collett and his wife Mary Vellender. Within the parish register for Charlton Abbots the first baptism recorded in 1781 was that of William Collett, which was notated as follows “1781 Feb 18^th Wm son of Thos & Mary Collett”.

William was 24 when he married Elizabeth Bromage on 7^th October 1805 at Tirley, five miles south-west of Tewkesbury. However, Elizabeth was ten years older than William, having been baptised on 1^st December 1770, and was shortly to give birth to their first child. She was the daughter of John Bromage and Elizabeth Jackman and had been baptised at the Church of St John the Baptist in Eldersfield on the border between Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, which is only two miles from Tirley and seven miles from Tewkesbury.

The baptism of the couple’s first child was recorded at Tirley in Gloucestershire when the parents were named as William and Betty Collett. It appears the family then moved to Corse, just south of Eldersfield, where their second child was born, before settling in Pendock, just north of Eldersfield, where their later two daughters were born. The baptisms for both son Daniel and daughter Ann have been found amongst the records for the parish of Eldersfield.

It was at Haws Croft (Hawcross) near Redmarley in Worcestershire on Thursday 9^th April 1840 that Elizabeth Collett was baptised into the Mormon Church by Church Elder Wilford Woodruff, the same day as her married daughter Elizabeth Ruck and her husband Robert Ruck. Earlier that same week Elizabeth’s son Daniel, together with his wife, and Elizabeth’s daughter Ann Oakey and her husband Thomas were also baptised by Wilford Woodruff on 5^th April. It was just over one year later when Elizabeth Collett nee Bromage was around seventy years old that she died at Frogsmarsh near Eldersfield on 24^th May 1841, after which she was buried at the Church of St John the Baptist in Eldersfield on 27^th May 1841. Her husband survived her by over twenty years. The record of her death was registered on 29^th May under the name of Betty Collett aged 72, the wife of a labourer, when the informant was a Philip Hughes and the cause of death was noted as the starvation of blood to the brain.

Regardless of whether, or not, William was baptised when he was only three weeks old in February 1781, his actual baptism certificate, which validates his place and date of birth as Charlton Abbots and 30^th January 1781, also shows that he was the subject of an adult baptism and confirmation service nearly sixty years later. That was carried out by his son-in-law Thomas Oakey, the husband of his daughter Ann, at Eldersfield on 25^th May 1840, who had converted to the Church of Latter-Day Saints only seven weeks earlier, as detailed above. It was a year after that when his wife died, following which the census conducted on 6^th June 1841 placed widower and agricultural labourer William Collett aged 60, living at Frogsmarsh within the parish of Eldersfield. Living in the same dwelling with him was his daughter Ann Oakey with her husband Thomas and their four young children, all confirmed as having been born within the county of Gloucestershire.

Ten years later in 1851 William Collett aged 70, was still working as a farm labourer. On that occasion he was a lodger at the home of Joseph and Fanny Poole, in the house right next door to his daughter Ann Oakey, whose family had been increased by three more children, that very likely being the reason why William had moved out. However, new information has come to hand which suggests that William was abandoned by his own grown-up children, and that was that reason why he was later found living in the workhouse.

After a further ten years the census in 1861 revealed that William was a patient living in the Upton-upon-Severn Union Workhouse, where he was described as having been born as Charlton Abbots, formerly an agricultural labourer, although his age was recorded in error as 83, rather than his actual age of 80.

It was just over two years later that William Collett aged 77 died in the same Union Workhouse in Upton-upon-Severn on 8^th May 1863, following which he was buried with his wife at Eldersfield two days later when his age was recorded as 87, both dates being incorrect, since he was around 82 years of age. The death certificate confirmed that he was a farm labourer, that he had died of natural decay, and that the informant was C G Rolls, who was Charles George Rolls, the Master of the Workhouse. By the time of his death, two of William’s children, Daniel, and Ann, were well on their way to establishing themselves in Mormon and American Pioneer folk law.

61O1

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1805 at Tirley

61O2

Daniel Collett

Born in 1807 at Corse

61O3

Amy Collett

Born in 1810 at Pendock

61O4

Ann Collett

Born in 1812 at Pendock

61N3

Thomas Collett was born at Charlton Abbots in 1783, and was baptised there on 1^st June 1783, the son of Thomas and Mary Collett. No further information is known about him.

61N4

Elizabeth Collett was born at Charlton Abbots in 1790 and baptised there on 17^th October 1790, the last known child of Thomas Collett and his wife Mary Vellender.

61O1

Elizabeth Collett was born at Tirley in Gloucestershire on 10^th December, shortly after her parents William Collett and Elizabeth Bromage were married there on 7^th October 1805. It was also at Tirley that she was baptised on 22^nd December 1805 when her parents were named as William and Betty Collett. It was just less than twenty years later that she married Robert Ruck at the parish church in Redmarley D’Abitot near Ledbury in Worcestershire on 2^nd April 1825. He was the son of John and Hannah Ruck and was baptised at Whittington in Gloucestershire on 15^th July 1804.

By the time of the first national census in June 1841 Robert and Elizabeth Ruck were living at Redmarley within the Newent & Redmarley registration district of Worcestershire, by which time Elizabeth had presented Robert with seven children although only four of them were recorded with the couple on that occasion. Robert and Elizabeth were both 35, while their children that day were John Ruck who was eight, Charles Ruck who was six, Thomas Ruck who was four, and George Ruck who was not yet one year old. The missing children were Judith Ruck (born 1826), Robert Ruck (born 1827), and Ann Ruck who was born during 1829 at Redmarley, where all her siblings were born/baptised, except John Ruck, who was born at Corse in 1832.

Prior to the census that year the Ruck family had become members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. It was on Thursday 9^th April 1840 at the home of William Simons at Haws Croft (Hawcross) in Redmarley near Ledbury that Robert Ruck aged 36, and Elizabeth Ruck aged 34, as residents of Redmarley, were baptised by Church Elder Wilford Woodruff in a pond on the farm. It was also recorded that Wilford Woodruff was hit by a stone thrown at him by a hostile mob during the service.

According to the Journal of Wilford Woodruff, in addition to Robert and Elizabeth Ruck, others from this family line were also baptised by him, including Robert’s mother-in-law, Elizabeth Collett, who was baptised with her daughter and son-in-law on 9^th April. Four days earlier, on Sunday 5^th April, Robert Ruck’s sister-in-law, Ann Oakey nee Collett, and her husband Thomas Oakey (below) and their three young children were baptised by him, while on the 6^th April at Eldersfield the brother of Ann and Elizabeth Collett, church clerk Daniel Collett (below), was baptised into the Mormon Church, just a few of the six hundred baptisms conducted around that time.

Around five years later it was Robert himself who blessed and baptised his own children and in 1851 he and his family were still living in Redmarley when Robert Ruck was 46 and described as an occasional preacher, since by then he was an elder with the LDS. However, on the census form those words were crossed out, on top of which was written agricultural labourer. His wife Elizabeth Ruck was 45 years of age and three more children had been added to her family by then, so the family comprised John who was 19, Charles who was 16, Thomas who was 13, and George who was 10, plus the new arrivals Michael Ruck who was eight, Wilford Ruck who was five – recorded in error as Wilfred, and daughter Sarah Ann Ruck who was two years old, all three of them born at Redmarley.

The family was still living at Redmarley in 1861 where Elizabeth and Robert were both recorded as being 54, and the only children still living there with them were Richard Ruck aged 19, Wilfred Ruck aged 15, and Sarah Ann Ruck who was 13. Just after that time the family must have been discussing the prospect of emigrating to America, and the opportunity arose for that to happen three years later in 1864. The big question remains, why did Elizabeth make the crossing alone, and ahead of her family.

It was as a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints that Elizabeth sailed out of London on board the ship Hudson on 3^rd June 1864, bound for New York. That journey was the vessel’s maiden voyage, and on board were 863 Mormon Saints from the British Isles, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, all presided over by Church Elder John M. Kay. The crossing was unusually slow, taking forty-six days, but the kindness of the Captain Isaiah Pratt did much to alleviate the fatigue of the travellers. However, during the long sea journey there was an outbreak of measles among the children, resulting in the death of nine of them who were buried at sea. The journey also witnessed the birth of three children on the way to New York, where the ship arrived on 19^th July 1864.

From New York the large group of Mormons were then taken overland by railroad to the small township of Wyoming near Nebraska City in Nebraska where they join the William Hyde Company church train on 9^th August. Just over one month later the train of 62 ox-drawn wagons had advanced to Julesburg in Wyoming, where they arrived on 12^th September. From Julesberg and then through the Laramie Mountains, the route took them onto Fort Hadek and Rattlesnake Pass. It camped on the North Platte, following which the train then crossed the Plate River on Saturday 1^st October and camped at Sage Creek. The following day, Sunday 2^nd October, it was cold and snowing, so that night they camped at Pine Grove.

On Monday 3^rd October they crossed Bridgers Pass, and by Friday 7^th they had reached the head of Bitter Creek, where the Stage Coach bound for Salt Lake City passed them. On Sunday 9^th the wagon train arrived at Blacks Fork where they set up camp for the night, during which there was a storm. However, by that time, Elizabeth Ruck nee Collett must have been suffering after the long hard trek, since it was on Monday 10^th October 1864 at Point of Rocks that she died, just a few miles short of the state boundary between Wyoming and Utah. She was one of just 47 people who died during the terrible conditions they must have endured on that fateful overland journey.

Eventually the sad news of her passing was reported back to her family back in England, although it was not until 1870 that her husband and her daughter set sail from Liverpool bound for New York, where they arrived on 22^nd September 1870 on board the two-masted, single-funnelled, ship Idaho. By that time Sarah Ann Ruck was married to Stephen Cannon, so the ship’s passenger list recorded the three of them as Robert Ruck from Great Britain aged 59, Stephen Cannon aged 35, and his wife Sarah Cannon who was 22. Once they had crossed the Atlantic the three of them travelled luxury class on the newly opened Union Pacific Railroad to Wyoming where Sarah Ann is believed to have formally recorded the death of her mother. It is also understood that it was Stephen Cannon who financed they journey from England.

Within the General Voyage Notes for the ship the Idaho, Robert Ruck was mentioned as being a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints for thirty years and that that he had been baptised by Wilford Woodruff. It was around thirteen years after he arrived in America that he died at there, at Smithfield in Cache County, Utah on 1^st January 1883. There is a mystery surrounding his daughter Sarah Ann Ruck since, for the sea voyage she was recorded as the wife of Stephen Cannon, but she was later married Austin Merrill, when Stephen was married to another lady.

Little is known about the children of Robert and Elizabeth Ruck, except that two of them are known to have settled in America, where they died but without producing any children of their own. However, much of the information relating to the Ruck family has been generously provided by Robert John Brown from Dunstable in England. He is descended from Thomas Ruck [1837-1895] the son of Robert and Elizabeth Collett who was born at Redmarley D’Abitot and who died at Little Marcle near Ledbury. He had married Sarah Davies and their son, John Ruck [1874-1927] of Herefordshire, was married to Priscilla Harriet Gibbons, whose daughter was Blanche Mary Ruck [1915-1978], the mother of Robert John Brown by her husband Kenneth Samuel Brown [1913-1995].

Above is the headstone erected at Smithfield Cemetery in 2012 by Robert John Brown, which commemorates the passing of both Robert Ruck and his wife Elizabeth Collett. To the right of that is another photograph illustrating the beautiful setting that is the last resting place of Robert Ruck. The amazing diary of Robert John Brown, covering the months leading up to his visit to America and the days spent there, were serialised in the Collett Newsletter during the first four months of 2013, copies of which are available upon request (Nos. 79 to 82).

61O2

Daniel Collett was born at Corse on 12^th December 1807 and was baptised at Eldersfield on 10^th January 1808, the only son of William and Elizabeth Collett. The Eldersfield Parish Record included the surname as Collot, as they had for Daniel’s sister Ann (below). At some time in his life, he lived at Tirley, where his mother had been born and, as a young man, he was trained in the skills of a wheelwright and a blacksmith, possibly at Pendock where his two younger sisters were born. During those days he was also known to give boxing demonstrations, and it was his physical presence that was also later used to protect his family against those who were opposed to his religious beliefs.

It was at a meeting of the United Brethren where Daniel met his future wife, who apparently was attending the meeting with her intended husband Charles Capper. When that liaison failed Daniel was married by banns at Corse to (1) Esther Jones on 23^rd April 1833. Esther was born at Bullingham in Herefordshire on 10^th October 1814 and was baptised at St Martin’s Church in Bullingham in Hereford. Shortly after they were married Daniel and Esther were living at Pendock in Worcestershire where their first child and fourth child were born. In between times the family was living at Wellington in Herefordshire and at Beckerton in Worcestershire, where the couple’s second child and their third child were born, and where Daniel was a Church Clerk working within the Church of England by then. Also, at some time in their life, the couple lived at Charlton Abbotts in the Cotswolds, ten kilometres east of Cheltenham.

However, Daniel and Esther were both baptised into the Church of Latter-Day Saints by Wilford Woodruff at Tirley Hall – the home of Benjamin Hill - in Eldersfield, Worcestershire on Monday 6^th April 1840, the day after Daniel’s married sister Ann Oakey and her husband Thomas Oakey (below) had been baptised at nearby Leigh. It was just over one year after their baptism into the Mormon Church that Daniel and Esther and their young family comprising Sylvanus, Rhoda and Reuben, sailed out of Bristol on board the ship Harmony on 10^th May 1841, bound for Quebec in Canada. From Quebec the family travelled south to Nauvoo in Hancock County, Illinois, where they settled for the next four years. Not long after their arrival there, Daniel and Esther received their Patriarchal Blessings from Hyrum Smith on 3^rd December 1841 and five years later the couple received their endowments into the Church at the Temple in Nauvoo which took place on 2^nd February 1846.

It was also at Nauvoo where the couple’s next two children were born, although both died there not long after they were born. In the end, it was during 1846, when the Latter-Day Saints were driven out of Nauvoo that the Collett family went to Winter Quarters in Nebraska where wheelwright Daniel was asked by the church authorities to stay and build wagons, carts and other conveyances for the Saints crossing the plains. Esther also helped by making quilts, while he son Reuben assisted her with threading the needles. On the way to Winter Quarters in September that year their daughter Mary Ann was born in a wagon box at the camp on Sugar Creek in Lee County, Iowa. Sugar Creek was seven miles from Nauvoo, it being the first major campsite for the Mormons in Iowa. In 1846 there was an estimated 2,000 people there, including Brigham Young and most of the church leadership. The couple’s second Iowa born daughter Elizabeth was born at Council Bluffs (aka Kanesville) which is known as the historic starting point for the Mormon Trail to Utah.

Following the birth of Elizabeth Matilda in 1849, the Collett family set out on that trail bound for the Great Salt Lake in Utah. They travelled with the Ezra Taft Benson Company which entered Salt Lake City on 27^th October. The census conducted the following year in 1850 recorded the family at Iron County, south-west of Salt Lake City, when Daniel Collett was 42 and a carpenter, Esther Collett was 36, Sylvanus Collett was 16, Rhoda S Collett was 14, and Reuben Collett was 11, and all of them born in England. The two youngest children, had been born at Iowa on the journey across America, and they were Mary A Collett who was four, and Elizabeth Collett who was two years of age. It may have been around that same time when Daniel Collett was commissioned to build a carriage for Brigham Young’s personal use.

By the time of the birth of their daughter Julia just over one year later the family was living at Mill Creek, near Salt Lake City, then shortly after that they moved again to Lehi in Utah, where their last two children were born. On settling in Lehi, the first family home, they were spread across the valley but, trouble with the native Indians, resulted in them gathering together and to build a fort on the higher ground. The houses were built side by side in a square around a court, with first Bishop Evans and other, including Daniel Collett, living on the north side of the enclosure. A survey of the town was directed by Bishop Evans, with Daniel assisting, following which a schoolhouse was constructed. One of the first pupils was Daniel’s son Sylvanus Collett.

It was also there at Lehi that ceremony of sealing Daniel Collett to Esther Jones took place on 30^th May 1854. Six months earlier Esther had given birth to son Charles Albert Capper Collett, who was named after Esther’s first possible husband before she married Daniel, and two years later she presented Daniel with the couple’s last child James. Esther Collett nee Jones was 43 at the time of her death one year later, on 4^th June 1857, following which she was buried two days later at Lehi. She was a natural nurse and a singer of some quality. Later that same year at Lehi, Daniel married (2) Mary Empey, a widow with three young children, who was born Mary Foulks at Totternhoe in Bedfordshire, England on 9^th July 1826 and with whom he had a daughter who was born during the following year. Mary was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Turner Foulk and the former wife of Jesse Empey.

Just after the birth of their daughter during September 1858, an exploring party, which included Daniel Collett, left Lehi in search of a new home. Upon arrival at Ogden the group consulted with President Lorin Farr, who said he knew of an ideal site for a new settlement. Lying around ten miles northwest of Ogden and just one mile from the Weber River, it was a rich plain with a fertile soil. Having checked out the location, the group returned to Lehi where they spent the winter preparing for the move to Weber County in the following spring. And so it was, on 10^th March 1859, a company of some one hundred people, among them Daniel and his family, left Lehi and travelled north with teams of oxen, horses and mules. On arrival the men set to work planning and surveying their township and farming land, with each family being given a city lot and twenty acres of land. Daniel drove the oxen and his son Reuben guided the plough when the first irrigation ditch was made in this vicinity. The first houses were initially only dugouts, but not long after settlers began to construct log cabins. The new settlement was two months old when it was organised into a branch of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, with William Raymond as President, and Daniel Collett and Jeppe Folkman as Counsellors. At the inaugural meeting the City of the Plains was chosen as the name of the township, which was later changed to Plain City.

When Mary Collett nee Foulks died at Plain City in Weber County, Utah on 31^st August 1859 and was buried at Smithfield in Cache County, Daniel married (3) Elizabeth Gordon on 23^rd October 1859 at Plain City. Elizabeth was born on 3^rd May 1823 at Bridge of Weir in Renfrewshire in Scotland, the daughter of Joseph and Jane Stewart Gordon. It was during the following year when Elizabeth gave birth to a son at Smithfield, to where Daniel and Elizabeth had moved in 1860. However, prior to the birth of that child Daniel was still recorded at Weber County in the census of 1860, although his new wife was not with him on the day of the census, perhaps because she was already settled in Smithfield. Instead, the census return listed Daniel as Danl Collett aged 52, with just his four children, and they were Mary A Collett who was 13 and from Iowa, Chas Collett who was seven and from Utah, Jas Collett who was four and from Utah, and Eliza A Collett who was also from Utah who was just one year old.

Four years later, when Daniel was 56 and still married to Elizabeth Gordon, who later died on 17^th October 1869, he married (4) Elizabeth Miles aged 34 and the widow of Thomas Miles, at Salt Lake City on 6^th February 1864. Elizabeth Ward was born at Walton-le-Dale near Preston in Lancashire England on 15^th November 1830, the daughter of Thomas Ward and Elizabeth Powell or Elizabeth Lock. Elizabeth arrived at New York on 1^st May 1860 and was married to William Pidcock later that same year. Her third marriage to Daniel Collett produced another two sons, both born at Smithfield. Previously her marriage to Thomas Miles, who had died in 1863, had produced a daughter Elizabeth Anne Miles who became Elizabeth Anne Miles Ward Collett following Elizabeth’s marriage to Daniel Collett.

The census conducted in 1880 placed farmer Daniel Collett at the age of 71, as a widower - when he was still married to Elizabeth, living at the Smithfield home of John and Rebecca Pitcher from England, who had only settled in Utah around 1871. It was apparently later that same year when Daniel married for the last time.

That fifth marriage took place on 4^th October 1880 at Smithfield, when already married Daniel wed widow (5) Martha Drury who was born at Wyberton in Lincolnshire England on 23^rd September 1811, the daughter of John Noble and Ann Wilson. And it was at Smithfield that Martha Collett nee Noble died eight years later, on 30^th June 1888. Sometime later Daniel and Elizabeth went to live at the Smithfield home of Daniel’s married daughter Julia Ann Cantwell where they spent the remainder of their life. It was there at Smithfield that Daniel Collett died on 8^th June 1894, where he was buried two days later, on 10^th June 1894. Sixteen years later his widow Elizabeth Collett nee Ward died at Raymond in Alberta Canada on 25^th December 1910.

During his life Daniel Collett was a farmer, a wheelwright ad a carpenter. He was a member of the Nauvoo 3rd Ward of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and in 1860 Daniel lived in a household of seven, with a real wealth of $300 and a personal wealth of $100. Ten years earlier it is established that Daniel Collett was a pioneer who settled in Smithfield during 1850. He was a very active member of his local community and at a meeting held on 1^st March 1866, Daniel Collett was appointed water master of the district, a position he held for many years, during which time a canal was built to bring water from nearby canyons.

61P1

Sylvester Collett

Born in 1833 at Pendock, England

61P2

Sylvanus Collett

Born in 1835 at Wellington, England

61P3

Rhoda Sylvia Collett

Born in 1837 at Bockleton, England

61P4

Reuben Collett

Born in 1839 at Pendock, England

61P5

Fanny Marie Collett

Born in 1841 at Nauvoo, Illinois

61P6

Daniel Collett

Born in 1843 at Nauvoo, Illinois

61P7

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1846 at Sugar Creek, Iowa

61P8

Elizabeth Matilda Collett

Born in 1849 at Council Bluffs, Iowa

61P9

Julia Ann Collett

Born in 1851 at Millcreek

61P10

Charles Albert Capper Collett

Born in 1853 at Lehi, Utah

61P11

James Jones Collett

Born in 1856 at Lehi, Utah

The following is the child of Daniel Collett by his second wife Mary Foulks:

61P12

Eliza Ann Collett

Born in 1858 at Lehi, Utah

The following is the child of Daniel Collett by his third wife Elizabeth Gordon:

61P13

William Gordon Collett

Born in 1860 at Smithfield, Utah

The following are the children of Daniel Collett’s fourth wife Elizabeth Miles nee Ward:

61P14

Elizabeth Anne Miles Ward Collett

Born in 1862 at Smithfield, Utah

61P15

Thomas Ward Collett

Born in 1865 at Smithfield, Utah

61P16

Daniel Ward Collett

Born in 1866 at Smithfield, Utah

61O3

Amy Collett was born at Pendock in 1810, where she was baptised as Amey Collot on 6^th January 1811, the daughter of William Collot and his wife Elizabeth. Tragically, Amy only survived for a few years, when she died in 1815 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of the parish church in Tirley.

61O4

Ann Collett was born at Pendock on 12^th January 1812, but was baptised at Eldersfield on the 23^rd January 1812, when her parents were recorded in the parish register as Wm and Elizabeth Collot. She married Thomas Oakey at St Nicholas’ Church in Gloucester on 30^th September 1836, although by three years earlier Ann had already given birth to a base-born daughter in Gloucester the father of whom is not known. It is also possible that Ann was already pregnant with her second child on her wedding day, with her son being born less than eight months later at Frogsmarsh in the parish of Eldersfield. The boy’s father Thomas Oakey was born at Eldersfield on 21^st September 1813, the son of Thomas Oakey and his wife Sarah Pritchard. He was a member of the recently formed United Brethren of England, founded by Thomas Knighton in the mid-1830s, which built the chapel at Gadfield Elm near Eldersfield in 1836. As recently as 2014 the chapel was the oldest surviving LDS church in the world.

Thomas Oakey did not enjoy the best of health and three years after they were married his inability to work resulted in him being branded a pauper. Therefore, it may have been the desperate time that the family was having to endure, which prompted Thomas and Ann to change their religious beliefs. It was during the following year that Thomas and Ann Oakey were both baptised into the Church of Latter-Day Saints by Wilford Woodruff on Sunday 5^th April 1840 at Leigh in Worcestershire. According to the journal of W Woodruff, it was the following day that Ann’s brother Daniel and his wife Esther (above) were baptised by Church Elder Woodruff at Eldersfield. As a result of his baptism into the Mormon Church, Thomas Oakey became a lay-preacher and, on 25^th May 1840 at Eldersfield, it was son-in-law Thomas Oakey who conducted the adult baptism and confirmation ceremony for Ann’s father William Collett, her mother Elizabeth Collett having been baptised by Wilford Woodruff on 9^th April 1840.

One year later Ann’s mother died, at which time Ann and her family moved into the home of widowed William Collett, presumably to look after him. This was confirmed by the Frogsmarsh in Eldersfield census carried out on 6^th June 1841, when head of the household William Collett had living with him his son-in-law Thomas Oakey and his wife Ann. By that time in her life Ann had presented her husband with four children. Both Thomas and Ann had a rounded age of 25, while their children were Ann Oakey who was five, Charles Oakey who was four, Jane Oakey who was two, and baby Heber Thomas Oakey who was only four months old.

Ten years later in 1851 the family was still living at Frogsmarsh within the parish of Eldersfield, when Thomas Oakey was 37, his wife Ann was 39, and their children were recorded as Jane Oakey aged 11, Heber Oakey aged 10, Moroni Oakey who was seven, Rhoda Oakey who was five, and Reuben Oakey who was three years old.

Two more children were added to the family over the next three years, but shortly after 1854 Ann Oakey and her family emigrated to America, either with her brother Daniel (above), or after he was settled there. Prior to leaving England Thomas and Ann had suffered the loss of two of their young children, with James dying on the day he was born, and Walter surviving for just one month in 1854.

Thomas and Ann Oakey and their family were travelling across America with the famous James G Willie Handcart Company when they were caught up in the notorious Snow Storms of 1856 near Rock Springs, Wyoming, due to which they lost their daughter Rhoda Rebecca Oakey at the age of eleven years. Despite their loss, the family eventually arrived at Salt Lake City on 9^th November 1856. The later American census of 1880 identified Thomas Oakey aged 66, a farmer from England, living at Paris in Bear Lake County with his wife Ann, also 66 and from England, who was described as keeping house. Living not far away in Paris was their eldest son Charles Oakey, also a farmer, with his large family. This photograph of Thomas and Ann was most likely taken during the 1880s.

And it was there in America, at Paris in Bear Lake, Idaho, that first Thomas Oakey died on 15^th April 1890, and was followed two years later by his wife Ann Oakey nee Collett who also died there on 14^th April 1892, where she was buried with her husband three days later. Sadly, the name Oakey is almost illegible on the damaged headstone, as can be seen here in the photograph on the right. The intriguing story of the couple’s conversion from the United Brethren of England to the Church of Latter-Day Saints, and their struggle to cross the American Wild West, written by Connie Lyn Harris Hansen of Spanish Fork in Utah, has been kindly provided by Robert John Brown and has been serialised in the Monthly Collett Newsletter during the spring and summer of 2012.

61P17

Ann Collett Oakey

Born in 1833 at Gloucester

61P18

Charles Oakey

Born in 1837 at Frogsmarsh

61P19

Jane Oakey

Born in 1839 at Frogsmarsh

61P20

Heber Thomas Oakey

Born in 1841 at Frogsmarsh

61P21

Joseph Lorenzo (Moroni) Oakey

Born in 1843 at Frogsmarsh

61P22

Rhoda Rebecca Oakey

Born in 1845 at Frogsmarsh

61P23

Reuben Hyrum Oakey

Born in 1847 at Frogsmarsh

61P24

James William Oakey

Born in 1849 at Frogsmarsh

61P25

Sarah Ann Oakey

Born in 1852 at Frogsmarsh

61P26

Walter John Oakey

Born in 1854 at Frogsmarsh

61P1

Sylvester Collett was born at Pendock in Worcestershire on 31^st December 1833, the first child born to Daniel Collett and his first wife Esther Jones. He was baptised at Pendock Old Church on 2^nd January 1834 when his parents were confirmed as Daniel and Esther. It was a little over three weeks later that Sylvester died at Pendock on 24^th January 1834 aged just four weeks.

61P2

Sylvanus Collett was born at Wellington in Herefordshire on 3^rd May 1835, the eldest surviving son of Daniel and Esther Collett, following which he was baptised at the Wesleyan Church of St Nicholas in Hereford on 24^th May 1835. When he was five years old his family sailed from Bristol bound for the New World aboard the ship Harmony on 10^th May 1841, while ten years after arriving at Quebec Sylvanus and his family were at Iron County in South Utah on their way north to Great Salt Lake in Utah. The census in 1850 included Sylvanus Collett who was 16 and a labourer, the eldest of the five surviving children still living there with his parents.

In 1851 the family moved to Lehi and two years later when he was 18, Sylvanus Collett of Lehi married (1) Lydia Karren also of Lehi, the marriage taking place at the Salt Lake City endowment house on 19^th February 1853. Lydia was born at Liverpool on 29^th December 1838, the daughter of Thomas Karren and Ann Radcliffe. The marriage produced five children for the couple, the first two having been born at Lehi, the next two at Smithfield and the last at Logan in Cache County in Utah. Sadly, Lydia died at Logan on 15^th November 1865, just one month after the birth of their last child. The Salmon River Mission was established at the 1855 General Conference in April that year, following which twenty-seven men were selected to form the first group who set up Fort Limhi, the first white settlement in Idaho. Sylvanus was called up in March 1856 and returned eighteen months later in October 1857. Fort Limhi was finally abandoned on 28^th March 1858 due to continued problem with the Indian tribes. On leaving Fort Limhi, Sylvanus and the missionaries and their families returned to Lehi, where he was a constable.

Sylvanus Collett played a prominent role in the early days of Lehi and, when there were Indians to subdue, he was always one of the first to respond to the call of arms. He was a tall man with broad shoulders and an athletic physic. He was entirely without fear and if discussions with the hostile Indians were needed, then it was usually Sylvanus who was chosen, as he spoke their language.

Sylvanus was a vigilante and colonel in the Utah based Nauvoo Legion and in 1857 he was called with three other Lehi men (including Orin Porter Rockwell who, with Sylvanus’ father Daniel, had been a bodyguard to Joseph Smith in Nauvoo) to escort four gentiles, who had accompanied the Saints returning to Geneseo in Carson Valley, Nevada, during the Utah War, back to California by the ‘southern route’. In the early 1860s, Sylvanus moved to Cache Valley where he acquired a huge ranch. It was at Logan where he was a Colonel of Militia in the Nauvoo Legion and took part in the Indian War at Smithfield in 1863. Following the killing of one or two men the Indian Chief was captured and held under guard by Colonel Collett, E R Miles, and Thomas Winn. It was during the winter of 1863 that the famous battle with the Indians took place on Battle Creek, in southern Idaho, when General Connor of Fort Douglas wiped out a combination of Bannocks, Snakes and Shoshones, but with a loss to many of his own men, who were buried in the military cemetery at Salt Lake City. Prior to battle Colonel Collett and Thomas E Ricks were sent as special envoys from the Cache Valley settlers to secure the return of some animals which the Indians at Battle Creek had stolen.

After leaving Cache Valley, Sylvanus Collett lived for a while at Norman Valley in Bear Lake County, Idaho, where he grazed large herds of horses, cattle, and sheep. From there he moved to Cokeville in Wyoming in 1878 and was the first white man to settle in that area, where he lived for the remainder of his life and where he was engaged in mining and rearing livestock. It was also at Cokeville that he was the Justice of the Peace and was the sole defendant in a notorious trial in Provo (the Aiken Affair), charged with dispatching John Aiken, one of the four gentiles, none of whom were ever heard from again. “First Trump” a play by Tom Rogers (see Ref. 61R4) focuses on the trial of his grandfather Sylvanus Collett and is based on microfilm transcripts of reportage from The Salt Lake Tribune. The play is also embedded in a quasi-novel entitled The Book of Lehi.

It would also appear that Sylvanus Collett was married to (2) Phoebe Lodina (Lodema) Merrill in 1864, and prior to the death of his first wife, with that second marriage producing a further four children for Sylvanus. The first child was born at Logan, while the others were born at Smithfield. Phoebe Lodina (Lodema) Merrill was born at Elba in Genesee County in New York state on 5^th August 1832, the daughter of Samuel Merrill and Phoebe Odell. Thirteen years earlier Phoebe had married Parmenio Adams Jackman at Salt Lake City on 16^th October 1851, who was killed by Indians in 1860. She was also the first of three members of the Merrill family who were married to members of the Collett family, the other two being her older brother Philemon Christopher Merrill, who married Sylvanus’ sister Rhoda Sylvia Collett (below), and Elthurah Roseltha Merrill who married Sylvanus’ brother Reuben Collett (below).

What happened at Smithfield around the time of the birth of his third child by Phoebe in 1870, their daughter Mary Merrill Collett, is not clear, since Sylvanus was also credited with being the father of a son, Reuben Collett, that same year, who was very likely the son of (3) Sarah Jane Lawrence. What is known though is that two years later, on 2^nd December 1872, Sylvanus Collett married (4) Elizabeth Frances Praetor, while Phoebe was still alive, but whether she was the mother of Reuben is not known. It was also in 1872 that Fanny Collett, the child of Sylvanus and Elizabeth, was born perhaps even before they were married. However, it seems highly likely that Elizabeth did not survive the ordeal.

It is also understood that Sylvanus took three further wives, although the date of each marriage is not known. Shortly after the death of Elizabeth, his fourth wife, Sylvanus married the much younger (5) Sarah Ellen Gee who was known as Nellie, to whom he was married right up until the time he died. That then raises a query over whether he was married to two more wives Jane Lawrence and Phoebe Jackson, one of which may have been his third wife and the mother of his son Reuben Collett who was born in 1870. Being a Mormon, he very likely had multiple wives during his life.

However, by the time of the US Census of 1880, Sylvanus Collett aged 45 and a farmer from England, was the husband of Nellie Collett aged 27, who was also born in England, and keeping house. Her later obituary stated that she had been born at Allbridge in Lancashire, with no such place known. By that time in his life Sylvanus and his family were living at Cokeville in Wyoming, his children being Sylvanus who was 16, Thomas who was 14, Reuben who was 10, Fanny who was eight, Nellie who was seven, Robert W Collett who was four, and Rose Collett who was one year old.

It is also interesting to note that within the Smithfield census of 1880, three of Sylvanus’ children were still living there at the home of William A Thompson, from England, and his wife Phoebe L Thompson, who was the former Phoebe Lodina (Lodema) Collett nee Merrill. They were his sons Samuel Collett who was 15 and Daniel Francello Collett who was 13, and his daughter Mary Merrill Collett who was 10 years of age. No record has been found of Marion Merrill Collett, who would also have been ten years of age, who was possibly the twin brother of Mary Merrill Collett as they had the same date of birth.

Sylvanus was still residing at Cokeville, Wyoming, at the time of the census in 1900. Sylvanus Collett was 65 and a rancher who, by then, had been married for 32, placing his wedding day in 1868, when Nellie would have been 15 years of age. The census return also started that he had entered the United States in 1841, and had lived there for 59 years, and was a naturalised citizen. His wife Nellie Collett was 47 and had given birth to eight children, only five of whom were still alive. The only children living with the couple on that occasion had all been born at Cokeville in Wyoming, two of them after the census of 1880. William R Collett was 22, Burt Collett was 19, and Roy Collett was 18. It was in the following year that farmer Sylvanus Collett of Cokeville died during a visit to Salt Lake City on 10^th April 1901, after which his body was returned to Cokeville where he was laid to rest in Cokeville Cemetery. His former wife Phoebe Lodema Collett died on 18^th January 1909 at Parker, Fremont County in Idaho, and was buried in the Rexburg Idaho Cemetery with William Thompson. His last wife Nellie was 93 years old when she died at Cokeville in 1945 – see her details below.

The Cokeville, Wyoming Cemetery Records provided the following details, albeit not exactly accurate. The date and place of birth of Sylvanus Collett was recorded as 3^rd May 1835 at Withington in Herts, England, unless it was a mistranslation or misinterpretation of Wellington, Heref. It did correctly record that he died on 10^th April 1901 at Cokeville, Lincoln County, Wyoming, that he was the son of Daniel Collett and Esther Jones, and that his wife was Sarah Ellen “Nellie” Gee. Another additional note also stated that Sylvanus had several other wives. However, the Nauvoo Community Project, Hancock County, Illinois, provided the correction details, together with confirmation of the names of another two of his wives, they being Lydia Karren and Phoebe Lodema Merrill.

What is very interesting are the names of other members of the Collett family listed in the Cokeville Cemetery Records - Inscriptions. One of the earlier entries is particularly interesting because it is an additional child for Sylvanus and Nellie Collett, their ‘missing’ son from the list below, who was Hudson Collett, born on 16^th July 1869, who died on 15^th March 1890. His birth coincided with the period in Sylvanus’ life when he was also married to Phoebe Lodema Merrill. Others were: Rose Collett - 1^st November 1878 to 12^th January 1890 (Ref. 61Q14) daughter of Sylvanus and Nellie; Nellie Collett Bourne – 15^th February 1852 to 1^st May 1945 widow of Sylvanus Collett; Nellie Collett Anderson – 23^rd November 1878 to 17^th November 1900 daughter of Nellie Collett Bourne; and Solomon Anderson – 7^th November 1863 to 29^th November 1917 husband of Nellie Collett Anderson.

Information received from Alaric DeArment during the summer of 2012 indicated that Marion Merrill Collett, the son of Sylvanus Collett and Phoebe Lodina (Lodema) Merrill may have been adopted since it was originally believed that he had born at sea. That now has been disproved, with new information unearthed in 2015 suggesting that he had been born at Smithfield in 1871. In addition to this Marion Merrill Collett does not bear any resemblance at all to either the Colletts or Merrills, judging by the photographs of both families held by Alaric. He was also illiterate, whereas the two families were not, with Sylvanus being a highly prominent member of the Mormon community. It may be significant that it was common practise for the Mormons to adopt child from the minority communities, but how then did he have the same date of birth as Mary Merrill Collett, unless they were twins.

61Q1

Sylvanus Collett

Born in 1856 at Lehi, Utah

61Q2

Esther Ann Collett

Born in 1858 at Lehi, Utah

61Q3

Lydia Isabel Collett

Born in 1861 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q4

Sylvester Collett

Born in 1863 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q5

Thomas Karren Collett

Born in 1865 at Logan, Utah

The following are the children of Sylvanus Collett by his second wife Phoebe Lodema Merrill:

61Q6

Samuel Merrill Collett

Born in 1866 at Logan, Utah

61Q7

Daniel Francello Collett

Born in 1867 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q8

Marion Merrill Collett twin?

Born in 1870 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q9

Mary Merrill Collett twin?

