John Sant was born to Abel Sant and Margaret Bayley in England. He was the seventh of twelve children born to his parents. When John was just ten years of age, his father was convicted of having a file in his lunch pail and sentenced to the prison ship which traveled to Australia. This method of creating a prison population to do the work of the new colony was common in John’s day. Abel was required to stay away from England for seven years. One can imagine how heartbreaking it must have been for this father and for his wife and the twelve children he left behind. In fact, Abel Sant died in Picton, New South Wales without ever returning to England or seeing his wife and children again. The one exception was an adult son who traveled to see his father and was successful.
When John was twenty he met and married Mary Shaw. They, too, became the parents of twelve children. When John was walking home from work one day, where he had been hauling goods on a side canal of a large river, he met two missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. The gave John their message and he is said to have told them that “this is what I have been waiting for all of my life”. He studied their message and was baptized. Mary took a little longer to join him but eventually did as did their children. The family made an “America Box” where they saved money for their trip to America. They sacrificed in every way possible but still, it took five years for them to make the journey. John would later tell his posterity that before leaving England he had a dream wherein he saw his eventual home and his posterity. He said that after the dream he was not discouraged but encouraged to try harder to find the money to make the trip.
The family sailed in 1860, leaving behind two married daughters. One, Elizabeth Sant Winterbottom is our direct ancestor. Her ancestral summary shares her experiences and her migrations. It took the Sant family five months to travel from England to Smithfield, Utah. From there they went to Bloomington, Idaho in 1863 where they lived in a dugout for the first year. In 1869 they moved to Oxford, Idaho and in 1870 to Clifton, Idaho where they lived the remainder of their lives. John and his sons owned 500 acres of land which they farmed together. They built schools, a church and roads. Most of the family lived and died in the community of Clifton.
John and Mary Sant are buried in the Clifton City Cemetery, surrounded by almost one hundred grave stones of members of their family. Photographs of the grave stones in the Clifton Cemetery are in our personal file.
The migration of John Sant
England to Utah to Idaho
John Thompson Barker was born in England to Thomas Barker and Elizabeth Thompson. He was the eighth of thirteen children which were seven girls and six boys. Five of the children died in infancy and one, a brother died at the age of twenty-seven. In 1856, at the age of 18, John and his family heard the gospel from the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. All of the family who were above the eligible age of eight were baptized except for John’s father who was the last to be baptized. John emigrated from England to America in 1861 along with 620 other new converts to the Church. He arrived in Salt Lake City in 1862. He first worked on construction of the Salt Lake Temple by hauling granite from Little Cottonwood Canyon by wagon. Then, he worked in Tooele, Utah where he met his future wife Jane Pickett. They met at a dance and after a courtship of six years were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.
John and his wife Jane were among those asked to colonize the Bear Lake Valley along with Charles C. Rich. They cleared sagebrush and began their lives in the town of St. Charles, Idaho which is about eight miles from the Utah-Idaho border. John saved his money and was able to send it to his family in England. Only one sibling had come to America to date. That was his older sister Mary Ann, whose husband and young daughter died on the crossing from England to America. He paid for the emigration of his parents, five sisters and a brother. They all settled in the area of St. Charles, Idaho where the family farmed and worked and paid the money back to John.
John and Jane were the parents of eleven children. Six girls and five boys. The youngest daughter Clara Lzina Barker is our direct ancestor. She married Justin Gerald Pugmire who was also among the early colonizing families of the Bear Lake Valley in the town of Fish Haven, Idaho. The children of John Thompson Barker who have talked and written about him agree that he was a kind, hard-working and faithful man. John and his wife Jane are buried in the St. Charles Cemetery in St. Charles, Idaho.
The migration of John Thompson Barker
England to Utah to Idaho
Jonathan Pugmire was born in England to Jonathan Pugmire and Hannah Hetherington. He appears to have been their only child. During his childhood he was raised by his mother and a step-father named Thomas Coulthard. Jonathan went by his step-father’s name when he was young. We don’t know if his father died or if his parents divorced. In 1820 he married Elizabeth Barnes. They became the parents of 10 children. Our ancestor Joseph Hyrum is child number five.
