George Samuel Reid Family Roots

ELIZABETH EMMA LAVINIA YEATES (24 May 1835 – 25 May 1899) was born in Elmley Lovett, Worchestershire, England the daugther of John Yeates and Mary Ann Ledbury.

Elizabeth Emma Lavinia Yeates

Elizabeth married William Thurgood on 15 Sep 1863 in Bountiful, Davis County, Utah.  Elizabeth and William had 7 children of record:

• Eva Lavinia Thurgood (1864 – 1924)
• Amy Maude Thurgood (1866 – 1941)
• William J Thurgood (1867 – 1918)
• John Edward Thurgood (1869 – 1959)
• Rowland Thurgood (1871 – 1943)
• Lillian Elizabeth Thurgood (1873 – 1957)
• Annie Thurgood (1876 – 1960)

Emma and William lived in Bountiful until his death in 1882.   Following William’s death Emma was cared for by her children until her death on 25 May 1899.  She is buried with William in the Bountiful City Cemetery, Bountiful, Davis County, Utah.

Elizabeth married William Thurgood on 15 Sep 1863 in Bountiful, Davis County, Utah.  Elizabeth and William had 7 children of record:

• Eva Lavinia Thurgood (1864 – 1924)
• Amy Maude Thurgood (1866 – 1941)
• William J Thurgood (1867 – 1918)
• John Edward Thurgood (1869 – 1959)
• Rowland Thurgood (1871 – 1943)
• Lillian Elizabeth Thurgood (1873 – 1957)
• Annie Thurgood (1876 – 1960)

Emma and William lived in Bountiful until his death in 1882.   Following William’s death Emma was cared for by her children until her death on 25 May 1899.  She is buried with William in the Bountiful City Cemetery, Bountiful, Davis County, Utah.

Elizabeth Emma Lavinina Yeates

Life Sketch of Emma Lavinia Yeates Thurgood

Author Unknown

Emma Lavinia Yeates Thurgood was born May 24, 1835 in Worcester, England, the Daughter of John Yeates and Mary Ann Ledbury.  She was the second child.  There were John Yeates, Emma Lavinia Yeates and Annie Yeates Barlow.

She went to school and had a better education than the average English children. She had a talent of serving and cooking food.

As a young girl she joined the Church and with her sister Annie came to the United States with some Missionaries who were returning home.  Upon arriving in this country not having means to come on to Utah, she took a job with a rich family acting as their maid.  These people each winter sailed down to Cuba taking Emma Lavinia with them.  The second year the wealthy family lost their only child, a daughter, and then took Emma Lavinia as their own child, taking her along with them all the time.  On one of these trips she met a young man and married him on the ship he became ill shortly after and died in two weeks.  Leaving her all his wealth consisting of his pins, rings, diamonds, ear rings, gold chain and money.  At the death of this family they left money to Emma Lavinia.  After the family returned home, William Thurgood had arrived from England and he took Emma Lavinia and Annie Yeates in his Company to Utah.  They came in 1853.

William Thurgood

Emma Lavinia married William Thurgood in Bountiful and later they went to the old Endowment House.  To them were born Eva Lavinia, Amy Maud, William, John Edward, Rowland, Lillian Elizabeth, Annie and a still born child.

Emma Lavinia was very good at sewing, crochet, needle point and knitting.  Her home was made beautiful by her handwork.

When her husband, William, was in the Bishopric, he would bring President Brigham Young home to stay for nights and she would cook for all the Conference visitors that came to Bountiful.  President Young told her what a wonderful cook and housekeeper she was.  He promised her that the Lord would bless her because she had cared for them even though she couldn’t attend church.  Emma Lavinia’s good cakes and pies were taken to many of the homes who had sickness or deaths or trouble in.  Also she was always giving to the poor and unfortunate people.  She sent jellies and preserves to many homes.

The family lived upstairs over the Bountiful Co-Operative Mercantile for many years.  She always took her husband’s place in the store while he visited the sick and needy and attended to his meetings in the church.

After the death of her Husband, she moved to West Bountiful with her seven children.  Here the sons managed the farm, went to the hills for wood to burn for heating and cooking, and helped take care of their mother.

