LEWIS HUGHES, SR.
by Okell Hughes Burnham, Granddaughter
Lewis Hughes, Sr. had blue eyes, dark brown hair and a fair complexion. He was born 3 May, 1852 at Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, Wales. He was the fifth child in the family of seven children born to James and Margaret Jones Hughes. James was a pumping engineer and worked on a canal three miles from Merthyr Tydfil. Water was pumped from the river into the canal which was used to transport commodities, mainly coal, to the seaport town of Cardiff.
His parents heard the missionaries preach in Merthyr Tydfil and were converted to Mormonism. In common with others they later had a great desire to emigrate to the headquarters of the church in Utah. Lewis, in company with his father, mother, a sister Maria and four brothers, named Taliesin, Gomer, Mathew, and Daniel, set sail from Liverpool 17 April, 1855 on the ship Chimborazo for America. After a pleasant voyage the ship cast anchor in Philadelphia on 22 May, 1855.
Lewis was three years old when they arrived in America and settled in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The father worked as an engineer at a coal mine. Later they moved to Caseyville, St. Clair County, Illinois. His sister Sarah Ann was born 23 October, 1856.
His mother died 5 September 1858 and was buried on the bluffs of the Mississippi River twelve miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. They had been in America a little more than three years now while the father worked to make money so they could continue to Utah. However, after the mother's death his father became disheartened and never felt a desire to continue the journey to Utah. The children all wanted to continue their journey so with the consent of the father their mother's brother, William Jones of Willard, Utah, went to Illinois and brought the seven children to live with his family in Willard.
They crossed the plains in 1859 in the Horton D. Haight Company. The two oldest children, Maria, eighteen; and Taliesin, sixteen had the responsibility of taking care of the family. The father planned to join his children later but he never did. They never saw him again. He sailed back to Wales and was married the second time to a widow named Margaret Jenkins. She had children but none resulting from the marriage to James Hughes.
The children lived in Willard for a few years, then moved to Cedar Fork, now Logan, where they made their home and Lewis attended school. In 1868 news was afloat that there was a place in southern Idaho where wild grass grew up to your knees. Four families, James Thomas, Thomas R. Roberts, David William Davis, and Taliesin Hughes with his brothers and sisters moved to Malad Valley in May of 1868 and started the village of Samaria. The family of John Evan Price was already there.
On 1 December, 1875 Lewis married Mary Ann Davis at Brigham City, Utah. She was the daughter of David William Davis and Charlotte Nott Jeremy who had come to America on the same ship as he and his parents in 1855. They had met again in Logan, Utah. Both families had moved from Logan at the same time to settle in Samaria.
He homesteaded a 160 acre farm (some say 120 acres) two miles south of the village. Here they built a small log house. They had a cellar with dirt floor and roof made of wood, straw and dirt on top to keep it warm inside so the vegetables would not freeze and other foods could keep cool in summer.
Later a frame home was built with a summer kitchen on the back. It was located north of the road. Eventually they had a fine orchard and garden which was irrigated from a stream coming from a nearby canyon. Water from a spring was carried to the house for culinary purposes.
It had been a hard task to clear the land of sagebrush even though good wild hay grew in the meadows. With the land cleared they could raise alfalfa hay for the cattle. Grain was also raised abundantly.
Lewis and Mary Ann were the parents of nine children whose names follow: David James, Charlotte, Margaret, Evan, Lewis Davis, Maria, Mary Ann, William Daniel and Ellen Jane. Lewis Jr. was dragged by a horse that became frightened of the Indians' bright blankets. He suffered for many years from this accident. The little boy William had a pitchfork stuck in his neck while they were hauling hay. He never recovered. Their little girl, Ellen Jane, died at the age of seven months. (No mention of Evan's death).
During an epidemic of typhoid fever Lewis Hughes Sr. lost his capable wife. She had been generous with her energy and time that she gave to others stricken with this dreaded disease. On 24 March, 1894 she passed away at the age of 42 with the same fever. She left a sorrowing family which included the oldest girl Charlotte who was just 15 and the youngest, a girl named Mary Ann (Mame), was only five years old. David James who was the oldest in the family was seventeen years of age.
Lewis Hughes Sr. never remarried. He always told his relatives and friends that no one could take his wife's place. He became a very successful sheepman and was in this business for many years. David James, the oldest son, was a very capable manager in this endeavor and they made a lot of money.
He bought the property of Maria Roberts, widow of Thomas R. Roberts and a sister to him. It included a lovely home and a very good farm, which was much closer to the village. There the children grew up and were married.
Because of rheumatism his health began to fail. He was on crutches or in a wheel chair for several years. His hands became drawn, nearly closed with this crippling disease. He went to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho and stayed for a while to bathe in the mineral water to get relief from the pain. When he couldn't get around very well he stayed with his children.
The last five or six years of his life he lived in Garland, Utah where he had a home by his youngest daughter, Mary Ann (Mame) Hughes Bowen. On 1 July, 1918 he died at the home of his son Lewis Hughes, Jr., in Samaria, Idaho. He is buried there beside his wife and children who had preceded him in death.
