John Perkins

GEDCOM Note

KWJ1-RWB

28 August 1995, from Reed Guymon. He states: The following letter is from Lorene M. Blatter. She is about 80 years old, living in Manti, Utah. Jane Benson and John Perkins raised five children. One of them, Hyrum Fielding Perkins, was a half brother to our ancestor, Phoebe Madora Perkins Guymon. Lorene is decended from Hyrum. I promised her I would make this effort to forward her enclosed interesting history to Phebe's Descendent's. I believe to send this history to each one of you is worthwhile. ....She has aksed that you send your contributions to me, made out to : Manti Destiny Committee, with John Perkins name written on the note part of the check. I wlll forward all contributions to Lorene. I hope you enjoy the histories Lorene has prepared on John and Jane Perkins. I did not have some of the information until she contacted me. Note: Lorene Blatter 495 N. Main Sincerely, Reed Guymon Manti, Utah 84642 801-835-1171 Manti, Utah August 22, 1995 Dear Family,

According to his diary he was a college bred man educated for the ministry in the Church of England. He did not agree with the doctrine which he was taught, so at the age of 21, he went to Australia, much against the wishes of his family. He met and married Mary Conway. They had seven children. Four of these children were stillborn. Two boys and one girl lived. George Francis was born 30 Oct 1848, John Henry was born 28 June 1849 and Mary Ann was born 28 June 1851. After the death of John's father, George Perkiins, his mother sent for him to come back to England to settle the estate. He arrived back in Australia 18 Dec. 1853 to find his wife Mary, his son John Henry and his daughter Mary Ann were dead. On 11 Feb 1854 he was baptized after studying theh gospel of Jesus Christ for some time. He knew it was true and he had a strong conviction that the Book of Mormon was true and Joseph Smith was a true prophet. He wanted to go to Utah so he came on the ship JENNY FORD to San Pedro, California. They landed on 17 August 1856. He brought his only living son, George, with him. When he arrived in Salt Lake City, he was advised by Heber C. Kimball to go to Parowan and find Jane Benson and ask her to be his wife. He did so and they were married in March of 1860. To this union were born three daughters-Sarah Jane, 17 Jan 1861, Phebe Madora, 9 Jan 1863 and Eva Estella in 1866. Eva Estella died as a young child. Sarah Jane married John Rogerson and Phebe Madora married Lafayette Guymon. While they lived in Parowan, John learned how to make and repair shoes and Jane made mens suits. After ten years of ahppy married life, John was hunting a cow and her calf. He walked until he becme completely exhausted. He finally found some water in ahole in a rock and drank too much. He managed to get home but passed away in a short time. This was a great blow to Jane because all who knew them said she just worshipped him. He was truly a kind and good man. He died 31 March 1870 at age 49. On 12 March 1878, Jane went to the St. George Temple and was married and sealed to John Perkins for all eternity. We, as their grandchildren, would like to place the name of John Perkins with his wife Jand Benson Perkins on a plaque under temple light at Manti, Utah. The prorpose of this project is to help flood th earth with the Book of Mormon, as our dear prophet Ezra Taft Benson has asked us to do. If each one of Sarah Janes', Phebe Madoras' , and Amos Hyrums' family would contribute 10 or 20 dollars, it would be enough to put John POerkins name along side of Janes'. I fell they would like this as lthey were truly soul mates. Please send your contrubutions to : Reed Guymon 1583 North 2100 West Provo, Utah 84604 P.S. Your contribution is tax deductible. Be as generous as you can.

