listened to their teachings, there must have been some real soul-searching before they were willing to leave his lucrative locksmith business, her brothers and sisters who lived nearby, and his family, for a new religious cause.
It was in the year 1850 that the glad tidings of Mormonism came to
Joseph and Elizabeth Newman in Willenhall.
Joseph Newman was baptized December 15 1850, and
his wife was baptized January 14, 1851. In 1852, they began paying into the Church Immigration Fund, preparatory to coming to Utah to be with the Saints. In obedience to the spirit of “gathering to Zion,” they left their all and faced the trials of emigrating to a new land. However, they were fortified by their faith and testimony of this great latter-day work.
Millennial Star, Vol. XV pp 154, 288 and 361, records this trip across the ocean:
“Under the direction of Joseph W. Young, who had presided over the Preston Conference, a company of 345 Saints sailed from Liverpool on February 15, 1853, on board the ship ‘Elvira Owen’.
[John WOOD and Ellen SMITH also sailed on the Elvira Owen on this date. Their son John WOOD Jr. and Sarah Jane GIBSON the NEWMAN‘s grand daughter, married in 1882.] “On March 23, 1853, after a most speedy voyage lasting only 36 days, the Elvira Owen’ arrived at the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Three births, three marriages and three deaths occurred during the voyage. There were a few cases of small- pox which, however, did not prove fatal, and the disease did not spread to any great extent.
“Captain Owen treated the jSaints ewith much kindness, especially the sick, and a memorial. Expressive of their gratitude for his fatherly canduct to all, was presented to him by the passengers.
“After being detained at the bar several days, the ’Elvira Owen’ was towed up the river, and the emigrants landed in New Orleans on March 31. Proceeding up the Mississippi River, the emigrants arrived at Keokuk, Iowa, on the 13 April, being two days short of two months from Liverpool, which was considered an extraordinarily rapid journey.”
The Church Emigration Records #6184, pt 1, and @38335, pt. 6, state that among the 345 passengers aboard the 955 ton ship ‘Elvira Owen’, was the Joseph Newman family, from Willenhall, Staffordshire England, listed as follows:
Joseph Newman, jobbing smith, age 43Elizabeth Newman, age 41John Newman, age 14
Ann Newman, age 12William Newman, age 10
Joseph Newman, age 7
James Newman, age 5
Thomas S. Newman, age 11 months
Keokuk, Iowa, had been selected as the outfitting place for the Saints crossing the plains in 1853. Therefore, it is likely that these Saints made necessary preparations at Keokuk, for their wagon train trek across the plains.
Journal History of the Church (#38335, pt 12) records that this company of Saints crossed the plains in the Claudius V. Spencer Company.
Not too much is known of this eventful trip, the hardships, the sickness, the weary feet and backs, the Indian raids, the heat, or the happy times around the wagon enclosures at night, but, as in all such treks in the 1853’s, they had their sorrows and their joys.
A letter written by Claudius V. Spencer to President Brigham Young, tells us the care and concern Claudius V. Spencer had for the members of his company, which letter I her quote: (Journal History pt 12.)
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"Revered and Beloved President Young:
"I have received your notice to emigrating Saints and improve the first opportunity to forward the list of our camp, which I believe is correct. Provisions with us and with other camps are very short and we are making as much haste as possible to reach the Valley, but the inexperience of the English brethren in these canyons makes slow progress and much trouble and will forbid my leaving camp until all the wagons are safely landed at the foot of Emigration Canyon. Any instructions you might choose to send by the bearer of this, respecting disposal of the camp, that point will be thankfully received.
Very truly yours,
(signed) Claudius V. Spencer."
A list of the immigrants, which included the Joseph Newman family, was sent with the above letter to President Brigham Young.
Journal History of the Church, dated Sep 17, 1853, p 3, records that this Company of Saints, under the able direction of Captain Claudius V. Spencer, arrived at their destination on Sep 24, 1853.
