Mary Smith McEwen, daughter of John Smith and Mary Matthews, was born in Hillsborough, Derby Co., Ireland on April 5, 1814. When she was about six years old, her family moved to Scotland where she grew to maturity. She visited Ireland once after leaving there.

On the fifteenth of May, 1834, she married Matthew McEwen in Parcade, Glasgow, Scotland. His parents were William McEwen and Mary Craig. He was born near Donomanugh, Londonderry, Ireland, (sometimes shortened to Derry). His parents also moved to Scotland when he was a child.

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Margaret McEwen Willden 1843-1922

Written by her
Granddaughter, Jennie Hancock

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John Willden was the son of Charles William and Eleanor Turner Willden.

John Willden Resources

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Charles William Willden was born in Anston, England, in Yorkshire county, on the 27th of July, 1806. His eternal mate Eleanor Turner
was also born in Yorkshire county, in the village of Laughton, on the
9th of April, 1810. They met and were married in Laughton on January  read more »

By 1859 the iron works had become a failure, and great numbers of people
moved away to seek new homes. The Willden's moved to the badlands or sinks
southeast of Beaver, then called lower Beaver. They arrived there Sunday,
March 24, 1859. Here Charles Willden and his four sons, Ellot, Charles,
John and Feargus each took up 10 acres of land.

Many times Charles had thought of making a home on Cove Creek and as
their land in Beaver proved to be poor, Charles bought 160 acres there
from Matthew McEwen of Beaver who had sheep there. - John Willden  read more »

After the Willdens arrived in Salt Lake City, Charles Willden was making
a deal with Lorenzo D. Young to be his farmer, but as soon as Lorenzo heard
the name Willden he wanted to know if he was Charles Willden, the steel
refiner by trade. Being answered in the affirmative, Lorenzo said he could
not make any other arrangements as he had heard his brother Brigham speak
of him and that he rather expected that his brother's intentions were to
send him to Cedar City, then known as Coal Creek, to work in the iron industry
there.  read more »

In the Spring of 1852, Brigham Young sent out a proclamation for all to gather to "Zion" which was Utah. So the Willdens as well as others worked hard getting out wagon timber for a man named Montieth who made a wagon for them for pay.

They left their homestead and some bushels of corn in the crib with Milton Huff and started June 2, 1852 for Salt Lake City. Ann says the agent sold the farm for an old second hand watch.

The following paragraphs are taken from her autobiography.

We loaded our covered wagon with our household goods and the family, and started on the long hard journey to Salt Lake.  read more »