If They Will But Serve the God of the Land

This is the year of the Semiquincentennial of the United States of America. I have wondered multiple times about this moment in time. I am fortunate to be alive to experience this year. I have heard others tell of their experiences with the Bicentennial and what a special occasion it was. I don’t recall reading much of the 1926, 1876, or 1826 celebrations. Although I know there were some in 1826, as there are references to them especially trying to get Thomas Jefferson and John Adams to attend events for that occasion.

Massachusetts State House – April 2026

From all I have read and reviewed for this year, I have a profound sense of achievement and pride in how these things have come to be and how we mostly still are as we should be. I feel that much since Independence has also been inspired. Earlier this year, I was fortunate to go to Boston. For the Semiquincentennial, I was excited. In the evenings after classes, I would walk all over Boston, with friends, to see the sights.

It is with that, I share this address from the April 1976 General Conference. This was given by N. Eldon Tanner for the Bicentennial. What he spoke of on that date seems as timeless as it fully applies even today. He took his title from the Book of Ether, given to the Jaredites as they first reached this continent:

“Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.” (Ether 2:12)

“This being the first general conference in the bicentennial year of the United States of America, I have been doing much pondering and contemplating of this event as it relates to the gospel and the great plan of life and salvation. We are all reading and hearing much concerning the events connected with the founding of this country, and with the modern devices available to us today, the news media reach throughout the world, and we are all aware of our interrelationship with one another’s countries.

“We would expect every man to be loyal to his native land—the land in which he was born, the land in which he lives, works, and rears his family. I think of the words of Sir Walter Scott in “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”:

“Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,

“Who never to himself hath said,

“This is my own, my native land!

“Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d

“As home his footsteps he hath turn’d

“From wandering on a foreign strand!

Old State House – Boston – April 2026

“During the last few weeks I, with President Kimball and others of the official party, have had the privilege of attending area conferences in New Zealand, Australia, and the beautiful islands of the South Seas. New Zealand claims to be a choice land and favored by the Lord, and the night before we left Tahiti, one of the Brethren said, “Well, tomorrow we will be driven out of the Garden of Eden.”

“We were most favorably impressed by the beauties of the countries wherever we went. Sister Tanner said, “We surely live in a beautiful world.” Yes, all countries are greatly blessed by the Lord, and each is uniquely different in its beauties, its people, customs, and traditions.

“Today, however, I should like to confine my remarks to a discussion concerning the Western Hemisphere, and particularly to the United States of America, and to point out the destiny of America in the Lord’s eternal plan. The discovery of the Americas was not an accident. The event had been foreordained in the eternal councils. The prophets of old had it in view. Jacob foresaw it when he blessed his son Joseph, calling him “a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall … unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.” (Gen 49:22, 26.)

“Moses too made promises to the tribe of Joseph, whose land, America, was to be precious for the things of heaven and of earth, and who would “push the people together to the ends of the earth.” (See Deut 33:13-17.) These are just some of the biblical prophecies, and we have the Book of Mormon record which tells of the Jaredites who were the first to come to America. They came at the time of the confusion of languages during the building of the tower of Babel.

“Just as Noah was directed, these people too were instructed to build ships to carry them on the waters. When all was in readiness, they boarded their vessels and “set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God.” (Ether 6:4.)

“The account states, “And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them.” (Ether 6:12.)

“Then, six hundred years before the birth of Christ, a prophet by the name of Lehi, who had been crying repentance unto the inhabitants of Jerusalem, was commanded by the Lord to depart with his family into the wilderness. Because of the things which he had testified concerning the wickedness of the people and the pending destruction of Jerusalem, he was mocked and scorned, and the people sought to take his life. In obedience to the Lord’s instructions, he departed with his family and others, and after a period in the wilderness, they too were instructed to build a ship and sail for the promised land. We read, “And it came to pass that after we had sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land; and we went forth upon the land, and did pitch our tents; and we did call it the promised land.” (1 Ne. 18:23.)

“While in the wilderness Nephi, the son of Lehi, was permitted to see in vision the things that would transpire concerning the destiny of America—the promised land. He said, “And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.” (1 Ne. 13:12.)

“This, as we know, refers to Christopher Columbus, who was impelled by the Spirit of God to cross the ocean for the rediscovery of America, thus assisting in the furthering of God’s purposes.

“Columbus himself, in a letter to the Spanish hierarchy, wrote, “Our Lord unlocked my mind, sent me upon the sea, and gave me fire for the deed. Those who heard of my emprise called it foolish, mocked me, and laughed. But who can doubt but that the Holy Ghost inspired me?” (Quoted in Mark E. Petersen, The Great Prologue, Deseret Book Co., 1975, p. 26.)

“During the voyage, after weeks of sailing with no sign of land, mutiny raised its head. Finally, Columbus promised the captains of the Pinta and the Niña, both of whom wanted to turn back, that if no land was sighted in forty-eight hours, they would turn back. Then he went to his cabin and, in his words, “prayed mightily to the Lord.” On October 12, the very next day, they sighted land.

“Nephi saw in vision also the coming of the Pilgrims, who came to escape religious persecution. He foresaw the coming to America of peoples from many nations, their wars and contentions. As Nephi said, they did humble themselves before the Lord and “the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle.

““And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations.” (1 Ne. 13:18-19.)

“Thus the American colonies attained their independence and set up the government of the United States, all under the divine intervention of God in preparing this land for its divine destiny.

“At this point we pay tribute to those great men who accepted and met the great challenge to establish a constitution for the government of this so-called new land. That this too was divinely inspired is attested by the word of the Lord when he said, “According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles;

““That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.

““Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.

““And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.” (D&C 101:77-80.)

Old North Church – Boston – April 2026

“No constitution on earth has endured longer than this one. We seek, and usually find, the answers to today’s questions in this document of yesterday. It was and is a miracle. Both Washington and Madison referred to it as such. It is an inspired document written under the guidance of the Lord. James Madison, commonly called the father of the Constitution, recognized this inspiration and gave the credit to “the guardianship and guidance of the Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising republic.” (Petersen, Prologue, p. 95.)

“We believe that the Constitution was brought about by God to ensure a nation where liberty could abound and where his gospel could flourish. Joseph Smith said, “The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard—it is founded in the wisdom of God—it is a heavenly banner.” (Petersen, Prologue, p. 75.)

