Clara Decker Young is still living, and has an interesting family.
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Here may very properly be mentioned the first daughter of "Deseret;" or, more strictly speaking, the first female child born in Utah. Mrs. James Stopley, now a resident of Kanarrah, Kane county, Utah, and the mother of five fine children, is the daughter of John and Catherine Steele, who were in the famous Mormon battalion. Just after their discharge from the United States service they reached the site of Salt Lake City (then occupied by the pioneers), and on the 9th of August, 1847, their little daughter was born. This being a proper historical incident, inasmuch as she was the first white child born in the valley, it may be interesting to note that the event occurred on the east side of what is now known as Temple Block, at 4 o'clock A. M., of the day mentioned. In honor of President Brigham Young, she was named Young Elizabeth. Her father writes of her at that time as being "a stout, healthy child, and of a most amiable disposition."
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Among the veteran sisters whose names should be preserved to history, are Mrs. Mary Snow Gates, Mrs. Charlotte Alvord, and Mrs. Diana Drake. They are uniques of Mormon history, being the three women who, with "Zion's Camp," went up from Kirtland to Missouri, "to redeem Zion." Their lives have been singularly eventful, and they rank among the early disciples of the church and the founders of Utah.
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And here let us make a lasting and honorable record of the women of the battalion:
Mrs. James Brown, Mrs. O. Adams, Albina Williams, J. Chase, —— Tubbs, —— Sharp, D. Wilkin, J. Hess, Fanny Huntington, John Steele, J. Harmon, and C. Stillman, daughter, —— Smith, U. Higgins, M. Ballom, E. Hanks, W. Smithson, Melissa Corey, A. Smithson.
These are the noble Mormon women who accepted the uncertain fortunes of war, in the service of their country. Be their names imperishable in American history.