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The Journey of John Evan Reese From Wales to Montana
John Evan Reese and his family came to America from Wales in the 1840s after converting to the Morman Church to ultimately settle in Montana where Reese Creek remains, named for him. His journey took him from the coal fields of Carmarthenshire and marriage in Glamorgan to Pennsylvania and Illinois, involvement with the Morrisite War with the Brigham Young Mormon Church in Utah, gold mines of Idaho and settlement in Montana. His descendents include Reese, Turner, Anders, Gamel, Wells & Moore families.
Wales / Pennsylvania / Utah / Montana
South Wales
John
E. Reese (Rees), was born in Carbont, Llandeilo Fawr, Carmathenshire
Wales in June of 1818. He worked as a collier, coal mining work in
the mines near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire. He was the the son of a
collier, Evan Rees (as spelled in Wales). He married Mary Davies of
Morriston, Glamorganshire at the Parish
Church of Llangyfelach on November 19, 1840 , where many Rees and
Davies headstones can be still be found, and a Sunday School where
Mary would have attended still remains. Mary was the daughter of Thomas
Davies, who worked as a Copperman, a worker in copper smelting. According
to the marriage entry, Thomas Davies was deceased at the time, perhaps
recently. Carmarthen and Swansea are about 20 miles apart, so perhaps
they met through their fathers in the related industries, the coal
being used in smelting at Port Talbot. The record refers to both of
them as of "Full Age” and Mary as a “"Spinster",
five years older. John could sign his own name, while Mary signed by
a X.
Morman
missionaries, followers of the Prophet Joseph Smith from the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, arrived in Wales about this time.
Both John and Mary joined the church while in Wales, with John accepting
what was known at time as the “Restored Gospel" and
baptized in 1848. The couple had at least four children born while
in Wales - John, Thomas, Evan and Mary Jane. Two other children died
in infancy. In 1856, seeking new prospects and perhaps a desire to
join the remaining community of Latter Day Saints in Illinois, they
joined a group of two hundred other Mormon immigrants, sailing from
Liverpool on the ship "Columbia" in November 1856.
The voyage took 7 weeks, arriving in New York on New Year's Day
of 1857. The ship records their names and ages as: John E. Reese 38,
Mary J. Reese 43, John J. Reese 14, Thomas J. Reese 3, Evan Reese 10,
and Mary Jane Reese 8. Mary was 7 or 8 months pregnant with their last
child, to be born in February, 1857.
Pennsylvania and Illinois
The Mormon church was in turmoil in these days of the 1840s/1850s, with the
followers of Brigham Young heading out to Utah, and the descendants of Josef
Smith, killed during the Mormon Wars of Missouri in 1844, settling in Nauvoo,
Illinois to found the Reoganized Church of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), later
changed to Church of Christ, with many of these events occurring while the
Welsh immigrants were in transit. How much news was getting to them is
unclear.
in any case, the Reese family got as far at Pennsylvania where John found work as a Stationary Engineer (a machinery operator), in the coal mines of Pittston. A year later John E Reese and his eldest son John J traveled to La Salle, Illinois, leaving the family behind, to work on the digging of the first coal mine in Illinois in 1858. It was here it seems that John Reese discovered that Joseph Smith had been killed and the much of the church had gone west to Utah Territory. Father and son returned to Pennsylvania in 1858 and moved to Scranton for two years. Then just before the outbreak of the Civil War, joined the ox team wagon train organized by the John Smith Company, headed for Utah. The wagons departed Scranton on June 22, 1860, traveling through western New York, passing by Niagara Falls and on to Omaha, then further west. There are two slightly conflicting stories for their motivation, one record recollects they were intending to join the other Mormons in the new Eden, but the youngest son recalls they were heading to California in search of gold. Perhaps his version comes from a later search for gold. He was only three at the time, often carried by Mary Jane Reese, who had to walk much of the way, because a cousin suffering with rheumatism had to ride in the wagon. There was no reported trouble with Indians on the trail, but conflict did arise once reaching Salt Lake in October of 1860.
