George Cannon and Ann Quayle Cannon

George Cannon and Ann Quayle Cannon

Written by Leland and Myrlene Snow Woodbury in 1978

Sorrow had come to those in the large two-story box-like house in Peel, a town on the West coast of the Isle of Mann; that fertile piece of earth 33 miles long and 12 miles wide thrust up in the Irish Sea, almost equidistant from England on the East, Scotland on the North and Ireland on the West. Much fought over through the ages it was acquired by England in the 15th century but still retained its ancient constitution of Norse origin. A former governor is reported to have said: "Here is one little spot where law and justice, true religion and primitive integrity flourish in contempt of poverty and all things the world calls misfortune; as no people are more blessed, none are more happy and content than the Manx under their venerable laws and simple, primitive, I had almost said, patriarchal constitution." The Manx, believe to have mostly come from Scotland and Ireland are a hardy, bold but genteel people of Celtic origin. An English lady once said, "In the Isle of Mann all the common people are ladies and gentlemen, and all the ladies and gentlemen are common people." No country has a richer folk lore than the Isle of Mann; and perhaps no where else has there been a more reluctant abandonment of belief in the legends of witches, elves and fairies. To this day a real Manxman will rather warmly resent any doubt or sneer as to the influence and caprices of "the little people" although the Isle has largely changed from a fishing, farming, smuggling domain to a tourist recreational attraction.

Yes, bold Captain George Cannon was dead. He who on his private ship, The Iris, had sailed throughout the West Indies, transporting among other things, cargoes of rice, beans, yams and slaves to many ports, and, in defiance of the high tariffs imposed by England, had at times hidden contraband in his own and his neighbors' basements in Peel to be slipped into nearby countries by small by smaller vessels. When the exorbitant taxes were lowered he sailed as captain on one of England's' ships and died that 19th day of July, 1811, while attempting to quell a mutiny.

Left to grieve were his wife Leonora Callister Cannon and her 6 children; George, 16 years old, Leonora 15, John 9, Thomas 7, Elinor 5, and David 2 months.

One of the first to offer sympathy and aid in that time of sorrow was Leonora's first cousin Ellinor Quayle, wife of John Quayle, "the schemer", and her daughter, Ann, who was near the same age as young Leonora.

According to the book, "Cannon Family Historical Treasury", published by the George Cannon Association of Salt Lake City, Utah, from which most of this account it taken, it became necessary for the widow to rent the homestead and move with the 4 youngest children into a smaller house. Young George went to Liverpool, England, there to learn the joiner or cabinet making trade. His sister Leonora also crossed to England to enter the household of a wealthy lady to be her companion.

In time, George courted his second cousin, Ann Quayle, and they were married in St. Thomas Church at Liverpool on the 24th of October, 1825, thus joining the two lives who are the main characters of this story. George had been born in December 1794 and Ann in February 1798.

It is common in an isolated locality where intermarriage often takes place, for the people to become less prolific and infant mortality high, consequently whole families can die out. This was becoming apparent on the Isle of Mann and George had a great fear that the Cannon line would become extinct. Consequently he and Ann had come to an agreement before their marriage that if their union failed to produce children they would separate in hopes that with new partners their lines could continue. Happily this sacrifice was not required of them as they were blessed with many children.

(Their daughter, Ann, married Orin N. Woodbury and they are the parents of Angus Cannon Woodbury who married Diantha Rogers who are the parents of Leland Rogers Woodbury who married Myrlene Snow)

The couple make their home in Liverpool and although Ann had come from a wealthy family she was content with the good living her husband made as a carpenter and cabinet make and they helped with the needs of George's mother and her children.

It is interesting to read a description of these two people as remembered and handed down by some of their oldest children: George was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, compactly built and weighing around 160 pounds. He had black hair and blue-gray eyes, his complexion was fair and posture erect. He was energetic, sociable, good natured and had a keen sense of humor, and according to some of his journals and letters had some literary ability. He was slow to anger or to apply physical punishment but his sorrow because of his children's misdeeds chastised them sufficiently.