“Among other things, the Constitution guaranteed the religious freedom that allowed the Reformation to continue and flourish. Many of these great reformers stated that their effort was to reassert the basic Christian teachings of the Bible—but they acknowledged that they possessed no authority to administer the ordinances of the Church, or to reestablish the original church of Jesus Christ. Luther said, “Christianity has ceased to exist among those who should have preserved it.”

“Roger Williams, founder of the Baptist Church in America, said, “There is no regularly constituted church on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances.” (LeGrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, Deseret Book Co., 1973, p. 29.)

“We believe that both freedom and the continuing reformation that flourished here occurred in preparation for a restoration from heaven of the full gospel of Jesus Christ. That restoration began in the United States of America in the 1820s through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who was chosen by the Lord and who, through personal manifestations from heavenly messengers, received pertinent records which contained the authentic record of early American peoples and God’s dealings with them. He received the priesthood and authority to reestablish the church of Jesus Christ in these latter days.

Paul Ross and Paul Revere statue – Boston – Old North Church in background – April 2026

“At the time of this restoration, God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ actually appeared to Joseph Smith, as they had appeared to leaders of previous dispensations. They announced to him that Christ’s church would be reestablished upon the earth, with a restoration of the same principles and ordinances and organization which existed in the primitive church, from which there had been an apostasy as documented by irrefutable evidence. This restoration was the greatest event in the history of mankind since the birth, death, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

“Significantly, the early Americans to whom we have referred were aware of the birth, death, and resurrection of the Savior because they saw the same signs and wonders as those in the Old World foretelling the coming of the Lord, his life, mission, and subsequent death and resurrection.

“Referring to these same early Americans, the Lord said, as recorded in the New Testament, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” (1 John 10:16.)

“In the Book of Mormon we have a beautiful account of Christ’s visit to these “other sheep” following his resurrection, when they heard his voice and recognized him as he showed the nail prints in his hands and feet. We know these were the “other sheep” because he said, “Ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold.” (3 Ne. 15:21.) He taught them the gospel. He instituted the sacrament and ordained disciples. He gave authority to confer the Holy Ghost, healed the sick, and blessed the little children. He prayed unto the Father for them.

“We read, “The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father;

““… and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.” (3 Ne. 17:16-17.)

“Now, what of America’s future? How can we best show our appreciation to God for these marvelous blessings of freedom, of a place where his true and everlasting gospel was restored, of the preparation and divine guidance in every event leading to that most significant event? We must remember what the Lord told the Jaredites when they were first brought to this land: “Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.” (Ether 2:12; italics added.)

“Many years ago in a volume entitled Beacon Lights of History, Dr. John Lord, referring to the discovery of America, said, after speaking of her great potential, “The world has witnessed many powerful empires which have passed away and left ‘not a track behind.’ What remains of the antediluvian world? … What remains of Nineveh, of Babylon, of Thebes, of Tyre, of Carthage—those great centers of wealth and power? What remains of Roman greatness even, except in laws and literature and renovated statues? … What is the simple story of all the ages?—industry, wealth, corruption, decay, and ruin. What conservative power has been strong enough to arrest the ruin of the nations of antiquity?

““Now if this is to be the destiny of America—an unbounded material growth, followed by corruption and ruin—then Columbus has simply extended the realm for men to try material experiments. Make New York a second Carthage, and Boston a second Athens, and Philadelphia a second Antioch, and Washington a second Rome, and we simply repeat the old experiments.

““But has America no higher destiny than to repeat the old experiments and improve upon them and become rich and powerful? Has she no higher and nobler mission? If America has a great mission to declare and to fulfil, she must put forth altogether new forces, and these not material. And these alone will save her and save the world. … The real glory of America is to be something entirely different from that of which the ancients boasted. And this is to be moral and spiritual—that which the ancients lacked.”

“We are all a part of America’s future. Our job is to learn and benefit from the past and to go forward in righteousness, keeping the commandments of God. In this connection the prophet Lehi said, “Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.” (2 Ne. 1:7.)

“As we pray daily to God for guidance, we should all make the same plea as George Washington did in his prayer for our country:

““Almighty God, who has given us this good land for our heritage, we humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will.

““Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning and pure manners.

““Save us from violence, discord and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way.

““Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought out of many kindreds and tongues.

““Endue with the spirit of wisdom those whom in Thy name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be peace and justice at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth.

““In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail.

““All of which we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

“We encourage our people to be good, loyal, law-abiding citizens. “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” (A of F 1:12.)

William Prescott statue – Bunker Hill Monument – April 2026

“Also, it is our duty to seek diligently for and support and uphold good, honest, honorable, and wise representatives to govern us. Let me reiterate the message left with the Saints nearly sixty years ago at the general conference in April 1917 when Elder Anthony W. Ivins, after discussing religious liberty and the Constitution, said, “I feel authorized to say, here this afternoon, that these liberties which have come to men, both religious and civil, have not been established by the Lord to be destroyed, but that they are here to remain until liberty shall prevail from the rivers to the ends of the earth, until God’s kingdom shall be established among men, and his will done upon earth as it is done in heaven. Until the universal Fatherhood of God, and brotherhood of man shall be recognized, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of Christ, who shall reign as Prince of Peace.” (Conference Reports, April 1917, pp. 54–55.)

“And I bear testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the kingdom of God here upon the earth, with the Lord directing the work through our prophet, President Spencer W. Kimball. May I urge everyone everywhere to help bring to pass righteousness, in whatever country you may reside, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. If you are active members of the Church you will know what they are. If you are not, may I invite you to avail yourselves of the opportunity to investigate and gain a knowledge and testimony for yourselves that the gospel in its fulness has been restored, with the authority to administer the ordinances thereof, and is here upon the earth.

“Only as we accept and live the teachings of the gospel can the destiny which God planned for America be realized and the world united in peace and brotherhood. That this may speedily come to pass I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Union Oyster House – Boston – April 2026
Oysters at Union Oyster House – Boston – April 2026 – Holly Sutherland – Tecla Druffel

The Amazon, 126 Company

I thought it would be important to share the story of one of the ships that traveled to America in 1863. Among the millions of family history records preserved of the LDS western migration is an entry for one family among the thousands who sailed for Zion that year.

William Stoker and children:
Thomas
Alice
Janet
Alfred
Mary A.
Sailed on the Amazon.

