Tiller of the Earth

William Wadley

His Life and Family

by

Effie W. Adams

July 1986

William Wadley joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales in 1848 and left for Utah in 1853. For these two deeds we, his posterity, honor him with the publication of this book. It is not our purpose to make a saint of William. He was a man burdened with faults and weaknesses, like all of us, but he was a pioneer with resoluteness and fortitude. He made an important contribution to his times, and he opened the door to better life for his descendants.

One source of information for this history is William's own handwritten 1 page sketch written in 1909, when he was eighty-four years old. He begins,

I, William Wadley, son of Edward Wadley and Ann Reynolds Wadley, was born October 8th, 1825, in the Parish of Newent, in Gloucestershire, England. Am the oldest son of my father. My father was the oldest son of his father.

Our forefathers came from Scotland to England about 2 hundred years ago and settled in Kempley in Herefordshire, England. My great grandfather Thomas Wadley was born in Upton Bishop. My Grandfather, Edward Wadley, was born in Newent Parish. My father was born in Newent, and I was born in Newent Parish. It was a farming district.

Newent is a town a short distance northwest of Gloucester. Now it is accessible by highway, but in the early 1800's it was linked to other towns and parishes by narrow roads and paths. Bordering the current highways are the ancient hedgerows and rock walls which remains they have been for centuries. Newent is an old town historically, and we learn from modern tourist guide that it is noted in the Doomsday Book (1086) that there are "no less than thirteen variations of the name Newent which have been used down the intervening years." One writer calls it "New In, " built to accommodate travelers on the new way into central Wales. Another suggests that its name came from an ancient proper noun meaning "New Place".

Most of the fields around Newent are now cultivated, but whenever there is an uncultivated area, and along hedgerows and ditch banks, there are daffodils growing which in the spring show a wave of color. These wild patches of daffodils are what remain of fields planted originally for making dye. Now they flower without any attention and add greatly to England's beauty in the late April and early May.

In 1982, Carma Wadley, a great-granddaughter of William and a writer for the Deseret News, visited Newent. She wrote about the Church of St. Mary the Virgin and its graveyard.

In the center of Newent, as in the case in most English villages, is the church, in this case the church of St. Mary the Virgin…. A church has stood at that location since Anglo-
Saxon times (before the Norman Conquesst of 1066) they say, and on display in the church are a few Saxon artifacts unearthed there. …As interesting as the old Church is equally fascinating is the quiet graveyard surrounding it. There, under sometimes ornately carved, sometimes crumbling markers, countless souls are, indeed, resting in peace….And way off in the corner, on a tilted, fading marker: "In memory of Edward Wadley who died July 5, 1847, age 71 years. Also of Martha the wife of the above" These were William's grandparents. Later, in a little churchyard in nearby Aston Ingham, we found the grave of William's brother John, and those of several other Wadleys.

William's parents were 'Yeoman' farmers in Newent, which probably meant that they owned their own small plot of land. His father was a forester and fruit raiser, as was also his father's father. Edward, and his great grandfather, Thomas Wadley. The Wadley family lived in a home built by Ann Reynolds (William's mother) father, Joseph Reynolds.

William had four younger brothers: John, born April 5, 1827; Richard, born December4, 1828; Joseph, born December 23, 1830; and Henry, born December 14, 1832. A younger brother and sister died as children.

The small Wadley farm in Newent furnished limited sustenance for a growing family, and at the age of seven, William was put out as an apprentice to a farmer who lied quite a distance from William's home. His job was to feed and care for the farm horses and then ride the lead horse as the horses walked single file to keep from packing too much ground. They were feed about three o'clock in the morning so they could start work at daybreak. Many years later, workers on William's own farm in Pleasant Grove, Utah, said that William always liked to have his horses fed before daylight, which was probably the result of this very early training.

William told a story to his family in later years of being very sleepy one morning and being unable to get out of bed. The stern farmer, finding him still asleep, threw a bucket of cold water in his face. From then on during his lifetime William seldom slept in later than 3am. He said lunch during these apprentice years always consisted of bread, cheese and cider.

William learned to read and write while he was young by attending a Sunday school He never mentioned of he attended regular school. What samples we have of his writing, such as his missionary journal and letters, show that his writing was plain and readable, and his spelling adequate. William commented in later years that he was dismissed from Sunday school because he asked so many questions that the teacher could not answer. Gloucester, England near where William was living, was the birthplace of the famous "Raikes' Ragged School" established in 1780. This was a Sunday school primarily for poor children, who were taught to read and to spell so they could study the Bible The movement eventually developed into a world-wide activity that resulted in the organization of 'Sunday Schools' after which L.D.S. Sunday School was patterned.

When William was nineteen years old he saw an opportunity to better his lot. He wrote briefly of a move he made:

I worked for the farmer till I was 19 years old, then I left England and went to Wales to Glamorganshire and worked in the coal mines near Merthyr Tydfil.

In 1844 when William went to work in the coal mines, Merthyr Tydfil was the largest city in Wales and was about 70 miles from Newent. The 1840s were boom years for Merthyr Tydfil. It was a city of great iron works that were operating at capacity. Orders for iron came from all parts of the world. Great railroads were being built world-wide, and orders for tons of rails kept the great mills -- the largest in the world -- working to capacity.

To support the needs of the ironworks, the coal mines were expanding considerably. Coal had been mined in South Wales for more than two thousand years, but the growth of the iron industry brought great expansion of the mining activity. This expansion resulted in rapid population growth as workers from other parts of Wales, from England, and other countries came to get employment. To William, age nineteen, working on a farm in Newent not far away, the opportunity to do better must have loomed large. Living conditions in the mining town were poor, but they were even more depressed in his home town. So when William left Newent in 1844 to work in the mines, he fully expected to better his life. This betterment came about in a totally unexpected way. He wrote,

There I herd the gospell and was Baptized on the 4 day of Dec. 1848 in Pennydarren by Thomas Llewelin and was confirmed on the following Sunday by David John who was the president of the Penydarren Branch of the Church.

The restored gospel of Jesus Christ had been introduced into England in 1837 by Heber C. Kimball and other missionaries. The expansion of the work was given a boost when Brigham Young and others apostles accompanied Kimball when he returned to the United Kingdom on a second mission in 1939. The LDS missionary work had spread to North Wales by 1840, and a convert, John Needham, took the message to South Wales and Merthyr Tydfil. The work there spread, and on March 26, 1843, a branch was organized in Pennydarren, a village near Merthyr Tydfil. The work continued to spread rapidly , and was given great stimulus when Dan Jones, a native of Wales, returned from America where he had met Joseph Smith and been converted to the Church. Dan Jones was Welsh and could speak the local language. He preached with power and fervor. Under his leadership the Latter-day Saints movement realized phenomenal success. At a conference in Merthyr Tydfil on January 6, 1849, a membership of 3,603 was reported. William was among this number, having been baptized one month earlier, December 4, 1848. In January 1975 a stake of the LDS church was organized in South Wales with stake headquarters at Merthyr Tydfil. The church's first welfare project in Europe was also located there, a nursery in Ynysfach.

William was much involved in proselytizing after his baptism. He wrote:

Three months after, I was ordained a teacher, and set to in that office. Soon I was ordained a priest and was sent out to preach the gospel. In a little wile after, I was ordained an Elder and continued to preach till April 1851.

Ward records show that William was ordained a teacher May 30, 1850, by John Jones, and an Elder on October 2, 1850 by William Beadow.

William continued to work in the mines to sustain him, but devoted much time to his missionary work. His sketch in the Biographical Record says: "After his baptism he devoted a portion of the remainder of his life in Wales to the work of the Church."

In April 1851 he returned to England. He had been in Wales about seven years. He wrote:

I was released from Wales and went back to England where I continued to preach in my native place I baptized a number of converts in the Cheltman conference which was presided over by Elder John Hyde who came and organized a new branch of about 20 members. At that time I was appointed to preside over the new branch and to (two) other old branches, namely the Prencil, the Linton, and the new branch which was called the Cliffordsmean Branch. The three branches was made a district and I was set apart to preside over the district which I did to the best of m ability till 1853 when I was released to gather to Zion with the saints.

William continues:

In my labors I baptized my father and mother and my bro. Joseph who I brought out with me when I came out to this country, which was in 1853.

William covers the next important, exiting events very briefly I his sketch written sixty years later. "We (William and Joseph) left our father's home on 5 day of January and arrived in Salt Lake City on September 28, same year." Since William never saw his parents again, and was leaving his native land permanently, one would have expected him to express some inner feelings at this parting, but expressing sentiment was something William seldom did.

Joseph, William's brother, was more diligent in keeping record of their experiences during this time than was William. Joseph indicates that the two brothers used the resources of the Perpetual Emigration Fund (PEF) to emigrate. This fund was set up during the latter part of 1852. It was the theory of the PEF that voluntary donations would be secured from church members wherever located, and those benefiting from the fund would continually replenish it after their arrival in Salt Lake Valley. Joseph notes that both he and William were diligent in paying into this fund before they left England.

