ANOTHER HISTORY OF MARY
MORGAN THOMAS
By a
granddaughter Cecilia Thomas Draper
Mary
Morgans was the daughter of Alice Richards and John
Morgan or Morgans.
Her mother Alice died when she was quite young. I remember mother telling me that her mother
Mary, although just a child, had to walk several miles across the mountain to
get her mother's burial clothes. She had
no shoes on her feet and when she got back her feet were bleeding from the cuts
she had received from the rocks on the roadway.
It was a rough mountain road all the way.
After
her mother passed away, Mary had to take her mother's place in the home and
care for the family which included a baby brother. Her father was a coal miner and a Baptist or
Methodist preacher, so he was away most of the time. Most of the responsibility of caring for the
home rested on Mary, although she had an older sister, Gwenllian
(sic) who could very well have assumed this responsibility.
As
Mary grew older her father was afraid she would get married and leave. My grandfather Richard Thomas' parents lived
a short distance from Mary and consequently, she visited them as often as she
could. Richard's parents gave her
counsel and taught her many things.
Richard and Mary became sweethearts.
When Mary's father heard about it, he visited Richard's parents and
tried to tell them Mary was no good; that she was lazy and couldn't do anything
right. But Richard's parents knew
better. One night Richard's mother
Cecilia could contain herself no longer and told him that he not only was a
very mean and unkind father, but a liar as well. She told him that she had been to his home
and seen the bread that Mary had baked etc. and that every word he said was
untrue. She told him that nothing he could
say would change her mind about Mary and if her son Richard wanted to marry
her, he had her consent. She also told him
that she would thank him if he would go if he couldn't talk with respect about
his daughter and that she had a home with them whenever she wanted it. John left feeling very bitter toward Edward
Thomas and his wife Cecilia.
When
Richard and Mary decided to get married, they had to post BANNS as was the custom
then. This meant that the intention to
marry had to be announced three consecutive Sundays, then
if there was no objection raised, the couple could go ahead and get married. If they posted these banns in Mary's regular
church, John Morgan, being quite influential in same could object and they
could not be married. Richard's parents
had an idea. They knew of a little
church where none of their relatives or friends attended, so they told Mary and
Richard to have their intentions posted in this little church, which they
did. Mary's father didn't hear about it
and so after the banns had been posted and no one objected, Richard and Mary
were married.
After
the marriage, Cecilia prepared some cookies and sent along with a stein of
beer, as was the custom, to John Morgan who was working in the mine. He was very angry when they told him and
would not accept the offering, so Mary's brother
Howell and a cousin drank the beer and ate the cookies. Again, Cecilia sent them back with another
stein of beer and cookies, and again he refused and
told them to go that he never wanted to see them again. So once more Howell and his friend got the
beer and cookies.
Mary's
father did no speak to the couple until the death of her first child, whom she
named Edward after her father-in-law. He
was so bitter he would not have gone to the funeral had it not been for Richard's
father who went to him and bawled him out and threatened that he would expose
him to every member of his congregation.
Sot he day of the funeral he decided he better come. As he entered the home, he threw a Bible on
the table saying you better have this as I don't suppose you have one. Mary told him thanks, but to take his Bible
as they had one of their own.
This
broke the ice between father and daughter, and a few years alter when he came
to visit, he proceeded to tell her about an incident he had witnessed. (The LDS religion had now been introduced in
the British
Isles). John Morgan hated the Mormons as they had
relieved him of many of his followers.
He related to her that he had seen the Mormons drown a woman that
morning and was disagreeably shocked when Mary told him that they did not drown
the woman because the woman was she herself and that she had been baptized into
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Mary
and her mother-in-law Cecilia Evans Thomas were very fond of each other. Each Sunday they walked five miles to
church. The first one arriving at church
would sit down and spread out their skirts to save a place for the other. They took up a whole bench when the family
was all there. They stayed for the three
meetings then would walk home together. I
remember mother telling me how she being a child would run ahead and then sit
down by the side of the road until the grownups would catch up with her.
Mary's
sister-in-laws were somewhat jealous because of the close relationship of Mary
and Cecilia. They would scrimp on their
family meals and then would tell Cecilia how thrifty they had been that
week. Cecilia's answer was that she
would rather that they would feed her sons, then they
would have strength to work. She
certainly didn't thank them for starving her sons and their children. Then they would end up saying that nothing
they ever did pleased Cecilia; that the only one who could please her was Mary.