On 4 June 1863, the Amazon, a packet ship departed London with 895 Latter-day Saint emigrants, the 126 Company. William Edward Stoker, a journeyman saddler born in Crateford, Staffordshire, England, was 36 years old. His wife, Emma Eames Stoker, had died of tuberculosis just five weeks earlier, on 28 April 1863, at their home at 18 Albert Street, St. Mary’s Parish, Reading, Berkshire. Their youngest child, Mary Ann, had been born on 24 February 1863. Emma had lived only two months after her daughter’s birth. William boarded the Amazon as a widower with five children, the youngest not yet four months old.

William Edward Stoker

That infant, Mary Ann Stoker, later raised by an adopted family and known all her life as Lillie, grew up in Utah. She was raised by George and Victorine Musgrave of Plain City, and married Milo Riley Sharp on 11 May 1879 in the Episcopal Church in Plain City, Weber County, Utah. She is my 2nd great grandmother. William Edward Stoker is my 3rd great grandfather.

The Voyage

The Millennial Star, the official publication of the LDS Church’s British Mission, reported the Amazon’s departure as follows:

“The splendid packet ship “Amazon,” Captain H.K. Hevey, sailed from London, England June 4, 1863, with a company of 895 souls of Saints on board, under the presidency of Elder Wm. Bramwell, who acted with Elder Edward L. Sloan and Richard Palmer as counselors.

“On the 3rd the company passed the government emigration officer, who eulogized the order and general appearance of the emigrants. After this President George Q. Cannon, accompanied by other Elders from various parts of the British Mission, held a meeting in which the organization took place the officers of the ship. The cabin passengers and visitors on board listened with marked attention. A brass band from South Wales, the performers being members of the Church on their way to Zion on the “Amazon,” discoursed sweet music on the poop deck before and after the meeting. The Presidency having been appointed and Elder Wm. McLachlin nominated as clerk, President Cannon dedicated the ship.

“It is worth of note that the departure of the ship “Amazon” from London laden with Saints is another instance of the fulfillment, in some years ago, while Elder Eli B. Kelsey was laboring in London, he predicted in a public meeting in that city that the ships should yet leave that port filled with Saints emigrating to Zion. It was with no intention of bringing about the fulfillment of the prophecy that we chartered the “Amazon,” for we were entirely ignorant of the utterance of such a prediction until we heard it stated at a meeting of the Saints held on Sunday the first instructions three days before she sailed. Indeed the chartering of this vessel was not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We could not obtain a vessel in the port of Liverpool suitable to our purpose — vessels of this description being almost unprecedentedly scarce this spring, and we were therefore compelled to go to London. Thus were the circumstances over ruled to bring to pass the word of a servant of God.

“Of the Elders who sailed on the “Amazon” four were Utah Elders, namely Wm. Bramwell, Richard Palmer, Edward P. Edwards and A.W. Van Der Moulde. Among the Elders who emigrated to Zion as passengers were Edward L. Sloan, Thomas Crawley, John Berrett and Joseph Morgan.

“Before sailing from Liverpool the company was fully organized. The emigrants were divided into fifteen wards under the supervision of the following officers: 1— John Wells; 2— James Poulton; 3— Joseph Wilson; 4— A. Cox; 5— J. Kimber; 6— S. Liddiard; 7— S. Evans; 8— D. Williams; 9— A. Sutherland; 10— W. Fowler; 11— W. Van Der Moulde; 12— J.W. Morgan; 13— J. Berrett; 15— E.T. Edwards. E. Larkin was appointed Sergeant of the Guard and George Braithwaite, lamp lighter and trimmer.

The Ship and Its Passengers

George Q. Cannon, who dedicated the Amazon before departure, was at the time president of the British Mission. He would later serve as a counselor in the First Presidency under four Church presidents, one of the most influential figures in nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint history. His presence at the ship’s dedication was a mark of the importance the Church placed on the emigration program.

The Amazon carried some remarkable passengers. George Sutherland, later an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, appointed by President Warren G. Harding in 1922, was among the emigrants. George William Larkin also traveled with the company; after arriving in Utah he was appointed by Brigham Young to oversee the Ogden cemetery, and in 1885 he began the family tradition that grew into Larkin Mortuary. Also aboard was Elijah Larkin, whose journal notes that on 16 and 20 June, Thomas Stoker, William’s eldest son, then thirteen years old, was administered to because of a sickness since leaving Liverpool.

The Amazon’s departure also caught the attention of Charles Dickens, who visited the ship before it sailed and wrote of the Mormon emigrants in his essay collection The Uncommercial Traveller. Dickens had expected to find the kind of misfit and desperate crowds he associated with emigrant ships, instead he found something that surprised him entirely. He described the Mormon emigrants not as misfits and scoundrels but as the “pick and flower” of England, orderly, healthy, purposeful people. William Stoker and his five children, traveling in grief just weeks after Emma’s death, were among those Dickens observed.

Stoker Sisters — l-r: Mary Ann Stoker Sharp, Jeanette Stoker Rogers, Henrietta Stoker Weston. Three of the five children who sailed on the Amazon.

The Journey West

The Amazon landed at Castle Gardens, New York, on 18 July 1863. From there the company traveled by rail to Albany, then through Detroit to Florence, Nebraska — the traditional jumping-off point for the overland journey to Utah. From Florence they traveled by wagon the remaining distance across the plains.

The company arrived in Salt Lake City on 3 and 4 October 1863 — just in time for General Conference. Several members of the company recorded that Brigham Young came out to greet them and offer counsel. The journey from London had taken exactly four months.

William moved almost immediately to Ogden, Weber County, Utah, where he set up his leather and saddlery trade. He remarried Eliza Sinfield in Ogden on 18 May 1864. The five children from his first marriage were distributed among other Plain City families. Mary Ann with George and Victorine Musgrave, who called her Lillian/Lillie and raised her as their own. It is through the Musgraves that she came to know the Sharp family, and through that connection to Plain City’s Episcopal congregation that she met Milo Riley Sharp.

Mary Ann Stoker Sharp

William, Mary Ann, and their overland journey through Devil’s Gate and Independence Rock are part of the larger story I told in Casper Wyoming Temple Open House — where I counted ten of my own ancestors who crossed the Mormon Trail through that same ground. William Edward Stoker and infant Mary Ann were among them.

For the full story of the Stoker family — William and Emma, the five children, and what became of each of them — see Stoker-Eames Wedding. For Lilly’s life in Plain City and her marriage to Milo Riley Sharp, see Sharp-Stoker Wedding. For Emma’s brother Thomas and the Eames family in Alperton, Middlesex, see T. Eames Grocery and Provision Store.

