Frances Dinwoodey - 2nd Wife of Henry Rampton

Happy New Year to everyone.  Have you made any resolutions yet, things you want to work on in 2012?  My personal weaknesses are many.  But one that haunts me most is that of procrastination.  For many years it had been my intention to travel to Salt Lake City and interview Aunt Elaine.  Elaine Marsden Rampton was Grandpa Cash's (Charles Cash Rampton) youngest sister and the last remaining Rampton of her generation. Specifically, I wanted to get her recollections of her grandparents, Henry Rampton and Frances Dinwoodey.  Sadly, I never made the trip before she died.  And so, the information we have on Frances Dinwoodey is limited.  I remember Grandpa Cash speaking about her several times, saying what great cookies she made.

She was born 8 Jan 1828 in Warrington, England to James Dinwoodey and Elizabeth Mills.  When she was 10 years old her father died.  A year later, 1839, her mother married the husband of her deceased sister, John Evans, a recent widower himself.  Two years later John Evans heard missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was baptized on 31 July 1941.  Two weeks later Elizabeth was baptized.  Frances was 13 at the time.  It would be another 12 years before she was baptized on 29 May 1853.  Less than 10 months later she set sail for America on the John M. Wood with other Latter-day Saints bound for Utah.  She arrived in New Orleans on 21 May 1854 and then traveled up to St. Louis where her mother and step-father had migrated a year earlier.  Seven months later she would marry Henry Rampton, a recent widower who had come the America on the same ship.  The sketch below is written my Maurine Platt, a descendant of Henry and Frances through their son Walter.  Henry and Frances were the parents of one daughter, Catherine and six sons, Henry James, William, Charles Hyrum, Walter, Arthur and Frederick.  (One son, James, died as a child.)  All of the children were active in the Church except for William who ultimately moved to Pocatello, Idaho and became successful in the furniture business.  Arthur was born mentally retarded and was cared for my his sister, Catherine, in his later life.

In 1862 Frances encountered a test of her faith in the Gospel.  (Or maybe it was not a test of her faith and just something that pioneer women of that time accepted as being members of the Church.)  Her husband, Henry was called to live the law of plural marriage.  We can only surmise the thoughts that went through Frances' mind at the time.  They are not recorded anywhere, to my knowledge.  Sadly, Henry's second wife, Eliza Stratford died less than a year later in child birth along with the baby.  They were buried in the Bountiful City Cemetery.  Five years later, Henry married again, this time to Ada Alice McDuff.  Frances was 40 at the time.  Henry and Ada were the parents of nine children.  Both wives lived in different houses, on the same street in Bountiful.  Henry does not give us any details in his journal of the living arrangements.  What we do know, however, is that from 16 February 1889 until 3 June 1889 Henry was imprisoned in the Utah Penitentiary for unlawful cohabitation and fined $100.  In 1890 the Church issued its Manifesto against future plural marriages.  It did not nullify past marriages.  This is interesting in that five years earlier, 1885, Ada and her children moved from Bountiful to Syracuse, Utah where they took up ranching.  How much time Henry spent there is unknown, although I do not believe it was his permanent residence since several tributes written about him state he was in the East Bountiful Ward bishopric at that time.  Frances continued to live in the same house on 100 North in Bountiful until her death in 1911.  Henry had passed away 8 years earlier.

FRANCES ANN DINWOODEY RAMPTON

Information collected by Maurine P. Platt for Daughters of Utah Pioneers

Frances Ann Dinwoodey Rampton

Born: January 8, 1828 at Warrington, Latchford, Cheshire, England

Died: February 15, 1911 at Bountiful, Utah

Parents: James Dinwoodey and Elizabeth Mills

Arrived in Utah with the John Banks company on 5 October 1856.

Frances Ann Dinwoodey Rampton was a petite woman of sterling characteristics, loving and dainty, only weighing about 100 pounds. She was busy doing church work and looking out for others. She was a wonderful helpmate to her husband, Henry Rampton.

Frances was always clean and neat and wanted to look nice when visiting.

Frances was the third child of James Dinwoodey, a nail maker, and Elizabeth Mills. Frances immigrated to the United States one year after her parents. She sailed on March 12, 1854 on the crowded John W. Wood ship, arriving in New Orleans on May 21, 1854. The crossing took 51 days and was plagued with bad weather. Frances felt very blessed to arrive safely. Her family met her in St. Louis, and she was very happy to be with them again.

It was in St. Louis that Frances met Henry Rampton. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the same ship. He called on Frances after the death of his wife, Catherine. Henry and Frances were married on December 25, 1854. Bro. Andrus, president of the St. Louis stake, performed the marriage. A tea party was given in the Church on Washington Avenue. Frances and Henry were married for time and eternity in Salt Lake City at the Endowment House in 1860.

In June of 1856 Frances and Henry left for the Salt Lake Valley in the John Banks Company. With her was their first-born son, Henry James Rampton, born November 4, 1855. Crossing the plains with a seven-month old baby was very difficult. It is reported that she never murmured. The little family arrived safely on October 5, 1856 where they settled in Sessions Settlement, later named Bountiful.

Henry was a blacksmith, a good profession for pioneer times. He purchased an adobe home and lot for $240.00 in West Bountiful. Frances was the mother of seven sons and one daughter. Maurine P. Platt is descended through Henry and Frances’ sixth son, Walter.

In the fall of 1865, Frances and Henry made a trip to Cache Valley. What a nice, restful vacation away from five energetic boys! She viewed the trip with great joy, as she drove along appreciating her Heavenly Father. Autumn colors covered the valley and hillsides.

 

Home of Henry Rampton and Frances Dinwoodey at 96 N. 100 S. in Bountiful, UT




Home of Henry Rampton and Ada Alice McDuff at 72 N. 100 W. in Bountiful, UT




Home of Charles Hyrum Rampton, one of Henry and Frances' sons.  The house is directly across the street from Henry and Frances' home in Bountiful.  This is the house Grandpa Cash grew up in.  His mother is standing in the yard.




Frances Dinwoodey portrait



Frances mentions Cash Rampton, a grandson, coming to her home delivering his newspapers. He was cold and she gave him tea and cookies. He said her tea would cure anything. She enjoyed her grandchildren’s visits. One day Vivian came to spend the night. She did this often. When she went to bed, she stretched her feet; she found a pan at the foot of the bed. Asking what it was, she was told it was bread and had to be kept warm so it would raise to be baked the next morning. There were many ways to accomplish household tasks!

Frances lived in Bountiful for 39 years after the birth of her last child. This enabled her to watch them grow into adulthood and take their places in church and community and have their families. Frances lived to be 83 years old and passed away on February 15, 1911.