Today is International Women’s Day! Whoo! Personally, I love being a woman. I would have it absolutely no other way. Sure, the thought of childbirth absolutely petrifies me, and makes me want to cry, but it'll totally be worth it, right?! Women's history is such a large and broad subject, but recently there's a small bubble of it that I have really come to love. I absolutely love the women of the early LDS Church.
I read the Work and the Glory series by Gerald N. Lund for the first time when
I was in ninth grade. But there were a lot of doctrinal and historical bits
that just completely went over my 15 year old head. Last month I read the series
again, and WOW. That series is so doctrinally and spiritually rich. It gave me such an increased
reverence and respect for our LDS heritage; a reverence and respect that unfortunately I feel is
slowly being forgotten and replaced with scrutiny and almost a sense of
ungratefulness -especially towards Joseph Smith.
So I would just like to write a post about some of these early
LDS women, and the history that they lived through. By the way, I’m ecstatic that the LDS Church has opened a team
specifically for LDS women’s history. I can't wait for the research they release! I'm going to share a few personal stories of real women: Lucy Mack Smith (Joseph Smith's mother), Eliza R. Snow (gang raped by Missourians), Vilate Kimball (Heber C. Kimball's first wife, who gave an account of her experience with polygamy), and Drusilla Hendricks (who's husband was paralyzed and who still made the journey west.) I also give a brief summary of some of the things these women had to endure. Emma Smith was an incredibly remarkable woman. However, since her life and experiences would take an entire blog post to talk about, in the interest of time and attention spans (I'm sure I've already lost most of you unfortunately) I chose other women who's experiences to relate. All of the details and information I got from the Work and the Glory series, which I cite by book and chapter. (I do not have access to the immense amount of research that Gerald N. Lund used for this series which is why I cite him instead; but he does cite all of the information and where he got it at the end of each chapter.) It's a tiny bit long... but I couldn't contain myself! Feel free to skim until you see something you actually want to read, and as always-please don't hesitate to ask questions!
When I was small I wanted to be a pioneer so badly. I
constantly dressed up as a pioneer (or Native American as often as not). I had
several bonnets and I even made my own pioneer dress with some help. With all the
seriousness of a 9 year old, I considered asking my grandpa (who had his own
wood-working shop) to make me a life-sized handcart; unfortunately I never got the courage to ask! I convinced my dad to go down to the
river with me and cut some trees down which we then fashioned into a tepee
with blankets. I was blessed and privileged to go on a trek to Martin's Cove
when I was 12 with our Young Men and Young Women. I lived for this stuff! Yet in all of my
youthful exuberance and passion for the subject, I never quite
understood just how difficult it must have been. I knew that their life was not easy, I knew that they had been driven from
place to place and the different hardships, yet until last month I never really understood on a personal
level what it meant to live then. You guys, these people were AMAZING!
Especially the women! Honestly, we’ve been told that ours is the chosen
generation. And even though I can see it in some ways, I don't buy it! I honestly believe I would have renounced the Church at the sight of
the first mob if I had lived back then.
But these women did not. Joseph Smith received the first
vision in 1820. Ten years later in 1830 the Lord instructed the Saints to move
to Ohio (D&C 37:3)
“Moving
to Ohio was advantageous to the young Church. By leaving New York the Saints
hoped to leave behind religious persecution, particularly in the Colesville
area. In addition, there were more Church members in Ohio than anywhere else,
and gathering in one place enabled everyone to receive instructions from the
Prophet, thus maintaining doctrinal and organizational uniformity. Ohio’s
available waterways also provided a gateway to the rest of the country for missionary work. But, most important, the move to Ohio was a step closer
to “the borders by the Lamanites,” where Zion would be established (D&C 28:9).” (LDS.ORG)
One
of my favorite women in our church history is Lucy Mack Smith (Joseph Smith's mother). In the
books she’s described as being under 5 foot, and being well loved by all, with
a penchant for being spunky, spirited, and determined. The migration to Ohio from New York began in earnest from about the end of
January to the middle of May 1831. The saints mostly traveled to Ohio by water on
canal barges. Lucy organized a party of about fifty people (twenty adults and
thirty children) and led them to Ohio. They traveled to Buffalo where they found
the harbor completely blocked by ice, and there they met a group of saints from
Colesville who had already been waiting to get through the harbor for several days. Upon Lucy's arrival the members of the Colesville Branch told her group that they could
not let anyone know they were Latter-Day Saints or they would not find passage or lodging.
