The Story of Johnstown

The Story of

in Northern Box Elder County, Utah

is

The Story of Thomas John and Margaret Thomas John

beginning on

St. David's Peninsula, Pembrokeshire, South Wales

Compiled from

The Life of Thomas John and his Descendants by Henry John

A Short History of Johnstown by Granddaughter Ethel Mary John Roderick

The Early History of Johnstown and Portage, Utah by great-grandson LaVerd John

History of Charles John by great-granddaughter Vivian John Baker

FamilySearch and Church History Library Files

2020

Beginnings

Fishing and sheep farming were principal occupations in Wales when the Johns lived there. Traveling tinsmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters, roofers and shoemakers walked hedge-lined lanes seeking work. Shoemakers often stayed several days with a family repairing and making shoes for them and their servants. Thomas traveled north from his home at Wood. The June 1841 British census listed Thomas staying at the home of a Margaret Thomas in the little hamlet of Tregyedreg near Mathry Village. This fifty-five-year-old Margaret Thomas, evidently a widow with adult children and grandchildren living with her, may have had some unknown relationship to our Thomas John or Margaret Thomas.

Thomas returned south to Roch where he and Margaret were married in St. Mary's Church July 13th. Thomas, a resident of Mathry, signed his name. Margaret resided in Wood and signed by her mark.

This sequence of the banns in Mathry and the marriage certificate in Roch removes any confusion as to where they were married. Some family records say they were married in Mathry, and that Thomas was born at Mathry. But the certificate states his residency was Mathry, not his birthplace. His correct birth place should read, "Wood, Roch Parish, Pembrokeshire, Wales." The certificate confirms the census entry that Margaret was living at Wood with her parents and working as a servant for a nearby family.

The newly married couple and little Phoebe traveled back north to a hamlet near Mathry village. Their son Henry John identified the hamlet in his father's history as "Killyaden." It is not listed on old maps or name places to identify its location. Their children William, Charles, Ann and James were all bom there.

Henry describes his father, "He was religiously inclined, affiliating himself with the independent Sect and for many years was superintendent of a large Sunday School numbering from 400 to 500 members. He very well informed in the scriptures in the Welsh language.

"My father was a very hard worker and never missed a day, working from moming until night, yet the country so poor, wages so low, that it was all he could do to provide food and clothing for his family" All of England including Wales was still struggling from the "Panic of 1847" economic depression.

Henry's story continued, "About the year 1848, toward the latter part of the year, my father, having heard of the prosperous times in the Western Hemisphere, accordingly he procured his passage across the ocean, working on the ship as an assistant cook, ..."

Thomas sailed from Liverpool August 28, 1848 on the sailing ship Rome. After a voyage of thirty-three days, he arrived in New York September 29th. His arrival was recorded in New York's Passenger Lists.

The recording of his name by a ship's officer as "Tom John" suggests a shipboard comradery among the crew, or it may be how he was known among friends throughout his life.

When Thomas arrived in New York he found England's depression had spread to America. He said, "times were very dull." He also arrived ill and with a painful "felon" on his finger, likely infected from a cut during his cook's work on the ship. Felons often took months to heal, limiting his employment as a shoemaker.

He decided to return home, but the sailing season closed with winter weather. He sailed from New York to Liverpool in the spring of 1849. New York did not keep ship departure records, so details of his voyage are unknown. He did tell his family of his arrival at Liverpool. On the dock he met a group of people who were going to America. They asked about the country. He replied, "It was hard to get employment and times were dull." They said, "it makes no difference to us, we are going to Zion." They told him the heavens had been opened and angels now conversed with man. They quoted John the Revelator's prophesy. "And I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, ..." He dismissed the encounter but said their words kept sounding in his mind.

Shortly after Thomas returned home his mother's sister, Aunt Mary, told him she had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thomas knew "his Aunt Mary was a woman of good judgement and would never come a conclusion without first weighing matters well." Her recounting the many Bible scriptures she had studied and her testimony of their truth caused Thomas to investigate for himself. He was already a Bible scholar from his previous years as Sunday School superintendent with the Independent Church. Meanwhile a new son Henry was born February 15, 1851 and Thomas' wife Margaret wat baptized a Church member March 4, 1851.

In April the census-taker for Mathry, Southern Division visited and enumerated the John family, noting they lived at "Castleredding." He also listed Thomas's trade as a "Cordwainer," a rope-maker. Thomas had evidently taken on additional employment to provide for his growing family.

