Preece Family Tree

“John A. Lewis – My Grandfather”
Written by Priscilla Lewis Swenson, March 1927

My recollections of Grandpa Lewis are of the most pleasant sort. He was a kind, dear grandpa to me, always polite and pleasant. He was rather tall, bright blue eyes, dark brown hair, curled, and fine, high forehead, high cheekbones. Walked straight, and sat straight. My father resembled his own mother and my Grandpa used to tell me that I was like her too, and as I grew older, Aunt Mary told me I was about her mother's build and height, and resembled her [Ann John]. He spoke quietly and loved to tell a joke, or listen to one. He could retell a story well. He enjoyed a good theater, and it was his delight to go to Conference in Salt Lake, Spring and Fall, and attend the Salt Lake Theater shows. Phil [Margetts] was one of his favorite actors. My first recollection of Salt Lake City was,, when Pa and Ma drove up in a wagon with a mule team, old Trump and Bell, and Grandpa and Grandma Lewis went along, as did also Kate, Will, and I. We walked up the hills and Ma [bought] us children an orange, the first time I had ever seen oranges. Will helped himself to a peach out of a box in a store, and gave me one, and we had them nearly eaten when Ma made the discovery. Pa gave me 25 cents each New Year's Day until I was a large girl. I was heart-broken the year he failed.

I remember when Grandpa left for his mission to Wales in 1872 [date corrected by Thelma Ludlow] and later when he returned. But he was so lame he walked with a cane when he came back. He fell a distance of 20 feet and lit on his hip bone, he was seriously ill in Wales for months. His spine was injured and grew more until he died. He lived with us for six months, and died at our home. He is buried on my father's lot, with his second wife [Priscilla Merriman] and “Grandma” Morgan, a nice old Welsh lady who was sealed to Grandpa for eternity. She lived in a room of Grandpa's house and he supported her. She died of cancer in the forehead. A pimple appeared and she picked at it and burned it with caustic, until it became a cancer. She had children in Wales. She did her Temple work for her relatives. She gave me a wooden toy box she [brought] with her from Wales—a gift from her daughter's sweetheart to the daughter. She grew flowers and loved poetry. She was a kind, sweet old lady, and as homely as she was good. She lies next to my husband in the cemetery, and I have a white lilac growing by her head. It blossoms profusely, I loved her.

Grandpa was born at Llandaff, Glamorganshire, Wales, 11 December 1814. His father's name was Edmund and his mother, Amelia Preece. Edmund died and Amelia married Edward Harding and they had two children, Edward and Elizabeth. Edward died, leaving Amelia a widow the second time. Grandpa's brother Edmund and he worked together. At one time, they repaired the Cardiff Docks: Their trade was contracting and building. Edmund died of cholera before 1855. Grandpa very often spoke of his brother Edmund as he grew older.

Grandpa married Ann John, born in Cardiff 3 May 1818, and they had seven children. Ann, Frederick (died), Mary, Amelia (died), Frederick, William and Lewis (twins—Lewis died). The three children died when babies [Amelia was 6]. The mother contracted consumption or tuberculosis and passed away on 10 May 1850, leaving her husband and four little children. His mother lived with them now, and took care of the children. They all attended school, though Uncle Bill refused to go and usually had to be carried to school. He was delicate and had lung trouble. Grandmother Harding was generous and kind, over-indulgent to the children. A girl did the house work. The were well to do.

Grandpa married a widow [Priscilla Merriman] four years older than himself, with one child—a girl. Her name was Mary Louise Phillips. (She went in polygamy and married Franklin Pace as his second wife.) He is dead, but she is living at Spanish Fork now.

Then they heard the gospel and embraced it. Ann, Mary, and Fred were baptized in Cardiff, Wales. Grandpa was educated as a Wesleyan Minister, but he did not follow that occupation: He was always religious, and even zealous in his religion. His mother greatly opposed the Latter-Day Saint religion and was angry to think that he would leave old Wales for a new country, especially when he had so delicate a child as William, who would certainly die on the journey. He loved his mother dearly, and it was very tender parting. The children clung to Grandmother, she clung to them, and her son.

