LAUREN HOTCHKISS ROUNDY

Lauren Hotchkiss Roundy was born in 1816 in up state New York. He is the Son of Shadrach and Betsy (Quimby) Roundy. When Lauren was about 15 years old his father Shadrach joined the Mormon Church and moved his family first to the Kirtland, Ohio area, and later to Missouri and Nauvoo, Illinois. It was in Nauvoo that Lauren met and married Joanna Carter. When the Mormons were compelled to leave Nauvoo and trek west, Joanna Carter died at Winter Quarters, Iowa, leaving Lauren with two young sons. He arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in late 1847, and later settled in the Springville, Utah area. He owned a 160 acre homestead and farmed for an occupation. As his second wife he married Jane Ann Koyl, and from this union seven children where brought into his family. Jane died young and left Lauren with a house full of children. A few years later, Lauren remarried Martha Jane Edmiston, who bore three more children. Martha Also died young in 1880 and left the responsibility of raising the family on Laurens shoulders.
Through his long years of sorrows and hardship, Lauren remained loyal to his faith and served in the Spanish Fork bishopric and as a high councilor for many years. His greatest hobby was the development of fine horses, for which he was famous throughout Utah Valley. Lauren was also a veteran of the Indian war. Lauren died at age eighty-five at Knightsville, Utah, in March of 1900. The children that were still alive when Lauren died were (in the order of age): Byron, William, Jared, Hyrum, Lauretta, John, Lillian, Luella, Mary Ann, and Adelbert. It was Lauren Roundy’s type of man who opened the American frontier, and helped make our land a great nation. He truly was a hard working man of integrity.