Contents:
My earliest recollections date back to around
1830. The place was called Stepney,
London England. It was a pretty place in
summer. The grass was as high as I, plenty of green fields and buttercups and
daisies. In fact, it was like a lower garden for many of the neighbors
cultivated flowers for a livelihood.
We lived near the Church in Stepney. One
remarkable gravestone was built in the end of the Churchyard revealing the
figure of a fish with a ring in its mouth in the act of swallowing it. There is
quite a romantic story connected with it and plays have been written and acted
about it. They were entitled, “The Fish
and the Ring.” I have often told my children the story. I, like many
others, thought my childhood home the dearest spot on earth. My father was
afflicted with asthma. I have five brothers and one sister. I cannot remember
when I first went to school.
My first recollection of school is that I remember
reading the New Testament in the first chapter of John. My black cat would walk
by my side when I crossed the fields to go to school and was always waiting for
me, when I was dismissed. One day, my cat was not waiting for me. I ran home to
find the cat. My father would not tell me for some time what had happened. When
he finally got ready to tell me, I had to promise not to cry. Oh, childhood’s
sorrows were great on the day my cat died! We have enough to bear from the cradle
to the grave. It was my first trouble.
While walking with my father one day he commenced
coughing and burst a blood vessel. He only lived a few months after this and
before I was eight years of age, I was fatherless. We kept his body ten days
before it was consigned to the earth. Of course it was winter when he died. He
looked so nice we could have kept him longer. He did not believe in any
religion when he died. I never was taught religion by him. He died very calm. A
few hours before he died, he told my mother to get a neighbor in for he would
die at one o’clock in the morning. Mother sent for Mrs. Groves and a few
minutes before he died he bid them all good bye. He wanted mother to fetch me
to him to kiss me good bye but she thought I should disturb him by crying. He
died when the clock struck one as he had told mother he should.
My mother was compelled to work very hard to
support us and pay my school bills. She was a noble woman and when she became
ill through working too hard, she would plead with the Lord to spare her life
to raise us. But I was deprived of a mother’s care twice for some time as she
went to a hospital. I spent a great deal of my young days with a lady named Jackson. She was very
fond of me and would let me stay away from school. I might have been better
educated if she had not allowed me to stay with her. The dear lady lost her
sight, but I loved her dearly.
When I was about ten years old, I would beg of
mother to let me go to work for my living. After I was eleven years old I
worked at making shirts and would earn about fifty cents a week. I was very
pleased when I brought my wages home. In a few months she apprenticed me to
dress-making, for which I received no pay. I was kept busy taking dresses home
and going to the stores to match trimmings. The ladies I worked for were Miss
Grey and Miss Laughlen. I spent my fourteenth birthday there, and my beau would
be waiting for me when I left for the evening, and I would take a walk every
evening.
What history of a girl’s life is complete without a beau? It reminds me of the
song I sang then. “I was merry, I was merry, when my little lover came, with a
lily or a cherry or some new invented game.” In my happy days I met my fate. I
was sent for at Phyllis Robinson’s. I had worked with her. It was Sunday. I
went and saw her brother. My mother asked what I was sent for. I replied: “To
see my future husband.” “Silly child,” my mother replied. I never heard your
talk so foolish.” His family was making so much of him as he had just returned
from a voyage to sea that he did not notice me. After a month or two he went to
sea again. My boy lovers wanted me to promise to marry them. I told them I
would have to marry the man that had gone to sea for five years. I was working
and getting good wages, working for a Jewess. There were thirteen young girls
in the same room. My boy lover came one night to see me home and said he had
seen that sailor. My sailor expected to lose (his) sight as he was blind in one
eye and was afraid he would lose the sight of the
other. We got married, so ends the love affairs.
I know I often said things to my mother and they
came true. We can prophesy in part. I turned sixteen when I married. I thought
I could do as I pleased now,-- no mother to say when I should come home. Was I
not a married child? I should not be obliged to be home on the minute. In fact,
I was mistress. Poor child! I went to my work as usual for five months. My
mother was in the hospital, my husband was in Woolwich, and I lived in my
mother’s cottage. When she came home I went on board the ship with my husband.
When I was seventeen years old my eldest son was
born at my mother’s residence, June 16, 1847. He was named George Frederick. My
eldest daughter, Ann Catherine, was born Oct 27, 1848, at the same place. When
she was two weeks old her father heard the gospel. My husband told me what he
had heard— the strange news that an
angel had appeared to Joseph Smith. I listened and then said, “George, it is
true.” I believed every word of it, and we were baptized in the river Thames on Christmas night, 1848. We were living on
board one of her Majesty’s ships at the time. It was customary to lock the door
to the boat when we came on shore and leave it safe. We came to the boat at
about twelve at night. Brother Jarvis found out he had forgotten the key of his
boat. I had to stay outside in the cold in the rowboat with my two babies, one
seven weeks old and the eldest sixteen months. The night was bitter cold and
dark. When Brother Jarvis came back with the key he rowed us to the ship which
was at Woolwich. I believed we were honest in going into the water that
Christmas night and believed with all our hearts and the Lord was well pleased
with us. We did not obey the commandments to please our friends or relatives.
Our only motive was to do right for we had no friends or relatives in the
Church. Our friends disliked us after we joined the Church. When our third
child was born at my mother’s house, we named him Brigham. Brother Jarvis
dreamed before our son was born that his name should be Brigham. The President
wanted Brother Jarvis to be useful so he left the Royal Navy and joined the
Poplar Branch of the Church. I had Brigham blessed by President Savage of the
White chapel Branch,--father of our professor and teacher, Nephi M. Savage. I
moved to Garden Place
and lived on land, or as the sailors would say, “on shore”. My husband was
ordained a teacher and then a priest; in the evening. On Sundays, we would go a
distance to try to raise another branch. I would go with him to start the
singing. Brother Jarvis was Superintendent of the Sunday School in our Branch
and was counselor to the President of the branch and was always active in
magnifying his Priesthood. His wages were very small, scarcely enough to enable
us to obtain the necessaries of life. As we wished to comply with the calls
that were made, we were obliged to cease using sugar and we would do only with
bread and water for months. I felt rather ill at times as I was always dainty
and wanted a relish. I was always able to dress well. Brother Jarvis and the
children were always dressed in the best. I could make the clothes and
sometimes earn some money making clothes for others. We never spent money for
medicine, only once. My eldest daughter had a very severe fever, we had her
administered to by the Elders. She was getting worse. Brother Jarvis would
think she was gone when he came home for his work. He said we would get into
trouble if she died without a doctor, so we had a doctor for her. The medicine
was six bits a day, according to his orders I would pour it away. Still she did
not get better, so I prayed to the Lord to let me know what I was to do. I told
Him I kept the Word of Wisdom and I had her blessed by the Elders and I wanted
to know in a dream what to do. I had a dream that night, that I must fast so I
fasted and then called a brother in to administer to her and then I frightened
the doctor so he never came again. He came in the parlor as usual and he spoke
very low and said, “She is gone.” Then I said, “Yes sir, she is gone,--into the
kitchen.” He went with me into the kitchen. I know the change was so great he
was frightened. It was a miracle, certainly.
