Zora Romney

Zora married Ray Van Cott, Jr. 27 Aug 1924, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT. Ray was born 8 Mar 1903, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT; died 10 Oct 1965, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT; was buried Aft 10 Oct 1965, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT. [Group Sheet]

1. Ray Romney Van Cott was born 20 Mar 1930, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT; died 8 May 1935, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT; was buried 10 May 1935, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT.

Zora married Mister Liddell Aft 1965. Mister died Unknown. [Group Sheet]

William married Helena Daniel Brown 8 Mar 1894. Helena (daughter of William Daniels Brown, Sr. and Hannah Hardy) was born 6 Jun 1873, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT; died 27 May 1955, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT; was buried 31 May 1955, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• 1850 Census: 1850, Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory
• Newspaper Article: 2008, Boston, Suffolk Co., MA; Boston Globe

Notes:

Newspaper Article:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/7207/romney.htm
http://history.utah.gov/FindAids/C00238/C0238ff.XML

After Elder Miles P. Romney returned from his mission in England he built a home in the Seventeenth Ward in Salt Lake City, Utah. Scarcely had it been completed when he, at the request of President Brigham Young, was to take a second wife. The marriage occurred in March 23, 1867, and the bride was Carrie Lambourne, a very beautiful young woman.

It was common for church members to take plural wives when instructed to do so by their ecclesiastical superiors. If the prophet asked you to take a plural wife, it would be hard for a devout Mormon to disobey. This quote shows how the Utah saints viewed polygamy as a deeply religious commitment, and how they connected it with their first prophet, Joseph Smith.

Incidentally, the marriage with Carrie Lambourne did not endure; she later separated from Miles Park Romney, and married a man named Abraham Meackin in Salt Lake City.

1850 Census:
p. 50
Miles Romney     44  M  Joiner  $200   England
Elizabeth             43  F                            "
Elizabeth             17  F                            "
Sarah                  15  F                            "           school
Joseph                13  M                            "              "
Brigham               11  M                            "              "
Miles P.                  8  M                          Ill:              "
Heber                    7  M                           "               "
Hiram                     5  M                           "              
Mary Ann              3  F                           Mo
Jane                  5/12  F                          Des

Newspaper Article:
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/romney/articles/part2_main/?page=6

Addition to a marriage

It was then, in 1867, that Miles P. Romney had a fateful meeting with Young.

''Brother Miles P., I want you to take another wife,'' Young requested, according to Hannah's autobiography.

Miles faced the choice of obeying US law, under which polygamy was illegal, or the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He chose the church.

Hannah was distraught.

''I felt that was more than I could endure, to have him divide his time and affections,'' Hannah wrote later. ''I used to walk the floor and shed tears of sorrow. If anything will make a woman's heart ache, it is for her husband to take another wife, but I put my trust in my Heavenly Father and prayed and pleaded with him to give me strength to bear this great trial.''

Then Hannah performed her duty: she prepared a room for her husband's new wife, Caroline Lambourne. Hannah wrote, ''I was able to live in the principle of polygamy and give my husband many wives.'' But her despair deepened when her younger daughter died at 10 months.

Soon, Young gave Miles and his two wives a new mission: sell your home, and move to the southern Utah town of St. George. The new settlement about 300 miles south of Salt Lake was in a vast desert, surrounded by red-toned ridges in a region where summer temperatures often topped 100 degrees.

Young prophesied that, ''There will yet be built between these volcanic ridges, a city, with spires and towers and steeples, with homes containing many inhabitants.'' The Romneys sold their Salt Lake City home and moved to St. George, where they lived ''in a little shanty, a small board room, and a wagon box,'' Hannah wrote.

From the shanty, the Romneys wrote themselves into church history as builders. Miles played a major role in the construction of St. George Temple. Then, Brigham Young hired Miles to build a two-story addition to his winter home in St. George. Miles took on the task with zeal, constructing one of the most lavish residences in Utah, a sandstone brick dwelling with an elaborate porch painted red and green. The restored home is visited today by Mormons from around the world, who are told of Miles's role in building the house. Pictures of Young and Romney hang in an adjoining building.

