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Title: The Women of Mormondom
Author: Tullidge, Edward W.
Language: English
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THE
WOMEN
OF
MORMONDOM.
--
By EDWARD W. TULLIDGE.
NEW YORK.
--
1877.
PREFACE.
Long enough, O women of America, have your Mormon sisters been
blasphemed!
From the day that they, in the name and fear of the Lord their
God, undertook to "build up Zion," they have been persecuted for
righteousness sake: "A people scattered and peeled from the beginning."
The record of their lives is now sent unto you, that you may have an
opportunity to judge them in the spirit of righteousness. So shall you
be judged by Him whom they have honored, whose glory they have sought,
and whose name they have magnified.
Respectfully,
EDWARD W. TULLIDGE.
_Salt Lake City, March_, 1877.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.--A Strange Religious Epic. An Israelitish Type of Woman in
the Age.
CHAPTER II.--The Mother of the Prophet. The Gifts of Inspiration and
Working of Miracles Inherent in her Family. Fragments of her Narrative.
CHAPTER III.--The Opening of a Spiritual Dispensation to America.
Woman's Exaltation. The Light of the Latter Days.
CHAPTER IV.--Birth of the Church. Kirtland as the Bride, in the
Chambers of the Wilderness. The Early Gathering. "Mother Whitney," and
Eliza R. Snow.
CHAPTER V.--The Voice, and the Messenger of the Covenant.
CHAPTER VI.--An Angel from the Cloud is Heard in Kirtland. The
"Daughter of the Voice."
Interesting and Miraculous Story of Parley P. Pratt. A Mystic Sign of
Messiah in the Heavens. The Angel's Words Fulfilled.
CHAPTER VIII.--War of the Invisible Powers. Their Master. Jehovah's
Medium.
CHAPTER IX.--Eliza R. Snow's Experience. Glimpses of the Life and
Character of Joseph Smith. Gathering of the Saints.
CHAPTER X.--The Latter-Day Iliad. Reproduction of the Great Hebraic
Drama. The Meaning of the Mormon Movement in the Age.
CHAPTER XI.--The Land of Temples. America the New Jerusalem. Daring
Conception of the Mormon Prophet. Fulfillment of the Abrahamic
Programme. Woman to be an Oracle of Jehovah.
CHAPTER XII.--Eliza R. Snow's Graphic Description of the Temple and its
Dedication. Hosannas to God. His Glory Fills the House.
CHAPTER XIII.--The Ancient Order of Blessings. The Prophet's Father.
The Patriarch's Mother. His Father. Kirtland High School. Apostasy and
Persecution. Exodus of the Church.
CHAPTER XIV.--An Illustrious Mormon Woman. The First Wife of the
Immortal Heber C. Kimball. Opening Chapter of her Autobiography. Her
Wonderful Vision. An Army of Angels Seen in the Heavens.
CHAPTER XV.--Haun's Mill. Joseph Young's Story of the Massacre. Sister
Amanda Smith's Story of that Terrible Tragedy. Her Wounded Boy's
Miraculous Cure. Her Final Escape from Missouri.
CHAPTER XVI.--Mobs Drive the Settlers into Far West. Heroic Death
of Apostle Patten. Treachery of Col. Hinkle, and Fall of the Mormon
Capital. Famous Speech of Major-General Clarke.
CHAPTER XVII.--Episodes of the Persecutions. Continuation of Eliza
R. Snow's Narrative. Bathsheba W. Smith's Story. Louisa F. Wells
Introduced to the Reader. Experience of Abigail Leonard. Margaret Foutz.
CHAPTER XVIII.--Joseph Smith's Daring Answer to the Lord. Woman,
through Mormonism, Restored to her True Position. The Themes of
Mormonism.
CHAPTER XIX.--Eliza R. Snow's Invocation. The Eternal Father and
Mother. Origin of the Sublime Thought Popularly Attributed to Theodore
Parker. Basic Idea of the Mormon Theology.
CHAPTER XX.--The Trinity of Motherhood. Eve, Sarah, and Zion. The
Mormon Theory Concerning our First Parents.
CHAPTER XXI.--The Huntingtons. Zina D. Young, and Prescindia L.
Kimball. Their Testimony Concerning the Kirtland Manifestations.
Unpublished Letter of Joseph Smith. Death of Mother Huntington.
CHAPTER XXII.--Woman's Work in Canada and Great Britain. Heber C.
Kimball's Prophesy. Parley P. Pratt's Successful Mission to Canada. A
Blind Woman Miraculously Healed. Distinguished Women of that Period.
CHAPTER XXIII.--A Distinguished Canadian Convert. Mrs. M. I. Horne. Her
Early History. Conversion to Mormonism. She Gathers with the Saints and
Shares their Persecutions. Incidents of her Early Connection with the
Church.
CHAPTER XXIV.--Mormonism Carried to Great Britain. "Truth will
Prevail." The Rev. Mr. Fielding. First Baptism in England. First Woman
Baptized. Story of Miss Jeannetta Richards. First Branch of the Church
in Foreign Lands Organized at the House of Ann Dawson. First Child Born
into the Church in England. Romantic Sequel. Vilate Kimball Again.
CHAPTER XXV.--Sketch of the Sisters Mary and Mercy R. Fielding. The
Fieldings a Semi-Apostolic Family. Their Important Instrumentality in
Opening the British Mission. Mary Fielding Marries Hyrum Smith. Her
Trials and Sufferings while her Husband is in Prison. Testimony of her
Sister Mercy. Mary's Letter to her Brother in England.
CHAPTER XXVI.--The Quorum of the Apostles go on Mission to England.
Their Landing in Great Britain. They Hold a Conference. A Holiday
Festival. Mother Moon and Family. Summary of a Year's Labor. Crowning
Period of the British Mission.
CHAPTER XXVII.--The Sisters as Missionaries. Evangelical Diplomacy.
Without Purse or Scrip. Picture of the Native Elders. A Specimen
Meeting. The Secret of Success. Mormonism a Spiritual Gospel. The
Sisters as Tract Distributers. Woman a Potent Evangelist.
CHAPTER XXVIII.--Mormonism and the Queen of England. Presentation of
the Book of Mormon to the Queen and Prince Albert. Eliza R. Snow's
Poem on that Event. "Zion's Nursing Mother." Heber C. Kimball Blesses
Victoria.
CHAPTER XXIX.--Literal Application of Christ's Command. The Saints
Leave Father and Mother, Home and Friends, to Gather to Zion. Mrs.
William Staines. Her Early Life and Experience. A Midnight Baptism in
Midwinter. Farewell to Home and Every Friend. Incidents of the Journey
to Nauvoo.
CHAPTER XXX.--Rise of Nauvoo. Introduction of Polygamy. Martyrdom
of Joseph and Hyrum. Continuation of Eliza R. Snow's Narrative. Her
Acceptance of Polygamy, and Marriage to the Prophet. Governor Carlin's
Treachery. Her Scathing Review of the Martyrdom. Mother Lucy's Story of
Her Murdered Sons.
CHAPTER XXXI.--The Exodus. To Your Tents, O Israel. Setting out from
the Borders of Civilization. Movements of the Camp of Israel. First
Night at Sugar Creek. Praising God in the Song and Dance. Death by the
Wayside.
CHAPTER XXXII.--Continuation of Eliza R. Snow's Narrative. Advent of a
Little Stranger Under Adverse Circumstances. Dormitory, Sitting-Room,
Office, etc., in a Buggy. "The Camp." Interesting Episodes of the
Journey. Graphic Description of the Method of Procedure. Mount Pisgah.
Winter Quarters.
CHAPTER XXXIII.--Bathsheba W. Smith's Story of the Last Days of Nauvoo.
She Receives Celestial Marriage and Gives Her Husband Five "Honorable
Young Women" as Wives. Her Description of the Exodus and Journey to
Winter Quarters. Death of One of the Wives. Sister Horne Again.
CHAPTER XXXIV.--The Story of the Huntington Sisters Continued. Zina D.
Young's Pathetic Picture of the Martyrdom. Joseph's Mantle Falls Upon
Brigham. The Exodus. A Birth on the Banks of the Chariton. Death of
Father Huntington.
CHAPTER XXXV.--The Pioneers. The Pioneer Companies that Followed.
Method of the March. Mrs. Horne on the Plains. The Emigrant's
Post-Office. Pentecosts by the Way. Death as they Journeyed. A Feast in
the Desert. "Aunt Louisa" Again.
CHAPTER XXXVI.--Bathsheba W. Smith's Story Continued. The Pioneers
Return to Winter Quarters. A New Presidency Chosen. Oliver Cowdery
Returns to the Church. Gathering the Remnant from Winter Quarters.
Description of her House on Wheels.
CHAPTER XXXVII.--The Martyred Patriarch's Widow. A Woman's Strength
and Independence. The Captain "Leaves Her Out in the Cold." Her
Prophesy and Challenge to the Captain. A Pioneer Indeed. She is Led by
Inspiration. The Seeric Gift of the Smiths with her Her Cattle. The
Race. Fate Against the Captain. The Widow's Prophesy Fulfilled.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.--Utah in the Early Days. President Young's Primitive
Home. Raising the Stars and Stripes on Mexican Soil. The Historical
Thread up to the Period of the "Utah War."
CHAPTER XXXIX.--The Women of Mormondom in the Period of the Utah War.
Their Heroic Resolve to Desolate the Land. The Second Exodus. Mrs.
Carrington. Governor Cumming's Wife. A Nation of Heroes.
CHAPTER XL.--Miriam Works and Mary Ann Angell. Scenes of the Past.
Death-Bed of Miriam. Early Days of Mary. Her Marriage with Brigham. The
Good Step-mother. She Bears her Cross in the Persecutions. A Battle
with Death. Polygamy. Mary in the Exodus and at Winter Quarters. The
Hut in the Valley. Closing a Worthy Life.
CHAPTER XLI.--The Revelation on Polygamy. Bishop Whitney Preserves a
Copy of the Original Document. Belinda M. Pratt's Famous Letter.
CHAPTER XLII.--Revelation Supported by Biblical Examples. The
Israelitish Genius of the Mormons Shown in the Patriarchal Nature of
their Institutions. The Anti-Polygamic Crusade.
CHAPTER XLIII.--Grand Mass-meeting of the Women of Utah on Polygamy and
the Cullom Bill. Their Noble Remonstrance. Speeches of Apostolic Women.
Their Resolutions. Woman's Rights or Woman's Revolution.
CHAPTER XLIV.--Wives of the Apostles. Mrs. Orson Hyde. Incidents of
the Early Days. The Prophet. Mary Ann Pratt's Life Story. Wife of Gen.
Charles C. Rich. Mrs. Franklin D. Richards. Phoebe Woodruff. Leonora
Taylor. Marian Ross Pratt. The Wife of Delegate Cannon. Vilate Kimball
Again.
CHAPTER XLV.--Mormon Women of Martha Washington's Time. Aunt Rhoda
Richards. Wife of the First Mormon Bishop. Honorable Women of Zion.
CHAPTER XLVI.--Mormon Women whose Ancestors were on board the
"Mayflower." A Bradford, and Descendant of the Second Governor of
Plymouth Colony. A Descendant of Rogers, the Martyr. The Three Women
who came with the Pioneers. The First Woman Born in Utah. Women of the
Camp of Zion. Women of the Mormon Batallion.
CHAPTER XLVII.--One of the Founders of California. A Woman Missionary
to the Society Islands. Her Life Among the Natives. The only Mormon
Woman Sent on Mission without Her Husband. A Mormon Woman in
Washington. A Sister from the East Indies. A Sister from Texas.
CHAPTER XLVIII--A Leader from England. Mrs. Hannah T. King. A Macdonald
from Scotland. The "Welsh Queen." A Representative Woman from Ireland.
Sister Howard. A Galaxy of the Sisterhood, from "Many Nations and
Tongues." Incidents and Testimonials.
CHAPTER XLIX.--The Message to Jerusalem. The Ancient Tones of
Mormonism. The Mormon High Priestess in the Holy Land. On the Mount of
Olives. Officiating for the Royal House of Judah.
CHAPTER L.--Woman's Position in the Mormon Church. Grand Female
Organization of Mormonism. The Relief Society. Its Inception at Nauvoo.
Its Present Status, Aims, and Methods. First Society Building. A Woman
Lays the Corner-stone. Distinguished Women of the Various Societies.
CHAPTER LI.--The Sisters and the Marriage Question. The Women of Utah
Enfranchised. Passage of the Woman Suffrage Bill. A Political Contest.
The First Woman that Voted in Utah.
CHAPTER LII.--The Lie of the Enemy Refuted. A View of the Women in
Council over Female Suffrage. The Sisters know their Political Power.
CHAPTER LIII.--Members of Congress Seek to Disfranchise the Women of
Utah. Claggett's Assault. The Women of America Come to their Aid.
Charles Sumner About to Espouse their Cause. Death Prevents the Great
Statesman's Design.
CHAPTER LIV.--Woman Expounds Her Own Subject. The Fall. Her Redemption
from the Curse. Returning into the Presence of Her Father. Her
Exaltation.
CHAPTER LV.--Woman's Voice in the Press of Utah. The Woman's Exponent.
Mrs. Emeline Wells. She Speaks for the Women of Utah. Literary and
Professional Women of the Church.
CHAPTER LVI.--Retrospection. Apostolic Mission of the Mormon Women. How
they have Used the Suffrage. Their Petition to Mrs. Grant. Twenty-seven
Thousand Mormon Women Memorialize Congress.
CHAPTER LVII.--Sarah the Mother of the Covenant. In Her the Expounding
of the Polygamic Relations of the Mormon Women. Fulfilment of God's
Promise to Her. The Mormon Parallel. Sarah and Hagar divide the
Religious Domination of the World.
CHAPTER LVIII.--Womanhood the Regenerating Influence in the World. From
Eve, the First, to Mary, the Second Eve. God and Woman the Hope of Man.
Woman's Apostleship. Joseph _vs_. Paul. The Woman Nature a Predicate of
the World's Future.
CHAPTER LIX.--Zion, a Type of "The Woman's Age." The Culminating Theme
of the Poets of Israel. The Ideal Personification of the Church. The
Bride. The Coming Eve.
CHAPTER LX.--Terrible as an Army with Banners. Fifty Thousand Women
with the Ballot. Their Grand Mission to the Nation. A Foreshadowing of
the Future of the Women of Mormondom.
CHAPTER I.
A STRANGE RELIGIOUS EPIC--AN ISRAELITISH TYPE OF WOMAN IN THE AGE.
AN epic of woman! Not in all the ages has there been one like unto it.
Fuller of romance than works of fiction are the lives of the Mormon
women. So strange and thrilling is their story,--so rare in its
elements of experience,--that neither history nor fable affords a
perfect example; yet is it a reality of our own times.
Women with new types of character, antique rather than modern; themes
ancient, but transposed to our latter-day experience. Women with
their eyes open, and the prophecy of their work and mission in their
own utterances, who have dared to enter upon the path of religious
empire-founding with as much divine enthusiasm as had the apostles
who founded Christendom. Such are the Mormon women,--religious
empire-founders, in faith and fact. Never till now did woman essay
such an extraordinary character; never before did woman rise to the
conception of so supreme a mission in her own person and life.
We can only understand the Mormon sisterhood by introducing them in
this cast at the very outset; only comprehend the wonderful story of
their lives by viewing them as apostles, who have heard the voices of
the invisibles commanding them to build the temples of a new faith.
Let us forget, then, thus early in their story, all reference to
polygamy or monogamy. Rather let us think of them as apostolic mediums
of a new revelation, who at first saw only a dispensation of divine
innovations and manifestations for the age. Let us view them purely as
prophetic women, who undertook to found their half of a new Christian
empire, and we have exactly the conception with which to start the epic
story of the Women of Mormondom.
They had been educated by the Hebrew Bible, and their minds cast by its
influence, long before they saw the book of Mormon or heard the Mormon
prophet. The examples of the ancient apostles were familiar to them,
and they had yearned for the pentecosts of the early days. But most had
they been enchanted by the themes of the old Jewish prophets, whose
writings had inspired them with faith in the literal renewal of the
covenant with Israel, and the "restitution of all things" of Abrahamic
promise. This was the case with nearly all of the early disciples of
Mormonism,--men and women. They were not as _sinners_ converted to
Christianity, but as _disciples_ who had been waiting for the "fullness
of the everlasting gospel." Thus had they been prepared for the new
revelation,--an Israel born unto the promises,--an Israel afterwards
claiming that in a pre-existent state they were the elect of God.
They had also inherited their earnest religious characters from their
fathers and mothers. The pre-natal influences of generations culminated
in the bringing forth of this Mormon Israel.
And here we come to the remarkable fact that the women who, with its
apostles and elders, founded Mormondom, were the Puritan daughters of
New England, even as were their compeer brothers its sons.
Sons and daughters of the sires and mothers who founded this great
nation; sons and daughters of the sires and mothers who fought and
inspired the war of the revolution, and gave to this continent a magna
charta of religious and political liberty! Their stalwart fathers also
wielded the "sword of the Lord" in old England, with Cromwell and his
Ironsides, and the self-sacrificing spirit of their pilgrim mothers
sustained New England in the heat and burden of the day, while its
primeval forests were being cleared, even as these pilgrim Mormons
pioneered our nation the farthest West, and converted the great
American desert into fruitful fields.
That those who established the Mormon Church are of this illustrious
origin we shall abundantly see, in the record of these lives, confirmed
by direct genealogical links. Some of their sires were even governors
of the British colonies at their very rise: instance the ancestor
of Daniel H. Wells, one of the presidents of the Mormon Church, who
was none other than the illustrious Thomas Wells, fourth governor of
Connecticut; instance the pilgrim forefather of the apostles Orson
and Parley Pratt, who came from England to America in 1633, and with
the Rev. Thomas Hooker and his congregation pioneered through dense
wildernesses, inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, and became
the founders of the colony of Hartford, Conn., in June, 1636; instance
the Youngs, the Kimballs, the Smiths, the Woodruffs, the Lymans, the
Snows, the Carringtons, the Riches, the Hunters, the Huntingtons, the
Patridges, the Whitneys, and a host of other early disciples of the
Mormon Church. Their ancestors were among the very earliest settlers of
the English colonies. There is good reason, indeed, to believe that on
board the Mayflower was some of the blood that has been infused into
the Mormon Church.
This genealogical record, upon which the Mormon people pride
themselves, has a vast meaning, not only in accounting for their
empire-founding genius and religious career, but also for their Hebraic
types of character and themes of faith. Their genius is in their very
blood. They are, as observed, a latter-day Israel,--born inheritors of
the promise,--predestined apostles, both men and women, of the greater
mission of this nation,--the elect of the new covenant of God, which
America is destined to unfold to "every nation, kindred, tongue and
people." This is not merely an author's fancy; it is an affirmation and
a prophecy well established in Mormon myth and themes.
If we but truthfully trace the pre-natal expositions of this peculiar
people--and the sociologist will at once recognize in this method a
very book of revelation on the subject--we shall soon come to look upon
these strange Israelitish types and wonders as simply a hereditary
culmination in the nineteenth century.
Mormonism, indeed, is not altogether a new faith, nor a fresh
inspiration in the world. The facts disclose that its genius has come
down to the children, through generations, in the very blood which the
invisibles inspired in old England, in the seventeenth century, and
which wrought such wonders of God among the nations then. That blood
has been speaking in our day with prophet tongue; those wonderful
works, wrought in the name of the Lord of Hosts, by the saints of the
commonwealth, to establish faith in Israel's God and reverence for His
name above all earthly powers, are, in their consummation in America,
wrought by these latter-day saints in the same august name and for the
same purpose. He shall be honored among the nations; His will done
among men; His name praised to the ends of the earth! Such was the
affirmation of the saints of the commonwealth of England two hundred
and thirty years ago; such the affirmation of the saints raised up to
establish the "Kingdom of God" in the nineteenth century. Understand
this fully, and the major theme of Mormonism is comprehended. It will
have a matchless exemplification in the story of the lives of these
single-hearted, simple-minded, but grand women, opening to the reader's
view the methods of that ancient genius, even to the establishing of
the patriarchal institution and covenant of polygamy.
That America should bring forth a peculiar people, like the Mormons,
is as natural as that a mother should bear children in the semblance
of the father who begat them. Monstrous, indeed, would it be if, as
offspring of the patriarchs and mothers of this nation, America brought
forth naught but godless politicians.
CHAPTER II.
THE MOTHER OF THE PROPHET--THE GIFTS OF INSPIRATION AND WORKING OF
MIRACLES INHERENT IN HER FAMILY--FRAGMENTS OF HER NARRATIVE.
First among the chosen women of the latter-day dispensation comes the
mother of the Prophet, to open this divine drama.
It is one of our most beautiful and suggestive proverbs that "great
men have great mothers." This cannot but be peculiarly true of a great
prophet whose soul is conceptive of a new dispensation.
Prophecy is of the woman. She endows her offspring with that
heaven-born gift.
The father of Joseph was a grand patriarchal type. He was the Abraham
of the Church, holding the office of presiding patriarch. To this
day he is remembered and spoken of by the early disciples with the
profoundest veneration and filial love, and his patriarchal blessings,
given to them, are preserved and valued as much as are the patriarchal
blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob valued by their own race.
But it is the mother of the Prophet who properly leads in opening the
testament of the women of Mormondom. She was a prophetess and seeress
born. The gift of prophecy and the power to work miracles also inhered
in the family of Lucy Mack, (her maiden name), and the martial spirit
which distinguished her son, making him a prophet-general, was quite
characteristic of her race. Of her brother, Major Mack, she says:
"My brother was in the city of Detroit in 1812, the year in which Hull
surrendered the territory to the British crown. My brother, being
somewhat celebrated for his prowess, was selected by General Hull to
take the command of a company as captain. After a short service in this
office he was ordered to surrender. (Hull's surrender to the British).
At this his indignation was aroused to the highest pitch. He broke his
sword across his knee, and throwing it into the river, exclaimed that
he would never submit to such a disgraceful compromise while the blood
of an American continued to flow in his veins."
Lucy Mack's father, Solomon Mack, was a soldier in the American
revolution. He entered the army at the age of twenty-one, in the year
1755, and in the glorious struggle of his country for independence he
enlisted among the patriots in 1776. With him were his two boys, Jason
and Stephen, the latter being the same who afterwards broke his sword
and cast it into the river rather than surrender it to the British.
But that which is most interesting here is the seeric gift coupled
with the miracle-working power of "Mother Lucy's" race. Hers was a
"visionary" family, in the main, while her elder brother, Jason, was
a strange evangelist, who wandered about during his lifetime, by sea
and land, preaching the gospel and working miracles. This Jason even
attempted to establish a body of Christian communists. Of him she says:
"Jason, my oldest brother, was a studious and manly boy. Before he had
attained his sixteenth year he became what was then called a 'seeker,'
and believing that by prayer and faith the gifts of the gospel, which
were enjoyed by the ancient disciples of Christ, might be attained, he
labored almost incessantly to convert others to the same faith. He was
also of the opinion that God would, at some subsequent period, manifest
His power, as He had anciently done, in signs and wonders. At the age
of twenty he became a preacher of the gospel."
Then followed a love episode in Jason's life, in which the young man
was betrayed by his rival while absent in England on business with his
father. The rival gave out that Jason had died in Liverpool, (being
post-master, he had also intercepted their correspondence,) so that
when the latter returned home he found his betrothed married to his
enemy. The story runs:
"As soon as Jason arrived he repaired immediately to her father's
house. When he got there she was gone to her brother's funeral; he went
in, and seated himself in the same room where he had once paid his
addresses to her. In a short time she came home; when she first saw him
she did not know him, but when she got a full view of his countenance
she recognized him, and instantly fainted. From this time forward she
never recovered her health, but, lingering for two years, died the
victim of disappointment.
"Jason remained in the neighborhood a short time and then went to sea,
but he did not follow the sea a great while. He soon left the main, and
commenced preaching, which he continued until his death."
Once or twice during his lifetime Jason visited his family; at last,
after a silence of twenty years, his brother Solomon received from him
the following very evangelistic epistle:
"South Branch of Ormucto,
"Province of New Brunswick,
"June 30, 1835.
"MY DEAR BROTHER SOLOMON: You will, no doubt, be surprised to hear
that I am still alive, although in an absence of twenty years I
have never written to you before. But I trust you will forgive me
when I tell you that, for most of the twenty years, I have been so
situated that I have had little or no communication with the lines,
and have been holding meetings, day and night, from place to place;
besides my mind has been so taken up with the deplorable situation
of the earth, the darkness in which it lies, that, when my labors
did call me near the lines, I did not realize the opportunity which
presented itself of letting you know where I was. And, again, I
have designed visiting you long since, and annually have promised
myself that the succeeding year I would certainly seek out my
relatives, and enjoy the privilege of one pleasing interview with
them before I passed into the valley and shadow of death. But
last, though not least, let me not startle you when I say, that,
according to my early adopted principles of the power of faith, the
Lord has, in his exceeding kindness, bestowed upon me the gift of
healing by the prayer of faith, and the use of such simple means as
seem congenial to the human system; but my chief reliance is upon
Him who organized us at the first, and can restore at pleasure that
which is disorganized.
"The first of my peculiar success in this way was twelve years
since, and from nearly that date I have had little rest. In
addition to the incessant calls which I in a short time had, there
was the most overwhelming torrent of opposition poured down upon
me that I ever witnessed. But it pleased God to take the weak to
confound the wisdom of the wise. I have in the last twelve years
seen the greatest manifestations of the power of God in healing
the sick, that, with all my sanguinity, I ever hoped or imagined.
And when the learned infidel has declared with sober face, time
and again, that disease had obtained such an ascendency that death
could be resisted no longer, that the victim must wither beneath
his potent arm, I have seen the almost lifeless clay slowly but
surely resuscitated and revived, till the pallid monster fled so
far that the patient was left in the full bloom of vigorous health.
But it is God that hath done it, and to Him let all the praise be
given.
"I am now compelled to close this epistle, for I must start
immediately on a journey of more than one hundred miles, to attend
a heavy case of sickness; so God be with you all. Farewell!
"JASON MACK."
"Mother Lucy," in the interesting accounts of her own and husband's
families, tells some charming stories of visions, dreams, and miracles
among them, indicating the advent of the latter-day power; but the
remarkable visions and mission of her prophet son claim the ruling
place. She says:
"There was a great revival of religion, which extended to all the
denominations of Christians in the surrounding country in which we
resided. Many of the world's people, becoming concerned about the
salvation of their souls, came forward and presented themselves as
seekers after religion. Most of them were desirous of uniting with some
church, but were not decided as to the particular faith which they
would adopt. When the numerous meetings were about breaking up, and the
candidates and the various leading church members began to consult upon
the subject of adopting the candidates into some church or churches, as
the case might be, a dispute arose, and there was a great contention
among them.
"While these things were going forward, Joseph's mind became
considerably troubled with regard to religion; and the following
extract from his history will show, more clearly than I can express,
the state of his feelings, and the result of his reflections on this
occasion:"
"I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father's family was
proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined
that church, namely, my mother Lucy, my brothers Hyrum and Samuel
Harrison, and my sister Sophronia.
"During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to
serious reflection and great uneasiness. * * * * The Presbyterians
were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all
their powers of either reason or sophistry to prove their errors,
or at least to make the people think they were in error. On the
other hand the Baptists and Methodists, in their turn, were equally
zealous to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.
"In the midst of this war of words, and tumult of opinions, I often
said to myself, what is to be done? Who, of all these parties,
are right? or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be
right, which is it? and how shall I know it?
"While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the
contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading
the epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads,
'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth unto
all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.'
Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the
heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to
enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected
on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom
from God, I did, for how to act I did not know, and, unless I
could get more wisdom than I then had, would never know; for the
teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same
passage so differently, as to destroy all confidence in settling
the question by an appeal to the Bible. At length I came to the
conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or
else I must do as James directs--that is, ask of God. I at last
came to the determination to ask of God. So in accordance with
this determination I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It
was on the morning of a beautiful clear day, early in the spring
of 1820. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an
attempt; for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the
attempt to pray vocally. After I had retired into the place where I
had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding
myself alone, I knelt down and began to offer up the desires of
my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was
seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such
astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue, so that I
could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed
to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. But
exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the
power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very
moment when I was ready to sink into despair, and abandon myself
to destruction--not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some
actual being from the unseen world, who had such a marvelous power
as I had never before felt in any being--just at this moment of
great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above
the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell
upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from
the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw
two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description,
standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me
by name, and said, pointing to the other, 'this is my beloved son,
hear him:'
"My object in going to inquire of the Lord, was to know which of
all these sects was right, that I might know which to join. No
sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able
to speak, than I asked the personages who stood above me in the
light, which of all the sects was right--for at this time it had
never entered into my heart that all were wrong--and which I should
join. I was answered that I should join none of them, for they were
all wrong; and the personage who addressed me said that all their
creeds were an abomination in His sight; that those professors were
all corrupt. 'They draw near me with their lips, but their hearts
are far from me; they teach for doctrine the commandments of men,
having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.' He
again forbade me to join any of them; and many other things did
he say unto me which I cannot write at this time. When I came to
myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into
heaven."
"From this time until the 21st of September, 1823, Joseph continued,
as usual, to labor with his father, and nothing during this interval
occurred of very great importance,--though he suffered, as one would
naturally suppose, every kind of opposition and persecution from the
different orders of religionists.
"On the evening of the 21st of September, he retired to his bed in
quite a serious and contemplative state of mind. He shortly betook
himself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God, for a manifestation
of his standing before Him, and while thus engaged he received the
following vision:"
"While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a
light appearing in the room, which continued to increase until the
room was lighter than at noon-day, when immediately a personage
appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did
not touch the floor. He had on a loose robe of most exquisite
whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever
seen, nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to
appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked,
and his arms also, a little above the wrist; so also were his
feet naked, as were his legs a little above the ankles. His head
and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other
clothing on but his robe, as it was open so that I could see into
his bosom. Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole
person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly
like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very
bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon
him I was afraid, but the fear soon left me. He called me by name,
and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of
God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for
me to do, and that my name should be had for good and evil among
all nations, kindreds and tongues; or that it should be both good
and evil spoken of among all people. He said there was a book
deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the
former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence
they sprung. He also said that the fullness of the everlasting
gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Saviour to the
ancient inhabitants. Also, that there were two stones in silver
bows, and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted
what is called the urim and thummim, deposited with the plates;
and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted
seers in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them
for the purpose of translating the book. After telling me these
things, he commenced quoting the prophecies of the Old Testament.
He first quoted a part of the third chapter of Malachi; and he
quoted also the fourth or last chapter of the same prophecy,
though with a little variation from the way it reads in our Bible.
Instead of quoting the first verse as it reads in our books, he
quoted it thus: 'For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an
oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall burn
as stubble, for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord
of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.' And
again he quoted the fifth verse thus: 'Behold, I will reveal unto
you the priesthood by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the
coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.' He also quoted
the next verse differently: 'And he shall plant in the hearts of
the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of
the children shall turn to their fathers; if it were not so, the
whole earth would be utterly wasted at its coming.' In addition to
these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying that it was
about to be fulfilled. He quoted also the third chapter of Acts,
twenty-second and twenty-third verses, precisely as they stand in
our New Testament. He said that that prophet was Christ, but the
day had not yet come 'when they who would not hear His voice should
be cut off from among the people,' but soon would come. He also
quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to
the last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was
soon to be. And he further stated the fullness of the Gentiles was
soon to come in. He quoted many other passages of scripture, and
offered many explanations which cannot be mentioned here. Again, he
told me that when I got those plates of which he had spoken (for
the time that they should be obtained was not then fulfilled),
I should not show them to any person, neither the breast-plate,
with the urim and thummim, only to those to whom I should be
commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed. While he
was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to
my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited,
and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when
I visited it.
"After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin to
gather immediately around the person of him who had been speaking
to me, and it continued to do so until the room was again left
dark, except just around him; when instantly I saw, as it were,
a conduit open right up into Heaven, and he ascended up until he
entirely disappeared, and the room was left as it had been before
this heavenly light made its appearance.
"I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marveling
greatly at what had been told me by this extraordinary messenger,
when, in the midst of my meditation, I suddenly discovered that
my room was again beginning to get lighted, and, in an instant,
as it were, the same heavenly messenger was again by my bedside.
He commenced, and again related the very same things which he had
done at his first visit, without the least variation, which having
done, he informed me of great judgments which were coming upon the
earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence;
and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this
generation. Having related these things, he again ascended as he
had done before."
"When the angel ascended the second time he left Joseph overwhelmed
with astonishment, yet gave him but a short time to contemplate the
things which he had told him before he made his reappearance and
rehearsed the same things over, adding a few words of caution and
instruction, thus: That he must beware of covetousness, and he must not
suppose the record was to be brought forth with the view of getting
gain, for this was not the case, but that it was to bring forth light
and intelligence, which had for a long time been lost to the world; and
that when he went to get the plates, he must be on his guard, or his
mind would be filled with darkness. The angel then told him to tell his
father all which he had both seen and heard.
"* * * * From this time forth, Joseph continued to receive instructions
from the Lord, and we continued to get the children together every
evening, for the purpose of listening while he gave us a relation of
the same. I presume our family presented an aspect as singular as any
that ever lived upon the face of the earth--all seated in a circle,
father, mother, sons, and daughters, and giving the most profound
attention to a boy, eighteen years of age, who had never read the
Bible through in his life. He seemed much less inclined to the perusal
of books than any of the rest of our children, but far more given to
meditation and deep study.
"We were now confirmed in the opinion that God was about to bring to
light something upon which we could stay our minds, or that would give
us a more perfect knowledge of the plan of salvation and the redemption
of the human family. This caused us greatly to rejoice; the sweetest
union and happiness pervaded our house, and tranquillity reigned in our
midst.
"During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us
some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would
describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode
of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their
buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their
religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if
he had spent his whole life with them."
Thus continued the divine and miraculous experience of the prophetic
family until the golden plates were obtained, the book of Mormon
published, and the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" was
established on the 6th of April, 1830.
But all this shall be written in the book of the prophet!
CHAPTER III.
THE OPENING OF A SPIRITUAL DISPENSATION TO AMERICA--WOMAN'S
EXALTATION--THE LIGHT OF THE LATTER DAYS.
Joseph Smith opened to America a great spiritual dispensation. It was
such the Mormon sisterhood received.
A latter-day prophet! A gospel of miracles! Angels visiting the earth
again! Pentecosts in the nineteenth century! This was Mormonism.
These themes were peculiarly fascinating to those earnest apostolic
women whom we shall introduce to the reader.
Ever must such themes be potent with woman. She has a divine mission
always, both to manifest spiritual gifts and to perpetuate spiritual
dispensations.
Woman is child of faith. Indeed she is faith. Man is reason. His mood
is skepticism. Left alone to _his_ apostleship, spiritual missions die,
though revealed by a cohort of archangels. Men are too apt to lock
again the heavens which the angels have opened, and convert priesthood
into priestcraft. It is woman who is the chief architect of a spiritual
church.
Joseph Smith was a prophet and seer because his mother was a prophetess
and seeress. Lucy Smith gave birth to the prophetic genius which has
wrought out its manifestations so marvelously in the age. Brigham
Young, who is a society-builder, also received his rare endowments
from his mother. Though differing from Joseph, Brigham has a potent
inspiration.
Thus we trace the Mormon genius to these mothers. They gave birth to
the great spiritual dispensation which is destined to incarnate a new
and universal Christian church.
Until the faith of Latter-day Saints invoked one, there was no Holy
Ghost in the world such as the saints of former days would have
recognized. Respectable divines, indeed, had long given out that
revelation was done away, because no longer needed. The canon of
scripture was said to be full. The voice of prophesy was no more to be
heard to the end of time.
But the Mormon prophet invoked the Holy Ghost of the ancient Hebrews,
and burst the sealed heavens. The Holy Ghost came, and His apostles
published the news abroad.
The initial text of Mormonism was precisely that which formed the basis
of Peter's colossal sermon on the day of Pentecost:
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour
out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and your young men shall dream dreams;
"And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days
of my spirit; and they shall prophesy."
Here was a magic gospel for the age! And how greatly was woman in its
divine programme!
No sooner was the application made than the prophesy was discovered
to be pregnant with its own fulfillment. The experience of the
former-day saints became the experience of the "latter-day saints." It
was claimed, too, that the supreme fulfillment was reserved for this
crowning dispensation. These were emphatically the "last days." It
was in the "last days" that God would pour out His spirit upon "_all_
flesh." The manifestation of Pentecost was but the foreshadowing of
the power of God, to be universally displayed to his glory, and the
regeneration of the nations in the "dispensation of the fullness of
times."
This gospel of a new dispensation came to America by the administration
of angels. But let it not be thought that Joseph Smith alone saw
angels. Multitudes received angelic administrations in the early days
of the Church; thousands spoke in tongues and prophesied; and visions,
dreams and miracles were daily manifestations among the disciples.
The sisters were quite as familiar with angelic visitors as the
apostles. They were in fact the best "mediums" of this spiritual work.
They were the "cloud of witnesses." Their Pentecosts of spiritual gifts
were of frequent occurrence.
The sisters were also apostolic in a priestly sense. They partook
of the priesthood equally with the men. They too "held the keys of
the administration of angels." Who can doubt it, when faith is the
greatest of all keys to unlock the gates of heaven? But "the Church"
herself acknowledged woman's key. There was no Mormon St. Peter in this
new dispensation to arrogate supremacy over woman, on his solitary
pontifical throne. The "Order of Celestial Marriage," not of celestial
celibacy, was about to be revealed to the Church.
Woman also soon became high priestess and prophetess. She was this
_officially_. The constitution of the Church acknowledged her divine
mission to administer for the regeneration of the race. The genius of a
patriarchal priesthood naturally made her the apostolic help-meet for
man. If you saw her not in the pulpit _teaching_ the congregation, yet
was she to be found in the temple, _administering_ for the living and
the dead! Even in the holy of holies she was met. As a high priestess
she blessed with the laying on of hands! As a prophetess she oracled
in holy places! As an endowment giver she was a Mason, of the Hebraic
order, whose Grand Master is the God of Israel and whose anointer is
the Holy Ghost.
She held the keys of the administration of angels and of the working
of miracles and of the "sealings" pertaining to "the heavens and
the earth." Never before was woman so much as she is in this Mormon
dispensation!
The supreme spiritual character of the "Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints" (its proper name), is well typed in the hymn so
often sung by the saints at their "testimony meetings," and sometimes
in their temples. Here is its theme:
"The spirit of God like a fire is burning,
The latter-day glory begins to come forth,
The visions and blessings of old are returning,
The angels are coming to visit the earth.
_Chorus_--We'll sing and we'll shout with the armies of heaven--
Hosanna, hosanna to God and the Lamb!
Let glory to them in the highest be given,
Henceforth and forever--amen and amen.
The Lord is extending the saints' understanding,
Restoring their judges and all as at first;
The knowledge and power of God are expanding;
The vail o'er the earth is beginning to burst.
_Chorus_--We'll sing and we'll shout with the armies of heaven!" etc.
What a strange theme this, forty-seven years ago, before the age of our
modern spiritual mediums, when the angels visited only the Latter-day
Saints! In that day it would seem the angels only dared to come by
stealth, so unpopular was their coming. But the _way_ was opened for
the angels. What wonder that they have since come in hosts good and
bad, and made their advent popular? Millions testify to their advent
now; and "modern spiritualism," though of "another source," is a proof
of Mormonism more astonishing than prophecy herself.
Yet is all this not more remarkable than the promise which Joseph Smith
made to the world in proclaiming his mission. It was the identical
promise of Christ: "These signs shall follow them that believe!" These
signs meant nothing short of all that extraordinary experience familiar
to the Hebrew people and the early-day saints. We have no record that
ever this sweeping promise was made before by any one but Jesus Christ.
Yet Joseph Smith, filled with a divine assurance, dared to re-affirm it
and apply the promise to all nations wherever the gospel of his mission
should be preached. The most wonderful of tests is this. But the test
was fulfilled. The signs followed all, and everywhere. Even apostates
witness to this much.
There is nothing in modern spiritualism nearly so marvelous as was
Mormonism in its rise and progress in America and Great Britain. It has
indeed made stir enough in the world. But it had to break the way for
coming ages. Revelation was at first a very new and strange theme after
the more than Egyptian darkness in which the Christian nations had been
for fifty generations. It was the light set upon the hill now; but the
darkness comprehended it not. Yet was a spiritual dispensation opened
again to the world. Once more was the lost key found. Mormonism was the
key; and it was Joseph and his God-fearing disciples who unlocked the
heavens. That fact the world will acknowledge in the coming times.
CHAPTER IV.
BIRTH OF THE CHURCH--KIRTLAND AS THE BRIDE, IN THE CHAMBERS OF THE
WILDERNESS--THE EARLY GATHERING--"MOTHER WHITNEY," AND ELIZA R. SNOW.
The birth-place of Mormonism was in the State of New York. There the
angels first administered to the youthful prophet; there in the "Hill
Cumorah," near the village of Palmyra, the plates of the book of Mormon
were revealed by Moroni; there, at Manchester, on the 6th of April,
1830, the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" was organized,
with six members.
But the divine romance of the sisterhood best opens at Kirtland. It is
the place where this Israelitish drama of our times commenced its first
distinguishing scenes,--the place where the first Mormon temple was
built.
Ohio was the "Great West." Kirtland, the city of the saints, with its
temple, dedicated to the God of Israel, rose in Ohio.
Not, however, as the New Jerusalem of America, was Kirtland founded;
but pioneer families, from New England, had settled in Ohio, who early
received the gospel of the Latter-day Church.
Thus Kirtland became an adopted Zion, selected by revelation as a
gathering place for the saints; and a little village grew into a city,
with a temple.
Among these pioneers were the families of "Mother Whitney," and Eliza
R. Snow, and the families of "Father Morley," and Edward Partridge, who
became the "first Bishop" of Zion.
Besides these, there were a host of men and women soon numbered among
the founders of Mormondom, who were also pioneers in Ohio, Missouri,
and Illinois.
There is no feature of the Mormons more interesting than their
distinguishing mark as pioneers. In this both their Church and family
history have a national significance.
Trace their family migrations from old England to New England in the
seventeenth century; from Europe to America in the nineteenth; then
follow them as a people in their empire-track from the State of New
York, where their Church was born, to Utah and California! It will
thus be remarkably illustrated that they and their parents have been
pioneering not only America but the world itself to the "Great West"
for the last two hundred and fifty years!
As a community the Mormons have been emphatically the Church of
pioneers. The sisters have been this equally with the brethren. Their
very religion is endowed with the genius of migrating peoples.
So in 1830-31, almost as soon as the Church was organized, the prophet
and the priesthood followed the disciples to the West, where the star
of Messiah was rising.
As though the bride had been preparing for the coming! As though,
womanlike, intuitively, she had gone into the wilderness--the chambers
of a new civilization--to await the bridegroom.
For the time being Kirtland became the Zion of the West; for the time
being Kirtland among cities was the bride.
But the illustration is also personal. Woman herself had gone to the
West where the star of Messiah was looming. Daughters of the New
Jerusalem were already in the chamber awaiting the bridegroom.
Early in the century, two had pioneered into the State of Ohio, who
have since been, for a good lifetime, high priestesses of the Mormon
temples. And the voice of prophesy has declared that these have the
sacred blood of Israel in their veins. In the divine mysticism of their
order they are at once of a kingly and priestly line.
There is a rare consistency in the mysticism of the Mormon Church. The
daughters of the temple are so by right of blood and inheritance. They
are discovered by gift of revelation in Him who is the voice of the
Church; but they inherit from the fathers and mothers of the temple of
the Old Jerusalem.
And so these two of the principal heroines of Mormondom--"Mother
Whitney" and "Sister Eliza R. Snow"--introduced first as the two
earliest of the Church who pioneered to the "Great West," before the
advent of their prophet, as well as introduced for the divine part
which they have played in the marvelous history of their people.
These are high priestesses! These are two rare prophetesses! These
have the gifts of revelation and "tongues!" These administer in "holy
places" for the living and the dead.
It was about the year of our Lord 1806 that Oliver Snow, a native of
Massachusetts, and his wife, R. L. Pettibone Snow, of Connecticut,
moved with their children to that section of the State of Ohio
bordering on Lake Erie on the north and the State of Pennsylvania
on the east, known then as the "Connecticut Western Reserve." They
purchased land and settled in Mantua, Portage county.
Eliza R. Snow, who was the second of seven children, four daughters
and three sons, one of whom is the accomplished apostle Lorenzo Snow,
was born in Becket, Berkshire county, Mass., January 21st, 1804.
Her parents were of English descent; their ancestors were among the
earliest settlers of New England.
Although a farmer by occupation, Oliver Snow performed much public
business, officiating in several responsible positions. His daughter
Eliza, being ten years the senior of her eldest brother, so soon as she
was competent, was employed as secretary in her father's office.
She was skilled in various kinds of needlework and home manufactures.
Two years in succession she drew the prize awarded by the committee on
manufactures, at the county fair, for the best manufactured leghorn.
When quite young she commenced writing for publication in various
journals, which she continued to do for several years, over assumed
signatures,--wishing to be useful as a writer, and yet unknown except
by intimate friends.
"During the contest between Greece and Turkey," she says, "I watched
with deep interest the events of the war, and after the terrible
destruction of Missolonghi, by the Turks, I wrote an article entitled
'The Fall of Missolonghi.' Soon after its publication, the deaths of
Adams and Jefferson occurred on the same memorable fourth of July, and
I was requested through the press, to write their requiem, to which I
responded, and found myself ushered into conspicuity. Subsequently I
was awarded eight volumes of 'Godey's Lady's Book,' for a first prize
poem published in one of the journals."
The classical reader will remember how the struggle between Greece and
Turkey stirred the soul of Byron. That immortal poet was not a saint
but he was a great patriot and fled to the help of Greece.
Precisely the same chord that was struck in the chivalrous mind of Lord
Byron was struck in the Hebraic soul of Eliza R. Snow. It was the chord
of the heroic and the antique.
Our Hebraic heroine is even more sensitive to the heroic and patriotic
than to the poetic,--at least she has most self-gratification in lofty
and patriotic themes.
"That men are born poets," she continues, "is a common adage. _I was
born a patriot,_--at least a warm feeling of patriotism inspired my
childish heart, and mingled in my earliest thoughts, as evinced in many
of the earliest productions of my pen. I can even now recollect how,
with beating pulse and strong emotion I listened, when but a small
child, to the tales of the revolution.
"My grandfather on my mother's side, when fighting for the freedom of
our country, was taken prisoner by British troops, and confined in
a dreary cell, and so scantily fed that when his fellow-prisoner by
his side died from exhaustion, he reported him to the jailor as sick
in bed, in order to obtain the amount of food for both,--keeping him
covered in their blankets as long as he dared to remain with a decaying
body.
"This, with many similar narratives of revolutionary sufferings
recounted by my grand-parents, so deeply impressed my mind, that as I
grew up to womanhood I fondly cherished a pride for the flag which so
proudly waved over the graves of my brave and valiant ancestors."
It was the poet's soul of this illustrious Mormon woman that first
enchanted the Church with inspired song, and her Hebraic faith and
life have given something of their peculiar tone to the entire Mormon
people, and especially the sisterhood; just as Joseph Smith and Brigham
Young gave the types and institutions to our modern Israel.
Sister Eliza R. Snow was born with more than the poet's soul. She was
a prophetess in her very nature,--endowed thus by her Creator, before
her birth. Her gifts are of race quality rather than of mere religious
training or growth. They have come down to her from the ages. From
her personal race indications, as well as from the whole tenor and
mission of her life, she would readily be pronounced to be of Hebrew
origin. One might very well fancy her to be a descendant of David
himself; indeed the Prophet Joseph, in blessing her, pronounced her
to be a daughter of Judah's royal house. She understands, nearly to
perfection, all of the inner views of the system and faith which she
represents. And the celestial relations and action of the great Mormon
drama, in other worlds, and in the "eternities past and to come," have
constituted her most familiar studies and been in the rehearsals of her
daily ministry.
Mother Whitney says:
"I was born the day after Christmas in the first year of the
present century, in the quiet, old-fashioned country town of Derby,
New Haven County, Conn. My parents' names were Gibson and Polly
Smith. The Smiths were among the earliest settlers there, and were
widely known. I was the oldest child, and grew up in an atmosphere
of love and tenderness. My parents were not professors of religion,
and according to puritanical ideas were grossly in fault to have
me taught dancing; but my father had his own peculiar notions upon
the subject, and wished me to possess and enjoy, in connection
with a sound education and strict morals, such accomplishments as
would fit me to fill, with credit to myself and my training, an
honorable position in society. He had no sympathy whatever with any
of the priests of that day, and was utterly at variance with their
teachings and ministry, notwithstanding he was strenuous on all
points of honor, honesty morality and uprightness.
"There is nothing in my early life I remember with more intense
satisfaction than the agreeable companionship of my father. My
mother's health was delicate, and with her household affairs,
and two younger children, she gave herself up to domestic life,
allowing it to absorb her entire interest, and consequently I was
more particularly under my father's jurisdiction and influence;
our tastes were most congenial, and this geniality and happiness
surrounded me with its beneficial influence until I reached
my nineteenth year. Nothing in particular occurred to mar the
smoothness of my life's current and prosperity, and love beamed
upon our home.
"About this time a new epoch in my life created a turning point
which unconsciously to us, who were the actors in the drama, caused
all my future to be entirely separate and distinct from those
with whom I had been reared and nurtured. My father's sister, a
spinster, who had money at her own disposal, and who was one of
those strong-minded women of whom so much is said in this our day,
concluded to emigrate to the great West,--at that time Ohio seemed
a fabulous distance from civilization and enlightenment, and going
to Ohio then was as great an undertaking as going to China or
Japan is at the present day. She entreated my parents to allow me
to accompany her, and promised to be as faithful and devoted to
me as possible, until they should join us, and that they expected
very shortly to do; their confidence in aunt Sarah's ability
and self-reliance was unbounded, and so, after much persuasion,
they consented to part with me for a short interval of time; but
circumstances, over which we mortals have no control, were so
overruled that I never saw my beloved mother again. Our journey was
a pleasant one; the beautiful scenery through which our route lay
had charms indescribable for me, who had never been farther from
home than New Haven, in which city I had passed a part of my time,
and to me it was nearer a paradise than any other place on earth.
The magnificent lakes, rivers, mountains, and romantic forests were
all delineations of nature which delighted my imagination.
"We settled a few miles inland from the picturesque Lake Erie,
and here in after years, were the saints of God gathered and the
everlasting gospel proclaimed. My beloved aunt Sarah was a true
friend and instructor to me, and had much influence in maturing my
womanly character and developing my home education. She hated the
priests of the day, and believed them all deceivers and hypocrites;
her religion consisted in visiting the widow and the fatherless and
keeping herself 'unspotted from the world.'
"Shortly after entering my twenty-first year I became acquainted
with a young man from Vermont, Newel K. Whitney, who, like myself,
had left home and relatives and was determined to carve out a
fortune for himself. He had been engaged in trading with the
settlers and Indians at Green Bay, Mich., buying furs extensively
for the eastern markets. In his travels to and from New York
he passed along the charming Lake Erie, and from some unknown
influence he concluded to settle and make a permanent home for
himself in this region of country; and then subsequently we met
and became acquainted; and being thoroughly convinced that we were
suited to each other, we were married by the Presbyterian minister
of that place, the Rev. J. Badger. We prospered in all our efforts
to accumulate wealth, so much so, that among our friends it came to
be remarked that nothing of Whitney's ever got lost on the lake,
and no product of his exportation was ever low in the market;
always ready sales and fair prices. We had neither of us ever made
any profession of religion, but contrary to my early education I
was naturally religious, and I expressed to my husband a wish that
we should unite ourselves to one of the churches, after examining
into their principles and deciding for ourselves. Accordingly we
united ourselves with the Campbellites, who were then making many
converts, and whose principles seemed most in accordance with
the scriptures. We continued in this church, which to us was the
nearest pattern to our Saviour's teachings, until Parley P. Pratt
and another elder preached the everlasting gospel in Kirtland."
CHAPTER V.
THE VOICE, AND THE MESSENGER OF THE COVENANT.
And there came one as a "voice crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the
way of the Lord!"
Thus ever!
A coming to Israel with "a new and everlasting covenant;" this was the
theme of the ancient prophets, now unfolded.
There was the voice crying in the wilderness of Ohio, just before the
advent of the latter-day prophet.
The voice was Sidney Rigdon. He was to Joseph Smith as a John the
Baptist.
The forerunner made straight the way in the wilderness of the virgin
West. He raised up a church of disciples in and around Kirtland. He led
those who afterwards became latter-day saints to faith in the promises,
and baptized them in water for the remission of sins. But he had not
power to baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire from heaven.
Yet he taught the literal fulfillment of the prophesies concerning the
last days, and heralded the advent of the "one greater than I."
"The same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost."
That is ever the "one greater than I," be his name whatever it may.
Joseph Smith baptized with the Holy Ghost. But Sidney knew not that he
was heralding Joseph.
And the prophet himself was but as the voice crying in the wilderness
of the great dark world: "Prepare ye the way for the second advent of
earth's Lord." His mission was also to "make straight in the desert a
highway" for the God of Israel; for Israel was going up,--following the
angel of the covenant, to the chambers of the mountains.
He came with a great lamp and a great light in those days, dazzling to
the eyes of the generation that "crucified" him in its blindness.
Joseph was the sign of Messiah's coming. He unlocked the sealed heavens
by faith and "election." He came in "the spirit and power of Elijah."
The mantle of Elijah was upon him.
Be it always understood that the coming of Joseph Smith "to restore the
covenant to Israel" signifies the near advent of Messiah to reign as
King of Israel. Joseph was the Elijah of the last days.
These are the first principles of Mormonism. And to witness of their
truth this testament of the sisters is given, with the signs and
wonders proceeding from the mission of Him who unlocked the heavens and
preached the gospel of new revelations to the world, whose light of
revelation had gone out.
But first came the famous Alexander Campbell and his compeer, Sidney
Rigdon, to the West with the "lamp." Seekers after truth, whose hearts
had, been strangely moved by some potent spirit, whose influence they
felt pervading but understood not, saw the lamp and admired.
Mr. Campbell, of Virginia, was a reformed Baptist. He with Sidney
Rigdon, a Mr. Walter Scott, and some other gifted men, had dissented
from the regular Baptists, from whom they differed much in doctrine.
They preached baptism for the remission of sins, promised the gift of
the Holy Ghost, and believed in the literal fulfillment of prophesy.
They also had some of the apostolic forms of organization in their
church.
In Ohio they raised up branches. In Kirtland and the regions round,
they made many disciples, who bore the style of "disciples," though
the popular sect-name was "Campbellites." Among them were Eliza R.
Snow, Elizabeth Ann Whitney, and many more, who afterwards embraced the
"fullness of the everlasting gospel" as restored by the angels to the
Mormon prophet.
But these evangels of a John the Baptist mission brought not to the
West the light of new revelation in their lamp.
These had not yet even heard of the opening of a new dispensation of
revelations. As they came by the way they had seen no angels with new
commissions for the Messiah age. No Moses nor Elijah had been with them
on a mount of transfiguration. Nor had they entered into the chamber
with the angel of the covenant, bringing a renewal of the covenant to
Israel. This was in the mission of the "one greater" than they who came
after.
They brought the lamp without the light--nothing more. Better _the
light_ without the evangelical lamp--better a conscientious intellect
than the forms of sectarian godliness without the power.
Without the power to unlock the heavens, and the Elijah faith to call
the angels down, there could be no new dispensation--no millennial
civilization for the world, to crown the civilization of the ages.
Light came to Sidney Rigdon from the Mormon Elijah, and he comprehended
the light; but Alexander Campbell rejected the prophet when his message
came; he would have none of his angels. He had been preaching the
literal fulfillment of prophesy, but when the covenant was revealed he
was not ready. The lamp, not the light, was his admiration. Himself
was the lamp; _Joseph had the light from the spirit world_, and the
darkness comprehended it not.
Alexander Campbell was a learned and an able man--the very _form of
wisdom_, but without the spirit.
Joseph Smith was an unlettered youth. He came not in the polished
_form_ of wisdom--either divine or human--but in the demonstration of
the Holy Ghost, and with signs following the believer.
Mr. Campbell would receive no new revelation from such an one--no
everlasting covenant from the new Jerusalem which was waiting to come
down, to establish on earth a great spiritual empire, that the King
might appear to Zion in his glory, with all his angels and the ancients
of days.
The tattered and blood-stained commissions of old Rome were sufficient
for the polished divine,--Rome which had made all nations drunk with
her spiritual fornications,--Rome which put to death the Son of God
when his Israel in blindness rejected him.
Between Rome and Jerusalem there was now the great controversy of the
God of Israel. Not the old Jerusalem which had traveled from the east
to the west, led by the angel of the covenant, up out of the land of
Egypt! The new Jerusalem to the earth then, as she is to-day! Ever will
she be the new Jerusalem--ever will "old things" be passing away when
"the Lord cometh!"
And the angel of the west appeared by night to the youth, as he watched
in the chamber of his father's house, in a little village in the State
of New York. On that charmed night when the invisibles hovered about
the earth the angel that stood before him read to the messenger of
Messiah the mystic text of his mission:
"_Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even
the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold he shall
come, saith the Lord of Hosts._"
CHAPTER VI.
AN ANGEL FROM THE CLOUD IS HEARD IN KIRTLAND--THE "DAUGHTER OF THE
VOICE."
Now there dwelt in Kirtland in those days disciples who feared the Lord.
And they "spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard
it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that
feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name."
"We had been praying," says mother Whitney, "to know from the Lord how
we could obtain the gift of the Holy Ghost."
"My husband, Newel K. Whitney, and myself, were Campbellites. We had
been baptized for the remission of our sins, and believed in the laying
on of hands and the gifts of the spirit. But there was no one with
authority to confer the Holy Ghost upon us. We were seeking to know how
to obtain the spirit and the gifts bestowed upon the ancient saints.
"Sister Eliza Snow was also a Campbellite. We were acquainted before
the restoration of the gospel to the earth. She, like myself, was
seeking for the fullness of the gospel. She lived at the time in Mantua.
"One night--it was midnight--as my husband and I, in our house at
Kirtland, were praying to the father to be shown the way, the spirit
rested upon us and a _cloud_ overshadowed the house.
"It was as though we were out of doors. The house passed away from
our vision. We were not conscious of anything but the presence of the
spirit and the cloud that was over us.
"We were wrapped in the cloud. A solemn awe pervaded us. We saw the
cloud and we felt the spirit of the Lord.
"Then we heard a voice out of the cloud saying:
"'Prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming!'
"At this we marveled greatly; but from that moment we knew that the
word of the Lord was coming to Kirtland."
Now this is an Hebraic sign, well known to Israel after the glory of
Israel had departed. It was called by the sacred people who inherited
the covenant "the daughter of the voice."
Blindness had happened to Israel. The prophets and the seers the Lord
had covered, but the "daughter of the voice" was still left to Israel.
From time to time a few, with the magic blood of the prophets in them,
heard the voice speaking to them out of the cloud.
Down through the ages the "daughter of the voice" followed the children
of Israel in their dispersions. Down through the ages, from time to
time, some of the children of the sacred seed have heard the voice.
This is the tradition of the sons and daughters of Judah.
It was the "daughter of the voice" that Mother Whitney and her husband
heard, at midnight, in Kirtland, speaking to them out of the cloud.
Mother Whitney and her husband were of the seed of Israel (so run their
patriarchal blessings); it was their gift and privilege to hear the
"voice."
_He_ was coming now, whose right it is to reign. The throne of David
was about to be re-set up and given to the lion of the tribe of Judah.
The everlasting King of the new Jerusalem was coming down, with the
tens of thousands of his saints.
The star of Messiah was traveling from the east to the west. The
prophet--the messenger of Messiah's covenant--was about to remove
farther westward, towards the place where his Lord in due time will
commence his reign, which shall extend over all the earth.
This was the meaning of that vision of the "cloud" in Kirtland, at
midnight, overshadowing the house of Newel K. Whitney; this the
significance of the "voice" which spoke out of the cloud, saying:
"Prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming!"
The Lord of Hosts was about to make up his jewels for the crown of his
appearing; and there were many of those jewels already in the West.
CHAPTER VII.
AN ISRAEL PREPARED BY VISIONS, DREAMS AND ANGELS--INTERESTING AND
MIRACULOUS STORY OF PARLEY P. PRATT--A MYSTIC SIGN OF MESSIAH IN THE
HEAVENS--THE ANGEL'S WORDS FULFILLED.
The divine narrative leads directly into the personal story of Parley
P. Pratt. He it was who first brought the Mormon mission west. He it
was who presented the Book of Mormon to Sidney Rigdon, and converted
him to the new covenant which Jehovah was making with a latter-day
Israel.
Parley P. Pratt was one of the earliest of the new apostles. By nature
he was both poet and prophet. The soul of prophesy was born in him. In
his lifetime he was the Mormon Isaiah. All his writings were Hebraic.
He may have been of Jewish blood. He certainly possessed the Jewish
genius, of the prophet order.
It would seem that the spirit of this great latter-day work could not
throw its divine charms around the youthful prophet, who had been
raised up to open a crowning spiritual dispensation, without peculiarly
affecting the spiritual minded everywhere--both men and women.
It is one of the remarkable facts connected with the rise of Mormonism
in the age that, at about the time Joseph Smith was receiving the
administration of angels, thousands both in America and Great Britain
were favored with corresponding visions and intuitions. Hence, indeed,
its success, which was quite as astonishing as the spiritual work of
the early Christians.
One of the first manifestations was that of earnest gospel-seekers
having visions of the elders before they came, and recognizing them
when they did come bearing the tidings. Many of the sisters, as well as
the brethren, can bear witness of this.
This very peculiar experience gave special significance to one of the
earliest hymns, sung by the saints, of the angel who "came down from
the mansions of glory" with "the fullness of Jesus's gospel," and also
the "covenant to gather his people," the refrain of which was,
"O! Israel! O! Israel! in all your abidings,
Prepare for your Lord, when you hear these glad tidings."
An Israel had been prepared in all their "abidings," by visions and
signs, like sister Whitney, who heard the voice of the angel, from the
cloud, bidding her prepare for the coming word of the Lord. Parley P.
Pratt was the elder who fulfilled her vision, and brought the word of
the Lord direct from Joseph to Kirtland.
And Parley himself was one of an Israel who had been thus mysteriously
prepared for the great latter-day mission, of which he became so marked
an apostle.
Before he reached the age of manhood, Parley had in his native State
(N.Y.) met with reverses in fortune so serious as to change the
purposes of his life.
"I resolved," he says, "to bid farewell to the civilized world, where
I had met with little else but disappointment, sorrow and unrewarded
toil; and where sectarian divisions disgusted, and ignorance perplexed
me,--and to spend the remainder of my days in the solitudes of the
great West, among the natives of the forest."
In October, 1826, he took leave of his friends and started westward,
coming at length to a small settlement about thirty miles west of
Cleveland, in the State of Ohio. The country was covered with a dense
forest, with only here and there a small opening made by the settlers,
and the surface of the earth was one vast scene of mud and mire.
Alone, in a land of strangers, without home or money, and not yet
twenty years of age, he became somewhat discouraged, but concluded to
stop for the winter.
In the spring he resolved to return to his native State, for there was
one at home whom his heart had long loved and from whom he would not
have been separated, except by misfortune.
But with her, as his wife, he returned to Ohio, the following year, and
made a home on the lands which he cleared with his own hands. [1]
Eighteen months thereafter Sidney Rigdon came into the neighborhood,
as a preacher. With this reformer Parley associated himself in the
ministry, and organized a society of disciples.
But Parley was not satisfied with even the ancient _gospel form_
without the power.
At the commencement of 1830, the very time the Mormon Church was
organized, he felt drawn out in an extraordinary manner to search the
prophets, and to pray for an understanding of the same. His prayers
were soon answered, even beyond his expectations. The prophesies were
opened to his view. He began to understand the things which were about
to transpire. The restoration of Israel, the coming of Messiah, and the
glory that should follow.
Being now "moved upon by the Holy Ghost" to travel about preaching the
gospel "without purse or scrip," in August, 1830, he closed his worldly
business and bid adieu to his wilderness home, which he never saw
afterwards.
"Arriving at Rochester," he says, "I informed my wife that,
notwithstanding our passage being paid through the whole distance, yet
I must leave the boat and her to pursue her passage to her friends,
while I would stop awhile in this region. Why, I did not know; but so
it was plainly manifest by the spirit to me.
"I said to her, we part for a season; go and visit our friends in our
native place; I will come soon, but how soon I know not; for I have
a work to do in this region of country, and what it is, or how long
it will take to perform it, I know not; but I will come when it is
performed.
"My wife would have objected to this, but she had seen the hand of God
so plainly manifest in his dealings with me many times, that she dared
not oppose the things manifested to me by his spirit. She, therefore,
consented; and I accompanied her as far as Newark, a small town upwards
of one hundred miles from Buffalo, and then took leave of her, and of
the boat.
"It was early in the morning, just at the dawn of day; I walked ten
miles into the country, and stopped to breakfast with a Mr. Wells.
I proposed to preach in the evening. Mr. Wells readily accompanied
me through the neighborhood to visit the people, and circulate the
appointment.
"We visited an old Baptist deacon, by the name of Hamlin. After hearing
of our appointment for the evening, he began to tell of a book, a
strange book, a very strange book, in his possession, which had been
just published. This book, he said, purported to have been originally
written on plates, either of gold or brass, by a branch of the tribes
of Israel; and to have been discovered and translated by a young man
near Palmyra, in the State of New York, by the aid of visions, or the
ministry of angels.
"I inquired of him how or where the book was to be obtained. He
promised me the perusal of it, at his house the next day, if I would
call. I felt a strange interest in the book.
"Next morning I called at his house, where for the first time my eyes
beheld the Book of Mormon,--that book of books--that record which
reveals the antiquities of the 'new world' back to the remotest ages,
and which unfolds the destiny of its people and the world, for all time
to come."
As he read, the spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he knew and
comprehended that the book was true; whereupon he resolved to visit
the young man who was the instrument in bringing forth this "marvelous
work."
Accordingly he visited the village of Palmyra, and inquired for the
residence of Mr. Joseph Smith, which he found some two or three miles
from the village. As he approached the house, at the close of the day,
he overtook a man driving some cows, and inquired of him for "Mr.
Joseph Smith, the translator of the Book of Mormon." This man was none
other than Hyrum, Joseph's brother, who informed him that Joseph then
resided in Pennsylvania, some one hundred miles distant. That night
Parley was entertained by Hyrum, who explained to him much of the great
Israelitish mission just opening to the world.
In the morning he was compelled to take leave of Hyrum, the brother,
who at parting presented him with a copy of the Book of Mormon. He had
not then completed its perusal, and so after traveling on a few miles
he stopped to rest and again commenced to read the book. To his great
joy he found that Jesus Christ, in his glorified resurrected body,
had appeared to the "remnant of Joseph" on the continent of America,
soon after his resurrection and ascension into heaven; and that he
also administered, in person, to the ten lost tribes; and that through
his personal ministry in these countries his gospel was revealed and
written in countries and among nations entirely unknown to the Jewish
apostles.
Having rested awhile and perused the sacred book by the roadside, he
again walked on.
After fulfilling his appointments, he resolved to preach no more until
he had duly received a "commission from on high." So he returned to
Hyrum, who journeyed with him some twenty-five miles to the residence
of Mr. Whitmer, in Seneca County, who was one of the "witnesses" of the
Book of Mormon, and in whose chamber much of the book was translated.
He found the little branch of the church in that place "full of joy,
faith, humility and charity."
They rested that night, and on the next day (the 1st of September,
1830), Parley was baptized by Oliver Cowdery, who, with the prophet
Joseph, had been ordained "under the hands" of the angel John the
Baptist to this ministry,--the same John who baptized Jesus Christ in
the River Jordan.
A meeting of these primitive saints was held the same evening, when
Parley was confirmed with the gift of the Holy Ghost, and ordained an
elder of the church.
Feeling now that he had the true authority to preach, he commenced
his new ministry under the authority and power which the angels had
conferred. "The Holy Ghost," he says, "came upon me mightily. I spoke
the word of God with power, reasoning out of the scriptures and the
Book of Mormon. The people were convinced, overwhelmed with tears, and
came forward expressing their faith, and were baptized."
The mysterious object for which he took leave of his wife was realized,
and so he pursued his journey to the land of his fathers, and of his
boyhood.
He now commenced his labors in good earnest, daily addressing crowded
audiences; and soon he baptized his brother Orson, a youth of nineteen,
but to-day a venerable apostle--the Paul of Mormondom.
It was during his labors in these parts, in the Autumn of 1830, that he
saw a very singular and extraordinary sign in the heavens.
He had been on a visit to the people called Shakers, at New Lebanon,
and was returning on foot, on a beautiful evening of September. The sky
was without a cloud; the stars shone out beautifully, and all nature
seemed reposing in quiet, as he pursued his solitary way, wrapt in deep
meditations on the predictions of the holy prophets; the signs of the
times; the approaching advent of the Messiah to reign on the earth, and
the important revelations of the Book of Mormon, when his attention was
aroused by a sudden appearance of a brilliant light which shone around
him "above the brightness of the sun." He cast his eyes upwards to
inquire from whence the light came, when he perceived a long chain of
light extending in the heavens, very bright and of a deep fiery red. It
at first stood stationary in a horizontal position; at length bending
in the centre, the two ends approached each other with a rapid movement
so as to form an exact square. In this position it again remained
stationary for some time, perhaps a minute, and then again the ends
approached each other with the same rapidity, and again ceased to move,
remaining stationary, for perhaps a minute, in the form of a compass.
It then commenced a third movement in the same manner, and closed like
the closing of a compass, the whole forming a straight line like a
chain doubled. It again remained stationary a minute, and then faded
away.
"I fell upon my knees in the street," he says, "and thanked the Lord
for so marvelous a sign of the coming of the Son of Man. Some persons
may smile at this, and say that all these exact movements were by
chance; but for my part I could as soon believe that the alphabet would
be formed by chance and be placed so as to spell my name, as to believe
that these signs (known only to the wise) could be formed and shown
forth by chance."
Parley now made his second visit to the prophet, who had returned from
Pennsylvania to his father's residence in Manchester, near Palmyra, and
here had the pleasure of seeing him for the first time.
It was now October, 1830. A revelation had been given through the mouth
of the prophet in which elders Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, Tiber
Peterson and Parley P. Pratt were appointed to go into the wilderness
through the Western States, and to the Indian Territory.
These elders journeyed until they came to the spiritual pastorate of
Sydney Rigdon, in Ohio. He received the elders cordially, and Parley
presented his former friend and instructor with the Book of Mormon, and
related to him the history of the same.
"The news of our coming," says Parley, "was soon noised abroad, and the
news of the discovery of the Book of Mormon and the marvelous events
connected with it. The interest and excitement now became general in
Kirtland, and in all the region round about. The people thronged us
night and day, insomuch that we had no time for rest or retirement.
Meetings were convened in different neighborhoods, and multitudes came
together soliciting our attendance; while thousands flocked about us
daily, some to be taught, some for curiosity, some to obey the gospel,
and some to dispute or resist it.
"In two or three weeks from our arrival in the neighborhood with the
news, we had baptized one hundred and twenty-seven souls; and this
number soon increased to one thousand. The disciples were filled with
joy and gladness; while rage and lying was abundantly manifested by
gainsayers. Faith was strong, joy was great, and persecution heavy.
"We proceeded to ordain Sidney Rigdon, Isaac Morley, John Murdock,
Lyman Wight, Edward Partridge, and many others to the ministry; and
leaving them to take care of the churches, and to minister the gospel,
we took leave of the saints, and continued our journey."
Thus was fulfilled the vision of "Mother Whitney." Kirtland had
heard the "word of the Lord." The angel that spoke from the cloud,
at midnight, in Kirtland, was endowed with the gift of prophesy. The
"daughter of the voice" which followed Israel down through the ages was
potent still--was still an oracle to the children of the covenant.
Footnotes:
1. She died in the early persecution of the church, and when Parley was
in prison for the gospel's sake her spirit visited and comforted him.
CHAPTER VIII.
WAR OF THE INVISIBLE POWERS--THEIR MASTER--JEHOVAH'S MEDIUM.
"You have prayed me here! Now what do you want of me?"
The Master had come!
But who was he?
Whence came he?
Good or evil?
Whose prayers had been answered?
--
There was in Kirtland a controversy between the powers of good and
evil, for the mastery. Powers good and evil it would seem to an
ordinary discernment. Certainly powers representing two sources.
This was the prime manifestation of the new dispensation. This
contention of the invisibles for a foothold among mortals.
A Mormon iliad! for such it is! It is the epic of two worlds, in which
the invisibles, with mortals, take their respective parts.
And now it is the dispensation of the fullness of times! Now all the
powers visible and invisible contend for the mastery of the earth in
the stupendous drama of the last days. This is what Mormonism means.
It is a war of the powers above and below to decide who shall give the
next civilization to earth; which power shall incarnate that supreme
civilization with its spirit and genius.
Similar how exactly this has been repeated since Moses and the
magicians of Egypt, and Daniel and the magicians of Babylon, contended.
One had risen up in the august name of Jehovah. Mormonism represents
the powers invisible of the Hebrew God.
Shall Jehovah reign in the coming time? Shall he be the Lord God
omnipotent? This, in its entirety, is the Mormon problem.
Joseph is the prophet of that stupendous question, to be decided in
this grand controversy of the two worlds--this controversy of mortals
and immortals!
There are lords many and gods many, but to the prophet and his people
there is but one God--Jehovah is his name.
A Mormon iliad, nothing else; and a war of the invisibles--a war of
spiritual empires.
That war was once in Kirtland, when the first temple of a new
civilization rose, to proclaim the supreme name of the God of Israel.
No sooner had the Church of Latter-day Saints been established in
the West than remarkable spiritual manifestations appeared. This was
exactly in accordance with the faith and expectations of the disciples;
for the promise to them was that these signs should follow the believer.
But there was a power that the saints could not understand. That it was
a power from the invisible world all readily discerned.
An influence both strange and potent! The power which was not
comprehended was greater, for the time, in its manifestations, than the
spirit which the disciples better understood.
These spiritual manifestations occurred remarkably at the house of
Elder Whitney, where the saints met often to speak one to the other,
and to pray for the power.
The power had come!
It was in the house which had been overshadowed by the magic cloud at
midnight, out of which the angel had prophesied of the coming of the
word of the Lord.
The Lord had come!
His word was given. But which Lord? and whose word? That was the
question in that hour of spiritual controversy.
Similar manifestations were also had in other branches of the church;
and they were given at those meetings called "testimony meetings." At
these the saints testified one to the other of the "great work of God
in the last days," and magnified the gifts of the spirit. But there
were two kinds of gifts and two kinds of spirits.
Some of these manifestations were very similar to those of "modern
spiritualism." Especially was this the case with what are styled
physical manifestations.
Others read revelations from their hands; holding them up as a book
before them. From this book they read passages of new scriptures. Books
of new revelations had been unsealed.
In letters of light and letters of gold, writing appeared to their
vision, on the hands of these "mediums."
What was singular and confounding to the elders was that many, who
could neither read nor write, while under "the influence," uttered
beautiful language extemporaneously. At this these "mediums" of the
Mormon Church (twenty years before our "modern mediums" were known),
would exclaim concerning the "power of God" manifested through them;
challenging the elders, after the spirit had gone out of them, with
their own natural inability to utter such wonderful sayings, and do
such marvelous things.
As might be expected the majority of these "mediums" were among the
sisters. In modern spiritual parlance, they were more "inspirational."
Indeed for the manifestation of both powers the sisters have always
been the "best mediums" (adopting the descriptive epithet now so
popular and suggestive).
And this manifestation of the "two powers" in the church followed
the preaching of the Mormon gospel all over the world, especially in
America and Great Britain. It was God's spell and the spell of some
other spiritual genius.
Where the one power was most manifested, there it was always found that
the power from the "other source" was about equally displayed.
So abounding and counterbalancing were these two powers in nearly all
the branches of the church in the early rise of Mormonism, in America
and Great Britain, that spiritual manifestations became regarded very
generally as fire that could burn as well as bless and build up the
work of God.
An early hymn of the dispensation told that "the great prince of
darkness was mustering his forces;" that a battle was coming "between
the two kingdoms;" that the armies were "gathering round," and that
they would "soon in close battle be found."
To this is to be attributed the decline of spiritual gifts in a later
period in the Mormon Church, for the "spirits" were poured out so
abundantly that the saints began to fear visions, and angels, and
prophesy, and the "speaking in tongues."
Thus the sisters, who ever are the "best mediums" of spiritual gifts in
the church, have, in latter years, been shorn of their glory. But the
gifts still remain with them; and the prophesy is that some day, when
there is sufficient wisdom combined with faith, more than the primitive
power will be displayed, and the angels will daily walk and talk with
the people of God.
But in Kirtland in that day there was the controversy of the invisibles.
--
It was in the beginning of the year 1831 that a sleigh drove into the
little town of Kirtland. There were in it a man and his wife with her
girl, and a man servant driving.
They seemed to be travelers, and to have come a long distance rather
than from a neighboring village; indeed they had come from another
State; hundreds of miles from home now; far away in those days for a
man to be thus traveling in midwinter with his wife.
But they were not emigrants; at least seemingly not such; certainly not
emigrants of an ordinary kind.
No caravan followed in their wake with merchandise for the western
market, nor a train of goods and servants to make a home in a
neighboring State.
A solitary sleigh; a man with his wife and two servants; a solitary
sleigh, and far from home.
That they were not fugitives was apparent in the manly boldness of
the chief personage and the somewhat imperial presence of the woman
by his side. This personal air of confidence, and a certain conscious
importance, were quite marked in both, especially in the man.
They were two decided personages come West. Some event was in their
coming. This much the observer might at once have concluded.
There was thus something of mystery about the solitary sleigh and its
occupants.
A chariot with a destiny in it--a very primitive chariot of peace, but
a chariot with a charm about it. The driver might have felt akin to the
boatman who embarked with the imperial Roman: "Fear not--Caesar is in
thy boat!"
The sleigh wended its course through the streets of Kirtland until it
came to the store of Messrs. Gilbert & Whitney, merchants. There it
stopped.
Leaping from the primitive vehicle the personage shook himself lightly,
as a young lion rising from his restful attitude; for the man possessed
a royal strength and a magnificent physique. In age he was scarcely
more than twenty-five; young, but with the stamp of one born to command.
Leaving his wife in the sleigh, he walked, with a royal bearing and a
wonderfully firm step, straight into the store of Gilbert & Whitney.
His bearing could not be other. He planted his foot as one who never
turned back--as one destined to make a mark in the great world at his
every footfall. He had come to Kirtland as though to possess it.
Going up to the counter where stood the merchant Whitney, he tapped
him with hearty affection on the shoulder as he would have done to a
long separated brother or a companion of by-gone years. There was the
magnetism of love in his very touch. Love was the wondrous charm that
the man carried about him.
"Well, Brother Whitney, how do you do?" was his greeting.
"You have the advantage of me," replied Whitney, wondering who his
visitor could be. "I could not call you by name."
"I am Joseph, the prophet!"
It was like one of old making himself known to his brethren--"I am
Joseph, your brother!"
"Well, what do you want of me?" Joseph asked with a smile; and then
with grave solicitude added:
"You have prayed me here, now what do you want of me? The Lord would
not let me sleep at nights; but said, up and take your wife to
Kirtland!"
An archangel's coming would not have been a greater event to the saints
than the coming of Joseph the prophet.
Leaving his store and running across the road to his house, Elder
Whitney exclaimed:
"Who do you think was in that sleigh at the store?"
"Well, I don't know," replied Sister Whitney.
"Why, it is Joseph and his wife. Where shall we put them?"
Then came to the mind of Sister Whitney the vision of the cloud that
had overshadowed her house at midnight, and the words of the angel who
had spoken from the pavilion of his hidden glory. The vision had now to
them a meaning and fulfillment indeed. The sister and her husband who
had heard the "voice" felt that "the word of the Lord" was to be given
to Kirtland in their own dwelling and under the very roof thus hallowed.
One-half of the house was immediately set apart for the prophet and his
wife. The sleigh drove up to the door and Joseph entered with Emma--the
"elect lady" of the church--and they took up their home in the little
city which, with his presence, was now Zion.
It was the controversy of these two powers in the churches in the West
which had called Joseph to Kirtland in the opening of the year 1831.
The church in the State of New York--its birthplace--had been commanded
by revelation to move West, but Joseph hastened ahead with his wife, as
we have seen.
He had been troubled at nights in his visions. He had seen Elder
Whitney and his wife and the good saints praying for his help. This
is how he had known "Brother Whitney" at sight; for Joseph on such
occasions saw all things before him as by a map unfolded to his view.
"Up and take your wife to Kirtland," "the Lord" had commanded. And he
had come. The church, from the State of New York, followed him the
ensuing May.
The master spirit was in Kirtland now. All spirits were subject to him.
