Saturday, March 15, 2014

Announcing

Thomas Winward Ellis


He was born March 1 at 11:06 PM.  At birth he weighed a cuddly 9 lbs.  Thomas was born at home by the foot of our bed with the assistance of 2 midwives and a student midwife.

Here he is being snuggled by his big siblings the next morning.


Isaac is so happy to have a baby brother!
 And a picture of me the next morning after a rather sleepless night.  Thanks, Tommy.


More pictures and the story of his birth to follow!

It took us several days to figure out his name.  Jonathan wanted to honor his great-grandfather Adam Patterson.  Adam Patterson Ellis.  It has a nice ring to it, but as Jon's sister Christine pointed out, his initials would be APE.  Neither of us could see saddling an innocent babe with that!  We also liked the name Brian after my brother, but when we tried the name on for size, it just didn't fit.  Alas.

We named him after his 5 greats-grandfather Thomas Winward.  I found this bio primarily about Thomas's son Peter, from whom I am also descended.  Peter lived quite the interesting life.

Peter Winward's Life Story
· 2013-11-23 20:32:36 GMT+0000 (UTC) 
Highlights of Peter Winward’s Life Story
By Winnie Curtis Wright

This story has been taken from other stories, none of which have the full account of important things of his life. I have rewritten it and compiled it into one story.
Thomas and Betty Silcock Winward’s married life was first spent in Stockport, Preston and Warrington Lancashire, England. Peter, there second son, was born December 22, 1832 at Warrington.
In July, 1837, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde and Willard Richards came to England to open a mission. In the ensuing nine months 2,000 persons were baptized. The next excursion was in 1840 when eight of the twelve apostles, led by Brigham Young, went to England to preach the restored gospel. By the time they embarked for America in April, 1841, between seven and eight thousand persons had embraced Mormonism. Among these was Thomas Winward who accepted the message of the Prophet and joined the Church in 1841. His wife Betty could not accept the teachings.
When Thomas was making plans to sail for Zion, she still refused to go with him, but Thomas was not to be deterred. He was led by the words of the Savior who said, “..a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall loseth it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”…
The 5th day of February, 1842 Thomas took his two sons, William and Peter, and together with 270 Saints left Liverpool on the ship “ Hope Duocburry”, leaving his wife Betty and four other children. Ann, the oldest, Elizabeth, Margaret, and a small son Thomas. He hoped that because of the love she had for him and her two sons, she would follow him.
They arrived at New Orleans the forepart of March. Going by way of river boat, they arrived at Nauvoo in April. Peter’s only recollection of the journey to America was his seasickness and leaving the ship when his father lifted him up to buy some sweet cakes from a black woman.
Thomas bought a small lot. During the time he wasn’t working on the temple, he was fixing his place. He was putting up a pole frame construction for his home when he contracted “black canker” (now known as diphtheria). William also had been very ill with a fever for weeks. One day, as William was recovering from his illness, he and Peter were playing close by their father, who was sitting in a chair sick with fever, when they discovered he had died.
Bishop J.H. Hale and Brother Driggs took Thomas to his last resting place. This was but six months after Thomas and his two young sons arrived in America to make a new life and home for his family, still hoping Betty and the children would follow.
Before Thomas died, he made Brother Charles Shumway promise him that if anything should happen to him he wouldn’t send the boys back to England. This was a difficult promise to keep as the boys were so young and their mother had send money for them to return. He told the Authorities the promise he mad to Thomas. It was decided to let the boys choose for themselves. Remembering how seasick they both had been and frightened to make the long trip back, they decided to say in America with the Mormon people.
Bishop Hale wrote and told their mother the boys’ decision, and that they were placed in good homes, but this did not ease the hurt of the mother’s heart and also their sister’s. Several letters were written pertaining to the boys; some of which the author has obtained.
The following years were hard for William and Peter, being shifted from one home to another in their tender years when needing the love and care of their mother. The first place was that of Brother Driggs (a relative o B.W. Driggs of Pleasant Grove). Later Peter went to live with Bishop Hale. He indeed was a true friend to Thomas and the boys. One day the Prophet Joseph Smith came to visit the Hale Family. Peter saw him coming. He ran and opened the gate for him. The Prophet placed his hand on Peter’s head and said, “Always be a good boy and you will never lack for bread”. This he always remembered and it was true.
