A blog about Edward Lloyd Parry, who joined the LDS (Mormon) Church in Wales in 1848, migrated to Utah in 1853, and was master stonemason of the St. George Temple and Manti Temple.
On Friday, July 24, 1857, ELP and his family attended the
tenth anniversary celebrating the pioneers’ arrival to the Salt Lake Valley
(for a detailed description of the pioneers’ tenth anniversary celebration, see
Juanita Brooks’ The Life of George Brooks,
pages 19-21).
The following pictures of the plaque and the neighboring area,
which are located at Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon, show where ELP celebrated with the
Saints. Their festivities were cut short with news of the coming of
Johnston’s Army.
Text of the above plaque reads as follows:
No. 14 Erected July 24, 1932
THE FIRST PIONEER STATEWIDE CELEBRATION was held in this
basin July 23-24, 1857
Headed by Brigham Young, the company reaching here July 23rd
numbered 2,587 persons, with 464 carriages & wagons, 1,028 horses and
mules, and 332 oxen and cows.
A program of addresses, six brass bands, singing, athletic
events, drills by six companies of militia, and dancing, was punctuated by
salutes from a brass Howitzer. U.S. flags were flown from two highest peaks and
two highest trees, the flag-tree in front of Brigham Young’s campsite being 70
feet N.W. of here. At noon July 24 Judson Stoddard and A.O. Smoot, 20 days from
the States, with Elias Smith and O.P. Rockwell, arrived with news of the
advance of Johnston’s Army against the “Mormons.” The company returned in
orderly formation July 25th.
Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association
and Cottonwood Stake, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
I just wanted you to know that I just finished reading your ELP book again. This time I read it much slower savoring every word. I love it. You did an amazing job. Thank you for all the time you spent in researching and writing about this great man.
==============================================
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading the Edward Lloyd Parry
history. I am so appreciative of all of the work that went into it.
The documentation is wonderful and the presentation is awesome. So well
done. We got copies to give the kids for
Christmas. I'm sure it will be appreciated by them also.
==============================================
Congratulations on a job well done!! I look forward to reading it over and over again!!! Thank you!!
===============================================
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your history on Edward Lloyd
Parry. The research was magnificent and the presentation was superb. I
appreciate the hours, days, months that you put into this project and
it has produced such a superb document. I enjoyed the book so much. Thanks for all the work you did and for sharing it.
============================================
There aren't words enough to tell you how much I loved the ELP book. It is unbelievable the data you have collected on his life. I wonder if we searched some of our other ancestors if we could find even a part of that much. It is amazing. There are so many great photos, too. We are so blessed that ELP had so many photos taken. What a treasure. ... Thank you again for the zillions of hours you both have spent on the ELP project.
============================================
I LOVE the book. Beautiful in every way. I will have it read by the end of the day. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the great gift to us and our children.
=============================================
I received my inaugural copy of the ELP book today! What a treat! It is a masterpiece. Thank you so much for starting it, completing it and sending me a copy. I don't want to read it too quickly because then it will be over too soon! (Know what I mean -- I want to savor the experience of reading every word.) The book is beautiful, the pictures are great, I love the cover, the hard cover aspect, etc., etc. Thank you once again for a great gift. I look forward to reading and re-reading its contents.
=============================================
The book is beautiful! You did a great job!
=============================================
We are loving the book. It is so well done and INTERESTING. Another evening and I’ll be through reading it.
=============================================
The book is wonderful. You have done such a great job.
=============================================
Your book is distracting me.
I started reading Friday night and I couldn't stop reading. Do you realize how much research went into this book? Of course, you do. It's an engaging "story" about a complex life. When I mean complex, he had more than one wife. Elizabeth couldn't have children. So Ann had the first baby and names her Elizabeth Ann and then lets Elizabeth rear Ann's child.
Then there's the name thing. This book is about ELP. Not EP, the dad. Or ETP the son. But ELP.
Then just to make this novel even more intriguing, in comes George Brooks. But he changes his name to Proctor Parry and then back to George. And then his son marries a Parry.
I'm reading it like every good book should be read: with a red pencil. I'm marking it up to pieces.
Good work. I'm not even half way done.
=============================================
Just wanted to say THANK YOU!!! for the wonderful job that you did on the book. This will be a treasure for our family for generations to come. We picked up 10 books from your dad yesterday and distributed them to [our family]. What a work of art you have done. Thanks again and again!!! We are blessed to have discovered you and your Dad as members of the Parry clan.
=============================================
I loved your book. It's amazing how close I feel to ELP and his family, especially his two wives. (I know he had four, but Elisabeth and Ann are my favorites. I feel like I really got to know them. What faithful women!)
Do you know what I liked about the book? You editorialized. Often you said something like, "This must have been hard for them." Or, "This is how they probably felt." I really liked you injecting your logical conclusions into parts of the story that were somewhat inconclusive.
Great book. You have linked generations. If you had not written this book, these stories would have been lost forever. Now my kids and my kids' kids and the kids' kids' kids can know.
Would you like to purchase a book I wrote about the life of Edward Lloyd Parry?
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
For the past two years, my father and I have spent hundreds of hours researching the life of Edward Lloyd Parry. We have visited museums, libraries, scoured the Internet, taken photos in St. George and Manti, and met up with numerous descendants in our efforts to gather information on this remarkable man. We have written a book that attempts to unite every possible picture, document, and fact we can find on him.
