Life History of Lucy Loomis Tuttle

Birth: 11 Jun 1822 Russell, Hampden, Mass
Death: 20 Oct 1890 Spanish Fork, Utah Co., Utah

Children: Lavenia (Miller), Alma, Esmarilda (McKell)

Lucy Loomis Tuttle, born June 11, 1822, in Russell Hampden County, Mass., was the daughter of Squire and Patience Root Loomis. She worked for seven years in the Cabotville Mills weaving cotton cloth and during that time she was only late to her work twice and the foreman then let her through a little side gate. On the 16th day of May 1843, she was married to Hubbard Tuttle in Cabotville. They joined the Church in 1844. Thinking that the Saints were going to California she packed all her choice things in the way of dishes, quilts, etc., and sent them on the ship Brooklyn with Sam Brannan, but never saw them again. She remained in Winter Quarters for a time, and during her journey across the plains was sorely afflicted with black scurvy.

They arrived in Salt Lake September 1847, and lived in the 9th Ward. They had ten acres of land outside the city limits. In 1849, Mr. Tuttle left Salt Lake in company with Albert Thurber, going through the southern route to California, on what is sometimes called the Gold Mission. He was taken ill with Cholera infantum, died within a short time leaving Lucy with three children, the youngest a baby boy five months old, born while he was away.

She married Milo Andrus June 11, 1851, to them five children were born. The first years after her marriage to Mr. Andrus were spent in what was known as the Jordan Bottoms, and then moved to the Half Way House in Crescent, a few miles north from the Point of the Mountain.

At one time, James Miller, a merchant from Spanish Fork, stopped at the hotel. In conversation with Mrs. Andrus, James told her that there was a good opportunity to establish a hotel in Spanish Fork. Heeding his advice, she, in company with her children, made the move, where she bought ground from James Anderson, a blacksmith, and built the first hotel in the town. It was located on South Main Street, and was known as the Spanish Fork House. Supper, breakfast and bed, Mrs. Andrus gave her guests for $1.00. The stabling of the animals was extra. Francenia, her daughter, helped in the hotel until she married her stepfather, Milo Andrus. Another helper in the hotel was Harriet Simmons. Lucy’s oldest son, Hubbard, fell in love with Harriet and they were married.

Lucy Loomis Andrus died October 20, 1890, and is buried in the Spanish Fork Cemetery. Her daughter, Esmerelda, said of her, "I think she was bigger than anything that could happen to her; sorrow, misfortune, suffering, they were outside her door, she was in the house and had the key."

Spanish Fork Hotel; The first hotel in Spanish Fork, Utah, was built and owned by Lucy Loomis Tuttle Andrus, who located here in 1868. It stood on the plot now occupied by the High School Auditorium at Third South and Main. The "Spanish Fork House," as the hotel was known in early days, faced the east and was built of brown adobe, three thick, which made the walls eighteen inches through. A large living room extended across the entire front; this room was approximately twenty-five by fourteen feet. Adjoining on the north and west was the dining room. A stairway led to the rooms above from the southeast corner. Lucy’s bedroom was just south of the dining room from which a door led into the living room. Another bedroom door opened onto a small porch on the southwest corner of the building. Within the porch was a curbed-in surface well from which the culinary water was drawn with a wooden bucket. The kitchen occupied the northwest corner and opened into the dining room. Henry Andrus, a grandson, still has the long butcher knife used for carving purposes in this room.

Six bedrooms were located on the second floor, with three on each side of a hall which extended east and west. Each bedroom was lighted from glass windows; there were three windows on the east wall and two on the north and south walls. Each room had its metal number fastened on the door.

Near the hotel to the north and west, stood a large brown adobe barn built upon a rock foundation. Because it was built on a hillside, the rock wall was built up about seven feet on the west side. The space under the barn furnished shelter for cows which were kept in a corral adjoining. Cows and pigs drank from a large irrigation stream that flowed at the bottom of the hill. In the barn were kept hay and grain for stabling of horses.

Comments

3 Responses to “Life History of Lucy Loomis Tuttle”

  1. Emily Farrer on May 12th, 2008 9:49 pm

    Great site you have here! I’m volunteering with my 2 kids this year at This Is the Place and am assigned to the Andrus Half Way House. I’m trying to imagine what life was like for Lucy and am finding all this information quite useful.
    I know this is one of those questions one shouldn’t ask, but has anyone found any information on the interactions/relationships of the wives? What were these women really like? How did they feel about each other? Did they get along? Were they jealous of one another, or did things run smoothly? I’ve tried researching this in my own family lines, but it seems so hush-hush, that I can’t find anything!
    Thanks again for the site!

  2. Laura Anderson on September 2nd, 2008 1:45 pm

    http://gedview.rulufandazuba.org/individual.php?pid=I3348&ged=phpupdateoct2007.ged
    Laura’s infromation can be found at this URL
    To contact Laura please send to paffanatic10@yahoo.com

  3. Jane Leng on March 25th, 2021 12:04 pm

    Lucy Loomis Tuttle was Milo Andrus’s 3rd wife. He was married to 11 women in total. He would have been my 4thgreat grandmother Sara Ann Miles who sister wife for 5 months before Sarah Ann died. Milo inherited all 10 acres of the land that was deeded to Lucy and her first husband. Lucy insisted that she became sealed to her first husband and that was a unusual act of courage for those times.
    Lucy died a mysterious death in 1890 and I am trying to find any historical documents such as newspaper articles etc surrounding it. I think there was some sort of trial that Milo Junior testified. Any historical information would be of interest to me.
    Jane Leng

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