Peter lived with a Major Russell family. He was stern and staunch, and always right – he thought. Peter’s chores at the Russell’s were to herd the cows. One day he let them stray too far apart, and by the time he got home it was dark. The made the Major very angry, and without questioning him, he whipped him unmercifully. Peter, knowing this was unjust, left the Russell’s home that night and went to the home of Charles Shumway, a friend of his father. He being a blacksmith needed a boy to help him. Here he learned the trade of blacksmith.
In the year 1843 the converts began to gather. Under the leadership of the Prophet Joseph Smith the Nauvoo Legion was organized, and the Prophet was commissioned Lieutenant General by the governor, who also was the Mayor of Nauvoo.
Enemies of the Church began to see the accomplishments the Saints had made in such a short time, and a great undercurrent began. The mobs gathered and the Saints were driven from their homes in the dead of winter to cross the Missouri River to the Iowa side. Here the people were friendlier and they remained until spring. It was during this time our beloved Prophet Joseph smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by mobs while waiting trial at Carthage Jail.
Brigham Young took over the leadership of coming west. The hardships were many, and crossing the plains was slow. On one occasion the company camped on the outer edge of a forest. The timber wolves were so numerous a night watch was kept to keep the fires burning so the wolves wouldn’t attack the camp. In the hurry of moving on the next morning, a much needed lariat was left and not discovered until late afternoon. Peter, knowing just where it was, went back to get it. The day was cloudy and a storm threatening. Night came before Peter reached the former camp spot. It was raining and there were little flashes of lightening. He could hear the howling of the wolves. Reaching the place where the lariat was, he could see it as the lightening flashed. Too frightened to get off his horse, he held right to the saddle horn, leaned far down, and grabbed the lariat. Just at that time a flash of lightening and clap of thunder frightened the horse. He jumped and whirled around, Peter headed the horse in the direction he thought to be correct, but the horse refused to move. With the next flash of lightening he saw why. The horse was standing on the edge of a deep canyon wall. Frightened to see why might have happened, he loosened the reins of the bridle and the horse sensed the right direction of the camp. Soon he met two men who were sent to find him.
In the year 1847, July 24, the A.O. Smoot Company arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Peter was but fifteen years old. He was a good, dependable worker. He helped build homes, hauled granite from the nearby hills and planted grain. He saw the locust come to destroy their crops and the miracle of the Seagulls destroying the locust, and saving a portion of the grain.
He worked for a short time in Salt Lake. He then was called to Manti to help on the Temple. One night while camped near the Temple site he fell into a very restless and troubled sleep in which he saw the world afire and a man walking before the blaze. He awakened very frightened, and ran to a camp nearby. The men of this party were officials of the Church, who, when hearing Peter’s story, advised him to return to Salt Lake and be baptized again. On his return to Salt Lake he was delighted to meet his brother, William, whom he had not seen since leaving Nauvoo.
In 1850 he was called among other settlers to move on south. They settled 65 miles south of Salt Lake. The leader of this party was James Pace, and he had a son: hence, they named the settlement, “Payson”.
On 7 May 1855 D.A. Miller Company arrived in Payson. In his party were Jeremiah Bingham and his two daughters, Lucindia and Margaret, who were the only two of his six children who survived when they were forced from their homes in Nauvoo. (Their mother died 8 June 1853).
Peter was now 23 years old and looking for a companion. One night a community dance he recognized a face of a young lady whom he said he had seen in a dream. Six weeks later, Lucindia Bingham became his wife.
Lucindia was born September 24 1837 in Gasfield, Lake Erie, Canada. She was the eldest of Jeremiah and Abigail Herrington Bingham.
Peter and Lucindia’s first home was in the fort on the northeast corner, now owned by Mrs. Chloe Tilson. Here the first of their twelve children was born. When she was but six weeks old her father was called to Fort Lawrence to work with Jeremiah Bingham, Jr., where he worked as a blacksmith. He was there but a short time when President Brigham Young asked for volunteers to go meet the Hand Cart Company he feared were caught in the snow coming through the mountain pass. Peter volunteered with two other men from that area. They met with other volunteers from Salt Lake ( 50 in all). The wagons were equipped with plenty of warm clothes, and in his prayer he promised the men a safe journey and good roads, both going and coming. Going through Emigration Canyon the snow was so deep on either side of the roads; a ship stock laying across the wagon would touch the snow. They met the Hand Cart Company at Stony Point in deplorable circumstances. Some were dead, others dying from lack of food, warm clothes, shoes and bedding. It was a thankful band of half frozen Saints that were met by these men who brought them on to Salt Lake. The words of Brigham Young were true. They did have good roads for the journey. Later the snow fell so deep travelers had to go on snow to get through.
