14 February 1832 - 6 December 1903
In Preston, Lancashire, England on February 14, 1832,
Joshua Brown came as little baby to bless the home of Joseph
Brown and Mary Wood Watt
Brown. He being the youngest and last child was the pride and joy
of the family, which consisted of father, Joseph, and his two sons, Robert
and James, from his first marriage, mother, Mary, with her two children,
George Darling Watt and
Margaret Watt, from her
first marriage, and now the three children from union of Joseph and Mary,
Jane Brown, Joseph
Wood Brown and Joshua Wood Brown, which composed a family of nine
at the time. His father had lost his first wife, Ann, and they had had
12 children before he married Mary Ann. Joseph was a policeman in Preston,
England.
Not much of interest is reported for Joshua
of this sketch until he was five years old. At that time in 1837
a momentous occurrence came into the life of this family, with the
introduction of the gospel of Jesus Christ into the British Isles.
It happened thus: George, Joshua's half brother, lay musing on his
bed in the hush of night. As he dozed he was accosted by a strange
man who introduced himself as a Mormon elder of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, telling him he would arrive in the
docks at Liverpool the following day. Curious, indeed, was this
message of the night to him and so strong did it take root within
him that he could not eradicate it from his mind, so he followed
the injunction, to be at the docks on the arrival of the ship, and
there indeed did he see as he emerged there from the very man of
his night's introduction. He walked directly to him, took him by
the hand. The man repeated the sentences of the night before, and
told him his name was Heber C. Kimball, also of his mission in coming
to Preston. A friendship between him and the family was at once
formed, and continued to grow stronger.
The missionary work commenced and with it the conversion
and acceptance of its divine principles by all the members of this family.
George was the first candidate and the first baptized on the July 30,
1837 after winning a foot race to the river Ribble. Mother, Mary Ann,
was the second woman baptized that day, in the British Isles. The rest
of the Brown family followed in close succession. In 1838, Joseph Jr.
was the first child baptized in the British Isles. Joshua was the first
child blessed, all done under the authority of Heber C. Kimball at the
age of five years. At the age of eight years, Joshua was baptized by his
older half-brother, Robert Brown, in 1840.
Joshua grew to young manhood in the city of
Preston and possessed of a somewhat roving nature. As many youths
before him had done, he too loved the sea with its ever changing
moods, the vital activity of its ships, and the promise of lusty
adventure in distant ports and waters. As he watched the great vessels
plying about, he became imbued with a desire to go to sea. At the
age of fourteen or fifteen, ignoring the contrary wishes of his
parents, he heeded the call of his importunate mistress, left home
and became a seaman by joining the navy first and finally as midshipman
on a whaling vessel touching South American ports.
After the pangs of homesickness had subsided,
he took kindly to his training and the work that was expected of
him and his mates. For several years the sea was his life. His experiences
were numerous and varied, and his voyages carried him around the
world several times and into many countries. Being of slight build
he became an active and fearless climber of the great rigging's
in calm or stormy weather. He could climb high in the air without
any trouble. He was always chosen to raise the flag on the high
liberty pole in Wellsville, Utah, where he lived for so many years,
and could climb with perfect ease.
At one time, in a most terrible gale with waves
rolling mountains high, he was sent up to the topmost mast to set
sails. Working at a great height, he lost his hold and fell to what
he thought would be sure death on the forks of the ship's anchor
or in the shark infested waters, but for the timely interposition
of the ship's butler, a large husky man. When he saw Joshua's danger
and saw him fall, he braced himself. With outstretched arms caught
him firmly and the two fell backward into the open door of a cabin.
So again his life was spared as it had been on other occasions from
man-eating sharks and perils from drowning, although he became an
expert swimmer.
Many such adventures befell him in his life,
fulfilling to the letter the saying in his Patriarchal Blessing.
It reads as follows: "The all seeing eye of the Lord has watched
over thee since thou carne into the world. He has preserved thy
life from danger on land and on the sea. Thou wouldest not now have
been numbered with the living, if it had not been for the special
care He has had over thee."
