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Show I W 6 U A HSa 138 LIFE INCIDENTS. BY HELEN MAP WHITNEY. continued. My father's early life and experience, with his father, is a fair sample of those who pioneered and did the hard work of breaking and ensettling a new country. The hardships countered by them can be understood and appreciated by those who were pioneers to this western land, and haye made their homes in these Itocky Mountains.- - The Leaders, and many others who were in that little band, were ; the veritable descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers, who laid the foundation for The Prophet Joseph their independence. Smith and his brother, Hyrum, with Brigham Young, Heber. C. Kimball, Bishop N. K. Whitney, and many of the prominent men of the ''Mormon" Church, were born in the State of Vermont. My father, in his history, says: "Father Joseph Smith and his brother, Jonn Smith, were acquainted with the Kimballs, the families were connected by marriage. Bishop Whitney and my father were also related; they were never acquainted until after we moved to Kirtland, but by tracing back they found that the mother of N. K. Whitney, whose name was Susannah Kimball, was a relative of my father. Father Whitney thought so much of his mother, that he added the Kimball to several of his children's names; his own. middle name was Kimball, after his mother. Grandmother Whitney was a very intelligent, and what the Yankees term smart woman, and noted for her ready wit, which the following anecdote will illustrate. One Saturday, after the regular training was over, a drunken fellow came riding swiftly by, and suddenly stopping before her door, halloed, "Madam, do you know't (hie) hell's broke loose?" "Yes, I see you've cot your liberty," was the quick reply. My iather and mother were of Scotch descent. Their families have prided themselves on the knowledge that they came from a noble stock; but my parents cared very little about worldly nobility and rank, they were proud to be, able to say that some of their ancestors were among those who first came to America and helped to gain their independence, and that their descendants were noble,hard-workinand conscientious people, who in believed rising on their own merits. The Murrays were a very warm-hearte- d race, kind and generous to a fault. Many of them were possessed of a poetic temperament, or the gift of expressing thoughts in verse. After the death of my eldest daughter, Vilate, my Uncle Gould Murray's daughter, Libbie, who I remember when a child, sent me some beautiful lines. When hearing of my mother's death, my uncle wrote me a loving letter, and closed it with the assurance that the children of his own "baby sister" were dear to him, and they would always find "Aw latch string o?i the outside." lie was the oldest and my mother the youngest of four children, and from her birth he took care of her, and always called her his "baby sister." My father was the only one of his family who received the Gospel. He had a natural reverence for the Supreme Being, and I have often heard hira, when relating his experience, say that when a little child he loved to be alottfc and reflect upon what his mother had told him about - heaven; and sometimes when she wa3 going out to spend an afternoon and wanted him to go with her, he would say, "Let me tav home at alone ma, so I can take ' -- g, Belf-sacrifici- ng com-fernit- s. Hu was the favorite brother, and had no enemies until after he joined the "Mormons," which act, one might suppose, would have had the effect of changing his, whole nature; ;I EXPO NENT did change him, might say that in one sense it ft made him a better man. 'This step was a terrible blow to their pride, more particularly to his oldest sister,' Eliza,, .who was rich and she felt so proud, and although she loved him, wanted to humiliated that she said she never His. brother, Solomon, see his face again. heard the "Mormon" Elders pray, and he told the Holy my father that they were full of Ghost religion; father told him he was going to see them, and he told him to "go." His she told daughter has since paid us a visit, and rae that her father was converted to "Mormon-ism,- " and had it not been tor the bitter opposition he met with from her mother, he would have been a "Mormon." My father, when convinced of Jthe truth of it, went forward and obeyed its requirements, without knowing whether my mother would receive it or not; she never opposed him, but for two or three weeks he mourned over her, and plead night and day with the Lord to give her a testimony of the truth of this work, when his prayer was answered. Had, his brother done likewise, obeyed his convictions, instead of hia wife, he might possibly have drawn her and his children after him. The following may prove interesting to many of my father's friends, particularly to those who were born and reared in the Eastern, or New England States. He begins his life by saying: "Concerning my ancestors I can say but little; my Grandfather Kimball and his brother came from England, and both. assisted ( il .1 TT!i..l Ti l unneu oi ine in irainine:' tne independence States. My father, Solomon Farnham Kim ball, was born in the State of Massachusetts, in the year 1770; he was raised from his boyhood with Judge Chase, of Massachusetts, remaining there until he was married, when the Judge assisted him in establishing himself in the business of blacksmithing in the town of He Sheldon, Franklin County, Vermont. was married to Anna Spaulding, who was born in New Hampshire, in the town of Plainfield, on the banks of the Connecticut River. At the close of the Revolutionary War, my father was thirteen years old, and I can remember his rehearsing to. me some of the scenes of the ... 