ETCHED IN OLD STONE: The King of Winsor Castle

“Soul Liberty and worship is a man’s castle…” (Thomas Bicknell)

SMITH-Post/Dort/Winsor

   2^nd Cousin-6X ANSON PERRY WINSOR (1818-1917)

As the direct descendant of many First Families of Rhode Island, including the Winsors, my Grandma Smith would have been amused by my recent family find: Winsor Castle.  She was quite proud of her Winsor heritage, even suggesting that royal family lines stretched back to the 11^th century English palace of Windsor.   Unlikely at best, even though our 1637 immigrant ancestor, Joshua Winsor (who dropped the “d” in his name), grew up only a few miles away from Windsor Castle, at Stoke Poges.  Winsor family lines did, however, extend to the Old West frontier of 19^th century America -in covered wagons leading all the way to Winsor (not Windsor) Castle. 

(transcribed below)

In fact, Winsor Castle was constructed in 1872 as a fort to protect a large Mormon cattle ranching operation located within the Arizona Strip along the border between northern Arizona and southern Utah.  A bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon), Anson Perry Winsor was hired by Brigham Young to operate the ranch and maintain the fort, which soon became known as “Winsor Castle.”  The name stuck.

The castle’s “king,” Anson Perry Winsor was the great-great-great grandson of immigrant Joshua Winsor, as was my fourth great grandfather Jesse Winsor.  Both men’s families were united through a long line of early American Baptists and a common (my 7^th) great grandfather, another Joshua Winsor (1682-1752).  Both families pulled up roots after generations in Rhode Island, migrating first to New York and then into the Ohio River Valley.  But that is where their family paths diverged.  While my Winsor ancestors set down new shoots in Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan, Anson took a different path: he became Mormon and followed the early leaders of this new and controversial religious movement to the freedom of Utah Territory.  As the descendant of 17^th century Rhode Island pioneers who, through religious persecution and banishment, founded a place where they might exercise a “liberty of conscience,” Anson Perry Winsor’s right to exercise his religious convictions would have been applauded by an ancestor who wrote:

“…that the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace.”  (Roger Williams)

NPS diagram of WINSOR CASTLE

Now run by the National Park Service, Winsor Castle is open to the public and can be toured on site at Pipe Spring National Monument located at the edge of the Antelope Valley region in the remote Arizona Strip just below the Utah border.  It is bounded by the Grand Canyon to the south and by the Vermilion Cliffs and Zion National Park to the north. 

PIPE SPRING NATIONAL MONUMENT - Winsor Castle

Transcription of plaque pictured above: 

“PIPE SPRINGS NATIONAL MONUMENT

Established May 31, 1923

Through Efforts of Stephen T. Mather and Friends

PIPE SPRINGS

Occupied in 1863 by Dr. James M. Whitmore, who

with Robert McIntyre was killed 4 miles S.E. of here

January 8, 1866 by Navajo and Piute Indians.

WINSOR CASTLE

Erected by direction of Brigham Young in 1869-70

by Anson P Winsor for handling the church tithing

herds and as a frontier refuge from Indians.  It became

the first telegraph office in Arizona when the Deseret

Telegraph Line reached here in December 1871.

Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association

And Citizens of Kanab Stake

An interpretive video created by the National Park System regarding the history of Pipe Spring & Winsor Castle can be found HERE. (Thanks, Sue!)