Coincidences with Family Roots

[Big Horn Basin Colonization Company, 1904 (from Keepapitchinin, the Mormon History blog)¹ ]

How does Buffalo Bill Cody connect to my family history?

Our family’s connection to the legendary Buffalo Bill Cody has been a topic of intrigue, especially on my son-in-law Eric’s side of the family. While we haven’t yet confirmed the family lore suggesting a relation, my research uncovered a link between Buffalo Bill and my great-great-grandfather’s brother, William B. Graham. As a member of the Big Horn Basin Colonization Company, William played a significant role in the development of the region, an endeavor heavily influenced by the legendary Buffalo Bill himself. As usual, a ‘coincidence’ sparked my research that led to learning more about William B. Graham and Buffalo Bill and how they influenced the development of the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming.

While visiting Byron, Wyoming, our daughter Heidi reads a caption on a monument and discovers a connection with her good friend Rebecca Taggart.

After our daughter Heidi graduated from college, her first job was at the Cody Enterprise, a newspaper in Cody, Wyoming, founded of course, by William Cody a.k.a., Buffalo Bill. It was in Cody that she met her future husband Eric.

A trip to Cody with my wife took an unexpected turn when Heidi suggested a visit to nearby Byron. She had remembered my story about William B. Graham, our relative involved in the Big Horn Basin Colonization Company, and thought we might locate his grave in Byron where we knew he was buried. Indeed, we located his headstone in the town cemetery. We then went over to the town center to check out a monument.

The monument had a photograph of the men called by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to construct the Sidon Canal. This was a critical irrigation project undertaken by the Big Horn Basin Colonization Company, which played a vital role in enabling agriculture and settlement in the once-arid region, as it provided much-needed irrigation water to the farms and communities in the area.

Heidi’s eyes widened as she read the caption, she saw the names of George H. Taggart and William B. Graham, our ancestor. Instantly, Heidi started texting Rebecca Taggart, whom she had become good friends with in Cody.

The message was simple: ‘Are you related to George H. Taggart? The reply was yes, he was a direct ancestor. Here we were looking at a photograph that had ancestors of these two good friends. Who would have thought?

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West and the Cody Papers

Heidi’s friend Rebecca Taggart worked at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody Wyoming, where she managed special events such as the Patrons Ball. Inspired by Rebecca’s role, Heidi and Eric joined as volunteers for these events. The patrons supported the center and included guests such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, which they had the opportunity to meet personally.

Another close friend, Jeremy Johnston, was Managing Editor of the Papers of William F. Cody, an ambitious undertaking aimed at collecting, organizing, and digitizing a vast array of materials related to Buffalo Bill Cody’s life and times. In addition, Jeremy was the Curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum, which is part of the Center. Heidi and Eric also shared an association with Jeremy as former educators at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. Sadly, Jeremy recently passed away after a long battle with cancer. Volunteering at the center became a memorable part of Heidi and Eric’s lives that fostered wonderful friendships.

Buffalo Bill and the Latter-day Saints develop Big Horn Basin

After visiting Byron and learning more about Heidi and Eric’s volunteer work, I became more interested in the colonization of the Big Horn Basin, my ancestor William Graham, his role in it and in Buffalo Bill. This led me to read a book about Buffalo Bill by Brent Rogers titled: Buffalo Bill And The Mormons. Brent also worked on the Cody Papers with Jeremy Johnston. (“Mormon” is a term that has been commonly used to refer to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

According to Brent’s book, Buffalo Bill for many years had an anti-Mormon stance, some of which showed up in his entertainment shows where he derided Mormons. Then his attitude and appraisal began to change as he visited Utah more and then sought help to develop the Big Horn Basin where Cody had significant land and water rights. Cody had developed a great respect for Mormons. Here are some excerpts from Brent Rogers book to illustrate:

…Cody was not the only one courting the help of the Mormons. By 1900 many western speculators, town builders, and state officials had made overtures to recruit Mormon settlers for labor to irrigate the Intermountain West. Investment brokers, real estate agents, and irrigation companies in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming all reached out to bring in Mormon settlements. They understood what Buffalo Bill did when he labeled Latter-day Saints as “the greatest irrigators on earth.”

