Allen Family History

Life Sketch of Mary Ann (Polly) Meadows Leonard:

Mary Ann (Polly) Meadows Leonard was born 6 January 1835 in Strensham, Worcester, England to Thomas Meadows and Ann Overbury Meadows. She was the last of eleven children, 6 boys and 5 girls. Four of her siblings died as infants. At age eighteen in her native England, Mary Ann heard the gospel and was baptized on 5 March 1843.

On 21 March 1856, Mary Ann and 533 other saints sailed by ship from Liverpool to Boston on the "Enoch Train." Mary Ann was accompanied by Margaret Bourne, who was traveling with her parents. Mary Ann had left her family in England and it was probably comforting for her to have someone along like Margaret, who was only a year younger, that she could talk to. Their ecclesiastical leader on board the ship may have been Mary Ann and Margaret’s future husband, Truman Leonard, who was returning home from the Hindustan mission. From Boston the emigrants traveled by rail to Iowa City, where they camped for more than a month awaiting completion of their handcarts.

The Edmund Ellsworth Company was the first of many handcart companies that traveled west to Zion. “While a missionary in England, Edmund Ellsworth a son-in-law of Brigham Young had a recurring dream about leading a handcart company to Utah. Although this method of emigrant transportation had never before been used, he began advocating it as an inexpensive method whereby the faithful poor could gather to Zion. Simultaneously, Church leaders in Salt Lake were officially adopting this scheme to help Perpetual Emigration Fund passengers. When his call to lead the first handcart company actually came, Ellsworth readily accepted the assignment.

On June 9, the handcart company began to make their way west. There were about 280 people in the company. Each traveler was allowed only 17 pounds of luggage (which included clothing, bedding, and utensils). If they wanted to carry more, they had to pay for it to be taken later by ox-trains. Those who could not afford the freight costs sold what they could and simply abandoned the rest. The wagon assigned to the handcart company hauled supplies. There was a tent for each 20 people.

Initially their progress had been slow, but the pace increased. They averaged seven miles a day the first week, almost 13 miles per day the next week and hit their stride before reaching Florence, Nebraska at which time they were covering up to 20 miles a day. Hunger, fatigue, fainting, and illness were commonplace. Daily food rations for adults were between one-half and one pound of flour, plus two ounces of rice, three ounces of sugar, and one-half pound of bacon per week; children got less. It was a difficult, but no doubt joyful, journey for Mary Ann to be traveling to Zion.

The McArthur Company, another company of saints, was traveling an almost parallel course with the Ellsworth Company. Among the members of this company was Truman Leonard, future husband of Mary Ann. Company minutes reveal that Truman Leonard appeared frequently as a speaker or giver of prayers at Ellsworth camp meetings. As you may recall, he had sailed the Atlantic with Mary Ann Meadows, Margaret Bourne, and Margaret’s parents.

The two traveling emigrant companies reached the Salt Lake Valley on the morning of Friday, September 26. William Pitt’s brass band, dozens of city residents, and a representation of officialdom headed by Brigham Young were on hand at the canyon mouth to greet the pioneers. After a surprise but welcome melon bust, an impressive procession down South Temple Street escorted them to the public square. They reached the immigrant campground at sunset, heard an official welcome by President Young, and then, as they had done a hundred times since leaving Iowa City, the weary trekkers pitched their tents for the night.

Within two months Truman Leonard had obtained Ortentia’s approval to marry polygamously. He had decided to court Mary Ann Meadows and Margaret Bourne, the young British emigrants who had sailed with him to America on the Enoch Train. On December 5 he sent his friend Daniel Miller to the city with a letter and an invitation. The letter sought Brigham Young’s permission to take a third wife along with a second one; the invitation brought Margaret Bourne to Farmington on an official visit.

Several weeks passed with no response to the letter from Brigham Young. On Chirstmas Day, when a group of returned missionaries gathered at the president’s newly completed Lion House for a party, Truman asked the question in person. On 5 January he obtained approval from Margaret’s parents and from Margaret. He also contacted Brigham Young and formally proposed to Mary Ann Meadows, who was gainfully employed in the president’s kitchen. Having received Mary Ann’s acceptance and having bought a new dress for Ortentia, he scheduled a double wedding at the Endowment House for the following day.

Margaret, having been the first courted, firmly insisted on being the first married, and it was so agreed. Mary Ann, as her posterity explain it, though last in marriage, received a compensating blessing, for she was mother to seven children, all of whom lived to maturity, while Margaret, for reasons only fate could determine, endured a long life of childlessness.

The seven children of Mary Ann and Truman Leonard were born between 1858 and 1874 in Farmington, Utah. There were five daughters, Eugenia Evaline, Alice Arabella, Annie Marie (Maria), Amy Louise, and Mary Moselle (Mame), and two sons, George Marvin and Truman Jay.

The family made their home in Farmington, Davis, Utah, where Truman Leonard was actively in community and church affairs. Mary Ann kept herself busy with household chores and tending many fruit trees, berry bushes, and a plentiful vegetable garden. During the years when the men of the church came under fire by the Federal government for violation of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, Truman took Margaret and Mary Ann’s daughter, Amy, to Canada to live to avoid arrest. Mary Ann stayed behind in Farmington with her young family. This separation must have been hard for the family.

Eventually Truman returned to Utah while daughter Amy married a young man from Canada and stayed there. On 21 October 1899, Mary Ann died in Farmington, Davis, Utah at the age of 64. This was less than two years after the death of her husband, Truman.

Information for this life sketch was gleaned from various sources. Among them are the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868 website which gives a more detailed account of the handcart company’s journey; an article in the summer 1976 Utah Historical Quarterly by Glen M. Leonard, “Truman Leonard: Pioneer Mormon Farmer;” various clippings from the Journal History of the Church available on microfilm at the Church History Library and Archives in Salt Lake City, Utah; and a manuscript “Aunt Amy” also found at the Church History Library and Archives.