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William Shin Wordsworth was born 5 March 1910 in Woodstown, Salem, New Jersey. He was the son of Sylvester Henrey

Wordsworth, born 1770 in England and Katherine Morgan, born 20 July 1773, in Upper Falls, Alloways Creek, Salem, New Jersey.

William Shin was on, of Utah's original pioneers. Be was a scout and belonged to the advanced guard in Brigham Vow's 1847 company. He went ahead of the company to blaze the trail. He and Brigham Young were dear friends; in fact, he was considered Brigham Young's bodyguard. IN made friends with the Indians, so when Brigham Young camp to the valley, the Indians dressed in their most beautiful clothes and went to meet him.

William went back to Winter Quartars with Briaham Young in August of 1847, then returned to Salt Lake City in May MS. The main body of the Church came in September 1848.

He had six wives:

1. Ann Morrison--md. 5 Nov. 1231, New Jersey--no children.

2. Ann Fogg--md. 10337 New Jersey--3 children. Ann and the last child died at childbirth in 1846 at Winter Quarters.

3. Mary Lanrly--l child, George, born 1847.

4. Nancy Ann Vance (our inccifor)--md- 31 Mar. 1847 Winter Quarters. They were sealed by Brigham Young, and the marriage Was recorded in the Nauvoo Temple records. Nancy had 3 children--Eliza, John Vance (our grandfather and Elizabeth who was born in Lehi. Nancy died when Elizabeth was born and was buried in Lehi

5. Matilda Streerer--he divorced her because she and her boys were so cruel to his children.

6. Nellie Griffith--md. 18741-5 children.

William was called on another mission with 29 other men to explore and lay out settlements as far as Las Vegas, Nevada. There is a monument in Las Vegas with his name on it. They layed out townships in southern Utah known as Millard, St. George, Parawan and other towns. He came through Springville locality and was very much impressed with it and said he would like to settle here sometime.

Three months after his wife, Nancy Ann, died at childbirth, he took his 3 little ones and moved to Alpine, Utah. Brigham Young sent 12 families there to start a settlement. He built a log house, and it also served as a school until he was instrumental in getting a school built. He was mayor and constable in Alpine. The D.U.P. has erected a monument there with names on a plaque of the first 12 families.

In 1858 there were 300 families who came to Springville from the North. William Shin and his wife, Matilda Streerer, was one family. William's son, John, tells about the first night they slept at William Mendenhall's log cabin. Be said there were about nine in one trundle bed. William settled on the ground now known as Kelly's Grove and opened up a summer dairy and planted a garden. Kelly, 3 Grove used to be part of a vast wooded area where fir arid pine trees grew. Most of the logs used in the construction of the Old Fort were from there.

On one occasion, the 24th of July, the residents of Springville were not enthused about celebrating. William remembered a meeting with Captain James Bridger who said it was impossible to bring a large population into the Great Basin until it could be ascertained that grain could be raised there. Ile said he would give $1,000 for the first ear of corn produced there. William thought how the Saints were blessed after Mr. Bridger had given them a most dis-heartening report of conditions in Salt Lake Valley; also of the many blessings the Saints were now enjoying. He walked out into his beautiful corn patch, broke off an armload of corn and up a stock Of corn and started down the road. In his loud, clear voice he called out, "Hear ye! Hear ye! This is the 24th of July!" Men, women and children followed him, and when he arrived at the City Park, he delivered a patriotic speech that stirred the hearts of the people.

William with Solomon Chase and his sons, opened a canyon, which bore his name and built a sawmill which sawed many thousands of feet of lumber. The canyon, which was named "Wordsworth" after him, is located on the Right Fork of Hobble Creek Canyon on the road to Strawberry about 1/2 mile above Balsam camp. The entrance begins where- the road makes a sharp, right degree turn arid crosses a bridge and the access in is to the left of the stream by a footpath. It is a beautiful canyon, and Scouts love to got there to camp. The old mill-site is accessible only by hiking or horseback.

One wonders why they built a sawmill so far up into the canyon. We were told that the pine trees there were different, straight and tall, and tall, of better quality wood (red pine virgin timber) which never had termites in it.

John Ford Burt worked there, and he told about hauling a load of lumber, arid the Indians attacking him and turning wagon over. A David Bowen said he enjoyed working at the mill with William for he was a good, kind man. He said the one, morning they awoke and found a bear asleep on the foot of the bed, and William in his string powerful voice said) "Be gone Bruno," and the bear ran away. He said bears and wild animals came around quite often, but lie was never afraid as long as William was there.

William's daughter, Mary Elizabeth, used to carry two 10-lb. buckets of lunch to her father arid brothers. On the way home, she would fill one bucket with wild honey and on(,. with berries. It was so far, and the buckets were heavy, so she was very tired when she returned home.

John Vance, William's son, told about he and his sisters going to school without shoes in the winter. They ran over the snow until their feet got cold, then they would hop up on a post or log arid rub their feet until they warmed a little, and then they would go again to school. John V. herded sheep and cows. One day his mother sent him out with the cows to the hills. She gave him instructions that if he wasn't back by a certain time she would give him a licking. He took. these cows by the tails with a willow in his hand, away he went. On the way home he saw two fish in the creek about 18 inches long. He knew how much his stepmother loved fish, so he decided to catch them, and it took him an hour and a half to land them. No boy ever felt prouder than he as marched home. When he saw his stepmother, he knew he was in for it. She took a green cotton word root from a tree and whipped him until she cut blood out of his back in six places. Then she said to go and clean the fish and not leave any scales on them or she would whip him again. He cleaned the fish, she cooked them and they sat down to eat them. She asked how he caught the fish, so he told her he knew she loved fish so well, and what difficulty he had in catching them. As he told her, the tears came to her eyes and ran down her cheeks. He felt it was worth the whipping to see her mellow enough to shed tears.

After William Shin divorced Matilda Streeper because she and her sons were so cruel to his children, he married Nellie Griffith. He built an adobe house on 3rd East and 6th South (later called Erickson Lane). He was a man of strong physical frame, but warm hearted. He was a hard worker and served as road supervisor for 15 years and was active in all public work. He was mayor of Springville and also an alderman twice. After a full and eventful life, William still wanted to live and raise this younger family of 5 children. He was not ready to die. His eldest sone, John Vance was with him when he died 18 Jan 1888, in Springville, Utah at nearly 78 years of age. He was buried in Springville cemetery.

Written by Helen Ashcraft.