History of
Thomas James Brough (1882-1948)
and Julia Francis Stagowski
Quoted from the 1980 RBFO book:
Samuel Richard Brough, 1857-1947: His History, Ancestors & Descendants
Thomas James Brough was the first child and son of Samuel Richard Brough
and Phoebe Adeline Cherry. He was born at West Porterville, Morgan County,
Utah on February 18, 1882, in a two-room brick home, one block north of
the church and school house on the east side of the road where he lived
for nine years.
In 1886 when Thomas was just five years old, his father was called on
an LDS mission to Great Britain. There were three boys left for Addeline
to care for, Thomas James, Jesse Samuel and Ernest LeRoy. His father returned
from his mission in December of 1890 and was met by the family at the
home of Thomas's great grandfather, Aaron Benjamin Cherry, in Centerville,
Utah.
To Thomas, being the oldest of the family, responsibility came early.
Thomas worked in the gardens of Porterville, both the family garden and
those of neighbors, to help with family expenses while his father was
on his mission. At the age of nine he was struck with rheumatic fever
and was bedfast so long that he had to learn to walk again.
By the time he was ten years old he was helping his father with the work
on the "Lyman Bench" homestead where homestead claims had been
filed on in March of 1892. This land had been just released from the Fort
Bridger Military Reservation. Part of this homestead is now the town site
of Lyman, Wyoming.
In those first years in the Bridger Valley they built a home of hewn
logs for their family and helped others moving into this unsettled country.
They built homes for Harriet Ryder, George Stewart, Theodore Durrant and
Joseph Woolsey.
This account was reported in the Evanston Newspaper in November 1892,
"The first load of oats ever shipped from Ft. Bridger came into town
Thursday, they were raised by Mr. S. R. Brough, who has the credit of
raising the first and only crop of oats ever raised on the Bridger Bench…and
the best they have received this season."
In the fall of 1892 his father, Samuel R., stayed in the Bridger Valley
to hew ties for the Carter and Carter Tie Company, and Thomas J. returned
to Porterville for school. Thomas returned to the Lyman Bench in the spring
with the family. During that summer he helped in building the first log
school house and church on what was later the Henry Bluemel homestead,
also helping with the first highway" between Lyman and old Ft. Bridger.
During the fall of 1895, at age 13, he drove his father to Wasatch to
catch a train and was caught in a heavy Wyoming blizzard over the Continental
Divide on his trip home alone. Wisely, he released the horses allowing
them by instinct to find their way home the remainder of the miles with
him walking most of the way to keep from freezing and arriving at home
about 2:00 A.M. He made other trips of nearly 75 miles to Echo, Utah to
have grain ground into flour for the family winter supply. These trips
would take seven or eight days with a four-horse team, quite a challenge
for a boy in his early teens.
All through the years Thomas J. used his teams and wagons to haul freight
from the railroad, from the mountains or the coal mines, of Kemmerer,
Cumberland, Elkohl and Blazon. The freight consisted of logs for buildings,
cedar posts, vegetable and meat to the mines with the return trip of coal.
The roads were only wagon trails, hot and dusty in summer, cold and snow
piled in winter. He hauled the freight from the railroad to Kemmerer for
the (first) J. C. Penney Company #1 store.
In 1902 and 1903 while he attended school at the Brigham Young Academy,
he was called to take a missionary course and in May of 1903, he was called
to the Great Britain Mission where he was assigned to the Liverpool Conference
which took him into Ireland, Scotland and Isle of Man. He was released
and returned home in July of 1905. In 1906 he was called as stake president
of the Woodruff Stake Y.M.M.I.A. and served in this position until 1912.
On November 25, 1908, he was married in the Salt Lake City temple to
Julia Frances Slagowski, daughter of Xceverius Franciscus Slagowski born
in Rogozna, Grudzadz, Poland, and Rosina Rindlesbacher, born in Walkringen,
Berne, Switzerland. They made their first home on a homestead of 160 acres
located southwest of Lyman in a comfortable home that he had almost completed
prior to their marriage. To this couple, eleven children were born, ten
of whom are still living in 1979.
During the early 1900's he took part in:
Building the first homes on the Lyman Bench.
Building the first canal systems for irrigation from Black's Fork River.
Building the first church and school houses. Held stock in and helped
build first flour mill.
Built and owned the first Implement House with his father, S. R. Brough.
Built and owned the first livery stable.