William Edward Stoker older

Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment

In September 2020, Amanda and I took our family out to Golden Spike National Historic Park at Promontory Summit, Utah. I have written about that visit previously. What drew us there, in part, was the knowledge that Amanda’s 3rd great-grandfather Joseph Wayment had been present on 10 May 1869 when the last spike was driven completing the transcontinental railroad — and that Andrew J. Russell’s famous photograph had captured him standing in the crowd. I promised in that post to tell more of Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment’s story another time. This is that time.

Hiram, Amanda, Aliza, and Paul Ross, Bryan Hemsley, Lillian and James Ross, and Jill Hemsley at Golden Spike National Historic Park, September 2020
Hiram, Amanda, Aliza, and Paul Ross, Bryan Hemsley, Lillian and James Ross, and Jill Hemsley at Golden Spike National Historic Park, 7 September 2020.
East and West Shaking Hands at the Laying of the Last Rail, Promontory Summit, Utah, 10 May 1869. Photograph by Andrew J. Russell.
East and West Shaking Hands at the Laying of the Last Rail, Promontory Summit, Utah, 10 May 1869. Photograph by Andrew J. Russell. Joseph Wayment stands in the crowd on the left side of the image. Find the man standing below the Union Pacific’s No. 119 locomotive light with his jacket open and white shirt, then find the man whose head is in front of that man’s right thigh, behind the fellow with the partially raised hat. That is Joseph Wayment, age 25.

Andrew J. Russell, the official photographer of the Union Pacific Railroad who took this photograph, wrote of that moment: “The continental iron band now permanently unites the distant portions of the Republic, and opens up to Commerce, Navigation, and Enterprise the vast unpeopled plains and lofty mountain ranges that now divide the East from the West. Standing amid ‘The Antres vast and Desert wild,’ surrounded with the representative men of the nation, an epoch in the march of civilization was recorded, and a new era in human progress was ushered in.”

Joseph Wayment was one of the men in that crowd — a twenty-five-year-old English convert who had crossed the Atlantic seasick on the Amazon, walked the plains behind an ox team, survived Montana winters so cold the dishwater froze before it hit the snow, and was now building a life in a patch of Utah desert he would spend the next six decades transforming into a home, a farm, and a community. Would he have fathomed that 151 years later his great-great-great-granddaughter, and her children, would stand at that same spot.

Origins in Whaddon

Joseph Wayment, circa 1874.

I used AI to colorize and sharpen the images. If you click on them, you should be able to see the original black and white. AI took a bit of liberty on the photos regarding clothes.

Ann Reed, circa 1874.

Joseph Wayment was born 7 February 1844 in Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, England, the second son of William and Martha Brown Wayment. His older brother Aaron had lived only one day, so as far as the family was concerned, Joseph was the eldest. I have written previously about his parents, William and Martha Wayment.

Ann Reed was born 1 January 1852 in the same small village — the fifth child and second daughter of James and Sarah East Reed. Whaddon was a tight community, a small village in the district of Royston, County of Cambridge, gathered around the ancient stone church of St. Mary the Virgin. Whaddon appears to have been somewhere around 400-500 people. The Wayments and the Reeds were neighbors in every sense of the word. Their children attended the same meetings, worked the same fields, and children would be baptized in the same river/brook.

Ann’s early life was marked by tragedy. When she was two years old, she slipped into a deep ditch near their home. No one else was nearby. Her mother, Sarah East Reed, then heavy with child, jumped in after her. Ann was saved, but the ordeal brought on labor. The baby girl was born 13 July 1854 and died the same day. Three days later, Sarah also died from complications, and mother and infant were buried together in the same casket. Ann’s father James Reed did his best to keep the family together, but he too died on 2 February 1858, leaving five orphans — the oldest fourteen, Ann just five years old.

Their mother’s sister, Hannah East, came to Whaddon to keep house for the children. Hannah was herself from Whaddon — born there on 24 August 1828, the sister of Sarah East Reed and of George East Sr., who would later become a familiar figure in Warren, Utah. Hannah was baptized LDS 3 June 1848. She stayed with the Reed orphans for several years before emigrating to Zion, where she eventually settled in Lehi, Utah, married Thomas Karren in 1865, and lived until 2 May 1907. It is a quiet thread of continuity that Hannah — who held Ann’s orphaned family together in Whaddon — ended her days in the same territory where Ann built her life, just a day’s journey away in Lehi.

After Hannah left England, the children were kept by the Parish until they could earn their own living. Ann went out to service at age eleven. She endured difficult conditions in several positions before finally working David and Mary Hide Grieg (the histories state it was Grigg), where she stayed nearly five years and carefully saved her wages toward passage to America. The Grieg family lived in nearby Melbourn, a family that was not LDS.

The Gospel Comes to Whaddon

I wrote how the William and Martha Wayment home had become a gathering place for LDS missionaries since William’s baptism in March 1850, how despite community hostility, meetings were held in different houses and baptisms conducted at night to avoid mobs. The gospel took hold in Whaddon. On the night of 7 May 1860, Joseph Wayment, age sixteen, was baptized in Whaddon Brook along with his brother Samuel and sister Emily. Ann Reed, age eight, was baptized and confirmed the same night.

They shared the same baptismal waters and would eventually share a life.

Joseph worked in the peat bogs with his father from his early teens, fossil digging to earn enough for his passage to Zion. He had one more memorable appearance in Whaddon before he left: shortly before his departure, he sang a solo at a church meeting that deeply impressed those present. His voice was described as a clear and beautiful bass. Ann Reed, then twelve years old, was in that congregation. Decades later she would tell her grandchildren with deep feeling how thrilled she had been sitting in that meeting listening to Joseph sing.

The Voyage of the Amazon, 1863

On 1 June 1863, Joseph left Whaddon for Liverpool. Three days later, on 4 June, he booked passage on the sailing vessel Amazon — listed on the manifest as “Joseph Waymound,” age 19 — and sailed from Liverpool with 881 fellow Saints bound for Zion. As I wrote in my Stoker family post, the Amazon was a famous voyage. It was this crossing that Charles Dickens observed and wrote about, describing the Mormon emigrants not as misfits and scoundrels but as the “pick and flower” of England. Future U.S. Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland was also aboard (whose family was LDS). George Q. Cannon dedicated the ship. My own Stoker ancestors were on this same vessel — an extraordinary coincidence that ties our two family lines together. Since Warren and Plain City were small communities, they likely knew each other.

