LFA Newsletter Volume 48, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

From LFAwiki

Message From our Board Chair

Eric Epperson

By Eric Epperson

Greetings, Dear Livingston Clan!

Unprecedented times! Who knew that 2020 would start off in such a dismal, unpredictable fashion?! The two-week effort to flatten the COVID Curve, has now been close to 15 months, and although the pandemic has stabilized and digressed significantly, “normal” is still a distant vista and social distancing, mask wearing, and vaccines are daily conversations.

Can you imagine how much fun our collective family can have at an upcoming July reunion? With the curve flattened and optimism rising, NOW is the time for us to display the Livingston Leadership that all other posterities admire! Plans are well underway for the 2021 Livingston Legacy Reunion with more details within this newsletter! Read on, and save the date of Saturday, July 17, 2021 for our next family reunion! We are so excited to see you all again and to renew our friendships and family ties that bind us for generations!

We hope you are all finding ways to stay healthy, safe, and happy during these difficult times. There may be gas shortages, lumber shortages, paint pigment shortages, but there will never be a shortage of love and commonality than we all share together as multiple lines of the Livingston Family! Now, more than ever, we need to pull together as family and find ways to stay connected with those we love! May you all enjoy your immediate and extended family member associations this summer, as much as we are allowed, and please come and participate!! We will see you there!!

2021 Reunion

2021 Livingston Reunion Flyer

We are so excited to be able to have our Reunion this year!

Date: July 17, 2021 - 10:30 AM
Location: 600 S 100 W, American Fork, UT (church building)

We will have the use of a pavilion and beautiful grounds with the option of moving inside the building if needed.

We’d love to see as many of you out as possible, and will take safety precautions, but please do what is best for you and your family. In accordance with local laws, masks will not be required, but are certainly welcomed.

We will have a general meeting and update on how the family is doing, a brief family history lesson, and the association will provide lunch. We are asking those with last names starting A-L bring a salad to share and those with last names M-Z bring a dessert to share. You are always welcome to bring your own picnic lunch to avoid any allergies, dietary concerns, or safety concerns.

RSVP: livingston_amy@yahoo.com with the number you are bringing so we can adequately prepare.

WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE EVERYONE!!!!

Helen Livingston Watts (1837-1915) Daughter of Archibald & Helen Muir Connor

Helen Livingston Watts

History of Helen Livingston Watts compiled from information gathered by Georgia Memmott, Bountiful, Utah, from church records, history found in Smithfield… as a city on a hill, the history of Helen from Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, page 3285, and from memories of Helen told to Georgia by her grandmother, Harriett Miles Watts, wife of Joseph Watts who was the nephew of Helen Livingston and her husband Joseph Watts.

Helen, sometimes known as Ellen, lost her mother Helen Muir Conner, in Scotland when she was but nine months old. Her father, Archibald, married again two years later and after ten years, he and his wife both died of cholera within two months of each other. This left Helen to the mercy of the world at the tender age of twelve years. She found work in different families for six years. Then her grandmother, Christina Livingston, having joined the Mormon Church, decided to come to the United States and join the Saints in Zion or Deseret Territory. She brought her grandchildren with her. Her son Archibald had three children by Helen Muir; James, Charles and Helen. After the death of Helen his wife, he married Jean Bain and had Jane, Isabella, Archibald and William. James came to America first and later sent for his grandmother Christina, who was caring for the other children in England to come to America. He paid part of their fare through the Perpetual Education Fund. She left Holytown with the 5 grandchildren and her two youngest children, James and Ellen in November of 1854 and stayed in Liverpool, England one month then she left England in January 17th 1855 and was on the sea for two months. Young Helen spent three months at Garden Grove with her family waiting for an ox team to take them across the plains. She left in June 1855 with Richard Ballentyne’s Company, reaching Salt Lake City in October 1855. She walked every step of the way, barefooted and even without a bonnet. Everyone was put on half rations the last half of the way.

In Salt Lake, Helen went to work for Hursel Barton. Helen worked nineteen weeks at 50 cents a week and from this money she bought a pair of shoes and a calico dress. The next summer in 1856, she went to Carson Valley with Bishop Covey and family and she being now anxious to join the Mormon Church was baptized by Elder John Hyde, who was traveling in the same company on his way to serve a mission to the Sandwich Islands.

After reaching Carson, she had a hard time for over a year, having to work most of the time just for board, so she came back to Salt Lake City and then moved South with the people due to fear of Johnston’s Army. She went to Spanish Fork with the William Branch Family. Returning to Salt Lake in 1859, and finding work at the home of Francis Pumroy. She became acquainted with Joseph Watts, a new convert from England. They were married by Elder Atwood that summer. She was twenty-two years old and Joseph was forty-nine years old. That summer they journeyed north to Summit (Smithfield) Cache County, Utah arriving the first of May 1860. They made themselves a little home on Summit Creek in the fort to begin with, which was two and a half blocks west of the main street. They went back to Salt Lake City the next year, 1861, to go through the endowment house to be sealed.

Joseph Watts was the son of William Watts of Froxfield, Wiltshire, England, born 1809. He and his brother, Henry and Henry’s wife, Eliza Whale, came to America with the help of the Perpetual Emigration Fund too. They came in 1855. This was shortly after they were baptized in England.

Joseph and Helen lived happy together for a little over forty years until Joseph was stricken with paralysis in October and died five weeks later, Nov 29th, 1899. They had no children to bless this union but helped and enjoyed their nieces and nephews of brother Henry Watts. They even took in a little Pilkington girl to help raise for awhile. She was known as Aunt Helen or Aunt Ellen. Many hardships and trials were endured laboring to make a farming community while living with the threat of Indians. Helen lived sixteen more years alone in her little two room home after her husband died with the exception of a few months under the nursing care of a neighbor, Jane Claypool. She died of acute intestinal problems and bronchitis. She is buried next to Joseph in the Smithfield Cemetery.

Joseph and Helen Watts Summit Creek Home

Helen Livingston Watts - Death Certificate

Helen and Joseph Watts with Nieces and Nephews

NOTE: The description of how Granny immigrated to America is different than the description of the history written by Margaret Mae Bergeson Livingston which is at the following link http://livingstonfamily.org/wiki/History_of_Christina_Campbell_Livingston


The PDF version of this newsletter can be viewed and downloaded by clicking Spring Newsletter (897 KB).