Biography

Esther Jane James, who was called, “Jane,” was the second child and first daughter born to Sylvester James and Mary Ann Perkins James. [1] She was born in Salt Lake City in 1869. Her mother, Mary Ann, had been enslaved to the Reuben Perkins family when she entered Utah. Her father, Sylvester, was the freeborn son of Jane Elizabeth Manning James. He had come to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, with his family, from Connecticut via Nauvoo. [2] Sylvester had a rocky relationship with LDS Church leaders and was excommunicated in 1885, but Mary, Jane’s mother, remained a committed member all her life. Like her, Jane participated in Church life and lived as a participating Mormon as an adult. [3]

Leggroan family tradition holds that upon Jane’s marriage to Henry Alexander Leggroan, in 1889, her father Sylvester James gave her a plot of farmland in Mill Creek. She and Henry built a small two room home on the land and cultivated the surrounding acreage for more than fifty years. Jane and Henry were closely related to several other black families who lived near them and farmed in Mill Creek. [4]

Jane gave birth to seven children, five of whom lived to maturity. One of Jane’s daughters, Henrietta, remembered, “Life was so much easier then…there wasn’t much money in circulation.” [5] Some money was needed to buy the things they could not raise. Jane took in washing and ironing to stretch the budget. Fabric to make clothing was something that had to be purchased. Jane was a skilled seamstress and made most of her children’s clothing. Her daughters worked for their Auntie Chambers cleaning house and picking corn to contribute to the fabric fund. In this way, Jane was able to purchase material and fashion school dresses for her girls that Henrietta remembered as being “quite cute.” [6]

Self-sufficient farming was hard work. The Leggroan family tried to make their land produce all they needed to survive. They made everything they could, from soap to syrup. They raised wheat that had to be ground at one of the grist mills situated on the creek that flowed from the canyon on the east. They fed the bran and the shorts to the animals and used the flour for baking. Jane saw to it that all the fruits and vegetables were stored for the winter. They made hominy out of corn, dried peaches and apples, and “pitted” vegetables. “They dug long trenches…they filled [them]…with straw and …put their cabbage with roots up [in the trenches].” [7] They covered the cabbage with dirt and repeated the process with potatoes and parsnips. The Leggroans hunted and fished and raised beef, pigs, and sheep.

All of Henry and Jane’s children were baptized and reared in the LDS faith but the family nonetheless, existed on the margins of their congregation due to their race. They attended the Wilford Ward when it was created in the new Granite Stake. One white ward member, Annie Clayton, remembered the Leggroans sitting on the back row and never being completely integrated into the ward family. The 1920 LDS census listed Jane as a member of the Relief Society. [8] “Jane…would come nearly every week [to Relief Society], but nobody sat by her…they would avoid her.” [9] Clayton thought the Leggroans felt pushed “out” because of their color. They felt the sting of prejudice, but would never have complained about it. She believed Jane Leggroan wanted to contribute to the ward family, but did not want to push herself on anyone who felt uncomfortable about her race. One Thanksgiving, Clayton tried to extend charity to Jane and her family in the form of a food basket put together out of welfare funds. Jane refused to take it saying, “Oh no, there are others that need it worse than we do.” [10]

Annie Clayton enjoyed the friendship of the Leggroans, and described Jane as “a very nice person. Oh, they were the best neighbors,” Clayton recalled. “Whenever any of my children were ill and she [Jane] heard about it, she was the first one to come to see if she could help me. Yes she was a fine person. Just wonderful.” [11]

If Clayton’s remembrances are accurate, the African American members of the Wilford Ward were “accepted…as members,” but leaders and other members did not encourage them to fully participate in ward life. [12] Bishops and some older ward members were kind to Jane and her family, but Jane watched Mormon neighbors get up and move a seat away from her when she sat down in Church meetings. Somehow Jane was able to put slights and hurt feelings aside to remain committed to the LDS faith throughout her life.

Jane died in 1945. Henry preceded her in death by only six months. They are both buried in Elysian Burial Gardens in Mill Creek, Utah. [13]

by Tonya S. Reiter

Primary Sources

Bankhead, Henrietta Leggroan. (Daughter of Henry and Esther James Leggroan and resident of Mill Creek, Utah). Oral interview by Florence [Leggroan] Lawrence. Salt Lake City, Utah, 1977. Transcript. Helen Zeese Papanikolas Papers, 1954-2001. Ms0471, box 2, folder 3. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Salt Lake 1^st Ward. CR 375 8, box 2168, folder 1, image 59. Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection. Wilford Ward, Part 1. CR 375 8, box 7640, folder 1, image 31. Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, First Ward Minutes and Record of Members. LR 2871 26. Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Clayton, Annie [Eliza Dexter]. (Longtime resident of Mill Creek, Utah). Oral interview by William G. Hartley. Salt Lake City, Utah, 1972. Transcript. OH 1. Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Leggroan.” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914-1935. Granite Stake. Wilford Ward. 11 Dec 1914, 16 Dec 1920, 31 Dec 1925, Aug 1930, 6 May 1935. CR 4 311. Church History Library, Church of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

United States. 1870 Census. Utah Territory, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City 1^st Ward.

United States. 1880 Census. Utah Territory, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City 1^st Ward.

United States. 1900 Census. Utah, Salt Lake County, Mill Creek.

United States. 1910 Census. Utah, Salt Lake County, Wilford.

United States. 1920 Census. Utah, Salt Lake County, Precinct 3.

United States. 1930 Census. Utah, Salt Lake County, Precinct 3.

United States. 1940 Census. Utah, Salt Lake County, Precinct 3.

Utah. County Marriages, 1887-1940. Henry Leggroan and Esther Jane James, 20 May1889. Microfilm 429,054. Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Utah State Board of Health. Leggroan, Esther Jane. Certificate of Death. Bureau of Vital Statistics. File No. 20. Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Secondary Sources

Black, Susan Easton. Compiler. Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1848 . 50 vols. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1989.

Leggroan, Esther Jane James. Findagrave.com.

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Database, 1947-1868. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Reiter, Tonya S. “Life on the Hill: Black Farmers and Their Families in Mill Creek, Utah.”

Journal of Mormon History

44, no. 4 (October 2018): forthcoming.

Documents

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