1
0
Submitted by Jake Smith
William Greenhalgh
Born: 7/29/1811, Bolton, Lancashire, England
Died: 04/03/1882, Spring Lake, Utah
William GREENHALGH was born on 29 July 1811, the son of Robert GREENHALGH and Ellen WALMSLEY, at Breightmet, near Bolton, Lancashire, England. Born from poor but industrious parents and remained with them till 1834. About that time, I took a wife by the name of Mary CLOUGH. She was born on 18 March 1814, the daughter of John and Susan Clough. On 24 April 1835, she brought forth a son which I named Robert, which son lived about four years and then died. In 1837, she brought forth another son and gave him the name of John, born June 1837, at Breightmet. On 14 May 1840, she brought forth a daughter named Ellen. She lived for about four years and then died in Hancock County, Nauvoo.
In 1840, I became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in 1841, I was ordained a priest and sent to preach the Gospel in the surrounding villages. I baptized some into the Church and was the means of causing others to be baptized. In the spring of 1842, on April 15, I left my native country and set out for Nauvoo. I landed at Nauvoo on the 20th of May of the same year. I left my wife, Mary, and two children (“and she was in the family way of another “) in England. I went to work for the Prophet Joseph Smith to pay for their emigration. In 1843, Mary brought forth another daughter named Mary, born on 20 November 1843, Mary brought forth another daughter named Mary, born on 20 November 1843, and in 1844 she crossed the sea, and the child died and was buried in the Gulf of Mexico. She landed in Nauvoo with two children about the last of May in the same year, in time to become acquainted with the Prophet.
I was in Nauvoo when the Prophet Joseph Smith rolled the responsibility of the government of this Church on the shoulders of the “twelve” and I heard him tell them they must bear it for a while. on the 25th of June, he was called upon by the Governor of Illinois to give himself up to Carthage Jail to be tried by the law. Before going he called the people together and asked them if they were willing to die for him. They told him they were. He then said I will die for you as he was going to Carthage.
He was met by a group of government men. They demanded the government arms from him. Joseph turned back with them and told the people of Nauvoo to give them up and while there he begged to leave to go and see his family again. He went to see his wife Emma and blessed the child in her womb and called his David Hyrum; then he returned and gave himself up to the officer of the law again. Then the officers said, “Now, Mr. Smith, there are great reports about the people of Nauvoo.” “But, see nothing to do with them.” The officer said, “What was it?” And Joseph said, “Their innocence would bring condemnation on this generation.” Then turned him around to us and he blessed us in the name of the Lord on 27 June 1844 he was murdered in the Carthage Jail.
After the government had told him he should be protected according to the law, the governor came to Nauvoo with all his men while they murdered him in the jail and the Governor said, “We have got to make a sacrifice,” Just about this time they were murdering him in the Carthage Jail. About two days previous to his assassination, he said, “I am going as a lamb to the slaughter, but I am as calm as a summer morning. I have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men, and I shall die innocent.”
The next day he was brought into the city dead. The bells were tolling, and all men were worried and bowed down with great grief, weeping with tears in their eyes…all seemed to feel the shock even the elements seemed all confused. It was thundering and lightning all the time for several days and nights.
In a few days, Sidney Rigdon came up to Nauvoo to see if the people would accept him as guardian to act for Joseph. He told the people if they did not accept him, God would reject them as a people with their dead. He was to return to Pittsburgh and God would raise up a people in Pittsburgh for him. With uplifted hands, he called on God and angels to bear him witness. He spoke the next day to them and (to) see if the people would accept him.
Just at this time came home Brigham Young and Heber c. Kimball.
The morning following Brigham Young ordered the people to bring a wagon to the south side of the congregation so that the people could all hear what he had to say. Brigham rose and said, “I would to God there was not such a hurried spirit here.” He spoke with such power, and the voice of Joseph sounded through him so plain that the people who could not see him, know that it was the voice of Joseph speaking through Brigham Young. My wife Mary sitting close by me not able to turn her head and asked me if that was Joseph. I told her no, but it was the voice of Joseph speaking through Brigham Young. This was a living testimony that the mantle had fallen from Joseph onto Brigham…and from this time many wanted to well off and part from the saints…but Brigham forbid them and told them that the flock must not be scattered.
