Samuel Jewkes, His Sons, and Bible Prophecy

It has been said, “There are more prophecies in the Bible pertaining to the gathering of Israel, in the last days, than pertains to any other one thing”.

 

Apostle LeGrand Richards said that it seemed to him that the Prophet Isaiah lived more in our day than in his own day, 2,500 years ago, for he wrote so much about and described so accurately the doings of the Mormon Pioneers as they gathered to and established themselves in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains.

 

We don’t know just how the ancient prophets did it, but it seems the Lord allowed them to see, in vision, a sort of reflection of what would actually take place later on. But, whatever way they were permitted to see the actual trekking of the Mormon Pioneers, it seems they had their eyes trained on the doings of the Samuel Jewkes Family as much as any family in the whole church.

 

I do not want to discount the labors of the other noble families who helped settle these mountain valleys - they all did marvelous work. But in as much as we are meeting here to do honor to the names of Alma Gardner and Amelia Guymon Jewkes and their forebearers, I know I’ll be forgiven if I concentrate on this particular family; and point out how the ancient prophets - particularly Jeremiah and Isaiah had their eyes focused on this family as much as any family in Mormondom.

 

Let us first consider a prophecy from the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, verses 6-13. Jeremiah saw that in the last days a call would be made to the children of Ephraim to gather to Zion.

 

Jeremiah saw a great company of Ephraimites gathered “thither”, or in a distant land from Palestine. He saw this great company on the march and as he put it, “They walked by rivers of water in a ‘straight’ way”. He saw that they were weeping and lamenting as they journeyed. That they had their aged, their halt and their “blind” with them. Sure, the Mormon Pioneers, were weeping and lamenting, for they had been robbed of their possessions and driven out of Nauvoo, on to the frozen prairie, in the dead of winter.

 

Grandmother, Amelia Guymon Jewkes’ father was in that group. He had been a bodyguard to the Prophet Joseph Smith. He and his wife had suffered through all the terrible mobbings in Missouri. He fought with Apostles David W. Patten, Parley P. Pratt and other stalwarts against the mob, in the “Battle of Crooked River”. He saw Apostle Patten shot down and helped to get his body into camp. Saddened by the events of this terrible night he went to his own camp and found that his wife had given birth to their first child, in a wagon box, alone and unattended. He and his family suffered these hardships plus those of Nauvoo days and were among those robbed of their homes and possessions and driven out of Nauvoo. No wonder Jeremiah described them as “weeping and lamenting” as they trekked “straight” along the banks of the North Platt River for 600 miles, thence into the Rocky Mountains, taking with them their sick, their aged and their “blind”.

 

Uncle Joe Jewkes stated, in that splendid little history he wrote of the family, that his mother, as a teen-age girl brought her blind mother from England, across the ocean, up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, thence across the plains to Utah. She walking the plains so that her blind mother might ride in the wagon. Now isn’t that a literal fulfillment of the words of Jeremiah?

 

Jeremiah saw this people after they had ceased to weep. In fact, he saw them rejoicing over their wheat and their cattle. (Jeremiah 31:12)

 



After varied experiences in the mountain valleys Samuel Jewkes settled in Fountain Green, in beautiful Sanpete valley. He and his sons built up a prosperous milling business. They dealt in wheat and cattle. When called to leave Sanpete and settle Castle Valley they took with them over 300 head of cattle. Who had more cause to wipe away tears and rejoice over wheat and cattle than Samuel Jewkes and sons?

 

Jeremiah further stated that these Israelites would come to gather and “sing in the heights of Zion”. I have before me an L.D.S. Church News, published July 1962. One full page is devoted to paying tribute to the Fountain Green Choir, Utah’s first choir, which was celebrating its 100 years of continuous service, having been founded in 1862 by an Englishman by the name of Samuel Jewkes. Brother Jewkes, it says wrote most of the music for the choir and had the local blacksmith pound him out a tuning fork with which to give his choir the proper pitch, having no organ or piano to do so. Besides Samuel there were three other Jewkes mentioned as being in that original choir group.

 

Before me also is a magazine published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, edited by Kate B. Carter of Salt Lake City. The whole issue (June 1960) is devoted to, “Zion Sings”. Two-thirds of the issue is taken up with the history of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, its leaders and accompanists. The only choir mentioned besides the Tabernacle Choir is the Fountain Green choir founded in 1862 by Samuel Jewkes. Mention is also made there that the only accompanist they had was a tuning fork which had been pounded out by the local blacksmith.

 

When Jeremiah saw in vision, modern Israel drying their tears, rejoicing over their wheat and cattle and singing in the heights of Zion - couldn’t he have been writing of what he saw Samuel Jewkes and family doing - as well as anyone? You can’t blame me, one of Samuel’s proud descendants for thinking so.

 

When President Brigham Young called missionary families into the parched and forbidding Castle Valley, to tame the desert and bring civilization and culture to the “waste places of Zion”, no one played a more important part in that than did Samuel Jewkes and sons. They built the first grist mill in all of Castle Valley. So great was the occasion of its opening that people from all over the valley; Emery, Price, Green River, Huntington, Castle Dale, Ferron and Cleveland assembled at the mill. They held a big dance in celebration. Uncle Joe, in his history wrote much concerning that all night dance and celebration.

 

When Charlie Curtis wrote his famous poem entitled, “50 Years Ago”, he devoted a verse in memory of celebrating the completion of the Jewkes flour mill and the all night dance.

 

Literally fulfilling another part of the prophecy of Jeremiah where-in he wrote: “that modern Israel would come together and rejoice in the dance, the virgin and the young men and old together”.

