 |
| Back Row: Joseph 1854-1937; Mary Jane 1857-1937; George 1846-1917; Albert 1852-1925 Front Row: Elizabeth 1861-1928 Sarah Ann 1849-1921; Eliza Ann 1866-1937; Frances Alice 1868-1960  |
Melissa
Bateman (Glover) was a child of Frances Alice Glover (Bateman). Frances was the youngest daughter of James
Glover, the one born in Pennsylvania where the family worked in the mines to earn
enough money to finish their trip to Utah when they emigrated from
England. She wrote a history of her
Grandfather James from information given to her by her mother, and here are
some excerpts from it:
James Glover was born at Kingsbury
Episcopi, Somerset, England in 1823. His
mother was Joan Glover, daughter of William Glover and Jane Mead. His mother told him that his father was
Richard Mounter but that he went away to sea and left her. He had two older brothers, George and Job and
all were given and used their mother’s surname, Glover. Joan eventually married George Knight and
they had 5 children. James did his own
temple work and was sealed to his mother and his step-father, George Knight, in
the Salt Lake Temple.
James said he taught himself to read and
write by studying and memorizing the signs in the shop windows. In July 1833 at the age of ten, he was
apprenticed to John Trott of Barrington, Somerset, to learn the blacksmith and
wheelwright trade. He remained in this
service until age twenty-one or 1844. In
speaking of John Trott, James said, “He was a very hard master and I received
much bad treatment from him.” Yet many
years later he had the temple work done for John and his wife, Elizabeth Gibbs
Trott.
As soon as his apprenticeship was done he
married Mary Rowswell. Mary had made her
living as a young woman making gloves.
As a side note, when her son George was on his mission to England he
located the machine that his mother had used to make gloves. He wanted to bring it home but the high duty
made it impossible.
While James had been christened in the
Church of England, not agreeing with the beliefs of that religious faith, he
later joined the Methodist Church although his study of the Bible led him to
believe that their teachings left much to be desired.
Hearing that he could make better wages in
Wales being a blacksmith for the equipment used in the mines he left his family
in England for a short time and sought employment there.
One evening while walking along the street in Victoria, he stopped to
listen to a street meeting. He had never
come in contact while in England with any missionaries of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not only
was he interested in the message these young Elders delivered but he was
convinced that they spoke the truth and that their teachings agreed with the
Bible and that they had just what he had been looking for so he immediately
applied for baptism.
Although he had taken this step before his
family reached Wales, he was fortunate in that his wife and all of his children
later became faithful members of the Church. However, as far as we have been able to
learn, James Glover was the only one of his family and his wife, Mary, the only
one of her kin to join the Church. He
later was made President of the Victoria Branch of the Church in Monmouthshire,
Wales.
James had a gift of great faith and he was
blessed with inspiration as is shown in the following incidents. A man named Dan Meredith who was employed by
the same company as James was severely injured in a cave-in in the mine. A number of bones in his body were broken. Some of the elders united their faith and James
administered to him. “Believe it or not,”
James insisted, “that while that ordinance was being performed we heard those
bones slip back into place. Mr. Meredith
was completely healed.” From
Melissa: “He later came to Utah and
worked in the Bingham Canyon (mine), but he left the Church which proved that
one’s faith must be founded on something other than miracles.”
“Grandfather’s responsibility was to keep
the tools and machinery used in the mine in good condition. James's oldest son, George worked in the
mine. One morning instead of just
awakening his son, the father said, 'George, I don’t want you to go to work
this morning. Just stay in bed and I’ll
tell your boss that you are ill.' That
very day such a bad accident occurred that if George had been in his usual
place he would have been killed.
…The Glover family had not been in the
Church long before they experienced the spirit of gathering so they began to
save their money that they might immigrate to Utah…They sent their oldest child,
Sarah Ann over first. She went directly
to Utah where she married Francis Cundick in the Endowment House. When her parents reached Utah she not only
had a husband, but a young son who was also name Francis.”
On May 30, 1866, James, Mary and eight children,
(the baby Eliza Ann was not quite three months of age), left Liverpool, England,
on the ship Arkwright. They arrived in New York five weeks later. Arriving in New York with only a dollar and
some odd cents in his pocket it became necessary to work before they could
continue their journey. George found work as
a blacksmith in a large six forge shop in McKeesport, Allegheny,
Pennsylvania. The owner of the shop was
especially bitter against the members of the Church but the majority of the men
in his employ belonged to the Mormon Church.
When he was later informed of this fact he commented. “Well, I’ll have
to admit they were all good workers.”
“One day a man came into the shop
inquiring if anyone could weld a six inch shaft which had broken on their
steamboat…the owner of the shop interrogated, ‘Glover, couldn’t you fix this
for us?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply, ‘If you’ll
give me full run of the shop and all the needed help.’ Using two forges the shaft was soon repaired,
the boss being so pleased that James Glover’s pay was raised fifty cents a day.
…In 1869 upon reporting to his employer
that he expected to leave for Utah the owner plead with James to remain, stating
that he would lease the shop to him and he could there make an excellent living
not only for himself, but for his growing boys.