Thomas' renewed Bible study convinced him the Church was true. He had many dear friends among his previous independent Church members and knew they would look down on him if joined the Latter-day Saints. Following many sleepless nights and prayers for light to know what to do, he was baptized and confirmed a member April 22, 1851 by Philip Sykes, a fellow Welshman serving as a missionary.

His best friends now treated him with scorn and contempt. One day at his workbench, in his discouragement he offered up prayer saying, "Oh Father, if I have done wrong and offended Thee, please forgive me and let me know." He immediately felt a light flowing him and all doubt left him... He cried, "Father, it is enough, I am satisfied." He often said, "I have never doubted since that day."

His two boys William and Charles had been respected and well treated by their schoolmaster. "But, Oh the change! They had to be kept at home, for they were beaten by the older boys and severely whipped by the schoolmaster. During these hard times a daughter Lettitia was born in 1853 at Castle-Redding.

This persecution went on for about five years when Thomas thought it best to move. They moved first back to Killyaden where Mary Jane was born in November 1855. In the spring of 1856 they again moved eight miles south to Haysford near the village of Camrose.

Thomas sometimes returned to Mathry to stay with a family making shoes for them and their servants. But soon people around his new home brought him so much work William came home from employment elsewhere to assist him, Son Charles who had been away tending a farmer's sheep also came home to help. With increased patronage some work had to be sent out to other shoemakers.

During those good times Thomas began making deposits in the Church Perpetual Emigrating Fund to pay for his family's ship passage across the Atlantic Ocean to America. Older family children found outside employment. Teenager James worked at a grist mill in nearby Camrose and Phoebe found employment at an inn or tavern.

They were now in the Cuffern Mountain Branch of the Church named for a high hill two miles north of Cuffern Village where the branch held their meetings. The John family at Hayford lived just over two miles east from Cuffern, but they had to travel more than three miles over crooked roads and lanes to attend meetings. The branch also included Roch a mile west of Cuffern and Thomas' birthplace at Wood another two miles west of Roch.

On Tuesday, March 24, 1857 Thomas John was rebaptized and reconfirmed by E.D. Miles. Oftentimes rebaptisms were a rededication of faith, or to provide an official baptism record if Thomas had no proof or certificate of his first baptism and confirmation. The clerk noted the ordinances on the bottom line of a page in the branch record book. Brother Miles then ordained Thomas an Elder.

Charles, nearly fourteen, was then baptized by E.D. Miles and confirmed by James Thomas. Ann, age twelve, was baptized and confirmed by her father Thomas. E.D. Miles baptized James, eleven. He was confirmed by James Thomas. Brother Miles baptized Levi, age eight. His father confirmed him.

Eleven days later on Saturday, April 4, 1857 Thomas rebaptized and reconfirmed his wife Margaret. She had previously been baptized in 1851. Then daugher Phoebe was baptized April 12th. The officiators were not named. The John's oldest son William was likely away, but he had been baptized in 1855.

Three years later son Henry was baptized January 8, 1860 at Cuffern by his nineteen-year-old brother William and confirmed by his father Thomas. A final entry noted the family "emigrated April 15, 1861."

All the family except Phoebe traveled to the Liverpool seaport. She later married and lived in London. They went from Haysford five miles south to the railhead at Haverfordwest town. They stayed with John Gibbs, president of Pembrokeshire Conference, similar to a modern Church stake. He emigrated to Utah in 1863 and later lived in Portage. His son william Henry Gibbs married Thomas' daughter Lettitia John.

The Johns registered April 4th with Church agents for the voyage on the packet ship Manchester to New York. They gave their address as, "Mr. John Gibbs, Shoemaker, near the Railway Station." Their 290 mile rail journey took them across South Wales to Gloucester, England then north to Liverpool.

But Thomas John's name is not on the passenger list. Margaret John is listed as the family head. This was not a last minute decision. Thomas likely booked passage as ship's employee to save money as he had done in 1848. His ship was the Escort due to sail April 18th.

The Manchester was moored at Waterloo Dock. Packet ships usually carried cargo, so wooden berths for the 437 passengers were being built. All were on board by Sunday April 14th. The ship was towed into the Mersey River channel and anchored to await inspection and clearance to sail. Saints assembled on deck. The British Mission Presidency came on board and organized five wards each with a bishop. The presidency counseled Saints to be patient with one another and gave them a final blessing.

