Joseph Bodily of Syracuse, Davis, Utah was born in South Africa on December 21, 1853, on Bushman's River. He is a son of Robert Bodily Sr. and Jane Pitnum Bodily, both natives of London, England, where they were married. Of their nine children, two were born in London, six in South Africa and one on mid-ocea, on the voyage from South Africa to the United States. Seven of these children are still living.
Robert Bodily Sr., father of our subject, arrived in Cape Colony, South Africa, in December, 1845, and there he followed the trade of a stone mason, but was also engaged to some extent in raising cattle.
The family landed in America in 1860, and arrived in Salt Lake City on October 6th of that year, where they stayed that winter, and in the following spring moved to Kaysville, Utah. Here, in Kaysville, Mr. Robert Bodily died on April 17, 1892, and here his wife still lives [1902].
[With the Homestead Act of 1862 the land at Syracuse, Davis, Utah, became available for settlement; however, the first person to plow and sow land in the area was David Cook in 1876. Joseph Bodily also homesteaded eighty acres and built the first log cabin in 1877. David Kerr, Joseph Hadfield, John Sheridan, and others came in 1878].
Of their family, Joseph and his sister, Jane Elizabeth Bodily -Mrs. Christopher Lorenzo Layton,( Jr)- live in Davis county.
Mr Joseph Bodily grew up in Kaysville, and there, on February 16, 1874, he married Isabella Phillips, a daughter of Edward Phillips and Hannah "Annie" Simms or Simmons Phillips, who were among the first settlers in Kaysville, where Mrs. Bodily was born. Three of her twelve children are dead.
Joseph and Isabella's children's names are:
1- Lucy Mae Bodily 1875; md. John Franklin Compton
2- Fred Bodily b. 1877; md. Amy Christine Miller
3- Hannah Bodily, 1878-1900 -who died at the age of 22 years; md. John Beaumont Coles
4- Mary Jane Bodily b. 1879; md. Homer Chase Walker
5- Joseph Phillips Bodily b. 1881; md. Charlotte Stoker
6- John Earl Bodily b. 1882; md. Mary Ann Cook
7- Isabella Bodily, a twin, 1884; md. Eli James Cooper
8- baby son Bodily 1884(the other twin died stillborn, unnamed) ;
9- Robert Edward Bodily b. 1885-1949; md. Emma Elizabeth Knighton
10- Pearl Bodily -twin - 1888 ;
11- Ruby Bodily, twins,1888 (Ruby died at the age of six weeks),
12- Emma Cora Bodily b. 1891-1978; md. Orson Pratt Bybee
Our subject settled on the farm, where he now lives, in 1887. He has a fine farm of a hundred and sixty acres with a good house, and has followed the sheep raising business all his life. He was raised in the Mormon Church, and his wife was born and raised in the same faith, as were all of their children.
Mr. Bodily was called to help colonize the Little Colorado district in Arizona, and remained at this work for six months. He is a member of the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Quorum of Seventies. Before he settled at his present home in Syracuse he lived for three years at Lewiston, Idaho. His son, Joseph Phillips Bodily, left on the 15th of January, 1902, to serve on a mission in Mississippi and the Southern States. Hannah Bodily Coles, the daughter who died, was organist of the Ward, and an active member of the Church, and a young lady who was beloved and respected by all who knew her.
Mr. Bodily has acted as President of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association in his Ward for a period of eight years. After the Ward of Syracuse was organized he was chosen one of a committee of four to locate a site and make arrangements for the building of a suitable meeting house. They erected a fine brick building, thirty by sixty feet, which is in every way a credit to their Ward.
