“William Greenhalgh –29 July 1811 - - 3 April 1882 The History of William Greenhalgh(As written by himself) William Greenhalgh was born 29 July 1811 at Breightmet – near – Bolton Lancashire, England, son of Robert and Ellen Greenhalgh. I was born from poor but industrial parents and I remained with them till 1834. About that time I took a wife by the name of Mary Clough. Mary was born 13 March 1814, daughter of John and Susan Clough. In 1835 Mary brought forth a son which I named Robert --- who lived about four years. In Breightmet on 9 June 1837 she brought forth another son and gave him the name of John. On 14 May1840 she brought forth a daughter who was named Ellen. She lived till about four years and died in Hancock County, Nauvoo. In 1840 I became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-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 15 April 1842 I left my native country and set out for Nauvoo. I landed at Nauvoo on the 20 May the same year. I left my wife and two children (Mary was in family way of another child) in England. I went to work for the prophet Joseph Smith to pay their emigration. On 20 Nov. 1843 Mary brought forth an other daughter and named her Mary she crossed the sea and the child died and was buried in the Gulf of Mexico. Mary landed in Nauvoo with the two children about the last of May in the same year, in time to become acquainted with the Prophet. I was in Nauvoo when the Prophet Joseph Smith placed the responsibility of the government of the church on the shoulders of the “twelve” and I heard him tell them they must bear it for a while. On the 25 of June he was called upon by the Governor of Illinois to give himself up to the Carthage Jail to be tried by the law. Before going, he called the people together and asks them if they were willing to die for him. They told him they were. 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 the arms 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 him self up to the officer of the law again. Then the officer said” Now Mr. Smith there is great reports about the people of Nauvoo, but I see nothing to do with them” Joseph said “that there was something the matter with them”, the officer said “what was it”. Joseph said “There innocence would bring condemnation on this generation”. Then he turned around to us and blessed us in the name of the Lord. On the 27 June 1844 Joseph Smith 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 the Carthage Jail. About two days previous to his assignation, Joseph 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 offence toward God and toward all men and I shall die innocent”. The next 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 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 bear him witness. He spoke the next day to them to see if the people would accept him. Just at this time came home Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. The morning Brigham Young ordered the people to bring a wagon to the south side of the 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 it was the voice of Joseph speaking through Brigham Young. My wife Mary sitting close by me not able to turn her head ask 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 Harroman and placed as a member in the quorum of Seventies. I was baptized for my father in the baptismal font of the temple in1845. On the 10 April 1845, My wife gave birth to another daughter and we called her Mary Ann. Brigham told us to hurry on with the temple. So I went to work on it. All the time as we worked on the temple the mob began to rage more and more. Then Brigham commanded all the Saints in all the settlements to gather up to Nauvoo. Some gathered and some did not. Those who didn’t the mob burned there houses 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 leaders of the church --- Such as Gladon 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 sealing because of the trouble with the mob. We were told we would receive our sealing in the mountains John, my son, was baptized in the Mississippi River by Brother Neibor. The Saints began to leave Nauvoo in Feb1844. 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 and work in the wagon shop to prepare ourselves wagons to go with. Joseph Young was sent from the camp and told us we could not stay 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, but were driven back and moved from Joseph’s fair to Hy?nu?ls, 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 house and come out 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 filed at us. On Friday, I was commanded to go home on account of my feet having big holes in them 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 Saint Louis. We landed in St. Louis destitute and had to go and beg a days work when I could get it. On the 29 Feb. 1845, my wife, Mary, 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 on the 23 June 1847 and we stopped at St. Louis a little over 3 years. I was sick about one and a half years and in 1849 we moved up to St. Joseph and there we got 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 on 9 July 1851. My wife brought forth another son and called him Joseph, born in St. Joseph Missouri and I was placed in the Presidency of the Branch. On 16 Dec. 1851, my wife Mary 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” on 22 Aug 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. On 25 Apr. 1856 I married Sarah Jarvis, born 21 Jan. 1820 at Little Hulton, near Tyldsley, England. I went into the sealing room and had my wives Mary Clough and Sarah Jarvis, sealed to me. In the fall of 1856, I sold my house and lot and paid it over for tithing, as I had been running some behind and I moved to keys-ward and moved in to an old schoolhouse 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 the 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 where I was going. We started and came to Salt Lake City and there we had to stop a week on account of wet wether and then we started again and came to Mill Creek and there we broke down and stopped to get our wagons fixed and then we came to Santaquin, 25 May 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 ate 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 in the fall of 1865. I went up to the city and took me another wife by the name of Hannah Booth, born 16 Jan. 1849, daughter of Joseph and Mary Booth. On 28 Feb. 1867, my wife bore a son, James Henry, on 7 Mar, 1868, she brought forth another son and called his name William Robert. On 28 Dec. 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: John Greenhalgh, my brother: Robert Greenhalgh, my brother: Richard Greenhalgh, my brother: John Hall, my brother-in-law: Rodger Walmsley, my grandfather on my mothers side: John Walmsley, my uncle: Rodger Walmsley, my uncle: Job Gae, a friend. My son, John Greenhalgh was baptized 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, Jarvis 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 mothers 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 him sealed to their husbands…all except my sister Margaret. Martha Jane Greenhalgh, daughter of William Greenhalgh and Hannah Booth, born 12 Sept 1880, James Henry Greenhalgh, son of William, Baptized 1 Mar 1876 by Bishop George Halliday of Santaquin and confirmed by Peter Nelson. William Greenhalgh was ordained a member of the High-Priesthood Quorum on the 25 Oct 1875 under the hand of Bishop George Halliday of Santaquin. Hannah Greenhalgh brought forth a daughter 16 Nov. 1876 and named her Mary Eliza and blessed by her father 20 Feb. 1877. William Robert Greenhalgh, Baptized by Carl Carlgreen, 16 Jun 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 large distance from them like a large courthouse. On the side of these two houses, I saw a company of men that looked very dark in their appearance and seemed to be hollering and making a noise and while this was going on I saw a man rise up in the air above me. Then in 1842 I came to Nauvoo. In 1843 I went to Liyart and when I came to Patrick, I stood still and looked at the place and saw that 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 saw 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 those holes and they couldn’t get him. In a short time they took and murdered one of the apostles. When Brigham Young died and was put in the tomb, it came into my mind about the dream. My wife Hannah brought forth another son named Jacob Joseph, born 12 Feb. 1879 and was blessed by Benjamin Johnson on 29 Jul 1879 and died 8 Sept. 1880. I started from home with my wife Hannah and four children all in good health and he was taken sick on 5 Sep. , puking and purging and on the 8th, he died. We brought him home and interned at Santaquin on the 9th. My wife Sarah and the boys had got everything in readiness as for the funeral, when we got home from Sanpete.***************************************William Greenhalgh died at his residence at Spring Lake, Utah of paralysis. Born 29 Jul. 1811 in Lancashire, England. Baptized Oct 1840 into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Immigrated to Nauvoo, IL in 1842. Labored on the Temple there under great privation and received his endowments therein. He belonged to the 14th Quorum of the 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. In 1858 he came to Santaquin and resided there until 1880 when they moved to Spring Lake. He was always in concert with the active priesthood laboring as a teacher, being in fact a peacemaker and laborer 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 16 Jan. 1847, died 20 Mar. 1896.Sarah Jarvis / Greenhalgh Born: 21 Jan.1820 Death: 08 May 1895 Married: William Greenhalgh 25 April 1856, Sarah had no children. Her Mother was Ann Jarvis sister Mary Ann Jarvis.”