A steam tugboat towed the ship twenty miles out to sea the morning of April 16th. As the ship set sail ocean swells sickened many passengers, but evenings the Johns family could enjoy music and dance on deck. Some days all were on deck while berths were cleaned and bedding aired.

"Sunday, April 21st, singing and prayer in the morning and a meeting in the afternoon with three speakers." The ship tacked back and forth to sail against the prevailing westerly winds. The captain said they had sailed 800 miles but were only 576 miles from Liverpool. Next evening, "We had a dance on deck, and a few comic songs." "A violin and tambourine gave forth their harmony." "Prayers at 8:30."

"Friday night, the 26th, the was boisterous, it was quite a task for passengers to keep in their berths." "The pots etc. were taking an excursion and quite a number of folks tumbling about the deck." Next day, "Water washing on deck." "Sea legs required." "Sunday, dark and foggy. We are entering the Banks of Newfoundland... Weather too rough to hold meeting on deck." "Two watches on the bow. A bell ringing and a horn blowing all night. Very little sleep. Some rather nervous." Tuesday, 30th, "Cold, damp, foggy evening. Saints feeling well - singing and enjoying themselves below."

May 7th brought the worst storm of the voyage. "The sea surrounded us like high towering mountains." A crewman said he had never experienced such a storm. The captain said, "I have heard your people can perform miracles, and if you can, now is the time one is needed." One of the ward bishops wrote, "We gathered the Saints together and offered up a petition to our Heavenly Father to quiet the storms and the waves, that it might become calm. In the space of half and hour or less, it became perfectly calm."

They learned the storm had driven them 50 miles farther away from New York, but seas were calm for their final days on the ocean. Every day there was music, dancing and games. Sunday, May 12th was a beautiful clear morning. "The ocean is something in smoothness - like a mammoth fish pond... Held a meeting on the upper deck at 3 p.m. It was addressed by Elder John Davis - in Welsh... At 7 p.m. we held a sacrament meeting... The captain kindly loaned us the use of the quarter deck, a cloth, a pitcher, and some tumblers." "Good feelings prevailed among the Saints."

Monday, May 13th "Arrived at Sandy Hook in the afternoon." "Held a meeting at 6 p.m. When a vote of thanks was presented to our kind captain and his officers for their kind treatment towards the emigrants. We gave three cheers to the land of our adoption." They had been a month aboard the ship.

14th -  The port medical doctor came on board to examine the emigrants. "Rallied the Saints and though it was a very wet morning, the whole company was passed with few exceptions." A tugboat towed the ship within a mile of Castle Garden Immigration Center. Luggage was packed for removal, but problems at the Garden prevented disembarking. They had to "unpack a little" for the night.

15th - "9 a.m. - Customs house officers came on board and cleared our luggage." They then went to Castle Garden and registered their names. Thomas likely met them there. His ship. the Escort has landed five days earlier.

Castle Garden was on the southern tip of New York City's Manhattan Island. Years later when Henry John wrote his "Life of Thomas John" story, he recalled that day when he was a nine-year-old. He wrote, "My father rented a house in Nothfife Street, Wiliamsburgh across the Hudson River from New York." His recollection put Williamsburgh in the state of New Jersy. In fact they did not take a ferry west across the Hudson River, but ferried east across the east River to Williamsburgh, New York.

Henry Continued, "My father and my two elder brothers William and Charles found plenty of work at a large shop in New York where where military equipment was being made. The younger children, James, Levi, Letitia, Mary Jane and myself were sent to school, but after a short time James and Levi were taken from school. James went to work driving a team on a canal and hauling coal, and Levi was put to work in a very large bakery in the city of New York."

There was a branch of the Church in Williamsburg meeting in rented halls. No branch records remain, but the Johns would have been active members.

"In the latter part of the summer of 1861 became somewhat dull and my father set up a shoe shop in part of the house and made military boots and shoes. He would take out the material already cut out and sometimes fitted. He would put on the soles and polish them. This work, he continued until we again started our journey to Utah. We had just enough money to pay our way to Florence (Winter Quarters), from there we expected to be taken by the Church teams to the valleys of Utah." The Johns Joined with a company of Saints just landed in New York for the journey to the Florence trailhead. They departed on the New York Central Railroad the evening of June 17. 1862.

The train took them north along the Hudson River through the night. They reached Albany the next day. Heading west up the Mohawk River Valley, they passed through Palmyra, New York. It may have been after nightfall, but a returning missionary or other Church member may have told them about it.

