Talitha
Cumi Garlick Avery was one of my ancestors, a Latter-day Saint and
tough pioneer woman who was baptized in Nauvoo, Illinois, and later
crossed the plains with the Mormons who fled religious persecution.
She
later married in Salt Lake City, becoming one of several polygamist
wives of Elam Cheney. She later helped settle a rugged part of
Wyoming, now Wilson, Wyoming, near Jackson Hole.
The
history below was written by Talitha Cumi Garlick with additions by
Stella May Cheney Robinson Eggleston, a great-granddaughter. I
obtained the text in the unpublished Lindsay/Petersen &
Cheney/Nethercott Family Histories, compiled and edited by my
mother, Mary Lyon Miles Lindsay, Salt Lake City, Utah, April 1999 (a
copy is in my possession).
I
understand that a published source for her autobiography is "Cheney,
Talitha Cumi Garlick Avery, [Autobiography]," in Our
Pioneer Heritage,
20 vols. [1958-77], 15:120, which is available in a
number of Utah libraries
(info courtesy of the Overland
Travels resource at LDS.org)
and other libraries as well.
I
was born September 22, 1824, in Providence, Bedford Co.,
Pennsylvania. Father and Mother belonged to the Christian Church and
were very religious and firm in their belief. The Christian Church
believed in baptism by immersion, and that was all that was required,
they thought. Then, they believed, they belonged to the True Church
of Christ.
But
in 1837, there were two Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints who came to our neighborhood and preached the true
Gospel and Mother and three of my sisters joined the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They were baptized in October, 1837.
I
was thirteen years old then.
Previous
to these Elders coming, my Mother dreamed she saw two strange
preachers and heard a voice say, "These are the true messengers
of God, hear and obey." I heard my Mother tell my Father of this
in the morning after she dreamed this.
The
next week, William Baisley and John Wakefield, two Mormon Elders, as
they were called, came in that neighborhood and preached. As soon as
Mother saw them she said, "They were the men she saw in her
dream and she knew they had the true Gospel."
She
and my three sisters joined the Church. In two weeks after hearing
them preach there were twenty baptized in that place. Then the mob
spirit arose and all was confusion. Our friends and relatives all
turned against us.
We
stayed there for two years after that. Mobs and persecutions
prevailed. Father said he was going to leave if he had to go without
selling. No one would buy. He sold his large farm for $500, and it
was worth $5,000, he often said.
We
took the family and headed for Missouri. This was October in 1839.
When we got to Illinois we heard the Saints were all driven out of
Missouri, so we went to Commerce, which was afterwards called Nauvoo.
When we got there it was November 30, too late to build a house.
There was none we could get, every house was full.
There
was a blacksmith shop that two families had just moved out of, so
Father got that. It was the best we could do. It had no floor, no
door or chimney. Father made a sod chimney, because there was no
rock. He made a clapboard door and we lived in that all winter.
Father
hauled house logs across the Mississippi River on the ice and built a
house with two rooms with hewn logs, and moved in it in March.
Brother
Joseph Smith, the Prophet, had gone to the city of Washington to lay
the grievances of the Gospel before the President of the United
States. We did not see him or hear him preach until he got back.
I
had said, "I would not get baptized until I saw the Prophet and
heard him preach." I kept my word. I was baptized April 7, 1840,
in the Mississippi River by Joseph Smith the Prophet.
In
1842, the Prophet organized the first Relief Society in this
dispensation. There was no society [organization]
for the young people at that time, so I, as did all the other girls
who wished to and were worthy, joined the Relief Society. Joseph
Smith came often to our meetings and would talk to us and give us
such good counsel.
I
heard him preach the last time he ever preached, just before he and
his brother, Hyrum, went to Carthage. I saw them after they were
killed and brought back to Nauvoo. It was the most sorrowful sight I
have ever seen — to see such good and great men, and one of
them the greatest Prophet, or as great as ever lived on this earth,
killed in cold blood by a mob.
Those
were times long to be remembered.
In
1845, my mother and her family moved across the Mississippi River to
Iowa. My Father died in 1843. An old friend of ours said we could
"better" by moving across the Mississippi because my
brother was old enough to farm.
I
was in Nauvoo when Sidney Rigdon came from the East after Brothers
Joseph and Hyrum were killed, to take the lead of the Church. There
were none of the Twelve Apostles at home, but Brothers Taylor and
Richards. Brother Taylor was badly wounded.
