Sylvester Frazer Jones polygamy prison
Last Revised June 2004
Standing: (L-R):Sylvester Frazer Jones, Simon Topham, Joseph S. Barney, Lorenzo D. Watson, Thomas Chamberlain,
Henry Langford, Samuel Wooley, Nephi J. Bates, Frances Webster, Cornelius Mc Greavy, Jonathan Covington.
Sitting on Step in center: Benjamin Perkins, William Butler, Francis M. Lyman.
Doorway: George Q. Cannon.
Utah Territirial Penitentiary 1888-9 was located at the Sugarhouse
site, which in now (1978) the northwest corner of Sugarhouse Park on
21st South & 13th East of Salt Lake City, Utah
The following from:
History of Pearl Jones Halterman as told to her Granddaughter
Pamela Hunter Willahan:
"Before I was born the officers caught Father and he spent six
months in prison because of polygamy. Mother told me the story so many
times that I know what happened. The officers used to be around all the
time to try and catch Uncle John and Grandpa and Uncle Hyrum. The
officers would always come and visit with Mother and one time she told
them that she was expecting Father. She told them,
"Now, I'm just sick and tired of this, and so we'll just count on a
certain time you can come and get him. So one night, Father and Mother
were just going to bed. Father was in bed, and Mother was undressing
and she went to blow out the lamp and as she blowed out the lamp, there
was a knock at the door, so she says, "Now just wait a minute", and she
lit the lamp and Father says, "Don't, it's the men after me." And she
said, "You are going with them, I'm sick and tired of this, and you are
going with them." So she got dressed and let the officers in. They said
they'd let him stay there that night but they'd be back the next
morning at 10:00 a.m. They did come back and they did take him. So we
got up the next morning and went up and told Uncle John. Oh!!!
Uncle John flew into a fit and paced the floor and he says, "You know,
if that was my wife, I'd turn her over my knee and I'd spank her bare
ass good." And Mother could hear it and she just sat there and she
said, "Well, John, would you like to try it?"