They were now in Canada. Church agents chartered this northern route to avoid the Civil War's conflict farther south. Another night's travel brought them to the Detroit River. They crossed on steam ferries back into the United States, transporting their luggage with them.

Passenger Ezra F. Martin recorded, "Saturday, arrived in Chicago. Changed trains. Proceeded as far as Abingdon, Illinois when an accident occurred, by some means the baggage car took fire. This caused a delay and great loss. Many poor folks lost all they had... After five hours we proceeded to Quincy."

Henry described the disaster, "One of the baggage cars was observed on fire, immediately it was uncoupled and taken with great speed to the nearest station,.. The engineer in coming back for the balance of the train did not slacken the speed of the engine but sent it crashing into the train, breaking several platforms of the cars... Some of the passengers were hurt, but none severely injured.

"When the train pulled into the station where the burning car had been left, all that could be seen was the wheels and irons of the car and a few smoldering carpets." As they were looking at the smoking ashes Thomas said, "There is a piece of one of the carpets that was wrapping some of our bed clothes." He then said he was very thankful the lives of the family had been spared, and he would never grumble if he could get to the valleys even if he did not have a shirt on his back.

They came to the Mississippi River at Quincy, Illinois. A steamboat took them twenty miles downriver to Hannibal, Missouri. The Johns had no luggage to carry. Another railroad then carried them across the state of Missouri to St. Joseph. They arrived about midnight. Ezra Martin said, "We now number about seven hundred souls. Here many of the people were robbed of their guns, pistols, etc. by thieves."

Next morning they crammed aboard a Missouri River paddlewheel steamboat for the 180 mile, two day trip up the winding Missouri River. "The deck was very crowded." Thursday, June 26th they arrived at Florence trailhead camp. They had endured nine long days and nights continuous travel without stopover rests 1500 miles from New York City.

"We were met at Florence by Church Emigration agents. A very large camp was set up two or three miles west of the river... Small canvas tents were furnished the Saints, and twelve persons were to occupy each tent." The John family of ten and another couple with a grown daughter and younger son, a total of fourteen used the tent. "My father was put in charge, making the other man jealous so he would not help. But the son always helped raising the tent and getting wood and water."

They were to go west with "Down and Back" wagon trains. In Utah men and older boys were called on a "mission" to take wagons a thousand miles east to Florence. Each wagon was loaded with a thousand pounds of flour to be left at trail stations along the way. Several companies started east in May, but deep snow and washed-out bridges over swollen rivers delayed them.

Saints waiting at Florence endured severe storms common on the Great Plains. Winds blew down tents. During one electrical storm lightning struck a house where camp president George Q. Cannon was staying. It knocked several men unconscious but they recovered. However President Cannon's clerk was killed. A bystander said "he was scalped as though an Indian had done it."

The wagons arrived a few weeks later, but weary oxen required several days rest before starting west. "Brother Henry W. Miller from Farmington, Davis County, Utah was placed as captain of our train... There were assigned eighteen persons to our wagon." To help defray expenses, the front of each wagon was filled "to the wagon-cover bows" with goods for Salt Lake merchants. A limit of fifty pounds for each emigrant filled the rear space. Everyone else walked. The company's forty-five wagons moved out at 1 p.m. August 5th after nearly six weeks in camp.

Just before leaving sons William, 21, and Charles, 19, hired out to drive teams in Captain William Dame's wagon train. They may have received small wages outside of "their board and passage," a financial blessing for the family. "They were new hands at driving teams, but they soon learned to yoke up the oxen and drive, and enjoyed the work. They had a good captain and grew to love him."

"My father was put in charge of our wagon, seeing that the tent was taken down, rolled up, and lashed onto the side of the wagon every morning in good time, also the cooking utensils were properly packed in the mess box." Among those assigned to his wagon, a seventy-five year-old lady insisted on riding in the back of the wagon the entire journey. She also stayed in the wagon at night. Thomas "would always see that the old sister was cared for with food."

At a mail station eleven-year-old Henry said, "I first saw an Indian. I remember that I was very much afraid of him." Henry described the Indian's long braids, feathers standing up around his head and his red-painted face. He wore buckskin pants with a long fringe down the leg and a bright-colored blanket over his shoulders. "He had buckskin moccasins on his feet and looked very dangerous.

"We were soon out on the plains, traveling up the Platte Valley seldom seeing a house or people."

