Mary Parry Rowland - Biography
In the early part of the nineteenth century there lived in
the town of St. George, Denbighshire, Wales, a kind
couple named Edward Parry and Mary Lloyd.
They had two children, Margaret and Edward L.. On the sixth of February, 1823, another
little daughter was born to them, and they named her Mary. The dear mother passed to the great beyond
when Mary was about one year old.
The grandmother came to live with them, but on account of
her age she felt the responsibility too great to care for the baby, so the father
secured for little Mary a home with a family named Jones. Mary was such a dear little soul that they
loved her very much, and she loved them.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones were father and mother to her in very deed. She lived with them until she was nine years
old, her father paying for her keep. She
often wondered why she had two fathers, Father Jones and Father Parry, while
the other children only had one.
She was taken back to her father’s home when she was nine
years old. Her grandmother was very strict
with her, insisting that she attend church regularly without fail and that she
be at home very early in the evenings all during her girlhood. Too strict rules often bring disobedience, as
it did with Mary upon one occasion. She
and her friends had heard of an elephant being shown in town on Sunday, so they
went to the church door to learn the text of the sermon, then left to see the
elephant. Her father, hearing of this,
asked why she had not told him so that he could have gone with her, as he had not
seen an elephant.
Her schooling consisted of one hour a day book work and a
short time for sewing each day until she was thirteen.
When the gospel was preached in their neighborhood, she and
her father and brother Edward gladly embraced it and were baptized in
1849. Mary Parry left home to come to
America on her birthday, February 6, 1852.
She walked to Liverpool, her father walking with her part of the way. The last she saw of her father was when he
waved goodbye to her from the middle of the road. She expected her father to come to America
later, but her sister Margaret, who was not a member of the church, persuaded
him not to go. However, her brother,
Edward L. Parry, came to America in 1853.
Mary was nine weeks on the ocean in a sailing vessel. They landed in New
Orleans, then the company came up the
river in a boat and landed in St.
Louis. She came
across the plains with a wagon company, but she, with many others, walked the
greater part of the way to Salt Lake City.
That first winter she lived with her cousins, Caleb and Joseph Parry and
their families. Later she went to live
with “Mother Patty Sessions,” who was married to John Parry, Sr.
At conference time, Mary made the acquaintance of a good
brother, Job Rowland, who had joined the church in South
Wales. Their friendship
soon ripened into love, and in April, 1853, she married Job Rowland and moved
to Cedar City, Iron County, where they lived for about three years. Two children were born to them, Edward and
Mary Elizabeth. They then moved to
Ogden, and while they were living in Ogden one day a middle-aged woman came to
their door and asked for a drink of water.
Mary invited her in and asked where her horse or wagon was.
“I have none,” was the reply, “I live about four miles from
here, and I had gleaned some wheat which I carried to the mill that I might
have some flour.”
“You must be hungry, then,” said Mary, to which the woman
replied, “I have had nothing to eat today.”
Mary hastened to cut some bread for her. Bread was all the food she had. Brother and Sister Rowland had decided that
as long as they had bread no one should be turned away from their door. Mary had been promised in a blessing that her
bread would never fail her, and ofttimes in those
pioneer days, bread and water were all they had. However, their bread did not fail.
In the early pioneer days the majority of the people had few
clothes, and this was the case with the Rowland family. Sometimes they had not even a change, so Mary
would wash them in the evening so they would be clean for the next day. One time she said she had but one sack (which
was similar to a loose blouse), and that she might always be clean, she washed
it every night, as she did with the children’s underwear.
While they were living in Ogden,
a call came for all able-bodied men to go to prevent Johnston’s army from entering the
valley. So Job Rowland bade farewell to
Mary and the children. Not long after,
little Mary Elizabeth became ill, and notwithstanding the loving care of the
mother and the assistance of kind neighbors, the little one died. This was a great trial to Mary, but with the
love of God in her heart, she said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
It was a sad cortege which bore the wagonload of women with
the crude coffin to the cemetery. A yoke
of oxen driven by a crippled boy and a wagonload of women slowly made their way
to the lot in the Ogden cemetery, where they buried the child. It was a lonely grave then, but now it is a
beautiful location and is still owned by the family.
In 1858 another trial came.
The church authorities, fearful that Johnston’s army might overpower the
men and enter the valley ordered all women and children with a few men to help
them, to move south as far as Springville that their lives might be saved.
In August, 1858, Brother Rowland, having returned to the
family, moved them to Salt Lake City,
where the third child, Margaret, was born.
The next spring they moved to Mill Creek and lived on Ballard’s farm for
about two years. It was there that the
fourth child, Job William, was born.
