DAVID WILLIAM DAVIS & CHARLOTTE NOTT JEREMY
David William Davis, son of William Davies and Mary Samuels, was born
March 28, 1828 in Hirwaun, Glamorgan, Wales. When he immigrated to America
his name was changed from Davies to Davis. He married Charlotte Nott
Jeremy, July 18, 1853 at Mickaelstone Super Avon Parish Church in Glam.,
Wales.
David W. Davis and family came to America with his brother Reese's family
the 17 April 1855 on the ship Chimborazo. Reese continued on to Provo,
Utah, while David W., his wife Charlotte and their son David Peter stayed
in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. He lived here until 1860, working in the
mines to get enough money to come west. Their son David Peter was born May
29, 1854 in Aberaman, Glam. Wales, while their daughter Mary Ann was born
in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, August 30, 1856. In 1860 they started to make
their way west. Ellen Jane,
another daughter, was born in Alma Town, Illinois, August 8, 1860. They
stayed here almost a year making preparations to come west. After they had
loaded all their provisions on a boat to go up the Missouri River as far
as they could, their baby Ellen Jane, died three hours before they were to
start. The captain wouldn't wait until the child was buried so they had to
give the undertaker seven dollars to bury the child while they moved on.
She was buried in Herman, Missouri in grave 767.
David Peter was about nine months old when his parents landed in America.
When they started west he was about seven years old and tells of some
things which he remembers in his diary which follows:
"The Civil War had just started and while we were sailing up the Missouri
River from St. Louis, the ship was stopped by the local authorities and
ordered to put up a flag. To be on the safe side, the captain carried two
flags, one Union and one Confederate, but he raised the wrong flag and the
boat and people were held prisoners for three weeks. Our supplies dwindled
and we had to get more before we could leave again.
"We came across the plains by ox team in 1861. Mother was not well and
became very weak so she rode in the wagon and I walked most of the way. We
would walk as far as we could each day and one day I walked fifteen miles.
One of our horses died but we still had the oxen. The stock got poor
eating alkali grass and drinking bad water. I remember the handcarts going
across with men and women pulling them. I remember a herd of buffalo
running from a fire and when we reached Fort Bridger in Wyoming, it was in
flames. Everything belonging to Johnston's Army was burned and I saw the
soldiers driving their mules down the road, they were leaving Utah and
going back on foot. Indians came up to our camp once but finally left.
'When we landed in the Salt Lake Valley we camped in Pioneer Park and my
father worked on the Salt Lake Theatre which was under construction. We
moved to the Provo Bench area where he tried to farm. He didn't know
anything about farming as he and his brothers had been miners in Wales. He
found some work and on stormy days made willow baskets which he sold for
one dollar. Hannah was born June 23, 1862, while we lived in Provo.
"Joe Greaves decided to go to Cache Valley and my family went with him. My
mother traded one of her pretty dresses to him for a yoke of oxen and some
more dresses and a shawl for a cow. When they arrived they secured some
land in the northeastern part of togan just a block or two west from the
Temple site and a city lot in the southwest section. We lived in a log
cabin with a dirt floor and a straw roof that leaked and had to walk
around the puddles in the middle of the floor when it rained. In one end
of the room was a fireplace. I worked real hard digging ditches, herding
the cows, cutting grass along the ditches for the calf. We raised a good
garden and some fine melons. Soon the melons disappeared, I was giving
them to the Indians whom I played with. Indians were dangerous in those
days but they didn't hurt me, I guess it was the melons I gave them. I
didn't get much schooling because I had to work first and get an education
after.
William Gomer was born in Logan, June 14, 1865, and George was born
October 7, 1867. We lived here for six years. In May, 1868, we moved to
Samaria, Idaho. I was now fourteen years of age. I used to fish, hunt
ducks, rabbits, deer and chickens. Father raised chickens and sold eggs
and butter and in the winter we always had plenty of meat. We lived in a
log cabin here as we had in Logan. I used to go barefooted in the summer
and for winter I would find some old high top boots that could be made
into shoes. When we went to Samaria, Thomas R. Roberts, Taliesin (Tally)
Hughes and Janes Thomas went with us. There were about nineteen families
who settled there at first."
Samaria was made a branch of the Church in November of 1868. Thomas Samuel
Thomas was made President of the branch and James Thomas and David William
Davis were sustained as teachers. Lorenzo Snow named the little community
"Samaria" after the city of Samaria in Biblical days because everyone
tried to help each other.
When William Gomer was a baby his mother was very sickly and couldn't take
care of him. A wealthy couple who couldn't have children, wanted to adopt
him but his sister Mary Ann wouldn't give him up. She said that she would
take care of him if her mother would keep him. One day she had him in the
fields caring for him while she helped her father with the hay. He fell
asleep and she put him under a bush in the shade. A short time later she
came back to check on him and the baby was gone. She ran to her father
telling him that she couldn't find the baby. As they looked around for him
they could see an Indian carrying the baby through the fields. The father
grabbed an ax, jumped on his horse and went after the Indian. When the
Indian saw the father in hot pursuit he laid the baby down and ran. The
baby, William Gomer, was a sickly little fellow and they didn't expect him
to live to maturity but he lived to be eighty-seven years of age with
never a sick day.
