LEAH PARRY JONES
By Mabel Jensen Evans
Leah Parry was the tenth child of Thomas Parry and Ann Roberts. Leah was born on June 30, 1844 in St. George, Denbighshire, Wales.
The tradition of the family tells that LeahÕs father, Thomas R. Parry lived on the estate of the Lord and Lady Kimberly in Wales. ThomasÕs father was the head mason of the estate, and his mother acted as a midwife or doctor on the estate. She had a special gift of healing and many people for miles around came to her for help. In time Thomas R. Parry was given land to farm for himself from the estate, but he continued to help his father as mason, and after his fatherÕs death, Thomas R. Parry became the head mason.
Ann Roberts, LeahÕs mother, also lived in Wales. Her mother died when she was a child; she had one sister named Margaret, and they lived with their father who was a squire. Ann lived a sheltered life, not having to do much housework or hard work.
Ann Roberts and Thomas R. Parry met and married and to them were born fourteen children, however, five of these children died when young. The gospel came to Wales and the Parry family believed, joined the church, and prepared to come to America.
By 1857 the first five children had come to America. Leah was the oldest child left with the parents. One little girl, Elizabeth had died in Wales in 1850.
After so many of her children had come to America, Ann Roberts Parry was also determined to come. Thomas R. Parry sold his farm and home and everything he had, and with his wife and children came to America. Leah Parry came with her parents, Thomas Parry and Ann Roberts Parry and Joseph (18), David (13) and Emma (10). Leah was listed as age sixteen. They crossed the Atlantic on the ship "Underwriter". They crossed the plains in the Captain James D. Ross Company, which arrived in Great Salt Lake, September 3, 1860. They came with a team and covered wagon.
(Edward L. Parry and wife Ann Parry, sister of Leah Parry, came from Wales on the ship Samuel Curling, then crossed the plains in the Edward Bunker Handcart Company, arriving in Great Salt Lake City on October 2, 1856. Edward L. Parry was the master mason of the ST.George and Manti Temples.)
On the boat coming across the waters, LeahÕs mother, Ann, had an infection in her hands, which took a long time healing. Leah was left with the responsibility of much of the manual work. She was sixteen this year. She has told her children and grandchildren of how she would make her yeast from a start, would mix her bread in the morning and put it in the wagon during the dayÕs travel to be baked in the evening over the campfire.
When Thomas R. Parry arrived in Salt Lake, he bought property with the money from the sale of his farm. He and his sons continued their mason work. Their firm of contractors did some of the famous buildings in Salt Lake City. They helped with the mason work of such buildings as: Auerbach, ZCMI, Walker Band, Jennings Building. They also worked as masons on the Manti, St. George, and Salt Lake Temples.
Leah Parry has sung in the choir of her church in Wales, and so joined the choir of the Fifteenth Ward in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was here that she met Amos Jones, also from Wales. They courted for a few months, and then were married in the Endowment House on March 10, 1862. (The Salt Lake Temple was in the process of being built)
In 1877 Amos Jones and family moved to Idaho where his father, Richard Jones, was living. They made their home eventually in Malad City, where Amos and his sons continued the profession as masons.
****Letters from Aunt Leah Jones HillÉLeahÕs daughter
May 18, 1960
Dear Mabel: I received your letter and was so glad to hear from you. I donÕt know whether I can help you very much, but will tell you all I know.
I donÕt know the name of my motherÕs brother BernardÕs wife. I know she was buried at sea, and he died of a broken heart and buried somewhere in Kansas. When I went to live in Kansas, mother told me about him, but she did not know just where it was in Kansas. I guess he must have died on the trail.
My MotherÕs sister Ann married Edward L. Parry as his second wife. They were cousins and the first wife Jane, took my Aunt Ann in when she arrived in Salt Lake and persuaded her to marry her husband. Jane never had any children but Ann had a large family. They are scattered all through Southern Utah. Edward L. Parry (MotherÕs cousin) was the master mason the St. George and Manti Temples.
My Mother and FatherÕs family came from Noreth Wales. Mother lived on the Kimberly Estate where her father took care of the mason work for the estate, and it went from father to son, from generation to generation. They were masons. The house they lived in was called the Park House. Mother told me they would designate her as "Leah Parry of Park House".
Mother was 16 years old when she came across the plains to Salt Lake. My grandmother before marriage was "Lady Ann Roberts", she had a sister "Lady Margaret". She was supposed to have married beneath her station in life when she married my grandfather.
May 30, 1960, Nucla, Colorado
Emma Parry married Lucias A. billings. The only Doctor I know in MotherÕs family was my Grandfather Thomas R. ParryÕs sister. My mother used to tell me about being sent to visit her to take her little gifts of fresh butter or fruit. She used to walk and it took two days to make the trip. She would go to her one-day and come back the next. She always made mother make a chemise or panties or apron for herself. She would cut them out and Mother made them by hand and brought them home with her. She was an herb Doctor or so I always understood.
My grandmother Parry didnÕt have to walk across the plains. They had an ox team and outfit, also a cow, which they lent to a man when he lost one of his oxen. Mother said they used to start ahead of the wagon train and walk for miles then wait for the train to catch up with them. I understood it to be the young people.
I donÕt know how my grandmother Ann got the infection in her hand, all I know is that mother said she did all the work. She made her own yeast cakes before they started across the plains and told how the sang the songs of Zion at evening as they gathered around the campfires.
I have such a happy memory of mother and father singing together in our home and us joing in as we could. Especially that old song, "All is Well" has memories for me.
Mother talked more about her home in Wales and her coming to Utah during the last year of her life. I used to go down in the evening and sit with her awhile. I only wish I had written it down and paid more attention to what she told me.
My Uncle L.A. Billings (who married LeahÕs sister Emma) came to Utah with the ConnerÕs Army, when they established Ft. Douglas. Mae Billings, their daughter, was married to the governor of Colorado, Gov. White. Another daughter was married to the Salt Lake Police Chief Joe Burbide. They had 2 sons.
Courtesy of Marcia Evans Daugherty