Jonathan was a blacksmith by trade. His services were always in demand and he had little trouble working. In 1841, Jonathan and his family heard the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints preach the Gospel. They and their children who were over the age of eight, were baptized in the river. In 1844, Jonathan and his family migrated along with other Saints to America. They traveled from New Orleans to Nauvoo, Illinois where Jonathan worked on the construction of the Nauvoo Temple and worked as a blacksmith preparing wagons for the trek to The Valley of the Great Salt Lake. As persecution increased around Nauvoo, Jonathan moved his family across the Mississippi River to Montrose, Iowa at the insistence of his wife Elizabeth. He bought a small farm where his family lived for only a short time. By 1846, he and his family were at Winter Quarters in what is Florence, Nebraska . . . waiting for the spring so that they could move on. While there, hundreds of men, women and children died because of disease, poor rations and poor shelter. Among the dead was Jonathan’s wife Elizabeth. Before leaving Nebraska for Utah, Jonathan married Mary Baylis Haywood. After a journey of three months, the Jonathan Pugmire family arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September of 1847. They lived the first winter in the fort and the next year built a house in the 7th Ward.
Brigham Young called Jonathan and his family to go to the “Iron Mission” which was centered in Cedar City, Utah. There, Jonathan worked as a blacksmith and at the Deseret Iron Works. In 1858, after 8 years in Cedar City, Jonathan moved back to Salt Lake City. His wife Mary died in 1861. He later married Elizabeth South, who was the cousin of his deceased wife Mary. She was his companion for the rest of his life.
Jonathan Pugmire was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. His original grave stone was washed away during a flood and a new stone put in its place. The stone carries a small plaque which is reserved for those pioneers who were part of the original 1847 group. He is our direct ancestor through his son Joseph Hyrum whose son was Justin whose son was Justin Gerald Pugmire.
The migration of Jonathan Pugmire
England to Illinois to Iowa to Utah
Maria Susannah Merrick was born in England to James Merrick and Mary Vaux. Her life story has been somewhat difficult to tell. That is because for many years, from the time she came to America until just two years ago, the written history of her life contained incorrect information. We have corrected the record in our own files but have found others reluctant to do so. This is why:
Maria was born at Windsor Castle. That is not disputed. But, rather than her father James working as the Head Steward of the Castle and her mother acting as a Lady-in-Waiting as had been written, her father was a servant and her mother did not have the distinction of any connection to royalty as a servant or otherwise. Maria was the fifth child of ten born to her parents. The history written about her suggests that she grew up with all of the luxuries afforded “those in high standing” at the castle. This means we don’t know the manner in which she grew up. We know that by the time of is death, James Merrick was caring for his crippled wife and a daughter in much the same condition.
Maria became the governess for John Maddison. John was married to Georgiana Curtis and together they were the parents of two daughters. The existing history states that Maria became a governess and met John Maddison after the death of his wife. Actually, John’s wife was very much alive and remained so for many, many years. John Maddison also remained married to his first wife, Georgiana until her death . . . and that is very important to know.
Sometime before 1833, when Maria’s first child was born, John Maddison set up residence with Maria Susannah Merrick. They became the parents of four children; two sons and two daughters. The sons and one daughter grew to maturity. One daughter died as a child. Census records in Marylebone, England tell us that Maria went by the name of Fanny. By the time her last child was born, her relationship with John Maddison was over. He had taken up residence with Christina Stewart with whom he would have several children. On his deathbed, after the death of long time wife Georgiana Curtis Maddison, John married Christina Stewart. When John Maddison died, he left a Will. In it he called the children of Maria Merrick his “so-called children” and left them only a token of his money.
Maria and her children heard the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and were baptized by Orson Pratt. The written family story tells us that her “husband John objected but gave her money for her travel to America with her children.” The written family story further states that Maria and her children had to keep their associations with the Church secret because John did not approve. The truth is that Maria and John had not been together for several years when she heard the Gospel and sought baptism. Neither were they therefore together when she and her children left for America. These and other points of error created a story which was interesting but was not representative of the facts. While one can understand why the stories were created, it is frustrating to try to unravel them. A complete research document including a timeline for her life and the lives of John Maddison and her children is in our personal file. Rather than re-state the information here, we refer you to it.
