MANTI—The Manti Camp of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers will be honoring Anthony Wayne and Susan Matilda Lane Bessey and their descendants at the 33rd Annual Commemoration of “Settlement of Sanpete” on Saturday, Sept. 25.
The event, which is open to the public, starts with registration at 8 a.m. for the afternoon tours of Bessey’s historic homes.
According to DUP spokesperson Jane Braithwaite, the Besseys arrived in Manti in 1857. They were accompanied by Anthony’s recently widowed mother, Thankful Sterns Bessey.
While in Manti, Anthony carried on the rich tradition of his Pilgrim/Puritan ancestry. He was very active in both civic and church affairs, which included being a captain of cavalry in the Black Hawk War, Mayor of Manti, and a regular worker in the Manti Temple when it first opened in 1888 under the Presidency of Daniel Wells.
The Bessey ancestor who immigrated to Massachusetts from England in 1655 was a “freeman” and part of the Plymouth Colony. Later generations participated in the War of Independence as minute-men in the storied Alarm at Lexington, April, 1775.
