William and Ann were among the first group of people in Wales to hear and accept the
truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The missionaries who brought
the gospel to them were Elder John Corril and Elder Elias Higby. Elder Dan Jones came after
1843. After prayerful study Ann and William Butler accepted the teachings and were baptized
on 3 April 1844 at Myrther Tydfill.
In the spring of 1849 they commenced preparations to join the saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. At
last their dreams were about to be realized, and their hearts sang with joy as they made
reservations and paid their fare to the promised land of America.
“There is a land beyond the sea
Where I should like to be
And dearer far than all the rest
Is this bright land to me.”
William was a faithful missionary in defending and working in the Church and in administering
to the sick. When cholera claimed so many lives he was one of the victims. He died 26 July
1849 leaving Ann with four children. They were broken hearted and lonesome, but Ann took
courage and went to work in a factory to keep her family. She taught her children gospel
principles, and her oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was baptized in June 1850.
On 16 June 1855 tragedy [again] struck when Ann’s eleven year old son, John, died after a short
illness of cholera. Just one month later while Ann was beginning to accept the heart ache of
losing her husband and her second son, her nine year old daughter, Jane, followed them in
death. Jane also died of cholera. Ann’s sister Margaret and her brother-in-law, Hopkin
Mathews, helped her bury her beloved children.
With a sad heart, but again with great courage, Ann worked harder to save money to go to
Zion. She also sent money for donations to help build the Salt Lake Temple. She had an even
greater desire to go to Utah and do the temple work for herself, her husband and their children.
3
In the spring of 1856, with the help of the perpetual [immigration] fund donated or loaned by
the Mormons in Salt Lake City, they were ready to go to America. Their personal belongings
were packed and ready to take to Liverpool, when Ann’s mother-in-law, who was opposed to
the Church, stole her children, Elizabeth and William, from her. Just before the ship was ready
to sail, some dear friends brought the children back, and they all sailed together. Ann thanked
her Heavenly Father with tears in her eyes.
