A saddler’s house at Trelawnyd
Hugh Evans was born in Trelawnyd — at that time called Newmarket — on 9 March 1823. His father Edward Evans, a saddler, was 38, and his mother, Sydney Parry, was 36. By the time of the 1841 census Hugh, 18 years old, was an apprentice saddler, his two older brothers, Bernard and John, were journeymen saddlers, and their father, Edward, 56, still working as a saddler. Also at home are their mother Sidney, younger siblings Margaret age 15, and John age 7.
He married Phoebe Jones on 22 September 1849 in Holywell. By the time of the 1851 census Hugh himself was a saddler, living with his wife Phoebe and two children, Lydia, born 14 February 1844, and Bernard, born 10 April 1850.
They had three more children: William born on 2 March 1852, John Owen born on 11 June 1854 and Edward William born on 21 November 1857. William died on 12 October 1855, at the age of three. Phoebe herself died on 23 November 1858.
Liverpool, and a second marriage
Following Phoebe’s death Hugh planned to emigrate to America with his children to join with the Latter-day Saints in Utah, which led them to make their way first of all to Liverpool. He married Jane Roberts there on 7 May 1860.
They left Liverpool bound for New York on 23 April 1862 aboard the John J. Boyd along with 702 Latter-day Saints under the command of Captain J. H. Thomas. After a thirty-nine-day voyage, which though successful was somewhat longer than usual because of head winds, the Saints landed on 1 June at New York.
The John J. Boyd was a three-deck ship built in New York in 1855 and named after John J. Boyd, an early marine merchant. Nearly two thousand Latter-day Saints were transported to America in three voyages aboard this ship. Her first voyage left Liverpool on 12 December 1855, just a few months after she was launched. Apparently in 1860 she was damaged by fire but was subsequently salvaged and able to transport more emigrants, mainly Latter-day Saints, across the Atlantic. This second company arrived in New York on 1 June 1862.
“Remarkably clean and healthy”
The following day the New York Times reported:
Arrival of another ship-load of Mormons.
The ship John J. Boyd arrived here yesterday, 39 days from Liverpool, with [702] Mormons, bound for Utah. They will be landed at Castle Garden this morning. They are mostly English, Scotch and Irish, and among them are 139 children. There was very little sickness on the passage, and the passengers all look remarkably clean and healthy.
From the autobiography of Duckworth Grimshaw:
The John J. Boyd set sail from Liverpool on April 22, 1862, with seven hundred passengers on board. During the six-week voyage, we had some very rough weather and I was seriously ill and could scarcely eat anything for almost four weeks. I became very weak and pale. I met a young sister who suggested that I put my rations with hers and take them to the cook room and prepare them and eat together. This I did and soon began improving. A friendship sprang up which lasted through the years, and on my visits to Salt Lake, I always called on her and we had many pleasant visits together.
Across the plains in a war year
James Lindsay reported:
At this time, 1862 the North and South were at war and terrible battles were being fought. The railroads were not like they are now, we didn’t know at the time why they went so fast over such rough roads. The real reason was, fear of being captured by the Southern Army. Arriving at St. Louis we were transferred to a steamboat and traveled up the Missouri to Omaha. We had to wait here for three weeks for the ox teams to take us on the last part of our thousand mile journey across the plains and mountains to our new home. While waiting for the wagon train, there were some terrible thunder storms, and several men were killed.
We were assigned to John Turner’s wagon in Homer Duncan’s train to cross the plains. It was a very trying time for everyone traveling day after day in the heat, dust and winds. We did our cooking in skillets over smokey fires and slept in tents with ten to fifteen men, women and children. Flour and bacon was about all the food we had. Usually the water was bad, and sometimes no wood to burn. It was in this way that we moved along at about fifteen miles a day, often resting on Saturday afternoon to wash and clean ourselves up. All day Sunday was spent resting. Prayers were offered night and morning, and often signing and dancing in the evenings.
William Lindsay reported:
This was a strange & a wonderful sight to us who had never seen oxen hitched to wagons…. As quicky as possible we started on the dreary tramp of 1000 miles. Tents were provided one for every wagon and a man appointed to see that the tents were properly staked down each night and placed in the wagon next morning. An average of 12 persons slept in each tent and had all their belongings in one wagon.
Our oxen stood the journey fairly well some of the oxen got tender footed and had to be shoed. As we came back Green River and the other streams were very low and could be forded easily. We were some 25 days on the way arriving in Salt Lake City near the last of Sept.
The family
The 1862 emigrants crossed a country at war. Trains ran fast over rough track for fear of the Southern Army, and the companies waited weeks at Omaha for ox teams. Three of the archive’s families made that crossing in the same season on different ships. See 1862 in the timeline →
The census entries, marriages and children’s dates come from the family history and are strong, but four points need care. The sailing date is given as 23 April in the family account and as 22 April by Duckworth Grimshaw, who was aboard. Lydia’s birth in February 1844 precedes the 1849 marriage, which the record does not explain. The 1841 household contains two sons named John — a journeyman and a seven-year-old. And the ship’s naming, her 1855 launch, the December 1855 first voyage and the 1860 fire all rest on the family account rather than a maritime register; the engraving is captioned as her burning, but that identification is not independently confirmed. Church History does confirm the family’s participation in the Homer Duncan Company.