John Lee

Home of John and Sarah Lee as it now looks on Main Street in Heber City

John Lee was born January 18, 1822 at Mission, Nottinghamshire, England.
John was left fatherless at age two, at ten years old he went to work, first as a farm hand and then in a foundry for six years.
John Lee married Sarah Roebuck on November 15, 1841. John joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1846 and Sarah was baptized in 1849. After being baptized John became a traveling elder and baptized some twenty persons.
John and Sarah left England in 1856 on the sailing ship Enoch Train. They arrived in America at Boston, and then went West by handcart. "Travel was slow and dusty, everyone got very tired, many died. June 15 our son William age twelve died and was buried by moonlight somewhere on Moon creek. Three of our children had to ride the whole way (one 6 months, one two years, and one four years old)."
The Lee family, after arriving in Salt Lake went South and spent three years in Spanish Fork before moving the family to what is now Heber City. "There were twenty-eight families here then."
Their home was the first with a fireplace in it when finished. At Christmas they had the first party in the valley.
John and Sarah had twelve children born to them. Sixty-four grandchildren and eighty-six great grandchildren.
John Lee died at home on September 14, 1909. John and Sarah are buried in the Heber City cemetery.