John Marriott Jr. was born the second of eight children on March 6, 1817 at Rhode, Northamptonshire, England. His parents are John Marriott Sr. born September 21, 1789 at Roade, Northampton, England, and Frances Parish, born June 19, 1785 near Shutlanger Stoke Bruern, Northampton, England.

John Marriott Sr.

John Marriott Jr. had four wives:
Married Susannah Houghton Fowkes on October 21, 1841, they had nine children.
Married Elizabeth Stewart on February 14, 1854, they had ten chldren.
Married Teresa Martin Southwick on November 5, 1855, they had eight children.
Married Margaret Walton Burton on December 17, 1857, they had nine children.

 

"Elizabeth Stewart Marriott was born April 12, 1829, in Colmworth, Bedfordshire, England. Her father's name was Charles Stewart, and her mother's name was Sophia Tingey. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. Her mother died when she was five years of age. When she was nineteen years of age her father died. At his death-bed, his sister, Caroline, was blessed with the "Gift of Tongue." She later blessed all of Elizabeth's brothers and sisters and told them that Mormonism was the true Church of God. This was her father's testimony to them, but he was too weak to tell them. On October 11, 1848, Elizabeth was baptized into the Latter-Day Saints church, known as the Mormon Church. She was employed, doing domestic work. On Sunday she would have four hours off to attend church which was ten miles away. She would run most of the way, and she was so sincere in the church that it was a pleasure for her to attend.

In 1852 her brother decided to leave for Zion. Elizabeth wished to go but she did not have enough money. She prayed to the Lord to help her. She was able to work up to the day of sailing, and she sold her clothes in order to have enough money for the trip to Zion.

When she arrived in St. Louis she had 25 cents in her pocket. She was forced to get work and save enough money to get to Salt Lake City. While employed she was carrying a lamp, and it exploded and burned her severely. For three years she could not work, but she finally got well with the help of the Lord. Her desire was to go to Zion where her people were. In 1853 she left for Salt Lake City. She went with a company of Saints, but had to walk all the way. When she arrived she was penniless. She tried to get work but she could not find work. She finally was able to work for her room and board as a domestic.

One day while sitting and looking out the window, she saw a stranger coming up the path. The voice of the spirit of the Lord spoke to her and said, "This man is to be your husband." It was not long until they were married. On February 26, 1854, she was married in the endowment house in Salt Lake City, Utah, to John Marriott, Jr. She was a polygamy wife and had many trials to go through. She never once regretted her choice. She lived in Kaysville until June 1855, when they moved to a place which had not been settled, and they named it Marriott, after her husband. She lived in a wagon box for six months until they could build a house. Many a weary traveler found peace and rest at Grandmother's home. She always gave good counsel and encouragement to them.

For many years she was president of the Relief Society and Primary of Marriott. The children loved and respected her. They would gather around her and listen to the stories about the pioneers and her conversion to Mormonism. She was a ministering angel among the sick. She cheered their hearts, and with kind words of encouragement helped them get well. She also had the gift of tongue which is a blessing from God. She was a mother of three sons and seven daughters. She spent her later days with Caroline Hewitt of Marriott, her daughter. One of her She died at the age of 84 years, on February 10, 1914, at Marriott, Weber County, Utah."

(Undated -http://johnmarriotths.org/familyhistory/biographies/ElizabethStewartMarriott-biographyByGrandchild.html )

Elizabeth Stewart Marriott's first child, Esther Amelia Marriott married James Fredrick "Wollerton" Brown on March 27, 1884. They had seven children.

Elizabeth's grandson is John Willard Marriott, son of Hyrum Willard Marriott and Ellen Nell Morris.

http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/m/MARRIOTT,JOHN.html:

John Willard Marriott was born 17 September 1900 on his parents' ranch at the Marriott Settlement near Ogden, Utah. From 1919 to 1921 he served an LDS Mission in New England.

In 1923 Marriott graduated from Weber Junior College and began his first business enterprise, selling woolen clothes from Logan to California. He attended the University of Utah and graduated from there in 1926.

