Davies, Thomas William - Biography

Thomas Wm Davies

Born 10 April 1828 Bedwelty, Monmouth, Wales

Baptized LDS Church 3 March 1849 Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales

Ordained Elder 26 June 1851 Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales

Married 1^st Ann Thomas 2 April 1852 Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales

Sailed on the SS Curling to the USA 19 Apr 1856

Married 2^nd Sophia C Vickery 24 May 1861 Pomeroy, Meigs, Ohio

Crossed Plains to Utah Summer 1861

First settled in Rush Valley, Utah

Lived in Holden, Utah 1868 to 1880

Moved to Huntington, Utah 1886

Died 5 April 1892 Huntington, Emery, Utah

Ann Thomas

Born 11 March 1827 Penderyn, Breconshire, Wales

Baptized LDS Church 16 March 1848 WalesMerthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales

Married Thomas Davies 2 April 1852 Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales

Sailed on the SS Curling to the USA 19 Apr 1856

Died 24 March 1861 Pomeroy, Meigs, Ohio

Sophia Caroline Vickery

Born 21 July 1844 North Molton, Devonshire, England

Baptized LDS Church July 1857 North Molton, Devonshire, England

Sailed to the John J Boyd to the USA 31 Aug 1857

Crossed Plains to Utah Summer 1861

Married Thomas Davis 24 May 1861 Pomeroy, Meigs, Ohio

Died 30 April 1919 Huntington, Emery, Utah

History compiled by Kent A Davis Great-Grandson of Thomas Davies & Sophia Vickery

Email Contact CaptMork@hotmail.com

Thomas Davies was born April 10^th 1828 in parish of Bedwelty, Monmouthshire, Wales. He was raised in a Welch mining family and community. His father David Davies, had gone into the mines as a young man, so also did he and his older brother David. Thomas went to work in the coal mines at the age of 10, as a mucker and worked in them until he left for America in 1856. After immigration to the USA the surname was changed from Davies to Davis.

As a young man of twenty Thomas moved to Merthyr Tydfil and worked as a miner there. While in that community he was introduced to the Latter-Day-Saint Church and embraced the gospel and was baptized March 3^rd 1849 in to the Merthyr Tydfil Branch of the LDS Church. He was ordained an Elder in the Church Jun 26^th 1851. There after he introduced the gospel to his Father and Mother his brother and sisters and they also joined the LDS Church in Wales.

While attending the LDS Church services he met and courted Ann Thomas, daughter of David and Anne Thomas of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales, who was born March 11^th, 1827 in Penderyn, Breconshire, Wales, she had been baptized into the LDS Church March 16^th , 1848. They were married in the Merthyr Tydfil registers office August 2^nd 1852. After their marriage they continued to make their home in Merthyr Tydfil for the next few years, as they worked and saved to earn enough money to travel to America and join the saints in Utah.

Thomas and his wife Ann set sailed on April 19^th, 1856 from Liverpool, England with his sister Hannah Davies and his mother-in-law Anne Thomas and a group of LDS Saints. They sailed to America on the S Curling. They arrived in Boston May 23 1856. Because of their lack of funds the family decided to stay in the East for a few years and they settled near Pomeroy, Ohio, where Thomas worked in the mines to earn enough money to travel west to Utah. Thomas and his family met with a small group of LDS Saints who supported each as they saved and planed the trip to the West. There also Ann, his first wife, died in March of 1861, of Cholera, during her illness she was cared for by a young LDS girl, Sophia Vickery, whose family was also staying in the area and preparing to journey West also.

Sophia Caroline Vickery was born in North Molton, Devonshire, England, July 21^st, 1844 the daughter of Arthur Vickery & Caroline Lang. Her mother died when she was only 3, so she was given over to her grandparents, William and Mary Vickery to be cared for while her father went off to Wales to earn a living as a shoemaker. While in Aberdare, Wales her father married to his second wife Mary Rosser and joined the LDS Church in 1851.

Sophia continued to live with her grandparents until shortly before her father and his second wife, Mary and two sons sailed to America in July of 1857. She sailed with her family to America on the ship, John J Boyd, from Liverpool and arrived in New York on the 31^st of August 1857. From there the family traveled to Ohio to live and work for a few years before moving on to the West.

Thomas and Sophia were married, May 21^st, 1861 just day before the families started west for Iowa and Utah. As they walked across the plains, west bound they passed the US Army as it was headed east, and the Civil War, the soldiers provided them with food and blankets as they passed through Wyoming.

After they arrived in Utah the family first settled in Rush Valley where Thomas farmed the land that was given him by the church. In 1863 Thomas and Sophia were sealed in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City and in 1868 the family moved to Holden, Utah to farm, ranch and live for the next 15 years, before moving on to Huntington, Utah to settle in May of 1885. While living in Holden the family became members of the united order in April of 1874 and Thomas acted as the water master for a number of years. In Huntington Thomas continued to do a bit of farming and was also the cemetery sexton until his death in April of 1892.

When Thomas died his two oldest daughter, Mary Ann & Esther, were married but Sophia was still left with six children at home the youngest being 3 years of age. For her support she depended on two oldest boys David and George. David married in 1896 and went into farming and ranching in the local area while George was a cowboy, teamster, mason, carpenter, miner and many other occupations before settled down with a wife in 1915.

Sophia lived close to her family in Huntington, helping them with their families and being helped by them, for the rest of her years, passing away in April of 1919.