An epistle issued by Brigham Young to the saints could have influenced William to come to Utah at this particular time. Brigham Young wrote advising missionaries bringing immigrants to Zion to:

. . . Come home as fast as possible, bringing your poor, your silver, your gold, and everything that will beautify and ennoble Zion, and establish the house of the Lord, not forgetting the seeds of all choice trees, and fruits, and grains, and useful productions of the earth.

William might have been encouraged to come because he was a farmer and know how to grow fruit. Or he might have been encouraged to come because he was a coal miner, and the iron industry was struggling to become established in Utah and had generated a need for coal miners. It is not known whether William brought seeds or tree cuttings with him on this trip, but in every other move he made in later years he took trees, seeds, and cuttings which would enrich and produce in his new home.

The emigration lists show that Joseph registered as a laborer, and William registered as a collier (coal miner.) They each deposited $2.00 for their fare, and had a balance of $31.00 due the Perpetual Emigration Fund. They were booked on "The Ellen Maria," a "Square Rigger" sailing vessel, making her third trip across the Atlantic with LDS emigrants. Following is an item from the Millennial Star, as quoted in the sketch of Joseph Wadley.

CROSSING SIXTY-FIRST COMPANY

The Ship "Ellen Maria" sailed from Liverpool January 17, 1853, after being detained in port several days by contrary winds. On this vessel the President of the British Mission shipped 332 saints under the direction of Moses Clawson. Among the numbers were Elder Thomas Pugh, late counselor of the President of the Church in Wales, and Elder George Kendal, who presided over the Derbyshire Conference.

The voyage proved a pretty rough and stormy one, especially during the first eight days after leaving port, and considerable sickness prevailed among the saints. Among others, President Clawson was sick nearly the entire voyage. Five births and five deaths occurred on board, and two marriages were solemnized. On the 6th of March 1853, the "Ellen Maria" arrived with her precious cargo in New Orleans making passage from Liverpool in 47 days.

Among those traveling on the Ellen Maria was James Farmer, who became the Diarist for the Company. On the day before the ship sailed, his entry says this about the Wadley brothers:

. . . At 2pm Bro. Moses Clawson called all the Elders together to organize us into companies. There were 25 Elders on board . . . Every 4 Elders had charge over the Saints living near them up to the boundary of the next 4 and so on through the vessel. I, Elders Welsh, W. Wadley, and Josh Wadley had charge over the portion near the hatchway and had to see that all things were in order.

Another entry on the 11th of February makes note of William:

Fine morning. S. W. Wind and sailing about 9 knots. My turn to cook from 9 to 11 and from 3 to 5. I was this day appointed by Elder Duce to see that the Places of convenience were properly cleaned in connection with Bro. Wm. Wadley so that all might be cleanly.

On the 27th Farmer makes this entry:

Being Sunday morning I and Elder Wadley took and washed each other all over with salt water. It was a fine morning and we were steering N. W. with fair wind.

The "Ellen Maria" arrived at New Orleans on the 6th of March. The Church Emigration Agent who met them there was John Brown. He was later to be bishop in Pleasant Grove, where both William and Joseph settled.

It was still a long way from New Orleans to Salt Lake City, and many people were involved in getting immigrants there. A summary of the activities necessary is given by Leonard Arrington in his book, Great Basin Kingdom. He writes:

Before 1854, emigrant ships landed at New Orleans. From there they took a 700-mile trip by river steamer up the Mississippi to St. Louis. This trip usually took a week. From St. Louis they took a river boat some 500 miles to Kanesville, Iowa, or whatever point was selected for outfitting. This trip took two weeks and more.

. . . At each point the emigrant companies were met by an agent who had chartered boats, purchased supplies and equipment, and provided for their wellbeing. Housing had to be provided for those who remained at each stopping place on account of sickness or other reasons, also housing for the entire company in case of unexpected delay.

. . . When emigrant companies arrived at the frontier camp their outfit had been purchased by the Emigration Agent and was waiting for them.

Leaving New Orleans, William and Joseph and their company went up the river to St. Louis on the steamer James Noble. This boat had some extremely rough sailors on board and they gave the immigrants trouble, attempting to rob, rape and generally plunder. Strong watches were needed, and William was one of these watches as mentioned by Farmer on the night of March 10.

We appointed 8 of us, myself, bros. Welsh, Winter, Mecalf, Field, Wadley, Smart and George Smith . . . This evening the sailors were very unruly and were determined not to be governed. They were determined to sit about until the sisters got into bed. They used some very bad language which caused some of the sisters to be afraid . . . Later a cry of "Watchmen murder" and screaming was heard. I, Bro Welsch, Smart and Metcalf rushed where the cry was made. On arriving at the spot on the deck 3 men run away from the Bed of Bro. and Sister Naggs. These men tried to commit a rape on the body of Sister Naggs. They said they would stick her with a knife if she resisted. The cry was made and they run away.

So although the passage across the Atlantic had been rough but not threatening, the one up the river to St. Louis was filled with tension for William and the other saints.

At St. Louis, the immigrants left the James Noble. Some of them planned to stay in St. Louis until they earned enough to continue to Utah. Others boarded later steamers and proceeded to Keokuk, Iowa. The outfitting point moved west as facilities for transportation improved and supplies became available. In 1853 Keokuk, Iowa, was the western outfitting point, and in succession the following cities: Kansas City (1854); Iowa City (1856); Florence, Nebraska (1857; Wyoming, Nebraska (1864); Benton, Nebraska (1868); and later in the 1869, Laramie, Wyoming. After the transcontinental railroad was completed in March 1869, emigration companies traveled all the way to Utah by rail.. Horace S. Elderage was the emigration agent at St. Louis in 1853.

That year he purchased over four hundred wagons and two thousand head of oxen to take care of the four thousand saints who would pass through his care on their way to Salt Lake Valley.

The problem of buying cattle near St. Louis created a new calling for William. Because stock was not availale along the Mississipi River, William and thirteen others were called to go west into Missouri to purchase additional cattle. The Biographical Record tells of William's assignment:

…about May 1st … (he, William Wadley) was appointed one of the campany of thirteen young men to purchase oxen for use in taking emigrant trans across the plains. They went to Saint Joseph and from there into the country a ddistance of fifty-three miles and purchased eight hundred and ten oxen, which they frove to Fort Keokuk, Iowa, and walking the entire distance.

The event is narrated in another source in the slightly different way. R.D. Wadley, son of William, told it as follows for a family history written in 1955:

Because of the great number of immigrants crossing the plains that year, all of the available cattle in an accessible area had been purchased, so William and two other men were selected to go farther back from the river and try to purchase the stock needed for their company.

They traveled on foot over one thousand miles before sufficient stock could be purchased for the trip to the Valley. Upon returning to their settlement, their clothes were so worn they were unwilling to make an appearance in them, so they all pooled the best of what they were wearing and outfitted one man to go into camp and get suffiecient clothing for them to make an appearance and make a report.

The cattle buying assighnment caused a delay so that William and Joseph did not travel with other company members who crossed with the Moses Clawson Company to Utah. The Wadleys left with the Vincent Shurtliff Company. This group was called "an undocumented company," evidently meaning that there was no roster of the Company, or it could have been assembled unoffically a nd made up of unassigned members. On Church immigration records the Shurtliff Company left Keokuk on the 13th of July, 1853, but according to Joseph Wadley's journal, they left Koekuk the latter part of June and on July 13th were crossing the Missouri River at Council Bluffs (Kanesville). A quote from the Journal History says:

Captian Shurtliff, who was returning from a mission to England, took charge of the eighth company, which consisted of a train loaded with merchandise consigned to Salt Lake City and a small comopany of emigrating saints. They crossed the Missouri River at Council Bluffs July 13th, at which time the river was said to have been higher than at any time known since white men had set foot on its banks.

On July 13th, Joseph recorded,

It is hot and humid. There has been much rain in the night. William and I are very muddy. We went about 2 miles to the ferry over the Missouri River. After we were ferried over the river we camped.

There are a number of diaries available of people crossing the plains in 1853 giving various details about the trip. The companies were all outfitted within a few weeks of each other. Two companies left in May, six in June and five in July. The companies passed along the way and often camped near each other and intermingled. One diary states that they feasted on a buffalo shot by a member of the Shurtliff Company traveling ahead of them. Most of the records indicate that these early crossings were much easier than later ones. Feed for cattle and wood for fires were plentiful. Supplies and wagons were adequate, although many members of the company walked most of the way. There was some contact with Indians, but none of it was unpleasant.

William wrote that he arrived in Salt Lake City September 28, 1853. They had made the thousand mile journey from Council Bluffs in two months and two weeks. It had been eight months and wenty-three days since he left his fathers home in Newent, England.

