History of Isabella McMurrin Sims Smith Pioneer of 1856 In far away Glasgow, Scotland on Friday November 23, 1838, a "fair Scottish lass" was born to Joseph and Margaret (Irvine) McMurrin. She was given the name of Isabella and was the youngest of 13 children, 11 of whom grew to adulthood. Her brothers and sisters were William (b. 1812), Elizabeth (b. 1814, Mary (b. 1816), Janet (b. 1819), Joseph Jr. (b. 1821), Agnes (b. 1825), Sarah (b. 1827), Robert (b. 1831), James (b. 1832), Isabella (b. 1833-died as a baby), Margaret (b. 1835) and Jeane (b. 1837-died as a baby). Both her parents (and all of her grandparents) were of Irish descent and were married in Belfast in 1811. Their first two children (William and Elizabeth) were born in Ireland then the McMurrin family moved to Scotland sometime between the end of 1814 and 1816. As a child Isabella was taught the trade of a steam loom weaver. In 1851 at the age of 13, and against her parent's wishes, she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Mormon Church as it was better known, which was then in its infancy. Like many converts she wanted to immigrate to "Zion", the Salt Lake Valley in Utah and live among the members of the new religion which she had embraced. When she asked her family about going they said, "It is too far to walk but if you ever get a chance and decide to leave your home for the Mormon Church, you can go. When you get older you will think differently, for you don't know what you are talking about." They said this thinking there was no way she would ever be able to save up the money required for the ship's passage, let alone for the walk across the plains to Utah. Isabella was so anxious to go to America that in 1855 when a man representing a large mill in America went to Scotland seeking girls to go to Boston, Massachusetts and work for him; she jumped at the chance. He needed 100 girls and they had to sign a 3 year contract. If they would do this, he would pay the $100.00 for their passage on the ship. They in turn would work for him to repay this amount. When Isabella explained this opportunity to her family she said, "Here is my chance". They cried and said, "We won't go back on our word, you may go." On December 17, 1855 she left Glasgow in a light sailing vessel. Being winter, the ocean was very rough. The storms were so terrible that the little vessel was wrecked enroute and it was 3 months before she finally reached America. Isabella immediately went to work in the mills at Hollyork, Massachusetts. She had worked there only three months when her mother, brother Joseph and his wife and children came to America. (Her father was deceased.) They had joined the church in Scotland, as did several of her sisters who eventually emigrated to Salt Lake. The McMurrins were going to Utah and wanted to take Isabella with them. They arranged to pay off Isabella's passage debt to the factory owner and they began their journey west. Joseph McMurrin Jr. was a cooper by trade-one that makes barrels. At this time a number of the Saints were preparing to make the journey to Utah by handcarts. Joseph was elected to tire the wheels. He worked for 3 months preparing the handcarts for Saints so it was September 2, 1956 before they were ready to begin their journey. They were part of the Hunt wagon train that followed the infamous Edwin Martin Handcart Company with a wagon and ox team, as it was Joseph's job to keep the wheels repaired along the way. There were many hardships endured by the pioneers while crossing the plains; Indians, buffalo stampedes and fording rivers just to name a few. The company which the McMurrins were members met with additional difficulties. They had been out only 2 weeks when a heavy snow fell. The fodder for the cattle had been splendid, growing several feet high, but it was soon covered with snow. The cattle dropped dead one by one in their tracks from hunger and cold and the people were so hungry and weak that at Devils Gate they were compelled to leave behind their extra clothing and boxes. They could carry with them only the absolute essentials, such as food. As if starvation facing this company wasn't enough, one morning a band of Indians surrounded the McMurrin's wagon and upon seeing Isabella, a fine small blond girl of 17, took her hostage. They refused to go away without her and it was only when Joseph gave them a portion of their meager food supply that they agreed to let Isabella go. After this when Indians could be seen coming toward their camp, Isabella, who was quite small in stature. would hide in one of Joseph's big barrels so she would not be seen by the Indians. As the winter became more severe, the handcart company dwindled as day after day more and more of the Saints were unable to withstand the suffering. The trail became dotted with shallow graves. The ground was frozen too hard to dig the graves very deep, even if the feeble strength of those brave souls who were