Rowane Moon

• Name: Rowane Moon 
• Born: December 20, 1865 Farmington, Utah
• Died: September 4, 1932 Tremonton, Utah
• Related through: Erin's grandmother Margaret Udy Hanni 

I, Rowane Moon Udy, am going to attempt to write a short sketch of my life. My father, Henry Moon, was born March 29, 1819 at Eccleston, Lancashire, England. My mother, Temperance Westwood was born August 19, 1839 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. This date being my mother’s birthday, I have been thinking of a great many things pertaining to life and how I would like a written history of my parents’ life as they joined the Mormon Church in England and were among the early pioneers of Utah. I was born December 20, 1865 at Farmington, Utah of good parents. I had seven brothers and five sisters: Robert Henry, Joseph Hyrum, Hannah Temperance and Elenora, (I, being the fifth), Henry Moroni, Edmund, Phillip Westwood, Lelia Olive, Mercy Eveline, Louise Westwood, Albert and Franklin Everett.

As I am now 63 years and eight months old at this data and hope my children will start earlier in life to write something of themselves, and not be as neglectful as their mother. This is a busy world, and we do neglect so many important things which we will be held responsible for. And as a great many dates have gone from my memory, I will not attempt to tell very much but hope my children will take the time to look this over.

I being born on a cold December night and have heard my parents mention it. With two feet of snow on the ground, father had to break a road with an ox team to the nearest neighbors for help, which was Sister Margaret Lenord, who never had any children and no experience. But they were good Latter-day Saints and had faith and trusted in the Lord, and I got here all right but not without much suffering for my mother who did [not] have many comforts in the home as we have these days. But she always trusted the Lord to help her, and by her faith in him she was blessed.

A few years of my early childhood was spent in Salt Lake City, where father was bishop. I can just remember living there and moving to Farmington, where my girlhood and happy school days were spent. I always loved the Sunday School and was a teacher when I was fifteen. The primary, I remember so well when it was first organized, and I was one of the first members. Also the Mutual Improvement association [in which I] was a member.

Mural depicting first LDS Primary — Farmington, Utah

Our home was in the north part of Farmington so we had to walk two miles to meetings in those days. It did not mean very much to walk; but in these days the young people would, I guess, think it a long walk. My girlhood days were very happy. I had many good friends, good parents and good brothers and sisters, all of whom I loved dearly. I loved all the beauties of nature, the trees, birds, flowers, the meadows and hills. I loved to wander by the beautiful streams of clear water, bathe in the water of the Salt Lake, and dance on the grass in the grove of trees where we held our celebrations. All this comes back to my mind, and I think I did make good use of my time. Father owned a good farm and among other good things was a peach orchard [from] which we were supposed to dry the fruit to buy our clothes. We sure worked hard picking, cutting and spreading out to dry. In the fall of the year we would haul them to Salt Lake in a wagon and buy our clothes for winter, not like the clothes we buy now, just the material to make them. We had to do the sewing, so it was all interesting. I worked out some, helping people with housework for $1.50 a week to help buy my trousseau, for I was thinking of getting married.

Thomas James Udy

On the 19th of July 1883, I was married to Thomas J. Udy at Farmington and was very happy, but [we] made a great mistake when we did not go to the Temple to be married. This is something I always regretted and worried over all my life. I loved my husband, and he loved me in return and promised that he would go to the temple and be sealed.

But time went on, and it was neglected. Oh that word neglect. My eyes fill with tears; I can hardly stand to think how I worried over it. We were so happy with each other, but there was always that feeling that we had not done as we should.

October 19, 1884 our first darling baby boy [Thomas “J”] came and the joy he brought to our home we surely did rejoice. We named him after his father. Time went on, and still [I had] that desire, stronger than ever, to have our temple work done. [On] September 15, 1886 another dear baby boy was born to us. We named him Edmund. How our family was increasing. My husband thought we better be getting some farmland. He had worked up to this time in the blacksmith business with his father.

The spring of 1887 he went to the Bear River Valley and made a homestead entry on 160 acres of dry land covered with sagebrush. He went to the hills, got logs and built our first little home, just one room [and] we were happy to have that as our own. It was sure hard to make a living — a well 60 feet deep and the water not good, the land to clear of brush, no fence to keep out the range stock, one team of horses to do the work with a walking plow. So much different now, with the tractor and modern machinery. There were many drawbacks: grasshoppers, drought, our first crop did not amount to much, a lot of hard work, some sad experiences, etc. My husband worked wherever he could get it for one dollar a day. I sure felt sorry for him, with a family to keep; and he had to leave me and our dear children in such a lonesome place with the howling wolf and roving Indian and neighbors nearly two miles away. We were happy when he would come home. As winter drew near, we knew we could not stay there, so [we] went to Farmington where there was more chance for work. By this time we were further away from having the temple work done that I so much desired. We were not attending to our duties as we should, [and] we did not have the money to fix up to go. When spring came, we were ready to go back to our dear little lonesome home. We were glad to be in our own home again. We had enjoyed the winter with our folks, and they were very good to us. The summer of 1888 was another hard time to make a living out. In a way we were happy, and the Lord blessed us with good health, which we were very thankful for. As winter drew near, we could see we could not stay in this place, so [we] made our way back to Farmington and rented a room for the winter.

On January 12, 1889, my sweet little brother, Franklin, died very sudden from croup. He was the baby of the family and the first to go out of a family of thirteen children. We sure mourned to lose him and such shock to us all, but we had to say the Lord’s will be done. I was too sick to go see him. The day after his death, on the 13th, our first sweet little girl [Rowane] was born. We were happy over the birth, but it was such a sad time, mother and all feeling so bad. In seven more weeks (I haven’t got the date) [7 March 1889], my brother, Robert, the eldest in the family, died very suddenly of heart trouble. [It was] another sad time for us, and we could not go see him as the winter was bad and his home was at Woodland, Summit Co. When spring came we went back to our home, dear to us, for it was our own. We were ready to start in and work harder than ever to try and get a start, but it was a hard struggle to get anything ahead but a scant living, but with saving and trying we kept a going. This summer’s crop was some better, but the grain had to be hauled about 40 miles to market and sold for 35 and 40 cents a bushel. So much different now, and still I don’t think people appreciate the difference that haven’t went through it.

As winter drew near, we decided to stay home and try it out on poverty flat, as this place was then called. The wood for fire had to be hauled from the hills, which was hard work. We did not have money to buy coal, if there had been any to buy. We spent a happy winter together with our three dear little children, and we kept well. It was very cold — the snow about three feet deep and lots of wind. I am just writing this down from memory of the past and hope you, my children, will not complain but will appreciate your homes and families and be as thankful as we were. Be honest with everybody, do what is right, live good clean lives and it will all help to make you happy. I know you can live better lives than we have and can attend to the duties of life as going to church etc., as we did not have the clothing and the ways to go as you have.

In the years 1890-91 the Bear River Canal was built. There was plenty of work and times were some better for us. The winter of 91 was very cold, with lots of snow. Our three children all had the whooping cough and were very bad with it and were just at the worst, when on the 2nd of March, our fourth child, a dear sweet boy [Henry], was born. When I think of it now, what we had to put up with, I wonder how we did it. I had faith in the Lord and my prayers were answered. We got along all right, without doctor or nurse, just a neighbor lady who lived about four miles away, and the elders who were sent for who prayed for me that I might live and raise my family. I am thankful our prayers were answered.

I was always praying that the time would come when we could go to the temple and have our temple work done. Little did I think then that I would have to go alone with my children to have it done. And I wonder why did it had to be this way, for husband and wife were never dearer to each other than we. But it was neglected — put off too long. Oh, why do we put off important things? I do hope it will all be made right in the end to come. Time went on. As usual, each year our harvest was some better, we were picking up and buying more land so there was more work and we were rich because we were happy trying to make a living for our dear family. The boys were getting to be so much help.

