August 1875


1 August 1875 • Sunday

Sun. Aug 1. This day is intensely hot, seems as if the sun would burn us up. Mrs [Sarah Wagstaff] Sears and all the family were here to dinner, had a very good time indeed, in the evening we had lots of callers.

2 August 1875 • Monday

Mon. Aug. 2. The day was hot again, Lou. went to help Belle as she is not well. The Normal Institute opened to-day.1 Emma <&> Annie attend and my niece Inez.

3 August 1875 • Tuesday

Tues. Aug 3. The heat is still very great I have been suffering from neuralgia extremely.

4 August 1875 • Wednesday

Wednes. Aug. 4. We went to Pleasant Grove to-day all my husband’s wives and some other ladies. went by the seven o’clock train and returned by the evening train at half-past five. we enjoyed it well except I suffered with pain all the way. After returning found Inez and several others here, Mr. Hendrie came and spent the evening; we had a very nice time; enjoyed ourselves immensely.

5 August 1875 • Thursday

Thurs. Aug. 5. To-day was the fast meeting and Relief Society Meeting, we had a good time in the evening. Ort. was here and I felt real sick, Lou. came home from Belle’s this evening.

6 August 1875 • Friday

Friday Morn. Aug. 6. The first thing this morning news arrived of Joseph A. Young’s death at Manti his father2 is very much stricken down with the news. Mary Jo [Ayer Young]. was in Logan at the time and Mrs. Mary Ann Young was in Logan. when the telegram came. Every one seemed horror-struck it is a terrible blow; such a large family to leave unprotected and unprovided for. Mr. Hendrie came in the evening and took Emma and Annie to have ice-cream. They brought [p. 22] him <Joseph A. Young> in this evening and took him up to the White House.3

7 August 1875 • Saturday

Sat. Aug. 7 A miserably hot day preparations are being made for the funeral, Georg A. Smith is much worse.

8 August 1875 • Sunday

Sunday Aug. 8. This is Louisa Wells fifty-first birthday the funeral today was very large, John Taylor preached. in the evening we had a house full of young folks.

9 August 1875 • Monday

Mon. Aug. 9. This is one of the hottest days of the season, no air stirring Belle and Mary Ann [Sears] have commenced to move,4 everything is upset, Dot is down here; Jennie is sick and Mrs. Larsen is doing the work; Inez and Emmie are studying very hard indeed to be able to pass their examination; creditably.

10 August 1875 • Tuesday

Tues. Aug. 10. Mr. Hendrie came down and we had some beer.5 . I went to visit some sick people and was out very late. Inez and Emma got frightened.

11 August 1875 • Wednesday

Wednes. Aug. 11. This is Charlie [J. Charles Earl]’s birthday Emma went up to dinner; in the evening Ort took her and Inez to the Concert, Annie attended Prof. [Orson] Pratts’ lecture on gravitation and I was at home with Lou. One of my friends called for a few minutes and I walked a little way with her talking on the most interesting subjects.

12 August 1875 • Thursday

Thursday Aug. 12. The Normal School closed and tomorrow will be the excursion to the Lake–6 [p. 23]

13 August 1875 • Friday

Friday Aug. 13. With all things in readiness we started by the seven o’clock train, had a very pleasant trip over, went on board the steamer, and spent a particularly pleasant day, but in the afternoon a fearful storm arose and we were so frightened and some of us were so very sick. I was faint as death; when we got into Clinton’s at last the train had gone and we were obliged to wait there for a telegram to be sent <to the city> to fetch the engine back for us, we started home as soon as the cars reached there and arrived safely at one o’clock tired out and exhausted.7

14 August 1875 • Saturday

Sat. Aug. 14. Today is very busy with reading revise etc. no chance for resting. Lou. went to Ogden.

15 August 1875 • Sunday

Sunday Aug. 15. I staid at home all morning in the afternoon went to Mother’s and took her to Aunt Rhoda Richards to dinner. had a pleasant visit came home by moonlight. found Ort. here and spent the evening writing letters. retired very late perfectly tired out. and feeling very low-spirited

16 August 1875 • Monday

Mon. Aug. 16. This is a day of days Frankie was married to George Naylor.8 Every one is astonished, it does not seem suitable and proper but if she only loves him all will be well. Mr. Hendrie came down in the evening. I had some very unpleasant reflections this evening. not at all calculated to inspire me with strength or confidence. [p. 24]

17 August 1875 • Tuesday

Tues. <Aug 17,> Was an excessively hot day; Belle is moving, we are going to have her piano. Mr. Sears started for California today. Sep is very unwell.

