History of Thomas Brough
and Jean (Jane) Paterson
Edited by R. Clayton Brough, John M. Brough and Marie
B. Nielson, July 2005.
Edited from material that originally appeared in the 1980 RBFO book:
Samuel Richard Brough 1857-1947: His History, Ancestors and Descendants,
pp.11-13.
Thomas Brough was born on 22 October 1832
to Richard Brough and Mary Horleston in Longton, Lane End, Staffordshire,
England. He was christened on 11 November 1832 at St. John Parish Church
(of England) in Lane End, Longton. In 1840, Thomas Brough's father, Richard
Brough, had joined the L.D.S. Church, and about nine years later Thomas
also joined the L.D.S. Church, being baptized on 7 January 1849 by Elder
Wesley Meigh of the L.D.S. Longton Branch.
As a young man, Thomas worked in the coal
mines around Longton and practiced the trades of masonry and carpentry.
In fact, British Census records state that Thomas was working as a "App.
Potter" when he was only "9" years old and as a "Coal
Miner" when he was "18" years of age.
On 9 November 1851, Thomas Brough married
Jean (Jane) Paterson (who was born on 12 April 1830 in Barony, Lanarshire,
Scotland) at St. Peters Church, Stoke-Upon-Trent, Staffordshire. At the
time of their marriage Jane was not a member of the L.D.S. Church, but
she later joined the L.D.S. Church in January 1855. During the first four
years of their marriage, Jane gave birth to three children: Thomas (who
died shortly after his birth), Martha Jane, who was born on 21 July 1851,
and William George, who was born 2 July 1855.
In the latter part of 1855, Thomas, Jane
and their two children, along with Thomas's younger sister Elizabeth (born
1834) and her husband Samuel Cartlidge, prepared to leave their native
England to emigrate to America, where they wanted to join the rest of
the L.D.S. "Saints" in Utah.
On 25 May 1856, Thomas and Jane and their
two children, along with Elizabeth and Samuel Cartlidge, left on the ship
Horizon, from Liverpool, England. The Horizon was commanded by a Captain
Reid, and the "Mormon company" aboard this vessel was under
the direction of Elder Edward Martin. Aboard the Horizon there were 692
adults, 136 children and 26 infants, totaling 854 passengers. Thomas,
Jane and their children paid their own fares and were therefore booked
as ordinary passengers, while the majority of the other Mormon immigrants
aboard were funded by the Perpetual Emigration Fund of the L.D.S. Church.
The ship Horizon reached Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, on 30 June 1856.
Shortly after arriving in the northeastern
United States, Thomas's money ran out, and he and Jane were forced to
stop in Pennsylvania where Thomas then worked just long enough in the
surrounding coal mines to obtain enough money to get him and his family
to Madison County, Illinois.
By the middle of 1857, Thomas and Jane Brough
had settled in the area of Bethalto, Madison County, Illinois. There Thomas
rented a farm, and for the next seven years, from 1857 to 1864, he grew
corn and raised hogs and other farm animals. (The 1860 Census shows Thomas
and Jane and their four children--Martha Jane, William George, Samuel
Richard and Adria Elizabeth-residing in the area of Bethalto "Madison
[County], Illinois," and the "value of [their] personal estate"
at about "$50".) While in Madison County, Thomas's wife Jane
gave birth to four more children, with their first child born on American
soil being Samuel Richard Brough, born on 20 August 1857. Three other
children followed the birth of Samuel: Adria Elizabeth, born 13 October
1859; Mary Ann, born 17 March 1862; and Emily Ellen, born 23 March 1864.
By the year 1864, which was in the midst
of the U.S. Civil War, Thomas had secured enough money to purchase a wagon
and team of oxen in which he could take his growing family from Illinois
to Utah. His means of transportation included a lumber wagon, two yoke
of oxen and a cow. Thomas, Jane and their six children started out toward
Utah on about 15 June 1864 in a wagon train of approximately one hundred
wagons. Three months later, on 18 September 1864, Thomas, Jane and their
children arrived in Porterville, Morgan County, Utah. (The town of Porterville
was first settled by Sanford Porter in 1860.)
Before leaving Illinois, Thomas sold nearly
all of his family's furniture and instructed Jane to pack only their clothing
and food, including some wheat, in their wagon for their trip westward.
However, Jane took the liberty to pack an old clock between some clothing
which Thomas never knew about until they arrived in Utah. This timekeeper
later proved to be the only functioning clock in the pioneer settlement
of Porterville during the first year after their arrival in Utah.
