THE HISTORY OF WILLIAM GREENHALGH
(as written by himself)
William Greenhalgh was born July 29th, 1811, (son of Robert and Ellen Greenhalgh) at Brightmit [Breightmet]-near-Bolton, Lancashire, England. Born from poor but industrial parents and remained with them till 1834. About that time he took a wife by the name of Mary Clough. She was born March 18, 1814, daughter of John and Susan Clough. In 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 9, 1837--at Brightmit) [Breightmet]. In 1840 she brought forth a daughter who was named Ellen (born May 14, 1840)---she lived till 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, April 15, I left my native country and set out for Nauvoo. I landed at Nauvoo on the 20th of May the same year.
I left my wife, Mary and two children (“and she was in family way of another”) in England. I went to work for the Prophet Joseph smith to pay their emigration. In 1843 she brought forth another daughter name Mary (Nov 20, 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 eh last of May in the same year, in time to become acquainted with the Prophet.
I was in Nauvoo when the Prophet Joseph Smith roled [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 was. 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 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 name David Hyrum; then he returned and gave himself up to the officer of the law again. Then the officers said, “Now Mr. Smith, there is great reports about the people of Nauvoo. But I see nothing to do with them.” Joseph said, “Then was something the matter with them.” The officer said what was it and Joseph said, “Their innocent would bring condemnation on this generation.” Then turned him around to us and blessed us in the name of the Lord and on June 27th in the year 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 jail and the Governor said, “We have got to make a sacrifice,” while on the housetops and just about this time they were murdering him in Carthage Jail. About two days previous to his assination [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 offince [offense] toward God and toward all men and I shall die innocent.” The nest 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 seem to feel the shock even the elements seemed all confused. It was thundering and lighting [lightening] 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 a 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 Pittsburg and God would raise up a people at Pittsburg for him. With uplifted hands he called on God and angels to bean him witness. He spoke 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 congergation [congregation] 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, knew that it was the voice of Joseph speaking through Brigham Young. My wife Mary sitting close by me not able to turn her head 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 on to 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 Harreman and placed as a member in the quorum of Seventies. I was baptized for my father in the baptismal font of the temple in 1845. On April the 10th 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 those who didn’t, the mob burned their house and their grain and tied 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 Gladen Bishop and James Strong 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. We were told we would receive sour sealings in the mountains.
John, my won was baptized in the Mississippi River by Brother Heiber. The Saints began to leave Nauvoo in Feb., 1844. While crossing the river the temple was seen 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 work in the wagon shop to prepare ourselves wagon to go with.
Joseph Young was sent from the camp and told we could not stop there much longer. We would have to scatter up and down the river where we could get a 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 a coward. I saw the first cannon ball that was fired at us by the mob. It came rolling past us near the graveyard, east of the city. The nest 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 cannon balls 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 got there than the cannon balls were fired at us. On Friday I was commanded to go home on account of my feet having big holes in 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 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 and 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 dammed 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 a days work when I could get it.
On February 29, 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--June 23, 1847---and 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 goat 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 July 9, 1851--my wife brought forth another son and we called him Joseph (born in St. Joseph, Missouri) and they placed me in the Presidency of the Branch.
On the 16th of 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” in 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 comfortable until 1856. Then I went into the sealing room and had my wife, Mary and Sarah Jervis [Jarvis] (born, Little Hutton, near Tyldsbury, January 22, 1820) (ommitted? 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 I moved into an old school house, till I could get a place.
In the Spring following I bought some land and built another house then went to 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 teacher over the vast Quorum of 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 a week on account of the wet weather and then we 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, May 25, 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 eat our grain 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 I the Fall of 1865. I went up to the city and took me another wife by the name of Hannah Booth daughter of Joseph and Ann Booth). In February 28, 1867, my wife bore a son (James Henry) on March 7th 1868 she brought forth another son and called his name, William Robert. In December, the 28th, 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; Roger 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 for 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 Jarvis, 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 September 12, 1880---James Henry Greenhalgh, son of William baptized March 1, 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 in November 16, 1876 and name it Mary Eliza and blessed by its father, February 20, 1877--William Robert Greenhalgh, baptized by Carl Carlgreen, June 16, 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 hollowing and making a noise and while this was going on I was a man rise up in the air above me---The in 1842 I came to Nauvoo.
In 1843 I went to Liyart and when I cam 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 was 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 on 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 February 12, 1879 and was blessed by Benjamin Jonson on the 29th of July of the same year and died, September 8, 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 interened [interred] 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.
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William Greenhalgh died at his residence at Spring Lake, Utah of paralysis. Deceased was born July 29, 1811--Lancashire, England--was baptized October 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 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 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 January 16, 1847--died March 20, 1896.)
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ORIGIN OF THE SURNAME, GREENHAGLH
The surname, Greenhalgh has an uncertain origin. I have found in some reference books in England the following accounts:
1. (Eng.) “Dweller at the green slop [slope?] or corner”
2. “The Lancashire Greenhalgh occurs as Grenehalgh in A. D. 1397.”
3. Local of Greenhalgh: a township in the parish of Kirkham county Lancashire------Greenhalgh Castle in Garstang parish, county Lancashire---this is now in ruins?[!]
4. “the suffix Haugh---puzzling word occurs in places and surname---some think in means ‘river meadow’----recess, corner, hollow or high ground away from a stream.”
In what I was able to find, I surmise that our people were folk who live in the cool, shady, meadows where there was an occasional pond or lake. These places were called “Hawes”--so the “greenhawes.” I surmise the people were given this name because of where they lived and over the years the spelling has changed due to error or some other reason to the present form of GREENHALGH---
This is all I have found on the origin of the name and this is not too definite--though it seems to be logical.
----L. Glade Greenhalgh (January 1949)
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I typed this from a copy my mother loaned me. Many letters and words were hard to read. I tried to standardize the punctuation, but I tried to keep the spelling as was in the copy I had, but the computer kept changing many of the words that were spelled incorrectly. At other times, I was able to add the correctly spelled word in [ ]. If you find errors that should not be perpetuated,please let me know and I will change whatever needs to be changed. Thank you. --Kari Crook Mitchell (December 2011)
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