Alice was the 10th of 11 children. Her father, Joseph Smith Morris, was born in St Mary's Town, Pembrokeshire, South Wales, May 1st, 1849 while his father, John Morris, was serving on a mission.
Joseph Smith Morris and Mary Easton Morris
It was thought that Joseph Smith Morris met Mary Easton, mother of Violet Alice, in Greenville, Utah. Mary Easton's parents Robert Easton and Mary Miller were called along with other saints to settle Cedar City.
It is said that Mary Miller Easton, with babe in arms, was the first white woman to set foot on Cedar soil. Robert and Mary helped build the big fort in this new big town. Robert Easton was a polygamist. His first marriage was to Mary Miller. It was blessed with 2 children, one being Mary born December 2nd, 1851, mother of Violet Alice Morris. Robert Easton took Mary Miller's sister as his 2nd wife. This marriage was blessed with 7 children. Both families lived under one roof. He was a bishop for many years though he never had the opportunity of going on a mission. He and his large family moved to Greenville, Utah from Cedar City and he helped to settle his small community also. In Greenville, he owned 160 acres of pastures, meadows and farmland.
Joseph Smith Morris and Mary Eastman, parents of Violet Alice, were sealed in the endowment house in Salt Lake City, November 6th, 1868. Joseph was a farmer and a stock raiser. A man of medium height, heavy set with a long black beard and lots of hair. He was a religious man, leaving his family of 6 children to accept a mission call to New Zealand in the 1870's for two and a half years. After he left, a 7th child was born. In later years he served as a bishop for 13 years. In addition to caring for his large family and farm, Alice was a young child when her family was called for her father to be the Bishop. She fondly remembers that her father used to call her "love". Also that he was a very good father and a strict one. He loved to dance and would teach his children how to step dance.
Alice recalls her mother Mary Eastman as being medium sized plain woman, neat and trim with her hair parted in the middle and pulled straight back in a bun. She too was active in the Latter Day Saint Church, being second counselor in the Relief Society for many years. Her relief society would gather the leftover wheat from the community after the threshing. They would store it through winter and sell it and donate the money to the building fund.
In the summer of her 8th year, Alice was baptized by her father in the swimming hole in the Beaver river. Her mother dressed her in the bushes near by. Then she was taken to the church to be confirmed. Her first schooling was in a one room log cabin where her eldest sister Nellie taught all the grades and later the school building was completed with 3 teachers. As a young girl Alice liked to skate and ride horses and go sleigh riding. In those days, children made their own enjoyment. She also liked bringing the cows home and riding bloomer.
Joseph Smith Morris died of a ruptured appendix when Alice was just 15. From then on, the children who were home helped their Mother with farming. The eldest son living at home, Zealand took over the running of the farm. Alice ended her schooling about this time, having completed the 8th grade.
The marriage of Violet Alice Morris and Daniel West Barton took place at her mother's home, September 20th, 1905. Alice was just 16 1/2 years old. Dan's parents and 6 of Alice's family were present. Her mother and 3 sisters and 2 brothers. Alice and Dan had met 7 months earlier at a Literary meeting. Dan asked to take Alice home and she accepted, thus the romance began.
After their wedding, they stayed with Dan's parents 14 months until their first baby Mary Louise was born. This little child died 3 weeks later of pneumonia. They then moved to the Farnsworth's where they rented a farm for about 8 or 9 months until they finally found a home of their own. They lived in Greenville, Utah the rest of their remaining years.
Daniel West Barton's Pedigree Chart
A second daughter Helen was born in 1908 followed by a son West born in 1911 a son, Joseph, 1914; twins Raema and Roy 1917 and a daughter Betty in 1924. All the children of Alice and Dan were born at home with help of a Beaver doctor and Dan's mother acting as a nurse. Alice also raised the twin child of Dan's sister who died 4 months after giving birth to the twins. Dan Thomas was just a baby when taken to the Barton home. He was considered one of their own from then on and given a home until he reached manhood and married. All the Barton children were baptized at the age of 8 years.
Alice recalls when her twins were babies. A gypsy came to the door and walked right in admiring baby Raema in her cradle. Alice wouldn't let her pick the baby up but treated her kindly although she was afraid of her. The gypsy gave advice to Alice to feed the baby pure honey instead of sugar. The gypsies would come by every so often. The woman begged for anything she could get and the men were horse traders. The people of Greenville had to beware of the Gypsies for they would steal chickens and etc.
Dan and Alice Barton Family
Alice had the responsibility of raising her family and tending the farm alone much of the time as her husband had to be away hearding sheep. Dan was "jack of all trades". He was a farmer raising about 20 heard of stock. He also worked for wages as a sheep hearder, carpenter and janitor of the Greenville school for many years. At one time he helped build scenes for a movie "Covered Wagon" in Baker Nevada. In later years he worked for the Forest Service in Pine Valley. It was called Experiment Station west of Milford Utah around 50 miles.
In 1915, Dan built the house they have called home ever since. Alice was a busy homemaker when her family was young. She packed drinking water 2 blocks every from the Artesian well sometimes making 2 trips a day. She milked 2 cows twice a day and fattened the pigs. She washed on a tub and board twice a week and ironed with a "sad" iron which she heated on the stove. Having no store to run to, she baked her own goods using a wood stove. She cured the meat, canned 400 to 500 quarts of fruit each year getting her fruit from the Dixie peddlers. She had a garden and grew cabbage onions potatoes peas beans and storing what she could in the vegetable cellar. Gradually her children grew up and left home to make homes of their own but Grandma has kept her wood stove. She can cook just as superbly on it as anyone else might on a modern range.
In 1939 Alice and Dan got their first battery run radio. In 1941, lights were put into their home as electricity finally came to Greenville. And in 1943 an Artesian well was dug by their first house and water was piped in. They bought their first car, and Overland in 1932. However, Dan did not like to drive it and so they continued to use the horse and buggy most of the time. Ormond Morris remembers it being parked in the Grainery for many years.
Alice has always been a healthy woman. She had no operations and has rarely been ill. She has worked in the church as a primary teacher, primary counselor to the president and Sunday School teacher, MIA counselor, a relief society chorister and a visiting teacher for 30 years.
Dan died on November 23, 1952 from heart disease. He had been ill and semi-invalid for 3 years. Although Dan and Alice were not married in the temple while he was alive, she had the opportunity to be sealed to him in the Salt Lake Temple June 19th, 1958. Grandma described Grandpa as a good hearted man who never would hurt anyone. She remembers the times he would take her and the baby twins for a ride in the wagon before their nap so they would be sure to go to sleep.
She died March 25th, 1977 and is buried in the Greenville Cemetary next to her sweetheart Dan.
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