Born in 1870 at Smithfield, Utah

The following is possibly the only child of Sylvanus Collett and his third wife Sarah Jane Lawrence:

61Q10

Reuben Collett

Born in 1870 at Smithfield, Utah

The following is possibly the only child of Sylvanus Collett and his fourth wife Elizabeth F Praetor:

61Q11

Fanny Collett

Born in 1872 at Smithfield, Utah

The following are the children of Sylvanus Collett by his fifth wife Sarah Ellen (Nellie) Gee:

61Q12

Nellie Collett

Born in 1873 in Idaho

61Q13

Robert William Collett

Born in 1876 at Cokeville, Wyoming

61Q14

Rose Collett

Born in 1878 at Cokeville, Wyoming

61Q15

Burt Collett

Born in 1880 at Cokeville, Wyoming

61Q16

Roy Collett

Born in 1881 at Cokeville, Wyoming

61Q17

May Collett

Born in 1886 at Cokeville, Wyoming

61P3

Rhoda Sylvia Collett was born on 20^th April 1837 at Bockleton in Worcestershire, close to the county boundary with Herefordshire, and five miles south of Tenby Wells. It was at St Michael’s Church in Bockleton, two days later, that she was baptised on 22^nd April as simply Rhoda Collett. She was the third child of Daniel and Esther Collett, and was four years of age when her family emigrated to America in 1841. By the time of the US census on 1^st June 1850, 13-year-old Rhoda S Collett was recorded with her family at Iron County in south-west Utah, on their way to Salt Lake City. On reaching Salt Lake City, the baptism into the Mormon Church of Latter-Day Saints of Rhoda Sylvia Collett was conducted by Joel H Johnson on 9^th June 1850, when it was acknowledged she had been born at Bockleton in England on 20^th April 1837. The English county was said to be Herefordshire rather than Worcestershire.

The Utah Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Dababase includes the name of Rhoda Sylvia Collett (20/4/1837-28/11/1927) as an immigrant from England who used the Samuel Gully/Orson Spencer Company for their journey to Salt Lake City. The overland trek for Rhoda and her family commenced on 28^th May 1849, with them arriving at Deseret near Delta City in Iron County on 25^th September 1949.

Two years after her Mormon baptism, Rhoda married (1) John Sunderland Eldredge on 4^th July 1852, when she was a child bride aged fifteen years and ten weeks. John Eldredge was 29 at that time, having been born at Sennett in Cayuga County in New York on 30^th April 1821. However, their first child was not born until she was seventeen and half years of age. That event may have taken place at American Fork in Utah, where the last two of their four children were also born. The children of John and Rhoda were Ira Eldredge who was born on 3^rd October 1854, Esther Ann Eldredge who was born on 3^rd May 1860, Daniel Eldredge who was born on 1^st March 1862, and Horace Eldredge who was born on 5^th February 1865.

John Sunderland Eldredge was fifty years old when he died in 1871 and two years later his widow Rhoda married the much older (2) Philemon Christopher Merrill on 9^th October 1873 at Salt Lake City. Philemon was born at Byron in Genesee County in New York on 12^th November 1820 and was the older brother of Phoebe Lodina (Lodema) Merrill, who married Rhoda’s brother Sylvanus Collett (above).

That second marriage for Rhoda produced another son who was born at Bennington in Bear Lake County, who initially carried the Collett surname, but was later identified in the Arizona census of 1880 as Adrian Merrill from Idaho who was four years old. However, by that time his father Philemon C Merrill aged 60, was married to Serina Merrill who was 63. Where Rhoda was on that occasion, or where she was living up until her death, is still a mystery. Rhoda Sylvia Merrill nee Collett died on 28^th November 1927 at St David in Cochise County, Arizona, while her former husband Philemon Christopher Merrill had predeceased her by twenty-five years, when he passed away during 1904. The body of Rhoda Sylvia Merrill nee Collett was laid to rest in Safford City Cemetery, Graham County in Arizona.

61Q18

Adrian Collett

Born in 1876 at Bennington

61P4

Reuben Collett was born at *Pendock in Worcestershire on 19^th July 1839 and was baptised there on 21^st July 1839, the son of Daniel and Esther Collett. He travelled to America with his parents when he was around one year old and was baptised there when he was 11 years old on 1^st May 1850, and was 11 in the June census of 1950, when he and his family were in Iron County, Utah, on their way to Salt Lake City. Fifteen years later Reuben married Elthurah Roseltha Merrill on 17^th January 1861 at Smithfield, the very first marriage in Cache County’s newest township. Elthurah was born at Nauvoo, Hancock County in Illinois on 13^th September 1842 and was baptised on 25^th December 1853. It also seems likely that she was related to siblings Philemon Christopher Merrill and Phoebe Lodina (Lodema) Merrill who married Reuben’s brother Sylvanus Collett (above) and his sister Rhoda Sylvia Collett (above).

The photos of Reuben, and Sylvanus (above), and the family of his son Marion Merrill Collett (below), were kindly provided by Alaric DeArment. *Note: The small village of Pendock lies on the county boundary between Worcestershire and Gloucestershire with the largest nearby settlement being Tewkesbury. And it was there, at Tewkesbury that the birth of Reuben Collett was registered (Ref. xi 402) during the third quarter of 1839. It is this situation that has caused later confusion over the place of his birth.

Over the next twenty-seven years Elthurah presented Reuben with twelve children, the first six of which were born at Smithfield in Cache County in Utah. The family then seem to have moved to Idaho, where their next child was born, before returning to Utah and Escalante where the following child was born. At some time in his life Reuben lost an arm but still managed to be an active frontiersman, having served as one of the two scouts who explored the Colorado River and recommended the route taken by the Saints during the Holy-in-the-Rock expedition.

And it was at Escalante in Iron County, Utah that the family was recorded in the census of 1880. Reuben Collett from England was 39 and a farmer, his wife Elthurah R Collett was 35 and from Michigan, and listed with the couple were seven of their eight children, with just their eldest daughter Phoebe being the only missing one. Reuben S Collett was 16, Sylvester D Collett was 13 as was his twin brother Sylvanus Collett, Julia A Collett was 10, Adelbert T Collett was seven years old, Charles Collett was four, and Princetta was named in error as Princety Collett, who was two years of age. Staying with the family on that day was William F Flack from Mississippi who was 41.

Two years later, and during 1882, the family was living in Arizona and it was at Leti in Maricopa County that the next three children were born. Around 1887 Reuben and Elthurah returned once more to Utah and their last child was born at Vernal in Uintah County. By the time of the census in 1900 the family was living at Riverdale in Naples Precinct, Uintah County, where the census record incorrectly included Reuben as Ruth Collett aged 61 and from England, his wife as Eltharah E Collett aged 58 from Michigan, who had living with them four of their children. They were Julia Ann Collett aged 28 from Utah, Rosevelle (sic) Collett aged 16, Clarence J Collett aged 14, both from Arizona, and Geo Collett aged 12 from Utah. After a further ten years Reuben and his wife were living alone at Myton in Wasatch County, Utah. Reuben Collett from England was 70 and his wife Elizabeth (sic) was 66.

Just over five years later Elthurah Collett nee Merrill died on 13^th July 1915 at Smithfield in Cache County in Utah where she was buried two days later. Following the death of his wife, Reuben went to live with his married daughter Julia Postma nee Collett, and it was at her residence in Cache County that he was recorded in the census of 1920 as Reuben C Collett from England who was 80 years old. Tragically, it was just a few days later that Reuben Collett died at Smithfield on 21^st January 1920 and where he was buried on 25^th January 1920, and it was also there that his father had died and was buried twenty-six years earlier.

61Q19

Phoebe Theresa Collett

Born in 1862 at Smithfield

61Q20

Reuben Samuel Collett

Born in 1864 at Smithfield

61Q21

Sylvester Daniel Collett twin

Born in 1866 at Smithfield

61Q22

Sylvanus Collett twin

Born in 1866 at Smithfield

61Q23

Julia Ann Collett

Born in 1869 at Smithfield

61Q24

Adelbert Teancum Collett

Born in 1872 at Smithfield

61Q25

Charles Merrill Collett

Born in 1875 at Bennington

61Q26

Princetta Collett

Born in 1878 at Escalante

61Q27

Orrin Collett

Born in 1882 at Leti, Arizona

61Q28

Roseltha M Collett

Born in 1884 at Leti, Arizona

61Q29

Clarence James Collett

Born in 1886 at Leti, Arizona

61Q30

George Collett

Born in 1888 at Vernal, Utah

61P5

Fanny (Fannie) Marie Collett was the daughter of Daniel and Esther Collett who was born at Nauvoo in Hancock County in Illinois on 22^nd November 1841, after the family arrived in America earlier that year. Sadly, she died shortly after she was born in late 1841 or during the early months of 1842.

61P6

Daniel Collett was the son of Daniel and Esther Collett and was born at Nauvoo in Hancock County on 22^nd October 1843, but died there within the next few months.

61P7

Mary Ann Collett was born at Sugar Creek in County Lee in Iowa on 3^rd September 1846 and was baptised as an adult on 26^th May 1878. She was the daughter of Daniel and Esther Collett and had not reached her eighteenth birthday when she married (1) William Wamsley on 1^st May 1864 at Vernal. William was thirteen years older than Mary Ann having been born at Preston in Lancashire in England on 13^th April 1834.

The marriage of Mary Ann and William resulted in the birth of eleven children and the many different places of birth suggested that they were a travelling family. Esther Ann Walmsley was the first born on 4^th September 1865 at Bear Lake, then came Lydia Theresa Walmsley at Bloomington on 3^rd June 1867, and the next three were born at Smithfield. They were Marinda Walmsley who was born on 30^th January 1870, Francis Walmsley who was born on 11^th April 1872, and William Thomas Walmsley who was born on 6^th April 1873.

During the next couple of years, the family returned to Bloomington where the next three children were born: Jane Vilate Walmsley on 14^th October 1876; Daniel Heber Walmsley on 14^th February 1878; and Albert Walmsley who was born on 8^th April 1880. The last three children were Myrtle Walmsley who was born on 23^rd June 1882, Maude Walmsley who was born on 20^th August 1884, and Mary Eliza Walmsley who was born on 2^nd December 1887, who were born at Preston, St David Cochise, and Vernal, respectively.

Sometime during her life, possibly following the death of her husband, Mary Ann married for a second time when she wed (2) Ralph Merrill who was very likely related to Phoebe and Philemon Merrill (above) who also married members of the Collett family. It is even possible that Ralph Merrill was in fact Ralph Teancum Merrill who earlier had married Mary Ann’s sister Elizabeth Matilda Collett (below). What is known is that Mary Ann Merrill nee Collett died at Price in Carbon County in Utah on 15^th November 1929 and was buried at Maeser Fairview Cemetery in Vernal.

61P8

Elizabeth Matilda Collett was born at Council Bluffs in Pottawattamie County in Iowa on 27^th February 1849, the daughter of Daniel and Esther Collett. She was twenty years old when she married Ralph Teancum Merrill at Salt Lake City on 24^th May 1869. Ralph was also born at Council Bluffs on 13^th June 1849. The marriage produced five children for Elizabeth and Ralph and all of them were born at Smithfield. They were Nora Matilda Merrill who was born on 23^rd April 1870, Ralph Teancum Merrill who was born on 22^nd June 1872, Lydia Merrill who was born on 27^th December 1875, Julia Merrill who was born on 29^th December 1877, and Alice Olive Merrill who was born on 31^st December 1882.

Although Elizabeth lived to a grand age, it is possible that Ralph later married Elizabeth’s older sister Mary Ann (above), following the likely death of her own husband. Elizabeth was living at Smithfield in Cache County at the age of 95 when she died on 30^th May 1944, and was buried there two days later.

61P9

Julia Ann Collett was born at Millcreek in Salt Lake on 27^th September 1851 and was baptised in June 1862, the daughter of Daniel and Esther Collett. Ten years later she married James Cantwell at Salt Lake City on 15^th January 1872 with whom she had nine children, all of which were born at Smithfield.

James was from England, having been born in Liverpool on 28^th February 1843, and his and Julia’s children were Daniel James Cantwell born on 12^th October 1872, William Hamer Cantwell born on 17^th March 1874, Elthura Cantwell, born on born 1^st January 1875, Francis Reuben Cantwell, born on 6^th December 1878, Stephen Cantwell born on 21^st January 1882, Julia Cantwell born on 3^rd February 1885, Leonora Cantwell born on 24^th August 1886, Esther Cantwell born on 20^th August 1888, and Milo Cantwell who was born on 15^th July 1890. From around 1888, until his death in 1894, Julia’s father Daniel Collett lived with her and her family at Smithfield.

Like her sister Elizabeth (above), Julia Ann Cantwell nee Collett was also living at Smithfield when she died on 21^st April 1934, although an alternative source gives the date of her death as 15^th November 1929. There is also a conflict regarding the date of birth of her daughter Esther. Esther Cantwell Littledyke Partington, the daughter of James Cantwell and Julia Collett died at Salt Lake City on 30^th January 1947 at the age of 56. At the time of her death her date of birth was stated as being 20^th August 1890, but with the day being correct it is perhaps just a simple error on the part of the informer, who did not realise that she was two years older and therefore 58 rather than 56.

61P10

Charles Albert Capper Collett was born at Lehi in Utah on 28^th December 1853, the son of Daniel and Esther Collett, his name taken from Charles Capper who was his mother’s betrothed before she married Daniel Collett. Charles was nearly twenty-three years of age when he married (1) Hannah Ann Merrill at Salt Lake City on 28^th October 1876, which corresponds with the date of birth of their first child. Hannah on the other hand was only 17, she having born at Farmington in Davis County in Utah on 24^th January 1860, yet another link between the Collett and Merrill families, as detailed earlier in this family line.

An alternative source of information on the internet suggests that they were only married at Logan, Utah on 19^th April 1893, when Charles was 40 and Hannah was 33. However, it was the census in 1900 which validated their marriage in 1876, by stating that they had been married for twenty-four years, thus proving that Hannah, who was sometime known as Annie, was definitely the first wife of Charles Albert Capper Collett.

It was in the census of 1880 that Charles’ wife was named as Annie Collett, and according to the census record that year, Chas Collett aged 24, was living with his young family at Soda Springs in Caribou County (previously Oneida County), Idaho, where his occupation was that of a freighter. His wife Annie Collett was 20, and their two daughters were Mary J Collett, who was two years old, and Melissa Collett who was just one year old, all four members of the household had been born in Utah.

Over the next twenty years Hannah Ann Collett nee Merrill presented her husband with a further nine children who were born at various locations across Utah and Idaho, suggesting a wandering life-style. It was just before the end of the century that Charles and Hannah finally left Utah and briefly stopped in Idaho, where their penultimate child was born, while on their way north to a new life Canada. And it was there, at Magrath in Alberta, that the couple’s last child was born in 1904.

When the US Census of 1900 was conducted Charles and his family, together with his brother James Jones Collett (below) and his family, were residing at Bennington in Bear Lake County, Idaho. With Charles C Collett aged 47, was his wife and eight of their eleven children. Hannah A Collett was 40, Melissa Collett was 21, Charles C Collett was 18, Maud Collett was 16, son Philemon Collett was 14, Nora M Collett was 12, Harriet A Collett was eight, Reuben D Collett was six, and Ralph D Collett, was four years old. Note: It is of further interest that also listed in the census of 1900, but for Cokeville Town in Wyoming, was Charles C Collett aged 47 and from Utah, who was also born there in December 1853 of English parents, and a married man of 23 years, who was recorded as staying there with his son Charles C Collett who was 18. That raises the question, did his wife assist the census enumerator to complete the census return, with her husband and eldest son away on a mission for the church.

Sometime before 1915 Charles was made a widower by the death of his wife, as confirmed by the Canada Census of 1916. By that time, he was living within the Lethbridge district of Alberta when he was described as Chas Capper Collett aged 62 and from Utah, who had immigrated to Canada in 1902. Still living with him were four of his children, and they were Reuben Daniel Collett who was 21, Ralph Demar Collett who was 19, Lola Collett who was 16, and son Morgan Collett who was 12 and born at Alberta whereas the other three children had been born in Utah.

Once his children had grown-up and left the family home it seems that Charles sought the company of an older women and may have met her after he had returned to Bear Lake County. It was at Montpelier in Bear Lake County on 18^th December 1921 that Charles Capper Collett aged 67 and from Lehi, (2) married Christianna Werner who was 72 and from Ogden in Utah. After they were married the couple returned to Alberta, although that second marriage only endured for precisely one year, when Charles Albert Capper died at Taber in Alberta on 17^th December 1922, where he was buried three days after.

61Q31

Mary Jane Collett

Born in 1877 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q32

Melissa Collett

Born in 1879 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q33

Charles Capper Collett

Born in 1882 at Bennington, Idaho

61Q34

Maude Collett

Born in 1884 at Bennington, Idaho

61Q35

Philemon Merrill Collett

Born in 1886 at Bennington, Idaho

61Q36

Lenora Collett

Born in 1889 at Bennington, Idaho

61Q37

Harriet Amelia Collett

Born in 1892 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q38

Reuben Daniel Collett

Born in 1894 at Meadowville, Utah

61Q39

Ralph Demar Collett

Born in 1897 at Meadowville, Utah

61Q40

Lola Collett

Born in 1900 at Bennington, Idaho

61Q41

Morgan Collett

Born in 1904 at Magrath, Alberta

61P11

James Jones Collett was born at Lehi on 24^th April 1856, the son of Daniel and Esther Collett, and was just over one year old when his mother died. He later married (1) Marrietta Tidwell on 28^th December 1877, the same day that his younger sister Eliza (below) was also married. Marriette was born at Ogden in Weber County, Utah on 23^rd August 1858 and was later baptised on 16^th May 1867. The couple’s first four children were born while James and Marriette were living at Smithfield in Cache County, while their last child Julia was born after the family had moved to Bennington in Bear Park County in Idaho.

In the census of 1880, the family was listed as living at Richmond Precinct in Cache County, where James Collett was 29 and a farmer, Marriette Collett was 22, and their two children were James Collett who was one year old, and Sophronia (as Saphrona) Collett who was just one month old. After nearly ten years of married life together Marriette Collett, nee Tidwell, died at Smithfield on 25^th February 1887 and it was there that she was buried.

Nine years after he was widowed James married widow (2) Jane Duncan Wardrop on 25^th July 1896 at Bennington, the former wife of Moroni Duncan. That first marriage produced six children for Jane, who brought with her three of them when she went to live with James, who were referred to as his stepchildren in 1900. Jane was born at Salt Lake City on 7^th April 1859 and was baptised there on 15^th April 1859. The two subsequent children of James and Jane were born at Bennington Village, with the first of them born in 1897 named in honour of James’ first wife, and the second born eighteen months after. Regarding Jane’s previous three children, the first two were born at Logan in Cache County in Utah, and the other in Wyoming, and it is interesting that it was to Logan the family travelled after 1900, where Jane gave birth to twin sons in 1902, although only one survived.

According to the Bennington Village census of 1900, James and his family, and his older brother Charles Albert Capper Collett (above) with his family, were all living there at that time. James and his second wife had eight children; the three eldest from his first marriage, the two missing daughters most likely married by then, Jane’s three Duncan children, plus the two new additions from James and Jane. On that day James J Collett from Utah was 44 and a farmer who had been born in April 1956. His wife of four years, Jane Collett was 41 and had been born in Utah in February 1859, who had given birth to eight children one of whom was no longer living.

James’ three children from his first marriage were James Collett who was 20 and born in September 1879, Elmer Collett who was 19, and Sidney Collett who were 17 and born in October 1882. All three sons were described as day labourers, maybe helping their father on the land. Jane’s three children were Minnie Collett aged 15 and born in 1885, Clarence Collett aged 11 and born in November 1888, and Robert Collett who was nine and born in July 1890. The couple’s two new children were Marriette Collett who was three and born in April 1897, and Blanche Collett who was two years old and born in December 1898. The first five children had been born in Utah, the sixth in Wyoming, and the two youngest at Bennington.

During the following months, the whole family left Bennington and travelled south, alongside Bear Lake and across the state border into Utah, and to the town of Logan, where Jane presented James with twin boys, Ralph, and Riley, with the latter suffering an infant death. They were still there in 1903 when their eldest son James died in an accident at work, after which the family then made the decision to emigrate to Canada, making the journey north to be reunited with James’ brother Charles Albert Capper Collett who had already moved there during the previous year.

The family group crossed over into Canada in 1907 and, by the time of the Canadian census in 1911, they were recorded at Medicine Hat in Alberta. James Collett was a farmer who was 55 and had been born in April 1856, when his wife Jane Collett was 52 who was born during April 1859. Their children on that day were Marriette Collett who was 14, Alice Blanche Collett who was 12, and Ralph W Collett who was nine years old. All of them were members of the Mormon religion and were born in America, Marriette in April 1897, Alice in December 1898, and Ralph in 1902. Living at the adjacent property was James’ son Elmer Collett, another Mormon farmer, who was 30 and born in the USA during November in 1881, who had entered Canada in 1908.

This Collett family was for some reason listed in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Church Census Records) for 1914 as follows: James Collett head of the household, born at Utah in 1856; Jane D Collett, his wife, born at Utah; Marriette Collett, daughter, born in America; Alice Blanche Collett, daughter, born in America; and Ralph Collett, son, born in Utah.

By 1916 only the couple’s youngest son was still living with James and Jane, when the census that year recorded the family as residing at Raymond Township within the Lethbridge district of Alberta, where it appears the couple remained for the rest of their lives. James Collett was 60 and a farmer, Jane was 57, and Ralph W Collett was 14. Visiting the family at that time was Richard Leishman from Scotland who was 80 and retired. The census return for 1916 also confirmed that the family had immigrated to Canada in 1907, which was four years after James’ brother Charles had settled there.

And it was at Raymond, at Lethbridge in Alberta that James Jones Collett died on 12^th May 1924, and where he was buried four days later. Two years after being widowed, Jane Collett was recorded in the June 1926 census still living Raymond Town, Lethbridge in Alberta, 10 East Street. She was the head of the household, a widow aged 67 who entered Canada in 1907 and who had gained citizenship in 1912. The only member of her family living there with her was her youngest child, unmarried Ralph Collett who was 24. Four years later, the Church Census Records for 1930 included widow Jane D Wardrop Collett who was 71 years of age, as they did in 1935, and again in 1940 when she was 81, on all three occasions her place of birth was confirmed as Salt Lake City.

The Canada census of 1931 included 72-year-old Jane Collett residing alone at East Street in Lethbridge, Alberta, when she was a widow paying rent to live there. The census return also confirmed she had emigrated to Canada in 1907, and that she gained Canadian citizenship in 1908.

Twice during her later years, Jane crossed from Canada into America and the manifest in each case provided the following details. The first application was recorded on 5^th November 1936, when Jane D Collett was 77, born in Salt Lake City, a housewife from Raymond, Alberta, who first enter Canada in 1907. Her intended destination was 1334 Alki Avenue in Seattle, Washington, the home of Mrs Harold Jackson, that being her daughter Alice Blanche Collett, with whom she was hoping to stay for six months. For the second visit Jane Duncan Collett was 88, when she crossed over the border at Sweet Grass, Montana, on 10^th December 1947. At the time she was living at Magrath in Alberta, the home of her daughter Margaret Meldrum. The reason for the trip, by automobile, was to revalidate her B/C card which was withdrawn. After a further four years, Jane Duncan Wardrop Collett died at Raymond, Alberta, on 6^th June 1951, where she was buried with her deceased husband.

61Q42

James Tidwell Collett

Born in 1878 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q43

Sadie Sophronia Collett

Born in 1880 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q44

Elmer Collett

Born in 1881 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q45

Sidney Collett twin

Born in 1882 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q46

Elsie Collett twin

Born in 1882 at Smithfield, Utah

The mother of the next three children was Jane Duncan, nee Wardrop, James’ later second wife:

61Q47

Julia (Minnie) Collett (Duncan)

Born in June 1885 in Utah

61Q48

Clarence Collett (Duncan)

Born in November 1888 in Utah

61Q49

Robert Collett (Duncan)

Born in July 1890 in Wyoming

The following are the children of James Jones Collett and his second wife Jane Wardrop:

61Q50

Marriette Collett

Born in 1897 at Bennington, Idaho

61Q51

Alice Blanche Collett

Born in 1898 at Bennington, Idaho

61Q52

Ralph Wardrop Collett twin

Born in 1902 at Logan, Utah

61Q53

Riley Wardrop Collett twin

Born in 1902 at Logan, Utah

61P12

Eliza Ann Collett was born at Lehi in Utah on 3^rd September 1858 and was baptised on 29^th December 1867 was the only child of Daniel Collett and his second wife Mary Foulks. Ten years after she was baptised Eliza married Robert John Jones at Smithfield on 17^th December 1877, with whom she had nine children. Robert was born at Kaysville in Davis County in Utah on 31^st July 1854. Their first six children were both while the couple were living at Smithfield but around 1888 the family moved to Dayton in Franklin County in Idaho where the last three children were born.

And they were Mary Ann Jones born on 7^th September 1878, Charles Jones born on 22^nd August 1880, Robert Roy Jones born on 25^th November 1881, Sylvester Jones born on 20^th September 1883, Daniel Reuben Jones born on 29^th January 1886, Lenora Lillian Jones born on 4^th November 1887, George Leslie Jones born on 10^th November 1889, Delila Jane Jones born on 6^th February 1892, and Vessa Maud Jones who was born on 1^st December 1900. Eliza Jones nee Collett died at American Falls in Power County in Idaho on 11^th June 1929, but was buried at Dayton in Franklin County on 14^th June 1929.

61P13

William Gordon Collett was born at Smithfield on 11^th November 1860, the only known child from the third marriage of Daniel Collett to Elizabeth Gordon. By the time of the Smithfield census of 1880, he had left the family home and was simply recorded as William Collett aged 19 and from Utah, when he was working as a farmhand, lodging with the Richardson family from England. Just over four years later he undertook an adult baptism on 19^th August 1884 and less than four years after that he married Ada Rich on 23^rd May 1888, but tragically died later that same year.

61P14

Elizabeth Anne Miles Ward Collett was born at Farmington, Davis County, Utah on 7^th October 1862, the daughter of Elizabeth Miles nee Ward and her husband Thomas Miles. Upon the death of her father when she was one year old, and the subsequent marriage of her mother to Daniel Collett in 1864, Elizabeth took up the Collett surname. She was only fifteen years of age when she married Allen Spencer Burk at the Endowment House in Salt Lake City (the Temple there not yet having been completed) on 14^th March 1878, and their son Allen Spencer Burke was born in 1883 who later died in 1968. Elizabeth’s husband died during 1902, while she survived for a further thirty-seven years, when she passed away on 4^th August 1939 at Phoenix, Maricopa County, in Arizona. Her son married Mary Elizabeth Ross (1895-1973), the daughter of Carl Mert Ross - a Methodist Episcopal Minister, and their son Spencer L Burke was born in 1918. It was during May 1944 that Spencer married Virginia Lane (1924-2012) and they were the parents of Richard Spencer Burke (born during June 1946 in Phoenix) who kindly provided the new information on his great grandmother.

Richard, or Rick as he was known, was living in Richmond, Virginia, at the start of 2014 with his wife Pamela Borneman and their three daughters Amy Burke, Heather Burke, and Kelley Burke. The story handed down through the family suggests that when Elizabeth Anne Miles Ward Collett was much younger her Collett family was massacred by native American Indians, at which time she was taken in by the Burk (Burke) family, into which she was later married.

61P15

Thomas Ward Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache County on 8^th May 1865 and was baptised ten years later, on 18^th July 1875, the eldest son of Daniel Collett by his fourth wife Elizabeth Miles nee Ward. In 1880 Thomas Collett was 15 and was employed at Smithfield as a farmhand, like his brother William (above), while he was lodging with Benjamin Aiken from Massachusetts. After a further eleven years he married Ida Mary (Amelia) Anderson, the daughter of Neils Anderson, on 11^th November 1886 at Soda Springs in Caribou County, Idaho with whom he had nine children who, bar one, were all born in Idaho. Ida was born in Denmark in September 1867.

It was at Club Springs, Salt River Precincts in Bannock County, Idaho, that the family was living in 1900. The census that year listed the family as Thomas Collett from Utah, who was 35, his wife Ida Collett, who was 33, their two daughters Ada Collett, who was 13, and Blanche Collett, who was 11, and their two sons Loren Collett, who was six, and David Collett who was three years old. Boarding with the family was William Fowler aged 20, and Koseltha Fowler who was 17, both from Utah.

The 1911 Canada Census shows 1904 as the immigration year for Thomas, Ida, and their 7 children into Alberta, Canada. Thomas' mother, Elizabeth Ward Miles Collett, immigrated in 1906 as per the 1911 Canada Census and family documentation. There was a growing community of church members who were engaged in farming in the area. The 1906 Canada Census identified the family living at Alberta, and included the following members: Thomas, Ida, her mother Elizabeth Collett, daughters Ada and Blanche, and sons Loren, David, Thomas, and George. In 1910 their daughter Ida Alberta was born, which accounts for why there is no US census return for the family that year. The 1911 Canada Census listed Thomas, Ida, sons Loren, David, Thomas, George, together with daughter Ida Alberta, living at Medicine Hat Sub-Districts 12-70, Alberta, Canada. In 1912, the family moved to Moscow, Idaho, but not with Ida’s Mother Elizabeth Collett or daughter Ada. While living in Moscow, another daughter, Bessie, was born. Thomas was farming in the area at that time.

In 1917, with the completion of the Milner Dam in southern Idaho, Thomas and Ida Collett, and some of the family moved to Burley, Cassia County, Idaho to farm the newly opened land with Thomas' brother Daniel and his children. The 1917 WW1 draft registration for son Thomas William shows him living in Cassia County. The Cassia County, Idaho census in 1920 recorded the family living at Burley Precinct No. 2, where Thomas Collett was 54 and a farmer having his own general farm and an employer, when Ida from Denmark was 51. Their children that day were Blanche Collett 30, David D Collett 23 – neither of them working, Thomas W Collett was 19 and George W Collett was 16 - the only ones in employment, Alberta Collett who was ten, Elizabeth Collett who was six, and Nancy Collett who was four years old. The youngest child had been born when Ida was in her late 40s, and may not have enjoyed good health, because she died at Burley Precinct shortly after that census day in 1920.

Thomas Ward Collett died at Burley just two years later, when he passed away on 18^th May 1922 at the age of 57, following which his body was returned to Soda Springs for burial. His death certificate confirmed that during his life he had been a farmer, that his parents were both from England, his father being Daniel Collett and his mother Elizabeth Ward, and that he had been born at Smithfield on 8^th May, although the year was incorrectly stated as 1866, that being the year his younger brother Daniel Ward Collett (below) was born. At the time of his death, his obituary confirmed that he was survived by his wife, four sons and four daughters, and several brothers and sisters. Thirty-two years after the death of her husband Ida Amelia Collett nee Anderson died during 1954.

Footnote: Ida Anderson's middle name was Mary even though there have been some listings showing it as Amelia. However, family records, death certificate, and obituary all confirm Mary as the correct middle name.

61Q54

Ada Mary Collett

Born in 1887 at Idaho

61Q55

Blanche Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1889 at Idaho

61Q56

Elmer Thomas Collett

Born in 1892 at Soda Springs, Idaho

61Q57

Loren Anderson Collett

Born in 1894 at Henry, Idaho

61Q58

David Daniel Collett

Born in 1897 at Henry, Idaho

61Q59

Thomas William Collett

Born in 1900 at Soda Springs, Idaho

61Q60

George Ward Collett

Born in 1903 at Soda Springs, Idaho

61Q61

Ida Alberta Collett

Born in 1908 at Alberta, Canada

61Q62

Mary Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1914 at Moscow, Idaho

61Q63

Nancy Collett

Born in 1916 at Burley, Idaho; died 1920

61P16

Daniel Ward Collett was born at Smithfield on 4^th July 1866 and was baptised there just eight days later, on 12^th July 1866. He was the last known children of Daniel Collett by his fourth wife Elizabeth Miles nee Ward. He later married Sarah Lottie Phillips on 7^th March 1891 at Preston in Franklin County in Idaho. She was born at Brigham City in Box Elder County, Utah on 25^th November 1872.

During their married life Sarah, who was better known as Lottie, presented Daniel with thirteen children, although two of them did not survive beyond infancy. What is known for sure is that in the US Census of 1900 the family was living at Presto, Grays, Taylor Precincts, Bingham in Idaho. On that occasion the family comprised Daniel W Collett aged 34 from Utah, whose parents had been born in England, who had been married for nine years to Sarah L Collett aged 28 from Utah. Their four Idaho born children that day were Edna Collett who was eight, Lottie L Collett who was six, Sarah Collett who was four, and Daniel P Collett who was two years old. Also living with the family was Daniel’s mother Elizabeth Collett who was 70, and his nephew James Collett who was 18 and born at Utah during February 1882. Who James was, has still to be determined – see Appendix Two.

During the next decade a further four children were added to their family, as confirmed by the next census in 1910 when the family was recorded at Dayton, Oneida in Idaho. Daniel W Collett was 43, his wife was by then listed as Lottie Collett aged 38, and with them were their eight children. Edna was 18, Lewella was 16, Sarah was 12 – and not 14, Daniel was 10 – and not 12, Elizabeth was seven, William was five, Mabel was three, and Ralph was under one year old.

The next census in 1920 raises some issues, the main one being that only two additional children were recorded with the family, by which time they were living at Cassia in Idaho. The two new children were Elverta and Barbara, indicating that both daughters named Berniece had not survived. The family at Cassia was made up of Daniel Collett who was 53, Lottie Collett was 47, Daniel who was 21, Elizabeth who was 17, William who was 15, Mabel who was 12, Ralph who was nine, Elverta who was seven, and Barbara who was five.

After the death of the couple’s two daughters prior to 1920, Lottie finally presented Daniel with his thirteenth and last child during the following year. That was confirmed in the census of 1930 when the family had finally settled at Hagerman in Gooding County in Idaho, where the surname was recorded as Collatt. Dan W Collett from Utah was 63, Lottie Collett was 55, Ralph Collett was 20, Verta Collett was 18, Barbara Collett was 16, and Elton Collett was nine years of age.

Daniel Ward Collett was still living at Hagerman two years later when he died on 28^th September 1932 at the age of 66 and was buried at Dayton in Franklin County, Idaho on 30^th October 1932. An alternative website on the internet states that Daniel Collett was born at Smithfield on 20^th July 1867, rather than one year earlier, the earlier date corresponding better with his age at the time of death.

Following the death of her husband, Sarah Lottie Collett was still living in Hagerman with her son Alton in 1935, but shortly after she went to live with her eldest married son Daniel, and was recorded at Glenns Ferry, in Elmore County, Idaho in 1940 when she was described as the widow Sarah L Collett from Utah who was 67.

61Q64

Edna Collett

Born in 1892 at Dayton, Idaho

61Q65

Lottie Lewella Collett

Born in 1894 near Henry, Idaho

61Q66

Sarah Collett

Born in 1897 at Soda Springs, Idaho

61Q67

Daniel Phillips Collett

Born in 1898 at Presto, Idaho

61Q68

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1902 at Basalt, Idaho

61Q69

William Phillips Collett

Born in 1904 at Basalt, Idaho

61Q70

Mabel Collett

Born in 1907 at Dayton, Idaho

61Q71

Ralph Thomas Collett

Born in 1910 at Dayton, Idaho

61Q72

Elverta Collett

Born in 1912 at Dayton, Idaho

61Q73

Barbara Opal Collett

Born in 1914 at Dayton, Idaho

61Q74

Berniece Collett

Born in 1916 at Weston, Idaho

61Q75

Alton Ward Collett

Born in 1920 at Burley, Idaho

61P17

Ann Collett was born at Gloucester on 9^th November 1833, the base-born daughter of Ann Collett. There is a record in Gloucester which may indicate that her father was Benjamin Price. However, it was nearly three years after she was born that her mother married her married Thomas Oakey at Gloucester, on 30^th September 1836, at which time she became Ann Collett Oakey. By the time her brother Charles (below) was born in 1837 the Oakey family was living within the parish of Eldersfield at the hamlet of Frogsmarsh. And it was there that Ann Oakey was recorded with her family in the census of 1841, when she was curiously listed as being only five years old, perhaps a cover for the embarrassing fact that she was born before her parents were married.

Sometime during the later part of the 1840s, Ann and her brother Charles sailed to America, where their family joined them a few years later. It was when Ann Oakey was around eighteen years of age and living with her family at Nauvoo in Hancock County, Illinois that she married Charles Price on 6^th October 1851. The couple had only been married for fourteen years when Ann Collett Price nee Oakey died at Marriott-Slaterville in Weber County, Utah during February 1865.

Was it a pure coincidence that her husband’s surname was Price, the same as her most probable father, or was there some older family relationship that brought the couple together?

61P18

Charles Oakey was born at Frogsmarsh, with the parish of Eldersfield on 28^th May 1837, the eldest son of Thomas and Ann Oakey. Charles was four years old in the Frogsmarsh census of 1841, and was baptised at Eldersfield on 21^st February 1845. He was absent from his family in 1851 when they were still living at Frogsmarsh. However, it was five years after that census day when Charles Oakey and his family sailed from England on 4^th May 1856 onboard the sailing ship Thornton, arriving in New York and eventually reaching Iowa City on 26^th June 1856. On 15^th July that same year, they all left Iowa City when the family headed west with the James G Willie Handcart Company, arriving in Salt Lake City on 9^th November 1856.

By 1858, Charles was living at Camp Floyd, twenty miles west of Lehi in Utah, and was at Florence in Nebraska in 1861, when he was with the John Murdock Company to assist other Mormons to make the trip to Utah. Not long after that, on 17^th January 1862, Charles Oakey married Mary Ann Passey and by 1864 they moved to Paris in Idaho, where they remained until Charles died there on 16^th May 1903. From 1864 until 1901 he was sexton of the Paris Cemetery, where he was buried three days after he passed away.

According to the 1880 census Charles Oakey, from England, was 43 and a farmer living near to his parents at Paris in Bear Lake County, Idaho. Living there with him was his wife Mary Ann Oakey aged 36, also from England, and their six children. They were Charles L Oakey aged 17, Elthura R Oakey aged 15, William T Oakey aged 13, Reuben H Oakey who was six, Joseph H Oakey who was four, and Mary Ann Oakey who was one year old. The two eldest children had been born in Utah, while the four younger children had all been born after the family’s arrival in Idaho.

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Jane Oakey was born at Frogsmarsh on 8^th April 1839, the daughter of Thomas and Ann Oakey. In the census of 1841 Jane Oakey was two years old, and in the next census of Frogsmarsh in 1851 she was still living there with her family at the age of 11. Four year later her parents took the family to America, where Jane Oakey died on 1^st July 1863 at Draper in Salt Lake County, where she was also buried three days after. It may be of interest that a Jane Oakey Ennis died on 24^th June 1863.

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Heber Thomas Oakey was born at Frogsmarsh on 30^th January 1841, the son of Thomas and Ann Oakey. He was four months old in the June census at Frogsmarsh later that same year, where he was still living with his family in 1851 when he was 10. Following his family’s emigration to America in the mid-1850s, Heber married Jane from England who was four years old.