Joseph was seasick nearly the entire six-week crossing. The Amazon landed in New York around the middle of July 1863. He traveled by train to a point on the Missouri River, then by boat up to Florence, Nebraska. From there he walked and drove an ox team across the plains in Captain Dan McCarty’s company — a new experience for him, as he later told his grandsons, having learned to handle horses in England but never oxen. He arrived in Salt Lake City on 3 October 1863, four months and two days after leaving his father’s home.

The very next day the October General Conference of the Church began, held in the Bowery. Joseph stood near the speakers’ platform. Brigham Young was one of the speakers, and Joseph later said it was one of the most inspiring sermons he ever heard — that Brigham Young seemed to be surrounded by a bright light. Part of that sermon Joseph remembered all his life.

The Freighting Years, 1864–1866

After a winter in Lehi, Joseph went to work in the spring of 1864 for a freighting company, probably the Toponce Freighting Company, hauling goods to Montana. He stayed with the outfit until the fall of 1866. Those were hard and consequential years.

The winter of 1864 was brutal. The freighters were snowbound on a Montana river for several weeks. Joseph served as camp cook. He later told his family that when he threw out the dishwater, it froze to ice before it hit the snow. Some of the cattle froze to death. One day the lot fell to Joseph to fetch wood. His hands were tender from cooking and dishwashing, but he went out and cut an armful. As he was picking up the last piece of wood, he felt his whole body beginning to freeze. He stumbled back toward the cabin, but before he reached it his whole body had gone numb. The men rubbed him with coal oil and did everything they could to revive him. One of them said, “Joe Wayment gets no more wood this winter — I’ll get it for him.”

During the freighting years two confrontations became family legend. In the first, a stranger from another company approached the camp and asked if there were any Mormons present. He was directed to Joseph. The man told him he had helped mob the Saints in Missouri and Illinois, then pulled open his shirt to his chest and said, “Now shoot me.” He had lived such a miserable life since helping the mob, he said, that he wanted a Mormon to shoot him. Joseph replied: “No Mormon will ever stain his hands with your blood.”

In the second, the freighters encountered soldiers who had been in Johnston’s Army making their way north into Washington. Learning that some of the freighters were from Utah, they asked to hear the song that had been made up about Johnston’s Army coming to Utah. Joseph was the best singer in camp. He refused at first, knowing it would anger them. When they promised not to get angry, he relented and sang. One soldier became so furious he drew his pistol and threatened to kill the singer. The captain of the soldiers, quick as a flash, drew his own pistol on the angry man and said he would kill him if he harmed the singer. The other soldiers took the man away.

A third incident, at a freighters’ stop near Oxford, Idaho, demonstrated that Joseph was a man of both faith and action. He and his longtime friend and fellow teamster William Butler had pulled in for the night after a long drive. Other freighters already there greeted them with jeers — “There’s those Mormons” — and tried to force them to move on. Joseph and Butler had weary teams and held their ground. When words grew heated, Joseph walked briskly to his wagon, took the green willow switch he used to urge his team, walked thirty paces to some soft ground, and with one swing left it standing upright. Then he walked back, drew his pistol, turned, and split the willow with one shot. The heckling stopped immediately.

In the fall of 1866 Joseph had a strong feeling come over him that he should return to Utah. The company he was working with was a rough and irreligious crowd. He found a secluded spot in the timber, knelt, and asked the Lord for guidance. The next morning his mind was made up. He saddled his horse, gathered his belongings — three buffalo robes and his working clothes — and started for Utah.

Settling Salt Creek

He came first to Layton or Kaysville, then went to Call’s Fort near present Honeyville where he worked for a man named Barnard and helped build the first schoolhouse there. He bought a piece of land at Call’s Fort but eventually sold it. In 1872 he moved to what was then called Salt Creek, southwest of Plain City, and bought the land he would own until his death — purchasing it from H. H. Wadman, making him the second family to settle on Salt Creek. He kept “Bachelor’s Hall” there for about two years. His brother John B. Wayment, who arrived from England in July 1873, lived with him for part of that time.

The home of Bishop William Thomas Wayment and his wife Maud at 662 N. 5900 W. in Warren. Joseph Wayment appears at far right with a horse.

About 1872, Joseph began writing letters to a young woman of his boyhood acquaintance back in Whaddon — Ann Reed. She had grown up, gone out to service, endured difficult years, and was now working for the Greig family, carefully saving her wages. She accepted his invitation to come to Utah and be his wife.

Ann Comes to America, 1874

Ann left her place of work on 2 June 1874 and sailed from Liverpool on 24 June 1874 aboard the steamship Idaho. The Idaho carried 903 passengers on that voyage, arriving in New York on 6 July 1874. Ann traveled overland by rail and arrived in Ogden about the middle of July.

Joseph met her in Ogden — likely taking her to his brother Samuel’s home. On the way they crossed a stream of clear running water. Joseph stopped the horses to let them drink, cupped his hat, dipped it in, and offered Ann the first drink. She couldn’t bring herself to drink water out of a hat from a river like that. Joseph enjoyed the cool drink regardless.

On 7 August 1874, Joseph Wayment and Ann Reed were married by Louis Warren Shurtliff at Joseph’s home in Salt Creek — ending, as Alma Hansen later wrote, the era of “Bachelor’s Hall.” On 29 June 1876, Joseph and Ann traveled to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, where they were endowed and sealed to each other for time and all eternity. Joseph had been ordained an Elder by Alonzo Knight ten days earlier, on 19 June 1876, in preparation for that ordinance.

The First Years in Salt Creek

The Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment home in Warren, photographed June 1928. Joseph is likely the seated figure visible on the front porch.

Their first child, Sarah, was born 29 October 1875 — one of the first white children born in the Salt Creek area. In the spring of 1876 the Weber River overflowed its banks and covered much of the country where Warren now stands. The first time it came up, it stayed two weeks. The crops survived. But the river flooded again, higher than before, and stayed six weeks. The crops were completely destroyed. Joseph’s house was just high enough to keep the water from running under it — but it came right to the doorstep. He kept a rowboat in which he and Ann traveled to the sandhill in Plain City to do business. His horses broke loose just before the flood and were later found on meadows west of Brigham City. The other cattle and horses in the area lived on the high knolls until the water subsided.

Joseph planted the first fruit and shade trees in the Warren area. He watered them by hand from a well he dug himself, using a long pole with a hook and a bucket because he didn’t have a rope. Later he had a windmill built over the well and irrigated some of his crops with it. About 1880 the residents of Salt Creek organized together and built a ditch up to Four-Mile in the southern part of Plain City to run water to their crops. Part of that original ditch can still be seen near the north side of the bench in Warren.

