by granddaughter, Esther Williams Morris
One bleak day on the 6th of November, 1842, there was born to Esther and Isaac Williams, a sweet little girl. She was born of good but very humble parents. Her father , Isaac Williams was born at Llapyns Car, Wales in 1802 and her mother, Esther Frances, was also born in Wales at Loesgreek Car, Mathenshire, August 18, 1808.
Esther came into a very humble home. Her parents were poor, having very little of the world’s goods. When Esther and her sisters reached the ages of five and six, they were sent out as baby tenders to help earn a little money.
Tragedy came to the family when Esther was just a little girl, tragedy so terrible that it was almost more than her poor mother could bear. The Black Cholera was spreading throughout the country , one of the worst plagues of death and destruction that the people could remember. Esther’s father and two sisters, Ann and Jane were stricken with the dread disease. At night the angel of death hovered over that little home, taking one sister in the early evening, a few hours later the father, and before dawn of another day, the other sister. As the sun looked down from the heavens in the morning and shone on the humble home, only sadness and tragedy were found within the house. Very sad indeed was the mother as she mournfully watched the officers take away her dead in the night to be buried. They were buried so very soon after death in the hopes that this would prevent the spread of the terrible disease.
It was the custom in Wales at that time to take the children away from the mother when the father died and send them away to the poor house until they were old enough to go out as baby tenders. The mother had already lost two of her children and could not bear the thought of having her other children taken, so she said, “No, I will support my children until they are old enough to work for themselves. So she found work in a grocery store and with this and any other work she could get, was able to support her family.
At the tender age of nine years when children should be free and happy, unburdened with hard work, Esther with her two sisters, Mary and Eliza, were taken from their home and sent to work in a tin factory. Here they worked under conditions that were bad, especially for young developing bodies that needed sunshine and play. The lights were poor, ventilation bad and the girls were forced to work hard for many long hours. Esther worked in the factory under these conditions until she was 17 years old.
In their bereavement after the Black Plague had taken its toll on their family, they found comfort and consolation from two young men who were preaching a strange but beautiful religion. Wholeheartedly they were converted by the two young men who were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
With the dream of coming to Zion to be with the Saints, the family put forth every effort to save money for their passage to America. After much hard work and saving and many humble prayers, they finally realized their dream. They had enough money to take all but one. Mary remained in Wales to await the day when she too could come to Zion.
On April 30, 1863 aboard the ship, Cynosure, the family turned their faces toward the West and set sail for America where they hoped they would find happiness and lose some of the loneliness in their hearts. When they set sail for America, they hoped that they had left the terror of Cholera behind them, but fate decreed differently., because the disease was raging on the ship. They crossed the ocean on a condemned vessel. For six weeks the ship was driven by wind and storm. Death lurked in the depth of the mighty ocean, but a more terrible death was in the ship itself because of the cholera. The people who died with the disease were wrapped in canvas and thrown overboard. The dead were buried as soon as they died because of the fear of whales. They were told that the whales would capsize the ships if the dead were left on board for any length of time. One day two large whales could be seen not far away. The sight of these two great mammals caused much excitement and fright. However, the whales stayed away and did not bother the ship.
It was indeed a happy day for the family when land was sighted and the ship sailed into New York harbor, July 19, 1863. They had survived that far toward the land of their dreams. The ship in which they sailed to England sank on its return trip and was never heard from again. How very thankful was the family that the Lord had protected them and brought them safely across the mighty ocean in a ship that had been condemned as unfit for travel.
Now that they were in America, their great desire was to get to Utah. With this ambition urging them on, they worked in New York until they had enough money to make the trip to Utah. At last that eventful day arrived when they loaded their few belongings on a wagon and started that long trek across the plains. They came with the wagon company of Thomas E. Ricks and not having a wagon in which to ride, they walked the entire distance to Salt Lake City.
Those days on the plains, spent under the great expanse of God’s heavens where the stillness and mystery of the plains were ever about them, was awe-inspiring to young Esther. Although she was often hungry, foot -weary and tired, her courage never failed. She was to a land chosen above all other lands, where she hoped to find peace and prosperity and she was happy through all her trials.
Esther had grown into a beautiful woman with a soul as brave, as honest, as faithful and as lovely as her sweet face. She was small in stature with wavy black hair that made a fitting frame for her large, expressive and kind, brown eyes. Her disposition was gentle and kind, her motto in life being, “To do good to those who wrongfully treat you”. This motto she practiced throughout her entire life.
How her girlish heart sang with joy when the lofty peaks of the Rocky Mountains came into view and she knew their long journey was almost over. The Company arrived in Salt Lake City, October 6, 1863, tired and hungry with very little clothing to protect their bodies from the sun and cold. They were happy and thankful to their God for bringing them safely across the ocean and plain.
The good people of Salt Lake City received them with open arms and treated them kindly, as they did all newly arrived Saints. A good woman gave Esther a piece of corn bread and butter soon after they arrived at camp. Esther stated afterward that it tasted better than anything she had eaten in her entire life. That was the first bread she had tasted for many days.
