A Child of the Sea; and Life Among the MormonsWilliams, Elizabeth Whitney
History
A Child of the Sea; and Life Among the Mormons
Williams, Elizabeth Whitney
Beaver Island (Mich.); Latter Day Saints -- Michigan; Strang, James Jesse, 1813-1856
BROTHER LEWIS AND I WERE GOING TO OHIO WITH MR. CRANE.
Mr. Hill told her Charley could come back to see us every summer. But
somehow it seemed it never would be the same. Charley would never be
ours again. It was terrible to think about when the time came for them
to go. A letter came to Mr. Hill from his sister in Painesville, Ohio,
asking if he could not bring the little sister, meaning me, that she
would like to have a little girl to be with her two small children. She
would send me to school and I would be near my brother. Then I could
come home in the spring and go back another winter if all was agreeable.
It was at last decided that I, too, should go the last trip of the
steamer Michigan, in December.
BROTHER CHARLEY GONE.
The steamer was at the dock. Good-byes were said. Charley was gone. The
boat steamed away, taking the first one from the home nest. It was hard
for mother to give up her boy, but she felt it was best for him. Oh, how
long the time seemed to me! No more could we wander about together. Our
little canoe lay idle upon the beach. There was no little brother to
help row the boat, or swing in the old swing from the big maple tree, or
chase the plovers along the shore. Our little pet dog was always
searching about for Charley. His bows and arrows were put away out of
sight. The house seemed still; it was as if some one lay dead. John felt
just as sad as any of us. Our neighbors came to cheer us, telling us we
should meet again when the spring time came.
Mother still was busy getting the rest of us ready to go. Mr. Crane was
our neighbor. He came from the headlands near Fairport, Ohio. His
daughter Elizabeth came with him and her brother to be their
housekeeper. They owned a farm in Ohio. They were a large family and
money could be earned easily at the island as the fish were so plenty.
They came with several other Ohio families. Mr. Crane was coming back
next season and I could return with them. Nearly all our summer people
were gone. We had just two left and they were going on the last boat.
The Mormons were now taking boats and nets every chance they got and the
Gentiles felt very unsafe. Our two Mormon friends told our people there
was great trouble among them in the Church, as Strang's laws were
becoming unbearable.
The weather had changed and snow and ice were now with us, and brother
Anthony had gone to Green Bay to his uncle John Gebeau. In another week
brother Lewis and I would be gone. How often I said to John, "Now you
will be good to father and mother, won't you? for they will have no one
but you, and you will read to them and tell them about Ireland and your
old home."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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