Our Grandfathers, the Remaining Two

Henry William Puzey. As with many stories of early Utah pioneers and settlers Henry's is one of trial and loss. Mormonism was not universally accepted, many families felt- or were- torn apart. Emigration always involved someone aboard a vessel and someone else on the dock. H. W. Puzey was born in South Hampton 1 June 1848 to Henry Puzey and Mary Ann Wateridge. Henry, the father had apprenticed as carriage maker and it was around the time of his marriage that he heard preaching missionaries. The family story compiled by Ila Puzey Peterson and shared by several families on ancestry.com tells that while he joined that church his family did not. Wishing to gather with the Saints he left England about 1866. His eldest son, William Henry of our story joined him approximately 3 years later, departing Liverpool, England on the steamship Minnesota in August 1869 with a group of Saints under the leadership of Marius Ensign. He also took up the carriage and wagon making trade in Salt Lake City where he met another English immigrant from Kent, Lydia Pollard. This wagoner business he took with his bride to Spring City, Utah and there they settled and began their family. William Henry became ill with pneumonia during the winter holidays of 1886 and died at home January 5, 1887. In a letter to England, this source tells, his grieving father wrote: "I traveled 120 miles through the snowy mountains to see him laid in the silent tomb in the valley of Sanpete County among the everlasting snow clad mountains...He was greatly respected among the people where he lived." Neither of these men ever saw the family remaining on the English docks again. William Henry Puzey, also called Harry, left his widow with six children 12 years and younger.

Moses Evans. I have learned least of Moses- and perhaps for that reason feel particularly earnest to account for this family; recall that it was a loss in the Evans family that finally sat me down to build and share this family story. What I do know was Moses Evans was born in the south parts of Wales in 1835. The Mormon Immigration Index in the databases at the Family History Library gives Moses, age 20, occupation of smith, immigrating with David and Ann (laborer and wife) and Sarah and John, ages 11 and 9, crossing the Atlantic aboard the ship S. Curling in 1856 and the plains with the Dan Jones company to arrive in Salt Lake 23 May 1856. After marrying Louisa Pollard the Evans home was set up on west Second South Street. Moses preceded his wife in death.