Malad Valley
Pioneers
ANNA EVANS JENKINS
(1820-1889)
(By her granddaughter,
Esther Jenkins Carpenter)
Anna Evans Jenkins, Malad Valley
pioneer of 1869, was born June 13,
1820 at Merthyr Tydifil,
Glamorganshire, South Wales. Her parents, Evan Evans and Esther Jones,
were natives of Cardiganshire, a county noted for its beautiful farms and for
its wool growing industry. Her
grandparents, John and Esther Evans, are buried in the church yard of Llanwenog Parish.
Her parents were married there Feb.
12, 1810. Their children
were Mary, John, Anna, David and Esther.
The first two were born in Llandyssul Parish.
We don’t know when the Evans family came to Merthyr Tydfil but we realize that their
life completely changed in that industrial center. Grandmother’s father became a mine
burner. Little is known about her early
life but she did have some schooling and later on she worked at pulling slate
out of coal on the surface of the mine.
Many women and girls were employed at this.
When 22 years old she
married David Jenkins who had come to that area to work from Landore, Swansea. They were married at Bethania
Chapel, Nov. 19, 1842, according to the rites of
the Independents. Her father signed his
name as one of the witnesses.
Her husband was a good man. Grandmother never said an unkind thing about
him. Although he had little chance for
schooling he used to tract for the Mormon Church after work at night marking
the verses in his Welsh Bible that he used to discuss. He had been baptized in 1844. Grandmother was baptized in the Merthyr branch by William Phillips in Sept., 1845. Their goal was emigrate
to Utah so they moved about
seeking work where the wages were highest in the area close to Merthyr.
When grandmother was only 32 years old her husband
was killed in an explosion at the Middle Duffryn
Colliery near the old canal at Cwmbach, Aberdare on May 10, 1852. She was left with five children – David,
Esther, Anna, Evan and John. Her husband
was 38 years old, having been born at Morriston, Swansea April
2, 1814. He was the son of David
Jenkins and Catherine John and was survived by them and the following brothers
and sisters: Ann, Catherine, John,
Thomas, and William. Several members of
the LDS faith lost their lives that day.
They had been warned to stay away from the pit, but wages were higher
there. David W. Davis, an early pioneer
of Samaria and the father of W.G. Davis, worked there but
remained at home to take care of business matters that morning. Sixty-eight men were killed that day.
Grandfather Jenkins was buried in the ancient
churchyard of St. John’s, Aberdare,
Glamorganshire.
Grandmother Jenkins lost her hearing when she ran to
the mine pit explosion which killed her husband, but it returned when another
accident nearly cost her the lives of her sons. With her husband gone, everyone old enough to
work had to help earn the living. The
boys entered the mines at the age of six and seven years. Evan, being large for his age, entered at six
and was taken for a seven year old boy.
They picked slate out of coal.
Every month grandmother put on her widow’s bonnet
and went to collect the small allowance called the widow’s pension. She also
took in one or two lodgers to meet expenses.
She made smocks by hand, which the miners wore, sewing far into the
night after the children were asleep.
Later she married Thomas Williams and had three more
children – Sarah Jane, Mary Ann, and Mair. The girl Mary Ann was buried in infancy. When Mair was a
babe in arms this unhappy marriage ended.
During these troubled years the idea of emigration
had not been forgotten. April 30, 1866, David and Esther sailed from Liverpool on the ship, John
Bright. They arrived in New York June
6, 1866 under the direction of C.M. Gillet. Crossing they took comfort in knowing their
father’s sister, Ann, was in Utah to welcome them.
David Jenkins Jr. worked at anything he could to get
to obtain money to send his mother. Two
years later the family left Liverpool June 30, for New York on the ship Minnesota. John Parry was in charge of the
emigration. The ship’s roster listed the
family as follows: Anna Jenkins, 48
years, Evan 19, John 17,Sarah Jane 13, Mair 10, John Martin 24, Anna Martin 22, Catherine Anna
infant. They arrived in New York July 12th and
arranged to go by train to Laramie.
They left Laramie on July 25 in Capt. Chester
Loveland’s company of 40 mule team wagons and 400 people. Many had to walk the 400 miles. They had trouble with the Indians and were
delayed when they had to recapture animals and kill the savages. There were three deaths during the trip. They reached Salt Lake Valley Aug. 20, 1868 and were met at the mouth of Emigration Canyon by Uncle David
Jenkins. He had rented a house, bought
furniture, and had a good supply of food.
After living in Salt Lake a few months, grandmother
decided to move to Logan to spend the winter near
her husband’s sister who emigrated in 1856.
