MATILDA JENKERSON STOLWORTHY was born August 13, 1827 in Alton, England, the tenth child of Thomas and Christiana Lovock Jenkerson. She became the wife of Thomas Stolworthy May 13, 1849, and in 1953 both joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. On the 27th of November 1854, they boarded the ship Clara Wheeler for America disembarking at New Orleans. New Year’s Day was spent in this city after which they sailed up the Mississippi to St. Louis. Another six months was spent here, Thomas working in the iron mills. Joining the Isaac Allred Company the long journey was completed to Utah in 1855.
Hardly had they become settled in their new home when Thomas was called to help with the settlement of Cache Valley and here Matilda’s first child, a girl named Liza Cache Stolworthy was born. A year later the child passed away. From Cache Valley a move was made to Parowan, Iron County where Thomas started a bucket factory and foundry. After several months he brought his family back to Salt Lake City, thence to Centerville and from there in 1868 to the Muddy Mission. When the settlers were released from this mission in December 1870, the Stolworthy’s moved to St. George where they lived with the Jarvis family. In the spring of 1872, Mt. Carmel, Utah became their home, but because of opposition there, the members who wanted to live the United Order moved a few miles north and settled Orderville, Kane County. When the Order broke up in 1885, Huntington, Emery County became the home of the Stolworthy’s for a few years. Later they settled in Tropic, Garfield County. When Thomas and Matilda became too old to care for themselves, they sold their home and moved in with their daughter Elizabeth Jolley in Tropic. Later they visited their youngest daughter, Mary Magdeline Black, in Richfield. Returning to Orderville, they spent their last days with their daughter, Roseannah Lamb. Matilda was the mother of eleven children. She died at the age of ninety-one years, November 28, 1918.
Among her possessions was found a small wooden box and in it was a patriarchal blessing given by William Black to Thomas and Matilda. There was also a license issued June 5, 1893 to Matilda Stolworthy to practice obstetrics in Utah signed by a Board of Medical Examiners. It was sealed and stamped No. 98. Dr. Fen Heber Covington, a great-grandson of Matilda also a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, had her license framed and hung in his office in Twin Falls, Idaho.