That was one ruling feature of his apostleship. He held the keys of the
dispensation. He commanded and the very invisibles obeyed. _They_ also
recognized the master spirit. He was only subject to the God of Israel.
"Peace, be still!" the master commanded, and the troubled waters of
Kirtland were at peace.
There in the chamber which Sister Whitney consecrated to the prophet
the great revelation was given concerning the tests of spirits. There
also many of the revelations were given, some of which form part of the
book of doctrine and covenants. The chamber was thereafter called the
translating room.
Perchance the mystic cloud often overshadowed that house, but the
angel of the new covenant could now enter and speak face to face with
mortal; for Jehovah's prophet dwelt there. To him the heavens unveiled,
and the archangels of celestial spheres appeared in their glory and
administered to him.
Wonderful, indeed, if this be true, of which there is a cloud of
witnesses; and more wonderful still if hosts of angels, good and bad,
have come to earth since that day, converting millions to an age of
revelation, unless one like unto Joseph has indeed unlocked the new
dispensation with an Elijah's keys of power!
CHAPTER IX.
ELIZA R. SNOW'S EXPERIENCE--GLIMPSES OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF
JOSEPH SMITH--GATHERING OF THE SAINTS.
"In the autumn of 1829," says Eliza R. Snow, the high priestess, "the
tidings reached my ears that God had spoken from the heavens; that he
had raised up a prophet, and was about to restore the fullness of the
gospel with all its gifts and powers.
"During my brief association with the Campbellite church, I was deeply
interested in the study of the ancient prophets, in which I was
assisted by the erudite Alexander Campbell himself, and Walter Scott,
whose acquaintance I made,--but more particularly by Sidney Rigdon, who
was a frequent visitor at my father's house.
"But when I heard of the mission of the prophet Joseph I was afraid
it was not genuine. It was just what my soul had hungered for, but I
thought it was a hoax.
"However, I improved the opportunity and attended the first meeting
within my reach. I listened to the testimonials of two of the witnesses
of the Book of Mormon. Such impressive testimonies I had never before
heard. To hear men testify that they had seen a holy angel--that they
had listened to his voice, bearing testimony of the work that was
ushering in a new dispensation; that the fullness of the gospel was to
be restored and that they were commanded to go forth and declare it,
thrilled my inmost soul.
"Yet it must be remembered that when Joseph Smith was called to his
great mission, more than human power was requisite to convince people
that communication with the invisible world was possible. He was
scoffed at, ridiculed and persecuted for asserting that he had received
a revelation; now the world is flooded with revelations.
"Early in the spring of 1835, my eldest sister, who, with my mother was
baptized in 1831, by the prophet, returned home from a visit to the
saints in Kirtland, and reported of the faith and humility of those
who had received the gospel as taught by Joseph,--the progress of the
work, the order of the organization of the priesthood and the frequent
manifestations of the power of God.
"The spirit bore witness to me of the truth. I felt that I had waited
already a little too long to see whether the work was going to 'flash
in the pan' and go out. But my heart was now fixed; and I was baptized
on the 5th of April, 1835. From that day to this I have not doubted the
truth of the work.
"In December following I went to Kirtland and realized much happiness
in the enlarged views and rich intelligence that flowed from the
fountain of eternal truth, through the inspiration of the Most High.
"I was present on the memorable event of the dedication of the temple,
when the mighty power of God was displayed, and after its dedication
enjoyed many refreshing seasons in that holy sanctuary. Many times
have I witnessed manifestations of the power of God, in the precious
gifts of the gospel,--such as speaking in tongues, the interpretation
of tongues, prophesying, healing the sick, causing the lame to walk,
the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. Of such
manifestations in the church I might relate many circumstances.
"In the spring I taught a select school for young ladies, boarding in
the family of the prophet, and at the close of the term returned to my
father's house, where my friends and acquaintances flocked around me
to inquire about the 'strange people' with whom I was associated. I
was exceedingly happy in testifying of what I had both seen and heard,
until the 1st of January, 1837, when I bade a final adieu to the home
of my youth, to share the fortunes of the people of God.
"On my return to Kirtland, by solicitation, I took up my residence in
the family of the prophet, and taught his family school.
"Again I had ample opportunity of judging of his daily walk and
conversation, and the more I made his acquaintance, the more cause I
found to appreciate him in his divine calling. His lips ever flowed
with instruction and kindness; but, although very forgiving, indulgent
and affectionate in his nature, when his godlike intuition suggested
that the good of his brethren, or the interests of the kingdom of God
demanded it, no fear of censure, no love of approbation, could prevent
his severe and cutting rebukes.
"His expansive mind grasped the great plan of salvation, and solved
the mystic problem of man's destiny; he was in possession of keys that
unlocked the past and the future, with its successions of eternities;
yet in his devotions he was as humble as a little child. Three times
a day he had family worship; and these precious seasons of sacred
household service truly seemed a foretaste of celestial happiness."
Thus commenced that peculiar and interesting relationship between the
prophet and the inspired heroine who became his celestial bride, and
whose beautiful ideals have so much glorified celestial marriage.
There were also others of our Mormon heroines who had now gathered to
the West to build up Zion, that their "King might appear in his glory."
Among them was that exalted woman--so beloved and honored in the Mormon
church--the life-long wife of Heber C. Kimball. There were also Mary
Angel, and many apostolic women from New England, who have since stood,
for a generation, as pillars in the latter-day kingdom. We shall meet
them hereafter.
And the saints, as doves flocking to the window of the ark of the new
covenant, gathered to Zion. They came from the East and the West and
the North and the South.
Soon the glad tidings were conveyed to other lands. Great Britain
"heard the word of the Lord," borne there by apostles Heber C. Kimball,
Orson Hyde and Willard Richards, and others.
Soon also the saints began to gather from the four quarters of the
earth; and those gatherings have increased until more than a hundred
thousand disciples--the majority of them women--have come to America,
as their land of promise, to build up thereon the Zion of the last days.
CHAPTER X.
THE LATTER-DAY ILIAD--REPRODUCTION OF THE GREAT HEBRAIC DRAMA--THE
MEANING OF THE MORMON MOVEMENT IN THE AGE.
It was "a gathering dispensation." A strange religion indeed, that
meant something more than faith and prayers and creeds.
An empire-founding religion, as we have said,--this religion of a
latter-day Israel. A religion, in fact, that meant all that the name of
"Latter-day Israel" implies.
The women who did their full half in founding Mormondom, comprehended,
as much as did their prototypes who came up out of Egypt, the
significance of the name of Israel.
Out of Egypt the seed of promise, to become a peculiar people, a holy
nation, with a distinctive God and a distinctive destiny. Out of modern
Babylon, to repeat the same Hebraic drama in the latter age.
A Mormon iliad in every view; and the sisters understanding it fully.
Indeed perhaps they have best understood it. Their very experience
quickened their comprehension.
The cross and the crown of thorns quicken the conception of a
crucifixion. The Mormon women have borne the cross and worn the crown
of thorns for a full lifetime; not in their religion, but in their
experience. Their strange destiny and the divine warfare incarnated in
their lives, gave them an experience matchless in its character and
unparalleled in its sacrifices.
The sisters understood their religion, and they counted the cost of
their divine ambitions.
What that cost has been to these more than Spartan women, we shall
find in tragic stories of their lives, fast unfolding in the coming
narrative of their gatherings and exterminations.
For the first twenty years of their history the tragedy of the
Latter-day Israel was woeful enough to make their guardian angels weep,
and black enough in its scenes to satisfy the angriest demons.
This part of the Mormon drama began in 1831 with the removal of the
church from the State of New York to Kirtland, Ohio, and to Jackson,
and other counties in Missouri; and it culminated in the martyrdom of
the prophet and his brother at Nauvoo, and the exodus to the Rocky
Mountains. In all these scenes the sisters have shown themselves
matchless heroines.
The following, from an early poem, written by the prophetess, Eliza R.
Snow, will finely illustrate the Hebraic character of the Mormon work,
and the heroic spirit in which these women entered into the divine
action of their lives:
My heart is fix'd--I know in whom I trust.
'Twas not for wealth--'twas not to gather heaps
Of perishable things--'twas not to twine
Around my brow a transitory wreath,
A garland decked with gems of mortal praise,
That I forsook the home of childhood; that
I left the lap of ease--the halo rife
With friendship's richest, soft, and mellow tones;
Affection's fond caresses, and the cup
O'erflowing with the sweets of social life,
With high refinement's golden pearls enrich'd.
Ah, no! A holier purpose fir'd my soul;
A nobler object prompted my pursuit.
Eternal prospects open'd to my view,
And hope celestial in my bosom glow'd.
God, who commanded Abraham to leave
His native country, and to offer up
On the lone altar, where no eye beheld
But that which never sleeps, an only son,
Is still the same; and thousands who have made
A covenant with him by sacrifice,
Are bearing witness to the sacred truth--
Jehovah speaking has reveal'd his will.
The proclamation sounded in my ear--
It reached my heart--I listen'd to the sound--
Counted the cost, and laid my earthly all
Upon the altar, and with purpose fix'd
Unalterably, while the spirit of
Elijah's God within my bosom reigns,
Embrac'd the everlasting covenant,
And am determined now to be a saint,
And number with the tried and faithful ones,
Whose race is measured with their life; whose prize
Is everlasting, and whose happiness
Is God's approval; and to whom 'tis more
Than meat and drink to do his righteous will.
* * * *
Although to be a saint requires
A noble sacrifice--an arduous toil--
A persevering aim; the great reward
Awaiting the grand consummation will
Repay the price, however costly; and
The pathway of the saint the safest path
Will prove; though perilous--for 'tis foretold,
All things that can be shaken, God will shake;
Kingdoms and governments, and institutes,
Both civil and religious, must be tried--
Tried to the core, and sounded to the depth.
Then let me be a saint, and be prepar'd
For the approaching day, which like a snare
Will soon surprise the hypocrite--expose
The rottenness of human schemes--shake off
Oppressive fetters--break the gorgeous reins
Usurpers hold, and lay the pride of man--
The pride of nations, low in dust!
And there was in these gatherings of our latter-day Israel, like as in
this poem, a tremendous meaning. It is of the Hebrew significance and
genius rather than of the Christian; for Christ is now Messiah, King of
Israel, and not the Babe of Bethlehem. Mormondom is no Christian sect,
but an Israelitish nationality, and even woman, the natural prophetess
of the reign of peace, is prophesying of the shaking of "kingdoms and
governments and all human institutions."
The Mormons from the beginning well digested the text to the great
Hebrew drama, and none better than the sisters; here it is:
"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will
shew thee;
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and
make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing;
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth
thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
And so, for now nearly fifty years, this Mormon Israel have been
getting out of their native countries, and from their kindred, and from
their father's house unto the gathering places that their God has shown
them.
But they have been driven from those gathering places from time to
time; yes, driven farther west. There was the land which God was
showing them. At first it was too distant to be seen even by the eye of
faith. Too many thousands of miles even for the Spartan heroism of the
sisters; too dark a tragedy of expulsions and martyrdoms; and too many
years of exoduses and probations. The wrath of the Gentiles drove them
where their destiny led them--to the land which God was showing them.
And for the exact reason that the patriarchal Abraham and Sarah were
commanded to get out of their country and from their kindred and their
father's house, so were the Abrahams and Sarahs of our time commanded
by the same God and for the same purpose.
"I will make of thee a great nation." "And I will make my covenant
between me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly." "And thou
shalt be a father of many nations." "And I will establish my covenant
between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for
an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee."
To fulfill this in the lives of these spiritual sons and daughters of
Abraham and Sarah, the gathering dispensation was brought in. These
Mormons have gathered from the beginning that they might become the
fathers and mothers of a nation, and that through them the promises
made to the Abrahamic fathers and mothers might be greatly fulfilled.
This is most literal, and was well understood in the early rise of the
church, long before polygamy was known. Yet who cannot now see that
in such a patriarchal covenant was the very overture of patriarchal
marriage--or polygamy.
So in the early days quite a host of the daughters of New
England--earnest and purest of women--many of them unmarried, and most
of them in the bloom of womanhood--gathered to the virgin West to
become the mothers of a nation, and to build temples to the name of a
patriarchal God!
CHAPTER XI.
THE LAND OF TEMPLES--AMERICA THE NEW JERUSALEM--DARING CONCEPTION OF
THE MORMON PROPHET--FULFILLMENT OF THE ABRAHAMIC PROGRAMME--WOMAN TO BE
AN ORACLE OF JEHOVAH.
Two thousand years had nearly passed since the destruction of the
temple of Solomon; three thousand years, nearly, since that temple of
the old Jerusalem was built.
Yet here in America in the nineteenth century, _among the Gentiles_, a
modern Israel began to rear temples to the name of the God of Israel!
Temples to be reared to his august name in every State on this vast
continent! Thus runs the Mormon prophesy.
All America, the New Jerusalem of the last days! All America for the
God of Israel! What a conception! Yet these daughters of Zion perfectly
understood it nearly fifty years ago.
Joseph was indeed a sublime and daring oracle. Such a conception
grasped even before he laid the foundation stone of a Zion--that all
America is to be the New Jerusalem of the world and of the future--was
worthy to make him the prophet of America.
Zion was not a county in Missouri, a city in Ohio or Illinois; nor is
she now a mere embryo State in the Rocky Mountains.
Kirtland was but a "stake of Zion" where the first temple rose. Jackson
county is the enchanted spot where the "centre stake" of Zion is to be
planted, and the grand temple reared, by-and-by. Nauvoo with its temple
was another stake. Utah also is but a stake. Here we have already the
temple of St. George, and in Salt Lake City a temple is being built
which will be a Masonic unique to this continent.
Perchance it will stand in the coming time scarcely less a monument
to the name of its builder--Brigham Young--than the temple of Old
Jerusalem has been to the name of Solomon.
But all America is the world's New Jerusalem!
With this cardinal conception crowding the soul of the Mormon prophet,
inspired by the very archangels of Israel, what a vast Abrahamic drama
opened to the view of the saints in Kirtland when the first temple
lifted its sacred tower to the skies!
The archangels of Israel had come down to fulfill on earth the
grand Abrahamic programme. The two worlds--the visible and the
invisible--were quickly engaging in the divine action, to consummate,
in this "dispensation of the fullness of times," the promises made unto
the fathers.
And all America for the God of Israel.
There is method in Mormonism--method infinite. Mormonism is Masonic.
The God of Israel is a covenant maker; the crown of the covenant is the
temple.
But woman must not be lost to view in our admiration of the prophet's
conceptions.
How stands woman in the grand temple economy, as she loomed up in her
mission, from the house of the Lord in Kirtland?
The apostles and elders laid the foundations, raised the arches, and
put on the cap stone; but it was woman that did the "inner work of the
temple."
George A. Smith hauled the first load of rock; Heber C. Kimball worked
as an operative mason, and Brigham Young as a painter and glazier in
the house; but the sisters wrought on the "veils of the temple."
Sister Polly Angel, wife of Truman O. Angel, the church architect,
relates that she and a band of sisters were working on the "veils," one
day, when the prophet and Sidney Rigdon came in.
"Well, sisters," observed Joseph, "you are always on hand. The sisters
are always first and foremost in all good works. Mary was first at the
resurrection; and the sisters now are the first to work on the inside
of the temple."
'Tis but a simple incident, but full of significance. It showed
Joseph's instinctive appreciation of woman and her mission. Her place
was _inside_ the temple, and he was about to put her there,--a high
priestess of Jehovah, to whose name he was building temples. And
wonderfully suggestive was his prompting, that woman was the first
witness of the resurrection.
Once again woman had become an oracle of a new dispensation and a new
civilization. She can only properly be this when a temple economy comes
round in the unfolding of the ages. She can only be a legitimate oracle
_in_ the temple.
When she dares to play the oracle, without her divine mission and
anointing, she is accounted in society as a witch, a fortune-teller, a
medium, who divines for hire and sells the gift of the invisibles for
money.
But in the temple woman is a sacred and sublime oracle. She is a
prophetess and a high priestess. Inside the temple she cannot but be
as near the invisibles as man--nearer indeed, from her finer nature,
inside the mystic veil, the emblems of which she has worked upon with
her own hands.
Of old the oracle had a priestly royalty. The story of Alexander the
Great and the oracle of Delphi is famous. The conqueror demanded speech
from the oracle concerning his destiny. The oracle was a woman; and
womanlike she refused to utter the voice of destiny at the imperious
bidding of a mortal. But Alexander knew that woman was inspired--that
he held in his grip the incarnated spirit of the temple, and he essayed
to drag her to the holy ground where speech was given.
"He is invincible!" exclaimed the oracle, in wrath.
"The oracle speaks!" cried Alexander, in exultation.
The prophetess was provoked to an utterance; woman forced to obey the
stronger will of man; but it was woman's inspired voice that sent
Alexander through the world a conquering destiny.
And the prophet of Mormondom knew that woman is, by the gifts of God
and nature, an inspired being. If she was this in the temples of Egypt
and Greece, more abundantly is she this in the temples of Israel. In
them woman is the medium of Jehovah. This is what the divine scheme of
the Mormon prophet has made her to this age; and she began her great
mission to the world in the temple at Kirtland.
But this temple-building of the Mormons has a vaster meaning than the
temples of Egypt, the oracles of Greece, or the cathedrals of the
Romish Church.
It is the vast Hebrew iliad, begun with Abraham and brought down
through the ages, in a race still preserved with more than its original
quality and fibre; and in a God who is raising up unto Abraham a
mystical seed of promise, a latter-day Israel.
Jehovah is a covenant-maker. "And I will make with Israel a new and
everlasting covenant," is the text that Joseph and Brigham have been
working upon. Hence this temple building in America, to fulfill and
glorify the new covenant of Israel.
The first covenant was made with Abraham and the patriarchs _in the
East_. The greater and the everlasting covenant will restore the
kingdom to Israel. That covenant has been made _in the West_, with
these veritable children of Abraham. God has raised up children unto
Abraham to fulfill the promises made to him. This is Mormonism.
The West is the future world. Yet how shall there be the new
civilization without its distinctive temples? Certainly there shall be
no Abrahamic dispensation and covenant unless symbolized by temples
raised to the name of the God of Israel!
All America, then, is Zion!
A hundred temples lifting their towers to the skies in the world's New
Jerusalem. Temples built to the name of the God of Israel.
Mark this august wonder of the age; the Mormons build not temples to
the name of Jesus, but to the name of Jehovah--not to the Son, but to
the Father.
The Hebrew symbol is not the cross, but the sceptre. The Hebrews know
nothing of the cross. It is the symbol of heathenism, whence Rome
received her signs and her worship. Rome adopted the cross and she has
borne it as her mark. She never reared her cathedrals to the name of
the God of Israel, nor has she taught the nations to fear his name. Nor
has she prophesied of the New Jerusalem of the last days, which must
supersede Rome and give the millennial civilization to the world.
The reign of Messiah! Temples to the Most High God! The sceptre, not
the cross!
There is a grand Masonic consistency in the divine scheme of the Mormon
prophet, and the sisters began to comprehend the infinite themes of
their religion when they worked in the temple at Kirtland, and beheld
in the service the glory of Israel's God.
CHAPTER XII.
ELIZA R. SNOW'S GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE AND ITS
DEDICATION--HOSANNAS TO GOD--HIS GLORY FILLS THE HOUSE.
The erection of the Kirtland temple was a leading characteristic of the
work of the last dispensation.
It was commenced in June, 1833, under the immediate direction of the
Almighty, through his servant, Joseph Smith, whom he had called in
his boyhood, like Samuel of old, to introduce the fullness of the
everlasting gospel.
At that time the saints were few in number, and most of them very poor;
and, had it not been for the assurance that God had spoken, and had
commanded that a house should be built to his name, of which he not
only revealed the form, but also designated the dimensions, an attempt
towards building that temple, under the then existing circumstances,
would have been, by all concerned, pronounced preposterous.
Although many sections of the world abounded with mosques, churches,
synagogues and cathedrals, built professedly for worship, this was
the first instance, for the lapse of many centuries, of God having
given a pattern, from the heavens, and manifested by direct revelation
how the edifice should be constructed, in order that he might accept
and acknowledge it as his own. This knowledge inspired the saints to
almost superhuman efforts, while through faith and union they acquired
strength. In comparison with eastern churches and cathedrals, this
temple is not large, but in view of the amount of available means
possessed, a calculation of the cost, at the lowest possible figures,
would have staggered the faith of any but Latter-day saints; and it now
stands as a monumental pillar.
Its dimensions are eighty by fifty-nine feet; the walls fifty feet
high, and the tower one hundred and ten feet. The two main halls
are fifty-five by sixty-five feet, in the inner court. The building
has four vestries in front, and five rooms in the attic, which were
devoted to literature, and for meetings of the various quorums of the
priesthood.
There was a peculiarity in the arrangement of the inner court which
made it more than ordinarily impressive--so much so that a sense of
sacred awe seemed to rest upon all who entered; not only the saints,
but strangers also manifested a high degree of reverential feeling.
Four pulpits stood, one above another, in the centre of the building,
from north to south, both on the east and west ends; those on the west
for the presiding officers of the Melchisidec priesthood, and those
on the east for the Aaronic; and each of these pulpits was separated
by curtains of white painted canvas, which were let down and drawn
up at pleasure. In front of each of these two rows of pulpits, was a
sacrament table, for the administration of that sacred ordinance. In
each corner of the court was an elevated pew for the singers--the choir
being distributed into four compartments. In addition to the pulpit
curtains, were others, intersecting at right angles, which divided
the main ground-floor hall into four equal sections--giving to each
one-half of one set of pulpits.
From the day the ground was broken for laying the foundation for the
temple, until its dedication on the 27th of March, 1836, the work was
vigorously prosecuted.
With very little capital except brain, bone and sinew, combined with
unwavering trust in God, men, women, and even children, worked with
their might; while the brethren labored in their departments, the
sisters were actively engaged in boarding and clothing workmen not
otherwise provided for--all living as abstemiously as possible so
that every cent might be appropriated to the grand object, while
their energies were stimulated by the prospect of participating in
the blessing of a house built by the direction of the Most High and
accepted by him.
The dedication was looked forward to with intense interest; and
when the day arrived (Sunday, March 27th, 1836), a dense multitude
assembled--the temple was filled to its utmost, and when the ushers
were compelled to close the doors, the outside congregation was nearly
if not quite as large as that within.
Four hundred and sixteen elders, including prophets and apostles, with
the first great prophets of the last dispensation at their head, were
present--men who had been "called of God as was Aaron," and clothed
with the holy priesthood; many of them having just returned from
missions, on which they had gone forth like the ancient disciples,
"without purse or scrip," now to feast for a little season on the sweet
spirit of love and union, in the midst of those who had "tasted of the
powers of the world to come."
At the hour appointed, the assembly was seated, the Melchisidec and
Aaronic priesthoods being arranged as follows: West end of the house,
Presidents Frederick G. Williams, Joseph Smith, Sr., and William W.
Phelps, occupied the first pulpit for the Melchisidec priesthood;
Presidents Joseph Smith, Jr., Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon, the
second; Presidents David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdry and John Whitmer,
the third; the fourth pulpit was occupied by the president of the
high-priest's quorum and his councilors, and two choristers. The twelve
apostles were on the right, in the highest three seats; the president
of the elders, his two councilors and clerk in the seat directly below
the twelve. The High Council of Kirtland, consisting of twelve, were on
the left, on the first three seats. The fourth seat, and next below the
High Council, was occupied by Warren A. Cowdry and Warren Parrish, who
officiated as scribes.
In the east end of the house, the Bishop of Kirtland--Newel K.
Whitney--and his councilors occupied the first pulpit for the Aaronic
priesthood; the Bishop of Zion--Edward Partridge--and his councilors,
the second; the President of the priests and his councilors, the third;
the President of the teachers, and his councilors, and one chorister,
the fourth; the High Council of Zion, consisting of twelve councilors,
on the right; the President of the deacons, and his councilors, in the
next seat below them, and the seven presidents of the seventies, on the
left.
At nine o'clock, President Sidney Rigdon commenced the services of that
great and memorable day, by reading the ninety-sixth and twenty-fourth
Psalms; "Ere long the vail will be rent in twain," etc., was sung by
the choir, and after President Rigdon had addressed the throne of grace
in fervent prayer, "O happy souls who pray," etc., was sung. President
Rigdon then read the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth verses of
the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, and spoke more particularly from
the last-named verse, continuing his eloquent, logical and sublime
discourse for two and a half hours. At one point, as he reviewed the
toils and privations of those who had labored in rearing the walls of
that sacred edifice, he drew tears from many eyes, saying, there were
those who had wet those walls with their tears, when, in the silent
shades of the night, they were praying to the God of heaven to protect
them, and stay the unhallowed hands of ruthless spoilers, who had
uttered a prophesy, when the foundation was laid, that the walls should
never be erected.
In reference to his main subject, the speaker assumed that in the days
of the Saviour there were synagogues where the Jews worshipped God;
and in addition to those, the splendid temple in Jerusalem; yet when,
on a certain occasion, one proposed to follow him, withersoever he
went, though heir of all things, he cried out in bitterness of soul,
"The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." From this the speaker drew
the conclusion that the Most High did not put his name there, neither
did he accept the worship of those who paid their vows and adorations
there. This was evident from the fact that they did not receive the
Saviour, but thrust him from them, saying, "Away with him! Crucify him!
Crucify him!" It was therefore evident that his spirit did not dwell in
them. They were the degenerate sons of noble sires, but they had long
since slain the prophets and seers, through whom the Lord had revealed
himself to the children of men. They were not led by revelation. This,
said the speaker, was the grand difficulty--their unbelief in present
revelation. He then clearly demonstrated the fact that diversity of,
and contradictory opinions did, and would prevail among people not led
by present revelation; which forcibly applies to the various religious
sects of our own day; and inasmuch as they manifest the same spirit,
they must be under the same condemnation with those who were coeval
with the Saviour.
He admitted there were many houses--many sufficiently large, built
for the worship of God, but not one, except this, on the face of the
whole earth, that was built by divine revelation; and were it not for
this, the dear Redeemer might, in this day of science, intelligence and
religion, say to those who would follow him, "The foxes have holes, the
birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay
his head."
After the close of his discourse, President Rigdon presented for
an expression of their faith and confidence, Joseph Smith, Jr., as
prophet, seer and revelator, to the various quorums, and the whole
congregation of saints, and a simultaneous rising up followed, in token
of unanimous confidence, and covenant to uphold him as such, by their
faith and prayers.
The morning services were concluded by the choir singing, "Now let us
rejoice in the day of salvation," etc. During an intermission of twenty
minutes, the congregation remained seated, and the afternoon services
opened by singing, "This earth was once a garden place," etc. President
Joseph Smith, Jr., addressed the assembly for a few moments, and then
presented the first presidency of the church as prophets, seers, and
revelators, and called upon all who felt to acknowledge them as such,
to manifest it by rising up. All arose. He then presented the twelve
apostles who were present, as prophets, seers, and revelators, and
special witnesses to all the earth, holding the keys of the kingdom
of God, to unlock it, or cause it to be done among them; to which all
assented by rising to their feet. He then presented the other quorums
in their order, and the vote was unanimous in every instance.
He then prophesied to all, that inasmuch as they would uphold these men
in their several stations (alluding to the different quorums in the
church), the Lord would bless them, "yea, in the name of Christ, the
blessings of heaven shall be yours; and when the Lord's anointed shall
go forth to proclaim the word, bearing testimony to this generation,
if they receive it they shall be blest; but if not, the judgments of
God will follow close upon them, until that city or that house which
rejects them, shall be left desolate."
The hymn commencing with "How pleased and blest was I," was sung, and
the following dedicatory prayer offered by the prophet, Joseph Smith:
"Thanks be to thy name, O Lord God of Israel, who keepest covenant
and showest mercy unto thy servants who walk uprightly before thee,
with all their hearts; thou who hast commanded thy servants to
build a house to thy name in this place. And now thou beholdest, O
Lord, that thy servants have done according to thy commandment. And
now we ask thee, Holy Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, the son
of thy bosom, in whose name alone salvation can be administered to
the children of men, we ask thee, O Lord, to accept of this house,
the workmanship of the hands of us, thy servants, which thou didst
command us to build; for thou knowest that we have done this work
through great tribulation; and out of our poverty we have given of
our substance, to build a house to thy name, that the Son of Man
might have a place to manifest himself to his people. And as thou
hast said in a revelation, given to us, calling us thy friends,
saying, 'call your solemn assembly, as I have commanded you; and
as all have not faith, seek ye diligently, and teach one another
words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books, words of
wisdom; seek learning even by study, and also by faith. Organize
yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house,
even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a
house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of
God. That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord, that your
outgoings may be in the name of the Lord, that all your salutations
may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands to the Most
High.'
"And now, Holy Father, we ask thee to assist us, thy people, with
thy grace, in calling our solemn assembly, that it may be done
to thy honor, and to thy divine acceptance. And in a manner that
we may be found worthy in thy sight, to secure a fulfillment of
the promises which thou hast made unto us, thy people, in the
revelations given unto us; that thy glory may rest down upon thy
people, and upon this thy house, which we now dedicate to thee,
that it may be sanctified and consecrated to be holy, and that
thy holy presence may be continually in this house, and that all
people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord's house may
feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou hast
sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness.
And do thou grant, Holy Father, that all those who shall worship in
this house, may be taught words of wisdom out of the best books,
and that they may seek learning even by study, and also by faith,
as thou hast said; and that they may grow up in thee, and receive
a fullness of the Holy Ghost and be organized according to thy
laws, and be prepared to obtain every needful thing; and that this
house may be a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of
faith, a house of glory and of God, even thy house; that all the
incomings of thy people, into this house, may be in the name of the
Lord; that all the outgoings from this house may be in the name of
the Lord; arid that all their salutations may be in the name of
the Lord, with holy hands, uplifted to the Most High; and that no
unclean thing shall be permitted to come into thy house to pollute
it; and when thy people transgress, any of them, they may speedily
repent, and return unto thee, and find favor in thy sight, and be
restored to the blessings which thou hast ordained to be poured out
upon those who shall reverence thee in thy house. And we ask thee,
Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house, armed
with thy power, and thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be
round about them, and thine angels have charge over them; and from
this place they may bear exceedingly great and glorious tidings, in
truth, unto the ends of the earth, that they may know that this is
thy work, and that thou hast put forth thy hand, to fulfill that
which thou hast spoken by the mouths of the prophets, concerning
the last days. We ask thee, Holy Father, to establish the people
that shall worship and honorably hold a name and standing in this
thy house, to all generations, and for eternity, that no weapon
formed against them shall prosper; that he who diggeth a pit for
them shall fall into the same himself; that no combination of
wickedness shall have power to rise up and prevail over thy people
upon whom thy name shall be put in this house; and if any people
shall rise against this people, that thy anger be kindled against
them, and if they shall smite this people thou wilt smite them,
thou wilt fight for thy people as thou didst in the day of battle,
that they may be delivered from the hands of all their enemies.
"We ask thee, Holy Father, to confound, and astonish, and to bring
to shame and confusion, all those who have spread lying reports
abroad, over the world, against thy servant, or servants, if they
will not repent when the everlasting gospel shall be proclaimed in
their ears, and that all their works may be brought to naught, and
be swept away by, the hail, and by the judgments which thou wilt
send upon them in thy anger, that there may be an end to lyings and
slanders against thy people; for thou knowest, O Lord, that thy
servants have been innocent before thee in bearing record of thy
name, for which they have suffered these things; therefore we plead
before thee a full and complete deliverance from under this yoke;
break it off, O Lord; break it off from the necks of thy servants,
by thy power, that we may rise up in the midst of this generation
and do thy work.
"O Jehovah, have mercy on this people, and as all men sin, forgive
the transgressions of thy people, and let them be blotted out
forever. Let the anointing of thy ministers be sealed upon them
with power from on high; let it be fulfilled upon them as upon
those on the day of pentecost; let the gift of tongues be poured
out upon thy people, even cloven tongues as of fire, and the
interpretation thereof, and let thy house be filled, as with a
rushing mighty wind, with thy glory. Put upon thy servants the
testimony of the covenant, that when they go out and proclaim
thy word, they may seal up the law, and prepare the hearts of
thy saints for all those judgments thou art about to send, in
thy wrath, upon the inhabitants of the earth, because of their
transgressions; that thy people may not faint in the day of
trouble. And whatsoever city thy servants shall enter, and the
people of that city receive their testimony, let thy peace and
thy salvation be upon that city, that they may gather out of that
city the righteous, that they may come forth to Zion, or to her
stakes, the places of thy appointment, with songs of everlasting
joy; and until this be accomplished, let not thy judgments fall
upon this city. And whatsoever city thy servants shall enter,
and the people of that city receive not the testimony of thy
servants, and thy servants warn them to save themselves from this
untoward generation, let it be upon that city according to that
which thou hast spoken by the mouths of thy prophets; but deliver
thou, O Jehovah, we beseech thee, thy servants from their hands,
and cleanse them from their blood. O Lord, we delight not in the
destruction of our fellow men! Their souls are precious before
thee; but thy word must be fulfilled; help thy servants to say,
with thy grace assisting them, thy will be done, O Lord, and not
ours. We know that thou hast spoken by the mouth of thy prophets
terrible things concerning the wicked, in the last days--that
thou wilt pour out thy judgments without measure; therefore, O
Lord, deliver thy people from the calamity of the wicked; enable
thy servants to seal up the law, and bind up the testimony, that
they may be prepared against the day of burning. We ask thee, Holy
Father, to remember those who have been driven (by the inhabitants
of Jackson county, Missouri), from the lands of their inheritance,
and break off, O Lord, this yoke of affliction that has been put
upon them. Thou knowest, O Lord, that they have been greatly
oppressed and afflicted by wicked men, and our hearts flow out with
sorrow, because of their grievous burdens. O Lord, how long wilt
thou suffer this people to bear this affliction, and the cries of
their innocent ones to ascend up in thine ears, and their blood
come up in testimony before thee, and not make a display of thy
testimony in their behalf? Have mercy, O Lord, upon that wicked
mob, who have driven thy people, that they may cease to spoil, that
they may repent of their sins, if repentance is to be found; but if
they will not, make bare thine arm, O Lord, and redeem that which
thou didst appoint a Zion unto thy people.
"And if it cannot be otherwise, that the cause of thy people
may not fail before thee, may thine anger be kindled, and thine
indignation fall upon them, that they may be wasted away, both root
and branch, from under heaven; but inasmuch as they will repent,
thou art gracious and merciful, and wilt turn away thy wrath,
when thou lookest upon the face of thine anointed. Have mercy,
O Lord, upon all the nations of the earth; have mercy upon the
rulers of our land; may those principles which were so honorably
and nobly defended, viz.: the constitution of our land, by our
fathers, be established forever. Remember the kings, the princes,
the nobles, and the great ones of the earth, and all people, and
the churches, all the poor, the needy and afflicted ones of the
earth, that their hearts may be softened, when thy servants shall
go out from thy house, O Jehovah, to bear testimony of thy name,
that their prejudices may give way before the truth, and thy people
may obtain favor in the sight of all, that all the ends of the
earth may know that we thy servants have heard thy voice, and that
thou hast sent us; that from all these, thy servants, the sons of
Jacob, may gather out the righteous to build a holy city to thy
name, as thou hast commanded them. We ask thee to appoint unto Zion
other stakes, besides this one which thou hast appointed, that the
gathering of thy people may roll on in great power and majesty,
that thy work may be cut short in righteousness. Now these words,
O Lord, we have spoken before thee, concerning the revelations and
commandments which thou hast given unto us, who are identified with
the Gentiles; but thou knowest that thou hast a great love for the
children of Jacob, who have been scattered upon the mountains,
for a long time, in a cloudy and dark day; we therefore ask thee
to have mercy upon the children of Jacob, that Jerusalem, from
this hour, may begin to be redeemed, and the yoke of bondage begin
to be broken off from the house of David, and the children of
Judah may begin to return to the lands which thou didst give to
Abraham, their father; and cause that the remnants of Jacob, who
have been cursed and smitten, because of their transgressions, be
converted from their wild and savage condition, to the fullness of
the everlasting gospel, that they may lay down their weapons of
bloodshed, and cease their rebellions; and may all the scattered
remnants of Israel, who have been driven to the ends of the earth,
come to a knowledge of the truth, believe in the Messiah, and
be redeemed from oppression, and rejoice before thee. O Lord,
remember thy servant, Joseph Smith, Jr., and all his afflictions
and persecutions, how he has covenanted with Jehovah, and vowed
to thee, O mighty God of Jacob, and the commandments which thou
hast given unto him, and that he hath sincerely striven to do thy
will. Have mercy, O Lord, upon his wife and children, that they
may be exalted in thy presence, and preserved by thy fostering
hand; have mercy upon all their immediate connections, that their
prejudices may be broken up, and swept away as with a flood, that
they may be converted and redeemed with Israel, and know that thou
art God. Remember, O Lord, the presidents, even all the presidents
of thy church, that thy right hand may exalt them, with all their
families, and their immediate connections, that their names may be
perpetuated, and had in everlasting remembrance, from generation
to generation. Remember all thy church, O Lord, with all their
families, and all their immediate connections, with all their sick
and afflicted ones, with all the poor and meek of the earth, that
the kingdom which thou hast set up without hands, may become a
great mountain, and fill the whole earth; that thy church may come
forth out of the wilderness of darkness, and shine forth fair as
the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners,
and be adorned as a bride for that day when thou shalt unveil the
heavens, and cause the mountains to flow down at thy presence, and
the valleys to be exalted, the rough places made smooth; that thy
glory may fill the earth, that when the trump shall sound for the
dead, we shall be caught up in the cloud to meet thee, that we may
ever be with the Lord, that our garments may be pure, that we may
be clothed upon with robes of righteousness, with palms in our
hands, and crowns of glory upon our heads, and reap eternal joy for
all our sufferings.
"O Lord God Almighty, hear us in these petitions, and answer us
from heaven, thy holy habitation, where thou sittest enthroned,
with glory, honor, power, majesty, might, dominion, truth, justice,
judgment, mercy, and an infinity of fullness, from everlasting to
everlasting. O hear, O hear, O hear us, O Lord, and answer these
petitions, and accept the dedication of this house unto thee, the
work of our hands, which we have built unto thy name! And also this
church, to put upon it thy name; and help us by the power of thy
spirit, that we may mingle our voices with those bright shining
seraphs around thy throne, with acclamations of praise, singing
hosanna to God and the Lamb; and let these thine anointed ones be
clothed with salvation, and thy saints shout aloud for joy. Amen,
and amen."
The choir then sang, "The spirit of God like a fire is burning," etc.,
after which the Lord's supper was administered to the whole assembly.
Then President Joseph Smith bore testimony of his mission and of the
ministration of angels, and, after testimonials and exhortations by
other elders, he blest the congregation in the name of the Lord.
Thus ended the ceremonies of the dedication or the first temple built
by special command of the Most High, in this dispensation.
One striking feature of the ceremonies, was the grand shout of
hosanna, which was given by the whole assembly, in standing
position, with uplifted hands. The form of the shout is as follows:
"Hosanna--hosanna--hosanna--to God and the Lamb--amen--amen, and
amen." The foregoing was deliberately and emphatically pronounced, and
three times repeated, and with such power as seemed almost sufficient
to raise the roof from the building.
A singular incident in connection with this shout may be discredited by
some, but it is verily true. A notice had been circulated that children
in arms would not be admitted at the dedication of the temple. A sister
who had come a long distance with her babe, six weeks old, having, on
her arrival, heard of the above requisition, went to the patriarch
Joseph Smith, Sr., in great distress, saying that she knew no one with
whom she could leave her infant; and to be deprived of the privilege of
attending the dedication seemed more than she could endure. The ever
generous and kind-hearted father volunteered to take the responsibility
on himself, and told her to take her child, at the same time giving
the mother a promise that her babe should make no disturbance; and the
promise was verified. But when the congregation shouted hosanna, that
babe joined in the shout. As marvelous as that incident may appear to
many, it is not more so than other occurrences on that occasion.
The ceremonies of that dedication may be rehearsed, but no mortal
language can describe the heavenly manifestations of that memorable
day. Angels appeared to some, while a sense of divine presence
was realized by all present, and each heart was filled with "joy
inexpressible and full of glory."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ANCIENT ORDER OF BLESSINGS--THE PROPHET'S FATHER--THE
PATRIARCH'S MOTHER--HIS FATHER--KIRTLAND HIGH SCHOOL--APOSTASY AND
PERSECUTION--EXODUS OF THE CHURCH.
Concerning affairs at Kirtland subsequent to the dedication of the
temple, and people and incidents of those times, Eliza R. Snow
continues: With the restoration of the fullness of the gospel came
also the ancient order of patriarchal blessings. Each father, holding
the priesthood, stands as a patriarch, at the head of his family,
with invested right and power to bless his household, and to predict
concerning the future, on the heads of his children, as did Jacob of
old.
Inasmuch as many fathers have died without having conferred those
blessings, God, in the order of his kingdom, has made provisions to
supply the deficiency, by choosing men to officiate as patriarchs,
whose province it is to bless the fatherless. Joseph Smith, Sr., was
ordained to this office, and held the position of first patriarch in
the church. He was also, by appointment, president of the Kirtland
stake of Zion, consequently the first presiding officer in all general
meetings for worship.
A few words descriptive of this noble man may not be deemed amiss
in this connection. Of a fine physique, he was more than ordinarily
prepossessing in personal appearance. His kind, affable, dignified and
unassuming manner naturally inspired strangers with feelings of love
and reverence. To me he was the veritable personification of my idea of
the ancient Father Abraham.
In his decisions he was strictly just; what can be said of very
few, may be truly said of him, in judging between man and man: his
judgment could not be biased by either personal advantage, sympathy,
or affection. Such a man was worthy of being the father of the first
prophet of the last dispensation; while his amiable and affectionate
consort, Mother Lucy Smith, was as worthy of being the mother. Of her
faith, faithfulness and untiring efforts in labors of love and duty,
until she was broken down by the weight of years and sorrow, too much
cannot be said.
I was present, on the 17th of May, when a messenger arrived and
informed the prophet Joseph that his grandmother, Mary Duty Smith, had
arrived at Fairport, on her way to Kirtland, and wished him to come for
her. The messenger stated that she said she had asked the Lord that she
might live to see her children and grandchildren once more. The prophet
responded with earnestness, "I wish she had set the time longer." I
pondered in silence over this remark, thinking there might be more
meaning in the expression than the words indicated, which was proven by
the result, for she only lived a few days after her arrival. She was in
the ninety-fourth year of her age--in appearance not over seventy-five.
She had not been baptized, on account of the opposition of her oldest
son, Jesse, who was a bitter enemy to the work. She said to Mother Lucy
Smith, "I am going to have your Joseph baptize me, and my Joseph (the
patriarch) bless me."
Her husband, Israel Smith, died in St. Lawrence county, New York, after
having received the Book of Mormon, and read it nearly through. He had,
long before, predicted that a prophet would be raised up in his family,
and was satisfied that his grandson was that prophet. The venerable
widow was also well assured of the fact.
The next day after her arrival at the house of the prophet, where she
was welcomed with every manifestation of kindness and affection, her
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren--all who were residents
of Kirtland, and two of her sons, who arrived with her--came together
to enjoy with her a social family meeting; and a happy one it was--a
season of pure reciprocal conviviality, in which her buoyancy of spirit
greatly augmented the general joy. Let the reader imagine for a moment
this aged matron, surrounded by her four sons, Joseph, Asael, Silas
and John, all of them, as well as several of her grandsons, upwards
of six feet in height, with a score of great-grandchildren of various
sizes intermixed; surely the sight was not an uninteresting one. To her
it was very exciting--too much so for her years. Feverish symptoms,
which were apparent on the following day, indicated that her nervous
system had been overtaxed. She took her bed, and survived but a few
days. I was with her, and saw her calmly fall asleep. About ten minutes
before she expired, she saw a group of angels in the room; and pointing
towards them she exclaimed, "O, how beautiful! but they do not speak."
It would seem that they were waiting to escort her spirit to its bright
abode.
But to return to the temple. After its dedication, the "Kirtland High
School" was taught in the attic story, by H. M. Hawes, professor of
Greek and Latin. The school numbered from one hundred and thirty to
one hundred and forty students, divided into three departments--the
classics, where only languages were taught; the English department,
where mathematics, common arithmetic, geography, English grammar,
reading and writing were taught; and the juvenile department. The
two last were under assistant instructors. The school was commenced
in November, 1836, and the progress of the several classes, on
examinations before trustees of the school, parents and guardians, was
found to be of the highest order.
Not only did the Almighty manifest his acceptance of that house, at
its dedication, but an abiding holy heavenly influence was realized;
and many extraordinary manifestations of his power were experienced on
subsequent occasions. Not only were angels often seen within, but a
pillar of light was several times seen resting down upon the roof.
Besides being devoted to general meetings for worship and the
celebration of the Lord's Supper every first day of the week, the
temple was occupied by crowded assemblies on the first Thursday in each
month, that day being observed strictly, by the Latter-day Saints, as a
day of fasting and prayer. These, called fast-meetings, were hallowed
and interesting beyond the power of language to describe. Many, many
were the pentecostal seasons of the outpouring of the spirit of God
on those days, manifesting the gifts of the gospel and the power of
healing, prophesying, speaking in tongues, the interpretation of
tongues, etc. I have there seen the lame man, on being administered to,
throw aside his crutches and walk home perfectly healed; and not only
were the lame made to walk, but the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the
dumb to speak, and evil spirits to depart.
On those fast days, the curtains, or veils, mentioned in a preceding
chapter, which intersected at right angles, were dropped, dividing the
house into four equal parts. Each of these sections had a presiding
officer, and the meeting in each section was conducted as though no
other were in the building, which afforded opportunity for four persons
to occupy the same time. These meetings commenced early in the day
and continued without intermission till four P.M. One hour previous
to dismissal, the veils were drawn up and the four congregations
brought together, and the people who, in the forepart of the day were
instructed to spend much of the time in prayer, and to speak, sing and
pray, mostly in our own language, lest a spirit of enthusiasm should
creep in, were permitted, after the curtains were drawn, to speak or
sing in tongues, prophesy, pray, interpret tongues, exhort or preach,
however they might feel moved upon to do. Then the united faith of the
saints brought them into close fellowship with the spirits of the just,
and earth and heaven seemed in close proximity.
On fast days, Father Smith's constant practice was to repair to the
temple very early, and offer up his prayers before sunrise, and there
await the coming of the people; and so strictly disciplined himself
in the observance of fasting, as not even to wet his lips with water
until after the dismissal of the meeting at four P.M. One morning,
when he opened meeting, he prayed fervently that the spirit of the
Most High might be poured out as it was at Jerusalem, on the day of
pentecost--that it might come "like a mighty rushing wind." It was not
long before it did come, to the astonishment of all, and filled the
house. It appeared as though the old gentleman had forgotten what he
had prayed for. When it came, he was greatly surprised, and exclaimed,
"What! is the house on fire?"
While the faithful saints were enjoying those supernal privileges, "the
accuser of the brethren" did not sleep. Apostasy, with its poisonous
fangs, crept into the hearts of some who but a few months before were
in quorum meetings, when heavenly hosts appeared; and where, in all
humility of soul, they united with their brethren in sublime shouts of
hosanna to God and the Lamb. And now, full of pride and self-conceit,
they join hands with our enemies and take the lead in mobocracy against
the work which they had advocated with all the energies of their souls.
What a strange and fearful metamorphosis! How suddenly people become
debased when, having grieved away the spirit of God, the opposite takes
possession of their hearts! We read that angels have fallen, and that
one of our Saviour's chosen twelve was Judas, the traitor. Inasmuch
as the same causes produce the same effects in all ages, it is no
wonder that Joseph Smith, in introducing the same principles, should
have to suffer what was to the philosophic Paul the greatest of all
trials--that among false brethren.
Illegal, vexatious lawsuits, one after another, were successively
instituted, and the leading officers of the church dragged into court,
creating great annoyance and expenditure. This not being sufficient to
satisfy the greed of persecution, the lives of some of the brethren
were sought, and they left Kirtland, and sought safety in the West.
At this time my father was residing one mile south of the temple. About
twelve o'clock one bitter cold night he was startled by a knock at the
door, and who should enter but Father Smith, the patriarch! A State's
warrant had been served on him for an alleged crime, and the officer in
whose custody he was placed, although an enemy to the church, knowing
the old gentleman to be innocent, had preconcerted a stratagem by which
he had been let down from a window in the room to which he had taken
him, ostensibly for private consultation but purposely to set him at
liberty, having previously prepared a way by which he could reach the
ground uninjured. He also told him where to go for safety, directing
him to my father's house. The officer returned to the court-room as
though Father Smith followed in the rear, when, on a sudden, he looked
back, and not seeing his prisoner, he hurried back to the private room,
examining every point, and returned in great apparent amazement and
confusion, declaring that the prisoner had gone in an unaccountable
manner, saying, ludicrously, "This, gentlemen, is another Mormon
miracle." No vigorous search was made--all must have been convinced
that the proceedings were as unjust as illegal. To return to my
father's house: We were proud of our guest, and all of the family took
pleasure in anticipating and supplying his wants. He remained with us
two weeks, and in the meantime settled up all his business matters,
and, having been joined by his youngest son, Don Carlos, and five other
brethren, whose lives had been threatened, he bade a final adieu to
Kirtland, at one hour past midnight, on the 21st of December, 1837. The
night was intensely cold, but, as they had no conveyance except one
horse, they had sufficient walking exercise to prevent freezing. They
found a few Latter-day Saints in a southern county of Ohio, where they
stayed till spring, when they left for Missouri.
The pressure of opposition increased, and before spring the prophet and
his brother Hyrum had to leave; and, in the spring and summer of 1838,
the most of the church followed; leaving our homes, and our sacred,
beautiful temple, the sanctuary of the Lord God of Hosts.
CHAPTER XIV.
AN ILLUSTRIOUS MORMON WOMAN--THE FIRST WIFE OF THE IMMORTAL HEBER C.
KIMBALL--OPENING CHAPTER OF HER AUTOBIOGRAPHY--HER WONDERFUL VISION--AN
ARMY OF ANGELS SEEN IN THE HEAVENS.
One of the very queens of Mormondom, and a woman beloved by the whole
church, during her long eventful lifetime, was the late Vilate Kimball.
To-day she sleeps by the side of her great husband, for Heber C.
Kimball was one of the world's remarkable men. He soon followed her to
the grave; a beautiful example she of the true love existing between
two kindred souls notwithstanding polygamy. Her sainted memory is
enshrined in the hearts of her people, and ever will be as long as the
record of the sisters endures.
"My maiden name," she says, in her autobiography, "was Vilate Murray. I
am the youngest daughter of Roswell and Susannah Murray. I was born in
Florida, Montgomery county, New York, June 1st, 1806. I was married to
Heber Chase Kimball November 7, 1822, having lived until that time with
my parents in Victor, Ontario county.
"After marriage my husband settled in Mendon, Monroe county. Here we
resided until we gathered in Kirtland in the fall of 1833.
"About three weeks before we heard of the latter-day work we were
baptized into the Baptist Church.
"Five elders of the Church of Latter-day Saints came to the town of
Victor, which was five miles from Mendon, and stopped at the house of
Phineas Young, the brother of Brigham. Their names were Eleazer Miller,
Elial Strong, Alpheus Gifford, Enos Curtis and Daniel Bowen.
"Hearing of these men, curiosity prompted Mr. Kimball to go and see
them. Then for the first time he heard the fullness of the everlasting
gospel and was convinced of its truth. Brigham Young was with him.
"At their meetings Brigham and Heber saw the manifestations of the
spirit and heard the gift of speaking and singing in tongues. They were
constrained by the spirit to bear testimony to the truth, and when they
did this the power of God rested upon them.
"Desiring to hear more of the saints, in January, 1832, Heber took his
horses and sleigh and started for Columbia, Bradford county, Penn.,
a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. Brigham and Phineas
Young and their wives went with him.
"They stayed with the church about six days, saw the power of God
manifested and heard the gift of tongues, and then returned rejoicing,
bearing testimony to the people by the way. They were not baptized,
however, until the following spring. Brigham was baptized on Sunday,
April 14th, 1832, by Eleazer Miller, and Heber C. Kimball was baptized
the next day.
"Just two weeks from that time I was baptized by Joseph Young, with
several others.
"The Holy Ghost fell upon Heber so greatly, that he said it was like
a consuming fire. He felt as though he was clothed in his right mind
and sat at the feet of Jesus; but the people called him crazy. He
continued thus for months, till it seemed his flesh would consume away.
The Scriptures were unfolded to his mind in such a wonderful manner by
the spirit of revelation that he said it seemed he had formerly been
familiar with them.
"Brigham Young and his wife Miriam, with their two little girls,
Elizabeth and Vilate, were at the time living at our house; but soon
after her baptism Miriam died. In her expiring moments, she clapped her
hands and praised the Lord, and called on all around to help her praise
him; and when her voice was too weak to be heard, her lips and hands
were seen moving until she expired.
"This was another testimony to them of the powerful effect of the
everlasting gospel, showing that we shall not die, but will sleep and
come forth in the resurrection and rejoice with her in the flesh.
"Her little girls sister Miriam left to my care, and I did all I could
to be a mother to her little ones to the period of our gathering to
Kirtland, and the marriage of Brigham to Miss Mary Ann Angell.
"The glorious death of sister Miriam caused us to rejoice in the
midst of affliction. But enemies exulted over our loss and threw many
obstacles in the way of our gathering with the saints.
"To my husband's great surprise some of the neighbors issued
attachments against his goods; yet he was not indebted to any of them
to the value of five cents, while there were some hundreds of dollars
due to him. However, he left his own debts uncollected, settled their
unjust claims, and gathered to Kirtland with the saints about the last
of September, 1832, in company with Brigham Young.
"Here I will relate a marvelous incident, of date previous to our
entering the church.
"On the night of the 22d of September, 1827, while living in the town
of Mendon, after we retired to bed, John P. Green, who was then a
traveling Reformed Methodist preacher, living within one hundred steps
of our house, came and called my husband to come out and see the sight
in the heavens. Heber awoke me, and Sister Fanny Young (sister of
Brigham), who was living with us, and we all went out of doors.
"It was one of the most beautiful starlight nights, so clear we could
see to pick up a pin. We looked to the eastern horizon, and beheld a
white smoke arise towards the heavens. As it ascended, it formed into a
belt, and made a noise like the rushing wind, and continued southwest,
forming a regular bow, dipping in the western horizon.
"After the bow had formed, it began to widen out, growing transparent,
of a bluish cast. It grew wide enough to contain twelve men abreast. In
this bow an army moved, commencing from the east and marching to the
west. They continued moving until they reached the western horizon.
They moved in platoons, and walked so close the rear ranks trod in the
steps of their file leaders, until the whole bow was literally crowded
with soldiers.
"We could distinctly see the muskets, bayonets and knapsacks of the
men, who wore caps and feathers like those used by the American
soldiers in the last war with Great Britain. We also saw their officers
with their swords and equipage, and heard the clashing and jingling of
their instruments of war, and could discern the form and features of
the men. The most profound order existed throughout the entire army.
When the foremost man stepped, every man stepped at the same time. We
could _hear_ their steps.
"When the front rank reached the western horizon, a battle ensued, as
we could hear the report of the arms, and the rush.
"None can judge of our feelings as we beheld this army of spirits as
plainly as ever armies of men were seen in the flesh. Every hair of our
heads seemed alive.
"We gazed upon this scenery for _hours_, until it began to disappear.
"After we became acquainted with Mormonism, we learned that this took
place the same evening that Joseph Smith received the records of the
Book of Mormon from the angel Moroni, who had held those records in his
possession.
"Father Young, and John P. Green's wife (Brigham's sister Rhoda), were
also witnesses of this marvelous scene.
"Frightened at what we saw, I said, Father Young, what does all this
mean? He answered, Why it is one of the signs of the coming of the Son
of Man.
"The next night a similar scene was beheld in the west, by the
neighbors, representing armies of men engaged in battle.
"After our gathering to Kirtland the church was in a state of poverty
and distress. It appeared almost impossible that the commandment to
build the temple could be fulfilled, the revelation requiring it to be
erected by a certain period.
"The enemies were raging, threatening destruction upon the saints; the
brethren were under guard night and day to preserve the prophet's life,
and the mobs in Missouri were driving our people from Jackson county.
"In this crisis the 'Camp of Zion' was organized to go to the defence
of the saints in Jackson, Heber being one of the little army. On the
5th of May, 1834, they started. It was truly a solemn morning on which
my husband parted from his wife, children and friends, not knowing that
we should ever meet again in the flesh. On the 26th of July, however,
the brethren returned from their expedition.
"The saints now labored night and day to build the house of the Lord,
the sisters knitting and spinning to clothe those who labored upon it.
"When the quorum of the twelve apostles was called, my husband was
chosen one of them, and soon he was out with the rest of the apostles
preaching the gospel of the last days; but they returned on the 27th of
the following September and found their families and friends enjoying
good health and prosperity.
"The temple was finished and dedicated on the 27th of March, 1836. It
was a season of great rejoicing, indeed, to the saints, and great and
marvelous were the manifestations and power in the Lord's house. Here I
will relate a vision of the prophet concerning the twelve apostles of
this dispensation, for whose welfare his anxiety had been very great.
"He saw the twelve going forth, and they appeared to be in a far
distant land; after some time they unexpectedly met together,
apparently in great tribulation, their clothes all ragged, and their
knees and feet sore. They formed into a circle, and all stood with
their eyes fixed on the ground. The Saviour appeared and stood in their
midst and wept over them, and wanted to show himself to them, but they
did not discover him.
"He saw until they had accomplished their work and arrived at the gate
of the celestial city. There Father Adam stood and opened the gate to
them, and as they entered he embraced them one by one, and kissed them.
He then led them to the throne of God, and then the Saviour embraced
each of them in the presence of God. He saw that they all had beautiful
heads of hair and all looked alike. The impression this vision left on
Brother Joseph's mind was of so acute a nature, that he never could
refrain from weeping while rehearsing it.
"On the l0th of May, 1836, my husband again went East on a mission,
and I made a visit to my friends in Victor, where Heber and I met, and
after spending a few days, returned to Ohio, journeying to Buffalo,
where a magistrate came forward and paid five dollars for our passage
to Fairport.
"The passengers were chiefly Swiss emigrants. After sitting and hearing
them some time, the spirit of the Lord came upon my husband so that he
was enabled to preach to them in their own language, though of himself
he knew not a word of their language. They seemed much pleased, and
treated him with great kindness.
"We returned to Kirtland to find a spirit of speculation in the church,
and apostacy growing among some of the apostles and leading elders.
These were perilous times indeed.
"In the midst of this my husband was called on his mission to Great
Britain, this being the first foreign mission.
"One day while Heber was seated in the front stand in the Kirtland
temple, the prophet Joseph opened the door and came and whispered in
his ear, 'Brother Heber, the spirit of the Lord has whispered to me,
let my servant Heber go to England and proclaim the gospel, and open
the door of salvation.'"
Here we may digress a moment from Sister Vilate's story, to illustrate
the view of the apostles "opening the door of salvation to the
nations," and preaching the gospel in foreign lands without purse or
scrip.
At a later period the Mormon apostles and elders have deemed it as
nothing to take missions to foreign lands, but in 1837, before the age
of railroads and steamships had fairly come, going to Great Britain on
mission was very like embarking for another world; and the apostolic
proposition to gather a people from foreign lands and many nations to
form a latter-day Israel, and with these disciples to build up a Zion
on this continent, was in seeming the maddest undertaking possible in
human events. This marvelous scheme of the Mormon prophet, with many
others equally bold and strangely uncommon for modern times, shall be
fully treated in the book of his own life, but it is proper to throw
into prominence the wondrous apostolic picture of Heber C. Kimball
"opening the door of salvation to the nations that sat in darkness;"
and for the gathering of an Israel from every people and from every
tongue. Relative to this, by far the greatest event in' his life, Heber
says, in his family journals:
"The idea of being appointed to such an important mission was almost
more than I could bear up under. I felt my weakness and was nearly
ready to sink under it, but the moment I understood the will of my
heavenly Father, I felt a determination to go at all hazards, believing
that he would support me by his almighty power, and although my family
were dear to me, and I should have to leave them almost destitute, I
felt that the cause of truth, the gospel of Christ, outweighed every
other consideration. At this time many faltered in their faith, some of
the twelve were in rebellion against the prophet of God. John Boynton
said to me, if you are such a d--d fool as to go at the call of the
fallen prophet, I will not help you a dime, and if you are cast on Van
Dieman's Land I will not make an effort to help you. Lyman E. Johnson
said he did not want me to go on my mission, but if I was determined
to go, he would help me all he could; he took his cloak from off his
back and put it on mine. Brother Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith, Sr.,
Brigham Young, Newel K. Whitney and others said go and do as the
prophet has told you and you shall prosper and be blessed with power to
do a glorious work. Hyrum, seeing the condition of the church, when he
talked about my mission wept like a little child; he was continually
blessing and encouraging me, and pouring out his soul in prophesies
upon my head; he said go and you shall prosper as not many have
prospered."
"A short time previous to my husband's starting," continues Sister
Vilate, "he was prostrated on his bed from a stitch in his back, which
suddenly seized him while chopping and drawing wood for his family, so
that he could not stir a limb without exclaiming, from the severeness
of the pain. Joseph Smith hearing of it came to see him, bringing
Oliver Cowdery and Bishop Partridge with him. They prayed for and
blessed him, Joseph being mouth, beseeching God to raise him up, &c. He
then took him by the right hand and said, 'Brother Heber, I take you by
your right hand, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and by virtue
of the holy priesthood vested in me, I command you, in the name of
Jesus Christ, to rise, and be thou made whole.' He arose from his bed,
put on his clothes, and started with them, and went up to the temple,
and felt no more of the pain afterwards.
"At length the day for the departure of my husband arrived. It was June
13th, 1837. He was in the midst of his family, blessing them, when
Brother R. B. Thompson, who was to accompany him two or three hundred
miles, came in to ascertain when Heber would start. Brother Thompson,
in after years, writing an account in Heber's journal of his first
mission to Great Britain, in its preface thus describes that solemn
family scene: 'The door being partly open I entered and felt struck
with the sight which presented itself to my view. I would have retired,
thinking I was intruding, but I felt riveted to the spot. The father
was pouring out his soul to
That God who rules on high,
Who all the earth surveys;
That rides upon the stormy sky,
And calms the roaring seas,
"that he would grant unto him a prosperous voyage across the mighty
ocean, and make him useful wherever his lot should be cast, and that
he who careth for the sparrows, and feedeth the young ravens when they
cry, would supply the wants of his wife and little ones in his absence.
He then, like the patriarchs, and by virtue of his office, laid his
hands upon their heads individually, leaving a father's blessing upon
them, and commending them to the care and protection of God, while
he should be engaged preaching the gospel in foreign lands. While
thus engaged his voice was almost lost in the sobs of those around,
who tried in vain to suppress them. The idea of being separated from
their protector and father for so long a time, was indeed painful. He
proceeded, but his heart was too much affected to do so regularly; his
emotions were great, and he was obliged to stop at intervals, while
the big tears rolled down his cheeks, an index to the feelings which
reigned in his bosom. My heart was not stout enough to refrain; in
spite of myself I wept and mingled my tears with theirs at the same
time. I felt thankful that I had the privilege of contemplating such a
scene. I realized that nothing could induce that man to tear himself
from so affectionate a family group--from his partner and children who
were so dear to him--but a sense of duty and love to God and attachment
to his cause.'
"At nine o'clock in the morning of this never-to-be-forgotten-day,"
continues Sister Vilate, "Heber bade adieu to his brethren and friends
and started without purse or scrip to preach the gospel in a foreign
land. He was accompanied by myself and children, and some of the
brethren and sisters, to Fairport. Sister Mary Fielding, who became
afterwards the wife of Hyrum Smith, gave him five dollars, with which
Heber paid the passage of himself and Brother Hyde to Buffalo. They
were also accompanied by her and Brother Thompson and his wife (Mary
Fielding's sister), who were going on a mission to Canada. Heber
himself was accompanied to Great Britain by Elders Orson Hyde, Willard
Richards, J. Goodson and J. Russell, and Priest Joseph Fielding."
Here, for the present, we must leave Brother Heber to prosecute his
important mission, and this illustrious woman to act her part alone as
an apostle's wife, while we introduce others of the sisters, and follow
the church through its scenes of persecution and removal from Missouri
to Illinois.
CHAPTER XV.
HAUN'S MILL--JOSEPH YOUNG'S STORY OF THE MASSACRE--SISTER AMANDA
SMITH'S STORY OF THAT TERRIBLE TRAGEDY--HER WOUNDED BOY'S MIRACULOUS
CURE--HER FINAL ESCAPE FROM MISSOURI.
Towards the close of October, 1838, several small detachments of
migrants from Ohio entered the State of Missouri. They were of the
refugees from Kirtland. Their destinations were the counties of
Caldwell and Davies, where the saints had located in that State.
Haun's Mill, in Caldwell county, was soon to become the scene of one of
the darkest tragedies on record.
The mill was owned by a Mormon brother whose name it bore, and in the
neighborhood some Mormon families had settled.
To Haun's Mill came the doomed refugees.
They had been met on their entrance into the State of Missouri by armed
mobs. Governor Boggs had just issued his order to exterminate the
entire Mormon community.
The coming of the refugees into the inhospitable State could not have
been more ill-timed, though when they left Kirtland they expected to
find a brotherhood in Far West.
"Halt!" commanded the leader of a band of well-mounted and well-armed
mobocrats, who charged down upon them as they journeyed on their way.
"If you proceed any farther west," said the captain, "you will be
instantly shot."
"Wherefore?" inquired the pilgrims.
"You are d--d Mormons!"
"We are law-abiding Americans, and have given no cause of offence."
"You are d--d Mormons. That's offence enough. Within ten days every
Mormon must be out of Missouri, or men, women and children will be shot
down indiscriminately. No mercy will be shown. It is the order of the
Governor that you should all be exterminated; and by G--d you will be."
In consternation the refugees retreated, and gathered at Haun's Mill.
It was Sunday, October 26. The Mormons were holding a council and
deliberating upon the best course to pursue to defend themselves
against the mob that was collecting in the neighborhood, under the
command of a Colonel Jennings, or Livingston, and threatening them with
house-burning and killing.
Joseph Young, the brother of Brigham, was in the council. He had
arrived at the mill that day, with his family, retreating from the mob.
The decision of the council was that the neighborhood of Haun's
Mill should put itself in an attitude of defence. Accordingly about
twenty-eight of the brethren armed themselves and prepared to resist an
attack.
But the same evening the mob sent one of their number to enter into a
treaty with the Mormons at the mill. The treaty was accepted on the
condition of mutual forbearance, and that each party should exert its
influence to prevent any further hostilities.
At this time, however, there was another mob collecting at William
Mann's, on Grand River, so that the brethren remained under arms over
Monday, the 29th, which passed without attack from any quarter.
"On Tuesday, the 30th," says Joseph Young, "that bloody tragedy was
enacted, the scenes of which I shall never forget.
"More than three-fourths of the day had passed in tranquillity, as
smiling as the preceding one. I think there was no individual of our
company that was apprised of the sudden and awful fate which hung over
our heads like an overwhelming torrent, and which was to change the
prospects, the feelings and sympathies of about thirty families.
"The banks of Shoal Creek, on either side, teemed with children
sporting and playing, while their mothers were engaged in domestic
employments. Fathers or husbands were either on guard about the
mills or other property, or employed in gathering crops for winter
consumption. The weather was very pleasant, the sun shone clearly, and
all was tranquil, and no one expressed any apprehension of the awful
crisis that was near us--even at our doors.
"It was about four o'clock P. M., while sitting in my cabin, with
my babe in my arms, and my wife standing by my side, the door being
open, I cast my eyes on the opposite bank of Shoal Creek, and saw a
large body of armed men on horses directing their course towards the
mills with all possible speed. As they advanced through the scattering
trees that bordered the prairie, they seemed to form themselves into
a three-square position, forming a vanguard in front. At this moment
David Evans, seeing the superiority of their numbers (there being two
hundred and forty of them, according to their own account), gave a
signal and cried for peace. This not being heeded, they continued to
advance, and their leader, a man named Comstock, fired a gun, which
was followed by a solemn pause of about ten or twelve seconds, when
all at once they discharged about one hundred rifles, aiming at a
blacksmith's shop, into which our friends had fled for safety. They
then charged up to the shop, the crevices of which, between the logs,
were sufficiently large to enable them to aim directly at the bodies of
those who had there fled for refuge from the fire of their murderers.
There were several families tented in the rear of the shop, whose lives
were exposed, and amid showers of bullets these fled to the woods in
different directions.
"After standing and gazing at this bloody scene for a few minutes, and
finding myself in the uttermost danger, the bullets having reached the
house where I was living, I committed my family to the protection of
heaven; and leaving the house on the opposite side, I took a path which
led up the hill, following in the trail of three of my brethren that
had fled from the shop.
"While ascending the hill we were discovered by the mob, who fired at
us, and continued so to do till we reached the summit. In descending
the hill I secreted myself in a thicket of bushes, where I lay till
8 o'clock in the evening. At this time I heard a voice calling my
name in an undertone. I immediately left the thicket and went to the
house of Benjamin Lewis, where I found my family--who had fled there
in safety--and two of my friends, mortally wounded, one of whom died
before morning. Here we passed the painful night in deep and awful
reflections upon the scenes of the preceding evening.
"After daylight appeared some four or five men, with myself, who had
escaped with our lives from this horrid massacre, repaired as soon as
possible to the mills to learn the condition of our friends whose fate
we had but too truly anticipated.
"When we arrived at the house of Mr. Haun, we found Mr. Merrick's body
lying in the rear of the house, and Mr. McBride's in front, literally
mangled from head to foot. We were informed by Miss Rebecca Judd, who
was an eye-witness, that he was shot with his own gun after he had
given it up, and then cut to pieces with a corn-cutter by a man named
Rogers, of Davies county, who kept a ferry on Grand River, and who
afterwards repeatedly boasted of this same barbarity. Mr. York's body
we found in the house. After viewing these corpses we immediately went
to the blacksmith's shop, where we found nine of our friends, eight of
whom were already dead--the other, Mr. Cox, of Indiana, in the agonies
of death, who soon expired."
But to sister Amanda Smith must be given the principal thread of this
tragedy, for around her centres the terrible interest of the Haun's
Mill massacre, which even to-day rises before her in all the horrors of
an occurring scene. She says:
"We sold our beautiful home in Kirtland for a song, and traveled all
summer to Missouri--our teams poor, and with hardly enough to keep body
and soul together.
"We arrived in Caldwell county, near Haun's Mill, nine wagons of us in
company. Two days before we arrived we were taken prisoners by an armed
mob that had demanded every bit of ammunition and every weapon we had.
We surrendered all. They knew it, for they searched our wagons.
"A few miles more brought us to Haun's Mill, where that awful scene of
murder was enacted. My husband pitched his tent by a blacksmith's shop.
"Brother David Evans made a treaty with the mob that they would not
molest us. He came just before the massacre and called the company
together and they knelt in prayer.
"I sat in my tent. Looking up I suddenly saw the mob coming--the same
that took away our weapons. They came like so many demons or wild
Indians.
"Before I could get to the blacksmith's shop door to alarm the
brethren, who were at prayers, the bullets were whistling amongst them.
"I seized my two little girls and escaped across the mill-pond on a
slab-walk. Another sister fled with me. Yet though we were women, with
tender children, in flight for our lives, the demons poured volley
after volley to kill us.
"A number of bullets entered my clothes, but I was not wounded. The
sister, however, who was with me, cried out that she was hit. We had
just reached the trunk of a fallen tree, over which I urged her,
bidding her to shelter there where the bullets could not reach her,
while I continued my flight to some bottom land.
"When the firing had ceased I went back to the scene of the massacre,
for there were my husband and three sons, of whose fate I as yet knew
nothing.
"As I returned I found the sister in a pool of blood where she had
fainted, but she was only shot through the hand. Farther on was lying
dead Brother McBride, an aged white-haired revolutionary soldier. His
murderer had literally cut him to pieces with an old corn-cutter. His
hands had been split down when he raised them in supplication for
mercy. Then the monster cleft open his head with the same weapon, and
the veteran who had fought for his country, in the glorious days of the
past, was numbered with the martyrs.
"Passing on I came to a scene more terrible still to the mother and
wife. Emerging from the blacksmith shop was my eldest son, bearing on
his shoulders his little brother Alma.
"'Oh! my Alma is dead!' I cried, in anguish.
"'No, mother; I think Alma is not dead. But father and brother Sardius
are killed!'
"What an answer was this to appal me! My husband and son murdered;
another little son seemingly mortally wounded; and perhaps before the
dreadful night should pass the murderers would return and complete
their work!
"But I could not weep then. The fountain of tears was dry; the heart
overburdened with its calamity, and all the mother's sense absorbed
in its anxiety for the precious boy which God alone could save by his
miraculous aid.
"The entire hip joint of my wounded boy had been shot away. Flesh, hip
bone, joint and all had been ploughed out from the muzzle of the gun
which the ruffian placed to the child's hip through the logs of the
shop and deliberately fired.
"We laid little Alma on a bed in our tent and I examined the wound. It
was a ghastly sight. I knew not what to do. It was night now.
"There were none left from that terrible scene, throughout that long,
dark night, but about half a dozen bereaved and lamenting women, and
the children. Eighteen or nineteen, all grown men excepting my murdered
boy and another about the same age, were dead or dying; several more of
the men were wounded, hiding away, whose groans through the night too
well disclosed their hiding places, while the rest of the men had fled,
at the moment of the massacre, to save their lives.
"The women were sobbing, in the greatest anguish of spirit; the
children were crying loudly with fear and grief at the loss of fathers
and brothers; the dogs howled over their dead masters and the cattle
were terrified with the scent of the blood of the murdered.
"Yet was I there, all that long, dreadful night, with my dead and my
wounded, and none but God as our physician and help.
"Oh my Heavenly Father, I cried, what shall I do? Thou seest my poor
wounded boy and knowest my inexperience. Oh Heavenly Father direct me
what to do!
"And then I was directed as by a voice speaking to me.
"The ashes of our fire was still smouldering. We had been burning the
bark of the shag-bark hickory. I was directed to take those ashes and
make a lye and put a cloth saturated with it right into the wound. It
hurt, but little Alma was too near dead to heed it much. Again and
again I saturated the cloth and put it into the hole from which the
hip-joint had been ploughed, and each time mashed flesh and splinters
of bone came away with the cloth; and the wound became as white as
chicken's flesh.
"Having done as directed I again prayed to the Lord and was again
instructed as distinctly as though a physician had been standing by
speaking to me.
"Near by was a slippery-elm tree. From this I was told to make a
slippery-elm poultice and fill the wound with it.
"My eldest boy was sent to get the slippery-elm from the roots, the
poultice was made, and the wound, which took fully a quarter of a yard
of linen to cover, so large was it, was properly dressed.
"It was then I found vent to my feelings in tears, and resigned myself
to the anguish of the hour. And all that night we, a few poor, stricken
women, were thus left there with our dead and wounded. All through the
night we heard the groans of the dying. Once in the dark we crawled
over the heap of dead in the blacksmith's shop to try to help or soothe
the sufferers' wants; once we followed the cries of a wounded brother
who hid in some bushes from the murderers, and relieved him all we
could.
"It has passed from my memory whether he was dead in the morning or
whether he recovered.
"Next morning brother Joseph Young came to the scene of the massacre.
"'What shall be done with the dead?' he inquired, in horror and deep
trouble.
"There was not time to bury them, for the mob was coming on us. Neither
were there left men to dig the graves. All the men excepting the two or
three who had so narrowly escaped were dead or wounded. It had been no
battle, but a massacre indeed.
"'Do anything, Brother Joseph,' I said, 'rather than leave their bodies
to the fiends who have killed them.'
"There was a deep dry weir close by. Into this the bodies had to be
hurried, eighteen or nineteen in number.
"No funeral service could be performed, nor could they be buried with
customary decency. The lives of those who in terror performed the last
duty to the dead were in jeopardy. Every moment we expected to be
fired upon by the fiends who we supposed were lying in ambush waiting
the first opportunity to dispatch the remaining few who had escaped
the slaughter of the preceding day. So in the hurry and terror of the
moment some were thrown into the well head downwards and some feet
downwards.
"But when it came to the burial of my murdered boy Sardius, Brother
Joseph Young, who was assisting to carry him on a board to the well,
laid down the corpse and declared that he could not throw that boy into
this horrible grave.
"All the way on the journey, that summer, Joseph had played with the
interesting lad who had been so cruelly murdered. It was too much for
one whose nature was so tender as Uncle Joseph's, and whose sympathies
by this time were quite overwrought. He could not perform that last
office. My murdered son was left unburied.
"'Oh! they have left my Sardius unburied in the sun,' I cried, and ran
and got a sheet and covered his body.
"There he lay until the next day, and then I, his mother, assisted by
his elder brother, had to throw him into the well. Straw and earth were
thrown into this rude vault to cover the dead.
"Among the wounded who recovered were Isaac Laney, Nathaniel K. Knight,
Mr. Yokum, two brothers by the name of Myers, Tarlton Lewis, Mr. Haun
and several others, besides Miss Mary Stedwell, who was shot through
the hand while fleeing with me, and who fainting, fell over the log
into which the mob shot upwards of twenty balls.
"The crawling of my boys under the bellows in the blacksmith's shop
where the tragedy occurred, is an incident familiar to all our people.
Alma's hip was shot away while thus hiding. Sardius was discovered
after the massacre by the monsters who came in to despoil the bodies.
The eldest, Willard, was not discovered. In cold blood, one Glaze,
of Carroll county, presented a rifle near the head of Sardius and
literally blew off the upper part of it, leaving the skull empty and
dry while the brains and hair of the murdered boy were scattered around
and on the walls.
"At this one of the men, more merciful than the rest, observed:
"'It was a d--d shame to kill those little boys.'
"'D--n the difference!' retorted the other; 'nits make lice!'
"My son who escaped, also says that the mobocrat William Mann took from
my husband's feet, before he was dead, a pair of new boots. From his
hiding place, the boy saw the ruffian drag his father across the shop
in the act of pulling off his boot.
"'Oh! you hurt me!' groaned my husband. But the murderer dragged him
back again, pulling off the other boot; 'and there' says the boy, 'my
father fell over dead.'
"Afterwards this William Mann showed the boots on his own feet, in Far
West, saying: 'Here is a pair of boots that I pulled off before the
d--d Mormon was done kicking!'
"The murderer Glaze also boasted over the country, as a heroic deed,
the blowing off the head of my young son.
"But to return to Alma, and how the Lord helped me to save his life.
"I removed the wounded boy to a house, some distance off, the next day,
and dressed his hip; the Lord directing me as before. I was reminded
that in my husband's trunk there was a bottle of balsam. This I poured
into the wound, greatly soothing Alma's pain.
"'Alma, my child,' I said, 'you believe that the Lord made your hip?'
"'Yes, mother.'
"'Well, the Lord can make something there in the place of your hip,
don't you believe he can, Alma?'
"'Do you think that the Lord can, mother?' inquired the child, in his
simplicity.
"'Yes, my son,' I replied, 'he has shown it all to me in a vision.'
"Then I laid him comfortably on his face, and said: 'Now you lay like
that, and don't move, and the Lord will make you another hip.'
"So Alma laid on his face for five weeks, until he was entirely
recovered--a flexible gristle having grown in place of the missing
joint and socket, which remains to this day a marvel to physicians.
"On the day that he walked again I was out of the house fetching a
bucket of water, when I heard screams from the children. Running back,
in affright, I entered, and there was Alma on the floor, dancing
around, and the children screaming in astonishment and joy.
"It is now nearly forty years ago, but Alma has never been the least
crippled during his life, and he has traveled quite a long period of
the time as a missionary of the gospel and a living miracle of the
power of God.
"I cannot leave the tragic story without relating some incidents
of those five weeks when I was a prisoner with my wounded boy in
Missouri, near the scene of the massacre, unable to obey the order of
extermination.
"All the Mormons in the neighborhood had fled out of the State,
excepting a few families of the bereaved women and children who had
gathered at the house of Brother David Evans, two miles from the scene
of the massacre. To this house Alma had been carried after that fatal
night.
"In our utter desolation, what could we women do but pray? Prayer was
our only source of comfort; our Heavenly Father our only helper. None
but he could save and deliver us.
"One day a mobber came from the mill with the captain's fiat:
"'The captain says if you women don't stop your d--d praying he will
send down a posse and kill every d--d one of you!'
"And he might as well have done it, as to stop us poor women praying in
that hour of our great calamity.
"Our prayers were hushed in terror. We dared not let our voices be
heard in the house in supplication. I could pray in my bed or in
silence, but I could not live thus long. This godless silence was more
intolerable than had been that night of the massacre.
"I could bear it no longer. I pined to hear once more my own voice in
petition to my Heavenly Father.
"I stole down into a corn-field, and crawled into a 'stout of corn.' It
was as the temple of the Lord to me at that moment. I prayed aloud and
most fervently.
