William Henry Williams

Henry Williams was born the 19th Day of December, 1864 in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, England. He was the fifth of six children born to John Williams and Mary Goddard, the others being William Edward, John, Diana, Emily, and George. The home in Birkenhead, where he was raised, was a six-room brick house located only a few blocks from the beach. From the time he was six years old, Henry attended school for only one half day. He worked the balance of the day in the local cotton spinning mill. This lasted until the fifth grade, when he quit school and started working full time in the mill. He served his appren-ticeship and became a cotton spinner. In the course of his employment, he spun into yarn and thread many bales of American cotton. The mill machinery was operated by rope belts running over shiv pulleys. As a result, Henry learned to splice a rope so well that others could not tell where the splice was located. His mother, Mary Goddard, had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a teenager, and his father, himself, and three other siblings - William, Emily, and George - subse-quently joined the Church while in England. Henry was baptized in 1872 at the age of eight. In 1881, when Henry was just sixteen, he emigrated to Utah together with his parents. His sister, Emily, had emigrated to Utah the year previously, saved her money, and sent it to her parents so that they and Henry could join her in Zion. The other children, for reasons we do not know, elected to stay in England. Henry left Liverpool on a half sail/half steam ship. During the ocean voyage, a heavy storm broke the drive shaft and the ship drifted two hundred miles back towards England before the shaft was repaired. The ship was badly tossed about in the turbulent waters with the result that the Captain ordered that the passengers be securely tied to their bunks so as to help protect them from injury. Apparently, Henry was the only person on the ship who was able to make his way to the Cooks Galley so as to get water and a little broth for the sick passengers. They ship finally landed in New York City and the Williams family boarded a train for the West. Somewhere around Kansas, their money ran out. After pooling their cash, it was found that one member of the family would have to leave the train. Henry’s father, John Williams, volunteered to do so, but the missionaries who were accompanying them took up a collection from the other passengers and collected enough money to pay his fare to Ogden, Utah. They were met in Utah by Emily, who boarded their train in Woods Cross (i.e., West Bountiful) so that she could travel the remaining ten miles with them into Salt Lake City. She had been working at the Utah Woolen Mills in Provo, Utah, so as to earn enough money to bring her parents to Utah, and she had them move into her home with her in Provo. Subsequently, Henry and his father were also able to secure employment at the Provo Woolen Mills doing much the same work for which Henry had served his apprenticeship in the cotton spinning mills in England. While living in Provo and working at the State Mental Hospital, Henry met and courted a young English convert by the name of Ann Guest Mosley. They were married on Thanksgiving Day, the 26th of November, 1890, in the Manti Temple and, following their marriage, established their first home in Provo. Ann, like Henry, had joined the Church in England and emigrated to America while a young woman of 22. Unfortunately, the day of their marriage was very cold and the trip to Manti had to be made in a buggy. To keep her warm, Henry wrapped his bride-to-be in quilts and placed hot rocks at her feet. He then ran behind the buggy all the way from Provo to Manti in order to keep himself warm. They had one child born to them, Wilfred Henry Williams, who was born on the 27th day of September, 1896, in Provo, Utah. Ten years later, they took into their home, but never legally adopted, a baby girl named Mary Verona (last name unknown). They raised her to adulthood and treated her like she was their own daughter. She was later married and divorced four separate times and moved to Long Beach, California, where she raised her three sons, Neil Edison Allgood, Marvin Dale Walton, and Franklin Bascom Morris. When Wilfred was three weeks old, Henry drove his family down to Main Street in Provo in order to transact some business. His wife and new baby remained in the buggy. Henry had recently purchased the horse and buggy, and this was their first trip with the new horse and conveyance. Unknown to him, the horse was allergic to Indians, and when the horse smelled an Indian walking down Provo’s Main Street, he bolted. Around the block he ran with his wife trying to stop the horse and hold her infant son at the same time. By the time the original starting place was reached, she was able to stop the horse and avoid