In 1844, I was ordained into the quorum of the seventies under the hand of zero Pulsefur, Henry Harroman, and placed as a member in the Quorum of the seventies. I was baptized for my father, Robert Greenhalgh, in the baptismal font of the Nauvoo Temple in 1845. On 10 April 1844, my wife gave birth to another daughter, and we called it Mary Ann.
Brigham told us to hurry on with the Temple. So I went to work on it. All the time, as we worked and hurried on with the Temple, the mob began to rage more and more. Then Brigham commanded the saints in all the settlements to gather up to Nauvoo. Some gathered, and some did not, and for those who didn’t, the mob burned their houses and their grain and tried them up and whipped them till they were glad to gather to Nauvoo. We had to stand guard by night and men on the tower watching them by day while the brothers were working on the Temple. While this was going on, there were men setting themselves up to be the leader of the Church…such as Gladon Bishop and James Strang, and many others. Mary, my wife, and me were permitted to go into the Temple and receive our endowments but were not permitted to receive our sealings because of the trouble of the mob but we were told we would receive our sealings in the mountains.
John, my son, was baptized in the Mississippi River by Brother Neibor. The Saints began to leave Nauvoo in February of 1844. While crossing the river, the Temple was soon to be on fire. I was left to work on the Temple a little longer, with some of the brethren, until we were stopped. Then we were told to go and work in the wagon shop to prepare ourselves wagons to go with. Joseph Young was sent from the camp and told we could not stop there much longer as we would have to scatter up and down the river where we could get shelter. In a few days, Brother Babbitt came up and told us we must leave.
He was the one left in charge, and he told us if any man left he would be counted as a coward. I saw the first cannonball that was fired at us by the mob. It came rolling past us near the graveyard, east of the city. The next day they attempted to come into the city but were driven back and moved from Joseph’s farm to Hyrum’s, and on Friday commenced firing cannonballs at us. In passing up the street, the cannon balls would be rolling down as I was passing them. I saw many of them go in one end of the houses and come out of the other end. In the afternoon, one or two more were sent to see what the enemy was about. It was about one-half mile, we had no sooner gotten there than the cannonballs were fired at us. On Friday I was commanded to go home on account of my foot having big holes in it and bleeding through the sand getting in my shoes.
I went down to see my family and going up to the Temple, I saw many running away. On Sunday, the mob was very pious, they would not fire on us Sunday. On Monday I saw them gather up their teams and go out on the prairie and commence digging as if they were burying their dead on Tuesday, we were permitted to go home, and when I got home I found the house empty. Someone had moved my family across the river and left them for damned Mormons and telling them they ought to be killed. The next day a man came and moved them to an old cowshed. I sold my two horses for a pair of shoes for my wife to put on. The mob took my two cows. I started over the river in search of my family and found them in the cowshed at Montrose. We stayed a few days and then started down the river to St. Louis. We landed in St. Louis destitute and had to go and beg for a day’s work when I could get it.
On 29 February 1845, my wife brought forth another son and called his name Ezekiel, born between 1 and 2 o’clock in the morning. My daughter Mary Ann died, and we buried her in the graveyard…southeast of St. Louis…23 June 1847. We stopped at St Louis a little over three years, and I was sick about one and a half years and in 1849 we moved up to St. Joseph and there we got along tolerable well for a little while. I bought a piece of land and built myself a brick house on it.
I was called to be the presiding teacher. On 9 July 1851, my wife brought forth another son, and we called him Joseph (born in St Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri) and they placed me in the presidency of the Branch.