John Perkins and Jane Benson History Contributed By Darin T Jensen · 25 October 2013 · 0 Comments John Perkins and Jane Benson History Written by granddaughter, Clara Guymon Boyer (Transcribed and edited by Jesse S. Crisler, their great-great-grandson, 12 August 2003) I am indebted to Mrs. Sarah Jane Rogerson, Mrs. LaVerna Jensen, and my mother Phoebe Guyman, Mrs. Lynn Rogerson, Mr. Ed Rogerson and Mrs. Lucy G. Bloomfield and Mrs. Lydia Fielding for the information found in this history. Mrs. LaVerna Jensen of Monticello, Utah had the diary of John Perkins from which most of the history has been gleaned. It is written in old English style writing which required several months of careful reading to get the story of his life. LaVerna very graciously let me take the diary from which I have written the history. John Perkins the son of George Perkins and Sarah Peck was born the 28 June 1821, in Bath, Somerset, England. We know that he had at least two sisters named Mary and Jane, and two brothers as John speaks in his diary of meeting his brothers. John was College bred man, and was educated for the Christian Ministry. He studied Pitman shorthand. As near as I can tell John did not go along with all the religious beliefs of his day, so when he was twenty one he joined the gold and diamond rush to Australia, much against the wishes of his family. He went to Sydney, Australia and here he met and married a girl name Mary Conway. It seems that the Conways were sent to Australia from England for some misdemeanor. Sometimes, the British government did this to remove troublesome individuals or as an alternative to debtors’ prison. John Perkins and Mary Conway were the parents of seven children. Four of them were stillborn, no dates or names given in the diary. George Frances was born 30 October 1848. John Henry 28 June 1849. Mary Ann 28 June 1851, all in Sydney, Australia. John’s mother sent for him to come back to England to settle his Father’s estate. He tried to get his wife Mary to accompany him, but her folks influenced her to stay as she had very poor health. John told her he would come back for her as soon as he could. About three weeks after John left for England, Mary decided to follow him with her three children. When the ship was three days out of Sydney, the ship’s crew mutinied, and they were forced to return to the harbor. The only account we have of his trip back to England was taken from his diary. He bore his testimony in a meeting in San Bernardino, California and this is the story as taken from his diary. “Thursday, 4 December 1859. “Brethren and Sisters it is with pleasure that I arise in your midst tonight and it is the first time I have had an opportunity since I have been amongst you. I feel that it is not only a pleasure but a duty to bear testimony to the truth of the work in which we are mutually engaged. I mean the Everlasting Gospel. I have always been taught by those who have been placed over us in Australia to consider it a duty and not only a duty but also a privilege to be enabled to speak in these meetings. When in Australia, I used to feel myself condemned if I let an opportunity slip by without bearing my testimony to the truths of the Everlasting Gospel. “Brethren and Sisters in the Gospel, I know that we are engaged in the work of the Lord, and I hope and trust that I shall have the faith and prayers of my brethren and sisters in the Gospel, for I feel that I am a weak and frail being, perhaps one of the weakest among you, yet I thank my Heavenly Father that I have been enabled to see and embrace the Truth. “It is somewhat singular the way I came into the Church, at least it appears so to me. I went from Australia to England to see my mother, my brothers and sisters, as I had not heard from them for a long time, in fact not for some years previous. When in England I could not rest there. What was the core of it, I cannot say, but I felt that it was no home for me. Consequently I went back to Australia. It appears strange to me at this time that almost the last words my mother said to me were, “My dear son, whatever you do, never become a Latter-day Saint, I hear there are some of them in Australia.” I asked her for her reason [and] her answer was “Why! Your cousin Ann and her husband and family were Latter-day Saints, and they were down with the Typhus fever, and a lot of their Elders got around them and smothered them with oil, and would not let any medical aid near them, so they died for want of medical attention and medicines.” I did not make any answer to it, as I could not refute it one way or the other. “I left England soon after to go to Australia again. I wanted to go to Melbourne, but I could not get a ship that was going to sail under a month or six weeks, and I could not rest in England. I did not feel at home there although surrounded by every comfort. So I took the first ship that offered which happened to be bound for Sydney. I must not [have] been