left had been sufficient to force their crude implements into it. It became necessary to abandon more and more of their scant supplies. Still they plodded on and at night they sang their songs of praise to the Lord. The song "Come Come Ye Saints" (also known as "All Is Well") will go ringing down through the ages in their memory. Isabella walked the entire distance across the plains. She started out with 3 new pairs of shoes but long before the completion of this journey, they were worn out. The snow was deep and her bare feet were cold and wet. At a miner's hut close to Fort Bridger, she ask if they might have a pair of shoes she could buy. The only thing available was a pair of men's boots, size 13 for which she paid $13.00. They were so large that as she walked they filled up wit snow and it packed around her feet. She walked the rest of the journey this way and as a result never suffered again from cold feet. When the company finally reached Fort Bridger, their food supply was exhausted and they had to wait there until President Brigham Young sent some flour, potatoes and onions before they could complete their journey. Finally the handcart company with the aid of the relief train, reached Salt Lake City on November 30, 1856. However, only those who were without covered wagons were given aid and the McMurrin family, having such a possession, pitiful though it was and in a state of dilapidation, were left to fend for themselves. It was two weeks later; just one year after Isabella had left Scotland, when they arrived in Salt Lake City. She told the story of helping to bury about 12 people at the last camp they made the night before entering Salt Lake City. It was 18 miles east of the city and was up Emigration Canyon. This incident really took it's toll on her, as years later when her son Rue bought a "summer home" up Emigration Canyon and invited her several times to visit the cabin and enjoy the canyon with the family, she would usually politely decline saying she had no desire to go up that canyon again-too many sad memories. Isabella was happy to be in Salt Lake because a young man named David McKenzie, whom she had promised to marry, had been in Utah for some time trying to get a home built by the time Isabella arrived. He was a young actor and later achieved fame at the Salt Lake Theater. When they arrived, Isabella and her mother were not able to get rooms at the place where David was staying because there was only room for one of them and Isabella refused to be parted from her mother. They located with another family and the woman of the house was glad to have a strong young girl to do her work and schemed to relieve herself of the drudgery of the home. She planned to have Isabella remain there as long as possible and informed David McKenzie that Isabella was going to enter into plural marriage with her own husband. When Isabella learned of this she was very angry and could not rest that night. At midnight she arose from her bed, dressed and wandered the streets until daylight when she returned to the home, wakened her mother and told her they were leaving the place. Having no place to go they appealed to Bishop Hunter for advice and help. While they were talking Bishop Hunter glanced out of the window and saw a man passing by and called to him. It was George Sims, Brigham Young's secretary and friend. (George was known for his beautiful penmanship, a quality President Young needed from a secretary.) Bishop Hunter said, "George, take this girl and her mother and give them a home and be good to them." Although polygamy was being practiced at this time Isabella did not approve of it and as she climbed into George's wagon she said, "Mind you, I don't want to marry you!" "Well," said George, "you'll at least wait until you're asked, won't you?" Caroline, George's wife, was not well and Isabella immediately made herself useful around the house, caring for Caroline and their 4 small children. Clothing was not only expensive but also often not available, except from stray caravans of prospectors on their way to California to join in the gold rush who would trade clothing for food supplies. The children needed warm stockings and since Isabella was an expert at knitting, she offered to make them some if George could get her some yarn. However, yarn was as scarce as clothing so Isabella told him that if he would bring her some sheep shins and make her a spinning wheel according to the way she would show him, she would spin the yarn. This he did and she washed the wool and spun it into long skeins of yarn and knitted the stockings and clothing. She also took the children's old shoes and using them for patterns made new ones from sheep skins and leather, which George found for her. Some of her thread she made herself from flax and some she obtained from an old linen skirt, which she raveled off, as it was needed. When her mother Margaret was crossing the ocean, she had a