Maria Hughes and Thomas R. Roberts
(Written by Robert R. Hughes, Nephew)*
I have been asked to tell a little about my uncle Thomas R. Roberts and his wife, my aunt Maria Hughes. She was my father’s sister. Thomas was the son of
Robert Roberts and Ann Jones*. Uncle Thomas was not a large man but was well built. He had blue eyes, dark hair, and a short, stubby, sandy beard. Thomas
was a very good worker and had a fine farm at Samaria, Idaho.
He was born at Tredegar, Monmouthshire, Wales, on 9 May 1833. Wales is a beautiful country with green rolling hills, with people who seemed so happy,
always ready to help each other. There seems to be very little record of the Roberts family. We think that Ann Jones* Roberts never left Wales. She and
Robert Roberts were married 3 February 1805. We feel sure there were other children and that Thomas was one of the younger ones. We do know that the
Roberts and Hughes families heard the Mormon missionaries and accepted their teachings and joined the Mormon Church. Robert and his son Thomas left Wales
about 1854 or 55, going to America and Utah where they made their home among the other Welsh saints. As far as we can determine Robert Roberts and his son
Thomas went to Samaria, Idaho in 1868. There Thomas and his father acquired some very good farm land and built their home. They found many of their friends
from Wales among the early settlers.
The Hughes family, Maria and her two brothers, Taliesin and Gomer, were in Samaria. Maria had been a mother to the family since her mother’s death in
Pennsylvania,*and the return of her father to Wales, his native land. Thomas R. Roberts courted and married Maria Hughes 22 November 1869 in the Endowment
House by Joseph F. Smith*. The records of the Endowment House ordinances for that day provides the names for Thomas’ parents. It also shows that Taliesin
Hughes and Elizabeth Roberts were married and sealed on that same date.*
Thomas and Maria had a comfortable home of six rooms. The two front rooms may have been of logs. As long as I can remember, it was a white frame house with
a nice porch on the south, and summer shanty on the north, connected by a board walk. The pump stood near the shanty and furnished them with plenty of
culinary water. I remember, that Aunt Maria was about five feet tall. She had dark hair streaked with gray, though in the last years of her life it was
snow white, which she wore in a bob at the nape of her neck. She was of a rather nervous nature and moved around quickly, and worried a great deal about
financial affairs, being afraid people were taking advantage of her because she was a widow. One thing I remember about her was that she was always neat
and clean and kept a clean house and had a good supply of currant cookies on hand which she gave generously to us children whenever we helped her.
Some of the things I recall while I lived in Samaria about Uncle Thomas and Aunt Maria was that they were early pioneers of the town and had a fine home
where everyone was welcome. They were never blessed with any children of their own but raised as their own son Benjamin L. Jones from the age of five years
until his marriage. They also raised Maria Hughes, the daughter of Taliesin Hughes (Maria’s brother), from babyhood until her marriage. Daniel Roberts’
daughter also stayed with her for two years. Maria was also mother to her sister Sarah Ann from babyhood until her marriage, so it can really be said that
she was a mother to the family.
Thomas R. Roberts served in many capacities in the Church and in the community. I overheard two men talking about Uncle Thomas saying he was the finest man
that ever lived in Samaria. I remember that statement to this day although I was only seven years old when he died. He died 30 October 1890.
Aunt Maria still lived on in Samaria for a number of years after Uncle Thomas died. It was during these years that she sold her farm and built a fine home
in the center of town where she lived among friends and relations until about 1902 when she sold her home and went to Ogden, Utah to live with her sister,
Sarah Ann Roberts. She spent the last years of her life pleasantly. After the death of her sister, she lived on with her niece Catherine Roberts. She died
in Ogden 28 January 1924. She was buried in the Samaria, Idaho cemetery and laid to rest by her husband, where a fine monument marks their resting place.
