History of Caroline Lucy Blake

Caroline Lucy Blake was born July 3, 1843, Blandford, Dorset, England, the 3rd child of Benjamin Frederick and Harriet Hollis Blake.  She was only 10 years old when her family emigrated from England out to Salt Lake city, Utah and was a young woman of 16 when her family was called to the "Dixie" Mission. 

Caroline's father was a furniture maker and they owned one of the finer homes in St. George, Utah.  Her future husband Warren Hardy worked for her father.  They married March 5, 1864 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Warren and Caroline moved to St. George where Warren owned a farm down by the river.  They built a shack type house and started their life together.  I feel a little sad for Caroline as it didn't seem as if luxury or happiness was to be hers.  As her family grew, she continued living on in the shack by the river.

These were the polyygamy years so ten years later Warren took himself another wife (Sarah Hannah Smith Apr 26, 1875) and another one (Martha Aurelia Johnson Dec 18, 1879).  He seemed to prefer Sarah and built her a fine home in St. George.  He furnished a comfortable home for Aurelia also.

It was gossiped that as soon as Caroline's children were old enough to be weaned that Warren would take them to the second wife (Sarah) to raise, leaving Caroline free to do the cooking for his hired hands.  Her teenage sons were permitted to live with her as they were needed to work the farm.  They hauled their water from the river and one day as Caroline was carrying some heavy buckets of water, one of the hired men by the name of Booth, just could not stand to see how hard she had to work and offered to carry the water.  He gave her many a hand after this and they became good friends.

Warren was real indignant upon learning of Mr. Booth's attention to his wife.  There was light thrown on the situation and some of the townsmen decided to tar and feather Mr. Booth and burn Caroline at the stake.  Upon learning of the coming events, Caroline's sons packed her belongings into a wagon.  They warned Mr. Booth and it was agreed that they would bring their mother to Middleton (four miles east of St. George) and he'd take her away.

Caroline had her two youngest children with her at this time.  The boys drove her into St. George to say goodby to her family.  They stopped at Blakes and it was a very sad occasion indeed.  One son stayed in the drivers seat so they could hurry if need be.  One son was on the ground by the wagon and he said, "Mother, you can't take the little ones because if you do they will never quit chasing you."  The boy grabbed the children from Caroline's arms and as he did she cried, "Oh, no, not my babies," and fainted dead away.  The other boy hurriedly hit the horses and drove away to save his mother.

Caroline never had the privilege of seeing her children and family again.  Mr. Booth took her into Idaho and it is believed that she had two more sons by him but until more research can be done it isn't known if there was a divorce from Mr. Hardy or a marriage to Mr. Booth.  One of her sons born in Idaho was called Lebby believed to be Celeb.  The family has not found out where they went but she died  Apr 4 1893.  (Recorded in her mother Harriet Holis journal).  It is believe that she was buried in the old Twin Falls Cemetery in Idaho just ten years after her exile from St. George.  She was a small and petite person as were all the Blake girls.

I do not wish to make Mr. Hardy sound like a cad as we find many fine qualities about him and under such trying conditions, we find many were imposed upon without the other parties even being aware of it.

Warren Hardy was 12 years old when he came to Utah with his parents.  In Salt Lake City, he fell in love with pretty Caroline Lucy Blake.  He was 24 years old when he married her.  He went south in 1858.  Warren was trained in carpentry work, with a special skill for broom making, cabinet and furniture making.  The Warren Hardy house, water wheel and cabinet shop were located on East Main Street, on highway 91, St. George, Utah, near the present site of the Wittwer Motel.  In Warren's mill he made many kinds of furniture and ground both wheat for flour and salt rock into fine salt for people with his lathe and grinding stone.  This provided jobs for his sons both in his mill and on his farm by the river.

Warren was never very well after Caroline left and upon learning of her death, he died the same year, 8 months later Nov 22, 1893  in St. George Utah.

Caroline had light hair, blue eyes, weighed 100 lbs and was 5 ft. 2 inches tall.