Their marriage produced several children which, by the time of the 1880 census, numbered six living with the couple at Bennington in Bear Lake County, Idaho, where Heber T Oakey was a farmer from England at the age of 37 (sic). His wife Jane, also from England, was 41, while their children were Ida Jane Oakey aged 16, Edward T Oakey aged 12, George L Oakey aged 10, Sophia M Oakey who was seven, Reuben H Oakey who was three, and Ernest C Oakey who was six months old. Only the eldest of their children had been born in Utah, with all the later children born in Idaho.

It was at Paris in Bear Lake County, Idaho, that Heber Thomas Oakey died on 10^th May 1920, following which he was buried at Bennington in Bear Lake.

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Joseph Lorenzo (Moroni) Oakey was born at Frogsmarsh on 9^th August 1843, the son of Thomas and Ann Oakey. There is some confusion over his name which may have been Joseph or Lorenzo, or both. In the Frogsmarsh census of 1851 he was simply listed living there with his family as Moroni Collett aged seven years. Four years after that he and his family sailed to America to start a new life.

Once living in Idaho in America Joseph married a local girl towards the end of the 1860s. That was confirmed by the 1880 census for Liberty, Richardson in Nebraska, where they and their family were living at that time. Joseph O’Kee (Joseph Lorenzo Oakey) was 36 and a farmer from England, while his wife Mary Okee was 26 and from Iowa. Their eldest child was Annie Okee had been also been born in Iowa, and she was 10 years old, meaning that her mother had been a young teenage bride when she married Joseph.

Of their other two children at that time, Ellen Okee was eight and had been born in Iowa, while the last child, John Okee, was only eight months old and had been born after the family had settled in Nebraska. There were two single men living with the family, who were labourers, perhaps helping Joseph on the farmstead, and they were the brothers Daniel and Albert Stewart from Iowa, whose parents were from Kentucky.

It can now be revealed why Joseph changed his name. On his family’s overland trek to Salt Lake City in the winter of 1856 Joseph had gone separated from his family and ended up being taken in by a family who took pity on the young lad and brought him up as one of their own. Despite his parents never giving up looking for him, it was through an advertisement in a newspaper that he was reunited with his family after an absence of twenty years. During that time, he had married and raised his own family, as detailed above. The full story is told in a serialisation in the Monthly Collett Newsletter. The only other known fact about Joseph Lorenzo Oakey is that he died on 31^st July 1931.

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Rhoda Rebecca Oakey was born at Frogsmarsh on 28^th October 1845, the daughter of Thomas and Ann Oakey. She was five years old in the Grogsmarsh census of 1851, and around the time that Rhoda was ten years old her parents took the family to America. It was during the family’s overland trek with the James G Willie Handcart Company that Rhoda Rebecca Collett died on 10^th November 1856 at the age of 11, near Rock Springs in Wyoming, during the snow storms that battered the state that month.

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Reuben Hyrum Oakey was born at Frogsmarsh on 20^th August 1847, the son of Thomas and Ann Oakey and was three years old in the census of 1851. He was nearly seven old when his family left England for America, where he died on 28^th December 1876 at the age of 29. However, prior to his death he had married Sarah Jane Nate.

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James William Oakey was born at Frogsmarsh on 27^th May 1849, the son of Thomas and Ann Oakey. One internet record indicates that he died on the same day that he was born. However, knowing that his farming family emigrated to America around the time that James was six years old, it is possible that he did survive and travelled with them.

The reasoning behind this assumption is that a James Oakey from England was recorded in the US Census of 1880 with his English wife and their four children. They and their family were living at Second Ward, Ogden in Weber County, Utah, where James Oakey was 32 and a teamster on a farm, his wife Sarah E Oakey was 30, their daughter Ada R Oakey and Daisy E Oakey were seven and five, while their sons were K Oakey, who was two, and Walter M Oakey who was eight months. All four children had been born in Utah.

Other members of the Collett and Oakey families had connections with Ogden and Weber County, so this also perhaps confirms that James did not suffer an infant death.

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Sarah Ann Oakey was born at Frogsmarsh on 9^th May 1852, the youngest daughter of Thomas and Ann Oakey. When she was only a few years old her parents emigrated to America, where in her later life Sarah was married three times.

She first married (1) William Sterrett at Salt Lake City on 16^th June 1867, then (2) Albert Humburg at Montpelier in Bear Lake County on 16^th August 1879, and finally (3) Stephen Bedford Ludlum at Paris in Bear Lake on 24^th December 1887. The first marriage produced four Sterrett children, the second produced four Humburg children, and the third marriage produced two Ludlum children. In addition to those ten children, Sarah also had two Oakey children born in 1875 and 1879, possibly after the death of her first husband and before she married the second.

Sarah Ann Ludlum lived a long life and died just five years short of a century on 2^nd July 1947 at Liberty in Bear Lake County, Idaho. She was buried three days later at Paris in Bear Lake.

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Walter John Oakey was born at Frogsmarsh on 27^th June 1854, the last child of Thomas Oakey and his wife Ann Collett. He was only one month old when he died there on 25^th July 1854.

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Sylvanus Collett was born at Lehi in Utah on 23^rd January 1856, the eldest child of Sylvanus Collett and his first wife Lydia Karren. It was also at Lehi that Sylvanus junior died two years later in 1858 when he drowned in a creek near Lehi.

61Q2

Esther Ann Collett was born at Lehi on 3^rd February 1858 and was there baptised on 26^th June 1867, the eldest daughter of Sylvanus and Lydia Collett. It would appear that she died at Kirtland, San Juan in New Mexico on 14^th March 1946, although she was buried four days after at Mesa in Maricopa County in Arizona.

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Lydia Isabel Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache County, Utah on 25^th April 1861, the daughter of Sylvanus and Lydia Collett. She ten years old when she was baptised on 18^th September 1871. At the time of her death, at the age of 75, she was married and was living at Salt Lake City where she died on 9^th March 1937, and was buried at Smithfield three days later. The death notice for Lydia Isabelle Collett Nelson confirmed she was the daughter of Sylvanus Collett and Isabelle Karren, and the wife of Joseph Nelson. Home for Lydia and Joseph had been 1785 Princeton Avenue in Salt Lake City.

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Sylvester Collett was born at Smithfield on 23^rd July 1863, the eldest surviving son of Sylvanus and Lydia Collett. By the time he was 16, he and his family were living at Cokeville in Lincoln County, Wyoming, although his father’s wife on that occasion was Nellie who was only 27 and Sylvester’s stepmother. It was around eight years after that when Sylvester married Elnora Tanner from Utah at Cokeville, and there also that their two children were born, and where the family was living in 1900. The census that year recorded the family at Lot 22 in Cokeville where Sylvester Collett aged 37 was a rancher, Lanora L Collett was 35, and their son Reuben T Collett was eight years old. Sylvester was the owner of the property, while living at Lot 23 was his brother Thomas (below), with his family.

By the time of the next census in 1910 the family was living in Cokeville Precinct where Nora had presented Sylvester with a daughter. The family was listed as Sylvester Collett who was 46 and a general farmer, Nora Collett who was 45, Reuben Collett who was 17, and Elsie Collett who was five years old. The census return confirmed that the couple had been married for 23 years, during which time they had two children, both living. Living in the adjacent dwelling was Sylvester’s brother Thomas Collett (below). After that day, the family moved to the town of Burley in Cassia County in Idaho where a great tragedy hit the family in 1915 with the death of their son.

In 1920 the family was residing at 159 North Almo Avenue in Burley Precinct No. 2, where the reduced family was recorded as Sylvester Collett aged 56, the owner of their home, who was no longer credited with a job of work, so he may have been retired, when Nora Collett was 52, and their daughter was named as Elsie R Collett who was 15. It was also at Burley that the family was still living in 1930, when Sylvester Collett was 66, his wife Nora Collett was 65, and by which time their daughter was using her second name and was listed with them as Jean Collett who was 25. Sylvester Collett died on 24^th November 1938.

61R1

Reuben Tanner Collett

Born in 1892 at Cokeville, Wyoming

61R2

Elsie Rhoana Collett

Born in 1904 at Cokeville, Wyoming

61Q5

Thomas Karren Collett was born at Logan in Cache County, Utah on 19^th October 1865, the last son of Lydia Collett nee Karren, who died three weeks after he was born. During the previous year his father Sylvanus Collett had taken another much younger wife, who presumably took over looking after her husband’s children, but not Thomas. According to the account of the story as told to the family much later by his wife, it was at his mother’s death-bed request that Thomas be given up into the care of her close and wealthy non-Mormon friend, a Mrs Rogers, who raised him for several years and later resided at Montpelier in Idaho. Mrs Rogers nevertheless remained a close surrogate mother both to Thomas and, still later, to his children, who remember her with great fondness.

In 1880, when Thomas was 14 years old, he was living at Cokeville in Wyoming and it was around ten or eleven years later that Thomas married Catherine Elizabeth Sims from Bear Lake in Idaho who had been born at Centerville in Utah and they initially settled in Idaho where their first two children were born. Before the end of the century the family left Idaho and moved back to Cokeville, where the family of four was living in 1900. Curiously the census return stated that the couple had been married for seven years, despite their eldest child being eight years old which was very likely an error (see 1910 census below). It did however confirm that Catherine (as Kate) had given birth to two children, both living.

Thomas K Collett was 35 and a rancher who owned the property at Cokeville Precinct in 1900, when his wife was Kate E Collett who was 30, and daughters Imogene Collett and Lucille Collett were eight and five years of age, respectively. They were residing at Lot 23, with at Lot 22 was Thomas’ older brother Sylvester Collett (above), with his wife, and their only child, at that time.

The parents of Catherine Elizabeth Sims were handcart pioneer converts from South Africa, where her father, Alexander, a Scotsman born in Aberdeen, was an apprentice miller, and her mother, Elizabeth McDermott, whose father was Irish, was descended from a two centuries long line of largely Dutch South African Boers, with smatterings of German (her mother’s father), Austrian, and political exile ancestry from Indonesia, including Indonesian, East Indian and Chinese, as well as, possibly, Portuguese. Alexander Sims was one of the first pioneer burr millers at Sugar House, Liberty Park, Centerville, and, finally, Bear Lake, where for seven years he and his seven sons blasted through thirty feet of rock to construct the St Charles Canal, affording the local farmers water rights that would have otherwise gone to sugar beet farmers in Utah. Tragically, he died after falling into his mill race on the day of the canal’s opening.

In 1905 Thomas and Catherine and their two daughters were residing in Cokeville, where the couple’s only son was born. By 1910 the family was still in Cokeville Precinct, right next door to his older brother Sylvester (above). Thomas K Collett was 44 and another general farmer, like his brother, Catherine E Collett was 39 who had been married for 18 years and given birth to three children, all living. Those three children were Imogene Collett who was 16, Lucille Collett who was 14, and son Thiel Collett who was five years old. No more children were added to the family and by 1920 they were living in Salt Lake City in Utah. Eldest daughter Imogene had left home by then, presumably to be married, so the family was made up of Thomas K Collett aged 54, Katherine E Collett who was 49, Lucille Collett who was 25, and Thiel D Collett who was 15.

After another ten years the family was still residing in Salt Lake City, but by then the couple’s son had departed to make his own way in the world. On that occasion the family was therefore recorded as Thomas K Collett who was 64, Katherine Collett aged 58, and unmarried Lucille Collett who was 32. Thomas was a farmer and appeared to be employing four unrelated individuals who were living with the family and described as ‘roomers’

It was just under two year later that Thomas Karren Collett died at Salt Lake City on 23^rd December 1931 at the age of 66. His death certificate confirmed that he was a farmer and that he was buried on 27^th December 1931, that his wife was Catherine Collett, that his father was Sylvanus Collett, and that his mother was Lydia Karren, both from England. Whether an error here in this family history, or an error made by his wife when completing the death information, his date of birth was stated at Logan as 25^th October 1865, rather than 19^th as stated above.

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Imogene Collett

Born in 1893 at Idaho

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Lucille Collett

Born in 1896 at Idaho

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Thiel D Collett

Born in 1905 at Cokeville, Wyoming

61Q6

Samuel Merrill Collett was born at Logan, Cache County, Utah on 16^th December 1866, and was the eldest child of Sylvanus Collett from England by his second wife Phoebe Lodina (Lodema) Merrill who was from New York state. Around the mid-1870s his parents split up, each of them marrying someone new. This was proved in the census of 1880 when Samuel C Collett aged 13 (sic) was still living at Smithfield, but with his brother Marion Collett and his sister Mary Collett (both below), at the home of their mother Phoebe L Thompson and her new husband William A Thompson. The marriage of Samuel Merrill Collett and Alice Benetta Smith was conducted on 7^th April 1890 at Wilford in Fremont County, when Samuel was 25 and Alice was 19.

Ten years later in 1900 Samuel M Collett was 33 and a day labourer from Utah, who was a married man living at 97 First East Street in Rexburg Village, Fremont County, Idaho. He had been married to Alice from Utah for ten years, and she was only 28 and had given birth to five children, four still living. The four surviving children had been born in Idaho, and they were Samuel E Collett who was ten, twins Iva and Ivan Collett who was seven, and Dora L Collett who was three years old. After a further ten years the enlarged family was recorded at Wilford Precinct for the census of 1910 when they were listed as S M Collett aged 45, a labourer at a local sawmill, who had been married for 21 years, his wife Alice was 31, Dora was 13, Benetta who was nine, Glenn who was seven, Luella who was three and, Estella who was one year old.

In 1920, it would appear, that there are two recordings of the family, at two very different locations: One is for Wyoming, Lincoln County and District 15, Alta Polling Precinct, where Samuel M Collett was 56 and a logger working at a sawmill. He reported that his father was born in Scotland, rather than England, and his mother in New York – correct. His wife Alice B Collett was 51 and another logger at the sawmill, and their four children were Luella Collett 14, Stella E Collett 11, Madge Collett who was nine, and adopted son Lloyd L Collett who was 12. Also living in another rented dwelling next-door was Samuel’s eldest child Samuel E Collett with his family. Samuel was an engineer at the sawmill and was 33, the same age as his wife Elizabeth M Collett. Their four children were Helen E Collett who was ten, Ted Collett who was seven, Wanda Collett who was five, and Sylvanus Collett

Even more curious is the fact that son Samuel Edwin Collett was also recorded in a second 1920 census, but at Wilford, Tetonia Precinct, Fremont County, Idaho, as follows: Samuel Collett was 32 and a foreman on a sheep ranch, and the owner of the property, his wife Millie (aka Elizabeth Mildred Collett) was 30, Helen Collett was eight, Edward Collett was six, Wanda Collett was four, and Sylvanus Collett was twenty-one months.

The alternative census return for 1920 placed the family as residing at Bates Precinct in Teton County, Idaho. All the couple’s earlier children had grown up and left home, while listed with Samuel M Collett aged 56 and a general farmer, and his wife Alice B Collett aged 49, were Luella Collett who was 13, Stella E Collett who was 10, Madge Collett who was eight, and Lloyd L Collett who was 11 and described as a son-by-adoption, all very similar to the Wyoming census, which is very strange. Very little else is known about Samuel Merrill Collett except that it was nine year later that he died at Idaho Falls, Bonneville County in Idaho on 8^th February 1929.

According to the census conducted during the following year, Alice B Collett was 58 and a widow, who was described as the mother-in-law of head of the household Hilary Barney. His wife was Alice’s eldest surviving daughter Dora who, had given birth to three children. Completing the family group was Alice’s youngest daughter Madge who was 18 (sister-in-law), and Helen Collett 19 (niece), the first-born child of Alice’s eldest child Samuel Edwin Collett.

It was almost the same situation in 1940, when Alice Collett was 68 and continuing to live with Dora and Hilary Barney at St Anthony, who still had Madge Collett living with the family, very likely making arrangement for her wedding day later that same year.

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Samuel Edwin Collett

Born in 1890 at Wilford, Idaho

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Iva Collett twin

Born in 1894 at Wilford, Idaho

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Ivan Collett twin

Born in 1894 at Wilford, Idaho

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Dora Lapreal Collett

Born in 1897 at Wilford, Idaho

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Benetta Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1901 at Wilford, Idaho

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Glenn Collett

Born in 1902 at Wilford, Idaho

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Luella Collett

Born in 1906 at Wilford, Idaho

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Lloyd L Collett adopted

Born in 1909 at Wilford, Idaho

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Stella E Collett

Born in 1909 in Wilford, Idaho

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Madge Collett

Born in 1911 in Wilford, Idaho

61Q7

Daniel Francello Collett was born at Smithfield on 20^th July 1867, one of the four known children of Sylvanus and Phoebe Collett. By the time of the census in 1880 Daniel’s father had remarried and was living with his new family at Cokeville in Lincoln County, Wyoming. Where Daniel was at that time, when he would have been 13, has not yet been discovered. However, ten years later in 1890 he married Mary, who had also been born in Utah, with whom he had at least three children.

In 1900 Daniel and his young family was living at Precinct 47 within Ward 5 of Salt Lake City. Listed in that year’s census return was Daniel Collett aged 33, his wife Mary A Collett also 33, and their three Utah born children, Mary P Collett who was nine, Hazel Collett who was six, and Dean Collett who was not yet one year old. The census confirmed that the couple had been married for ten years, and that Daniel’s father was from England and his mother from New York.

It was as Daniel F Collett that he was recorded in the next census of 1910 although, on that occasion, his father’s place of birth was noted as Illinois, and his mother’s was Missouri. By 1910 the family was living at Emerson in Salt Lake, where Daniel F Collett was 43 and from Utah, Mary A Collett, was 43 and from Utah, and with them just their two youngest children. Hazel Collett was 15, and Dean Collett was 10.

During the next decade the family left Utah, when they moved to Los Angeles, where they were living at Precinct 218 in 1920. Daniel F Collett was 52, as was his wife Mary A Collett, and by that time their daughter Hazel had been married and widowed, and was back living with her parents. Again, it was the same two children living with Daniel and Mary, they being Hazel Melbie aged 25, and Dean L Collett who was 19. Also staying with the family on the day of the census was Harry Burdick who was 36 and from California.

Whilst there was no place of birth stated in 1920 for Daniel’s parents, they were once again confirmed as having been born in England and New York in the census on 1930. Daniel and Mary were then residing at Long Beach in Los Angeles, with just their widowed daughter for company. Both Daniel F Collette (sic) and his wife Mary A Collette were noted as being 62 and from Utah, while their daughter Hazel Milber was 35. It is not known at this time whether Hazel’s name was Melbie or Milber. However, it is now established that Daniel Francello Collett died later that same year in 1930.

61R16

Mary Phoebe Collett

Born in 1891 at Salt Lake City

61R17

Hazel Collett

Born in 1895 at Salt Lake City

61R18

Dean L Collett

Born in 1900 at Salt Lake City

61Q8

Marion Merrill Collett was previously believed to have been born at sea on 21^st April 1875, although this has always been in doubt bearing in mind the age of his eldest child and his age in later census records. However, it is now known that he was born on 21^st April, but in 1870 and at Smithfield in Cache County, with his birth was registered in Utah, where he was raised by Sylvanus Collett and his second wife Phoebe Lodina (Lodema) Merrill. There is every possibility that he was of Mediterranean descent and was adopted by the Collett family prior to his adopted parents separating and each remarrying prior to 1880. In the census that year he was recorded as the stepchild of William A Thompson at his home in Smithfield, William’s wife being Phoebe L Thompson, formerly Collett, nee Merrill. It was simply as Marion Collett aged ten years that he was listed with his mother and two of her natural Collett children, Samuel Collett and Mary Collett.

It was his death certificate, detailed below, which provided his date of birth and the fact that he was born at sea and not at Smithfield like the other members of the family, as previously stated here. The census in 1900 indicated that he was first married to Annie, who was no longer with him and his family in 1910. However, Annie may well have been Anna Laura Horn who was born at Richmond in Cache County, Utah on 10^th March 1871 – see below.

Anna Laura Horn was the daughter of Thomas Horn and Sarah Spears from Alabama and Mississippi and she presented Marion with six children. It is also known that at least two of his children, his only son Leslie, and his daughter Myrtle, later converted to Catholicism and, on leaving school, his son Leslie was a smoker like his father (see below), and was also a cigar maker.

The images above are extracts from the same photograph, the top one being Marion himself, while the second one has his wife Anna Laura standing between two of her daughters, although it has not been determined which of her five daughters they are. The records of the life of Marion Collett appear to show that he had been of Jewish ancestry and, despite him being taken in by the Mormons, he was a pipe a smoker as shown in another family photograph.

By the time the census was conducted in 1900 the family was living at Portneuf in Bannock County, Idaho. However, there appears to be some queries on the census return. Firstly, Marion’s name was not clearly written, secondly his age was stated as being 29, and his wife’s name was Annie L Collett who was 28. With them were their five children, while every member of the household had been born in Utah. The children were listed as Leslie Collett who was 11, Lillie Collett who was 11, Waneta Collett who was eight, Pearl Collett who was six and Lucresha (sic) Collett who was one year old.

One more child was added to the family around four years later, and she was born after the family had settled in Butte in Silver Bow County, Montana. The family was residing at Butte in 1910, although Marion’s wife was not listed with the family. Once again there are question marks over the contents of the census return, since Marion Collett said he was 47 instead of 40, his son Leslie was 23 instead of 21 and his three daughters were named as May who was 20 and might have been either Lillie or Wauneta in 1900, Cretia (Lucretia) who was 12 and Myrtle who was six years old.

Over the following decade all bar Marion’s youngest child left the family home in Butte, where they were living in 1920, and by which time Marion was married to Laura. Marion Collett from Utah was 51, confirming once again that he had been born around 1870 rather than 1875. His wife Laura Collett, also from Utah, was 49 and his daughter Myrtle Collett from Montana was 14 instead of 16. After a further ten years Marion aged 59, and Laura aged 58, were recorded at the Seattle home of Marion’s married son Leslie and his family in 1930.

It was just over five years later that Marion Merrill Collett died at Butte in Silver Bow County, Montana on 15^th March 1935, the cause of death being a heart attack, following which he was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Butte – lot 347 grave 4. At the time of his passing, he was working as a quartz miner. Coincidentally on the same day that he was buried, his daughter Pearl Sylvester nee Collett was buried alongside him in a double funeral service. Four days later a report of the event was published in the Butte Standard newspaper on Tuesday 19^th March, as follows: “Double funeral services for father and daughter Marion Collett and Mrs Pearl Sylvester were conducted at 2 o’clock at Duggan’s Merrill mortuary. The services were under the auspices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Burial was side by side in Mount Moriah Cemetery. Marion Collett died late on Friday at his home, 238 New Street, following a long illness. His daughter had died at a local hospital a few hours later after she became suddenly ill shortly after completing funeral arrangements for her father. Her home was at 713 Placer Street.” Fourteen years after the death of Marion Merrill Collett his widow Anna Laura Collett nee Horn passed away on 11^th April 1948 while in Seattle, presumably where she had been living with her married daughter Myrtle Murray nee Collett.

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Leslie Marion Collett

Born in 1889 at Utah

61R20

Lillie Collett

Born in 1889 at Utah

61R21

Wauneta Collett

Born in 1892 at Smithfield, Utah

61R22

Pearl Collett

Born in 1894 at Smithfield, Utah

61R23

Lucretia Laura Collett

Born in 1899 at Smithfield, Utah

61R24

Myrtle Katherine Collett

Born in 1905 at Butte, Montana

61Q9

Mary Merrill Collett was born at Smithfield on 21^st April 1870 and was the last child of Sylvanus Collett and Phoebe Lodina (Lodema) Merrill. It is worth pointing out that Mary’s brother Marion Merrill Collett (above) was also born on the same day. Before Mary was two years old her father and mother were no longer together when, in 1872, her father remarried, as did her mother, buy later on. By the time of the census in 1880 her father, and yet another wife, had moved to Wyoming, while Mary Collett aged 10 and from Utah, was still living at Smithfield at the home of her stepfather William A Thompson and his wife Phoebe L Thompson, formerly Collett, nee Merrill. Also living there were Mary’s two older brothers Samuel Collett and twin (?) Marion Collett.

Mary Merrill Collett never married and was a nurse. By the time of the census in 1900 she was living with her widowed mother Phoebe L Thompson at Lyman Rudy, Independence Precincts in Rexburg Town, Fremont County in Idaho, when she was recorded as Mary Collett from Utah who was 30 whose father had been born in England and her mother born in New York. Her birth was also confirmed as April 1870. Following the death of her mother in 1909, no record of Mary has been found in 1910 or 1920, but in 1930 she was described as Mary Collett aged 58 from Utah, the daughter of an English father and a New York mother, the aunt of Benjamin L Rich with whom she was living at Salt Lake City. Benjamin was 52 and from Utah and his wife was Anna C Rich who was 50 and from Utah. Living with them was their son Benjamin L Rich who was 15.

Mary was still living with the Rich family ten years later, by which time they were residing with Ward 4 of Salt Lake City Precinct. The census in 1940 also recorded that they had been living at the same address in 1935. Mary Collett was 69, while Ben L Rich was 61 and his wife Anna C Rich was 59. It was ten years later that Mary Merrill Collett died at Salt Lake City on 11^th February 1950. The certificate of her death recorded all the following details. On the day she died she was a patient at the Salt Lake City Hospital at 4678 Highland Drive, where she had been for three weeks, while her home address was 74 Virginia Street in Salt Lake City. The cause of death was cardiac failure at the age of 79, while it is apparent that she was originally attending the hospital for injuries to her neck and femur, presumably following a fall. The certificate gave the correct details for her date of birth and the name of her mother. However, with regard to her father, the certificate stated that he was born at Wellington but, instead of England, it said Willington in New York.

61Q12

Nellie Collett was born in Idaho on 23^rd November 1873, a daughter of Sylvanus Collett and Nellie Collett (Sarah Ellen Gee). Shortly after she was born her family moved to Cokeville in Lincoln County, Wyoming, where she later married Peter Soloman Anderson who was born on 7^th November 1863 and died on 29^th November 1917 at Cokeville. Nellie Anderson, nee Collett, passed away seventeen years earlier when she died on 17^th November 1900 at the age of nearly 27.

61Q13

Robert William Collett was born at Cokeville, Wyoming, on 14^th June 1876, a son of Sylvanus Collett by his fifth wife Sarah Ellen (Nellie) Gee. And it was at Cokeville he was listed with his parents in 1880 when Robert W Collett was four years old, and again in 1900 when he was 22 and a copper miner, but recorded as William R Collett. Shortly after 1900 Robert married (1) Nettie from Kansas and in 1910 the childless couple was living at Austin in Lander County, Nevada. Robert was recorded as R W Collett aged 33 and from Wyoming, whose parents had been born in England, while his wife was Nettie M Collett who was 26. Ten years later the census in 1920 placed the couple living at Lincoln in Wyoming, where Robert W Collett was 43, and Nettie M Collett was 34. Staying with the couple was Irene Jackson from Wyoming who was 20.

Sometime during the following years Nettie M Collett died leaving Robert a widower. However, a little while after, he married (2) the much younger Marjorie and in 1940 they were living at Cokeville, when the census return that year confirmed that they had also been living at the same residence five years earlier in 1935. By that time in 1940, Robert Collett was 62, Marjorie Collett from Ohio was 42, and living with them was Robert’s elderly mother Nellie Collett from England who was 87.

It was sixteen years later that the death certificate for Robert William Collett revealed more about him and his life. At the time of his passing he was residing at 2921 West Palm Lane, Phoenix in Maricopa County, Arizona, although it was from there that he was taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix where he died on 15^th July 1956. The death certificate confirmed that he had lived within the city limits for the past six years and had also been a resident of Arizona for the same period of time. He was 80 years of age, having been born in the City of Cokeville on 14^th June 1876, and was married to Marjorie L Collett who was also the informant of his death. Under occupation, Robert was described as a retired marshall, while his parents were named as Sylvanus Collett and Nellie Gee.

It had been twelve days earlier when he had been admitted to hospital with a bowel obstruction and two days after had been operated on, when it was discovered that it was adhesions that were causing the obstruction. The cause of death was recorded as congestive heart failure, while the certificate also confirmed that he had been suffering with pulmonary heart disease for the past ten years and with pulmonary emphysema for the past twelve years.

61Q14

Rose Collett was born at Cokeville in Wyoming on 1^st November 1878, the daughter of Sylvanus and Nellie Collett and was one year old in the census of 1880 which was conducted on the 1^st June. Sadly, she died ten years later on 12^th January 1890.

61Q15

Burt Collett was born at Cokeville in Wyoming on 1^st August 1880, the son of Sylvanus and Nellie Collett. He was still living at Cokeville in 1900, one of three sons still living at the family home. He was 19 years old and a teamster working on the family farm with his father and younger brother Roy (below). It was later in that same decade that he married Eva from Ohio with whom he is known to have had at least two children. By the time of the census in 1920, Burt aged 40, and Eva aged 39, were living with their family at Oak Park Township in Cook County, Illinois. Curiously on that occasion, as well as twenty years later, Burt gave his place of birth as Indiana.

Their two children were recorded as Bertran Collett aged 11 from Indiana, and Robert Collett who was five and from Illinois. Within the next two years Eva gave birth to another son who was still living with the couple at the time of the census in 1940. The family of three was once again recorded as residing at Oak Park in Cook County, where Burt Collett was 60, Eva Collett was 59, and Richard Collett was 18. Sometime later in his life Burt Collett left Illinois when he returned to, and finally settle in Wyoming, and it was there at Rock Springs in Sweetwater that he died during the month of August in 1967 at the age of 87.

61R25

Bertram Collett

Born in 1909 in Indiana

61R26

Robert Collett

Born in 1915 in Illinois

61R27

Richard Collett

Born in 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois

61Q16

Roy Collett was born at Cokeville in Wyoming during November 1881 and was still living there with his family in 1900 when he was 18 and a teamster helping his father on the farm. He married Sarah Amelia (Millie) Svenson at Bear Lake in Idaho on 19^th June 1906 and by 1920 they had five children and were living at Cokeville in Lincoln County, Wyoming. Millie was born at Logan on 6^th September 1883, the daughter of Frederick Svenson and Wilhelmina Fosberg from Sweden. The census that years listed the family as Roy, who was 38 and from Wyoming, Millie, who was 33 and from Utah, as was their eldest daughter Thelma who was 13, Leroy, who was 11 and from Wyoming, Grant, who was eight and from Utah, Robert, who was six, and Lois who was three, both born in Wyoming.

Three years prior to the next census in 1930 the family received the dreadful news that their son Leroy had died, possibly the result of an accident at work, as he was a labourer. He was working away from home at Twin Falls in Idaho when he died on 13^th November 1927 at the age of 18. The record of his death confirmed that he was buried at Cokeville, where he had been born on 12^th February 1909, and that his parents were Roy Collett from Wyoming and Millie Svenson from Logan in Utah.

By the time of the census in 1930 the couple’s eldest daughter had already left the family home, perhaps to be married, so it was just Roy’s and Millie’s three youngest children who were still living with them at Cokeville. On that occasion the family’s surname was recorded as Collette. Roy was 46, Millie was 41 and both of her parents had been born in Sweden, Grant was 18, Robert was 16, and daughter Lois was 13. The family home was still at Cokeville twelve years later when Roy Collett died there during 1942. Millie survived him by ten years, when Sarah Amelia Collett nee Svenson died at Ogden in Weber County, Utah, on 24^th April 1952 at the age of 68, wife of the late Roy Collett.

Their daughter Thelma was married by then and was Thelma Neighbor. At the time of her death on 18^th April 1983 she was named as Thelma Collett Neighbor, the daughter of a Collett father and a Svenson mother. She died at Alameda in California, and her death record gave her date of birth as 11^th February 1907 at Utah.

61R28

Thelma Collett

Born in 1907 in Utah

61R29

Leroy Collett

Born in 1909 at Cokeville

61R30

Grant Collett

Born in 1912 in Utah

61R31

Robert Collett

Born in 1914 at Cokeville

61R32

Lois Collett

Born in 1917 at Cokeville

61Q17

May Collett was born at Cokeville, Wyoming on 13^th May 1886 and was the last child born to Sylvanus Collett and Sarah Ellen (Nellie) Gee. She was only three years old when she died on 22^nd November 1889. The Cokeville Cemetery Records confirmed that she was the daughter of Sylvanus Collett and Sarah Ellen (Nellie) Gee.

61Q18

Adrian Collett was born at Bennington in Bear Lake County, Idaho, on 3^rd November 1876. Rather oddly he was the only son of twice married Rhoda Sylvia Collett and her second husband Philomen Christopher Merrill, so why his birth was not registered under the name of Adrian Merrill remains a mystery. However, by the time of the census in 1880 he was Adrian Merrill aged four years, when he was living at the Mormon Settlement on San Pedro River in Pima County, Arizona, with his father Philemon C Merrill aged 60, and his wife Serina Merrill aged 63, both from New York. Where Adrian’s mother was on that occasion, or at any later time, has not been determined, except that she would have been 43. It is established that she died in Arizona during 1929.

61Q19

Phoebe Theresa Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache County, Utah on 24^th July 1862. She was the first child of Reuben Collett by his wife Elthurah Roseltha Merrill, but sadly she died on 16^th January 1863 when she was less than six months old.

61Q20

Reuben Samuel Collett was born on 26^th May 1864 at Smithfield and was baptised on 16^th May 1875, the eldest son of Reuben and Elthurah Collett. Just over fifteen years later he married (1) Flora Elsie Colton at Logan on 20^th November 1890. Flora was just passed her eighteenth birthday when she married Reuben who was twenty-six. Although Flora had been born at Provo in Utah on 7^th June 1872, she was baptised just two years prior to her wedding day on 16^th December 1888.

All the couple’s eight children were born at Vernal in Uintah County, Utah. Although Reuben’s wife survived him by eight years (see details below), it is understood that at some stage in his life he married (2) Gertrude Asolia Pomeroy who was born at Salt Lake on 2^nd February 1864. It is not known at this time whether Reuben had any children with Gertrude, but there is a remote possibility that she may have been the mother of his first child born in 1892 when Gertrude would have been twenty-eight. However, Gertrude has never been listed with Reuben in any census, nor has she been identified in any census. Therefore, she may have died giving birth to her daughter Gertrude.

According to the census in 1900 the family was residing in Vernal Town, when it was confirmed that Reuben and Flora had been married for ten years. Reuben S Collett was 36, Flora E Collett was 28, and living with them were the first six of their eight children. They were Gertrude Collett who was eight, Elsie Collett who was six, Reuben S Collett who was five, Marie Collett who was four, Karl W Collett who was two, and Merle Collett who was only one year old. Tragically, in November that same year, the family’s youngest child died, but fifteen months after that sad event Reuben and Flora were blessed with the birth of twin daughters.

By 1910 the family at Vernal comprised Reuben, who was listed as R S Collett aged 45, his wife Flora E Collett aged 37, Gertrude Collett aged 17, Elsie Collett aged 16, Reuben S Collett aged 14, Marie Collett aged 13, Karl W Collett aged 12, and the twins Flora and Cora who were eight years of age. The couple’s eldest daughter and eldest son both left the family home between 1910 and 1920, during which time the reduced family left Vernal and moved to Duchesne County in Utah, where they were living in 1920.

The census for that year recorded the family as Reuben S Collett, who was 55, Flora E Collett, who was 47, Elsie Collett, who was 25, Marie Collett, who was 23, Karl W Collett, who was 21, and Flora and Cora who were 12. Shortly after that their son Karl travelled to England, possibly on a Mormon Mission, and returned in 1923, following which he became a married man around 1927 and settled in Salt Lake City where he and his young family were living by 1930.

No record of Reuben and Flora has been found in 1930, but by 1935 they too were living in Salt Lake City, and living with them in 1940 was their married but widowed daughter Gertrude Thomas and her four children. Reuben, as R S Collett, was 75, his wife Flora E Collett was 67, and their daughter was 47. The census return also confirmed that the family had been living at the same address in 1935. It was just over six years later that Reuben Samuel Collett died at Salt Lake City on 20^th September 1946 and was buried there on 23^rd September 1946 at the Wasatch Lawn Cemetery. His first wife Flora Elsie Collett nee Colton died at San Francisco on 28^th January 1954, and was also buried at Wasatch Lawn Cemetery in Salt Lake City.

61R33

Gertrude Collett

Born in 09.07.1892 at Vernal

61R34

Elsie Collett

Born in 11.02.1894 at Vernal

61R35

Reuben Sterling Collett

Born in 13.05.1895 at Vernal

61R36

Marie Collett

Born in 04.10.1896 at Vernal

61R37

Karl Warren Collett

Born in 29.05.1898 at Vernal

61R38

Merle Collett

Born in 21.06.1899 at Vernal

61R39

Flora Collett twin

Born in 19.02.1902 at Vernal

61R40

Cora Collett twin

Born in 19.02.1902 at Vernal

61Q21

Sylvester Daniel Collett was one half of a set of twins who were born at Smithfield on 15^th December 1866, the son of Reuben and Elthurah Collett. He was baptised in a joint ceremony with his brother Sylvanus (below) on 4^th August 1878, but died in Mexico eleven years later, on 5^th May 1889.

61Q22

Sylvanus Collett was one half of a set of twins who born at Smithfield on 15^th December 1866, the son of Reuben and Elthurah Collett. He was also baptised on 4^th August 1878 with his brother Sylvester (above). On 2^nd June 1886 he married (1) Sarah Elizabeth Simkins at Leti in Maricopa County in Arizona. Sarah was born at Beaver City in Utah on 12^th October 1865 but was not baptised until after she was married. That event took place on 1^st October 1889 between the birth of the couple’s first and second child.

According to the US Census of 1900, Sylvanus and Sarah had been married for fourteen years and were living at Maybell, Browns Park Precincts in Routt County, Colorado, with just their three surviving children, following the death of daughter Annie not long after she was born. Sylvanus was 34, Sarah was 35, Wiley Collett was 12, Orin Collett was five, and Alice Collett was three years of age.

Sarah presented her husband with a total of five children prior to her death on 27^th February 1902, when her youngest child was just one month old. Sarah Elizabeth Collett nee Simkins died at Vernal (Naples) and was buried at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Vernal. Two years later Sylvanus married (2) Ethelwynne Stringham at Salt Lake City on 20^th January 1904 with whom he had a further five children, all of whom were born at Vernal, as were all by one of the children from Sylvanus’ first marriage. Ethelwynne was ten years younger than her husband, having been born at Salt Lake City on 25^th July 1876.

Sylvanus and his new wife then moved to North Ashley just north of Vernal, where the family was living at the time of the next census in 1910. Sylvanus was 45, Ethelwynne was 35, son Orin Collett was 16, Alice Collett was 12, and Byron S Collett was eight years old. Twenty years later Sylvanus and Ethelwynne were once again living in North Ashley, their address in the census of 1920 being simply Vernal.

