LOCATES IN BOUNTIFUL--GENEROSITY OF NEIGHBORS--RECOGNIZED HOME SHOWN
HIM IN DREAM--BURNED OUT--RUNS A SAW MILL--DEATH OF WIFE--CHILD
TERRIBLY SCALDED, RECOVERS--BRIGHAM YOUNG'S PROMISE--MARRIES
AGAIN--COMFORTING TESTIMONIES.
THOMAS and his family spent a few days in Salt Lake, studying over the
question, of where to locate. While wondering what to do, the thought
occurred to him to inquire where an old-country friend of his, named
Joseph Reed lived, of whom he had heard nothing for fourteen years.
While walking up towards the Temple Block he felt prompted to inquire
at the Deseret News Office. He was there informed that a man of that
name lived at Bountiful.
The next morning he took the stage for that place. He found the man he
was looking for, and they had a long and friendly chat. Brother Reed
advised Thomas to come and make his home in Bountiful, where he could
find plenty of feed for his cattle, and where he might also obtain
work. Or, if he preferred to go to a new region, where he could locate
on as much land as he desired, Bear Lake Valley was suggested as a good
place, though rather distant.
Thomas felt that he had done all the traveling he cared to for one
year, and preferred to establish a temporary home to determine where he
could locate permanently to the best advantage. He accordingly returned
to Salt Lake City and took his family to Bountiful. They arrived there
Saturday evening, and attended meeting the next day--the first time he
had been so privileged for over ten years.
The family lived in their wagon for the first two weeks, and during
that time Thomas was given the privilege of helping his friend husk
corn, getting every sixth bushel husked for his share. Then he rented
a one-roomed house at $3.00 per month and set up housekeeping in it.
They had no furniture, but converted a large box, (which they had their
clothing packed in while making their journey across the plains) into a
table, and made seats by buying a few slabs and boring holes in them,
in which to insert sticks to serve as legs. For want of bedsteads,
they made their beds upon the floor. The room was not plastered, and
they felt the cold severely at times, but they were thankful for the
comforts they had. Under these conditions his son James was born, on
the 6th of December, 1864, and, notwithstanding the winter was long and
cold, the mother and babe continued to do well.
His nearest neighbor, John Spencer, proffered to lend Thomas two
hundred pounds of flour until he could afford to repay it, and when he
learned that it was the proceeds of wheat which Sister Spencer and her
daughter had gleaned in the fields of their wealthier neighbors, after
their harvest was over, his heart overflowed with gratitude therefor.
When their flour was exhausted, and they didn't know where to obtain
any more, Joseph Reed offered to lend him flour or anything else in the
edible line he had, and told him not to allow his family to suffer for
want of food as long as he had any.
The generosity and unselfishness of these offers will be apparent when
it is mentioned that flour at that time would sell at from $20.00 to
$24.00 per hundred pounds.
He had not been living in Bountiful long when he recognized one
particular locality as the very spot shown him in vision while sick in
Wisconsin where he would build a house and make a home, and pointed
it out to his wife. Upon inquiry of the man who owned the ground (two
acres in extent, and unimproved) he found he could buy it for the sum
of $100.00, and upon learning that he had no funds with which to buy
it, the man was willing to give him time in which to pay for it. He
bargained for it without hesitation, and after his first harvest paid
for it in molasses at $4.00 per gallon.
In the early spring of 1865 he rented a few acres of land and planted
the same to onions, beets, carrots, sugar cane and corn; he cultivated
the land well, and obtained a good crop. In the meantime he built some
sheds to shelter his animals, and a stackyard, and mowed quite a lot of
hay on vacant land, and stacked this and his other produce in his yard.
In the early part of the following December, while he and his son
Ephraim were away in the canyon after a load of wood, his stable and
stackyard and their contents were accidentally burned to the ground.
His first impulse on learning of it was to inquire if the family was
safe. Being assured on that point, he said all that he had he had
dedicated to the Lord, and if the Lord chose to make a burnt offering
of it he had nothing to say. He would go on and work for more.
The fire not only had the effect of testing Thomas, but of developing
the sympathy and generosity of his neighbors. Some of them gave him
hay, others flour, etc., so that his loss by the fire was largely
offset.
Soon afterwards Newton Tuttle proposed that Thomas go in partnership
with him and buy an abandoned saw mill, in Holbrook canyon, and he did
so. His activities during the next two or three years were largely in
the line of lumbering, at which he worked very hard and effectively,
first as a partner of Brother Tuttle, and later as sole owner of the
saw mill.
On the 3rd of April, 1867, their daughter Hannah was born.
On the 23rd of March, 1868, he was elected school trustee, which
position he filled for many years.
During that year also, the crops in this region suffered severely from
the ravages of grasshoppers, and he, being called to act with two
others in devising means and directing the work of destroying the pest,
spent a good deal of time for the public good in that line.