I will write a few lines about the cholera. I was
home with my mother when it as so bad that cards were posted about warning you
that if anyone was taken with it and you did not send
word to persons appointed to take them to the Pest
House, you were under a heavy penalty. You were not allowed to have a doctor at
your home. A child that had played with my boy in the evening, the following
morning was dead. Close neighbors to us, while the woman was putting her things
on to follow her husband to the grave, was taken with it and in two hours they
buried her with him.
My brother went with a man to bury his wife and he
declares he heard her scream while going to the grave. They expected to hear
that my mother or I had passed away before morning. They did not know which one
of us it was that had the cholera. I implored my mother not to send me to the
Pest House, or I should die. We were miles from the Elders. What could I do, or
what could my mother do with my baby in her arms? I had, by good fortune, a
bottle of consecrated oil and it was where I could see it in the window when I
could not speak, but I pointed to the bottle of oil. My mother did not know but
what it was hair oil. I had not told her about it. I had told her about baptism
and she did not believe. She had been baptized when an infant. She thought I
was delirious but she gave me the oil to pacify me. I asked the Lord to add to
my testimony and I was healed. My mother said I was quite black in the face. I
do not say I should have died if I had not used the oil, but I do know those
that did recover were six weeks or more before they got well. The stench was so
bad, mother had to burn things to sweeten the rooms. I was up and told my
brother and others of the goodness of the Lord to me. I was laughed to scorn
but I give God the glory to this day, for I know he answers prayers, and I am
writing this brief sketch for my children benefit. It will not be writing that
would do for the educated. I am glad today that I worked to help my poor
mother. If she had her own way she would have kept me at school until I was
perfect in grammar and other studies.
I often wish I had been more thoughtful for my
poor dear mother. I love to dwell on her memory. Although, in my zeal for the
gospel, I told her she would go to hell if she was not baptized. When I heard
of her death, I felt heaven would be no heaven for me without her.
We were always liberal with our small means,
helped pay the rent for the meeting, giving to the Temple Fund,
and always helped to pay for gold watches for the Elders. We were ever ready
with our portion, denying our appetites. I have often seen the hand of the Lord
in returning that we have given with interest,---Brother Jarvis and myself. I
could tell of fifty times when we have given the last money we had and thought
we would have to sell or pawn our clothes to get bread, and we have had it
returned to us with interest. I am certain if our faith was greater in this
respect it could be better for us.
My brother came one night to tell me my mother was
dying. He said, “The doctor has given her up but she cannot die without seeing
you.” This was about eleven o’clock at night. Brother Jarvis was at our Branch
party. I told my brother I could not leave my children until their father came
home to take care of them. When he came home, he would not let me go until
daylight. I cried and prayed those hours and went in the morning. As soon as I
entered the room she said, “Oh, Anne, as soon as I saw you enter the room I
felt better. Oh, my,” she said, “I had dreamed that I had my money in your name
to bury me. I wanted to die in your arms, and when I do die I shall not have
you with me.” She thought my husband went to her and told her we were going go
the Salt Lake Valley.
“Oh,” she said, “I never can say good-bye to my darling child.” The dream
troubled her so much she thought if she left the cottage she had lived in over
twenty-five years and lived with my sister she could bear the parting better.
So she went to live with my sister. When I would go and see her she would feel
bad and say: “I have no home now for you to come to.” Of course an aged person
would be dissatisfied so she came home to the same neighborhood. Her dream was
realized in a short time. When the time came, my mother would come and see me.
After she would go home, father would say, “Have you told your mother?” I would
if I could. He thought it was wrong not to tell her, so he went to her one day
and when he told her, she fell on her chair and said: “I can never say
good-bye.” What else she said he never would tell me. In the dark hour of my
trial she has been with me in my dreams to comfort me. She would have come with
me although over seventy years old. I am glad she did not. I am told she often
said, my religion was right before she died. She was a good woman. I know she
was a noble woman, and to think I shall see her again when I lay my body down,
it almost makes me want to go. I shall never have a friend quite so true to me
under all circumstances. Peace to her memory! She said: “When I do die, I
cannot have you with me.” Her words were true, as I was in St. George, Utah,
when she died. When we parted, she said it was worse than death. Oh, the agony
of mind when we part from those we love! Knowing I was obeying God’s command
comforted me, and I never realized how my poor mother felt, until I had
children leave. The next thing to be thought of was to get the money to get to Zion with, but with our
economy we could not get means with which to emigrate and my husband, in
counsel with President Purdy was advised to take a voyage to try and get means
with which to emigrate. We had two children born at Poplar,--Amelia, born
January 3, 1853, and Samuel, April 18, 1855. Parting again, my husband started
for China.
While absent on this voyage, I washed for other families and lived frugally,
and by so doing, did not owe what he earned. His wages were only enough for a
family of six to live on and pay rent if I got it all. He left me half, and
that the owner refused to pay me. He paid some women that were dressed in rags.
I was dressed in a silk dress, velvet, and kid gloves, and he thought I did not
have want of any money. Some of the women would spend the money in drink. When
I told the owner I was dependent on my husband’s wages to support his family he
thought I was respectably connected and could borrow. It was a great trial to
be in a great city with means where the greatest sin is poverty, where
everything tempting was exposed for sale,--delicious fruits of every kind. The
uncertainty of my husband’s return was a great trial, for I heard of the deaths
of many of his shipmates. I was unable to get any news of him or from him. When
he left I was only twenty-five, not strong minded, not self reliant. I was the
youngest. The next one to me, my sister, was seven years older, so I had been
the pet and baby and I often wished I had not married. I called at my mother’s
home once when I had walked over seven miles to try and get some money from the
owner for rent. I laid on her bed and dreamed I was a young girl at home and
didn’t have my present responsibilities. I let a room to help pay the rent .
Found out I had let it to a prostitute and got her away, and then let it to an
aged man and his wife. I found to my sorrow, the woman was just out of the
asylum, and she ought to be sent back again I would have to stay up every night
until twelve, till her husband came home.
I passed through many trials, which, if I wrote,
my children could not understand as their lost is cast in a different place. I
did not receive any news from my husband, but he sent me twenty pounds. That
helped. My Amelia had fractured her shoulder, and I was very excited. It was so
bad that the doctor sent me to the hospital. I put the money in my bosom for
fear a beggar might steal it as the children were young. When I was carrying my
little girl to the hospital I missed it, --the purse with the twenty pounds. I
looked for it but could not find it. I told George we should have to go without
a fire and bread that winter. He felt bad. He was about seven years old at that
time. He looked about for it and found it in a small shed in the yard where I
had not been for years. I was greatly puzzled and am to this day. The little
fellow said to me: “The Angel knew we would suffer, so when you dropped it in
the road he picked it up and put it where I could find it.” He had great faith
so I never contradicted him. When he scalded his feet I put on one of my best
shoes and I saw the grease was spoiling my shoe on the cloth and I told him he
would have to sit on the chair, I could not let him have my shoe again. I heard
him when he went upstairs, with the rest of them, pray and tell his Heavenly
Father all about it. He asked the Lord to heal it right, so he could wear his
own shoes, and his foot was healed the next morning. I let him pray and be
chaplain for the rest. I would let him always use his own ideas. He would not
know I could hear him.
When Brother Jarvis went away the chief engineer
said he would have him stay with him on the steamboat that was to run from Shanghai to Hong Kong,
and he thought he would get enough money to emigrate us, but Bro. Jarvis said
he would go if he had to go without a change of clothes. As soon as he reached
his destination, the chief engineer discharged him and kept another man on.
