b. 18 December 1822 Withypool, Somerset, England
chr. 12 May 1823 Withypool, Somerset, England
m. 28 June 1851 Bristol, Gloucestershire, England
d. 7 August 1903 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
b. 9 August 1903 Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah
Father: Philip Pugsley
Mother: Mary Baker
Wives: Martha Roach, Clarissa Ames
Among the men who have been foremost in developing the industries of Utah is Mr. Philip Pugsley. Claiming simply the rank of one of the hard workers of the country and promoters of our local enterprises, he has won a legitimate place in the history of our Territory. He was the first known among our early leather manufacturers; at a later date Pugsley & Randall built and successfully ran the Ogden Woolen Factory; still more recently he engaged in the iron and coal industries, and, indeed, there is scarcely a home enterprise with which the name of Philip Pugsley has not been identified. But we will trace his career in its biographical order, in which we shall meet with many footmarks of one of the foremost industrial men of Utah.
From a Deseret Evening News column called "Life in Utah Fifty Years Ago: Compiled From the Files of The Deseret News of 1868." April 22, 1918, Section 4, page 1.
Philip Pugsley was born December 18th, 1822 in the parish of Witheypool [Withypool], Somersetshire, England. His father’s name was also Philip; he was born in the parish of Shirwell, Devonshire. His mother’s name was Mary Baker; she was a Somersetshire woman. The father moved to Darlick, parish of North Moulton [North Molton], Devonshire. This Darlick belonged to a family of the name of Mersons [Merson], who were the head stock-raisers of the North Devon stock, and Father Pugsley was in their employ.
Somerset.
From Wikipedia.
Devon.
From Wikipedia.
When Pugsley, Jun., was a boy, before railroads were built, he traveled over the principal parts of England with this stock. Much of the stock was shipped to America. He traveled about fourteen years in this employ.
When the forest of Exmore [Exmoor] was cut down and divided up into farms, Pugsley soon became a principal contractor of the work, and his son had charge of his men for three years. Afterwards young Pugsley went to Bristol, in 1846, and went into the employ of H. W. Green, a large maltster, brewer and hop-dealer. For seven years he had entire charge of the brewery.
It was in Bristol that the subject of our sketch became connected with the Mormon church, and was baptized in July, 1846, by Elder George Halliday. After his baptism he influenced Elder Halliday to go down to Darlick, the result of which mission was the baptism of the Pugsley family—father, mother, and two sisters. [Added by granddaughter: "He served as conference clerk."]
It is worthy of note that while in Bristol our enterprising citizen learned the process of the japanning of leather, which was his start in the leather business in which he did so much after his emigration to Utah.
He left England in 1853, emigrating in the famous “ten-pound” companies sent to this country by Apostle F.D. Richards, crossing the sea in the ship Falcon, commanded by Captain Bennett. [Added: "Accompanying him was his wife, Martha Roach, and year-old son Joseph."] They arrived in New Orleans after a voyage of eight weeks. At Keokuk a company with wagons was organized to start for Council Bluffs, but it was found that the company had to throw away two-thirds of their luggage. Boxes were piled up in heaps on the Keokuk camping ground, but they had to further lighten up at Plank Road, opposite Nauvoo. The “Beautiful City,” as the name of Nauvoo, derived from the Book of Mormon [actually from the Hebrew], signified, still possessed sacred fascinations for the Saints; so, the company lying over for the Sunday, Philip Pugsley and others crossed the river from the Montrose side to Nauvoo, to view this place of so much historic fame, to ruminate on the memories of other days, and the sad change that had passed over the spirit of the scene since its evacuation by the great exodus to the Rocky Mountains. It was no longer the city of the beautiful, but the “Dead City,” as described in the graphic historical discourse of Colonel Thomas L. Kane. No Utah Mormon has ever visited that forsaken Zion without experiencing saddened feelings, and at the same time looking upon Nauvoo after the exodus as a remarkable sign that Latter-day Israel has indeed gone up to the chambers of the Rocky Mountains. To this day Brother Pugsley has vividly impressed upon his mind this visit to Nauvoo in his journey west. Father Wagh [George Peden Waugh] and he visited the Nauvoo House.
To be continued...
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
[Links to be added.]
The photo is of Philip and Martha Pugsley and two unidentified children. This biography comes from Tullidge's Quarterly Magazine, Vol. 2 Salt Lake City, Star Printing Company, Vol. 2, 1883. Photo of the horses on Exmoor from www.flickr.com/photos/thatbloke/286212297/. Photo of the wagon at Nauvoo from www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3783434157/.
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