But while Miles was prospering as a builder, he had increasing trouble handling two wives. Hannah wrote that Caroline ''was very jealous of me. ..... She wanted all my husband's attention. When she couldn't get it there was always a fuss in the house. [Miles], being a just man, didn't give way to her tantrums.''

Miles and Caroline had two children, whom Hannah agreed to care for. But Caroline was not satisfied. She asked Young for permission to return to her parents in Salt Lake City. The separation was ''the severest trial ever experienced'' by Miles, according to ''Life Story of Miles Park Romney,'' written by his son, Thomas. Miles and Hannah ''made a special trip of three hundred miles by wagon to try to induce Carrie to return to her home in Saint George. But all their pleadings were in vain,'' and a divorce was granted, according to the biography.

For a brief time, with Caroline having left, Miles and Hannah were once again in a single-wife marriage. It was then, in 1871, that Hannah gave birth to Gaskell, the grandfather of Mitt Romney.

MIles married Caroline "Carrie" Lambourne 23 Mar 1867, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT; divorced Yes, date unknown. Caroline was born 14 May 1846, Chieveley, Berkshire, England, UK; died 11 Sep 1879, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Orson Pratt Brown History
http://www.orsonprattbrown.com/Romney/caroline-lambourne1846-1879.html

Caroline Lambourne Romney Meackin

Born: May 14,1846 at Chievely, Berkshire, England Died: September 11, 1879 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Caroline "Carrie" Lambourne Romney was born May 14, 1846, at Chievely, Berkshire, England.  She was the second daughter born to William  Lambourne and Diana Simms Lambourne.  She had one sister Isabella Ann Lambourne born April 13, 1845 and a brother, William Lambourne born April 26, 1844 in Chievely, Berkshire, England.  He died in Salt Lake City, Utah on September 12, 1915 at the age of seventy-one.  William married Martha Wernham and they had ten children.  The family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England in the year 1853, when the spirit of "gathering" came over them.  As soon as they could save sufficient means they embarked for America.

Ancestral Heritage

Carrie's father, William Lambourne [Jr.], was born February 17, 1823 in Chievely, Berkshire, England.  He joined the church in England and was baptized in October 1853.  He received his endowments in February 29, 1868 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.  William died in Salt Lake City, Utah on July 3, 1887 at the age of sixty-four.  His parents were William Lambourne [Sr.] christened December 6, 1801 in Chievely, Berkshire, England and Rachel Bryant born October 22, 1802 in Chievely Berkshire, England.

Carrie's mother, Diana Simms, was born April 19, 1809 in Chievely, Berkshire, England.  She joined the church with her husband in October 1853 in England.  Leaving England they made there home in St. Louis, Missouri before coming to the Salt Lake Valley.   She received her endowments in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on February 29, 1868.  She died in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 11, 1894, just prior to her 85th birthday.  Her parents were Jonathan Simms born about 1783 in England and Martha Wernham Simms born about 1787.

Arriving in America

Carrie's family made their home in St. Louis after arriving in America. In 1866, in the company of John D. Holladay, the family was on their way to the Salt Lake Valley.  At this time the Lambourne family consisted of the parents and seven children.  In the company were 350 emigrants, eight of whom died on the way to the Valley of Salt Lake.  It was reported that on the way the company was attached by a band of Sioux Indians while making its way along the banks of the LaBonte River.  Two girls had dropped behind the caravan a short distance when the savages rushed upon them, seized one of the girls and carried her away, never more to be seen by her relatives and friends.  The girl who made her escape was Carrie Lambourne the mother of Martha Dianna Romney, the first wife of O.P. Brown.

Carrie' s Marriage to Miles Park Romney

Miles P. Romney was born August 18 1843 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois to Miles Romney and Elizabeth Gaskell.