In the January of 1920 the family of Sylvanus Collett living at Vernal was listed as follows. Sylvanus aged 53, his wife Ethelwynne who was 43, Byron S Collett aged 18, Howard S Collett who was five, Edna Collett who was three years and eleven months, and Edith Collett who was one year and eight months. Staying with the family on that day was Francis A Cole aged 24, his wife Margaret Cole who was 22, and their daughter Orpha Cole who was one year and nine months.

Ten years later the family was recorded again as residing in North Ashley, where Sylvanus Collett was 63, Ethelwynne Collett was 53, Howard S Collett was 15, Edna Collett was 13, Edith Collett was 11, and Carl S Collett was seven years old. It was just over two years later that Sylvanus Collett died at Maeser (Vernal) on 29^th April 1932, where he was buried at Vernal City Cemetery three days later. His death certificate specified his age as being 65 years 6 months and 14 days, and that his wife was Ethelmore (sic) Stringham Collett, while his parents were named in error as Reuben Collett and Ethinah R Merrill. Ethelwynne Collett nee Stringham survived her husband by forty years, when she passed away at Vernal on 12^th July 1962.

61R41

Wiley Sylvanus Collett

Born in 1888 at Maeser, Utah

61R42

Annie Elthora Collett

Born in 1891 at Leti

61R43

Orin Collett

Born in 1893 at Vernal, Utah

61R44

Alice Collett

Born in 1897 at Vernal, Utah

61R45

Byron Sylvester Collett

Born in 1902 at Vernal, Utah

The following are the children of Sylvanus Collett by his second wife Ethelwynne Stringham:

61R46

Claude Stringham Collett

Born in 1911 at Vernal, Utah

61R47

Howard Samuel Collett

Born in 1914 at Vernal, Utah

61R48

Edna Collett

Born in 1916 at Vernal, Utah

61R49

Edith Collett

Born in 1918 at Vernal, Utah

61R50

Carl Stringham Collett

Born in 1922 at Vernal, Utah

61Q23

Julia Ann Collett was born at Smithfield on 20^th February 1869 and was baptised on 4^th August 1878, the daughter of Reuben and Elthurah Collett. After a period of living in Arizona, where three of his younger siblings were born, the family returned to Utah, and in 1900 Julia Ann Collett aged 28, was stilling living with her family at Riverdale in Uintah County. It was eight years later, when she was 36, that she married Beense William Postma at Vernal on 13^th May 1905. William, as he was known was born at Warrega, in Freisland in the Netherlands on 7^th September 1875. Their marriage produced three children for the couple, Elthura Grace Postma, William Andrew Postma who was born on 14^th November 1910 at Ogden in Weber County in Utah, and Sylvanus Julius Postma.

At the time of the census in 1920, William Postma from Holland was 46, while his older wife Julia A Postma from Utah said she was 49 rather than 51. Living with them at Cache County in Utah were two of their three children, their daughter Elthura Postma who was 12, and their son Sylvanus Postma who was seven. Also living with the family on that occasion was Julia’s widowed father Reuben C Collett from England who was 80 and who sadly passed away within days of the census. It would appear that Julia lived all her life in Utah since, it was at Logan in Cache County, that she died on 17^th September 1961 aged 92, following which she was buried at Smithfield three days after.

61Q24

Adelbert Teancum Collett was born at Smithfield on 3^rd November 1872, the son of Reuben and Elthurah Collett. He was first baptised at Smithfield three months later, on 16^th February 1873, an act curiously repeated after a further ten years on 7^th June 1883. It was then ten years later that Adelbert Collett married Harriet Penelope Goodrich at Vernal on 25^th December 1893. Harriet was born at Richville, Morgan County in Utah on 4^th April 1872, and she presented Adelbert with seven children, and all of them believed to have been born at Vernal, although the census in 1900 may suggest the third and fourth child was born at Naples Precinct, Riverdale in Uintah County. The five members of that family that year were recorded as Delbert Collett who was 27 and a farmer, and his wife Harriet P Collett also 27, who had been married for six years, during with time she had given birth to three children. Those three children were Vedal Collett aged five, Mabel Collett aged three, Mamie Collett who was one year old. There was no reference to Vernal anywhere on that census return, with the record of the birth of the next child, one year later, gave Naples as the place of birth.

Three years later Mamie Collett died, and according to the next census in 1910 the family of Adelbert Collett was located at Dragon in Uintah County, Utah. Adelbert from Utah was 37 and his wife was referred to as Nellie, who was 38 and from Utah, where all their children had been born. Only five of their seven children were living with them, and they were their two daughters Veda Collett aged 15, Mabel Collett aged 13, and their three sons Ralph Collett who was eight, Wells Collett who was six, and Rulon Collett who was four years old. The missing child was Mamie or Marnie who must have died while she was still very young, with the couple’s last child due to be born after the census day in 1910.

The reason that no previous record of the family in 1920 had been reproduced here before now is that the family was recorded under the name of Colbert. Adelbert and Harriet were both 47 in 1920, while still living with them at Cache County in Utah were five of their seven children. They were Mabel who was 22, Ralph who was 18, Wells who was 16, Rulon who was 14, and Owen who was nine. Only the couple’s youngest son was still living with them in 1930, by which time the family was residing at Logan in Cache County. Adelbert T Collett was 57, Harriet G Collett was 58, and their son Owen M Collett was 19.

Six years later the couple left Logan when they settled in Kaysville. The fifty-first wedding anniversary of their marriage was recorded in the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper on 24^th December 1944 in the following way: “Christmas Day will mark the 51^st wedding anniversary of Mr & Mrs Adelbert T Collett of Kaysville. The couple was married on 25^th December 1893 in Vernal where Mr Collett was engaged in farming and in the freight transportation business between Vernal and Price. They moved to Salt Lake City in 1923 and came to Kaysville in 1936. He was born in Smithfield Nov 3 1872, while his wife Harriet Goodrich Collett was born April 4 1872 in Richville. Sons and daughters of the couple are Mrs Jesse T Brimhall and Ralph A Collett, Kaysville; Mrs Paul A Harwood, Berkeley, Cal.; Lt Col Wells Collett overseas with the USA army air forces; Rulon S Collett and Owen M Collett, Salt Lake City. They have 17 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.”

By the time of the death of Adelbert Teancum Collett on 23^rd March 1959 he was living at Salt Lake City where he was also buried three days later. The Vernal Express newspaper issued on 26^th March 1959 printed the following article: “Funeral services will be held today (Thursday) at 1 pm in the Union Mortuary in Bountiful for Adelbert T Collett, 86, of Kaysville, who died Monday at 9.40 pm in a Salt Lake City hospital of natural causes. Mr Collett is a brother-in-law of Byron Goodrich of Vernal. He was born Nov 3 1872 in Smithfield to Reuben and Elthura Merrill Collett. He married Harriet Goodrich, Dec 25 1893 in Vernal. The marriage was later solemnised in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. Surviving are his widow, daughters and sons, Mrs Jesse (Veda) Brimhall and Ralph A Collett, both of Farmington, New Mexico; Mrs Paul (Jacqueline) Harwood, Santa Ana, Cal.; Col Wells F Collett, Kaysville; Rulon S Collett and Owen M Collett, both of Salt Lake City; 22 grandchildren, 52 great grandchildren, two great-great-grandchildren, three brothers and two sisters.”

Adelbert’s widow Harriet Penelope Collett nee Goodrich survived him by three years when she passed away during 1962 at the age of 90.

61R51

Veda Collett

Born in 1895 at Vernal

61R52

Mabel Jacqueline Collett

Born in 1897 at Vernal

61R53

Mamie Collett

Born in 1899 at Riverdale, Uintah

61R54

Ralph Adelbert Collett

Born in 1901 at Riverdale, Uintah

61R55

Wells Frank Collett

Born in 1903 at Vernal

61R56

Rulon Samuel Collett

Born in 1906 at Vernal

61R57

Owen Milton Collett

Born in 1911 at Vernal

61Q25

Charles Merrill Collett was born at Bennington in Bear Lake County in Idaho on 6^th June 1875 and was baptised on 17^th July 1883, the son of Reuben and Elthurah Collett. In between those two events, Charles Collett was four years old when he and his family were living at Escalante in Iron County, in Utah. He later married (1) Mary Elnora Munk at Salt Lake City on 9^th March 1898, Mary having been born at Mantua in Box Elder, Utah on 30^th August 1877.

Once married the couple initially settled in Bennington, where the expectant couple was living in 1900, when Charles Collett was 25, and Mary E Collett was 23, who was anticipating the birth of their first child within the next few months. The marriage produced a total of six children for Charles and Mary, one of which their son Charles, was born at Bennington, but tragically he did not survive to reach his second birthday, when he died on 17^th February 1906.

According to the following census in 1910 Charles and his family had left Bennington and instead were living at Smithfield in Utah. Charles M Collett from Idaho was 34, Mary E Collett from Utah was 32, and the children living there with them were Viola Collett who was 11, Marcella Collett who was eight, and Farrell Collett who was two years and six months old, all three children had been born in Idaho, most likely at Bennington.

The family was still residing in Cache County in 1920, by which time the family had increased in size. Charles M Collett was 44, Mary E Collett was 42, Phoebe V Collett was 21, Lois M Collett was 18, Reuben F Collett was 12, Ruth Collett was nine, and son Raeo Collett was six years old. Two other males were staying with the family and they were Alva Lundsvall from Sweden who was 26, and James Lawsen who was 22 and from Utah.

By 1930 the family had returned to Bennington in Bear Lake County, Idaho, although by the time of the census that year only three of the couple’s children were still living at the family’s home. Chas M Collett was 54, his wife was described as M Elnora who was 52, Farrell R Collett was 22, Ruth Collett was 19, and Raeo Collett was 16. Boarding with the family was Edna Sawyer who was 23 and from Idaho.

It was also at Bennington that the couple was living in 1935, and they were the only members of their family still living at the same address in Bennington five years later in 1940. By that time Charles was 65 and Mary was 62. Mary Elnora Collett nee Munk died sometime during 1957 and later that same year Charles Merrill Collett married (2) Fannie Bell Weeks Winn who was thought to have been a similar age to Charles. That married endured for around eleven years, when Charles Merrill Collett died at Salt Lake City on 27^th February 1969 at the grand age of 94.

61R58

Phoebe Viola Collett

Born in 1899 at Bennington, Idaho

61R59

Lois Marcella Collett

Born in 1901 at Bennington, Idaho

61R60

Charles Lester Collett

Born in 1904 at Bennington, Idaho

61R61

Farrell Reuben Collett

Born in 1907 at Bennington, Idaho

61R62

Ruth Collett

Born in 1910 at Smithfield, Utah

61R63

Raeo Collett

Born in 1913 at Smithfield, Utah

61Q26

Princetta Collett was born at Escalante in Garfield County in Utah on 11^th January 1878 and was baptised in January 1886, the daughter of Reuben and Elthurah Collett. She married James Albert Bills at Vernal on 12^th August 1897. James was aged 21 years at that time, having been born at Colver Valley in Lincoln Nevada on 19^th April 1876. The marriage did not produce any children for Princetta and James and late on in their lives they were living at Meeker in Rio Blanco in Colorado where first James died on 15^th June 1931 followed by his wife who died eight years after on 7^th April 1939. Both were buried at Meeker.

61Q27

Orrin Collett was born at Leti in Maricopa County in Arizona on 16^th July 1882, the son of Reuben and Elthurah Collett. He was just approaching the age of one and half years when he died at Leti on 22^nd December 1883.

61Q28

Roseltha M Collett was born at Leti on 29^th April 1884, the daughter of Reuben Collett and Elthurah Roseltha Merrill. She was three years old when her parents returned to live in Utah, where Roseeltha was baptised on 5^th May 1894 when she was ten years old. In 1900 she was recorded in error in the census that year as Rosevella Collett aged 16 from Arizona, when she and her family were residing in Riverdale in Naples, Uintah County. It was just over two years later when she married Albert Wellington Nielsen at Naples on 28^th August 1902.

Albert Nielsen was born at Payson in Utah on 22^nd December 1876 and he and Roseltha had seven children, one of which, Kenneth Reuben Nielsen, is known to have been born at Smithfield where he also died. The full list of children was as followings: Roseltha Mae Nielsen; Sarah Veda Nielsen; Albert Peter Nielsen; Kenneth Reuben Nielsen (13.07.1912 – 04.11.1912); Chloris Nielsen; and Donna Lois Nielsen. By the time of her death on 18^th October 1969, Roseltha was living at Sandy in Salt Lake although she was buried at Vernal.

61Q29

Clarence James Collett was born at Leti on 5^th May 1886, the son of Reuben and Elthurah Collett, and was baptised in Utah on 2^nd February 1894 at the age of eight years after his parents had returned there when he was around one year old. At the time of the census in 1900 Clarence J Collett was 14 and was living with his family at Riverdale within the Naples Precinct of Uintah County, Utah. It was seven years later that farmer Clarence James Collett married (1) Margaret Watkins on 5^th February 1907 at Vernal, with whom he had nine children. Margaret was born at Midway in Wasatch County in Utah on 18^th August 1884 and was baptised on 6^th September 1893. The birth certificate for the couple’s first child states that Margreth Genevieve Collett was born at the Naples Precinct in Vernal, Uintah County, although she was never recorded that way at any other time in her life.

Once married the couple settled in Utah where all their children were born. Seven of their nine children had already been born by the time of the census in 1920 and they were all recorded with the couple on that day, when Clarence J Collett was 35 and his wife Margaret was 36. The seven children were Genevieve M Collett aged 12, Opal Collett aged 10, Clarence L Collett who was eight, Earl M Collett who was six, Elthura Collett who was five, Edward R Collett who was three years and eight months, and A Jay Collett who was two years and six months.

According to the next census in 1930 the family was residing in Salt Lake City where Clarence J Collett was 43, Margaret Collett was 45, and still living with them were all nine of their children, including the couple’s eldest daughter who was married by then and had her husband living at the family home. Margaret G Davies was 22 and her husband Albert H Davies was 23. Opal Collett was 21, Leon C Collett was 19, Earl M Collett was 17, Elthura Collett was 15, Edward R Collett was 13, A Jay Collett was 12, Luella Collett was three years old, and Milo J Collett was two. Also staying with the family was Byron Sylvester Collett (ref. 61R43), and his wife Clela H Collett from Oklahoma, who was incorrectly described as the cousin of Clarence James Collett, when in fact he was his nephew.

By 1940 the dramatically reduced household was living at Murray City in Salt Lake, where Clarence J Collett was 53, Margaret Collett was 54, Ajay Collett was 22, Luella Collett was 14, and Milo Collett was 12. Fifteen years after that Margaret Collett nee Watkins died at Salt Lake City on 21^st June 1955 and was buried at the Memorial Garden in Sandy on 24^th June 1955, following which her widowed husband married (2) Amanda Peterson Spencer, although neither the date, nor the location are known. What is known is that Clarence James Collett died at Bluffdale in Utah on 27^th June 1973 and was buried at Salt Lake City.

61R64

Margreth Genevieve Collett

Born in 1907 at Naples, Vernal

61R65

Opal Collett

Born in 1909 at Naples, Uintah County

61R66

Leon Clarence Collett

Born in 1911 at Blue Bell, Wasatch Cty

61R67

Earl Murray Collett

Born in 1913 at Vernal, Uintah County

61R68

Elthura Collett

Born in 1914 at Uintah County

61R69

Edward Reuben Collett

Born in 1916 at Richmond, Utah

61R70

A Jay Collett

Date of birth unknown

61R71

Luella Collett

Born in 1926 at Uintah County

61R72

Milo James Collett

Date of birth unknown

61Q30

George Collett was born at Vernal on 15^th September 1888, the last child born to Reuben Collett and Elthurah Roseltha Merrill. He was nine years old when he was baptised on 15^th July 1897, and less than three years later he was 12 years of age in the 1900 Census when he and his family were living at Riverdale in Naples, Uintah County. He later married (1) Leon May Larsen Raleigh, but she may have died without their being any children born to the couple.

George later married (2) Melvina Duke on 15^th October 1914 at Vernal and the couple initially settled in Logan where their first two children of seven were born. Melvina was born at Vernal on 10^th December 1891 and baptised on 2^nd October 1900. The last two children were born while the family was living at Thatcher in Bannock County in Idaho and Salt Lake City. Although nothing is known about three of the children the other four died shortly after they were born.

Ivan died after fifteen days on 26^th August 1915, Iona died the same day that she was born, as did June, and Clifford survived for almost two months when he died on 9^th March 1925. And it was at Salt Lake City that Melvina died on 1^st July 1955 and was buried in the Memorial Gardens there four days later. George Collett survived his wife by twenty-seven, before he too died whilst at Salt Lake City on 6^th November 1982, where he was also buried three days after.

61R73

Ivan Collett twin

Born on 11.08.1915 at Logan

61R74

Iona Collett twin

Born on 11.08.1915 at Logan

61R75

Darwin Clyde Collett

Date/place of birth unknown

61R76

Roberta Collett

Date/place of birth unknown

61R77

Marva Collett

Date/place of birth unknown

61R78

Clifford Lewis Collett

Born on 10.01.1924 at Thatcher

61R79

June Collett

Born on 08.03.1928 at Salt Lake

61Q31

Mary Jane Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache County, Utah on 12^th September 1877, the first of the eleven known children of Charles Albert Capper Collett and his wife Hannah Ann Merrill.

61Q32

Melissa Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache County, Utah on 24^th October 1879, the second child of Charles and Hannah Collett. She was still an infant when her parents took the family to Soda Springs in Caribou County, Idaho where they were living in 1880 when Melissa Collett was one year old. By the end of the century Melissa was 21 when she was still living with her family which by then had settled in Bennington, Bear Lake County, Idaho. It would appear that she was twice married, as she was later referred to as Melissa Burbank and Melissa Van Orman. The only other detail known about her is that she died in 1962.

61Q33

Charles Capper Collett was born at Bennington in Bear Lake County, Idaho on 6^th June 1882, the son of Charles and Hannah Collett. It was also at Bennington that he was still living with his large family in 1900 when he was 18. Two years after that his parents moved to Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, taking their children with them. Around 1910 Charles married Effie Rebecca Seeley who was born in 1881 and from Duchesne County in Utah, with whom he had at least eight children.

It was at Lethbridge that the couple lived their early life together, and there also that their first five children were born. This was confirmed in the census of 1916 when Chas Capper Collett was 34, as was his wife Effa Seeley Collett, and their three Lethbridge born children were Cloyd Seeley Collett who was five, Thelma Cecilia Collett who was three, and Merrill Dean Collett who was two years old.

Following the birth of the couple’s fifth child the family left Canada and returned to America, where they settled at Roosevelt in Duchesne County, Utah, possibly to be nearer Effie’s family. The Duchesne census in 1920 listed the family in error under the name Colett, when Charles C Collett from Idaho who was 37, his wife Effie Collett who was 38, and their children were Cloyde Collett who was nine, Thelma Collett who was seven, Merrill Collett who was five, William W W Collett who was three, and Brye Collett who was one year and seven months old.

Three more children were added to the family during the next decade while they were still living in Roosevelt, which was where the family was still residing at the time of the census in 1930. By that time the couple’s eldest son was a married man, when he and his very young wife were still living with his parents. On that occasion Charles C Collett was 47, Effie S Collett was 48, when all their eight children, plus their daughter-in-law, were all still living at Roosevelt with them. Cloyde S Collett was 19 and his wife Utahana Collett was 17, Thelma Collett was also 17, Merrill Collett was 15, Woodrow Collett was 13, Brie A Collett was 11, daughter Veva A Collett was nine, Joseph R Collett was six, and Glenn Collett was three.

In 1940 the Collett family was residing within Ward 5 of Salt Lake City, when Charles C Collett was 57, Effa S Collett was 58, Merrill D Collett was 25, Brie A Collett was 21, Veva A Collett was 19, Ralph J Collett was 16, and Glenn C Collett was 12 years of age. Charles Capper Collett died at Salt Lake City on 3^rd April 1961, by which time he was already a widower, having lost his wife Effie in 1959.

61R80

Cloyd Pat Seely Collett

Born in 1910 at Lethbridge

61R81

Thelma Cecilia Collett

Born in 1912 at Lethbridge

61R82

Merrill Dean Collett

Born in 1914 at Lethbridge

61R83

William Woodrow Collett

Born in 1916 at Lethbridge

61R84

Brie A Collett

Born in 1918 at Lethbridge

61R85

Veva A Collett

Born in 1921 at Roosevelt, Utah

61R86

Joseph Ralph Collett

Born in 1923 at Roosevelt, Utah

61R87

Glenn Collett

Born in 1927 at Roosevelt, Utah

61Q34

Maude Collett was born at Bennington in Bear Lake County, Idaho on 27^th November 1884 and was another daughter of Charles and Hannah Collett. She was 16 years old in the Bennington census of 1900 when she was living there with her family. It was later that same year when Maude Collett died.

61Q35

Philemon Merrill Collett was born at Bennington on 3^rd May 1886, a son of Charles and Hannah Collett. Nothing further is known him or his life after 1900, when he was 14, except that he died in 1943.

61Q36

Lenora Collett was born at Bennington on 88^th October 1889, another daughter of Charles and Hannah Collett.

61Q37

Harriet Amelia Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache County, Utah on 16^th March 1892, the seventh child of Charles and Hannah Collett.

61Q38

Reuben Daniel Collett was born on 8^th October 1894 at Meadowville in Utah to parents Charles and Hannah Collett.

61Q39

Ralph Demar Collett was born at Meadowville in Utah on 10^th April 1897, another son of Charles and Hannah Collett. On the day of the census in 1900 Ralph D Collett was four years of age and was with his family at Bennington in Idaho. By the time he was 19 his mother had died and he and his father and younger brother Morgan (below) were living at Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. The census for Lethbridge in 1916 recorded him under his full name of Ralph Demar Collett. It was during 1948 that Ralph Demar Collett passed away.

61Q40

Lola Collett was born at Bennington during 1900 but after the census day that year, the youngest daughter of Charles and Hannah Collett. What happen to Lola after the premature death of her mother is not known, as she was not with her father in 1916 when he and two of Lola’s brother were recorded at Lethbridge in Alberta. What is known is that when Lola was married, she became Lola Saunders who died in 1995.

61Q41

Morgan Collett was born at Magrath in Alberta on 23^rd June 1904 the last child born to Charles Capper Collett and Hannah Ann Merrill. Following the death of his mother, Morgan, and his older brother Ralph (above), were the only children living with their father at Lethbridge in Alberta. At this time, nothing further is known about Morgan, except that it was during 1975 when he died.

61Q42

James Tidwell Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache on 30^th September 1878, the eldest child of James Jones Collett and his first wife Marriette Tidwell. He was aged eleven years by the time he was baptised at Smithfield on 5^th September 1889. Two years earlier, James’ mother had died, with his father then moving the family across the state border into Bennington Village, just north of Utah, where he was eventually remarried in 1896 and still living in 1900. His father was a farmer at Bennington, where James junior was a day labourer, along with brothers Elmer and Sidney (below).

During the months after that census day, his father, and his stepmother, with the whole family, made a return to Utah and the City of Logan, where his stepmother gave birth to twin boys in 1902, one of which died. Fourteen months later, there was another death in the family when James Tidwell Collett died at Smithfield, immediately north of Logan, with his death recorded at Cache County, Utah. On that day, 6^th July 1903, he was working as a labourer, with an accident at work being the cause of his death, perhaps when he was working with his father and two younger brothers. The death certificate confirmed that he had been residing in Logan when he died, and gave his age as 23, whereas he was nearly 25, which may have been just an error in translation/transcription. His body was laid to rest at Smithfield City Cemetery.

61Q43

Sadie Sophronia Collett was born at Smithfield on 15^th April 1880, the daughter of James and Marriette Collett. At the time of the census in 1880, Sadie was recorded as Saphrona Collett, aged one month, living with her family at Richmond Precinct in Cache County. Twenty years later Sadie, as Sada Collett was 20 and was the niece of Julia A Lewis nee Collett aged 37 and from Utah, and her husband Walter W Lewis who was 40, when she was living with the Lewis family at Bennington in Bear Lake County in Idaho. Miss Sadie Collett was 26 when she married Gordon Eli Beckstead junior, aged 28, on 21^st February 1907, with their wedding recorded as Cache Junction in Cache County, Utah. Their marriage certificate confirmed that the bride and the groom were residing in Swan Lake, Bannock County in Idaho, and had travelled to Logan in Cache County to be married by Joseph E Cardon, an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, when the witnesses were Bertie Beckstead and F Edna Hess.

Three years after their wedding day the couple was residing at East Bannock Street in Dillon Township in Beaverhead County, Montana, for the census in 1910, when they had Gordon’s unmarried sister staying with them. Gordon was 31 and a real estate agent, Sadie was 30, and sister Bertie, a witness at their wedding, was 26 and a stenographer at an estate agents office. Completing the family group was Gordon’s ne-year-old daughter Alberta Beckstead. The couple later moved to Downey Township in Bannock County, Idaho, where they were recorded in 1920. Head of the household was recorded as Eli Beckstead who was 40 and a farmer and owner of the property, Sadie was 38, and Alberta Beckstead from Montana was 10.

After another decade Gordon and Sadie were living in Carlin Town, Elko County in Nevado where he was 51 and a salesman in clothing, working alongside his wife who was 48 and a sales lady in clothing. In August 1953 the US Social Program included Sadie as Sadie Saphronia Beckstead who was born at Smithfield, Cache County, Utah, on 15^th April 1880. At the end of her life, she was living at Reno, Washoe County, Nevada, where she died on 16^th May 1957, when Sadie Sophronia Collett Beckstead buried at Mountain View Cemetery.

61Q44

Elmer Collett was born at Smithfield on 4^th November 1881, and was the third child of James Jones Collett and Marriette Tidwell. Previously his name was believed to be Elmer T Collett, T being his mother’s maiden-name, as confirmed as given to his older brother James (above), although such record has been found for Elmer, hence why the T has been removed. In addition to this, his date of birth has not been fully confirmed and has been recorded differently on many occasions. Because of the confirmed dates of birth of his next older, and next younger, siblings, it is highly likely that he was born in the latter half of 1881 – see 1911 Alberta census details below. That certainly coincides with his recorded age of 19 at Bennington Village in Bear Lake County, Idaho, where he and his family were living in 1900. At that time in his life, he was one of three sons helping their father on the family farm, with the three of them described as day labourers.

Four years earlier his widowed father married for a second time in 1896 following the death of Elmer’s mother in 1887. It is known that in the months after the day of the census in 1900, his family returned to Utah and were living in Logan City when his stepmother gave birth to twin boys in 1902, only one of them surviving the ordeal. The loss of that baby was followed a year later by the accidental death of Elmer’s eldest brother James while at work. A year later, during 1904, Elmer’s uncle Charles Capper Collett was the first member of the extended Collett to emigrate to Canada, and he was followed by Elmer in 1908, whose own family had made the journey there in 1907.

By the time of the Canadian census of 1911, Elmer’s father, his wife, and their three children were living at Medicine Hat in Alberta. Living next door to them, according to the census return was Elmer Collett, another Mormon farmer, who was 30 and born in the USA during November in 1881, who had entered Canada in 1908. On 4^th March 1912, Elmer applied to re-enter America via the Port of Sweet Grass, Montana – Coutts, Alberta, by car, on the basis of a permanent move to Pocatello, Bannock County in Idaho, where he intended to settle and be a homemaker. The manifest confirmed his place of birth as Smithfield, Utah, that he was a labourer aged 29 (sic), and the son of James Collett of Taber in Alberta, with whom Elmer was living when he completed the application form. On the question, Have you ever lived in the US, he replied “Yes, 1882 to 1898 in Utah” and giving the date his family moved to Bennington, Idaho, as June 1898, up until 1908.

The name of Elmer Collett appears on the First World War Draft Registration, as residing at Silsbee, Hardin County in Texas 1917 to 1918, when his date of birth was recorded in error as 4^th November 1880, only seven months after the birth of his sister Sadie (above). Therefore, coupled with the 1911 census date of birth quoted as November 1881, it must be assumed he was born at Smithfield on 4^th November 1881. The Draft Registration also confirmed he was working as a machinist for the Silsbee Timber Company in Silsbee, and that his next-of-kin was Eva Collett, his wife, when the date of registering was 11^th September 1918.

Six months prior to completing the draft form, the marriage of Elmer Collette and Eva E Sous was conducted at Beaumont, Jefferson County in Texas on 21^st March 1918. No other record of his wife has so far been found, but it is curious that, by 1928 onwards, he referred to himself as a single man, rather than a widower.

He is referred to twice within the Historical Registers of National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers 1866 to 1938. Both give his age as 48, while making a reference to 1928, and for both entries he was named as Elmer Collette, single, whose occupation was a steam fitter. The first entry referred to military service at Sawtelle in California, while the second entry related to military service at Leavenworth in Kansas and that he had been born at Smithfield in 1880 (sic). Under ‘Name of nearest relative’ was written “sister - Julia Tarbet of Smithfield”

Two years later, the census in 1930 identified Elmer Collette aged 50 and from Utah as an inmate at the Pacific Branch of the National Military Home, in National Home Township, Los Angeles, California. He was single, having no occupation. Elmer Collette was 80 years old when he died at Roswell, Chaves County in New Mexico on 21^st May 1962.

61Q45

Sidney Collett was born at Smithfield on 4^th November 1882, another son of James and Marriette Collett and twin brother of fateful Elsie (below). By 1900 his father had taken the family north, across the state border with Idaho, when they were farming at Bennington Village, where Sidney was 17 years old the youngest of three sons working with their father as day labourers.

61Q46

Elsie Collett was one half of a set of twins born on 4^th November 1882 at Smithfield to proud parents James and Marriette Collett. Sadly, she only survived for three months and died on 3^rd February 1883.

61Q47

Julia Collett, who was known as Minnie, was born as Julia Duncan at Logan in Cache County in Utah on 2^nd October 1884, the fourth child of Moroni Ducan and Jane Wardrop. She was the eldest of the three children who accompanied her mother she married widower James Jones Collett, whose his first wife Marriette Tidwell died in 1888. Minnie was nine years old when she was baptised on 7^th September 1893, and it was three years later when her mother married James Jones Collett. For the census in 1900, the new family was living at Bennington Village, Bear Lake County in Idaho, when Minnie Collett was 15 and the stepdaughter of James Collett . During the months following that census day, the family travelled the relatively short distance from Bennington to Logan in Utah, where they were living in 1902, where Minnie’s mother presented James Collett with twin sons.

In 1904, her stepfather’s old brother emigrated to Canada, and James Collett and Minnie’s mother joined them there in 1907, but just taking with them Minnie’s three younger half-siblings, Marriette, Alice Blanche, and Ralph Wardrop Collett (below). While it was at Logan City, four years earlier, that Julia Collett married Nephi Tarbet on 10^th June 1903, with their wedding registered at Cache Junction. Nephi was 29 and Julia was 19, when the witnesses were Rufus Smith and Marian Miles.

In the Smithfield Precinct, part of Smithfield City, Cache County, census of 1920, Nephi, and Julia had eight children living with them at their farm on Main Street. Head of the household Nephi, a general farmer having his own account, was 47 and had been born in Utah, while Julia 35 gave her place of birth as Idaho (sic). Their children were: Florence Tarbet 15; James Tarbet 14; Edson W Tarbet 12; Tyler H Tarbet 10; Ralph C Tarbet who was eight; Verma Tarbet who was five; George T Tarbet who was four; and Marriette Tarbet who was one year old.

Five more children were added to the family, which was still farming in Smithfield in 1930, when Nephi was 57 and Julia Collett Nephi was 45. Still living with the couple that day were Edson 22 and a general farmer assisting his father, Tyler 20 and a truck-driver, Ralph 18, and another general farmer, Verma 16, George 14, Marriette 12, Dee T Tarbet who was nine, Wendell L Tarbet who was seven, Russell E Tarbet who was five, Delbert C Tarbet who was three, and Wesley R Tarbet who was eleven months old.

Sometime during the next decade Nephi died and by 1950 widow Julia Collett Tarbet was 65 and still residing in Smithfield with just four of her children. Ralph was 38 and cleaning canal, Russell was 25 and driving land levelling machinery, Delbert 23 and a farmer , and Wesley 20 and a farmer. Twenty-five years later Julia Collett Tarbet passed away at the age of 91 on 2^nd December 1975 at Smithfield, Cache County, Utah, and was buried at Smithfield City Cemetery.

61Q48

Clarence Collett was born at Logan, Cache County in 4^th November 1888 and was another child of Moroni Duncan and Jane Wardrop who adopted the name Collett after she married James Jones Collett in 1896. As Clarence Collett, the stepson of James Collett, he was 11 years of age in 1900, when the family was living in Bennington Village, Bear Lake County, Idaho. As with his two siblings Minnie (above) and Robert (below), nothing has been found of Clarence after 1900, who was not with the Collett family when they emigrated to Canada in 1907. Sometime later in his life he used his birth named, and it was as Clarence Moroni Duncan that he died in 1958.

61Q49

Robert Collett was born at Wyoming in July 1890 as Robert Loyd Duncan, the youngest child of Moroni Duncan and Jane Wardrop. Robert was one of the three children who was with her when she married James Jones Collett nine years after his first wife had suffered a premature death in 1887. The census in 1900 described Robert as being nine years old and the stepson of James Jones Collett, when he was living in Bennington Village with the large Collett family. The same census return also stated that he had been born at Wyoming in July 1890 but, unlike his two older siblings, Minnie (Julia) and Clarence (above), he was not attending school. Just after that census day, the family travelled the 70 miles south to Logan in Utah, where Robert’s mother gave birth to twin boys, prior to emigrating to Canada. Robert did not accompany his mother and his stepfather when they left America to settle in Alberta during 1907, because by 4^th June 1906 he was recorded as Robert Loyd Duncan in the Wyoming Land Records. It was also in Wyoming where Robert Loyd Duncan he married Edna Mathill in 1910, and where he died in 1932.

61Q50

Marriette Collett was born at Bennington Village on 22^nd April 1897, the first child by the second wife of James Jones Collett, Jane D Wardrop, and was named after her father’s first wife who had died ten years before she was born. Her existence in this family line has been determined through the DNA Study carried out by Barry Collett in the USA, the details of which were kindly provided by Marion O’Shea of Australia whose family feature in Part 12 – The Chipping Norton Line. For the US census of 1900, she and her family were recorded at Bennington Village in Bear Lake County, Idaho, when Marriette was three years of age. By the spring of 1902, Marriette and her family had moved to Logan, just over the state border in Utah, where her younger brothers were born. Marriette was ten years of age when she was baptised on 30^th June 1907 and that may have happened in Utah or in Alberta after the family had emigrated to Canada that same year.

It was at Medicine Hat in Alberta that she was living with her family in 1911 at the age of 14, and it was also at Medicine Hat that she very likely met her future husband, because that census day Bert Oscar Nilsson, the son of Christopher Nilsson from Sweden and his American wife Amanda. He was 17 and was one of the couple’s six children. No record of the marriage around four years later has been found, while their five children are listed below.

According to the census in 1940 Marriette Collett Nilsson from Bennington in Idaho was 43, and her husband Bert Nilsson from Monroe in Utah was 46, who was born there on 15^th January 1894. Listed with them were their five children, all born at Raymond in the Lethbridge district of Alberta. They were sons Denoy Nilsson who was 24, and Keith Bert Nilsson who was 18, and daughters Iris Laree Nilsson who was 14, and Shirley Blanche Nilsson who was 12 years of age. Absent that day was son June Ross Nilsson who was 21 who married Phyllis Donaldson in 1946 at Great Falls in Montana. Denoy Duncan Nilsson was born on 3^rd July 1916 and baptised on 10^th September that year. Iris married Gordon Mossey at Great Falls, Montana in 1947.

On 17^th March 1948 the manifest for the Port of Roosville, Montana, a port of entry on the Canada-United States border in Lincoln County, Montana, included the crossing details for married Marriette Nilsson, formerly Collett. She was 50 years old and was accompanied by her husband Bert Oscar Nilsson, and Bryan Baker and his wife Virginia. The Manifest form stated she had been born on 22^nd April 1897, was a Canadian national, whose last address was 841 11^th Street South, Lethbridge, Alberta. Under ‘nearest relative in country of application’ she named her daughter Mrs Iris Mossey of the same address. On the question ‘have you ever been in the US after 1907’ she said yes, to Idaho and Utah, and very recently for two days in December 1947, paid for by her husband, to Conrad City, Pondera County in Montana.

When asked ‘who she was visiting and how long are you planning to stay’ she confirmed she was staying with married sister Mrs H S (Blanche) Jackson at 3400 West 57^th Street, Seattle, Washington until 14^th April 1948 – 4 weeks. Marriette was described as 5 feet 2 inches, medium complexion, brown hair, brown eyes, and wearing spectacles. When asked about her ‘departure from the US,’ the response was 1907 via the Port of Sweet Grass, Montana – Coutts, Alberta. The last piece of information was that they were making the crossing in an automobile.

Marriette Collett Nilsson died at the age of 84 at Lethbridge in Alberta on 10^th November 1981, and was buried three days after her passing at Raymond in southern Alberta. Bert Oscar Nilsson was 74 when he passed away thirteen years earlier at Glacier in Montana on 5^th June 1968 and was buried at Alberta Temple Hill Cemetery.

61Q51

Alice Blanche Collett was born at Bennington Village in Bear Lake County on 20^th December 1898 and she died on 24^th September 1987 at Seattle, King County in Washington state. It was simply as Blanche Collett age one year in the Bennington Village census of 1900. She was eight years old when her parents, James, and Jane Collett, took the family to Canada, entering the country in 1907 and confirmed in the census of 1911 for Medicine Hat in Alberta. The five members of the family were confirmed as members of the Mormon religion, with Alice Blanche being 12 years of age. It was during the war years that Blanche married Harold Stanley Jackson in 1915, after which their the first of their three known children was born in Canada, before their second daughter Dorothy Marie Jackson was born on 7^th March 1919 with her birth recorded in Washington State, USA.

By the time of the Washington census in 1930 their family had grown, when they were living at 1334 Albi Avenue in Seattle, King County. Head of the household Harold Jackson was 34 and born in Canada who was a mechanic in the automobile trade, who was the owner of their home, who had been 19 years old when he became a married man. His wife Blanche Jackson from Idaho was 31 and had been 17 when she married Harold. The couple’s three children were Ruth Jackson who was 14, Dorothy Jackson was 11, and Harold Stanley Jackson Junior was only 21 months old, having been born on 29^th June 1928. Tragically, he was two years old when he died in Seattle on 7^th April 1931, and was buried three days later at the Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery and Memorial Park

During the spring of 1948, Blanche and her husband were residing at 3400 West 57^th Street in Seattle, Washington when her older married sister Marriette Nilsson and her husband Bert from Alberta came to stay with them for four weeks. At that time, her sister’s cross-border manifest application referred to as Mrs H S (Blanche) Jackson, confirming that her husband as Harold Stanley Jackson. Nearly forty years later, Alice Blanche Collett Jackson died in Seattle on 24^th September 1987 at the age of 88, and was buried at the Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery and Memorial Park, where her son was also buried. Her obituary was printed in the Seattle Post on 1^st October 1987, in which her date of birth was confirmed as 20^th December 1898.

