History of Llewelyn Griffith Jones
Born: 18 July 1819, Neath, Glamorganshire, South Wales
Died: 11 August 1881,
Bloomington, Bear Lake County, Idaho
Married: Mary
Jeanette John 11 July 1840, Wales
Came to Utah
September 1868
Story told by LaVina Reese with
bits of other things searched and added.
Llewelyn Griffith Jones was born
18 July, 1819 in Neath, Glamorganshire, South Wales, the son of Griffith and Elizabeth Davis
Jones.
Wales is
a beautiful country, bordered on the East, North and South by England, and on the West by the Irish Sea, and St.
George’s Channel. It is a
land of high mountains and rushing streams.
It has rich deposits of coal, so there is much mining carried on, also
some farming. It could be possible that
at an early age, Llewelyn Jones went into the coal
mines to work to get money to assist the family.
When he was about 20 or 21 years old, he married Mary
Jeanette John who was 18 or 19 at the time.
She was the daughter of Lazarius and Jeanette
John, who was born 8 August 1821 in Dinas,
Glamorganshire, South Wales. The first child of this young couple was
Jeanette, who was born 30 May 1841 in Dinas. She was followed by Elizabeth in 1944, then
David in 1846, Susanna, 1849, Mary in 1851, Tabitha in 1854, Ephraim in 1856,
and Lydia Mary in 1858. These children
were all born in Pentre.
Llewelyn worked hard to support
his large family, and Mary managed well with what he was able to bring into the
home. The children also worked and
helped what they could. They were
getting along quite well, when out of America in the fall of 1840, came Mormon
Missionaries teaching a new religion and organizing branches of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the small country of Wales.
In 1848, seeking out the honest-in-heart in the
Glamorganshire area, the traveling Elders found Llewelyn
and Mary Jones of Pentre, eager for the truth. The missionaries taught the Jones’s the
gospel and baptized them some time during the year of 1848.
Although the Welsh converts were the first foreign speaking
pioneers to emigrate to Utah, Llewelyn and
Mary Jones did not emigrate until 1868.
For the 20 years that they remained in Wales, Llewelyn
was a great strength to the little branch there. He saw many of the faithful leave their
native home land and make the long trip to Zion.
In fact, most of his children were already established in the beautiful
farming area of Bloomington,
Idaho. Perhaps the younger children, Ephraim and Lydia might
have come with their parents in 1868.
After grandfather died, Elizabeth
brought her children and came on the railroad.
She lived in Bloomington,
Idaho until her death in 1907.
Their oldest son David, when a young man,
brought his little sister Tabitha and came to Utah.
He went on to settle in Bloomington, Bear Lake
County where many of the
Welsh families were taking up farms and doing very well. It was David who helped and encouraged his
parents and other members of the family to join him.
President Brigham Young, realizing that as soon as the
railroad spanned the United States, the fare would be too expensive for many of
the poorer saints of Europe to emigrate, likewise, the steamships were
replacing the sailing vessels on the high seas, requiring a decided increase in
ocean travel, at October Conference in 1867 made an appeal for funds to help
the European Saints to emigrate the next year.
Money was sent to Liverpool, and Church teams met the trains
at Laramie and Benton, Wyoming. The result, by the end of the year 1868,
several thousand converts had crossed the ocean in five chartered [ships] plus
several miscellaneous vessels, and nearly 5,000 saints were transported to Utah in 470 Church
wagons. More research is needed to find
out which of these ships and which of the wagon companies the Joneses were part
of.
No doubt David met his family in Salt
Lake or even along the road in Summit County,
and took them to his home in Bloomington,
Idaho. We could imagine that this vast, arid,
western country would be quite a shock to Llewelyn
Jones after living in a country of greenery and abundant water and rainfall for
his life of 49 years. But he did enjoy
the waters of the mighty Bear
Lake. However, just the pleasure of being with his
family again was worth any sacrifices he might have had to make.
David had prepared for his parents’ coming. Their home was on a hill on a five acre plot
of rich farming ground. Their house of
logs consisted of two rooms and a lean-to on the back. It was about a mile and three quarters from
town, a mile from the bottom of the hill, and the rest of the way, following
the road, was a natural incline to the house.
It afforded a beautiful view of the town below and the surrounding
country for miles around.
Great grandpa Llewelyn really had
a “green thumb.” He always had a
beautiful and productive vegetable garden as well as flowers. He raised berries that could withstand the
cold winters. His five acre plot of
ground was planted mostly to wheat. When
the wheat was harvested, in the fall, a portion of it was taken to the grist
mill in Paris,
where it was ground for their year’s supply of flour. The rest of the wheat was sold to the market
in the nearby towns.
Great grandfather’s picture shows him to be a very handsome
man, with an abundance of well-groomed white hair. He had such a distinguished, kind look on his
face, so I am sure, he was that kind of person.
I have heard it said how much he loved people, and that he was the
happiest when he was giving some service to others. He was a faithful and devoted Latter-day
Saint, and attended regularly to his meetings and other Church duties. He was an educated man, and was a beautiful
penman.
Dear Great grandma died 11 April, 1880, age nearly 59. Great Grampa did
not remain long
after her passing. He died 11 August 1881 in Bloomington,
which had been his happy home in Zion
for some 13 years.
(Sources used, Family group sheet, Vol 13 and 12 “Our Pioneer Heritage” books.)
