James Duckworth was born at Preston, Lancashire, England, November 10, 1865, to James Duckworth and Alice Chippendale. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [nickname - Mormon] May 22, 1880, at the age of fifteen.
He emigrated to Utah in 1880, crossing the Atlantic in the steamship "Wisconsin" which sailed from Liverpool, October 23, 1880, and he arrived in Salt Lake City November 11, 1880.
He filled a mission to Great Britain in 1894-96, laboring in the Liverpool conference, over which he presided the latter half of his mission.
James married Elizabeth Hanson at Manti, Utah, September 21, 1892. Having no children of their own, they adopted four children. Muriel (adopted as a baby when her mother died), Roxie Estella Jensen (adopted at the age of ten), James Hanson (adopted as a baby from the orphanage in Boise, Idaho) and Nathan Rex (also adobted as a baby from the Boise orphanage).
After his marriage he labored as home missionary in the Salt Lake Stake from 1896 to 1898. He filled a mission to the Woodruff Stake in the interest of the Y.M.M.I.A. during the winter of 1898-1899; acted as assistant superintendent of the Nineteenth Ward (Salt Lake City) Sunday School; labored as a special missionary without purse or scrip at Mercur, Tooele County, from August 9, 1898, to July 13, 1900.
On July 8, 1901, he left Salt Lake City for Australia, having been called to preside over the Australian mission, being accompanied by his wife; they returned home July 21, 1906, visiting New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii on their way home. **(Note: extension of story below)
James was called to preside over the Blackfoot Stake being called specially from Salt Lake City to fill that position.
[He served in this position from 1907 to 1938.]
James first labored on a farm upon his arrival to Utah; later he engaged in the sheep business, and upon his move to Idaho, he became identified with the mercantile and also the banking business. He was president of the Blackfoot Mercantile Company, vice president of the Blackfoot City Bank, and was also interested in several farms.
(Facts extracted from "Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia" by Andrew Jenson.)
He died February 22, 1947, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was buried in the Grove City Cemetery in Blackfoot, Idaho.
**Extension of story:
(This is an excerpt from the autobiographer of Travis Glenn Haws, James' grandson. He relates a story told to him by his grandfather, James Duckworth (Jr.) 1865-1947, about meeting his own father again. He was on his way home with his wife from serving as Mission President of Australia.)
"I must tell you about something that happened to Grandpa Duckworth in New Zealand on their way home. Grandpa was born in England to a very poor working class family. When he was eight years old he began working in the woolen mills full time, with no opportunity to go to school nor to learn to read or write. Can you imagine what it was like for an eight year old boy having to work 10 hours a day, six days a week? One day two Mormon missionaries knocked at their door and talked to Grandpa's mother. She was very impressed with their message. But when her husband got home that night he was furious that she had let them in because of the terrible things that people were saying about the Mormons. Because the church was practicing polygamy he had been told all kinds of wild stories about the Church in Utah where there was a huge block surrounded with a high wall. Women who joined the Church were brought there and then the men would get to come and choose a new plural wife. So Grandpa's father thought the missionaries were after his wife. When the missionaries came back for a second visit, mother told them that her husband did not want her to talk to them anymore. They said they understood and would honor his request but that they would like to give her a 'Book of Mormon'.
To make a long story short, she read the book and was converted. Unable to deny the witness from God that she had received that the 'Book of Mormon' was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, she told her husband she wanted to be baptized. He was so angry that he demanded that she choose between him and the blankety-blank Church. But she had found her "Pearl of Great Price" and could not give it up! She had found something more precious than life itself. So she left her husband and divorced him and took her children to Utah. It was a difficult choice to make and a terrible price to pay.
In Utah she met a man [William Beardshall] and they were married. Grandpa became a sheepherder when he was in his teens. He learned to read and write without ever attending school and would read voraciously while tending his sheep. He received his pay in sheep instead of money and eventually became a very successful sheep man with several large herds of his own. He also had become a very well educated man through his reading. He was called on a mission to England but could never find his father. After he married Grandma, the Church called him as the mission president over all of Australia.
