BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
OF
JOSEPH GREAVES, Jr. (b. 1832)

Submitted by Brett Gledhill

Ancestors - Pedigree Chart

By
Nellie Greaves Spidell
December 1939

Introduction:

When my father was called on the mission to Great Britain in 1881. Instructions given the missionaries at the April Conference included the keeping of a daily diary. As he had never written an account of his life up to that date, he prefaced the beginning of that requirement with a short sketch of his life dating from birth to 1832. In 1897, when the L.D.S. Church held a Jubilee honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the Saints entering Salt Lake Valley an interesting account was given in local newspapers. Copies were sent to, father's cousin, William Graves. He replied by sending copies of England's Jubilee honoring Queen Victoria. The accompanying letter made inquiries concerning father's journey to Utah in 1853. Accordingly, two letters written by Father at Logan, Utah - one September 10, 1897 and another September 14, 1897 - covered the narrative of the trip from England to Utah and items concerning his family, their health, location and occupations at the time of his writing in 1897. Sometime, in the not to distant past, these two letters were returned to the Greaves family at Preston. These letters had a brief sketch of Joseph Greaves life as written in his journal by himself as a preface to his daily diary done in small books and copied into the Journal from authentic biography and from these two sources, added to from the known facts of those of us who knew him personally and have a personal knowledge of places and events of his later years from the basis of this sketch.

Biography:

From genealogical research we find the first Greaves of England of whom my father was a descendant, came from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1065. Descendants of that Greaves have resided continuously in England since that period. Some immigrated to America at various times and the name is among those listed in Washington D.C. showing family line and Coat of Arms.

The branch of that family from which father came, lived for many generations, that reached into centuries, in and near Liverpool, Lancashire, England. His father's name which Joseph. His mother's maiden name was Mary Ann Halliwell. His birth occurred February 22, 1832, in Liverpool. Being the first child, he was given his father's name, Joseph. There were two brothers and two sisters.

Joseph Greaves senior was a tailor by trade. His son Joseph records obtaining very little schooling. His daily task was to carry dinner to his father at the tailor shop. He played in the streets or field along the banks of the Mersey River watching shipping and sometimes sailing across the river in small boats or going on immigrant ships to look about. Occasionally when he had the fare, he took a trip down the river for 15 miles to pass warships and a floating light ship. All this was before he was thirteen years of age. As general errand boy for the family he told of being sent to the home of a doctor and while the maid left the hall to summon the doctor, he became interested in the chatter of a parrot, which kept calling "Lucy." The next day Joseph asked his mother to please name his new baby sister Lucy. Many years later he chose "Lucy" as the name of his daughter.

It was decided that Joseph should follow the same trade as his father. Accordingly, at the age of thirteen, he was apprenticed to Henry Yates, tailor. Evidently a legal document of apprenticeship made a certain period binding and stipulated a very small sum to be paid to the apprentice, a sum so small that it was not really sufficient for food. About the time the apprenticeship began, Joseph's mother died. Then, on Sundays, he formed a habit of going to hear a crippled sailor preach temperance. Henry Yates, his instructor, died, so with his legal papers he was transferred to another tailor. This man also died but a brother in law carried on the shop and Joseph finished his apprenticeship under him.

When about sixteen years of age Joseph's father died. At the age of seventeen he made his home with a Latter-day Saint family. The four years, thirteen to seventeen, had been fruitful years for him as he was by nature a real student. He worked long hours, had particularly no associates his own age. The master tailor sent him out of the back door to buy whiskey. That tailors wife sent her daughter out the front door to buy drink. Joseph, with never enough food to feel fully satisfied saw much waste of food in the Yates's kitchen. He continued to attend that crippled sailor's Sunday talks temperance, and drew his own conclusions as to the why's of success and causes of failure. He developed a philosophy of life-thrift, industry, order, and system. I did not mention honesty in this list because honesty was a part of him always, perhaps dating back for many generations. This made it possible for him to think independently and even suffer physically because of this basic element in his character.

Now at the age of seventeen, being a member of a Latter-day Saint household, he grew acquainted with the principles of their faith and recognized it as "the way" to the attainment of the desires of his soul. He was baptized into the Church November 15, 1852, fully converted and remained so to the end.