However, all entreaties fell on deaf ears for this man had decided to
cast his lot with the unpopular and misunderstood Saints in Utah, and the
parents were anxious to reunite with their daughter and son George who had
preceded them.” They arrived in Utah in
September 1869, just a few months after the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad.
James continued to work as a blacksmith in
West Jordan, Utah, for Bishop Archibald Gardner. It was a cooperative affair as tools were few
in those days; an anvil, forge, bellows and a vise being the principal
ones. Iron was hard to get. Many of the horse shoes and nails were made
by hand from any old piece of tires or iron that could be obtained. The finding of a horse shoe meant 'Good Luck'
in more than one way to the children of this household. Every small piece of iron picked up was
carefully carried home to be used in the process of making a living.
One day, one of the less
God-fearing and law abiding citizens,
Gabriel Cotton, asked James to shoe his horses. Imagine the blacksmith’s surprise when after working all day and late
into the evening, Gabriel Cotton walked away without even mentioning pay. In fact his attitude seemed to be that of
conferring a favor on the person who had thus toiled for him. Later when James on one of his trips to
Bingham, upon meeting Cotton remarked, ‘I’d like to have what’s coming to me,’
the answer given with a curse was, ‘Come off in these bushes, and I’ll give you
what’s coming to you all right.’ Some
days later this same person appeared at James’s shop in West Jordan late in the
evening demanding that his team be shod.
James refused, telling Cotton that he had already done a hard day’s work
but that if he would return the next morning the horses would be given proper
attention. Gabriel Cotton left in an
ugly mood, cursing and uttering threats of revenge. The next morning when James went to work he
discovered his shop burned to the ground and he felt confident that Cotton had
carried out his threats.”
James purchased several acres of land in
what is now Midvale, paying forty dollars an acre and set up a shop on his own
premises.
An occurrence which children and neighbors
always looked forward to as an event of every holiday was what was called “the
firing of the anvil.” James would take
the anvil off of the block and turn it upside down. A fuse made of black powder was placed in the
hole and a plug driven in on top of it.
The report made by this explosion could be heard for a long distance. On the Fourth of July, several such “fire
crackers” were enjoyed.
“All kinds of jobs were brought to the
blacksmith in those days. Often broken
stove lids were repaired by putting a piece of iron under and running a rivet
through the metal. Anything that could
in any way be mended had to be used again.
Plows were sharpened. New points
or lays were put on them. These
blacksmiths were able to make everything for the plow, even the framework. Many tires were set in the summer, the charge
being one dollar a wheel. When not busy
with other things, James made bob sleds and wagon boxes. These were often ordered months before in
order to give sufficient time for their preparations. When the Oregon Short Line then called the
Utah Southern Railroad passed through Midvale, blacksmiths were given work
masking wooden switches and repairing cars.”
James had the privilege of attending the
School of the Prophets in Salt Lake City and later became a Patriarch.
In 1872 James married Betsey Clark
Williams as a polygamist wife. She
continued to live in her home in Salt Lake City. There were no children born in this union.
Betsey Clark Williams Fewens Tempest Glover, a handcart pioneer,
was born November 5, 1821, in Devonshire, England, the daughter of William
Williams and Sophia Sheen. She was
married to William Fewens in England, and being determined to gather with the
Saints to Zion she left her husband and with her son, William W. Fewen,
immigrated to America in 1857, crossing the Atlantic in the ship "George
Washington." After remaining in the
East three years, she came to Utah in 1860, crossing the plains in Capt. Daniel
Robinson's handcart company, which arrived in Salt Lake City, August 27,
1860. While in the East she met Henry
Tempest, a widower with two children, and married him. They came to the valley together, but after
living together for about ten years, they separated. Sister Betsey married again after a lapse of
five years, becoming the wife of James Glover. Sister Betsey followed her husband, James
Glover, to the grave April 2, 1911,
being ninety years of age at the time of her death. Sister Glover was an ardent Relief Society
worker, being a member of that organization ever since she came into the
valley. She was an agent for the
"Woman's Exponent" for a number of years and also a member of the
Ladies Handcart Club.
James’s
wife, Mary died in 1896 when James was 73 years of age. By 1899 James had completely lost his
eyesight. He had cataracts removed in
St. Mark’s hospital and at first the operation was declared successful, but
infection set in and both eyes had to be taken out. It is interesting to know that his
half-brother, Benjamin Knight who lived in Martock, Somerset, England,
underwent a similar operation about the same time. However, Benjamin’s
sight was restored.
James had a great singing voice and
several of his children inherited this gift.
Melissa’s parents took care of James after
he lost his sight. Although he’d sleep
in his own house he would eat with them and spend the evenings in their
home. Melissa said even though he was
blind he was very helpful. He would turn
the wheel of her mother’s old fashioned washing machine for hours and he would
split wood for them. She said he was
kind and had a “lovely” disposition.
He died of a stroke on September 18, 1903
and was buried in the West Jordan Cemetery by the side of his wife.
No comments:
Post a Comment