History of Jane Allgood Bailey

History of Jane Allgood Bailey

Jane Allgood was born on July 4, 1810 in Burslem, Staffordshire, England to Langley and Elizabeth Wakefield Allgood. She was the first child born in the family. She ended up having 7 brothers and 2 sisters.

Jane’s grandfather, Read Allgood, was a skilled and respected craftsman. Her great-great grandfather, Thomas Allgood, was credited with inventing and developing the process that made Japanning of sheet metals at Pontypool, England, permanent. Jane’s great grandfather, Edward Allgood, improved the art of lacquering and also made improvements in the tining of the plates, as was credited on a tablet as the first inventor of the process.

Jane felt the pain of loss of family at an early age. Her brother, William, survived for only a few days after he was born in 1823. Her younger sister, Elizabeth, died at age 3 in 1825.

Jane was a religious person and wanted to know the truth of the things she read as she perused the Bible. Some time in her young life, she received a revelation wherein she saw two men coming to her house to teach her the true gospel as found in the Bible.

Jane met and married John Bailey, who was a frame maker, a craft which as to do with the making of lace. They married on June 4, 1837 and lived in Whitwick, Leicestershire, England.

John and Jane had 6 children. They experienced great sorrow when their third child, and only daughter, Jane, lived only for 16 days and died on February 22, 1843.

During a usual day in 1844, Jane finished her household tasks. She looked around at the well-kept English Cottage and was satisfied with her work. She put on a clean apron, smoothed her hair, and sat by the window with her handwork. Jane had a comfortable home with sufficient money for her family’s needs. As he sat knitting she glanced at the yard through the window. An exclamation of surprise and joy flew from her lips as her knitting dropped to her lap and her hands flew to her face. They were the same! The two men walking up to her front door were the same men she had seen in her vision! When the men knocked at her door, a smiling Jane welcomed them in. These men, shabbily but neatly dressed, had a message for her. She readily accepted it. Little did she know the suffering and hardship she and her family would endure for this message, but this she did know and testified throughout her life: This was the true gospel of Jesus Christ which she heard, and the Spirit testified to her of its truthfulness.

John and Jane Bailey joined the Church in 1844 and were anxious to finally be gathering to Zion. Langley, their son, wrote in his journal, “Father and mother became very anxious that we gather to Zion. Elders interceded in our behalf. We received a letter from the president at Liverpool and an application for a blank (This blank was undoubtedly an application for a loan of funds from the Perpetual Emigration Fund which had been set up by Brigham Young to assist the saints to get to Zion.) This done, we were instructed to get ready.”

Before leaving England, John Bailey hired an auctioneer to sell the family's furniture. To spread word of the auction, the town crier walked through the streets ringing a bell and exclaiming, "Oh yes, oh yes, Brother and Sister Bailey are leaving for Zion. Come one, come all, and buy their goods." This public display embarrassed the Baileys' oldest son, Langley, who asked his father to stop the man. His father declined, his mother explaining that they "were not ashamed to let people know that we . . . are Latter-day Saints." These words of Jane Bailey foreshadow her unfaltering faith and conviction that would pull her family through many trials, not only during the handcart trek but also after arriving in Zion. When two members of this family would so deeply despair that they wanted to give up and die, Jane Bailey would keep them going.

For a detail explanation of their trip across the Atlantic and the excursion across the plains, see John Bailey’s history as recorded in his record. Some highlights during that trip which demonstrated Jane’s faith are as follows.

Eighteen-year-old Langley Bailey was the oldest of four sons of John and Jane Bailey. While crossing Iowa, he had become too ill to walk. He later wrote. "I was unable to walk [and] had to be hauled on Brother Isaac J. Wardle and my brother, John's, cart." When the Baileys got to Florence, they consulted a doctor about Langley's illness. "[He] said I must not go another step or I would die and be buried on the roadside." An elder in the company was asked to give him a blessing, but according to Langley he "said he did not have faith enough to raise the dead." Langley's mother would not take no for an answer and had the faith in the priesthood power. She searched out the apostle, Franklin D. Richards, who, with Cyrus Wheelock, administered to him. Although Langley was unconscious at the time, they promised that he would live to see the Salt Lake Valley.

