Malad Valley Pioneers

MOSES AND MARY ANN WILLIAMS DUDLEY

(by Alice Harding)

Moses Dudley was born in Nanty Glo. South Wales, Aug. 14, 1816.  In 1843 he married Mary Ann Williams, also of Wales.  She was born April 1, 1817.

They joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in the year 1853 and with their two small children, Joseph and Susannah, came to Utah and located at Willard, Box Elder County.  Here another daughter, Rebecca, and son, Edwin, were born to them.  When the Dudleys first came to Utah, they lived in a “dugout” home.  Later, Moses Dudley built a two-room rock home in Willard.  He also acquired a farm here and other city property and became fairly prosperous.  The land on which the Willard meeting house is built and also that on which the Willard Relief Society building was located, were owned and donated by him to the church.

For many years he was assigned to ring the bell which hung in the tower of the Relief Society building to announce all meetings and public gatherings.  Another of his special assignments in the ward was to officiate in baptising (sic) members into the church.  A great many of the early members of the ward were baptised by him. 

At the time of the “Move South”, Moses Dudley and his family went to Utah County in May, 1858, with other members of the ward, leaving his property to be burned if necessary rather than let the U.S. soldiers take possession of it.  Their son, Edwin, age one died enroute.  Moses had planted his fields before the exodus and when he returned to his home, his crops were growing and almost ready to be harvested.

The three Dudley children, Joseph, Susannah and Rebecca, attended the Willard public schools and participated in church and civic activities.  Here all three of them grew to adulthood.  To Willard from Scotland also came two emigrant pioneer boys, James and William Jardine.  A double romance began soon, for James Jardine and Susannah Dudley.  They were making preparations to get married when the younger couple, Willam Jardine and Rebecca Dudley, announced to Moses Dudley and his wife that they too were planning to be married and that the preparation might just as well be extended for both couples at the same time. These plans were carried out and the two marriages were performed Nov. 9, 1871.

The two Jardine families moved to Cherry Creek, Oneida County, Idaho, and lived there nearly all their lives.  They homesteaded land and each owned a rock house and other farm property. 

William Jardine, son of William and Rebecca Jardine, served as Secretary of Agriculture and was the United States ambassador to Egypt.  For several years past and at the present time, his is president of the Kansas State Agricultural College at Wichita, Kansas.  He has made a very successful president and has a high educational rating nationally.

In the spring of 1869, Moses Dudley and his son, Joseph, John D. Jones, his wife and her family, Richard J. Davis, his wife and her family moved from Willard to homestead land. They took cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens with them.  They arrived there in April, 1869.  They lived in log houses with no roofs and no floors and the valley was a desolate sagebrush flat at that time.  There was very little to interest them except snakes, coyotes and wolves.  They had all made Willard their home for 17 years.

Joseph Dudley was now 21 years old.  After a few years of homesteading at Cherry Creek, he married Sarah Jane Jenkins of Samaria.  They reared a family of six children, two sons and four daughters.  In the meantime, Moses Dudley spent his time at Cherry Creek and Willard where his wife, Mary Ann, had continued to reside.

Mary Ann was a member of the Willard ward Relief Society and was active in that organization.

While living in Cherry Creek, Joseph Dudley served as superintendent of the Sunday school and later served as bishop of that ward.

In 1880 he was a member of the Idaho Territorial Legislature from Oneida County.  In 1889 he moved with his family to Malad City, Idaho where he was in the merchandising business for many years.  In Jan., 1890, he was appointed to be stake superintendent of Sunday schools of the Malad stake.  In 1896, he was elected justice of the peace.  He also held a contract to carry the mail between Malad and Samaria.  He was a member of the school board and held this position several years.  He died in Malad in 1910. 

Mary Ann Dudley died in Willard, March 4, 1887.  Her husband, Moses Dudley, died the following year, Nov. 9, 1888.