61Q52

Ralph Wardrop Collett was born at Logan in Cache County in Utah on 21^st May 1902, one half of a set of twins, the last two children born to James Jones Collett and his second wife Jane Wardrop. Sadly, his twin brother did not survive. When Ralph was four years old his family left Utah and made their home at Alberta in Canada, entering the country during 1907. It was there that eight-year-old Ralph Wardrop Collett, son of James J Collett and Jane O Wardrop, who was born at Logan in 1902, was baptised on 18^th September 1910 at the Tabor Ward, Taylor Stake Tabernacle.

By 1916 he was the only child from his family who still living with his parents, when the census that year recorded the family as residing at Raymond Township within the Lethbridge district of Alberta, where Ralph W Collett was 14. Ralph later returned to America and by 1920 he was recorded in the census that year at West Branch in Bonner County, Idaho, when he was staying there in a boarding house at the age of 17.

Around the time his father died at Raymond Town, Ralph may have returned to be with his mother, since he was the only member of his family living with his widowed mother in 1926, two years after losing her husband. On that day the family home was at 10 East Street in Raymond Town, when unmarried Ralph Collett was 24 in the June census that year. Although his mother died fifteen years later in 1951, by 1930 Ralph W Collett was still a bachelor at 28, who had returned to America, when he was living at a boarding house in Denver, Colorado, run by James and Florence Robison.

That was significant for Ralph, since Florence Robison (the great grandmother of R Scott Hayes who provided these new details), was the mother of Ralph's future wife, Virginia Elizabeth Miller. Virginia was born on 24^th May 1909 at Joplin in Jasper County, Missouri, and was not living with her mother in 1930, because she was recently divorced from James Byron Woodward, by whom she had a son.

Curiously, Ralph and Virginia were married on 9^th February 1930, two months before the census was conducted that year. So, for some reason, Ralph did not declare his married status, nor has it yet been discovered where Virginia was on that census day. The next conundrum focuses on their daughter Florence Jane Collett who was born in Colorado on 8^th July 1930, only five months after their wedding day, and three months after the census. Presumably Ralph’s wife was hiding away, perhaps through the shame of having become pregnant prior to the couple’s wedding date, which may also have been the possible cause of her divorce.

Once their daughter was born, the family left Colorado and travelled to California, where they settled in the town of Visalia in Tulare County where their remaining children were born. It was there also that the family was residing on the next two census days in 1935 and 1940. For the latter, which confirmed they were living at the same address as five years earlier, Ralph Wardrop Collett from Utah was 37 and a blacksmith, Virginia Elizabeth Collett from Missouri was 30, and their six children were James Byron Collett (Woodward) who was 12, Florence Jane Collett who was nine, Beulah Marie Collett who was seven, Robert Wardrop Collett who was six, Joyce Yvonne Collett who was three, and Alice Ada Collett who was one year old.

On 15^th February 1942 the name of Ralph Wardrop Collett was included in the World War II Draft Registration Cards for California with the following details. Date and place of birth – 21^st May 1902 at Logan, Utah. Residence and employer – Visalia and WPA Defense Reedly. Wife – Victoria M Collett. Race – white, Complexion - dark, Height – 5 feet 6 inches, Weight – 145, Eyes/hair – brown.

After a further eight years, Ralph W Collett from Utah was 47 and working as a feller of timber for a lumber company while residing at Medford, Jackson County in Oregon. However, his wife at that time was recorded in the 1950 census as Opal E Collett aged 44 who was born in Florida, when they were described as the mother and father-in-law of Reuben R Strain, the husband of Opal’s daughter Mary L Strain who had also been born at Florida, in 1928. If correct, then Ralph and Virginia from Missouri, must have separated or divorced – see final sentence in the paragraph below. As Oregon is immediately north of California where, it is established that Ralph was living at the end of his life, it does seem very likely that the above details are true.

Ralph Wardrop Collett was 79 when he died at Porterville, Tulare in California on 25^th January 1981 and was buried at Exeter District Cemetery to the east of Visalia and north of Porterville. What is known about his first wife Virginia, born in Missouri on 24^th May 1909, is that at the time she died on 22^nd September 1989, when her date and place of birth was confirmed as stated above, she was recorded as Virginia Elizabeth Shields, father’s name Miller, mother’s maiden-name Delp, who died at Mendocino in California. Therefore, she and Ralph may have been divorced.

61R88

James Byron Woodward

Born in 1927 at Kansas City, Missouri

The above child is the result of the previous marriage of Ralph’s wife to James Byron Woodward.

61R89

Florence Jane Collett

Born in 1930 at Denver, Colorado

61R90

Beulah Marie Collett

Born in 1932 at Visalia, Tulare County

61R91

Robert Wardrop Collett

Born in 1933 at Farmersville, Tulare Cty

61R92

Joyce Yvonne Collett

Born in 1936 at Farmersville, Tulare Cty

61R93

Alice Nevada Collett

Born in 1938 at Tulare, Tulare County

61R94

Ralph Sidney Collett

Born in 1940 at Visalia, Tulare County

61R95

Joann Fay Collett

Born in 1942 at Visalia, Tulare County

61Q53

Riley Wardrop Collett, who was the twin brother of Ralph Wardrop Collett (above), was born at Logan on 21^st May 1902. Tragically, he died at Logan in Cache County, Utah, on 25^th September 1902 and was buried at Smithfield in an unmarked grave.

61Q54

Ada Mary Collett was born at Idaho in 1887, the eldest child of Thomas Ward Collett and his wife Ida Mary Anderson (aka Ida Amelia) from Denmark. In 1900 she was living at Club Springs, Salt River Precincts in Bannock County, Idaho, with her family and was 13. She moved with her family to Raymond, Alberta, Canada in 1904 and in 1906 the Alberta census recorded the family residing at 11B, Alberta, Canada. Three years later Ada Mary Collett married (1) Roscoe Miller on 16^th March 1909. The 1911 Canada census recorded Ada and Roscoe living at Medicine Hat Sub-Districts 12-70 in Alberta. From 1913 the couple was living in Idaho where their son Thomas William Miller was born that year. Just after that Roscoe, Ada, and Tom crossed the Canadian border to visit family at Moscow in Idaho, as documented in border crossing records.

Roscoe & Ada 1909

On 5^th June 1917, Roscoe completed his registration for the draft for the First World War, with the document revealing that he was farming in Latah County, Idaho and living there with his wife and one son. At some point the family moved to Los Angeles, California, where Roscoe Miller died during March 1919, the cause of death being influenza.

Five months after being widowed Ada Mary Miller married (2) Earl E Miller of Sacramento, California, on 11^th August 1919 at Soda Springs, Caribou County, Idaho as verified by the marriage certificate. The family was subsequently included in the 1920 census as living in San Buena, Ventura in California, where Earl E Miller from Colorado was 35, Ada Miller from Idaho was 32, and Ada's son Thomas W Miller was five years of age. Ten years later her son Tommy Miller aged 16 was living at the Unity home in Cassia County of Ada’s youngest brother George Collett (below) who was married to Anne Rose Miller. The marriage to Earl ended in divorce as verified by a posting in the Burley Bulletin on 4^th November 1926.

At that time in her life Ada was living in Burley, where she had secured a job taking care of the Moench children, whose mother was ill, and who died in 1926. A year later, Ada’s brother David D Collett (below) married Gwendolyn Moench aged 17, one of the children in her care. According to the Moench history displayed on the familysearch.org website: ‘One by one the baby-sitters proved unequal to the task, until hiring Ada Collett Miller Miller. Ada was the only one who kept the house ship-shape, had the kids under control, and dinner on the table." And that was how, on 9^th August 1927, five weeks prior to the wedding of Gwendolyn Moench and David D Collett, Ada Mary Miller (3) married Franklin Moses Moench, to become the stepmother of his children. The 1930 US Census recorded the family still living at Burley in Idaho when Frank was 45 and Ada was 42. The following Moench children listed with them: sons Carroll (14), and Warren (6), and daughters Myra (9), and Hellen (4).

Later that same year, during the month of August, the family moved to Pocatello City in Bannock County, Idaho, with Frank eventually securing a position with the Idaho Loan & Investment Company as a representative for the Idaho region in 1931. That appointment resulted in Frank and Ada moving to Lewiston in Idaho where Frank worked in the office there. It is unclear how many children moved with them as several were either married or living with other relatives by then. It was five years after that when Frank died in an automobile accident near Burley on 17^th December 1936. According to a comment made by his daughter Helen Moench Orth in his obituary ‘Her father had died in an auto accident while returning to a friend's wedding celebration with the wedding cake.’

Having already had three husbands, and five years after Frank died, Ada Mary Moench married (4) Edward Oakes during 1942, after which they lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. Three years later Edward died of natural causes and, following his passing, Ada Mary Oakes married (5) Orlando Henderson in 1947 to become Ada Mary Collett Miller Moench Henderson, the name used at the time of her death in 1953 at Salt Lake City, where they had lived since their wedding day.

Their son Thomas W. Miller, born at Moscow, Idaho in 1913, was known as Tommy Miller who in 1930 was 16 and the nephew of George Collett with whom he was living at Unity, Cassia County. At the age of 21, he married Dorothy Marie Channel at Helena in Montana on 16^th October 1934 and a year later they were residing in Salt Lake City. The following census of 1940 recorded the two of them as Tommy Miller aged 26 and Dorothy Miller who was 28 living in Los Angeles, California. Thomas Miller died on 25^th June 1969 and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City.

61Q55

Blanche Elizabeth Collett was born at Idaho during September 1889, the daughter of Thomas Ward Collett and Ida Mary (Amelia) Anderson. In 1900 she and her family were living at Club Springs, Salt River Precincts in Bannock County, Idaho, when she was 11. Four years later Blanche moved with her family to Raymond, Alberta in Canada and six years after that Blanche married Uriel Winfred O'Brien, known as Win, on 8^th May 1911 at Lethbridge in Alberta. The 1911 Canada census featured the couple residing in Raymond, Medicine Hat, Alberta. Tragically, Win was killed in a road traffic accident in Raymond on 13^th November 1911.

After being widowed, Blanche moved back in with her parents first to Moscow in Idaho in 1912 and then later in 1917 to Burley, Cassia County in Idaho. The 1920 US census still had Blanche Collett aged 30 years and with no occupation, living with her parents at Burley precinct No. 2. Eighteen months after that census day, Blanche Elizabeth married C W Johnson on 3^rd November 1921. Their marriage produced no children, with the 1940 US census listing the couple living at Pocatello in Bannock County, Idaho. Seventeen years later, when they were living in Los Angeles, California, where Blanche Elizabeth Johnson died in 1957.

61Q56

Elmer Thomas Collett was born at Soda Springs, Idaho during 1892 and died the following year, the third child of Thomas and Ida Collett. He was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in Soda Springs in 1893.

61Q57

Loren Anderson Collett was born at Henry, Caribou County, during December 1894, the fourth child and eldest surviving son of Thomas and Ida Collett. He lived most of his younger years in eastern Idaho where the winters are long and very cold. In 1900, he and his family were living at Club Springs in Bannock County, when Loren was six years of age. He lived at Henry in Caribou County until 1904 when his family moved to Raymond, Alberta, Canada. Within the Canada census of 1906, Loren was residing with his parents at Alberta, and five years later he was still living at the family which by then in 1911 was at Raymond, Medicine Hat, in Alberta. No record of him or his family has been found in the census for the previous year while by 1912, Loren had moved with his family to Moscow in Idaho, finishing his education at the local high school. It was that same year when Loren Collett aged 17, married Lona from Virginia who was 16 at Colfax, Washington on 26^th July 1912, after which Loren went to work for his father in Moscow.

Their family quickly grew with their first son Uriel born in 1914 and then Gordon in 1916. During that time Loren also decided that he wanted to learn a new trade, so took his family to Seattle, Washington where he went to work as a mechanic in a garage. He soon became quite ill and the doctor said he was on the verge of tuberculosis and that he needed to get away from the exhaust fumes. The doctor suggested he find work out of doors, perhaps ‘farming would be a good occupation.’ The doctor also suggested that a drink of beer would help his situation, as a result, his wife Lona soon became an expert at home brewing. The family subsequently returned to Moscow where Loren once again worked for his father on the farm. During June in 1917, Loren registered for the First World War Draft, with the documentation confirming that he was a resident of Moscow in, Latah County, and was married with two children. Later that year, Loren's father Thomas Ward Collett moved to Burley in Cassia County, Idaho, to where Loren also moved his family in 1918, to work with his father on the farm.

It was near the end of 1918 when the couple’s third child, daughter Lillian, was born. According to the census in 1920 all five members of the family were living at Cassia in Idaho, when Loren Collett was 25, Lona Collett was 24, Uriel Collett was five, Gordon Collett was three years and ten months, and Lillian Collett was two years old. All three children had been born in Idaho, and it was during the next year that the couple’s fourth child, Norma was at Burley in Cassia County.

Back Row: Lillian, Uriel, Virginia Front Row: Loren, Lona, Gordon

Within the family it is established that, during April 1922, Thomas Ward Collett bought the Redmile Ranch at Grand View, Idaho, with Loren moving his family to Grand View to manage the farm for his father. A few years later, Loren rented the Southworth Ranch next to the Redmile Ranch and moved his family there, into a much nicer house.

In the spring of 1928, Loren moved his family again, on that occasion to Moscow in Idaho, in hope of finding work. Later that year, Loren returned to Burley when, on the way to Burley, the family stopped off at Grand View and met Casper Hein who offered Loren a job managing his ranch. Loren accepted the job, and his children started school in Grand View, where the family made their home. It was previously written here that no record of the family could be found in 1930. Now, thanks to Shirley Biladeau, it can be revealed that, as L A Callett (sic), he and his family were residing in Grand View in Ada County, Idaho, as follows:

L A Callett was 35, Lona Callett was 34, Uriel Callett was 16, Gordon Callett was 14, Lillian Callett was 12, and Virginia Callett was eight years of age. A boarder staying with the family was 50-year-old Charles Skillings from New York. It was there also that the family was living in both 1935 and again in 1940, at the same address in both those years. The latter census recorded the family at Grand View Highway in Grand View as Loren A Collett aged 45 and a farm having his own farm, Lona M Collett aged 44 and from West Virginia, their son Gordon R Collett aged 24, and their daughter Norma V Collett aged 18. On that day Loren had hired two men to assist him on the farm, and they were Nicholas Rigapollos from Greece who was 56, and Melvin M Lyon aged 23, his nephew from North Idaho. On that census day, and living next door to Loren and Lona, was their eldest son Uriel Thomas Collett and his wife Bonnie Nell Collett and their son Don Collett.

Six years later, when Loren was on an elk hunting trip with family and friends, he suffered a heart attack and died near Grangeville, Idaho, on 5^th October 1946.

61R96

Uriel Thomas Collett

Born in 1914 at Moscow, Idaho

61R97

Gordon Raymond Collett

Born in 1916 at Moscow, Idaho

61R98

Lillian Lona Collett

Born in 1918 at Moscow, Idaho

61R99

Norma Virginia Collett

Born in 1921 at Burley, Idaho

61Q58

David Daniel Collett was born at Henry in Caribou County on 22^nd April 1897, another son of Thomas and Ida Collett. He was three years old at the time of the Club Springs census in 1900 when he was living with his family in Bannock County in Idaho. He moved with his parents and siblings in 1904, to Raymond in Alberta, as documented by the 1906 Canada census. The 1911 Canada census recorded David aged 14 living with his family at Raymond, Medicine Hat in Alberta, and the following year David and the family moved to Moscow in Idaho and later, to Burley in Cassia County, Idaho, in 1917.

Dave Collett

As David D Collett aged 23, he was still living with his family in 1920 when their home was at Burley in Cassia County, Idaho. At that time in his life David was recorded as having no job of work. Seven years later, it was at the city of Burley in Idaho that David, who was 30, married the much younger Gwendolyn Moench from Idaho on 19^th September 1927. She was only 17 and was the stepdaughter of David’s sister Ada (above). Once married, the couple set up home at Unity in Cassis County, where David’s two brothers Thomas and George (below) were living in 1930. The census that year included the childless couple living there with Gwendolyn’s younger brother staying with them on the day of census. Dave Collett was 33, Gwendolyn Collett was 21, and Frank Moench from Idaho was 17 and the stepson of David’s eldest married sister Ada Moench.

During the following decade Gwendolyn presented David with two children while they were still living in Unity, and it was there the family was recorded in the census of 1940. By that time David D Collett was 43, Gwendolyn Collett was 31, their son Freddie Collett was eight years old, and their daughter Catherine Collett was six. The Burley Herald newspaper on 23^rd January 1941, reported that the family of David Collett had moved to Grand View, Idaho, to make their home there. By 1949, the family had moved again, on that occasion to Wendell, Idaho, as son Fred graduated from Wendell High School. In Wendell, David served as the Wendell Police Judge, verified by listings in the Times News from 1954 to 1958. David Daniel Collett died on 1^st September 1958 while living in Wendell in Gooding County, Idaho, after which Gwendolyn was remarried in 1978 to Melvin Teague. As Gwendolyn Teague she passed away during 1989.

61R100

David Frederick Collett

Born in 1931 at Unity, Idaho

61R101

Catherine Collett

Born in 1934 at Unity, Idaho

61Q59

Thomas William Collett was born at Soda Springs in Idaho on 28^th June 1900, the son of Thomas Ward Collett and Ida Mary (Amelia) Anderson. In 1904 his family left Soda Springs when they moved to Raymond in Alberta, and it was at Raymond, Medicine Hat, that the family was living in 1911. The Canada census included Thomas, his parents, and siblings David, George, Loren, Alberta. During the following year the family moved again, that time to Moscow in Idaho, and remained there until 1917 when Thomas moved to Burley in Cassia County, Idaho, where he was 19 years old in the 1920 census. On that day, Thomas W Collett was employed as a labourer on a dairy farm.

Thomas Collett

On 18^th November 1923, Thomas William Collett married Minnie Viola Peterson from Colorado, and they had a total of four children. The first child was born at Burley, with the remainder born after the family had settled at Unity in Cassia County. By the time of the 1930 census the couple’s third child had just been born at Unity, where Thomas’ brothers David (above) and George (below) were also living with their families. Thomas Collett was 30, Minnie Collett was 26, and their three children were Viola Collett who was five, Thomas A Collett who was two, and baby Harold Collett. Their last child was born a few years later and by 1935 the family had moved to Grand View in Ada County, Idaho, where Thomas’ older brother Loren (above) was living and farming.

The 1940 census for Grand View listed the family as Thomas W Collett aged 39, Minnie V Collett aged 36, Viola M Collett who was 15, Thomas A Collett who was 12, Harold E Collett who was nine 9, and Ida M Collett who was seven years old. Also like his brother Loren, Thomas was employing two hired farm hands, the brothers Leroy Beaman aged 27, and Sherman C Beaman aged 23, both from Colorado. Just under eighteen years after that census day, Thomas W Collett died on 7^th January 1958.

61R102

Viola Minnie Collett

Born in 1925 at Burley, Idaho

61R103

Thomas Anthony Collett

Born in 1927 at Unity, Idaho

61R104

Harold Edwin Collett

Born in 1930 at Unity, Idaho

61R105

Ida Mae Collett

Born in 1932 at Unity, Idaho

61Q60

George Ward Collett was born at Blackfoot in Idaho on 3^rd May 1903, the youngest son of Thomas Ward Collett and his wife Ida. It was not long after he was born, that his parents temporarily left Idaho and spent a few years in Alberta where his sister Alberta Collett was born in 1908. The 1906 Canada census included three-year-old George, his parents and five siblings. The next census in 1911 recorded George still living there with his family at Raymond, Medicine Hat, Alberta. Towards the end of that same year, the family returned to Idaho, to Moscow in Latah County, and by 1917 they were working on newly opened land in Burley, Idaho.

George W Collett

All of this was confirmed in the census of 1920, when the Collett family was residing at Burley Precinct No. 2 in Cassia County in Idaho, where George W Collett was 16 and a labourer employed on a dairy farm. After another seven years, George Ward Collett aged 24 married Anne Rose Miller from Salt Lake City on 3^rd May 1927, Anne being the sister of Earl E Miller who married George’s older sister Ada Mary Collett (above). George and Anne had two children, the first of which was a baby at the time of the census in 1930. By that time the family of three was living at Unity in Cassia County, close to George’s two older married brothers David and Thomas (above). George was 26, Anne was 24, their son was named as John G Collett. Staying with the family at that time was nephew Tommy Miller who was 16 and from Idaho, the son of George’s eldest sister Ada Miller nee Collett (above).

Unlike his two brothers, George did not move to Grand View in Ada County, Idaho, and was still living in Unity by the time of the census in 1940, which also confirmed that he had been living at the same address in 1935. George W Collett was 39, Anne M Collett was 32, John Collett was 11, and George Collett was four years of age. Lodging with the family was hired hand Fred Hansen from Utah who was 38, together with his daughter Myra Hansen aged 19, who was described as the niece of George Collett, and Warren Hansen who was 15, and described as nephew. Fred Hansen was a brother-in-law to Alberta Collett Hansen, George's younger sister. Five years later George Ward Collett passed away on 14^th November 1940 and, sometime thereafter, his widow re-married to become Anne Rose Williams, who died in 1976.

61R106

John George Collett

Born in 1929 at Elmore County, Idaho

61R107

George Edward (Jasper) Collett

Born in 1935 at Burley, Cassia County

61Q61

Ida Alberta Collett was born on 28^th July 1908 at Raymond in Alberta, Canada, another daughter of Thomas and Ida Collett, who in 1911 was living with her family at Raymond, Medicine Hat. She was known as Alberta, and on 19^th October 1927 she married Francis H Hansen, and was later solemnised into the Church of Latter-Days Saints in Salt Lake City. By 1930, Francis aged 22 and Alberta aged 21 were living at Burley in Cassia County, Idaho.

Alberta and Francis Hansen HHHansen

Also residing with them were Alberta's mother Ida who was 62, her sister Elizabeth, and a boarder John Shaver. The census in 1940 identified the family living in Salt Lake City where, Francis Hansen was 31, his wife Alberta was 30, and their son James Ward Hansen was nine years old. Francis died on 14^th March 1976 and was followed by 67-year-old Ida Alberta Collett Hansen on 9^th April 1977 in Salt Lake City.

Their son James Ward Hansen was born on 10^th May 1930 in Burley the only child of Fritz and Berta Collett Hansen. He lived in Idaho before moving to Magna, Utah at the age of ten years. He graduated from Cyprus High School and attended the University of Utah. He married (1) Lois Tidwell from Mount Pleasant in Utah on 6^th November 1957 at the Salt Lake LDS Temple, and raised one son in Magna. He was Jim F Hansen, who was known as Holli, whose mother Lois died during October 1980. James retired from Kennecott Copper where he worked as a millwright, upon which he donated countless hours at the Le Kay Center teaching hunter's safety. He loved the outdoors and enjoyed hunting and fishing. Later, he met and married (2) Norma Petty and they lived in Huntington, Utah. In his later years, James enjoyed writing and wrote many poems, short stories, and the memories of his life experiences. Norma passed away in 2000 and five years after, James Ward Hansen died on 2^nd February 2005.

61Q62

Mary Elizabeth Collett, who was known as Bessie (pictured right), was born on 3^rd February 1914 at Moscow, Idaho, the last child of Thomas Ward Collett and Ida Mary Anderson. The census in 1920 described Bessie as being six years old when she was living with her family at Burley in Cassia County, Idaho. The next census in 1930 included Bessie living with her married sister Alberta Hansen (above) and her husband again at Burley in Cassia County.

On 24^th August 1935, Bessie married (1) Ira Spang at Boise in Ada County, Idaho. During the next few years, the couple moved to Grand View, Owhyee County in Idaho, as confirmed in the census of 1940. By then Bessie was 26 and Ira was 36 when they were living at Grand View where living with them was Bessie’s mother Ida aged 71. Ira and Bessie had no children and Ira died in 1974. Bessie later married (2) Samuel Fulmer of Mountain Home, Idaho, and she died on 8^th September 1987 at Boise in Idaho and was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Grand View.

61Q64

Edna Collett was born at Dayton in Idaho on 18^th December 1892, the first child of Daniel Ward Collett by his wife Sarah Lottie Phillips. Nineteen years later she married Leslie Bird Howell on 17^th January 1912.

61Q65

Lottie Lewella Collett was born on 26^th November 1894, the daughter of Daniel Ward Collett and Sarah Lottie Phillips. She was born in a log cabin on the site of what is now the Blackfoot Reservoir near the town of Henry in Idaho. The town of Henry only had one general store which was originally built by John Henry Schmidt, the great uncle of Lee Ward Collett who provided this information. In in 2014 the store is now closed. It was one week after her twentieth birthday when she married LeRoy D Manning on 2^nd December 1914.

61Q66

Sarah Collett was born at Soda Springs in Caribou County, Idaho on 10^th January 1897 and was twenty-seven years of age when she married Dimon D Bodily on 11^th June 1924.

61Q67

Daniel Phillips Collett was known as Dan and was born at Presto in Bingham County, Idaho on 19^th July 1898, the son of Daniel and Sarah Collett. By 1900 Daniel P Collett was two years old when he and his family were living at Presto, Grays, Taylor Precincts, Bingham County in Idaho. Ten years later the family was at Dayton in Oneida County, Idaho, where Daniel was curiously recorded as being 10 instead of 12. After another ten years Daniel was still living with his family in 1920 when he was 21 and his family was at Cassia County in Idaho.

Three years later, on 3^rd October 1923, he married Anna Vernetta Buchanan, probably in a joint ceremony with his sister Elizabeth (below). During the next seven years Anna presented Daniel with their first three children, as confirmed by the census in 1930. The family on that occasion was recorded incorrectly under the surname Collatt, by which time they were living at Hagerman in Gooding County, Idaho. Daniel P Collatt was 31, Vernetta A Collatt was 24, and their three children on that occasion were Bobby D Collatt, who was five, Junior M Collatt, who was three, and Gloria A Collatt who was under one year old.

Two more children were added to the family during the first half of the 1930s and, in between the two births, Daniel’s father passed away, as a result of which his widowed mother lived with him and his family thereafter. That may have been around the time that the family left Hagerman and moved to Glenns Ferry in Elmore County in Idaho, where they were all living in 1940.

The family at that time was listed as Dan P Collett aged 41, Vernetta A Collett aged 34, Bobby Dan Collett who was 14, Max Collett who was 13, Gloria Ann Collett who was 10, Donetta Collett who was nine, and Gary B Collett who was six years old. Daniel’s mother, Sarah L Collett from Utah, was 67, while all the other members of the household had been born in Idaho.

61R108

Bobby Daniel Collett

Born in 1925 in Idaho

61R109

Junior Max Collett

Born in 1927 in Idaho

61R110

Gloria A Collett

Born in 1929 at Hagerman, Idaho

61R111

Donetta Collett

Born in 1931 at Hagerman, Idaho

61R112

Gary B Collett

Born in 1934 in Idaho

61Q68

Elizabeth Collett was born at Basalt in Bingham County, Idaho on 11^th November 1902. She was one month short of her twenty-first birthday when she married Martinus Anderson on 3^rd October 1923, the same day that her brother Daniel (above) was married, most likely in a double wedding ceremony.

61Q69

William Phillips Collett was born at Basalt in Bingham County on 14^th September 1904, and was five years old in the census of 1900, when he and his family were living at Dayton in Franklin County, Idaho. Ten years later in 1910 the family had moved to Cassia County in Idaho, where William was 15. With no obvious record of him in 1920, it was five years later that he married Roxie Leora Collins on 26^th May 1925 and by 1930 they had a baby daughter and were living at Shoshone in Lincoln County, Idaho.

It is likely the couple settled in Shoshone once they were married and there also where their daughter was born, since baby Shirley B Collett was not yet one year old in the census of 1930, when her parents were recorded as William P Collett who was 25 and Roxie L Collett who was 22. Further children were added to the family during the next decade and in 1935 the enlarged family was living at Challis in Custer County, Idaho, where the couple’s second son had been born. However, by 1940 the family had moved again, on that occasion to Butte in Silver Bow County in Montana, where they were recorded in the census as Collette. William Collette was 35, Roxie Collett was 32, Shirley Collette was 10, sons Billie Collette and Jean Collette were seven and five respectively, and daughter Patsy Collette was three years old. William Phillips Collett was 93 when he died on 12^th February 1998.

61R113

Shirley B Collett

Born in 1930 at Shoshone, Idaho

61R114

William (Billie) Collett

Born in 1933 at Challis, Idaho

61R115

Jean Collett

Born in 1935 at Challis, Idaho

61R116

Patricia (Patsy) Collett

Born in 1937 at Butte, Montana

61Q70

Mabel Collett was born at Dayton in Franklin County, Idaho on 15^th May 1907 and she later married William Robert Owen on 29^th December 1925.

61Q71

Ralph Thomas Collett was born at Dayton in Franklin County on 15^th April 1910, the son of Daniel Collett and Sarah Phillips. During the early years of his life, he lived in the Dayton-Burley-Hagerman areas of south Idaho. Prior to becoming a married man, Ralph was farming at Hagerman and worked on construction projects at Upper Salmon Falls Dam on Snake River, just south of Hagerman. He was twenty-four years of age when he married Irene Mable Eliason at Acequia, Minidoka County in Idaho on 26^th February 1935, Irene having been born at Racetrack in Powell County, Montana on 3^rd December 1911. She was the daughter of Isaac Eliason and Armeda Louisa Wilde, and had lived in the town of Racetrack and Hagerman, where she presumably met Ralph.

Over the next two decades Irene presented Ralph with a total of seven children and all their details, inserted in November 2014, were kindly provided by Ralph’s son Lee. After the birth of the first two children at Gooding County, Idaho, Ralph’s work took the family to eastern Washington where he continued to be employed in the construction industry, including working on dam building projects on the Columbia River in Washington state. The couple’s next two children were born at Soap Lake Town, on the shore of Soap Lake, Grant County, Washington, where the family was living in 1940.

The census that year identified the young family residing there, which also confirmed that Ralph T Collett and his wife Irene had been living at Rural in Gooding County, Idaho in 1935. The census return for 1940 listed the family as Ralph who was 29 and a carpenter working in the construction industry, Irene who was 28, Frank R Collett who was four, daughter Dorene Collett who was two, and Kenneth Collett who was four months old. Two years later their fourth child was born at Soap Lake Town, before the family moved again in 1944, that time to Grand View in Elmore County, Idaho, on the upper reaches of Snake River. It was at that time Ralph returned to farming, with the family having a farm at Chattin Flat where the last three children were born.

Initially, after the move to Grand View, the family made their home in a little house on the property of Ralph’s older brother Dan Collett (above), at Chattin Flat two miles north of Grand View, where they lived until 1948. That year the family moved to the Spencer Place in Chattin Flat where today there is a thoroughfare named Collett Road. To the east of Chattin Flat, is the local high spot, Chattin Hill, which provides a ‘grand view’ over what was a prairie plain.

And it was there, at Chattin Flat, that Ralph T Collett was 40, and Irene Collett was 38 in 1950. Their children that census day were Frank who was 14 and helping his father on the farm, Dorene who was 12, Kenneth who was 10, Delores who was seven, Lee who was five, and Neal who was three years of age. Around a year later, Ralph acquired the rights to the Homestead, south west of the town of Grand View, a tract of land which had first been staked by Verna Weaver. The only improvement made to the property at the time was an artesian well, which had been drilled in the south-west quarter of the 160-acre tract of land. After buying the rights to the property, Ralph carrying out further upgrades.

However, it was only Ralph and son Ken who went to live at the Homestead, with the remainder of the family continuing to live at the Spencer Place, where son Frank manage the farm. At the Homestead, Ralph started construction of a small house made of cinder blocks, with Ralph and Ken staying in the house while it was under construction, where they cooked on a Coleman gas stove. They also started to clear sagebrush and prepare the land and, in the first year, they put in five acres, followed by twenty acres the next year. During the first year they used a part of the cinderblock house as a granary for storing the crops from that first year.

Across the north-eastern corner of the land was the remnants of the Southern Route of the Old Oregon Trail, with many relics from that earlier time were found in the sand hill, including horse and oxen shoes, parts of an old stove, lead balls from rifles or pistols, and genuine Indian arrowheads.

When the building of their new house was complete, the family moved to the Homestead in 1952. All the children attended school in Grand View and, in 1955, the couple’s last child Glen was born at nearby Boise. When Ralph and Irene returned home, they announced to the family that they had a new baby brother. The census in 1955 recorded their children as Dorene Collett who was 17, Ken Collett who was 15, Delores Collett who was 13, Lee Collett who was 11, and Neal Collett who was eight years old. By that time eldest son Frank was attending college in Caldwell.

61R117

Frank Ralph Collett

Born in 1936 at Rural, Gooding County

61R118

Dorene Mae Collett

Born in 1938 at Rural, Gooding County

61R119

Kenneth Ray Collett

Born in 1939 at Soap Lake Town, Wa.

61R120

Delores E Collett

Born in 1942 at Soap Lake Town, Wa.

61R121

Lee Ward Collett

Born in 1944 at Chattin Flat, Elmore Cy

61R122

Neal Earl Collett

Born in 1947 at Chattin Flat, Elmore Cy

61R123

Glen Alton Collett

Born in 1955 at Boise Hospital

61Q72

Elverta Collett was born at Dayton in Franklin County on 17^th March 1912 and she was twenty-one when she married Thomas Roosevelt Pope on 28^th September 1933.

61Q73

Barbara Opal Collett was born at Dayton in Franklin County on 5^th March 1914 and it was on 1^st June 1933 that she married Moylan Isaac Eliason, whose sister Irene Mable Eliason married Barbara’s brother Ralph (above) two years later.

61Q74

Berniece Collett was born at Weston in Franklin County, Idaho on 5^th September 1916. Tragically she was only nineteen months old when she suffered an infant death on 14^th April 1918.

61Q75

Alton Ward Collett was born at Burley in Cassia County, Idaho on 17^th November 1920, the last child born to parents Daniel Ward Collett and his wife Sarah Lottie Phillips. While he was still very young his parents moved to Hagerman in Gooding County, Idaho where the family was listed as Collatt in the census of 1930. At that time Alton was recorded as Elton Collatt who was nine years old. In 1935 he was still living at Hagerman with his widowed mother, following the death of his father in September 1932. After 1935 Alton and his mother moved to Glenns Ferry in Elmore County, Idaho, where Alton’s eldest married brother William Phillips Collett was living with his family.

In 1940 Alton’s mother was living with his brother, while Alton Collett aged 20, was a hired hand at the Glenns Ferry home of Duard F Campbell and his wife Una M Campbell. On 20^th September 1943 Alton Ward Collett, a single man aged 22, having attended high school for three years, was a structural and ornamental metal worker, when he enlisted for military duty at Boise, Idaho, for the duration of the war. It was after the Second World War that Alton Ward Collett married (1) Phyllis Jean McMillian on 1^st March 1946. No details of his second wife are currently available.

It was also at Boise where Alton Ward Collett died on 21^st June 1984, at the age of 63, after which his body was laid to rest at Wendell Cemetery in Wendell, Gooding County, Idaho.

61R1

Reuben Tanner Collett was born at Cokeville in Wyoming on 29^th December in 1892, the only known son of Sylvester Collett and his wife Elnora Tanner. Up until around 1912 he lived with his family at Cokeville, where he was eight years old in 1900, and was 17 in 1910, after which they moved to Burley in Cassia County, Idaho. On leaving school Reuben became a bookkeeper and it was at Burley that he tragically died at the age of 22, on 13^th October 1915, following which he was buried the next day at Pleasant Hill Cemetery. His death certificate confirmed his date of birth, the names of his parents, and his occupation.

61R2

Elsie Rhoana Collett was born at Cokeville, Lincoln County, Wyoming, on 18^th September 1904, the youngest and last child of Sylvester Collett and Elnora Tanner. As simply Elsie collett she was five years old in the Cokeville census of 1910, when her father was a general farmer. Five years later, Elsie was made an only child when her old brother suffered a premature death. Just prior to that, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints census in 1914, only listed three of the family as members of the church. They were Nora Collett, Reuben Tanner Collett, and Elsie R Collett. By 1920, it was just Elsie R Collett aged 15, and her parents, who were recorded at 159 North Almo Avenue in Burley Precinct No. 2, where none of the three of them was working. What happened to Elsie after that, has still to be discovered although, by the end of her life, at the age of 72, she was residing at Moscow in Latah County, Idaho, where she died on 25^th April 1976.

61R3

Imogene Collett was born on 27^th September 1893 at Montpelier, Bear Lake County in Idaho, the first-born child of Thomas Karren Collett and Catherine Elizabeth Sims. By 1900, she and her family were living at Cokeville Precinct when Imogene Collett was incorrectly recorded as being eight years old, which was recorded as 16 in the same census for 1910. She was still living with the family in 1914 when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Census Records included all five members of the family; Thomas K Collett, Catherine Elizabeth Sims Collett, Imogene Collett, Lucille Collett, and Thiel Dee Collett. Imogene Collett Stoner, known as Gene, died on 18^th December 1942 at the age of 49 and was buried at Cokeville Cemetery. Her obituary at Stevens, Adams County in Idaho, confirmed she was born at Montpelier and died at Cokeville, the daughter of Catherine Sims and Thomas Collett, whose husband was Roscoe Stoner.

61R4

Lucille Collett was born at Idaho during 1896 and was the second of the three children of Thomas and Catherine Collett. By 1900 her family had settled at Cokeville in Wyoming where Lucille was five years of age, and it was also at Cokeville that the completed family was still living in 1910 when she was 14. Shortly thereafter the family moved to Salt Lake City where unmarried Lucille was 25 when she was still living there with her parents in 1920. Sometime later she was married and became Lucille Rogers, the result of which was the birth of a son Thomas Franklyn Rogers, known as Tom, who was born in 1932.

And it was Tom who provided some additional details for this family line during 2014. Tom has served as a Mormon missionary in Germany after receiving his first Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Utah in 1955. He still travels to Eastern Europe at least three times a year and is occasionally accompanied by one of his twenty-one grandson. Tom also has seventeen granddaughters.

