SIMON NOALL

) St. Ives, , is a quaint little village located on a tiny crescent-shaped peninsula surrounded by a blue bay, much like that of Naples, on the southwest tip of England. Until the latter part of the nineteenth century it was known as a but now is an art center and vacation resort. Its climate has been compared favorably with that of the French Riviera. In fact, it has been spoken of as being most healthful for invalids, because it is surrounded by sea and refreshing sea breezes. However, it was visited by the famous plague in 1647.

St. Ives Old Town (or Down-along) is built right out on the peninsula itself and contains the old little houses and roads from centuries ago while New Town (or Up-along) has crept up the mountain slopes behind the bay. The inhabitants of St. Ives had for centuries wrested a livelyhood by fishing from the treacherous billowy sea. This is where Simon Noall, born in 1822, our ancestor who was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was born. Little is known of the private lives of our St. Ives ancestors but from Historical Sketch of St. Ives by W. Badcock we can glean some facts and flavor of their way of life through the years.

The shire of Cornwall was especially concerned during the time of Queen Elizabeth and the war with Spain lest the Spanish Armada land on her coasts, and entries in the Borough Records of St. Ives show that preparations were made to receive the Spaniards should they arrive at St. Ives . In 1595 after the defeat of the Spanish Armada the Spaniards came again in four galleys and Simon Noall did land at , a village not far from St. Ives. They 1822 - 1896 burned that village and set.fire to two neighboring parishes of and . Men from all surrounding parishes rallied From the Liverpool Branch records, "Simon Noale, single, born together and prepared to fight them on the Green, but the 14 June 1822, St. Ives, Cornwall, England, baptized 14 March 1852, Spaniards fled to their galleys and sailed away. St. Ives then immersed by John Moore, confirmed by F.D. Richards, Liverpool levied a rate or tax upon its inhabitants to raise a fund to Branch - Remarks - Emigrated February, 1853." defend itself against the Spanish if they should return.

At the beginning of the seventeeth century after the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the defeat of the Spanish Armada the ) Englishmen turned their attention from foreign invasion to their problems at home. In contrast to the life of color and gaiety of Elizabeth's court, a stern puritanism arose, and St. Ives became 6 the local headquarters of the revolutionary party in England. vfuen James I came to the throne much of the landed gentry were ( summoned to attend the coronation and be knighted. Vfuena man was knighted he was supposed to pay the king for the honor. This was one method the king used to raise funds. John Stephens of St. Ives was one summoned to be knighted and he refused. For his refusal he had to pay the sum of 16 pounds.

Three miles up over the hills from St. Ives is the parish of Uny Lelant and until about 1426 there was no church in St. Ives. The town inhabitants were forced to walk uphill three miles ·tJ~r1A each Sunday to Lelant to church, to carry their babies for Seta christenings, their dead for burials, and in stormy weather when ~ the sea foamed up over the penisula headland, they even had to wade through three feet of cold water before starting the climb. In 1410 Pope Alexander granted their petition permitting them to erect a chapel in St. Ives, and the ediface was sixteen years in being constructed. They seemed to be a religious, God fearing people at heart. Sailors develop a natural tendency to religion and prayer and St. Ives fishermen and mariners were often dependant on God for their survival in the rough seas. Right out on the harbor at the beginning of the pier stands a small church dedicated to St. Leonard where the fishermen used to stop in for E~/a-nd a quick prayer before going out to sea.

