George Powell & Maria Mousley

GEORGE POWELL & MARIA MOUSLEY

 In the year 1863 they decided to immigrate to America, but lack of means for transportation forced Grandfather George Powell to leave his wife and family in England. He joined his son-in-law, Edward Payne, Emma's husband, who had come to America the year before, leaving his family with Grandfather Powell. Edward had come to work in the coal mines in Pennsylvania in order to obtain money for passage for their families. 

 They worked together, and in a few months saved what they could, and then borrowed the remainder for passage for their wives and families and also the family of James and Ann Price, who had been caring for the families in England. Grandmother Powell worked day and night at her profession as a seamstress to support the family and save what money she could to help with the fare to America. 

They set sail in a sailing vessel the first day of June, 1864. They were six weeks on the ocean, landing in New York City in July. From there they traveled to a pioneer campground in Omaha, Nebraska, where they stayed for some time, making preparations for the journey to Utah. 

President Brigham Young had counseled them to make haste because of the Civil War threat. Grandfather Powell and daughter Emma Powell Payne met the family, leaving Edward Payne in Pennsylvania to work to pay off the indebtedness. While at the camp, Grandmother Powell supervised the making of tents and wagon covers. Due to a sprained ankle, Grandmother Powell was lame, so she rode most of the way across the plains. As she was unable to walk, she would care for the children. She would wash their faces and comb their hair while others fixed camp, built fires, and did other camp chores. 

Grandfather walked all the way across the plains. After a hard and toilsome journey, they arrived in Heber City, Utah, October 20, 1864. 

-excerpt from familysearch.org. "History of George and Maria Mousley Lunn Powell." Contributed by: Lisa Ratzlaff

James Price & Ann Powell

JAMES PRICE & ANN POWELL

On 28 March of 1857 or 1858, Ann married James Price. They heard the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and accepted it. They were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1861. James and Ann and some of Ann’s family desired to travel to Zion, or Utah Territory. Most of the men in the family worked in the coal mines. 

 Ann’s father, George Powell, and her brother-in-law, Edward Payne, left during the night and went to America. They found work in the coal mines in Pennsylvania and sent back every cent they could so their families could pay for passage to come over. If George and Edward had been caught as they left England, they could have been forced to stay and work longer in the coal mines. At the time, the owners of the mines treated the mine workers as slaves to some degree. 

The three families finally were able to sail on 21 May 1864 on the sailing ship General McClelland. It was a rough, stormy crossing but after six weeks they arrived at Castle Gardens, New York. The group of three families then went by train to Winter Quarters where they bought wagons, teams and supplies and joined the Joseph S. Rawlins wagon train. 

Leaving in early July of 1864 they had traveled for two weeks on the plains when James William, the little son of James and Ann, died on 21 July. They had to bury him on the plains wrapped in a quilt. They piled rocks over his grave to discourage wild animals from finding him. It was very hard for them to leave him there. 

 A few weeks later on 22 August 1864, the wagon train stopped at Ash Hollow, Nebraska just long enough for Ann to give birth to a baby girl, Maria Rawlins Price, and then they moved on. They reached the Salt Lake Valley on 20 September 1864 and were assigned to go to Heber Valley. For a time all three families lived in one room with a dirt floor and dirt roof.

-Excerpt from familysearch.org titled "Ann Powell."  A summary of available histories compiled in 2010 by Debra Edwards Plane. 

William Thacker & Rachel Tonks

WILLIAM THACKER & RACHEL TONKS

In l856, William and Rachel embarked on the ship, Amason. We landed at Philadelphia after six weeks on the ocean. We spent a little over 4 years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  During this time, William and Rachel worked at a bucket factory.

