(1820-1889) 

By her Granddaughter Esther Jenkins Carpenter 

Anna Evans Jenkins, Malad Valley Pioneer of 1869, was born June 13, 1820 at Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, South Wales.  Her parents, Evan Evans and Esther Jones, were natives of Cardiganshire, a county noted for its beautiful farms and and for its wool growing industry.  Her grandparents, John and Esther Evans, are buried in the churchyard of Llanwenog Parish.  Her parents were married there February 12, 1810.  Their children were Mary, John, Anna, David and Esther.  The first two were born in Llandyssul Parish.   

We don’t know when the Evans family came to Merthyr Tydfil but we realize that their life completely changed in that industrial center.  Grandmother’s father became a mine burner.  Little is known about her early life but she did have some schooling and later on she worked at pulling slate out of coal on the surface of the mine.  Women and girls in large numbers were employed in this. 

When she was 22 years old she married David Jenkins who had come to that area to work from Landore, Swansea.  Their marriage took place at Bethhania Chapel on November 19, 1842 according to the rites of the Independents.  Her father signed his name as one of the witnesses. 

Her husband was a good man.  Grandmother never said an unkind thing about him.  Although he had little chance for schooling he used to tract for the Mormon Church after work at night marking the verses in his Welsh Bible that he wished to discuss.  He had been baptized in 1844.  Grandmother was baptized in the Merthyr branch by William Phillips in September 1845.  Their goal was to emigrate to Utah so they moved about seeking work where the wages were highest in the area close to Merthyr.  

When grandmother was only 32 years old her husband was killed in an explosion at the Middle Duffryn Collier near the old canal at Cwmbach, Aberdare on May 10, 1852.  She was left with five children – David, Esther, Anna, Evan and John.  Her husband was 38 years old, having been born at Morriston, Swansea, April 2, 1814.  He was the son of David Jenkins and Catherine John and was survived by them and the following brothers and sisters:  Ann, Catherine, John, Thomas and William.  Several members of the LDS faith lost their lives that day.  They had been warned to stay away from that pit but wages were higher there.  David W. Davis, an early pioneer of Samaria and the father of W.G. Davis, worked there but had remained at home to take care of business matters that morning.  Sixty eight men were killed that day. 

Grandfather Jenkins was buried in the ancient churchyard of St. John’s, Aberdare, Glamorganshire.  While in Wales in 1951, I made an appointment with the vicar for July 24th.  Mr. E.J. Hughes, a retired solicitor and former secretary of the town council, accompanied me to  the place.  I had a translation of the Welsh directions from grandmother’s record book but although we walked all over the burial plot we were not successful.  Many years ago a part of the cemetery had been cut off to widen the road.  It was the vicar’s opinion that there had been a communal grave.  We then entered the old church, a real treasure of the distant past.  It was first built in 1189 during the reign of Richard I, King of England.  He showed me the entry in the burial book taken from the vault.  It was recorded on page 174 of volume 5 and was entry # 1390.  The churchyard is now closed to burials.  Yew trees are common in the churchyards of Wales and there were some very old ones at St. John’s.  The following lines from Gray’s Elegy came to my mind that day: 

“Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree’s shade, 

  Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, 

  Each in his narrow cell forever laid, 

  The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.” 

Grandmother Jenkins lost her hearing when she ran to the mine pit explosion which killed her husband but it returned when another accident nearly cost her the lives of her sons.  With her husband gone everyone old enough to work had to help earn the living.  The boys entered the mines at the age of six and seven years.  The boys entered the mines at the age of six and seven years.  Evan, being large for his age, entered at six and was taken for a seven year old boy.  They picked slate out of coal.  Every month grandmother put on her widow’s bonnet and went to collect the small allowance called the widow’s pension.  She also took in one or two lodgers to meet expenses.  She made smocks by hand which the miners wore, sewing far into the night after the children were asleep.  None of them ever went to bed without saying goodnight to her. 

Later she married Thomas Williams and had three more children – Sarah Jane, Mary Ann and Mair.  The girl named Mary Ann was buried in Wales in infancy.  When Mair was a babe in arms this unhappy marriage ended by grandmother putting her husband’s clothes in a bundle out by the door and asking him to follow them. 

During these troubled years the idea of emigration had not been forgotten.  In 1866 the two oldest in the family, David and Esther, arranged to leave Wales.  On April 30th, they sailed from Liverpool on the ship, John Bright.  They arrived in New York, June 6, 1866 under the direction of C.M. Gillet.  On this long journey they took comfort in knowing that their father’s sister, Ann, was in Utah to welcome them. 

David Jenkins Jr. worked at anything he could get to obtain money to send his mother.  Two years later their dreams came true.  The family left Liverpool on Tuesday the 30th of June for New York, on the ship, Minnesota.  It took them 11 ½ days to cross the Atlantic.  John Parry, former president of the Welsh District, was in charge of this emigration.  On the roster of his ship, the family was listed as follows:  Anna Jenkins 48 years, Evan 19, John 17, Sarah Jane 13, Mair 10, Anna M. 22, John Martin 24, Catherine Anna infant.  They reached New York, July 12th, and arranged to go by train to Laramie.   

They left Laramie, Wyoming, for Salt Lake Valley on July 25th in Captain Chester Loveland’s Company of 40 muleteam wagons and 400 passengers.  Many had to walk over the Wyoming plains, a distance of 400 miles.  They had trouble with the Indians and had to lay over long enough to recapture the animals and kill the savages.  They had three deaths during the journey.  Salt Lake Valley was reached August 20, 1868, and Uncle David Jenkins was at the mouth of Emigration Canyon to greet them.  He had rented a house, bought furniture, even a small rocker for Catherine Anna, and had a good supply of food on hand ready for them. 

