Several of the sisters who first received the gospel in England and emigrated to Nauvoo during the lifetime of the prophet, claim historic mention. Ruth Moon, wife of William Clayton (who during the last days of Joseph became famous as his scribe), was among the first fruits of the British mission. With her husband she sailed in the first organized company of emigrant saints on board the North America. Here are a few items worth preserving, from her diary of that voyage:

"Friday, Sept. 4, 1840.—Bid good-bye to Penwortham, and all started by rail to Liverpool, where we arrived about 5 o'clock, and immediately went on board the packet-ship North America, Captain Loeber, then lying in Prince's dock.

"Tuesday, Sept. 8.—At eight o'clock the ship left the dock; was towed out into the river Mersey, and set sail for New York. On getting into the English Channel we were met by strong head-winds, which soon increased to a gale, compelling the ship to change her course and sail around the north coast of Ireland. The decks were battened down three days and nights. During the gale four of the principal sails were blown away, and the ship otherwise roughly used.

"Saturday, Sept. 12.—The storm having abated, we had a very pleasant view of the north part of Ireland, farms and houses being in plain sight.

"Tuesday, Sept. 22.—About eleven o'clock the company was startled by the ominous cry of the shief mate, 'All hands on deck, and buckets with water.' The ship had taken fire under the cook's galley. The deck was burned through, fire dropping on the berths underneath. It was soon extinguished without serious damage having been done.

"Sunday, Oct. 11.—Arrived in New York."

They journeyed thence by steamer up the Hudson river to Albany; by canal from Albany to Buffalo; by steamer thence to Chicago; and by flat-boat down the Rock river to Nauvoo, where they arrived Nov. 24th.

—

Elizabeth Birch, who was born in Lancashire, England, in 1810, was a widow with four children when she first heard the gospel, which was brought to Preston, by the American elders, in 1837. The new religion created great excitement in that section, and people often walked ten miles and more to hear the elders preach. She was baptized at Preston, on the 24th of Dec., 1838. In 1841 she sailed in the ship Sheffield for New Orleans, and thence up the Mississippi river in the second company of saints that sailed for America. In the fall of that year she was married to Mr. Birch. Her husband being one of those designated to help finish the temple at Nauvoo they were in the city during the famous battle of Nauvoo. Her recollections of that perilous event are very vivid. During the fight one of the sisters brought into her house a cannon-ball which she had picked up, just from the enemy's battery. It was too hot to be handled. They reached the valley in 1850.

Concerning polygamy, she says: "In 1858, my husband having become convinced that the doctrine of celestial marriage and plurality of wives was true, instructed me in regard to it; and becoming entirely, satisfied that the principle is not only true, but that it is commanded, I gave my consent to his taking another wife, by whom he had one daughter; and again in 1860 I consented to his taking another one, by whom he had a large family of children. These children we have raised together, and I love them as if they were my own. Our husband has been dead two years, but we still live together in peace, and each contributes to the utmost for the support of the family."

—

Lucy Clayton, wife of Elder Thomas Bullock, was the first of the saints to enter Carthage jail after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. She tells a graphic tale of the excitement of the people of Carthage on that occasion—how they fled, panic-stricken, from their homes, led by Governor Ford, thinking that the people of Nauvoo would wreak vengeance upon them for the murder that had been committed in their midst. She was also among the remnant of the sick and dying saints on the banks of the Mississippi, after the expulsion, when they were miraculously fed by quails that alighted in their midst. This is an often-told wonder, and is classed with the immortal episode of the children of Israel, fed by quails in the wilderness.

—

The wife of Thomas Smith is also entitled to historic mention. Her husband, in the early days of the British mission, made a great stir in England, as a Mormon elder, and she was with him in his ministry. He bore the euphonious epithet of "Rough Tom." Having both the genius and fame of an iconoclast, he disputed, on the platform, with the same sectarian champions who met the great infidels Holyoke, Barker and Bradlaugh. His career as a Mormon elder was quite a romance, and in all its scenes his wife, Sister Sarah, was a participant, though she was as gentle in spirit as he was bold and innovative. A famous career was theirs, and the spiritual power and signs that followed them were astonishing. He was full of prophesy, and she spake in tongues. He also cast out devils by the legion. The spirits, good and bad, followed him everywhere. It is of those thrilling scenes that his widow now loves to speak, as a testimony of the power of God, and of the signs following the believer. No sister from the old country could be chosen as a better witness of the spiritual potency of Mormonism than Sister Sarah Smith Wheeler.