Mary LeMarguard Langlois
Mary Ann LeMarguard was born 24 July 1811, St. John, Jersey, Channel Islands, England. Some records say 1810 or even 1809. Her mother was Jeanne Hotton and her father was Phillip LeMarguard. Mary’s older stepbrother was Francis Romeril. Phillip was either married to Jeanne or the common husband to her about 1808.
We really don’t know much about Mary’s childhood. Her other stepbrother was Thomas Ferrell, who was born about 1805. His father was Thomas Ferrell.
Mary married Samuel Langlois 24 Dec. 1831 at St. Helier, Jersey. Samuel was born 23 Dec. 1798, Guernsey, Channel Islands, England. They made their home in St. John. Sam was a miller and was also a shopkeeper. He hired men for employment as laborers around the area.
The couple was blessed with 9 children. 4 of the children died as infants. The others would later come to America with their parents.
The Langlois family remained close to the Francis Romeril family. Samuel and Mary and most of the children were baptized into the LDS Church, in 1851. George, their son, was baptized in 1854.
Mary and Samuel Langlois, their children, Mary Margeret, Nancy, Elizabeth Ann, George, and Harriet, along with the Romeril family boarded the ship Chimborazo on 17 Apr. 1855, and headed across the ocean to America.
Once in America the two families traveled through to St. Louis then Atchison Kansas, joining the Charles Harper Company headed to the Great Salt Lake Valley. They arrived in the valley around the last of October. The grasshoppers had already enjoyed a summer of eating the crops, so it was going to be slim pickings by the time the two families arrived.
Francis Romeril Jr. was already in Salt Lake waiting for his family to arrive. He had traveled about a month and one half ahead of them and the Romerils decided to stay the winter in Salt Lake. The Langlois family decided that they would move on to Ogden where they knew some other people. They parted ways for the time being with the Romeril family, and went to Bingham Fort, or Lynne, Utah, and settled on 2nd street.
When the family arrived at their destination at Bingham Fort, they had to settle for staying in a one-room cabin for the winter. The family numbered 7, so it was a tight fit. It was hard for the Langlois family to get much to eat. They went to work making blankets and selling them to neighbors. The two oldest sisters, Mary and Nancy, were dressmakers and tailors, and worked for Bishop Erastus Bingham and others. The family was able to get enough money to buy wheat and other essentials to last them through the harsh winter. Sam rented 2 acres of land.
George Langlois, being the only boy, was 18 years old when the family settled in Ogden. He had traveled across the plains driving a wagon team. He would do this for a living for several years. George remembers during the summer of 1856 the family was very destitute for food. His father went about a mile and a half to Patriarch James Lake to borrow some flour. He was able to get a little bit, which helped the family out. Mary, the mother, went down along the Weber River gathering currents for the children.
Sam got a job working at Bib’s Grist Mill. Things were starting to look up, when the Saints were ordered to go south in 1857 because of the threat of Johnston’s army. They headed back down to Salt Lake where the Romeril Family was, and they all went to Lehi to wait for things to get better.
In Lehi, the Langlois family moved into a blacksmith’s shop. Sam took care of things there for a while. As soon as it was okay to move back north, the family decided to see if farming was any better in Salt Lake. The Langlois’ settled for a while in Big Cottonwood. Samuel decided to build and home and get a few acres of land to farm.
The next few years for the family seems to be a bit unclear. George Langlois mentions that he went back east to help haul some wagons with provisions for some of the Saints coming to Salt Lake. He met a young lady while traveling back to the valley. He and Mary Charlotte Ohlson were married in 1865 and stayed at the Lynn home with his parents for over a year while their first child was born.
The Langlois family lived within a stone’s throw from the Francis Romeril family. The oldest daughter of Mary Langlois, Mary Margeret, married Daniel F. Thomas about 1856. He would be the first bishop of the Lynn Ward in 1877. They lived just to the west of the Langlois family. Mary Margeret died in 1864. Thomas then married her sister in law, Stova Ohlson, in 1866.
Before 1870, Mary Ann LeMarguard Langlois married Samuel Langley, who was a widower who lived across the street from Mary. This is seen in the 1870 census. So what happened to Samuel Langlois? Maybe he died in 1865, rather than 1875. He could have gotten a divorce, but one would think that George would have mentioned it in his writings. Mary is now living in the Langley household and taking care of her granddaughter, Harriet Thomas, who was only a year old when her mother, Mary Thomas, died.
Sam Langley died in Dec. 1871 leaving Mary Ann a widow once again. She lived the rest of her life in the Langley home at 189 west 2nd street in Lynne, Utah. She was known as “Old Lady Langlois” in the neighborhood. She died 16 Dec. 1900, and is buried next to Samuel Langlois in the Ogden City Cemetery.
The only son, George died in 1911, in Huntsville, Utah. Harriet Langlois died in 1937 in Huntsville, Utah. Elizabeth Langlois died in 1877, also in Hunstville. Mary Langlois Thomas died in 1964 and is buried in the Ogden Cemetery near her husband Daniel. Nancy married a Mr. Sizemore, and no information is found about her after 1856.
References:
“Langlois story, David Richard Langlois, by Barbara Langlois H. (Barbara Hall)” can be found at the Family History Library, card #929.273L266L.
Census’ of Langlois family in Jersey, 1841, 1851, Utah, 1856, 1870, 1880.
New Family Search shows family group sheets of the Langlois family.
Correspondence with Anna Keogh who still lives on 2nd Street at the Old Bingham Fort farm.
“From The Isle Of Jersey To Utah, A History of The Romeril, Romriell, and Romrell Families, by Lee T. Romrell, 2010". ( Book is forth coming).