Miraculously, Langley was able to resume the journey, but he still had great difficulties. When he got discouraged, his mother would remind him of the promise given in his blessing and tell him, in effect, that he had to do his part for it to be fulfilled. One morning when Langley was particularly discouraged, he started out early so he could "get away, lay down under a sagebrush, and die." While stretched out to die, he saw his parents pass by with their cart. He later recalled: "Just then, a voice said, 'Your mother is hunting you, jump up.' I saw mother in haste coming towards me, wanting to know what had gone wrong with me. I told her I had planned to lay down and die. I felt it was too much to pull me on the cart [when they] had as much luggage as they could manage. [She] scolded me a little. She reminded [me] what I was promised by Apostle F. D. Richards. I rode on the cart until the teams from the Valley met us."

At Martin's Cove, Jane also had to persuade her husband to keep going when he felt that death would be a welcome relief. Langley recalled: "My father went to gather some brush, willows, etc., there being no wood, to keep me warm. His hands became very benumbed. He laid down by my side [and] told mother he was going to die (it was not any trouble to die). Mother took hold of him and gave him a shaking up, and told him she was going on to the Valley. He then gave up dying."

Langley Bailey said that when he first saw the Salt Lake Valley, "it was like the Israelites of old in beholding the Promised Land." Impressions soon changed, however. After a week in Salt Lake City, the Baileys were taken to Nephi. Langley describes the living conditions there: "We [were] taken to an empty one-room house, no furniture. Some sagebrush had been placed by the door. A fire was made, [and I] watched the smoke go up the chimney. I said to my parents, 'Is this [the] Zion we have been praying and singing about?' The surrounding was very uninviting. We made our beds on the hard floor. . . . [I] was pleased to find a resting place, though very humble indeed. I looked around and saw little adobe houses, roofs made of willows covered with dirt." In answer to Langley’s question, Jane bore her testimony that this was indeed Zion, where they could live the gospel without fear.

Langley's first impressions of some of the young men also fell far short of his expectations of Zion: "Opposite our window nearby [was] a corral. [It was] Sunday morning. Some young men were roping some wild steers. The language [they] used fairly shocked me.

These negative first impressions were reinforced the following week. What some boys thought was harmless fun instead felt like hypocrisy to Langley, who expected to join a community of the pure in heart: "Sunday I asked the privilege to go outside the house and see what kind of people attended meeting. As some boys passed by me, they knocked me down with snowballs. I crawled back to the house. Mother helped me in. She saw how I had been treated. She got the snow out of my neck and back. I said to mother, 'Is this Zion where the pure in heart lives?'" As Jane cleaned the snow from Langley, she lovingly taught him that we all were imperfect at times, and everyone was at different stages in their personal progression, but Zion was where the saints were, all struggling together to be more like the Savior.

Less than two years after arriving in Nephi, the Baileys' had to face immense personal and family suffering again. Their 14-year-old son, Thomas, froze to death when his mule team was caught in a snowstorm. According to Jane's life history, "Tom's body was returned to the sorrowing parents in Nephi and laid on the dirt floor." This time it was John Bailey, in his grief, who asked his wife, "'Jane, is this Zion? Is this all worthwhile?' And once again this strong woman nodded and spoke a firm 'yes.'"

In 1859, John, Jane, and their two youngest sons moved about 20 miles away to Moroni, Sanpete County. They were some of the first settlers in that area and remained there throughout their lives. Jane was the first schoolteacher in Moroni and also the first Relief Society president, serving for 25 years. With the exception of 14-year-old Thomas, the Baileys all had long lives. John lived to be 83, Jane 85, Langley 91, John Jr. 88, and David 87.

Margaret Nadauld, who served as Young Women general president and is a descendant of the Baileys, feels gratitude for the perseverance of both Langley and his mother:

"Jane Allgood Bailey wasn't about to give up the light of her new religion. She would not be defeated by the cold, starvation, and sickness on the plains of Wyoming...On the trek, her 18-year-old son, Langley, became ill and was so weak that he had to be pushed on the handcart much of the way. One morning he rose from his bed on the cart [and] went ahead of the company and lay down under a sagebrush to die, feeling that he was too much of a burden. When his faithful mother found him, she scolded him and told him: 'Get on the cart. I'll help you, but you're not giving up!' Then the family moved on with what was left of the Martin...Handcart Company. Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, Langley was still alive! He was 18 years old and he weighed only 60 pounds. That 18-year-old boy was my great-grandfather. I'm grateful for the preservation of his young life and for the fortitude and stamina of his noble, courageous mother, who was a light to her family and kept her son going in spite of deathly odds."