Then came the saddest day of Mary's life. Richard arose in the morning and Mary told
him she was going to visit one of his relatives named Peggy, who was very
sick. Richard asked her to wait until he
came home and he would go with her. All
day Mary felt uneasy. She hurried to get
her work done and then made a batch of cookies to take with them. She did not wait for Richard but hurried over
to see Peggy. After seeing she was
feeling about the same, left, telling her that she and Richard would return
that evening.
Mary
had Richard's bath water ready and supper waiting. She could see a man coming toward the house
and ran out to meet him. She had a
premonition that something was wrong.
She was fearful that something had happened to her brother but found
that Richard Thomas had been hurt. She
screamed she knew that he had been killed, but thanked God that he belonged to
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She took her children and went to the mine
and it was 15 hours before they recovered his body.
After
the death of Richard, Mary had to go to work to support her family. It seemed that everything was against
her. The company tore down the houses
they were living in and Mary was forced to move across the canyon. It was about seven miles from where they were
living. As they could not afford to hire
her furniture moved, Mary and her children carried this furniture piece by
piece to the new house.
Mary
worked real hard. Each woman was given
so much coal to move and sometimes in the evening Mary would go back and
work. One day Mary had finished before
the others. When she went to the boss,
who was a very ornery man, he asked her if Brigham Young was helping her last
night so that she got through so quickly.
Mary replied that Brigham Young must be a better man than his minister
if he would come all the way from America to help me; your minister
won't even pass the time of day with you.
Now if you don't want to give me a new piece to clear I'll go to the
main boss. He replied that he didn't
want to have her do that so he gave her another piece to clear.
Another time when Mary had finished her work ahead of time, and went to ask for
further instructions, a boos or foreman told her he could have her carry the
pot or toilet which was called 'who can do.'
Mary thanked him politely. Years
later as she entered the marketplace to shop, who did she
see but this same man. He had lost his
job and was in poor condition. Mary
listened to his story then said she was sorry for him but guessed he would have
to go to the mine and carry 'who can do.'
Mary
would stay up every other night to bake bread.
They didn't have stoves, but did their baking in ovens outside. They would build a fire inside same, then
remove the coals and put in the loaves of bread to bake. Many of the houses had only dirt floors, but
Mary's house had a rock floor. This
would be cleaned and polished by rubbing with another rock and water. Mary would always prepare the food for Sunday
on Saturday. She would pile the dishes
in a pan. She never washed dishes on
Sunday or allowed her daughters to wash dishes on Sunday either.
Mary
was very honest in her dealings for groceries etc. If she did not have sufficient for her needs,
she would borrow. Then if she did not
have the money to pay the debt, she would borrow from someone else, usually her
brother Howell, in order to keep her promise and repay her bills on the date
she said she would.
When
Mary and her three children were waiting for the ship to sail for America, the ship was delayed and
Mary didn't know what to do. She had
quit her job and traveled quite a ways to the port from where they were to
sail. Two different merchants she used
to shop with brought food and bedding enough to last until she reached America. At first Mary refused, saying she was going
to a strange country and did not know how long it would be before she could
send the money back. They both told her
not to worry, to take the help and if she never had it to just forget about
it. But that if she would feel better
about taking the food, when she had reached America and found work she could
send them the money. On these conditions
she accepted.
Mary's
son Hiram, who was already in America, met them on their
arrival. Mary old him
of her obligation first thing. He
instructed her not to worry, he had sufficient money and they sent enough to
pay the merchants for their goods. When
a neighbor of Mary's here in America went to South Wales on a mission for the LDS
church, he contacted the one merchant.
The merchant said that if ever there was a saint, Mary Cumre, meaning "little Welshman" was one. He told brother Rees about the ship being
delayed and what had happened. He said
that before he thought the ship had reached America, he had received a letter
from her and the money to pay for the groceries.
After
Richard's death in the mine, and Mary was left to shift for herself and family,
she would often feel lonesome for her husband.
She would then lay his suits on the bed.
I have a recollection that he had seven suits. She would fasten the bedroom door and kneel down
and pray to see him. Richard came to her
three times. She would come fromt he room singing. But on the thrid
appearance, he was unshaven and angry.
He told her that if she knew the trouble she caused him she would leave
him alone. This frightened Mary, and
after that when she was troubled, she would pray to the Lord for guidance.
Mary,
her daughter Cecilia, her sons David and Morgan bid farewell to their native
country in 1873. They sailed the Atlantic in the John Hart company of Ogden, in the vessel Idaho. They were three weeks on the ocean. They arrived in America by way of New York. They reached Spanish Fork, Utah 18
November 1873.
