The writer, the second son of Thomas and Ann Aveson, was born in the town of Bradford, Yorkshire, England, on August 22nd, 1847.
My father was an honest, hard-working man; he was not a believer in any particular religion. My mother was more religiously inclined; her maiden name was Fawcett. Both my father and mother were strict in training their family, which consisted of nine children (seven sons and two daughters), five of whom are now dead.
In the early part of 1860 we removed from Bradford to Malton, in Yorkshire, staying there only about six weeks, and then went to reside at Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, a very pretty town at that time. We arrived there February 29th, 1860.
On the 11th of February, 1862, I was engaged to work at Mr Joseph Gould's printing office in Middlesbrough. My wages were three shillings per week. Mr. Gould was a printer himself and did most of the work. He had only one other employee working for him, and that was a boy named Richard Sedgwick, through whom I procured my situation, and whose acquaintance I had made a few months previously.
On the 5th of the following May I was bound apprentice to Mr. Gould. After I signed the indenture, Mr. Brown, one of the witnesses to it, said to me:
"There, my boy, you have tied a knot with your hand which you can't unloose with your tongue."
The indenture stated that my wages should be three shillings and sixpence per week the first year, with a yearly raise of one shilling per week until I had served my time, which was seven years.
About a week after this, a young man, named William Henry Scott, was engaged to work for Mr. Gould, and shortly afterwards was bound apprentice to him for three years. Mr. Scott was from Seaham Harbor, county of Durham, where his parents and their family resided.
The following August, Richard Sedgwick left Mr. Gould's employ and went to work for a Mr. Thomas Carter, picture-frame maker, and was afterwards bound apprentice to him.
William H. Scott was a fine, courteous young man, to whom I became very much attached. He had resided in Middlesbrough only a short time when his brother John wrote to him from Seaham Harbor, stating that his mother and himself had become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and earnestly desired William to investigate the principles and doctrines of that Church. He told his brother to go to a man named Anderson, who was a Latter-day Saint and a resident of Middlesbrough.