George Gwillym, my Great Great Grandfather, was born November 15, 1828 in the parish of Bedwelty,
Glamorganshire, Wales to George Henry Bywater and Elinor Gwillym. He was
the second of nine children born to George Henry Bywater and Elinor Gwillym.
George’s father, George Henry, listed his occupation as a farmer and an
agricultural worker, so George probably grew up helping his father grow crops and raise animals
At the age of 20, George was baptized and confirmed into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints on December 20, 1848 by John E. Jones at Garndduffaith, Monmouthshire, England.
In February 1849, he was ordained to the office of a Deacon and to that of a Priest in April of
that year. At a general conference of the Welsh Mission held at Merthyr Tydfil, May 29th and
30th, 1849, a conference (possibly known currently as a branch or district) was organized in the
county of Brecknockshire, and Elder John E. Jones, Phillip Sykes, and George Gwillym Bywater
were appointed to preside over it, the former as president and the two latter as his counselors
He labored in that conference until July 13, 1851, when he was appointed general book
agent, secretary and treasurer of the Monmouthshire conference, under the presidency of
Elder Thomas Giles. He continued in those positions until Jan. 4, 1852, when he was
called to labor in the Western Glamorganshire conference. Jan. 18, 1852, he attended a
quarterly conference held in Trades Hall, Swansea, where he received the appointment of
the first counselor to Robert Evans, who at the same meeting was appointed president of
that conference. He occupied that position until Feb. 4, 1854, when he, having been
released from all his labors in his native land with permission to gather with the Saints to
Utah, embarked with a company of Saints on board the ship “Golconda” at Liverpool. He
was appointed clerk of the company over the ocean, and commissary for that years’ [sic]
emigration. The Golconda arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 18, 1854.”
George arrived in Salt Lake City on October 24, 1854; and on November 27, 1854, he was
married to Martha Jones by Bishop Shadrach Roundy of the Sixteenth Ward. On October 11,
1855, they were sealed in the Endowment House. George and Martha were the parents of eight
children. They also raised Willard Woollacott Bywater and Anna Woollacott. The other
surviving Woollacott child,
Their Children: Elizabeth about 1855
George Jones 1855-1899
Joseph Gwillym 1857-1931
Martha Eleanor 1860-1952
William David 1865-1866
Henry John 1867-1890
Caleb James 1870-1907
Margaret May 1872-1927
George was ordained an Apostle of the Seventies on December 29, 1855, under the hands of
William Carmichael and made a member of the 25th quorum. As part of the Utah War (May 1857
- July 1858), he participated in the various services incident to the Echo Canyon campaign
during the fall and winter of 1857, and the spring, summer, and fall of 1958. The Utah War was
an armed confrontation between the Mormon Settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces
of the United States Government.
George supported his family by working as a watchmaker and then as a conductor of the Utah
Central railroad as well as a locomotive engineer on the Utah Southern railroad. He escaped
death on two occasions while working for the railroad: once when the driving rod of the engine
broke, and another time when the engine rolled over. His brakeman was killed during that
accident.3
On September 4, 1860
He was called to serve a mission to Europe. To fill this he left Salt Lake
City on September 28, 1860, and arrived in Liverpool on December 12th that same year. On
December 29th, he was assigned to labor in the Cheltenham District, under the direction of Elder
William Gibson, but was shortly afterwards appointed to labor in Wales, his native country. He
was assigned to the Cardiff conference as his local field of labor, under the presidency of Elder
Thomas E. Jeremy, president of the Church in the principality of Wales.
On May 14, 1862, he was called to serve in the presidency of the Glamorgan conference, and in
that capacity he traveled through the conferences of North and South Wales as circumstances
required. On May 22, 1864, he was released from his labors abroad to return home to Zion after
an absence of four years. He sailed from Liverpool with a company of Saints on board the ship
The General McClellan.
He arrived in Salt Lake City on October 4, 1864.
On March 22, 1868 he was called on a home
mission and appointed to labor in Utah County, in connection with Elders Abraham O. Smoot,
Elijah F. Sheets, Joseph F. Smith and others. During the two years he remained in Utah County
he discharged the duties of city councilman, director in the Provo Co-operative Mercantile
Elizabeth about 1855- William David 1865-1866
George Jones 1855-1899 Henry John 1867-1890
Joseph Gwillym 1857-1931 Caleb James 1870-1907
Martha Eleanor 1860-1952 Margaret May 1872-1927
Institution, president of the Provo Library and Literary Association, and vice-president of the
Mechanic’s and Gardener’s Club.
On July 27, 1869, he was called to fill a vacancy in the council of the 34th quorum of Seventy,
created by the death of Elder Taylor.
On February 23, 1870, he was called from that field of
labor by Pres. Brigham Young, to enter the service of the Utah Central Railway as conductor,
which position he filled until May 9, 1870. He was then called to go on another mission to
Europe, to which call he responded, leaving Salt Lake City June 6th and arriving in Liverpool
June 27th of that year.
The first appointment he received after his arrival in Europe was to preside over the Sheffield
conference, but in consequence of ill health he was removed to Wales. On August 1, 1870, he
was appointed to preside over the Glamorgan conference, but continued ill health necessitated an
early release from his labors abroad. On November 16, 1870, he embarked with two other Elders
and a small company of Saints on board the steamship Manhattan, and arrived in Salt Lake City
December 11th of the same year. At the April conference in 1872, he was called with nine other
Elders to labor as home missionaries in the Salt Lake Stake of Zion. He served in that capacity
for a period of twelve years.
On December 9, 1878, he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the council of the 8th quorum of the
Seventy, and when the reorganizations of the quorums were effected, he was removed from the
8
th quorum to the 3rd quorum to fill a vacancy in the council of the latter quorum, where he
remained until his death.
Upon his return from Europe, Pres. Brigham Young desired him to re-enter the service of the
Utah Central Railway Company, which he did. From March 18 to June 12, 1871, he labored as
machinist, then as locomotive engineer to May, 1862, then as machinist in the tool room to April
15, 1883, from which time he was master mechanic of the Utah Central Railway.
George Gwillym Bywater died suddenly at his home in the Seventeenth Ward December 18,
1898.
He had been up town during the forenoon and had returned home for lunch and
was sitting at the dinner table with the twenty-ninth volume of his personal
memoirs before him, and was simultaneously scanning its pages and chatting with
his wife and son Caleb. Suddenly he stopped eating, his head fell slowly forward,
and rested upon his breast. He appeared simply to have gone to sleep. This proved
to be true, but the sleep was the sleep of death.
He was universally known as a great reader, a profound thinker, an able speaker, a true friend
and an honest man; his integrity as an Elder in the Church was never questioned. An obituary
from the Deseret Evening News states that “He was a painstaking student and a man of scholarly
attainments, as gentle as a woman and as trusting as a child."
