“John A. Lewis – My Grandfather”
Written by Priscilla
Lewis Swenson, March 1927
My recollections
of Grandpa Lewis are of the most pleasant sort.
He was a kind, dear grandpa to me, always polite and pleasant. He was rather tall, bright blue eyes, dark
brown hair, curled, and fine, high forehead, high cheekbones. Walked straight, and sat straight. My father resembled his own mother and my
Grandpa used to tell me that I was like her too, and as I grew older, Aunt Mary
told me I was about her mother's build and height, and resembled her [Ann
John]. He spoke quietly and loved to
tell a joke, or listen to one. He could
retell a story well. He enjoyed a good theater, and it was his delight to go to
Conference in Salt
Lake, Spring
and Fall, and attend the Salt Lake Theater shows. Phil [Margetts] was one of his favorite
actors. My first recollection of Salt Lake City was,, when Pa and
Ma drove up in a wagon with a mule team, old Trump and Bell, and Grandpa and Grandma Lewis went
along, as did also Kate, Will, and I. We
walked up the hills and Ma [bought] us children an
orange, the first time I had ever seen oranges.
Will helped himself to a peach out of a box in a store, and gave me one,
and we had them nearly eaten when Ma made the discovery. Pa gave me 25 cents each New Year's Day until
I was a large girl. I was heart-broken
the year he failed.
I remember when
Grandpa left for his mission to Wales
in 1872 [date corrected by Thelma Ludlow] and later when he returned. But he was so lame he walked with a cane when
he came back. He fell a distance of 20
feet and lit on his hip bone, he was seriously ill in Wales for
months. His spine was injured and grew
more until he died. He lived with us for
six months, and died at our home. He is
buried on my father's lot, with his second wife [Priscilla Merriman] and
“Grandma” Morgan, a nice old Welsh lady who was sealed to Grandpa for
eternity. She lived in a room of
Grandpa's house and he supported her.
She died of cancer in the forehead.
A pimple appeared and she picked at it and burned
it with caustic, until it became a
cancer. She had children in Wales. She did her Temple work for her relatives. She gave me a wooden toy box she [brought]
with her from Wales—a
gift from her daughter's sweetheart to the daughter. She grew flowers and loved poetry. She was a kind, sweet old lady, and as homely
as she was good. She lies next to my
husband in the cemetery, and I have a white lilac growing by her head. It blossoms profusely, I loved her.
Grandpa was born
at Llandaff, Glamorganshire, Wales,
11 December 1814.
His father's name was Edmund and his mother, Amelia Preece. Edmund died and Amelia married Edward Harding
and they had two children, Edward and Elizabeth. Edward died, leaving Amelia a widow the
second time. Grandpa's brother Edmund
and he worked together. At one time,
they repaired the Cardiff Docks: Their
trade was contracting and building.
Edmund died of cholera before 1855.
Grandpa very often spoke of his brother Edmund as he grew older.
Grandpa married
Ann John, born in Cardiff
3 May 1818, and they had seven children.
Ann, Frederick (died), Mary, Amelia (died), Frederick, William and Lewis
(twins—Lewis died). The three children
died when babies [Amelia was 6]. The
mother contracted consumption or tuberculosis and passed away on 10 May 1850,
leaving her husband and four little children. His mother lived with them now,
and took care of the children. They all
attended school, though Uncle Bill refused to go and usually had to be carried
to school. He was delicate and had lung
trouble. Grandmother Harding was
generous and kind, over-indulgent to the children. A girl did the house work. The were well to do.
Grandpa married a
widow [Priscilla Merriman] four years older than himself, with one child—a
girl. Her name was Mary Louise
Phillips. (She went in polygamy and
married Franklin Pace as his second wife.)
He is dead, but she is living at Spanish Fork now.
Then they heard
the gospel and embraced it. Ann, Mary,
and Fred were baptized in Cardiff, Wales. Grandpa was educated as a Wesleyan Minister,
but he did not follow that occupation:
He was always religious, and even zealous in his religion. His mother greatly opposed the Latter-Day Saint religion and was angry to think that he
would leave old Wales
for a new country, especially when he had so delicate a child as William, who
would certainly die on the journey. He
loved his mother dearly, and it was very tender parting. The children clung to Grandmother,
she clung to them, and her son.
