Joseph Bowden

Joseph Bowden was born on 25 February 1839 in Siston, Gloucestershire, England. He was the third child and oldest son born to William Bowden and Elizabeth Churchill. Not long after his birth, the family moved to Wales. They lived in Cadoxton, Glamorgan for a while and then Morriston, Glamorgan, and then back to Cadoxton. Sometime during their residency in Glamorgan, the Bowden family met the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving in Wales under the direction of Dan Jones. The whole family joined the Church. Joseph was baptized on 1 January 1848. The Bowden family sailed for America on 24 November 1854 aboard the Clara Wheeler. Joseph was fourteen years old. The Clara Wheeler arrived in New Orleans on 11 January 1855. From there the family traveled by steamboat up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. Apparently low on funds, the Bowdens were forced to find work in St. Louis. After more than two years, they left St. Louis in the spring of 1857 with a party of about sixty saints destined for Genoa, Nebraska. They stayed in Genoa for about four years. While there, Joseph’s father died from typhoid fewer. Finally, in June of 1861, Joseph, and most of the finally started the final leg of their trek to Utah. They traveled with the Job Pingree company. It appears the family lived for short time in E. T. City. Joseph may have worked as a miner near Nevada City, California. In 1872 Joseph moved to Randolph, Rich, Utah. There he met and married Emily Norris, the daughter of William Norris and Carolyn Tirrell. She was 15 years his junior and just 17 years old. They were married on 8 January 1872 in the Endowment House. In addition to farming, Joseph worked as a coal miner in Almy, Wyoming, which was about 25 miles from Randolph. After an explosion at the mine in 1886 that killed 13 miners, Joseph and Emily and family headed for the Ashley Valley in Uintah County. They bought land in Millward just outside of Vernal. Joseph and his older boys built a three-room log home. The first winter was very hard with snow almost covering the fences, but they got through without much loss. The next summer was more fruitful, and they were able to expand their farm to 34 acres. Joseph and Emily had eight boys and two girls. One of the girls died in infancy. On 25 June 1900, Joseph was putting up hay when he fell off the haystack and died. He was 61 years of age. He was buried in what was then the Millward Cemetery and is now the Maeser Cemetery. His headstone, which was erected later, erroneously shows his birth year as 1827 rather than 1839, the year he was actually born.