Jane Connelley, Immigrant

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via brother Samuel Rowley by SmartCopy: Jul 20 2015, 22:37:35 UTC

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• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jun 5 2018, 3:08:42 UTC

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Jane (Rowley) Connelley 1848-1930 Biography

Jane's parents are William Rowley and Ann Jewell.
She is the youngest of 15 children born to William.
Her father had been previously married and raised eight children with his first wife, Ann Taylor.
When Ann Taylor died, he married Ann Jewell who had worked for the couple.
In the next thirteen years, William fathered seven more children with Anne Jewell.
William died just eight months after Jane's birth.
Her parents William and Ann (Jewell) Rowley had been quite well-to-do until shortly after they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and disaster struck.
Two years of crop failures coupled with the persecution that came with membership in their new church left them penniless.
The Rowley's were forced to sell the land, their home, and most of their belongings. The stress of it all cost William his life.
Ann (Jewell) Rowley was left a widow with seven young children and the youngest daughter from William's first marriage to make a living for.
She was an excellent seamstress and the older children (though still young) got jobs.
Together they saved every penny they could for their goal was to immigrate from England to Utah.
Finally when Jane was eight years old, and with the help of the Perpetual Immigration Fund, they left England.
After a harrowing trip across the Atlantic Ocean and an equally harrowing train ride to Iowa City, they started the trip of their lives across the plains of America.
The year was 1856, they were to travel by handcart.
It was already late in the season to be starting and the handcarts were not ready for them.
The decision was made to go anyway, with handcarts made of green wood, and try to beat the winter storms.
Somehow, by the grace of God and a mother's faith, Ann Jewell and her seven children made it through as well as the members of the Willie Handcart Company.
Jane and her older brother, Thomas, had an experience one day of getting too far behind the company because of their play. They got caught on the wrong side of a river crossing and had to wait almost until darkness before they were rescued. They stayed closer to their mother after that.
One night, as supplies dwindled and with her children so hungry, Ann remembered two very hard sea biscuits in her luggage. She put the biscuits in a dutch oven and filled it with water.
Praying over the hard sea biscuits and water and trusting God, she put the dutch oven in the fire. Later when she opened the oven miraculously it was filled with food, enough to feed her family that evening.

When they reached the Salt Lake Valley in November 1856, the older children took jobs where they also had a place to live.
Ann and the younger children were sent to Nephi where a man came to Ann offering to marry her and care for her children. He also paid the debt to the Immigration fund.
Although he died a year later, the help he gave Ann was immeasurable.
Jane had moved with her mother and new husband from Nephi to Parowan.
It was here she grew into young womanhood.
Jane married Charles Albert Connelley in 1864 when she was sixteen.
Charles was an Alabama native, who was 32 years old, and a Confederate sympathizer during the Civil War.
He changed his name from John Larkin Foote and moved west.
Charles had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the year before he married Jane. He was a school teacher and a farmer.
Their first few years of marriage saw them moving nearly every year as Charles sought teaching contracts.
Charles always farmed in the summers.
About 1870 they settled in Leeds, Utah, north of Saint George and west of Cedar City.
Charles than got a contract with the US mail to establish a post office in Leeds where he became the postmaster.
When Charles was no longer dependent on teaching contracts he built a nice home for himself and his family where the stayed in Leeds and continued raising their family there.
Charles bought a small flock of sheep and he bought Jane the first sewing machine in the community.

Jane and Charles became parents to twelve children: Emmerina Susanna, William Albert (died in infancy), Charles Orson, Mary Jane, Anna Elizabeth, John Larkin, Margaret Louise, Isadora Sarah, George Henry, Kate May, Frank James (died when 11 years old), and Thomas Richard.

One year Jane worked herself into ill health taking care of her family and contracted typhoid fever.
Charles loaded the wagon with a bed for Jane, arranged for someone in the community to take care of his business affairs, and he with Jane and the seven children, took the long wagon ride to Parowan so that Jane's mother could care for her and nurse her back to health.
It took months for Jane to regain her health and strength and return to Leeds and her family.

About 1896, with some of the older children married, Charles and Jane and the younger children moved to the Muddy River in southern Nevada and settled in Logandale.
They lived there several years and then moved to Chloride, Arizona at the turn of the century.

Charles passed away in February 1904. He was 72 years old. Jane was 56.
Jane would live another 26 years.
After all her children were married, Jane lived briefly with one child and then another in Arizona, Utah, Idaho, California, and Nevada.
Her children reported that Jane was always a comfort and aid wherever she went. Jane was always happiest when making clothes for her grandchildren or doing something special for family members.

In a tribute to Jane by her children they wrote, "She was a dear, quiet little soul and loved by many. She was a good wife and a gentle mother. Her memory is very sacred."

