The Women of Mormondom

by Edward W. Tullidge

"In the absence of my father the Lord was true to his promise. My father's prayer, that he had made upon the heads of his wife and little ones whom he had left poor and destitute, was answered. Kind friends came forward to cheer and comfort them, and administer to their wants.

"Soon after my father's return to Kirtland he commenced making preparations to move his family to Missouri, where Brother Joseph Smith and a majority of the church authorities and nearly all of the members had gone. About the first of July he commenced the journey with his family, accompanied by Brother Orson Hyde and others, and arrived in Far West on the 25th of July, when he had a happy meeting with Joseph, Hyrum, Sidney, and others of the twelve, and numbers of his friends and brethren, some of whom were affected to tears when they took him by the hand. During our journey from Kirtland, the weather being very warm, we suffered very much, and were much reduced by sickness. Father continued quite feeble for a considerable length of time. Joseph requested him to preach to the saints, saying, 'It will revive their spirits and do them good if you will give them a history of your mission;' which he did, although he was scarcely able to stand. It cheered their hearts and many of the elders were stirred up to diligence.

"Soon after our arrival Bishop Partridge gave father a lot, and also sufficient timber to build a house. While it was being erected we lived in a place eight by eleven feet and four feet high at the eaves, which had been built for a cow. The brethren were remarkably kind, and contributed to our necessities. Brother Charles Hubbard made my father a present of forty acres of land; another brother gave him a cow. But about the last of August, after he had labored hard and nearly finished his house, he was obliged to abandon it to the mob, who again commenced to persecute the saints."

The history of those persecutions, and the exodus of the saints, is already sufficiently told. Suffice it to say that Sister Vilate nobly bore her part in those trying scenes, while Heber, with Brigham and the rest of the twelve, kept their covenant—never to rest a moment until the last faithful saint was delivered from that State, and the feet of the whole people planted firmly, in peace and safety, in a new gathering place.

CHAPTER XXV.

SKETCH OF THE SISTERS MARY AND MERCY R. FIELDING—THE FIELDINGS A SEMI-APOSTOLIC FAMILY—THEIR IMPORTANT INSTRUMENTALITY IN OPENING THE BRITISH MISSION—MARY FIELDING MARRIES HYRUM SMITH—HER TRIALS AND SUFFERINGS WHILE HER HUSBAND IS IN PRISON—TESTIMONY OF HER SISTER MERCY—MARY'S LETTER TO HER BROTHER IN ENGLAND.

Already has the name of Mary Fielding become quite historical to the reader, but she is now to be introduced in her still more representative character as wife of the patriarch and martyr Hyrum, and as mother of the apostle Joseph F. Smith.

This much-respected lady was born July 21st, 1801, at Honidon, Bedfordshire, England. She was the daughter of John and Rachel Fielding, and was the eldest of the sisters whom the reader has met somewhat prominently in an apostolic incident in Canada, out of which much of the early history of the British mission very directly grew.

Mary was of good family, well educated, and piously raised, being originally a Methodist, and a devoted admirer of the character of John Wesley. Indeed the family of the Fieldings and their connections were semi-apostolic even before their identification with the Church of Latter-day Saints.

In 1834 Mary emigrated to Canada. Here she joined her youngest brother, Joseph, and her sister, Mercy Rachel (born in England in 1807), who had preceded her to America in 1832. As we have seen, this brother and his two sisters were living near Toronto, Upper Canada, at the time when Parley P. Pratt arrived there on his mission, and they immediately embraced the faith. This was in May, 1836.