THE PARKINSONS, WOODWARDS, THIRKELLS DARLEYS in 1880 Wellsville, Cache Co., Utah> by K. Dixit, March 2003 (updated July 2004)

Continued from Census Journey 12 (which dealt with the 1870 census)...

In 1880, Wellsville�fs population was about 1,200 people, forming 211 small family units, with about 110 different surnames.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Papa Charley�fs family -- the Darleys and Thirkells

Family nos. 28 and 29 (living in one house) -- Papa Charley�fs family and grandparents. This is the family that Papa Charley was born into, just 4 months later. Expecting a new baby:

Visit my Flickr site to see photos - follow the link on my home page.  Also, see more photos at Pages-by-Kathy.com (click scrapbook)

In this census, William F. Darley is described as a farmer. Perhaps he and his sons had already begun the Darley Dairy that they set up in Sardine Canyon. According to the Darley book (p. 29):

�gThis was quite an extensive project, employing a group of young people to help milk the cows, and to help make butter and cheese, which was hauled to Ogden, Utah, and sold for about nine cents a pound.�h

Sons William H., Thomas, John, George, and Frederick were all part of the Darley Dairy as young men. Both George and Frederick fell in love with and married girls who worked on the dairy farm.

On page 375 of the Darley book, Papa Charley describes his family's activities:

In the Darley book he describes his childhood in much greater detail, and with great personality and humor.

In addition to the siblings appearing in the 1880 census, Papa Charley would have 2 younger sisters, Sara and Elizabeth.

---------------------------------------------

Family no. 48 -- Papa Charley's eldest brother, now with a family of his own:

Catherine�fs parents had come from Wales. Their son William O. Darley had been born the previous October. Though one year older, he was Papa Charley�fs nephew. He was William F. and Jemima Darley�fs first grandchild, of about 54 altogether.

---------------------------------------------

Family no. 125 -- Jemima Darley�fs younger sister, Caroline Thirkell Mitton: her children were first cousins of Papa Charley. Several of the children have names which come from the Thirkell family John, Mary, Emily, and Ann.

See Mitton family website, in particular the section entitled "MITTON, EDWIN CROWTHER / THIRKELL, CAROLINE"

Caroline Thirkell was the middle daughter of the five who had traveled with John and Mary Thirkell from England to the U.S. on the ship �gEllen Maria�h in 1853. The 2 littlest sisters, Mary and Rebecca, later died on the long overland journey to Utah, and eldest sister Sarah Ann married John Pool and stayed in Grantsville, Tooele County. Jemima and Caroline went with their parents on to Wellsville. Little sisters Emily and Henrietta were both born in Utah, but Henrietta died as a young child. There is a photo of the 4 surviving sisters, Sarah Ann, Jemima, Caroline and Emily Alice, as grown women, in the Darley book on page 39. The photo looks like it may have been taken around 1880, the time of this census.

at Pages-by-Kathy.com

Jemima�fs little sister, Emily Thirkell Baugh (later beloved in Wellsville as �gAunt Emily�h) seems to be missing from Wellsville in this census. She should have been about 25, and had been widowed 3 years before (with no children). Perhaps she was staying with her eldest sister Sarah Ann Pool in Grantsville, or elsewhere?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ma Pearlie�fs family -- the Parkinsons and Woodwards

Family nos. 41 and 43 -- the Parkinson brothers, Timothy and Henry (born in Holcombe, Lancashire, England). Parkinson has been misspelled �gParkingson�h. Timothy was my great-great -grandfather Henry�fs elder brother. His children were Ma Pearlie's first cousins:

Two houses away is my great-great-grandparents' family, still five years before Ma Pearlie's birth. One more brother, Leroy, would be born before my great-grandma Sylvia Pearl came along.  My direct ancestors are in bold type:

• See family group record for Henry Parkinson and Betsy Barnes Woodward

Uncle Timothy Parkinson seems to have given up freighting, and is shown as a farmer. According to the Parkinson book, Henry later also gave up freighting in favor of farming, after an accident.

