Mary Jane Garlick (Born August 12, 1822)

Mary Jane Garlick

As posted on the web http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maureenbryson/id106.htm#mary_jane_garlick_hist

Mary Jane was born 12 August 1822 at Providence, Bedford, Pennsylvania, daughter of David Garlick and Elizabeth Buck. This part of Pennsylvania, especially Providence, was full of tragic stories of scalpings, house burnings, and many other escapades. Because of this the Garlick familiar had stayed close together and Mary Jane grew up among her many relatives.

The family was Pennsylvania Dutch. Mary Jane was a beautiful girl with chestnut brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a lovely complexion. She was a strong healthy girl. The Garlick family, were a religious people, members of the Cambellite faith. They also believed in faith, repentance, and baptism by immersion.

Two Mormon missionaries, William Howard Bosley and John Fleming Wakefield, brought the Gospel to Mary Jane’s family. Mary Jane, along with her mother, and two older sisters were baptized October 5, 1837. When it became known the Garlick women had joined the “Mormon” Church, their persecution began. Soon members of the family became outcasts. No more did their close friends and relatives treat them with love and respect. The girls especially suffered deep grief because of their social standing in the little community.

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. He finally sold his property. 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.

Mary Jane was seventeen years old when the family began their journey from Providence, Bedford, Pennsylvania, to join the Latter-day Saints at Independence, Jackson, Missouri.

They crossed the states of Ohio and Indiana. 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, but even then it was November 30,1839, before the Garlick family arrived in Nauvoo.

The family arrived in Nauvoo in November 1839. Winter was coming on and every shelter available was filled to capacity. David Garlick and his family were most grateful to be permitted to move into a crudely built blacksmith shop, where two families had lived. This crude dwelling had no floor, door, nor a chimney. Since it was winter, there were no rocks available for a chimney, so David made one of sod and a door of clapboard.

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.

The year 1841 the Garlick family really rejoiced with the baptism of their father, David, into the Church. This same year, however, the family was greatly saddened by the loss of little Eliza Grace who died at the age of six.

At this time the first Relief Society was formed. Mary Jane, her mother, and sisters, joined and were active in that organization. Because Mary Jane had a clear sweet voice, she became a member of the Nauvoo Legion choir. Also at this time a disease with chills and fevers was raging among the saints, and the Hyrum Smith family was ill. Hyrum came to David’s home to see if he would let one of his girls go assist Sister Smith with her home duties. Mary Jane went and lived with the Smiths for eight months. Joseph F. Smith was then two-and-a-half years old. Here she came to know Joseph Smith the prophet. This would have been in 1841.

During the persecution of the prophet, Mary Jane worked for a family in Warsaw, just a few miles from Nauvoo. One Saturday afternoon Mary Jane had gone to the wood pile to get some chips to heat the iron so she could finish the ironing. On her way back from the wood pile she was shot at by some hidden person. The bullet cut off a curl above her ear. She was terribly frightened and ran to the house to tell the lady what had happened, but before Mary Jane had finished her work it began to rain so hard that the lady persuaded her to stay all night.

The next morning she arose very early and prepared breakfast. When the husband did not come in to breakfast, Mary Jane inquired where he was. His wife told her that he had gone to Nauvoo on business the night before and had not returned. A feeling of terror came over Mary Jane and caused her to hurry much faster. After receiving her pay she took her bundle of clothes on her arm, put on her bonnet and shawl, and began her journey homeward to Nauvoo in the mud. She walked as fast as she could because she thought things were not just right at home. On her way she was overtaken by a young man who ask her where she was going. She told him she was going to Nauvoo. He said he was going there too, and would like to accompany her if she would permit him to do so.

They walked along together. The roads were very muddy and the streams were rising rapidly. As they walked along they saw the mob tossing furniture out of the upstairs windows of different homes along the way. They did not slacken their steps but hurried until they came to the river bank. They found the bridge was gone and they had to wade across. The young man told Mary Jane to wait on the bank until he had waded the river to see how deep it was. Then he would come back for her, but Mary Jane did not wait. She was ready to step out on the opposite bank right beside him.

When they reached Nauvoo, everything was too quiet. Not a sound could be heard. She wondered if anyone had been killed by the mob. As they entered the center of town, they could hear the Prophet’s voice, and they hurried to hear what he was saying. This was the last speech he gave to the people before he was murdered by the mob.

