Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical SketchesCrocheron, Augusta Joyce
Religion
Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical Sketches
Crocheron, Augusta Joyce
Latter Day Saint churches; Latter Day Saint women; Utah -- Biography; Women -- Biography
"In the month of June, 1857, firmly believing in the principle of
plural marriage I entered into it. The result of this marriage was one
child only, for a little more than three years after said marriage,
my husband went on a mission to England, and after I had worked for
upwards of four years to maintain myself and little one, my husband
himself sent me word that he never intended to set foot in Utah again.
And here I must be allowed to say in behalf of myself and other true
women who have endured such separations, and to whom, perhaps, it is
counted as nothing, no one can realize what such an ordeal is, unless
they have passed through it. All that I had hitherto suffered seemed
like child's play compared to being deserted by the one in whom I
had chosen to place the utmost confidence, who himself had fixed an
impassable gulf between us by ignoring the very principles by which he
had obtained me, leaving myself and my little one (for all he knew) to
sorrow and destitution. Harder still, was it for me to believe that
this abandonment had been deliberately planned. I could not accept the
fact till President Young, (speaking to me of my husband), emphatically
said, 'Don't you know he asked for his mission? If he hadn't I wouldn't
have sent him till the day of his death!' That was enough for me, I
comprehended all that it meant, and independent of Brigham Young's word
I was forced to believe it.
"I had striven hard to keep out of debt,--determined to do my part
as a missionary's wife, that when my husband came back he might not
be hampered on my account. Nevertheless 'hard times' stared me in
the face, and I was almost overwhelmed by circumstances beyond my
control. During the winter season of 1863-4, (owing to the war and many
circumstances combined) provisions and other necessaries commanded
almost fabulous prices, and I could not see how I should ever be able
to keep 'the wolf from the door.' To add to my trouble, the house I
occupied (and to which I had been led to believe I had some claim,) was
sold over my head and thus I had the prospect of being homeless, at a
time when rents were going up double and treble. One night when I was
so weary with overwork and anxiety, pondering what to do, these words
impressed me as if audibly spoken, TRUST IN GOD AND THYSELF. Instantly
I arose and composed the following lines:
A priceless boon! is a friend indeed
Greet him as such when his face you see;
But those who fail thee in time of need--
Shun them, as false friends should shunned be.
They proffer this, and they promise that,
But promise, alas, is a doubtful elf.
So would'st thou weather the storms of life--
Trust thou in God! and thyself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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