Mr. Marriott purchased the rights to sell Allen and Wright (A & W) root beer in Washington, D.C., and on May 20, 1927, he opened a root beer stand with Hugh Colton. A few weeks later he traveled back to Salt Lake City to marry Alice Sheets, June 9, 1927, in the Salt Lake Temple. The couple had two sons.

She was the daughter of Edwin Spencer Sheets and Alice Taylor. In 1930, Alice Taylor Sheets, Mrs. Marriott's mother, married U. S. Senator and LDS apostle Reed Smoot and with that marriage came the Marriotts' inclusion in the political circles of Washington, D.C. He thus acquired family connections with both the Washington political structure and the Salt Lake City ecclesiastical structure.

Alice was the bookkeeper for their root beer business. With root beer sales slowing down as fall approached, Mrs. Marriott came away from the Mexican embassy with the recipes for chili con carne and hot tamales. These items were added to the menu and the root beer stand became "The Hot Shoppe", a popular family restaurant. He soon opened two others. When the Great Depression hit, he was forced to sell all three. However, he replaced them with two new ones in carefully chosen locations. The Depression also caused the loss of $8,000 of his savings when his bank closed down. But even in these difficult times, chain-store merchandising, with its huge volume and low prices, was thriving. Marriott was determined to apply the same principles to the restaurant business. However, as he was in the midst of increasing the number of his restaurants and expanding the menus, he was diagnosed as having malignant cancer of the lymph nodes, and given between six months and a year to live. Remembering a healing experience from his mission, he requested and received a priesthood blessing, which he credited with healing him completely. He lived half a century after his medical death sentence.

Marriott could now be said to have invented the drive-in restaurant, now a part of the American urban and suburban landscape. In 1937 he began catered meal service for airlines. Besides restaurants and catering, his empire eventually grew to include hotels, cruise liners, and amusement parks. In 1948 he was elected president of the National Restaurant Association and was also appointed president of the Washington Stake of the LDS Church. In 1968 he donated one million dollars (a seventh of the total cost) toward what became the Marriott Library at the University of Utah; and in 1972 he donated another million dollars for the Marriott Activities Center at BYU. His older son, J. Willard "Bill" Marriott, Jr., took over most major responsibilities after being named the company's CEO in 1972. He later also made generous donations (including the cost of the famous mural) toward the building of the Washington, D.C., LDS Temple. Marriott died of a heart attack on 13 August 1985." The Marriott Corporation today is one of the leading hospitality companies, with annual sales of over $2 billion dollars.

Sometime before his death at his New Hampshire vacation home on August 13, 1985, J. Willard Marriott summed up the personal philosophy that drove him his entire life: "A man should keep on being constructive, and do constructive things. He should take part in the things that go on in this wonderful world. He should be someone to be reckoned with. He should live life and make every day count, to the very end. Sometimes it's tough. But that's what I'm going to do."

"J.W. Marriott was a living example of the American dream. From modest beginnings in Ogden, Utah, he rose to become one of the world's most successful and respected businessmen, but he never lost the values of honesty, decency, and hard work instilled in him as a youth. He built an enterprise and raised a family, both of which are models for us all."

The Marriott Corporation today consists of five separate companies, Marriott International Inc., Host Marriott Corporation, Sodexho Marriott Services, Crestline Capital Corporation, and Host Marriott Services. The Marriott's had two sons and both are top executives in the Marriott Corporation.

Alice Sheets Marriott was Vice President of the company and played an extremely active role in the corporation. She was considered the pace setting matriarch of the Marriott holdings. In a time where wives were usually in the background, Mrs. Marriott was a full and active partner in the development of what the Marriott Corporation has become today.

Besides her very active involvement with the corporation, she was very devoted to raising her two sons. Even with the demands and time needed to perform these tasks she was still very active in many civic and charitable organizations. She was a trustee for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as a member of the Goodwill Industries Guild, International Neighbors Club and the honorary board of the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse.

On April 17, 2000 Alice Sheets Marriott passed away at the age of 92. The company that her and her late husband founded personified the "American Dream."

Copyright 2001 www.OrsonPrattBrown.org