HISTORY OF WILLIAM E. JONES
Written by his Grand-daughters
Leona Jones Williams and
Lucretia (Lou) Jones Williams
William Evans Jones was born on February 19, 1848, in
Talley, Carmarthenshire, Wales,
the fourth child of William and Eleanor James Jones.
According to family history his father, William, having
been in the service himself, did not want his sons to be sent to the army so on
May 21, 1864, James who was 21, David 18, and Grandpa 16, left their family and
came to America alone. They left Liverpool on the ship “General
McClellan” for New York.
The ship was 1800 tons and a Mr. Task was the Master if it. They arrived in New York on June 19th.
The shipping records did not give the date of their arrival
in New York
but James had recorded June 19th in his family Bible as the arrival date. In
searching the Church Immigration to Utah
(Organized Companies Overland) Records we find that the three brothers left the
outfitting station at Wyoming, Nebraska, on July 19, 1864, and crossed the plains in the
Captain S. Warren Company and arrived in Great Salt Lake Valley
on October 4, 1864. The record states there were 400 persons and about 65
wagons in the company.
The story has been handed down that James and William left
David in Salt Lake
(possibly to look for employment) while they came to Brigham City to find work. David became ill
and by the time they received word, he had already died and
was buried in Salt Lake.
This would have been late October or early November 1864. What a sad time this
must have been for James and William and also for the family still in Wales.
Grandpa and James were among the early settlers in Malad Valley.
When Grandpa first came to America
he worked on a road construction job in Utah.
Two years later the rest of the family – Great
Grandpa William, Great- Grandma Eleanor, Mary 15 years old, John 12, Daniel 8,
Eleanor 5, and Margaret 2, sailed form Liverpool for New York on April 30, 1866, aboard the ship “John
Bright”, which was 1444 tons with a Mr. Dawson as the Master.
Their first child, who was also named James, died in Wales at age 2 years.
According to family records Grandmother Eleanor was known
by Eleanor Evans but in doing research we found that her father was John James
and her mother was Mary Thomas. Two children were born to these parents. A son James and a daughter Eleanor. John James died when the
children were very young and Eleanor’s mother married a David
Evans. Apparently this David Evans raised Eleanor and therefore she took his
name. But in sending toWales for the birth certificates of William and Eleanor’s
children, she is listed as Eleanor James on each birth certificate and also on
her marriage certificate we received from Wales, her father is given as John
James. The researcher found a parish record showing a marriage for a David
Evans and a Mary James (widow) on August 2, 1822. So this would mean Eleanor
was only 2 years old when her
mother married David Evans.
When the Jones family first came to Malad they lived in a
log house on the Charley Peck lot and later the sons built a home for their
mother and sister when Clabbys live now. It has since been remodeled.
Grandpa’s father had served twenty-one
years in the army and was also in the Queen’s Guard at the time of the
Battle of Waterloo. He received a medal for long and outstanding service and
Grandfather being his name-sake received the medal upon the death of his
father.
At the age of 26, he married Martha Lucretia Lusk, who was
17 years of age, September 21, 1874, in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Grandmother was born March 29, 1857, in Pleasant
Grove, Utah, the
daughter of John Winters Lusk and Esther Catherine Park. To this union thirteen
children were born, all at Malad,
Idaho. There were seven boys and
six girls. They were in order as follows: William, John, Thomas, Berenice,
Ellen, Lucretia, Alpheous, Bertha, James, Olive, Hugh,
Perry, and Delila.
The eldest son, Willie, dies with the croup. He was out
playing until nearly dark and Grandmother called him in and he was very choked
with croup. She bathed him and called in a Brother Price, whom she had a great
deal of faith in, to administer to him. When Brother Price finished
administering to little Willie, he looked at Grandmother and just shook his
head. She said after that she did not have faith that he would get well and he
passed away before morning at the age of 2½ years.
Thomas died when he was three weeks old. When Grandfather
passed away the youngest child, Delila, was ten years of age. Ellen passed away
on October 8, 1930, John on February 26, 1938, James on March 27, 1955, Alf on
April 17, 1956, Hugh on May 1, 1959, Berenice on July 10, 1960, Perry on
September 1, 1962, Olive June 14, 1968,
Lucretia (Lou) January 3, 1971, and Bertha on July 17,
1973.
When he first came to Malad he was a farmer. He and his
brothers were in partnership on the Spencer Farm down by the depot at one time.
The later sold the farm.
In 1890 three of the Jones brother, William, John, and
Daniel purchased the mill from Peter Hansen. The new owners decided to rebuild
and modernize the flour mill, installing all new machinery, building additional
working space, and changing the grinding from Burr stones to the roller
process. With the change of ownership, the name of the flour mil was changed to
Malad Roller Mills. When the new mill started, they found that the water power
was inadequate for the larger capacity they had adopted, and it was necessary
to supplement the water power with a steam engine and
boiler, which was very costly to
operate.
In 1893 the business was found to be insufficient to
support the three brothers, so John and Daniel sold their shares to our Grandpa
and he became the sole operator.
In 1904 he was able to install a new Pelton type water
wheel and pipe line, which developed two to three times the power of the
discarded overshot water wheel. He operated the flout mill until 1912, when the
property was sold to Crowther brothers.
After selling the mill he farmed on a ranch, in Devil
Creek, with sons Alf and James until he became road supervisor, which position
he held until his death. Later James sold out and Hugh and Perry became
partners with Alf.
