Edwin Stott (1836-1928)
Promised Land: Edwin Stott and the Colonization of Utah (Provo, Utah: by the author, 2022). 428 pages, 95 photos. A few hardback copies are still available for $70. Contact the author at cliffordstott@gmail.com. PDF download will be available in 2024, price $30.
Edwin Stott was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England, in 1836. He arrived in New Orleans at age 12 and crossed the plains to Utah as a 15-year-old teamster in 1852. The book covers his pioneer activities in Millard County, Utah, including his travels to southern Utah with Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball as a teenager in 1854, his involvement in the White Mountain Expedition into Nevada in 1858, his return to the Missouri River in 1864 amid the perils of the Cheyenne War, his military career during the Walker War of 1853 (including the Gunnison Massacre aftermath) and the Black Hawk War of 1865-69. The book also explores his contentious divorce in 1873 and his abortive attempt to settle in the Uintah Basin in 1913, as well as Edwin’s spiritual journey and his church and civic activities. Like the other books in the series, it is thoroughly researched, well-documented, and richly illustrated with
photos and illustrations. The book also includes genealogical and
biographical information on three generations of Edwin’s descendants.
William Stott (1803-1883)
William Stott: A Yorkshireman in Utah Territory (Provo, Utah: by the author, 2019, revised 2020). 352 pages, 80 photos. A few hardback copies are still available for $60. Contact the author to order: cliffordstott@gmail.com. Price for PDF download $25. Buy Now.
William Stott was born in Soyland, Yorkshire, England, in 1803. He became a mechanic and machine maker in the cotton textile industry during the heyday of the Industrial Revolution in England. He was at first a Baptist, later joining an Independent church. In 1841 he became acquainted with Elder Orson Hyde, an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who baptized him into the faith. The Stott family sailed to New Orleans on the ill-fated ship Berlin in 1849, losing a large portion of her passengers to cholera. William worked in St. Louis as a mechanic until 1852 when he joined the westward migration to Salt Lake Valley and then started for Fillmore in southern Utah Territory. He was a builder of Fort Fillmore and the Utah Territorial Statehouse. In 1864 the Stotts pioneered Meadow, Utah, where William died in 1883. The book also includes details on 362 descendants of William Stott (down to his great-grandchildren). This book is the result of thousands of hours of research and writing, as well as two on-location research trips to Britain.
Nicholas Paul (1823-1901)
Faith and Dissent: The Nicholas Paul Story (Orem, Utah: by the author, 2007, revised 2018). 425 pages. Price $25. Buy Now
Nicholas Paul was born in Perranarworthal, Cornwall, England in 1823. As a young man, he settled in South Africa, where he joined the Latter-day Saints in 1853. He became a leader of the church in the Cape Town area. The family immigrated to Utah in 1860, settling in Salt Lake City, Fillmore, Deseret and Holden. Nicholas was one of the builders of Fort Deseret and was head mason on the construction of Cove Fort. After years of conflict over water rights, polygamy, and other church policies, Nicholas Paul became a leader among those opposed to the church in Millard County. He died under mysterious circumstances in the Black Rock Desert in 1901. The book was revised in 2013 and 2018 to include new information regarding Nicholas Paul’s activities in South Africa and the polygamy raid in Millard County, Utah. Several new photographs were added. The genealogical tables were updated, and a number of grammatical and typographical errors were corrected. This book was the winner of the 2007 Thomas Rice King Award by the Mormon History Association, “Best Family or Community History in the Mormon Experience.”
Thomas Day (1814-1893)
The Journals and Letters of Elder Thomas Day, 1814-1893 (Orem, Utah: by the author, 1995, revised 2013). 197 pages. Price $25. Buy Now
This work is largely based on the original writings of Thomas Day, a Utah pioneer from Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, who was born in 1814 and emigrated to the United States in 1850. The book is primarily comprised of Day’s missionary diary, 1844–1850, an autobiography he wrote two years before his death in Circleville, Utah, in 1893, and a large collection of letters mostly written by relatives in England. Besides his seven-year mission for the Mormon Church in England, he was a member of the Salmon River Indian Mission in 1855, where he married a Bannock Indian woman. The mission was abandoned in 1858 in the face of an Indian uprising. Thomas Day was also a member of the ill-fated Muddy Mission in what is now Clark County, Nevada. He was intimately involved in the settlement of several southern Utah towns. The book includes many interpretive footnotes and appendices based on the original research of Clifford Stott. It is well illustrated.
