EZEKIEL PREECE OR PRICE (Son of William Preece and Mary Pugh)
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SECOND GENERATION EZEKIEL PREECE OR PRICE (Son of William Preece and Mary Pugh) Ezekiel Price, the second son and third child of William Preece (sometimes spelled “Price”) and Mary Pugh, was born 5 February 1833 in Lower Lye, Aymestrey, Herefordshire, England, near the Welsh borderlands. He was christened in St. John the Baptist and St. Alkmund Parish Church in Aymestrey on 14 April 1833. Ezekiel’s father, William, was a hired laborer at the farm in Lower Lye at the time of Ezekiel’s birth. Ezekiel’s parents were of modest circumstances: his father’s work was largely seasonal, and he would usually rent a home wherever his employment happened to take him. Before Ezekiel’s birth, the Price/Preece family had lived for at least three previous generations in the town of Richards Castle, just a few miles from Lower Lye and Aymestrey, and about 10 miles from the border dividing Herefordshire and Wales. In early spring of 1840, shortly after Ezekiel turned seven, missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including Wilford Woodruff, Brigham The main house at Lower Lye Farm (above) dates to the 16th Young, Heber C. Kimball, century. This is likely the farm where Ezekiel was born in and Willard Richards, 1833. (Sketch by William A. Green: www.ewgreen.org.uk) 142 began preaching in Herefordshire. Elder Wilford Woodruff, especially, enjoyed astonishing success as he baptized hundreds of converts in a pool at John Benbow’s Farm, near Castle Frome, and baptized hundreds more in other parts of Herefordshire. According to family tradition, it was at The parish church of St. John the Baptist and St. Alkmund in this time that Aymestrey, Herefordshire, where Ezekiel Price was christened in Ezekiel’s mother, his April 1833. Ezekiel’s father, William Preece, may be buried here. older sister Ann, and (as is believed) his father became converts to the LDS faith and were baptized, possibly by Elder Woodruff, in or near Aymestrey, Herefordshire. Their conversion occurred in great part through the influence of Ezekiel’s mother Mary who had received a blessing of health from two LDS missionaries. (Ezekiel, barely seven years old, would not have been of age to be baptized at that time; it is assumed that he and his younger brother William were baptized sometime after they turned eight years old—the age of accountability for the LDS Church.) Many of these new LDS converts made immediate preparations to leave Britain and gather with the main body of the Church in Nauvoo, Illinois. The Preece family also desired to join with the emigration to America; however, Both William and Mary Preece faced a combination of impaired health and difficult financial straits. In spite of these challenges, the Preece family kept faith that emigration might one day be possible, and they made such modest preparations as they could with the hope of eventually joining their fellow converts who preceded them to the United States. In his youth, Ezekiel’s opportunities for education were meager. The government did not provide schooling for the general population, and Ezekiel’s learning came almost entirely through his work experience. (In 1855, when Ezekiel and his sister Ann Preece witnessed the wedding of their brother Henry, both would sign their name with an “X”; Ezekiel, however, would learn to read and write after arriving in Utah.) 143 At the age of 12, Ezekiel became old enough to be put to work. Like most boys of that age in his social class, he was now expected to find some sort of employment and either add to the family income or go out and support himself. Ezekiel found work on a farm across the border in Radnorshire, Wales. The farm owner gave the young boy his keep and a very small wage. Ezekiel was ambitious and a quick learner; he became particularly adept in the care of horses and farm animals. Ezekiel developed considerable veterinary skills; consequently, he was hired by the same farmer—probably William Morgan of Crossway Farm in Lower Kinsham—for eight successive years. Ezekiel’s wages were increased each year, and he was able to put aside some money. His financial contributions to the family were needed for, as the years wore on, both of his parents became physically impaired: Ezekiel’s father, William, crippled by arthritis and poor health, became unable to work; Ezekiel’s mother was also severely restricted in health and lost much of her eyesight. The family income became sharply limited and was dependent upon Ezekiel’s earnings. In March of 1853, Ezekiel’s ailing father William Preece died of tuberculosis at the relatively young age of 52. Ezekiel had just turned 20. The younger members of the Preece family had almost given up