Miles was born July 13, 1806 in Dalton-In-Furness, Lancaster, England.  He died in St. George, Utah on May 3, 1877.  Miles was a master builder having worked on the Nauvoo Temple, built the staircase in the St. George Tabernacle and did work on the Brigham Young home in St. George.  He died as a result of a fall while working on the St. George Temple.  Elizabeth was born January 8, 1809 in Dalton-In-Furness, Lancaster, England.  She died October 11, 1884 in St. George, Utah.

After Elder Miles P. Romney returned from his mission in England he built a home in the Seventeenth Ward in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Scarcely had it been completed when he, at the request of President Brigham Young, was to take a second wife. The marriage occurred in March 23, 1867, and the bride was Carrie Lambourne, a very beautiful young woman.

Nothing short of a firm belief in the divine origin of the Revelation of plural marriage could have induced Miles to take a second wife, and certain it is that Hannah Hood Hill Romney [md. May 10, 1862] ,the first wife of Miles, would never have permitted such a heartbreaking thing to come into her life had it not been for the testimony she had of the divinity of the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Leaving for St. George, Utah

During the time the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City was under construction, at the General Conference in October 1867, Miles P. Romney along with 157 heads of other families were asked by President Young to remove their families to the Southland for the purpose of strengthening the settlements on the Muddy River in what is now southeastern Nevada.  The Miles P. Romney family, along with a few others, was asked to make their home in St. George to assist in building the tabernacle, which had been in the course of construction.

In St. George, Utah two beautiful children were born to Miles and Carrie.  William George Romney born February 14, 1868 and Martha Dianna Romney born February 25, 1870.

The trials incident to plural marriage and hardships encountered while in St. George proved to be too great for Carrie and after the birth of her two children, she left her husband and returned to Salt Lake City to make her home.  She later married a man by the name of Abraham Meackin by whom she had five children. 

Upon her death on September 11, 1879, her two children, William George Romney age eleven and Martha Diana Romney age nine, were returned to St. George to live with their father and the family of Hannah Hood Hill Romney.  It was said by Hannah that Martha "Mattie" was a dutiful and obedient child ever willing to do her share of the work about the home.

William married Hannah Hardy Bef 1866. Hannah was born 23 Apr 1849, Chesterton, Oxfordshire, England, UK; died 30 Dec 1939, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT; was buried Aft 30 Dec 1939, Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Birth:
FindaGrave source gave birth as Chesterton, England, I have not proven that it was the Chesterton in Oxfordshire.

Other Events:

• 1850 Census: 1850, Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory

Notes:

1850 Census:
p. 50
Miles Romney     44  M  Joiner  $200   England
Elizabeth             43  F                            "
Elizabeth             17  F                            "
Sarah                  15  F                            "           school
Joseph                13  M                            "              "
Brigham               11  M                            "              "
Miles P.                  8  M                          Ill:              "
Heber                    7  M                           "               "
Hiram                     5  M                           "              
Mary Ann              3  F                           Mo
Jane                  5/12  F                          Des

Miles married Elizabeth Gaskell 16 Nov 1830, Dalton in Furness, Lancashire, England, UK. Elizabeth was born 8 Jan 1809, Dalton in Furness, Lancashire, England, UK; died 11 Oct 1884, Saint George, Washington Co., UT; was buried Aft 11 Oct 1884, Saint George City Cemetery, Saint George, Washington Co., UT. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• 1850 Census: 1850, Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory

Notes:

1850 Census:
p. 50
Miles Romney     44  M  Joiner  $200   England
Elizabeth             43  F                            "
Elizabeth             17  F                            "
Sarah                  15  F                            "           school
Joseph                13  M                            "              "
Brigham               11  M                            "              "
Miles P.                  8  M                          Ill:              "
Heber                    7  M                           "               "
Hiram                     5  M                           "              
Mary Ann              3  F                           Mo
Jane                  5/12  F                          Des