posted by Sandy on Ancestors of Thomas Watrous

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Rosella was born to goodly parents, George Morris and Hannah Maria Newberry in Nauvoo, Illinois.  George was a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints from England and Hannah was from an early New England family who had also joined the Mormon Church.   Rosella was the third child and third daughter born to her parents.  She eventually was one of 12 children.  When she was just two weeks old, her family began the trek across the plains to Utah.  Her mother Hannah was ill and had to care for three small children including new baby Rozella.  When they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they spent some time camped under the overturned wagon bed before Rosella’s father George built an adobe house on their lot across from Temple Square.  Her father George was a stone mason who worked on the construction of The Salt Lake Temple.

When Rosella was 19 she married Lucius Peck.  It was an unhappy marriage from the start and was annulled within the first year.  Three years later, in 1870, Rosella married John Jenkins.  John had come to Utah with his parents and two siblings, also as converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.  They became the parents of 7 children including our direct ancestor Mary Maria Jenkins Watrous, wife of Everest Elliott Watrous.  Rosella was a teacher in the community of Pleasant Green where she lived with her family.   The town is known today as Magna.

At an older age, Rosella fell from a ladder and injured her arm.  It later had to be amputated at the shoulder.  She died at the home of her daughter Ada and was buried in the Pleasant Green Cemetery atop the hill overlooking the valley.  She is next to her husband John Jenkins.  Surrounding her in various burial plots are other members of her family.

The migration of Rosella Newberry Morris Peck Jenkins

Illinois to Utah

Tags: illinois, Jenkins, Morris, Newberry, Peck, the mormon church, utah, Watrous