In the spring of l861, we started on the trip to Utah in wagons with oxen to pull them. The Captain's name was Joseph Horne. The teamster's name was Charley Cowley. They were both fine, good men. We had plenty to eat all the time. I remember the horsemen chasing the antelope and other wild game. There were herds of buffalo. I remember seeing these people, men and women, wade the river; some holding to each other's hands. They would sing as they walked along. Mostly the Mormon hymns. Father had an old musket he used to carry with him. One day he killed a Prairie Dog and we cooked it. It was good meat. One day Father was walking along as usual and he saw what he thought was a bunch of mushrooms. He took them to camp and cooked them. We all ate some except the baby; and were all very sick. But the Elders administered to us and we vomited them up and were all soon well again. Just as we were starting out, the United States officers took charge of Father and was going to draft him into the army; but the emigrant agent got him free and we were all very thankful. We traveled on an average of fifteen miles per day. Some days we would lay over for washday, and to rest the oxen and cows as well as the people. Mother had a nursing baby. She was a very fleshy woman and couldn't walk very much. The rest all walked most of the time. I walked some, but not much. The last day's travel was Emigration Canyon. Soon after leaving the head, we could see down through the mountains and see the Salt Lake, and how the people did cheer! That night we reached Salt Lake City. 

Excerpt from William Timothy Thacker's autobiography about 1940.

Alice Carlisle Wilkin Freestone

ALICE CARLISLE WILKIN FREESTONE

Alice Carlisle was born in 1835, in Lincolnshire, England.  She was the daughter of Richard and Jane Fields Carlisle.  There were 11 in their family- three were triplets.  The queen of England sent them some presents when the triplets were born. Two of them lived to be one year old.  The other died when five years old.

Her family had intended on coming to America, but joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints hurried their dream along. Her father was baptized in 1847.  She joined in the fall of 1850 along with two of her brothers.  Their family arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 14, 1851.  They went up the Mississippi River to Saint Louis, Missouri, for a year.  

While there, her mother, Jane, passed away from Cholera. From there, the family came at different times. Alice left the banks of the Mississippi on June 1, 1853, with the David Wilkin company. She arrived in the Salt Lake valley on September 9, 1853.  There were 122 souls, with 28 wagons, 9 yoke of oxen, 2 horses, 60 cows, and 2 chickens.

In 1854, Alice married David Wilkin, Jr., in the Old Endowment House in Salt Lake City where they made their home.  Her husband was an engineer. He built many homes and bridges in the valley and became distinguished in the field. They had three children together. Within 6 years they were divorced.  Her husband, David, left for Nevada.

On Christmas Eve, 1861, she married George Freestone. They were blessed with 4 children.  Alice passed away a month after her last daughter was born due to a staph infection she got during child birth.

Thomas Freestone

THOMAS FREESTONE

Thomas Freestone, the son of George Freestone and Ann Youngman, was born on 19 May 1795, in

Flixton, Suffolk, England.  About the year 1835, he left his home with his sister, Sarah, and her husband, William Ward, and headed for Prince Edward Island, Canada.  Prince Edward Island was green, peaceful and prosperous.  The Indians called it "the home cradled in the waves."

While there, he met and fell in love with Ann Fall.  They were married on August 4, 1836.  He was tall, well-built, muscular, had dark hair, and a serious countenance. 

When their oldest child, George, was almost 2, they left Prince Edward Island on a sea journey along the east coast of America.  As they were almost to the harbor of Boston, their second son was born. They settled in central Ohio.  Three daughters came into their family.  The youngest one died when only two months old.  Two more daughters came later. 

Thomas' second son, James, although only 9 years old, would frequently go into the woods to pray to God that if He had a people on earth, he would be able to find them.  One day two Mormon missionaries came into the neighborhood preaching their message of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. James heard them and went home and told his parents of the meeting.  His mother, Ann, agreed to go with him.  They were both converted. Within four years, all members of their family were baptized.

In family council, they decided to sell the farm and start for the gathering place of the saints.  They had been told that Mormon emigrants used cows as beasts of burden to pull their wagons, so they hitched their unbroken, untrained and unwilling cows to the wagon. 

They reached Mount Pisgah on Christmas Day in a snowstorm. Ann wrote a letter to the Branch President of Council Bluffs (100 miles away) telling them of their financial plight.  The letter was read in a meeting and many tears were shed.  The President wrote back and told the family that if they could get to Council Bluffs, the branch would help them get through to Utah.