Brother Jarvis wanted to know if he did not please him He said,”Yes, George,
but you are a married man. I think you had better go back to England.”
Brother Jarvis was vexed as he knew he would not have enough money to emigrate
so he tried to get on other steamboats, but he had a large boil on his arm and
went to the hospital. They charged him four dollars a day. Everything was
against his wishes to stay in China,
so he went on top of a mountain to ask the Lord what to do. The impression was,
“Go home,” so he started for England
and the first port they stopped at, they heard of the massacre of the European
sailors where he had come from.
The last Chinese war had begun with England. Had he
stayed there, he might have been one of the slain, but the Lord had worked on
the heart of that man, the chief engineer, who was fond of him and would rather
have had him with him than any other, but against the wishes of all, he had
ordered George to come home. When he returned we had barely enough money to pay
our passage to Boston,
but we paid it to the agent. I think it was Brother Budge. For six weeks we
lived on some ship biscuit full of weevils or worms. We parted from my mother
on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, at four o’clock, I passed the place that I
had loved and my mother and I knew I should never see them again. I never want
to feel like I did then.
We arrived at Liverpool
and Brother Budge had a nice lodging place. Brother Jarvis came with one suit
of clothes. We did not bring anything for our use with us. I had a nice
furnished house. We left good new carpets on the floors. Brother Jarvis would
not let me bring anything with us. I must say we were young and foolish, for in
one month we wanted things for our own use again. We sailed in the good ship, “Washington.” The
servants of God, Orson Pratt and others, promised us a prosperous voyage, and
we realized they spoke by the spirit of God. Plenty of singing on board. When
some of the Saints would say, “ I would rather be where I was, “ I knew I was
happy.
Then I dreaded living in Boston. If it had been a city of Saints, I might have felt
different. They had paid the passage of a brother to cook for the Saints but he
was seasick. There were eight hundred Saints. They found that father was a
seafaring man and wished him to cook for them. I thought I would have quite a
treat and a pleasure trip with my husband. I do not think I exchanged a dozen
words with him on the voyage. He cooked for the eight hundred with one
assistant. Brother Musser called me to go in the hospital with a sick sister
that had looked so jolly and my husband had to be at his post twelve hours. He
would go to bed as soon as his work was done and be at his duty before six in
the morning. This dear sister was buried in the deep and left her newborn babe
to the care of by her husband with two or three other children. We buried, I
think, an old brother, too. I was sorry to see land. My husband went to get
lodging for us. No one was very willing to have a family of seven off a ship,
but father declared we had no fever and were healthy. The Saints had all landed
and had gone to the Valley or to different places but one sister,-- an old
maid, and a cross one at that. She told me she had no place to go. I told her
that I was sure Brother Jarvis would let her have a room with us. I told him
when he came back we could not leave her here alone. He said he had rented a
room at one dollar a week, so we went to our new home. It was a large room
close to the water, large enough, without any furniture to put in it. This
sister went out and got a situation and the first thing I did was to cry. I
felt a stranger in a strange land. If I was at home, I would not let my rooms
to an Irish person, but I was glad to have a room of them. There were four or
five families in that house. I would not let my children play about the doors
and I was afraid to let them go to the windows for fear they would fall out. My
husband, bought a second hand stove. I had never seen one before. We did not
want it very bad for we could not get anything to eat. He cold not get work.
This sister, if she went to a situation one day, she would be back the next to
scold me, and only to think of it,-- two women in one room. I expect the people
of the house thought she was his other wife. They knew we were Mormons. It was
a struggle to pay so much for rent, when father could get only a day’s work in
a week or two. We moved to the upper room and it was only a dollar a week. This
Irish landlady would say, “I have known many Englishmen mix with the Irish and
drink with them until they got work, but your husband is so stiff.” They were
kindhearted and several times when I would buy a pound of flour, for my
landlady kept a store, some one of the Irish women would want to give me a pan
of flour, but I thought if I might starve I had not come to be a beggar. To add
to my troubles, we had brought the measles into the house. My little girl had
them. The landlady felt so bad she said if the authorities knew it they would
send her to the Island, like they did her
sister when she landed. I was sure it would hurt me if it did not kill the
child. She said all her lodgers would leave her and she said she wished she had
not let the room to us. I promised not to let anyone know it. After two or
three of my children were over it, her heavy, stout child took it. I offered to
walk about with the child one Saturday when she was busy in the store. I
carried it about all day except for a half hour when she supposed I had gone to
have my dinner, but I had no food,-- not one mouthful for the children. I
thought how angry she would be if she lost the child through me, and her child
was very bad and had bad symptoms. I was fasting and I laid my hands on the
child and prayed fervently if the Lord wanted the child back again not to let
it go then with that disease, and prayed that the disease might be banished
from the house. Well, I had my prayers answered, although the landlady had more
children and the lodgers had children that had never had the disease, who
escaped it. It left the house, but after I had left the house some six months,
the child died suddenly. Some would think it just happened so, I feel to thank
the Lord it did happen so. My health was bad. The stove, the smell of fish, and
being half starved too. Brother Jarvis got work at a dollar a day wheeling
crabs in a large wheelbarrow, and the Irishmen would try to run him off. We could
only afford bread. Father would walk seven miles in and out, making fourteen
miles a day, and the men did not want and Englishman to work, so he had to
leave there.
My Maggie was born in that house in Boston City,
where the Irishmen would get drunk and sometimes would spatter the blood on my
door. I tried to do the work for my family, but was very sick with a fever. I
had no nurse for my baby. For four months, I could not raise my hand to my
head. They thought I should die. I should like to have died but for the
children. I took no food; the old lady that lived in the next room would give
me a spoonful of some herb tea. One day, I wanted some fresh fish. She said,
“Now your want something to eat, it will tell the tale whether you die or
live.” I had prayed to the Lord to know if I had to leave my children
motherless in a foreign land and I had been told in a dream I should go to Zion. We moved to East Boston and Sister Mitchie moved to live next door to
me, her husband moved to please her. When father heard through Brother Crouch
he could get work at a dollar a day in Ashland,
about twenty-seven miles from the city. So he went and left me in charge of a
brother who would take me to the depot. In a month, I was on the move again.
The brother that was to take me to the depot, told me the railway men were
cheats. If I had not enough to pay extra charges they would take my things. I
was so childish, I believed in him. I let him have my chairs, dishes, stove,
and all we had got for our use, and a splendid white counter pane, a gift from
my mother. Then his wagon broke and I had to pay a man to take me to the depot.
When father met me and expected me to have things, I only had my three small
boxes. The man soon got married and had my things to start housekeeping with.
The brother and sister moved back again.
Ashland was in a small healthy
place. There was one family of Saints there and the village gossips would meet
and discuss the news. They were kind to Sister Crouch but they did not like me.
She would tell them her husband forced her to come and she was one with them.
When they talked to me I told them if my husband did not want to go to Salt Lake City, I would
go when I had a chance, so I lost their sympathy for good. My husband had been
there a short time when he left and went to the city again and left us there.
