Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young’s Nauvoo Diary
BYU Studies, Vol. 19, No. 3, p.285
At the time when Eliza Roxey Snow was at the peak of her effectiveness as a leader of the women of the Church in Utah, her closest associate, and eventual successor, was Zina Diantha Young. Both women were wives of Brigham Young, though of the two only Zina had borne a child by him. Both were native easterners, Zina having been born 31 January 1821 in Watertown, Ontario County, New York, seventeen years after Eliza was born in Becket, Massachusetts. Both had converted to Mormonism as young women and had come with their families, sometimes travelling together, in the hegira which concluded for them in the Great Basin. They shared the leadership of the Relief Society, almost from its rebirth as a Churchwide organization in 1867, but where the women thought of Eliza as the head, they considered Zina the heart of the association. From Eliza’s death in 1887 until her own in 1901, Zina presided over the Relief Society worldwide.
Married to Henry Bailey Jacobs in Nauvoo on 7 March 1841, Zina gave birth the following year to her first son, Zebulon William (she spells it Zebulun), and on the Chariton River as they crossed Iowa en route to Winter Quarters in 1846, to a second son, whom she named Henry Chariton. Her third child, a daughter born after Zina’s marriage to Brigham Young, was Zina Presendia Young Card, later matriarch of the Mormon settlements in Canada. Zina Presendia’s daughter Zina married Hugh B. Brown, apostle and counselor in the First Presidency until his death in 1975. Their daughter Zina Lydia, born in Canada but now residing in California, has two daughters, to one of whom she gave the traditional name. It is with that daughter that this present account begins.
Zina Elizabeth Brown, Betty to her friends, had been using a locked trunk as a coffee table for several months before she found someone who could open it. She had been given the trunk on the death of her grandfather, Hugh B. Brown. It had belonged to his wife, Zina Card Brown, but no one in the family knew of its contents. When in early 1979 Betty finally looked into the trunk, she found, among the clothes and keepsakes of her grandmother, some letters of her uncle, Hugh Brown, who was killed in World War II, indicating that the trunk had last been opened around 1942, and two diaries of her great-great grandmother, Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs, one dating in the 1890s, the other, the Nauvoo one here printed, dating 5 June 1844 to 21 September 1845.
The Nauvoo diary was written crosswise on papers saddle-stitched as a school exercise book might have been, its pages measuring, folded, six by eight inches. The handwriting is small, the ink in some cases faded, and the edges of the pages frayed. Even so, most of the words can be made out quite clearly. The little booklet had been rolled, such that conservators at the LDS Church Archives, where Betty brought the diary to ensure its preservation, had difficulty flattening it to make it readable. It is now kept in an acid-free folder in the atmosphere-controlled environment of the Archives where it is available to scholars interested in Nauvoo, in social history, in the history of women, or, more specifically, in Zina herself.
Zina Diantha–one must often use both names to separate mothers and daughters in the six-generation chain of Zinas–saw and reported events at almost every stage in the history of the Mormon movement from Kirtland, Missouri, and Nauvoo to settlement in the Great Basin. Her diaries, some very sketchy, some quite detailed, were preserved initially by Zina Card Brown. The larger collection was in the keeping of Mary Brown Firmage, her daughter, who recently donated them to the Church Archives for preservation there. Mrs. Firmage has done, and continues to do, extensive research into that family, her project leading towards a long biographical study of the women, particularly the Zinas. Her help with this present project is gratefully acknowledged.
Among all these family papers, this Nauvoo journal of Zina Diantha seems to demand particular attention, containing as it does so much more than just personal events in the life of its writer. Nauvoo, itself, as seen through the eyes of the bright, observant, deeply committed woman, becomes alive through details she provides. She describes the tumultuous year following the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith with an accuracy which checks out almost to the last jot with the documentary History of the Church and other diaries of the time.
