Job Pingree Life in England

The Pingree Legacy

JOB PINGREE 21 Nov 1837 - 2 May 1928 Life in England Job Pingree, born November 21st 1837 in the parish of Acton Beauchamp Worchestershire England, being the son of Job Pingree and Charlotte Tarrant. (1) (2) (3) These words are the beginning of Job Pingree's autobiography, which he wrote at age 88, and the beginning of the Pingree Legacy as we know it. My father and mother had 3 children, a girl Margery oldest and Samuel youngest both having died leaving me the only one left. Job does not mention his youngest sister Mary Eliza. We know she was a member of the family because Charlotte, his mother, performed a proxy baptism for her daughter Mary Eliza in the Endowment House (forerunner of the Salt Lake Temple), 17 Sep 1873, giving her relationship as "mother". (4) William Tarrant, Charlotte's father also made his home with the Pingree family for a time, since his wife died when Charlotte was a small child. (5) The 1841 census does not include father William in the household. It does, however, list William Pingree, brother of Job's father, Job; and two agricultural laborers, John Bond and William Morgan. (6) My father had a small farm and a grist mill which he ran for his living, he died in the year of 1843 at the age of 50 years, leaving me fatherless at 6 years old. My mother some time after was married to Samuel Banford and by him she had 6 children, when he died in the year 1855 leaving me to take care of the place and grist mill at the age of about 18 years. (7) On our place was house, 6 rooms, stable, barn sheds, dicer mill, cellar, oven to bake bread, pig pens, cow pen, orchards, apples, pears, cherries and a lot of garden fruit currants, gooseberries and other fruit. Also we kept on the place horses and cows, ducks and chickens and pigs. We had a hopyard and a killn to dry them ready for market after they were tramped solid in large sacks. We made yearly several hundred gallons of cider and perry, which was the common drink at meals and for men at work which was the common drink in that part of England.(8) Charlotte Pingree married Samuel Banford in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England--a city some 50 miles distant from action Beauchamp (see map of Worchestershire).(9) Charlotte had hired Sam Banford to operate the mill for her after her husband Job died. Was Charlotte visiting relatives at the time of the marriage of did she and Sam travel to Birmingham just for the occasion? It seems more likely that she was residing in Birminghamfor the time, perhaps with relatives, and may even have met Samuel Banford there originally, since the marriage was by banns--announcing the marriage from the pulpit three Sundays in a row, asking if there be any one who knew of a reason the marriage should not take place. Acton Beauchamp Parish The parish of Acton Beauchamp is located in the northwest section of worchestieshire, along the Herefordshire border. In 1895, it was shifted fromWorchester County to Hereford County, since it was closely tied to Herefordshire. Accounts of this small rural parish vary. for more information about Acton Beauchamp see: Acton Beauchamp Acton Mill .....For the meal that has absorbed dampness of the mllsite, and has absorbed dampness of the millsite, and has been ground under the slow turning of old stones, produces exceptional corn bread. When meal comes to you that way, like the heated underside of a settin' hen, it bakes bread that makes city white bread taste like cardboard. 18 Acton mill was an important part of the local economy and had been for several generations. Just how many of those generations, the Pingree family operated the mill is unclear. As early as 1614, there was a mill at Acton BeauchampBa corn mill owned by John Hide who refused to pay the local tax for match and poweder for the soldiers training there and for the muster-master's pension. The other parishioners petitioned for an order to compel him to do so. By 1650, the mill was also used as a fulling mill to process the wool produced in abundance in western Worchestershire. There is no surprise in the fact that Job and his family were banders in Ogden and other local communities throughout Utah, Idaho, California, and Hawaii, for job was raised in a miller's household: and the miller was one of the two most important members of the local economy. The miller became a price-setter, counselor, buyer, and seller. Often he was banker and always he was the busiest man in town. Among the city fathers he was entitled to be called "master" along with the pastor. His advice on business and banking matters was sought and frequently paid for as would be the services of a lawyer. But, mostly, he was host to the entire countryside.21 Roads and bridges led to the mill. Thus, the mill was the center of the local commerce; here the farmers brought their grain to be ground into flour and meal. Here they brought their wool to be fulled and processed so it coulc be made into fine graments and sold in Europe. Here they brought their apples, pears, and cherries to be pressed into wine. Here they brought their salt to be ground into fine crystals for