George Gillet Hales

George Gillet Hales

1844-1907

Ralph Otis Bradley's Great Grandfather

            George Gillet Hales was the son of Charles Henry Hales and Julia Ann Lockwood.   He was born at Nauvoo, Illinois, on March 19, 1844.   George was the third of twelve children and the first boy.   He was named after his mother’s brother.

        George was almost two when the family was driven out of Nauvoo in early months of 1846.   The Hales family made their home in Garden Grove, Iowa for next five years, 1846-1851.  

        In the spring of 1851, they started on the trek West.   They joined the John Taylor Company.   After a long and hard journey they arrived in Salt Lake City in the late summer of 1851.  

        Their early years in Utah were harsh ones and the family suffered much for want of food.   Many times they had only greens to eat.   George's father, Charles, made shoes for the family; he had learned the trade from his father.

        In the spring of 1854, the Hales family moved to Big Cottonwood (located just south of 48th South and west of Highland Drive in Salt Lake County).   For five years they lived here and farmed.  

        The family moved to Spanish Fork in 1858.   Again they had little to eat.   George's father, Charles, went to Camp Floyd to work shortly after Johnston’s Army came.   When he came home he had considerable clothing for the children.   This made them very happy because before this his mother, Julia Ann, had to make their clothes from seamless flour sacks and canvas.

            George had few opportunities for an education, but attended the school taught by Silas Hillman for a short time.   George was quick to learn and had a passion for reading.   George read Pilgrim’s Progress, Gulliver’s Travels, Silas Mariner and every other book he could get his hands on.   At the age of twelve he had read the Bible through.

        Tryphena was living with her two brothers, Sylvester and Pleasant, as their housekeeper in Spanish Fork.   They had always been very close.   George and Tryphena probably knew each other from church.

            On October 15, 1864, George married Tryphena Bradford in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.   Her two brothers, Sylvester and Pleasant Bradford, were also married the same day, they married a pair of sisters.   So they had a real celebration of the six couples at the Archibald Gardner farm in West Jordan.   This is where Tryphena's mother, Abigail lived, who was married to Archibald.

        George and Tryphena settled in Spanish Fork.   They had three boys and one girl.  

        George was a successful farmer but he also learned the trade of brick mason from his father, and helped build the Spanish Fork City Hall, Co-op store, and many homes and schoolhouses.   George and his brothers formed a lumber and plaining mill company, and furnished much material for the homes at that time.   One day George was using one of the sharp circular saws and cut the end off of two fingers.

        Everything went well until April 15, 1873.   Tryphena was the Relief Society President at this time and had been getting ready for a meeting at her house.   She became suddenly ill, and in a few hours died, probably from a brain hemorrhage.   She left four children: George (seven), Julia Ann (five), Hial B, (three), and Stephen (nine months).   Aunt Jane Bradford cared for the baby for some time as she had a nursing baby of her own.

            In May of 1873 George married Mariah Gay Mendenhall, a widow with three children.   To this issue were born six children.   They were Gillet, William, Louisa Tryphena, Alice, Laurence, and David.

            George was a counselor to Bishop George D. Snell for twenty-two years until the four Wards of Spanish Fork were divided.   He was a High Priest, and devoted much of his time to the Church all his life.

        George was the Justice of the Peace for sixteen years, and was a Black Hawk Indian War Veteran, serving in Sanpete and the Home Guard.

            In 1885 George married Mary Ann Mellor.   They had one son, John Gillette.   Later, she divorced him and went to Arizona to live.

        One winter the flu, which they called lung fever, was quite bad.   Bob and Bill Boyack, two of George's close friends became ill.   Then George got it.   Both the Boyacks died, and George's daughters decided not to tell him because they thought it would make him worse.   But George told his wife, Mariah, that a messenger had come to his bedside and told him he had a choice, of getting well and going on a mission to England or to die.   He decided to go on the mission.

            In 1886, when he was 42 years old, George was called on a mission to England, leaving his eldest son, George, Jr., to care for his family as best he could.   This was a great responsibility for a boy of twenty-one, but he did the best he could.   In the fall of 1889 he returned home.   The U.S. Marshals were still raiding the country for polygamists but before George left England, Apostle George Teasdale, President of the European Mission, told him to return home.   He promised him he would not have to go the pen.   This promise was fulfilled, George was arrested, summoned into court, but was always dismissed.

            In the latter part of 1889 George Gillet married a widow he had brought from England.   Her name was Fanny Glenn.   She had a daughter, Lilly, which he adopted.   Fanny made her home at Fountain Green, Sanpete County.   Their first child, Robert, died while very young.   When their second baby, May, was four months old Fanny died, leaving her baby and Lilly, five years old, for Maria to raise.   Fanny died in October of 1892, and was buried at Fountain Green.

            In about 1897 George felt his boys, Steve and Lawrence, needed better opportunities to improve themselves so he took a contract with the Burlington Railroad to put track in from Bridger, Montana to Cowley in Big Horn County, Wyoming.   George's son, Gillet, stayed and ran the farm while they were gone.   At this time another epidemic of "La Grippe" came to Spanish Fork.   Gillet and two of his friends died.   George was up in Wyoming at this time, blasting and all he could see in his mind was a coffin, and then a lone man on horseback was riding toward them.   George told the men around him that it was bad news for him.   When the man arrived at camp it was a telegram telling him of the death of his son.

        After a few years George came home, leaving Steve there as his family was with him.   While there, Lawrence got himself a wife from Missouri by correspondence.   This proved very successful.   Later, they all returned to Spanish Fork, and their adventure was almost a failure.

            In 1903, George Gillet was made superintendent of the State Infirmary at Provo.   While there, his son, Will, was ill in Idaho, so he was called there.   On his return home he took a bad cold, which developed into pneumonia.   His lungs were weak as he had had pneumonia twice before, so he only lasted a few days.

            He died on January 31, 1907.   His son, George, was away in Nevada at the time, so the body was held till he returned.   He was buried on February 7, 1907.

        He was a loving husband to four women and the father of 16 children.   He had the largest library of any man in Spanish Fork at the time of his death.  

        He loved the Lord and lived the Gospel with exactness.   He was a great Latter-day Saint.