Friday, October 25, 2019

Robert Telford and Ann Conn

    
    Marriage record for Robert and Ann under the surname Conn
        Public Record Office of Ireland, Marriage License Bonds,
                                                      Diocese of Armagh                                                 

-M-
5th Great grandparents

Robert Telford

Parents: Unsourced: James Telford and Elizabeth Catherine Mary McCoun
Born about 1757 Ireland
Married Ann Conn 1793 Armagh, Ulster, Ireland
Died after 1813 Ireland
Buried
Sources
Marriage: Public Record Office of Ireland, Marriage License Bonds, Diocese of Armagh
Family Search
ancestry.com

Ann Conn
Parents: John Conn and unknown woman (NOT RUTH DAVIS!)
Born 1769 Armagh, Ulster, Ireland
Died
Buried
Sources
Family Search
ancestry.com


CHILDREN


-M-
4th great grandmother

Jane's headstone
Jane Telford
Born: 17 Dec 1795 Armagh, Ulster, North Ireland
Married Robert Telford 13 March 1825 Barrhead, Ulster, Ireland
Children: Robert, Anna, George, John, Eliza, Joseph, Emma
Died: 5 Sep 1886 Richmond, Cache, Utah
Buried: Richmond City Cemetery

Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude page 73 recorded:

Jane and her family joined the main body of Saints at Kirtland, Ohio during that darkest period of the Church. 

In 1839, Jane and her family were located in Missouri. They all suffered very much from mob violence, as they endured all the persecutions, the mobbings and driving of the Saints out of Missouri and Illinois. 

At one time when all of the family were sick with chills and fever, except Robert, the oldest son, the mob came and ordered them out of their home. They were very ill suffering with the fever. Jane and her husband were fortunate that their worst suffering occurred on alternate days, so when one was too sick and helpless to get up it was possible for the other to help with the care of the children. 

On the day the mob came Jane’s husband was suffering so severely and was so helpless that it aroused the sympathy of one member of the mob. He interceded fro the family and got the mob to consent to letting them remain in their home until the next day. On the morrow conditions were worse and neither Jane nor her husband were able to get up when the mob returned. This aroused the anger of the mob and they threatened to burn them with the house. The same man who had interceded for them the previous day again championed their cause. When he saw Jane, the mother of those sick children, in such a pitiable condition he defied the mob and told them he had a mother and would not take part in such inhuman treatment. 

When the mob set fire to the house he carried them out against the protests and vile threats of the mob and helped them get away in safety by marching with his drawn gun between the anger crazed mob and the Telford wagon. Thus they escaped death and fled from their home while their house and crops and all their possessions were consumed by fire. This was probably in Missouri as they had a farm in that state. 

Sick and destitute, the family looked in vain for food and shelter. They could get none because the people in all the surrounding country were threatened with like treatment if they sold food to the homeless Saints or assisted them in any way. 

In one of the outlying districts, John Telford attempted to buy food for his family, but even there the mob had threatened violence against the farmers if they assisted a Mormon. And when John asked a farmer to sell him some provisions he said, "I pretend to be human but I dare not sell you anything, or I too would have to flee with my family." He was more courageous than the others and as he turned to go into the field he said, “ There is meat in the smoke house and flour and potatoes in the bins.” 

When the farmer left for work in his field, John took a little flour and a few slices of bacon and put his money under the door, He hurried away before anyone discovered him and found out he had received assistance. 

Later Jane and her husband and children went to Illinois and located in Nauvoo. They built a good brick home with lovely flower gardens. Again they had a comfortable home and were prospering. Persecutions were renewed and they were harassed in-Hancock County, as they were in Ohio and Missouri. Jane and her daughter Anna often talked of the dark days in Nauvoo when their beloved prophet was martyred. How the leaves on the trees withered and dropped to the ground on the day of the martyrdom on 27 June 1844 was often recalled. The city seemed desolate to the sorrowing grief-stricken people. Jane’s husband and children worked on the Nauvoo temple until its completion. 

In their anxiety to finish the building before they were forced to flee the city, the people worked in all kinds of weather and suffered a lot from cold and exposure. John’s oldest son Robert, worked at the rock quarry and also on the temple building. One day while working on the top of the structure on the inside he fell to the bottom. When workmen picked him up and carried him out they thought he was dead, but when he fell he struck two men on the bottom floor knocking them down. This eased his fall and saved his life. 