Uncle Timothy Parkinson�fs first wife, Maria (Mariah) did not have any children of her own. Ellen Parkinson, age 13, was actually Timothy�fs niece (daughter of elder brother Charles Parkinson of Grantsville). The other 4 children shown were Timothy�fs children with his second wife, Jean Leishman Greer. The two parts of the family worked together as one unit. Jean Leishman Greer does not seem to appear in this census. Perhaps she was visiting elsewhere at the time.

Ma Pearlie�fs older brother Chauncy Parkinson, here age 1, is mentioned several times in Ma Pearlie�fs story of her childhood in the Parkinson book. He was quite adventurous, and always up to something. They called him �gChance�h. He was quite dashing looking, as were the other Parkinson boys. The 5 Parkinson girls were also very adventurous, stylish, and beautiful. Their pictures and biographies are all in the Parkinson book.

The four more children yet to be born into Henry and Betsy Parkinson�fs family were:

Leroy, Sylvia Pearl, Ross (the younger brother with whom Ma Pearlie became inseparable after their mother died), and baby Bessie, who died before the age of 1 year.

Ma Pearlie gives a lovely description of her childhood in the Parkinson book. Just one part, from page 342:

�gEvery Sunday if I wasn�ft sick or the weather wasn�ft too bad, I walked a mile to town to go to Sunday School. I had to walk that same mile every day to school and sometimes the snow was as high as the fence posts. My first school was a one-room rock house but later they built a larger one with several rooms. One year I lived with my sister, Mattie, in Pocatello, Idaho and went to school. I think my parents were afraid they would lose me in a snow drift, I was so small.�h

-----------------------------------------------

Elsewhere in Wellsville, find Henry Parkinson�fs other (plural) wife, Agnes Archibald Kerr, with their 4 children (Ma Pearlie�fs half siblings):

Family no. 74: Henry Parkinson�fs second wife and their children

• See family group record for Henry Parkinson and Agnes Archibald Kerr

According to the Parkinson book, Agnes and Henry later parted, and Agnes married Peter McBride.

Little Sarah Ann, Charles, and Amos were most likely named after siblings of their father, Henry Parkinson. Sarah Ann was Henry�fs elder sister, who had died in Omaha Nebraska, and Amos was his little brother, who had died as a baby in England. Henry�fs elder brother Charles lived in Grantsville. David would have been named after Agnes�fs father, David Kerr.

Agnes Archibald Kerr and her parents, David Kerr and Agnes Archibald, were part of the Archibald, Kerr and Murray family of Wellsville, from Scotland. Two more members of this family were Alexander Archibald and David Murray, found below as husbands of the Woodward twins. Our family also had several other marriage links to this Scottish family. Letters, photos, and information about the Archibald, Kerr and Murray family can be found on Lana Archibald's website, Archibald - Our Family Tree.

---------------------------------------------

Family no. 98 -- Ma Pearlie�fs grandfather, family patriarch Timothy Parkinson:

Martha Parkinson was Timothy�fs third wife, who according to the Parkinson book was born in 1811, in North Carolina. He was shown living with her in the 1860 census, but living with his 4^th wife, Rebecca, in the 1870 census. Here in 1880, he is living with Martha again. Martha Harville Bickmore was the widow of Isaac Bickmore.  Isaac had died before the Bickmore family completed their journey to Utah. Sometime after reaching Utah with her children, Martha married Timothy Parkinson, who had lost his first wife in England and his second wife shortly after arrival in Utah.  In the 1860 census, Martha and two teenage sons (who kept the surname Bickmore) were part of Timothy Parkinson's family. Another child of Martha and Isaac Bickmore was Sarah Elizabeth Bickmore, the mother of Polly Ann Gunnell, who married John Thirkell Darley (Papa Charley's older brother). More information on Martha Harville Bickmore is found on the website of Linda Smith, a Bickmore descendant.

