Clarissa Marina Rogers
Clarissa Marina Rogers (1843–1901) was the second wife of George Washington Taggart and the mother of twelve children. She lived a life of hard work and devotion to her family and faith, helping raise her children in pioneer settlements in Utah despite humble circumstances. Her strength, kindness, and strong religious beliefs left a lasting legacy through her many descendants.
This account draws freely upon the following sources: Noah Rogers' Journal, copy obtained from Mary Lambert Taggart; Sketch of the Life of Noah Rogers and his wife, Eda Hollister, compiled by Julia Fellows Rogers (no date); Life sketch of Alice Janett Taggart and her husband John Wesley Bright, by Alice Janett Taggart Bright, 1958; Clarissa Marina Rogers Taggart, by Alice Taggart Bright (no date); A Tribute To My Husband's Mother (Clarissa M. R. Taggart), by Valeria Ann Laird Taggart (no date) - these latter two histories were assembled and made available July 1955 by Mary L. Taggart; The Early Life Of The Taggart Family In Morgan (taken from "Highlights In The Life Of Frederick Taggart"), compiled by Mary Lambert Taggart (no date); Life Sketch of Frederick Taggart and his wife Eulalie Ardella Leavitt, by Frederick Taggart, September 1954; Life's History of Bishop Henry Milton Taggart, dictated by Henry Milton Taggart to Sister Iva Brind, January-April 1932. Retyped from the original in September 1973.
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The eighth child in a family of nine, Clarissa was seven years old when her father, Noah Rogers, was set apart by Brigham Young to be the presiding elder in establishing the Society Islands Mission (since 1907 known as the Tahitian Mission). After much hardship and loneliness, including burying one of his three companions at sea, and having met with only moderate success, Noah returned two-and-a-half years later. His mission, travelling without purse or scrip and requiring many long months on sailing ships between destinations, had taken him completely around the world, thus gaining him the distinction of being the first Mormon missionary to do so.
On his return to Nauvoo on December 29, 1845, he found his family, along with the body of Saints, out of the city and living on the outskirts. One can imagine his profound disappointment on finding his family as well as the Saints thus driven from Nauvoo, "the beautiful", of which he was one of it's founders. Noah and his wife, Eda Hollister, had joined the Church in 1837, at which time he had given up his practice as a physician, or country doctor, so he could devote all his time to furthering the gospel.
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With the Rogers family again reunited, they moved on to Mount Pisgah (now Talmadge) Iowa, a gathering place of the Saints. Here Noah began making preparations for the trek westward, but he fell ill with pneumonia and died on May 31, 1846 - only five months after returning from his mission.
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Eda held her family together and continued where her husband had left off. Her youngest child was now eight, and Clarissa ten. With the exception of her oldest son who was married, Eda's sons all remained at home. In the Spring of 1848, sons Theodore and Washington went ahead to the Salt Lake Valley to prepare a place for the rest of the family. Eda with her remaining six children followed in 1849.
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Influenced by her restless, venturesome sons, Eda and her family remained only a brief period in the Salt Lake Valley. They moved first to Brigham City, then to Cache Valley where - in the vicinity of what became Logan - there were only a few people living in their wagons, then to Bloomington, Bear Lake County, Idaho. When her son, Elisha, married in 1871, Eda moved with him and his wife to Richmond, Utah. She died there six years later.
What happened to Clarissa - the subject of our inquiry? We have little information, unfortunately, with which to fill in the blanks. So far as we have been able to determine within the Taggart and Rogers families, she left nothing whatever in the way of a written record. She did leave a record, however, as reflected in the lives and reminiscences of her children.
For this, we are most grateful, as it will help us gain some insight into her life and character. In sum, hers was a life of meager means and hard work, coupled with much love for and devotion to her family, and steadfastness in her religious beliefs.
