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Saloma was the daughter of Levi and Polly Bybee Hammon, Latter-day Saint converts who crossed the plains with the Alfred Condon Company, reaching Salt Lake City in October 1851. Saloma and her sisters were clothed for the journey in dresses and pantaletts made from a factory. Her father had aquired when he traded a wagon he had made for a whole bolt of cloth. Polly had previously colored it with dye made from rabbit brush and various grasses.

While her father had been making wagons, her mother had been making maple sugar. The skimmings were dried in cups, in pieces about one half inch thick. These were put in a seamless sack, and each person was given one piece each day, as long as it lasted during the trip.

The two hammon wagons accomodatted twelve people besides themselves, making a total of nineteen. Everyone walked as much as possible, including the children. Saloma walked almost all the way. From Salt Lake City the Hammons traveled as far north as the Weber river, and settledd where the city of Uintah now is. At that time, it was called Weber. There Levi Hammon tilled the soil, and there Saloma and her sisters and brothers helped as all pioneer children must.

During the years the crickets and grasshoppers were so bad, they helped drive them into the deep trenches, and then buried or burnt them. Years later just the memory of burning crickets would nauseate her.

Matches were a rarety, and the settlers kept the fires going continually burying coals to keep them alive until needed. One day the Hammon fire went out, and Saloma and her brother went to the neighbors for some live coals. On the way they met a gaunt and hungary wolf. "Oh cried the boy," looks like here's where we get it." "No we won't", said Saloma. Her first instinct was to pray, however, she realized that there is a time for prayer and a time for action. Besides, "God helps those who help themselves". So she grabbed a stick, from the roadside, her brother got another, and together the two children beat the wolf to death.

During the winter that the Johnson's Army threatened the Saints, Levi Hammon was on duty at Echo canyon for three months. During that time his wife Polly lay ill with milk fever, contracted after the birth of a child. Being unable to feed the baby, she had Saloma and her sister carry the baby to the kind neighbors who had small babies of their own. These women nursed it in turns, until it was old enoough to eat with a spoon.

In 1864, Saloma and her husband, John Prescott, went with her father to help settle Bear Lake Valley, along with Charles C. Rich and others. Their in the first house to be built in the settlement of Leberty, her father's house, her first child, James Prescott, was born. Sometime later her husband built their own home on the same lot. It was a three room log house, with dirt roof and floors. Soon another son, and a daughter Matilde were born.

When Matilda was two years old, John Prescott was killed by a falling tree while after a load of wood. Two weeks later, Matilde sickened and died. Four months later, still another son, Byrum was born. William Hymas and his wife were neighbors and good friends of the Prescotts. Saloma had nursed his wife through a three months illness, taking her into her own home. The two men had made a pact that if either were to die, the other was to marry and take care of the widow. A year and a half after John died, Saloma Prescott became the plural wife of William Hymas. To this union, five children were born.

Saloma lived for forty-three years on the same lot in Liberty. When William built her a more modern home close by, she only moved fromthe old home to the new, which was still on the same lot. Her second home had floors, rough floors it is true, but soon made smooth by Saloma's sanding. for this she used a piece of sheepskin dipped in wet sand, and vigorously applied to the rough boards. No one ever thought of using soap on floors.

The family was fortunate in having both sheep and cattle to provide food, clothing, bedding, and even light. For as soon as a sheep was slaughtered, the tallow would be made into candles, to be put away to be used as needed. the wool would be washed, pulled, corded, spun into yarn, then woven into cloth for suits, shirts, and dresses, and the yarn knit into stocking capes, mittens, and petticoats. The petticoats were especially pretty, with brightly colored stripes knit around the skirts. Shoes for the small children would be made from the best parts of worn jeans or heavier clothing. They were soled with sheep skin with the wooly side in, and were warm and wore fairly well. At times she would spend the entire day weaving, then sew all night by candlel light.

Another of her talents was making straw hats. The boys would bring in armloads of long oat straw, to be soaked in lye water to toughen it. Then, even the smaller children could draw it through their fingers to flatten it. Then it was braided into four strands flat braid to be sewed into hats for the family, friends, and others.

Saloma was a wonderful cook, even with the scant materials of the frontier. Cookies were made sweetened with honey and beaten, that is pounded, witha wooden maul, or the roling pins in place of shorteing. It gave the cookies a tender, flaky texture, just as if plenty of shortening had been used. Corn would be parched and ground in a small hand or coffee mill, for a dish much like prepared cereal of taday. This with milk and suger, often furnished the evening meal. Another favorite dish was lumpy dick. Saloma's version of this was made by mixinf flour, eggs, and a little salt, and cooking it in booiling milk. It looked much like small noodles, and was delicious sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

Nothing pleased Saloma more than to take butter or milk to her friends who had none. One of her most endearing traits was her thoughtfulness of others. Her's was a life of labor, however, it did have it's amusing side, and of course, the church activities that meant so much to all the saints. She attended the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, and was there when a woman gave birth to a child before she could be moved from the building. She heard later, that the parents named the baby "Temple".

In spite of hard work, Saloma stayed astonishingly youthful. Once, on her son Jame's nineteenth birthday, they were in a store at Montpelier, Idaho. Saloma was buying cufflinks for his birthday present. The storekeeper jokingly said, "I see you're trying to please the old man this time". "I have been trying to please him for nineteen years", said the "old man's" mother. "WHAT", cried the storekeeper astonished, "You folks don't look old enough to have been married that long."Saloma said with considerable dignity, "And this is my son, not my husband."

Saloma bore nine children, eight of whom grew to maturity. They were James, John, and Byron Prescott, Walter and George Hymas, and the girls Saloma, Dora, and Effie Hymas. After the manifesto separated them, Saloma moved to blackfoot, Idaho to be near her daughters. A small yellow house was built for her, and that, except when she was visiting her children, was where her home was the rest of her days.

Soon everyone in the community came to know the cheerful, loveable, old lady, and when she died on 6 Sept., 1913, at her daughter effie's home in Blackfoot, her many friends, as well as her numerous progeny, mourned at her passing.

Written By: Perhaps Ida Wixom?