John Mathew Newey and Leah Welland

John Mathew Newey

January 25, 1806 - August 17, 1895

Leah Welland

February 10, 1809 - November 9, 1845

Married: August 2, 1835

John Mathew Newey was born January 25, 1806 at Worplesdon, Surrey, England. He was the son of Mathew John Newey and Elizabeth Greenfield. John grew up in an England at war on one hand and the industrial revolution on the other.

Leah Welland was christened at Elstead Parish, Surrey, England on February 10, 1809. Her parents are John Welland and Ann Swan.

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John met and married Leah Welland of Elstead, Surrey, England on August 2, 1835 in St. Mary’s Church of Guildford in Surrey. He was 29 years old and she was 24. John and Leah were the parents of four daughters: Jemima, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, and Annie. Mary Ann and Annie both died in infancy. Jemima was born at Purbright, Surrey, England. Soon John and Leah moved to Cove Hampshire and there Mary Ann was born and died. Elizabeth as born near Farnsborough, Cove Hampsire. They then moved to Gosport, Hampshire were Annie was born and died. During this time the family was planning to come to the United States; however, Leah died on November 9, 1845 at Gosport, Hampshire England and is buried in Surrey, England. John’s two daughters, Jemima was aged eight years old and Elizabeth was but five years old.

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St. Mary's Church

St. Mary's is a Saxon church and in the 600's there would have been a wooden church on the site. In about 1050 the church was rebuilt in stone; today, only the tower survives of this work. In 1120, Merton Priory acquired St. Mary's and the transepts were added; the canons of Merton may also have rebuilt the chancel and nave around this time, giving the church a cross-shaped plan.

The first aisles were added in about 1140 together with St. John's and St. Mary's chapels to the North and South of the chancel. The aisles were rebuilt at their present height and width in about 1250. The chancel extended several feet further East until 1825 when it was shortened to widen Quarry Street - at George IV's request.

The church was "restored" in 1863 when the gallery at the West end was removed and much of the stone work renewed. The pulpit is Victorian and would have been used by The Rev'd. Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) when he occasionally preached at St. Mary's. The tower contains a peal of six bells. The organ is modern and was made by Saxon Aldred in 1988. St. Mary's contains many items of architectural interest and significance too numerous to mention.

Surrey, England

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It was eleven years later that John was to leave for America. During this time John married Pamela Woods about 1852 at Gosport, Hampshire England. At the time of this marriage, she was 59 years old and John was 46. It is believed that Pamela raised John’s two daughters. (Perhaps Pamela married George so that she could accompany the girls to America.) On June 6, 1856 John was sealed to Pamela Woods in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.

The family consisting of John and his two daughters, Jemima and Elizabeth, along with Pamela and her son Henry Woods, left Liverpool, England on February 27, 1855 and arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 20, 1855. They sailed on the ship Siddons with 430 Latter-day Saint immigrants under the leadership of John S. Fullmer. The Siddons weighed 970 tons and was captained by John S. Taylor when it sailed from Liverpool, Lancaster, England. Ninety-seven passengers were financed by the Perpetual Emigration Fund, established by the church to provide for needy emigrants. The Siddons was one of the first of many vessels to travel from Liverpool to Philadelphia. Most Mormon emigrants came as "ordinary" passengers in contrast to the more expensive "first-class" or the "steerage", which was in the bottom of the ship. They paid 6 pounds down, with their total fare being 23 pounds and 10 shilling, paid before boarding. In March 1996 an English pound was worth $1.55. (23 pounds would be near $115.00 in 1855). The ocean voyage went well at first, but about the first of April, a storm arose and drove the Siddons on the banks of Newfoundland, where the passengers almost froze. The weather was very severe and the hailstones were as large as walnuts. The ship had run low on its extra four-week provisions. Although the passengers shared what extra food they had brought, there was some hunger. On April 19, 1855 a tugboat came alongside and pulled the Siddons free. On April 22 the ship dropped anchor in Philadelphia.

John and his family crossed the plains in the Jacob F. Secrist/Noah T. Guymon Company which left June 13, 1855 and arrived in Salt Lake City on September 7, 1855. 368 individuals and 58 wagons were in the company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Mormon Grove, Kansas (Near Atchison). Jacob F. Secrist died on July 2 and Noah T. Guymon became captain of the company. John was 49 years old at this time and Pamela was 61.