"When I emerged from the corn a voice spoke to me. It was a voice as
plain as I ever heard one. It was no silent, strong impression of the
spirit, but a _voice_, repeating a verse of the saint's hymn:
"That soul who on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I cannot, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake!
"From that moment I had no more fear. I felt that nothing could hurt
me. Soon after this the mob sent us word that unless we were all out of
the State by a certain day we should be killed.
"The day came, and at evening came fifty armed men to execute the
sentence.
"I met them at the door. They demanded of me why I was not gone? I
bade them enter and see their own work. They crowded into my room and
I showed them my wounded boy. They came, party after party, until all
had seen my excuse. Then they quarreled among themselves and came near
fighting.
"At last they went away, all but two. These I thought were detailed to
kill us. Then the two returned.
"'Madam,' said one, 'have you any meat in the house?'
"' No,' was my reply.
"'Could you dress a fat hog if one was laid at your door?'
"'I think we could!' was my answer.
"And then they went and caught a fat hog from a herd which had belonged
to a now exiled brother, killed it and dragged it to my door, and
departed.
"These men, who had come to murder us, left on the threshold of our
door a meat offering to atone for their repented intention.
"Yet even when my son was well I could not leave the State, now
accursed indeed to the saints.
"The mob had taken my horses, as they had the drove of horses, and the
beeves, and the hogs, and wagons, and the tents, of the murdered and
exiled.
"So I went down into Davies county (ten miles) to Captain Comstock, and
demanded of him my horses. There was one of them in his yard. He said I
could have it if I paid five dollars for its keep. I told him I had no
money.
"I did not fear the captain of the mob, for I had the Lord's promise
that nothing should hurt me. But his wife swore that the mobbers
were fools for not killing the women and children as well as the
men--declaring that we would 'breed up a pack ten times worse than the
first.'
"I left without the captain's permission to take my horse, or giving
pay for its keep; but I went into his yard and took it, and returned to
our refuge unmolested.
"Learning that my other horse was at the mill, I next yoked up a pair
of steers to a sled and went and demanded it also.
"Comstock was there at the mill. He gave me the horse, and then asked
if I had any flour.
"'No; we have had none for weeks.'
"He then gave me about fifty pounds of flour and some beef, and filled
a can with honey.
"But the mill, and the slaughtered beeves which hung plentifully on its
walls, and the stock of flour and honey, and abundant spoil besides,
had all belonged to the murdered or exiled saints.
"Yet was I thus providentially, by the very murderers and mobocrats
themselves, helped out of the State of Missouri.
"The Lord had kept his word. The soul who on Jesus had leaned for
succor had not been forsaken even in this terrible hour of massacre,
and in that infamous extermination of the Mormons from Missouri in the
years 1838-39.
"One incident more, as a fitting close.
"Over that rude grave--that well--where the nineteen martyrs slept,
where my murdered husband and boy were entombed, the mobbers of
Missouri, with an exquisite fiendishness, which no savages could have
conceived, had constructed a rude privy. This they constantly used,
with a delight which demons might have envied, if demons are more
wicked and horribly beastly than were they.
"Thus ends my chapter of the Haun's Mill massacre, to rise in judgment
against them!"
CHAPTER XVI.
MOBS DRIVE THE SETTLERS INTO FAR WEST--HEROIC DEATH OF APOSTLE
PATTEN--TREACHERY OF COL. HINKLE, AND FALL OF THE MORMON
CAPITAL--FAMOUS SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CLARK.
But the iliad of Mormondom was now in Far West.
Haun's Mill massacre was merely a tragic episode; a huge tragedy in
itself, it is true, such as civilized times scarcely ever present, yet
merely an episode of this strange religious iliad of America and the
nineteenth century.
The capital of Mormondom was now the city of Far West, in Missouri.
There was Joseph the prophet. There was Brigham Young--his St.
Peter--who by this time fairly held the keys of the latter-day kingdom.
There were the apostles. There were two armies marshaled--the army of
the Lord and the army of Satan. And these were veritable hosts, of
flesh and blood, equipped and marshaled in a religious crusade--not
merely spiritual powers contending.
"On the 4th of July, 1838," writes Apostle Parley Pratt, "thousands of
the citizens who belonged to the church of the saints assembled at the
city of Far West, the county seat of Caldwell, in order to celebrate
our nation's birth.
"We erected a tall standard, on which was hoisted our national colors,
the stars and stripes, and the bold eagle of American liberty. Under
its waving folds we laid the corner-stone of a temple of God, and
dedicated the land and ourselves and families to him who had preserved
us in all our troubles.
"An address was then delivered by Sidney Rigdon, in which was portrayed
in lively colors the oppression which we had suffered at the hands of
our enemies.
"We then and there declared our constitutional rights as American
citizens, and manifested our determination to resist, with our utmost
endeavors, from that time forth, all oppression, and to maintain our
rights and freedom, according to the holy principles of liberty as
guaranteed to every person by the constitution and laws of our country.
"This declaration was received with shouts of hosanna to God and the
Lamb, and with many long cheers by the assembled thousands, who were
determined to yield their rights no more unless compelled by superior
power."
Very proper, too were such resolutions of these sons and daughters of
sires and mothers who were among the pilgrim founders of this nation,
and among the heroes and heroines of the Revolution.
But Missouri could not endure this temple-building to the God of
Israel, nor these mighty shouts of hosanna to his name; while the
all-prevailing faith of the sisters brought more of the angels down
from the New Jerusalem than earth just then was prepared to receive. In
popular words, this formidable gathering of a modern Israel and this
city building within its borders loomed up to Missouri as the rising of
a Mormon empire.
Soon the State was alive with mobs determined on the extermination
of the saints; soon those mobs numbered ten thousand armed men; soon
also were they converted into a State army, officered by generals and
major-generals, with the governor as the commander-in-chief of a boldly
avowed religious crusade, with rival priests as its "inspiring demons."
One feature, all worthy of note, in this Hebraic drama of Mormondom, is
that while modern Israel was ever in the action inspired by archangels
of the new covenant, the anti-Mormon crusade was as constantly inspired
by sectarian priests at war with a dispensation of angels.
Even the mobber, Captain Comstock, who was bold enough to perpetrate a
Haun's Mill massacre, was in consternation over the magic prayers of a
few stricken women who honored the God of Israel in the hour of direst
calamity.
Thus throughout Missouri. And so the exterminating order of Governor
Boggs prevailed like the edict of a second Nebuchadnezzar.
There was a _Mormon war_ in the State. So it was styled.
Mobs were abroad, painted like Indian warriors, committing murder,
robbery, burning the homesteads of the saints, and spreading desolation.
Next, one thousand men were ordered into service by the Governor, under
the command of Major-General Atchison and Brigadier-Generals Park and
Doniphan.
This force marched against the saints in several counties. A
Presbyterian priest, Rev. Sashel Woods, was its chaplain. He said
prayers in the camp, morning and evening. 'Twas a godly service in
an ungodly crusade, but the Rev. Sashel Woods was equal to it. The
Philistines drove modern Israel before them, and their priest prayed
Jehovah out of countenance.
In Far West a thousand men of our Mormon Israel flew to arms, and in
Davies county several hundred men assembled for defence. Colonel David
Patten, an apostle, with his company put to flight some of the mob;
but the crusaders in general drove the saints from settlement after
settlement.
Hundreds of men, women and children fled from their homes to the cities
and strongholds of their people. From Davies county and the frontiers
of Caldwell the refugees daily poured into the city of Far West. Lands
and crops were abandoned to the enemy. The citizens in the capital of
the saints were constantly under arms. Men slept in their clothes, with
arms by their side, ready to muster at a given signal at any hour of
the night.
A company under Colonel Patten went out to meet the enemy across the
prairies, a distance of twelve miles, to stop the murder and spoliation
of a settlement of their people. Parley Pratt was one of the posse.
"The night was dark," he says; "the distant plains far and wide were
illuminated by blazing fires; immense columns of smoke were seen rising
in awful majesty, as if the world was on fire. This scene, added to the
silence of midnight, the rumbling sound of the tramping steeds over
the hard and dried surface of the plain, the clanking of swords in
their scabbards, the occasional gleam of bright armor in the flickering
firelight, the gloom of surrounding darkness, and the unknown destiny
of the expedition, or even of the people who sent it forth, all
combined to impress the mind with deep and solemn thoughts."
At dawn of day they met the enemy in ambush in the wilderness. The
enemy opened fire, mortally wounding a brother named O'Banyon. Soon
the brethren charged the enemy in his camp; several fell upon both
sides, among whom was the brave apostle, David Patten; but the foemen
flung themselves into a stream and escaped on the opposite shore, while
the wilderness resounded with the watchword of the heroes, "_God and
Liberty_:"
Six of the brethren were wounded, and one left dead on the ground.
The heroes returned to Far West. Among those who came out to meet them
was the wife of the dying apostle, Patten.
"O God! O my husband!" she exclaimed, bursting into tears.
The wounds were dressed. David was still able to speak, but he died
that evening in the triumphs of faith.
"I had rather die," he said, "than live to see it thus in my country!"
The young O'Banyon also died about the same time. They were buried
together under military honors; a whole people in tears followed them
to their grave.
David Patten was the first of the modern apostles who found a martyr's
grave. He is said to have been a great and good man, who chose to lay
down his life for the cause of truth and right.
Not long now ere Governor Boggs found the opportunity for the grand
expulsion of the entire Mormon community--from twelve to fifteen
thousand souls. He issued an order for some ten thousand troops to be
mustered into service and marched to the field against the Mormons,
giving the command to General Clark. His order was expressly to
_exterminate_ the Mormons, or drive them from the State.
The army of extermination marched upon the city of Far West.
The little Mormon host, about five hundred strong, marched out upon the
plains on the south of the city, and formed in order of battle. Its
line of infantry extended near half a mile; a small company of horse
was posted on the right wing on a commanding eminence, and another in
the rear of the main body extended as a reserve.
The army of extermination halted and formed along the borders of a
stream called Goose Creek; and both sides sent out white flags, which
met between the armies.
"We want three persons out of the city before we massacre the rest!"
was the voice of the white flag from the governor's army.
Small need this, for the flag of mercy! But it was as good as the mercy
of Haun's Mill, which was given on the very same day.
That night Major-General Lucas encamped near the city. The brethren
continued under arms, and spent the night throwing up temporary
breastworks. They were determined to defend their homes, wives and
children to the last. Both armies were considerably reinforced during
the night, the army of extermination being reinforced with the monsters
from the Haun's Mill massacre.
But the prophet and brethren were on the next day betrayed by the
traitor Colonel George M. Hinkle, who was in command of the defence of
Far West.
Joseph was now a prisoner of war; Parley and others were prisoners
also; Brigham was at Far West, but even he could not save the prophet
and the saints from this formidable army, nor lessen the blow which
a traitor had dealt. The treachery of Colonel Hinkle had, however,
perhaps saved the lives of hundreds of women and children, and
prevented brave men from fighting in a just cause.
It was November, now, and Major-General Clark was also at Far West
with _his_ army of extermination. No book of the persecutions could be
properly written without his speech to the Mormons, especially a book
of the sisters, whom it so much concerned:
"GENTLEMEN: You, whose names are not on this list, will now have
the privilege of going to your fields to obtain grain for your
families--wood, etc. Those that compose the list will go hence to
prison, to be tried, and receive the due demerits of their crimes.
But you are now at liberty, all but such as charges may hereafter
be preferred against. It now devolves upon you to fulfill the
treaty that you have entered into--the leading items of which I now
lay before you.
"The first of these items you have already complied with--which
is, that you deliver up your leading men to be tried according to
law. Second, that you deliver up your arms--this has been attended
to. The third is, that you sign over your property to defray the
expenses of the war; this you have also done. Another thing yet
remains for you to comply with; that is: that you leave the State
forthwith; and, whatever your feeling concerning this affair,
whatever your innocence, it is nothing to me. General Lucas, who
is equal in authority with me, has made this treaty with you. I am
determined to see it executed.
"The orders of the Governor to me, were, that you should be
exterminated, and not allowed to remain in the State. And had your
leaders not been given up, and the treaty complied with, before
this you and your families would have been destroyed and your
houses in ashes.
"There is a discretionary power resting in my hands, which I shall
try to exercise for a season. I did not say that you must go now,
but you must not think of stopping here another season, or of
putting in crops; for the moment you do, the citizens will be upon
you. I am determined to see the Governor's orders fulfilled, but
shall not come upon you immediately. Do not think that I shall
act as I have done any more; but if I have to come again because
the treaty which you have made is not complied with, you need not
expect any mercy, but extermination; for I am determined that the
Governor's order shall be executed.
"As for your leaders, do not think, do not imagine for a moment, do
not let it enter your minds that they will be delivered, or that
you will see their faces again, for their fate is fixed, their die
is cast, their doom is sealed.
"I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so great a number of apparently
intelligent men found in the situation that you are. And, oh! that
I could invoke the spirit of the unknown God to rest upon you, and
deliver you from that awful chain of superstition, and liberate you
from those fetters of fanaticism with which you are bound. I would
advise you to scatter abroad and never again organize with bishops,
presidents, etc., lest you excite the jealousies of the people, and
subject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come upon
you.
"You have always been the aggressors; you have brought upon
yourselves these difficulties by being disaffected, and not being
subject to rule; and my advice is, that you become as other
citizens, lest by a recurrence of these events you bring upon
yourselves inevitable ruin."
CHAPTER XVII.
EPISODES OF THE PERSECUTIONS--CONTINUATION OF ELIZA R. SNOW'S
NARRATIVE--BATHSHEBA W. SMITH'S STORY--LOUISA F. WELLS INTRODUCED TO
THE READER--EXPERIENCE OF ABIGAIL LEONARD--MARGARET FOUTZ.
The prophet and his brother Hyrum were in prison and in chains in
Missouri; Sidney Rigdon, Parley Pratt and others were also in prison
and in chains, for the gospel's sake.
The St. Peter of Mormondom was engaged in removing the saints from
Missouri to Illinois. He had made a covenant with them that none of
the faithful should be left. Faithfully he kept that covenant. It was
then, in fact, that Brigham rose as a great leader of a people, giving
promise of what he has been since the martyrdom of the prophet.
While Joseph is in chains, and Brigham is accomplishing the exodus from
Missouri, the sisters shall relate some episodes of those days.
Sister Snow, continuing the thread of her narrative already given, says:
In Kirtland the persecution increased until many had to flee for their
lives, and in the spring of 1838, in company with my father, mother,
three brothers, one sister and her two daughters, I left Kirtland, and
arrived in Far West, Caldwell county, Mo., on the 16th of July, where
I stopped at the house of Sidney Rigdon, with my brother Lorenzo, who
was very sick, while the rest of the family went farther, and settled
in Adam-Ondi-Ahman, in Davies county. In two weeks, my brother being
sufficiently recovered, my father sent for us and we joined the family
group. My father purchased the premises of two of the "old settlers,"
and paid their demands in full. I mention this, because subsequent
events proved that, at the time of the purchase, although those men
ostensibly were our warm friends, they had, in connection with others
of the same stripe, concocted plans to mob and drive us from our newly
acquired homes, and repossess them. In this brief biographical sketch,
I shall not attempt a review of the scenes that followed. Sufficient
to say, while we were busy in making preparations for the approaching
winter, to our great surprise, those neighbors fled from the place, as
if driven by a mob, leaving their clocks ticking, dishes spread for
their meal, coffee-pots boiling, etc., etc., and, as they went, spread
the report in every direction that the "Mormons" had driven them from
their homes, arousing the inhabitants of the surrounding country, which
resulted in the disgraceful, notorious "exterminating order" from the
Governor of the State; in accordance therewith, we left Davies county
for that of Caldwell, preparatory to fulfilling the injunction of
leaving the State "before grass grows" in the spring.
The clemency of our law-abiding, citizen-expelling Governor allowed us
ten days to leave our county, and, till the expiration of that term,
a posse of militia was to guard us against mobs; but it would be very
difficult to tell which was better, the militia or the mob--nothing was
too mean for the militia to perform--no property was safe within the
reach of those men.
One morning, while we were hard at work, preparing for our exit, the
former occupant of our house entered, and in an impudent and arrogant
manner inquired how soon we should be out of it. My American blood
warmed to the temperature of an insulted, free-born citizen, as I
looked at him, and thought, poor man, you little think with whom you
have to deal--God lives! He certainly overruled in that instance, for
those wicked men never got possession of that property, although my
father sacrificed it to American mobocracy.
In assisting widows and others who required help, my father's time
was so occupied that we did not start until the morning of the 10th,
and last day of the allotted grace. The weather was very cold and the
ground covered with snow. After assisting in the arrangements for the
journey, and shivering with cold, in order to warm my aching feet, I
walked until the teams overtook me. In the mean time, I met one of
the so-called militia, who accosted me with, "Well, I think this will
cure you of your faith!" Looking him steadily in the eye, I replied,
"No, sir; it will take more than _this_ to cure me of my faith." His
countenance suddenly fell, and he responded, "I must confess, you are
a better soldier than I am." I passed on, thinking that, unless he was
above the average of his fellows in that section, I was not highly
complimented by his confession. It is true our hardships and privations
were sufficient to have disheartened any but the saints of the living
God--those who were prompted by higher than earthly motives, and
trusting in the arm of Jehovah.
We were two days on our way to Far West, and stopped over night at
what was called the Half-way House, a log building perhaps twenty feet
square, with the chinkings between the logs, minus--they probably
having been burned for firewood--the owner of the house, Brother
Littlefield, having left with his family to escape being robbed; and
the north wind had free ingress through the openings, wide enough for
cats to crawl through. This had been the lodging place of the hundreds
who had preceded us, and on the present occasion proved the almost
shelterless shelter of seventy-five or eighty souls. To say lodging,
would be a hoax, although places were allotted to a few aged and
feeble, to lie down, while the rest of us either sat or stood, or both,
all night. My sister and I managed so that mother lay down, and we sat
by (on the floor, of course), to prevent her being trampled on, for the
crowd was such that people were hardly responsible for their movements.
It was past the middle of December, and the cold was so intense that,
in spite of well packing, our food was frozen hard, bread and all,
and although a blazing fire was burning on one side of the room, we
could not get to it to thaw our suppers, and had to resort to the next
expediency, which was this: The boys milked, and while one strained
the milk, another held the pan (for there was no chance for putting
anything down); then, while one held a bowl of the warm milk, another
would, as expeditiously as possible, thinly slice the frozen bread
into it, and thus we managed for supper. In the morning, we were less
crowded, as some started very early, and we toasted our bread and
thawed our meat before the fire. But, withal, that was a very merry
night. None but saints can be happy under every circumstance. About
twenty feet from the house was a shed, in the centre of which the
brethren built a roaring fire, around which some of them stood and
sang songs and hymns all night, while others parched corn and roasted
frosted potatoes, etc. Not a complaint was heard--all were cheerful,
and judging from appearances, strangers would have taken us to be
pleasure excursionists rather than a band of gubernatorial exiles.
After the mobbing commenced, although my father had purchased, and
had on hand, plenty of wheat, he could get none ground, and we were
under the necessity of grating corn for our bread on graters made of
tin-pails and stove-pipe. I will here insert a few extracts from a long
poem I wrote while in Davies county, as follows:
'Twas autumn--Summer's melting breath was gone,
And Winter's gelid blast was stealing on;
To meet its dread approach, with anxious care
The houseless saints were struggling to prepare;
When round about a desperate mob arose,
Like tigers waking from a night's repose;
They came like hordes from nether shades let loose--
Men without hearts, just fit for Satan's use!
With wild, demoniac rage they sallied forth,
Resolved to drive the saints of God from earth.
Hemm'd in by foes--deprived the use of mill,
Necessity inspires their patient skill;
Tin-pails and stove-pipe, from their service torn,
Are changed to graters to prepare the corn,
That Nature's wants may barely be supplied--
They ask no treat, no luxury beside.
But, where their shelter? Winter hastens fast;
Can tents and wagons stem this northern blast?
The scene presented in the city of Far West, as we stopped over night
on our way to our temporary location, was too important to be omitted,
and too sad to narrate. Joseph Smith, and many other prominent men,
had been dragged to prison. Their families, having been plundered,
were nearly or quite destitute--some living on parched corn, others on
boiled wheat; and desolation seemed inscribed on everything but the
hearts of the faithful saints. In the midst of affliction, they trusted
in God.
After spending the remainder of the winter in the vicinity of Far West,
on the 5th of March, 1839, leaving much of our property behind, we
started for Illinois.
From the commencement of hostilities against us, in the State of
Missouri, till our expulsion, no sympathy in our behalf was ever, to
my knowledge, expressed by any of the former citizens, with one single
exception, and that was so strikingly in contrast with the morbid
state of feeling generally manifested that it made a deep impression
on my mind, and I think it worthy of record. I will here relate the
circumstance. It occurred on our outward journey.
After a night of rain which turned to snow and covered the ground in
the morning, we thawed our tent, which was stiffly frozen, by holding
and turning it alternately before a blazing fire until it could be
folded for packing; and, all things put in order, while we all shook
with the cold, we started on. As the sun mounted upwards, the snow
melted, and increased the depth of the mud with which the road before
us had been amply stocked, and rendered travel almost impossible.
The teams were puffing, and the wagons dragging so heavily that we
were all on foot, tugging along as best we could, when an elderly
gentleman, on horseback, overtook us, and, after riding alongside for
some time, apparently absorbed in deep thought, as he (after inquiring
who we were) watched the women and girls, men and boys, teams and
wagons, slowly wending our way up a long hill, _en route_ from our
only earthly homes, and, not knowing where we should find one, he said
emphatically, "If I were in your places, I should want the Governor of
the State hitched at the head of my teams." I afterwards remarked to my
father that I had not heard as sensible a speech from a stranger since
entering the State. I never saw that gentleman afterwards, but have
from that time cherished a filial respect for him, and fancy I see his
resemblance in the portrait of Sir Von Humboldt, now hanging on the
wall before me.
We arrived in Quincy, Ill., where many of the exiled saints had
preceded us, and all were received with generous hospitality.
My father moved to one of the northern counties. I stopped in Quincy,
and, while there, wrote for the press, "An Appeal to the Citizens of
the United States," "An Address to the Citizens of Quincy," and several
other articles, for which I received some very flattering encomiums,
with solicitations for effusions, which, probably, were elicited by the
fact that they were from the pen of a "Mormon girl."
From Quincy, my sister, her two daughters and I, went to Lima, Hancock
county, where we found a temporary home under the roof of an old
veteran of the Revolution, who, with his family, treated us with much
kindness, although, through ignorance of the character of the saints,
their feelings were like gall towards them as a people, which we knew
to be the result of misrepresentation. It was very annoying to our
feelings to hear bitter aspersions against those whom we knew to be the
best people on earth; but, occupying, as we did, an upper room with a
slight flooring between us and those below, we were obliged to hear.
Frequently, after our host had traduced our people, of whom he knew
nothing, he would suddenly change his tone and boast of the "noble
women" he had in his house; "no better women ever lived," etc., which
he would have said of the Mormon people generally, had he known them
as well. We were pilgrims, and for the time being had to submit to
circumstances. Almost anything is preferable to dependence--with these
people we would earn our support at the tailoring business, thanks to
my mother's industrial training, for which I even now bless her dear
memory.
In May the saints commenced gathering in Commerce (afterwards Nauvoo),
and on the 16th of July I left our kind host and hostess, much to their
regret, Elder Rigdon having sent for me to teach his family school in
Commerce, and, although I regretted to part with my sister, I was truly
thankful to be again associated with the body of the church, with those
whose minds, freed from the fetters of sectarian creeds, and man-made
theology, launch forth in the divine path of investigation into the
glorious fields of celestial knowledge and intelligence.
--
Concerning these times, Sister Bathsheba W. Smith says: "When I
was in my sixteenth year, some Latter-day Saint elders visited our
neighborhood. I heard them preach and believed what they taught; I
believed the Book of Mormon to be a divine record, and that Joseph
Smith was a prophet of God. I knew by the spirit of the Lord, which
I received in answer to prayer, that these things were true. On the
21st of August, 1837, I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, by Elder Samuel James, in Jones' Run, on the
farm and near the residence of Augustus Burgess, and was confirmed
by Elder Francis G. Bishop. The spirit of the Lord rested upon me,
and I knew that he accepted of me as a member in his kingdom. My
mother was baptized this same day. My sister Sarah, next older than
me, was baptized three days previously. My father, and my two oldest
sisters, Matilda and Nancy, together with their husbands, Col. John S.
Martin and Josiah W. Fleming, were baptized into the same church soon
afterwards. My uncle, Jacob Bigler, and his family had been baptized
a few weeks before. A part of my first experience as a member of the
church was, that most of my young acquaintances and companions began to
ridicule us. The spirit of gathering with the saints in Missouri came
upon me, and I became very anxious indeed to go there that fall with my
sister Nancy and family, as they had sold out and were getting ready
to go. I was told I could not go. This caused me to retire to bed one
night feeling very sorrowful. While pondering upon what had been said
to me about not going, a voice said to me,'Weep not, you will go this
fall' I was satisfied and comforted. The next morning I felt contented
and happy, on observing which my sister Sarah said, 'You have got over
feeling badly about not going to Zion this fall, have you?' I quietly,
but firmly, replied, 'I am going--you will see.'
"My brother, Jacob G. Bigler, having gone to Far West, Mo., joined the
church there and bought a farm for my father, and then returned. About
this time my father sold his farm in West Virginia, and fitted out my
mother, my brother, and my sister Sarah, Melissa and myself, and we
started for Far West, in company with my two brothers-in-law and my
uncle and their families. Father stayed to settle up his business,
intending to join us at Far West in the spring, bringing with him, by
water, farming implements, house furniture, etc. On our journey the
young folks of our party had much enjoyment; it seemed so novel and
romantic to travel in wagons over hill and dale, through dense forests
and over extensive prairies, and occasionally passing through towns
and cities, and camping in tents at night. On arriving in Missouri we
found the State preparing to wage war against the Latter-day Saints.
The nearer we got to our destination, the more hostile the people were.
As we were traveling along, numbers of men would sometimes gather
around our wagons and stop us. They would inquire who we were, where we
were from, and where we were going to. On receiving answers to their
questions, they would debate among themselves whether to let us go or
not; their debate would result generally in a statement to the effect
of, 'As you are Virginians, we will let you go on, but we believe you
will soon return, for you will quickly become convinced of your folly.'
Just before we crossed Grand River, we camped over night with a company
of Eastern saints. We had a meeting, and rejoiced together. In the
morning it was thought best for the companies to separate and cross the
river by two different ferries, as this arrangement would enable all
to cross in less time. Our company arrived at Far West in safety. But
not so with the other company; they were overtaken at Haun's Mill by an
armed mob--nineteen were killed, many others were wounded, and some of
them maimed for life.
"Three nights after we had arrived at the farm which my brother had
bought, and which was four miles south of the city of Far West, word
came that a mob was gathering on Crooked River, and a call was made for
men to go out in command of Captain David W. Patten, for the purpose
of trying to stop the depredations of the men, who were whipping
and otherwise maltreating our brethren, and who were destroying and
burning property. Captain Patten's company went, and a battle ensued.
Some of the Latter-day Saints were killed, and several were wounded.
I saw Brother James Hendrix, one of the wounded, as he was being
carried home; he was entirely helpless and nearly speechless. Soon
afterwards Captain David W. Patten, who was one of the twelve apostles,
was brought wounded into the house where we were. I heard him bear
testimony to the truth of Mormonism. He exhorted his wife and all
present to abide in the faith. His wife asked him if he had anything
against any one. He answered, 'No.' Elder Heber C. Kimball asked him if
he would remember him when he got home. He said he would. Soon after
this he died, without a struggle.
"In this State I saw thousands of mobbers arrayed against the saints,
and I heard their shouts and savage yells when our prophet Joseph and
his brethren were taken into their camp. I saw much, very much, of the
sufferings that were brought upon our people by those lawless men.
The saints were forced to sign away their property, and to agree to
leave the State before it was time to put in spring crops. In these
distressing times, the spirit of the Lord was with us to comfort and
sustain us, and we had a sure testimony that we were being persecuted
for the gospel's sake, and that the Lord was angry with none save those
who acknowledged not his hand in all things.
"My father had to lose what he had paid on his farm; and in February,
1839, in the depth of winter, our family, and thousands of the saints,
were on the way to the State of Illinois. On this journey I walked many
a mile, to let some poor sick or weary soul ride. At night we would
meet around the camp-fire and take pleasure in singing the songs of
Zion, trusting in the Lord that all would yet be well, and that Zion
would eventually be redeemed.
"In the spring, father joined us at Quincy, Ill. We also had the joy of
having our prophet, Joseph Smith, and his brethren, restored to us from
their imprisonment in Missouri. Many, however, had died from want and
exposure during our journey. I was sick for a long time with ague and
fever, during which time my father was taken severely sick, and died
after suffering seven weeks. It was the first sickness that either of
us ever had.
"In the spring of 1840 our family moved to Nauvoo, in Illinois.
Here I continued my punctuality in attending meetings, had many
opportunities of hearing Joseph Smith preach, and tried to profit
by his instructions, and received many testimonials to the truth of
the doctrines he taught. Meetings were held out of doors in pleasant
weather, and in private houses when it was unfavorable. I was present
at the laying of the cornerstones of the foundation of the Nauvoo
temple, and had become acquainted with the prophet Joseph and his
family.
"On the 25th of July, 1841, I was united in holy marriage to George
Albert Smith, the then youngest member of the quorum of the twelve
apostles, and first cousin of the prophet (Elder Don Carlos Smith
officiating at our marriage). My husband was born June 26th, 1817, at
Potsdam. St. Lawrence county, N. Y. When I became acquainted with him
in Virginia, in 1837, he was the junior member of the first quorum of
seventy. On the 26th day of June, 1838, he was ordained a member of
the High Council of Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Davies county, Missouri. Just
about the break of day, on the 26th of April, 1839, while kneeling on
the corner-stone of the foundation of the Lord's house in the city of
Far West, Caldwell county, Missouri, he was ordained one of the twelve
apostles. Two days after we were married, we started, carpet bag in
hand, to go to his father's, who lived at Zarahemla, Iowa Territory,
about a mile from the Mississippi. There we found a feast prepared for
us, in partaking of which my husband's father, John Smith, drank our
health, pronouncing the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob upon us.
I did not understand the import of this blessing as well then as I do
now."
--
Here we meet another of these Spartan women of Mormondom in the person
of Louisa F. Wells, the senior wife of Lieutenant-General Daniel H.
Wells.
In July, 1837, her father, Absalom Free, who had embraced Mormonism in
Fayetteville, St. Clair county, Ill., in the year 1835, emigrated with
his family to Caldwell county, Mo.
In Caldwell, Brother Free purchased a farm and built a good house.
He was of the well-to-do farmer class. With his ample means he soon
collected a fine farming outfit, and before him was the promise of
great prosperity.
The saints had been driven out of Jackson county, and mobs were
ravaging in Davies county, but there was peace in Caldwell until the
Fourth of July, in 1838, when the anti-Mormons, who were waiting and
watching for a pretext, took occasion, from some remarks made by
Elder Sidney Rigdon, in a commemorative speech at the celebration, to
commence a crusade against the city of Far West.
When the father of Louisa joined the organization for defence of the
city of Far West, he left a sick son at home, with the women folks of
his own and five other families, who had gathered there. These were
left to defend their homes.
Louisa and her sister Emeline, with their cousin, Eliza Free, stood
guard, on a ridge near the house, for three weeks, night and day, to
warn the families of the approach of the mob. This sister Emeline
is the same who was afterwards so well known in Utah as the wife of
Brigham Young.
While thus standing guard, one day, the girls saw a troop of horsemen
near, marching with a red flag and the beating of drums. They had with
them a prisoner, on foot, whom they were thus triumphantly marching to
their camp. They were a troop of the mob. The prisoner was grandfather
Andrew Free, though at the time the sisters knew it not.
It was almost night. The horsemen made direct for their camp with their
"prisoner of war," whom they had taken, not in arms, for he was aged,
yet was he a soldier of the cross, ready to die for his faith.
Already had the veteran disciple been doomed by his captors. He was to
be shot; one escape only had they reserved for him.
Before the mob tribunal stood the old man, calm and upright in his
integrity, and resolved in his faith. No one was near to succor him.
He stood alone, face to face with death, with those stern, cruel men,
whose class had shown so little mercy in Missouri, massacring men,
women and children, at Haun's Mill, and elsewhere about the same time.
Then the captain and his band demanded of the old man that he should
swear there and then to renounce Jo. Smith and his d--d religion, or
they would shoot him on the spot.
Drawing himself up with a lofty mien, and the invincible courage that
the Mormons have always shown in their persecutions, the veteran
answered: "I have not long to live. At the worst you cannot deprive
me of many days. I will never betray or deny my faith which I know to
be of God. Here is my breast, shoot away, I am ready to die for my
religion!"
At this he bared his bosom and calmly waited for the mob to fire.
But the band was abashed at his fearless bearing and answer. For a time
the captain and his men consulted, and then they told their prisoner
that they had decided to give him till the morning to reconsider
whether he would retract his faith or die.
Morning came. Again the old man was before the tribunal, fearless in
the cause of his religion as he had been the previous night. Again came
from him a similar answer, and then he looked for death, indeed, the
next moment.
But he had conquered his captors, and the leader declared, with an
oath: "Any man who can be so d--d true to any d--d religion, deserves
to live!"
Thereupon the mob released the heroic disciple of Mormonism, and he
returned to his home in safety.
During the three weeks the girls stood on guard, their father, who was
desirous to get tidings of his sick son, came frequently to a thicket
of underbrush, where the girls would bring his food and communicate
with him concerning affairs at the house.
One evening during this season of guard duty, the girls discovered five
armed men approaching. Running to the house, they gave the alarm. In a
few moments every woman and child of the six families were hiding in
the neighboring corn-field, excepting Louisa, her mother and her sick
brother.
"Mother," said the boy, "you and Louisa run and hide. The mob will be
sure to kill me. They will see how tall I am by the bed-clothes, and
will think I am a man. You and sister Louisa escape or they will kill
you too."
But the mother resolved to share the fate of her son, unless she could
protect him by her presence, and soften the hearts of savage mobocrats
by a mother's prayers for mercy; but she bade her daughter fly with
the baby. Louisa, however, also determined to stay to defend both her
brother and her mother. So they armed themselves--the mother with an
axe, and Louisa with a formidable pair of old-fashioned fire-tongs, and
stationed themselves at either door.
But it turned out that the men were a squad of friends, whom the father
had sent to inquire after his family; yet the incident illustrates
those days of universal terror for the Mormons in the State of
Missouri. Worse, even, than the horrors of ordinary war must it have
been, when thus women, children and the sick, when not a Mormon man
was present to provoke the mob to bloodshed, looked for massacre upon
massacre as daily scenes which all in turn might expect to overtake
them.
After the fall of the city of Far West, it being decided that the
Mormons should make a grand exodus from Missouri in the spring, Mr.
Free determined to anticipate it. Gathering up what property he could
save from the sacrifice, he started with his family for Illinois,
abandoning the beautiful farm he had purchased and paid for, along with
the improvements he had made.
In their flight to Illinois they were frequently overtaken and
threatened by mobs, but fortunately escaped personal violence, as it
was evident they were hastening from the inhospitable State. But the
inhumanity of the Missourians in those times is well illustrated in the
following incident:
Along with Brother Free's party were William Duncan and Solomon Allen,
whose feet were so badly frozen one day that they were unable to
proceed. At every house on the route the exiles called, soliciting
permission to shelter and care for the disabled men; but at every place
they were turned away, until at last, at eleven o'clock at night, they
were graciously permitted to occupy some negro quarters. The grace,
however, of Missouri was redeemed by a codicil that "No d--d Mormon
should stop among white folks!"
This was mercy, indeed, for Missouri, and it is written in the book of
remembrance.
The party stopped and occupied the negro quarters, nursing the men
during the night, and so far restored them that they were enabled to go
on the next day.
Arriving at the Mississippi river, above St. Charles, it was found that
the ice was running so fiercely that it was well-nigh impossible to
cross, but the mobbers insisted that they should cross at once.
The crossing was made on a scow ferry-boat, common in those times; and
as the boat was near being swamped in the current, to add to the horror
of the incident, it was seriously proposed by the boatmen to throw some
of the "d--d Mormons overboard," to lighten the load! The proposition,
however, was abandoned, and the party landed safely on the opposite
shore.
Having escaped all the perils of that flight from Missouri, Father
Free and his family made their home in the more hospitable State of
Illinois, where the Mormons for a season found their "second Zion."
Here we leave "Sister Louisa" for awhile, to meet her again in the
grand exodus of her people from "civilization."
--
The following experience of Abigail Leonard, a venerable and respected
lady, now in her eighty-second year of life, will also be of interest
in this connection. She says:
"In 1829 Eleazer Miller came to my house, for the purpose of holding
up to us the light of the gospel, and to teach us the necessity of a
change of heart. He did not teach creedism, for he did not believe
therein. That night was a sleepless one to me, for all night long I
saw before me our Saviour nailed to the cross. I had not yet received
remission of my sins, and, in consequence thereof, was much distressed.
These feelings continued for several days, till one day, while walking
alone in the street, I received the light of the spirit.
"Not long after this, several associated Methodists stopped at our
house, and in the morning, while I was preparing breakfast, they were
conversing upon the subject of church matters, and the best places for
church organization. From the jottings of their conversation, which I
caught from time to time, I saw that they cared more for the fleece
than the flock. The Bible lay on the table near by, and as I passed I
occasionally read a few words until I was impressed with the question:
'What is it that separates two Christians?'
"For two or three weeks this question was constantly on my mind, and I
read the Bible and prayed that this question might be answered to me.
"One morning I took my Bible and went to the woods, when I fell upon
my knees, and exclaimed: 'Now, Lord, I pray for the answer of this
question, and I shall _never_ rise till you reveal to me what it is
that separates two Christians.' Immediately a vision passed before
my eyes, and the different sects passed one after another by me, and
a voice called to me, saying: 'These are built up for gain.' Then,
beyond, I could see a great light, and a voice from above called out:
'I shall raise up a people, whom I shall delight to own and bless.' I
was then fully satisfied, and returned to the house.
"Not long after this a meeting was held at our house, during which
every one was invited to speak; and when opportunity presented, I arose
and said: 'To-day I come out from all names, sects and parties, and
take upon myself the name of Christ, resolved to wear it to the end of
my days.'
"For several days afterward, many people came from different
denominations and endeavored to persuade me to join their respective
churches. At length the associated Methodists sent their presiding
elder to our house to preach, in the hope that I might be converted.
While the elder was discoursing I beheld a vision in which I saw a
great multitude of people in the distance, and over their heads hung a
thick, dark cloud. Now and then one of the multitude would struggle,
and rise up through the gloomy cloud; but the moment his head rose into
the light above, the minister would strike him a blow, which would
compel him to retire; and I said in my heart, 'They will never serve
_me_ so.'
"Not long after this, I heard of the 'Book of Mormon,' and when a
few of us were gathered at a neighbor's we asked that we might have
manifestations in proof of the truth and divine origin of this book,
although we had not yet seen it. Our neighbor, a lady, was quite sick
and in much distress. It was asked that she be healed, and immediately
her pain ceased, and health was restored. Brother Bowen defiantly asked
that he might be slain, and in an instant he was prostrated upon the
floor. I requested that I might know of the truth of this book, by the
gift and power of the Holy Ghost, and I immediately felt its presence.
Then, when the Book of Mormon came, we were ready to receive it and its
truths. The brethren gathered at our house to read it, and such days
of rejoicing and thanksgiving I never saw before nor since. We were
now ready for baptism, and on or about the 20th of August, 1831, were
baptized.
"When we heard of the 'gathering,' we were ready for that also, and
began preparations for the journey. On the 3d of July, 1832, we started
for Jackson county, Mo., where we arrived some time in the latter part
of December of the same year.
"Here we lived in peace, and enjoyed the blessings of our religion till
the spring of 1833, when the mob came upon us, and shed its terror in
our midst. The first attack was made upon Independence, about twelve
miles from our place. The printing press was destroyed, and the type
scattered in the streets. Other buildings, and their furniture, were
destroyed; and Bishop Partridge was tarred and feathered. Next, we
heard that the enemy had attacked our brethren in the woods about
six miles distant. Then my husband was called upon to go and assist
his brethren. He arrived on the field in the heat of the battle, and
received fourteen bullet-holes in his garments, but received no wounds,
save two very slight marks, one on the hip, the other on the arm.
"The mob was defeated, and my husband returned home for food. I gave
it him, and bade him secrete himself immediately. He did so, and none
too soon; for scarcely was he hidden, when the mob appeared. As soon
as my husband was secreted I took my children and went to a neighbor's
house, where the sisters were gathering for safety. About this time
Sister Parley Pratt was being helped from a sick bed to this place
of security, and the mob, seeing the sisters laboring to carry her,
gave their assistance and carried her in. The mob then searched for
fire-arms, but could find none.
"The brethren and the mob formed a treaty about this time, in which
we agreed to abandon the country by a specified time. Immediately our
people commenced moving across the Missouri river, into Clay county.
The people of Clay county becoming alarmed at our numbers, and incited
to malice by the people of Jackson county, cut away the boat before
all our people had crossed, and thus compelled our family with some
others to remain in Jackson county. There were nine families in all.
And the mob came and drove us out into the prairie before the bayonet.
It was in the cold, cheerless month of November, and our first night's
camp was made the thirteenth of that month, so wide-famed as the
night of falling stars. The next day we continued our journey, over
cold, frozen, barren prairie ground, many of our party barefoot and
stockingless, feet and legs bleeding. Mine was the only family whose
feet were clothed, and that day, while alone, I asked the Lord what I
should do, and his answer was: 'Divide among the sufferers, and thou
shalt be repaid four-fold!' I then gave till I had given more than
fifteen pairs of stockings. In three and a half days from the time of
starting, we arrived at a grove of timber, near a small stream, where
we encamped for the winter. From the time of our arrival till the
following February we lived like saints.
"For awhile our men were permitted to return to the settlements in
Jackson county, and haul away the provisions which they had left
behind; but at last they would neither sell to us nor allow us any
longer to return for our own provisions left behind.
"A meeting was held, and it was decided that but one thing was left to
do, which was to return to Jackson county, to the place we had recently
left from compulsion. This we did, and on the evening of February
20, 1834, soon after our arrival in the old deserted place, we had
been to meeting and returned. It was about eleven o'clock at night,
while we were comfortably seated around a blazing fire, built in an
old-fashioned Dutch fireplace, when some one on going out discovered
a crowd of men at a little distance from the house, on the hill. This
alarmed the children, who ran out, leaving the door open. In a moment
or two five armed men pushed their way into the house and presented
their guns to my husband's breast, and demanded, 'Are you a Mormon?' My
husband replied: 'I profess to belong to the Church of Christ.' They
then asked if he had any arms, and on being told that he had not, one
of them said: 'Now, d--n you, walk out doors!' My husband was standing
up, and did not move.
"Seeing that he would not go, one of them laid down his gun, clutched
a chair, and dealt a fierce blow at my husband's head; but fortunately
the chair struck a beam overhead, which turned and partially stopped
the force of the blow, and it fell upon the side of his head and
shoulder with too little force to bring him down, yet enough to smash
the chair in pieces upon the hearth. The fiend then caught another
chair, with which he succeeded in knocking my husband down beneath the
stairway. They then struck him several blows with a chair-post, upon
the head, cutting four long gashes in the scalp. The infuriated men
then took him by the feet and dragged him from the room. They raised
him to his feet, and one of them, grasping a large boulder, hurled it
with full force at his head; but he dropped his head enough to let the
stone pass over, and it went against the house like a cannon ball.
Several of them threw him into the air, and brought him, with all their
might, at full length upon the ground. When he fell, one of them sprang
upon his breast, and stamping with all his might, broke two of his ribs.
"They then turned him upon his side, and with a chair-post dealt him
many severe blows upon the thigh, which were heard at a distance of
one hundred and twenty rods. Next they tore off his coat and shirt,
and proceeded to whip him with their gun-sticks. I had been by my
husband during this whole affray, and one of the mob seeing me, cried
out: 'Take that woman in the house, or she will overpower every devil
of you!' Four of them presented their guns to my breast, and jumping
off the ground with rage, uttering the most tremendous oaths, they
commanded me to go into the house. This order I did not obey, but
hastened to my husband's assistance, taking stick after stick from
them, till I must have thrown away twenty.
"By this time my husband felt that he could hold out no longer, and
raising his hands toward heaven, asking the Lord to receive his spirit,
he fell to the ground, helpless. Every hand was stayed, and I asked a
sister who was in the house to assist me to carry him in doors.
"We carried him in, and after washing his face and making him as
comfortable as possible, I went forth into the mob, and reasoned with
them, telling them that my husband had never harmed one of them, nor
raised his arm in defence against them. They then went calmly away, but
next day circulated a report that they had killed one Mormon.
"After the mob had gone, I sent for the elder, and he, with two or
three of the brethren, came and administered to my husband, and he was
instantly healed. The gashes on his head grew together without leaving
a scar, and he went to bed comfortable. In the morning I combed the
coagulated blood out of his hair, and he was so well that he went with
me to meeting that same day.
"The mob immediately held a meeting and informed us that we were to
have only three days to leave in, and if we were not off by that time
the whole party would be massacred. We accordingly prepared to leave,
and by the time appointed were on our way to Clay county. Soon after
our arrival in Clay county, the 'Camp of Zion' came, and located about
twenty miles from us. The cholera broke out in the camp, and many died.
Three of the party started to where we lived, but two died on the way,
leaving Mr. Martin Harris to accomplish the journey alone. The first
thing, when he saw me, he exclaimed: 'Sister Leonard, I came to your
house to save my life.' For eight days my husband and I worked with him
before he began to show signs of recovery, scarcely lying down to take
our rest. While Mr. Harris was lying sick, the prophet Joseph Smith
came, with eleven others, to visit him. This was the first time I had
ever seen the prophet.
"The prophet advised us to scatter out over the county, and not
congregate too much together, so that the people would have no cause
for alarm.
"While we were yet living in this place, the ague came upon my family,
and my husband lay sick for five months, and the children for three.
During the whole time I procured my own wood, and never asked any one
for assistance. On the recovery of my husband he bought a beautiful
little farm near by, where we lived long enough to raise one crop,
when the mob again came against us, and we were compelled to move into
Caldwell county.
"When we arrived there we moved into a log cabin, without door, window,
or fireplace, where my husband left the children and me, and returned
to Clay county, for some of the brethren who were left behind. During
his absence a heavy snowstorm came, and we were without wood or fire.
My little boy and I, by turns, cut wood enough to keep us warm till my
husband returned.
"Here my husband entered eighty acres of land, and subsequently bought
an additional twenty acres. Here, too, we stayed long enough to raise
one crop, and then moved to Nauvoo, Hancock county, Illinois.
"As soon as we were located, we were all seized with sickness, and
scarcely had I recovered, when there came into our midst some brethren
from England, who were homeless, and our people took them in with their
own families. One of the families we took to live with us. The woman
was sick, and we sent for the elders to heal her, but their endeavors
were not successful, and I told the husband of the sick woman that but
one thing was left to be done, which was to send for the sisters. The
sisters came, washed, anointed, and administered to her. The patient's
extremities were cold, her eyes set, a spot in the back apparently
mortified, and every indication that death was upon her. But before the
sisters had ceased to administer, the blood went coursing through her
system, and to her extremities, and she was sensibly better. Before
night her appetite returned, and became almost insatiable, so much so
at least that, after I had given her to eat all I dared, she became
quite angry because I would not give her more. In three days she sat up
and had her hair combed, and soon recovered."
The following portion of Margaret Foutz's narrative will also be of
interest in this connection. She says:
"I am the daughter of David and Mary Munn, and was born December 11th,
1801, in Franklin county, Pa. I was married to Jacob Foutz, July 22d,
1822. In the year 1827 we emigrated to Richland county, Ohio. After
living here a few years, an elder by the name of David Evans came into
the neighborhood, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, commonly called
Mormonism. We united ourselves with the church, being baptized by
Brother Evans, in the year 1834. Subsequently we took our departure for
Missouri, to gather with the saints. We purchased some land, to make a
permanent home, on Crooked River, where a small branch of the church
was organized, David Evans being the president. We enjoyed ourselves
exceedingly well, and everything seemed to prosper; but the spirit
of persecution soon began to make itself manifest. Falsehoods were
circulated about the Mormon population that were settling about that
region, and there soon began to be signs of trouble. The brethren, in
order to protect their families, organized themselves together.
"Threats being made by the mob to destroy a mill belonging to Brother
Haun, it was considered best to have a few men continually at the mill
to protect it. One day Brother Evans went and had an interview with
a Mr. Comstock, said to be the head man of the mob. All things were
amicably adjusted. Brother Evans then went to inform the brethren (my
husband being among them) that all was well. This was about the middle
of the afternoon, when Brother Evans returned from Mr. Comstock's. On
a sudden, without any warning whatever, sixty or seventy men, with
blackened faces, came riding their horses at full speed. The brethren
ran, for protection, into an old blacksmith shop, they being without
arms. The mob rode up to the shop, and without any explanation or
apparent cause, began a wholesale butchery, by firing round after
round through the cracks between the logs of the shop. I was at home
with my family of five little children, and could hear the firing. In
a moment I knew the mob was upon us. Soon a runner came, telling the
women and children to hasten into the timber and secrete themselves,
which we did, without taking anything to keep us warm; and had we been
fleeing from the scalping knife of the Indian we would not have made
greater haste. And as we ran from house to house, gathering as we went,
we finally numbered about forty or fifty women and children. We ran
about three miles into the woods, and there huddled together, spreading
what few blankets or shawls we chanced to have on the ground for the
children; and here we remained until two o'clock the next morning,
before we heard anything of the result of the firing at the mill. Who
can imagine our feelings during this dreadful suspense? And when the
news did come, oh! what terrible news! Fathers, brothers and sons,
inhumanly butchered! We now took up the line of march for home. Alas!
what a home! Who would we find there? And now, with our minds full of
the most fearful forebodings, we retraced those three long, dreary
miles. As we were returning I saw a brother, Myers, who had been shot
through his body. In that dreadful state he crawled on his hands and
knees, about two miles, to his home.
"After I arrived at my house with my children, I hastily made a fire
to warm them, and then started for the mill, about one mile distant.
My children would not remain at home, saying, 'If father and mother
are going to be killed, we want to be with them.' It was about seven
o'clock in the morning when we arrived at the mill. In the first house
I came to there were three dead men. One, a Brother McBride, I was told
was a survivor of the Revolution. He was a terrible sight to behold,
having been cut and chopped, and horribly mangled, with a corn-cutter.
"I hurried on, looking for my husband. I found him in an old house,
covered with some rubbish. (The mob had taken the bedding and clothing
from all the houses near the mill). My husband had been shot in the
thigh. I rendered him all the assistance I could, but it was evening
before I could get him home. I saw thirteen more dead bodies at the
shop, and witnessed the beginning of the burial, which consisted in
throwing the bodies into an old, dry well. So great was the fear of
the men that the mob would return and kill what few of them there were
left, that they threw the bodies in, head first or feet first, as the
case might be. When they had thrown in three, my heart sickened, and I
turned fainting away.
"At the moment of the massacre, my husband and another brother drew
some of the dead bodies on themselves, and pretended to be dead also,
by so doing saving their lives. While in this situation they heard
what the ruffians said after the firing was over. Two little boys, who
had not been hit, begged for their lives; but with horrible oaths they
put the muzzles of their guns to the children's heads, and blew their
brains out.
"Oh! what a change one short day had brought! Here were my friends,
dead and dying; one in particular asked me to give him relief by taking
a hammer and knocking his brains out, so great was his agony. And we
knew not what moment our enemies would be upon us again. And all this,
not because we had broken any law--on the contrary, it was a part of
our religion to keep the laws of the land. In the evening Brother
Evans got a team and conveyed my husband to his house, carried him in,
and placed him on a bed. I then had to attend him, alone, without any
doctor or any one to tell me what to do. Six days afterwards I, with my
husband's assistance, extracted the bullet, it being buried deep in the
thick part of the thigh, and flattened like a knife. During the first
ten days, mobbers, with blackened faces, came every day, cursing and
swearing like demons from the pit, and declaring that they would 'kill
that d--d old Mormon preacher.' At times like these, when human nature
quailed, I felt the power of God upon me to that degree that I could
stand before them fearless; and although a woman, and alone, those
demons in human shape had to succumb; for there was a power with me
that they knew not of. During these days of mobocratic violence I would
sometimes hide my husband in the house, and sometimes in the woods,
covering him with leaves. And thus was I constantly harassed, until
the mob finally left us, with the understanding that we should leave
in the spring. About the middle of February we started for Quincy,
Ill. Arriving there, we tarried for a short time, and thence moved to
Nauvoo."
CHAPTER XVIII.
JOSEPH SMITH'S DARING ANSWER TO THE LORD--WOMAN, THROUGH MORMONISM,
RESTORED TO HER TRUE POSITION--THE THEMES OF MORMONISM.
What potent faith had come into the world that a people should thus
live and die by it?
Show us this new temple of theology in which the sisters had worshipped.
Open the book of themes which constitute the grand system of Mormonism.
--
The disciples of the prophet believed in the Book of Mormon; but
nearly all their themes, and that vast system of theology which Joseph
conceived, as the crowning religion for a world, were derived from the
Hebrew Bible, the New Testament of Christ, and modern revelation.
New revelation is the signature of Mormonism.
The themes begin with Abraham, rather than with Christ; but they go
back to Adam, and to the long "eternities" ere this world was.
_Before Adam, was Mormonism!_
There are _generations of worlds_. The Genesis of the Gods was before
the Genesis of Man.
The Genesis of the Gods is the first book of the Mormon iliad.
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 'Who is
this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now
thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
"'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare
if thou hast understanding.
"'Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath
stretched the line upon it?
"'Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the
corner-stone thereof:
"'When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy?'"
Brother Job, where wast thou? Joseph answered the Lord when the Masonic
question of the Gods was put to him:
"Father, I was with _thee_; one of the 'morning stars' then; one of the
archangels of thy presence."
'Twas a divinely bold answer. But Joseph _was_ divinely daring.
The genius of Mormonism had come down from the empyrean; it hesitated
not to assert its origin among the Gods.
This is no fanciful treatment--no mere flight to the realm of ideals.
The Mormons have literally answered the Lord, their Father, the
question which he put to their brother, Job, and have made that answer
a part of their theology.
But where was woman "when the morning stars sang together, and the sons
of God shouted for joy?"
Where was Zion? Where the bride? Where was woman?
"Not yet created; taken afterwards from the rib of Adam; of the earth,
not of heaven; created for Adam's glory, that he might rule over her."
So said not Joseph.
It was the young East who thus declared. The aged West had kept the
book of remembrance.
Joseph was gifted with wonderful memories of the "eternities past."
He had not forgotten woman. He knew Eve, and he remembered Zion. He
restored woman to her place among the Gods, where her primeval Genesis
is written.
Woman was among the morning stars, when they sang together for joy, at
the laying of the foundations of the earth.
When the sons of God thrice gave their Masonic shouts of hosanna, the
daughters of God lifted up their voices with their brothers; and the
hallelujahs to the Lord God Omnipotent, were rendered sweeter and
diviner by woman leading the theme.
In the temples, both of the heavens and the earth, woman is found. She
is there in her character of Eve, and in her character of Zion. The
one is the type of earth, the other the type of heaven; the one the
mystical name of the mortal, the other of the celestial, woman.
The Mormon prophet rectified the divine drama. Man is nowhere where
woman is not. Mormonism has restored woman to her pinnacle.
Presently woman herself shall sing of her divine origin. A high
priestess of the faith shall interpret the themes of herself and of her
Father-and-Mother God!
At the very moment when the learned divines of Christendom were
glorying that this little earth was the "be-all and the end-all" of
creation, the prophet of Mormondom was teaching the sisters in the
temple at Kirtland that there has been an eternal chain of creations
coming down from the generations of the Gods--worlds and systems and
universes. At the time these lights of the Gentiles were pointing to
the star-fretted vault of immensity as so many illuminations--lamps
hung out by the Creator, six thousand years ago, to light this little
earth through her probation--the prophet of Israel was teaching his
people that the starry hosts were worlds and suns and universes, some
of which had being millions of ages before this earth had physical form.
Moreover, so vast is the divine scheme, and stupendous the works
of creations, that the prophet introduced the expressive word
_eternities_. The eternities are the times of creations.
This earth is but an atom in the immensities of creations. Innumerable
worlds have been peopled with "living souls" of the order of mankind;
innumerable worlds have passed through their probations; innumerable
worlds have been redeemed, resurrected, and celestialized.
Hell-loving apostles of the sects were sending ninety-nine hundredths
of this poor, young, forlorn earth to the bottomless pit. The Mormon
prophet was finding out grand old universes, in exaltation with
scarcely the necessity of losing a soul.
The spirit of Mormonism is universal salvation.
Those who are not saved in one glory, may be saved in another.
There are the "glory of the sun," and the "glory of the moon," and the
"glory of the stars."
The children of Israel belong to the glory of the sun. They kept their
first estate. They are nobly trying to keep their second estate on
probation. Let the devotion, the faith, the divine heroism of the
Mormon sisters, witness this.
"Adam is our Father and God. He is the God of the earth."
So says Brigham Young.
Adam is the great archangel of this creation. He is Michael. He is
the Ancient of Days. He is the father of our elder brother, Jesus
Christ--the father of him who shall also come as Messiah to reign. He
is the father of the spirits as well as the tabernacles of the sons and
daughters of man. Adam!
Michael is one of the grand mystical names in the works of creations,
redemptions, and resurrections. Jehovah is the second and the higher
name. Eloheim--signifying the Gods--is the first name of the celestial
trinity.
Michael was a celestial, resurrected being, of another world.
"In the beginning" the Gods created the heavens and the earths.
In their councils they said, let us make man in our own image. So, in
the likeness of the Fathers, and the Mothers--the Gods--created they
man--male and female.
When this earth was prepared for mankind, Michael, as Adam, came down.
He brought with him one of his wives, and he called her name Eve.
Adam and Eve are the names of the fathers and mothers of worlds.
Adam was not made out of a lump of clay, as we make a brick, nor was
Eve taken as a rib--a bone--from his side. They came by generation. But
woman, as the wife or mate of man, was a rib of man. She was taken from
his side, in their glorified world, and brought by him to earth to be
the mother of a race.
These were father and mother of a world of spirits who had been born to
them in heaven. These spirits had been waiting for the grand period of
their probation, when they should have bodies or tabernacles, so that
they might become, in the resurrection, like Gods.
When this earth had become an abode for mankind, with its Garden of
Eden, then it was that the morning stars sang together, and the sons
and daughters of God shouted for joy. They were coming down to earth.
The children of the sun, at least, knew what the grand scheme of the
everlasting Fathers and the everlasting Mothers meant, and they, both
sons and daughters, shouted for joy. The temple of the eternities shook
with their hosannas, and trembled with divine emotions.
The father and mother were at length in their Garden of Eden. They came
on purpose to fall. They fell "that man might be; and man is, that he
might have joy." They ate of the tree of mortal life, partook of the
elements of this earth that they might again become mortal for their
children's sake. They fell that another world might have a probation,
redemption and resurrection.
The grand patriarchal economy, with Adam, as a resurrected being,
who brought his wife Eve from another world, has been very finely
elaborated, by Brigham, from the patriarchal genesis which Joseph
conceived.
Perchance the scientist might hesitate to accept the Mormon ideals
of the genesis of mortals and immortals, but Joseph and Brigham have
very much improved on the Mosaic genesis of man. It is certainly
not scientific to make Adam as a model adobe; the race has come by
generation. The genesis of a hundred worlds of his family, since his
day, does not suggest brickyards of mortality. The patriarchal economy
of Mormonism is at least an improvement, and is decidedly epic in all
its constructions and ideals.
A grand patriarchal line, then, down from the "eternities;" generations
of worlds and generations of Gods; all one universal family.
The Gods are the fathers and the mothers, and the brothers and the
sisters, of the saints.
Divine ambitions here; a daring genius to thus conceive; a lifting up
of man and woman to the very plane of the celestials, while yet on
earth.
Now for the father and the children of the covenant.
With Abraham begins the covenant of Israel. The Mormons are a
Latter-day Israel.
God made a covenant with Abraham, for Abraham was worthy to be
the grand patriarch of a world, under Adam. Like Jesus, he had a
pre-existence.
He was "in the beginning" with God; an archangel in the Father's
presence; one not less noble than his elder brother and captain of
salvation; the patriarch, through whose line Messiah was ordained to
come into the world.
Abraham was the elect of God before the foundation of this earth. In
him and his seed were all the promises--all the covenants--and all the
divine empires. In them was the kingdom of Messiah to consummate the
object and vast purposes of earth's creation.
He is the father of the faithful and the friend of God. In him and his
seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. He shall become the
father of many nations. His seed shall be as the sand on the sea-shore.
In Abraham many nations have already been blessed. He and his seed
have given Bible and civilization to Christendom. From his loins came
Jesus--from him will come Messiah.
Abraham and his seed have done much for the world, but they will do a
hundred fold more. Their genius, their prophets, and their covenants,
will leaven and circumscribe all civilization.
Jehovah is the God of Israel--the covenant people. There is none like
him in all the earth. There are Lords many, and Gods many, but unto
Israel there is but one God.
Between Jehovah and Abraham there are the everlasting covenants. The
divine epic is between Abraham and his God.
Mormonism is now that divine epic.
This grand patriarch may be sard to be a grand Mormon; or, better told,
the Mormons are a very proper Israel, whom the patriarch acknowledges
as his children, chosen to fulfill the covenants in connection with the
Jews.
Jehovah never made any covenants outside of Israel. The Gentiles are
made partakers, by adoption into the Abrahamic family.
All is of election and predestination. There is but very little
free-grace; just enough grace to give the Gentiles room to enter into
the family of Israel, that the promise may be fulfilled that in Israel
all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
In ancient times Jehovah made his people a nation, that his name might
be glorified. He established his throne in David, by an everlasting
covenant; but the throne and sceptre were taken from Israel, no more to
be, until he comes whose right it is to reign. Messiah is that one. He
is coming to restore the kingdom to Israel.
The earth and mankind were created that they might have a probation;
and a probation, that a millennial reign of peace and righteousness may
consummate the divine plan and purposes.
Righteousness and justice must be established upon the earth in the
last days, or nations must perish utterly.
In the last days God shall set up a kingdom upon the earth, which shall
never be destroyed. It will break into pieces all other kingdoms and
empires, and stand forever. It will be given to the saints of the Most
High, and they will possess it. The Mormons are the saints of the Most
High.
That kingdom has already been set up, by the administration of angels
to Joseph Smith. This is the burden of Mormonism. It was for that the
saints were driven from Missouri and Illinois; that for which they made
their exodus to the Rocky Mountains; that for which the sisters have
borne the cross for half a century.
Now also in the present age is to be fulfilled the vision of Daniel;
here it is:
"I beheld till thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days
(Adam) did sit, whose garments were white as snow, and the hair of
his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame,
and his wheels as burning fire.
"A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousands
ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood
before him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
* * * * * *
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days,
and they brought him near before him.
"And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that
all people, nations and languages, should serve him; his dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
* * * * * *
"But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and
possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.
* * * *
"I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and
prevailed against them.
"Until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the
saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints
possessed the kingdom.
* * * * * *
"And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom
under the whole heaven, shall be given to the saints of the Most
High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions
shall serve and obey him."
Here is the imperial drama of Mormonism which the saints have applied
most literally, and sought to work out in America; or, rather the God
of Israel has purposed to fulfill his wondrous scheme, in them, and
multiply them until they shall be an empire of God-fearing men and
women--ten thousand times ten thousand saints.
No wonder that Missouri drove the saints--no wonder that the sisters,
with such views, have risen to such sublime heroism and been inspired
with such exalted faith. Scarcely to be wondered at even that they have
been strong enough to bear their crosses throughout eventful lives,
which have no parallel in history. With a matchless might of spirit,
and divine ambitions, inspired by such a theology, literally applied in
the action of their lives, they have risen to the superhuman.
Comprehend this Hebraic religion of the sisters, and it can thus be
comprehended somewhat how they have borne the cross of polygamy, with
more than the courage of martyrs at the stake.
We are coming to polygamy, by-and-by, to let these braver than Spartan
women speak for themselves, upon their own special subject; but
polygamy was not established until years after the saints were driven
from Missouri.
We are but opening these views of Hebraic faith and religion. The
themes will return frequently in their proper places. But let the
sisters most reveal themselves in their expositions, episodes, and
testimonies.
Thus, here, the high priestess of Mormondom, with her beautiful themes
of our God-Father and our God-Mother!
CHAPTER XIX.
ELIZA R. SNOW'S INVOCATION--THE ETERNAL FATHER AND MOTHER--ORIGIN OF
THE SUBLIME THOUGHT POPULARLY ATTRIBUTED TO THEODORE PARKER--BASIC IDEA
OF THE MORMON THEOLOGY.
Joseph endowed the church with the genesis of a grand theology, and
Brigham has reared the colossal fabric of a new civilization; but woman
herself must sing of her celestial origin, and her relationship to the
majesty of creation.
Inspired by the mystic memories of the past, Eliza R. Snow has made
popular in the worship of the saints a knowledge of the grand family,
in our _primeval spirit-home_. The following gem, which opens the first
volume of her poems, will give at once a rare view of the spiritual
type of the high priestess of the Mormon Church, and of the divine
drama of Mormonism itself. It is entitled, "Invocation; or, the Eternal
Father and Mother
O! my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and holy place;
When shall I regain thy presence,
And again behold thy face?
In thy glorious habitation,
Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood,
Was I nurtured by thy side?
For a wise and glorious purpose,
Thou hast placed me here on earth;
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth.
Yet oft-times a secret something,
Whisper'd, "You're a stranger here;"
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.
I had learned to call thee Father,
Through thy spirit from on high;
But until the key of knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heavens are parents single?
No; the thought makes reason stare;
Truth is reason; truth eternal,
Tells me I've a Mother there.
When I leave this frail existence--
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal court on high?
Then at length, when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation,
Let me come and dwell with you.
A divine drama set to song. And as it is but a choral dramatization,
in the simple hymn form, of the celestial themes revealed through
Joseph Smith, it will strikingly illustrate the vast system of Mormon
theology, which links the heavens and the earths.
It is well remembered what an ecstacy filled the minds of the
transcendental Christians of America, when the voice of Theodore
Parker, bursting into the fervor of a new revelation, addressed, in
prayer, our Father and Mother in heaven!
An archangel proclamation that!
Henceforth shall the mother half of creation be worshipped with that of
the God-Father; and in that worship woman, by the very association of
ideas, shall be exalted in the coming civilization.
Wonderful revelation, Brother Theodore; worthy thy glorious intellect!
Quite as wonderful that it was not universal long before thy day!
But it will be strange news to many that years before Theodore Parker
breathed that theme in public prayer, the Mormon people sang their hymn
of invocation to the Father and Mother in heaven, given them by the
Hebraic pen of Eliza R. Snow.
And in this connection it will be proper to relate the fact that a
Mormon woman once lived as a servant in the house of Theodore Parker.
With a disciple's pardonable cunning she was in the habit of leaving
Mormon books in the way of her master. It is not unlikely that the
great transcendentalist had read the Mormon poetess' hymn to "Our
Father-and-Mother God!"
And perhaps it will appear still more strange to the reader, who may
have been told that woman in the Mormon scheme ranked low--almost to
the barbarian scale--to learn that the revelation of the Father and
Mother of creation, given through the Mormon prophet, and set to song
by a kindred spirit, is the basic idea of the whole Mormon theology.
The hymn of invocation not only treats our God parents in this grand
primeval sense, but the poetess weaves around their parental centre the
divine drama of the pre-existence of worlds.
This celestial theme was early revealed to the church by the prophet,
and for now nearly forty years the hymn of invocation has been familiar
in the meetings of the saints.
A marvel indeed is this, that at the time modern Christians, and
even "philosophers," were treating this little earth, with its six
thousand years of mortal history, as the sum of the intelligent
universe--to which was added this life's sequel, with the gloom of hell
prevailing--the Mormon people, in their very household talk, conversed
and sang of an endless succession of worlds.
They talked of their own pre-existing lives. They came into the divine
action ages ago, played their parts in a primeval state, and played
them well. Hence were they the first fruits of the gospel. They
scarcely limited their pre-existing lives to a beginning, or compassed
their events, recorded in other worlds, in a finite story. Down
through the cycles of all eternity they had come, and they were now
entabernacled spirits passing through a mortal probation.
It was of such a theme that "Sister Eliza" sang; and with such a theme
her hymn of invocation to our Father and Mother in heaven soon made the
saints familiar in every land.
Let us somewhat further expound the theme of this hymn, which our
poetess could not fully embody in the simple form of verse.
God the Father and God the Mother stand, in the grand pre-existing
view, as the origin and centre of the spirits of all the generations of
mortals who had been entabernacled on this earth.
First and noblest of this great family was Jesus Christ, who was the
elder brother, in spirit, of the whole human race. These constituted a
world-family of pre-existing souls.
Brightest among these spirits, and nearest in the circle to our Father
and Mother in heaven (the Father being Adam), were Seth, Enoch, Noah
and Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus Christ--indeed that glorious
cohort of men and women, whose lives have left immortal records in the
world's history. Among these the Mormon faith would rank Joseph Smith,
Brigham Young, and their compeers.
In that primeval spirit-state, these were also associated with a divine
sisterhood. One can easily imagine the inspired authoress of the hymn
on pre-existence, to have been a bright angel among this sister throng.
Her hymn is as a memory of that primeval life, and her invocation is as
the soul's yearning for the Father and Mother in whose courts she was
reared, and near whose side her spirit was nurtured.
These are the sons and daughters of Adam--the Ancient of Days--the
Father and God of the whole human family. These are the sons and
daughters of Michael, who is Adam, the father of the spirits of all our
race.
These are the sons and daughters of Eve, the Mother of a world.
What a practical Unitarianism is this! The Christ is not dragged from
his heavenly estate, to be mere mortal, but mortals are lifted up to
his celestial plane. He is still the God-Man; but he is one among many
brethren who are also God-Men.
Moreover, Jesus is one of a grand order of Saviours. Every world has
its distinctive Saviour, and every dispensation its Christ.
There is a glorious Masonic scheme among the Gods. The everlasting
orders come down to us with their mystic and official names. The
heavens and the earths have a grand leveling; not by pulling down
celestial spheres, but by the lifting up of mortal spheres.
Perchance the skeptic and the strict scientist who measures by the cold
logic of facts, but rises not to the logic of ideas, might not accept
this literal pre-existing view, yet it must be confessed that it is a
lifting up of the idealities of man's origin. Man is the offspring of
the Gods. This is the supreme conception which gives to religion its
very soul. Unless man's divinity comes in somewhere, religion is the
wretchedest humbug that ever deluded mortals.
Priestcraft, indeed, then, from the beginning to the end--from the
Alpha to the Omega of theologic craft, there is nothing divine.
But the sublime and most primitive conception of Mormonism is, that man
in his essential being is divine, that he is the offspring of God--that
God is indeed his Father.
And woman? for she is the theme now.
Woman is heiress of the Gods. She is joint heir with her elder brother,
Jesus the Christ; but she inherits from her God-Father and her
God-Mother. Jesus is the "beloved" of that Father and Mother--their
well-tried Son, chosen to work out the salvation and exaltation of the
whole human family.
And shall it not be said then that the subject _rises_ from the
God-Father to the God-Mother? Surely it is a rising in the sense of
the culmination of the divine idea. The God-Father is not robbed of
his everlasting glory by this maternal completion of himself. It is an
expansion both of deity and humanity.
They twain are one God!
The supreme Unitarian conception is here; the God-Father and the
God-Mother! The grand unity of God is in them--in the divine Fatherhood
and the divine Motherhood--the very beginning and consummation of
creation. Not in the God-Father and the God-Son can the unity of the
heavens and the earths be worked out; neither with any logic of facts
nor of idealities. In them the Masonic trinities; in the everlasting
Fathers and the everlasting Mothers the unities of creations.
Our Mother in heaven is decidedly a new revelation, as beautiful
and delicate to the masculine sense of the race as it is just and
exalting to the feminine. It is the woman's own revelation. Not even
did Jesus proclaim to the world the revelation of our Mother in
heaven--co-existent and co-equal with the eternal Father. This was
left, among the unrevealed truths, to the present age, when it would
seem the woman is destined by Providence to become very much the oracle
of a new and peculiar civilization.
The oracle of this last grand truth of woman's divinity and of her
eternal Mother as the partner with the Father in the creation of
worlds, is none other than the Mormon Church. It was revealed in the
glorious theology of Joseph, and established by Brigham in the vast
patriarchal system which he has made firm as the foundations of the
earth, by proclaiming Adam as our Father and God. The Father is first
in name and order, but the Mother is with him--these twain, one from
the beginning.
Then came our Hebraic poetess with her hymn of invocation, and woman
herself brought the perfected idea of deity into the forms of praise
and worship. Is not this exalting woman to her sphere beyond all
precedent?
Let it be marked that the Roman Catholic idea of the Mother of God is
wonderfully lower than the Mormon idea. The Church of Rome only brings
the maternal conception, linked with deity, in Christ, and that too in
quite the inferior sense. It is not primitive--it is the exception;
it begins and ends with the Virgin Mary. A question indeed whether it
elevates womanhood and motherhood. The ordinary idea is rather the more
exalted; for that always, in a sense, makes the mother superior to the
son. The proverb that great mothers conceive great sons has really more
poetry in it than the Roman Catholic doctrine that Mary was the Mother
of God.
The Mormon Church is the oracle of the grandest conception of womanhood
and motherhood. And from her we have it as a revelation to the world,
and not a mere thought of a transcendental preacher--a glorious
Theodore Parker flashing a celestial ray upon the best intellects of
the age.
Excepting the Lord's prayer, there is not in the English language the
peer of this Mormon invocation; and strange to say the invocation is
this time given to the Church through woman--the prophetess and high
priestess of the faith.
CHAPTER XX.
THE TRINITY OF MOTHERHOOD--EVE, SARAH, AND ZION--THE MORMON THEORY
CONCERNING OUR FIRST PARENTS.
A trinity of Mothers!
The celestial Masonry of Womanhood!
The other half of the grand patriarchal economy of the heavens and the
earths!
The book of patriarchal theology is full of new conceptions. Like the
star-bespangled heavens--like the eternities which it mantles--is that
wondrous theology!
New to the world, but old as the universe. 'Tis the everlasting book of
immortals, unsealed to mortal view, by these Mormon prophets.
A trinity of Mothers--Eve the Mother of a world; Sarah the Mother of
the covenant; Zion the Mother of celestial sons and daughters--the
Mother of the new creation of Messiah's reign, which shall give to
earth the crown of her glory and the cup of joy after all her ages of
travail.
Still tracing down the divine themes of Joseph; still faithfully
following the methods of that vast patriarchal economy which shall
be the base of a new order of society and of the temple of a new
civilization.
When Brigham Young proclaimed to the nations that Adam was our Father
and God, and Eve, his partner, the Mother of a world--both in a mortal
and a celestial sense--he made the most important revelation ever
oracled to the race since the days of Adam himself.
This grand patriarchal revelation is the very keystone of the "new
creation" of the heavens and the earth. It gives new meaning to the
whole system of theology--as much new meaning to the economy of
salvation as to the economy of creation. By the understanding of the
works of the Father, the works of the Son are illumined.
The revelation was the "Let there be light" again pronounced. "And
there was light!"
"And God created man in his own image; in the image of God created
he him; male and female created he them.
"And God blessed them; and God said unto them, be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it."
Here is the very object of man and woman's creation exposed in the
primitive command. The first words of their genesis are, "Be fruitful
and multiply."
So far, it is of but trifling moment _how_ our "first parents" were
created; whether like a brick, with the spittle of the Creator and the
dust of the earth, or by the more intelligible method of generation.
The prime object of man and woman's creation was for the _purposes of
creation_.
"Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it," by
countless millions of your offspring.
Thus opened creation, and the womb of everlasting motherhood throbbed
with divine ecstacy.
It is the divine command still. All other maybe dark as a fable, of
the genesis of the race, but this is not dark. Motherhood to this hour
leaps for joy at this word of God, "Be fruitful;" and motherhood is
sanctified as by the holiest sacrament of nature.
We shall prefer Brigham's expounding of the dark passages of Genesis.
Our first parents were not made up like mortal bricks. They came to be
the Mother and the Father of a new creation of souls.
We say Mother now, first, for we are tracing this everlasting theme of
motherhood, in the Mormon economy, without which nothing of the woman
part of the divine scheme can be known--next to nothing of patriarchal
marriage, to which we are traveling, be expounded.
Eve--immortal Eve--came down to earth to become the Mother of a race.
How become the Mother of a world of mortals except by herself again
becoming mortal? How become mortal only by transgressing the laws of
immortality? How only by "eating of the forbidden fruit"--by partaking
of the elements of a mortal earth, in which the seed of death was
everywhere scattered?
All orthodox theologians believe Adam and Eve to have been at first
immortal, and all acknowledge the great command, "Be fruitful and
multiply."
That they were not about to become the parents of a world of immortals
is evident, for they were on a mortal earth. That the earth was mortal
all nature here to-day shows. The earth was to be subdued by teeming
millions of mankind--the dying earth actually eaten, in a sense, a
score of times, by the children of these grand parents.
The fall is simple. Our immortal parents came down to fall; came down
to transgress the laws of immortality; came down to give birth to
mortal tabernacles for a world of spirits.
The "forbidden tree," says Brigham, contained in its fruit the elements
of death, or the elements of mortality. By eating of it, blood was
again infused into the tabernacles of beings who had become immortal.
The basis of mortal generation is blood. Without blood no mortal can
be born. Even could immortals have been conceived on earth, the trees
of life had made but the paradise of a few; but a mortal world was the
object of creation then.
Eve, then, came down to be the Mother of a world.
Glorious Mother, capable of dying at the very beginning to give life
to her offspring, that through mortality the eternal life of the Gods
might be given to her sons and daughters.
Motherhood the same from the beginning even to the end! The love of
motherhood passing all understanding! Thus read our Mormon sisters the
fall of their Mother.
And the serpent tempted the woman with the forbidden fruit.
Did woman hesitate a moment then? Did motherhood refuse the cup for her
own sake, or did she, with infinite love, take it and drink for her
children's sake? The Mother had plunged down, from the pinnacle of her
celestial throne, to earth, to taste of death that her children might
have everlasting life.
What! should Eve ask Adam to partake of the elements of death first, in
such a sacrament! 'Twould have outraged motherhood!
Eve partook of that supper of the Lord's death first. She ate of that
body and drank of that blood.
Be it to Adam's eternal _credit_ that he stood by and let our
Mother--our ever blessed Mother Eve--partake of the sacrifice before
himself. Adam followed the Mother's example, for he was great and
grand--a Father worthy indeed of a world. He was wise, too; for the
_blood of life_ is the stream of mortality.
What a psalm of everlasting praise to woman, that Eve fell first!
A Goddess came down from her mansions of glory to bring the spirits of
her children down after her, in their myriads of branches and their
hundreds of generations!
She was again a mortal Mother now. The first person in the trinity of
Mothers.
The Mormon sisterhood take up their themes of religion with their
Mother Eve, and consent with her, at the very threshold of the temple,
to bear the cross. Eve is ever with her daughters in the temple of the
Lord their God.
The Mormon daughters of Eve have also in this eleventh hour come down
to earth, like her, to magnify the divine office of motherhood. She
came down from her resurrected, they from their spirit, estate. Here,
with her, in the divine providence of maternity, they begin to ascend
the ladder to heaven, and to their exaltation in the courts of their
Father and Mother God.
Who shall number the blasphemies of the sectarian churches against our
first grand parents? Ten thousand priests of the serpent have thundered
anathemas upon the head of "accursed Adam." Appalling, oftentimes,
their pious rage. And Eve--the holiest, grandest of Mothers--has been
made a very by-word to offset the frailties of the most wicked and
abandoned.
Very different is Mormon theology! The Mormons exalt the grand parents
of our race. Not even is the name of Christ more sacred to them
than the names of Adam and Eve. It was to them the poetess and high
priestess addressed her hymn of invocation; and Brigham's proclamation
that Adam is our Father and God is like a hallelujah chorus to their
everlasting names. The very earth shall yet take it up; all the sons
and daughters of Adam and Eve shall yet shout it for joy, to the ends
of the earth, in every tongue!
Eve stands, then, first--the God-Mother in the maternal trinity of
this earth. Soon we shall meet Sarah, the Mother of the covenant, and
in her daughters comprehend something of patriarchal marriage--"Mormon
polygamy." But leave we awhile these themes of woman, and return to the
personal thread of the sisters' lives.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE HUNTINGTONS--ZINA D. YOUNG, AND PRESCINDIA L. KIMBALL--THEIR
TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE KIRTLAND MANIFESTATIONS--UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF
JOSEPH SMITH--DEATH OF MOTHER HUNTINGTON.
