Eunice Chidester Harmon - Handcart Pioneer

Eunice Chidester Harmon (1834 - 1905 ) --Handcart Pioneer
Great Grandmother to DeNiece Harmon Starich

Eunice as a teenager, with her family, pushed and pulled a handcart across the plains to Salt Lake City. She knew Joseph Smith and was present at a meeting where Brigham Young, the speaker, took on the resemblance of the Prophet Joseph. This was when they were trying to decide who was their new prophet after Joseph was murdered. She grew up in the Salt Lake Valley and there met her husband, Levi Nehemiah Harmon, who had come with another company. They married in 1854. They first lived in Spanish Fork, Utah and two of their children were born there 1855 and 1857. Next they moved to Salt Lake Parleys Park. Two more children were born 1859, 1861. In 1861 they were called to settle in the St. George area. Three other children were born 1862, 1864, 1867. Her husband died 25 Dec 1874. She had a large family to raise and her two oldest boys helped. When all the children had gone out of the home Eunice moved to Huntington, Utah to be near her sons who had a co-op store. -DeNiece McIntire Starich

Grandmother to Zelma Harmon McIntire
My grandma, Eunice Harmon, was the most gracious and wonderful grandmother one could have. Father built her small home on the corner of our lot. She used the front room for a millinery shop and delicatessen. The two rooms in the rear were her living quarters. She created beautiful hats to sell and also delicious candies and home-made ice cream. She was self supporting and even helped mother financially while father was on a mission. She had a log building back of her home called an ice house. During the winter blocks of ice about two feet square were cut from a pond and stored in the log house packed with saw dust. This ice would last through the summer until August. Grandma had a cow to supply the cream for her delicious ice cream. Living just across the street from the school and the church, she always had a sale for her goodies, especially when there was a Friday night dance. By her house there were five mulberry trees. Grandmother had silk worms that lived off the mulberry leaves. She would take the cocoons and dye pretty colors and use them to make flower arrangements in framed wall pictures. I was 14 when my grandma passed away and I really missed her. She is buried in Huntington, Utah. -Zelma Harmon McIntire