Over the past ten years, my sister has been researching and compiling our family history. In the process, she uncovered the story of a particularly fascinating ancestor whose life took her from Scotland to the American West, and whose descendants would eventually become connected to the famous Osmond family. This is her story.
Agnes Birrell was born on 17 January 1841 in Barony, Lanarkshire, Scotland. She was the oldest daughter of William Birrell and Mary Neil. She had two brothers, William and John, and a sister, Charlotte. Her parents had a young daughter who died before Agnes was born. The family moved frequently as her father worked in the mines.
Her family were Mormons, and as a young girl, she was baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 6 October 1852 in the Irvine Branch in Scotland. The family planned to emigrate to America to join the Mormon community, and as the oldest daughter, Agnes was sent ahead to help prepare for their arrival.
On 11 April 1859, she boarded the ship William Tappscott in Liverpool, England, at the age of eighteen. There were 725 British, Scandinavian, and Swiss Mormons on board, and the voyage lasted thirty-one days.
After arriving in New York, the Mormons sailed on the steamer Isaac Newton up the Hudson River to Albany, then travelled by train to St. Joseph, Missouri. From there, they took the steamboat St Mary to Florence, Nebraska, arriving on 25 May.
It was nearly three weeks before handcarts became available and preparations for the journey west were complete. Under the direction of Captain George Rowley, the company began their trek on 9 June 1859. The group consisted of 235 people, 60 handcarts, and six ox-drawn wagons. Each handcart carried bedding, clothing, and 200 pounds of flour—enough for about a week.
The journey was arduous. They reached Fort Laramie on 27 July, only to discover their food supplies were nearly depleted. By 22 August, at the Green River, swift currents made crossing perilous. Oxen were killed for food, and every part of the carcass was used. Soup was made from willow leaves and knuckle bones. Supplies from Salt Lake City eventually rescued the company on 25 August, but some had already perished.
On 4 September 1859, the company entered Salt Lake City via Emigration Canyon on a Sunday afternoon at about 5 pm. Agnes had walked the entire way across the Plains, pushing a handcart, enduring immense hardship to leave her family, cross the sea, and traverse the desert—all for her faith. Shortly after her arrival, she went to work for William Thomas Van Noy and his wife Catherine.
On 25 December 1859, Agnes became the second wife of William Thomas Van Noy in a plural marriage, sealed by Mormon President Brigham Young in his office. She received her endowments on 11 April 1860. Agnes and William had eleven children together.
The family lived in Salt Lake City until 1864, when a fort was built in Richmond, Utah. They moved into an adobe house inside the fort and were allotted ten acres outside. In 1875, they purchased 160 acres in Riverdale, Idaho, where the Bear River formed a semi-circle around their home. Only four families lived nearby at that time. Their home was plain, with bare wooden floors and unpainted walls.
Agnes and William worked tirelessly to raise their family, producing their own food from their garden and orchard, cultivating sugar cane, and making molasses, and provided their children with an education.
Agnes endured considerable hardship in raising her family. Nine hours after giving birth to her eleventh child, she died on 22 February 1879. Her children remembered her as “their angel mother” and William referred to her as his “angel wife”. Her husband, William, survived her by over two decades, passing away on 2 March 1900, in Richmond, Cache County, Utah, at the age of 72.
Their descendants continued the family line through several generations. Their son, Thomas Lorenzo Van Noy (1866–1929), married Martha Tyresha Vail (1870–1912) on January 13, 1887, in Logan, Cache County, Utah. Thomas and Martha had a daughter named Florence Edna Van Noy (1891–1973), who went on to marry Joseph Franklin Roberts (1886–1938) on 21 April 1913, in Thayne, Lincoln County, Wyoming. Florence and Joseph raised a family of four children: Mary Vannoy Roberts (1914–1978), Frank Vannoy Roberts (1916–1997), Mathew Vannoy Roberts (1919–1990), and Griffith Vannoy Roberts (1926–1995).
Another central figure in the family was Agnes and William's daughter, Agnes Laverna Van Noy (1892–1986), whose life was marked by three marriages. She first married Rulon Osmond (1893–1917) on October 8, 1913, in Salt Lake City, Utah, with whom she had three sons: Rulon Van Noy Osmond (1914–2001), Ralph Jacobson Osmond (1915–1977) and George Viri Osmond (1917–2007)—who became the father of the Osmond singing family. Following Rulon's passing, she married John Wesley Neyman (1873–1959) on September 2, 1921, and they welcomed a daughter, Cora Elizabeth Neyman. Finally, on August 15, 1932, Agnes Laverna married Clarence Hoopes in Logan, Utah.
Additionally, Agnes and William were parents to Isaac Devon Van Noy (1910–1978). Isaac married Lavon Miriam Edgren (1914–1995) on July 31, 1934, in Paris, Bear Lake County, Idaho, and the couple had two children, Gerald E. Van Noy and Carol Jean Van Noy, both of whom died in childhood.
Agnes Birrell's life lasted less than four decades, but the family she helped establish continued for generations. Her story spans two continents and brings together Scottish mining communities, Mormon emigration, the settlement of the American West and, unexpectedly, one of the best-known entertainment families of the twentieth century.
