Sarah Ann Thirkell

Sarah married John Pool 25 Jun 1854, Grantsville, Utah, United States. John died 28 Dec 1898. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

John Pinnock Thirkell was born the eighteenth of July 1814. His Father Nathan Pinnock Thirkell was a game keeper. This occupation was very dangerous. Two of his sons had been killed while Nathan was employed as a game keeper; yet John started working with his father at the age of seventeen. One time when John and his father heard poachers in the forest, they called to them to come out of hiding. As two of them appeared, one of them shot John in the leg. It was at close range, and cloth from his trousers went into the wound with the shot, causing a great deal of trouble. John limped, and in later years, had to use crutches. On other occasions, John had a finger and eye injured by poachers. The eye was taken out, scraped and returned to the socket and he had good eyesight afterwards.
When John was 21, he went to the north of England to be a gamekeeper for Squire Oswald Eaton. While in the Northern England, John met Mary Brown Baynes. The Baynes were textile designers and weavers. John and Mary were married the 21 of September, 1836. Five children were born to them.
One day John encountered a local L.D.S. Elder cutting timber. This man told him about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Elder talked with him a long time, quoting and explaining scripture from the Bible to him. When John arrived home, he looked in the Bible for these passages of scripture and was surprised that he had not understood them before. John prayed that he might know whether or not they were true. Shortly after this incident he became seriously ill; never before nor after had he known such illness. His wife suggested that the Elders be called. They came and administered to him, and he was healed. He felt that his prayer had been answered. Following this event the Elders met often with the Thirkell family.
Believing strongly in the new religion, John joined the Church and was baptized on the 6th of October 1850. His wife and the two oldest children were baptized later in October. The parish minister objected to the Thirkell family joining the “Mormon Church” and complained to the Earl so forcefully that the Earl gave John notice to leave his employ in 1 month. A neighbor gave the family shelter until John found another job as a game keeper for Mr Goodman.
At a branch meeting, John prophesied that he and his family would go to Utah and that they would experience hunger. The people were amazed that he would consider going to America. Just before sailing to America John and Mary heard about polygamy; Mary wanted none of that and objected to their going; but John knew the Gospel was true and wanted to go to America; therefore he promised that he would not enter into plural marriage. This promise he faithfully kept.
John and Mary with their 5 daughters, Sarah Ann (15), Jemima (11), Caroline (9), Mary Agnes (6) and Rebecca (6 months), sailed from Liverpool. While on board the ship a fire broke out, causing much excitement among the passengers. Shortly after the fire was controlled, they found themselves stranded on a sand bar. Here they remained for 2-3 days while a strong wind and high waves rocked the ship until it was thought that they would never reach America. John assisted the crewmen in lowering the anchor and drawing in the sails. He was a very strong man and helped while the wind whipped him from side to side. After many hard and anxious hours the men succeeded in freeing the ship, which was still in good condition to continue the voyage. They landed in New Orleans and then traveled to Keokuk, Iowa where they encountered wind storms, flood and rain which added to their delay. John purchased 2 milk cows, 3 oxen and 1 ½ wagons. He shared ½ a wagon with another man. While crossing the plains, two of the daughters became ill and died; Rebecca, one year old and Mary Agnes 6 years old. Mary brought yards of fabric that was woven by her parent’s textile business in England. She hoped to use the material to make clothes for her daughters, but most of the material was sold or traded for food or protection on the journey west. Two of the large boxes that had carried this material from England were used as coffins to bury their two little girls along the wagon trail.
After arriving in SLC, President Brigham Young asked them to continue on to Grantsville (West of SLC and south of the Great Salt Lake in Tooele County). They lived in tents and wagons until they could build a 2 room log cabin. They cleared 10 acres of land and planted grain, but the grasshoppers were numerous, consequently their crop was very poor. They had no wheat bread for three months, only bread made from musty corn. Two more daughters were born to them while they lived in Grantsville. Their home was in the fort walls of Grantsville.
In 1857 the family decided to move to Cache Valley. They planted wheat. On July fourth 1857, their first summer in the CacheValley, a meeting was held in the bowery. Many were discouraged because their fields of wheat had recently been frozen black. Also hundreds of cattle had died of starvation and cold. John Thirkell, filled with the Spirit, stood up pointing northeast toward where Logan now is and prophesied that someday a Temple would be built on the east bench. He said that he could see it and many houses and thousands of people in them. He told the people to press on, be diligent and faithful and that God would temper the elements for their good, and that Cache Valley would be a fruitful land, a place to be desired. John was wearing the short buckskin breeches, as they were called; that he had worn as a gamekeeper in England. The buckskin had dried and shrunken after the rains and washings, they were halfway up to his knees. Years later a man asked John why he still wore the short buckskin pants, his answer was, “For the same reason any man wears pants”
The first real bricks made in Cache Valley were made by John Thirkell and used to build an addition onto his home. The first apples and black native currants in the valley were brought by ox team from the Salt Lake Valley by John Thirkell. There were twenty apples on the trees when President Young visited the valley. Two apples were given to him for tithing.
At age 70, John Pinnock Thirkell died on the tenth of April 1884 in Wellsville, Cache, Valley, Utah.

Biography taken from FamilySearch.org.

John married Mary Baynes Brown 21 Sep 1836, Hutton-Bushel, York, England. Mary (daughter of William Brown and Sarah Banes) was born 30 Mar 1815, Hutton-Bushel, York, England; died 7 Dec 1881, Wellsville, Cache, Utah, United States; was buried , Wellsville, Cache, Utah, United States. [Group Sheet]

Nathan married Jemima Chantler 20 Mar 1809, Maidstone, Kent, England. Jemima (daughter of Thomas Chantler and Hannah Woor) was born Nov 1788, Goudhurst, Kent, England; died 9 Dec 1869, Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. [Group Sheet]

William married Sarah Banes. Sarah died Yes, date unknown. [Group Sheet]

Thomas married Elizabeth Fletcher 20 Jan 1777, St. Marylebone, Westminster, England. Elizabeth was born 15 Oct 1756, Reading, Berkshire, England; died 31 Aug 1831, Cranbrook, Kent, England. [Group Sheet]

Thomas married Hannah Woor 27 Oct 1772, Staplehurst, Kent, England. Hannah was born 1750, Steplehurst, Kent, England; died 12 Apr 1802, Staplehurst, Kent, England. [Group Sheet]