7 war. "He-wa- s bald-heade- d, had dark brown hair, blue eyes, sandy whiskers and sandy complexion, five feet eleven inches high, and weighed two hundred pounds and upwards; was captain of a company of militia in Sheldon, and wore a cocked up hat of the old English style, and coat and short breeches with a a strait-bodie- d knee buckle, long stockings and Suwarrow boots with a pair of tassels. "He engaged in clearing land, burning the wood into coal and ashes; he had also a forge and a trip hammer in the manufacture of wrought iron. About the time of the embargo, before the last war with England, my father lost his property, as it was invested in salts, potash and pearl ash; the embargo having shut down the gate of commerce between the United States and England, left his property in his hands without much value. He immediately took it into his head to travel to the West and go into the Genessee purchase; he saddled his horse, put on his big portmanteau, which contained a change of raiment, and started for the West. Arriving at the town of Scipio, Cayuga County, New York; he fell in with Judge Towsley, who employed him as a foreman in a blacksmith shop, where he labored six months; after which Judge Towsley and my father traveled still further westward, to within fourteen miles of the Genessee River, to West Bloomfield, Ontario County, where Judge Towsley assisted him in establishing the blacksmithing business. "In the meantime my father took up several hundred acres of land in this new country, and after remaining six months, he returned to Sheldon to his family, having been abse nt a year. "in February, 1811, he took r and their six children in a sleitrk -mm nna to", span of horses, and what clothing we had u ns arid a change, and a few Woni,,.!, us in. We traveled on the ice on Lake Cham plain up to Whitehall, a distance of 110 iniW where, spring being open, he traded his sWh for a wagon, and proceeded to West Bloom field, where he continued his business of black smithing and farming, and commenced build! ing. He built an academy in West Bloom, field, also two tavern stands and several prj. vate dwellings. He made nearly all the edge tools, such as scythes, augurs, axes, knives also ploughshares and agricultural implement1 for the country around, to a distance of fifty or sixty miles; and sometimes he had eight forges at once, with a foreman and apprentice at each fire. He generally worked with hu men and occupied one fire, and took the oversight of his workmen. "We continued living in West Bloomfield , during the late war with England, which place was in the thoroughfare between Albany and Buffalo, on what was called 'the public turnpike,' and on which, the soldiers passed during It was flourishing times, the war of 1812-1- 5. business and money, and of there being plenty most men In business became involvedso that when the war closed bankruptcy became coand mmon, as every merchant, tavern-keepe- r grogshop had a banking establishment, and iv sued shin plasters from one cent up to five dollars. "My father lost the greater portion of his property, which broke him up in that place, when he moved two and a half miles east, half way between East and West Bloomfield, where he bought a farm near a small lake, called Stewart's Pond; on this pond there was a little improvement. "Here he established blacksmithing, built a large tavernstand, barns and other outhouses, and once more set out an orchard of various kinds of fruit trees; this was in the year 1816, which was called the cold season, the same year that the black spot was seen on the sun; the following year we had little to subsist upon. For some three weeks we gathered milkweeds, boiled and ate them, not having salt to put on them. It was with difficulty that bread could be procured. My father paid three dollars per hushel for potatoes. cha"My father was a man of good moral relracter, and though he did not profess any morals, igion, yet he taught his children good and never would suffer them to swear, or play them, upon the Sabbath day, without correcting read and would have them remain at home and good books, or attend the church. "My mother was a Presbyterian, agreeshe ably to the strictest sense of that religion; lived a virtuous life, and according to the best of her knowledge taught her children the way of righteousness." : To be Continued. ITEMJ3. The Harvard Annex for Women has 40 students. OrrrjRV VirtnHa. hefnrp. hpr marriage Victoria -- Guelph; since, if she were &.prif g lady, she would be known as Airs. VYettuv"-beinthe family vname of her late husbano, Prince Albert. . don -- FouETEEif hundred students in Berlin e have signed the petition for depriving J their cml rights. Their outburst wouldm recent pear to be caused by jealousy; tathree-fou-r ingxrf students it vnss alleged that of the riteri and poeta iff Germany are Je . |
