Harvey Woodyatt

Birthday: October 4, 1862
Birthplace: West Malvern, Worcestershire, England
Parents: William Woodyatt & Mary Holmes
Information, history, and pictures taken from familysearch.org

Back: William Woodyatt (father), James Woodyatt (brother)

Front: George (brother), Lily Woodyatt (sister), Amos Woodyatt (brother), Mary Holmes (mother), Harvey Woodyatt

Exerpts from his History

Childhood:

At the age of ten I was asked to become a member of the choir at St. James church at West Malvern, the village church. I was paid a salary. I took delight in attending church, and singing in the choir. I attended the village school until twelve years of age, when I left school and got my first job as an errand boy to help to support my father’s family. 

I was quite religious for a boy of my age. I was never absent from the church of England Sunday School. My dear father, while he did not attend church much, yet he always blacked our shoes on Saturday night because of his regard for the Sabbath day. There were seven of us, and that meant seven pairs of shoes. 

Our dear Christian mother taught us all to pray. One night when I was between 13 and 14 years of age on retiring to bed, my brothers Jim and Dick had gone to bed before me that night-we three slept in the same bed, I knelt down by my bed side and repeated the Lord’s prayer and at the close of the prayer for the first time I added to the Lord’s prayer by asking the Lord to show me how to live the way that would be acceptable to him and also to make me a good boy. I got into bed and was lying on my back when I saw the heavens open directly in the center of the sky, one part going to the north and the other to the south, I saw a host of heavenly beings, but what impressed me most was I saw God. There were no words spoken, but he was in the very form of man, and although there was a great number there, yet it was so impressed upon my mind, and the vision was so clear that I knew beyond any doubt which being was God. They were all in the form of man, yet I was able to distinguish our Heavenly Father from all the others, whether it was through the spirit of the Lord that this was made so plain to my understanding, I don’t know. But one thing I do know – that my simple childlike prayer had been answered and when I think that God our Heavenly Father would condescend to notice one so insignificant as I, I am almost overwhelmed with gratitude and I think of the words of the Prophet Isaiah – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” In the 88th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants 63rd verse, the Lord says – “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” I had proof beyond a doubt that the promises of the Lord are sure.

Meeting the Missionaries and Coming to Utah:

About three months later, one evening as we sat around the fireside talking, a knock came at the door. Father went to the door, and there were two strange men at the door, well dressed and fine looking men. Father invited them in, and they told us they were missionaries from America. The name of one of the missionaries was John Carter, whose home was at St. George. He was the son of William Carter, a pioneer of 1847 and was one of the first company that entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. 

William Carter and my Uncle Robert Holmes, who was my mother’s brother, embraced the gospel in the spring of 1840, at Fromes Hill, Herefordshire, England. My uncle was baptized by Apostle Wilford Woodruff in a pond prepared by Apostle Woodruff which was on the Benbow farm. Brother Benbow was my mother’s uncle and Apostle Woodruff baptized six hundred people in that pool of water.

William Carter wrote to my Uncle and told him his son John had been called on a mission to England and my Uncle being very anxious to learn something about his people wrote to John Carter asking him to hunt them up. So the elders came to our home that night upon finding that my mother’s maiden name was Holmes. The elders stayed until late in the evening. Mother was delighted to hear from her brother after such a long time. The elders called often after that. Father and Mother always made them welcome. I attended some of the meetings which were held in a little village about six miles from where we lived. Elder Carter wrote to Uncle Robert and told him of the interest I took in them and in the meetings, and it was but a short time until we received a letter from Uncle Robert in which he told Father and Mother that he would pay my fare to Utah if they would let me come.

I was quite young, but I was not afraid, so in the month of June, 1879, I bid my dear Mother and Father, sister and brothers goodbye. The ship called the Wyoming left Liverpool. There was about one thousand latter-day saints on the ship. I was still a member of the church of England. The saints on board were from the different countrys of Europe. They held meetings on the deck of the ship and I soon learned to sing their hymns, and enjoyed myself very much. We landed at Castle Gardens after being eight days on the ocean, and arrived at Willard, Utah, early in July 1879.

I lived at Uncle Roberts through the summer and winter of 1879. As time went on I became very homesick and was determined to go back to England. In the spring of 1880, I left Uncle Roberts and went to Salt Lake City to get work, so that I could get money to pay my fare back home.