In March 1881 Joseph was appointed secretary and assistant superintendent of the Salt Creek Sunday School, offices he held for many years. In 1883 he was chairman of the board of trustees for the first schoolhouse built in Warren — a one-room brick building on the bench. His sister Martha Wayment, now Mrs. David East, was the first teacher.

About 1877 Joseph was appointed the first road supervisor in the Warren district, a position he held for ten years. The road supervisor received no pay for his services other than to apply his labor toward his poll taxes, as did all the other men. About the first work done was to fill up some of the creek crossings. He also hauled salt from the creek banks west of Plain City up to the Hot Springs — a full day’s work per load for which he received fifty cents. The salt was used in the smelting of silver ore in Montana.

Six more children followed Sarah: Martha Ann (2 June 1877), Leonard Joseph (12 September 1878), Mary Jane (8 May 1880), Walter Hyrum (14 November 1881), Hannah Alberta (23 August 1883), and Amelia Brown (29 July 1890).

Back row, left to right: Sarah Wayment, Martha Ann Wayment, Leonard Joseph Wayment, Mary Jane Wayment. Middle row: Hannah Alberta Wayment, Joseph Wayment, Ann Reed Wayment holding Amelia Brown Wayment, Martha Brown Wayment (Joseph’s mother). Seated in front: Walter Hyrum Wayment. Photograph circa 1890–1891.

The family portrait above, taken around 1890–1891 when Amelia was an infant, captures all seven children in a single frame. Four generations are present — including Joseph’s mother Martha Brown Wayment at far right, who had herself made the journey from Whaddon in 1878. I wrote about her in the William and Martha Wayment post.

The Flood of 1884 and Ann’s Heroism

In the spring of 1884 the Weber River flooded again — not as severe as 1876, but severe enough to kill all the crops, many fruit trees, and berry bushes. Joseph moved his family into his brother John’s house on the brow of the hill north of the Arthur Marriott home — a one-room house, not large enough for all the family to sleep in. Some of the children slept in a wagon under the shed.

A day or two after they moved, a heavy rain set in. The children’s bedding became soaked. In trying to provide for his family, Joseph was exposed to the rain, cold, and mosquitoes, and he took down with malaria fever. The house was too small for any comfort, and some of the men of the locality moved the family back into their own house — even though it was surrounded by water.

For six weeks Joseph lay near death. Many did not expect him to recover. During this time Ann would walk — and sometimes wade, in water up to her knees — a quarter to half a mile west on the bench to where their cow was pastured. She milked the cow and carried the milk back to feed her husband. For a while he was so weak he could not feed himself, and Ann would have to feed him by hand. He sent for elders from Plain City to administer to him. While they were visiting, he asked to be propped up in bed and talked with them at length. From that time he continued to improve, though he was not entirely well for several years. That fall he was well enough to work on the threshing machine.

Of all the incidents in the long life of Joseph and Ann Wayment, this one — Ann wading flood water to milk the cow and hand-feed her dying husband — speaks most directly to the character of their partnership. The memorial card at their graves in West Warren says it plainly: “Ann Reed Wayment gave loyal and loving support to her husband. No problem arose that they did not find a place of adjustment and agreement.”

Firsts in Warren

The 1902 Portrait, Genealogical and Biographical Record of the State of Utah described Joseph as “one of nature’s noblemen” and enumerated his contributions to the community. He planted the first fruit and shade trees. He was the first road supervisor, serving ten years. When the first schoolhouse was built he served as school board chairman, assessor, and collector. He was one of the first stockholders and directors of the Slaterville Creamery. He raised one hundred tons of sugar beets annually for the Ogden sugar factory.

By 1888 Joseph had shifted his main occupation from general farming to dairying. He kept as many as fourteen milk cows at once. His children did much of the work — milking the cows, putting the milk in cans under cool water until the cream gathered to the top, then skimming and churning it to butter. They sold as many as 2,000 pounds of their own butter in a single year. Later the milk went to the Slaterville creamery, of which Joseph was a founding director.

Joseph’s brother Samuel Wayment was also a builder of the Plain City and Warren community. According to the Plain City history preserved by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and now available at plaincityutah.gov, Samuel drilled an artesian well 249 feet deep that produced additional water for the early settlers, and he also oversaw the iron work and the building of the Chief Canning Factory in Plain City. Another Wayment, Owen, served as a representative of the Warren Irrigation Company in the 1961 negotiations to cement the main irrigation canal. The Wayment family’s contributions to the water and agriculture infrastructure of the Plain City and Warren area extended beyond Joseph’s own record.

In November 1910 Joseph was elected Justice of the Peace of the Warren Precinct — a fitting civic capstone for the man who had been among the first to settle Salt Creek and had spent decades building its institutions.

In 1896 Salt Creek was officially named Warren, after Lewis Warren Shurtliff, the stake president who organized the new ward — the same Louis Warren Shurtliff who had married Joseph and Ann in 1874.

Ann in Warren

Ann Reed Wayment.
Ann Reed Wayment at her home in Warren.

Ann Reed Wayment was a woman of quiet and enduring strength. Her daughter Mary Jane wrote of her: “She was an energetic worker in Relief Society, holding and filling many offices in it. She was very useful among the sick, exercising great faith as her best healing art. She was a kind, loving, very thoughtful mother to her family. She lived a useful life, impressing her children and those who mingled with her what a wonderful mother and woman she really was.”

The Warren Ward Relief Society was organized on 30 November 1902. Ann was sustained as its Treasurer, her sister-in-law Castina Wayment, wife of Joseph’s brother Samuel, served as First Counselor. Ann was not present at the organization meeting but was set apart as Treasurer on 5 February 1903. At the first Relief Society meeting held at the home of President Jane Stewart on 18 December 1902, Ann bore her testimony and gave the benediction. She served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Warren Relief Society from 1902 to 1916.

Alma Hansen, who knew both his grandparents personally and compiled their biography from firsthand family accounts, described Ann in a single memorable sentence: “She was short of stature but stood ten feet tall in her loving service.”

A February Week in Logan, 1893

Logan, Utah, with the Logan Temple visible in the background, circa 1890s. Digital Image © 2001 Utah State Historical Society. All rights reserved. Used for non-commercial, educational purposes.