Zion, of Salt Lake Valley, was a bustling, growing place in 1853. In the six years since the first settlers arrived, they had not only built up Salt Lake City, but had also settled thirty-five other communities. They had established a legislature which enacted laws, and they hadd build a penitentiary. The Deseret Iron Company was organized England, and material there, along with workers, were being formed into a vigorous industry in Iron county, Utah. The Social Hall had been dedicated, and corner stones of the Salt Lake Temple were laid. A series of exciting events, that is exciting to read about in history, resulted in what has been called the Walker War. Eighteen fifty-
three was the year Fort Bridger was purchased and nearby Fort Supply started.

All of this was happening when William and Joseph arrived in Salt Lake City, but William makes no note of any of it in his writing. After recording the date of their arrival he says: "On the next morning I hired to Bro. Franklin Richards to work for him." (Joseph was sent to Nephi to work on the town's fort wall.)

Franklin D. Richards was a young apostle only four years older than William. He served twice as President of the British Mission, and much to do with instigating the use of the Perpetual emigration Fund and with chartering ships for the use of emigrating saints. While in England he had organized the Deseret Iron Company of Liverpool and had been active in encouraging iron workers and coal mines to come to Zion. He returned to Salt Lake from his mission in August 1852, and spent the winter and spring trying to get the Iron Mission on a firm footing in Iron County, Utah.

William does not say that he had known Apostle Richards in England, but it seems likely that he did. There might even have been some previous arrangement made for William to work for him in coal mining or in the iron industry. Whatever the previous commitment was, William's first contact was with Apostle Richards, and his wages for whatever work he did were twelve dollars per month.

Soon after William arrived in Utah he received his endowments. This was on February 24, 1854.

William's next note says:

I worked for him (Franklin Richards one year when I got married. My wife's name was Mary Chandler. I was married on the 1st of July, 1854, by Phyneis Richards, father of Franklin D. Richards.

It would have been interesting if William had been more generous with his notes about this occasion. William was approaching his thirtieth birthday. His new wife, Mary Chandler, would soon be forty-eight. And was in poor health. She came to Utah in 1853, and William could have met her on the journey to Utah, or she might have been without means of support and the marriage was arranged as a solution to social problem. AS an unmarried man, William would have been the object of concern for church authorities who were strongly advocating not only single marriages, but had in 1852 made public the doctrine of celestial or plural marriage.

William's next note states: "I bought a lot in the 4th ward in Salt Lake City and built a house on it and lived in it one winter."

(Note: The boundaries of the Fourth Ward were: East Temple [State Street], Sixth South St., Second West, and Ninth South. Farming was the dominant activity of the ward. There were nietheen wards in Salt Lake at this time. Benjamin Brown was bishop of the Fourth Ward.)

William's next entry is as noncommittal as previous ones. He writes: "In the spring of 1855 I went to Ogden and got a lot and built a house and sold out in Salt Lake City, and moved to Ogden. There I made a nice home."

The reason for William's move to Ogden is not stated, but it is obvious. Room for expansion of his farming ventures was limited in Salt Lake City. In Ogden there were new areas opening up rapidly. Ogden had been fort Goodyear, and was purchased by James Brown with money received from wages of the Mormon Battalion. There was good farm land available. William took trees with him to Ogden, which he had carefully planted and nurtured in Salt Lake. They were replanted and in 1857 one of them bore three peaches, said to be the first peaches grown in Ogden.

William was not only a farmer, but he had a reputation as a miner. This suggests that his work for Franklin D. Richards during the first year after he arrived in Utah might have been related to coal mining. Loren Farr, presiding authority in Ogden, knew William had experience in mining and called him to blast away a large cliff of rocks in Ogden Canyon to complete the road between Ogden and Huntsville. This spot was known thereafter as "Wadley Rock". Previous to the rock's removal, wagons going down or up the canyon had to transfer their loads at this point, turn around a return.

There were many important happenings in the L.D.S. Church during the time William lived in Ogden. One of them was the invasion of Johnston's Army, which had been sent by President Buchanan in 1857 to subdue the reported rebellion in the Utah Territory. Brigham Young organized members of the Church for self defense. Ogden furnished many men for this purpose, and William was one who stood guard in Echo Canyon during the winter of 1857-58 while Johnston's Army was camped near Fort Bridger.

During these years there were also devastating grass hopper invasions, a stock-killing winter, and a scorching dry summer, which brought the saints to near starvation. There was also the tragic handcart crossings, the Mountain Meadow Massacre, and the calling home of all outlying settlements and missionaries. William lived through these events in the 6 1/2 years he lived in Ogden, but he does not mention how they affected him.

During this time the wife of Joseph, William's brother, died in Pleasant Grove, and their small son, Joseph Daniel, age two, was taken to Ogden to stay with his Uncle William and Aunt Mary. William and Mary had no children.

William kept close to the Church and was active although there is no record of his public service. He ordained a member of Ogden's Fifty-fourth Quorum of Seventy by Loren Clarke.

Another change was now pending in William's life. In August of 1859 Captain James Brown's company of immigrants arrived in Salt Lake City. Among these immigrants was the William Mckay family, originally from Scotland, but who had spent the last three years in New York and Iowa City. Being acquainted with Bishop Bunker in Ogden, the Mckay's settled there, and through circumstances unknown to us, William met the Mckay's seventeen-year-old daughter, Isabella, whom he proceeded to court. With a small nephew and an invalid wife to care for, there might have been more than romance on his mind when he courted Isabella and won her for a second wife.

William had extensive exposure to Church teachings regarding polygamy even before he arrived in Utah. There was much discussion of it wherever Mormons met. This was true in England as well as other places. While William and Joseph were waiting in Liverpool. To board their ship, the Ellen Maria, in January 1853, a meeting was held and polygamy was discussed. L. W. Richards and Orson Spencer spoke to a crowd housed which "sanctioned their words with a hearty Amen." A few days after the ship was underway an Elder Kendall spoke for about an hour on the plurality of wives at which "the saints rejoiced." Another lengthy discussion was held on "a subject of great importance, D.O.P.O.W." (Doctrine of Plurality of Wives.)

After William arrived in Utah the exhortations to live polygamy continued and even intensified. The great Mormon Reformation had taken place during the years 1856 and 1857. This movement stressed cleanliness, confession, repentance, self-sufficiency, and most strongly, plural marriage. It is said that there were more polygamous marriages contracting during these years than at any period in the Church. A letter from Wilford Woodruff to George A. Smith said: "All are trying to get wives, until there is hardly a girl 14 years old in Utah, but what is married, or just going to be." Another women wrote "… this is the greatest time for marring I every know."

With such pressure for compliance, it is no wonder William was ready to accept the principle of plural marriage. Evidently Isabella was also converted to the idea, for she accepted his proposal, and they were married April 8, 1860. The marriage took place in the office of Brigham Young in Salt Lake City, and on the same date, both Isabella and Mary, his first wife, were sealed to William.

When William married for the second time he was thirty-five years old, just twice the age of Isabella. His ailing first wife, Mary, was fifty-four.

Within a year William and Isabella had their first child, a boy who was born and died on February 22, 1861. He as named David Benjamin. A year later on April 17, 1862, a daughter, Mary Ellen, was born while the family still lived in Ogden.

William's next move was not voluntary. A call came to him and 200 other men at the October 1862 conference to take their families and help settle "Dixie," the Southern Utah mission. William wrote: "In the fall of 1862 I was called to Southern Utah to help to settle the St. George country. We sold out in Ogden and moved to Washington Co."

Brigham Young strongly believed that the southern area, known as Utah's Dixie, could produce cotton and other commodities to help make the saints self-supporting. The 200 men called in 1862 were chosen for their skills and capital equipment so as to balance out the economic structure of the community they were going to help build. It was a mission of many hardships and much suffering for those who participated, but obedience to call was the structure of the saint's lives. William willingly uprooted himself from his well-established home in Ogden, loaded his wagon with his started trees, cuttings, seeds and tools, and took his wives and little daughter to settle in Washington, northeast of Saint George. He doesn't mention the trip by ox team, how long it took, or when they arrived. Some of the saints who kept journals, who were called at the same time, recorded that they arrived sometime in December. Others didn't arrive until the following summer.

William Wrote:

We made our home in Washington City where we lived till 1865 where my first wife died and our only child, and I was very sick. Come near dying, and the Bishop advised me to move out to a higher place.

Malaria, with which William was afflicted, was prevalent in all the Dixie area, but it seems to have been more serious in Washington. A local historian wrote:

To make matters worse came the scourge of malaria. This dread affliction was present at Santa Clara, Heberville and other settlements down the river, but at Washington it was most widespread and persistent. This sickness coupled with the necessity for the hardest kind of labor was enough to discourage the stoutest hearts.

