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.