injury. However, Henry never could trust the horse again and soon traded him for a fine looking buckskin. But, this horse also proved to be a problem. He put the new horse in the coral with one other horse and several cows. The next morning the coral bars were down and all the animals were missing. They were located in an alfalfa field across from Springville’s Evergreen Cemetery. The gate was open there, too. When this happened again the next night, Henry suspected that his new horse was the guilty party. Accordingly, he set up a watch on the horse and soon discovered that the buckskin would take the pole bars in its teeth and slide them out of their sockets, dropping them one by one on the ground. When Henry hooked the buckskin onto the buggy, the horse balked and wouldn’t pull the buggy. Henry finally traded the horse for a barrel of suckers (fish). When Wilfred was about two years old, Henry signed up for some land to homestead on the eastern slopes of Mount Nebo, south of Thistle, Utah. He worked all one summer to improve the land, including the clearing of ten acres, the cutting of cedar posts, and the building of a barb wire fence around it. He also dug a ditch around the mountainside for one mile in order to get water onto his land. At the end of the summer, when he returned to Springville, he learned that Will Knight, a wealthy and influential man of Provo, had previously acquired the land he had been improving and that he, Henry, had no legal claim to it. The error had occurred because the recording of homestead lands at that time was carelessly done and the land records had not been kept up to date. As a result, Henry had to vacate the land and turn over his improvements to Mr. Knight. Following this disappointment, the small family moved to Springville, Utah, where they lived with his mother and step-father James Brailsford. His father, John Williams, had died several years earlier, and his mother had remarried. After the death of his mother, in 1901, he and Ann took care of James Brailsford until he died. Then, in 1920, following Wilfred’s marriage to Mary Ardelle Fullmer, Henry and Ann moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. Until then, Henry worked as the Water Superintendent for Springville City and was responsible for planning and installing much of the water system in use by the City today. During their Salt Lake City years, which included the great depression period of the 1930's, Henry and Ann occupied a small home on the west side of Salt Lake City, located at 980 West 6th South, in the Stake presided over by Harold B. Lee. It proved to be a difficult period for the Stake inasmuch as there was little work for the men to do and money was scarce. Fortunately, his Stake, under President Lee’s leadership, implemented the forerunner of the Church Welfare System, which enabled him and Ann to survive the depression years. Henry had been a hard worker all of his life and the inactivity forced on him by retirement was difficult for him to accept. It wasn’t until after his wife died, in 1945, that this changed. Widowed, and in the later years of his life (he was 80 years old at the time), he moved to Bountiful, Utah, to live with his son, Wilfred, and his family. The following 12-year period proved to be a choice opportunity for him to become better acquainted with his grandchildren, especially with his three grandsons, who were all living at home when he first arrived. For most of those years, he was able to plant and care for a vegetable garden and a small fruit orchard, and assist with a variety of family work projects. On one of these, when he was about 85 years old, he helped his two grandsons, Clyde and Kay, dig a 15 foot deep drainage sump in the Williams’ back yard so that the drain in the basement wash room would work and the weekly wash water would no longer have to be carted in tubs up the stairs and dumped in the back yard. The astonishing thing is that he could and did nearly outwork both of his grandsons who found it a challenge to keep up with his pace. Later, after Kay married Bonnie Plummer, Henry would frequently spend a weekend with Kay and Bonnie in their home in Provo, Utah. While living at Bountiful, he would often be visited by them, or by Clyde and Anna and their family, Vada and George and their family, or Dora and Waldo and their family, all of whom lived in Utah. One Sunday, when he was over 90 years of age and had attended Church services with Kay and Bonnie, he asked them the name of the “old man” (a Brother Johnson) he had met at church that morning, not considering the fact that he was, himself, older than the “old man” in question. Henry died in his 93rd year, on 13 May 1957, from pneumonia, while staying at rest home in Salt Lake City. He was active in the Church all his life, holding the priesthood office of High Priest. He was a man of integrity, a respected citizen, and a man who loved to work.