Sidney
Rigdon thought he would have everything his own way, but he found
that he was mistaken. He called a meeting. He said the Church was old
enough to choose a guardian, it being 14 years since it was
organized.
Brother
Brigham Young and the other apostles arrived in Nauvoo in time to be
present at the meeting. Brother Brigham Young said, "The keys of
the Kingdom are with the Twelve Apostles. They are the ones to lead
the people."
He
looked just like Brother Joseph and spoke like him. Surely the mantle
of Brother Joseph has fallen on him. I never had a doubt. I knew
Brother Brigham was the man to fill the place of our beloved Prophet.
I
knew that Brother Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God and was the
mouthpiece of God to the people, and that Brigham Young was his
lawful successor. He was a man of God.
After
my mother moved to Iowa in the fall of 1844, in the following year,
March 2, 1845, I was married to a good young man by the name of
William Howard Avery. [They were both 21 at the time.]
He
owned a nice farm four miles north of Mount Rose, a beautiful place,
but in 1846 the Saints had to leave Nauvoo and go to the mountains.
We
sold our place for a song, you might say, and got ready to go with
the first company of Saints on the 4th of March, 1846.
My
first child was born at Sugar Creek. My husband got a small cabin for
us to stay in for a month. On April 6, we started and caught up with
the first company at Mt. Pisgah. We traveled with the first company
to the Bluffs and camped on Misquito Creek. Here the Battalion was
chosen and sent to Mexico on the 15th of July, 1846.
We
then crossed the Missouri River and camped on the west side [Winter
Quarters] as it was too late to go any further. The camp
stopped and made preparations for winter. We stayed there all winter.
In
the spring of 1847, Brigham Young with a band of pioneers started
West to find a home for the Latter-day Saints west of the Rocky
Mountains. After Brother Brigham Young started, we crossed back to
the east side of the Missouri River and my husband and his brothers
went to find work.
We
had been living one year on what we brought with us, so we had to
stay to get a fresh supply before we could go on to the mountains. My
husband sent for me. Charles Avery was hauling flour to Winter
Quarters from where my husband got work and he got Charles to take me
down to where he was. This was July, 1847.
On
September 3 my husband took very sick. We were where we could get no
Elders to administer to him. We did not believe in doctors, but he
got so bad we gave consent for a doctor, but we could not save him.
He had cholera.
He
died on September 13, 1847, in Missouri, Atcheson County, 12 miles
south of Linden. My son William was then 18 months old. I was left
among strangers, not one of my folks within 500 miles.
My
husband's youngest brother was with us or I don't know what I would
have done. My little boy was sick too. He took sick the same day his
father died. I would not give him any of the doctor's medicine. He
was sick for two months, but the Lord spared his life for a comfort
to me.
On
the 15th day of September, my brother-in-law took me to the Bluffs,
Kainsville, to Charles Avery, my husband's oldest brother. On the
15th of October, my mother and three sisters came so I went and
stayed with my mother until she started for the valley in 1852.
I
stayed another year with my brother-in-law, John F. Wakefield. He
wanted me to stay with my sister, Susan, for she felt so bad to have
us all go and she had to stay. John thought we could get ready by
another year, but he was disappointed, for another year he was no
nearer ready than he was the year before.
So
in 1853, I started to the Valley with Brother Jacob Bigler's folks.
We started the 10th of June, in Daniel Miller's Company and got to
Salt Lake Valley the 10th of September, 1853. The grasshoppers
destroyed all the crops.
When
I went to the valley, I went as far south as Springfield. My mother
and brother and three of my sisters were there. The people had moved
into a fort. The Indians were troublesome. I lived with my brother.
February 13, 1854, I was married to Elam Cheney at Springfield, Utah.
[Elam
Cheney had five wives. Talitha was his third wife. They were the
parents of four children, three sons and one daughter.]
On
January 18, 1855, Olive Mehitable Cheney was born. The same year the
grasshoppers took all of our crops, again making bread scarce. After
the grasshoppers took Mr. Cheney's wheat, he planted corn on the same
ground and raised enough for our bread.
We
did not do without. We were very saving of our bread. We divided with
those that had none and the Lord blessed us and we did not suffer.
March
8, 1857, David Cheney was born. June 16, 1859, Selar Cheney was born.
[Webmaster's note: Selar is my direct ancestor.]
In
March, 1860, I moved to a ranch eight miles south of Santaquin. Mr.
Cheney had bought a ranch and wished me and my family to go there. My
oldest son, William Avery, was 14 years old and old enough to take
care of the stock and the sheep.