cooking and table use. And here they even brought their guns for barrel grinding and gun powder during the Napoleonic wars, As the miller, Job Pingree was the guardian of the principal assets of the farmers of Acton Beauchamp. He was the one who stored these assets and paid the debts of each farmer by receipt to those holding claims against the assets. For the economy of England prior to the twentieth century, had a barter and exchange base, with few men having sufficient cash to transact their business in money. This business orientation is reflected in our modern slang terms for money--bread, dough, moola (from the German work Muhl, meaning to mill). The head of the house is called the breadwinner. The farmer ordered supplies, clothes, tools, weapons, and foodstuffs he could not obtain through a local mercantile store, charging his purchases on account. When his crop was harvested and stored at the local mill, he then sold it to pay his bills, some in cash and some in kind. The miller usually served as the middleman, or the banker as we call him today. Job Pingree's income came from tolls for grinding the meal and for storage of produce. In a barter economy, however, farmers usually did not have cash to pay their bills, so he got a certain portion of the grain as payment for his services. The toll was pro-rated for each kind of produce--three quarts per bushel for grain, on quart for malt, and one pint for meal. A dishonest miller could become wealthy from taking more grain than he was allowed. There was a local tradition that a miller without hair on his arms could never be an honest miller for no evidence--grain dust--would cling to him if he pilfered flour. Such a miller would always be mistrusted. Acton mill had an undershot wheel--the water flowed under the wheel. This is the least efficient in terms of power generation, about 30% output, but it is the cheapest to build, and the most practical to use in most flat locations in England. The undershot wheel could operate on a fast flowing stream, created and maintained year-round regardless of weather conditions by means of a natural or man-made dam and mill pond. The dam was constructed so the water fell three to nine feet to the millrace, thus moving it fast enough to power the wheel. The mill pond stored water even in dry spells. The original wooden water wheel was replaced in the eighteenth century by the metal wheel and later a boost was given by adding a turbine engine operated in the nearby engine house. These modern sources of supplementary power still operate the same ancient machinery of grindstone and conveyors which were originaly powered by the wooden wheel with its hand-cut cogs. From the revolving axle of the wheel, power passed to the millstones by an ingenious system of interlocking metal cogs. The water wheel turns the upper millstone on top of the lower one, grinding the meal which is fed into the hopper between them. The millstones were carved with patterned furrows called "dresses," to allow air to cool the stone from the friction of the grinding process and to allow the flour or meal to move along conveyors into sacks. The bottom stone was set stationary and the top stone revolved in perfect balance above it. The stones were adjusted slightly or changed for each kind of grainBcorn, rye, wheat. They had to be perfectly balanced and could not touch each other. Improperly balanced stones would ruin the flour, could damage the stones themselves, and could cause a fire. The grooves or furrows tear the husk from the kernel and the flat areas or "land" grind the kernels into flour. Stones varied in size from four to six feet in diameter and weighed as much as a ton each. They were usually quarried locally or in nearby Shropshire, although some could be imported from France and other parts of Europe. They were trimmed or "Picked" regularly to keep them sharp to grind the flour fine. Coarse ground flour fermented faster. Differently cut millstones ground the flour into different consistencies and different kinds of products. Millers and specific schedules hor filling produce in season and the farmer waited until the specified day to bring his load in. A mill could be a dangerous place--during the grinding process, a fine dust floated in the air called stive, and this could be ignited by a spark form the stones if they did not fit just right. There was also a danger of gasses from decomposed flour or grain stored on the premises. Other hazards were the mill wheel with its power drive of interlocking cogs and the mill pond where Job's father drowned. Baptism in the Mill Pond When about 18 years of age my mother was converted [to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]. Her second husband was much against her baptism and in the dead of night she had to steal our of the house to be baptized. The devil must have hold my stepfather, for he met her with her wet clothes and started beating her, as he was drunk at the time. His was too much for me and we clinched and even he had to admit he had received the licking. He took to drink more than ever, leaving the responsibility of the family on my shoulders.25 The Mill Pond where