The diary opens with the events which lead to the slayings at Carthage, the “ever to be remembered awful day of the 27 of June 1844”, told as they were reported in Nauvoo at that time. The return of the Quorum of the Twelve which followed, their acceptance as rightful successors to the Prophet at the momentous 8 August meeting, and the subsequent trial of the accused murderers of the brothers are recounted from Zina’s point of view. She notes military exercises of the Nauvoo Legion, the dedication of the Seventies Hall, the laying of the capstone on the Temple, the arrest of five Mormons from the Lima settlement, and the persecution which, by the end of her account, has mobs burning the homes of the Saints in that southern outlying colony. In the midst of the turmoil, however, she comments that “peace and prosperity reigns in the city,” and at the end of her account she observes that “all things move in order in the City.”
As counterpoint to the public affairs in Nauvoo are the private events in Zina’s life. She notes sicknesses–her own, her husband Henry’s, their son Zebulon’s, and those of the many people who came to her for nursing care. Already Zina is developing skills which would lead her later to become midwife and medical practitioner. Never very settled in a home, Zina moves three times during the fifteen months of the diary, a course, one would believe, not unusual in Nauvoo. Henry Bailey Jacobs, her husband, moves in and out of her view as he leaves for and returns from various short missions, some of them with her brother Oliver as his companion.
Zina is personally very much affected by the events she relates. She is chilled by the Martyrdom, all the more intensely for her having been sealed to Joseph Smith in late 1841. She is inspired by a sermon of Brigham Young’s, one not now extant, “uppon Priesthood, the Godhead, the dut[i]es of Male and Female, there exaltations, &c.” She is not unmoved by the succession meeting of 8 August, though she makes no mention here of Elder Young’s speaking with Joseph’s voice. She finds delight in a family Christmas at Lima, horror in her first actual view of violence, sorrow in the deaths around her, and joy in the birth of David Hyrum Smith, Emma and Joseph’s last child. All these responses find reflection in the psalm-like prayers with which the accounts often end.
With all that openness, there is still enough restraint to keep a careful covering around the intimate Zina. Her relationship to Henry Bailey Jacobs, the husband who stood approving as her earlier sealing to Joseph Smith was confirmed by proxy in the Nauvoo Temple and who witnessed her sealing “for time” to Brigham Young, seems not uncordial here. That first marriage, described in later biographical studies as an unhappy one, is not overtly so in these accounts. Zina shows pride in Henry’s calling as seventies president; she accepts as dear friends the Saints who were kind to him on his missions; she cares for him in sickness and notes his progress on their house. There is little of the intimate view of their lives, but one cannot expect that, considering the times and the mores of Victorian America. On the whole, if she is not an enthusiastic bride, Zina does seem a contented wife.
Most important in her life are her family, extended by the marriage, after her mother’s death, of father William Huntington to Edward Partridge’s widow, Lydia. Eliza and Emily Partridge, near contemporaries of Zina’s, are frequent visitors, and young Lydia and Caroline also come. Edward, Jr., their young brother, is mentioned.
The Huntington family itself is large, with strong bonds unbroken by distance and religion. Chauncey, the oldest son, married in 1825, did not accept the Mormon message and remained in New York when the rest converted and came west with the Saints. Dimick and his wife Fanny are in Nauvoo with their two sons, Clark and Lot, and the baby Martha. William, Jr., is married to Caroline Clark; their two children had both been born in Nauvoo, and a third would arrive shortly after Zina’s diary stops. Oliver, just younger than Zina, would marry during the course of the diary, but in New York, so Zina recounts only his departure. John, the youngest Huntington, is a teenager at this time.
Zina’s one surviving sister–two had died–is Presendia, eleven years her senior, who lives with her husband Norman Buell and their two children at Morley’s Settlement, or Lima, a day’s buggy ride south of Nauvoo. Four of Presendia’s children had died, and Zina will recount the burial of the fifth in this diary.
Besides these immediate family members there are some others who come into the diary: “Father Jacobs” is Henry’s father, for whom he was named; Henry’s sister Lydia Jacobs and her husband Urban Stewart live in Nauvoo, a young couple nearer Zina’s twenty-three years than Henry’s twenty-seven. The uncle with whom the diary opens may be Dana Jacobs, later to become, with Henry, one of the presidents of seventy–he in the Sixteenth Quorum, Henry in the Fifteenth.
