Personal Letters of William Talbot

I was recently on the Church's new Family Search genealogy website.  The website has many new features including pictures and stories.  These new additions have made sharing information with other family members easier.  I was excited to find on William Talbot's personal page, some personal letters that had been written to him by his parents and other relatives.  William's parents had also joined the Church before William left England.  You can tell by reading their letters that they had considerable faith.  The letters give you a glimpse of how difficult it must have been to leave your family and homeland behind and travel thousands of miles away from them.  They didn't hear from each other for months and years.  They never saw each other again, although one letter expressed hope that William would soon return home to England to serve a mission.  The letters give news of the family in England including the deaths of his parents and how they died.  They also express sorrow about the death of William and Charlotte's 8 month old son who died a couple of days after they arrived in St. Louis.  I think it is wonderful that someone saved the letters for so many years and that they shared them with the rest of William and Charlotte's descendants on this website.

Letters on Family Search:

Letter dated 19 December 1854  to William Talbot from his father, Thomas Talbot while William and family were in Liverpool before they sailed to America.

Letter dated 15 January 1855 to William from his father written just 2 days before William and family started their voyage to America.

Letter dated 21 May 1855 to William written by Harriet Talbot in behalf of William's father while William and family were in St. Louis and after baby Mark had died.

Letter dated 31 March 1856 to William from his mother announcing the death of William's father.  William and family were living in Salt Lake at the time.

Letter dated 28 October 1856 to William from his mother. William and family were living in Parowan.

Letter dated 1 April 1863 to William from his brother, John.  Written by John's wife, Harriat announcing the death of William's mother.

Another item added to William's page was that his birth name was William Robert Talbot.

If you are interested in viewing these letters, click on this Link to Family Search.  

William Talbot - Grandfather of Isabell Church Cooper

I recently obtained a very long history on the life of William Talbot.  I wrote a blog entry about his wife, Charlotte Emily Newman Talbot, but I had not written about William Talbot's life except his involvement in the Quilt Walk.  I was very excited to obtain this long history because it includes events of his early years and his conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Wiliam Talbot was born on September 21, 1825 in the village of Ashmonsworth, England to Thomas and Lydia Skull Talbot.  His father was a very strict, devout and religious man, and taught his children to believe and read the Bible.  When William was a small boy, his father would make him stay in the house and read the Bible on a Sunday afternoon, rather than let him go out of doors and play with the other boys, which he resented very much.  He left his father's home and went to work for a man named Bradford, in the district of Kingsclear.  Bradford was very mean and used to beat him very severely for a mere nothing.  Later in the year he worked for a Mr. Thomas Higgs whom he liked very well and who said many times he was the best boy he ever had.

Though he had been taught to read the Bible and thought it was good, after getting away from his strict father, he did not read it very much and took up the pleasures of the world.  He would rather go and get a pot or two of beer and sit and sing until a late hour, and sometimes he got pretty drunk.

In the year 1848, he believed a great deal through the prayers of his father, it pleased the Lord to bring him to his senses, by making him very ill with typhoid fever.  When he was stricken with the fever, he weighed nearly 200 lbs, and was very strong.   In a short time, he was brought down to a mere skeleton and was afraid his bones were going to come through his skin.  He was as helpless as a baby and had to be lifted in and out of bed.  He then realized what a poor weak mortal he was, and that he was not fit to die.  The doctor said it was impossible for him to recover, and his friends thought he would surely die.  But he said he still had a spark of faith in the Almighty, and with what little strength he possessed, he prayed to his Heavenly Father with all the earnestness of his soul to be restored to health.  He promised the Lord if He would be so merciful, he would serve Him all the days of his life.  The Lord heard his humble petition and answered his prayer.  He was restored to health and said he never again had any desire for the pleasures of the world.  His greatest desire was to serve the Lord with all his heart.  He was so terribly weak from having the fever, it took a long time to gain his strength, but as soon as he was able to sit up, he began to read the Bible with a prayerful heart.

He said that he soon decided that if the Bible was to be a guide for people, very few were guided by it.  He believed the Bible to be a divine record, and if we believed that, we ought to live by it.  In the New Testament, he read Paul's epistles to the Ephesians that there is to be one body, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.  William found by going to the different churches that they all had a different form of worship, a different faith, a different baptism, and many of them didn't believe in baptism at all.  Many of them had a different concept of God.  He felt very badly upon discovering all these things, and he was bout to give up in despair.

The day of January 27, 1850 was a day he would never forget.  He was living about a mile from the town of Gospert, Hants, England.  It was a Sunday, and he had prayed very earnestly to his Father in Heaven that He would give satisfaction to his soul that day, and his prayers were answered.  After breakfast, he and a boy about 14 years old went to Gospert.  Shortly after entering the town, they saw a newly printed poster on a large door which opened into an alley.  The sign advertised that the Latter-Day Saints had a meeting room in the alley and that both priest and people were invited to come and hear the gospel preached as it was preached by Jesus and his Apostles.  He was struck with amazement, because he had heard that this people denied the Bible altogether and professed to have a new Bible that some fellow in America had dug up under a rock.  He had heard many bad tales about them, and to think that they could preach the gospel as Jesus and his Apostles, and deny the Bible seemed preposterous to him.