Ann was a little plump, weighed about 130 pounds and stood around 5 feet 4 inches. She had black hair and very expressive hazel eyes with brown spots. She was nervous, quick and very industrious. She insisted on strict obedience and didn't spare the rod but love her children and quickly showed it after the punishment. She was intense and prayerful. Both parents were good conversationalists, clever at mimicry and repartee and chose their books and friends with care. George was not extra religious but both he and Ann were dissatisfied with the religious sets there and frowned on the contention among them.

In order to advance to an exciting part of our tale we must now bring again George's sister, Leonora, into our account. This young lady is described as being beautiful, lady-like, intelligent, witty and refined. Upon leaving her position as companion to the English lady, she returned to the Isle of Mann and became a member of the governor's household in Castle Rushen, Castletown. There she met many prominent people from England, especially a Mr. Mason who had a daughter who often accompanied him on his visits and she and Leonora became very good friends. At that time a change had taken place in the governor generalship of Canada and the newly appointed official had insisted that Mr. Mason go with him to Canada as his private secretary. Mr. Mason consented on condition that his family go also. His family was willing to go and insisted that Leonora go too. At first she refused, much to the relief of her mother. She then had a dream which revealed that it was right for her to go whereupon Leonora sailed with the Masons to Toronto in the year 1832. Soon after her arrival she became connected with the Methodist Church and made an acquaintance with a young class leader named John Taylor who in time made a proposal of marriage. This she repeatedly refused until she had another dream in which she saw herself very happy in such an association. She accepted his next offer and that marriage changed the course of many lives.

In 1836, Parley P. Pratt was sent from Kirkland, Ohio, to Toronto as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Elder Pratt started on his mission practically penniless, leaving behind his sick wife. He arrived in Hamilton but found he lacked the $2 fare to take him across the lake to his destination in Toronto, Canada. He went into a nearby woods and made his need known to the Lord. Then he went into the town and began chatting with the people on the streets. Soon a perfect stranger accosted him and asked if he didn't need some money. Parley, of course, said yes. Whereupon the man gave him $10 and a letter of introduction to a John Taylor in Toronto whom he had never heard of. In this way he came in contact with the Taylors who were students of the scriptures but looking for further light. After much prayer and study, John and Leonora accepted Elder Pratt's message and were baptized in May 1836. They joined the body of the church in Ohio, Moving with it to Missouri then to Illinois. John Taylor was ordained an apostle and later became the third president of the church. In 1839 he was called on a mission to England in company with Wilford Woodruff who became the fourth president of the church.

John took with him a letter of introduction from Leonora to her family in Liverpool and relatives in the Isle of Mann. They first found the family of Leonora's brother, George and family, who were glad to meet him and receive word of Leonora and the new land. He stayed with them for two days preaching the gospel, then, as he had to leave on other duties he gave them a Book of Mormon. Ann believed from the first and said to her son George, "There goes a man of God, he is come to bring salvation to your father's house." The father was somewhat skeptical and when he started to read the book he became of obsessed with it that he read it at meal time, far into the night and propped up on his work bench. When Elder Taylor returned, they listened further to his teachings and a month later asked for baptism. The two oldest children, George Q. and Mary Alice, as well as the parents, were to receive this ordinance, and although Annie was 8 years old it was thought best that she should wait. The older children had been allowed to stay up and listen to the missionaries while Annie had been sent to bed, but she had often crept down onto the stairway to listen, until one night her father found her asleep there in danger of a fall, thereupon, she had been allowed to sit in on the discussions. Now she wept and pleaded for baptism, so the parents and three children were baptized February 11, 1840. Of these experiences George Cannon wrote in a letter to his sister Leonora Taylor; "I bless the Lord that I ever saw your husband's face, and I now see plainly that our dear mother's prayer has not only been answered for you, but has extended to me and my family through you."

George's mother had died on the Isle of Mann 30 June 1832.

Elder Taylor made the Cannon home his headquarters and often brought other missionaries there to discuss the gospel and sing the songs of Zion.

