John Lloyd Roberts, Sr.
(Compiled and Written
by Theresa Fullmer Niederer)
Daniel Roberts and his wife Winniefred or Gwenford Lloyd
were the parents of four children: two girls and two boys. The fourth one of these was named John Lloyd
Roberts. He was born in Llanvrothon
Myronethshire, North Wales, on the 11th of January 1850. The parents of John were in moderate
circumstances, making their living by quarrying for the state.
They were visited in their home by an elder brother of
Daniel's named David T. who was a Mormon.
He was instrumental in converting them to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In
the early part of 1850 John Lloyd's mother was converted first, after which his
father accepted the teaching of the Elders and John's Uncle David R.
After receiving the LDS faith, John's parents began to save
money to go to Zion,
the land of opportunity to settle among others of the same faith. The family, including baby John, went to
Liverpool, England, and bought tickets to cross the ocean to America on the
ship Joseph Badger. Daniel, his wife
Winniefred and the four children emigrated to the United States. They docked at New Orleans, sailed up the
Mississippi River on a steam boat. While
enroute up the river several of those on board were attacked with cholera. Daniel (the Father) and a three-year-old son
(William) were victims of this disease and died on the boat the same night,
November 26, 1850. This left Winnifred a
widow with three children. John was less
than a year old. She was not able to
speak a word of the new language, English.
The boat anchored the next morning at Worthington Landing, Kentucky, long enough to
bury father and son in the same grave.
It then sailed on to St. Louis, arriving there December 12, 1850. Winniefred was left there without friends or a knowledge of English.
Daniel was but a young man of thirty when he died. A wealthy man fell in love with baby John and
tried to get Winniefred to give him her baby boy. But, of course, whe refused. The path before John's mother and family
looked dark, but when her parents offered her money to return to Wales, she refused, saying that she was gong to Zion.
Winniefred with her three children lived in St. Louis for a year. In 1852, a was the
custom of the Saints to fit up and form companies to cross the plains, she did
likewise. With the money that John's
mother had she bought a cow or two and helped buy a wagon to haul their
luggage. Winniefred and three children
were assigned to go with a Mr. Beddow.
Winniefred had bought the cows to help bring the wagon to Salt Lake and
have milk when they got there. Baby John
rode all the way because of his age. His
sister, two years older, rode part of the way, but his mother and his oldest
sister six years older had to walk all the way to Salt Lake. No wonder John Lloyd was able to become one
of the brave pioneers of this Country.
The family remained in Salt
Lake City over the winter. The following spring of 1853, John's mother
met and later married Captain David R. Evans whose wife had died. John was heard to say that he loved this man
as dearly as his own father. They moved
to a Welsh settlement in Box Elder County near Brigham City where they lived in
a fort for protection from the Indians.
Five sons were born to John's mother there before Captain Evans died in
1861. This left John at the age of
eleven and his mother the sole supporter of the little family. The five sons of Captain Evans and one of
John's sisters lived at home. The older
sister was already married.
The early part of John's life was lived like any other
Mormon Pioneer boy. He had a common
education. He used to herd cows near the
great Salt Lake and on the low lands. They hardly knew what a horse was. They used oxen instead. He worked for a man named John Reeder who had
a public herd of cattle. John was a camp
tender and cook while working there. He got the measles and was real sick but
walked 15 miles home to Brigham City.
Later John played a flute in the Marchal Band at Brigham City. He could also tap dance very well. While in Brigham City, the family would yoke
to oxen to the plough, wagon, etc., and make a living from the soil. John used to say they thought that was a
fairly good living at that time. His
mother struggled with her family to make a livelihood during those hard times
of the early period of the country with the grasshopper and crocket problems.
On November 29, 1869, at the age of 19 John was married to
Mary Adeline Ensign (the daughter of Martin Luther and Mary Dunn Ensign) in Salt Lake City in the
Endowment House. Their first baby, Mary
Adeline, was born October 7, 1870.
