Son of Henry Stolworthy and Mary Ann Howes

Married Matilda Jenkerson, 13 May 1852, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England

Children - Thomas Stolworthy, George Stanley Stolworthy, William Stolworthy, Matilda Young Stolworthy, Eliza Cache Stolworthy, Elizabeth Jinkerson Stolworthy, Henry Thomas Stolworthy, Roseannah Stolworthy, Lucity Stolworthy, Mary Magdalena Stolworthy, Anne Stolworthy

Married Maria Jenkerson, 27 Dec 1877, St. George, Washington, Utah

Married Elizabeth Ann Brown Tuttle, 8 Dec 1880, St. George, Washington, Utah

Children - William Dodd Stolworthy, Matilda Ann Stolworthy, Edward Asael Stolworthy

Treasures of Pioneer History, Vol. 4, p. 59

Thomas Stolworthy and Matilda Jinkinson Stolworthy, came to America and on to the Salt Lake Valley in 1854. Thomas was born in Great Yarmouth, England on December 8, 1828, the youngest of a family of ten children. His father, Henry Stolworthy, was a miller by trade, but as a young boy, Thomas learned the trade of moulding or casting of metals. He worked as a foundryman during the early days of Utah, making buckets and different utensils. Grandmother Stolworthy used a stove most of her life that her husband had made.

Matilda Jinkinson was born August 13, 1827 in Alton, England, she, also, being the youngest in a family of ten children. Thomas and Matilda called themselves "tithing children" after they had heard the gospel and were baptized. Their conversion came after they were married in 1849. Their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters all turned against them for joining the Mormons and forbade them ever to come home. Sorrow came to the two young people for they had two little sons born to them under these trying circumstances and both of them died soon after birth. Their loved ones in England did not relent or try to give them comfort.

In 1853, the young husband and wife, in company with another young married couple, decided to gather with the saints in Utah. They sailed for America on board the ship Clara Wheeler, in November. The young strangers spent New Year's Day in New Orleans and from there went on to St. Louis where Thomas secured work in his trade as an iron worker and earned enough money to buy a team and wagon and provisions for the trip to Utah. When the Stolworthy's were ready to leave they felt very sad to learn that the young couple with whom they had found comfort and companionship had found the trials and hardships of being among the misunderstood Mormons, too hard to bear and had decided to use their money to go back to England and their families. Matilda Jinkinson shed many tears when she bade her friends goodbye, but as for herself and her husband, they would go on to join the Mormon pioneers in their new home. They traveled on to Salt Lake Valley in Captain James Allred's company. Somewhere on that trek a little daughter was born to them whom they named Matilda. She died soon after birth and was buried along the trail.

In the Fall of 1855, Thomas Stolworthy was called to go to Cache Valley with other men to take cattle to winter in this valley as feed was scarce around the Salt Lake region. The men took their wives with them and it proved to be a winter of extreme hardship. Winter set in early and it was impossible to get provisions into the valley. They barely existed on the rations they could procure and cattle starved or were frozen to death.

On July 19, 1856, the first white child to be born in Cache Valley came to the Stolworthy home. Thomas and Matilda named her Eliza Cache. She was very delicate and soon another little grave marked the trail of the faithful young couple from England. Thomas went back to Salt Lake City and found there was always a new call, always some place to fill where his skill was needed. In 1858, another baby girl came to them which they named Elizabeth Jinkinson. When but a baby, she, too, was taken ill and it seemed probable that she would join her sisters and brothers who had passed away. Matilda felt that she could bear no more. She prayed nightly to her Heavenly Father and the little girl's life was spared in a very strange way.

Later the Stolworthy's were sent to the Muddy Mission and again endured great hardships. They next settled in St. George, then in Orderville where they lived the United Order until it was broken up. My father was grandmother's only living son, but she was blessed with four living daughters at the time of her death in Orderville.

Grandfather Thomas Stolworthy died in Orderville in 1916, at the age of eighty-seven years and Matilda died in 1918 at the age of ninety-one. They were both buried in Orderville. — Lucy S. Burnham.