In
March 15, 1862, Thomas Edward Cheney was born. In March, 1863, I with
my family moved to Sanpete County. Mr. Cheney thought it would be
best for some of his family to live on a farm, so we did.
In
1864, Sunday School was organized in Fairview, Sanpete County. I was
called by our Bishop to teach, which place I filled. I taught the
Theological class.
In
1866, the Indians got mad and went on the war path and went to
killing men and driving off stock. My oldest son, William Avery, was
on picket guard with two others and on the 16th of April was wounded.
Thomas Jones was killed the same time. Three weeks after that we had
to vacate Fairview and go to Mt. Pleasant and stay until fall.
In
1867, there was a Relief Society organized in Fairview and I was
chosen as a teacher, and in 1868, was chosen secretary of the Grain
Committee. In 1878, I was chosen for President of the Primary, which
place I filled until my boys were called to settle in Castle Valley.
In
1879, I resigned from all offices and went with my children to Castle
Valley. In 1881, there was a Sunday School organized in Huntington in
Castle Valley and I was chosen as teacher in the Theological class.
In
1882, I was blessed and set apart for President of the Relief
Society. We lived in Huntington, Emery County, from 1879 until 1893,
when we sold our place and came north.
I
was President of the Relief Society for eleven years, then we left
Huntington and I was honorably released from all offices and came
north with my children.
My
son, Selar Cheney, had come north with his father-in-law, Sylvester
Wilson, and they had crossed the Big Mountain [Teton
Pass] and Snake River in 1889 or 1890 and settled in a place
called Jackson's Hole in Wyoming. They homesteaded about seven miles
south of Jackson.
In
1892, David Cheney and Albert Smith [son and
grandson] came to see the country. They liked Idaho best.
In
1893, my son-in-law, Anthony Humble, and his son-in-law, Albert
Smith, sold their places and started for the north country the 15th
of May. David and Thomas were not ready so I came north with my
son-in-law. His wife was the only daughter I ever had and I wanted to
come when she came. I rode all the way in my buggy. I did not get
tired.
We
were all thinking of going over the mountains where Selar lived. When
we got to the mountains, we had to camp three weeks waiting for the
snow to melt before we could cross the mountains. I was 69 years old
and I walked over the Big Mountain, for it was too steep, no one
could ride over it.
Selar
met us the next day and took us across the River in a scift. The
water was so high we could not cross the wagons for three weeks more.
It was July 4 1893, when we got to Jackson. [They all lived with
Grandfather for a while.]
Humbles
moved into their new house two days before Scott Humble was bom,
December, 1893. In the meantime, other members of the family settled
in Idaho.
David
and Thomas Cheney built a one room cabin for their mother at Victor,
Idaho, near the town of Thomas Cheney. The Humble family lived in
Victor, Idaho.
It
is true that not everyone there claimed to have seen this, and that
most of the written statements about the event were crafted after
people got to Utah. But I am not sure that the problems in
documentation thwart the fact that some witnesses did experience what
appeared to be an impressive indication that Brigham Young was to be
the new leader.
Talitha
Cumi Garlick's statement must be considered as one of those
witnesses. It makes a difference to me that this was one of my ancestors. Heber J.
Grant was especially touched by the testimony of his own mother on
this issue. In the October 1898 General Conference, he said:
The
challenge with the 101 known testimonies of the observers is that
they were not written down immediately after the event, but several
years later. That is understandable given the chaotic circumstances
and the life-and-death struggle the Saints were facing, and the fact
that few had diaries or records with them.
But
given the gap in time between the event and the recording of
testimonies, it is possible that the collective memory of the event
shifted and was retold in ways that reinforced the outcome of Brigham
Young as the prophet, so that's a fair question mark to add to such
accounts.
However,
the diversity of sources and the differences between the accounts
confirm that they are not merely parroting one another.
Many
were written before an official Church account of the event was
published in 1857. The witnesses also show that something about that
event played an important role in confirming their acceptance of
Brigham Young as a divinely authorized leader of the Church.
The
combined evidence from the accounts and the effect the event had on
many lives forces the conclusion that something significant happened
on that day that is not readily explained by peer pressure and group
psychology influencing participants years later.
In
my opinion, examination of the other testimonies and surrounding
evidences rules out the possibility that this was an urban legend
that many folks adopted. Something happened on that day, and I am
inclined to apply Alma 56:47 to this situation, affirming the faith
of the "sons of Helaman," the stripling Lamanite warriors
who said, "We do not doubt our mothers [or great-grandmothers]
knew it."