Joshua saw much of the world, and a great part
of the time was spent in Australia, often visiting the gold fields.
He often told his children, half in truth, half in jest, that he
once found a gold nugget weighing 150 pounds, while exploring in
these rich fields. His children's ears never tired of hearing his
stories and experiences.
Joshua had followed the sea for seven years
when word from home told him of the plans of his family to immigrate
to America. Just as he felt the urge to run away to sea as a boy,
so now at the age of twenty-one he as strongly desired to return
home and go into the new land with his family. Although he was signed
to remain with the ship some months longer, he deserted. He made
his escape as spectacularly as he had done many other things in
his life. As his narrative runs and as he loved to tell it he waited
until he saw at a safe distance a foreign ship quite out of hailing
distance of the vessel he was on. (I say safe distance because he
was an exceptional swimmer, and his great love of water led him
often to take plunges in the creek that ran through the pasture
of his home in Wellsville, Utah, in both summer and winter.) Under
the pretense of taking a customary swim, he dived into the sea and
swam leisurely toward the strange craft. If it is remembered that
the ships of that day were the old wind jammers, it can be understood
how he was able to swim with in hailing distance of it. Fortunately
for our record his signals were noted by the ship's watch it slowed
down and Joshua was picked up. Thus he made his way back to England
under the assumed name of Dick.
Upon his arrival in Preston he found that most
of his family had already departed, so he visited with his half-sister,
Margaret Watt Brandreth, until such a time as he was able to embark
for the United States. A record at the Church Historian's office
in Sail Lake City gave the date of Joshua Brown's immigration as
February 21, 1855. He took passage on the Sidney.
One day the ship began to fill with water.
All were praying that something could be done, when Joshua offered
his life if necessary to repair the trouble. After it had been repaired
and the people were thanking him, his brother Joseph identified
himself and introduced his family. Neither knew the other was there
until this incident when they happily learned each other's identity.
For his help he was highly commended by the captain who offered
him a permanent job on the ship. They arrived safe and sound and
eventually planted on the shores of America.
The Sidney docked at New Orleans, which was
then the important gateway into America's vast interior. Leaving
the ship the immigrants boarded Mississippi River boats and moved
up stream to St. Louis, Missouri, and thence on to the outfitting
post at Mormon Grove (near Atchison), Kansas to prepare themselves
for the three month's trek across the plains. He left with the John
Hindley Company on June 7, 1855. There were 206 individuals and
46 wagons in the company when it began its journey. The great hardships
common to pioneer life and prairie travel at first proved very hard
to people who had only been accustomed to sea life. Joshua worked
his way across the plains as a teamster, and, never having managed
one before, it was a little awkward at first. Needless to say the
culmination of such a journey was marked with thanksgiving and the
joy of again mingling with loved ones and friends. The company arrived
in the Salt Lake Valley on September 3, 1855.
Sarah Robbins Bailey
(1837-1902), his future wife, came with her family with the Richard Ballantyne
Company which departed July 1, 1855, the same summer as Joshua emigrated.
There were 402 individuals and 45 wagons in the company when it began
its journey from the outfitting post at Mormon Grove, Kansas. They arrived
in the Salt Lake Valley on September 25, 1855. Sarah met young Joshua.
Their acquaintance grew into love, and they were married on April 9, 1856
in Salt Lake.
 |
 |
| Joshua | Sarah |
They made their home first in Farmington,
Davis County, Utah and after four years moved into Wellsville, Cache
County, Utah permanently where their children were born and raised
with the exception of the first two. Their posterity numbers in
all eleven children, eighty-three grandchildren, one hundred and
thirty-seven great-grandchildren, more than five great-great-grandchildren
. . .
