ELIZABETH BUCK
[from history of her daughter, Talitha Cumi Avery Cheney, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol 15, pp 117-120.]
I, Talitha Cumi Garlick Avery Cheney, was born Sept. 22, 1824, in Providence, Bedford county, Penn., the daughter of David Garlick and Elizabeth Buck. Father and mother belonged to the Christian Church and were very religious and firm in their belief. The Christian Church believed in baptism by immersion, and that was all that was required, they thought. Then they belonged to the True Church of Christ. But in 1837 there were two Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (John Wakefield and William Baisley) came to our neighborhood and preached the true Gospel and mother and three of my sisters joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were baptized in October 1837. I was thirteen years old then. Previous to these Elders coming my mother dreamed she saw two strange Preachers and heard a voice say “These are the true messengers of God, hear and obey.” I heard my mother tell my father in the morning after she had dreamed this. The next week these two Mormon Elders came and as soon as Mother saw them she said they were the men she saw in her dream and she knew they had the true Gospel. In two weeks after hearing them preach there were twenty baptized in that place. Then the mob spirit arose and all was confusion. Our friends and relatives all turned against us.
We stayed there for two years after that. Mobs and persecution prevailed. Father said he was going to leave if he had to go without selling. No one would buy. He finally sold his large farm for five hundred dollars, and it was worth five thousand, he often said. He took the family and started for Missouri. This was October 1839. When we got to Illinois we heard the Saints were all driven out of Missouri, so we went to Commerce which was afterwards called Nauvoo. When we got there it was Nov. 30th, too late to build a home. There was none we could get. Every house was full. There was a blacksmith shop that two families had just moved out of, so father got that. It was the best he could do, but it had no floor, no door, and no chimney. Father made a sod chimney because there was no rock. He made a clapboard door, and we lived in that all winter. Father hauled house logs across the Mississippi on the ice, and built a house with two rooms with hewn logs, and moved in it in March.
I heard the Prophet Joseph Smith preach the last time he preached, just before he and his brother, Hyrum, went to Carthage. I saw them after they were killed and brought back to Nauvoo. It was the most sorrowful sight I have ever seen. To see two great and good men, one of them the greatest Prophet, or as great as ever lived on this earth, killed in cold blood by a mob. Those were times long to be remembered. In 1845, my mother and her family moved across the Mississippi River to Iowa. My father had died in 1843. An old friend of ours said we could better ourselves by moving across the Mississippi because my brother was old enough to farm.
On September 3rd, my husband took very sick. He had cholera. He died on the 13th of September, 1847 in Missouri, Atchison County, 12 miles south of Linden. My son, William, was then 18 months old. I was left among strangers, not one of my folks within 500 miles. My husband’s youngest brother was with us or I don’t know what I would have done. On the 15th of September my brother-in-law took me to Kanesville to Charles Avery, my husband’s oldest brother. On the 15th of October my mother and three of my sisters came and I stayed with my mother until she started for the valley in 1852. She was in the company of Capt. Allen Weeks. I stayed another year with my brother-in-law, John F. Wakefield, and my sister, Susan, for she felt so bad to have us all go and she had me stay. In 1853 I started to the Valley with Brother Jacob Bigler’s folks. We started the 10th of June, in Daniel Miller’s Company and got to Salt Lake Valley the 10th of September, 1853. When I got to the Valley, I went south as far as Springville; my mother, brother, and three sisters were there.
Additional notes from history by Wayne Cheney and Mary (King) Timothy, great-grandchildren.
She always attended her meetings. She was very active, industrious, and healthy. In her dress, she appeared exceptionally nice and neat. She was highly respected by all that knew her. She was small with grey hair. While in her eighties picked up pods of the locust tree, shelled out the small seeds, and sold a quart to the Bishop, who had asked for someone to volunteer to do the task, which was a tedious job. She lived 2nd South and 2nd West in Springville, Utah. Her first home was very small and made of logs.
She had a habit of tying her apron on backwards, and then slipping it around in proper place. She was quick spoken and very witty, she tried to weave when she was 90 years old, and spent her last few years with her daughters, she often said “work makes one happy.”
Buried in the Springville, Utah cemetary
[Taken from history of their daughter, Talitha Cumi Garlick Avery Cheney, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 15, p.117-120, and from history of daughter Mary Jane Garlick.]