To which Lucy replied: “I shall tell people
precisely who I am, and if you are ashamed of Christ, you must not expect to be
prospered; and I shall wonder if we do not get to Kirtland before you!”
The saints of Lucy’s group, travel weary, hungry (many had brought clothes instead of food), and many falling ill, were beginning to murmur and complain. Shortly thereafter, when they were on board their next barge, Lucy called the saints together and said the following.
Now that is a reprimand if I have ever heard one! Lucy went on:
Lucy faced many harsh realities in her life as the prophets mother. Yet she never wavered, and always faced her struggles bravely, with enormous faith, and with her remarkable spirit. Even until the very end as the Saints were preparing to leave and start their journey west toward what would become Salt Lake City, she remained strong and faithful. She maintained that she would go west with the saints until a few weeks before they left in February 1846 when she was 71 years old and she resigned herself to being too weak and frail to make the journey. This is an absolutely wonderful article about her for any interested.
The saints of Lucy’s group, travel weary, hungry (many had brought clothes instead of food), and many falling ill, were beginning to murmur and complain. Shortly thereafter, when they were on board their next barge, Lucy called the saints together and said the following.
“Brethren
and sisters, we call ourselves Saints, and profess to have come out from the world
for the purpose of serving God at the expense of all earthly things; and will
you, at the very onset, subject the cause of Christ to ridicule by your own
unwise and improper conduct? You profess to put your trust in God, then how can
you feel to murmur and complain as you do! You are even more unreasonable than
the children of Israel were [emphasis added]; for here are my sisters pining for their rocking
chairs, and brethren from whom I expected firmness and energy, declare that
they positively believe they shall starve to death before they get to the end
of their journey. And why is it so? Have any of you lacked? Have not I set food
before you every day, and made you, who had not provided for yourselves, as
welcome as my own children? Where is your faith? Where is your confidence in
God? … Now brethren and sisters, if you will all of you raise your desires to
heaven, that the ice may be broken up, and we be set at liberty, as sure as the
Lord lives, it will be done.”
Now that is a reprimand if I have ever heard one! Lucy went on:
“A noise was heard, like
bursting thunder. The captain cried, ‘Every man to his post.’ The ice parted,
leaving barely a passage for the boat, and so narrow that as the boat passed
through the buckets of the waterwheel were torn off with a crash. … We had
barely passed through the avenue when the ice closed together again.”
Lucy faced many harsh realities in her life as the prophets mother. Yet she never wavered, and always faced her struggles bravely, with enormous faith, and with her remarkable spirit. Even until the very end as the Saints were preparing to leave and start their journey west toward what would become Salt Lake City, she remained strong and faithful. She maintained that she would go west with the saints until a few weeks before they left in February 1846 when she was 71 years old and she resigned herself to being too weak and frail to make the journey. This is an absolutely wonderful article about her for any interested.
This
was one specific example of the tremendous faith of one extraordinary woman.
But the early history of the church is fraught with courageous and remarkable women. These early saints immigrated from all over the New England area to Ohio; then
they were driven to settle in western Missouri by religious persecution, among other things. Many of the Saints left to go
to Jackson county, Missouri in 1831. By the summer of 1833 more than a
thousand saints had gathered into four settlements -primarily Adam-ondi-Ahman, Gallatin, Haun's Mill, and Far West. Here, the
Saints were persecuted horribly. Our homes and farms were burned. Women and children were driven across the
Missouri prairie in the middle of the night. Not given enough time to prepare,
many were driven out in their nightclothes and without shoes. They would leave
bloody footprints in the frost.