 

That was only the beginning of the Jewkes family helping to bring “the virgin, the old men and young together and rejoicing in the dance”.

 

It was recorded in the little booklet published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, that while still in Fountain Green, Samuel Richard Jewkes, son of Samuel Jewkes, the choir leader, went to Salt Lake and purchased instruments and founded a brass band in Fountain Green. Uncle Joe, in his history, told that he, a boy of 9 years, played an alto horn in that band.

 

Samuel Richard led out in the same endeavor as soon as they got settled in Castle Valley, and from that day until this, a span of 84 years, whenever there has been a band or an orchestra in Orangeville, the Jewkes family has been prominently represented. Samuel R., Alma G., Joseph H., Jesse D., William A., Benny, Reuben, Calvin, Ludean, Malone and Keith, to mention a few.

 



From my earliest recollection of the 4th and 24th of July, at sun-up, as the flag was raised on top of the high white brick school house, Uncle Joe Jewkes, led the band in the “Star Spangled Banner”, afterwards the band serenaded the town. At 4 p.m., Uncle Joe led the orchestra as they played for the young folks dance. Then at 9 p.m., till after midnight Uncle Joe let the orchestra as the older folks danced.

 

Never a holiday without a dance, no missionary went away from Orangeville nor returned without a dance held in their honor. Never a boy went to the Army in World War I or returned but what a dance was held in his honor. Public dances, church dances, school dances and just plain dances. I question if a month went by from 1905 to 1925 that there was not a dance of some kind held in the old hall in Orangeville, and Uncle Joe or some other member of the Samuel Jewkes family leading out or participating prominently in the occasion.

 

Can you blame me for thinking that Jeremiah, could quite easily have been seeing the Jewkes family participating as he wrote: “Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow”. (Jeremiah 31:13)

 

Prophecy has been defined as “history in reverse”. It seems that Jeremiah and Isaiah did a pretty good job of writing the history of Mormons settling the Rocky Mountain valleys, 2500 years before it actually happened. And no place is more adequately, though briefly, described than the things that were accomplished in Castle Valley by Samuel Jewkes and sons and co-laborers. Isaiah used such terms as: “parched ground”, “thirsty land”, “desert”, “solitary place”, “wilderness” and the “habitation of dragons” (lizards). Which was to be the kind of country Latter-day Israel should be gathered to.

 

Now, in the 1870's if there was a more solitary place and desert wilderness, where the ground was more parched and the land more thirsty than Castle Valley, I have never read of it.

 

Isaiah says the Lord would do a “new thing” or more accurately the Lord would inspire his chosen people to do a new thing. So that there would be a way made in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to his people. (Isaiah 43:19,20) In a short time, after Grandfather Alma Gardner Jewkes and co-workers had set themselves down in this parched and thirsty wilderness, there were five rivers made to run out through the desert wilderness known as Castle Valley.

 

One of these rivers was called the “Blue Cut”, another they named the “Clipper”, a third was called the “Mammoth” and the fourth was named the “Western” and later on one called “The Mill Ditch”.

 

Isaiah said the owls and the beasts of the field would be glad for them.

 

How true! How true! Can’t you just see the “beasts of the field”, such as coyotes, rabbits, lizards, prairie dogs, ground owls, etc., gathered together for their annual convention out on Rock Canyon Flat. Peter Rabbit has the stand and is telling all the “beasts of the field” assembled, how happy they should be for the coming of Samuel Jewkes and Sons, and the other Mormon Pioneers.

 



“Why“, says Peter, “before they came to this valley, if our ancestors wanted a drink of water, in the summertime, they would have to walk seven miles north to Cottonwood Creek or seven miles south to Ferron Creek. But now, we modern “beasts of the field” can get a drink most any place. Why these people have built dozens of small rivers in this once parched and thirsty desert wilderness. In summer these people have little riverlets, only two feet apart (irrigating their grain) spread all over this once parched valley. Let us rejoice and give three rousing cheers for the Mormon Pioneers, who have made this once thirsty land into “pools of water” and have created “marshes where reeds and rushes (can) grow”, so that we can lay and play in the cool dampness and shade. Yes, three more rousing cheers for Samuel Jewkes and sons and their co-religionists for “creating rivers in these deserts” and who have caused this wilderness country to “blossom as the rose”.

 

If we of the Jewkes clan have been guilty of thinking our ancestors of little consequence, or sold them short, let us from this day forward take stock, and make new appraisals. It has to be a mighty important people who the Lord will turn the spot light on, so brightly, that His prophets clear back 2500 years ago - could see them and their doings and write about them in the following terms.

 

I now quote you the exact words of the prophet Isaiah which Samuel Jewkes and sons fulfilled so literally. (Isaiah chapter 35)

 

“The wilderness and solitary places shall be glad for them. (Samuel Jewkes and sons). The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose...for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert”. “And the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water in the habitation of dragons (lizards) where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes”. “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs of everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away”.

 

Add to this two verses from the 43rd chapter of Isaiah: “Behold I will do a new thing...I will cause my people to make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”. “The beasts of the field shall honor me, the dragons (lizards) and the owls; because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen”. I repeat the question, Is there a family in the whole church whose acts have fulfilled more prophecies pertaining to Israels’ gathering and doings in the last days, then the families of Samuel Jewkes and Sons: If so you will have to show me – one of the proudest descendants of Samuel and Alma Gardner Jewkes.

 

Written especially for the Alma Gardner and Amelia Guymon Jewkes family reunion, held in Orangeville, Utah, May 30 1963; by Rulon Killian, a great-grandson of Samuel Jewkes.