Mary Ann Webster
Born: July 10, 1834 – Windle, Lancashire, England
Baptized into the LDS Church: 1848 (age 14)
Married Milo Andrus: 1852 (age 18)
Children with Milo: 9 (6 living to adulthood)
— Marlon Webster
— Marinda
— Lyman
— Lucy (Died at age 1)
— Walter Sheridan
— Grant Webster
— Minnie (Died at age 12)
— Nellie (Died at age 1)
— Laura
Other Children: Raised Sara Miles and Milo’s son, Milo Jr.
Died: December 3, 1903 (age 69) – buried in Salt Lake City, Utah
About Mary Ann Webster
Mary Ann Webster, fifth wife of Milo Andrus, was the seventh child in a family of fifteen children born to Henry and Ann Rigby Webster. The family joined the Latter-day Saints Church in Lancashire, England. She with her parents and brothers and sisters crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the ship, Josiah Bradley, which sailed from Liverpool, February 18, 1850. In Mary Ann’s own words, she recalls, “The trip from England was pleasant for my family until, at Council Bluffs, in Dec 1850 my father and sister Rachel died, and my brother Edward died from sunstroke in July 1851. In 1852 I came across the plains with my mother and five younger siblings in the Uriah Curtis Company. We settled at Big Cottonwood where I met Milo Andrus and married him in 1852. From the first time I heard the gospel, I knew it was true and endured willingly any hardship placed upon me. In the 1860’s I lived in the half-way house with some of the other wives where I especially enjoyed entertaining Brigham Young.” In 1874 Mary Ann Webster accompanied her husband, Milo Andrus on his Saint George mission, where they settled in Price, (Washington County) later called Bloomington. She says, “I then followed my husband in 1881 to Blake City, later called Green River, Wyoming. Milo brought along watermelon seeds; most of you know of Green River Watermelons. Here, my daughter, Minna-who was only 12 years old- lost her balance while fetching water and drowned.” Mary Ann reflected on her life saying “Due to my husbands’ many responsibilities in the church much of the care and rearing of the family fell to me. I accepted Mormonism wholeheartedly at my conversion in England and have spent my life instilling within the hearts of my children a deep-seated and unwavering faith in the Restored Gospel which was the guiding light of my soul.” Dean Andrus wrote “Due to the constant service for the Church by Milo Andrus, much of the responsibility of raising the family rested on the shoulders of Sister Andrus, and in addition to working out means of providing the daily necessities, she instilled within the hearts of her children a deep-seated and unwavering faith in the Restored Gospel which was the guiding light of her soul. She accepted Mormonism wholeheartedly at her conversion in England in 1850(1848), and, in turn, this was the impelling force which brought her to Utah within a short period.” The biographer, Kate Carter, observed “Mary Ann Andrus spent her later years with her daughter, Marinda Andrus Hardy, in Salt Lake City where she was a Relief Society worker in the Twelfth Ward. She was unassuming, faithful and a true pioneer mother. “