JOSHUA SALISBURY
(1827-1913)
Joshua Salisbury was born on 3
June 1827 at Llanasa, Flintshire,
North Wales. As a young man, Joshua learned stone
masonry and coal mining. It was said he had the strength of two men. He married
Martha Davis, a lovely Welsh girl, and to them were
born two children: Ellis and Sarah. He, his wife, and two small children,
embarked for the New World in 1855. They settled in Illinois where his wife
became ill and died. He obtained work in the mines in Pennsylvania where he
managed to accumulate enough money for supplies needed for the journey across
the plains. Joshua married Elizabeth Hoskin, a widow,
on 13 October 1858. She was the daughter of James and Elizabeth Hannock Hoskin. She was born on
28 September 1829 in the county of Cornwall, England.
Joshua started across the plains
in July of 1860, accompanied by his wife and her three children: Mary,
Benjamin, and William Henry Hoskin; his two children,
Ellis and Sarah; and their new baby Caroline. They arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah,
on 1 September 1860; and after attending Semi-Annual Conference, the pressed on
undaunted to their new goal of Cache Valley, settling in Wellsville, Utah. His family of eight lived in a dugout in the Fort but soon built
a log house, cutting and hauling the timber fifteen miles through the snow,
some places hip deep. Joshua later built a stone house and a well. This was
located across the street from the church house, and this well provided the
water for many of the functions held there. In 1878 Joshua married his third
wife, Letitia Maryann Hale Williams, the widow of
Alfred Ellis Williams. Joshua and Maryann became the parents of three children.
Joshua worked for two years as a stone cutter and setter on the Logan Temple
and in his old age helped in the erection of the Wellsville Tabernacle.
As a farmer, Joshua received
much recognition. President Brigham Young said the people of Cache Valley would
begin to plant the uplands lying immediately under the mountains and that grain
would be raised upon them without irrigation. Joshua pondered over the
challenge and was deeply impressed with the statement made. He resolved to make
the experiment as soon as circumstances would permit. About 1869 or 1870 when
the public lands in Utah were made open to entry, he homesteaded eighty acres
of land lying south of the city Wellsville, sold his irrigated land in the East
Field, and prepared to plant. His crop failures proved to him that he was
planting too much seed per acre. With renewed energy he rectified mistakes, and
in the year 1875 he raised an abundant crop of excellent wheat without water.
Some of his garden vegetables were exhibited at the World’s Fair at Chicago,
Illinois, where they “carried off” a number of valuable prizes.
Joshua died on 6 May 1913 at
Wellsville and was buried in the city cemetery. He and Elizabeth were blessed
with eight children, seven who grew to maturity: Caroline, Hyrum, Joseph,
Martha Ann, Frances “Fannie,” Eliza, and Joshua Edwin.