Margaret Nadauld saw in her great-grandfather's experience a modern-day application for young women: "You probably will not have to push a handcart in a blizzard over the plains, sisters, or run away from a mob, but you may have to walk away from friends and fashions and invitations which would compromise your standards of goodness. And that takes courage. Soon you will be Relief Society sisters and one day mothers who must lend strength and testimony to future generations. Now in your preparing years, you can't afford to say: 'I'm going to give up. The Church standards are too high. It's too hard to live the standards of personal purity with exactness. I'm too weak.' You can do it! For the sake of your future, you must do it! You can live in the world and not be of the world. The Lord invites us to come out of the cold danger of worldliness and into the warmth of His light. This requires integrity, strength of character, and faith - faith in the truths taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life"

On many occasions, Jane received the special Gift of Tongues during her time in Moroni.

After her husband’s death on 8 February 1891 Jane lived with her sons, most of the time with John and his family. When Grandma Bailey was coming to Nephi for a stay the children were instructed in no uncertain terms to “behave themselves.”

Her granddaughter, Catherine, recalled that as Grandma ironed one day, for a brief time the years fell away and she relived the great days when she was a productive and “doing person.” She could hear her conduct once again in a Relief Society meeting as she had in those long ago years. Grandma Jane to Catherine how she would call the meeting to order and ask “Sister Sheperd” to pray. Then Grandma would recall the words of the prayer herself. Next the secretary, Sister ________ would be asked to read the minutes. She would read the minutes and then Jane would ask if there were any corrections to be made. Jane would then call the roll, give the lesson, and ask a sister to give the closing prayer.

Catherine wrote that her Grandma Bailey was a very strong woman. She was tall of stature, thin, and wiry. She was stern and uncompromising in her testimony of the Gospel and the actions the Saints should follow.

On October 20, 1895, Jane lay on her deathbed. As her family and friends were gathered around her, she once again, and for the last time in this life, bore her fervent testimony that Jesus was the Christ, the church had been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that the Savior had led her by the hand through all her trials and sufferings. A few hours later, she passed away.

Jane’s Obituary in the newspaper read as follows:

Died at Moroni, Utah, Oct 20, 1895, of old age, Jane Bailey, daughter of Langley and Elizabeth Allgood, born July 4, 1810, at Burslem, Staffordshire, England. She embraced the Gospel in 1844, emigrated from Whitwick, Leicestershire with her husband and children in 1856; crossed the Plains in Edward Martin’s handcart company, enduring the hardships and sufferings which the company had to undergo with much patience and fortitude, reached Salt Lake City on Nov 30th of the same year and continued her journey to Nephi where she resided until the year 1860. She then moved to Moroni, Sanpete County, and remained there until her demise. She presided over the Relief Society for over twenty years with dignity and honor. The poor and the afflicted always found a true friend and a wise counselor in Mother Bailey. A few hours before she passed away, she bore a faithful testimony to the Latter Day Gospel as taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith and encouraged all present to keep the faith.

A large procession of the relatives and sisters from the Relief Society followed the remains from the house to the tabernacle, which was beautifully decorated for the occasion. The services were presided over by Bishop Irons. Four of the Elders and two of the sisters, the later her counselors in The Relief Society, spoke of her honor, virtue, and faithfulness in the discharge of her duties.

The following Patriarchal Blessing was given to Jane in Moroni, Utah 25 February 1875.

Patriarchal Blessing by Zebedee Colton on the head of Jane Allgood Bailey, Wife of John Bailey and Daughter of Langley Allgood and Elizabeth Wakefield. Born at Burslem, Staffordshire, England 4 July 1810

Sister Jane: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I lay my hands upon yur head and seal upon you a Patriarchal Blessing for thou art a daughter of Abraham, tribe of Joseph, lineage of Ephraim. I seal upon you a fathers blessing for thou are entitled to all of the blessings of the new and everlasting covenant; and in as much as thou will be faithful unto the Lord thou shall receive all the blessings pertaining unto eternal life and wisdom shall be given unto thee that thou may perform all the duties that are required of thee in the kingdom of God and thou shall receive the spirit of prophecy and revelations and vision of heaven shall be opened unto thee, the power of darkness shall give way before thee and the light of heaven shall rest down upon thee and the angels of the Lord will lead thee unto all the principals of eternal truth, and calls of thy faith in the gospel; thou shall be numbered with the daughters of Zion; thou has a great work to do upon the earth both for the living and the dead and the heavens will rejoice over thee and thou will live long upon the earth and thy reward will be great in heaven and thou will be numbered with the sanctified before the Lord and shall possess all the principles of Eternal Life and shall have the spirit of counsel to counsel thy sisters and lead them in the ways of eternal life and shall have power to come forth in the morn of the first resurrection. I seal all these blessings upon thy head and thee until eternal exaltation. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, even so. Amen.