Her money she gave to help build the church and loaned it to build banks which she never was repaid.

After the children married one by one, her health began to fail and her youngest daughter, Ann took care of her for many years.  At this time John Edward was sent on a mission to England for 2 years and Rowland ran the farm and kept John on a Mission.  Annie and her husband moved up to the “Sandridge” Syracuse, and Rowland and his wife Millie cared for her (their mother Emma Lavinia) one year.  After John returned from his mission, he and his wife lived in part of her (Emma Lavinia’s) house and they cared for her for one year.

Elizabeth Emma Lavinia Yeates Thurgood with Children (About 1896). Seated: (L-R) Amy Thurgood Willey, William Thurgood, Elizabeth Emma Lavinia Yeates Thurgood, John E. Thurgood, & Eva Thurgood Lewis. Back Row: (L-R) Annie Thurgood Holt, Rowland Thurgood, Elizabeth Lillian Thurgood Page.

After William Thurgood died, the sons, William, John and Rowland and girls Eva, Amy, Lillian and Annie and their Mother, Emma Lavinia, took up 320 acres of land upon the “Sandridge” now Syracuse and West Point.  They came up and cooked for “thrashers” and hired help.  Annie used to spend most of the summer cooking for her brothers while they plowed and planted.

Now after John and Mildred Thurgood moved away, Annie and her husband John Holt, came back and cared for her.  By this time William, John, Rowland, and Amy lived in Syracuse.  They brought Emma Lavinia up to visit with her children and while at her Son William’s, she took sick and passed away on May 25, 1899.  She was buried in Bountiful, Utah.

Emma Lavinia (Elizabeth) Yeates Thurgood

Another Life Sketch from Author Unknown

Emma Lavinia (Elizabeth) Yeates Thurgood was born on 24 May 1835 in Elmly Lovett, Worcestershire, England.  Her parents were Mary Ann Ledbury and John Yeates.  Mary Ann Ledbury Yeates was the youngest of the six children born to Lord and Lady Ledbury.  Her family disowned her when she ran away and married the gardener.  Mary Ann died on March 8, 1844 when Emma Lavinia was only nine years old.  Her younger sister was eighteen months old.  The father married again in four months and the step-mother was very strict with the children.

Emma Lavinia left home at age fifteen to work as a maid for a wealthy woman.  Emma traveled with her employer to many countries, including the United States.  During the time spent in New Orleans, Louisiana Emma met and married a man named A. E. Franganillo.  He was a Spanish sea captain or merchant and traveled frequently.  It is not known what happened to Mr. A. E. Franganillo, but he was very kind and generous to Emma.  According to her children, Mr. Franganillo supplied her with very lovely clothing, jewelry and other worldly things.

Emma returned to England and went to visit her sister, Hannah/Annie who was living with the step-mother and working in a glove factory in order to earn money to travel to Utah.  She had recently been baptized into the Church and did emigrate sometime in 1862.

William Thurgood, who eventually became Emma’s husband, had been serving a mission for the Church.  He had been baptized in 1853 and was called on a mission.  His mission was for seven years without purse or script and he served in the Guernsey and Jersey islands as well as in England itself.  Sometime in about 1861 he was called to labor in Worcestershire Conference.  On March 17, 1862 he visited the recently baptized Hannah, Emma’s sister.  He met Emma Lavinia and in his diary he wrote, “She was indeed a lady, cool but affable.”  Much later we read from his diary on November 17, 1862, “Forenoon engaged in Conference business at home.  In afternoon I walked out with Mrs. F. and presented to her view the liquid stream in which that evening she receives her baptismal birth.”  Later he wrote . . . “baptized Mrs. F. to the joy of all.  The water was excessively cold owing to the frost which had frozen the ground like stone.  Nevertheless, we attended to the rite of baptism and returned home rejoicing.”

There is not much record of the couple until we know of their leaving England for Utah in May, 1863.  A son later wrote of Emma, “The believing blood of Israel coursed through her veins and she left the green lanes of England to come to the tops of the mountains where God’s people had begun to gather.”