HENRY STANDAGE was born in 1818 in London, England. His father was William Standage from Sussex and his mother, ELIZABETH HOWARD , was from Lancashire. His father died when he was a young boy and his mother remarried William Thackham. But her second husband also died leaving her a widow again with their three small children plus Henry and his brother. At the age of 16 Henry left England and came to America to seek his fortune. It was in Pennsylvania while prospecting for lead he heard the gospel and was baptized by Albert Carrington. Henry wrote letters and sent pamphlets back to his mother, and she also became converted and moved to America.
They later moved to Nauvoo and Henry married Sophronia Scott. After the prophet's death they decided to move west with Brigham Young. At Council Bluffs in 1846 Henry signed up to go with the Mormon Battalion and left his mother and wife to cross the plains by themselves. He had great faith in this assignment as he only had $3.00, a tent, and a cow to leave his family. The Saints were in dire need for both clothing and food as they made their way west to Utah, and serving in the Army was one way to attain these things. Henry wrote a journal while a member of the battalion and told of the long journey and the trials the battalion endured. The trek took one year and its purpose was to protect the Southwestern Territories of the United States from the armies of Mexico. The battalion carved the first road through the Southwest deserts to the Pacific Coast in California. They didn't have to fight any battles with the Mexicans, for the enemy fled when they heard the troops were coming. Their only battle was against some bulls; the abandoned longhorns charged the group. One man was gored and supply wagons were turned over. By this time, the battalion was in great need of supplies and clothing. Henry used cowhides to wrap his feet as shoes were non-existent. After reaching San Diego he returned to Salt Lake to meet his family who had crossed the plains. His mother, Elizabeth, came with the Ira Eldredge Company in September 1847 under Captain Spencer. Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor were also part of this wagon train. In 1851 Henry took a second wife, HENRIETTA ROGERS . The family moved to Brigham City and then to Richmond, Utah, where Henry was postmaster for 18 years and justice of the peace for several years. He also operated a co-operative store and went into business for himself merchandising. In 1880 he moved to Arizona and helped to settle Mesa. Henry and Henrietta had ten children, three sons and seven daughters, one of whom was Sarah Caroline, our grandmother.
Elizabeth Howard Standage Thackham married for the third time after coming to Utah. She was sealed to Joseph Rich (the father of Apostle Charles C. Rich) at the age of 6l and went with him to settle Bear Lake, Idaho. After Joseph died she moved to Richmond, Utah to live with her son, Henry. She died there in 1870.
HENRIETTA ROGERS was the daughter of the famous missionary, NOAH ROGERS, and EDA HOLLISTER . She was born in Ohio in 1832. Her parents became members of the church when she was only five. She was baptized in Nauvoo at the age of eight. On route to the west in 1846 at Mount Pisgah her father died leaving her mother with nine children, the youngest being eight and the oldest twenty -six. Three years later (1849) the family crossed the plains. It is not known in which company they came.
After they arrived in Salt Lake the family was very poor. Their flour gave out and they lived on sego roots, mustard and whatever else they could find to eat. They went for a long time without tasting bread. Then one day a young man who was living with Brother Snow's family came to their home. He saw how they were living. He himself was living on rations of two biscuits a day, but he went home and saved his share of bread and stole one biscuit from each of the rest of the family. Slipping them inside his jumper, he saved them until he had enough for one a piece for the Rogers family. He then gave them his stolen bread. Henrietta's mother, EDA, said it was the sweetest bread she had ever eaten. When the Snow family discovered what the young man had done, they gave the Rogers some flour. They were never without bread after that. It remained twenty-five pounds of flour even after many mixings. Henrietta's mother would say, "Well, one more batch and then we will be out." But there was always some left. Henrietta, her mother and sister only had one calico dress each to wear, and the boys, one shirt a piece. So every Saturday night the mother would wash and iron all their clothes after the children went to bed so that they could go to Sunday meetings the next day. Eda died in 1877, a widow for thirty-one years.
Henrietta was 18 when she arrived in Utah and went to work for Henry and Sophronia Standage. In 1851 she became Henry's second wife. She endured the trials of pioneering new settlements. Once an Indian threatened her with a knife. She helped to fight grasshoppers and crickets and raised gardens to provide food. She picked, washed, corded and spun what wool she could get. She wove all kinds of jeans for the men, blankets for the beds, flannel and lindsey for dresses; she knit all the stockings. She was faithful and active in the Relief Society. In 1883 she was chosen as first counselor in the Relief Society of the Alma Ward in Mesa. She died in Mesa in 1898 at the age of 66.
NOAH ROGERS and his two brothers heard about the church in a miraculous way. Noah was born in 1797 in Connecticut. As a young, married man he was living in a log house with two of his brothers and their families. One day they listened to a stranger in town preach scriptural doctrines different from the preachers of the day. They invited the stranger home with them. They found him a remarkable man, clean and tidy, but not showily dressed. They remained up all night talking to him. He seemed to be well acquainted with all the localities with which they were familiar. He told them that the true church was not then on the earth, but would be restored during their lives, and they would all live to see it and would join it. They asked him how they would know the true church. He replied, "This is your blessing, you shall know it and be identified with it." He went away in the morning and they heard no more of him. Years later they read in the Book of Mormon about the three Nephite apostles and supposed this unknown preacher to have been one of them. All three of the Rogers brothers with their wives and all their children were baptized into the Church in February 1837.
In 1840 Noah, along with three other brethren, was kidnapped from Nauvoo by Missourians, and taken to Tully, Missouri where he was imprisoned, whipped and ill-treated until nearly dead. Noah was in prison for five months in Missouri.
He was called with four others in 1843 to fill a mission in the Pacific Islands. They were the first missionaries set out to labor among a people who did not speak the English language. Elder Rogers was appointed to preside over the mission. He remained one year and returned to Nauvoo at the end of 1845 in time to join the Saints in their exodus from Illinois. He was the first missionary to circumnavigate the globe as a missionary. His missionary journal and letters home to his wife and the saints were published in the Times and Seasons and make interesting reading.
One of the first stops of the exodus was at Mt. Pisgah. It was here on May 31, 1846 that Noah Rogers died. He was the first to be buried there.