William Garrett & Marie Maycock

(Brickmaker and early settler of Nephi and Bountiful, UT)
William was the son of William Garrett and Sussanah Welding. He was born
December 26th 1817 at Willenhall, England. He married Maria Maycock
April 4, 1841. They had 10 children. He was superintendent of brickmaking
and moved around to different brickworks in the area for work .
On October 22, 1852 both William and Marie were baptized and confirmed
a members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Wm.
Speakman. Soon after joining the church he was set apart as president of
the Coventry Branch of the Warwickshire conference. He held this position
for 14 years and kept an open house for the traveling elders of the Church
in England.
He resigned the position of branch president in 1861 and commenced to
make preparations to leave for Utah. Not being able to all come to Utah at
the same time, he sent part of the family in 1861, others in 1862, and the
remainder of the family including his wife and 5 younger children ages 2
to 15 came with him in 1866. They set out from Liverpool in May on the
Arkwright and William paid the ship’s cook not to use sea water in their
family’s food.
They docked in New York on the 6th of July and stayed just long enough to buy a wagon and oxen which were given names which were turned into a rhyme “Jack
and Jolly, Hig and Jerry, Tom and Bally, walk along.” They likely traveled in the Daniel Thompson Company. During the first part of the journey Maria would walk
picking up buffalo chips in her large burlap apron. If they didn’t camp by water often they didn’t cook and she’d have to throw away a whole days work! Maria was
walking in front of the wagon one day when her 2 year old daughter Pricilla fell out. Her 16 year old son who was driving the wagon managed to stop, but the back
wheel ran over her leg. Surprisingly it wasn’t broken but all of the skin had been torn off of the calf of her leg. There was no doctor, but a German veterinarian cut the
raged flesh away from the wound with his scissors. All Maria could do was pour water on it when they came to a stream and pray to god for the little girl.
The family arrived in Salt Lake Valley September 28th 1866. Soon after arriving in Salt Lake the family moved to Bountiful. He received his endowments in 1868 at
Salt Lake. In the spring of 1870 he moved the family to Nephi in the hopes of starting a brickworks. He made the first brick ever made in Nephi but the soil there
wasn’t right for the venture, so he started farming. He was ordained a High Priest November 20, 1870 by Wm. H. Warner. His wife and children harvested grain to
sell and trade.
They had many encounters with the indians who were mostly friendly. One time Maria and her daughter were home alone when two indians broke into the house.
They demanded to know where her husband was and where his gun was. She lied and said he was near and that he didn’t have a gun. She was cleaning gooseberries and they demanded some. One was satisfied but the other demanded more. She grabbed a piece of firewood and chased them from the house.
In 1873 the family moved back to Bountiful to superintend the making of the brick to build the Z. C. M. I. store in Salt Lake City.
William died in the year1887 in Bountiful, Utah. He was a faithful Latter-Day Saint until his death. Dependability and punctuality were two of his outstanding
characteristics – to him being late was the unpardonable sin. He never believed in long meetings. While he was president of the branch he always started and
closed his meetings on time. If a speaker spoke overtime he pulled his coat tail to let him know that it was time to stop. Maria lived until 1912 and enjoyed her
garden, keeping a clean organized house and cooking good nutritious meals for her family.