The Women of Mormondom

by Edward W. Tullidge

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Malvina Harvey Snow, daughter of Joel Harvey, was born in the State of Vermont, in 1811. She was brought into the church under the ministry of Orson Pratt, in 1833, he being then on mission in that section. Her nearest neighbor was Levi Snow, father of Apostle Erastus Snow. The Snow family mostly joined the new faith, and Malvina and her sister Susan journeyed with them to Missouri. At Far West she was married to Willard Snow, in 1837, and in about two years afterward they were driven from the State. They settled at Montrose, but, while her husband was on mission to England, she moved across the river to Nauvoo, the mob having signified their intention to burn her house over her head. In 1847 they started for Utah, from Council Bluffs, in the wake of the pioneers, arriving in the valley in the fall of that year. Says Sister Malvina, "My faithful sister, Susan, was with me from the time I left our father's house in Vermont, and when we arrived in Utah my husband took her to wife. She bore him a daughter, but lost her life at its birth. I took the infant to my bosom, and never felt any difference between her and my own children. She is now a married woman. In 1850 my husband was called on mission to Denmark, from which he never returned. He was buried in the Atlantic, being the only missionary from Utah that was ever laid in the sea. I raised my five children to manhood and womanhood, and have now lived a widow twenty-six years. Hoping to finally meet my beloved husband and family, never again to part, I am patiently waiting the hour of reunion. May the Lord Jesus Christ help me to be faithful to the end."

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Sister Caroline Tippits, whose maiden name was Pew, deserves to be mentioned as one of the earlier members of the church, having embraced the gospel in 1831. Shortly afterwards she joined the saints in Jackson county, Mo., and during the persecutions that ensued, endured perhaps the most trying hardships that were meted out to any of the sisters. Driven out into the midst of a prairie, by the mob, in the month of January, with a babe and two-years-old child, she was compelled to sleep on the ground with only one thin quilt to cover them, and the snow frequently falling three or four inches in a night. She came to Utah with the first companies, and is reckoned among the most faithful of the saints.

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Julia Budge, first wife of Bishop William Budge, may be presented as one of the women who have made polygamy honorable. She was born in Essex, England, where she was baptized by Chas. W. Penrose, one of the most distinguished of the English elders, who afterwards married her sister—a lady of the same excellent disposition. The bishop is to-day the husband of three wives, whose children have grown up as one family, and the wives have lived together "like sisters." No stranger, with preconceived notions, would guess that they sustained the very tender relation of sister-wives. Their happy polygamic example is a sort of "household word" in the various settlements over which the bishop has presided.

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Sister Nancy A. Clark, daughter of Sanford Porter, now a resident of Farmington, Utah, has had a most remarkable personal experience as a servant of God. When a little girl, less than eight years of age, residing with her parents in Missouri, she, in answer to prayer, received the gift of tongues, and became a great object of interest among the saints. During and succeeding the persecutions in that State, and while her father's family were being driven from place to place, her oft-repeated spiritual experiences were the stay and comfort of all around her. Her many visions and experiences would fill a volume. It is needless to say that she is among the most faithful and devoted of the sisterhood.

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A pretty little instance of faith and works is related by Martha Granger, the wife of Bishop William G. Young, which is worthy of record. In September, 1872, the bishop was riding down Silver Creek Canyon, on his way to Weber river, when he became sunstruck, and fell back in his wagon, insensible. His horses, as if guided by an invisible hand, kept steadily on, and finally turned into a farmer's barnyard. The farmer, who was at work in the yard, thinking some team had strayed away, went up to catch them, when he discovered the bishop (a stranger to him) in the wagon. He thought at first that the stranger was intoxicated, and so hitched the team, thinking to let him lay and sleep it off. But upon a closer examination, failing to detect the fumes of liquor, he concluded the man was sick, and calling assistance, took him into the shade of a haystack, and cared for him. Still the bishop remained unconscious, and the sun went down, and night came on.