In February 1893, Joseph and Ann made an extended trip to the Logan Temple — a journey that had been years in the making. In careful sequence over eight days, they completed ordinance work for ancestors in their lineage and sealed their families together for eternity.

On 16 February 1893, Joseph was sealed to his parents, William and Martha Brown Wayment, in the Logan Utah Temple.

On 21 February, proxy baptism and confirmation were performed for James Reed and Sarah East Reed, Ann’s parents, in the Logan Temple.

On 22 February, the proxy endowment was performed for Sarah East Reed in the Logan Temple. Almost certainly the same was done for James Reed that day, though that record was later lost and the ordinance was repeated at the Manti Temple in 1938.

On 23 February 1893, Ann was sealed to her parents, James and Sarah East Reed, in the Logan Temple.

For a woman who had grown up an orphan at age five — whose mother died saving her life in 1854 and whose father died in 1858 — this February week in the Logan Temple completed a covenant that no earthly circumstance had been able to make. The parents she had barely known were now bound to her forever.

A Mission at Fifty-Six

Joseph Wayment’s handwritten mission acceptance letter to Brother George Reynolds, Warren, 15 January 1900. “It would be agreeable my feelings, and consistent with my circumstances, to take a mission to preach the gospel, if I am considered worthy. I can be ready within 30 days, or less. I remain your Brother, Joseph Wayment.”

On Christmas Day 1899, Joseph was asked to fill a mission for the Church. He was fifty-five years old, a grandfather, and still carrying the kidney effects of a severe malaria attack from fifteen years earlier. His response, written in his own hand on 15 January 1900 to Brother George Reynolds of the First Council of the Seventies, occupies four plain lines: it would be agreeable to his feelings and consistent with his circumstances; he could be ready within thirty days, or less. He remained the reader’s Brother, Joseph Wayment.

On 19 January 1900 he received his formal call from President Lorenzo Snow to labor in the Southwestern States. He was set apart on 14 February 1900 by Apostle George Teasdale in the Temple Annex in Salt Lake City — the same day his Seventy’s License was formally issued, signed by Seymour B. Young, President of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies.

Joseph Wayment’s Seventy’s License Certificate, issued 14 February 1900, certifying his ordination as a Seventy by Jacob Gates on 7 November 1889. Signed by Seymour B. Young.

His Missionary Certificate bore the signatures of the entire First Presidency: President Lorenzo Snow, First Counselor George Q. Cannon, and Second Counselor Joseph F. Smith. That Joseph’s mission call passed through the hands of George Reynolds, historically notable as the defendant in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Reynolds v. United States (1879), places it in the living history of the Church.

He left the next day for Kansas, laboring first in Elk County under Elder H. E. Harrison, then for nearly four months in Greenwood County, until he was taken very sick with malaria again. In his own words: “I left my field of labor on the 4th of July for St. John and arrived home on the 7th, three days later. I was sick for three or four months.” The malaria affected his kidneys, an effect he felt until his death.

While Joseph was away on his mission and then ill at home, Ann kept the farm, the animals, and the household organized. When he returned, she nursed him back to health.

The Children

Of their seven children, three preceded them in death. Martha Ann, their firstborn daughter, married Louis Alma Hansen on 23 November 1898. She died on 19 October 1908 at age 31 of acute nephritis, leaving four children and her husband. Her loss was a grief Joseph and Ann carried quietly for the rest of their lives. Leonard Joseph married Sarah Naomi Hodson in 1902, was called to the British Mission in November 1915, labored in Belfast, Ireland, took sick, and arrived home 19 July 1916. He passed away the next morning, leaving a wife and three children.

The four who outlived their parents were Sarah (married Joseph Emelius Hansen), Mary Jane (married Samuel Bagley Willis, later Orson Francis Waldram), Walter Hyrum (married Iva Dell Wade), Hannah Alberta (married Thomas LeRoy White), and Amelia Brown (married George James Lythgoe).

The 70th Birthday, 1914

Family portrait honoring Joseph Wayment’s 70th birthday, 7 February 1914, Warren, Weber, Utah. Third row center: Ann Reed Wayment and Joseph Wayment, flanked by siblings John Brown Wayment and William Thomas Wayment and sister Martha East.

On 7 February 1914 the extended Wayment family gathered at the Warren home for Joseph’s 70th birthday. Included were children, grandchildren, siblings, their spouses and children, and young Alma Wayment Hansen himself, visible as a boy in the second row, who would later compile a biography of his grandparents. At the center of the third row sit Joseph and Ann, flanked by his brothers John Brown and William Thomas Wayment and his sister Martha East. By this gathering all the children had married.

The Grasshoppers

One incident from Joseph’s later years became a touchstone story in the family, attested to by his daughter Sarah. A summer or two after his first malaria attack, he had planted wheat in the field north of the house. The crop grew abundantly, had headed out full, and was beginning to turn yellow when the children noticed one evening that a great horde of grasshoppers had descended on the grain. They went in and told their father. He was not well, still weakened from the malaria. He arose, took his cane, and walked out into the field.

The grasshoppers were large and so thick they were bending the stalks almost to the ground. What once looked like a bounteous harvest now seemed doomed. Then right there in the midst of the grain and the grasshoppers, Joseph knelt and made a most fervent appeal to his Heavenly Father for aid. Night came on. The family retired, but not without family prayer. The next morning not a grasshopper could be found on the grain. There were no traces of where they had been.

The Golden Wedding, 1924

Salt Lake Tribune, 12 August 1924. Joseph Wayment and Wife Honored on Their Golden Wedding Day.
Left to right: Walter Hyrum Wayment, Amelia Brown Wayment Lythgoe, Joseph Wayment, Ann Reed Wayment, Sarah Wayment. Photograph taken at the Warren home, circa 1924.

On Thursday, 7 August 1924, Joseph and Ann celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with elaborate festivities at their Warren home. The Salt Lake Tribune reported the occasion. By remarkable coincidence, a great-grandson was born that same day at nearly the identical hour that Joseph and Ann had married fifty years before, a son born to Mr. and Mrs. William Bennington Jr. of Ogden. The event, as the paper noted, cheered the aged couple considerably.

The celebration drew family from across Weber County. Among those present were Joseph’s siblings, his sisters Mrs. Martha East of Warren and Mrs. Emily Mullen of Ogden, and his brother Bishop William T. Wayment of Warren, along with four daughters, one son, and twenty-six grandchildren.

