JACOB BREWER
Jacob Brewer was born on January 21, 1833 at Neversink, Sullivan County, New York to George Lewis Brewer and Bethenia Wheaton. When Jacob was ten, his father's family moved to Horsehead, Chemong County, New York where missionaries of the Mormon Church visited and taught them the gospel and they were baptized.
Jacob had little schooling, but he became very proficient in making many of the household utensils made of wood. Like his father, he became a cooper or barrel maker by trade.
Jacob went to Michigan to work with a friend and by 1857 they decided to hire out to drive freight teams hauling provisions from the Great Lakes to Salt Lake City, Utah. They went back to help their families across the plains, his father's family reached Salt Lake during the summer of 1859. The family settled in North Ogden and Jacob was called to make another trip to Council Bluffs to assist in the movement of the Saints.
Jacob was shy around women, but his friend took Jacob to visit a cousin, Sabra Ann Follett, who lived at Big Cottonwood, Utah. They fell in love, but her mother did not want her to marry Jacob, so they contrived a secret marriage in 1864. When the call came from Brigham Young to settle Utah's Dixie, the Brewers responded. They moved to the Virgin River. Here they found a fruitful land with an abundance of good timber in the mountains to make their wood products. They spent most of their time during the summer in the mountains cutting timber and worked in their shop making barrels and other wooden items during the winter. As the country became more settled, it soon became apparent to Jacob and Ann that too many of the luscious grapes grown in Dixie were being processed into wine, and there was too much drinking. They reasoned that this would be detrimental to their family, so they moved southward. They built log cabins in Glendale, Utah, but the winters were too cold there.
During the fall of 1879, Jacob and his brother Charles and their families headed for Arizona. They landed in Holbrook, Arizona on New Years Day, 1880. Holbrook was quite a boom town and the Brewer brothers took a railroad grading contract. One day they overheard some men talking about the need for shingles, so they sold their contract and moved to the timber land some 60 to 70 miles south to what was then known as Snowflake Camp. Here they took land, laid out a townsite, built a shingle mill, later a sawmill, and manufactured all manner of wooden ware which was sold throughout the area during the next twenty years. During their spare time they did some dry farming, but it was not very profitable. Soon following settlement at Snowflake Camp, the church authorities from Snowflake organized them into a branch and named the community Pinedale.
Uncle Jake and Aunt Ann, as they were affectionately known, became important people in that part of the country. Uncle Jake was constantly in demand to administer to the sick, the Lord blessed him with the gift of healing. Sister Shumway was very ill with pneumonia and her spirit left her body for she recalled having visited on the other side and saw many wonderful things. But immediately following her administration by Uncle Jake, her spirit returned to her body and she completely recovered. Uncle Jake's health was failing and the doctor advised that they move to a lower altitude.
Jacob and his brother and their families moved to the Gila Valley, arriving in Thatcher on New Year's day 1900. Here the found living conditions difficult due to a long drought. They settled eight miles south of Safford, near a small settlement which was later named Lebanon. An artesian well was drilled which afforded sufficient irrigation to raise crops to supply their modest needs. Their last great tragedy came in the form of typhoid fever. While nursing a son, Hyrum, Ann contracted the disease and soon died, as did her brother Joseph Follett. Jacob was perfectly indifferent to life after that. He dreamed he saw Ann on the opposite side of a large stream of water, as she beckoned to him, he seemed to have an assurance that he was wanted on the other side. Thus his blessing was fulfilled which promised that he would remain in life until completely satisfied with life.
He passed to the other side on May 24, 1909, at the age of 76. He was laid to rest beside his beloved wife in the Safford Cemetery.