The Women of Mormondom

by Edward W. Tullidge

Zina Diantha Huntington has long been known and honored as one of the most illustrious women of the Church. She was not only sealed to the prophet Joseph in their sacred covenant of celestial marriage, but after his martyrdom she was sealed to Brigham Young as one of Joseph's wives. For over a quarter of a century she has been known as Zina D. Young—being mother to one of Brigham's daughters. In her mission of usefulness she has stood side by side with Sister Eliza R. Snow, and her life has been that of one of the most noble and saintly of women. Thus is she introduced to mark her honored standing among the sisterhood. Of her ancestral record she says:

"My father's family is directly descended from Simon Huntington, the 'Puritan immigrant' who sailed for America in 1633. He died on the sea, but left three sons and his widow, Margaret. The church records of Roxbury, Mass., contain the earliest record of the Huntington name known in New England, and is in the handwriting of Rev. John Elliot himself, the pastor of that ancient church. This is the record: 'Margaret Huntington, widow, came in 1633. Her husband died by the way, of the small-pox. She brought—children with her.'

"Tradition says that Simon, the Puritan emigrant, sailed for this country to escape the persecutions to which non-conformists were subjected, during the high-handed administrations of Laud and the first Charles. Tradition also declares him to have been beyond doubt an Englishman. The Rev. E. B. Huntington, in his genealogical memoir of the Huntington family in this country, observes: 'The character of his immediate descendants is perhaps in proof of both statements; they, were thoroughly English in their feelings, affinities, and language; and that they were as thoroughly religious, their names and official connection with the early churches in this country abundantly attest.'

"Of one of my great-grandfathers the Huntington family memoir records thus: 'John, born in Norwich, March 15th, 1666, married December 9th, 1686, Abigal, daughter of Samuel Lathrop, who was born in May, 1667. Her father moved to Norwich from New London, to which place he had gone from Scituate, Mass., in 1648. He was the son of the Rev. John Lathrop, who, for nonconformity, being a preacher in the First Congregational Church organized in London, was imprisoned for two years, and who, on being released in 1634, came to this country, and became the first minister of Scituate.'

"The Lathrops, from which my branch of the family was direct, also married with the other branches of the Huntingtons, making us kin of both sides, and my sister, Prescindia Lathrop Huntington, bears the family name of generations.

"My grandfather, Wm. Huntington, was born September 19th, 1757; married, February 13th, 1783, Prescindia Lathrop, and was one of the first settlers in the Black River Valley, in Northern New York. He resided at Watertown. He married for his second wife his first wife's sister, Alvira Lathrop Dresser. He died May 11th, 1842. The following is an obituary notice found in one of the Watertown papers:

"'At his residence, on the 11th inst., Wm. Huntington, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Mr. Huntington was one of our oldest and most respected inhabitants. He was a native of Tolland, Conn., and for three or four years served in the army of the Revolution. In the year 1784 he emigrated to New Hampshire, where he resided till the year 1804, when he removed to Watertown. He was for many years a member and an officer of the Presbyterian Church.'

"Before his death, however, my grandfather was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He always spoke of Samuel Huntington, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, as his Uncle Samuel."

This genealogical record is given to illustrate the numerous Puritan and Revolutionary relations of the leading families of the Mormon people, and to emphasize the unparalleled outrage of the repeated exile of such descendants—exiles at last from American civilization. How exact has been the resemblance of their history to that of their Pilgrim fathers and mothers!

But the decided connection of the Huntingtons with the Mormon people was in William Huntington, the father of sisters Zina and Prescindia, who for many years was a presiding High Priest of the Church, being a member of the High Council.