Getting the historic wagons out, preparing for the Exodus re-enactment.
On Tuesday we went alone for a fun time on the sleigh out in the farmer's fields near where we live.
And more sleighs all week long.
Feeding with the horses and the hay wagon.
The geese are back in full force. There are thousands of them everywhere. So noisy.
On Thursday evening we had a going away party for the Swansons and the Davies.
Saturday, Feb. 1 the Exodus re-enactment.
174
years ago on February 4 1846 thousands of people began packing their wagons
with supplies and a few personal belongings. Wagons and people lined up on
Parley Street. They crossed the Mississippi River into an unknown future. Today
we did a re-enactment. I learned today that people typically love what they
sacrifice. These saints sacrificed all they had for the right to worship God.
On Sunday, Feb. 2, we were serving at the John Taylor
home. Mark was reading about his ancestor,
Ann Houghling Pitchforth. Her story is
quite unique. She was sealed to John
Taylor here in Nauvoo before the Exodus.
We knew that she taught piano lessons.
We went over to the Print Office to visit the other missionaries. While there, Mark was glancing at the
newspaper, the Nauvoo Neighbor, and found an advertisement by Ann Pitchforth
for piano lessons. I don’t think this
was just a coincidence. He took a photo
of that and I’m also including a story about her.
Story of Ann Huhlings Pitchforth our great-great-great
grandmother (created from Family Search records, by Patsy Mecham, Feb. 3, 2020)
Ann Hughlings Pitchforth (1801–46) was born in Grantham,
Lincolnshire, England, to a wealthy wool manufacturer and his wife. Ann took
piano lessons when young and became quite proficient. She married Solomon
Pitchforth in March 1828, and they had five children, two of whom died in
infancy. She would later emigrate to join the Latter-day Saints in the United
States, but she died October 26, 1846, and was buried somewhere near Winter
Quarters. Elder John Taylor and Elder Joseph Cain, boarded at the inn operated
by Ann and her husband on the North Quay in Douglas, Isle of Man. Ann would
play the piano for the meetings held by the brethren. This is how she became interested in the
gospel and accepted the message they had to share. (Of special interest, Ann was a Jew.) She helped John Taylor put music to the words
of a hymn by WW Phelps, The Spirit of God.
She did not take credit as the composer saying it was an old English
folk tune. Her conversion to the Church
alienated her from her husband, who eventually moved to Australia. She came to
Nauvoo, was invited into the Taylor home, and taught piano lessons for a short
time. She received her temple endowment and became John Taylor’s tenth plural
wife.
Mark found an advertisement in the Nauvoo Neighbor newspaper
at the Print Office, teaching piano lessons in her home on the corner of Parley
and Granger one block east of the Seventies Hall.
Ann’s father sent a piano to her from England. She taught lessons to Brigham Young and John Taylor’s
children, and others. The Taylors and
the Pitchforths were close friends. She
gave many piano recitals while living in Nauvoo.
In March of 1846, she leaves Nauvoo with her married son Sam
and his wife, and two of her daughters.
As she is journeying across Iowa, John Taylor pays a visit to the
Pitchforths. John tells Ann that it
wasn’t too late to trade her piano that was securely in the wagon for a good
cook stove. She replies, “Man cannot
live by bread alone. The piano stays in
the wagon.” As they neared Sugar Creek,
the first big camp of the Saints, a terrible storm arose. That night Ann is very busy helping Patty
Sessions deliver 9 babies.
As they traveled on the next day in the mud the wagons began
to have trouble. Ann was determined to
save her piano and stayed in the wagon to keep it upright. John Taylor came by and put his head in the
back opening of the wagon and advised them to get out because the road was
getting worse. Ann and her daughter Mary
stayed in the wagon, and Brother Taylor took the younger girls to higher
ground. As they proceeded forward one
wheel hit a boulder rock and another wheel fell into a hole thus tipping the
wagon over on its side. The brethren ran
to rescue Ann and Mary by cutting the wagon cover open. As they up righted the wagon the piano had
spilled onto the ground. They tried to
upright the piano with poles. The piano
had received damage and more when they tried to get it up. Ann could see that the piano was a loss and
told them to leave it there. The party
traveled on, taking several months to make it to Garden Grove. Ann had not felt well being sick with the
ague and black canker. She died October
26, 1846 and is buried in an unmarked grave nearby Garden Grove.
