One of the more unlikely converts of 1858 - a most sparse year for missionary work - was Joseph Sinkler Giles, previously a member of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston's army invading the territory that is now Utah.
Giles came to Utah to fight the Mormons, but ended up as a lifelong convert who settled in Millard County and won praise for his untiring service to others.Eventually elected county clerk, surveyor and justice of the peace, Giles also served as frontier physician. "He pulled teeth, set fractured limbs, amputated some limbs, dressed wounds, and helped in many ways with the sick and suffering people, but never made a charge," wrote his daughter and biographer, Emily Giles McKee.
U.S. Sen. William H. King, who served from Utah from 1917-41, said of Giles' influence:
"When I came home from my mission to Great Britain, Mr. Giles urged me to study law. I took his advice, and you know the results. He was the most reliable man in our county; he untangled our affairs in court, took care of our land and titles, and took care of our sick and wounded - he lived for his fellow man."
A native of Pennsylvania, Giles enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1856 at age 23 after teaching school and studying law. In the army, he traveled to what is now Brownsville, Texas, where he was witness to an army killing, an event that was later to have a long-term impact on his life.
Giles recounted that his regiment was ordered to Utah to put down a supposed insurrection of the Mormons.
In Washington, General Winfield Scott had counseled against the quickly mustered expedition to Utah, suggesting that they depart better manned and supplied, but President Buchanan wanted immediate action against "the Mormon Rebellion." In May of 1857, the 5th and 10th Infantry, the 2nd Dragoons, and a Battery of the 4th Artillery were assembled at Fort Leavenworth. (History of Utah, Bancroft, 1890, p. 498.) About 2,500 men were involved in the operation. In addition they were provided with 2,000 head of cattle, and an extraordinary number of wagons in which to carry the supplies. However, Mormon resistance would later run off cattle intended for feeding the troops, and burn wagons containing winter clothing, blankets, and other goods.
Giles made no mention of the arduous crossing of the plains, but said:
"We arrived at Fort Bridger during the first part of November, during a heavy snowstorm. We camped at this place during the winter. We had about 300 oxen for hauling freight wagons, but they were in poor condition. Not having any other animals for beef, the oxen were slaughtered and cut into quarters. Then it was stacked in a log house where the meat froze, thus preserving it during the winter. It was rationed out to each person, each receiving about two and a half pounds of bone (actually, mostly bone) to flavor our soup, but no fat was visible. We had no salt to flavor our meat; only a little which we bought from merchants who followed our camp, costing us $5.00 a pound."
The winter was very hard on the U.S. troops at Fort Bridger. They had stopped short of their goal, Salt Lake City, due to the effective resistance the Mormons imposed on supply trains passing through Wyoming. The scorched earth tactics of the Mormons, which included burning the grass adjoining the travel route, added further to the hardships on the troops. Local Indians, too, accounted for some of the losses of provisions destined for the Army at Fort Bridger.
Giles continued: "A pack train from Salt Lake City arrived at Fort Bridger, bringing about a ton of salt from the Great Salt Lake, and it was offered to the commander of the military force at Fort Bridger; he refused to accept the salt and ordered the party that brought it to take their salt and leave camp." The salt had been sent as a goodwill gesture by Brigham Young to the commander.
Giles' personal observations on the incident continues: "The salt was later found about four miles west of camp, in gunny sacks, just as it was brought from Salt Lake City. The party who found it brought one sack to camp. I was Hospital Steward and took care of the chemicals of the Medical Department.
"I tested about twenty pounds to ascertain if it contained any poison. It was proven to be perfectly pure and good. After that was determined all the rest of the salt that could be found was brought to camp, and it proved to be a great blessing to us who were camped there.
"The only fat we had was olive oil which we had in the Hospital department. I manufactured for the officers mess, tomato catsup from canned tomatoes, and flavored it with assafoetida
a foul-smelling gum resin once used as a medicineT to give it the onion flavor."
When spring came, the army made ready to advance into Great Salt Lake City.
