Preston King Lewis

Preston King Lewis

Preston King Lewis, son of David and Duritha (Trail) Lewis was born November 15, 1839 in Franklin, Simpson County, Kentucky. He crossed the great plains with his fathers family. His first wife was Virtue Ann Bowthorp whom he married January 4, 1857, in the Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Utah. She was born February 28, 1836 in Norwick, Virginia, daughter of William and Mary Ann (Tuttle) Bowthorp. Virtue Ann had married first to Charles Colebrook and they were divorced. She returned to her parents home in Big Cottonwood.

“Now I will not give a full account of my life for it is more than I can do. I was married very young. I was 17 years and one month and 15 days old when I was married. I had nothing to keep house with. We lived in the same house my mother did. My father was dead and mother was (re)married, and her husband moved her off and left me the house to live in. And they took all of her house furniture which left us in destitute of anything except one broken chair and one broken skillet to cook in and in a few days I made a trade for a set of earthenware dishes which helped us very much.

I had a few bushels of wheat which lasted us for about two weeks and then I went to work on the public works and thus we got flour, potatoes, soap, butter, eggs and such like things as we needed. I worked from the first of April to the first of July. I then I borrowed me a cradle and cut about eight acres of wheat and bought me a scythe and cradle. T

Then I earnt me 21 bushels wheat at one place and a few bushels in other places until late in the fall and then I went to the canyon for a few days and got a few bushels of potatoes.

I got me a team and hauled a few logs of wood and then mother moved back in with me and I had the use of her team to help myself with the work.

On the 1st of November 1857 I was called to defend the site of God, (Temple site) and on the 19th of November I returned and remained at home for a few days. Then I went to the canyon again for a few weeks.

I and my wife received our endowment in the year 1857.

This is not a full every day account. It is a year journal that was in 1857.

Now I will begin to keep account of 1858. (Think he is living in Big Cottonwood)

On the 4th day of February my wife had a fine boy, 1858 (named him David William after their two fathers, and brother) In the first place I have been hauling wood out of the canyon. I have been to one wedding of my sister-in-law and was there two days and come home. Went to the canyon and got a fire load of wood. I have been on the canal 111 days. (canal was built planning to float temple blocks of granite from the canyon to city creek)

March 1 - I killed a dog for Mrs. Carmichael (Lived in SLC)

March 2 - I walked from the city to Cottonwood in the forenoon and ditched in the afternoon.

March 3 - I ditched in the forenoon and plowed in the afternoon.

March 4 - I plowed all day.

March 5 - I ditched all day.

March 6 - I went to the city and back to Cottonwood.

On Sunday I went a visiting. Work for William Bowthorpe for three days.

March 17 - I hauled brush to fence.

March 19 - Half day plowing.

I went to Cottonwood to do this work and word came that all of the Saints had to leave the valley, and so I had took up about three acres of land. I worked 5 days and a half ditch and plowing.

I began to fit to leave the city the 4th of April. The 1st of April I figured I have worked one day and spend a great deal of my time in idleness.

I took some land in shares on the 21st of April.

I worked on the ditch, a day and a half and then I done part of a fence and then I went to the city and was gone 6 days. I come back and put in some garden.

May 1 - I have done nothing but work on the ditch and put in some corn, and went to the canyon.

June - I have not done much. (The United States Army has arrived in Great Salt Lake City June 26^th 1858, marching through Salt Lake City on out to Jordan River.)

July - I cut some hay for MacDonald and myself. I am a living yet at George Davis. I have got a lot to live on till spring. I have been cutting wheat this week, July 10.

August - Cutting wheat after moved to the city, and I went back to take care of my hay. I did think that I would stay in Springville, but I thought that I could do more here than I could in Springville. So I moved back to Salt Lake City in September. (Springville is where the Cottonwood saints were waiting out the crisis in SLC)

My mother gave me two ponies and I went to get some salt and haul some wheat, then I went to Springville to get a load of stuff and then I come home. Went to the canyon to get a load of wood, and then I come home and done nothing for some time.

I went to Springville and sold some corn fodder for spring. Mother gave me 2 pigs.

In 1858 I spent a great deal of idle time. But I have got most all of my winter wood up. I went to Cottonwood and killed a hog for my father-in-law. (William Bowthorpe)

Preston's second wife in plural marriage was Sarah Coleman, daughter of George and Elizabeth (Bailey) Coleman then living in Big Cottonwood. Sarah was born June 9, 1852 in Bedfordshire, England. In 1864, Sarah J. Coleman immigrated to the United States with her parents. On February 22, 1869 she received her endowments. She and Preston were sealed on September 13, 1869 in the Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Right after his marriage to Sarah on Sept. 1869, Preston and Sarah accepted a call from the Church to serve as pioneers and missionaries in southern Utah and Nevada. They traveled to the settlements of Dixie, near St. George and then on to the "Muddy." He was a missionary to "Dixie" for one year, and then to, “The Muddy,” for six months when they closed the area after the survey and tax assessment.