When he got home he was asked by the Church to sell his sheep and move to Blackfoot, Idaho, where they were organizing a stake and where he would be the new Stake President. After their mission, on their way home at a stopover in New Zealand, we learn the "rest of the story".
While they were in port they attended church. Grandpa introduced himself and the Branch President said, "We have an elderly brother in our branch [or community] named Duckworth." Having some time to spare after church, Grandpa and Grandma were able to find him. He was in poor health but the amazing thing was .... it was Grandpa's father !!! Several years after the divorce, his father had moved to New Zealand. At some point he became curious about the Church and what there was about it that would mean so much to his former wife that she would leave him for it. So he looked up the missionaries and listened to their message and was baptized, learning too late the worth of the Restored Gospel."
Note: Family Tree shows that his father was baptized and confirmed 25 Nov 1917 which was after the meeting of father and son. His spouse, Lucy Wilson, was also baptized the same day. She died in 1920 and James (Sr.) died in 1927.
Note: His second daughter, Roxie, is linked with her birth parents. [Roxie is my mother.]
To view her memorial:
Roxie Estella Jensen Duckworth Haws
He emigrated to Utah in 1880, crossing the Atlantic in the steamship "Wisconsin" which sailed from Liverpool, October 23, 1880, and he arrived in Salt Lake City November 11, 1880.
He filled a mission to Great Britain in 1894-96, laboring in the Liverpool conference, over which he presided the latter half of his mission.
James married Elizabeth Hanson at Manti, Utah, September 21, 1892. Having no children of their own, they adopted four children. Muriel (adopted as a baby when her mother died), Roxie Estella Jensen (adopted at the age of ten), James Hanson (adopted as a baby from the orphanage in Boise, Idaho) and Nathan Rex (also adobted as a baby from the Boise orphanage).
After his marriage he labored as home missionary in the Salt Lake Stake from 1896 to 1898. He filled a mission to the Woodruff Stake in the interest of the Y.M.M.I.A. during the winter of 1898-1899; acted as assistant superintendent of the Nineteenth Ward (Salt Lake City) Sunday School; labored as a special missionary without purse or scrip at Mercur, Tooele County, from August 9, 1898, to July 13, 1900.
On July 8, 1901, he left Salt Lake City for Australia, having been called to preside over the Australian mission, being accompanied by his wife; they returned home July 21, 1906, visiting New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii on their way home. **(Note: extension of story below)
James was called to preside over the Blackfoot Stake being called specially from Salt Lake City to fill that position.
[He served in this position from 1907 to 1938.]
James first labored on a farm upon his arrival to Utah; later he engaged in the sheep business, and upon his move to Idaho, he became identified with the mercantile and also the banking business. He was president of the Blackfoot Mercantile Company, vice president of the Blackfoot City Bank, and was also interested in several farms.
(Facts extracted from "Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia" by Andrew Jenson.)
He died February 22, 1947, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was buried in the Grove City Cemetery in Blackfoot, Idaho.
**Extension of story:
(This is an excerpt from the autobiographer of Travis Glenn Haws, James' grandson. He relates a story told to him by his grandfather, James Duckworth (Jr.) 1865-1947, about meeting his own father again. He was on his way home with his wife from serving as Mission President of Australia.)
"I must tell you about something that happened to Grandpa Duckworth in New Zealand on their way home. Grandpa was born in England to a very poor working class family. When he was eight years old he began working in the woolen mills full time, with no opportunity to go to school nor to learn to read or write. Can you imagine what it was like for an eight year old boy having to work 10 hours a day, six days a week? One day two Mormon missionaries knocked at their door and talked to Grandpa's mother. She was very impressed with their message. But when her husband got home that night he was furious that she had let them in because of the terrible things that people were saying about the Mormons. Because the church was practicing polygamy he had been told all kinds of wild stories about the Church in Utah where there was a huge block surrounded with a high wall. Women who joined the Church were brought there and then the men would get to come and choose a new plural wife. So Grandpa's father thought the missionaries were after his wife. When the missionaries came back for a second visit, mother told them that her husband did not want her to talk to them anymore. They said they understood and would honor his request but that they would like to give her a 'Book of Mormon'.
