The Children of Maesybidia
Ricy Davies Jones
Son of
John and Esther (Davies) Jones
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Ricy Davies Jones Born 18th October 1828 Maesybidia Farm, Abergorlech, Carmarthenshire Emigrated with the Saints to Utah, USA February, 1849 Died 15th February 1908 Mount Sterling, Cache County, Utah Buried Wellsville, Utah, USA |
Ann Howell |
1st Wife Ann Howell Born Wales - St. Donats (Vale of Glamorgan) 27th July 184 Died 6th December 1916 Brigham City, Utah Married 1st July 1854 Salt Lake City, Utah, USA Divorced 2nd October 1874 |
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Please click here to view more detail of the 1st family
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2nd Wife Margaret Morse Born 12th March 1853 Merthyr Tydfil, Wales Married 18th October 1868 Salt Lake City Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan Wales 18th August 1934 |
Children Margret & Ricy Mary Ann Molly Jones Celestia May Jones Emma Jones Sarah Jane 'Sadie' Jones Alice Jones Hettie Morse Jones John Morse Jones William LeRoy Jones Ricy Hugh Jones Margaret Bertha Jones Joseph Pearl Jones Sterling Morse Jones |
1870-1950 1872-1941 1874-1979 1877-1965 1880 - 1880-1959 1882-1975 1885-1967 1890-1929 1892-1957 1892-1957 1895-1982 |
Please click here to view more detail on the 2nd family
To read the published obituary of Major Charles Wendell Jones, son of Ricy's youngest son Sterling Morse Jones
Ricy's Home in Utah - photo taken 1909
Ricy Davies Jones, Ricy Davies Jones was my Great-Great Grandmothers brother and I have always known him as ‘Uncle Ricy’ Mamgu (grandmother) often spoke of him and we believe he was her favourite Brother, I still find it difficult to understand why he left a privileged and comfortable life in Wales to give up all and suffer for many years to follow in the promised land of Utah, America his Zion he gave his children a wonderful legacy but this to would have happened at home in Wales.
Ricy’s life was hard in America compared to the privileged life he had in Wales although more exciting, fruitful and happy there certainly wasn’t any Indians in Wales in those days ! his children achieved well in the new country. His sister Margaret husband John Evans and children's journey to America proved tragic and once again so much harder than it would have been in Wales especially for their children Hettie and John who had left loving grandparents and family behind in Wales who would have cared from them following their Mothers death, and Ricy's brother John unhappy in marriage in California, his son had died and a son-in-law he disliked and with very little money, if his parents had still been alive and aware of this their hearts would have been further broken : Life in the industrial valleys of South Wales was hard but Margaret, John and Ricy lived in Wales what most was regard as Heaven on Earth and left it all behind.
In February 1849 he said goodbye to his parents and family in Abergorlech, Brechfa, Carmarthenshire, Wales never again to see them or the country of his birth, his Mother’s brother and family travelled with him on a journey of unseen heartbreak and hardship – They left Swansea (Abertawe) Wales on the Troubadour for Liverpool and 249 Saints (Mormons – Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints) sailed from Liverpool port (England) on the 25th February, 1849 on the Buena Vista to arrive in New Orleans (United States of America) on the 28th April, 1849 to then travel up the Mississippi on Highland Mary to Council Bluffs - the accounts I am going to give you are written by his children and the first one was written by his daughter Sadie (Sarah Jane Victor) who was alive in Utah when I first started corresponding in 1972 Sadie had married a solider and I remember being amazed that I had a living relative in America who had lived in an Army Fort whilst it was being attacked by Indians – real Cowboy and Indians ! My first letter trying to find Uncle Ricy was written to the Council in the Bear River Valley, Utah asking did anyone know for the family of my Uncle Ricy Davies Jones and some weeks later I received a letter from his youngest son Sterling’s daughter Ruth Clarke. My letter was read out in the Council Chamber and one of the Councilors present was a garden contractor and some time after asked Sterling Jones (Ricy's youngest son) who’s lawn he was cutting was he any relation to Ricy Davies Jones that was 1972 and today 2008 Ruth and I still correspondence and with modern technology now sometimes e-mail back and fore with her daughter Carole. Ricy’s son Ricy Howell Jones visited his Father’s home in Abergorlech and stayed with his grandparents whilst a Missionary with the Church, what a stir that must have caused in the Brechfa someone visiting from America !