George Clark (1801-1873)
The Long Road Home: George Clark and the First Handcart Company (Orem, Utah: by the author, 1999, revised 2013). 110 pages. Price $20. Buy Now
George Clark was a Utah pioneer of 1856. He was born in Hartwell, Northamptonshire, England, in 1801 and died in Spanish Fork, Utah in 1873. The story is poignant for its portrayal of a crippled man who somehow managed to get to Utah in 1856 as a member of the first handcart company to ever cross the American plains and his struggles to survive in Utah Territory. The book includes illustrations and table of descendants.
Thomas Clark Day (1859-1946) & Annie Eliza Berry (1865-1928)
On the Utah Frontier: The Story of Thomas Clark Day and Annie Eliza Berry (Orem, Utah: by the author, 1994, revised 2014). 114 pages. Price $20. Buy Now
This volume is comprised of three original documents written by Thomas Clark Day and his wife Annie Eliza Berry. The first document is Thomas’s biography written in Myton, Utah, in 1931. Thomas was born in Spanish Fork, Utah, in 1859. As a child, he settled with his family at St. Joseph on the Muddy River, Nevada. He was involved in the settlement of several towns in southern Utah and eventually homesteaded near Mountain Home in the Uinta Basin in 1910. He died in Salt Lake City in 1946. The next document is the autobiography of his wife Annie covering events between 1865 and 1907. Annie Berry was born in Salt Lake City in 1865 and died at Montwell, Duchesne County, Utah in 1928. Her autobiography, which was retrieved from the attic of her son Heber in 1976, discusses in some detail her polygamous marriage as a child bride to her mother’s husband, Henry Chesnut, in 1879 and their subsequent divorce. The book also includes a transcription of Annie’s account book and diary, 1924–1928, with the last entry dated 11 days before her death. The book includes many photos, interpretive footnotes, and additional research compiled by Clifford L. Stott.
Arthur Lees Stott (1878-1943)
Not Understood: The Life and Legacy of Arthur Lees Stott (Provo, Utah: by the author, 2015). 163 pages. Price $25. Buy Now
Arthur Lees Stott was born in Meadow, Millard Co., Utah, in 1878, the son of Utah pioneers Edwin Stott and Elizabeth Paul. He was raised in a log cabin in Meadow, settled in the Uintah Basin in 1913, and worked in the mining camps of Carbon County in the early 1920s. He returned to the Basin in 1927, where he raised a family of 12 children during the Great Depression. Arthur died in Payson, Utah in 1943. The book includes numerous photography, maps, and genealogical tables.
Fannie Charlotte Day (1892-1982)
The Personal Writings of Fannie Charlotte Day, 1892-1982 (Orem, Utah: by the author, 1994, revised 2014). 485 pages. Price $25. Buy Now
Fannie was born in Circleville, Piute County, Utah, in 1892. When she was 17 years old, the family moved to the Uinta Basin and filed on a 160-acre homestead near Mountain Home. She married first to Jim Dennis then to Arthur Stott. From 1910–1940, Fannie lived in a variety of towns in the Uinta Basin on leased farms. The only exception was five years in the coalfields of Carbon County, 1920–1925. Fannie raised a family of 12 children during the Great Depression then endured the anguish of four sons serving in the armed forces during World War II. In 1940 the family bought a small farm in Payson, Utah. After the death of her second husband, she moved to Provo. While there, she married Aaron Harrison. Fannie died in Orem, Utah, in 1982 at the age of 90. This volume includes Fannie’s autobiography and 22 volumes of diaries made between 1943 and 1977, all faithfully transcribed. The book includes numerous photos and a table of descendants, which was updated in 2014.
Lyle Day Stott (1923-2017)
My Life: An Autobiography by Lyle Day Stott (Provo, Utah: by the compiler, 2008). 263 pages. Price $25. Buy Now
Lyle Stott was born in the coal mining town of Sunnyside, Carbon County, Utah, in 1923. He spent most of his youth on farms in the Uinta Basin of eastern Utah. His parents were sharecroppers, and they moved often during the Great Depression. Lyle left Utah in 1943 as a soldier. After two years in the Pacific Theater with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, he returned to the United States, married, and settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he pursued a career as a welder. In 1998 he retired and moved to Green Valley, Arizona.
Brothers in Arms: Narratives of the Second World War
Brothers in Arms: Narratives of the Second World War (Provo, Utah: by the author, 2012). 65 pages. Price $15. Buy Now
This book includes the original accounts of three Stott brothers—Willard, Lyle, and Arlo—who served overseas during World War II. Willard served in North Africa, Italy, and China. Lyle served in New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines. Arlo, pictured left, was in the 5th Marine Division that fought at Iwo Jima.