Mary Maria Jenkins Watrous 1885-1929
2010
Mary Maria Jenkins was born to Rosella Newberry Morris and John Jenkins in the town of Pleasant Green, Utah. Her father was a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and her mother the child of recent converts from New England. Mary was the sixth child of seven born to her parents. At the age of sixteen she married Everest Elliott Watrous who was not a member of her church and who had come to Utah as a child with his parents Henry Reynolds Watrous and Edith Glendora Pancake. Mary and Everest spent a lot of time in the mountains of Utah pursuing various mining interests. Mary and Everest were the parents of three sons. They were Mervyn, Wayne and Everest Raymond. The youngest, Everest Raymond Watrous is our direct ancestor.
From all accounts Mary was an interesting person and quite a free spirit. She cooked for dozens of miners at a time and lived in the solitude of the mountains during the summer months. Once her children were old enough for school, the family bought a home in Salt Lake City. Mary had a number of interesting jobs in her short lifetime. She worked for JG McDonald Chocolates, the Hudson Bay Fur Company and as a booking agent for the child prodigy Little Sousa, Raymond Baird.
She spent the last eighteen months of her life at the home of her son Mervyn in California. She died at the age of 44 of various ailments secondary to diabetes. Her body was prepared in California and shipped by rail to Utah. We have found no record of an obituary in the local newspapers or of a funeral although the mortuary who received her body and arranged her burial is still in business and has public records. Mary was buried in The Salt Lake City Cemetery and her grave marked with what appears to be a homemade grave stone. Mary has significant posterity to the present day. All are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints as were her parents and siblings.
The migration of Mary Maria Jenkins Watrous
Utah to Idaho to Utah to California