The relationships of families are not always certain, during these early days of plural marriage, when, as Amasa Lyman observed years later, “We obeyed the best we knew how, and, no doubt, made many crooked paths in our ignorance.”1 The secretiveness necessitated by the threat from without and dissention from within the Church makes unusual in a contemporary account even as much of a note as Zina makes when referring to her brother William’s having as his second wife Harriet Clark, Caroline’s sister. Ann Maginn will become his third wife, but whether she is or is not at this time is not certain. The same is true for the Partridge sisters, Eliza and Caroline, both of whom will become wives to Amasa Lyman, who lies sick at Zina’s house when the girls come visiting.
There are many more friends and acquaintances who come and go in these pages. It is impossible to identify with certainty who some of them are; many are already known to readers. For that reason there has been no attempt to provide footnoted guesses at their identification. Rather, correct spelling has been provided to make the known ones clearer; the others, other than family, are left to the reader’s conjecture.
Editorially, in an attempt to preserve the flavor of Zina’s own style, little has been done to the diary. Despite the fact that she taught school, Zina is a poor speller, often inconsistent in her own misspellings, a characteristic which adds credit more than fault to her accomplishment; there is far more to be praised in precise wording than in mere orthography, and where Zina might not know the spelling, she certainly did know the word. And it is delightful to hear Amasa Lyman’s name as Zina pronounced it: Amacy Limon, or Clarissa Decker’s, Claracy. Where the reader might possibly trip over a misspelled word, the correction has been provided; for the most part, though, the phonetic spelling is quite adequate.
Some words appear to be Zina’s own: a lowry day, for example, or the verb lacken, or backen, or bachen, meaning to diminish or decrease, used as a transitive verb, in the active voice, as in “wilt thou lacken the power of our foes.” Occasionally Zina transposes words, and sometimes her final g’s and d’s are interchanged. These have been left as she wrote them. The only changes which have been made silently are in punctuation, in which case periods and commas have been inserted, and capitals added, for ease of reading. All proper nouns have been capitalized, and ampersands have been replaced with and. The dating has been left as she wrote it, with just numbers counting off the days, sometimes several in a line with no entry until the last one. The months are identified on the first entry of each one.
June 1844 5,6,7,8,9. Went with Henres [Henry’s] uncles family uppon the hill. From this day I understand the Kinsmans degree of freemasonry.2 My husband, being a Master Mason, attended meeting. Hiram Smith spoke exceeding well also re[a]d a revelation. I went to see Sister Gleson, and Sister Abigal Thorn in the past we[e]k.
10,12,13,14,15,16. Henry returned.
17. The Bretheren are halving to prepare to defend them selves again.3 18. I went to the Masonic hall with the sisters.
19. Tra[i]ning. 3 companes arived, to [two] from over the river. O God save thy people.
20. Stayed at Wm [William Huntington’s] all knight. The bretheren are still in town tra[i]ning.
21. Had a letter from the Governor, to Joseph. He is at Carthage, that is the Gov[ernor].4
22. Saturday knight about midnight the g[u]ard came in, also about 40 men of the other party or from Carthage. The Goviner deman[d]s Joseph.5
23. Joseph and the bretheren are in councel supplicating the throne of grace for His divine direction. Elder Adams spoke at the stand.6 Henry and I went. It was an interesting sermon. He also related the tale of his being at sea, the Maraclous [miraculous] hand of God being with him in visions, &c. He is soon to start on an important mission to the east. May God bless him.
24. A day long to be remembered. This Day Joseph, Hiram, John P. Green, Dimick [Huntington] and others started for Carthage to be met at the Mound.7 Returned about noon acconipned [accompanied] by a number by the Goviners orders. Took the cannons and all the U.S. arms also the before mentioned prisoners and left this place late in the afternoon. O God save thy servents, save them for Jesus Sake. This night after the brethren left here for Carthage the Hevens gathered Blackness, the thunder and lightning was dreadful, the storm arose in the west.