…Buffalo Bill Cody and his company held most of the valuable land and water rights alongside the Shoshone River in the Big Horn Basin. Securing his support and assistance for Mormon colonization to the area, Latter-day Saint leaders hoped, would be of mutual interest and provide a new prospect for financially beleaguered church members in the Intermountain West.²

From their earliest settlement in the Salt Lake Valley, church leaders and members instituted a program of community control over water resources. Church members dug canals for the good of the community, providing access to water for all even during times of drought. Digging a canal or constructing a water ditch was as important an act of religious dedication as Sabbath worship. This cooperative system, overseen by church leaders, was markedly different from water rights in other parts of the United States. Cooperation and cohesion helped the Saints’ settlement flourish in the Great Basin. Over the next few years, Mormon immigration poured in, and by 1852 Latter-day Saints had established hundreds of colonies or settlements, from southern California to northern Utah and everywhere in between.³

The deal worked out between William Cody and the Latter-day Saints to develop the Big Horn Basin was quite remarkable. In February 1900, Cody met with Abraham Woodruff, a Latter-day Saints apostle and son of the faith’s former president Wilford Woodruff. Cody generously offered tens of thousands of acres of land for free. The Latter-day Saints accepted this offer, and as a result, about 100 families moved to Wyoming.

Once in Wyoming, these families went to work building irrigation canals and developing essential infrastructure in the area. They also lent a hand in constructing railroads, further contributing to the region’s growth and development. This partnership between William Cody and the Latter-day Saints played a significant role in transforming the Big Horn Basin into a thriving community.

Meetup at Big Horn Basin with Buffalo Bill

Before the irrigation work could start, the Big Horn Basin had to be explored and surveyed. Heidi’s ancestor William B. Graham and Rebecca’s George H. Taggart were among the men to do that work. According to the Deseret Evening News:

Apostle Woodruff, accompanied by Elders Byron Sessions of Woodruff, Rich County, and H. K. North of Mill Creek, Salt Lake County, Utah, left Salt Lake City on Monday evening, February 5, 1900, to visit the Big Horn Basin, to ascertain its resources and the opportunities for settlement by our people. At Ogden, they were joined by Elders: George H. Taggart, Wm. G. Simmons, John J. Simmons, and Chas. A. Welch of Morgan City, and John Croft of Enterprise, Morgan County, Utah. At Pocatello the party was further increased by, Elders B. L. Tippets, and W. B. Graham of Bennington, Bishop W. P. Larsen of Thomas Fork, and S. P. Sorenson, and John Stevens of Montpelier, Bear Lake County, Idaho.

…

Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill as he is better known) also telephoned from Cody that he would meet us at Eagle’s Nest this (Thursday) evening. We took dinner on Clark’s Fork and arrived at Eagle’s Nest at about 7 o’clock p. m. It was quite cold and some of the brethren had walked several miles during the day.⁴

Researcher and author Brent Rogers added more detail in an interview with the Utah Historical Society:

…Woodruff wanted to explore the basin for himself and ensure that it had the potential that Buffalo Bill had been selling. So, in early February 1900, Woodruff and a party of a dozen other Latter-day Saints set out from Utah and met up with Buffalo Bill at Eagle’s Nest, Wyoming, about 15 miles away from the town of Cody, Wyoming. Abraham Woodruff’s exploratory party spent ten days investigating the area and its potential for settlement. Woodruff returned to Salt Lake City on February 18 and made his report to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Lorenzo Snow, lauding the opportunities for settlers in the Big Horn Basin. From that point forward Woodruff and Cody occasionally corresponded about land matters and water rights.⁵

Byron Town Center Marker and the construction of the Sidon Canal

The marker at the Byron town center memorial tells the story of the immense project that the Latter-day Saints undertook.

This statue by artist/sculptor, Steve Wirth, depicts Byron Sessions, survey map case in hand, as he prepares to oversee the construction of the Sidon Canal.

