David Merrill Squires was born November the 18th, 1859, in Brigham City, Utah. He was the son of Charles Porter and Sarah Peters Squires. He was the second son born to them and he was very welcome. Their adobe home was on the corner of First South and Main Street, across the street from where the Post Office now stands. Mack's Pharmacy and Sprouse-Reits Ten Cent Store are now where the little home stood. (Written in 1952)

Little David was a sweet, patient little fellow, and as he grew and younger children arrived, he was a great help to his mother. He was the one who tended to the babies, bathed and fed them, washed their diapers and helped with them in every way. He was also the one who did the cooking and housekeeping when his mother wasn’t well.

David, with his brothers and sister, went to school to the old County Court House. Mrs. Box was also their teacher in her home.

When David was about twenty years of age he was put in as Ward Clerk in the Brigham First Ward. This position he held until he married and moved into the Third Ward.

On December 27, 1883, he and Margaret Jane Burt went to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City and were married for time and eternity. They moved into the Third Ward where his older brother, Charles, lived. The next fall a baby boy came to bless their home. He was named David Peter Squires. While he was still a baby, the little family moved to Lyman, Idaho, where they settled on a homestead.

When young David was almost three, a little sister was born into their home. Little Laura Jane was only a month old when Margaret Jane died, leaving her young husband and two little ones. David was heart-broken and unable to care for his children by himself. He left Idaho and returned to his mother in Brigham City. His brother, William, bought his farm. It is the farm that William owned and operated until his death.

David and his children lived with his mother until both of his children were grown. David took up another homestead. This one was several miles west of Brigham City. He had trouble with people driving across his land as a short cut from one road to another. They pulled down his fences and trampled over his crops. Finally he sold this land after his second marriage for $10 an acre.

David returned to Lyman, Idaho and dug up his wife’s coffin and brought her to Brigham City by wagon. She is now buried in the Brigham City cemetery.

On March 13, 1889, David went to the Logan Temple with his sister, Charlotte, for her marriage to Charles Tillotson. At this wedding he met Annabelle Tillotson, sister of the groom. He saw her often in the next few years when he visited at his sister’s home in Ogden. In 1903, David asked Annabelle to become his wife. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on his birthday, November 18, 1903. He was very happy, after his years of loneliness, to have a home of his own and a sweet loving wife. Almost two years after their marriage, David and Annabelle had a baby boy. They named their son Merrill Charles.

When Merrill was about three, the family moved into the home on North Main in Brigham City. David bought some land just north of Brigham City where he raised grain and hay and had an apple orchard. He sold this land to a nephew, Porter Squires Tillotson, not many years before his death.

After Nephi Anderson’s wife, Aseneth (who was a sister to Annabelle) died, David and Annabelle took care of his three children while Nephi went on a mission to Europe where he was gone for twenty-seven months.

David and Annabelle lived a full, happy life. They sent Merrill on a mission to Germany in 1927, though they both had to work hard to raise the money. David went to Wyoming to work and Annabelle stayed at home and cared for sick and elderly people. They looked after and helped David’s youngest brother, Porter. He died in their home at the age of sixty-three.

Countless are the people cared for and helped by Uncle Dave and Aunt Belle, and myriads are the friends who can tell of their deeds of love and kindness to all with whom they came in contact. Their home was always a meeting place for young people who were always made welcome.

They have always been active in church work. After being ordained a High Priest soon after his second marriage, David served for many years as Quorum Secretary. He taught Sunday school and tried to always be in attendance at his meetings. Annabelle was a Religion class teacher and received an award for being a Relief Society visiting teacher for 42 years. This position she gave up in order to give her full time to David during his final illness.

Grandchildren and great-grandchildren have never been more welcomed by grandparents than were those of David and Annabelle. They both enjoyed caring for them and rocking the wee ones to sleep.

David always said he wanted to live to be as old as his mother was when she died, but after an illness of nearly two years, he died three and a half months before he would have been 93.

In the entire world you will never find a finer more honest, more humble, or more faithful couple than David and Annabelle. Their lives have been devoted to untiring, unselfish service to anyone who needed them. God grant that we and our children may follow in the footsteps of these, His noble son and daughter.

Burgoyne, Charlotte Tillotson. Squires Histories: Biographical Sketch of David Merrill Squires, by Louie F. Squires. 2002.