David Morgan Williams and Elizabeth
(Richards) Williams
By Artella
Williams Larsen (granddaughter)
David Morgan Williams was born at Llansbdid,
Breconshire, Wales,
on the 18th of May in the year of 1832. He was the son of Morgan and Ann
Williams. His father died at the age of thirty-eight of scarlet fever, leaving
his mother a widow with two sons, David and Edward. David's only sister, Ann,
drowned when she was a small child. His mother came to this country and lived
to be 81 years old. She died at Council Bluffs,
Iowa, December 29, 1891.
Grandfather heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day-Saints when he was 16 years of age. He writes in his
Journal--"I was 16 years of age, in my native land; one Sunday morning a
woman came with a pamphlet in her hand and gave it to me. Its name was 'Yu hen grefydd', which means 'The OldNew
Religion.' I believed it for I wanted the religion that Christ taught. But I
waited about two years before I was baptized. After my baptism, I had to wait a
few weeks before I got a testimony from heaven that I had done the will of
God." He was the first of his family to join the church as far as he knew,
converted and baptized at the age of 18 in Wales.
Grandfather came to this country in February 1854, and
continued on to Utah. He was one
year making the trip. He camped at St. Louis, Missouri,
for a while to get ready and crossed the plains with a company of pioneers.
Soon after reaching Salt Lake City,
he met Elizabeth Richards, a daughter of William and Harriet Jones Richards.
She was born February 25, 1837,
at Merthyr Tydfil,
Glamorganshire, Wales.
Elizabeth came to American on the
ship, "Chimborazo",
arriving at Philadelphia May 22, 1855. She later came across
the plains with a company of Saints under the presidency of Elder Francis St.
George. Grandfather and Grandmother were married in Salt
Lake City, Utah, July 3, 1856. Grandmother was a very
industrious, little woman and worked hard all her life. She stood 4 feet 6
inches tall and wore a size 13 (child's) shoe.
After living in Salt Lake City
for a short time, they moved to California.
Grandfather chose farming as his profession and they first settled in the Sacramento
Valley at San
Juan, Nevada County, California.
It was here their first child was born, Ann Amelia, born May 15, 1857. Soon after this they moved down to
Colusa, Colusa County, California,
and while living here their second daughter, Elizabeth, was
born August 31, 1859. Then
on December 25, 1861,
their third child, a daughter, Harriet Matilda, was born.
Sometime between 1861 and 1864 they moved once more. This
time they settled near Genoa,
Douglas County, Nevada. This is located near the southeast side of Lake
Tahoe. It was here their daughter, Delila,
was born October 3, 1864.
After two years in Nevada, they
again felt they wanted to live in California
so they moved back to Sacramento Valley.
Here they had another daughter, Emma, born February 25, 1867, at Colusa County,
California. There, two years later, still
another daughter came to bless their home. Mary was born at Cherokee Flat, Butte
County, California, on June 4, 1869.
It was in the year of 1870 they decided to go back to Iowa.
They sold their property and with their six girls started the long journey.
They arrived in Iowa when baby
Mary was ten months old. David's mother, Ann Williams, lived in Council
Bluffs, Iowa -- so this could
have been a reason for the family to return to this area. While living in
Crescent, (near Council Bluffs),
their 7th daughter, Candace, was born on October 24, 1871. The family lived there until Candace
was two years old, then they moved back to Salt Lake City,
Utah.
Grandfather writes in his Journal: "We were in Iowa
in 1871 and came back to Utah the
latter part of July, 1873. After failing to have work in Salt
Lake City, I went to Bingham
Canyon and started to work for Eli
B. Kelsey making a new road. I continued working there until the road was done.
After that I worked with Peter Reynolds for Morris and Evans for 57 days on
their Clay Bed in Bingham Canyon
and again worked for them at West Jordan
until the work was done -- or the grading part of it. After that I came home to
my family in the city for the winter."
According to his records, both Grandfather and Grandmother
were rebaptized on the 21st of December 1873, at the Warm Springs House in Salt
Lake City, Utah, by Brother
Chatfield and were confirmed the same day at the 15th Ward Meeting House in
Salt, Lake City
by Elders I. K. Hall, Thomas Howells and George Swan.
On October 14,
1874, their 8th daughter, Martha Alice, was born in Salt
Lake City, Salt Lake County,
Utah. They lived here for about three
years. Life was hard during their stay in Salt Lake City.
Jobs were hard to find and with such a large family they had to ask for
assistance from the Church to feed and clothe them for one whole winter.
Grandmother took in washing to help keep food on the table during the lean
years.
Their next move was to the north -- and this time they
settled in Malad
Valley -- about 16 miles to the
north of the Utah-Idaho border. This was a beautiful little farming community
where they first made their home in St. John,
which was about 3 miles northwest of Malad proper. It
was at their home in St. John, Oneida
County, Idaho,
that their only son was born.
David Moroni Williams, (my father)
was born on November 4, 1877.
It was here also that their 10th child, a little daughter, Margaret (Maggie)
was born. She died at the age to ten months.
Having traveled from one state to another in hopes of
finding a location to suit them, they decided to spend the rest of their days
in this valley. However, they did move one more time. Grandfather homesteaded a
160-acre farm in what is known as Elkhorn,
about 4 miles to the northwest of St. John.
It was on this farm that most of the family grew to maturity and where my
father, David Moroni, later lived and reared his own
family of seven children.
Grandmother. Elizabeth Richards
Williams died November 21, 1911,
and Grandfather David Morgan Williams, who lost his eyesight during the last
two years of his life, died October
23, 1924, and was laid to rest beside his little wife of 55 years
on October 26, 1924, at
the St. John Cemetery,
Oneida County, Idaho.
(From St. John, Oneida County, Idaho: A
collection of personal histories from the time of the first settlers to the
present day, pp. 263-264.)
