England and Wales Ancestors: Harvey Woodyatt

Harvey Woodyatt

4 October 1862 - 13 October 1935

Parents - William Woodyatt and Mary Holmes

By Photochrom Print Collection [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

West Malvern, Worcestershire, England, birthplace of Harvey Woodyatt

Christened - 26 Oct 1862, St James, West Malvern, Worcestershire, England

Bob Embleton [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

At the age of ten Harvey was asked to sing in the choir of St. James church in West Malvern and was paid a salary. He attended the village school until the age of 12, when he left school and got a job as an errand boy to help support his father's family.

He was religious as a young boy and enjoyed attending church (the Church of England).

Somewhere between 1875 and 1876, missionaries from the LDS church knocked on the Woodyatt's door. They were received warmly, although no one in the family joined the church in spite of the missionaries efforts. The father of one of the missionaries was acquainted with Robert Holmes, Harvey's uncle. Robert Holmes wrote to William and Mary Woodyatt and told them he would pay for Harvey's passage if his parents agreed to let him go to America.

At the age of 17 Harvey accepted Robert Holmes invitation and in 1879 sailed for America on the ship Wyoming.

(Robert Holmes was baptized in 1840 at Benbow Pond and immigrated to Nauvoo shortly thereafter. For more information on Benbow Pond and the United Brethren click here.)

Harvey stayed with Robert Holmes and his wife Betsy through the summer and winter of 1879. In the spring of 1880 he was so homesick he was determined to get a job, save enough money to go back to England. As Harvey tells the story:

As time went on I became very homesick and was determined to go back to England. In the spring of 1880, I left Uncle Roberts and went to Salt Lake City to get work, so that I could get money to pay my fare back home. It was hard to get work, but one day while on the streets I met a man, an entire stranger to me – I had never met him before and I never saw him again. Something prompted me to ask him and said, “Mister, could you tell me where I could get a job?” And he answered me by saying, “Yes, Joseph F. Smith will give you a gob.” Early next morning I went to the home of Joseph F. Smith. He met me at the door and shook hands with me, saying, “Good Morning, my son” and asked me in the house. The family was just going to sit down to breakfast, and he asked me to eat with them, and his kindness nearly melted me to tears. I had eaten my breakfast, so I thanked him, and then told him I had come to see if he would give me a job, and he said, “Yes, you can come and work in the lot and milk the cows, and I will give you fifteen dollars per month and your board.”No boy ever lived who was more thankful than I was. My intention was to save every penny until I had enough to go back to home and England. No one will ever know how I suffered from homesickness all through the winter of 1879. Before I went to bed I went out of doors and knelt down in the frozen snow and asked the Lord to help me to get back home again to England, but how thankful I have been that the Lord didn’t answer my prayer. I started to work, however, for that great man Joseph F. Smith, and every Sunday I attended the services at the great tabernacle. John Taylor was the President of the church at that time, and how I did love to hear him preach, and the other great leaders at that time, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, Joseph F. Smith and many others, I can’t mention them all, but I soon learned to love them, there was a power with them I had never felt before. In about two months I was converted and I told Brother Smith I would like to be baptized, and he sent me up to the old endowment house which was on the temple block north of the tabernacle, and I was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church.

Charles Roscoe Savage [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Endowment House, circa 1875
Place of Harvey Woodyatt's baptism

Harvey wrote home to his parents about his baptism and his great joy at becoming a Mormon. His parents, however, were not pleased. His father said he would gather the money together so Harvey could return home and his mother said, “if I had joined the mormons that was the last of me”. His parent’s hearts changed through when Harvey was called on a 16 month mission to the Birmingham Conference 1894. He had a wonderful visit with his parents and baptized them in Worcester in the baths.

Married - Ida Melissa Pettingill, January 22, 1885 in the Logan Temple.

They had ten children.