Mary
Haskins was born November 15, 1814 to Joel and Elizabeth Farr Haskins, in
Dutchess County, New York. Joel was
born August 29, 1774 in Dutchess County New York to Joel and Rachel Hayte or
Haight Haskins. Elizabeth was born June
26, 1782.
Joel
and Elizabeth had 5 children, Phoebe, Bela, Elizabeth and Mary who were born in
Dutchess County, New York. The family
later moved to Miegs County, Ohio where Joel was born July 6, 1817 and Moses or
Morris was born January 10, 1822.
They
must have lived in Kirtland, Ohio for awhile.
I found a record that listed Joel as being in t ehZion'’ Camp march from
Kirtland to Far West, Missouri. The
record said that he was a taxpayer in Kirtland. I found no record of his baptism into the “Mormon” Church, but I
found a record of his ordination to the office of a Seventy in 1836 by Hazen
Aldredge. Mr. Aldredge later left the
Church. I don’t know if Joel stayed in
the Church or not. The next record of
Joel is his death January 12, 1841 in Meigs County, Ohio.
Mary
Haskins married Ezbon Childs April 2, 1835 in Athens County, Ohio. Ezbon was born October 5, 1812 also in Athens County Ohio. They had 5 children all born in Carthage,
Athens, Ohio. They are Seth, Amanda,
Joel, Jason and Mary Hannah.
Mary
and Ezbon joined the Mormon Church [LDS] She was baptized in October, 1843.
According
to the will Ezbon made April 22, 1850, they owned a farm of about 202 acres and
they resided in Carthage, Ohio. He left
this plus all cattle, household goods etc. to Mary, appointing his beloved wife
Mary guardian of all their children and named her Executrix of h is
last will and will and testament. Ezbon
died the next day April 23, 1850.
They
were preparing to go to Utah with a group of the Saints that year. It is said that Ezbon went to see some of
his relatives to tell them good bye and that he became ill and died quite unexpectedly the next day. His wife
believed that he had been poisoned by some of his family to keep him from
going to Utah. He must have realized that he may die and
wrote out his will. Mary sold their
home there and they left that fall. It
was Ezbon’s wish that they spend the winter in Illinois and that is what they
did. It must have
Been
very hard for Mary to leave her husband buried in Ohio and to come on West to
Utah with her family. Amanda was 12,
Joel 11, Jason 9 and young Mary was 2 years old.
Mary’s
daughter, Amanda tells of their trip
West, “We started for Utah again
in the spring of 1851 and did meet not anything serious until we got into the
rivers country. There we had to wait
days for an English Company they told us was coming..
“We
got past the river all right, but we came nearly getting capsized in the
Missouri River. Our two wagons were the
last of the company to cross, and they put a lot of loose cattle on the old flat boat with us. They got scared of something and all ran to one side of the boat and it
began to dip water, and some of the men ran among them and chased them
back. We were 9 weeks from Illinois to
Missouri.
“We
spent some time in Kanesville where my mother stopped to get our supplies, two
yoke of oxen, two cows and a wagon. We
traveled in the same company with the English people I mentioned, but were in
the same ten with George D. Watt was captain of. John Brown was captain of the fifty we crossed with. We were 11 weeks from the Missouri River to Salt Lake. [The LDS records say that
the John Brown Company left Kanesville July 17th and arrived in Salt
Lake in Oct. They had 50 wagons.]
“While
crossing the plains we saw thousands of buffalo. One day our ten were in the lead of the company. There was a herd of buffalo trying to cross
the road in head of the
wagons. There was one who did not intend going
around and jumped over the wagon tongue between the oxen and the wagon. He went his way without doing any damage.
We
arrived in Utah in time to see plenty of crickets and seagulls. I got a drink of poisoned water at the poison springs and was sick for 2 or
3 days.” They arrived in October with general prosperity and
little or no sickness.. [ LDS
Immigration records]
Amanda
said that her mother did a lot of pioneering after she came to Utah. At first
they lived in Lehi in a fort to protect them from the Indians.
Mary
married James Naylor Jones as his second wife in the Endowment House in Slat
Lake City February 9, 1852. They were
married for time and Mary was sealed to her first husband, Ezbon Childs at that
time. They had one son, Joshua Oliver
Jones, born March 28, 1853 at Lehi, Utah.
Mary and James were divorced a year later.
In
1855 or 56 Mary married John Reynolds and became his third wife. They had one
daughter, Rosanna who was born May 23, 1857 in Pleasant Grove, Utah. It was called Battle Creek then. While Mary lived there she received her
Patriarchal blessing.
The
following was taken from the DUP lesson Manuel May 1952, submitted by Mamie
Lundberg; “Mary Childs, my grandmother, used to make beautiful hats out of
straw. She would gather the fine straw,
cut the grain heads off so that each
straw would be the same length, then soak the straw to make it pliable for
braiding. One day she had just
finished a lovely hat and was trying it
on when Chief Black Hawk walked into their home. On seeing her he said, “ You think you big---you think you are
Brigham.”
From
Pleasant Grove they moved to Goshen, then to Moroni, to Circle Valley and then
to Beaver . They lived in poverty,
having barely enough to sustain them.
They moved back to Moroni. Mary
died there June 1, 1872 in her 58th
year. Her husband John, was in Beaver
at the time. When he was told of her death he collapsed. He died a month later.
Mary
endured many hardships. The pioneer
women lived very hard lives. Most of t
hem made their own clothing, most often from their own homespun
cloth. They knitted stockings
and mittens, made their own soap, candles, butter, cheese, raised gardens,
preserved food, drying some of it.
Water had to be carried to their
homes, often from quite a distance.
Often water was heated outside in a large tub set on rocks over a fire
to heat the water to do the washing.
Which had to be scrubbed by hand., a backbreaking job. There were many
other tasks that needed done for their family.
They had to have a lot of faith to carry on and endure to the end. They had to have great faith in the Lord.
Mary
is buried in Moroni, Utah. The name on
her headstone reads Mary Haskins Childs.
This
history was compiled by Ila Vee Hamblin Larsen from Information from Beth L.
Peterson and Elda Lyman Adams, a family group sheet in the Archives of the LDS
Genealogy Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and from the will of Esbon Childs and
the history of Amanda Childs Foust.
In
Mary’s Patriarchal blessing it says,
“In all times of trouble and difficulty you shall be delivered, for the
hand of the Lord shall be with you. The
angel of life shall be upon you right
and left. You shall have power to
administer to the sick in y our family, and many shall rise up and call you
blessed. You shall be an honor to the
cause in which you are engaged, so much good in your day and generation. You shall suffer and rejoice with the people
of the Lord, be one with the rest…..”