Louisa Gwyther
1827-1893
Louisa was raised in luxury. She had servants to wait on her at every turn. Her father was very strict with her and she had to always be immaculate. She would be eyed up from head to toe and if anything was wrong, she would be sent back upstairs to dress and undress and try and find out what was wrong. Louisa loved the days when the cook would allow her in the kitchen; she would watch her prepare the meals, and in her later years this helped her in the preparation of the meals for her family. They had plenty, but the servants were not allowed to waste, and when her father found the scullery girl peeling the vegetables thin he gave her an extra schilling.
Louisa wrote: “My Father was a Baptist Minister and owned a large coach Building Establishment in Monmonthshire Wales. My Mother died of consumption when I was between three and four years of age. I was the eldest of three children, left motherless. My mother was a Lady of high Culture and Education…”
Her father took her to church every Sunday, and she had to read her Bible every day. The children were well educated, and her brother was a great scholar and graduated from Oxford College when 18 years old with high honors, but he studied too hard, and did not live long afterwards. She often asked her father why he did not preach the same Gospel that Jesus taught, for she felt a lack of something in his church.
Louisa did beautiful needlework and was accomplished in music. She was generous, and kind and her sister would scold her when she opened her purse to give the beggar a schilling or sixpence, but she could never pass anyone who needed help.
She was about 22 years old when she first listened to the Mormon Elders preaching on the street corners. She went to the meetings, heavily veiled, and when she had read and studied, and everything was made plain to her, just the thing she had been waiting for, she was converted to the Church and soon joined it.
“From my childhood up, I attended the Baptist Church with my Father; but always felt a lack of something substantial in the Gospel that was preached to me. I read my Bible daily and wondered why we could not have the same Gospel that Jesus taught. In the year 1849 I first heard a Mormon Elder preach; when everything I had read in the Scriptures appeared plain to my understanding just the very thing I had been searching after.I joined the church one week from the time I first heard the Gospel and was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”
Louisa was taken from her room at midnight, through an open window; she slid down a rope. The night was cold, and a storm was raging, and the elders had to break the ice in order to baptize her, November 18, 1849. Elder James W. Cummings of Salt Lake City, Utah, performed the ceremony. She was confirmed 25 November 1849, Cheltenham, by J. W. Cummings, and she became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She did not take cold, and she kept her secret for a long time; but when her folks did find it out, she surely suffered severely for joining such a low-down set of people, as they were called at that time. She was turned out and had to go from riches to ladies' maid and seamstress, for she was disowned and had to make her own living. Her engaged lover discarded her for joining the Church, and he died of a broken heart.
George was usher in the Church and when he saw Louisa come to church heavily veiled, dressed in silk and satin, her hair in ringlets down past her knees, she was a lovely picture. He said, if ever I have a wife, she is the one I want. They were married October 19, 1853, at Brimpsfield, Gloucester, England. Their first child, Emma Louisa, was born August 13, 1854. In 1856, their second child, Hattie Jane was born.
Thinking he could acquire money faster if he came to America, George was counseled to leave his family and then send for them when he had the money. He left England on March 28, 1857 on the ship George Washington. He arrived in the United States at Boston and settled in Virginia. He was stricken with mountain fever and ague and for nine months he lay between life and death. It was not until the spring of 1860 that he had sufficient means to send for his wife and two children to come to him.
Louisa made a living for herself and her two children with her needle and also kept the Conference house. When she received the news to come to America and she notified her people she was leaving, they sent her sister to plead with her to go back to them. They would forgive her if she would denounce the Church and leave her husband. They would take her two little girls and give them the very best education. Her sister even went so far as to get the police and told them that the "Mormons' were spiriting her sister away. Her sister hid the oldest girl, she cried dreadfully, did everything in her power to get Louisa to give up and go back to them. Louisa was firm; she knew the Gospel was true, and she said she would work her fingers to the bone before she would give up the true Gospel.
Louisa persuaded the Captain of the ship, Underwriter,to board at midnight in order to get off land before her sister woke up and kept her from sailing. They left March 30, 1860, and the ship could travel no faster than the wind could take them. Some sources say Louise traveled with her mother in law Ann Taylor and sister in law Jane, 19. Big storms arose which blew them way off their course and it was six weeks before they arrived in New York Harbor.
They had hardly any food to eat, so Louisa became very ill and she was confined to her bed. Emma, not six, Hattie Jane not four, always remembered the burnt peas and sea biscuits which they had to eat and carried them in their pockets nibbling on them.
They traveled steerage and Louisa cut off her beautiful hair to keep the lice from getting into it. The sharks followed their boat and whenever a person died aboard, they would wrap them up in canvass, put weights to their head and feet, and throw them overboard. They had to do this to keep the sharks from capsizing their boat and Louisa prayed day and night that her life would be spared to take her little girls to their father.
One night, around midnight, when she was so sick she thought she could not live any longer, an angel appeared to her bedside and brought her some food. She turned to thank him, but he was gone. The food made her sufficiently strong so that she could meet her husband. When her husband met them in New York City, there was a happy reunion. He went and bought some bread and cheese, and the little girls tore it apart like hungry dogs, and their parents wept.
It was May 1, 1860, when they arrived in New York Harbor, and George took his family to Cheshire, New Haven, Conn., and the following year, January 27, 1861, a baby boy was born to them (George Milo Taylor).
In the spring (1862) they went to St. Joseph, Missouri, crossed the Missouri River and camped at Florence, Nebraska until teams were brought from Utah to take the emigrants to Utah. On the way their train caught on fire and many of their belongings were burned.
They left for Utah June, 1862, in Captain Duncan's Company, Louisa rode as she held her little sickly 18-month-old baby and prayed to God to spare her boy that he could stay with them and that she could take him to Utah. They had no food for the baby to eat, and everyone said he would not live, but he did live and by faith and prayers lived and grew to manhood and reared a large family.
They arrived in Utah valley the latter part of September, 1862 and were met at the mouth of Immigration Canyon by Grandfather's sister Charlotte and John Richins. They settled near them in Goshen.
Two more children, Lucy Palmer Taylor was born July 1, 1863, in lower Goshen and Alice Ann, was born two years later.
Louisa went out sewing and made beautiful dresses by hand. When the first machine was brought in, she arranged to buy it on installments, but before the last payment was due, the agent came for his money. She asked him to give her until night to collect money due her, but he would not wait and took the machine. The story goes that on the way to Payson, his horse got frightened and ran away, tipping over the buggy and breaking up the machine. She had to go back to sewing by hand.
She started a millinery store and the family moved up in the center of town to care for an old blind lady. Her older girls were married. Lucy and her younger sister, Alice, took care of the blind lady, and did the work while Louisa took care of the millinery store.
Alice died from the effects of measles when 12 years old, so Lucy 14 was left quite alone. They had dressed alike and were always togLouisa and George and family went to the St. George Temple in 1882 and did work for their dead relatives and friends as far back as they could get sufficient knowledge of genealogy. They were sealed to each other and had their children sealed to them.Louisa taught in the Sunday School for years and was Secretary of the Relief Society from its first organization until her death. She also sang in the choir and made clothes for the dead. Louisa was a beautiful lady, but the change from wealth and luxury to pioneer life weakened her body, and she was never strong; but she never regretted her conviction, and always bore a strong and powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In her own words, “I feel to leave my testimony to coming generations that I know this is the work of God and that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet and my fondest hopes are that my children will ever sustain and revere and uphold Mormonism. I feel to devote my life to and all I own to the furtherance of this work and may God grant me his holy spirit that I may prove faithful to the end is my humble prayer.”
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