In 1853, William decided to take a trip up to Sydney to sell a load of
grain, bringing back with him, if he succeeded as he wished, a load of
freight for some settlement or town near his home. There was a great
demand for wheat now as many hundreds of emigrants had rushed into the
great gold country. William left the farm to be managed by his prudent
little wife and started out on his hundred mile trip. How little did he
dream of the result of this journey! On his arrival in Sydney after the
disposal of his wheat, he walked out to see an old friend named William
Andrews who lived in the suburbs of the town. Here he passed the time
until evening when Mr. Andrews remarked, "I say, Chittenden, I've got
some brothers come from America, and I am going up to see them. Would
you like to go along?"
"Oh, yes," replied William, "I didn't know you had any brothers in
America!"
And so, arm in arm, they entered the little room where several men sat
at a table, or pulpit with a strange book in their hands and strange
words upon their lips. Here William heard the sound of the everlasting
gospel for the first time.
From the first William felt the truth contained in the words of the
Elders although he knew little or nothing concerning them.
On their way home Mr. Andrews explained to him that these men were his
brothers, being brothers in the covenant of Christ.
"And Chittenden," he added, "if any of them go down your way, you'll
give them dinner and a bed, won't you, for I know you can?"
"Oh, as to that," replied William, "I wouldn't turn a beggar from my
door, if he was hungry or wanted a roof to cover him."
William procured a load of freight for a man in Goulburn (one hundred
miles further south than Camden) and started on his return trip. His
mind was often upon the things he had heard, and he wondered what it
all meant. The Elders to whom he had listened were Brothers Farnham,
Eldredge, Graham and Fleming, Brother Farnham having charge. They were
the second company of Elders ever sent to Australia.
After the departure of William Chittenden, a council was held by the
Elders and it was decided that Brothers Fleming and John Eldredge
should go up to Camden and the surrounding district. At the last
moment however, Elder Fleming was desired to remain in Sydney by
Brother Farnham and Elder Graham was sent in his place. I mention this
circumstance as it was closely connected with one of Mary's dreams.
When William reached his home, he told Mary about these strange men.
"What did you think of them William?"
"Well Mary if they don't speak the truth then I never heard it spoken."
And then he went down to Goulburn with his freight.
One lovely day in summer two dusty, tired, hungry men each with a
satchel and a walking-cane in their hands, stopped at the wide open
door of the Chittenden farm-house. And what saw Mary, when she came to
the porch? With a queer throb, she saw in her door the very man who
came to her bedside in her dream. She even noticed the low-cut vest
showing the white shirt underneath. But as he stepped inside, and her
eye fell upon his companion, she saw _he_ was not the second one of her
dream, although he too carried a cane and satchel. She invited them
within, and the first one said,
"We are come, madam, to preach the gospel."
The words, almost identical with those of her dream. Giving her their
names, he whose name was Eldredge explained to her that they traveled
up from Sydney, and in all the hundred miles, they had found no one
willing to give them food and shelter.
Mary bustled around and prepared dinner for her guests. When evening
drew near, Brother Eldredge remarked,
"Mrs Chittenden, can you let us remain here over night?"
"Oh," said Mary, "I am afraid I have no place to put you!"
"Well you can let us sit up by your fireside, and that is better than
lying on the ground as we have done lately!"
And then Mary assured them that she would do the best she could for
them. So a bed was spread out on the floor of the sitting-room, and
here the foot-sore Elders were glad to rest their bodies.
The principles and doctrines of these men fell deep into Mary's heart,
and like her husband she felt they spoke the truths of heaven.
One evening in conversation with them, Mary told Brother Eldredge
that she had seen him before in a dream. But, she added, you were
accompanied by another man, not Mr. Graham.
"Ah well, that might have been. You may have seen Brother Fleming for
he was coming with me, but Brother Farnham altered the appointments at
the last moment!"
