The first Ellsworth parents to accept the gospel were EDMUND LOVELL and MARY ANN BATES ELLSWORTH. Actually Edmund heard about the gospel from his mother, SARAH GALLEY . In 1819 when Edmund was born in Paris, New York, his father died while away on a trip. His mother married Abram Hendrickson when Edmund was nine. Edmund was uncomfortable in his step-father's home and at nineteen made a trip down the Mississippi River. He received a letter from his mother that she and her husband had joined the Mormons. Having heard many bad things about the Mormons, Edmund felt it his duty to return home and "save" his mother. On the way he stopped in Palmyra where Joseph Smith had started the Church and made an investigation. His investigation led to his own conversion. On the 20th of February, 1841, he was baptized. That same year he arrived in Nauvoo, joined the Elders Quorum and worked at the temple quarry. Sarah Galley also came to Illinois and died there in 1853.
Not long after Edmund arrived in Nauvoo he wed Brigham Young's oldest daughter, Elizabeth. They lived in Nauvoo until the saints were forced to leave in February 1846. In his autobiography, Edmund states that he was present at the meeting when he heard Sidney Rigdon say, "I plainly saw the mantle of the Priesthood fall upon President Young with its power and spirit." Edmund was asked by President Young to be part of the original company of pioneers. However when they reached the upper crossing of the Platte sometime in June they had to make a ferry from timber to let the wagons cross and Edmund was asked along with a few others to remain and help ferry other travelers in hopes of obtaining provisions. Instead of continuing on to Salt Lake he decided to go back and meet his family and help them make the trip. He almost got back to Winter Quarters before he found them. They arrived in Salt Lake the 12th of October of 1847 with the second company of pioneers.
Edmund made his fourth crossing of the plains when he was called in 1854 to serve a mission in England. Again he had to ford streams, wallow through snowdrifts and mud and sleep on the ground. After a successful mission in England, President Young asked Edmund on his return to lead the first handcart company across the plains. Many in this company would be English converts. The handcart was an innovative method of human transportation and President Young was relying on the experience of his son-in-law to make it successful. They left Iowa City, Iowa on the 9th of June 1856. There were two hundred and seventy-three souls who made the journey. Thirty-three gave up the trip and there were twelve deaths during the nearly four months of traveling. Two hundred and twenty-eight men, women and children arrived in Salt Lake on the 26th of September. In this company were MARY ANN BATES and Mary Ann Jones both of whom Edmund married shortly after arriving in the valley. Also traveling with them was JOHN OAKLEY who was also returning from a mission to England.
There are many interesting stories told by Mary Ann Jones of this trek. One of these concerned an ox:
While at the Platte River an ox died which was being used to pull one of the supply wagons. Brother Ellsworth asked the brethren what could be done. Should we place a cow in the team? One brother said, “Look, Brother Ellsworth at that steer on the hill.” There stood a large fat steer looking at us. Brother Ellsworth said that the Lord had provided the animal that we may move on to the mountains. The animal worked as well as the others. When we were within two days of Salt Lake City we met some wagons sent with provisions and to help us the remainder of the way. The next morning, when gathering the animals, that steer was gone. After hunting for him for several hours Brother Ellsworth said; "The Lord loaned him to us as long as we needed him.”
Grandfather Ellsworth married four wives, three of them named Mary Ann. Grandma Stewart said that the family distinguished between Mary Ann Bates and Mary Ann Jones as "straight Polly" and "curly Polly" due to the nature of their hair. He had forty-eight children, so there are many of his descendants in the Church today.
He built the first saw mill in Utah in Mill Creek Canyon, built bridges, cut ties for the first railroad, was elected alderman to the City Council, was a major in the Nauvoo Legion and first counselor to Bishop Moon in the First Ward while living in Salt Lake. He moved his families to West Weber in 1866 and then his last two families to Showlow, Arizona in 1880. In 1884 he spent six months in jail for unlawful cohabitation (polygamy). He died at the age of 74 true to his faith, a great pioneer.
MARY ANN BATES was born in England in 1834. Her mother died when she was nine, and her father remarried. III treatment from her step-mother and step-sisters made her unhappy and she moved to live with her aunt, Ann Passey in Birmingham. The Mormon missionaries visited the Passeys and told them of the restoration of the gospel. At first Mary Ann was not allowed to listen while the elders were there, but she would stand at the top of the stairway and listen eagerly to all she could hear. Great was her joy when she was permitted to enter the room. She and her Aunt's family were soon converted and baptized in April 1855.
Mary Ann came to Zion in 1856 with the Passeys and walked the entire distance pushing a handcart in Captain Ellsworth's company. There were many streams of water to cross; she waded through them all and let her clothes dry on her. In the evenings the company camped, made a circle of wagons, cooked their meals and enjoyed singing and telling stories. She and Mary Ann Jones pushed the first handcart that ever entered Salt Lake City. Mary Ann endured all the hardships of settling new areas of civilization. The babies came along at almost regular periods, until the thirteenth pretty well filled up the three log rooms they called home. She found time to do sewing for others and at one time made little girl's bonnets and the only corsets that were ever made for sale in Utah, selling them at Pidcock's store in Ogden. When the family moved to Arizona she discovered men were wanting clothes made. By perseverance she figured out how to cut clothes and made dozens of men's suits. Later she opened up a restaurant and ran it successfully for years doing all the cooking herself. At eighty she cooked a big dinner for twenty of her children and grandchildren and in writing of it to her daughter, said, "I did it all myself, and everything was done to a turn." She could read and write without her glasses up till her death. She always kept her faith and had a strong testimony of the gospel. She was knitting for the soldiers during WWI (1917) when she suffered a stroke which ended in her death a few months later.