MARY REESE MORRIS WARDROP
Mary Reese was born 24 March 1821 in Merthyr Tydfil Parish, Glamorganshire, South
Wales. She was the daughter of David and Margaret Reese.
Mary was one of the first people in Wales to embrace the gospel and was the ninth (some
family records show tenth) person in Wales to be baptized into the LDS Church. She married
Ebenezer Morris 8 June 1840 in the church at Georgetown, Merthyr Tydfil Parish,
Glamorganshire, Wales. Ebenezer was the son of John Morris and Annie Williams.
On February 17, 1852, at the General Council of Eastern Glamorgan Conference, Ebenezer
was sustained to preside over the Cwmbach Branch. In the effort to strengthen the members
in their area, Ebenezer loaned money to the Church to publish the "Millennial Star" in Wales.
Mary traveled with her husband and assisted by leading the singing at various meetings. She
was known for her lovely voice. Mary was the only member of her family to join the LDS
Church. Her parents and sisters disowned her for joining but later her parents became
reconciled with her.
Mary and Ebenezer had been married eleven years, eleven months and two days and Mary
was still in bed with her seventh child on Monday morning, 10 May 1852. Ebenezer went to
work as usual. Mrs. Robert W. Garrett writes:
The daughter, Mary Jane Wardrop Drake, told us her mother's first husband worked in
a coal mine, and that the two older boys would take a drink of water to their father.
One day they took the drink; there was an explosion in the mine killing the father and
his two boys. Her mother was in bed with the youngest baby, Gomer. She jumped
out of bed and ran quite a distance toward the mine but was brought back before reaching the mine.
As Mary tried to cope with her sorrow, the desire grew within her heart to take her children to
Zion. She did all she could to prepare for the trip. Then the Church helped by refunding the
money that Ebenezer had loaned for the publication of the Millennial Star and passage was arranged for Mary and her four children to sail to America.
The young family boarded the sailing ship Falcon under the command of Captain A. T.
Wade, at Liverpool, England, and the ship set sail for New Orleans on the 23rd of March
1853. The Emigration Records from Liverpool show: "Mary Morris, 32; Margaret Morris,
11; Joseph Morris, 6; Hyrum Morris, 4; and Gomer Morris, 10 months.
She and her family went to Council Bluffs, which was the gathering place for the pioneers as
they prepared to cross the plains. There she secured an outfit consisting of three oxen, one
cow and two wagons. She crossed the plains with the Independence Company. A young man
by the name of James Bishop assisted her in procuring her outfit and drove her teams through
to Salt Lake City in payment for his passage. This company reached Salt Lake in 1853.
(Possibly she was the Mary Morris that was with the Company led by Moses Clawson that
reached Salt Lake on August 19, 1953.
In Salt Lake City with the Saints, Mary was able to take advantage of the blessings of the
Gospel. On the 15th of December 1853, Patriarch John Smith placed his hands upon her
head and gave her a Patriarchal Blessing. Three months and twelve days later, 27 March
1854, she received her Endowment. Just five more months passed and on 13 August 1854, she became the polygamous wife of Robert Wardrop, a Scottish stone mason. Robert, in
writing of himself said:
in year 1854 on the 13 day of Aug had Margaret Owens [sic] my first wife sealed to
me by Pres Brigham Young and on the same day had my second wife sealed to me
whose name is Mary Reese with four children whose names are Margaret Joseph
Hyrum and Gomer.
From this time until they were grown, Mary and Ebenezer's children used the surname of their
stepfather.
Robert and his first wife, Margaret, had been married just three years and two months when
he took Mary as his plural wife. To add to the difficulty of being a plural wife, Mary was an
older woman. At the time of this marriage, she was thirty-three years old while Robert was
only twenty-six and Margaret O. was twenty-five. Little is known of the adjustments these
three adults and the children had to make for their home life to run smoothly. Margaret and
Robert already had two children at the time. Each of the years of 1855, '57 and '59 Robert
had a child by each wife. Then in January of 1861 he had two children just two days apart.
Margaret bore him eleven children and Mary bore six. [This was in addition to Mary's first
family.]
After a number of years during which he cut stone for the Salt Lake Temple and other public
buildings, Robert Wardrop responded to Brigham Young's call for saints to settle Cache
Valley. He moved his family from the Salt Lake Stake Sixteenth Ward to Wellsville in 1860,
where he became engaged in the occupation of farming.
Mary lived a true and faithful L.D.S. life and was Counselor to Sister Whitan, President of the
Relief Society in Wellsville. She was an active worker in the Relief Society from her early
life up to the time of her death, 27 March 1888, at the age of sixty-seven. At her funeral,
Congressman J. W. Howell spoke concerning her faithfulness in the Church and said she
could justly be called Saint Mary. She was buried in the Wellsville Cemetery, Cache County,
Utah.