Before travelling home to Utah he travelled to the Garw Valley to visit his Auntie Ann - my Mamgu, and the following letter the he wrote from Brigham City in 1886 transpired...........................................
On the 4th July, 1886 Ricy’s son Ricy Howell Jones wrote the following letter to my great-great grandmother Ann – his aunt and my great grandmother Mary Jane his first cousin :
Transcript - to view original please click here
R. H. Jones
Notary Public office of Prosecuting Attorney
Counsellor at Law,
At Court House Brigham City, Utah 4th July, 1886
Box Elder County
Dear Auntie Ann and Cousin Mary Jane
Having been at home about three weeks now, I feel that my promises to write you a letter should be performed without longer delay. You can imagine how much of my time has been occupied, calling on friends and acquaintances, and receiving calls from them. For all have manifested a great interest in hearing of my experience while in Wales and other foreign countries.
Out company across the ocean consisted of two hundred and ninety one saints, twelve of whom were from Wales. We were ten days on the sea and had a very pleasant voyage, we remained for two days in New York, but we did not go through Iowa, and I had no opportunity of seeing out relative there. I did not see my brother at Cornell University either but we expect him hone any day now. My brother and sister who are married live some distance away and I have not had the pleasure of seeing them as yet, but I heard by letter that they and their families are in good health and doing well. I also learn that Father is well and quite busy with the farms.
I am very glad to be at home again but I often think of old Wales and of my visit to Cwm Garw I find many changes have taken place here during my absence for twenty-seven months is a long period to be from home. During that time I became so accustomed to the damp low climate to be very trying, but after a season I will become accustomed to it again no doubt. At this season of the year the days are very hot but the evenings are cool and delightful.
I still wish sometimes that we lived closer together that I could call and see you often and enjoy another long chat with you, and have evening song but we are a long way apart now and may never see each other again.
Give my kind love to Hettie and Mr. Richards and accept the same yourself and do not forget were you write to send me all the news about our people.
Trusting that you are in good health, I remain your affectionately
Ricy Ho Jones
to view original letter please click here
to view information on Ricy Howell Jones please click here
I have two accounts of the life of Ricy Davis Jones one written by his Son John Morse Jones and the other by his daughter Sadie (Morse) Jone
Ricy Davis Jones by John M Jones (his Son)
Ricy Davis Jones was born 18 October 1828, in Abergorlech, Carmarthenshire, South Wales. He was one of eight children, five girls and three boys born to John and Hettie Davis Jones. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the great period of conversion in South Wales, and was baptised at that time.
At the age of twenty he left his parents and native land to gather with the Saints in Utah. The mission's leader was Captain Dan Jones who was with the Prophet Joseph Smith in his last days at Carthage. We are told by a Swansea, South Wales newspaper, The Cambrian, February 16, 1849, that Captain Jones was recognized as the founder of the Welsh Mission. The party gathered at Swansea for the purpose of proceeding to Liverpool in the Troubadour steamer, was nearly all Latter-day Saints. The party was later divided into two groups when the journey across the ocean began : 240 Welshmen (excluding children) travelling on the Buena Vista and 65 Welshmen on Harley. Ricy was in the party of Saints onboard the Buena Vista which left Liverpool Monday, February 26, 1849 for New Orleans with Capt. Jones, now released from his mission, as leader of the Saints. They were fifty-four days crossing the ocean.
Cholera was prevalent in New Orleans, as it was in other places, at the time of their arrival. Captain Jones engaged a special steam-boat to convey his company from St. Louis to Council Bluffs, Iowa which was the usual starting place for the long trek westward. Ricy had escaped the dread disease at New Orleans, but as stricken coming up the Mississippi River. He said that for weeks he wouldn't drink a drop of water which hadn't first been boiled. When they finally arrived at Council Bluffs they purchased a large quantity of Iron to make wagons, and soon they were on the trail west with one hundred sturdy wagons.
