19th Century Ancestors
The loyalist Westover’s of Massachusetts scattered after the Revolutionary War for a variety of reasons. Some felt unsafe among their Colonial neighbors. Some were offered land grants in Canada for their loyalty to the Crown during the Revolution. Others just found opportunities on the open frontier in the United States in places such as New York, Ohio and even in the wild west of Missouri.
Others found faith and that pushed them West. The epic generation of Pioneering Westover families who pushed from New York to Ohio to Illinois and then across the plains to Utah provides a complex and telling story that would set up a 20th Century of growth.
Mother Electa
The 19th Century Westover’s are led by a host of strong, faithful women. Our Matriarch is Electa Beal, born in 1802 in Vermont. In her lifetime her travels would span the vast American continent in a life devoted to family service.
Edwin Ruthven Westover
Electa’s eldest son Edwin would anchor generations of the family as he put the work of pioneering Utah and Arizona on his own shoulders. It is a tale of prophecy that reaches to today’s generations of Westover’s, which number in the thousands.
Ann Findley Westover
She was a handcart pioneer at the age of 17 and when she died she had taken her first automobile ride to help with the birth of a great-grandchild. As the 3rd wife of Edwin she spent most of her years as a single parent and built a legacy of love still remembered and honored in her community.
William Ruthven Westover
The pioneer son of Edwin and Ann had an unfair start in his life and an untimely early passing. But his vision in building the Westover Ranch in Rexburg, Idaho would launch a 20th Century generation of the family who would take full advantage of an age where education, industry and technology would explode in the 20th Century.