My son George worked at pegging shoes and earned one dollar and a half. They
never paid him anything but frozen potatoes and if they were good when I had
them they soon froze when I got them. It was the coldest winter I ever
experienced. Father could get no work. This Sister Crough said when father left
his employment that it was wrong to leave his work and winter coming on and
asked who he expected would keep his family. I told her his family would never
eat a meal at her expense. We suffered for food and for fire,- for fuel.
Brother Crouch would come in to see us. I would leave the table set with butter
and other things that were kept so he would see we did not want for anything.
Sister Mitchie loaned money to get me from Ashland.. Father came one night and we had to
be ready the next morning. In driving to the depot father drove the team
against the curb and I was thrown out, but I got in again and boarded the cars.
As father could not get any work, (it was the time that the banks all failed
and there was a panic) I had to leave my boy. That was one of the great trials
of my life for he was so steady and was such a comfort to me. We stayed with
Brother Paxman two weeks until father cleaned a dirty house an Irish family had
occupied. He whitewashed it and planed boards. We carpeted the four rooms and
made it look nice. He bought a large new stove in Ashland, bedsteads and chairs, so we were
looking nice again. He got a few week’s work. My seventh child was born and he
had earned enough to pay the nurse and doctor and we paid for a barrel of
crackers and paid Sister Mitchie. But he was out of work again and money, and
we had to live on getting a pound of flour when we could. But by the Fourth of
July, my son came home to spend the Fourth at East Boston
with us.. The Saints were all going to Melrose
to spend the Fourth so I had my four girls dressed alike in blue, and my three
boys. Father had a nice spring wagon. Brother Dyer of Salt Lake,
Brother Paxman of American Fork, Brother Eardley and many others were of the
party. All of us were there. I said to father and Sister Paxman, “Shall we ever
all be together again?” I had reference to my own family as George was going
back to Ashland
the next day. We never were all out together again. My health was very poor.
Although I had swollen to such a size I had no dress I could wear, Brother
George Q. Cannon came to administer to me and persuaded father to try to get to
Florence or
Winter Quarters. He said, I, of course might die if I went but it was my only
chance. I had a dream. I thought I went to a telegraph office and they gave me
a telegram that I had to bury a child. The next night I dreamed I saw my son,
George, very ill and he had a large brown coat on. I took some comfort in
thinking George had not got a large coat or a brown one. As soon as he was out
of danger, they sent him home and I told him my dream. He said they put his
master’s brown coat on him when they gave him a vapor bath. I awoke one night
with the touch of the Cholera, and then my baby girl, Francis Elizabeth, took
it. I felt certain she would die. I carried her to our President for him to
administer to her. Her father was away, from home. He was holding his baby
after he had blessed mine. I said to him, “I wish my baby was well like yours.”
He said, “She will be alright in a few days.” I said, “Yes, in a week from now
she will be as well as yours. She will be out of her trouble.” He said, “What
did you bring her to me for?” I said, “Because her father is away, but she will
die.” She was dead before the week was out. I went to the meeting with her the
next night and while the President was talking, delivering his lecture, she
danced in my arms and cooed to him. He said, “Bless your pretty soul.” And when
some of the brethren and sisters were given a turn to speak, I gave the hymn
out to be sung, “The Resurrection Day,” because I felt that when I was there
again my baby would be gone from me until resurrection day. My dream was
fulfilled. The only thing was to sell my stove. Father had bought sixty pounds
of geese feathers and a linen tick. I sold the stove, and bed and gave my
furniture away and with three hundred pounds we started for Florence. When we got there, father was
employed by President Cannon to make tents and wagon covers. Father wanted to
get a handcart and hurry to the Valley. Bro. Cannon said I should come
comfortably in his wagon. Some nights when we went to bed in a large building,
we would be afloat in the night as there was no protection from the rain. We
did very well. We might have had a very good time on the plains if Brother
Cannon had been along, but the “if” was wanting. There was a man by the name of
Hunt who had joined the Church. His wife had been in some years before but had
been cut off. She had been a Spiritualist. The Saints in new
York helped them to Florence.
Brother Cannon had a team lightly loaded so the two families could come with
it. He put the team in this man’s charge. The oxen and wagons had been sent
several days from Florence
a few miles on where there was food for the cattle. One day, we were told to
follow. We carried our cooking utensils and marched along. It was a warm day,
and I would have liked to lie down for my head ached. When we arrived at the
wagon we were destined to walk by it and hang our cooking utensils underneath.
I had not seen Brother and Sister Hunt. I saw her now dressed in bloomer
costume. She was busy cooking for the journey. We leaned against the wagon. I
stood there and the first words she said were, “Bill, who is that man that is
cutting your wagon?” My husband had better sense than to cut a wagon. I was
sick and homeless and tired. I did not know enough to sit in the dirt after
walking all day. I began to learn a few things. They were very unkind to us. If
we put our baby at the back end of the wagon, they would close it. Some of my
children never rode a minute on that journey. My boy of five has walked
eighteen miles without resting. He was the only one that rode in the wagon, and
they would beat him so he did not want to ride. Brother Jarvis never rode but
once and that was in Brother Morris’s wagon. One daughter declares she rode
across the plains on her mother’s bustle. One day I felt grieved, for my son,
Brigham, was sick and could not walk and I mustered up courage to ask the
President to let him have the horse and drive the loose stock. He said, “Let
him ride in your wagon. It has the least freight.” I knew that Brother Hunt
would not let him do that. He let Brig have the horse and I drove the stock
myself and let him ride without the trouble of attending to them. I was a happy
woman, for only a few moments, for the President’s brother came up and made him
get off his horse.
The wagon wheel went over the leg of Samuel, aged
five. They all carried their sack on their backs and the powder flash was like
it had been twisted, but it saved the boy’s leg. Brother Jarvis says handcarts
were easier than carrying the children and standing guard. He had to stand
guard more than his turn as there was some that would not take their turn. He
would put up the tent and often cook. I would say, “Those that can eat must
cook.” I would be so used up, some of the Company would scold this brother for
not walking more and let me ride. But he soon left the Church. I think my
trials will compare in some respects with the women of the Book of Mormon
history. My son, Heber, was born a few weeks after I was in the valley. I was
delighted with the valley and was pleased to be able to see the see the Prophet
of God. We were blest with plenty of food. Father worked for Brigham. I felt
thankful to be able to see Brigham Young, the lion of the Lord. The Lord did
bless us. Brigham paid his hands good beef and flour. My husband worked in the
paper mill by day and cultivated a farm by night. He raised a good crop.
Then we got a small room in the sixth ward. I
attended the October Conference and heard Brigham and Heber say that the time
would come that men would be afraid to sit in the President’s chair for he wold
be assassinated. President Lincoln was elected that fall and we know he was
killed. My boy, Heber, was born that month, October, 1860. I dreamed I was in
the house of Brigham and went out riding with him and some of his wives. He
told me in my dream I should have a son. I had my baby soon after I had my
dream and it was a son. Nothing in that, some might think, certainly nothing
remarkable. He was born in less than six weeks after I arrived in Salt Lake City. Is it not
written, that the women spoken of in the Book of Mormon suffered while
traveling? I think I suffered on that journey something like them. Mrs. Hunt
had a baby when she arrived in the valley and she was sick. She had the sisters
sitting up at night with her and they were helped by the Saints from New York, and the Bishop
had to help them in the Valley.
My husband went to work and up to this year, we
have worked hard for all we have had. I feel thankful for this. We have heard
that Brother and Sister Hunt left the Church. I cannot think he was ever in it.