Built and owned the first movie theater in Lyman. Helped organize the
Lyman Telephone Company.
Helped organize the Bridger Valley Enterprise (newspaper) and was an officer
and stockholder of same.
He and Reuben Blackner worked an eight-horse team, clearing the first
automobile road from Granger to Lyman--later to be the Lincoln Highway
Route #3O. Was charter member and on the Board of Directors of the Bridger
Valley Electric Association.
During his years of married life, Thomas J. Brough worked diligently
on his farm and ranch. Also during this period of his lifetime he held
many civic offices. He served four terms in the State Legislature for
the State of Wyoming in the years 1911, 1913, 1916 and 1921. He was a
member of the State Board of Immigration for four years, a member of the
State Board of Agriculture for two years, Justice of the Peace for four
years. School Board member for four years, president of the Uinta Co.
Farm Bureau for five years, officer of Black's Fork Power and Irrigation
District for ten years, secretary of State Farm Bureau for six years.
He was appointed by the governor and State Board of Agriculture and State
Farm Bureau to attend a convention of eleven western states, in Phoenix,
Arizona, in 1927 where the Colorado River Water and Agriculture problems
were discussed.
In 1927, under Governor Emmerson, he was appointed as superintendent
of the Uinta Co. Experimental Farm, providing he would attend the University
of Wyoming for one year. In 1928 he went to the university and within
six weeks was given an honorary degree in agriculture. He loved flowers
and trees and landscaped beautifully wherever he lived and encouraged
it throughout the valley, using native plants wherever possible.
He served as superintendent of the experimental farm and member of the
University of Wyoming faculty for 15 years. Upon accepting this position,
he sold his original ranch and farm west of Lyman. During the time he
was superintendent of the experimental farm, he continued his civic and
spiritual activities. He served in the office as a President of the 224th
Seventy Quorum of the L.D.S. Church for twelve years. In 1934 he was called
as Lyman Stake Welfare Director. In 1937 he became a member of the Lyman
Stake High Council, and in April 1940 was chosen and set apart by Apostle
Joseph Fielding Smith to be President of the Lyman Stake. He was released
because of poor health in April 1946.
During the period he was superintendent of the experimental farm he also
acquired land for his family, after selling the original home to Antone
Hanson. There was 960 acres deeded and several state lease sections called
the Granger Flat Ranch which was homesteaded in the early 1930's. The
younger children of Thomas J. and Julia (Ursel, Blaine, Warren, Byron
and Morris) spent many long months working the land, building fences,
reservoirs and ditches. There was also the 160 acres and leased land called
the Cotton Wood Corrals ranch. A lovely home was built there in 1944,
with eleven rooms, two baths with electricity and gas. Thomas J. hoped
to retire there but he was only able to live there a few months. He was
forced to sell his ranch and farm, due to heart trouble. He spent several
winters in Mesa and Phoenix, Arizona, hoping the warm weather and lower
altitude would improve his health. He died on October 5, 1948. Funeral
services were held both at Lyman, Wyoming and Salt Lake City, Utah, because
of his many friends, and relatives at both places. The speakers at the
Salt Lake services requested to speak because of the great love and respect
they had for Thomas James Brough. The family was honored as they were
spoken to by Apostle LeGrand Richards and President J. Reuben Clark.
Julia, his wife, was always with him to encourage and help him in every
way she could and had an active life in church and community affairs along
with him. Julia came to Lyman with her mother and brother John Slagowski
in the spring of 1901. They spent some time at Ft. Bridger before moving
to the Lyman community. Julia taught school about three and a half years
before she married. She was active in teaching and in executive positions
in almost every organization in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and was also attending to civic affairs while raising her large
family. In 1920 she was delegated by the Governor of Wyoming to represent
Wyoming at the National Farm Women's Congress. She held all offices in
the Associated Women of the Wyoming Farm Bureau and was president for
four years and attended conventions as a Wyoming representative in Baltimore,
Maryland, New Orleans, Louisiana, Chicago, Illinois, and San Francisco,
California.
After Thomas's death Julia lived in Salt Lake City for many years, filling
a stake mission for two years and acting as a temple worker for over ten
years, also holding a job in the church offices until she was 72 years
old. She remained in Salt Lake City until June of 1972 when she moved
to Mesa, Arizona. She passed away at the age of 89 years on July 3, 1978.
Both she and her husband Thomas were buried in the city cemetery in Bountiful,
Utah.
|