The winter of '92 and '93 was coming on, and we were expecting a new arrival in our family. We were wondering what to do, as there was no help to be got here, when a letter came from mother saying: don’t think of staying there, come to Farmington and we will take care of you. Just like a mother, so thoughtful and wanting to do all they can for their children. To Farmington we went on January 1, 1893. I stayed with my dear sister Hannah King. She and her husband were sure kind and good to me. My husband helped his father in the shop and kept the older boys with him. On the first day of April 1893 a dear baby boy [Horace] was born to us. A sweeter faced baby was never born I don’t think. We were nearly broken hearted when we discovered his little feet were deformed. We had doctors come and look at them. They did not seem to know what was the best thing. A dear lady at Kaysville, hearing of our baby, came to see me as she had a baby with feet the same, who said the doctor wanted to cut the cords, but she would not let him. She advised me not have them cut, as her son was now 16 years old and all right. She told me and showed what to do to rub and bandage and pray and ask the Lord to help. I was willing to do anything to make them as they should be. It seemed to me very slow progress and a long time before they seemed to get much better. As he grew older, I worried and wondered if he would ever be able to walk. But my faith in the Lord was strong that my prayers would be answered, and I [knew I] must not give up but keep on working and praying. In November 1898 my mother-in-law died very suddenly. Grandpa wanted us to stay with him throughout the winter, which we did. He took so much comfort with our darling baby. Horace is what we named him. He would crawl all over the house to find grandpa who would hide and play with him.

When spring came we went back to our home, and as usual, were glad to be home again. Be it ever so humble, there’s is no place like home - just one room and five little children and a loving husband and father who had to work hard to support us. We were thankful for it all, and we were blessed with good health. The summer was more prosperous. We had another well dug, but not much better water. [We] built another room on to our little house, which was a welcome addition, as was the darling baby girl born September 17, 1894. We named her Mabel. Horace was just beginning to try to walk. I was sure thankful to have him walk, but oh how pitiful to see his poor little feet so deformed. He was so good-natured and seemed so happy. I, having so much work and another baby, was afraid I was not caring for him as I should. As time went on he improved slowly. We had braces and shoes made for him which seemed to help some. October 17, 1896 another darling baby girl was born and was welcome at our home. We named her Abbie Louise.

The summer of ‘96 was hot with lots of work to keep us busy. We were getting more land cleared and buying more land and getting more horses, cows, pigs and chickens. We were making a pretty fair living, but our house was small for our family. We could not think of building and always lived on a dry farm and hauled water. The winters were cold with lots of snow. The children had a long way to go to school. We tried to make the best we could out of what we had, and [we] were happy with our family. We would load them all in a wagon and take them with us everywhere we went, for it was not safe to leave them in this lonely place. I don’t recall very many important events that happen along this time. But think if I had written them down there would have been many things worthwhile. I was always wishing we could be where we could go to meetings more often and live nearer the gospel teachings. My constant prayer was for my family, hoping they would grow up right but a poor hand to teach them; hoping and praying that some day we would do better and go to the house of the Lord and do as we should do.

We decided to buy a home and some land at Farmington, but it was hard to know how to leave. I did not want to be separated from part of the family as I knew some would have to be on the dry farm part of the time and I would rather stay here and be all at home together. So in a few years, we sold the Farmington place and continued to exist on the dry farm. There was always plenty of hard work, and we had to be contented. The children were growing up, and how I longed for something better and wished for something better for the children than to grow up here and not be educated as they should and not have much house room nor any conveniences. There was no use to complain. It was all we had, and all we could do was to live in hopes that we would someday have things more convenient and more room for our family and friends and relatives when they came to see us, which they did during the summer. We enjoyed having them come, and they also enjoyed coming. For where there is a will, there’s a way, and there is always room for more and where the room is small you can draw closer together and where there is love in the home there is happiness. We now had our farm fenced and cleared of brush. It seemed more civilized. We had close neighbors one half mile away, a pretty fair school two miles away. Sunday School meeting and of different organization. The children attended these pretty well, but their father did not care to go very often. I thought as we both did not go, I felt like my place was home caring for the family, always praying that some time we would do better and attend to our duties and keep the commandments of the Lord and strive more diligently to serve him as he had blessed us in so many ways. I have always been thankful that I believed in the Lord. [I am] thankful that I belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ, and if my children can see that I have done any good, I hope they will follow that example and the example of their father in being honest, charitable, courageous and try and treat everybody right. Love one another and do all the good you can.

I am forgetting what I started to write. The winter of ‘98 and ‘99 was very, very cold with plenty of snow. Mother came to stay with us during the winter, and we were very thankful to have her with us, although it was not so pleasant for her as our home did not have the comforts I would of liked her to have had, not caring for myself so much, but hoping that some day we would have more room for our family for they were growing up and it sure was hard for us to live like this. On 16 of February 1899, a dear baby boy [Austin] was born to us, and how thankful we were to get along so well and have my dear mother with us who was always so faithful and good. The weather was terrible cold, but we lived through it all, and my biggest worry was my thoughts, “Oh will we ever go to the house of the Lord and have our temple work done.” [I would] think of the family we were raising, how dear they were to us and still how neglectful we were. The tears I have shed and the hours I have laid awake thinking of this no one will ever know. Of course, every one can’t see these things alike; thus we have to suffer. Time went on about as usual as far as I remember. Hot summers with fairly good crops and cold winters with plenty of hard work which kept us healthy and happy—happy because of the love for each other and our family of good children. In the spring of 1903 there was quite a lot of sickness with colds. Everyone in my family had the colds except m self, and I had other ailments but not so serious as I sometimes thought.

On the 23 of March 1903 another sweet baby girl was born to us. We were happy for the safe arrival, and she was welcomed by the whole family. I certainly was thankful to have a good nurse to take care of me every day, for that is the way they did those days. She lived five miles away, and we had to send a team outfit to get her. The nurse was very good to doctor the children's colds. They were soon well again. We named our baby Effie. I can’t recall any thing very important for a year or two. On 2 day of Feb. 1905 our oldest son Thomas was married to Charlotte Archibald and went to live at Plymouth. As usual life went on, and Tommy worked for his father. Their father told the boys if they would work for him and all work together, they could buy more land which they did. They bought some irrigated land at or north of Riverside, which they farmed until in the spring of 1907. [Then] we started to talk of building on the irrigated farm.

On the 28th of May 1907, another dear baby girl [Rhea Mae] was born to us and as usual was welcomed by us all. This was our tenth child. We now had five boys and five girls. We were proud to be the parents of such a good family. So we decided we could afford to build a new home north of Riverside where there was plenty of water to irrigate, and plenty of good water for drinking, and a house which we were looking with thankfulness to get there to live and enjoy that which we never had at the dry farm where we had lived so many years. All summer we were anxious to get to our new home which was being built. I was busy sewing carpet rags to make carpet for the floors and getting ready to move by fall.

Home in Riverside about 1913
Left: Effie and Rhea
Center: Thomas, Temperence Westwood Moon and Rowane
Right: Abbie, Mabel, Horace, Austin (sitting) and Henry.

In October we moved in to our new home. [It was] so much different than our little log cabin which had served us so many years where we had spent so many happy days. I will say nothing of its discomforts, but it served us well, and we could not help shedding a few tears when leaving. [We left] Tommy to move in the old place. I sure felt sorry for him and his young wife and baby, Glenn, our first grandchild to live there. They had buried their first child, a dear little girl. But I think Tommy was glad to move in and take care of the things that had to be left on the farm.

We were very busy at our new home getting ready for winter, which was drawing near with plenty to do finishing and building out buildings. On November 6, Edmund was married to Mary Buxton. Shortly after, our whole family were taken down with the measles and were all very sick, nine here at home with it and Tommy and baby at their home. [This was] the first serious sickness we had had in the family and we were sure thankful to have more room with so much sickness. We were thankful when they were all well again. We spent a very pleasant winter. We were nearer to school and meeting and getting acquainted with now friends, which we enjoyed.

When spring came we were busy with a new kind of work for us: planting trees, gardens and flowers. We were real successful with them all and enjoyed watching everything grow so beautiful. We were enjoying being so comfortable here, but to me there was that longing to have our temple work done, which I had worried about all my married life and did not seem any nearer to having it done. This had been the biggest worry of my life and wondering if we would have it done.

The next fall, after we moved here, our daughter Rowane was married to Robert MacFarlane. We sure missed her in the home, being the oldest now. The two older ones were married. She was so much help which I felt I needed so much. But I knew it was the right thing for her to do if she wished to, and there were others growing up which were very good help also. We were getting along fine financially in our now home with good gardens of what we needed, trees and everything we planted all grew so nicely. By this time we had bought a home in Riverside for Tommy. And Eddie moved to the dry farm for a short time. Then we bought a home at Riverside for him, so we were getting close together again.

