The Women of MormondomTullidge, Edward W. (Edward William)
History
The Women of Mormondom
Tullidge, Edward W. (Edward William)
Latter Day Saint churches -- History; Latter Day Saints -- History; Polygamy
But a still more trying period came to this excellent woman, after
her husband became a member of the quorum of the twelve, and when the
rebellion against Joseph arose in Kirtland. First the prophet and
Sidney Rigdon had to flee for their lives, and next Brigham Young had
to escape from Kirtland. Then came her severest struggle. She now had
five children to care and provide for the--two daughters of Miriam,
her Joseph A., and Brigham, Jr., with his twin sister, Mary Ann. Those
were dark days of persecution and want. The apostates and anti-Mormons
frequently searched her house for her husband, and the faithful in
Kirtland all had enough to do to sustain themselves, in the absence of
their shepherds, who were now refugees in Far West. At length, with
the five children, she reached her husband; but not long to rest, for
quickly came the expulsion from Missouri, in which period she broke
up her home many times before finally settling in Montrose, on the
opposite side of the river from Nauvoo.
Scarcely had Brigham and the twelve effected the exodus of the saints
from Missouri to Illinois, ere Joseph, having escaped from prison, sent
the twelve with its president to England, on mission.
On each side of the Mississippi, in cabins and tents, the Mormon people
lay, exhausted by their many expulsions; the multitude sick, many
dying, the vigor of life scarcely left even in their strong-willed
leaders. Thus lying on the river-side at Commerce and Montrose,
they presented a spectacle no longer suggestive of irresistible
empire-founders. Joseph was sick; Brigham was sick; the twelve were all
sick; the prophet's house and door-yard was a hospital. It was then
that the prophet, knowing that power must be invoked or the people
would perish, leaped from his sick bed, and entering first the tents
and cabins of the apostles, and bidding them arise and follow him, went
like an archangel through the midst of his disciples, and "healed the
multitude." It is a grand picture in the memory of the saints, being
called "The Day of God's Power." Reverse that picture, and there is
seen the exact condition of Mary Angell Young and the other apostles'
wives when the president and his quorum started on mission to England,
leaving them to the care of the Lord, and their brethren. It was a
period quite as trying to these apostolic sisters as that of the
exodus, afterwards. And to none more so than to Mary, who had now the
burden of six children to sustain during her husband's absence in a
foreign land.
The following entries in the president's journal embody a most graphic
story, easily seized by the imagination:
"We arrived in Commerce on the 18th (May, 1839), and called upon
Brother Joseph and his family. Joseph had commenced laying out the city
plot.
"23d--I crossed the Mississippi with my family, and took up my
residence in a room in the old military barracks, in company with
Brother Woodruff and his family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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