Week 12 - Loss

 

Week 12 - Loss

Nothing can be as heartbreaking as the loss of a child.  Here are two examples of women who faced a lot of hardship and lost children, but maintained their faith.  The first one is my 4th great grandmother Wealthy Eddy.  The other is my cousin Tad's 3rd great grandmother Charlotte Patterson Taylor and her sister Mary Elizabeth Taylor.

Wealthy Eddy

It is said that well-behaved women rarely make history, and I get a feeling that Wealthy Eddy falls into this category.  She is probably one of the most interesting women in the Cherry family line, mainly because of all the hardships she endured. Much of the information given here can be found through the Jared Pratt Family Association.

(akahttp://jared.pratt-family.org/other_brother_histories/william_histories_list.html).

Wealthy was the daughter of two cousins with the same last name: John Fuller Eddy and Rhoda Eddy.  Most records state that she was born in Somerset, Maine in 1810.  Wealthy’s family, according her great granddaughter Susannah J Shumway (who recorded stories that Wealthy had told her), were not Mormon and didn’t want Wealthy to have anything to do with Mormonism.  When Wealthy began attending Mormon meetings, John Fuller Eddy locked her up in her room.  She escaped and ran away from home. Her father found out she had escaped, and he and Wealthy’s brothers went after her.  They found her escaping in a boat and took shots at her, but she escaped unharmed.  At the time she was 20 years old. She never returned home.

Soon after her escape, she met and married Stephen Billing Shumway on January 6^th, 1831.  The Shumway’s joined the Mormon Church in 1832.  They had a daughter, Claresa, who died of exposure while the family was being driven from their home by a mob.  They were allowed a limited amount of time to get their belongings together and take a boat across a river.  According to what Wealthy told her great granddaughter Susannah, there were some kind hearted men in the mob who allowed the family to return and bury Claresa under a tree in the orchard.  After the burial, Wealthy “sat down on the doorstep and wept.  One of the mob, who was tender hearted took a pan and went and got some peaches from her own orchard and put them in her lap.” (Shumway)  She was then told that they must get back in the boat and leave.

Charlotte Patterson Taylor & Mary Elizabeth (Taylor) Griffin

Charlotte Patterson Taylor had several children and lost all but two before they could reach adulthood and produce her grandchildren.  Is looks like she also lost siblings and extended family early in their lives. The main culprit was scarlet fever, which swept through the towns and often reduced household members by half in a matter of days. Letters kept by Charlotte indicate she wasn't the only one who faced this kind of tragedy. An excerpt of a letter dated January 24, 1842 from Aaron Taylor to Thomas Holladay Taylor is shown below:

      By your inquiries I find you received not my letters. Many are gone from time to eternity, and why are we spared? I answer it is the mercy of God and nothing in us.

    I will mention of your acquaintances who are dead - Father Tabb, Dennis Tabb's wife and three children, George Tabb two children all buried in five days, John Gibson and his two oldest girls and many more.  It was the Scarlet Fever swept thru. We had it but not too bad.

Below is a poem written by Charlotte's sister Mary Elizabeth (Taylor) Griffin (pictured below) when she was 17 years old. I'm assuming Alfred is a little brother that died. 

                            We Miss Thee Alfred

 Tears for the smitten heart

That mourn earthly severed ties

Tears for the loved who part,

In sadness neath the skies.

Tears for earth's brightest hope who fled,

Tears for the cherished early dead.

Yes, tears may dim the eyes,

When sorrow sways control,

Nor yet one mumering sigh

Escape the stricken soul.

For ah! when he of Bethany slept

In death's embrace, then "Jesus wept"

And we may weep 'tis well,

Since thus bereft, we are,

For griefs own shadowy spell

Tis on our spirits here.

We mourn a spirit from us flown,

A sweet voice from our household gone.

Tis fond memories

Are busy in our heart,

Recalling each dear scene 

In which our Alfred took a part

That eye of love, the smile, the kiss,

That sweet, that cherub face we miss.

Ah yes! 'round board and hearth

A vacant place we find;

And one tie less on earth

Our spirits here bind.

But then how sweet the though here given

Another harp is strung in heaven!

All that our fondest love,

Was waiting for that brow

In the Spirit Land above

Is consumated now.

What for our darling could we crave

More than heaven writes upon his grave?

Then farewell, dear little Alfred, 

Thou was't lent, not given,

And thou has't early found the way

Back to thy native Heaven.

A sweet voice is wooing to the skies 

No more to mourn earthly broken ties!