At age 82, Jane was living with a daughter, Dora (Connelley) Crider, in Los Angeles, and was seemingly in good health.
Within hours she developed severe pains in her head, became unconscious, and died suddenly, suffering little.

Jane (Rowley) Connelley passed away on October 8, 1930 and was buried at Inglewood.
Jane was the last born of her siblings and the last to die.

Written by one of Jane's children:

Her father died when she was 7 months old. Jane tells of a trip to Utah when she was 8 years old. She came over in Captain Willey's handcart company. They ate buffalo meat which they dried and jerkied. One time they had nothing left but two sea biscuits which mother Ann put in a frying pan and put water on them. They were so hard she could not break them. She blessed them and they swelled to fill the pan and feed her brood.
On one occasion she and Thomas (10 years) lagged behind. They came to a big stream and could not cross. They took shelter under a bluff. When the company stopped for the night Mother Ann found they were missing. The children watched for rawhide along the way which they would roast in the fire and eat.

Jane married John Larkin Foote or Charles Albert Connelley and lived in Paragonah where her husband taught school. Their daughter Emarine Susan was born.

Jane was very industrious. She spun thread and wove cloth. Wool and cotton had to be carded before it was spun. She would go to fields and pick cotton, pick out seeds and card and spin into thread and weave cloth. Jane made the family clothing by hand, cared for the baby, cooked, and washed, ironed and kept her little house.
She would go out on the hill where the sheep had grazed and pick wool off the bushes where the sheep had scraped it off. One day’s picking would provide enough yarn for a pair of stockings which she prepared and made by candlelight. Soon they had a few sheep of their own.

The Indians were very bad and women were very much afraid. The weather was very hot in summer but they had to keep the doors shut all the time the men were away.

Once Indians stole their two horses and a cow. This was a tragic loss.
The men of the town got together and brought the team and the cow back.
Like others they endured the hardships common to pioneers with courage and good grace.

Charles mended shoes in the evenings, a trade he learned in his youth. He would teach in the winter. He was teaching in Parowan when William Albert was born beautiful and brown-eyed. Before he was a year old he took whooping cough and died. What a blow.

In summer they went back to their home in Dixie to farm in the heat and the wind.
Better days were to come.
They moved three miles north to help build the town of Leeds.
While still in Harrisburg their third child was born named Charles Orson, a fine husky lad and his mother’s pride and joy.

In Leeds they built a fine rock house with a basement, planted choice fruits and a garden.

Charles was called to teach in New Harmony and while there Mary Jane was born. They spent a cozy winter and then returned to Leeds to farm again.
Cotton was the main crop. Jane was a good picker – picked cotton and cared for her children at the same time. The baby bed was taken into the fields with her. Spinning and weaving weren’t quite so necessary now as they were finally able to buy cloth.

Charles had persuaded the people to petition for a post office. He was asked to be postmaster and now they could stay in their home.

In 1871 Elizabeth was born.

Then came the day when silver was discovered near Leeds and people of all kinds came to work in the mines as Brigham Young had prophesied. It did not bring much refinement to Leeds or good except the people were paid cash for their work instead of produce.

With the post office they could order things from the east.
Jane got a new addition to her house with large windows.

Dear little Jane crocheted lace for her curtains. She was the sweetest of mothers.

Next came John Larkin, a golden redhead. Everyone was happy.

Father Charles was prosperous.
He surprised Jane with a new sewing machine, the first one in that part of the country.
They were so proud and it saved mother many days of work.

Our house was quite roomy – we had two boarders and mother Jane rented the back room as housing was scarce and they were glad to share.

Jane served her 11 living children until they were married and had children of their own.

When Elizabeth was eight years old, Jane grew ill. She had typhoid fever.
After the crisis Charles arranged his business and took Jane to Parowan.
She was put in a wagon in a bed. The children were very quiet. There were 7 children at that time.

We got a house near grandmother Rowley and she helped us so much.
Mother grew stronger and when spring came we went home to the farming routine.
We went to Colton to pick. Mother took us all to the fields.
Melons had been planted and harvested and mother gave us the leavings. We surely loved to break open a melon and eat it.

Father had a lovely garden every year. People came from far and near to buy produce. Mother made the best bread ever and baskets with apples baked inside.

1879 was the year Jane had typhoid fever.
Father took his sheep to Panguich Lake.
They were snowed in and many were lost.
They cut the fresh meat with the neighbors.

Uncle Samuel had a young orchard just beginning to bear.
His children and us could have one apple a day.

When spring came we all went back to our Southern home where we had all the fruits and garden stuff we wanted.
Uncle Richard came to visit one day.
Charles showed him the tomatoes and asked him to taste them.
He would not. He said they were poison.
We all loved Uncle Richard who lived in Parawan.
He often came to Silver Reef with apples, potatoes, and grain to sell.