Memorials › Joseph Hyrum Rowley Sr

Joseph Hyrum Rowley Sr

29 Jan 1884 – 13 Aug 1918

Birth29 Jan 1884
Death13 Aug 1918
CemeteryProvo City Cemetery
Provo , Utah County , Utah , USA
Added byMarlin J Haws on 18 Jun 2025
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89668077

Bio

Joseph Hyrum Rowley Senior, Life History: By Kent Rowley, grandson, 2006 Joseph Hyrum Rowley's parents, John and Orissa Rowley, were married 10 April 1877 in the St. George Temple. She was his 3rd wife. They made their home in Nephi. It was there that their first four children were born, George Wallace, born 3 February 1879, Martha Ann, born 25 March 1881, Joseph Hyrum, born 29 January 1884, and Moses Aaron, 12 June 1886. Their life was soon uprooted because of the severe persecution of people living plural marriage. In the summer of 1888 they were advised by the Church authorities to go to old Mexico. They loaded two wagons with food, clothing, and bedding, Aunt Ozella (Orrissa's sister John's plural wife) and her family, and Joseph, his brothers and sister, and left their nice comfortable home, farm, father's plaster mill, and all their earthly possessions for an unknown country. At Pima, Arizona, they found a place where they could camp. They stayed there about three months. Father and the boys, George, Joseph and Moses, found work to support the family while they waited for the birth of another child. On 29 September 1888, the mother gave birth to a fourth son and fifth child. He was named Ernest Exile. Early in November the family moved on to Colonia Diaz, Mexico. Father built a temporary home, blacksmith shop, and did some farming. But food was very scarce. They lived on corn bread or corn meal mush, and rabbit soup much of the time. In 1892, the father was called to help settle Colonia, Pacheco, 100 miles north and up in the mountains. He again established homes for his large family, a grist mill, blacksmith shops, molasses mill and farms. Mother and the older children, especially George, Joseph and Moses, all helped with the farm work, or anything they could do to help provide for the family. The Father became very ill with a cold which turned into pneumonia, and John Rowley passed away on the 7th of October 1893, and on the 9th of November, one month and two days later, the mother gave birth to a seventh child, a baby girl named Katie May. Seven children and the oldest son only fourteen years old. Joseph and his brothers ability to work was even more important to the family. One day one of the youngest children had asked a question on tithing, and Orissa told the following story about their father: "One Fall your father was gathering his wheat. It was very poor as there had not been much water. He had a large family, and when he saw there was not much wheat he thought, 'I can't pay tithing on my wheat; my family will go hungry if I do." Then it was as if he heard a voice say, "Brother John, pay your tithing and be blessed." So father took his tithing wheat to the tithing office. The Bishop said, "Brother John, we have all these apples that have been paid as tithing. We can't sell them and they are spoiling. You can have them for a good price if you can use them." Father took the apples and his wives sorted them, putting the good ones in boxes and keeping out those with spoiled spots for cooking. He and his boys, George, Joseph and Moses, went South and peddled the good ones, and came back with more wheat than he had paid for tithing, and money to pay the Bishop for the apples. They also had quarts and quarts of applesauce." Orissa, Joseph's mother, taught him and his siblings how to write, read and also how to live the Gospel by daily lessons and by example from her own life. She was determined that they were not ignorant. Joseph sat in a circle with his siblings in the evenings and was taught by his mother from the scriptures, the church magazines and the ward teachers. They often learned popular songs, played games and ate goodies together throughout his childhood. In the year 1905, Joseph Hyrum met and courted Alice Beecroft and on New Year's Day, 1 January 1906, they were married by Bishop J. E. Steiner at Pacheco, Chihuahua, Mexico. While living at Pacheco, they had two sons and one daughter born to them. They were Joseph Hyrum Rowley Jr. on 18 October 1907; Carl George, 25 May 1909; and Kate, 24 February 1911. In June 1912, Joseph's mother heard that the two small children of her young widowed friend, living in Colonia Juarez, 35 miles away, had typhoid. So the first chance she got to go down with someone going with a load of lumber to sell she went to help her. It was while there that a Mexican revolution broke out in the Mormon colonies. The families were all advised by the Stake President, who had received word from the President of the Church in Salt Lake, also from the President of the nation of Mexico, to leave Mexico and come to the United States. Joseph's mother and Ernest came to Provo, and eventually all Joseph's brothers and sisters, including himself and his family, came to Utah. In the latter part of 1912, the Latter-Day Saints were