Aberdare St. John Baptist Church

I love how the daffodils grow like weeds here in this little village in Wales where my great great grandparents Thomas Edwards and Elizabeth Lewis were married. He moved his family to Merhyr Tydfil and worked in the mines there. There he met preachers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and decided to leave Wales and come to America which saved his life. So many of the mine workers died in accidents or their lives were shortened by developing Black Lung. He settled in Ogden, Utah and after his wife died, he moved to Liberty, Idaho where his daughter took care of him until he died at the ripe old age of 100 years and 4 months.

A newspaper article ran in the Salt Lake City Desert News in 1868 stated:

   "Thomas Edwards of Ogden City was born in Wales in the month of January 1793, and is therefore in his 76^th year.  He has lately had a new set of double teeth growing in his head, not having lost the front ones.  He cut the new teeth about the same as children generally cut theirs, his gums swelling and being very painful during the period of dentation.  His hair still retains its natural color of jet black.  Brother Edwards came to America about 14 years ago and has been in Utah nearly seven years.  He is a man of regular habits of life.  He works regularly in his farm, has general good health and is the father of 10 children.  He walked from Ogden to this city last fall, a distance of 40 miles to attend General Conference.  He is a praying man, and tries to live the life of a saint."

     
Linking to InSPIRed Sunday and Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Pioneers of Almo, Idaho

The original Eames Store in Almo, Idaho with the Eames and King family and old Chips their dog. The store still exists but has been enlarged with red brick and the front of the store is now facing west.

Margaret Tweed 1803 - 1866

While researching Margaret Tweed from Sadsbury, Pennsylvania yesterday, I found her death notice in the 1866 Deseret News.  Utah has digitalized their old newspapers under Utah Digital Newspapers.    I was able to find Margaret's death notice within 5 minutes. It would be stupendous if more states did this because trying to find something in a newspaper on Ancestry.com is very time consuming. 

Sad to say that I have no photo of either wife. Below is their combined tombstone. I descend from the first wife Charlotte and of course there are no children from Margaret. I wrote her story for our upcoming DUP (Daughter's of the Utah Pioneers) meeting.

 Her two brothers were killed during the war between the states.  She joined the Mormons trekked to Nauvoo, Illinois where she met Charlotte Meguire who was her age. Charlotte and her husband William had also come from Pennsylvania. 

Margaret moved in with the Meguires, perhaps to help out with 
their two small daughters but she did have her own property in 1852 when they reached the Salt Lake Valley: 1 cow $25, 1 cow $20, Heifer $15; all equal to $60.

In 1857 William Meguire was sealed for eternity to his wife Charlotte Babb Meguire and was asked to take Margaret Tweed as a second wife. He agreed but he married Margaret in name only so that in the eternity, she would have a husband. She was 53 years old and had never been married.  This is what he wrote in a letter because the State of Utah was not allowing any polygamist to vote:

Gentlemen:

I wish to present to you my case, and inquire whether or not I have been unjustly dealt with, by being prevented at the last election from voting. I married a second woman March 26, 1857. Not that she should be a wife, for she was aged, but that she might be a married woman (in order to be “exalted” in the hereafter). She lived with us till she died, Oct. 12, 1866. Consequently I consider (conscientiously) that I have never violated a United States law, nor do I intend to. I have voted the Republican ticket for many years, and my father voted it for many years before me. I would like to vote, and if I can, or cannot, please send me a line answering my inquiry. Yours to serve truly and humbly, 

William W. Meguire 

Murals in Poland

I have a board called Poland on my Pinterest.  Another person with Polish roots borrowed some of the photos that I found from Poland so I checked out her sight and walla - she had some mind blowing photos some of which I borrowed.

I still have a burning desire to visit Poland the land where my ancestors lived.  Maybe 2013 will be the year I can go - we shall see!