When Maria and her three children, John, Flora and Hubert arrived in America they made their way to Utah. There, in 1852 she married William Thorne who was also from England and had emigrated to Utah as a convert to the same church. They became the mother of two sons named Joseph and William. When she died, she was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery with her husband. Her second child and oldest daughter Flora Louisa Maddison is our direct ancestor. Flora married Henry Maiben as his second wife and shared him with first wife Caroline Penn. Their daughter, also named Flora, married Nephi James Bates and their daughter Mildred married Everest Raymond Watrous.
The migration of Maria Susannah Merrick (Maddison) Thorn
England to Utah
Joseph Hyrum Pugmire was born in Liverpool, England to parents Jonathan Pugmire and Elizabeth Barnes. He was the fifth child of ten born to his parents. His parents joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints in their native Raughton Head, England and were waiting in Liverpool for their trip across the ocean to America when Joseph was born. He was named for two special people; Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration and his brother Hyrum Smith, the Patriarch. Joseph’s family made it to Nauvoo, Illinois where they enjoyed the company of the Saints and those with common beliefs. As the persecution increased against the Mormons, Joseph tells us in his journal that his mother was distressed and wanted to leave Nauvoo as soon as possible. Joseph was baptized on the road between Nauvoo and Council Bluffs during the family’s migration in 1847. They were outfitted with others preparing for the trek of 1000 miles to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake and made their journey in the group which became known in Utah history as “the 1847 pioneers”. When the family arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they lived on roots for many months and did not have bread for eight weeks.
In 1855, Joseph married Eleanor Creighton in Cedar City, Iron County, Utah. Eleanor was a convert to the church as well and was a native of Ireland. Joseph and Eleanor became the parents of 11 children. The 6th child, Justin, is our direct ancestor. Joseph’s migrations took him and his family back and forth through the states of Utah and Idaho. They lived in:
- Parowan, Utah
- Cedar City, Utah
- Fillmore, Utah
- St. Charles, Idaho
- Evanston, Wyoming
- Randolph, Utah
- Laketown, Utah
- Fish Haven, Idaho
- Rexburg, Idaho
In 1887, after the death of his wife earlier in the decade, Joseph married Martha Ashworth. They became the parents of six children. Joseph died in Salem, Fremont County, Idaho and was buried there. Joseph has significant posterity to the present day.
The migration of Joseph Hyrum Pugmire
England to Illinois to Iowa to Utah to Idaho to Wyoming to Utah to Idaho
Justin Gerald Pugmire was born to Justin Pugmire and Hannah Elizabeth Winterbottom in Fish Haven, Bear Lake County, Idaho. He was the oldest child and son of 13 children born to his parents. In 1912 he married Clara Lzina Barker who was from St. Charles, Idaho. They lived for a time in the Bear Lake Valley before moving to Midvale, Utah. Justin and Clara became the parents of 9 children. Two daughters died upon their births but 7 children lived to adulthood and indeed three children still survive.
Justin was a kind and quiet man according to his children. He was a hard working man who took good care of his homes and properties. His work history began with work in the Steel Mill in Midvale, Utah where he and his brother Thomas lived next door to each other with their families, and after it closed he worked at the Sugar Factory. He spent time as a sheepherder in the mountains and during World War II he worked for the newly formed WPA. He worked for the Utah State Road Commission, keeping the canyons outside of Salt Lake City plowed and accessible during the winter.
Justin was a lifelong democrat. While a democrat Governor was in place all was well. When a republican Governor was elected, Justin and all state workers who were democrats were fired. He then worked for the construction company Linden and Stam. He injured his back during work one day and was not able to return. He died of an unexpected heart attack at the young age of 57 while diving across a room to save a baby granddaughter from being burned on a floor furnace. I was the granddaughter. He left behind his widow Clara and a significant posterity to the present day.
Justin’s funeral was in the 29th Ward Chapel on 3rd North and 10th West in Salt Lake City, Utah. His sons carried the furniture out of Justin’s home onto the lawn so that his casket could be brought into the room for friends and family to pay their last respects. Then, the mortuary drove the casket one block to the church. Justin Gerald Pugmire is buried in the Midvale City Cemetery, Midvale, Salt Lake, Utah next to his beloved wife Clara and his two daughters Clara and Fawn.
