Eleanor Jones Young
By Jay Jones
From
FamilySearch.org Web Site:
Father:
Thomas Lee Jones, born 17 July 1799, Llansawel,
Carmarthen, Wales
Mother:
Ruth Thomas, born 4 May 1805, Pencarrey, Carm., Wales
Children:
1) James Jones, 1828-1882
2) Eleanor or Ellen Jones, 1830-1912
3) Elizabeth Jones, 1831-1866
4) Ann Jones, 1835-1890
5) Lettice
Jones, 1836-1920
6) Mary Jones, 1837-1898
7) Margaret Jones, 1838-1905
8) Elizabeth Jones, 1839
9) Llittice
Jones, 1840
10) John Thomas Nathan Jones,
1841-1842
11) John Thomas Jones, 1841-1844
12) Anna Jones, 1842-1845
13) William Thomas Jones, 1843-1887
14) Daniel Thomas Jones, 1845-1852
15) John Thomas Jones, 1847-1925
16) Elinor
Jones, 1848-1923
Note: Some of the above information may not be
correct.
*******************
From
lds.org website, Church History, Mormon Emigration Search
Edward
Bunker Company, 1856
3rd
Handcart Company, about 290 individuals, 58 handcarts and 3 wagons. Left Florence, Nebraska
30 July 1856. Arrived
in Salt Lake Valley
2 Oct 1856.
Among
the roster:
Jones,
Thomas (58)
Jones,
Ruth (49)
Jones,
Eleanor (26)
Other
Jones names in this company do not correspond with names and ages listed in
Family Search. There are undoubtably more of the Jones family members also in this
company that are not listed in the roster.
*******************
BACKGROUND:
In
1872, Brigham Young invited Thomas Kane and his family to spend a winter with
him in St. George, Utah.
Thomas Kane had been of tremendous help to the Mormon people, both in
1846 in helping to arrange for the recruiting of the Mormon Batallion,
and in 1858 in negotiating peace in the "Utah War." Later, Thomas Kane had been wounded during in
his service in the Civil War, and his health was poor for many years
afterwards. Brigham Young thought the
warm, dry winter climate of St. George might benefit his health. Also, Thomas was seriously considering writing
a biography of Brigham Young, and a trip to Utah was arranged in the fall of 1872.
Thomas
and his wife Elizabeth, and two of their children (boys aged 8 and 10 years)
arrived in Salt Lake City
late in 1872. Soon thereafter, a party
left Salt Lake City
on December 12, 1872 to travel to St. George.
The party stopped at settlements along the way, arriving in St. George
on Christmas Eve.
Elizabeth
Kane kept a diary, noting her impressions of the people, homes, and events
encountered on this journey. Since this
account was to be published, and she did not wish her writings to be used
against individual Mormons who were practicing polygamy, most of the names in
her account are changed. Her accounts
can be found in the book, "Twelve Mormon Homes", by Elizabeth Wood
Kane, republished in 1974 by University
of Utah Tanner Trust Fund.
Elizabeth
Kane made friends with a Welsh woman married to Lorenzo Dow Young, brother of
Brigham Young. In the book her friend is
referred to as "Mrs. Jane."
The picture that Elizabeth
gains of the Mormon people through her visits with "Mrs. Jane" are
fascinating. I believe that "Mrs.
Jane" is Eleanor Jones Young, based on the family and emigration history
and the account below. We will pick up
Elizabeth Kane's account near Cove Fort at a resting place known as Prarie Dog Hollow.
*******************
From
"Twelve Mormon Homes", by Elizabeth Wood Kane, pp. 83-86.
As
for me, one of our company, a dark-eyed, rosy little
Welshwoman, who had hitherto proceeded no further in making my acquaintance
than to exchange morning and evening salutations, plucked up spirit enough --
it could scarcely be owing to the inspiration of the cheering cup of
composition – to join me in a ramble before the horses were put to.
Her
husband, one of the kindest of T.'s old friends of
'46, had been among the first to greet us on our arrival in Salt Lake City. In answer to T.'s inquiries
after his good wife, he had produced her daguerreotype to show me. She had "passed behind the veil"
two years before, but he spoke of her death with evident emotion.
"Here,
at last," I had thought, "is one man, high in Mormon esteem, yet a
monogamist.
It
was a shock to me to recognize him on our journey, accompanied by his other
wife, and I now learned from her that the fair-haired son who was with them was
not her offspring, nor the offspring of "Helen," but that of a third
wife. Yet again the third wife did not
claim him, having "given him away," at his birth, to Helen. "For
all of Helen's children had grown up by that time, and she brought LeRoy up as her own."
Mistress
Jane told me that the youngster could not hear his adopted mother's death
spoken of without weeping, and thereupon she wept herself as she eulogized
"Sister Helen's" virtues.
Helen was much older than the other two wives, and they looked up to her
as a mother. She had taught their children
entirely, being a well-educated lady.