He turned away and walked about a half mile through the town and entered a meeting house of another sect.  He never knew what sect it was, because as he entered it, the Spirit of the Lord whispered and told him to go and listen to the Latter-Day Saints.  He ran back with all of the speed he could muster for fear he would miss the commencement.  He was however, in time and instead of hearing from a new Bible, he heard the gospel preached as recorded in the New Testament.  He was promised if he would embrace it, he should know of himself if it was of God or not, and if he was a true believer, the same signs would follow him as did the former Saints.

He said that he embraced it all with his heart and could boldly testify that he did know of a surety that it was the work of God.  He said that during his life he saw the sick healed by the anointing of oil and the prayer of faith and laying-on of hands.  He saw many other things which he considered miracles.  He was baptized on February 18, 1850.

He married Charlotte Emily Newman on October 12, 1850.  Charlotte did not yet belong to the Church.  Shortly after their marriage, she was taken ill and dreamed if she was not baptized that very day she would die.  Charlotte told her husband about her dream and he related it to Elder Ward.  After dark that night the two men carried her some distance to a beautiful little lake and there baptized her.  When she came out of the water, she was instantly healed and walked in her wet clothes to Brother Ward's home several miles away.  There she changed her clothes, ate a good supper and walked home.  She never had a cause to doubt the gospel she had embraced. They remained in their native land until the year 1854.  In December of that year they sailed for America.  They sailed from Liverpool with their two small children, Orson and Mark.

The British Saints had been scheduled to sail to America on the ship “Helios” which was set to sail from Liverpool on November 23, 1854.  During the night there was a storm and the ship was damaged when a small ship called a ‘brig’ collided with the “Helios” breaking the ship’s bulwarks.  The passengers had to find lodging until they could board another ship.  They spent about two months in Liverpool with poor living conditions and a scanty diet until the health of many people had deteriorated.  They finally left Liverpool on January 17, 1855 on a clipper ship, the “Charles Buck” with 403 members of the Church. 

Many of the members of the Church were coming to America with the aid of the Church's Perpetual Immigration Fund, the debt being worked off by the recipient once they arrived.  The Church would charter ships for large groups of church members and would stock the ship with provisions for those people.  The provisions stocked on the "Helios" had been described as "excellent and unusually comfortable and a liberal amount."  When they had to leave the "Helios," the provisions were withheld from them by the captain of the ship.  He instead provided them with raw oatmeal, course biscuit, a little rice and flour.  After sailing for about six weeks they began to run out of supplies and the passengers were placed on short allowance of provisions.  This was two weeks before their arrival in New Orleans.  For several days many of the Saints had nothing to eat but oatmeal cakes or porridge, and for three days only two quarts of water was served out to each passenger.  The Talbot history describes the trip as a very rough voyage with much storm.  During this ocean voyage Charlotte and her infant child were very sick.  She was not able to sit up or take care of her baby.

After a very long and trying voyage they landed in St. Louis on the morning of March 14, 1855.  Orson turned three years old the day they landed in St. Louis.  A few days after landing the baby (8 mos), Mark died.  The Saints were very kind and helpful during their journey and also during their sorrowing days in St. Louis.  William then became very ill which prevented them from continuing their journey to Salt Lake.  Many of the passengers of the ship came down with cholera.  They were not in very good condition after having to spend several months in poor living conditions in Liverpool, then without sufficient nutrition on their voyage.  Their weakened physical state probably left them vulnerable to the cholera.  The Saints continued to be kind and helpful to the Talbots which they were more than thankful for.  They felt that on their departure from St. Louis, they were leaving many good, kind, friends, and their kindness was never forgotten.

As soon as possible they started, to cross the plains with an ox team and met many obstacles along the way.  When they arrived in Fort Bridger, nearly everything they owned was burned.  Can you imagine this loss; losing all they owned after all the previous trials of the journey? 


They arrived in Salt Lake in the fall of 1855, the year of the cricket menace, when there was but little raised to sustain life.  Roots were dug to eat and to pay rent.  William spent three days trying to spend fifteen cents for something to eat, but could not get anything.  Heber C. Kimball had a little flour which he rationed out as far as it would go.  Families received a cup of flour a day.


In the year of 1856 they were called to Parowan, Iron County, whey they farmed for a Bishop William Darne.  A small house was built in March, 1857, this was their first home since leaving England.  Daughter Lydia was born on March 19, 1857.  Another daughter was born in Parowan.  Rhoda Jane was born on August 26, 1858 and died two days later on the 28^th. 

William and Charlotte must have made the trip to Salt Lake to do their temple work, because records show that they were endowed and sealed on October 15, 1859 in the Endowment House.

