MARTHA WILLIAMS DAVIES
Mother of Harriet Davies Williams
Born May, 1792 in Monmouthsire
Martha Williams Davies emigrated from Wales sometime
before her death in 1865 at age 74. Her exact date of arrival in America has not
been found even after a careful search of all available records. Her name
appears in the Taylorsville Ward records when she was re-baptized on July 10,
1864. It isn’t likely an elderly woman would travel alone when other
family members also left Wales for Utah, although her name does not appear on
the list of immigrants traveling with her daughter, Harriet, nor, in fact, on
any immigration record. She is one of the quiet faithful whose life mostly
escaped record, but whose ripple of influence on her posterity was so great it
can never be measured.
Martha had always been a very strict
and devoutly religious woman. Her husband, Evan, was not at all
interested in formal religion and would offer to stay home and take care of
Harriet (who was the youngest of their ten children) while Martha went to her
Sunday meetings at the Methodist Church. Apparently, when Martha left the
house, her severe rules were promptly ignored. Evan encouraged Harriet to run
through the neighborhood and invite her little friends over to play. When
it was nearing time for church to be let out, Evan would sound the
warning. All the toys would be put away and the children would be sent
home. When Martha returned from church, everything would be back in
order. Martha obviously had deep spiritual yearnings, but it may be that
she never had the ability to personally read any of the scriptures. Her
marriage record shows that she was illiterate and signed her name simply with
the mark of an “X”, although her husband, Evan, was able to sign his name.
Evan had very beautiful curly, dark
hair which was a source of pride to him. One evening while seated at the
table reading by candlelight, he became drowsy. He lay his head down on
his arms and fell asleep. Martha turned around just in time to see his hair
catch fire from the nearby candle, and she doused the flames in time to avoid
serious injury.
Evan died at the age of 54, three years
before Martha met the missionaries and joined the new “Mormon” religion. Tredegar Wales Branch records show that for nearly ten
years Martha made regular deposits into the Perpetual Emigration Fund to first
assist others desiring to gather in “Zion,” and then to prepare for her own
voyage to America. When she finally left her homeland, the journey from Wales to Utah
must have been arduous for such an elderly woman. She was either very
brave, or very adventurous, and maybe both. Martha’s whole life had been
spent in the northwest district of the county of Monmouth,
noted in a mid-19th century gazetteer as an area significant for
coal mining and ironworks. The region was also described as having “an
appearance repulsive to the lovers of tidiness and good scenery.”
Nevertheless, it was Martha’s home for more than 70 years. Having never
been further than 15 miles from her birthplace, Martha’s faith and devotion to
the newfound religion motivated her to travel thousands of difficult miles to
the remote desert in the Salt
Lake Valley.
Shortly after arriving, she saw a man
in Salt Lake City
that caught her eye. The spirit testified to Martha and she exclaimed,
“Do mine eyes behold the Prophet of the living God?” The gentleman
introduced himself as Brigham Young, and then and there, he gave her a
blessing.
A year later in 1865, when Martha died
in Taylorsville, her daughter Harriet and
Harriet’s husband, Thomas, were struggling to shelter and feed their small and
growing family. Due to their extreme poverty, Martha had to be buried in the
section of the Salt Lake City
Cemetery designated for
the indigent, without a marker on her grave. After 140 years, Martha’s
posterity will place a tombstone on her grave commemorating the life of this
faithful pioneer by Memorial Day 2005.