Esther found work in Sister Jeremy’s home in Salt Lake City where she worked for two years. While working in this home she met John S. Morris and in a short time they became good friends. Their friendship ripened into love and after a short courtship they were married.
At this time she was living with her mother and she was afraid to leave her mother alone. Through some agreement not exactly known, John S. Morris took both Esther and her mother to the old Endowment House and gave them both his name on January 20, 1865. George Q. Cannon performed the marriage ceremony. Our pioneer mothers shared in everything. They were even willing to share their husband’s name. It took faith and courage to be so unselfish.
The young people lived in Salt Lake City for a short time after their marriage and then they moved to Brigham City. Here the husband worked as a tailor, the trade he had been trained to do. He did very well in his trade and saved enough to buy shares in the Brigham Co-op store and the Brigham Knitting and Woolen Mills. He received dividends from these shares until just before his death.
A number of happy, prosperous years were spent in Brigham City. It was while they were living here that Esther began her great life work. She went down into the shadow of death and gave birth to a son. God willed that their first little child, a son whom they called Isaac, should not remain with them and three days after he was born he went back to his Heavenly Father. But once again, Esther’s faith and courage never failed and with a prayer in her heart that God would be good to her, she gave birth to another son one year later. Heavenly Father was good to her and she named the baby boy, John. She had another baby boy, David W. and then on February 14, 1871, she received a beautiful Valentine for God sent her a sweet little baby girl whom she named Charlotte.
When Charlotte was two and a half years old they moved to Portage. They homesteaded what is now the William H. Gibbs farm. Here they erected a house and barns. Joseph Merrell wanted to build a log house on John and Esther’s homestead as a shelter for his family during the winter months. Brother Morris gave him permission and moved his family to Malad where he practiced his tailoring trade in Malad, St. John, and Samaria. He did this to get enough money to complete his home. When spring came, Mr. Merrell contested the claim to the land and won it because he had lived on the land all winter. Brother Morris got the buildings on the clam and Lot 6 in Block 6 at Portage. On his lot he built a comfortable home for his family.
As the years passed busily onward, Esther was happy and very busy caring for her family. She had to work very hard as so many of the pioneer mothers had to do. Her husband accumulated a herd of milk cows. Esther had two small sons, Johnny and David, who tended the cows. She made butter and cheese which she either sold or traded for clothing and yarn. The yarn she knitted into warm stockings for her mother, herself and her children. Esher’s mother was a great comfort to her. She tended the children while Esther did the heavier work.
With the passing of the years, most of Esther’s life was spent in rearing and tending her family. She became the mother of 12 children, nine boys and three girls. Great will be her reward in that beautiful land of eternity for the pain she bore and the work she did in the rearing of a large family.
When Charlotte was nine years old, Esther’s mother was stricken with dropsy. One day when Esther came into the house from tending the chickens, she found her mother dead. This was a great shock and sorrow to her because she loved her mother dearly. Down through all the years, they had worked and prayed together and now she must go on without her mother’s help.
Esther’s desire was always to serve the Lord. She attended her meetings regularly and was a visiting teacher for the Relief Society for many years. She had the great gift of cheerfulness and she was always visiting the sick with something good to eat and words of good cheer. She received her Patriarchal Blessing from John Smith. In this blessing she was promised she would be a nurse among her kind. This blessing was certainly fulfilled in her later life.
Before her last two children were born, her husband married her sister, Eliza, and they lived together in the same house until Eliza’s death. Esther had a very understanding nature or she could never have lived in the same house, sharing her husband’s love with another woman. Several very serious accidents happened to her husband, John, and it was thought he could not live. But through very careful nursing and faith and prayers, she nursed him back to health and usefulness.
In fulfillment of her Patriarchal Blessing, she went out as a mid-wife when her own children were fairly well grown. She successfully ushered many, many babies into this world. Whenever she went out to help a little soul into the world she kept a fervent prayer in her heart that the kind God would help her. She also had a license to sell medicine and drugs.
In her later years, Esther never missed a general conference, always paying her own way to Salt Lake City. She also did a great work in the Temple for her dead ancestors. She performed their work in both the Logan and the Salt Lake City Temples. She was always very hospitable, never turning anyone away hungry from her door. She was greatly loved by all who know her and especially by her many grandchildren. I remember that when I was just a child I rode with her to Collinston in a buggy. She had butter and cheese which she sold and with the money she bought linoleum for her floors. She told me Bible stories on the way and I enjoyed listening to her.
She was a great teacher in her quiet way, living a noble and useful life. She was very thrifty and independent, doing her own housework until the night before her death.
On December 28, 1919, she arose as usual at an early hour. She felt very ill and some of the neighbors came in to help her. They moved her bed to a warmer place and left to prepare breakfast for her and her husband. When they returned in a few minutes, her great spirit had left the tired work-worn body to dwell in the light of an eternal home. She died at the age of seventy-seven.
May peace and love ever attend her great spirit that weathered the storms of life so successfully.