Elizabeth M. Thomas and Dr. Kathyrn Daynes, History
Introduction
I used my ORCA scholarship to travel to England for research on one of my most fascinating ancestors, Henry Augustus Squire, and his wife, Sarah “Minnie” Catlin Squire. While there, I visited sites of interest to the family, found several of Henry’s published writings and other pertinent materials in London and Oxford, continued my collaboration with a Baptist scholar on this research, and met cousins who generously shared their collection of old Squire family artifacts, documents and photographs.
Historical Background
Henry Augustus Squire was a young Baptist minister who, along with his wife Sarah, joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter Mormon Church) in England in 1847. Well educated and a natural leader, Henry was soon made a branch president in the London Conference of the Church. In 1856, he, his wife, and their five young daughters immigrated to Utah as members of the ill-fated Martin Handcart Co. and were part of one of the most dramatic rescues in Mormon and Western American history. It was in Echo Canyon just above the Salt Lake Valley, on one of the last days of the difficult trek, that Sarah gave birth to their sixth daughter, Echo.
In Utah, Henry and Sarah had more children, and Henry became a successful merchant in Salt Lake City. By 1866, however, he left Utah and the Mormon Church, returned to England and his Baptist faith and in the 1880’s founded the Old Baptist Union, a church which grew to become international in scope. At first, Sarah stayed in Utah with their children, but then later joined him in England, leaving behind several of the older daughters who remained members of the Mormon Church in Utah. I descend from Sarah Augusta, the eldest of those daughters who stayed in Utah. In England, Henry and Sarah had even more children for a total of 11 daughters and one son.
Family histories written by descendants in Utah reflect this schism. These histories abound with Henry and Sarah’s pre-1866 pioneer experiences in the Martin Handcart Co., but they contain almost no mention of their lives after 1866. Likewise, because of early tensions between the Mormons and the Baptists, histories of the Old Baptist Union and the Squire family in England contain almost no mention of Henry and Sarah’s Mormon experience. In some ways, when they left Salt Lake City in 1866, Henry and Sarah became lost once again—not to literal rescuers as they once were on the high plains of Wyoming in the Martin Handcart Co.—but to their own posterity and to what could be a more complete telling of their story.
Research Trip
My trip to England in May/June of 2003 was the culminating experience of a year-long effort to remedy this problem. After doing fairly extensive research, contacting relatives, and compiling a detailed bibliography of sources, I knew exactly what I was looking for and where I needed to go. My first stop was to visit and photograph the charming three-story Victorian townhouse in northern London where Henry and Sarah lived for many years. I then spent a day at the British Library in London finding and photocopying several of Henry’s published writings. Next, I spent a day at Oxford gathering several more sources about Henry’s life at the Angus Library at Regent’s Park College, and even discovered an additional book of his writings at the Bodleian Library. Soon after, I had an in-depth conversation with Dr. Michael J. Collis (a Baptist minister and scholar from Wales) concerning the scholarly article we are working on together about Henry Squire.
Finally, I enjoyed a rich and rewarding weekend with my cousins Berkeley Squire and Edna Squire Jones and our respective spouses, becoming better acquainted and sharing information about our common Squire ancestors. After initially telling me that there were no more original documents available for this family, Berkeley suddenly remembered a small briefcase full of old and deteriorating family documents including Henry and Sarah’s marriage certificate from 1847, insightful, handwritten letters from Henry’s mother and brothers dating from the 1860’s, and much more. It also contained youthful photographs of Henry and Sarah taken ca. 1850, an extremely rare find for Mormon pioneers. Berkeley and Edna generously offered to let me take this valuable collection of documents and photographs back with me to Utah for preservation and further study.
Preservation Work
After coming home from England, I took the documents and photographs to several different archivists and conservators for advice. One of them offered to publish the rare 1850’s photographs in a scholarly journal which he edits, with a brief biographical sketch of the family which I will write. By September I had raised enough funds to have a professional conservator steam, flatten, de-acidify, mend and encapsulate the documents for ease of handling. This stopped the deterioration process and allowed me to create a thorough catalogue and finding-aid of the collection, including its provenance and a detailed description of each item. The conservator also created high-resolution digitally-scanned copies of the documents on CD-ROM and made high-quality, color print-outs of the collection. I sent these to my cousins in England for Christmas this year along with the catalogue/finding-aid, and a description of the preservation process.
Future Plans
I now plan to transcribe the documents and send them one by one to my cousins in England via e-mail for proofreading. I will use these documents to write a full-length, multi-generational family history with illustrations, as well as the more scholarly article with Dr. Collis. I have already begun making plans for another trip to England to visit my cousins again, meet with Dr. Collis about our joint article, do additional research at the Bodleian Library and other facilities, and visit additional sites of interest to the Squire family. (For sources, questions or comments on this research, contact the author at visitliz@hotmail.com).