On their trek westward, how often their eyes must have turned to the sunset horizon, for the coolness and quiet of the night and their much needed rest before another day's journey. They must have become weary of the shifting sands, the sameness of the scenery, but always they were spurred on by their great purpose in coming, "to gather to Zion." No doubt, burial mounds were in evidence along the route and brought sadness to their hearts. The life of a pioneer is ever one of labor, of privation and hardship.
As the Company entered the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, no doubt their fatigue was partially forgotten in the glad welcome they received. How the Saints in the Valley must have looked forward to the emigrant trains, with friends and loved ones en route. They must have watched for the cloud of dust which told of the coming of the wagons.
We can little realize the joy of our forebears as they arrived to settle down among the Saints in Zion; nor can we realize their anxiety or fully understand the urgency of the planning and the work necessary in late September, to again establish a home and provide food and clothing for the family, with winter so close at hand, in a city about six years old. In the Joseph Newman family there were six children between the ages of fourteen years and sixteen months, to house, clothe and feed.
Perhaps Joseph Auslander expresses their feelings in these lines:
"Here, at Freedom's door, they stand;
Here, at Freedom's door, they start;
A new life takes them by the hand;
A new hope takes them by the heart."
It is a tradition in our family that President Brigham Young assigned the Newman family to settle in Big Cottonwood, located in the southeast part of the Valley, some ten miles from the Church headquarters in Salt Lake City. For two years they lived in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Then Joseph Newman acquired considerable acreage by purchase from a Mr. Henry Lee and the Newman family built a home and became tillers of the soil. This was an entirely new occupation from that of a locksmith. Joseph Newman had learned blacksmithing in England and this trade he also followed here.
My family tell me that Joseph Newman was a good, honest man. He was broad shouldered, ruddy complexioned, quite stout of build, of medium height, with blue eyes and auburn colored hair. I did not know him, as he died fifteen years before I was born.
I well remember Elizabeth Newman, our grandmother, as being a little woman, perhaps five feet tall. She was small boned and slender.
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She had blue eyes and light brown hair. She was a delicate type of woman, refined and quiet in her ways. She was a happy person to be around.
I must tell you something about Big Cottonwood. The land was fertile and productive of good crops. There were many trees and wooded areas of Cottonwood trees. There was low growing shrubbery of haw, squaw and sarvice berry bushes and there were choke cherry trees. The land had to be cleared, for wild sage brush and scrub oak were abundant. Sego and sand lillies, buttercups, dog-tongues, cowslips and musk were on the low hills. The shady areas under the oak trees grew yellow violets in profusion. Big Cottonwood Creek wended its crooked way an eighth of a mile below the Newman home.
Big Cottonwood was originally known as Holladay's Settlement and Holladay Burgh. It was settled in the spring of 1848 by John Holladay, (Captain John D. Holladay) Peter Doudle, William and Benjamin Mathews, Washington Gibson, Allen Smithson and others, who arrived in the Valley with the pioneers of July 1847. This group of Saints settled on Spring Creek, about three miles below the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. They settled close together and built a number of log cabins. This village was the first founded in Utah outside of Salt Lake City and was called Holladay's Brugh, in honor of John Holladay, one of the first settlers, and its first acting Bishop. He presided from 1849-1851. After his departure, there were others appointed as acting Bishops. By October 1853, the population in Holladay Settlement, then known as Big Cottonwood, had increased to 161 souls. In 1856, David Brinton was made Bishop of the Ward. On May 3, 1857, Joseph Newman was ordained a High Priest by Alexander Hill. Joseph Newman and Elizabeth, his wife, and their children attended meetings in the Big Cottonwood Ward.
Opportunities for education in the school room were limited at that early day. In 1852, a one room adobe building was built south of Big Cottonwood Creek, and later other school houses were built and good teachers were provided. The children learned to read, write and do arithmetic in school in the winter months, but the Newman children were kept busy helping their father on the farm in the spring, summer and fall seasons. They "learned to do by doing, " and were pretty much self-taught and self-educated. They had little time for formal education.
In 1858, on account of the approach of Johnson's Army, President Brigham Young counseled the Saints of Big Cottonwood to remove to Beaver Valley. However, the Saints went only as far as the Provo River and were told to remain there and a few months later, in July, they returned to their homes.
Joseph Newman married in polygamy, Elizabeth Paine, for his second wife. They had one daughter named Elizabeth Ann, born April 6, 1863. This wife left him and Elizabeth Hughes Newman reared the daughter Elizabeth Ann with her own family.
Joseph Newman had now been in the Valley about seventeen years. He continued to farm his land, to care for the vegetable garden and to follow his backsmithing trade.
Because Joseph Newman could get a better price for produce from his farm, he sold it to Fort Douglas instead of through the Church channels, and he also did horse-shoeing for Fort Douglas. For this he was cut-off the Church. The Church Record states that he was cut-off the Church on July 3, 1870, which was seven years before his death. (Early Church Information File) In 1923, Thomas Samuel, the youngest son of Joseph Newman and Elizabeth Hughes Newman, interviewed a member of the First Presidency of the Church, explaining the situation to him. The matter was taken up with the First Presidency of the Church, consisting of Presidents Heber J. Grant, Charles W. Penrose and A. W. Ivins, and they wrote and signed a letter to the Salt Lake Temple (and I have a copy of this letter) authorizing the baptisms and confirming of all former blessings upon Joseph Newman and Elizabeth Hughes Newman. This is a matter of record in the Salt Lake Temple in Book 3 "O" , pp 176, 755, dated February 20 and 21, 1923.
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About 1870, Joseph and Elizabeth Hughes Newman moved to Salt Lake City. This left in the home in Holladay the two sons James and Thomas, who fared for themselves. However, in May 1877, the youngest son Thomas was married and went into his newly built adobe home not very far from his father's home.
On July 21, 1877, Joseph Newman died of apoplexy in Salt Lake City. He is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. The Deseret News gives the following obituary:
"In the Seventh Ward, Salt Lake City, Utah, at 11 o'clock p.m., July 21, 1877, JOSEPH NEWMAN, age 68 years. Deceased was born at Lanehead, Staffordshire, England."
After the death of her husband, the home in Salt Lake City was sold and Elizabeth Newman then lived in the old home in Holladay with her son James, as her other children were married and living in homes of their own. When she was older, Grandmother Newman lived with her sons James and Thomas, as Joseph's wife had poor health.
Elizabeth HUGHES NEWMAN
I well remember Grandmother Newman when she lived with us. She used to shell peas, fresh from the garden. She would hull strawberries, peel potatoes, prepare fruit for drying and help all she could. Now her eye-sight was fast failing. For a number of years she was totally blind. Mother and Aunt Annette Newman were very good to Grandmother Newman. They cared for her every need. Grandmother always seemed to be appreciative of their kind attention to her. Mother, busy with household tasks, would often say to one of us children, "Go see how your Grandmother is." Grandmother loved to have us sit by her bedside when she was very old and she would tell us about old England and her early life there.
Grandmother Elizabeth Newman lived on for another thirty years. On June 4, 1907, at twenty minutes to eleven in the evening, she passed away at the home of her son James. She was in her ninety-sixth year. She is buried beside her husband Joseph Newman in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. The marker at Joseph Newman's grave became broken and the identification thereon missing, so in May 1971, a new marker was placed at his grave.
Joseph Newman and Elizabeth Hughes Newman were blessed with a family of seven children, all born in Willenhall, Staffordshire, England, or at Portabello, a small hamlet within the town of Willenhall.
We are indebted to entries in the Joseph Newman family Bible for the exact date and time of night or day that the children were born.
There now follows a brief life sketch of each of these children:
SAMUEL NEWMAN
SAMUEL, their oldest son was born December 28, 1836, at twenty minutes past nine o'clock in the morning. This child died about a month later, on January 22, 1837.
JOHN NEWMAN
JOHN NEWMAN, their second son was born January 27, 1838, at half past seven o'clock in the morning. He was fourteen years of age when the family came to the Valley. In Big Cottonwood, he was a real help to his father on the farm. He learned the blacksmith trade from his father. He was also a carpenter.
At the early age of twenty-one years, he and Sarah Matilda Marchant of Peoa, Summit County, Utah, were married on December 25, 1859. She was born in Bath, Sommerset, England, September 1, 1841, daughter of Abraham Marchant and Lydia Johnson.
Their first three children were born in Big Cottonwood. They moved to Peoa, Summit County, Utah, where ten additional children were born
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to them, making in all, a family of thirteen children. Later he moved with his family to Idaho, settling in the vicinity of Milo, Bingham County.
John NEWMAN familyHe was a farmer of many acres. He also did blacksmithing. He made his own shoeing hammer and clinching iron.
He was a good man, full of faith and good works. They reared their family according to Latter-day Saint ideals. He was a faithful ward teacher. He was a kind-hearted man. He would cry after he had punished one of his children.
His family say that he enjoyed hunting. He was a good friend to the Indians and sometimes went hunting with them. One time he was hunting and saw two deer. He shot and killed one of them. As he raised his gun to shoot the other deer, a voice said to him, "Don't kill more than you need." There he saw a man with a long white beard. He turned to look at the deer and when he looked back the man had disappeared.
Their children are John Henry, Abraham William, Sarah Matilda (dec at age 10 days) Lydia Marie, Joseph Alma, Elizabeth Mae, Robert Marchant, James Johnson, Albert Samuel, Mary Ann, Amelia Sophia, Emily Florence and Franklin Hughes. (All deceased)
John Newman passed away full in the faith of the Church, on July 18, 1902, at Milo, Bingham County, Idaho, age 64 years. His wife, Sarah Marchant Newman died January 20, 1910, at Milo, Idaho, and is buried by the side of her husband, in the Milo Cemetery.
ANN ELIZABETH, the third child, was born on June 29, 1840, at thirty-five minutes past four o'clock in the afternoon. She being the only daughter in the family, was most helpful to her mother. She had dark hair, blue eyes and was of medium build. She grew up with her brothers on the farm in Big Cottonwood.
At the early age of sixteen years, on March 15, 1856, she was married to George Washington Gibson, who was born June 17, 1800, in Union County, .South Carolina, son of Robert Gibson and Mary Evans.
Their first two children were born in Big Cottonwood, where the father had land on Walker's Lane. Their next three children were born in Grafton, about seven miles from Virgin, Washington County, Utah. Later they moved to Duncan's Retreat, also in Washington County, and here their sixth and last child was born.
Their children are Ann Elizabeth, George Andrew,
Sarah Jane, Mary Ardilca [Ardillacy], Joshua Newman and James William. (All deceased)
George Washington Gibson was a farmer and he also raised horses and cattle. He passed away on August 17, 1871, at Duncan's Retreat.
Later,
Ann Elizabeth Newman Gibson married a man named Bradshaw. After the birth of a stillborn child, Ann died February 8, 1875, and is buried in the Holladay Cemetery.
WILLIAM HUGHES NEWMANWILLIAM HUGHES NEWMAN, their fourth child was born July 21, 1842, at fifteen minutes past two o'clock in the morning. He was ten years of age when they came to Utah. He helped his father on their farm, with chores, farming and fruit raising.
On April 13, 1867, he married Jane Ann Allen, daughter of James Home Allen and Susanna Smith. She was born February 21, 1838, at Eaton, Yorkshire, England.
In 1873, William Newman was called to the mission field. On November 21, 1873, he wrote a letter to his mother from Hamilton County, Nebraska. I give this letter in part as follows:
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"Dear Mother:
I take the opportunity of writing you a few lines. I am well at present as I hope this will find you. I got two letters from Jane Ann and one from Ellen (Jane Ann's sister) when I got here last night. Glad to hear they are all well and hope they and yourself will continue to until I get home, which I expect will not be until spring, if then. I will be glad to see you all again but as duty calls me here, this is the place for me. You know the Savior taught, 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things shall be added.' I have met a few men in my travels who denounce the Bible and God Himself and of all men they are most miserable.
I wish, if you have any of the Millennial Stars that we brought from England, that you would take care of them for me, or if you would ask the boys if they have any, and get them for me. I want to read them. There is a lot of information in them in relation to the rise and progress of the Church.
Give my respects to all and my love to the boys and the family. You can let them see this letter and Jane Ann also, and give my love to her and accept the same yourself.
From your affectionate son,
(signed) W. H. Newman"
We are happy to have this letter from William Hughes Newman, for we knew little of him. He built a house on Casto Lane in Big Cottonwood, where he resided until his passing on November 23, 1883. Aunt Jane Ann Newman continued to live in the home. They had no children. She spent much time visiting those who were lonely and sick and helped where there was sickness among her family and friends.
Jane Ann Newman passed away February 19, 1927, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years . She had been a widow for forty-four year. William Hughes and Jane Ann Newman are both buried in the Holladay Cemetery.
JOSEPH PARTRIDGE NEWMAN
JOSEPH PARTRIDGE NEWMAN, the fifth child, was born February 20, 1845, at half past eight o'clock in the evening. He was reared in Big Cottonwood and worked on the farm with his father and brothers.
At the age of thirty-one, on May 1, 1876, he married Eliza Ann Moses, who was born August 9, 1850, at Kanesville, Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, daughter of James Moses and Eliza Spencer. They were the parents of nine children, all born in Big Cottonwood and were reared in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Joseph Newman acquired considerable acreage near his father's home in Big Cottonwood, which he later sold to his brother Thomas Samuel. He bought fifteen acres of land from his father, which had to be cleared of sage brush and undergrowth. He built his home nearer the settlement. He had a comfortable house, with beautiful evergreen trees planted in the front yard. He grew wheat, alfalfa, also corn and potatoes and had orchards and vegetable gardens. He was business-like in his ways. He also acquired a number of other pieces of land in the county. Wherever he had fruit trees and vegetable gardens, he always shared with his neighbors and was especially kind to widows and those in need. He, like his brothers, could shoe horses, as a blacksmith.
Joseph Newman was a self-educated man. He served as Constable of Holladay. At one time he was on the school board as Trustee and also Treasurer. For one year he freighted by ox-team to Great Falls, Montana.
Joseph Newman is listed in the book "Biographies of Salt Lake City and Vicinity" published in 1902. Here he is given as a well-informed man and that he is numbered among the most successful men in his community and a prominent agriculturist of Salt Lake County. I quote, "He always voted for men whom he considered the best men for the office." In the
page 8
biography he is mentioned as a consistent member of the Mormon Church. Also, "that while making a name for himself as a thrifty, honest and upright man, he has at the same time, won and retained the highest regard of those with whom he lias associated, both in business and private life."
The children of Joseph and Eliza Moses Newman are:
Joseph Samuel (dec), Martha Edith (dec), James Moses (dec as child), John Spencer (dec at age 9 mo.), Ann Elizabeth (dec), Frank William (dec), Fredrick Partridge, Eliza and Adelaide.
Eliza Ann Moses Newman passed away April 7, 1902, after a long illness and is buried in the Holladay Cemetery.
In 1910, Joseph Partridge Newman moved to Salt Lake City and resided at 2148 South 8th East, in the Forest Dale Ward. He died October 19, 1923, and is buried beside his wife in the Holladay Cemetery.
JAMES NEWMAN
JAMES NEWMAN was the sixth child of this family, born April 4, 1847, at four o'clock in the afternoon. He, like his brothers, helped on the farm and learned the blacksmith trade from his father. After his father's death, he and his mother lived at the home in Big Cottonwood.
As early as 1875, James Newman homesteaded 80 acres near his father's home in Big Cottonwood. The deed to this property was dated September 10, 1875, and signed by President Ulysses S. Grant. On this land James Newman and my father, Thomas Newman, erected an adobe home, for these two brothers helped each other build their houses.
At the age of forty-five years, James Newman married Annette Olsen, on November 23, 1892, She was born in Oby, Sweden, January 23, 1869, the daughter of Paul Olson and Charsti Matson. They were the parents of seven children, all born in Big Cottonwood.
Uncle James Newman's farm joined father's land. He raised alfalfa, grain, potatoes, corn and he also had fruit trees and a vegetable garden. With the implements of that day, it was quite a task to till the soil and make it productive. I remember the sugar cane that he and father grew, and the great vat and the horse going round and round as the juice was squeezed out of the sugar cane, and how we enjoyed the sorgum and molasses.
James Newman was musically inclined like my father and played the violin by ear. He also made a violin.
My sisters and I attended the Twenty-eighth District School with the oldest of the James Newman children, and we have pleasant memories of our association with our cousins.
Aunt Annette Newman was a charming woman , who had such a sunny, pleasant face and was quick of speech and had such industrious, energetic ways. She was an immaculate housekeeper and had a wonderful flower garden which was admired by one and all.
Uncle James Newman was a kindly, thoughtful man, with keen blue eyes and reddish hair. He was rather slender of build.
The children of James and Annette Newman are James Leroy, Alice, Ann, Eva Mildred, Ershel William, Maude and David. Eva and David are deceased.
James Newman passed away August 31, 1935, at Holladay and is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery, at Salt Lake City. His wife, Annette Olsen Newman, died December 23, 1947, in Holladay and is buried by her husband in the Mount Olivet Cemetery.
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THOMAS SAMUEL NEWMAN
THOMAS SAMUEL NEWMAN, my father, was the youngest son and seventh child of Joseph Newman and Elizabeth Hughes Newman. He was born.May 8, 1852, at twenty-five minutes past eleven o'clock in the morning. He was about sixteen months old when the family reached the Valley. As soon as he was old enough, he helped his father and brothers on the farm in Big Cottonwood. He also knew something about black-smithing, for he worked with his father and later continued to shoe horses he used in his farm work. I remember father shoeing horses and the forge and bellows, the anvil and the heavy hammer and horseshoe nails.
Thomas Newman had a span of mules and a wagon and hauled logs and lumber from Big Cottonwood Canyon and he hauled ore down to the smelter. He was sturdy and strong of build, of medium height. He purchased acreage from his brother Joseph and commenced forming on his own.
Father and his brother James learned to make adobes and they used this skill in making the adobes for their own homes. Father's home was located about a mile north of the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon.
When he was twenty-five years old, he married Caroline Mariah Wayman, daughter of Emmanuel Wayman and Margaret Johnston Wayman. She was born January 25, 1857, in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were married May 14, 1877, at the Church Historian's Office in Salt Lake City, by Daniel H. Wells. Later, when the Logan Temple was completed, they were endowed and sealed for eternity in the Logan Temple, on June 15, 1887, and they had their first five sons sealed to them. They were blessed with a family of eleven children, nine of whom grew to maturity. Their names are: Samuel Reuben (dec), Joseph Emmanuel (dec), William Thomas (dec), Albert James, Robert Howell (dec), Elizabeth Mariah, Margaret Ann, Ethel Cecilia, Florence and Gertrude (twins, dec. soon after birth) and Clarence Jay, who is known as "Jay C."
Through their thrifty habits, father and mother acquired considerable land in Big Cottonwood (Holladay). He built an eleven room more comfortable home nearer the settlement. Father made a good living for his family.
Father was always actively engaged in church work, as a home teacher, a stake missionary and Sunday School teacher. He was a man of great faith and was often called to the homes of relatives and ward members to administer to the sick.
Between 1894-1896, father filled an honorable mission for the church to the British Isles. While there, in Willenhall and nearby towns he visited with Newman and Hughes relatives and saw the place where he was born, the old shop where his father worked in Willenhall and the old shop in Lanehead where his father served his apprenticeship with a man named Colburn.
In "Biographies of Salt Lake City and Vicinity, " published in 1902, a sketch was given of father. It states that he had one of the finest homes in Salt Lake County; that he had acquired considerable acreage and farm land; that he was prominent in educational affairs; that he is an active and faithful member of the Mormon Church and that he had a large circle of friends in the community.
Father was a Trustee of the Twenty-eighth District School for many years. He was also a Director of the Upper Canal Irrigation and Holladay Water Companies in Holladay.
After an active life in Church and community, father passed away at home, after several months of illness, on December 5, 1925, at the age of seventy-three and one-half years. He is buried in the Holladay Cemetery. Mother lived for another thirty-two years. She died on January 7, 1957, at the age of one hundred years, less eighteen days. She is buried by the side of father.
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ELIZABETH ANN NEWMAN SMITH
ELIZABETH ANN NEWMAN, the daughter of Joseph Newman and Elizabeth Paine, was born April 6, 1863, in Salt Lake City. She was reared by Elizabeth Hughes Newman.
When eighteen years of age, Elizabeth Ann. was married on October 28, 1881, to George Fred Smith of Farmington, Davis County, Utah. They made their home in Big Cottonwood, where they had seven children, namely, Orson James, Thomas Reuben (dec), Florence Elizabeth, Catherine Debora, Hazel (dec. as child), George Earl (dec) and Nellie Ann (dec).
The members of this family have all been actively engaged in Church service.
Elizabeth Ann Newman Smith died February 1, 1895, and is buried in the Murray City Cemetery. Her husband died May 14, 1942.
IN CONCLUSION:To our progenitors, we should be most grateful that they made it possible for us to be born in this favored land of America; that they heeded the Gospel call; that they were willing to leave relatives and friends who were near and dear to them and come to this distant, unknown land, trusting in the Lord to preserve and bless them in their endeavors.
President J. Reuben Clark has beautifully expressed it in these words:
"Urged by the spirit of gathering and led by a burning testimony of the truth of the Restored Gospel, thousands upon tens of thousands of these humble souls, one from a city, two from a family, have bade farewell to friends and homes and loved ones, and with sundered heart strings, companioned with privation and with sacrifice even to life itself, these multitudes have made their way to Zion, to join those who were privileged to come earlier, that all might build up the Kingdom of God on earth, - all welded together by common hardship and suffering, never -ending work and deep privation, tragic woes and heart-eating griefs, abiding faith and exalting joy, firm testimony and living spiritual knowledge - a mighty people, missioned with the salvation, not only of the living, but of the dead also, saviors not worshippers of their ancestors, their hearts aglow with the divine fire of the spirit of Elijah, who turns the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers."
We should be humbly proud of these our forebears. Rosannah Cannon expresses my feelings about them, in the following lines:
"Such a deep and reverent pride is in my heart,
Such thanks for this wide land; there is no part
Of my impassioned soul but raply cleaves
To every native thing - these tawny leaves,
These dusty hills, this hazy stretch of plain,
October sun and chill, November rain.
Why should I not feel kin to this dark earth?
My race it was to which this soil gave birth.
The sturdy folk I spring from toiled and fought
Here to build homes, and slowly, slowly, wrought
Familiar miracles with seed and plow -
The once dry wastes are fertile valleys now.
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Heroes were they, this eager, questing line
Of men who perished in a cause divine,
Of women, fragile instruments of fate,
To usher in a new race, strong and straight,
A tribe of gallant leaders, still unbowed -
Of these am I - why should I not be proud?"
As a tribute to the past, a record for the future and a message to posterity, I dedicate these pages to my loving progenitors.
I am indebted to various family members for facts regarding my father's brothers and sisters.
Compiled and written by Margaret Ann Newman Wells, granddaughter of Joseph Newman and Elizabeth Hughes Newman, and daughter of Thomas Samuel Newman.
Dated June 4, 1973.
original written by Margaret Ann NEWMAN WELLS
[Margaret Ann Newman Wells, second wife and widow of John Wells, 1864-1941 Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric]
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