Author: Unknown (If author is identified, please notify Chad Nichols)
Minor Editions By: Chad Nichols, 3rd Great Grand Nephew
Henry Holyoak was born March 5, 1839, in Yardley, Worcestershire, England, the seventh child of George and Sarah Green Holyoak of that place. His brothers and sisters are William, Mary, George, Anne, Sarah, Henry, and Hannah.
He came to America in 1854 on the Windermere with his parents, sisters Anne, Sarah, and Hannah with the 72nd company. Also with them was his nephew Nemiah, whose mother, Martha Green Holyoak, had died and he was cared for by George and Sarah. It seems that his older brothers and sisters had come to America earlier and about the time the ship Ellen Marie was landing in New Orleans with the brother George, Jr., that part of the family remaining in England were being listed in a census. It is interesting to note that at this time, April 1851, Henry was listed as 12 years of age and a hostler.
The Holyoak family had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints June 24, 1841, and like all the saints, lived for the day they could accumulate enough money to come to America, sailing in February 1854, and landing April 1854. They came immediately on to Utah, arriving in October 1854. The trek across the plains was hard and also saddened by the loss of Mother Sarah and sisters Mary and Anne. Henry settled in Parowan, Utah, with his father and sisters. In 1863 and later he made three trips back East with ox-team for freight and immigrants.
In 1865 on January 29, he married Sarah Ann Robinson, daughter of English immigrants. She was born in Nauvoo, Illinois, December 22, 1842, and came to Utah with her parents settling in Paragonah. They later went to the temple when it was ready for sealings and had their work done. It is interesting to note that all their children have been married in the temple; also the big majority, if not all of their grandchildren.
Children of this union are Alice Jane (Thomson), Henry John, Mary Luella (Young), Eliza Ellen (McConkie), Albert Daniel, Richard James, and Sarah Ann (eldest died at thirteen years of age). James died at eight years of age. The other five have contributed to the twenty-nine grandchildren and over two hundred great and 2nd great grandchildren.
When the church called colonizers for San Juan, the Henry Holyoak family was among those who were called from Parowan, 1879-1880 (probably the 69 quorum of seventies). They were all winter on the road, making road as they went. They were with the company that went through the “Holy in the Rock,” because they got off the course that had been set, thinking to find a shorter route. Holyoak’s wide wagon marks are still on the walls of the ravine where the stone had to be chiseled away to permit it to go down through. Stakes in the rock to hold brush are also in evidence. This is known as “Hole in the Rock.”
Sarah Ann drove her own wagon most of the way. She had been in it as well as a stove to keep her young children comfortable, the baby being very young.
Henry John and Alice Jane drove the livestock, which consisted of about one hundred head of cattle, a yoke of oxen, and some horses, at the time they moved on to Moab. The calves were tied up at night and in the morning the dairy cows were milked. The milk put in the barrel churn on back of the wagon would, by night, supply the family with fresh butter as well as milk. Many others shared in these dairy products.
The four years spent on the San Juan were wasted so far as crops were concerned because the rising river ruined the farming land, also took out the water wheel and washed it to the other side of the river. This left them no way to get water onto crops not washed away.
The people were at last released from their mission and the Holyoaks moved to Moab in 1884. They ran out of provisions on the way while camped at Kane Springs waiting for a wagon wheel to repair the wagon which was broke down. Henry left his family to live on the bit of flour and hunt rabbits for meat, while he came into Moab to get a wagon, also flour. No flour could be purchased. There was no wheat either, except a sack which some man had saved for feed. Henry took this to his family. They washed it and ground it on an old coffee mill. It made coarse whole wheat meal, but they were glad to get it, along with some corn meal ground between rocks. Later when the Grand River (not the Colorado River) was low so it could be forded, freighters went to Castle Dale for flour and other supplies.
The Holyoaks were always friendly with the Indians and they gave Henry the name of Pooats and Henry John was “Pooats Papoose.”