…Following the original exploration to the Shoshone Valley of Wyoming, Lorenzo Snow, president of the Church, issued a call to Bryon Sessions. He said, “Brother Sessions, it is the desire of the Church that you move your family out into the land, take charge of the construction of the canal and stay with it until it is completed.” Byron’s reply was, “President Snow, if that is your wish, I will finish that canal and lay my bones down in it.” He immediately returned to Woodruff and made preparations to leave.

…Work on the canal began on May 28, 1900, with families living in wagons and primitive tents, coping with rattlesnakes, ticks and ever-present blowing sand, which sifted into even the smallest openings.

…The canal was not completed until the spring of 1904 and since it was necessary for people to earn a living to sustain themselves, the canal was completed at intervals. No cash was paid to the workers on the canal project. Instead, they received stock in the Sidon Canal Company….

As the work progressed, the Canal was being constructed along the foot of a nearly perpendicular rock cliff. The cliff was approximately two miles below the head of the canal. It was approximately 50 feet high. Just below this rock was a large rock about 20 feet long, which lay right in the line of the Canal right of way. This was six or eight feet high and no one knew how far it extended into the ground. The work was being done in the later part of June or early part of July of 1900.

Byron Sessions conceived the idea that a large hole could be scraped out on the lower side of the rock. Then a shot of powder could be put under the upper side, rolling the huge rock over in the hole out of the way. When the hole had been scraped out about ten feet deep, it appeared dangerous for men and horses working in the hole. Consequently, it was made a matter of prayer at the morning and evening Prayer Circle at the camp. One afternoon as President Sessions discussed the matter with the men working there, Biney Sessions, a son of Byron Sessions, said, “We’ll never get this done. We just as well give it up.” This seemed to anger his father, who said, “I prophesy in the name of Israel’s God that that rock will be in there tomorrow at this time.” One of the men, Jim George, decided to test him out and pulled out his watch to check the time. It was 4:00 P.M.

The work of scraping the sand and rocks out of the hole continued until the next afternoon when Byron Sessions came along and told the men working in the hole to take a rest and take all their tools with them. This was unusual since it was just ten minutes past their last break. No sooner was the last man out of the hole when the rock began to split from top to bottom and landed right where the men had been working only minutes before. The man who had decided to check out the prophecy, looked at his watch and discovered the time was five minutes to four. This split in the rock provided space for the canal to flow unimpeded. This occasion has been known as the miracle of Prayer Rock. (An historical marker 2 1/2 miles west of Byron shows the location and provides details of this incident.)

May all who view this memorial remember with gratitude the many sacrifices made by all the pioneers who settled, not only in Byron, but also in the entire Big Horn Basin of Wyoming.⁶

William Benona Graham

William Benona Graham is the half-brother of my great-great grandfather John Reed Clark Jamison. Their mother was Hannah Tucker Reed. John’s father was Hannah’s first husband Alex Jamison, who was a sea captain. Their marriage ended in a divorce.

In 1846, Hannah along with her mother and John Jamison sailed on the Ship Brooklyn from New York City to San Francisco. At the time, this was the longest non-military sea voyage in recorded history. A couple of years later just as the Gold Rush began, the Reed’s came overland across the Sierras to Salt Lake City. I’ll cover this in a upcoming chapter. Hannah soon married James Graham, and they became parents to William Benona Graham in 1852.

William’s childhood was marked by significant events, including the death of his father when he was just five years old. At the age of six, his family moved from the Riverdale/Ogden area of Utah to Provo for a few months, due to the outbreak of the Utah War. This was a tense time between the Latter-day Saints and the federal government, as General Johnston oversaw the U.S. Army forces escorting federal officials to Utah. The residents of the Ogden area thought that Johnston’s army had plans to destroy them. During this time, William and his sister Annie walked the 80-mile distance from Ogden to Provo. They were responsible for herding a cow and a pig as they walked along behind their wagon. They returned to Ogden in the fall.

In 1862, the family moved to Millville in Cache County, Utah where William and his half-brother John Jamison became acquainted with the Garr family, who had relocated from Antelope Island a few years earlier. John Jamison would eventually marry Caroline Garr, but that’s a story for another chapter.

