LOUISA AURELIA HOUGHTON THOMAS
Written by Grace Pratt Thomas, wife of Norwood Jay Thomas, son of Norwood Washington Thomas, and a grandson of Lousia Aurelia Houghton Thomas

Louisa Aurelia Houghton was born in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, a daughter of Ornon and Aurelia Curtis Houghton. Her father was the son of James Houghton and his wife, Mary, surname unknown. The date of her birth was March 15, 1840. Her mother was Aurelia Curtis, a daughter of Jeremiah and Ruth Stratton Curtis.

Ornon Houghton was born in Rutland, Vermont. He later moved to Oakland County, Michigan, where he married his wife, Aurelia Curtis on March 23, 1834. She was born in Conneaut, Erie County, Pennsylvania. Both the Houghton family and the Curtis family embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and were early converts to that faith. 

Ornon Houghton was a member of Zion's Camp, a volunteer
group of men who traveled from Kirtland, Ohio to Missouri,
preparing for the removal of the saints from Kirtland to Farr
West. This was about 1834 when the persecution of the saints at that place was so fierce.

Ornon and Aurelia had five children, two of which were born
in Jackson County, Missouri, the site of further persecution.
After the saints were driven from Missouri they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the saints again attempted to settle and make homes and worship in peace. The last three of their children were born in Nauvoo. Their children were:

Gaselaum, born about 1835 in Jackson County, Missouri.    He
died young.

Francis, born December 1, 1837, also in Jackson County

Louisa Aurelia, born March 15, 1840 at Nauvoo, Hancock
County, Illinois

Julina Emily, born about 1842, at Nauvoo, Illinois

Nancy Delcinia, born in February 1845. 

Julina died young, and Nancy Delcinia died an infant.
(There seems to be some uncertainty in the records concerning the birthdates of these last two children.)

Louisa's mother, Aurelia died in February, 1845. It appears
she may have died in childbirth or shortly after. In July of
that same year her father married his wife, Aurelia's younger
sister, Mary Curtis. They had one son, Edgar Stratton Houghton, who was born October 10, 1846.  On August 18, 1848 Ornon died in Nauvoo. (There also seems to be some inconsistency in the records showing death date of Aurelia.)

After the death of Ornon, his widow, Mary, aunt and stepmother of Louisa and her brother, Francis, cared for them. They experienced life in Nauvoo during the persecution of the saints and the exodus from there. Ornon did not leave Nauvoo, though, with the main body of the saints. He may have stayed to ferry the saints across the Mississippi River. Louisa witnessed the burning of the temple by the mob.

In 1850 Mary Curtis Houghton was married to Stephen
Markham. When the Markhams began their trek across the plains to Utah, Louisa and Francis were with them. Stephen Markham was the captain of the company. Louisa was ten years old and Francis was thirteen. Upon arriving in Utah, the Markhams settled at Provo.  Two years later when a branch of the church was organized at Spanish Fork, which had recently been settled, Stephen Markham was made president of the branch. Mary and Stephen Markham became the parents of fourteen children.

Her brother, Francis, when seventeen, went with a group to
California freighting. He continued in this and stayed in California.  He liked California and never returned to Utah except to visit.   He became a wealthy rancher and cattleman there. Louisa and her son, Norwood, were able to visit him at his home there a few times. Norwood kept in touch with, and visited the Houghtons in California occasionally up until a few years before his death.

Only a few short years after arriving in Utah, Louisa, a  month short of her seventeenth birthday, became the wife of Joseph
Madison Thomas on February 13, 1857. They made their home in Spanish Fork where all of their eleven children were born. Two of her children died very young.

Louisa was a true pioneer, enduring hardships and trials •
that were the lot of women of those days. She was a hard worker, acquiring the skills necessary to make a home in a harsh frontier environment. She was a faithful member of the church.

She did genealogy and temple work for her kindred dead. A genealogical record book she kept shows very nice handwriting, even though her schooling was probably rather meager. 

In the 1880's she moved with her husband, Joseph Madison
Thomas, and some of the younger children to Ashley Valley, Utah.  Her husband was a peace maker among the Indians, and they often had many Indians at their home.  In January of 1905, she traveled to Salt Lake City by buggy with her youngest son, Norwood, and his bride, Chloe Agnes Hislop, on their trip to be married in the Salt Lake Temple.  Upon their return, she was met with the unhappy news that her husband had died.

In her later life, Louisa lived around with her children.
She was a widow for about seventeen years. She died on February, 2, 1922, at the home of her daughter, Lucy Thomas Timothy.
She was brought to Vernal for burial where she was laid to rest
by the side of her husband in the Maeser Cemetery •