Personal Histories

Collected and compiled by Jeana Rankin

Henry Mower Jr. is a great-grandfather to Grandma Catherine Simons. Grandma's father was Hyrum Deloss Mower. Hyrum's father was John Albert Mower, John Albert's father was Henry Mower Jr. If you are a grandchild to Grandma Catherine, then Henry Mower is your great-great-great grandfather.

Birth: 22 Nov 1824 in Providence, Bedford, Pennsylvania, USA
Parent1: Henry Mower Sr. Parent2: Mary Amick
Death: 20 Feb 1902 in Fairview,Sanpete,Utah,USA
Seventy Quorum Membership: 1835–1846 Quorum: Q18
Birth Date: 1824
Birth Place: Pennsylvania
Death Date: 1902
Death Place: Utah
Father: Henry S Mower
Mother: Mary Amick
Wives: Burton, Alice 08 Apr 1857 Salt Lake City, UT; Hall, Elizabeth 24 Aug 1851 Salt Lake City, UT; Jones, Amy Amelia (1); Jordon, Lois Woodward 05 Jul 1863 Salt Lake City, UT; Mount, Ravinia Jane; Strong, Susan 20 Dec 1845 Nauvoo, Hancock, IL
Nauvoo Data: Endowed Nauvoo Temple 2/3/46 (Seventy); Iowa
Post-Nauvoo Data: Express mail rider; Farmer; Springville UT
Sources: M31:913; N437; S55; Q18+

Henry Mower Jr. drove a carriage for Abraham Lincoln in Illinois when he was a member of the state Legislature.

Henry Mower Jr., embraced the Mormon principle of polygamy. Susan Strong Mower, refused to accept the premise of sharing her spouse with other women. She left her husband and moved to Salt Lake City to reside with her parents, Jacob and Sarah Hill Strong. Susan asserted that Henry was controlling and abusive. When she fell gravely ill of a kidney disorder, she asked her parents not to notify her husband. Sarah Elizabeth, was five years old when her mother, Susan, age 31, died of kidney failure on July 17, 1856.
Mama’s parents, Jacob and Sarah Strong, promised Susan to keep and rear her children, a son, John Albert Mower, and her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth. When Susan died, Henry journeyed from his home in Fairview, Utah and removed Sarah Elizabeth’s older brother, John Albert Mower (Grandma Catherine Simons' grandfather), but agreed to allow Sarah Elizabeth to remain with her grandparents.

Alice Chappell Burton was married on April 8, 1857, to Henry Mower, Jr., the son of Henry and Mary Amick Mower. Three sons were born to them, and when her youngest son was about three the trials of polygamy were too overwhelming and Alice decided to take her children to Sacramento where her sister Harriet lived. Her husband disapproved of the action of his young wife and followed. He tried to persuade her to come back, but she felt she could endure no more, so he left, taking the two oldest boys with him. The boys probably never saw their mother again as she died on December 2, 1867, at the age of twenty-nine years. Family legend has it that Alice divorced Henry Mower and presumably married a Frank Potter. William Henry died a tragic death July 4, 1869, in a saloon in California, presumably shot by Alice's husband, Frank Potter. In an article printed July 10, 1869, in The Los Angeles Star, account of the killing was given. The article stated he left a wife and four children to mourn his untimely end.

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The family connection for the below history is:

Budd and Jerold Simons' parents are Jean Mads Simons and Catherine Mower;
Catherine Mower's parents are Hyrum Deloss Mower and Catherine Ann Mills;
Catherine Ann Mills' parents are Henry Richard Mills and Mercy Malinda Mills;
Mercy Malinda Mills' parents are Richard Webley Westwood and Catherine Dallin;
and, Richard Webley Westwood's parents are Joseph Westwood Jr and Ann Webley.

You'll notice in the third paragraph that Joseph and Ann Westwood are mentioned, and you can read their story as the history goes on. Richard Webley Westwood is also mentioned.