On October 27 1838, Governor Lilburn Boggs signed the infamous “Extermination Order” which declared that the Mormons were to be driven from the state or exterminated. This laid the groundwork for what happened at Haun's Mill 3 days later on October 30, 1838.
Haun's Mill consisted of roughly 30 families. When the trouble in Missouri began, Joseph Smith urged members who lived in smaller outlying communities to come to Far West where there would be more people and they would be safer. But Jacob Haun (the founder of Haun's Mill) refused to come. He had made an agreement with Colonel Jennings (the sheriff of Livingston county) that as long as the saints did not take arms against the local people, everyone would leave them alone. But the men had made contingency plans if this did not hold up. They believed the blacksmith shop to be safe and the best chance of survival should an attack come. And so, when 240 militia men attacked Haun's Mill, the men barricaded themselves in the blacksmith shop while the women and children hid and fled into the nearby woods. Unfortunately the blacksmith shop still had widely spaced walls, which the Missourians took advantage of; they surrounded the shop and fired directly into the building. Many men died in that shop. The Missourians brutally murdered seventy-eight year old Thomas McBride and afterwards mutilated his body with a corn knife. Ten-year old Sardius Smith was discovered hiding, and the Missourians put a bullet in his head (TEN YEARS OLD!). Seventeen Latter-day Saints (and one friendly non member) were killed that day. Seven year old Alma Smith had his entire hip socket blown away in the blacksmith shop. He somehow managed to pretend he was dead through excruciating pain when the Missourians dragged his body around to make sure he was really dead. Alma was miraculously healed by his mother Amanda Smith using ashes, water, and roots from a slippery elm tree. Amanda would bury her husband and son (Sardius) in a mass grave the next day. Yet these women who were now widowed, picked up their things and moved on to Far West. (Lund, Thy Gold to Refine. Chapters 16-18).
On October 27 1838, Governor Lilburn Boggs signed the infamous “Extermination Order” which declared that the Mormons were to be driven from the state or exterminated. This laid the groundwork for what happened at Haun's Mill 3 days later on October 30, 1838.
Haun's Mill consisted of roughly 30 families. When the trouble in Missouri began, Joseph Smith urged members who lived in smaller outlying communities to come to Far West where there would be more people and they would be safer. But Jacob Haun (the founder of Haun's Mill) refused to come. He had made an agreement with Colonel Jennings (the sheriff of Livingston county) that as long as the saints did not take arms against the local people, everyone would leave them alone. But the men had made contingency plans if this did not hold up. They believed the blacksmith shop to be safe and the best chance of survival should an attack come. And so, when 240 militia men attacked Haun's Mill, the men barricaded themselves in the blacksmith shop while the women and children hid and fled into the nearby woods. Unfortunately the blacksmith shop still had widely spaced walls, which the Missourians took advantage of; they surrounded the shop and fired directly into the building. Many men died in that shop. The Missourians brutally murdered seventy-eight year old Thomas McBride and afterwards mutilated his body with a corn knife. Ten-year old Sardius Smith was discovered hiding, and the Missourians put a bullet in his head (TEN YEARS OLD!). Seventeen Latter-day Saints (and one friendly non member) were killed that day. Seven year old Alma Smith had his entire hip socket blown away in the blacksmith shop. He somehow managed to pretend he was dead through excruciating pain when the Missourians dragged his body around to make sure he was really dead. Alma was miraculously healed by his mother Amanda Smith using ashes, water, and roots from a slippery elm tree. Amanda would bury her husband and son (Sardius) in a mass grave the next day. Yet these women who were now widowed, picked up their things and moved on to Far West. (Lund, Thy Gold to Refine. Chapters 16-18).