In the latter part of that year he was called upon to help supervise
the amusements of the young people, and prevent them from drifting into
evil.
On the 13th of September, 1869, his wife gave birth to twins--Thomas E.
and Elizabeth.
In that and succeeding years Thomas was used very extensively under the
direction of the Bishop, as a kind of special teacher and peace-maker
in the ward, in settling differences between neighbors, and laboring
with backsliders to get them to do their duty.
On the 1st of June, 1872, his daughter, Martha, his ninth and last
child, was born.
In the latter part of November, 1874, he fitted up a room in his house
for a night school, for the benefit of any who could not attend school
during the day time, and he himself, as well as many others, attended
it.
About this time strong efforts were made to effect a species of
co-operation among the residents of Bountiful, in the raising and
marketing of garden products, and Thomas was appointed to take charge
of the company that was organized; but, although he devoted much time
and attention to it, the business did not prove successful, because of
lack of union and experience on the part of the members.
His wife's health being very poor, he found it necessary to remain at
home, and devoted himself to market gardening. He made a specialty of
starting tomato, egg plant, and a few other vegetables (that up to that
time had only been raised in very limited quantities in Utah) in a room
of his house, in which he kept a fire constantly burning, and then
setting them out much earlier than usual, on an extensive scale, and
made it profitable.
He purchased some land on the bench above Bountiful, and also located
quite an extensive tract, and extended the scope of his operations, his
sons Ephraim, David and James working in company with him.
During the early part of 1876 his wife's health, which had been bad
and growing worse for a long time, became such that he hardly dared to
leave her. She was affected with dropsy, and much of the time almost
helpless.
About this time he had a dream, which indicated to him that he would
have to part with her, and when, on the 15th of July following, she
suddenly died, the circumstances were in fulfillment of the dream,
thus confirming what was predicted in tongues in 1849: that his trials
should be shown him beforehand.
She had been a good and true wife, and mother, and he felt her death
all the more keenly because of being in very poor health himself at the
time. His leg, which was never free from pain, and always discharging,
had been so much worse for some time that he could scarcely stand,
and yet he felt compelled to assist in the work of the household, as
well as to attend to his duties in the ward. Soon after the death of
his wife, his youngest child, Martha, who was then four years old, in
accidentally falling, plunged her arm into a pot of boiling brine which
had just been lifted from the stove, and as she had a woolen dress on,
which held the heat, her arm was practically cooked to the bone. From
the top of her shoulder to her finger tips was like a piece of raw
beef, and her father was the only one she would allow to wait upon her.
As she could not lie in bed, she was kept seated in a rocking chair,
and Thomas watched and waited upon her devotedly both night and day for
three months. When he would dress her arm her agony would be so intense
that she would tear the hair out of her head by the handful. It was
only by the power of God that her life was saved and the use of her arm
spared. When she did finally recover, her injured arm was just as good
as the other.
The Temple in St. George had been completed by that time, and Thomas
was strongly reminded of his father's dying injunction to "never
forget the dead." He was so strongly impressed with the fact that it
was his duty to go to St. George and have the work done for all of his
ancestors whose names he had, that he talked the matter over with his
neighbor, Newton Tuttle, who became so enthusiastic on the subject that
he proffered to go to St. George with him, and to furnish the team to
convey them on the trip.
Though impelled by the Spirit to go to the Temple, he still had
doubts as to whether he would be allowed to engage in ordinance work
therein, because of having the running sores on his leg. He accordingly
conferred with Bishop Anson Call on the subject, but the Bishop was
unable to answer his query.
Thomas then appealed to the Lord in prayer to know whether it was His
will that he should go, and whether the dead knew what was being done
on earth in their behalf. He had perfect confidence that the Lord would
hear and grant his wish, as He had heard and answered his prayers many
times in the past.
Directly afterward he had a dream in which he thought he was traveling
from the north to the south, and that his wife's sister, Sarah, was
with him. They were walking along the road, and he was talking to
her of the things of the Gospel. They came to a very large field of
wheat--the finest he had ever seen. He saw a number of men at work
harvesting, as the wheat was ripe. Other men were seen lounging in the
shade, and neglecting the crop, which seemed to be in danger of being
wasted.
He asked his companion to observe the scene before them, as it was
typical of worldly conditions--some doing their utmost to save the
master's crop, while others are careless and indifferent.
All at once it seemed to grow dark--so dark that he could not see where
to go, and he lost his companion. While standing still, wondering where
to go, he saw a small light a long distance away, and as he approached
it, it grew larger and brighter. Then a large white building appeared
in view, such as he had never seen before. A number of steps led up
from the east side, and the door stood open; but he could see no one
around, and everything looked white as snow. He entered the door and
looked around, and saw another flight of steps. At the top of the steps
stood a woman whom he recognized as one of his neighbors, and who came
towards him and embraced him.