but two or three weeks there before I was as it were, thrown into the society of Latter-day Saints. “Hulloa! Mother!” Thought I. “Here I am, thrown right into the nest of them, what shall I do now?” “Well, I began to read the books, to hear the preaching, and as soon as I felt convinced that Mormonism was the truth, that the Lord had again condescended to speak from the heaven to the children of men, that He had again restored the Gospel, I felt it a duty incumbent on me to join it. I accordingly was baptized. I had not been in Sydney two months before I was baptized. Brethren and sisters I know that I am in the Church and Kingdom of God, and I testify tonight before you that it is what is called Mormonism. We then, as Saints, out to be pure and holy. We ought to let our prayers ascend continually to the Throne of God, for one of the Seven administering Spirits that goeth in and out before the Throne of the Almighty (He that attends at the Altar of Incense) presents the prayers of the Saints. The apostle John says that the Incesnse which he offers is the prayers of the Saints. There is also a poet that says, “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest Saint upon his knees.” There is a reformation commenced in this place. Then let us all, my Brethren and Sisters, join heart and hand in it, and by the blessing of God, we shall soon be able to accomplish it. There is one thing that is very prevalent here. We are apt to notice each other’s faults and forget our own, but if we were all to do as we in Australia were often told to do by the Elders, it would be all the better for us, viz. to keep two bags, one before for ourselves and the other behind for our neighbors. We would be so taken up with the enormity of our own faults that we should have no time to look at those of our neighbor. We should undergo a rigid daily self-examination. The Prophet of the Lord has said, “Man, know thyself” and unless we do know ourselves, how are we to conquer ourselves? Why! The greatest conquest that Man can have, is to conquer himself, for what is Man, and what are the honors and dignities that Man is to arrive at and enjoy, provided he is faithful to his calling? Why! To the honor and dignity of a God. What says the Psalmist? “I have said, Ye are gods… but ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” The Savior also says, “Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are Gods?” Then, how pure and holy ought the saints to be. If you want to know some of the blessings and honors of the saints, read the last Psalm but one, you will there find it. “Brethren and sisters I know that we are engaged in the work of the Lord and that I have embraced the truth, as a witness of which I am now here amongst you and it rejoices my heart to have an opportunity to bear my testimony to that effect. I have come here because it is a commandment to gather out from among the nations and come to Zion, where we can serve Him according to His holy will, which the saints cannot do abroad in the world. Besides what says the Psalmist in the 87th Psalm? Why! “The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there.” Yes my Brethren and Sisters, it is to be counted an honor even by the Lord Himself to the man that shall be born in Zion. Then let us go on in that way and manner that shall be well pleasing and acceptable in the sight of the Lord, that we may be enabled to get the Spirit of the Lord and also to keep it. Brethren and Sisters, I hope that you will pray for me and be assured that I will do the same for you, and that we may all be enabled to stand faithful in the Kingdom of God, and that God may help us all is my sincere and humble prayer in the name of Lord. Amen.” I felt that this testimony of Grandfathers would help us to see just what a true-blue believer he really was, and also to give a correct account of his trip to England and his conversion to the Church. We will now return to 28 December 1853 when John had just come back from his visit to England to see his mother and brothers and sisters. This is his first entry in his diary. “Arrived in Sydney the 28 December 1853. Recommended by a waterman named Connolly to go to a Mrs. Bott on Gloucester Street for lodgings. I did so and was taken in by her for £18.0 per week.” He tells of hunting work which he finally found, working as a store keeper for a wine and spirits merchant named Tucker of 421 George Street, Sydney, Australia. He tells of trying to work on a circular quay or ship dock. He was so sunburned that he could not stand the weight of his shirt on his arms. Due to sunburn and change of diet his lips swelled up and became a scab which spread to his nose. He spent sleepless nights over this but was able to hold his job at the wine merchants as long as he stayed in Australia. He tells of attending divine service at St. Phillip’s Church where a man was so drunk he kept swearing. He tells that “the parties next door had a