Excerpt from the History of Utah, volume 4, 1904

History of Utah (1904), Volume 4, pages 460 - 461

EDWARD LLOYD PARRY. The mountains of Wales have furnished much of the brain and brawn that have built up Utah and made her name illustrious in the mighty commonwealth of American States. The staunch and sturdy virtues of the Welsh, which make them good and desirable citizens wherever they settle, shine nowhere more luminously than in the annals of the colonization of the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Something of this will be shown in the appended biography of Edward L. Parry, master mason and temple builder, now a resident of Manti, in the County of Sanpete.

He was born August 25, 1818, at or near the village of St. George, Denbighshire, North Wales, and was the son of Edward Parry and his wife Mary Lloyd. His mother died when he was four and a half years old, leaving three children, his two sisters and himself. The girls were taken care of by separate nurses, to each of whom the father paid three shillings a week, while he and his little son went to live with his parents. Edward's father, like his father and grandfather before him, was a well-to-do mason and brick-layer. The lad attended school until twelve years of age, and then worked with his sire at the mason's trade. At fourteen he received another term of schooling, and when about twenty-five attended night school. Until grown to manhood he worked at his chosen trade of stone-mason and brick-layer in his native village and the adjacent towns, erecting dwellings, churches, vicarages, railroad bridges, etc., and laboring a great deal about the estate of Lord Dinorben.

Naturally religious, he frequently attended the Church of England services, and heard ministers of other denominations, but could not be induced to join any of them. He was immediately converted, however, on hearing for the first time an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was baptized March 2, 1848, by Abel Evans, and confirmed at the riverside. About five weeks later he was ordained a Priest. During the summer of that year his wife, Elizabeth Evans Parry, whom he had married August 16, 1846, also joined the Church, as did his father and a number of other relatives. He was ordained an Elder, January 21, 1849, and about a year later called to preside over the Abergele Branch. In February, 1851, he was set apart as first counselor to the president of the Denbighshire conference, and labored faithfully as a missionary in that field until he emigrated to America. He kept open house for the Elders and Saints, providing them with food, shelter, clothing and money for traveling expenses.

He came to Utah in 1853, assisted by the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, which he promptly reimbursed as soon as he could earn the necessary means. He was also aided to some extent by his relatives in Wales, and by a lady friend in Liverpool, from which port he sailed with his wife, on the 5th of February; Elder George Halliday having charge of the little company of Latter-day Saints on board. They were just six weeks in getting to New Orleans, and arrived at Keokuk on the first of April. There they remained eight weeks, during which time Mr. Parry worked for a Mr. Brown across the Mississippi. This gentleman so valued his services that he offered him a city lot and promised to build him a house and give him his own time to pay for it, if he would stay there; but Parry, thanking him, refused the kind offer, as he was bent upon coming to Utah. Having procured the necessary ox teams and wagons, he and his friends set out to cross the plains. Joseph W. Young was captain of the company, and Mr. Parry captain of the guard. One of his duties was to go ahead each day and select the most suitable place for camping. He also acted as commissary. There were fifty-six wagons in the train, some of whose occupants were known as the Independent Company, some as the Ten Pound Company, and others as the Perpetual Emigration Company. Mr. Parry arrived at Salt Lake City on the 10th of October.

Here he resided until the fall of 1856, when, in the anticipation of "hard times,'' he moved to Ogden, where he had an opportunity to do some work and obtain wheat and other commodities for pay. In the season of scarcity that followed he and his family did not suffer, and were able to help the needy. In February, 1857, he was called back to Salt Lake City to work on the Temple. The manner of this call was unique, but characteristic of the one who made it – President Heber C. Kimball. Meeting Parry, he placed his hand upon his shoulder and said, "Brother Edward, I want you to pull up stakes and come to the city and live, to work on the Temple; will you do it?" "I will if you say so," said Parry. "Well don't I say so?" was the smiling retort. Within three weeks the move was made; and Mr. Parry went to work at the Temple Block, and continued to labor there as long as he resided in Salt Lake City. During the winter of 1857-8 he worked on the breastworks and wigwams in Echo Canyon, and in the move went to Springville, returning to Salt Lake City early in July, 1858. He continued upon the Public Works until April, 1862, when he was called to settle in Southern Utah.

He arrived at St. George on the 5th of June, the same year, accompanied by his second wife, Ann Parry, whom he had married February 19, 1857. By his first wife he was childless, but eleven children were the issue of the second marriage. He took with him his little son Edward Thomas, and his foster son George Brooks, leaving his daughter Elizabeth Ann, with his wife Elizabeth, at Salt Lake City until August, 1863, when he moved the rest of his family to "Dixie." There he had charge of the mason work of the St. George Hall, the Tabernacle, the County court house, Erastus Snow's residence and many other buildings. He raised the Washington factory one story higher, built a house for President Brigham Young, and was master mason of the St. George Temple, laying the four corner stones, by President Young's direction, without the usual ceremonies, it being desirable to hurry the work along. He also assisted Daniel McArthur, David Cannon and others to locate a fort south-east of St. George, and during the Indian troubles there stood guard many nights to protect the settlers and their property. While at St. George he lost two children, his daughters Artimisia and Minnie, one dying in February and the other in March, 1871.

In April, 1877, Mr. Parry was called by President Young to take charge of the mason and stone work of the Manti Temple. Pursuant to this call, he with a part of his family arrived at Manti, with the President, on the 24th of that month; the rest of his family following in October. The site chosen for the Temple was covered by a hill – almost a mountain, of rock, which had to be moved in order to make room for the edifice. "We were about two years," says Parry, "in building the terrace walls and leveling the hill, to get ready for laying the corner-stones. They were laid April 14, 1879. The south-east corner-stone contained a treasure box, making three treasure boxes that I had assisted in setting in Temples.''

Mr. Parry, in connection with his sons, engaged in the stone mason and building business. They took up a quarry near Ephraim, known as the Sanpete White Oolite Stone Quarry, the same from which the large stones in the cornice of the Manti Temple towers were obtained, also the stone of which the Salt Lake Temple Annex is composed. Both his wives died at Manti, Elizabeth on August 11, 1880, and Ann on August 16, 1886. For many years Mr. Parry held the office of a Seventy, to which he was ordained at the organization of the thirty-seventh quorum, January 12, 1854. He is now a High Priest.