Almond Draper was born 28, Oct. 1846 in Pottawatomie County Iowa. He was the son of William Draper and Martha Weaver. They were early converts to the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and came from east Canada. After Almond's family come to Utah in 1848, they settled in Moroni. Almond had 56 siblings as his father had 7 wives. Altho Almond was the only child born to Martha.
Almond married Amy Hansen when she was only 14, (Dont even think about that Grandkids) he was 20 years old and their first child was Elzina Jane, She is our line. Almond and Amy had 9 children.
Almond with go with other men to fight the Indians that were on the warpath. In 1880, Almond's family moved from Rockville to Springdale which was 5 miles to the East. Almond liked to trade and move around, he liked to change possessions often . When Dixie country was crowded and the farms were to small and no jobs were available, Almond wanted to move to "greener pastures".
Almond was a large, well built, fine looking man. His average weight was 160 pounds an his height was 5 feet, 6 inches tall. He had beautiful brown wavy hair and brown eyes. He was quite the entertainer at parties an dances and would often do the call for square dances. He was a good singer and really fleet-footed in the popular jog dances.
Before Martha died (1st wife) on 23, April 1889, she told Almond that if she dies and Phebe Barton whom Almond had taken a fancy to, was still single, he had her permission to marry Phebe., which he did soon after Martha's death. Almond married his 3rd wife, Mariah Durffy of Springdale. People living plural marriages were "Taking off" for Mexico Almond took his wives an children and started for Mexico also, they got as Taylor Arizona where Martha's sister and her husband lived . They lived there about a year and Almond decided not to go to Mexico and thought he could do better at home in Springdale. The family got as far Lee's Ferry on the Colorado River and decided to stay. They lived there for a year then moved back to Springdale. After 5 months Almond moved his family to Duncan, further down the river. They stayed there for three or four years and then moved back to Springdale for the next few years.
Almond was a real "Cut-Up" and used to cause quite a bit of sport for the crowd by performing rodeo stunts with wild range cattle. While several town men were going to a job site on Mount Trumble, which was a saw mill, Almond grabbed a red blanket and started to put on his act and acted weird and making noises for the cattle that were passing by them. When the cattle seen him they took off like scared coyotes, except one old cow. When she seen Almond, she stopped, turned, snorted, bellowed and charged him. The horn's just grazed Almonds "britches" but he jumped clear over the wagon to safety.
In Nov 1898, Almond decided to move again. They moved to Beaver Bottoms near Milford. After about a year they moved to Konash and then in 1902 they moved to Provo.
Almond died in 1920 while they were living in Hinckley. He is buried in Lemington by his wife Phebe. He was 73 years old.
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