Ricy and the other members of his company reached Salt Lake City on 29 October 1849 to share with the other Saints in the privation and suffering of the inter of '49 and '50. They subsisted almost entirely on roots and segoes during that long and hard winter.
On 11 July 1854, Ricy married Ann Hoell. They lived in a two-room adobe house he had built before they married, on his lot situated where the Denver and Rio Grande depot no stands in Salt Lake City. While living in Salt Lake, Ricy worked on the Temple and helped build the narrow-gauge railroad which was used to haul granite from Little Cottonwood Canyon to build the Temple. Brigham Young then called him to go to Fillmore and help build the State House. Ann didn't want to move to Fillmore with him so she went to live with her mother, a widow whose husband William Howell, had died 21 November 1851 at Council Bluffs, Iowa on their way to Utah. Ricy sold his home in Salt Lake before he moved to Fillmore.
In 1856, when they had finished one wing of the State House, all they were to do, President Young called Ricy to help settle Brigham City, or Stringtown, one mile noth of where Brigham City now stands. Ricy and Ann lived in a dugout while he was building a rock house on his land. They lived in Brigham City from 1856 to 1863, where three of their children were born. Their life was filled with many trials and tribulations, interspersed with glimpses of sunshine, and always living with a feeling of insecurity because of the trouble they were having with the Indians. They also had problems with rattlesnakes, spiders, and wild animals because they lived so close to the mountains. But they shared the problems and happiness of the others, mourned and rejoiced with their neighbors, and lived together a a close-knot family.
In the Blackhawk Indian War, Ricy was a Sergaent in Captain Callister's Company, Colonel Smith's Regiment, Nauvoo Legion of the Utah Volunteers for which services he was a U>S> pensioner. In the move south in 1857, during the Johnson Army episode, Ricy was a minute-man at Echo Canyon.
After living in Brigham City about five years, Ricy's mother-in-law, Martha Howell, received a ltter from Wales informing her that she had been made beneficiary of the deeding interest in coal mines, and also, that the estate of her father's in Chancery had been released making her presence in Wales necessary. As she had no money with which to travel, she went to Salt Lake to consult President Young. He advised her to go back and claim what was rightfully hers, and kindly furnished her with money to go. While she was in Wales her three boys, Reece, Louis, and their half brother, Joseph Howell, whom she was raising, made their home with Ricy and Ann. Fort his kindness, be brought back to Ricy a new wagon, and later, set-up her daughter, Ann, in the millinery store business in Wellsville.
In 1863, Ricy moved with his family to Wellsville, Cache County, and was one of the earliest settlers there. He acquired two small farms, built a long, three-room, split-log home on the main street, and helped build his mother-in-law's home on the lot next to his. The Howell home was built after the pattern of Ricy's home in Brigham City and is still standing. While living in Wellsville, Ricy made his living by farming in the summer, and freighting in the winter. Corrine, Utah was headquarters of the freighting operations for the surrounding country, so he would freight from ** Corrine to Ploch, Nevada, or to Butte, Montana.
Entering polygamy, Ricy was married to Margaret Bennett Morse in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake City on 18th October 1868; but this status was terminated at the end of eight years, when Ricy and Ann divorced. Ann and her eight children and her mother, moved back to Brigham City in the early spring of 1888. After disposing of his land in Wellsville and homesteading a quarter section of land from the railroad in the Hawbush, Mt. Sterling, Ricy sold his town to Joseph Howell, who had remained in Wellsville ith his brother, Louis. While Ricy was tearing down, moving and re-building his three room log home on the farm at Mt. Sterling, his famiily lived in the Howell home next door, which then belonged to Joseph. Ricy disposed of his freight outfit before moving to Wellsville, devoting the remainder of his life to farming and raising his second family of five sons and five daughters.
Ricy was called to Provo for Jury duty at one time. While down there he bought the first lucern seed he ever had, and carried it home on his back. There was hardly any of this seed in the valley at that time.
