ANN H. DAVIS
Born: 5 March 1823
Place: Pendaren, Glamorgan, South Wales
daughter of Henry Davis and Ann Llewellyn Davis
Died: 22 Oct 1883, Logan, Cache, Utah
Buried: Logan, Utah
Married (1): 25 Dec 1853 David Davis in South Wales
Married (2): 10 June 1859 David W. Davis in Wellsville, Utah
Left Liverpool, England 4 February 1854 on sail ship Golcondo.
St. Louis to Salt Lake City by wagon train, arriving Sept 1854
Ann Davis was the daughter of Henry Davis and Ann Lewellyn Davis. She was born 5 March 1823 in Pendairm, Glamorgan Shire, South Wales. In the year 1853 December 25, she married David Davis of Glamorgan Shire. They were both Latter-day Saints and started to Zion as they called Utah a short time after they were married. David listed on the ship's register as David Davies, collier, age 23. Ann was registered as age 30. Leaving Liverpool, England 4 February 1854 it took seven weeks on the Golcondo, a sailing vessel to make the journey and she was sick all the way. When they reached St. Louis all the emigrants were put in a large hall, several hundred of them, until they could buy oxen and wagons and get ready for the journey west. They were only there a few hours when cholera broke out among the saints. A great number of them died. In six weeks they started on their way to Utah.
Ann walked all the way. She was very crippled, which caused her to walk on the side of her feet. When the roads were good she was expected to walk as all the others were, and when the roads were bad she was afraid to ride.
They arrived in Salt Lake city in September 1854, and settled at Sessions, now Bountiful, Utah to the north of Salt Lake City. They built a small one room house with a rough lumber floor. She was a dress maker and sewed for everyone. She sewed a whole week for a pan of potato peelings to plant. The Lord blessed her and by His will the potatoes grew and she had a nice patch of potatoes.
Men and women had to do anything they could find to do so Ann got a job husking corn. While so doing she lost her wedding ring. She grieved over that as old country people were superstitious and they would look at that as a bad omen.
The 1858 Spring the saints were advised to leave everything they had and move South on account of Johnston's Army. By this time David and Ann had finished a nice one room adobe house with a planed lumber floor. They had also secured two cows.
On 26 September 1855 a daughter, Mary Ann was born to them, and in 1858 a son. Two weeks after their son was born, David Davis died at the age of 28. He was a miner in Wales and had his chest crushed in the mines. After coming to Utah his chest bones started to work out. Phenois [Phineas] Young a brother to Brigham Young was a doctor. He was called into the home and he told Mr. Davis he could never get well. He died just before the move south in 1858. Before Mr. Davis died he called in a friend, Morgan Evans and asked him to care for his family. This friend rigged up a wagon and they hitched two cows, that Mr. Davis owned to it and moved as far south as Payson. The same year they moved back to Bountiful.
The following spring Morgan Evans known as "Big
Morgan" came to Cache Valley and settled at Logan. He brought Ann and Mary Ann with him. Ann will always remember crossing the Logan river from a point below Providence to the present site of Thatcher's mill race. The water was so deep in places that it nearly took the oxen off the wagon.
The first year settlers went to Summit, now called Smithfield, to plant their gardens because they could get the water for irrigation easier at that point.
This new friend had nothing to wear. Ann had a dark blue broad cloth petticoat, so she took that and made a pair of pants for him and another petticoat and made him a shirt.
The first few years after the saints came to Utah it was impossible for people to obtain clothing. They first had to raise sheep and clip the wool to make into cloth. I wonder how many of the working men of today could do without buying clothes, working at all kinds of work as they did for three or four years? I think some would be quite shabby.
The women that were too modest to wear hoops had quilted petticoats. I guess that was so their dress would stand out well. It is good to have a little pride, it often lends energy to excel, and they surely had energy. When we see what they did in a few short years. Remember there was nothing in Logan when the first settlers came.
They had only a wagon box to live in, Mr. Evans and family occupying one end and Ann Davis occupying the other end. She was an early riser and always milked the cows. Coming in from the milking one morning she heard Mrs. Evans crying and heard her say, "If I'd known you would marry another woman, I would not have left my home." Ann Davis decided then she would not marry him. Mr. Evans had a litter of pigs which Ann cared for. Mr. David W. Davis who had a farm in Smithfield came to Mr. Evans to buy some pigs. Ann was tired of caring for the pigs, she asked him when he would come to get the pigs. He answered her this way, "When you are ready to come and feed them for me." She told him she would if he wouldn't say anything about it. Next morning when she should go to milk, she took her children, met Mr. Davis and they drove to Wellsville and were married 10 June 1859.
Mr. Davis then built a log house with willow and dirt roof, with braided willows for the door. It stood where the Lyric Theatre now stands in Logan. Their first child Amelia Jane Davis was born there, May 19, 1860, the second white child born in Logan. Later they moved to 2nd North and 5th West where they cared for their small farm.
Ann was a dress maker and was raised on a farm in the old country. Her knowledge of how to do everything was a great help to herself and others when she came here to this new and beautiful country as she called it.
We raised cattle and sheep like all the neighbors in those days and learned to spin. Each year a young cow was set aside to pay a Scandinavian for cutting the hay. They were good hands with the scythe.
The grain was cradled by hand and the hay cut with a scythe. Ann Davis crawled on her hands and knees behind the cradle and bound the grain by hand as much as she could. Three more children were born to her, a daughter, Elizabeth Ann, 28 August 1862 and twins a boy William Henry, and girl Catherine Margaret, 16 August 1866.
The Indians often came for food and one morning while waiting for Ann to prepare food for them they exposed the children to Black Smallpox. They were then isolated up where the Logan Cemetery is now. They were paced in a tumbled down shack with wide cracks between the boards and a rough wood floor. The children took turns with willows brushing the snakes from the beds of the sick children. After the smallpox epidemic, diphtheria entered the home and took the lives of the twins, William Henry 10 June 1875, and Katherine Margaret 23 May 1875. The other three children Maryann, Elizabeth Ann and Amelia Jane escaped the disease.
Ann was a Relief Society worker for nine years, during that time the Relief Society met at her home for their meetings every two weeks and did much sewing to help all the people out who couldn't sew. She was very sincere and practical in her religion always helping to give to the emigrants when they came in.
She was a beautiful singer. Her beautiful voice echoed in many ears after she was dead. For years before she died she made men's clothing by hand. Ann died 22 October 1893, in her 61st year. The night she died she said, "I am not afraid to die. I am not afraid to meet my maker for I have served him to the best of my knowledge, and I have kept my every vow.
David W. Davis
Born 25 Aug 1810 at Brokenog, Brecknock, South Wales
Died 5 Apr 1889 at Logan, Utah and buried there
Note: The birth place of Ann H. Davis is shown in the records as Pendaren, or Pendairm, Glamorgan Shire, South Wales, however a map printed in 1988 uses a spelling of Penderyn.
This history of Ann H. Davis (Davies) was written by her daughter Amelia Jane Davis Blanchard. I have edited it with the help of family records and Family History Library film Emigration Records Liverpool 1849-1855. Respectfully submitted by her great grandson Darwin L. Salisbury
