JAMES DAVID JAMES – BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Assembled by Cara Williams Michas
1. Tooele City Cemetery Search, Tooele City Corporation, tooelecity.org/asp/cemeterysearch.asp.
lot 1-037-10 JAMES, JAMES DAVID
3/2/1820 - 12/27/1901
LLANGYNIDER, BRECON, WALES
M: MARGARET
F: JAMES, DAVID.
2. Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847-1868, Church History Library and
Archives, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library.
James, James
Birth Date: Unknown
Death Date: Unknown
Gender: Male
Age: 34
Company: Abraham O. Smoot Company (1852)
Pioneer Information:
with wife and 4 children
Sources:
"List of Persons Sent from Great Britain by the Perpetual Emigrating
Fund Co., in the Months of January and February 1852, by Franklin D. Richards
Agent at Liverpool," Deseret News, 21 Aug. 1852, 3.
Journal History, Supp. to 1852, p. 138
Mormon Immigration Index.
3. Mormon Immigration Index, FamilySearch CD,
2000.
Ship: Kennebec
Date of Departure: 10 Jan 1852 Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
LDS Immigrants: 333 Church Leader: John S. Higbee
Date of Arrival: 19 Mar 1852 Port
of Arrival: New Orleans, Louisiana
4. James D. James.
"[Author unknown]
James D. James was born 3 March 1816, in Victoria,
South Wales. He was married at the age of 25
to Margaret Williams in July 1841 at the Tredegar Church of England. There were
born to them five children while in South Wales; Mary, the eldest, born 1842 at
Beaufort, South Wales, who died at birth; the other four were born in Victoria,
South Wales; David, born 9 November 1844; Dan, born 25 May 1845; Margaret, born
27 October 1846; and Franklin, born 27 July 1850. They adopted a daughter,
Hannah, born 6 November 1851.
Having been converted to the Mormon faith, the James family left from the
town of Able-Gewenea
to voyage to this country on the ship Kinlbeck [Kennebec]. While crossing the Atlantic
Ocean they endured many hardships, among which was the birth and
death of their son, George Washington James. This son was born on the Atlantic
Ocean, 7 February 1852, and died before landing at New Orleans. They also buried their adopted daughter,
Hannah, aged 14 months on the Atlantic Ocean.
After reaching the Mississippi River, just below St. Louis, they were faced with the deep
sorrow of parting with their son, Franklin, who died 4 March 1852 at the age of
two years. They crossed the plains with the company of Smoot and Layton, in the year 1852,
with their three children, David, Dan and Margaret.
After residing in Utah for a short while,
Brigham Young learned of [James'] previous occupation as iron worker in South Wales. Owing to this, he was sent to Cedar City, Utah,
to work in the Iron mines there. He had the honor of being the first man to
produce iron in this state. He was also the first person to bring alfalfa seed
to Utah.
While in Cedar
City, one child, James
was born, 22 April 1853. In 1854, the James family moved to San Bernadino, California, and engaged in the farming
industry. Two children were born to them while there, Richard W., born 27 May
1855, and Sarah, born and died 31 May 1860. Their life knew happiness as well
as hardship apparently for they attended the wedding of Francis M. Lyman and
Rhoda Ann Taylor, their very dear friends while at San Bernadino, California. (Lyman later became an Apostle.)
They always had the desire to return to Utah
and did so in the year 1860. They stopped at Placerville, California,
enroute and worked awhile at the Placer mines. It
seems there was a great abundance of gold at that time because record shows
they gathered the gold nuggets off patented ground. They left Placerville with a large sum of gold and
followed General Conner's army for protection against the Indians. Upon their
arrival they made their home in Tooele,
Utah. He brought back with him
some beautiful horses, wagons, saddles, mules and gold.
At that time there was a great need of flour in Tooele, so he bought flour
and distributed it among the families in need without pay, but they were
grateful to him for his kindness and payed him back
every cent, but taking several years to do so. They were married again in the
Old Endowment House in Salt Lake City,
Utah. Their first home was a log
house, southwest of Tooele on the creek. They built the home themselves. Later
they bought the old Homestead
from John Taylor in 1863 on the corner of James Street, which is now called 1st
North and 2nd West. They associated with the families of John Taylor, John A.
Smith, William Pickett, Philip Delamare, Isac and Thomas Lee, Cyrum Tolman, Cleggs, McKellers and others He was well educated and could speak
three different languages, English, French, and Welch.
He resided in Tooele the remainder of his life, taking care of his home
which consisted of a large vineyard and orchard; he also raised sugar cane
which he crushed and boiled in large vats and made into molasses. He was also
an assayer of ore for the early prospectors.
He died 27 December 1901 at the age of 84, his wife having died 1 July 1900,
the previous year. They were the parents of nine children [ten counting adopted
daughter Hannah]. David [2], his eldest son, resided in Tooele unmarried until
his death on 22 November 1918. His son, Dan [3], was married to Love Peasnall in 1878 and they were the parents of eleven
children all born and reared in Tooele. He died 27 July 1931 in Tooele. His
daughter Margaret [4] was married to John Williams, she died leaving two
children, Mary Ann and Johnny, whom he reared and cared for, Mary Ann married
to W. R. Casity and Johnny was kicked by a horse at
the age of twelve and died shortly after. His son James [8]was
married to Hattie Gillette in 1893. He died at Soda Springs, Idaho,
12 September 1938. They were the parents of four children. The youngest son,
Richard [9], resided in Tooele unmarried until his death 22 August 1933.
Transcribed by Cara Williams Michas, 2008
(original spelling and grammar retained except where indicated)."