In 1866, my brother John and I worked in the mountains hauling saw-logs. During the next three years, I and other boys spent lots of our time playing with the little Indian boys. Johnny Gar, a half-breed Indian boy reared with the Gar boys, became a very near [sic] companion to
me.⁸

William worked on a railroad around the time in 1869 when the ‘golden spike’ was driven to connect the two railroads from ocean to ocean across the United States. He, along with his brother John Jamison freighted goods using oxen to various places in Utah and Nevada. His mother, John Jamison and William moved to Bennington near Bear Lake in 1869. He worked in nearby Soda Springs putting up fences. He became a ‘bull-whacker’ and drove oxen and wagons in Idaho and Montana including moving 300 hundred soldiers.

William married Margaret Hope Williams on January 18, 1874, in the Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah. Together, they had a large family of five sons and five daughters.

William’s work to support his family included being a freighter, hauling lumber, driving cattle, working on railroads, raising hay and building homes.

In 1900 President Lorenzo Snow called him to be a director on the Sidon Canal in the Big Horn Basin. Now he was almost fifty years old and you can see by his life experiences that he was well equipped to help with this project.

William had his share of adversity. In Lovell after planting 320 acres in hay, a mineral or something destroyed his crops and some of his boys came down with smallpox. With every affliction there is a blessing if you don’t lose hope.

I had an opportunity to sell out my holdings. I went to Apostle Woodruff and explained my circumstances and asked his advice. He said “Brother Graham, you came here and worked hard and helped to kill the snakes and build the bridges and make the canal, and helped to make the country so people could live here. You sell out and go back to your old home and take care of your mother while she lives, and redeem your Idaho property.”
In less than 36 hours I was sold out. I went and paid off the mortgage on my Bennington property. ⁹

In his life’s story he writes of having a booming crop of hay, grain and hogs. Then a money panic hit the country and he couldn’t sell anything. His wife became chronically ill, which caused him to move to Oregon for better weather. His five year old daughter came down with diptheria and died. He eventually went to California and then to Mochicahui, Sinoloa, Mexico in search of a warmer climate for his wife. His son Eugene went with them. But, his son came down with appendicitis and died and was buried there in Mexico. They eventually moved back to Ogden and then on to Powell, Wyoming, which is in the Bighorn Basin. Finally they moved to Byron where they spend the last years of their lives. Here Margaret Hope died January 20, 1926. William Benona followed her on March 18, 1926. They are both buried in Byron.

See William Benona Graham in our Family Roots site for more detail.

References:

1. Parshall, Ardis E. “”I Take Up My Pen”: Big Horn Basin Colonization Company, 1904.” Keepapitchinin.org, 03 Sep 2013, https://keepapitchinin.org/2013/09/03/i-take-up-my-pen-big-horn-basin-colonization-company-1904/. ↩︎
2. Rogers, Brent M.. Buffalo Bill and the Mormons (p. 9). Bison Books. Kindle Edition. ↩︎
3. Rogers, Brent M.. Buffalo Bill and the Mormons (p. 16). Bison Books. Kindle Edition. ↩︎
4. “William Benona Graham (KWZ6-1MR) – Memories – FamilySearch.org.” FamilySearch, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2024, 1. Accessed 04 Aug. 2024.
   EXPLORING THE BIG HORN BASIN – Contributed by Thomas NeVille Tippets. ↩︎
5. “When Buffalo Bill Came to Utah” – Utah Historical Society. Spring 2019 issue of Utah Historical Quarterly.
   https://history.utah.gov/when-buffalo-bill-came-to-utah/ ↩︎
6. HMdb.org The Historical Marker Database,
   https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=91254 ↩︎
7. “William Benona Graham (KWZ6-1MR) – Memories – FamilySearch.org.” FamilySearch, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2024, 1. Accessed 21 Jul. 2024. ↩︎
8. “William Benona Graham (KWZ6-1MR) – Memories – FamilySearch.org.” FamilySearch, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2024, 1. Accessed 04 Aug. 2024. William Benona Graham Life Story. ↩︎
9. same as footnote 8 ↩︎