FRANCOM, Joseph: History: Francom Family Genealogy

Home Search Search Print Print Login - User: anonymous Login Add Bookmark

» Show All «Prev «1 ... 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ... 27» Next»

FRANCOM, Joseph: History

Brief history of Joseph Francom, as told to Donna Cornia by Mary Ann Cole, 1953. From family records given to J.F. by Donna Cornia

The following story was told to Donna Cornia in August, 1953, by Mary Ann Cole Francom, daughter-in-law of Joseph Francom.

Joseph Francom was the fourth child in a family of ten born to William Francom and Amy Harding. Joseph was born on 21 Apr 1844 in London, England.

When he was two years old, his family moved to Uitenhage, South Africa, which is located a few miles from Port Elizabeth in the Cape Colony.

Joseph learned the Dutch language while in South Africa and managed his father’s store-on-wheels that went to the Dutch families in the rural areas.

Joseph was baptized in 1855 when he was 11 years old and migrated to Utah in 1864. The company he was traveling with from South Africa stopped for a week at a camp in Wyoming, six miles from the Nebraska line. There he met Martha Heaton and they became acquainted.

On 24 Nov 1866 Joseph and Martha were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. They became the parents of eleven children – five girls and six boys. Three of their sons – Joseph, Ray and Leonard went on missions for the church.

Joseph Francom was a thin man of medium height and had reddish, brown hair. He made his living by farming and raising sheep. He was a very honest man; however, if anyone ever did him wrong, he would have no further dealings with them. He felt so strongly about this that it was the cause of him leaving the church.

He suffered with rheumatism a great deal and one night when it was quite bad, his boys were watering for him. They were in the field only a short time when they noticed that the water had been turned off. They turned it back on, but soon it was turned off again. This time they went to the house and told their father.

Joseph took a blanket with him and after turning on the water for the third time, he lay on the ground to rest and wait for whoever it was that was taking his water. It wasn’t long before a man appeared and to Joseph’s surprise it was one of his neighbors who was supposedly a good church member and knew that Joseph was sick.

The next Sunday at church the Bishop called on the man who had stolen Joseph’s water to talk. He preached a rousing sermon on honesty. This made Joseph so angry that he told the Bishop that if that was the kind of man he was going to call on to talk, he could take his name off the church roles. The Bishop did just that.

Joseph died of heart trouble on 23 Jul 1891 with his name still off the records of the church. Years later his son, Joseph William (Mary Ann Cole Francom’s husband), kept having dreams about his father. They bothered him and he thought a great deal about them. Finally, he decided that his father wanted to be reinstated in the church. He wrote his mother, Martha Heaton, and had her meet him in Salt Lake City. Together they talked to one of the General Authorities, explained the situation, and Joseph was reinstated. Joseph William never dreamed about his father again after that.

File name
File Size
ID	234
Linked to	Joseph FRANCOM

» Show All «Prev «1 ... 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ... 27» Next»