He might have been born of the water, but not of the Spirit or he would not
ride in the wagon and let his brother that had the same right to ride
sometimes, walk and let me carry my children on my back. I feel to blush for
him when I think of him and his cruel treatment which we endured without
murmuring.
My little girl, Maggie, was about three years old
when we moved in the sixth ward. One morning, before it was time to get up she
said to her father in her baby way, “What do you think I dreamed?” He said, “I
do not know.” She said, “I dreamed a man brought us two rabbits.” Before an
hour had passed, Brother Brown, who came in our company and had been out
shooting, left two large hares for us. He had never spoken to us before and he
never brought us any again, so the child had never had anything to make her
dream. In her later life she would have dreams that were as true as that one.
The rain came in this little house and only by the
fireplace was a dry spot. I would do everything I could to keep the bed dry for
the baby but all to no purpose. I put my feet in a puddle of water. One night,
I was so tired of losing my sleep that I collapsed down by the fire. After a
time, my eldest son tried to wake me, but I could not et up, but I told him I
would not get up. I said I must sleep if I did burn and I could not get up. So
he put the quilt away from me and put the fire out. The next day, I was
surprised to see a place burned large enough for me to go through without
touching it. If the smoke had affected him as it did me we should have been
burned to death. That was the third time in my life I felt to thank my guardian
angel who had watched over us.
Once I had been the means of saving my mother’s
life and what seemed strange to me then was I was such a heavy sleeper. There
were three boards of the floor burned and the sparks were flying. It only
wanted a door opened and it would be in flames. One evening, before I left England, a
young brother called at my house. His girl would meet him at my house and we
would all go to the night meeting. This night she was late and we concluded to
go without her when we smelled smoke. I looked in the bedroom where five of my
children were. I looked in the front bedroom and then in the parlor and in the
kitchen. I could not find fire but the smell of smoke was stronger. At last I
looked in the cupboard that held coal, candles and one of two stools with
carpet on them. This was under the stairs. If this sister had not been
detained, the stairs would have been burned, and I dare not think what would
have been the consequences.
The ship caught fire that we crossed the ocean in.
The steamboat caught fire on the river, but the Lord must have given his Angels
charge of us to preserve us by land and sea. I feel to give Him thanks for all
His goodness.
The first Sunday I was in the city, my Maggie fell
in a well. I did not know there was one on the lot. After we moved to Sugar
house Ward, she was saved twice from being drowned. Brother Jarvis moved to the
Sugar house Ward. We took two families in. One was Brother Turner. We had ten
head of stock but not an provisions for themselves or stock. Father worked in
the paper mill by day and cultivated a piece of land by night. He raised a good
crop. Brother Turner was unsettled and wanted to go somewhere to settle for he
knew we could not always keep them, although we were doing well. George was
keeping himself working for Brother Eardley at the Pottery, Brig at the Nail
Factory. Brother Jarvis became unsettled. Some days they would talk about Cache Valley.
At the October Conference, 1861, Brigham called for volunteers to Dixie. My husband was one of the volunteers. He had no
wagon and he always said he would never travel again without a team. I felt
grieved. I had suffered on the plains to come to Headquarters. We were doing
well and I thought we would have to go though poverty and privations for which
we would get no credit,-- we would bring them upon ourselves. Brother Brigham
asked him if he wold rather stay and help put on the roof on the theater that
winter. “No sir, I would rather go,” he said. They were to make arrangements
for Brother Eldridge to bring him. If he had done so, we have been in debt to
this day. When Brother Jarvis was determined to come, I advised him to buy and
old wagon that a brother did not think was safe to start with from Nauvoo, but
Brother Brigham told him to start with it and he came with it all right, so
Brother Jarvis bought it. He went to Brigham to buy a yoke of steers, but the
President said, “You will want cattle that are steady for that journey.” The
President was owing him enough to get a good yoke of cattle, so for Dixie Land
we started. We had cleared $100.00 and kept one family in laziness, I might
say, three months. I will say how the man was. He would lie around smoking his
pipe while a boy not ten years old was working in the nail factory. The other
family only stayed two weeks. We brought with us a large amount of Eardley’s
ware. I would not want much of it as a gift to carry it five, or four, or three
hundred miles over such roads. My boy, Samuel, told Brother Turner he would be
Bro. Turner’s second wife if he would let him ride. We walked most of the way
and the children and I would move rocks and make it better for the wagon. When
we arrived, here on the 5th of December 1861, on the
adobe yard, it was not a promised land unto us. Christmas Day we had bran for
dinner. I did not have a stove to cook with and it rained forty days and nights
The first meal I had on my city lot was some flax seed, and I was always
dainty. By all working, we never had a hundred dollars surplus, and I have seen
my children cry. I have seen the silent tear roll down their cheeks. I was
about thirty-one years old and had eight children. One was in East
Boston, but the other seven were alive and hearty, hungry
children. My husband was strong and did not know his own strength. He was
willing to work and there was plenty of work, but you had to board yourself.
They made ditches and the first tunnel in Utah. But there was some
grumbling because some shorts was furnished and we ate too much cane seed, at
seven cents a pound. We sold the splendid cattle for a few hundred of flour;
mortgaged our land after it was cultivated for one hundred and seventy-five
pounds of flour. I expect we would have sold ourselves for flour if anyone
would have bought us. I bought a span of pigs. They would follow me like dogs,
but they died when they were quite large.
I had a daughter born on March 21, 1863. I cut up
some of the tent for her--well, I won’t say what for. I had washed for Mrs.
Birch for several months. I would get a little soap or grease. She let me have
enough bleach to make a few night dresses. I had two flannel petticoats left,
so I used them. Brother Orson Pratt blessed her. He said he did not often make
remarks about babies, but she certainly was a beautiful child. We frequently
were without flour for three months at a time. Once a man left us some that we
offered in fun for putty and the brothers were buying it. It smelled like putty
and looked like it. We had years of great poverty in Dixie.
My husband and sons worked on the Tabernacle and Temple. My husband worked on the temple the
entire time and was among the first to get the greatest blessings the Lord has
to bestow upon his children.
Two more children were born to us in St. George, a
daughter and a son, our last baby. When he was seven years and six month old,
he was killed by lightning on the tabernacle steps, April 5, 1881. Oh, that
trial!! I thought that would kill me. It helped to destroy my health. He was
going to Martha’s school. I tried to be cheerful, and tried to comfort my
family. I know it was wrong to be selfish, even in grief, and although I kissed
the rod and thought the Lord wanted to chastize me, yet I know the Lord did comfort
me, I told them they were dear boys, but not my Willie. He was very kind to me.
Two nights before he was killed, he jumped up out of bed when I was groaning
with pain in my chest. He laid his hands on me and prayed in the name of Jesus.
He was an active, quick, intelligent child. Brother Erastus Snow gave me great
comfort, when he returned from Salt
Lake City. He spoke about the accident in his fatherly
manner. He said, “The boys are in a higher school.” He had lost one about
Willie’s age by diphtheria. I realized all I had any claim to was in the
graveyard. I cannot say he was mine. We do not own anything on this earth only
as our Father will bestow blessings upon us, yet we are selfish and think,
“This is mine.” Brother Snow advised my husband to take a trip to Arizona, which we did,
leaving March, 1882. I felt I could not go unless my next youngest boy, Heber,
went with us. He and my youngest daughter, Josephine, both went. Father was in
favor of Heber staying in Arizona
as the influence was better than at the Reef, where he had been working, so I
had to part with him, and that was a great trial. He came in to be married and
stayed all the winter of 1883-1884, and we parted again. I have only one at
home, now, and I cannot expect to keep her long, as she is eighteen, and there
will be more parting, but I must not anticipate trouble.
