An Exciting Discovery

I want you all to know that miracles do happen.  For the past 3 years, on and off (yes, I do sort of have a life outside of family history), I have been researching William Watkins and Charlotte George, the parents of Martha Ann Watkins Dunn.  This last week, I got answers to some questions I had long been wondering about.

From what Grandpa Dunn told me when I interviewed him in 2004, William Watkins and his wife, Charlotte George, had come from Wales and crossed the plains in the Edward Bunker handcart company, arriving in Utah in 1856.  Martha was born in Payson, UT in 1857.  Shortly thereafter, William abandoned the family to join the California Gold Rush.  He supposedly made some money and acquired some land, which he bequeathed to Martha, but was murdered in 1859.  The supposed land grants never materialized.  Charlotte then married a man named Thomas Wilson Stewart, who had come to Utah with the U.S. Army to quell the supposed Mormon rebellion.  Thomas later ended up joining the church.

Since that interview, I have gradually found various historical records to support Grandpa's account.  I first found passenger records for Charlotte George and William Watkins.  Charlotte came from northern Wales, county of Flintshire.  She was 24 and single (a spinster) in the spring of 1855 when she traveled aboard the William Stetson with other Church converts.  They embarked in Liverpool, and landed at Castle Garden, NY, the precursor to Ellis Island.

William, a 20-yr-old miner from southern Wales, also came to the U.S. in the spring of 1855.  He set out from Liverpool as well, but aboard the Chimborazo.  It too carried a large number of LDS converts, and arrived in Philadelphia.  Neither Charlotte nor William appeared to be traveling with any family members, although they probably knew at least a few of the members they traveled with.  Many families did not have enough money to emigrate together, and this was probably the case with their families.  I later found out that William's parents, Thomas & Christiana Watkins, came to Utah in 1868 with his youngest sister, Ann.  She married William Seeley, the leader of their company, and the three of them settled in Mount Pleasant, UT near the Seeley family.  William had other siblings too, but I am still trying to find out more about them. 

The next thing I found was an 1851 Wales census record for Charlotte, as a 21-yr-old.  Unfortunately, she was listed in the household where she worked as a domestic servant, rather than in the household of her parents. Her birthplace was listed as Tryddyn (now Treuddyn), Flintshire, Wales.  Assuming that she would have been christened into the predominant Anglican church, this led me to her birth/christening record, showing her parents to be Richard George and Ann Hughes.  Her birth was given as June 1, 1830.  I then found her parents' marriage date of Mar. 27, 1829 on the same microfilm.  Sadly, neither Richard's nor Ann's parents were given on the marriage record.  Although I searched to see if there were any other children born to Richard and Ann, I found none.  Perhaps they moved to a different village.  I have also been unable to locate them in the census so far, so I thought perhaps they had died at a young age, or the census enumerator missed them.  I have since learned that some of the census records for Flintshire were lost, so that could also be part of the problem.  At any rate, I had no idea whether Charlotte ever had any siblings. 

I often wondered about William and Charlotte and the circumstances of his leaving the family.  I wondered what age Martha was when this happened.  Considering that he supposedly died in 1859, I knew that Martha would never have known him, being at most 2 years old when he died.  Throughout her youth, she would have gone by her stepfather's last name of Stewart.  He would have been the only father she knew.  Thomas and Charlotte went on to have two more daughters - Mary Lydia and Charlotte Ellen.  Mary Lydia was either stillborn or died on the same day she was born.  Charlotte Ellen, 8 years younger than Martha, resided in Ogden after her marriage, where Thomas & Charlotte also lived until their deaths.  When Charlotte was about 61, she and Thomas adopted a young girl named Luella McElhone.  At least, I found a newspaper article that stated they were desirous of adopting this girl, with consent of her widowed (and somewhat notorious) mother, who was not able to properly care for her. I posted this information about Luella on New Family Search.

In response to my post on this subject, a lady named Jean replied that she had a letter written by Charlotte Ellen Stewart (who was her great-grandmother).  This letter was written in the 1920s.  I was ecstatic at the prospect of learning something new, and asked if she might send me a copy of the letter.  I didn't hear back for 2 weeks, and thought I might never, until this week when she replied.  She said the letter was too old to photocopy well, but she typed out part of it for me and paraphrased some of it. This is what she said:

Charlotte George was born 1 June 1830 at Tryddn, Flintshire, Wales to Richard George and Ann Hewes.  She was the oldest of 11 children - 9 boys and 2 girls.  Her only sister died at the age of 15.  She was baptized into the LDS Church by Bro. Joseph Parry in Wales Feb. 1854.  Her people were among the first to join the church in that part of the country.

 

Quoting from Charlotte Ellen: “Charlotte married a man by the name of William Watkins in Wales and in 1855 immigrated to the U.S.A. and all her folks but she and her husband came on to Winter Quarters in Dec 1855 and stayed there until the next June and came west with Captain Bunkers Co. of handcarts, left Winter Quarters the 10^th of June 1856 and arrived in Salt Lake Sept same yr.  They went on to Payson where he had a sister living, a Mrs. Seeley, she is still living & was 94 last Jan.  They bought team & wagon in Salt Lake & on Sept. 29 her husband  left and went with some emigrants that were going to the Gold Fields of Calif. & she never seen him again, & on the 31^st of Oct. there came up an awful storm & she was sleeping in the wagon close to Bishop Simons house, & in the morning they didn’t see her about & went to investigate & her baby had been born sometime during the night & she was unconscious & the baby almost died, but they both lived & the baby is my only relative in the world & lives in Idaho & this husband was killed in Calif. in 1859.”

 

   This baby was Martha Ann.  Charlotte Ellen was married to Thomas Wilson Stewart in 1862.   He came with Johnston ’s Army to kill the Mormons and joined the church and was baptized in the Ogden River the 3^rd of March 1860 or 61, by John R. Pool.  They were endowed 9 Dec 1865 in the Endowment House, and on Aug. 2^nd 1865 Charlotte Ellen was born in Logan , Utah . 

 

    The Church records show that Martha was sealed to Thomas Wilson Stewart & Charlotte George on the 3 April 1914 in the Salt Lake Temple.

Although there were some discrepancies between the letter and the historical records I have found, the most interesting parts were learning that Charlotte had 10 siblings I never knew about (and now need to try and find), that perhaps others of her family members joined the Church too (whatever happened to them all?), and also the circumstances surrounding Martha's birth.  It looks like William was a certifiable rat, but Charlotte and Martha were spared and presumably ended up happy.  Wow, that was a lot of stuff.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  :)