Gobo Fango
This account of the life of Gobo Fango has come from combined reminiscences of three surviving grandchildren of Edward Hunter (Pratt Matthews, Ada Brown and Blanche England) plus information found in a section of The Negro Pioneer, in Our Pioneer Heritage, compiled by Kate B. Carter, and published in 1965 by Daughters Of The Utah Pioneers.
Gobo Fango came to Utah in about 1861 from South Africa with a family named Talbot. The story has been told that on the trek west, the group encountered Confederate officers who were searching wagon trains for escaping slaves, shooting them on sight, and that one of the women took the young boy, Gobo, and hid him in the folds of her skirt and apron until the danger was past. Whether or not that woman was Mary Whitesides Hunter, we're not sure.
Gobo Fango came to Grantsville as a young boy when Mary Ann Whitesides Hunter (Edward Hunter's first wife) wrote her brother, Leslie [Lewis] Whitesides, in Kaysville, Utah, and asked him to find her a boy to help her herd her sheep. At this time Mary Ann's daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, were herding sheep between Grantsville and Tooele, the sons in the family being too young to be trusted with this work. Mary Ann began to worry that these girls were having no opportunity to learn the skills necessary to run a home well.
Mary Ann drove a wagon to Kaysville and brought Gobo home with her. Her husband, Edward Hunter, paid the "owner" thirty dollars a month. Gobo had been made to sleep in a woodshed in cold weather and was suffering from frozen feet. Mary Ann doctored his feet as best she could, but he limped all his life. He lived with the Hunter family for several years, helping with farm chores and herding sheep.
When slavery was abolished, Edward stopped paying thirty dollars to Gobo's "owner" and began paying it to Gobo. The owner sued Mr. Hunter on this matter, but was not able to change this.
In about 1880 [when the U. S. census records showed Gobo living in one of the Wrathall households in Grantsville], Lewis and Billy Hunter, and Gobo Fango took Edward Hunter's sheep to the Oakley, Idaho area to run them on shares [to serve as shepherds in exchange for some of the lambs]. A sheep and cattleman's war developed over grazing rights and Gobo was shot by a man named Bedky, who rode up pretending to be a friend. Gobo managed to crawl to the home of Walt Matthews, but died there a few days later. Before he died he wrote a will, leaving some money to Mary Ann Whitesides and her daughter, Etta Neilson and $500.00 To the Grantsville Relief Society. Mary Ann was president of that organization for 22 years.
He is buried in the Oakley, Idaho cemetery.
A few of the older people in Grantsville (at the time this was written) remember Gobo Fango. One grand-daughter of the Hunters says he visited often in their home when she was young. She remembers him as a kind and friendly person, always bringing candy for the children.
(This information furnished by John Paul Millward [son of Elwin VanOrden (Jack) Millward, great-great-grandson of Edward and Mary Ann Whitesides Hunter).