JOHN THOMAS GEARY AND SOPHIA FRYER PIONEER HISTORY

 Way cool take a look at this blog about your ancestor

http://johnthomasgeary.blogspot.com/

Dear Rosanne,

This is a really great opportunity for our family!

This year (2011) is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible
translation (1611) with the Church's Ensign doing a nice article in August,
and also BYU having a special exhibit in the L. Tom Perry Special Collection
division downstairs in the Lee Library on the BYU campus.  I recently
visited there and it was inspiring and very well done.

It made me think of our handcart pioneer ancestors John Thomas Geary and
Sophia Fryer and their "1629 Geary Bible" which they carried across the
plains, and how much I would like to have a fireside sharing that Bible with
our extended family.

I so appreciated Kenneth Baily, the previous steward of the Bible, and his
cousin, Kaye Page Nichols, visiting our home and showing us the bible a few
years ago. Now I would like the rest of our relatives including children,
grandchildren, my brothers and their families, our Aunts, Uncles, and
Cousins to be able to share in the joy and wonder of this singular and
historic treasure.  Imagine, a Bible from 1629, and belonging to our own
family!!!!!!!!

The current steward of the Geary Bible, Kirt Bailey of Brigham City, Utah
has agreed to get the Bible out of the vault and travel to Pleasant Grove to
share it with our family at a special fireside. My two brothers, Grant Lee
and Roland Lee, have both arranged to be in town for the special nite,
Sunday September 18th, 7-8:30 at our Ward Building 1028 West 1000 North
Pleasant Grove. My brother Roland works with public affairs and hopes to
entice the Church Historian Office or Church News to be there to take
pictures because it is so unique and unusual, especially with the connection
to the handcart pioneers.

There is a blog with a great deal of information: John Thomas Geary and
Sophia Fryer Pioneer History. The 1629 Bible was owned by John Thomas
Geary's family from Atterton, England who had lived in the Leicester area
for generations. He was baptized 20 May 1851, a month after the 20 April
1851 baptism of Sophia Fryer, whom he married the next year 26 August 1852
in London in the Parish Church of St. Saviour's, in Southwark, Surrey,
England.

John came across the ocean with his brother-in-law Richard Fryer, shortly
after his wife, whom he had sent on ahead with other members of the church.
He landed at New Orleans, came up the Mississippi River to Keokuk Camping
ground where he reunited with his wife.  Here she gave birth to a baby girl,
Sophia Ann Geary, 10 June 1853 and they moved on to Council Bluffs arriving
17 July 1853.

They left from Florence, Nebraska to cross the plains in 1856 with the Siler
Independant Wagons, first adjoining the Willie Handcart Company, and
stopping at Fort Laramie, Wyoming afer they had lost oxen.  They then joined
the Hodgett wagons and Martin Handcart company, coming into the Salt Lake
Valley 15 December 1856.  They had to leave most of their clothes at Devil's
gate, but they didn't leave their bible!

Roland Lee will conduct the fireside, opening song, prayer by Grant Lee,
poem by Uncle James Horald Lee Jr, life story of John Thomas Geary and
Sophia Fryer by Andrea Conley, Kirk Bailey will introduce the Bible and it's
history, closing prayer.

We will have a library stand up near the pulpit with the "1629 Geary Bible"
on it, so everyone can see it for themselves as they file up to the stand
after the fireside. Also, the gold seal will be displayed and the booties
knitted by Sophia when she was a young girl living at Yarmouth, Isle of
Wight, England.

I am so happy! I so appreciate this opportunity for our family! Please let
all your family know about this so they can too can share this special
night!

Love, Andrea
801-701-0728, cell Andrea 801-785-6258, cell David 801-310 6753

PS  Cousin Kirk Bailey descends from John Thomas Geary and Sophia Fryer's
first daughter Sophia Ann Geary while we descend from her younger sister
Eliza Jane Geary who married David Keele. Their daughter Annie Eliza Keele
was Grandpa James Horald Lee's beloved mother.