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."