In addition to this, Tom lived in Bountiful, Utah, and retired from the Brigham Young University faculty at Provo in 2000. He was a professor of Russian and had served there for thirty-one years. During that time, as director of the Honours Program, he was the author of nearly thirty plays, including the first literary account of the young German Latter-Day Saints martyr, Helmuth Huebener. He was the first mission president of the Russia St Petersburg Mission from 1993 to 1996 and, with his wife, taught English at the University of Peking for the BYU China Teachers Program. He also served a mission at the Sweden Stockholm Temple. Over eight years up to 2014 Tom has served as an itinerant Russian speaking patriarch in the Church’s Europe East Area and has completed twenty-four tours and bestowed there approximately 2,500 blessings.

61R5

Thiel D Collett was born at Cokeville in Wyoming in 1905, the only son and third child of Thomas Karren Collett and his wife Catherine Elizabeth Sims. He was five years old in the Cokeville census of 1910 but by 1920, when he was 15, he and his family were residing in Salt Lake City. Thiel later married and had a daughter Sharron Collett. On 25^th April 1933 the adventures of Thiel Collett and his trip to the Far East were reported in the newspaper, when the Salt Lake City Tribune printed the follow article under the headline “Student Returns From Year Tour of Orient Lands – youth declares cost of trip held to less than $2 per day”

“Darkly tanned, Thiel Collett, prominent former University of Utah athlete, has returned from an economy tour of the Orient and Europe. Mr Collett was away for a year visiting Hawaii, Japan, Manchuria, China, French Indo-China, Java, Bali, Siam, Burma, India, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, and England. The trip cost him less than $2 per day, Mr Collett said Monday, explaining that it was undertaken as a means of rounding out his education. Within the ensuing year he plans to write a book on his travels.

A son of Mrs T K Collett of 324 East Second South Street, Mr Collett was the captain of the university football team in 1925. He gained recognition for his ability in the centre and forward positions, and later played basketball for the Arthur team of the Utah Copper League. The Traveller was in the Sino-Japanese war zone, along the Southern Manchuria railway, for two weeks. Although he witnessed much suffering from a Cholera epidemic, he saw none of the fighting.

Mr Collett narrowly escaped contacting Cholera. Two men he met at Bangkok, Siam, an Indian and a United States government official, contracted the dread disease while he was travelling with them to Calcutta over a northern Siam and southern Burma malaria belt. Both recovered after two weeks treatment in Calcutta.”

It was Thiel’s athleticism that led to him being selected as the model for the ‘larger than life’ size central bronze figure in the Mormon Battalion Monument in the grounds of the Utah State Capitol. His participation in this venture was jointly due to his athletic physique and the fact that his great grandfather Thomas Karren had been a member of the Battalion. The Mormon Battalion was recruited by the US Government during the Mexican War in 1857, at the very time members of the LDS Church had been forced from their headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois, and were undertaking the arduous trek to what is now Utah. Brigham Young agreed to the separation of those badly needed men, most of them husbands and fathers, so that their army wages could help provision their and other families on the pioneer trail. The aforementioned Thomas Karren, the future father-in-law of the young Sylvanus Collett, was one of those recruits. The Battalion, which marched all the way to California and then back to Utah after it disbanded, never saw military action.

61S1

Sharron Collett

Date of birth unknown

61R6

Samuel Edwin Collett was born at Wilford, Fremont County in Idaho on 7^th April 1890, the eldest of the eight children of Samuel Merritt Collett and Alice Benetta Smith. He was ten years of age in 1900 when he and the family were living at 97 First East Street in Rexburg Village, Fremont County, Idaho. No record of him has been found within the census of 1910, but the following year his wife gave birth to their first child and by 1917 they had three children, closely followed by a fourth. The record of the marriage of Samuel Edwin Collett and Elizabeth Mildred (Millie) Larsen has so far, not been found, which may have been in 1910. His First World War Draft Registration Record signed on 28^th May 1917 at Adams County in Idaho, which confirmed his date of birth as above and that he was residing at St Anthony in Fremont County, Idaho, at that time. The completed form stated he was a labourer in a sawmill of Nord & Company of Tamarack, Idaho, was married with a wife and had three children under 12 years. At the question “Do you claim exemption from draft” he said “Yes, on account of dependent relatives.”

it is very curious that the families of Samuel Edwin Collett AND his father Samuel Merritt Collett were recorded at two separate locations in the US Census of 1920, both with very similar family details, apart from their occupations. In one of them, father and son, with their wives and children, were living in adjacent rented properties. That was at District 15, Alta Polling Precinct, Lincoln County, Wyoming, when father and son, together with the wife of Samuel senior, were all working for the local sawmill. Samuel was an engineer at the sawmill and was 33, the same age as his wife Elizabeth M Collett. Their four children were Helen E Collett who was ten, Ted Collett who was seven, Wanda Collett who was five, and Sylvanus Collett who was one year old.

On that same day in 1920, but at Wilford Village, Tetonia Precinct, in Fremont County, the same six members of the family were listed as follows: Samuel was 32 and a foreman on a sheep ranch, and owner of the family home. His wife Millie was 30, and the four children were Helen Collett who was eight, Edward Collett who was six, Wanda Collett who was four, and Sylvanus Collett who was 21 months old. Two more children were added to the family while they were still residing in Idaho, with a final child born after the family settled in Montana.

That moved was confirmed in the census of 1930 which identified the family as living at Zurich in Blaine County, Montana, where daughter Helen was married that same year. On the day of the census the couple had been married for 18, with the family living in rented accommodation, where Samuel E Collett was 39 and a labourer on a general farm. Mildred E Collett was also 39, when their children were Helen E Collett was 19, David E Collett was 16, Wanda Collett was 14, Samuel S Collett was 11, Marlon Collett was eight, Billy Collett was six, and Alice B Collett was three years old. Son David was the only other member of the household who had a job of work, when he was another labourer on a general farm.

Only the four youngest children were still living with the couple in 1940 at Harlem in Blaine County where Samuel E Colett was 50 and a sugar-beet farmer. Elizabeth M Collett was 49, Samuel was 22, Marion was 18, Billy was 16, and Alice was 13. However, living next door in the adjacent property was the couple’s married son David, with his wife and their four children. Samuel Edwin Collett later completed the Draft Registration Card for the Second World War when he was 52, which again confirmed his date and place of birth, by which time he and his wife Mildred were living at Chester in Fremont County, just north-east of St Anthony.

Samuel Edwin Collett was 61 when he died at St Anthony, Fremont County in Idaho on 2^nd August 1951 and was buried two days later at Wilford Cemetery on 4^th August 1951. A burial transit permit was required to take the body from St Anthony in Fremont to Wilford, where he was born, and where his parents were buried. An obituary in the Jefferson Star reported that his date of birth was as stated above, that his parents were Samuel Collett and Alice B Collett, and that his wife was Elizabeth Mildred Larson. His children were listed as Billy, Helen, Chester, Wanda, Ted, and Marion.

61S2

Helen Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1911 at Wilford, Idaho

61S3

David Edward Collett

Born in 1913 at Wilford, Idaho

61S4

Wanda Collett

Born in 1915 at St Anthony, Idaho

61S5

Samuel Sylvanus Collett

Born in 1918 at St Anthony, Idaho

61S6

Marion J Collett

Born in 1921 at Driggs, Idaho

61S7

William Gale Collett

Born in 1923 at Wilford, Idaho

61S8

Alice Beth Collett

Born in 1926 at Harlem, Montana

61R7

Iva Collett was born at Wilford, Idaho on 25^th January 1894 and the twin sister of Ivan (below). The twins were the second births for Samuel and Alice Collett, with Iva being seven years old and living with the family at 97 First East Street in Rexburg Village in Fremont County. For whatever reason, the twins were described in that census as having been born in November 1893. Iva was nearly ten years old when she died on 6^th January 1904 and was buried at Wilford Cemetery, where she was joined by her twin brother three and a half years later.

61R8

Ivan Collett was the twin brother of Iva Collett (1894-1904), who were born to parents Samuel and Alice Collett in 1894 at Wilford, Fremont County in Idaho. He was seven years of age in the census of 1900, when he and his family were living at 97 First East Street in Rexburg Village in Fremont County, the census form suggesting he was born during the month of November in 1893. However, that appears to be incorrect, since all other records give his date of birth at Wilford as 25^th January 1894. In 1907 Ivan Collett of Fremont County was recorded in the Record of Members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as still living at Wilford. Tragically, that was just prior to his young death, with the passing of Ivan Collett aged 14, reported as 20^th September 1907, after which he was laid to rest at Wilford Cemetery, the son of Samuel Collett and Alice Smith.

61R9

Dora Lapreal Collett was born at Wilford, Idaho on 26^th November 1897, the eldest surviving daughter of Samuel and Alice Collett. Soon after she was born her family moved to 97 First East Street in Rexburg Village, south-west of Wilford, where they were living in 1900 when Dora L Collett was three years old. During the following decade the family returned to Wilford where, in 1910 they had settled in Wilford Precinct with Dora being 13 years of age. Seven years later Dora Lapreal Collett married Hilary Reginald Barney on 9^th April 1917, with their wedding recorded at Fremont County when she was 19 and he was 23, whose father was born in Denmark. Dora was currently living in Fremont County, while Hilary was residing in Teton County. By 1930 she had presented Hilary, aged 36, with three children when she was 33. They were Jack Barney who was 12, Louise Barney who was eight, and Cecilia Barney who was one year old, all born in Idaho like their parents. Three other members of the extend Collett family were staying with the Barney family that day at St Anthony in Fremont County. The first of them was Dora’s recently widowed mother Alice Collett, with her was Dora’s youngest sister Madge, and the third was unmarried Helen Collett, Alice’s first grandchildren, the daughter of Dora’s eldest brother Samuel Edwin Collett (above).

By 1940, the census for St Anthony listed the members of the household as Hilary R Barney aged 46, Dora Barney 42, Jack Barney who was 22, Louise Barney who was 18, and Cecilia Barney who was 11 years of age. Again, living with the family was widow Alice Collett and her daughter Madge Collett. Tragically, Dora was made a widow less than two years after that census day, when Hilary Reginald Barney died on 9^th February 1942 at Idaho Falls in Bonneville County. He had been born on 4^th March 1894, the son of Peter Barney and Alice Lee, and was one month short of his forty-eighth birthday. Two years after her loss, Dora then had to deal with the premature death of her daughter Cecilia Rae Barney, who was born on 25^th June 1928 and died on 5^th September 1944 and was buried two days after at Wilford Cemetery at the age of 16. The later death of Dora L Barney was recorded at Boise, Ada County in Idaho, when she died on 8^th October 1950 at the age of 52.

61R10

Benetta Elizabeth Collett was born on 25^th June 1900, after the day of the census that year, apparently at Wilford in Idaho, although her family was record at 97 First East Street in Rexburg Village, a few miles south-west of Wilford, in the census of 1900. She was nine years of age in the Wilford census of 1910 when living with her family at Wilford Precinct. Just over eight years later the marriage of Benetta E Collett aged 18, and Eugene D Smith who was 24, took place on 19^th December 1918 and was recorded at Fremont County, Idaho. Both the bride and the groom were residing in St Anthony prior to that day.

Twelve years after their wedding day, Eugene and Benetta were living at Mississippi Avenue in Portland City, Multnomah County in Oregon. The childless couple was recorded in the 1930 Census as Eugene D Smith from Missouri who was 36 and kiln setter working for a stone manufacturer, and his wife Benetta Smith aged 29 and from Idaho. She was only 36 when she died at Vancouver, Clark County in Washington, on 11^th July 1936.

61R11

Permeno Glenn Collett was born at Wilford, Idaho on 22^nd August 1902, another son of Samuel and Alice Collett, who as simply Glenn Collett, he was seven years old in the census of 1910 when living at Wilford Precinct. At the start of the following year, he was recorded a Permeno Glenn Collett aged eight years, when he died at Idaho Falls, Bonneville County in Idaho on 27^th January 1911 and was buried at Wilford Cemetery.

61R12

Luella Collett was born at Wilford, Idaho on 6^th December 1906, another daughter of Samuel and Alice Collett. It was at the Wilford Ward of Fremont Stake that the received a blessing from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on 3^rd March 1907. She was ten years of age when she was baptised within the Wilford Ward of Yellowstone Stake on 1^st July 1917, when she was confirmed as the child of Samuel M Collett and Alice B Smith. For the Wilford census in 1910, Luella Collett was three years old but, by 1920, the family was living at Bates Precinct in Teton County, Idaho, when Luella was 13 years old, the eldest of the three daughters still living with her parents.

Four years after the census day, the marriage of Luella Collett and Ephraim Earl Hacks was recorded at Teton County on 12^th June 1924, with the wedding ceremony conducted at Driggs. Ephraim had been born at Garland, Box Elder County in Utah and was a probate judge living at Driggs, when Luella was also a resident in Driggs. In 1930, the couple and their daughter were residing at Wilsow Street in Portland, Multnomah County in Oregon, when Earl E Hanks was 30 and a fireman with a railroad company, Luella Hanks was 24, and Eileen Hanks was four years old.

The census in 1940 identified the family at North Bristol Avenue in Portland, where they had been living in 1935 as well, with Earl being 40 and a locomotive fireman with the Steam Railroad. Luella was 33, Eileen was 14, Raymond E Hanks was eight, Evelyn L Hanks was six, and Reed M Hanks was three years of age. What happened after that day remains a mystery, since by 1950 43-year-old Luella Hanks was living at the home of Henry C Eggerstedt from Germany who was 65, from where she was a practical nurse employed at the General Hospital in Portland. It was on 11^th December 1988 that Luella died at Portland, Multnomah in Oregon

61R14

Stella E Collett was born on 28^th March 1909 at Wilford in Idaho, and as Estell Collett she was one-year-old in the Wilford Precinct of 1910. She received a blessing by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on 2^nd May 1909, at Wilford Ward, Yellowstone Stake, the daughter of Samuel M Collett and Alice Smith. She was baptised as Estella Collett on 1^st July 1917 and by 1920 the family home was at Bates Precinct in Teton County, Idaho, where Stella E Collett was 10 years old. Five years later, and also in Teton County, Stella Collett and Alonzo William Gustafson were married on 25^th November 1925.

At least five children were born to the couple of the following years, all of them still living with the family at in 1940. Head of the household Alonzo was 36, Stella Collett Gustafson was 31, William Duane Gustafson was 12, the twins Barbara Clair Gustafson and Samuel Blair Gustafson were 11, Marilyn Madge Gustafson was six years old, and Larry Dee Gustafson was four years of age. Two further children were added to the family in the next seven years, and they were Alice Gustafson who was nine years old in 1950, and Alona Gustafson who was three years of age. After another fourteen years, it was on 17^th August 1964 at Portland City in Multnomah Couty in Washington, that Stella Collett Gustafson at the age of 55.

61R15

Madge Collett was born at Wilford, Idaho, on 12^th March 1911, the youngest child of Samuel Merril Collett and Alice Benetta Smith. She was eight years of age in 1920 when she was one of three siblings living with their parents at Bates Precinct in Teton County, Idaho. After another ten years, Madge was 18 in 1930 when she and her mother, widowed during the previous year, were staying at the St Anthony home of Madge’s older married sister Dora Barney. It was also with her sister Dora at St Anthony, that Madge and her elderly mother were still living in 1940. Just a few months after that census day, on 26^th October 1940 at St Anthony in Fremont County, Idaho, that Madge Collett aged 29 married Verl Jenson who was 25.

Not long after their wedding day, the couple moved to California where their two sons were born, and where the family of four was living in 1950. Their home was at Boron in Kern County where Verl S Jenson was 34 and a railway switchman on the railroad, Madge C Jenson was 39, James S Jenson was five, and Gary L Jenson was one year old. It was on 23^rd May 1977, at the age of 66, that Madge Collett Jenson died at Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon.

61R19

Leslie Marion Collett was born in Cache County, Utah on 12^th June 1889, the eldest child of Marion Merrill Collett and his wife Anna Laura Horn. Leslie was 11 in 1900 when he and his family were living at Portneuf in Bannock County, Idaho. Around 1904 his mother died and by 1910 Leslie Collett aged 23 (sic), was living with his father and his sisters at Butte in Silver Bow County, Montana.

Where Leslie was in 1920 has not been determined, although by 1930 he was a married man and was living in Seattle with his wife. Staying with the couple on that occasion were his own parents, plus his mother-in-law. When and where Leslie M Collett married Gertrude J Miller is not known. In 1900 Gertrude was four years old and was living at Haddon Heights in Camden County, New Jersey, with her German born parents J Fred Miller and his wife Anna S Miller. Gertrude was born during the month of May in 1896 and was still unmarried and living with her widowed mother Anna Miller at Queens, New York in 1920 when she was 24.

It seems unlikely that Leslie and Gertrude ever had any children and in the census of 1930 for Seattle they were recorded as Leslie M Collett from Utah aged 41, as was his wife Gertrude J Collett from New York. His mother-in-law was Anna S Miller aged 66 and from Germany, and his own parents were Marion Collett who was 59, and Laura Collett who was 58. Ten years after that the Seattle census of 1940 listed just the two of them as Leslie M Collett and Gertrude Collett who were both 52. It was sixteen years after that when Leslie Marion Collett died in Seattle on 2^nd January 1956, following which he was buried at Holyrood Catholic Cemetery in Shoreline, nine miles north of Downtown Seattle, lot 808.

61R21

Wauneta Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache County, Utah, during the month of February in 1892, the daughter of Marion and Anna Collett at Utah. In the census of 1900, she was listed with her family as Waneta Collett aged eight years at Portneuf in Bannock County, Idaho. Not long after that her parents moved the family to live at Butte in Montana, where the death of Wauneta Collett was recorded during June in 1909.

61R22

Pearl Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache County, Utah during 1894, the daughter of Marion and Anna Collett, who was six years old in the census of 1900 when Pearl and her family was recorded at Portneuf in Bannock County, Idaho. When her family was recorded at Butte in 1910 and 1920 Pearl was not with them since, by the latter, she was a married woman, Pearl Sylvester. While nothing is known about her short married-life, it was shortly after finalising the funeral arrangement for her father that she became ill and died on 15^th March 1935. Four days later both Pearl and her father were buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery when the following report was published in the Butte Standard newspaper. “Double funeral services for father and daughter Marion Collett and Mrs Pearl Sylvester were conducted at 2 o’clock at Duggan’s Merrill mortuary. The services were under the auspices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Burial was side by side in Mount Moriah Cemetery. Marion Collett died late on Friday at his home, 238 New Street, following a long illness. His daughter had died at a local hospital a few hours later after she became suddenly ill shortly after completing funeral arrangements for her father. Her home was at 713 Placer Street.”

61R23

Lucretia Laura Collett was born at Smithfield in Cache County, Utah on 24^th December 1899 another daughter of Marion and Anna Collett. She was one year old in the Portneuf census of 1900 and by 1910, when she was 12 years of age she and her family were settled in Butte, Montana. At some time in her life, she was married and was known as Lucretia Laura Harper when she died in Seattle on 27^th July 1928.

61R24

Myrtle Katherine Collett was born at Butte in Silver Bow County, Montana on 19^th November 1905, the last child of Marion Merrill Collett and Anna Laura Horn. Myrtle was six years old in 1910 when she and her family were still living at Butte in 1910, where she was the only child still living with her parents in 1920 when she was recorded as being 14. She later married to become Myrtle Katherine Murray and it was in Seattle on 9^th March 1952 that she died. Myrtle Katherine Murray nee Collett was the great grandmother of Alaric DeArment of New York who kindly provided some of the information relating to this family line.

61R29

Leroy Collett was born at Cokeville on 12^th February 1909, the son of Roy Collett and Sarah Amelia (Millie) Svenson. She was only 18 years old when she died at Cokeville on 13^th November 1927, following which she was buried in Cokeville Cemetery in Lincoln County, Wyoming.

61R33

Gertrude Collett was born at Maeser (Vernal) on 9^th July 1892, but was not baptised until 16^th August 1900. She was the eldest child of Reuben Samuel Collett and his wife Flora Elsie Colton. Gertrude later married Burke Reese Thomas at Salt Lake City on 22^nd October 1919 with whom she had four children. Burke was born at Pocatello in Idaho on 10^th February 1892, the son of David B Thomas and Martha A Reese. Shortly after they were married the couple was living at Knightsville in Juan County in Utah where their first child was born. Within a few months the family had moved to Salt Lake City, where their remaining children were born.

The four children were Burke Reuben Thomas (16.08.1920 – 20.12.1976), Donald Collett Thomas (01.06.1922 – 08.04.2008), Nancy Thomas (16.08.1923 – 23.01.1951), and Jean Lamar Thomas who was born on 27.05.1925. By the time of the census in 1940, Burke had died and Gertrude was a widow living in Salt Lake City at the home of her parents, together with her four children. Gertrude was 47, and her children were Burke R Thomas aged 19, Donald C Thomas aged 17, Nancy Thomas aged 16, and Jean Thomas who was 14. Gertrude spent most of her life at Salt Lake City and it was there that she died on 26^th March 1976. She was buried three days later at Wasatch Lawn Cemetery in Salt Lake City.

Gertrude’s son Donald married Beth Young at Salt Lake City on 8^th September 1948 and it was their son David Young Thomas who was born at Salt Lake City on 9^th March 1954 who kindly provided all the details relating to his American family.

David married Lori Clark at Oakland in California on 21^st May 1977 with whom he has five children - Jared Clark Thomas born at Provo on 22^nd March 1978, Justin David Thomas born on 30^th November 1980, Amy Beth Thomas born on 5^th March 1983, and Sean Michael Thomas who was born on 15^th April 1987, all three of them born at Mesa, and Trevor Matthew Thomas who was born at Santa Rosa on 7^th December 1990.

61R34

Elsie Collett was born at Vernal on 11^th February 1894 and was baptised on 2^nd August 1902, the second child of Reuben and Flora Collett. She married (1) Maurice Vernon Richardson on 7^th October 1922 at Salt Lake City and the marriage produced one son for the couple, Maurice Vernon junior who was born at Oakland on 3^rd January 1923. At the age of fifty-five, and presumably following the death of her husband, Elsie married (2) George B Baldwin in San Francisco on 5^th August 1949. She later died on 16^th April 1984 at Palo Alta in California where she was also buried.

61R35

Reuben Sterling Collett was born at Vernal on 13^th May 1895 and was baptised in 1903, the eldest son of Reuben and Flora Collett. He married (1) Mary Lulu Griffith with whom he had three children. He later married (2) Willie Maud Thomas nee Binskin at Reno in Washoe County in Nevada on 2^nd November 1946. Willie Maud was born at Banko in Texas on 14^th January 1890.

Reuben and Mary were living at Roosevelt in Duchesne County in Utah for the birth of their first and third child, but in between times the family lived at Salt Lake City where the second child was born. Reuben Stirling Collett died at Waco, McLennan County in Texas on 21^st August 1975 and was buried at Vernal on 25^th August 1975.

61S9

Sterling Driggs Collett

Born in 1920 at Roosevelt, Utah

61S10

Ray Samuel Collett

Born in 1921 at Salt Lake City

61S11

Maureen (Maurine) Collett

Born in 1924 at Roosevelt, Utah

61R36

Marie Collett was born at Vernal on 4^th October 1896 and was baptised on 4^th June 1905, the daughter of Reuben and Flora Collett. Over thirty-four years later at the age of 43 she married Hobert Wesley Wheeler at San Francisco on 22^nd November 1939. Hobert was born on 6^th April 1902 at Hamden in New Haven in Connecticut. Marie was living at Walnut Grove in California when she died on 22^nd March 1986 and it was there that she was also buried.

61R37

Karl Warren Collett was born at Vernal on 29^th May 1898 and was baptised on 2th August 1906, the son of Reuben and Flora Collett. The Vernal census in 1900 included him with his family as Karl W Collett aged two years. He was still there ten years later in 1910 when he was 12, but after a further ten years he and his family were living in Duchesne County in Utah, where Karl W Collett was 21. It was very soon after that when Karl sailed to England, most likely on a Mormon Mission, following which he returned in 1923. His re-entry into America from Liverpool was confirmed in the passenger manifest of the vessel ‘Montcalm’ which docked at Quebec on 14^th September 1923, when his age was recorded as 25 years and 5 months, his date of birth stated as being 29^th May 1898.

Four years later he married Dorcas Leah McBride on 7^th June 1927 at Salt Lake City. Leah, as she was known, was born at Oakley in Cassio County in Idaho on 25^th January 1904. The marriage resulted in the birth of two children for Karl and Leah, who were recorded with them in the census of 1930 as residing at Salt Lake City. Karl W Collet was 31, his wife Leah Collett was 25, and their daughters were La Rue Collett who was two years old and Jolene Collett who was still under one year old. Lodging with the family was Fredrick Bosch from Minnesota who was 31.

In 1935 the family of four was living at Boulder in Clark County, Nevada, but five years later they had settled at Judicial Township 4 in Shasta County, California. By that time Karl was 42, Leah E Collett was 36, Lu Rae was 12, and Jolene was 10.

Tragically the family lost their father sixteen years later when in 1956 Karl Warren Collett was killed in an air-crash, from which his body was never recovered. The accident happened on 9^th December 1956 near Hope in Alaska, British Columbia, and the list of passengers included the name of Karl Warren Collett of Calgary in Alberta. Details of the fatal flight are contained in an appendix at the end of this family line.

61S12

Lu Rae Collett

Born in 1928 at Salt Lake City

61S13

Jolene Collett

Born in 1929 at Salt Lake City

61R38

Merle Collett was born at Vernal on 21^st June 1899, the daughter of Reuben and Flora Collett. Sadly, she only survived for sixteen months before she died at Vernal on 1^st November 1900, where she was also buried.

61R39

Flora Collett was one half of a set of twins who was born at Vernal on 19^th February 1902, the daughter of Reuben and Flora Collett. She was baptised with her twin sister Cora (below) in a joint ceremony on 2^nd April 1910. She married Lewis Leroy George on 14^th June 1928 and together they had two daughters. The first of them was Coralie George who was born on 27^th January 1932 at Great Falls in Montana, and the second was Sally Ann George who was born at Sacramento in California on 14^th September 1941.

61R40

Cora Collett was one half of a set of twins who was born at Vernal on 19^th February 1902, the last two children born to Reuben Samuel Collett and his first wife Flora Elsie Colton. She was baptised with her twin sister Flora (above) in a joint ceremony on 2^nd April 1910. Cora married (1) Clarence Etheridge Johnson at Vernal on 7^th March 1923 and the marriage produced three children for the couple. They were Norma Johnson who was born at Roosevelt on 1^st January 1924, Norman Etheridge Johnson who was born on 13^th July 1927 at Salt Lake City, and Flora Elsie Johnson who was born on 11^th January 1929, after the family had returned to Roosevelt.

Cora’s husband, who was born at Vernal on 10^th November 1901 and baptised on 2^nd September 1911, sadly died when he was only thirty-one years of age. That happened at Rialto in San Bernardino CA on 20^th January 1932, leaving Cora with their three young children. After thirteen years as a widow, Cora married (2) Percy Julius Prinz on 29^th May 1945 at San Francisco. Percy had been born at Cincinnati in Hamilton, Ohio on 28^th October 1887 and was fifteen years old than Cora. And it was at San Francisco that Cora Prinz nee Collett died on 17^th September 1977 and where she was buried three days later.

61R41

Wiley Sylvanus Collett was born at Maeser (Vernal) on 8^th May 1888, the eldest child of Sylvanus Collett and his first wife Sarah Elizabeth Simkins. He was eight years old when he was baptised on 1^st July 1896, and was 12 years of age at the time of the census in 1900 when Wiley and his family were living at Browns Park Precincts in Routt County, Colorado. After that time there is a gap in his life story, perhaps because of his slightly unusual name which may have had different interpretations in the various census records that followed.

It was previously written here in error that he entered the church and was the Reverend Wylie Sylvanus Collett married to Della Lyttle with whom he had two sons by the time the census was conducted at Harlan, Kentucky in 1930. The family’s surname was recorded in error as Collette, with Wiley Collette being 25, his wife Dallie Collette being 22 and from Kentucky, as were their two children, Ernest Collette who was five, and Joe C Collette who was four, both born at Harlan.

61S14a

Ernest Collett

Born in 1924 at Harlan, Kentucky

61S14b

Joe C Collett

Born in 1925 at Harlan, Kentucky

Thanks to V Brent Collett, the grandson of Wiley Collett from Vernal in Utah, it is now known that Wiley never lived in Kentucky and was certainly not the husband of Della Lyttle or the father of Ernest and Joe, whose details have been retained here for completeness. Following his endowment and initiation into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at Salt Lake City on 3^rd April 1912 Wiley Collett married Erma America Billings at Salt Lake Temple on 3^rd June 1914. Erma was born at Jensen in Utah on 11^th July 1890, was the daughter of Alfred Nelson Billings and Alice Elvira Orser and was baptised on 2^nd July 1898. Their marriage produced seven children, all as listed below.

On the day of the census in 1920 Wiley S Collett from Utah was a farmer at Riverdale in Uintah County, Utah, working on a farm that he owned through a mortgage. He was 31, while his wife Erma A Collett was 29 and their two surviving children at that time were son Vena B Collett who was four years and two months and daughter Vella Collett who was three years and two months. The couple’s third child, Don B Collett - who was born on 1^st December 1919, sadly died at Jensen on 12^th January 1920 just over two weeks before the day of the census that year.

Although no record of any member of the family has been identified within the census of 1930, it is established from the following census that the family was residing at Robertson in Uinta, Wyoming in 1935 where Wiley was still living in 1940 but not with his wife. Curiously she was renting property in Mountain View in Uinta, ten kilometres north of Robertson. Wiley S Collett was 51 and the owner of a ranch valued at $500 where he worked with his son Vena B Collett who was 24. Completing that part of the divided family was daughter Vella aged 23 and daughter Alice who was 13. Wiley was described as a rancher who was working for seventy hours each week and whose annual income for 1939 was $800. On that same day in 1940 Wiley’s wife Erma B Collett was 49 and was employed for sixty hours a week as a local switchboard operator at Mountain View. With her were her three daughters: Anna who was 19; Beth who was 16; and La Rue who was four years of age.

Wiley Sylvanus Collett died the day before his seventy-fourth, when he passed away at Salt Lake City on 7^th May 1962 and was buried on 11^th May 1962 in the Memorial Park Cemetery in Vernal. After three years as a widow Erma was re-married to Joseph Wilford Slade during January 1965. In the end Wiley’s wife survived him by almost seventeen years when as Erma America Slade she died at Vernal on 7^th March 1979 and was laid to rest with or near to her first husband in the Vernal Memorial Park Cemetery.

61S15

Vene Billings Collett

Born in 1915 at Vernal, Utah

61S16

Vella Collett

Born in 1916 at Vernal, Utah

61S17

Don Billings Collett

Born in 1919 at Jensen, Utah

61S18

Anna Collett

Born in 1921 at Vernal, Utah

61S19

Beth Collett

Born in 1924 at McKinnon, Wyoming

61S20

Alice Collett

Born in 1926 at McKinnon, Wyoming

61S21

Lu Rae Collett

Born in 1935 at Robertson, Wyoming

61R42

Annie Elthora Collett was born at Leti in Maricopa County in Arizona on 5^th June 1891, the first daughter born to Sylvanus and Sarah Collett. Tragically, she died two years later on 27^th June 1893.

61R43

Orin Collett was born at Vernal on 3^rd October 1893 and was baptised on 27^th September 1901, the son of Sylvanus and Sarah Collett. He was strangely recorded as being only five years old in the census of 1900, when he and his parents were residing at Browns Park Precincts in Routt County, Colorado. Following the death of his mother in 1902, Orin’s father remarried and in 1910 the new family was living at North Ashley, to the north of Vernal, when Orin Collett was 16. No record of Orin has been found in 1920 but it is established that he married Essie of Utah around 1915, and that by 1930 Essie had presented him with the first five of the six known children.

Orin and Essie, both 37, were still living at North Ashley in 1930, where their children were recorded as son Laveril Collett, who was 14, Bernice Collett, who was 12, William R Collett, who was nine, Clara Dell Collett, who was six, Betty Merle Collett who was two years old. It was during the following year that the couple’s last child was born, and sometime after 1935 the family left North Ashley and settled at Precinct 14 in Hanna in Duchesne County, Utah, where they were living in 1940.

According to the census that year the family had been living at (North Ashley) in Vernal in 1935, and by 1940 the couple’s eldest daughter Bernice was no longer living with them, and was perhaps married by then. Orin and Essie were both 47, while their sons Laveril and Bill were 24 and 19 respectively. Curiously there was a conflict with the ages and names of their first two daughters, with Betty Collett now the older child at 16, with Clara Collett the younger at 12, so it is possible that it was simply an enumerator error. The youngest daughter was named as Arva Collett who was nine years old.

Later in 1940 Orin and his son William were also working together at Ouray Valley in Uintah County when Orin was 48 and William was 20. It was just over twenty years after that when Orin Collett was living in Los Angeles where he died on 12^th January 1963. His death certificate confirmed that his mother was Simpkins and that he had been born on 1^st October 1893, rather than 3^rd October as stated above.

61S22

Laveril Collett

Born in 1916 at North Ashley, Utah

61S23

Bernice Collett

Born in 1918 at North Ashley, Utah

61S24

William R Collett

Born in 1921 at North Ashley, Utah

61S25

Clara Dell Collett

Born in 1924 at North Ashley, Utah

61S26

Betty Merle Collett

Born in 1928 at North Ashley, Utah

61S27

Arva Collett

Born in 1931 at North Ashley, Utah

61R44

Alice Collett was born at Vernal in 1897 and was three years old in the census of 1900 when she was living with her family at Browns Park Precincts in Routt County, Colorado. Her mother Sarah Elizabeth Simkins died when Alice was only five years old, after which her father Sylvanus married Ethelwynne and the family moved a few miles north to North Ashley, where Alice was 12 in 1910.

61R45

Byron Sylvester Collett was born at Vernal on 28^th January 1902 and was baptised on 30^th April 1910, the last child of Sylvanus and Sarah Collett. Byron never knew his mother because Sarah Elizabeth Collett nee Simkins died when he was only one month old. His father then remarried and moved the family to North Ashley near Vernal where they were living in 1910 when Byron S Collett was eight years old. He was still living with his father and his stepmother in 1920 when he was 18.

Sometime in the later part of the 1920s Byron married Clela from Oklahoma and in 1930 they were staying with the family of Clarence James Collett (Ref. 61Q28) at Salt Lake City. Byron S Collett was 28, while his wife Clela H Collett was 26. It seems their marriage produced just one child, who was living with them at Hanna in Duchesne County in 1940, although just prior to her birth the childless couple had been living at Ely in St Louis, Minnesota in 1935. The census in 1940 confirmed that Byron S Collett was 38, his wife Clela was 36, and their daughter was Nita Veloy Collett who was four years old. Byron Sylvester Collett was living at Roosevelt in Duchesne County in Utah when he died on 5^th December 1971, and four days later he was buried at Vernal.

61S28

Nita Veloy Collett

Born in 1936 at Duchesne, Utah

61R46

Claude Stringham Collett was born at Vernal on 29^th October 1911, the eldest of the five children of Sylvanus Collett by his second wife Ethelwynne Stringham. Sadly, he only survived for just over three months, when he died at Vernal on 7^th February 1912.

61R47

Howard Samuel Collett was born at Vernal on 11^th July 1914, the son of Sylvanus and Ethelwynne Collett. It was as Howard S Collett that he was recorded in the census of 1930 when he was living with his family at North Ashley in Uintah County in Utah. Nothing more is known about Howard after that time, except that he was at Vernal on 27^th July 1996 when Howard Samuel Collett died at the age of 82.

61R48

Edna Collett was born at Maeser (Vernal) on 2^nd April 1916, the eldest daughter of Sylvanus and Ethelwynne Collett. Edna was 13 in the North Ashley census of 1930 and she later married to become Edna Raines and she and her husband had a son Robert J Raines. He was the father of Miriam Plass who kindly provided the dates of birth and the date of death of the children of Sylvanus Collett and his second wife Ethelwynne. Edna Raines nee Collett was still alive in later 2004 when her brother Carl (below) passed away.

61R49

Edith Collett was born at Maeser (Vernal) on 1^st July 1918, the youngest daughter of Sylvanus and Ethelwynne Collett. Edith was 11 years old in the North Ashley census of 1930, and was four months short of being 72 was she passed away at Vernal on 12^th March 1990.

61R50

Carl Stringham Collett was born at Maeser (Vernal) on 10^th June 1922, the youngest of the five children of Sylvanus Collett and Ethelwynne Stringham. He was seven years old in the census of 1930, when he and his family were living at North Ashley in Uintah County, Utah. Carl Stringham Collett was 82 when he died at Salt Lake City on 24^th December 2002. Following his passing he was buried at Vernal Town Cemetery in Uintah County with his wife Donna.

During his early life he served with the Allied Forces in Europe in the Second World War and was married to Donna B Williams, with whom he had seven children. Donna was born on 9^th November 1926, she married Carl on 25^th May 1946, and she at Vernal died on 7^th July 2009. The headstone on the couple’s joint grave indicates that their marriage was sealed on 30^th April 1962.

The obituary for Carl, published in the Deseret News on Tuesday 28^th December 2004, reads as follows: ”Father & Husband - VERNAL - Carl Stringham Collett, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather passed away December 24, 2004 at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City. He passed away surrounded by family members from complications due to a stroke. He will be greatly missed by his wife of 58 years, Donna Williams and sister Edna (Raines) of Vernal and seven sons and daughters. Craig (and his wife Sandy), Randy Cornaby (and her husband Jay), Carl Ray (and his wife Wanda), Terell (and his wife Sheryl), Donetta Egbert (and her husband Herald), Tracy (and his wife Susan) and Guy (and his wife Dee). Also 34 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004 at 11:00 at the Maeser Stake Center (2475 West 1000 North) in Vernal, Utah. Burial will be at the Vernal Memorial Park with military honors by American Legion Post 124 and 11.”

61S29

Craig Collett - wife Sandy

Date of birth unknown

61S30

Randy Collett - husband Jay Cornaby

Date of birth unknown

61S31

Carl Ray Collett - wife Wanda

Date of birth unknown

61S32

Terrell Collett - wife Sheryl

Date of birth unknown

61S33

Donetta Collett - husband Herald Egbert

Date of birth unknown

61S34

Tracy Collett - wife Susan

Date of birth unknown

61S35

Guy Collett

Date of birth unknown

61R51

Veda Collett was born at Naples, Vernal in Utah on 7^th March 1895, the eldest of the seven children of Adelbert Teancum Collett and Harriet Penelope Goodrich. Veda was recorded in error as three years old in the Naples Precinct, Riverdale census in 1900. At the age of 15, Veda Collett and her family were living at Dragon in Uintah County, Utah when the census was conducted in 1910. It was on 22^nd May 1913 that Veda Collett, aged 18, married Jesse Temple Brimhall who was 20 and was born at Fruitland, San Juan County, New Mexico, on 20^th December 1892. Their wedding was recorded at Uintah County, when they were residing in Naples. After seventeen years they and their family were recorded at Draper City in Salt Lake County on the day of the census in 1930. Jesse Temple Brimhall was 37 and Veda Collett Brimhall was 35. The seven children with them that day were: Beulah Brimhall was 16 and born at Smithfield; De Mar Woodrow Brimhall was 15 and born at Vernal; Ray Stewart Brimhall was 14 and born at Myton; Dell Junior Brimhall was 12 and born at Vernal; Ronda Brimhall was nine and born at Burley; J Robert Brimhall was five and born after arriving in Draper; and Gary Collett Brimhall who was three years old and also born at Draper.