Ricy was a great reader and he subscribed to a number of weeklies one of which was the New York Tribune. He read every evening.
When the railroad decided to sell their land, the occupants, or homesteaders, with cash had the first chance to buy. Ricy had greatly improved his farm, so he went to Salt Lake City with the gold necessary to buy the one hundred and sixty acre farm.
Ricy Davis Jones died at his home in Mt. Sterling on the 15 February 1908 in his 80th year, leaving his wife, Margaret, and nine sons and six daughters surviving him. He had had eighteen children. He had thirty-two grandchildren at the time of his death. He was a man of firm faith, strong convictions and sterling integrity, and was esteemed and respected where ever known.
** Corrine in Utah to Ploch, Nevada is some 557 miles one way
** Corrine in Utah to Butte, Montana is some 357 miles one way
Account supplied by Owen J. Olsen (Grandson) July, 1980 |
:Patriarchal Blessings Church Historian's Office Volume 76 Given September 1871 at Wellsville, Cache County, Utah A patriarchal blessing given by Charles W. Hyde on the head of Ricy D. Jones, son of John and Esther Jones, born October 27, 1828 in South Wales Rocy, I place my hands upon your head and seal on you a Father's blessing, for you ill be called to proclaim the gospel to Nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, and you ill bring home the honest hearted to Zion. Thou shalt work great and almighty miracles in the name of Jesus, for no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper for thou will be like unto Nephi of old. Thou art of Ephraim and a right to the fullness of the priesthood with wives and great kingdom upon this earth and you shall redeem your dead, until you are satisfied, thou shalt partake of all the blessings of the new and everlasting covenant with the blessings of Eternal Life with all your Father's household for ever and ever, amen |
Ricy Davis Jones by Sadie Victor (his daughter)
Ricy Davis Jones was born October 18, 1828 in Abergorlech, Carmarthenshire, South Wales. He was the youngest boy of eight children born to John and Hettie Davis Jones. The oldest son, Evan, was born approximately 1812. The five sisters were Jane, Margaret, Hettie, Sarah (called Sally) and Ann. I do not know which came next, be his brother John’s birth was April 3, 1821; so that would make two sisters between him and father (Ricy), and three sisters between him and his brother, Evan. I think Ann was next to father, as her oldest child, Hettie, was born in 1856 and her other daughter (the singer) Jane was born in 1826. Cousin Jane was the girl who took the prize in London far many years singing. (I will mention her later in topic from R.H.’s ! book)
He reached Utah in October 1849, and shared with the Saints in the privations and sufferings of those first years, subsisting almost entirely on roots and segos during the winters of ’49 and ’50. I remember him telling about the first bread he had. He carried a bushel, or a sack, of wheat 10 miles to have it made into coarse flour.
While crossing the plains, he as one of the scouts. He would take turns on guard at night, walking around the circle of wagons. Indians would crawl through tall grass so quietly they could not hear or see them until they were upon them. The most worried night on the plains, he said, was when a panther stalked him all one night. He would turn to meet it, but it would hide and get behind him every time. But he and one of the other scouts got it when daylight came. He often wondered how he had so much strength after the bad sickness. In crossing the big rivers, they would have him swim across to fasten a rope or chain to a tree or stake. The he would swim back to help the ones who could not swim or would lose their hold on the rope where the water was swift. He said many times he had to knock them out or go down with them when they would get a death drip around his neck and try to climb on his head.
In the Indian War, he was a Sergeant in Captain Callster’s Company, Colonel Smith’s Regiment, Nauvoo Legion of Utah Volunteers, for which services he was a pensioner. He was a minute man for President Brigham Young and was on call at all hours. He helped to buld the narrow gauge railroad tracks into Granite Canyon, and helped to get the granite blocks for the temple. He told in detail how they did it and how long it took to move and place each stone, but all Ian remember is that it seemed almost impossible to accomplish the things they did. For those years of work on the Temple, He was given the farm in the East field in Wellsville. That was the main reason he left his home and arm in Brigham City o 1863 and moved to Wellsville. He also had another small farm he called the North field, due north from town.