Mary Ellen, William and Isabella's only surviving child, died October 19, 1863. Mary Chandler, William's first wife, died in 1863 or 1865. The actual date has not been identified. Isabella's second son, whom they named William Washington, was born October 28, 1864.

William likely planted his trees and worked on the dams in Washington. He undoubtedly would have been involved with the building of the Cotton Mill there. It was into limited operation by 1866 and in full operation by 1869. He possibly worked on the temple also, for work on the temple and other public works was paid partly in "factory pay," (credit at the Cotton Factory in Washington). We know that William received dividends from the mill in the form of cloth afterwards. His children remembered some suits and dresses they obtained from the 'linsey' sent to the family years later from the mill. One of the dividends was made into a suit for William by a tailor in Pleasant Grove (who refused payment for making it because of past favors from William.) The material in the suit was durable. William wore it the remainder of his life, and at his death it was given to his son Isaac who wore it for many years.

William's move to "a higher place" as advised by his bishop, was to Dameron Valley in 1865. Family members have traditionally interpreted this to mean "Diamond Valley, but William's writing states "Damrien." There was a Dameron Valley, which is now a ghost town. It is in a small valley north of St. George toward Pine Valley.

William sold his land in Washington and moved his family and trees. Their first winter in the new location was difficult. They had only seven bushels of Potatoes. Each time they peeled potatoes to eat they would cut a "little keeper" around the eyes. The eyes were kept damp all winter and planted in the spring.

Conditions improved during 1866, and he harvested three hundred bushels of potatoes. William also planted three pecks of precious wheat saved for seed. He planted this with a hoe and had a bountiful harvest of sixty bushels per acre. Here, most importantly he regained his health.

However, there must have been drawbacks to this place, for William records: "When I got well I did not like to live there, and sold out and President Snow sent me down to the Beaver dams to help to make a settlement there."

The Beaver Dam Company was plagued with insurmountable trouble right from the first. It seemed that mother nature was determined that there should be no success in anything the settlers endeavored to do. William writes:

I went and took a load of fruit trees and set them out and helped to get out the water, and went back to get my family and while I was gone a cloud burst in the mountains and washed the land and trees away.

The Beaver Dam project was abandoned, and William moved his family to Pine Valley. Pine Valley was a pretty valley in the mountains north of St. George. This was to be William's last move until he was released form this mission.

Pine Valley was settled in the 1850's as a source of lumber for the surrounding towns. During the 1860s there were seven lumber mills operating there employing many men. The special yellow pine needed for building the Salt Lake tabernacle organ was taken from there. Pine Valley was first opened to agricultural settlements in 1864 after a satisfactory division of water was made with the town of Santa Clara. However, lumber remained its principle industry into the 1870s. A large silver mine opened at Silver Reef in 1870, just over the Nevada border, and this furnished a good market for Pine Valley lumber. It also made Pine Valley one of the roughest towns in the west when outlaws moved in to pillage and rob the supply trains going from the LDS settlements to the mining towns of Nevada. Pine Valley became a convenient place for outlaws to hide.

When William moved there in 1867 or 1868, a few farms were operating and he added his acres to these. The history of the town says that potatoes became a basic crop, and that fruit grew well.

William's name is not listed among the holders of public office or the doers of dramatic deeds while he was in Dixie. He was probably one of the hundreds who did the gritty work of pioneering without notoriety of acclaim. However, there is one notation on the records of a Pine Valley Jubilee that Credits him with bringing some of his fruit to the Jubilee. Fruit must have been his staple crop at that time. (Note: R. D. Wadley, William's son, visited Pine Valley in 1942 and it was reported to him that trees planted by William were still bearing fruit. Merrill Allen, a grandson, said he found apple trees in Pine Valley in 1977 that were likely planted by William, and still bearing fruit.)

William was a resident of Pine Valley when a unique church was built there. In 1864 a combined church and school house was built under the direction of Ebenezer Bryce. It was an interesting building which still stands sturdily. Bryce was a former ship builder from New Zealand. He constructed the building like a ship, saying that if a flood should come, the building would float, or in the event of a strong wind it would roll over but not crash. We wish William would have recorded whether he worked on this church.

During these years William corresponded with an old friend in England, Mary Byard. Mary was born in Newent, William's hometown, December 24, 1835. Her parents were John Byard and Mary Ridett. She was baptized February 13, 1857. She consented to come to Utah at William's invitation to become his wife. William met her in Salt Lake City when she arrived. They were married November 8, 1869. She was endowed and sealed to William that same day.

Another couple was sealed that day also. Edward Meridith, a friend of William's from Pine Valley, came with him for that purpose. Edward had been baptized in Pine Valley by William in 1866. He married Mary Ann Eliza Williams, a niece of his first wife, who had come from England at his first wife's invitation to become a second wife. The Meredith family and the Wadley family remained close friends all their lives. Both later settled in Pleasant Grove.

Whether Isabella knew the purpose of her husband going to Salt Lake that fall of 1869 is not known, but when he returned with a new wife Isabella accepted the arrangement. Plural marriage was a church doctrine, and no word of criticism against the church or its leaders ever passed her lips. Mary Byard was thirty-four years old at this time and Isabella was twenty-seven.

Mary's first child, a daughter, Julie Ann, was born February 26, 1871. William and Isabella had two more sons, Edward Franklin, born May 9, 1869, and Joseph Isaac, born July 19, 1871. William's family now consisted of two wives, three sons and a daughter.

Many happenings in the St. George area would have involved William, although he does not tell about them. In 1864 Brigham Young build a home and wintered there. Living in Nearby Washington at that time, William would have helped celebrate that event. The St. George temple was commenced in 1871. At the ground breaking on November 9, 1871, Brigham Young said, among other things, "… This is a had land in which to get a living… I am glad it is just as it is. It is a splendid country to rear saints in." William would not have missed that occasion, even if he had to travel from Pine Valley.

William must have been exposed to growing grapes while he was in southern Utah. Brigham Young thought that good wine could be produced in Dixie for the sacrament, for medicine, and for sale to "outsiders". This product did become an important crop in Dixie, and as many as 544 acres of grapes yielded about 1,700 tons were in production by the 1870s. Growing grapes later became one of Williams major projects on his farm in Pleasant Grove.

William also learned about merits of alfalfa (Lucerne) while in Dixie. Alfalfa seed was first brought into that area by Charles Stapley who carried it from Australia. When the seed was planted it provided a great boost to agriculture in Dixie. A local historian said:

Alfalfa was being produced in 1864 … Since alfalfa does so well on virgin soil, its introduction soon relieved the forage problem and made possible the common use of mild, butter, and cheese as food, and farm animals could do the heavy work necessary in the early spring after the wintering on cured alfalfa. Its positive effect upon the economy of the country can sacredly be overestimated.

Knowledge of the worth of alfalfa, and supply of seed, were to be of great benefit to William in his future home.

William was still active in mining, or at least interested in prospecting, while he lived in Dixie. On one occasion he and Ed Meredith were up a canyon near Leeds getting wood, and they discovered where a flash flood had washed out the road and uncovered a vein of ore. They took some samples back to President Erastus Snow in St. George. He told them to go about raising food and forget the ore. William followed this counsel, but Ed went back later to investigate. As he was bending over the vain, he heard several gun shots which frightened him so much that he covered up the ore and left. William thought about that ore a great deal in his life, and was planning a trip back from Pleasant Grove to investigate, but was dissuaded by Stephen L. Chipman, president of Alpine Stake. Later a silver mine was opened near the vicinity.

(Note: If the discovery had been coal, the news might have received more welcome acceptance. Since the very earliest arrival of the saints in Salt Lake Valley in 1847, there had been a search for coal. The 1854 Territorial Legislature offered a thousand dollars to the discoverer of a good vain of coal, not less than eighteen inches thick.)

William turned his back on his discovery of silver in southern Utah, but would continue his search for coal in Utah Valley the rest of his life.

William was released from his Dixie mission in 1872. He decided to move to Pleasant Grove, Utah County. This decision was influenced by the fact that his brother, Joseph, lived there and planned to return to England on a mission. He wanted William to care for his farm while he was gone.

When the move was made from the south, it was with friends of long standing, the Meredith and Golden families. The tree families shared two teams and two heavily loaded wagons, and traveled the rough roads carefully. It can be surmised that William brought trees, cuttings and seeds, including the precious alfalfa seed, which would serve him so well in his new home in the north end of Utah Valley.

The first home of the Wadley's when they arrived in Pleasant Grove was a dugout. William, his two wives, and four children lived there during the winter of 1872-3. By the following spring William found the place he wanted to settle. He had walked along the sagebrugh-coverd foothills north of Pleasant Grove until he reached a spring of water called "Little Spring". He liked the land below the spring and the hills around it, and the mountains behind it. Backed by Mahogany Mountain, the spot was protected from winds and frosts that hit the valley. There was an expansive view of Utah Lake and the valley and Mountains to the west. It was about two miles north of Pleasant Grove.

