A History of David Nathan Thomas and His Wives, Mary, Adeline, and Frances (Part 1)

David Nathan Thomas (1820-1888)

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting a biography of David Nathan Thomas. It was written by David's great-great granddaughter, Helen Rigby, and is reproduced here with her permission. Helen spent years collecting the information here, and visited and researched all the Thomas homes, from Wales, where David was born, to Utah and Arizona, where he died and is buried. We are all very grateful to Helen for her work, and also wish to thank her husband Jay and her sister Katie, who were a great help on the project.

I first met Helen several years ago when she found, through a visit to this blog, that my branch of the family had pictures of David Thomas and his second wife Adeline Springthorpe Thomas. It was a great privilege to get to meet Helen and work with her on placing a gravestone for Adeline Spingthorpe in Manti, Utah.

* * *

A History of David Nathan Thomas

and his wives,

Mary, Adeline & Frances

Written and compiled by Helen Price Rigby

March 2011

* * *

David N. Thomas

Born: 22 August 1820, Carmarthenshire, South Wales

Christened: 18 February 1821, Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, South Wales

Died: 14 August 1888, St. Johns, Apache, Arizona

Married Mary Howells: 5 November 1842, Caepantywyll, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

Married Adeline Springthorpe: 5 September 1862*, Nephi, Juab, Utah

Married Frances Springthorpe: 20 February 1871, Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

* The date for this marriage is disputed, but no evidence has been found to prove or disprove it.

* * *

David Nathan Thomas

South Wales, 1820-1862

His christened name was David Thomas. There were so many others with the name "David Thomas" that it is said that he took his mother's maiden name of Nathan as a middle name; however, on some of the records I have found, he only used the initial N. I don't think it was ever officially changed to David Nathan Thomas, but for clarity purposes I will use David Nathan Thomas as his name.

* * *

And that's all for today! To be continued...

Part 2: Life in Wales.
Part 3: Family joins Church; gets ready to go to America; Mary dies.
Part 4: Emigration to America.
Part 5: Ship Voyage; The Thomas Family Meets Adeline.
Part 6: Arrival in America, Castle Gardens, Crossing the Plains.
Part 7: The Down-and-Back Companies.
Part 8:
Part 9:
Part 10:

Catching Up, or "What to Do With All This Snow?"

It's been a snowy winter. We shoveled and we shoveled some more and were starting to wonder where we'd put any more snow. The piles of snow on the parking strips were higher than my kids. We couldn't see around corners in the car. 

And the potholes! An unusually early freeze-thaw cycle made roads look like something you'd see in a war zone. One road on the drive to church is so broken up that you can't drive straight in your own traffic lane. Someone joked, "You can tell who the drunks are because they're the ones driving in a straight line."

I feel like I'm snowed under with projects, too. I'm piling up sources on the parking strip and trying to see around corners and shovel a path through my to-do lists and project lists that seem to get longer and longer every week.

One spot of sunshine in a snowy winter (both literally and figuratively) was the news that an article I helped write a couple of years ago was recently posted on the Church History website, history.lds.org. 

It is a short biography of Green Flake, an African-American Mormon convert and member of the first pioneer company to enter the Salt Lake Valley, and it was very much an honor to be asked to help research and write this piece.

"In My Father's House Are Many Mansions": Green Flake's Legacy of Faith

* * *

So, here's a brief mention of some current and upcoming projects at TheAncestorFiles and elsewhere:

• The Eminent Women of the St. George Temple

(Upcoming biographies will highlight the Young-Bigelow-Mecham family)

• Continuing transcription and annotation of the diary of Ann Prior Jarvis

• The "Slaves in Zion" Project 

(See, for example, biographies of Marinda Redd Bankhead and Hark Lay Wales)

• Posting Helen Rigby's biography of David Nathan Thomas

* * *

The picture is of the Niagara Falls region in 2004. Due to the lake effect, they get more snow than we do, but this is about how things looked this winter. Picture from Flickr, courtesy of "Bud," with a generous Creative Commons license.

Ann Prior Jarvis Diary — April 7-9, 1884

Washington County Probate Court Divorce Records,  1882-1884.