Who are these thus pursued as by the demons that ever haunt a great
destiny?
As observed in the opening chapter, they are the sons and daughters
of the Pilgrim sires and mothers who founded this nation; sons and
daughters of the patriots who fought the battles of independence and
won for these United States a transcendent destiny.
Here meet we two of the grand-nieces of Samuel Huntington, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of Connecticut,
and President of Congress.
Zina Diantha Huntington has long been known and honored as one of the
most illustrious women of the Church. She was not only sealed to the
prophet Joseph in their sacred covenant of celestial marriage, but
after his martyrdom she was sealed to Brigham Young as one of Joseph's
wives. For over a quarter of a century she has been known as Zina D.
Young--being mother to one of Brigham's daughters. In her mission
of usefulness she has stood side by side with Sister Eliza R. Snow,
and her life has been that of one of the most noble and saintly of
women. Thus is she introduced to mark her honored standing among the
sisterhood. Of her ancestral record she says:
"My father's family is directly descended from Simon Huntington, the
'Puritan immigrant' who sailed for America in 1633. He died on the
sea, but left three sons and his widow, Margaret. The church records
of Roxbury, Mass., contain the earliest record of the Huntington name
known in New England, and is in the handwriting of Rev. John Elliot
himself, the pastor of that ancient church. This is the record:
'Margaret Huntington, widow, came in 1633. Her husband died by the way,
of the small-pox. She brought--children with her.'
"Tradition says that Simon, the Puritan emigrant, sailed for this
country to escape the persecutions to which non-conformists were
subjected, during the high-handed administrations of Laud and the
first Charles. Tradition also declares him to have been beyond doubt
an Englishman. The Rev. E. B. Huntington, in his genealogical memoir
of the Huntington family in this country, observes: 'The character of
his immediate descendants is perhaps in proof of both statements; they,
were thoroughly English in their feelings, affinities, and language;
and that they were as thoroughly religious, their names and official
connection with the early churches in this country abundantly attest.'
"Of one of my great-grandfathers the Huntington family memoir records
thus: 'John, born in Norwich, March 15th, 1666, married December 9th,
1686, Abigal, daughter of Samuel Lathrop, who was born in May, 1667.
Her father moved to Norwich from New London, to which place he had gone
from Scituate, Mass., in 1648. He was the son of the Rev. John Lathrop,
who, for nonconformity, being a preacher in the First Congregational
Church organized in London, was imprisoned for two years, and who, on
being released in 1634, came to this country, and became the first
minister of Scituate.'
"The Lathrops, from which my branch of the family was direct, also
married with the other branches of the Huntingtons, making us kin of
both sides, and my sister, Prescindia Lathrop Huntington, bears the
family name of generations.
"My grandfather, Wm. Huntington, was born September 19th, 1757;
married, February 13th, 1783, Prescindia Lathrop, and was one of the
first settlers in the Black River Valley, in Northern New York. He
resided at Watertown. He married for his second wife his first wife's
sister, Alvira Lathrop Dresser. He died May 11th, 1842. The following
is an obituary notice found in one of the Watertown papers:
"'At his residence, on the 11th inst., Wm. Huntington, in the
eighty-fifth year of his age. Mr. Huntington was one of our oldest
and most respected inhabitants. He was a native of Tolland, Conn.,
and for three or four years served in the army of the Revolution.
In the year 1784 he emigrated to New Hampshire, where he resided
till the year 1804, when he removed to Watertown. He was for many
years a member and an officer of the Presbyterian Church.'
"Before his death, however, my grandfather was baptized into the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He always spoke of Samuel
Huntington, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, as his Uncle
Samuel."
This genealogical record is given to illustrate the numerous Puritan
and Revolutionary relations of the leading families of the Mormon
people, and to emphasize the unparalleled outrage of the repeated
exile of such descendants--exiles at last from American civilization.
How exact has been the resemblance of their history to that of their
Pilgrim fathers and mothers!
But the decided connection of the Huntingtons with the Mormon people
was in William Huntington, the father of sisters Zina and Prescindia,
who for many years was a presiding High Priest of the Church, being a
member of the High Council.
This Wm. Huntington was also a patriot, and served in the war with
Great Britain, in 1812.
The sisters Zina and Prescindia, with their brothers, were raised
fourteen miles east of Sackett's Harbor, where the last battle was
fought between the British and Americans, in that war; so that the
Revolutionary history of their country formed a peculiarly interesting
theme to the "young folks" of the Huntington family. Indeed their
brother, Dimock, at the period of the exodus of the Mormons from
Nauvoo, had so much of the blood of the patriots in his veins that
he at once enlisted in the service of his country in the war with
Mexico--being a soldier in the famous Mormon battalion.
Prescindia Lathrop Huntington, the eldest of these two illustrious
sisters, was born in Watertown, Jefferson county, N. Y., September 7th,
1810, and was her mother's fourth child; Zina Diantha was born at the
same place, January 31st, 1821.
Prescindia is a woman of very strong character; and her life has been
marked with great decision and self-reliance, both in thought and
purpose. She was also endowed with a large, inspired mind--the gifts
of prophesy, speaking in tongues, and the power to heal and comfort
the sick, being quite pre-eminent in her apostolic life. In appearance
she is the very counterpart of the Eliza Huntington whose likeness is
published in the book of the Huntington family. A mother in Israel is
Sister Prescindia, and the type of one of the Puritan mothers in the
olden time. She was sealed to Joseph Smith, and for many years was one
of the wives of the famous Heber C. Kimball.
Mother Huntington was also an exemplary saint. She died a victim of the
persecutions, when the saints were driven from Missouri, and deserves
to be enshrined as a martyr among her people. Her name was Zina Baker,
born May 2d, 1786, in Plainfield, Cheshire county, N. H., and married
to Wm. Huntington, December 28, 1806. Her father was one of the first
physicians in New Hampshire, and her mother, Diantha Dimock, was
descended from the noble family of Dymocks, whose representatives held
the hereditary knight-championship of England--instance Sir Edward
Dymock, Queen Elizabeth's champion.
Mother Huntington was a woman of great faith. "She believed that God
would hear and answer prayer in behalf of the sick. The gift of healing
was with her before the gospel was restored in its fullness."
Thus testify her daughters of their mother, whose spirit of faith
was also instilled into their own hearts, preparing them to receive
the gospel of a great spiritual dispensation, and for that apostolic
calling among the sick, to which their useful lives have been greatly
devoted.
Father and Mother Huntington had both been strict Presbyterians; but
about the time of the organization of the Latter-day Church he withdrew
from the congregation, which had become divided over church forms,
and commenced an earnest examination of the Scriptures for himself.
To his astonishment he discovered that there was no church extant,
to his knowledge, according to the ancient pattern, with apostles
and prophets, nor any possessing the gifts and powers of the ancient
gospel. For the next three years he was as a watcher for the coming of
an apostolic mission, when one day Elder Joseph Wakefield brought to
his house the Book of Mormon. Soon his family embraced the Latter-day
faith, rejoicing in the Lord. Himself and wife, and his son Dimock and
his wife, with "Zina D.," then only a maiden, were the first of the
family baptized. Zina was baptized by Hyrum Smith, in Watertown, August
1st, 1835.
Prescindia at that time was living with her husband at Loraine, a
little village eighteen miles from her native place, when her mother,
in the summer of 1835, brought to her the Book of Mormon and her
first intelligence of the Mormon prophet. She gathered to Kirtland in
May, 1836, and was baptized on the 6th of the following June, and was
confirmed by Oliver Cowdry.
"In Kirtland," she says, "we enjoyed many very great blessings, and
often saw the power of God manifested. On one occasion I saw angels
clothed in white walking upon the temple. It was during one of our
monthly fast meetings, when the saints were in the temple worshipping.
A little girl came to my door and in wonder called me out, exclaiming,
'The meeting is on the top of the meeting house!' I went to the door,
and there I saw on the temple angels clothed in white covering the roof
from end to end. They seemed to be walking to and fro; they appeared
and disappeared. The third time they appeared and disappeared before
I realized that they were not mortal men. Each time in a moment they
vanished, and their reappearance was the same. This was in broad
daylight, in the afternoon. A number of the children in Kirtland saw
the same.
"When the brethren and sisters came home in the evening, they told
of the power of God manifested in the temple that day, and of the
prophesying and speaking in tongues. It was also said, in the
interpretation of tongues, 'That the angels were resting down upon the
house.'
"At another fast meeting I was in the temple with my sister Zina. The
whole of the congregation were on their knees, praying vocally, for
such was the custom at the close of these meetings when Father Smith
presided; yet there was no confusion; the voices of the congregation
mingled softly together. While the congregation was thus praying, we
both heard, from one corner of the room above our heads, a choir of
angels singing most beautifully. They were invisible to us, but myriads
of angelic voices seemed to be united in singing some song of Zion, and
their sweet harmony filled the temple of God.
"We were also in the temple at the pentecost. In the morning Father
Smith prayed for a pentecost, in opening the meeting. That day the
power of God rested mightily upon the saints. There was poured out
upon us abundantly the spirit of revelation, prophesy and tongues. The
Holy Ghost filled the house; and along in the afternoon a noise was
heard. It was the sound of a mighty rushing wind. But at first the
congregation was startled, not knowing what it was. To many it seemed
as though the roof was all in flames. Father Smith exclaimed, 'Is the
house on fire!'
"'Do you not remember your prayer this morning, Father Smith?' inquired
a brother.
"Then the patriarch, clasping his hands, exclaimed, 'The spirit of God,
like a mighty rushing wind!'
"At another time a cousin of ours came to visit us at Kirtland. She
wanted to go to one of the saints' fast meetings, to hear some one sing
or speak in tongues, but she said she expected to have a hearty laugh.
"Accordingly we went with our cousin to the meeting, during which a
Brother McCarter rose and sang a song of Zion in tongues; I arose and
sang simultaneously with him the same tune and words, beginning and
ending each verse in perfect unison, without varying a word. It was
just as though we had sung it together a thousand times.
"After we came out of meeting, our cousin observed, 'Instead of
laughing, I never felt so solemn in my life.'"
The family of Huntingtons removed with the saints from Kirtland to Far
West, and passed through the scenes of the expulsion from Missouri. In
this their experience was very similar to the narratives of the other
sisters already given; but Sister Prescindia's visit to the prophet, in
Liberty jail, must have special notice. She says:
"In the month of February, 1839, my father, with Heber C. Kimball, and
Alanson Ripley, came and stayed over night with us, on their way to
visit the prophet and brethren in Liberty jail. I was invited to go
with them.
"When we arrived at the jail we found a heavy guard outside and inside
the door. We were watched very closely, lest we should leave tools to
help the prisoners escape.
"I took dinner with the brethren in prison; they were much pleased to
see the faces of true friends; but I cannot describe my feelings on
seeing that man of God there confined in such a trying time for the
saints, when his counsel was so much needed. And we were obliged to
leave them in that horrid prison, surrounded by a wicked mob.
"While in prison, the brethren were presented with human flesh to eat.
My brother, Wm. Huntington, tasted before the word could be passed from
Joseph to him. It was the flesh of a colored man.
"After my second visit to the prison, with Frederick G. Williams, the
prophet addressed to me the following letter:
"'LIBERTY JAIL, March 15th, 1839.
"'DEAR SISTER:
"'My heart rejoiced at the friendship you manifested in requesting
to have conversation with us; but the jailer is a very jealous man,
for fear some one will have tools for us to get out with. He is
under the eye of the mob continually, and his life is at stake if
he grants us any privilege. He will not let us converse with any
one alone.
"'O what a joy it would be for us to see our friends. It would have
gladdened my heart to have had the privilege of conversing with
you; but the hand of tyranny is upon us; but thanks be to God, it
cannot last always; and he that sitteth in the heavens will laugh
at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh.
"'We feel, dear sister, that our bondage is not of long duration.
I trust that I shall have the chance to give such instructions as
have been communicated to us, before long; and as you wanted some
instruction from us, and also to give us some information, and
administer consolation to us, and to find out what is best for you
to do, I think that many of the brethren, if they will be pretty
still, can stay in this country until the indignation is over and
passed. But I think it will be better for Brother Buell to leave
and go with the rest of the brethren, if he keeps the faith, and at
any rate, for thus speaketh the spirit concerning him. I want him
and you to know that I am your true friend.
"'I was glad to see you. No tongue can tell what inexpressible joy
it gives a man to see the face of one who has been a friend, after
having been inclosed in the walls of a prison for five months. It
seems to me my heart will always be more tender after this than
ever it was before.
"'My heart bleeds continually when I contemplate the distress of
the Church. O that I could be with them; I would not shrink at toil
and hardship to render them comfort and consolation. I want the
blessing once more to lift my voice in the midst of the saints. I
would pour out my soul to God for their instruction. It has been
the plan of the devil to hamper and distress me from the beginning,
to keep me from explaining myself to them, and I never have had
opportunity to give them the plan that God has revealed to me. Many
have run without being sent, crying, 'Tidings, my Lord,' and have
caused injury to the Church, giving the adversary more power over
them that walk by sight and not by faith. Our trouble will only
give us that knowledge to understand the mind of the ancients. For
my part I think I never could have felt as I now do if I had not
suffered the wrongs which I have suffered. All things shall work
together for good to them that love God.
"'Beloved sister, we see that perilous times have truly come, and
the things which we have so long expected have at last begun to
usher in; but when you see the fig tree begin to put forth its
leaves, you may know that the summer is nigh at hand. There will be
a short work on the earth; it has now commenced. I suppose there
will soon be perplexity all over the earth. Do not let our hearts
faint when these things come upon us, for they must come or the
word cannot be fulfilled. I know that something will soon take
place to stir up this generation to see what they have been doing,
and that their fathers have inherited lies, and they have been led
captive by the devil to no profit. But they know not what they
do. Do not have any feeling of enmity towards any son or daughter
of Adam. I believe I shall be let out of their hands some way or
other, and shall see good days. We cannot do anything, only stand
still and see the salvation of God. He must do his own work or it
must fall to the ground. We must not take it in our hands to avenge
our wrongs. 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay.' I
have no fears; I shall stand unto death, God being my helper.
"'I wanted to communicate something, and I wrote this. Write to us
if you can.
&c.,
"'J. SMITH, JR.'"
This letter to Sister Prescindia, which has never before been
published, gives an excellent example of the spirit and style of the
prophet. It will be read with interest, even by the anti-Mormon.
Himself in prison, and his people even at that moment passing through
their expulsion, what passages for admiration are these:
"Do not have any feelings of enmity towards any son or daughter of
Adam." "They know not what they do!" "We must not take it in our hands
to avenge our wrongs. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay."
"I have no fears; I shall stand unto death, God being my helper!"
Like his divine Master this; "Father, forgive them; they know not what
they do!" A great heart, indeed, had Joseph, and a spirit exalted with
noble aims and purposes.
When Sister Prescindia returned to Far West, her father and mother,
with her sister Zina, had started in the exodus of the saints from
Missouri to Illinois. She says:
"I never saw my mother again. I felt alone on the earth, with no one to
comfort me, excepting my little son, George, for my husband had become
a bitter apostate, and I could not speak in favor of the Church in his
presence. There was by this time not one true saint in the State of
Missouri, to my knowledge."
Sister Zina says: "On the 18th of April, 1839, I left Far West, with my
father, mother, and two younger brothers, and arrived at Quincy, Ill.,
on the 25th of April, and from thence to Commerce, afterwards called
Nauvoo, which we reached on the 14th of May.
"Joseph, the prophet, had just escaped from prison in Missouri, and
the saints were gathering to Nauvoo. My brother Dimock was also in
Illinois, living at Judge Cleveland's.
"On the 24th of June my dear mother was taken sick with a congestive
chill. About three hours afterwards she called me to her bedside and
said:
"'Zina, my time has come to die. You will live many years; but O, how
lonesome father will be. I am not afraid to die. All I dread is the
mortal suffering. I shall come forth triumphant when the Saviour comes
with the just to meet the saints on the earth.'
"The next morning I was taken sick; and in a few days my father
and brother Oliver were also prostrate. My youngest brother, John,
twelve years of age, was the only one left that could give us a drink
of water; but the prophet sent his adopted daughter to assist us
in our affliction, and saw to our being taken care of, as well as
circumstances would permit--for there were hundreds, lying in tents and
wagons, who needed care as much as we. Once Joseph came himself and
made us tea with his own hands, and comforted the sick and dying.
"Early in the morning of the 8th of July, 1839, just before the sun had
risen, the spirit of my blessed mother took its flight, without her
moving a muscle, or even the quiver of the lip.
"Only two of the family could follow the remains to their resting
place. O, who can tell the anguish of the hearts of the survivors, who
knew not whose turn it would be to follow next?
"Thus died my martyred mother! The prophet Joseph often said that the
saints who died in the persecutions were as much martyrs of the Church
as was the apostle David Patten, who was killed in the defence of the
saints, or those who were massacred at Haun's Mill. And my beloved
mother was one of the many bright martyrs of the Church in those dark
and terrible days of persecution."
CHAPTER XXII.
WOMAN'S WORK IN CANADA AND GREAT BRITAIN--HEBER C. KIMBALL'S
PROPHESY--PARLEY P. PRATT'S SUCCESSFUL MISSION TO CANADA--A BLIND WOMAN
MIRACULOUSLY HEALED--DISTINGUISHED WOMEN OF THAT PERIOD.
By this time (1840, the period of the founding of Nauvoo), the Church
has had a remarkable history in Canada and Great Britain. To these
missions we must now go for some of our representative women, and also
to extend our view of Mormonism throughout the world.
Brigham Young was the first of the elders who took Mormonism into
Canada, soon after his entrance into the Church. There he raised up
several branches, and gathered a few families to Kirtland; but it
was not until the apostle Parley P. Pratt took his successful and
almost romantic mission to Canada, that Mormonism flourished in the
British Province, and from there spread over to Great Britain, like an
apostolic wave.
Presently we shall see that the romance of Mormonism has centred around
the sisters abroad as well as at home. Frequently we shall see them
the characters which first come to view; the first prepared for the
great spiritual work of the age; the first to receive the elders with
their tidings of the advent of a prophet and the administration of
angels, after the long night of spiritual darkness, and centuries of
angelic silence; and were it possible to trace their every footstep in
the wonderful work abroad, we should find that the sisters have been
effective missionaries of the Church, and that, in some sections, they
have been instrumental in making more disciples than even the elders.
Here is the opening of the story of Parley P. Pratt's mission to
Canada, in which a woman immediately comes to the foreground in a
famous prophesy:
"It was now April" (1836). "I had retired to rest," says he, "one
evening, at an early hour, and was pondering my future course, when
there came a knock at the door. I arose and opened it, when Heber C.
Kimball and others entered my house, and being filled with the spirit
of prophesy, they blessed me and my wife, and prophesied as follows:
'Brother Parley, thy wife shall be healed from this hour, and shall
bear a son, and his name shall be Parley; and he shall be a chosen
instrument in the hands of the Lord to inherit the priesthood and
to walk in the steps of his father. He shall do a great work in the
earth in ministering the word and teaching the children of men. Arise,
therefore, and go forth in the ministry, nothing doubting. Take no
thought for your debts, nor the necessaries of life, for the Lord will
supply you with abundant means for all things.
"'Thou shalt go to Upper Canada, even to the city of Toronto, the
capital, and there thou shalt find a people prepared for the fullness
of the gospel, and they shall receive thee, and thou shalt organize
the Church among them, and it shall spread thence into the regions
round about, and many shall be brought to the knowledge of the truth,
and shall be filled with joy; and from the things growing out of this
mission, shall the fullness of the gospel spread into England, and
cause a great work to be done in that land.'
"This prophesy was the more marvelous, because being married near ten
years we had never had any children; and for near six years my wife had
been consumptive, and had been considered incurable. However, we called
to mind the faith of Abraham of old, and judging Him faithful who had
promised, we took courage.
"I now began in earnest to prepare for the mission, and in a few days
all was ready. Taking an affectionate leave of my wife, mother and
friends, I started for Canada, in company with a Brother Nickerson, who
kindly offered to bear expenses."
Away to Canada with Parley. We halt with him in the neighborhood of
Hamilton. He is an entire stranger in the British Province, and without
money. He knows not what to do. His narrative thus continues:
"The spirit seemed to whisper to me to try the Lord, and see if
anything was too hard for him, that I might know and trust him under
all circumstances. I retired to a secret place in a forest, and prayed
to the Lord for money to enable me to cross the lake. I then entered
Hamilton, and commenced to chat with some of the people. I had not
tarried many minutes before I was accosted by a stranger, who inquired
my name and where I was going. He also asked me if I did not want
some money. I said yes. He then gave me ten dollars, and a letter of
introduction to John Taylor, of Toronto, where I arrived the same
evening.
"Mrs. Taylor received me kindly, and went for her husband, who was busy
in his mechanic shop. To them I made known my errand to the city, but
received little direct encouragement. I took tea with them, and then
sought lodgings at a public house."
Already had he met in Canada a woman destined to bear a representative
name in the history of her people, for she is none other than the wife
of the afterwards famous apostle John Taylor. She is the first to
receive him into her house; and the apostolic story still continues the
woman in the foreground:
"In the morning," he says, "I commenced a regular visit to each of the
clergy of the place, introducing myself and my errand. I was absolutely
refused hospitality, and denied the opportunity of preaching in any
of their houses or congregations. Rather an unpromising beginning,
thought I, considering the prophesies on my head concerning Toronto.
However, nothing daunted, I applied to the sheriff for the use of the
court-house, and then to the authorities for a public room in the
market-place; but with no better success. What could I do more? I had
exhausted my influence and power without effect. I now repaired to a
pine grove just out of the town, and, kneeling down, called on the
Lord, bearing testimony of my unsuccessful exertions; my inability to
open the way; at the same time asking him in the name of Jesus to open
an effectual door for his servant to fulfill his mission in that place.
"I then arose and again entered the town, and going to the house of
John Taylor, had placed my hand on my baggage to depart from a place
where I could do no good, when a few inquiries on the part of Mr.
Taylor, inspired by a degree of curiosity or of anxiety, caused a few
moments' delay, during which a lady by the name of Walton entered the
house, and, being an acquaintance of Mrs. Taylor, was soon engaged in
conversation with her in an adjoining room. I overheard the following:
"'Mrs. Walton, I am glad to see you; there is a gentleman here from
the United States who says the Lord sent him to this city to preach
the gospel. He has applied in vain to the clergy and to the various
authorities for opportunity to fulfill, his mission, and is now about
to leave the place. He may be a man of God; I am sorry to have him
depart.'
"'Indeed!' said the lady; 'well, I now understand the feelings and
spirit which brought me to your house at this time. I have been busy
over the wash-tub and too weary to take a walk; but I felt impressed to
walk out. I then thought I would make a call on my sister, the other
side of town; but passing your door, the spirit bade me go in; but I
said to myself, I will go in when I return; but the spirit said, go in
now. I accordingly came in, and I am thankful that I did so. Tell the
stranger he is welcome to my house. I am a widow; but I have a spare
room and bed, and food in plenty. He shall have a home at my house,
and two large rooms to preach in just when he pleases. Tell him I will
send my son John over to pilot him to my house, while I go and gather
my relatives and friends to come in this very evening and hear him
talk; for I feel by the spirit that he is a man sent by the Lord with a
message which will do us good.'
"The evening found me quietly seated at her house," says Parley, "in
the midst of a number of listeners, who were seated around a large work
table in her parlor, and deeply interested in conversation like the
following:
"'Mr. Pratt, we have for some years been anxiously looking for some
providential event which would gather the sheep into one fold; build up
the true Church as in days of old, and prepare the humble followers of
the Lamb, now scattered and divided, to receive their coming Lord when
he shall descend to reign on the earth. As soon as Mrs. Taylor spoke
of you I felt assured, as by a strange and unaccountable presentiment,
that you were a messenger, with important tidings on these subjects;
and I was constrained to invite you here; and now we are all here
anxiously waiting to hear your words.'
"'Well, Mrs. Walton, I will frankly relate to you and your friends
the particulars of my message am the nature of my commission. A young
man the State of New York, whose name is Joseph Smith, was visited
by an angel of God, and, after several visions and much instruction,
was enabled to obtain an ancient record, written by men of old on the
American continent, and containing the history, prophesies and gospel
in plainness, as revealed to them by Jesus and his messengers. This
same Joseph Smith and others, were also commissioned by the angels
in these visions, and ordained to the apostleship, with authority to
organize a church, to administer the ordinances, and to ordain others,
and thus cause the full, plain gospel in its purity, to be preached in
all the world.
"'By these apostles thus commissioned, I have been ordained as an
apostle, and sent forth by the word of prophesy to minister the baptism
of repentance for remission of sins, in the name of Jesus Christ; and
to administer the gift of the Holy Ghost, to heal the sick, to comfort
the mourner, bind up the broken in heart, and proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord.
"'I was also directed to this city by the spirit of the Lord, with
a promise that I should find a people here prepared to receive the
gospel, and should organize them in the same. But when I came and was
rejected by all parties, I was about to leave the city; but the Lord
sent you, a widow, to receive me, as I was about to depart; and thus I
was provided for like Elijah of old. And now I bless your house, and
all your family and kindred, in his name. Your sins shall be forgiven
you; you shall understand and obey the gospel, and be filled with the
Holy Ghost; for so great faith have I never seen in any of my country.'
"'Well, Mr. Pratt, this is precisely the message we were waiting for;
we believe your words and are desirous to be baptized.'
"'It is your duty and privilege,' said I; 'but wait yet a little
while till I have an opportunity to teach others, with whom you are
religiously connected, and invite them to partake with you of the same
blessings.'"
Next comes a great miracle--the opening of the eyes of the blind--which
seems to have created quite a sensation in Canada; and still the woman
is the subject. The apostle continues:
"After conversing with these interesting persons till a late hour,
we retired to rest. Next day Mrs. Walton requested me to call on a
friend of hers, who was also a widow in deep affliction, being totally
blind with inflammation in the eyes; she had suffered extreme pain
for several months, and had also been reduced to want, having four
little children to support. She had lost her husband, of cholera, two
years before, and had sustained herself and family by teaching school
until deprived of sight, since which, she had been dependent on the
Methodist society; herself and children being then a public charge.
Mrs. Walton sent her little daughter of twelve years old to show me the
way. I called on the poor blind widow and helpless orphans, and found
them in a dark and gloomy apartment, rendered more so by having every
ray of light obscured to prevent its painful effects on her eyes. I
related to her the circumstances of my mission, and she believed the
same. I laid my hands upon her in the name of Jesus Christ, and said
unto her, 'Your eyes shall be well from this very hour.' She threw
off her bandages--opened her house to the light--dressed herself, and
walking with open eyes, came to the meeting that same evening at Sister
Walton's, with eyes as well and as bright as any other persons.
"The Methodist society were now relieved of their burthen in the person
of this widow and four orphans. This remarkable miracle was soon noised
abroad, and the poor woman's house was thronged from all parts of the
city and country with visitors; all curious to witness for themselves,
and to inquire of her how her eyes were healed.
"'How did the man heal your eyes?' 'What did he do?--tell us,' were
questions so oft repeated that the woman, wearied of replying, came to
me for advice to know what she should do. I advised her to tell them
that the Lord had healed her, and to give him the glory, and let that
suffice. But still they teased her for particulars. 'What did this man
do?' 'How were your eyes opened and made well?'
"'He laid his hands upon my head in the name of Jesus Christ, and
rebuked the inflammation, and commanded them to be made whole and
restored to sight; and it was instantly done.'
"'Well, give God the glory; for, as to this man, it is well known that
he is an impostor, a follower of Joseph Smith, the false prophet.'
"'Whether he be an impostor or not, I know not; but this much I know,
whereas I was blind, now I see! Can an impostor open the eyes of the
blind?'"
The widow Walton was baptized, with all her household; John Taylor and
his wife, also; and John soon became an able assistant in the ministry.
And here we meet two more representative women--sisters--whose family
were destined to figure historically in the church. The narrative of
Parley continues:
"The work soon spread into the country and enlarged its operations in
all that region; many were gathered into the Church, and were filled
with faith and love, and with the holy spirit, and the Lord confirmed
the word with signs following. My first visit to the country was about
nine miles from Toronto, among a settlement of farmers, by one of whom
I had sent an appointment beforehand. John Taylor accompanied me. We
called at a Mr. Joseph Fielding's, an acquaintance and friend of Mr.
Taylor's. This man had two sisters, young ladies, who seeing us coming
ran from their house to one of the neighboring houses, lest they should
give welcome, or give countenance to 'Mormonism.' Mr. Fielding stayed,
and as we entered the house he said he was sorry we had come; he had
opposed our holding meeting in the neighborhood; and, so great was the
prejudice, that the Methodist meeting house was closed against us, and
the minister refused, on Sunday, to give out the appointment sent by
the farmer.
"'Ah!' said I, 'why do they oppose Mormonism?' 'I don't know,' said he,
'but the name has such a contemptible sound; and, another thing, we do
not want a new revelation, or a new religion contrary to the Bible.'
'Oh,' said I, 'if that is all we shall soon remove your prejudices.
Come, call home your sisters, and let's have some supper. Did you say
the appointment was not given out?' 'I said, sir, that it was not given
out in the meeting house, nor by the minister; but the farmer by whom
you sent it agreed to have it at his house.' 'Come, then, send for
your sisters, we will take supper with you, and all go over to meeting
together. If you and your sisters will agree to this, I will agree to
preach the old Bible gospel, and leave out all new revelations which
are opposed to it.'
"The honest man consented. The young ladies came home, got us a good
supper, and all went to meeting. The house was crowded; I preached,
and the people wished to hear more. The meeting house was opened
for further meetings, and in a few days we baptized Brother Joseph
Fielding and his two amiable and intelligent sisters, for such they
proved to be in an eminent degree. We also baptized many others in that
neighborhood, and organized a branch of the church, for the people
there drank in truth as water, and loved it as they loved life."
Arriving at home the apostle Parley met continued examples of the
fulfillment of prophesy. Sister Pratt is now the interesting character
who takes the foreground. He says:
"I found my wife had been healed of her seven years' illness from the
time Brother Kimball had ministered unto her, and I began to realize
more fully that every word of his blessing and prophesy upon my head
would surely come to pass."
"After a pleasant visit with the saints," he continues, "I took my wife
with me and returned again to Toronto, in June, 1836. The work I had
commenced was still spreading its influence, and the saints were still
increasing in faith and love, in joy and in good works. There were
visions, prophesyings, speaking in tongues and healings, as well as the
casting out of devils and unclean spirits."
The work inaugurated by Parley P. Pratt seemed to have achieved a
signal triumph almost from the very beginning. Indeed all had come to
pass according to the prophesy of Heber C. Kimball, even not excepting
the promised son and heir, who was born March 25th, 1837. But with this
event came the mortal end of Parley's estimable wife. She lived just
long enough to accomplish her destiny; and when the child was dressed,
and she had looked upon it and embraced it, she passed away.
The following personal description and tribute of the poet apostle to
the memory of his mate is too full of love and distinctively Mormon
ideality to be lost:
"She was tall, of a slender frame, her face of an oval form, eyes large
and of a dark color, her forehead lofty, clear complexion, hair black,
smooth and glossy. She was of a mild and affectionate disposition and
full of energy, perseverance, industry and cheerfulness, when not borne
down with sickness. In order, neatness and refinement of taste and
habit she might be said to excel. She was an affectionate and dutiful
wife, an exemplary saint, and, through much tribulation, she has gone
to the world of spirits to meet a glorious resurrection and an immortal
crown and kingdom.
"Farewell, my dear Thankful, thou wife of my youth, and mother of my
first born; the beginning of my strength--farewell. Yet a few more
lingering years of sorrow, pain and toil, and I shall be with thee,
and clasp thee to my bosom, and thou shalt sit down on my throne, as a
queen and priestess unto thy Lord, arrayed in white robes of dazzling
splendor, and decked with precious stones and gold, while thy queen
sisters shall minister before thee and bless thee, and thy sons and
daughters innumerable shall call thee blessed, and hold thy name in
everlasting remembrance."
The interesting story which Parley tells of the visit of the spirit
of his wife to him, while he was lying, a prisoner for the gospel's
sake, in a dark, cold and filthy dungeon in Richmond, Ray county,
Missouri, will be to the foregoing a charming sequel. While tortured
with the gloom and discomforts of his prison, and most of all with the
inactivity of his life of constraint, and earnestly wondering, and
praying to know, if he should ever be free again to enjoy the society
of friends and to preach the gospel, the following was shown to him,
which we will tell in his own language:
"After some days of prayer and fasting," says he, "and seeking the Lord
on the subject, I one evening retired to my bed in my lonely chamber
at an early hour, and while the other prisoners and the guard were
chatting and beguiling the lonesome hours in the upper part of the
prison, I lay in silence, seeking and expecting an answer to my prayer,
when suddenly I seemed carried away in the spirit, and no longer
sensible to outward objects with which I was surrounded. A heaven of
peace and calmness pervaded my bosom; a personage from the world of
spirits stood before me with a smile of compassion in every look, and
pity mingled with the tenderest love and sympathy in every expression
of the countenance. A soft hand seemed placed within my own, and a
glowing cheek was laid in tenderness and warmth upon mine. A well-known
voice saluted me, which I readily recognized as that of the wife of my
youth, who had then for nearly two years been sweetly sleeping where
the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. I was made
to realize that she was sent to commune with me, and to answer my
question.
"Knowing this, I said to her, in a most earnest and inquiring tone:
'Shall I ever be at liberty again in this life, and enjoy the society
of my family and the saints, and preach the gospel, as I have done?'
She answered definitely and unhesitatingly: 'Yes!' I then recollected
that I had agreed to be satisfied with the knowledge of that one fact,
but now I wanted more.
"Said I: 'Can you tell me how, or by what means, or when, I shall
escape?' She replied: 'That thing is not made known to me yet.' I
instantly felt that I had gone beyond my agreement and my faith in
asking this last question, and that I must be contented at present with
the answer to the first.
"Her gentle spirit then saluted me and withdrew. I came to myself. The
noise of the guards again grated on my ears, but heaven and hope were
in my soul.
"Next morning I related the whole circumstance of my vision to my two
fellow-prisoners, who rejoiced exceedingly. This may seem to some like
an idle dream, or a romance of the imagination; but to me it was, and
always will be, a reality, both as it regards what I then experienced
and the fulfillment afterwards."
The famous escape from Richmond jail forms one of the romantic chapters
of Mormon history, but it belongs rather to the acts of the apostles
than to the lives of the sisters.
CHAPTER XXIII.
A DISTINGUISHED CANADIAN CONVERT--MRS. M. I. HORNE--HER EARLY
HISTORY--CONVERSION TO MORMONISM--SHE GATHERS WITH THE SAINTS AND
SHARES THEIR PERSECUTIONS--INCIDENTS OF HER EARLY CONNECTION WITH THE
CHURCH.
Among the early fruits of the Canadian mission, perhaps the name of
no other lady stands more conspicuous for good works and faithful
ministrations, than that of Mrs. Mary I. Horne. It will, therefore, be
eminently proper to introduce her at this time to the reader, and give
a brief sketch of her early career. From her own journals we quote as
follows:
"I was born on the 20th of November, 1818, in the town of Rainham,
county of Kent, England. I am the daughter of Stephen and Mary Ann
Hales, and am the eldest daughter of a large family. My parents were
honest, industrious people; and when very young I was taught to pray,
to be honest and truthful, to be kind to my associates, and to do
good to all around me. My father was of the Methodist faith, but my
mother attended the Church of England. As I was religiously inclined, I
attended the Methodist Church with my father, who was faithful in the
performance of his religious duties, although he never became a very
enthusiastic Methodist.
"In the year 1832, when I was in my thirteenth year, there was great
excitement in the town where I lived, over the favorable reports that
were sent from Van Dieman's Land, and the great inducements held out
to those who would go to that country. My father and mother caught the
spirit of going, and began to make preparations for leaving England.
Before arrangements had been completed for us to go, however, letters
were received from Upper Canada, picturing, in glowing terms, the
advantages of that country. My father changed his mind immediately and
made arrangements to emigrate to the town of York, afterwards called
Toronto. Accordingly, on the 16th day of April, 1832, our family,
consisting of my parents, five sons, myself and a younger sister, bade
adieu to England. We had a tedious voyage of six weeks across the
ocean, and my mother was sick during the entire voyage. During the
passage across there were three deaths on board--one of the three being
my brother Elias, whom we sorrowfully consigned to a watery grave.
"Our ship anchored at Quebec in May, and after a tedious passage up
the St. Lawrence by steamer, we landed in safety at the town of York,
June 16th, thankful that we were at our journey's end. Here we were in
a strange land, and to our dismay we found that the cholera was raging
fearfully in that region; but through all of those trying scenes the
Lord preserved us in health.
"In the spring of 1833 we removed into the country about eight miles,
to a place located in the township of York, and in the spring of 1834 I
attended a Methodist camp-meeting in that neighborhood, where I formed
the acquaintance of Mr. Joseph Horne, who is now my husband.
"The most of the time for the next two years I lived in service in the
city of Toronto, going once in three months to visit my parents.
"On the 9th day of May, 1836, I was married to Mr. Horne. He owned
a farm about one mile from my father's house, and I removed to his
residence soon after our marriage. I now felt that I was settled in
life; and, although I had not been used to farm work, I milked cows,
fed pigs and chickens, and made myself at home in my new situation,
seeking to make my home pleasant for my husband, and working to advance
his interests.
"About the first of June, of that year, report came to us that a man
professing to be sent of God to preach to the people would hold a
meeting about a mile from our house. My husband decided that we should
go and hear him. We accordingly went, and there first heard Elder Orson
Pratt. We were very much pleased with his sermon. Another meeting was
appointed for the following week, and Elder Pratt told us that business
called him away, but his brother, Parley P. Pratt, would be with us and
preach in his stead. I invited my father to go with us to hear him, and
the appointed evening found all of his family at the 'Mormon' meeting.
Elder Pratt told us that God was an unchangeable being--the same
yesterday, to-day, and forever--and taught us the gospel in its purity;
then showed from the Bible that the gospel was the same in all ages of
the world; but man had wandered from God and the true gospel, and that
the Lord had sent an angel to Joseph Smith, restoring to him the pure
gospel with its gifts and blessings. My father was so delighted with
the sermon that he left the Methodist Church and attended the 'Mormon
meetings' altogether; and in a short time every member of his family
had received and obeyed the gospel. This made quite a stir among the
Methodists. One of the class-leaders came to converse with us, and used
every argument he could to convince us that Mormonism was false, but
without avail. 'Well,' said he, finally, 'there are none but children
and fools who join them,' and left us to our fate. In July (1836) I
was baptized by Orson Hyde, and ever after that our house was open for
meetings, and became a home for many of the elders.
"The following from Brother Parley P. Pratt's autobiography, is a
truthful statement of a circumstance which occurred in the fall of that
year, and to which I can bear witness, as it was of my own personal
observation, the lady in question being a neighbor of ours. He says:
"'Now, there was living in that neighborhood a young man and his
wife, named Whitney; he was a blacksmith by trade; their residence
was perhaps a mile or more from Mr. Lamphere's, where I held my
semi-monthly meetings. His wife was taken down very suddenly about
that time with a strange affliction. She would be prostrated by some
power invisible to those about her, and suffer an agony of distress
indescribable. She often cried out that she could see two devils in
human form, who were thus operating upon her, and that she could hear
them talk; but, as the bystanders could not see them, but only see the
effects, they did not know what to think or how to understand.
"'She would have one of these spells once in about twenty-four hours,
and when it had passed she would lie in bed so lame, bruised, sore,
and helpless that she could not rise alone, or even sit up, for some
weeks. All this time she had to have watchers both night and day,
and sometimes four and five at a time, insomuch that the neighbors
were worn out and weary with watching. Mr. Whitney sent word for me
two or three times, or left word for me to call next time I visited
the neighborhood. This, however, I had neglected to do, owing to
the extreme pressure of labors upon me in so large a circuit of
meetings--indeed I had not a moment to spare. At last, as I came round
on the circuit again, the woman, who had often requested to see the man
of God, that he might minister to her relief, declared she would see
him anyhow, for she knew she could be healed if she could but get sight
of him. In her agony she sprang from her bed, cleared herself from her
frightened husband and others, who were trying to hold her, and ran for
Mr. Lamphere's, where I was then holding meeting. At first, to use her
own words, she felt very weak, and nearly fainted, but her strength
came to her, and increased at every step till she reached the meeting.
Her friends were all astonished, and in alarm, lest she should die in
the attempt, tried to pursue her, and they several times laid hold of
her and tried to force or persuade her back. 'No,' said she, 'let me
see the man of God; I can but die, and I cannot endure such affliction
any longer.' On she came, until at last they gave up, and said, 'Let
her go, perhaps it will be according to her faith.' So she came, and
when the thing was explained the eyes of the whole multitude were upon
her. I ceased to preach, and, stepping to her in the presence of the
whole meeting, I laid my hands upon her and said, 'Sister, be of good
cheer, thy sins are forgiven, thy faith hath made thee whole; and, in
the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke the devils and unclean spirits, and
command them to trouble thee no more.' She returned home well, went
about her housekeeping, and remained well from that time forth.'
"In the latter part of the summer of 1837," continues Mrs. Horne, "I
had the great pleasure of being introduced to, and entertaining, the
beloved prophet, Joseph Smith, with Sidney Rigdon and T. B. Marsh.
I said to myself, 'O Lord, I thank thee for granting the desire of
my girlish heart, in permitting me to associate with prophets and
apostles.' On shaking hands with Joseph Smith, I received the holy
spirit in such great abundance that I felt it thrill my whole system,
from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. I thought I had
never beheld so lovely a countenance. Nobility and goodness were in
every feature.
"The saints in Kirtland removed in the following spring to Missouri.
We started from Canada in March, 1838, with a small company of saints.
The roads were very bad, as the frost was coming out of the ground,
consequently I had to drive the team during a great portion of the
journey, while my husband walked.
"On arriving at Huntsville, one hundred miles from Far West, we found
several families of saints, and tarried a short time with them. There
I was introduced to the parents of the prophet, and also to his
cousin, George A. Smith. At a meeting held in that place I received a
patriarchal blessing from Joseph Smith, Sr. He told me that I had to
pass through a great deal of sickness, sorrow and tribulation, but 'the
Lord will bring you through six troubles, and in the seventh he will
not leave you;' all of which has verily been fulfilled."
Mrs. Horne, with her husband and family, reached Far West in August of
that year, and received their full share of the privations incident
to the settlement of that city, and also a full share of exposure,
sickness and peril incident to the expulsion of the saints from
Missouri. Finally thereafter they gathered to Nauvoo; and there for
the present let us leave them--promising the reader that Mrs. Horne
shall again come to the front when we treat of the wonderful missionary
efforts of the Mormon women in Utah.
CHAPTER XXIV.
MORMONISM CARRIED TO GREAT BRITAIN--"TRUTH WILL PREVAIL"--THE REV. MR.
FIELDING--FIRST BAPTISM IN ENGLAND--FIRST WOMAN BAPTIZED--STORY OF
MISS JEANNETTA RICHARDS--FIRST BRANCH OF THE CHURCH IN FOREIGN LANDS
ORGANIZED AT THE HOUSE OF ANN DAWSON--FIRST CHILD BORN INTO THE CHURCH
IN ENGLAND--ROMANTIC SEQUEL--VILATE KIMBALL AGAIN.
The voice of prophesy was no longer hushed; the heavens were no longer
sealed; the Almighty really spoke to these prophets and apostles of
the latter days; their words were strangely, sometimes romantically,
fulfilled; the genius of Mormonism was alike potent at home and abroad.
"Thou shalt go to Upper Canada, even to the city of Toronto, and there
thou shalt find a people prepared for the fullness of the gospel, and
they shall receive thee;" the prophet Heber had oracled over the head
of a fellow laborer, "and from the things growing out of this mission
shall the fullness of the gospel spread into England and cause a great
work to be done in that land."
One part of this prophesy the reader has seen exactly fulfilled in
the mission of Parley P. Pratt to Canada, enlivened with some very
interesting episodes. It falls upon Heber himself--the father of the
British mission--to fulfill, with the brethren who accompany him, the
supreme part of the prophesy referring to Great Britain.
It will be remembered from the sketch of Vilate Kimball, that Mary
Fielding gave to Heber five dollars to help him on his journey,
and that she with her sister and her sister's husband, Elder R. B.
Thompson, were on their way to Canada to engage in the second mission
to that Province, while Heber, Orson Hyde, Willard Richards, and Joseph
Fielding, with several other brethren from Canada, pursued their course
to England.
It was July 1st, 1837, when these elders embarked on board the ship
_Garrick_, bound for Liverpool, which they reached on the 20th of the
same month.
On their arrival in that foreign land the three principal
elders--Heber, Orson and Willard--had not as much as one farthing
in their possession, yet were they destined to accomplish marvelous
results ere their return to America.
Having remained two days in Liverpool, these elders were directed by
the spirit to go to Preston, a flourishing English town in Lancashire,
to plant the standard of their Church.
It generally came to pass that some singular incident occurred in all
of the initial movements of these elders, opening their way before
them, or omening their success. So now, the people of Preston were
celebrating a grand national occasion. Queen Victoria, a few days
previously (July 17th), had ascended the throne. A fitting event this
to notice in a woman's book. The "Woman's Age" dawned, not only upon
England, but, it would seem, upon all of the civilized world.
A general election was being held throughout the realm in consequence
of the ascension of the Queen. The populace were parading the streets
of Preston, bands were playing, and flags flying.
In the midst of this universal joy the elders alighted from the coach,
and just at that moment a flag was unfurled over their heads, from the
hotel, bearing this motto in gold letters: "Truth is mighty and will
prevail!" It was as a prophesy to these elders, as if to welcome their
coming, and they lifted up their voices and shouted, "Glory be to God,
truth will prevail!" By the way, this flag proclaimed the rise of the
temperance movement in England.
That night Heber and his compeers were entertained by the Rev. James
Fielding, the brother of the sisters Fielding. Already was the
other half of the prophesy uttered over the head of Parley being
fulfilled--that the gospel should spread from Canada into England, "and
cause a great work to be done in that land."
Previously to this the Rev. James Fielding had received letters from
his brother Joseph, and his sisters, who had, as we have seen, embraced
Mormonism in Canada; and these letters, burdened with the tidings of
the advent of the prophet of America and the administration of angels
in our own times, he read to his congregation. He also exhorted his
flock to pray fervently that the Lord would send over to England his
apostles, and solemnly adjured them to receive their message when they
should come bearing their glad tidings. Thus in England, as in Canada,
a people were "prepared" according to the prophesy.
On Sunday morning, the day after their arrival in Preston, the elders
went to Vauxhall Chapel to hear the Rev. James Fielding preach. At the
close of his discourse he gave out that in the afternoon and evening
meetings ministers from America would preach in his chapel.
The news spread rapidly in the town, and in a few hours quite a
sensation was abroad among the inhabitants, who flocked to the chapel
at the appointed times, some out of curiosity, others from a genuine
interest. Both in the afternoon and evening the chapel was crowded, and
the apostles preached their opening sermons, Heber C. Kimball being the
first of them who bore his testimony to "Mormonism" in foreign lands.
On the following Wednesday Vauxhall Chapel was again crowded, when
Elder Orson Hyde preached, and Willard Richards bore testimony; and
the Holy Ghost, we are told, powerfully accompanied the word on the
occasion.
Only a few days had passed since the elders arrived on the shores of
Great Britain, yet "a number believed and began to praise God and
rejoice exceedingly."
The Rev. Mr. Fielding, however, saw now the consequence of all this.
He was in danger of losing his entire flock. Many were resolving to be
baptized into the Church of Latter-day Saints. A continuation of this
result for a few weeks signified the entire dissolution of his own
church. He was in consternation at the prospect. Trembling, it is said,
as if suddenly stricken with the palsy, he presented himself before
the elders on the morning appointed for the baptism of a number of his
former disciples, and forbade the baptism. Of course this was in vain.
He had met the inevitable.
On Sunday, July 30th, just one month from the time the elders embarked
at New York, the eventful scene occurred in Preston, of the baptism in
the River Ribble of the nine first converts to Mormonism in foreign
lands. They were
George D. Watt, Ann Elizabeth Walmesley,
Thomas Walmesley, George Wate,
Miles Hodgen, Mary Ann Brown,
Henry Billsburg, ---- Miller,
Ann Dawson.
A public ceremony of baptism in the open air was such a novel event in
England at that time, when religious innovations were so rare, that
seven or eight thousand persons assembled on the banks of the river
to witness the scene. It is said that this was the first time baptism
by immersion was ever thus administered in England, though at a later
period several sects of Baptists arose who immersed openly in the
rivers and for the remission of sins. Such scenes were picturesque,
and some of the "new lights" seem to have delighted in them for their
religious sensation, just as the Methodists did in their camp meetings.
The first woman whose name is recorded in the list of the baptized of
the Mormon Church in England is Sister Ann Elizabeth Walmesley; and her
case presents the first miracle of the Church in foreign lands. Here is
the incident as related by Heber C. Kimball:
"I had visited Thomas Walmesley, whose wife was sick of the
consumption, and had been so for several years. She was reduced to
skin and bone--a mere skeleton--and was given up by the doctors to
die. I preached the gospel to her, and promised her in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ that if she would believe, repent and be baptized,
she should be healed of her sickness. She was carried to the water,
and after her baptism began to mend, and at her confirmation she was
blessed and her disease rebuked, when she immediately recovered, and in
less than one week after, she was attending to her household duties."
This incident will be the more interesting to the reader from the fact
that to-day (forty years after the miracle) Sister Walmesley is living
at Bloomington, Bear Lake Valley, Oneida county, Idaho.
Next came quite an evangelical episode, introducing, with a touch of
romance, Miss Jennetta Richards.
This young lady was the daughter of a minister, of the independent
order, who resided at Walkerfold, about fifteen miles from Preston.
She was not only personally interesting and intelligent, but, from the
influence she possessed over her father and his congregation, coupled
with the fact that the most classical of the apostles "fell in love"
with her, she appears to have been a maiden of considerable character.
She was a proper person to be the heroine of the British mission, and
her conversion was very important in its results, as will be seen in
the following incidents, related by Heber:
It was several days after the public baptism in Preston. "Miss
Jennetta Richards," says the apostle, "came to the house of Thomas
Walmesley, with whom she was acquainted. Calling in to see them at
the time she was there, I was introduced to her, and we immediately
entered into conversation on the subject of the gospel. I found her
very intelligent. She seemed very desirous to hear the things I had to
teach and to understand the doctrines of the gospel. I informed her of
my appointment to preach that evening, and invited her to attend. She
did so; and likewise the evening following. After attending these two
services she was fully convinced of the truth.
"Friday morning, 4th, she sent for me, desiring to be baptized, which
request I cheerfully complied with, in the River Ribble, and confirmed
her at the water side, Elder Hyde assisting. This was the first
confirmation in England. The following day she started for home, and
wept as she was about to leave us. I said to her, 'Sister, be of good
cheer, for the Lord will soften the heart of thy father, that I will
yet have the privilege of preaching in his chapel, and it shall result
in a great opening to preach the gospel in that region.' I exhorted
her to pray and be humble. She requested me to pray for her, and gave
me some encouragement to expect that her father would open his chapel
for me to preach in. I then hastened to my brethren, told them of the
circumstances and the result of my visit with the young lady, and
called upon them to unite with me in prayer that the Lord would soften
the heart of her father, that he might be induced to open his chapel
for us to preach in."
On the third Sabbath after the arrival of the elders in England, they
met at the house of Sister Ann Dawson, when twenty-seven members were
confirmed and the first branch of the Church was organized in foreign
lands. In the forepart of the ensuing week Heber received a letter
from Miss Jennetta Richards, and an invitation from her father to come
to Walkerfold and preach in his chapel. The invitation was accepted,
and Heber met with great success in laying the gospel before the
congregation of Mr. Richards; so successful was he indeed that the
reverend gentleman was forced to shut his chapel doors in order to
prevent a complete stampede of his flock.
This evangelical success is crowned with an interesting incident
between Jennetta and Elder Willard Richards. Willard, who had been on
a mission to Bedford early in January, 1838, visited his brethren at
Preston; and then, he says:
"I took a tour through the branches, and preached. While walking in
Thornly I plucked a snowdrop, far through the hedge, and carried it
to James Mercer's and hung it up in his kitchen. Soon after Jennetta
Richards came into the room, and I walked with her and Alice Parker to
Ribchester, and attended meeting with Brothers Kimball and Hyde, at
Brother Clark's.
"While walking with these sisters, I remarked, 'Richards is a good
name; I never want to change it; do you, Jennetta?' 'No; I do not,' was
her reply, 'and I think I never will.'"
The following note in his diary of the same year, furnishes the sequel:
"September 24, 1839, I married Jennetta Richards, daughter of the
Rev. John Richards, independent minister at Walkerfold, Chaidgley,
Lancashire. Most truly do I praise my Heavenly Father for his great
kindness in providing me a partner according to his promise. I receive
her from the Lord, and hold her at his disposal. I pray that he may
bless us forever. Amen!"
Passing from Sister Jennetta Richards, we now introduce the first child
born in the British mission. It is a female child. She is also the
first infant blessed in England; and the incidents of her birth and
blessing are both pretty and novel, especially when coupled with the
sequel of her womanhood. Heber thus tells the initial part of her story:
"She was the daughter of James and Nancy Smithies, formerly Nancy
Knowles. After she was born her parents wanted to take her to the
church to be sprinkled, or christened, as they call it. I used every
kind of persuasion to convince them of their folly--it being contrary
to the Scriptures and the will of God; the parents wept bitterly, and
it seemed as though I could not prevail on them to omit it. I wanted to
know of them why they were so tenacious. The answer was, 'If she dies
she cannot have a burial in the churchyard.' I said to them, 'Brother
and Sister Smithies, I say unto you in the name of Israel's God, she
shall not die on this land, for she shall live until she becomes a
mother in Israel, and I say it in the name of Jesus Christ, and by
virtue of the holy priesthood vested in me.' That silenced them, and
when she was two weeks old they presented the child to me; I took it
in my arms and blessed it, that it should live to become a mother in
Israel. She was the first child blessed in that country, and the first
born unto them."
The child lived, and fulfilled the prophesy that she should become
a "mother in Israel." Her birth was destined to glorify Heber's own
kingdom, for she, twenty years afterwards, became his last wife, and is
now the mother of four of his children.
The gospel spread rapidly during the first mission of the elders in
England. In eight months two thousand were baptized, and the "signs
followed the believers." We shall meet some of the British converts
hereafter, and read the testimonies of the sisters concerning the great
spiritual work of Mormonism in their native land.
Heber, and Orson Hyde, returned to America, leaving the British mission
in charge of Joseph Fielding, with Willard Richards and William Clayton
as councilors. Here the apostolic thread connects with the wife and
family of Heber, who have been left to the care of Providence and the
brotherly and sisterly love of the saints during this immortal mission
to Great Britain. His daughter Helen, in her journal, says:
"In the absence of my father the Lord was true to his promise. My
father's prayer, that he had made upon the heads of his wife and little
ones whom he had left poor and destitute, was answered. Kind friends
came forward to cheer and comfort them, and administer to their wants.
"Soon after my father's return to Kirtland he commenced making
preparations to move his family to Missouri, where Brother Joseph Smith
and a majority of the church authorities and nearly all of the members
had gone. About the first of July he commenced the journey with his
family, accompanied by Brother Orson Hyde and others, and arrived in
Far West on the 25th of July, when he had a happy meeting with Joseph,
Hyrum, Sidney, and others of the twelve, and numbers of his friends and
brethren, some of whom were affected to tears when they took him by the
hand. During our journey from Kirtland, the weather being very warm, we
suffered very much, and were much reduced by sickness. Father continued
quite feeble for a considerable length of time. Joseph requested him to
preach to the saints, saying, 'It will revive their spirits and do them
good if you will give them a history of your mission;' which he did,
although he was scarcely able to stand. It cheered their hearts and
many of the elders were stirred up to diligence.
"Soon after our arrival Bishop Partridge gave father a lot, and also
sufficient timber to build a house. While it was being erected we
lived in a place eight by eleven feet and four feet high at the eaves,
which had been built for a cow. The brethren were remarkably kind, and
contributed to our necessities. Brother Charles Hubbard made my father
a present of forty acres of land; another brother gave him a cow. But
about the last of August, after he had labored hard and nearly finished
his house, he was obliged to abandon it to the mob, who again commenced
to persecute the saints."
The history of those persecutions, and the exodus of the saints, is
already sufficiently told. Suffice it to say that Sister Vilate nobly
bore her part in those trying scenes, while Heber, with Brigham and
the rest of the twelve, kept their covenant--never to rest a moment
until the last faithful saint was delivered from that State, and the
feet of the whole people planted firmly, in peace and safety, in a new
gathering place.
CHAPTER XXV.
SKETCH OF THE SISTERS MARY AND MERCY R. FIELDING--THE FIELDINGS A
SEMI-APOSTOLIC FAMILY--THEIR IMPORTANT INSTRUMENTALITY IN OPENING THE
BRITISH MISSION--MARY FIELDING MARRIES HYRUM SMITH--HER TRIALS AND
SUFFERINGS WHILE HER HUSBAND IS IN PRISON--TESTIMONY OF HER SISTER
MERCY--MARY'S LETTER TO HER BROTHER IN ENGLAND.
Already has the name of Mary Fielding become quite historical to
the reader, but she is now to be introduced in her still more
representative character as wife of the patriarch and martyr Hyrum, and
as mother of the apostle Joseph F. Smith.
This much-respected lady was born July 21st, 1801, at Honidon,
Bedfordshire, England. She was the daughter of John and Rachel
Fielding, and was the eldest of the sisters whom the reader has met
somewhat prominently in an apostolic incident in Canada, out of which
much of the early history of the British mission very directly grew.
Mary was of good family, well educated, and piously raised, being
originally a Methodist, and a devoted admirer of the character of John
Wesley. Indeed the family of the Fieldings and their connections were
semi-apostolic even before their identification with the Church of
Latter-day Saints.
In 1834 Mary emigrated to Canada. Here she joined her youngest brother,
Joseph, and her sister, Mercy Rachel (born in England in 1807), who
had preceded her to America in 1832. As we have seen, this brother and
his two sisters were living near Toronto, Upper Canada, at the time
when Parley P. Pratt arrived there on his mission, and they immediately
embraced the faith. This was in May, 1836.
In the following spring the Fieldings gathered to Kirtland. Soon the
youngest of the sisters, Mercy Rachel, was married by the prophet to
Elder Robert B. Thompson, one of the literati of the Church, who was
appointed on a mission to Canada with his wife. At the same time Joseph
Fielding was appointed on mission to England, to assist the apostles in
that land. But Mary remained in Kirtland, and on the 24th of December,
1837, she was married to Hyrum Smith.
Here something deserves to be told of the Fielding family in
amplification of the incidental mentionings already made.
The Rev. James Fielding (of Preston, England), Mary's brother, was
quite a religious reformer, and of sufficient ministerial reputation
and force to become the founder and head of a Congregational Methodist
Church. Originally he was a minister of the regular body of that
powerful sect, but becoming convinced that modern Methodists had
departed from their primitive faith, and that their church no longer
enjoyed the Holy Ghost and its gifts, which measurably attended their
illustrious founder and his early disciples, the Rev. Mr. Fielding
inaugurated a religious reform in the direction intimated. It was an
attempt to revive in his ministerial sphere the spiritual power of the
Wesleyan movement; nor did he stop at this, but sought to convince his
disciples of the necessity of "contending earnestly for the faith once
delivered to the saints."
Other branches of the family also became prominent in the religious
reforms of England that arose about the time of the establishing of the
Church of Latter-day Saints in America. One of the Fielding sisters
married no less a personage than the Rev. Timothy R. Matthews, who
figured nearly as conspicuously as the Rev. James Fielding in the
early history of the British mission. This Rev. Timothy Matthews was
at first minister of the Church of England, and is said to have been
a very able and learned man. With the famous Robert Aitken, whom he
called his "son," he attempted reformation even in the established
Church; or rather, these innovative divines denounced the "apostasy" of
that Church, and prosecuted a semi-apostolic mission. It was eminently
successful, Robert Aitken and himself raising up large congregations
of disciples in Preston, Liverpool, Bedford, Northampton and London.
These disciples were popularly called Aitkenites and Matthewites.
Quite relevant is all this to the history of the Latter-day Saints in
England, for the congregations of the Rev. James Fielding, Rev. Timothy
R. Matthews, and Rev. John Richards (father of Jennetta), gave to the
apostles their first disciples abroad, and these ministers themselves
were their instruments in establishing the British mission.
But the name of Fielding, after those of the apostles, was principal in
accomplishing these results. The sisters Mary and Mercy, with Joseph,
half converted by their letters, the congregation of their reverend
brother in Preston, before the advent there of the apostles. In their
Brother James' chapel the first apostolic sermon in foreign lands was
preached by Heber C. Kimball, and it was one of the Fielding sisters
(Mrs. Watson), who gave to the elders the first money for the "gospel's
sake" donated to the church abroad.
But to return to Kirtland. Hyrum Smith was a widower at the date of
Mary Fielding's arrival there from Canada. And this means that his
_only_ wife was dead; for polygamy was unknown in the Church at that
time. It will therefore, be seen how pertinent is the often-repeated
remark of the sisters that the saints were not driven and persecuted
because of polygamy, but because of their belief in "new and continued
revelation." In becoming Hyrum's wife, Mary assumed the responsible
situation of step-mother to his five children, the task of which she
performed with unwavering fidelity, taking care of them for years after
the martyrdom of her husband, and taking the place of both father and
mother to them in the exodus of the Church to the Rocky Mountains.
And Mary was well trained for this latter task during her husband's
lifetime, besides being matured in years and character before her
marriage.
From Kirtland, with her husband and family, she removed to Far West,
Mo., where, on the first day of November, 1838, her husband and his
brother, the prophet, with others, were betrayed by the Mormon Colonel
Hinkle into the hands of the armed mob under General Clark, in the
execution of Gov. Boggs' exterminating order. On the following day
Hyrum was marched, at the point of the bayonet, to his house, by a
strong guard, who with hideous oaths and threats commanded Mary to
take her last farewell of her husband, for, "His die was cast, and his
doom was sealed," and she need never think she would see him again;
allowing her only a moment, as it were, for that terrible parting,
and to provide a change of clothes for the final separation. In the
then critical condition of her health this heart-rending scene came
nigh ending her life; but the natural vigor of her mind sustained her
in the terrible trial. Twelve days afterwards she gave birth to her
first born, a son; but she remained prostrate on a bed of affliction
and suffering for several months. In January, 1839, she was taken in a
wagon, with her infant, on her sick bed, to Liberty, Clay county, Mo.,
where she was granted the privilege of visiting her husband in jail,
where he was confined by the mob, without trial or conviction, because,
forsooth, he was a "Mormon."
While in this condition of health, with her husband immured in a
dungeon and surrounded by fiends in human form, thirsting for his life,
a company of armed men, led by the notorious Methodist priest, Bogart,
entered her poor abode and searched it, breaking open a trunk and
carrying away papers and valuables belonging to her husband. In this
helpless condition also she was forced from what shelter she had, in
the worst season of the year, to cross the bleak prairies of Missouri,
expelled from the State, to seek protection among strangers in the more
hospitable State of Illinois. Here is the story that her sister Mercy
tells of those days and scenes:
"In 1838 I traveled in company with Hyrum Smith and family to Far West.
To describe in a brief sketch the scenes I witnessed and the sufferings
I endured would be impossible. An incident or two, however, I will
relate.
"My husband, with many of the brethren, being threatened and pursued by
a mob, fled into the wilderness in November, leaving me with an infant
not five months old. Three months of distressing suspense I endured
before I could get any intelligence from him, during which time I
staid with my sister, wife of Hyrum Smith, who, having given birth to
a son while her husband was in prison, on the 13th of November took a
severe cold and was unable to attend to her domestic duties for four
months. This caused much of the care of her family, which was very
large, to fall on me. Mobs were continually threatening to massacre
the inhabitants of the city, and at times I feared to lay my babe down
lest they should slay me and leave it to suffer worse than immediate
death. About the 1st of February, 1839, by the request of her husband,
my sister was placed on a bed in a wagon and taken a journey of forty
miles, to visit him in the prison. Her infant son, Joseph F., being
then but about eleven weeks old, I had to accompany her, taking my own
babe, then near eight months old. The weather was extremely cold, and
we suffered much on the journey. This circumstance I always reflect
upon with peculiar pleasure, notwithstanding the extreme anxiety I
endured from having the care of my sick sister and the two babes. The
remembrance of having had the honor of spending a night in prison, in
company with the prophet and patriarch, produces a feeling I cannot
express.
"Shortly after our return to Far West we had to abandon our homes and
start, in lumber wagons, for Illinois; my sister being again placed on
a bed, in an afflicted state. This was about the middle of February,
and the weather was extremely cold. I still had the care of both babes.
We arrived at Quincy about the end of the month."
The following interesting letter, from Mary to her brother Joseph in
England, will fitly close for the present the sketch of these sisters:
"COMMERCE, Ill., North America,
"June, 1839.
"MY VERY DEAR BROTHER:
"As the elders are expecting shortly to take their leave of us
again to preach the gospel in my native land, I feel as though I
would not let the opportunity of writing you pass unimproved. I
believe it will give you pleasure to hear from us by our own hand;
notwithstanding you will see the brethren face to face, and have
an opportunity of hearing all particulars respecting us and our
families.
"As it respects myself, it is now so long since I wrote to you, and
so many important things have transpired, and so great have been my
affliction, etc., that I know not where to begin; but I can say,
hitherto has the Lord preserved me, and I am still among the living
to praise him, as I do to-day. I have, to be sure, been called to
drink deep of the bitter cup; but you know, my beloved brother,
this makes the sweet sweeter.
"You have, I suppose, heard of the imprisonment of my dear husband,
with his brother Joseph, Elder Rigdon, and others, who were kept
from us nearly six months; and I suppose no one felt the painful
effects of their confinement more than myself. I was left in a
way that called for the exercise of all the courage and grace I
possessed. My husband was taken from me by an armed force, at a
time when I needed, in a particular manner, the kindest care and
attention of such a friend, instead of which, the care of a large
family was suddenly and unexpectedly left upon myself, and, in a
few days after, my dear little Joseph F. was added to the number.
Shortly after his birth I took a severe cold, which brought on
chills and fever; this, together with the anxiety of mind I had
to endure, threatened to bring me to the gates of death. I was at
least four months entirely unable to take any care either of myself
or child; but the Lord was merciful in so ordering things that my
dear sister could be with me. Her child was five months old when
mine was born; so she had strength given her to nurse them both.
"You will also have heard of our being driven, as a people, from
the State, and from our homes; this happened during my sickness,
and I had to be removed more than two hundred miles, chiefly on
my bed. I suffered much on my journey; but in three or four weeks
after we arrived in Illinois, I began to amend, and my health is
now as good as ever. It is now little more than a month since the
Lord, in his marvelous power, returned my dear husband, with the
rest of the brethren, to their families, in tolerable health. We
are now living in Commerce, on the bank of the great Mississippi
river. The situation is very pleasant; you would be much pleased to
see it. How long we may be permitted to enjoy it I know not; but
the Lord knows what is best for us. I feel but little concerned
about where I am, if I can keep my mind scald upon God; for,
you know in this there is perfect peace. I believe the Lord is
overruling all things for our good. I suppose our enemies look upon
us with astonishment and disappointment.
"I greatly desire to see you, and I think you would be pleased to
see our little ones; will you pray for us, that we may have grace
to train them up in the way they should go, so that they may be a
blessing to us and the world? I have a hope that our brothers and
sisters will also embrace the fullness of the gospel, and come
into the new and everlasting covenant; I trust their prejudices
will give way to the power of truth. I would gladly have them
with us here, even though they might have to endure all kind of
tribulation and affliction with us and the rest of the children of
God, in these last days, so that they might share in the glories
of the celestial kingdom. As to myself, I can truly say, that I
would not give up the prospect of the latter-day glory for all
that glitters in this world. O, my dear brother, I must tell you,
for your comfort, that my hope is full, and it is a glorious hope;
and though I have been left for near six months in widowhood, in
the time of great affliction, and was called to take, joyfully or
otherwise, the spoiling of almost all our goods, in the absence of
my husband, and all unlawfully, just for the gospel's sake (for
the judge himself declared that he was kept in prison for no other
reason than because he was a friend to his brother), yet I do not
feel in the least discouraged; no, though my sister and I are here
together in a strange land, we have been enabled to rejoice, in
the midst of our privations and persecutions, that we were counted
worthy to suffer these things, so that we may, with the ancient
saints who suffered in like manner, inherit the same glorious
reward. If it had not been for this hope, I should have sunk before
this; but, blessed be the God and rock of my salvation, here I
am, and am perfectly satisfied and happy, having not the smallest
desire to go one step backward.
"Your last letter to Elder Kimball gave us great pleasure; we thank
you for your expression of kindness, and pray God to bless you
according to your desires for us.
"The more I see of the dealings of our Heavenly Father with us as a
people, the more I am constrained to rejoice that I was ever made
acquainted with the everlasting covenant. O may the Lord keep me
faithful till my change comes! O, my dear brother, why is it that
our friends should stand out against the truth, and look on those
that would show it to them as enemies? The work here is prospering
much; several men of respectability and intelligence, who have been
acquainted with all our difficulties, are coming into the work.
"My husband joins me in love to you. I remain, my dear brother and
sister, your affectionate sister,
"MARY SMITH."
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE QUORUM OF THE APOSTLES GO ON MISSION TO ENGLAND--THEIR LANDING IN
GREAT BRITAIN--THEY HOLD A CONFERENCE--A HOLIDAY FESTIVAL--MOTHER MOON
AND FAMILY--SUMMARY OF A YEAR'S LABORS--CROWNING PERIOD OF THE BRITISH
MISSION.
Scarcely had the saints made their exodus from Missouri--while many of
them were still domiciled in tents on the banks of the Mississippi, and
Nauvoo could only boast of a few rude houses to prophesy the glory of
a "second Zion"--ere nine of the quorum of the apostles were abroad,
working their missionary wonders in foreign lands. From that period
to the present (1877), the history of the Latter-day Church, with its
emigrations, has quite one-half belonged to the European mission, which
has given to America one hundred thousand emigrants.
Early in the year 1840 (January 11th), apostles Wilford Woodruff
and John Taylor, with Elder Theodore Turley, landed on the shores
of England. They chose their several fields of labor and soon were
actively engaged in the ministry.
On the 19th of March of the same year Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball,
George A. Smith, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, and Reuben Hedlock
sailed from New York on board the _Patrick Henry_. A number of the
saints came down to the wharf to bid them farewell. When the elders got
into the small-boat to go out to the ship, the saints on shore sang
"The Gallant Ship is Under Way," etc., in which song the elders joined
until their voices were separated by the distance.
Liverpool was reached by these apostles on the 6th of April. It was the
anniversary of the organization of the Church, just ten years before.
The next day they found Elder Taylor and John Moon, with about thirty
saints who had just received the work in that place, and on the day
following they went to Preston by railroad.
In Preston, the cradle of the British mission, the apostles were met
by a multitude of saints, who rejoiced exceedingly at the event of the
arrival of the twelve in that land.
Willard Richards immediately hastened to Preston and gave an account
of the churches in the British isles, over which he had been presiding
during the interval from the return of Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde
to America. The president of the twelve at once commenced to grapple
with the work in foreign lands, convened a conference, and wrote to
Wilford Woodruff to attend.
It was on the 14th of April, 1840, that the first council of the twelve
apostles, in a foreign land, was held at Preston. There were present
Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Parley P Pratt, Orson Pratt, John
Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and George A. Smith. These proceeded to
ordain Willard Richards to their quorum, and then Brigham Young was
chosen, by a unanimous vote, the standing president of the twelve.
Then followed, during the next two days, "A General Conference of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," held in the Temperance
Hall at Preston, with Heber C. Kimball presiding, and William Clayton
clerk. There were represented at this time, one thousand six hundred
and seventy-one members, thirty-four elders, fifty-two priests,
thirty-eight teachers, and eight deacons.
The conference over, the apostles kept the old Christian holiday of
Good Friday, to regale their spirits after their long journey, which
had so quickly followed the many vicissitudes of persecution in their
native land, and before separating again on their arduous mission.
The place chosen to spend their holiday was the village of Penwortham,
two miles from Preston. That day Mother Moon made a feast for the
apostles at her house. From her treasury of "fat things" she brought
forth a bottle of wine which she had kept for forty years. This the
elders blessed and then partook of it. That bottle of wine is spoken
of to this day. The family of Mother Moon has also a history. Here is
their page, from Heber's journal of his first mission abroad:
"Having an appointment to preach in the village of Wrightington, while
on the way I stopped at the house of Brother Francis Moon, when I was
informed that the family of Matthias Moon had sent a request by him for
me to visit them, that they might have the privilege of conversing with
me on the subject of the gospel. Accordingly Brother Amos Fielding and
I paid them a visit that evening. We were very kindly received by the
family, and had considerable conversation on the subject of my mission
to England, and the great work of the Lord in the last days. They
listened with attention to my statements, but at the same time they
appeared to be prejudiced against them. We remained in conversation
until a late hour, and then returned home. On our way Brother Fielding
observed that he thought our visit had been in vain, as the family
seemed to have considerable prejudice. I answered, be not faithless but
believing; we shall yet see great effects from this visit, for I know
that some of the family have received the testimony, and will shortly
manifest the same; at which remark he seemed surprised.
"The next morning I continued my journey to Wrightington and Hunter's
Hill. After spending two or three days in that vicinity, preaching, I
baptized seven of the family of Benson, and others, and organized a
branch.
"I returned by the way of Brother Fielding's, with whom I again tarried
for the night. The next morning I started for Preston, but when I got
opposite the lane leading to Mr. Moon's, I was forcibly led by the
spirit of the Lord to call and see them again. I therefore directed
my steps to the house. On my arrival I knocked at the door. Mrs. Moon
exclaimed: 'Come in! come in! You are welcome here! I and the lasses
(meaning her daughters) have just been calling on the Lord, and praying
that he would send you this way.' She then informed me of her state of
mind since I was there, and said she at first rejected my testimony,
and endeavored to think lightly on the things I had advanced, but on
trying to pray, the heavens seemed like brass over her head, and it
was like iron under her feet. She did not know what was the matter,
saying, 'Certainly the man has not bewitched me, has he?' And upon
inquiring she found it was the same with the lasses. They then began
to reflect on the things I told them, and thinking it possible that
I had told them the truth, they resolved to lay the case before the
Lord, and beseech him to give them a testimony concerning the things I
had testified of. She then observed that as soon as they did so light
broke in upon their minds; they were convinced that I was a messenger
of salvation; that it was the work of the Lord, and they had resolved
to obey the gospel. That evening I baptized Mr. Moon and his wife, and
four of his daughters. * * * I visited Mr. Moon again, and baptized the
remainder of his family, consisting of thirteen souls, the youngest of
whom was over twenty years of age. They received the gospel as little
children, and rejoiced exceedingly in its blessings. The sons were very
good musicians and the daughters excellent singers. When they united
their instruments and voices in the songs of Zion the effect was truly
transporting. Before I left England there were about thirty of that
family and connections baptized, five of whom--Hugh, John, Francis,
William and Thomas Moon--were ordained to be fellow-laborers with us
in the vineyard, and I left them rejoicing in the truths they had
embraced."
After their short rest in Preston, refreshed and inspired by the
communion of so many of their quorum, these apostles rose like giants
to their work. Brigham Young and Willard Richards went with Wilford
Woodruff into Herefordshire, where Brigham obtained money to publish
the Book of Mormon; Heber C. Kimball visited the disciples whom he had
brought into the Church during his first mission; Orson Pratt went
into Scotland, George A. Smith went into Staffordshire, John Taylor
continued his labors at Liverpool, where he raised up a conference, and
Parley P. Pratt repaired to Manchester to publish the _Millennial Star_.
A year passed. Here is the summary of its history, from Brigham Young's
journal:
"It was with a heart full of thanksgiving and gratitude to God, my
Heavenly Father, that I reflected upon his dealings with me and my
brethren of the twelve during the past year of my life, which was spent
in England. It truly seems a miracle to look upon the contrast between
our landing and departing from Liverpool. We landed in the spring of
1840, as strangers in a strange land, and penniless, but through the
mercy of God we have gained many friends, established churches in
almost every noted town and city of Great Britain, baptized between
seven and eight thousand souls, printed five thousand Books of Mormon,
three thousand hymn-books, two thousand five hundred volumes of the
_Millennial Star_, and fifty thousand tracts; emigrated to Zion one
thousand souls, establishing a permanent shipping agency, which will
be a great blessing to the saints, and have left sown in the hearts of
many thousands the seed of eternal life, which shall bring forth fruit
to the honor and glory of God; and yet we have lacked nothing to eat,
drink or wear; in all these things I acknowledge the hand of God."
But even this was eclipsed by the results of the next ten years.
Besides the thousands who had emigrated, the British mission, at the
culmination of this third period, numbered nearly forty thousand souls.
The _Millennial Star_ reached a weekly circulation of twenty-two
thousand; and there were half a million of Orson Pratt's tracts in
circulation throughout the land. This crowning period was during the
presidencies of Orson Spencer, Orson Pratt, and Franklin and Samuel
Richards.
Too vast this missionary work abroad, and too crowded its events, for
us to follow the historic details; but we shall, however, frequently
hereafter meet representative women from Europe, and read in their
sketches many episodes of the saints in foreign lands.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE SISTERS AS MISSIONARIES--EVANGELICAL DIPLOMACY--WITHOUT PURSE
OR SCRIP--PICTURE OF THE NATIVE ELDERS--A SPECIMEN MEETING--THE
SECRET OF SUCCESS--MORMONISM A SPIRITUAL GOSPEL--THE SISTERS AS TRACT
DISTRIBUTERS--WOMAN A POTENT EVANGELIST.
And what the part of the sisterhood in this great work outlined in
foreign lands?
The sisters were side by side with the most potent missionaries the
Latter-day Church found. They made nearly as many converts to Mormonism
as the elders. They were, often times, the direct instruments which
brought disciples into the Church. The elders riveted the anchor of
faith by good gospel logic, and their eloquent preachers enchanted
the half-inspired mind with well-described millennial views, but the
sisters, as a rule, by the nicest evangelical diplomacy brought the
results about. They agitated the very atmosphere with their magical
faith in the new dispensation; they breathed the spirit of their own
beautiful enthusiasm into their neighborhoods; they met the first
brunt of persecution and conquered it by their zeal; they transformed
unbelief into belief by their personal testimonies, which aroused
curiosity, or made their relatives and neighbors sleepless with active
thoughts of the new, and inspired doubts of the old; they enticed the
people to hear their elders preach, and did more to disturb the peace
of the town than could have done the town-crier; they crowded their
halls with an audience when without their sisterly devising those halls
had remained often empty and cold.
In the British mission--in England, Scotland and Wales--the sisters had
much better missionary opportunities than in America. The vast extent
of country over which the American people were sparsely scattered,
forty to fifty years ago, and the almost immediate gatherings of the
disciples to a centre place, or a local Zion, necessarily confined
the missionary movement at home nearly exclusively to the apostles
and their aids, the "Seventies;" and thus as soon as the disciples
"gathered out of Babylon," American society lost even the little leaven
which the elders had inspired in its midst.
But in England, Scotland and Wales, and at a later period in
Scandinavia, it was very different. Not merely one local Zion and
a score of branches scattered over a score of States, but in the
British mission at its zenith of progress there were over five hundred
branches, fifty conferences, and about a dozen pastorates--the latter
very like Mormon provinces or bishoprics. There the sisters had grand
missionary opportunities. From village to town, and from town to
city, they helped the elders push their work until this vast church
superstructure was reared. With such a leaven as the Mormon sisterhood
in Great Britain, converts were made so fast that it was nearly twenty
years before even the immense yearly emigration of the saints to
America began visibly to tell in weakening missionary operations in
that prolific land.
It has often been a matter of wonder how it happened that Mormonism
was such a mighty proselyting power in England compared with what
it had been in America. The two views presented suggest the exact
reason; and in addition to the gathering genius of the Mormons, the
very "tidal wave" of the country has swept migrating peoples westward.
Three hundred Mormon cities have sprung up on the Pacific slope, just
as five hundred branches did in Great Britain, which has required all
the gathering energies of the Church for over a quarter of a century to
deplete her of these proselyting saints. It was Great Britain that gave
to the sisters their grand missionary opportunities.
Here another view of the sisters presents itself. Much of the success
of "Mormonism" in foreign lands is due to the fact that the elders,
like Christ and his apostles of old, went about preaching the gospel
"without purse or scrip."
This apostolic custom captivated woman at once. Her sympathies were
charmed. She admired the heroic devotion and self-abnegation of such
ministers of Christ. Their examples directly appealed to her, so like
were they to her own faith. The disinterested aims and efforts of these
men for human good so accorded with her own divine aspirations, that
she leapt with a glorious enthusiasm to their side. For once woman had
found the opportunity to exercise her own methods of apostleship.