peculiar dream. She saw a man in a long cape, standing upon the mountaintop waiting for her daughter. She told Isabella, "You'll never marry the man to whom you are engaged, but will marry Brother Sims, for he is the man I saw in my dream." In this dream Isabella's mother saw the man dressed in a long black cape, the type worn by army officers. She had assumed that he was a soldier, however, she found out that George had gained possession of such a cloak following the invasion of Johnson's Army in the Salt Lake area several years before. After surrendering the soldiers had to trade articles of clothing for food and this is how George happened to have the long black cape that Margaret McMurrin had seen in her dream and later recognized on him. True to her mother's dream, through a misunderstanding, her engagement to David McKenzie was broken, but not because Isabella ceased to love him. George's wife Caroline had brought with her from England a very beautiful set of blue china, which she prized dearly. One day as Isabella was carrying a dozen fine plates across the room, a neighbor came in and made the remark that David McKenzie was going to marry his landlady's daughter. Isabella was so startled and upset by the news that her arms fell limp to her side and the dishes went crashing to the floor breaking into bits. She was heartbroken over this turn of events because she had secretly hoped to patch up the misunderstanding and marry David. Shortly after this George asked her to marry him. She was very surprised as he was 16 years older than she was (he was born March 4, 1822 in London, England) and although she admired and respected him a great deal, she didn't love him and told him so. However, he said to her, "Bella, I know that, but last night I heard you asking God to send you a good husband and I would be that to you and you could learn to love me." After a lot of praying and soul searching Isabella said yes to George's proposal. On Saturday January 31, 1857, only six weeks after arriving in Salt Lake, George and Isabella were married and sealed in the Endowment House. About 13 months later on March 13, 1858 George's first wife Caroline died. George and Caroline had 5 children: Emma, Julia, Henrietta (who died as a young child in 1853), George and Alexander. Isabella and George had 3 children; Hester, (or Tessie as she was known), was born November 28, 1857, Joseph on November 20, 1859 and Caroline on September 16, 1861. In 1862 George was called on a mission to his native England. While he was returning 3 years later, he drowned trying to ford the Platt River in Wyoming on October 23, 1865. Isabella was heartbroken for she had, as George predicted, come to love him very much. Earlier that year their youngest daughter Caroline had died on January 24, 1865. Isabella was a strong young woman though (she was not quite 27 years old when George died) and continued to work hard to care not only for Tessie and Joe, but for George and Caroline's children until each of them either married or moved out on their own. She also helped support her mother until she died in September 1869. She did this by making and selling yearn, thread, stockings and other clothing and by going to work in homes by the day. The year following George's death, David McKenzie, Isabella's first love, came and told her that he had never ceased to love her and ask her if she would marry him. She agreed, however one evening shortly after saying yes to David, she was invited to a social at the home of Brigham Young. President Young called her aside and told her that David had been to see him about their proposed marriage and he desired to have the temple sealing broken between Isabella and George. President Young asked Isabella if that was her wish. "Oh, no", said Isabella, "I promised him [George] in the temple and I wouldn't break my promise." "Well," said President Young, "Then we won't rob the dead, will we?" When David McKenzie learned that he could have Isabella for this life only and she would remain sealed to George in the next, he said, "No, he stole her from me once, I'll not have him take her from me again in the next world." Isabella accepted the decision without hesitation, in spite of her great love for David, which had been born when she was very young. It was to linger in her heart until she was very old as she would occasionally slip inconspicuously into the cemetery to visit his grave after he died. In 1870 Adam Browning Smith a widower from Tooele, Utah ask Isabella to marry him. She hesitated about this and once more sought the advice of her loyal friend, Brigham Young. Brigham, although he know little about Adam, realized the burden Isabella had been shouldering since George died nearly 5 years earlier, and felt that it was time for her to let someone else share her load, so he advised her to enter into this marriage. This time there was no question of a temple marriage to be taken into