He awoke and pondered over his dream, and came to the conclusion that
the Lord had another wife for him, as the woman he saw seemed to be
waiting for some one.
Some time after that he asked Bishop Call some questions concerning the
dead, which the Bishop did not venture to answer, but suggested that he
go and talk with President Brigham Young, and offered to go with him.
They accordingly visited President Young, who answered the questions
that Thomas wanted to be enlightened upon in a way that was satisfying
and very comforting to him, and explained Temple work to him in a way
that he had never fully understood before.
After conversing about an hour, he said: "Brother Briggs, how many of
the names of your dead kindred have you?" On learning that he had only
seven names, he asked:
"And have you faith to travel to St. George, over three hundred miles
distant, to do the work for seven dead persons?"
Thomas told him he had, and seemed surprised at his asking, for it had
not occurred to him that it required a great amount of faith to do so.
"Well, the Lord bless you for your faith!" said President Young. "Go
to St. George, and have the work done for those whose names you have.
Travel comfortably and independently, making your own camp and sleeping
in or under your wagon. Put the people along the way and in St. George
to as little trouble as possible. If you require hay, bread or other
supplies, pay for them. Then all the honor will be yours. You shall be
blessed on the trip, and you shall never want for names of the dead to
work for as long as you live."
He and Brother Tuttle secured their recommends to admit them to the
Temple and commenced preparations for the journey. He also called upon
Mrs. Ann Ashdown, the sister whom he had seen in his dream, and told
her he was going to St. George, and asked if she would like to go along
and become his wife and a mother to his children. He advised her to
think about it, and give him a reply the next day.
The following day she gave her consent, and he told her to prepare for
the journey. He then went to his son Ephraim and announced that he
intended to marry, but didn't suppose that anyone could guess who his
prospective bride was.
The son replied that he knew who his mother had said he would sometime
marry, and named Sister Ashdown.
He then called upon his eldest daughter, Emma, and broke the news to
her, as he had to his son. She too was prepared for it, and informed
him that her mother, some time before her death, had predicted to her
that Mrs. Ashdown would yet become her father's wife, either in time
or eternity, as it had been made known to her in a vision. This was an
additional evidence to Thomas that it was the Lord's will, for his wife
had never even hinted to him that she ever had such an impression. She
had, however, a short time before her death told him of two old maids
with whom she had lived during her childhood, and who had sent her to
school. She asked him to have the work done for them in the Temple, and
to have them sealed to him.
Brother Tuttle and his daughter Emily, and Thomas and his daughter
Emma, and prospective wife soon set out for St. George, where they
arrived on the 24th of May, 1877.
They called upon Apostle Wilford Woodruff, who was then in charge of
the Temple, the same day, and after he had endorsed their recommends,
Thomas explained to him his condition, and asked whether he should keep
the bandage on his leg or remove it. Brother Woodruff remained silent a
few moments, as if communing with the Lord, and then told him to come
to the Temple early the following morning and to remove the bandage.
Thomas recognized the Temple as soon as he saw it, as the building he
had seen in his dream, and when he entered the Temple the scene was
enacted that he had witnessed in the interior, although he had said
nothing to anyone about the dream.
When his daughter Emma was baptized for his grandmother he received a
powerful testimony that his ancestor had accepted of the work done in
her behalf.
They all greatly rejoiced in the work they were privileged to do in the
Temple, and felt amply repaid for the trouble and sacrifice which the
trip involved.
They worked in the Temple during the whole of the week, and Thomas each
day removed the bandage from his leg when he entered the Temple, as he
had been advised to do, and noticed with interest and gratitude to the
Lord, that there was no discharge whatever from the ulcers, but when
he left the Temple in the afternoon each day, the suppuration recurred
and continued until he entered the Temple the following day. Nor did he
suffer any pain while in the Temple.
After finishing the work for all the dead whose names and genealogies
they had, they drove out on their return journey a few miles and
camped. That night, soon after Thomas had retired to rest in his bed
under the wagon, his mother appeared to him. "You have made a mistake
in giving in my genealogy," she said. "You have given the date upon
which I was married instead of the date of my birth; but you need not
go back now, as some of the family will soon come here, and then you
can have the error corrected." She disappeared when Thomas was about
to embrace her. This visit and the purpose of it, were testimonies to
Thomas that the dead have a knowledge of the work being done in their
behalf. It was also an answer to the prayer offered by Thomas when he
sought for information upon that point. It was an evidence too, that
the dead have some foreknowledge of things that are going to transpire;
for, although Thomas was not aware that any of his family would visit
the St. George Temple soon, he was informed by his son, David, almost
as soon as he reached home, that he had decided to marry, and he
accepted the father's advice to go to St. George and be married in the
Temple.