To make a long story short, she read the book and was converted. Unable to deny the witness from God that she had received that the 'Book of Mormon' was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, she told her husband she wanted to be baptized. He was so angry that he demanded that she choose between him and the blankety-blank Church. But she had found her "Pearl of Great Price" and could not give it up! She had found something more precious than life itself. So she left her husband and divorced him and took her children to Utah. It was a difficult choice to make and a terrible price to pay.
In Utah she met a man [William Beardshall] and they were married. Grandpa became a sheepherder when he was in his teens. He learned to read and write without ever attending school and would read voraciously while tending his sheep. He received his pay in sheep instead of money and eventually became a very successful sheep man with several large herds of his own. He also had become a very well educated man through his reading. He was called on a mission to England but could never find his father. After he married Grandma, the Church called him as the mission president over all of Australia.
When he got home he was asked by the Church to sell his sheep and move to Blackfoot, Idaho, where they were organizing a stake and where he would be the new Stake President. After their mission, on their way home at a stopover in New Zealand, we learn the "rest of the story".
While they were in port they attended church. Grandpa introduced himself and the Branch President said, "We have an elderly brother in our branch [or community] named Duckworth." Having some time to spare after church, Grandpa and Grandma were able to find him. He was in poor health but the amazing thing was .... it was Grandpa's father !!! Several years after the divorce, his father had moved to New Zealand. At some point he became curious about the Church and what there was about it that would mean so much to his former wife that she would leave him for it. So he looked up the missionaries and listened to their message and was baptized, learning too late the worth of the Restored Gospel."
Note: Family Tree shows that his father was baptized and confirmed 25 Nov 1917 which was after the meeting of father and son. His spouse, Lucy Wilson, was also baptized the same day. She died in 1920 and James (Sr.) died in 1927.
Note: His second daughter, Roxie, is linked with her birth parents. [Roxie is my mother.]
To view her memorial:
Roxie Estella Jensen Duckworth Haws
James Duckworth was born at Preston, Lancashire, England, November 10, 1865, to James Duckworth and Alice Chippendale. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [nickname - Mormon] May 22, 1880, at the age of fifteen.
He emigrated to Utah in 1880, crossing the Atlantic in the steamship "Wisconsin" which sailed from Liverpool, October 23, 1880, and he arrived in Salt Lake City November 11, 1880.
He filled a mission to Great Britain in 1894-96, laboring in the Liverpool conference, over which he presided the latter half of his mission.
James married Elizabeth Hanson at Manti, Utah, September 21, 1892. Having no children of their own, they adopted four children. Muriel (adopted as a baby when her mother died), Roxie Estella Jensen (adopted at the age of ten), James Hanson (adopted as a baby from the orphanage in Boise, Idaho) and Nathan Rex (also adobted as a baby from the Boise orphanage).
After his marriage he labored as home missionary in the Salt Lake Stake from 1896 to 1898. He filled a mission to the Woodruff Stake in the interest of the Y.M.M.I.A. during the winter of 1898-1899; acted as assistant superintendent of the Nineteenth Ward (Salt Lake City) Sunday School; labored as a special missionary without purse or scrip at Mercur, Tooele County, from August 9, 1898, to July 13, 1900.
On July 8, 1901, he left Salt Lake City for Australia, having been called to preside over the Australian mission, being accompanied by his wife; they returned home July 21, 1906, visiting New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii on their way home. **(Note: extension of story below)
James was called to preside over the Blackfoot Stake being called specially from Salt Lake City to fill that position.
[He served in this position from 1907 to 1938.]
James first labored on a farm upon his arrival to Utah; later he engaged in the sheep business, and upon his move to Idaho, he became identified with the mercantile and also the banking business. He was president of the Blackfoot Mercantile Company, vice president of the Blackfoot City Bank, and was also interested in several farms.
(Facts extracted from "Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia" by Andrew Jenson.)
He died February 22, 1947, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was buried in the Grove City Cemetery in Blackfoot, Idaho.