Street art by Sainer in Lodz, Poland

Mural in Lodz

Mural in Polska

It was in the city of Lodz that Stanislaw, my grandfather's oldest brother was a Parish Priest for the Catholic Church. During WWII when the Germans invaded Poland, they used Lodz as one of their gathering camps for the Jews before they were transported to death camps and other prisoners were held especially Polish Catholic Priests to work in their factories. Lodz became a ghetto.  

Stanislaw was sent to the first German Concentration camp in Dachau, Germany located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory just 10 miles NW of Munich. This camp served as  the central camp for Christian religious prisoners (at least 3,000 preachers, deacons, priests and bishops).  There was a special priest block. Out of 2,579 Catholic priests, 1,034 did not survive with the majority being Polish.  This is where Stanislaw died in October of 1941, probably from the horrific medical experiments that the bloodthirsty Germans performed on prisoners.

My Cousins Who Eloped

From the Montgomery County Newspaper; Lincoln County, Missouri – Yesterday (March 28, 1895) Clark Duncan and Miss Ada Owens (Owings) of Olney were united in the holy bonds of matrimony on the Short Line train while running between Troy and Moscow.  It seems that the bride’s parents objected to her one and only. She eloped with her lover and they boarded the train at Silex. As was pre-arranged, Rev. Samuel Eames got on the train at Troy and united them in marriage (Hannibal Journal).

Oh those runaway star crossed lovers! Their marriage was a success and they were blessed with two children and at least two grandchildren. 

I wish I had a photo of them but the only one I do have a photo of is Preacher Sam Eames - that is what they called him.

Taken in 1939, Preacher Sam Eames holding a great grandson.

Fried Cheesecake

Santa Cruz

Our afternoon at Santa Cruz with not a cloud in the sky was fabulous.  We had lunch there - nothing to really shout about but we did spring for a fried cheesecake.  Normally, I would never

have touched the stuff but my daughter wanted to try it out.

They take cheesecake, batter it up and deep fat fry it.  It really was delicious but I am sure that my arteries are still trying to adjust back to normal.

Found parking across the street and a very friendly lady told us  that if we spent a dollar for arcade coins that we could use them in the meter and it would be much cheaper parking. We did and she was right.

The sky was so blue that I thought I was back in Utah only we don't have palm trees in Utah.

Grandma, what is this stuff getting into my purple shoes that I can put on by myself?

Okay grandma, get up and take me back out onto

the sand stuff that seeps into our shoes! 

I thought

that these were my skinny jeans.

Bumble Bee Grandpa

Alonzo Knight was called

the Bumble Bee Grandpa.

He had beehives and

harvested honey.

Circa 1903

In this photo standing behind him

was my great great grandmother

Catherine Meguire Knight

and sitting on Alonzo's lap

was his grandson Horace.

Alonzo was from 
Marlo, New Hampshire

and Catherine Meguire 
was from Bart, Pennsylvania.

In separate wagon trains,
they crossed the plains.
They met at Fort Union,
Utah and married. 
They settled in a farming 
community
 called Plain City. 
Out of their 11 children
7 survived. 


When Alonzo took his wife Catherine
 to the endowment house in Salt
Lake City to have their marriage sealed
 for eternity, he was asked to
take Martha Sanders Allred as
a second wife. 

Martha had been 
married to Reddin Allred who
already had several wives.
Reddin was sent to Hawaii
on a mission.  His family 
abandoned Martha even though 
she was pregnant.  She sought
for a divorce and was granted one.
Therefore, when Alonzo married her,
he adopted her unborn child.
Alonzo and Martha had 8 children
plus their adopted daughter.
Alonzo had 20 children.


When they started putting
polygamists in jail, Alonzo
built a new home across
the Weber River for Martha.
He would ride over on his
white horse to see her 
and his children.
Some grandchildren of
Martha's were jealous of
Catherine the first wife
but what they didn't know
was that she went blind
when she was about 50 years
old and needed more
attention. She had been thrown
from a buggy when
they were first married
and the blow to her
head caused years of
headaches until the
time that it caused her
to go blind.