THE LIFE HISTORY
OF
MARGARET JONES HUGHES
***********
I
am Margaret Jones Hughes, the wife of James Hughes and the daughter of Daniel
and Mary Jones. We have seven children, Mariah, 3 Sep 1842, Talisain, 13 Jul
1843, Gomer, 28 Jul 1846, Mary, 5 Aug 1848, Mathew, 6 Jul 1850, Lewis, 3 May
1852, Daniel, 24 Jan 1854, all born in Wales.
We
were contacted by the Mormon Missionaries and accepted their message of the
Gospel, as did my parents, family, friends and relatives of our community.
My
husband, James Hughes was an engineer. We lived just about 3 miles from Swansea
in South Wales where James drove a stationary pump, pumping water from the
river into a canal to enable boats to transport commodities from this part of
the country to Aberdau, a sea port town in South Wales.
Many
of our friends and relatives, as well as our own family longed to go to America and to Zion. Finally arrangements were made and on
Tuesday the 17th day of April 1855 we boarded the boat 'Chimberazo' at Liverpool,
with my family, my parents and their family and friends, Davie W. Davis and his
wife Charlott Jeremy and the David Bowen family, Davis Edwards, the Roberts'
family and many others.
The
ship was a 1071 ton sail ship with Capt. Vesper at the helm and Franklin D.
Richards, Master. I was 30 at the time, my husband 31. Our children ranged in
age from 13 months to 13 years.
The
ship carried 173 adults, 53 children under 14 and 10 infants. One elderly lady
was taken ashore after clearing. The total on board was 431 souls at the time
we sailed bound for Philadelphia.
195 of these passengers were P.E. fund immigrants. There were 70 saints from
the Channel Islands Mission and about 200 from Wales. The remainder was from London, Kent
and Essex (and Reading Conference, I do not
know what this means). Elder Edward Stephenson, Pres. Of the Gibraltar Mission
was appointed President of the Company. He was assisted by Andrew L. Lamereaux,
Pres. Of the French Mission and Thomas E. Jeremy (third cousin to Charlott Nott
Jeremy) was acting as counselor in the Presidency in the church in Wales. We had
an ordinary group. The voyage was
pleasant and successful. However my children were not seafaring, they were
afraid of the churning waters, and were happy when we arrived in the mouth of
the Delaware
on the 18th of May. Two infants had died on board, one child was born, 3
marriages were solemnized, and 4 baptisms took place with 4 applied for on
arrival in Philadelphia
where the ship took anchor the 22nd of May 1855.
The
Civil War was raging in the United
States, a bloody conflict between the North
and the south over slavery. About 200 to 300 immigrants continued their journey
to St. Lewis Missouri by way of Pittsburgh,
among those continuing were my people. We were among those who stayed in Philadelphia to seek
temporary employment. Those going on was overtaken
along the way by the 'Samuel Curling.' James took temporary employment at Potsville, Pennsylvania.
Here our little girl Sarah Ann was born the 23 Oct, 1856. We later moved to Caseyville, Ill.,
where my husband secured employment running an engine at a coal mine.
This
ends the life story of Margaret Jones Hughes for on Sep 5, 1858 she passed from
this world, cause unknown to me. She left 8 children. She was buried on the
bluffs of the Missouri River overlooking the
river bottoms about 12 miles East of St. Lewis.
William
Jones, Margaret's brother traveled from Willard,
Utah and brought the children to Utah to be with their
grandparents, Daniel and Mary Jones. Their father planned on coming later but
instead returned to Wales.
They never saw their father again.
***********
This
short history came down through the Hughes family. I received it from Elizabeth
Hughes Ballard of Salt Lake City in 1988.
For
more information, see the Hughes family in the book 'The Samaritans' written
about the people in the Malad Valley of Idaho. Also, see the sail ship
Chimberazo.
Leland Jones
History #1
C:\Documents
and Settings\Jones\My Documents\FAMILY HISTORY\Jones FH\001-031\001.wpd