I feel certain that had I always kept the Word of
Wisdom as I did in England
for a few years, I should have had more wisdom to teach my children. When I as
told about plural marriage by a brother in England, before it was taught
publicly, I went into a private room and prayed I might have power given to me
that I should never speak against that principle, in my weak way. I have never
doubted the principle, but have always been afraid of my own weakness and
selfishness, but my children know I have taught them to do right in it, and I
would exhort my children to always honor the Priesthood. We may be assured that
the angels that attend us are nigh unto us, and there is a power about us that
will cause our prayers to be answered, and we shall be chastened when we do
wrong. It is stated in my Patriarchal Blessing that I shall lay hands on my
sick children in the name of Jesus. I have never employed a doctor but twice in
my life for my children. Once in England, but I did not let my child
taste the medicine. I threw it away. My prayer and fasting and keeping the Word
of Wisdom when she was announced by the servants of the Lord. She was
miraculously raised up. The doctor thought she could not live many hours. This
was my daughter Annie.. I am thankful all my children are in the Church. We can
live so we can have the whispering of the good Spirit all the time. I know that
every trial and affliction will tend to purify us. I have bronchitis and my
kidneys are affected. This body is getting diseased and I feel _______. I know
this body must die, but I am thankful for the teaching of this Church. It has
taken the fear of death away. I used to be so frightened by the “Ranters”. They
taught that our church was in error like the other churches, and had no
authority, even then I can be glad I had joined it for the peace and happiness
it has given me in this life. I know this Church is owned and directed by God,
himself. I am thankful my spirit was sent to this earth the year the Church was
organized. In my childhood, I was delighted to read about the angel opening the
prison gate for the apostle of the Lord, and I would say, “Oh, I wish I had
lived in that day.” When my husband told me that the angel of the Lord had come
and there were apostles in the Church, it charmed me. I believed it. But we do
not always have the good spirit. No, I felt after that to oppose it. I had
opposition on every side, but the good spirit would wake me up in the night and
whisper, “If today thou wouldst hear my voice, harden not thy heart.” I did not
go to hear them preach before I was baptized. I read my Testament again. My
husband believed, and I was certain of the truth of it. I shall never forget
the feeling I had the first time I went to meeting to be confirmed by a member.
They sang, “Come All Ye Sons of Zion”, and “Let Us Praise the Lord”. I have
never heard it since without thinking of the feeling I had when I first heard
it. The Lord blessed me with dreams by night and I think I have attended my
Sunday meetings with but few exceptions, but I have often partaken of the
Sacrament carelessly and stumbled many time, but I do believe up to the present
time, my sins are forgiven, and I feel to forgive everyone and have no unkind
feelings. I often think what a blessing sleep is to the weary soul. When
trouble bows us down and we sleep, we forget, for the time, our sorrows, and
our bodies are refreshened. I could never sleep more than three hours when in
trouble. I feel assured all trials are for our good, if we call on Father.
It is now November 1, 1885. I am having a very
good time, now. I have a quiet life, what old age requires. I feel thankful for
the blessing I enjoy. I have been nearly half my days in St. George. The Lord
has blessed us. We have food and clothing and I feel thankful for all His
blessings to me. How long I can enjoy life as I do at the present, I know not,
nor what trials I may have to pass through, but if the Lord will bless me with
His Holy Spirit, I know I shall have strength according to my day. I have felt
happiness in my affliction, for the Lord has blessed me, and I know we draw
nigh unto our Father in our time of trouble. I do hope our leaders will escape
imprisonment for they have been tried and tested. I would like to see them and
hear their good teachings, but would rather not see them again in this life
than that their enemies should find them. I feel like saying, “Oh Lord, hide
them up from their enemies, for their foes are they foes and their friends are
thy friends.” Some of our apostles are imprisoned for whom the world is not
worthy to hold a candle. Things are often revealed to me which prove that
infidelity is wrong. May we live so that we can be worthy of the whispering of
the Holy Spirit.
Copied by her granddaughter, Ella J.
Seegmiller, August 13, 1937 at St.
George, Utah
FOLLOWING IS AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY
of the Jarvis Family
Mrs. Victoria Josephine Jarvis Miles, a daughter
Ann Prior Jarvis was born in London, England,
on December 31, 1829, but all her records show that she was born January 1,
1830. The correct date was found late in her life. Her father died when she was
about seven years old. He was well-fixed financially, but through some
technicality, grandmother got very little for the support of her children. She
had a splendid strong character, and was from the Highlands of Scotland. She
worked hard and sent her children to school. Mother attended until she was
about eleven years old, when, to help her mother she went to work, instead, at
making shirts. She waved her tuition and earned about fifty cents per week. She
did this for some time before her mother knew of it. Later, she was apprenticed
at dress-making and learned to do very fine stitching. Mother was a good
reader, writer, and speller, and would have been better educated had she
followed her mother’s advice. However, she never regretted helping her mother.
When at school reading the Testament, and all during her childhood, she wished
that she had lived when Christ was on the earth, being of an intensely
religious nature. Naturally, she rejoiced when she heard the gospel had been
restored. Then father told the strange news, that an angel had appeared to
Joseph Smith, she listened intently, and then said, “George, it is true.”
This testimony never left her. Mother had
“impressions” that were true. We, as children, knew that we could never hide
our misdeeds, however guileless the expression we wore. She was thus
“impressed” when she first met father. She had been invited to a party,
celebrating our father’s return from a voyage— he was busy relating his
experiences and paid no attention to her. His brother Jonathan, was her escort.
But when she returned home she told her mother that she had seen her future husband.
Her mother replied, “Silly child, I’ve never heard you talk so foolishly.” But
after his return from another voyage it so came about, and they were married
when she was sixteen years old. Her life from that time can best be told in
connection with father’s.
George Jarvis was born in Harlow
and was the fifth child and fourth son of a large family. As a boy and youth,
he worked on a farm and in a grist mill. Always he had a great love for the
sea, and at the age of seventeen, he was bound as apprentice on ship-board for
four years, and he went to China,
and soon afer joined the British Navy and went to the West
Indies. There, he had his foot injured, resulting in the loss of a
big toe. A rope struck him in the eye, very ill and was in the hospital for four
months. As soon as he could travel he was sent to London and was an out-door patient of the
hospital. He was given a pension for life. He lost that, however, when he came
to America.
He had previously met mother and they were married
in September, 1846. They went to Woolwich where father was ship keeper in the
British Navy. He belonged to Her Majesty’s flagship for three years. In
Woolwich they met Lorenzo Snow and Franklin D. Richards. They believed the
Gospel when they first heard it and were baptized on Christmas, two weeks
later. This occurred in 1848, in the Thames
River. Soon after, father
worked for Ravenhill and Miller and was leading seaman for rigging purchases,
for lifting heavy machinery. He worked at this for nine years, sometimes going
on short voyages. He was anxious to emigrate to Utah,
and went on a voyage to China
to get money for that purpose. On the voyage over, the chief engineer was very
friendly and told father that he would keep him on the steam-boat to run from Hong Kong. Soon, however he was discharged. This caused
him to feel grieved and disappointed. He went to the engineer and asked if he
had not given satisfaction. The engineer replied, “Yes, George, you know how I
like you, but you are a married man, and I think you had better go back to England.”
