Annie Atha Blackburn-Life History

   
     Annie Atha Blackburn was born 12 April 1854 in Hawk Street (Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England) to Joseph Blackburn and Sarah Atha.  She was christened 2 July 1854 in Huddersfield at Woodhouse, Christ Church.

     Sadly her mother died the following year 11 April 1855 from bronchitis.  After the death of her mother, Great Grandmother went to live with her father's brother, William Blackburn and his wife Sarah Thorton.  They adopted Annie.
     When Annie was five, her own father, Joseph Blackburn died suddenly from heart failure.   When found in his room near the bed, it appeared he had been winding the clock.  Annie was too young to realize her loss of a real father and she never knew that she was not really William Blackburn’s daughter until nearly 14 years old, when one day at school a girl said to her, “You are not William Blackburn’s daughter.  He is your uncle.”  Annie went home crying and told them what the girl had said, and she asked if it was true.  Her grief was quieted. 

1861 Census Huddersfield, York, England

     When Great Grandmother was 14, the family moved to Montreal, Canada. They lived there about a year and then moved to upper Canada to settle on a farm there.  This did not work out well for them and a year later  when Great Grandmother who was a lovely and dark eyed girl of sixteen years old, they accepted an offer to take care of 140 acres in Fond-du-Lac, Minnesota.  
     There it was that Great Grandmother became acquainted with Thomas Trevor Williams, and he was deeply in love with her.  William Blackburn was very ill and requested that Annie and Thomas be married at his bedside.  And so it was that Annie Blackburn and Thomas Trevor Williams were married by The Reverend J. A. Gilfillan of Duluth on the 26 Feb 1871.  Williams died shortly thereafter.

     

          After they were married, they moved to Thompson, Minnesota, about ten miles above Fond-du-Lac, where Great Grandfather had a good paying position as overseer in a slate quarry.  They decided to move to California, but on arriving in Salt Lake Great Grandfather said, "This is the place for us."
     They made their home in Bingham, Utah, for a short time where Great Grandfather worked in the mines.  After working in Bingham for a few years, they took up a 1/4 section of land on the Indian Farm, afterward known as Lake Shore, Utah.  The following children were born:  William Trevor born 9 June 1876 and who drowned 18 July 1880.  George Blackburn born 18 March 1878.

     

     Grandmother Elizabeth Sarah Willliams was born 22 June 1880.

John Trevor Williams born 26 February 1882.

     Great Grandfather died at his home located on a farm at Lake Shore, Utah. He had been working in the copper mines at Garfield and died of lead poisoning. He worked intermittently with the Tintic Mining Group at Salem, Eureka, and Delta. Thirty eight year old Thomas Trevor Williams left Annie Atha Blackburn, his young wife 30 years old . She became a single parent to George, age 6; to Elizabeth Sarah, age 4; to John Trevor, age 2.  Additionally, Annie was five months pregnant with still another child, Thomas James Williams, who was born in mid August, 1884. 

    Great Grandmother faced a dilemma--what to do.  She decided to rent her farm, for she couldn't manage to work it with three young children and another one on the way, so she rented the farm, took her children and returned to Spanish Fork.  On November 10, 1884, Annie faced the task of burying her three month-old son. 

      Four years later (1888), Great Grandmother had met and was courted by William Arnold Rose

William Arnold Rose

who was living at Diamond in the Tintic Mining District.  In March of 1889, Annie and William Arnold were married at Lake Shore where they had relocated on Annie's farm. It was reported that the marriage was not a happy one.  After all, William Arnold was a miners' man and didn't particularly like farming. Annie's "bank" was the farm. Anyway, Joseph Atha Rose made his debut into the world on 17 January 1890.  His stay on this earth was brief.  He departed on the 4th day of August when he was six months old! 

     On Valentine's Day, 14 February 1891.  Great Grandmother, Annie Atha Blackburn Williams Rose, died following a severe case of pneumonia.  She had celebrated her 37th birthday during the previous month. Her children: John and Elizabeth were first placed with Joseph and Alice Bellows (3 years) then went to live with a childless couple William Watson and Caroline Thomas Ferguson.  George, the oldest son was bounced from one foster home to another until he reached young manhood when he returned to operate his mother's farm.  Annie was buried in Spanish Fork beside her childhood love, Thomas Trevor Williams.  William Arnold returned to the Tintic Mining District at Eureka. H e died at age 96 years and 11 months.   

     John Trevor remembers his mother's funeral being held at the home (a one room adobe house with a lumber room built on the east side.)

     He was only 9 at the time of her death but he remembers that the ward choir sang “Farewell All Earthly Honors), which seemed to voice his sentiments as it seemed that with her passing everything worthwhile in life had gone as they didn’t know that they had a relative or even a friend on earth.

     The funeral cortege consisted of wagons and heavy buggies drawn by teams of horses.  As he remembers he rode with John Youd and the axle of the vehicles drug on the mud in places.  It took a long time to make the journey to the Spanish Fork Cemetery five miles away.