In July 1854, he married Ann Howell, but before they married, he built a two room adobe house on his lot, situated where the D. & R.G. railroad depot is in Salt Lake, and they had just got settled in it when President Young called him to work on the State house in Fillmore. He answered the call, but Aunt Ann did not want to go down there, so he sold the house and she went and stayed with her Mother who moved to Brigham City. They finished only one wing of the state house in Fillmore. It is an imposing building. Its walls are built of massive sandstone blocks. We stopped over night in Fillmore when we went to Grand Canyon in 1919. The Territorial Legislature held one session in its new Capitol building in 1856, then was transferred to Salt Lake.
When Father returned to Brigham City in 1856, he bought a farm in “String Town” north of Brigham. They lived in a dugout while he was building a brick house. The first four children were born there, Ricy, Will, Martha Ann, and Esdras. While they lived there, Grandma Howell went to England to get an inheritance from royalties that had belonged to her husband, William Howell, who died while coming to America. The year she was away, Reece, Lewis and Joseph, he three sons, stayed with Father and Aunt Ann. As payment she brought Father a new wagon from England to freight with. When R.H. grew up and returned to Brigham, he bought the farm and house Father built because it was his birthplace. He said later, he sold it to Dave and Alice and after Dave died, B.H. looked after it until Alice died. Then young Dave had it, and before he died, he (Dave) promised to get me picture of it, but never got it. It would be just one hundred years old now. The last time I saw it, the south-west corner was crumbling off. I would still like a picture of it for my Book of Memories. Father also build the house in Wellsville. It was a very well built, comfortable home, three large rooms with a long porch across the front painted green, two nice fireplaces, one on the north end of house and one on the south, a large cellar by back ddr and an old-fashioned well. I remember each kind of apple, plum and prune tree, behind the orchard, a granary and stable and then a long shed and corral. Then on the east of that was a patch of alfalfa. To the south was garden ad a nice path through it to Howells rock house, and a willow fence that was mashed down so one could walk over it. I realize this is not what you ant to talk about, but memories keep flooding in. Father always paid his tithing. The tenth sack of wheat was always set aside at threshing time and was never put in the bin, and tenth load of hay was not unloaded at home. Father farmed in the summer and freighted in winter until we moved to the farm in 1888. We lived in the rock house while Father built a brick store. It was the nicest store that was ever in Wellsville. I think he bought the first ten aces of the Hawbush Farm (alfalfa patch) about 1870 and the rest of the 160 later on. Father took the necessary oath of his intention to become a citizen of the U.S. in October 1853 and received the certificate in October 1878. It took them just 24 years to come up with the certificate.
In October 1868, he married Margaret Morse. I’m enclosing the picture and write-up at the time of his passing. Father’s father died at age 80 and his mother at 85.
