MARY SPENCER

By Claudia Spencer Slader

Mary Spencer (the 3^rd Wife of Daniel Spencer) was born April 12, 1824, in West Stockbridge Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Her father was Hiram Spencer (1798-1846) a farmer by trade and also in the mercantile, business with his brother Daniel. Mary’s mother was Mary Spencer (1797-1840) but of no relation to her husband Hiram until five generations back where they claim Gerrard Spencer as their common ancestor. Hiram and Mary had nine children, and Mary was the second born in the family. When Mary was sixteen her’ uncle, Daniel Spencer, came to her family and told them about Mormonism; and the family was later baptized in West Stockbridge, on August 18, 1841.In December, 1840, Mary’s mother died leaving her and her older sister Jane to help their father make preparations for the move to Nauvoo, which took place in June 1842. Her uncle, Orson Spencer, was sent ahead to Nauvoo in 1841 to make preparations for their arrival. He purchased a lot for himself on the north side of the Public Square in Nauvoo and purchased Lots #2 and #3 on Block 11, located on the east side of the square for his brothers. By the time Mary and her father arrived, Orson had his two story brick home built and materials and supplies ready to help his brothers. Hiram built a two story brick home for his family. The brothers shared two farms. A farm house, barn and sheds were built. Mary stayed at the farm house and worked during the summer and moved back into the city when winter came. Her father worked on the Nauvoo Temple and was in charge of the rock hauling. Joseph Smith the prophet often visited their home. Often when there were parades-or public entertainment on the square, the prophet would sit on their porch during the performances. The Nauvoo Temple was located one block west of their home. It was there that Mary received her endowment on December 13, 1845. A month later she returned to the temple and at Age 24 was married to her uncle Daniel (age 51) on January 16, 1846. With the impending exodus, ordinance work at the Nauvoo Temple was being performed day and night. Their ceremony took place at 11:43 p.m. by Heber C. Kimball, with Amasa Lyman and Hiram Spencer as witnesses. Prior to her marriage ceremony she acted as proxy for the sealing of Daniel’s first wife Sophronia Eliza Pomeroy and also his second wife Sarah Lester. Mary took care of two year old Mary Leone. With mob violence increasing, Daniel and Mary prepared for their exodus. On February 4, 1846 the first Mormons left Nauvoo for the west. Daniel bought oxen, molasses, cheese and soap for the journey. They loaded two wagons with stoves and provisions to-last them one year. Among items taken were hard tack, bacon, beans, potato chips, potato starch, dried pumpkin, wheat and corn. They found after loading their wagons, that the load was too heavy for the horses to pull so they took off 8 bushels of wheat, 1 bushel of millet and several bushels of parch and corn. On Sunday, February 15, Mary and Daniel had dinner at Brother Parker’s home at 1:00 p.m. and at 2:00 p.m. they began their journey. Claudius and Gilbert had left. on February 2 to go back to West Stockbridge to sell some property of Claudius’ so Hiram’s son, Theron, helped drive the wagons. Brigham Young placed Daniel in charge of a small group of saints called Company V. Some of those traveling in his group were Orson Spencer, Hiram Spencer, Daniel Cahoon, William Cahoon, Daniel Hendrix, J. Johnson, Fielding Garr and Cyrus Cooper. They drove their teams to the, ferry landing, but the winds were too high to cross the Mississippi, so they spent the night in their wagons and made the crossing by ferry on February 16 at 3:00 p.m. They pitched their tents and camped on the west bank of the river until everyone in the company had crossed. From the cold, snow and rain, Daniel suffered much from rheumatism and ague. When all of their group gathered they started for the camp at Sugar Creek, arriving on February 21. While at Sugar Creek, Daniel and others went back to Nauvoo for more oxen, finding none in Nauvoo they went further east and found five which they brought back to camp. In Sugar Creek, Hiram searched out jobs for the men of the company to do to earn money for provisions. They chopped and split 5500 rails. On March 5, they started their journey again, passing through the village of Bonaporte, then crossed the Des Moines River to Farmington where they purchased goods. Snow and rain made travel slow, only four to seven miles a day. When Mary camped at night, Daniel cut down limbs from trees and laid them on the ground to hold the beds out of the mud and water. On April 19, 1847, they reached Garden Grove. The three brothers conversed at length with Brigham Young in his tent and Hiram volunteered to go back to Nauvoo and would take his nephew Claudius to bring cattle back to the saints. He died on the return trip. Mary, being pregnant camped at Garden Grove until the first part of June. On May 26, Brigham Young told Daniel "to gather up what teams, tools, seeds and men he could and go on" to prepare the next campsite at Mt. Pisgah, 27 miles ahead. Daniel had Orson take care of the families and bring them on. From Mt. Pisgah, where her father was buried, Mary and the wagons moved to Council Bluffs. Here the saints camped for the winter. It was in Council Bluffs that the strain, because of hardship, she gave pre-mature birth to a daughter. Her strength left her and she died. Mary (age 22) and her infant daughter were buried at Council Bluffs in August 1846.