Thomas and Rowane Udy Family about 1914
Back row: Horace, Thomas J., Rowane, Edmund and Henry
Front row: Abbie, Thomas James, Austin, Rowane, Effie on lap and Mabel

On the 6th day of November, our next eldest son, Henry, left to fill a mission to the Northern States. It was sad to part with him, but knew it was a duty when we are called or asked to do anything in the church of Latter-day Saints, to respond and do the best we can and trust in the Lord to help us. With faith and prayer we will be blessed. Henry was pleased to go and was interested in the mission work and for eight months was doing fine. But the climate did not agree with him, and he was taken suddenly ill. He was so bad that the president of the mission thought it best that he return home, which he did to his sad disappointment. [The president] realized that he was in a condition that he could not do very much work. But he was faithful and worked in the Sunday School and other duties in the ward. When his health improved some, he worked in the temple, helping mother with some work she was doing in the Temple and which she was thankful to get done. He married Ethel Hales two years after his return home, built a home near ours on the south and was very happy. But his health was getting poor again and shortly after he passed away on the 21 of June 1915, leaving his dear wife and sweet baby girl which was so sad. We all surely mourned his passing away in early manhood and missed him so much. But the Lord knows what is best and knows whom to call, so the Lord’s will be done, not ours. We should trust in the Lord for consolation and pray for his comforting blessings, which I am sure he will give if we ask in faith and believing. In the meantime Horace, our next oldest son, married Ella Pet and built a house on the north of us. We were pleased to have our children near us.

Times were fast changing in many ways. Our boys were still working together on the farms, which were doing well under their good farming and congenial work. The time of the auto cars was here. We were enjoying riding in them, and we were getting other conveniences but with all this there was that longing to have our temple work done and which I feared would never be done as our children were marrying off so fast it seemed to me. On the 14th of February 1917 our next two oldest daughters were married, leaving a large gap in the family circle. Mabel married Frank Munns and Abbie [married] Vern Wood. Our family was sure getting small — just three left to marry of our ten. We were taking care, and living with us was Henry’s little girl, Doris, which we were glad to have. It was so nice to have another baby. Her mother was learning nursing at the hospital.

Now comes the saddest part of my story. I feel like I can hardly write it, for tears blind my eyes of memories gone by. On the 27th of May 1918 my dear husband Thomas James passed away. He was taken suddenly ill and was soon gone. I shall not attempt to say much of this sad event, as you, my children, know all about it, and I cannot control my feelings. It is thirteen years and one month from this day since this sad death happened and the sorrow I have passed through since then no one will ever know. I have tried to keep it to myself as much as possible so as not to make others unhappy too. The Lord’s will be done. I have tried to make the best of it, have prayed for comfort and I know the Lord has blessed me in many ways, blessed me with a good family of sons and daughters who have been very good and kind to me. But, Oh the thoughts of your parents being so neglectful as to put off the most important part of their lives, their temple work. I pray that the Lord may forgive us, and that it will be made right in the time to come.

To start on my story again, after this sad happening my thoughts were what can I do for the best a widow with three children partly grown up and the responsibility I felt like I could hardly endure it. Would that I could train them in the right way, for I was always a poor teacher but always loved the right and want my children to be better teachers to their families than I have been. And forgive me if I haven’t done right by you, for my intentions were good. Time went on. We were doing the best we knew how, and the Lord was blessing us in many ways. The bishop, Brother L. R. Kennard, was very kind to us and gave us good advice in many ways. In the fall of the same year that dreadful disease, the flu, broke out all over the country. Twenty-two of my family were down at once and were very sick. But thank the Lord, they all recovered some after a long time, for it was so bad. We were blessed with means to have them taken care of which we were also thankful for. We did the best we could, and the Lord added his blessings. As time went on we got along very well.

Winter came and oh how lonely for me. The first winter we, my dear husband and I, had ever been parted. I hardly knew what was the best thing to do, but I asked my Heavenly Father to help and comfort me, and I know my prayers were answered. In the spring of 1919 the bishop advised me to go to the temple and have our work done, which I had worried over so much and longed to have done. I had hoped the time would come when we would all go together to the house of the Lord and have that work done which we had neglected for so long. How happy we would be to have it done! But time changes our lives in many ways and all we can do is try and make the best of our lives. On the 28 of May 1919 we went and had the temple work done, which I realized was the best thing we could do now. But how sad that Father could not go with us in life. I was thankful that my children and myself were all counted worthy to go to the house of the Lord and do this great work, and I pray that it will be accepted, Effie was the first to marry after her father’s death. She married Karl G. Welling on the 12th of October 1921. I sure felt bad to see her go, but think it was the right thing to do if she thought so too. On the 19th of December 1923, Austin was married to Mabel Pett. This was my last son to marry, so again I sure felt lonely with only one of my family left at home. I expected all these things to happen and knew it would not be long before I would be left at home all alone. So such is life, and I am thankful that it is no worse, and that I have a good family and a good home, but Oh so lonely. I am thankful for means to live on and don’t suffer for the necessities of life. On the 14th day of October 1927, Rhea was married to Vernon Hess. The last of my family married. The thought came, how, what am going to do, left in the house alone? Something I can never do. So I asked Austin if he would move in part of the house, and I would go to Salt Lake for the winter and work in the Temple. I sure enjoyed the temple work. But to come back home, it all seemed so different and so sad for me. No one will ever know how I felt. I always tried to look on the bright side of life. Now I wondered if there was any brightness for me but with faith and prayer I could see there was much to live for yet.

I came back home in the spring but home was not like the home it use to be. No husband to tell or to advise me what to do. All of my children married — so lonely and wondering what was the best thing for me to do in life. Summer passed away, then fall came. I decided the best thing for me to do was to work in the temple where I could do a little good. In October I went to Logan and enjoyed the temple work very much all winter. I made lots of new friends which I learned to love and enjoy. They were so kind and good to me. I enjoyed being where I could attend meetings of different kinds. The winter passed much more pleasant than I ever thought it possibly could. When spring came, I was ready to come back home again, work outside a little to try and keep things up around my home, but it was hard to do. Everything was getting run down and looked discouraging to me. I worked hard but it did not amount to much. I just kept the burs from going to seed and keeping the place from getting any worse. As fall drew near, I prepared to go work in the temple at Logan again. This was a very early fall and a very cold winter with lots of snow. I had five blocks to go to the temple but never missed a day and attended some of the night sessions and enjoyed it all, for I believed I was doing my duty.

But as usual, I came home in the spring to trudge my weary life away on the farm. And in the fall was ready to go back to the temple work, which I enjoy better than anything else and enjoy the city much better than here at home where I would not be able to go anywhere very often. I love my home and family and love to be among them and enjoy their company, and it is natural when spring comes I want to be nearer to them. This summer, 1930, was a very pleasant one— the centennial year of the church. I went to the grand pageant at the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

I remodeled my house a little and made it a little more convenient for me. My granddaughter, Doris, came to see me. I had not seen her for several years. I was sure pleased to see her again. I went on a number of pleasant trips during the summer. I went to the Moon reunion at the park in Weber Canyon, to the Yellowstone park and several other enjoyable canyons and scenes. I have been very neglectful and haven’t written in my diary for over a year.

In the fall of 1930, I went as usual to the Logan temple to work. There is nothing I enjoy so well, and I am thankful I have been blessed with means to go to Logan to live in the winter, which is very pleasant for me. In the spring I enjoy coming home. 1931—the summer has been very dry, but our crops have been fairly good—something to be very thankful for. I made a very pleasant trip to the Cardston temple, Glacier National Park and Yellowstone Park. It all was so wonderful and beautiful. I surely did enjoy it all. In October, I went to Logan to try and locate and rent a room to stay in this coming winter. I am very shaky and can hardly write. My health hasn’t been very good this last summer, but I hope I will be all right when I get to working in the temple.

Rowane Moon Udy died September 4, 1932, in Tremonton Utah.

