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HISTORY OF MARTHA Ann Tidswell Stockdale Gower by her daughter, Louisa May Gower Condie, 15 Apr 1940

The parents of my mother, Martha Ann Tidswell Stockdale Gower, were Richard Tidswell, born August 18, 1773 and Mercy Tidswell,

born July 1, 1781. They were married January 20, 1810. To them were born the following children:

Abraham born December 29, 1811 Thomas born January 25, 1813 Elizabeth born May 24, 1815 (Betty) Richard born April 23, 1817 Mercy born February 7, 1823 Martha Ann born November 1, 1826

From records mother kept we find she was born in the village of Northourn in Yorkshire, England on Sir Closons estate.

There is little mention of what the family did except that Abraham made patterns for-cloth and that Thomas taught dancing and other members worked in the mills. However, we know mother was an expert seamstress, a trade which she likely learned while at home.

When she heard the Latter Day Saint missionaries preach she believed their teachings and joined the church in her nineteenth year. Three years later she married John Stockdale, another LDS convert and together they sailed for America hoping to gather with the saints in Zion.

They landed at New Orleans but before they could go on John Stockdale, the young husband contracted cholera and died, leaving mother, a stranger in a strange land.

Broken by sorrow she became an easy victim to typhus feaver, a disease common to that climate, and ' would likely have passed to the great beyond had it not been for the kindness of a dear lady, Mrs. Martin, who took her into her home and gave her every care the private doctors and nurses could give.

It was some time before she regained her normal health, but when she did, she wanted to pay for the care she had received, so tried to do it with sewing as all sewing was done by hand., It was a long and tiresome task.

A real friendship grew up between the women, causing Mrs. Martin to ask mother to go with her to Paris, then return and spend the rest of her life with her as her heir, mother thanked her but said she must go on to Utah.

During her sickness she had been unable to write to her people in England and by the time her letter reached them, her sister, Mercy, was ready to leave for America to find what the trouble was. On receiving the letter, telling of so much trouble, her brother wrote Informing her that Mercy was coming and pleading with her to come back to her own people. (His letter follows).

With a few other LDS members mother sailed up the Mississippi River to St. Louis and was there when her sister reached America.

In the Company in which Mercy came to America were Thomas Gower, his wife and three children.

("Argo" shipping list states: Tidswell, Mercy age 25 from Bradford, England)

Shortly after reaching St. Louis, Thomas Gower's wife and two children died of cholera, leaving himself and his 6 year old daughter, Ann. Trouble draws people together, and so a friendship was formed between Thomas Gower and Martha Ann, which culminated in marriage November 4, 1850.

They remained some time in St. Louis and there their first son, hn Thomas was born October 15, 1851. Their second son Joseph was born Breman, near St. Louis May 21, 1854. He died May 23, 1854.

At that time a Company was getting ready to leave Council Bluffs for Utah. Mother and father with their daughter Ann and son John, joined that Company. They bought an outfit consisting of a wagon, four oxen, two cows and other equipment necessary for the trip.

The Company was a large one so was divided into groups. The group in which mother and father travelled was lead by Joseph Fielding.

The story of that caravan was similar to many others. Many hardships were endured, much suffering from fear, sickness, hunger and sorrow at loss of dear ones. Yet there was ever-present a faithwhich pushed them on.

As was customary, the wagons were placed in a circle as a protection against Indians but a few lives were lost in battles against them and a few cattle joined the stampeding buffalo. Buffalo were dreaded as much as the warring Indians. As the group travelled by day, thousands of buffalo could be seen on the prairie. One could have walked on their backs for miles if such a thing could have been done, and at times when all but the guards were asleep in camp, they were suddenly awakened by the stampeding buffalo. The earth would shake with the weight of their mighty bodies as they bellowed onward.

Father became very sick so mother not only had to meet her own problems, but must care for him along with driving and caring for the oxen. They arrived in Salt Lake City, in the fall of 18-54, foot-sore and weary from the long journey.

Mother's sister, Mrs. William (Elizabeth) Turpin, had preceded her to Utah and was living at West Jordan. There she was invited to live and did so until her third son Albert Francis was born April 12, 1855.

During the summer they were called to help settle Cedar City. They arrived here in the fall of 1855. They stayed in the Old Fort for some time and then secured the land where the Old Home still stands at 193 North 1st West in Cedar City, Utah. They lived in a wagon box until a house was built. At first it was only possible to get enough lumber to cover part of the house, the remainder being covered with willows and straw. At first food here was scarce and they did not have enough to satisfy them. Bran bread was often used and they were glad for wild honey, preserves made from wild berries and from melon rinds and molasses made from carrots.

They had to use cotton-wood ashes instead of lye for softening the wash water. The tops of rabbit brush and copperass found in the canyon were used as dye for cloth, much of which was woven by the pioneer women.