A child was born to Grandpa and his second wife. They named her Amelia.

In 1854 they took leave of their native land and turned their faces to America. They crossed the ocean in the Golconda and were six weeks on the ocean.

Uncle William got better every day, and had no more trace of consumption. He is living at Spanish Fork now, quite feeble. Aunt Mary had the gift of tongues on the vessel, -sang in tongues. Grandpa paid the fares of all the poor LDS in the Parish from Wales to Salt Lake. He loaned money too. I have notes for different amounts of pounds, gotten up in a legal form, but not paid. He also bought a farm and home in Sanpete, of a missionary [Dan Jones], paying a large sum for it. I have the deed for this farm and it lies in the heart of Manti.

At St. Louis they outfitted for the journey across the plains and started from there in July 1854. Grandma had a team of two steers and two cows, and a teamster. He had never seen an ox before in his life. He came across the plains in an Independent Company with Dr. Levi [Richardson] Company. The children who could, walked all the way and the two older girls with Caroline Matthews, a niece of Grandpa's second wife, who lived with them, and did so until she married Franklin Pace as his first wife. She was childless. Those three girls enjoyed the dancing and merriment around the campfires of an evening, and on wash and clean-up days, when the camp would take a few hours off to bathe and wash the clothes.

At one time on the journey, in a most unexpected moment and a lonely spot, Ash Hollow, the camp was surrounded by Sioux Indian braves all on horseback. Excitement ran high, and I have heard Aunt Ann tell, how the camp were fixing for the the night and most of the oxen were unyoked. The women huddled together, children screamed, oxen and cows stampeded, women fainted, and the Indians rode round and round. Finally the Indian Chief stopped, and the Captain went to him and they talked. The Indians demanded food, so the food was divided between the camp and the Indians and they took their share and rode away. Aunt Louise Pace says Grandpa had two wagons and two teamsters. William Geddes was one (and his wife,) who was a nurse, was along too. I think Aunt Louise is right in this.

When this train of immigrants reached Nebraska, on a boiling hot day, in a big heavy wagon, and in an Indian country, a team pulled out of the road to one side, and halted. There were no trees, no shade, two or three men on horses were detailed to guard this wagon. In a short time my uncle, John Samuel Lewis, made his bow in this world, he came a little too soon.

Dr. Levi [Richardson] waited on Grandma and nurse Geddes took care of mother and child. Grandpa, knowing that a baby was expected, made provision of doctor and nurse. In a short time, the wagon had to be on its way, as it was dangerous to linger, and so the mother rocked and jolted over the rough roads with the blinding glare of sun on the wagon cover above, and the fear of Indians and a stampede at any time. But the baby thrived and grew. [Note from John D. Lewis: “Arrived in Utah September 30, 1954 – Darwin Richardson Co.”]

The whole family was overjoyed when at length Utah [?] Lake could be seen shimmering in the sunlight for they knew their long tiresome journey would soon be to an end. Arriving in Salt Lake, Grandpa started work on the foundation of the Salt Lake Temple and got paid out of the tithing office.

