Jemima Berry Henson was born 2 August 1836 in Deanshanger, Northhamptonshire, England.  She was the third daughter and sixth child born to James and Hetty Lancaster Henson and was named after her maternal grandmother, Jemima Berry Lancaster.  At the age of thirteen she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She married a man named William Turner 17 October 1858 and four years later departed her homeland and gathered to Zion aboard the packet ship, the William Tapscott.  (Incidentally, another passenger surnamed "Turner" was also found -  William Turner by name.  He was nine years older than Jemima.  This may possibly be William E. Turner, born 1827 in Crick, Northhampton, England.) 

On Tuesday, 14 May 1862, the William Tapscott , Captain Bell, cleared with 807 souls of the Saints on board, under the presidency of Elder William Gibson, with Elders John Clark and Francis M. Lyman as his counselors, and sailed Wednesday morning.  Elder Gibson arrived from Zion in the beginning of December 1859, and for some time traveled through the Mission, teaching and instructing the Saints in the various conferences where his labors extended.  Since January 1st, 1860, he has presided over the Chelterham District.  Elder F. M. Lyman, who arrived July 27th, 1860 presided over the Essex Conference, and Elder Clark over the Sheffield Conference.  The Saints were divided into wards of about sixty and an Elder placed over each ward to see to their comfort and safety.

From the diary of William H. Freshwater comes the account of the voyage  [LDS Immigration Index.  See also Our Pioneer Heritage comp by Kate B. Carter, vol. 7, pp. 248-251 ]

"13th.  The ship raised anchor and left the dock with seven hundred and eighty five Mormons on board and went into the River [p. 248] Mersey.  There were thirty more Saints came on board while we lay there. . . . There were twelve more came aboard this morning.  The vessel was towed out of the river by steam tug into the Irish Sea.  The weather is beautiful and warm.
"15th.  A few of the passengers are a little seasick.  There were two boys found in the hold and Captain Preston is going to make them work their passage across the sea.
"June 8th.  (Witson Sunday) In the morning, wind very fair but during the day it increased until the sailors had to tie ropes about the ship to hold themselves on.  They spiked all the hatchways down and would not let any of the passengers go on deck at all.  The captain told us it was the worst storm he had ever witnessed although he had made many trips across the ocean.
""9th.  A child of three years died on board this morning of consumption.
"10th.  Wind favorable but foggy.  If there had not been any fog we could have seen Newfoundland as it lies but a short distance off.
"11th.  Very cold and foggy, still on the banks but going all right.  We are now 1012 miles from New York.  There have been a few grampus seen - they are a species of the whale about five feet long.
"16th.  Head winds till noon.  We have made, since yesterday noon, 126 miles, being the best run since starting from Liverpool.
"17th.  Wind good, at noon log shows 176 miles in 24 hours.
 "18th.  Wind dead against us.  We are now going through the gulf, a place where three currents meet; the sea is very rough.  By the log we have traveled 200 miles since noon yesterday but only twenty-four towards New York.
"21st.  Wind dead against us.  We saw a great many whales today.
"22nd.  A pilot came aboard.  A man died on board today.
"23rd.  We saw a lot of blackish, the sailors claimed a sure sign of a bad storm.  Weather pleasant and had been a dead calm all day.  Saw a great many porpoises in the evening.  They are a very ugly looking fish, three to five feet long and about as thick.
"24th.  Fair wind all morning.  Only fifty more miles to New York.  For the first time since we left Liverpool we heard thunder.  At three o'clock the wind sprang up in the right direction and we soon left the fog behind us.  We arrived in the mouth of the Hudson River at four o'clock and dropped anchor at five.  This is a very beautiful port.  Far excels Liverpool.
"25th.  We were all up at the first peep of day and anxiously awaiting the arrival of the examining doctor who came at 8 a.m. and pronounced us all well except two who remained on board the ship, the last we heard of them.  The steam tug took us to Castle [p. 249] Garden (Ellis Island), the New York emigrant landing where one can stay for ten days only."

On September 24, 1862, Jemima arrived in Great Salt Lake City.  She traveled in Capt. Homer Duncan's Church Train. [FHL 0298,442; See also J.H. Sept 16 & 24, 1862]

After arriving in Salt Lake City, Jemima took lodging with her sister, Martha, and her husband, John Biggs.  Another sister and her husband, George Terrell, also stayed with John and Martha until they could relocate to Cedar Fort.  While staying here, Jemima became acquainted with John Durrant,  also a lodger with Brother John Biggs.  Brother Durrant was working for Joseph Hellpen, a bricklayer and mason.

