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."