Autobiography of Clarissa Wilhelm

Twas there I got acquainted with a young man by the name of [[John Benjamin Williams|John B. Williams]].  He was the son of [[John Andrew Williams (Johann Andreas Wilhelm)|John Williams]] and [[Mercy Farrington|Mercy Williams]].  He had two sisters and three brothers.  The names of his sisters were Betsy and Sarah.  The names of his brothers were [[Silvester Williams|Silvester]], [[Daniel Williams|Daniel]], and [[Martin Williams|Martin]].  I was married in the year [[1838]] to John and we settled in [[Venice, New York|Venice]] about a mile from his brothers and about the same distance from my brothers.  I had a son born in [[1840]] and we named him [[James Return Williams|James Return]].  

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.  

Brother Snow came through that winter.  I decided to go to Arizona to a farm Bateman was to have.  William Maxfield, Brother Lundquist, and Brother Johnson went.  We started December 11, stopping the first night at Glendale.  Five miles out of Glendale the next day, Brother Maxwell broke down and had to go back to Glendale.  We did not make very good progress.  We spent Christmas Eve on the road in six inches of snow.  One of our horses was stolen.  I did most of the cooking.  We lost part of our cows.  They wandered away or were stolen.  We had to kill one for food.  We camped many times before we reached our destination near Concho.  We arrived on my birthday, 26th of February 1880.  After getting settled, I went to Round Valley to Brother Maxwell's.  His wife was about to be confined.  A Gentile woman was living in part of the house.  She wanted me to take care of her too.  Their confinements were ten days apart.  They both came through fine.  Charlie Riggs’ wife had a baby about this time.  Also Grace.  I helped Bateman put in his garden but I took sick and had to go to bed.  I was administered to and recovered.  I went with Bateman to Snowflake to get a load of lumber, stopping off in Woodruff to take care of Sister Greer.  I stayed about six weeks.  Then Jacob Hamblin came along on his way to Utah.  I went with him and the Everett and Shumway families went along.  We got to Johnson.  It was very cold.  There was a man there going to Glendale so I asked him to take me.  I walked part of the way to get to Orderville.