The winter was hard.  They had little food.  Thomas got what work he could.  During the winter, they decided to press forward a little further and went 20 miles to Winterset.  One of their cows died that winter, so they hitched a two year old heifer with the other cow and started out early in the spring, reaching Council Bluffs in April.  They joined a company of 50 wagons heading for Utah.  They were given a better wagon and began their last journey on June 10, 1853.

In 1855 their final child was born- another girl.  In 1858, Thomas went south to look for a new home.  As he was entering the Parowan area, a group of Indians killed him.  According to stories, they had made a pact that the next white man who crossed a certain spot would die.  Unfortunately, he was the one.  No one knows where he was buried, but at least one of the Indians felt remorse for his actions.  He buried Thomas, went through his possessions, tracked down his wife, Ann, and told her what had happened.  But, that is another story!

George Freestone

GEORGE FREESTONE

"I was born of English parentage of Prince Edward Isle, 12 Aug. 1838.  When I was under two years of age, my parents emigrated to America and settled in Hardin County Ohio.

"When I was about 13, an Elder of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints visited us, converting my parents, and we started for Utah. One year later we arrived at Mt. Pisgah, Iowa, one of the impoverished camps of the Mormons who were emigrating westward.  The hardships of the winter were intense.  The next spring we came on to Winter Quarters, where we found a company of Saints preparing to cross the plains to Salt Lake City.  We joined them and I drove a four-yoke of oxen on a heavy laden freight wagon to Utah, where we arrived September 9, 1853.  Our captain was Daniel Miller."

-Story quoted from his autobiography he wrote shortly before his death.

Sarah Freelove Howard Bawden

SARAH FREELOVE HOWARD BAWDEN

In the year 1856, at the tender age of 17 or 18 years of age, Sarah Freelove Howard came west. She came alone, because both her father and mother had passed away from the cholera epidemic in St. Louis, Missouri. 

After the death of her father, she and her brother had to find work and earn their own way in their early teens. Grandma Sarah found work as a nanny and maid for several years to earn enough to make the long arduous trip to Salt Lake. When she had worked and saved enough, she joined with the Saints in Winter Quarters to come west. She was assigned to a family with the agreement that she would help with the cooking, washing and care of the children, and they in return would carry her supplies on their wagon. After the about the first 200 miles out on the trail, the first family she was assigned to decided to go back to their previous home. She was assigned to another family with the same agreement. She walked almost every step of the way to Salt Lake. 

She had many memories of the buffalo herds. She said that when the company would encounter a herd crossing their path it would take a week for the herd to completely disappear from their view. They were so large in number. 

One day a group of Indians came into camp. The pioneers did some trading with them to keep the peace. The Indians braves looked at her in a very strange manner. After they left, it was decided by the company leaders that if the Indians returned, they would have to hide her to keep her safe. As the story goes, they did return, and grandma, a young lady of about 17 or 18 at the time was hid in an empty flour barrel. There she remained safe until the Indians left.  

She would gather buffalo chips along the way to use as fuel for her cooking fires.  Many times her feet became sore and she fainted by the wayside, but she never became discouraged, nor lost sight of the goal she had set out to accomplish.  She arrived in the Salt Lake Valley early in September.

-Story taken from memories of Donna A Wilkins from familysearch.org and from the History of Sarah Freelove Howard (author unknown).

William Cradock Price

WILLIAM CRADOCK PRICE

Born: April 2, 1833, Cwmtwrch, Breconshire, South Wales.

Died:4 Oct 1925 Pleasant Grove,Utah,USA

"The life of my father, William C. Price, was one of colorful settings, high tension activity, and dramatic experiences. In his early boyhood days, he lived on his father's farm and helped operate a small inn." 

He worked in an attorney's office, Marshall & Snelgrove Department Store in London, studied law.  "He was a well educated man, and few were better versed in the language, literature, and history of the Welch people.  He was regarded everywhere as a veritable encyclopedia. With all his knowledge, however, he was extremely modest and unassuming." 

He returned to Wales and established his own business in Blina, Wales. It was of considerable size and included a bank, insurance house, post office, and department store, and employed about 75 people.

On June 12, 1862, he married Rhoda Wynn Parry. They had two daughters, Rhoda and Ellen.  The girls were raised and cared for by their paternal grandparents, Evan and Margaret Price.  

