ALVIN'S SICKNESS AND DEATH.
On the 15th of November, 1824, about 10 o'clock in the morning,
Alvin was taken very sick with the bilious colic. He came to the
house in much distress, and requested his father to go immediately
for a physician. He accordingly went, obtaining one by the name of
Greenwood, who, on arriving, immediately administered to the patient
a heavy dose of calomel. I will here notice, that this Dr. Greenwood
was not the physician commonly employed by the family; he was brought
in consequence of the family physician's absence. And on this account,
as I suppose, Alvin at first refused to take the medicine, but by much
persuasion, he was prevailed on to do so.
This dose of calomel lodged in his stomach, and all the medicine
afterwards freely administered by four very skillful physicians could
not remove it.
On the third day of his sickness, Dr. M'Intyre, whose services were
usually employed by the family, as he was considered very skillful, was
brought, and with him four other eminent physicians. But it was all in
vain, their exertions proved unavailing, just as Alvin had said would
be the case--he told them the calomel was still lodged in the same
place, after some exertion had been made to carry it off, and that it
must take his life.
On coming to this conclusion, he called Hyrum to him, and said, "Hyrum,
I must die. Now I want to say a few things, which I wish to have you
remember. I have done all I could to make our dear parents comfortable.
I want you to go on and finish the house and take care of them in their
old age, and do not any more let them work hard, as they are now in old
age."
He then called Sophronia to him, and said to her, "Sophronia, you must
be a good girl, and do all you can for father and mother--never forsake
them; they have worked hard, and they are now getting old. Be kind to
them, and remember what they have done for us."
In the latter part of the fourth night he called for all the children,
and exhorted them separately in the same strain as above. But when he
came to Joseph, he said, "I am now going to die, the distress which I
suffer, and the feelings that I have, tell me my time is very short. I
want you to be a good boy, and do everything that lies in your power to
obtain the Record. Be faithful in receiving instruction, and in keeping
every commandment that is given you. Your brother Alvin must leave you;
but remember the example which he has set for you; and set the same
example for the children that are younger than yourself, and always be
kind to father and mother."
He then asked me to take my little daughter Lucy up, and bring her to
him, for he wished to see her. He was always very fond of her, and was
in the habit of taking her up and caressing her, which naturally formed
a very strong attachment on her part for him. I went to her, and said;
"Lucy, Alvin wants to see you." At this, she started from her sleep,
and screamed out, "Amby, Amby;" (she could not yet talk plain, being
very young). We took her to him, and when she got within reach of him,
she sprang from my arms and caught him around the neck, and cried out,
"Oh! Amby," and kissed him again and again.
"Lucy," said he, "you must be the best girl in the world, and take
care of mother; you can't have your Amby any more. Amby is going away;
he must leave little Lucy." He then kissed her, and said, "take her
away, I think my breath offends her." We took hold of her to take her
away; but she clinched him with such a strong grasp, that it was with
difficulty we succeeded in disengaging her hands.
As I turned with the child to leave him, he said, "Father, mother,
brothers, and sisters, farewell! I can now breathe out my life as
calmly as a clock." Saying this, he immediately closed his eyes in
death.
The child still cried to go back to Alvin. One present observed to
the child, "Alvin is gone; an angel has taken his spirit to heaven."
Hearing this, the child renewed her cries, and, as I bent over his
corpse with her in my arms, she again threw her arms around him, and
kissed him repeatedly. And until the body was taken from the house she
continued to cry, and to manifest such mingled feelings of both terror
and affection at the scene before her, as are seldom witnessed.
Alvin was a youth of singular goodness of disposition--kind and
amiable, so that lamentation and mourning filled the whole neighborhood
in which he resided.
By the request of the principal physician, Alvin was cut open, in order
to discover, if it were possible, the cause of his death. On doing
so, they found the calomel lodged in the upper bowels, untouched by
anything which he had taken to remove it, and as near as possible in
its natural state, surrounded as it was with gangrene.
A vast concourse of people attended his obsequies, who seemed very
anxious to show their sympathy for us in our bereavement.
Alvin manifested, if such could be the case, greater zeal and anxiety
in regard to the Record that had been shown to Joseph, than any of the
rest of the family; in consequence of which we could not bear to hear
anything said upon the subject. Whenever Joseph spoke of the Record,
it would immediately bring Alvin to our minds, with all his zeal, and
with all' his kindness; and, when we looked to his place, and realized
that he was gone from it, to return no more in this life, we all with
one accord wept over our irretrievable loss, and we could "not be
comforted, because he was not."