Grandfather moved his family into the frame house owned by
Mr. Hansen when he bought the mill. Just a short time later the frame house
burned down. In those days the walls were covered with calico. Grandmother and
Aunt Berenice were preparing dinner and spilled some grease and it caught fire
and ignited a curtain on a little cupboard nearby and in a few minutes the
whole kitchen was aflame. Very little was saved – one feather bed, straw
mattress and some bedding. Aunt Berenice was the only member of the family who
had many clothes saved as hers were hanging first
in the closet. The girls had
been given a side saddle and bridle, which had belonged to their Aunt Eleanor,
by her husband Bill Jenkins at her death. This was hanging in the same closet
but they were unable to save it. It was one of their prized possessions. The
frame home was replaced by a log house, which they lived in for a number
of years. Later the brick home
was built which Grandmother enjoyed until her death May 28, 1942.
During the 1880’s the anti-Mormons had done
much to spread antagonism against the Saints throughout the territory. Thus
cornerstones were laid for the eventual triumph of anti-Mormons. One last final
attempt was made in Malad
Valley
to disfranchise the Mormons of
their voting powers. Legislation was passed to the effect that the Mormons,
before they could vote, had to take an oath swearing that they did not belong
to any organization which teaches, advises, counsels, or encourages it members
to commit the crime of bigamy, or polygamy or that practiced polygamy, or celestial marriage as a doctrine rite.
With this injunction the Mormons were helpless, as they
believed in polygamy and taught celestial marriage. A real problem developed,
as they could have nothing to say in the political affairs of the valley,
county, or territory. Many Mormons had their names taken off the Church records
so they could exercise their rights of voting.
Eventually in 1893, President Harrison pardoned all Mormons
who had been convicted under the Edmonds-Tucker Act, and in 1904 in the general
election the Mormon people resumed their status as citizens, with consequent
privileges.
Grandfather and Great-Grandfather John Winters Lusk were
two of the citizens who signed the oath in order to retain their right to vote.
Helen Morgan, a staff member of the Genealogy Library in
Malad, was in the Genealogy Library in Salt Lake
and came across a film of early Malad Membership that our library did not know
existed. She came home and told our head Librarian, Mabel Jones, about it. The
film was ordered and Mabel found it listed all the members who had left the
church in order to vote in 1888. It showed that each had been excommunicated.
She contacted the Salt Lake Library and explained the Malad situation and was
informed that although most of the men had been re-baptized their blessing had
to be restored to them by the General Church Presidency. The direct family of
each man would have to submit the proper information and have this taken care
of. So I submitted the information for Grandpa Jones and Great-Grandfather
Lusk and received a letter from Salt Lake dated December 4,
1980 stating that Grandpa Jones’ endowment he received in
life, together with all the blessing which were received in lifer were restored
on September 18, 1980. I received another letter stating that Great-Grandfather
Lusk’s Priesthood and Temple
Blessings were restored
on January 23, 1982.
All those who had children born after the date they left
the church had to have them re-sealed to them. The last five children of
Grandpa which included James, Olive, Hugh, Perry and Delila had to be
re-sealed. So on February 5, 1981, Claude took Vernon,
Leona, Aunt Delila and I to the Logan
Temple and Perry met us
there and we had the sealing done. All of Great-Grandfather Lusk’s
children were born this date so no re-sealing was necessary.
Sister Mabel Jones has taken responsibility of contacting
all these families so they could have their ancestors re-instated. This was a
great undertaking but Sister Jones has it all done at this time but 2 or 3 that
she has had difficulty in locating the families.
Grandfather was about 5’7” tall,
and weighed about 175 lbs., had blue eyes and dark brown hair and wore a short
chin beard and mustache most of his life. He was pleasant and kind to everyone.
One old gentleman used to come and visit
Grandfather and Grandmother frequently and he relate the
tallest tales imaginable. Grandmother would say, “Bill, how can you stand to
listen to him?” Grandfather would reply, “Oh, Cretia, if it doesn’t hurt
him to tell them it won’t hurt me to listen to them.”
He never ate much sweets but
always ended a meal with a tsp. Of sugar and was very fond of gooseberry pie.
His son, Hugh, said that as a boy if he asked his father for 5¢ he
always gave him 10¢ and if he asked for 10¢ he
always received 15¢ – always
a little more than what he asked for. He usually had a sack of candy for the
kids. He and son, James, enjoyed
running foot races together.
Grandfather was always kind to animals and would never
allow his boys to mistreat them. Uncle Perry said the boys enjoyed rooster
fighting and if they could catch two roosters and provoke them to fighting
before their father caught them he would enjoy the fight with them but if he
saw them he would never allow them to mistreat the roosters in order to get
them fighting.
He always kept his word even to his own children. One day
they butchered a 350 lb. Pig and Uncle John, who was married, was helping.
Grandfather jokingly told Uncle John if he could carry that large pig from
their house to the mill he would give it to him – not thinking of course that
he could do it or that he would attempt to do it.
His brothers helped lower it to his shoulder from the
pulley and Uncle John carried it to the mill. Grandfather kept his word and
Uncle John got the pig. He always enjoyed a good joke. The morning he became
ill he told Grandmother a funny joke, then waved goodbye to her and that was
the last time he spoke to her. He became ill on the road job he was supervising
where the old D. L. Evans house stood. He instructed the men to finish the work
they had started before
they took him to town. They put
him in a white top buggy and brought him home and he passed away about 50 hours
later without regaining consciousness, on April 16, 1914. He was 66 years of
age.