25. Joseph and Hiram ware exhibeted to the mob by the Govinor. The anger of the Mob still increased. The Govinor Pledged his sacred word and honor also the faith of the State of Ill[inois] that they should be protected, especially Joseph and Hiram. This was done before they left there [their] Homes.8
26. Joseph[‘s] Lawyers endeverd to make them secure. Done all in there power for there safety, especially Lawyer Read.9 O the ever to be r[em]embered awful day of the 27 of June 1844. The men of Carthage drove off some of the Bretheren at the point of the bayonet and swore they would kill Joseph. The Goviner knew of it yet he left them in the gale [jail] (with a light g[u]ard), took a number of men, came out here. About the time they arrived here in Nauvoo the awful s[c]ene took place. About 100 or 100[?] men with painted Faces burst open the gale [jail] dore. Shot in. (No man entered the room.) Joseph discharged three of the barrels of a six shooter. Hirum was shot first in the head or under the left eye. Shod [shot] Joseph through. He leaped from the upper window of a 2 story bilding. Br[other Willard] Richards started to Follow him but seed [seeing] that he must fall uppon the enemes bayotel [bayonet?], desisted. Brother Talor [John Taylor] is wounded. By the meraculous hand of God br. Richards was not hurt, for the bullets flew like hail in A violent storm. They ware both shot twice. Thus in one day about 3 or 4. oclock fell the Prophet and Patr[i]arch of the Church of the Lat[t]erday Saints, the kind husbands, the affectionate Father, the venerable statesman, the Friends of man kinde, by the hand of a ruthless Mob mixed with desenters. O God how long before thou wilt avenge the innosent blood that has be[e]n shed? How long must widdows mourn and orp[h]ans cry before thou wilt avenge the Earth and cause wickness to seace [cease]. Wilt thou hasten the day, O Lord, in thine own way. Wilt thou Prepare me and to stand all things and come of[f] conqerrer through him who hath Loved us, and give me a seat in thy selestial Kingdom with the Sancitified. I ask these favors for thy son Jesus sake, amen.
28. This after noon the Bod[i]es of the Marters arived in town. I went herd the speeches m[a]de by our bretheren and Friends. They stood where Joseph last stood and addresse[d] the bretheren, or he called them sons.10 Went into his house for the first time and there saw the lifeless speechless Bod[i]es of the towo [two] Marters for the testimony which they held. Little did my heart ever think that mine eyes should witness this awful seen [scene].
29. The People of the City went to see there beloved Prophet and Patriarch who had laid down there lives for the cause and there Bretheren. The night after the bretheren ware buried we had an awful thunder storm and lightning, so the mob did not come as they intended.
30. It is Sunday, a lonely h[e]art-sorrowful day. Also it rains.
July 1st, 1844. I washed, they Joseph and Hirams cloth[e]s.
2. I went to Dimicks and Wms. Elder Adams, and [Jedediah] Grant started after the 12.11
3. Wm called here this evening! Very plesent [pleasant].
4. Spent the day at Sister Jonese’s, Carlos Smiths Widdow [Agnes Coolbrith Smith], the girls that resides with her, Louisa Bemon [Beaman], and Sister Marcum [Hannah Markham]. Very plesent to day, but ah what drearryness and sorrow pervades evry bosom. The once noble banner of liberty is fallen, the bo[a]sted land of fre[e]dom is now sta[i]ned with innocent blood. O God wilt thou save us.
5. Very warm.
7. A meeting at the s[t]and.12
8. I again commence my sc[h]ool but mournfully.13
9,10,11,12,13,14. At[t]ended at the Stand. Parl[e]y [P.] Prat preached in the power of the speret [spirit]. It was truly comforting, for truly did we need it.
15. The brethren are a going afishing like unto the days of old when Jesus was slain.
16,17,18. The Church had a day of fasting and Prayer. I attended the meeting, payed my 10 c[en]ts tithing to the Temple. A violent thunder Storm. I was alone in the night but God preserved me.
29. Presendia came up from Lima.
30. Returned sick. I am very sorry.
31. I closed my school to day.
August 1, 1844, Samuel Smith died.14 O God have mercy on thy People, comfort those that mourn.