And it proved so. When Mary afterwards saw Brother Fleming she
recognized him as the second one of her dream.
The Elders were not idle because they had found a comfortable resting
place, but traveled about seeking to get opportunities of spreading
the gospel. One family named Davis, whose farm (rented from McArthur)
joined the Chittenden's, listened with pleased interest to these new
doctrines. In the course of two weeks after the arrival of the Elders,
William Chittenden came home, and expressed a gladness in his heart to
find the Elders at his home. He immediately fixed up a bedroom near the
sitting-room for the use of the Elders. Weeks went into months, and
still the Chittendens were not baptized.
The Elders made Camden their head-quarters, but went about through
the surrounding country, meeting, however, with very little success.
William and his wife, with their oldest daughter were ready to be
baptized, as were the Davis'. But almost a year after the arrival of
the brethren was allowed to slip by without the baptisms having been
performed.
I want to stop and tell you a little about the worldly condition of
this couple, as well as mention a detail or two more about the country
they were living in before I go on with my story.
They had brought their two hundred acres under good cultivation; they
had a large fruit garden back of the house, in which grew the most
delicious peaches, plums and cherries. The country is so adapted
to fruit that peach-stones thrown out near running water would be
fruit-bearing-trees in three years. There were no apples, but such
quantities of tropical fruits. Grapes, melons, figs, lemons and oranges
were so plentiful and so cheap that William would not spend time to
grow them. A sixpence (12 cents) would buy enough of these fruits to
load a man down.
They had four horses, one wagon, a dray and a light spring cart, six
cows and many calves, plenty of pigs and droves of chickens, turkeys
and geese.
The large granary to the south of the house groaned with its wealth of
wheat corn, barley and oats.
And while I am speaking of wheat I am minded to give a description of
the way adopted to preserve wheat in that country. Mr. McArthur, the
owner of all these thousands of acres, received from his tenants a
share of the wheat grown. This he stored up as there was little or no
sale for it until drought years, when it commanded a good price.
After the three years drought which occurred there prior to 1853,
William and his wife went to this Mr. McArthur to get wheat. He had dug
a very large vault or cellar, and this had been well cemented, top,
bottom and sides. Here the wheat had been stored for twelve years when
the Chittendens went to get theirs. The wheat was perfectly sound and
sweet. Over the vault a store-house had been built, and the door to it
was near the top of the cellar.
You can see that our kind friends were well-to-do, and had every
prospect ahead for success and prosperity.
In the Spring of '54, the Davis family and the Chittendens decided to
be baptized. Rumors, and false reports had been rapidly spread about
the Latter-day Saints, and their enemies sprang up like magic. Many
sarcastic and insulting remarks were made about the "dipping" (as the
baptism was called) of the two families. Mr. McArthur was a bitter
enemy to the new sect.
One day the Davises were over to Chittenden's and remarked they were
going to be baptized the following Monday in the river near their
house. William decided to come over with his family on the same day. So
on the 24 of April 1854 William and Mary were baptized by John Eldredge
in Camden, Australia. From the moment of their baptism until now no
faltering or doubt has ever been in the hearts of these true Saints. In
the evening of the same day, the girls were all baptized by the Elders
into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The gospel once having been received the spirit of "gathering" soon
follows. And with Mary, who had always wished to go to America, how
much more intense that spirit was now!
As she sat and listened to the Elder's description of Zion being
built up in the bleak mountains, of the pretty streets lined with
shade-trees, and watered by swift-running streamlets she turned to her
husband and told him that this must be the place of her dream.
William was a very quiet, determined man, who could not be turned from
the way he had chosen.
The days, when through the long summer evenings, they all sat and
listened to the various principles and the new and lovely doctrines
unfolded one by one, by the Elders, like the petals of a glorious
flower, were the very happiest Mary and her family ever knew. Poor
Mary! They were the light which shone over her dreary oncoming future,
sometimes brightly, sometimes faintly, but always shining over the
wretched, darksome road of the next twenty years.