This history was dated August 19, 1929 at Riverside, Utah. The history was copied by her daughter Effie Udy Welling. The spelling and the entire content were copied exactly as Rowane had written it. It was then copied for the James Udy Reunion, August 1978, and the Moon Reunion, 1978, by Christine Weese Mooney, great-granddaughter of Rowane’s. To make the history more readable for publication, Richard N. Moon made spelling and minor punctuation corrections to the document. Very long sentences were shortened and a word or two were added in a few places for clarification. Every effort was made to retain the style of Rowane’s writing. It can be found in the book The Family of Henry Moon: Mormon Pioneer 1819-1894.

Henry Moon

• Name: Henry Moon
• Born: March 29, 1819 Eccleston, Lancashire, England
• Died: November 14, 1894 Farmington, Utah
• Related through: Erin's grandmother Margaret Udy Hanni

On a spring day, March 29, 1819, Robert and Ann Walton Moon welcomed their second child and first born son, Henry Moon, into their family at Eccleston, Lancashire, England. The Robert Moon family lived in the Horse Stone estate. Henry’s father, Robert, had inherited it from his father, Henry, and the estate had passed down through the Moon family for years. It was later sold a few years after Henry left England.

The names on Henry Moon’s genealogical pedigree alternate between Henry Moon and Robert Moon from father to son for the eleven generations preceding him. These eleven generations were all born in Lancashire, England from the mid-1500s down to Henry Moon, born in 1819. (Henry had a son named Robert, but this Robert Henry Moon had no sons, so the chain was broken.) The small English village of Eccleston, Lancashire, England where Henry was born lies about seven miles south of Preston and about five miles west of Chorley. Lancashire shares common boundaries with other English counties on the north, east and south, but on the west the Irish Sea defines her boundary.

Eccleston Church

Henry would have had no memories of his mother, Ann, because she died just thirty-six days after Henry was born, May 5, 1819 in nearby Chorley. Ann Walton Moon’s family buried her at Eccleston in the family’s burial place near the pulpit of the north aisle in St. Mary’s, an English church which dates from the fourteenth century. Henry had only one sibling, an older sister named Hannah, born sixteen months before him on November 20, 1817. Nothing is recorded of Henry’s younger years in England.

After Ann’s death at the age of thirty-two, Henry’s father, Robert, age thirty-four, married a second time to a lady named Hannah. It is not known when the marriage took place nor if there were any children born to them. The family lived in Horse Stone House.

Horse Stone House

“On Sunday, 4 June, 1837 an event occurred in Kirtland, Ohio, which determined the fate of many English families. Latter-day Apostle Heber C. Kimball says in his autobiography, “. . . the Prophet Joseph came to me. . . in the Kirtland Temple and whispering to me said, Brother Heber, the Spirit of the Lord has whispered to me, ‘Let my servant Heber go to England and proclaim my Gospel and open the door of Salvation to that Nation’. The Prophet Joseph sent Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, and other missionaries to England. Not quite two months later, the group landed in Liverpool, July 20, 1837.

Heber C. Kimball stayed at the house of Matthias Moon (first cousin to Henry’s grandfather and father of Lydia) One evening while in England, Heber C. Kimball and Amos Fielding, by request, stopped at the home of Matthias and Alice Plumb Moon in Penwortham, a few miles north of Eccleston. Matthias belonged to the Methodist religion, and, prior to that, the Church of England. They had nine adult children, five boys and four girls. The two Elders were kindly received by the Moon family and they had a considerable conversation on the subject of the great work of the Lord in the last days.

From the Autobiography of Heber C. Kimball, we gain the following insight into the conversion of the Moons who lived in that area: “Having an appointment to preach in the village of Wrightington, while on the way I stopped at the houses of Brothers Francis Moon and Amos Fielding, when I was informed that the family of Matthias Moon had sent a request for me to visit them, that they might have the privilege of conversing with me on the subject of the Gospel. Accordingly, Brother Amos Fielding and I paid them a visit that evening. We were kindly received by the family, and had considerable conversation on the subject of my mission to England, and the great work of the Lord in the Last Days. They listened with attention to my statements, but at the same time they appeared to be prejudiced against them. We remained in conversation until a late hour, and then returned home. On our way Brother Fielding observed that he thought our visit had been in vain, as the family seemed to have considerable prejudice. I answered, ‘be not faithless but believing; we shall yet see great effects from this visit, for I know that some of the family have received the testimony, and will shortly manifest the same; at which remark he seemed surprised…

“I returned by the way of Brother Fielding’s, with whom I again tarried for the night. The next morning I started for Preston, but when I got opposite the lane leading to Mr. Moon’s, I was forcibly led by the Spirit of the Lord to call and see them again. I therefore directed my steps to the house. On my arrival I knocked at the door. Mrs. Moon exclaimed, ‘Come in! You are welcome here! I and the lassies (meaning her daughters) have just been calling on the Lord, and praying that he would send you this way.’ She then informed me of her state of mind since I was there, and said she at first rejected my testimony, and endeavored to think lightly on the things I had advanced, but on trying to pray, the heavens seemed to be like brass over her head, and it was like iron under her feet. She did not know what was the matter, saying, ‘Certainly the man has not bewitched me has he?’ and upon inquiring she found it was the same with the lassies. They then began to reflect on the things I told them, and thinking it possible that I had told them the truth, they resolved to lay the case before the Lord, and beseech Him to give them a testimony concerning the things I had testified of. She then observed that as soon as they did so, light broke in upon their minds; they were convinced that I was a messenger of salvation; that it was the work of the Lord, and they had resolved to obey the Gospel. That evening I baptized Mr. Moon and his wife, and four of their daughters.

“The same night I went to Leyland, and stayed with Francis Moon, and the next morning I went to Preston where I stayed about three weeks with Brother Hyde. “I visited Mr. Moon again, and baptized the remainder of his family, consisting of thirteen souls, the youngest of whom was over twenty years of age. They received the Gospel as little children, and rejoiced exceedingly in its blessings. The sons were very good musicians, and the daughters excellent singers. When they united their instruments and voices in the songs of Zion, the effect was truly transporting. “Before I left England there were about thirty of that family and connection baptized, five of whom Hugh, John, Francis, William and Thomas Moon, were ordained to be fellow laborers with us in the vineyard, and I left them rejoicing in the truths they had embraced.”

Lydia Moon, the third daughter and sixth child of Matthias and Alice Moon married Henry not too long after they arrived in America. Lydia and Henry’s father, Robert, were second cousins, thus making Henry a second cousin once- removed to Lydia. Lydia’s two oldest sisters, Hannah and Dorothy, were later sealed to Heber C. Kimball in Nauvoo.

Lydia was born eight years before Henry on October 9, 1811 in the same village of Eccleston. Lydia grew up in a religious and musical family in Pentwortham. Her parents were careful in teaching their children from the Bible. Her father and mother had a custom of leaving their duties and praying to God in secret every day at noon. They called the family together night and morning for family prayer.

Henry first heard the gospel in 1838 from Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Willard Richards and Joseph Fielding. Amos Fielding baptized Henry and his sister Hannah at Chorley, England on Friday, October 12, 1838. Quite a few Moons from various families embraced this new religion. Lydia’s first-cousin, Ruth Moon Clayton, joined the church there in Penwortham prior to her husband, William, who soon became a prominent player in Mormon Church history and wrote the notable pioneer anthem “Come, Come Ye Saints”.

Lydia’s father wanted to go to America but died November 12, 1839, prior to their departure from England. The family sold all the belongings they could not take with them and made preparations to leave. Lydia’s immediate family made up the nucleus of the first emigrating Saints. Henry Moon traveled south with his cousins to Liverpool where they boarded the ship, Brittania on Saturday night, May 30, 1840. They spent Sunday aboard the ship, but went back out into the city on Monday to buy more provisions. Early Saints had to provide their own food for the trip. At Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball’s requests, Henry purchased calico for their wives in Nauvoo. Henry’s sister, Hannah, who was married and had a young son less than one year old must have remained in England.

There were at least 13 Moons on that first boat including Lydia (28) her mother and siblings, Henry (21) and some uncles. Brigham Young admonished Lydia’s brother, Hugh Moon, to keep a record of their journey. Since Henry traveled with this group, we get a good account of what Henry and Lydia experienced from Hugh’s journal entries.

