ELEANOR EVANS

Eleanor Evans was born June 25, 1799, at Merionethshire, Wales. She married William Owens. They lived at Merionethshire, Wales. She was the mother of eleven children. Four children died and were buried in Wales.

Quoting from a letter written by John D. Peters, he said, “I have heard my mother say that William Owens and his wife Eleanor were a splendid type of humanity, that Eleanor, as mother called her, was a woman of wonderful character and will-power.” When we stop to reflect, it does not need any testimony to proclaim her bravery.  When we recall that she started out with an invalid husband and seven children to this far western land where everything was undeveloped and she was unable to speak the language of the people among whom she expected to live. I have no way of expressing it better than to say that she must have been a mighty brave woman.”

Eleanor, her husband William and their family belonged to the Baptist church. After hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, they left the Baptist church and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

They made plans to come to America. They left Liverpool, England in the spring of 1849 and reached New Orleans after being on the ship for seven weeks and one day. They sailed up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers enroute to St. Joseph, Missouri. An epidemic of cholera attacked the group and many people died, including William. Eleanor, and four of their children. They were buried on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Three children were left to complete the journey to Utah. Owen Owens, my grandfather, and an older brother and sister crossed the plains in the George A. Smith Company and reached Salt Lake City in the fall of 1849. (This information was taken from a sketch of Owen Owens, also from a letter written by John D. Peters, whose parents were in the same company with William and Eleanor Owens and from my Pedigree Chart.)

            Lucy W. Wright, Great-grand daughter of Eleanor Evans Owens