2. I went to sister [Elvira Cowles?] Holmes.
3. President [Sidney] Rigdon arived here.
4. I herd him preach. He spoke of Josephs halving a Kingdom built up unto him; also of the father Son and Holy G[h]ost.
5. Some of the [Quorum of the] 12 arived.
6. Suffrance Scot or Reaves son of [blank] years old died here at my house.15
8 of August, 1844. I went to meeting in the afternoon, Thanks be to Him who reigns on high, the majority of the Twelve are her[e]. Brigham Youngs spoke and the Church voted that the 12 should act in the office of there calling next to Joseph or the three first presidents.16
9,10. I went with old Sister [blank] to see Mother Smith [and] the records.17
11. We went to Meting. Liman Wite [Lyman Wight] spoke.
12. Henry and Father went to see Oliver at Lima. He is very sick.
13,14,15. I herd Erastus Snow Preach a funeral sermon.
16. A day of Prayer and Fasting. O God wilt thou forgive all my sins.
17. I went to Fathers and Dimicks. Sister Palmer stayed all knight.
18. Went to meeting. B[righam] Youngs Spoke concerning the unity of the church and the danger of dividing. In the after noon Heber Kimble [Kimball] and O. Hide [Orson Hyde] spoke. It was an excelent meeting About as the Sun was setting Father, Henry, and Oliver arived from Lima. O[liver] is very Sick. Stood his journey beyond expectations. I feel to thank the Lord that I have seen him alive.
19. P Edmons had a chill here.18 I washed. Took a voilent cold.
20. Henry had a chill.
21,22,23,24,25. H[enry] and Zebulun quite sick with the ague.
26,27. H[enry] has his ague.
28,29,30,31.
September the lst, 1844. The Twelve or some of them occupied the day. My Family ware sick and I did non [not] go but understood they had an ecenent [excellent] meting.19
2. H[enry] broke his ague.
3,4. All on the amend [mend].
5. Went to fast meeting. I feel to thank the Lord that I have the privilege of attending meetings and hearing the glorious instruction. O may I make a wise use of all these things and be save[d] in the celestial Kingdom of our God for his son sake, Amen.
Sept 1, 1844. Went to meeting with Father. S[idney] Rigdon preached first sermon. Spoke of Victoria, O how wonderful. Br[i]gham Young asked the High Priests what they had learned. I would say [incomplete] August the 31st that was Saturday that Charl[e]s Rich was put in Wilson Laws place in the Legion and Brigham Young in Josephs stanging [standing] as [lieutenant-general].
3. We went to Dimicks, stayed all knight at Fathers. The Twelve labored with S Rigdon most of the night and demanded his lisence, but he refused.
4. S R is reported in the [Nauvoo] Neighbor with others, to appear at the stand next sabath.
5. The Twelve preached at the stand, very well.
6. Viseted at Sister [Patty] Sessions.
7. A lowry[?] day.
8. We went to meeting. Sidney Rigdon was cut off from the church with others.
9. The Rigdon followers had a meeting in the evening.
10. I was at Mother [Patty] Sessiones.
11. Sold our improvements to Br Wetherby.20
12. I went to Prayer meting Parley Prat spoke of the welfare of the Church, the necesity of building the Temple, our endewment, &c.
13. Dimick and Wife and Julia ware here. Watched with Br Bells Child. It died about 12 oclock.
14. I went and saw Sister Hamer.
15. Herd Parly [P. Pratt] again. It was most excelent. Spoke on Priesthood the order of the kingdom, who would judge us. Orson Prat spoke in the afternoon. I was not there. Also George Smith.
16. Very pleasent.
17. Bought a small piece of a lot of my br[other] William Huntington.
18. I went to Wms.
19. The ague in my face, or the teeth ake [ache].
20. Moving. I called at B[righam] Young. He was not in. It rained in the evening.
21,22. We went to Meeting. B Young spoke uppon the power of the Priesthood, when Joseph was ordained, &c.
23. I was at Sister Crosbes.
24. We moved to Wm Huntingtons house to stop until Henry can build a house uppon a piece of land he bought of Wm size 2[?] in front and 100 back.
