Wesley Kimball Walton, son of Charles Wesley Walton and Hannah Wheeler Kimball, was born February 21, 1850, in Mexico, Maine. He had two sisters Cora and Elizabeth. Wesley became a student at Norwich Military Academy, Vermont. During the Civil War, the President of the United States called for volunteers, and Wesley was among those who enlisted although he was only 14. When it was learned that he was under age, he was discharged. This was a bitter disappointment to him but it proved to be the spur to his desire for higher education. He returned to Norwich and graduated in Law at the age of 17. He was also a graduate of the New England School of Music in Boston. He studied violin, but did not follow music as a profession.

Following graduation, he spent a few years in his father's law office in Portland, Maine. He came west in 1872 as part of the Gold Rush. An illness caused him to remain in Salt Lake City for a time. There he met Brigham H. Roberts who was about his age and they became close friends. They prospected west of Salt Lake in the Oquirrh Mountains where the town of Brigham later became one of the greatest open pit copper mines in the world. Roberts was an educated writer and prominent in the Mormon Church. It is believed that this friendship was responsible for Wesley joining the Church. He was baptized into the Church September 27, 1875.

About 1873 Wesley, Charles Small and Anson Call went to Woodruff, Rich County, Utah, where they spent the winter living in a dugout in the creek bank. Wesley filed on a 320 acre Desert Entry and proceeded to build a house, a two room log cabin with dirt roof and floors. They walked the 22 miles to Evanston, Wyoming, their nearest town, for supplies. One day among other things they brought back an orange crate. From it, Wesley fashioned a guitar and he and Van, who also had a flair for music, whiled away many an hour trying out the new instrument.

During these years he traveled for his father checking out land deals in Idaho and Washington. His family, who were Catholics, were not happy with his interest in Mormonism. I have a letter from his father, Charles Wesley, reminding him to be very careful about getting involved in polygamy because it was against the law and dire consequences could occur.

Wesley learned that the South Cottonwood school needed a teacher who could handle some roughnecks. Simpson Huffaker was chairman of the school board. He made a contract with Wesley to be the teacher and invited him to stay at their home. This decision proved to be a determining factor in shaping his future.

The oldest Huffaker daughter Frances attended the school and was one of his pupils. In later years a twinkle always lighted his eyes when he admitted that before ringing the last bell he looked up the street. If Frances was coming, he delayed ringing the bell until she had time to get there.

He became lonely so far away from home. His mother had died and Charles Wesley had married Sarah Hastings Small, widow of Albert Small, secretary of the Maine Senate. As a result communications from home were sparse. His ties, however, with the Huffaker family were very strong.

Wesley and Frances were married on July 17, 1876 at the Endowment House in Salt Lake City when Frances was 17. They decided to go north to the two room log house he had built near Woodruff, Utah. Lumber and logs had been hauled from the west mountains about 20 miles distance. Cooking was done in the fireplace. It was in this home that the first three boys were born.

They lived about three-quarters of a mile from the Anson Call Ranch, their nearest neighbor, and a mile and a half from a small village. One day while Frances was alone with her first two babies a band of roving Indians surrounded their little cabin. While they were pounding on the door, she frantically squeezed herself and the little ones through the small back window and, with wildly beating heart, found refuge in a clump of willows behind the cabin.

When the last of the intruders left, she found, to her dismay, that they had taken every bit of food. Such harrowing experiences were not uncommon in the early settlements of northern Utah at that time.

About 1880 they bought a ten acre farm in Garden City and lived there while making additions to the house on the ranch. The new rooms had a shingled roof. Wesley made the shingles himself with a drawing knife. The bedroom had plastered walls and the living room was lined with lumber that Frances wallpapered with newspaper.

Success came gradually in their sheep business and later in the breeding of purebred registered shorthorn cattle. In 1885 they decided to have a contractor from Bountiful build a new home. It had a full basement, four rooms on the first floor including a large kitchen and pantry and there were four bedrooms with closets above. The stairway had a beautiful polished handrail that the boys liked to slide down. There was an entrance hall and a porch on two sides.

The old house was used at first for a play house. The big room was equipped as a shop and the first log room was a blacksmith shop with horseshoeing equipment. The other large room was used for ice storage. The ice was buried in sawdust. Part of it was also used as a chicken coop.

