History of William Glover, Jr. and His Wife, Jane Cowan Glover
William and Catherine Glover were the parents of Sarah Elizabeth Glover, who married Elijah Knapp Fuller, Jr. They were the parents of Sarah Rosetta Fuller, who married Harold August Christensen and became the parents of our Harold Elijah Christensen and Irving Fuller Christensen.
William Glover was the son of William Glover, Sr., and Catherine Owens. He was born August 19, 1813, at Kilmarnock, Ayershire, Scotland. He emigrated to America when just a young man and settled in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
Jane Cowan was born December 9, 1816, at Clayland, Lanarkshire, Scotland. She emigrated to America with her grandparents and also settled in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. They were married March 15, 1832. They joined the Latter-day Saint Church in the year of 1846.
They had seven children. Unfortunately they buried four boys, two of them twin boys, Jacob and John, leaving them with two girls and one son.
William Glover, Jr., and Jane Cowan were with the company of Saints that made the voyage on the ship Brooklyn.
It became an established fact that the Latter-day Saints would not be permitted to live in peace and continue to build up their beloved Nauvoo, Illinois, and that new homes would be chosen somewhere in the Rocky Mountain region. Apostle Orson Pratt, who presided over the branches of the church in the eastern and middle states, issued his farewell message to the Saints in those parts of the country and took his departure for Nauvoo, there to join the Saints in their removal westward.
It was decided that Samuel Brannan, editor and publisher of the paper The Messenger should suspend work on the paper and charter a vessel and take his press and fixtures, also a company of Saints from the eastern branches, and make a voyage by way of Cape Horn to California, as the distance to their future destination in the Rocky Mountains would be much shorter from there.
The ship Brooklyn was chartered and made comfortable by fixing staterooms and other conveniences for all those who could raise fifty dollars as payment for their passage on the ship. They set sail from New York on February 4, 1846. There were about 250 persons on board, mostly Saints.
The passengers started the voyage joyfully, though some shed tears in parting with loved friends and relatives. They took farming implements, tools, blacksmiths, carpenters, saw mills, grist mills, printing press, paper and all such things as would be needed in establishing a colony in a distant land.
Of course, they met with some disappointments and sorrow. They ran into terrible storms and during a storm women and children had to stay below. At night they were lashed to their beds. The furniture rolled back and forth endangering lives and limbs.
During one terrible storm, the old captain Richardson came down and gave the people warning that he had. done all in his power but in all the years of travel he had never seen such a heavy gale. But the people did not seem to be frightened. They had plenty of faith that they would reach their destination. The captain hardly knew what to make of this and said, "They are either fools and fear nothing or they know more than I do."
During one of the storms, a lady, Mrs. Laura Goodwin, was descending a stairway and was thrown forward, causing premature confinement and she died. One of the sailors was also washed overboard.
At Juan Fernandes they went ashore to bury Mrs. Goodwin. It was very sorrowful, for six little children sobbed and cried and the lonely father tried his best to comfort them.
The rest of the passengers, however, were very glad to get on land again. They washed their clothes in the fresh water, gathered fruits, potatoes, caught fish and eels, visited around the island and in general enjoyed themselves greatly. But they knew this was not the place for them to stay so once more they started on their voyage.
The water supply grew very limited. Rats and cockroaches became so thick one could hardly sleep. Vermin infested the food supplies until sickness and discontent prevailed. About eleven deaths occurred daring the voyage.
They arrived in Honolulu on the 22nd day of June and remained there several days. The native people were very kind to them. There were some American people there too and were glad to see the Saints arrive. They invited the Saints to visit them. The natives were dark but not black and wore scarcely any clothing.
Coffee, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, grapes, pineapple and various other fruits grew there. Their homes were built of straw and stock with mud walls.
After several days visit in Hawaii the voyage continued on to California. They passed the Golden Gate on July 31, 1846. They were greeted by uniformed Americans and were thrilled to hear them speak in their sweet native tongue.
The Saints were all anxious to be busy and soon the command came to unload. With hearty good will, trying to make the best of everything, the company of Saints began life anew.
Samuel Brannan set up his printing press and commenced publication on the California Star, formerly The Messenger. A colony of farmers was started by Brannan and a number of families engaged in farming.
Much was accomplished after this. Samuel Brannan and two other men left and made their way across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, through to Fort Hall and on to Green River to join the pioneers under the leadership of President Brigham Young. Brannan wanted these pioneers to continue their journey on to California where his group of Saints were, but President Young said no, they must go on to the Great Salt Lake Valley, as that was the place for the Saints to locate. Later a number of Saints in California came to Salt Lake to live, while others remained in California. Gold was discovered in California and a great number of people became wealthy.
Samuel Brannan, who was beginning to show signs of apostasy, took advantage of the people and speculated in many different things and soon he owned the main part of the new town of San Francisco. He became a multi-millionaire. For a number of years he was one of the leading spirits of the development of California, but in time he lost all his wealth and died a pauper.
September 25, 1846, Jane Cowen Glover gave birth to a son, William Glover III, then two years later gave birth to another daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Glover, born November 7, 1848.
William Glover, Jr., worked in a gold mine. Whenever his wife had a spare moment she used to go to a small stream of water that came from the gold mines and wash the tiny gold nuggets out. In the year of 1849 they came to Salt Lake in an ox team.
Jane's older sister, Catherine, has related the story of how the authorities of the church came to William for money to help the church carry on the work of the Lord. William had a peck of gold [see the receipt below] and he gave them all he had, leaving the family with almost nothing. One day he came home and said he could buy a cheap farm if he had some money. His wife asked how much he needed and he told her about five hundred dollars. She brought out the gold she had saved for her children's education, and. they bought a farm in Farmington.
William Glover, Jr., fulfilled a mission in England in 1852 and on his return went to Scotland and brought back his mother and Margaret Lochead, who later became his wife. He had three wives, twenty-six children and 73 grand children. Jane Cowen had thirteen children, 6 boys and 5 girls, sixty grandchildren and twenty-four great-grandchildren at the time of her death.
Jane was blind for a number of years before she died. She was knocking apples from a tree and one of them hit her in the eye. It affected the other eye and both went blind. As William had two other wives, the third wife lived in Jane's home and took all the responsibility of the home and treated Jane like a welcome guest.
Both William and Jane were faithful Latter-day Saints and endured many trials for the Gospel
He died at the age of 79 and was buried in Farmington, Davis County, Utah, on March 31, 1892. She died at her youngest daughter's home in Lewiston, Cache County, Utah, on March 11, 1896, at the age of 80. She was also buried at Farmington.
--History written by Catherine Fuller Watkins, Granddaughter
Receipt to William Glover for 22.6 pounds of gold dust ($16 per ounce).
--Brigham Young Office Files, LDS Church Historian's Office.
To return to the Christensen Family index page, click here.
.