25. Some of the Goviners troops arived within 2 miles of town.
26. To a Thursday prayer meeting at brother Tidwells.
27. The Goviner with [two aides] past through the City of Nauvoo and re protecting against the wolf hunt that has ben in agitation by the citizen[s] of this state and said to wish the detection of the assasins of our Prophet and Patriarch. O Lord wilt thou soften there hearts towards the Saints and permit us to do all things thou hast Commanded and make our calling and election sure and thy name Shall have all the glory.21
28. The Legion came out. The Goviner and his men saw them, said they done well. The Govner still holds there arms [the Nauvoo Legion’s]. In a fals alarm there was a man kil[l]ed, shot through the body.22
29. The Goviner and men left for Warsaw.
October the 1st. 1844, 2 Caroline and I sowed at Dimocks.
3,4. Very pleasant.
5. Norman Buell and wife [Presendia] arived here from Lima.
6. Wee all went to meeting. Brigham Young spoke, and Parly Prat had most excelent teachings, O God, wilt thou seal these things in my hart.
7. Done Church bisniss mostly. H. Kimble [Heber Kimball] spoke. N[orman] and P[resendia] started for home.
8,9,10,11. Ann and Lydia ware here.
12. Wm moved.
13. I went to Father Jacobs.
14. Sewing for Oliver.
15. Talking of taking up the 12 by the mob, or sending the brethren to Carthage.
16. B. Young, H Kimble are not to be seen. Thus our enemes or the enemes of God seek to everthrow [overthrow] and perplex the children of God. O God, My Heavenly [Father], wilt thou protect thy servents and thy People and I know thou wilt in as much as they listen to thy law. O Father wilt thou preserve me spotless through the merets [merits] of thy Son Jesus Christ, and thy name shall have the glory, worlds without end.
17,18. A snow storm.
19. A fast, at Wms to day. Had an agreeable viset.
20. Some Bretheren arived from th[e] East of Henres and Olivers acquaintance. Also Father and Mother Huntington ware here. What a blessed privilige to have the Sosiety of on[e]s friends. I feel truly grateful for the privilige I enjoy.
21. About 200 brethren went to Carthage some few ware bound over for trial last Summer. The day of trial has now arived; it arose from burning the press. O God protect thy saints.
Oct. 22nd, 1844. No fresh news from Carthage.23 Mother Liman [Lyman?] was here, an old friend.
23. Wm returned from Carthage. The fendesh dsenters [fiendish dissenters] are mostly gathered at Carthage. No trouble yet.
24. The bretheren mostly returned home to Nauvoo. Some ware indited but there trials put of[f] until the next setting of co[u]rt.
25. Julia Parks and I viseted at Wms.
26. Sister Ripshier [Roxanna Repsher?] was here.
27. Father and John took breakfast. Sister Ripshier was here to supper.
28. Took a violent cold.
29. Moved into the midle room to have our room plasterd.
29,30. Afflicted with the inflamation in my eyes.
31 Most blind. Charl[e]s Hide [Hyde] was here. Oliver went to Lima.
Nov. the 1, 1844. Sister Lewes [Lewis] was here all day. Done the work. Br. Lewes he came in the evening, let us have some oils.
2. Yet under affliction. O Father be merciful to me in my weakness.
3. Some better. The Twelve gave teaching, concerning the life of the Earth.
4. We moved. The Lord in much mercy restore[d] my sight. Praised be his name. I implore thee O my God, to sreangthen my memory.
5. All well. I assisted Sister Car[r]ington in quilting. Went to prayer Meeting, had a very good season in wa[i]ting before the Lord. Some new ideas to me. I feel grateful to My Heavenly Father for all these privileges and blessings.
7. A very pleasant day, a fast to me alone. O Merciful God I ask Thee to forgive me all my Sins for I will serve no other God but thou being my helper. Yea wilt Thou bless Me with eternal Life, and thy Name shall have all the glory.