The area that interested William for his new permanent home was sparsely settled. It was called "The North Fields" by residents of Pleasant Grove. The name later became "Manila". In 1873 when the Wadleys came, the land was used by settlers in Pleasant Grove for pasture. There had been a few unsuccessful attempts at farming. Three settlers in town, Jonathan Harvey, George Clark, and John G. Holman had taken up land and claimed "Squatter's Rights". (Note: Tittle to lands was not granted in Utah until after the railroad came in 1860. Need to clear title for the railroad forced the government to begin honoring homestead applications. The applications by Mormons had not been honored because of prejudice by the government against Mormon polygamy.)

John G. Holman built what was probably the first house in the North Fields in 1869 and some members of his family lived there part time. His son moved into the house later. In 1870 Jonathan Householder built a home on land which was later owned by Bishop Knud Swenson. In 1873, James Pulley built a home in the northwest area on land that was plowed about 1866. These were probably the only homes in the area when the Wadleys, Merediths, and Goldens come in 1873. Meredith channeled water from American Fork Canyon in what was probably the first formal ditch dug, which still retains his name.

Attempts at farming the land in the North Fields had not been successful because the soil was heavy with clay and crusted and baked when irrigated by flooding (which was the customary method of irrigation). For that reason most of the land was abandoned for farming purposes. George Clark had left his claim, and William was able to purchase his squatters rights to eighty acres for $350. This was land below the spring. Some of the local people said the Wadleys would starve, and William's brother Joseph was so convinced of the worthlessness of the ground that he put a claim in the bishops court saying that the sellers had taken advantage of his brother. William appeared in court to say that he felt he had made a fair agreement. When it was possible for him to apply for homestead rights in 1891 and 1892, he did so, including other land claimed by John West, Lars Larson, Christian Olsen, and William Stewart, his neighbors. After receiving the patent, he deeded to each of them the land they claimed without charge.

William needed more land, and inasmuch as he had used his homestead rights, he claimed forty acres adjoining the spring under the "Timber Culture Act of 1873". This act gave 160 acres to those who planted and kept healthy forty acres of trees not over 12 feet apart. These modest requirements were reduced five years later to ten acres of trees, with 2,700 at the time of planting and 675 when the patent was granted. William raised ash and locust trees from seed to meet the requirements of this patent. These he planted in many areas. He planted a grove of trees behind the original Manila Ward church house, which was still providing welcome shade in 1986. He planted another area, where horses were tied for church so it would be shady for hem. He also planted his fence and ditch lines with these trees. One project was to plant a row of trees along the two mile road from his home in Manila to Pleasant Grove. However, this was thwarted by a neighbor, William Stewart, whose land it would pass. Stewart said the trees would seed and sucker too much, and he didn't want to take care of those in front of his place. All of these plantings, along with the orchards which William set out, fulfilled the requirements of his patent.

The spring which William wanted was owned by Willard and Joseph Halliday, who offered to sell their claim to William for $75. William was glad to acquire the water. It had drawn his original interest to the location. After acquiring it he developed it by digging tunnels and prospecting for more water. This spring later became a source of culinary water for the Manila area. It is still known as "Wadley Springs".

Very shortly William proved the land in Manila could be productive with proper use, and others commenced to settle in the North Fields. Many of the emigrants coming to Utah in the 1870's were Scandinavians, and to some of them the sage-covered flats of Manila looked good, especially since the fields nearer to Pleasant Grove were all claimed.

When William moved his family to this new homestead in the spring of 1873, they had a tent and a covered wagon box lifted off the frame to the ground for living quarters. It was in this temporary home that two more children were born. Mary Byard's second daughter was born April 11, 1873. She arrived in the wagon box and was named Elizabeth Emeline. Isabella's sixth child (the forth living), a daughter, was born in the tent. She was born June 28, 1873 and was named Emily Agnes.

In the summer of 1874 William built a one-room dwelling that was about eighteen by twenty feet. The building material was a soft rock that William found on land he owned at the base of Mahogany Mountain. It was soft and porous when first exposed to the air and could be cut into blocks. With exposure it hardened into a very desirable building material and provided well-
insulated walls -- cool in summer and retained heat in winter. This soft rock became the base material for many of the homes and public buildings built in Pleasant Grove and Manila during the latter part of the 1800s.

The next summer (1875), a lean-to was added to the home and Mary moved into it. Later the small house was expanded to four rooms.

In the spring of 1874, a year after William's arrival, the United Order was established in Pleasant Grove. Prospecting for coal became William's assignment in the Order, although he held other offices also. At the second meeting of the Order, May 3, 1875, he was appointed foreman for the North District, one of three districts in the city. He is also listed as an appraiser of property and as a stockholder when the Order was incorporated. At a very early date he and a friend, Mr. Daniel Golding, who had spent a great amount of time with William prospecting, were voted by the board of the United Order to continue their search for coal. The board voted to assume responsibility for the debts the men had incurred if they would continue their efforts on b behalf of the order. At the meeting of the board on December 29, 1875, their time and their work were valued at $1,688, and the prospecting was accepted as one of the order's projects. On February 5, 1876, William and his partner reported din a meeting that they were running into delays. They stated that they had to drive another tunnel below their first one in order to drain water from their primary tunnel. The board voted to continue their financial backing. At the March board meeting, William seemed to be optimistic and stated that work at the coal mine was progressing with good prospects of success. However, by the May meeting of the board, William reported that work had been suspended for the present, but expressed hope of resuming operations in the short time. We find no references to the coal mining operation in the minutes again until the January 1877 meeting, when it is recorded that the committee was instructed "to take steps to continue prospecting for the coal during the winter."

Neither the minutes of the meetings nor the account books show how much the Order lost on the coal prospecting projects. There is no entry indicating any income from the costly investment. There is no reference to its dissolution nor any value put on it by the board when the Order was dissolved in 1880. It most have been just dropped and written off either formally or informally. One estimate of the loss to the Order was $3,000.

Helena Jane, Isabella's seventh child, was born June 2, 1876, and Richard David, her eighth, was born December 17, 1878. Mary's third child, Thomas Soloman, was born and died January 23, 1878.

Sometime during the 1880s, it is not known exactly when, William build two homes for his growing families. The larger one on the north was for Isabella, and a smaller one on the south was for Mary. These homes were still standing in 1986, but were in need of repair. They were built of William's soft rock and were fine homes for their times. The 1986 address was 2351 North 100 East in Pleasant Grove.

In Isabella's family, three-year-old Helena Jane died in the spring of 1879. Also in 1879 a son, John Byard, was born to Mary and died at birth. John Elmer was born to Mary on July 10, 1881. This was Mary's last child. She was forty-five year old.

Isabella's family continued to increase. Daniel McKay was born January 31, 1883; Jeanette Isabella, October 2, 1884; and Thomas Wilford, February 15, 1886. Thomas, the twelfth and last child, lived only two years.

William continued in contact with his family in England by letters, and some of them came to Utah. Sometime during the last half of the 1870's, William's brother John and his wife Eliza, immigrated to Pleasant Grove from England, as did Henry Wadley, a cousin. Eliza did not like Pleasant Grove, so John and Eliza returned to England in the spring of 1880. When Joseph, William's brother was on this second mission to his homeland in 1880, he notes that he was treated very unkindly by John and his wife, then just back from Utah. "They said some very unkind things about the Saints and me," he wrote. He said they apparently held ill feelings towards him for his part in encouraging them to emigrate.

In a letter that Julia, William's daughter, wrote to a cousin in England in 1889, she indicated that a cousin "Alice" had been here to Pleasant Grove, and in another letter written by William in 1894 to an unidentified niece, it indicated that she had also been to Utah. These visitors might have been the same person.

When William started to subdue the challenging acres of his farm north of Pleasant Grove, his experience in the Southern Utah Mission, difficult as it had been, paid off for him. He planted the alfalfa seed he had brought with him, and the results were remarkable. It not only yielded abundantly, but it was just what was needed to lighten the heavy soil. The first year's growth of alfalfa was not cut, but was plowed under for humas and the ground replanted again the next year. After this, William introduced the method of irrigating he had learned in the southern mission. and ran the water through furrows. His ground that was thought to be worthless proved to be very productive using these farming techniques.

When every William had previously lived, his interest seems to have been drawn towards raising fruit. Probably this was because of his background in England, or even his "genetic" inheritance, since he came from a long line of orchardmen. He had planted fruit trees in Salt Lake, in Ogden, and in each of the locations where he had settled in southern Utah. How, in Pleasant Grove, he continued the practice. His brother, Joseph, had the same interest, and both of them planted and harvested their orchards vigorously. When Joseph returned from his mission to England in 1872, he brought with him a cider mill, seeds, clippings, and starts for shrubs and trees, flower bulbs, and flower seeds. He undoubtedly shared these with his brother, William, and they were likely a basis for many of the plantings on William's new farm.