She saw these elders upon the altar of sacrifice for a Christian cause.
Out in the wilderness of society were they, during the best years of
youth, preaching without purse or scrip, trusting in Providence for
their daily bread as truly as do the sparrows whom the Great Father
feeds. Wandering through the world were these devoted men, often
with blood in their well-worn shoes, preaching the glad tidings of
a new dispensation which the angels had opened to bring immortality
to mortals, and establish the order of heaven on earth. Such were
the examples which the elders presented in their ministry, and such
examples woman loved.
Though they bore the title of elders, these missionaries, especially
the native ones, were generally young men from the age of twenty to
thirty. Scarcely were they converted ere they were sent out to mission
the land. The prophet Joseph had well cogitated on the saying of
Christ, "The harvest is great but the laborers are few;" and it was
at once a bold and happy stroke of genius on his part to leave the
beaten track of choosing only matured and experienced divines, calling
instead a multitude of youths and striplings to aid him in evangelizing
the world. This was much like Mohammed's choosing of the youthful
enthusiast Ali to be his lieutenant in his religious empire-founding
mission. And so at one time might have been found in Europe nearly a
thousand of these young men, out in the ministry, bearing the title of
elders. Strange example! Elders at twenty; veterans at twenty-five, who
had built up their conferences! This pleased woman. It was unique. The
example touched her heart and stimulated her faith through her very
sympathy for and admiration of the heroic.
Into the villages of England, Scotland and Wales these youths made
their way, with hymn-book and Bible in hand, but with no ministerial
recommendation except a forceful, innovative intellectuality, and souls
inspired with the glories of a new and conquering faith.
Alone, at eventide, they would uncover their heads, on some green bit
of common, or, if on the Sabbath day, would daringly near the old
village church, which well might tremble at such sacrilege, as did they
literally in those bold missionary attempts, that never had been made
but for youth's rich unconsciousness of inability. Then would ring out
the hymn of the Latter-day Saints:
"Go, ye messengers of glory,
Run, ye legates of the skies,
Go and tell the pleasing story,
That a glorious angel flies;
Great and mighty,
With a message from on high!"
Or perchance it would be this instead:
"The morning breaks, the shadows flee;
Lo, Zion's standard is unfurled;
The dawning of a brighter day
Majestic rises on the world."
And many a village has been startled with this tremendous proclamation,
from the lips of young men:
"Jehovah speaks! Let Earth give ear!
And gentile nations turn and live!"
First the woman would come out to listen, on the threshold of her
cottage, after supper; then she would draw near, and wonder about this
boy-preacher--to her eyes so much like her own boy, who, perhaps, is
playing at some evening game with his companions, near by. Next comes
her husband, and after awhile the boys themselves leave their games,
and with their sisters, gather to listen. And so are also gathered
other family groups of the village to swell the impromptu congregation.
This is a truthful picture, for the author is describing a literal
experience.
Now comes the supplemental story of this boy-elder, that he is out in
the world preaching the gospel without purse or scrip, that he has
eaten nothing that day since breakfast, that he has journeyed miles and
is tired out, and that he has no place in which to lay his head that
night.
The mother and her daughters whisper. They have conceived an idea that
will exactly fit that poor boy's case. Father is approached. At first
he will not listen to the proposition; but at last he yields. What else
could he do? When did woman fail if her sympathies were enlisted? To
their home the boy-missionary is taken. A supper is gleaned from the
humble peasant's leavings. Water is furnished to bathe the sore and
blood-stained feet. The woman is half converted by the sight of so much
youthful heroism. Mother and daughters dream of the boy-missionary that
night.
'Tis a simple story; but from that house Mormonism is destined to
spread through all the village, until the aged clergyman, educated
at college, in his pulpit which he has occupied for a quarter of a
century, fears that boy as much as a second Goliath might have feared
the stripling David.
And thus Mormonism ran from village to town, and from town to city;
carried, of course, to the larger places by the "veterans;" but in all
cases very similar. How much the sisters--mothers and daughters--had to
do in this work may be seen at a glance.
But the most salient view to be taken of Mormonism abroad is, as the
great spiritual movement of the age. The reader may be assured that it
was the beautiful themes of a new dispensation--themes such as angels
might have accompanied with their hosannas--that charmed disciples
into the Mormon Church. Spiritual themes and the gifts of the Holy
Ghost were what converted the tens of thousands in Great Britain; not
a cold materialism, much less a sensual gospel. Even to the simplest,
who scarcely knew the meaning of idealities, the spiritual and the
ideal of Mormonism were its principal charms. Indeed, it is to the
fact that Mormonism was, in its missionary history, such a unique and
extraordinary spiritual, and yet matter-of-fact, movement, that it owes
its principal and rare successes.
In America, the splendid ambitions of empire-founding, the worldly
opportunities presented by a migrating people and a growing
commonwealth, sometimes charmed the dominating mind; but in the foreign
missions, especially in Great Britain, where it received its highest
intellectual interpretation from elders who championed it on the public
platform against the best orthodox disputants in the land, it was
Mormonism as a great spiritual work that captivated most, and above all
it was this aspect of it that most captivated the sisterhood. In this
view, and in this view only, can the explanation be found of how it
took such a deep and lasting hold upon the female portion of society.
In the early rise of the Church abroad the disciples knew nothing of
the society-founding successes of Brigham Young, which to-day make
Mormonism quite potent in America and a periodical sensation to the
American Congress. Nothing of this; but much of the divine, much of
the spiritual, much of the angels' coming to reign with them in a
millennium, with Christ on earth.
Such was Mormonism abroad. Such has it ever been, with the sisters, at
home. Its success in making converts among women, both old and young,
has no parallel in the history of churches. Its all-potent influence
on the heart and brain of woman was miraculous. She received it in
as great faith as was that of the woman who laid hold of the skirt
of Christ's garment and was healed. She exulted in its unspeakably
beautiful themes; she reveled in its angelic experiences; she
multiplied its disciples.
In some respects Mormonism, in its history and manifestations abroad,
compares strikingly with the more recent history of spiritualism in
America. Their geniuses are undoubtedly very different, but their
potency over society has been similar. The one was apostolic and
Hebraic, with a God as the source of its inspirations, a priesthood
linking the heavens and the earth as its controlling powers, and
another Catholic or Universal Church as the aim of its ministry. The
other has pulled down what it has dared to call the idols of Deity,
makes war on priesthood, and on the Hebrew Jehovah, whom the Mormons
serve, and disintegrates all churches. Yet the themes of both have been
themes of the angels' coming to visit the earth again; "new revelations
to suit the age;" another great spiritual dispensation for the world.
Mormonism abroad, then, was supremely an apostolic spiritual work.
Paul's famous epistle to the Corinthians, upon spiritual gifts,
presents an exact view of what Mormonism has been; and as it was a
chapter often read to the saints--the subject of a thousand sermons--it
may here be fitly quoted to illustrate the view. The apostle says:
"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you
ignorant. * * * *
"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.
"And there are differences of administration, but the same Lord.
"And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God
which worketh all in all.
"But the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to
profit withal.
"For to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom; to another
the word of knowledge by the same spirit;
"To another faith by the same spirit; to another the gifts of
healing by the same spirit;
"To another the working of miracles; to another prophesy; to
another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues;
to another the interpretation of tongues;
"But all these worketh that one and the self-same spirit, dividing
to every man severally as he will.
"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members
of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
"For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all
made to drink into one spirit. * * * *
"And God hath set some in the church, first, apostles; secondarily,
prophets; thirdly, teachers; after that miracles; then gifts of
healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
"Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all
workers of miracles?
"Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all
interpret?
"But covet earnestly the best gifts; and yet shew I unto you a more
excellent way."
In another chapter of Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, he presents
another famous spiritual view:
"How is it, then, brethren? When ye come together, every one of you
hath a psalm, hath a doctrine hath a tongue, hath a revelation,
hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
"If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the
most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret.
"But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the
church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.
"Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
"If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first
hold his peace.
"For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all
may be comforted.
"And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
"For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all
churches of the saints."
This is a very exact picture of the Latter-day Saints' testimony
meetings. It is indeed a striking illustration of the gospel and its
manifestations, as familiar to them as their own faces.
It was this spiritual gospel that the sisters promulgated in Great
Britain, and it was this that made the tens of thousands of converts.
Had not Mormonism been of this kind, and had not such been its
manifestations, woman never would have received it and become its
apostle; nor would it have made such a stir in the world.
The sisters also missioned the land by the distribution of tracts. This
made them to be preachers, in a way; and they carried their sermons to
the homes of rich and poor, to be read at the fireside by those who,
but for this, never would have gone to hear an elder preach.
In all the towns and cities of her Majesty's kingdom the saints
organized tract societies. In London, where many branches flourished,
these tract organizations were numerous; the same was measurably
the case with Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, and the
principal cities of Scotland and Wales. These tract distributers were
numbered by the thousand. They held their monthly meetings, mapped out
their districts and brought in their regular reports. At one time, as
before stated, they had in circulation half a million of Orson Pratt's
tracts. It is scarcely necessary to say that the sisters principally
did this work, to which should be added that they were assisted by the
young men of each branch. In short, the sisters, in the work abroad,
were a great missionary power.
And here it may be observed that all evangelical history proves that
woman is ever the most potent evangelist. She permeates society with
the influence of her church, makes converts in the homes of her
neighbors, where her pastor could never reach without her help, and
inspires the very faith by which miracles are wrought.
Woman has many striking examples of her influence and acts in the
history of religious empire-founding. Miriam charmed the congregation
of Israel with her songs, and strengthened her brother Moses' power by
her prophesies; Esther rendered the captivity of her people lighter by
her mediation; Judith delivered her nation from the Assyrian captain;
the two Marys and Martha seemed to have understood Jesus better than
did his apostles even, and they saw first their risen Lord; St. Helena
did much to make her son, Constantine, the imperial champion of
Christianity; perchance had there been no Cadijah the world would never
have known a Mohammed; the Catholic Church has been more potent through
the sisters of its various orders; and the examples which the Mormon
sisterhood have given are almost as striking as those of the sisters of
that church.
These are some of the views which may be presented of the sisters in
their great missionary work abroad, and they are also fit illustrations
of the spiritual movement, which they represent, in the age.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
MORMONISM AND THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND--PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK OF
MORMON TO THE QUEEN AND PRINCE ALBERT--ELIZA R. SNOW'S POEM ON THAT
EVENT--"ZION'S NURSING MOTHER"--HEBER C. KIMBALL BLESSES VICTORIA.
Here an interesting story is to be told of Mormonism and the Queen of
England.
It will be remembered that Victoria ascended the throne of Great
Britain just three days before Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde and Willard
Richards arrived in her realm to preach the gospel of Messiah's coming.
There was something poetic in this. Victoria became connected in some
way with the new dispensation. She alone of all the monarchs of the
earth was prophetically cast in its _dramatis personae_. Poetry and
prophesy both were pregnant with much of subject and promise that
concerned Victoria of England. She may not be aware of it, but there
is quite a romance of the British Queen in Mormon history, to which
the presentation of the Book of Mormon to herself and the late Prince
consort gives pictorial display.
Before leaving England, President Brigham Young, who had succeeded in
raising means to publish the Book of Mormon, gave directions for copies
to be specially prepared and richly bound for presentation to her
Majesty and the Prince consort. The honor of this devolved on Lorenzo
Snow, who was at that period President of the London Conference. The
presentation was made in 1842, through the politeness of Sir Henry
Wheatley; and it is said her Majesty condescended to be pleased, with
the gift. Whether she ever read the Book of Mormon is not known,
although, if the presentation has not altogether faded from her memory,
Mormonism has been since that date sensational enough to provoke even a
monarch to read the book, if for nothing better than curiosity; so, not
unlikely Queen Victoria has read some portions at least of the Book of
Mormon. The unique circumstance called forth from the pen of Eliza R.
Snow the following poem, entitled "Queen Victoria:"
"Of all the monarchs of the earth
That wear the robes of royalty,
She has inherited by birth
The broadest wreath of majesty.
From her wide territorial wing
The sun does not withdraw its light,
While earth's diurnal motions bring
To other nations day and night.
All earthly thrones are tott'ring things,
Where lights and shadows intervene;
And regal honor often brings
The scaffold or the guillotine.
But still her sceptre is approved--
All nations deck the wreath she wears;
Yet, like the youth whom Jesus loved,
One thing is lacking even there.
But lo! a prize possessing more
Of worth than gems with honor rife--
A herald of salvation bore
To her the words of endless life.
That gift, however fools deride,
Is worthy of her royal care;
She'd better lay her crown aside
Than spurn the light reflected there,
O would she now her influence lend--
The influence of royalty,
Messiah's kingdom to extend,
And Zion's 'nursing Mother' be;
She, with the glory of her name
Inscribed on Zion's lofty spire,
Would win a wreath of endless fame,
To last when other wreaths expire.
Though over millions called to reign--
Herself a powerful nation's boast,
'Twould be her everlasting gain
To serve the King, the Lord of Hosts.
For there are crowns and thrones on high,
And kingdoms there to be conferred;
There honors wait that never die,
There fame's immortal trump is heard.
Truth speaks--it is Jehovah's word;
Let kings and queens and princes hear:
In distant isles the sound is heard--
Ye heavens, rejoice; O earth, give ear.
The time, the time is now at hand
To give a glorious period birth--
The Son of God will take command,
And rule the nations of the earth."
It will be seen that our Hebraic poetess has suggested for Victoria
of England the title of "Zion's Nursing Mother." The reference is
to Isaiah's glorious song of Zion. He, according to the universally
accepted interpretation, foresaw the rise of Messiah's kingdom on the
earth in the last days.
"And they shall call thee the City of the Lord, the Zion of the
Holy One of Israel.
"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising.
"And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy
nursing mothers.
"Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a
royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
"Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him and
his work before him."
This is the subject of which the gorgeous Isaiah sang; and the prophesy
of Joseph and the poetry of Eliza have applied it principally to
America as Zion, and conditionally, to Queen Victoria as her "Nursing
Mother."
Many earthly thrones were about to totter. Soon France--from the days
of Charlemagne styled "The Eldest Daughter of the Church"--saw her
crown trampled in the very gutter, by the rabble of Paris, and a few
years later the scepter of Rome was wrested from the hands of the
"successor of St Peter" by Victor Emanuel; yet of Victoria of England,
Zion's poetess sings:
"But still _her_ sceptre is approved."
Mark the poetic and prophetic significance between America as Zion, and
Great Britain, represented in Victoria. A new age is born. Victoria is
its imperial star; while from America--the land that owns no earthly
sovereign--come these apostles to her realm just three days after the
sceptre is placed in her hands. The prophet of America sends them to
proclaim to Great Britain the rising of a star superior to her own. It
is the star of Messiah's kingdom. She is called to her mission as its
Nursing Mother.
Seeing that Joseph was the prophet of America, and that the British
mission has given to the Mormon Zion over a hundred thousand of her
children already gathered to build up her cities and rear her temples,
it is not strange that the burden of this prophesy should have been
claimed and shared between the two great English speaking nations.
But there is a personal romance as well, which centres in Victoria.
At the time Sister Eliza wrote the poem to her name, Victoria of
England was quite a theme in the Mormon Church. Not only in her own
realm, among her own subjects, but in Zion also she was preached
about, prophesied about, dreamed about, and seen in visions. Brigham,
as we have seen, caused special copies of the Book of Mormon to be
prepared for her and Prince Albert; Lorenzo Snow presented them through
the courtesy of a state personage, and his sister immortalized the
circumstance in verse. The story is told, also, that Heber C. Kimball,
while in London, blessed Victoria, as she passed, by the power and
authority of his apostleship; and what Heber did was done with the
spirit and with the understanding also. Queen Victoria has been
remarkably successful, and unrivalled in the glory of her reign.
CHAPTER XXIX.
LITERAL APPLICATION OF CHRIST'S COMMAND--THE SAINTS LEAVE FATHER AND
MOTHER, HOME AND FRIENDS, TO GATHER TO ZION--MRS. WILLIAM STAINES--HER
EARLY LIFE AND EXPERIENCE--A MIDNIGHT BAPTISM IN MIDWINTER--FAREWELL TO
HOME AND EVERY FRIEND--INCIDENTS OF THE JOURNEY TO NAUVOO.
How characteristic the following gospel passages! How well and
literally have they been applied in the history and experience of the
Latter-day Saints:
"He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me;
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of
me.
"And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not
worthy of me.
"He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his
life for my sake, shall find it.
"And every one that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters,
or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's
sake, shall receive a hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting
life."
This gospel was preached by the Mormon elders with nothing of the
"spiritual" sense so acceptable to fashionable churches. Nothing of the
idealistic glamour was given to it. Most literal, indeed almost cruelly
Christian, was Mormonism here.
But it was not until the "gathering" was preached to the disciples
in Great Britain, that the full significance of such a gospel was
realized. True it was made as severe to the saints in America, through
their persecutions; especially when at length they were driven from the
borders of civilization. To the British mission, however, in the early
days, we must go for striking illustrations. A "gathering dispensation"
preached to Europe before the age of emigration had set in! At first
it startled, aye, almost appalled the disciples in Great Britain. In
those days the common people of England scarcely ever strayed ten miles
from the churchyards where had slept their kindred from generation to
generation. True the mechanic traveled in search of employment from
one manufacturing city to another, passed along by the helping hand of
trade societies; but families, as a rule, never moved. Migration was to
them an incomprehensible law, to be wondered at even in the example of
the birds who were forced by climate to migrate as the season changed.
Migrating peoples could only be understood in the examples of the Jews
or Gipseys, both of whom were looked upon as being "under the curse."
"Going to London" was the crowning event of a lifetime to even the
well-to-do townsman, a hundred miles distant from the metropolis; going
to America was like an imagined flight to the moon. At best emigration
was transportation from fatherland, and the emigration of tens of
thousands of England-loving saints was a transportation to the common
people without parallel for cruelty.
It was long before English society forgave the American elders for
preaching emigration in England. It looked upon them absolutely as the
betrayers of a confiding religious people who had already been too much
betrayed by an American delusion.
And as observed, the doctrine of emigration from native land to
America--the new world; another world in seeming--and that, too, as
a necessity to salvation, or at least to the obedience of heaven's
commands, appalled at first the very "elect." Nothing but the Holy
Ghost could dissipate the terrors of emigration.
Sister Staines shall be first chosen to personally illustrate this
subject, because of the peculiarity of her experience, and for the
reason that she is the wife of William C. Staines, himself an early
Mormon emigrant to Nauvoo, and to-day the general emigration agent of
the Church, and who, during the past fifteen years, has emigrated,
under the direction of President Young, about fifty thousand souls from
Europe. Others of the sisters will follow in this peculiar line of
Mormon history.
Priscilla Mogridge Staines was born in Widbrook, Wiltshire, England,
March 11th, 1823.
"My parents," she says, "were both English. My father's name was John
Mogridge, and my mother's maiden name was Mary Crook.
"I was brought up in the Episcopal faith from my earliest childhood, my
parents being members of the Episcopal Church. But as my mind became
matured, and I thought more about religion, I became dissatisfied with
the doctrines taught by that Church, and I prayed to God my Heavenly
Father to direct me aright, that I might know the true religion.
"Shortly after being thus concerned about my salvation, I heard
Mormonism and believed it God had sent the true gospel to me in answer
to my prayer.
"It was a great trial for a young maiden (I was only nineteen years
of age) to forsake all for the gospel--father, mother, brothers and
sisters--and to leave my childhood's home and native land, never
expecting to see it again. This was the prospect before me. The saints
were already leaving fatherland, in obedience to the doctrine of
gathering, which was preached at this time with great plainness by the
elders as an imperative command of God. We looked upon the gathering
as necessary to our salvation. Nothing of our duty in this respect was
concealed, and we were called upon to emigrate to America as soon as
the way should open, to share the fate of the saints, whatever might
come. Young as I was and alone of all my family in the faith, I was
called to take up my cross and lay my earthly all upon the altar; yet
so well satisfied was I with my new religion that I was willing to make
every sacrifice for it in order to gain my salvation and prove myself
not unworthy of the saints' reward.
"Having determined to be baptized, I resolved to at once obey the
gospel, although it was mid-winter, and the weather bitterly cold.
"It is proper to here state that baptism was a trial to the converts in
England in those days. They had to steal away, even unknown to their
friends oftentimes, and scarcely daring to tell the saints themselves
that they were about to take up the cross; and not until the ordinance
had been administered, and the Holy Ghost gave them boldness, could
they bring themselves to proclaim openly that they had cast in their
lot with the despised Mormons. Nor was this all, for generally the
elders had to administer baptism when the village was wrapt in sleep,
lest persecutors should gather a mob to disturb the solemn scene with
gibes and curses, accompanied with stones or clods of earth torn from
the river bank and hurled at the disciple and minister during the
performance of the ceremony.
"On the evening of a bitterly cold day in mid-winter, as before stated,
I walked four miles to the house of a local elder for baptism. Arriving
at his house, we waited until midnight, in order that the neighbors
might not disturb us, and then repaired to a stream of water a quarter
of a mile away. Here we found the water, as we anticipated, frozen
over, and the elder had to chop a hole in the ice large enough for
the purpose of baptism. It was a scene and an occasion I shall never
forget. Memory to-day brings back the emotions and sweet awe of that
moment. None but God and his angels, and the few witnesses who stood
on the bank with us, heard my covenant; but in the solemnity of that
midnight hour it seemed as though all nature were listening, and the
recording angel writing our words in the book of the Lord. Is it
strange that such a scene, occurring in the life of a latter-day saint,
should make an everlasting impression, as this did on mine?
"Having been thus baptized, I returned to the house in my wet and
freezing garments.
"Up to this hour, as intimated, my heart's best affection had been
centred on home, and my greatest mental struggle in obeying the gospel
had been over the thought of soon leaving that home; but no sooner
had I emerged from the water, on that night of baptism, and received
my confirmation at the water's edge, than I became filled with an
irresistible desire to join the saints who were gathering to America.
The usual confirmation words, pronounced upon my head, 'Receive ye the
gift of the Holy Ghost,' were, indeed, potent. They changed the current
of my life. This remarkable and sudden change of mind and the now
all-absorbing desire to emigrate with the saints was my first testimony
to the truth and power of the gospel.
"Shortly thereafter (December 27th, 1843), I left the home of my birth
to gather to Nauvoo. I was alone. It was a dreary winter day on which
I went to Liverpool. The company with which I was to sail were all
strangers to me. When I arrived at Liverpool and saw the ocean that
would soon roll between me and all I loved, my heart almost failed me.
But I had laid my idols all upon the altar. There was no turning back.
I remembered the words of the Saviour: 'He that leaveth not father and
mother, brother and sister, for my sake, is not worthy of me,' and I
believed his promise to those who forsook all for his sake; so I thus
alone set out for the reward of everlasting life, trusting in God.
"In company with two hundred and fifty saints I embarked on the
sailing vessel _Fanny_, and after a tedious passage of six weeks'
duration, we arrived in New Orleans. There an unexpected difficulty met
us. The steamer _Maid of Iowa_, belonging to the prophet Joseph, and on
which the company of saints had expected to ascend the Mississippi to
Nauvoo, was embargoed and lashed to the wharf. But Providence came to
our aid. A lady of fortune was in the company--a Mrs. Bennett--and out
of her private purse she not only lifted the embargo, but also fitted
out the steamer with all necessary provisions, fuel, etc., and soon the
company were again on their way.
"The journey up the river was a tedious and eventful one, consuming
five weeks of time. At nearly every stopping place the emigrants were
shamefully insulted and persecuted by the citizens. At Memphis some
villain placed a half consumed cigar under a straw mattress and other
bedding that had been laid out, aft of the ladies' cabin, to air. When
we steamed out into the river the draft, created by the motion of the
boat, soon fanned the fire into a quick flame. Fortunately I myself
discovered the fire and gave the alarm in time to have it extinguished
before it had consumed more than a portion of the adjoining woodwork.
Perhaps one minute more of delay in its discovery, and that company
of two hundred and fifty souls would have been subjected to all the
horrors and perils incident to a panic and fire on shipboard.
"At another place the pilot decided to tie up the boat at a landing
and wait for the subsiding of a furious gale that was blowing. This he
accordingly did, and let off steam, thinking to remain there over night.
In the meantime a mob gathered. We were Mormons. Too often had mobs
shown that the property of Mormons might be destroyed with impunity,
in the most lawless manner, and their lives taken by the most horrible
means. Had that boat been consumed by fire, 'twould, have been but a
pleasing sensation, seeing that it belonged to the Mormon prophet; and
the two hundred and fifty men, women and children, if consumed, would
have been, in the eyes of their persecutors, only so many Mormons well
disposed of. Thus, doubtless, would have thought the mob who gathered
at that landing-place and cut the boat adrift _The Maid of Iowa_ was
now submitted to the triple peril of being adrift without steam, at
the mercy of a treacherous current, and in the midst of a hurricane.
The captain, however, succeeded in raising the steam, and the boat
was brought under sufficient control to enable her to be brought to,
under shelter of a heavy forest, where she was tied up to the trees and
weathered the gale.
"At another landing a mob collected and began throwing stones through
the cabin windows, smashing the glass and sash, and jeopardizing
the lives of the passengers. This was a little too much for human
forbearance. The boat was in command of the famous Mormon captain,
Dan Jones; his Welsh blood was now thoroughly warm; he knew what mobs
meant. Mustering the brethren, with determined wrath he ordered them to
parade with loaded muskets on the side of the boat assailed. Then he
informed the mob that if they did not instantly desist, he would shoot
them down like so many dogs; and like so many dogs they slunk away.
"As the _Maid of Iowa_ had made slow progress, and had been frequently
passed by more swift-going steamers, her progress was well known by the
friends of Nauvoo. So on the day of our arrival the saints were out _en
masse_ to welcome us. I had never before seen any of those assembled,
yet I felt certain, as the boat drew near, that I should be able to
pick out the prophet Joseph at first sight. This belief I communicated
to Mrs. Bennett, whose acquaintance I had made on the voyage. She
wondered at it; but I felt impressed by the spirit that I should know
him. As we neared the pier the prophet was standing among the crowd. At
the moment, however, I recognized him according to the impression, and
pointed him out to Mrs. Bennett, with whom I was standing alone on the
hurricane deck.
"Scarcely had the boat touched the pier when, singularly enough, Joseph
sprang on board, and, without speaking with any one, made his way
direct to where we were standing, and addressing Mrs. Bennett by name,
thanked her kindly for lifting the embargo from his boat, and blessed
her for so materially aiding the saints."
CHAPTER XXX.
RISE OF NAUVOO--INTRODUCTION OF POLYGAMY--MARTYRDOM OF JOSEPH AND
HYRUM--CONTINUATION OF ELIZA R. SNOW'S NARRATIVE--HER ACCEPTANCE OF
POLYGAMY, AND MARRIAGE TO THE PROPHET--GOVERNOR CARLIN'S TREACHERY--HER
SCATHING REVIEW OF THE MARTYRDOM--MOTHER LUCY'S STORY OF HER MURDERED
SONS.
Meanwhile, since the reader has been called to drop the historical
thread of the saints in America for a view of the rise of Mormonism in
foreign lands, Nauvoo, whose name signifies "the beautiful city," has
grown into an importance worthy her romantic name and character as the
second Zion. Nauvoo was bidding fair to become the queen of the West;
and had she been allowed to continue her career for a quarter of a
century, inspired by the gorgeous genius of her prophet, although she
would not have rivaled Chicago or St. Louis as a commercial city, yet
would she have become the veritable New Jerusalem of America--in the
eyes of the "Gentiles" scarcely less than in the faith of our modern
Israel.
Polygamy, also, by this time has been introduced into the Church, and
the examples of the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob, and of kings David
and Solomon, have begun to prevail. That the "peculiar institution"
was the cross of the sisterhood in those days, it would be heartless
to attempt to conceal, for, as already seen, the first wives of the
founders of Mormondom were nearly all daughters of New England, whose
monogamic training was of the severest kind, and whose monogamic
conceptions were of the most exacting nature.
Polygamy was undoubtedly introduced by Joseph himself, at Nauvoo,
between 1840 and 1844. Years afterwards, however, a monogamic rival
church, under the leadership of young Joseph Smith, the first born
of the prophet, arose, denying that the founder of Mormondom was the
author of polygamy, and affirming that its origin was in Brigham Young,
subsequent to the martyrdom of the prophet and his brother Hyrum. This,
with the fact that nearly the whole historic weight of polygamy rests
with Utah, renders it expedient that we should barely touch the subject
at Nauvoo, and wait for its stupendous sensation after its publication
to the world by Brigham Young--a sensation that Congress has swelled
into a national noise, and that General Grant has made the hobgoblin of
his dreams.
Nor can we deal largely with the history of Nauvoo. It is not the
representative period of the sisters. They only come in with dramatic
force in their awful lamentation over the martyrdom, which was not
equaled in Jerusalem at the crucifixion. The great historic period
of the women of Mormondom is during the exodus of the Church and its
removal to the Rocky Mountains, when they figured quite as strongly
as did the women of ancient Israel in the exodus from Egypt. We can
scarcely hope to do full justice to that period, but hasten to some of
its salient views. And here the historic thread shall be principally
continued by Eliza R. Snow. She, touching the city of the saints, and
then slightly on the introduction of polygamy, says:
"The location of the city of Nauvoo was beautiful, but the climate
was so unhealthy that none but Latter-day Saints, full of faith, and
trusting in the power of God, could have established that city. Chills
and fever was the prevailing disease. Notwithstanding we had this
to contend with, through the blessing of God on the indefatigable
exertions of the saints, it was not long before Nauvoo prompted the
envy and jealousy of many of the adjacent inhabitants, and, as the
'accuser of the brethren' never sleeps, we had many difficulties to
meet, which ultimately culminated in the most bitter persecutions.
"To narrate what transpired within the seven years in which we built
and occupied Nauvoo, the beautiful, would fill many volumes. That is a
history that never will, and never can, repeat itself. Some of the most
important events of my life transpired within that brief term, in which
I was married, and in which my husband, Joseph Smith, the prophet of
God, sealed his testimony with his blood.
"Although in my youth I had considered marriage to have been ordained
of God, I had remained single; and to-day I acknowledge the kind
overruling providences of God in that circumstance as fully as in
any other of my life; for I have not known of one of my former
suitors having received the truth; by which it is manifest that I was
singularly preserved from the bondage of a marriage tie which would,
in all probability, have prevented my receiving, or enjoying the free
exercise of, that religion which has been, and is now, dearer to me
than life.
"In Nauvoo I had the first intimation, or at least the first
understanding, that the practice of a plurality of wives would be
introduced into the Church. The thought was very repugnant to my
feelings, and in direct opposition to my educational prepossessions;
but when I reflected that this was the dispensation of the fullness
of times, embracing all other dispensations, it was plain that plural
marriage must be included; and I consoled myself with the idea that
it was a long way in the distance, beyond the period of my mortal
existence, and that, of course, I should not have it to meet. However,
it was announced to me that the 'set time' had come--that God had
commanded his servants to establish the order, by taking additional
wives.
"It seemed for awhile as though all the traditions, prejudices, and
superstitions of my ancestry, for many generations, accumulated before
me in one immense mass; but God, who had kept silence for centuries,
was speaking; I knew it, and had covenanted in the waters of baptism to
live by every word of his, and my heart was still firmly set to do his
bidding.
"I was sealed to the prophet, Joseph Smith, for time and eternity, in
accordance with the celestial law of marriage which God had revealed,
the ceremony being performed by a servant of the Most High--authorized
to officiate in sacred ordinances. This, one of the most important
events of my life, I have never had cause to regret. The more I
comprehend the pure and ennobling principle of plural marriage, the
more I appreciate it. It is a necessity in the salvation of the human
family--a necessity in redeeming woman from the curse, and the world
from its corruptions.
"When I entered into it, my knowledge of what it was designed to
accomplish was very limited; had I then understood what I now
understand, I think I should have hailed its introduction with joy,
in consideration of the great good to be accomplished. As it was, I
received it because I knew that God required it.
"When in March, 1842, the prophet, Joseph Smith, assisted by some
of the leading elders in the church, organized the Female Relief
Society (now the great female organization of Utah), I was present,
and was appointed secretary of that society, of which I shall say
more hereafter. In the summer of 1842 I accompanied Mrs. Emma Smith,
the president of the society, to Quincy, Ill., with a petition signed
by several hundred members of the society, praying his Excellency,
Governor Carlin, for protection from illegal suits then pending against
Joseph Smith. We met with a very cordial reception, and presented
the petition, whereupon the governor pledged his word and honor that
he would use his influence to protect Mr. Smith, whose innocence he
acknowledged. But, soon after our return, we learned that at the time
of our visit and while making protestations of friendship, Governor
Carlin was secretly conniving with the basest of men to destroy our
leader. He was even combining with minions of the great adversary of
truth in the State of Missouri, who were vigilant in stirring up their
colleagues in Illinois, to bring about the terrible crisis.
"The awful tragedy of the 27th of June, 1844, is a livid, burning,
scathing stain on our national escutcheon. To look upon the noble,
lifeless forms of those brothers, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, as they lay
side by side in their burial clothes, having been brought home from
Carthage, where they had been slaughtered in their manhood and in
their innocence, was a sight that might well appal the heart of a true
American citizen; but what it was for loving wives and children, the
heart may feel, but the tongue can never tell.
"This scene occurred in America, 'the land of the free and the home of
the brave,' to which our ancestors fled for religious freedom--where
the 'dear old flag yet waves,' and under which not one effort has been
made to bring to justice the perpetrators of that foul deed."
To the aged mother of the prophet and patriarch of the Mormon Church
shall be given the personal presentation of the subject of the
martyrdom; for although the mother's heartrending description cannot
be considered as a sufficiently great historical word-picture of the
scene, yet there is much of tragic force in it. She says:
"On the morning of the 24th of June, 1844, Joseph and Hyrum were
arrested for treason, by a warrant founded upon the oaths of A. O.
Norton and Augustine Spencer.
"I will not dwell upon the awful scene which succeeded. My heart is
thrilled with grief and indignation, and my blood curdles in my veins
whenever I speak of it.
"My sons were thrown into jail, where they remained three days, in
company with Brothers Richards, Taylor, and Markham. At the end of
this time, the governor disbanded most of the men, but left a guard of
eight of our bitterest enemies over the jail, and sixty more of the
same character about a hundred yards distant. He then came into Nauvoo
with a guard of fifty or sixty men, made a short speech, and returned
immediately. During his absence from Carthage, the guard rushed Brother
Markham out of the place at the point of the bayonet. Soon after this,
two hundred of those discharged in the morning rushed into Carthage,
armed, and painted black, red and yellow, and in ten minutes fled
again, leaving my sons murdered and mangled corpses!
"In leaving the place, a few of them found Samuel coming into Carthage
alone, on horseback, and finding that he was one of our family, they
attempted to shoot him, but he escaped out of their hands, although
they pursued him at the top of their speed for more than two hours. He
succeeded the next day in getting to Nauvoo in season to go out and
meet the procession with the bodies of Hyrum and Joseph, as the mob
had the kindness to allow us the privilege of bringing them home, and
burying them in Nauvoo, notwithstanding the immense reward which was
offered by the Missourians for Joseph's head.
"Their bodies were attended home by only two persons, save those who
went from this place. These were Brother Willard Richards, and a Mr.
Hamilton; Brother John Taylor having been shot in prison, and nearly
killed, he could not be moved until sometime afterwards.
"After the corpses were washed, and dressed in their burial clothes,
we were allowed to see them. I had for a long time braced every nerve,
roused every energy of my soul, and called upon God to strengthen me;
but when I entered the room, and saw my murdered sons extended both at
once before my eyes, and heard the sobs and groans of my family, and
the cries of 'Father! husband! brothers!' from the lips of their wives,
children, brother, and sisters, it was too much; I sank back, crying
to the Lord, in the agony of my soul, 'My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken this family!' A voice replied, 'I have taken them to myself,
that they might have rest.' Emma was carried back to her room almost
in a state of insensibility. Her oldest son approached the corpse, and
dropped upon his knees, and laying his cheek against his father's and
kissing him, exclaimed, 'Oh! my father! my father!' As for myself, I
was swallowed up in the depth of my afflictions; and though my soul
was filled with horror past imagination, yet I was dumb, until I arose
again to contemplate the spectacle before me. Oh! at that moment how
my mind flew through every scene of sorrow and distress which we had
passed together, in which they had shown the innocence and sympathy
which filled their guileless hearts. As I looked upon their peaceful,
smiling countenances, I seemed almost to hear them say, 'Mother, weep
not for us, we have overcome the world by love; we carried to them
the gospel, that their souls might be saved; they slew us for our
testimony, and thus placed us beyond their power; their ascendency is
for a moment, ours is an eternal triumph.'
"I then thought upon the promise which I had received in Missouri, that
in five years Joseph should have power over all his enemies. The time
had elapsed, and the promise was fulfilled.
"I left the scene and returned to my room, to ponder upon the
calamities of my family. Soon after this Samuel said: 'Mother, I have
had a dreadful distress in my side ever since I was chased by the mob,
and I think I have received some injury which is going to make me
sick.' And indeed he was then not able to sit up, as he had been broken
of his rest, besides being dreadfully fatigued in the chase, which,
joined to the shock occasioned by the death of his brothers, brought on
a disease that never was removed.
"On the following day the funeral rites of the murdered ones were
attended to, in the midst of terror and alarm, for the mob had made
their arrangements to burn the city that night, but by the diligence of
the brethren, they were kept at bay until they became discouraged, and
returned to their homes.
"In a short time Samuel, who continued unwell, was confined to his bed,
and lingering till the 30th of July, his spirit forsook its earthly
tabernacle, and went to join his brothers, and the ancient martyrs, in
the paradise of God."
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE EXODUS--TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL--SETTING OUT FROM THE BORDERS OF
CIVILIZATION--MOVEMENTS OF THE CAMP OF ISRAEL--FIRST NIGHT AT SUGAR
CREEK--PRAISING GOD IN THE SONG AND DANCE--DEATH BY THE WAYSIDE.
The heroism of the Mormon women rose to more than tragic splendor in
the exodus. Only two circumstances after the martyrdom connect them
strongly with their beloved city. These attach to their consecrations
in, and adieus to, the temple, and the defence of Nauvoo by the remnant
of the saints in a three days' battle with the enemy. Then came the
evacuation of the city several months after the majority of the twelve,
with the body of the Church, had taken up their march towards the Rocky
Mountains.
Early in February, 1846, the saints began to cross the Mississippi
in flat-boats, old lighters, and a number of skiffs, forming quite
a fleet, which was at work night and day under the direction of the
police.
On the 15th of the same month, Brigham Young, with his family, and
others, crossed the Mississippi from Nauvoo, and proceeded to the
"Camps of Israel," as they were styled by the saints, which waited on
the west side of the river, a few miles on the way, for the coming of
their leader. These were to form the vanguard of the migrating saints,
who were to follow from the various States where they were located, or
had organized themselves into flourishing branches and conferences; and
soon after this period also began to pour across the Atlantic that tide
of emigration from Europe, which has since swelled to the number of
about one hundred thousand souls.
In Nauvoo the saints had heard the magic cry, "To your tents, O
Israel!" And in sublime faith and trust, such as history scarcely
gives an example of, they had obeyed, ready to follow their leader
whithersoever he might direct their pilgrim feet.
The Mormons were setting out, under their leader, from the borders of
civilization, with their wives and their children, in broad daylight,
before the eyes of ten thousand of their enemies, who would have
preferred their utter destruction to their "flight," notwithstanding
they had enforced it by treaties outrageous beyond description,
inasmuch as the exiles were nearly all American born, many of them
tracing their ancestors to the very founders of the nation. They had to
make a journey of fifteen hundred miles over trackless prairies, sandy
deserts and rocky mountains, through bands of war-like Indians, who had
been driven, exasperated, towards the West; and at last to seek out and
build up their Zion in valleys then unfruitful, in a solitary region
where the foot of the white man had scarcely trod. These, too, were to
be followed by the aged, the halt, the sick and the blind, the poor,
who were to be helped by their little less destitute brethren, and the
delicate young mother with her new-born babe at her breast, and still
worse, for they were not only threatened with the extermination of the
poor remnant at Nauvoo, but news had arrived that the parent government
designed to pursue their pioneers with troops, take from them their
arms, and scatter them, that they might perish by the way, and leave
their bones bleaching in the wilderness.
At about noon, on the 1st of March, 1846, the "Camp of Israel" began to
move, and at four o'clock nearly four hundred wagons were on the way,
traveling in a north-westerly direction. At night they camped again on
Sugar Creek, having advanced five miles. Scraping away the snow they
pitched their tents upon the frozen ground; and, after building large
fires in front, they made themselves as comfortable as possible under
the circumstances. Indeed, it is questionable whether any other people
in the world could have cozened themselves into a happy state of mind
amid such surroundings, with such a past fresh and bleeding in their
memories, and with such a prospect as was before both themselves and
the remnant of their brethren left in Nauvoo to the tender mercies
of the mob. In his diary, Apostle Orson Pratt wrote that night:
"Notwithstanding our sufferings, hardships and privations, we are
cheerful, and rejoice that we have the privilege of passing through
tribulation for the truth's sake."
These Mormon pilgrims, who took much consolation on their journey in
likening themselves to the Pilgrim fathers and mothers of this nation,
whose descendants many of them, as we have seen, actually were, that
night made their beds upon the frozen earth. "After bowing before
our great Creator," wrote Apostle Pratt, "and offering up praise
and thanksgiving to him, and imploring his protection, we resigned
ourselves to the slumbers of the night."
But the weather was more moderate that night than it had been for
several weeks previous. At their first encampment the thermometer
at one time fell twenty degrees below zero, freezing over the great
Mississippi. The survivors of that journey will tell you they never
suffered so much from the cold in their lives as they did on Sugar
Creek.
And what of the Mormon women? Around them circles almost a tragic
romance. Fancy may find abundant subject for graphic story of the
devotion, the suffering, the matchless heroism of the sisters, in the
telling incident that nine children were born to them the first night
they camped out on Sugar Creek, February 5th, 1846. That day they
wept their farewells over their beloved city, or in the sanctuary of
the temple, in which they had hoped to worship till the end of life,
but which they left never to see again; that night suffering nature
administered to them the mixed cup of woman's supremest joy and pain.
But it was not prayer alone that sustained these pilgrims. The
practical philosophy of their great leader, daily and hourly applied
to the exigencies of their case, did almost as much as their own
matchless faith to sustain them from the commencement to the end of
their journey. With that leader had very properly come to the "Camp
of Israel" several of the twelve and the chief bishops of the Church,
but he also brought with him a quorum, humble in pretensions, yet
useful as high priests to the saints in those spirit-saddening days.
It was Captain Pitt's brass band. That night the president had the
brethren and sisters out in the dance, and the music was as glad as
at a merry-making. Several gentlemen from Iowa gathered to witness
the strange, interesting scene. They could scarcely believe their own
senses when they were told that these were Mormons in their "flight
from civilization," bound they knew not whither, except where God
should lead them "by the hand of his servant."
Thus in the song and the dance the saints praised the Lord. When the
night was fine, and supper, which consisted of the most primitive fare,
was over, some of the men would clear away the snow, while others bore
large logs to the camp-fires in anticipation of the jubilee of the
evening. Soon, in a sheltered place, the blazing fires would roar, and
fifty couples, old and young, would join, in the merriest spirit, to
the music of the band, or the rival revelry of the solitary fiddle. As
they journeyed along, too, strangers constantly visited their camps,
and great was their wonderment to see the order, unity and good feeling
that prevailed in the midst of the people. By the camp-fires they would
linger, listening to the music and song; and they fain had taken part
in the merriment had not those scenes been as sacred worship in the
exodus of a God-fearing people. To fully understand the incidents here
narrated, the reader must couple in his mind the idea of an exodus with
the idea of an Israelitish jubilee; for it was a jubilee to the Mormons
to be delivered from their enemies at any price.
At one point on their journey the citizens of a town near by came over
to camp to invite the "Nauvoo Band," under Captain Pitt, to come to
their village for a concert. There was some music left in the brethren.
They had not forgotten how to sing the "songs of Zion," so they made
the good folks of the village merry, and for a time forgot their own
sorrows.
These incidents of travel were varied by an occasional birth in camp.
There was also the death of a lamented lady early on the journey. She
was a gentle wife of a famous Mormon missionary, Orson Spencer, once a
Baptist minister of excellent standing. She had requested the brethren
to take her with them. She would not be left behind. Life was too far
exhausted by the persecutions to survive the exodus, but she could yet
have the honor of dying in that immortal circumstance of her people.
Several others of the sisters also died at the very starting. Ah, who
shall fitly picture the lofty heroism of the Mormon women!
CHAPTER XXXII.
CONTINUATION OF ELIZA R. SNOW'S NARRATIVE--ADVENT OF A LITTLE STRANGER
UNDER ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES--DORMITORY, SITTING-ROOM, OFFICE, ETC.,
IN A BUGGY--"THE CAMP"--INTERESTING EPISODES OF THE JOURNEY--GRAPHIC
DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD OF PROCEDURE--MOUNT PISGAH--WINTER QUARTERS.
The subject and action of the exodus thus opened, we shall let the
sisters chiefly tell their own stories of that extraordinary historic
period. Eliza R. Snow, continuing her narrative, says:
"We had been preceded by thousands, and I was informed that on the
first night of the encampment nine children were born into the world,
and from that time, as we journeyed onward, mothers gave birth to
offspring under almost every variety of circumstances imaginable,
except those to which they had been accustomed; some in tents, others
in wagons--in rain-storms and in snow-storms. I heard of one birth
which occurred under the rude shelter of a hut, the sides of which were
formed of blankets fastened to poles stuck in the ground, with a bark
roof through which the rain was dripping. Kind sisters stood holding
dishes to catch the water as it fell, thus protecting the new-comer
and its mother from a shower-bath as the little innocent first entered
on the stage of human life; and through faith in the great ruler of
events, no harm resulted to either.
"Let it be remembered that the mothers of these wilderness-born babes
were not savages, accustomed to roam the forest and brave the storm
and tempest--those who had never known the comforts and delicacies of
civilization and refinement. They were not those who, in the wilds
of nature, nursed their offspring amid reeds and rushes, or in the
recesses of rocky caverns; most of them were born and educated in
the Eastern States--had there embraced the gospel as taught by Jesus
and his apostles, and, for the sake of their religion, had gathered
with the saints, and under trying circumstances had assisted, by
their faith, patience and energies, in making Nauvoo what its name
indicates, 'the beautiful.' There they had lovely homes, decorated with
flowers and enriched with choice fruit trees, just beginning to yield
plentifully.
"To these homes, without lease or sale, they had just bade a final
adieu, and with what little of their substance could be packed into
one, two, and in some instances, three wagons, had started out,
desertward, for--where? To this question the only response at that time
was, God knows.
"From the 13th to the 18th we had several snowstorms and very freezing
weather, which bridged the Mississippi sufficiently for crossing
heavily loaded wagons on the ice. We were on timbered land, had
plenty of wood for fuel, and the men rolled heavy logs together, and
kept large fires burning, around the bright blaze of which, when not
necessarily otherwise engaged, they warmed themselves. The women, when
the duties of cooking and its _et ceteras_ did not prompt them out,
huddled with their children into wagons and carriages for protection
from the chilling breezes.
"My dormitory, sitting-room, writing-office, and frequently
dining-room, was the buggy in which Sister Markham, her little
son David, and I, rode. One of my brother's wives had one of the
old-fashioned foot-stoves, which proved very useful. She frequently
brought it to me, filled with live coals from one of those mammoth
fires--a kindness which I remember with gratitude; but withal, I
frosted my feet enough to occasion inconvenience for weeks afterwards.
"When all who designed traveling in one camp, which numbered about
five thousand, had crossed the river, the organization of the whole
into hundreds, fifties, and tens, commenced, and afterwards was
completed for the order of traveling; with pioneers, commissaries, and
superintendents to each hundred, and captains over fifties and tens.
It was impossible for us to move in a body; and one company filed off
after another; and, on the first of March we broke camp and moved out
four or five miles and put up for the night, where at first view the
prospect was dreary enough. It was nearly sunset--very cold, and the
ground covered with snow to the depth of four or five inches; but with
brave hearts and strong hands, and a supply of spades and shovels, the
men removed the snow, and suddenly transformed the bleak desert scene
into a living town, with cloth houses, log-heap fires, and a multitude
of cheerful inhabitants. The next day, with weather moderated, the
remainder of the original camp arrived with the Nauvoo band, and tented
on the bluff, which overlooked our cozy dell, and at night stirring
strains of music filled the atmosphere, on which they were wafted
abroad, and re-echoed on the responsive breezes.
"Lo! a mighty host of people,
Tented on the western shore
Of the noble Mississippi,
They, for weeks, were crossing o'er.
At the last day's dawn of winter,
Bound with frost and wrapped with snow,
Hark! the sound is, 'Up, and onward!
Camp of Zion, rise and go.'
"All, at once, is life and motion--
Trunks and beds and baggage fly;
Oxen yoked and horses harnessed--
Tents, rolled up, are passing by.
Soon the carriage wheels are rolling
Onward to a woodland dell,
Where, at sunset, all are quartered--
Camp of Israel, all is well.
"Soon the tents are thickly clustered--
Neighboring smokes together blend--
Supper served--the hymns are chanted,
And the evening prayers ascend.
Last of all, the guards are stationed;
Heavens! must guards be serving here?
Who would harm the homeless exiles?
Camp of Zion, never fear.
"Where is freedom? Where is justice?
Both have from the nation fled,
And the blood of martyred prophets
Must be answered on its head.
Therefore, 'To your tents, O, Israel,'
Like your Father Abram dwell;
God will execute his purpose--
Camp of Zion, all is well.
"From time to time, companies of men either volunteered or were
detailed from the journeying camps, and, by going off the route,
obtained jobs of work for which they received food in payment, to meet
the necessities of those who were only partially supplied, and also
grain for the teams.
"As we passed through a town on the Des Moines river, the inhabitants
manifested as much curiosity as though they were viewing a traveling
menagerie of wild animals. Their levity and apparent heartlessness
was, to me, proof of profound ignorance. How little did those people
comprehend our movement, and the results the Almighty had in view.
"On the 2d of March we again moved forward--and here I will transcribe
from my journal: 'March 3d--Our encampment this night may truly
be recorded as a miracle, performed on natural, and yet peculiar
principles--a city reared in a few hours, and everything in operation
that actual living required, and many additional things, which, if not
extravagancies, were certainly convenient. The next day, great numbers
of the people of the adjacent country were to be seen patrolling the
nameless streets of our anonymous city, with astonishment visible in
their countenances. In the evening, Sister Markham and I took a stroll
abroad, and in the absence of names to the streets, and numbers to the
tents, we lost our way, and had to procure a guide to pilot us home.'
"At this point Brother Markham exchanged our buggy for a lumber wagon,
and in performing an act of generosity to others, so filled it as to
give Sister M. and me barely room to sit in front. And when we started
again, Sister M. and I were seated on a chest with brass-kettle and
soap-box for our footstools, and were happy in being as comfortably
situated as we were; and well we might be, for many of our sisters
walked all day, rain or shine, and at night prepared suppers for their
families, with no sheltering tents; and then made their beds in and
under wagons that contained their earthly all. How frequently, with
intense sympathy and admiration, I watched the mother, when, forgetful
of her own fatigue and destitution, she took unwearied pains to fix
up, in the most palatable form, the allotted portion of food, and as
she dealt it out was cheering the hearts of her homeless children,
while, as I truly believed, her own was lifted to God in fervent prayer
that their lives might be preserved, and, above all, that they might
honor him in the religion for which she was an exile from the home
once sacred to her, for the sake of those precious ones that God had
committed to her care. We were living on rations--our leaders having
counseled that arrangement, to prevent an improvident use of provision
that would result in extreme destitution.
"We were traveling in the season significantly termed 'between hay
and grass,' and the teams, feeding mostly on browse, wasted in flesh,
and had but little strength; and it was painful, at times, to see the
poor creatures straining every joint and ligature, doing their utmost,
and looking the very picture of discouragement. When crossing the low
lands, where spring rains had soaked the mellow soil, they frequently
stalled on level ground, and we could move only by coupling teams,
which made very slow progress. From the effects of chills and fever,
I had not strength to walk much, or I should not have been guilty of
riding after those half-famished animals. It would require a painter's
pencil and skill to represent our encampment when we stopped, as we
frequently did, to give the jaded teams a chance to recuperate, and us
a chance to straighten up matters and things generally. Here is a bit
from my journal:
"'Our town of yesterday has grown to a city. It is laid out in a half
hollow square, fronting east and south on a beautiful level--with,
on one side, an almost perpendicular, and on the other, a gradual
descent into a deep ravine, which defines it on the west and north. At
nine o'clock this morning I noticed a blacksmith's shop in operation,
and everything, everywhere, indicating real life and local industry.
Only the sick are idle; not a stove or cooking utensil but is called
into requisition; while tubs, washboards, etc., are one-half mile
distant, where washing is being done by the side of a stream of water
beneath the shade of waving branches. I join Sister M. in the washing
department, and get a buggy ride to the scene of action, where the
boys have the fire in waiting--while others of our mess stop in the
city and do the general work of housekeeping; and for our dinner send
us a generous portion of their immense pot-pie, designed to satisfy
the hunger of about thirty stomachs. It is made of rabbits, squirrels,
quails, prairie chickens, etc., trophies of the success of our hunters,
of whom each division has its quota. Thus from time to time we are
supplied with fresh meat, which does much in lengthening out our flour.
Occasionally our jobbers take bacon in payment, but what I have seen of
that article is so rancid that nothing short of prospective starvation
would tempt me to eat it.'
"On the 20th of April we arrived at the head waters of the Grand River,
where it was decided to make a farming establishment, to be a resting
and recruiting place for the saints who should follow us. Elders Bent,
Benson and Fullmer were appointed to preside over it.
"The first of June found us in a small grove on the middle fork of
Grand River. This place, over which Elders Rich and Huntington were
called to preside, was named Pisgah; and from this point most of the
divisions filed off, one after another. Colonel Markham appropriated
all of his teams and one wagon to assist the twelve and others to
pursue the journey westward, while he returned to the States for a
fresh supply. Before he left, we were in a house made of logs laid
up 'cob fashion,' with from three to eight inches open space between
them--roofed by stretching a tent cloth over the ridgepole and
fastening it at the bottom, on the outside, which, with blankets and
carpets put up on the north end, as a shield from the cold wind, made
us as comfortable as possible.
"Companies were constantly arriving and others departing; while
those who intended stopping till the next spring were busily engaged
in making gardens, and otherwise preparing for winter--sheltering
themselves in rude log huts for temporary residence.
"The camps were strung along several hundred miles in length from front
to rear, when, about the last of June, one of the most remarkably
unreasonable requisitions came officially to President Young, from the
United States government, demanding five hundred efficient men to be
drawn from our traveling camps, to enter the United States military
service, and march immediately to California and assist in the war with
Mexico. Upon the receipt of this demand, President Young and Heber C.
Kimball, with due loyalty to an unprotective government, under which
we had been exiled from our homes, started immediately from their
respective divisions, on horseback, calling for volunteers, from one
extremity of our line to the other; and in an almost incredibly short
time the five hundred men, who constituted the celebrated 'Mormon
Battalion,' were under marching orders, commanded by Col. Allen, of the
United States Infantry. It was our 'country's call,' and the question,
'Can we spare five hundred of our most able-bodied men?' was not asked.
But it was a heavy tax--a cruel draft--one which imposed accumulated
burdens on those who remained, especially our women, who were under the
necessity of driving their own teams from the several points from which
their husbands and sons left, to the Salt Lake Valley; and some of them
walked the whole of that tedious distance.
On the 2d of August Brother Markham arrived from the East with teams;
and on the 19th we bade good-bye to Mount Pisgah. Brother M. was minus
one teamster, and as Mrs. M. and I were to constitute the occupants of
one wagon, with a gentle yoke of oxen, she proposed to drive. But, soon
after we started, she was taken sick, and, of course, the driving fell
to me. Had it been a horse-team I should have been amply qualified, but
driving oxen was entirely a new business; however, I took the whip and
very soon learned to 'haw and gee,' and acquitted myself, as teamster,
quite honorably, driving most of the way to winter quarters. The cattle
were so well trained that I could sit and drive. At best, however, it
was fatiguing--the family being all sick by turns, and at times I had
to cook, as well as nurse the sick; all of which I was thankful for
strength to perform.
"On the 27th we crossed the Missouri at Council Bluffs, and the next
day came up with the general camp at winter quarters. From exposure and
hardship I was taken sick soon after with a slow fever, that terminated
in chills and fever, and as I lay sick in my wagon, where my bed was
exposed to heavy autumnal rains, and sometimes wet nearly from head to
foot, I realized that I was near the gate of death; but my trust was
in God, and his power preserved me. Many were sick around us, and no
one could be properly cared for under the circumstances. Although, as
before stated, I was exposed to the heavy rains while in the wagon,
worse was yet to come.
"On the 28th a company, starting out for supplies, required the wagon
that Sister M. and I had occupied; and the log house we moved into
was but partly chinked and mudded, leaving large crevices for the
wind--then cold and blustering. This hastily-erected hut was roofed on
one side, with a tent-cloth thrown over the other, and, withal, was
minus a chimney. A fire, which was built on one side, filled the house
with smoke until it became unendurable. Sister Markham had partially
recovered from her illness, but was quite feeble. I was not able to sit
up much, and, under those circumstances, not at all, for the fire had
to be dispensed with. Our cooking was done out of doors until after the
middle of November, when a chimney was made, the house enclosed, and
other improvements added, which we were prepared to appreciate.
"About the last of December I received the sad news of the death
of my mother. She had lived to a good age, and had been a patient
participator in the scenes of suffering consequent on the persecutions
of the saints. She sleeps in peace; and her grave, and that of my
father, whose death preceded hers less than a year, are side by side,
in Walnut Grove, Knox county, Ill.
"At winter quarters our extensive encampment was divided into wards,
and so organized that meetings for worship were attended in the several
wards. A general order was established and cheerfully carried out, that
each able-bodied man should either give the labor of each tenth day,
or contribute an equivalent, for the support of the destitute, and to
aid those families whose men were in the battalion, and those who were
widows indeed.
"Our exposures and privations caused much sickness, and sickness
increased destitution; but in the midst of all this, we enjoyed a great
portion of the spirit of God, and many seasons of refreshing from
his presence, with rich manifestations of the gifts and power of the
gospel. My life, as well as the lives of many others, was preserved by
the power of God, through faith in him, and not on natural principles
as comprehended by man."
CHAPTER XXXIII.
BATHSHEBA W. SMITH'S STORY OF THE LAST DAYS OF NAUVOO--SHE RECEIVES
CELESTIAL MARRIAGE AND GIVES HER HUSBAND FIVE "HONORABLE YOUNG
WOMEN" AS WIVES--HER DESCRIPTION OF THE EXODUS AND JOURNEY TO WINTER
QUARTERS--DEATH OF ONE OF THE WIVES--SISTER HORNE AGAIN.
Sister Bathsheba W. Smith's story of the last days of Nauvoo, and the
introduction of polygamy, and also her graphic detail of the exodus,
will be of interest at this point. She says:
"Immediately after my marriage, my husband, as one of the apostles of
the Church, started on a mission to some of the Eastern States.
"In the year 1840 he was in England, and again went East on mission
in 1843, going as far as Boston, Mass., preaching and attending
conferences by the way. He returned in the fall; soon after which, we
were blessed by receiving our endowments, and were sealed under the
holy law of celestial marriage. I heard the prophet Joseph charge the
twelve with the duty and responsibility of administering the ordinances
of endowments and sealing for the living and the dead. I met many times
with Brother Joseph and others who had received their endowments, in
company with my husband, in an upper room dedicated for that purpose,
and prayed with them repeatedly in those meetings. I heard the prophet
give instructions concerning plural marriage; he counseled the sisters
not to trouble themselves in consequence of it, that all would be
right, and the result would be for their glory and exaltation.
"On the 5th of May, 1844, my husband again started on mission, and,
after he left, a terrible persecution was commenced in the city of
Nauvoo, which brought about the barbarous murder of our beloved
prophet, and his brother, the patriarch. The death of these men of
God caused a general mourning which I cannot describe. My husband
returned about the first of August, and soon the rest of the twelve
returned. The times were very exciting, but under the wise counsels of
the twelve, and others, the excitement abated. The temple was so far
finished in the fall of 1845, that thousands received their endowments.
I officiated for some time as priestess.
"Being thoroughly convinced, as well as my husband, that the doctrine
of plurality of wives was from God, and having a fixed determination
to attain to celestial glory, I felt to embrace the whole gospel,
and believing that it was for my husband's exaltation that he should
obey the revelation on celestial marriage, that he might attain to
kingdoms, thrones, principalities and powers, firmly believing that
I should participate with him in all his blessings, glory and honor;
accordingly, within the last year, like Sarah of old, I had given to my
husband five wives, good, virtuous, honorable young women. They all had
their home with us; I being proud of my husband, and loving him very
much, knowing him to be a man of God, and believing he would not love
them less because he loved me more for doing this. I had joy in having
a testimony that what I had done was acceptable to my Father in Heaven.
"The fall of 1845 found Nauvoo, as it were, one vast mechanic shop, as
nearly every family was engaged in making wagons. Our parlor was used
as a paint-shop in which to paint wagons. All were making preparations
to leave the ensuing winter. On the 9th of February, 1846, in company
with many others, my husband took me and my two children, and some
of the other members of his family (the remainder to follow as soon
as the weather would permit), and we crossed the Mississippi, to
seek a home in the wilderness. Thus we left a comfortable home, the
accumulation and labor of four years, taking with us but a few things,
such as clothing, bedding and provisions, leaving everything else for
our enemies. We were obliged to stay in camp for a few weeks, on Sugar
Creek, because of the weather being very cold. The Mississippi froze
over so that hundreds of families crossed on the ice. As soon as the
weather permitted, we moved on West. I will not try to describe how we
traveled through storms of snow, wind and rain--how roads had to be
made, bridges built, and rafts constructed--how our poor animals had to
drag on, day after day, with scanty feed--nor how our camps suffered
from poverty, sickness and death. We were consoled in the midst of
these hardships by seeing the power of God manifested through the
laying on of the hands of the elders, causing the sick to be healed and
the lame to walk. The Lord was with us, and his power was made manifest
daily. At the head of a slough where we camped several days, we were
visited by the Mus-Quaw-ke band of Indians, headed by Pow-Sheek, a
stately looking man, wearing a necklace of bear's claws. They were
fierce looking men, decorated as they were for war; but they manifested
a friendly spirit, and traded with us. The next move of our camp was to
the Missouri river bank. The cattle were made to swim, and our wagons
were taken over on a flat-boat that our people had built. We made two
encampments after we crossed the river, when we found it too late to
proceed farther that year. The last encampment was named Cutler's Park.
The camps contained about one thousand wagons. Our men went to work
cutting and stacking the coarse prairie grass for hay. The site for
our winter quarters was selected and surveyed, and during the fall and
winter some seven hundred log-cabins were built; also about one hundred
and fifty dugouts or caves, which are cabins half under ground. This
was on the Missouri river, about six miles above the present city of
Omaha. My husband built four cabins and a dug-out. Our chimnies were
made of sod, cut with a spade in the form of a brick; clay was pounded
in to make our fireplaces and hearths. In our travels the winds had
literally blown our tent to pieces, so that we were glad to get into
cabins. The most of the roofs were made of timber, covered with clay.
The floors were split and hewed puncheon; the doors were generally made
of the same material, of cottonwood and linn. Many houses were covered
with oak-shakes, fastened on with weight-poles. A few were covered with
shingles. A log meeting-house was built, about twenty-four by forty
feet, and the hewn floor was frequently used for dancing. A grist-mill
was built and run by water-power, and in addition to this, several
horse-mills and hand-mills were used to grind corn.
"Our scanty and only supply of bread, consisting generally of corn, was
mostly brought from Missouri, a distance of some one hundred and fifty
miles, where it fortunately was plentiful and cheap. The camp having
been deprived of vegetable food the past year, many were attacked with
scurvy. The exposure, together with the want of necessary comforts,
caused fevers and ague, and affections of the lungs. Our own family
were not exempt. Nancy Clement, one of my husband's wives, died; also
her child. She was a woman of excellent disposition, and died in full
faith in the gospel."
An incident or two of Sister Horne's story may very properly accompany
the foregoing. She says:
"I took my last look, on earth, of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. May I never
experience another day similar to that! I do not wish to recall the
scene but for a moment. That terrible martyrdom deeply scarred the
hearts and bewildered the senses of all our people. We could scarcely
realize the awful event, except in the agony of our feelings; nor
comprehend the dark hour, beyond the solemn loneliness which pervaded
the city and made the void in our stricken hearts still more terrible
to bear. For the moment the sun of our life had set. The majority of
the apostles were far from home, and we could do no more than wake the
indignation of heaven against the murderers by our lamentations, and
weep and pray for divine support in that awful hour.
"Two years had not passed away after the martyrdom, before the saints
were forced by their enemies to hasten in their flight from Nauvoo."
With the Camp of Israel, Sister Horne and family journeyed to winter
quarters, sharing the common experience of the saints, so well
described by those who have preceded her.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE STORY OF THE HUNTINGTON SISTERS CONTINUED--ZINA D. YOUNG'S PATHETIC
PICTURE OF THE MARTYRDOM--JOSEPH'S MANTLE FALLS UPON BRIGHAM--THE
EXODUS--A BIRTH ON THE BANKS OF THE CHARITON--DEATH OF FATHER
HUNTINGTON.
"It was June 27th, 1844," writes Zina D. Young (one of the Huntington
sisters, with whom the reader is familiar), "and it was rumored that
Joseph was expected in from Carthage. I did not know to the contrary
until I saw the Governor and his guards descending the hill by the
temple, a short distance from my house. Their swords glistened in
the sun, and their appearance startled me, though I knew not what it
foreboded. I exclaimed to a neighbor who was with me, 'What is the
trouble! It seems to me that the trees and the grass are in mourning!'
A fearful silence pervaded the city, and after the shades of night
gathered around us it was thick darkness. The lightnings flashed, the
cattle bellowed, the dogs barked, and the elements wailed. What a
terrible night that was to the saints, yet we knew nothing of the dark
tragedy which had been enacted by the assassins at Carthage.
"The morning dawned; the sad news came; but as yet I had not heard of
the terrible event. I started to go to Mother Smith's, on an errand. As
I approached I saw men gathered around the door of the mansion. A few
rods from the house I met Jesse P. Harmon. 'Have you heard the news?'
he asked. 'What news?' I inquired. 'Joseph and Hyrum are dead!' Had
I believed it, I could not have walked any farther. I hastened to my
brother Dimick. He was sitting in his house, mourning and weeping aloud
as only strong men can weep. All was confirmed in a moment. My pen
cannot utter my grief nor describe my horror. But after awhile a change
came, as though the released spirits of the departed sought to comfort
us in that hour of dreadful bereavement.
"'The healer was there, pouring balm on my heart,
And wiping the tears from my eyes;
He was binding the chain that was broken in twain,
And fastening it firm in the skies.'
"Never can it be told in words what the saints suffered in those days
of trial; but the sweet spirit--the comforter--did not forsake them;
and when the twelve returned, the mantle of Joseph fell upon Brigham.
"When I approached the stand (on the occasion when Sidney Rigdon was
striving for the guardianship of the Church), President Young was
speaking. It was the voice of Joseph Smith--not that of Brigham Young.
His very person was changed. The mantle was truly given to another.
There was no doubting this in the minds of that vast assembly. All
witnessed the transfiguration, and even to-day thousands bear testimony
thereof. I closed my eyes. I could have exclaimed, I know that is
Joseph Smith's voice! Yet I knew he had gone. But the same spirit was
with the people; the comforter remained.
"The building of the temple was hurried on. The saints did not slacken
their energies. They had a work to do in that temple for their dead,
and blessings to obtain for themselves. They had learned from the
prophet Joseph the meaning of Paul's words, 'Why then are ye baptized
for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?'
"Passing on to the exodus. My family were informed that we were to
leave with the first company. So on the 9th of February, 1846, on a
clear cold day, we left our home at Nauvoo. All that we possessed was
now in our wagon. Many of our things remained in the house, unsold, for
most of our neighbors were, like ourselves, on the wing.
"Arrived at Sugar Creek, we there first saw who were the brave, the
good, the self-sacrificing. Here we had now openly the first examples
of noble-minded, virtuous women, bravely commencing to live in the
newly-revealed order of celestial marriage.
"'Women; this is my husband's wife!'
"Here, at length, we could give this introduction, without fear of
reproach, or violation of man-made laws, seeing we were bound for the
refuge of the Rocky Mountains, where no Gentile society existed, to ask
of Israel, 'What doest thou?'
"President Young arrived on Sugar Creek, and at once commenced to
organize the camp. George A. Smith was the captain of our company of
fifty.
"I will pass over the tedious journey to the Chariton river, in the
face of the fierce winds of departing winter, and amid rains that
fairly inundated the land. By day we literally waded through mud and
water, and at night camped in anything but pleasant places.
"On the bank of the Chariton an incident occurred ever eventful in the
life of woman. I had been told in the temple that I should acknowledge
God even in a miracle in my deliverance in woman's hour of trouble,
which hour had now come. We had traveled one morning about five miles,
when I called for a halt in our inarch. There was but one person with
me--Mother Lyman, the aunt of George A. Smith; and there on the bank of
the Chariton I was delivered of a fine son. On the morning of the 23d,
Mother Lyman gave me a cup of coffee and a biscuit. What a luxury for
special remembrance! Occasionally the wagon had to be stopped, that I
might take breath. Thus I journeyed on. But I did not mind the hardship
of my situation, for my life had been preserved, and my babe seemed so
beautiful.
"We reached Mount Pisgah in May. I was now with my father, who had been
appointed to preside over this temporary settlement of the saints. But
an unlooked for event soon came. One evening Parley P. Pratt arrived,
bringing the word from headquarters that the Mormon battalion must be
raised in compliance with the requisition of the government upon our
people. And what did this news personally amount to, to me? That I had
only my father to look after me now; for I had parted from my husband;
my eldest brother, Dimick Huntington, with his family, had gone into
the battalion, and every man who could be spared was also enlisted.
It was impossible for me to go on to winter quarters, so I tarried at
Mount Pisgah with my father.
"But, alas! a still greater trial awaited me! The call for the
battalion had left many destitute. They had to live in wagons. But
worse than destitution stared us in the face. Sickness came upon us
and death invaded our camp. Sickness was so prevalent and deaths so
frequent that enough help could not be had to make coffins, and many of
the dead were wrapped in their grave-clothes and buried with split logs
at the bottom of the grave and brush at the sides, that being all that
could be done for them by their mourning friends. Too soon it became
my turn to mourn. My father was taken sick, and in eighteen days he
died. Just before he left us for his better home he raised himself upon
his elbow, and said: 'Man is like the flower or the grass--cut down
in an hour! Father, unto thee do I commend my spirit!' This said, he
sweetly went to rest with the just, a martyr for the truth; for, like
my dear mother, who died in the expulsion from Missouri, he died in the
expulsion from Nauvoo. Sad was my heart. I alone of all his children
was there to mourn.
"It was a sad day at Mount Pisgah, when my father was buried. The poor
and needy had lost a friend--the kingdom of God a faithful servant.
There upon the hillside was his resting place. The graveyard was so
near that I could hear the wolves howling as they visited the spot;
those hungry monsters, who fain would have unsepulchred those sacred
bones!
"Those days of trial and grief were succeeded by my journey to winter
quarters, where in due time I arrived, and was welcomed by President
Young into his family."
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE PIONEERS--THE PIONEER COMPANIES THAT FOLLOWED--METHOD OF THE
MARCH--MRS. HORNE ON THE PLAINS--THE EMIGRANT'S POST-OFFICE--PENTECOSTS
BY THE WAY--DEATH AS THEY JOURNEYED--A FEAST IN THE DESERT--"AUNT
LOUISA" AGAIN.
Very properly President Young and a chosen cohort of apostles and
elders formed the band of pioneers who bore the standard of their
people to the Rocky Mountains. On the 7th of April, 1847, that famous
company left winter quarters in search of another Zion and gathering
place. Three women only went with them. These must be honored with a
lasting record. They were Clara Decker, one of the wives of Brigham
Young; her mother, and Ellen Sanders, one of the wives of H. C. Kimball.
Yet the sisters as a mass were scarcely less the co-pioneers of that
apostolic band, for they followed in companies close upon its track. It
was with them faith, not sight. They continued their pilgrimage to the
West early in June. On the 12th, Captain Jedediah M. Grant's company
moved out in the advance.
"After we started out from winter quarters," says Sister Eliza Snow,
"three or four days were consumed in maneuvering and making a good
ready, and then, at an appointed place for rendezvous, a general
meeting was held around a liberty-pole erected for the purpose, and
an organization effected, similar to that entered into after leaving
Nauvoo.
"As we moved forward, one division after another, sometimes in
fifties, sometimes in tens, but seldom traveling in hundreds, we
passed and repassed each other, but at night kept as nearly compact
as circumstances would admit, especially when in the Indian country.
East of Fort Laramie many of the Sioux Nation mixed with our traveling
camps, on their way to the fort, where a national council was in
session. We had no other trouble with them than the loss of a few
cooking utensils, which, when unobserved, they lightly fingered; except
in one instance, when our ten had been left in the rear to repair a
broken wagon, until late in the evening. It was bright moonlight, and
as we were passing one of their encampments, they formed in a line
closely by the roadside, and when our teams passed, they simultaneously
shook their blankets vigorously on purpose to frighten the teams and
cause a stampede, probably with the same object in view as white
robbers have in ditching railroad trains. However, no serious injury
occurred, although the animals were dreadfully frightened."
Sister Horne thus relates some incidents of the journey:
"Apostle John Taylor traveled in the company that my family was with,
Bishop Hunter being captain of the company of one hundred, and Bishop
Foutz and my husband being captains of fifties. The officers proposed,
for safety in traveling through the Indian country, that the two
fifties travel side by side, which was agreed to, Bishop Foutz's fifty
taking the north side. For some days the wind blew from the south with
considerable force, covering the fifty on the north with dust from
our wagons. This continued for two weeks; it was then agreed that the
two companies should shift positions in order to give us our fair
proportion of the dust; but in a day or two afterwards the wind shifted
to the north, thus driving the dust on to the same company as before.
After having some good natured badinage over the circumstance, our
company changed with the unfortunates and took its share of the dust.
"One day a company of Indians met us and manifested a desire to trade,
which we were glad to do; but as the brethren were exchanging corn
for buffalo robes, the squaws were quietly stealing everything they
could lay hands upon. Many bake-kettles, skillets and frying-pans were
missing when we halted that night.
"As our wagons were standing while the trading was going on, one Indian
took a great fancy to my little girl, who was sitting on my knee, and
wanted to buy her, offering me a pony. I told him 'no trade.' He then
brought another pony, and still another, but I told him no; so he
brought the fourth, and gave me to understand that they were all good,
and that the last one was especially good for chasing buffalo. The
situation was becoming decidedly embarrassing, when several more wagons
drew near, dispersing the crowd of Indians that had gathered around me,
and attracting the attention of my persistent patron."
The emigrant's post-offices are thus spoken of by Sister Eliza:
"Much of the time we were on an untrodden way; but when we came on the
track of the pioneers, as we occasionally did, and read the date of
their presence, with an 'all well' accompaniment, on a bleached buffalo
skull, we had a general time of rejoicing."
For years those bleached buffalo skulls were made the news agents of
the Mormon emigrations. The morning newspaper of to-day is not read
with so much eagerness as were those dry bones on the plains, telling
of family and friends gone before.
It was a long, tedious journey to those pioneer sisters, yet they had
pentecosts even on their pilgrimage. Again quoting from Sister Eliza:
"Many were the moon and starlight evenings when, as we circled around
the blazing fire, and sang our hymns of devotion, and songs of praise
to him who knows the secrets of all hearts, the sound of our united
voices reverberated from hill to hill, and echoing through the silent
expanse, seemed to fill the vast concave above, while the glory of God
seemed to rest on all around. Even now while I write, the remembrance
of those sacredly romantic and vivifying scenes calls them up afresh,
and arouses a feeling of response that language is inadequate to
express."
But there were dark days also. The story changes to sickness in the
wagons and death by the wayside:
"Death," says Sister Eliza, "made occasional inroads among us. Nursing
the sick in tents and wagons was a laborious service; but the patient
faithfulness with which it was performed is, no doubt, registered in
the archives above, as an unfading memento of brotherly and sisterly
love. The burial of the dead by the wayside was a sad office. For
husbands, wives and children to consign the cherished remains of
loved ones to a lone, desert grave, was enough to try the firmest
heartstrings.
"Although every care and kindness possible under the circumstances
were extended to her, the delicate constitution of Mrs. Jedediah M.
Grant was not sufficient for the hardships of the journey. I was with
her much, previous to her death, which occurred so near to Salt Lake
Valley, that by forced drives, night and day, her remains were brought
through for interment. Not so, however, with her beautiful babe of
eight or ten months, whose death preceded her's about two weeks; it was
buried in the desert."
The companies now began to hear of the pioneers and the location of
"Great Salt Lake City." On the 4th of August several of the Mormon
battalion were met returning from the Mexican war. They were husbands
and sons of women in this division. There was joy indeed in the
meeting. Next came an express from the valley, and finally the main
body of the pioneers, returning to winter quarters. On the Sweetwater,
Apostle Taylor made for them a royal feast, spoken of to this day.
Sisters Taylor, Horne, and others of our leading pioneer women,
sustained the honors of that occasion.
Early in October the companies, one after another, reached the valley.
The next year many of the pioneers made their second journey to the
mountains, and with them now came Daniel H. Wells, the story of whose
wife, Louisa, shall close these journeys of the pioneers.
Although exceedingly desirous of crossing the plains with the first
company of that year, her father was unable to do more than barely
provide the two wagons necessary to carry his family and provisions,
and the requisite number of oxen to draw them. The luxury of an extra
teamster to care for the second wagon was out of the question; and
so Louisa, although but twenty-two years of age, and although she
had never driven an ox in her life, heroically undertook the task of
driving one of the outfits, and caring for a younger brother and sister.
The picture of her starting is somewhat amusing. After seeing that her
allotment of baggage and provisions, along with her little brother and
sister, had been stowed in the wagon; with a capacious old-fashioned
sun-bonnet on her head, a parasol in one hand and an ox-whip in the
other, she placed herself by the side of her leading yoke of oxen and
bravely set her face westward. Matters went well enough for a short
distance, considering her inexperience with oxen; but the rain began
to pour, and shortly her parasol was found to be utterly inadequate,
so in disgust she threw it into the wagon, and traveled on in the wet
grass amid the pouring rain. Presently the paste-board stiffeners
of her sun-bonnet began to succumb to the persuasive moisture, and
before night, draggled and muddy, and thoroughly wet to the skin, her
appearance was fully as forlorn as her condition was pitiable.
This was truly a discouraging start, but nothing daunted she pressed on
with the company, and never allowed her spirits to flag. Arrived at the
Sweetwater, her best yoke of oxen died from drinking the alkali water,
and for a substitute she was obliged to yoke up a couple of cows.
Then came the tug of war; for so irregular a proceeding was not to be
tolerated for a moment by the cows, except under extreme compulsion.
More unwilling and refractory laborers were probably never found, and
from that point onward Louisa proceeded only by dint of the constant
and vigorous persuasions of her whip.
During the journey a Mrs. McCarthy was confined; and it was considered
necessary that Louisa should nurse her. But it was impossible for her
to leave her team during the day; so it was arranged that she should
attend the sick woman at night. For three weeks she dropped her whip
each night when the column halted, and leaving her team to be cared for
by the brethren, repaired to Mrs. McCarthy's wagon, nursing her through
the night, and then seizing her whip again as the company moved forward
in the morning.
However, she maintained good health throughout the journey, and safely
piloted her heterodox outfit into the valley along with the rest of the
company.
On the journey, after wearing out the three pairs of shoes with
which she was provided, she was obliged to sew rags on her feet for
protection. But each day these would soon wear through, and often she
left bloody tracks on the cruel stones.
It was on this journey that she first became acquainted with Gen.
Wells, to whom she was married shortly after they reached the valley.
As the senior wife of that distinguished gentleman, "Aunt Louisa" is
well known throughout Utah; and as a most unselfish and unostentatious
dispenser of charity, and an ever-ready friend and helper of the sick
and needy, her name is indelibly engraved on the hearts of thousands.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
BATHSHEBA W. SMITH'S STORY CONTINUED--THE PIONEERS RETURN TO WINTER
QUARTERS--A NEW PRESIDENCY CHOSEN--OLIVER COWDERY RETURNS TO THE
CHURCH--GATHERING THE REMNANT FROM WINTER QUARTERS--DESCRIPTION OF HER
HOUSE ON WHEELS.