Henry Williams was born the 19th Day of December, 1864 in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, England. He was the fifth of six children born to John Williams and Mary Goddard, the others being William Edward, John, Diana, Emily, and George. The home in Birkenhead, where he was raised, was a six-room brick house located only a few blocks from the beach. From the time he was six years old, Henry attended school for only one half day. He worked the balance of the day in the local cotton spinning mill. This lasted until the fifth grade, when he quit school and started working full time in the mill. He served his appren-ticeship and became a cotton spinner. In the course of his employment, he spun into yarn and thread many bales of American cotton. The mill machinery was operated by rope belts running over shiv pulleys. As a result, Henry learned to splice a rope so well that others could not tell where the splice was located. His mother, Mary Goddard, had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a teenager, and his father, himself, and three other siblings - William, Emily, and George - subse-quently joined the Church while in England. Henry was baptized in 1872 at the age of eight. In 1881, when Henry was just sixteen, he emigrated to Utah together with his parents. His sister, Emily, had emigrated to Utah the year previously, saved her money, and sent it to her parents so that they and Henry could join her in Zion. The other children, for reasons we do not know, elected to stay in England. Henry left Liverpool on a half sail/half steam ship. During the ocean voyage, a heavy storm broke the drive shaft and the ship drifted two hundred miles back towards England before the shaft was repaired. The ship was badly tossed about in the turbulent waters with the result that the Captain ordered that the passengers be securely tied to their bunks so as to help protect them from injury. Apparently, Henry was the only person on the ship who was able to make his way to the Cooks Galley so as to get water and a little broth for the sick passengers. They ship finally landed in New York City and the Williams family boarded a train for the West. Somewhere around Kansas, their money ran out. After pooling their cash, it was found that one member of the family would have to leave the train. Henry’s father, John Williams, volunteered to do so, but the missionaries who were accompanying them took up a collection from the other passengers and collected enough money to pay his fare to Ogden, Utah. They were met in Utah by Emily, who boarded their train in Woods Cross (i.e., West Bountiful) so that she could travel the remaining ten miles with them into Salt Lake City. She had been working at the Utah Woolen Mills in Provo, Utah, so as to earn enough money to bring her parents to Utah, and she had them move into her home with her in Provo. Subsequently, Henry and his father were also able to secure employment at the Provo Woolen Mills doing much the same work for which Henry had served his apprenticeship in the cotton spinning mills in England. While living in Provo and working at the State Mental Hospital, Henry met and courted a young English convert by the name of Ann Guest Mosley. They were married on Thanksgiving Day, the 26th of November, 1890, in the Manti Temple and, following their marriage, established their first home in Provo. Ann, like Henry, had joined the Church in England and emigrated to America while a young woman of 22. Unfortunately, the day of their marriage was very cold and the trip to Manti had to be made in a buggy. To keep her warm, Henry wrapped his bride-to-be in quilts and placed hot rocks at her feet. He then ran behind the buggy all the way from Provo to Manti in order to keep himself warm. They had one child born to them, Wilfred Henry Williams, who was born on the 27th day of September, 1896, in Provo, Utah. Ten years later, they took into their home, but never legally adopted, a baby girl named Mary Verona (last name unknown). They raised her to adulthood and treated her like she was their own daughter. She was later married and divorced four separate times and moved to Long Beach, California, where she raised her three sons, Neil Edison Allgood, Marvin Dale Walton, and Franklin Bascom Morris. When Wilfred was three weeks old, Henry drove his family down to Main Street in Provo in order to transact some business. His wife and new baby remained in the buggy. Henry had recently purchased the horse and buggy, and this was their first trip with the new horse and conveyance. Unknown to him, the horse was allergic to Indians, and when the horse smelled an Indian walking down Provo’s Main Street, he bolted. Around the block he ran with his wife trying to stop the horse and hold her infant son at the same time. By the time the original starting place was reached, she was able to stop the horse and avoid injury. However, Henry