Henry Reynolds Watrous 1846-1923
2010
Henry Reynolds Watrous was born in 1846 in the small, farming town of Terre Haute in Henderson County, Illinois. This town is near LaHarpe and quite close to Nauvoo. Henry was the oldest child and only son born to his parents Jerome Timothy Watrous and Mary June Reynolds. However he had a half-sister named Caroline from his father’s first marriage to Olivia Burke Muse. He was named for his mother’s father Henry Reynolds, who was a pioneer to the area and who had built the first water grist mill.
Henry had a sister Sarah Rebecca and a sister named Mary Ellen Byrnes who was adopted by his parents from the Orphan Train. Henry studied law at Galesburg, Illinois and became an attorney. While in Illinois he was a Mason. In 1878 he married Edith Glendora Pancake in her parents’ home in Blandinsville, Illinois in McDonough County. In 1879, Henry got his first job as an attorney in the small prairie town of Red Oak, Iowa in Montgomery County. He moved with his wife Glendora. Their son Earl Pancake Watrous was born in Red Oak. Also with them were Henry’s parents Jerome and Mary and his sisters Sarah Rebecca and Mary Ellen Byrnes. This family is found in the same place in the census of 1880. While in Red Oak, two additional children were born to Henry and Glendora. They were Wayne and Everest. Everest Elliott Watrous is our direct ancestor. Wayne Watrous died at the age of six months of cholera. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Red Oak.
In about 1883, Henry and Glendora and their two sons Earl and Everest, moved from Iowa to Utah. They joined Glendora’s large family who had already migrated from Illinois to Utah. There interest was in mining. They invested, Henry provided the legal support and for many years Henry worked with his father-in-law Samuel C. Pancake and Glendora’s brothers and sisters. After arriving in Utah, Henry and Glendora became the parents of a fourth son. He was born in 1885 and died the same year. His name was Martin.
In 1892, Glendora and Henry divorced. Her family moved on from Utah to California. One sister went to Kansas and two sisters stayed in Utah. Henry and Glendora sent their two young sons to live with Henry’s parents in Terre Haute, Illinois. Their visit lasted two years. When their grandmother Mary June Reynolds Watrous became ill, they were returned to their parents in Utah. While they had been away, their father Henry married a woman who was the age of is oldest son Earl. She was Clara Harriett McGregor. Everest and Earl returned to live with their father. Their mother, Glendora, left Utah in 1895 for Kansas, where she took up residence with her sister Camilla Pancake Elliott and her family. Glendora lived in Kansas for twenty-five years, until her death in 1920.
After a few years, Clara divorced Henry. She cited “drunkenness and failure to provide” as the reasons. They were the same reasons Glendora had given in 1892.
Henry was prominent for many years in the newspapers of the Utah Territories. He defended many in the courts and prosecuted plural marriage claims. He and his sons went into a very aggressive mining venture which was incorporated in 1916. Their partners included the Mayor of Salt Lake City and the primary investor in the Silver King Mine in Park City, Utah. By 1920, the mine was unincorporated which was done by simply withholding the payment of taxes. A complete history of this venture has been compiled by Henry’s great-grandson Thomas Watrous and is on file at The Utah Historical Society.
Henry lived in Big Cottonwood Canyon in a mining camp for the last few years of his life. At the end of his life he became ill and lived out the last few months in the home of his son Everest. He died of meningitis, secondary to carcinoma of the face. The records of the mortuary where his body was handled have been lost. We don’t know if there was a service for Henry. He is buried in the Murray City Cemetery, Murray, Salt Lake, Utah next to his son Earl Pancake Watrous. Henry’s grave remained unmarked until 2002 when a stone was placed by family contributions.
The migration of Henry Reynolds Watrous
Illinois to Iowa to Utah