Then President Young sent the family to Brigham City to locate, as a good stone mason was needed there. So once more, one wagon was loaded, and the family started north with the exceptions of the three girls—Mary, Ann, and Caroline, who found work in homes in Salt Lake. They built them a little home on Main Street in Brigham, and Grandpa fixed a piece of ground on the south of the house, and planted the peach stones Brigham had given him, and told him how to plan them: After the ground was prepared, he dedicated it for the planting of the seed, and asked God to bless his efforts; he then planted the stones and when the trees were big enough, he transplanted them to the orchard with a fervent prayer for their growth and fruiting. This peach orchard was the first to bear fruit in Brigham. He put up rock houses in Brigham and vicinity. The first winter there, was a severe one and food was most scarce. There was nothing much to eat in the tithing offices and although Grandpa had scrip on them, he could not get flour nor the necessities. Their shoes and clothes were wearing out too. Pa and Uncle Bill would take sacks and climb the mountains and get dry grass and carry it back with a cow and oxen. They killed one ox to save its life. It was starving. It was poor and tough but better than nothing. My father, however, never did want any more soup or boiled beef. It was a trying time, for all their lives they had been blessed with plenty. Then the news of Johnston's Army coming and the order for all to move south. Once more the cows and steers were hitched to the wagon and the few articles of furniture and clothes piled in. Then straw was carried into the house and some placed around each tree so that the guards who were to remain could set fire to the straw and burn the house to the ground and trees. Then if the Army took possession, all they would find in the whole of Utah would be ruin and waste. They journeyed to Spanish Fork and made a dugout in a hillside on the southeast corner of town and lived there until they bought and built a little adobe house on north Main Street. Grandpa worked at his trade, the three girls married, my father freighted to Camp Floyd. The crickets had taken the crop, flour was scarce, and it was hard to get enough to eat. I have heard that Grandpa built two small adobe rooms and a little later added two rooms on the front, with two upstairs rooms. (I think this is correct. I think he got a vacant lot and maybe paid tithing scrip for it.) He took up some land in Spanish Fork, but he did not take kindly to farming. When they left Brigham, they owned a pig which they tried to lead with a rope. I never did hear what became of it. They had a great deal of good clothing and some nice things when they came to Utah. The most of which was traded for a trifle to eat. The old family Bible fell into the family of Lorenzo Snow, so the girls said. And Bishop Thurber of Spanish Fork went on a mission. They had no money to give him and Grandpa gave him father's mother's (Ann John) wedding ring, and he took it and kept it. Needless to say, the children did not approve of it.

Grandpa went to Manti to look over the farm he had purchased. It had been so misrepresented that he looked at it in disgust, turned around, and came back. I suppose he got part of his money's worth of experience. He was a fast walker and an athlete. He did not fall in with the ways of this new country. He liked roast goose, his favorite hymn was “Up Awake Ye, Defenders of Zion.”

He wore a number eight shoe and a 15 ½ collar. Shoes always polished, he was a good conversationalist. His mission to Wales was from 1872 to 1874. And he was President of the conference. He acted as a guard in Echo Canyon at the time of Johnston Army. Aunt Louise said they had two wagons. John Flowers drove one team, and William Geddes the other. Pa says he learned to drive oxen crossing the plains. All the older children walked most of the time. The young folks liked to walk and visit together. Aunt Mary had a beau in the company.

Grandpa liked the good things of life—good clothing, shoes, and good houses, good furniture. In fact, he had a million dollar taste and a one hundred dollar purse. He did not prosper financially in Utah. He and oxen and mules never would mix. He worked at his trade, that of a mason, but had a terrible time collecting his pay and he had to take it in anything the people had to pay. The same way with the school teachers and all other professions in those days. The co-op store issued a scrip. If a man sold a bushel of wheat, he was paid in scrip. Then all the shops and stores began issuing their own scrip, and it was a hard matter to get enough cash to pay taxes and go to conference. Phillip Sykes, a Welshman about the age of Grandpa, “tended mason” so he and Grandpa worked together on building. Later in life they visited the sick and administered to them. There were no doctors in Spanish Fork at that time, so midwives delivered women, and many women have told me that Grandpa was at her bedside when John or Mary was born. And he had the gift of comforting and healing. He was kind to the poor and thoughtful of any in sorrow.

I remember my mother was an invalid, sick for a year, and these two old men would come so often and sit and talk to her. Zebedee Coltrin would often meet them there and they talked of early days of the Church and of early days in this country. Zebedee Coltrin was well acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and, young as I was, I loved to get in the corner and listen to their conversations. They all wore heavy black capes in cold weather that reached a little below the waist. Crossing the plains, this company was called “The Ten Pound Company.” I do not know why. Grandpa was the only one of the family that joined the Church. I have been reading his diary the past two or three days, that he wrote while on his mission, but he seems to have been more interested in the saints than he was in gathering genealogy, though he has some genealogy.

[Priscilla Lewis Swenson is the daughter of Frederick Lewis and Anges Reed Ferguson.]