A PIONEER HISTORY OF MARK JONES
GIVEN TO HIS DAUGHTER ELEANOR BY HER REQUEST
SHE BEING A MEMBER OF SEGO LILY NO. 2.
Note: Mark Jones was born at Elley Green, England, December 5,1837. His father's name was Thomas Jones, and his mother's maiden name was Martha Rauth.
So far as is known Mark Jones was the only member of the family to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, He embraced the faith in the year 1864. He was convinced of the truthfulness of the gospel by Brother William Willis, President of the Land's End branch of the church, and was baptized by Alexander Gibson November 4, 1864.
He was united in marriage to E11en Herridge in Salt Lake City on the twenty ninth of July, 1872. The ceremony was performed by Daniel H. Wells.
List of Children as entered in the Bible of Mark Jones:
Eleanor Louisa Jones born December 31, 1874.
Arthur Jones Jr. ..............May 1, 1876.
Mark Jones Jr. ...............April 7, 1879.
Laura May..................... July 28, 1881.
Edith Maud...................· December 1, 1883.
John Henry .................... September 26, 1885.
Charles William .............. January 24, 1890.
Ethel Irene .....................March 14, 1892.
I, Mark Jones joined the church in 1864 at Plymouth, England. In 1866 I sailed out of the London docks in the old ship Caroline for New York.
We were six weeks in crossing the Atlantic Ocean. One little girl was buried at sea. We arrived in New York safely.
Sailed up the river to Wyoming. Laid around there for some time getting ready to cross the plains.[1]
We buried one of the sisters before we got to Laramie. She was sick when we left Wyoming.
When we got to Fort Steele the soldiers told Captain Chipman to keep a good lookout for the Indians as they were bad. He laughed and snickered at the officers and told them he wasn't
afraid of Indians. Two or three days after this as the teamsters unhitched the cattle, after corralling the wagons, they went into a creek to drink, There was a hedge on both sides of the ditch and as fast as the cattle drank and went out on the other side of the ditch the Indians were there and drove them off.[2]on the plains. Extract from Church Chronology by A. Jenson.
They got ninety head before the teamsters found out what was going on, and that smart aleck of a Captain was asleep in his wagon all the time, Instead of doing as the soldiers and officers told him. Then instead of' having three yoke of cattle to each wagon we had two yoke, After that the crazy fool made us walk alongside of the wagons and pack·our guns.
We arrived in Salt Lake City all right. I think it was the latter part of October. There were no railroads in Utah at that time. I worked at anything I could get to do.
That winter I built five rods of a levee to carry water across a low piece of land. This I did over Jordan where I met the girl who later became my wife.
In the spring of ‘67 I ran a sawmill up in the North Mill Creek Canyon. In the following summer I sawed all the lumber that's in the tabernacle.
The spring of '68 there was a mule train going down to Laramie after freight. I asked the boss if he would let me go down to meet the Union Pacific, for I felt sure of getting employment with the company. He said I could go if I packed wood and water for the cooks, The trip was a very rough one.
When we got to Fort Steele the old emigration road was quite a little way from the railroad. I left the train and walked across to the railroad. The boys there told me I would have to
go to Laramie. That was a hundred miles farther. I went back to the mule train again. This was in an Indian country. How many times I looked behind me to see if they were after me!
got to Laramie all right. About noon I saw a man sitting beside a small tent, I told him where I was from and that I was looking for a job. When I told him I was a locomotive engineer
he said, "You are just the man I've been looking for. Do You see those engines over there on the siding? Go over there and take charge of them. See that they are coaled up and enough wood put on the tender to fire them up." I followed this a little while. Soon I was sent out on the road as they wanted more engineers. I ran two years on freight and two years on passenger trains.
I worked out at Ophir, Tooele mines all one summer with Wm. Bath prospecting. We struck a good mine. Then I got a letter from my M. M. at Laramie. He told me if I was prepared to take an engine to inform him and he would forward me a pass.
I walked from the mines to S.L. City, forty miles that day. The city clock struck twelve, midnight as I got to the City. I sent for the pass and went back to Laramie running again.
I sold my interest in the mines to Brother Pugsley of the 19th ward. I gave a hundred dollars for a new wagon to take us out to the mines.
This is a wonderful part of my life's history to look back over. I was the oldest engineer on the Utah and Northern railway. Worked for John W. Young. We got the road constructed as far as Logan and then it was blockaded with snow. I walked back to Brigham City. Later went down to Salt Lake and got a job to run a narrow gauge engine on the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railway. Hauled passengers up to the Emma mine and hauled granite rock down for the Temple to Sandy where it was transferred to the wider gauge cars.
We moved down to Sandy to live.
Then, when the Northern road got started, I went back up there and ran on it for years.
I can't tell you on paper half of my life's history. I ran on the Utah Central and Southern and was foreman at Juab. I ran on the D.&R.G.W..
Here I am today 92 years old, alive and well, while lots of my railroad chums are dead and gone.
Well, Nellie, this is a little of my life's history but not one half of it. You may perhaps be able to glean a little out of it.
I have quit cutting lawns - going to take life easy from now on.
Note: Mark Jones was 93 years old December 5th, 1930.
He was killed by an automobile December fourteenth
1930. The accident occurred while he was on his way
to church in the Hawthorne ward, Salt Lake City.
wpd 05-11-98 by Robert C. Gutke from typed copy of Eleanor Louise Jones
[1] May 5, 1866 The ship Caroline sailed from London, England,with 389 Saints, under the presidency of Samuel Hill. It arrivedin New York June 11th, and the company continued the journey bysteamboats and railroads to Wyoming: from Church Chronology.The Caroline was evidently a sailing vessel.
[2] Sept. 15, 1866. Capt. Wm. Henry Chipman's train of immigrants,
which left Wyoming July 13th, arrived at Great Salt Lake City. About one
hundred head of cattle were stolen from this company by Indians
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