Jane’s younger son, George, suffered so much from cold and exposure and pneumonia that he died at Garden Grove in 1850 at the age of 21. Jane's youngest children, Joseph and Emma Jane were born during these trying times and died in infancy. 

Jane believed and accepted all the principles of the Gospel and was true to her religion. She never complained against the hardships she endured because of the prejudice against her religion. 

The Nauvoo Temple was completed and Jane and her husband with their grown children had the opportunity of receiving their endowments there. Jane and John Telford were endowed on December 24, 1845 before the Saints were driven from the state.

This famous early photograph of Nauvoo is the only known image taken while the city served as Church headquarters. Focused on the temple, it offers a glimpse of the town the year the Saints were driven out by organized opponents. Note the plethora of young fruit trees in the back yards that testify of the Saints’ dreams of creating permanent homes in this garden city.
Copy photograph, Courtesy Church Archives.



The Telfords left their home in Nauvoo in February, 1846, at the beginning of the general exodus west of over twenty thousand homeless, destitute Mormon people. In 1851 they started for Utah. They came with the Harry Walton company. 


Pioneer
John Telford was a captain of fifty of this company. Jane crossed the plains with the John Ellis “Ten” which was part of the Harry Walton fifty. They had wagons built for the trip according to her husband’s specifications. They needed large wagons for provisions and seeds for planting. One was built to measure so that no space was wasted. This was filled with bolts of cloth, fine linen, dress materials, suiting for men’s clothing, etc. Also they had one small one horse wagon for the family to ride in. This wagon was fitted with a good upholstered seat so that Jane could ride in comfort to the Valley. Anna Telford drove the one horse wagon in which her mother was riding and the younger sister Victoria drove the team. 

When the Telfords began their journey the had enough horses for all their wagons, but on the plains the Indians stole or shot their horses. During the remainder of their trek to the Valley they were forced to use cows and oxen on their wagons. Victoria had one horse and a cow hitched to her wagon. 

During the journey Jane and her daughter Anna made four temple suits for burial out of linen they were bringing to the valley. They sewed all the time when they were not busy with camp duties. Anna was also making her trousseau. 

The company arrived in Salt Lake in September, 1851, and the Telfords settled in Bountiful, Davis County, Utah, the second settlement in Utah. They moved to Cache Valley and Jane lived her daughter, Anna Stoddard, in Richmond until her home, was completed about 1882. 

Jane was a very busy, industrious woman. She worked all the time and taught her daughters to do the same. Jane was a very good singer and sang all the time as she worked around the house. Even in old age she never lost the clear musical tone of her voice. She was a good housekeeper, clean, neat, and economical. Jane was a good seamstress and knitted very well. She knitted until she was ninety years old making stockings and many more things for herself, her children and grandchildren. She never wore glasses. She always took an interest in the events of her neighborhood as well as world affairs. She was a bright, intelligent woman. She was blonde and very beautiful in her youth. Even in old age she was a fine looking woman and never lost her erect and slender figure. She enjoyed good health until her death. 

Jane passed away in her ninety-first year on September 5, 1886. She was buried in the Richmond Cemetery. She was the mother of seven children. Five preceded her to the great beyond.
Sources
http://www.allenhackworth.com/ Dead link as of Sep 2020
1840 US Census Nauvoo, Illinois
Note: her name is not on the census, but we know she came with Robert
1870 US Census for Utah (age 74)
1880 US Census for Bountiful, Davis, Utah (age 84, widowed, living with daughter-in-law Maria)
Membership records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Samuel Telford
Birth about 1797 Armagh, Ulster, North Ireland
Married
Children
Death Sep 1870
Buried
Sources
Family Search
ancestry.com
Robert Telford
Birth about 1799 Armagh, Ulster, North Ireland
Married
Children
Death
Buried
Sources
Family Search
ancestry.com
Thomas Telford
Birth about 1800 Armagh, Ulster, North Ireland
Married Mary Stewart about 1816
Children: Eliza, Thomas
Note: there is a big space between these two, so there are likely more to be found. Needs more research
Death
Buried
Sources
Thomas and Mary are mentioned in their son (Thomas's) marriage record.
Family Search
ancestry.com