18 August 1875 • Wednesday

Wednes. Aug. 18. Mellie was twenty-five years old today. I bought her a zephyr shawl. I went down to take it to her. We had the piano moved today, by Daynes.9

19 August 1875 • Thursday

Thurs. Aug. 19. No more changes of weather all the time an excessive heat, Inez was twenty three Em went up to dinner. Dr. Mary E. Walker10 and Mrs. Gen. C. A. Von Cort. called and introduced themselves.

20 August 1875 • Friday

Friday Aug 20. This is Zilpha [D.] Fuller’s twenty first birthday. as hot as ever Em. <and Annie> went to Payson I was left all alone but Lou. came home in the morning train: in the evening she had lots of company I was alone11 up stairs after having <called on those ladies at> <the Townsend House.>

21 August 1875 • Saturday

Sat. Aug. 21. Josephine Spencer stays with Lou. in the evening Mr. Hendrie called on me, we had some very interesting conversation.. Went to Dr. Walker’s lecture on Cairo and the Pyramids.

22 August 1875 • Sunday

Sun. Aug. 22. Belle went to Lake Point, with her children. Mellie came down with hers. I staid at home with them. Emma and Annie came home this evening. President Young went to Provo took nearly all his family. Sister Eliza went with him their subject was home i<n>dustries and dress reform. This morning I went to the Warm Springs and took Mrs. Gen. C. A. Von Cort. [p. 25]

23 August 1875 • Monday

Mon. Aug. 23. I had been so busy all day in the office I was so very tired and Dr. Walker and her friend Mrs. C. A. Von Cort came and we talked to them. Sister Eliza came too. The lady gave me her newly published book12 I gave her in return Sister E. R. Snow’s poems13 Dr. Walker went with my sister to the Good Templar’s institution. both ladies staid here all night. Mr. Hendrie was here in the evening. Belle came home from Lake Point because Sep. was sick she staid all night too

24 August 1875 • Tuesday

Tues. Aug. 24 Dr. Walker and friend went by the morning train been busy all day wrote an important letter. Willard Young Dick, [Richard W.] Young, Ort. Whitney and several young ladies spent the evening here. Belle took me out for a short ride

25 August 1875 • Wednesday

Aug. 25. The weather is much cooler although sickness has not abated at all, as yet George A. Smith is not as well today. Br. Carrington left this morning for England to preside in place of Joseph F. Smith who is to return home on account of ill-heath; a lady by the name of Mrs. M. E. [Caroline Nichols] Churchill from California called at the office with her own book for sale;14 the wind blew up and it seemed likely to storm Belle came towards evening and took me out for a ride; had a pleasant time. Went then to supper. George & Carrie are here to spend a few days with us. Inez and Charlie were here in the evening Ort and lots of young people; I was very much annoyed, with the children. [p. 26]

26 August 1875 • Thursday

Thurs. Aug. 26. The wind has blown furiously all day long, the dust has been almost unbearable. Sister Eliza was in the office this morning some time, in the afternoon we went to the Teachers’ meeting, had a pleasant time; returned to the office and afterwards rode out with Belle went and bought Lou. a silver thimble and had her name engraved upon it, to present to her on her thirteenth birthday. Em. went to the Horne’s to a quilting and spent the evening. Belle and I went to call on Frankie but did not find her at home; Sister Eliza organized the young ladies’ of the twelfth ward today, into a retrenchment Society. I saw my husband for one moment today, he is in great trouble I understand.15 Lydia Ann, returned from Manti this evening: when coming home I met one of my friends who made some very pleasant remarks to me and comforted me somewhat:

27 August 1875 • Friday

Friday Aug. 27. This is Louie’s birthday all these anniversaries bring an unpleasantness with them when I think what I have suffered in the past, no one could ever understand these things who had not passed through them. tears are the only refuge as for sympathy when does it exist, in whose heart or affections George & Carrie were here I came home to dinner, had a nice dinner chickens cake dessert etc. In the evening a surprise party came.

28 August 1875 • Saturday

Sat. Aug. 28. Busy in the office all morning in the evening went to the 14th. ward meeting Mrs. [Sarah Granger] Kimball spoke a Gentile lady who is stopping [p. 27]16 in the city; she is acquainted with Madame Le Vert.17 in the evening Em. and I went to see the Opera of “Maritana” by the celebrated English Opera Troupe. we enjoyed it very much indeed.

