Family History

My mom was telling me a few days ago about some people in our family history. Since I know she will never write them down I guess it is my job to write them somewhere. So, they may not be that accurate but here are the stories as she told them to me.

Emma Barton
(Grandpa Great's mother) (My mom's great grandmother)

She lived in England and was converted and baptized (along with her mother and grandmother) by some couple missionaries. Her father (not sure if he joined or not) was a Jew and her family was very poor.
They couldn't afford to all come to America so Emma was sent at the age of 8 with the missionaries to America. She lived with this couple for a few years (not sure how many). They were very good to her. Then the mother and grandmother were able to come to America. They found her and took her back to raise her. They didn't have enough money to raise her, though. So, she went to live with a Stake President and his wife (President Murdock) in Beaver, UT. Mrs. Murdock didn't like that she had to care for another child and was very mean to her. Emma ended up being like the maid in their household (Cinderella). Emma had long, beautiful hair. One day she asked Mrs. Murdock to braid it for her. Mrs. Murdock pulled her hair back and cut it all off. She cried and cried. She had felt like this was the only thing that was hers and now it was gone.
When Emma was 14 a man came to town (from Greenville) and asked if Emma could come and live with them. His name was Mr. Barton. He had heard about her situation. He had also just lost a teenage daughter in an accident. When he talked to her for the first time he asked her, "how would you like to have a Father?"
She later said that this was the first time that she had felt loved since she was a child. He took her to Greenville to live with his family. He had a house full of boys and they were all so happy to have her in their family. They all treated her like a princess. They didn't want her to have to work like she had for the past few years. They commented that her hands were so worn.
Mom says that she was such a great grandma. She would go visit her in the house next to hers all of the time when she was little. She always had a bowl full of hard-tack candy in her house.

Emma's husband also had a neat experience. They would grow food and take it out to the mines in Nevada to barter with the men that were working there. One particular time he went out and sold everything that he had. On his way back home he was robbed by a man (believed to be Butch Cassidy). He took all his money and told him that he was on his way to a poker game and that was what he needed the money for. He also told him that if he won the game, he would come back and give him his money back. Sure enough, a few days later, the man came back and returned all of grandpa's money!

Their son (Grandpa great Williams) was once run over by a tractor. Uncle Cliff was on the tractor and Grandpa went to look at something underneth it and Cliff put the tractor into gear. The tire went up his leg and stopped on top of him. Grandpa had to help explain to Cliff how to put the tractor in reverse to get it off of him. When they took him in for X-rays, they could only see that the tire had gone up his leg until his Garment line. Grandpa had a firm testimony of the protection of Garments.

On one Memorial Day in the Greenville Cemetary, Mom and Laurie ran into a man that was there to look at the Williams' graves. He was from Idaho and was in some way related to the family. He told them this story:
This was either Grandpa William's Brother or Great Grandpa William's Brother.
He and his brother were called on a mission to England. While there, one of the brothers got sick and died. They had no money and the other brother was so distraught that he sat down on a park bench and started to cry. While he is sitting there, someone appears out of no where and says, "I will help you. Don't cry. Everything will be alright. I will help you."
He started telling him what to do. He was giving him very specific instructions such as: go to this place and there will be some papers waiting for you, go to the train station and the body will be waiting there with two tickets, etc.
He later said that he thought it may have been on of the 3 nephites!
AMAZING.

I wish I knew more stories and I am so excited to meet these people on the other side!