Bunnell, was born August 8, 1839, in Washington, Wayne County, Indiana.
In her seventh year she went with her parents to Nauvoo, and had the
privilege of visiting the Temple, and went with the Church to Winter
Quarters. She says: "While there I well remember being present when
the martial band was marching round and the call was made for the
Mormon Battallion for Mexico. Although too young to appreciate the
severe ordeal our devoted and persecuted people were subject to, I can
never forget the feeling of grief which oppressed my little heart, as
one after one the brave-hearted men fell into the ranks." From Winter
Quarters her parents moved to Ohio where her whole time was spent in
attending school, the last year and a half at the Crawfordsville Female
Seminary. In 1855, her mother then being a widow, with her family of
two girls and two boys and their worldly effects, again joined the
Saints at Atchison, now Omaha, where she was first baptized into the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, on the last of May, 1855,
just before commencing their journey with ox teams across the plains
to Salt Lake City, where they arrived September 3d of the same year.
The summer journey of these months was a series of changing panoramic
scenes as enchanting to the free, careless heart of a child, as it was
arduous to those of maturer years. Their arrival in the city of the
Saints was during the grasshopper famine, when flour was twenty-five
dollars per hundred weight, sugar forty cents per pound and everything
in proportion, and although they had left plenty behind them, in the
hands of guardians who refused to allow them any money, (the children
all being minors) to come away among the Mormons, saying; "They
will rob you of it all as soon as you get there." In consequence of
this prejudice they arrived in Salt Lake City penniless and at a
time when they with thousands of others had to learn the sweetness
of the coarsest kind of bread. Romania taught day school and gave
music lessons on the piano at intervals until she entered the medical
profession. This lady was married to Parley P. Pratt, son of the
Apostle, Parley P. Pratt, by President Brigham Young, and has had seven
children; Parley P. Pratt, Luther B., Louis L., Corinne T., Mark C.,
Irwin E. and Roy B. Pratt. Her second son died in infancy, and her
lovely daughter died when twenty months old.
Through a love of literary pursuit and surrounding circumstances her
attention was turned to the medical profession which she entered in
1873 and graduated in the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia in
March, 1877. After graduating she remained in Philadelphia and took
special courses on the eye and ear at Wills' Hospital and a dispensary
on Chestnut Street, conducted by Dr. George Strawbridge. Leaving
Philadelphia she spent a few weeks visiting Hydropathic institutions to
learn something of the mode of administration and especially of water
treatment.
Immediately on her arrival home she by request commenced giving
lectures to ladies and agitated the question of a hospital for women
and children, and by counsel on account of great demand of obstetrical
aid needed in the numerous settlements, soon instituted a school of
midwifery, and has taught two classes a year since, except when absent
for special study in the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary where she spent
eight months in 1881-2.
In 1874, when Eliza R. S. Smith organized the Young Ladies' Mutual
Improvement Association of the Twelfth Ward, Mrs. Pratt was appointed
President, which position she held though absent a portion of the time,
until professional work compelled her resignation. She now holds the
office of Treasurer of the Salt Lake Stake organization of the Young
Ladies Mutual Improvement Association, and is also one of the Board
of Executors and medical attendant of the Deseret Hospital, organized
1882, beside having a busy practice. Luther B. Bunnell, her father,
was the inventor of a repeating fire arm, and at a critical period in
the persecutions of the Saints, donated to them five hundred dollars
in arms and ammunition. Tracing her family record a few years back,
we find in her mother's line the names of Bayard Taylor and Benjamin
West among her relatives. About the year 1837, a small pamphlet was
published in Philadelphia giving the genealogy of her family, tracing
them back to a Russian nobleman. Captain Mendenhall was the grandson
of Benjamin, brother to John Mendenhall, the Puritan emigrant. Colonel
Richard Thomas, brother to her great grandmother, was a member of
Congress from Chester County, Pa., for many years. Of medical members,
Dr. Pratt's family certainly has had a goodly number, and of these we
select--Dr. Mendenhall, of Richmond, Indiana, her mother's cousin,
Dr. Marmaduke Mendenhall, of North Carolina, her cousin, Dr. Paris
Mendenhall, her brother, Dr. James R. Mendenhall, of Richmond, Indiana,
her cousin, Nereus Mendenhall, professor in New Garden Quaker College,
also George D. and William Mendenhall, physicians. Beside these,
many others of note occur, too many for less than a special volume.
Her eldest son, Parley P. Pratt, also entered the New York School of
Pharmacy, from which he expects to graduate in the spring of 1885.