A child was born
to Grandpa and his second wife. They
named her Amelia.
In 1854 they took
leave of their native land and turned their faces to America. They crossed the ocean in the Golconda and were six
weeks on the ocean.
Uncle William got
better every day, and had no more trace of consumption. He is living at Spanish Fork now, quite
feeble. Aunt Mary had the gift of
tongues on the vessel, -sang in tongues.
Grandpa paid the fares of all the poor LDS in the Parish from Wales to Salt Lake. He loaned money too. I have notes for different amounts of pounds,
gotten up in a legal form, but not paid.
He also bought a farm and home in Sanpete, of a missionary [Dan Jones],
paying a large sum for it. I have the deed
for this farm and it lies in the heart of Manti.
At St. Louis they outfitted
for the journey across the plains and started from there in July 1854. Grandma had a team of two steers and two
cows, and a teamster. He had never seen
an ox before in his life. He came across
the plains in an Independent Company with Dr. Levi [Richardson] Company. The children who could, walked
all the way and the two older girls with Caroline Matthews, a niece of
Grandpa's second wife, who lived with them, and did so until she married
Franklin Pace as his first wife. She was
childless. Those three girls enjoyed the
dancing and merriment around the campfires of an evening, and on wash and clean-up
days, when the camp would take a few hours off to bathe and wash the clothes.
At one time on
the journey, in a most unexpected moment and a lonely spot, Ash Hollow, the
camp was surrounded by Sioux Indian braves all on horseback. Excitement ran high, and I have heard Aunt
Ann tell, how the camp were fixing for the the night and most of the oxen were
unyoked. The women huddled together,
children screamed, oxen and cows stampeded, women
fainted, and the Indians rode round and round.
Finally the Indian Chief stopped, and the Captain went to him and they
talked. The Indians demanded food, so
the food was divided between the camp and the Indians and they took their share
and rode away. Aunt Louise Pace says
Grandpa had two wagons and two teamsters.
William Geddes was one (and his wife,) who was a nurse, was along
too. I think Aunt Louise is right in
this.
When this train
of immigrants reached Nebraska,
on a boiling hot day, in a big heavy wagon, and in an Indian country, a team
pulled out of the road to one side, and halted.
There were no trees, no shade, two or three men on horses were detailed
to guard this wagon. In a short time my
uncle, John Samuel Lewis, made his bow in this world, he came a little too
soon.
Dr. Levi [Richardson] waited on
Grandma and nurse Geddes took care of mother and
child. Grandpa, knowing that a baby was
expected, made provision of doctor and nurse.
In a short time, the wagon had to be on its way, as it was dangerous to
linger, and so the mother rocked and jolted over the rough roads with the
blinding glare of sun on the wagon cover above, and the fear of Indians and a
stampede at any time. But the baby
thrived and grew. [Note from John D.
Lewis: “Arrived in Utah September 30, 1954 – Darwin Richardson
Co.”]
The whole family
was overjoyed when at length Utah
[?] Lake could be seen shimmering in the
sunlight for they knew their long tiresome journey would soon be to an
end. Arriving in Salt
Lake, Grandpa started work on the
foundation of the Salt
Lake Temple
and got paid out of the tithing office.
Then President
Young sent the family to Brigham City
to locate, as a good stone mason was needed there. So once more, one wagon was
loaded, and the family started north with the exceptions of the three
girls—Mary, Ann, and Caroline, who found work in homes in Salt Lake. They built them a little home on Main Street
in Brigham, and Grandpa fixed a piece of ground on the south of the house, and
planted the peach stones Brigham had given him, and told him how to plan
them: After the ground was prepared, he
dedicated it for the planting of the seed, and asked God to bless his efforts;
he then planted the stones and when the trees were big enough, he transplanted
them to the orchard with a fervent prayer for their growth and fruiting. This peach orchard was the first to bear
fruit in Brigham. He put up rock houses
in Brigham and vicinity. The first
winter there, was a severe one and food was most scarce. There was nothing much to eat in the tithing
offices and although Grandpa had scrip on them, he could not get flour nor the
necessities. Their shoes and clothes
were wearing out too. Pa and Uncle Bill
would take sacks and climb the mountains and get dry grass and carry it back
with a cow and oxen. They killed one ox
to save its life. It was starving. It was poor and tough but better than
nothing. My father, however, never did
want any more soup or boiled beef. It
was a trying time, for all their lives they had been blessed with plenty. Then the news of Johnston's Army coming and the order for all
to move south. Once more the cows and
steers were hitched to the wagon and the few articles of furniture and clothes
piled in. Then straw was carried into
the house and some placed around each tree so that the guards who were to
remain could set fire to the straw and burn the house to the ground and
trees. Then if the Army took possession,
all they would find in the whole of Utah
would be ruin and waste. They journeyed
to Spanish Fork and made a dugout in a hillside on the southeast corner of town
and lived there until they bought and built a little adobe house on north Main Street. Grandpa worked at his trade, the three girls
married, my father freighted to Camp
Floyd. The crickets had taken the crop, flour was
scarce, and it was hard to get enough to eat.