consideration so on Monday May 30, 1870 in Salt Lake City Isabella and Adam married. Adam was born January 30, 1832 in Stewarton, Scotland to Adam Willey and Martha (Browning) Smith and had lived in the Tooele area since 1853. Isabella took Tessie and Joe and moved into Adam's home in Pine Canyon, a small community several miles from Tooele. This was quite a different life than she was used to in Salt Lake City. This area was a rural farming and sheep raising community about 25 miles west of Salt Lake. They lived in a log cabin with a dirt floor, they had a flock of sheep, a garden that needed constant attention and few luxuries. Adam came with a ready-made family that Isabella immediately went to work raising. He had been married to Elizabeth McIsaac for 16 years and they had 9 children, 6 of whom were alive when Isabella married Adam. They were Adam age 15, Ellen age 14, George age 9, Martha age 7, James age 5 and Barbara age almost 3. With the little log cabin almost bursting at the seems, Isabella set forth to do her best to keep house and raise these 8 children. She and Adam started having children of their own, 6 in all. They were: ? Robert McMurrin born December 10, 1871 ? Arthur McMurrin born May 1, 1873, died the day he was born ? Uriah McMurrin "Rue" born December 9, 1875, died Jan. 24, 1943 ? William Leatham born April 14, 1877, died June 3, 1952 ? Howard McMurrin born August 15, 1879, died March 7, 1880 ? Margaret McMurrin "Maggie" born December 3, 1882, died Sept. 19, 1907 Life in Pine Canyon/Tooele was very difficult for Isabella and she and Adam were very different in many ways. Although Adam was, for the most part, a good man, he was set in his ways and could be very demanding. He was a very sociable person, a jolly fellow, well liked by many for his wit and story telling. However these characteristics found him in the company of those who, on occasion, frequented the local saloon. One hot summer day Isabella and Adam went into Tooele in the old buckboard to purchase the week's supply of groceries. While she went about her shopping Adam made his way to the saloon to visit with his buddies. When Isabella finished, she waited on the hard board seat of the buckboard with the hot sun beating down on her. She was faint with weakness for she was soon to have another child. Pride forbade her from entering the saloon to fetch Adam and several hours later when he came out she had to drive the team home. When they arrived Adam went straight to bed leaving Isabella to unhitch and put away the horses and to carry in all the supplies. She fell in a stupor almost as soon as she reached the house and sometime that night she delivered twin babies, both stillborn. This experience was too much for her and as soon as she was able in February 1884 she returned to Salt Lake City, taking Robert, Rue, William and Maggie with her. Being the good Latter Day Saint she was she did not like the idea of leaving her husband. However, Adam did not seem inclined to change his ways and Isabella was very concerned about the environment in which her children were being raised. She was also concerned about the opportunities (both economically and educationally) for her children and felt that moving back to Salt Lake would be the best for her and her children. By this time Joe and Tessie were both married. In fact Tessie had married a nephew of Adam's, John Gibson Smith and had moved back to Salt Lake. In the 1900 census Isabella is shown as living with her sons Rue and William and daughter Maggie next door to Tessie and her family with son Robert just down the street. She was very dedicated to her family and loved them very much. An example of this is shown when her daughter Maggie died in 1907. Isabella, who was almost 69 years old, took in Maggie's 8 year old daughter Gladys. Gladys's own father had abandoned Maggie and Gladys when she was a baby and her step father had 2 small sons to care for so Isabella stepped in, seeing the need for this little girl to have the love and guidance of her grandmother. At the age of 69 most women wouldn't want the challenges or problems associated with raising a young child but Isabella took full responsibility for her. She was the 20th child that Isabella had either given birth to or helped to raise. (She gave birth to 9 children and helped raise 10 step children.) Isabella was a small woman, being only about 5 feet tall. One of her characteristics that is well remembered by those who knew her was her honesty. Her granddaughter Eloise Sims Orth tells the story that one day when she was spending a week with grandma Bella and Gladys. They were living in a small house at the rear of Tessie's home. Gladys and Eloise had planned a wonderful afternoon. They had several porcelain dolls and were going to make clothes for them. They happened to look out of the window and saw a playmate rounding Aunt Tessie's house who evidently didn't appeal to Gladys because she ran