Grapes became one of William's most productive crops. He must have brought cuttings with him from Dixie, for very early in the development of his farm his vineyards were producing. For may years he had the only grape vineyard of tender California grapes in northern Utah. In a very few years it was of such note that there was space given to it in the Deseret News: "It was not uncommon to see as many as a hundred buggies and wagons in the front of Wadleys on Sunday buying and enjoying the grapes and other fruit." (Deseret News, September 5, 1886)

A couple of years later a letter to the editor appeared in the June 27th 1888 issue of the Deseret News entittled "The Fruit City". It was subheaded by "The Results of Intelligent Perseverance and Cultivations," and told of a visit to William's farm.

Editor - Deseret News

Provo has been called THE GARDEN CITY OF UTAH. Being a Provoite, we shall not attempt to dispute this pleasantly suggestive title, but having the occasion to visit this city, so truly named, "Pleasant Grove", we are prepared to admit the TRUISM, that it takes the conceit out of a fellow to leave home a while and see what others are doing.

We are aware that this is saying a great deal, especially in a country where every town and hamlet, save possibly the historic city of the "Alkali Plains", points with pride to its orchards, but the assertion is made good by the fact that in years when the frost, or blight or worms have destroyed the fruit elsewhere, this city has peddled its products from Deseret to Bathabara. The writer vividly remembers paying a PLEASANT GROVE MAN, two shining dollars for a choice bushel of peaches last year, when not enough fruit was raised in the entire Garden City to satisfy the inward cravings of a solitary codling moth. Let those who would solve this mystery pay a visit to this fruit center and they will learn that location does not do it all! Intelligent Culture has much to do with it.

When the writer today on one of two occasions, ventured a compliment to the owners of neatly kept orchards, he was met with the remark: 'You ought to visit Wadley's orchards and vineyards before saying much. Until you do, you will not have an idea of what Pleasant Grove can do in the way of fruit. "Well, we paid it a visit, and it is the joy and satisfaction caused thereby, that led us to attempt laying "A Picture" before you readers, that you stimulate other to similar results.

Brother Wadley's place lies just two miles north of the city and hugs the foot of the mountian. His orchard consisted of fourteen aces of well selected, well spaced trees, including a small nearsery, mainly for his own use. In praise of the gentleman's skill as an ORCHARDIST, be it said, that we never before beheld so uniformly vigorous and healthy a growth of trees.

Surely, said the writer to his guide, "If vermin thrive on filth, you must succeed admirably in keeping your fruit trees free of bugs and worms, so clean is everything in this orchard."

Yes, there is no question but tht the fruit is much improved by cleanly surroundings, but even that does not keep the coddling moth entirely away. In one part of the orchard, two hundred stands of bees are busily engaged filling their hives with sweetness. A capenter has been busy for two weeks doing nothing but making hives, while Brother Wadley, himself an experienced apiarist, has done nothing but "gather honey" and hive new stands.

"From what source do your bees chiefly draw their honey?" asked the writer.

"They go up these mountains for five miles and gather honey-dew, which I am informed, is thick on every leaf up there. If night-overtakes them, they remain till next morning when they return in swarms all loaded down. sometimes, however, they come in perfect clouds empty and we know it is going to storm."

"You regard this, then, as a good season for bees?"

"Yes sir, every dry season is. That is the very reason why more honey is produced in the hive here, than in the east."

We next visited the vineyard. This occupies two and one half acres of ground, sloping to the south about two feet to the rod. In places, it seems to be nothing but a bed of gravel. In being broken up ten years, rocks larges than a man could lift, were plowed up, and friendly neighbors, learning of Brother Wadley's intentions to plant a vineyard there, flocked around to insure him tht the land was worthless. and that the attempt would prove a failure. But the sturdy vine-dresser had not in vain lived ten years among the grapes of St. George, as the sequel has shown. For, from the apparently worthless piece of ground, twelve tons of choice grapes have been raised in a single season.

We had the pleasure of sampling some choice raspberries growing on a tenth of an acre of the same ground, which last year produced 700 quarts. The first picking selling 15, the last at 8 cents per quart. Such is the rewards of intelligent and unremitting perseverance. It is no longer a wonder to us, how so many millions of the Israelites could exist on so small a Palestine. Intelligent Cultivation explains it all and we venture to say that the clusters of grapes picked by the side of the brook and carried into the camp of Israel, can be compared in beauty and produced in this very vineyard.

William not only sold his grapes fresh from the vine. He also built a distillery and made wine. Because of the high cost of a license, and the limited area of sale, this venture was abandoned commercially after one or two years. William continued to make some wine, and was hspitable with it to his friends, but he did not sell it.

While William was developing his farm to a high degree of productivity, he did not forget or lose his interest in mining. After his assignment in the United Order ended, he continued to prospect all over the hills arund him. He, together with his sone Isaac, Mr. Devey, and maybe others, located a cave near the present Timpanogos Cave and leased it to a company that shipped a carload of onyx out of it. The Wadleys, in turn, were given a contract to get the onyx out. The slabs were loaded on small cars and brought to the opening of the cave. Here they were lowered by cables tied to trees down to the gravel slide where horses pulled them to the road. In an 1894 letter written in Provo by Will Jr. to his wife in Woodland, he writes about the onyx mine.

We have got a prospect now of selling the onex clame for 30,000 dolars to a man from the states. I hope we can sell for we need it now. We will not know untill the middle of Aoril wheather we se or not.

There is no information given later about the success of this prospective sale.

There is reference to another coal mine in a letter William wrote to this same son, Will Jr., in Woodland, dated September 18, 1894. He writes:

I went to Provo on Thursday to see Jessey Night (Jessie Knight) to try and get him to help us to find the coal, but he is interested in the mine in Rock canion, and he do(es) not want to help us till they have develped that, then if it turns out tood he will take hold with us. Isac is still in the canion, He thinks he can do well with it now.... We are in hopes of finding the coal this winter. Isac thinks he will work at it.

This same letter indicates that William did not neglect his fruit even while he was digging so industriously for coal. He continues:

Out fruit is turning out wonderful well. Out peaches are as good or beter than ever before, and the grapes have done well for having no water.... We have a terible lot of apels. There is enough on the ground now to make 50 barrels of cider. We have made about 6 barrels. The trouble is to get barrels to put it in.

Another thing that kept William busy was his search for additional sources of water. Since water was a constant problem o the arid benchland, he worked hard to develop water for his own land from his spring. He was also interested in other developments. He was nagged by the notion that there was water in Cedar Valley west of Utah Valley, and he could see in his mind the smooth, well-watered fields there that could be brought into production with water. At one time, he and people he hired worked extensively digging a well which was located about four miles west of the present town of Fairfield. The dirt was elevated by a hand operated windlass. Laboriously he dug 180 feet down, but was unable to strike water, so gave up the activity, although the idea persisted.

During these busy years William also operated a cement company. One of his products was slabs for graves. Before he started this business, dirt was held off the pine boxes in the graves by wooden planks. William desired that bodies waiting the resurrection be protected from the elements as much as possible, so he made the durable cement slabs. He also made and sold cement pipe. From his businesses he donated the cement caps that top the east section of the retaining wall in front of the original Manila church. In the mid-1980s they are still solid, although placed there long ago.

I'll see if I can continue on the story of William Wadley... This is page 40 in Aunt Effie's book....

Another part of William's extensive activities wa his bees. From earliest days, after setting up his farm in Manila, he kept bees near his orchards. He had over 300 stands in 1893. Many of the hives were located just north of his home. Grandchildren remember them as being between the house and the outdoor, multiple-hole toilet. When the path to the toilet had to be traversed, girls would throw an apron over their heads and hurry as fast as possible to avoid the bees. William had no patience with their fear of bees. He mentioned over and over again that if you didn't bother them, they wouldn't bother you.

On June 14, 1886, William had an upsetting, but all too common, experience. He was arrested and charged with U.C. (unlawful cohabitation). This was not unusual in 1886. Mormons were moving in large numbers to Mexico, Arizona, and Canada to escape the fate William was suffering. Many wives were in exile or on the "underground" to save their husbands from arrest. President John Taylor was on the "underground" when he died in 1887. One counselor in the First Presidency, Joseph F. Smith, went to Hawaii and did not return until 1889. The other counselor, George Q. Cannon, more sought after than any other person in the church, was pursued all over the West by U.S. Marshall and their Deputies. There were 1,004 convictions for unlawful cohabitation in Utah between 1884 and 1893.