Tuesday, June 2, 1840. They bought Richard Moon, [Lydia’s oldest brother] 36 yards of linen for a tent. When they returned to the ship, they found Elders Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball aboard. They had stretched a curtain across their cabin and commenced blessing the company. They bid them to walk in. They laid their hands on their heads and blessed them in the name of Jesus Christ. They showed them a map and gave them directions about the route they should take to Commerce [earlier name for Nauvoo]. Friday, June 5, 1840. They went out into the [Mersey] river about 2 o’clock.

Saturday, June 6, 1840. They were let loose in the river about 4 o’clock and set sail. The Brittania, a packet ship flying the American flag, sailed out of Liverpool harbor bound for New York. She was captained by Master Enoch Cook. Her hull was black with a white strake running the length of the vessel. Black squares were painted on this white band to denote gun turrets to any hostile crafts. The ship’s fore-topsail may have had a painted black ball, the emblem of the famous Black Ball Line. As a side note, two years later, she was lost at sea. The Britannia was very much like many other ships sailing at that time - except for one historic difference. Among her passengers, she was carrying the first organized emigrant company of Latter-day Saints. Captain/Elder John Moon (Lydia’s brother) presided over those forty-one British converts. Some accounts say forty passengers and others forty-one. The History of the Church records under Saturday, June 6, 1840, “Elder John Moon and a company of forty Saints, . . . sailed in the ship Britannia from Liverpool for New York, being the first Saints that have sailed from England for Zion.”

Sunday, June 7, 1840. Most of them were sick. Monday, June 8, 1840. They had strong and boisterous wind. Tuesday, June 9, 1840. Some of them began to be a little better. From about this time to [the following Thursday] the June 18, they had much sickness; sea sickness “flucks” – had a strong head wind. For forty-two days, the small craft pitched and rolled across the Atlantic Ocean. Travel on these ships was unpleasant and uncomfortable.

Most Saints could only afford to sleep in cheap, overcrowded spaces. Overcrowding added to the misery of seasickness, dysentery, cholera, and other diseases. Between decks, these men, women and children had no choice but to crowd together as the ship rocked back and forth day after day. These crowded conditions created a fertile environment for the spread of diseases. A ladder or steep stairs provided the only exit. During a storm, the quarters were “hatched down” to prevent water from flooding the hold. The poorly ventilated constantly rocking cabins soon filled with smoke from a few dimly lit lamps. The terrible smells from seasick passengers only added to the suffocating smoke. Buckets or chamber pots took care of personal needs if they could be reached in time. Groaning land-lovers, whining babies, crashing waves and howling winds added to the seemingly endless journey. Passengers remained hatched down until the storms ended. The 630-ton ship weathered three severe storms.

Thursday July 2, 1840. They got to the banks of Newfoundland, saw a fishing craft, and bought some fish etc. As they sailed by Long Island all covered with green trees and white houses, they were thrilled. John Moon wrote to William Clayton, “Such a beautiful sight I never saw. Yea, I thought it did pay for all the hardships which I had gone through.”

On Friday, July 17, 1840, they cast an anchor in sight of the city of New York. They stopped in the [Hudson] river two days then came to the City. These foreigners spent three additional days in quarantine before they landed, “safe and in a tolerable state of health,” in New York, according to the report that went to Brigham Young.” They stayed in New York for eight days. The group may have split up at this point and traveled a different route to Nauvoo because Hugh wrote the rest of the group started moving again on Wednesday, July 29. They took a steamboat for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They sailed two hours and fifteen minutes then took railway two hours and twenty-two minutes and then steam again. They reached Philadelphia at three o’clock and spent Wednesday evening. On Thursday, July 30, they left from Philadelphia for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After eight more days of travel, the group arrived on Thursday, August 6, about ten o’clock at night. The next day, they rented a house in Biras Town, Pittsburgh. They spent two weeks there and then, on Friday, August 21, they crossed the Allegheny River and rented a house in Allegheny City just across the river from Pittsburgh.

Six weeks later, on Friday, October 2, Thomas Moon (Lydia’s Uncle) died at twenty-five minutes past ten o’clock p.m. of bilious fever. To add disappointment to sorrow, a week after Uncle Thomas died the group was informed the waters were too low. They had to remain until spring so they went into the country to thresh grain. Their hopes of reaching Nauvoo that year were dashed. A week later on October 9, 1840 they moved out into the country about fifteen miles north of the city and rented a house in Pine Township.

Just after the New Year, Lydia lost another uncle, Henry Moon, who was seventy-one years old. He died on Tuesday, January 19. Eleven days following his death, Lydia’s brother Captain John Moon performed a marriage for Lydia and Henry on Saturday, January 30, 1841. Lydia didn’t have to change her name because both her maiden and married names were Moon.

The next spring after the weather warmed and water was in the river again, the group traveled back down into Pittsburgh. They put their things on a boat by the name of William Penn on Saturday, April 3, 1841, and started floating down the river on Sunday. They reached Wheeling, West Virginia at 6 o’clock. Three days later, on Wednesday, April 7, they touched down on the riverbanks of Cincinnati, Ohio. Five days later, on Monday, April 12, they landed at St. Louis, Missouri. From St. Louis, they took a river steamer up the Mississippi River and were thrilled to finally reach Nauvoo, Illinois on Friday, April 16, 1841 after two weeks of river travel. When Henry shook hands with the Prophet Joseph Smith, “he was convinced more than ever that Joseph was the Prophet.”

After exchanging greetings, the group probably heard the news about a new temple to be built in Nauvoo. A temple built where they could “be baptized for those who are dead.” The prophet received this revelation a few months prior to the Moons’ arrival. These words penned by Henry years later may have been some of his thoughts at that time. “I think of what I came here for. I came here to keep the commands of God, to learn His will and then do it to bless myself and my parents. Although my mother I never knew, yet I shall see to her interest. Mother died before she had a chance of obeying the gospel. She will have a chance and everyone else since the priesthood was taken from the earth. Saviors shall stand on mount Zion in the last days. The work of God will roll on. No power can stay His hand.”

The Moons went to Montrose across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo the same day they arrived. William Clayton helped them move their luggage to a log house a half-a-mile from the river. While John Moon’s company was the first to leave England, it was not the first to arrive at Nauvoo. They were actually the third group to arrive. William Clayton’s group left Liverpool on September 8, 1840 and landed in New York. They traveled up the Hudson River, crossed the Erie Canal, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan, landed in Chicago and took a boat down the Rock and Mississippi Rivers to Nauvoo. William Clayton greeted Lydia Moon’s family, so John’s group would have been the third group to arrive. Church leaders found the southern route via New Orleans to be more direct and less expensive because they could travel the whole distance by water. It became the main route after 1840.

Four days after Henry and Lydia arrived in Iowa, Henry along with his brothers-in-law, Hugh and John, went to work ditching for a man by the name of Bosher. They didn’t work long before they all got sick with ague. Lydia’s mother, Alice, “did for those who were sick while she could possibly get around.” She too had a heavy chill. She finally “gave up and took to her bed. She had a short but severe illness. She died Saturday, August 14, 1841 in Montrose, Iowa. The extremely hot humid August air must have added to their affliction and sadness.

A year later Henry and Lydia’s first child, a daughter Alice Ann, likely named after her two grandmothers, was born in Montrose, Lee County, Iowa on September 17, 1842. Her parents possibly worried over her from the beginning because she was blessed by Bishop Dabrimple the same day she was born. Her life on this earth was short lived. She died the next day on Sunday, September 18. Two years after the birth of their first child, Henry and Lydia welcomed a little baby boy on September 13, 1844, just months after the prophet Joseph and brother Hyrum were martyred. John Thomas Moon was born in Des Moines Township, Lee County, Iowa Territory west of Montrose. He was blessed in Nauvoo in 1845.

In the latter part of 1845, Hannah, Henry’s sister, with her husband John Wane and their two children, James and Margaret, came to the United States. They visited Henry and his family in the Nauvoo area. Perhaps their intent was to remain in the United States, but for some reason, they decided to return to England. Henry was disappointed when Hannah did not stay. In a letter Henry wrote to Hannah in 1858, he indicates there might have been contention with John, her husband. Henry wrote, “I must say that I have ever been sorry that I let you go back. John never had a mind of his own two hours together . . . One thing I must explain to you, sister, I wish I had not let you go back to England, I mean if you could have stopped here and felt happy. I know that to be a Latter-day Saint and not have the spirit of it is a hard case, but if we live for it we shall have it. Some may imagine that we have forgot them what we have left behind. I very often let my mind loose to think about things at home (once my home).”