David Garlick and Elizabeth Buck lived in Providence, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. They had seven children; Hannah, born June 1, 1818; Susannah born June 14, 1820; Mary Jane born August 12, 1822; Talitha Cumi born September 22, 1824; Joseph Gastin born May 2, 1828; Sarah Elizabeth born October 3, 1830; and Elizabeth born April 13, 1835. They belonged to the Christian Church and were very religious and firm in their belief. The Christian Church believed in baptism by immersion, and that was all that was required, they thought. Then they belonged to the True Church of Christ.
David was the owner of a saw mill and lumber farm. Along with the lumber harvest, he did a lot of trapping and hunting to keep his family supplied with the necessary things of life.
In 1837 there were two Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (John Wakefield and William Baisley) came to their neighborhood and preached the true Gospel and Elizabeth and three of her daughters joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were baptized in October 1837. Previous to these Elders coming Elizabeth dreamed she saw two strange Preachers and heard a voice say “These are the true messengers of God, hear and obey.” She told David the next morning after she had dreamed this. The next week these two Mormon Elders came and as soon as she saw them she said they were the men she saw in her dream and she knew they had the true Gospel. In two weeks after hearing them preach there were twenty baptized in that place. Then the mob spirit arose and all was confusion. Their friends and relatives all turned against them.
Although Mary Jane’s father David, had not yet accepted the Mormon faith, he could not
bear to see his family exiled and decided the best thing for them would be to move to where the “Saints” were located. For two years David tried to sell his property which consisted of a good farm, a large tract of timber land, raw mill, lumber yard, cattle and horses, with barns, sheds and a comfortable home. It was worth more than $15,000. David finally auctioned most of his holdings at a great sacrifice for only $500, leaving some property jointly owned with his two brothers, Jacob and Adam, in the hands of a nephew, Abraham Garlick.
As soon as it was learned that David was making preparations to move, a group of hostile anti-Mormons began making plans to mob the Garlicks and any other Mormons. It is not known what would have happened had not a friend on hearing the threats of the lynch mob came and notified David of the lawless plan. Provisions and most needed essentials were quickly loaded into two wagons drawn by two horse teams and they left their Pennsylvania home which they were to see burned to the ground while they were not yet far away.
After going some distance alone, the Garlick family joined another group of Mormon converts on their way to join the main body of the Saints. This was October 11, 1839 and except for short periods of stopovers, this trek lasted for a period of years.
Upon entering the state of Illinois, it was learned that the Mormons had been driven out of Missouri and were now gathered at Nauvoo, Illinois. This shortened their journey somewhat, When they got there it was Nov. 30th, too late to build a home. There was none they could get. Every house was full. There was a blacksmith shop that two families had just moved out of, so David took that. It was the best he could do, but it had no floor, no door, and no chimney. He made a sod chimney because there was no rock. He made a clapboard door, and we lived in that all winter. The winter of 1839-1840, was extremely cold. The Mississippi River froze over and David Garlick was able to haul logs from the Iowa side across the ice. By March 1840, David had a two room cabin ready for the family to move into.
Brother Joseph Smith, the Prophet, had gone to the City of Washington to lay the grievances of the Gospel before the President of the United States. The family did not see him or hear him preach until he got back.
David, who had owned a sawmill and a lumber yard in Providence, helped with building the Nauvoo temple. Many days he worked all day on the temple with only a breakfast of potatoes, and nothing else until the next day. He died November 4, 1843, leaving Elizabeth to care for her family alone. Hard work and worry had taken their toll, but he never lost faith in the Church.
In 1844 Elizabeth moved across the Mississippi River to Iowa. An old friend said she could better her family by moving across the Mississippi because her son, Joseph, was old enough to farm.
In 1846 the Saints had to leave Nauvoo and go west. On April 6th Elizabeth and the family started and caught up with the first company at Mr. Pisgah. They traveled with the first company to the Bluffs and camped on Mosquito Creek.
They then crossed the Missouri River and camped on the West side (Winter Quarters). As it was too late to go any farther, they made preparations to stay there all winter. In the spring of 1847, Brigham Young with a band of pioneers started west to find a home for the Latter-day Saints west of the Rocky Mountains. After President Young started, they crossed back to the east side of the Missouri River. She left for the valley in 1852 in the William Lang Company, departing the 10th of June and arriving in Salt Lake the 6th or 7th of September.
She moved to Springville with her son and three daughters.The people had moved into a fort. The Indians were troublesome.
Elizabeth Buck Garlick was endowed in the Endowment House on 31 October 1863. She was living by herself in the 1880 Census in Springville next to a couple of Bringhurst families. She died 5 August 1887 in Spanish Fork. Some records give her death incorrectly as 5 Sep. She is buried in the Springville City Cemetery, Blk. 35 Lot 1.
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