Mary Ann Ellis Watkins (1857-1882)
A photo can be found here:
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/9006643?cid=mem_copy
Mary Ann Ellis (daughter of Mary Ann Emmett Ellis and John Gregory Ellis) was born on 6 March 1857, grew up in Ogden Utah, and married a young man five years her senior, Joseph Hyrum Watkins (b. 13 August 1851) who, at age 11, had emigrated from England and settled in Ogden with his parents.
She decided to marry him in a polygamous marriage. Both she and Mary Ann Doxey (b. 28 August 1856, in Ogden) were married and sealed to him on 30 April 1879 when she was almost 22 years old and Mary Ann Doxey was about 6 months older.
Interestingly, both young Mary Anns (Mary Ann Ellis and Mary Ann Doxey) are recorded as having received their endowment in the Endowment house on the same day, as seventeen year olds, on 17 August 1874 and they served together in the Mutual Improvement Association of Ogden, Mary Ann Doxey serving as 2nd assistant and Mary Ann Ellis as secretary. It seems likely that they knew each other fairly well and family lore indicates that they were good friends.
On October 8, 1879, Joseph Watkins was called on a colonizing mission to Arizona. Selling all his property for a team, wagon, and outfit, and in company with Mary Ann Doxey Watkins, he left Ogden the 4th of November 1879, and settled in St. Johns, Arizona. Mary Ann Ellis Watkins remained in Ogden in her parents’ home, where she appears in the 1880 census.
In 1880 the Ellises also received news of the birth and death of a first child, a little girl, born to Mary Ann Doxey Watkins in St. Johns. In early 1881 they received news of the birth of a son to Mary Ann Doxey Watkins there as well. And Mary Ann Ellis Watkins traveled to St. Johns with her cousin, Thomas Samuel Browning, arriving there in April of that year. News came to her parents thereafter that Mary Ann Ellis Watkins was expecting her first child.
That same year, Mary Ann Ellis Watkins's father, John Ellis, was called to serve as a missionary to England and departed for that service on 11 October 1881, leaving his wife, Mary Ann Emmett Ellis at home with their son John Gregory (age 22) and their daughter Elizabeth (age 20).
Three months later after his departure, on 16 January 1882, Mary Ann Ellis Watkins and her newborn son, born three months premature and named George Alma Watkins, both died from complications of childbirth in St. Johns. The news was devastating to her mother, and her father’s mission diary reflects his deep grief when the news finally reached him in England.
Joseph Hyrum Watkins was released from his mission to St. Johns five months later, in June of 1882, due to ill health, and he and his other wife, Mary Ann Doxey Watkins, returned to live in Ogden. Twelve more children were born to them in Ogden between 1883 and 1903.
Joseph and his family lived in Ogden for the next 31 years. He was a cabinetmaker by trade and for 21 of those 31 years he worked with his brother-in-law, John Gregory Ellis, in his electric planing mill.
Sources
Alter, J. Cecil, History of Utah, The Storied Domain, A Documentary History of Utah’s Eventual Career , Volume 2, “Biography: Thomas Samuel Browning; Ogden, Weber Co., Utah”, The American Historical Society, Inc., 1932, http://files.usgwarchives.net/ut/state/bios/alter/b/browning-thomassamuel.txt Browning,
Betseylee, “Emmigration [sic] of the Emmett family to America”, http://betseylee-emmettfamily.blogspot.com/2009/02/emmigration-of-emmett-family-to-america.html
Ellis, John, Autobiography, 1 March 1899, Ogden, Utah.
Ellis, John, Two letters written to his sister, 21 January 1851 and 4 May 1851, in possession of Richard Ellis
Ellis, Richard, interview and email correspondence with the Mary Bliss Hassell, April 2010
Farr, Mary Elizabeth Watkins, “Life of Joseph Hyrum Watkins Sr.”, 1923-24, http://www.dustyhills.net/aqwg02.htm
Finlayson, Mary, letter written June 2014, in possession of Mary Bliss Hassell
Unknown member of the Shorten family, “The Story of Mary Ann Emmett Ellis”
Ancestors of Tim Farr and Descendants of Stephen Farr Sr. of Concord, Massachusetts and Lidlington, Bedfordshire, England https://www.dustyhills.net/aqwg02.htm
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