Father was sent to Long Valley on a peace mission. It seemed almost impossible to make peace with the Indians and many of them were continually going on the war Path. It was quite common for them, if they knew father was away from home to walk in most any time of the day and demand provisions. Even though mother had so little for her own growing family she dared not refuse. *********

(Martha Ann Tidswell Gower was -baptized 29 June 1845 in England and was endowed and sealed to her husband in the Endowment House 3 Nov 1857)

She became the mother of eight more children:

Betsy Ann, born may 26, 18.57, Died June 2, 1857 Jane Elizabeth, born May 12, 18-58. Martha Ann, born April 30, 1860. Died August 29, 1860. Mary Isabell, born January 16, 1862. Katherine Keturah, born November 27, 1863.

*Charolotte born November 3, 1865. Horace Tidswell, born December 18, 1867. Louisa May born May 31, 1870.

In the last years of her life she was afflicted with rhumatism and was an invalid until her death in June 1908, in Cedar City, Utah. At the time there were five children still living.

Mother always remained steadfast in her belief as to the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and died without one regret for the 'sacrifices she had made for the sake of her religion.

DESERET EVENING NEWS Tues. June 9 1 1908

Cedar City ----- "PIONEER GOES TO HER REST"

Mrs. Martha Gower closes life's labors in her 82nd year.

Spec. Corresp. Cedar C. Iron Co. June 4

Mrs. Martha Gower of this place died today in her 82nd yr., being survived by 5 of her 11 children, 4 daughters and one son.

Mrs. Gower was born Nov. 1, 1826 in Northourn, England, baptized in 1845. Married John Stockdale Sept. 17, 1848 and left for America on the first day of the month. Coming as far as St. Louis where Mr. Stockdale died in 1849. The hear following she was married to Thomas Gower, coming to Utah shortly after. They were among the first settlers of Iron County and participated in the hardships of the pioneers. She has been a widow for 30 years and was ever devoted LDS

(copied by C. Lenore Sly Waite, Apr. 8, 1963 from microfilmed copy of newspaper in the Church Historian's Office in S.L. C., Utah) _______________________________________________________________________

THE FOLLOWING IS A COPY OF A LETTER TO MARTHA ANN TIDSWELL STOCKDALE GOWER FROM HER BROTHER ABRAHAM TIDSWELL IN ENGLAND Dec 30, 1849

To Mrs. Stockdale Kingston, Halifax Yorkshire, England December 30, 1849.

Dear Sister:

Your letter of the twentieth of November last came to England on the 18 of this month, having been only twenty-four days in coming. We had anxiously expected a letter from you long before. We are not surprized at John's death. We feared it had happened to you both. The climate of New Orleans is very unhealthy and so is all the southern states to the Europeans.

I will not give you an account of how we all are. Our father is not now living. He died on the twenty-first of last August and was burried at the old Halifax Church. Sister Mercy had made preparations for going to; America before we got your letter and had she gone before it came she would not have looked for you in New Orleans, as we had heard that you were at St. Louis. She expects to set sail from Liverpool on the sixth of January next in the ship Argo, bound for New Orleans and expects arriving in the beginning of March. She wishes that you will be looking out for her, and you must prepare yourself for going to St. Louis. Mercy says you need not trouble yourself about the money as she is prepared for that.

Now we will tell you how we are getting on in this old world. Brother Thomas is but in middeling health. The family are pretty well. The children are all growing bigger and have begun to go to Crossleys Mill as spinners, where their father works. Brother Richard and his wife Ann, axe in good health. They have five children; all well and growing. -As for myself, I have had a very dangerous sickness, and a narrow escape from death; but an now as well as I have been since you went off.

If Mercy finds you she will give all particulars, about it. Sarah is very well. She goes to the mill to stamp cards. The children both go to the Church School and they will give you a specimen of their writing in this letter.

We received a letter from William Turpin only a few weeks after you left us. It was wrote at different times and places, in their route from Nauvoo to Council Bluffs in Iowa. The letter was posted at Kain postoffice in the last named state. Its date was June 25, 1848. It stated that the Mormons had been driven from Nauvoo for a month or two, and that they wintered at Bonaparte, where Betty was confined of a daughter which died when ten days old, and that Joseph died the day after the latter was born. They had had the ague, both Betty and him two or three times, which he says is a dreadful complaint, and that it went hard with her, she being in the family way.

He says that it was 270 miles from Bonaparte to Council Bluffs, and that they got a big field or rather a share in one which he cultivated, and got one crop from it. They then removed from Homis nation to the other side of the River. And that Betty had had poor health in winter quarters. They were now living in the immediate vicinity of the Indians. There Mary had some trade-with them.