Dr. Pratt is in appearance the very embodiment of health and happiness,
her blooming cheeks, abundant loose ringlets without a line of gray,
her dark eyes inspiring the dispirited with cheerfulness and hope, the
cordial clasp of hand, a hand gentle, but somehow suggestive of the
nerve, firmness, self-possession and power the true healer holds, the
intuition one receives of her sympathy and benevolence, if needed; all
these are conveyed as upon an open page by the very presence of Dr.
Pratt. Also, that other influence is felt that she too leans upon a
higher power than human skill, the same Giver of life and health as the
tenderest child looks up to.
Dr. Romania B. Pratt was the first "Mormon" woman graduate. Following
her return as graduate, next came Dr. Ellis R. Shipp, 1878, Mattie
Paul Hughes, M. D., 1883, Elvira S. Barney, M. D., 1883, and Margaret
C. Shipp, M. D., 1883. Drs. R. B. Pratt, Ellis R. Shipp and Elvira S.
Barney are connected with the Deseret Hospital, founded in 1882.
THE LADY DOCTOR.
For her, from darkened rooms
What blessings softly rise,
Who brings relief to pain and fear
And soothes the watcher's cries.
On her, the skies look down
As fearless, swift she goes
Through lonely paths, past rude alarms,
And oft through blinding snows.
'Tis hers, to see the smile
The new blest mother gives;
And hers to hear their answering joy--
"Hush all thy fears, he lives."
The record of her works
In volumes ne'er is known,
'Tis written as on marble carved
In grateful hearts alone.
DR. ELVIRA S. BARNEY.
Although in this book Dr. Barney is classed among the medical
fraternity her labors and history have been interwoven with those of
the Latter Day Saints from her childhood, in so many varied and useful
fields of labor, that I am compelled to pause at the very beginning
of this sketch, (necessarily brief) knowing I must omit so many
particulars, both valuable and instructive.
If Dr. Barney had, in her childhood, possessed the advantages of
obtaining a thorough education, and opportunities for the best
development of those many abilities which have manifested themselves
under the most dispiriting surroundings, it would be difficult at
present to estimate what she might have accomplished. She represents
the practical, domestic, experience of a Latter Day Saint; orphaned,
and almost alone, but possessing that indomitable spirit that rises
above every obstacle, and turns to account every available means no
matter how humble, that cultivates every inherent power to its best
uses; an upbuilder in everything pertaining to the interests of her
people, ready to aid on the right and on the left, forgetful of self.
Elvira S. Barney was born March 17, 1832, in Gerry, Chawtawque County,
New York, being the daughter of Samuel C. Stevens, a merchant, and his
wife, Minerva Althea Field, a school teacher. Her great grand-father,
Joseph Stevens, took an active part in the Revolutionary War; her
grand-father, Simon Stevens, was a doctor; her uncles were doctors
and lawyers. When twelve years old Elvira heard the gospel preached
by a Mormon Elder, and from that time daily prayed in secret till the
Lord gave her a testimony that satisfied her heart. She was baptized
in 1844, and went with her parents to Nauvoo, where her father died
after a brief illness, on October 4th. In the January following Elvira
and her mother were preparing for the journey across the wilderness,
parching corn, etc.; but her mother, overcome by toil, grief and
exhaustion, died on the 6th of the month. Their farm, household goods,
etc., were sold, and the five children received ten dollars each to fit
them out for a western journey. Elvira parted with her twin brother,
fourteen years old, with tears in his eyes, and she never saw him
again. He died six years after. Elvira was taken some twenty-five miles
across the prairie among strangers, and there spent the winter. There
were no children for her to mate with, no one to feel tenderly for the
lonely, quiet aching heart of this orphan girl. When spring approached
she rejoined her married sister to wait upon her, traveling west with
her, sometimes living in a brush-house (while recruiting) and sleeping
under a wagon while traveling, and once awoke to find several inches
of snow covering them. Exposure brought her to death's door, but she
lived after long suffering. She witnessed the solemn separation of the
"Mor-Battallion" from their families and friends. During one winter
she lived in a dug-out in a side hill on the Missouri River, and was
forced to live on corn bread and water; their tallow candles they could
not afford to burn, but used them to grease their bake-kettles. Here,
however, willing to be useful she helped to teach school, studying
nights by a chip-fire to keep in advance of her pupils. Many of our
public speakers of today, can date their first lessons in elocution and
arithmetic to her training.