**Extension of story:
(This is an excerpt from the autobiographer of Travis Glenn Haws, James' grandson. He relates a story told to him by his grandfather, James Duckworth (Jr.) 1865-1947, about meeting his own father again. He was on his way home with his wife from serving as Mission President of Australia.)
"I must tell you about something that happened to Grandpa Duckworth in New Zealand on their way home. Grandpa was born in England to a very poor working class family. When he was eight years old he began working in the woolen mills full time, with no opportunity to go to school nor to learn to read or write. Can you imagine what it was like for an eight year old boy having to work 10 hours a day, six days a week? One day two Mormon missionaries knocked at their door and talked to Grandpa's mother. She was very impressed with their message. But when her husband got home that night he was furious that she had let them in because of the terrible things that people were saying about the Mormons. Because the church was practicing polygamy he had been told all kinds of wild stories about the Church in Utah where there was a huge block surrounded with a high wall. Women who joined the Church were brought there and then the men would get to come and choose a new plural wife. So Grandpa's father thought the missionaries were after his wife. When the missionaries came back for a second visit, mother told them that her husband did not want her to talk to them anymore. They said they understood and would honor his request but that they would like to give her a 'Book of Mormon'.
To make a long story short, she read the book and was converted. Unable to deny the witness from God that she had received that the 'Book of Mormon' was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, she told her husband she wanted to be baptized. He was so angry that he demanded that she choose between him and the blankety-blank Church. But she had found her "Pearl of Great Price" and could not give it up! She had found something more precious than life itself. So she left her husband and divorced him and took her children to Utah. It was a difficult choice to make and a terrible price to pay.
In Utah she met a man [William Beardshall] and they were married. Grandpa became a sheepherder when he was in his teens. He learned to read and write without ever attending school and would read voraciously while tending his sheep. He received his pay in sheep instead of money and eventually became a very successful sheep man with several large herds of his own. He also had become a very well educated man through his reading. He was called on a mission to England but could never find his father. After he married Grandma, the Church called him as the mission president over all of Australia.
When he got home he was asked by the Church to sell his sheep and move to Blackfoot, Idaho, where they were organizing a stake and where he would be the new Stake President. After their mission, on their way home at a stopover in New Zealand, we learn the "rest of the story".
While they were in port they attended church. Grandpa introduced himself and the Branch President said, "We have an elderly brother in our branch [or community] named Duckworth." Having some time to spare after church, Grandpa and Grandma were able to find him. He was in poor health but the amazing thing was .... it was Grandpa's father !!! Several years after the divorce, his father had moved to New Zealand. At some point he became curious about the Church and what there was about it that would mean so much to his former wife that she would leave him for it. So he looked up the missionaries and listened to their message and was baptized, learning too late the worth of the Restored Gospel."
Note: Family Tree shows that his father was baptized and confirmed 25 Nov 1917 which was after the meeting of father and son. His spouse, Lucy Wilson, was also baptized the same day. She died in 1920 and James (Sr.) died in 1927.
Note: His second daughter, Roxie, is linked with her birth parents. [Roxie is my mother.]
To view her memorial:
Roxie Estella Jensen Duckworth Haws
He emigrated to Utah in 1880, crossing the Atlantic in the steamship "Wisconsin" which sailed from Liverpool, October 23, 1880, and he arrived in Salt Lake City November 11, 1880.
He filled a mission to Great Britain in 1894-96, laboring in the Liverpool conference, over which he presided the latter half of his mission.
James married Elizabeth Hanson at Manti, Utah, September 21, 1892. Having no children of their own, they adopted four children. Muriel (adopted as a baby when her mother died), Roxie Estella Jensen (adopted at the age of ten), James Hanson (adopted as a baby from the orphanage in Boise, Idaho) and Nathan Rex (also adobted as a baby from the Boise orphanage).
After his marriage he labored as home missionary in the Salt Lake Stake from 1896 to 1898. He filled a mission to the Woodruff Stake in the interest of the Y.M.M.I.A. during the winter of 1898-1899; acted as assistant superintendent of the Nineteenth Ward (Salt Lake City) Sunday School; labored as a special missionary without purse or scrip at Mercur, Tooele County, from August 9, 1898, to July 13, 1900.