During the depression of the late 1860's, William became interested in expanding his business pursuits in the United States.  In 1868, he came to New York.  He and his daughter, Rhoda, came to Utah that year.  He left his daughter, Ellen, in Wales with his parents.

He became a cattle rancher in Skull Valley (south of Tooele, Utah). After a terrible catastrophe one winter, he lost almost his entire herd.  Instead of giving up, he decided to herd sheep.  He loved the mountain ranges.

He was a poet.  In 1903, he returned to Wales and was given a substantial prize for one of his poems.  Upon return, he started a mercantile business in Tooele, Utah.

He never joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

-This is an excerpt from "A Brief Sketch of the Life of William C. Price" by Rhoda Price Daw.

Rhoda Wynn Price Daw

RHODA WYNN PRICE DAW

 

Born: September 10, 1863 Blina, South Wales

Died:23 Apr 1949 Orem, Utah

 

Rhoda Wynn Price is the daughter of William Cradock Price and Rhoda Wynn Parry.  She was born on September 10, 1863, in Blina South Wales.  In the spring of 1868, her father came to New York.  Not long afterwards, she and her mother joined him, leaving her sister, Ellen, with her paternal grandparents. 

Her mother returned to Wales to settle business affairs.  During her absence, Rhoda and her father, William, came to Utah.  After her mother returned to America, she remained in New York where she worked as a nurse in the Belle View Hospital until the spring of 1872 when she came to the home of her mother in Tooele, Utah.

While Rhoda's mother was in New York, she lived part of the time with her maternal grandmother, part of the time with Mrs. John Davis at St. Johns in Rush Valley, and part of the time with the Paxton sisters at Stockton Lake, Utah. Her father was in Skull Valley and other places, herding cattle on the range.

In 1872, Rhoda and her mother lived in a dugout in Rush Valley.

Fannie Alice Jones Godfrey

FANNIE ALICE JONES GODFREY

James Jones and Ann Brooks welcomed their third child into the world on December 9, 1855, in Powick, Worcestershire, England.  They named her Fannie  Alice Jones. Fannie grew up in the LDS culture, because her parents had joined the church before she was born.  It was their desire to join the main body of saints in Salt Lake, Utah; however, the family had to come in shifts due to financial abilities.

Fannie Alice came with her father in 1878.  They left Liverpool, England, on June 3, 1878, and made great time and ran into no problems their entire trip.  When they reached Salt Lake City, they went to the home of Joseph Bull and stayed there overnight until Daniel, her brother, came and took them to Thomas Wheeler's home in South Cottonwood (Wheeler Farm).  They stayed there until her father could find work and a home and arrange for her mother to join them.

Fannie married James Godfrey on December 23, 1880.  He left on a church mission a few months after they were married, leaving her to care for his 7 children until his return a year and a half later.

Together they had 11 children.

Carolina Trott Godfrey

Carolina Trott Godfrey

 Carolina married Charles Godfrey, SR, on December 31, 1821.  To their union seven children were added: William, George, Charles, Mary Jane, Sarah Ann, Carolina Trott, and James. Charles passed away when James was only three years old.  Prior to this time, their oldest son, William, and their three daughters had passed away.  

Not too long after the death of her husband, two Mormon missionaries were in the area where she lived.  Seeing a small group gathered on a street corner, she paused on her way home to listen.  Later that evening, she shared her experience with her family.  George said he was not at all interested, but Charles wanted to hear more.  She and Charles joined the church in 1847.

A couple of weeks after her baptism, a minister from the Church of England approached her and tried to dissuade her from her new found faith.  In response, she said, "I have learned more from these fine young men in two weeks than what you have taught me in forty years."

Carolina and James set sail from London to America on June 3, 1861, on the ship Hudson. They reached the United States of America during the Civil War. She and James came across with Captain Warren S. Snow's Company and arrived on October 27, 1861.  Her son, Charles, met them at the Green River and helped them come on ahead of the regular company. They spent their first winter in South Cottonwood with Charles and his wife, Sophia.

Information for this story came from a history titled, "Our Grandfather- James Godfrey" written by Arthur J. Godfrey.