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| Rhoda Ann Knell Cannon |
Rhoda Ann Knell was the second child born to Robert and Mary Crook Knell in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory on 7 May 1858. Rhoda's family lived in Kaysville until 1862 when they moved to the southern Utah town of Pinto which is located in northern Washington County. Rhoda lived in Pinto until her marriage.
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| Robert Knell home in Pinto, Utah |
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| Pinto, Utah main street 1875 |
Hops grew wild along the creeks where there were willows for them to climb, and even though a large burlap sack full weighed only a few pounds, they were gathered carefully, dried and sold to buy some other much desired articles. After conditions become better, they milked enough cows to justify making cheese and butter.
The girls helped with the work and in the fall their father accompanied one or the other of the girls, and they would take a load into the City (Salt Lake City) and exchange it for dry goods and groceries. Rhoda Ann was sixteen when she made her first trip with him. It took fourteen days to reach Salt Lake City, but it was a grand trip. In those days girls felt like the daughters of millionaires when they came out in a new print dress, and they worked diligently to get one.
Pinto's choir, organized and conducted by Joseph Eldridge, was a very popular organization and it was the ambition of every young person to belong, as they invited them to sing at the important events in Cedar City and Parowan when such notables as president Brigham Young or other church officials were visiting. Rhoda looked back on those trips as among the "red letter" events of her life. She was president of the first Y.L.M.I.A. in her home town of Pinto, taught in Sunday School many years, and was an officer in the Children's Primary Organization.
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| Early photo of the St. George Temple with original spire |
On February 14, 1877 Rhoda and her sister, Sue, went with their father to St. George to work in the Temple. It had just opened for services January 11 of that year. While there, she met David H. Cannon, Assistant to Wilford Woodruff, who was then President of the Temple. On June 20th of that year they were married, she being his third wife under the plan of plural marriage.
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| David H./Rhoda Knell Cannon Family (about 1886) children: Eva, Wilford, baby Rhoda |
Rhoda is the mother of eleven children, eight sons and three daughters, eight of whom are still living (in 1942.) In addition to these she reared two grandchildren whose mother, Rhoda Cannon Bryner, died when they were very young. For many years after her marriage she spent the summers in Pinto, not being accustomed to Dixie's severe heat but in later years she remained in St. George the year round.
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| Rhoda and children - late 1890s Rhoda, Clara, Doug, Vernon, Walter |
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| Rhoda's home was later used as a kindergarten as shown here |
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| Rhoda 1915 |
Rhoda's husband, David H. Cannon passed away in 1924 leaving her a widow for twenty years. After her children married and left for their own homes she did Temple work and was an active Relief Society worker, serving as a visiting block teacher for twenty years. She crocheted lace and made hundreds of yards of lace for pillowslips and other uses. Many brides enjoyed gifts of Aunt Rhoda's handmade pillow cases. She spent her summers in her own home in St. George and winters with her daughter, Mrs. Joseph (Eva) Webb in Hurricane. Rhoda passed away in Hurricane on 23 May 1945.
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| Rhoda, still beautiful in her later years |
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Sources:
LIFE SKETCH OF RHODA ANN KNELL CANNON - Written by Mabel Jarvis 1942
FamilySearch.org
knell.forefamilies.org
DavidHCannon.org
Personal Histories and Photos