Mary Jane was at the meeting when the mantle fell upon Brigham Young. She said it was Joseph’s voice she heard, and with the rest of the crowd, she arose to her feet to find it was Brigham Young speaking instead of Joseph Smith.

Mary Jane’s father died November 4, 1843 at the age of 63 and was buried in Nauvoo. Hard work and worry had taken it’s toll, but he never lost faith in the Church.

After the death of David Garlick, his son Joseph took over the responsibilities for caring for his widowed mother and family. In 1844 he moved the family across the Mississippi River to the Iowa side and rented a farm there. It was here that Mary Jane met a stalwart man of sandy complexion by the name of Isaac Burres Hatch. There were married in Lee County on September 19, 1845. He was married to her sister, Hannah in 1846.

Isaac’s first child was a son Hyrum, born March 6,1847, to Hannah at Charleston, Lee County, Iowa. Isaac next moved his family across the state of Iowa and settled at Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa. They built their first home here, a log cabin built in the creek beds of Little Keg Creek. It was here on December 15, 1848, that Mary Jane gave birth to a boy, George Andrew. This fine boy brought much joy to their home.

In 1849, Mary Jane, with her husband Isaac, and young son George Andrew, left Council Bluffs to continue westward in a wagon drawn by an ox team. Hannah stayed behind with her mother and gave birth to her second child, another boy, Thaddeus Theodore, January 1, 1850, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, coming to Utah in 1852.

The immigrant saints in 1849 came in five companies of about 500 wagons and 1400 people lead by Orson Spencer, Allen Taylor, Silas Richards, and Ezra T. Benson. Many others came in independent companies as well as some members of the Mormon Battalion. Isaac was not identified with any special leader, so he may have been in one of the independent groups. Mary Jane’s brother, Joseph, is also not identified with a particular pioneer group.

When Salt Lake City was first settled, City Creek ran down the east side of main street. Here, near the present City and County Building, they camped in their wagons until they could get their land and start building their homes. Isaac and Mary Jane’s first home was located close to City Creek, in the Eighteenth Ward. Here she cared for her little son alone because her husband had been called by Brigham Young to go to Iron County as a missionary with Parley P. Pratt to the Indians and to do some exploring in that neighborhood.

After Isaac returned they moved to Cottonwood where on April 3, 1850, another son was born to them. They named him John William. They cleared land and build a humble home. But again sorrow came into Mary Jane’s life. Isaac was shot by the William “Wild Bill” Hickman, and died on 25 March 1853. This was a hard blow to Mary Jane, especially since she was about five months pregnant.

Mary Jane moved with her boys to Springville in July of 1853. It was here just a few weeks later that Isaac Burres, Jr, the third child of Isaac Burres, Sr. and Mary Jane, was born on the August 3, 1853, just four months after the tragic death of his father.

It was at this time that Indian Chief Walker was threatening War. As a safety measure, a new fort was constructed. Don Carlos Johnson described the fort as consisting of four square blocks made up of block houses built at intervals and connected by a stockade ten feet high. The stockade logs were set three feet deep in the earth for support. All the residents living outside the stockade were called in, and a strong guard was posted every night for the months during which the hostilities lasted.

These were indeed dark and gloomy times, for the Indians were numerous, while the white population was still small and the men were few in number. The stock was taken outside the stockade each day, accompanied by a strong guard. They were corralled within the fort at night. A signal gun was to be fired from the lookout point on the house top if the Indians appeared. This was to warn the farmers and the herdsmen so that they could make the protection of the fort.

It was here that you would probably have seen Mary Jane lovingly looking after her young children. Most of the Indian threats were nothing more than rumor, but the same state of affairs continued through the autumn and winter of that year. In May of 1854 peace was made with Chief Walker.

In 1855, she married Francis Delbert Lawrence. He had two children by a former marriage. He was very good to Mary Jane and her boys and she loved his children very dearly. On February 22, 1856 a daughter was born to them, and they called her Mary Nancy. Their happiness was short lived. Shortly after the birth of their daughter, Frances hitched his oxen to go to the hills for a load of logs. Some Indians came after them waving a buffalo hide and frightened the oxen. As they ran away, Francis was thrown from the wagon and was run over by the wagon, killing him.

