The Women of Mormondom

by Edward W. Tullidge

The tragedy of the close of the mortal career of Parley P. Pratt is still fresh in the public mind. It is one of the terrible chapters of Mormon history which the pen of his wife has not dared to touch.

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Another of these "first wives" is presented in the person of Sister Rich.

Sarah D. P. Rich, wife of Gen. Chas. C. Rich, and daughter of John and Elizabeth Pea, was born September 23d, 1814, in St. Clair county, Ill. In December, 1835, she became a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, and had the pleasure shortly after of seeing her father's family, with a single exception, converted to the same faith. In 1837 they removed to Far West, Mo., where the saints were at that time gathering. At this place she for the first time met Mr. Rich, to whom she was married on the 11th of February, 1838. During the autumn of 1838, the mob having driven many of the saints from their homes in the vicinity, she received into her house and sheltered no less than seven families of the homeless outcasts. Among the number was the family of Apostle Page, and it was during her sojourn with Mrs. Rich that Apostle Page's wife died. Mrs. R. stood in her door and saw the infamous mob-leader and Methodist preacher, Bogard, shoot at her husband as he was returning from the mob camp under a flag of truce. That night Mr. Rich was compelled to flee for his life, and she did not see him again until she joined him three months later, on the bank of the Mississippi, opposite Quincy. They made the crossing in a canoe, the river being so full of ice that the regular ferry-boat could not be used. From this place they removed to Nauvoo, where she remained daring all the succeeding persecutions and trials of the church, until February, 1846, when they were forced to leave, which they did, with her three small children, crossing the Mississippi on the ice. Journeying westward to Mount Pisgah, Iowa, they remained during the following season, and planted and harvested a crop of corn. In the spring of 1847 they removed to winter quarters, and six weeks afterwards started out on the weary journey across the plains. She arrived in Salt Lake Valley on the 2d of October, 1847, with the second company of emigrants, of which her husband was the leader.

Since that time she has resided continually in Salt Lake City, with the exception of a short sojourn in Bear Lake Valley, and has endured without complaint all of the trials, privations and hardships incident to the settlement of Utah. She is the mother of nine children, and is well known as the friend of the poor, the nurse of the sick, and the counselor of the friendless and oppressed among the people; and it is needless to add that she has passed her life in the advocacy and practice of the principles of that gospel which she embraced in the days of her youth.

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Mrs. Jane S. Richards, wife of the distinguished apostle, Franklin D. Richards, and daughter of Isaac and Louisa Snyder, was born January 31st, 1823, in Pamelia, Jefferson county, N. Y. The prophet and pilot of her father's house into the church was Elder John E. Page, who brought to them the gospel in 1837, while they were living near Kingston, Canada. The family started thence for Far West, Mo., in 1839, but were compelled by sickness to stop at La Porte, Indiana. Here, through the faithful ministrations of her brother Robert, she was restored from the effects of a paralytic stroke, and immediately embraced the faith. In the autumn following (1840) she first saw young Elder Richards, then on his first mission. In 1842, after her father's family had moved to Nauvoo, she was married to Mr. Richards. In the journey of the saints into the wilderness, after their expulsion from Nauvoo, she drank to the bitter dregs the cup of hardship and affliction, her husband being absent on mission and she being repeatedly prostrated with sickness. At winter quarters President Young said to her, "It may truly be said, if any have come up through great tribulation from Nauvoo, you have." There her little daughter died, and was the first to be interred in that memorable burying ground of the saints. Here also her husband's wife, Elizabeth, died, despite the faithful efforts of friends, and had it not been for their unwearied attentions, Jane also would have sunk under her load of affliction and sorrow.

In 1848, Mr. Richards having returned from mission, they gathered to the valley. In 1849 she gave her only sister to her husband in marriage. From that time forth until their removal to Ogden, in 1869, hers was the fortune of a missionary's wife, her husband being almost constantly on mission. In 1872 she accepted the presidency of the Ogden Relief Society, which she has since very acceptably filled. Among the noteworthy items of interest connected with her presidency of this society, was the organization of the young ladies of Ogden into a branch society for the purpose of retrenchment and economy in dress, moral, mental and spiritual improvement, etc., which has been most successfully continued, and is now collaterally supported by many branch societies in the county. But her labors have not been confined to Ogden alone. She has been appointed to preside over the societies of Weber county; and, as a sample of her efforts, we may instance that she has established the manufacture of home-made straw bonnets and hats, which industry has furnished employment to many. Her heart and home have ever been open to the wants of the needy; and the sick and afflicted have been the objects of her continual care.

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The closing words of the wife of Apostle Woodruff, at the grand mass-meeting of the women of Utah, have in them a ring strongly suggestive of what must have been the style of speech of those women of America who urged their husbands and sons to resist the tyranny of George III; throw off the yoke of colonial servitude, and prove themselves worthy of national independence.