In John's account: "I asked her when William Turner was coming.  She said she did not know as she had left him behind with the understanding that she was no longer his wife. . . .William Turner reached Salt Lake City and came to John Biggs' home where Jemima was staying.  But she would have no more to do with him for his ill treatment towards her in old England.  She applied for a bill of divorce and it was granted by Judge Smith by both paying for it."

One evening John and Jemima were talking together and he asked her if she "should like to go to American Fork to live with us this winter.  The reply was yes, if you will divide your blankets with me when I get there."

Consequently, John went ahead to American Fork where he found there was quite a bit of labor still to do on the house.  Jemima went to live with Brother Adams' family along the road  west of the city.  While John had been gone, Jemima busied herself with earning a wash tub and other things that would be useful for housekeeping.  John took this as a confirmation that indeed, Jemima had meant what she said.  Sister Adams asked him if he meant to take her hired girl away and he said yes, if she was ready.  "Jemima looked at me with a smile on her countenance saying is the new room ready to move into.  I said no, not yet.  But we was getting along pretty well with it.  Edward had been to Provo and got what was due him in lumber. L And when I got back we could soon put the flooring down."  

 With an invitation to come and help "fix" it, Jemima went to American Fork - thirty miles south of Salt Lake - with John Durrant.  His brother, Edward, was surprised to see her but he and his wife, Elizabeth, made her welcome.  Jemima's coming necessitated rearranging the living arrangements but everyone made the best of it.  Edward and John slept together and Jemima and Elizabeth together for a while.

In the meantime, work continued on the house but it was slow because of the shorter winter days and the cold.  On Christmas day, Brother William Paxman stopped by and asked how everyone was getting along.  He invited John and Jemima to come and eat Christmas dinner with them which they accepted and went up to his dugout to spend part of Christmas day with them.  After eating dinner, Brother Paxman and his wife, Ann, seemed to be in real good humor and said to us, "I don't see why you two don't get married."  Jemima laughed and said that there was no one to marry us that she knew of.   Brother Paxman suggested that Bishop Harrington could come over to his place if they would ask him.

John didn't like to go over to his house and he and Brother Paxman went to cut some wood.  The bishop soon came along to feed his stock.  "Now's your time to ask him," urged Brother Paxman.  Bishop Harrington said he would do it but it would have to be quick as he needed to go to a supper.

"He came down into the house and shook hands with us all.  And asked Jemima if she was willing to be married to Bro. John.  She smiled and said yes.  But I did not know that he was going to fetch you here now for that purpose.  He then asked me if I was willing to take Jemima Henson to be my lawfull and wedded wife.  I said yes.  He then and there pronounced the ceremony and told us to kiss each other and we did.  So now this was unexpected to us when we left home.  Now under these circumstances we was compelled to change around again.  Palmer and Diner, Edward and Elizabeth took the front room, myself and Jemima made shift with the back room until we had finished the new one."  John Durrant and Jemima were sealed the eighth of August 1863 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.

When John and Jemima went into Great Salt Lake they often stayed at the home of John H. Miller.  Brother Miller's sister, Elizabeth, worked for a family by the name of Ringwood who were renters of part of his same house.  John and Jemima invited Elizabeth Jane Ginger to spend the evening with them at John Millers' and this was followed by an invitation to American Fork.  On 9 August 1869, Elizabeth became John Durrant's plural wife and was sealed to him in the Endowment House.

From The Early History of American Fork:  The manufacture of ladies' hats from native straw was undertaken by Ellen D. Clarke in 1875 in connection with her millinery business.  It is stated that John Durrant gathered the straw, his wife, Jemima, split it, and she and Elizabeth Cullom [Edward's widow]  braided it by hand. .  The braided straw was then bleached by putting it in a tight box in which sulphur was burning. . . . Feathers and home-made flowers were used as trimmings.  Many of the pioneer ladies wore hats that were made in Mrs. Clarke's shop.  (P. 105) In the summer time they had quite a run of business so that they were able to get things for the house that they were needing.  They also brought in a little dried fruit.

 Jemima and Elizabeth Jane cherished one another and treated one another with the utmost kindness and charity.  They shared a double home, with separate living quarters on each side.  Elizabeth taught her children to be considerate of "Auntie," (as they called Jemima) and they developed a close family bond.  After the birth of Elizabeth's sixth child, Joseph Smith Durrant, Elizabeth received a strong impression that this child was to be raised by Jemima.  Acting upon that impression, she turned the infant, Joseph, over to Jemima to be reared as her own.  Jemima had no other children.

Rose D. Ostler, youngest daughter of John and Elizabeth J. Ginger Durrant wrote of life in her polygamous family.