During this time much of the heavy work was done by oxen. They worked in pairs, connected with a yoke and a chain back to the plow. The oxen were used to drag the logs around the place when they were building the bridge just west of the house. The road before this time came down by the feed lot and forded the creek.

One time when Frances was driving the oxen the water was up to the bed of the wagon. One of the oxen, named Nance, balked, so Frances waded to her head and tied her up to a bunch of willows. Frances waded ashore and she was so angry she left Nance standing in the water for hours. She was a very spunky little woman. She worked hard and was willing to do anything for the kids but she wouldn't be pushed around.

When expecting, which was often, she would stand by the old house, picking and eating lime. She loved to stand out in the rain. She also loved to help with the milking. Whenever anything went wrong Wesley would call to "Frant" to find out what it was. She was very devoted to his personal needs, especially fixing his breakfast.

Moving into the new home was the beginning, for the family, of a more pleasant and interesting life. They had purchased an organ and Wesley taught Frances to play. He was a fine musician, especially on the violin. He was the choir leader in the church, and Frances became the organist. He had charge of most of the cultural amusements of the town, putting on plays, etc. He paid for the materials necessary to build the stage addition to the old adobe school house. The town people furnished the labor. Neither of them cared very much about playing for dances, but it seemed they had no other choice. They would cart the organ in a sleigh or buggy, depending on the season, to the schoolhouse or Anson Call's barn, where the dances were held.

In 1890 Wesley inherited land in Cottonwood which was part of the Huffaker farm. He built a house with $10,000 given him by his father Charles Wesley. The house was of brick and was two stories with both an attic and a cellar. There was a veranda around the first and second floors in front of the house. The two front first floor rooms each had beautiful fireplaces faced with imported tile. Each bedroom also had a fireplace, but there were, at that time, no bathrooms. There were front and back stairs. The banister down into the front hall was of beautiful wood and came down in a very graceful curve. All of the children and grandchildren found sliding down it irresistible. The front hall was a large room with the walls decorated with the heads of many of the animals the boys had brought home from hunting. Pam has one of the deer heads which we believe her grandfather shot.

By that time the family lived between the two homes. With thirteen children there was a 26 year span in ages. Most of the family stayed in Salt Lake during the winter and spent their summers at the ranch. Although we visited the ranch when we were children, we also took many trips to the farm during the summer where we became acquainted with many of our cousins. By 1920 Donal was the only member of the family remaining in Woodruff. Wesley and Frances by that time had a small home in downtown Salt Lake as he was very active in business and political affairs.

Wesley and Frances's talent for music was passed on and as the family grew, the children played with them. Each child was instructed in playing an instrument that, in combination with the others, would eventually develop into a well balanced orchestra and band. They enjoyed impromptu concerts in their home almost every evening. With ten sons Wesley gained some prominence by making concert tours throughout Utah and Wyoming. Musicians of note were frequent guests in their home.

Wesley kept up his interest in athletics and entertainment throughout his busy life. He was a hunting and fishing enthusiast and enjoyed all kinds of athletic games. In the early days he was very active in organizing ball games and encouraged everyone to take part. They had a basket ball team and a baseball team.

He had a passion for theatricals and freely contributed his talent and energies to the production of many celebrated plays. He loved to act and encouraged his family to participate. He made and painted much of the scenery and Frances made exciting and lovely costumes for the actors. In the year 1902 or thereabouts Wesley was instrumental in producing Corianton in the old Salt Lake Theater. Some of the boys took part.

Wesley passed the Bar examinations for the state of Utah but never followed law as a profession. He served as Justice of the Peace, Notary Public and as Chairman of the State Republican Committee. He held this position for many years without compensation other than personal satisfaction. Over a period of years he used his knowledge of law to help the settlers of Rich County to prove their government claims and to assist with the solution of other legal problems that arose. He did this without thought of remuneration.

In early anticipation of Utah becoming a state, Wesley jumped right into the ring of politics. He had always been active in local politics. At a convention held in Salt Lake by leading Republicans, a State Republican Committee was chosen consisting of prominent men with outstanding leadership ability. Wesley was elected Chairman, an honorary position he held for over thirty years. He had a great deal to say in selecting the State ticket. The slate consisted of Heber M. Wells for the first Governor of the State, James T. Hammond, Secretary of State and Frank J. Casnnon, United States Senator.

