History of Evan E. Jones
Evan E. Jones was born in Pengarnddee, Glenmorganshire, South Wales. My
birthday was November 12, 1850. My
father was Evan John Jones and my mother was Catherine Griffiths Jones. I was the 8th child in the family, being a twin
to a sister. I had sixteen brothers and
sisters.
I was very small for my age, but it was necessary for me
to help with the living. At the tender
age of seven years I began working in the coal mines with my father. Due to how small I was I was carried into the
mine in a nose bag by the mules. The
mules became so accustomed to the darkness of the mine that when they came out
they would be blind.
To my great blessing the Elders of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints found my family and taught them the gospel. Mother and Father joined the church on
December 4, 1846. As a child I was
brought up in the church and was baptized when I was eight years old in
December 1858.
I saw my family ridiculed by many of their closest
friends and relatives because of their religious affiliations. We had to walk many miles at times to attend
meetings and being a Mormon was sometimes very hard.
My father did not have good health. He had Asthma, so much of the responsibility
was upon my shoulders to help support the family. I continued working in the coal mines,
walking two miles each way and I had to be to work by 7:00 A.M. We were paid one shilling a day for ten hours
work. This was equal to 24 cents.
When I was sixteen years old we decided to come to America. It was on April 29, 1866 that I left Wales with my
parents and eight sisters and two brothers.
We had six brothers and sisters die before we left Wales.
We sailed from Liverpool,
England, on
Monday April 30, 1866. We sailed on the
sailing vessel John Bright, under the direction of D. M. Gilbert. There were 747 saints on the vessel.
Some days were pleasant and calm and the vessel would
sail many miles during the day. If a
storm came up it would send us back farther than we had traveled the previous
day. On June 6, 1866 we landed in New York, having been at
sea for six weeks.
We traveled to Salt Lake City
by way of St. Joseph, Missouri.
I remember well the train ride from New York
to Missouri. We loaded our goods on a boat and sailed up
the Missouri river to St. Joseph, and from there
by way of Wyoming to Salt Lake.
We stayed in Missouri
for three weeks waiting for an immigrant train to come. We crossed the plains with the Henry Chipman
Ox Team Company. It was the third church
train to come.
Since my father was in poor health he was compelled to
ride most of the way in the wagon. My
mother and most of the children walked the entire distance. Most of the older children would carry the
younger children on their backs. I was
in charge much of the time and drove the four yoke of oxen from Missouri River
to the Salt Lake Valley.
We suffered many hardships. Many times food was scarce. President Brigham Young sent out men and
teams with food to feed us.
One night we camped where there was no water. The cattle were restless so early the next
morning the captain told us to start moving.
We were in such a hurry we did not have prayer. At noon that day the Indians made a raid on
our cattle and drove 100 head away. This
left us in an extremely bad condition.
Many of the saints had to help pull and push the wagons. When word was received in Salt Lake,
oxen were sent back to help us pull the loads.
The company forded many streams. Some man in the company would always go
through the stream first to find the best place for us to cross. It was quite a sight to see all the cattle,
wagons, men, women and children going across the streams. Many times the animals had to swim, and we
lost some animals and wagons in the swift water.
On the plains grass was plentiful, but there was no
firewood, Many times we would have to
use buffalo chips. When we came to a
creek we would find wood and when we did the women would try to bake bread
enough to last us until we came to the next creek.
As we would travel we would find skulls from the dead
buffalo. They would be white as snow
from being bleached in the sun. We would
write on them and stick them up along the trail. Would put the name of the company, the day
and time we passed this place. The next
company that came along would know how far ahead we would be. After seeing a few of the buffalo skulls we
would know what kind of time we were making and we could also tell what the
weather was, and what was ahead of us.
The company arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah
on September 15, 1866. We were first
directed to the tithing yard and then to Pioneer Park where we rested for two
days, before going on the journey south to Lehi, Utah.
It was harvest time when we arrived in Lehi, and all of
us were able to work in the fields. We
picked potatoes, cut corn and sugar cane.
We were given some of this produce for pay and this is how we lived
through the winter.
A lot was purchased and a one room log house was built
where the entire family lived during the winter. Flour was $14.00 per hundred pounds, so the
family lived almost entirely on potatoes.
In the fall of 1869 we traveled to Beaver County. We went in one wagon, drawn by an ox and a
cow. During the journey of over two
hundred miles there were several snow storms.
It took us two weeks to reach Adamsville where we made our home. A log cabin was again constructed, and we
again had only a dirt floor. In the
spring of 1870 I worked very hard with only a grubbing hoe for a tool to clear
a piece of land so I could plant it to wheat.
I did finally get the wheat planted, but to my said heart it was
destroyed by grasshoppers. Once again
potatoes were the main fare on the family table. We didn't taste bread for weeks at a
time. Some of the smaller children didn't
know what it was to have even a pair of shoes.
I spent many a night in a little adobe meeting house
guarding the town from Indians. Soon,
due to the poor health of my father, I went to the northern part of the state
to work for the Union Pacific Railroad.
By doing this I was able to be one of the main supports to my parents
and brothers and sisters.
On January 6, 1871 I married Lucretia (Cressia)
Walters. I had known this choice girl
back in Wales before she
came to America
in 1868. David Adams performed the
ceremony and later in 1871 we were sealed for time and eternity in the St.
George temple.
After my marriage my life became one of hard work, a lot
of religion, fun, dancing and singing all mixed together to make a happy
family. Soon after I was married we
settled in Lehi where I was a miner.
I became very endeared to the older members of both mine
and my wife's family. My wife's mother
was blind and desired us to come back to Adamsville to be with her family. We moved back to Adamsville and here I farmed
and worked in the mines at Frisco.
I loved to dance and I worked hard all day at the Lincoln mine and then
would dance until the late hours of the night and would walk the long distance
back to the mine to work the next day.
To our union was born ten lovely children, three boys and
seven girls. Most people would think ten
children would be plenty to care for, but an orphaned boy needed a home and so
we took him in. This young man became a
part of the family just like a real son and brother.
I felt the thrill of joy and happiness, but I also felt
the pangs of death and sorrow as we lost several of our children when they were
young. We lost two of them within three
weeks of each other.
Adamsville became our home and here I built a two story
brick home for my family. Water was
drawn from a well, and we used coal oil lamps --------
(This ended here, apparently
there are some pages missing.
Written by Evan E. Jones
Born: 12 Nov. 1850,
Pengarnddee, Glenmorganshire,
England
Died: 31 Aug. 1928 at Milford, Beaver, Utah
History submitted by Hazel
Jones Eyre to Greenwood Camp, DUP, Beaver County, Utah on 5 June 1974
