May 1904


1 May 1904 • Sunday

Went early to Fast meeting singing A saint! and is the title mine Or have I but the name. Prayer by Elder L. John Nuttall sung Anthem “Angels ever near” President Smith exhorted us gave some idea of the Washington affair1 spoke inspirationally, Sisters Maeser, Brown2 [Susan Noble] Grant, Br. [Bernhard H.] Schettler Young Susie Gates. Congregation sung “The spirit of God.” Sisters Langton C. C. R. [Caroline C. Raleigh] Wells, Br. [James W.] Ure & [John] Nicholson, B. W. Smith R.S.3 President Elders Wilson & [Danquart A.] Weggeland– Sisters [Elizabeth Ogden] Decker Sarah [Jane] Eddington Buching [Euphemia Irvine] Burnham (Phemia) Sister Tanner Emma Goddard Lagnie Taylor, Br. Christiansen, Br. J. R. Winder‒ Remarks wonderful President Jos. F. Smith Went from the Temple into the Salt Lake Assembly Hall where the Conference of the Pioneer Stake was being held and where Annie was to be set apart as President & her Counselors at the noon hour, but {p. 68} <continued from May 1.> found the German meeting was being held and afterwards learned that the setting apart was being done in the vestry but as I did not know that, I went home Kate Wells was with me, I felt disappointed– She had a good blessing and President McLachlin [William McLachlan] was mouth– all three of the Presidency were there. I went down to the Cannon House and had dinner with them.

2 May 1904 • Monday

Monday May 2. 1904, I came up as early as I could and did some work on the paper have had a poem under way for Sister Smith but shall not be able to finish it I fear for my feelings are so wrought up all the time over things that transpire and now I am upset about the Cannon home as I have no occasion to be only it does seem to me the right thing for John Q. and Annie. {p. 69}

3 May 1904 • Tuesday

Morning very threatening rain and dreary. We were to celebrate Sister Bathsheba W. Smith’s birthday at the Bee Hive House and it seemed such an inauspicious storm, now and then a little light but mostly dark heavey lowering clouds. {p. 71}

15 May 1904 • Sunday

Katharine’s birthday and I went down to dinner took her a gift an apron white and had dinner with the family Annie thought it would be the last dinner in the dear old house where we have had many pleasant parties and dinners in Sister Elizabeth [Hoagland] Cannon’s day as well as since. I do not feel good at all about their leaving the old homestead. I think it should come to the eldest son. I have some of the strong inherited traditions about property entailed {p. 72}

16 May 1904 • Monday

The Utah State Society Daughters of the Revolution met on Monday May 16. 1904 at the home of the Secretary Mrs. Lucy Woodruff Smith {p. 73}

17 May 1904 • Tuesday

Annie’s furniture what she intends moving over came today the first load came early and when I looked out and saw Louise perched on the top of the load, I wept it seemed so pitiful– of course they the children laughed. All is well however and I feel rather glad to have them though I know of course it will not be very much like home to them. It is an agreeable change for me and I am sure I shall enjoy it even though we are crowded. I don’t mind that[.] I am fond of the children and do not mind the noise, but wish we had more comfortable rooms. {p. 74}

24 May 1904 • Tuesday

This is a terrible anniversary for me, I go over the agony each year as it were when the day comes round, never can I forget the excruciating suffering of those last days how we all lived through it one can never tell. Only the Lord helped us and gave us strength to bear it or we could not, the thought even now after seventeen years is agonizing.4 {p. 76}

Cite This Page

Cite This Page

May 1904, The Journal of Emmeline B. Wells, accessed October 14, 2024 https://chpress-web.churchhistorianspress.org/emmeline-b-wells/1900s/1904/1904-05

Footnotes

  1. [1]President Joseph F. Smith was called to Washington, DC, in early March 1904 to testify before a committee of the U.S. Senate that was considering whether Reed Smoot, a senator from Utah, should be allowed to keep his seat in that body. President Smith was asked about the church’s involvement in plural marriages since the 1890 Manifesto and the church’s influence on politics in the state. He testified for three days. This round of Senate hearings ran from 2 March to 2 May 1904. (Merrill, Reed Smoot, 47–50.)

  2. [2]Perhaps Nell Clawson Brown.

  3. [3]Relief Society.

  4. [4]EBW’s daughter Louise (Louie) Wells Cannon died and was buried in May 1887. (See EBW, Diary, 16 May 1887 and 24 May 1896.)