Martha Jenkins (1826-1904)

Martha Jenkins

by Clyde Ormond

Martha Jenkins Ormond was born on January 27, 1826, at Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, South Wales, in Great Britain. She was the daughter of Martha Francis Morris and Enos Jenkins.

Martha's father was a store-keeper in South Wales, and during the week, she helped work in his store. The family was very religious by nature, and the Sabbath was kept strictly. This religious tendency was noticeable in Martha as a girl, and later on was to have a profound effect upon her entire life. In fact, all the major decisions of her life appear to have been motivated by her deep religious beliefs.

Some of the religious severity of the family is manifested in their day-to-day living. As one instance, dishes used from Saturday night until Monday were never washed on Sunday, but stored in a closet to be washed the following Monday. Too, the family did not cook Sunday dinners, but instead had the baker prepare the Sunday meal while the family worshipped at Church.

While still a young woman in South Wales, Martha Jenkins met some of the Mormon missionaries from the U.S. She was converted to their faith and joined the church. Martha, her sister Susan and Aunt Hannah were the only members of her family who joined the Mormons who came to Utah. Two brothers, John and Thomas, also joined and Thomas filled a mission for the Church in Wales. (Church Mission Records.)

A desire on her part to be with those of her newly accepted faith prompted her to come to America. This was customary at the time. The ultimate goal of all converts was to sail for America where they could be a part of the growing Mormon Church, and live among those of similar belief.

This decision was one of Martha's first instances of having a deep faith set the course of her life. With her coming to America meant hardships of the first order. She'd have to sail alone; money wasn't too plentiful; and transportation was slow and difficult. She'd be separated from all of her family.

Martha sailed for America on the Ship Badger. The voyage took five weeks from South Wales to New Orleans, Louisiana. She landed at New Orleans in the fall of 1850, being 24 years of age at the time.

Martha's ultimate objective, like the other converts at the time, was the new Mormon settlement in Utah. Transportation across the Great Plains was, however, even much slower then the ocean transportation had been. Martha came up the Mississippi River from New Orleans as far as St. Louis, Missouri. There she was forced to stop and work, in order to have money enough for supplies and passage westward.

Since her family had been store-keepers in South Wales, it was only natural that Martha obtained similar employment. She got a job in a big dry-goods store in St. Louis, saved money from her wages, and bought clothes and household materials for the day when she'd finally make the last leg of the journey to Utah.

While working in this store, Martha fell in love with the store manager. This man loved her too, but would not join the Mormon church as Martha wished.

Here again Martha's deep beliefs dictated the course of what she did.

When the store manager refused to join the Church, she gave him up rather than marry outside the confines of the Church, and prepared to make the last part of the journey to Utah. Among the materials she had saved for the journey were several boxes of goods and a featherbed. A feather bed at that time often took years to acquire, and was therefore greatly prized as well as being something of a comfort for a long hard journey overland. But even though she'd paid in advance for her transportation including the freight, the man in charge of the wagon train made her leave the boxes and the feather bed behind. The articles of clothing Martha did take, however, proved priceless when she reached Utah, as many of the converts there didn't have enough clothing for themselves or children.

She came to Utah on the famous Emigrant Train. It was a mark of her great courage that she walked almost the entire distance across the plains.

Martha's meeting John Ormond, when she reached Salt Lake City, is an example of many aspects of those rigorous times. At this early stage of Western movement and settlement, it must be remembered that the hardiest individuals of an entire nation were on the move--the Mormons among them. The acquisition of land and homes was a primary objective, as well as the establishment of settlements embodying religious freedom. In order to have and to hold land, homes were vitally necessary. Big families were a religious as well as an economic asset. Only the most courageous women would undertake this early movement to the West.

As a result of this, long courtships were rare. The few women who reached the West were taken for wives almost immediately upon their arrival.

Martha Jenkins was no exception, and her first meeting with John Ormond was a singular, even for the times. John Ormond had been married before to Jane Lloyd Jones, a girl born August 28, 1831, in Mirionethshire, North Wales. John Ormond had been one of the early settlers in Utah, and had married Jane Lloyd Jones in Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 8, 1852 by David Peters, a High Priest.