One little circumstance, which will illustrate Mary's simple but
powerful faith will perhaps be worth mentioning and may strengthen some
other one's faith. Just before the birth of her eighth girl, which
occurred in the Fall after their baptism, she felt low and miserable,
scarcely sick enough to be in bed, but too ill to work. One evening
Bro. Eldredge was talking to her and said that if she had any sickness
or bodily ill, it was her privilege as it was of any member of the
Church, to call upon the Elders to administer to her, and then if she
exercised faith, it would leave her. Mary had never read a word in her
life, and so this came to her as a new and very precious truth.
"Well, Bro. Eldredge, if I can be ministered to and get well, I want to
now," said Mary.
So the ordinance was performed, and she was indeed instantly healed.
From that day for many months she never felt one moment of illness. And
she says to me to-day in her simple quaint way,
"I have never been ministered to in my life since, that I did not get
better."
Ever since the arrival of the Elders, the Chittendens had opened their
house for them to hold meetings in on Sundays. No other place had ever
been obtained, so that the meetings of the Saints, or those who were
friendly to them, were still held in Mary's cosy sitting-room.
On the 1st of Nov. 1854, Mary had another daughter whom they named
Alice. In two weeks she was up and able to be about the house. The
Sunday on which the baby was two weeks old, the family had taken
dinner, the things had been washed and set away, and all sat in the
dining or sitting-room talking of gathering to Zion.
They had eight girls now, and it would take quite a sum of money to
emigrate them all to Utah. So thinking to increase their means a
trifle, Mary had taken a little motherless boy, about seven years old,
his father paying a certain amount a week for his board. This was money
and they would never miss his board as they raised everything which
they consumed. This little boy was very troublesome and mischievous. He
was very fond of playing out in the hired men's bedroom which was over
the granary.
On the Sunday of which I am speaking, he was out in the men's room, and
there found some matches. He thought he'd have some rare fun then, so
out he ran, matches in hand, and made what he called a "pretty fire,"
right down close to the pig pens. He watched it burn up, quietly at
first, and then--whew!--here is a jolly little breeze catches up the
flame, and carries it bravely up right on to the roof of the pig-pen.
Then how it did sputter, and crackle, and leap. The boy was old enough
to see by that time, that something more than a bit of mischief would
grow out of that tiny flame. It spread over the pens like a living
thing. Frightened now, he sped away, down to the nearest farm-house,
running in and shouting to the gentleman, Mr. Root who lived there, "I
didn't set the pig-styes on fire; I struck a match, and it blowed."
Mr. Root hitched up his horse to his water-budge, a cask on wheels
which he carried water from a lake near the Chittendens' house,
and started on the run for the scene of the boy's wickedness. The
Chittendens saw him pass their door running to the lagoon or lake.
"I'll declare," said Mary, "is Mr. Root going for water on Sunday? I
never knew him to do such a thing before!"
Just then Eliza ran in and said, "Father, the shed is full of smoke."
She had been down to gather eggs from the shed.
The barn, pig-styes, cow sheds, granary, poultry houses and stacks were
all at the back of the house and about six rods away.
At last, William got up to go down to the shed to see what was the
matter.
When he looked out of the back door, what a sight met his eyes--the
whole yard in flames! Others had seen the fire, for the farm-house
faced the public-road, and people were all passing there on their road
to Chapel. But no one except Mr. Root ever offered a hand of help.
"Oh," said they, "it's those d--d Mormons, let them burn up and go to
h--."
The whole family rushed down to the fire and tried to stop its progress
but all to no avail. The pigs could not be driven out, and were
literally roasted alive. The barn, sheds, pens and every combustible
thing went down before the relentless flames. Farm implements of every
description, even the grain to the amount of hundreds of bushels, were
burned. The flames swept towards the house. Then how they worked.
Everything movable was got out, and the roof was torn off; and the men
commenced pouring water on the walls to save them.