Mobs continued to threaten and torment the Saints after their prophet was killed, but the members wanted to finish their temple and receive their sacred ordinances before leaving. The workers placed the vane on the Nauvoo Temple on Friday, January 30, 1846. This was the same day Henry and Lydia, in the Third Company, partook of their own Washing, Anointing and Endowment.

Three years after Thomas’ birth, Henry and Lydia’s third child, another son, Joseph Henry was born yet further into Iowa in Van Buren County, on July 30, 1847. This was four days after the first Mormon pioneers entered the Great Salt Lake Valley and seven months after Iowa attained statehood. Little Joseph was blessed by Elders John and Henry Moon, October 6, 1847 in Van Buren County.

The Moons left their home in Van Buren County in southern Iowa and started for Utah on Tuesday, May 28, 1850. It was a day after a tornado blew down the remaining north wall of the burned-out Nauvoo Temple. They also would have been very aware of the thousands of Mormons passing through the county with their animals as they moved westward. Henry packed up their two little boys, ages six and two, and left their farm, two years after Lydia’s brother Hugh had gone.

Henry and family traveled as an independent company with Lydia’s brother, John Moon, as their captain once again. Very little is recorded about their journey except a few journal entries by Henry. They crossed the Missouri River on June 21. On July 12, ten miles east of Fort Kearny, Lydia’s brother John died of cholera. Henry wrote, “This was a sorrowful time.” They passed through Laramie, Wyoming on August 13 and finally “reached the Valley of the Great Salt Lake City, October 5, 1850.”

Henry and Lydia settled in the Salt Lake City 1st Ward near her brother, Hugh Moon. Hugh lived on 700 South on the corner of 800 East. Henry also lived on 700 South between 700 and 800 East. This area was fairly close to the city center and quite densely settled by 1850. The 1st Ward was one of the original nineteen wards organized by Brigham Young on February 22, 1849.


Map of Salt Lake Moon homes


This area was famous for its flowing wells and pure water. Some thought it was the best area of the city to feel the “invigorating canyon breezes” which felt so cool and refreshing on hot summer evenings. Only a lone pine tree stood in the Valley when the pioneers arrived, so many of the homes were made from adobe bricks. Settlers tramped mud with bare feet, molded bricks and left them in the sun to bake. Henry said when he entered the Valley in 1850, “the only thing that greeted the eye was a barren sage brush plain.” He later mused, “truly the desert has blossomed as a rose and truly we have much to be thankful for.” Being a farmer, Henry started breaking up farmland so he could grow crops as soon as possible. The family lived on roots or any wild foodstuff that was palatable the first year because there was very little to eat. Later, Henry grew wheat on a 160-acre farm in the Sugar House area.

Henry married his second wife, Temperance Westwood, six years after he arrived in Salt Lake City, on March 18, 1856. Henry Moon entered into plural marriage with Temperance in the Endowment House. Henry was thirty-seven years old and Temperance sixteen. To the union between Henry and Temperance were born thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters.

The same year Temperance and Henry were married, Henry was ordained to the office of High Priest and Bishop of the Salt Lake 1st Ward. This took place on October 21, 1856 at a Bishop’s Meeting held in the Council House. His counselors were Hugh Moon and James Houston. Henry was sustained by the Saints to his new position at General Conference, April 1857.

LDS Bishops had sole responsibility for the schools in their wards and almost every ward had one. School buildings were used for both church meetings and school classes. The 1st Ward adobe school house was built soon after Henry arrived and was located on 800 East between 700 and 800 South just around the corner from Henry’s home.

Henry Moon's shed in Farmington

Temperance lived in Salt Lake for a time and then moved to a log home located at 1428 North Main on the farm Henry owned in North Farmington. The home had one large room with a shed on the north side and one enclosed bedroom for the boys. It no longer stands, but the original cellar is still there. Henry’s great-granddaughter and husband live in a home on the site today (2006). An adobe home on the west of the highway at 1199 North Main housed Temperance and the family after they moved out of the log cabin.

Henry started keeping a journal on Sunday, January 1, 1860. Almost every Sunday thereafter had an entry stating he went “for Circle Meeting and thence to the Tabernacle” to hear one of the brethren speak. (The current Tabernacle wasn’t completed until October 6, 1867.) Some of the speakers were: Brothers John Taylor, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Joseph Young, President Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, and Heber C. Kimball. On Sunday evenings, Henry attended a ward meeting held in the school house. He either taught on the subjects he had heard that day or had guest speakers. Some days he spent taking care of tithing. On the first Thursday of each month, he attended Ward fast meetings inaugurated in 1855. It looks like he attended Bishop’s meeting twice a month at night and about once a month on Saturdays he attended a Priesthood meeting. Henry also presided over the meeting organizing the first Relief Society in his ward.

He wrote that he “went north” almost weekly, meaning he traveled to his farm in Farmington where Temperance and the children lived. He took John Thomas, Lydia’s oldest son, back and forth possibly to help Temperance with the farm. A fifteen-year-old would have been a big help doing chores.

On Saturday, January 4, 1868, Henry married his third wife, Mary Ann Thayn(e) in the Salt Lake Endowment House. Mary Ann was nineteen years old and Henry forty-nine. She bore Henry nine children. Mary Ann, the firstborn of eleven children, was born in Ontario, Canada to John Johnson and Sidney Boyer Thayn(e). Mary Ann’s father, John, immigrated to Canada from Glasgow, Ayrshire, Scotland as a young man. Her mother, Sidney Boyer, was a Pennsylvania Dutch girl of German descent. Her father bought and ran a saw mill there in Iowa. After arriving in Salt Lake, he set up a saw mill in Thayne Canyon east of the city. Thayne Canyon extends south from Mill Creek Canyon not too far up from the mouth.

Henry married Mary Ann in January, welcomed Temperance’s son Henry Moroni into the world on March 22. He also bid farewell to his first wife, Lydia, who died of breast cancer on July 9 at 9:10 a.m. in Salt Lake City (age of fifty-six ) — all these events within the first seven months of 1868. Temperance helped nurse Lydia during her illness. Henry’s descendants said the three wives got along well and helped each other. Temperance told her daughter, Olive Moon Potter, that Lydia always treated her with love and kindness and was like a mother to her in teaching and helping her in many ways.


Map of Farmington Moon homes.


Henry moved from Salt Lake City to Farmington early in 1870, but his counselor Joseph Warburton wasn’t appointed Bishop until November 14 of that year. Henry owned a large fruit orchard in Farmington. Fruit trees were among the first things planted in that area. Lots of mulberry trees were planted in Farmington in 1870 west of Main Street and south of Shepherd Lane, which would have been next to Henry’s land. The LDS Church experimented with the silk making process for a number of years.

Henry was called and set apart to serve a mission to the United States, October 9, 1871. He was gone for four and one half months. During the cold winter months of 1871 and 1872, Henry served his mission in Iowa and Missouri. He returned home to Farmington, February 22, 1872. His journal records his travels during his mission.

In the Wednesday, April 10, 1872 edition of The Evening News, the fourth day of General Conference was reported. Henry Moon was the first speaker in the Tuesday afternoon session, and he said: “I was one of the missionaries who were called to go to the United States last fall. In my travels I met with Mr. David Whitmer, one of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon. What made me visit him was, I was reading the testimony of the witnesses to some people on Shoal Creek, in Caldwell County. One of them, Mr. John Lefler, was very anxious to see one of these witnesses, and to hear his testimony. I went down to Richmond with him. We got to Mr. David Whitmer’s a little after dark. I told Mr. Whitmer that I was from Utah. ‘From Utah?’ said he. ‘Yes Sir.’ ‘Well, you have a good deal of trouble, I suppose, in Utah?’ Oh, not very much, I told him. He got up from his supper and went out of the house, and I followed him. I told him I wanted to have a few moments’ talk with him. He said he had not time, he wanted to see after some horses, and his son was sick. But I hung to him, and followed him in the street, and told him that this gentlemen, Mr. Lefler, who was with me, had come from Caldwell County, to see if that which was written in the Book of Mormon — the testimony of the witnesses — was true. Mr. Whitmer turned round to the Gentleman and said: ‘God Almighty requires at my hands to bear record of the truth of the Book of Mormon. That book is a true record; it is the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, translated by the gift and power of God through Joseph Smith.’ He then talked to Mr. Lefler, who also asked him a few questions. Then Mr. Whitmer talked a little to me about Utah. I asked the gentleman if he wanted any more conversation with Mr. Whitmer? He said, ‘No,’ he was quite satisfied, and we got on to the cars and went back to Caldwell County the same evening; “I am glad that I, with my brethren, can also bear witness with regard to the truth of the Book of Mormon and the establishment of the kingdom of God upon the earth, and that this is the kingdom established through Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. I am as satisfied of it, and I know it as well as I know that I am talking to this large congregation. Amen.”

