Locations of Henry Moon's Life

Here are some maps and captions of where Henry lived throughout his life:

Henry Moon kept a journal for a few months in 1860 while he was the bishop of the Salt Lake 1st Ward. Here are a few excerpts from that journal:


"Jan. 1st: In the morning met with several of the Bishops. Bishop Hunter presiding. Some other Brethren there too. We met in Historians office upper room in a circle meeting then went to tabernacle. Heard Bro. Kimball E Bridge preach at night. Went to our school house in the 1st ward. I counseled the Bm. [brethren] against getting drunk and to begin and do better and to teach their families the way of life. Bro. Adams opened the meeting by prayer. I closed the meeting by prayer. Came home. Prayed. Went to bed. So ended the first day of this year."


"Monday [March] 12th: Went to Pres. B. Young's office on business. I inquired of him if he had any counsel for me. He said he had lots for me. To do as I had done. Only as I learned more to act upon and that would enable me to do better."



"Attended conference commencing on the 6th of April 1860, also Fast Meeting on the 5th. It surely was a good time for the Saints. Many true and faithful testimonies was bore on Sunday the 8th. At night attended a Bishops Meeting in the Social Hall. President Bp. Hunter gave some good advice and was followed by President B. Young. He told us some good things. I hope I shall not forget. Showed the duty of a Bishop, told us the North gave up and the South must not keep back. Said we should go and build the Centre Stake of Zion as soon as we were ready."







"Sunday [April] 22nd: Went to the Tabernacle. Bro. Woodruff preached in the morning. Wooley, O. Hyde & President B. Young in the afternoon. P. B. Young gave good instructions on the government of families and good advice to the Elders going on missions. At night - ward meeting."

I love that I have this view into his life at this time. According to his journal, he traveled up to Farmington and back to Salt Lake most every week. Also he attended meetings multiple times a week. He was a very busy man with work, families, and bishop. Henry was a very faithful man who loved his family and loved God.

Source: Moon, Richard Nephi , Maureen Moon LaPray, and Louise Moon Thiebaud. The Family of Henry Moon Mormon Pioneer 1819-1894. Provo: Brigham Young University Printing Press, 2006.

At the death of his one of his wives, Henry Moon said:
"I am thankful today that I am as I am. My interest is in the Kingdom of God. We
ought to be concerned about the future state. We are only sent here on a mission. We
ought to fulfil that mission aright. It is no small thing to this generation—the mission of
Joseph Smith—and I realize it to some extent. How do you think I feel when I hear of
my own relations being so careless about so weighty a matter. It is your choice to go the
way of life or the way of death. You shall not be ignorant of what is going on while you
tabernacle in the flesh. I am for peace, right-eousness, happiness and every other principle that is for the happifying of the human family and to increase and grow in the
knowledge of the truth and to rise until I attain to the perfect stature of a man in Christ,
that is to fill an earth. How can that be done? By being faithful and obedient to those,
holding the holy Priesthood and keeping the commandments of God in all things. I
know that to be a Latter-day Saint and not have the spirit of it is a hard case, but if we
live it we shall have it. Although my mother I never knew, yet I shall see to her interest.
She will have a chance and everyone else since the Priesthood was taken from the earth.
Saviours shall stand on mount Zion in the last days. The work of God will roll on. No
power can stay His Hand. God rules, He has spoken from the heavens. His purposes will
be fulfilled. The meek shall inherit the earth. Be faithful ye Latter-day Saints. Your
redemption will come. You have been taught the way of life, walk therein. God bless the
honest and virtuous, and those that wish to do good."
What a powerful testimony and great wisdom for us: to keep the eternal perspective, be faithful and obedient to those holding the Priesthood, and keep the commandments. Henry Moon was a very righteous man and I am honored to be one of his many descendants. 

Source: Moon, Richard Nephi, Maureen Moon LaPray, and Louise Moon Theibaud. The Family of Henry Moon Mormon Pioneer 1819-1894. Provo: Brigham Young University Printing Press, 2006.

Henry Moon in the US Census

Here is Henry in the 1850 Census with his wife Lydia and their two boys: 

Source: US Census 1850, Henry Moon, Great Salt Lake, Great Salt Lake County, Utah Territory, USA, image number 00144, family number 7, M432.

Here he is again in the 1870 Census with his second and third wives, Temperance and Mary Ann. Lydia had passed away by this time:

Source: US Census 1870, Heber River Valley, Weber county, Utah, USA, pg 14, family number: 106.

To some, these two Henrys would not seem to be the same man, however, they in fact are. He life changed dramatically between these two censuses in a way he would never had dreamed in 1850. It is so interesting to see him in the snapshots of his life though the use of census records.

Mary Ann Thayne Moon

Mary Ann Thayne is my great- great grandmother. She was born 27 Aug 1849 in Townsend, Ontario Canada. When she was 12, her family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mary Ann and her 10 year old brother drove a team of oxen all the way to Iowa where the saints of the church had gathered. They waited there for the rest of their family to come, and together, made the last part of the journey to the Great Salt Lake.

Six years later, on 4 Jan 1868, she married Henry Moon who was still serving as bishop of the 1st ward at the time.  Only six months after their marriage, Henry's 1st wife Lydia died, and Henry moved Temperance, Mary Ann, and their families to Farmington.

Together Mary Ann and Henry had 9 children, the youngest being Nephi, my great-grandfather. Mary-Ann lived her life for her children, and her first duties were to her children. Her oldest daughter said that "her children always felt secure in her presence." Mary Ann way always willing to give to others, even when they did not have much to begin with. No one was turned away from her door. She gave many travelers a place to stay and boarded the school teachers and took great care of them.

