Joseph Henry Joseph
Ex-bishop Joseph Henry Joseph has been a resident of Adamsville, Utah, since 1861. He was
a colonizer in various parts before taking up his abode in Beaver County. He was born in
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales, on November 17, 1830, to Henry Joseph and Ann Thomas.
In later years he was employed in a copper plant. His family was in comfortable
circumstances. As a boy his labors were confined to coal mines. At the age of nine years
Joseph Henry was badly burned and lost his sight by an explosion of gas in a mine. Surgeons
gave up all hope of recovering his eye sight but after two months it returned. He attended
night school at the Sabbath School of his district. With the little education he received he was
mainly self-taught. He led a good moral life but did not join any religious sect. In June 1849
he became a Latter-day Saint. In the same year he was ordained a deacon and a priest. The
next year he became an elder. He landed in New York on his way to Utah, but tarried at
Minersville, Ohio, where he met and married one Mary Ann Richards on May 2, 1855. She
was the daughter of Thomas Richards and Elizabeth Powell. On the 6th day of January 1851
he started with his family for Utah -- crossing the plains with an ox team outfit in a company
which was led by David Cannon. The Joseph family went first to Logan, then on to Parowan,
Utah. They purchased a small farm and remained there for three years. Then they settled in
Iron County in the spring of the year. He was ordained to the office of a Seventy. The Indians
became troublesome and the men had to stand guard day and night and plan their crops in
companies of ten. In June 1866 by order of Brigham Young and General Wells, the place was
abandoned with the people going to various other settlements for protection. They finally
settled in Adamsville, Utah, their favorite home. They were plagued by grasshoppers which
darkened the sky for five successive years after their arrival. They kept a store in Adamsville.
His call to the Bishopric came in 1874 when he was set apart and ordained a High Priest by
Wilford Woodruff. From the year 1874 to 1896 he was a select man in Beaver County. He
was County Assessor, County Recorder and served as the postmaster. In 1896 on account of
his old age he retired from being a bishop. Joseph Henry Joseph and his good wife Mary Ann
raised their small granddaughter Henrietta Joseph after the death of her mother Jane Griffiths
Joseph. Life continued on in this respect until in 1907, on December 17, at the age of 77
Joseph Henry passed on to the next life.
