The special guest speaker at the June Carbon County Historical Society meeting was Theora Worley, who presented a history of the Pilling Family and the Dairy Farms of Carbon County.
Worley started with the Pilling genealogy, beginning with her great-grandmother Sarah Bedford Pilling, who came from England. She was born a twin, though her twin passed away at only a couple of months old. In 1854, Sarah married a man named George Booth. A year later, she joined the LDS church, prompting her husband to disown and leave her.
From there, she traveled to Liverpool and boarded a ship to America, leaving her family behind. She arrived in the New York harbor in May of 1860. In Nebraska, Sarah joined a handcart company that walked to plains of America to the Great Salt Lake Valley.
In 1861, she met John Pilling. John had served in the war before joining his parents in America, also joining a handcart company that traveled to the Great Salt Lake Valley.
The two were married in 1964 and had three children. One, by the name of William, is Worley’s grandfather. Worley continued through the remainder of the family history down to her generation. The later generation largely lived in Emery County and worked in farming, dairy and livestock. The curator of the West Jordan Historical Society contacted the Pilling family about their history, prompting Worley organize through the memorabilia and write the history.
The family began with 55 head of cattle and decided on Modern Dairy as the name due to the want to make the business as modern as possible. Ice was brought in from Price each day for the milk after deliveries and a hand pump was also used to chill the milk.
In the beginning, the milk was moved by horse and wagon. As soon as possible, delivery trucks were purchased. William Pilling purchased the very first tractor that was brought in the Castle Valley, Theora said. Worley had a photo of this tractor, stating that it is still located in Wellington today.
Alongside the history, Worley had photos of Sarah, William, his wife Albertina, their Desert Lake home and more. She continued through the history, enthralling the crowd. She also had memorabilia for attendees to view.
It was announced that there will not be a historical society meeting in the month of July. This traditionally does not take place as the month of July is a busy one. The historical society will begin meeting again in August.