As I travel down the lanes of memories, there doesn’t even seem to be bend, or turn, in that long road. Those good old Pioneers had so much that we do not have today. They seemed to be able to meet any problem that came up. When I was a girl, I thought we were poor folks, and I continued to think so until after World War I. We made good money during those years, but so many farmers here lost their farms and were just stranded here. They would come in and ask for flour and coal. We owned the Rupert Seed and Milling Company at that time, and they would tell Fred they had no money, no food, and no coal and they all got what they asked for and more. That one winter, he gave coal by the ton and flour by the sack. After he retired and was home all day, he often said, “Saidee, the bread we cast on the water has been returned to us a thousand fold, and he was right. That was when I realized that we at home had never been poor. I can never remember a time when we could not go down to that old granary and dig out a ham or shoulder, all cured and good-out of the wheat, and I cannot remember a time when those two big flour bins were no filled with flour, every fall or winter that Father would or could not dig into a big pit that he had dug in the fall, and under two or three feet of snow, come up with a sack of potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage and winter apples, all just perfect. Or a time when the cellar did not hold jars and jars of fruit and preserves, homemade butter, buttermilk, cottage cheese, and headcheese that Mother used to make from the pig’s heads. And was it good! And before we had the cellar on the farm, we had a big green cupboard with three deep shelves and doors with white handles where the fruit was kept inside and on top. I do not know of any kind of recreation Father had except reading. He always took the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, weeklies, and the Salt Lake paper and he would read aloud evenings while Mother would be knitting wool stocking for us girls, usually with black or reed stripes running around, or she would be darning or patching and he always worked from sun up till dark. He was an early riser – up at 5 a.m., and I should know! I was the gal who made the fires and got the breakfast. Soon as he was dressed, he would open the door and call “Sadie Dane, time to get up “. Then he would get a pan of oats and go to the fence if the horses were in the pasture, and they would come tearing. Often in later years, he would stand in the doorway watching J.M. or Roy when they were kids trying to catch a horse, chasing them all around the field, and he would go out and the horses would come straight to him. Well, he would get his wagon hitched up. He would have breakfast, take a lunch and be gone all day, unless he was haling hay from the north field. Then he would try to make two loads a day. We were all glad when he got rid of the north field. It was so faraway. But as I look back, I cannot remember ever hearing him complain about anything. When he told us to do something, we did it now, and that was that. If there ever was a poor year for us, it was when wheat was 50 cents per bushel and wheat was his main crop. Late that fall, he hauled a wagon load of wheat heaped up to Ogden and for all that wheat brought back a wagon load of coal. The next morning, he was up early as usual, hitched up, and told me to fix a big lunch, that he may not get home until midnight. And when Mother asked him where he was going he said, “To the mountains for wood.” So he hauled wood from Black Smith Fork Canyon until winter came. Then by spring, there was no wood or coal, and he started clearing the sage bush from our hill (the pasture). It was good that year big as your arm and smelled good. When he started to dig that deep ditch, or canal, south of the farm, everyone told him that it could not be done by one man with a hand shovel but he did it. I used to carry milk or buttermilk every hour for him and he would be shoveling that heavy black soil up on the bank five and six feet above his head and there would not be a dry spot on his shirt. Well, I will get out of this long lane of memories and if you cannot find something to talk about, then I cannot help you. There are many more things I could tell about the trials he suffered, but I will just say this: I have believed for many years what Charles W. Hyde tells him on the blessing given him in 1871: “For no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper for thou wilt be like unto Nephi of old.” It will say this, that never in his life time was he given credit for the many things he did for the church, bur perhaps they who do not credit for good deeds done in this life will get it later on. I’ve asked several authorities why his name is not mentioned in the early history of the church, and they say because he himself did not keep a record, and, being of a retiring disposition, he did not push himself. But we are to blame for not getting the work done in the Temple for his parents and grandparents. We would have to approximate the birth dates for his one brother and most of his sisters, but it can be done.
By Sarah Jane Victor January 12-13, 1957
The following was taken from records of Ricy D. Jones by his daughter – Sarah Jane Victor, April 14, 1957 …………….
Ricy Davis Jones by Sarah Jane Victor (his daughter)
Ricy Davis Jones was born October 18, 1828 in Abergorlech, Carmarthenshire, South Wales, the youngest boy of eight children born to Jon and Hettie Davis Jones. He joined the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, at the age of 18 and was baptized March 7, 1846 by David Jeremy. He was the first one of his family to embrace the gospel. In March 1849, he left his native land, home and parents with the Saints for America. He sailed from Swansea on the ‘Troubadour’, a fifty-day voyage to New Orleans. It was during the great plague. 300 died on board. He was stricken at Council Bluffs and on recovery continued westward. Arrived in Utah, October 1849, passed the rigors of the winters of 1849 and 1850 in Salt Lake. Worked for several years on the Salt Lake Temple. Helped to build the narrow-gauge railroad to Granite Canyon and helped to get out the granite blocks for the Temple. He was called by Brigham Young to work on the State House in Fillmore from June 10, 1850 to March 4, 1853. In July 1854, was married to Ann Howell and built a house in Salt Lake on his lot were the D&RG Depot now stands.
