Sarah Melsome Hughes and William Edward Gardner

Every branch of the family tree now goes back to an individual - highlighted in bright yellow - who was the "convert" to whom we can look with praise for their faith and courage to be the pioneer of their family.  They are an inspiration to press forward in faith and courage in our generation. 

These  Flashback Friday Heritage posts started exactly one year ago, 5/22/2014 with the below entry.    We have over 50 stories of conversion, immigration and testimony.  Over time the format and content of the posts has evolved.  Some of the early entries did not include some elements that have become common.  For the next several Fridays we will "update" some of these posts  for consistency and to add interesting details 

Gardiner/Hodgkinson 

William Edward Gardiner and his wife Sarah Melsome Hughes were the first  to join the church on the Hodgkinson line.  Sarah and Edward  are the parents of Hepzibah Gardiner Hodgkinson, Grandparents of Lewis Martin Hodgkinson and Great Grandparents to Melvin J. Hodgkinson.

William Edward Gardiner was born the 25th of February, 1816, at Bisley Gloucester, England. William Edward was a big man, at least six feet tall, big frame, weighed about 225 pounds.  He wore his whiskers about 1 1/2 inches long, and kept them trimmed with scissors.  He loved the soil and  raised  truck  garden  for  sale.    He  took  his  produce  to  market  on  Saturday  afternoons.  He married Sarah Melsome Hughes February 16, 1840.  She was the daughter of John and Mary Smart Hughes, of Bisley, Gloucester, England. 

They had eight children, two of them, Selena and Caleb, died in infancy, the other six growing to maturity.  The  children's  names  were:  John  William,  Mary  Ann,  Joseph  Henry,  Ephriam,  Emma, Selena, Ephizabeth [Hepzabah] and Caleb.

William Edward was considered one of the best cradlers in his part of the country. Cutting grain with a cradle was his profession.  He had a stone to sharpen the cutting blade.  While sharpening the blade he would sing:
         To whet, to whet, the scythe won't cut,
         The mowers are too lazy.
         A pint of beer would make them drunk,
         A quart would set them crazy.

William  Edward  was  a  great  student  of  the  Bible  and  was  not  satisfied  with  the  existing Churches  of  that  time.    He  felt  that  they  were  not teaching  the  truths  of  the  Bible.    One  day  he  saw  some  young  men  being mistreated because they were trying to preach on the street.  He stuck up for them, then listened to them.  When he heard the message of the Latter Day Saint Missionaries, he knew at once it was the truth.    The  Elder  who  converted  him  was  Heber  C.  Kimball.    He  was  baptized  about  1842,  in Chalford.   Among  the  early  Missionaries who came to the Gardiner home were: Orson Pratt and Charles W. Penrose.  William Edward was one of the first in England and the first one in Chalford, to join the L.D.S. Church.  His home was the gathering place for the Saints, or anyone who needed a meal.  It was the home and Head Quarters of the elders in that Branch of the Church.

William Edward and his wife were poor people, raising a big family, but no one was ever turned away  from  the  door.    One  day  an  old  man  came  and  asked  for  a  meal  just  as  Mrs.  Gardiner  was putting the food on the table for the Missionaries and her family.  In England, the head of the table was  a  place  of  honor,  no  one  ever  sat  there  but  the  head  of  the  house.    When  seating  the Missionaries  and  the  other  guest,  William  Edward  placed  the  old  man  at  the  head  of  the  table. During the meal they wondered why it seemed the proper place for him.  After  the  meal,  the  old  man  arose  and  said,  "Brother  and  Sister  Gardiner,  because  of  the kindness and courtesy you have shown the Missionaries and me, I leave a Blessing on you and your posterity, that none of you will ever hunger for bread."  Then thanking them for the meal, he left.  William Edward followed to the door to get another look at him, but he had disappeared.  They felt that they had entertained one of the Three Nephites or John the Beloved.  Many of his descendants have seen this promise repeated in their Patriarchal Blessings. 

Their daughter Hepzibah recounts the  story of Sarah's death: "I was born 7 May 1854 at Chalford Hill, Gloucestershire, England.  My mother died when I was three years old.  She left eight children, the baby being only a few months old.  It died a few months after Mother died.

Mother died a martyr.  She wasn't very well at a time when there was going to be an outdoor meeting (to hear the LDS missionaries Orson Pratt and Charles W. Penrose), so Father asked her if she would go if he took a chair for her to sit on.  As soon as the meeting started, a mob came and broke up the meeting by throwing clods, rocks and rotten eggs at the people.  Mother got the worst of it and she died soon after.  Before her death she was blessed with the gift of tongues and declared until the last the Gospel was true.

When Mother realized she was dying she asked my brother, John, to call all her children to her bedside, then she said, "Now, children, listen to every word I say as I am about to leave you and I want you all to remember what I say.  Where ever you are, on land or on sea, be true to the Gospel, for the Gospel is true.  Yes, the Gospel is true."  Then she breathed her last.  Not one of us ever forgot our mother's plea.  We all immigrated to Utah and were all staunch members of the Church.  Charles W. Penrose, a Mormon missionary, conducted Mother's funeral."

Sarah died on 14 July 1857. William  Edward  needed  a  wife  to  help  him  raise  his  family.    He  met  and  later  married  Lydia Roberts  of  Bisley,  July  28,  1859.   They had four children:  Again  William  Edward  lost  a  beloved  wife,  on  the  19th  of  July,  1869.    He  then  married  a widow,  Sarah  Butter  Shaddoc,  about  1872.    She  had  three  children  by  her  first  husband,

William Edward and Sarah settled in Pleasant Grove, Utah.  The  children  and  grandchildren  loved  to  go  to Grandmother  Sarah's  home.    She  was  such  a pleasant, kind woman.  She always made them welcome.  In that day anyone who had a barrel of  sorghum was very fortunate.  Grandmother Sarah always seemed to have plenty of sorghum in her syrup pitcher with the spring lid, to put on pieces of bread for hungry children.

For twenty years he had a white coffin to use when he died.  He kept it under this high bed.  It was a home made box, with a white ruffle around it.  When his grandson,  visited  him  as  a  boy  of  about  eight,  he  remembers  his  grandfather  going  to  the  bed.    He pulled  the  coffin  out,  lay  down  in  it  and  asked  his  wife,  "How  do  I  look,  Mother?"   and  she answered, "Fine Father."

William Edward and his daughter Ephizabeth started the Temple work for their dead kindred at the  Logan  Temple  about  1890.    There  is  also  record of  the  work  he  did  for  his  Father  and Grandfather in the Salt Lake Temple.

William Edward Gardiner lived a full, happy, useful life among his children and grandchildren at his home in Pleasant Grove.  His adopted land had been good to him and his family.  They had all been able to get their endowments and been sealed into a family group for Time and all Eternity. His children each had their own home and were living in a land of Freedom and Plenty.  He  had become a member of God's church and  brought  his  children  across  the  ocean  to  the  best  Haven  on  Earth.    Here  he  died  of  old  age, surrounded by his children, the 4th of June, 1904.