EVAN WILLIAMS
A sketch of father’s
life from the time we left
Wales until we arrived in Cedar City, Utah
Father, with two or three other experienced mining men, was
called by the English government to go to Russia to open some coal mines for
the Russian government. They left home in 1871 and were gone till sometime in
1872. While there he worked in water a great deal from which he contracted
asthma of the very worst form, and in 1876 it became so severe he was not often
able to lay in bed, but had to sit in a chair for days
at a time fighting for his breath. About this time is when he decided to sell
his home and emigrate to Utah. Had it not been for his health he
would not have left the old country, as he had no desire to leave his old home.
He lingered along in this condition and the doctor urged him to try a drier
climate. However, he was not able to leave until the spring of 1878 on May 28.
Arriving in Liverpool in the afternoon and boarding the
steamer that evening, we steamed out of the Liverpool harbor headed for America. The
steamer was an old vessel named Nevada.
At this time father showed improvement in his breathing. I presume the effect
of fresh sea air was of benefit to him.
The family consisted of father and mother and seven
children, the oldest child Mary Ann having emigrated to America ten years before, and the oldest son was
in Australia.
We stopped at Queenstown,
Ireland, to
take on more emigrants. This was the last land we saw until we arrived in New York. We experienced
some very rough weather on the way over. During the voyage father improved
considerably, and his breathing was much easier. While on deck on day a huge
wind came up which took my sister Sarah’s hat. I guess the whales got that.
After eleven days on the water we arrived in the New York harbor where we were unloaded into a large
building called Castle
Garden. Our luggage was
examined and our money exchanged for American money. The next day we crossed
the Hudson to the Jersey
side where we boarded the train headed for the West. We were on a slow emigrant
train and father did not feel as well as when he landed in New York. The movement of the train stirred
up considerable dust which affected his breathing.
We stayed in Salt Lake about two weeks, a delay to give Ben
Perkins time to get his teams and wagons prepared and going to the railroad
terminus, a little railroad station about fifteen miles north of Nephi called
York. This was certainly a new experience now – traveling in wagons over rough
roads to Cedar City, camping whenever night overtook
us, cooking our meals over sage brush fires, making beds on the bare ground.
This was quite unusual and strange to people from foreign lands, and everything
was new and unfamiliar to us. We tried to make each day’s drive so we could be
in one of the settlements and everywhere we stopped the people were very good
to us. No one could have asked for better treatment. We arrived in Cedar on the
first day of July 1878.
Three days later the people paid homage to their
Independence Day, and we made preparations to build a house. During the summer
we made adobies, traded for some lumber, and with the
help of good neighbors we built the house and moved into it by the beginning of
the year 1879.
During this time father had greatly improved in health and was
able to do some work in building the house. We all appreciated this very much,
especially mother who had surely been a good and faithful wife during his long
siege of illness. As time passed father became strong and healthy and was able
to perform any kind of manual labor such as work on roads for the county road
supervisor. We also worked in the local coal mines in the winter time. During
odd times he quarried rock for the foundations of a great many homes in Cedar.
It was decided by the county commissioners to put up mile
stones along the road between Washington
County line
through Iron County
to the Beaver County line. The rock was made a uniform
size about 2 ½ feet long and afoot or more wide, standing about 2 ½ feet above
the ground. With a friend and neighbor, Thomas Bladen, father obtained this
contract. I helped with this job and it was quite an understaking
to quarry the rock, dress them to the size and distribute them along the road,
settling them up and painting the mileage figures on them and covered a
distance of sixty miles.
Later Cedar needed a new church, which at this time was one
ward. Father gave freely of is time and labor to the building of this church,
donating most of his labor. This work consisted of quarrying rock which he did
again with his friend Thomas Bladen.
Then again another bigger job. The
State wanted to build a branch normal school, and they decided Cedar was the
ideal location for it. Preparations were made to go into the mountains to get
out the lumber. I well remember how faithfully they worked up in the deep snow
nearly all winter in freezing weather through deep and drifting snow. Some
places the snow was ten feet deep. They persevered and by spring they had
nearly all the lumber out. It was necessary to do this in order to have the
building ready for school by the next September. One group with teams did the
excavation, another group quarried the rock, while other hauled the rock, sand
and gravel, and the building was ready for school in due time.
Father was always ready to donate his labor for any
community undertaking, at the same time taking care of his little farm, with
the help of his boys. He was always working and could always find something to
do.
My father was not a member of the church, but he was spoken
of as a splendid man for the community. Everyone liked him; he was well thought
of and he had no enemies. What more could be said of a man? And to think all
this happened after being at dath’s door for two long
years. We had thought many times that he would not live till the next day, then
he would revive and his breathing would be easier for a day or two. Then a severe attack for two or three days.
Previous to this he was a music writer and composer, a
member of the board of a large Cooperative Mercantile Association. When the
Mormon elders visited in that district they always made a call on mother and
father, and they were always taken care of. He was always neat and tidy with
everything. His place was always clean from weeds, and he was a good gardener.
His wood pile was always neat.
Father (Evan Williams) was born November 15, 1827, at St.
Brides, Glamorganshire. Died 19 June 1906 at Cedar City, Utah
Mother (Mary Davies Williams) was born April 27, 1827, in Cwmbach, Glamorganshire, South Wales. Died 15 February
1899 in Cedar City, Utah.