Shortly after this John and his brother Charles Evans went
in search of land with more advantage for making a home. Finally, after about a month of looking, they
filed a homestead in Malad City, Oneida County, Idaho. They then returned to Brigham City for their
families. They then moved to Malad where
they made their home and lived a life of service, working in the Church and
public affairs.
John served as a dance manager, worked in the Priesthood,
was the first President of the Young Men's Mutual that was organized there, and
was first Counselor to the Bishop of the Malad Ward. He lived a life of prominence both in Church
and political affairs and raised his family.
John and his brother Charles got logs from the hills and then sawed and
built their homes. There were the first
to have shingles on their roofs in Malad.
John told this story to one of his sons (Jesse L.) about the
second wife in polygamy and how it came about.
During a Stake Conference in Malad, one of the visiting Apostles
invited him to a private conference following one of the sessions and said,
"Brother Roberts, we have been observing you of late relative to your
faithfulness to the Church and also in relation to your economic status and we
feel that you are worthy and economically able to enter into this
marriage."
My father did talk to Aunt Addie, his first wife, and she
had no objection and in fact assisted him in selecting the girl. Shortly thereafter father had a talk with
Jesse R. Dredge and informed him of the counsel he had received during the
recent conference. Jesse R. Dredge, a
very faithful and obedient man to the Church, was agreeable to the idea and
suggested to my father that he talk to Elizabeth. Shortly after this, father conferred with
Elizabeth and it was agreed that they shod go together and talk to
Addeline. This they did on several
occasions.
Aunt Addie or Addeline was agreeable to the proposition, and
thus in the middle of May 1881 my father drove to Salt Lake City with a team and a wagon load
of lumber. They were married May 26,
1881 in the Endowment House. At this
time father and Aunt Addie were the parents of five living children.
John brought his second wife to his home and there together
the two wives and his children lived in love and peace with the spirit of the
Lord in their home. Happiness prevailed and they lived comfortably for the Lord
had blessed them with peace and plenty.
A few years followed, and because of the shortage of water
and the pioneer spirit our progenitors seemed to be blessed with, John began to
look once again for a more favorable location.
It was at this time in the year of 1884 that he came to Rexburg and here
again to go through the trials of the early pioneers.
So it was in the spring of the year when the water was high
that they arrived on the south side of the Snake River. They had to wait for a week before they could
use a cable to ferry across the river.
The people, wagons and cattle all had to cross in boats over the
river. Sometime after this they built a
bridge over this same part of the river known as the Cartor Bridge. They were more two weeks time coming from
Malad, Idaho to Rexburg. There were only
three homes in Rexburg when they got there, and they belonged to Thomas E.
Ricks, Sr., and his families.
President Thomas E. Ricks had come here the year previous to
John's coming. John's families lived in
with Jane Ricks for a short time. John
then secured a cellar for his families to live in during the summer months from
a widow Mrs. Lutz. During the remainder
of the summer John built three log rooms.
The two families used two of the rooms to live in, and the livestock
used the other room.
John became First Counselor to Bishop Thomas E. Ricks, Jr.,
of the Rexburg Ward. On coming to
Rexburg, they built a fine new home having brought shingles with them from
Oxford for their roof. They also brought
a nice herd of cattle, horses and provisions to last a couple of years. John was advised by President Ricks to build
or maintain two homes, one for each wife on account of the laws of the
Government. This was done. John's first wife Addeline lived on West Main
and Third West in a two-room framed house.
The second wife, Elizabeth Ann lived near Second West and First South
across the street from what is now Porter Park.
A short time after they came to Rexburg, John, his first
wife and the following children: Winniefred, Luther, Lloyd, and Horace, went to
Brigham City. They left Mary Adeline, the oldest girl, and
Daniel, the oldest boy, who went to school in Rexburg.