Mormons arrived at the Muddy in January 1865 and established St. Thomas; six months later a second group founded St. Joseph nine miles to the north. Many Mormon families simply could not endure the Muddy Mission's extreme hardships and left. To determine whether the settlements could survive, Brigham Young visited in March 1870. But in 1870, a new boundary survey confirmed that the Muddy settlements were in Nevada, not in Utah or Arizona. Both of those territories had accepted taxes in the form of goods, but now Nevada officials wanted back taxes paid in gold or silver. Few settlers could afford this, so in early 1871 all but one Mormon family left the Muddy Mission for good.

He then moved his family to Idaho briefly. They traveled by team as the journey took them twelve and one half days to get there. In the spring of the next year they came back and again settled in Big Cottonwood-Holladay, Utah. He farmed for two years and then went to Colorado and stayed there one winter, then back to Utah.

In 1878 Duritha died. In the fall of 1879, Preston built a new brick house for his families. Virtue’s mother was still in Big Cottonwood and needed care. Her father had died in 1878 while Virtue’s mother died in 1884. Virtue remained in this home.

Virtue Ann Bowthorpe Lewis died on Thursday, 28 January 1926 in Holladay, (Big Cottonwood), Salt Lake, Utah at the age of 89 years and 11 months and is buried beside her parents.

Preston served as a block teacher, a School Board Trustee, as a Road Supervisor, and County Commissioner for Salt Lake County while living at Cottonwood.

Preston moved Sarah and their family in during the fall of 1885. Preston and Sarah’s family moved to Midway, Wasatch County, Utah. While building a "Pot Rock" house, Preston fell from a scaffold, face first into a box of lime being slacked for mortar making. He was blinded during his last years as a result of this accident.

Preston King was the father of twenty one children. He leaves a great posterity who love and respect him dearly. He died January 21, 1913 in Heber, Wasatch County, Utah.

Mentioned in Church Chronology states, “On January 19, 1889, Preston Lewis of Big Cottonwood, Salt Lake County was arrested for unlawful cohabitation and placed in penitentiary.” (Sugar House Park Location). He is sentenced on Feb 23, to 100 days or $100. So on June 15^th , he was released from prison having served an extra 30 days for not paying his fine.

His first wife, Virtue Ann, died January 21, 1926 in Holladay, Utah.

His second wife, Sarah, died April 11, 1934 in Heber, Utah at the age of 81 years, 10 months and 2 days.

Preston King and Virtue Ann (Bowthorpe) Lewis were the parents of nine children, all born in Holladay, Utah.

1. David William Lewis

b. Feb 4, 1858 d. Feb 20, 1860.

2. Preston King Lewis Jr.

b. Dec 21, 1859; md. Margaret Roena Herbert.

3. George Siney Lewis

b. Feb 17, 1862; d. Nov 20, 1871.

4. Virtue Ann Lewis

b. Feb 4, 1864; d. Mar 9, 1948.

5. Marion Tuttle Lewis,

b. Mar 10, 1867; d. Jan 11, 1869.

6. Mahalia Arminta Lewis

b. Jan 9, 1870; md. William Henry Knau or Lapearl.

7. Franklin Trail Lewis

b. Feb 22, 1872; md. Loretta Butler.

8. Emeretta Lewis

b. July 23, 1874; d. Jan 10, 1876.

9. Ira Allen Lewis

b. Mar 22, 1877; md. Annie Quist.

Marriage to Sarah Elizabeth Coleman in September 13, 1869 in the Salt Lake Endowment House:

Name: Birthdate: Place:

1. Lewis, Sarah Nevada Jan 14, 1871 Dixie, NV,

2. Lewis, Olive Marietta Mar 2, 1873 (Big Cottonwood)-Holladay, Salt Lake,

3. Lewis, Infant May 6, 1875 Holladay, Salt Lake, UT,

4. Lewis, Horace George Mar 24, 1877 Holladay, Salt Lake,

5. Lewis, Siney Charles May 12, 1879 Holladay, Salt Lake, UT,

6. Lewis, Marion Bailey May 20, 1881 Holladay, Salt Lake, UT,

7. Lewis, LaRay C. May 7, 1883 Holladay, Salt Lake, UT,

8. Lewis, Imae Duritha Feb 8, 1885 Holladay, Salt Lake, UT,

9. Lewis, Mary Jul 9, 1887 Holladay, Salt Lake,

10.Lewis, Hazel Nora Jul 15, 1888 Holladay, Salt Lake,

11.Lewis, Rowe Oct 15, 1890 Taylorsville, Salt Lake, UT,