The photograph captures something of what fifty years in Warren had built. Joseph stands center-rear, his great white beard the same beard his doctor had prescribed after the 1884 malaria, protection for his throat and chest from the cold. Ann stands center-front, hands folded, short of stature. Sarah, their eldest, the first white child born in Warren, stands at the right. Walter Hyrum, their only surviving son, is at the far left with his wife Amelia Lythgoe beside him.

Final Years

Ann Reed and Joseph Wayment.
Left to right: Verlan Hansen, Ann Reed Wayment holding Donald Peterson, Eulail Peterson (back), Robert Hansen (front), Joseph Wayment holding Elaine Hansen, Irene Hansen. Joseph and Ann were the great-grandparents of the children in this picture.

Joseph bought his first automobile in 1912, just past his 68th birthday. About 1922 his eyesight became too poor to read. From that time until his death, someone had to read all news to him. He lived at his own home in Warren until the very end, cared for by his daughter Sarah. He delighted in bearing his testimony and seemed never to tire of talking about and explaining the principles of the gospel. His last public appearance was at a fast and testimony meeting on 11 October 1931, where he bore a strong testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospel and to the fact that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.

Ann did not live to see it. She died on the morning of 14 June 1931, at 8:10 a.m., at their Warren home after a three months’ illness — her cause of death recorded on her death certificate as chronic myocarditis with arteriosclerosis as a contributing factor. She had lived in Warren for 57 years without interruption. Her brother-in-law Bishop William T. Wayment was among the speakers at her funeral. A sextet of nephews and nieces sang. Mrs. Jessie Wayment sang a solo. Grandsons served as pallbearers. Granddaughters took charge of the flowers. She was buried in the Warren Cemetery on 17 June 1931.

Joseph took sick on the afternoon of Thursday, 17 December 1931. He passed away very peacefully on Sunday evening, 20 December 1931, at Dee Hospital in Ogden, of bronchopneumonia, the chronic malaria that had plagued him since 1884 listed as a contributing condition. He was 87 years old.

Obituary of Joseph Wayment, Ogden Standard Examiner, 21 December 1931.

He was buried on 23 December 1931 in the Warren Cemetery, beside Ann, who had preceded him six months and six days. They had been married 56 years, 10 months, and 7 days.

Legacy

Sarah Ann Wayment Hansen and her father Joseph Wayment in his final years. Sarah cared for Joseph at home until his death in December 1931.

When Joseph and Ann Wayment arrived in Salt Creek in the early 1870s, there was almost nothing there. When they died in 1931, Warren was a community with a church, a school, a creamery, roads, canals, orchards, many of the first of each having been planted, built, or organized by Joseph himself. They lived to see 32 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren. Two of their children served missions; one granddaughter and five grandsons also served missions, all returning safely.

Amanda and I visited their graves in the West Warren Cemetery on 24 May 2020. The memorial card at their headstones, the laminated display that prompted this research, was photographed that day. Amanda is their 3rd great-granddaughter through the line: Joseph and Ann Wayment → Martha Ann Wayment Hansen → Walter Wayment Hansen → Bryan Hemsley → Amanda Ross.

Bryan Hemsley, Amanda, Aliza, and Hiram Ross with the tombstones of Joseph Wayment and Ann Reed Wayment, West Warren Cemetery, 24 May 2020.
Bryan Hemsley, Amanda, Aliza, and Hiram Ross with the tombstones of Ann Reed (1852–1931) and Joseph Wayment (1844–1931), West Warren Cemetery, 24 May 2020.
The memorial card displayed at the graves of Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment, West Warren Cemetery.

Source Documents

The following family histories are available for download:

Life Sketch of Joseph Wayment – copied from a record belonging to Ida H. Johnson (granddaughter), transcribed by Hollis R. Johnson, 1956

Emily Wayment and William Negus – compiled by Alma W. and Martha M. Hansen, 1979

John Brown Wayment and Sarah East – compiled by Alma W. Hansen, 1980

Golden Spike National Historic Park

Jupiter at Golden Spike National Historic Park Sep 2020

We took a trip to Golden Spike in September 2020 for the kids to experience some Utah history. It was well worth the drive out to Promontory, Utah.

The Golden Spike has some significance on Amanda’s line. Her ancestor, Joseph Wayment, is standing in the photo taken 10 May 1869 on that momentous occasion. Below is a copy of the photo. You can see him with the hat and long beard. Look at the train on the left and the man standing right below the train light with his jacket open and white shirt; the man whose head is in front of that man’s right thigh (behind the guy with the partially raised hat). That is Joseph Wayment. Joseph Wayment was born 7 February 1844 in Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, England and passed 20 December 1931 in Ogden, Weber, Utah. He is buried in Warren. I wrote of his parents William and Martha Wayment previously.

Another interesting bit of history is that Joseph Wayment came to the United States on the ship “Amazon.” This is the same ship that my Stoker ancestors came to the United States. Not only is it the same ship, it is the same trip of the ship. Here is part of the history I wrote for William and Emma Stoker.

Joseph Wayment departed from London on a ship called “Amazon” 4 June 1863 (His parents and some siblings traveled later on “Nevada” in 1878).  George Q Cannon dedicated the ship which was entirely of Saints (880+) headed for Zion.  It was this same ship that Charles Dickens wrote that the Mormons were not taking misfits and scoundrels, but the “pick and flower” of England.  Even George Sutherland, future U.S. Supreme Court Justice was on this ship.  Here is a link to the story by Charles Dickens: The Uncommercial Traveller.  The LDS church also tells of the story that day at this link: Amazon Departure.  The ship sailed to Liverpool before finally heading out for America.

The “Amazon” landed at Castle Gardens, New York, New York on 18 July 1863.  The Saints took rail to Albany, Albany, New York and then to Florence, Douglas, Nebraska through Detroit, Wayne, Michigan.  From there they hoofed it on to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory arriving 3 and 4 October 1863 (depending on which of the two companies), just in time for General Conference.  Several of the company wrote of Brigham Young coming out to greet them and giving them advice. Brigham sent Joseph to Salt Creek (now Warren) to settle. He later was the first road supervisor and the father of the first born white child of Warren, Sarah Wayment in 1875.

I will have to spend some time telling more of Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment’s story another time.

My own limited tie to Promontory is just the fact the Sharps, taking my Grandpa Milo Ross, used to drive past the site out to harvest salt.

Hiram, James, Paul, and Aliza Ross on 7 September 2020
Hiram, Amanda, Aliza, and Paul Ross, Bryan Hemsley, Lillian and James Ross, and Jill Hemsley