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.