NATHANIEL and LYDIA DAINES WILKINSON

by Caroline Daines Kirby, a Granddaughter 

Nathaniel WIkinson, was born August 23, 1801, in Linstead, Suffolk, England, to William and Susanna Simmons Wilkinson.  Nathaniel had three older brothers: William, John and Henry.  He had three younger sisters: Jane, Hannah and Eliza, all of them born in Little Linstead.

Lydia Daines was born March 19, 1806, at Linstead, Suffolk, England, to Daniel and Lydia Fevier Daines.  As a young girl she worked as a servant for the James Sillett family, and Lydia had two sons by Mr. Sillett, who was a wealthy man.   This was a fairly common practice in England at that time.  George was born in 1827 and died when he was 3 years old, August 15, 1830.  Robert was born August 3, 1829.  He was accepted and raised by Nathaniel Wilkinson whom Lydia married October 26, 1831, at Wisset, Suffolk, England.

Nathaniel and Lydia had seven children: Eliza, christened February 10, 1832; Charles, christened March 30,1834, and died when he was twelve years old; Saloma, christened November 27, 1836, and she died when she was eight years old; Harriet, born July 4, 1839;  Lydia, born August 16, 1841; William, born July 22, 1844; and Solomon was born In 1849, and died August 31, 1850.  Eliza and Charles also died in England.

When the elders first visited the locality in which they lived, Lydia attended all their meetings and was soon convinced they represented the true church.  The missionaries were always welcome in the Wilkinson home and came to dinner quite often.  On November 15, 1852 the whole family was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

In 1855 the Wilkinson family, along with other saints, left for Zion.  They arrived in New York on New Years Day, 1856.  They moved from New York to Chanceville, New Jersy.  In 1859 they moved on to Omaha, Nebraska to prepare to cross the plains to Salt Lake City.  They remained there during the winter of 1859‑60.  Here Lydia's beloved husband, Nathaniel, died, and her one year old granddaughter, Ellen Maria Bloomfield, also died.   This was a double sorrow for this good women.  This left her alone to care for a daughter, Lydia and a son, William.

Our maternal grandmother, Mary Seamons, Nathaniel's mother, had a good outfit in which to travel to Utah, and invited Lydia to accompany her, which she was thankful to do.  They came with the Oscar Stoddard Company and walked all the way pulling handcarts.  After a very long, hard trip, short of food and water, and always afraid of Indian attacks, they arrived in Salt Lake City the fall of 1860.  Because her son Robert Daines and his wife, Jemima Seamons Daines, had preceded them, they immediately inquired at the church office for Robert Daines.  Learning that he was living in Hyde Park, Cache County, Utah, Lydia followed them there, reaching Hyde Park on October 9, 1860.  It was certainly a joyous reunion.

She lived the first winter in a room belonging to her son Robert and the following summer he and William built her a log room.  She was very industrious, doing all in her power to make a happy home; by knitting, sewing, cooking etc. with the rest of the pioneers in a town just begun.