MARGARET REESE WILLIAMS
By
Margaret Williams Lapray
This is a short history of my
great paternal grandmother, Margaret Reese Williams, for whom I was named.
Margaret Reese was born March 3, 1845 at
Llanllawdog, Carmarthenshire Wales, the daughter of a coal mine, David E. Reese
and his wife Mary Thomas. She was the oldest of seven living children. Because
of their poverty, she did not have formal schooling but was keen of mind and
spirit. She could figure as well in her head as most people could figure on
paper. Though she never learned to read or write, she could remember dates,
names, and places correctly and could quote scriptures exactly as they were
read to her.
Living in poverty, at the age of
sic, Margaret began working in the coal mines, carrying water and other jobs a
small child could do. Even the few pennies she earned added to the family
income, and as she grew to a teenager, she did heavy manual labor around the
coal mines and iron foundries. She learned to balance heavy loads on her head as
well as carry a heavy bucket in each hand at the same time. She could take home
as much coal as she could carry for her family. She never lost this talent and
later in Utah,
it was a familiar sight to see her with a large tub of dishes balanced on her
head and a bucket of hot food in each hand carrying them to the church or to a
neighbor’s during harvest.
At the age of 16 in Wales,
she was converted to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Her
desire was to go to Zion.
She saved enough money from meager wages in two years to make the trip. On May 8, 1864, she sailed from
Liverpool, England, with a group of Saints.
Among them was a dear friend, Mrs. Eleanor Griffiths and her three small
children. It took them 6 weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Their food consisted of black bread, moldy cheese, salt pork and beans. The
water was stale and they lived in filth on the ship.
Arriving in July, they traveled
directly to the Missouri River at Winter
Quarters where they stayed for only a few weeks. Margaret and Eleanor Griffiths
were able to join the George G. Bywater and Thomas E. Jeremy Company. This
company provided transportation for food and personal belongings. Margaret and
Eleanor walked all the 1,000 miles, carrying the little children upon their backs
most of the way. They crossed streams and water up to their arm pits, often
walking without shoes on bleeding feet. They spoke little English but were
happy to be coming to Zion.
Margaret told how the Indians lined up on each side of the road as the wagons
passed along but did not harm them. The people were told to walk along beside
the wagon, never speak or pay attention to the Indians and no one would be
harmed. So it was.
On Oct. 26, 1864, the reached the
Salt Lake Valley, only to spend a few days and then be assigned with other
Welch immigrants by Brigham Young to go on to Welch colonies in Greenville and Beaver, Utah. This journey of 200 miles was also
made on foot.
It was fall when they arrived and
Margaret went right to work in a dairy, making butter and cheese. In Greenville she met David Edwards Williams, a widower who
had come from Wales
the year before. They were married February 8, 1866, in Greenville,
Utah, by Elder William Richards.
Margaret and David built an adobe house without windows, a door, or a floor. A
fireplace served for heating and cooking. A split log in one corner served as a
bed, which was covered with woven mats of grass and straw and home-spun and
woven woolen blankets. A door, windows, and furniture were gradually added to
the house, and it became a warm, hospitable home.
Their farming operation like their house, had meager
beginnings. The land was cleared, planted, and harvested by hand. David cut the
grain with a scythe, and Margaret bound it into bundles, carried it in and
stacked it. Potatoes were dug by shovel and stored in a pit. The cured their
meat and preserved food for winter and time of need. They met each new problem,
solved it, and prospered. Besides the usual crops of hay and grain, they raised
garden produce, hauled it to the mines along with eggs, butter, and cheese,
where they sold it to the miners. The miners needed fresh produce and the
farmers needed the cash. David and Margaret took full advantage of this
opportunity and tried hard to supply the miners with exactly what they wanted.
They were honest in their dealings, and as a result the miners often placed orders for supplies to be brought on their next
load. Margaret and David made more money than they ever dreamed of making in Wales.
They had all the milk, eggs, butter, and fresh produce they needed to feed
their thirteen children, of which eleven reached maturity.
Margaret lived all her married life in this three-roomed
adobe house, built for her by David. When they were married, she was only 19
and David was 43. The 24 years age-difference never affected their happiness.
Margaret was often head to say, “I would rather be an old man’s sweetheart than
a young man’s slave.”
They contributed generously to the church, school, and
community. They bought stock in the Co-op Store in Beaver and the Beaver Woolen
Mills. They bought sheep and kept them in the Beaver County Co-op flock. All
proved to be good investments and the sheep provided a business later for their
boys who became sheep men.
Both David and Margaret had the remarkable gift of healing.
David through the Priesthood and Margaret through analyzing and detecting
ailments, then treating and curing them. As doctor and midwife of the community
she saved the lives of many women and children. Her garden was filled with
herbs. Most of grandchildren remember taking her herb medicines.
Margaret had an un-wavering testimony of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. Her prayers were answered many times.
Margaret taught her children to work. They shared in the
care of pigs, chickens, cows, and gardens. She taught her children thrift. By
the 1900’s they were a prosperous family.
Life was not without problems, one of which was the Indians.
Brigham Young taught the Saints it was easier to feed the Indians than to fight
them. Some individual Indians became a real nuisance, having perfected the art
of living off the pioneers. David with his kind heart proved helpful in solving
some of the trouble. Margaret however, had her own way of solving this problem.
The story is told of an old Indian coming for food. She gave him a sandwich,
but he demanded the hams hanging from the ceiling. She told him, “no”. He
started through the door to get them himself, but was greeted with a big pot of
boiling water. The old Indian took off never bothering her again.
Another story is told of Margaret saving the life of an
Indian squaw who came to her for protection against a drunken, angry husband.
She hid the squaw in a root cellar under her house. The door to the cellar
opened up in the floor over which she placed a rug and her rocker. When the
husband came looking, she sat in the rocker, rocking her baby. He could see
from the door there was no place for his squaw to hide, so he left. The Indian
woman never forgot Margaret’s kindness and often gave her little gifts for
saving her life.
Margaret’s husband, David, was struck in the eye with a
splinter of wood. Unable to successfully remove it, he suffered months of agony
and lost his eyesight. Through a temple blessing his sight was restored for
about five; then he lost it again. My father, Cornelious Williams, remembers
leading his blind grandfather around the town. David would gather the children
around him and teach them to sing. My father enjoyed learning the old Welch
songs. David was never a burden to Margaret. He loved her dearly and often told
her so. He died in Greenville
on January 31, 1901.
Margaret was a widow for seventeen years. She kept her own
home and often had one of the grandchildren living with her. In 1903 she went
up to Idaho
to take care of her oldest son, John Rees Williams’, family. He had lost his
wife in childbirth. Margaret lived with John for two years. Returning to her
little white adobe home, she lived out her days in happiness among those she
loved.
This faithful pioneer is a great example of noble womanhood
to me, her great-granddaughter, and I am grateful for the strength and courage
she showed throughout her life, for her testimony of Jesus Christ and of Joseph
Smith, the Prophet, and for the service she gave her God and her fellowman.
(Information herein is taken from History of Margaret Reese by Daughter Margaret Ann Williams Griffiths, Miracle of the Desert, Williams Family
History by Thomas H. Williams. Pp 7-14.)
Written by Margaret Williams Laprey, April 1997. from the
Swiss Camp, Washington County,
Utah
Copy obtained from the DUP
Museum, Salt Lake City, Utah