After traveling about five hundred miles
from Illinois, one of Thomas's oxen took sick and died. Thomas had a cow
which he had brought along for his children to have milk, so one of his
emigrant friends who also had a cow helped him yoke their two cows together
to Thomas's wagon so the Broughs could continue their journey westward.
Thomas eventually made a single yoke for the mate of the ox who had died
and put him along on the lead of the wagon to guide the two cows.
During their journey westward, Jane placed
the milk from their cow in a crock jar in their wagon, whereupon the shake
of the wagon churned a little pat of butter which the family enjoyed each
day as they traveled towards Utah.
When Thomas and Jane arrived in Utah in
September 1864, fall had already set in and Thomas was not able to build
his family a home before winter set it. So he made a 12' by 14' dugout
in the hillside near Porterville and placed his family within this shelter
for their first winter in Utah. During this first winter, Thomas was not
able to get any flour for his family, so until spring arrived his family
utilized the wheat they had brought from Illinois, and the children took
turns grinding the wheat through a small coffee mill for their bread.
Following his first winter in Utah, Thomas
located some good farm land, and by the fall of 1865, he and his younger
brother Samuel had built a small adobe one-room home for Thomas's family
in Porterville. Within two more years, he utilized the brickmaking skills
he had learned and practiced in his native England, and had built two
brick rooms adjoining his adobe home. These were the first bricks made
in Porterville, and Thomas, along with his brother Samuel, manufactured
other bricks which were used in constructing a number of buildings in
the Porterville area. In fact, the first LDS Chapel in West Porterville
was built in 1870 from bricks made by Thomas Brough. This brick Chapel--which
existed from 1870 to 1899--measured "20 x 30 feet, and 12 feet to
the square" and served as both a "meeting house and school"
for people living in West Porterville.
In addition to manufacturing bricks in Porterville,
Thomas, and his brother Samuel, also operated a brickyard in east Kaysville
between about 1867 and 1881. This large brickyard was known as the "Brough
Brick Yard on Cemetery Street." Today, the ground on which the Brough
Brick Yard was once located is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints and is occupied by the LDS Kaysville Crestwood Wardhouse--located
at 1039 East Crestwood Road, Kaysville, Utah.
Thomas was a very industrious and honest
man. After moving to Porterville, he cultivated his land with the aid
of oxen and harvested his crops with a scythe and a grain cradle. He was
a true leader and lived the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the best of his
ability. He never touched liquor or tobacco and kept the Sabbath Day as
a holy day. He was first ordained a Branch President in 1875 and later
as the first Bishop of the new West Porterville Ward when the Morgan Stake
was organized in 1877. He held this position as Bishop of the West Porterville
Ward until his death in 1882.
Thomas was a devoted husband and a kind
father. He loved and cherished his wife, and the two of them righteously
raised seven children. Their last child, Alice Eliza, was born on 18 June
1866 in Porterville.
At the age of almost 50, and in the first
week of May 1882, Thomas was suddenly struck by appendicitis. Two days
later he died on 6 May 1882. However, before passing away, he called all
his children to his bedside, except his son William George who was then
on a mission, and, like Jacob of Old, gave each of his children a dying
father's patriarchal blessing.
Following the death of Thomas, his wife
Jane resigned herself to her position and determined to make the best
of it. Prior to her husband's death, Jane had practiced midwifery and
nursing in Porterville for ten years, and after her husband died she continued
to practice frontier medicine in the community for the next 21 years.
She received her certificate to practice obstetrics from the State Medical
Board of Utah and proved very successful in this specific profession,
bringing scores of babies into the world. She was a real pioneer doctor,
using herbs, bark and roots she gathered from the surrounding mountains
and plains to treat the various illnesses of her patients. She often treated
her patients without asking for or receiving remuneration of any kind.
She was truly loved by everyone in her community. Jane was also an excellent
seamstress, homemaker and diligent temple worker. She taught all of her
children the Gospel and the importance of living a righteous life, and
all of her children remained faithful Latter-day Saints to the end of
their lives.
Jane died 21 years after her husband's death,
at the age of 73 on 6 August 1903 in Porterville, Utah, and is buried
alongside her husband in the Porterville Cemetery.
Note: Jean Paterson has been known for many years as "Jane
Patterson" to a number of RBFO family members. However, recent research
has shown her original name as "Jean Paterson". For example,
the Barony Parish Record (Scotland) and the LDS Church Extraction Program
lists her name as "Jean Paterson." Therefore, RBFO Genealogists
now list her name as "Jean (Jane) Paterson" in the RBFO Genealogical
Database.
The following advertisements have been
selected and provided by
Google.com