In Brigham City they lived a short time with Adeline's
parents and in the fall of that same year, the family moved to Wellsville and
lived a short distance from Adeline's sister, Georgia Hill's place. Their children attended school that next
winter with the Hill children. John was
working for his brother-in-law, Will Hill that winter. The following spring they returned to Rexburg
for the remainder of a three-year period from 1884 to 1887 they stayed put.
By 1887 the Edmonds-Tucker law was passed. It was about this time that the polygamist
Saints were sorely tried, at least those who were trying to live in harmony
with the Gospel. The U. S. Deputy
Marshall were hounding the poor men night and
day. Finally, they came in the wee hours
of the night and got John Lloyd. They
took him to Blackfoot where he with several other brethren were
held until the trial. Here he found a
few friends, and it was at least consoling to have other brethren in the faith
who were held on the same charges.
After the trial in which he pleaded guilty, they were all
sentenced to four months in the penitentiary at Boise and fined $300. The penitentiary was about two miles out of
Boise. After arriving there they were
fed and then were made to fall in line and marched with the convicts of the
prison. It was not until then that John
began to realize that he was in prison and had to abide by such laws as they
ruled over the prisoners.
A Bishop George Stewart from Malad who was also there was
finally granted the privilege of bunking in the same cell with John and the
beds bugs, for they were plentiful. This made the time pass without being so
lonely and while they were there together they could at lest partake of the
spirit of the Lord and could converse on the gospel and did even partake of the
sacrament of our Lord and Savior which they prepared for each other.
They could sing and read scripture and they did rejoice and
pray, giving thanks to the God of all.
The Gospel meant so much to them at this time, and while it was a trial,
still they praised God in all things.
Visitors were allowed to come there on Sundays and many
did. Among them one day there was a
woman who had a small baby. John heard
the baby cry and that cry thrilled his very being and caused him to
rejoice. One thing which made him happy
and was never forgotten was a picture which was sent to him by Emily Evans, his
brother Dave's daughter.
While there, John had a chance to study and explain the
Gospel and its teachings to many. A
reporter who came to talk with John asked him many questions pertaining to the
Gospel and the law of polygamy, why he was there, etc. When the time came for his release, he did
not have the money, which was no small amount in those days ($300 fine).
When Brother Stewart left, he sent word with him to his
brothers in Malad to send the money. The
very next day the money was there, and he was released and was making ready to leave. Upon putting on his shoes he found that the
pegs had made their way through the sole, but he put them on and started
out. He was soon compelled to stop by
the way side and he took letters from his pocket to cover the pegs in his shoes
so that he could go on to Boise. After
having some trouble in cashing his draft, he found a friend and finally took
the stage homeward. He arrived at Market Lake
(now Roberts, Idaho)
where a team and Adeline awaited his return.
After John had joined his families, he attempted to carry on
to care for and to live with both families.
Some polygamists that had been with him in Boise pledged themselves to
forsake all their wives but one. This
John would not consent to do. He said,
"I married these two women in sincerity, and there was no law against it, and I
shall not now forsake either of them."
This was in harmony with both of his wives.
After this, all was quiet for a time. Then they began to hound him again, and it
became necessary to move around. First,
John took his wife Elizabeth with him, and they went to Montana where he worked
and spent the summer. Later, Elizabeth returned and
Adeline went to her husband.
Late in 1887 John and his first family including his wife
Adeline and daughter Winnie and the three younger boys: Lloyd, Horace, and
Prentice, went to Canada and
settled in Cardston, Alberta.
John and Adeline's three oldest: Mary, Daniel and Luther, remained in Rexburg
to go to school. While in Canada they
only spent the winter. On the way to Canada
they had to ferry across the same river as they had to when coming into
Rexburg. The children were riding in the
wagon. John and Adeline walked at the
side of the wagon. The wheels hit the
stump of a tree, partly tipping the wagon on its side. Both John and Adeline had to hold tight to
the wagon to keep from having a serious accident.
