William and Emma Stevens

William and Emma Crowden Stevens

Parents of Emeline Augusta Stevens Bigelow, Wife of Daniel Bigelow:  A condensed history

Emma Crowden was born on June 17, 1823 in Bridgwater, Somerset, England, which is located in the southwestern part of the country, just across the Bristol Channel from Wales. Emma was the daughter of Isaac Crowden of Bridgwater and Charlotte Brewer of Goathurst, another village in Somerset. Emma’s father made his living as a tailor in Bridgwater. On October 23, 1842, when Emma was 19 years old, she married Joseph Stevens in Trinity Church in Bridgwater.  Joseph and Emma started their life together in a large home on Albert Street in Broomfield, also in Somerset, where their daughter, Emma Jane Stevens, was born in 1843. Joseph made a good living as a blacksmith. Unfortunately, less than three years after their marriage, he died of pneumonia on February 19, 1845, leaving Emma a widow at age 21, with a small daughter to raise.

A few months after Joseph’s death, Emma married William Stevens, thought to be a cousin of Joseph. William and Emma were married at Trinity Church in Bridgwater on June 17, 1845, Emma’s 22nd birthday. William was 25 years old and, like Joseph, was a blacksmith by trade. William also had a small farm. Following their marriage, William and Emma lived for a while in Durleigh, where their first two children were born, Sarah Ann on November 24, 1847 and William Henry on September 18, 1849. The family then moved to Enmore, where their next three children were born: Ellen Christiana  on December 29, 1851, Simon Percival on January 7, 1854, and Emeline Augusta.  While living in Enmore, a significant change came to the Stevens family  when William was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on August 19, 1855.

In 1855 missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went to Bridgwater, Somerset where William heard them teach.  What they said was of great interest to him and sounded truthful, reasonable and wonderful.  He said of his conversion: "As I was pruning my trees and pondering on all the teachings of those missionaries, I said to myself, "Is this renewed Gospel true?" The answer came and with such force --- "Yes, this renewed Gospel is true" - -- that my pruning knife fell from my hand and I stood there with this great knowledge vibrating and thrilling my heart and soul. Then I went into the house and told my wife: "Emma, this Gospel is true and I am going to America.”

Emma was baptized the following year on May 25, 1856, shortly after giving birth to Emeline Augusta on February 27, 1856.  The family had apparently made plans to gather to Zion even before Emma joined the Church, as only one week following her baptism, the family boarded the ship Wellfleet, which left Liverpool on June 1, 1856, and sailed with a company of 146 Saints to Boston, Massachusetts, arriving on July 13, 1856.  So, within a year they left their fine home, orchard, furniture, and packed to go to America.

Emma had some of their money changed into twenty dollar gold pieces, and sewed them in a clever way into her heavy silk underskirt to keep it safe during their journey.  After they had been on the ocean a week their little two year old son, Simon Percival, became very ill with whooping cough and was vomiting. The whales were thought to have smelled the sickness and were following the ship. Because the ships were small in those days, a whale could raise his huge tail and damage the ship or tip it over. Finally the captain had to come and tell them that the sick child would be thrown overboard. Emma begged the captain to give her one more day, the good captain agreed. Then she  prayed most of that night to God that if He would save her little boy from such a fate and make him well, she would be faithful in the restored gospel. The next morning her little boy was well, and there were no whales following the ship. The rest of her life Emma was faithful to her promise.

They arrived in New York in 1856, and it is thought they remained there about four years. Although it is uncertain where the Stevens family made their home for the first few years they were in America, they eventually made their way west to Florence, Nebraska, where they joined the Franklin Brown Independent Wagon Company which departed from Florence on June 9, 1860. Emma was expecting her sixth child by the time they started west and just before they crossed the Platte River in Nebraska, she gave birth to Theophilus Franklin Stevens on June 27, 1860. The group stopped for half a day, then loaded the mother and child in a wagon. As they crossed the river, the wagon they were in tipped over and the stove fell over on them. However, they were rescued unharmed, and proceeded on their way. Some time in late August or early September, they arrived in what is now Summit County, Utah, and some of their party decided to stay there, including the Stevens and Hortin families. (The Edmund Hortin family was also in the Franklin Brown Wagon Company)

William and Emma and their family settled in what is now known as Wanship, where William built a home for his family and started farming on the land he had homesteaded. William and Emma’s last two children were born in Wanship: Isaac Thomas on January 13, 1863 and Abigail Charlotte on November 9, 1865. As in most large families, by the time Emma’s youngest child was born, her oldest was leaving home. Two weeks after the birth of Abigail Charlotte, William and Emma’s oldest daughter, Sarah Ann, was married to Hyrum Moroni Mecham. On November 24, 1868, William and Emma were able to go to Salt Lake City to receive their own endowments and be sealed as husband and wife in the Endowment House. The family lived in Wanship for ten years. During these years, William also homesteaded land to the south, which is now Oakley.  In fact the Willam Stevens family were the first permanent residents of Oakley where they contributed in leadership and fulfilling the needs of the community.    Oakley was near water and wood and offered some protection from the cold wind but it had a harsh climate. There were many challenges to just eek out a living. In 1867 the grasshoppers took almost all the crops and in 1868 most of the wheat was too badly shrunken by frost to be usable.

During the last years of their lives, they lived with William H. and Eliza and their family. Emma passed away on December 9, 1900, at the age of 87. Her husband William followed on March 8, 1902. In their earlier years, they had set aside a piece of ground for a private Stevens Cemetery, and they were both buried there.

William and Emma’s daughter, Emeline Augusta, who was just 4 years old when they traveled west, is our ancestor.  She married Daniel Bigelow of Wallsburg and had 7 children with him.  We descend through their son Parley Percival, father of Afton who married Keith D Miller.  

Worthy of mention is a miracle that preserved Daniel’s life as a young boy while going west in 1850 with the William Snow Ox Team Company.  A scout rode back to the emigrant wagons and told the young folks where they could find ripe choke cherries up a deep ravine.  Little curly headed Daniel Bigelow, only eight years old, went running along after the group.  As he trudged up the steep incline he heard the terrifying warning of a rattlesnake.  Before he could jump to safety the snake struck him just below the knee.  An older brother, answering the frightened call, hastily carried the little one back to camp.  Already the poison had entered the blood stream, a drop of dark blood oozed out, the fangs had pierced the flesh.  Swelling and discoloration set in rapidly.  All that could be done seemed to be of no avail.  All present, including the injured lad, realized that this could mean certain death.  Daniel, seeing his grieving mother brush away the tears as she worked trying to relieve the pain in his weakening body, had a thought of comfort.  He asked that he might be baptized before death came to claim him.  The Elders were called and told of his request, which they complied with by carrying him to the river and baptizing him according to the law of the Church.  From that time forward the swelling and pain subsided and Daniel commenced to get better until he became well and strong again.  Daniel’s parents related this faith promoting experience to their grandchildren many times, always testifying that all in the camp knew that a miracle had been performed, right in their midst ; and in thankfulness acknowledged the answer to their prayers.