Moon Park in Farmington, Utah

The Primary was organized for the children of the church on August 25, 1878 right there in Farmington by Aurelia Spencer Rogers. Sister Rogers recorded the names of all 224 children who attended the first meeting. Temperance and Mary Ann both had children who attended this historic event. The names of Temperance’s children who attended are: Rowene, 13; Henry, 10; Edmund, 8; Philip, 6; and Mary Ann’s children: Orson, 9 and Amanda, 8.

Henry moved Mary Ann and her family to Woodland, Summit County, Utah in 1881. Henry’s second son, Joseph Henry purchased land there in Bench Creek in 1874. The family had another farm to start so the whole family — Lydia and Temperance’s children along with Mary Ann’s — worked together cutting brush and picking rocks to clear the land. Henry claimed a homestead in Woodland for the purpose of going into the stock business. His land lay along the Provo River in Summit County. It was the ideal place for cattle and sheep because of plenty of free range grass. Woodland proved to be better for ranching and timbering than farming because of its short growing season. The 6,580 foot elevation meant hard cold winters. It wasn’t rare to have the fences covered up with snow.

Getting back and forth from Farmington to Woodland was sometimes very difficult during the winter months. The first families in the area took up land claims on the south side of the Provo River called Bench Creek in Wasatch County. Before long, people lived on both sides of the river that ran down through the valley, which acted as a dividing line for the two counties of Wasatch and Summit. Woodland was a six-mile strip of farmsteads on the north side of the Provo River. The mile-wide valley provided fertile ground to raise feed for their animals. Mary Ann’s parents, John and Sidney Thayn(e), probably moved from Salt Lake to Woodland sometime during this time. Many of the same family names in the Salt Lake 1st Ward Records show up in the Woodland Ward Records. Woodland was near the forested mountains that supplied trees for John Thayn(e)’s steam saw mill and the lumber business.

When the time came for a ward to be organized in Woodland, Daniel H. Wells presided at a meeting held in a two-room cabin on Sunday, July 24, 1881. He created the new ward and suggested they name the ward “Woodland” because of all the cottonwood trees that covered the valley. Elder Wells ordained and set apart Henry to the office of Bishop. John Thomas Moon, Henry’s oldest son, and William R. Smith were sustained as his counselors.While Henry served as Bishop in Woodland, he organized the Sunday School, YMMIA, and Primary. The Relief Society was already functioning.

Moon Circle, Farmington, Utah

At one time Henry wanted to move Temperance and her family to Woodland so he could have the two families together, but Temperance was comfortable in her four room adobe home in Farmington. She loved her roses, trees and garden and couldn’t bear to leave. Even though Temperance chose to stay in Farmington, it is likely that Henry took the children back and forth from Woodland to Farmington on his various trips. Temperance’s son Phillip said in his later years, he would rather go to Woodland than Disneyland. He had very fond memories of his early adventures in Woodland.

Henry owned big orchards and lots of land in Farmington and Woodland so his children were all taught to work in their youth. There were no idle hands around the homes. Hours were never set for the children, but they worked early and late. In Woodland, the children attended school in one room log building with one teacher. Amanda said, “I think it is a wonder one did secure any education at all under the circumstances.

The Edmunds Act was passed in the U.S. Congress on March 14, 1882 aimed at trying to stop the Mormons from practicing polygamy. Polygamy was now officially against the law and U.S. Marshals were sent to arrest those breaking it. The fact that Temperance and Mary Ann lived in distant towns at that time was probably good.

Henry suffered a stroke in 1888, a year after his last baby, Nephi, was born and a year before the Manifesto was issued. The stroke rendered Henry an invalid for the last six years of his life. All Nephi remembered about his father was “he was quite feeble.” What a hardship this must have been for the two wives who still had young children in their care. No government aid such as Social Security was available to them. After Henry had the stroke, he remained in Farmington with his wife, Temperance, who nursed him. Henry Moon’s undaunted spirit finally gave up and passed from this world to the next on November 14, 1894 at the age of seventy-five. Henry was buried in the Farmington City Cemetery next to his son Franklin.

Henry told his daughter Amanda, “All my life has been spent in service for others and I am not sorry for it, for after all we get the most pleasure in doing good.” In Henry’s words, he says, “I am happy and I want you to be happy. I am for peace, rightness, happiness and every other principle that is for the happifying [sic] of the human family and to increase and grow in the knowledge of the truth and to rise until I attain to the perfect stature of a man in Christ. How can that be done? By being faithful obedient to those holding the holy priesthood, keeping the commandments of God in all things. We are only sent here on a mission. We ought to fulfill that mission aright. The old ship Zion will land us safe if we will keep on board, but a great many jump off and that is the reason they get lost. If I had jumped off when I came to New York, the captain could not have landed me safe. It is just so with those that obey the gospel.”

Written by: Maureen Moon LaPray December 1999. It can be found in the book The Family of Henry Moon: Mormon Pioneer 1819-1894.

Temperance Westwood

• Name: Temperance Westwood Moon
• Born: August 19, 1839 Bromsgrove, England
• Died: September 21, 1922 Farmington, Utah
• Related through: Erin's grandmother Margaret Udy Hanni

 Temperance Westwood, daughter of Joseph Westwood and Ann Webley, was born August 19, 1839 at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. At an early date, the family heard the gospel and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1840. The grandmother was the first to leave England, and she came to Nauvoo alone. The family never heard from her again.

Early in the year of 1849, Joseph and Ann Westwood with some brothers and their eight children walked from Bromsgrove to Liverpool to board a sailing vessel for America. Some of the family got employment on the ship. The family started out with high hopes. One of the brothers composed a song on the ship called “The Tea,” and they all enjoyed singing it. But the journey proved to be a very trying one. They were fourteen weeks on the water, and the food supply ran low. One of the brothers died and was buried at sea. The mother was ill most of the time and had to remain on deck. She was carrying her ninth child.

One day on the ship as little ten-year-old Temperance was going down the steep stairs from the deck to get a fork for her mother to whom she had taken a plate of hot food, she was knocked to the bottom of the stairs by two men with a trunk who had failed to see her. She was hurt and compelled to remain in bed for several days. The trip was unpleasant in many ways. The ship encountered storms and was driven off its course. Many weeks were required to get back on its way again. The crew said they would rather take Mormon passengers than anyone else because they never had any accidents with Saints aboard. The ship sank on its way back to Liverpool.

At the mouth of the Mississippi River, the passengers were transferred to a steamer for the trip up the river to St. Louis. There was much rejoicing and thanksgiving for their safe arrival in the new land. Little did the Westwood family know the trials that awaited them.

It was the spring of the year, and the journey up the river on the steamer was a very pleasant one. The banks of the Mississippi were covered with green grass and flowers and looked very inviting to the weary passengers who had spent fourteen weeks on the water. Every day the steamer stopped for freight. One day Joseph Westwood, after helping put the freight aboard, lingered awhile on shore and the steamer started on without him. Seeing the steamer pull away from the shore, he ran along the shore behind, tried to get the captain to stop the boat but he would not. Temperance was afraid she would never see him again. But he came up river on the next steamer and joined his family.

When they reached St. Louis, they found that an epidemic of cholera was raging. On the first day of May 1849 a little daughter, Betsy Ann, was born to the new immigrants. The next day the father, Joseph Westwood, who had contracted cholera, died. On the fourth of May, the little infant daughter died also, and two days later the mother passed away. The cholera also took another little daughter, Patience.