driven from Mexico. The men sent their families into El Paso, Texas and they stayed on rounding up all the livestock and driving them across the border into the United States where they would eventually hope to reunite with their families. Joseph sent Alice and the children with the refugees to El Paso and on up to her father, John Beecroft, at Summit, Utah, with Joseph to follow as soon as he was free to come after he settled their affairs and helped with the livestock. It was at Summit, Iron County, Utah, that their fourth child and third son was born, John Earl Rowley, on 8 November 1912. Soon after Alice and the children went on up to Provo, Utah. It was not long after this that Joseph, Alice and all the children were united together again in Provo. Common childhood diseases, pneumonia and measles, hit the family after the first of the year in 1913 and on 8 February, Joseph and Alice lost their pride and joy when little Kate passed away from contracting the measles and was buried in the Provo Cemetery. The older boys recovered from their bouts with pneumonia. In the winter of 1913 Joseph moved his family out into Pleasantview and ran a farm for awhile and during that early spring, he worked at the Lakeview Sugar Factory, or slicer, as they called it. He walked about four miles morning and night and worked 10 hours a day. Eventually they moved onto the Burton farm in Pleasantview prior to moving to Silver City, Utah. Joseph, Alice and their three little boys moved out to Silver City in Tintic Valley for Joseph to work in the mines. They spent the winters of 1913-16 in that little mining town. Early in the year of 1914, Alice became pregnant again and on 23 November 1914, a son was born and given the name of Burl Moses Rowley and then a daughter, Veda, was born 18 December 1916. During their stay in Silver City Burl developed a very serious case of diphtheria which left him prone to sore throats, bronchitis and hoarseness for the rest of his life. During February, 1914, up in Utah county, George, Joseph's oldest brother, died with pneumonia at the age of 35, leaving a wife and five small children homeless. Joseph's mother helped Phoebe, his widow, and the children. The need for help from the extended family became extreme. Mining was a dangerous occupation that concerned Joseph and Alice. With the big responsibility of five children and some encouragement from Joseph's two brothers, Moses and Ernest, it was decided they would leave Silver City and come back to Utah County. Joseph moved his family during a very severe winter back to Provo arriving November 12, 1917. The sugar beets were already frozen, the snow was on the ground, and it was very cold. During November, Joseph and Alice, with the help of Moses and Ernest, bought a 12-acre farm on Provo Bench on Highway 91, now known as Orem. During the winter and spring of 1918 they worked very hard making a home and doing the spring work on their fruit farm. On August 13, 1918, Joseph took his son, Joseph Jr. on their horse over to the Meldrum farm just under the hill in Pleasantview, to work on a thrashing machine that ran by a steam engine. It had a long belt that connected the steam engine to the thrasher. The steam engine needed water, and Joseph's job was to haul the water in a tanker wagon. Joseph Jr. returned home with the horse to help take cucumbers down to the cannery with his mother. Alice and Joseph picked the cucumbers and had taken them down to the cannery about 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Elijah Kotchner came up to Joseph and Alice's home and said that he had some bad news. He told Alice that there had been a very serious accident and that Joseph had died. Later it was found out that Uncle Moses was over working with him, and that the horses bolted taking off with the wagon and Joseph fell off the tanker wagon, falling under the wheels where his skull was fractured. Because of the slow type of transportation they couldn't get him to the old Aird hospital in Provo in time and he died in the arms of his brother, Moses, on the way. Also because of the economic situation of the family Joseph had been forced to let his insurance lapse so the family did not have any financial resources and they were renting the farm that they were living on trying to pay for it as the crops came in. The death of Joseph and finding there were no resources and now not sure where they would live was a terrific shock to a mother with five children, Joe Jr., being the oldest at 10 years and her little daughter, Veda, not quite two years old. Just five months after Joseph's death Alice became ill with that dreaded influenza, and on 12 January 1919, she passed away, leaving her five children orphans. Joseph's mother, being the only living grandparent, went to live with and care for those children in Orem. She was 57 years old when she took on a second family to raise. She moved the children into her home on state street and raised them to maturity. Joseph Hyrum Rowley and Alice, his beloved wife, are buried in the Provo City Cemetery.

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