I will conclude this brief sketch with one of her latest poems:
BURY ME QUIETLY WHEN I DIE.
When my spirit ascends to the world above,
To smile with the choirs in celestial love,
Let the finger of silence control the bell,
To restrain the chime of a funeral knell,
Let no mourning strain—not a sound be heard,
By which a pulse of the heart is stirred—
No note of sorrow to prompt a sigh;
Bury me quietly when I die.I am aiming to earn a celestial crown—
To merit a heavenly; pure renown;
And, whether in grave or in tomb I'm laid,
Beneath the tall oak or the cypress shade;
Whether at home with dear friends around;
Or in distant lands upon stranger ground—
Under wintry clouds or a summer sky;
Bury me quietly when I die.What avail the parade and the splendor here,
To a legal heir to a heavenly sphere?
To the heirs of salvation what is the worth,
In their perishing state, the frail things of earth?
What is death to the good, but an entrance gate
That is placed on the verge of a rich estate
Where commissioned escorts are waiting by?
Bury me quietly when I die.On the "iron rod" I have laid my hold;
If I keep the faith, and like Paul of old
Shall have "fought the good fight" and Christ the Lord
Has a crown in store with a full reward
Of the holy priesthood in fulness rife,
With the gifts and the powers of an endless life,
And a glorious mansion for me on high;
Bury me quietly when I die.Like a beacon that rises o'er ocean's wave,
There's a light—there's a life beyond the grave;
The future is bright and it beckons me on
Where the noble and pure and the brave have gone;
Those who have battled for truth with their mind and might,
With their garments clean and their armor bright;
They are dwelling with God in a world on high:
Bury me quietly when I die.
ZINA D. H. YOUNG,
FIRST COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE L. D. S. WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS.
"And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." How fitting are these sacred words to the subject of this sketch and her family. In obedience to this command renewed in this dispensation, searching through their genealogical records for ten generations back, they have brought forth to light, and to eternal life in the celestial kingdom of God, the forgotten and unknown ancestry of their family, finding now and then some noble representative of their race linked with even a kingdom's honor, and at last, far back, upon the throne of England.
Sister Zina's career of religious devotion and service is not a new feature in the Huntington family, nor America a new field of labor to them. One hundred years ago Lady Salina Huntington, saving to herself only sufficient for the real needs of life, devoted a great portion of her vast fortune to missionary service, for the introduction of Christianity among the North American Indians, by the founding of schools for the natives and the support of ministers and teachers. "She allowed herself but one dress a year. Lady Salina Huntington was the second daughter of the Earl of Ferrars. She was born in 1707, and was the co-laborer of Whitefield and Wesley. 'The pedigree of Lady Huntington and her husband, and of George Washington, first President of the United States, (as traced by Mapleson in his researches) meet in the same parentage.' 'Lady Huntington and her chaplains often journeyed during the summer, making their presence a means of religious revivals wherever they went. A church needed. With her, to resolve was to accomplish. Her jewels she determined to offer to the Lord. They were sold for six hundred and ninety-eight pounds, and with this she erected a house of worship in 1760. Her daughter, Lady Salina, was one of the six earls daughters chosen to assist the Princess Augusta to bear the train of Queen Charlotte on her coronation day." Did it foreshadow an era of revelations dawning upon the world, when she prayed "that God would give us new bread, not stale, but what was baked in the oven that day." Lady Huntington built seven chapels, her private property, beside aiding sixty others. At the age of eighty-four a few hours before the last struggle she whispered joyfully, "I shall go to my Father tonight," and so she went home, June 17th, 1791.
Thus by birthright and by heritage is the land of Freedom the Huntingtons' field of religious labor. The mantles of Lady Huntington and remoter noble ancestors have at last been lifted from the silence and the shadows of departed centuries to the shoulders of worthy descendants and representatives, who are doing works of greater magnitude than they ever comprehended. Superintended by Dimock B. Huntington, and assisted by the family, Zina and her sister Prescinda have been baptized for ten generations, numbering nearly five thousand.
By permission I select from matter collected and published by Emmeline B. Wells, in Woman's Exponent the following portions of biography:
"Zina Diantha Huntington was born January 31st, 1821, at Watertown. Her father was William Huntington, her mother Zina Baker, whose father was one of the first physicians in New Hampshire. Her grandmother on the mother's side was Dorcas Dimock, 'descended from the noble family of Dimocks, whose representatives held the hereditary knight-championship of England; instance: Sir Edward Dymock, Queen Elizabeth's champion.'
"The father of Mrs. Zina D. H. Young was also a patriot and served in the war of 1812. Samuel Huntington, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was the uncle of this old revolutionary soldier. She says: 'My father's family is directly descended from Simon Huntington, the Puritan immigrant who sailed for America in 1633. He died at sea, but left three sons and his widow, Margaret. The church records of Roxbury, Mass., contain the earliest record of the Huntington name known in New England, and is in the handwriting of the Rev. John Elliot himself, the pastor of that ancient church. This is the record: 'Margaret Huntington, widow, came in 1633, her husband died by the way of small pox. She brought children with her.' 'My grandfather, Wm. Huntington, the revolutionary soldier, married Prescinda Lathrop, and was one of the first settlers in the Black River Valley, Northern New York. The Huntingtons and Lathrops intermarried, and my sister Prescinda Lathrop Huntington, bears the family name of generations.' The Huntingtons embraced the Gospel at Watertown, New York, and Zina D., when only fifteen years old was baptized by the Patriarch Hyrum Smith, August 14th, 1835, and soon after went to Kirtland with her father's family. In this year she received the gift of tongues. On one occasion in the Kirtland Temple she heard a whole invisible choir of angels singing, till the house seemed filled with numberless voices. At Kirtland she received the gift of interpretation. She was also at the memorable Pentecost when the spirit of God filled the house like a mighty, rushing wind. Zina was also a member of the Kirtland Temple Choir, of whom but few are now living.