BURCH, William Hilton

1884 - 1955  (71 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	BURCH, William Hilton
  Birth	11 Apr 1884	Springville, Utah, Utah, United States
  Gender	Male
  WAC	17 Sep 1913	SLAKE
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Death	26 Aug 1955	Provo, Utah, Utah, United States
  Burial	29 Aug 1955	Provo, Utah, Utah, United States
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I49759	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Family ID

  F25297

  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	BRADFORD, Estella Pearl ,   b. 1 Apr 1891, Evanston, Uinta, Wyoming, United States Evanston, Uinta, Wyoming, United Statesd. 27 Jan 1985, Utah, Utah, United States (Age 93 years)
  Children	+ 1. BURCH, Fae ,   b. 12 Dec 1918, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States Provo, Utah, Utah, United Statesd. 25 Oct 1999, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States (Age 80 years)
  Family ID	F25295	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

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• Notes

  Most of the following information about Claud was taken from his life story written by his wife Annie. Claud was born March 1, 1882 in Springville, Utah in a house built by his father. He was the fourth child of ten born to George Burch and Mary Elizabeth Hilton. His father was born in England and his mother was born in St. Louis, Missouri and her parents were from England. So all Claud’s ancestry was from England. Claud’s siblings were George Franklin Burch, Allen Hilton Burch, Lillias May Burch, Claud, William Hilton Burch, Susanna Burch, Eliza Burch, Leo Hilton Burch, Kate Burch, and Arthur Hilton Burch. Claud’s family owned a farm in Springville and Mapleton until he was six, then the family moved to Lakeshore, not far from Springville. Claud's education was limited to what he could get in the winter. This was because the boys in a family were needed to work on their farms until cold weather. Then when spring came they were again needed to work. Claud and his next younger brother Will got into the sheep business when they were young men by taking unclaimed lambs, or lambs their mother rejected, and bottle feeding them. The owners of the sheep herds were glad to give the rejected lambs away. In time the two brothers had a herd of sheep. Their father also bought some shhep to increase their herd. During this time the sheep business was a prosperous business. Claud had good business skills and managed the sheep business well. When he was a teenager his father entrusted Claud to take their lambs to Kansas City by rail to sell them. Claud married Annie Ferguson June 20, 1906 in the Salt Lake Temple. This was the smartest thing he ever did. Annie was a rock and a truly wonderful person. The newlyweds spent the next six weeks pasturing sheep near White River, a little north of Soldier's Summit, at the top of Spanish Fork Canyon. Their transportation was by horseback. Annie remembers that first summer of her marriage as a wonderful time. After teaching seventy-two first and second graders, the peace and quiet and beauty of the mountains was like heaven. Claud and Annie would take their family to Strawberry, the summer sheep range, for several weeks. They would travel by horse drawn wagon. They lived in a tent and camp wagons. They were having children during this time, Mary was their first, born in 1907. About 1910 Claud bought a fruit farm of twenty acres on the Provo Bench (now Orem). During their married lives, Claud and Annie bought and sold, or rented, several farms for raising sheep or growing fruit and other crops. These farms were located in present day Lake Shore (Mary and Fern born here), Spanish Fork (Bessie born here), Orem (Max, Leone, Jennie, Vivian, and Helen born here. At that time it was known as Provo Bench), Provo (Ruth, Merrill, Stanley, Sterling, and Barbara born here), Pleasant Grove (Douglas born here), and American Fork. In 1918 there was a terrible flu epidemic. There were many deaths. During the second year Claud caught the flu. He recovered but because he insisted on working before being fully recovered, his heart was damaged, which eventually led to his death in 1944. During the epidemic no school or church gatherings were held. Annie even cut Claud's hair. Annie and Claud were both glad when the epidemic ended so he could go to the barber. In the mid 1920's the sheep business was doing well but Claud's health was not good, so he and Annie decided to sell out. He bought a fruit farm in Pleasant Grove. They were living in Provo and Claud needed something else to do, so he went into the automobile business with a man by the name of Roundy. Neither of them had any experience selling cars. They sold open air cars. About this time car designs were changing to enclosed cars and their business suffered. From then on people were only buying enclosed cars. Claud bought out his automobile business partner, borrowed money from his sheep fund, pledged money from the fruit crop, and was determined to make a go of it. However the car business failed and he could not make the payments on the fruit farm. Because the depression was upon them, the people that had bought his sheep could not continue paying him. So he lost the sheep, fruit, and automobile businesses. Their home in Provo was lost. Claud's health became worse. They rented a farm on the northeast side of Pleasant Grove. They had twelve children, five of them under five. The quiet of the rented farm did help him. He did not like any confusion or excess noise so he would work long hours, mostly by himself. The doctor gave Claud only one year to live. They had had to let his life insurance policy lapse. As Annie said, "there was not much to look forward to." At this time Mary had returned from a mission and found a job, Fern got a job teaching, and Bessie was married. In 1934 they moved to American Fork, Utah on a rented farm. They took with them a dozen cows and a large family as their only possessions. With the whole family working hard, things began to improve. They bought the farm, and with Claud's management skills directing farm work, and the economy gradually improving in the late 1930's and early 1940's, the family was doing better. During this time several of the older children married: Bessie 1934, Mary, Leone, and Jennie 1936, Vivian 1938, Helen 1939, and Ruth and Fern 1941. The rest married after his death in 1944: Barbara 1947, Stanley 1950, Merrill and Douglas 1952, and Sterling 1953. Claud did not like to be in front of people and did not like it to be known when he helped others. Since most of his life was farm work, and especially being away for long stretches herding sheep, he did not want or like publicity. He was like his parents in this regard. On one occasion he helped a poor lady by giving a store manager money for her, and told the store manager to never let it be known who did this. A short time later he was in the store and the lady was there as well. She profusely thanked Claud, in the presence of several others, for his kind deed. Claud was absolutely mortified. He would donate a calf for ward gatherings, as long as no one but the leader knew. These and many other like deeds were his way of doing good. He also loved doing temple work. In January 1944, Claud had two heart attacks and died February 7, 1944. He was buried in Provo. His mission in life was complete. His heritage of hard work, honesty, and kind deeds needs to always be remembered by his family.