Happy Birthday George Brunt

In case you have missed a pretty strong theme in our Family History, the matriarchal side of dad's family has had prominent, strong, faithful women.  They are mentioned reverently and praised with high honor.  As a matter of fact, right after Jason was born we went to a Burnett/Brunt reunion.  I was thrilled to be able to show off my very cute baby, but all everyone wanted to talk about was Elizabeth Susan Burnett Brunt (George's wife).  I wondered who is this lady with the very long name and why is she the one that is mentioned all the time.  That is a story for another day, but, since today is George's exact birthday, March 4th, we are going to feature him today in our Family History Friday. Was he perfect??  No. Was he entirely obedient to all the commandments??  No, but in studying about his life we can maybe relate to the difficulty in life, his sacrifice and the need for perseverance.

George was born on March 4, 1845 in Stockport, Cheshire, England.  At 18 he emigrated to New Zealand with his parents, John Brunt and Mary Morris and their family.  They sailed aboard "The British Crown" to the port of Lyttleton and settled in Christchurch.  He became a skilled machinist, blacksmith and engineer.  It was in New Zealand that he married Elizabeth Susan Burnett.  After having four children Elizabeth started out on a journey so that she could rear her children among Latter-day Saints near the prophet, where they could live together in love, to build up the kingdom of God.   Full story here.   As she tried to prepare for the moving, she did not find her husband sharing her desire. He had not been reared as she had.  George's  family was not interested in Mormonism, as her's was.  He preferred the way of life there in New Zealand.   George Brunt dreaded the thought of leaving behind his home and means of livelihood and all of his Brunt family.  But he did not restrain her from leaving.  Rather they sold their home in Kaiapoi and purchased passage to the new land for Elizabeth and the four little children -- Eliza 9, Will, 6; George, 3; and Annie in her first year.

Elizabeth Susan, about 25, her heart set on taking her family to live in Zion, had to struggle with four little children a heavy trunk and bags to board the small steamboat at the harbor in New Zealand.  George sadly stood on the pier to bid his beloved wife and children goodbye.  He would follow in about a year after he had prepared himself both financially and in his heart.    George struggled to find steady work once he joined his family.  He used his engineering skills to rebuild steam sawmills in the valley. 

Then, being a good mechanic he worked at the smelters. He spent time attempting to invent a perpetual motion machine.

 Later he left his family for a long time to work at a sawmill promising to send the family money, which never came.  His little daughter would go to the post office and back which was 6 miles each way hoping mail and/or money would come. George returned, then worked for a time at a molasses mill.   Government regulations shut down many businesses due to polygamy so there was much scarcity and destitution as Church members poured in from around the world.  George was also challenged with drinking.  The family moved from Farmington, to Spanish Fork, to Cottonwood, to Kaysville, to Salt Lake and eventually to the promise of a better circumstance in the Snake River Valley in Idaho.  Not finding work in the sparsely settled farming country in Idaho, George traveled to Butte, Montana where he heard there was plenty of work.  His first letter back said he had found work, but he did not feel well.  Several weeks later Elizabeth received a letter from the nurse in Butte that George had died and was buried in the Butte cemetery.  George reportedly got a job in a smelter. Newcomers were put to the dangerous work of smelting lead.  George's illness was probably pneumonia, which took his life in a few days.  Elizabeth sent a note of thanks to the nurse with a little money to put a marker on George's grave.  No grave or official death record has ever been found.