The migration of Justin Gerald Pugmire
Idaho to Utah
Nephi James Bates was born to Nephi James Bates and Sarah Sprague in Fillmore, Millard County, Utah. He was the second child and first son of 12 children born to his parents. His personal journal has been preserved and tells us much more about him. In 1901 he married Flora Louise Maiben in the Manti Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. Flora’s uncle Elder John Bray Maiben married them. Nephi tells us that he did not use the designation of junior after his name but that his father did use the designation of senior. Thus it was a little easier to distinguish between the two men in writing.
After his marriage and while his children were small, he went to Denver, Colorado to study the law. In 1907 he was admitted to the Utah Bar and began a long career in his chosen profession. He served as a private attorney, a city attorney, a county attorney, a district attorney and as a district judge. He also served as the President of the Sevier County Board of Education. He was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and freely gave of his time, money and talents.
Nephi and Flora became the parents of seven children; one son and six daughters. One daughter, Irene, died at the age of one and is buried in the Provo City Cemetery. The rest of Nephi’s children lived to adulthood and in fac tinto old age. Nephi died of a heart attack while working on his farm in Monroe, Utah. Our direct line through Nephi James Bates comes through his daughter Mildred who married Everest Raymond Watrous. Nephi and Flora Bates have significant posterity to the present day.
The migration of Nephi James Bates
Utah
Nephi James Bates was born to Mary Ann Jones Jacaway and James Bates. Nephi’s mother was a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and was living in the city of New Orleans at the time of James’ birth. She had children from her first marriage to Fields Jacaway, who had died an untimely death. The story is that when Nephi was about 18 months of age, his father James left New Orleans for St. Louis to find work. There, he contracted cholera in the great epidemic of 1849 and died. There is no record of James Bates outside of the memory of Mary Ann Jones Jacaway Bates. There is no formal record of his death nor of Nephi James Bates’ birth.
In 1850, just months after the death of James Bates, Mary Ann Jones married Thomas Davies. Together, Mary Ann and her children from her first marriage and Nephi whose father was James Bates and Thomas Davies and his children joined the Saints in the Utah Valley. There, Mary Ann gave birth to three more children whose father was Thomas Davies. All of the children became the children of Thomas Davies in the religious and temporal sense.
As a young boy Nephi was known as Jamie. As a child he contracted measles which negatively affected his eyesight throughout his life. He was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints at the age of eight and remained a faithful member until his death. He was a musician and a poet. In 1870 he married Sarah Sprague, the daughter of Ithamer Sprague and Sarah Stedwell. Ithamer was from a New England family of Spragues who could be traced to the original three brothers who came to America in the early 1600s. Nephi and Sarah became the parents of 12 children. Ten years after his marriage to Sarah, he took a second wife named Sarah Ann Collings. Nephi and his second wife became the parents of four children.
Nephi became a Telegraph Operator after studying at the Fillmore Telegraph Office in Fillmore, Millard County, Utah. His first job in this line of work was in the town of Toquerville, in Washington County, Utah. His salary was $50 per month. Later, he was moved the the Monroe Telegraphy Office in Sevier County near the city of Richfield. In 1885, Nephi, along with 48 other men was arrested and imprisoned for having more than one wife at the same time. He spent three months in the penitentiary and was responsible for court costs. His personal journal survives and gives a more detailed account of his life and trials than is found in this summary.
His marriages to both Sarah Sprague and Sarah Ann Collings ended in divorce. In his old age, in the year of 1906, he married a widow named Julia Ellen King. She had daughters from her first marriage who took care of Nephi in his last years. While Nephi James Bates is buried in Idaho, the grave stone for his first wife Sarah Sprague Bates includes the information that he was her husband and that he is not buried with her, but in the Shelton City Cemetery in Rigby, Idaho. She is buried in the Monroe City Cemetery, Monroe, Sevier County, Utah.
Nephi lived during a very difficult time in the establishment of settlements in the Salt Lake Valley. He had a personal memory of the days when the crickets came in black clouds and covered the crops. After all of the settler’s efforts had failed to protect their crops, the seagulls came. Also in black clouds. Not known to ever eat crickets, they swooped down and devoured the crickets. They flew away from the fields and regurgitated the crickets and flew back for more. This continued until the crickets were gone. He also lived through and remembered the worries about the advance of Johnston’s Army which was sent by the government to take charge of the new settlements. He remembered the panic of the people when they learned about the advance and the preparations they made to abandon the city and burn it.