About two years after finishing his apprenticeship as a tailor, he was married to Sarah Priscilla Cluley, February 20, 1853. The next day they embarked on the sailing vessel International for New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A. The journey, at the time, coming on the cheapest fare, was far from all pleasure. Crowded quarters, menial tasks, insufficient food, the supply of flour ran out and rice was served instead, he never liked rice afterward. The wind was not favorable to the journey, after being five weeks on the water they were but an average of ten days distance of the journey. A day of prayer was called by the Latter-day Saints, onboard. That afternoon the wind changed and three weeks later the ship docked at New Orleans, eight weeks in all. The captain declared that after the fast day, then journey was made in less time than on any previous trip. At New Orleans they transferred to a river steamboat and sailed north up the Mississippi River and landed on the West Bank of the river at Keokuk Iowa. Here they began their overland trip across the states of Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming, to Utah, a distance of 1330 miles. The time from Liverpool, England, to Salt Lake City requires seven months and ten days. Joseph Greaves was 21 years of age at the time he left Liverpool, and eight of these years had been spent at tailoring, sitting on a table with legs crossed in a stuffy tailor shop. His assignment to cross the plains was to walk and drive a herd of loose cattle. The months of travel across the ocean and river had not developed to the muscles for walking. When night came he would be so weary, he sometimes wished he had never been born. There seemed to be no strain of humor in his make-up and as he had no musical talent, the evenings about the fire when the pioneers relaxed and enjoyed singing and dancing or joked, he and his wife participated merely as observers. By the time his company was in Western Wyoming his food supply and that of some others were exhausted. Then it was necessary to kill the poorest of the cattle. They had no salt to eat with the meat.

Arriving in Salt Lake destitute, Joseph had to accept any kind of available work, although before leaving England he had never done a days work at anything except tailoring. His wife, Priscilla, fared some better by helping with the housework of an aged couple and thus have food and warmth. That winner they got into a log house. Later, they built a small adobe house. In December 1854, on the 21st of the month, their first child was born. He was named John Cluley. They lived in Salt Lake City for three years sometimes with nothing but roots of weeds to keep them from starving. Then the plague of the grasshoppers made things even worse and they moved to Provo. Fish were easily caught here no bait was even needed. Potatoes, corn, and flour were also obtained. Johnson's Army had passed through Salt Lake City, went West and South and was building Fort Floyd. This gave employment, making Adobe's in the summer and in the winter there was work in the near by canyons. Joseph purchased land near the Provo River. The land was covered with heavy brush and tree stumps. For three years all spare time was spent clearing the land. He had 5 acres under cultivation when in the spring of 1862, high waters took away the soil of the cultivated part, and cut the land in two, leaving nothing but cobble rocks. Joseph started a foot to investigate Cache Valley. He was favorably impressed, returned, and after disposing of the little home the family terminated a six-year residence in Provo. They went to Provo a family of three and left there a family of six; Elizabeth, born October 21, 1856, Joseph, December 1858, Thomas, November 1860. Their journey was made by ox team, in the winter of 1862-63 and the wagon continued to be their shelter until a comfortable room was made where a lot sloped down. Dug into a slope, roofed and a door and window they were sheltered warm and comfortable in time to welcome a baby girl, March 17, 1863. She was named Priscilla.

The move to Logan was permanent. The lot on which they can't when they arrived became their home. Later a two room like house was built. Here on April 2, 1865 Mary Ann was born. She lived but a few days, and on the thirteenth of the same month her mother followed her in death. The grave of the infant was made larger and contains both bodies. The plot was among the first in the present Logan City cemetery. It lies directly east across the roadway from the Thatcher plot and at this date contains the graves of Joseph Greaves, his wife Priscilla, their daughter of Mary Ann, also Elizabeth Wood Greaves, the second wife and an infant daughter named Susan who died soon after birth. A suitable monument marks the plot.

When Joseph Greaves became a widower, April 13, 1865, he was left with four children: John 11, Lizzie 9, Joe 7, Tom 5, and Priscilla 2. For three years and seven months there was no wife in the home. As speedily as land could be purchased, Joseph Greaves did not go into debt, they enlarged their ownings. The boys assisted their father with the farm work and the improvement of the city lot where the home is located. Somehow they could manage to take care of baby Priscilla probably taking her with them to the field. It was not so easy to care for a girl the age of Lizzie. She was too young to assume responsibility as a housekeeper. So Bishop Roberts and Ada Hemingway Davidson of the Logan third ward persuaded them to allow Lizzie to become a member of their household. Here she was useful from the first, tending babies and assisting in housework. While she kept in contact with her father's family she was never a member of his household here after. When the Greaves family could get some help they did. A Swedish women worked for them for some time.

