Isaac, John Phillip (2) - Biography

Biography of John Phillips Isaac

(Source: Latter-Day Saint, 378)

ISAAC, John Phillips, an active Elder of the Sixteenth Ward, Salt Lake City, Utah, was born Feb. 3, 1833, at Trevon, Whitland, Carmarthenshire, Wales, the son of Reese Isaac and Margaret Phillips. He was baptized in 1849 by Henry Evans, learned the trade of a mason from his father and worked at his trade until he emigrated to America. In 1855 he married Rachel Williams and emigrated to America in 1856, crossing the Atlantic in the ship “Caravan,” which sailed from Liverpool Feb. 18, 1856. Their first and only child (a girl) was born in Wales Jan. 10, 1856, and died in Liverpool just before the parents sailed for America. The “Caravan” landed at New York March 27, 1856, after a terrible hard and cold trip. The family settled temporarily in Pittston,Pennsylvania, and continued the journey to Utah in 1860 [? the year was difficult to read], crossing the plains in John Smith’s company, which arrived in Salt Lake Valley Sept. 3^rd. Brother Isaac settled at once in the Sixteenth Ward, where he acted as a Ward teacher and took an active part in Church and secular affairs. In 1883 (Oct. 11^th) he married Ellen Nelson, by whom he had four children namely, Rachel, John, Niels and Ella Mary. In 1891, accompanied by his wife, Brother Isaac made a visit to his native land in search of genealogy. For a number of years he labored as a mason on the Temple Block, Salt Lake City, and passed to his final rest as a faithful Latter-day Saint and a High Priest, Nov. 25, 1895.