Harry Henry Gentry

Was the fifth child born to Samuel Gentry Sr. and Elizabeth Davis Gentry on September 18, 1854, in the English village of Mundon. At age nine, he came to America on the ship Manhatten with his mother, father, and three of his siblings: Samuel, Emily, and Clara Agnes. The family settled in Coalville, Utah.

When he was 21, Harry traveled to Panaca, Nevada, where his brother, Edward, lived. It was there that he met and married Martha Ellen Syphus, daughter of Luke and Christiana Long Syphus. Seven of Harry and Martha’s nine children were born in Panaca.

In 1880, Harry and his brother-in-law, Edward H. Syphus, purchased 160 acres in St. Thomas, Nevada, and divided the land equally. Harry established a farm but wanted to start in the freighting business. So, he hired a few people from the local Native American population to help maintain his farm while he traveled 100 miles southwest to haul ore.

Harry also established The Gentry Store in St. Thomas, though it wasn’t intentional at first. Harry would bring his family supplies from Kingman, Arizona to ensure they were cared for while he was away. Ellen sold surplus supplies out of the post office which she cared for while he was gone. Little by little, this practice grew until The Gentry Store was fully established.

In 1911, Harry fully developed a 90-acre farm on the Virgin River. Around 1915, when Harry was 61, he decided to pass the reins of his freighting teams over to his sons, Sam and Harry, son-in-law, John F. Perkins, and nephew, Alfred Syphus. 

Harry, his wife, and his family were well loved. They were prominent citizens who contributed much to the civil and church development in their part of the state. Harry Henry Gentry passed away May 29, 1921, and his wife, Martha Ellen Syphus Gentry, passed away a few years later in May 1925.

“Ah! What memories of Uncle Harry Gentry’s store. It was the duty and the coveted privilege of the children to carry lard buckets full of eggs to the store in exchange for goodies. And what matter if there was not enough left over for a bag of candy. Uncle Harry’s generous hand went beneath the counter to the row of wooden candy buckets and each child left the store with cheeks puffed out with hard tack of jelly beans.”

Alfred & Julia Wardell Syphus

Alfred Luke Syphus was the fifth child and third son of Luke and Christiana Long Syphus. He was born December 22, 1861, in Santa Clara, Utah. Alfred’s parents immigrated to the United States from England and taught their children to work hard and take care of each other.

Julia Wardell was born in Parowan, Utah on June 23, 1868, to Soloman and Ellen Matheson Wardell. She was described as a slender woman with long, dark hair and lovely brown eyes. Alfred, or Alf as he was called, married Julia in the St. George Temple on February 17, 1887.

They lived in Panaca, where Alfred’s family lived for a time before moving once again to St. Thomas, where Alfred was hired to carry mail to mining camps in Arizona. Alfred and Julia had three children together before, tragically, Alfred became ill and died. Julia and their three young children were left in a half-built adobe house.

George Luke Whitney — a nephew of Alfred’s — worried about his uncle’s widow. He watched her struggle to support her family and felt that it was his duty to take care of her. Luke and Julia married on January 10, 1897, in St. George when he was 23 and she was 29.

Julia and Luke had a happy marriage. Luke always made sure to care for his uncle’s children as if they were his own. Together, Julia and Luke had four more children and worked hard to provide for all seven of them. The family owned a ranch in the Bunkerville mountains for 18 years, and earned a living by producing and selling fruit, vegetables, berries, cream, and eggs.

Luke and Julie were kind and generous people. Every 4th of July, they welcomed everyone to their land for a large celebration.

“On one occasion, when Clarice and I were in our teens, mother asked Clarice to go down in the cellar and get a bottle of fruit for supper. It was a real dark night, and Clarice said she was afraid to go, whereupon I made fun of her. ‘Afraid’ said I. ‘There isn’t anything to be afraid of.’ And forthwith I proceeded to show her what a brave boy I was by marching out to the cellar, with Clarice close at my heels. When we got to the cellar steps, I dramatically shouted, ‘Boo! Come out of there!’ And it came! A huge cat came bounding up the steps. I let a blood curdling yell and beat Clarice to the house, almost breaking the door down in my haste to get inside.” –Fenton Whitney

Edward Henry Syphus

Was born August 22, 1856, in San Pedro, California. Prior to his birth, Edward’s parents, Luke Syphus, Sr. and Christiana Long, were immigrating to America to be closer to the main group of “Mormons.” They landed in Wilmington, which is now San Pedro, California. Three days later, Edward was born in an improvised shack made of scraps from a wrecked ship.