child die today, and they kicked up a precious row all night through keeping a wake over it. Their being Irish, it was perfectly disgusting to hear them. In fact they could get no sleep all night in the house which I live in for their abominable row.” On Sunday, 5 February 1854, he records that he “attended divine service at the Mormon Meeting House in King Street Sydney. Heard some most capital discourses from two of their preachers.” The next day after work he spent “studying the tenants of the Mormon Church. Read part of the Book of Mormon.” For many days he read the Book of Mormon and studied the Gospel. He really liked the Book of Mormon. He began attending prayer meetings and said he began to feel like another being. In these meetings he became acquainted with President Farnham and Elder Flemming who he learned to love very dearly. On the 11 February 1854, he states in his diary, “Very busy all day at store. Was baptized by President Farnham and admitted as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I felt quite light and revived after coming up out of the water.” On Sunday, 12 February 1854, he writes, “attended divine services at the forenoon service. I was confirmed and ordained to the office of a Teacher in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in the afternoon I partook of the Lord’s Supper. While being confirmed today, I felt (at the time the Ministers of God had their hands on my head blessing me) as tho there was a stream of fire running through my body. I may thank God for bringing me into the only true Church on the earth, founded as it is on direct revelation from Heaven.” It was only forty-five days after he landed in Sydney until he became a member of the Church. From then on it was his all in all. He took great joy in the Gospel. It seemed to fill a need in his life that had never been satisfied before. He was a very spiritually minded man, and from many of his entries in his diary one can see that he was a great student of the scriptures. He often quotes from the Psalms. On Sunday, 18 June 1854, appears this entry in his diary: “Attended the meeting at the Room in King Street 3 times today. Brother Jones was more eloquent today than usual, as also was Brother Fleming. At night wrote a letter to my Wife under a feigned name to try and find out her whereabouts and how the children are as it is one of the greatest desires of my heart.” It was now just six months since he came back from England, and he had never found his wife and children. It is reported by several members of Aunt Sarah Jane Rogerson’s family (Sarah Jane is John Perkins’ daughter) that when he went to England, the postmaster in Sydney was in love with Mary Conway and intercepted their letters so that neither one of them was able to hear from the other. This entry in his diary leads one to believe that something of the kind may have been the case. Family members report that the postmaster finally confessed to what he had done. Most of the entries in his diary tell of his activities in the Church and his work at the store. Sometimes he speaks of being grieved at the actions of some of the Saints – how they quarreled and contended, and some of the men drank and the women gossiped. On Thursday, 22 June 1854, he speaks of writing a letter to his mother. He often refers to practicing on his cornopean and playing with others. He also speaks of writing music and attending singing practice. On Wednesday, 13 November 1855, this entry in his diary appears: “This morning I… had a long conversation with Brother Fleming respecting my wife and children, I wanting to get the children so as to take them out with me in the April Company if possible. He advised me to wait [till] President Farnham came back to Sydney from his tour and we would then take his advice in the matter.” He does not refer to this again, however. On Friday, 1 February 1856, he “gave notice to leave my place and another was engaged in my room to come in on Monday next, but I shall not leave till about the middle of April or at least until I am ready to leave for the Valley. My employers expressed their regret at my leaving but that I could not help as come what will, I am determined by the Grace of God to press forward to get out of this confounded, blackguard place to the Mountain of the Lord.” Quoting from his diary further: “Thursday 13 March 1856. A fine day throughout. Half holiday on account of the General Election (It would have been a holiday complete if we had not have been so busy) for the purpose of electing members to sit in the New Legislature of the country. There was a man spoke to me as I was going home by the name of Patrick Hand, who told me that my wife and daughter was dead and said if I would come to his house in the evening, he would tell me all about it. I did so and from his observations I came to no other conclusions but that he told me the truth respecting Mary’s death and also Mary Ann’s.” We do