I have heard that Grandpa built two small adobe rooms and a little later
added two rooms on the front, with two upstairs rooms. (I think this is correct. I think he got a vacant lot and maybe
paid tithing scrip for it.) He took up
some land in Spanish Fork, but he did not take kindly to farming. When they left Brigham, they owned a pig
which they tried to lead with a rope. I
never did hear what became of it. They
had a great deal of good clothing and some nice things when they came to Utah. The most of which was
traded for a trifle to eat. The
old family Bible fell into the family of Lorenzo Snow, so the girls said. And Bishop Thurber of Spanish Fork went on a
mission. They had no money to give him
and Grandpa gave him father's mother's (Ann John) wedding ring, and he took it
and kept it. Needless to say, the
children did not approve of it.
Grandpa went to
Manti to look over the farm he had purchased.
It had been so misrepresented that he looked at it in disgust, turned
around, and came back. I suppose he got part
of his money's worth of experience. He
was a fast walker and an athlete. He did
not fall in with the ways of this new country.
He liked roast goose, his favorite hymn was “Up Awake Ye, Defenders of
Zion.”
He wore a number
eight shoe and a 15 ½
collar. Shoes always
polished, he was a good conversationalist.
His mission to Wales
was from 1872 to 1874. And he was
President of the conference. He acted as
a guard in Echo Canyon at the time of Johnston
Army. Aunt Louise said they had two
wagons. John Flowers drove one team, and William Geddes the other. Pa says he learned to drive oxen crossing the
plains. All the older children walked
most of the time. The young folks liked
to walk and visit together. Aunt Mary
had a beau in the company.
Grandpa liked the
good things of life—good clothing, shoes, and good houses, good furniture. In fact, he had a million dollar taste and a
one hundred dollar purse. He did not prosper
financially in Utah. He and oxen and mules never would mix. He worked at his trade, that of a mason, but
had a terrible time collecting his pay and he had to take it in anything the
people had to pay. The same way with the school teachers and
all other professions in those days.
The co-op store issued a scrip. If a man sold a bushel of wheat, he was paid
in scrip. Then all the shops and stores
began issuing their own scrip, and it was a hard matter to get enough cash to
pay taxes and go to conference. Phillip
Sykes, a Welshman about the age of Grandpa, “tended mason” so he and Grandpa
worked together on building. Later in
life they visited the sick and administered to them. There were no doctors in Spanish Fork at that
time, so midwives delivered women, and many women have told me that Grandpa was
at her bedside when John or Mary was born.
And he had the gift of comforting and healing. He was kind to the poor and thoughtful of any
in sorrow.
I remember my
mother was an invalid, sick for a year, and these two old men would come so
often and sit and talk to her. Zebedee
Coltrin would often meet them there and they talked of early days of the Church
and of early days in this country.
Zebedee Coltrin was well acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and,
young as I was, I loved to get in the corner and listen to their
conversations. They all wore heavy black
capes in cold weather that reached a little below the waist. Crossing the plains, this company was called
“The Ten Pound Company.” I do not know
why. Grandpa was the only one of the
family that joined the Church. I have
been reading his diary the past two or three days, that he wrote while on his
mission, but he seems to have been more interested in the saints than he was in
gathering genealogy, though he has some genealogy.
[Priscilla Lewis Swenson is the daughter of Frederick Lewis
and Anges Reed Ferguson.]
