LEAH PARRY JONES
By Mabel Jensen Evans
Leah Parry was the tenth child of Thomas Parry and Ann Roberts. Leah was born
on June 30, 1844 in St. George, Denbighshire, Wales.
The tradition of the family tells that Leah's father, Thomas R. Parry lived on
the estate of the Lord and Lady Kimberly in Wales. Thomas's father was the
head mason of the estate, and his mother acted as a midwife or doctor on the
estate. She had a special gift of healing and many people for miles around
came to her for help. In time Thomas R. Parry was given land to farm for
himself from the estate, but he continued to help his father as mason, and
after his father's death, Thomas R. Parry became the head mason.
Ann Roberts, Leah's mother, also lived in Wales. Her mother died when she was
a child; she had one sister named Margaret, and they lived with their father
who was a squire. Ann lived a sheltered life, not having to do much housework
or hard work.
Ann Roberts and Thomas R. Parry met and married and to them were born fourteen
children, however, five of these children died when young. The gospel came to
Wales and the Parry family believed, joined the church, and prepared to come to
America.
By 1857 the first five children had come to America. Leah was the oldest
child left with the parents. One little girl, Elizabeth had died in Wales in
1850.
After so many of her children had come to America, Ann Roberts Parry was also
determined to come. Thomas R. Parry sold his farm and home and everything he
had, and with his wife and children came to America. Leah Parry came with
her parents, Thomas Parry and Ann Roberts Parry and Joseph (18), David (13) and
Emma (10). Leah was listed as age sixteen. They crossed the Atlantic on the
ship "Underwriter". They crossed the plains in the Captain James D. Ross
Company, which arrived in Great Salt Lake, September 3, 1860. They came with a
team and covered wagon.
(Edward L. Parry and wife Ann Parry, sister of Leah Parry, came from Wales on
the ship Samuel Curling, then crossed the plains in the Edward Bunker Handcart
Company, arriving in Great Salt Lake City on October 2, 1856. Edward L. Parry
was the master mason of the ST.George and Manti Temples.)
On the boat coming across the waters, Leah's mother, Ann, had an infection in
her hands, which took a long time healing. Leah was left with the
responsibility of much of the manual work. She was sixteen this year. She has
told her children and grandchildren of how she would make her yeast from a
start, would mix her bread in the morning and put it in the wagon during the
day's travel to be baked in the evening over the campfire.
When Thomas R. Parry arrived in Salt Lake, he bought property with the money
from the sale of his farm. He and his sons continued their mason work. Their
firm of contractors did some of the famous buildings in Salt Lake City. They
helped with the mason work of such buildings as: Auerbach, ZCMI, Walker Band,
Jennings Building. They also worked as masons on the Manti, St. George, and
Salt Lake Temples.
Leah Parry has sung in the choir of her church in Wales, and so joined the
choir of the Fifteenth Ward in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was here that she met
Amos Jones, also from Wales. They courted for a few months, and then were
married in the Endowment House on March 10, 1862. (The Salt Lake Temple was in
the process of being built)
In 1877 Amos Jones and family moved to Idaho where his father, Richard Jones,
was living. They made their home eventually in Malad City, where Amos and his
sons continued the profession as masons.
****Letters from Aunt Leah Jones Hill...Leah's daughter
May 18, 1960
Dear Mabel: I received your letter and was so glad to hear from you. I don't
know whether I can help you very much, but will tell you all I know.
I don't know the name of my mother's brother Bernard's wife. I know she was
buried at sea, and he died of a broken heart and buried somewhere in Kansas.
When I went to live in Kansas, mother told me about him, but she did not know
just where it was in Kansas. I guess he must have died on the trail.
My Mother's sister Ann married Edward L. Parry as his second wife. They were
cousins and the first wife Jane, took my Aunt Ann in when she arrived in Salt
Lake and persuaded her to marry her husband. Jane never had any children but
Ann had a large family. They are scattered all through Southern Utah. Edward
L. Parry (Mother's cousin) was the master mason the St. George and Manti
Temples.
My Mother and Father's family came from Noreth Wales. Mother lived on the
Kimberly Estate where her father took care of the mason work for the estate,
and it went from father to son, from generation to generation. They were
masons. The house they lived in was called the Park House. Mother told me
they would designate her as "Leah Parry of Park House".
Mother was 16 years old when she came across the plains to Salt Lake. My
grandmother before marriage was "Lady Ann Roberts", she had a sister "Lady
Margaret". She was supposed to have married beneath her station in life when
she married my grandfather.
May 30, 1960, Nucla, Colorado
Emma Parry married Lucias A. billings. The only Doctor I know in Mother's
family was my Grandfather Thomas R. Parry's sister. My mother used to tell me
about being sent to visit her to take her little gifts of fresh butter or
fruit. She used to walk and it took two days to make the trip. She would go
to her one-day and come back the next. She always made mother make a chemise
or panties or apron for herself. She would cut them out and Mother made them
by hand and brought them home with her. She was an herb Doctor or so I always
understood.
My grandmother Parry didn't have to walk across the plains. They had an ox
team and outfit, also a cow, which they lent to a man when he lost one of his
oxen. Mother said they used to start ahead of the wagon train and walk for
miles then wait for the train to catch up with them. I understood it to be the
young people.
I don't know how my grandmother Ann got the infection in her hand, all I know
is that mother said she did all the work. She made her own yeast cakes before
they started across the plains and told how the sang the songs of Zion at
evening as they gathered around the campfires.
I have such a happy memory of mother and father singing together in our home
and us joing in as we could. Especially that old song, "All is Well" has
memories for me.
Mother talked more about her home in Wales and her coming to Utah during the
last year of her life. I used to go down in the evening and sit with her
awhile. I only wish I had written it down and paid more attention to what she
told me.
My Uncle L.A. Billings (who married Leah's sister Emma) came to Utah with the
Conner's Army, when they established Ft. Douglas. Mae Billings, their
daughter, was married to the governor of Colorado, Gov. White. Another
daughter was married to the Salt Lake Police Chief Joe Burbide. They had 2
sons.