Father tried to get work elsewhere, and succeeded in getting on another
steamboat, but he had a large boil on his arm, and was sent to the hospital,
which cost him four dollars per day. Everything seemed to go against him, and
he felt so discouraged that he went on a mountain and prayed for guidance. The
impression came,-- “Go home.”
At first port on this way home, he heard of the
massacre of European sailors. The Chinese War with England had begun. Had he remained
there he might have been slain with many other sailors. The Lord over-ruled for
his protection.
He had only sufficient means with what mother had
earned and saved, to bring them to Boston.
This was in 1857. Father cooked on the way across the ocean, leaving Mother
alone with the care of the five children.
In Boston,
he worked for small wages and at anything he could get to do for three and
one-half years. During this time they contended with sickness and poverty.
Mother was ill all the time while in Boston,
and in bed for four months at a time. Two children were born there. One died of
cholera at the age of four months. The only place they could rent was in an
unhealthy quarter, near the water. The cellar was full of water. Father would
have to leave mother and the children at home alone while he worked. Thus
mother and the small baby were left to the care of the other children. They
could not afford any help. There was a great deal of prejudice, at this time,
against the Mormons. It was, also, the time of a panic, and father found it
very difficult to get work. When he did have a good job, he lost it because he
defended Brigham Young, and thus quarreled with his boss. It was desperately
cold--potatoes wold freeze near the fire. They suffered for want of food and
fuel. Mother’s nature was one of pride and independence. she kept one pound of
butter for show in case anyone called at meal time.
She was so loyal to the Church and to father, that
she failed to make friends of her would-be sympathizers. These people blamed
father for bringing her from a comfortable home. She told them that she would
have come alone if father had not brought her. She failed to make friends, but
maintained her loyalty, pride, and independence.
While mother was so very ill, Brother George Q.
Cannon came to Boston
and came to administer to her. He told father the only chance for her life was
to get her out of Boston.
As soon as possible, they sold their few belongings, and managed to get to Florence, Nebraska, the
frontier of the emigrants, about one thousand miles from Salt Lake City.
Father was employed by Brother Cannon making tents
and wagon covers for the Church. Through President Cannon’s intercession, the
light luggage of the family was distributed among the company, on condition
that they all walk, except mother. President Cannon made arrangements for her
to ride in a light wagon of his, and had employed a man named Hunt, to drive.
As soon as Brother Cannon was out of sight, (he traveled ahead of the company),
Hunt and his wife were very unkind. Mother was not permitted to ride and, if
while walking she put the baby in the back end of the wagon, they objected.
Father had wanted to get a hand cart before starting, but Brother Cannon
arranged for mother to be more comfortable, he thought. Now they longed for a
handcart as the younger children had to be carried. Brother Richard Morris was
very kind. The only time father rode was with him for a little rest. Father had
said, when he was trying to get means to emigrate, that he would go to Zion if he had to walk,
and so it came about.
There were some mishaps on the plains, but their
lives were spared and reached Salt
Lake City in August, 1860. Six weeks later, a son was
born, whom they named Heber. The journey had been a very trying one for mother.
She records that one day she was so weary, she cold not possibly go any
farther. She announced that she did not care if the Indians did get her, she
had to rest. It was against counsel to lag behind. As she and another woman
were resting, they fell asleep. her little girl, Amelia, awoke them saying that
the Indians were coming. The train of wagons were just going around a corner
out of sight. They forgot their weariness and lost no time in catching up with
it. They found later that the supposed Indians were men of the company out
hunting.
Quoting from mother---”When I saw the valley,
where God’s people were, I felt that I could endure a great deal more for the
same privilege. I felt thankful to see Brigham Young and to hear him speak.”
They had been in Salt Lake
City about one year and were beginning to be comfortable as father
and the boys had work, when at the October Conference in 1861, President
Brigham Young called for volunteers to Dixie.
Father was one of the first to stand up. Mother was less impulsive, she knew that
they were not prepared to such an undertaking. She had suffered so much and
wanted to stay at headquarters, so she pulled father’s coat, but he paid no
attention to her. He had no wagon nor team, but he was determined to come, so
mother helped him to get ready. He bought an old wagon that was condemned
before it left Nauvoo. President Young was owing father enough to get a good
yoke of cattle, so for Dixie they started.
They bought a quantity of Brother John Eardley’s pottery, which was very heavy.
The poor old wagon could not stand much, so they all walked. Mother and the
children threw loose rocks out of the road to prevent a break-down, while
father was trying to drive perfectly ignorant of the art. Sam was a little
fellow and one day was so tired, that he told Brother Turner he would be his
second wife if he would let him ride in his wagon.
The family arrived at the adobe yard with the
first company on December 5, 1861. Father could not bring a year’s provisions
as had been counseled, so they had a very little to eat. The first Christmas
day in Dixie they had bran for dinner. They
had no stove nor anything for their use. Their first meal on the city lot the
first lot to be occupied after the survey consisted of flaxseed.
They had seven children, hearty and hungry, and
often, mother says she has seen the tears roll down their cheeks because of
hunger. She had no food to give them. Father sold his yoke of oxen for a few
hundred pounds of flour. Then they mortgaged their land, after it had been
cultivated for one hundred and seventy-five pounds of flour. Mother was always
dainty and she just could not eat caneseed, bran, shorts, etc. Father had a
patch of turnips that he was raising for seed, and orders were given that they
must be left alone. Mother used to limit herself to one a day, just one raw
turnip to ease her conscience, for she didn’t want father to know.
In preparation for a layette for sister Emma,
mother washed pieces of an old tent, rubbed to soften it, as an important part
of the layette. Emma was born in 1863. mother cut up her own underskirts, and
took in washing to earn a few yards of bleach. No doubt I inherited that same
layette.
There were years of great poverty in Dixie. Fortunately for herself and family, mother was of
a cheerful and jolly disposition. She did not complain but made the best of
things. One night, during a severe wind and rainstorm, mother sat and held to
the tent to prevent it from blowing over. During this time she sang all the
songs she knew.
She had cards and a spinning wheel and washed to
pay for the weaving of the cloth for the clothing of the family. Their dresses
were beautifully dyed by the pioneer processes. Father and the boys worked on
the ditches and dams in the early days. They also worked on the temple and tabernacle.
Father worked on the temple the entire time it was being built. He was in
charge of the scaffolding for that and the tabernacle. The baptismal font was
lifted into place on the oxen, under his direction. It was fitted together by a
man sent from Salt
Lake. Then father
stationed four sailors, Ebenezer and Charles DeFriez, John Miles, and Thomas
Crane- in each corner of the room manipulating ropes at his command. There was
a crowd of spectators and some of the “land lubbers” had the temerity to short
instructions. Father endured it for awhile, but it was causing confusion and
father was responsible, so he ordered every man to shut his mouth and keep it
shut until the font was in position. They did so. Then with a few “nautical
order” to his men, the font rose slowly and was swung over onto the oxen
without any trouble.
