HISTORY OF JANE PARSONS OWENS

Written for her grandson William W.

Owens in January 1915

I was born on October 13, 1842 at Nauvoo, Illinois.  My parents’ names were William and Mary Jenkins Parsons.  My father w2as born at Worstershire, England, March 27, 1807, he died at Willard, Utah in 1882.  Mother was born in Heredfordshire, England, September 28, 1813.  She died at Willard, Utah in August 13, 1892.  My father’s occupation was farming, yet he was very resourceful and could apply himself to most any kind of work.  My parents were always leaders in every community where they lived.

I had three brothers and three sisters.  All are dead but my brother William.  My earliest recollections were of being frightened at men carrying guns, as the Nauvoo Legion was organized.  There was so much drilling going on and the officers of the State were continually harassing the Prophet, Joseph Smith.  I also can remember the Nauvoo Temple.  It was built of white limestone.  It faced the west and 3was one story high, there were small columns running up each side of the doors and windows and on the top of each column was a block of stone on which was carved the face of a man.  I remember being in a large crowd of people and my father letting me on his shoulder and I said to him, “Look at those men’s faces on the front of the temple.”

I had very little schooling.  I do not remember learning my letters.  I had a book called Webster’s Elementary Spelling Book.  I must have learned my letters from that book.  I went to school when I was eight or nine years old, two terms that were taught by two ladies.  I do not think they were three month terms.  After coming to Utah in the fall of 1852, I went to school off and on summer and winter until I was fifteen.  I then married and that winter myself and your grandfather went to school for a few months.

My parents were Weshan Methodists, and became dissatisfied and joined a sect called the Ranters.  There were some six hundred or more members.  They had a minister and owned a chapel.  They were very earnest in their belief and yet they were not just satisfied as they felt there was something lacking.  So when Brother Wilford Woodruff came to their village in the spring of 1840, as a traveling Elder with the gospel message, their hearts were prepared to receive it.  Now they had found a pearl of great value and were baptized by Brother Woodruff in March 1840.  The whole branch was baptized also and left England the following September for America on a sailing vessel named North America.  This was the first ship load of saints that left England for the gospel’s sake.  They arrived in Nauvoo sometime in November as they landed at New Orleans and came by boat on the river to Nauvoo.

After the Prophet was killed they left with others of the saints that were driven out by the mob and located at a place called Farmington on the Des Moines river.  They stayed there during the winter and in the spring moved to a place called Winter Quarters, where the leaders of the church had located a place for the gathering of the saints.  We stayed one winter, then we went to live with a Frenchman named Bushey.  He had a large number of cattle my father took care of and my mother kept house.  In going there, we had to cross the Missouri River, so that took us to a place near Kanesville, now called Council Bluffs.  We lived here five years and got our out-fit to come to Utah.  It consisted on one wagon, two yoke of oxen, and one yoke of cows.  We started sometime in June 1852 and arrived in Utah on August 23, 1852.  We stayed one week in Salt Lake, then we went south to American Fork, Utah where we lived for seven years.  In the spring of 1859, we sold our home and came and located in Willard, Utah, where my parents lived until they passed away in full faith of the gospel.

From a child up to my marriage, I learned to sew, knit, and crochet.  I learned to braid straw (wheat) to make into hats for men to wear in summer.  I learned to spin wool into yarn to weave to make into yarn for men’s coats and pants, weave, linsey for women’s and children’s dresses and blankets and underwear.  I also doubled and twisted and colored the yarn, as all the yarn had to be colored before being knit into stockings for all the family.   I being older than my brother, had to help father with fieldwork, such as planting corn and potatoes.  I had to help with the raking, bunching, hauling and stacking of the hay.  After the wheat was hauled we would go gleaning.  After the harvest we would go on the bench to gather wood, as the canyons were not open very much at this early date.  The day before I went to get married, I helped haul the last load of hay for that season. 

I was married October 2, 1857  to Owen Owens.  We were married in the Endowment house in Salt Lake City, Utah by President Brigham Young.  We both lived with my parents for about three years.  When they left American Fork, Utah, we accompanied them to Willard, Utah.  At that time it was called North Willow Creek, which was changed to Willard in early 1860.

Owen had a small Indian pony when we were married, that was all he had.  He traded it to the soldiers at Camp Floyd for a yoke of oxen.  When my father bought his home in Willard, Utah, we turned our yoke of oxen in and received eight acres of land.  In 1861, we built out first log house.  The logs still stand here today.  Owen got the logs out of Willard canyon.  In the spring of 1867, my father and Owen bought another farm and divided the land.  That is our west farm and pasture. 

Our son, William Parsons Owens, was born at Willard, November 16, 1864.  We were very proud, as he was our first son.  He grew to be a very good and large boy.  When he was fifteen years old, he wished to learn the blacksmith trade.  Arrangements were made for him to go to Ogden, Utah with a man named Douglas, to stay a year.  That would mean no more schooling, so we thought it best for him not to go.  I feel sure now that it was best as the man turned against our church.  In the spring, sometime in April, when he was sixteen he went to the railroad as a section hand.  Oh my!  It was hard work.  Sometimes he could hardly walk home after a hard days work.  He went to school that next winter, then on the railroad again.  He was a very exemplary boy, never used tobacco or strong drinks.  You have a more complete history in his diary that he kept.

I have held the following church offices:  First Counselor to the President of the Relief Society for twenty-five years or more.  I was President of the first Primary Association organized in Willard for twenty years.  I was a teacher in Relief Society, Sunday School teacher for thirty-five or forty years.  I can not just remember the exact dates.  I have a membership in the Genealogical Society of Salt Lake City, Utah.  Its purpose is to find records of the dead.  We have done the following work for the dead:  My father and mother went to Salt Lake City, Utah as soon as they learned that baptism for the dead could be done.  I went with them October 19, 1870 and did a great deal of work in the Endowment House.  The Endowment House stood in the north west corner of the tabernacle block.  I have continued the work more or less up to the present time.  Your grandfather and our daughter, Ellen Ward, went to Logan temple twenty-two or three years ago and did quite a lot of work for the Owens family.

I have taken no part in politics.

I gave birth to nine children, five are living.  I have had forty-two grandchildren, thirty-three are living.  I have had eleven great-grandchildren, nine are living.  In 1922 I had 44 grandchildren, 34 are living.  I have 27 great-grandchildren, 24 are living.  I have done temple work since 1915. 

Her work is all done and she did charity work.  She died July 21, 1922 and was buried in the Willard, Utah cemetery.