These three men came to Woodruff to open their campaign. They returned to Salt Lake to tour the rest of the state. Wesley went with them and the whole State ticket went also. The entire Republican ticket was elected including a majority in the Legislature. Utah became a state on January 4, 1896. William McKinley was elected President of the United States with Theodore Roosevelt as Vice President.

In 1905 he organized the Bank of Randolph and served as its first president. His oldest son Charles was manager of the bank. The story has passed down through the family about a robbery that occurred at the bank. It seems that there was a switch in the vault that in an emergency would ring a bell in the grocery store. Charles was pushed into the vault and tied up. He was, however, able to reach the switch and for several hours kept ringing the bell. For some unknown reason no one paid the slightest attention until the end of the day so the robber was never caught or identified.

A few years later Wesley organized the Utah and Wyoming Independent Telephone Company and became its first president. The following year he was elected State Senator from Rich County, Utah and a few years later was elected State Senator from Salt Lake County. He held this office until his death in 1917.

Wesley's knowledge of law was an advantage to him during his career in the State Senate, where he was known for his honesty, fairness, and determination. The Senate Journals show that he was a member of standing committees on Agriculture, Irrigation, Banks and Banking, Education, Judiciary, Livestock, Public Printing and others.

Wesley sponsored Senate Bill No 116, making unlawful the sale of medicine containing opium without labeling it, and providing penalty for violation of the act. (Senate Journal 1907, P. 213.)

Senator Walton's long and useful service in the Senate will live in the annals of Utah history.

About 1907 Governor Cutler, the second Governor of Utah, appointed Wesley the Utah representative to "Jamestown Centennial". Wesley, Frances, Ex-Territorial Governor Thomas, Judge Henderson and the Governor all went to Jamestown.

Before returning to Utah, Wesley and Frances decided to visit his old home in Portland, Maine. The only family he had was his sister Lizzie and her husband, Captain Crawford, Cora Small and her husband, Reuel Small and their five children. Reuel Small was Chief Reporter of the Congressional House of Representative in Washington, D.C. for over forty years. They visited many places of remembrance, traveled up the Swift river where many lumber and paper mills were running and visited a lake where he used to go so often, "Mooselockmygunkick".

Wesley was a staunch Republican, but he got into a disagreement, that landed him in the Democratic ranks. He, Nephi L. Morris, building material merchant, and Albert Riser, a jeweler, started a campaign for state-wide prohibition. The Church would not take any stand on the proposition. They spent a lot of their own money for printing pamphlets, etc. Wesley's friend, Brigham H. Roberts, now a high Church official became very interested. He was a Democrat and election was not far off. Simon Bamberger was the Democratic candidate for Governor. Brigham Roberts asked Wesley to meet him at the office of Mr. Bamberger, who was the owner of the railroad from Salt Lake City to Ogden. They made him a proposition. If he would support state-wide prohibition, they would use their Church support for his election. They called a big rally in the new American Theater on South Main Street.

Mr. Roberts made the chief address. He pledged Bamberger for prohibition. Bamberger had no intention of supporting this issue, but now he was publicly bound. He was elected by a large majority. In due time Utah adopted Prohibition. Politics got pretty hot in those days. The Church was accused of entering politics, mixing Church and State. Wesley had his headquarters at the Canyon Hotel on Main and Second South. He loved every bit of it and he always insisted on everything being on the up and up.

Wesley remained in politics during the l912 Republican Convention which was held in Chicago. There were two candidates running for President, William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. The convention selected Roosevelt as their choice for President and the new political party was named the Bull Moose Progressive party. Wesley became active in the party.

Frances's "sphere of action" was HOME. She was the oldest of a family of 13 children. She was Wesley's right hand help mate. They discussed all the activities he was involved in and gave him her opinion. The family said many of his plans were influenced by her advice.

Their children were all born in Utah:

Wesley K. died April 9, 1917 in Salt Lake City. Frances Matilda Huffaker died December 1942 in Salt Lake city twenty five years after the death of her husband. They are both buried in Wasatch Lawn Cemetery in Salt Lake City.

Continue to Chapter 6, The Reuel Walton page and the rest of the history,
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