Seven little children were left alone in the strange country, The children were taken into different homes in St. Louis. Some were adopted and some found employment. Temperance lived with a kind woman who gave her a foster home. As a little girl in St. Louis, which, at that time, was a small frontier town, Temperance had several experiences with the Indians. At this time there was a wall around the town and the people lived inside the wall and raised their crops on the outside. Among the chores that were assigned to Temperance was the task of bringing the vegetables from the field outside the wall to the house. These trips were very unpleasant for her as she lived in mortal fear of the Indians. One day the Indians held a sham battle outside the city. To Temperance, who thought it was a real battle, it was a very harrowing experience. On another occasion a blind Indian, who had been brought to the town many times to be killed because of his blindness but had always been taken back alive, came to the house where Temperance was living with a woman and demanded bread. Being alone and frightened, she told him that she did not have any. Guided by his sense of smell, he came into the house and picked up a loaf of bread which had just been baked. With the loaf in his hand, he chased the little girl around the house in one door and out the other. He was angry because she had told him an untruth. Luckily he finally stubbed his toe and Temperance ran to the neighbors. Later several Indians came back and entered the house. The woman with whom Temperance lived hid in a closet and Temperance also attempted to hide but they were both found. With a tomahawk, one of the Indians inflicted a severe gash on the little girl’s cheek and one above her eye. She always had these scars. The woman was also injured.


Field House in St. Louis


Temperance’s older sister, Mercy Westwood, who was 16 years old, obtained employment as cook in the home of Roswell Martin Field, father of Eugene Field, the famous poet. The Field family was in good circumstances and kept a considerable establishment, living in a three-story house in one of the best residential suburbs of the city. Roswell M. Field was a lawyer of considerable local note. He became famous for his representation of Dred Scott, the slave who sued for his freedom. One day when Temperance was visiting her sister, Mrs. Field came into the kitchen and Mercy explained to her that the eleven-year-old girl must find a place to stay. “I want you to stay here, “she said to Temperance, “and take care of Eugene who is getting to be a big boy.” Little Eugene was then nine or ten months old. Later when another child, Roswell M., was born into the Field family, Temperance had the entire charge of Eugene, sleeping with him in the nursery and looking after him all day long. (The Field House in St. Louis is now a museum.)

Temperance remembered many things about her famous charge. At one time she took the child, dressed in his first little suit of clothes, to have his picture taken. The new suit was of black velvet, with a circular cloak that fell to his heels. He also had a black velvet hat with a feather to wear with it. The child was very large for his age, fair, with dark blue eyes and soft pliable light hair that was quite long for a baby. This fairness, Eugene Field kept up in later life. A newspaper story described him as “tall, slender, boyish, blonde and aggressive.”

Later, Temperance was to say of Eugene, “He seemed in spirit older than his body.” She also said that he clung to her, and that she could do anything with him. He was a good baby, large and healthy, and of a very inquiring disposition. One of his favorite tales was “Puss in Boots.” Temperance recalls particularly that in the last months of her care for him, when the child was in his fourth year, how he loved stories. Mrs. Field often gave her money to buy fairy tales to read to Eugene. These she loved as well as the little boy.

Mrs. Field was a very particular woman, insisting that the best of care must be given her children. She did not like nicknames, so the boys were called by their full names: Eugene and Roswell. Mr. Field, a lawyer, was very fond of his children and used to come to the nursery to play with his boys oftener than the nurse liked. He was a great smoker and Temperance remembers seeing him striding up and down the parlors declaiming some speech he was about to make.

In 1853, when Temperance was nearly fourteen years old, she left the Field home in St. Louis to cross the plains with her brother in the William Atkinson Company. It was with great regret that she parted with the little boy she had so learned to love. The many experiences of the strange and full life in the West caused her to lose sight of her charge, whose mother soon after died and the family was broken up. But she was to hear from him again.

The trip across the plains was a weary one for the young girl. The oxen pulled the wagon and Temperance and her brother walked until a painful stone bruise on her heel made it necessary for her to ride part of the time until it broke and healed up. The pioneer train was met by a company of soldiers who had been sent from Salt Lake. The arrival of the soldiers was a happy experience to the weary travelers. The men were so light-hearted and full of fun that they danced and showed the travelers the time of their lives. Temperance never forgot this happy experience or one of the soldiers.



Temperance Moon house in Farmington

 Upon reaching the valley, the Westwoods first went to Springville. Very soon, at the age of sixteen, Temperance was married to Henry Moon on March 18, 1856 in Salt Lake City. He was Bishop of the First Ward in Salt Lake from 1856 to 1870 and later was Bishop of the Woodland Ward. He had joined the church in 1838 and had left Liverpool June 6, 1840 with the first company of Saints to leave England and sail for America. He had married Lydia Moon, daughter of Matthias Moon, in Pennsylvania. He had gone to Nauvoo and crossed the plains in 1850. He was 20 years older than Temperance, but she was an orphan in a strange country and though young had had a great deal of experience. Henry’s first wife, Lydia, was like a mother to Temperance and, as she grew older, they were like sisters. Lydia was to die a young woman and Temperance nursed her in her illness with loving care. They lived together in Salt Lake for a time and then a farm was purchased in North Farmington and a log house was built just north of the present day meeting house. Here in one large room with a shed on the north with one enclosed bedroom for the boys, Temperance was to raise 13 children.

Shortly before Lydia’s death, Henry married Mary Ann Thayne and moved her to Woodland where he had a farm. At one time Henry wanted to move Temperance and her family to Woodland so he could have his two families together but, now comfortable in a four-room adobe home with her beloved roses and trees and garden, she felt it too much to leave. She had moved enough. In 1888 Henry suffered a stroke which rendered him an invalid for the last six years of his life. Temperance nursed him until his death on November 14, 1894.

Temperance had little opportunity for a formal education. She went to school in England until she was ten when her family left for America. There was no school for her after that but she was not uneducated. She loved to read and did a great deal of it. Her book case was full of encyclopedias, classics, fiction, periodicals, letters and clippings. She raised fruit, flowers, chickens and a garden. There was always milk, butter, cream, eggs, fruit and vegetables. She was a sweet-faced, gentle-voiced little stooped lady with snowy white hair parted in the center and combed back into a bob on the back of her head. She had a ready smile and went about her work always humming a tune and knew and sang many little English songs she had learned as a child. Most every morning she could be seen with a hoe bending over a row of lettuce or a bed of pansies. Her window sills were lined with pink geraniums and wandering Jew.

When the first Primary organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, many of her children were enrolled. The records of that first Primary showed that Rowane, Henry Moroni, Edmund and Phillip were members. The records also show that Orson, son of Mary Ann and an Armond (perhaps Amanda) were also members.

Temperance and some of her daughters and daughters-in-law.

Newspaper article about Temperance and Eugene 1910

In 1891, having read and learned to love the poems of Eugene Field, Temperance wrote to him and asked him if he were the little Eugene she had cared for and if he remembered her. He responded with warmth to her letter saying he remembered his nurse very well and inquired about her family and mutual friends. Many letters passed between them and the correspondence only terminated at his death. The following is a copy of a letter Mr. Field wrote:

Dear Mrs. Moon:
Your letter pleased me very much indeed. I send you a copy of a picture of my mother and myself—a copy of one made when I was a little baby. Please tell me whether it looks natural to you. The Pomeroy girls, Mary and Stella, are both married. Mary lives here in Chicago, and has no children. Stella lives in St. Louis and has a large family. My Aunt Belle is now a widow, living in Swanzey, N.H. She married a farmer named Angier. I married in 1875, and we have three children living, a girl of 15 and boys aged 12 and 9. We have lost two boys and one girl. My brother is married but has no children. He is one of the editors of the Kansas City Star. I shall try to send you a picture of my father if I can get a copy made of one we have. Do let me hear from you often. Your letter interested me very much. God bless you.
Ever sincerely yours,

Eugene Field
420 Fullerton Avenue, Chicago
May 13, 1891

 She said, “if he had lived, I believe he would have come to see me.” He sent her a picture with the inscription “Francis Field and her baby Eugene Field taken in 1851” and asked her to write him if she remembered it. She did and many interesting letters followed.

Temperance's youngest child, Franklin, died at the age of three, but the other twelve grew up and married and had families. She lived to see her great-great grandchild. She died September 21, 1922 at the age of 83 years.

This article was written by Helen Potter Severson, a granddaughter. It can be found in the book The Family of Henry Moon: Mormon Pioneer 1819-1894.