Biography of Nephi Aaron Skinner

Nephi Aaron Skinner was born December 8, 1876, at Nounan, Bear Lake County, Idaho. He was the youngest child of thirteen children (eight sons and five daughters) of John and Jane Smith Skinner. He is known to have been the first white child born in the new settlement of Nounan. Since there were no doctors in the area until 1882, it seems safe to assume that his birth was assisted by one of the popular midwives of the community, Sister Philip Chugg.

His father and mother emigrated from England in 1856 to America and located in upstate New York. In 1868, they decided to come west to Zion. They came to Providence, Utah, for a short time and were later called by the Church leaders in 1875 to settle in the Bear Lake area in the valley that was to be known as Nounan. It is reported that they first lived in the middle of three log houses built a year before by cattlemen to care for cattle. There is a "low spot" in the land where the cellar part of the house was located. It was in this home that Nephi was born during the month of December. Winters were so severe with cold and snow that the only mode of transportation to get out of the valley was on snowshoes. At the appropriate time his parents chose the names of Nephi and Aaron, common names in the Book of Mormon and Bible, with which his father blessed him.