Job and Charlotte were baptized in Acton Beauchamp, England. The life story of Charlotte Tarrant gives additional detail: The Mormon missionaries were preaching in the vicinity. Mrs Banford listened to their messages with an earnest heart and knew it to be true, but her husband could not accept of this new faith as readily. But, she had made up her mind, that she was going to be baptized, although he and asked her not to. On the evening while resting after his long day at the gristmill, he dreamed his wife was being baptized. He awake, and dismissed it as an idle dream, and went back to sleep. Again, he had the same dream, but dismissed the thought. After the third time he dreamed of her baptism, he decided to go see where she was to satisfy himself. As he came into the other room, he met her just coming into the house with her clothes dripping. She had been baptized in the mill stream.26 Baptismal fonts in England at this time were designed for sprinkling, so the missionaries immersed converts in local lakes and streams. A mill pond, with its shallow, slow-moving water was ideal. Charlotte Banford evidently gave permission for the elders to baptize in her millpond. This is were both she and her son, Job, were baptized. By 1855, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a strong dissenting sect in the Worcestershire area through large-scale defections from local congregations, especially the Methodists. Local residents embraced the 'frightful doctrines of Mormonism, to the great grief of the pastor and the rest of the congregation." 27 In his later years, Job recalled his first contact with Mormonism was hearing that Wilford Woodruff "answered a call of certain group in Englandwho were praying that the truth might come and he had baptized many."28 Wilford Woodruff went into Herefordshire in 1840, just over the border from where Job was growing up. The people flocked to hear the American preacher discourse about the true gospel. The story is told that the local rector demanded the constable arrest Woodruff for preaching to the people. Woodruff had a license to preach and he invited the constable to sit down and hear the sermon. When he finished speaking, he opened the doors for baptism and several came forward. Among them was the constable who said, "Mr. Woodruff, I would like to be baptized." Then he turned to the rector and told him, " If you want Woodruff arrested, you will have to do it yourself, for he preached the only true gospel sermon I have ever heard." Next the rector sent two of his clerks as spies to report on what woodruff said that so moved the people, and the two clerks were also baptized. Then the rector sought the help of other ministers in his area to approach the Archbishop of Canterbury. They wanted him to introduce a law into Parliament prohibiting the Mormons from preaching to the British nation. The Archbishop responded that if they were better preachers, they would not lose their members, and he refused to help them. It seems that Woodruff had baptized some 1,500 persons, many of who had been members of the Church of England. By October 1840, 4,000 converts had been baptized in the British Isles.29 Such success was due in part to a rift among local Methodist and a large contingent had broken away. Success breeds success, and with word of mouth telling one community after another embraced the new religious faith. On 13 August 1856, some elders were baptizing some people in our mill pond and I was also baptized, being then between 18 and 19 years of age. Before this time, I had been going to places of worship at different churches and some times met at the Latter-day Saints meeting, and I felt there a power I did not feel in the other churches, I had talks with missionaries of the Mormon church, and was asked by them to be baptized. But I told them that I wished to see some pleasure in my life time to get religious when I was old, as when I went to some meetings I say religious people professedly who done a lot of weeping at their places of worship, and I told them for me to be in that state it would be time enough when I was old, but they told me if I joined the church it would not decrease my pleasure in life but would increase it, and this statement I have found verily true. 30 As the months went by, the desire to gather to Zion filled Charlotte. She was determined to take her family of small children, her grown son Job, and emigrate to Utah. 31 Sometime later, he [Sam Banford] went to a nearby town on horseback. The horse threw him off and drug him for some distance. He was so critically injured, that he couldn't be removed to his home. So they sent for his family. When his wife arrived, he took her hand and said he knew he was going to die, but he wanted to tell her that she had done the right thing and he only wished he had done likewise. The shock was so great that it brought on a miscarriage, leaving Charlotte Banford in a run down condition to face widowhood, for the second time. His funeral was held at their home, with his casket along side her bed. From then on, she [Charlotte] had a burning desire to go to Zion to live with the Latter-day Saints.32