Autobiography of Clarissa Wilhelm
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In 1841 my father moved to the state of Indiana. My brother William got married about that time to Ellen Heath. She lived to have one child and died in child bed. The baby was still born. My brother lived single about a year then married his wife’s cousin. | In 1841 my father moved to the state of Indiana. My brother William got married about that time to Ellen Heath. She lived to have one child and died in child bed. The baby was still born. My brother lived single about a year then married his wife’s cousin. | ||
| - | In 1842 I had a [[Susan Clarissa Williams|daughter]] born April 20th. About this time my husband’s father died. He had been sick about seven years. He had the asthma. About this time Mormonism cane along. An elder by the name of Paltine Brown preached on the other side of Wasco Lake. It was about eleven miles from where we lived. We went around the lake to visit some friends one Sunday and went to meeting to hear the Mormon preach. It was when my second child was six weeks old. We went to meeting and believed the gospel but did not obey it as my husband’s sister, Sarah did. We went home but did not feel that we had done right. Our baby took sick and lay thus until we made up our minds to obey the Gospel, then she got better. Then we went again to meeting and was baptized by Brother Shearron and his son, Norman | + | In 1842 I had a [[Susan Clarissa Williams|daughter]] born April 20th. About this time my husband’s father died. He had been sick about seven years. He had the asthma. About this time Mormonism cane along. An elder by the name of Paltine Brown preached on the other side of Wasco Lake. It was about eleven miles from where we lived. We went around the lake to visit some friends one Sunday and went to meeting to hear the Mormon preach. It was when my second child was six weeks old. We went to meeting and believed the gospel but did not obey it as my husband’s sister, Sarah did. We went home but did not feel that we had done right. Our baby took sick and lay thus until we made up our minds to obey the Gospel, then she got better. Then we went again to meeting and was baptized by Brother Shearron and his son, Norman [[July 4]], [[1842]]. We went home feeling that the spirit of the Lord went with us. Then we began to have the spirit of gathering. Before the Gospel came we felt that we would live and die on the little place we had, when we went to keeping house. If anybody had told me that I should leave that place I would have felt bad. But now we began to lay our plans to go to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]]. We had to spin and weave all our own clothes for the summer and winter including table linen, towels, and grain sacks. We dried our own fruit and had enough surplus butter from our cow to buy some store goods. In those days children went barefoot from the time they were born until they were grown. I remember going places, carrying my shoes. When I would get almost there I would put my shoes on. We lived on coarse foods and lots of sunshine. I do not remember any epidemic of whooping cough or measles when I was a young woman. |
Well we still kept making preparations to go to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]]. My husband and his brother Martin, were in partnership with two farms and there was no sale for land then, so we had to stay awhile longer. In [[1843]] we had another [[Bateman Haight Williams|son]], [[November 14|Nov, 14]]; we named him after Bateman Haight. Still we couldn’t sell our farm so we gathered up what money we could to take us to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]], and left our farm, horses, cattle, and sheep, and hogs. We went leaving all behind. Daniel and Martin took the freight and Aunt Sarah to the canal. We followed in a buggy to Gettysburg, to the Erie Canal. From Buffalo we went to Cleveland, Ohio, thence to Portsmouth, where we took a steamer on the Ohio River. The river was so low we were on the sandbar half the time. My daughter Susan took sick with a bowel complaint and come near dying. We came to St. Louis and took a steamer out to the Mississippi River getting to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]] the first of October, after Joseph's and Hiram’s deaths. On the road before we got into town we were often stopped and ask why we wanted to go to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]] -- that Joseph Smith was dead. When we got to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]] we stayed first at Isaac Haight’s. The next morning we went to Bateman Haight’s. My little girl was no better. I did not know what to do. She wanted to drink all the time. I took some cottonwood coals and put them in a bowl of water for her to drink during the night. On the morning I tasted it and it tasted like lye. I thought I had killed her, but she began to get better. | Well we still kept making preparations to go to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]]. My husband and his brother Martin, were in partnership with two farms and there was no sale for land then, so we had to stay awhile longer. In [[1843]] we had another [[Bateman Haight Williams|son]], [[November 14|Nov, 14]]; we named him after Bateman Haight. Still we couldn’t sell our farm so we gathered up what money we could to take us to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]], and left our farm, horses, cattle, and sheep, and hogs. We went leaving all behind. Daniel and Martin took the freight and Aunt Sarah to the canal. We followed in a buggy to Gettysburg, to the Erie Canal. From Buffalo we went to Cleveland, Ohio, thence to Portsmouth, where we took a steamer on the Ohio River. The river was so low we were on the sandbar half the time. My daughter Susan took sick with a bowel complaint and come near dying. We came to St. Louis and took a steamer out to the Mississippi River getting to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]] the first of October, after Joseph's and Hiram’s deaths. On the road before we got into town we were often stopped and ask why we wanted to go to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]] -- that Joseph Smith was dead. When we got to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]] we stayed first at Isaac Haight’s. The next morning we went to Bateman Haight’s. My little girl was no better. I did not know what to do. She wanted to drink all the time. I took some cottonwood coals and put them in a bowl of water for her to drink during the night. On the morning I tasted it and it tasted like lye. I thought I had killed her, but she began to get better. | ||