On 16 December 1851, my wife died and left me with three children. She was buried in the graveyard west of the city. In the spring of 1852, I sold my house and bought me a team, and came to the “Valley” on August 20th of the same year. I moved into the 16th ward and got a city lot and built myself a house, and lived very comfortably until 1856. Then I went into the sealing room and had my wife, Mary, and Sarah Jervis (born Little Hutton near Tyldsbury 22 January 1820) (omitted) sealed to me. In the fall of 1856, I sold my house and lot and paid it over for tithing, as I had run some behind, and moved to Keys ward and moved into an old schoolhouse till I could get a place.
In the spring following, I bought some land and built another house, then went farming and raised a good quantity of grain that year and dedicated all I had to the trustee of the trust. I was appointed as a teacher over the vast Quorum of the Seventies.
In the winter, I had a sort of vision…I thought I saw a pond of water about a mile square, and in this pond of water about a mile square, I saw a multitude of fish all moving south, and it appeared when the fish got to the bottom of the pond, they moved back again. And I saw many snakes moving along with the fish. In the spring, Brigham commanded us to hitch up our teams and come south, so I fixed my team and buried many things in the ground, and started out not knowing whither I was going. we started and came to Salt Lake City, and there we had to stop for a week on account of the wet weather then started again and came to Mill Creek, and there we broke down and stopped to get our wagon fixed and then we came to Santaquin, 25 May 1858 and went to live in a room belonging to Brother Openshaw. In a short time, word came we could move back…but I went to work and built myself a log house and bought myself some land and went to farming again. The grasshoppers and crickets ate our grain for several years, and we had to get along sparingly.
I was appointed as a presiding teacher over the branch for several years under Bishop McBride in the fall of 1865. I went up to the city and took another wife by the name of Hannah Booth (daughter of Joseph and Ann Booth). On 28 February 1867, my wife bore a son James Henry; on 7 March 1868, she brought forth another son and called his name. William Robert. On 28 December 1871, in the evening, she brought forth another son, and we called his name Nephi.
In 1877, I went to the city and was baptized for the following persons: Richard Greenhalgh, my grandfather; Robert Greenhalgh, my father; John Greenhalgh, my brother; Robert Greenhalgh, my brother; Richard Greenhalgh, my brother; John Hall, my brother-in-law; Rodger Walmsley, my grandfather on my mother’s side; John Walmsley, my uncle; Rodger Walmsley, my uncle & Job Gee, a friend. My son John Greenhalgh, was baptized at the same time as his grandfather, John Clough, on his mother’s side and his uncle Thomas Clough…My wife, Sarah, was baptized at the same time for her mother, Ann Jervis; her sister Mary Ann Jervis and Alice Brine, her aunt; Betty cook and Fanny Berry, her aunt; Jane Lomax, a friend. My sister went up to the city in 1872. Ann Openshaw was baptized for my grandmother, Mary, her mother, Ellen Walmsley, her grandmother on her mother’s side, Jane Settle, and her Aunt Sarah. Her sister-in-law. Margaret Greenhalgh and Betty Greenhalgh were privileged to officiate with me in connection with his mother to have them sealed to their husbands…all except my sister Margaret.
Martha Jane Greenhalgh, daughter of William Greenhalgh and Hannah Booth, born 12 Sep 1880…James Henry Greenhalgh, son of William, was baptized on 1 March 1876 by Bishop George Halliday of Santaquin and confirmed by Peter Nelson…William Greenhalgh was ordained a member of the High Priest Quorum on the 25th of October 1875 under the hand of Bishop George Halliday of Santaquin…Hannah Greenhalgh brought forth a daughter on 16 November 1876 and named it Mary Eliza and was blessed by its father. 20 February 1877…William Robert Greenhalgh, was baptized by Carl Green. 16 June 1877, confirmed by Edward William Clark.
In 1841, while in England, I had a dream concerning Joseph Smith. I dreamed I was on an open prairie – I saw two wood houses and a large building, a distance from that like a large court-house. On the side of these two houses, I saw a company of men that looked very dark in their appearance and seemed to be hollering and making a noise, and while this was going on, I saw a man rise up in the air above me…then in 1842, I came to Nauvoo.
