Honoring a Family Hero

A great grandson of John Harris and Orpha is a real American hero. U.S. Army Major John Dana "JD" Greer (Ret.)--John Jr.'s grandson--served in such units as the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and suffered multiple severe injuries in the course of his service, including losing his right arm after being hit by a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq. He and his wife Ada are currently serving a military relations mission for the LDS Church in San Antonio, Texas.

This Veteran's Day, honor your Greer cousin's sacrifice for your freedoms by sharing his story with your family. The following link will take you to a short biography and a video interview with JD from the George W. Bush Presidential Center website: http://www.bushcenter.org/people/john-d-greer.

Mini Greer Reunion

Recently two mini Greer reunions were held at the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah. Sylvia Crosby Clegg (daughter of Florence) arranged meetings for descendants of Florence, Leland, and Kate to meet with John Jr.'s grandson, John Dana "JD" Greer, who is leaving this week to serve a military relations mission with his wife Ada in San Antonio, Texas.

As Sylvia said, "Good family times and good family connections sweeten life!" We encourage you to share photos of any cousin get-togethers you may have and we will post them on this blog.

Roy Crosby, Grant Skousen, Sister Ada Greer
Keri Skousen, Sylvia Crosby Clegg, Elder JD Greer

Sister Ada & Elder JD Greer, Barbara & Richard Ballantyne,
Sylvia Crosby Clegg, and Laurie Jo Rhoton

Happy Pioneer Day!

John Harris Greer’s father, Thomas Lacy Greer, was 28 when he travelled to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. He came with his parents, Nathaniel Hunt and Nancy Ann Terry Roberts Greer, and many other family members in the Seth Blair/Edward Stevenson Company of 1855. They had recently arrived at the outfitting post at Mormon Grove, Kansas, (near Atchison) with a large group of fellow converts from Texas. They departed from there on 15 June and arrived between 10-13 September. A third of this company died of cholera enroute, including Thomas’ father.

Catherine Ellen Camp, Harris’ mother, travelled as a child at the age of twelve in the Shadrach Roundy Company of 1850. They departed Council Bluffs, Iowa, on 22 June and arrived between 10-19 September. She travelled in style with her family, comprised of her father, Williams W. Camp, her mother, Diannah Greer Camp, and siblings John (age 16), Harriet (age 8), Emma (age 6), Richard (age 3), and Margaret (age 1). They also brought two slaves with them, Dan and Charlotte. Little Emma died after less than a week on the trail in a cholera epidemic that swept the company.

It is not known which company Orpha Elzetta Nicoll’s father, Alexander Nicoll, travelled with to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, but it is known that he came before 1850 because he is listed on the Utah Census for that year with his brothers John and William as well as his stepbrother Hugh Lisonbee. His father, Peter Nicoll, went to California with the Gold Rush and died in a mine there. His mother, Margaret McPhail Nicoll, had died a few years earlier in Keokuk, Iowa.

 

Orpha’s mother, Sabina Ann Adams, was also twelve when she travelled to Utah in the Samuel Gully/Orson Spencer Company of 1849, which left from Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Iowa, on 28 May and arrived between 22-25 September. With her were her parents, Arza M. Adams and Sabina Clark Adams, and her siblings Nathan (age 17), Joshua (age 15), Nancy (age 7), Theothan (age 4), and Joseph Smith (age 2). Another sibling was born just about a month after they arrived.

Remembering Raymond Hogue Greer

Ray Greer & his sister Bina Law

Ray was born 19 October 1911 in St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona, the youngest in the large family of John Harris and Orpha Nicoll Greer. He had a happy childhood growing up on Greer Ranch and attending school in St. Johns. As a teenager, he had a job herding sheep for Marion Haws of St. Johns. After his father died, Ray left home to work (against the wishes of his mother since he was only fifteen years old). He traveled around the country a great deal, returning for a few days at a time to visit.

Remembering Leland Camp Greer

Leland Camp Greer, the thirteenth child born to John Harris and Orpha Nicoll Greer,

was born in his Grandmother Nicoll’s home in St. Johns, Arizona, on 13 February 1908. His sister Flossie was the first to hold him and spent long hours with him and their other siblings playing about the hills and sandy washes near Greer Ranch.  They always went barefoot in the summer months. One of Flossie’s jobs was to see that her brothers scrubbed their feet and put salve on them every evening before going to bed.

During his boyhood, Leland helped with herding and milking the cows as well as making the cheese and butter. He went to school in St. Johns through high school, but never attended college. When he was eighteen years old, his father passed away, and Leland went to work to support himself and help support his mother.

He married Alice Geneva Crosby on 28 July 1930 in Holbrook, Arizona. They had six children: Milford Leland, John Harris, Terry Reginald, Laurie Jo, Michael Howard, and Nickolas LeSueur. Leland had great love for his family and provided well for them. His special interests included stock raising and farming, though he spent much of his life employed by Apache County in the road maintenance department. He is remembered as being efficient, trustworthy, and having many friends. He died on 7 August 1981 at the age of seventy-three.