In the fall of 1855, the grasshoppers were so thick they destroyed most of the wheat crop, and that year many of the Saints did not have bread for months. Flour was scarce and the price rose to $24.00 per hundred pounds. The poor hungry Saints were forced to supplement their diets with weeds and roots that grew wild in the valley such as thistle roots, pig weed, red roots, dandelion greens and sego lily bulbs; instead of being distasteful, these foods were adopted by the Saints as a part of their regular diet long after the famine was over.

The summer of 1856, fine crops were raised and the whole town of Springville had a celebration, a sort of Thanksgiving Day, on the 24th of July. A bowery, made of tree limbs, was built on the Public Square and a program presented. At one o’clock the noon meal was served under the bowery. They had vegetables from their gardens, a barbecued Ox and roasted young porkers and fowl of every kind. The Indians joined in with the celebration and helped finish off the food.

By 1858, nearly every family in the area had accumulated sheep. The wool was sheared from the sheep every spring, it was scoured clean and carded into wool rolls by hand. At this point the town of Springville had begun to have the appearance of a permanent settlement. It was laid out in streets, with a main street where barefoot children would play.

In the spring of 1858, on the advice of Brigham Young, Mary Jane married Isaac’s younger brother, William Hatch. He was glad to be able to help care for his brother’s children. He had a blacksmith shop which provided work for himself. On December 26, 1859 another daughter was born to Mary Jane. They named her Susan Permelia. She was a beautiful blue-eyed girl, and she became a companion and loving sister to Nancy Jane. This companionship never wavered for they loved each other as long as they lived.

Many times Mary Jane went to the meadow to gather salaratus and she would take the whitest and use for soda, and the rest as lye to make soap. They called this soap soft soap, but it did do the family washing.

On July 22, 1862 another boy was born and they named him William Henry. Then in 1864 another daughter was born to them and they named her Louisa. She died of measles when she was twelve years old.

In 1865, William and Mary Jane moved to Moroni, in Sanpete County, where William helped to build the old Bastion and took his turn as guard. He also served as one of Brigham Young’s bodyguards. They spent their final years in Koosharem, Sevier County, Utah. Here they are both buried in Koosharem City Cemetery.

A little history given by Sophrona Helquist Nielson of Glenwood, Utah, the granddaughter of Mary Jane Garlick.

At the time of the Black Hawk War, the men who were fighting ran out of provisions so they sent a young man by the name of Joseph Jolley back to Payson for food. When he arrived at grandmother’s house, she did not have any bread as she had warm bread each meal. She asked how long he would be in town. He said about an hour. She told him to call again and she would have something ready. She immediately began to make crackers while her daughter Susan made the fire ready to bake them. While Grandmother mixed the dough Susan would roll it out and bake it. When Mr. Jolley returned, grandmother and Susan had a two bushel sacks of crackers ready for him to take back to the soldiers.

They also took part in fighting crickets. Imagine their feelings as they stood looking over their crops of waving grain, feeling assured of the food for the cold winter days, and how quickly the scene was changed when there was a large black mass of crickets lighting upon their grain fields. Along with many others, they offered their prayers to their Heavenly Father for his assistance.

They worked as well as prayed each taking a sack or a piece of clothing, beating and whipping the black insects that had come to destroy their crops. Grandfather helped dig deep trenches which they filled with straw and then tried to drive the crickets into them to be burned.

Grandfather (William) was also among those who were called to go from Payson to sign the Black Hawk Indian War treaty because he could talk and understand the Indian language. Poor Grandmother watched and waited anxiously at home fearing grandfather and the other brethren would never return, but things were made agreeable with the Indians and many hearts were made happy because of their fast return. In January 1875 grandfather and grandmother moved from Payson to Koosharem where they helped with pioneering that place. Here they built a shingle mill and made shingles for many a home which was a big help to that valley.

Grandfather kept a little store and grandmother went about caring for the sick and helping in every way she could. She also cared for the store. She was known to everyone as Aunt Mary. On July 8, 1900 Grandmother passed to the great beyond. She was a very worthy pioneer, a lovely mother, and a faithful Latter-day Saint. At the time of her death she was 78 years old.