Father’s labors in the Dixie
country are well known by the older people. He was always interested in
horticulture. Grandmother Prior sent some grape seeds to him in a letter. he
planted them and they grew. The Gardner’s
Club named them the “Jarvis” and “Rio Virgin” grapes.
In addition to his hard manual labors, raising a
family of ten under such trying circumstances, often going to his work without
any pretense at breakfast, father was always an active church worker. In Woolwich, England,
he was presiding teacher; in Boston
he was Sunday School Superintendent; in the First Ward in St. George, he was
Bishop’s counselor for a number of years, and was Sunday School Superintendent
for years.
In 1902, he was ordained a Patriarch and expressed
himself as more pleased than if a legacy of millions had been left him. He
performed this labor faithfully and gave hundreds of blessings.
To my mind, father was almost a perfect character.
He was very upright and honest. I never knew or heard of an act that was
dishonest. I never heard him profane or use a vulgar word.
During his voyages he visited Australia, Africa, Spain,
Holland, China,
Portugal, West
Indies, Ceylon,
Gibralter, Bengal and Java. This in itself was
educational and he was a great reader.
Father lived to be nearly ninety years old. Mother
helped and encouraged him in all of his labors. Mother was a woman of rare
principles and noble character. When she knew that father was dead, I am sure
that she prayed to soon follow. She had always said, “Father, if you go first
you must wait on the banks for me.” She did not keep him waiting long. In four
days she followed, aged eighty-three. They had been married sixty-seven years.
There are three known histories: Ann’s own handwritten history and
sketch; and one typed by a daughter, Victoria Josephine, and one typed by a
granddaughter, Eleanor. The last two differ in some respects from the original
as some detail has been added and some things substracted. However, Ella’s
version is used, here. In 1979, Mary Miles Kleinman, a granddaughter published
her book, Essence of Faith, a 408 page novel. While great literary
license was taken in that book, the historical facts surrounding Ann’s life are
well researched and corroborated and are used to compile some of the footnotes
for this history. The family organization authorized me, Kelly B. Jarvis Sr.- a
2nd great grandson in 1998 to correct spelling,
some grammar when it made the narrative difficult to decipher, and punctuation
to make the history as flowing and readable as possible.
Eleanor
Woodbury Jarvis Seegmiller, Ella, was the granddaughter of George and Ann,
being the daughter of George Frederick Jarvis who was the eldest child of the
couple. Ella was married to Edwin Dee Seegmiller and lived her life in St. George, Utah.
It was decided by representatives of the George
and Ann Prior Jarvis Family Association in January 1998 to use Ella’s
version because it was more flowing and readable. Ella had undoubtedly
embellished Ann’s original handwritten history with actual interviews she had
had with her grandmother, Ann, as they knew each other for thirty-nine years.
Ella died in 1969 at the age of ninety-five.
Ann
was fifty-five years of age when this history was written in her own
handwriting. Copies of that original history were published and circulated by
the family organization in the 1970's. All available information indicate that
Ella was able to enlarge upon the history and make it more readable based upon
her actual interviews with Ann. This history comes from original manuscripts
typed by Ella in 1937, which was twenty-four years after Ann’s death. Ann lived
twenty-nine more years after writing her history and died in 1913, just four
days after George at the age of eight-three.
Available
records reveal that Ann Prior’s actual birth date was December 30, 1829. This
is documented by parrish records in the possession of Pearl Jarvis Augustus,
granddaughter. The discrepancy of three different dates (Dec. 30,1829-family
group record; Dec. 31,1829-Josephine’s history; & Jan. 01,1830-Ella’s
history) cannot be readily explained except to say that 1830 was the year the
Church was organized and Ann associated her birth with this momentous event in
Ella’s history.
Even
though Ann was born in St. George, Middlesex, London,
the fact that the family settled St. George, Utah is probably pure coincidence as St.
George, Utah was named after
George A. Smith, apostle and counselor to Brigham Young, but at the time of the
call by Brigham Young to settle, it was known as Utah’s
“Dixie”.
Stepney
(Stepney Green) is located in Greater London’s east end just north of the Thames River
and accessible by the underground subway (Tube) and by bus from Victoria station which is London’s main train terminal.
At this stage in Ann’s life, Mary
Miles Kleinman relates the following story which has not been corroborated.
Pearl J. Augustus, granddaughter said in an interview dated June 7, 1998 that
of all the people she had interviewed over the years, no one ever brought up
the link between Ann and Queen Victoria. “Mary Miles Kleinman was a romantic
writer. She never proved anything she wrote about this story,” she said; “It
was Sunday afternoon in late October and Ann had been invited by a young man
she knew to go for a walk. She looked lovely in a dark dress with white lace at
the wrists and neck. Ann bore a remarkable resemblance to the great Queen Victoria. This pleased
her very much, and she took pride in being told that she looked enough like the
good queen to be her sister.
While waiting for the young man to
arrive, Ann announced cheerfully, “I got a glimpse of the queen today riding in
the royal coach drawn by six prancing white horses. It was so exciting, for she
is such a great lady.”
“Aye,
and that she is,” Mrs. Prior said sincerely. “And to think that a good woman
standing by me said that I looked very much like our queen--enough to be
related! Imgine that; I do so wish it were true. Anyway, my bonnet looked as
nice as the queen’s. I was so proud.” Ann seemed completely overcome.
Appearing very serious, Mrs. Prior
said quietly, “Perhaps now is the proper time to tell you that you are indeed
related to our dear queen.”
“Oh,
Mother! How?” Ann exclaimed incredulously, “Why haven’t you told me before now?
Does Margaret know?” “Yes, I know; mother told me a few years ago,” Margaret,
who was spending the afternoon with her mother, said softly. “At the time, I
felt that you were too young to think about such things; you must remember that
Margaret is seven years older than you,” Mrs. Prior said calmly.
“Tell
me now, then, Hurry; tell me, please!” Ann cried, fidgety with excitement.
“Just keep calm, dear; don’t get yourself in such a fatigue,” Mrs. Prior said,
“There isn’t a thing we can do about it, really. You see, your father was an
illegitimate son of Prince Edward, the queen’s father; and being illegitimate,
he had no rights or claims on his royal father whatsoever. Your father was very
bitter, for he felt- and justly so- that his mother had been treated shabbily.
She had been a maid in theroyal household at the time the precocious young
princeling took advantage of her. When her condition became known, she was
promptly dismissed.” Ann, starry-eyed, asked, “Did father always know who he
was?”
“No,
dear, not until his mother was on her deathbed. At that time she told him who
his father was.” Mrs. Prior sighed. “Now forget it; I just thought I should
tell you because you do so resemble the good queen. As you grow older, it will
be even more evident. People already remark about it to me; but I don’t tell
them that you are related, for it would do no good.”
“Mother,”
Ann said, still in a sort of joyful daze, “did father live to see his half
sister become queen.” Yes, Queen Victoria
ascended the throne in June of 1837, and your dear father, rest his soul,
passed away in November of that same year. He was fifty-seven years of age; his
young half sister was just eighteen when she became queen.” (Essence of Faith, pages 5,6,7)
Wesley Jarvis, grandson relates that
George lost sight in one eye due to being struck in the eye by the pulley of
some swinging ship rigging.