"On the 11th of June we were to start for Utah. Governor Cummings [who had been selected by the Federal government to replace Brigham Young as Territorial Governor] arrived at Fort Bridger on his way to Salt Lake City. A friend of the Mormons [Colonel Thomas Kane] came and tried to pass the guard, who halted him; he was shot at, but not a lock of hair was touched although his cap was hit. He was taken prisoner and brought to General Johnston to whom he delivered a dispatch from Washington. It was a notice of peace between the government and the Mormons in Utah. A Colonel Benton of Kentucky came as a commissioner from Washington D.C. to make arrangements for Governor Cummings to go on to Salt Lake City. He got a favorable report concerning conditions in Utah. The peace commissioner arrived in June 1858.
"Governor Cummings wanted a few soldiers to accompany him into Utah, but General Johnston refused unless his whole Army went. Governor Cummings said, `Keep your d--- Army. I don't need it. I'll go alone.' So he and two or three other citizens mounted their horses and rode for Salt Lake City. On going down Echo Canyon, toward Salt Lake City, the Mormon militiamen who had been stationed there all winter, played a circuit action, so it appeared that thousands of them were there. Lot Smith was sent by the Mormons and ordered to burn provisions, and to cripple the progress of the army that was stationed on the Green River, Wyoming, and at Sandy.
"When we reached Utah we stablished (sic) a camp about fifty miles south of Salt Lake City, which we named Camp Floyd. This was in Cedar Valley, west of Lehi, Utah."
One day a deputy U.S. Marshal arrived in Camp Floyd posing as a gambler. However, Army leaders learned he was there to arrest men involved two years before in the Texas army killing. They also wanted to bring back those who were witnesses, such as Giles.
"That information was conveyed to the commanding officer, and all men who had been on guard that day were given unlimited furlough," Giles told his biographers. "All left camp at night, and never returned."
Evidently the marshal, or a military posse, went out looking for those men. A story from the King family of Millard County recounts that Giles was hard pressed by a posse searching for him. A young woman of the King family hid him in some bushes until the group passed by.
Giles eventually went to a place which is now called Holden, Utah, where he sought employment. His narrative continues: "Here I met Uncle Tom Robbins at Richard Johnson's, east of the old fort. I asked him if he knew anyone who wanted to hire a man to work. He said, Yes, a man right there in that log house wants to hire a man.' It was Saturday evening, about sundown. I went to the door, asked the question, and he said,Yes.' His name was Edward Holden [Elijah Edward Holden], so he engaged me to work for him. I stayed all night with him, and on Sunday he went to Fillmore, and I worked for him there."
For the next several weeks, Edward Holden preached the gospel to the young soldier. Giles recalled, "These people were the first to preach to me. I read Aunt Lucy Smith's history
of Joseph SmithT, the Book of Mormon, the writings of Parley P. Pratt, and other church works until I was convinced of its truth."
Tragically, on the 26th of September, 1858, Holden was caught in an early snowstorm, and froze to death about 10 miles north of where the town of Holden is now located. It was for this man the town of Holden received its name.
Years later, Giles' daughter recorded another comment on the conversion of her father. He discovered he had "been misinformed about the Mormon people." He was baptized by Elder Daniel Thompson in Chalk Creek, near Fillmore, Utah, on Dec. 13, 1858. That ended a momentous year in the life of Joseph Sinkler Giles.
On Jan. 30, 1860, he was married to Sarah Huntsman by Bishop Lewis Brunson. They eventually had 13 children. The couple pioneered in a few locations before settling in Holden. In 1868 he was elected Justice of the Peace for Millard County. That same year he became the first Sunday School superintendent in Holden.
Once he had been a school teacher in Illinois, and he continued his interest in furthering education in the community. He opened his home for classes. His home also became a medical clinic where he treated various afflictions.
"His work was gratis, and services as well as his home were for friends and strangers alike," according to his daughter.
Medical doctors remained in short supply in Millard County into the 20th Century, when babies were still being born without a physician available to help. One of the daughters of Joseph S. Giles, Maranda Giles Turner, became a practical nurse, and she sometimes helped her father.
Giles also held the position of county clerk and county surveyor. He farmed, although his land was a distance from town, and hauled hay with ox teams.
When Sarah died in childbirth, he struggled but managed to keep his large family together. He eventually remarried, to Ann Elizabeth Carling, and moved to Fillmore, where he died in 1921 at the age of 89.