And so, the Saints began to gather to Far West for safety. Eventually
3-5,000 saints would live here. After a betrayal of fellow Mormon Colonel Hinckle, the saints were instructed to give up their arms and leave the city. On November 1st, the men of the Mormon militia in Far West marched out to meet the Missourians and give up their arms. The Mormon militia consisted of roughly 400 men, all of whom left to give up their arms, which left the city virtually unprotected. However, instead of letting the men return to their city after they surrendered their weapons, General Lucas ordered the Mormon militia to stay under guard, while the Missouri militia went into Far West to "look" for hidden weapons. This was just veiled permission
to go sack Far West. The militia took this instruction to heart and commenced to rob and burn the houses, and
rape the Mormon women. There is one account of a woman's hands and feet being tied down to a bench, and raped so brutally she was killed - while her husband was forced to watch. (Lund. Thy Gold to Refine. Chapters 19-21). We have also recently realized that Eliza R. Snow was gang-raped by eight Missourians which left her unable to have children. She later would write the hymn “O My Father,” which is one of my personal favorites. She was another remarkable woman of
this time period, who despite what had happened to her, stayed faithful and eventually went west to Salt Lake with the rest of the Saints.
Once
again our people were driven out of their city in the middle of winter. This time they settled in Nauvoo, Illinois where eventually an estimated 16,000 saints would settle. They had a
happy, peaceful and industrious time in Nauvoo for roughly 5 short years. It was during this time in Nauvoo that Joseph Smith received the revelation which reinstated polygamy. As members, we often get a bad rap because polygamy is part of our history. But through this book, I now have a new appreciation for just how hard polygamy was for these saints to accept, but also how necessary it was. I have no doubt that it came from God.
First of all, it is important to understand that Joseph Smith did not immediately accept plural marriage. It was "repugnant" to him. Joseph would have to be threatened by an angel with death to accept, and this concept was not necessarily received easily by all who practiced it; which makes them all the more incredible. (I'm in the process of writing a post about plural marriage and its applications to today's world. It should be a good one!) But on to Vilate's story.
When Joseph began to tell the Quorum of the Twelve that plural marriage was going to be reinstated, they felt sick at heart. How would they tell this to their wives? One day, Joseph told Heber that he had a special test for him. This test, was that Heber give his beloved wife, Vilate, to Joseph to marry. Heber himself admitted that had he not had such a firm testimony that Joseph was a prophet, at that moment he would have thought him fallen. Heber said that for three days he "was gripped in the agonies of hell." He fasted and prayed, and begged the Lord for another way. Yet at the end, he knew it was God's will and that he must do it. And so he gave Vilate's hand to Joseph and told him that she was his. But then Joseph said that Heber had proven the test. He said that was proof enough of Heber's devotion to God, and then instead of taking Vilate to be his wife, Joseph sealed Heber and Vilate for eternity at that very moment.
But their test was not over. Vilate had been preparing herself for some time for the eventual likelihood that Heber would be asked to take another wife. She expected it to be some older spinster sisters. Instead the call came for Heber to marry Sarah Noon; Sarah was close to Vilate's own age and had been married to an abusive drunkard who abandoned her. But Heber delayed and tried to avoid it. Finally Joseph came to Heber a third time telling him that he must take Sarah as a wife or he would be damned. But then there was an added shock. Joseph said that Heber could not divulge this information to anyone else--not even Vilate! But how could Heber do that to her? Heber said that he shrank from the thought of causing her more unhappiness. He went to Joseph and said that this was such a great trial of his faith that he feared he could not do it. He begged Joseph to let him tell Vilate before he married Sarah. Joseph inquired of the Lord again in Heber's behalf, but the answer came: "Tell him to go and do as I have commanded, If I see that there is any danger of his apostatizing, I will take him to myself." Vilate soon realized that there was something wrong with Heber; she recounts that he was highly distraught and ate little and rarely slept. When she would inquire after him, he would evade her questions. In the meantime (unbeknownst to Vilate), Heber was begging the Lord to reveal the principle to her so that he would not break his vow. Vilate retired to her room one day and began to pray in earnest that she would know what was wrong with her husband. And then a vision was given to Vilate. It was a vision of the order of celestial marriage and the glory and pure joy that accompanies it. Then she was shown the woman that Heber had taken to be his wife. In the book, she says: "I will not tell you that this is an easy thing to accept, nor that it has been without its trials and challenges since then. But I cannot doubt--I cannot doubt that the order of plural marriage has been given by God, for the Lord revealed it to me through the glorious answer to my prayer." (Lund. Praise to the Man. Chapter 28).