not know if John Henry died before or while John was gone to England. This entry ends, “I came to the conclusion to send for my boy by the first vessel.” We know nothing of how his wife and Mary Ann met their deaths or where his boy was staying. We do know that when the ship sailed for Zion, George was with him, as he refers to George as Mary’s child. It was December 1853 when John came back to Australia, and it was in March 1856 before he knew for sure what had become of his wife and children. A later entry in his diary occurs in June 1856 on board the ship “Jenny Ford”. It seems that he was hired as a cook on the ship. He tells on many experiences he had while crossing the ocean – the crowded conditions on the ship, how some of the Saints quarreled, and some of the older children fought. He was very grieved at the skylarking on the deck at night by some of the young people. Quite often, the captain was drunk, and the Saints wondered if they would ever get to Zion. They held lovely meetings on the ship and always had prayer. They celebrated the twenty-fourth of July, which seemed to be a great occasion. Early in the morning they fired thirteen guns to Brigham Young, twelve to the Apostles, and thirty-three to the Union of the U.S.A. Then, the whole company gave a great shout, “Peace! Peace! Hosanna!” Then they sang, “Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise.” The celebration lasted the whole day. They had children draped in red, white, and blue who marched on the deck with singing and speaking and songs composed for the day. Near the end of the day they fired more guns. The captain was very gracious and served them all a good dinner and they fired a salute of guns for him. At the end of the day President Farnham thanked them all for their orderly conduct, prayers were offered, and by ten o’clock all was quiet and the lights were out. Grandpa tells of how they used up most of their potatoes on the early part of the trip and how they were rationed on water. He tells of running into a coral reef and nearly becoming grounded due to the captain being so drunk that he did not heed the pilot’s orders. He tells of stopping at the capital of Tahiti and of Addison Pratt coming on board and holding a meeting with the Saints. They stayed in the harbor at Tahiti for several days, and some of the Saints went ashore and got abominably drunk. He speaks of how he and his boy walked through the orange groves and how they enjoyed it. One man came back to the ship so drunk that he started to beat his wife who was expecting a child, and Grandpa tried to help her and they really had a fight. Some of the men were so disorderly that they were locked up and the captain had to pay to get them out so they would not be left in Tahiti. Once the captain’s dog went mad and there was an awful commotion on the ship. Grandpa speaks of passing other ships and of stopping at Honolulu. Some have thought he came around Cape Horn, but this must not be correct as the ships came right across to California and not around Cape Horn. Many times Grandpa speaks of having George at his books. It seems that he was very anxious that George should have some schooling. Grandpa was a great reader and often spoke of the books he had read. On the trip grandpa hurt his fingers and had to hire a man named Thomas Riley to take his place as cook. When he came to settle with him, Riley charged so much that the ship’s captain and President Farnham were really astonished. His finger was very sore for a long time, and the ships doctor was afraid he would have to cut it off. Grandpa had great faith in administration and said at times he was made well very quickly. At the time of the voyage across the Pacific, Grandpa was thirty-five years old and George was seven. On the 17 August 1856 the “Jenny Ford” landed at San Pedro, California. They unloaded some of the things that night, and Grandpa slept on the deck without any bedding and caught a cold right on top of one he already had, so by morning he could scarcely breathe. This was his entry into the “Promised Land of Joseph” as he called it. There was a campground where the Saints were to stay. Grandpa tells of how hard it was to be comfortable, just as a man and a little boy without the comforts of life. He searched for days to try and find work so they could have something to live on. He was very sick for some time and ran a fever, and was very uncomfortable. Finally, all the Saints were moved to San Bernardino, California. After he got there, he finally found some work chopping trees for fence posts in the mountains. He had to leave his little boy with some folk named Evans. He tells of the kindness of some of the Saints and how much he appreciated it. The last entry in his diary was made Friday, 23 January 1857. He was still cutting trees for posts to make pickets. Since the diary ends here, we must now read between the lines. We do not know just when he left California or how