The house which they lived in while in Canada was just
a one-room log house made with a dirt roof and floor. The floor was covered with gunny sacks. The beds were made of quaken aspen logs with
ropes across to be used as springs and to lay the straw ticks on. The table was made of a box with four boards
nailed on for legs. The chairs were from
different people's cast-off furniture.
The cook stove was one that had been left in the room by others. They were able to secure coal from the nearby
coal mines (it didn't cost them any money for their fuel).
In Canada
there were twelve polygamy families.
Church meetings were held in private homes. They held their fast meetings on Thursday
afternoons. Zina Card's house was used
for their meeting since it was the largest.
In the fall of the year, they built a meeting house and that is where they
met for Church meetings and social gatherings.
There was not a day passed that the Indians did not come to Adeline's
home and always asking her to let them have her papoose (Prentice being the
baby).
One interesting thing that happened while they were there
was that John lost his horses and went alone, unarmed, out across the wild
prairie into Indian Country to find them.
He set out at night, not knowing where they were but was successful in
finding them. He was young and daring,
and was not afraid of anything, sometimes risking his own life.
The following spring they left Canada
and John stayed in Montana
for a time to work, then later coming on back to Rexburg in the fall. After arriving back in Rexburg, he was
re-arrested and sentenced to pay a fine of $150 more. Although while here at first, he worked here
and there, moving and in hiding, but all for a purpose. Finally came the time
when he could settle down. He had lost
practically everything except his great faith, his wives and his children.
Sometime later a terrible plague broke out. Diphtheria claimed many lives and John was
amongst those who had to part with dear ones. The following children got the
disease and died: Danny or Daniel, age
19; Luther, age 14; Georgie, age 3; Nellie or Ellen, age 9. At this time, Elizabeth,
mother of Nellie was in Logan
with her family, in about 1891.
A little later, Mary, John's oldest daughter who was the
wife of Alfred Ricks, died in childbirth.
Two years later, John's wife, Adeline died leaving Henry a young baby
just six days old and five older children.
It was then that Elizabeth moved her family to live at the old homestead
to care for the two families. She was a
faithful mother to both families and was the mother of five children at that
time. She had another child later.
Adeline had 10 children, making John the father of 16. Eight of them were living at the time of his
death. In 1893 at the death of Adeline, Elizabeth moved
permanently into the home with John and his first family.
Sugar
City was later built on
the land joining his farm on the north.
It had belonged to Charles Valentine.
John lad a love for and complete confidence in Elizabeth, and he taught
his children to respect, obey and love her as a mother. The older children referred to her as Aunt
Lizzie, but Henry called her Ma or Mother.
John was a very busy man in those days.
He was stake superintendent of the mutual, which meant that with a team
he covered the area from Idaho Falls on the south to Marysville on the north,
and from the Teton Basin on the east to the Egin Bench on the West. Sometimes he would be away from home for
several days.
John was very good as a farmer. He had bought this 160 acres very little of
which was at that time under cultivation.
In those early days the land that looked so level and so productive was
full of swales, hollows, noles, slews, and was covered with sage brush, not any
ditches, not even a canal at that time.
John did have a small log house, some corrals, and a log
stable and a windlass well. He was a
good worker, rising early and working late.
He taught his sons to work hard.
The two oldest were able to help him from the start, but before the farm
was completely under cultivation, the other four sons helped what they could to
gather the sage, scrape the high places into the low places, dig the ditches
and assist with the construction of a fine barn and many corrals.
They also planted shade trees, fruit trees, gooseberries,
currants, raspberries, apples, plums and other early fruits. After the farm was ditched and productive,
John commenced to surround himself with a few sheep. He always had horses and horned
livestock. From year to year he added
more and more sheep, buying up little farm flocks until he finally had a fairly
good sized herd. It was Jesse (his son) who was privileged to be with the sheep
until they were sold. That was in the
fall of 1903. After this he bought horned stock and fed them through the
winter. John even at times had many on
the range in the summer.