Edward’s family moved from San Pedro over to the post of San Bernardino Ranch. The impending invasion of Johnston army caused Brigham Young to abandon the mission. They then moved to Utah when he was one year old. In 1959, they moved to Cedar City and then were called to help settle Toquerville. Shortly afterward, they followed Edward Bunker Sr. to Santa Clara. Later, Bishop Bunker moved part of his family and others to Clover Valley in Nevada. Indian troubles caused the closure of Clover Valley Fort, some moved to Hebron, some to Panaca.

Around 1879, Edward was called to help build a settlement in Mesquite, Nevada. The work was backbreaking, but they persevered building homes and digging ditches. After several years of crop failures and floods, many of the families left their homes and moved back to Utah. Edward’s father went back to Panaca.

Edward married Anna Vilate Burgess on March 30, 1884, at Tunnel Point, Arizona. They settled in St. Thomas, Nevada. Anna was in poor health and spent a year in Salt Lake City under the care of doctors. In 1886, Anna died after giving birth to a baby girl. Edward was left alone with his baby daughter. He took her to Panaca to be taken care of by her grandmother until he remarried in 1892.

Edward married Eleanor Amanda Beebe on December 21, 1892. He entered into a partnership with his brother-in-law, Harry Henry Gentry, developing farmland in St. Thomas. Edward also built the first brick home in town. Edward worked as a butcher and a farmer. He sold vegetables to the surrounding mines. He and Eleanor had 11 children. They lived in St. Thomas until the government bought their land for Lake Mead.

Edward died at the home of his daughter, Mary, on June 10, 1941, in Logandale, Nevada.

James Montgomery Whitmore
& Elizabeth Carter

Elizabeth Carter was born on February 11, 1827 to Richard Carter and Elizabeth Lonas. The family became wealthy with large tracts of Texas land. Elizabeth Carter married the wealthy Michael T. Flahrity, who died less than a year later, leaving her a wealthy widow. On February 23, 1853, Elizabeth married James Montgomery Whitmore, a prosperous rancher. Together, they had eight children and lived in Waxahachie, Texas.

During this time, they learned about the restored Church of Jesus Christ and converted to the new religion. Upon hearing about this, their neighbors and friends became hostile and refused to have any dealings with the family. So, the Whitmores decided to move to be near other members and left large crops behind for their former friends to harvest.

Elizabeth joined the Utah-bound Homer Duncan wagon train in 1887 and took 1300 head of cattle with her. James stayed in Texas to finish their holdings, joining her later. In Dodge City, Kansas, Elizabeth sold all but 300 cattle to the U.S. government and, with cash in hand, arrived in Salt Lake City on September 15, 1858, just six weeks before Johnston’s Army arrived in the valley.

In 1860, James and Elizabeth accepted Brigham Young’s call to the Cotton Mission in southern Utah. They arrived in 1861, and James purchased a large tract of land in Arizona’s Antelope Valley (Pipe Springs). In 1866, James and a hired hand, Robert McIntyre, were killed in an encounter with a small group of Native Americans just a few miles from their Pipe Springs ranch. The details of the conflict remain unknown.

Mrs. Whitmore was an astute businesswoman and a faithful Latter-day Saint. She chose to sell Pipe Springs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and continued to invest her resources. She taught her sons well and they became valuable assistants. After the failure of the Church’s Muddy Mission, she acquired a great amount of property in the area.

She was impressed with the versatility and work ethic of Ute Warren Perkins and invited him to join her in reclaiming and revitalizing the Muddy Mission land. She hoped others would come and make their homes there as well.

George Burton Whitney

Was born to George Sanders Whitney and Mary Eveline Barnard on March 9, 1846, in Troy, New York. He remained in Troy until he was nine, but due to poor health, he was sent to live in the countryside with his grandparents, the Barnards. 

His grandparents were strict Methodists and were described as kind and loving. George often said, both in private and public conversation, that there was never a morning in the Barnard home when a Bible was not set out alongside every plate at the table. No matter the number of demanding chores, family prayers and Bible reading were never neglected.

When George was 17, his grandfather died. Shortly thereafter, he ventured out on his own. As a young man, he was a wanderer and traveled through the southwest working various jobs, including prospecting, wood cutting, hauling wood, and running a lumber team. 

George eventually settled in Panaca, Nevada, where he was paid a small stipend each day and given board in return for hoeing weeds in the garden of Luke Syphus.

