Thomas Frain Dobson

Thomas Frain Dobson was born Feb 17, 1837 in Macclesfield, England to Joseph and Elizabeth Fernyhough Dobson.

History

When Thomas was the age of three, his family was baptized to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Soon after their conversion, Thomas's father Joseph moved to Nauvoo, Illinois to prepare the rest of the family to move. Thomas wrote,

"The next year my mother, with us ...boys, I being the oldest—four years of age, on vessel to New Orleans.

"The morning we left Liverpool it was very dark with clouds and the next day become very stormy and continued for three or four days. During the storm it broke the bulwark of the ship, washed away one sailor and cabin boy, carried away the masts and sails. Next day a pilot guided us back in Wales for repairs.

"We started again. The Lord saved us from the storm and at the mouth of Mississippi river was met with tug steamboat to help us up to Orleans, first city we saw in America. We then went by steamboat to St. Louis, Mo...."1

Joseph built a log home in Nauvoo. While there, Thomas's mother died giving birth. In order to provide for his family, Joseph started working for James Taylor, father of Church President John Taylor.

"In the summer of 1845 father split his foot open with an axe while shopping timber for Bro. Taylor and was taken to Nauvoo, then down the river 18 miles.

"While still a cripple, came to Nauvoo to find his children who had been sent to hunt their living in the streets of the city without friends or home. Late in November a women took us to her home. I do not know her name. There after much hunting he found us and finally got an empty house to winter in without food, bed, or wood to make a fire. We stayed through the winter."1

Because Joseph was unable to care for his boys due to his condition, Thomas was taken in the care of Samuel Milliner. The family went west to Winter Quarters in 1846 after the assassination of President Joseph Smith. Soon after, Thomas reunited with his father.

While there, Joseph enlisted in the Mormon Battalion, and Thomas was in the watchful care of the Milliner family. After some moving up and down Missouri on the Mississippi, Thomas and the Milliner family joined  Captain Warren Foote's company on June 17, 1850. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on Oct 26.

Thomas lived with the Mulliner family for about eight years, then labored across the Salt Lake Valley with multiple different men and businesses before moving to Farmington, Utah and building an adobe home. In 1856, Thomas married Anna Gordon McIntyre in 1856 in Farmington. They lived there and Lehi, Utah until 1860 when the family moved to Richmond.1

Epilogue

Soon after the death of his wife in 1869, Thomas moved to multiple different places before settling in Fredonia, Arizona.1 Thomas Frain Dobson died Dec 18, 1933 in Marysvale, Utah. He was buried in the Thompsonville, Utah Cemetery.

Places Named After