April 7. Weather fine   spent the day well cooked hot dinner cooked cakes went in the evening to the first Ward Sun School entertainment walked home it hurt me very much

Tuesday 8. Weather fine I helped to clean the Temple went to see Em she is quite miserable — Anne was here her baby is quite sick I went to relief society work at patch work half gallon  ^milk paid 20 cents^

Wede^n^sney 9. pleasant spent the day washing ^&^ doing domestic work in the evening rode with Father to the field. Br Wilson and wife having a trial in the Court house Br Milne ^of course he is not drunk^ run Anne Guber off.

Notes.

"first Ward" — George and Ann Jarvis lived in the St. George First Ward.

"the field" — Mormon communities were planned so that the people lived close together and the farms were outside town. I'm not sure where the Jarvis land was, but in many cases the St. George families farmed in the area to the east of town. For a brief summary of Mormon community planning see the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, "City Planning," or a longer overview by Craig Galli, "Building Zion: The Latter-day Saint Legacy of Urban Planning."

Br Wilson and wife — Francis Marion Wilson (1836-1924) filed for divorce against his wife Emily Melissa Hancock (1849-1888) on April 9, 1884. The divorce was granted and the children were awarded to the mother.

Br Milne — son-in-law David Milne.

"Of course he is not drunk" — Ann could be pretty funny at times. There was a continual problem in early St. George with alcoholism, but "of course" it didn't involve her highly respectable son-in-law. (Or did it?)

Anne Guber — probably Anna Katherina Gubler (1825-1891). I have no idea what happened here, but an ongoing conflict in early St. George involved the friction between the English- and German-speaking settlers. Usually it was limited to name-calling and other adolescent bullying, but sometimes it flared up into bitter court battles.

Sources.

Galli, Craig D. "Building Zion: The Latter-day Saint Legacy of Urban Planning," BYU Studies 44:1 (2005), 111-136. (Link.)

Jackson, Richard H. "City Planning," Encyclopedia of Mormonism, BYU Harold B. Lee Library. (Link.)

Washington County Probate Court Records, Book D, 376-377.

Faith in a Time of Cholera

Originally posted at Keepapitchinin on February 19, 2014.

Ann Prior was born into a prosperous family in East London, but the family was reduced to poverty through a series of misfortunes including the death of her father. When Ann was eleven, she acted against her Scottish mother’s wishes and left school to become a dressmaker so she could help support the family.

East London, 1856.

She worked as a dressmaker for several years, and then when she was almost seventeen, she married George Jarvis, a sailor who had traveled around the world several times.

Between ocean voyages, George took care of ships in harbor. He and Ann were living on board a ship with their two children when George heard the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints preaching on an English street-corner. He hurried back to the ship to tell Ann what he’d heard about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Gospel. Ann heard his explanation and replied, “George, it’s true!”

They were baptized in the Thames on Christmas Day, 1848. When George sailed on a voyage not long afterward, Ann moved in with her mother, Catherine Prior. She told about her subsequent experiences in her autobiography: [1]

I will write a few lines about the cholera. I was home with my mother when it was so bad that cards where posted about warning you that if any one was [taken] with it and you did not send word to persons apointed to take them to the pest house, you were under a heavy pena[l]ty. You were not allowed to have a docter at your home. [2]

Ann Prior Jarvis Diary — April 1-6, 1884

Lydia Knight's History by Susa Young Gates.

April tuesday 1. Weather dull.         Spent the day kniting reading writing cooking Dinner ^and^ Cakes. it was fine in the after part of the day it seems as if we should have dry and warm weather now. I am very tierd I cough so much. Em cam[e] [ink blot]

Wensday 2. Weather fine Spent the day kniting reading it is a warm pleasant day went in to Brigs a little while Father working in the wine cellar ^Rode out with Josey^ I am alone as usual. Father has a bad cold disturbed my sleep. I prayed he might get better.

Thursday 3. Weather Pleasant spent the day as usual feeding chickens kniting reading writing. Attended Fast Meeting a good Spirit prevailed ^I walked home^ 

Sister KNight died at 9 o clock had a splendid meeting relief society 

I am going to try to walk to meeting this ^P M^ afternoon I must ask God to help me to get there.

Ann Prior Jarvis Diary — March 30-31, 1884

Heber and Susan Jarvis. From GAPJ.

Sunday 30. Weather stormy. I have not been to meeting was bad last night

Father went to meeting. Josey & I spent the day reading ^evening^ Brig was ^here^

Josey studying her lessons. Anne sent me a piece of Pork [^indecipherable^]

[Written beneath the date, so perhaps on the 30th, perhaps on the 31st] Received a letter from Heber to night

Monday 31. Weather ^cold^ raining as usual. sent the cow in the herd. 