St. Ives inhabitants were among the first in England to accept Wesleyan Methodism but it had a hard beginning. At first ~ St. Ives fishermen were determined to thwart the efforts of Charles Wesley to preach. In 1743 they stormed into the meeting 6 house, smashed the windows and tore out the seats. Once when Hr. Wesley was preaching a bunch of ruffians burst into the room to make trouble. Mr. Wesley sought out the leader and comfronted him. He says,"I received but one blow on the side of the head after which the leader became subdued and finally quieted his companions." We read that John Paynter and John Nance were defenders of Wesley and often invited him to their houses. ,En5h£A ckn.ne./ Probably that John Paynter was one of our relatives. .'C;) (}~ " lr It was an interesting custom among the that .scJJIy lrks when they became excited in joy or anger they would vent their emotions by pulling down a house. When Admiral Matthews beat the ( Spanish in a battle and the news reached St. Ives of the victory a mob gahered and pulled down a house---- the nearest and most convenient one. By 1770 this introduction of Wesleyan Methodism 1- into St. Ives took hold and many of the Noalls and their friends embraced the religion and are even presently staunch members. In the days before ]400 st. Ives was built out on this One can imagine the life of a sailor or fisherman led on s~all peninsula. The dotted line The green Headland. the windy coast at St. Ives. Up to the later part of the and the "X" marks the place This rocky, hilly area nineteenth century the chief means of making a living was fishing where stormy waves came up over is not inhabited. It ~ for mackeral, pilchard, and herring. For centuries fathers and the land and St.Jves people ha is called the "Isla I sons together went out in boats with their nets, in to wade through it to go to the deep blue sea while gulls wheeled and screeched overhead, and Lelant on Sunday to Church. their women at home held a prayer under their breath that they later built a Church in St. Ives. might return. It is an area where tides meet and the waves beat Now St. rves is built "upalong" on wildly and storms are frequent and violent. Many ships are the hills. wrecked annually along the coasts as winds drive them onto rocks at Land's End and the St. Ives Borough Records show many fishermen and mariners drowned. It was a bare scanty living they earned. When their boats did return after a good catch they were quickly X, unloaded at the pier and horse-drawn carts were filled with the ,, smelly catch and driven at top speed up the steep winding streets Down a Lo nq ---"7~--~ of the village to the fish cellars where the fish were stored. As the horses galloped up the narrow streets mothers called to their children to watch out for the fish carts. Some fishes and fish oil would drip out the back end of the carts and make the streets slippery and slimy. Can you imagine the smell of a fishing ·Porthmeor village? Beach

Since the people in St. Ives depended heavily on fish for their living it held great concern for them when the fish suddenly quit coming to their coast. Off and on they had had good times and poor times. Tragedy struck in the later part of the 1800's when fish quit running in the waters around St. Ives in notable amount. The parish of about 5,000 people suddenly found itself without income. Times were hard and men were forced to move to other coasts or change their occupations. Our Simon Noall had letters from his sisters telling of their plight and how difficult st. Lve s Bay it was to make a living. Simon was then living in Utah. Many women who formerly were netters (mending or making seine nets) had to turn to renting rooms, being seamstresses, or other work. But gradually St. Ives came into its own and became a vacation resort for winter tourists because of its mild winter climate and abundance of sunshine and its picturesque locality. Today England recognizes St. Ives as a winter retreat for retired people and those seeking a holiday, and as one of the foremost artist colonies. In some seasons it has a population of 40.000.

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The county of Cornwall has been noted in history for its deposits of tin. Many of the parishes surrounding St. Ives are mining towns. Lelant, three miles up on the hill from St. Ives was inhabited by tin miners. Our ancestor, John Curgenven was one of these. Tin was mined in two ways: either by the hard rock mining method, or by the Placer mining method of washing it in shaking-pans from the

stream. There is mention in some of the wills of the old Cornish BELOW: St. lves, Cornwall people that they owned "tin streams". Those who owned a stream were more well to do than some of our ancestors who were simply hired miners. In the late 1800's many Cornish people emigrated to the United States to become miners.

