BARKER, Mary Alice

1859 - 1952  (92 years)  Submit Photo / Document

 Set As Default Person

• Name	BARKER, Mary Alice
  Birth	6 Oct 1859	Lawrence, Essex, Massachusetts, United States
  Gender	Female
  WAC	27 Oct 1880	SGEOR
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Death	30 Jul 1952	Escalante, Garfield, Utah, United States
  Burial	2 Aug 1952	Escalante City Cemetery, Escalante, Garfield, Utah, United States
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I54343	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Family	SHURTZ, Don Carlos IX ,   b. 16 Jun 1859, Virgin, Washington, Utah, United States Virgin, Washington, Utah, United Statesd. 22 Dec 1931, Escalante, Garfield, Utah, United States (Age 72 years)
  Family ID	F26689	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

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• Notes

  Garfield County News October 23, 1925 Mrs. M. A. Shurtz contemplates going to Provo to spend the winter as soon as the few cases she has here can be left. Newspaper Clippings from Kanab 1859-1925 David Andersen Kaylene Canfield 2016. ....Mrs. Mary Alice Barker Shurtz, 92, believed to be Escalante's oldest resident and the first girl to ride into campsite of the unfounded town, died at her home Wednesday at 10:45 P.M. of natural causes, incident to age. She was born in Lawarence, Mass., Oct. 6, 1859, a daughter of Josiah Barker and Alice Woodhead Barker. When she was three her family moved across the plains to Salt Lake City. After her family had lived in Cache Valley for a short time they left to settle Escalante with a band of pioneers. She was the first female to enter the town site when her father pulled his wagon ahead of the wagon train and drove to the spot where the town of Escalante would rise. In 1879 she married Don Carlos Shurtz Jr. in Escalante. the marriage was later solemnized in the St. George Temple, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -Day Saints. During her life in Escalante she sereved the community as a mid-wife, delivering, according to record, 575 children in Escalante, Bolder and Widtsoe. She was active in the L.D.S. Church. Her Husband died Dec. 23, 1932. Survivors include two daughters....and four sons....29 grandchildren, and 56 great-grandchildren. ************************************************************************ MARY ALICE BARKER SHURTZ Mary Alice Barker was born October 6, 1859, in Lawrence, Essex County, Massachusetts. Her parents, Alice Woodhead and Josiah Barker, had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England. On August 8, 1862, when Mary Alice was two years old, the family started across the plains in the Henry W. Miller Company. Her baby brother was born en route. The family arrived in the valley on October 17, 1862, and they were persuaded to go to Cache Valley. They settled first in Mendon then in Clarkston, where she attended school when possible and enjoyed her growing-up years. When she was sixteen, her family spent the winter in Panguitch and she formed some friendships there. After the weather permitted, they moved on to a new area that was being settled. Since Mary Alice was in the first wagon, she had the distinction of being the first known white girl to set foot on the rich soil of Potato Valley. It was there that Mary Alice met Don Carlos Shurtz Jr., a young man her own age. They were married on October 15, 1878. Although their first home was a log cabin, her husband soon built her another one out of the red Escalante brick. The Shurtzes were the parents of eight children. A son died in infancy. She also raised a granddaughter whose mother had died in childbirth. Mary Alice studied nursing under Doctor Ellis Reynolds Shipp. She received her certificate in midwifery in 1900 and delivered over six hundred babies in Escalante and the neighboring communities. Her services included home visits for ten days to care for both mother and baby, and she often prepared lunch and did the baby’s laundry as well. Mary Alice used the modern method of administering chloroform during the birthing process. Her own infant, Wayne Barker, was delivered in Murray, Utah, by friends from her nurses’ training class, and chloroform was used. In later years the Shurtzes built a home in Provo, Utah, with the intent that grandchildren would live with them while attending Brigham Young University. During the summer months they returned to Escalante to garden and raise animals, which included a flock of geese. Mary Alice was proud of her pioneer heritage and attended Pioneer Day in Salt Lake City every year, riding in the parade as an honored survivor. Her husband passed away December 22, 1931. During her declining years, she lived in her home at the spring, a mile east of Escalante. It was her custom to walk to the post office every day neatly dressed and wearing a stylish black hat. That walk undoubt­edly contributed to her long and productive life. She died at the home of her daughter Alice on July 30, 1952. (Pioneers of Garfield County - Pioneer Womeen, 4:2758 DUP p. 329/40)