A narrative of the crossing follows: “For a 19th century traveler on the Great Plains to be buried in a tin coffin was unusual. Most deceased emigrants were simply wrapped in a blanket or some other cloth (if even that) before being interred. Jacob F. Secrist was an exception. Secrist, a Mormon missionary who was returning from Germany, was captain of a large wagon train consisting of English and Danish emigrants who came to America by different routes.

The Danes, led by Elder Peter Olsen Hansen, left their homeland on November 24, 1855, aboard the steamer Cimbria. Because of stormy weather, they did not reach the Humber River in England until December 24. The following day they took rail cars to Liverpool. There, they boarded the James Nesmith and sailed for America, arriving in New Orleans on February 23. Two steamboats, the Moses Greenwood and the Oceana, carried these travelers to St. Louis, where they arrived March 7. Those who could not immediately afford passage to Salt Lake City took the steamboat Polar Star to Weston, where they sought employment. The remainder of the passengers boarded the Clara and journeyed to Leavenworth, a new settlement some 35 miles below Atchison, Kansas Territory. There, the wayfarers waited two months for draft animals to arrive (probably because Kansas and Nebraska Territories had just been opened for settlement, creating a population influx and a high demand for cattle). Meanwhile, Elder Eric G. M. Hogan (a returning missionary from Norway) had escorted another 28 Danish Saints to Leavenworth by a different route (via Hamburg, from St. Louis to Atchison aboard the steamboat Admiral) on March 31.

About 20 of the Danes died at Leavenworth – most from scurvy (cause: prolonged vitamin C deficiency; symptoms: progressive bodily weakness, spongy and inflamed gums, loose teeth, swollen and tender joints, degraded capillaries, ruptured blood vessels, and hemorrhage). Fearing that cholera might break out among the emigrants, the citizens of Leavenworth demanded that they relocate their camp. To do so, Elder Hansen had to hire a local ox team at $1.00 per wagon. Shortly after this transfer, cholera did attack the Mormon camp, immediately killing four people.

When the emigrants' cattle finally did arrive, new problems arose. The animals were unbroken and often mismatched, and the Danes had no idea how to manage them. Finally, by splitting the camp and moving one half at a time, the company was able to reach Atchison on May 22.

The English division of Secrist's emigrant train came to America under the leadership of Elder William Glover. They sailed from Liverpool on March 31, 1855, aboard the Juventa. Among the passengers was Elder Noah T. Guyman (soon to succeed Secrist as company captain). The Juventa had a remarkably placid voyage and no one died. On May 5, the passengers landed at Philadelphia, then traveled to Pittsburgh by rail. There, some 200 of them took the steamboat Equinox down the Ohio River to St. Louis and up the Missouri River to Atchison, arriving there on May 28. It was here that a number of the English Saints contracted cholera and died.

At Mormon Grove (the Mormon outfitting point near Atchison), the Englishmen camped east of the road, while the Danes occupied the west side. Combined, their company included 368 emigrants, 51 wagons (30 of these belonging to Danes). The party headed west on June 13 amid apprehensions caused by rumors of Indian attacks against earlier travelers. Secrist and company was 50 miles west of Mormon Grove on June 17.

By June 24 it had become obvious to all concerned that some of the wagons were overloaded; others were not. Owners of the latter agreed to carry excess baggage at the rate of $11.00 per 100 pounds. Together with the Livingston-Kinkead merchant train, the Danes and the English camped 8 miles west of the Big Blue River on June 26.

When a government wagon train passed too close to the Mormon party, it spooked the emigrant's horses, causing them to stampede. Captain Secrist and a few companions set out to recover the runaways but during their search the captain fell victim to cholera. Borrowing a buggy from the Blair/Stevenson emigrant company, Secrist's companions took him to their camp on Turkey Creek. The Captain died July 2 at Ketchem's Creek between Forts Kearny and Leavenworth. Wishing to transport the captain's remains to Salt Lake City for interment, Secrist's friends obtained tin from a merchant and had Edward Stevenson, a tinsmith, fashion a coffin . But it soon became obvious that the casket was not airtight. Therefore, Captain Secrist's remains were laid to rest on the banks of the Little Blue River.

Meanwhile, measles had attacked the emigrant children and an elder's council had appointed Noah T. Guyman as the new captain. On July 1, members of the party helped search for a missing member of the Blair/Stevenson train, but the man was never found. Cattle belonging to the English emigrants stampeded. Six wagons overturned; one ox and an elderly woman were hurt. Cheyenne Indians visited the camp and on the following day, the train camped for the last time on the Little Blue. Later, the company passed Fort Kearny and slowly followed the south bank of the Platte River while waiting for other trains to catch up. They felt that concentration of forces would make the travelers more formidable to hostile Indians. This precaution proved to be unnecessary. Although these travelers "saw scores of Indians, all were very civil, very much for shaking hands."

