My Grandfather, Samuel Southwick, was born at Cradley, Shropshire, England, in 1770. My grandmother, Nancy Holloway Southwick, died in 1814, in England. My father, Edward Southwick, was born in Hanley, Shropshire, England, May 15, 1812. My mother, Mary Alexander Southwick, was born in July, 1812, in Dudley, England. My parents were married in 1834.I, William, oldest son of my parents, was born at Dudley, Staffordshire, England, September 15, 1835. My parents were religious, belonging to the Methodist church. To them were born the following children: William, Joseph, Sarah, Edward, Samuel, Mary, and John. My parents, who always t aught us to be virtuous and honorable all our lives. My grandfather, as also my parents, were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April 1844.
At ten years of age, owing to the circumstances of the family and the condition of the times, I began working at the Glass Works at Sponlane, England. After nine years of service I became proficient in the art of glass blowing.
I was baptized December 24, 1848 by my uncle, Joseph Southwick. I attended Sunday School some five or six years. In the spring of 1854, I was ordained a priest, my duties being to visit the Saints. In March 1855, I was ordained an Elder by Edmund Ellsworth, and by him sent out as a traveling elder in the Warwick Conference.
In November 1855, I was released from the Warwick Conference and started for Utah with a company of three hundred sixty Saints from Rugby, of the same conference. On November 30, we set sail for New York on the ship "Emerald Isle" with Captain Cornish. We landed on the 1st of January 1856 after a pleasant voyage.
In New York I tried to get work in the glass factories, but due to a shortage of coal, no work was being done. With two other companions, I went to Philadelphia, but could find no work. The next move was to St. Louis, by train. At the office of James H. Hart, president of the St. Louis Conference, I met Preston Thomas of Lehi, Utah, who was laboring as a missionary in Texas, but was in St. Louis getting wagons and provisions for a company of Saints to go to Utah. Here I was hired by Thomas to drive a team for him to Utah. The wagons and supplies were loaded on the Mississippi River steamer "Falls City" for New Orleans, March 4, 1856. From New Orleans we re-shipped on a gulf steamer for Powder Horn, Texas. Upon our arrival at Powder Horn we were met by some Saints preparing for their journey to Utah. They were joined by others from the surrounding settlements, and after much preparation, we broke camp. April 7th, for our long trek to Utah.
We traveled on the old Sante Fe (Cherokee) trail and celebrated July 24th at the foot of Pike's Peak. Here we met an Indian interpreter who informed us that we were many, many miles off the trail. The direction was changed and after three days of travel the company got back on the old trail. After traveling some two thousand five hundred miles on the Cherokee and Mormon trails we landed in Salt Lake City, September 17, 1856. We camped at Mill Creek, four miles south, and two days later, September 17th, reached Lehi by ox-teams. After my arrival I engaged to Preston Thomas to work on his farm for ten dollars per month.
The following years, 1858-1859, I worked for John Zimmerman and John C. Nagle on their farms. Soon after my arrival I was mustered into a foot company of which John S. Lott was captain. During the first winters I spent much time as a home guard at the Fort gates; the first winter without shoes and scarcely enough clothing to keep warm. There were no fires, nothing pleasant about it, only discharge of duty. Indeed, I had to keep moving to keep from freezing. During the "move" I was able to get shoes and warmer clothing after the army came in. Their coming was a great temporal blessing to the whole people. I also assisted in herding and guarding the citizens' cattle up Utah Lake, and in taking part in all general work.
On October 20, 1859, I took to wife, Martha Jane Coleman. Due to the fact that the Endowment House was closed, we were married by the Bishop's counselor, Lorenzo H. Hatch. There were born to us six children: William Edward, Samuel Henry, George Franklin, Mary Ann, Rebecca and Joseph.
In Spring of 1860 I bought a piece of land from Bishop Evans and started farming for myself. In 1858, at the organization of the first Elder's Quorum, I was chosen as secretary. I was one of a committee in assisting to build the West school rooms, and helped in finishing the Meeting House. I was captain of police two years under Marshall Abel Evans in the 60's.
On November 28, 1862, I was ordained to the office of Seventy in the Sixty-eighth Quorum by President Israel Evans; and at the same time set apart as secretary of the quorum, which position I filled for twenty-five years. On December 11, 1880, I was set apart as one of the council; I remained in this position until I was ordained High Priest, December 1, 1906, by George Cunningham. Soon afterward, I was called to act as second counselor to President A. B. Anderson in the presidency of the High Priest's Quorum in the Alpine Stake of Zion.
In 1858, I joined the Lehi choir. Some time later, I became its leader for a number of years. I was a teacher in the Sunday School, also secretary of the theological class; in all thirty years.
My wife, Martha Jane, was sealed to me in the Salt Lake Endowment House August 3, 1861, by President Daniel H. Wells. On May 28, 1864, I took for my second wife, Savina Caroline Larsen, daughter of Svend Larsen, of Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete, Utah. We were sealed in the Endowment House by President Wilford Woodruff. The names of the children born to us are: Sarah Matilda, Emma Frederica, Martha Ann, Edith Alzina, Ernest Larsen, and Raymond.
In 1863, my brother, Samuel, arrived in Lehi where he made his home for years. Later he moved to Idaho. My parents emigrated from England, May 22, 1864. While journeying to Utah in Captain William Hyde's Company, my mother (Mary Alexander Southwick) died and was buried on the East Side, North Fork of the Platte River, Wyoming. She was a nurse and waited on others, causing her death. (Fifty died in the train while crossing the plains.) She died a martyr in the Gospel of Christ of Asiatic cholera. In the fall of 1864, my father arrived at Lehi with two children. After nine years of residence in Utah, he died April 13, 1873.
In the 60's I was a member of the old Dramatic Company. I was a home missionary in the old Utah Stake with Bishop Thomas H. Cutler for one year. In 1904, I served one year as a home missionary with Emil Anderson in the Alpine stake of Zion. In the years, 1865 to 1880, I labored under Bishop David Evans as block teacher, and under Bishop Cutler as an acting priest. I was general water master for Lehi for seven years, and president of the Lehi Water Company for two years.
In the fall of 1887, I received a call to take a mission to the Southern States. On March 29, 1888 I left home and arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee April 4th. Here I received my appointment to travel in the Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina Conference. After filling a satisfactory mission, I received an honorable discharge from the president of the Southern States Mission, William Spry; I returned home in the fall of 1889.
In the spring of 1890, I was appointed chairman of the Old Folk's Committee of Lehi, in which position I served very pleasantly for twenty years.
Since my return from my mission, my time has been spent in my home affairs, and my duties in the Church, and as a citizen of my home town, of which I feel proud, having lived for the past fifty-seven years watching it grow from a small village, surrounded by a mud wall as a protection against the invasion of hostile Indians, to its present surroundings. And may our posterity never cease to build upon the foundation laid by the early veterans, until it shall become, through their industry and enterprise, the most beautiful city overlooking that grand view of waters, the Utah Lake.
William Southwick
(This is taken from William Southwick:Ancestral Record)
