Mike Accidentally Takes Bitton Family History Tour

Photo by Mike Bitton
This is the historic home of John Evington Bitton in West Weber, Utah. He was my great great great grandfather.

Hey, it's Mike. I'm in Salt Lake City this week to work the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show. Got here a couple of days early with the intention of attending the Open Air Demo, where manufacturers put their new toys on the lakeside beach and let you take them for a spin. That was my plan, anyway.

Instead of going to the lake on Tuesday, I lurked around Temple Square. I visited the Family History Center on West Temple, and learned a lot about John Evington Bitton. He's my Great Great Great Grandfather. Born in London in 1830, he joined the LDS church in his 20s and emigrated to Utah with his sister and his new wife. John's sister landed in Menan, Idaho, where she married a man named Poole. John and Sarah landed on less-than-ideal farmland along the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake, at a place now known as West Weber, Weber County, Utah. It's less than an hour from Salt Lake. I figured I should go out there, maybe on my way home to Portland, after Outdoor Retailer.

Instead, I went to West Weber this morning. Yep, I missed the second day of the Open Air Demo, to chase the ghost I couldn't seem to get out of my head. This John Evington Bitton, he'd been a sailor in England. He'd been to ports all over the world, including Bombay, which seemed a strange coincidence, as that's precisely where my wife Jana was yesterday when I was reading up on John Evington in the Family History Library.

My Great Great Great Grandfather was in his 20s when he came to America. His wife and sister were in their teens. The strength that accompanied their youth helped them weather the storms endured by the ill-timed journey of the Martin Handcart Company, which had to be rescued at South Pass, Wyo., by young men from Salt Lake. Up for another strange coincidence? One of the guys from Salt Lake that came to the aide of the Martin Handcart Company is the great great grandfather of Nelson Wadsworth, my former photojournalism professor at Utah State University. I'm typing this blog entry from Nelson's Salt Lake City basement. I'm staying with him for the duration of Outdoor Retailer.

So this morning I found my way to West Weber, and the historic home of John Evington Bitton. It's still standing, and includes a large sign declaring it a Utah State Historical Landmark. I stepped up on the rickety West-facing porch and tried to imagine sitting in a chair, watching the sun set. I walked around the place, and picked an apple from one of two mature apple trees in the back yard. I ate the apple, imagining what this place would have looked like with nothing else around. A bit later, I found my way to the West Weber Cemetery, where I found not only the graves of John Evington Bitton and his wife, but the graves of several of their sons and daughters, as well as grandsons and granddaughters. Some may have even been great grandchildren. My guy, John Evington's firstborn son, John Wintle Bitton, wasn't there, far as I could tell. I'll have to find out where he's at. Maybe in Ogden, where John Evington later lived. Maybe in Riverside (Blackfoot) Idaho, where my grandfather, Glen L. Bitton, was born. I'll have to do some more research.

Until today, I'd never been a big fan of Utah. I went to college in Logan, but as soon as I graduated, I wanted out. Too much blending of church and everything else for my liking. But now I see, whether I like it or not, I am Utah. My people quite literally settled Utah. This morning, I sat in the grass in the front yard of the first Bitton in Utah. The first church meeting ever to take place in West Weber was in a Bitton home. This afternoon, when I met a photographer friend at Temple Square, I felt undeniably at home surrounded by the Temple, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and the Church Office Building. I've been to Temple Square many times during the past three decades, and I've never felt like that before. It's amazing to feel the changes taking place in my heart and mind. For reasons I don't understand, the wall that's developed between me and my heritage is slowly coming down. I can see the other side, and it's really not what I imagined.

Tomorrow, I'll be at Outdoor Retailer. There will be no skipping out like I did on the Open Air Demo. I'll be working in a booth, helping promote the products of a new sunglasses company from New York City. And I'll be in a city that wouldn't be what it is today without the Mormons. I'll be working in Salt Lake because my great great great grandfather came to America. And I'll be sleeping in the basement of a direct descendent of one of the men who literally saved six generations of the Bitton family. That's enough big thinking for one day.