ANN WILLIAMS JENKINS
My mother was born to David
Williams and Sarah Lodwick on 8 February 1854, at Llannon,
a small village near Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Her only brother died as a little child and is buried in Wales.
My grandfather was called David Williams, Caerbigyn, as were his brothers and cousins because their
ancestors came to Llanelly from a farm by that name.
It belonged to the Williams family as a freehold and was theirs outright.
Ann and her sister Margaret were baptized into the Church
by their father on 22 October 1864.
He was then the presiding Elder of the Llanelly
branch. He and his oldest brother were converts of Captain Dan Jones who,
because of his fluency in both languages, made converts by the hundreds
throughout Wales.
David Williams is mentioned by John Innes in his
book, "Old Llanelly" which I saw in the
library there in 1951.
When Mother was fifteen years old she left Llanelly with her mother and sisters
Margaret, Martha and Rachel for Liverpool. They set sail
from there at 10 a. m. June 1, 1869
with Elder Elias Morris in charge of the Saints. They crossed the Atlantic on
the steamship Minnesota and arrived in New York on June 14. They left
there on the 16th at 3 p. m. and reached Ogden,
Utah on July 25th. That was the first
company of Mormons to come through on the train after the completion of the
railroad.
At first the family lived in a one-room house in the 16th
Ward of Salt Lake where so many Welsh had settled in order to have land for
gardens and animals. What a contrast to their eight-room house in the Sandygate district of Llanelly.
Grandmother wished many times they were back there! To increase the family
income, the girls had to find work wherever possible. Mother worked for a
family by the name of Smedley on Seventh East and South
Temple. He was an insurance man and the housekeeping was always of
a very high standard. They liked her so well she was asked to stay after
marriage. She was always kind to her parents giving them part of her wages and
sending them produce after she moved to Idaho.
She adored her father and, like him, paid her tithing to the last penny
throughout her life.
My parents were married 20 September 1875 in the Salt Lake Endowment House. Mother
cooked the wedding supper for David and John Jenkins and their brides in her
parents' home when they were married in the same place 1 November 1875.
Sometime in 1876 my father and mother moved to Samaria
and lived in a log house on the homestead which, at that time, was located
close to the main road coming in from Portage.
The cellar, a well, and the farm buildings were close by the house. Ten acres
of sagebrush were cleared near the home but water from the Samaria
Canal proved inadequate, so
everything was moved down closer to the canal bringing water from the Samaria
Lake. That became the permanent
location even after flowing wells were dug on the farm.
The first child born to my parents was on 14 June 1878 while they lived on the
farm. He was named Evan after his father. The next two children were born in Salt
Lake City where better medical help was available.
Since the Welsh language was spoken in the home, Evan,
Jr. couldn't speak English when they moved to the village and was, therefore,
laughed at by the other children. Since he also had frequently played with
Indian children who had camped near the farm when their parents came into the
valley on hunting expeditions he could also speak a little of the Indian lingo.
Sarah was also taught to speak Welsh.
Evan's first teacher was Maggie Clarkson (Mrs. Joseph
Morgan) and that school was held in the log meeting house finished in March of
1870. Another of his early schools was taught by Samuel D. Davis in a log room
where George Williams later lived. Then there was "Professor" William
B. Evans who taught in John Martin's house and at the red frame home of James
Thomas, father of C. R. and W. R. Thomas. At one time there were twelve Jenkins
cousins enrolled in the school taught by Thomas Williams, Maude's father, and
held in the old David Edwards' home north of Aunt Mary's. Father built a stile
down in the northeast corner of his property so the children could take a short
cut to school. Five of the family were in that school
at one time. Emma Bowen, later Mrs. Thomas Young, Isaac Evans and Johnny Davis
were also pioneer teachers. During those years money was scarce and children
had only three or four months of school per term. The children on the farms
south and east of Samaria attended
school at the "Point" just beyond the turn where the old road to Portage
takes off from the present one that goes to Cherry Creek.
Pioneer parents were sincere in their efforts to send
children to school regularly unless there was sickness in the home. Mother was
very particular about her children's clothes. She required the girls to wear little
white pinafores over their dresses and these were put away when they returned
home.
The first home in Samaria
was a log house bought from Taliesin Hughes and moved to our location. The logs
were marked and brought to the site and rebuilt. The outside cellar, made of
rock with a cement floor, was added and after being white washed with lime
became a fine place to store milk and to make the butter. In those days the
cement came in wooden barrels and was of excellent quality. The old country
tradesmen also knew how to use it to perfection.
Ann was a very industrious woman and was not content
unless she helped with the income. In the village, as down on
the farm, she made quantities of cheese and butter. Five-gallon earthen
jars were filled with butter and sold to her sisters in Utah
and to other people. The fresh butter was made into two pound rolls. Over a
period of years it sold for ten to fifteen cents a pound. The eggs were
preserved in fifty pound barrels cut in two then covered with lime water, until
taken to market. In the autumn they were put into cases and taken to Salt
Lake City. She also took the surplus honey and wax to
sell. Most farmers in those days had bees. My parents had a long row of hives
out in the orchard among the pear and plum trees. The first bees were bought
from Gomer Hughes and some were later bought from
Mathew Hill of St. John. Aunt Mary W. Jenkins, our neighbor, used to hive them
when they swarmed. Mother used honey for cooking and on the table in place of
sugar.
The trips to market in Salt
Lake were usually made after the
harvest was finished and the land prepared for spring planting. Most often it
required three or four days to make the journey by wagon. Some of the children
were usually left at home and among the young girls in the village hired to
keep the home going were Cassie and Caroline Williams, Mary Reese, Marintha Davis, Mary Powell, and frequently one of the
daughters of Mrs. William Morse, who had come from Carmarthenshire like my
mother. Marintha Davis (Mrs. Andrew Allen) was the
one most often hired to help with sewing. The most exciting part of those trips
was the opening of presents sent by the aunts and grandmother in Salt
Lake and also the trying on of new
shoes, etc., purchased in the city.
In summer Ann kept the children busy in the garden as
well as doing other chores around the place. Late in the fall vegetables were
stored in the pit with a dirt roof and floor to keep them from the frost and to
deter sprouting. Near the fruit trees were many berry and currant bushes. My
brothers had to cut the crop of fresh lucern out
between them so the fruit would have a better chance to ripen. Evan said
sometimes he would fall asleep under the bushes because he had been working
such long hours. The girls were taught to make bread when they were so small
they had to stand on a chair to reach the table to knead the dough. Mother
worked hard herself. She frequently worked into the night so the home would be
in complete order to start the new day. She had her own herb garden and gave
many people help in her special knack of cooking and seasoning food. Father
often mentioned special dishes that no one else could match her in preparing.
She was never mentioned to me without special emphasis
put on her cleanliness and her careful diction. She considered it cheap to be
anything but dignified in speech and manner.
My parents had nine children. Rachel and Vida died with
the diphtheria epidemic of 1890-91 when they were infants of a few months.
Evan, Sarah, Anna, David, Mary Ann and Esther reached maturity.
Mother died 4
October 1894 at the birth of her third son. He was taken to Salt
Lake by her sister Catherine, but
he, too, died four months later of pneumonia. Sister Anna died 29 November 1967 and how well she
expressed it the night before when among other things she said, "It was
awful to be left as little children without our mother." She was twelve at
that time.
- Esther Jenkins Carpenter, Daughter
