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History of John Warriner and Amanda Moss Porter
John Warriner Porter, son of John President and Amy Zenora Porter, was born Dec 21,
1873, at Porterville, Morgan Co., Utah. He was the first son and third of fourteen children.
He was raised on a farm and lived in a log cabin with a dirt roof (floor) on the banks of East
Canyon River. They carried water from the creek and drug the wood from the canyon.
Coal and kindling were brought into the house, and put in a box behind the coal stove each
night.
As a child he spent many hours skating, sleigh riding, dancing, and attending primary and
mutual classes. He was baptized at the age of eight years on Sept. 24, 1882, by Lyman W
Porter, his uncle. As he grew and advanced, he was ordained into the different offices of
the Priesthood.
The family lived in poor circumstances. They raised their own food, dug potatoes, milked
cows, etc. The children went to school from the time snow came in the fall until time to plow
in the spring. He went to school where all the grades were in one room, with one teacher,
Joseph R. Porter, who was also the Bishop of the ward. The building was also used as the
church house. He learned spelling, arithmetic, writing, and went to the fifth reader.
He worked on his father's farm until he was twenty-one, when his parents moved to
Bountiful. He didn't come with them at that time, but worked for other farmers, and
boarded out. He also went to Nevada to herd cattle.
As a growing boy, he herded cattle and sheep, plowed ground, cut hay with a scythe, cut
grain with a cradle, reaper, and self finder.
Horseback riding and sleigh riding were the main sports at that time. When he was
ordained a ward teacher at fourteen, he and his uncle, Alma Porter traveled eight miles by
horseback to visit seven homes. He lived near a hill where he could sleigh ride, and when
he was a young man, he and his friends took the girls to dances in a bobsleigh with straw
in the bottom and quilts and blankets to wrap up in.
One time he came to Bountiful to visit his parents who were living on 8th east and Center
streets. He wanted to help his father haul a load of hay but needed a wagon. He went
along 8th east to the home of Robert Moss to borrow a wagon. As he went around to the
back of the house, he saw a young woman standing there combing her hair. It was
beautiful hair, thick, and it hung way down her back. He decided right then and there to ask
her to go to the dance with him. Later, when he was keeping company with her, he rode
horseback over the mountain form Porterville, to Bountiful, Davis County to see her. It took
three hours to ride over, then thy danced until midnight, and then he road home the same
night, arriving in time to go to work in the morning. Now we'll bring you up to date with his
wife.
Amanda Moss was born in Bountiful, April 23, 1872, to Robert and Mary Buys Moss. She
was born in a log cabin with only two rooms. The family also lived in a rock home located
at about 9th East and 3rd South, just east of the home where she lived most of her life.
She was the eleventh of twelve children.
When she was five years old, her mother died. Amanda could only remember two things
about her mother: the first thing she could remember was a big bear came into their yard
and her mother chased it away with a flat iron; she could also remember seeing her mother
laid out in her casket in the home.
After her mother's death, her seventeen-year-old sister Elizabeth (Sessions) kept house for
the family and helped to raise Amanda.
The first school Amanda attended was at the home of Judge Holbrook at 2nd east and
Center street. His wife, called Aunt Hannah, taught school in her kitchen. Then Amanda
went to school at 2nd E. and 5th S. about where the Second Ward church house now
stands; Kate Chase was her teacher. Next She attended a school at 4th E. and 2nd N.
There was one room for all the grades and about 60 pupils. Amanda went to the 6th
reader.
In 1887 when she was nine years old, her brothers bought a saw mill which was run by
steam, in Holbrook Canyon. As a child, Amanda spent her summers up there while the
older girls cooked for the workers. In later years she also helped to cook. They were up
ten thousand feet, and were 35 miles from the nearest town of Hillyard, Wyoming. It took
eight days driving with a team to reach the mill.
When she was ten years old, she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints on a cold January day when they had to break the ice in the mill pond at
Heber C Kimball Mill on 4th E and about 7th or 8th S. She was baptized by William
Holbrook and confirmed on the banks of the pond by Thomas Briggs.
As a young woman, she went to dances upstairs over a store located on Main Street about
where the Lakewood Furniture now stands. They had round dances and square dances
accompanied by a violin. The store was run by Charles Rampton, and they sold groceries,
dry goods, and everything in general. It was about this time that she met John Porter, who
later became her husband.
John Warriner Porter and Amanda Moss were married in the Salt Lake Temple on January
27, 1889. They first moved to Murray to work in a vinegar factory. They also lived in Salt
Lake on several occasions during the winter months while John worked in a coal yard. In
the summer they lived in Bountiful so that he could farm and work at the brick yard. During
the first ten years of their married life, they moved twenty-six times.
They had three children, Mary Winnie Porter Page (George A Page), John Lloyd Porter
(ReVon Hayward), and Rilla Zenora Porter Hogan (Garth Walter Hogan). When their first
child was small, they moved to Mercur to work in the gold mine. They lived in a little town
called Johannasberg on the out-skirts of Mercur. The miners that did not have homes lived
in a hotel. One morning, as they were changing shifts at 9 A.M., a fire started. All the water
available was pumped over the hills from Opher. When the fire started everyone turned
their hoses on, making it impossible to put the fire out with water. The fire spread from one
house to another until nearly every house burned. By twelve noon there was hardly anything
left. They did save a few homes by blowing up others with giant powder. The railroad sent
a car with bacon and bread for the people to eat until they could get a passenger train up
there and bring them all back to Salt Lake. This was all done by the railroad company free
of charge.
In later years John and Amanda lived at Bauer, Stockton, and Tooele while he worked on a
farm. Most of their married lives was spent in Bountiful while he worked at Cudahay and
cared for a cherry and peach orchard.
They were both active in the Church. Altogether they lived in thirteen wards. Amanda
taught Primary, served as 1st Counselor in the Relief Society at Stockton, Utah, and
served for 45 years as a visiting teacher, besides doing a lot of temple work.
John liked to read the scriptures, and spent many, many hours studying. In 1918 he was a
Sunday School teacher in Stockton. He administered to the sick many, many times, and
saw the sick healed. He spoke at funerals and missionary farewells and blessed babies,
baptized and confirmed his grandchildren. In 1943, when he was seventy years of age, he
spent six months on a mission at Pacific Grove, California. He also served two years as a
Stake missionary. He was a ward teacher, chairman of ward teachers, and high priests.
He has done lots of Temple work, ordinances, endowments, and sealings. He tried to live
a good life and keep the commandments of the Lord.
Most of his life he enjoyed good health. He walked from his home on 8th east to the city of
Bountiful and back hundreds of times. On August 27, 1958, when he was 84 years old, he
walked to town and back. Then he decided to mow the lawn. When he had finished he
stood the mower up against the tree and fell over dead on the sidewalk of his home.
For the next four and a half years, Amanda lived with her children. She was 86 years old
when her husband died, her hands were crippled with arthritis and she was not able to live
alone. She always kept her faith and attended to her church duties the best she could,
paying her tithes and donations until the time of her death.
On Thanksgiving Day of 1962, when she was 90 years of age, she fell and broke her arm.
A few days later she suffered a stroke that affected her speech and her swallowing. On
Dec. 6th 1962 at three a.m. she passed away with her arm still in a cast.
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