8, 9. Very plesaent. Norman Buell and Oliver came up from Lima and brought up the corps[e] of my sister Presendia Buells child, John Hiram by name, age about 1 year.24
10. Went to meeting. Pres Youngs spoke. It was truly comforting to the sole that is thirsting for knoledge. He spoke of Union and said that it must be by this principle we are saved, by this the Saviour would come and reign, by union the authority of the Priesthood Stands, and holds its Dominion, and when we become sufficiently united our enemes would have no more power, nether shall we see such maraculous displays of the Power of God as some antisipate until after the Thousand years reign, union will cause the Menlenean [Millennium]. It is not a momentary work.
11. O[l]iver went to Sister Emmas to board.25
12. Fanny was here.
13. I took a walk. Called at Father John Smiths, Sister Rockwells. Also went to Sister Sessions. Perigren Session wife [Julia Ann Kilgore Sessions] is not expected to live. I took my leave of her. O may I meet her in peace whare pane [pain] nor death can come. Sister S[essions] is as calm as a summers morning. Gladly will she welcome the moment when she may be released from this tenement of clay. Her trust is in Jesus who is able to relieve all who put there trust in him. Sister Lions [Sylvia Sessions Lyons] rehersed some of Elder Kimbles conversation concerning our state, also that of our friends. Spoke of the appointments to this world or ordinations before we came here, the gift of eternal life, knoledge &c. It was most excelent; the Twelve, Patriarchs, Jeudah [Judah] standing at the he[a]d, the twelve thousands out of each tribe to be sealed; revelation, of there councel being revelation.
14. Very plesaent.
15. I went up to Sister Empes [Empey?]. She was mutch pleased to see me. It is the neighbour hood whare I have lived. May blessings attend her for her kindness to me.
16. Good health prevales in the City, for which Reason we hav to be truly thankful.
17. My Father Spent some time with me to day. In the evening Hasiel Clark and I went to hear Or[s]on Hide. He spoke concerning our guardian Angels that attended each Saint, and would until the Sperit became grieved. Then they take there departure and the Person is left to hardness of hart and blindness of mind. I Pray thee, O Heavenly Father to send by whom thou wilt. Let the angel of thy Peace attend me and never Forsake me, but may I ever have grace to listen to the Spirit of truth forever more, and for Jesus sake, may I have the gift of eternal life. He also spok concerning the judgements or those that had not kept the commandments but had grieved the Sperit. The Saints would not know the[i]r’s, therefore they would be left or looked uppon as they had looked uppon others. Also concerning the roling forth the Kingdom, and the necesity of being prepared for the Judgment day, the Law being bound up and the Testimony being Sealed, and the dreadful dilemma of those that ware not prepared, and the necesity of the Temples being built that we might prepare ourselves and be ready and claimed the blessings that had ben promised to us as a people by Joseph, A Man of God, and I believe after Gods own hart. This day long to be remembered, Sunday the 17 of November 1844. Em[m]a Smith, the Wife of Joseph Smith the Martyr, had a Son born, in the morning. O may the Choisest of Heavens blessings attend the Child. May it grow into manhood, and may it walk in the way of its Father, be A comfort to its Friends and be the means of performing a Mighty work to the Glory of God and Prince Forever.
18. Amacy [Amasa] Lyman moved into the Front room.
19. Taken sick.
20. Charls Hide was here. We had the speret [spirit] of Prophesy. We stayed at Father Jacobs all knight.
21. Plesent wether. Had an excelent meting o[n] the union.
22. Sister Lions was here Lucretia Fulton stayed here. Went and saw the Mummies and records.
23. A day of fasting. O father wilt thou forgive my sins, enlarge my understanding, streangthen my memory, increase my Faith, and mercifully grant that I might be acceptable unto Thee, and be prepared for all things.
24. Eliza Partridge and Caroline P[artridge] ware here and took Dinner with us. Also Cornelia Levet [Leavitt] was here.26
25. Br Amacy Liman [Amasa Lyman] is beter.
26. Washing and took A walk to see the sick &c.
27. Meditation.
28. Father took the lead of meeting, gave some excelent instruction.
29. The Ice is running in the river fine.
30. Dimick called and had a chat.
December the 1st 1844 A beautiful day. Father Jacobs and J Edmons took supper with us. Harriet CIark was here. Baily left home the 28.