Aunt Ann was very kind to them, but being a widow now for the second
time, she decided to marry again. On Jan. 18, 1869, she married Francis Purser and moved to Hyde Park to establish a home for his
motherless children. The Jenkin’s family lived in the Third ward of Logan that winter.
As there was no land to be had near Logan, in the fall of 1869 Anna
Jenkins and her family moved to Malad Valley and located in Samaria to be near old friends who
they had known in Wales. Some of these friends included James and
Hanna Griffiths, David W. and Charlotte Davis, John E. and Ruth Price, William
W. and Mary Williams.
A dugout on the corner where Uncle David Jenkin’s brick home was later built served as the shelter
that first winter. It was replaced with
a log house, the timbers being brought from the canyon by John Martin.
Best claims near the townsite
had been taken so grandmother and her sons filed on land four miles south and
east of Samaria. They
homesteaded 160 acres each and the property became known as the “South
Field.” To obtain money necessary to
farming, David and Evan had to go to the mines in Utah to work. During this time grandmother and her son John
assumed other responsibilities. She
spent much of her time on the homestead to establish residence
requirements. Nothing seemed to
discourage her because in the end she knew her boys would gain title to the
land and enjoy working in the fresh air and sunshine. She had left her native land to achieve this
and to live among people of her own religious convictions.
Over the years she kept busy helping her children
and in doing her part in the religious life of the community. She was the first treasurer of the Relief
Society and held that position until her death.
During her first years in Samaria she made yeast and
exchanged it for flour. Then on the farm
and later in the village she kept cows, chickens, and had a garden, making butter
and selling it along with eggs to help meet the expense of living. She was good at sewing and often earned money
that way. She sent her daughter, Sarah
Jane, to Salt Lake to learn the trade and she
was very successful in following it after returning home. She always put special touches and frills on
her own clothes thereafter.
Later in life grandmother lived in a comfortable
little home across the street east from her son John’s home. She loved flowers and took pride in having
them grow in abundance around her place.
In appearance she was sturdy of build, a good
average height and had blue eyes and dark hair.
She was very forthright in expressing herself and enjoyed talking and
laughing with her friends in Welsh. The
older people always used their native tongue.
Even after they became fluent in English they always resorted to its use
if they didn’t want the young children to know what they were saying. One picture of her was given to me by a
cousin who saw her going to help my mother at threshing time. She was wearing a green checked gingham
bonnet on her head, her apron was made into a roll on
top of that to form a ring. On this ring
she balanced a small table and was carrying two brass buckets full of water in
her hands. That was an old European
custom that died out with the passing of the pioneers.
Correspondence with relatives and friends in Wales was maintained until she
died. Uncle John wrote the letters for
his mother and many of them dated in the 70’s and 80’s were carefully
preserved. In them we found evidence of
the close ties between grandmother and her people. Because of the industrial strife that beset
the workers in Glamorganshire during the 80’s some of the letters asked for
financial help. Money was always sent
willingly. One friend pleaded with her
to keep in touch with her saying, “Ana, please write
to us. If you have no pencil
use a piece of charcoal and any kind of paper. We will be able to read it.” D.E. Price, a son-in-law, visited that friend
and some of grandmother’s people while there on a mission in 1895-7.
During my visit to Wales in 1951, I spent four
nights with the descendants of my grandmother’s brother David who still live at
Merthyr Tydfil.
One of the young girls teaches in the schools
there. (Strange as it may seem, M.T. was
the iron and steel capital of the world in the 19th century.) Cyfarthfa Castle, built in 1825 by William Crawshay, an ironmaster of the period, is now used as a
museum and boy’s school and is owned by the borough of Merthry
Tydfil. It is
a monument to the prosperity of the past, but today Merthyr
is a ghost town industrially.
Some of the culture of Wales was brought over by
grandmother in the form of Welsh church books and Welsh music books. There were copies of Handel’s “Messiah” and
“Sampson” both written in Welsh. Her sister, Mary Wathen
of Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire,
gave her a book of Welsh songs in which she inscribed there words: “To dear sister Anna – leaving Ebbw Vale for Salt Lake City, 19 June 1868. Please use and think of me.”
Death came to Anna Evans Jenkins at the age of 68
years and 11 months on May 13, 1889. She was at the home of her daughter, Mair (Mrs. D.E. Price) having gone there during the last
months of her life when illness came upon her.
She is buried in the Samaria cemetery. All her children are buried close by as if to
prove the close bond that had been between them during life.