Badcock writes that in the St. Ives Borough Records, "The names of Hain, IJilliams, Woolcock, Paynter, Nole, Toman ••• and many others occur in 1573. By the year 1575 the records are more full. In 1575 Thomas James and Pearse Nole give notice that they would gather four-pence from every householder for the Communion bread and wine". This is the earliest specific mention of Noall and Paynter. The parish register lists a John Nole born in 1640 but does not indicate his father's name nor do we find his children. Our continuous line of Noalls starts in about 1680. The registers have many blank years before this. Penzance, in Mount's Bay, claims to be the capital of the The Noall ancestry boasts a line of master mariners rather Cornish Riviera, and is within easy reach of St. Michael's than fishermen. A mariner would pilot a fishing boat, or a rescue Mount, a picturesque castle set on a rock which, at high tide boat (a regular lifeguard service was set up because of the many becomes an island. The castle and the church, set on the pin- storms and shipwrecks), or follow some other seafaring occupation. nacle of the rock, are open to the public and make a delightful objective for an afternoon's expedition. Land's End, the rugged Matthew Noall (1788), a master mariner, married Jane Cogar in 1813 and westernmost point of England, and the old-world village in St. Ives. He was a "privateerman" or custom's official working of St. l ves, where every other house is occupied by an artist, are for the government, patroling the waters to apprehend smugglers. to be found in this part of Cornwall. One of the houses Jane and Matthew lived in was on the street of Back Road. St. Ives -- a narrow little windy street on the spine of the tiny peninsula where land is so precious that the gray stucco and stone houses are built wall to wall. The author visited this city in 1971 and the same houses are standing, solid and stalwart as ever and are still occupied. The doors are low, the houses small, and sidewalks, if any are about 24 inches wide. All architecture evidences scarcity of space. Here Jane bore three daughters: Jane, Eliza. }laryCogar, and two sons: Matthew and Simon, our ancestor. Then the family moved to the Scilly ) Islands, a little group of islands about twenty miles southwest of Land's End on the very tip of England. Here Matthew(1788) patrolled the waters where smugglers tried to elude being caught 9 by darting among the islands and here in the parish of St. Martins the next child, Thomas, was christened. This Thomas was to grow Hugh Town, St. Mary's, Scilly Jsles ( up to be a mariner like his father and suffer the fate of some of his mariner ancestors in being shipwrecked and lost as his ship sunk in the sea (1869). And here, too, in the parish of St. Anne, was born the child, Catherine Stevens Noall, who later lived in St. Ives, a spinster. She and her sister, Mary, a widow, were living together in St. Ives in 1894 where they owned and operated three seaside hotels. Mary had married Richard William Perry of Lelant who owned a tin stream, was an independant thinker, and declined to join any church but constructed his own private chapel for worship.

At the age of 16 Simon (b. 1822) was apprenticed as a carpenter since he would rather build ships than sail one. He served for three years as a ship's carpenter. Then he quit that business and worked as a house carpenter for about four years. For a time he worked building houses, but when about 24 he went to Liverpool to find work in the shipbuilding yards. Simon was of a quiet thoughtful nature. His bashfullness was evidenced by the fact that he would rather cross the street when walking along than meet someone he knew. Simon was very studious and delighted in mathematics and astronomy, of a religious nature, and had a sweet tenor voice. Of stature he was just half an inch under six feet tall, and his eyes were large and dark brown, and his hair soft and curly. He could write poetry.

