Alma Taylor was born March 6, 1835 in Clay County, Missouri, two years after his father accepted the gospel. He was the oldest son of John Taylor and Eleanor Burkett.
He came into the world at a time when the Latter Day Saints or Mormons as they were called the that time, were being driven from post to post. They had to leave their comfortable homes and move to parts unknown to them at that time.
The Governor issued an order that the Mormons must leave Missouri, so they moved into a sparsely settled area called Ray County. They were living there in 1827. The mob wasn’t satisfied and kept up their plundering and mobings until they drove them in to Caldwell County in 1827.
They finally gathered with the saints in Nauvoo in 1840, and stayed there for three or four years. Alma was then five years old and big enough to remember the prophet Joseph Smith. His mother was a member of the relief society at time.
It was at this time that Alma’s father was called to go with his family into the mountains and cut logs for the Nauvoo Temple. They went for 17 months and endured lots of hardships because of the Indians and the cold. Alma learned some of the Indian language and had lots of experiences with them.
They were living in Nauvoo when the Prophet was having so much trouble with the mobs and when he was being tried in court. So many were being put in prison for the gospel’s sake. Alma was a big husky boy for his age, and he was eight years old when the Prophet was killed. He told his children that he heard the prophet say when he was going to prison for the last time the “He was going like a lamb to the slaughter” and that he was void of offense toward anybody.
It was about this time that Alma, his father, mother, and family went to Texas. It was also about this time that Alma swam the Missouri River to save same cattle that was going to drown.
While in Texas they had lots of Indian scares. They were living in Fortanalis, Texas in 1848, and in 1849 they were living in Sampasis, Texas.
At one time the Indians drove their cattle off, but Alma could talk their language and was able to get their cattle back. He also showed that he wasn’t afraid.
In 1853 they sold out and moved to Oklahoma to get ready to move to Utah.
They were now ready to leave to cross the plains. Alma was now 19 years old and the oldest of his brothers, so a great deal of the responsibility fell on him. They left on June 12, 1854. There were two wagons to drive, 12 milk cows, and some young stock to watch. They owned their own company, and of course someone had to be on guard every night so the Indians would not run off their cattle. It was a long tedious journey to take, but they had good luck and arrived in Salt Lake August 15, 1854. At this time he had two brothers, one 17 and one 15.
The Indians were so bad they had to move into a fort called Bimgham Fort, now called Five Points. They lived in the fort for two years and then moved to Slaterville, Weber, Utah.
They were living there, Alma became acquainted with Celia Keys, a young girl who also emigrated across the plains. She was about 15 or 16 years old. She was born in 1841.
They were married in 1856 and moved out to Eden where they lived on a home stead of 160 acres of land, and after a few years Alma made him a Saw Mill on Wolf Creek about eight miles from Eden. It ran by water power. He made lumber and lath. They hauled the logs in on a cart and ox team, and then hauled the lumber in to Ogden with a team of horses which was a distance of about 29 miles.
Alma Taylor was a very courageous man. He weighed 180 pounds and was 5 feet 11 inches tall. He could run and jump 22 feet and could stand and jump 11 feet backwards.
They lived in Eden until about 1859 when they moved to Vernal, Utah, where he lived until he died. First they lived in a log house and in 1895 they built a nice two story house from brick.
There was a creek bottom a little ways from the house where he was hauling hay one day. He went to go across the ditch and fell off the hay and broke some of his ribs. He was sick for a long time and he suffered so much pain that drops of blood stood out on his head, so they told us.
Alma died in the year 1910. He called for his son Hyrum, but he died before Hyrum could get to him.
