In consideration of faithfully performing his duties, my uncle was to inherit grandfather's property, but in case he failed to do so, he was not to reap this benefit.
At the time this verbal agreement was made, my uncle took possession of the property, but he afterwards failed to perform his duty.
After taking up our residence in uncle's family he neglected to provide us suitable clothing and food, and our grandfather and grandmother were also neglected. The church, however, assisted them and made up the deficiency.
My brother and I were repeatedly ill-treated by uncle's family, and were continually persecuted and called names for being polygamist children. In order to tantalize us, the members of the family would call us "bastards," "Brigham," "Heber," etc., and on the slightest provocation they would threaten to send us to Utah, telling us that the "Mormons" would soon settle us.
No nervous children were ever worse frightened by stories about hobgoblins than my brother and I were, with what they told us about the "Mormons."
We were also taught that if we stayed in the woods picking fruit, etc., the "Mormons" would be sure to catch us and carry us off. More than once when gathering berries in the woods, were we alarmed by the flight of a bird or the rustling noise of some small animal in the underbrush. Our first impulse on such occasions, and the one invariably acted upon, was to drop our baskets and run like frightened antelopes, never stopping or looking back until we neared home, and felt sure that we were safe from our fancied pursuers.
Often in my dreams I imagined I was captured by the "Mormons," and in my waking moments I frequently pictured to myself a life of captivity among them—caged like a wild beast in a menagerie. The name "Mormon," in fact, became to us synonymous with that of an ugly and dangerous monster, and we grew up with the most bitter prejudice and intense hatred in our hearts towards all who bore that name.
We endured the ill-treatment of our uncle's family until patience no longer seemed to be a virtue, and we rebelled.
Our grandfather perceived that it was only right to release us from their power, and he therefore regained all the property he could possibly secure in stock and land from our uncle, and severed our obligations to him.
From this time we commenced to work for ourselves, and also to support grandfather and grandmother, and continued to do so until the spring of 1862.