On July 15, Guyman and company passed Edward Stevenson's Texan company and, on the 20th, the Danes and Englishmen forded the South Fork of the Platte. Reaching Ash Hollow on July 21, they stopped to gather currants and cherries. In time, they arrived at Fort Laramie.

As the train traversed the Black Hills, feed for the animals grew scarce and the cattle grew weak. Apparently, earlier trains had similar difficulties, for the stench of dead cattle troubled the emigrants for several days. West of present-day Casper, Wyoming, the party found a new route around "the Poison Spring" (Mineral Spring). They camped at Devil's Gate. At the Green River, they found the ground covered with saleratus (either potassium bicarbonate or sodium bicarbonate, both used as leavening agents). The water in this river was so high that the cattle nearly drowned. In a "small valley in the mountains" members of the company "gathered a small quantity of tar that was sprung up."

Because the animals had continued to fail, the company had difficulty getting over Big Mountain. Finally, they camped in Emigration Canyon on September 6 and entered Salt Lake City the next day.”

The family reached Salt Lake City on September 20, 1855 and within two weeks the family moved to and settled in Ogden where John was a farmer and gardener. John had one of the first cording machines (a type of sewing machine) in Ogden and Utah.

Pamela died in Ogden, Utah in April 1864 at the age of 71 of cancer and is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery in an unmarked grave near her husband, John. She is listed as Parmelia Newey in the cemetery records.

John was then married and sealed to Ann Etherington Heslop (widow of Thomas Heslop) on June 6, 1864. John became acquainted with Ann and her two sons, John and George Heslop, from her first marriage during the ocean voyage from England and as they crossed the plains. It appears that John was very helpful to Ann’s family during these journeys. John’s daughter, Elizabeth, was largely responsible for the safe journey of George Heslop, an infant of three months, carrying him on horseback. Ann’s first son, John, was only two years old. Seven children were born to the marriage of John and Ann Etherington Heslop. They are: William, Jane Newey, James Lester Newey, Annie Eliza, Henry Newey, Thomas Newey, and Effie Edith.

According to an article in the Ogden Standard Examiner of April 24, 1881, entitled “Wild Winds: Blowing Buildings Down, Felling Trees, and Doing Other Damage.”

“...a heavy gale set in. It commenced about eight o’clock and continued all night, and throughout the greater part of today...

The house of Mr. John Newey, near the Vinegar Works, was blown down. Mr. Newey had one arm broken and he was otherwise injured. It is also reported that Mrs. Newey and her daughter were badly hurt.”

In a follow up article two days later on April 26^th entitled “Their Injuries:”

Our readers will remember that during the wind storm, on Monday night, among the number of buildings that were blown down was that of Mr. John Newey, near the Vinegar Works, and Mr. Newey and family were injured by the falling debris. We learn, today, that his left arm was broken in two places, that he is hurt in his head, and has received some serious internal injuries from which he is suffering very acutely.

Mrs. Newey and daughter received bruises on the head and other parts of the body, but unlike the husband and father they are not confined to their bed. They are doing pretty well and are able to be around and assist in nursing the old gentleman. Dr. H. J. Powers is attending the family. We hope by care and attention – such as he is sure to receive – the injured gentleman will soon be restored to health and soundness.”

These injuries severely impacted John’s health and he suffered as an invalid until his death.

John held the office of High Priest and died at the age of 89 on August 17, 1895 in Ogden, Utah. John is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery alongside Ann and one of their sons, Henry. An infant daughter, Jane, is also buried close by. The graves are located within the cemetery between 1^st and 2^nd Ave. just below Center Street.

Henry Newey (1865-1938) is the son of Ann Etherington Heslop and John Newey; Ann Etherington Heslop Newey (1830-1922) was the third wife of John Matthew Newey (1806 - 1895).

Compiled and edited by Ruth H. Barker

Sources: Heslop History, compiled and published by J. Malan Heslop, 1955

Life history written by Lucile Mary Todd Birch, written in 1984

http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompany/0,15797,4017-1-263,00.html

http://heritage.uen.org/companies/Wc7b9be2458f36.htm

Newey Genealogy by Maria Newey Smith

http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/ose.html

http://www.holytrinityguildford.org.uk/Index-frameset.htm