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Martha (Patty) Bartlett Sessions Parry

4 February 1795—14 December 1892

1 Born at Newry, York County, Maine; daughter of Martha Anna Hall and Enoch Bartlett. 2 Married David Sessions, 1812; eight children. 3 Baptized in Maine, 1834. 4 Moved to Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, 1836, and to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, by 1840. 5 Later identified herself as a plural wife of Joseph Smith, married on March 9, 1842. 6 Joined the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo at its second meeting, March 24, 1842. 7 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, 1847. 8 Settled at Salt Lake City. 9 Widowed, 1850. 10 Married John Parry, 1851; widowed, 1868. 11 Moved to Bountiful, Davis County, Utah Territory, 1872. 12 Delivered thousands of babies as a midwife. 13 Died at Bountiful. 14 (See Document 1.2, first mentioned here)

Footnotes

  1. 1 Patriarchal Blessing Index, 1833–2011, vol. 10, no. 463, Patty Sessions (Feb. 18, 1848), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, CHL. “Deaths,” Deseret Weekly, Dec. 24, 1892, p. 32.

  2. 2 Newry, Oxford Co., ME, Town and Vital Records, 1805–1891, Town Records, 1805–1846, microfilm 11,589, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. Patriarchal blessings, 1848, Patty Sessions. “Patty Sessions,” Woman’s Exponent 13, no. 7 (Sept. 1, 1884): 51. Donna Toland Smart, ed., Mormon Midwife: The 1846–1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997), 2–3. William B. Lapham, History of the Town of Bethel, Maine (Augusta, ME: Press of the Maine Farmer, 1891; repr. Somersworth, NH: New England History Press/Bethel Historical Society, 1981), 467.

  3. 3 “Patty Sessions,” 51. Lapham, History of the Town of Bethel, 467. Donna Toland Smart, “‘Hands in Skillful Labours Taught’: Patty Bartlett Sessions (1795–1892),” in Women of Faith in the Latter Days, vol. 1, 1775–1820, ed. Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 300–301. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org, accessed Dec. 2014), Patty Bartlett KWJT-QWJ and David Sessions III MMM9-NSV.

  4. 4 “Patty Sessions,” Woman’s Exponent 13, no. 8 (Sept. 15, 1884): 63.

  5. 5 “An Aged Sister Gone,” Davis County (UT) Clipper, Dec. 22, 1892, [1]. “Patty Sessions,” 63. “Patty Sessions,” Woman’s Exponent 13, no. 11 (Nov. 1, 1884): 86.

  6. 6 Smart, Mormon Midwife, 276. Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), 179.

  7. 7 Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, 1841–1846, CHL, entry for Mar. 24, 1842.

  8. 8 “Patty Bartlett Sessions,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Jan. 2015.

  9. 9 1850 U.S. census, Great Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 30B, Patty Sessions; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015); from NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 919. 1860 U.S. census, Great Salt Lake Ward 16, Great Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 241, Patty Parry; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015); from NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 1313.

  10. 10 “Family Tree,” database, David Sessions III. Smart, “‘Hands in Skillful Labours Taught,” 302.

  11. 11 Smart, “‘Hands in Skillful Labours Taught,” 302. “Family Tree,” database, John Parry KWJC-YR3.

  12. 12 Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 201. 1880 U.S. census, Bountiful, Davis Co., Utah Territory, p. 277C, Patty Sessions; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015); from NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 1336.

  13. 13 Smart, Mormon Midwife, 6–10. Smart, “‘Hands in Skillful Labours Taught,” 301.

  14. 14 “Deaths,” 32.