their plans to emigrate to America, but Ezekiel’s mother, Mary Pugh Preece, would not hear of it. Due to Mary’s stubborn persistence, the family remained focused on their plans to emigrate. By this time, the LDS gathering place had been relocated; it was now in Great Salt Lake City—another 1300 miles further westward from Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1855, when Ezekiel was 22 years old, the Preece family f inally qualified for emigration. They paid a hard-saved £43 toward their shipboard fare a nd were credited for the remaining £15 through the Perpetual A typical English immigrant ship of the time departs the docks of Liverpool. Emigration 144 Fund of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. James Jenkins of Presteigne, Wales, who emigrated in the same shipboard company, acted as the sponsor for the Preece family. Mary and three of her four children (Ezekiel, Ann, and The immigrant packet ship S. Curling shipped the Preece family from Liverpool to New York in one month’s time, landing 22 May 1855. William) were able to join 576 other Mormon Saints and cross the Atlantic Ocean in the sailing vessel S. Curling. They left Liverpool, England, on 22 April 1855 and landed in New York City on 22 May 1855. On the shipboard manifest, the Preece family gave their place of origin as Presteigne, in Radnorshire, Wales (William’s birthplace). The Preece family left New York City by steamboat and train to Pittsburgh, then joined other Mormon immigrants and boarded the river steamboat Amazon. They began a journey of several hundred miles along the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and St. Louis, Missouri. From St. Louis, another steamboat transported the immigrants an additional 400 miles up the Missouri river to Atchison, Kansas Territory, which was the appointed “jumping-off place” for Mormon immigrants headed to Salt Lake City. After a delay of several weeks in Atchison, the four members of the Preece family were able to join the tenth and last wagon company leaving that year for Salt Lake City. Due to the need to gather a sizeable herd of cattle for the trek, the departure of the company had been delayed until 3 August 1855. This was far later in the season than was desirable—no group would want to cross the Rocky Mountains during winter weather. Milo Andrus, the leader of the company, was undoubtedly concerned that bad weather might catch up to them before they reached the Rocky Mountains; in his urgency, he continually harried and bullied the 461 members of the party and hurried them along with the hope of beating the weather. Although Captain Andrus became generally unpopular, the company successfully completed an otherwise uneventful trek on 24 October 1855 with no loss of life and very little inclement weather. 145 It is likely that Ezekiel, with his innate love and understanding of animals, made a valuable contribution to the wagon train, both with the animals assigned to their family wagon and with the large herd of horses and cattle accompanying the train. [Note: See the article, “Mary Pugh (Preece/Price),” for more specific details of Ezekiel’s sea voyage and the subsequent journey of the Preece family to Utah.] By the time the Preece family arrived in Salt Lake City, their money was gone. Ezekiel and William improvised a winter shelter out of their wagon for their mother and sister in the Despite the approach of winter, Ezekiel’s good frock coat was traded for flour. pioneer encampment at Mill Creek, near the Jordan River, then tried to see what could be done about food. 1855 had been a drought year, and much of the valley’s harvest had been devoured by crickets and grasshoppers. The Preece family found that there was little food available for purchase; most of the pioneers were subsisting on a diet of bran meal and boiled roots. In spring, the pioneers would gather Sego Lily roots, thistles, and watercress until a new harvest could be obtained. As a stopgap, Ezekiel was able to sell his good frock coat to buy flour so they could survive. He would sorely miss it during the first winter months. On 3 December 1855, Ezekiel, his sister Ann, and his mother were rebaptized into the LDS Church (a standard practice for nearly all Saints newly arrived in Utah). Ezekiel’s brother William was rebaptized three weeks later, on a chilly Christmas Day. It may have been about this point that the spelling of the “Preece” family name evolved into “Price.” Ezekiel and his brother William searched for employment, but found nothing available near Mill Creek. They decided to try their luck southward. They followed the main road, going from farm to farm and business to business in search of work. They hiked over 12 miles, reaching Draperville (now called Draper), before they found good fortune.