This Biography written by Orpha Faylor Bradley and Lois Lee Hulme.

Josiah Albert Faylor Jr was born November 23, 1861 at Park City, Summit County, Utah. He was the first of seven children born to Josiah Albert Faylor Sr [born November 18, 1839 at Hancock County, Illinois] and Mary Jane Aland Faylor.

Josiah Faylor Sr. rode for the Pony Express out of the Willow Springs Station in the Utah Territory in 1860. Sir Richard Burton, English adventurer-writer, passed through Willow Springs August 17, 1860, and describes it as follows, "The express rider was a handsome young Mormon, who wore in his felt hat the effigy of a sword; his wife was an Englishwoman . . ."

Josiah Faylor Sr. was married to Mary Jane Aland (born in England, October 30, 1837). She came to the United States as a Mormon immigrant in 1854. Willow Springs was very isolated and she was frequently frightened when left alone while Josiah was on his rides. When he came in from his Pony Express rides in winter, he would have icicles in his red beard. Once when the Indians were about and Mary was alone and afraid, she put hats and caps on sticks and placed these near the windows so the natives would think the men were at home. Their first child, Josiah Albert Faylor Jr., was born November 23, 1861, in Park City, Summit County, Utah.

Josiah Sr. and family finally settled in Sonoma County, California. After settling in Sonoma County, it is family folklore that in 1879 he and (Janice Stenger's) great uncle Sam, who was one at the time, took the train to San Francisco. Josiah supposedly put Sam on the train for home and disappeared for seven years. There is speculation that he heard of some gold or silver strike and took off to pursue that endeavor.

When Josiah Jr. was six or seven years old, he moved with his parents, a sister, and two brothers, to California, living in Sonoma County, at Sebastopol and Guerneville. In June of 1882, he went to Bloomington, Bear Lake County, Idaho to stay with his 41 year old, widowed Uncle Albert John Aland. [wife was Tryphena Reed]. Albert owned the Bloomington Co-op Store and also taught school for a number of years. Albert later moved to Ogden, Utah where he was in business with J.C. Reed and sons.

Mary Jane Thomas was born October 23, 1866, in Bloomington, Idaho. She was the first of six children born to James Clayborne Thomas and Tene Nelson Thomas. Mary Jane was among the first children born in Bloomington. Her parents were the first couple married there. Bloomington, at that time, consisted of just a few houses. Mary Jane slept in a trundle bed, which could be slid under the large bed to make more space in the room.

Early in life, Mary Jane was taught to spin yarn, which her mother wove into material for clothing for the family. Mary Jane was given the task of spinning three skeins of yarn a day - a skein consisted of ten knots, a knot made of forty threads, each about a yard long. Color for the yarn was supplied from nature. Mother Tene and Mary Jane gathered green birch leaves, various other plants, berries, and blossoms with which they dyed the yarn. In this way, they were able to make checks and stripes in their material, as it was woven.

When Mary Jane was of school age, a one-room school house was built. All grades, from the first to the eighth, were taught in this room. Boards were hung on hinges along the walls. When these were raised, they served as desks for the students, who sat on benches, facing the walls - the boys on one side of the room, the girls on the other. There were other benches in the center of the room which were used for recitation. The children stood in a line for spelling. If a child couldn't spell a word correctly, he moved to the foot of the line. It was the aim of each child to work to the head of the line and try to remain there. One of the biggest thrills of Mary Jane's young life was when she was presented a book for being the best speller in school. The book was "The Martyrs," a story of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. It was inscribed, "Presented by the Trustees of the Bloomington School District, September 15, 1882." Mary Jane cherished this book all the years of her life.

During Josiah Jr.'s visits to Bloomington, and after he came to stay, he worked at odd jobs, saving his money very carefully, as he was a very frugal man. He did the cooking and washed dishes, etc., for his Uncle Albert Aland, who was a widower and lame, to help pay his way. When it was known that the railroad was coming through that area, Josiah bought four teams of horses, hired three other drivers, and he worked along with these drivers grading the bed for the railroad tracks.

Josiah began courting Mary Jane in 1882, shortly after his arrival in Bloomington. They were married October 9, 1883, in Logan, Utah. The young couple was accompanied to Logan by Mary Jane's parents and a younger brother, Burton. The party went to Logan in two team-drawn covered wagons. The parents drove the wagons back to Bloomington and the newlyweds went to Salt Lake City, Utah, then by train to California for a honeymoon. They returned to Bloomington to make their home.

They bought a farm adjoining the property of Mary Jane's father, about a mile south of town, and built a home there. In September of that same year, Josiah met with a serious accident. As he was standing, watching some men at work at the sawmill, one of the men placed more boards on the carrier than the saw could cut through, and three boards were thrown into the air, one of which struck Josiah's legs, breaking both of them just below the knees, almost completely severing them. There were no cars nor telephone in those days, so a man was sent on horseback to Montpelier to get the nearest doctor. Both legs were in casts from that September until the following June. Mary Jane, with the help of another woman, would carry her husband from the bedroom to the dining room each morning, where he was placed on a cot, so that Mary Jane could watch him and care for him while she continued with her other work. Then, each night, he was carried back to his bed. Josiah was on crutches for some time after that, so Mary Jane helped to do all kinds of work on the farm, planting, weeding, irrigating, milking, feeding the animals, besides her housework, preserving food, sewing, etc., and they managed very well. They were both thankful that he survived and was given strength to endure the painful healing process without the benefit of modern sedatives and antibiotics. To many, recovery and the fact that he had the use of his legs throughout his life was truly a miracle.

