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The life of Caleb Summerhays was a truly remarkable one, from his birth in Georgian rural England to his eventual settlement in the United States in fulfilment of his Mormon dream of "gathering to Zion" and we owe the recording of it to the Journal of Joseph William Summerhays (1849-1929), Caleb's son.
Caleb, my 4 x Great Grand Uncle, was born on 8th April 1795 and baptised at St. Michael and All Angels, Stockland, Devon, England on 10th May of that year, the son of Joseph Summerhays and his wife Mary (nee Edwards).
Both his parents died when Caleb was aged between 8 and 10 years and he was taken into the care of his elder brother, John, my 4 x Great Grandfather. According to Caleb's son, Joseph William Summerhays, John "gave him shelter but proved to be rather cold-hearted and tyrannical....so much so that it was all the young child could do to stay at his home".
Joseph William recorded in his Journal "When about fourteen years old, he (Caleb) was apprenticed to a Mr. Robinson, a ship owner of South shields and commenced to learn to be a seaman. Mr. Robinson proved to be a very kindhearted man; he had a very large family - all girls, and he seems to have taken quite an interest in the friendless boy. Mr. Robinson was in the collier business - that is to say, his ships hauled cargoes of coal to various ports on the coast of England, and also continental Europe. At this time, and for some years previous, Napeoleon Bonaparte had been the dominating factor i n Europe, England and France being at war continuously. England became very short of men for her navy and to get them, Press Gangs were formed to go out on the streets of the city and press into service such men as seemed eligible. A Press Gang would consist of say ten or twelve men under an officer, who would arrest such men as came in their way and conduct the arrested one to the receiving ship, from hence they would be transferred to such men-of-war as they needed men to replenish the crews. My father was thus arrested several times but Mr. Robinson, learning of his arrest, would secure his release, claiming him as an apprentice. At last, however, they got him for sure and father became a man-of-war's man. He served on several ships with varying success, when the war of 1812 between England and the United States broke out in which father took part, but on the wrong side". (When Napoleon was banished to Elba in 1814), the ship that father was serving on was sent there and for a short time did police duty around the island. Later on a ship that father was serving on was sent to Africa to assist in suppressing the slave trade. He used to tell us in after years of the awful cruelties practiced on the negroes by the slave traders".
After leaving the sea and taking up civil life, Caleb became a stone mason and stone sawyer which trades he had been taught to some degree by his brother John. He also worked as a lamplighter and lit some of the early gas lamps erected in London. Caleb's son, Joseph William, gives some insight into this job and its hardships - "The lamp lighter would have a short, light ladder with which he could reach the jet in the lamp and light the lamp by means of a small oil lamp he carried for that purpose. Father told me he would light something over one hundred lamps at night and turn them out in the morning. He also had to keep the lamps clean. He followed this till he was nearly worn out, and finally quit."
Caleb was married three times. Firstly to Charlotte White on 4th January 1819 at Lambeth, Surrey. There were no children by this marriage and it was short lived. Charlotte soon passed away and Caleb next married Elizabeth Parry. Again Elizabeth soon passed away and there were no children by the marriage. They did, however, adopt a boy by the name of John Scullthorp. According to Caleb's son Joseph,in his Journal, John died in his teens. However, it appears that John, under the name Summerhays and with the profession of Stone Sawyer, actually died in 1844 aged 29, of consumption at 15 Clarks Cottages, Regent Street, Westminster.
Caleb joined the Temperance movement in England and it was by this means that he met Margaret Moore, a widow, who became his third wife on 29th August 1847, at St. Martin's in the Field, London.
Caleb and Margaret had been baptised into the Church of England but in 1850 they converted to Mormonism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), founded in the USA by Joseph Smith, in its early days in England. Son Joseph summed up their conversion simply but powerfully, "They heard it, believed it, and obeyed it." Caleb and Margaret were baptised in March 1850 in the Chelsea branch of the London Conference, moving shortly to the Vauxhall branch and later to the Westminster branch. Although just a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament, the neighbourhood in which the Summerhays family lived was tough. Joseph recalls in his Journal, "The Westminster branch where we lived was a hard environment to labor in. Animosity and hatred against our people were in the atmosphere, and I remember well some of the mobbings our folks were sometimes subject to when they would try and hold street meetings. It took valiant men and women to face this sort of thing, but such men and women were found in the Westminster Branch."
Caleb and Margaret had 3 children, Joseph, Mary and Hester who were brought up with 2 of Margaret's children, Jane and Eliza, from her previous marriage.
At the 1871 Census, Caleb was recorded as resident at the Wandsworth and Clapham Union Workhouse.
We know from Joseph's Journal that Caleb's dream was realised the following year "On August 1,1872, father who was in his 77th year, arrived in Salt Lake City. With him was my sister Hester, and her husband Alfred Ballam. They had not been married very long then. Father, Hester, and her husband stayed i n Salt Lake City until October 3, 1873 when they moved to Ogden to live . In November 1873 my mother and my sister Mary came to Utah and thus all of the family were gathered to Zion except Eliza". Father lived until January 16, 1879, when he passed to the other side. He died in our home in the Sixteenth Ward, Salt Lake City, aged 83 years, 9 months and 8 days.
Caleb died on 16 January 1879, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory, United States, at the age of 83, and was buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory, United States.
With acknowledgement to the Journal of Joseph William Summerhays (1849-1929)