Continuing her narration of affairs at winter quarters, Sister
Bathsheba W. Smith says:
"As soon as the weather became warm, and the gardens began to produce
early vegetables, the sick began to recover. We felt considerable
anxiety for the safety of the pioneers, and for their success in
finding us a home. About the first of December, to our great joy, a
number of them returned. They had found a place in the heart of the
Great Basin, beyond the Rocky Mountains, so barren, dry, desolate
and isolated that we thought even the cupidity of religious bigots
would not be excited by it. The pioneers had laid out a city, and had
commenced a fort; and some seven hundred wagons and about two thousand
of our people had by this time arrived there. The country was so very
dry that nothing could be made to grow without irrigation.
"After the location of winter quarters a great number of our people
made encampments on the east side of the river, on parts of the
Pottawatomie lands. The camps, thus scattered, spread over a large
tract. On one occasion my husband and I visited Hyde Park, one of these
settlements, in company with the twelve apostles. They there held a
council in a log-cabin, and a great manifestation of the holy spirit
was poured out upon those present. At this council it was unanimously
decided to organize the First Presidency of the Church according to
the pattern laid down in the Book of Covenants. Soon after, a general
conference was held in the log tabernacle at Kanesville (now Council
Bluffs), at which the saints acknowledged Brigham Young President of
the Church, and Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards his councilors.
"Shortly after this conference our family moved to the Iowa side of the
river. My husband bought two log-cabins, and built two more, which made
us quite comfortable. The winter was very cold, but wood was plentiful,
and we used it freely. The situation was a romantic one, surrounded as
we were on three sides by hills. We were favored with an abundance of
wild plums and raspberries. We called the place Car-bun-ca, after an
Indian brave who had been buried there.
"In May, 1848, about five hundred wagons followed President Young on
his return to Salt Lake. In June some two hundred wagons followed Dr.
Willard Richards. When Dr. Richards left, all the saints that could not
go with him were compelled by the United States authorities to vacate
winter quarters. They recrossed into Iowa, and had to build cabins
again. This was apiece of oppression which was needless and ill-timed,
as many of the families which had to move were those of the men who had
gone in the Mormon battalion. This compulsory move was prompted by the
same spirit of persecution that had caused the murder of so many of
our people, and had forced us all to leave our homes and go into the
wilderness.
"On the Iowa side of the river we raised wheat, Indian corn, buckwheat,
potatoes, and other vegetables; and we gathered from the woods hazel
and hickory nuts, white and black walnuts, and in addition to the wild
plums and raspberries before mentioned, we gathered elderberries,
and made elderberry and raspberry wine. We also preserved plums and
berries. By these supplies we were better furnished than we had been
since leaving our homes. The vegetables and fruits caused the scurvy to
pretty much disappear.
"In September, 1848, a conference was held in a grove on Mosquito
Creek, about two thousand of the saints being present. Oliver Cowdery,
one of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, was there. He had been ten
years away from the Church, and had become a lawyer of some prominence
in Northern Ohio and Wisconsin. At this conference I heard him bear his
testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon, in the same manner as is
recorded in the testimony of the three witnesses in that book.
"In May, 1849, about four hundred wagons were organized and started
West.
"In the latter part of June following, our family left our encampment.
We started on our journey to the valley in a company of two hundred and
eighteen wagons. These were organized into three companies, which were
subdivided into companies of ten, each company properly officered. Each
company also had its blacksmith and wagon-maker, equipped with proper
tools for attending to their work of setting tires, shoeing animals,
and repairing wagons.
"Twenty-four of the wagons of our company belonged to the Welch saints,
who had been led from Wales by Elder Dan Jones. They did not understand
driving oxen. It was very amusing to see them yoke their cattle; two
would have an animal by the horns, one by the tail, and one or two
others would do their best to put on the yoke, whilst the apparently
astonished ox, not at all enlightened by the guttural sounds of the
Welch tongue, seemed perfectly at a loss what to do, or to know what
was wanted of him. But these saints amply made up for their lack of
skill in driving cattle by their excellent singing, which afforded us
great assistance in our public meetings, and helped to enliven our
evenings.
"On this journey my wagon was provided with projections, of about eight
inches wide, on each side of the top of the box. The cover, which was
high enough for us to stand erect, was widened by these projections. A
frame was laid across the back part of our wagon, and was corded as a
bedstead; this made our sleeping very comfortable. Under our beds we
stowed our heaviest articles. We had a door in one side of the wagon
cover, and on the opposite side a window. A step-ladder was used to
ascend to our door, which was between the wheels. Our cover was of
'osnaburg,' lined with blue drilling. Our door and window could be
opened and closed at pleasure. I had, hanging up on the inside, a
looking-glass, candlestick, pincushion, etc. In the centre of our wagon
we had room for four chairs, in which we and our two children sat and
rode when we chose. The floor of our traveling house was carpeted, and
we made ourselves as comfortable as we could under the circumstances.
"After having experienced the common vicissitudes of that strange
journey, having encountered terrible storms and endured extreme
hardships, we arrived at our destination on the 5th of November, one
hundred and five days after leaving the Missouri river. Having been
homeless and wandering up to this time, I was prepared to appreciate a
home."
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE MARTYRED PATRIARCH'S WIDOW--A WOMAN'S STRENGTH AND
INDEPENDENCE--THE CAPTAIN "LEAVES HER OUT IN THE COLD"---HER PROPHESY
AND CHALLENGE TO THE CAPTAIN--A PIONEER INDEED--SHE IS LED BY
INSPIRATION--THE SEERIC GIFT OF THE SMITHS WITH HER--HER CATTLE--THE
RACE--FATE AGAINST THE CAPTAIN--THE WIDOW'S PROPHESY FULFILLED.
"I will beat you to the valley, and ask no help from you either!"
--
The exodus called out the women of Mormondom in all their Spartan
strength of character. They showed themselves State-founders indeed.
We are reading examples of them as pioneers unsurpassed even by the
examples of the immortal band of pioneer apostles and elders who led
them to the "chambers of the mountains." The following story of the
widow of Hyrum Smith will finely illustrate this point:
At the death of the patriarch the care of the family fell upon his
widow, Mary Smith. Besides the children there were several helpless and
infirm people, whom for various charitable reasons the patriarch had
maintained; and these also she cared for, and brought through to the
valley the major part of them, under unusually trying circumstances.
Passing over the incidents of her journey to winter quarters, after
the expulsion from Nauvoo, we come at once to her heroic effort from
winter quarters westward. In the spring of 1848 a tremendous effort
was made by the saints to emigrate to the valley on a grand scale. No
one was more anxious than Widow Smith; but to accomplish it seemed an
impossibility, for although a portion of her household had emigrated in
1847, she still had a large and, comparatively, helpless family--her
sons John and Joseph, mere boys, being her only support. Without teams
sufficient to draw the number of wagons necessary to haul provisions
and outfit for the family, and without means to purchase, or friends
who were in circumstances to assist, she determined to make the
attempt, and trust in the Lord for the issue. Accordingly every nerve
was strained, and every available object was brought into requisition.
Cows and calves were yoked up, two wagons lashed together, and a team
barely sufficient to draw one was hitched on to them, and in this
manner they rolled out from winter quarters some time in May. After a
series of the most amusing and trying circumstances, such as sticking
in the mud, doubling teams up all the little hills, and crashing at
ungovernable speed down the opposite sides, breaking wagon-tongues and
reaches, upsetting, and vainly trying to control wild steers, heifers,
and unbroken cows, they finally succeeded in reaching the Elk Horn,
where the companies were being organized for the plains.
Here Widow Smith reported herself to President Kimball as having
"started for the valley." Meantime, she had left no stone unturned or
problem untried, which promised assistance in effecting the necessary
preparations for the journey. She had done to her utmost, and still the
way looked dark and impossible.
President Kimball consigned her to Captain ----'s fifty. The captain was
present. Said he:
"Widow Smith, how many wagons have you?"
"Seven."
"How many yokes of oxen have you?"
"Four," and so many cows and calves.
"Well," said the captain, "it is folly for you to start in this manner;
you never can make the journey, and if you try it you will be a burden
upon the company the whole way. My advice to you is, to go back to
winter quarters and wait till you can get help."
Widow Smith calmly replied: "Father ----" (he was an aged man), "I will
beat you to the valley, and will ask no help from you either!"
This seemed to nettle the old gentleman, and it doubtless influenced
his conduct toward her during the journey.
While lying at Elk Horn she sent back and succeeded in buying on
credit, and hiring for the journey, several yoke of oxen from brethren
who were not able to emigrate that year, and when the companies were
ready to start she and her family were somewhat better prepared for the
journey, and rolled out with lighter hearts and better prospects than
favored their egress from winter quarters.
As they journeyed on the captain lost no opportunity to vent his
spleen on the widow and her family; but she prayerfully maintained
her integrity of purpose, and pushed vigorously on, despite several
discouraging circumstances.
One day, as they were moving slowly through the hot sand and dust,
in the neighborhood of the Sweetwater, the sun pouring down with
excessive heat, towards noon, one of Widow Smith's best oxen laid
down in the yoke, rolled over on his side, and stiffened out his legs
spasmodically, evidently in the throes of death. The unanimous opinion
was that he was poisoned. All the hindmost teams of course stopped, the
people coming forward to know what was the matter. In a short time the
captain, who was in advance of the company, perceiving that something
was wrong, came to the spot. Probably no one supposed for a moment that
the ox would recover, and the captain's first words on seeing him were:
"He is dead, there is no use working with him; we'll have to fix up
some way to take the widow along; I told her she would be a burden upon
the company."
Meantime Widow Smith had been searching for a bottle of consecrated
oil in one of the wagons, and now came forward with it, and asked her
brother, Joseph Fielding, and the other brethren, to administer to the
ox, thinking that the Lord would raise him up. They did so, pouring
a portion of oil on the top of his head, between and back of the
horns, and all laid hands upon him, and one prayed, administering the
ordinance as they would have done to a human being that was sick. In
a moment he gathered up his legs, and at the first word arose to his
feet, and traveled right off as well as ever. He was not even unyoked
from his mate.
On the 22d of September the company crossed over "Big Mountain," when
they had the first glimpse of Salt Lake Valley. Every heart rejoiced,
and with lingering fondness they gazed upon the goal of their wearisome
journey. The descent of the western side of "Big Mountain" was
precipitous and abrupt, and they were obliged to rough lock the hind
wheels of the wagons, and, as they were not needed, the forward cattle
were turned loose to be driven to camp, the "wheelers" only being
retained on the wagons. Desirous of shortening the next day's journey
as much as possible, they drove on till a late hour in the night, and
finally camped near the eastern foot of the "Little Mountain." During
this night's drive several of Widow Smith's cows, that had been turned
loose from the teams, were lost in the brush. Early next morning her
son John returned to hunt for them, their service in the teams being
necessary to proceed.
At an earlier hour than usual the captain gave orders for the company
to start, knowing well the circumstances of the widow, and that she
would be obliged to remain till John returned with the lost cattle.
Accordingly the company rolled out, leaving her and her family alone.
Hours passed by ere John returned with the lost cattle, and the company
could be seen toiling along far up the mountain. And to human ken it
seemed probable that the widow's prediction would ingloriously fail.
But as the company were nearing the summit of the mountain a cloud
burst over their heads, sending down the rain in torrents, and throwing
them into utter confusion. The cattle refused to pull, and to save
the wagons from crashing down the mountain side, they were obliged to
unhitch, and block the wheels. While the teamsters sought shelter, the
storm drove the cattle in every direction, so that when it subsided
it was a day's work to find them and get them together. Meantime, as
noted, John had returned with the stray cattle, and they were hitched
up, and the widow and family rolled up the mountain, passing the
company and continuing on to the valley, where she arrived fully twenty
hours in advance of the captain. And thus was her prophesy fulfilled.
She kept her husband's family together after her arrival in the valley,
and her prosperity was unparalleled. At her death, which occurred
September 21st, 1852, she left them comfortably provided for, and in
possession of every educational endowment that the facilities of the
times would permit.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
UTAH IN THE EARLY DAYS--PRESIDENT YOUNG'S PRIMITIVE HOME--RAISING THE
STARS AND STRIPES ON MEXICAN SOIL--THE HISTORICAL THREAD UP TO THE
PERIOD OF THE "UTAH WAR."
The early days in the valley are thus described by Eliza R. Snow:
"Our first winter in the mountains was delightful; the ground froze
but little; our coldest weather was three or four days in November,
after which the men plowed and sowed, built houses, etc. The weather
seemed to have been particularly ordered to meet our very peculiar
circumstances. Every labor, such as cultivating the ground, procuring
fuel and timber from the canyons, etc., was a matter of experiment.
Most of us were houseless; and what the result would have been, had
that winter been like the succeeding ones, may well be conjectured.
"President Young had kindly made arrangements for me to live with his
wife, Clara Decker, who came with the pioneers, and was living in a
log-house about eighteen feet square, which constituted a portion
of the east side of our fort. This hut, like most of those built
the first year, was roofed with willows and earth, the roof having
but little pitch, the first-comers having adopted the idea that the
valley was subject to little if any rain, and our roofs were nearly
flat. We suffered no inconvenience from this fact until about the
middle of March, when a long storm of snow, sleet and rain occurred,
and for several days the sun did not make its appearance. The roof
of our dwelling was covered deeper with earth than the adjoining
ones, consequently it did not leak so soon, and some of my neighbors
huddled in for shelter; but one evening, when several were socially
sitting around, the water commenced dripping in one place, and then in
another; they dodged it for awhile, but it increased so rapidly that
they finally concluded they might as well go to their own wet houses.
After they had gone I spread my umbrella over my head and shoulders as
I ensconced myself in bed, the lower part of which, not shielded by
the umbrella, was wet enough before morning. The earth overhead was
thoroughly saturated, and after it commenced to drip the storm was much
worse indoors than out.
"The small amount of breadstuff brought over the plains was sparingly
dealt out; and our beef, made of cows and oxen which had constituted
our teams, was, before it had time to fatten on the dry mountain grass,
very inferior. Those to whom it yielded sufficient fat to grease their
griddles, were considered particularly fortunate. But we were happy
in the rich blessings of peace, which, in the spirit of brotherly and
sisterly union, we mutually enjoyed in our wild mountain home.
"Before we left winter quarters, a committee, appointed for the
purpose, inspected the provisions of each family, in order to ascertain
that all were provided with at least a moderate competency of flour,
etc. The amount of flour calculated to be necessary was apportioned at
the rate of three-quarters of a pound for adults and one-half pound
per day for children. A portion of the battalion having been disbanded
on the Pacific coast, destitute of pay for their services, joined us
before spring, and we cheerfully divided our rations of flour with
them, which put us on still shorter allowance.
"Soon after our arrival in the valley, a tall liberty-pole was erected,
and from its summit (although planted in Mexican soil), the stars and
stripes seemed to float with even more significance, if possible, than
they were wont to do on Eastern breezes.
"I love that flag. When in my childish glee--
A prattling girl, upon my grandsire's knee--
I heard him tell strange tales, with valor rife,
How that same flag was bought with blood and life.
"And his tall form seemed taller when he said,
'Child, for that flag thy grandsire fought and bled.'
My young heart felt that every scar he wore,
Caused him to prize that banner more and more.
"I caught the fire, and as in years I grew,
I loved the flag; I loved my country too.
* * * * * *
"There came a time that I remember well--
Beneath the stars and stripes we could not dwell!
We had to flee; but in our hasty flight
We grasped the flag with more than mortal might;
"And vowed, although our foes should us bereave
Of all things else, the flag we would not leave.
We took the flag; and journeying to the West,
We wore its motto graven on each breast."
The personal narrative, up to the period of the Utah war, is thus
continued by Bathsheba W. Smith:
"In 1856 my husband was sent as delegate to Washington, by vote of the
people of the Territory, to ask for the admission of Utah as a State.
In May, 1857, he returned. Congress would not admit Utah into the
Union. On his journey East his horse failed, and he had to walk about
five hundred miles on the plains. This made him very foot-sore, as he
was a heavy man.
"On the 24th of July, 1857, I was in company with my husband and a
goodly number of others at the Big Cottonwood Lake, near the head of
Big Cottonwood Canyon, where we were celebrating the anniversary of the
arrival of the pioneers in Salt Lake Valley, when word was brought to
us that the United States mail for Utah was stopped, and that President
James Buchanan was sending out an army to exterminate us. We turned to
hear what President Young would say. In effect he said: 'If they ever
get in, it will be because we will permit them to do so.'
"In September my husband went out into the mountains and stayed about
four weeks, assisting in conducting the correspondence with the leaders
of the invading army. Fear came upon the army, and they dared not come
face to face with our people; so they stayed out in the mountains,
while our people came home, excepting a few who remained to watch them.
"Soon after my husband's return, he married Sister Susan Elizabeth
West, and brought her home.
"About this time I was having a new house built. One day, in the
forenoon, I had been watching the men plastering it, and had been
indulging in the pleasant thoughts that would naturally occur on such
an occasion, when my husband came home and said it had been determined
in council that all of our people were to leave their homes and go
south, as it was thought wiser to do this than to fight the army.
Accordingly, on the last day of March, 1858, Sister Susan, myself, and
son and daughter, started south, bidding farewell to our home with much
the same feelings that I had experienced at leaving Nauvoo.
"Peace having subsequently been restored, we returned to Salt Lake
City on the third of July following. Instead of flowers, I found weeds
as high as my head all around the house. When we entered the city it
was near sunset; all was quiet; every door was shut and every window
boarded up. I could see but two chimneys from which smoke was issuing.
We were nearly the first that had returned. Being thus restored to my
home again, I was happy and contented, although I had but few of the
necessaries of life."
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE WOMEN OF MORMONDOM IN THE PERIOD OF THE UTAH WAR--THEIR
HEROIC RESOLVE TO DESOLATE THE LAND--THE SECOND EXODUS--MRS.
CARRINGTON--GOVERNOR CUMMING'S WIFE--A NATION OF HEROES.
For an example of the heroism of woman excelling all other examples of
history--at least of modern times--let us turn to that of the Mormon
women during the Utah war.
In the expulsions from Missouri, first from county to county, and
then _en masse_ from the State, undoubtedly the Mormons yielded to
the compulsion of a lawless mob, coupled with the militia of the
State, executing the exterminating order of Governor Boggs. It was an
example of suffering and martyrdom rather than of spontaneous heroism.
Something of the same was illustrated in the expulsion from Illinois.
It was at the outset nothing of choice, but all of compulsion. True,
after the movement of the community, inspired by the apostolic
forcefulness of Brigham Young and his compeers, swelled into a grand
Israelitish exodus, then the example towered like a very pyramid of
heroism; and in that immortal circumstance who can doubt that the
heroic culminated in the women?
But what shall be said of their example during the Utah war? Here were
women who chose and resolved to give an example to the civilized world
such as it had never seen. The proposed exodus from Utah was not in
the spirit of submission, but an exhibition of an invincible spirit
finding a method of conquest through an exodus. This was not weakness,
but strength. It was as though the accumulated might and concentrated
purposes of their lives were brought into a supreme action. The example
of the Utah war was in fact all their own. The Mormons were not
subdued. Had the issue come, they would have left Utah as conquerors.
"Tell the government that the troops now on the march for Utah shall
not enter the Great Salt Lake Valley. Tell the people of the United
States that should those troops force an entrance they will find Utah
a desert, every house burned to the ground, every tree cut down, and
every field laid waste. We will apply the torch to our own dwellings,
cut down those richly-laden orchards with our own hands, turn the
fruitful field again into a desert, and desolate our cities, with
acclamations."
Such was the tenor of the communication carried by Captain Van Vliet to
the government. And he had seen the whole people lift up their hands in
their tabernacle to manifest their absolute resolution to the nation,
and heard those acclamations in anticipation of their act.
The very nature of the case brought the women of Mormondom into supreme
prominence. _Their_ hands would have applied the torches to their
homes; they would have been the desolaters of the fast-growing cities
of Utah. The grandeur of the action was in these unconquerable women,
who would have maintained their religion and their sacred institutions
in the face of all the world.
The example of the wife of Albert Carrington will, perchance, be
often recalled, generations hence. Capt. Van Vliet, of the United
States Army, had arrived in Salt Lake City in the midst of the
troubles out of which grew the "war." He was received most cordially
by the authorities, but at the same time was given to understand that
the people were a unit, and that they had fully determined upon a
programme. The sisters took him into their gardens, and showed him the
paradise that their woman-hands would destroy if the invading army
came. He was awed by the prospect--his ordinary judgment confounded
by such extraordinary examples. To the lady above-mentioned, in whose
garden he was one day walking, in conversation with the governor and
others, he exclaimed:
"What, madam! would you consent to see this beautiful home in ashes
and this fruitful orchard destroyed?"
"Yes!" answered Sister Carrington, with heroic resolution, "I would not
only consent to it, but I would set fire to my home with my own hands,
and cut down every tree, and root up every plant!"
Coupled with this will be repeated the dramatic incident of Governor
Cumming's wife weeping over the scene of the deserted city after the
community had partly executed their resolution.
The saints had all gone south, with their leader, when Governor
Cumming, with his wife, returned from Camp Scott. They proceeded to the
residence of Elder Staines, whom they found in waiting. His family had
gone south, and in his garden were significantly heaped several loads
of straw.
The governor's wife inquired their meaning, and the cause of the
silence that pervaded the city. Elder Staines informed her of their
resolve to burn the town in case the army attempted to occupy it.
"How terrible!" she exclaimed. "What a sight this is! I shall never
forget it! it has the appearance of a city that has been afflicted with
plague. Every house looks like a tomb of the dead! For two miles I have
seen but one man in it. Poor creatures! And so all have left their
hard-earned homes?"
Here she burst into tears.
"Oh! Alfred (to her husband), something must be done to bring them
back! Do not permit the army to stay in the city! Can't you do
something for them?"
"Yes, madam," said he, "I shall do all I can, rest assured."
Mrs. Cumming wept for woman! But the women of Mormondom gloried in
their sublime action as they had never done before. They felt at that
moment that their example was indeed worthy of a modern Israel.
It thus struck the admiration of journalists both in America and
Europe. The Mormons were pronounced "A nation of heroes!" Those heroes
were twice ten thousand women, who could justly claim the tribute
equally with their husbands, their brethren and their sons.
CHAPTER XL.
MIRIAM WORKS AND MARY ANN ANGELL--SCENES OF THE PAST--DEATH-BED OF
MIRIAM--EARLY DAYS OF MARY--HER MARRIAGE WITH BRIGHAM--THE GOOD
STEP-MOTHER--SHE BEARS HER CROSS IN THE PERSECUTIONS--A BATTLE WITH
DEATH--POLYGAMY--MARY IN THE EXODUS AND AT WINTER QUARTERS--THE HUT IN
THE VALLEY--CLOSING A WORTHY LIFE.
The death-bed of a latter-day saint!
It was in the house of Heber C. Kimball, in the little town of Mendon,
N. Y., on the 8th of September, 1832. Principal around that glorious
death-bed were Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Vilate, his wife.
The dying saint was Miriam Works, first wife of Brigham Young--a man
of destiny, but then unknown in the great world. "In her expiring
moments," he says, "she clapped her hands and praised the Lord, and
called upon Brother Kimball and all around to also praise the Lord!"
--
On the 8th of June, 1803, in Seneca, Ontario county, N. Y., was born
Mary Ann Angell, now for forty-five years the wife of Brigham Young,
the mother of his eldest sons, and the faithful step-mother of the
daughters of Miriam Works.
Her parents early leaving her birthplace, Mary was brought up in
Providence, R. I. She was what in those days was denominated a pious
maiden, for her family was strictly of the old Puritan stock of the
country. She early became a Sunday-school teacher, and united with
the Free-Will Baptists. The study of the prophesies quite engrossed
her mind, and she was confidently looking for their fulfillment.
Her semi-ministerial duties as a Sunday-school teacher toned and
strengthened her early womanhood; and hence she resolved never to marry
until she met "a man of God" to whom her heart should go out, to unite
with him in the active duties of a Christian life. Thus it came about
that she remained a maiden until nearly thirty years of age. But the
providence that watched over her had chosen for her a husband.
It was during the year 1830 that Thomas B. Marsh came to Providence,
bringing with him the Book of Mormon. From him Mary obtained a copy,
and having prayerfully read it, became convinced that it was a work
of inspiration. After this she went to Southern New York, where her
parents were visiting, and there she and her parents were baptized by
John P. Greene--Brigham's brother-in-law. It was about this time that
the Youngs, the Greenes and the Kimballs came into the Church.
Alone, Mary set out for Kirtland, which had just become the gathering
place of the saints; and there she remained a year before Brigham and
Heber gathered with their families. Vilate Kimball was still acting the
part of a mother to the little daughters of Miriam. Through hearing
Brigham preach in Kirtland, Mary Angell became acquainted with him.
She had found her mate; he had found a mother indeed to his little
motherless Elizabeth and Vilate.
At the period of the famous march of the elders from Ohio to Missouri,
in 1834, to "redeem Zion" in Jackson county, Mary, now for over a year
the wife of Brigham Young, became the mother of his first son, Joseph
A., who was born October 14, 1834, just at the return of her husband,
after the disbanding of Zion's Camp. Thus during the most trying period
of her first year of marriage, was she left alone in the struggle of
life, providing for herself, and caring for her husband's motherless
girls.
But a still more trying period came to this excellent woman, after
her husband became a member of the quorum of the twelve, and when the
rebellion against Joseph arose in Kirtland. First the prophet and
Sidney Rigdon had to flee for their lives, and next Brigham Young had
to escape from Kirtland. Then came her severest struggle. She now had
five children to care and provide for the--two daughters of Miriam,
her Joseph A., and Brigham, Jr., with his twin sister, Mary Ann. Those
were dark days of persecution and want. The apostates and anti-Mormons
frequently searched her house for her husband, and the faithful in
Kirtland all had enough to do to sustain themselves, in the absence of
their shepherds, who were now refugees in Far West. At length, with
the five children, she reached her husband; but not long to rest, for
quickly came the expulsion from Missouri, in which period she broke
up her home many times before finally settling in Montrose, on the
opposite side of the river from Nauvoo.
Scarcely had Brigham and the twelve effected the exodus of the saints
from Missouri to Illinois, ere Joseph, having escaped from prison, sent
the twelve with its president to England, on mission.
On each side of the Mississippi, in cabins and tents, the Mormon people
lay, exhausted by their many expulsions; the multitude sick, many
dying, the vigor of life scarcely left even in their strong-willed
leaders. Thus lying on the river-side at Commerce and Montrose,
they presented a spectacle no longer suggestive of irresistible
empire-founders. Joseph was sick; Brigham was sick; the twelve were all
sick; the prophet's house and door-yard was a hospital. It was then
that the prophet, knowing that power must be invoked or the people
would perish, leaped from his sick bed, and entering first the tents
and cabins of the apostles, and bidding them arise and follow him, went
like an archangel through the midst of his disciples, and "healed the
multitude." It is a grand picture in the memory of the saints, being
called "The Day of God's Power." Reverse that picture, and there is
seen the exact condition of Mary Angell Young and the other apostles'
wives when the president and his quorum started on mission to England,
leaving them to the care of the Lord, and their brethren. It was a
period quite as trying to these apostolic sisters as that of the
exodus, afterwards. And to none more so than to Mary, who had now the
burden of six children to sustain during her husband's absence in a
foreign land.
The following entries in the president's journal embody a most graphic
story, easily seized by the imagination:
"We arrived in Commerce on the 18th (May, 1839), and called upon
Brother Joseph and his family. Joseph had commenced laying out the city
plot.
"23d--I crossed the Mississippi with my family, and took up my
residence in a room in the old military barracks, in company with
Brother Woodruff and his family.
"September 14, 1839--I started from Montrose on my mission to England.
My health was so poor that I was unable to go thirty rods, to the
river, without assistance. After I had crossed the river I got Israel
Barlow to carry me on his horse behind him, to Heber C. Kimball's,
where I remained sick 'till the 18th. I left my wife sick, with a babe
only ten days old, and all my children sick and unable to wait upon
each other.
"17th--My wife crossed the river, and got a boy with a wagon to bring
her up about a mile, to Brother Kimball's, to see me. I remained until
the 18th at Brother Kimball's, when we started, leaving his family also
sick."
Continue the picture, with the husband's absence, and the wife's noble,
every-day struggle to maintain and guard his children, and we have her
history well described for the next two years.
Taking up the thread again in September, 1841: "On my return from
England," says Brigham, in his diary, "I found my family living in a
small unfinished log-cabin, situated on a low, wet lot, so swampy that
when the first attempt was made to plough it the oxen mired; but after
the city was drained it became a very valuable garden spot."
The scene, a year later, is that of President Young at "death's door,"
and the wife battling with death to save her husband. He was suddenly
attacked with a slight fit of apoplexy. This was followed by a severe
fever. For eighteen days he lay upon his back, and was not turned upon
his side during that period.
"When the fever left me, on the eighteenth day," he says, "I was
bolstered up in my chair, but was so near gone that I could not close
my eyes, which were set in my head; my chin dropped down, and my breath
stopped. My wife, seeing my situation, threw some cold water in my
face and eyes, which I did not feel in the least; neither did I move
a muscle. She then held my nostrils between her thumb and finger, and
placing her mouth directly over mine, blew into my lungs until she
filled them with air. This set my lungs in motion, and I again began
to breathe. While this was going on I was perfectly conscious of all
that was passing around me; my spirit was as vivid as it ever was in my
life; but I had no feeling in my body."
Mary, by the help of God, had thus saved the life of President Young!
It was about this time that polygamy, or "celestial marriage," was
introduced into the Church. To say that it was no cross to these Mormon
wives--daughters of the strictest Puritan parentage--would be to mock
their experience. It was thus, also, with their husbands, in Nauvoo,
in 1842. President Young himself tells of the occasion when he stood
by the grave of one of the brethren and wished that the lot of the
departed was his own. The burden of polygamy seemed heavier than the
hand of death. It was nothing less than the potency of the "Thus saith
the Lord," and the faith of the saints as a community, that sustained
them--both the brethren and the sisters. Mary Angell gave to her
husband other wives, and the testimony which she gives to-day is that
it has been the "Thus saith the Lord" unto her, from the time of its
introduction to the present.
Scarcely necessary is it to observe that she was in the exodus. Seven
children were now under her care. Alice, Luna, and John W. were born in
Montrose and Nauvoo, while the twin sister of Brigham, Jr., had died.
With these she remained at winter quarters while the president led the
pioneers to the Rocky Mountains. Her benevolence to the poor at winter
quarters (and who of them were then rich!) is spoken of to this day.
Indeed, benevolence has ever been a marked trait in her life.
Then came the hut in the valley. The "heat and burden of the day" had
not passed. Full twenty years of struggle, self-sacrifice, and devotion
as a wife, uncommon in its examples, filled up the pages of "Sister
Young's history," as a latter-day saint, before the days of social
prominence came.
The hut in the valley, where she lived in 1849, is a good pioneer
picture. It stood on the spot where now stands her residence--the
"White House;" and some ten rods north-west of that location stood a
row of log-cabins where dwelt President Young's other wives, with their
children.
Since then the days of grandeur, befitting her station, have come;
but "Mother Young"--a name honored in her bearing--has lived most in
the public mind as the faithful wife, the exemplary mother, and a
latter-day saint in whose heart benevolence and native goodness have
abounded. She is now seventy-four years of age--closing a marked and
worthy life; and her latest expressed desire is that a strong testimony
should be borne of her faith in Mormonism, and the righteousness of her
husband in carrying out the revelation, given through Joseph Smith, on
polygamy, as the word and will of the Lord to his people.
CHAPTER XLI.
THE REVELATION ON POLYGAMY--BISHOP WHITNEY PRESERVES A COPY OF THE
ORIGINAL DOCUMENT--BELINDA M. PRATT'S FAMOUS LETTER.
It was nearly twenty-three years after the establishment of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that the revelation on celestial
marriage was published to the world. On the 6th of April, 1830, the
Church was founded on the 14th of September, 1852, the _Deseret News_
published an extra, containing the said revelation, the origin thus
dated: "Given to Joseph Smith, Nauvoo, July 12, 1843;" and in the
_Millennial Star_, January 1st, 1853, it was published to the saints of
the British mission.
No need here for a review of that document on plural marriage, nor
a sociological discussion of this now world-noised institution of
the Mormons; but as some persons have ascribed that institution to
President Young, and denied that Joseph Smith was its revelator, the
word of sisters who have been with the Church from the beginning shall
be offered as a finality upon the question of its origin.
Eliza R. Snow has already testified on the subject of her marriage to
the prophet Joseph, not by proxy, but personally, during his lifetime;
and all the Church know her as Joseph's wife. The daughters of Bishop
Partridge, and others, were also sealed to him in person, in the order
of celestial marriage.
A very proper one to speak here is Mother Whitney, for it was her
husband, Bishop Whitney, who preserved the revelation on polygamy.
Speaking of the time when her husband kept store for Joseph (1842-3),
she says: "It was during this time that Joseph received the revelation
concerning celestial marriage; also concerning the ordinances of the
house of the Lord. He had been strictly charged, by the angel who
committed these precious things into his keeping, that he should only
reveal them to such ones as were pure, and full of integrity to the
truth, and worthy and capable of being entrusted with divine messages;
that to spread them abroad would only be like casting pearls before
swine; and that the most profound secresy was to be maintained, until
the Lord saw fit to make it known publicly through his servants. Joseph
had the most implicit confidence in my husband's uprightness and
integrity of character, and so he confided to him the principles set
forth in that revelation, and also gave him the privilege of reading
and making a copy of it, believing it would be perfectly safe with
him. It is this same copy that was preserved in the providence of God;
for Emma (Joseph's wife), afterwards becoming indignant, burned the
original, thinking she had destroyed the only written document upon
the subject in existence. My husband revealed these things to me. We
had always been united, and had the utmost faith and confidence in
each other. We pondered upon the matter continually, and our prayers
were unceasing that the Lord would grant us some special manifestation
concerning this new and strange doctrine. The Lord was very merciful to
us, revealing unto us his power and glory. We were seemingly wrapt in a
heavenly vision; a halo of light encircled us, and we were convinced in
our own bosoms that God heard and approved our prayers and intercedings
before him. Our hearts were comforted, and our faith made so perfect
that we were willing to give our eldest daughter, then seventeen years
of age, to Joseph, in the order of plural marriage. Laying aside all
our traditions and former notions in regard to marriage, we gave her
with our mutual consent. She was the first woman given in plural
marriage with the consent of both parents. Of course these things had
to be kept an inviolate secret; and as some were false to their vows
and pledges of secresy, persecution arose, and caused grievous sorrow
to those who had obeyed, in all purity and sincerity, the requirements
of this celestial order of marriage. The Lord commanded his servants;
they themselves did not comprehend what the ultimate course of action
would be, but were waiting further developments from heaven. Meantime,
the ordinances of the house of the Lord were given, to bless and
strengthen us in our future endeavors to promulgate the principles
of divine light and intelligence; but coming in contact with all
preconceived notions and principles heretofore taught as the articles
of religious faith, it was not strange that many could not receive it.
Others doubted; and only a few remained firm and immovable."
On the publication of the revelation on polygamy, the theological
writers of the Church issued pamphlets, promulgating and defending the
"peculiar institution," as the Gentiles styled it. Orson Spencer issued
_Patriarchal Marriage_; Parley P. Pratt issued _Marriage and Morals in
Utah_; and Orson Pratt was sent to Washington to proclaim, at the seat
of government, the great social innovation. This was the origin of the
_Seer_, a periodical there issued by him. Among the various writings of
the times, upon the subject, was a tract entitled _Defence of Polygamy
by a Lady of Utah, in a Letter to her Sister in New Hampshire_. The
following are extracts from it, in which is strikingly made manifest
the fact that the sisterhood accepted polygamy upon the examples of the
Hebrew Bible, rather than upon any portion of the Book of Mormon:
"SALT LAKE CITY, January 12, 1854.
"DEAR SISTER:
"Your letter of October 2d was received yesterday. * * * It seems,
my dear sister, that we are no nearer together in our religious
views than formerly. Why is this? Are we not all bound to leave
this world, with all we possess therein, and reap the reward of our
doings here in a never-ending hereafter? If so, do we not desire
to be undeceived, and to know and to do the truth? Do we not all
wish in our hearts to be sincere with ourselves, and to be honest
and frank with each other? If so, you will bear with me patiently,
while I give a few of my reasons for embracing, and holding sacred,
that particular point in the doctrine of the Church of the Saints,
to which you, my dear sister, together with a large majority of
Christendom, so decidedly object--I mean a 'plurality of wives.'
"I have a Bible which I have been taught from my infancy to hold
sacred. In this Bible I read of a holy man named Abraham, who is
represented as the friend of God, a faithful man in all things,
a man who kept the commandments of God, and who is called in the
New Testament the 'father of the faithful.' I find this man had a
plurality of wives, some of whom were called concubines. I also
find his grandson, Jacob, possessed of four wives, twelve sons
and a daughter. These wives are spoken very highly of by the
sacred writers, as honorable and virtuous women. 'These,' say the
Scriptures, 'did build the house of Israel.' Jacob himself was also
a man of God, and the Lord blessed him and his house, and commanded
him to be fruitful and multiply. I find also that the twelve sons
of Jacob, by these four wives, became princes, heads of tribes,
patriarchs, whose names are had in everlasting remembrance to all
generations.
"Now God talked with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, frequently; and
his angels also visited and talked with them, and blessed them
and their wives and children. He also reproved the sins of some
of the sons of Jacob, for hating and selling their brother, and
for adultery. But in all his communications with them, he never
condemned their family organization; but on the contrary, always
approved of it, and blessed them in this respect. He even told
Abraham that he would make him the father of many nations, and
that in him and his seed all the nations and kindreds of the earth
should be blessed. In later years I find the plurality of wives
perpetuated, sanctioned, and provided for in the law of Moses.
"David, the psalmist, not only had a plurality of wives, but the
Lord spoke by he mouth of Nathan the prophet and told David that he
(the Lord) had given his master's wives into his bosom; but because
he had committed adultery with the wife of Uriah, and caused his
murder, he would take his wives and give them to a neighbor of his,
etc.
"Here, then, we have the word of the Lord, not only sanctioning
polygamy, but actually giving to King David the wives of his
master (Saul), and afterward taking the wives of David from him,
and giving them to another man. Here we have a sample of severe
reproof and punishment for adultery and murder, while polygamy is
authorized and approved by the word of God.
"But to come to the New Testament. I find Jesus Christ speaks very
highly of Abraham and his family. He says: 'Many shall come from
the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the
south, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the
kingdom of God.' Again he said: 'If ye were Abraham's seed, ye
would do the works of Abraham.'
"Paul the apostle wrote to the saints of his day, and informed them
as follows: 'As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ; and if ye are Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed,
and heirs according to the promise.' He also sets forth Abraham and
Sarah as patterns of faith and good works, and as the father and
mother of faithful Christians, who should, by faith and good works,
aspire to be counted the sons of Abraham and daughters of Sarah.
"Now let us look at some of the works of Sarah, for which she is so
highly commended by the apostles, and by them held up as a pattern
for Christian ladies to imitate.
"'Now Sarah, Abram's wife, bare him no children; and she had an
handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarah said unto
Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I
pray thee go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children
by her. And Abram harkened unto the voice of Sarah. And Sarah,
Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram
had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her
husband, Abram, to be his wife.' (Gen. xvi.; 1, 2, 3).
"According to Jesus Christ and the apostles, then, the only way to
be saved, is to be adopted into the great family of polygamists, by
the gospel, and then strictly follow their examples. Again, John
the Revelator describes the holy city of the Heavenly Jerusalem,
with the names of the twelve sons of Jacob inscribed on the gates.
"To sum up the whole, then, I find that polygamists were the
friends of God; that the family and lineage of a polygamist
was selected, in which all nations should be blessed; that a
polygamist is named in the New Testament as the father of the
faithful Christians of after ages, and cited as a pattern for all
generations. That the wife of a polygamist, who encouraged her
husband in the practice of the same, and even urged him into it,
and officiated in giving him another wife, is named as an honorable
and virtuous woman, a pattern for Christian ladies, and the very
mother of all holy women in the Christian Church, whose aspiration
it should be to be called her daughters.
"That Jesus has declared that the great fathers of the polygamic
family stand at the head in the kingdom of God; in short, that all
the saved of after generations should be saved by becoming members
of a polygamic family; that all those who do not become members
of it, are strangers and aliens to the covenant of promise, the
commonwealth of Israel, and not heirs according to the promise made
to Abraham.
"That all people from the east, west, north and south, who enter
into the kingdom, enter into the society of polygamists, and under
their patriarchal rule and covenant.
"Indeed no one can approach the gates of heaven without beholding
the names of twelve polygamists (the sons of four different women
by one man), engraven in everlasting glory upon the pearly gates.
"My dear sister, with the Scriptures before me, I could never find
it in my heart to reject the heavenly vision which has restored
to man the fullness of the gospel, or the latter-day prophets
and apostles, merely because in this restoration is included the
ancient law of matrimony and of family organization and government,
preparatory to the restoration of all Israel.
* * * * * *
"Your affectionate sister,
"BELINDA MARDEN PRATT.
"Mrs. Lydia Kimball, Nashua, N. H."
CHAPTER XLII.
REVELATION SUPPORTED BY BIBLICAL EXAMPLES--THE ISRAELITISH GENIUS OF
THE MORMONS SHOWN IN THE PATRIARCHAL NATURE OF THEIR INSTITUTIONS--THE
ANTI-POLYGAMIC CRUSADE.
Next after the revelation on celestial marriage, through Joseph the
prophet, the Bible of the Hebrews, and not the sacred record of the
ancients of this continent, must be charged with the authority, the
examples, and, consequently, the practice of polygamy in the Latter-day
Church. The examples of Abraham, Jacob, Solomon, and the ancients of
Israel generally, and not the examples of Nephi, Mormon, and their
people, whose civilization is now extinct, have been those accepted by
our modern Israel--examples of such divine potency that the women of
England and America, with all their monogamic training and prejudice,
have dared not reject nor make war against in woman's name.
Ever and everywhere is the genius of Mormonism so strikingly in
the Abrahamic likeness and image, that one could almost fancy the
patriarchs of ancient Israel inspiring a modern Israel to perpetuate
their name, their faith and their institutions. Who shall say that this
is not the fact? Surely this patriarchal genius of the Mormons is the
most extraordinary test of a modern Israel. Jerusalem, not Rome, has
brought forth the Mormons and their peculiar commonwealth.
And here it should be emphasized that polygamy had nought to do with
the expulsions of the Mormons from Missouri and Illinois. The primitive
"crime" of the Mormons was their belief in new revelation. Fifty years
ago that was a monstrous crime in the eyes of sectarian Christendom.
The present generation can scarcely comprehend how blasphemous the
doctrine of modern revelation seemed to this very nation of America,
which now boasts of ten to twelve millions of believers in revelation
from some source or other. Thus wonderful has been the change in fifty
years!
Viewed as a cause of their persecutions in the past, next to this
faith of the Mormons in Jehovah's speaking, was their rapid growth as
a gathered and organized people, who bid fair to hold the balance of
political power in several States. A prominent grievance with Missouri
and Illinois was exactly that urged against the growth of the ancient
Christians--"if we let them alone they will take away our name and
nation!"
Following down the record until the period of the Utah war, it is still
the fact that polygamy was not the cause of the anti-Mormon crusade. It
was not even the excuse of that period, as given by President Buchanan
and Congress. It was merely an Israelitish trouble in the world.
Soon after this, however, polygamy did become the excuse, both to
Congress and the dominant political party of the country, to take
action against the Mormons and their Israelitish institutions. In
framing the Chicago platform, the Republican party, just rising to
supremacy, made slavery one of its planks, and polygamy another. Upon
these "twin relics" they rode into the administration of the government
of the country.
Then came the anti-polygamic law of 1862, especially framed against the
Mormons. But it was found to be inoperative. Lincoln, who had known
many of them in the early days, let the Mormons alone.
The civil war was over. The South had succumbed. The work of
reconstruction was fairly in progress. The conquerer Grant, and his
administration, resolved to grapple with "polygamic theocracy," as they
styled it--if need be by the action and issues of another Mormon war.
First came Colfax to Zion, to "spy out the land." To the polygamic
saints he administered the gentle warning of a soft tongue, which,
however, concealed a serpent's sting. Returning east, after his famous
tour across the continent, he opened a theological assault upon Mormon
polygamy in the _New York Independent_, and soon became engaged in a
regular battle with apostle John Taylor. Returning to Zion, on his
second visit, the Vice-President actually preached an anti-polygamic
sermon to the Mormons, one evening, in front of the Townsend House,
in Salt Lake City, in which he quoted what he interpreted as
anti-polygamic passages from the Book of Mormon.
The scene changes to Washington. Colfax, Cullom, Grant and Dr. Newman
are in travail with the Cullom bill and anti-Mormon crusade.
The Cullom bill passed the House and went to the Senate. President
Grant had resolved to execute it, by force of arms, should the courts
fail. Vice-President Colfax, while in Utah, had propounded the serious
question, "Will Brigham Young fight?"
Congress and the nation thought that now the doom of Mormon polygamy
had come.
Suddenly, like a wall of salvation, fifty thousand women of Mormondom
threw themselves around their patriarchs and their institutions! A
wonderful people, these Mormons! More wonderful these women!
CHAPTER XLIII.
GRAND MASS MEETING OF THE WOMEN OF UTAH ON POLYGAMY AND THE CULLOM
BILL--THEIR NOBLE REMONSTRANCE--SPEECHES OF APOSTOLIC WOMEN--THEIR
RESOLUTIONS--WOMAN'S RIGHTS OR WOMAN'S REVOLUTION.
Probably the most remarkable woman's rights demonstration of the age,
was that of the women of Mormondom, in their grand mass-meetings,
held throughout Utah, in all its principal cities and settlements, in
January of 1870. And it was the more singular and complex, because
Utah is the land of polygamy--the only land in all Christendom where
that institution has been established--and that, too, chiefly by an
Anglo-Saxon people--the last race in the world that the sociologist
might have supposed would have received the system of plural marriage!
Hence, they have lifted it to a plane that, perhaps, no other race
could have done--above mere sexual considerations, and, in its
theories, altogether incompatible with the serfdom of woman; for the
tens of thousands of the women of Utah not only held their grand
mass-meetings to confirm and maintain polygamy, but they did it at the
very moment of the passage of their female suffrage bill; so that in
their vast assemblages they were virtually exercising their vote.
On the 13th of January, 1870, "notwithstanding the inclemency of the
weather, the old tabernacle," says the _Deseret News_, "was densely
packed with ladies of all ages, and, as that building will comfortably
seat five thousand persons, there could not have been fewer than
between five and six thousand present on the occasion."
It was announced in the programme that there were to be none
present but ladies. Several reporters of the press, however,
obtained admittance, among whom was Colonel Finley Anderson, special
correspondent of the _New York Herald_.
The meeting was opened with a very impressive prayer from Mrs.
Zina D. Young; and then, on motion of Eliza R. Snow, Mrs. Sarah M.
Kimball was elected president. Mrs. Lydia Alder was chosen secretary,
and Mrs. M. T. Smoot, Mrs. M. N. Hyde, Isabella Horn, Mary Leaver,
Priscilla Staines and Rachel Grant, were appointed a committee to draft
resolutions. This was done with executive dispatch; for many present
had for years been leaders of women's organizations. The president
arose and addressed a few pithy remarks to the vast assemblage. She
said:
"We are to speak in relation to the government and institutions under
which we live. She would ask, Have we transgressed any law of the
United States? [Loud "no" from the audience.] Then why are we here
to-day? We have been driven from place to place, and wherefore? Simply
for believing and practicing the counsels of God, as contained in the
gospel of heaven. The object of this meeting is to consider the justice
of a bill now before the Congress of the United States. We are not here
to advocate woman's rights, but man's rights. The bill in question
would not only deprive our fathers, husbands and brothers, of enjoying
the privileges bequeathed to citizens of the United States, but it
would deprive us, as women, of the privilege of selecting our husbands;
and against this we unqualifiedly protest."
During the absence of the committee on resolutions, the following
speech was delivered by Bathsheba W. Smith:
"_Beloved Sisters and Friends_: It is with no ordinary feelings that I
meet with you on the present occasion. From my early youth I have been
identified with the Latter-day Saints; hence, I have been an eye and
ear witness to many of the wrongs that have been inflicted upon our
people by a spirit of intolerant persecution.
"I watched by the bedside of the first apostle, David W. Patten, who
fell a martyr in the Church. He was a noble soul. He was shot by a
mob while defending the saints in the State of Missouri. As Brother
Patten's life-blood oozed away, I stood by and heard his dying
testimony to the truth of our holy religion--declaring himself to be
a friend to all mankind. His last words, addressed to his wife, were:
'Whatever you do, oh! do not deny the faith.' This circumstance made a
lasting impression on my youthful mind.
"I was intimately acquainted with the life and ministry of our beloved
prophet Joseph, and our patriarch Hyrum Smith.. I know that they were
pure men, who labored for the redemption of the human family. For six
years I heard their public and private teachings. It was from their
lips that I heard taught the principle of celestial marriage; and
when I saw their mangled forms cold in death, having been slain for
the testimony of Jesus, by the hands of cruel bigots, in defiance of
law, justice and executive pledges; and although this was a scene of
barbarous cruelty, which can never be erased from the memory of those
who witnessed the heartrending cries of widows and orphans, and mingled
their tears with those of thousands of witnesses of the mournful
occasion--the memories of which I hardly feel willing to awaken--yet I
realized that they had sealed their ministry with their blood, and that
their testimony was in force.
"On the 9th day of February, 1846--the middle of a cold and bleak
winter--my husband, just rising from a bed of sickness, and I,
in company with thousands of saints, were driven again from our
comfortable home--the accumulation of six years' industry and
prudence--and, with the little children, commenced a long and weary
journey through a wilderness, to seek another home; for a wicked mob
had decreed we must leave. Governor Ford, of Illinois, said the laws
were powerless to protect us. Exposed to the cold of winter and the
storms of spring, we continued our journey, amid want and exposure,
burying by the wayside a dead mother, a son, and many kind friends and
relatives.
"We reached the Missouri river in July. Here our country thought proper
to make a requisition upon us for a battalion to defend our national
flag in the war pending with Mexico. We responded promptly, many of
our kindred stepping forward and performing a journey characterized by
their commanding officer as 'unparalleled in history.' With most of
our youths and middle-aged men gone, we could not proceed; hence, we
were compelled to make another home, which, though humble, approaching
winter made very desirable. In 1847-8, all who were able, through
selling their surplus property, proceeded; we who remained were told,
by an unfeeling Indian department, we must vacate our houses and
re-cross the Missouri river, as the laws would not permit us to remain
on Indian lands! We obeyed, and again made a new home, though only
a few miles distant. The latter home we abandoned in 1849, for the
purpose of joining our co-religionists in the then far-off region,
denominated on the map 'the Great American Desert,' and by some later
geographies as 'Eastern Upper California.'
"In this isolated country we made new homes, and, for a time, contended
with the crickets for a scanty subsistence. The rude, ignorant, and
almost nude Indians were a heavy tax upon us, while struggling again
to make comfortable homes and improvements; yet we bore it all without
complaint, for we were buoyed up with the happy reflections that we
were so distant from the States, and had found an asylum in such an
undesirable country, as to strengthen us in the hope that our homes
would not be coveted; and that should we, through the blessing of
God, succeed in planting our own vine and fig tree, no one could feel
heartless enough to withhold from us that religious liberty which we
had sought in vain amongst our former neighbors.
"Without recapitulating our recent history, the development of a people
whose industry and morality have extorted eulogy from their bitter
traducers, I cannot but express my surprise, mingled with regret and
indignation, at the recent efforts of ignorant, bigoted, and unfeeling
men--headed by the Vice-President--to aid intolerant sectarians and
reckless speculators, who seek for proscription and plunder, and
who feel willing to rob the inhabitants of these valleys of their
hard-earned possessions, and, what is dearer, the constitutional boon
of religious liberty."
Sister Smith was followed by Mrs. Levi Riter, in a few appropriate
remarks, and then the committee on resolutions reported the following:
"_Resolved_, That we, the ladies of Salt Lake City, in mass-meeting
assembled, do manifest our indignation, and protest against the
bill before Congress, known as 'the Cullom bill,' also the one
known as 'the Cragin bill,' and all similar bills, expressions and
manifestoes.
"_Resolved_, That we consider the above-named bills foul blots on
our national escutcheon--absurd documents--atrocious insults to the
honorable executive of the United States Government, and malicious
attempts to subvert the rights of civil and religious liberty.
"_Resolved_, That we do hold sacred the constitution bequeathed us
by our forefathers, and ignore, with laudable womanly jealousy,
every act of those men to whom the responsibilities of government
have been entrusted, which is calculated to destroy its efficiency.
"_Resolved_, That we unitedly exercise every moral power and
every right which we inherit as the daughters of American
citizens, to prevent the passage of such bills, knowing that they
would inevitably cast a stigma on our republican government by
jeopardizing the liberty and lives of its most loyal and peaceful
citizens.
"_Resolved_, That, in our candid opinion, the presentation of the
aforesaid bills indicates a manifest degeneracy of the great men
of our nation; and their adoption would presage a speedy downfall
and ultimate extinction of the glorious pedestal of freedom,
protection, and equal rights, established by our noble ancestors.
"_Resolved_, That we acknowledge the institutions of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the only reliable safeguard of
female virtue and innocence; and the only sure protection against
the fearful sin of prostitution, and its attendant evils, now
prevalent abroad, and as such, we are and shall be united with our
brethren in sustaining them against each and every encroachment.
"_Resolved_, That we consider the originators of the aforesaid
bills disloyal to the constitution, and unworthy of any position of
trust in any office which involves the interests of our nation.
"_Resolved_, That, in case the bills in question should pass
both Houses of Congress, and become a law, by which we shall be
disfranchised as a Territory, we, the ladies of Salt Lake City,
shall exert all our power and influence to aid in the support of
our own State government."
These resolutions were greeted with loud cheers from nearly six
thousand women, and carried unanimously; after which, Sister Warren
Smith, a relict of one of the martyrs of Haun's Mill, arose, and with
deep feeling, said:
"_Sisters_: As I sat upon my seat, listening, it seemed as though, if
I held my peace, the stones of the streets would cry out. With your
prayers aiding me, I will try and make a few remarks." [See chapter
on Haun's Mill massacre, in which Sister Smith substantially covers
the same ground.] "We are here to-day to say, if such scenes shall be
again enacted in our midst. I say to you, my sisters, you are American
citizens; let us stand by the truth, if we die for it."
Mrs. Wilmarth East then said: "It is with feelings of pleasure,
mingled with indignation and disgust, that I appear before my sisters,
to express my feelings in regard to the Cullom bill, now before the
Congress of this once happy republican government. The constitution
for which our forefathers fought and bled and died, bequeaths to us
the right of religious liberty--the right to worship God according
to the dictates of our own consciences! Does the Cullom bill give
us this right? Compare it with the constitution, if you please, and
see what a disgrace has come upon this once happy and republican
government! Where, O, where, is that liberty, bequeathed to us by
our forefathers--the richest boon ever given to man or woman, except
eternal life, or the gospel of the Son of God? I am an American citizen
by birth. Having lived under the laws of the land, I claim the right
to worship God according to the dictates of my conscience, and the
commandments that God shall give unto me. Our constitution guarantees
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to all who live beneath
it. What is life to me, if I see the galling yoke of oppression placed
on the necks of my husband, sons and brothers, as Mr. Cullom would
have it? I am proud to say to you that I am not only a citizen of the
United States of America, but a citizen of the kingdom of God, and the
laws of this kingdom I am willing to sustain and defend both by example
and precept. I am thankful to-day that I have the honored privilege
of being the happy recipient of one of the greatest principles ever
revealed to man for his redemption and exaltation in the kingdom of
God--namely, plurality of wives; and I am thankful to-day that I know
that God is at the helm, and will defend his people."
A veteran sister, Mrs. McMinn, could not refrain from expressing
herself in unison with her sisters, in indignation at the bill. She was
an American citizen; her father had fought through the revolution with
General Washington; and she claimed the exercise of the liberty for
which he had fought. She was proud of being a latter-day saint.
In answer to an inquiry, she stated that she was nearly eighty-five
years of age.
Sister Eliza R. Snow then addressed the meeting, as follows:
"_My Sisters_: In addressing you at this time, I realize that the
occasion is a peculiar and interesting one. We are living in a land
of freedom, under a constitution that guarantees civil and religious
liberty to all--black and white, Christians, Jews, Mohammedans and
Pagans; and how strange it is that such considerations should exist as
those which have called us together this afternoon.
"Under the proud banner which now waves from ocean to ocean, strange
as it may seem, we, who have ever been loyal citizens, have been
persecuted from time to time and driven from place to place, until
at last, beyond the bounds of civilization, under the guidance of
President Young, we found an asylum of peace in the midst of these
mountains.
"There are, at times, small and apparently trivial events in the lives
of individuals, with which every other event naturally associates.
There are circumstances in the history of nations, which serve as
centres around which everything else revolves.
"The entrance of our brave pioneers, and the settlement of the
latter-day saints in these mountain vales, which then were only barren,
savage wilds, are events with which not only our own future, but the
future of the whole world, is deeply associated.
"Here they struggled, with more than mortal energy, for their hearts
and hands were nerved by the spirit of the Most High, and through his
blessing they succeeded in drawing sustenance from the arid soil; here
they erected the standard on which the 'star spangled banner' waved its
salutation of welcome to the nations of the earth; and here it will
be bequeathed, unsullied, to future generations. Yes, that 'dear old
flag' which in my girlhood I always contemplated with joyous pride, and
to which the patriotic strains of my earliest muse were chanted, here
floats triumphantly on the mountain breeze.
"Our numbers, small at first, have increased, until now we number one
hundred and fifty thousand; and yet we are allowed only a territorial
government. Year after year we have petitioned Congress for that which
is our inalienable right to claim--a State government; and, year after
year, our petitions have been treated with contempt. Such treatment as
we have received from our rulers, has no precedent in the annals of
history.
"And now, instead of granting us our rights as American citizens,
bills are being presented to Congress, which are a disgrace to men
in responsible stations, professing the least claim to honor and
magnanimity; bills which, if carried into effect, would utterly
annihilate us as a people. But this will never be. There is too much
virtue yet existing in the nation, and above all there is a God in
heaven whose protecting care is over us, and who takes cognizance of
the acts of men.
"My sisters, we have met to-day to manifest our views and feelings
concerning the oppressive policy exercised towards us by our republican
government. Aside from all local and personal feelings, to me it is a
source of deep regret that the standard of American liberty should have
been so far swayed from its original position, as to have given rise
to circumstances which not only render such a meeting opportune, but
absolutely necessary.
"Heretofore, while detraction and ridicule have been poured forth
in almost every form that malice could invent, while we have been
misrepresented by speech and press, and exhibited in every shade but
our true light, the ladies of Utah have remained comparatively silent.
Had not our aims been of the most noble and exalted character, and had
we not known that we occupied a standpoint far above our traducers,
we might have returned volley for volley; but we have all the time
realized that to contradict such egregious absurdities, would be a
great stoop of condescension--far beneath the dignity of those who
profess to be saints of the living God; and we very unassumingly
applied to ourselves a saying of an ancient apostle, in writing to the
Corinthians, 'Ye suffer fools, gladly, seeing that yourselves are wise.'
"But there is a point at which silence is no longer a virtue. In my
humble opinion, we have arrived at that point. Shall we--ought we--to
be silent, when every right of citizenship, every vestige of civil and
religious liberty, is at stake? When our husbands and sons, our fathers
and brothers, are threatened with being either restrained in their
obedience to the commands of God, or incarcerated, year after year,
in the dreary confines of a prison, will it be thought presumptuous?
Ladies, this subject as deeply interests us as them. In the kingdom of
God, woman has no interests separate from those of man--all are mutual.
"Our enemies pretend that, in Utah, woman is held in a state of
vassalage--that she does not act from choice, but by coercion--that we
would even prefer life elsewhere, were it possible for us to make our
escape. What nonsense! We all know that if we wished we could leave at
any time--either to go singly, or to rise _en masse_, and there is no
power here that could, or would wish to, prevent us.
"I will now ask this assemblage of intelligent ladies, do you know of
any place on the face of the earth, where woman has more liberty, and
where she enjoys such high and glorious privileges as she does here,
as a latter-day saint? No! The very idea of woman here in a state
of slavery is a burlesque on good common sense. The history of this
people, with a very little reflection, would instruct outsiders on this
point. It would show, at once, that the part which woman has acted in
it, could never have been performed against her will. Amid the many
distressing scenes through which we have passed, the privations and
hardships consequent upon our expulsion from State to State, and our
location in an isolated, barren wilderness, the women in this Church
have performed and suffered what could never have been borne and
accomplished by slaves.
"And now, after all that has transpired, can our opponents expect us
to look on with silent indifference and see every vestige of that
liberty for which many of our patriotic grandsires fought and bled,
that they might bequeath to us, their children, the precious boon of
national freedom, wrested from our grasp? They must be very dull in
estimating the energy of female character, who can persuade themselves
that women who for the sake of their religion left their homes, crossed
the plains with handcarts, or as many had previously done, drove ox,
mule and horse-teams from Nauvoo and from other points, when their
husbands and sons went, at their country's call, to fight her battles
in Mexico; yes, that very country which had refused us protection, and
from which we were then struggling to make our escape--I say those who
think that such women and the daughters of such women do not possess
too much energy of character to remain passive and mute under existing
circumstances, are 'reckoning without their host.' To suppose that we
should not be aroused when our brethren are threatened with fines and
imprisonment, for their faith in, and obedience to, the laws of God, is
an insult to our womanly natures.
"Were we the stupid, degraded, heartbroken beings that we have been
represented, silence might better become us; but as women of God, women
filling high and responsible positions, performing sacred duties--women
who stand not as dictators, but as counselors to their husbands, and
who, in the purest, noblest sense of refined womanhood, are truly their
helpmates--we not only speak because we have the right, but justice and
humanity demand that we should.
"My sisters, let us, inasmuch as we are free to do all that love and
duty prompt, be brave and unfaltering in sustaining our brethren.
Woman's faith can accomplish wonders. Let us, like the devout and
steadfast Miriam, assist our brothers in upholding the hands of Moses.
Like the loving Josephine, whose firm and gentle influence both
animated and soothed the heart of Napoleon, we will encourage and
assist the servants of God in establishing righteousness; but unlike
Josephine, never will political inducements, threats or persecutions,
prevail on us to relinquish our matrimonial ties. They were performed
by the authority of the holy priesthood, the efficiency of which
extends into eternity.
"But to the law and to the testimony. Those obnoxious, fratricidal
bills--I feel indignant at the thought that such documents should
disgrace our national legislature. The same spirit prompted Herod to
seek the life of Jesus--the same that drove our Pilgrim fathers to this
continent, and the same that urged the English government to the system
of unrepresented taxation, which resulted in the independence of the
American colonies, is conspicuous in those bills. If such measures are
persisted in they will produce similar results. They not only threaten
extirpation to us, but they augur destruction to the government. The
authors of those bills would tear the constitution to shreds; they are
sapping the foundation of American freedom--they would obliterate every
vestige of the dearest right of man--liberty of conscience--and reduce
our once happy country to a state of anarchy.
"Our trust is in God. He who led Israel from the land of Egypt--who
preserved Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace--who
rescued Daniel from the jaws of hungry lions, and who directed Brigham
Young to these mountain vales, lives, and overrules the destinies of
men and nations. He will make the wrath of man praise him; and his
kingdom will move steadily forward, until wickedness shall be swept
from the earth, and truth, love and righteousness reign triumphantly."
Next came a concise, powerful speech from Harriet Cook Young. She said:
"In rising to address this meeting, delicacy prompts me to explain the
chief motives which have dictated our present action. We, the ladies
of Salt Lake City, have assembled here to-day, not for the purpose
of assuming any particular political power, nor to claim any special
prerogative which may or may not belong to our sex; but to express
our indignation at the unhallowed efforts of men, who, regardless of
every principle of manhood, justice, and constitutional liberty, would
force upon a religious community, by a direct issue, either the course
of apostacy, or the bitter alternative of fire and sword. Surely the
instinct of self-preservation, the love of liberty and happiness, and
the right to worship God, are dear to our sex as well as to the other;
and when these most sacred of all rights are thus wickedly assailed, it
becomes absolutely our duty to defend them.
"The mission of the Latter-day Saints is to reform abuses which have
for ages corrupted the world, and to establish an era of peace and
righteousness. The Most High is the founder of this mission, and in
order to its establishment, his providences have so shaped the world's
history, that, on this continent, blest above all other lands, a free
and enlightened government has been instituted, guaranteeing to all
social, political, and religious liberty. The constitution of our
country is therefore hallowed to us, and we view with a jealous eye
every infringement upon its great principles, and demand, in the sacred
name of liberty, that the miscreant who would trample it under his feet
by depriving a hundred thousand American citizens of every vestige of
liberty, should be anathematized throughout the length and breadth of
the land, as a traitor to God and his country.
"It is not strange that, among the bigoted and corrupt, such a man and
such a measure should have originated; but it will be strange indeed if
such a measure find favor with the honorable and high-minded men who
wield the destinies of the nation. Let this seal of ruin be attached
to the archives of our country, and terrible must be the results. Woe
will wait upon her steps, and war and desolation will stalk through
the land; peace and liberty will seek another clime, while anarchy,
lawlessness and bloody strife hold high carnival amid the general
wreck. God forbid that wicked men be permitted to force such an issue
upon the nation!
"It is true that a corrupt press, and an equally corrupt priestcraft,
are leagued against us--that they have pandered to the ignorance
of the masses, and vilified our institutions, to that degree that
it has become popular to believe that the latter-day saints are
unworthy to live; but it is also true that there are many, very many,
right-thinking men who are not without influence in the nation; and to
such do we now most solemnly and earnestly appeal. Let the united force
of this assembly give the lie to the popular clamor that the women
of Utah are oppressed and held in bondage. Let the world know that
the women of Utah prefer virtue to vice, and the home of an honorable
wife to the gilded pageantry of fashionable temples of sin. Transitory
allurements, glaring the senses, as is the flame to the moth,
short-lived and cruel in their results, possess no charms for us. Every
woman in Utah may have her husband--the husband of her choice. Here we
are taught not to destroy our children, but to preserve them, for they,
reared in the path of virtue and trained to righteousness, constitute
our true glory.
"It is with no wish to accuse our sisters who are not of our faith that
we so speak; but we are dealing with facts as they exist. Wherever
monogamy reigns, adultery, prostitution and foeticide, directly or
indirectly, are its concomitants. It is not enough to say that the
virtuous and high-minded frown upon these evils. We believe they do.
But frowning upon them does not cure them; it does not even check
their rapid growth; either the remedy is too weak, or the disease is
too strong. The women of Utah comprehend this; and they see, in the
principle of plurality of wives, the only safeguard against adultery,
prostitution, and the reckless waste of pre-natal life, practiced
throughout the land.
"It is as co-workers in the great mission of universal reform, not
only in our own behalf, but also, by precept and example, to aid in
the emancipation of our sex generally, that we accept in our heart of
hearts what we know to be a divine commandment: and here, and now,
boldly and publicly, we do assert our right, not only to believe in
this holy commandment, but to practice what we believe.
"While these are our views, every attempt to force that obnoxious
measure upon us must of necessity be an attempt to coerce us in our
religious and moral convictions, against which did we not most solemnly
protest, we would be unworthy the name of American women."
Mrs. Hannah T. King followed with a stinging address to General Cullom
himself. She said:
"_My Dear Sisters_: I wish I had the language I feel to need, at
the present moment, to truly represent the indignant feelings of my
heart and brain on reading, as I did last evening, a string of thirty
'sections,' headed by the words, 'A Bill in aid of the Execution of
the Laws in the Territory of Utah, and for other purposes.' The 'other
purposes' contain the pith of the matter, and the adamantine chains
that the author of the said bill seeks to bind this people with, exceed
anything that the feudal times of England, or the serfdom of Russia,
ever laid upon human beings. My sisters, are we really in America--the
world-renowned land of liberty, freedom, and equal rights?--the land
of which I dreamed, in my youth, as being almost an earthly elysium,
where freedom of thought and religious liberty were open to all!--the
land that Columbus wore his noble life out to discover!--the land
that God himself helped him to exhume, and to aid which endeavor
Isabella, a queen, a woman, declared she would pawn her jewels and
crown of Castile, to give him the outfit that he needed!--the land of
Washington, the Father of his Country, and a host of noble spirits,
too numerous to mention!--the land to which the _Mayflower_ bore the
pilgrim fathers, who rose up and left their homes, and bade their
native home 'good night,' simply that they might worship God by a purer
and holier faith, in a land of freedom and liberty, of which the name
America has long been synonymous! Yes, my sisters, this is America but
oh! how are the mighty fallen!
"Who, or what, is the creature who framed this incomparable document?
Is he an Esquimaux or a chimpanzee? What isolated land or spot produced
him? What ideas he must have of women! Had he ever a mother, a wife,
or a sister? In what academy was he tutored, or to what school does he
belong, that he so coolly and systematically commands the women of this
people to turn traitors to their husbands, their brothers, and their
sons? Short-sighted man of 'sections' and 'the bill!' Let us, the women
of this people--the sisterhood of Utah--rise _en masse_, and tell this
non-descript to defer 'the bill' until he has studied the character of
woman, such as God intended she should be; then he will discover that
devotion, veneration and faithfulness are her peculiar attributes; that
God is her refuge, and his servants her oracles; and that, especially,
the women of Utah have paid too high a price for their present
position, their present light and knowledge, and their noble future,
to succumb to so mean and foul a thing as Baskin, Cullom & Co.'s bill.
Let him learn that they are one in heart, hand and brain, with the
brotherhood of Utah--that God is their father and their friend--that
into his hands they commit their cause--and on their pure and simple
banner they have emblazoned their motto, 'God, and my right!'"
The next who spoke was Phoebe Woodruff, who said:
"_Ladies of Utah_: As I have been called upon to express my views
upon the important subject which has called us together, I will say
that I am happy to be one of your number in this association. I am
proud that I am a citizen of Utah, and a member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have been a member of this church for
thirty-six years, and had the privilege of living in the days of
the prophet Joseph, and heard his teaching for many years. He ever
counseled us to honor, obey and maintain the principles of our noble
constitution, for which our fathers fought, and which many of them
sacrificed their lives to establish. President Brigham Young has always
taught the same principle. This glorious legacy of our fathers, the
constitution of the United States, guarantees unto all the citizens of
this great republic the right to worship God according to the dictates
of their own consciences, as it expressly says, 'Congress shall make
no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof.' Cullom's bill is in direct violation of this
declaration of the constitution, and I think it is our duty to do all
in our power, by our voices and influence, to thwart the passage of
this bill, which commits a violent outrage upon our rights, and the
rights of our fathers, husbands and sons; and whatever may be the final
result of the action of Congress in passing or enforcing oppressive
laws, for the sake of our religion, upon the noble men who have subdued
these deserts, it is our duty to stand by them and support them by our
faith, prayers and works, through every dark hour, unto the end, and
trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to defend us and all who
are called to suffer for keeping the commandments of God. Shall we,
as wives and mothers, sit still and see our husbands and sons, whom
we know are obeying the highest behest of heaven, suffer for their
religion, without exerting ourselves to the extent of our power for
their deliverance? No; verily no! God has revealed unto us the law of
the patriarchal order of marriage, and commanded us to obey it. We
are sealed to our husbands for time and eternity, that we may dwell
with them and our children in the world to come; which guarantees
unto us the greatest blessing for which we are created. If the rulers
of the nation will so far depart from the spirit and letter of our
glorious constitution as to deprive our prophets, apostles and elders
of citizenship, and imprison them for obeying this law, let them grant
this, our last request, to make their prisons large enough to hold
their wives, for where they go we will go also."
Sisters M. I. Horne and Eleanor M. Pratt followed with appropriate
words, and then Sister Eliza R. Snow made the following remarks:
"My remarks in conclusion will be brief. I heard the prophet Joseph
Smith say, if the people rose and mobbed us and the authorities
countenanced it, they would have mobs to their hearts' content. I
heard him say that the time would come when this nation would so far
depart from its original purity, its glory, and its love of freedom and
protection of civil and religious rights, that the constitution of our
country would hang as it were by a thread. He said, also, that this
people, the sons of Zion, would rise up and save the constitution, and
bear it off triumphantly.
"The spirit of freedom and liberty we should always cultivate, and
it is what mothers should inspire in the breasts of their sons, that
they may grow up brave and noble, and defenders of that glorious
constitution which has been bequeathed unto us. Let mothers cultivate
that spirit in their own bosoms. Let them manifest their own bravery,
and cherish a spirit of encountering difficulties, because they have
to be met, more or less, in every situation of life. If fortitude and
nobility of soul be cultivated in your own bosoms, you will transmit
them to your children; your sons will grow up noble defenders of
truth and righteousness, and heralds of salvation to the nations
of the earth. They will be prepared to fill high and responsible
religious, judicial, civil and executive positions. I consider it most
important, my sisters, that we should struggle to preserve the sacred
constitution of our country--one of the blessings of the Almighty, for
the same spirit that inspired Joseph Smith, inspired the framers of
the constitution; and we should ever hold it sacred, and bear it off
triumphantly."
Mrs. Zina D. Young then moved that the meeting adjourn _sine die_,
which was carried, and Mrs. Phoebe Woodruff pronounced the benediction.
CHAPTER XLIV.
WIVES OF THE APOSTLES--MRS. ORSON HYDE--INCIDENTS OF THE EARLY
DAYS--THE PROPHET--MARY ANN PRATT'S LIFE STORY--WIFE OF GEN. CHARLES
C. RICH--MRS. FRANKLIN D. RICHARDS--PHOEBE WOODRUFF--LEONORA
TAYLOR--MARIAN ROSS PRATT--THE WIFE OF DELEGATE CANNON--VILATE KIMBALL
AGAIN.
The life of Mrs. Orson Hyde is replete with incidents of the early
days, including the shameful occurrence of the tarring and feathering
of the prophet, which took place while he was at her father's house.
Her maiden name was Marinda M. Johnson, she being the daughter of John
and Elsa Johnson, a family well known among the pioneer converts of
Ohio. She was born in Pomfret, Windsor county, Vermont, June 28, 1815.
"In February of 1818," she says, "my father, in company with several
families from the same place, emigrated to Hiram, Portage county, Ohio.
In the winter of 1831, Ezra Booth, a Methodist minister, procured a
copy of the Book of Mormon and brought it to my father's house. They
sat up all night reading it, and were very much exercised over it.
As soon as they heard that Joseph Smith had arrived in Kirtland, Mr.
Booth and wife and my father and mother went immediately to see him.
They were convinced and baptized before they returned. They invited
the prophet and Elder Rigdon to accompany them home, which they did,
and preached several times to crowded congregations, baptizing quite a
number. I was baptized in April following. The next fall Joseph came
with his family to live at my father's house. He was at that time
translating the Bible, and Elder Rigdon was acting as scribe. The
following spring, a mob, disguising themselves as black men, gathered
and burst into his sleeping apartment one night, and dragged him from
the bed where he was nursing a sick child. They also went to the house
of Elder Rigdon, and took him out with Joseph into an orchard, where,
after choking and beating them, they tarred and feathered them, and
left them nearly dead. My father, at the first onset, started to the
rescue, but was knocked down, and lay senseless for some time. Here I
feel like bearing my testimony that during the whole year that Joseph
was an inmate of my father's house I never saw aught in his daily life
or conversation to make me doubt his divine mission.
"In 1833 we moved to Kirtland, and in 1834 I was married to Orson Hyde,
and became fully initiated into the cares and duties of a missionary's
wife, my husband in common with most of the elders giving his time and
energies to the work of the ministry.
"In the summer of 1837, leaving me with a three-weeks old babe, he,
in company with Heber C. Kimball and others, went on their first
mission to England. Shortly after his return, in the summer of 1838,
we, in company with several other families, went to Missouri, where we
remained till the next spring. We then went to Nauvoo. In the spring of
1840 Mr. Hyde went on his mission to Palestine; going in the apostolic
style, without purse or scrip, preaching his way, and when all other
channels were closed, teaching the English language in Europe, till
he gained sufficient money to take him to the Holy Land, where he
offered up his prayer on the Mount of Olives, and dedicated Jerusalem
to the gathering of the Jews in this dispensation. Having accomplished
a three-years mission, he returned, and shortly after, in accordance
with the revelation on celestial marriage, and with my full consent,
married two more wives. At last we were forced to flee from Nauvoo,
and in the spring of 1846, we made our way to Council Bluffs, where
our husband left us to go again on mission to England. On his return,
in the fall of 1847, he was appointed to take charge of the saints in
the States, and to send off the emigration as fast as it arrived in a
suitable condition on the frontiers; also to edit a paper in the church
interest, the name of which was _Frontier Guardian_.
"In the summer of 1852 we brought our family safely through to Salt
Lake City, where we have had peace and safety ever since.
"In 1868 I was chosen to preside over the branch of the Female Relief
Society of the ward in which I reside, the duties of which position I
have prayerfully attempted to perform."
--
Mary Ann Pratt deserves mention next. It will be remembered that
the apostle Parley P. Pratt lost his first wife at the birth of his
eldest son. He afterwards married the subject of this sketch, and she
becomes historically important from the fact that she was one of the
first of those self-subduing women who united with their husbands in
establishing the law of celestial marriage, or the "Patriarchal Order."
_She gave to her husband other wives_. Taking up the story of her life
with her career as a Latter-day Saint, she says:
"I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
in the spring of 1835, being convinced of the truthfulness of its
doctrines by the first sermon I heard; and I said in my heart, if
there are only three who hold firm to the faith, I will be one of that
number; and through all the persecution I have had to endure I have
ever felt the same; my heart has never swerved from that resolve.
"I was married to Parley P. Pratt in the spring of 1837, and moving
to Missouri, endured with him the persecution of the saints, so
often recorded in history. When my husband was taken by a mob, in
the city of Far West, Mo., and carried to prison, I was confined to
my bed with raging fever, and not able to help myself at all, with a
babe three months old and my little girl of five years; but I cried
mightily to the Lord for strength to endure, and he in mercy heard
my prayer and carried me safely through. In a few days word came to
me that my husband was in prison and in chains. As soon as my health
was sufficiently restored I took my children and went to him. I found
him released from his chains, and was permitted to remain with him.
I shared his dungeon, which was a damp, dark, filthy place, without
ventilation, merely having a small grating on one side. In this we were
obliged to sleep.
"About the middle of March I bid adieu to my beloved companion, and
returned to Far West to make preparations for leaving the State.
Through the kind assistance of Brother David W. Rogers (now an aged
resident of Provo), I removed to Quincy, Ill., where I remained until
the arrival of Mr. Pratt, after his fortunate escape from prison, where
he had been confined eight months without any just cause.
"Passing briefly over the intervening years, in which I accompanied my
husband on various missions, first to New York, and thence to England,
where I remained two years; and, returning to Nauvoo, our sojourn in
that beautiful city a few years, and our final expulsion, and the final
weary gathering to Utah; I hasten to bear my testimony to the world
that this is the church and people of God, and I pray that I may be
found worthy of a place in his celestial kingdom."
The tragedy of the close of the mortal career of Parley P. Pratt is
still fresh in the public mind. It is one of the terrible chapters of
Mormon history which the pen of his wife has not dared to touch.
--
Another of these "first wives" is presented in the person of Sister
Rich.
Sarah D. P. Rich, wife of Gen. Chas. C. Rich, and daughter of John and
Elizabeth Pea, was born September 23d, 1814, in St. Clair county, Ill.
In December, 1835, she became a member of the Church of Latter-day
Saints, and had the pleasure shortly after of seeing her father's
family, with a single exception, converted to the same faith. In 1837
they removed to Far West, Mo., where the saints were at that time
gathering. At this place she for the first time met Mr. Rich, to whom
she was married on the 11th of February, 1838. During the autumn of
1838, the mob having driven many of the saints from their homes in
the vicinity, she received into her house and sheltered no less than
seven families of the homeless outcasts. Among the number was the
family of Apostle Page, and it was during her sojourn with Mrs. Rich
that Apostle Page's wife died. Mrs. R. stood in her door and saw the
infamous mob-leader and Methodist preacher, Bogard, shoot at her
husband as he was returning from the mob camp under a flag of truce.
That night Mr. Rich was compelled to flee for his life, and she did
not see him again until she joined him three months later, on the
bank of the Mississippi, opposite Quincy. They made the crossing in
a canoe, the river being so full of ice that the regular ferry-boat
could not be used. From this place they removed to Nauvoo, where she
remained daring all the succeeding persecutions and trials of the
church, until February, 1846, when they were forced to leave, which
they did, with her three small children, crossing the Mississippi on
the ice. Journeying westward to Mount Pisgah, Iowa, they remained
during the following season, and planted and harvested a crop of corn.
In the spring of 1847 they removed to winter quarters, and six weeks
afterwards started out on the weary journey across the plains. She
arrived in Salt Lake Valley on the 2d of October, 1847, with the second
company of emigrants, of which her husband was the leader.