he came to Utah, but we know he came before 1860. The greatest desire of his heart was to come to Zion, and the poor little camp at San Bernardino was far from his dream of Zion. The next record we have of Grandpa is his marriage to Jane Benson. We are not sure if he came only as far as Parowan, or if he was in Salt Lake City. A grandson, Ed Rogerson, the son of Sarah Jane Perkins Rogerson, tells that he was in Salt Lake City when Heber C. Kimball advised him to go to Parowan and find Jane Benson and ask her to be his wife. He did so, and after a few weeks’ acquaintance she decided to become his wife. They were married in March 1860 at Parowan. Parowan at this time was surrounded by a mud and rock wall, four feet at the base and two at the top. Everyone lived inside the wall to protect themselves from the Indians. My grandfather James Guyman and three of his wives were living there at the time until the year 1866 when they moved to Fountain Green. It is very probably that Grandpa and Grandma Perkin were acquainted with them. When Jane Benson married John Perkins, she had a son, Amos Hyrum Fielding, born 17 September 1848 in Wrightington, Lancaster, England. Jane was also born in Wrightington, Lancashire, England on 4 June 1824. She was a convert to the Mormon Church and was baptized in England in 1837. Her husband, Amos Fielding, sent Jane Benson and her son Amos Hyrum to St. Louis, Missouri (via New Orleans) in 1849 on the sailing vessel “Emblem”*. There were many saints on the ship, but Jane knew only one elder she had heard speak in England. Amos Hyrum was only six weeks old when she left. He developed a scab on his head, which covered his entire scalp. Jane stayed in St. Louis till 1852 where she learned the tailor trade. Amos Fielding was the head of the Perpetual Emigration Fund, which was established by the Mormon Church to help the Saints to emigrate to Zion. He was recalled back to Utah by the Church authorities. He brought a woman with him named Houston. He already had two wives in Utah. He, the Houston woman, and Jane Benson and her little boy crossed the plains together. Jane and her little boy walked all the way, while Amos Fielding and the Houston woman rode in a carriage. Jane was nothing less than a servant to them. Heber C. Kimball was one of the missionaries who converted the Benson family to the Gospel in England. After Jane Benson came to Utah, and Heber C. Kimball told Brigham Young how Jane had been treated, he called her into his office and advised her to go to Parowan and stay with her brother Richard. He said he would write to him and come and get them and give them a home. When Jane had related Amos Fielding’s actions, Brigham Young struck the table and said “Amos Fielding will lick hell for what he has done.” Heber C. Kimball added, “and salt at that.” Richard Benson came to Salt Lake and took Jane and her little boy to Parowan. This information was taken from a history of Jane Benson written by Lydia Hammond Fielding of Provo, Utah. It was dictated to Lydia Fielding by Mrs. Sarah Jane Perkins Rogerson, a daughter of John Perkins and Jane Benson). Jane Benson had been in Parowan several years before John Perkins and his little boy arrived there. We can only imagine how they met and how they must have been drawn together by mutual heartache and loneliness, each having lost the companion of their youth. Their little boys were the same age, around twelve years old. John Perkins found it very hard to adjust to the hard pioneer conditions. He finally learned to make and mend shoes, and with Jane Benson’s tailor trade they managed to make a living. Jane made mans suits. To John and Jane were born three little girls. Sarah Jane, 17 January 1861, Phoebe Madora on 9 January 1863, and Eva Estella on 18 October 1865. Eva Estelle died as a child on 20 November 1868. It seems that the two boys presented a problem. Amos Hyrum was a good, obedient boy with a kindly disposition, while George was restless and hard to manage. He became quite a problem to his father who was embarrassed at his actions. When he was in his early teens, he and his father had a serious disagreement and Grandpa struck him. This grieved Grandma, and she told George it might be better if he went away and found work somewhere else. He did and hired out as a cowboy. It seems that he got into trouble somehow and came home in the night. Grandma washed his clothes and fixed him something to eat, and he would go away again. She did this quite often. In analyzing Grandpa’s life, I think it was hard for him to understand why people could not be good and live the Gospel. I think of George in his early childhood and how he was deprived of a good home, and the love and affection that a little boy craves, how he stayed with other people, and never had the comfort and joy of a mother. He may have sensed the contrast between himself and Hyrum, and felt the disapproval of the family. This may have been one of the