On September 3, 1886, their first child was born, a daughter, Eurilla LaVerna Faylor. A son, Milford Wiley Faylor was born on July 17, 1888 and another daughter, Leola Frances Faylor, arrived to bless this happy home on March 31, 1893..

On April 17, 1893, Josiah purchased two city lots, a house, barn, shedding and granary owned by James E. Hart in town. The house in town was a large two-story home just a block from the church and two blocks from school. This home became a gathering place for young and old, for meetings, parties, and dinners. Mary Jane often prepared and served dinner for twenty­five people at a time.

Josiah made two trips a year to Brigham City, Willard, or Ogden, Utah to get fruit and vegetables. He had a double box wagon and a team of large horses, which he would drive to Logan Canyon, camping overnight there, then drive on the next day to Brigham City, etc., camping overnight, again, and purchasing fruit and produce the next day. Peaches, cherries, melons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, onions were picked and chosen with care for the long trip home; the wagon was loaded and the produce covered with green leaves, a canvas, a layer of boughs, and another canvas to keep it as cool as possible. A rope encircled all to keep it from sliding, and the trip back to Bloomington was begun. The return trip was usually made via Hyrum, Utah, where a stop was made overnight, through Blacksmith Fork Canyon, then on home. After Mary Jane chose the products she wanted for canning, Josiah would sell the rest to townspeople, who anxiously awaited his arrival.

Another son, Lester Faylor, was born on April 23, 1898, but they were not privileged to have him very long, as he was stricken with diphtheria and died on December 26, 1901. The family was quarantined at the time, and no one was allowed to enter the house, so Mary Jane prepared her little son for burial. Funeral services were not allowed in those days for such a death. Mary Jane, Josiah, Mary Jane's father, and two devoted men friends took the little baby to the cemetery in a sleigh for burial.

A fair-haired daughter, Melba Valoise Faylor, was born on April 2, 1903. She was a lovely little girl with a beautiful voice. Even when very young, she sang in church and concerts. When she was seven years old, she fell from a riding pony, and it accidentally stepped on her. This accident caused a growth which turned to cancer. After suffering untold pain from September, 1910 to April, 1911, she passed away.

Josiah bought a store and he was most generous. He would take fifty pounds of flour, sugar, and canned goods to the needy people of the ward, never accepting any pay for it, many times. He marked off many bills that were on charge account, from $10.00 to $30.00, when someone was ill, disabled, or had a death in the family.

Josiah played in two musical organizations. He played the big bass violin in the dance orchestra and a trombone in the band. Practices for the dance orchestra were held at the Faylor home, often until midnight. Mary Jane would sit and listen to them, giving encouragement when a member would become discouraged, always smiling and cheering them on. On November 9, 1908 their sixth child, Sybil Orpha Faylor was born. There may be one more daughter but unconfirmed.

While he ran the store in town, he still maintained the dry farm and the meadowland in the "bottoms." Josiah and his father­in-law and Anson Osmond [b.1858 in England] would go to the "bottoms" together, camping for a week at a time, sharing their food, and would work together doing each other's crops; then they would run cattle in after the harvest.

In 1911, Josiah bought an automobile; a Model T Ford. It was the first car bought by a native of Bloomington.

In 1916, Josiah's health began to fail, so the farms, the store, and the home were all sold. The oldest daughter, LaVerna, had graduated from Utah Agricultural College, had married and had a home of her own in Bloomington. The son, Milford, had graduated from dental school in Chicago, Illinois, and was practicing in Preston, Idaho. The parents moved to Logan, Utah in September 1916, taking the three daughters who were still at home with them.

It was hoped that with retirement and being nearer to a hospital and medical care, Josiah might be helped. However, Logan doctors couldn't help him, so he went to the L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake City. He had internal surgery there and spent ten weeks in the hospital with Mary Jane beside him, but he never regained his health. After five years of suffering and increasing pain, he passed away in Logan, Utah, August 31, 1921. Mary Jane remained in Logan, raising her two youngest daughters alone. She helped them through Logan High School and saw them both graduate from Utah State Agricultural College, where they were prepared for teaching careers.

Fine fancywork was her hobby for many years. She embroidered many pieces for her children, relatives and friends. She made twelve crocheted lace tablecloths and six bedspreads. Many quilts were pieced and sewed by her hands through the years. After the age of eighty-two, when her eyesight began to fail and she was not able to do the fine fancywork, she turned to making crocheted rugs. She could never be idle.

She remained active until November 1959, when she fell and broke her hip. She passed away early March 7, 1960. [Nampa, Canyon County, Idaho. Buried at Logan, Cache, Utah].

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