She was very neat and nice in her ways, although she wore homespun, like
the rest of us. She regulated the family
affairs, deciding even such little matters as whether Johnny should have his
old boots cobbled, or wear his new ones.
The
house was well-ordered in Helen's time; yet never so stirring, jocund, and
cheerful.
Mrs.
Jane spun and wove, and worked in the dairy cheerfully. "That's what I'm
fit for," she said; "but Sister Helen knew how everything ought to be
done; and she was so sweet-tempered that there never was any jealousy or
quarreling in the family while she lived." (47)
"Mrs.
Jane" herself was a born worker, -- never happier, as I afterwards found
when I knew her better, than in helping others; and so fond of children, that
she used to smuggle my boys away for morning sometimes, always returning them
with their hair elaborately curled. I
used to wonder at this, but I found that she was "homesick for the
children" left behind in Salt
Lake City.
"Her own children, of course?" you say.
By no means. "The bigger ones
could manage very well without her; but she yearned for the little chaps,"
her own and the other wife's, who were missing her, too, she was sure. And when we returned to Salt Lake City, and she brought a flock of
children to see me, the special pet who clung to her skirts, and who seemed to
have had every hair of his head curled separately, was the third wife's child!
Jane
had been one of the hand-cart pilgrims, and had pushed her cart, and done all
the cooking for her father's family, sixteen in number, at every halt they made
for two months. Like many of the younger
women, she had not "experienced conviction" at the time when her
elders joined the church, but had fallen into line because the rest did. Her convictions seemed certain now, and her
reverence for her husband was unbounded.
He was a simple, sincere, and upright old man, a real patriarch, for
whom no one could entertain a disrespectful feeling. He joined us as we walked, and seemed pleased
with the subject of our conversation.
Mrs.
Helen, they told me, was a sincere Christian, a firm Presbyterian for more than
six years after her husband changed his faith.
After they were driven from Nauvoo the last time, the trials of the
journey and encampments on the prairie softened her heart. Never a murmur crossed her lips, or as much
as a word against the decrees of Providence; but her favorite text of
Scripture, often repeated on the pilgrimage and in the early years of the settlement,
till it grew to be remembered as the motto of her life was, "All this way
hath the Lord thy God led thee, to humble thee and prove thee, and to give thee
peace in thy latter end."
Her
husband only remembered one remark escaping her that looked like disatisfaction with her lot. It was when they reached the promised land and looked down on the Salt Lake Valley.
There were about six small cottonwood trees then in all
the valley, and Helen looked at them a long time. Then said she to her
husband, "Father, we have come fifteen hundred miles in wagons, and a
thousand miles through the sage-brush; and I'd get into the wagon tomorrow, and
travel a thousand miles farther, to see shade-trees instead of these rocks and
sands."
She
was so fond of "growing things," her husband said, that she
languished in health in the confinement for safety, and he petitioned the
brethren to let him establish himself outside it, -- on the hill where the Lion
House now stands. It was thought a
foolhardy thing to do, and objection was made; but with Helen's consent, he
solemnly took the responsibility upon himself, and they placed their dwelling
beside City Creek.
Helen
had brought a whole bushel of fruit-tree kernels, and other seeds. "Now, mother," he told her,
"I'll set every one of these out, and you'll soon have shade-trees
enough."
Helen
took the greatest pride in her little plantation. The trees were about a foot high, when the
grasshoppers ate them down to the roots.
They ate everything in the garden with entire impartiality.
---------
NOTES:
(47)
This "old friend" was, no doubt, Lorenzo Dow Young, brother of
Brigham. The wife (Helen) who had
"passed behind the veil" was Harriet Page Wheeler Decker Young, the
second wife of Lorenzo and one of the three women who came in the original
company of pioneers in July 1847. She
was also the mother of Clara Decker Young, the wife Brigham brought along in
the first pioneer group to Utah.
Harriet's
story is told in volume 14 (1947) of the Utah Historical Quarterly both in the
"Biography of Lorenzo Dow Young," written by James A. Little and in
the "Diary of Lorenzo Dow Young," written mostly by Harriet. She died on December 22, 1871. Which one of the other wives "Jane"
was, is hard to determine. Lorenzo Dow Young was married five times --
to Persis Goodall in 1826,
Harriet Page Wheeler Decker in 1843, Hannah Ida Hewitt in 1856, Eleanor Jones
in 1856, and Anna Larsen in 1863.
Lorenzo was probably in the Kane party as a result of his having been
named by the First Presidency of the church in 1872 to preside over the home
missionaries of the church. He died
November 21, 1895. (Whitney, "History of Utah," 4:53-55.)
*******************
There
are a few other references to "Mrs. Jane" in the book. (Pages 90, 114, 134, and
137). It is obvious that
Elizabeth Kane had a great deal of respect and admiration for this kind woman
from Wales.
A
digital copy of the book, “Twelve Mormon Homes”, can be found on the web at
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/tanner&CISOPTR=2120
