Roselia Haight Spilsbury

Roselia J, Haight Spilsbury1854 - 1922

A short biography of my mother Roselia J. Haight Spilsbury, the eldest child of Isaac C. Haight and his wife Eliza Ann Price Haight. She was born in Cedar City Oct. 22, 1854.

Being the eldest of ten children in this pioneer home in southern Utah her duties were many and her training by a strict English mother helped prepare her in child care, cooking and home management which were useful in her own home.

She was married to George M. Spilsbury at Toquerville January 1, 1874. Later they went through the Saint George Temple. Her husband was interested in farming and stock raising and this meant my mother and family spent many summers on their ranch on the Kolob Mountains.

She was the mother of twelve children. Most of the older children remember the making of butter on Kolob Mountains, which was put in large earthen crocks for the wintertime, the wonderful cream cheese that we made and put on long shelves to cure. Also the home smoked hams and corned beef that were cured for future use.

She taught us how to make candles in molds from the fat of sheep. We also went on picnics with her to gather wild hops for making yeast.

She was a devoted wife and a loving mother as well as an ardent church worker having been president of the Relief Society for nearly twenty-one years from 1901 to 1922, being released upon her death.

She was one of the pioneers in the serving of Telegraph Operators also training operators for the work being an outstanding speller. She had the office in Pine Valley and Kanab and St. George. In early days this was the main line of all news.

Being the eldest child I remember while mother was Relief Society President, of carrying food from our home to the sick, clothing and bedding when babies were born. Also warm gruel, which they all enjoyed. We would go with her to sit with the sick and when death came to the home she with others would sit all night with the ones in sorrow.

Her devotion to her large family, her ideals of right living and her unselfish work in relieving sorrow and distress are among her virtues. Her effort to give her family an education when many things discouraged her has built a monument to her honor more precious than gold or tablets of bronze or marble. The seven children who grew to manhood and womanhood all attended the Brigham Young University. Her three sons and one daughter filled missions. The youngest son was on a mission at the time of her death.

Our house was the old fashioned type with floors covered with homemade carpets laid over fresh straw and pictures and mottos on the wall. The big fireplace with the crackling pine logs where we roasted corn, ate apples, and toasted our skins. The old fashioned organ lent charm and refinement to the home.

The loving care our mother gave her aged mother for years and then to her husband’s mother and father in their failing years adds honor to her memory.

She died at the age of sixty-eight in the L.D.S. Hospital. As we drove up the driveway on our return home the entire town was lined up on either side to honor her. She was remembered by her Relief Society sisters for her “cheerful smile, words of wise counsel, plea for motherhood, prayer for the sons of daughters of Zion to be true to themselves and their God.”

A line to her memory:
It is easy to pass up the things hard to do
It takes brain and courage to see a task through.
So when ever I’m tempted to quit or to shirk
I remember my pioneer mother and go back to work.

By Isabel S. Christenson


Children: Born:

Isabel 1 Dec 1874
George Chauncy 10 Sep 1876
Georgenia 12 Oct 1878
Arthur 26 Nov 1880
Archie Price 10 Jan 1882
Frankie Estella 17 Feb 1884
Florence 23 Apr 1886
Raymond 9 Oct 1888
Myrtle 5 Feb 1891
Vivian 1 Nov 1893
Victor Roland 15 Apr 1895
Erwin Roswell 28 Oct 1901