After living in Salt Lake for a few months, grandmother decided to move to Logan to spend the winter near her husband’s sister, who emigrated in 1856.  Aunt Ann was very kind to them, but being a widow now for the second time, she decided to marry again.  On January 18, 1869, she took as her third husband, a man named Francis Purser, and moved to Hyde Park to establish a home for his motherless children.  The Jenkins’ family lived in the  3rd Ward of Logan that winter. 

There was no land to be had near Logan, so in the fall of 1869 Anna Jenkins and her family moved to Malad Valley and located in Samaria to be near old friends whom they had known in the Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare Districts of Wales.  Some of these friends included James and Hannah Griffiths, David W. and Charlotte Davis, John E. and Ruth Price, William W. and Mary Willliams.  Over the years these people shared joys, sorrows, and disappointments together as the bonds of friendship strengthened. 

A dugout on the corner where Uncle David Jenkins’ brick home was later built served as a shelter that first winter in Malad Valley.  It was replaced with a log house.  The timbers for it were brought from the canyon by John Martin. 

The best claims near the townsite had already been taken so grandmother and her three sons filed on land four miles south and east of Samaria.  They homesteaded 160 acres each.  The property later became known as the “South Field”.  To obtain money for fences, livestock, farm machinery, and buildings, it became necessary for David and Evan to go to the mines in Utah to work.  During this time grandmother and her son John assumed other responsibilities.  She spent much of her time on the homestead to establish residence requirements.  Nothing seemed to discourage her because in the end she knew her boys would gain title to the land and enjoy working in the fresh air and sunshine.  She had left her native land to achieve this and to live among people of her own religious convictions. 

Over the years she kept busy, helping her children and in doing her part in the religious life of the community.  She was the first treasurer of the Relief Society and held that position until her death.  During her first years in Samaria she made yeast and exchanged it for flour.  Then on the farm and later in the village she had a garden, chickens and kept cows, making butter and selling it along with eggs to help meet the expense of living.  She was good at sewing and often earned money that way.  She sent her daughter, Sarah Jane, to Salt Lake to learn the trade and she was very successful in following it after returning home.  She always put special touches and frills on her own clothes there after.  When sewing for the village people there were many things in which her mother could render assistance. 

Later in life grandmother lived in a comfortable little home across the street, east from her son John’s home.  She loved flowers and took pride in having them grow in abundance around her place.  She planted hollyhocks on each side of the path from the gate to the house.  In appearance, she was sturdy of build, a good average height, and had blue eyes and dark hair.  She was very forthright in expressing herself and enjoyed talking and laughing with her friends in Welsh.  The older people always used their native tongue.  Even after they became fluent in English they always resorted to its use if they didn’t want the young children to know what they were saying.  One picture of her was given to me by a cousin who saw her going up to help my mother at threshing time.  She was wearing a green checked gingham bonnet on her head, her apron was made into a roll on top of that, to form a ring.  On this ring she balanced a small table and was carrying two brass buckets full of water in her hands.  That was an old European custom that died out with the passing of the pioneers. 

Correspondence with her relatives and friends in Wales was maintained up until the time of her death.  Uncle John wrote the letters for his mother and many of them dated in the 70’s and 80’s were carefully preserved by the family.  In them we found evidence of the close ties between grandmother and her people.  Because of the industrial strife that beset the workers of Glamorganshire during the 80’s some of those letters asked for financial help.  Money was always sent willingly and the letters of gratitude were compensation in themselves.  One friend pleaded with her to keep in touch with her saying, “Anna, please write to us.  If you have no pencil, use a piece of charcoal and any kind of paper.  We will be able to read it.”  D.E. Price, a son-in-law, visited that friend and some of grandmother’s people while over there on a mission in 1895-7. 

During my visit to Wales I spent four nights with the descendants of grandmother’s brother David, who still live at Merthyr Tydfil.  One of the young girls teaches in the schools there.  I was taken to see Cyfarthfa Castle built in 1825 by William Crawshay, one of the ironmasters of the period.  (Strange as it may seem M.T. was the iron and steel capital of the world in the mid-nineteenth century).  It is now used as a museum and as a boy’s school and is owned by the borough of Merthyr Tydfil.  The grey stone castle with its round towers and their ornate trim is partly ivy covered and is at present surrounded by a beautiful park.  It is a monument to the prosperity of the past but today Merthyr is a ghost town industrially. 

Some of the culture of Wales was brought over by grandmother in the form of Welsh church books and Welsh music books.  Since some of her children were good singers there were copies of “Handel’s Messiah” and “Sampson” both written in Welsh.  Her sister Mary Wathen of Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, gave her a book of Welsh songs in which she inscribed these words: “To dear sister Anna – leaving Ebbw Vale for Salt Lake City, June 19, 1868.  Please use and think of me.” 

Death came to Anna Evans Jenkins at the age of 68 years and 11 months on May 13, 1889.  She was at the home of her daughter, Mair (Mrs. D. E. Price) having gone there during the last months of her life when illness came upon her.  She is buried in the Samaria cemetery.  All of her children are buried close by as if to prove the close bond that had been between them during life. 

(Anna Evans Jenkins photo) 

References:  Mill. Star for 5 June 1852, Deseret News for 20 August 1868, Conversations with relatives, Visit to Wales in 1951.