Lewis, Edmund D. - Biography

Edmund and Mary Lewis

Edmund D. Lewis was born in August of 1805 in Gellygaer, Glamorganshire, Wales. His wife, Mary Thomas, was born about 1812 in Bedwellty, Monmouthshire, Wales (later ceded to England). They joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales. Edmund was a banksman (overseer at the bank of a mine drift), laborer, coal tipper and collier merchant. Neither could write at the time. He an Mary were the parents of eight children.

Edmund and Mary were deeply converted to the gospel, and preparation was made to gather to Zion. On Saturday, February 4, 1854, on the Golconda, with four hundred and sixty-two others, they left the shores of Old England under the direction of Dorr P. Curtis. These were the first Welsh people to emigrate to Zion in 1854. Upon arrival of the Golconda at New Orleans, President Curtis wrote the following letter concerning the journey:

Dear President Richards -- Agreeable to your request we cheerfully proceed to give you an account of the pleasant voyage of the Golconda Emigration Conference. We appointed meetings to be held five times a week, in which we were richly blessed with the gifts of the Spirit, in tongues, interpretations, visions, revelations and prophecies, which caused the hearts of the Saints to rejoice exceeding and to magnify the name of the Lord their God, that they lived in this day and age of the world when the God of Israel had set His hand the second time to redeem His people and father them from the uttermost parts of the earth to establish His kingdom, no more to be thrown down. With this order in our midst, we set out for the west. The winds were rather contrary for the two or three first days, but afterwards they turned in our favor. We had not so much as one storm during the whole passage. We had two marriages and one death at sea.
March 5th we held our Conference. Representatives of the different Branches were brought in; a very good spirit prevailed -- all in love and union. The authorities of the Church were upheld and sustained by an unanimous vote of the whole Conference. In the afternoon and evening, addresses were delivered in a very spiritual manner by several Elders: upon the gathering, the duties of the Saints on board ship and other kindred subjects, to the joy and consolation of all present...
We arrived safe and sound at this place on Saturday, the 18th, making our passage in fourty-two days from the time we left Liverpool. We pray God, our Eternal Father, to bless you abundantly with every qualification, that the hearts of thousands may be made to rejoice in being brought to the knowledge of the truth through your instrumentality. --Dorr P. Curtis, President.

From New Orleans to Atchison, Kansas, is twelve hundred miles. Cholera broke out on the ship that was taking the Saints up the river. Instead of being spared to cast their lot with those who had preceded them and with those who would follow, to the Rocky Mountains, hundreds had their lives, their hopes and their high anticipations suddenly and unexpectedly cut short by this most dreaded disease. They were laid quietly to rest on the banks of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and on the prairies near Kansas. Healthy men and women were attacked by the disease, and soon, in intense pain, in a short time succumbed. It was unlawful to consign bodies to the river, therefore shallow graves on the shores became their lonely resting places.

Somewhere along this trail of cholera, Edmund's and Mary's little son, George, just seven years of age, was laid in an unmarked mound near St. Louis. His brothers and sisters huddled near their parents that evening and in the dusk heard, "Come, Come, Ye Saints . . . and should we die before our journey's through all is well, all is well." Soon their sad voices mingled in other camp songs of praise and prayers. This gave them courage and strength; though their bodies were spent, their voices rang in praise. They knew that Jesus was their King, and that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were prophets of the latter days. Brokenheartedly their tongues gave thanks to God.

At Atchison, Kansas, they were delayed many weeks to secure equipment for crossing the plains. Oxen ranged in price from $25.00 to $40.00 a head; $75.00 to $110.00 per yoke. The price of a wagon at St. Louis was $67.00, and if bought at Kansas, $60.00, some times more. As if all their trials hadn't been enough, they were now exposed to dangers from the Sioux Indians, who were on the warpath. Mary would cuddle Jane closer to her as they walked along or jolted in the wagon down mountainsides and through deep desert sands. Edmund quieted his little brood and calmed their fears. Someday they would have a new home, secure in the west.

After a long, tedious journey of three months, they arrived in Great Salt Lake City September 30, 1854. They were greeted with another shock -- grasshoppers had destroyed many crops throughout Utah. They camped on the Square. The stone and adobe work of the wall around the Temple block was complete on two sides. Edmund and his family rested briefly then turned their faces northward and headed for "Willow Creek," now Willard, Box Elder County. A Williams family and another family traveled with them. They were back in Salt Lake in May of 1855; there they buried twelve-year-old Margaret. And on June 13, 1856, their daughter Elizabeth was married to Mesach Spencer Williams in the Endowment House. A short time later, Edmund Lewis and his family left for California. Just when is not known, but they were not in Utah when their daughter Ann and her husband, David Lewis, and their two children, Joshua and Mary Ann, arrived from Wales. The latter traveled to Utah with the Third Handcart Company.

Edmund and his family settled in North Elk Grove, Sacramento, California. Here they purchased a farm. Mary lived but five or six years after the move to California. Edmund never remarried.

The search for more history, the records and especially the graves of Edmund and Mary Thomas Lewis by their great-great-granddaughter, Nell B. Parkin Bair, is a story of faith, courage and testiomony in itself. For many years, Mrs. Bair, a heart patient, made easier her pain, and endurable the long months in bed by writing letters requesting information, assembling material and writing histories. Friends, relatives and strangers responded. These times became blessings, for no day was lost. She learned to know, love and respect her ancestors.

She states that for five years she searched for the names of the parents of Edmund D. Lewis and for his grave site. "I have prayed and fasted many times for assistance. Saturday night of March 27, 1965, at my home at Nyssa, Oregon, I had a great influence near me; so great I knew it was great-great-grandfather letting me know I must see his grave. Sunday morning I said to my husband, 'If Donner Pass wasn't so high I would have you take me to Sacramento. I must see the grave!" I knew this grave must be found. Just then the phone rang. The voice on the line was that of a former neighbor, now living in Sacaramento, Joseph M. Flake. 'Sister Bair,' he said, 'I am going back to Sacramento on Monday. May I do something for you there?' I told him of my feeling about the grave. He said, 'I have seen three cemeteries, even Mormon Island, moved away and many graves destroyed to make way for freeways. I will do what I can to help you.'

"Brother Flake made many searches, and found the date Edmund had bought his own marker and hired workmen to build a low cement wall topped with bricks to protect the graves. His will and papers settling his estate were located, also his citizenship papers. May 18, 1965, after searching many cemeteries, the Brown Church Cemetery was found close to the new freeway 99 near Sacramento. In the wild growth of tall grass and brush, the markers were found. Both were large; Edmund's quite ornate and cut of gray marble. Vandals had broken Mary's, and it lay scattered in three pieces. The lettering was quite indistinct - the abundant rains had weathered them and lichen laid a light coating upon them, but the following was finally made discernable: