Notes

Note N754 Index

ShipName Arrival Port POD1 POD2 POD3 POD4 POA1 POA2 POA3 POA4 POA5 Fla g Captain Nationality1 Nationality2 Nationality3 Crew Tons Line manife st
Raby Castle 10/8/1832 SWANSEA RICHARDSON, ROBERT Wales
[from: http://www.cimorelli.com/cgi-bin/magellanscripts/ship_dates_volume.asp ?ShipName=Raby+Castle 2013-12-24]

Notes

Note N755 Index

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From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 2 January 1996.

# 2 Edward married (2) Stoker, Almira Jane Wilson or Wilkens
#3 Llewellyn married (2) Banks, Sarah Jane
# 7 John married (2) Nelsen, Annie Douglas

BIOGRAPHY: This History of William Jones Thomas (Pioneer) came for The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Of Camp Mt. Flonette USA, Utah, Utah County, Spanish Fork. Written by Edelbert Pasooe Thomas His grandson. and Mildred Knicely grandaughter.

A brief history of the life of William Jones Thomas and the family experiences as told by son Edward Phillip thomas on January 24, 1910 at Palmyra, Utah to his son Edelbert Pascooe Thomas and added to from information gleaned fro m other sources since that date.

William Jones Thomas was the eldest son, born on the M ascadlaur farm in Glamorganshire, Wales, South Wales . He died from cancer of the stomach. He was buried in the Salt Lake Cit y Cemetery. Several years later his children decided to remove his remains and bury him by the side of his wife who ha d died in the meantime.
Father had buried a former wife named Elizabeth Thomas and their daughter Margret in Castell, Llangynard, Wales in the year 1839.

Father joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints in 1855. We left Wales in 1857, we came west as far as Saint Louis, Missouri. In July of the same year I went to work with my father in the coal mines near Saint Louis , We worked at this mine Father, Mother and the family went on steamboat up the Missouri River to Florince where we stopped a short time. From here we started West but did not have teams enough to travel. Father rented a farm and we tried farming but soon we all took sick with Fever and Ague and there was not one able to wait on another.

Father was very sick for 13 months and we got very poor in a financial way. We had no cows, we simply had nothing . We children worked for the neighboring farmers for potataoes, corn and wheat. When father got well he took up 160 acres of land. We built a house with no windows and a door of common lumber and the roof was covered with grass laid on willows, than dirt spread over them.

One day in November of this same year a great flock of wild chickens flying south was like a cloud in the sky. They flew against the trees and house, stunning them so we wer e able to hit them with sticks. We killed great numbers of them and dressed them and hung them to freeze in the trees and on the side of the house. This was a Godsend to us, and saved us from suffering of hunger.

In April of the following year we were greatly blessed . A man rode into our yard and spoke to Mother in Welsh saying , "how do you do". He recognized Mother as being Welsh by her dress. She answered him in Welsh, He then said, " I presume by the looks of your place you folks are very poor". He then siad that he had been obliged to leave a good cow that had lost her calf and that we may have it. Father was very weak but was glad for the chance. Father and I took a rope and a cup and went back to find the cow. When we arrived at the ferry where these cattle were farried across the Missouri River we found hundreds of cattle that were being ferried across the river. We thought it would be next to impossible to find the heifer among so many. Something seemed to tell father to ask the Captain of the ferry boat, which he did. The captain said, "yes I saw it not an hour ago". While we were sitting on a log wondering which way to go to find her the captain shouted, "there is your heifer now". It seemed like an act of providence that she should come right to where we were.

Father drank freely of the milk all the way home, this acted as a great body builder to him. After getting the cow home our diet was much better and we were very thankful . Our health was greatly improved as a result of having the milk. In the three years at this place we gained a great deal in a financial way. We now had three yoke of oxen and a yoke of cows and an old wagon. We again started for Utah.

On our way across the plains a man by the name of William Thomas who was traveling with us had considerable troble getting his ox team to go. One day they balked and father left his own team in charge of brother Lew, who had been begging father for days to let him drive, with instructions not to move until he (father) returned. Instead Llewellyn started the oxen and he seemed to have a spell over them because they proformed better than they had ever preformed before. Father didn't scold Llewellyn for going on and disobeying his orders, instead he said, "Llewellyn, brother Thomas has need for you". From then on Llewellyn was in demend as a teamster.

This same summer we met a party of Johnsons army coming back from Utah. We met them on the Sweet-water River in Wyoming. They took their bayonets to our cattle and drove them into the tall sage brush. At Devils Gate one yoke of cattle became so tender footed we could hardley get them to move.
We arrived in Salt Lake, October 1861 and settled in the eleventh ward. That winter I lived with my Uncle Samuel David on the Weber river below Ogden, Utah. While I lived in Salt Lake City I made three trips back to the Missouri River for immigrants. Former Church president Joseph F. Smith was Captain of one of the companies.

After ariving in Utah father received some money from his father's estate under the terms of a will dated January 24 1863 and executed on November 28, 1863. In which he willed to each of his five children two hundred pounds (about one thosand dollars). When father received this money he went to Bishop Thurber and asked him what to do with it . He was told to buy a Threshing Machine, which he did. He went back to Omaha and bought it and trailed it by mule teams to Spanish fork. This was the first treshing machine south of Salt Lake County. I went by team and wagon to meet my father. Soon after leaving Salt Lake I over took two men who stopped me and climbed into my wagon and made themselves quite at home. They rode with me and ate my food unti l I was afraid we would be without food. One of the men took my rifle and shot some rabbits and the other stole some vegetables along the road which helped out some. These men rode with me to Fort Bridger, Wyoming. Here they got out and went over to the Fort. This was in the early evening, I fed my horses then hitched them up and drove on and left them. When I reached near the place where I was to meet father , the sun was just coming up and I could see an object in the distance, up on the ridge moving toward me. I could not make it out at first, but as it came into view I could recognize fathers walk. I ran to meet him. When we met neither of us could speak. We walked some distance then fathers aid to me, "MY boy, how is Motaher and the folks? " I could not speak yet, soon I began to cry then I could tell him about mother.

When the saints were colonizing both north and south of Salt Lake City father was called to captain a number of Welsh families and settle in Malad, Idaho. We were all ready to move north when father was called into the Church office and asked if he would go to Spanish Fork with several Welsh families, which he did. The first home was a two roomed adobe house on the corner where the Ed. Williams home now stands. Later father made the adobes for a three roomed house with a basemant (called a cellar) and built that home on main street where mother lived until her death. Father took a number of Welsh families into his home to help them to get located. Some of them remained with him for months. He even helped them make adobes and build their houses. Among the families taken in were those of John P. Jones and family. Mr. Jones was so crippled with rheumatism that he had to be lifted into and out of a wagon and remained in that condition for two or three months. They lived with us all this time. Marintha Jones Milner was two years old at the time and Wren Jones was born while they were still with us.

Father only lived in Spanish Fork for three years until his death but he was one of the leading men of the town.

SHIP RECORDS: "The George Washington" departed 28 Mar 1857 from Liver pool, England and arrived 20 April 1857 in Boston Massachussettes. William Jones Thomas and his Wife Margaret were listed on it along with their children: Anne, Edward, William, Maragaret, Lleewellyn and John, But they are also listed on the Tuscarora, that left on 30 May 1857 Liverpool and arrived 3 Jul 2857 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So we must assume that for some reason they missed the George Washington. [Jones_MeridethMargaret-1788.ged][Thomas_WilliamJones-1811.ged]

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Thomas, William Jones
Gender: Male
Birth date: 11 Dec 1811
Birthplace: Maescadlawr Farm, Glamorganshire
Death date:
Deathplace:
Departure: Left Liverpool on 28 Mar 1857 aboard the George Washington
Arrival: Arrived in Boston on 20 Apr 1857
Marriage(s): Married to Phillips, Margaret on 26 Oct 1840 at Monknash, Glamorganshire
Sources:
Resources:
Comments:
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Location of Thomas residences in Wales. William Jones Thomas was born at Maescadlawr and later lived in Llangynwyd, where some of his children were born. His father, Edward Thomas, was born at Nant Mwth Farm, Bettws.

Headstone Inscription
Our Mother Margaret Phillips wife of William J. Thomas Born: February 28, 1815 in Monk Nash, Glamorganshire, South Wales Died: June 9, 1889 Our Father William J. Thomas Born: May 18, 1811 in the Parish of Llangynwyd, Glamorganshire, South Wales Died: October 26,, 1866 Our Parents name will never die, Their record is engraved on high, While here on earth this stone will tell, We cherish their dear memory well.

[Thomas_Llewellyn-1853.ged]