In the fall of 1860, a call came for them to settle Dixie.  Charlotte had just given birth to Thomas on March 6 of that year.  They willingly left their little home and obeyed the call.  Stores were very scarce in those days, so when traveling, William would make a torch out of bark.  He would get a lot of cedar bark about two feet long and wrap it tightly with other bark.  Just before starting, he would light one end of the torch, carry and swing it all day, and at night, would light the fire and then put out the torch until time to start again in the morning.  Matches were also scarce, so he sometimes used two flints which he could rub together to start a fire.

At the beginning of the journey the weather was good, but on reaching Hamilton Fort, it started to rain and continued raining for days.  The water was so thick it was like mud.  Their drinking water had to be hauled for some distance which was no easy task.  The children suffered much at times for a drink.  The rain subsided after a few days and the journey was continued as far as Kanarra where it again began to rain so hard that it was impossible to travel down the Black Ridge, so the family remained in Kanarra for the winter.


Spring came with Charlotte in poor health.  William wrote a letter to the First Presidency of the Church telling them their condition and asked if they still wished them to go on.  The answer was no, that they had made the sacrifice and was now at liberty to settle where it suited them best.


The family went back as far as Cedar City, Iron County, and lived there for a short time.  Their son, William, was born on June 16, 1862.  Afterwards they moved to Summit, Iron County where their last daughter, Charlotte Emily (our ancestor) was born on Jan 4, 1864.

In March 1864, they were called with a company of others to settle Panguitch which was then a part of Iron County.  When they arrived in Paragonah, they were told that the Indians were on the war path so people were not allowed to travel over Bear Valley without a company.  They had a week layover in Paragonah waiting for a company of people to form.  They continued their journey and upon arriving in Panguitch, they found the people in very poor circumstances.  The first year was cold and crops froze before reaching maturity.  They had very little flour.  Wheat was boiled and also pig weeds.  Wheat was ground between two flat stones to make mush.  Charlotte had a few potatoes which she divided with her neighbors.  Some of the children were so hungry, they would get the potato peelings out of the pig's swill buckets and eat them.  There was very little food raised the first year and not too much the second year.
 

The winter of 1864-65 was extremely cold and the snow was deep.  The nearest settlements to obtain supplies were either 115 miles to the north in Gunnison, or 40 miles west over Bear Valley.  Seven men volunteered to go to Parowan to get flour and food for the starving colony.  The seven men were:  William Talbot, Alexander Matheson, Thomas Richards, Jesse Lowder, John Butler, Thomas Adair, and John Paul Smith.

The snow was so deep; they had to abandon their 2 yoke of oxen and light wagon at the head of Bear Valley.  They proceeded on foot often breaking through the snow's crust.  The story told in a journal by Alexander Matheson says that the men held a prayer circle.  They were kneeling on quilts on the snow when they discovered that they did not sink into the snow.  The men put one quilt down on the snow and walked to the end of it.  Then they would place another quilt down and retrieve the first quilt.  In doing this relay, the men made it over the mountain to Parowan and obtained flour to take home to the starving settlers.  The return trip was even harder because they had to carry the supplies back over the mountain. 

The following information was recorded by Alexander Matheson:  "We decided that if we had faith as big as a mustard seed, we could make it and bring flour to our staving families.  So we began the quilt-laying in prayerful earnestness.  The return trip was harder with the weight of the flour, but we finally made it to our wagon and oxen and on the way home with thankfulness to the Lord for his goodness.  The whole settlement welcomed us, because we had been gone longer than expected.  There had been prayers, tears, and fears which turned to rejoicing and cheers."  William was 39 years old at the time of the "Quilt Walk."

The "Quilt Walk" Memorial Bronze statue In Panguitch

More trouble began with the Indians in the area, and it was not long until the people had to leave their crops and all that had been done to settle Panguitch.  The settlement was abandoned in 1866. 
    

A call came to go to Circleville to help strengthen that settlement.  The meeting house was given to William for his quarters.  A number of families lived together there.  They only stayed in Circleville one week.  A number of families were going to Parowan with their grists to the flour mill.  William and his family went with them where they stayed that summer.  They then moved to Beaver where they lived until 1879.


They must have lived in Escalante, Utah at some point because the 1880 US Census says that they lived there with three  of their children:  Thomas (20), William (18), and Charlotte (16).

Once again they moved back to Panguitch and lived there the remainder of their days.  William and Charlotte Talbot were the parents of seven children, two died in infancy.   William was a farmer all his life.  The Quilt Walk Memorial in Panguitch also states that he was a wagon maker.  They had a home in Panguitch and a farm.  It is presumed that they lived on the farm during the summer months and moved into town for winter.  William wrote many letters to relatives and friends in England trying to convert them to the Church.  His parents had joined the Church before he left England.  He was a devout Latter-Day Saint and preached many a fine sermon in his letters.


Charlotte Emily Newman died on December 15, 1892.  Charlotte's obituary says that she suffered from paralysis for over 40 years before she passed away.  William died six months later on June 16, 1893.  They are both buried in the Panguitch Cemetery.  

Picture courtesy of Linda Olsen on FindaGrave