Here are some fascinating questions the book answers:
Which temples did he help build?
Which of his daughters was the first white baby girl born in St. George, Utah?
Which of his wives did he baptize?
How was it possible that one of his fathers-in-law was also his uncle?
How many wives did he really have?
How did he save the Salt Lake Temple from falling apart?
How many patriarchal blessings did he receive?
For which of the Three Witnesses did he make a tombstone?
Who told him to take a second wife?
How old was he when his last child was born?
What dream did he have that saved the lives of temple construction workers?
Who sealed him to his first and second wives?
Which LDS leaders did he know personally?
Which church leader helped him buy tobacco?
Which temple treasure boxes did he help place?
To which LDS Apostle was he sealed?
What was his personality like?
Specifications of the book:
Size: 6” x 9”
Number of pages: about 200
Page color: black and white (nothing was in color back then anyway)
Binding: hard cover
We anticipate the price of the book to be $30 per copy.
Click here to see a sample of what the book will look like.
If you are interested in purchasing a copy/ies of the book, please email me how many copies you would like. And if you know of anyone of your relatives or friends who might also be interested in buying the book, please direct them to this blog.
My email address is elephantnavel@gmail.com. Thanks!
Edward Lloyd Parry was the master stonemason of the St. George Temple in St. George, Utah. Here is a six-part series of links to a documentary about the history of St. George and its temple, entitled, "A Temple Dressed in White":
In this video that narrates some of the history surrounding the construction of the Manti Temple, one can see a photograph that shows Edward Lloyd Parry. I have also included the photo in this post. Edward is standing front and center. Here is the picture:
One of Edward Lloyd Parry's friends in Wales was Samuel Brooks, a lighthouse keeper in Talacre in North Wales, who worked at the lighthouse at the Point of Ayr. Good friends, both men were converted to Mormonism about the same time in 1848, and both men were baptized by missionary Abel Evans.
Edward Lloyd Parry ended up migrating to Utah with his wife in 1853, and Samuel with his wife Emma Blinstone in 1856. Sadly, Emma died in Nebraska, before they made their trek across the Plains. As a result, Samuel ended up making the trip as a widower with his three children Mary, George, and Frank. The journey proved to be too much for him as well. Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley in October, 65-year-old Samuel died, leaving behind three orphaned children. Mary and Frank ended up getting placed in homes, and Edward Lloyd Parry and his wife Elizabeth ended up adopting 11-year-old George (1845-1930) (George is my great-grandfather).
About a week ago I discovered a unique You Tube posting, where some ghost hunters in North Wales recently went to Samuel Brooks' lighthouse in an effort to conjure up his ghost. While I think their attempt did NOT establish actual communication with Samuel (the information the medium retrieved was not accurate), their experience is fascinating and also provides a great tour of the lighthouse. Here's the video:
The recounting of this fascinating dream comes from a "Parry Gram," which was a newsletter in the 1960s published by and distributed among descendants of various Welsh Parrys (not just descendants of Edward Lloyd Parry). Minnie, who died prematurely, was a younger sister of Elizabeth Ann's, and both were daughters of Edward Lloyd Parry. Enjoy.
Transcribed text:
"In the evening of 16 January 1887, Emma Parry Peacock died of diphtheria. In the morning, Elizabeth Ann Peacock died of the same dread disease. For a month their mother, Elizabeth Ann Parry Peacock, a daughter of Edward Lloyd Parry and Ann Parry, who was expecting at the time, just wouldn’t be consoled. She continually grieved and kept asking, 'Why? Why does God who is so good and understanding allow innocent little children to suffer and die like this?' Then, one night, her sister Minnie, who had also died as a child, appeared at the foot of her bed with the two little girls, one on each side of her. They were dressed in beautiful white clothes, in which they had been buried, but they were streaked, and stained with mud. When asked by Elizabeth about the mud on their clothes, Minnie replied, 'That is your tears that have soiled their clothes like that. They just can’t rest until you quit grieving for them.'
"This dream, or vision, or whatever it may be, teaches us that we should not grieve for those who have been called home. Rather, we should renew our efforts in faith and works so that when our time comes, as it does to everyone, we will be worthy to be with them throughout eternity."
This one-page autobiography looks to be in Edward Lloyd Parry's handwriting, but I'm not sure. It contains some unique information I haven't found anywhere else.
Edward Thomas Parry (1859-1938) with his stone work:
Edward Thomas Parry?
Emma (1876-1949) and Harriet ("Hattie") Parry (1870-1946):
Back side of the photo:
ET Parry, probably in about 1890, when he was on his mission to the British Isles. I believe this is a mission photo because of the "Merthyr" (a town in Wales) on both sides of the photo.
Back side of the photo:
ET Parry's business. Note the small letters below the sign: "The White Stone Man." Notice the four people in the picture. I believe one of the two ladies on the left is ET Parry's wife, Charlotte Ann Edmunds Parry, and the man in the middle by the car must be ET Parry himself. As of yet I cannot identify the man on the far right.
ET Parry and his wife Charlotte, later in life.
ET Parry family reunion, about 1931. I have a legend of the people from this photo if you would like. (See my email address on this blog.)
