The Women of Mormondom

by Edward W. Tullidge

By this time (1840, the period of the founding of Nauvoo), the Church has had a remarkable history in Canada and Great Britain. To these missions we must now go for some of our representative women, and also to extend our view of Mormonism throughout the world.

Brigham Young was the first of the elders who took Mormonism into Canada, soon after his entrance into the Church. There he raised up several branches, and gathered a few families to Kirtland; but it was not until the apostle Parley P. Pratt took his successful and almost romantic mission to Canada, that Mormonism flourished in the British Province, and from there spread over to Great Britain, like an apostolic wave.

Presently we shall see that the romance of Mormonism has centred around the sisters abroad as well as at home. Frequently we shall see them the characters which first come to view; the first prepared for the great spiritual work of the age; the first to receive the elders with their tidings of the advent of a prophet and the administration of angels, after the long night of spiritual darkness, and centuries of angelic silence; and were it possible to trace their every footstep in the wonderful work abroad, we should find that the sisters have been effective missionaries of the Church, and that, in some sections, they have been instrumental in making more disciples than even the elders.

Here is the opening of the story of Parley P. Pratt's mission to Canada, in which a woman immediately comes to the foreground in a famous prophesy:

"It was now April" (1836). "I had retired to rest," says he, "one evening, at an early hour, and was pondering my future course, when there came a knock at the door. I arose and opened it, when Heber C. Kimball and others entered my house, and being filled with the spirit of prophesy, they blessed me and my wife, and prophesied as follows: 'Brother Parley, thy wife shall be healed from this hour, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be Parley; and he shall be a chosen instrument in the hands of the Lord to inherit the priesthood and to walk in the steps of his father. He shall do a great work in the earth in ministering the word and teaching the children of men. Arise, therefore, and go forth in the ministry, nothing doubting. Take no thought for your debts, nor the necessaries of life, for the Lord will supply you with abundant means for all things.

"'Thou shalt go to Upper Canada, even to the city of Toronto, the capital, and there thou shalt find a people prepared for the fullness of the gospel, and they shall receive thee, and thou shalt organize the Church among them, and it shall spread thence into the regions round about, and many shall be brought to the knowledge of the truth, and shall be filled with joy; and from the things growing out of this mission, shall the fullness of the gospel spread into England, and cause a great work to be done in that land.'

"This prophesy was the more marvelous, because being married near ten years we had never had any children; and for near six years my wife had been consumptive, and had been considered incurable. However, we called to mind the faith of Abraham of old, and judging Him faithful who had promised, we took courage.

"I now began in earnest to prepare for the mission, and in a few days all was ready. Taking an affectionate leave of my wife, mother and friends, I started for Canada, in company with a Brother Nickerson, who kindly offered to bear expenses."

Away to Canada with Parley. We halt with him in the neighborhood of Hamilton. He is an entire stranger in the British Province, and without money. He knows not what to do. His narrative thus continues:

"The spirit seemed to whisper to me to try the Lord, and see if anything was too hard for him, that I might know and trust him under all circumstances. I retired to a secret place in a forest, and prayed to the Lord for money to enable me to cross the lake. I then entered Hamilton, and commenced to chat with some of the people. I had not tarried many minutes before I was accosted by a stranger, who inquired my name and where I was going. He also asked me if I did not want some money. I said yes. He then gave me ten dollars, and a letter of introduction to John Taylor, of Toronto, where I arrived the same evening.