They next moved to Salt Lake City, where they lived for about five
years, and their last child, Martha Ann, was born there.
In the cold winter month of December, 1865, Brother and
Sister Rowland, with their four little children, moved to Logan, where they made their home in a
dugout. In those early days the
hardships were many, but these good people were never known to complain but
worked steadily on, always paying their way and helping where help was needed.
They settled on the log upon which the home now stands, the corner of Second North and Fourth West. Besides this lot, Brother Rowland procured
some farm land a few blocks west and engaged in farming, with which the boys,
as they grew, always helped.
Their home was small, but oh how wondrous neat and clean
Mary kept that little home, and, as the saying is, “The latchstring was always
on the outside.” A more hospitable
family could not be found. Every visitor
at the Rowland home, no matter what the hour, was given something to eat and
drink.
The writer’s first recollection of the family is when she as
a girl, with her parents and sisters and brother, moved to Logan on May 20, 1878. It had been snowing that day, but on their
arrival at their home, which was a mile from the Rowland home, they found
Martha Ann waiting with fresh bread and butter and a bucket of milk. The Parry children said that it was the best
bread and butter and milk they had ever tasted.
Sister Rowland was a lifelong friend of this family.
On November 11, 1879, Mary was called upon to part with her
beloved companion, but her loneliness was somewhat assuaged by her host of
friends.
Sister Mary witnessed the laying of the cornerstone of the Salt Lake
and Logan temples, and attended the dedicatory
services of the Logan, Manti, and Salt Lake
temples. Her brother Edward Lloyd Parry, had been the chief mason on the St. George and Manti
temples and had also played a large part in the building of the Salt Lake
Temple.
Sister Rowland was called to be one of the first
officiators of the Logan
Temple and labored
faithfully and joyfully for four years when, on account of poor health, she was
honorably released. During her work at
the temple, Sister Mary so endeared herself to Sister Harriet Parry, who was
also one of the first officiators, that no week of their lives passed by that
they did not visit each other unless illness prevented.
Once again the dear sister was called upon to pass through a
deep sorrow when her eldest son, Edward passed away on the fourth of February,
1906, at the age of fifty-one. But
sorrow to her meant a greater effort to help others, and so her own pain was
alleviated. Many times in later years
some of her neighbors whose eyesight was failing would come to Mary’s home that
she might read to them the sermons printed in the Deseret News, and in this she found increased joy.
Her children and grandchildren loved her dearly and did all
they could to fill her declining years with joy and peace. Three children and seven grandchildren
survived her when on August 5, 1912, her spirit
peacefully took its flight to her Maker and to her loved ones gone before. To her family let me quote a verse from
Browning:
“Look up,
Friends! You, who indeed
Have
possessed in your house
A sweet
piece of the heaven which men strive for,
Must needs
be more earnest than others are,
Speed where
they loiter,
Persist,
where they cease.” Written by Armenia Parry Adams
In Logan
the family had lived in a log room with a dirt floor and dirt roof. After a year, they built two more rooms on
the front and used the log room for a kitchen.
It was remodeled and enlarged subsequently and remained in the family
until about 1948. It was a charming,
homey place where several generations of nieces and nephews were welcomed for
visits of an hour or a month—but this will have to be a story apart. The house was located on the corner of Second
North and Fourth West and is still standing (1961).
After Margaret returned to Wales, she married Morgan
Thomas. He was owner and proprietor of
the Coly Farm, located on the Coly
River. Morgan Thomas was a gentleman and
had many tenants working for him. To
them were born four sons and four daughters.
All of the daughters died in early childhood. Two of the sons died in infancy (see record
book for dates and names).
About 1887, a letter was sent to Mary Parry Rowland from
someone in Wales,
most likely a missionary who was visiting at the home of Mrs. Thomas. This letter stated:
“Have been well received by Mrs. Thomas. She has been very sick with erysipelas—seems
that she can’t get rid of it. Has had
lots of trouble of late.”
Margaret’s husband died in 1876; her forty-two-year-old son,
Morgan, died in 1886; and nine months later her son, Edward, forty-one years of
age, died. (We have no record as to
whether or not these sons were married.)
Margaret died in the following year, 1888, at the age of seventy-one.
Margaret wrote to her nieces, Isobell
and Kate Rowland, daughters of her brother Thomas. Margaret sent a gold piece to her brother
Thomas, which he later gave to Kate.
They were very interested in their aunt who lived in Wales.
(This history was compiled in 1961 by Mary West miller,
great granddaughter of Job and Mary Parry Rowland, from biographies written by
Margaret Rowland Morrell in 1936 and Priscilla Rowland in 1960.)