In Liverpool he heard the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints preached and was converted. We read in the Liverpool The SCILLY ISLES are forty miles west of Land's End, which Branch records, "Simon Noale, single, born 14 June 1822, St. Ives, itself is the westernmost tip of Cornwall and of England. Of the Cornwall, England, baptized 14 March 1852, immersed by John Moore, two hundred islands and islets which form the group only five confirmed by F.D. Richards, Liverpool Branch--Remarks-- Emigrated are inhabited, St. Mary's, St. Martin's, Tresco, and St. February, 1853." Agnes. Tradition has it that the Scilly Isles are the only visible part of Lyonesse, the land of Arthurian legend, the remainder being at the bottom of the sea. Whether this be so or not, it Before embarking for America Simon returned for a short seems probable that the Scilly Isles were once joined to the main- visit to St. Ives. His mother, Jane, had died in 1847, probably land for they are rich in prehistoric remains. The largest of the of cancer (what was called Scirrhus in the breast), but his father islands is St. Mary's, where will be found the largest choice of was there. He died the next month, t1arch1853, of an old injury. accommodation. The chief attractions of the islands are the scenery and the fields of narcissi, lilies and daffodils which, The family in general now thought of Simon as the "black sheep" of owing to the exceptional mildness of the climate, are in flower the family. In joining the Mormon faith they considered he had from Christmas until May. Almost all the early spring flowers ( disgraced his family and the Noal name. They were cordial to him; sold in London come from the Scilly Isles. however, and he bid them farewell and returned to Liverpool to The islands are reached by steamer from Penzance, or by air from Land's End. embark on the ship, Elvira Owen, arranged for by the Church for the emigration of its members and which set sail on the 15th of

.;. 10 Feb., 1853. He is listed as one of the passengers arriving at the' Port of New Orleans in April 1853: "Ship 1fl35.Family It93. person ffl97 Simon Noall, age 30, occupation, Joiner". How glad he must ( have been to set foot on land after a six weeks voyage. Hith the other saints he crossed the plains, driving an ox-team sometimes but walking most of the way. His daughter wrote that he was in Joseph VI. Young's Company, but in the Journal History Card File he is listed in Capt. Cyrus H. 11heelock'sCo. Both could be correct. On the way he had many trials but was well equipped and happy. He arrived in Salt Lake on 10 October 1853. He obtained work, and before long bought a house and lot at what is now 4th North and 4th Hest. On 4th Hest lived a charming young girl, Rebecca Squire, who was also from England. The couple met and on Harch 18. 1855 they were married by the Bishop of the 19th Hard. They were sealed in the Endowment house when it was finished.

They were blessed with eight children, five of whom died in childhood. Rebecca, IJilliam, and Hatthew survived and had families of their own. Simon built threshing machines, great flour mills, was a pattern maker, made furniture and any kind of fine carpentry work. When coffins were needed he could make them. He would stain the outside of cover them with black velvet and a border of brass tacks, and line the inside with fine soft material and lace.

Simon was always ready to help those in need. If someone had a toothache and needed a filling, he would clean the cavity, cut a piece of gutta-percha button, hold it over a candle flame until soft, and fill the cavity, or if the tooth needed to be extracted he would do that for him. He would set broken limbs with splints which, when later examined by a doctor, ,Jere pronounced perfect. One woman even came to him with a piece of' steel in her eye and he removed it with a magnet. Those were the days before doctors were available in Salt Lake and the pioneers had to do their best to help each other the way they could. He Simon Noall was always on hand to help anyone in need, and a smile of thanks was all the pay he required. Simon was a joiner by trade. He built threshing machines, great flour mills, was a pattern maker, made furniture and did any In 1858 Johnson's Army came to Utah with the intention of kind of fine carpentry work. He also filled teeth, set broken subjecting the Mormon people. They were stationed at the entrance bones and had a large fine garden. of Echo Canyon, but the Mormons did not allow them to advance ( further. President Brigham Young counseled those living in Salt Lake City to leave their homes and travel south until all the difficulties should be settled. Accordingly, Simon took his -n ;. family in a wagon with its furnishings, not knowing if they would ever be permitted to see their home again. He with his famil'y ( went south and camped with his family at American Fork. Here at 8 a.m. a beautiful May 24th morning their second child was born. The Noall family remained here until all was peaceful in Salt Lake City when they returned to their little home.

Simon followed the instructions of the church leaders and took Mary Squire, sister of Rebecca, as wife, in 1857. He loved her and cared for her and built a little house back in his lot for her. They were never blessed with any children. He had a heart big enough to be a true patriarch in polygamy.