They had there two acres of spring wheat, three acres of corn, and a good garden with peas and beans, potatoes and all useful vegetables and a cow with two heifers, four calves and hens and chickens. They were all well at that time and expected a good crop; and they intended going to the Salt Lake Valley the following spring. I have now given you the substance of his letter, which does not contain one word from our sister Betty; nor does William give any account by which we might judge of the state of her mind. From this I conclude that she is much the same as she was when she left England. Ever since he arrived in America he has been within the territories of the United States and any letter posted there is almost sure of reaching this country, and yet has only wrote two.

We wish to know the reason why you cannot write every six months, at least. There axe people who write from the United States to their friends in this country every month. Is it owing to a scarcity of money to pay the postage, or what is it? We want to know.

In your letter you advised sister Mercy if she still be a saint to come to this country and that God will bless her. Now let us consider what are blessings. I understand that by blessings are meant not only plenty of food and clothing, a good house to protect us from inclemeny of the seasons, and a country where we can live without the fear of being robbed, murdered or taken captive; where we can go out by day or night without the fear of being stung, by surpents or being devoured by wild beasts; where we can profess any religion or profess no religion, without being materially molested or persecuted and where the climate is congenial to our constitutions; and alas if we should happen anything in the way of sickness, or a limb broken, or out of joint, there are men near at hand who can in a great many cases cure them. I say not only these things are meant by blessings, but a great many others such as the society of relations and friends and all those we hold dear.

Now I leave you to consider what are the opposite to blessings. I fear that Mercy will 'Lind the opposite of these things. I have told her again and again that her constitution would not bear the climate of America, and that supplication and prayer are of no avail nor in the laying on of hands, no none whatever, disease and death are subject to unalterable laws. You wish that your brother may embrace the truth. I believe we do embrace what appears to us to be true. But before we believe what the Mormons say is truth we have a right to demand evidence in support of it as clear as that day appears with the rising of the sun and that night comes after his setting. Do you read my letter that you took with you? Did John give a satisfactory reply to all that was in it? But should your brothers embrace Mormonism what would be the woe it would occasion to their families; no one can tell. But it certainly would be a greater misfortune than any that has yet befallen them. You were more excusable than they would be. Your connection with John altered the case. But it has brought upon you a mountain of grief. The saints of Bradford now say if John had been there he might have died, why you might as well say that if Sister Betty and William had been here they might have had the ague and have burried their two children, but those who are deluded by Mormonism are easily deluded other ways. If any of the saints were slain in battle or shipwrecked the Elders would have no difficulty in persuading them that they might have died if they had been at home. When William went, Nauvoo was to be the gathering place of the saints. There they were to build a new Jerusalem, where Christ was to come down and reign. That in twelve years the world was to be destroyed and not the cunning of their leaders have seen fit to alter it. Oh! my sister that you could forsake this delusion. It is but a plan of selfish, ambitious, and heartless men who care nothing for their brethern so that they can make them the stepping stone to honor, wealth and power. It is no wonder that you should be deceived. History abounds with such instances. Systems of fanaticism axe now forgot. The news of your misery has much distressed us but we cannot help you and we would rather have known of it than not known. We wish you would have Put all in your letter and not been afraid to let us know everything. I hope when Mercy writes, she will let us know what you have omitted.

Your niece, Emma Tidswell, writes this:

I am very sorry that your dear husband is dead. If you had stayed in Bradford he might have been alive now. It would be better if you were to come back to Bradford. Pray never forget me as long as you live. I have been very sick but I have got better.

Your niece Elizabeth write this:

I should be very glad if you will send me a little of your hair and I should be more glad still to see you in our dear land again. If you want to come and cannot raise the money send us word.

Now you see how anxious my daughters are that you should come back.You would find blessings more plentiful here than in America. I hope you will consider not to go to California for there are more dangers there than you know of. What would you do if Sister Mercy should die on the way. I am not endeavoring to alarm you but I am giving you a warning which if you will take heed to will save you from more misery, but when religion teaches you to desert father and mother, brother and sister. It is of no use to advise. The scriptures are quoted, and you say you must obey God rather than man. Oh! how mistaken you are. It is man only whom you obey when you think that you are obeying God. I will as far as I know obey the institutions of nature and by so doing I am more certain that I am obeying God than you are who only obey that which man says, nevertheless if you are resolute of going forward I wish you success with All my heart. But that will do you no good, when you write you

must not try to make a letter with as little bad news as possible, but let us know all, both bad and good. My Aunt Betty is desirous to hear again from you before she dies. I will conclude and bid you adieu.

Your affectionate brother Abraham Tidswell

P.S. It is now the sixteenth of January 1850 and I think I have put in all that will be of any use and I fear more. Let that be as it may, I fear this letter will never find you. The directions are not as full as they should be.

To Mrs. Stogden (Stockdale) in care of Charles A. Jacobs, New Orleans, America

(The diary of John Stockdale is on file in the B.Y.U. Gen. Library Special Collections)