Elvira crossed the mountains in the first company in 1848, and arrived
in this valley by the side of two yoke of oxen, with a sick sister
and a brother-in-law with a broken arm, in her care. Her first lesson
in surgery was the helping to set this arm, and her first practice in
medicine was the breaking up of her sister's fever. Soon after this
Elvira made herself a pair of buck-skin moccasins. The first meeting
she attended was in a bowery, and her best calico dress had patches
on the elbows. Before the next winter she worked six weeks for a pair
of leather shoes. There was not much aristocracy here in those days.
They held meetings in tents, sang praises to God, and danced with as
much sincerity and purity of heart as even King David did before the
Lord, for they knew God was with them. Said her sister, who afterward
turned from the faith: "If God had not been with us when we were
driven out at the battle of Nauvoo, we should have perished, but when
we were starving he sent quails, and they were so tame they came into
our tents where the sick were lying, and they even took them in their
hands." Thousands witnessed the miracle. After they arrived in the
valley, crickets large and numerous threatened their crops, (their only
recourse) but the Lord in answer to prayers sent sea-gulls in such
flocks that the air was darkened, and they destroyed the crickets. The
heavens were not as brass above their heads; they helped and loved each
other, and God heard and loved them. Their laws were few and simple; in
a Bishop's court a brother forgave his brother.
In the summer of 1849, Elvira earned fifty dollars at different kinds
of work, and making straw hats for the emigrants going to California
to get gold the Battallion boys were the first to find. In the spring
of 1849, Elvira had been appointed to go on a mission to the Society
Islands; this was postponed, and in the spring of 1851, with her
husband, she started in the company of Apostle Parley P. Pratt on his
mission to Chili. They were harassed by Indians while crossing the
deserts, and Elvira arrived in Los Angelos sick with a fever, and laid
sixteen days in a tent made of sheets. Her sister here buried her
babe; took steamer and landed in San Francisco, Elvira contracting
inflammatory rheumatism on the voyage, and was stiff and helpless four
days. Parley P. Pratt administered to her, and the next morning she
helped to get breakfast. Through some trouble between the Islanders
and the French the Mission was changed to the Sandwich Islands. Having
been left behind to recruit her health, Sister Elvira went to work in
a hotel as waiter at one hundred dollars a month, and soon was able
to pay her passage to the Sandwich Islands, besides having means to
support her while there. On arriving at Lahaiva, on the island of
Mai, the captain gave her his arm and they walked through the streets
in quest of her husband followed by the natives, old and young, they
to admire and be friendly, the strangers feeling mortified with such
honors. Remained a month there then embarked on the ship Hulumann.
The previously mentioned captain came on board and treated them to a
Christmas dinner. After four days sail landed at Kawhow, Hawaii, in
the fall of 1851. Sister Elvira lived six months among the natives
on their island food, mostly of taro and sweet-potatoes made into a
batter and soured, short rations at that, yet attained the weight of
one hundred and fifty pounds. Says she: "Don't smile when I tell you
I often thought of Alexander Selkirk who said he was 'Monarch of all
he surveyed.' Here months passed, living on the lava strewn island, no
ships came to bring tidings, I was left to view the rolling billows
that separated me from all I held dear, country and friends. Fancy
the loneliness of those long months, not a white woman to speak to in
my own tongue. Here I was studying a foreign language and teaching
the natives to speak my own." In the mean time sister Elvira acquired
the art of swimming, which means enabled her afterwards, to all
appearances, to save one of the ladies of this book from drowning in a
bottomless spring in Utah. During eleven months spent on four islands,
Sister Elvira wrote a letter to a native lawyer in his own tongue,
and although over thirty years have elapsed she is able to converse
fluently with the natives who have gathered to this city.
