James Wrathall of Grantsville (1828 -1896)

• Sheep Pasture and shelter, south of Buckden
  In pastures like this, James, his brothers, and his father John tended the family's sheep, and this was how James developed the husbandry skills he would use in Utah.
• River Wharfe, near south entrance to Buckden
• Buckden houses, looking northeast
  These late 18th and early 19th century houses are probably similar to the Wrathall house in Buckden, minus the antennae and plumbing.
• Small Creek, running through center of Buckden
• Buckden houses  looking west
  The hillsides around Buckden are uninhabited, given over to sheep pastures and hunting preserves.
• Stone Wall, northeast of Buckden
  They had to be sturdy people to deal with steep slopes containing large crops of stones each year, many of which ended up in the high stone walls.
• Upper Wharfedale, view of Hubberholme from hill near Buckden
  This was the nearest village to Buckden, down in the valley floor, and subject to flooding, unlike Buckden on its hillside.
• Hubberholme Church, northwest of Buckden
  This 12th century church was the nearest one to Buckden. Kettlewell to the south was twice as far away. The Wrathalls probably attended usual services here, except in bad weather, when they may have attended a congregation in one of the larger houses in Buckden.
• Falls northwest of Hubberholme, near source of River Wharfe
  There are waterfalls like this every few miles in Upper Wharfedale.

Parish Records of the Chapelries of Bolton-with-Redmire in the Parish of Wensley
Christenings 1770 - 1837:
• 31 July 1803: Nanny, daughter of John and Elizabeth ATKINSON of Bolton, baptized.
• 11 Dec 1808: Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth ATKINSON of Bolton, baptized.

• John ATKINSON
  • Spouse: Mrs. Betty ATKINSON
  • Marriage: Abt. 1799 Chapham, Yorkshire, England
• John ATKINSON
  • Birth: Abt. 1774 Of Austwick, Yorkshire, England
  • Spouse: Betty

The first week in December [1851] they [James McBride, Harrison Herman Severe and their families] went back to Grantsville; other families joined them. Some of those who came to Grantsville that winter were: Benjamin Baker, his wife and family, the families of Thomas Watson, William Davenport, Samuel Steele, Wilford Hudson, James Wrathall, James Davenport, Perry Durfree and Mr. Davis[.] Benjamin Baker, president of the Willow Creek Branch, wrote to President Brigham Young on August 30, 1852. His letter stated that there were only eight white men with their families and forty five Indians.

A considerable amount of information on James Wrathall was handed down to me by his second son Percy and his daughters.

James settled in an area of Utah southwest of Salt Lake City that, while desolate, had the appearance of offering opportunities that might allow James to continue in sheep husbandry, as his ancestors had done since time immemorial. In those days, the place was called "Zion".

He got his start with a few small flocks of sheep, herding them in droves from various mountain pastures ranging from Northwest Utah to Soda Springs, Idaho, and Central Wyoming. This mountainous, arid environment (inhabited by outlaws and Shoshonean tribes such as the Utes to the east, Paiutes and Goshutes to the West, and Shoshone to the north), was the opposite of what he had known in Yorkshire, with its gentle hills, heavy rain, centuries of civilization, and 6-foot-high stone walls enclosing virtually every acre of ground.

James would hire people to drive his sheep to market, grazing, and shearing areas, and would keep the surplus of lambs for himself, taking a small profit from the sale of sheep and wool as well. In time he built up quite a fortune.

James became prominent in the Grantsville area. He offered to finance a pipeline to carry water to Grantsville from a nearby canyon containing the north and south forks of Willow creek. He owned a number of cattle ranches and dry farms in Tooele county, and eventually became involved in banking and finance in the capitol, Salt Lake City. This was not a state or territorial capital, but rather the capitol of Deseret, which the founders considered to have the status of a sovereign nation.

James seemed to have a knack for making money. In his later years, he built and resided in what was described as the best house in Grantsville. Unfortunately, he never wrote anything yet found about his life or activities in England or Utah.

James Wrathall, Grantsville, Tooele [County], Utah

Mr. Jas. Wrathall was born in England in 1828 and came to Utah in 1851 and settled in Grantsville.

In 1866 [sic] he married Mary Lishman, a native of England whose family came to Utah in '54. He became engaged in farming and stock raising. He began without money, but when he could get a few dollars for labor, laid it aside until he could buy a cow, and he started a sheep herd from one ewe, adding one as he could save the money to buy it, and from these small beginnings, he has 20,000 sheep and quite large bands of cattle, and is the wealthiest man in the [County] probably.

He was one of the organizers of the Co-op and was interested in the Factory, which was a failure, in the Gristmill and in every enterprise started in the [County] calculated to benefit the community. He is interested in the Co-op Wagon and Machine [Company] in Salt Lake City and in the House Fire Insurance [Company]. He also has a small interest in the Herald published at Salt Lake which he took to aid the paper.

He has had very little to do with politics but has been Alderman and in the City Council.

• James Wrathall (1828 - 1896) (large version)
• James Wrathall's first wife Mary Leishman (1822 - 1871) (large version)
• James Wrathall and Mary Leishman (small version)

• click HERE to view the source of the following record for James Wrathall's first wife, Mary Lishman (1822 - 1871):

  Date of Newspaper publication: 10 May 1871
  FHL US/CAN Film 0026592, item 2
  Died, Grantsville, 13 Apr 1871, Mary Lishman wife of James WRATHALL, 49 years 3 months.

• click HERE to view the source of the following record for James Wrathall's third wife, Frances Port Cask (1842 - 1883):

  Date of Newspaper publication: 16 May 1883
  Died, Grantsville, 25 Apr 1883, Frances wife of James WRATHALL and daughter of William & Mary PORT, from Hampshire, England, born 20 Aug 1842.

Robert [Alfred Mander] ... travelled from St. Louis, Mo. with his widowed mother, Maria (Lishman) Bickley Mander Watson. As a four-year-old, Robert walked across the plains, while his mother carried his little sister Sarah Ann (Mander) Green (Mrs. Henry Thomas Green). His other sibling, John Mander, died a teenager in Grantsville. John lived with James Wrathall and his Aunt Mary (Lishman) Wrathall.

Matthew and Jane, and a few others of the company, must have gone to Grantsville almost immediately, because Jane gave birth to their first child, Isabella, there on October 4th [1852]. Settlement at Grantsville had started the previous year. Friends from the Dales, James Wrathall and John and George Hardy, who had immigrated the year before, were already there. ... Matthew and his friends from Yorkshire (James Wrathall, the Hardy brothers, and William Rydalch) were members of the Nauvoo Legion (organized to check Indian depredations) and attended periodic musters. ... He and his Yorkshire friend, James Wrathall, were among those sent to build and man defenses at Echo Canyon.

At Grantsville, Tooele County, April 13th 1871, MARY LISHMAN, wife of James Wrathall, after three days sickness, aged 49 years and 3 months. Sister Wrathall was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1841, at Preston, England. She lived and died a faithful Saint. --Com.