In 1843, I went to Liyart, and when I came to Patrick, I stood still and looked at the place and saw it was the very place I saw in my dream. My dream came to my mind while looking at it, and in 1844 when Joseph Smith was martyred in Carthage, then the fulfillment of my dream came to me…Again in 1855, I had a vision, and I saw a company of men and they built up a kind of fort on the bench above salt Lake City near Buck canyon. I saw Brigham Young have a hole in the ground near where his white house stood, and I saw men after him to kill him, and I thought he went into one of these holes and they couldn’t get him. In a short time, they took and murdered one of the apostles. When Brigham died and was put in his tomb, it came into my mind about the dream.
My wife brought forth another son named Jacob Joseph, born 12 February 1879 and was blessed by Benjamin Jensen on the 29 July of the same year and died 8 Sep 1880. I started from home with my wife Hannah and four children, all in good health and he was taken sick on the 5th of September of puking and purging, and on the 8th, he died. We brought him home and interned him at Santaquin on the 9th. My wife Sarah and the boys had got everything in readiness for the funeral when we got home from Sanpete.
William Greenhalgh died at his residence in Spring Lake, Utah, of paralysis. The deceased was born on 29 July 1811…Breightmet, Lancashire, England…was baptized Oct 1840…immigrated to Nauvoo in 1842…labored on the Temple…there under great privation…received his endowments therein. He belonged to the 14th Quorum of the seventies…suffered with the saints in being robbed and driven from their homes at the mouth of the enemies’ cannons…came to Utah in 1852…in the general move south in 1858, he came to Santaquin – where he resided until 1880 when he moved to Spring Lake. He was always in concert with the active priesthood, laboring as a teacher…being, in fact, a peacemaker and laborer in and for Zion. He died as he lived, a faithful Latter-day Saint whose loss is lamented by family and friends. (Grandmother Hannah Booth Greenhalgh was born on 16 January 1847…died on 20 March 1896).
Children of William Greenhalgh & Mary Clough
Robert Greenhalgh – 24 Arp 1835 Ellen Greenhalgh – 14 May 1840 Ezekiel Greenhalgh – 9 Feb 1848
John Greenhalgh – 9 Jun 1837 Mary Greenhalgh – 20 Nov 1843 Joseph Greenhalgh – 9 Jul 1851
PATRIARCHAL BLESSING of WILLIAM GREENHALGH
A Patriarchal Blessing of William GREENHALGH given by John Allison 13 Sep 1841.
Dear Brother, I lay my hands upon thy head in the name of Jesus Christ and by authority of the Holy Priesthood committed unto me. I pronounce upon thy head the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Inasmuch, dear brother, as thou hast obeyed the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in the ordinances of baptism, thou hast entered the covenant and art become an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ in His kingdom. A principle of new life is imparted unto thee which
If thou abide faithful shall grow and increase ever into perfection in Jesus Christ thy living head. The Holy Spirit shall be poured upon thee and shall council and guide thee in the paths of righteousness. The truth as it is in Jesus Christ shall be revealed unto thee in rich plentitude; the mysteries of the kingdom shall be unfolded unto thee. Ever continue humble and obedient, and thou shalt know the will of God concerning thee, and Wisdom and knowledge and good understanding shall be thine, be humble, and thou shalt be exalted.
In due time thou shalt witness great signs and wonders wrought in the name of Jesus Christ. In these last days, the enemy of thy soul will seek to destroy thee. He hath desired to have thee that he may sift thee as wheat. Fear not, the Lord will deliver thee, and thou shalt praise Him in Zion with all His saints, see the king in all His glory, and worship in His Temple. Thou shalt see the gathering together of the lost tribes of Israel and Judah with the fullness of the gentiles when thy Redeemer shall appear in the clouds of Heaven in power and great glory and be numbered with the Church of the first horde and reign a thousand years on the earth. Thou art of the faithful seed of Abraham. I seal these blessings upon thy head in the name of Jesus Christ Amen and Amen.
