Westons Go West 13 -Part 2

The next day, Mary gave the following letter to Simon, to hand on to the Bishop.

To: Bishop John Watson, 5^th Ward, Ogden Branch
Subject: Resignation of membership in LDS church

My full name is Mary Walker Weston; my date of birth is May 5, 1840. I was baptized on September 1, 1865. My membership number is 45392. My residence address is 530 Washington Boulevard, Ogden, in the Ogden 5^th ward.

I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, effective immediately, and request you to remove my name permanently from your membership records. I wish no further contact from representatives of your church except to confirm that my name has been removed from your records. I expect to receive that confirmation within a reasonably short time.

Mary Walker Weston

*****

530 Washington Blvd

Ogden, Utah Territory

11 January, 1880

Dear Fanny,

I feel the need to write to you. I might well need a place to stay, as it seems that I am about to be divorced and cast out as a sinful woman – and my only sin was having my babies baptised and keeping non-Momon bibles in the house. God only knows what will happen to the children. Simon has outlined the alternatives for me, but I have chosen to resign, and that has deep implications for him and the rest of the family. I don't know what will happen next.

But I will change the subject for now. Let me tell you another story about the Indians. They have been unhappy lately, and people were worried that trouble was on the way. One of my friends, Susan, found it necessary to go to a store three blocks away and asked her young son Samuel, if he thought he could take care of his younger sisters for about a half hour.  He said he could and she hurried off to the store.  When she was halfway home she could see a number of Indians turn into their place and she hurried as she knew the children would be frightened when she wasn’t there, even though they were more or less used to seeing Indians.

When she got to the gate she saw Indians looking through the windows and laughing.  When the men on horseback saw Susan they rode out of the property and the squaws moved away.  Susan called to them and said, “What are you doing?  Are you trying to frighten my papooses?  Go away right now.  You ought to know better than to come in when I am not here.”  Then she looked in. There stood Samuel on the table, facing the window with one arm raised holding the stove lifter.  His face was very pale and his eyes flashed in fright.  He stood guard over his sisters whom he had pushed under the table behind him and pulled the oilcloth down over the edge so it completely hid the children.  There he stood to hold the cloth in place.  Susan’s heart ached in sympathy. She called to him, “Samuel, I have come.  Everything is all right now.  Let me in.”  How pleased the children were to have her return.

I will write again when I know my fate.

Your friend,

Mary

*****

January 15, 1880
Silverlode, Utah Territory

Dear Mary,

I am so sorry for you, and if the worst comes and Simon kicks you out of your home, you must of course come here and stay with us while you get sorted.

The Mormons around here have done some shunning too, although not of their own this time. The Rev. A.B. Cort was sent by the Presbyterian mission board from Chicago to St. George to build a church. He was not well received.

He has been shunned by the community. Denied room and board by most of the people, he finally found a room where he could fix his own meals. He found no place in town to use as a meeting hall, but was able to secure a piece of property on the edge of town where he finally has been able to start a school.

Let me know how things are getting on.

Best wishes

Fanny

*****

530 Washington Blvd

Ogden, Utah Territory

Dear Fanny,

As you can see from the address, I am still living in my home, and running my shop. Simon had no choice but to accept my decision, and in the end, his decision was to stay married to me, and support me which meant accepting disfellowship from his church. But it did mean that he is no longer an Elder in the church, and he feels that sorely. Eber has shunned me, and although he still lives at home, he does not speak to me at all. Joseph is not sure what to do or who to support, so he goes around looking nervously from one of us to the other. The younger children thankfully don't seem to realize the trauma that has taken place.

We now have street cars here in Ogden.  They are pulled by little mule teams directed by a mule car driver one of whom is Joseph Taylor. His route is along Washington Blvd. from 28th Street to the big shopping area at Five Points, so goes right by our house. He sometimes carries as many as 72 passengers at one time, even having some of them on the roof (pictured above).  To the customers on the roof, he passes up his hat and they pay their fare which is five cents, no matter how far you are going.

Thank you for your kind offer of support, but I am happy that I can refuse it, and I hope and trust the eventually things will get better for us all.

Best wishes,

Mary

*****

March 15, 1885
Silverlode, Utah Territory

Dear Mary

We have had some more Mormon type problems here too.

I think I might have mentioned Tom Fitzgerald to you. He is the new editor of the newspaper here, and he and Abie have become friends. Last fall, Tom married Tena Neilsen, who is the daughter of Mormon merchants in Enoch. Her parents opposed the match - Tom is Catholic, and Tena was already betrothed to a young Mormon man - and so Tom publicly abducted her from her family's arms while they were on their way to church. It was badly done, and could hardly have been planned to stir up more ill-feeling against her! Abie had stern words for Tom when he heard. Tom is a better man than his brother, who gambled away all his money, but he has his brother's recklessness, and I am sad to say that he can be foolishly naive. Unfortunately, by that point, there was little help for the scandal.

Tom has not suffered too greatly for his rashness, but Tena has been declared apostate and is shunned in Adenville. She does not say as much to us, but the ZCMI will not sell to her. Unfortunately for Tena, the Mormon wives never buy at our store what they can buy at their ZCMI, and so there are some items that we have simply never stocked. The first time Tena came in for dressmaking materials, I had to sell to her from my personal bolt of chintz! (She is already being publicly shamed by the ladies of Adenville - it would never have done for her to wear the fabrics we sell to the women in the dancehalls!) She never said a word, but her cheeks burned terribly when she realized what we had on display, and why I had to go into the back to fill her order.

Since then, I have been endeavoring to keep the front stocked with such items that we would normally leave to the ZCMI. We have had a few additional sales as a result, but neither Abie nor I expect them to fully offset costs. However, I am sure you will agree with us that the difference is of little matter.

Your friend,

Fanny