Leaving all her means but five dollars with her husband, she arrived
penniless at Honolulu _en route_ for San Francisco, by counsel of
Phillip B. Lewis, President of the Sandwich Islands Mission. Here, in
answer to prayer, after all other efforts had failed to procure means,
a stranger she never saw before nor since, called upon her. In answer
to his few questions he learned her situation as a missionary's wife
preaching the Gospel without purse or scrip. He handed her the money,
eighty dollars, to pay her passage to San Francisco, and she gave him
her note for it, and embarked. Three times she escaped shipwreck, the
last time, just outside the Golden Gate of the Bay of San Francisco. On
her arrival there she borrowed the money of a friend and returned it
to the stranger, and repaid this by making fine shirts at ten dollars
apiece. The wife of the gentleman for whom she made them presented her
with a complete set of clothing, the outer garment being a new silk
dress. Sister Elvira says: "The Lord knew I needed them and I thanked
Him and the giver also." Of the San Francisco Saints she says, "The
welcome I received by the remaining Saints there, and the heavenly
influence we enjoyed together is the one most marked oasis of my life,
for truly they blessed me and God blessed them." Sister Elvira wasted
no time, but in various ways earned means, part of which she sent to
assist the Sandwich Islands Mission. In 1856 she returned to Salt Lake
City, riding seven hundred miles on horseback, and here resumed school
teaching. In 1859, she assisted in the amputation of a dear friend's
arm. In 1860, traveled east to visit kindred and rode sixteen days by
stage. In 1864, went to Wheaton College and returned home after nearly
two years absence. From 1859 to 1863 had taught school in ten different
places, generally four terms a year. Had during these previous years
taken at different times four homeless children into her care until
other ways opened for them. In 1873 adopted a boy whom she schooled
and provided for for ten years. In this year also began writing up her
genealogical record which she has traced back to the year 1600. In
1876 wrote a pamphlet on seri-culture, and suggested the appointment
of a meeting on that subject. Advanced as a loan the first fifty
dollars to establish the "home made straw hat industry." Canvassed the
Thirteenth Ward and traveled in the interest of the _Woman's Exponent_.
Was appointed agent for and canvassed the city for the _Women of
Mormondom_, and raised fifty shares ($25.00 each) in one day. Was
appointed a committee for purchasing grain for the Grain Association
(President E. B. Wells). In 1876 traveled south and held forty-five
meetings in twenty-seven days, in the interest of Women's Work in
Utah. In 1878 attended the Deseret University. Up to date of February,
1879, had earned over nine thousand dollars by her own labors, and
built a good commodious house, her home. October, 1879, started East
to continue her medical studies which she had prosecuted at home for
several years, and attended three complete courses; returning home in
the spring of 1883, prepared to pursue this her chosen vocation after a
long and eventful experience in many fields of usefulness.
Realizing her own early desires for knowledge and the inconvenience of
limited privileges, Dr. Barney fitted up her large house to accommodate
lady boarders, thus affording them the convenience of home and college
under one roof, with the privilege of boarding themselves, and
receiving gratuitous medical instructions for one year.
She has crossed the Pacific Ocean twice, the western deserts twice, the
eastern plains five times: has wrought at different humble occupations
belonging to a new country, learning later fine embroidery, pencil
work, draughting in architecture, delivering lectures, &c., one tenth
cannot be told in these pages. Sister Barney also has received the
gifts of prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues, as the writer
can testify.
Her step is as quick as ever, her carriage erect; she says; "My life
has been real, my life has been earnest, and now if any of my works
praise me then truly I am praised. If any one has done better I should
be happy to read their chapter; yet I realize many of our Mormon
ladies' lives have been similar, and it is such women that will teach
and train sons for the nation."
EMILY HILL WOODMANSEE.
Emily Hill Woodmansee, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Slade Hill, was
born in the south-west of England, near Warminster, Wilts, March 24,
1836. Quoting her own words:
"Of my pedigree I will simply say that my parents were honorable,
hard-working people, too independent in spirit to stoop to mean
actions, much less to sully their conscience to curry favor. The
youngest living of eleven children, I fully enjoyed the privileges
often accorded the youngest member of a family, (ie) of having things
my own way. My parents as well as my brothers and sisters were very
kind to me, and I can truly say--slightly reversing a word in the lines
of one of our poets, that,
'I never knew what trouble was
Till I became a Mormon.'
"When but a mere child I was much concerned about my eternal salvation
and felt that I would make any sacrifice to obtain it. I asked all
kinds of questions of my mother and sisters, seeking how to be saved,
but could get no satisfaction from them nor from the religious body
(Wesleyans) to which they belonged.
"Hungry and thirsty for truth, I searched the Scriptures, invariably
turning to the lives of ancient apostles or to the beautiful writings
of the Prophet Isaiah. I was never weary of reading his prophecies, the
glory of a Latter-Day Zion that burthened his inspirations possessed
for me a charm irresistible. Truly I was waiting for something, I knew
not what, that came to me sooner than I expected.
"When I was about twelve years old, my cousin, Miriam Slade,
(afterward the wife of Edward Hanham,) came to visit us; she was very
merry-hearted and we had anticipated her visit, expecting a good deal
of fun; but she was too full of a 'new religion' to do anything but
preach. 'God,' she said, 'had spoken from the heavens to a man named
Joseph Smith; the Gospel was restored to the earth, the honest in heart
were commanded to gather to the land of Zion for safety, for this was
the last Dispensation, and the hour of God's judgment had come!'