Two more children were added to the family, who were with the family in the 1935 census for Myton, Duchesne County in Utah. Jesse was 42, Veda 40, Beulah 21, De Mar Woodrow 20, Ray 18, Dell 17, Ronda 14, J Robert 10, Gary was eight, Gloria Brimhall who was five and born at Murray, and Dorothy Brimhall who was two and born at Draper. One last child was born into the family, that being Norma Brimhall born at Draper that same year 1935, who was with the family in 1940, when only the six youngest children were still living with Jesse and Veda at New River Township in Church County, Nevada. On that census day Gloria was named as Glenna.

Four years later, Mrs Jesse T Brimhall of Kaysville City, Davis County, Utah, was mentioned in a newspaper article relating to Veda’s parents’ 51^st Wedding Anniversary in 1944. By the time of the death of her father in 1959, she was still Mrs Jesse Brimhall although, by that time in her life, according to his obituary, she was residing at Farmington, San Juan County in New Mexico. It was on 25^th April 1983 that Veda Brimhall passed away at Blanding in San Juan County, Utah.

61R52

Mabel Jacqueline Collett was born at Vernal on 16^th April.1897, another daughter of Adelbert and Harriet Collett. On the day of the census in 1910, Mabel aged 13, was living with her family which, by that time, had settled at Dragon in Uintah County, Utah. After a further ten years Mabel Collett was 22 when she was still living with her family but within Cache County, Utah. Sometime thereafter Mabel married Paul Harwood and in 1944, when her parents’ fifty-first wedding anniversary was reported in the press, Mabel was described as Mrs Paul A Harwood of Berkeley in California. Fifteen years later, upon the death of her father, Mabel was named in his obituary as Mrs Paul (Jacqueline) Harwood of Santa Ana in California. Upon her death in 1977 Mabel was referred to as Jacqueline Collett Harwood.

61R53

Mamie Collett was born at Vernal on 11^th April 1899, the third child of Adelbert and Harriet Collett. The Utah census in 1900 included one-year-old Mamie Collett and her family residing at Naples Precinct in Uintah County. Tragically, just less than three years later, Mamie Collett died at Vernal on 28^th February 1903, after which she was buried at Vernal Memorial Park Cemetery.

61R54

Ralph Adelbert Collett was born at Vernal on 19^th July 1901, a son of Adelbert and Harriet Collett, who was baptised at the Naples Ward Church on 3^rd September 1910. That year, the family was living at Dragon, Uintah County in Utah in 1910, when Ralph Collett was eight years old. After a further ten years Ralph was still living with his family in Cache County, when he was listed in error as Ralph A Colbert aged 18. In the next census of 1930, Ralph A Collett aged 28 and a carpenter from Utah was boarding at an all-male establishment on County Road, Precinct 11 in Tunnell, Lincoln County, Nevada. Within the next five years, Ralph had returned to live with his elderly parents, as confirmed in the LDS census of 1935. In 1944 Ralph A Collett was a resident of Kaysville while, at the time of the death of his father in 1959, Ralph A Collett was living at Farmington in New Mexico. What happened to him after then is not yet known, although it is confirmed that Ralph A Collett died at Placer in California on 28^th November 1976, when the date of his birth was confirmed as 19^th July 1901.

61R55

Wells Frank Collett was born at Vernal on 18^th July 1903, another son of Adelbert and Harriet Collett. He was six years old in 1910 when he and his family were living at Dragon, Uintah County, and he was still living with his parents at Cache County in 1920 when he was 16, albeit under the surname of Colbert. It was at the time of his marriage to Carol Ivins that he was recorded under his full name of Wells Frank Collett. The couple was married at Salt Lake City on 8^th June 1927, when Wells Frank Collett was 23, and his bride was also 23, Carol having been born at Lund in Nevada on 5^th September 1903 the daughter of W H Ivins and Della Redd. The marriage certificate confirmed that Wells had been born on 18^th July 1903 and that he was the son of A T Collett and Harriet Goodrich.

The couple’s first child was born in Utah exactly one year later. However, by 1930 the family was living at Ogden in Weber County, Utah, when the name recorded in the census return for both father and son was William Collett, rather than Wells Collett. William F Collett was 26 and from Utah, his wife Carol I Collett was 25 and from Nevada, and their son was William I Collett, who was two years old. The initial I for both mother and son was very likely Ivins. Lodging with the family was Bliss I Jones aged 30 and from Nevada, with her son William N Jones aged four and from Utah.

It was at Kaysville in Davis County in Utah that the family was recorded at the time of the next census in 1940, and where they had been living in 1935. On that occasion, Wells F Collett and Carol I Collett, both 36, had three children with them, and they were Wells Ivins Collett, who was 11, Carma Lynee Collett, who was seven, and Carol Luana Collett who was five. Four years after that, when Well’s parents were celebrating their fifty-first wedding anniversary, he was described in a newspaper article as Lieutenant Colonel Wells F Collett who was serving overseas with the United States Army Air Forces. Later, upon the death of his father in 1959, he was listed in the obituary as Colonel Wells F Collett of Kaysville. Wells Frank Collett died on 30^th June 1982 at Davis County, Utah. It may be of interest that in the census returns for 1930 and 1931, he was recorded as Wells Frost Collett, which was also used in his burial record at the Kaysville City Cemetery.

61S36

Wells Ivins Collett

Born in 1928 at Salt Lake City

61S37

Carma Lynee Collett

Born in 1933 at Kaysville, Utah

61S38

Carol Luana Collett

Born in 1935 at Kaysville, Utah

61R56

Rulon Samuel Collett was born at Vernal on 12^th December 1905, another son of Adelbert and Harriet Collett, and it was as Rulen Collett aged four years, that he was living with his family at Dragon in Uintah County in Utah in 1910. Ten years later, as Ruland S Collett aged 14, he and his family were recorded in Cache County, Utah. It could only have been four or five years after that when he married Lousha Thompson, with whom he had four children, the first two born in Idaho. It was at Salt Lake City that the young family was living in 1930, where Rulon S Collett was 24, Lousha Collett was 23, Jacqueline Collett was five, Donald C Collett was four, and Shirley K Collett was two years old. Staying with the family at that time was Lousha’s brother Lafoy H Thompson, who was 20, and her sister Romania Thompson who was 15.

By 1935 the family had increased by one extra child who was also born in Salt Lake City, but after a further five years the family was settled at Midvale in Salt Lake County, all as confirmed in the census of 1940. Rulon S Collett was 34, Lousha Collett was 32, Jacqueline was 15, Donald was 14, Shirley was 12, and Rulon Terris Collett was six years of age. In 1944 an article was published in the press relating to the celebration of the 51^st Wedding Anniversary of Rulon’s parents when it was confirmed that he and his family were still residing in Salt Lake City, as did his father’s obituary again in 1959. Sadly, it was just over a year later that the death of Rulon Samuel Collett was recorded at Salt Lake City in 1960.

61S39

Jacqueline Collett

Born in 1925 in Idaho

61S40

Donald C Collett

Born in 1926 in Idaho

61S41

Shirley K Collett

Born in 1928 at Salt Lake City

61S42

Rulon Terris Collett

Born in 1934 at Salt Lake City

61R57

Owen Milton Collett was born at Vernal during 1911, the last child born to Adelbert Collett and his wife Harriet Goodrich, and he was nine years old in the Cache County census of 1920. He was the only child still living with his parents in 1930 who, by then were residing at Logan in Cache County, when Owen M Collett was 19. During the next five years Owen married Calma, so in the census of 1940 the childless couple was living at Ward 1 in Salt Lake City, where Owen Collett was 29, and his wife Calma Collett, also from Utah, was 25. The same census return also indicated that they had been living at that same address in 1935. It is also known that Owen M Collett was still living in Salt Lake City in both 1944, for 51^st Wedding Anniversary of his parents, and again in 1959 following the death of his father. The death of Owen Milton Collett was recorded there during 2007.

61R58

Phoebe Viola Collett was born at Bennington in Bear Lake County, Idaho in 1899, the eldest child of Charles Merrill Collett and Mary Elnora Munk. Around the time she was nine years old the family moved to Smithfield in Cache County where they were living in 1910 when Viola Collett was 11 years old. The family was still at Smithfield in 1920 when Phoebe V Collett was 21. When Phoebe became a married woman, she was recorded as Viola Phoebe Tippetts, and it was with that name that she died in 1987.

61R59

Lois Marcella Collett was born at Bennington in 1901, the second child of Charles and Mary Collett. A few years later the family left Bennington when they moved to Smithfield where, as Marcella Collett, she was eight years of age in 1910 and as Lois M Collett in 1920, she was 18. Her parents eventually returned to Bennington, where they were living in 1930, by which time Lois was married and was Marcella Steiner, the number under which her death was recorded in 1992.

61R60

Charles Lester Collett was born at Bennington on 6^th August 1904, another child of Charles and Mary Collett. He survived for eighteen months and died at Bennington on 17^th February 1906, where he was buried. His burial recorded described him as the son of Charles Merrill Collett and Mary Elnorah Munk.

61R61

Farrell Reuben Collett was born at Bennington on 13^th November 1907, the son of Charles Merrill Collett and Mary Elnora Munk. Not long after he was born the family moved to Smithfield in Cache County, Utah, where they were living in 1910 when Farrell Collett was two and a half years old. They were still there at Smithfield in 1920 when, as Reuben F Collett, he was 12 years of age. After a further ten years Farrell was still living with his family which by then had moved back to Bennington, where Farrell R Collett was 22. At the time of his death on Tuesday 14^th March 2000 Farrell Reuben Collett was a resident of Saint George in Washington County, Utah.

His obituary, published in the Deseret News on Tuesday 21^st March 2000, read as follows: “The funeral service held Monday in Ogden for Farrell R Collett, 92, a well-known artist and educator, who died March 14 2000 in St George. Mr Collett has resided there since about 1987. He founded the art department and taught for 37 years at what is now Weber State University, where the art building was named in his honour. His art was displayed at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The service was held at Lindquist’s Ogden Mortuary and burial was at Lindquist’s Washington Heights Memorial Park, Ogden. Born in Bennington, Bear Lake County, Mr Collett was perhaps best known for his wildlife and landscape paintings in oil and watercolour. He received a bachelor and a master of arts degree from Brigham Young University, where he was editor of the yearbook and student body president and where he helped work his way through school by painting cougars on the jackets of students. He joined the Weber College art faculty in 1939, was chairman of the art department until 1971, and continued as professor of art until 1976.

He studied extensively in California, Illinois, New York, and Europe. He won acclaim for such paintings as ‘The killing of Old Ephraim’ - a giant grizzly bear, and ‘The White Horse’ - a moody study of a horse on the summer day. He was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including the Henry Aldous Dixon Memorial Award, an Honorary Doctor of Humanities, and the Associated Students Teaching Award at Weber State University. In 1983 he was presented with the Outstanding Alumnus Award at BYU. He served in the US Navy during World War II, was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and had been a priesthood quorum instructor.”

61R62

Ruth Collett was born at Smithfield in cache County, Utah during the second half of 1910 the youngest daughter of Charles and Mary Collett. In the Smithfield census of 1920 Ruth was nine years old, suggesting that she was born after the census day in 1910 which was 15^th April. By 1930 the census that year revealed that Ruth Collett aged 19, and her family were residing at Bennington in Bear Lake County, Idaho. Upon being married, Ruth Collett became Ruth Westergard and as such she died in 1993.

61R63

Raeo Collett was born at Smithfield on 4^th June 1913 where he and his parents, Charles, and Mary Collett, were living in 1920 when he was listed in error as Roco Collett aged six years. Over the next decade the family returned to Bennington in Bear Lake County, Idaho, where they had been living before Raeo was born. The Bennington census of 1930 recorded Raeo Collett who was still living with his family at the age of 16. He later married Dorothy Irene Barnard who was born in 1917 who was 60 years old when she died in 1977. Raeo Collett survived his wife by twelve years when he passed away on 22^nd May 1989.

61R64

Margreth Genevieve Collett was born at Naples Precinct in Vernal, Uintah County, Utah on 13^th November 1907, the eldest of the nine children of Clarence James Collett and his first wife Margaret Watkins. Her birth record was the only time she was referred to as Margreth, and was more commonly known as Genevieve. In 1920 Genevieve M Collett was 12 years old, while during the next ten years she and her family moved into Salt Lake City by which time Genevieve was married and was Genevieve Davies. And it was as Genevieve Davies that she died in 1975.

61R65

Opal Collett was born at Naples, Vernal in Uintah County on 13^th April 1909, another daughter of Clarence and Margaret Collett. It was at Salt Lake City on 25^th July 1930 that Opal Collett married Charles Leroy Hatt. Opal was 21 and from Vernal, the daughter of C J Collett and Margaret Watkins, when Charles was 23, having been born at Bludale, Utah, on 22^nd June 1907, the son of Fred J Hatt and Adelaide Knight. The 2000 obituary for her brother Edward Reuben Collett (below) confirmed she was Opal Hatt. Four years later, the obituary for Opal Collett Hatt stated that she died on 9^th February 2004 at Sandy City in Salt Lake County, Utah, as printed in The Deseret News on 11^th February. It also included mention of the following members of her extended family, starting with her parents Clarence James and Margaret, and siblings Luella Smith and Milo Collett, and Luella’s husband Merrill Smith. Next was Opal’s husband Charles Leroy, and their five children, Patricia Newson and son-in-law Howard Newson, Everett Hatt, Janiel Houghton, Charles Hatt, and Shannon Freeman, and daughter-in-law Mary Hatt. Also, three grandchildren David, Kenneth, and Brianna.

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Leon Clarence Collett was born at Blue Bell, Wasatch County, Utah on 10^th July 1911 and was the third child and eldest son of Clarence and Margaret Collett. It was at Bountiful, Davis County, Utah, on 23^rd May 1932 that Leon Clarence Collett married Mary Rankin Davies, when he was 21 and she was 22. Mary gave birth to two prior to the census of 1935, when the family of four was living at Salt Lake City and listed as Leon aged 24 from Midway Utah, Mary was 25 from Salt Lake City, son Carol Leon Collett was two years of age and born at Murray in Utah, and baby Wendell Robert Collett had just been born in Salt Lake City. After another five years, the census in 1940 revealed the family living at Salt Lake City, where head of the household that day was Mary Davies Collett who was 30, sons Carol was seven and Wendle was five, and daughter Juanita Jay was three years of age.

Leon Clarence Collett died in California on 17^th September 2000, just three days before the death of his brother Edward Reuben Collett (below). His body was returned to Utah with his burial taking place at Larkin Sunset Gardens Cemetery in Sandy, Salt Lake County.

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Carol Leon Collett

Born in 1933 at Murray, Utah

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Wendell Robert Collett

Born in 1935 at Salt Lake City

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Juanita Jay Collett

Born in 1937 at Salt Lake City

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Earl Murray Collett was born at Vernal, Uintah County on 19^th March 1913, another son of Clarence and Margaret Collett. He was 25 when he was married by licence to the much younger Pearl Buchanan, the 17-year-old daughter of William Walter Buchanan and Angie E Mower, at Salt Lake on 1^st June 1938. At that time in his life, Earl was working as a miner while residing at 1528 South 11^th West Street, with Pearl living at 220 West Centre Avenue who had been born at Castledale, Utah, on 24^th June 1920. Two years after their wedding day the couple and their first child were living at Precinct 11 in Salt Lake City where Earl was 27, Pearl was 19, and son Ronald was one year old.

By 1950, Earl was 37 and a labourer at a meat packing company in Spokane, Washington who, by then was the father of four children, whose wife was Pearl aged 28 who was keeping house. The four children were Ronald who was eleven, Sharon who was nine, Merrill who was seven, and Katheryn who was four years old. Staying with the family was Pearl’s older brother Douglas J Buchanan who was 48, with every member of the household born in Utah. It was also at Spokane, Washington where Earl Murray was still living when he died on 30^th April 1993, aged 80.

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Ronald Earl Collett

Born in 1939 at Salt Lake City

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Sharon M Collett

Born in 1941 at Salt Lake City

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Merrill M Collett

Born in 1943 at Salt Lake City

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Katheryn Collett

Born in 1946 at Salt Lake City

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Elthura Collett was born in Uintah County in 1914, another daughter of Clarence and Margaret Collett. She was five years old in the census of 1920 and by 1930, when she was 15, Elthura Collett and her family was residing in Salt Lake City. Upon being married she became Elthura MacKay, the name that was used to record her death in 1994.

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Edward Reuben Collett was born at Richmond in Cache County, Utah on 3^rd July 1916, a son of Clarence and Margaret Collett, who was three years and eight months on the day of the Utah census conducted in January 1920. Ten years later Edward R Collett was 13 and in the census of 1930 he and his family were living in Salt Lake City. Nothing more is known about Edward after that time, except that the death of Edward Reuben Collett was recorded at taking place on 20^th September 2000 at Murray City, following which he was buried at Larkin Sunset Gardens. The notice of his passing was published in the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper on 22^nd September and revealed more details about his life, as follows:

“Edward R Collett, 84, passed away from a brief illness at his home surrounded by his family Wednesday 20^th September 2000. He was born July 3 1916 in Richmond, Cache County, Utah to Clarence James Collett and Margaret Watkins. Growing up in Utah he lived in numerous places including Vernal and draper. He graduated from Murray High School and lived in Murray city the rest of his life. Edward was a mechanic by trade and worked 35 years at Clark Tank Lines. Many friends and family benefited from his knowledge of engines. He was active in the Boy Scouts and the Lions Club for many years. His other interests included fishing and visits to Powell Lake, working in the community, and mostly just being with his family. He belonged to the Little Cottonwood 18^th LSD Ward. He married Ellen Mildred Page on 22 April 1940 at Riverton, Utah.

He is survived by his wife of 60 years; four sons, William Jay Collett (Josefina Mendoza), Donald Edward Collett, David Morris Collett (Lynn Hillis), Glenn Page Collett (Judith Crane); and one daughter Cheryl Collett Ferrin (Mark Ferrin). He was devoted to 19 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, and five brothers and sisters. His elder brother Leon passed away earlier this week on Sunday 17^th September in California. Edward is survived by his sisters Opal Hatt and Luella Smith and one brother Milo James Collett.

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William Jay Collett

Born at Murray City, Utah

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Donald Edward Collett

Born at Murray City, Utah

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David Morris Collett

Born at Murray City, Utah

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Glenn Page Collett

Born at Murray City, Utah

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Cheryl Collett

Born at Murray City, Utah

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Luella Collett was born in Uintah County in 1926 who was three years of age in the Salt Lake City census of 1930 when she was living there with her parents. Later in her life she was married and became Luella Smith, the name recorded on her death in 2013.

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Milo James Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was the last child born to Clarence James Collett and his first wife Margaret Watkins. All that is currently known about him is that he was still alive in September 2000, since he was described as the surviving brother of Edward Reuben Collett in his obituary.

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Cloyd Pat Seely Collett was born at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada in 1910, the first-born child of Charles Capper Collett and Effie Rebecca Seeley. As Cloyd Seeley Collett he was five years old in the Lethbridge census in 1915, where the family was still living three years later. Sometime after 1918, the family moved to Roosevelt in Duchesne County, Utah, where his mother had been born, and where the family was recorded in 1920 when Cloyd was nine years of age. Although he was a married man by 1930, Cloyde S Collett aged 19 and his wife Utahana Collett who was 17 were staying at the Roosevelt home of Cloyd’s parents. Utahana was formerly Utahana Hazel Lewis.

In 1935 the couple was again residing in Roosevelt, where their first two children had already been born, and it just after that census day that their third child was born, most likely at Salt Lake City where the five members of the family were living in 1940. That year Cloyd S Collett was 29, his wife Utahana L Collett was 26, son Grant Lee Collett was nine, and daughters Geneil Collett and Merrill Ann Collett were seven and four years old respectively. Their address was 352 Center Street, Ward 3, Salt Lake City, with the census return confirming that Cloyd from Canada was working as a lineman, and that his wife and the two eldest children had been born at Duchesne County in Utah.

Five years later the couple’s last child was born, following which the family was still living in Salt Lake City in 1950, but at 729 Gudgell Court where Cloyd S Collett was 39 and a lineman with Western Union. The rest of the family comprised wife Utahana L Collett who was 37, son Grant Lee Collett who was 19 and employed as a soda jerker in a restaurant, and daughters Geneil A Collett who was 17 and a shipping clerk with a wholesale woollen mill, Ann Collett who was 14, and Linda Collett who was five years of age.

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Grant Lee Collett

Born in 1931 at Roosevelt, Utah

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Geneil A Collett

Born in 1933 at Roosevelt, Utah

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Merrill Ann Collett

Born in 1935 at Salt Lake City, Utah

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Linda Collett

Born in 1945 at Salt Lake City, Utah

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Joseph Ralph Collett was born at Roosevelt in Duchesne County, Utah on 23^rd October 1923 and in the Roosevelt census of 1930 he was six years old when his family entered his name on the census return as Joseph R Collett, while ten years later he was named as Ralph J Collett aged 16, when he and his family were residing in Salt Lake City. He later married Beverley Ann Patterson who was born in 1926 and who died in 1999, while it was on 8^th July 2004 at Murray in Salt Lake County when Ralph J Collett passed away.

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James Byron Woodward was born at Kansas City in Missouri on 24^th June 1927, the only child of James Byron Woodward and Virginia Elizabeth Miller from whom she was divorced to enable her to marry Ralph Wardrop Collett. In 1940 James and his Collett family was living at Tulare in California when James Byron Collett (sic) was 12 years old. He was known as Jim Woodward and never used the Collett surname and his death was recorded at Ukiah in Mendocino County, California, on 22^nd September 1989.

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Florence Jane Collett was born at Denver in Colorado on 8^th July 1930 and was nine years of age by the time of the Tulare census of California in 1940. Upon being married she became Florence Jane Hays and died on 16^th April 1992 at Visalia in Tulare County, California.

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Beulah Marie Collett was born at Visalia in Tulare County, California on 4^th April 1932 and was seven years old in the Tulare census of 1940. It was as Beulah Marie Schwarm that she died on 5^th July 1963 at Ukiah in Mendocino County, California.

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Robert Wardrop Collett was born at Farmersville in Tulare County on 30^th December 1933, a son of Ralph and Virginia Collett, who was six years of age in the Tulare census of 1940. At the time of his death on 24^th November 2011 he was living at Ukiah in Mendocino County in California when his obituary was printed in the Ukiah Daily Journal on 30^th November. “Robert (Bob) Wardrop Collett was born on Dec 30 1933 in Farmersville, California and would be 78 next month. Bob passed away on Nov 24 2011 at the Ukiah Valley Medical Centre from pneumonia, following a lengthy illness. Bob is survived by his wife Mary, three children Robert junior, Tom, and Debra, 10 grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Also, he is survived by his two brothers Ralph and Bartley, and sister Joann. Bob is predeceased by his mother Virginia, father Ralph, as well as his brother James and sisters Florence, Beulah, Joyce, and Alice. He served with the United States Navy from 1951 until 1954 during the Korean conflict.

Bob met his wife Mary during military leave while recovering from an injury sustained in Korea and they began their courtship through the US Mail while he completed his naval service. They married in 1953 and two years later began construction of their family home north-east of Ukiah which has been their home for 56 years. Bob began working for Masonite Corporation in Ukiah in 1955 as a heavy equipment mechanic and he worked for Masonite for over 40 years until his retirement. During that time, he purchased a small vineyard in Redwood Valley which Bob and Mary and their children worked until 1974, when it was sold after Bob’s two sons left home to serve with the military. Bob was an avid hunter and fisherman and worked as a commercial fisherman on his boats ‘The Dolphin’ and ‘My Pet’ out of Noyo Harbour in Fort Bragg.”

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Robert Collett junior

Date of birth unknown

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Thomas (Tom) Collett

Date of birth unknown

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Debra Collett

Date of birth unknown

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Joyce Yvonne Collett was born at Farmersville in Tulare County on 28^th February 1936, who was three years old in the Tulare census of 1940. She later married and as Joyce Yvonne Salisbury she died on 8^th May 1993 at Ukiah in Mendocino County, California.

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Alice Nevada Collett was born at Tulare in California on 10^th April 1938 and was one year old in the Tulare census of 1940 when she was recorded as Alice Ada Collett, although she was named after her aunt Nevada, name on her birth record. It was as Alice Nevada Hayes that she died at Ukiah in Mendocino County, California on 20^th July 1982, her headstone carrying the name Alice N Hayes. Alice was the mother of R Scott Hayes who kindly provided some of the information for the June 2015 update of this family line. Scott was born in California but currently lives in British Colombia, Canada.

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Ralph Sidney Collett was born at Visalia in Tulare County on 22^nd April 1940 another son of Ralph and Virgie Collett. Ralph is the only member of their family still alive in 2015.

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Joann Fay Collett was born at Visalia in Tulare County on 21^st May 1942, the youngest child of Ralph Wardrop Collett and Virginia Elizabeth Miller. When she was married, she became Joann Fay Olinger who died at Corvallis in Benton County, Oregon on 5^th May 2013.

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Uriel Thomas Collett was born on 25^th February 1914 at Moscow, Idaho, the first-born child of Loren Anderson Collett and his wife Lona. Twenty-two days prior to his birth his father’s youngest sister, Bessie was born and his mother Lona related the story of nursing both babies, and that she felt Bessie was more of a daughter than a sister-in-law. In 1918 Uriel's family moved to Burley in Idaho to work for his grandfather, Thomas Ward Collett, on his farm. By 1935, Uriel moved with his family to Grand View, Idaho and he graduated from Mountain Home High School. Uriel was listed in the census returns for 1920 and 1930 as living with his family at Burley and Grand View respectively.

Uriel Collett

Uriel was married five times during his life, on the first occasion to (1) Bonnie Nell Houk from Kansas in 1938, with whom he had three children born at Grand View in Boise City, Idaho, and they were Don, Loren (who died at Mountain Home in Idaho), and Lona Kay. The census in 1940 placed the three members of the family living on Grand View Highway, Grand View in rented accommodation, when Uriel T Collett was 26 and a farmer having his own farm, Bonnie N Collett was 24, and son Donald U Collett was seven months old. The census return also reported that Uriel was living in Ada County in 1935, with Bonnie at Burbank, Los Angeles. Living in the immediately adjacent property was Uriel’s father Loren Anderson Collett, a farmer, his mother Lona, and Uriel’s two younger siblings Gordon and Norma.

A couple of years after the birth of their daughter, Uriel and Bonnie were divorced on 25^th June 1947. Thereafter son Don continued to live with his father, while daughter Lona Kay stayed with her mother. The following year Uriel Thomas Collett married (2) Geraldyne Wetzel on 4^th September 1948, when Uriel adopted her son Loren. The census in 1950 recorded the family at Chattin Flat in Elmore County, Idaho, where farmer Uriel T Collett was 36, his wife Geraldyne M Collett was 24, her son Loren D Collett was five, Uriel’s son Donald U Collett was ten. The couple’s own child, daughter Kelline, was born later that same year at Boise, Ada County, Idaho, to the north of Chattin Flat.

For a second time in his life, Uriel and Geraldyne were divorced in 1955. After working the land as a farm, Uriel later worked in construction and had several overseas jobs including projects in Afghanistan. He later married (3) Maddie Pruett from whom he was eventually divorced, and after took Jean Cox as his fourth wife, from whom he was divorced. On 28^th April 1961, he married (5) Helen Bruckner and they remained married until his death on 8^th May 1981.

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Donald Uriel Collett

Born in 1939 at Grand View, Boise, Idaho

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Loren James Collett

Born in 1942 at Grand View; died 1949

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Lona Kay Collett

Born in 1944 at Grand View, Boise, Idaho

The following is the child of Uriel Thomas Collett by his second wife Geraldyne Wetzel:

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Kelline Collett

Born in 1950 at Boise, Idaho

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Gordon Raymond Collett was born on 3^rd February 1916 at Moscow, Idaho, the second son born to Loren and Lona Collett. Gordon moved with his family, first to Burley in Idaho and then to Grand View, Idaho, where he graduated from high school in 1934. The 1920 Census showed Gordon living with his family in Burley, while the 1930 and 1940 census returns had him living with his family at Grand View. During that time, he was working on his father's farm. It was intended that Gordon and his older brother Uriel (above) would eventually take over management of their family's farming operations.

Gordon and Susie Collett

However, the plan was interrupted by the Second World War, Gordon's attendance at the University of Idaho in 1943, and then the death of their father in 1946. Gordon graduated from university with a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting in 1943. In addition to this, Gordon served as an officer in the infantry, part of General Paton’s army in Germany. After his tour of duty, Gordon worked for several CPA firms, for the IRS as a tax auditor, and for the Idaho First National Bank as a Trust Officer, from where he retired in 1984.

It was after leaving university that Gordon married (1) Emerald Biladeau during the latter half of the 1940s, but was later divorced. In 1973, Gordon married (2) Lucille Quammen Stoughton, who was known as Susie. They lived in Boise in Idaho and participated in several community activities, including the Shriners. Gordon and Susie enjoyed camping and hunting. There were no children from either of Gordon’s marriages, who later died on 2^nd September 2012.

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Lillian Lona Collett was born on 14^th December 1918 at Moscow in Idaho and was the first daughter and third child of Loren and Lona Collett. By the time of the census in 1920, Lillian was living with her family at Burley, and by 1930 at Grand View, Owyhee County. She graduated from high school at Grand View and married George Bennett on 26^th August 1935. Initially, they lived at Burley, before moving in 1936 to Grand View, where George worked for his father-in-law, Loren.

Lillian Collett Bennett

Their first child, George Loren Bennett was born in 1937, with Belva Bennett being born in 1940, and Linda Bennett in 1944. The 1940 Census included George aged 26, Lillian aged 22, and son George just two years of age, living at Grand View. Lillian and George farmed the Loren Collett land holdings before Lillian suffered a premature death on 20^th February 1968 at the age of 49.

Daughter Linda was born on 16^th March 1944 at Grand View and attended school there and graduated from Grand View High School. She then worked for the Grand View School District for thirty years and retired in 2010. Linda died on 18^th July 2018 in her home at Mountain Home, Elmore County, Idaho

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Norma Virginia Collett was born on 11^th August 1921 at Burley, another daughter of Loren and Lona Collett. She was a sickly child with a heart condition and was not expected to live. However, the following 90 years showed the doctors to be wrong. Shortly after she was born the family moved to Grand View, where she graduated from high school in 1939. Both the earlier census in 1930 and the following one in 1940, placed Virginia and her family living at Grand View. She attended the University of Idaho for a year but, because of family financial constraints, she was unable to continue, something she deeply regretted. Virginia had a great love of the outdoors and a strong connection to her native state of Idaho, where her paternal grandfather, Thomas Ward Collett, was one of the first white babies born there.

Virginia C.

At the outbreak of war in Europe, Virginia took a secretarial position for the Army Corps of Engineers, who were building the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Owyhee County, Idaho, and was the first woman to work at the site. Her fiancée, Archie Biladeau, enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Virginia and Archie were married at Fort Leonard Wood on her birthday in 1943. Virginia then worked as a secretary at the Fort Leonard Wood base hospital. After the war, they moved back to Boise, where Archie returned to his job at the Idaho State Health Department.

In 1951, Virginia and Archie moved to Idaho Falls, where Archie took a job at the new National Reactor Testing Station, which is now Idaho National Laboratory. Virginia was a stay-at-home mom where she raised her two sons Garre Linn Biladeau, who was born in 1945 at Boise, and Glenn Michael Biladeau, who was born at Idaho Falls in 1949. She was active in the PTA, the Episcopal Church, and other charitable activities. Because of her fun sense of humour and persistent drive to do a good job, Virginia was often selected as a leader in these activities. After Archie's retirement in 1980, they moved back to Boise, where Virginia continued to be an active member of the Episcopal Church. Virginia was deeply involved with the Episcopal Church Altar Guild within her local parish and diocese, as well as the national church. She served more than 18 years as the Altar Guild directress for the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho.

It was at Boise in Idaho that Norma Virginia Collett Biladeau died on 4^th February 2012 while at a care centre in Boise. In 2019, Shirley Biladeau made contact through the Collett Family History website, and provided a lot of very detailed family information regarding her extended Collett family, which was eventually processed and insert for the new edition of the file in 2023.

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David Frederick Collett was born at Unity in Idaho on 21^st April 1931, the eldest of the two children of David and Gwendolyn Collett. The 1940 Census included David as Fred Collett aged eight years, living with his parents and younger sister at Unity. His parents farmed near Burley and Grand View, before moving the family to Wendell in Idaho, to manage the Wendell City Rural Fire Department. Fred graduated from Wendell High School in May 1949. Six years later, on 15^th November 1955, he married Billie Jo Jeffrey with whom he had three sons, David, Paul, and Dan. David served in the US Air Force, achieving the rank of Major. He died in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, from a lingering illness, and his obituary stated he was living at Highland in California when he passed, where he had operated a grocery business.

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David Collett

Born circa 1957

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Paul Collett

Born circa 1960

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Dan Collett

Born circa 1963

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Katherine Collett was born at Unity on 1^st December 1934, the daughter of David and Gwendolyn Collett. The census in 1940 listed Katherine as six years old and living with her parents and older brother at Unity in Idaho. Her parents farmed near Burley and Grand View, before moving the family to Wendell in Idaho, where her father managed the Wendell City Rural Fire Department. Katherine graduated from Wendell High School in May 1952 and the following year she married Gerald C. Burks on 18^th January 1953 at Wendell. In 1956, the couple moved to Boise, where they subsequently had two daughters, Valerie Bucks and Victoria Bucks. Prior to that, Kay had worked for Idaho First National Bank, only leaving to raise her family. She was involved in volunteer work, serving as a Girl Scout leader and Boise Schools PTA member. She was also a member of the Gowen Field NCO Wives' Club and the Idaho Republican Women's Association.

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Viola Minnie Collett was born at Burley in Idaho on 25^th August 1925 and was the eldest child of Thomas and Minnie Collett. In 1930 Viola was five years old and living with her family at Unity, Cassia County in Idaho. When she was ten years of age, her family had moved to Grand View in 1935, where her three young siblings were Thomas, Harold, and Ida Mae. After another five years the complete family was still residing at Grand View, when Viola was 15. She attended Hayland School, which was located west of the present Simplot feed lot and after, graduated from Grand View High School in 1942. Following her graduation, Viola attended Links School of Business in Boise, then worked as a civilian truck driver for the Army Air Corps during WWII.

Viola Minnie Collett married John Perry Black of Bruneau on 29^th September 1949 and they lived in Bruneau for a short time, where John worked with his father Errol Black on the family ranch. John and Viola purchased a farm in Grand View and moved there in 1950. They later sold that farm and moved into Grand View, living there until they moved to Boise and then later to Nampa in Idaho. During their years at Grand View, Viola participated in various activities including: operating a milk delivery route; cooking at the grade school; milking cows; organizing a Cub Scout Pack while working as their leader; organizing the first Horse 4-H Club in Owyhee County and remaining as the leader for 15 years. Minnie Viola Collett Black passed away at her home in Nampa on 29^th February 2016 from natural causes.

Viola and John had three children Rayola Marie Black, Thomas Emmett Black, and Mary Ann. It was her daughter Mary Anne Black, born on 3^rd September 1952, of Portland in Oregon, who has been in contact with Richard Spencer Burke, the great-great-grandson of Daniel Collett (Ref. 61O2). She informed Rick that there had been a Collett Reunion at Idaho in the spring of 2012 attended by a great many of the family who were all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, while Rick’s grandfather and his siblings separated from the LDS around the start of the twentieth century.

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Thomas Anthony Collett was born at home, ten miles south of Burley, on 29^th May 1927, the second child and eldest son of Thomas and Minnie Collett. As Tom Collett he was two years old in the census of 1930, by which time he and his family were living at Unity in Cassia County, Idaho. The family moved to Grand View, Idaho, in 1934 where they were recorded in the census of 1940 when Tom was 12. Tom often shared many fond memories of his school days at Hayland Elementary, a two-room school house, and at Grand View High, from where he graduated in 1946. Following high school, he attended Boise Junior College, majoring in engineering, but left to help on the family ranch.

Thomas Collett

Thomas Anthony Collett married Juanita Osborn on 5^th July 1948 and they raised a family of four children and worked the family ranch until selling it in the early nineties. At that time, Tom and Juanita purchased a smaller ranch, just outside Grand View, where they have lived ever since. Tom enjoyed serving the community through the Grand View Lions Club, of which he was one of the founders, where he was an active member for over fifty years. He also served as a deacon and trustee at the Knight Community Church in Grand View. Thomas Anthony Collett, aged 78 and of Grand View, died on Tuesday 9^th August 2005, surrounded by family.

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Mardi Collett

Born circa 1950

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Carol Collett

Born circa 1953

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Betty Collett

Born circa 1956

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Edwin Collett

Born in 1959

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Harold Edwin Collett was born on 25^th March 1930 at Unity, Cassia County in Idaho, another son of Thomas and Minnie Collett. He was born just prior to the census day in 1930, when he was recotrded as Harold Collett of zero age, living with his family in Unity. The family moved to Grand View in 1935, and it was there in 1940 that Harold was nine years of age. And living with his family in Owhyee County. He graduated from Grand View High School in 1948 and attended Oklahoma City University for one year, transferring to the University of Idaho, from where he graduated in 1953 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture.

Harold Collett

Harold was active in the Young Democrats during high school and in his early adult years, with whom he continued his activities later, on a statewide-level. He ran in several political races for the Idaho state legislature and finally, ran as an Independent, write-in candidate, for which he was elected to serve as an Idaho State Senator from 1965-1966. Harold served two years with the US Air Force during the Korean Conflict. After returning home, he was an active member of the American Legion, the Mountain Home Elks Lodge, and the Grand View Lions Club, serving in various leadership and community service roles in all three organisations. In the summer of 1990, Harold was involved in car-train accident and, from the injuries he sustained he later died 7^th June 1990.