On August 25, 1853, Jane Lloyd Jones Ormond died in childbirth, as did the infant child.

The life of John Ormond up till then had been one of hardship and privation common to the times. He had similarly been born in South Wales, Great Britain, and had similarly come to the United States, coming by way of New Orleans and St. Louis, as had Martha Jenkins. Many of the party which John Ormond had come over with, died of cholera while in New Orleans. John's father was a tailor by trade. As was common at that time, his father considered he could only work at the tailoring trade, but nevertheless considered it appropriate that his son, John, could work at any available employment. Consequently, John worked at every type of available work: butchering, carpentering, making shoe lasts, shoes, baking, etc. With some of the savings from these varied jobs, John had bought city property, improving it with buildings.

When his wife died in August, John sold his property, realizing about $500 in cash. Discouraged and lonesome at the loss of his wife and infant, John Ormond decided the best thing for him to do was look for another companion.

The September following, John met the train coming into Salt Lake City, solely for the express purpose of making the acquaintance of a suitable girl, for a wife.

Martha Jenkins was on this train, and was the first person John Ormond spoke to, upon arriving. Their courtship was brief.

Martha agreed to marry him, and on September 24, 1853, William Lewis, a High Priest of the fifteenth ward, Salt Lake City, performed the marriage ceremony.

In October of that year, John and Martha Jenkins Ormond moved to Box Elder, Utah, later to be known as Brigham City. Here they built a house of logs, with dirt roof and floor, and measuring 12 x 12. This house had three windows, a block chimney, and a door five feet high. All furniture was hand made.

Times were hard during these early years at Box Elder. It was the period during which the grasshoppers and crickets plagued the country and took most of the farm crops. No knowledge of the type of soil also accounted for losses, since the alkali content often ate up priceless crop and seed, after planting. Available work consisted of sawing lumber and making adobes for homes. Making shoes, and breaking ground for crops. Payment was often in wheat for flour, and work in kind. Winters were hard, people suffered actual want, and many families had to dig roots to survive.

In 1858, the family moved south to a town then called Pondtown, near what is now Payson, Utah, but later came back again to Brigham City, where grain crops had previously been planted, and were now harvested. The main source of family income the following winter was the wages received from making shoe lasts.

Because of the limited amount of land at Brigham City, on which to grow wheat for flour, the family decided to leave for Cache Valley. In 1860, the family sold what property they had, hitched up the team of two yoke of cattle, and left for Logan, Utah. Six other families accompanied them there.

During those years Martha Jenkins Ormond had been happy. She bore a family of 6 boys and 1 girl: John Jenkins, William Charles Jenkins, Martha Maria Jenkins, Enos Jenkins, Parley Jenkins, Hyrum Jenkins, and Joseph Jenkins.

During the years while her family was growing up and afterward, Martha Jenkins Ormond remained faithful to the Mormon faith, and continued to do temple work for the dead. In later years, when she became more feeble, her grand-daughter, Nellie Ormond Gibson, would carry her suitcase up the hill to the Logan Temple (about 2 blocks from her home), and keep the records, while Grandma Ormond as she was known by them, kept up her temple work for the dead.

While doing this temple work, Martha had a strange vision, typical of the manifestations of the time, and which has remained as a testimony to some of her descendants. One night Grandma Ormond dreamed vividly of a certain beautiful, dark-haired lady. This lady was a stranger, but said that she was Grandma Ormond's cousin, Margaret, and said further that she wished grandma would do her temple work for her.

At that time, Grandma Ormond knew of no Cousin Margaret. Her belief in that dream, however, was so strong that she asked her granddaughter, Nellie Ormond Gibson to write to Wales and inquire among the relatives about a possible cousin Margaret.

As a result of this correspondence, Grandma Ormond learned that there really was a cousin Margaret; and subsequently, Grandma Ormond did the temple work for her as the lady in the dream asked.

Grandma Martha Jenkins Ormond was 78 years old, approximately, when she died, December 27, 1904 at Logan, Utah. Two of her children preceded her in death.