Simon loved beautiful gardens and had a variety of fruit trees and small shrubs, and vines, and every kind of vegetables that could be obtained. He had one of the first stoves in Salt Lake, one of the first hives of bees, and he was one of the first to buy coal and also to use coal oil in lamps. He eventually had mules, cows, oxen, chickens, ducks, and pigs. He raised his own hay and cut it with a scythe.

As a carpenter, Simon was always proud of the home he built and from time to time added rooms, repainted it and kept it looking neat. His garden and surroundings were always kept in good trim. He obtained two of the first poplar trees brought to Salt Lake and planted them on either side of his front gate. These grew to enormous size like two great sentinels.

The family made their own candles, too precious to be used for common use. They took a strip of cotton cloth and put grease on it and put it in a saucer. This made a very wierd light, but it was used for common. This was called a "booby". Later they used "witch lamps" which were much like a syrup pitcher filled with grease with a wick. Phillip Squire Noall 1856 - 1866 The hams and bacon were smoked in a small shed where a smudge fire was kept burning a required time. They made their own Phillip was the oldest son of Simon and Rebecca Noall molasses from the beets they grew. Cheese was made from the milk of their cows. Sometimes the neighbors would cooperate and send some milk over to be made into cheese. The cheese was crude but answered their purpose.

Every family made their own soap in large brass kettles over a fire made in the yard. The lye was obtained by wood ashes leached through an inverted pyramid on four legs. 'ivaterwas He would always sort through them and bring the ones with spoiled poured on the ashes, vhich seeped through and dripped in a tub or spots all them. Sarah grew tired of it and one day threw the ( barrel. Thi.s was used for washing and other cleansing purposes. panful out to the pigs and got fresh apples. She didn't The wood ashes were used for scouring kettles and pans and pots. appreciate his frugality.

Simon served as a member of the State Militia. He also Years later he went to live in Logan with his daughter, did his share of civic work, or church work, as a carpenter Rebecca Asper, and work in the Logan Temple until 1894 when working on the temple block while the Assembly Hall and Tabernacle Rebecca moved again to Salt Lake and he moved with her. Then he were being built. workec in the Salt Lake temple doing work for his dead.

In Hay 1873 Simon Noall and vJilliam Neal, a neighbor, we re He lived an upright unselfish life always trying to be of called on a mission to help settle Arizona. They decided to go service, very devoted to his children and grandchildren, each together, make a home for their families and return for them. being very special to him. He was very studious, especially of They set about to gather supplies, and being well equiped set out the scriptures, and was full of faith and cha ri t v , Suddenly he on their journey. Before they reached their destination; had a paralytic stroke from which he practically recovered when he howeve r , word came to them that the mission wa s a failure at that was stricken with another and he died on June 21, 1896. time, and they were released to return to their homes.

Simon had a longing desire to return to St. Ives for a visit and to gather genealogical information on his family. His desire became a reality in 1884. He wa s welcomed with open arms by his sisters and brothers. After a pleasant visit he returned to his family. Two years later his beloved ~ebecca died. This sorrow seemed more than he could bear.

Simon then made his horne with his eldest son, William. He used to sit in a captain's chair by the hot water tank near the kitchen range where he could look out at the east yard and see the children play and swing.and see the flowers. Each morning he took a ten quart shiny brass bucket to the grainery, off the summer kitchen which was made for a laundry room and work shop, where he half filled the bucket with bran and poured scalding water on it and set it on the back porch to cool. Irvin would eat it by the handfuls. Simon then took the bucket of bran to feed the cow while he milked her. They say the cow lets her milk down better when she's happy. She stands still better and doesn't swing her tail so much either.

He made furniture, everything they used in the kirchen. Neighbors would admire it, and so he' sell it. Then the f am i Ly would eat off a saw horse with a plank until he made another set ( of furniture.

Sarah wouLd a sk him to go down to the cellar for apples. Matthew Noall 1864 - 1950

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