Returning to Payson, the following spring Peter and Lucindia purchased property south of the fort and built a dugout. Later an adobe house, and eventually the brick home which still stands. His daughter, Lola Ann, and her husband bought it. It is now owned by their daughter, Florence Mitchell, granddaughter of Peter and Lucindia.
In the year of 1858, the word came that Johnson’s army was on its way to repress the rebellious Mormons. President Brigham Young set out a call for the men of Utah to quickly gather and prepare to defend the territory. They gathered in Salt Lake. The weather was cold. The men made camp on a hill site overlooking the city. President Young counseled the men that their guns were few, and sticks were used to look like guns. The men marched up and around, and over the small hill many times. To the army it looked as though they were outnumbered and a Mormon behind every bush and tree. They surrendered without a gun being fired, and were glad to trade clothing and many other things for food. They stayed here until spring before trying to return. They found the Mormon people refined, courteous, clean living, religious, and well schooled. It was only good reports they carried back to the President. Some of the men returned, joined the Church and married. Grandfather got an overcoat, dishes and other needed things from the army.
Our grandfather was a religious man, and when troubled, he would always pray. On one occasion, he had several acres of ripe wheat to cut. He knew where he could get a scythe for $3.00, but having no money, he was troubled as to how he could get the wheat cut. Walking home from work one night, he said a silent prayer, as he often times did; as he jumped across the ditch there beside the road was $3.00, the amount for the scythe.
October 11, 1884, Peter was called to England on a mission. While in England he visited his old home. His mother had died some twenty years before; his sister, Margaret and brother Thomas also had died. Elizabeth had married a Simon Gatley. Ann and her family, who lived in the home, had never joined the church. She was very bitter toward her brother and her father; saying her father had given his property to his brother and he didn’t give them what rightly was theirs; also their mother had died of a broken heart. She forbade Peter to enter the house. Peter, learning that Ann’s husband, James Woods, was investigating Mormonism, decided to call upon him at his office. Mr. Woods insisted Peter come home with him. As the two neared the house, Ann saw them coming. Furious with anger at her husband’s defiance of her wishes she seized her treasured Bible and flung it into the flames of the fireplace. As the book burned, the pages stopped at the section which he last had read. As Peter and his brother-in-law removed what was left of the book, these words were still visible…” If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.” This indeed was a testimony to both Ann and James, and an opening for discussion.
After a successful mission, Peter returned home to his family. The hand of providence was in the boys remaining in America. Both reared large families and were faithful members of the Church and of the community in which they lived.
His life’s companion, Lucindia, died of a heart attach 14 March 1905 at the age of 64. The only two things I remember of my grandmother, are her telling of the Indians (Nancy, a very pretty Indian girl that would come each spring begging for food, or other things she might have to give her). And that while we were still living in the little house behind our new home, she came to help mother cut and sew carpet rags for a carpet for our new home into which we were soon to move. She had the prettiest little sewing scissors that impressed me. I guess why I remember this particular item was that it was raining, and I couldn’t go out to play.
Grandfather’s two unmarried daughter, Ella and Iva, cared for him. He was always a faithful member of the Church; doing good at all times and with the jobs he was called to do. He held the office of Elder, Seventy, and High Priest. He always had a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel, and a sincere knowledge that Joseph Smith was indeed a true Prophet of God.
One night, still performing his duties as a Ward Teacher, he stepped into a large irrigation ditch where the bridge had been washed out by high waters. He caught cold, pneumonia set in, and a week later – 30 May 1909, he passed away. This was four years after the death of his beloved wife, who he always referred to as his “dream girl”
His occupation was that of blacksmith and farmer; accepting many other kinds of work in order that he provide the necessities for his family. As a long time resident of Payson, he served on many committees, both for Church and civic affairs of the town. He acted as Payson’s Water Master for many years, and one of the three reservoirs in Payson Canyon is named in his honor. He worked with other civic minded men on civic affairs in the development of Utah County, and a book has been written and pictures of these men are found in the Provo Archives.

3 comments:

Renee said...

Congratulations!!!!!!!!! Beautiful family!

Grant Ellis said...

Congratulations!

Grant Ellis said...

Congratulations!