"Alas for the rarity of Christian charity." If a few brave men had
given help when the fire was first discovered, much might have been
saved. But when it was all over, and Bro. Eldredge and William had
thrown themselves on the ground completely exhausted, and the only
Christian who had helped them, Mr. Root, had gone home in the same
condition, Mary sat outdoors with a few of her household goods broken
and scattered around her, her two weeks' old babe wailing in her arms,
and all that was left of their comfortable home, the empty, blackened,
smoking walls of the house looming up in twilight fast falling around
her! Hundreds of cart loads of burnt grain were carted away for the
next few days and buried. How many bright hopes and happy plans were
buried at the same time, only the future would tell! The roof was
speedily put on again, and things inside made as comfortable as might
be.
Bro. Eldredge still advised going out to Utah with what means they
could scrape up, but William would only shake his head despondently and
say, "I don't see how I can do it."
Mary urged all she dared, for she knew the Elders were about to leave
for home. It was no use. The only answer she got was, "not now, Mary,
not now."
He found an opportunity about that time of going up into the country a
hundred miles with some freight. While he was away a gentleman came to
the farm-house and wished to buy the goodwill of the farm.
You will remember William had rented it for twenty-one years. About
fourteen years of the lease had expired. The improvements, etc.,
always went with the lease. So when this gentleman offered to pay
three hundred pounds ($1,400) for the remainder of the lease, or the
"good-will," as it is termed in that country, Mary thought it a very
fortunate thing.
The loss by fire had exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds, or about
sixteen or seventeen hundred dollars of our money; and Mary thought if
she could sell the lease of the farm, then they could sell what stock
and personal property was left them, that making perhaps another two
hundred pounds, which might get them all to America. So she sold it;
knowing, however, that the bargain would not be legal unless ratified
by her husband. She hoped, though, that he would see things as she did.
When William reached home Mary told him what she had done.
"Humph; I suppose you know it's of no use unless I give my word, too?"
"Oh, yes," said Mary, sorry to know her husband was so annoyed, "you
can, of course, upset it all."
Then she explained all her hopes and plans to him. How they could
raise five hundred and fifty pounds, and then they could surely get to
America with that tidy sum. "And you know, too, you promised years ago
to take me to America."
"And reach there," objected William, "with a big family of little
children, and not a shilling to buy 'em bread with. Nice plan, that!"
In vain she argued and plead. William was not to be moved. No one could
blame him for not being guided by his wife's advice. Albeit she was a
prudent, far-seeing, wise little woman, whose advice had always been
proved to be of the best; still the man leads the woman, not woman the
man.
But when Brothers Eldredge and Graham counseled him to return with
them, it was quite a different matter. They were over him in the
Priesthood and had a right to his obedience, even as he exacted
obedience from his wife and family. However he still refused, simply
saying, "I don't see how I can go just now, Brother Eldredge!"
And so the time passed on, and the Elders left Australia without the
Chittendens. The Davis family, who were baptized at the same time as
was William and his wife, accompanied the Elders, and part of the same
family are now residing in Minersville, Utah.
Here then was the grand mistake of William's life. He did not see it
then, nor for years after, but the time came when he wished in the
agony of his soul that he had gone to Utah when told to do so, even
if he had reached there without one penny to buy a crust of bread on
his arrival! Their girls were all with them and unmarried and they
could have brought their family unbroken to Utah. But instead of that
twenty-three years after they came with the merest remnant of their
once large family, leaving almost all their loved ones behind them, and
married to enemies of this work.
Is not this a grand lesson for our young Elders? How easy it is to
fancy that our own wisdom, especially about our private affairs, is
better than any one's else! But when the voice of God speaks through
His servants and says, "Do thou so!" woe to the man who turns from that
and works out his own will in direct opposition. Let this sink deep
into your hearts, my young readers, and remember always, God knoweth
best!