"We lived all our days together as children in these polygamous homes and as children barely knew the difference.  Auntie Jemima and Joseph, more often than not, ate with us.  He ate with us if Jemima was not at home.  We always said we had two homes.  The only difference you might say, that we felt, was he went to Auntie's to sleep.  But that was all right as Auntie was alone and we would rather have it so.  In fact, we did not really know or realize anything different or how this came about (that Joseph would go to Jemima's home) until mother's death and we found what has been written in her diary.  It is very sacred to us, in fact, it brings tears to each of our eyes each time we read it.  This brother Joseph is still living in Salt Lake City, and his testimony is the same as mine." [See also Heart Throbs of the West, FHL 979.2 H2cah, Vol. 1, pp. 228-229]

Jemima Berry Henson Durrant, Elizabeth's eighth child  remembered her home life with her parents: "My remembrance of Auntie is a very sweet one.  She was kind and thoughtful of us and we were taught to be so to her.  It was a pleasure to be so, because she returned every kind act so graciously.  For instance, she used to read and make beautiful pin lace on a pillow with a bodkin and beads on it, so worked late at night.  So in the morning when I wanted to do practicing on the organ I was taught to always rap gently on her door and as if it would disturb her if I practiced.  She would always say, "No, my dear, your practice is like music to my ears."  (Jemima or Auntie was a fine musician in those days and she played and sang.)

"Our house was a large double one.  I remember each spring and fall we would always ask Auntie which side of the house she preferred and we changed about accordingly.  She was subject to sick headaches and would pull the shade down at the window when she was resting.  We always noticed and were taught to walk quietly by her window.

"These things were not a trial to us.  They were part of us.  And now in looking back to those years I would not ask for it to have been different.  We children say as our mother has said, "Our lives are richer for having had her with us, and the lessons of respect and consideration we learned are priceless to us now.  (Even to this day I find I practice on the piano with my foot on the soft pedal, a consideration I learned early in life, and still a good one."

 Jemima always involved herself in the cultural activities of the American Fork community.   Early History of American Fork gives an idea of just how extensive this was.  "The Bate Hall was built in 1876.  This hall was built of rock and located on First East Street upon the present site of the Presbyterian Church (1993).  Herbert Bate was the owner and manager, and the hall was built for a theater and dance hall, for which purposes it was used for a number of years until the building was considered unsafe and torn down. . . . A considerable number of plays were given by local dramatic talent.  Among the popular actors of the time was . . . Mrs. Jemima Durrant.  The admission charge to the theatricals was twenty-five cants, which was sometimes paid in produce. (P. 87)

As soon as American Fork Ward was organized, a choir of singers was formed.  In 1864 Ebenezer Hunter became chorister and taught classes in the Sol Fa system with good success.  He organized a fine choir of about thirty voices.  Early in the the seventies Mr. Hunter moved to Alpine and Warren B. Smith became the director of the choir.   This leadership continued until the close of the century.  Among the prominent members of this choir was Jemima Durrant, contralto.  The American Fork choir gained an enviable reputation as a musical organization, and on one or more occasions was invited to Salt Lake City to sing in the Tabernacle there.  It was a custom of the choir on Christmas eve to go out caroling.  (P. 89-90)

Jemima had long had a bit of a flair for business and this again evidenced itself with regards to the silk industry in American Fork.  "The importance of silk culture had been treated upon for a number of years, in fact ever since the settlement of the valleys, by Brigham Young and others, and at length it was deemed advisable that associations be formed for raising the silk worm and the manufacture of silk.  The organization in Utah County was effect at American Fork June 9, 1877. . . .  Jemima Durrant [served] as treasurer. . . . Silk worms were raised for a number of years on a limited scale by a number of people, but gradually the industry died out, being unable to compete with the imported silk.  (Early History of American Fork, p. 107)

Jemima Durrant was ever ready to serve in the Church.  "The Women's Relief Society was first organized in American Fork October 24, 1856. . . A more complete organization was effected by Eliza R. Snow and others from Salt Lake City, October 29, 1868.  Upon the death of the first treasurer in March, 1870, Jemima Durrant was chosen as her successor.

The Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association came into existence as the outgrowth of the Young Ladies' Retrenchment Society instituted by Brigham Young among his daughters in 1869 to encourage modesty in dress and other womanly virtues.   In the early seventies, President Young gave Isabella Horn a mission to establish retrenchment associations throughout the church, and in 1876 such an organization was effected in American Fork with Jemima Durrant as president and three vice-presidents.  (Early History of American Fork, P. 148)

Jemima Berry Henson Durrant was parted from her family 20 August 1904 in Lehi, Utah County, Utah.  She was buried there 23 August 1904.
 

 * * * * *