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Ida Mae Collett, who was known as Maizie, was born at Burley on 8^th May 1932, the fourth and last of Thomas Collett and Minnie Peterson. Maizie was seven years old and was living with her family at Grand View in Idaho. She grew up and attended school in Grand View and following graduation from high school there, Maizie attended the University of Idaho, where she received her degree in education in 1954. She was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority.

Maizie Collett

On 19^th August 1955, Ida Mae Collett married Harlan Hudson Hill in Boise. They moved to Bakersfield in California, where they made their home. Maizie taught high school English and drama and worked as a career counsellor. She was a devoted mother and took great pride in raising their two sons. Upon retiring in 1990, the couple moved to Eugene in Oregon and, in 1999, moved again to Pullman in Washington. She was active in theatre and so loved light opera. Their two sons are Frank Hill and Mathew Hill.

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John George Collett was born at Mountain Home in Elmore County, Idaho on 8^th October 1929, the elder of the two sons of George Ward Collett and Anne Rose Miller. The census returns for 1930 and 1940 reveal John as being under one year old and eleven years of age, respectively, when living with his parents at Unity in Cassia County, with his father dying during the month of November in the latter of those two years. John graduated from Burley High School and served with the US Air Force in Korean between 1950 and 1953.

John Collett

Upon completion of his military service, he attended University of Idaho in the school of engineering. It was on 13^th June 1954 when John George Collett married Margot Walrath at Orofino, Clearwater in Idaho. Their marriage produced three children, the first and last child born when the couple was living in Moscow, Latah County in Idaho, while the middle child was born when the family was in Sherman Oak, Los Angeles. John George Collett was three months short of his sixtieth birthday when he died at Pocatello, Bannock County in Idaho on 19^th July 1989.

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George Ward Collett

Born on 05.03.1955 at Moscow, Idaho

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Daniel William Collett

Born on 23.06.1957 at Sherman Oak

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David Collett

Born on 05.01.1960 at Moscow, Idaho

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George Edward Collett, who was known as Jasper, was born at Burley in Cassia County on 10^th July 1935, the second of the two sons of George Ward Collett and Anne Rose Miller. The 1940 census listed George living with his parents and old brother at Grand View in Idaho. George attended the University of Idaho and enlisted in the military in 1954, when he was stationed in Germany. On his return, George Edward Collett married Janis Lee Paleno at Van Nuys in Los Angeles, California, on 18^th October 1958. Tragically, after only twelve years together, George Edward Collett died on 15^th October 1970 at the age of only 35.

61R108

Bobby Daniel Collett, who was known as Bobby Dan, was born at Paul in Idaho on 13^th September 1925, the eldest child of Daniel Phillips Collett and Anna Vernetta Buchanan. He died at home in Oreana, Owyhee County in Idaho on 1^st December 2014 having had a battle with cancer and was buried at the Oreana Pioneer Cemetery on 10^th December. Within his obituary were many details of his life, as follows: “Bob went to school at Glenns Ferry, Idaho. He also served on the Casablanca in WWII touring the South Pacific, was injured, and spent time in the base hospital in Hawaii, where he was when the war ended. He was a charter member of the Grand View, Idaho Legion Post 134, and was also the last surviving charter member of that Post while serving as its Third Commander.

Bob married Ruth Marie Foreman on Nov 7 1949 at Reno, Nevada. They spent many years on Ruth’s family farm and eventually bought the ranch from her parents. They had two sons, Blaine (Denise) Collett and Brian (Christine) Collett. Bob has four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He served two terms on the Owyhee County Cattleman’s Association Board and was President of the Board in 1973. He also served as a Director on the Idaho Cattleman’s Association Board and was President in 1993. He is predeceased by his parents Dan and Vernetta, sister Gloria McDermott, brother Max Collett, and his beloved wife Ruth Marie. He is survived by his sons and his grandchildren Suzanne, Christopher, Sean, and Bryce, and his three great grandchildren.” It is interesting to note that Oreana Community Hall is situated on Collett Road.

61S76

Blaine Collett – wife Denise

Date of birth unknown – circa 1952

61S77

Brian Collett – wife Christine

Date of birth unknown – circa 1955

61R117

Frank Ralph Collett was born at Rural in Gooding County, Idaho, on 7^th March 1936, the eldest of the seven children of Ralph Thomas Collett and Irene Mable Eliason. He later married Alice Nadine Bernard who was born on 5^th January 1939. From 1993 to 2009 Frank Ralph Collett was residing at Tigard, Washington County in Oregon.

61R118

Dorene Mae Collett was born at Rural in Gooding County on 10^th January 1938 and she married Earl Max Sudweeks who was born on 27^th December 1933. Earl, from Kingston in Piute County, Utah, was 27 when he married Dorene, who was 22, at Logan Temple, Logan, Cache County Utah on 3^rd June 1960. It was twenty years later that their son David Collett Sudweeks was born at Winona, Minnesota on 3^rd December 1980. Dorene Mae Collett Sudweeks died at Layton, Davis County, Utah on 21^st July 2021.

61R119

Kenneth Ray Collett was born on 21^st November 1939 at Soap Lake Town, Grant County, Washington, another son of Ralph and Irene Collett. Kenneth later married Bonavere Agnes Babcock who had been born on 24^th October 1937. Kenneth Ray Collett aged 63 was living at Boise in Idaho from 2004 until 2008.

61R120

Delores E Collett was born at Soap Lake Town, Grant County on 2^nd May 1942 and she married David Mangelson Zaugg who had been born on 9^th July 1938. Their wedding was conducted at Salt Lake City on 27^th August 1963. On 29^th October 2007 was residing at Provo, Utah County, and prior to that she had been living in Syracuse, Utah.

61R121

Lee Ward Collett was born on 24^th August 1944, the fifth child of Ralph Thomas Collett and his wife Irene Mable Eliason, and was born after his family settled in Chattin Flat, Mountain Home, Elmore County, Idaho. He later married Janet Loraine Russell who was born on 23^rd February 1947 and with whom he has eight children and thirty-four grandchildren. In 2014 Lee Ward Collett of Hagerman in Idaho contacted the Collett Family History website to offer new information regarding his family. During the Latter-Days of his life Lee was recorded at various Idaho locations including St Anthony, Moscow, Springfield in Oregon, and Boise in Idaho, where he was living in 2009.

61R122

Neal Earl Collett was born at Chattin Flat, Mountain Home on 7^th March 1947 and he married Joy Ann Kent who had been born on 1^st March 1952. During the last decade of the twentieth century, and the first decade of the next century, Neal Earl Collett was living at Bois in Idaho.

61R123

Glen Alton Collett was born on 1^st April 1955, the seventh and last child of Ralph Thomas Collett and Irene Mable Eliason, who were living at the Homestead in Chattin Flat to the north of Grand View, Idaho. Glen was born at hospital in Boise ten miles north of Grand View. He later married Kathryn Ipsen who had been born on 17^th April 1959. Glen and his eldest brother Frank Ralph (above) were both living at Tigard, Washington County in Oregon around the turn of the century, and before that Glen had been residing at Portland, Oregon.

61S1

Sharron Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was the daughter of Theil D Collett of Salt Lake City. Upon being married she became Sharron Collier and was an active member of the Utah Provo Mission. In 2014 Sharron, who still lives in Provo where she is a retired secretary of the Brigham Young University Department of Physical Education, kindly provided photographs of her family which have now been inserted in this file.

61S2

Helen Elizabeth Collett was born at Wilford, in Fremont County Idaho, in 1911 and was the eldest child of Samuel Edwin Collett and Elizabeth Mildred Larsen. She was eight years old in the census of 1920, with the family later moving to Blaine County in Montana where they were recorded in 1930, just before Helen was married. In the census Helen E Collett was 19, and a couple of months later she was 19 years 9 months and 12 days of age when she married Floyd Hathaway on 23^rd August 1930 at Harlem in Blaine County, Montana. Floyd was born at Chester, the son of John E Hathaway and Mary Brown, who was 23 years 4 months and 4 days old on their wedding day. The witnesses were Samuel Edwin Collett and Mary Hathaway, the groom’s mother. Her younger sister was married during the 1930s to another member of the Hathaway family.

61S3

David Edward Collett, who was known as Ted, was born on 25^th April 1913 at Wilford near St Anthony in Idaho, the eldest son and second child of Samuel Edwin Collett and Elizabeth Mildred Larsen. He was known as Ted and it is very curious that the same family was recorded in Idaho AND Wyoming in two separate US Census returns for 1920, Furthermore, that same year, David’s father, and his grandfather (both Samuel), were living next-door to each other in rented accommodation in Lincoln County, Wyoming in 1920, when they were employed at the local sawmill. Their alternative locations that year were in Idaho, when Samuel Merritt Collett was in Teton County, and Samuel Edwin Collett was in Fremont County, in the village of his birth (Wilford).

1920 - Wyoming, Lincoln County, District 15 – Alta Polling Precinct, on that occasion Ted Collett was seven years of age, when his father was an engineer at the sawmill. 1920 – Idaho, Fremont County, Wilford, Tetonia Precinct, when Edward Collett was six years old, when his father was a foreman on a sheep ranch. The family’s details were the last to be recorded for the village of Wilford.

Around the middle of the decade, the family travelled to Montana, where they were recorded in the Zurich census of 1930 for Blaine County, Montana. Apart from his father, with whom he was working, David E Collett aged 16 was the only member of the family credited with an occupation, when he was a labourer on a general farm. Just over four-and-a-half-years later, but as David Edwin Collett (sic), he married Izetta Owen, daughter of Ralph Owen and Bessie Hudnell, when the groom was confirmed as the son of S E Collett and Elizabeth Larsen. Izetta was 18 and had been born on 26^th May 1916 at Lansford, North Dakota. David was 21 and his date of birth was confirmed as 25^th April 1913 at St Anthony, just north of the village of Wilford. Their wedding day at Harlem was recorded at Blaine County, Montana, on 26^th October 1934.

Six months after that day, David Edward Collett aged 21 was confirmed as the head of the household in the census of 1935 and, between that day and the next census in 1940, Izetta presented David with four children. It was a Harlem in Blaine County that the six members of the household were recorded; David E Collett was 26 and a farm manager for the I D Carnagie Sheep Company, Izetta C Collett was 22, Patricia H Collett was four, Barbara Collett was two, Edwin O Collett was one, and Judie Collett was ten months old. From 1943, the family made their file home at West Yellowstone in Gallatin County, Montana.

The WW2 Draft Registration for David was dated 16^th October 1940 and confirmed the details in the census from earlier that same year. However, David E Collett, although referred to as Ted, was occasionally recorded as David Edwin Collett aged 27, as he was in the WW2 Draft form, which he signed as Ted Collett. During the war, Ted served with the US Navy overseas, confirmed in his much later obituary.

After a gap of six years, a further son was added to complete the family, while there may have been others in between who did not survived. Certainly, the 1950 Census for West Yellowstone, included just the five known children. By then David E Collett was 36 and a worker at a lumber yard. Izetta C Collett was 33 and a laundry worker, Patricia H Collett was 14, Barbara Collett was 13, Edwin O Collett was 11, Judie M Collett was 10, and Teddie J Collett was four years old.

Izetta Coile Collett was 83 when she died at West Yellowstone on 16^th November 1999, leaving her husband a widower for just eleven months. Her obituary stated that “she had graduated from high school in North Dakota, where she had enjoyed playing basketball. She married David Edwin Collett at Harlem on 26^th October 1934, with the marriage later solemnised in Idaho Fall LDS Temple. They lived at Harlem and St Anthony, and had lived in West Yellowstone since 1943. She worked as a waitress for Totem Café for 30 years. She also worked for Stagecoach Inn and the Shamrock.”

“Surviving are her husband of West Yellowstone; sons and daughters, Patricia Helen (husband Jay) of Pocatello, Barbara Powell of West Yellowstone, Judie Hinds of Sacramento, Calif., Toni Davis (husband Ed) of Elkhorn, Wis., Bud Collett (wife Claree) of Las Vegas, Nev., and Ted Collett (wife Helen) of Seattle; a sister Ethel Moore of Malta, Mont., 57 grandchildren; 99 great-grandchildren; and 5 great-great-grandchildren.” David Edward Collett was 87 years old when he was living at Pocatello in Bannock County, Idaho, when he died on 25^th October 2000. Extract from his obituary are the following details:

“He worked at many occupations during his life, including farming, in the lumber industry, as Deputy Sherrif in West Yellowstone, and he was employed by the Yellowstone Park Service, but for most of his life he worked as a carpenter. Survivors include his children Patricia Helen Powell (husband Jay) of Pocatello, Barbara Powell of West Yellowstone, Judie Hinds of Sacramento, Calif., Toni Davis (husband Ed) of Elkhorn, Wis., Bud Collett (wife Claree) of Las Vegas, Nev., and Ted Collett (wife Helen) of Kent, Wash.; two sisters, Helen Hathaway of Rexburg, and Alice Beth “Babe” Smith of St Anthony; 24 grandchildren; 58 great-grandchildren; and 4 great-great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by four brothers, one sister, two grandsons, and one great-granddaughter.”

61T1

Patricia Helen Collett

Born in 1935 at Harlem, Blaine County

61T2

Barbara Collett

Born in 1937 at Harlem, Blaine County

61T3

Edwin Owen Collett

Born in 1938 at Harlem, Blaine County

61T4

Judie Mildred Collett

Born in 1939 at Harlem, Blaine County

61T5

Teddie J Collett

Born in 1946 at West Yellowstone, M.

61S4

Wanda Collett was born at St Anthony near Wilford in Idaho on 20^th October 1915, the second daughter of Samuel and Millie Collett. She was four years old in 1920 at Tetonia Precinct in Fremont County, and was 14 in 1930 at Zurich, Blaine County, Montana. Wanda was married twice in her life when, on the first occasion she became Wanda Hathaway, a few years after her older sister Helen Elizabeth Collett Floyd Hathaway whose wedding was at Harlem in Blaine County in the summer of 1930. At some time later in her life, it was as Wanda Gau that she settled down in Townsend in Broadwater County in Montana, where she died.

Wanda Gau nee Collett was a widow when she died on 30^th October 1998, when she was confirmed as the daughter of Samuel E Collett and Elizabeth M Larsen, at the age of 83. On that day she was living at a nursing home in Townsend which was the Broadwater Health Centre, when the cause of death was renal failure. Her home address was 127 South Spruce Street, and her former occupation was that of a laundry worker at the Bear Motel. She was buried at Deep Creek Cemetery, in Townsend.

61S5

Samuel Sylvanus Collett was born on 7^th April 1918 at St Anthony to the north of Wilford, the fourth child of Samuel and Millie Collett. As Sylvanus he was three years of age in the 1920 census for at Tetonia Precinct in Fremont County. By 1930, Samuel S Collett was 11 years old and living with his family at District 17 - Zurich, in Blaine County, Montana. At the end of that decade, Samuel S Collett was 22 and again living with his parents and three younger siblings, but at District 12 – Harlem, in Blaine County, when he was a ranch assistant working alongside his younger brother Billy (below), most likely employed by their father on his sugar beet farm. His WW2 Draft Registration stated that Samuel S Collett residing in Harlem and born at St Anthony on 7^th April 1918, was employed by G N Railway, whose next-of-kin was his father Samuel E Collett. His place of employment was Great Northern Railway Kalispell, Flat Head County, Montana.

Samuel became a married man during the 1940s and in 1950, the childless couple was recorded in the Chester census that year, in Fremont County. Samuel S Collett was 32 and a farm hand, while his wife was Thelma J Collett who was 24 and from Idaho. Whether they had any children is not known as this time. What is known is that Samuel Sylvanus Collett died on 18^th February 1998 at San Angelo, Tom Green in Texas, and was buried at the Houston National Cemetery, just before his eightieth birthday, when he was residing at Onalaska, Polk County in Texas.

61S6

Marion J Collett was born on 18^th May 1921 at Driggs in Teton County, Idaho, the fifth child of Samuel and Millie Collett. By the time he was eight years of age, he and his family were living at Zurich, Blaine County in Montana. In 1940 he was not credited with an occupation when he was 18, while two of his brothers, one younger than Marion, were ranch assistants. The WW2 Draft Registration Card confirmed his date and place of birth, as above, who was residing in St Anthony in the employment of his father S E Collett. No record has been found that might suggest he ever married. Instead, Marion J Collett was in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona when he died during February 1982, at the age of 60 years, and was buried at Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery in Phoenix.

61S7

William Gale Collett, known as Billy, was born on 17^th July 1923, another son of Samuel Edwin Collett and Elizabeth Mildred Larsen, who was born at Wilford, Fremont County in Idaho. He was living with his family in 1930 at Zurich in Blaine County, Montana, when Billy was six years old, but was recorded as Billy G Collett in 1940, with the family residing at Harlem in Blaine County, where he was 16 and working with his brother Samuel (above) as ranch assistants. It is possible that they were both working on their father sugar-beet farm. Two years later, the marriage of Billy Gale Collett of Chester and Cleo Dayton of Twin Groves, both in Fremont County, was recorded at Fremont on 30^th November 1942.

It was again as Billy G Collett that he was listed in the census of 1950 at St Anthony, Fremont County, when he was 26 and a carpenter with the Rural Electric Company. His wife Cleo was 23, and their children were Sharelle Collett who was six, April Lee Collett who was two, and the couple’s very recent latest arrival was Cindy Lynn Collett age one month. Their missing daughter Billie Gay Collett, who was born on 23^rd May 1946 at St Anthony, sadly suffered an infant death when died on 11^th April 1947 a month before she would have been one-year-old. Her death was record at St Anthony in Fremont County and confirmed her parents were Billy Gale Collett and Cleo Dayton It is very likely her little boy was buried in the Collett family plot at Wilford Cemetery, just south of St Anthony.

It was on 9^th March 1960 that William Gale Collett died at Driggs in Teton County, Idaho, when he was only 36. Like many of his family, he was buried at Wilford Cemetery, near St Anthony in Fremont County.

61T6

Sharelle Collett

Born in 1944 at St Anthony, Idaho

61T7

Billie Gay Collett

Born on 23.05.1946; died 11.04.1947

61T8

April Lee Collett

Born in 1948 at St Anthony, Idaho

61T9

Cindy Lynn Collett

Born in 1950 at St Anthony, Idaho

61S8

Alice Beth Collett was the last child born to Samuel Edwin Collett and Elizabeth Mildred (Millie) Larsen and was born on 4^th October 1926 at Harlem, Blaine County in Montana, and was named after maternal grandmother. As Alice B Collett she was three years old in 1930 census at Harlem, and was 13 in 1940. Six years later she married Merlin Smith, the same surname as her maternal grandmother, on 17^th September 1946 at St Anthony in Fremont County, Idaho. Merlin was born on 11^th May 1916 at Wilford in Fremont County Idaho, and he was 81 when he died at Leslie in Custer County, Idaho on 3^rd July 1997.

His obituary provided the names of their children, as follows: Mildred Gilstrap (nee Smith), Danny Smith, Tom Smith, Michael Smith, Samma May (nee Smith), Merlana Peck (nee Smith), and Paul Smith. After ten years as a widow, Alice Beth Collett Smith died at St Anthony on 21^st June 2007 and was buried at Wilford Cemetery, just south of St Anthony, when she was 80 years old. The record of her passing also confirmed she was the daughter of Samuel E Collett and Mildred E Larsen.

61S9

Sterling Driggs Collett was born at Roosevelt in Duchesne on 8^th February 1920, the first-born child of Reuben Stirling Collett and his wife Mary Lulu Griffith. He later married Kazue Jimbo who was born at Yokohama in Japan on 1^st January 1918. That happened after the end of the Second World War and that the couple initially settled in Yokohama, where their first daughter was born. Within the next few years, the family moved to Tokyo where their second daughter was born, and twenty-four years after that happy event Sterling passed away on 30^th July 1974 at the age of only 54.

61T10

Margo Collett

Born on 16.02.1947 at Yokohama

61T11

Lora Jean Collett

Born on 07.01.1950 at Tokyo

61S10

Ray Samuel Collett was born at Salt Lake City on 20^th September 1921, the second child of Reuben and Mary Lulu Collett. He later married Florence H Boetzer shortly after the end of the Second World War on 22^nd March 1947 at Bakersfield in Kern County, California. Florence was born on 6^th February 1922 and she presented Ray with five children.

61T12

Cynthia Ray Collett

Born on 16.11.1948

61T13

Diane Christin Collett

Born on 06.07.1950

61T14

Stephen Frederick Collett

Born on 29.10.1951

61T15

Richard Sterling Collett

Born on 31.12.1953

61T16

Carl Allen Collett

Born on 02.07.1956

61S11

Maureen (Maurine) Collett was born at Roosevelt in Duchesne County Utah on 20^th January 1924, the third and last child of Reuben Stirling Collett and his wife Mary Lulu Griffith. Just three weeks before her eighteenth birthday she married Estele Gilbert Kromman on 27^th December 1941 at Redding in California and three months later she gave birth to the first of their three children. The child was born while the couple were still at Redding, but over the next few years the family moved first to Oakland where their second child was born, and then to Milford in Filmore County in Utah where the third child was born. They were Lawrence Gilbert Kromman who was born on 24^th March 1942, Carolyn Ann Kromman born on 12^th December 1946, and Kathryn Ellen Kromman who was born on 21^st September 1953.

61S12

Lu Rae Collett was born at Salt Lake City during 1928, the daughter of late Karl Warren Collett and Dorcas Leah McBride. In the census of 1930, she and her family were residing at Salt Lake City when La Rue Collett was two years old. Five years later the family was living at Boulder in Clark County, Nevada, and by the time of the census in 1940 Lu Rae and her family had settled at Judicial Township in Shasta County, California, where Lu Rae Collett was 12 years of age. It was in 1956 that Lu Rae’s father was killed in an air crash – see Appendix One. It was as Lu Rae Mortensen in late 2006 that she kindly provided some details of her English ancestors for the period from 1725 to 1839. This has since been developed further with the help of David Young Thomas (see Ref. 61R33).

FOOTNOTE: New information provided by Brent Collett in October 2015 suggests that Lu Rae was a widow when she married (2) Niels Eldon Mortensen at Vernal in Uinta County on 27^th November 2004. That marriage endured for just over eight years when Lu Rae Mortenson nee Collett passed away at Vernal on 12^th February 2013. That Lu Rae Collett (Ref. 61S21) was the youngest child of Wiley Sylvanus Collett and Erma America Billings and was born at Robertson in Wyoming in 1935. Therefore, there is an obvious conflict between the two Lu Rae Colletts, the known daughters of Karl Warren Collett and Wiley Sylvanus Collett.

61S14

Joe C Collett was born at Harlan in Kentucky on 7^th December 1925 one of the two sons of the Reverend Wylie Sylvanus Collett and Della Lyttle. He followed in his father’s footsteps and entered the church and eventually became the Reverend Joe Collett. In 1945 he married Hosea Lewis, whose brother Billy Joe Lewis officiated at the funeral of the Reverend Joe Collett in 2009. Hosea Collett nee Lewis died in 2012, while it was three years earlier that Rev. Joe C Collett of Fairborn in Ohio died at the Dayspring of Miami Valley Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Fairborn on 7^th September 2009.

His obituary read as follows: “Joe was an ordained minister for 60 years and was also employed as a machinist with Chrysler, retiring 1981. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a brother Rev. Ernest Collett and sister Oleda Crider. Survivors include his wife of 64 years Hosea and five children, Joe and Linda Collett of Tampa in Florida, Richard and Wanda Collett of Fairborn, Susie and Lynn Brown of Lancaster, Phyllis and Steve Reitmann of Fairborn, Sandy Sexton of Fairborn, 15 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren, two sisters Edith Moore and Ruth Pastori, both of Dayton, brother Wylie J Collett of Tipp City, and numerous nieces and nephews.”

61T17

Joe Collett – wife Linda

Date of birth unknown

61T18

Richard Collett – wife Wanda

Date of birth unknown

61T19

Susie Collett – later Susie Brown

Date of birth unknown

61T20

Phyllis Collett – husband Steve Reitmann

Date of birth unknown

61T21

Sandy Collett – later Sandy Sexton

Date of birth unknown

61S15

Vene Billings Collett was born at Vernal in Utah on 13^th November 1915, the eldest child and only surviving son of Wiley Sylvanus Collett and Erma America Billings, and was three weeks old when he was baptised there on 4^th December 1915. By the time of the census in 1920, Vene B Collett was four years and two months old when he and his family were living at Riverdale in Uintah County, Utah. Twenty years later it was at Robertson, Uinta County, in Wyoming where unmarried Vena B Collett was 24 and a ranch labourer working on his father’s farm. The census record in 1940 also confirmed that he worked for forty-nine hours each week and had earned $500 in 1939.

His endowment and initiation into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints took place at Salt Lake City on 22^nd May 1941 and, just under five years later, he married Mary Rasmussen there on 10^th January 1946. At the time of the death of Vene Billings Collett on 9^th April 1995 he was residing at Logan in Cache County in Utah.

61S16

Vella Collett was born at Vernal on 6^th November 1916, the eldest of the five daughters of Wiley and Erma Collett. She was one month old when she was baptised at Vernal on 10^th December 1916. However, it was at Riverdale in Uintah County that Vella Collett aged three years and two months was living with her family on their farm in 1920. Upon leaving school Vena became a school teacher and in 1940 she was still living on her father’s farm which by then was at Robertson in Uinta County, Wyoming. The census confirmed she was 23 and employed as a school teacher at a rural school, working thirty-six hours each week, who had earned $900 in 1939. Just a few months later Vella Collett married (1) Charles Linzy Robbins at Robertson on 18^th July 1940. Charles had been born in 1914 and he tragically suffered a premature death in 1951. Following his death Vella married (2) Burlin Graham Jackman on 1^st July 1952 at Mountain View in Uinta County, where her mother had been living with three of Vella’s younger sisters in 1940. Vella Jackman nee Collett died at Evanston in Uinta County on 1^st November 1979.

61S18

Anna Collett was born at Vernal on 8^th March 1921 and was another daughter of Wiley and Erma Collett. When she was still very young her family left Utah and moved to McKinnon and then Robertson and Mountain View, all in Wyoming. It was in the census of 1940 that she was eldest of the three sisters living with their mother at Mountain View. Anna Collett was 19 with no stated occupation, perhaps looking after her two younger siblings while her mother was a switchboard operator. During the following year Anna married Daniel Alvin Smith at McKinnon in Sweetwater County on 22^nd December 1941. They were married for sixty-three years when Anna Smith died on 1^st April 2005 and was buried Vernal Memorial Park Cemetery where her parents were also buried.

61S19

Beth Collett was born at McKinnon in Wyoming during 1924, yet another daughter of Wiley and Erma Collett. Unlike her other siblings, there are no apparent birth, baptism or death records for Beth who was 16 years old in the census of 1940 when she was living with her mother and two sisters at Mountain View in Uinta County, Wyoming.

61S20

Alice Collett was born at McKinnon on 15^th May 1926, the fourth daughter of Wiley and Erma Collett. Alice was 13 years of age in 1940 when she was living with her father on his farm at Robertson in Unita County, Wyoming, together with her only surviving brother Vena and eldest sister Vella. Five years later she married (1) Arnold Ray Kidd (1924-1991) at Salt Lake City on 11^th December 1946, the same day she was endowed and initiated into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That married must have ended in divorce since, on 2^nd February 1969, Alice married (2) Jay Oscar Wiggins, and later still married (3) Farrell Slaugh at Las Vegas, Nevada, on 30^th December 1980. Alice Slaugh nee Collett died at Brigham City in Box Elder, Utah on 20^th September 2004.

61S21

Lu Rae Collett was born at Robertson in Wyoming on 22^nd October 1935, the last child born to Wiley Sylvanus Collett and Erma America Billings. She was described as four years of age in the census of 1940 when she was one of three daughters living with their mother in rented accommodation at Mountain View in Unita County in Wyoming, while the remainder of the family was living with her father on the family’s ranch in Robertson. She was baptised and confirmed on the same day, 6^th November 1943, and was later married to Bryce Cauldwell (1931-2001). They were married at Salt Lake City on 17^th August 1953. See also Lu Rae Collett (Ref. 61S12).

61S35

Guy Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was the youngest of the seven children of Carl Stringham Collett and Donna B Williams. He is married to Dee and they were both mentioned in the 2004 obituary of Guy’s father. In February 2014 Guy made contact through the Collett Family History website and revealed that he currently lives at Vernal in Utah and that he and his siblings are compiling their family history on the internet at www.myfamilyonline.com to provide easy access to family photos etc.

61S36

Wells Ivins Collett was born at Salt Lake City on 6^th June 1928, the eldest child and only son of Wells Frank Collett of Utah and Carol Ivins of Nevada. It was as William I Collett that he was recorded with his parents at Ogden in Weber County, Utah in 1930 when he was two years old. Five years later the family was living at Kaysville in Davis County, Utah, where the family was still residing in 1940 when Wells Ivins Collett was 11 years of age. The only other detail known for him at this time is that Wells Ivins Collett died at Santa Clara in California on 1^st August 1981.

61S46

Ronald Earl Collett was born at Salt Lake City on 6^th April 1939, the first and only known child of Earl Murrey Collett and Pearl Buchanan. Apart from the record of his birth, the only other information known about him, is that he died on 11^th August 1992.

61S57

Merrill Ann Collett was born at Salt Lake City on 30^th August 1935, the third of the four children of Cloyd Seeley Collett and Utahana Hazel Lewis. She was five years old in 1940 at 352 Center Street in Salt Lake City, and was 14 in 1950 when, as simply Ann Collett, she was still living with her family but at 729 Gudgell Court in Salt Lake City. She later married Robert William Howse with whom she had two sons and a daughter, and they were Kevin Michael Howse born on 29^th December 1954, Gary Neil Howse born on 7^th September 1956, who died on 2^nd May 2001, and Pamela Kaye Howse born on 22^nd July 1958, all born at Houston, Harris County in Texas. It was at Livingston in Polk County, Texas, that she died on 28^th May 2003.

It was during the summer of 2020 when the grandson of Merrill Ann Collett Howse, Robert T Howse from Indianapolis, kindly provided the details of his grandmother’s Collett family and how it is linked to his own Howse family. Bob’s generous offering was made just prior to the birth of Merrill Ann’s great grandson, the first child of Bob and Erika.

61S62

Donald Uriel Collett, who was known as Don, was born at Grand View in Boise City, Idaho, on 11^th August 1939, the first son of Uriel and Nell Collett. The census the following year recorded the three members of the family residing on Grand View Highway, where Donald U Collett was seven months old. After his parents divorced in 1947, Don lived with his father Uriel and his extended family at Grand View, Owyhee County, Idaho. Don graduated from Grand View High School in 1957 and served in the US Army. Don's first marriage resulted in three daughters: Pauline, Stacy, and Lisa. After a divorce, Don's second marriage resulted in three sons: Mike, Dan, and Todd. Donald Uriel Collett died on 7^th April 2009 at home in Marsing, Owyhee County, Idaho, and was buried at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Caldwell, Canyon County, Idaho.

61T22

Pauline Collett

Date of birth unknown

61T23

Stacy Collett

Date of birth unknown

61T24

Lisa Collett

Date of birth unknown

The following are the three sons of Don Collett by his second wife:

61T25

Mike Collett

Date of birth unknown

61T26

Dan Collett

Date of birth unknown

61T27

Todd Collett

Date of birth unknown

61T1

Patricia Helen Collett was born at Harlem, Blaine County, Montana on 23^rd July 1935 and was the first-born child of David Edward (Ted) Collett and Izetta Owen. Patricia H Collett was four years old in the Harlem census of 1940 and three years later her family moved to West Yellowstone, Gallatin County in Montana. It was there that Patricia was 14 in 1950, and was 18 years of aged when she married Dean Jay Powell at West Yellowstone in 1953, the son of Floyd Henry Powell and Katie Richards Mason. When her father died at Yellowstone in 2000, his obituary listed his surviving children including his married daughter Patricia Helen Powell, who later died on 3^rd August 2017 at Pocatello, Bannock County, Idaho.

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Barbara Collett was born at Harlem on 15^th April 1937, another daughter of David and Izetta Collett. She was two years old in 1940 at Harlem and was 13 in 1950, by which time the family had been living at West Yellowstone in Montana since 1943. Barbara is understood to have married her brother-in-law, because she was later known as Barbara Powell, a member of her older sister’s husband’s family. She was another daughter who was named in her father’s obituary in 2000, with a later record identifying Barbara Collett Powell as still residing at West Yellowstone on 1^st June 2002.

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Edwin Owen Collett, who was known as Bud, was born at Harlem on 18^th May 1938, the eldest son of David and Izetta Collett. As Edwin O Collett he was one-year-of-age in 1940 while still living in Harlem in 1940 and, after a family move to West Yellowstone, Edwin O Collett was 13 years old in the West Yellowstone census of 1950. Nine years after that day, the marriage Edwin Owen Collett, 21, and Claree Andra Williams, 20, was conducted at St George, Washington County in Utah on 29^th December 1959.

Edwin ‘Bud’ Collett was living in New Mexico at the end of his life when he died at Carlsbad on 22^nd June 2011 and was buried at Hurricane City Cemetery in Washington County, Utah. His obituary was published in Las Vegas Review Journal and in Utah, as follows: “Edwin O Collett, 73, passed away on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at his home in New Mexico. Edwin ‘Bud’ Collett was born on May 18, 1938 to David Edwin Collett and Izetta Coila Owen in Montana. He served in the US Air Force and while on leave, he met Claree Andra Williams and fell in love. They were married in The St George, Utah Temple for a time and eternity on December 29, 1959”

The obituary also confirmed his sons were Brandon Collett, and Kirk Collett, while his daughters were named as Coila Boatman, Kiffanie Twitchell, and Cammy Lwinski. The two daughters-in-law were listed as Tori Collett, and Laura Collett, while the sons-in-law were Andrew Twitchell, and Timothy Lwinski.

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Brandon Collett – wife Tori

Date and place of birth unknown

61U2

Coila Collett – later Coila Boatman

Date and place of birth unknown

61U3

Kiffanie Collett – later Kiffanie Twitchell

Date and place of birth unknown

61U4

Cammy Collett – later Cammy Lwinski

Date and place of birth unknown

61U5

Kirk Collett – wife Laura

Date and place of birth unknown

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Judie Mildred Collett was born at Harlem on 8^th July 1939 and was ten months old in the Harlem census of 1940. She would have been four years old when her family moved from Harlem to West Yellowstone at Gallatin County in Montana, where Judie M Collett was ten years old in and in 1950. Less than seven years later, the marriage of Judie Mildred Collett, 17, and Barney Riggs Hinds, 24, took place on 20^th January 1957 at Madison, Idaho, and their son Beni Riggs Hinds was born at Burley, Cassia County in Idaho, on 6^th June 1958, the same day that Judie Mildred Hinds died. Widower Barney was born on 1^st December 1932 at Driggs in Idaho, and was 75 years old when he died at Red Bluff, California on 1^st June 2008.

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Teddie J Collett was born at West Yellowstone, Montana, on 3^rd June 1945 and was the fifth and last child of David Edward Collett and Izetta Owen, who was four years of age in the West Yellowstone census in 1950. It was as simply Ted Collett that his was named in his father obituary in 2000, with the only other fact known about him being that he was 68 when he died on 14^th October 2013 in Montana.

APPENDIX ONE – TRANS-CANADA AIR LINES FLIGHT 810

Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 was a Canadair Northstar on a scheduled flight from Vancouver to Calgary. The plane crashed into Mount Slesse near Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada on 9^th December 1956 after encountering severe icing and turbulence over the mountains. All 62 people on board died, making this one of the worst airline crashes in the world at that date; it still ranks as the sixth worst air disaster in Canadian history today.

Due to the remoteness and difficulty of the terrain, the crash site was not located until May 1957. Among the victims were five players from the Canadian Football League on their way home from the annual all-star game in Vancouver.

Flight 810-9 left Vancouver International Airport at 6.10 pm on 9^th December, assigned to fly the Green 1 air lane east to Calgary, Alberta, though the pilots asked for and received clearance for a routing via airways Red 44 and Red 75 instead, which took the aircraft past Cultus Lake and into a weather system called a 'trowal'. The pilot (Capt Alan Jack Clarke of Vancouver) climbed to 19,200ft by 6.55, when he experienced a fire warning indication in No. 2 (the inner port motor), which was then shut down as a precaution - false fire warnings in Northstar aircraft had been noted on numerous previous occasions. They radioed Vancouver Air Traffic Control to notify them of the event “looks like we had a fire”, requested a return flight path on Airway Green 1 back to Vancouver Airport - the flight path with the most favourable terrain for an aircraft losing altitude - but inexplicably made a starboard turn instead of a port one and wound-up heading west-southwest a good twelve miles south of Green 1 and straight in to the unforgiving teeth of the border mountains. At 7.10 the plane radioed that they were passing Hope, and was given clearance to descend to 8000 feet. This was the last communication received from the plane. The plane was also being tracked by an American radar installation in Birch Bay, WA throughout most of its flight after turning around, but at 7.11 pm the station lost track of Flight 810 in the vicinity of 8,530 feet. Mount Silvertip just east-northeast of where the plane finally went down moments later. The cause of the crash is given in the official report as being the combination of several factors with the main ones being icing of the wings and fuselage and the loss of No. 2 engine, but many questions remain, including why the aircraft turned away from Green 1 rather than toward it, and reporting to ATC that it “was on Green 1”, and why this was picked up by neither the pilot nor First Officer despite spirit compasses and several radio aids-to-navigation on board which should have made the error rather glaring. As the aircraft flew straight into the third peak of Mount Slesse well in excess of cruising speed - and crashed in remote and dangerously inhospitable territory - very little information could be gleaned from the wreckage itself as to the cause of what was then the worst aircraft calamity in Canadian history. The wreckage and remains of the passengers and crew were left on the mountain at the crash site (though body parts found during the coroner’s inquiry were interred in two common graves on the mountainside), and despite years of erosion and avalanche, remains of the aircraft can be seen to this day. The passenger list included Karl Warren Collett (Ref. 5R35) of Calgary, Alberta.

APPENDIX TWO – A TALE OF TWO JAMES COLLETTS

61p0

James Collett was born in Utah during 1882 and was 18 years of age in the census of 1900 when he was the nephew of Daniel Ward Collett (Ref. 61P16), with whose family he was living at Presto, Grays, Taylor Precincts, Bingham in Idaho. This would indicate that he was the son or a brother of Daniel Ward Collett, OR the base-born son of one of David’s sisters. However, no earlier, or later record of him has been found, and he was certainly not James Perry Collett whose brief details are provided below.

61p2

James Perry Collett was born at Salt Lake City in 1899, the son of Frank and Lilian M Collett. Unlike the first James (above), this one has now been fully identified, and his family details can be found in Part 19 – The Oxfordshire international Line, Appendix B, commencing with James’ 3x great grandfather Robert Collett (Ref. 19m1)