Henry Goody was born 23 April 1815 in Halstead, Essex, England. He was a mason and plasterer by trade. He married Mary Wiltcher 15 Sep 1839 in Tolleshunt Knights, Essex, England. In 1860 they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In 1864, with his wife and two daughters, Alice and Jane, they set sail for America. Their oldest daughter Louisa and their two sons, Arthur and Alma, had come to America two years before. The following is taken from writings of Jane, their youngest daughter, who was eight at the time of their sailing and from a report by Mary Ann Ward Webb who traveled in the same company and was 24 yrs. old.
The voyage from London to New York began June 3rd 1864 and was a long and tedious one, lasting 47 days. The ship Hudson carried 1100 passengers, 1000 being Mormons from England and other European countries. Due to the crowded condition of the ship, there was much sickness and death. An epidemic of measles broke out among the children. Unlike the great passenger ships of the present day, we were given our rations and made our own arrangements for cooking and serving our meals. Most of the cooking and serving was done in the large ship galley. Our rations consisted of tea, sugar, oatmeal, rice, split peas, potatoes, salt pork, salt beef, and hard biscuits.
We were given plenty.
We were caught in one storm, but it wasn’t a severe one. On July 20th we sailed up New York Bay with all flags flying and landed at Castle Gardens. That afternoon we went on board a steamer as deck passengers for Albany. The boat was crowded and we had to find places for our luggage and a place to stand or lie down as best we could. While daylight lasted we enjoyed the scenery up the Hudson River very much. We arrived in Albany the next morning and went ashore. Soon after noon we boarded a passenger train of 21 coaches and left for the west. Just before reaching Buffalo, we had engine trouble and were delayed several hours. At Buffalo we changed trains and because the Civil War had depleted railway equipment, some of them were cattle cars. Traveling west from Buffalo we went into part of Canada and here we passed through a forest fire. With trees burning on both sides of us we were badly frightened. After passing Lake Huron, we changed to another train with better cars (in Michigan now) and on to Chicago, passing through some beautiful country. We arrived in Chicago on Sunday, July 24th, and remained there until the following day. After boarding our train, some army officers also boarded, looking for deserters, and made a little trouble. We were offered $14.00 in currency for one pound of English money.
We arrived in Quincy, ILL on July 26th, crossed the Mississippi River and had to walk from the landing to the railway station over a very rough road. We had to wait here for two days for a train. A heavy storm came up but there was not room for all in the station so some went down by the river. This was on the Missouri side and there were some men who tried to drown our people - they were very bitter against the Mormons. The second night many had to sleep on the damp ground and two children with measles died. On the 28th we were on the train, but went only a short distance. The bridge over a creek had been torn out as a result of the war and we had to wade the shallow creek and wait over night for another train. This was a train of open cattle cars, cinders falling on us all the time. One car took fire. Alexander Ross crawled over the cars to the engine, the train was stopped, and the burning car cut off. There were three sections to our train now. One went over an embankment, one jumped the track, but we were all protected and arrived safely at St. Joseph, MO.
On July 31st we went on board a river steamer for the trip up the Missouri River. We were deck passengers again, and when a storm came up, we all got wet. The water we drank was taken from the muddy river, so nearly everyone got sick.
We arrived at Florence, Nebraska on Aug. 2nd. We camped here and helped get the equipment ready for the trip across the plains. We were divided into two companies under Captains Warren Snow and Hyde. We had to walk, but when I got tired I was allowed to ride with my mother, who was lame and could not walk. When making camp at night, I helped gather wood. When there was no wood, we had to gather dry sun-flowers and buffalo chips for the fire. It was too much of a physical strain for many and we sadly left many shallow wayside graves. Of the original company of 1000, almost 100 died. We arrived in Salt Lake on October 30th. A team and wagon was there to meet us and bring us on to Lehi, where my sister and two brothers were living.
We built a one room home of mud and willows and this is where we spent our first winter. The following summer my brother and I herded cows on the low hills. The Indians were so bad they chased the cows way up on the hills. After recovering them, my father said it wouldn’t be safe for me to go any more.
In the summer of 1868 I had to help fight the grasshoppers that came and destroyed all the crops so our eating was very slim. We ate mostly greens. The next year when the grasshoppers hatched out, we drove them into piles of straw and ditches of water and burned or drowned them. I gleaned grain in the fields after the grain had been harvested. By doing this I gleaned enough wheat to make a little flour and made us a few biscuits.
The following year my father got a small plot of ground and built us a one room adobe home and later added on to it. Father then sold this place and we moved to Cache Valley, staying only one year. That was the year the crickets were so bad and we all had to go out and fight them. We then moved back to Lehi. Father was a mason or bricklayer and his services were in great demand. He built many of the houses in Lehi and in Cache Valley. In 1873 I married Henry Lewis and to this union were born eleven children -- seven sons, and four daughters.
I was a Relief Society visiting teacher in the Lehi Third Ward for twenty years. I was instructor of the quilting committee and worked with Harriett Brooks in this capacity for twenty years.
Father died 30 Dec 1893, age 78 yrs, in Lehi, Utah. Mary Wiltcher was born 20 Dec 1812 at Tolleshunt Knights, Essex, England. She was an expert seamstress, making suits for the men and boys in Lehi. They had a family of seven children, four girls and three boys. Mary died 6 Feb 1891, in Lehi.
Jane Goody Lewis died at the age of 97 on 23 Sep 1953 at the home of her daughter, Verda Peterson. She had remained active and alert and able to care for her personal needs. She had a room of her own with cooking facilities; a coal stove which was part gas but she was afraid of the gas so preferred to use it without. She ate most of her meals with the family. She went on an outing with her son George Lewis - for an afternoon drive - which she thoroughly enjoyed. When George took her home she said she was tired and would like to take a nap. First she gathered wood in her long front apron. She built a little fire and retired on the couch in her room. Hours later they discovered she had passed away quietly in her sleep.