In the Indian (Black hawk) War, he was a Sergeant in Captain Callister’s Company, Colonel Smith’s Regiment; Nauvoo Legion of Utah Volunteer’s for which services he was a U.S. Pensioner; and after his death, his widow Margaret Jones drew same. In 1857-8, during the
“move South”, he was a Minute Man at Echo Canyon on the Johnson Army episode of President Buchanan. Among the early settlers of Brigham City Pioneering at the “Old Fort” and “The Welsh Settlement” and “Calls Fort” from 1856 to 1863. He bought a farm north of Brigham City and they lived in a dugout while he built a rock house which still stands. It is 100years old now. After R.H. grew up, and moved back to Brigham City, he bought the farm and rock house because it was his birthplace. Then B.H. acquired it and sold it to his sister Alice. When Alice died, her son inherited it and he promised to get me picture of it. Lewis took me out to see it two years ago and said he was going to buy it because of the four homes built, that is the only one still standing. R.H, Will, Martha and E.H. were born there and Lewis’ father, B.J. Lewis, Alice, and Zina were born in Wellsville. In March 1863, they moved to Wellsville. They were among the first settlers there before anyone had moved on the plotted lots.
In 1868, he married Margaret Morse in the Old Endowment house in Salt Lake. He built the home in Wellsville and helped to build the old rock house next door for his mother-in-law, which still stands. It is built on the same order as the home in Brigham City. The walls are either 18” or 2’ thick. They lived in Wellsville until 1888 when the family moved to the farm in Mt. Sterling where he lived until his death on February 15, 1908. The main reason he moved to Wellsville was the Brigham Young promised him a farm for his years of work for Church. The farm he got was in the “East Field” between Logan and Wellsville. When he moved to the “Hawbush Farm”, he sold the two other farms. One was called the “North Field” down by Mendon and other was the “East Field”.
Taken from records of Ricy D. Jones by his daughter – Sarah Jane Victor- April 14, 1957.
In March, 1998 I wrote to ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints’ in Salt Lake City asking questions of my Uncle Ricy and received the following reply……
Dear Mrs. Morgan
Thank you for the request. The L.D.S. Church first came to the British Isles in 1837. Due to scant records when their first preaching occurred in Wales is unknown. Nevertheless the first official missionaries sent to Wales were Henry Royle and Frederick Cook who were assigned to Cly(sic) Flintshire in 1840. Their destination may have been chosen because a new convert asked the missionaries be sent to visit friends and relatives who lived there. By late 1844 missionaries were preaching around the Merthyr Tydfil area including Carmarthen some forty five miles away.
David Jeremy was the son of Thomas and Sarah Jeremy who was born in Carmarthen, November 14, 1821. Converted to Mormonism in 1846 he was for some years president of the Brechfa Branch. He emigrated to Utah in 1855 and lived in Salt Lake City until his death on April 4, 1885. A short obituary described him as “quite and unassuming, but very honorable man, and much respected by his acquaintances”. While in Wales he and his brother Thomas E. did much missionary work.
Although Brigham Young spent about one year in England as a missionary, it was round the Liverpool and London areas. As well as being Church president (1847-77) he also served as Governor of the Utah Territory (1850-58) and as such had jurisdiction over the Utah Militia. The “Minute men” appear to be men able to be called out at a moment’s notice to fight Indian attacks in one part of the Territory. At the risk of stating what you already know, Ricy Jones served a Mission to South Wales from, 1884-1886.
Sincerely, James L. Kimball, Jr. – Research Librarian
My main questions had been who was David Jeremy who baptized Uncle Ricy into the faith (I have since discovered that Mrs. Ruth Jones who lives on a neighboring farm to me is a descendant of David Jeremy) Did Brigham Young ever visit Wales, and what was a Minute Man which is answered above Minute Men appear to be men able to be called out at a moments notice to fight Indian attacks in one part of the Territory. The writer unfortunately confuses Uncle Ricy and his son Ricy Howel Jones – who was the missionary to Wales. Uncle Ricy never came home in sole only in heart !
Children of the 2nd Family Ricy & Margaret Jones