Family History

Okay, I still have to tell you about the cool activities we have had getting ready for our July Pioneer Trek at Martin's Cove, but today I am studying some family history and wanted to tell you some stories from my reading.

In the month of March, all of our girls have to do some family history research and find a name and a story to take with them on the trek--in memoriam, per se. Even though I don't get to go on the actual trek, I am doing all the prep work with the girls. So I have been studying the life of my great-great grandfather, Christopher Layton--the Mormon Colonizer (as in Nevada, Utah, Albert, and Arizona).

The biography tells many stories of hard work and faith as the Laytons got settled in Nauvoo in 1843-1846. There were good times and a lot of bad times, too. Elizabeth Matthews Layton was born August 17, 1844, just a few weeks after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. The next year in September, Mary Layton went to care for a sick elderly lady who lived on the Laytons’ farm. Mary caught typhoid fever from her and died in late September. Christopher Layton said,

“I walked three miles but could get no lumber and was obliged to take a log, and I helped hew a coffin out of that; then I carried it back on my shoulders; then with three teams, we went to Nauvoo and buried her. Thus I was left alone with my little girl of 13 months.

Among my neighbors were two good friends William B. Smith and his excellent wife, who had no children, and they took my baby and cared for her as tenderly as they could have done for their own; they learned to love her so dearly and she became so attached to them that they could not give her up, and she remained in their family until she was married in 1861.”

Most of CL’s bio is historical, but occasionally he told of some very emotional and spiritual experiences. One that touched me was this, the day he left with the Mormon Battalion.

“Some of the women, feeling sure they would never see their husbands again, said they would never live to be a soldier’s widow, and one lady remarked, “I would rather be a soldier’s widow than a coward’s wife;” and that was the feeling our brave women had when they had to part with their loved ones, each one being brave for another’s sake….The parting cannot be described which took place on the 16th of July, 1846. As we were marching past Sister Smith’s camp, she held up my little girl to see me and she shook her hand and said, “By-by.” My heart was full and IO waved my hand and marched on, leaving behind me all I had on earth—my baby daughter.”

As I read the book, I will post an outline and a few more quotes for the benefit of my siblings, nieces, nephews and kids. Christopher Layton at a glance, I guess. Enjoy.

More Melin tales to come--it's time for Game Night with the Rushtons and their so-so-so cute baby, Howie.