William's arrest received attention in the Salt Lake papers of July 14 and 15, 1886. The Deseret Evening News June 14th, p.2 carried the following:

Arrested at Pleasant Grove: Last night some half dozen deputies left this city for the south and at about 3'oclock this morning reached Pleasant Grove, Utah County, where they surrounded several houses and aroused the inmates. O.F.Herron, William Wadley and Victor Sangren were arrested and the members of their families subpoenaed as witnesses. The house of B.W.Driggs was also searched, it was said for the plural wife of Bishop A. H. Driggs, but no one was home except the children, some of whom were summoned to appear as witnesses. Thoses arrested will arrive on this evening's D. & R. G. W. train.

The next day, June 15th, a follow-up article appeared in the Deseret News, p.3.

Tooele and Pleasant Grove Raided – Three arrested at each place – all of the accused bound over. The charge in each case is "unlawful cohabitation."

... It was now half past 6 p.m. and the Commissioner objected to going longer without his supper, so an adjournment of the two remaining cases was taken until 7:30pm. when proceedings were resumed.

William Wadley was called, and listened to the complaint charging him with cohabitation with his wives Isabella McKay Wadley and Mary Byard Wadley, from July 1, 1883, to June 1, 1886.

Mr. Dickson called two ladies named in the complaint; and both testified that they were the defendant's wives, and had lived with him in that relation since the date of their marriage.

Mr. Wadley gave $1000 bail for himself, and $200 for each of his wives, who were suboenaed to testify before the grand jury at Provo, on the 23rd of September.

William did appear before the Grand Jury in September as instructed. Six months later on March 11, 1887, he appeared before Judge H. P. Henderson in the Utah Territorial Court in Provo and was indicted on the charge of unlawful cohabitation. On April 29, 1887, William appeared before the judge again and pleaded "not guilty." His bail was set at $1,500. It is not known for sure whether William served time in prison. There are no further notes on the court records.

(Note: In the beginning stages of the polygamy raids, a stigma was attached to being in the penitentiary, but as the resident clientele became predominantly Mormon, a sentence in the pen conferred status. The prison community itself became a sort of social club, since many of the church, community, and business leaders in Utah were behind bars at one time or another.)

On October 29, 1887, William had a more pleasant experience. On that date the "North District" Sunday School and Primary was organized, and William became a counselor to Hans Jorgenson in the Sunday School. This is the beginning of record of a formal ecclesiastical organization in the North Fields, as the area was called then. Previous to this, William had been the Ward Teacher, and church meetings were held in the ward in Pleasant Grove. On February 5, 1888, four months later, the group was reorganized as an independent Sunday School or branch. David John of the Utah Stake Presidency presided at this occasion, and it must have pleased him to see William Wadley, whom he had confirmed a member of the Church back in Wales forty years before, become a counselor in the organization.

Nine months later William was set apart for a mission. He was going back to his homeland to gather names of relatives for genealogical work, and to present the gospel to his friends and relatives in Newent and nearby places. William was sixty-three years old and was prospering. He was well established on his farm. His family at this time consisted of seven boys and four girls, all unmarried. His youngest son, Thomas Wilford, had died in October just before William left for his mission, but everything else seemed to be working well. His oldest son, William Jr., was twenty-four years old. The next brothers, Ed and Isaac, were nineteen and seventeen respectively. William could leave his farm in good hands. It must have given him great pride to go back to his family in England and tell them of his accomplishments.

William was set apart Nov 13, 1888, and left the next day to spend the winter in England. There had been many changes in Newent since he left thirty-five years earlier. His parents had both died. His brother John, who had been to Utah and returned to England, died in October, just before William arrived. William went first to John's place at Clifford's Mesne to visit with his family. It was a short distance from Newent. Within a few days he got in touch with his brother Henry at Nibley Mills. Richard, the other brother, soon came up from Cardiff Wales, where he and his family lived, and stayed all night. William says, "We slept together, and explained some of the principles of the gospel to him. He believed it very well." However, there is no record that Richard was baptized.

On January 7 William went to Cardiff, Wales, to return Richard's visit, and said he "found Bro. Richard and family all well and doing well. They received me very kindly and was very pleased to see me." He stayed in Wales until January 25th. There was a branch of the Church there and William attended the meetings for two Sundays. He also met cousins and explained principles of the gospel to them. He attended a concert of "The Welch Choir," and went up to Merthyr Tydfill, where he had been baptized forty years before. He spent two days there and said he "found President Bruff there and met with the saints in the evening. Had a good time."

He spent about equal time at his brother John's place in Clifford's Mesne, and at his brother Henry's in Nibley Mills. He noted that Henry was "very ill" while he was there. He records that he spent some of his time helping on the farms of his brothers. At Richard's place in Cardiff he helped in the garden and in pruning the fruit trees. At John's place he helped in the potato fields. He says he spent one day and "went to Wanerfill (sic) and saw my cousin William Wadley and got some fruit seions (sic) for grafting." These were probably brought home with him. He also stayed often with old friends, the Cliffords, in Northwood Green. This old couple came to Utah with William when he returned. He built a home for them and cared for them in their elderly years.

Form his brother's home, William went to Newent and got records from the chruch there. He said he also "...went and saw the old house where I was raised and where father died. The old house is nearly down."

He wrote that he went to Gorsley, Walmore Hill, Blackwood, Mitheldean, Cinderford, Glasshouse Hill, Woodgate, Bran Green, Kent's Green, Ross, Weston, and many other places. In Wales besides going to Cardiff to his brother's place, he went to Penrath and Canton. He know where relative lived, and he endeavored to get records from them and tell them about the gospel. He went to Gloucester for business and shopping. When William arrived back in Pleasant Grove, April 5, 1889, he went right to work. The day after he got home he records that "Bro. Wheler came to do some grafting. Done some pruning." The next day he said he "worked at home all day, pruning." He was undoubtedly taking care of the frafts he brought back from England.

Mention has been made that he brought the Cliffords home with him when he returned from his mission. He also advanced passage money for John Illies, his sister Alice, and Heber White, who came two months later. This generosity of William's could have been partially prompted by his need for help on his farm. He must hav written home previously about it, for there is mention of William's plans in a correspondence between Will Jr. and his future wife, Maggie Jones, who lived in Woodland. She wrote in a letter dated March 31, 1889, that Will "...should be glad that your Father is fetching someone to do the work so you can be Boss." On July 29, 1889, after William was home, Will wrote back to Maggie that "... Pa's English folks have come on and he has got three of them to work here and one has gone to Salt Lake to hunt work."

The first Sunday after William returned from his mission he says he:

...Went to conference at Salt Lake City. President Woodruff and George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith were sustained as first presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in all the world.

Undoubtedly, William was proud to lift his hand in th sustaining vote.

On April 20, 1890, the L.D.S. ward in Pleasant Grove was divided, and the Sunday School organization of the North Fields became the Pleasant Grove Third Ward. Again David John attended the meeting, along with Abraham O. Smoot, Utah Stake Presidency, and Apostles Abraham H. Cannon and John W. Young. William Wadley was called to be First Councelor to Bishop Knud Swenson in the new Third Ward, and Joseph Halliday was Second counselor. William was ordained a high priest at this time by David John. The organized ward continued as Pleasant Grove Third Ward until 1898, when it was renamed Manila Ward. (See appendix Four for special story.)

In 1882, previous to any formal ecclesiastical organization, the residents of the North Fields had erected a one-room adobe-rock school house. Besides being used fo school, the building was used for community activities and such church gatherings as were not held in Pleasant Grove. Now, as an organized ward, members felt that the school house was not adequate for their needs. Building a new meeting house became their first priority. They wanted a house that could be dedicated to the Lord for his work. Millen Dan Atwood donated the southwest corner of his property for the building, and work commenced. The location was on th bench over looking the entire Utah Valley. It was determined by members that the church house be built of the soft rock from the quarries William had developed on the hill east of his home. He donated as much rock as was needed. The foundation was laid deep and firm, and the walls were square and true. However, the building was not finished until after Bishop Swenson and his counselors, William and Joseph Halliday, were released and a new bishop, Charles P. Warnick, was called. In bishop Warnick's writings is this note about the meeting house:

When I had moved from Pleasant Grove ... I, with my family interested ourselves in the activities of the new ward into which we had moved) Manila. I did all I could to help complete the meeting house which the people of this small ward were struggling to build. The first meeting was held in it in November 1896. We worked unitedly helping in every way possible for its completion, and it was ready for dedication on December 18, 1898.

The cost was reported to be $2,462.50 cash assessments besides labor. The ward was organized April 20, 1890, so the few people had done very well to erect this building in eight years while maintaining the other required church activities.

(Note: The church building has served its congregations well. Now (1986), it has outlived even the yougest member who worked on it. There have been additions and remodelings and plasterings which camouflage the original building, but its foundation is still firm, and its walls uncracked. It is a well blessed old building, having been dedicated three times since the original first prayer was offered by President Partredge of the Utah Stake on December 18, 1898. A later remodeling was dedicated by President Heaber J. Grant, April 18, 1937. A third dedicatory prayer covering new additions was given by Joseph Fielding Smith, April 26, 1964, and a fourth prayer, dedicating other new additions was offered August 10, 1980, by President Grant fugal, manila Stake President.)

