William Greenhalgh 1861-1943

William Greenhalgh was born on 18 March 1861, in Whalley, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom. His mother Mary Moorcroft was 34 years old when William was born. His father was Thomas Greenhalgh and was 40. William was the seventh child of ten children. 

From the autobiography of his sister, Mary Greenhalgh Mace we read, "In April 29, 1865, our family of nine children with Father and Mother, left Liverpool for America on a sailing vessel called the Belle Wood. This ship was in the charge of Captain Freeman, a large red-headed Yankee, who said he had crossed the ocean six times. Our trip on the ocean lasted five weeks and two days. The captain said it was the nicest trip he had ever taken across the Atlantic Ocean."

"We landed at Castle Gardens, New York, June 2, 1865, and found the country in deep mourning over the tragic death of Abraham Lincoln. Everywhere we saw soldiers who were returning home from the Civil War. I remember one troop carrying what remained of a huge American Flag. The center had been taken out by a cannon ball, and soldiers were carrying it down the street by its corners. They looked ragged, tired and sick as they dragged themselves down the street to their quarters amid the shout of cheers and martial music." What a sight this must have been for 4 year old William after traveling so far on a difficult journey."

"My baby brother, (Francis Moorecroft Greenhalgh) who had been sick on voyage, died one month after we landed in New York and was buried in the Green Wood Cemetery."

"Our family stayed in New York City until the middle of September, where my sister Sarah and I obtained work in a silk factory. We were dissatisfied here because Father could not find work and we did not like living in a city either, but we were obliged to stay until we could do better. In a short time we heard of a manufacturing town called Co hoes, ("Spindle City" )which was eleven miles from Albany, so we moved there. Here we obtained a comfortable house in which to live, and secured work for us all. . ." We lived here until July 10th or 12th, 1866, when Father decided to move west to Utah."

Thomas and his family were called to the Cotton Mission, 1867

"We arrived in the little town of Washington, Utah on November 7, 1867," recalled his daughter Mary Ann. "Here we found a factory operating Mendenhall hand looms. Father now started to set up power looms immediately, and I began to weave cloth as soon as he got the first loom set up." These were the first power looms in the state of Utah.

William Marries Sarah Emily Potter, 1892

William Greenhalgh married Sarah Emily Potter from Kanab, Utah
2 November 1892. She was just fourteen years of age and he was thirty one.

Sarah's mother had passed away in December of 1891 after the birth of her ninth baby. "It was a sad thing for this Potter family of small children to have their mother taken from them. After this Elijah was never satisfied to stay in one place for long. He never remarried. . . Elijah kept the boys with him as they traveled around from place to place. " *

Keele Family Move, 1938

During the Great Depression in about 1938 the family of Chester R. Keele and Elizabeth Ruth Greenhalgh Keele moved to Twisp, Washington. They probably moved to find employment and join Elizabeth’s sister Sarah Melissa Workman that moved to the Wenatchee sometime before 1930.

It appears that William arrived in Wenatchee Washington only eighteen months before his death in June 1941. This may be one reason that most family members did not know of his gravesite. He lived with his daughter Elizabeth Greenhalgh Keele on Springwater Avenue.  William died when he was 81 years old in Wenatchee, Chelan County, Washington and is buried at the Wenatchee City Cemetery. Please share his story so that he will not be forgotten!

William Greenhalgh saw a lot of changes in his lifetime, from a small boy born in England traveling with his family across the Atlantic, to a covered wagon train crossing the mountains to Utah. He may have saw the passing of his baby brother. His family settled in Southern Utah as pioneers. They established and worked in textile mills and at farming.

He had married a girl young enough to be his daughter and began his own family. He toiled on his farm raising children through dust bowl and depression through two world wars and the invention of phones, electricity and automobiles. Three of his children and his wife died before his passing in 1943. We can only imagine the life he led and the things he experienced, his personality, his work ethic and his love as a father.

His life and legacy lives on in each descendant that remembers and looks forward to a glorious reunion in the eternities.

Children of William Greenhalgh and Sarah Emily Potter:

• Sarah Melissa Greenhalgh 1893–1948, married Lindsay Nathaniel Workman 
• Elizabeth Ruth Greenhalgh 1900-1971, married Chester Reynald 

             Parents of Cleo, Chester, Fern, Beth, Ramona, Velva Jean and Lawanna. 

• Mary Emily Greenhalgh married Dumont Arbuckle 
• Alice Fern Greenhalgh married Denzil Rex Gardner 
• Myrtle Nellie Greenhalgh married Keith Warby 
• William Wallace Greenhalgh married Anne Sevella Wilson 
• George Greenhalgh born and died in 1907
• Eva Greenhalgh born and died 1908
• Elijah John Greenhalgh married Fern Marie Lamb 
• Wanda Greenhalgh married Charles Ambrose Potter 

*From the bio of Elijah John Potter, Familysearch.org