On July 8, 1901, he left Salt Lake City for Australia, having been called to preside over the Australian mission, being accompanied by his wife; they returned home July 21, 1906, visiting New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii on their way home. **(Note: extension of story below)
James was called to preside over the Blackfoot Stake being called specially from Salt Lake City to fill that position.
[He served in this position from 1907 to 1938.]
James first labored on a farm upon his arrival to Utah; later he engaged in the sheep business, and upon his move to Idaho, he became identified with the mercantile and also the banking business. He was president of the Blackfoot Mercantile Company, vice president of the Blackfoot City Bank, and was also interested in several farms.
(Facts extracted from "Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia" by Andrew Jenson.)
He died February 22, 1947, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was buried in the Grove City Cemetery in Blackfoot, Idaho.
**Extension of story:
(This is an excerpt from the autobiographer of Travis Glenn Haws, James' grandson. He relates a story told to him by his grandfather, James Duckworth (Jr.) 1865-1947, about meeting his own father again. He was on his way home with his wife from serving as Mission President of Australia.)
"I must tell you about something that happened to Grandpa Duckworth in New Zealand on their way home. Grandpa was born in England to a very poor working class family. When he was eight years old he began working in the woolen mills full time, with no opportunity to go to school nor to learn to read or write. Can you imagine what it was like for an eight year old boy having to work 10 hours a day, six days a week? One day two Mormon missionaries knocked at their door and talked to Grandpa's mother. She was very impressed with their message. But when her husband got home that night he was furious that she had let them in because of the terrible things that people were saying about the Mormons. Because the church was practicing polygamy he had been told all kinds of wild stories about the Church in Utah where there was a huge block surrounded with a high wall. Women who joined the Church were brought there and then the men would get to come and choose a new plural wife. So Grandpa's father thought the missionaries were after his wife. When the missionaries came back for a second visit, mother told them that her husband did not want her to talk to them anymore. They said they understood and would honor his request but that they would like to give her a 'Book of Mormon'.
To make a long story short, she read the book and was converted. Unable to deny the witness from God that she had received that the 'Book of Mormon' was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, she told her husband she wanted to be baptized. He was so angry that he demanded that she choose between him and the blankety-blank Church. But she had found her "Pearl of Great Price" and could not give it up! She had found something more precious than life itself. So she left her husband and divorced him and took her children to Utah. It was a difficult choice to make and a terrible price to pay.
In Utah she met a man [William Beardshall] and they were married. Grandpa became a sheepherder when he was in his teens. He learned to read and write without ever attending school and would read voraciously while tending his sheep. He received his pay in sheep instead of money and eventually became a very successful sheep man with several large herds of his own. He also had become a very well educated man through his reading. He was called on a mission to England but could never find his father. After he married Grandma, the Church called him as the mission president over all of Australia.
When he got home he was asked by the Church to sell his sheep and move to Blackfoot, Idaho, where they were organizing a stake and where he would be the new Stake President. After their mission, on their way home at a stopover in New Zealand, we learn the "rest of the story".
While they were in port they attended church. Grandpa introduced himself and the Branch President said, "We have an elderly brother in our branch [or community] named Duckworth." Having some time to spare after church, Grandpa and Grandma were able to find him. He was in poor health but the amazing thing was .... it was Grandpa's father !!! Several years after the divorce, his father had moved to New Zealand. At some point he became curious about the Church and what there was about it that would mean so much to his former wife that she would leave him for it. So he looked up the missionaries and listened to their message and was baptized, learning too late the worth of the Restored Gospel."
Note: Family Tree shows that his father was baptized and confirmed 25 Nov 1917 which was after the meeting of father and son. His spouse, Lucy Wilson, was also baptized the same day. She died in 1920 and James (Sr.) died in 1927.
Note: His second daughter, Roxie, is linked with her birth parents. [Roxie is my mother.]
To view her memorial:
Roxie Estella Jensen Duckworth Haws
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