Williams third wife, Mary Byard, died October 2, 1893. William wrote to a niece in England telling of this event and other news. The letter was written on Stationery wth printed letterhead noting "OFFICE OF WILLIAM WADLEY AND SONS, FRUIT GROWERS," dated October 11, 1894.

Dear Niece, ... Aunt Mary died one year ago. She suffered a great deal. She had a cancer in her mouth and she died by inches. Julie is still leving in her mother's house, and Nephi he is getting a big boy now. Johnny and Dan are getting big boys. Richard is about 6 feet tall. Netey will soon be a young woman.

We should very much like to see all of you folks once more but I am getting old and can hardly expect to come back home again. I am now in my seventieth year and am yet able to do a good deal of work tho I get very tired at night.

... We have a very heavy crop of fruit this season, more than we can save. WE have a great many peaches went to waste. Our crops are very good of everything this season. WE have now about 300 stands of bees and they keep me busy to attend to them all summer. We have lots of honey and fruit of all kinds.

If you was here and the Boys you might do well but I shall not persuade you to come. You might have been here and know all about the country and people and you now old enough to judge for yourselves. The Gospell of Jesus Christ is as true now as it ever was. And if there is any change it is in us.

Now I must draw to a close. Old Bro and Sister Clifford are still alive. The old man is very febel but the old ladie is abel to do a lot of work yet.

Please give our kind regards to your husband and to all of our old friends. Your Aunt Isabella sends her respects to you and says she would like to see you once more. Julie wishes to be kindly remembered to you all. Uncle Joseph and wife are well. Dan and his family are well. Harrey and family are well. He has married again. How weith kind love to all, from all you afectionate Uncle and Aunt Wm. And Isabela Wadley.

This letter indicates that these were busy times for William. He had his orchards, his vineyards, his bees, and his prospecting interests. He never did give up on trying to find coal on Mahogany Mountain.

In addition to these activities, William developed a very active and productive business from a clay bed east of his home. In his prospecting for coal, and also in developing his water source at the spring, he had dug numerous tunnels. He noted outcrop pings of black clay, and tried to find some use for it. He tried very early to make bricks out of it. He built his own kiln and tried to burn the bricks, but found they warped, so that prospective outlet was dropped.

It is not known exactly when William recognized that the clay had another commercial value, but by some means he found out that is could be used to line furnaces, as it had a very high heat-resistant quality. By 1900 he had developed a market for his black clay with the International Smelting Company, and it was used to line the furnaces of the Murray Smelter in Murray, Utah, that was being built at the time. Later he obtained a contract with the Kennecott Copper Company to furnish liner material for installation and maintenance of their furnaces in Tooele, Garfield, and other plants.

By 1900 William had seven grown sons, and four of them were involved in the clay business with him. His oldest son, Will, was in Tabiona, and William wrote endeavoring to get him to move back to Pleasant Grove. In a letter written in 1908 after Will had been hurt in a serious accident, William wrote:

... there is plenty of land here and work that you can have and hou can do beter than you can out there. When you get abel to work you can get more hauling clay than you can at farming. Some of the boys get 6 dolars a day.

In another letter written a month later to the same son, William adds more about the clay business.

... the boys are so busy hauling clay they have no time to do anything else. They have 7 teams on all the time. The clay is got to be a great business now, and the prospect is that it will increase.

Wadley's clay business itself was interesting. At first the clay was all loaded by hand. It was blasted loose inside the tunnel, wheeled out on small carts, loaded on wagons, and unloaded on railroad cars, all by hand. When the first tunnel was large enough to back a wagon into, another tunnel was opened above and an opening made from the lower tunnel to the upper. Wagons were loaded with clay from the upper level. It was while they were operating this way that one of William's sons, John Emer, was killed by a falling chuck of clay. Later, as the business developed, most of the clay was taken from an open pit.

Early in the business, the problem of getting through the mud and snow at times slowed delivery of the clay to the railroad cars in Pleasant Grove. Roads at that time were only tracks wherever needed by wagons going and coming. The heavy wagons of the Wadley boys mired in the mud, and much time and energy had to be spent getting them unstuck. It was determined to grade the road. (Which is now First East, or Canyon Road, in Pleasant Grove) from the Wadley Clay pit to the railroad depot in Pleasant Grove. Through the use of a poll tax in operation at that time for public works, the road was graded and covered with shale from the beds near the place where they were digging clay. This brought the first improved and graded road in Manila.

A daughter-in-law, Jessie, wife of Nephi, remembered that the loads of clay were heavy. The sturdy wagon wheels seemed to protest their loads by squeaking. A wife could tell where her husband was on the road and when he would be home for dinner by listening for the squeaking wheels.

The first telephone in Manila was brought to the Wadley home to take care of the clay business.

During these same years, William engaged in another tree planting episode. Brigham Young called for the culture of silk in Utah, and Isabella responded to the call. To feed the silkworms it was necessary to have mulberry trees. These trees had been imported by Brigham Young and starts made available to all who were participating in the venture. So William planted a row of mulberry trees. These are prolific trees with seedlings and shoots beyond control, and it is not surprising that many of them still survive on the Wadley farm nearly a hundred years later. One of them, it is claimed, is on an original trunk planted by William.

Somewhere in his activities William affiliated with the democratic political party. It isn't known whether it was personal choice or whether he was "assigned" to that party by the L.D.S authorities – as were many in the state – when an endeavor was made to build a two-
party system in Utah. There is no record that William was active in the party or that he ever ran for political office, although his son, Richard, was active politically for many years.

William was released from the Manila ward Bishopric January 18, 1898, and he continued faithful and active in his church duties. The ward records show that he blessed babies, paid tithing, and was consulted on issues and problem. He was one of the presidents of the 44th Quorum of Seventies. He sent two of his sons on missions. Edward went to California in 1901, and Nephi (Jakie) went to the Southern States in 1905. William was thoughtful of his neighbors and generous with his produce. (Of his produce, one source says that William always let it get very mature before he would harvest it.)

William remained physically active until late in his life. Once he and his friend, John Devey, were climbing in the mountains, and when they reached the top of Deer Creek Canyon in the American Fork Canyon, William told John that it was his eightieth birthday that day.

William's final note in his hand written sketch says:

In 1904 I deded my home to my children and now they have devided it among themselves. Three of them sould it to the other four. Now Richard, John, Nephi, and Daniel own the place. They paid the 4 girls three hundred dolars each as their share. Isac and Edward live in Pleasant Grove where they have got homes of their own. William, our oldest son has a home in Uintah on what was the Indian Reservation.

I bought 8 acres of land in what was caled the Meadows, south west of Pleasant Grove that I kept for myself. Now I have sold that and bought a 5 acre lot near the Manila meeting house on which I intend to build me a house if I live long enough.

William did not live long enough to build this final home. He died June 28, 1912 at home. The cause is listed as "old age" on ward records. He was 87 years old. Isabella, his wife, and eleven children survived him. Ward records show his funeral to have been a fitting memorial:

Services were held in the Pleasant Grove tabernacle.

Bishop H. B. Warnick presiding.

Song by Choir

Organ and Violin Duet by Charley and Florence Jeppson, "Nearer My God to Thee"

Bishop Charles P. Warnick testified that Brother Wadley sought first the kingdom of God

Brother Louis P. Lund testified that Brother Wadley was a very industrious man

Brother John Enis of Draper admonished all to be kind, honest, industrious

The Allen sisters sang a quartette

Apostle David O. McKay of Ogden, nephew of Brother Wadley spoke of the great work he had done in reclaiming the desert -- his great industry and kindness. He is not dead, only sleeping. And he has merited his rest.

President Able John Evens testified that all the things that had been said of Brother Wadley were true. He urged his posterity to ever keep their name honorable.

Bishop H.B. Warnick made a few closing remarks.

Choir sang "Oh My Father."

Benediction, James H. Clarke

Many of the communications and interviews used to construct William's life history were necessarily with neighbors and grandchildren who know William when he was an old man. It has been 74 years since he died, and memories are blurred. In general, reports show that William governed his family strictly. He believed the word of the father should be law. He loved his family but he seldom showed affection toward them. He considered that providing for his family meant that he planted and cared for the trees, and that the family members dried and cut and marketed the fruit to get money to meet their needs.

He was stern in his demands of conformance with the rules of the Sabbath Day observance, as he understood them. There was never any playing, partying, or merry-making in his presence on this day. Family prayers were held regularly in the home, but the prayer was always said by William, morning and night. William's demands came first in the family consideration. The wives were quick to get the dinner on the table when William was seen approaching the house after his day's labor. When he was in bed rather early after a hard day, the children were careful not to disturb him.