The nearest neighbor to Joseph Graves was George F. Stratten. His wife had also died leaving several children. There were many with widowers. Companies of immigrants arriving each summer usually contained single girls and widows. Advice was given by church authorities that widowers meet and become acquainted with marriageable women coming to Utah without homes. According to the neighbors, Greaves and Stratten out fitted themselves and together made the trip to Salt Lake City in time with the arrival of an immigrant train. Mr. Stratten found his bride several weeks sooner than did Mr. Greaves. She was so young she seemed scarcely older than the eldest child she was to mother. Joseph Greaves found a widow nine months older than himself, (his first wife had been a year old then he). The new wife was Elizabeth Ann Goddard Wood, widow of John Wood, a native of Buckleberry, Berkshire, England. Her mother, brother, and four sisters were residents of Salt Lake City. They had arranged transportation for her to come to them when they learned that John Wood had died of pneumonia. She brought with her, daughters Fanny and Clara, the eldest four and the younger two and a half years old. The marriage occurred the endowment house in Salt Lake City, November 6, 1868. They then went directly to Logan. The home had lacked a mother for three years and seven months was indeed desolate. Two more children, Fanny and Clara, were added to the already large household. A Brother and Sister Hewitt were childless and finding four year old Fanny very attractive, proposed that they adopt her, and thus give advantages she otherwise would not have. The mother could not bring herself to sign away her child. Hewett's understood and asked that Fanny be aloud to "stay" with them. This she did until in her teens. After Mr. Hewitt died, Fanny hired out except when needed at home new beat babies arrived, at house cleaning time or illness in the family. Thus she was a great help to her mother and stepfather who fully appreciated her services.

The grandmother, Ann Boyd, came from Salt Lake City to visit her daughter. She felt she could help by taking little Clara to live with her. Mrs. Greaves consented, Clara would be a companion to her grandmother and have more advantages in an educational way. Clara remained in Salt Lake City permanently, making infrequent visits to Logan.

Each year, as it passed, showed something accomplished, property improved and more land bought. Joseph Greaves had spent years learning the tailor trade yet, when after 27 1/2 years he was in route to England to perform a mission. He estimated that during these years the actual time spent at practicing the trade of tailor would amount to only about ten months. However, in the new country any work he found to do he did, not alone for the financial help it gave him but because it added more to his accomplishments. During the summer of 1874 and 1875 he worked on the Logan Tabernacle as a mason and in the summer of 1876 he worked as a stone cutter on the Salt Lake Temple. Between such employment he was hauling stone and building his permanent house. Joe, John, and Tom attended to the farm work at such times. It must have taken many a load of blue limestone, hauled by team from canyons east of Logan, for the body of the new house he had planned, and long days journeys to the south end of the valley for the sandstone for the corners of the house. We have no record of just when the excavation was made for the basement of the house. New babies arrived in the log house while the stone was being quarried and brought for the new house. Lucy came in September 1869, Susan in 1872, but past on. Nellie arrived in March 1873, all in the log house. A son, who arrived in October 1875, was born in the new rock house. Surely the hearts of both father and mother rejoice to when William Charles arrived. The sons of the first wife were nearing the time when each would go his own way. And to Elizabeth a son was very precious because her first two children by Mr. Wood were sons and they had died of diphtheria before the birth of Fanny. In January 1878 Sarah Ann was born in the new house.

Fanny Wood, born July 10, 1863, baptized May 31, 1871 by William Hewitt, Manchester, England.

Life had less hardship for Joseph Greaves from now on. The trip to England to perform a mission and to obtain names for genealogical work was a great event. Until then he had not seen the United States east of the Mississippi River. That spring of 1881 was one of flood through the Middle Western states covering much of the area over which he had walked driving cattle in 1853. While he had very little money supplied him during his mission he probably received few favors that he did not repay. Often in the diary, mention is made of having mended a coat or altered some articles of clothing or doing some repairs to a house of the church member. He was relieved of any anxiety pertaining to the family at home. His son Thomas who was left in charge of the farm and family did the work well, with great consideration toward his stepmother and the children. His children remember that for several months preceding his departure for the mission their father spent practically all of his time in a little room partitioned off from the room that served as dining and living room, making a place for study. Here he applied himself, humbly, prayerfully, and persistently in an effort to be better prepared to carry on his missionary work.