to her grandma and asked her to tell the girl that they were not at home. Grandma said, "Why Gladys, I couldn't do that, for you are at home and I'll not tell a lie." Another characteristic of Isabella's was that whenever someone was leaving she would always say "God be wi' ye". As she grew older she still maintained the same independence of spirit that she had manifested during pioneer days. She continued to do temple work until very late in life. One day in about 1929 she went to the county hospital to visit an old friend who was sick. As she was leaving, she slipped on the stairs and broke her hip. She was admitted to the hospital and stayed for a short time to recuperate before she was able to go back home and continue doing most of the things she had done before. She did not let this accident hold her down. Another story is told of a time in about 1930 when she ran into her son Rue's grocery store (in Salt Lake) waving a letter saying, "I just got a letter from my George, I just got a letter from my George.!" Everyone looked at her rather strangely since George Sims had been dead for about 65 years. Rue looked at the letter and sure enough it was a letter from George that he had mailed to her from England when he was on his mission more than 65 years before! Apparently it had become lost in the mail, had just resurfaced and was delivered to her so many years later. It was one of her most prized possessions until she died. When she was 90 years old she could thread a fine needle as easily as a young girl could, however, her hearing soon became impaired and then her sight and the last years of her life, she would sit for hours at a time with a smile on her mouth and what her thoughts were, no one knows. Perhaps those pioneer days which her children and their children had so easily forgotten, perhaps of the happy meeting she would soon have with those dear ones who had gone before her. The story is told of her at a family gathering in the summer of 1930. Many family members had been called on to furnish some form of entertainment. When it came to Isabella's turn she recited the following prayer that she had written when she was 92 years old: Oh God, Eternal Father I pray Thee, here my call, And ever keep me in Thy care, From Satan's wicked thrall. Prepare my soul, O Father, To meet the risen Lord, And with him dwell upon the earth In joyous pure accord. Pressing onward to perfection Guided by Thy hand Seeking always the protection In that bright and glorious land. Oh may my lamp be burning May I clearly see the way Lest in the dark I stumble And wandering loose my way. Prepare my tongue Oh Father To sing sweet praise to Thee Oh may I in Thy path be found Though out eternity. She was a wonderful lady, who had a firm belief and an undying testimony in the gospel of Jesus Christ. She carried this with her until the day she died which was Thursday March 17, 1932 at 1:00 a.m.. She was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery on March 20th. Written at age 88, this poem is called Don't Forget to Pray: When fiery trials cross your path, Don't let Satan sit and laugh And take you off the narrow way Then don't forget to pray. Oh, remember God is near, To listen to your humble prayer, If you will seek with heart sincere— And don't forget to pray. Remember Satan is ever nigh His cunning ways on you to try, But you must seek Him to deny— And don't forget to pray. Oh, remember God is just And will guide you on your way If, in Him you put your trust And don't forget to pray. Prayer is mighty, prayer is strong. It will keep you from all wrong And will guide you to the throne. Then don't forget to pray. And when troubles bow you down And the world upon you frowns, You must rally for the crown And don't forget to pray. Oh, Lord, Keep us free from sin; Keep us honest, pure and clean Make us fit to enter in To they Eternal Glory. And remember Christ is near And will come his Saints to cheer And with them reign a thousand years If you don't forget to pray. If, in these blessings you would share, Which God, our Father has prepared For those who walk the narrow way, Then don't forget to pray. Another of the poems she wrote is called Wisdom: Wisdom is a glorious prize Each one should try to obtain It will make you noble, good and wise And richest blessings by it gain. Then seek for wisdom, be not idle Strive with patience to endure All your trials count but trifles Then a crown you shall secure. Seek for heaven's choicest blessings Then for wisdom you'll apply It is a gift that is worth possessing No good thing will it deny. Wisdom is a gift from God All may have who earnest pray Lord give us wisdom to guide us In the straight and narrow way. You will find in wisdom's treasures All that the heart desires They why grovel in the darkness When to light you can aspire. Wisdom's ways are pleasant And all her paths are peace Then seek for light and knowledge And you wisdom will increase.