Oh to be as faithful as Vilate and to receive a vision such as this! Each and every one of these women who practiced plural marriage will forever stand in my mind as remarkable women of God. I will always admire the selflessness and courage of these women. The thought of being asked to share Porter with any woman, leaves me feeling sick and discouraged. I honestly don’t know that I could have practiced this principle. But I will forever admire these women who did so, and did so willingly and happily. It took such courage and faith in the Lord.
Eventually harassment would again ensue in Illinois which culminated in the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on June 27, 1844. On February 4, 1846 the official exodus of the saints into the western wilderness began after tensions and persecutions began to increase.
First of all, it is important to understand that Joseph Smith did not immediately accept plural marriage. It was "repugnant" to him. Joseph would have to be threatened by an angel with death to accept, and this concept was not necessarily received easily by all who practiced it; which makes them all the more incredible. (I'm in the process of writing a post about plural marriage and its applications to today's world. It should be a good one!) But on to Vilate's story.
When Joseph began to tell the Quorum of the Twelve that plural marriage was going to be reinstated, they felt sick at heart. How would they tell this to their wives? One day, Joseph told Heber that he had a special test for him. This test, was that Heber give his beloved wife, Vilate, to Joseph to marry. Heber himself admitted that had he not had such a firm testimony that Joseph was a prophet, at that moment he would have thought him fallen. Heber said that for three days he "was gripped in the agonies of hell." He fasted and prayed, and begged the Lord for another way. Yet at the end, he knew it was God's will and that he must do it. And so he gave Vilate's hand to Joseph and told him that she was his. But then Joseph said that Heber had proven the test. He said that was proof enough of Heber's devotion to God, and then instead of taking Vilate to be his wife, Joseph sealed Heber and Vilate for eternity at that very moment.
But their test was not over. Vilate had been preparing herself for some time for the eventual likelihood that Heber would be asked to take another wife. She expected it to be some older spinster sisters. Instead the call came for Heber to marry Sarah Noon; Sarah was close to Vilate's own age and had been married to an abusive drunkard who abandoned her. But Heber delayed and tried to avoid it. Finally Joseph came to Heber a third time telling him that he must take Sarah as a wife or he would be damned. But then there was an added shock. Joseph said that Heber could not divulge this information to anyone else--not even Vilate! But how could Heber do that to her? Heber said that he shrank from the thought of causing her more unhappiness. He went to Joseph and said that this was such a great trial of his faith that he feared he could not do it. He begged Joseph to let him tell Vilate before he married Sarah. Joseph inquired of the Lord again in Heber's behalf, but the answer came: "Tell him to go and do as I have commanded, If I see that there is any danger of his apostatizing, I will take him to myself." Vilate soon realized that there was something wrong with Heber; she recounts that he was highly distraught and ate little and rarely slept. When she would inquire after him, he would evade her questions. In the meantime (unbeknownst to Vilate), Heber was begging the Lord to reveal the principle to her so that he would not break his vow. Vilate retired to her room one day and began to pray in earnest that she would know what was wrong with her husband. And then a vision was given to Vilate. It was a vision of the order of celestial marriage and the glory and pure joy that accompanies it. Then she was shown the woman that Heber had taken to be his wife. In the book, she says: "I will not tell you that this is an easy thing to accept, nor that it has been without its trials and challenges since then. But I cannot doubt--I cannot doubt that the order of plural marriage has been given by God, for the Lord revealed it to me through the glorious answer to my prayer." (Lund. Praise to the Man. Chapter 28).