With the building of the sugar factory nearby and the growth
of a small town and some hotels, John more or less went into the dairy
business. From 1904 on for several
years, he or some of his children delivered milk daily to hotels, ice cream
stores, restaurants, and to most families in Sugar City.
It was a practice on the farm to butcher beef, pork, mutton,
etc., once or twice a year. Then once or
twice a year, either John or some of his children visited the widows and needy
people of the Ward, leaving them a nice cut of meat. John was a man who believed that so far as
possible each and every one should seek to be independent of charity, and yet
he gave to the poor and needy, always and liberally. Also in those days, tithing was paid in
produce or kind. When haying time came,
John kept track of the loads of hay and he never forgot to deliver to the
Bishop one load out of ten. He selected
high quality and bigger loads than went to the stack at home.
Upon being released as Stake Superintendent of Mutual, John
Lloyd was called to serve on the Stake High Council. This position he held until, due to his age
and infirmities, he was released. John
was a very spiritual and fluent speaker and he seemed to understand the Gospel
very well.
He was often asked to administer to the sick. He really had the gift of healing and people
of the Ward knew it and they called on him for blessing often. He also made it possible for Elizabeth to
participate in choirs, choruses, and other musical activities which she loved
so much. Also, when she served for many
years as president of the Salem Primary and later as President of the Sugar
Ward Relief Society, John supported her in many ways. A horse and buggy had to be available all of
the time. Often John had to come in after
a hard days work in the fields and find his wife gone to help other, but he
never complained and was always sustaining her.
Church-wise, he was always active and willing to contribute both time
and money for the cause.
John had accumulated considerable assets about him in spite
of his large family and his greatest ambition money-wise was to help his
children economically and even to leave the financially independent. It was his ambition and practice to give a
small farm to each of his sons at the time of their marriage and lend the help
in many other ways. John's credit at stores,
banks, and other business places was always good. His word was as good as his deed and he tried
to teach his children to prize their credit, which he actually gave to them.
John was instrumental in having the Utah-Idaho Sugar Factory
located in the valley. He was the agent
for the company in securing options on the lands upon which the factory was
built and the surrounding farm lands that the company purchased and operated
for many years. He was one of the
organizers and a director of the Sugar City Mercantile Co.
In the matter of business, John was very ethical and
generous. At one time when the Merc had
made a very good profit and dividends to the stockholders were to be made, he
suggested in director's meeting that each stockholder receive 10 percent of his
investment and that the balance be distributed to the credit of customers who
had helped make that profit. Of course,
he was voted down on this proposition.
During the fall of 1913 and the winter and spring of 1914,
John was called on a short-term mission to the California Southern
Mission. In September 1914, John and
Elizabeth were saddened by the death of one of their daughters, Catherine. This girl of theirs had four small children,
none of whom could care for themselves. They took these children to care for
them. There were three girls and one boy: Tressa, Pearl, Laura, and Dave Fullmer.
They ranged in age from eight years to one year and four months. These children lived with this couple and
were cared for by them. Seven years passed with their problems.
On February 27, 1921, Elizabeth Ann passed away at this home
from cancer. The youngest girl at this
time was a grown woman and had been married for a little over two months. The father of these youngsters came to John
and was willing to relieve him of his task but John said, "Ernest, please do
not take them, for you see I need them now more than I did before." So, the children were left with him and he struggled alone the best he could.
In March 1932, John was poorer in health than he had ever
been and he went from one home to another.
He was in Rupert with Jesse and his wife for a short time,
he was also with Addie and Ray West for some time. He was not content there. He was also with Bill and his wife, but he
soon returned home.
On July 7, 1932, he took a severe stroke. After the stroke the children came in pairs
at night and took care of him. Tressa,
the granddaughter, took care of the house in the daytime. John passed away early in the morning at 15
minutes before 1:00 a.m. after a valiant effort to life. A violent storm the night before had broken
the line so that he died by the light of a flashlight.
