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."