While Nephi did not give his son Nephi James Bates 1875-1958 a “junior” designation after his name, it is often used to distinguish between the two men. Nephi James Bates has significant posterity to the present day through both wives named Sarah. Our ancestral line is through his first wife Sarah Sprague and his son Nephi James Bates Junior who married Flora Louise Maiben.
The migration of Nephi James Bates
Louisiana to Utah to Idaho
Jerome Timothy Watrous was born to Timothy Watrous and Mary Rowley in what would become Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. His father Timothy, along with many others, migrated from various places but primarily from Connecticut to Ohio. There, Timothy Watrous bought a large piece of land. Just a few months short of Jerome’s birth, his father Timothy died. His mother Mary was left to care for Jerome’s two older half-brothers who were also his cousins. His father Timothy had first been married to Mabel Rowley, his mother’s sister. After Mabel’s death, his father married Mabel’s sister Mary Rowley and together Timothy, his sons William and Samuel and his new wife Mary made the trek to Ohio.
Jerome’s mother re-married a very prominent man named Dr. Rufus Richardson. Mary Rowley Watrous Richardson gave birth to two daughters, Julia and Olivia. When Jerome was just eight years of age, his mother Mary died. When his step-father re-married Jemima Gittings, she did not want to raise Jerome. He was moved to her brother’s family to be raised. Thus Benjamin Gittings was the person who raised our ancestor Jerome Timothy Watrous.
When Jerome became an adult, he married Olivia Burke Muse in Ohio. They had one daughter named Caroline Malone Watrous. In 1843, Jerome and Olivia in the company of the man who had raised him, Benjamin Gittings, and his step-father Dr. Rufus Richardson left Ohio for Illinois. They settled in the area of what is today Terre Haute, Lomax, and LaHarpe. These towns are about 12 miles from Nauvoo.
Jerome’s wife Olivia died. He then married our direct ancestor Mary June Reynolds in 1844 who raised his daughter Caroline as her own. Jerome and Mary became the parents of three children and one adopted child. They were Lydia Viola who died of cholera at age four, direct ancestor Henry Reynolds Watrous and a daughter Sarah Rebecca Watrous who married Clarence R. Gittings . . . a descendant of the Benjamin Gittings who had raised Jerome.
Jerome was a surveyor, a teacher and a farmer. When his son Henry got his first job as an attorney, Jerome and his family moved with Henry and his wife Glendora to Red Oak, Iowa. When Henry moved on to Utah, Jerome and Mary spent some time in Nebraska before moving back to their home town of Terre Haute in Henderson County, Illinois.
Jerome and Mary adopted a soldier’s orphan named Mary Ellen Byrnes. They raised her as their own and gave her many opportunities for learning music, art and for education.
After the death of his wife Mary, Jerome sometimes lived with his daughter Caroline Moline Watrous Schillinger in Moline, Illinois and sometimes with his daughter Sarah Rebecca Watrous Gittings in her home on the same property where his house had once stood. It was property Jerome had sold to his son-in-law. When he died, his funeral was held in the United Methodist Church in Terre Haute. He is buried in the Terre Haute City Cemetery with many members of his wife’s family. An original marker is over his resting place. Also prominent is a large marker with the surnames Watrous and Reynolds carved into it.
The migration of Jerome Timothy Watrous
Ohio to Illinois to Iowa to Nebraska to Illinois
Martin Kern Schillinger was the third child of four born to Albert Jerome Schillinger and Margaret Conley. His brother Lowell died as a child, sister Lois as a young adult while his younger brother Thomas lived until 2003. Martin’s grandparents were Martin Schillinger who was born in Germany and migrated to the United States and Caroline Malone Watrous. Caroline was the oldest daughter of our direct ancestor Jerome Timothy Watrous and his first wife Olivia Burke Muse. Martin married Thelma Bolton about 1920. They became the parents of three daughters and one son. Through the generosity of the descendants of Martin we were able to complete many of the Schillinger lines to the present day both with vital statistics and photographs. Martin’s obituary is in our personal file.
The migration of Martin Kern Schillinger
Illinois