never could trust the horse again and soon traded him for a fine looking buckskin. But, this horse also proved to be a problem. He put the new horse in the coral with one other horse and several cows. The next morning the coral bars were down and all the animals were missing. They were located in an alfalfa field across from Springville’s Evergreen Cemetery. The gate was open there, too. When this happened again the next night, Henry suspected that his new horse was the guilty party. Accordingly, he set up a watch on the horse and soon discovered that the buckskin would take the pole bars in its teeth and slide them out of their sockets, dropping them one by one on the ground. When Henry hooked the buckskin onto the buggy, the horse balked and wouldn’t pull the buggy. Henry finally traded the horse for a barrel of suckers (fish). When Wilfred was about two years old, Henry signed up for some land to homestead on the eastern slopes of Mount Nebo, south of Thistle, Utah. He worked all one summer to improve the land, including the clearing of ten acres, the cutting of cedar posts, and the building of a barb wire fence around it. He also dug a ditch around the mountainside for one mile in order to get water onto his land. At the end of the summer, when he returned to Springville, he learned that Will Knight, a wealthy and influential man of Provo, had previously acquired the land he had been improving and that he, Henry, had no legal claim to it. The error had occurred because the recording of homestead lands at that time was carelessly done and the land records had not been kept up to date. As a result, Henry had to vacate the land and turn over his improvements to Mr. Knight. Following this disappointment, the small family moved to Springville, Utah, where they lived with his mother and step-father James Brailsford. His father, John Williams, had died several years earlier, and his mother had remarried. After the death of his mother, in 1901, he and Ann took care of James Brailsford until he died. Then, in 1920, following Wilfred’s marriage to Mary Ardelle Fullmer, Henry and Ann moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. Until then, Henry worked as the Water Superintendent for Springville City and was responsible for planning and installing much of the water system in use by the City today. During their Salt Lake City years, which included the great depression period of the 1930's, Henry and Ann occupied a small home on the west side of Salt Lake City, located at 980 West 6th South, in the Stake presided over by Harold B. Lee. It proved to be a difficult period for the Stake inasmuch as there was little work for the men to do and money was scarce. Fortunately, his Stake, under President Lee’s leadership, implemented the forerunner of the Church Welfare System, which enabled him and Ann to survive the depression years. Henry had been a hard worker all of his life and the inactivity forced on him by retirement was difficult for him to accept. It wasn’t until after his wife died, in 1945, that this changed. Widowed, and in the later years of his life (he was 80 years old at the time), he moved to Bountiful, Utah, to live with his son, Wilfred, and his family. The following 12-year period proved to be a choice opportunity for him to become better acquainted with his grandchildren, especially with his three grandsons, who were all living at home when he first arrived. For most of those years, he was able to plant and care for a vegetable garden and a small fruit orchard, and assist with a variety of family work projects. On one of these, when he was about 85 years old, he helped his two grandsons, Clyde and Kay, dig a 15 foot deep drainage sump in the Williams’ back yard so that the drain in the basement wash room would work and the weekly wash water would no longer have to be carted in tubs up the stairs and dumped in the back yard. The astonishing thing is that he could and did nearly outwork both of his grandsons who found it a challenge to keep up with his pace. Later, after Kay married Bonnie Plummer, Henry would frequently spend a weekend with Kay and Bonnie in their home in Provo, Utah. While living at Bountiful, he would often be visited by them, or by Clyde and Anna and their family, Vada and George and their family, or Dora and Waldo and their family, all of whom lived in Utah. One Sunday, when he was over 90 years of age and had attended Church services with Kay and Bonnie, he asked them the name of the “old man” (a Brother Johnson) he had met at church that morning, not considering the fact that he was, himself, older than the “old man” in question. Henry died in his 93rd year, on 13 May 1957, from pneumonia, while staying at rest home in Salt Lake City. He was active in the Church all his life, holding the priesthood office of High Priest. He was a man of integrity, a respected citizen, and a man who loved to work.