Wales, Utah

Upon returning after the Indian troubles, the town site was relocated a little further east. On this new site streets were laid out providing for square blocks of five acres. Lots on each block were a quarter of an acre. South of town, the best pasture and farm land was divided into ten acre lots and fenced. Several new families joined the community at this time, including William Lamb. The settlement also received a new name--Wales.

Writing to the Deseret News, William Lamb's son, Henry, described the town of Wales in 1870. Henry's impressions of the community are interesting.

The mountain streams were small at first, but have gradually increased from season to season, so that it is decided to allow sixty families to locate here within a year of this date [April 1870]. already the names of thirty have been received.

The settlement is situated on a pleasant and healthy site and bids fair, ere long, to become a thriving and prosperous town. Fuel, consisting of coal and wood, and lime stone of a good quality, are abundant, and the range for stock is excellent, and notwithstanding the ravages of grasshoppers a good crop of wheat was raised last year.

Since their return, the inhabitants have built an adobe schoolhouse, twenty by thirty feet, in which, during the last Winter there was a good day school taught by Jonathan Midgley, also a Sunday School taught by Henry Rees. Last September, a Female Relief Society was organized. This Winter a Gardners' and Farmers club and library have been commenced, and the post office re-established, under the name of Wales. . . . The people are busy putting in their corps, and think to raise a crop, although grasshopper eggs are plentiful around our field. The health of the people is good. We have organized a co-operative store, which we expect will be in full blast in a few days.

In 1873 the coal property passed into the hands of a Salt Lake company which in 1874 and 1875 built several coke ovens and manufactured coke, freighting it by team to York, the terminus of the Utah Central Railway, about 25 miles south of Provo. This company, after spending much money in experimental work, sold out to an English company which in 1880 to 1882 built the first railroad to enter Sanpete Valley. This railroad connected the coal mines in Indian Pete Canyon, via Wales, with Nephi, the terminus at that time of the Utah Central Railway. It is reported that the English company also spent much money in experimenting with different types of coke ovens and in the development of the coal, but finally abandoned the work through lack of funds.

Both the Rees and Edmunds families remained prominent in Wales. Thomas Rees' wife, Margret, was the first Relief Society President. A family tradition tells that Margret was at least partly responsible for there being no plural marriage in Wales. According to her granddaughter, Helena, "Margret met with a group of women in Wales and stated that she did not know how they felt about plural marriage, but she would see to it that her Thomas did not take a second wife while she was alive, and he didn't!" Thomas died in 1882 two weeks after his sixty-sixth birthday. Margret died sixteen years later in 1898. She was seventy-nine.

Nathaniel Edmunds remained in Wales and farmed after the mines closed. He served as president of the Wales Co-op for many years. Nathaniel also pursued other enterprises and interests. In the 1880s he opened a coal mine in Sterling, with two of his brothers. In the Church, Nathaniel served as an assistant to Sunday School Superintendent, Henry D. Rees, and in 1876 Nathaniel became the first president of the Wales YMMIA. Nathaniel died in 1916 at the age of eighty-nine. His wife, Jane preceded him by more than twenty-five years, dying in 1891, at the age of fifty-nine.

Nathaniel and Jane Edmunds had eight children, three boys and five girls. Two died as infants. Of the remaining six, three of these children remained in Wales, including their oldest son, John Jones Edmunds. It was at Wales that John met and married Julia Lamb in 1878.

William and Eliza Lamb

Unlike most of the families in the community, Julia Lamb was not Welsh. Of English descent, Julia's parents came from the northeastern counties of Yorkshire and Durham. Like the Rees, Edmunds, and Jenkins families, Julia's parents had accepted the message of the LDS missionaries in Great Britain and emigrated to Utah in the 1850s. Julia was their youngest daughter, born at Nephi in 1859.

Born in Darlington, England. William married Eliza Wilson, of Thirsk, Yorkshire, in 1839. William worked on the railway as a porter. The young couple moved repeatedly during the first decade of their marriage. These moves can be tracked by the births of the children, as they moved from Ingleby Arncliffe, Yorkshire, where they were married, to Castleading, Huttonhewry, and Stockton, all in Durham, between 1841 and 1846. By 1848 they had returned to Yorkshire, settling first in East Cotham and later at Redcar. It was after their return to Yorkshire, while living in East Cotham, that they were converted to the LDS Church. William joined the Church first, being baptized in November of 1849. Eliza was baptized eight months later in June of 1850. William and his family emigrated to Utah in 1854 in an ox train. They originally settled in Provo, but a series of moves followed. From Provo, the Lambs continued to move south, first to Springville, followed by Payson and Nephi. After additional homes in Monroe and Scipio, William finally moved his family to Wales in 1869. Their youngest daughter, Julia, was nine when the family moved to Wales. Nine years later, at the age of eighteen, she married John Jones Edmunds on 7 February 1878. The Second Generation

Despite the changes brought about with the closure of the mines and railroad, the Rees and Edmunds families chose to remain in Wales. Even with its limited economic possibilities, this small town of 500 citizens had become home.

While the mines were still open, Henry D. Rees freighted the coke manufactured in Wales to Spanish Fork. When Henry's freighting business was supplanted by the completion of the Sanpete Valley railroad, he went to work for the mining company, operating the company store at the train depot. When the mining ended, Henry turned to farming and raised sheep. He was also a stock holder in the Wales Co-op, was the notary public, and served as Justice of the Peace for fourteen years. After serving as the Sunday School Superintendent in the 1870s, Henry's Church service later included working as a counselor to Bishop John E. Rees when the Wales Ward was organized in 1877.

Henry and Margaret became the parents of eleven children. Their eighth child, and third son, Alfred John Rees was born 19 August 1874. Henry and Margaret remained in Wales throughout their lives. Henry died there in 1908 at the age of seventy-one. Margaret died four years later in 1912.

John Jones Edmunds was the oldest living son of Nathaniel Edmunds and Jane Jones Edmunds. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, in 1855, John was carried across the plains as an infant. Nothing is known of his early years. He grew up in the community of Wales, having been four when the family moved there from Spanish Fork. It can be assumed that he assisted his father on the farm, and he may have worked briefly in the mines.

John Edmunds supported his family by farming and raising livestock. John and Julia Edmunds were the parents of eight children, four girls and four boys. Their eldest daughter, and second child, Sarah Jane Edmunds, was born 19 December 1879. John and Julia remained in Wales until all of their children were grown. Later, in the 1920s, they moved to Salt Lake City, where John died in 1931 at the age of seventy-six. Julia returned to Wales, dying a decade later in 1941. She was eighty-two.

Conclusion

The Rees, Edmunds, and Jenkins families left Wales as poor LDS emigrants, dependent upon the Perpetual Emigration Fund in their quest to reach Zion. Determined to gather with the Saints in Utah, they were handcart pioneers and early settlers in the Sanpete Valley. In the small community of Wales, Utah these families found stability and permanence.

The Lamb family came from England, apparently through the use of their own funds and without the benefit of the Church organized emigration. Over a thirty year period, the Lambs established twelve different homes in England and Utah before finally settling in Wales, Utah in the late 1860s. The Lambs also found stability and permanence in this small community.

Alfred John Rees and Sarah Jane Edmunds were married on 14 March 1900. Alf and Jenny became the third generation of their respective families to live in Wales, Utah. Wales was to be their home for most of the forty-five years of their married life. A widow for twenty-five years after Alf's untimely death in 1945, Jenny always called Wales home, even when she could no longer live there.

© 1998, 1999 Jeffrey E. Crosby

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