The Kewleys in Ohio: Darrin and Andrea Lythgoe's Genealogy Pages

Darrin & Andrea Lythgoe's Genealogy Pages

From David Carlisle

A memoir of Ada Margaret Kewley Cannell
written 24 Feb 1939

Recollections of The Latter Day Saints

My maternal grandfather, James Kewley, with my grandmother and their three younger children, left Peel, Isle of Man, and sailed from Liverpool in the year 1854 or 1855 with a party of converts to the Mormon religion.

Their eldest daughter was married and lived in England. Their second daughter (my mother) was contemplating marriage with her cousin William Kewley (my father) so they did not go.

The family corresponded for a time, but after a while it lapsed. Some 24 or 25 years later, when I was 15 years old, we were surprised by a visit from my uncle Robert, on of the two little boys who had gone out to Utah in 1855. The other little boy had died on the journey and was buried somewhere near Elyria, Ohio.

My mother was of course delighted to welcome the brother whom she could hardly recognize in the bearded man of 30 odd years as the curly headed child she had parted from so many years before.

The Mormon headquarters in Livepool were in Islington. I later went to some of their meetings there with my uncle. He of course stayed with us while in Liverpool. He was on a mission and spent some time in the Isle of Man and other places.

We made the acquaintance of a number of my uncle's fellow missionaries at this time. I will try and recall some of their names.

There were two who came frequently to our house to spend the evening with music and conversation. They were Lyman Martineaux and Mr. Felt. I forget Mr. Felt's first name. We had very pleasant times together.

When Mr. Martineaux left for America again at the expiration of his term, he conducted a goodly number of converts. We thought he had a great responsibility for so young a man, but am quite sure he was fully capable of the charge.

A lady who lived with us at that time, a Miss Hyde, and myself went to the Pier to see him off.

This Miss Hyde also had friends among the Mormons. A cousin of hers, William Hyde, came to England during the time my uncle was with us to visit his relatives and native land for the last time. He was in very delicate health and after fulfilling the object of his visit, he sailed for home but died on the way and was buried at sea. This William Hyde was a brother of John Hyde who embraced Mormonism but afterwards abandoned it and became a noted preacher in the Swedenborgian church.

A grandson of Brigham Young was also a visitor at our house during that period, but I did not see him, being on a visit to the Isle of Man when he called.

Some few years after the time I have just been reviewing, my parents went back to the Isle of Man to live, and there in due course I married Joseph Cannell.

We were surprised in the same unexpected way by a visit from another of my Mormon relatives, Edward Carlyle(sp?). He was the son of Margaret, my grandfather's other child who went out in 1855, and he also came on a two years' mission.

We took him to visit the house in Peel where his mother and mine were born and again I had one of the pleasantest experiences of my life in conversing with him.

We came to this country in 1911 and I wrote to Edward then and also to my Uncle Robert's daughters, and had very pleasant replies, but it is difficult to keep up a correspondence when one's interests and friendships are so widely separated so there is again a gap.... End

Then this...

From a letter dated 21 Jan 1855, Elyria, Ohio -- from Elizabeth L. Kewley and addressed Dear Cousin (probably my great grandmother, also Elizabeth Kewley, in the IOM), I get the following:

William Kewley of IOM/Elyria, brother of Patrick and Caesar, had three children: Elizabeth L., b. 1837, Margaretta, b. 1840, and Joseph, b. 1840.

The letter refers to Uncle Charles and family in IOM. Also to Robert Kewley who has died in Michigan.

My guess is that this is the other Kewley branch related to Wm. Henry Kewley (1836-1914) the cousin who married my great grandmother, Elizabeth Kewley (1838-1906) daughter of James and Ann.