The children had to work to help their parents make a living. William
hauled eggs, butter and vegetables to other towns to sell. Soon he began
hauling freight from Kelton, Utah to Wood River, Idaho, and iron-ore down
steep dugways from the mines. The men said a young boy couldn't handle
four horses like that on a dugway, but William proved he was just as
capable as any man. They called him "the kid".
He earned six dollars a day all summer and sent home one hundred and fifty
dollars a month to his parents. Out of this money his parents bought
bricks for a new house which his mother had designed. George and Hannah
put the mortar on the bricks while the men built the house. This house
stands today in Samaria and was one of the best houses in Samaria in 1880.
The Indians would steal what they couldn't beg from the settlers and they
were very mean. William said they would come begging for a cow and they
wouldn't take a thin animal, they wanted the very best. The Indians said,
"Animals get fat on my ground". Mary Ann would sit in the house in the
dark and watch out the window for fear the Indians would sneak up to the
corral and let the cows out into the lucerne where they would get bloated,
and many times this happened.
Grandma Davis was a beautiful seamstress and all the clothes were made by
hand out of the wool from their sheep. They made their own soap and
candles from the tallow they got from the sheep. They stored their butter
in salt in a crock, put it in the cellar where the butter stayed sweet
-until spring. They had a nice garden in the summer and a fruit orchard so
they managed fairly well if the crickets didn't get it first. Clothes,
furniture and food were scarce, they would even gather the wool that came
off the sheep on the fences and never let anything go to waste. The wool
had to be cleaned, brushed and spun into thread and then woven into cloth.
These woolen clothes had to be washed carefully so they wouldn't shrink.
The first washing machine was invented after grandmother and grandfather
died in about 1907. It was made of wooden slats with a handwringer on top
and a hand leaver that would push back and forth to wash the clothes. Oh
how tiring this was! Before furniture was available, wooden crates were
piled on their sides to make dressers and a cloth hung down the front.
Beds and chairs were made by hand, everything was in its crude state.
School was held in the log church house and included all eight grades in
one room. The children sat on long benches with their slates beside them
and there was one long desk against the wall. If they took their lunch to
school they had to guard it closely for sometimes a hungry child would
make away with it. The children would have to get up at four a.m., milk
cows, wash dishes, make beds and then walk a mile or so to school. Wild
animals were prevalent such as coyotes, bears, deer, bobcats and
rattlesnakes, etc. , so the pioneers always had to be careful of these
invaders. The coyotes and bobcats would kill and steal the chickens so a
shotgun was ever handy to get these thieves.
The children helped their parents all they could even after they were
married. Mary Ann would come over every day to help them. She was so kind
and thoughtful of everyone in need. When typhoid fever broke out, she
would take her neighbors' washings home and do them until she got very
run-down and tired. Finally she contracted typhoid fever and died when
only forty-two years old in the year 1894.
David's wife Charlotte, died May 9, 1903 and he found himself alone and
crippled with arthritis. He went to live with his son George for awhile,
then spent his last days with his daughter Hannah who lived in Milo near
Idaho Falls. It was here he died on October 30, 1907 at the age of 79.
Both he and his wife are buried in the Samaria Cemetery along with a
daughter Charlotte who died June 28, 1873 at the age of three.
David W. Davis lived close to the Lord and often received the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost to guide him. While David and his brothers were working
in the mines in Wales, they were asked to put in an extra shift and David
was prompted not to do this. He told his brothers not to work this shift
because the Holy Spirit had prompted him not to. The mine exploded that
night killing all the men. They had so many explosions in the mines that
the men who worked in them seldom lived to be over forty years of age.
Small boys had to start working in the mines at seven years of age to get
enough money to help their families live. That is another reason David W.
Davis was glad to leave Wales and find a new country with better
opportunities for himself and his descendants and we are thankful to him.
David and Charlotte Nott Jeremy met in Cwmavon, Carms. Wales in 1852.
Charlotte was a daughter of Evan Jeremy and Eleanor Davies, born December
10, 1828 in Carmarthen, Carms. , Wales. Her father was a shopkeeper and
also ran the Old Bear Inn. He died December 9, 1872 in Carmarthen, Wales.
Her mother died November 13, 1850 in Carmarthen, Wales.
David and Charlotte raised a fine family with a love of the Gospel
foremost in their hearts. At the end of 1967 their posterity numbered over
one thousand persons. May we ever be worthy of the heritage which is ours
and live the Commandments of our Father in Heaven.
--Margaret Davis Paul, Granddaughter