The Parkinson book says about Grandfather Timothy Parkinson (p. 11):

�gGrandchildren of Timothy remember that one of his arms was missing. Apparently, he had been carrying a gun and it discharged, shooting off his arm about four inches from the shoulder. Legend has it that there were two apple trees south of the granery on his property in Wellsville, and his arm is supposed to be buried in a box under one of these trees. When the wind blew and it stormed, Timothy is said to have complained about his shoulder aching and paining. Timothy Parkinson died October 20, 1891 in Wellsville, Utah. Following his death, his home was sold to Daniel H. Maughan.�h

Family no. 209 -- Betsy Barnes Woodward Parkinson�fs younger sister, Martha Woodward Murray (Margaret's twin, and married to Alexander Archibald's first cousin)

Ma Pearlie�fs twin aunts, Margaret and Martha (here 25 years old), were found in the 1870 census both at home, age 15.  In the 1860 census, they were shown at home, age 5.

The twins Martha and Margaret Woodward were married to a pair of cousins from Scotland, David Murray and Alexander Russell Archibald. The Darleys also had at least 3 marriage links with this Scottish family.

The cousins David and Alexander (David was 5 years older) each had three wives, but they were not plural wives:  David and Alexander both endured the tragedy of seeing their first and second wives die, in succession, but each finally found more lasting happiness with his third wife.

David Murray was the first to marry, but suffered the loss of his first two wives and all three of their babies within five years. In the meantime, his younger cousin Alexander had begun his first marriage, to Margaret Ellen Woodward. They are shown here in the 1880 census, with their first two children.

David, who had experienced so much sadness, must have been impressed by his cousin�fs bride, because he chose her twin sister to be his third wife. He and Martha Jane Woodward were married, and are shown together here in the 1880 census. Though sadness did continue, with four of their seven children dying as infants, David finally found some lasting happiness with Martha and had three healthy children (David, Joseph, and Milton). David Murray died in 1913, and Martha Jane Woodward in 1931.

In the meantime, younger cousin Alexander Archibald and his first wife, Margaret Ellen Woodward, had 6 children, all healthy (one lived until 1985). All six were given names from the Archibald and Woodward families:  Martha, Alexander, Thomas, Joseph, Margaret, and Elizabeth. They thus managed to fit in the names of the children�fs parents, mother�fs twin sister, and all four grandparents. They had a full and healthy family, but sadly, Margaret herself died in 1891, when her youngest child was only 1 and a half years old.

Alexander had two more wives, also named Margaret. He and Margaret Stuart (Bradshaw) had two children. Their first child died as a newborn, but little Christina was healthy, making a total of 7 children in the family. Sadly, Margaret Stuart also died, in 1896.

Alexander�fs third wife was Margaret Spence. He married her in 1898, and she lived a long life, outliving him, and gave him 5 more healthy children (so that he had a total of 12 surviving children).  Alexander Russell Archibald died in 1919, and Margaret Spence in 1955.

Nearly all the Woodward children are accounted for (Betsy, Joseph, Rachel, Margaret and Martha) in this 1880 census. Missing are the one or two younger boys, Hyrum and James(?) ... James appeared as a son in the 1870 census but is not found elsewhere, and is not on the www.familysearch.org website as a Woodward child. A descendent of Hyrum Woodward reports that she was always told that Hyrum was the youngest of the Woodward family -- so the existence of the youngest son James is further called into question.

Hyrum would have been 23 in 1880, and perhaps had moved elsewhere to work. Hyrum Barnes Woodward and his nephew, Hyrum Woodward Maughan (Rachel's son, found above at age 7) eventually married two sisters, Mary Agnes and Eliza Snedden Adamson, and lived near each other in the towns of Aetna and Kimball, Alberta, Canada.

----------------------------------------

In this census we have found the number of young Darley, Thirkell, Woodward and Parkinson descendants growing, but the elder generation who had brought their families from England were still going strong - grandparents Margaret and Joseph Woodward, ages 65 and 69; grandfather Timothy Parkinson, age 73; and grandparents John and Mary Thirkell, age 65.

The 1890 Census does not exist anymore, as it was burned in a fire many years ago. So now we will have to skip to 1900. Twenty years will have passed, it will be a new century, and the only people still living who remember the old life in England will be Jemima Thirkell Darley and Henry Parkinson (who were both age 11 when they left England in 1853 on the same ship, the "Ellen Maria", bound for New Orleans). In 1900 we will hope to find their children, Charles Darley, age 19, and Sylvia Pearl Parkinson, nearly 15.

"Until I became a young lady and served him a piece of fresh lemon pie, he hadn't paid much attention to me."