2. Finished my carpet yarn.
3. Very pleasent.
4. Fanny was here on a viset.
5. Had a good meeting although the powers of darkness ware felt but dispersed by the power of the priesthood.
6. A snow storm.
7. Through the Mercy of God we are all in good health.
8. Cold, but pleasent. Pased the day in reading and committing to memory a few precious words of Joseph Smiths of keeping the commandments of God.
9,10,11. A day of fasting to me alone.
12. Had most an exelent meeting in the evening.
13. Viseted at br Lees in the evening.
14. H[enry] gone to the fencing School or sword exercise.
15. Br Lewis was here in the evening and had a lengthy chat uppon the Scriptures. I was in brother Caringtons. Br Liman [Lyman] was in and conversed.
16. Zebulun burnt his foot with the stove hearth. Father Jacobs [took?] the fire out.
17. Very cold. The river is blocked with ice.
18. Sewed for sister Grible until 12 oclock at knight.
19. Had most an exelent meeting in the evening at br Tidwells. The Speret of the Lord was verily with us, and that to bless. Pra[i]sed be his Name. Wilt Thou, O Lord, ever be with us and that to bless and keep us from temtation. O Lord, wilt t[h]ou teach us to pray aright before Thee that thou wilt hear us.
20. Henry sold his Cote [coat], vest and hat to Br Lewes to answer up on his tithing for $19.50. O may he be enabled to pay his tithing that he or we may receive the promised blessings of the Lord. And Oliver had the ague here. He was very sick. He has a fellen on his finger.27 O Lord wilt thou in much mercy r[em]ember Oliver and restore unto him perfect health from this time and help him to spend his days to thy honour and glory, and the salviton [salvation] of his own soule for he is an honest lad.
21. Little David Hiram Smith grows [fine]. O Lord wilt thou bless the Child from on high.
22. I herd George P Dikes preach. He spoke of the fall of m[am]mon, there restoration, etc. In the evening Julia Parks, Gusta Cleveland, Wm Linzy [Lindsay], Br Lewes were here.
23. Zebulun and I started for Lima with Br. Goff. It was the same Horses and Waggon that brought Joseph and Hirum Smith from Carthage, or there bod[i]es after they were mass[a]creed. The Horses ware white. We stayed at brother Allens over night, 10 miles from Lima. Arived at Sister [Presendia] Buells 10 oclock in the morning.
24. Had a pleasent ride. Father and Mother, Dimick and wife, Wm and wife, and Henry arived about 4 P.M. Br Beebbe and wife, Umpfry and wife, came in the evening. Had A fine supper and past the evening very agreeable. Wm is some beter, was very sick through the night with the quinzy.28
25. Quite warm and Pleasent. Some talk of going home but conclude to stay. Father Morl[e]y, Br Snow, his councellor, and there wives, also Sister Billings came in the after noon. Had an agreeable visit, all in good sperets [spirits]. Presendes [Presendia’s] little son Oliver is very sick but think he is amending.
26. Started for home about 9 in the morning. Arived at home safe just as the sun was setting. O how beautiful the sight of Nauvoo.
27. Henry and I went to the dedication of the Seventes Hall. Heber C. Kimble [Kimball] spoke in the fore noon. Had excelent musick. At recess Brother Eldridge and Levi Hancock Danced being filled with the Holy G[h]ost. It is the first time mine eyes ever beheld this. O God bless the Saints until thy will shall be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.29
28,29. Stayed at home and took care of Sister Limans [Lyman’s] Caringtons Children for them to go to Meeting. In the evening we went to hear Lorenzo Snow preach. It was an interesting meeting to me. Help me to prophet [profit] thereby.
30. Sister Julia Parks was here. Had a good viset.
31. Washed and Ironed, and in the evenin[g] Sister Ripshier and Daughter, Dimick, Wm and Wife ware here. Conversed uppon President B Youngs sermon. It was the greatest that has ever ben Given to the Church, uppon Priesthood, the Godhed, the dutes of Male & Female, there exaltations &c. O Father wilt thou enlarge my minde. Help me to hear and do thy will in all things as shall be agreeable to thy will. O Fa[t]her who ar[t] in heven I ask it in the Name of Jesus.