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According to Alice, her daughter, Clarissa,"... had no opportunity for schooling and education. Her mother was a widow with a large family, and the children had to earn their own way". Valeria Ann Laird, wife of son James, recalled hearing Clarissa bear her testimony to the Richville Sunday School that she remembered as a child ". . . the terrible gloom and sorrow that swept over . . . the Saints when the Prophet and his brother were killed . . . She remembered passing through the Prophet's mansion house and viewing their dead bodies . . . She went to the meeting afterwards and saw the mantle of the Prophet Joseph Smith fall upon Brigham Young as he was speaking".
Clarissa was thirteen when she first came to the Salt Lake Valley. Seven years later she married George Washington Taggart, becoming his second wife in a polygamous marriage. According to Alice, they had first met in Brigham City where Clarissa was living. He was twenty years older; her youth and beauty and firmness in the gospel must have been very appealing to him.
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They began their married life in Salt Lake City, where George did carpentry work for Heber C. Kimball and President Brigham Young. Their first four children were born there. They had eight additional children after moving to Richville. Of their twelve children, nine lived to maturity and had large families of their own.
One of Fred's earliest recollections - their last child, born when his father was sixty - was seeing his father, with the help of Brother Morgan and Henry Hinman, shingle their log house. Before this, when it had a sod roof, son Henry recalled, "I shall never forget when it would rain, how my mother would get the pots and pans to catch the rain as it came through the roof".
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Fred described the house as having three rooms. In the living room, there was a "very large fireplace made of sandstone" which his mother often used to smoke meat. The center room was a bedroom, while the south room combined to serve both as his father's carpenter shop and the boy's bedroom. The bed springs were made of one-fourth-inch rope run lengthwise and crosswise, with sheepskins for a mattress and buffalo robes as covers. Later, when Fred was about twelve, he helped his brother, Mark, build a cellar with a concrete foundation to give their parents a better home.
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The house was located in the mouth of a canyon that was called "Taggart Hollow". Close by, down the hill, was the Taggart grist mill. Also close by was the schoolhouse. School was held only three or four months of the year, and the teacher often boarded at the Taggart's.
Henry recalled getting up early every morning to fetch water for house use during the day. Fred also recalled having this job. Sometimes a steer harnessed to the sleigh was used to haul the water in a forty-five-gallon barrel. Their mother always insisted that water left over be poured out and fresh water obtained each day. As the water was from a small stream, it had to be taken before the cattle fouled it up when turned out in the morning.
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Despite their humble circumstances, the Taggarts had plenty to eat. They had cows and sheep, which grazed on the hillsides, as did those of their neighbors. The small boys herded them to prevent damage to the crops.
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A favorite pastime of the children was roaming the hills, digging sego roots, gathering chokecherries, wild flowers, and pretty rocks. Henry remembered how they used bows and arrows to hunt birds, squirrels, and chipmunks, which they cooked along with roasting potatoes. Fred related how he and his brother Mark would go fishing in Canyon Creek three or four times a week, usually returning with a large string of trout. In summer, it was swimming in the streams and in winter sleigh riding down the hills.
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Alice gives us this insight into how Grandmother Fanny Parks helped with this large family: "When I was small," Alice relates, "Aunt Fanny taught me to tell the time, to knit socks and stockings, and how to make a bed neatly; how to wash dishes and sweep the floor. She was very precise in all she did, and as a child, I often went over to spend the night with her. It was such a pleasure to sleep with her in her lovely, soft feather bed, made up so smooth and straight. Each morning when she made her bed, everything had to come off and hang to air before it was made up again".
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This picture of Clarissa attending to her family's need is poignant: "I can see her now", Alice related, "out by the little creek that ran past the house... bending over the wash tubs, washing wool from the little flock of sheep my father always kept. Then she would make the wool into yarn and weave it into cloth for our clothes. Father died in a suit made from cloth woven by Mother".