Joshua was ordained a Seventy
by Albert P. Rockwood on September 13, 1857. He and his wife, Sarah,
attended the spring conference of the Church in 1868. Their main
purpose was to go through the Endowment house, there to receive
the ordinances pertaining to their exaltation, and on April 2, 1868,
were sealed together for all eternity. Their children born to them
previous to that date were sealed to them later in the Logan Temple.
| Joshua and Sarah had 11 children: | |
| Mary Jane Brown
Birth 1 Sep 1857 Farmington, Davis, Utah, USA Died Feb 1862 at 4 years old |
|
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Charles Bailey Brown Birth 1 Jun 1859 Farmington, Davis, Utah, USA Died 29 Mar 1950 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA Buried 1950 Wellsville Cemetery |
 |
Sarah Ann Brown
Birth 28 Sep 1861 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Married Charles Edwards Gunnell on 23 Feb 1882 in Salt Lake City Died 11 Jul 1937 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Buried 14 Jul 1937 Wellsville Cemetery |
 |
Joshua Bailey Brown Birth 1 Apr 1863 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Married Mary Jane Archibald on 27 Jan 1887 in the Logan Temple Died 3 Jul 1944 Ogden, Weber, Utah, USA Buried 6 Jul 1944 Ogden, Weber, Utah, USA |
 |
Margaret Ellen Brown Birth 17 Oct 1865 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Married Alfred S. Smurthwaite on 25 Jun 1890 in the Logan Temple Died 26 Oct 1956 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA Buried Oct 1956 Wellsville Cemetery |
 |
Kate Ethlinda Brown Birth 20 Feb 1866 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Married Lewis Peter Watkins on 27 Dec 1889 in the Logan Temple Died 30 Mar 1948 Logan, Cache, Utah, USA Buried 2 Apr 1948 Wellsville Cemetery |
 |
Susan Bailey Brown
Birth 12 Nov 1867 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Married John Love Baxter on 8 Dec 1892 in Salt Lake City Died 8 Jan 1955 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA Buried 12 Jan 1955 Wellsville Cemetery |
 |
Roselia Bailey Brown
Birth 19 Nov 1869 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Married Willard White Pitkin on 29 Sep 1897 in the Logan Temple Died 9 Nov 1952 Millville, Cache, Utah, USA Buried 12 Nov 1952 Millville Nibley Cemetery |
 |
Joseph Bailey Brown
Birth 7 Dec 1871 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Married Eleanor Barnes Baxter on 8 Dec 1897 in the Logan Temple Died 29 Nov 1918 Ogden, Weber, Utah, USA Buried 2 Dec 1918 Wellsville Cemetery |
 |
John Arnold Brown Birth 4 Dec 1873 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Married Caroline Maughan Jones on 26 Jun 1907 in Salt Lake City Died 26 Dec 1962 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA Buried 28 Dec 1962 Salt Lake City Cemetery |
|
Agnes Mathilda Brown Birth 13 Jan 1876 Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA Married Joseph Henry England Abt 1893 Died 27 Jul 1954 Springville, Utah, Utah, USA Buried 31 Jul 1954 Springville Evergreen Cemetery |
During the presidency of John Henry Smith over the European Mission, Joshua was called and set apart to fill a mission to his native land, working mostly in the Sheffield Conference from April 1882 to May 3, 1884. He labored diligently and accomplished a good work and while there realized some of the promises made to him in his Patriarchal Blessing. His Patriarchal Blessing was bestowed upon him by O. N. Lilinquist on January 13, 1890.
At the close of an active and very eventful life, the end came after a lingering illness attended with intense suffering surrounded by his children on December 6, 1903. He died, in full faith of a glorious resurrection and was interred on Wednesday, December 9, 1903 in the Wellsville City Cemetery, 400 North 200 East, Wellsville in grave A-21-9-1.
Written by Margaret Brown Smurthwaite and Arvilla
B. Robbins
Edited by Deborah Holtzendorff
Family Pictures
Back row: Sarah Ann (Saran), Kate Ethlinda (Kate) and Matilda (Tillie)
F ront row: Susan (Susie), Margaret (Maggie), Rosella (Rose)
1944 Brown Brothers and Sisters
Maggie, Kate, Charles, Rose, Tillie, John, Susie, Josh