William Thomas and Mary Severn
From the 1899 Illustrated History of Idaho, page 617
William Thomas Severn was born in Hucknell, in Nottinghamshire, England, October 4, 1836 of an ancestry English in all known lines of descent. His parents were Enoch and Ann (Allen). They were married in England and were there converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Somewhat more than ten years ago they came to Montpelier, where they son William had come as a pioneer and had become a prominent citizen, and there Mr. Severn died in 1890 (actually 15 Jan 1888) his wife having passed away a few years earlier. They had five children of whom three are living.
William the eldest was educated in England and learned and worked at the trade of weaving ladies hose. In 1856 he sailed for America on board the ship Orrison and was married on the voyage to Miss Mary Astel on 29 May 1856. Later, the marriage was recorded in Salt Lake City. They were both between nineteen and twenty years old at the time. From New York they made their way to Iowa City, Iowa en route to Utah. At Iowa City they joined a party numbering six hundred which on the 1st of August 1856 set out over the old trail, moving their property by means of hand-carts. It was a long, tedious journey and there were some who never reached the end of it. The snow fell long before they reached Salt Lake City and there were short of provisions and found it almost impossible at times to make any headway.
But two hundred teams were sent to their relief from Salt Lake City and met them still four hundred miles away from their journey's end. They did not arrive in Salt Lake City until December 1, four months after they had left Iowa City. Mr. Severn secured employment at sawing wood for the territorial legislature.
In the spring of 1857 a farmer outside of the city employed him and paid him from one half to two dollars a day. Mr. Severn relates that he went several miles to buy five to six pounds of flour at a time. In 1861 they went to Cache valley and from there they came to the site of Montpelier in the spring of 1864 and joined the band of emigrants sent to settle Bear Lake under the authority of Brigham Young. The colonists called the place Clover Creek, but the name was given it by President Young, in honor of Montpelier, Vermont, which was the place of his birth.
Each of the pioneers of Montpelier had allotted to him one acre and a quarter in the town and twenty acres of hay land and twenty acres of grain land. Mr. Severn is now the owner of three acres and raises cattle and grain extensively and is one of the most successful farmers in the vicinity.
Mr. Severn tells many interesting details of the pioneer days at Montpelier. For a time after their arrival he and his wife slept in their wagon. In the absence of a stove Mrs. Severn did their baking in a kettle. Before the snow came Mr. Severn had provided a little log house with a piece of cloth for a door and a smaller one for a window. hay was spread on the floor as a carpet to protect their feet from the bare ground. Later the settlers joined hands and whip sawed lumber out of which floors were laid in the cabins.
Early frosts cut off young crops and those about to garner were destroyed year after year for half a dozen years by crickets and grasshoppers. The colonist at Montpelier worked and prayed and fought and waited for success and it came in plentiful measure.
For ten years of his later life until after Mrs. Severn's death which occurred August 6, 1898, Mr. Severn kept hotel. Mrs. Severn was one of the "mothers" of the town, a woman loved by all who knew her and her removal was deeply regretted. Following are the names of her children all living at or near Montpelier, some of them yet members of their father's household; Mary (Mrs. Joseph Robertson) William, Thomas, Elizabeth, Harry H and Daniel E Severn. On July 11, 1899 Mr. Severn married Miss Mary Cornwallis, an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Mr. Severn is a stanch Democrat but is not an
office seeker nor a practical politician; but he is a helpful citizen of liberal
views and has a reputation for sterling manhood that makes him popular with all
who know him.
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This information comes from census and death records. William Severn took a second wife Anne Bagley, in 1870.
Children of William Thomas Severn and Anne Bagley
1.
Mary Ann
Severn b-1 Apr 1871 in Montpelier; d-10 Feb 1958 in Salt Lake City; m-Joseph
Smith Robison 8 June 1892
2. William Thomas Severn b-18 Aug 1877 in Montpelier; d-18 Mar 1924 in Blackfoot
Idaho; br-Montpelier Cemetery; m-Bertha Meyer 25 Mar 1908 in Logan Utah
3. Sarah Elizabeth Severn b-18 Aug 1877 in Montpelier; d-29 July 1959 in Salt
Lake City; br-Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park; m-John Joseph Jones
4. Harry Allen Severn b-7 Nov 1883 in Montpelier; d-29 Dec 1969 in Montpelier;
br-Montpelier Cemetery
5. Daniel Enoch Severn b-17 Sep 1885 in Montpelier; d-2 Oct 1976 in Salt Lake
City; br-Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park
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William Thomas Severn Sr. died 25 Apr 1925 in Montpelier and was buried in the Montpelier Cemetery.