Huge buffalo herds they had seen on the plains had now dwindled as they traveled the trail up the Sweetwater River toward the Great Divide at South Pass. Snowcapped Wind River Mountains loomed to the north. The camp clerk recorded, "October 1 - Prayers. Left at eight. Stopped for dinner at the west foot of the rocky ridge." They had just climbed the most challenging long hill of the pioneer trail.

Henry said, "When we were crossing South Pass, the weather was very cold and when we opened the front of our tent one morning, we found it had snowed three or four inches of snow during the night, and the wind was very cold. We were camped on the open prairie and there was nothing to make a fire with but small green sagebrush, it was a dry camp, all the water we had was what we had carried with us. The people made all the haste they could and packed up their beds and rolled up the tents. The cattle were brought in and hitched up and the train rolled on. The next night we had a better camping place, there being better pasture for the cattle, also wood and water."

Reaching Utah, they had a difficult climb over Little Mountain into Emigration Canyon. The old Sister riding in the wagon refused to get out. "The teamster threatened to tip the wagon over if she did not get out. When the wagon was about to tip over, the old lady began to scream and soon came out."

In camp for another night, "The Saints sat up quite late singing songs, and talking of the good old times we have had in our meetings and dances on the journey... On the seventeenth of Oct. we arrived in Salt Lake City, they camped on Immigration Square from which the train scattered,.."

The Johns found the home of John Twig who had immigrated from Pembrokeshire several years earlier. Mr. Twig was not at home, but Henry said, "Mrs. Twig gave each of us children a slice of bread and molasses, which I thought was the best food I had ever tasted."

Most of the teamsters in the Miller Company were from Cache Valley. The Johns joined them and camped north of the city. They did not make early starts so their trail-weary oxen could graze on the valley's abundant feed. "It took us until the twenty-second of Oct. to get to Cache Valley. William and Charles, still on the trail with the Dame Company, would not reach the valley until October 29th.

Soon after they arrived in Wellsville, President Brigham Young and his party drove up to Bishop Maughan's log house. As they walked to the log schoolhouse, President Young asked Thomas, "Aren't you coming to the meeting?" Thomas protested he was too dirty having just come across the plains. President Young replied, "We are all dirty" as they locked arms and walked together to the school. Thomas and Margaret went into the meeting, but there was no room for the children. After Sister Maughan learned President Young was not staying for dinner, the children were treated to a banquet.

The family moved into a vacant log cabin about fourteen by sixteen feet in size. It had an adobe fireplace, but no door or window. Sister Maughan hired daughter Ann. Thomas and the boys found work digging potatoes. William and Charles arrived and threshed grain. They received one bushel of wheat per day for their pay. "We are all working, some for wheat, some for potatoes and some for molasses." Thomas, William and Charles also made shoes through that winter.

Wellsville and the Johns thrived over the next years. The town was laid out with square blocks in 1864. "The country was building up" and a new opportunity opened for the Johns.

1868 Johnstown Homesteads

A round field now covers most of Thomas and Henry's westmost land in this 2013 Google Earth Photo. Samaria Road ran north from Portage through the homesteads. With land gifts to children, John family log houses lined the west side of the road. Henry's was on the east side. Many were replaced by brick houses, now all gone. Henry moved across the road into his father's brick home when Thomas moved to Portage.

The Johnstown Years

Grandmother Ethel Mary John Roderick wrote her life sketch in a little notebook. "Mother, my brother Brigham and the younger children took the cows, horses and pigs up into the canyon about nine miles early in the spring. Mother was an excellent butter maker. She took care of the cows, milked them and made butter. Then my father built a sheep corral. He leased it to a man from Mantua. The man brought a couple of women to cook for the sheep herders. They would buy what she had on hand and all she could make while they were shearing. They bought most of the morning milk so she only had the cream from the night milking to make butter. When the sheep were all sheared and moved north to the summer ranges mother used the milk for making cheese. She made cheese until time for school in the fall. We would move home the latter part of August. We loved the canyon life. A spring of cold water came out of the foot of a hill on the west side of our log house. Father enclosed the spring with a square box with a lid on it so horses or cattle could not drink from it. He put a heavy plank trough away from the spring for the horses and cattle to drink. Our house was just east of the Pocatello valley divide. We used to walk up to the divide and look down on the valley." She added, "Canyon life went on year after year until I was ten or twelve years old."

Johnstown Family Ties