Since that time she has resided continually in Salt Lake City, with
the exception of a short sojourn in Bear Lake Valley, and has endured
without complaint all of the trials, privations and hardships incident
to the settlement of Utah. She is the mother of nine children, and is
well known as the friend of the poor, the nurse of the sick, and the
counselor of the friendless and oppressed among the people; and it
is needless to add that she has passed her life in the advocacy and
practice of the principles of that gospel which she embraced in the
days of her youth.
--
Mrs. Jane S. Richards, wife of the distinguished apostle, Franklin D.
Richards, and daughter of Isaac and Louisa Snyder, was born January
31st, 1823, in Pamelia, Jefferson county, N. Y. The prophet and
pilot of her father's house into the church was Elder John E. Page,
who brought to them the gospel in 1837, while they were living near
Kingston, Canada. The family started thence for Far West, Mo., in
1839, but were compelled by sickness to stop at La Porte, Indiana.
Here, through the faithful ministrations of her brother Robert, she
was restored from the effects of a paralytic stroke, and immediately
embraced the faith. In the autumn following (1840) she first saw young
Elder Richards, then on his first mission. In 1842, after her father's
family had moved to Nauvoo, she was married to Mr. Richards. In the
journey of the saints into the wilderness, after their expulsion
from Nauvoo, she drank to the bitter dregs the cup of hardship
and affliction, her husband being absent on mission and she being
repeatedly prostrated with sickness. At winter quarters President Young
said to her, "It may truly be said, if any have come up through great
tribulation from Nauvoo, you have." There her little daughter died,
and was the first to be interred in that memorable burying ground of
the saints. Here also her husband's wife, Elizabeth, died, despite the
faithful efforts of friends, and had it not been for their unwearied
attentions, Jane also would have sunk under her load of affliction and
sorrow.
In 1848, Mr. Richards having returned from mission, they gathered
to the valley. In 1849 she gave her only sister to her husband in
marriage. From that time forth until their removal to Ogden, in 1869,
hers was the fortune of a missionary's wife, her husband being almost
constantly on mission. In 1872 she accepted the presidency of the
Ogden Relief Society, which she has since very acceptably filled.
Among the noteworthy items of interest connected with her presidency
of this society, was the organization of the young ladies of Ogden
into a branch society for the purpose of retrenchment and economy in
dress, moral, mental and spiritual improvement, etc., which has been
most successfully continued, and is now collaterally supported by many
branch societies in the county. But her labors have not been confined
to Ogden alone. She has been appointed to preside over the societies
of Weber county; and, as a sample of her efforts, we may instance that
she has established the manufacture of home-made straw bonnets and
hats, which industry has furnished employment to many. Her heart and
home have ever been open to the wants of the needy; and the sick and
afflicted have been the objects of her continual care.
--
The closing words of the wife of Apostle Woodruff, at the grand
mass-meeting of the women of Utah, have in them a ring strongly
suggestive of what must have been the style of speech of those women
of America who urged their husbands and sons to resist the tyranny
of George III; throw off the yoke of colonial servitude, and prove
themselves worthy of national independence.
Phoebe W. Carter was born in Scarboro, in the State of Maine, March
8th, 1807. Her father was of English descent, connecting with America
at about the close of the seventeenth century. Her mother, Sarah
Fabyan, was of the same place, and three generations from England. The
name of Fabyan was one of the noblest names of Rome, ere England was a
nation, and that lofty tone and strength of character so marked in the
wife of Apostle Woodruff was doubtless derived from the Fabyans, Phoebe
being of her mother's stamp.
In the year 1834 she embraced the gospel, and, about a year after, left
her parents and kindred and journeyed to Kirtland, a distance of one
thousand miles--a lone maid, sustained only by a lofty faith and trust
in Israel's God. In her characteristic Puritan language she says:
"My friends marveled at my course, as did I, but something within
impelled me on. My mother's grief at my leaving home was almost more
than I could bear; and had it not been for the spirit within I should
have faltered at the last. My mother told me she would rather see me
buried than going thus alone out into the heartless world. 'Phoebe,'
she said, impressively, 'will you come back to me if you find Mormonism
false?' I answered, 'yes, mother; I will, thrice.' These were my
words, and she knew I would keep my promise. My answer relieved her
trouble; but it cost us all much sorrow to part. When the time came for
my departure I dared not trust myself to say farewell; so I wrote my
good-byes to each, and leaving them on my table, ran down stairs and
jumped into the carriage. Thus I left the beloved home of my childhood
to link my life with the saints of God.
"When I arrived in Kirtland I became acquainted with the prophet,
Joseph Smith, and received more evidence of his divine mission. There
in Kirtland I formed the acquaintance of Elder Wilford Woodruff, to
whom I was married in 1836. With him I went to the 'islands of the
sea,' and to England, on missions.
"When the principle of polygamy was first taught I thought it the most
wicked thing I ever heard of; consequently I opposed it to the best of
my ability, until I became sick and wretched. As soon, however, as I
became convinced that it originated as a revelation from God through
Joseph, and knowing him to be a prophet, I wrestled with my Heavenly
Father in fervent prayer, to be guided aright at that all-important
moment of my life. The answer came. Peace was given to my mind. I knew
it was the will of God; and from that time to the present I have sought
to faithfully honor the patriarchal law.
"Of Joseph, my testimony is that he was one of the greatest prophets
the Lord ever called; that he lived for the redemption of mankind, and
died a martyr for the truth. The love of the saints for him will never
die.
"It was after the martyrdom of Joseph that I accompanied my husband to
England, in 1845. On our return the advance companies of the saints had
just left Nauvoo under President Young and others of the twelve. We
followed immediately and journeyed to winter quarters.
"The next year Wilford went with the pioneers to the mountains, while
the care of the family devolved on me. After his return, and the
reorganization of the first presidency, I accompanied my husband on his
mission to the Eastern States. In 1850 we arrived in the valley, and
since that time Salt Lake City has been my home.
"Of my husband I can truly say, I have found him a worthy man, with
scarcely his equal on earth. He has built up a branch wherever he has
labored. He has been faithful to God and his family every day of his
life. My respect for him has increased with our years, and my desire
for an eternal union with him will be the last wish of my mortal life."
Sister Phoebe is one of the noblest of her sex--a mother in Israel.
And in her strength of character, consistency, devotion, and apostolic
cast, she is second to none.
--
A most worthy peer of sister Woodruff was Leonora, the wife of Apostle
John Taylor. She was the daughter of Capt. Cannon, of the Isle of Man,
England, and sister of the father of George Q. Cannon. She left England
for Canada, as a companion to the wife of the secretary of the colony,
but with the intention of returning. While in Canada, however, she met
Elder Taylor, then a Methodist minister, whose wife she afterwards
became. They were married in 1833. She was a God-fearing woman, and,
as we have seen, was the first to receive Parley P. Pratt into her
house when on his mission to Canada. In the spring of 1838 she gathered
with her husband and two children to Kirtland. Thence they journeyed
to Far West. She was in the expulsion from Missouri; bore the burden
of her family in Nauvoo, as a missionary's wife, while her husband was
in England; felt the stroke of the martyrdom, in which her husband
was terribly wounded; was in the exodus; was then left at winter
quarters while her husband went on his second mission to England; but
he returned in time for them to start with the first companies that
followed the pioneers. Sister Leonora was therefore among the earliest
women of Utah.
When the prospect came, at the period of the Utah war, that the saints
would have to leave American soil, and her husband delivered those
grand patriotic discourses to his people that will ever live in Mormon
history, Sister Taylor nobly supported his determination with the rest
of the saints to put the torch to their homes, rather than submit to
invasion and the renunciation of their liberties. She died in the month
of December, 1867. Hers was a faithful example, and she has left an
honored memory among her people.
--
Marian Ross, wife of Apostle Orson Pratt, is a native of Scotland,
and was reared among the Highlands. When about seventeen years of age
she visited her relatives in Edinburgh, where Mormonism was first
brought to her attention. She was shortly afterwards baptized near the
harbor of Leith, on the 27th of August, 1847. A singular feature of
Mrs. Pratt's experience was that in a dream she was distinctly shown
her future husband, then on his mission to Scotland. When she saw
him she at once recognized him. She made her home at Apostle Pratt's
house in Liverpool, for a short time, and then emigrated to America,
in 1851. After being in Salt Lake City a few months she was married
to Mr. Pratt. She testifies, "I have been in polygamy twenty-five
years, and have never seen the hour when I have regretted that I was
in it. I would not change my position for anything earthly, no matter
how grand and gorgeous it might be; even were it for the throne of a
queen. For a surety do I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he is a
prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God."
--
Another of these apostolic women, who with their husbands founded Utah,
is the wife of Albert Carrington. She was also in the valley in 1847.
Her grand example and words to Captain Van Vliet, when the saints were
resolving on another exodus, have been already recorded. A volume
written could not make her name more imperishable.
--
Nor must Artimisa, the first wife of Erastus Snow, who is so
conspicuous among the founders of St. George, be forgotten. She is one
of the honorable women of Utah, and the part she has sustained, with
her husband, in building up the southern country, has been that of
self-sacrifice, endurance, and noble example.
--
Mention should also be made of Elizabeth, daughter of the late Bishop
Hoagland, and first wife of George Q. Cannon. She has borne the burden
of the day as a missionary's wife, and has also accompanied her husband
on mission to England; but her most noteworthy example was in her truly
noble conduct in standing by her husband in those infamous persecutions
of the politicians, over the question of polygamy, in their efforts to
prevent him taking his seat in Congress.
--
Here let us also speak of the death of Sister Vilate Kimball, whose
history has been given somewhat at length in previous chapters. After
sharing with her husband and the saints the perils and hardships of
the exodus, and the journey across the plains, and after many years of
usefulness to her family and friends, she died Oct. 22d, 1867. She was
mourned by none more sincerely than by her husband, who, according to
his words, spoken over her remains, was "not long after her."
CHAPTER XLV.
MORMON WOMEN OF MARTHA WASHINGTON'S TIME--AUNT RHODA RICHARDS--WIFE OF
THE FIRST MORMON BISHOP--HONORABLE WOMEN OF ZION.
The heroic conduct of the Mormon women, in their eventful history,
is not strange, nor their trained sentiments of religious liberty
exaggerated in the action of their lives; for it must not be forgotten
that many a sister among the Latter-day Saints had lived in the time
of the Revolution, and had shown examples not unworthy of Martha
Washington herself. Of course those women of the Revolution are now
sleeping with the just, for nearly fifty years, have passed since the
rise of the church, but there are still left those who can remember
the father of their country, and the mothers who inspired the war of
independence. We have such an one to present in the person of Aunt
Rhoda Richards, the sister of Willard, the apostle, and first cousin of
Brigham Young.
Scarcely had the British evacuated New York, and Washington returned
to his home at Mount Vernon, when Rhoda Richards was born. She was the
sister of Phineas, Levi, and Willard Richards--three of illustrious
memory in the Mormon Church--was born August 8th, 1784, at Hopkington,
Mass., and now, at the advanced age of ninety-three, thus speaks of her
life and works. She says:
"During the early years of my life I was much afflicted with sickness,
but, through the mercies and blessings of my Heavenly Father, at the
advanced age of nearly ninety-three, I live, and am privileged to bear
my individual testimony, that for myself I know that Joseph Smith was
a true prophet of the living God; and that the work which he, as an
humble instrument in the hands of God, commenced in this, the evening
of time, will not be cut short, save as the Lord himself, according to
his promise, shall cut short his work in righteousness.
"My first knowledge of the Mormons was gained through my cousin, Joseph
Young, though I had previously heard many strange things concerning
them. I lay on a bed of sickness, unable to sit up, when Cousin
Joseph came to visit at my father's house. I remember distinctly how
cautiously my mother broached the subject of the new religion to him.
Said she, 'Joseph, I have heard that some of the children of my sister,
Abigail Young, have joined the Mormons. How is it?' Joseph replied, 'It
is true, Aunt Richards, and I am one of them!' It was Sabbath day, and
in the morning Cousin Joseph attended church with my parents; but in
the afternoon he chose to remain with my brother William, and myself,
at home. He remarked that he could not enjoy the meeting, and in reply
I said, 'I do not see why we might not have a meeting here.' My cousin
was upon his feet in an instant, and stood and preached to us--my
brother and myself--for about half an hour, finishing his discourse
with, 'There, Cousin Rhoda, I don't know but I have tired you out!'
When he sat down I remarked that meetings usually closed with prayer.
In an instant he was on his knees, offering up a prayer. That was the
first Mormon sermon and the first Mormon prayer I ever listened to.
I weighed his words and sentences well. It was enough. My soul was
convinced of the truth. But I waited a year before being baptized.
During that time I read the books of the church, and also saw and heard
other elders, among whom was my cousin, Brigham Young, and my brothers,
Phineas, Levi, and Willard; all of which served to strengthen my faith
and brighten my understanding.
"A short time after I was baptized and confirmed I was greatly
afflicted with the raging of a cancer, about to break out in my face.
I knew too well the symptoms, having had one removed previously. The
agony of such an operation, only those who have passed through a like
experience can ever imagine. The idea of again passing through a like
physical suffering seemed almost more than humanity could endure.
One Sabbath, after the close of the morning service, I spoke to the
presiding elder, and acquainted him with my situation, requesting that
I might be administered to, according to the pattern that God had
given, that the cancer might be rebuked and my body healed. The elder
called upon the sisters present to unite their faith and prayers in my
behalf, and upon the brethren to come forward and lay their hands upon
me, and bless me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to my
desire. It was done, and I went home completely healed, and rejoicing
in the God of my salvation. Many times have I since been healed by the
same power, when, apparently, death had actually seized me as his prey.
I would not have it understood, however, that I have been a weakly,
sickly, useless individual all my life. Those who have known me can
say quite to the contrary. Some of our ambitious little girls and
working women would doubtless be interested in a simple sketch of some
few things which I have accomplished by manual labor. When myself and
my sisters were only small girls, our excellent mother taught us how
to work, and in such a wise manner did she conduct our home education
that we always loved to work, and were never so happy as when we were
most usefully employed. We knit our own and our brothers' stockings,
made our own clothes, braided and sewed straw hats and bonnets, carded,
spun, wove, kept house, and did everything that girls and women of a
self-sustaining community would need to do. The day that I was thirteen
years old I wove thirteen yards of cloth; and in twenty months, during
which time I celebrated my eightieth birthday, I carded twenty weight
of cotton, spun two hundred and fifteen balls of candlewicking, and
two hundred run of yarn, prepared for the weaver's loom; besides doing
my housework, knitting socks, and making shirts for 'my boys' (some
of the sons of my brothers). I merely make mention of these things as
samples of what my life-work has been. I never was an idler, but have
tried to be useful in my humble way, 'doing what my hands found to do
with my might.' I now begin to feel the weight of years upon me, and
can no longer do as I have done in former years for those around me;
but, through the boundless mercies of God, I am still able to wash and
iron my own clothes, do up my lace caps, and write my own letters. My
memory is good, and as a general thing I feel well in body and mind. I
have witnessed the death of many near and dear friends, both old and
young. In my young days I buried my first and only love, and true to
that affiance, I have passed companionless through life; but am sure of
having my proper place and standing in the resurrection, having been
sealed to the prophet Joseph, according to the celestial law, by his
own request, under the inspiration of divine revelation."
A very beautiful incident is this latter--the memory of her early
love, for whose sake she kept sacred her maiden life. The passage is
exquisite in sentiment, although emanating from a heart that has known
the joys and sorrows of nearly a hundred years.
--
Lydia Partridge, the aged relict of the first bishop of the Mormon
Church, may well accompany the venerable sister of Willard Richards.
She was born September 26, 1793, in the town of Marlboro, Mass., her
parents' names being Joseph Clisbee and Merriam Howe. The course of
events [finally?] brought her to Ohio, where she made the acquaintance
of, and married, Edward Partridge. Her husband and herself were
proselyted into the Campbellite persuasion by Sidney Rigdon; but
they soon afterwards became converts to Mormonism, and Mr. Partridge
thereupon commenced his career as a laborer in the ministry of the
church. They were among the first families to locate in Missouri,
and also among the first to feel the sting of persecution in that
State. Removing finally to Nauvoo, her husband there died. In the
after-wanderings of the saints in search of a home in the wilderness
she accompanied them. It may be briefly said of her that now, after
forty-five years in the church, she is as firm and steadfast as ever in
her faith, and is one of the staunchest advocates of polygamy.
--
Next comes Margaret T. M. Smoot, wife of Bishop Smoot, with the
testimony of her life.
She was born in Chester District, South Carolina, April 16th, 1809.
Her father, Anthony McMeans, was a Scotchman by birth, emigrating
to America at an early age, and settling in South Carolina, where
he resided at the breaking out of the Revolutionary war. Fired with
patriotic zeal, he immediately enlisted in the ranks, and continued
fighting in the cause of liberty until the close of the war, when he
returned to his home, where he remained until his death. Her mother was
a Hunter, being of Irish extraction. Her grandfather Hunter also served
in the Revolutionary war, being an intimate friend of Gen. Washington.
For these reasons Mrs. Smoot is justly proud of her lineage. Her
husband, the bishop, being also of revolutionary descent, they as a
family well exemplify the claim made elsewhere, that the Mormons were
originally of the most honored and patriotic extraction.
She embraced the Mormon faith in 1834, and was married to Mr. Smoot
the following year, in the State of Kentucky. In 1837 they went to Far
West, Mo., and their history thence to Utah is the oft-told story of
outrage and persecution. It is proper to remark, however, that their
son, William, was one of the original pioneers, and that their family
was among the first company that entered the valley.
Sister Smoot is known in the church as one of the most illustrious
examples of the "first wives" who accepted and gave a true Israelitish
character and sanctity to the "patriarchal order of marriage;" while
the long-sustained position of her husband as Mayor of Salt Lake City,
enhances the effect of her social example.
--
A few incidents from the life of Sister Hendricks, whose husband was
wounded in "Crooked River battle," where the apostle David Patten fell,
may properly be here preserved.
Of that mournful incident, she says: "A neighbor stopped at the gate
and alighted from his horse; I saw him wipe his eyes, and knew that he
was weeping; he came to the door and said, 'Mr. Hendricks wishes you to
come to him at the Widow Metcalf's. He is shot.' I rode to the place,
four miles away, and there saw nine of the brethren, pale and weak from
their wounds, being assisted into the wagons that were to take them to
their homes. In the house was my husband, and also David Patten, who
was dying. My husband was wounded in the neck in such a manner as to
injure the spinal column, which paralyzed his extremities. Although he
could speak, he could not move any more than if he were dead."
Mr Hendricks lived until 1870, being an almost helpless invalid up to
that time. Their son William was a member of the famous battalion. Mrs.
H. still survives, and is the happy progenitress of five children,
sixty-three grandchildren, and twenty-three great-grandchildren.
--
The wife of Bishop McRae deserves remembrance in connection with an
incident of the battle of Nauvoo. When it was determined to surrender
that city, the fugitive saints were naturally anxious to take with them
in their flight whatever of property, etc., they could, that would
be necessary to them in their sojourn in the wilderness. It will be
seen at once that nothing could have been of more service to them than
their rifles and ammunition. Hence, with a refinement of cruelty, the
mobbers determined to rob them of these necessaries. They accordingly
demanded the arms and ammunition of all who left the city, and searched
their wagons to see that none were secreted. Mrs. McRae was determined
to save a keg of powder, however, and so she ensconced herself in her
wagon with the powder keg as a seat, covering it with the folds of her
dress. Soon a squad of the enemy came to her wagon, and making as if
to search it, asked her to surrender whatever arms and ammunition she
might have on hand. She quietly kept her seat, however, and coolly
asked them, "How many more times are you going to search this wagon
to-day?" This question giving them the impression that they had already
searched the wagon, they moved on, and Mrs. McRae saved her powder.
She still lives, and is at present a much respected resident of Salt
Lake City.
--
Mrs. Mary M. Luce, a venerable sister, now in her seventy-seventh
year, and a resident of Salt Lake City, deserves a passing mention
from the fact that her religion has caused her to traverse the entire
breadth of the continent, in order to be gathered with the saints.
She was a convert of Wilford Woodruff, who visited her native place
while on mission to the "Islands of the Sea" (Fox Islands, off the
Coast of Maine). In 1838, with her family, she journeyed by private
conveyance from Maine to Illinois, joining the saints at Nauvoo. This
was, in those days, a very long and tedious journey, consuming several
months' time. During the persecutions of Nauvoo, she was reduced to
extreme poverty; but, after many vicissitudes, was enabled to reach
Salt Lake City the first year after the pioneers, where she has since
continued to reside. In her experience she has received many tests
and manifestations of the divine origin of the latter-day work, and
testifies that "these are the happiest days" of her life.
--
Elizabeth H., wife of William Hyde, for whom "Hyde Park," Utah,
was named, was born in Holliston, Middlesex county, Mass., October
2d, 1813. She was the daughter of Joel and Lucretia Bullard, and a
descendant, on the maternal side, from the Goddards. Her mother and
herself were baptized into the Mormon faith in 1838, and they moved to
Nauvoo in 1841, where Elizabeth was married to Elder Hyde, in 1842. He
was on mission most of the time up to 1846, when they left Nauvoo, in
the exodus of the church. Her husband joined the Mormon battalion in
July following, returning home in the last month of 1847. In the spring
of 1849, with their three surviving children, they journeyed to Salt
Lake Valley, where they resided until about seventeen years ago, when
they removed to Cache Valley, and founded the settlement which bears
their name. Mr. Hyde died in 1872, leaving five wives and twenty-two
children. "It is my greatest desire," says sister Hyde, "that I may so
live as to be accounted worthy to dwell with those who have overcome,
and have the promise of eternal lives, which is the greatest gift of
God."
--
Nor should we forget to mention "Mother Sessions," another of the
last-century women who have gathered to Zion. Her maiden name was Patty
Bartlett, and she was born February 4th, 1795, in the town of Bethel,
Oxford county, Maine. She was married to David Sessions in 1812, and
survives both him and a second husband. Herself and husband joined the
church in 1834, moved to Nauvoo in 1840, and left there with the exiled
saints in 1846. In the summer of 1847 they crossed the plains to the
valley, Mrs. Sessions, although in her fifty-third year, driving a
four-ox team the entire distance.
Mother Sessions is a model of zeal, frugality, industry and
benevolence. When she entered the valley she had but five cents, which
she had found on the road; now, after having given many hundreds of
dollars to the perpetual emigration fund, tithing fund, etc., and
performing unnumbered deeds of private charity, she is a stockholder
in the "Z. C. M. I." to the amount of some twelve or thirteen thousand
dollars, and is also possessed of a competence for the remainder of
her days; all of which is a result of her own untiring efforts and
honorable business sagacity. As a testimony of her life she says, "I am
now eighty-two years of age. I drink no tea nor coffee, nor spirituous
liquors; neither do I smoke nor take snuff. To all my posterity and
friends I say, do as I have done, and as much better as you can, and
the Lord will bless you as he has me."
--
Mrs. R. A. Holden, of Provo, is another of the revolutionary
descendants. Her grandfather, Clement Bishop, was an officer in the
revolutionary war, was wounded, and drew a pension until his death.
Mrs. H., whose maiden name was Bliss, was born in 1815, in Livingston
county, N. Y., and after marrying Mr. Holden, in 1833, moved to
Illinois, where, in 1840, they embraced the gospel. Their efforts to
reach the valley and gather with the church form an exceptional chapter
of hardship and disappointment. Nevertheless, they arrived at Provo in
1852, where they have since resided; Mrs. Holden being, since 1867, the
president of the Relief Society of the Fourth Ward of that city.
--
Sister Diantha Morley Billings is another of the aged and respected
citizens of Provo. She was born August 23d, 1795, at Montague, Mass.
About the year 1815 she moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and there was married
to Titus Billings. Herself and husband and Isaac Morley, her brother,
were among the first baptized in Kirtland. They were also among the
first to remove to Missouri, whence they were driven, and plundered of
all they possessed, by the mobs that arose, in that State, against the
saints. Her husband was in Crooked River battle, standing by Apostle
Patten when he fell.
They reached Utah in 1848, and were soon thereafter called to go and
start settlements in San Pete. They returned to Provo in 1864, and in
1866 Mr. Billings died.
While living in Nauvoo, after the expulsion from Missouri, Mrs.
Billings was ordained and set apart by the prophet Joseph to be a
nurse, in which calling she has ever since been very skillful.
--
Mrs. Amanda Wimley, although but eight years a resident of Utah, was
converted to Mormonism in Philadelphia, in the year 1839, under the
preaching of Joseph the prophet, being baptized shortly afterward.
For thirty years the circumstances of her life were such that it was
not expedient for her to gather with the church; she nevertheless
maintained her faith, and was endowed to a remarkable degree with the
gift of healing, which she exercised many times with wonderful effect
in her own family. Journeying to Salt Lake City some eight years since,
on a visit merely, she has now fully determined to permanently remain,
as the representative of her father's house, to "do a work for her
ancestry and posterity."
--
Polly Sawyer Atwood, who died in Salt Lake City, Oct. 16th, 1876, is
worthy of a passing notice, because of her many good deeds in the
service of God. She was another of the last century women, being born
in 1790, in Windham, Conn. Her parents were Asahel and Elizabeth
Sawyer. Herself and husband, Dan Atwood, first heard the gospel in
1839, and were straightway convinced of its truth. They journeyed
to Salt Lake in 1850. Here she displayed in a remarkable manner the
works and gifts of faith, and was much sought after by the sick and
afflicted, up to the day of her death, which occurred in her 86th
year. It is worthy of mention that she was the mother of three men of
distinction in the church--Millen Atwood, who was one of the pioneers,
a missionary to England, captain of the first successful handcart
company, and a member of the high council; Miner Atwood, who was a
missionary to South Africa, and also a member of the high council; and
Samuel Atwood, who is one of the presiding bishops of the Territory.
--
In connection with Mother Atwood may also properly be mentioned her
daughter-in-law, Relief C. Atwood, the wife of Millen, who received
the gospel in New Hampshire, in 1843, and in 1845 emigrated to Nauvoo.
This was just before the expulsion of the church from that city, and in
a few months she found herself in the wilderness. At winter quarters,
after the return of the pioneers, she married Mr. Atwood, one of their
number, and with him in 1848 journeyed to the valley. Their trials
were at first nigh overwhelming, but in a moment of prayer, when
they were about to give up in despair, the spirit of the Lord rested
upon Mr. A., and he spoke in tongues, and at the same time the gift
of interpretation rested upon her. It was an exhortation to renewed
hope and trust, which so strengthened them that they were able to
overcome every difficulty. Her family has also received many striking
manifestations of the gift of healing--so much so that she now bears
testimony that "God is their great physician, in whom she can safely
trust."
--
Sister Sarah B. Fiske, who was born in Potsdam, St. Lawrence Co., N.
Y., in 1819, is another of revolutionary ancestry; her grandfathers,
on both paternal and maternal side, having served in the revolutionary
war. In 1837 she was married to Ezra H. Allen. Shortly thereafter they
were both converted to Mormonism, and in 1842 moved to Nauvoo. In the
spring of '43 they joined the settlement which was attempted at a place
called Shockoquan, about twenty-five miles north of Nauvoo. Journeying
with the saints on the exodus, she stopped at Mount Pisgah, while her
husband went forward in the battalion. Nearly two years passed, and
word came that the brethren of the battalion were coming back. With
the most intense anxiety she gathered every word of news concerning
their return, and at last was informed that they were at a ferry not
far away. She hastened to make herself ready and was about to go out to
meet him when the word was brought that her husband had been murdered
by Indians in the California mountains. She was handed her husband's
purse, which had been left by the Indians, and which contained his
wages and savings. This enabled her to procure an outfit, and in 1852
she journeyed to the valley.
--
Here let us mention another octogenarian sister in the person of Jane
Neyman, daughter of David and Mary Harper, who was born in Westmoreland
Co., Pa., in 1792. She embraced the gospel in 1838, and became at
once endowed with the gift of healing, which enabled her to work many
marvelous cures, among which may be mentioned the raising of two
infants from apparent death, they each having been laid out for burial.
Herself and family received an unstinted share of the persecutions of
the saints, in Missouri, and afterwards in Nauvoo, in which latter
place her husband died. Her daughter, Mary Ann Nickerson, then residing
on the opposite side of the river from Nauvoo, on the occasion of the
troubles resulting in the battle of Nauvoo, made cartridges at her
home, and alone in her little skiff passed back and forth across the
Mississippi (one mile wide at that point), delivering the cartridges,
without discovery. While the battle was raging she also took seven
persons, including her mother, on a flat-boat, and by her unaided
exertions ferried them across the river. This heroic lady is now living
in Beaver, Utah.
Mrs. Neyman, now in her 85th year, testifies concerning the truth of
the gospel as revealed through Joseph Smith: "I know it is the work of
God, by the unerring witness of the Holy Ghost."
--
Malvina Harvey Snow, daughter of Joel Harvey, was born in the State of
Vermont, in 1811. She was brought into the church under the ministry
of Orson Pratt, in 1833, he being then on mission in that section. Her
nearest neighbor was Levi Snow, father of Apostle Erastus Snow. The
Snow family mostly joined the new faith, and Malvina and her sister
Susan journeyed with them to Missouri. At Far West she was married
to Willard Snow, in 1837, and in about two years afterward they were
driven from the State. They settled at Montrose, but, while her husband
was on mission to England, she moved across the river to Nauvoo, the
mob having signified their intention to burn her house over her head.
In 1847 they started for Utah, from Council Bluffs, in the wake of the
pioneers, arriving in the valley in the fall of that year. Says Sister
Malvina, "My faithful sister, Susan, was with me from the time I left
our father's house in Vermont, and when we arrived in Utah my husband
took her to wife. She bore him a daughter, but lost her life at its
birth. I took the infant to my bosom, and never felt any difference
between her and my own children. She is now a married woman. In 1850 my
husband was called on mission to Denmark, from which he never returned.
He was buried in the Atlantic, being the only missionary from Utah
that was ever laid in the sea. I raised my five children to manhood
and womanhood, and have now lived a widow twenty-six years. Hoping to
finally meet my beloved husband and family, never again to part, I am
patiently waiting the hour of reunion. May the Lord Jesus Christ help
me to be faithful to the end."
--
Sister Caroline Tippits, whose maiden name was Pew, deserves to be
mentioned as one of the earlier members of the church, having embraced
the gospel in 1831. Shortly afterwards she joined the saints in Jackson
county, Mo., and during the persecutions that ensued, endured perhaps
the most trying hardships that were meted out to any of the sisters.
Driven out into the midst of a prairie, by the mob, in the month of
January, with a babe and two-years-old child, she was compelled to
sleep on the ground with only one thin quilt to cover them, and the
snow frequently falling three or four inches in a night. She came to
Utah with the first companies, and is reckoned among the most faithful
of the saints.
--
Julia Budge, first wife of Bishop William Budge, may be presented as
one of the women who have made polygamy honorable. She was born in
Essex, England, where she was baptized by Chas. W. Penrose, one of the
most distinguished of the English elders, who afterwards married her
sister--a lady of the same excellent disposition. The bishop is to-day
the husband of three wives, whose children have grown up as one family,
and the wives have lived together "like sisters." No stranger, with
preconceived notions, would guess that they sustained the very tender
relation of sister-wives. Their happy polygamic example is a sort of
"household word" in the various settlements over which the bishop has
presided.
--
Sister Nancy A. Clark, daughter of Sanford Porter, now a resident of
Farmington, Utah, has had a most remarkable personal experience as
a servant of God. When a little girl, less than eight years of age,
residing with her parents in Missouri, she, in answer to prayer,
received the gift of tongues, and became a great object of interest
among the saints. During and succeeding the persecutions in that State,
and while her father's family were being driven from place to place,
her oft-repeated spiritual experiences were the stay and comfort of all
around her. Her many visions and experiences would fill a volume. It is
needless to say that she is among the most faithful and devoted of the
sisterhood.
--
A pretty little instance of faith and works is related by Martha
Granger, the wife of Bishop William G. Young, which is worthy of
record. In September, 1872, the bishop was riding down Silver Creek
Canyon, on his way to Weber river, when he became sunstruck, and fell
back in his wagon, insensible. His horses, as if guided by an invisible
hand, kept steadily on, and finally turned into a farmer's barnyard.
The farmer, who was at work in the yard, thinking some team had strayed
away, went up to catch them, when he discovered the bishop (a stranger
to him) in the wagon. He thought at first that the stranger was
intoxicated, and so hitched the team, thinking to let him lay and sleep
it off. But upon a closer examination, failing to detect the fumes of
liquor, he concluded the man was sick, and calling assistance, took
him into the shade of a haystack, and cared for him. Still the bishop
remained unconscious, and the sun went down, and night came on.
Forty miles away, the bishop's good wife at home had called her
little seven-years-old child to her knee, to say the usual prayer
before retiring. As the little child had finished the mother observed
a far-off look in its eyes, and then came the strange and unusual
request: "Mother, may I pray, in my own words, for pa? he's sick."
"Yes, my child," said the mother, wonderingly. "Oh Lord, heal up pa,
that he may live and not die, and come home," was the faltering prayer;
and in that same moment the bishop, in that far-off farmer's yard,
arose and spoke; and in a few moments was himself praising God for the
succor that he knew not had been invoked by his own dear child.
CHAPTER XLVI.
MORMON WOMEN WHOSE ANCESTORS WERE ON BOARD THE "MAYFLOWER"--A BRADFORD,
AND DESCENDANT OF THE SECOND GOVERNOR OF PLYMOUTH COLONY--A DESCENDANT
OF ROGERS, THE MARTYR--THE THREE WOMEN WHO CAME WITH THE PIONEERS--THE
FIRST WOMAN BORN IN UTAH--WOMEN OF THE CAMP OF ZION--WOMEN OF THE
MORMON BATTALION.
Harriet A., wife of Lorenzo Snow, was born in Aurora, Portage Co.,
Ohio, Sept. 13, 1819. Her honorable lineage is best established by
reference to the fact that her parents were natives of New England,
that one of her grandfathers served in the Revolutionary war, and that
her progenitors came to America in the _Mayflower_.
At twenty-five years of age she embraced the gospel, and in 1846
gathered with the church at Nauvoo. In January, '47, she was married
to Elder Snow, and in the February following, with her husband and his
three other wives, crossed the Mississippi and joined the encampment of
the saints who had preceded them.
Thence to Salt Lake Valley her story is not dissimilar to that of the
majority of the saints, except in personal incident and circumstance.
A praise-worthy act of hers, during the trip across the plains,
deserves historical record, however. A woman had died on the way,
leaving three little children--one of them a helpless infant. Sister
Snow was so wrought upon by the pitiful condition of the infant, that
she weaned her own child and nursed the motherless babe. By a stupid
blunder of her teamster, also, she was one night left behind, alone,
with two little children on the prairie. Luckily for her, a wagon had
broken down and had been abandoned by the company. Depositing the
babes in the wagon-box, she made search, and found that some flour and
a hand-bell had been left in the wreck, and with this scanty outfit
she set about making supper. She first took the clapper out of the
bell, then stopped up the hole where it had been fastened in. This now
served her for a water-pitcher. Filling it at a brook some distance
away, she wet up some of the flour; then, with some matches that she
had with her, started a fire, and baked the flour-cakes, herself and
thirteen-months-old child making their supper upon them. She then
ensconced herself in the wagon with her babes, and slept till early
morning, when her husband found her and complimented her highly for her
ingenuity and bravery.
From the valley Apostle Snow was sent to Italy on mission, where he
remained three years. An illustrative incident of his experience on
his return, is worth telling. His return had been announced, and his
children, born after his departure, were as jubilant over his coming as
the others; but one little girl, although in raptures about her father
before he came, on his arrival felt somewhat dubious as to whether he
was her father or not, and refused to approach him for some time, and
no persuasion could entice her. At length she entered the room where
he was sitting, and after enquiring of each of the other children,
"Is that my favvy?" and receiving an affirmative response, she placed
herself directly in front of her father, and looking him full in the
face, said, "Is you my favvy?" "Yes," said he, "I am your father." The
little doubter, being satisfied, replied, "well, if you is my favvy,
I will kiss you." And she most affectionately fulfilled the promise,
being now satisfied that her caresses were not being lavished on a
false claimant.
Sister Snow, as will be perceived, was among the first to enter
polygamy, and her testimony now is, after thirty years' experience,
that "It is a pure and sacred principle, and calculated to exalt and
ennoble all who honor and live it as revealed by Joseph Smith."
--
Mrs. Elmira Tufts, of Salt Lake City, was born in Maine, in the year
1812. Her parents were both natives of New England, and her mother,
Betsy Bradford, was a descendant of William Bradford, who came to
America on the _Mayflower_, in 1620, and, after the death of Governor
Carver, was elected governor of the Little Plymouth Colony, which
position he held for over thirty years. Her father, Nathan Pinkham,
also served in the Revolution.
With her husband, Mrs. Tufts gathered to Nauvoo in 1842. With the body
of the church they shared the vicissitudes of the exodus, and finally
the gathering to the valley. Here Mr. Tufts died in 1850.
Mrs. T. had the pleasure of visiting the recent centennial exhibition,
and declares that this is the height and acme of America's grandeur.
"The grand display," she says, "which all nations were invited to
witness, is like the bankrupt's grand ball, just before the crash of
ruin."
--
Vienna Jacques was born in the vicinity of Boston, in 1788. She went
to Kirtland in 1833, being a single lady and very wealthy. When she
arrived in Kirtland she donated all of her property to the church.
She is one of the few women mentioned in the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants. Her lineage is very direct to the martyr John Rogers. She is
still living and retains all of her faculties.
--
The three women who came to the valley with the pioneers are deserving
of mention in connection with that event.
Mrs. Harriet Page Wheeler Young, the eldest of the three above
mentioned, was born in Hillsborough, N. H., September 7th, 1803. She
was baptized into the Mormon connection in February, 1836, at New
Portage, Ohio; went with the saints to Missouri, and was expelled from
that State in 1839; went from there to Nauvoo, and in the spring of
1844 was married to Lorenzo Dow Young, brother of President Young. She
was with her husband in the exodus; and, on the 7th of April, 1847,
in company with Helen Saunders, wife of Heber C. Kimball, and Clara
Decker, wife of President Young, accompanied the pioneers on their
famous journey to the valley of the Great Salt Lake.
They arrived in the valley on the 24th of July, 1847, and camped
near what is now Main street, Salt Lake City. Plowing and planting
was immediately commenced, and houses were soon reared in what was
afterwards called the "Old Fort." On the 24th of September, following,
she presented to her husband a son, the first white male child born in
the valley.
In the early days, as is well known, the new settlers of Salt Lake
were considerably troubled with Indian depredations. One day, when
"Uncle Lorenzo" was gone from home, and his wife was alone, an Indian
came and asked for biscuit. She gave him all she could spare, but he
demanded more, and when she refused, he drew his bow and arrow and
said he would kill her. But she outwitted him. In the adjoining room
was a large dog, which fact the Indian did not know, and Sister Young,
feigning great fear, asked the Indian to wait a moment, while she made
as if to go into the other room for more food. She quickly untied
the dog, and, opening the door, gave him the word. In an instant the
Indian was overpowered and begging for mercy. She called off the dog,
and bound up the Indian's wounds and let him go, and she was never
troubled by Indians again. Her dying testimony to her husband, just
before she expired, December 22d, 1871, was that she had never known
any difference in her feelings and love for the children born to him by
his young wives, and her own.
Sister Helen Saunders Kimball remained in the valley with her husband
and reared a family. She died November 22d, 1871.
Clara Decker Young is still living, and has an interesting family.
--
Here may very properly be mentioned the first daughter of "Deseret;"
or, more strictly speaking, the first female child born in Utah. Mrs.
James Stopley, now a resident of Kanarrah, Kane county, Utah, and the
mother of five fine children, is the daughter of John and Catherine
Steele, who were in the famous Mormon battalion. Just after their
discharge from the United States service they reached the site of Salt
Lake City (then occupied by the pioneers), and on the 9th of August,
1847, their little daughter was born. This being a proper historical
incident, inasmuch as she was the first white child born in the valley,
it may be interesting to note that the event occurred on the east side
of what is now known as Temple Block, at 4 o'clock A. M., of the day
mentioned. In honor of President Brigham Young, she was named Young
Elizabeth. Her father writes of her at that time as being "a stout,
healthy child, and of a most amiable disposition."
--
Among the veteran sisters whose names should be preserved to history,
are Mrs. Mary Snow Gates, Mrs. Charlotte Alvord, and Mrs. Diana Drake.
They are uniques of Mormon history, being the three women who, with
"Zion's Camp," went up from Kirtland to Missouri, "to redeem Zion."
Their lives have been singularly eventful, and they rank among the
early disciples of the church and the founders of Utah.
--
And here let us make a lasting and honorable record of the women of the
battalion:
Mrs. James Brown, Mrs. O. Adams, Albina Williams, J. Chase, ---- Tubbs,
---- Sharp, D. Wilkin, J. Hess, Fanny Huntington, John Steele, J. Harmon,
and C. Stillman, daughter, ---- Smith, U. Higgins, M. Ballom, E. Hanks,
W. Smithson, Melissa Corey, A. Smithson.
These are the noble Mormon women who accepted the uncertain fortunes of
war, in the service of their country. Be their names imperishable in
American history.
CHAPTER XLVII.
ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF CALIFORNIA--A WOMAN MISSIONARY TO THE SOCIETY
ISLANDS--HER LIFE AMONG THE NATIVES--THE ONLY MORMON WOMAN SENT ON
MISSION WITHOUT HER HUSBAND--A MORMON WOMAN IN WASHINGTON--A SISTER
FROM THE EAST INDIES--A SISTER FROM TEXAS.
The Mormons were not only the founders of Utah, but they were also the
first American emigrants to California. Fremont and his volunteers,
and the American navy, had, it is true, effected the _coup de main_ of
taking possession of California, and the American flag was hoisted in
the bay of San Francisco at the very moment of the arrival of the ship
_Brooklyn_ with its company of Mormon emigrants, but to that company
belongs the honor of first settlers. The wife of Col. Jackson thus
narrates:
"In the month of February, 1846, I left home and friends and sailed
in the ship _Brooklyn_ for California. Before starting I visited my
parents in New Hampshire. I told them of my determination to follow
God's people, who had already been notified to leave the United States;
that our destination was the Pacific coast, and that we should take
materials to plant a colony. When the hour came for parting my father
could not speak, and my mother cried out in despair, 'When shall we see
you again, my child?' 'When there is a railroad across the continent,'
I answered.
"Selling all my household goods, I took my child in my arms and went on
board ship. Of all the memories of my life not one is so bitter as that
dreary six months' voyage, in an emigrant ship, around the Horn.
"When we entered the harbor of San Francisco, an officer came on board
and said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor to inform you that
you are in the United States.' Three cheers from all on board answered
the announcement.
"Unlike the California of to-day, we found the country barren and
dreary; but we trusted in God and he heard our prayers; and when I
soaked the mouldy ship-bread, purchased from the whale-ships lying in
the harbor, and fried it in the tallow taken from the raw hides lying
on the beach, God made it sweet to me, and to my child, for on this
food I weaned her. It made me think of Hagar and her babe, and of the
God who watched over her."
Passing over the hardships endured by these emigrants, which were
greatly augmented by the fact that war was then raging between the
United States and the Spanish residents of California, we deem it
proper to here incorporate, as matter of history, some statements of
Mrs. Jackson, made to the California journals, concerning the early
days of San Francisco. She says:
"From many statements made by persons who have lately adopted
California as their home, I am led to believe it is the general
impression that no American civilized beings inhabited this region
prior to the discovery of gold; and that the news of this discovery
reaching home, brought the first adventurers. As yet I have nowhere
seen recorded the fact that in July, 1846, the ship _Brooklyn_ landed
on the shore of San Francisco bay two hundred and fifty passengers,
among whom were upwards of seventy females; it being the first
emigration to this place _via_ Cape Horn.
"In October previous a company had arrived overland, most of whom had
been detained at Sacramento fort, being forbidden by the governor to
proceed further. Upon arriving in Yerba Buena, in '46, we found two of
these families, some half dozen American gentlemen, three or four old
Californians with their families, the officers and marines of the sloop
of war _Portsmouth_, and about one hundred Indians, occupying the place
now called San Francisco.
"The ship _Brooklyn_ left us on the rocks at the foot of what is now
Broadway. From this point we directed our steps to the old adobe on
(now) Dupont street. It was the first to shelter us from the chilling
winds. A little further on (toward Jackson street), stood the adobe of
old 'English Jack,' who kept a sort of depot for the milk woman, who
came in daily, with a dozen bottles of milk hung to an old horse, and
which they retailed at a real (twelve and a half cents) per bottle. At
this time, where now are Jackson and Stockton streets were the outer
boundaries of the town. Back of the home of 'English Jack' stood a
cottage built by an American who escaped from a whale-ship and married
a Californian woman. Attached to this house was a windmill and a shop.
In this house I lived during the winter of '46, and the principal room
was used by Dr. Poet, of the navy, as a hospital. Here were brought
the few who were saved of the unfortunate 'Donner party,' whose sad
fate will never be forgotten. One of the Donner children, a girl of
nine years, related to me that her father was the first of that party
to fall a victim to the cold and hunger. Her mother then came on with
the children, 'till the babe grew sick and she was unable to carry it
further. She told the children to go on with the company, and if the
babe died, or she got stronger, she would come to them, but they saw
her no more. After this, two of her little brothers died, and she told
me, with tears running down her face, that she saw them cooked, and had
to eat them; but added, as though fearful of having committed a crime,
'I could not help it; I had eaten nothing for days, and I was afraid
to die.' The poor child's feet were so badly frozen that her toes had
dropped off."
--
Very dramatic and picturesque have often been the situations of the
Mormon sisters. Here is the story of one of them, among the natives of
the Society Islands. She says:
"I am the wife of the late Elder Addison Pratt, who was the first
missionary to the Society Islands he having been set apart by the
prophet for this mission in 1843. My husband went on his mission, but
I, with my children, was left to journey afterwards with the body of
the church to the Rocky Mountains.
"We reached the valley in the fall of 1848, and had been there but
a week when Elder Pratt arrived, coming by the northern route with
soldiers from the Mexican war. He had been absent five years and four
months. Only one of his children recognized him, which affected him
deeply. One year passed away in comparative comfort and pleasure, when
again Mr. Pratt was called to go and leave his family, and again I
was left to my own resources. However, six months afterwards several
elders were called to join Elder Pratt in the Pacific Isles, and myself
and family were permitted to accompany them. Making the journey by
ox-team to San Francisco, on the 15th of September, 1850, we embarked
for Tahiti. Sailing to the southwest of that island three hundred and
sixty miles we made the Island of Tupuai, where Mr. Pratt had formerly
labored, and where we expected to find him, but to our chagrin found
that he was a prisoner under the French governor at Tahiti. After
counseling upon the matter we decided to land on Tupuai and petition
the governor of Tahiti for Mr. Pratt's release, which we did, aided
by the native king, who promised to be responsible for Mr. Pratt's
conduct. The petition was granted by the governor, and in due course
Mr. Pratt joined us at Tupuai. It was a day of great rejoicing among
the natives when he arrived, they all being much attached to him, and
it was also a great day for our children.
"A volume might be written in attempting to describe the beauties of
nature on that little speck in the midst of the great ocean; but I must
hasten to speak of the people. Simple and uncultivated as the natives
are, they are nevertheless a most loveable and interesting race. Their
piety is deep and sincere and their faith unbounded.
"Within a year I became a complete master of their language, and
addressed them publicly in the _fere-bure-ra_ (prayer-house),
frequently. My daily employment was teaching in the various departments
of domestic industry, such as needle-work, knitting, etc., and my
pupils, old and young, were both industrious and apt."
Elder Addison Pratt died in 1872, but his respected missionary wife
is living in Utah to-day, resting from her labors and waiting for the
reward of the faithful.
--
A somewhat similar experience to the above is that of Sister Mildred
E. Randall, who went with her husband, at a later date, to labor in
the Sandwich Islands. Her first mission lasted about eighteen months,
and her second one three years. On her third mission to the islands,
she was called to go without her husband; thus making her to be the
only woman, in the history of the church, who has been called to go on
foreign mission independently of her husband.
--
In this connection will also suitably appear Sister Elizabeth Drake
Davis, who served her people well while in the Treasury department at
Washington.
She was born in the town of Axminster, Devonshire, England, and was an
only child. Having lost her father when she was but ten years of age,
and not being particularly attached to her mother, her life became
markedly lonely and desolate. In her extremity she sought the Lord in
prayer, when a remarkable vision was shown her, which was repeated at
two subsequent times, making a permanent impression on her life, and,
in connection with other similar experiences, leading her to connect
herself with the Church of Latter-day Saints.
After being widowed in her native land she crossed the Atlantic and
resided for two years in Philadelphia. In May, 1859, with a company
of Philadelphian saints, she gathered to Florence, for the purpose
of going thence to Utah. An incident there occurred that will be of
interest to the reader. She says:
"We reached Florence late one evening; it was quite dark and
raining; we were helped from the wagons and put in one of the vacant
houses--myself, my two little daughters and Sister Sarah White. Early
next morning we were aroused by some one knocking at the door; on
opening it we found a little girl with a cup of milk in her hand; she
asked if there was 'a little woman there with two little children.'
'Yes,' said Sister White, 'come in.' She entered, saying to me, 'If you
please my ma wants to see you; she has sent this milk to your little
girls.' Her mother's name was strange to me, but I went, thinking to
find some one that I had known. She met me at the door with both hands
extended in welcome. 'Good morning, Sister Elizabeth,' said she. I told
her she had the advantage of me, as I did not remember ever seeing her
before. 'No,' said she, 'and I never saw you before. I am Hyrum Smith's
daughter (Lovina Walker); my father appeared to me three times last
night, and told me that you were the child of God, that you was without
money, provisions or friends, and that I must help you.' It is needless
to add that this excellent lady and myself were ever thereafter firm
friends, until her death, which occurred in 1876. I will add that
previous to her last illness I had not seen her in thirteen years; that
one night her father appeared to me, and making himself known, said
his daughter was in sore need; I found the message was too true. Yet
it will ever be a source of gratitude to think I was at last able to
return her generous kindness to me when we were strangers."
Mrs. Davis' husband (she having married a second time) enlisted in the
United States Army in March, 1863. Shortly thereafter she received an
appointment as clerk in the Treasury department at Washington, which
position she held until November, 1869, when she resigned in order to
prosecute, unhampered, a design which she had formed to memorialize
Congress against the Cullom bill. In this laudable endeavor she was
singularly successful; and it is proper to add that by dint of pure
pluck, as against extremely discouraging circumstances, she secured the
co-operation of Gen. Butler, and Mr. Sumner, the great Senator from
Massachusetts. It is entirely just to say that her efforts were largely
instrumental in modifying the course of Congress upon the Mormon
question, at that time.
Sister Davis is at present one of the active women of Utah, and will
doubtless figure prominently in the future movements of the sisterhood.
--
The story of Sister Hannah Booth is best told by herself. She says:
"I was born in Chumar, India. My father was a native of Portugal, and
my mother was from Manila. My husband was an officer in the English
army in India, as were also my father and grandfather. We lived in
affluent circumstances, keeping nine servants, a carriage, etc., and I
gave my attention to the profession of obstetrics.
"When the gospel was introduced into India, my son Charles, who was
civil engineer in the army, met the elders traveling by sea, and was
converted. He brought to me the gospel, which I embraced with joy, and
from that time was eager to leave possessions, friends, children and
country, to unite with this people. My son George, a surgeon in the
army, remained behind, although he had embraced the gospel. My sister,
a widow, and my son Charles and his wife--daughter of Lieutenant Kent,
son of Sir Robert Kent, of England--and their infant daughter, came
with me. Reaching San Francisco, we proceeded thence to San Bernardino,
arriving there in 1855. Having, in India, had no occasion to perform
housework, we found ourselves greatly distressed in our new home, by
our lack of such needful knowledge. We bought a stove, and I tried
first to make a fire. I made the fire in the first place that opened
(the oven), and was greatly perplexed by its smoking and not drawing.
We were too mortified to let our ignorance be known, and our bread was
so badly made, and all our cooking so wretchedly done, that we often
ate fruit and milk rather than the food we had just prepared. We also
bought a cow, and not knowing how to milk her, had great trouble.
Four of us surrounded her; my son tied her head to the fence, her
legs to a post, her tail to another; and while he stood by to protect
me, my sister and daughter-in-law to suggest and advise, I proceeded
to milk--on the wrong side, as I afterwards learned. After a while,
however, some good sisters kindly taught us how to work.
"Just as we had become settled in our own new house the saints prepared
to leave San Bernardino in the winter of '56-7. We sold our home at
great sacrifice, and, six of us in one wagon, with two yoke of Spanish
oxen, started for Utah. On the desert our oxen grew weak and our
supplies began to give out. We, who at home in India had servants at
every turn, now had to walk many weary miles, through desert sands, and
in climbing mountains. My sister and I would, in the morning, bind our
cashmere scarfs around our waists, take each a staff, and with a small
piece of bread each, we would walk ahead of the train. At noon we would
rest, ask a blessing upon the bread, and go on. Weary, footsore and
hungry, we never regretted leaving our luxurious homes, nor longed to
return. We were thankful for the knowledge that had led us away, and
trusted God to sustain us in our trials and lead us to a resting-place
among the saints. After our journey ended, we began anew to build a
home.
"I am, after twenty years among this people, willing to finish my days
with them, whatever their lot and trials may be, and I pray God for his
holy spirit to continue with me to the end."
--
Nor should we omit to mention Mrs. Willmirth East, now in her 64th
year, who was converted to Mormonism while residing with her father's
family in Texas, in 1853. Her ancestors fought in the Revolutionary
war, and her father, Nathaniel H. Greer, was a member of the
legislature of Georgia, and also a member of the legislature of Texas,
after his removal to that State. She has long resided in Utah, is a
living witness of many miracles of healing, and has often manifested in
her own person the remarkable gifts of this dispensation. She may be
accounted one of the most enthusiastic and steadfast of the saints.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
A LEADER FROM ENGLAND--MRS HANNAH T. KING--A MACDONALD FROM
SCOTLAND--THE "WELSH QUEEN"--A REPRESENTATIVE WOMAN FROM
IRELAND--SISTER HOWARD--A GALAXY OF THE SISTERHOOD, FROM "MANY NATIONS
AND TONGUES"--INCIDENTS AND TESTIMONIALS.
Here the reader meets an illustration of women from many nations
baptized into one spirit, and bearing the same testimony.
Mrs. Hannah T. King, a leader from England, shall now speak. She says:
"In 1849, while living in my home in Dernford Dale, Cambridgeshire,
England, my attention was first brought to the serious consideration of
Mormonism by my seamstress. She was a simple-minded girl, but her tact
and respectful ingenuity in presenting the subject won my attention,
and I listened, not thinking or even dreaming that her words were about
to revolutionize my life.
"I need not follow up the thread of my thoughts thereafter; how
I struggled against the conviction that had seized my mind; how
my parents and friends marveled at the prospect of my leaving the
respectable church associations of a life-time and uniting with 'such a
low set'; how I tried to be content with my former belief, and cast the
new out of mind, but all to no purpose. Suffice it to say I embraced
the gospel, forsook the aristocratic associations of the 'High Church'
congregation with which I had long been united, and became an associate
with the poor and meek of the earth.
"I was baptized Nov. 4th, 1850, as was also my beloved daughter. My
good husband, although not persuaded to join the church, consented to
emigrate with us to Utah, which we did in the year 1853, bringing quite
a little company with us at Mr. King's expense."
Since her arrival in the valley, Mrs. King has been constantly
prominent among the women of Utah. Her name is also familiar as a
poetess, there having emanated from her pen some very creditable poems.
--
Scotland comes next with a representative woman in the person of
Elizabeth G. MacDonald. She says:
"I was born in the city of Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, on the 12th of
January, 1831, and am the fifth of ten daughters born to my parents,
John and Christina Graham.
"My attention was first brought to the church of Latter-day Saints in
1846, and in 1847 I was baptized and confirmed, being the second person
baptized into the church in Perth. This course brought down upon me
so much persecution, from which I was not exempt in my own father's
house, that I soon left home and went to Edinburgh. There I was kindly
received by a Sister Gibson and welcomed into her house. After two
years had passed my father came to me and, manifesting a better spirit
than when I saw him last, prevailed upon me to return with him. He had
in the meantime become partially paralyzed, and had to use a crutch.
Two weeks after my return he consented to be baptized. While being
baptized the affliction left him, and he walked home without his
crutch, to the astonishment of all who knew him. This was the signal
for a great work, and the Perth branch, which previously had numbered
but two, soon grew to over one hundred and fifty members.
"In May, '51, I was married to Alexander MacDonald, then an elder in
the church. He went immediately on mission to the Highlands; but in
1852 he was called to take charge of the Liverpool conference, whither
I went with him, and there we made our first home together.
"In May, '53, I fell down stairs, which so seriously injured me that
I remained bedridden until the following marvelous occurrence: One
Saturday afternoon as I was feeling especially depressed and sorrowful,
and while my neighbor, Mrs. Kent, who had just been in, was gone to
her home for some little luxury for me, as I turned in my bed I was
astonished to behold an aged man standing at the foot. As I somewhat
recovered from my natural timidity he came towards the head of the bed
and laid his hands upon me, saying, 'I lay my hands upon thy head and
bless thee in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Lord
hath seen the integrity of thine heart. In tears and sorrow thou hast
bowed before the Lord, asking for children; this blessing is about to
be granted unto thee. Thou shalt be blessed with children from this
hour. Thou shalt be gathered to the valleys of the mountains, and there
thou shalt see thy children raised as tender plants by thy side. Thy
children and household shall call thee blessed. At present thy husband
is better than many children. Be comforted. These blessings I seal upon
thee, in the name of Jesus. Amen.' At this moment Sister Kent came in,
and I saw no more of this personage. His presence was so impressed
upon me that I can to this day minutely describe his clothing and
countenance.
"The next conference, after this visitation, brought the word that
Brother MacDonald was released to go to the valley, being succeeded by
Elder Spicer W. Crandall. We started from Liverpool in March, '54, and
after the usual vicissitudes of sea and river navigation, finally went
into camp near Kansas Village on the Missouri. From there we started
for Utah in Capt. Daniel Carns' company, reaching Salt Lake City on the
30th of September.
"In 1872 my husband was appointed to settle in St. George, where we
arrived about the middle of November. Here we have since remained,
and I have taken great pleasure in this southern country, especially
in having my family around me, in the midst of good influences. The
people here are sociable and kind, and we have no outside influences to
contend with. All are busy and industrious and striving to live their
religion."
--
The wife of the famous Captain Dan Jones, the founder of the Welsh
mission, is chosen to represent her people. She thus sketches her life
to the period of her arrival in Zion:
"I was born April 2d, 1812, in Claddy, South Wales. My parents were
members of the Baptist Church, which organization I joined when fifteen
years of age. In 1846, several years after my marriage, while keeping
tavern, a stranger stopped with us for refreshments, and while there
unfolded to me some of the principles of the, then entirely new to me,
Church of Latter-day Saints. His words made a profound impression upon
my mind, which impression was greatly heightened by a dream which I had
shortly thereafter; but it was some time before I could learn more of
the new doctrine. I made diligent inquiry, however, and was finally, by
accident, privileged to hear an elder preach. In a conversation with
him afterwards I became thoroughly convinced of the truth of Mormonism,
and was accordingly baptized into the church. This was in 1847. After
this my house became a resort for the elders, and I was the special
subject of persecution by my neighbors.
"In 1848 I began making preparations to leave my home and start for
the valley. Everything was sold, including a valuable estate, and
I determined to lay it all upon the altar in an endeavor to aid my
poorer friends in the church to emigrate also. In 1849 I bade farewell
to home, country and friends, and with my six children set out for
the far-off Zion. After a voyage, embodying the usual hardships, from
Liverpool to New Orleans, thence up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers
to Council Bluffs, some fifty fellow-passengers dying with cholera on
the way, in the early summer I started across the plains. I had paid
the passage of forty persons across the ocean and up to Council Bluffs,
and from there I provided for and paid the expenses of thirty-two to
Salt Lake City. Having every comfort that could be obtained, we perhaps
made the trip under as favorable circumstances as any company that has
ever accomplished the journey."
For her magnanimous conduct in thus largely helping the emigration
of the Welsh saints, coupled with her social standing in her native
country, she was honored with the title of "The Welsh Queen." The title
is still familiar in connection with her name. Since her arrival in
Zion she has known many trials, but is still firm in the faith of the
Latter-day work.
--
The following is a brief personal sketch of Mrs. Howard, an Irish lady,
of popularity and prominence in Utah:
"Presuming there are many persons who believe there are no Irish among
the Mormons, I wish to refute the belief, as there are many in our
various towns, most staunch and faithful.
"My parents, Robert and Lucretia Anderson, resided in Carlow, County
Carlow, Ireland, where, on the 12th of July, 1823, I was born. In 1841
my beloved mother died, and in the same year I married, and went to
reside in Belfast with my husband.
"My father, who was a thorough reformer in his method of thought,
originally suggested several governmental and social innovations that
were afterwards adopted by the government and the people. He died in
1849.
"My parents were Presbyterians, in which faith I was strictly brought
up; but I early came to the conclusion that my father was right when
he said, as I heard him one day: 'The true religion is yet to come.'
After my marriage I attended the Methodist Church mostly, led a moral
life, tried to be honest in deal, and 'did' (as well as circumstances
would allow) 'unto others as I would they should do to me.' I thus went
on quietly, until the 'true religion' was presented to me by a Mr.
and Mrs. Daniel M. Bell, of Ballygrot. My reason was satisfied, and I
embraced the truth with avidity.
"In February, 1858, my husband, myself and our six children left
Ireland on the steamship _City of Glasgow_, and in due time arrived
at Council Bluffs. Starting across the plains, the first day out I
sustained a severe accident by being thrown from my carriage, but this
did not deter us, and we arrived all safe and well in Salt Lake City on
the 25th of September.
"In 1868 I went with my husband on a mission to England; had a
pleasant, interesting time, and astonished many who thought 'no good
thing could come out of Utah.' While there I was the subject of no
little curious questioning, and therefore had many opportunities of
explaining the principles of the gospel. There was one principle I
gloried in telling them about--the principle of plural marriage; and
I spared no pains in speaking of the refining, exalting influence
that was carried with the doctrine, wherever entered into in a proper
manner."
Sister Howard has not exaggerated in claiming that the Irish nation
has been fairly represented in the Mormon Church. Some of its most
talented members have been directly of that descent, though it is true
that Mormonism never took deep root in Ireland; but that is no more
than a restatement of the fact that Protestantism of any kind has never
flourished in that Catholic country.
Of the esteemed lady in question it maybe added that she is one of
the most prominent of the women of Utah, one of the councilors of
Mrs. President Horne, and a leader generally, in those vast female
organizations and movements inspired by Eliza R. Snow, in the solution
of President Young's peculiar society problems.
--
Scandinavia shall be next represented among the nationalities in the
church. The Scandinavian mission has been scarcely less important
than the British mission. It is not as old, but to-day it is the most
vigorous, and for the last quarter of a century it has been pouring its
emigrations into Utah by the thousands. Indeed a very large portion of
the population of Utah has been gathered from the Scandinavian peoples.
The mission was opened by Apostle Erastus Snow, in the year 1850. One
of the first converts of this apostle, Anna Nilson, afterwards became
his wife. Here is the brief notice which she gives of herself:
"I am the daughter of Hans and Caroline Nilson, and was born on the
1st of April, 1825, in a little village called Dalby, in the Province
of Skaana, in the kingdom of Sweden. At the age of seventeen I removed
to Copenhagen, Denmark. There, in 1850, when the elders from Zion
arrived, I gladly received the good news, and was the first woman
baptized into the Church of Latter-day Saints in that kingdom. The
baptism took place on the 12th of August, 1850; there were fifteen of
us; the ordinance was performed by Elder Erastus Snow. Some time after
this we hired a hall for our meetings, which called public attention
to us in some degree, whereupon we became the subjects of rowdyism
and violent persecution. One evening in particular, I recollect that
I was at a meeting in a village some eight miles out from Copenhagen;
as we started to go home we were assailed by a mob which followed and
drove us for several miles. Some of the brethren were thrown into
ditches and trampled upon, and the sisters also were roughly handled.
Finding myself in the hands of ruffians, I called on my heavenly
Father, and they dropped me like a hot iron. They pelted us with stones
and mud, tore our clothes, and abused us in every way they could.
These persecutions continued some weeks, until finally stopped by the
military.
"In 1852, one week before Christmas, I left Copenhagen, in the first
large company, in charge of Elder Forssgren. We encountered a terrible
storm at the outset, but were brought safely through to Salt Lake City,
where I have since resided."
--
A Norwegian sister, Mrs. Sarah A. Peterson, the wife of a well-known
missionary, has remembrance next. She says:
"I was born in the town of Murray, Orleans county, N. Y., February 16,
1827. My parents, Cornelius and Carrie Nelson, were among the first
Norwegians who emigrated to America. They left Norway on account of
having joined the Quakers, who, at that time, were subject to much
persecution in that country. In the neighborhood was quite a number
of that sect, and they concluded to emigrate to America in a body. As
there was no direct line of emigration between Norway and America,
they purchased a sloop, in which they performed the voyage. Having
been raised on the coast, they were all used to the duties of seamen,
and found no trouble in navigating their vessel. They also brought a
small cargo of iron with them, which, together with the vessel, they
sold in New York, and then moved to the northwestern portion of that
State, and settled on a wild tract of woodland. Eight years afterwards
my father died. I was at that time six years old. When I was nine years
old my uncle went to Illinois, whence he returned with the most glowing
accounts of the fertility of the soil, with plenty of land for sale at
government price. The company disposed of their farms at the rate of
fifty dollars per acre, and again moved from their homes, settling on
the Fox River, near Ottawa, Ill. Here, when fourteen years of age, I
first heard the gospel, and at once believed in the divine mission of
the prophet Joseph; but on account of the opposition of relatives, was
prevented joining the church until four years later.
"In the spring of 1849 I left mother and home and joined a company who
were preparing to leave for the valley. On our way to Council Bluffs
I was attacked with cholera. But there was a young gentleman in the
company by the name of Canute Peterson, who, after a season of secret
prayer in my behalf, came and placed his hands upon my head, and I
was instantly healed. Two weeks after our arrival at the Bluffs I was
married to him. We joined Ezra T. Benson's company, and arrived in
Salt Lake City on the 25th of October, and spent the winter following
in the 'Old Fort.' In 1851 we removed to Dry Creek, afterwards called
Lehi. My husband was among the very first to survey land and take up
claims there. In 1852 he was sent on mission to Norway. During the four
years he was absent I supported myself and the two children. In 1856
he returned, much broken in health because of his arduous labor and
exposure in the rigorous climate of that country.
"In the fall of 1857 my husband added another wife to his family; but
I can truly say that he did not do so without my consent, nor with
any other motive than to serve his God. I felt it our duty to obey
the commandment revealed through the prophet Joseph, hence, although
I felt it to be quite a sacrifice, I encouraged him in so doing.
Although not so very well supplied with houseroom, the second wife
and I lived together in harmony and peace. I felt it a pleasure to
be in her company, and even to nurse and take care of her children,
and she felt the same way toward me and my children. A few years
afterwards my husband married another wife, but also with the consent
and encouragement of his family. This did not disturb the peaceful
relations of our home, but the same kind feelings were entertained by
each member of the family to one another. We have now lived in polygamy
twenty years, have eaten at the same table and raised our children
together, and have never been separated, nor have we ever wished to be."
Mrs. Peterson is the present very efficient President of the Relief
Society at Ephraim, which up to date has disbursed over eleven thousand
dollars.
--
Here will also properly appear a short sketch of Bishop Hickenlooper's
wife Ann, who made her way to Zion with the famous hand-cart company,
under Captain Edmund Ellsworth. She had left home and friends in
England in 1856, coming to Council Bluffs with the regular emigration
of that year, and continuing her journey with the hand-cart company, as
before stated From her journal we quote:
"After traveling fourteen weeks we arrived in the near vicinity of Salt
Lake City, where President Young and other church leaders, with a brass
band and a company of military, met and escorted us into the city. As
we entered, and passed on to the public square in the 16th Ward, the
streets were thronged with thousands of people gazing upon the scene.
President Young called on the bishops and people to bring us food. In a
short time we could see loads of provisions coming to our encampment.
After partaking of refreshments our company began to melt away, by
being taken to the homes of friends who had provided for them. I began
to feel very lonely, not knowing a single person in the country, and
having no relatives to welcome me. I felt indeed that I was a stranger
in a strange land. Presently, however, it was arranged that I should
go to live with Mr. Hickenlooper's people, he being bishop of the 6th
Ward. After becoming acquainted with the family, to whom I became much
attached, his first wife invited me to come into the family as the
bishop's third wife, which invitation, after mature consideration, I
accepted.
"I am now the mother of five children, and for twenty years have lived
in the same house with the rest of the family, and have eaten at the
same table. My husband was in Nauvoo in the days of the prophet Joseph,
and moved with the saints from winter quarters to this city, where he
has been bishop of the 6th Ward twenty-nine years, and of the 5th and
6th Wards fifteen years."
--
Several of the sisters who first received the gospel in England and
emigrated to Nauvoo during the lifetime of the prophet, claim historic
mention. Ruth Moon, wife of William Clayton (who during the last days
of Joseph became famous as his scribe), was among the first fruits of
the British mission. With her husband she sailed in the first organized
company of emigrant saints on board the _North America_. Here are a few
items worth preserving, from her diary of that voyage:
"Friday, Sept. 4, 1840.--Bid good-bye to Penwortham, and all
started by rail to Liverpool, where we arrived about 5 o'clock, and
immediately went on board the packet-ship _North America_, Captain
Loeber, then lying in Prince's dock.
"Tuesday, Sept. 8.--At eight o'clock the ship left the dock; was
towed out into the river Mersey, and set sail for New York. On
getting into the English Channel we were met by strong head-winds,
which soon increased to a gale, compelling the ship to change her
course and sail around the north coast of Ireland. The decks were
battened down three days and nights. During the gale four of the
principal sails were blown away, and the ship otherwise roughly
used.
"Saturday, Sept. 12.--The storm having abated, we had a very
pleasant view of the north part of Ireland, farms and houses being
in plain sight.
"Tuesday, Sept. 22.--About eleven o'clock the company was startled
by the ominous cry of the shief mate, 'All hands on deck, and
buckets with water.' The ship had taken fire under the cook's
galley. The deck was burned through, fire dropping on the berths
underneath. It was soon extinguished without serious damage having
been done.
"Sunday, Oct. 11.--Arrived in New York."
They journeyed thence by steamer up the Hudson river to Albany; by
canal from Albany to Buffalo; by steamer thence to Chicago; and by
flat-boat down the Rock river to Nauvoo, where they arrived Nov. 24th.
--
Elizabeth Birch, who was born in Lancashire, England, in 1810, was a
widow with four children when she first heard the gospel, which was
brought to Preston, by the American elders, in 1837. The new religion
created great excitement in that section, and people often walked ten
miles and more to hear the elders preach. She was baptized at Preston,
on the 24th of Dec., 1838. In 1841 she sailed in the ship _Sheffield_
for New Orleans, and thence up the Mississippi river in the second
company of saints that sailed for America. In the fall of that year she
was married to Mr. Birch. Her husband being one of those designated
to help finish the temple at Nauvoo they were in the city during the
famous battle of Nauvoo. Her recollections of that perilous event are
very vivid. During the fight one of the sisters brought into her house
a cannon-ball which she had picked up, just from the enemy's battery.
It was too hot to be handled. They reached the valley in 1850.
Concerning polygamy, she says: "In 1858, my husband having become
convinced that the doctrine of celestial marriage and plurality of
wives was true, instructed me in regard to it; and becoming entirely,
satisfied that the principle is not only true, but that it is
commanded, I gave my consent to his taking another wife, by whom he
had one daughter; and again in 1860 I consented to his taking another
one, by whom he had a large family of children. These children we have
raised together, and I love them as if they were my own. Our husband
has been dead two years, but we still live together in peace, and each
contributes to the utmost for the support of the family."
--
Lucy Clayton, wife of Elder Thomas Bullock, was the first of the saints
to enter Carthage jail after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. She
tells a graphic tale of the excitement of the people of Carthage on
that occasion--how they fled, panic-stricken, from their homes, led by
Governor Ford, thinking that the people of Nauvoo would wreak vengeance
upon them for the murder that had been committed in their midst. She
was also among the remnant of the sick and dying saints on the banks of
the Mississippi, after the expulsion, when they were miraculously fed
by quails that alighted in their midst. This is an often-told wonder,
and is classed with the immortal episode of the children of Israel, fed
by quails in the wilderness.
--
The wife of Thomas Smith is also entitled to historic mention. Her
husband, in the early days of the British mission, made a great stir
in England, as a Mormon elder, and she was with him in his ministry.
He bore the euphonious epithet of "Rough Tom." Having both the genius
and fame of an iconoclast, he disputed, on the platform, with the same
sectarian champions who met the great infidels Holyoke, Barker and
Bradlaugh. His career as a Mormon elder was quite a romance, and in
all its scenes his wife, Sister Sarah, was a participant, though she
was as gentle in spirit as he was bold and innovative. A famous career
was theirs, and the spiritual power and signs that followed them were
astonishing. He was full of prophesy, and she spake in tongues. He also
cast out devils by the legion. The spirits, good and bad, followed him
everywhere. It is of those thrilling scenes that his widow now loves to
speak, as a testimony of the power of God, and of the signs following
the believer. No sister from the old country could be chosen as a
better witness of the spiritual potency of Mormonism than Sister Sarah
Smith Wheeler.
--
Sister I. S. Winnerholm, from Denmark, was brought into the church,
in Copenhagen, through a series of spiritual experiences of unusual
power and interest; and, throughout her entire life since, she has
been remarkably gifted with the power of healing, the interpretation
of tongues, etc. Concerning the gift of tongues, she testifies that at
a ward meeting in Salt Lake City she heard a lady manifest the gift by
speaking in the dialect of Lapland, which she was fully competent to
translate, being conversant with that dialect, and which the lady in
question positively knew nothing about, as she had never seen a person
from that country. Sister Winnerholm has been a resident of Salt Lake
City since 1862, and a member of the church since 1853.
--
As a representative from Scotland, Sister Elizabeth Duncanson, who is
one of "Zion's nurses," may be mentioned. A remarkable incident of her
life is the fact that at about the identical moment of the martyrdom of
Joseph and Hyrum Smith, she, in her home in Scotland, saw the entire
tragedy in a dream. She told the dream to her husband at the time (both
of them were members of the church), and they were much dispirited with
their forebodings concerning it. In about six weeks, by due course of
mail, the tidings reached them. Herself and husband reached Utah in
1855, and in that same year she was ordained, by President Young, to
the office of nurse, which she has since most acceptably and skillfully
filled.
--
Another sister from Scotland, Sister Mary Meiklejohn, since 1856 a
resident of Tooele City, and also one of "Zion's nurses," shall here
be mentioned. While residing in Bonhill, Scotland, herself and husband
were baptized into the Mormon Church by Elder Robert Hamilton. Her
husband at once became active in the work of spreading the gospel,
and was soon the recipient of the benefits of the gift of healing, to
a remarkable degree. By an accident one of his feet was crushed and
terribly lacerated by being caught in a steam engine. The physicians
determined that the foot must be amputated in order to save his life;
but the elders thought differently, and after administering to him,
they called a fast, for his benefit, among all the branches in the
neighborhood, and the presiding elder prophesied that he should so
completely recover the use of his foot as to dance on it many times in
Zion. This has been literally fulfilled. Mrs. Meiklejohn is the very
acceptable President of the Tooele Relief Society, which position she
has held since its organization in 1870.
--
It is also noteworthy that among the sisters is Mrs. Josephine
Ursenbach, once a Russian Countess. With the instincts of her rank, she
took it upon her to officiate for many of her aristocratic compeers
of Europe, in the beautiful ordinance of baptism for the dead. The
Empress Josephine and Napoleon's wife, Louisa of Austria, were among
the number. Also Elizabeth of England.
--
The reader will have noticed in the sketches of the sisters, both
American and foreign, frequent mention of the "gift of tongues." This
seems to have been markedly the woman's gift. One of the first who
manifested it approvedly was Mother Whitney. She was commanded by the
prophet Joseph to rise and sing in the gift of tongues in the early
days of Kirtland. She did so, and Joseph pronounced it the "Adamic
tongue," or the language spoken by Adam. Parley P. Pratt afterwards
gave a written interpretation of it. It was a story, in verse, of Adam
blessing his family in "Adam-Ondi-Ahman"--the Garden of Eden in America.
As an instance in which the gift of tongues proved of decidedly
practical value, we transcribe the following incident, which occurred
near Council Bluffs, in the history of a girl of seventeen by the name
of Jane Grover (afterwards Mrs. Stewart), from her journal:
"One morning we thought we would go and gather gooseberries. Father
Tanner (as we familiarly called the good, patriarchal Elder Nathan
Tanner), harnessed a span of horses to a light wagon, and, with two
sisters by the name of Lyman, his little granddaughter, and me, started
out. When we reached the woods we told the old gentleman to go to a
house in sight and rest himself while we picked the berries.
"It was not long before the little girl and I strayed some distance
from the rest, when suddenly we heard shouts. The little girl thought
it was her grandfather, and was about to answer, but I restrained her,
thinking it might be Indians. We walked forward until within sight of
Father Tanner, when we saw he was running his team around. We thought
nothing strange at first, but as we approached we saw Indians gathering
around the wagon, whooping and yelling as others came and joined them.
We got into the wagon to start when four of the Indians took hold of
the wagon-wheels to stop the wagon, and two others held the horses by
the bits, and another came to take me out of the wagon. I then began to
be afraid as well as vexed, and asked Father Tanner to let me get out
of the wagon and run for assistance. He said, 'No, poor child; it is
too late!' I told him they should not take me alive. His face was as
white as a sheet. The Indians had commenced to strip him--had taken his
watch and handkerchief--and while stripping him, were trying to pull
me out of the wagon. I began silently to appeal to my Heavenly Father.
While praying and struggling, the spirit of the Almighty fell upon me
and I arose with great power; and no tongue can tell my feelings. I
was happy as I could be. A few moments before I saw worse than death
staring me in the face, and now my hand was raised by the power of
God, and I talked to those Indians in their own language. They let go
the horses and wagon, and all stood in front of me while I talked to
them by the power of God. They bowed their heads and answered 'Yes,'
in a way that made me know what they meant. The little girl and Father
Tanner looked on in speechless amazement. I realized our situation;
their calculation was to kill Father Tanner, burn the wagon, and take
us women prisoners. This was plainly shown me. When I stopped talking
they shook hands with all three of us, and returned all they had taken
from Father Tanner, who gave them back the handkerchief, and I gave
them berries and crackers. By this time the other two women came up,
and we hastened home.
"The Lord gave me a portion of the interpretation of what I had said,
which was as follows:
"'I suppose you Indian warriors think you are going to kill us? Don't
you know the Great Spirit is watching you and knows everything in your
heart? We have come out here to gather some of our father's fruit. We
have not come to injure you; and if you harm us, or injure one hair of
our heads, the Great Spirit shall smite you to the earth, and you shall
not have power to breathe another breath. We have been driven from our
homes, and so have you; we have come out here to do you good, and not
to injure you. We are the Lord's people and so are you; but you must
cease your murders and wickedness; the Lord is displeased with it and
will not prosper you if you continue in it. You think you own all this
land, this timber, this water, all the horses: Why, you do not own one
thing on earth, not even the air you breathe--it all belongs to the
Great Spirit.'"
--
Of similar import, and fraught with similar incidents as the preceding,
are the testimonies of Mercy R. Thompson, sister of Mary Fielding;
Mrs. Janet Young, of South Cottonwood; Elizabeth S. Higgs, of Salt
Lake City; Ann Gillott Morgan, of Milk Creek, originally from England;
Zina Pugh Bishop, for twenty-eight years a member of the church; Anna
Wilson, of Taylorsville, originally from Sweden; Mary C. Smith, a
sister from Wales; Elizabeth Lane Hyde, a sister from South Wales;
Sister M. Bingham, an aged saint from England; Sister Mary T. Bennson,
of Taylorsville, for thirty-two years a member of the church; Mrs.
Isabella Pratt Walton, of Mill Creek; Mrs. Margaret Pratt, from
Scotland; and many more, concerning whom a faithful record might
profitably be made.
CHAPTER XLIX.
THE MESSAGE TO JERUSALEM--THE ANCIENT TONES OF MORMONISM--THE MORMON
HIGH PRIESTESS IN THE HOLY LAND--ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES--OFFICIATING
FOR THE ROYAL HOUSE OF JUDAH.
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received
double for all her sins. * * * O Zion, that bringest glad tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem that bringest
good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not
afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God!"
Themes to this day not understood by the Gentiles! Incomprehensible to
the divines of Christendom!
The everlasting perpetuation of a chosen race--a diviner monument in
its dispersion and preservation than in its national antiquity. Its
restoration to more than its ancient empire, and the rebuilding of
Jerusalem, with Jehovah exalted in his chosen people as the Lord God
Omnipotent, is the vast subject of the prophetic Hebrews.
