Honing in on William Vaughan (1768) and Fir Tree Cottage (1798-1851)

Fir Tree Cottage, home of William Vaughan (1768) and likely John Vaughan (1789)

We were in the right neighborhood, just a bit down the road. I clinched it when I skimmed through the Glasbury tithing maps of 1847 that I've been "crowd-source" indexing and found lot no. 680 tithed by William Vaughan. When I looked at the overlay on the modern map, it fit right on, or close enough to, the existing houses. I'll put in the letter here I wrote to "Resident Family" that explains all the connections. The clincher, of course, is the fir tree.

Puddler at Forge

The mystery remains but we're closing in on how the sons of a fatherless butcher became puddlers in the South Wales iron works. A puddler was a skilled worker of some prestige in the boiling ores, blinding fires, and poisonous clouds of the industry.

The first indication we have is the 1851 census in which John and Elinor's son William Vaughan, age 21, is listed as "puddler at forge." What forge? We've wondered. And I only assumed, as there was no forge apparent in their resident village of Llanfoist, that it was the Blaenavon Ironworks over the Blorenge Mountain. It wouldn't be an impossible walk, if inconvenient, to travel over the mountain or maybe stay some days coming home on Sunday, likely the only day off, ever.

Then something came across my Facebook feed from Gwent Archives mentioning Llanfoist at the foot of the Blorenge and the tramways across the mountain:

the counter balanced incline planes at Llanfoist canal wharf which were part of Hill’s Tramroad, linking Blaenavon furnaces and Garnddyrys forge with the wharf to transport the wrought iron along the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal.

Garnddyrys forge! It was called a forge! "Puddler at forge" would likely refer to the closest forge in the vicinity along with the few other puddlers, rollers, or labourers "at forge" listed in the Census for Llanfoist.

Crossing the Carson River, 1859

The National Archives come through again!

I just discovered this wonderful pic in the public domain of Capt. Simpson's crossing of the Carson on his successful exploration of a new route across Nevada (that was almost immediately put to use by the Pony Express!) This is just on the northeast edge of what is now Carson City heading up river towards Genoa, then still Utah Territory. Elinor, Jane Vaughan, John and John S. Lewis would have known this site and perhaps crossed here.

John J. Young, Artist, from contemporaneous sketch by von Beckh (June 10, 1859)  (This sketch shows covered wagons being pulled on a raft the river and horses swimming. This sketch is Plate VII in Lt. J.H. Simpson's 1859 Journal of Explorations in Utah), National Archives Identifier: 305640 Local Identifier: 77-CWMF-MISC120(6), Creator: War Department. Office of the Chief of Engineers. 1818-9/18/1947.

A Possible Uncle Willie Sighting

Cyfarthfa Ironworks by Night (1825) by Penry Williams

This isn't by any means certain, but the age, profession, temperament, and location of this lad's story are a pretty good fit. The major problem is that William Vaughan (1855-1922), son of John (1825) and Maranah (1827) Vaughan had a sister born in 1864 in Durham and this report is from 1865 in Merthyr Tydfil. Considering how the family moved around all over the valleys of South Wales and then to Durham as set out in our chronology, it is possible that young Willie was left in Merthyr for a time with relatives or friends, particularly as he apparently had a position in the Cyfarthfa Ironworks.

Vaughn with Two Syllables

Elsewhere I've tried to explain how the original form of Vaughn/Vaughan in Welsh was "Fychan" pronounced with two syllables, something like "VAH[CH]-uhn."

There is an even odder spelling of the name that appears on rare occasion, "Vaughham." We find it on Eleanor's Patriarchal Blessing given in 1856 by Patriarch John Young, Jr., brother to Brigham Young. It was Cousin Judy Vaughan Atwood who found it because my first attempt to request the blessing from the Church History Library failed as the spelling was so far off. Judy got it and then I just confirmed with my own request using the odd spelling.

It's clearly her because everything else is a match. It was given in November 1856 a few days after she received her own Temple ordinances in the Endowment House. Her birth date is given as 25 December, 1880 [1889] with birthplace as Whitney, Herefordshire, England, and parents, William and Jane Jenkins.

Elinor's History

Judy and I want to get this well disseminated before the DUP attempts to lay sole claim. Not that we're willing to share and work with them too, but ya know:

Elinor's possible birthplace, Stowe, Whitney-on-Wye, Herefordshire, England - just a stone's throw from Wales.

Elinor Jenkins Vaughan

Mormon Handcart Pioneer of 1856

 Born 25 December 1789, Died about 1861

©by Grant L. Vaughn, 4^th Great Grandson, based on Collaborative

Research with Judy Vaughn Atwood, 3^rd Great Granddaughter

December 25^th is Christmas. No one ever forgets their birthday if it falls on that sacred celebration. Elinor[1] was a Christmas baby. The problem is that the year is not completely certain. At various times in her life, Elinor gave her age indicating birth as early as 1777. However, we have the record of her Christening as 7 February 1790[2] and it is most likely that she was born in 1789.

Her parents were William Jenkins and Jane Apperley. The place was Stowe [also “Stow”], Whitney, Herefordshire just across the border from Radnorshire, Wales, on the north side of the Wye River as it flows from the green Welsh hills onto the rich, broad, and green farmlands of Herefordshire.

Jenkins is a solid Welsh name while Apperley is not. Her mother Jane’s family name originated in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire and is of Anglo-Saxon origin.[3] The Jenkins name is very common on the Welsh border. We do not have much information on Elinor’s parents. However, she gave their names and her birthplace herself when she received her own LDS Temple Endowment in 1856 in Salt Lake City, Utah.[4]

More Historical Welsh Fiction with Utah Ties

While still a gratuitous polygamy joke, it is one of the best I've heard regarding the fictional Granfer Ben:

Handsome devil, apparently, handy with the mountain fighters and spare-time on the females. . . .

And when Brigham Young's people came to the Top Towns on speculation, he was off to Salt Lake City and the Latter Day Saints. No sight nor sound of him since--must have died of women, I reckon.

'There are worse ways of dying,' said Dewi, and I saw my father give him a queer old look and a sigh.

This is from Song of the Earth, by Alexander Cordell, the conclusion to the historical fiction trilogy of the Mortymer and Evans Families in the southern valleys of Wales during the harsh Industrial Revolution. Revolution? Should be "Revolutions," plural.