In England, where farms and gardens were small and cultivated intensively, he found himself making unfavorable comparisons to the Utah gardens and farms. Returning from his mission in the spring of 1883, his aim was to develop his city lot, garden, and orchard, his pieces of farmland to compare more nearly two those he saw in England. This tendency toward increased needless and efficiency was wearing both himself and his family at times. Yet it had compensation. The House was painted gray and flecked with fine specks of black and white, very much resembling real granite. Changes were also made in the interior to make for greater convenience. The Brigham Young College, and Utah Agricultural College, where a boon to the tailor trade. Son William was old enough to take over the farm work and to get wood from the canyon for fuel. So Joseph Greaves turned at last to his trade of tailor, including cleaning and repairing. This work and working in the temple occupied the greater part of his time during the fifteen years preceding his death. His death was not sudden coming after one days illness at his home, Sunday morning June 19, 1904. Funeral services were held in the second ward where he had lived for 41 years. Bishop's councilor, Newell W. Kimball confined his remarks to the practical help brother Greaves had rendered to the bishopric, and the ward, especially in the erection of the new meeting house. When it was decided to build, Joseph Greaves told the authorities that he would be responsible for the foundation. This he did, and the work was so well done that "as long as the building stands that work will testify to the integrity of the workman who executed it."

A biography of worth, should depict character. In summing up Joseph Greaves life we find the power for keen observation, a fine sense of values, thrift of time as well as money, and judgment as to when and how to spend each, to obtain maximum results, were outstanding traits. In his home were newspapers, magazines, and books. Trips were made to conference in Salt Lake City. Theaters were enjoyed as was the Fair in San Francisco. Seriously sifting the wheat from the chaff, he was too serious to realize that even chaff had its purposes. He probably failed to realize the keen delights of living, or loving, or to make it possible for those near him to enjoy these. For this lack, we must in justice to his high ideals, place the blame on poverty and hardship of his early life and of the consequent ill health and severe struggle for existence during the pioneering years in Utah.

My Grandfather Joseph Greaves
Copied from the History of Utah since Statehood,
Vol. 4, 1920

Joseph Greaves was born in Liverpool England, February 22, 1832. On the 21st of February, 1853, he left that country as a convert to the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. He arrived in Utah September 30th, having assisted in driving cattle the whole trip of 1300 mi. across the plains. He was a tailor by trade. For three years he lived in Salt Lake City, after which he moved to Provo where he again followed his trade. In 1862 he became a resident of Logan where he worked as a stone mason of the temple. In 1881 he was called to fill a mission in England, where he labored for three years. He held many positions in the church and was a member of the High Council at the time of his death in 1904. With all activities and projects for the public welfare and building of his section of the state he was closely associated.

Notes from a conversation with my aunt - Elizabeth Greaves Eames
March 27, 1937

Grandfather Joseph Greaves and Grandmother Priscilla Cluely Greaves were married on the boat the day before they sailed from England to America. Grandfather walked most of the way across the plains driving cows. Grandmother had to discard many of her precious things as they were coming to Utah so as to lighten the load, for the oxen were giving out. This made her feel very bad. Grandmother had real dark hair and gray eyes. My mother resembled her and Aunt Lizzie resembled grandfather. They settled in Provo. John, Thomas, Joseph, and Elizabeth were born there. Grandfather's farm was too near the Lake Shore and his crops were frequently washed away. Therefore, they decided to move to Cache Valley. On the way they camped on the shores of Salt Lake. In the evening and Lizzie was sitting to near the campfire and the embers set fire to her dress. She was greatly frightened but no harm was done. That night the oxen got away and grandfather had to go on foot to find them before they could continue on their trip to Cache Valley. Uncle Joe and Lizzie walked to the edge of the lake with oxen bows over their shoulders. John said to his little sister, "do you know what would happen if we slept right here? The waves would come up high in the night and wash us right out in the lake." Again Aunt Lizzie was frightened. As they pass through Salt Lake City they noticed a row of lumber stores, "gun for sale" was standing out in front.

Once Uncle John fell into a neighbor's well. Aunt Lizzie gave the alarm and men got him out. She recalled seeing him climb up the rocks which lined the well.

Grandmother used to wear a brown skirt and loose waist, called a saque.

When they arrived in Cache Valley they made a dugout in this side of the hill. The floors were covered with clean straw. Later they lived in a two room house with a "lean to" in the back.

Aunt Lizzie made many candles in the candle molds, three in a row (some molds had double rows). A wick was threaded through the center, a knot tied in the taped end, and the other ends were fastened to a small round stick to hold them straight. They were then poured full of mutton tallow which was sometimes mixed with beef suet. They stood overnight to harden. The next morning the molds were warmed with the hands and the candles slipped out. These candles were far superior to the former method of lights which was a string in a button placed in a saucer of oil or grease.

Once Grandmother took a trip back to Provo with a neighbor. Aunt Lizzie remembered walking along the pathway with her as she was leaving. Grandfather took care of the children while she was away. Her purpose in going to Provo was to get a copy of some important dates. Among them was a correction of Aunt Lizzie's birth date, October 21st. Previously they had thought it was October 27th, as the 1 had been written like a 7. Grandmother's record book had been lost when they moved to Cache Valley.