It was such a theme that inspired the genius of grand Isaiah, swelling
into the exultation of millennial jubilee for Israel, in his great
declamatory of "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God!"
Gentile Christendom has never been _en rapport_ with the Abrahamic
subject. It has not incarnated its genius. It is destitute of the very
sense to appreciate the theme of Jerusalem rebuilt.
Israelitish Mormondom does understand that subject. It has fully
incarnated its genius. It has, not only the prophetic sense to
appreciate the theme of Old Jerusalem rebuilt, but also the rising of
the New Jerusalem of the last days, whose interpreted symbol shall be,
"The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!"
The divines of a Romish Christianity--Romish, notwithstanding its
sectarian protestantism--have worn threadbare the New Testament; but
the epic soul of the old Hebrew Bible has never possessed Gentile
Christendom. To it, the prophesies and sublimities of Isaiah, and the
everlasting vastness of the Abrahamic covenant and promise, are all, at
best, but as glorious echoes from the vaults of dead and long buried
ages.
Who has blown the trump of this Hebraic resurrection? One only--the
prophet of Mormondom!
The Mormons are, as it were, clothing that soul with flesh--giving the
themes of that everlasting epic forms and types. Their Israelitish
action has made the very age palpitate. They render the "Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, saith your God!" as literally as did they the
command of their prophet to preach the gospel to the British Isles, and
gather the saints from that land.
The thread of history leads us directly to a significant episode in
the life of Eliza R. Snow, a prophetess and high priestess of Hebraic
Mormondom, in which the "Comfort ye my people" became embodied in an
actual mission to Jerusalem.
Very familiar to the Mormons is the fact that, at the period when
Joseph sent the Twelve to foreign lands, two of their number, Orson
Hyde and John E. Page, were appointed on mission to Jerusalem. The
Apostle Page failed to fulfill his call, and ultimately apostatized;
but Orson Hyde honored the voice that oracled the restoration of
Israel, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. He did not preach to Judah
in the ordinary way, but on the Mount of Olives he reconsecrated the
land, and uttered to the listening heavens a command for the Jews to
gather and rebuild the waste places. It was as the refrain of the
invisible fathers, concerning Israel's redemption, rising from the
hearts of their Mormon children. And that mission of Orson Hyde was but
a prophesy, to the sons of Judah, of coming events. Other missions were
ordained, as it were, to psychologize the age into listening to the
voice of Judah's comforter.
A few years since, the second mission to Jerusalem was accomplished.
On the Mount of Olives this time stood also a woman--to take part in
the second consecration! A woman's inspired voice to swell the divine
command for Israel to gather and become again the favored nation--the
crown of empires.
The journal of Sister Eliza thus opens this episode of her life:
"On the 26th of October, 1872, I started on the mission to Palestine.
When I realized that I was indeed going to Jerusalem, in fulfillment
of a prediction of the prophet Joseph that I should visit that antique
city, uttered nearly thirty years before, and which had not only fled
my anticipations, but had, for years, gone from memory, I was filled
with astonishment."
The Jerusalem missionaries were President Geo. A. Smith, Lorenzo Snow,
his sister Eliza R. Snow, and Paul A. Schettler, their secretary,
accompanied by several tourists. The following commission, given to
President Smith, stamps the apostolic character of this peculiar
mission, and connects it with the former one, sent by the prophet
Joseph, in the person of Orson Hyde, thirty-two years before:
"SALT LAKE CITY, U. T.,
"October 15, 1872.
"PRESIDENT G. A. SMITH:
"_Dear Brother_: As you are about to start on an extensive tour
through Europe and Asia Minor, where you will doubtless be brought
in contact with men of position and influence in society, we desire
that you closely observe what openings now exist, or where they may
be effected, for the introduction of the gospel into the various
countries you shall visit.
"When you go to the land of Palestine, we wish you to dedicate
and consecrate that land to the Lord, that it may be blessed with
fruitfulness preparatory to the return of the Jews in fulfillment
of prophesy and the accomplishment of the purposes of our Heavenly
Father.
"We pray that you may be preserved to travel in peace and safety;
that you may be abundantly blessed with words of wisdom and free
utterance in all your conversations pertaining to the holy gospel,
dispelling prejudice and sowing seeds of righteousness among the
people.
"BRIGHAM YOUNG,
"DANIEL H. WELLS."
Joseph had also predicted that, ere his mortal career closed, "George
A." should see the Holy Land. In the fulfillment of this he may
therefore be considered as the proxy of his great cousin; while Sister
Eliza, who, it will be remembered, was declared by the prophet to be
of the royal seed of Judah, may be considered as a high priestess
officiating for her sacred race.
Away to the East--the cradle of empires--to bless the land where Judah
shall become again a nation, clothed with more than the splendor of the
days of Solomon.
Uniting at New York, the company, on the 6th of November, sailed on
board the steamer _Minnesota_. Arriving in London, they visited some of
the historic places of that great city, and then embarked for Holland.
From place to place on the continent they went, visiting the famous
cities, stopping a day to view the battle-field of Waterloo, then
resting a day or two at Paris. At Versailles they were received with
honor by President Theirs, in their peculiar character as missionaries
to Jerusalem. Thence back to Paris; from Paris to Marseilles; then
to Nice, where they ate Christmas dinner; thence to San Reno, Italy;
to Genoa, Turin, Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome. At Rome Sister Eliza
passed her seventieth birthday, visiting the famous places of that
classic city. On the 6th of February, 1873, the apostolic tourists
reached Alexandria, Egypt; and at length they approached Jerusalem--the
monument of the past, the prophesy of the future! They encamped in the
"Valley of Hinnom." Here Sister Eliza writes:
"Sunday morning, March 2d, President Smith made arrangements with
out dragoman, and had a tent, table, seats, and carpet taken
up on the Mount of Olives, to which all the brethren of the
company and myself repaired on horseback. After dismounting on
the summit, and committing our animals to the care of servants,
we visited the Church of Ascension, a small cathedral, said to
stand on the spot from which Jesus ascended. By this time the tent
was prepared, which we entered, and after an opening prayer by
Brother Carrington, we united in the order of the holy priesthood,
President Smith leading in humble, fervent supplications,
dedicating the land of Palestine for the gathering of the Jews
and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and returned heartfelt thanks
and gratitude to God for the fullness of the gospel and the
blessings bestowed on the Latter-day Saints. Other brethren led in
turn, and we had a very interesting season; to me it seemed the
crowning point of the whole tour, realizing as I did that we were
worshipping on the summit of the sacred mount, once the frequent
resort of the Prince of Life."
This the literal record; but what the symbolical?
A prophesy of Israel's restoration! A sign of the renewal of Jehovah's
covenant to the ancient people! The "comfort ye" to Jerusalem! Zion,
from the West, come to the Zion of the East, to ordain her with a
present destiny! A New Jerusalem crying to the Old Jerusalem, "Lift up
thy voice with strength; Lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities
of Judah, behold your God!"
Woman on the Mount of Olives, in her character of prophetess and high
priestess of the temple! A daughter of David officiating for her
Father's house!
Surely the subject is unique, view this extraordinary scene as we
may--either as a romantic episode of Mormonism, or as a real and
beautiful prelude to Jerusalem redeemed.
At the Sea of Gallilee the Hebraic muse of Sister Eliza thus expressed
the rapture awakened by the scenes of the sacred land:
"I have stood on the shore of the beautiful sea--
The renowned and immortalized Gallilee--
When 'twas wrapped in repose, at eventide,
Like a royal queen in her conscious pride.
"No sound was astir--not a murmuring wave--
Not a motion was seen, but the tremulous lave--
A gentle heave of the water's crest--
As the infant breathes on a mother's breast.
"I thought of the past and present; it seemed
That the silent sea with instruction teemed;
For often, indeed, the heart can hear
What never, in sound, has approached the ear.
"There's a depth in the soul that's beyond the reach
Of all earthly sound--of all human speech;
A fiber, too pure and sacred, to chime
With the cold, dull music of earth and time."
* * * * * * *
On their way home our tourists visited Athens. Everywhere, going and
returning, they were honored. Even princes and prime ministers took
a peculiar interest in this extraordinary embassy of Mormon Israel.
Evidently all were struck by its unique character.
Recrossing the Atlantic, they returned to their mountain home; thus
accomplishing one of the most singular and romantic religious missions
on record.
CHAPTER L.
WOMAN'S POSITION IN THE MORMON CHURCH--GRAND FEMALE ORGANIZATION OF
MORMONDOM--THE RELIEF SOCIETY--ITS INCEPTION AT NAUVOO--ITS PRESENT
STATUS, AIMS, AND METHODS--FIRST SOCIETY BUILDING--A WOMAN LAYS THE
CORNER STONE--DISTINGUISHED WOMEN OF THE VARIOUS SOCIETIES.
The Mormon women, as well as men, hold the priesthood. To all that man
attains, in celestial exaltation and glory, woman attains. She is his
partner in estate and office.
John the Revelator thus tells the story of the Church of the First
Born, in the New Jerusalem, which shall come down out of heaven:
"And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the
book and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us unto God, by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue
and nation:
"And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall
reign on the earth."
Joseph the Revelator has given a grand supplement to this. He also saw
that vast assembly of the New Jerusalem, and heard that song. There was
the blessed woman-half of that redeemed throng. The sisters sang unto
the honor of the Lamb:
"And thou hast made us unto our God queens and priestesses: and we
shall reign on the earth!"
"But this is lowering the theme," says the Gentile Christian; "the
theme descends from man--the paragon of excellence--to woman. Enough
that she should be implied--her identity and glory absorbed in man's
august splendor! Enough, that, for man, woman was created.
Not so the grand economy of Mormonism. In the Mormon temple, woman is
not merely implied, but well defined and named. There the theme of the
song of the New Jerusalem is faithfully rendered in her personality.
If man is anointed priest unto God, woman is anointed priestess; if
symboled in his heavenly estate as king, she is also symboled as queen.
Gentile publishers, making a sensational convenience of apostate
sisters, have turned this to the popular amusement; but to the faithful
Mormon woman it is a very sacred and exalted subject.
But not presuming to more than cross the threshold of the temple,
return we now to the Mormon woman in her social sphere and dignity. The
grand organization of fifty thousand Mormon women, under the name of
"Relief Societies," will sufficiently illustrate woman in the Mormon
economy.
The Female Relief Society was organized by the prophet Joseph, at
Nauvoo. Here is a minute from his own history:
"Thursday, March 24.--I attended by request the Female Relief
Society, whose object is, the relief of the poor, the destitute,
the widow, and the orphan, and for the exercise of all benevolent
purposes. Its organization was completed this day. Mrs. Emma Smith
takes the presidential chair; Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Whitney and
Mrs. Sarah M. Cleveland are her councilors; Miss Elvira Cole is
treasuress, and our well-known and talented poetess, Miss Eliza R.
Snow, secretary. * * * * Our ladies have always been signalized for
their acts of benevolence and kindness; but the cruel usage that
they have received from the barbarians of Missouri, has hitherto
prevented their extending the hand of charity in a conspicuous
manner."
On another occasion he says:
"I met the members of the Female Relief Society, and after
presiding at the admission of many new members, gave a lecture on
the priesthood, showing how the sisters would come in possession of
the privileges, blessings, and gifts of the priesthood, and that
the signs should follow them, such as healing the sick, casting out
devils, etc., and that they might attain unto these blessings by a
virtuous life, and conversation, and diligence in keeping all the
commandments."
But it is in Utah that we see the growth of this society to a vast
woman's organization: an organization which will greatly influence the
destiny of Utah, religiously, socially and politically, for the next
century, and, presumably, for all time.
From 1846, the time of the exodus from Nauvoo, the Relief Society was
inoperative until 1855, when it was re-organized in Salt Lake City.
It is a self-governing body, without a written constitution; but is
thoroughly organized, and parliamentary in its proceedings. Each branch
adopts measures, makes arrangements, appointments, etc., independently
of others. Because of these organizations, Utah has no "poor-houses."
Under the kind and sisterly policy of this society the worthy poor feel
much less humiliated, and are better supplied, than by any almshouse
system extant. By an admirable arrangement, under the form of visiting
committees, with well-defined duties, the deserving subjects of charity
are seldom, if ever, neglected or overlooked.
Since its revival in Salt Lake City, the society has extended, in
branches, from ward to ward of the cities, and from settlement to
settlement, in the country, until it numbers considerably over two
hundred branches; and, as new settlements are constantly being formed,
the number of branches is constantly increasing.
The funds of the society are mostly donations; but many branches have
started various industries, from which they realize moderate incomes.
Besides stated business meetings each branch has set days on which to
work for the benefit of the poor. When the society commenced its labors
in Salt Lake City, these industrial meetings would have reminded the
observer of the Israelites in Egypt, making "bricks without straw"--the
donations consisting of materials for patch-work quilts, rag-carpets,
uncarded wool for socks and stockings, etc. (In one well-authenticated
instance the hair from slaughtered beeves was gathered, carded--by
hand of course, as there were no carding machines in the city at
that time--spun, and knit into socks and mittens.) These industrial
meetings, to this day, are very interesting, from the varieties of work
thus brought into close fellowship.
As fast as may be, the various branches are building for themselves
places of meeting, workshops, etc. The first of these buildings was
erected by the ladies of the Fifteenth Ward of Salt Lake City. They
commenced their labors as above, their first capital stock being
donations of pieces for patch-work quilts, carpet-rags, etc. By energy
and perseverance, they have sustained their poor, and, in a few years,
purchased land and built on it a commodious house.
It should be recorded, as unique in history, that the laying of the
corner-stone of this building was performed by the ladies. This
ceremony, being unostentatiously performed, was followed by appropriate
speechmaking on the part of the presiding officer of the society, Mrs.
S. M. Kimball, Eliza R. Snow, and others; each in turn mounting the
corner-stone for a rostrum, and each winning deserved applause from the
assembled thousands.
No greater tribute could be paid to the ladies of this organization,
than the simple statement of the fact that, since its re-establishment,
in 1855, the Relief Society has gathered and disbursed over one hundred
thousand dollars!
--
Mrs. Sarah M. Kimball, who, as President of the Fifteenth Ward Society,
sustained the honors of the above occasion, belonged to the original
Relief Society in Nauvoo. As elsewhere recorded, she also presided at
the grand mass-meeting of the sisters, in Salt Lake City, in 1870,
and has repeatedly appeared as a speaker of talent, and as a leader
among the women of Utah. Her favorite theme is female suffrage; but
she abounds with other progressive ideas, and is a lady of decided
character. Her history as a Mormon dates from the earliest rise of the
church.
--
Mrs. Mary I. Horne, frequently mentioned elsewhere, is the President
of the "General Retrenchment Society" of Salt Lake City. (It should be
explained that these are auxiliary to the relief societies, and are
more especially designed for the organization of the young ladies of
Utah.) She is also President of the Fourteenth Ward Relief Society,
where frequently the sisters hold something like general conventions of
the societies of the city. She may be said to rank, as an organizer,
next to President Eliza R. Snow.
--
Among those who have earned honorable mention, as presidents of relief
societies, and leading officers in the more important movements of the
sisters, may be mentioned Sisters Rachel Grant, Agnes Taylor Swartz,
Maria Wilcox, Minerva, one of the wives of Erastus Snow, of Southern
Utah; Agatha Pratt, Julia Pack, Anna Ivins, Sarah Church, Sister
Barney, once a missionary to the Sandwich Islands, and now an active
woman at home; Elizabeth Goddard, Hannah Pierce, Rebecca Jones, Jane C.
Richardson, Elmira Taylor, Leonora Snow Morley, sister to Lorenzo and
Eliza R. Snow: she presided at Brigham City, until her recent death;
Mary Ferguson, Sisters Evans, of Lehi; Sister Ezra Benson, Rebecca
Wareham, Ruth Tyler, Sisters Hunter, Hardy, and Burton, wives of the
presiding bishops; Sister Chase, Sister Lever, Sarah Groo, Sister
Layton, wife of Bishop Layton of the battalion; Sister Reed, Mary Ann,
one of the wives of Apostle O. Hyde; Sarah Peterson, Ann Bringhurst,
Ann Bryant, Helena Madson, M. J. Atwood, Sister Wilde, Caroline
Callister, Emma Brown, wife of the man who did the first plowing in the
valley, Nancy Wall, founder of Wallsburg; Elizabeth Stickney, Margaret
McCullough, Amy Bigler, Elizabeth Brown, Ellen Whiton, P. S. Hart, Ann
Tate, Anna Brown, Martha Simons, Jane Simons, Margaret P. Young, M. A.
Hubbard, Agnes Douglas, Jane Cahoon, Mary McAllister, Sister Albertson,
Pres. in Bear River City; Mary Dewey, M. A. Hardy, Ann Goldsbrough,
Mrs. Sarah Williams, and Miss Emily Williams, of Canton, Ill.; Jane
Bailey, Jane Bradley, Elizabeth Boyes, Jane M. Howell, D. E. Dudley,
Mary Ann Hazon, Mahala Higgins, Jenet Sharp, Lulu Sharp, Jane Price,
Ann Daniels, Harriet Burnham, M. C. Morrison, Nellie Hartley, M. A.
P. Hyde, Elizabeth Park, Margaret Randall, Elizabeth Wadoup, M. A.
Pritchett, M. A. P. Marshall, Sarah S. Taylor, Mary Hutchins, Emily
Shirtluff, A. E. H. Hanson, M. J. Crosby, Cordelia Carter, Sarah B.
Gibson, Harriet Hardy, Isabella G. Martin, M. A. Boise, Louisa Croshaw,
Orissa A. Aldred, Julia Lindsay, C. Liljenquist, Harriet A. Shaw, Ann
Lowe, Emma Porter, Mary E. Hall, Lydia Remington, Ellen C. Fuller,
Harriet E. Laney, Rebecca Marcham, A. L. Cox, Louisa Taylor, Agnes S.
Armstrong, M. A. Hubbard, Mary A. Hunter, M. A. House, Mary Griffin,
Jane Godfrey, Lydia Rich, E. E. C. Francis, Lydia Ann Wells, E. M.
Merrill, Mary A. Bingham, Hannah Child, M. A. Hardy, Fannie Slaughter,
Mary Walker, Ann Hughes, Marian Petersom, Mary Hanson, Aurelia S.
Rogers, A. M. Frodsham, Sophronia Martin.
Among the presidents and officers of the Young Ladies' Retrenchment
Societies, should be mentioned Mary Freeze, Melissa Lee, Mary Pierce,
Clara Stenhouse Young, Sarah Howard, Mary Williams, Elizabeth Thomas,
Cornelia Clayton, Sarah Graham, Susannah E. Facer, Emily Richards,
Josephine West, Minnie Snow, May Wells, Emily Wells, Annie E. Wells,
Maggie J. Reese, Emily Maddison, Hattie Higginson, Mattie Paul, Sarah
Russell, Alice M. Rich, Mary E. Manghan, Margaret M. Spencer, Sarah
Jane Bullock, Alice M. Tucker, M. Josephine Mulet, M. J. Tanner, Sarah
Renshaw, Mary Ann Ward, Lizzie Hawkins, Mary Leaver, Amy Adams, Rebecca
Williams, Mary S. Burnham, Emmarett Brown, Mary A. P. Marshall.
--
Mrs. Bathsheba Smith, whose name has appeared elsewhere, is apostolic
in the movements of the sisterhood, and a priestess of the temple.
Mrs. Franklin D. Richards is the most prominent organizer outside of
the metropolis of Utah, having Ogden and Weber counties under her
direction. Sister Smoot leads at Provo. The silk industries are under
the direction of President Zina D. Young. Those sisters who have
been most energetic in promoting this important branch of industry,
which gives promise of becoming a financial success in Utah, have
already earned historic laurels. Of these are Sisters Dunyan, Robison,
Carter, Clark, Schettler, and Rockwood. Eliza R. Snow is president,
and Priscilla M. Staines vice-president, of the woman's co-operative
store, an enterprise designed to foster home manufactures. Thus are the
women of Mormondom putting the inchoate State of Deseret under the most
complete organization.
CHAPTER LI.
THE SISTERS AND THE MARRIAGE QUESTION--THE WOMEN OF UTAH
ENFRANCHISED--PASSAGE OF THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE BILL--A POLITICAL
CONTEST--THE FIRST WOMAN THAT VOTED IN UTAH.
The women of Mormondom, and the marriage question! Two of the greatest
sensations of the age united!
Here we meet the subject of woman, in two casts--not less Gentile than
Mormon.
Marriage is the great question of the age. It is the woman's special
subject. Monogamic, or polygamic, it is essentially one problem. Either
phase is good, or bad, just as people choose to consider it, or just as
they are educated to view it.
The Mormons have been, for a quarter of a century, openly affirming,
upon the authority of a new revelation and the establishment of a
distinctive institution, that Gentile monogamy is not good. But more
than this is in their history, their religion, and their social
examples. They have made marriage one of their greatest problems. And
they accept the patriarchal order of marriage, according to the Bible
examples, and the revelation of their prophet, as a proper solution.
To Gentile Christians, monogamy is good, and polygamy barbarous. But
it is the old story of likes and dislikes, in which people so widely
differ.
That the Mormons have been strictly logical, and strictly righteous, in
reviving the institutions of the Hebrew patriarchs, in their character
of a modern Israel, may be seen at a glance, by any just mind. What
sense in their claim to be the Israel of the last days had they not
followed the types and examples of Israel? If they have incarnated the
ancient Israelitish genius--and in that fact is the whole significance
of Mormonism--then has the age simply seen that genius naturally
manifested in the action of their lives.
A monstrous absurdity, indeed, for Christendom to hold that the Bible
is divine and infallible, and at the same time to hold that a people is
barbaric for adoption of its faith and examples! Enough this, surely,
to justify the infidel in sweeping it away altogether. The Mormons and
the Bible stand or fall together.
In view of this truth, it was a cunning move of the opposition to
attempt to take polygamy out of its theologic cast and give it a purely
sociologic solution, as in the effort of 1870, when it was proposed
by Congressman Julian, of Indiana, to enfranchise the women of Utah.
Brigham Young and the legislative body of Utah promptly accepted the
proposition, and a bill giving suffrage to the women of Utah was passed
by the Territorial Legislature, without a dissenting vote.
Here is a copy of that remarkable instrument:
AN ACT, _giving woman the elective franchise in the Territory of
Utah_.
SEC. I. Be it enacted by the Governor and the Legislative Assembly
of the Territory of Utah, that every woman of the age of twenty-one
years, who has resided in this territory six months next preceding
any general or special election, born or naturalized in the
United States, or who is the wife, or widow, or the daughter of a
naturalized citizen of the United States, shall be entitled to vote
at any election in this territory.
SEC. 2. All laws or parts of laws, conflicting with this act, are
hereby repealed.
Approved Feb. 12, 1870.
It may be said by the anti-Mormon that this bill was intended by
President Young to serve the purposes of his own mission rather than
to benefit the newly enfranchised class; but, as the issue will prove,
it was really an important step in the progress of reform. The women
of Utah have now in their own hands the power to absolutely rule their
own destiny; and this is more than can be said of the millions of their
Gentile sisters.
The municipal election in Salt Lake City, which occurred but two days
after the approval of this bill, for the first time in Mormon history
presented a political home issue; but the new voting element was not
brought largely into requisition. Only a few of the sisters claimed the
honor of voting on that occasion. The first of these was Miss Seraph
Young, a niece of President Young, who thus immortalized herself.
This grant of political power to the women of Utah is a sign of the
times. The fact cannot die that the Mormon people piloted the nation
westward; and, under the inspiration of the great impulses of the age,
they are destined to be the reformatory vanguard of the nation.
CHAPTER LII.
THE LIE OF THE ENEMY REFUTED--A VIEW OF THE WOMEN IN COUNCIL OVER
FEMALE SUFFRAGE--THE SISTERS KNOW THEIR POLITICAL POWER.
It was charged, however, by the anti-Mormons, that woman suffrage in
Utah was only designed to further enslave the Mormon women; that they
took no part in its passage, and have had no soul in its exercise.
Nearly the reverse of this is the case, as the records, to follow, will
show.
In the expositions of the Mormon religion, priesthood and genius,
which have been given, it has been seen that the women are, equally
with their prophets and apostles, the founders of their church and the
pillars of its institutions; the difference being only that the man is
first in the order, and the woman is his helpmate; or, more perfectly
expressed, "they twain are one," in the broadest and most exalted
sense. Hence, no sooner was suffrage granted to the Mormon women, than
they exercised it as a part of their religion, or as the performance
of woman's life duties, marked out for her in the economy of divine
providence. In this apostolic spirit, they took up the grant of
political power. Hence, also, in accordance with the fundamental Mormon
view of an essential partnership existing between the man and the
woman, "in all things," both in this world and in the world to come,
there grew up, as we have seen, in the days of Joseph the prophet,
female organizations, set apart and blessed for woman's ministry in
this life, to be extended into the "eternities." True, these women's
organizations have been known by the name of relief societies, but
their sphere extends to every department of woman's mission, and
they may be viewed as female suffrage societies in a female suffrage
movement, or society-mates of any masculine movement which might arise
to shape or control human affairs, religious, social or political. It
was this society that, as by the lifting of the finger, in a moment
aroused fifty thousand women in Utah, simultaneously to hold their
"indignation mass-meetings" throughout the territory, against the
Cullom bill. At that very moment the female suffrage bill was passed by
their Legislature, so that the exercise of their vote at the subsequent
election was a direct expression of their will upon the most vital of
all social questions--the marriage question. Here are the minutes of
a general meeting of this great Female Relief Society, held in Salt
Lake City, February 19, 1870--just seven days after the passage of
their bill, and two days before the exercise of the female vote at the
election:
MINUTES.--Most of the wards of the city were represented. Miss E.
R. Snow was elected president, and Mrs. L. D. Alder secretary.
Meeting opened with singing; prayer by Mrs. Harriet Cook Young.
Miss Eliza R. Snow arose and said, to encourage the sisters in good
works, she would read an account of our indignation meeting, as it
appeared in the _Sacramento Union_; which account she thought a
very fair one. She also stated that an expression of gratitude was
due acting-Governor Mann, for signing the document granting woman
suffrage in Utah, for we could not have had the right without his
sanction, and said that Wyoming had passed a bill of this kind over
its Governor's head, but we could not have done this.
The following names were unanimously selected to be a committee for
said purpose: Eliza R. Snow, Bathsheba W. Smith, Sarah M. Kimball,
M. T. Smoot, H. C. Young, N. D. Young, Phoebe Woodruff, M. I.
Horne, M. N. Hyde, Eliza Cannon, Rachel Grant, Amanda Smith.
Mrs. Sarah M. Kimball said she had waited patiently a long time,
and now that we were granted the right of suffrage, she would
openly declare herself a woman's rights woman, and called upon
those who would do so to back her up, whereupon many manifested
their approval. She said her experience in life had been different
from that of many. She had moved in all grades of society; had been
both rich and poor; had always seen much good and intelligence in
woman. The interests of man and woman cannot be separated; for the
man is not without the woman nor the woman without the man in the
Lord. She spoke of the foolish custom which deprived the mother of
having control over her sons at a certain age; said she saw the
foreshadowing of a brighter day in this respect in the future.
She said she had entertained ideas that appeared wild, which she
thought would yet be considered woman's rights; spoke of the
remarks made by Brother Rockwood, lately, that women would have as
much prejudice to overcome, in occupying certain positions, as men
would in granting them, and concluded by declaring that woman was
the helpmate of man in every department of life.
Mrs. Phoebe Woodruff said she was pleased with the reform, and was
heart and hand with her sisters. She was thankful for the privilege
that had been granted to women, but thought we must act in wisdom
and not go too fast. She had looked for this day for years. God has
opened the way for us. We have borne in patience, but the yoke on
woman is partly removed. Now that God has moved upon our brethren
to grant us the right of female suffrage, let us lay it by, and
wait till the time comes to use it, and not run headlong and abuse
the privilege. Great and blessed things are ahead. All is right and
will come out right, and woman will receive her reward in blessing
and honor. May God grant us strength to do right in his sight.
Mrs. Bathsheba W. Smith said she felt pleased to be engaged in the
great work before them, and was heart and hand with her sisters.
She never felt better in her life, yet never felt more her own
weakness, in view of the greater responsibilities which now rested
upon them, nor ever felt so much the necessity of wisdom and light;
but she was determined to do her best. She believed that woman was
coming up in the world. She encouraged her sisters with the faith
that there was nothing required of them in the duties of life that
they could not perform.
Mrs. Prescindia Kimball said: "I feel comforted and blessed this
day. I am glad to be numbered in moving forward in this reform;
feel to exercise double diligence and try to accomplish what is
required at our hands. We must all put our shoulder to the wheel
and go ahead. I am glad to see our daughters elevated with man,
and the time come when our votes will assist our leaders, and
redeem ourselves. Let us be humble, and triumph will be ours. The
day is approaching when woman shall be redeemed from the curse
placed upon Eve, and I have often thought that our daughters who
are in polygamy will be the first redeemed. Then let us keep the
commandments and attain to a fullness, and always bear in mind that
our children born in the priesthood will be saviors on Mount Zion."
Mrs. Zina D. Young said she was glad to look upon such an
assemblage of bright and happy faces, and was gratified to be
numbered with the spirits who had taken tabernacles in this
dispensation, and to know that we are associated with kings and
priests of God; thought we do not realize our privileges. Be meek
and humble and do not move one step aside, but gain power over
ourselves. Angels will visit the earth, but are we, as handmaids of
the Lord, prepared to meet them? We live in the day that has been
looked down upon with great anxiety since the morn of creation.
Mrs. M. T. Smoot said: "We are engaged in a great work, and the
principles that we have embraced are life and salvation unto us.
Many principles are advanced on which we are slow to act. There
are many more to be advanced. Woman's rights have been spoken of.
I have never had any desire for more rights than I have. I have
considered politics aside from the sphere of woman; but, as things
progress, I feel it is right that we should vote, though the path
may be fraught with difficulty."
Mrs. Wilmarth East said she would bear testimony to what had been
said. She had found by experience that "obedience is better than
sacrifice." I desire to be on the safe side and sustain those above
us; but I cannot agree with Sister Smoot in regard to woman's
rights. I have never felt that woman had her privileges. I always
wanted a voice in the politics of the nation, as well as to rear
a family. I was much impressed when I read the poem composed by
Mrs. Emily Woodmanse--"Who Cares to Win a Woman's Thought." There
is a bright day coming; but we need more wisdom and humility than
ever before. My sisters, I am glad to be associated with you--those
who have borne the heat and burden of the day, and ask God to pour
blessings on your head.
Eliza R. Snow, in closing, observed, that there was a business item
she wished to lay before the meeting, and suggested that Sister
Bathsheba W. Smith be appointed on a mission to preach retrenchment
all through the South, and woman's rights, if she wished.
The suggestion was acted upon, and the meeting adjourned with
singing "Redeemer of Israel," and benediction by Mrs. M. N. Hyde.
Let the reader be further told that, though this was a sort of a
convention of the great Relief Society of Utah, which can move fifty
thousand women in a moment, it was not a woman's suffrage meeting. It
was a gathering of the sisters for consideration of the retrenchment
of the table, and general domestic economy, the retrenchment societies
having been just inaugurated under the leadership of Sister Horne.
But, it will be seen that the meeting was changed to a woman's feast
of anticipations, and table-retrenchment met scarcely an incidental
reference that day; for the spirit of woman's future rested upon the
sisters, spoke with its "still, small voice," and pointed to the bright
looming star of woman's destiny.
That these women will move wisely, and in the fear of God, is very
evident; nor will they use the tremendous power which they are
destined to hold to break up their church and destroy their faith in
the revelation of the "new and everlasting covenant," given through
the prophet Joseph Smith. Indeed, they will yet send their testimony
through the world, with ten thousand voices, confirmed by the potency
of the woman's vote, and flood the nation with their light.
Congress need not fear to trust the woman's supreme question into the
safe keeping of fifty thousand God-fearing, self-sacrificing, reverent
women. In vain will the anti-Mormons and pretentious "regenerators"
look for these women to become revolutionary or impious. What they do
will be done in the name and fear of the Lord; yet, mark the prophesy
of one of their leaders: "The day is approaching when woman shall be
redeemed from the curse of Eve; and I have often thought that our
daughters who are in polygamy will be the first redeemed."
Here is the curse: "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and _thy
desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee_!" Woman
will be redeemed from that curse, as sure as the coming of to-morrow's
sun. No more, after this generation, shall civilized man _rule_ over
his mate, but "they twain shall be one;" and the sisters are looking
for that millennial day. These are the "wise virgins" of the church;
and their lamps are trimmed.
CHAPTER LIII.
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SEEK TO DISFRANCHISE THE WOMEN OF UTAH--CLAGGETT'S
ASSAULT--THE WOMEN OF AMERICA COME TO THEIR AID--CHARLES SUMNER ABOUT
TO ESPOUSE THEIR CAUSE--DEATH PREVENTS THE GREAT STATESMAN'S DESIGN.
But the enemies of the Mormons, at home and abroad, who have sought to
break up their religious institutions and turn their sacred relations
into unholy covenants, have, from the very hour of the grant of woman's
charter, also sought to take away from them female suffrage. And
perhaps they would have done so ere now, had not a million American
women been on the side of the Mormons, in this. Claggett of Montana, in
his attack upon the people of Utah, in the House of Representatives,
January 29th, 1873, gave to Congress a touch of the anti-Mormon
opposition to female suffrage in Utah. He said:
"My friend from Utah [Hooper] goes on to say that Utah is a long
way in advance of the age in one respect; that female suffrage has
been adopted there. What was the reason for adopting that measure?
Was it because the peculiar institution of the territory recognizes
in any degree whatever, the elevation, purity, and sanctity of
women? No, sir. When the Union Pacific Railroad was completed,
and when the influx of miners and other outsiders began to come
into the territory, the chiefs of the Mormon hierarchy, fearing
that power would pass from their hands by the gradual change of
population, by adopting female suffrage trebled their voting power
by a stroke of their pen; and I am credibly informed upon the
authority of at least fifty men, that in practice in that territory
any child or woman, from twelve years old and upwards, that can
wear a yard of calico, exercises the prerogatives of a freeman, so
far as voting is concerned."
The flippant remark of the delegate from Montana, that every Mormon
woman could exercise the prerogative of a freeman, called forth a burst
of laughter from the house; but it would have been more in keeping
with the great theme of woman's rights, had a hearty "Thank God!" rang
from the lips of those legislators who laughed in derision. Of course,
the gentleman's statement was an exaggeration; but what a story he has
unwittingly told of the power that has been committed to the hands of
the Mormon women? What an epic prophesy he gave of woman's destiny,
when he said, that from the age of twelve years they are trained in
Utah to exercise the freeman's prerogative. If this be so--and it is
near enough to the truth--and if the Mormon women have trebled the
power of the men by the grant of female suffrage, then already do they
hold not only their own destiny in their hands, but also the destiny
of the men. Their very husbands are depending upon them for grace and
salvation from their enemies, in spite of all their enemies' designs.
Do legislators for a moment foolishly fear that the Mormon women will
not discover this vast power which they hold, and discovering, wield it
almost as a manifest destiny? They have discovered it; and their future
movements will manifest it, to the astonishment of the whole civilized
world. Fifty to a hundred thousand women, who are henceforth in one
single State to be trained, from the age of twelve, to exercise the
political power of "freemen," cannot but be free, and can have nothing
less than a splendid future before them.
Mr. Claggett blasphemed against the truth, when he said that there
was nothing in the Mormon religion that "recognized, in any degree
whatever, the elevation, purity and sanctity of woman." This is a
wicked outrage against the sisters, whose lives are stainless and
matchless records of purity, devotion and heroism. That devotion of
itself would elevate and enoble their characters; and, if Congress and
the American people believe them to be martyrs to their religion, then
their very martyrdom should sanctify them in the eyes of the nation.
Moreover, woman suffrage is a charter not incompatible with the genius
of Mormonism, but in positive harmony therewith. The Mormon Church
is originally based upon the woman as well as upon the man. She is
with him a partner and priest, in all their religious institutions.
The sisters have also exercised the vote in the church for the last
forty-seven years, it being conferred with their membership. So female
suffrage grows out of the very genius and institutions of their church.
Now the marriage question specially belongs to the women of the age,
and not to Congress; and the Mormon women must and will make the
country practically confess as much. They will do it by a movement
potent enough upon this question, if they have to stir all the
women of America to the issue. They are forced to this by their
supreme necessities--their honor, their duty, their love, their most
sacred relations. Their brothers, their husbands and their sons are
threatened with prisons, for that which their religion and the Bible
sanction--that Bible which Christendom for nearly two thousand years
has received as the word of God. If there be a radical fault, then is
the fault in their too substantial faith in that word. Surely there
can be no crime in a Bible faith, else Christendom had been under a
condemnation that eternity itself would not outlive. But the damnation
of Congress and the regenerators is to be visited upon the heads of
the innocent--for the shaping of the case is making the sisters in the
eye of the law dishonored women. The very spies and minions of the
court enter their marriage chamber--sacred among even barbarians--to
find the evidence for prosecution, or to drag them to the witness-box,
to testify against their husbands, or disown them to screen them from
punishment. Not in the history of civilization has there been such a
monstrous example before. Claggett has said, in Congress, of their
marriage, "That it tears the crown jewel from the diadem of woman's
purity, and takes from her the holy bond which honors her in all the
nations of the earth; which has elevated lechery to the dignity of a
religious dogma, and burns incense upon the altars of an unhallowed
lust; and above all, and as a crime against the future, which ages
of forgiveness cannot condone nor the waters of ocean wash out,
which yearly writes in letters that blister as they fall, the word
'bastard' across the branded brows of an army of little children. Such
an institution is not entitled by any right, either human or divine,
to hide the hideous deformity of its nakedness with the mantle of
religion, nor seek shelter under the protecting aegis of the civil
law." [Applause from Congress.]
The women of Mormondom must force Claggett and Congress to take this
back. It is such as he who spoke, and they who applauded, who have
written "in letters that blister as they fall the word 'bastard'
across the branded brows of an army of little children," and the
mothers of those dear little branded ones must appeal to the wives
and mothers of America, to take that curse of "bastard" from their
innocent brows. They must ask those noble women everywhere in America,
who are earnestly battling for their own rights, and especially the
supreme right of woman to settle the marriage question; and the answer
to their mighty prayer shall come back to them from a million women,
throughout the land. The women of America, who lead the van of the new
civilization, shall cry to Congress and the nation in behalf of their
Mormon sisters, with voices that will not be hushed, till justice be
done. Indeed, already have they done this, so far as the suffrage is
concerned; and it is due to them alone, under Providence, that the
women of Utah have not been disfranchised. This is best brought home
to the reader by reference to the following, from the report of the
Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association, read at the Opera House,
Detroit, Mich., October 13, 1874:
"During the session of Congress we spent some time in the capital,
proposing to work for the enfranchisement of the women of the
District of Columbia and of the territories; but finding that
Congress was more likely to disfranchise the women who already
possessed this right, than to enfranchise others, our efforts were
used, as far as possible, to prevent this backward step.
"Had we been a voter, we might have had less trouble to convince
some of our friends in this affair.
"Several bills were introduced, anyone of which, if it became a
law, would have disfranchised the women of Utah.
"The McKee bill had been referred to the House Committee on
Territories. While the subject was under discussion in the
committee, by invitation of the members, on two occasions, we
stated our views. One of the members, before the committee
convened, gave his reason for favoring the passage of the bill.
"'The woman's vote sustains polygamy,' said he, 'and to destroy
that, I would take the right of suffrage from every woman in the
territory.'
"'Would it do that?' we inquired.
"'I think it would.'
"'Did polygamy exist in the territory before the women voted?'
"'Oh! yes.'
"'Have they ever had the privilege of voting against it?'
"'No; that has never been made an issue; but they voted to send a
polygamist to Congress.'
"'Did any man vote for him?'
"'Yes, more than eleven thousand men, and ten thousand women.'
"'How many voted for the opposing candidate?'
"'Something less than two thousand men and women together.'
"'You intend to disfranchise the men who voted for this man?' we
asked.
"'Oh! no.'
"'Then the polygamist can still come to Congress by a majority of
five to one.' Though this was true, he seemed to think it very
wrong to disfranchise the men.
"How many of the committee reasoned as this one did, we are unable
to say, but the majority wished to disfranchise the women, as
they returned the bill to the House with the obnoxious sections
unchanged. The friends of woman, by their honest work, prevented
action being taken on the bill, and perhaps saved the country the
disgrace of having done such a great wrong, which it could not
soon have undone. There was something more vital to the well-being
of the nation in this, than some of our legislators were willing
to admit. Had they passed this act they would probably have laid
the foundation for the ruin of the nation. If Congress has the
power to disfranchise one class, it undoubtedly has the power to
disfranchise another, and what freeman in such a case is secure in
his rights?
"Similar bills were before the Senate and House Judiciary
Committees.
"The question came: Where shall we look for help among those in
power? To the true, the trusted and the tried. To those of the
grandest intellect and the purest heart. To the friends of the weak
and the oppressed. Our appeal shall be made to the highest, to the
honorable and most honored Charles Sumner. He cordially granted
us a hearing. When we stated the object of our visit, he quietly
remarked, 'You have come to the wrong person. I have no influence
with these men.'
"After talking some time on the subject, he said, 'I should
hesitate to take this right from any who now possess it. I will
go farther; I would be willing to grant it to those who have it
not.' He afterwards remarked, 'I shall investigate this matter
thoroughly.'
"'The bill passed the Senate last year, and many good men voted for
it,' we said.
"He kindly apologized for their action, in these words: 'They did
not fully realize the nature of the bill; they had not examined it
carefully.'
"'Had it deprived them, or any class of men, of the right to vote,
would they have realized what it meant, and voted differently?' we
inquired.
"'In that case they would doubtless have had sharp eyes to note all
its defects,' he answered, with a smile. 'I did not vote on it. I
was sick in bed at the time. Have you seen Mr. Frelinghuysen in
reference to this?' was the next inquiry.
"'We have not. It seems useless. A man who would frame such a bill
would not be likely to change it.'
"But we followed his advice, saw Mr. Frelinghuysen, Mr. Edmunds and
others. Mr. Frelinghuysen declared he would not change his bill
however much he might be abused.
"Two days after we again met Mr. Sumner and stated the results of
our efforts.
"In closing this second interview Mr. Sumner said, 'I will present
to the Senate any memorial or petition you may wish, and then refer
it to the Judiciary Committee. That is the best way to do.'
"His farewell words were: 'Whether you succeed or not, I wish you
all well.'
"Just three weeks from the day of our last conversation with Mr.
Sumner, his work on earth ceased, and the cause of justice lost
a grand friend. On the morning of February 20th we handed him a
suffrage memorial, which he presented to the Senate, requesting
that it be referred to the Judiciary Committee, which was almost
his last official act."
The women of Utah were not disfranchised. Doubtless this was chiefly
owing to the searching and logical editorials of the _Woman's Journal_,
which placed the subject in its true light before the people, together
with the action of the advocates of woman suffrage in New England,
New York, Pennsylvania and other States. This was a grand victory for
woman suffrage. Miss Mary F. Eastman, in her report to the New York
Association, said: "When the bill, disfranchising the women of Utah,
came before Congress, our representatives were promptly petitioned to
use their influence against the measure."
Thus it will be seen that the women of Mormondom and the women of
America have a common cause, in this all-vital marriage question, which
is destined to receive some very decided and peculiar solution before
the end of the century. And it must be equally certain that fifty
thousand God-fearing women, with the vote of "freemen"--as Mr. Claggett
has it--coming fairly out upon the national platform, in the great
issue, will give a toning to the marriage question, for which even
orthodox Christians, now so much their enemies, will heartily thank God.
CHAPTER LIV.
WOMAN EXPOUNDS HER OWN SUBJECT--THE FALL--HER REDEMPTION FROM THE
CURSE--RETURNING INTO THE PRESENCE OF HER FATHER--HER EXALTATION.
The high priestess thus expounds the subject of woman, from her Mormon
standpoint:
In the Garden of Eden, before the act of disobedience, through which
Adam and Eve were shut out from the presence of God, it is reasonable
to suppose that Eve's position was not inferior to, but equal with,
that of Adam, and that the same law was applicable to both. Moses says,
"God created man male and female." President Brigham Young says, "Woman
is man in the priesthood."
God not only foreknew, but he had a purpose to accomplish through, the
"fall;" for he had provided a sacrifice; Jesus being spoken of as a
"Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
It seems that woman took the lead in the great drama. The curse
followed, and she became subject to man; "and he shall rule over
thee," which presupposes a previous equality. But was that curse to
be perpetual? Were the daughters of Eve--who was a willing instrument
in effecting a grand purpose, that shall ultimate in great good to
the human family--to abide that curse forever? No. God had otherwise
ordained. Through the atoning blood of Christ, and obedience to his
gospel, a plan was devised to remove the curse and bring the sons and
daughters of Adam and Eve, not only to their primeval standing in the
presence of God, but to a far higher state of glory.
In the meridian of time, the Saviour came and introduced the gospel,
"which before was preached unto Abraham," and which, after a lapse
of nearly eighteen centuries--when men had "changed its ordinances,
and broken the everlasting covenant"--when "the man of sin had been
revealed, exalting himself above all that is called God"--after
hireling priests had mutilated its form, discarded its powers, and
rejected "the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophesy," the
Lord restored it in fullness to the earth, with all its gifts, powers,
blessings and ordinances.
For this purpose he raised up Joseph Smith, the great prophet of the
last days, to whom the angel that John, when on the Isle of Patmos, saw
"flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to
preach to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, saying, fear God
and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come," etc.,
appeared, and announced the glorious news of the Dispensation of the
Fullness of Times, and the restoration of the fullness of the gospel.
This gospel, and this only, will redeem woman from the curse primevally
entailed. It is generally admitted that "Christianity" ameliorates
the condition of woman; but the Christianity of the professing world,
mutilated as it has been, can only ameliorate, it cannot redeem.
Each religious denomination has fragments or portions of the true
form, but no vestige of the vital power that was manifested by Jesus
Christ, and restored through Joseph Smith. Nothing short of obedience
to this gospel in its fullness will exalt woman to equality with man,
and elevate mankind to a higher condition than we occupied in our
pre-existent state.
Woman, in all enlightened countries, wields, directly or indirectly,
the moving influence for good or for ill. It has been pertinently
remarked: "Show me the women of a nation, and I will describe that
nation." Let the pages of history decide if ever a nation became
a wreck, so long as woman nobly honored her being by faithfully
maintaining the principles of virtuous purity, and filled with grace
and dignity her position as wife and mother.
Would God, the kind parent, the loving father, have permitted his
children to sink into the fallen condition which characterizes humanity
in its present degraded state, without instituting means by which
great good would result? Would we, as intelligent beings in a former
existence, have consented, as we did, to resign the remembrance and
all recollection of that existence, and come down to earth and run
our chances for good or evil, did we not know that, on reasonable
conditions, and by means provided, we could work our way back to, at
least, our original positions? Emphatically, no! It is only by that
"spirit which searches all things, yea, even the deep things of God,"
that we can comprehend our own beings, and our missions on the earth,
with the bearing of our pre-existence on our present lives, of which we
only know what God reveals; and, as man, by his own wisdom cannot find
out God, so man by reasoning cannot pry into the circumstances of his
former life, nor extend his researches into the interminable eternities
that lie beyond.
CHAPTER LV.
WOMAN'S VOICE IN THE PRESS OF UTAH--THE WOMAN'S EXPONENT--MRS. EMELINE
WELLS--SHE SPEAKS FOR THE WOMEN OF UTAH--LITERARY AND PROFESSIONAL
WOMEN OF THE CHURCH.
And the women of Zion have a press. More than up to their Gentile
sisters are they in this respect. Few of the church organizations of
Christendom can boast a woman's journal. There are but few of them
in all the world, and they are mostly edited and supported by the
heterodox rather than the orthodox element.
The _Woman's Exponent_ is one of those few. It is published by the
women of the Mormon Church, having a company organization, of which
Eliza R. Snow is president. Mrs. Emeline B. Wells is the practical
editor. It was established June 1st, 1872.
The _Woman's Exponent_, in a general sense, may be considered
heterodox, seeing that it is an advocate of woman's rights on the
marriage question and female suffrage, but it is also apostolic,
and devoted to the Mormon mission. It represents the opinions
and sentiments of the Mormon women. All of their organizations
are fairly represented in its columns, and it is thus a means of
intercommunication between branches, bringing the remotest into close
connection with the more central ones, and keeping all advised of the
various society movements. Its editorial department is fully up to the
standard of American journalism.
Mrs. Wells, the editor, like many prominent Mormon women previously
mentioned, is of Puritan descent, being a native of New England, and
of pure English extraction. Her family name was Woodward, and she was
born in Petersham, Mass., February 29, 1828. At an early age she began
to manifest a penchant for literature, and while in her teens produced
many literary fragments that, as if by manifest destiny, pointed in
the direction of her present profession. In 1842 she was baptized into
the Mormon Church. It is needless to say that this was a cause of
mortification to her many associates and friends, and especially so to
a select few, whose appreciative kindness had pictured a glowing future
for the young litterateur. Her mother, who was also a convert to the
Mormon faith, fearing that the persuasions of friends might lead her
into error, sent her to Nauvoo, in the spring of 1844, that she might
be away from their influence. The people to whom her mother confided
her, apostatized shortly after her arrival, but Emeline remained
steadfast. Some time thereafter she became a plural wife. In the
exodus, her mother, who had joined her the year before, succumbed under
the accumulation of hardships that the saints had then to undergo, and,
dying, joined the immortal company of martyrs who fell in those days of
trial.
At winter quarters she was engaged in teaching, until her journey
to the valley in 1848. Here, since the organization of relief
societies, and more especially since the women of Utah obtained the
right of suffrage, she has employed a large portion of her time in
public labors, for the benefit and elevation of woman. In addition
to her present editorial duties, she fills the responsible position
of president of the organization that, since November, 1876, has
been engaged in storing up grain against a day of famine. Under the
energetic management of this organization, vast quantities of grain
have been stored in the various wards and settlements of Utah.
Sister Emeline is also a poetess of no little merit. As a set-off to
the popular idea that the Mormon women in polygamy have no sentiment
towards their husbands, the following exquisite production, from her
pen, entitled "The Wife to her Husband," is offered:
It seems to me that should I die,
And this poor body cold and lifeless lie,
And thou shouldst touch my lips with thy warm breath,
The life-blood quicken'd in each sep'rate vein,
Would wildly, madly rushing back again,
Bring the glad spirit from the isle of death.
It seems to me that were I dead,
And thou in sympathy shouldst o'er me shed
Some tears of sorrow, or of sad regret,
That every pearly drop that fell in grief,
Would bud, or blossom, bursting into leaf,
To prove immortal love could not forget.
I do believe that round my grave,
When the cool, fragrant, evening zephyrs wave,
Shouldst thou in friendship linger near the spot,
And breathe some tender words in memory,
That this poor heart in grateful constancy,
Would softly whisper back some loving thought.
I do believe that should I pass
Into the unknown land of happiness,
And thou shouldst wish to see my face once more,
That in my earnest longing after thee,
I would come forth in joyful ecstacy,
And once again gaze on thee as before.
I do believe my faith in thee,
Stronger than life, an anchor firm to be,
Planted in thy integrity and worth,
A perfect trust, implicit and secure;
That will all trials and all griefs endure,
And bless and comfort me while here on earth.
I do believe who love hath known,
Or sublime friendship's purest, highest tone,
Hath tasted of the cup of ripest bliss,
And drank the choicest wine life hath to give,
Hath known the truest joy it is to live;
What blessings rich or great compared to this?
I do believe true love to be,
An element that in its tendency,
Is elevating to the human mind;
An intuition which we recognize
As foretaste of immortal Paradise,
Through which the soul will be refined.
Among the more prominent contributors to the _Exponent_ is Lu.
Dalton, a lady in whose writings are manifested the true spirit and
independence of the Mormon women. The vigor and vivacity of her poetic
productions are suggestive of a future enviable fame.
Mrs. Hannah T. King, mentioned elsewhere, is a veteran poetess of
well-sustained reputation. She ranked among the poetesses of England
before joining the Mormon Church, being on intimate terms with the
celebrated Eliza Cook.
Another of the sisters who has won distinction as a poetess of the
church, is Emily Woodmansee. She is also a native of England, and began
her poetic career when but a girl. Several of her poems have been
reproduced in literary journals of the East, winning marked attention.
Miss Sarah Russell, who writes under the _nom de plume_ of "Hope,"
is also a poetess of promise; but she is younger to fame than the
before-mentioned.
Emily B. Spencer may also be mentioned in this connection.
Miss Mary E. Cook is an apostle of education, in the church. She is a
professional graduate, and has held prominent positions in first-class
schools of St. Louis and Chicago. Coming to Utah several years ago,
Miss Cook, being a passionate student of ancient history, was attracted
by a cursory glance at the Book of Mormon. On a careful perusal of
it she was struck with the account therein given of the ancient
inhabitants of this continent; and especially was she impressed with
the harmony existing between that account and the works of Bancroft
and others concerning the ancient races of America. She unhesitatingly
pronounced the book genuine. Miss Cook has been instrumental in
establishing the system of graded schools in Utah. Her success has
been marked, in this capacity, and she is also a rising leader among
the women of the church. With her should also be mentioned her sister,
Miss Ida Cook, who is now one of the most prominent teachers of the
territory. Nor should we omit to mention Orpha Everett, who is another
prominent teacher.
The ladies are also represented in the historian's office of the
church, in the person of a daughter of Apostle Orson Pratt, and
Miss Joan M. Campbell. Miss Campbell has been an _attache_ of
the historian's office since a mere child. She is a clerk of the
Territorial Legislature, and a Notary Public.
Mrs. Romania B. Pratt, wife of Parley P. Pratt, Jr., is a medical
professor. She is a graduate of the Woman's Medical College,
Philadelphia, and is now connected, as a practitioner, with the
celebrated water-cure establishment at Elmira, N. Y.
Sister Elise Shipp is another Mormon lady now under training for the
medical profession in the Woman's Medical College, Pennsylvania.
Thus it will be seen that, in the educational and professional spheres,
the Mormon women are making a creditable showing.
CHAPTER LVI.
RETROSPECTION--APOSTOLIC MISSION OF THE MORMON WOMEN--HOW THEY HAVE
USED THE SUFFRAGE--THEIR PETITION TO MRS. GRANT--TWENTY-SEVEN THOUSAND
MORMON WOMEN MEMORIALIZE CONGRESS.
Ere this record be closed, let us review the later acts of these
extraordinary women, who have fairly earned the position of apostles to
the whole United States.
They have pioneered the nation westward, where Providence was directing
its course of empire, and now they are turning back upon the elder
States of the Union as pioneers of a new civilization.
The manifest prophesy of events is, that Utah, in the near future,
is going down from the mountains of refuge to the very seat of
government, with woman's mission to all America. Very consistently,
yet very significantly also, are the women of Utah rising to power and
importance in the nation, through woman suffrage and the exercise of
the constitutional right of petition.
Since the grant of woman suffrage they have exercised the ballot
repeatedly in their municipal and territorial elections. Moreover,
within that time, they have voted upon the constitution for the "State
of Deseret," which will doubtless be substantially the one under which
the territory will be admitted into the Union. Female suffrage was
one of the planks of that constitution. It will become a part of the
organic act of the future State. No Congress will dare to expunge it,
for such an attempt would bring a million of the women of America into
an organized movement against the Congress that should dare to array
itself against this grand charter of woman's freedom. Though Wyoming
was the first to pass a woman suffrage bill, which met a veto from its
governor, and has experienced a somewhat unhappy history since, the
honor of having voted for the greatest measures known in social and
political economy rests with the women of Utah. They have taken action
upon the very foundation of society-building. Already, therefore,
the women of Utah lead the age in this supreme woman's issue; and,
if they carry their State into the Union first on the woman suffrage
plank, they will practically make woman suffrage a dispensation in our
national economy for all the States of the Federal Union. And it will
be consistent to look for a female member of Congress from Utah. Let
woman be once recognized as a power in the State, as well as in society
and the church, and her political rights can be extended according to
the public mind.
The Mormon women have also fallen back upon the original right of
citizens to petition Congress. Their first example of the kind was
when they held their grand mass-meetings throughout the territory and
memorialized Congress against the Cullom bill. The second was the
very remarkable petition to Mrs. Grant. It is here reproduced as a
historical unique:
"MRS. PRESIDENT GRANT:
"_Honored Lady_: Deeming it proper for woman to appeal to
woman, we, Latter-day Saints, ladies of Utah, take the liberty
of preferring our humble and earnest petition for your kindly
and generous aid; not merely that you are the wife of the chief
magistrate of this great nation, but we are also induced to appeal
to you because of your high personal reputation for nobility and
excellence of character.
"Believing that you, as all true women should do (for in our
estimation every wife should fill the position of counselor to her
husband), possess the confidence of and have much influence with
his excellency, President Grant, we earnestly solicit the exercise
of that influence with him in behalf of our husbands, fathers, sons
and brothers, who are now being exposed to the murderous policy
of a clique of federal officers, intent on the destruction of our
honest, happy, industrious and prosperous people.
"We have broken no constitutional law; violated no obligation,
either national or sectional; we revere the sacred constitution of
our country, and have ever been an order-loving, law-abiding people.
"We believe the institution of marriage to have been ordained
of God, and therefore subject to his all-wise direction. It
is a divine rite, and not a civil contract, and hence no man,
unauthorized of God, can legally administer in this holy ordinance.
"We also believe in the Holy Bible, and that God did anciently
institute the order of plurality of wives, and sanctioned and
honored it in the advent of the Saviour of the world, whose birth,
on the mother's side, was in that polygamous lineage, as he
testified to his servant John, on the Isle of Patmos, saying: 'I am
the root and the offspring of David;' and we not only believe, but
most assuredly know, that the Almighty has restored the fullness
of the everlasting gospel, through the prophet Joseph Smith, and
with it the plurality of wives. This we accept as a purely divine
institution. With us it is a matter of conscience, knowing that God
commanded its practice.
"Our territorial laws make adultery and licentiousness penal
offences, the breach of which subjects offenders to fine and
imprisonment. These laws are being basely subverted by our federal
officers, who after unscrupulously wresting the territorial offices
from their legitimate incumbents, in order to carry out suicidal
schemes, are substituting licentiousness for the sacred order of
marriage, and seeking by these measures to incarcerate the most
moral and upright men of this territory, and thus destroy the peace
and prosperity of this entire community. They evidently design to
sever the conjugal, parental and paternal ties, which are dearer to
us than our lives.
"We appreciate our husbands as highly as it is possible for you,
honored madam, to appreciate yours. They have no interests but such
as we share in common with them. If they are persecuted, we are
persecuted also. If they are imprisoned, we and our children are
left unprotected.
"As a community we love peace and promote it. Our leaders are
peacemakers, and invariably stimulate the people to pacific
measures, even when subjected to the grossest injustice. President
Brigham Young and several of his associates, all noble and
philanthropic gentlemen, are already under indictment to be
arraigned, before a packed jury, mostly non-residents, for the
crime of licentiousness, than which a more outrageous absurdity
could not exist.
"Under these cruel and forbidding circumstances, dear madam,
our most fervent petition to you is, that through the sympathy
of your womanly heart you will persuade the President to remove
these malicious disturbers of the peace, or at least that he will
stop the disgraceful court proceedings, and send from Washington
a committee of candid, intelligent, reliable men, who shall
investigate matters which involve the rights of property, perhaps
life, and more than all, the constitutional liberties of more than
one hundred thousand citizens.
"By doing this you will be the honored instrument, in the hands of
God, of preventing a foul disgrace to the present administration,
and an eternal blot on our national escutcheon.
"And your petitioners will ever pray," etc.
It is believed that this petition had due weight in accomplishing the
dismissal of Judge McKean, which afterward occurred.
The third example was still greater. It was a memorial to Congress,
by the women of Utah, upon their marriage question, the grant of a
homestead right to woman, and for the admission of Utah as a State. It
was signed by twenty-six thousand six hundred and twenty-six women of
Utah, and was duly presented to both houses of Congress.
And these are the acts and examples of enfranchised Mormon women; not
the acts and promptings of President Young and the apostles, but of the
leaders of the sisterhood. It may be stated, however, that President
Young and the apostles approved and blessed their doings; but this
confesses much to their honor.
How suggestive the question, What if the leading men of every State
in the Union should do as much for woman in her mission, instead of
setting up barriers in her way? Were such the case, in less than a
decade we should see female suffrage established in every State of the
federation.
CHAPTER LVII.
SARAH THE MOTHER OF THE COVENANT--IN HER THE EXPOUNDING OF THE
POLYGAMIC RELATIONS OF THE MORMON WOMEN--FULFILMENT OF GOD'S PROMISE
TO HER--THE MORMON PARALLEL--SARAH AND HAGAR DIVIDE THE RELIGIOUS
DOMINATION OF THE WORLD.
Meet we now Sarah the mother of the covenant. In her is incarnated the
very soul of patriarchal marriage. In her is the expounding of the
patriarchal relations of her Mormon daughters. Sarah, who gave to her
husband another wife, that the covenant which the Lord made with him
might be fulfilled.
O woman, who shall measure thy love? And thus to give thyself a
sacrifice for thy love! Thus on the altar ever!
It is thy soul-type in nature that makes nature beneficent. Had not
nature the soul of woman she had been infinitely selfish; an infinite
love had not been born; there had been no Christ; no sacrifice of self,
that blessing and joy might come into the world.
The story of Sarah is the more touchingly beautiful when we remember
that it has its cross. It would be a grievous wrong to Sarah's
memory should we forget the sacrifice that her act necessitated, or
underestimate that sacrifice. And let us not forget that it was not
Abraham who bore that cross, great and good though he was.
The sacrifice in the initial of the covenant is a psalm to woman.
Keeping in mind the episode of Sarah and Hagar, let us continue the
Abrahamic story:
"And God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not
call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
"And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will
bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people
shall be of her.
* * * * * *
"And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto
Sarah as he had spoken.
"For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the
time of which God had spoken to him."
The divine story was once familiar; it is now almost forgotten. But it
is the living word of God to the Mormon people.
Reincarnate in modern times the soul of this vast Abrahamic iliad.
Breathe the breath of its genius into a young civilization. A
civilization born not in the East, where once was the cradle of
empires--where now are their crumbling tombs. A young civilization,
born in the revirgined West--the West, where new empires are springing
up on the very dust of empires which had expired when Egypt was but a
maiden--ere Babylon was a mother--ere Rome was born.
Re-utter the word and will of that God who spake to the Hebrew sire on
the plains of Mamre; utter it now in the birth and growth of a young
Israel in the land of America. Comprehend him in his birth and in his
growth. Consider his genius and his covenant.
In Abraham of old is the expounding and understanding of the renewed
covenant with the latter-day Israel; and in Sarah of old is the
expounding and understanding of patriarchal marriage among her Mormon
daughters.
The Mormon woman is Sarah in the covenant, as she is Eve in the
creation and fall. She has appropriated the text of the covenant.
She claims her mother Sarah's rights. She invokes her mother Sarah's
destiny: "She shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of
her."
Thus in the mind of the Mormon woman is patriarchal marriage
established by her God. Be it confessed that woman was a listener to
the Abrahamic promise in the days of Sarah; was she not also a listener
in the days of Joseph the prophet? Could the heavens thus speak and
woman fail to hear? Could such promises be made and motherhood fail to
leap for joy?
If she dared to bear the patriarchal cross, was it not because she saw
brightly looming in her destiny the patriarchal crown? In this life
only the cross--in all the lives to come a crown of glory!
The Mormon woman knows nothing of "polygamy" as conceived by the
Gentiles. She is constantly declaring this. There is no "many-wife
system" in Mormondom. It is patriarchal marriage. There is the destiny
of a race in the Mormon woman's vision. For this came she into the
world. In her is motherhood supremely exalted, and woman is redeemed
from bondage to her husband.
Glance at the story of Sarah again. Mark its stupendous import to
motherhood. Witness the introduction of polygamy into the Abrahamic
family. And, if the wondrous sequel has any meaning, Isaac was the
Lord's answering gift to Sarah's act, to fulfil the covenant.
And while remembering the sacrifice of Sarah and Hagar let us also
remember the compensation. Those two mothers are without parallel in
all history. Races and empires came of them. Sarah and Hagar, in their
sons Isaac and Ishmael, have divided the world.
From Isaac's line was given to the world the Christ; from Ishmael came
Mohammed, the prophet of hundreds of millions.
Weigh those two mothers, with their sons, their races, and their
civilizations. What a weight of empire! What were Egypt and Babylon,
compared with Sarah and Hagar?
The Abrahamic subject is the most stupendous of all history. That
subject has been reincarnated in Mormonism. Its genius and covenants
are with the Mormon people; the age is witnessing the results.
Patriarchal marriage is one of those results. Sarah is a live character
of our times. She will fulfil her destiny.
From the courts above the Mormon woman shall look down upon an endless
posterity. In the heavens and in the earth shall her generations be
multiplied.
This is the faith of each Mormon Sarah--each mother of the covenant.
This only is her polygamy.
CHAPTER LVIII.
WOMANHOOD THE REGENERATING INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD--FROM EVE, THE
FIRST, TO MARY, THE SECOND EVE--GOD AND WOMAN THE HOPE OF MAN--WOMAN'S
APOSTLESHIP--JOSEPH VS. PAUL--THE WOMAN NATURE A PREDICATE OF THE
WORLD'S FUTURE.
In the beginning religion and nature dwelt together. The book of
creation was gospel then. Creation was the only revelation.
Motherhood is the first grace of God, manifested through woman. The
very name of all things is in the mother: "And Adam called his wife's
name Eve; because she was the mother of all living."
See in what divine ordinance woman's mission on earth began. The theme
of the initial psalm that ascended to the heavens, which listened to
catch from earth the first notes of the everlasting harmonies: "I have
gotten a man from the Lord!"
But the nature of the mother abounded not in Cain. Woman's soul was not
manifested in her first-born. It was the strength, and the fierceness,
and the selfishness of man that was first brought forth.
And Cain was very wroth because of his brother, born with woman's
nature, with his mother's gentleness manifested in him. And he "rose up
against his brother and slew him."
Here is pre-epitomized the coming history of the race. In the savage
strength of nature the world began. In the gentleness of woman, which
at length prevailed in her sons, civilization dawned.
Woman's apostleship as the minister of the "word of God" commenced at
the death of Abel.
--
Turn we now to Mary, the mother of Christ, to see what kind of man she
"hath gotten from the Lord." From the first Eve to the second Eve, to
find the grace of woman's nature spreading abroad in her Jesus, for the
salvation of the world. Motherhood now in the regeneration.
"Hail thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed
art thou among women.
"And behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son,
and shalt call his name Jesus."
As also note the episode of her meeting with her cousin Elizabeth, the
mother of John the Baptist.
These mothers were conscious of the salvation to be born of woman.
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and blessed the greater
mother; and Mary magnified the Lord in psalm, and said: "Behold from
henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."
We shall yet have to give to the gospel word "regeneration" a very
literal meaning. The world must be regenerated, in fact, before much
salvation can come unto it; regenerated through the divine nature of
woman endowing her sons; and regenerated in her apostolic ministry to
the race; which in this age is being so universally acknowledged.
The world must be born again. "Except a man be born again, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of heaven." Except mankind be regenerated, no
Christ can reign with his saints on earth. There is something more than
mere figure of speech in this gospel.
The generation of mankind began in Cain; the regeneration of mankind
began in Christ. The one born with the club; the other endowed with
all-conquering love. The scepters of the two creations typed in Cain
and Jesus.
Jesus was not only the first fruits of the resurrection, but of the
regeneration also. And motherhood was (before fatherhood) first with
God in this regeneration. Has egotistic man sufficiently cogitated over
this fact? And does he fully comprehend the equally significant fact
that woman was the first witness and testament of the resurrection?
And who began the regeneration of the race? Whose human nature was
manifested in the work? The woman's!
God's nature in Christ needed no regeneration. Nor did the woman's
nature need regeneration, when thus found pure, as in Mary. This is the
great fact embodied in the Christ example. As soon may Christianity be
wiped out as this fact!
What an astounding truth have we in this example--that God and woman
have brought forth a perfect creation and an infinite love, in Jesus
their Christ.
God was the father of Jesus. From him the Holy Ghost. From him the
wisdom of the eternities. From him the power to call a legion of angels
down to his help, had he so willed it. From him the power to lay down
his life and take it up again. From him the power to conquer death and
burst the gates of hell.
The mother of Jesus--a virgin of the house of David, and not a flaming
goddess from the skies.
From woman, the love of Jesus for humanity. From her his sympathies
for the race. 'Twas she, in her son, who forgave sin; she who bade the
sinner go and sin no more; she who wept over Jerusalem as a mother
weepeth over her young. And it was woman, in her son, who died upon the
cross for the sins of the world!
It was not God the father who in Jesus died; not he who passed the dark
hour of nature's struggle in the garden; not God who prayed, "Take away
this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt."
'Twas woman who was left alone on the cross; she, in her son, who
cried, "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?"
Love is of the woman. That is the great lesson which the human nature
of Jesus teaches; and it is that element of her nature which shall save
the world.
Would we see what will be her teaching when her apostleship comes to
prevail in the earth, let us read the sermon of her son on the Mount.
Is not that woman's own gospel? Is it not also her philosophy--"If thy
brother smite thee on the one cheek turn unto him the other also?"
And in this regeneration of the race, in nature and spirit, God and
woman are thus seen first alone. Man came not to their help, but
they came to the help of man. Here is groundwork indeed for the
reconstruction of society, and the remoulding of philosophy!
In the past the apostleship of woman has not been fairly granted to
her, even among the most civilized nations. But it shall be; and there
is the hope of the world.
Paul, in the egotism of man's apostleship, commanded, "Let the woman be
silent in the church." Yet the church is the type of woman. If she be
silent, then will there be but little of saving gospel in the world. If
woman's spiritual nature prevail not in the church, then is the church
dead. If her faith expires, then is there left but a wretched form of
godliness.
The prophet Joseph corrected Paul, and made woman a voice in the
church, and endowed her with an apostolic ministry.
And in the regeneration is the entire significance of Mormon
patriarchal marriage. First, woman in her ever blessed office of
motherhood; next, in her divine ministry. Is not this according to the
example?
The chief faith of the Mormon women concerning themselves is that they
are called with a holy calling to raise up a righteous seed unto the
Lord--a holy nation--a people zealous of good works.
The Mormon women have a great truth here. Woman must regenerate the
race by endowing it with more of her own nature. She must bring forth a
better type of man, to work out with her a better civilization.
It is blasphemy against the divine truth of the world's coming
redemption, and of woman's mission in it, to scoff at the Mormon women
for holding such a faith.
Woman shall leaven the earth with her own nature. She shall leaven it
in her great office of maternity, and in her apostolic mission.
It shall be the lofty prophesy of the coming woman, "Behold from
henceforth all nations call me blessed!"
CHAPTER LIX.
ZION, A TYPE OF "THE WOMAN'S AGE"--THE CULMINATING THEME OF THE POETS
OF ISRAEL--THE IDEAL PERSONIFICATION OF THE CHURCH--THE BRIDE--THE
COMING EVE.
Zion the joy of the whole earth! She who cometh down from heaven, with
the anointing of salvation upon her head.
The woman of the future, whom the Lord hath chosen! Her type is the
church, with the divine nature of the race restored.
Zion is coming down to be the spiritual mother of the earth. She shall
bruise the serpent's head, in her seed and in her ministry. Now shall
woman be not only the mother of the individual Christ, but she shall
also be the mother of the universal Christ.
"Saviours shall come upon Mount Zion!"
The daughters of Zion shall multiply the seed of Christ.
There was a beautiful consistency and a deep mystical meaning in
the words of the old Jewish prophets when personifying Zion as the
woman--the woman of the Lord's choosing, for the earth's joy.
They sang of Zion as the woman of the future: "Oh that the salvation of
Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of
his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad."
True, Zion is sometimes spoken of as a city, but always with a mixture
of personification. As the Hebrew poets rose to the height of their
great subject they symbolized her as a veritable woman, with a ministry
in the earth; and chiefly symbolized her as the woman of the future.
David, the great psalmist, led the theme, for Zion was his daughter;
then glorious Isaiah swelled the volume of earth's epic hymn. What a
culmination and personification is this: "For thy Maker is thy husband;
the Lord of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel;
the God of the whole earth shall he be called."
This is the very subject of Mary the mother of Jesus. But here
enlarged. This is Zion, who shall be mother of many Messiahs, for she
shall bring forth many sons, with the anointing of their Lord's spirit
upon them, to exalt his reign.
"Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of thy habitations; for thou shalt bring forth on the
right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the
Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited."
'Tis the divine mission of woman to the race; oracled by lofty souls;
her holy apostleship on earth pronounced. She is to be incarnated in
a civilization on whose tables shall be written, "Thy Maker is thine
husband."
The mission of woman could not prevail in the barbaric periods of the
race; 'twas man's work to chisel the rocks of the temple. Not even had
her time come in the days of Christ, though no one has so distinctly
foreshadowed it as he.
Paul is not to be unqualifiedly reproached for bidding woman be silent
in the church. The time had not then come. Not as potent then as now
the thought: "Show me the women of a nation and I will tell thee its
civilization." And there is still a deeper meaning in this than the
popular thought. How beautifully has Jesus himself kept up the symbols
of the coming woman. With him the woman--Zion--becomes the "Lamb's
bride:"
"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins,
which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom."
And this was to be in the age "when the Son of Man shall come in his
glory, and all the holy angels with him."
At his first coming the kingdom of heaven was likened to twelve
fishermen--not ten virgins--and he said unto them, "Take up your nets
and follow me and I will make you fishers of men."
But when the cry shall go forth, "Behold the bridegroom cometh,"
commotion is to be among the virgins of the earth--the virgins of Zion
and the virgins of Babylon. Each will trim their lamps. Each will have
their "five wise" and "five foolish." Every one will have her familiar
spirit. But the God of Israel will send his spirit to inspire Zion, for
her Maker is her husband. And the daughters of Zion shall trim their
lamps to go forth to meet the bridegroom, who is the Lamb of God.
The age of Messiah's coming is the woman's age! or there is no sense in
the utterances of prophesy, nor meaning in the most beautiful parables
of Christ.
And this is the woman's age! All humanity is proclaiming it!
The women of the age are obeying the impulses of the age. Do they
know what those impulses mean? They have heard the cry, and have come
forth. Do they comprehend what that cry has signified?--"Behold, the
bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him!"
Unwittingly they are testing the Scriptures, and proving that the
coming of Messiah is the crowning truth of the world. However, the
five wise virgins of Zion are coming forth in faith. They are not
unwittingly fulfilling their Lord's word. They have interpreted the
cry, and are trimming their lamps.
Man may as well attempt to throw back the ocean with the hollow of his
hand, or put out the sun with the breath of his command, as to attempt
to defeat the oncoming of "woman's hour."
Let the God of humanity be praised for this; for did not the virgins
come out at this eleventh hour, the fishermen might go again to their
nets, and let the midnight pass, and earth take the consequence.
But how wondrously are the divine themes of earth's grace from God
revealed. Down through the ages they came as echoes mellowed into more
celestial tones.
Creation begins again! Zion--the New Jerusalem--is the Lamb's bride.
She is the coming Eve.
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away. * * *
"And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
"And there came unto me one of the seven angels * * * saying, come
hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
"And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the
voice of many waters, and as the voice of many thunderings, saying
Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the
marriage supper of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself
ready.
"And he saith unto me, write, Blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."
Surely there is a glorious prophesy and a sublime truth, hallelujahed
from the ages down, in this proclamation of the woman's mission at the
hour of the Lord's coming.
The lives of the Mormon women are as a testament to the age. The very
character which their church has taken, as the literal Zion of the
latter days, shall soon be recognized as the symbol of the hour.
And the virgins in every land shall hear the cry, "Behold, the
bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him!"
CHAPTER LX.
TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY WITH BANNERS--FIFTY THOUSAND WOMEN WITH THE
BALLOT--THEIR GRAND MISSION TO THE NATION--A FORESHADOWING OF THE
FUTURE OF THE WOMEN OF MORMONDOM.
"Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear
as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?"
The Daughter of Zion!
Fifty thousand daughters of Zion! Each with her banner!
Her banner, female suffrage!
It is the great battle of woman for woman's rights. The Lord of Hosts
is with her.
The rights of the women of Zion, and the rights of the women of all
nations.
Her battle-field: America first; the great world next. And the God of
Israel is in the controversy.
--
The chiefest right of woman is in the shaping and settlement of the
marriage question. The voice of civilization well enunciates this
supreme doctrine. To commit this all-sacred matter to a congress of
politicians, or to leave it to the narrow exactitude of the law-making
department, is as barbaric as any monstrous thing the imagination
can conceive. Not ruder was it in the warlike founders of Rome to
seize the virgins as spoil, and make them wives to accomplish their
empire-founding ambitions, than for a congress of American legislators
to seize and prostitute the marriage question to their own political
ends and popularity.
Can there be any doubt that the men of Washington have seized polygamy
for their own ends? And are these men of the parliamentary Sodom of
modern times the proper persons to decide the marriage question?
Will woman allow her sanctuary to be thus invaded and her supremest
subject thus defiled?
If there is anything divine in human affairs it is marriage, or the
relations between man and woman. Here love, not congressional law, must
be the arbitrator. Here woman, not man, must give consent. It is the
divine law of nature, illustrated in all civilized examples. What is
not thus is barbaric.
Woman is chief in the consents of marriage. It is her right, under God
her father and God her mother, to say to society what shall be the
relations between man and woman--hers, in plain fact, to decide the
marriage question.
The women of Mormondom have thus far decided on the marriage order of
the patriarchs of Israel; for they have the Israelitish genius and
conception of the object of man's creation. In the everlasting covenant
of marriage they have considered and honored their God-father and
God-mother.
In turn, the Gentile woman must decide the marriage question for
herself. The law of God and nature is the same to her. The question
still is the woman's. She can decide with or without God, as seemeth
her best; but the Mormon woman has decided upon the experience and
righteousness of her Heavenly Father and her Heavenly Mother.
A certain manifest destiny has made the marriage problem the supreme
of Mormonism. How suggestive, in this view, is the fact that Congress,
by special legislation, has made polygamy the very alpha and omega
of the Mormon problem. The Mormon women, therefore, must perforce of
circumstances, by their faith and action greatly influence the future
destiny of Mormonism.
The enfranchisement of the Mormon women was suggested by the country,
to give them the power to rule their own fate and to choose according
to their own free will. Nothing but their free will can now prevail.
Their Legislature enfranchised them--gave them the power absolute, not
only to determine their own lives, but to hold the very destiny of Utah.
If it was Brigham Young who gave to them that unparalleled power, no
matter what should be declared by the enemy as his motive, then has
he done more for woman than any man living. But Mormon apostles and
representatives executed this grand charter of woman's rights; and
George Q. Cannon's noble declaration at the time--that the charter
of female suffrage ought to be extended to the entire republic--is
deserving the acclamations of the women of America.
New civilizations are the chiefest boons of humanity. Never was a new
civilization more needed than now, for in the last century the world
has rushed over the track-way of a thousand years. A train dashing
forward at the rate of one hundred miles an hour would not be in
more danger than will soon be society, unless a safety-valve--a new
civilization--is opened.
This is the woman's age. The universal voice of society proclaims
the fact. Woman must, therefore, lay the corner-stone of the new
civilization. Her arm will be most potent in rearing the glorious
structure of the future. Man cannot prevent it, for in it is a divine
intending.
There is a providence in the very attitude of the Mormon women. The
prophesy is distinctly pronounced in the whole history of their lives,
that they shall be apostolic to the age.
A new apostleship is ever innovative. The Mormon women have established
an astounding innovation in polygamy. It has been infinitely offensive.
So much the better! For it has made a great noise in the world, and has
shaken the old and rotten institutions of Christendom. That shaking was
not only inevitable, but necessary, before a new civilization.
--
We have seen the daughters of Zion, with her sons, establish their
institutions upon the foundation of new revelation. We have seen them
rearing temples to the august name of the God of Israel. We have seen
their matchless faith, their devotion, their heroism.
We have seen them, because of their fidelity to their religion, driven
from city to city and from State to State.
We have seen them in the awful hour of martyrdom.
We have seen them in the exodus of modern Israel from Gentile
civilization, following their Moses.
The daughters of Zion were going up to the chambers of the mountains,
to hide from the oppressor till the day of their strength.
Their banners were then their pioneer whips. Their banner now is female
suffrage--on it inscribed, "Woman's Rights! in the name of the God of
Israel!"
Fifty thousand of the daughters of Zion! Each with her banner!
We have seen them on the cross, with their crown of thorns. We _shall_
see them on their throne, with their crown of glory. In this is divine
and everlasting justice.
They have sown in tears they shall reap in gladness.
With their pioneer whips in their hands they came up to the chambers of
refuge, as exiles.
With the scepter of woman's rights, they will go down as apostles to
evangelize the nation.
"Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear
as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?"
The Daughter of Zion!
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Women of Mormondom" ***
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