Conversion:

It was hard to get work, but one day while on the streets I met a man, an entire stranger to me – I had never met him before and I never saw him again. Something prompted me to ask him and said, “Mister, could you tell me where I could get a job?” And he answered me by saying, “Yes, Joseph F. Smith will give you a gob.” Early next morning I went to the home of Joseph F. Smith. He met me at the door and shook hands with me, saying, “Good Morning, my son” and asked me in the house. The family was just going to sit down to breakfast, and he asked me to eat with them, and his kindness nearly melted me to tears. I had eaten my breakfast, so I thanked him, and then told him I had come to see if he would give me a job, and he said, “Yes, you can come and work in the lot and milk the cows, and I will give you fifteen dollars per month and your board.” No boy ever lived who was more thankful than I was.

My intention was to save every penny until I had enough to go back to home and England. No one will ever know how I suffered from homesickness all through the winter of 1879. Before I went to bed I went out of doors and knelt down in the frozen snow and asked the Lord to help me to get back home again to England, but how thankful I have been that the Lord didn’t answer my prayer. I started to work, however, for that great man Joseph F. Smith, and every Sunday I attended the services at the great tabernacle. John Taylor was the President of the church at that time, and how I did love to hear him preach, and the other great leaders at that time, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, Joseph F. Smith and many others, I can’t mention them all, but I soon learned to love the, there was a power with them I had never felt before. 

In about two months I was converted and I told Brother Smith I would like to be baptized, and he sent me up to the old endowment house which was on the temple block north of the tabernacle, and I was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church. I can’t begin to tell in words how happy I was, no one can tell, only those who have had the same experience. Such a heavenly feeling. All my homesickness left me. For months I had been praying asking the Lord to help me get money so that I could get back to old England and home.

I had been writing to Father and Mother telling them I would not stay here for anything in the world – and now what a change every bit of homesickness had left me, and I was never so happy in my life. I sat down and wrote a letter to my Father and Mother and told them I had been baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, and that I would not go back to England for all of England. I bore my testimony to them that I knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I had always loved to read the bible, but now it had become a new book to me, and the spirit of the Lord made it all so plain to my understanding. I thought I could convert my parents and when I wrote to them, I had my bible before me and quoted the scriptures to them until they told me not to do it, as they did not want to hear anything about our religion and father told me if I would come back they would get the money to pay my fare, as mother said if I had joined the mormons that was the last of me.

I worked through the summer of 1880, and in the fall I returned to Willard. I was asked to become a member of the choir. I was also ordained to the office of a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood. The more active I became, the more I loved the truth; and now I was convinced beyond a doubt that the Lord answered my childlike prayer when I saw the heavens opened and saw God in the form of man, for at that time the church of England taught that there is but one living and true God everlasting, without body, parts, or passions, and now I knew that if God made man in his own image, then God must be in the image or form of man.

Life in Utah:

In 1884 I met Ida M. Pettingill. [We] were married on the twenty second of January, 1885, in the Logan temple.

Harvey & Ida

Our first child, a daughter, was born on the 31st of December 1885. We gave her the name of Mary Pauline. In the month of May, 1886, we moved to Elba, Cassia County, Idaho. While we lived there, two daughters were born to us, Clotilda Maria was born on the 26th of November, 1887 and Lilley Elvira was born April 20, 1889. William Woodyatt was bon May 16, 1891. Richard Harvey was born May 16, 1893.

Back: Clotilda, Ida, Mary, Harvey, Dick (on lap)

Front: William, Lilley

Dick was 15 months old when I was called on a mission to England. I left for England April 13, 1894. I labored in the Birmingham conference. I was in England about 16 months. It was a wonderful treat to visit my parents. I baptized Mother and Father at Worcester in the baths. For full account of my experiences, read my diary. (Does anyone have a copy of said diary??) I left England on Jun 10, 1895, on the “City of Rome”, and arrived in Willard in July to home and loved ones.

Robert was born April 8, 1896. Fred Amos was born Feb. 28, 1898. Hilda Jane was born Aug. 9, 1900. Ada was born March 2, 1903. Evelyn was born Sept. 17, 1906. Richard died Nov. 9, 1902.

I was called to preside over a branch on the south string, and to work in the Sunday School with C. N. Hubbard. I worked in the south branch about two years. Then I was called to be Superintendent of the Willard Sunday School. I acted as Superintendent for a number of years. I was elected a member of the City Council. I acted as health officer all through the influenza epidemic. That was for two years. I was elected Mayor and served for two terms.

Ida & Harvey

In 1929, I collected about $700.00 for the Boxelder Stake Seminary. My health was not so good and was gradually getting worse.

(Not sure who wrote this) The night he had finished collecting, he took very sick. The doctor said he almost had a stroke. He still attended Sunday School and meetings and went night or day to administer to the sick. Nov. 1, 1934 he went under an operation and remained in the hospital for a week. He died October 13, 1945, after a long weary year of illness. He is survived by his wife and eight children and twenty five grandchildren. He was buried in the Willard Cemetery.