Julius Golben Van Ausdal—Born in 1837 in St. Louis, Missouri. Died in 1912 in Santaquin, Utah. Information about him was gathered from documents accessible on FamilySearch.org. The memories referenced are from the profile: KWJ6-MFS.
Julius was the son of William Van Ausdal, a blacksmith and machinist living in St. Louis Missouri.
Julius’ grandparents had uprooted their son William from West Virginia and planted him in Missouri, in order to claim land available from the Louisiana Purchase. But William couldn’t imagine himself as a farmer, so learned to work with metal.
William married a pretty lady named Mary Ann Robertson, who too had been uprooted from North Carolina to settle Missouri in the Land Rush.
William and Mary settled down in St. Louis, where William worked as a machinist. There, they had their five children.
Their oldest child was Julius Van Ausdal. Julius attended the University there in St. Louis. He was intelligent, a strong blacksmith, and machinist like his father.
Julius’ story isn’t the normal Utah Mormon Pioneer story. He felt called from Missouri to Colorado or California, where miners were striking rich in the Gold Rush.
He left Missouri to find his mother’s brother, who was supposed to be at Fort Bridger. Julius got a job with Johnson’s Army as a team driver—the same Johnson’s Army that was going to stomp out the Mormon Rebellion.
Julius reached Fort Bridger with the army and made friends with a young man named Lon Blair, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Together, the two young men traveled to what is now Denver Colorado, and set up homesteads while they prospected for ore.
The venture didn’t last though and soon the men sold their land for a mule and some supplies in order to return to Fort Bridger.
After resting at the Fort, the men made their way west to Utah, where Julius found himself living in Heber City with a man named James Smith, a convert to the Church from Tennessee.
Julius soon thereafter traveled with a son of James to a little settlement in southern Utah County where Julius set eyes on James’ granddaughter, Margaret Smith.
Its reported that the two of them fell in love at first sight and they were quickly married.
Due to the loving labors of his new bride, in-law family, and old friend (Lon Blair), Julius was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ soon thereafter.
Julius and Margaret lived for some time in a small log cabin on the corner of 300 South and 100 West on the same block as her parents and brother. While living in Santaquin, they had 13 children: 5 girls and 8 boys.
Julius fit in well with the scrappy and hardworking settlers. He was a blacksmith and a carpenter; a locksmith and a merchant.
He read whatever books he could get a hold of and pondered them deeply. He was a great mathematician and learned to speak Spanish, French, and German.
He lived a long life and at the end of it, he was surrounded by family. His grandchildren reported that he enjoyed visiting all of his local children daily.