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Arthur, Christopher Jones, a Patriarch in the Parowan Stake of Zion, was born in the village of Abersycchan, near Pontypool, Monmouthshire, South Wales, March 9, 1832. In a sketch prepared for this work Elder Arthur writes: "I was born of goodly and God-fearing parents, Baptists by profession. My father was the deacon and pillar of the church. I was stricken with smallpox at the age of two, although vaccinated. The scab covered me from head to foot, no good flesh being visible; but I escaped with little marking through care and attention. When three years old I took down with measles. At four I went to the infant school and remained there until I was eight, when my parents took me many miles from home to an academy, my older brother Joshua being there also. I stayed at this academy eighteen months, and was then placed in the district school until I was thirteen years old, when my father took me into his business of shopkeeper and baker. I remained in this business until I was seventeen, when I was stricken down with a high fever. The doctor attended me six weeks and gave me up to die, but through the administration of my father, who was an Elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (he having joined the Church a short time previously) I was instantly healed, although not yet a member of the Church. After recuperating my health I was sent to another academy in Gloucestershire, where I stayed eighteen months and completed my education. At the expiration I was given charge of my father's business. At nineteen, not finding work enough at home I accepted a position in the British Iron Works store as warehouseman, baker and store clerk, where I stayed until the day before leaving for Utah, I again took charge of my father's funds, which he lavishingly spent in giving to the Elders, and was the second heaviest stockholder in the Deseret Iron Company. He also paid emigration fare for forty persons to Utah. On the ship "International" that brought us to New Orleans, I was made under-secretary. I also acted as assistant to Elder John Lyon, who from New Orleans to St. Louis had charge of the 10-pound company and from there to Keokuk, Iowa, the starting and flitting-out point for Utah. I drove two pair of oxen and wagon across the plains and was made secretary of the company, arriving in Salt Lake City, Sept. 26, 1853. Father bought a 110 acre farm in Big Cottonwood of James Huntsman. In March, 1854, he was instructed to move to Cedar City, Iron county, Utah. Consequently, he sold the farm (for which he had paid gold) for "chips and whetstones" and started for Cedar City with his children, my mother having died in Abersychan, Wales, in November, 1852. We arrived in Cedar City in March, 1854. Father was assigned to superintend the Iron Company's farm, and I was appointed under-secretary to Secretary Franklin D. Richards, under-treasurer to Thomas Tennant, and to take charge of the Iron Company's books and the company's store, where I remained until the Iron Company closed their business in the spring of 1858. I then went into the making of furniture; afterwards I engaged in farming, and when co-operation started in 1869, I went into the business wholesouled and have been in it more or less up to the present time (1908) serving as secretary, treasurer and superintendent, and made a success. I held position twenty years as city councilman and alderman, and served one term as mayor. I was baptized into the Church April 9, 1853; ordained an Elder by Bishop P. K. Smith in December, 1857; ordained a Seventy and president of the Sixty-third Quorum of Seventy by President Henry Harriman, April 18, 1863; ordained a High Priest by instruction of President Brigham Young in December, 1857, by Bishop Henry Lunt; set apart as Bishop of Cedar Ward July 29, 1877, by Apostle Erastus Snow and Wilford Woodruff, and ordained Patriarch Sept, 18, 1893, by Apostle Francis M. Lyman. I have held the position of tithing clerk over forty-two years, and at the same time acted as Bishop's agent's assistant and Stake tithing clerk twenty-nine ears, and Ward clerk twenty years. I have married four wives, my first wife, Caroline E. Haight I married Dec. 30, 1854; she bore me eight children, and died in 1874 in childbed. My present first wife living, Ann Elizabeth Perry, I married Feb. 17, 1875; no children. My next wife, a widow, Marion Brown, with two children, I married Nov. 22, 1875; no children. I married my next, Jane Condie, on the 18th of January, 1877; she bore me seven children. The last three wives are stil living, and all have comfortable homes. I have buried one wife and eight children, five by the first and three by the last. I have accepted all principles advanced in the Church with all my heart and I have a burning testimony of the Gospel and enjoyed it ever since I became a member. The acts of men never trouble me. My reliance is on God my Father. I am 77 years old, hale and hearty and work hard every day. I am promised to live to see my Savior and look forward with a glorious anticipation of the event. The Gospel to me is worth more than all the world can bestow. I love it and cherish its principles. I filled a two years' mission to Europe, laboring five months in the Sheffield conference, and nineteen months in the business department of the Liverpool office. I served a six months' sentence in the Utah penitentiary, paid $320 fine and costs, spent an enjoyable time, receiving kind treatment, met 150 of my brethren coming into the "Pen" and parted with the same number in going out. My experience there will never be forgotten.
Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4 vols. Salt Lake City 2:186 |
Biographies 