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Alice further described her mother as willingly sharing her "last blanket" or "last morsel" of food. She was ". . . jovial and kind . . . noted for giving cheer and good advice to her many friends when they were in trouble or downcast in spirit".
A relaxed family atmosphere of congeniality and cohesiveness is suggested by Fred's account of sitting on his father's knee listening to Mormon Battalion stories. We can see Clarissa knitting stockings while gathered with her children in the warm embrace of the large fireplace as these stories were told. Fred remembered how the Battalion went without water until their tongues became swollen; how his father walked until his feet bled, meanwhile leading his mules to preserve them.
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As a small boy, Fred would walk the three miles to Morgan to sell his mother's "Sunday eggs" for fifteen cents a dozen. This money was given to the Relief Society as a donation to the Salt Lake Temple.
Jim related how he would go looking for his mother, often finding her kneeling in her bedroom, pouring out her soul to her Heavenly Father for guidance and protection for her children that they might grow up to be honorable men and women. Alice and Henry told of having similar experiences when looking for her.
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Henry gave this account of how his mother encouraged and supported him on his first mission. He had met and fallen in love with Mary Laird, and they had set their wedding date for November 1898. Meantime, a letter for him from the Church headquarters - "Box B" - which had been sent to Star Valley (where Henry had been living), finally reached his brother, Jim, and his mother in Richville. Surmising its importance, they lost little time in carrying it to Henry in Salt Lake City. As expected, it was a call from President Joseph F. Smith to go on a mission to the Southern States.
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As none of the three had any money, Henry did not see how he could go at that particular time. Finally, they decided to discuss the matter with Miss Laird's parents, who advised them to get married, but make plans for Henry to leave the following Spring. They offered Henry employment for the winter on their Mountain Dell Ranch in Parley's Canyon. This enabled Henry and his new bride to save $125 to start him on his mission. During this time, she went home to her parents and, while there, gave birth to her first son, who became affectionately known as "Milt".
Henry's mother and brother, Jim, were very desirous of having Henry go on this mission and promised to give him all possible assistance. His mother was receiving a pension of twelve dollars a month from the Government - presumably for her husband's service in the War with Mexico (Mormon Battalion).
She shared this with Henry during his mission. When he went to bid his aging mother goodbye, she was staying with her daughter, Jane, in Morgan. With tears streaming down her cheeks as well as Henry's, she counseled: "Be a good boy, and the Lord will help you, and you will succeed". He returned upon completion of his mission the day after she was buried.
An account of Clarissa would be incomplete without some reference to the Taggart grist mill. After all, it must have been central to her family's life as their primary means of earning a living. Fred described his father as being "a first-class mill and wheelwright".
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His mill was "a stone burr" flour mill. Fred described its large timbers, which were hewn with a broad ax, as being ten by ten inches. All of the mill's cogs were of oak; only a few nails were used in the mill's construction.
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"I can remember . . . (watching) my brother George Henry, making flour," Fred reminisced. "At times, there were so many grists to be made into flour that the sacks had to be stacked outside. People came from all the surrounding settlements, and even as far as Ogden, to get their flour milled there".
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As a point of current interest, part of one burr, as well as one full-size standing burr from the mill, are memorialized on the tabernacle grounds in Morgan.
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When Grandmother Fanny died (May 6, 1891), she and George had forty-six years (lacking two months) together. When George died two years later (June 3, 1893), he and Grandmother Clarissa had had over thirty-six years together. The high esteem in which these Grandparents were held, together with their children and their spouses, may be exemplified in the expression of love and friendship for them at the time of George's funeral. Fred, who was sixteen, remembered the funeral in Richville "with a very large congregation attending". "Eighty-four teams", Fred continued, "followed the hearse to the cemetery at South Morgan.
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Clarissa lived for almost another eight years. She spent her last few years with Alice, Fred and Jim in Lewiston, Utah, where she died on April 19, 1901. Her body was returned to Morgan and buried next to George and Fanny.