The Dale J. and Alta Jones Moon Family recently donated an oxen yoke and bellows owned by Hugh Moon, to the Oneida Pioneer Museum. These items came across the plains in 1848 with Moon.

In the Malad Valley, Hugh Moon is known for his grave that is located on the Utah/Idaho border, several feet into Idaho and his known desire to be buried in “Zion” which he considered to be Utah.

Moon was a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and his family were converted to the Church through missionaries in England, Orson Hyde and Heber C. Kimball, and baptized by Kimball. He sailed to America in 1840 after the death of his father. After his mother passed away in 1841 in Iowa, the children moved to Montrose, Iowa, where Hugh was married in 1846 to Maria Emmeline Mott. It is recorded that Moon was one of the bodyguards of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In 1848, he and his family came across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley in a small wagon pulled by two steers and trailing a lame cow. The yoke is quite heavy. It is amazing that two steers could handle that weight!

In Salt Lake City in 1854, Hugh married two other women, Elisabeth Kemmish and Jannett Nicol. While living in Salt Lake City, Moon owned a large farm. He built a whiskey distillery, the whiskey to be used for medical purposes. He received permission from the Prophet Brigham Young, as long as he would not sell it to young men who “wanted to sport with it”. As the business grew, the city kept raising the fee for his license, and eventually he received the following letter from President Brigham Young: 

“Dear Brother, I write to request you not to sell any more whiskey or alcohol, or any description of spirituous liquor, no matter who may call upon you to purchase. And in case the plea is made that some one will die, unless the liquor can be had, be pleased to tell them to first call upon me and get an order for the coffin, for the liquor they cannot have. We have seen as much drunkenness about our streets as we care about seeing, and they all acknowledge that they get their liquor at ‘moon’s still’. Brigham Young​.”

Moon complied with the order, after running the lucrative business for approximately 14 years. From his journal, he relates, “I went in partnership with a man by the name of McMasters, a rope and twine manufacturer, we intended to manufacture all kinds of rope, from the cable to the shoemaker’s thread, also cloth from grain sacks to fine linen; to start a bone mill, and bring up all the old bones in the county for manure; and drive one or two cane mills during the time for making cane molasses; for which purpose I put up a water wheel, thirty feet high, built a large vat to rot the hemp and flaxen by steam.”

While he was busily engaged in making molasses, he was informed that he had been called by the Church to move to St. George to raise cotton and tobacco. He complied with this order also, and he moved his families to St. George in 1861. From his journal, he relates, “We lived in St. George five years, we as a family suffered much, all for the Gospel sake, we almost starved to death.”

In 1869, he came “north to see the country of Malad”. He purchased a farm from Josia (sic) D. Price for $1,100. He died in 1870 at Henderson Creek, Oneida County, Idaho, with the request to be buried in Zion. 

Moon had large families from his three wives. One of his children by Elisabeth Kemmish was Joseph Helaman Moon. One of his sons, Dale J. Moon, took over the farm and lived in Henderson Creek with his family until his death in 1995. Eventually the farm was sold, and a daughter, Connie Kelso, inherited the oxen yoke and bellows. Recently, because of ill health, Connie moved to California to live with her daughter. Her brother and sisters decided they would like to donate these historic items to the Oneida Pioneer Museum. Oh, and the rest of the story – Hugh Moon White Whiskey can still be purchased from a distiller in Salt Lake City!