reasons he was so unadjusted. After ten years of marriage life Grandpa was one day hunting a cow and her calf. He walked and walked until he was completely exhausted. He finally found some water in a hole in a rock and drank too much. He managed to return home, but passed away in just a short time. This was a great blow to Grandma, as all who knew her said she just worshiped him. He passed away on 31 March 1870 at the age of forty-nine years. He was buried in Parowan, where grandma had a stone placed at his grave. Amos Hyrum was away at work when he died. The family said George arrived late to his funeral and walked down the aisle in his chaps and spurs. Grandma was now a widow with two little girls to raise. They lived in Parowan where Phoebe Madora married Lafayette Guyman 11 July 1877 and moved to Mancos, Colorado. Sarah Jane married John Rogerson 23 October 1879 and later moved to Monticello, Utah. About the year 1881 Grandma went to Mancos, Colorado where her son Amos Hyrum and family had moved, as well as her daughter, Pheve Madora. It is not known just how or who she went with. Grandma cooked for some seven years at Frank Morgan’s mill at Mancos, Colorado. After Sarah Jane Rogerson’s son George Halls was born, she went to stay with her. She returned to Mancos in fall of 1889. She then moved to Manti, Utah where she worked in Manti Temple for about nine years until 1900. She went to Monticello in fall of 1900 when Sarah Jane Rogerson was appointed County Clerk. Her health was failing and they all decided for her to come back to Mancos and stay with my mother. My father and Thomas Fielding went to Monticello and brought her to our home about the 8th of November 1900. I remember how we all loved her. She sat in the high-backed rocking chair, and we children always kissed her good-bye when we went to school. She had only been with us a month when she passed away. I will never forget coming home from school and seeing her lying on the couch in the front room with a white cloth tied around her head under her chin. It was hard for us children to realize she was dead. We had all loved her so dearly, and she was so sweet and kind. They dressed her in her temple clothes and laid her in the cold east bedroom. I can still see her sweet white face as I went in and raised the sheet to look at her, and how sweet she looked in her temple clothes. The funeral was held in the old meetinghouse over the hill from our home. The pulpit and stand were draped in white, and her picture was hung over the casket. They buried her in the cemetery on the hill east of our farm by Heber and little Francis. They placed a nice headstone at her grave. All of these scenes made a lasting impression on me, as I was just ten years old at the time. As I look back over the lives of these wonderful people, my heart is filled with love and longing that one day in eternity I might be able to meet them and they could tell me some of the things I would so much like to know. How I hope grandma and Mary Conway are together, and their children with them. How I hope some of the hopes and dreams of grandpa have been realized. It has been a rich experience to go through grandpa’s diary, and really get acquainted with him. To me he seems like one of the finest people I could ever hope to know. When I think of all the trials they weathered I wonder what I can ever do to be worthy to be with them. *Note: Ship “Emblem” from Liverpool to New Orleans (12 March 1849 – 4 May 1849). Passenger list shows 121 passengers, including Jane Benson and son Hiram Benson. Source: http://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/Search/showDetails/db:MM_MII/t:v...

Sealing to parents: 16 Jan 1996 JRIVE George Perkins/Sarah Peck

Sealing to spouse: Jane E. Forbush 16 Dec 1897 MANTI, born: 12 Sep 1826 Grafton, Worcester, Massachusetts, died 2 Apr 1842 Record of LDS Church ordinance (living or proxy): Film No: 170511, Ref No: 8783

Sealing to spouse: Mary C. Forbush 16 Dec 1897 MANTI, born 22 Mar 1821 Grafton, Worcester, Massachusetts, died: 24 Sep 1848 Record of LDS Church ordinance (living or proxy): Film N: 170511, Ref No: 8784

Sealing to spouse: Margaret W. Forbush 16 Dec 1897 MANTI, born 26 May 1826 Grafton, Worcester, Massachusetts, died: 3 Mar 1845 Record of LDS Church ordinance (living or proxy): Film No: 170511, Ref No: 8785

Sealing to spouse: Clara M. Forbush 16 Dec 1897 MANTI, born: 26 Jun 1845 Grafton, Worcester, Massachusetts, died 21 Mar 1859 Record of LDS Church ordinance (living or proxy): Film No: 170511, Ref No: 8786

Sealing to spouse: Charlette E.Warren 16 Dec 1897 MANTI, born 19 Oct 1844 Grafton, Worcester, Massachusetts, died 8 July 1866 Record of LDS Church ordinance (living or proxy): Film No: 170511, Ref No: 8787

Sealing to spouse: Florence N. Wood 16 Dec 1897 MANTI born: 25 July 1856, Grafton, Worcester, Massachusetts, died 19 Oct 1965 Record of LDS Church ordinance (living or proxy): Film No: 170511, Ref No: 8788