"Right faithfully she testified to her knowledge of these things,
much to the surprise of our family, who were considerably amused
at her earnestness as well as at the novelty of her belief, and
notwithstanding I listened attentively, I thought her assertions
too good to be true. The next Sunday my cousin informed us that the
Latter-Day Saints had appointed a meeting for that day at an adjoining
village called Chalford, and invited us to go. As it was a distance
of five or six miles, making a long walk there and back, none of my
brothers cared to go, and my elder sisters considered themselves
altogether too respectable (?) to attend an outdoor meeting of such a
primitive sect, therefore they declined to go, and no one thought of
sending me till I suggested it. Turning to my father, my sisters said,
(laughingly,) 'Yes, send Em, she will tell us all about it.'
"In five minutes Miriam Slade and myself were on the road, accompanied
by Mr. Wm. Bowring, (brother to Henry E. Bowring of Brigham City,) and
by Edward W. Tullidge, then a youth, but now well-known as a talented
writer and also as the proprietor and editor of _Tullidge's Quarterly
Magazine_. Never, never shall I forget that day, surely it was the
turning point of my whole life. A few devoted worshippers of truth met
together in a small house, to bear their testimony to one another and
to worship God! And He was in their midst and that to bless them. Even
as in the Day of Pentecost, they spake in tongues and prophesied, which
prophecy I have seen fulfilled. Unlike the Jews who were 'pricked in
their hearts,' I did not even ask, 'What shall I do to be saved.' 'The
way' was open before me, and simple and young as I was I instinctively
knew that 'I could not err therein.'
The Eternal! spake, and honest hearts discerning
The voice and message of the holiest One!
Hail it as though their souls had e'en been yearning
For light and truth, e'en since their lives begun.
"It was indeed as though I had been brought 'out of darkness into
marvelous light,' and I could not shut my eyes against it.
"In the evening I attended an out door 'Mormon Meeting,' and though
naturally sensitive to ridicule, I did not care the least for the
sneers of the crowd but joined in the songs of the Saints as well as
I could, for in my childish way I wanted it understood that I was not
ashamed to count one with the peculiar people called Latter-Day Saints.
"Many a time since, when 'offences' have come in my way, over which
with mortal weakness I have almost stumbled, the testimony of that
eventful day has been to me a precious recollection which nothing could
obliterate. I was so overjoyed at finding what I had so long desired,
and so eager to convince my friends that I could hardly wait to get
home. As soon as I was inside the house and almost before anyone else
could speak, I astounded them all by the emphatic declaration that I
knew the Latter-Day Saints were the right people; and I would join them
as soon as I was big enough. I was never sent to 'take notes' of the
'Mormons' again, but on the contrary was closely watched lest I should
be led away by a 'sect that was everywhere spoken against.' My early
study of the Scriptures now stood me in good stead, and I searched the
Bible more diligently than ever, so that I might give a good reason
for my faith to the hosts that assailed me, (right reverends among the
number,) who, finding it easier to cry 'delusion' than to prove it,
generally wound up by informing me that I wasn't old enough to know my
own mind, and was altogether too young to judge of so grave a matter.
Meantime my persistent faith invoked such a tempest of wrath over my
head, that I could not even get an opportunity to be baptized, and the
elders did not think it wisdom (because of my tender years) to perform
the ceremony without my parents' consent. I well remember looking
forward to a period when I should be old enough to act for myself, and
it seemed a lifetime.
"About this time one of the elders brought Brother John Halliday
(brother to Bishop Halliday of Santaquin) to our house, who bore such
a powerful testimony to the divine mission of Joseph Smith, that my
sister, Julia, (now Mrs. Ivins of St. George) exclaimed, 'If ever
there was a man of God I'm sure he is one, and I'll be a Latter-Day
Saint, too!' From that time I had a friend in the family, and we were
both determined that cost what it might we would be true to the light
within us. Only once in a great while could we steal away and meet with
the Saints, but although we were not yet baptized we partook of the
sacrament and paid out our pocket money to the Church funds like actual
members.
"On one of these occasions Brother Halliday blessed me and confirmed
upon me the promise that I should write in prose and in verse and
thereby comfort the hearts of thousands. After this I was baptized
March 25, 1858, I was then sixteen, but had virtually been a Latter-Day
Saint for four years.