Mary Ann had many church callings including Primary President and Relief Society counselor. According to her daughter, Mary Ann never indulged in gossip or shady stories. She would always strive for the Lord's will and not her own. 

When a father, Ernest White, lost his wife, Mary Ann took the children into her home and cared for them as if they were her own. When Henry died, Mary Ann was  just 45 years old and five years later she married Ernest White.

Mary Ann passed away on 18 Oct 1927 in the home of her daughter, Amanda Duncan in Neola, Utah. She was buried in the Woodland City Cemetery. When she died he had 45 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren.

Source: Moon, Richard Nephi, Maureen Moon LaPray, and Louise Moon Theibaud. The Family of Henry Moon Mormon Pioneer 1819-1894. Provo: Brigham Young University Printing Press, 2006.

Temperance Westwood

Temperance was Henry's second wife and they were married in the Endowment house on March 18, 1856.
Temperance Westwood was born on Aug 19, 1838 in Bromsgrove, Worchester, England. When she was two, her family joined the LDS church and eight years later, in 1849, the Westwood family traveled to America. Temperance experienced many hardships in her childhood. Her brother died when the family was at sea. Then she lost her mother, father, and two sisters all in a matter of a few days. Her family now consisted of six children, and various people took them in. A few of the children were adopted and the others found work. Temperance work for the Roswell Field family where she tended after little Eugene. She worked there for 4 years and became very attached to the boy. Temperance and her brother traveled out west when she was 14, in 1853, with the Jesse E Crosby Company and after arriving in Utah, went to Springville.
When she married Henry, Temperance was sixteen years old. She lived in Salt Lake for a short while and then moved to North Farmington on a farm Henry owned. Henry traveled back and forth from Salt Lake to Farmington almost weekly. Together Henry and Temperance had 13 children, 7 boys and 6 girls. At one point, Henry wanted to move Temperance and their children to Woodland where his third wife, Mary Ann lived. However, Temperance was comfortable with her adobe home in Farmington. She said she loved her roses, trees, and garden and couldn't bear to leave. In 1882, the Edmands Act was passed that said polygamy was officially against the law, so it was probably good that the two wives lived in separate towns.
Temperance loved to read and her bookcase was full of encyclopedias, classics, fiction, etc. She smiled often and went about her work humming and singing. She loved working in her garden and could be found there most every morning.
All of her children but one grew up to get married and have families of their own. Temperance even lived to see her great-great grandchild. She passed away at the age of 83 on Sept 21, 1922.

Source: Moon, Richard Nephi, Maureen Moon LaPray, and Louise Moon Theibaud. The Family of Henry Moon Mormon Pioneer 1819-1894. Provo: Brigham Young University Printing Press, 2006.

Lydia Moon

They say behind every great man there is a great woman. Well in Henry's case he had three. Over the next few weeks I want to take some time to write about his three wives.

Lydia Moon was born October 9, 1811 in Eccleston, Lancashire, England. Yes, her maiden name was Moon because Henry and Lydia's fathers were second cousins. Henry and Lydia both joined the church in England and sailed on the same boat as they travel to the United States. They were married on January 30, 1841 in Pennsylvania just 6 months after arriving in the US.

They moved to Iowa, near Nauvoo, where their first child and only daughter was born. They named her Alice and she only lived two days. Two years later, they had a baby boy named John Thomas Moon. Although there was much persecution, they family stayed long enough so Henry and Lydia could partake of their own Washing, Anointing, and Endowment in the Nauvoo temple. A second son, Joseph Henry, was born three years later.

On May 28, 1850, the family started the trek out west to the Great Salt Lake. They arrived four months later. The family settled in the first ward where Henry became Bishop in 1856. He remained as Bishop for 14 years.

Lydia died on July 9, 1868 in Salt Lake City from breast cancer. Templerane, Henry's second wife, help nurse her during the last months of her life. Family members said the the three wives got along well and helped each other out. Temperance once told her daughter Olive that Lydia always treated her with "love and kindness and was like a mother to her in teaching and helping her
in many ways."

Source: Moon, Leland. "The Old Ship Zion: Henry Moon." Imoongenealogy. lmoongenealogy.com/Moon%20Henry%201819/History%203.pdf (accessed February 9, 2013).

Henry Moon joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England in 1838 along with other members of his family and two years later sailed to American on the first organized ship of Saints. He married Lydia Moon on January 30, 1841 in Pennsylvania and continued their migration west. They had two small boys by the time they left Iowa for the Great Salt Lake on May 28, 1850. In 1856, Henry was called to be the Bishop of the 1st ward and remained in that calling for 14 years. Soon after receiving that calling, Henry entered into polygamy and married his second wife Temperance Westwood on March 18, 1856. Together they had 13 children, 12 of which lived to adulthood and one died of croup at the age of three. On January 4, 1868 Henry married his third and last wife, my great-great grandmother, Mary Ann Thayne. Lydia died just six months after Henry and Mary Ann were married and when Henry was released from his calling as Bishop, the families all moved to Farmington. Mary Ann and Henry had nine children, the youngest being my great grandfather Nephi Moon.  

Growing up I heard many stories about my great-great grandpa Henry Moon. He and his family joined the LDS (or Mormon) church in England and traveled across the Atlantic ocean to the United States with the first shipload of saints. He then traveled across the country to what is now Utah with the other pioneers who were seeking refuge from persecution.

Now I know the basics of his life, but I want to learn more about who he was, what trials he faced, and what he learned throughout his life. Henry Moon has thousands and thousands of descendants and I know many people have done research on his life. I want to compile what I find and comment on what I find interesting on this blog. I know it is important to learn about our ancestors and who they were, to learn from their lives and become better people because of those who came before us.