Oh to be as faithful as Vilate and to receive a vision such as this! Each and every one of these women who practiced plural marriage will forever stand in my mind as remarkable women of God. I will always admire the selflessness and courage of these women. The thought of being asked to share Porter with any woman, leaves me feeling sick and discouraged. I honestly don’t know that I could have practiced this principle. But I will forever admire these women who did so, and did so willingly and happily. It took such courage and faith in the Lord.
Eventually harassment would again ensue in Illinois which culminated in the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on June 27, 1844. On February 4, 1846 the official exodus of the saints into the western wilderness began after tensions and persecutions began to increase.
Women
during these days were often left without men in their families. The men were frequently called on missions, and unlike today those missions were not for 2 years. They
lasted for a few months or sometimes a couple years. They did not go with a place to stay, and generally went with few funds. They did not have a mission President to help them. They were virtually alone, and their wives and mothers did not know if their
husbands were okay, and yet these women still let them go while they stayed behind
with the children, often trying to find some source of income or keep up the farms their husbands left.
Eventually
the saints were forced to go West. Neither the state or federal governments acknowledged their pleas for help, and neither lifted a finger to help these persecuted people. After the Mormon War of 1838, many of these women going west were now widows. Often the practice of polygamy was used to help those women who
were widowed or alone and who could not make the trek themselves.
The last personal story I would like to tell is of one lady in particular who struck me. Her name was Drusilla Hendricks. Her husband James was shot in the back of his neck at the Battle of Crooked River in 1838. From that point her husband was paralyzed from the neck down. For a very long time Drusilla had to do everything for her husband; they guessed she had to lift him twenty or thirty times a day. For 8 years she had to provide for her family. After some of the brethren put together a log house for her family in Nauvoo she hired a man to put on a roof and build a chimney which she and another woman chinked and plastered themselves. She took in boarders and did washing and ironing. She made gloves and mittens in the winter and sold them--even knitting extra to contribute as her tithing. Yet there she was, with the first company of saints to leave Nauvoo for the wilderness. With a crippled husband who could not move on his own. Eventually she would let her son join the Mormon Battalion, and she would head west on her own with her crippled husband and small children. (Lund. So Great a Cause. Chapter 10.)
Speaking
of the Mormon Battalion, the Mexican-American War began in spring of 1846 to
the fall of 1847. The government (James K. Polk) asked for 500 of the Mormon men who were heading west to form a company to fight for the U.S. in the
war. And even though our men had just been driven from the very country that was now asking for our help, they still accepted it. The government offered payment (the saints were desperately low on money and provisions) and weapons; it essentially got 500 men to Salt Lake on the dime of the government. Eventually 496 men (plus some women and children) would leave the
Saints and go west for the government. These men left their families behind to cross the
West themselves. The wives of these men would now be responsible to care for their families while making the 1200 mile trek west without their men. This is absolutely amazing to me! Babies were born along the way, and family members were buried. These women took up their burdens and they just dealt with it!
I
love our Church. But recently I have come to hold a deep reverence for these
early pioneer women. They faced their struggles with tremendous courage and
acceptance. They did what the Lord asked and did it well. They faced immense
persecution and struggle, and yet they did not falter. I no longer
actually want to be a woman in the early church like I did before, but I do
want to emulate their examples. I want to be strong and unfailing. I want to
face struggle with trust in the Lord. May we hold a deeper respect for these
women, and give them the credit that they deserve.
Thinking about how far women have come in the past 100 years makes me proud.
But-- I am even prouder to be able to claim this unique Mormon heritage as my own.
For more information and reading about these topics here are some other articles that I recommend:
But-- I am even prouder to be able to claim this unique Mormon heritage as my own.
For more information and reading about these topics here are some other articles that I recommend:
http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Missouri_Conflict
https://history.lds.org/article/pioneer-story-nauvoo-story?lang=eng
https://history.lds.org/article/pioneer-story-nauvoo-story?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/manual/church-history-in-the-fulness-of-times-student-manual?lang=eng (From this manual I used chapters eight, eleven, and sixteen.)
