Thomas Sandall, Sr.

I was amazed at the stories my mother used to tell me about my South African grandfather and his life among the monkeys and savages.Thomas grew up in a little town in Oxfordshire called Kidlington.  On the census records he is always listed as a  gardener and not as an agricultural worker like the rest.  What this means I do not know but this occupation could have been the reason the English government asked him to go to South Africa.  In Kidlington, his grandmother was a Hanwell and the Hanwell's were well- to-do-people and ran the bakery.The history I included was among my mother's possessions and I do not know who wrote it.  The full Story can be found at link

Thomas Sr. was called by the English Government to go to South Africa. His mission was to teach the colonists how to care for their gardens and how to farm. Arriving in South Africa, they settled in the Town of Uitenhage. There he continued the work he loved best, gardening. The vegetables not needed by the family were sold to the natives. The climate was warm and the soil was rich so the two crops of vegetables would be raised in one year. They found wild grapes, the vines up and over trees fifty and a hundred feet high. There were wild figs, myrtle, apples and wild plums. They lived well by hard work. They had to be on the lookout at all times for the Coffers, these were what the natives were called. Some were friendly and some were savage. Thomas Sr. had to set traps for the monkeys because they destroyed their vegetables, especially the pumpkins.

            The Thomas Sandall family lived in South Africa about twelve years and while there five more children were born, they were Joseph, William, Annie ,Lucy and Hyrum. In 1858 the Sandalls and their friends were visited by two Elders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by the names of John Stock and John Wesley. The families were converted and were baptized into the Church. They had a strong desire to come to Zion. On March 22, 1860 in a company with about 70 of their friends, they left South Africa. The friends included: the Wiggills, Talbots, Greens, Bodilys, and Dawsons. The Sandalls got a chance to come to the United States with Robert Bodily and family. Thomas sold all of his belongings and boarded with his family, the ship "Alacrity" sailing from Port Elizabeth around to Cape Town, then over to the Isle of Helena.

            They were months on the water before they landed in Boston Harbor. While in Boston Harbor, their children took sick with the measles and their baby Hyrum died on the 9th of July 1860 at the tender age of eleven months. They left Boston and came west to Florence, Nebraska and remained there a short time. They started for Utah, with four hundred other saints, in the company of Captain William Budge. Their trip across the plains with ox team and covered wagon was the same as other pioneers. They had many hardships to endure with sickness, experiences with Indians, and had very little food. Their daughter Lucy took sick and died at the age of 3 years old. They couldn't stop long enough to dig a grave deep enough to hardly cover with dirt, and they knew the wolves would have her out in a few hours. She was buried in Mr. Bodily's bass violin case for a coffin. Her parents were heartbroken at the loss of their daughter and under such horrible circumstances. This made two children buried since leaving South Africa. They were grateful to Brother Bodily for the violin case, otherwise she would have been wrapped in a blanket, or something of that nature. They arrived in Salt Lake in 1861 and settled in what was then called Kays Creek in Davis County.