Marian Elizabeth Burnside was born at Armadale, Scotland, 29 June 1858. Her parents, John Mason Burnside and Elizabeth Prentice, who were converted to the gospel by the missionaries decided to move to America in 1865, landing first in New York and then moving on to Pennsylvania.

Her father worked in the mines to get money to move on to Utah, which he did in August of 1868. Marian was only 10 years old at this time and had to walk most of the way across the plains. She was small stature, a wirey sort of person, never content to being idle, she was only 5 feet 3 inches and weighed only about 125 pounds in her later years.

Her early years were filled with many hardships which she took one day at a time. She had a kind personality and grew to be a God fearing person, setting the proper example to all who knew her. She had some schooling for she could read and write and was a great help to her husband, Samuel Shelley.

An interesting bit of humor was during their courting period when the Burnside and Shelley families lived in American Fork and John Mason moved to Mt. Ville she would write to him and he would answer her letters. She was rather put out after they were married to find out that he could neither read or write.

Marian moved with her parents from American Fork in 1879 and stayed in Moroni, Utah until John Mason could build a shelter for the family in Birch Creek, which later became Mountainville. Soon after they were settled Samuel Levi Shelley came to Mt. Ville and they were married 17 June 1880. Their first home was near Birch Creek, north of where John Mason had built. They had a log cabin (home). William Levi was born here. Later on Samuel built them a home just west of Mason Burnside's property.

It was very hard to grub out a living in that sage brush and rock country, so in the year 1891 or 1892 Samuel took his family and moved to Charleston, Utah, in Wasatch County,farming for N.C. Murdock for nine years and then moved back to Mt. Ville, Utah, in the spring of 1900 on a place west of Delbert Terry's until they could build their own home on the 12 acres they bought from the Rolphs from Mt. Pleasant. Samuel then bought 12 acres from his brother-in-law James Campbell and the family moved in their home.

Here they settled down and started farming. They had cows, chickens, pigs and horses and a wonderful garden and fruit trees which gave them a good living. Marian was very thrifty and a wonderful cook, wasting nothing. The family said it was a privilege to eat at her home with her wonderful bread pudding's and to taste the freshly baked bread and homemade butter with "POTAWATOMI PRESERVES"...accompanied by millions of pits. It was hard to believe how so many pits could get into such delicious jam. She used to say, "Wasters shall want" and after a meal she would far around her gathering dishes, scraping plates and preserving anything that could be used for another meal or to feed the hungry animals, nothing was ever wasted.

Marian was a very early riser, when daylight came they could find her sitting in her rocker,washing already on the line. Washings were done almost all by hand in those days. You could also hear her early in the mornings out talking to her "little pansies faces." She loved flowers and enjoyed working among them.

She had a great talent of singing and used it freely on many programs and entertainments in the church community. One of the songs she sang so well was "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go Dear Lord." She was a worker in the Relief Society, faithful and exact in all things. One day she was overheard asking Samuel why he was so slow and he replied, "Maybe it's because you are so fast."

She was a smarter dresser than her daughters. Her clothes were just the thing for her. She probably sewed most of them. She had beautiful dark hair and it was a sight to watch her fix it. She would bend down at the waist so that her head was straight down, then she would brush her hair down, bringing it into a bun exactly on the top of her head.

She did beautiful handwork, especially crochet. Her needle flew as she did, blessing her home with beautiful things.

The family enjoyed their get-togethers, when they would gather in the room heated by the heating stove in the corner. There was much reminiscing of the past and the children would listen with much interest. There were story telling .... true life experiences, Bible stories, pioneer and Indian stories. They played jokes on each other, played games and Marian would sing, they all loved her singing, the songs were sad at that time, such as: "Tell Mother I'll Be There," "Put My Little Shoes Away," "Baggage Coach Ahead," and then there was always the Hymns and other songs. The evening ended in prayer as they all knelt by their chairs. They actually held Family Home Evening every night.

Marian passed away in Clear Creek, Utah while visiting with her son George and Orba, 8 November 1927



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Mrs. Marian B. Shelley, 71, wife of Samuel Shelley of Mountainville, died at the home of her son, George Shelley, at Clear Creek Tuesday from kidney trouble.

Mrs. Shelley was born June 29, 1856 in Scotland, and came to America with her parents when she was a child.

She was married to Samuel Shelley of Mt. Pleasant fifty years ago.

She is survived by her husband, eight children and four brothers and sisters.

Salt Lake Tribune (UT) November 12, 1927


Married Samuel Levi Shelley
COD: Influenza
Death certificate State of Utah