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Grandmother Ellen Jakeman Ann Field Jakeman's daughter,Ellen, our grandmother, was born the sixth child of Ann andJames Jakeman and grew into a lovely girl as beautiful asher mother. She was born 15 October 1839 at Astwood Bank,Worchester, England. Times were hard in England for middleclass people, so Ellen worked in the mills to help herhusband take care of her eleven children; one, Robert, diedat the age of two years. She married Joseph Pitts, amachinist. They belonged to the Church of England. The fiveoldest girls had very little schooling, but all worked inthe mills at an early age. Grandfather was a good man andhad provided a brick home for his family with the usualfireplace where most of the meals were cooked. Grandmotherwould mix a large batch of bread at night, place it in tinsin the early morning before going to work, then on the wayto work would leave it with the baker. He had little metaldisks with figures on them and would stamp each loaf. Eachfamily had a different stamp. After work on the way home,grandmotherand her girls would pick up their bread and takeit home. Grandmother, like her mother, was vivacious andloved to dance. At that time, there was street dancing inthe evenings. Grandmother loved to join in the dancing forrelaxing after the long hours of work in the mill andlooking after the welfare of her large family. One day,after she had danced in the street, her Church Pastorcalled her in and told her the church frowned upon dancingand she would have to stop or be excommunicated from thechurch. Indignant that she was so criticized for the onepleasure she had in her life, she had nothing more to dowith the Church of England. Her own mother and most of heruncles had been visited by missionaries from the newRestored Gospel of Jesus Christ, now called the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and accepted theteachings and were baptized by immersion as John theBaptist had so baptized Christ when He began His ministryin the old world and had started His church by callingtwelve men to be his apostles. Grandmother investigatedtheir teachings and found she could accept this churchfounded upon Christ and was baptized as were four of hergirls. I do not know if Mary Ann, or Polly as she wascalled, ever joined this church or if she was alreadymarried to Owen Gough. Grandfather Pitts refused to listento the missionaries of this church, causing some littlerift in this good family. My own mother, Ellen, wasworking in the mill one day and got a very bad burn on herarm from a steam pipe. It was shortly after this thatgrandmother decided to send her family to the United Stateswhere great grandmother, Ann Field Jakeman, and her familyhad gone. She made arrangements with two returning "Mormon"missionaries to take in their custody to America her fourdaughters, Sarah, Harriet, Susan, and my own mother, Ellen,youngest of the four, on the ship, Wisconsin of the WhiteStar Line. The missionaries were not paid for preaching;every missionary was supported by his family so they hadvery little to help get them back home. They and the fourlittle girls came across the Atlantic in the stowage. Ittook them nearly two weeks, and they never saw daylight forthat time. Grandmother had anticipated they might becomeseasick and had brewed a large bottle of mint water todrink. Unfortunately, they never found their trunks untilthey arrived in New York. By the time they had boarded atrail to cross another 3,000 miles now by land, the trunkswere opened to get fresh clothing, and the jar of mintwater had been broken and run all through their clothes anddried, so four young girls arrived at Panguitch, Utah, allsmelling freshly of peppermint. One of Grandmother'sbrothers lived there, and the four English girls livedthere for a short time, then moved to Beaver, Utah. Here,the girls took up a trade. The older girls became tailors,and Mother learned the typesetter trade. The four girlsworked and sent their money to Grandma Pitts in England.With this help and her own money, she left her husband andhome and daughter, Polly, and brought the three youngerchildren, Melissa, Joseph and Margaret, to the States,living in Beaver, Utah, near her own mother and brothersand four children who had preceded her on this long journeyto a new country. The three older girls married, andmother worked as a typesetter in a newspaper office in SaltLake City, Utah. She was active in church and sang in theTabernacle Choir for some time until she met JesseSinclair, a Scot, whose father had been contacted in HoyScotland by "Mormon" missionaries, believed, and joined thechurch there and migrated with a group of Saints fromScotland. They were married in Salt Lake in 1895 when shewas 19 years old. Grandmother never saw her oldestdaughter again, nor her husband, nor her beloved England,but worked hard and was a devoted mother to her familyhere. Grandfather died, and one of the older girls was madeexecutor of his property. For some reason, whether timeswere too hard and there was not enough money to send herback to England, I do not know, but none seemed to inheritanything belonging to him. Perhaps women were not allowedto own property over there, but at any rate, Aunt Polly didnot receive any of his things. Grandfather lived and wascared for by Aunt Polly until he died. The heartaches,trials and hardships of this family have been left to God'swill alone. I have never heard any of my aunts tellanything but good of their parents, their new home, andtheir lives both in England and the States. Aunt Melissaand my mother have given me this meager information.Grandmother worked for a rich woman who gave her box afterbox of clothing which she sent most of to my mother inIdaho to help cloth twelve granddaughters. This story Iwill tell on another part of this history, being the ninthof the twelve children born to Ellen Pitts Sinclair.Written by Lanore Sinclair Bowen compiled from stories ofLeona and Verna, oldest sisters. |
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