Spent the day working writing to Heber ^ect^. Brig paid me one dollar spent the evening played checkers with me.

Notes

Heber — Son Heber Jarvis in Arizona, married to Susan Smith.

"was bad last night" — Ann Jarvis was in poor health for much of her life. I don't know what condition or conditions she suffered from, but they were serious and disabling and undoubtedly treatable if she had had access to modern medical technology.

Ann Prior Jarvis Diary — March 29, 1884

Eliza Brace Lund.
Picture courtesy of Andrea Leavitt and Sharon Tomlinson.

Saturday 29. Weather Stormy cold sleet spent the day reading kniting etc etc

Father is working in the wine cellar.

Bishop Judd came for Father to adminester to Sister Lund

Notes

Father — George Jarvis.

Wine cellar — At the bishop's storehouse.

Bishop Judd — Thomas Judd (1845-1922), bishop of the St. George First Ward at the time.

Sister Lund — Eliza Brace Lund.

Sources

Meservy, Mike. "Thomas and Mary Ashworth Judd." In White River Valley — NOW and THEN — 1898 to 1980, 2004. (LINK.)

Ann Prior Jarvis Diary — March 28, 1884

Mary Forsythe Jarvis, c. 1877.

Weather dull Cold raining all around us Brig tells me it is Mary birthday she is 27 to day I wish her many happy returns of the day

I dreamed of a lady that I was apprenticed to and her name is Gane Grey ^and Mrs^ Marks. I do think she is dead and wants me to be baptized for her.

Spent the day washing dishes getting dinner knitting Etc

Sister Lund is very sick.

Notes

Brig — Brigham Jarvis.

Mary — Mary Forsyth Jarvis (1857-1938). At the time of this entry, she had two daughters, Mary and Christina, who had died at birth, two sons, Brigham and Erastus, and was expecting her daughter Ethel.

Gane Grey — Probably Jane Grey. Ann was apprenticed as a dressmaker when she was eleven years old.

Mrs. Marks — Probably Elizabeth Marks (c. 1806-?) of Tower Hamlets, London. 

Sister Lund — Eliza Brace Lund (1821-1907), one of the women featured in the "Eminent Women of the St. George Temple" project. (The other wife in the family, Ellen Nielsen Lund, was living in Iron County at the time.)

Sources
1851 England Census. Elizabeth Marks, Household of Frances Marks. Mile End Old Town, Stepney, Middlesex, England, 11. (Link.)

Thiriot, Amy Tanner. "Eminent Women: Eliza Ann (Grazen) Brace Lund." Keepapitchinin: The Mormon History Blog. July 11, 2012. (Link.)

Ann Prior Jarvis Diary — March 27, 1884

Eleanor C. W. Jarvis and daughter Ella, 1876.
From Family Tree, courtesy of Alethea Galke.

Thursday 27. Weather pleasant my eyes are weak I have slept by an open window I have taken cold. spent the day cooking dinner and baking bread kniting ^etc^ Brig came in at breakfast time for a few momen[ts] Eleanor is sick.

Notes

Eleanor — Eleanor Cannon Woodbury Jarvis (1854-1934), the first wife of George Franklin Jarvis. She had a heart condition and suffered greatly for many years, a common theme over the course of the diary.

Brig — Brigham Jarvis.

John Tanner Ordained a Priest

Thanks to a mention of new content at the Joseph Smith Papers Project (h/t BCC) I went and took a look at the website. The JSPP home page mentioned new biographical information, so I looked at John Tanner's entry and saw a reference I hadn't noticed before about his ordination as a priest. Here is the source material, a newspaper account of Orson Pratt's early missions, referencing his journal entry for February 2, 1833.

John Tanner would have been ordained during the four days Orson Pratt and William Snow were in Bolton.

“History of Orson Pratt,” Deseret News, 9 June 1858, 65.

Here are Orson Pratt's travels from November 8, 1832, to February 17, 1833. Bolton shows up at (G) when he spent ten days there in late December 1832, held ten meetings, baptized ten people and (L) when he returned to Bolton at the beginning of February.

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Here is a picture of Orson Pratt in his later years. He was the winner of Keepapitchinin's famous Best Beards Contest.