29 August 1875 • Sunday

Sun. Aug. 29. I went to meeting in the afternoon George my nephew went with me, Orson Pratt preached to the people powerfully. called on <Miss Cook in the evening>

30 August 1875 • Monday

Mon. Aug. 30. School commenced. Em. was ill and I had to come home, and attend to her, towards evening she was better.

31 August 1875 • Tuesday

Tues. Aug. 31. We attended a meeting in the tabernacle got up to establish the United order.18 President Young talked considerably to the people, John Taylor spoke very nicely too, names were taken down and covenants were entered into more binding upon each other than before. President Wells, and most of the twelve were present of my own immediate family only Annie and myself were present. In the evening Emma went to a party at [Bishop John] Sharp’s and I was all alone for my husband was expected to start away in the morning and the girls had gone to bid him good-by Mr. Hendrie came and spent the evening showed me a little about chess.

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August 1875, The Journal of Emmeline B. Wells, accessed October 12, 2024 https://chpress-web.churchhistorianspress.org/emmeline-b-wells/1870s/1875/1875-08

Footnotes

  1. [1]Each summer, Mary and Ida Cook provided “normal school” training to teachers around the territory, particularly those new to the field. Normal Institute lasted one to two weeks or even a month. (Mulvay, “Two Miss Cooks,” 400–401, 405.)

  2. [2]Brigham Young.

  3. [3]The White House was a separate residence built by Brigham Young in 1854, located on his estate a little east of the corner of South Temple and State Streets. (Dykman and Whitley, “Settling in Salt Lake City,” 96–97.)

  4. [4]“Belle and Septimus moved to Ogden, where Septimus supervised the church’s mercantile institution, before moving to San Francisco, where he oversaw shipments of Utah grain to England.” (Madsen, Intimate History, 199.) Mary Ann Needham Sears was a plural wife of Septimus W. Sears. (“Day’s Death Roll,” Salt Lake Herald, 21 June 1919, 16.)

  5. [5]Although the health code recorded in Doctrine and Covenants section 89 advised abstaining from strong drinks, many believing Latter-day Saints continued to use milder beverages like beer and homemade wine, in moderation, until early in the twentieth century. (Woodworth, “The Word of Wisdom,” Revelations in Context, 184–186.)

  6. [6]“Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Aug. 1875, 4:45.

  7. [7]“Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Sept. 1875, 4:53.

  8. [8]The private marriage of Frances Louisa Wells (“Frankie”) to polygamist George Naylor, against the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862, was satirized by Tribune editorialists. (“Endowment House Marriage,” Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Aug. 1875, 1.)

  9. [9]Daynes Music Company.

  10. [10]Mary E. Walker (1832–1919) received the Medal of Honor in 1866 for rendering courageous medical service in the South as surgeon to the Fifty-Second Ohio Infantry Regiment led by General George Thomas. (“Mary Edwards Walker.”) One biographer refers to her as “an eccentric” who “alienated the suffragists” and delivered many of her lectures on dress reform in the 1880s in men’s clothing. (Louis Filler, “Walker, Mary Edwards,” in James et al., Notable American Women, 3:532–533.)

  11. [11]text: In addition to the double underlining of “alone”, two similar emphatic lines appear above the word.

  12. [12]Walker wrote Hit: A Woman’s Thought about Love and Marriage, Divorce . . . in 1871. (Louis Filler, “Walker, Mary Edwards,” in James et al., Notable American Women, 3:533.)

  13. [13]Eliza R. Snow published her Poems, Religious, Historical, and Political in two volumes (Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1856).

  14. [14]Caroline M. Nichols Churchill, “Little Sheaves” Gathered While Gleaning after Reapers. Being Letters of Travel Commencing in 1870, and Ending in 1873 (San Francisco: By the author, 1874). Her book is mentioned in the Woman’s Exponent. (“Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Sept. 1875, 4:53.)

  15. [15]Referring to his business liabilities.

  16. [16]text: Page break occurs between “stop” and “ping”.

  17. [17]For brief explanation, see EBW, Diary, 9 Sept. 1875.

  18. [18]The United Order of Enoch involved consecration of earthly goods with emphasis on accepting stewardships and building cooperatives. Its purpose was to unify Latter-day Saints to resist the encroachment of gentile merchants after the arrival of the railroad and to revitalize spirituality. The movement was strongly advanced by President Brigham Young between 1873 and 1876. In public meetings held in 1875, leaders asked individuals to join the order, commit to the principle of cooperation, and be rebaptized. (Arrington, Fox, and May, Building the City of God, 135–154.)