It was here George learned of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Luke was a bishop and the two men spent many evenings discussing the gospel principles of the newly flourishing church. George was baptized as a member and later married Luke’s daughter, Lovina Syphus, on October 9, 1873.

George and Lovina had 10 children together. George played an active role in his community and dedicated many years of his life to teaching. He was even sent to the Nevada State Assembly to help write the state’s original school laws. In his later years, upon moving to St. George with his family, he worked several different jobs, including watermaster, freighter, and farmer.

George Burton Whitney died April 5, 1927. While he didn’t leave behind a plethora of worldly goods, he was described as leaving his family a legacy worth more than money. He raised an impressive family and was an inspiration to all who knew him. 

Johann Daniel Bonelli

Was born to Hans George and Anna Maria Ammann Bommeli in Bussnang, Switzerland, February 1826. After being baptized as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1854, Daniel and his brother, George, changed the spelling of their last name to symbolize they were “new people.”

Daniel was a staunch member, acting as a missionary for the church in Switzerland and later, England. He joined George and their sister, Mary, in New York City in March 1860, and the siblings arrived in the Salt Lake Valley that September. In 1861, church President Brigham Young called Daniel to lead a group of Swiss saints to southern Utah and establish a wine mission. Before leaving, Daniel married 26-year-old Ann Haigh on October 25, 1861.

Unfortunately, fewer than two months after the Swiss saints arrived, the community was flooded out. Not long after, the Bonelli family moved to Millersburg (now Beaver Dam) in the Arizona territory. Once again, after establishing a home, they were struck by another flood from the Beaver Dam Wash.

They followed their belongings down the Virgin River to St. Thomas, Nevada, and set down roots again. The family did well, but many others chose to abandon the settlement. Daniel was very upset by this and reported in his journal, “…we have been flooded out twice and I’m not leaving what we have worked so hard to build just because it is hard.”

From then on, Daniel was inactive in the church. In later years, he would say, “I never left the church, the church left me.” He dabbled in several ventures, including prospecting and mining, and became a partner of the Southwestern Mining Company of Philadelphia. His most famous venture was the establishment of the Bonelli Ferry at the Virgin and Colorado River junction.

For many years, Daniel was a successful farmer and businessman. However, when the population of the Moapa and Virgin Valleys grew and used more water from the rivers, Daniel no longer had enough water to irrigate his farm. In 1903, Daniel traveled to the county seat to settle his business and put his affairs in order. On the trip back home, Daniel had a stroke and died from complications. He was buried on a low mesa overlooking his farm and ferry. Later after the construction of Lake Mead, Daniels body was moved to be next to where his wife was buried in Kingman, Arizona.

Ute Warren Perkins

The fourth son and seventh child of Ute and Anne Warren Perkins was born February 11, 1849 in Pleasant Valley, Iowa. His family was part of the exodus from Nauvoo and at the time of his birth, were working their way west.

Many members of the Perkins family were among the 309 families called to form the Southern Utah Mission in October 1861. Just a year later in October 1862, notwithstanding the extreme heat, drought, and general hardships, Brigham Young instructed the mission’s families to build a tabernacle.

In 1863, when Ute Warren Perkins was almost 15, the George Laub family came to town and brought with them 13-year-old Sarah Laub. When Ute was just 19 1/2 years of age, he married Sarah Laub, who at the time was just shy of her 18th birthday.

For almost 20 years, Ute and Sarah tried to farm, but the lack of arable land and water in St. George made it incredibly difficult to thrive. All the while, the couple had many children, and by September 1880, their seventh child was born. Mrs. Elizabeth Whitmore, who had purchased land on the Muddy River, issued an invitation to the family. So, Ute left to begin helping the Whitmore boys cultivate the land while acquiring and cultivating land for his own family.

Ute Warren, with his oldest son, Ute Vorace, began the pilgrimage. In 1881, after harvesting the late summer and early fall crops, he returned to St. George to bring Sarah and the rest of their children back to the Muddy.

This settlement became one of the most significant and long-lasting efforts in Ute Warren’s life. The Muddy Mission had been considered abandoned since 1871. However, for many years after, the Perkins family made their home there, and with the help of Mrs. James Whitmore and her sons, they pioneered its resettlement in 1880. Ute Warren Perkins would live out his life there.

Six more children were born to Ute and Sarah as they pioneered the resettlement. They, with the Whitmores, were the vanguard of the valley.

Ute Warren Perkins died in Salt Lake City on April 18, 1903, and was buried in Overton, Nevada.