The Cannon family was anxious to leave for America but due to unsettled conditions in Nauvoo, Illinois, at that time, converts were advised to delay their departure so the family stayed in Liverpool to help and encourage others who gathered there for leave taking. Another thing that made them hesitate was their small sickly baby and thirdly was a lack of funds; although George was financially blessed he freely gave or lent money to his many friends and was inclined to impulsive buying. Ann had been reared in a home of plenty but had acquired considerable knowledge of finances and saving from her father, John Quayle, so she managed to acquire more control of her husband's income and through careful management was able to accumulate a considerable savings account, which together with their other funds was enough for their own passage and to help with another family's fare.

Then Ann found that she was pregnant. Now her husband had had a presentment some time before that she would die during a pregnancy, so each was a time of anxiety. With this one Ann felt a great urgency for the family to start their journey. To wait until spring meant there would be a small baby to travel with and she had a fear that her husband might falter, with friends and relatives berating them for deserting their fatherland to go to that "Wilderness of America", among those "Wild red Indians." Above all else she wanted her children to reach Zion and be with the saints although it might cost her her life as indeed she felt that her life was approaching termination. So in the face of anxiety and apprehension, with no blessings of loved ones, but with might prayer and faith for a safe voyage, they arranged their business and finances and made hasty preparations to leave and on September 17, 1842, they hauled out of Waterloo Dock on board the ship Sidney with a company of other converts. No friend or relative arrived to see them off, in fact they had refused to buy any of their possessions, even some family heirlooms which were sold at a sacrifice.

The passengers were in good spirits, the wind was fair, the weather pleasant and the vessel making about 5 knots. In his dairy George has written: "Perhaps a more agreeable ship's company, both of the saints and the seamen, never crossed the Atlantic. The captain and officers are kind and humane men. The sailors say they never saw a family who agreed better; and they wonder how a company of people who were many of them strangers to each other can bear and forbear in the manner they do."

As they go under way, quite a number of people suffered sea sickness including some of the Cannon children, particularly George and Annie, but their poor mother was afflicted worst of all and for ten days held nothing on her stomach. Nothing seemed to relieve her and again George writes: "I racked my mind in considering and devising what more I could do for my Ann. I had given her consecrated oil, castor oil, pills, salt water, etc., and had the hands of the elders laid on her, still she continued in the same state, and I feared inflammation would take place." And again, "WE had performed the first half of our voyage in less than three weeks, but from that time it has been a series of calms with a light breeze, sometimes in our face. My heart died or sank with me along with the breeze. Ann's constant cry was for some grapes or wine and I was able to obtain a little port for her from the captain, but it did not seem to give her much strength. She was too weak to be taken on deck. I endeavored to speak words of comfort to her, while I had no prospect of her ever seeing the land of Joseph in his life. She talked of her death as of a sleep, told me not to lament her, that if she lived to reach the Mississippi she must be buried on land, if not, the great deep must receive her poor body which is shrunk to a mere skeleton."

"This morning, Friday, the 28th of October, she fell asleep without a sign, and in the performance of what she considered the commands of God, at half past four o'clock, was WHO buried in that element which needed no consecration, it never being cursed, in Lat. 24.37 N., Long. 69.50 at five o'clock in the afternoon of the same day." Little 4 year old grief stricken David had to be strapped down to keep him from following his mother into the sea. So George and his six children faced the future without a wife and mother.

Meetings were often held on the ship to discuss the principles of the gospel but the converts, not being well versed in all the laws, met with a conflict of opinions. This caused dissension and hard feelings which upset George and caused him to write: "This party feeling caused me a good deal of uneasiness, for I knew by the spirit of God that it was nothing else. I had lost my chief comfort on earth and had plenty of time to think of my Heavenly Father and His dealings with His children. I had acknowledged His right to all that I possessed and He blessed me with such blessings as I never had before and assured me in the course which I am now pursuing."

They reached New Orleans on the 11th of November, but the journey up to St. Louis took them a month. George relates this trying time: "I had my trails in the ship Sidney, but they were nothing to the cold and anxiety I experienced on board the steamer Alex Scott. While on board the packet we had to sleep on the deck between the machinery with the wind going through the vessel and a keen frost. I have been six nights without having my clothes off, watching my little ones and keeping them covered. We were now a fortnight on the river, stuck fast in different places and about four miles below Chester I thought we should spend the winter so John and Archibald Boyd and I took possession of a log house and put it in repair. Here our children were washed and their clothes cleaned, and they had need of it. The women were like mothers to my children working night and day, not knowing how soon the boat might be able to go."

