The Minor Family of Somerset

Utah Cemetery Inventory,ancestry.com
Name: Holdaway,Shadrack
Gender: M
BirthDate: 15 October 1822
Birth Place: Hawkins County,Tennessee
Death Date: 24 December 1902
Cemetery; provo City Cemetery
Source: Sexton
Grave Location: Block 4 Lot 22
Relatives: Spouse 1. Lucinda Haws, 2. eliza Haws
Father Thernoth& Mary Trent Holdaway
Shadrack Holdaway Story
(The spelling of Shadrack's name has variations of shadrack, Sha
drach, and Shedrick)
This story came fromAnn Boes of Pocatello, Idaho. She is an ex
cellent resource person for information about the Holdaway line
. You may e-mail her at ailuj@juno.comj
The information we have on the erly life of Shedrick Holaway i
s very limited. He was born 15 October 1822 in Hawkins County, Te
nnessee, son of Timothy and Mary Trent Holdaway. His parents mo
ved from Tennessee to Indiana about 1833 as their youngest son
, Daniel Webster, was born in Grencastle, Putnam County, Indiana,1
4, July 1834. His father died in 1835, prbably in Illinois, a
s we know his mother married William H. Lunceford, 2 Nov 1837 i
n St. Clair County, Illinois. Mr. Launceford was a widower wit
h a large family.
Shedrick joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint
s 30 April 1843 and that fall went toNauvoo, remaining there un
til the Saints were driven out by the mob in 1846.While in Cou
ncil Bluffs the call came for 500 men to volunteer for the War w
ith Mexico and Shedrick Holdaway was one of them. He filled th
e position of teamster for Company C of the Mormon Battalion und
er Captain James Brown and Lieutenant Rosencrans. He was with t
he Company during the entire campaignuntil they were discharge
d from service 16 July 1847 at Los Angeles, after which time h
e spent six months working for Dan Williams.
He bought a team andwagon and had made preparations to join th
e saints in Utah when the news of the gold discovery was brough
t to Los Angeles. On his way home he stopped fora little whil
e at the Forks of the American River where he did a little minin
g and took out about three thousand dollars worth of gold dust
. From books and reproduction on the screen of life in Californ
ia during the gold rush,we gain a rather perfect idea of the la
wlessness that prevailed. In the campwhere he stayed he said t
hat a night seldom passed without a man being killed either i
n a drunken brawl or by one of the few Spanish women who were i
ncamp. because he would nt mingle with such a group but was so
ber and decent,he was disliked by some, especially a Spanish wo
man who resented his indifference. He had boasted that she woul
d gethim yet. He said that one night heawoke from a sound slee
p as he heard his mother call "Shedrick, Shedrick, Shedrick." H
e interpreted that to be a warning as his mother was still in Il
linois, and he immediately arose and left the camp and started f
or Salt Lake.He arrived inthe valley 24 October 1848 with thre
e thousand dollars in golddust and was the first man to pay hi
s tithing in California gold dust.
On 24December 1848 Shedrick married Lucinda Haws, daughter of G
ilberth and HannahWhitcomb Haws in the endowment House. The Ha
ws family had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley 23 September, 1848
.
Soon after their marriage Shedrick and lucinda went East, but le
t us get the story of the trip from Lucinda's autobiography writ
ten when she was 79 years old. Having told of her marriage sh
egoes on--
"The following March, 1849, my father and family, together wit
h thirty other families, were called to go south to Utah Valle
y to settle up thatpart of the country. I did not go as I inte
nded going back to the States with my husband in May to get som
e machinery for making woolen goods. We leftSalt Lake City i
n comapny with thirteen others, among them Brother Lorenzo D.Yo
ung and wife and Doctor Berhisel, who was going to Washington, D
.C. on business. Ten men of the companyintended to stay