As if to make matters worse, the children came down with the scarlet fever or ship fever just as the packet could move on. On the trip, fourteen of the children died with the disease but the Cannon children pulled through.

Upon reaching St. Louis, George found a fairly comfortable house, got settled and enrolled the three oldest children in school. He had feared about his chances for work in the new land but in that fast growing town, there was much demand for a carpenter and cabinet maker and he had all he could do besides caring for his family. In the spring, the steamboat, Maid of Iowa, owned and operated by the Church transported the saints to Nauvoo, Illinois, the headquarters of the Church.

One of the first people to greet them was Joseph Smith. He offered his condolences on their bereavement and had gained knowledge of them through Elder Taylor of their diligence and their kindness to the missionaries.

The family went to the Taylor home where George rejoiced to see his sister again and the children were happy to get acquainted with their cousins who were about the same ages. George again found employment and made good money. He was soon able to buy a comfortable home there and even provided passage for two families to America and gave them aid through their first winter. He also built him a carpenter shop. He helped build and made furniture for many of the houses in Nauvoo. Mary Alice was 15 and able to take over much of the housework and care of the children except George Q. and Annie, who stayed with the Taylor family.

Living in Nauvoo was a pleasant young woman, Mary Edwards White by name, who had come from Wales and had also been a passenger on the ship Sidney and up the river on the Maid of Iowa. George believed she would make him a good wife and be a good stepmother to his children. He wasted no time with a prolonged courtship but made his proposal soon and seriously. She, with an understanding of her responsibilities, accepted him and they were married on the 24th of February, 1844.

The following spring and summer brought on the church members the terrible persecution by some of the citizens and even by open and secret apostates. These were men in whom they had had great confidence who plotted their overthrow. Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum and John Taylor were imprisoned in Carthage Jail under pledged protection by the governor of Illinois. On June 27, 1844, a blackened faced mob forced the jail, murdered Joseph and Hyrum and badly wounded John Taylor. When the bodies were brought to Nauvoo, George Cannon helped prepare them for burial, made the coffins and took plaster casts of the faces and heads from which portraits, sketches and busts have since been made. During John's recovery from his wounds his wife, Leonora, depended a great deal on her brother, George for his help.

Due to the turmoil and uncertainty there, the building trade slowed down but friends that George had made in St. Louis urged him to bring his services there. This he did and was earning good money when he died suddenly on August 19, 1844 a victim of sunstroke. Friends there no doubt took care of his burial but by the time word reached his family and they were able to get to St. Louis, it was impossible to find his burial place. He left his orphaned children and recently married wife without his comfort and support for the trials ahead. Mary cared lovingly for her stepchildren, and although they had suffered much sorrow, they were among those who cared for them and were in the free land of America and among people of their own faith, thus fulfilling the hopes and prayers and labors of their dear brave mother and their valiant, faithful father.

On February 21, 1845, George's second wife, Mary, gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, and later married Charles B. Taylor, a prosperous butcher who provided well for them. They joined the saints in Utah in 1850. When Elizabeth had children of her own and they would remark that it was too bad she never saw her own father, she said, "But once I did." and told them that one time when watching at the bedside of her sick mother she had a dream or vision in which a man stood not far from her gazing at her with a tender smile of approval. When her mother awakened she described the personage to her and her mother said, "Lizzie, can't you guess who that was? It was your father." The girl was comforted, knowing she had her father's love and blessing.

The Cannon children, George Q. and Annie, remained with their Uncle and Aunt Taylor and travelled to Salt Lake with them in 1847, where George Q. went into the publishing business. He later because one of the Quorum of Twelve and served as counselor to three Church presidents. Annie grew up in Salt Lake where she met and married Orin Nelson Woodbury, February 7, 1853. The oldest Cannon daughter, Mary Alice, married soon after her father died and took the three youngest children, Angus, David, and Leonora, into her home where they lived until they made homes for themselves in different parts of Utah.

So we see how the destiny of this family was shaped and instead of dying out, the Cannons now number in the thousands.